so have our Desires theirs which is their end And here we have them both the Object of our Knowledge delivered first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a generality UT COGNOSCAM ILLUM That I may know him that is Christ secondly dilated and enlarged in two main particulars 1. Resurrection 2. his Passion In the one he beholdeth power in the other fellowship and communion which includeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conformity to his death Christ indeed is risen but he suffered first so must we be conformable to his death if we will feel the power of his resurrection So these three are most considerable 1. Christ 2. the power of his resurrection 3. the fellowship of his sufferings these are three rich Diamonds and if they be well set if we take the words in their true Syntaxis and joyn configuratus to cognoscam our conformity to his death to our knowledge of his sufferings and resurrection we shall place them right even so fix them in the Understanding part that they will reflect or cast a lustre on the Heart even such a lustre as will light us through the midst of rocks and difficulties unto the end here aimed at the Resurrection of the dead Of these then in their order Of the Object first then of the Nature of our Knowledge which will bring us to the End though beset with words of fear and difficulty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if by any means We begin I say with the Object in general That I may know him We begin with Christ who is Α and Ω the beginning and the ending From whom we have saith the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to live and to live well and to live for ever If we begin without him we run into endless mazes of errour and delusion every on-set is danger every step an overthrow And if we end not in him we end indeed but it is in misery without an end John 17.3 To know him is life eternal Then our Ignorance must needs be fatal and bring on a death as lasting For where can we be safe from the Deluge but in the Ark Where can we rest our feet but upon this Stone Where can we build but upon this Foundation For let Philosophie and the Law divide the world into Jew and Genâ—ile and then open those two great Books of God his Works and his Words and see the Philosopher hath so studied the Creature that he maketh his God one Rom. 1 23. and turneth his glory saith the Apostle into the similitude of corruptible Man nay into Birds and Beasts â—â—d Creeping things And the Jew's proficiency reached but so far as to know he was the worse for it On every letter he findeth gall and wormwood and the very bitterness of Death The Philosopher hath learned no more then this that he can be but happy here and the Jew that without a better guide he must be unhappy for ever Reason the best light the Heathen had could not shew them the unsteddy fluctuations of the mind the storms and tempests of the soul the weakness of nature and the dimness of her own light how faint her brightness is how she is eclipst with her own beams how Reason may behold indeed a supreme but not a saving Power because she will be Reason It is true the light of Reason is a light and from heaven too But every light doth not make it day nor is every star the Sun And though we are to follow this light which every man brought with him into the world yet if we look not on that greater Light the Sun of Righteousness which hath now spread his beams over the face of the earth we cannot but fall into the ditch even into the pit of destruction The light then of Reason will not guide us so far in the wayes of happiness as to let us know we stand in need of a surer guide and therefore the Gospel you know is called that wisdom which descended from above But now in the next place for the Jew Ye will say that the Law was the Law of God and so made to be a lantern to their feet and a light to their paths 'T is true it was so But the Apostle will tell us that by this light too we may miscarry as being not bright enough to direct us to our end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 7.18 because it giveth a weak and unprofitable light In the verse before my Text S. Paul seemeth to run away from it and utterly to renounce the Law not quoad substantiam not indeed in regard of the duties therein contained but quoad officium justificandi in that it could not justifie not make him perfect not lead him to his end It may threaten accuse contemn and kill and so in Scripture it is said to do And then what guilty person will sue for pardon from a dead letter which is inexorable We may say of the Law as S. Paul speaketh of the yearly sacrifice Heb. 10.1 that is did not make the comers thereto perfect but left behind it a conscience of sin not onely ex parte reatus a conscience that did testifie they sinned and affright them with the guilt but ex parte vindictae a conscience which questioned not onely their sin but their atonement and told them plainly that by the Law no man could be justified And therefore S. Chrysostom on that place will tell us In that the Jews did offer sacrifice it seemed they had conscience that accused them of sin but that they sacrificed continually argued that they had a conscience too which accused their sacrifice of imperfection Wherefore then served the Law The Apostle answereth well Gal. 3.19 It was added because of trangressions not to disannul the Covenant but as an attendant an additament as a glass to discover sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens The Law doth not beget sin for that it cannot do but manifest it Non est in speculo quod ostenditur I may shew you a Death's head in a glass but there is no such horrid substance there And the Law which is most perfect in it self may represent my wants unto me and make me flie to some richer Treasury for a supply Now to draw this home When both Lights fail when the Law of Nature is so dim that it cannot bring us to our journey's end and the Law written is as loud to tell us of our leasings as to direct us in our way what should we do but look up upon the Sun if righteousness Christ Jesus who came to improve and perfect Nature and who is the end of the Law and the end of our hopes and the end of our faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father calleth him that great Sabbath in which the Jew and the Gentile may rest in which the Father resteth as well pleased and the holy Ghost resteth in whom the Saints and Martyrs and the whole Church have
not aside neither to the right hand nor to the left Though these fell into many sins which yet notwithstanding they might have avoided for why might they not by the same assistance fly one sin as well as another yet they kept the Law though not so exactly as God required yet so far as that God was pleased to accept it as a full payment In that hot contention betwixt the Orthodox and the Pelagians when the Pelagians to build up Perfection in this life brought in the examples of the Saints of God who either had not broke the Law of God in the whole course of their life or if they did did return by Repentance and afterwards in a constant obedience did persevere unto the end they found opposition on all hands not one being found who would give this honour to the best of Saints But where they urge that this Perfection is not impossible where they speak not de esse but de posse and conclude not that it is but that it may be so not that any man hath done what God requireth but that he may S. Augustine himself joyneth hands with them Non est eis continuò incautâ temeritate resistendum c. We must not be so rash as unwarily to oppose them who say Man may do what God requireth Si negaverimus esse posse hominis libero aerbitrio qui hoc volendo appetit Dei virtuti qui hoc adjuvando efficit derogabimus August De peccat meritis Remis l. 2. c. 6. For if we deny a Possibility we at once derogate from Mans Will which may incline to it and from the Power and Mercy of God who by the assistance of his Grace may bring it to pass So that the great difference between them may seem to be but this The one thought it possible by the power of Nature the other by the assistance of Grace which is mighty in its operation and may raise us to this height if we hinder it not for every stream may rise as high as its spring Cum Dei adjutorio in nostra potestate consistit saith S. Augustine often It is in our power to do what God requireth with the help of Grace God requireth nothing above our strength and certainly we can do what by him we are enabled to do Hom. 2 6 12 16 27 c. When Julian the Pelagian a young man of a ready and pleasant wit urged S. Augustine with his own Confession and that he did but dissemble when with so much art and eloquence and such vehemency of spirit he perswaded men to the love of Chastity if they could not though they would preserve and keep themselves undefiled Lib. 5. cont Jul. Pelag. c. ult S. Augustine maketh this reply Respondeo me fateri sed non sicut vos I confess they may preserve their virgin but not as you would have it by their own power but by the help of Gods Grace which must make them willing and with his help they may And what need there then any further altercation Why should men contend about that in which they cannot but agree Why should they set themselves at such a distance when they both look the same way There are but few and I am perswaded none that do so far Pelagianize as to deny the Grace of God And then when God biddeth us Do this he that shall put the question Whether it be possible to be done hath no more of Reason or Revelation to plead for him then the Pelagian had For with him the Law can be kept neither without the help of Grace nor with it and so it must lose its name nor is it a Law for what Law is that which cannot be kept I know it was a Decree of a Council at Carthage That every man ought to pray to God to forgive him his trespasses That he ought to speak it not as out of humility but truly and I think there are scarce any that will not willingly subscribe to it but this Decree may be as unchangeable as those of the Medes and Persians Yet I do not see any necessity of fixing this doctrine of the Impossibility of doing what God requireth on the gates of the Temple or proclaiming it as by the sound of the trumpet in the midst of the great congregation For this Petition is put up in especial relation to sins past For Nè peccemus is in order before Si peccemus 1 Joh. 2.1 We are first commanded not to sin and then followeth the supposition If we sin So that these two Sin not and If you sin make up this Conclusion We may or we may not sin rather then this It is impossible to keep to Laws So then this Petition may be said humiliter humbly and veraciter truly in respect of sins past but it is neither Truth nor Humility to make God a Liar in calling upon us to do that which he requireth when he knoweth we cannot do it to make him a Tyrant in cripling us first and then sending us about his business in giving us Flesh which the Spirit cannot conquer in letting loose that Lion upon us which we cannot resist in leaving us naked to those Temptations which we cannot subdue No 1 Cor. 10.13 God is faithful and true and will not suffer us to be tempted above our strength will not let in an enemy upon us which with his assistance which is ready if we refuse it not we connot overcome Psal 103.8 And he is gracious and merciful if in the midst of so many enemies we chance to slip and fall with Jonathan in these high places to reach out his hand and lift us up again 2 Sam 1.25 but with this Proviso that we look better to our steps hereafter For he knoweth of whom he requireth it even of Men and he considereth us as Men and remembreth whereof we are made Psal 103.14 He doth not require we should be as just and merciful as he is God may give us his strength but he cannot give us his arm to be as just as he This is more impossible then that which is most impossible it is impossible to think it Nor doth he look that our obedience should be as exact as that of the Angels quorum immortalitas sine ullo malorum metu periculo constat whose happiness is removed from all danger or fear of change saith Lactantius But he requireth an obedience answerable to our condition which may consist both with Sin and Errour into which Man as Man may sometimes either through inadvertency or frailty fall and yet do what God requireth But then if this doctrine were true That we are fettered and shackled with an Impossibility of doing what God requireth as indeed it hath neither Reason nor Scripture to countenance it yet sure it cannot without danger be so rudely and with such zeal and earnestness publisht as sometimes it is nor can it savour of that
any one of these Amalekites live and reign in us and escape our hands even this one will find time and place to be our executioner We read that Tully had learnedly defended Popilius and saved his life and he for a reward afterwards cut off his Patrone's head You may easily apply it God grant we may never feel it applied He that cherisheth his sin which he should extirpate he that favoureth his sin he that defendeth his sin which he should arraign and condemn shall meet the same fate and fall as Tully did have no fairer a return made All he shall have from it is it will find a time to be his headsman If you will yet sin again you let that in to dwell and be familiar with you which the more friendly it is used the more enemy it will be and through all its smiles and flatteries make a way to fall upon you and destroy you Let us now pass from the Extent of the words to the Possibility of keeping them And if it were impossible to keep them our Saviour who is Wisdom it self would not leave it as a prescript He must needs be a good interpreter of Christ's words who lay in his bosom John the Disciple whom he loved 1 John 1.8 And he though he tell us that if we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves that is If we say we have no need of Christ and the knowledge of the Gospel to purge us from our sins yet chap. 5.18 is positive that whosoever is born of God sinneth not So that a difference we may observe between peccata habere and peccare between To have sin and To sin Joh. 9.41 As you may find it also If ye were blind ye should have no sin John 15 22. that is your sin would he padonable and If I had not come they had not had sin but now they have no cloke for their sin So that To have sin is not to remain in sin but To be guilty of those sins which God doth not but might punish if he would be extreme to mark what is done amiss To sin by ignorance or subreption to feel those sudden motions and perturbations those ictus animi those sudden blows and surprisals of the mind but then to mark and watch them and to be ready against them at the next assault For the less voluntary sin is the less sin it is And even these suggestions and motions are not so natural and rooted in us but that by long custom and violence upon our selves they may be so subdued as they shall not or but seldom rebel and assault and beat down the power of Reason It may be done and no doubt in many Saints of God it hath been done Which perfection though others attain not to they do not therefore presently come under the sentence of death For all sin doth not lay waste the conscience All sin is not inconsistent with the Covenant of Grace which presupposeth a possibility of avoiding all those sins which are repugnant to it as great sins and little sins if we be bold to commit them because they are little For thus a little sin little I mean in comparison may become a great sin Nay every sin which we carelesly admit of which we say as Lot did of Zoar Is it not a little one and my soul shall live even this may wound us to death For should we wilfully succour that enemy which he who made so gracious a Covenant with us came to destroy No If we fail by infirmity yet we must not fail through want of care and diligence Fot he that is born of God saith S. John keepeth himself that is setteth a watch and court of guard upon himself and that Wicked one toucheth him not For he is ready upon his guard with his buckler of faith to quench and repel the fiery darts of Satan And though he be tempted yet he falleth not into tentation It is true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father speaketh Man who is of a compounded nature is the subject of that discord which Sin bringeth in God onely who is of a simple and uncompounded essence is impeccable For Simplicity and Indivisibility of essence is alwayes at peace with it self and cannot receive any change or alteration That Man is peccable himself doth plainly demonstrate by being a Man But that he should sin that is remain in sin is rather a matter of history then prophesie For he that forbiddeth him to sin prophesieth nay telleth him plainly that he may not sin The Law supposeth a possibility of being kept And that we sin is made good by the event rather then by reason For what reason can there be given that we should sin since nothing is more contrary to Reason then Sin A necessity there was that Man should be subject and obnoxious to sin for otherwise he had not been capable of virtue but that he should break out actually into sin there was no necessity Nulla necessitas delinquendi quibus una necessitas non delinquendi saith Tertullian There was no tie of necessity lay upon him to offend who was fenced and bound in by a Law that he might not offend But the Scripture saith S. Paul hath concluded all under sin Gal. 3 22. Rom. 3.23 For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God The Apostle delivereth this as matter of fact not as a conclusion drawn out of necessary principles For he doth not say All must sin but All have sinned Therefore we may observe in that hot contention between the Orthodox and Pelagians when to build up Perfection in this life the Pelagians brought in the examples of the Saints of God which either had committed no mortal and devouring sin in the whole course of their lives or else had broke off their sins by repentance and afterward persevered to the end in holiness of life they found opposition on all hands not one being found who would give this honour to the Saints But where they urge that Perfection is not impossible where they speak not de esse but de posse not that it is so but that it may so not that men do not sin but that they may not S. Augustine himself joyneth hands with them Nam qui dicunt esse posse hominem in hac vita sine peccato non est illis continuò incantâ temeritate resistendum We must not be so rash as unwarily to oppose them who say it is possible for a man to live without sin in this life De peccator remiss l. 2. c. 6. And he addeth this reason For if we deny a possibility we at once derogate from the Will of man which inclineth to it and from the Power and Mercy of God who by his helping hand and gracious assistance may bring it to pass So that the onely difference between them was but this The one thought it possible by the power of Nature the other by
peculiar precepts quibus respondere liberum est Nolo which some must keep and others may answer they will not but universal and common and binding all alike Haec obligationis nostrae ratio est secreto fidelissimo hunc thesaurum depositi commendati nobis praecepti reservare saith Hilary This is the nature and force of our obligation to God to keep his commandments and faithfully to preserve that rich treasure which he hath deposited and laid up with us and commended to our charge For In the next place not to keep covenant with God but prodigally to misspend that substance which he gave us nay not to improve it but when he cometh to ask for his Talent to shew him a Napkin is a plain Forfeiture and bringeth us in danger of the Law And though we did owe our selves before even all that we have yet we were never properly Debtors till now But now it is debitum liquidum a plain and manifest Debt because we can give no account of what we have received at God's hands For what account can he give of his Soul who hath sold it to sin What tender can he make of his Affections who hath buried them in the world What Love can he present that hath pawned it to vanity What Fear can he make shew of who lived as if God could not be angry Or how should he appear before God who is long since lost to himself For St. Augustine needed not to have retracted that speech of his UT REDDERER MIHI CUI ME MAXIME DEBEO That I might be restored to my self to whom I did especially owe my slf and changed it into this UT REDDERER DEO that I might be restored and paid back unto God unto whom alone I am due The truth is Till Man be quite lost to himself to his Reason and Obedience and all that may style him Man he is still in manutenentia Dei in the hands and power and protection of God But when Man prodigally spendeth his estate amongst harlots and breaketh his covenant with God he maketh another contract with the World the Flesh and the Devil For Sin as it is in one respect a forfeiture and bringeth us in debt so on the other side it is a contract and bargain such as it is For can we call Death and Hell a purchase What hath Luxury brought in but rottenness to my bones and emptiness to my purse What hath my Soul gained but blackness and darkness and deformity What have I for my Trust in the world but Despair in God for my Integrity and Honesty which I flung away but Wealth perhaps or Honour or Pleasures which are but for a moment Which all are but speciosa supplicia Though we look upon them as glorious and gawdy ornaments and wear them as chains about our necks yet are they but shackles and the very chains of darkness In a word what have we for the Favour of God which we slighted but a gnawing Worm and a tormenting Conscience For In the last place the Penalty followeth Qui autor legis idem est exactor He that lent me these sums cometh to require and exact them at my hands and I have nothing to give him which I may call my own but the breach of his Law and he hath power not onely to sell me to Punishment for sin and to Sin for punishment but to expose me to shame not onely to kill the body but to put both body and soul into hell The penalty cometh in close upon the breach of contracts We have not such a God in the New Testament as Marcion the heretick phansied to himself qui solis literis prohibet delinquere who giveth no further check and restraint unto sin then by letters and words that doth fear to condemn what he cannot but disapprove that doth not hate what he doth not love and who beareth with that being done which he forbad to be done No He whose voice was in the thunder This thou shalt do thundereth still Ego condo mala It is I that create all those evils which flesh and bloud trembleth at His Sword hath still this inscription SI NOLUERITIS HIC GLADIUS VOS COMEDET If you will not obey this sword shall devour you Now in Obligations between man and man the Forfeiture and Penalty are expresly set down and the Creditor cannot exact two talents where the penalty is but one but here though the penalty is exprest yet not the measure unless in those comfortless terms That they are immeasurable Which when God remitteth and forgiveth to the penitent he manifesteth his infinite Goodness but when he inflicteth it as due to him who would needs die in his debt he magnifieth his Justice And S. Augustine giveth the reason Quia meliùs ordinatur natura ut justè doleat in supplicio quà m ut impunè gaudeat in peccato Because it is far better ordered that Justice should bring the impenitent to smart in punishment then that Impunity should encourage him forever to triumph in sin And he that peremptorily will offend doth by consequent will also the punishment which is due unto him Thus he that would not give God his obedience and so pay him his own must give himself to be dragged into prison He that would not be brought under the power of the Law must be brought under the stroke of the Law He that would not once read it when it is written for our instruction and presented in a golden character with precious promises must look upon it when it is a killing letter and as terrible as Death For Divines will tell us Per peccatum homo Dei potestati non est subtractus Man though by sin he runneth away from his God yet is still in his chain and though he have put on the Devil's livery yet he is still within the verge and reach of God's power who can deliver him up to Satan and make his new master whom he serveth his goaler and executioner For the Obligation still holdeth and God hath the hand-writing against us as S. Paul calleth it Which whether we term the Decalogue with some which was written with the finger of God or our own Memory with others which is nothing else but a gallery hung round about with our own deformities or whether with Aquinas we call it the Memory of God where our sins are written with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond whatsoever it is and wheresoever you place it it still looketh towards us In the Law there is horror and in God's memory our sins where they are sealed up as in a bag Job 14.17 where he keepeth them as his proofs and evidences by which he may convict us and that they may be in a readiness Lam. 1.14 hath bound our transgressions by his hands And lastly in our own memories are the very same bills and accusations which are in the register of God Nam qui peccat peccati sui
for the breach of the Law For let it once be granted what cannot be denied that we are all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 guilty and culpable before God that all have sinned Rom. 3.19 and are come short of the glory of God then all that noise the Church of Rome hath filled the world with concerning Merits and Satisfaction and inherent Righteousness will vanish as a mist before the Sun and Justification and Remission of sins will appear in its brightness in that form and shape in which Christ first left it to his Church Bring in Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles and deck them with all those vertues which made them glorious but yet they sinned Bring in the noble army of Martyrs who shed their bloud for Christ but yet they sinned They were stoned they were sawen asunder they were slain with the sword but yet they sinned and he that sinneth is presently the servant of sin obnoxious to it for ever and cannot be redeemed by his own bloud because he sinned but by the bloud of him in whom there was no sin to be found JUSTIFICATIO IMPII This one form of speech of justifying a sinner doth plainly exclude the Law and the works of it and may serve as an axe or hammer to beat down all their carved work and those Anticks which are fastned to the building which may perhaps take a wandering or gadding phansie but will never enter the heart of a man of understanding We do not find that beauty in their forced and artificial inventions that we do in the simple and native Truth neither are those effects which are as radiations and resultances from Forgiveness of sins so visible in their Justification by Faith and Works as in that free Remission which is by Faith alone The urging of our Merits is of no force to make our peace with God They may indeed make us gracious in his eyes after Remission but have as much power to remove our sins as our breath hath to remove a mountain or put out the fire of hell For every sin is as Seneca speaketh of that of Alexander's in killing Callisthenes crimen aeternum an eternal crime which no vertue of our own can redeem As often as any man shall say He slew many thousands of Persians it will be replied He did so but he killed Callisthenes also He slew Darius but he slew Callisthenes too And as often as we shall swell our minds and fill them with the conceit of our good deeds our Conscience will reply But we have sinned Let me adde my Passions to my Actions my Imprisonment to my Alms let me suffer for Christ let me dye for Christ But yet I have sinned Let us outgo all the ancient examples of piety and sanctity But yet we have sinned And none of all our acts can make so much for our glory and comfort as our sin doth for our reproch Our sins may obscure and darken our vertues but our vertues cannot abolish our sins For what peace so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel as our sins be so many Ot what ease can a myriad of vertues do him who is under arrest under a curse who if Mercy come not in between is condemned already And therefore we may observe those Justitiaries who will not build upon Remission or Not-imputation of sins how their complexion altereth how their colour goeth and cometh how they are not the same men in their Controversies and Commentaries that they are in their Devotions and Meditations Nothing but Merit in their ruff and jollity and nothing but Mercy on their death-beds nothing but the bloud of Martyrs then and nothing but Christ's now nothing but their own Satisfaction all their lives and nothing but Christ's at their last gasp Before magìs honorificum it was more honourable to bring in something of our own towards the Forgiveness of our sins but now for the uncertainty of our own Righteousness which were no whit available to a guilty person if it were certain because there is no harbour here Christ's Righteousness is called in with a Tutissimum est as the best shelter And here they will abide till the storm be over-past To conclude then Remission of sins hath no relation or dependence on any thing which is in man is not drawn on or furthered by any merit of ours but is an act of the Mercy and Providence of God by which he is pleased to restore us to his favour who were under his wrath to count us righteous who were guilty of death and in Christ to reconcile us unto himself and though he have a record of our sin yet not to use it as an indictment against us but so to deal with us as if his book were rased and so to look upon us as if we had not sinned at all Et merebimur admitti jam exclusi And we who were formerly shut out for our sin shall be led into the land of the living by a merciful and perfect and all-sufficient Mediatour It is his Mercy alone that must save us This is as the Sanctuary to the Legal offendor This is as mount Ararat to Noah's tossed Ark as Noah's hand to his weary Dove as Ahasuerus his golden sceptre to the humble penitent Come then put on your royal apparel your wedding garment and touch the top of it But touch it with reverence Bring not a wavering and doubtful heart an unrepented sin a rebellious thought with thee For canst thou touch this Sceprre in thy lust or anger canst thou touch it with hands full of bloud Such a bold irreverent touch will turn this Sceptre into a Sword to pierce thee through For nothing woundeth deeper then abused Mercy Behold God holdeth it forth to thee in his Word Come unto him all ye that are heavy laden and touch it and you are eased He holdeth it forth in his Sacrament first in the flesh of his Son and then in the signs and representations of it and here to touch it unworthily is to touch nay to embrace Death it self The woman in the Gospel came behind Christ and did but touch the hem of his garment and was healed Most wretched we saith the Father who touch him nay feed on him so oft in his Sacrament and our issue of bloud runneth still we are still in our sins our Pride as swelling our Malice as deadly our Appetite as keen our Love of the world as great as before and all because we do not touch it with reverence nor discern the Lord's body which must not be touched by every rude and unclean hand Wash you then make you clean and then as your Sins are pardoned so here your Pardon is sealed with the bloud of the Lamb. Here thou dost see thy ransome Onely believe and come with a heart fit to receive him The best enterteinment and welcome thou canst give him is a broken contrite and reverent heart a a heart
then evident that it is one thing to say that Christ's righteousness is imputed to us another that faith is imputed for righteousness or which is the very same our sins are not imputed unto us Which two Imputation of faith for righteousness and Not-imputation of sin make up that which we call the Justification of a sinner For therefore are our sins blotted out by the hand of God because we believe in Christ and Christ in God 1 Cor. 1.30 That place where we are told that Christ of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification is not such a pillar of Christ's Imputed righteousness in that sense which they take it as they phansied when they first set it up For the sense of the Apostle is plain and can be no more then this That Christ by the will of God was the onely cause of our righteousness and justification and that for his sake God will justifie and absolve us from all our sins and will reckon or account us holy and just and wise not that he who hath loved the error of his life is wise or he that hath been unjust is righteous in that wherein he was unjust or he that was impure in that he was impure is holy because Christ was so but because God will for Christ's sake accept receive and embrace us as if we were so Unless we shall say that as we are wise with Christ and holy and righteous so with Christ also we do redeem our selves For he who is said to be our righteousness is said also to be our redemption in the next words I would not once have thought this worth so much as a salute by the way but because I see many understand not what they speak so confidently and many more and those the worst are too ready to misapply it are will be every thing in Christ when they are not in him and well content he should fight it out in his own gore then they though they fall under the enemy in him may be styled conquerours Why should not we content our selves with the language of the Holy Ghost That certainly is enough to quiet any troubled conscience unless you will say it is not enough for a sinner to be forgiven not enough to be justified not enough to be made heir of the kingdom of heaven But yet I am not so out of love with the phrase as utterly to cast it out but wish rather that it might either be laid aside or not so grosly misapplied as it is many times by those presumptuous sinners who die in their sins If any eye can pierce further into the letter and find more then Imputation of faith for righteousness and Not imputation of sins for Christ's righteousness sake let him follow it as he please to the glory but not to the dishonour of Christ let him attribute what he will unto Christ so that by his unseasonable piety he lose not his Saviour so that he neglect not his own soul because Christ was innocent nor take no care to bring so much as a mite into the Treasury because Christ hath flung in that talent which at the great day of accounts shall be reckoned as his So that men be wary of those dangerous consequences which may issue from such a conceit quisque abundet sensu suo let every man think and speak as he please and add this Imputation of Christ's righteousness to this which I am sure is enough and which is all we find in Scripture Forgiveness and Not-imputation of sins and the Imputation of faith for righteousness I pass then to this Righteousness the Righteousness of Faith which indeed is properly called Evangelical Righteousness because Christ who was the publisher of the Gospel was also authour and finisher of our Faith And here we may sit down and not move any further and call all eyes to behold it and say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is it Nec curiositate opus est post Jesum Christum When Christ hath spoken and told us what it is our curiosity need not make any further search The Righteousness of faith is that which justifieth a sinner Rom. 1.17 For the just shall live by faith or as some render it the just by faith shall live Mar. 9.23 If thou canst believe saith our Saviour and Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Acts 16.31 and thou shalt be saved and thy houshould saith S. Paul to the Gaoler Isa 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to these waters yea come buy wine and milk without money or money-worth I doubt not but every man is ready to come every man is ready to say I believe Lord help my unbelief But here it fareth with many men as it doth with those who first hear of some great place fallen unto them but afterwards find it is as painful as great The later part of the news sowreth and deadeth the joy of the former and the trouble taketh off the glory and dignity Believe and be saved is a messuage of joy but Believe and repent or Repent and believe is a bitter pill But we must joyn them together nor is it possible to separate them they both must meet and kiss each other in that Righteousness which is the way to the Kingdom of God It is true Faith is imputed for righteousness but it is imputed to those who forsake all unrighteousness Faith justifieth a sinner but a repentant sinner It must be vera fides quae hoc quod verbis dicit moribus non contradicit a faith which leaveth not our manners and actions as so many contradictions to that which we profess Faith is the cause and original of good actions and naturally will produce them and if we hinder not its casuality in this respect it will have its proper effect which is to Justifie a sinner This effect I say is proper to Faith alone and it hath this royal prerogative by the ordinance of God but it hath not this operation but in subjecto capaci in a subject which is capable of it In a word it is the Righteousness of a sinner but not of a sinner who continueth in his sin It is a soveraign medicine but will not cure his wounds who resolveth to bleed to death For to conceive otherwise were to entitle God to all the uncleanness and sins of our life past to make him a lover of iniquity and the justifier not of the sinner but of our sins Christ was the Lamb of God which took away our sins John 1.29 And he took them away not onely by a plaister but also by a purge not onely by forgiveness but also by restraint of sin He suffered those unknown pains that we should be forgiven and sin no more not that we should sin again and be forgiven He fulfilled the Law but not to the end that we should take the more heart break it at pleasure and adde rebâ—â—lion to rebellion because
unto death There is lex Factorum the Law of Works For they are not all Credenda in the Gospel all articles of Faith there be Agenda some things to be done Nor is the Decalogue shut out of the Gospel Nay the very articles of our Creed include a Law and in a manner bind us to some duty and though they run not in that imperial strain Do this and live yet they look towards it as towards their end Otherwise to believe them in our own vain and carnal sense vvere enough and the same faith vvould save us vvith vvhich the Devils are tormented No thy Faith to vvhich thou art also bound as by a Law is dead that is is not faith if it do not vvork by a Law Thou believest there is a God Thou art then bound to vvorship him Thou believest that Christ is thy Lord Thou art then obliged to do what he commandeth His Word must be thy Law and thou must fulfill it His Death is a Law and bindeth thee to mortification His Cross should be thy obedience his Resurrection thy righteousness and his Coming to judge the quick and the dead thy care and solicitude In a word in a Testament in a Covenant in the Angel's message in the Promises of the Gospel in every Article of thy Creed thou mayest find a Law Christ's Legacy his Will is a Law the Covenant bindeth thee the Good news obligeth thee the Promises engage thee and every Article of thy Creed hath a kind of commanding and legislative power over thee Either they bind to some duty or concern thee not at all For they are not proposed for speculation but for practice and that consequence vvhich thou mayest easily draw from every one must be to thee as a Law What though honey and milk be under his tongue and he sendeth embassadours to thee and they intreat and beseech thee in his stead and in his name Yet is all this in reference to his command and it proceedeth from the same Love which made his Law And even these beseechings are binding and aggravate our guilt if we melt not and bow to his Law Principum preces mandata sunt the very intreaties of Kings and Princes are as binding as Laws preces armatae intreaties that carry force and power with them that are sent to us as it were in arms to invade and conquer us And if we neither yield to the voice of Christ in his royal Law nor fall down and worship at his condescensions and loving parlies and earnest beseechings we increase our guilt and make sin sinful in the highest degree Nor need we thus boggle at the word or be afraid to see a Law in the Gospel if either we consider the Gospel it self or Christ our King and Lord or our selves who are his redeemed captives and owe him all service and allegeance For first the Gospel is not a dispensation to sin nor was a Saviour born to us that he should do and suffer all and we do what we list No the Gospel is the greatest and sharpest curb that was ever yet put into the mouth of Sin The grace of God saith S. Paul hath appeared unto all men teaching us that is commanding us Tit. 2.11 to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Libertas in Christo non fecit innocentiae injuriam saith the Father Our liberty in Christ was not brought in to beat down innocency before it but to uphold it rather and defend it against all those assaults which flesh and bloud our lusts and concupiscence are ready to make against it Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world He taketh away those sins that are past by remission and pardon but he setteth up a Law as a rampire and bulwork against Sin that it break not in and reign again in our mortal bodies There Christ is said to take away not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sins but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sin of the world that is the whole nature of Sin that it may have no subsistence or being in the world If the Gospel had nothing of Law in it there could be no sin under the Gospel For Sin is a transgression of a Law But flatter our selves as we please those are the greatest sins which we commit against the Gospel And it shall be easier in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah then for those Christians who turn the grace of God into wantonness who sport and revel it under the very wings of Mercy who think Mercy cannot make a Law but is busie onely to bestow Donatives and Indulgences who are then most licencious when they are most restrained For what greater curb can there be then when Justice and Wisdom and Love and Mercy all concur and joyn together to make a Law Secondly Christ is not onely our Redeemer but our King and Law-giver As he is the wonderful Counsellour Isa 9 6. Psal 2.6 so he came out of the loyns of Judah and is a Law-giver too Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion The government shall be upon his shoulder He crept not to this honour Isa 9.6 but this honour returned to him as to the true and lawful Lord With glory and honour did God crown him and set him over the works of his hands Heb. 2.7 As he crowned the first Adam with Understanding and freedom of Will so he crowned the second Adam with the full Knowledge of all things with a perfect Will and with a wonderful Power And as he gave to Adam Dominion over the beasts of the field so he gave to Christ Power over things in heaven and things on earth And he glorified not himself Heb. 5.5 but he who said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee he it was that laid the government upon his shoulder Not upon his shoulders For he was well able to bear it on one of them For in him the Godhead dwelleth bodily And with this power he was able to put down all other rule autority and power 1 Cor. â—5 24 to spoil principalities and powers and to shew them openly in triumph to spoil them by his death and to spoil them by his Laws due obedience to which shaketh the power of Hell it self For this as it pulleth out the sting of Death so also beateth down Satan under our feet This if it were universal would be the best exorcism that is and even chase the Devil out of the world which he maketh his Kingdom For to run the way of Christ's commandments is to overthrow him and bind him in chains is another hell in hell unto him Thirdly if we look upon our selves we shall find there is a necessity of Laws to guide and regulate us and to bring us to the End All other creatures are sent into the world with a sense and understanding of the end for which they come and so without particular direction and yet unerringly
that of the Asp 1037. Death is the wages of Sin 445. It is the nature of S. to dig a pit for it self 931. It resembleth Hell and naturally tendeth to it 932. Sinners wilfully run into hell 932. We should not sin though we might gain heaven by it 378. Though thou have but one sin turn from it for it is of a monstrous aspect 378. Though but one it is fruitful and may beget another 379. Though but one it deserveth and may pull down temporal punishment 379. Though but one if not forsaken God will punish thee eternally in hell for it 380. 610. And thy punishment shall be the greater there by reason of the sins of others whom thy example shall have made to sin 380. Sinners oft escape mens laws 233. but Christ's they shall not 233 The sinner is most fo to himself 119. Sinful lusts drown and darken the mind 97. quite transform a man 125. Little difference betwixt a Devil and an obstinate Sinner 722. Better to suffer then sin 126 131. There is a proportion between Sin and Punishment 929. 931. Punishment of Sin manifesteth the Justice of the Providence of God 930. and conduceth to the good of the Universe 930. ¶ How Sin gaineth strength by delay and groweth upon us 357. 414. 793. 922. 983. If we give way to one Sin we are likely to give way to more 1120 1121. Sins of Omission lead to sins of Commission 456 What an empire Sin hath and exerciseth 358. 741. 767. Sin the worst Tyrant 741. 1098. How old men act over their sins in their age 357. How bold men make nothing of Sin 923. ¶ Divers names that Sin hath in Scripture 805. None expresseth it so lively as Debts 805. A fourfold analogy between Sins and Debts 805 c. An account of the wofull gain we make by Sin 807 808. The penalty of Sin 808. The fearful gashes and torments that Sin maketh in the heart of a sinner 809. 1097. What miserable remedies Sinners use to appease their unquiet consciences 946. v. Conscience It is far easier to avoid Sin then to get rid of it 809 810. One difference between Sins and Debts 810. What we do when we pray Forgive us our trespasses 811. v. Remission God when he forgiveth doth not make that to be no sin which was a sin 871. All the virtues in the world cannot wash off the guilt of one unrepented sin 375 376. 378. 812. 813. Mortall Sins will not be blotted-out by Martyrdome 707. What S. Christ will bear with what not 319. God's pardoning of former Sins maketh those we commit afterwards more grievous 380. 612 613. Sins after reconcilement revive those that Repentance had covered 381. 613 614. ¶ Original Sin alledged to excuse actual more then is fitting 427 428. 446. Our being bidden daily to beg pardon implieth not a Necessity of sinning 110 111. 604. v. Vice Some call their obstinate perseverance in sin Infirmity and Weakness 456 457. Men are wont to cloke their Sins with honest names 499. For none so much a Sinner as to be willing to be accounted so 500. Some say that the foulest Sins advantage rather then endanger the Elect 755. Many applaud themselves that they abstein from some Sins they observe in others 601. God's Permission of Sin how understood by some 407 c. How God permitteth Sin since he hateth it 410 584 c. Other apologies that men use to shift-off their Sin 432 c. as I. Want of help and assistance against it 433. 447. II. Ignorance 436. c. 447. v. Ignorance III. Checks of Conscience Remorse and Unwillingness 439. 447. The different way of Sinning of the Righteous and the Wicked 439. The Godly when they have sinned cannot plead that they have sinned against their will 440. Sin against Conscience is exceedingly the more sinful 441. IV. A Good meaning cannot palliate Sin 443. 447 448. How men are wont to excuse their Sins 171. 499. 1034 c. That which can be excused is not a Sin 1029. Excuse aggravateth Sin 1029. 1040. To seek to hide our Sin is far worse then to commit it 933. Sinners either despair or deny or lessen or confess or excuse their Sins whereof Confession is good the rest naught Excusing worst 1035 1036. To excuse Sin is natural 1036. more natural then to commit it 1038. ¶ Every man is not equally inclined to every Sin 376 377. 601. 1038. Every man hath his beloved Sin 378. What sins be inconsistent with the Covenant of Grace 603. How far a Saint may abstein from Sin 603. A little Sin may become a great one 603. How it cometh to pass that lesser Sins have more power over us then greater 607 608. Many content themselves with avoyding great and gross Sins 607 610. We must watch and fight against the least Sin 610. It is easier not to tast Sin at first then to forbear it afterwards 614 Men will revile Sin and pray against it and yet not leave it 787. Many are forward censurers of the Sins of others and take no notice of their own 377. We must not so shun one Sin as to dash upon another 374. Sick and aged persons do not so much forsake Sin as it forsaketh them 592 593. All Sins must be forsaken 600. Sin is most sinful in a Christian 417 418. ¶ Tentations to Sin how to be overcome 270. Sin appeareth ugly even by the light of Nature 325. 330. Sin must be known before it can be left 329. We do know many Sins and might know more 330. Many Sins are secret and not taken notice of 331. but these we must fear and hate and beg pardon of 331. Secrecy is the nurse of Sin 167. Men study to conceal it 167. We must search and find out our Sins of what sort soever 483 484. It is an easy thing to see Sin but hard to leave it 484 485. Affliction bringeth Sin to remembrance 567 568. All punishments suppose Sin 586. Fear bringeth us to the sight of our Sins 387 388. Fear curbeth us from sinning 390. Prosperity maketh Sin not appear 610. Sin cannot be sufficiently curbed prevented by humane Laws 168. nor by checks of Conscience 169. Many condemn Sin in others and practice it themselves 169. Hard-hearted sinners nothing will work upon 253. Causes of mens growing resolute in sinning 90. ¶ The way to get rid of our Sins is penitently to confess them 1040 1041. David thought to have gone rather too far in confessing his sins 1040. Saul's Sin and David's compared 1030. Whether one in the state of some mortal Sin can perform a good action 375. 601. Many men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin and repent and sin again 383. Relapses make us more inclinable to Sin and backward to Piety 614. To sin without shame is to be like the Devil 1038. v. Shame Every wilfull Sin a step to Apostasie 1121. To have sin what in St. John 602. Sinners themselves cannot but think well of Virtue 89 90. v. Piety
We have also the testimony of Martyrs who took their death on 't and when they could not live to publish it laid down their life and sealed it with their Blood And therefore we on whom the ends of the world are come have no reason to complain of distance and that we are removed so many ages from the time wherein it was done For now Christ risen is become a more obvious object than before the diversity of mediums have increased and multiplyed it We see him in his Word we see him through the Blood of Martyrs and we see him with the eye of faith Christ is risen and alive 1 Cor. 15.3 4. secundum scripturas saith S. Paul and he repeateth it twice in the same chapter Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem it is S. Augustines and let it pass for his sake When the Jew stumbled at him he presented but the bigness of a stone but our Infidelity will find no excuse if we see him not now when he appeareth as visible as a mountain There is more in this VIVO than a bare rising to life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He liveth in as much as He giveth life There is vertue and power in his Resurrection a power to abolish Death 2 Tim. 1.10 and to bring life and immortality to light a power to raise our vile bodies and a power to raise our viler souls He will raise them nay he hath done it already Col. 2.12 3.1 We are risen together with him and we live with him We cannot think that he that made such haste out of his own grave can be willing to see us rotting in ours From this VIVO it is that though we dye yet we shall live again Christ's Living breatheth life into us In his Resurrection he cast the modell of ours Idea est eorum quae fiunt exemplar aeternum saith Seneca And this is such a one an eternal pattern Plato 's Idea or common Form by which he thought all things have their existence is but a dream to this This is a true and real an efficacious and working pattern For as an Artificer hath not lost his art when he hath finished one piece no more did Christ lose his power when he had raised himself but as he is so it is everlasting and worketh still to the end of the world Perfectum est exemplar minùs perfecti That which Christ wrought upon himself is most exact and perfect a fit pattern of that which he meaneth to work on us which will be like to his indeed but not so glorious And now VIVO I live is as loud to raise our Hope as the last trump will be to raise our Bodies And how shall they be able to hear the sound of the trump who will not hear the voice of their Saviour Christ's life derives its vertue and influence on both Soul and Body on the Body with that power which is requisite to raise a body now putrified and incinerated and well near annihilated and on the Soul with such a power as is fitted to a soul which hath both Understanding and Will though drawn and carried away from their proper operations for which they were made We do not read of any precept to bind us or any counsel â—o perswade us to contribute any thing or put a hand to the resurrection of our bodies nor can there be it will be done whether we will or no But to Awake from the pleasant sleep of sin to be Renewed and raised in the inward man to Die to sin and Live to righteousness we have line upon line and precept upon precept And though this Life of Christ work in us both the will and the deed Phil. 2.12 Phil. 2.13 yet a necessity and a law lieth upon us and wo will be unto us if we work not out our salvation By his power we are raised in both but not working after the same manner There will be a change in both As the flesh at the second so the soul at the first resurrection must be reformata Angelificata spiritualized refined and angelified or rather Christificata If I may so speak Christified drawing in no breath but Christs Phil. 2.5 Job 17.13 14 having the same mind which was in Christ Jesus Whilst our bed is in the darkness whilst Corruption is our father and the Worm our mother and sister we cannot be said to be risen and whilest all the alliance we have is with the World and it is both Father and Mother and Sister to us whilest we mind earthly things we are still in our graves nay in hell it self Death hath dominion over us For let us call the World what we please our Habitation our Delight our Kingdome where we would dwell for ever yet indeed it is but our Grave If we receive any influence from Christ's life we shall rise fairly not with a mouth which is a sepulchre but with a tongue which is our glory not with a withred hand but with a hand stretched out to the needy not with a gadding eye but an eye shut up by covenant not with an itching but with an obedient ear not with a heart of stone but with a heart after Gods own heart Our Life Col. 3.3 saith the Apostle is hid with Christ in God and whilest we leave it thereby a continual meditation of his meritorious suffering by a serious and practical application of his glorious resurrection we hide it in the bosome of Majesty and no dart of Satan can reach it When we hide it in the minerals of the earth in the love of the world the Devil who is the Prince of the world is there to seize on it when we hide it in malicious and wanton thoughts they are his baits to catch it when we hide it in sloth and idleness we hide it in a grave which he digged for us we entomb our selves alive and as much as in us lies bury the Resurrection it self But when we hide it in Christ we hide it in him who carrieth healing and life in his wings Mal. 4.2 When we worship God through Jesus Christ our Lord and put our life in his hands 2 Cor. 4.11 then the life of Jesus is made manifest in our mortal flesh then we have put off the old man yea in a manner put off our mortality we are candidati aeternitatis as Tertullian speaketh Candidates for eternity and stand for a place with Abraham and Isaac for we have the same God and he is not the God of the dead Matth. 21.32 but of the living We see now what virtue and power there is in this VIVO in the Life of Christ But we must rise yet higher even as high as Eternity it self Hebr. 6.20 Hebr. 7.16 For as he liveth so behold he is alive for evermore a Priest for ever and a King for ever being made not after the law of a carnal commandment after that law which was given to
spiritual wisdome which is that Salt which every Teacher should have in himself Matth. 5.13 Mark 9.50 to urge and press it to the multitude who are too ready to make an idol of that Serpent which is lifted up to cure them For how many weak hands and feeble knees and cowardly hearts hath this made How willing are we to hear of weakness and impossibilities because we would not keep the Law How oft do we lye down with this thought and do nothing or rather run away with it even against the Law it self and break it What polluted blind impotent cripled wretches are we ready to call our selves which were indeed a glorious confession were it made out of hatred to sin But most commonly these words are sent forth not from a broken but a hollow heart and comfort us rather than accuse us are rather flatteries then aggravation the oyl of sinners to break their heads and to infatuate them not to supple their limbs but benum them And they beget no other Resolution in us but this Not to gird up our loins because we are weak To sin more and more because we cannot but sin Not to do what God requireth because we have already concluded within our selves that it is impossible To conclude this The question is not Whether we can exactly keep a Law so as not to fail sometimes as men for I know no reason why this question should be put up but Whether we can keep it so far forth as God requireth and in his goodness will accept Whether we can be just and merciful and humble men And if this be impossible then will follow as sad an impossibility of being saved For the not doing what God requireth is that alone which shutteth the gates of Heauen against us and cutteth off all hope of eternal happiness And this were to unpeople Heaven this were a Dragons tail to draw down all the stars and cast them into hell But the Saints are sealed and have this seal That they did what God required And it is a thing so far from being impossible that the Prophet maketh but a But of it It is not impossible it is but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God Secondly it is so far from being impossible that it is but an easie duty My yoke is easie Matth. 11.30 saith our Saviour and my burden light For it is fitted to our necks and shoulders and is so far from taking from our nature or pressing it with violence that it exalteth and perfecteth it All is in putting it about our necks Prov 1.9 and then this yoke is an ornament of grace as Solomon's chain about them And when this burden is layd on then it is not a burden but our Form to quicken us and our Angel to guide us with delight in all our waies And this the beloved Disciple suckt from his Master's bosome 1 John 5.3 This is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous For here is Love and Hope to sweeten them and make them easie and pleasant Nor doth he speak this as an Oratour to take men by craft by telling them that that which he exhorted them to was neither impossible nor difficult and so give force to his exhortation and make a way for it to enter and work a full perswasion in them to be obedient to those commands but as a Logician he backeth and establisheth his affirmation with an undeniable reason in the next verse For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and so his commandments are not grievous to those who have the true knowledge of God He that is born of God must needs have strength enough to pass through all hindrances whatsoever to tread down all Principalities and Powers to demolish all imaginations which set up and oppose themselves and so make these commands more grievous then they are in their own nature And this he strengthneth with another reason in the next verse For he that is born of God hath the help and advantage of Faith and full perswasion of the power of Jesus Christ which is that victory which overcometh the world So that whosoever saith the commandments are grievous with the same breath excommunicateth himself from the Church of Christ and maketh himself an hypocrite and professeth he is that which he is not a Christian when Christ's words are irksome and tedious unto him that he is born of God when he hath neither the language nor the motion of a child of God doth not what God requireth but doth the works of another father the Devil When men therefore pretend they cannot do what God requireth they should change their language for the truth is they will not If they would there were more for them then against them Salvian Totum durum est quicquid imperatur invitis To an unwilling mind every command carrieth with it the fearful shew of difficulty Mavult execrari legem quà m emendari mentem praecepta odisse quà m vitia A wicked man mavult emendare Deos quà m seipsum saith Seneca had rather condemn the Law then reform his life rather hate the precept then his sin Continence is a hard lesson but to the wanton Liberality to a Miser Temperance to a Glutton Obedience to a Factious and Rebellious spirit All these things are hard to him that loveth not Christ But where there is will there is strength enough Cant. 8 6. and Love is stronger then Death What was sweeter then Manna Isid Pelus 2. ep 67. what sooner gathered yet the children of Israel murmured at it What more bitter then Hunger and Imprisonment yet S. Paul rejoyced in them Nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wickedness in its own nature is a troublesome and vexations thing Vitia magno coluntur saith Seneca Scarce any sin we commit but costeth us dear What more painful then Anger what more perplext and tormenting then Revenge what more intangled then Lust what can more disquiet us then Ambition what more fearful then Cruelty what sooner disturbed then Pride Nay further yet How doth one sin incroch and trespass upon another I fling off my Pleasure and Honour to make way to my Revenge I deny my Lust to further my Ambition and rob my Covetousness to satisfie my Lust and forbear one sin to commit another and so do but versuram facere borrow of one sin to lay it out on another binding and loosing my self as my corruption leadeth me but never at ease Tell me Which is easier saith the Father to search for wealth in the bowels of the earth nay in the bowels of the poor by oppression then to sit down content with thy own night and day to study the world or to embrace Frugality to oppress every man or to relieve the oppressed to be busie in the Market or to be quiet at home to take other mens goods or to give my own to be
brought forth a Regulus a Cato a Fabricius and many other Worthies who shewed to posterity the possibility of keeping this Law so far as to be Just and do as yet teach and upbraid us Christians By this Law and by no other then this were the Aediles or Clarks of the market in Rome directed to lay it down as a Law That whosoever sold any commodity was to disclose to the buyer what fault what defect what imperfection it had If he sold an house in which the plague had been he was to proclaim it by the common cryer Pestilentem domum vendo I sell an infectious house If he sold a horse he was to make known the diseases if a piece of cloth the falshood of it For if he did not this there lay an action against him actio redhibitoria by which he was constrained to take back his wares again or make good the damage to the buyer Solebant Aediles malas merces in flumen jactare Plin. Nat. Hist p. 638. By this they flung all false and deceitful wares into the river This hath been done in Gath and Ashkelon what a strange sight would it be in Jerusalem This hath been done amongst Heathens aliens from the grace of God and is it not pity it should appear as ridiculous amongst us Christians who make our boast of Gods grace all the day along Should we put it in practice what objects of scorn and laughter should we be made to the men of this world who would call us fools or set us down for none of the wisest or which is the easiest censure place us in the number of those who may be wise perhaps but will not be wise for themselves Hier. ad Eustoch Amittit meritò proprium qui alienum appetit Vide Auson Epiced in patrem vet Interp. in Sat. Juvenal Deut. 27.17 Qui terminum exarasset ipse boves sacri Fest in verbo Terminus But S. Hierome goeth further and addeth Aliena appetentes publicae leges puniunt The publick Laws did punish even those who did but seek after or desire another mans possessions perhaps alluding to that custome of the Antients who straitly forbad that any man should add to or diminish that which he possest Lastly this was it that made them sacrifice Deo Termino to the God of bounds And as God laid a curse upon him that removed the land-mark so did Numa by the light of Nature even upon him who though by chance had plowed it up Such is the tye of Nature so great an obligation doth it carry with it For whatsoever is done against Nature all men saith Tertullian esteem as monstrous but Christians sacrilegious against God who is the Lord and Authour of Nature And further we press not this consideration For in the second place Justice and Honesty have yet a fairer pillar more polished and beautiful more radiant and manifest to the eye Besides the Law of Nature or Humane Laws which are but the extracts and resultations from it we have a Law written the Law of God who is the God of truth Deut. 32.4 Hab. 1.13 and of pure eyes that cannot behold deceit and violence and the Law of that great Law-giver the Prince of Righteousness in whose mouth there was found no guile 1 Pet. 1.22 And this maketh our obligation to do justly the stronger De relig c. 6. Lex prohibens omnia delicta congeminat saith Augustine The superaddition of a Law to the Law written in our hearts aggravateth and multiplieth a sin because after the open promulgation of a Law we do not onely that which is unlawful in it self but also that which is by supreme authority forbidden Now when we speak of a Law we do not mean the Law of Moses although that commandeth to make our Hin right and our Ephah right Levit. 19.36 Leges 12 Tabul Nè Agrum defraudanto Nè frugem aratro quaesitam noctu furtâ—m depascunto Puberes si secanto Cereri eos suspendunto Impuberes arbâ—trio Praetoris verberanto Ac noxae tal onem decernunto Plin. Nat Hist l. 28. c 3. That that should be restored which was either violently or deceitfully taken away Levit. 6.4 That that which goeth astray or is lost should be restored Deut. 22.1 2 3. That the hired servant be not oppressed Deut. 24.14 15. That he that killeth a beast shall restore it Levit. 24.21 That he that smiteth a man so that he keepeth his bed shall pay for the loss of his time and cause him to be throughly healed Exod. 21.18 19. That if a man feed his beast in another mans field he shall make restitution out of his own field Exod. 22.5 That in buying and selling they should not oppress one another Levit. 25.14 but legem Evangelicam the Law which was preached and promulged by Righteousness it self the best Master Christ Jesus And by this Christians are obliged above all the men in the world because they are Disciples of a better Testament For Christ came not to destroy the Law of Nature but to establish and improve it And though Christs Law propose some duties to which peradventure by clear evidence we are not obliged by the Law of Nature yet they who have most improved and perfected their Reason even by the light of Reason will subscribe to them that they are just and good and as they concern our conversation with men most fit to be done and most worthy of observation Innocentiam perfectè nôrant Christiani perfecto Magistro revelatam Apolog. saith Tertullian That Innocency of life which beateth down all violence checketh and confuteth all Sophistry and deceit in dealing is most exactly learnt by Christians from the best and perfectest Master that ever was Who that we may not kill hath taught us not to be angry that we may shut out uncleanness hath shut up our eyes that we may not do evil hath prohibited us to speak or think it and is so far from permitting his disciples to do any injury that he hath expresly and straitly commanded them with patience to bear any that is offered Quis illic sicarius quis manticularius quis sacrilegus What Christian saith he is a murderer or a theif or a sacrilegious person Or will he steal thy coat who by his profession is bound to give thee his and his cloak also It was a common saying amongst them Bonus vir Caius Seius Caius Seius was a just good man certainly and there was but one fault in him and that was that he was a Christian When the Souldiers askt John the Baptist What shall we do Luk. 3.13 14. he returned an answer which did not disarm them but bound their hands from violence and wrong Do no violence accuse no man falsly and be content with your wages The Publicanes were odious even to a proverb yet he vouchsafeth them an answer Exact no more then is appointed you Will you hear our Saviour from the mount You cannot but
of the soul which are called by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 puffings up for riches or learning or beauty or strength or eloquence or virtue or any thing which we admire our selves for elations and liftings up of the Mind above it self stretching of it beyond its measure 2 Cor. 10.14 making us to complain of the Law as unjust to start at the shadow of an injury to do evil and not to see it to commit sin and excuse it making our tongues our own Psal 12.4 our hands our own our understandings our own our wills our own leaving us Independents under no law but our own The Prophet David calleth it highness or haughtiness of the heart Solomon Psal 131 1. Prov. 16.18 haughtiness of the spirit which is visible in our sin and visible in our apologies for sin lifting up the eyes Psal 10.4 and lifting up the nose for so the phrase signifieth and lifting up the head and making our necks brass as if we had devoured a spit as Epictetus expresseth it I am and I alone Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellant Arrian in Epict. is soon writ in any mans heart and it is the office and work of Humility to wipe it out to wipe out all imaginations which rise and swell against the Law our Neighbour and so against God himself For the mind of man is very subject to these fits of swelling Humility Our very nature riseth at the mention of it Habet mens nostra sublime quiddam impatiens superioris saith the Oratour Mens minds naturally are lifted up and cannot endure to be overlookt Humility It is well we can hear her named with patience It is something more that we can commend her But quale monstrum quale sacrilegium saith the Father O monstruous sacrilege we commend Humility and that we do so swelleth us We shut her out of doors when we entertein her When we deck her with praises we sacrilegiously spoil her and even lose her in our panegyricks and commendations We see for it is but too visible what light materials we are made of what tinder we are that the least spark will set us on fire to blaze and be offensive to every eye We censure Pride in others and are proud we do so we humble our brethren and exalt our selves It is the art and malice of the world when men excel either in virtue or learning to say they are proud and they think with that breath to level every hill that riseth so high and calleth so many eyes to look upon it But suppose they were alass a very fool will be so and he that hath not one good part to gain the opinion of men will do that office for himself and wonder the world should so mistake him Doth Learning or Virtue do our good parts puff us up and set us in our altitudes No great matter the wagging of a feather the gingling of a spur a little ceruss and paint any thing nothing will do it nay to descend yet lower that which is worse then nothing will do it Wickedness will do it 〈◊〉 10.3 He boasteth of his hearts desire saith David he blesseth himself in evil Prov. 2.14 He rejoyceth in evil saith Solomon he pleaseth and flattereth himself in mischief And what are these benedictions these boastings these triumphs in evil but as the breathings the sparkles the proclamations of Pride Psal 10.4 The wicked is so proud he careth not for God God is not in all his thoughts When Adam by pride was risen so high as to fall from his obedience God looketh upon him in this his exaltation or rather in this ruine and beholdeth him not as his creature but as a prodigie and seemeth to put on admiration 〈…〉 22. ECCE ADAM FACTVS TANQVAM VNVS E NOBIS See the man is become as one of us God speaketh it by an Irony A God he is but of his own making Whilest he was what I made him he was a Man but innocent just immortal of singular endowments and he was so truly and really but now having swelled and reached beyond his bounds a God he is but per mycterismum a God that may be pitied that may be derided a mortal dying God a God that will run into a thicket to hide himself His Greatness is but figurative but his misery is real Being turned out of paradise he hath nothing left but his phansie to deifie him This is our case our teeth are on edge with the same sowr grapes We are proud and sin and are proud in our sins We lift up our selves against the Law and when we have broke it we lift up our selves against Repentance When we are weak then we are strong when we are poor and miserable then we are rich when we are naked then we clothe our selves with pride as with a garment And as in Adam so in us our Greatness is but a tale and a pleasing lye our sins and imperfections true and real our heaven but a thought and our hell burning A strange soloecisme a look as high as heaven and the soul as low as the lowest pit It was an usual speach with Martine Luther that every man was born with a Pope in his belly And we know what the Pope hath long challenged and appropriated to himself Infallibility and Supremacy which like the two sides of an Arch mutually uphold each other For do we question his Immunity from errour It is a bold errour in us for he is supreme Judge of controversies and the conjecture is easie which way the question will be stated Can we not be perswaded and yield to his Supremacy Then his Parasites will tell you that he is Infallible By this we may well ghess what Luther meant For so it is in us Pride maketh us incorrigible and the thought that we are so increaseth our Pride We are too high to stand and too wise to be wary too learned to be taught and too good to be reproved We now stand upon our Supremacy See how the Worm swelleth into an Angel The Heart forgetteth it is flesh and becometh a stone and you cannot set Christs Impress HVMILITY upon a stone Learn of me for I am humble The Ear is deaf the Heart stubborn Matth. 11.29 the Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Theodoret a reprobate Rom. 1.28 reverberating mind a heart of marble which violently beateth back the blow that should soften it Now the office of Humility is to abate this swelling its proper work is to hammer this rock and break it to pieces Jer. 23.29 to drive it into it self to pull it down at the sight of this Lord to place it under it self under the Law under God to bind it as it were with cords to let out this corrupt blood and this noxious humour and so sacrifice it to that God that framed it to depress it in it self that
shipwrack of a good conscience 1 Tim. 1.19 and then with the swelling sails of Impudence hasten to that point and haven which their boundless lusts have made choice of as we should do to eternal happiness per calcatum patrem as S. Hierome speaketh over father and mother over all relations and Religion it self forsake all these not for Christs sake and the Gospel but for Mammon and the world What foul pollutions what grinding and cruel oppressions and what open profaneness have there been in the world And we may ask with the Prophet Jeremiah Were they ashamed when they committed abomination Jer. 8.12 Eph. 4.18 Nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they have any shame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the hardness and blindness of their heart For in sin and by sin they at last grow familiar in sin clothe themselves with it as with a robe of honour bring it forth into open view like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts Acts 25.23 Dan. 3.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with great state and pomp They set it up as Nebuchadnezzar did his image of gold threescore cubits high to be seen of all They boast of their Atheism and look down upon them with a contemptuous pity as shallow and weak men who go about to perswade such men as they of quick and searching wits â—hat there is a God who both seeth and heareth them and they take it very ill if we do but wish them well Thus it is in every bold presumptuous sinner even as it was with the Devil Depuduit No sooner do they cast themselves down from Heaven but they cast away all shame and their Modesty flyeth from them in the very fall and their Motto is Tush God doth not see And this sure is not to walk with God Psal 94.7 but to walk and strut as Nebuchadnezzar did in his palace Dan. 4.30 This is the palace which I have built Thus thus have I done and who dareth fling a stone at it to walk as Goliath did in a coat of brass and defie the host of Israel 1 Sam. 17. and God himself Golias in fronte c. saith Augustine Goliath was smitten in the forehead and so are they The disease indeed is in the heart but it hath made an impression and left a mark in the forehead He that hath forgot to blush doth not well remember that there is a God who looketh upon him Secondly the Dissembling sinner the Hypocrite walketh not with God For he is but a Player of Religion and being but a Slave cometh forth a King and then treadeth his measures putteth it to the trial whether God hath an eye whether he will take dross for silver the superficies for the substance a Fast for Repentance a Picture for the New creature Archidamus said well of an old man that had died and discoloured his hair It is not likely he should speak truth qui mendacium in capite circumfert who carrieth about with him a lye on his head Nor can he walk as with his God whose very speach and gesture whose very look is a lye Where there are false lights there the ware is not warrantable where there are privy doors there the Priests will practise collusion Bell Dr. v. 21. and eat up the Idoles meat If you see a Labyrinth it is either to conceal a Strumpet or a Minotaur That is true of the Hypocrite which the Rabbies conceived of their Priests He is like an Angel visible or invisible as he please Now this is not to walk with God but to walk with our Lusts with our Malice and Covetousness to look upon them as we should do upon our God to be careful that they be pleased and satisfied to reverence them to follow their behests and commands to provide that these Horse-leaches be fed our Lust with Pleasure and our Covetousness with Gold for these are the Hypocrites Gods As for the true God they leave him behind them and walk with nothing but his Name Thirdly the Apologizing sinner walketh not with God but runneth himself into the thicket of excuses Covereth his transgressions as Adam Job 31.33 and hideth his iniquity in his bosome covereth himself over with those leaves which have no heat nor solidity in them but will wither and dye when the Sun sheweth it self and be scattered before the wind and leave him naked and miserable He hath learnt an art and he may quickly learn that of his Sin which needeth and teacheth it pavimentare peccata it is S. Augustine's phrase to smooth and plaster and parget over his deformities He excuseth the breach of one commandment with his zeal to another his breach of Charity by his love to Faith He exexcuseth his Sacrilege by his hatred of Idolatry his Malice by his Zeal He pleadeth Ignorance where there is light enough Weakness when he might be strong Infirmity where he presumeth and Willingness when he had no will and will not consider that the Devil speaketh by all these as he did to our first Parents by the Serpent For Gen. 3.4 This is no sin at all and You shall not dye at all are all one He speaketh saith S. Augustine by the Mathematician That he sinneth not but his Star He speaketh by the Manachee That he sinneth not but the Prince of darkness I may add he speaketh by the Anabaptist It is not he sinneth but the Ass his Body By the Libertine That God sinneth in him and by the Many That the Devil onely is in fault If we look upon it well and send our eye abroad into the world we may peradventure be tempted to think that the World and all that therein is were onely made to yield matter out of which to forge and fashion an excuse For what is there almost in the world which we do not lay hold on for that end Adam the first man is the first excuse and we drew it out of his loins Original sin and after that the Law the Flesh the Will the Understanding Sin Obedience the Devils and God himself are forced in to speak for us What was made the matter of Virtue and Obedience is by us made the matter of excuse We may be bold to say This is not to walk with God as if he had an all-seeing eye Gen. 8.7 but to flutter up and down as the Raven did upon the waters from excuse to excuse but far from God and the Ark so to walk as if we were quite out of Gods reach and fight Last of all the speculative sinner doth not walk with God I mean the man that breaketh not out into action but yet perfecteth his work in his mind Here the sinner doth that which he never doth joyneth with that object which he shall never touch committeth adultery and yet may be an eunuch plotteth revenge and yet never striketh a stroke graspeth the wealth which he will not labour for marryeth that Beauty which he saw
did such service for his friend then but a private man that he made him first a Conquerour then a King the Historian giveth this note That Kings love not to be too much beholding to their Subjects nor to have greater service done then they are able to reward and so how truly I know not maketh the setting on of the Crown on his friends head one cause of the losing of his own But it is not so with this our Lord who being now in his throne of Majesty cannot be outdared by any sin be it never so great never so common and can break the hairy scalp of the most giant-like offender and shiver in pieces the tallest cedar in Libanus Who shall be able to stand up in his sight In his presence the boldest sinner shall tremble and fall down and see the horrour of that profitable honourable sin in which he triumpht and called it Godliness The Hypocrite whose every word whose every motion whose every look was a lye shall be unmaskt And the man of Power who boasted in malice and made his Will a Law and hung his sword on his Will to make way to that at which it was levelled shall be beat down into the lowest pit to howl with those who measured out justice by their sword and thought every thing theirs which that could give them Before him every sin shall be a sin and the wages thereof shall be Death Again he hath rewards and his Treasury is full of them Not onely the powring forth my blood as water for the Truths sake Matth. 10.42 but a cup of cold water shall have its full and overflowing recompense nor shall there ever any be able to say What profit is it that we have kept his Laws No Mal 3.14 saith S. Paul Non sunt condignae Put our Passions to our Actions Rom. 8.18 our Sufferings to our Alms our Martyrdome to our Prayers they are not worthy the naming in comparison of that weight of glory which our Lord now sitting at the right hand of God 1 Cor. 2 9. hath prepared for them that fear him Nec quisquam à regno ejus subtrahitur Nor can any go out of his reach or stand before him when he is angry He that sitteth on the throne and he that grindeth at the mill to him are both alike Psal 76.7 And now in the third place that every knee may bow to him Rom. 14.11 and every tongue confess him to be the Lord let us a little take notice of the large compass and circuit of his Dominion The Psalmist will tell us that he shall have dominion from sea to sea Psal 72 8. and from the river unto the ends of the earth Adam the first man and he that shall stand last upon the earth every man is his subject For he hath set him Eph. 1.20 21. saith S. Paul at his right hand in heavenly places and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the Head over all things to his Church And what a thin shadow what a Nothing is all the overspreading power of this world to this All other Dominion hath its bounds and limits which it cannot pass but by violence and the sword Nor is it expedient for the world to have onely one King nor for the Church to have one universal Bishop or as they speak one visible Head For as a ship may be made up to that bulk that it cannot be managed so the number of men and distance of place may be so great that it cannot subsist under one Government Thus it falleth out in the world but it is not so in the Kingdom of this our Lord. No place so distant or remote to which this Power cannot reach Libyam remotis Gadibus jungit All places are to him alike and he sees them all at once It is called the Catholick Church and in our Creed we profess we believe SANCTAM CATHOLIC AM ECCLESIAM the holy Catholick CHVRCH that is That that Church which was shut up within the narrow confines of Judea now under the Gospel is as large as the world it self The invitation is to all and all may come They may come who are yet without and they might have come who are bound hand and foot and cannot come The gate was once open to them but now it is shut Persa Gothus Indus philosophantur saith S. Hierom The Persian and the Goth and the Indian and the Egyptian are subjects under this Lord. Barbarism it self boweth before him and hath changed her harsh notes into the sweet melodie of the Cross Judg. 6.37 â—0 There was dew onely upon the Fleece the people of the Jews but now that flâ—ece is dry Matth. 24.14 and there is dew upon all the earth The Gospel saith our Saviour must be Preached to all nations And when the holy Ghost descended to seal and confirm the Laws of this Lord there were present at this great sealing or confirmation some Acts 2.5 11. saith the Text of all nations under heaven that did hear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wonderful things of God every one in his own language so that the Gospel might seem to have been Preached throughout the world before the Apostles did stir a foot from Jerusalem But here we may observe that Christ who hath jus ad omnem terram hath not in strictness of speech jus in omni terrâ The right and propriety is his for ever but he doth not take possession of it all at once but successively and by parts It is as easie for him to illuminate all the world at once as the least nook and corner of it but this Sun of righteousness spreadeth his beams gloriously but is not seen of all because of the interposition of mens sins who exclude themselves from the beams thereof John 1. This true Light came into the world but the world received him not But yet what our sensuality will not suffer him to do at once he doth by degrees and passeth on and gaineth ground that so successively he may be seen and known of all the world But suppose men shook off their allegiance as too many the greatest part of the world the greatest part of Christendome do suppose there were none found that will bow before him which will never be suppose they crucifie him again yet is he still our King and our Lord the King and Lord of all the world Such an universal falling away and forsaking him would not take away from him his Dominion nor remove him from the right hand of God and strip him of his Power If all the world were Infidels yet he were a Lord still and his Power as large and irresistible as ever For his Royalty dependeth not on the duty and fidelity of his subjects If it did his Dominion would be indeed but of a very narrow compass the Sheep not so many as the Goats his flock but little Indeed he could have
we now speak of a thousand a million a world of men are with him but as one man When the Lord Chief Justice of Heaven and Earth shall sit to do judgement upon sinners what Caligula once wantonly wished to the people of Rome all the world before him have but as it were one neck and if it please him by that jus pleni dominii by that full power and dominion he hath over his creature he may as he welnear did in the Deluge strike it off at a blow His judgements are past finding out and therefore not to be questioned A Platone dicitur Deus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Plutarch Quaest. convival l. 8. q. c. He is the great Geometrician of the World which made all things in number weight and measure and doth infinitely surpass all humane inventions whatsoever and therefore we cannot do him less honour then Hiero King of Sicily did to Archimedes the great Mathematician When he saw the engines he made and the marvellous effects they did produce he caused it to be proclaimed that whatsoever Archimedes did after affirm how improbable soever it might seem yet should not once be called into question but be received and entertained as a truth Let the course of things be carried on as it will let Death pass over the door of the Egyptian and smite the Israelite let God's Thunder miss the house of Dagon and shiver his own Tabernacle yet God is just and true and every man a liar that dareth but ask the question Why doth God this Look over the book of Job and you shall see how Job and his Friends are tost up and down on this great deep For it being put to the question why Job was so fearfully handled his Friends ground themselves upon this conclusion That all affliction is for sin and so lay folly and hypocrisie to his charge and tell him roundly that the judgments of God had now found him out though he had been a close irregular and with some art and cunning hid himself from the eye of the World But Job on the contrary as stoutly pleadeth and defendeth his innocency his justice his liberality and could not attain to the sight of the cause for which Gods hand was so heavy on him Why should his Friends urge him any more Job 19.22 or persecute him as God They dispute in vain Job 21.34 for in their answers he seeth nothing but lies At last when the controversie could have no issue Deus è machina God himself cometh down from heaven and by asking one question putteth an end to the rest Job 38.2 Who is this that darkneth counsel by words without knowledge He condemneth Job and his Friends of ignorance and weakness in that they made so bold and dangerous an attempt as to seek out a cause or call God's judgments into question 2. Because this is a point which may seem worthy to be insisted upon for it hath well-nigh troubled the whole world to see the righteous and wicked tyed together in the same chain and speeding alike in general and oecumenical plagues that Mans reason may not take offense and be scandalized we will give you some reasons why God should hold so unrespective a hand First good reason it is that they who partake in the sin should partake also in the punishment Now though in great and crying sins the righteous partake not with the wicked yet in smaller they evermore concur For who is he amongst the sons of men that can presume himself free from these kind of sins And then if the wages of the smallest sin can be no less then death and eternal torment we have no cause to complain if God use his rod who might strike with the sword if he chastise us on earth who might thrust us into hell This is enough to clear God from all injustice For who can complain of temporal who doth justly deserve eternal pains Or why should they be severed in the penalty who are joyned together in the cause But further yet what though the fault of the one be much the less yet it will not therefore follow if we rightly examine it that the punishment should be the less For though it may seem a paradox which I shall speak unto you yet it will stand with very good reason that great cause many times there may be why the smaller sin should be amerced and fined with the greater punishment In the Penitential Canons he that killeth his mother is enjoynd ten years penance but he that killeth his wife is enjoynd far more And the reason is immediately given not because this is the greater sin but because men are commonly more apt to fall into the sin of murdering their wives then their mothers It is true the reason is larger then the instance and it teacheth us thus much That in appointing the mulct for sin men ought not onely to consider the greatness of it but the aptness of men to fall into it For that of St. Augustine is most true Tantò crebriora quantò minora Because they are the less men presume the oftner to commit them And therefore it may seem good wisdome when ordinary punishment will not serve to redress sins to enhance and improve their penalty We read in our books that there was a Law in Rome that he who gave a man a box on the ear was to pay the sum of twelve pence of our money And Aulus Gellius doth tell us that there was a loose but a rich man who being disposed to abuse the Law was wont to walk the streets with a purse of money and still as he met any man he would give him a box on the ear and then twelve pence Now to repress the insolence of such a fellow there was no way but to encrease the value of the mulct Which course the God of heaven and earth may seem to take with us when his ordinary and moderate punishments will not serve to restrain us from falling into smaller sins He sharpneth the penalty that at last we may learn to account no sin little which is committed against an infinite Majesty and not make the gentleness of the Law an occasion of sin And to this end he coupleth both good and bad in those general plagues which by his providence do befall the world He speaketh evil he doth evil to whole Nations amongst whom notwithstanding some righteous persons are Ah sinful nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers Isa 1.4 10. princes of Sodom people of Gomorrah these are the names by which he stileth the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem amongst whom we cannot doubt but there were many good though no other yet certainly Isaiah the Prophet who spake these words And as he giveth them all one name without regard of difference so he maketh them all good and bad to drink alike of one cup of captivity though no doubt many of great uprightness though
attributes which are not onely visible but also speak unto us to follow this heavenly method His Wisdome instructeth us his Justice calleth upon us and his Mercy his eloquent Mercy bespeaketh us a whole Trinity of Attributes are instant and urgent with us to turn from our evil wayes And this is the Authority I may say the Majesty of Repentance It hath these three Gods Wisdome Justice Mercy to seal and ratifie it and make it authentick We come now to the Dictum it self It being God's we must well weigh and ponder it And we shall find it comprehendeth the duty of Repentance in its full latitude As Sin is nothing else but aversio à Creatore conversio ad creaturam an aversion and turning of the soul from God and an inordinate conversion and application to the Creature so by our Repentance we do referre pedem start back and alter our course work and withdraw our selves from evil waies and turn to the Lord by cleaving to his laws which are the mind of the Lord and having our feet enlarged we run the way of his commandments A straight line drawn out at length is of all lines the weakest and the further you draw it the weaker it is nor can it be strengthened but by being redoubled and bowed and brought back again towards its first point The Wise man telleth us that God at first made man upright Eccles 7.29 that is simple and single and sincere bound him as it were to one point but he sought out many inventions mingled himself and ingendered with divers extravagant conceits and so ran out not in one but many lines drawn out now to this object by and by to another still running further and further sometimes on the flesh sometimes on the world now on Idolatry anon on Oppression and so at a sad distance from him in whom he should have dwelt and rested as in his centre Therefore God seeing Man gone so far seeing him weak and feeble wound and turned about by the activity of the Devil and sway of the Flesh and not willing to lose him ordained Repentance as a remedy as in instrument to bend and bow him back again that he might recover and gain strength and subsistency in his former and proper place to draw him back from those objects in which he was lost and to carry him on forward to the rock out of which he was hewed Whilest he is yet in his evil wayes all is out of tune and order for the Devil who hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost hom de Paenitent invert the order of things placeth shame upon Repentance and boldness and senslesness upon Sin But Repentance is a perfect Methodist upon our turn we see the danger we plaid with and the horrour of those paths in which we sported we see in our flight a banishment in every sin a hell and in our turn a Paradise Divers words we have to express the true nature of Repentance but none more usual full and proper then this of Turning This includeth all the rest It is more then a bare Knowledge of our sins more then Grief more then an Acknowledgement or Confession more then a Desire of change more then an Endeavour For if we do not turn a termino ad terminum from one term or state to another from every sin we now embrace to its contrary if we do not fly and loath the one and rest and delight in the other our Knowledge of sin is but an accusation our Grief is but a frail and vanishing displacency Lugentibus lachryma quietis recreationis loco sunt Moses Mairmon Doct. perplex l. 3. c. 41. our Tears are our recreation our Desires but as thought and our endeavours proffers But if we turn and our turn be real these instruments or antecedents These disposing and preparing acts must needs be so also true and real We talk much of the Knowledge and Sense of our sin when we cannot be ignorant of it of Grief when we have no feeling of Confession and Acknowledgement when the heart is not broken of a Desire to be good when we resolve to be evil of an Endeavour to leave off our sins when we feed and nourish them and even hire them to stay with us In udo est Maenas Attis Pers sat 1. Our Repentance is languid and faint our Knowledge without observation our Grief without compunction our Acknowledgement without trepidation our Desire without strength and our Endeavour without activity But they are all complete and made perfect in our Turn and Conversion If we turn from our sins then we know them and know them in their deformity and all those circumstances which put so much horrour upon them If we turn our head will be a fountain of tears Jer. 9.1 and the eye will cast out water our Confession will be loud and hearty Lam. 1.16 our Desire eager and impatient our Endeavours strong and earnest and violent This Turn is as the hinge on which all the rest move freely and orderly Optima paenitentia nova vita saith Luther The best and truest repentance is a new life A Turn carrieth all the rest along with it to the end the end of our Knowledge of our Grief of our Acknowledgement of our Desires and Endeavours For we know our sins we bewail them we acknowledge them we desire and endeavour to leave them in a word we turn that we may be saved First it includeth the Knowledge of our sins He that knoweth not his malady will neither seek for cure nor admit it He that knoweth not the danger of the place he standeth in will not turn his face another way Isid Pelusiot l. 1111. ep 149 He that dwelleth in it as in a paradise will look upon all other that yield not the same delight as upon hell it self He that knoweth not his wayes are evil will hardly go out of them Malum notum res est optima saith Luther It is a good thing to know evil For the knowledge of that which is evil can have no other end but this To drive us from it to that which is good When Sin appeareth in its ugliness and monstrosity when the Law and the Wrath of God and Death it self display their terrours that face is more then brass or adamant that will not gather blackness and turn it self But this prescript To know sin one would think should rather be tendred to the Heathen then to Christians Act 15.29 Quando hoc factum non est quando reprehensum quando non permissum Cic. pro M. Caelio Rom. 1.31 To them some sins were unknown as Revenge Ambition Fornication and therefore they are enjoyned to abstein from them yet even those which the light of Nature had discovered to them they did commit though they knew that they who did commit them were worthy of death But to Christians it may seem unnecessary For they live in the Church which is
throat But this is not that Confession which ushereth in Repentance or forwardeth and promoteth our Turn It is rather an ingredient to make up the cup of stupefaction which we take down with delight and then fall asleep and dream of safety and peace in the midst of a tempest yea even when we are on the brink of danger and ready to fall into the pit David it is true 2 Sam. 12.13 Aug. Hom 4.1 In his tribus syllabis flamma sacrificii coram Domino ascendit in coelum said no more but Peccavi and his sin was taken away Tantum valent tres syllabae saith S. Augustine Such force there was in three syllables And can there be virtue in syllables No man can imagin there can But David's heart saith he was now a sacrificing and on these three syllables the flame of that sacrifice was carried up before the Lord into the highest heavens If our Knowledge of our sins be clean and affective if our Grief be real then our Confession and Acknowledgment will be hearty Isa 16.11 Job 30.27 Lam. 1.20 our bowels will sound as a harp our inwards will boyl and not rest our heart will tremble and be turned within us our sighs and grones will send forth our words as sad messengers of that desolation which is within Our heart will cry out as well as our tongue My heart my heart is prepared saith David Psal 57.7 which is then the best and sweetest instrument when it is broken 4. And these three in the fourth place will raise up in us a Desire to shake off these fears Heb. 12 1. and this weight which doth so compass about and infold us For who is there that doth see his sins weep over them exsecrate them by his Tears and condemn them by his Confession that doth see Sin clâ—thed with death the Law a killing letter the Judge frowning Fletus humanaâ—um necessitatum verecunda exsecratio Sen. Contr. 8.6 Death ready with his dart to strike him through that would be such a beast as to come so near and hell opening her mouth to take him in and doth not long and grone and travel in pain and cry out to be delivered from this body of death Who would live under a conscience that is ever galling and gnawing him What prisoner that feeleth his fetters would not shake them off Certainly he that can stand out against all these terrours and amazements that can thwart and resist his Knowledge wipe off his Tears fling off his Sorrow baffle and confute his own Acknowledgement slight his own Conscience mock his Distaste trifle with the Wrath of God which he seeth near him and play at the very gates of Hell he that is in this great deep and will not cry out he that knoweth what he is and will be what he is knoweth he is miserable and desireth not a change such an one is near to the condition of the damned Spirits who howl for want of that light which they have lost and detest and blaspheme that most which they cannot have who because they can never be happy can never desire it But to this condition we cannot be brought till we are brought under the same punishment which nevertheless is represented to us in this life in the sad thoughts of our heart in the horrour of sin and in a troubled conscience that so we may avoid it The type we see now that we may never see the thing it self And the sight of this if we remove not our eye at the call and enticement of the next approching vanity which may please at first but in the end will place before us as foul an object as that we now look upon will work in us a desire to have that removed which is now as a thorn in our eyes a desire to have Gods hand taken off from us and those sins too taken away which made his hand so heavy a desire to be freed from the guilt and from the dominion of sin a desire that reacheth at liberty Tusc q. l. 5. and at heaven it self Eruditi vivere est cogitare saith Tully Meditation is the life of a Scholar If the mind leave off to move and work and be in agitation the man indeed may live but the Philosopher is dead And Vita Christiani sanctum desiderium saith Hierom The life of a Christian is nothing else but a holy desire drawn out and spent in prayers deprecations wishes obtestations pantings and longings held up and continued by the heat and vigour and endless unsatisfiedness of the desire which if it slack and fayl or end in an indifferency or lukewarmness leaveth nothing behind it but a lump and mass of corruption for with it the life is gone the Christian is departed 5. But in the last place this is not enough nor will it draw us near enough unto a Turn There is required as a true witness of our Convincement of our Sorrow of the heartiness of our Confession of the truth of our desire a serious Endeavour an eager contention with our selves an assiduous violence against those sins which hath brought us so low even to the dust of death and the house of the grave and Endeavour to order our steps to walk contrary to our selves to make a covenant with our eye to purge our ear to cut off our hand to keep our feet to forbear every act which carrieth with it but the appearance of evil to cut off every occasion which may prompt us to it an Endeavour to work in the vineyard to exercise our selves in the works of piety to love the fair opportunities of doing good and to lay hold on them to be ambitious and inquisitive after all those helps and advantages which may promote this endeavour and bring it with more ease and certainty to the end This is as the heaving and strugling of a man under a burden as the striving in a snare as the throws of a woman in travail who longeth to be delivered this is our knocking at the gates of heaven our flight from the wrath to come Thus do we strive and fight with all those defects which either Nature began or Custome hath confirmed in us Thus do we by degrees work that happy change that we are not the same but other men Val. Max. l. 8. c. 7. As the Historian speaketh of Demosthenes whose studiousness and industry overcame the malignity of nature and unloosed his tongue Alterum Demosthenem mater alterum industria enixa est The mother brought forth one Demosthenes and industry another so by this our serious and unfeigned endeavour eluctamur per obstantia we force our selves out of those obstacles and encumbrances which detained us so long in evil waies we make our way through the clouds and darkness of this world and are compassed about with raies of light Nature made us men evil Custome made us like the beasts that perish Grace and Repentance make us Christians and
erecteth a pillar a saving Hope a Hope which is not ashamed to enter the Holy of Holies and lay hold on the Mercy-seat which was hidden and veyled before Why art thou cast down O my soul Psal 42. 43. and why art thou troubled within me Trust thou in the Lord And if thou fear him and leave thy evil wayes thou mayest trust him He will not he cannot fail thee Thou hast him fettered and entangled with his own promises which are Yea and Amen and all the powers on earth 2 Cor. 1.20 all the Devils in hell nay his own Power cannot reverse them For his Justice his Wisdom his Mercy hath sealed them Read his character and he made it himself Psal 116.5 He is merciful righteous and full of compassion And S. Ambrose it was that observed it that here is Mercy twice mentioned and Justice but once And he addeth for our encouragement what to hope nay but to turn that we may hope In medio Justitia est gemino septo inclusa Misericordiae Justice is shut up in the midst and hedged in on every side with Mercy If thou turn from thy evil wayes Mercy shineth upon thy tabernacle and Justice is the same it was but confined and bound up that it cannot that it shall never reach thee to destroy thee When thou sinnedst he was just to punish thee and now thou turnest from thy evil wayes unto him 2 Tim. 4.8 he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a righteous Judge still but to receive and reward thee They in the Primitive times who fell away for fear of persecution and afterwards returned to the bosome of the Church and confessed and bewailed their apostasie though it were rather a verbal then a real one having been drawn thereunto rather by fear of smart then by hatred of the Gospel were said by the Greek Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. De Lapsis which S. Cyprian interpreteth elatum primâ victoriâ hostem secundo certamine superare to recover the field and by a second onset to foil that enemy who did glory in a former conquest and to defie the Tempter after a fall The Novations called themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Puritanes of those times And they had good reason so to do as good reason as a deformed man hath to call himself Boniface or a wicked man to write himself Innocent For they were proud merciless and covetous Nazianzene layeth it to their charge goodly and fit ingredients to make up that sweet composition of Purity These withstood the receiving of lapsed persons into the Church but not without the Churches heaviest censure Saint Hierome for all their name calleth them by one quite contrary immundissimos the impurest men of all the world pietatis paternae adversarios the enemies of Gods mercy and goodness Orat. 14. And Nazianzene telleth them their Religion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impudence and uncleanness which had nothing but the name of Purity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. which they made saith he a bait to catch and cajol the ignorant and unwary multitude who are taken more with the Trumpet of a Pharisee then with his almes and are fed with shews and pretenses as they say Chamelions are with air For as Basil and Nazianzene observe that severe doctrine of those proud and covetous men drove the offending brethren into despair and despair plunged them deeper in sin and left them wallowing in the mire in their blood and pollution being held down by a false opinion that no hand could draw them out and that pardon was impossible whereas a Convertimini the doctrine of Repentance might have raised them from the ground drawn them out of their blood and filth Hebr. 12.12 strengthned their feeble knees and hands that hung down put courage and life into them to turn from that evil which had cast them down and to stand up to see and meet the salvation of th Lord. And this is the proper and natural effect of Mercy to give sight to the blind that they may see to bind up a broken limb that it may move to raise us from the dead that we may walk to make us good who were evil For this it shineth in brightness upon us every day to enlighten not onely them who sit in darkness but many times the children of light themselves who though they sit not in darkness yet may be under a cloud raised up and setled in the brain not from a corrupt but from a tender and humble heart For we cannot think that every man that saith he despaireth is cast away and lost or that our erroneous judgement of our state and condition shall be the rule by which God will proceed against us and judge us at the last day that though we have set our hearts to serve God and have been serious in all our wayes though we have made good the condition that is our part of the Covenant as far as the Covenant of Grace and the equity and gentleness of the Gospel doth exact yet God will refuse to make good his part because we cannot think well of our selves but though we have done what is required perswade our selves that we are fallen so short in the performance of our duty that we shall never reach to the end in a word that God will forbear to pronounce the EVGE Well done because we are afraid and tremble at all our works that he will put us by and reject us after all the labour of our charity for a melancholick fit that he will condemn the soul of any man for the distemper of his body or for some perturbation of his mind which he had not strength enough to withstand though he were strong in the Lord Ephes 6.10 and in the power of his might did cheerfully run the wayes of his commandments It were a great want of charity thus to judge of those whose troublesome and most afflicting errour was conceived and formed in the very bowels of charity For sometimes it proceedeth from some distemper of the body from some indisposition of the brain And if we have formerly striven and do yet strive to do God service he is not so hard and austere a Master as to punish us for being sick Sometimes it ariseth from some defect in the Judicative faculty through which as we make more Laws to our selves and so more sins then there are so we are as ready to pass sentence against our selves not only for the breach of those laws which none could bind us to but our selves but even of those also which we were so careful to keep For as we see some men so strong or rather so stupid that they think they do nothing amiss so there be others but not many so weak or rather so scrupulous that they cannot perswade themselves they ever did any thing well This is an infirmity and disease but not epidemical The first are a great multitude
more general and spreading evil It lameth and cripleth us maketh us halt in our Turn that we turn not soon enough Or if some judgment or affliction turn us about our Turn is but a profer a turn in shew not in reality Or if we do turn indeed it is but a Turn by halves a Turn from this sin but not from all Or a false hope deludeth us and we are ever a turning and never turn Our December is our January our last moneth is our first day of the year our thirty dayes hence Cato cras proficiscetur h e. post triginta dies Plutarch in vita Cat. Utic nay our last hour is to morrow is now as Cato's servants used to say of him Our picture is a man our shadows substances our feigned repentance true our limb a body our partial Repentance a complete one and a single Turn from one sin universal Therefore the Schools tell us that Presumption standeth at greater opposition with Hope then with Fear One would think indeed that Presumption did include Hope and shut out Fear and so she doth even lead us madly over all over the Law and over the Gospel over the threatnings of God and the wrath of God upon the point of the sword upon death it self But yet Presumption is a deordination of Hope rather a brutish temerity and a wilful rashness then Hope It moveth contrary to her Hope layeth hold on the promises but it is the condition that stretcheth forth her hand she looketh up to heaven but it is this Turn it is Repentance that quickneth her eye But Presumption runneth hastily to the Promises but leapeth over the condition or treadeth it under her feet Presumption is in heaven already without grace without Repentance without a Turn Or at best it is serotina latewards in the evening in the shutting up of our dayes or ficta a formal repentance or manca a lame and imperfect Repentance A false Hope it is and therefore most contrary to Hope and therefore no Hope at all Now this sudden and vehement call should have moâ—e force and energy with it then to awake and startle us onely and make us for a while look about It is so loud to hasten our Repentance to give it a true being and essence to complete and perfect and settle it for ever Our Repentance is our Sacrifice And it must be 1. Matulinum sacrificium a morning early Sacrifice 2. Vivum a living Sacrifice breathing forth piety and holiness not a dead carcase or the picture of Repentance 3. Integrum a Sacrifice without blemish perfect in every part and 4. Juge a continued sacrifice a Repentance never to be repented of a Turn never to turn or look back again I. There is a time for all things under the Sun saith the Wiseman Eccles 3. and it is a great part of wisdome occasionem observare properantem to watch and observe a fair opportunity and not to let it slip away between our fingers to hoyse up our sailes dum ventus operam dat Sin ep 7. as he in Plautus speaketh whilst the winde sitteth right to fill them And as it is in civil actions so it is in our Turn in our Repentance If we observe not the wind if we turn not with the wind with the first opportunity we set out too late When another wind will come towards us is most uncertain the next cannot be so kind and favourable We confess Nullus cunctationis locus est in eo consillo quod non potest landari nisi peractum Otho apud Tac. l. 11. Hist Advise and Consultation in other things is very necessary but full of danger in that action where all the danger is not to do it Before we enter upon an action to sit down and cast with our selves what may follow at the very heels of it to look well upon it to handle and weigh it to see whether life or death will be the issue of it is the greatest part of our spiritual wisdome But after sin to demur and when we are running on in our evil wayes to consult what time will be best to turn in what opportunity we shall take to repent bewrayeth our ignorance that when time is we know it not or our sloth that though we see the very nunc the very time of turning though opportunity even bespeaketh us to turn yet we carelesly let it fly from us even out of our reach and will not lay hold on it Thus saith Solomon The desire of the slothful slayeth him Prov. 21.25 He desireth but doth nothing to accomplish his desire and so he desireth to be rich and dieth poor He thinketh his Ambition will make him great his Covetousness rich his Hope happy that all things will fall into his lap sedendo votis by sitting still and wishing for them and this keepeth his hands within his bosome Not so much his Sloth as his Desire killeth him Turn ye turn ye the very sound of it might put us in fear that Now were too late that the present time were not soon enough But the present is too soon with us We will turn We will find a convenient time All our turning is in desire Desire delayeth our Turn and Delay multiplyeth it self to our destruction We will then inforce this duty 1. from the Advantage and benefit we may reap from our strict observing of opportunity 2. from the Danger of delay First Opportunitas à Portu saith Festus Festus verbo Opportunes Dicitur ab eo qâ—òd navigantibus maximè utiles optatique siut portus Opportunity hath its denomination from the word which signifieth a haven I may say Opportunity is a haven We see they who are tossed up and down on the deep make all means stretch their endeavours to the farthest to thrust their torn and weather-beat vessel into the haven where they would be Quà m optati portus How welcome is the very sight of the shore to ship-wrackt persons what can they wish for more Behold saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.2 now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation Here is a haven and the tide is now Now put in your broken vessel now thrust it into the haven Opportunity is a prosperous gale Delay is a contrary wind and will drive you back again upon the rocks and dash you to pieces Indeed a strange thing it is that in all other things Opportunity should be a haven but in this which concerneth us more then any thing a rock Job 14.15 Prov. 7.9 Gen. 27.41 The twilight for the Adulterer Isaac's funeral for Esau's murder Felix his convenient time for a bribe Acts 2â— 25 26. And to Opportunity they fly tanquam ad portum as to a haven The Adulterer waiteth for it Esau wisht for it Felix sought for it What should I say Opportunity worketh miracles It filleth the hands with good things raiseth the poor out of the dung defeateth counsels
imitateth natural motion It is weak in the beginning stronger in the progress but most strong and violent towards the end Transit in violentiam voluntas antiqua That which we will often we will with eagernerness and violence Our first onset in sin is with fear and reluctation we then venture further and proceed with les regret we move forwards with delight Delight continueth the motion and maketh it customary and Custome at last driveth and bindeth us to it as to our centre Vitia insolentiora renascuntur saith Seneca Sin groweth more insolent by degrees first it flattereth then commandeth after enslaveth and then betrayeth us First it gaineth consent afterwards it worketh delight Jer. 6.15 at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shamelesness in sin Were they ashamed Nihil magis in natura sua laudare se dicebat quam ut ipsius verbo Vtar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suet. Caligula They were not at all ashamed nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a senslesness and stupidity and Caligula's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stubbornness and perversness of disposition which will not let us turn from sin For by neglecting a timely remedy vitia mores fiunt our evil wayes become our manners and common deportment and we look upon them as upon that which becomes us upon an unlawful act as upon that which we ought to do Nay peccatum lex Sin which is the transgression of the Law 1 John 3. â— is made a Law it self S. Augustine in his Confessions calleth it so Lex peccati est violentia consuetudinis That Law of Sin which carrieth us with that violence is nothing else but the force of long custome and continuance in sin For sin by custome gaineth a kingdome in our souls and having taken her seat and throne there she promulgeth Laws Lex alia in membris meis repugnavit legi mentis mea Rom. 7. Lex 〈◊〉 peccati est violentia consuetudinis qua trahâ—tur tenetur etiam invitus animus eo merito quo in eam volens illabitur Aug. l. 8. Confess c 5. Psal 127.2 If she say Go we go and if she say Do this we do it Surge in quit Avaritia She commandeth the Miser to rise up early and lie down late and eat the bread of sorrow She setteth the Adulterer on fire and maketh him vile and base in his own eyes whilst he counteth it his greatest honour and preferment to be a slave to his strumpet She draweth the Revengers sword She feedeth the Intemperate with poyson And she commaundeth not as a Tyrant but having gained dominion over us she findeth us willing subjects She holdeth us captive and we call our captivity our liberty Her poyson is as the poyson of the Aspick She biteth us and we smile we die and feel it not Again it is dangerous in respect of God himself whose call we regard not whose counsels we reject whose patience we dally with whose judgements we sl ght to whom we wantonly turn the back when he calleth after us to seek his face Psal 27.8 and so tread that Mercy under foot which should save us We will not turn yet upon a bold and strange presumption That though we grieve his Spirit though we resist and blaspheme his Spirit yet after all these scorns and contempts after all these injuries and contumelies he will yet look after us and sue unto us and offer himself and meet and receive us at any time we shall point as most convenient to turn in It is most true God hath declared himself and as it were become his own Herald and proclaimed it to all the world The Lord Exod. 34.6 7. merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most lovingly affected to Man the chief and prince of his creatures He longeth after him he wooeth him he waiteth on him His Glory and Mans Salvation meet and kiss each other for it is his glory to crown Man Nor doth he at any time turn from us himself till we doat on the World and Sensuality and divorce him from us till we have made our heaven below chosen other Gods which we make our selves and think him not worth the turning to Jer. 23.23 He he is alwayes a God at hand and never goeth from us till we force him away by violence How many murmurings and rebellions how many contradictions of sinners hath he stood out and yet looked towards them Amos 2.13 How hath he been pressed as a cart under sheaves and yet looked towards them How hath he been shaken off and defied and yet looked towards them He receiveth David after his adultery and murder after that complication of sins the least of which was of force enough to have cast him out of Gods presence for ever He receiveth Peter after his denial and would have received Judas had he repented after his treason He received Manasses when he could not live long and he received the Thief on the Cross when he could live no longer Psal 100.5 Heb. 13.8 All this is true His Mercy is infinite and his Mercy is everlasting and is the same yesterday and to day and for ever But as Tertullian saith well De pudicit c. 10. non potest non irasci contumeliis misericordiae suae God must needs wax angry at the contumelies and reproches which by our dalliance and delay we fling upon his Mercy which is so ready to cover our sins For how can he suffer this Queen of his Attributes to be thus prostituted by our lusts How can he endure to to see men bring Sin into the world under the shadow of that Mercy which should take it away and advance the kingdome of darkness and fight under the Devils banner with this inscription and motto lifted up The Lord is merciful What hopes of that souldier that flingeth away his buckler or of that condemned person thar teareth his pardon or of that sick man that loveth his disease and counteth his Physick poyson The Prophet here in my Text where he calleth upon us with that earnestness Turn ye turn ye giveth us a fair intimation that if we thus delay and delay and never begin a time may come when we shall not be able to turn It may seem indeed a harsh and hard saying a doctrine not sutable with the lenity and gentleness of the Gospel which breatheth nothing but mercy to conclude that such a time may come that any part of time that the last moment of our time may not make a Now to turn in that whilest we breathe our condition should be as desperate as if we were dead that whilest we are men our estate should be as irrevocable as that of the damned spirits with this difference onely that we are not yet in the place of torment which nevertheless is prepared for us and will as certainly receive us as it doth now the Devil
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that they may be holy and without blemish To turn from one sin to another as from Prodigality to Sordedness and love of the world from extreme to extreme Amos 5.19 is to flee from a lion to meet a bear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Extremities are equalities Though they are extremes and distant yet in this they agree that they are extremes and though our evil wayes be never so far asunder yet in this they meet that they are evil Superstition doteth Profaneness is mad Covetousness gathereth all Prodigality scattereth all Rash Anger destroyeth the innocent foolish Compassion spareth the guilty We need not ask which is worst when both are evil for Sin and Destruction lie at the door of the one as well as of the other To despise prophesying 1 Thess 5.20 Ezek. 33.32 and To hear a Sermon as I would a song Not to hear and To do nothing else but hear To worship the walls and To beat down a Church To be superstitious and To be profane are extremes which we must equally turn from Down with Superstition on the one side and down with Profaneness on the other down with both even to the ground Because some are bad let not us be worse and make their sin a motive and inducement to run upon a greater Because some talk of Merits let not us be afraid of Good works because they vow Chastity let not us pollute our selves because they vow Poverty let not us make haste to be rich Prov. 28.22 2 Pet. 2.10 Jude 8. because they vow Obedience let not us speak evil of dignities It is good to shun one rock but there is as great danger if we dash upon another Superstition hath devoured many but Profaneness is a gulf which hath swallowed up more Phot cod 177. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Photius in his censure of Theodorus Antiochenus For that which is opposite to that which is worse is not good for one evil standeth in opposition to another and both at their several distance are contrary to that which is good Nor can I hope to expiate one sin with another to make amends for my oppression by my wastful expenses to satisfy for my bowing to an idole by robbing a Church for my contemning a Priest by my hearing a Sermon for my standing in the way of sinners by running into a conventicle Psal 1.1 for I am still in the seat of the scornful This were first to make our selves worthy of death and then to run to Rome or Geneva for sanctuary first to be villains and men of Belial and at last turn from Papists or Schismaticks In both we are what we should not be nor are our sins lost in a faction This were nothing else but to think to remove one disease with another and to cure the cramp with a Fever Turn ye turn ye Whither should we turn but to God Gerson In hoc motu convertit se anima ad unitatem identitatem in this motion of turning the soul striveth forward through the vanities of the world through all extremes through all that is evil though the branches of it look contrary wayes to Unity and Identity to that Good which is ever like it self the same in every part of it and never contrary to it self We must strive to be one with God as God is one with us As he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one and the same in all his commands not forbidding one sin and permitting another but his wayes are equal so must our turn be equal Ezec. 28.25 not from the right hand to the left not from Superstition to Profaneness not from Despising of prophesie to Sermon-hypocrisie not from Uncleanness to Faction not from Riot to Rebellion but a Turn from all extremes from all evil a collection and levelling the soul which before looked divers wayes and turning her face upon the way of truth upon God alone If we turn as we should if we will answer this earnest and vehement call we must turn from all our evil wayes We use to say that there is as great a miracle wrought in our conversion as in the creation of the world but this is not true in every respect For Man though he be a sinner yet is something hath an understanding will affections to be wrought upon Yet as it is one condition required in a true miracle that it be perfect so that there be not onely a change but such a change as is absolute and exact that it may seem to be as it were a new creation that water which is changed into wine may be no more water but wine that the blind man may truly see the lame man truly walk and the dead man truly live So is it in our Turn and conversion there is a total and perfect change The Adulterer is made an Eunuch for the kingdom of heaven Matth. 19.12 Prov. 23.2 the Intemperate cometh forth with a knife at his throat the Revenger kisseth the hand that striketh him When we turn sin vanisheth the Old man is dead and in its place there standeth up a new creature Gal. 5.19 20 21. S. Paul speaking of the works of the flesh which are nothing but sins and having given us a catalogue and reckoned up many of them by which we might know the rest at last concludeth Of which I tell you before as I have also told you often that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God Where the Apostle's meaning is not that they who do all these or most of these or many of these or more then one of these but they who die possest of any one of these shall have no place in the kingdom of God and of Christ For what profit is there to turn from one sin and not all when one sin is enough to make us breakers of the whole Law and so liable to eternal death It is a conclusion in the Schools That whosoever is in the state of any one mortal sin and turneth not from it whatsoever he doth whether pray or give almes bow the knee before God or open his hand to his brother be it what it will be in it self never so fair and commendable it is forthwith blasted and defaced and it is so far from deserving commendations that it hath no other wages due to it but death I cannot say this is true for so far as any work is agreeable with Reason so far it must needs be pleasing to the God of Reason so far as it answereth the Rule so far is it accepted of him that made it Nor can I think that Regulus Fabricius Cato and the rest qui convitium faciunt Christianis who upbraid and shame many of us Christians were damned for their justice integrity honesty Hell is no receptacle for men so qualified were there nothing else to prepare and fit them for that place But yet
was to put all to the sword and the event was he spared one too many 2 Sam. 1. for one of them was his executioner God biddeth us destroy the whole body of sin Rom. 6.6 12. to leave no sin reigning in our mortal bodies and if we favour and spare but one that one if we turn not from it will be strong enough to turn us to destruction Again it is Obedience onely that commendeth us to God and that as exact and perfect as the equity of the Gospel requireth and so every degree of sin is rebellion God requireth totam voluntatem the whole will for indeed where it is not whole it is not at all it is not a will and integram poenitentiam a solid entire universal conversion True obedience saith Luther non transit in genus deliberativum doth not demur and deliberate I may add non transit in genus judiciale It doth not take upon it self to determine which commandment is to be kept and which may be omitted what is to be done and what to be left undone For as our Faith is imperfect if it be not equal to the truth revealed so is our Obedience imperfect when it is not equal to the command and both are unavailable because in the one we stick at some part of the truth revealed and in the other come short of the command and so in the one we distrust God in the other we oppose him What is a Sigh if my Murmuring drown it What is my Devotion if my Impatience chill it What is my Liberality if my Uncleanness defile it What are my Prayers if my partial Obedience turn them into sin What is a morsel of bread to one poor man when my Oppression hath eaten up a thousand What is my Faith if my Malice make me worse then an Infidel The voice of Scripture the language of Obedience is to keep all the commandments the language of Repentance to depart from all iniquity All the Virtues in the world cannot wash off the guilt of one unrepented sin Mic. 6.7 Shall I give my first born for my transgression saith the Prophet the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul Shall I bring the merits of one Saint the supererogations of another and add to these the treasury of the Church Shall I bring my Almes my Devotion my Tears All these will vanish at the guilt of one sin and melt before it as wax before the Sun For every sin is as Seneca speaketh of Alexander's in killing Callisthenes De Benef. crimen aeternum an everlasting sin which no virtue of our own but a full complete Repentance can redeem As oft as it shall be said that Alexander slew so many thousand Persians it will be replyed he did so but withal he slew Callisthenes He slew Darius it is true and Callisthenes too He wan all as far as the very Ocean it is true but he killed Callisthenes And as oft as we shall fill our minds and flatter our selves with the forbearance of these or those sins our Conscience will check and take us up and tell us But we have continued in this or that beloved sin And none of all our performances shall make so much to our comfort as one unrepented sin shall to our reproch And now because in common esteem One is no number and we scarce count him guilty of sin who hath but one fault let us well weigh the danger of any one sin be it Fornication Theft Covetousness or whatsoever is called sin and though perhaps we may dread it the less because it is but one yet we shall find good reason to turn from it because it is sin And 1. Every particular sin is of a monstrous aspect being committed not onely against the Law written but against the Law of Nature which did then characterize the soul when the soul did first inform the body For though we call those horrid sins unnatural which S. Paul speaketh against Rom. 1. yet in true estimation every sin is so being against our very Reason which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very first law written in our hearts Or. 34. saith Nazianzene Sin is an unreasonable thing nor can it defend it self by discourse or argument If heaven were to be bought with sin it were no purchase for by every evil work I forfeit not onely my Christianity but my Manhood I am robbed of my chiefest jewel and I my self am the thief Who would buy eternity with sin who would buy immortality upon such loathsome terms If Christ should have promised heaven upon condition of a wicked life who would have believed there had been either Christ or heaven And therefore it is laid as an imputation upon Man Solum hoc animal naturae fines transgreditur No Creature breaketh the bounds and limits which Nature hath set but Man And there is much of truth in it Man when he sinneth is more unbounded and irregular then a Beast For a Beast followeth the conduct of his natural appetite but Man leaveth his Reason behind which should be more powerful and is as natural to him as his Sense Man Psal 49.20 saith the Prophet David that understandeth not is like to the beasts that perish And Man that is like to a beast is worse then a Beast No Fox to Herode Luke 13.32 no Goat to the Wanton no Tiger to the Murderer No Wolf to the Oppressour no Horseleach to the Covetous For Beasts follow that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instinct of nature by which they are carried to the object but Man maketh Reason which should come in to rescue him from sin an instrument of evil so that his Reason which was made as a help as his God on earth serveth onely to make him more unreasonable Consider then though it be but one sin yet so far it maketh thee like unto a Beast nay worse then any though it be but one yet it hath a monstrous aspect and then turn from it 2. Though it be but one yet it is very fruitful and may beget another nay multiply it self into a numerous issue into as many sins as there be hairs of thy head It is truly said Omne verum omni vero consonat There is a kind of agreement and harmony in truths And the devout Schoolman telleth us that the whole Scripture is but one copulative proposition because the precepts therein contained are many and yet but one many in regard of the diversity of those works that perfect them yet but one in respect of that root of charity which beginneth them So peccatum est multiplex unum There is a kind of dependency between sins and a growth in wickedness one drawing and deriving poyson from another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius speaketh of Heresies Haeres Basilid as the Asp doth from the Viper which being set in opposition to any particular virtue creepeth on and multiplieth and gathereth strength to the endangering of
Truth Let us therefore fontem à capite fodere as near as we can lay open the ground of this mistake and errour and we shall find it to be an errour as great as this and to have the same tast and relish with the fountain from whence it flowed They who make Gods permissive will effective at the very mention of Gods will think of that absolute will of his which cannot be resisted by which he made the heavens and the earth and so acknowledge no will of God but that which is absolute and effective as if that will of his by which he would have us do something were the same with that by which he will do something himself and so in effect they make not onely the conversion but the induration of a sinner the work of Omnipotency But were not men blind to all objects but those they delight to look on they might easily discern a great difference and that Gods will is broken every day His natural Desire which is his will to save mankind is that fulfilled If it were there could be no hell at all His Command that is his will what moment is there wherein that is not resisted We are those Devils who kindle that fire which he made not for us We are those sons of Anak those giant-like fighters against Heaven who break his commands with as great ease as Samson did his threads of tow We are those Leviathans who break the bounds he hath set us Job 14.27 29. who esteem iron as straw with whom the threatnings which he darteth at us are accounted as stubble And can we who so often break his will say that his will is alwayes fulfilled Again we must not imagin that all things that are done in the world are the work of his hand or the effect of that power by which he bringeth mighty things to pass Nor can we so much forget God and his Goodness as to imagin that upon every action of man he hath set a DIXIT ET FACTVM EST He spake the word and it was done he commanded and it became necessary For some actions there be which God doth neither absolutely will nor powerfully resist but in his wisdome permitteth to be done which otherwise could dot be done but by his permission Nor doth this will of Permission fall cross with any other will of his Not with his Absolute will for he absolutely permitteth them Not with his Primary and Natural will for though by his Natural will he would bring men to happiness though he forbid sin though he detest it as that which is most contrary to his very nature and which maketh Men devils and enemies to him yet he may justly permit it And the reason is plain For Man is not as God qui sibi sufficit ad beatitudinem who is all-sufficient and Happiness it self and therefore he was placed in an estate where he might work out his own happiness but still with a possibility of being miserable And herein was the Goodness and Wisdome of God made visible As from his Goodness it was that he loved his creature so in his Goodness and Wisdome he placed before him good and evil that he might lay hold on happiness and be good willingly and not of necessity For it is impossible for any finite creature who hath not his completeness and perfection in himself to purchase heaven but upon such terms as that he might have lost it nor to lose it but upon such terms as that he might have took it by violenee For every Law supposeth as a possibility of being kept so also a possibility of being broken which cannot be without permission of sin 1 Tim. 1.9 Lex justo non est posita If Goodness had been as essential to Man as his nature and soul by which he is if God had interceded by his Omnipotenty and by an irresistable force kept Sin from entring into the world the Jews had not heard the noise of the trumpet under the Law nor the Disciples the sermon on the mount under the Gospel there had been no use of the comfortable breath of Gods Promises nor of the terrour of his Threatnings For who would make a law against that which he knoweth will never come to pass A Law against sin supposeth a permission to sin and a possibility of sinning Lastly it standeth in no shew of opposition to Gods Occasioned and Consequent will For we must suppose sin before we can take up the least conceit of any will in God to punish Omnis poena si justa est peccati poena est saith Augustine in his Retractations All punishment that is just is the punishment of sin and therefore God who of his natural goodness would not have man commit sin out of his justice willeth man's destruction and will not repent L. 2. adv Marcion Sic totus Deus bonus est dum pro bono omnia est saith Tertullian Thus God is entirely good whilest all he is whether merciful or severe is for good Minus est tantummodò prodesse quia non aliud quid possit quà m prodesse His reward might seem too loose and not carry with it that infinite value and weight if he could not reach out his hand to punish as well as to reward and some distrust it might work in the creature that he could not do the one if he could not do both So then sin is permitted though God hate sin That which bringeth us to the gates of Death is permitted though God hath tendered his will with an oath that he will not have us die Though he forbiddeth sin though he punisheth it yet he permitteth it I have said too little Nay he could not forbid and punish it if he did not permit it Yet Permission is permission and no more nor is it such a Trojane horse nor can it swell to that bulk and greatness as to hide and contein within it those monsters of Fate and Necessity of Excaecation and Excitation of Incliation and Induration which devour a soul and cannot be resisted which bind us over unto Death when the noise is loud about us Why will ye die For this Permissive will of God or his will of Permission is not operative or efficacious Neither is it a remitting or slackning of the will of God upon which sin as some pretend must necessarily follow nor is it terminated in the thing permitted but in the permission it self alone For to permit sin is one thing and to be willing that sin should be committed is another It is written in the leaves of Aeternity that God will not have sin committed as being most abhorrent and contrary to his nature and will and yet this permission of sin is a positive act of his will for he will permit sin though he hath clothed it with Death to make us afraid of it and upon pain of eternal damnation he forbiddeth us to sin though it were his will to permit it These two
one For this they fight unto death even for the Book of life till they have blotted out their names with the blood of their Brethren This is drest out unto them as savoury meat set for their palate who had rather be carried up to heaven in Elias fiery chariot then pace it thither with trouble and pain That GOD hath absolutely decreed the salvation of some particular men and passed sentence of death upon others is as musick to some ears like David's harp to refresh them and drive away the evil spirit Et qui amant sibi somnia fingunt Mens desires do easily raise a belief and when they are told of such a decree they dream themselves to heaven For if we observe it they still chuse the better part and place themselves with the Sheep at the right hand and when the controversie of the inheritance of Heaven is on foot to whom it belongeth they do as the Romanes did who when two Cities contending about a piece of ground made them their Judge to determin whose it was fairly gave sentence on their own behalf and took it to themselves Because they read of Election they elect themselves which is more indeed then any man can deny and more I am sure then themselves can prove And now O Death 1 Cor. 15.55 56 where is thy sting The sting of Death is Sin but it cannot reach them and the strength of Sin is the Law but it cannot bind them For Sin it self shall turn to the good of these elect and chosen Vessels And we have some reason to suspect that in the strength of this Doctrine and a groundless conceit that they are these particular men they walk on all the daies of their life in fraud and malice in hypocrisie and disobedience in all that uncleanness and pollution of sin which is enough to wipe out any name out of the book of Life Sen. Controv. Hoc saxum defendit Maulius hinc excidit For this they rowse up all their forces this is their rock their fundamental doctrine their very Capitol and from this we may fear many thousands of souls have been tumbled down into the pit of destruction at this rock many such elect Vessels have been cast away Again others miscarry as fatally on the other hand For when we speak of an absolute Decree upon particulars unto the vulgar sort vvho have not cor in corde as Augustine speaketh who have their judgement not in their heart but in their sense they soon conceive a fatal necessity and one there is that called it so fatum Christianum the Christian mans Destiny tâ—ey think themselves in chains and shackles that they cannot turn when they cannot be predestinate not to turn but to die because they will not turn I will give you a remarkable instance and out of Mr. Calvine Quintinus Contr. Libertin c. 13. And yet his own followers use the same words bring the same Texts and apply them as the Libertines did Vide Piscat Aphorismos the Father of the Libertines as Calvine himself calleth him as he rideth in company by the way lighteth upon a man slain and lying in his gore and one asking Who did this bloody deed he readily replyeth I am he that did it if thou desire to know it And art thou such a villain saith the party again to do such an act I did it not my self saith he but it was God that did it And being ask't again Whether may we impute to God those hainous sins which in justice he will and doth so severely punish So it is said he Thou didst it and I did it and God did it For what thou or I do God doth and what God doth that thou and I do for we are in him and he in us he worketh in us he worketh all in all Quintinus is long since dead but his errour dyed not with him Fortaliter constitutum est quando quantoperè unus uisque nostrûm pietatem colere vel non colere debeat Piscator ad Duplicat Vorstii p. 228. For it is the policy of our common Enemy to remove our eye as far as he can from the Command and he cannot set it at a greater distance then by fixing it on Eternity that so whilst we think upon the Decree we may quite forget the Command and never fly from Death because for ought we know we are killed already never do our duty because God doth whatsoever he will in heaven and in earth never strive to be better then we are because God is all in all Let us then walk on in a middle way and neither flatter nor afflict our selves with the thought of what God may do or what he hath done from all eternity Let us not busy our selves in the fruitless study of the Book of life Rev. 5.3 5. which no man in heaven or in earth is able to open and look into but only the Lion of the tribe of Judah In that book saith S. Basil Comment in Isai 10. no names are written but of them that repent Let us not seek what God decreeth which we cannot find out but hearken to what he commandeth which is nigh us even in our mouthes Rom. 10.8 The book of Life is shut and sealed up but he hath opened many other Books to us and biddeth us sit down and read them The book of his Works of which the Creatures are the leaves and the characters the Goodness and Power and Glory of God The book of his Words Matth. 1.1 2 Cor. 3.2 The Book of the Generation of JESVS CHRIST to be known and read of all men and if these words be written in thy heart thy name is also written in the book of Life And the book of thy Conscience for the information of which all the Books in the world were made And if thou read and study this with care and diligence and an impartial eye and then find there no bill or indictment against thee then thou maist have confidence towards God that he never past any decree or sentence of death against thee and that thou art ordained to life This is the true method of a Christian mans studies not to look too stedfastly backward upon Aeternity but to look down upon our selves and ponder and direct our paths and then to look forward to eternity of bliss We read of the Philosopher Thales that lifting up his eyes to observe the course of the stars he fell into the water Which gave occasion to a damsell called Thressa of an ingenious and bitter scoff That he who was so busy to see what was done in heaven could not observe what was even before his feet And it is as true of them who are so bold and forward in the contemplation of God's eternal Decree many times they fall dangerously into those errours which swallow them up They are too bold with God and so negligent of themselves talk more what he doth or hath
is a great priviledge but if we honour not this priviledge so far as to make our deportment answerable even our priviledge it self being abused and forfeited will change its countenance and accuse and condemn us We find it as a positive truth laid down in the Schools and if it were not in our Books common Reason would have shewed it us in a character legible enough Aquia 2. 2. q. 10. art 3. Graviùs peccat fidelis quà m infidelis propter sacramenta fidei quibus contumeliam facit Of all Idolaters an Israelite is the worst and no swine to the unclean Christian no villain to him if he be one For here Sin maketh the deeper tincture and impression leaveth a stain not onely on his person but also on his profession flingeth contumely on the very Sacraments of his faith and casteth a blemish on his house and family whereas in an Infidel it hath not so deadly an effect but is vailed and shadowed by Ignorance and borroweth some excuse from Infidelity it self For first to speak a word of the house of Israel in the letter and so to pass from the Synagogue to the Church Apol. c. 18. The Jews were domestica Dei gens as Tertullian calleth them the domestick and peculiar people of God Judg. 6.37 38. like Gideon's fleece full of the dew of Divine benediction when all the world was dry besides Rom. 3.2 To them were the oracles given those oracles which did foretel the Messias and by which they might more easily know him then the Gentiles Rom 9.4 To them pertained the adoption for they were called the Children of God Deut. 14.1 They had the Covenant written in Tables of stone and the giving of the Law and constitutions which might link and unite them together into a body and society They had the service of God they had their sacrifices but especially the Paschal Lamb. For that their memory might not let slip his statutes and ordinances God did even catechize their eyes and make the least ceremony a busie remembrancer Behold a Tabernacle erected Aaron and his sons appointed Sacrifices slain Altars smoking all so many ocular Sermons They might behold Aaron and his sons ascending the Temple Levit. 16.21 22. laying all their sins upon the head of a sacred Goat that should carry them out of the City They might behold him entring the vail with reverence His garments his motion Ad Fabiol de vest sacerd his gesture all were vocal Quicquid agebat quicquid loquebatur doctrina erat populi saith S. Hierome His actions were didactical as well as his doctrine the Priest himself was a Sermon and these were as so many antidotes against Death v. 25.26 Our Prophet reproveth them for their capital and mortal sins adultery murder and idolatry and God had sufficiently instructed and fortified them against these He forbad Lust not onely in the Decalogue but in the Sparrow Murder in the Vulture and Raven and those birds of prey Novatian de cib Judaicis Vt Israelitae mundarentur pecora culpata sunt To sanctifie and cleanse his people he blameth the beasts as unclean which they could not be of themselves because he made them and layeth a blemish upon his other creatures to keep them undefiled And to keep out Idolatry he busied them in those many ceremonies which he ordained for that end 1 a. 1 ae nè vacaret idololatriae servire saith Aquinas that they might not have the least leisure to be Idolaters So that to draw up all they might learn from the Law they might learn from the Priest they might learn from the Sacrifice they might learn from each Ceremony they might learn from Men they might learn from Beasts Isai 5.4 to turn from their evil wayes and God might well cry out What could have been done more that I have not done and speak to them in his grief and wrath and indignation Why will ye die O house of Isreal But to pass from the Synagogue to the Church which excelleth merito fidei majoris scientiae in respect of a clearer faith and larger knowledge to come to the time of Reformation Heb. 9.10 in which all things which pertain to the full happiness of Gods people were to be raised to their last height and perfection to look into the Law of liberty Jam. 1.15 which letteth us not loose in our own evil wayes but maketh us most free by restraining and tying us up and withholding us from those sins which the Law of Moses did not punish And here Why will ye die If it were before an obtestation it is now a bitter sarcasme as bitter as Death it self It is improved and driven home à minori ad majus by the Apostle himself 2 Cor. 3.11 For if that which should be abolisht was glorious much more shall that which remaineth whose fruit is everlasting be glorious And again Hebr. 12.25 If they escaped not who refused him who speak on earth from mount Sinai by his Angel how shall we escape Acts 7.38 if we turn away from him who spake from heaven by his Son For the Church is a house but far more glorious Eph. 2.20 21. built upon the foundation of the Apostles Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the head corner-stone in whom all the building coupled together groweth into a Temple of the Lord. The whole world besides are but rubbage as bones scattered at the graves mouth The Church is compact knit and united into a house and in this house is the armoury of God Cant. 4.4 where are a thousand bucklers and all the weapons of the mighty to keep off Death the helmet of salvation the sword of the Spirit and the shield of faith to quench all the fiery darts of Satan as they be delivered into our hands Eph. 6.16 17. And as it is a House so is it a Familie of Christ Eph. 3.15 Of whom all the family of heaven and earth is named Who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Master of the houshold For as the Pythagorean fitting and shaping out a Family by his Lute required 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the integrity of all the parts as it were the set number of the strings 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an apt composing and joyning them together as it were the tuning of the instrument and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a skilful touch which maketh the harmony So in the Church if we take it in its latitude there be Saints Angels and Archangels if we contract it to the Militant as we usually take it there be some Apostles Eph. 4.11 some Prophets some Pastours and Teachers there be some to be taught and some to teach some to be governed and some to rule which maketh up the Integrity of the parts And then these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle coupled and knit together by every joynt by the bond
faction What press on to make thy self better and make thy self worse go up to the Temple to pray and profane it What go to Church and there learn to pull it down Why Oh why will ye thus die O house of Israel Oh then let us look about us with a thousand eyes let us be wise and consider what we are and where we are that we are a House and so ought every man to fill and make good his place and mutually support each other that we are a Family and must be active in those offices which are proper to us and so with united forces keep Death from entring in that we are the Israel of God his chosen people chosen therefore that we may not cast away our selves 1 Tim. 3.15 that we are his Church which is the pillar and ground of truth a pillar to lean on that we fall not and holding out and urging the truth which is able to save us that we may not die We have God's Word to quicken us his Sacraments to strengthen and confirm us his Grace to prevent and follow us We have many helps and huge advantages And if we look up upon them and lay hold on them if we hearken to his Word resist not his Grace neither idolize nor profane his Sacraments but receive them with reverence as they were instituted in love if we hear the Church if we hear one another if we confirm one another Rom. 6.9 Gal. 7.16 if we watch over our selves and one another Death shall have can have no more dominion over us we shall not we cannot die at all but as many as thus walk in the common light of the house of Israel peace shall be upon them and mercy and upon the Israel of God And now we must draw towards a conclusion and we must conclude and shut up all in nobis ipsis in our selves If we die it is quia volumus because we will die For look above us and there is God the living God the God of life saying to us Live Look before us and there is Death breathing terrour to drive us from it shewing us his dart that we may hold up our buckler Look about us and there are armouries of weapons treasuries of wisdome shops of physick balm and ointments helps and advantages pillars and supporters to uphold us that we may stand and not fall into the pit which openeth its mouth but will shut it again if we flie from it which is not cannot be is nothing if we do not dig it our selves The Church exhorteth instructeth correcteth God calleth inviteth expostulateth Death it self threatneth us that we may not come near Thus are we compassed about auxiliorum nube with a cloud of helps and advantages The Church is loud Death is terrible God's Nolo is loud I will not the death of a sinner Ezek. 33.11 and confirmed with an oath As he liveth He would not have us die And it is plain enough in his lightning and in his thunder in his expostulations and wishes in his anger in his grief in his spreading out his hands in his administration of all means sufficient to protect and guard us from it And it excludeth all Stoical Fate all necessity of sinning or dying There is nothing above us nothing before us nothing about us which can necessitate or bind us over to Death so that if we die it is in our volo in our Will we die for no other reason but that which is not reason Quia volumus Because we will die We have now brought you to the very cell and den of Death where this monster was framed and fashioned where it was first conceived brought forth and nursed up I have discovered to you the original and beginnings of Sin whose natural issue is Death and shut it up in one word the Will That which hath so troubled and amused men in all the ages of the Church to find out that which some have sought in heaven in the bosome of God as if his Providence had a hand in it and others have raked hell and made the Devil the authour of who is but a perswader and a soliciter to promote it that which others have tied to the chain of Destiny whose links are filed by the phansie alone and made up of air and so not strong enough to bind men much less the Gods themselves as it is said that which many have busied themselves in a painful and unnecessary search to find out openiâ—g the windows of Heaven to find it there running to and fro about the Universe to find it there and searching Hell it self to discover it we may discover in our own breasts in our own heart The Will is the womb that conceiveth this monster this viper which eateth through it and destroyeth the mother in the birth For that which is the beginning of action is the beginning of Sin and that which is the beginning of Sin is the cause of Death In homine quicquid est sibi proficit saith Hilary In Psal 118 There is nothing in Man nothing in the world which he may not make use of to avoid and prevent Death And in homine quicquid est sibi nocet There is nothing in Man nothing in the world which he may not make an occasion and instrument of sin That which hurteth him may help him That which circumspection and diligence may make an antidote neglect and carelesness may turn into poyson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil As Goodness so Sin is the work of our Will not of Necessity If they were wrought in us against our will there could be neither good nor evil I call heaven and earth to witness Deut. 30.19 said GOD by his servant Moses I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing And what is it to set it before them but to put it to themselves to put it into their own hands to put it to their choice Chuse then which you will The Devil may tempt the Law occasion sin Rom. 7.11 the Flesh may be weak Temptations may shew themselves but not any of these not all of these can bring in a necessity of dying For the Question or Expostulation doth not run thus Why are you under a Law Why are you weak or Why are you dead for reasons may be given for all these and the Justice and Wisdome of God will stand up to defend them But the Question is Why will ye die for which there can be no other reason given but our Will And here we must make a stand and take our rise from this one word this one syllable our Will For upon no larger foundation then this we either build our selves up into a temple of the Lord or into that tower of Babel and Confusion which God will destroy We see here all is laid upon the Will But such is our folly and madness so full of contradictions is a wilfull sinner Wisd 1.16 that
as it is void of reason of no use at all but to make us favour our selves and ingage and adventure further in those vvayes vvhich lead unto death I deny not but as there is great difference in sins so there may be a difference also in committing them that the righteous person doth not drink dovvn sin vvith that delight and greediness vvhich the vvicked do that they do not sport themselves in the vvayes of death nor fall into them vvith that easiness and precipitancy that they do not count it as a purchase to satisfie their lusts and that most times the event is different for the one falleth dovvn at the feet of God for mercy the other hardneth his heart and face and vvill not bovv But yet I cannot number it amongst the marks and characters of a righteous man or as some love to speak and may so speak if they well understood what they said of one of the elect when he falleth into any mortal grievous sin as Adultery Murder and the like that he doth not fall plenâ voluntate with full consent and will but more faintly and remissly as it were with more gravity then other men that he did actually fall but was not willing to fall that is that he did will indeed the sin which he did commit but yet did commit it against his will Nor can I think our consent is not full when we chide and rebuke the tentation and yet suffer it to win ground and gain more and more advantage against us when we have some grudgings some petty murmurs in our selves and in our hearts defame those sins which wâ— shew openly in our actions For when we have done that which is evil we cannot say we would not have done it when we have made room for Sin to enter we cannot say that we would have excluded it For first I cannot see how these two should meet so friendly a double Will nay a contrary Will in respect of one and the same act especially when Sin is not in fieri but in facto esse when the temptation hath prevailed and the Will determined its act Indeed whilst the act was suspended and our mind wavering and in doubt where to fasten which part to embrace whether to take the wedge of gold or to withdraw whether to smite my brother or to sheath up my Sword and Anger together whether to taste or not to taste the forbidden fruit when it was in labour as it were and did strive and struggle between these two the Delightfulness and Unlawfulness of the object between the Temptation and the Law Gal. 5.17 whilest the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh there may be such an indifferency a kind of willing and nilling a profer and distast an approch and a pawse an inclination to the object and a fear to come near But when the Sense hath prevailed with the Will to determin for it against the Reason James 1.15 when Lust hath conceived and brought forth then there is no room for this indifferency because the Will hath determined its act and concluded for the Sense against the Reason for the Flesh against the Spirit For we must not mistake the fluctuations and pawses and contentions of the mind and look upon them as the acts of the Will which hath but one simple and indivisible act which it cannot divide between two contraries so as to look stedfastly on the one and yet reflect also with a look of liking upon the other Matth. 6.24 Our Saviour hath fitted us with an instance Ye cannot serve God and Mammon If we know then what the Will is we shall know also that it is impossible to divide it and shall be ashamed of that apologie to say we sin semi-plenâ voluntate with an imperfect with an half Will we know not how There may be indeed a kind of velleity and inclination to that which is good when the Will hath embraced that which is evil there may be a probo meliora a liking of the better when I have chosen the worser part But this is not a willing but an approbation and an allowing of that which is just which ariseth from the light of our Mind and the law of our Understanding from that natural Judgment by which we discern that which is evil from that which is good and it is an act of our Reason not of our Will And thus I may will a thing and yet dislike it I may embrace and condemn it I may commend Chastity and be a Wanton Hospitality and be a Nabal Clemency and be a Nero Christianity and be worse then a Jew I may subscribe to the Law that it is just and break it I may take the cup of Fornication and drink deep of it for some pleasant taste it hath when I know it will be my poyson And therefore in the second place this renitency and resistency of Conscience is so far from apologizing for us as for such as sin not with a full consent that most times it doth add weight to our sin and much aggravate it and plainly demonstrate a most violent and eager consent of the will which would not be restrained but passed as it were the rampier and bulwark which was raised against it to the forbiddâ—n object Neither the Law nor the voice and check of Conscience which is to us in the place of God could stop or restrain us but we play the wantons and dally with Sin as the wanton doth with his strumpet we do opponere ostium non claudere put the door gently to Senec. N. Q. l. 4. 2. but not shut and lock it out but it is welcome to us when it knocketh but more welcome when it breaketh in upon us We frown and admit it chide and embrace it bid it farewell vvhen vve are ready and long to joyn vvith it make a shew of running from it when we open our selves to receive and lodge it in our heart Again if the pravity and obliquity of an act is to be measured and judged by the vehement and earnest consent of the will then the sin which is committed with so much reluctancy will prove yet more sinful and of a higher nature then those we fell into when we heard no voice behind us to call us back For here the will of the sinner is stubborn and perverse and maketh hast to the forbidden object against all opposition whatsoever against the voice of the Lâ—â— which is now loud against him against the motions of the Spirit which he striveth to repell against the clamours of Conscience which he heareth and will not hear even against all the artillery of Heaven It doth not yield to the tentation when no voice is heard but the Tempter's nothing discovered but the beauty and allurement of the object nor upon strategeme or surprisals but it yieldeth against the thunder of the Law and dictate of Conscience it admitteth Sin not in its
out as unclean beasts because they discover something of the frailty of man Even such as these it is plain S. Paul admitted in this chapter and he pleads for them Gal. 6.1 as for those who are to be restored with the spirit of meekness and we cannot shut them out from his Table or presence whom Christ is so willing to meet when being weary and heavy laden they come unto him Nor doth this admitting weaker Christians open a door to let in wilfull offenders nor a gap to let in the Goats to feed in the same green pastures with the Sheep These beasts Hebr. 12.20 if they come too near will be thrust through with a dart But then all sins are not of the same malignity and we must put a difference between Judas's fall and Peter's All sins do not strike us out of the Covenant and therefore do not drive us from Christs Table where we are to renew and confirm it There be some sins which are devoratoria salutis and swallow up all hope of salvation whilest they remain in us There be peccata fortia boistrous and mighty sins Amos 5.12 which do urge the Justice of God and even weary and conquer his clemency There be others which weaker Christians through frailty fall into even in the state of grace and which God will not be extreme to punish though in justice he might but remaineth a Father still of those who seriously endeavour yet sometimes fail for his covenants sake which he made in his Son Jesus Christ And of these sins S. John speaketh If we sin 1 John 2.2 we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is a propitiation for our sins In a word if all that sin were excluded the Feast were at an end and if some that sin were not excluded the Table were no more a Table but an Altar for thieves and murderers to fly to Fear then of infirmity is no excuse but we should shake it off with our sin It is an evil spirit of our own raising and we must conjure it down But there is another pretense and it is drawn from a high conceit of the Sacrament and an apprehension of an excessive and Angelical kind of perfection which some conceive is necessary to the due celebration of it And so they are going towards it but make no speed are in action but do nothing are coming but never come This may seem to be great humility but as Bernard speaketh ista humilitas tollit humilitatem this humility putteth true Humility from its office For it is she alone that taketh us by the hand and leadeth us to this Supper Dicendo se indignum fecit se dignum saith the same Father of the Centurion in the Gospel If we can truly say We are unworthy we make our selves worthy and thus we set forward towards it But groundless Scrupulofity which many times is rather the issue of Pride then the daughter of humility seeth the way and then sitteth down in it and then maketh every pibble a mountain puzzleth and perplexeth us setteth us a framing and fashioning dangers and inconveniences to our selves and summing them up like the man in Lucian who sat on the sea-shore numbring each wave as it came towards him till at last the waves driving one another beat on and wrought themselves over his head and drowned him In a word it weakneth and disenableth us in the performance of our duty and with it we are so good that as the Italian proverb is we are good for nothing This is but a scruple indeed and it weigheth no more and the least breath is strong enough to blow it away For upon the same inducement we must seal up our lips and never pray we must stay at home and not go to Church For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what mortal is fit for these things How can Dust and Ashes speak to the Majesty of Heaven What ear is purged enough to hear his word Whose feet are clean enough to tread his courts And why do we pretend Weakness or Unworthiness Are we too weak are we too unworthy to do his will Or can Christ command us that which our Unworthiness will make a sin for us to do When the trumpet hath sounded when the Law is promulged this fear must vanish When our Saviour hath once spoken it Take eat this is my body shall we neglect to do it and make this our plea That we are not worthy to do it When he would cleanse and purge us shall we cry We are unworthy unfit to do his will but not unfit to break it unfit to be redeemed but not unfit to perish unfit to empty our selves of our pollution but not unfit to settle on our lees Oh it is ill thus to apologize and dispute and fret our selves to destruction to lye sick and bed-rid in sin and say we are unfit and unworthy to be healed And what Reverence is that to Christ which crucifieth him again and trampleth his bloud under our feet For not to receive it not to be purged and bettered by it I am sure is in the highest degree to dishonour it I shall insist the longer upon this for I see too many withdraw and put from them this favour and grace of God and call it Reverence But they might well blush at this their apology if they did rightly consider what Reverence is Now Reverence is nothing else but a kind of justice paying back that which is due to a benefit for some good it hath brought or may bring unto us and is either our verbal or our real gratitude Ye shall reverence my Sanctuary Levit. 19.30 for here we offer up our selves to God and God descendeth in blessings upon us The word of the Lord is reverend Rom. 1.16 Psal 119.128 Psal 111.9 for it is the power of God unto salvation Therefore I esteem all thy precepts saith David and Holy and reverend is his name for whatsoever good we do we do in God's name And yet see if we take not heed Eccl. 5.1 if we keep not our feet we may bow in his temple and offer up the sacrifice of fools We may greedily hearken what God will say and yet despise his word We may call upon his Name do wonders in his Name and yet blaspheme it as the Jews bowed before Christ when they mockt him and spet upon him and smote him on the head No Reverence is the payment of a debt And what is due to the Sanctuary 1 Tim. 2.8 Even that we should lift up holy hands What do we ow unto the Word Even obedience And what reverence is due to the Sacrament In Scripture we read of none in terminis for there need no command to bind us to honour it Who will not reverence that love which is breathed forth from Majesty Who doth not reverence the meanest gift that cometh from the hands of a King But what Reverence is that that
but at the word 's speaking He crieth Lo I come to do it my self Look upon this object of Majesty and Humility yet once again and see the power and omnipotencie of his Love In this laying down his life for us he was pleased to give a price infinitely above the merchandize and as in the world some buyers are wont to do to buy his own affection to us to pay down not a talent for a talent but a talent for a mite Himself for a worm and his Love for the world nay by his infinite Love to bound as it were his infinite Power his infinite Wisdom and his illimited Will For here his Power Wisdom and Will find a NON ULTRA and are at the furthest He cannot do He cannot find out He cannot wish for us more then he hath done then being equal with God to take upon him the form of a servant and in that form to humble himself to the death of the cross How should this spectacle of Love and Power of Majesty and Humility affect and ravish our souls How should this fire of Love these everlasting burnings kindled in our flesh enflame us That benefit is great which preventeth our prayers That is greater which is above our hope That is greatest which pre-occupateth and forestalleth our desires But what is that which over-runneth our opinion and even swalloweth it up in victory Had not he revealed his will and told us he would die we could not have desired it but our prayers had been turned into sin our hope had been madness and our opinion impiety All that we can say is that it was his infinite Love And his Love defendeth his Majesty and exalteth the Humility of his Cross and maketh it as glorious as his Throne For when he was fastned to it when he died it was his Throne and from it he threw down Principalities and Powers and Sin and Death it self Love hath this priviledge that it cannot be defamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plato By a kind of law it hath the prerogative of Honour and maketh Bondage free Disgrace honourable Infirmity omnipotent Death life it worketh a harmony out of these two inconsistent terms Death and the Lord which is the joy of the whole earth Thus is Christ's Death made a spectacle unto us and his Love bespeaketh us to behold it and there needeâ—h no other Oratour to perswade us For where Love is denied the tongues of Men and of Angels are but as a tinckling cymbal But this is not all For In the second place Christ hangeth not on the cross onely as a sacrifice That every eye is willing to behold even the eye of flesh the eye that is full of adulteries But he standeth there as an Ensample to us of Humility Patience Obedience Love This Altar hath an inscription TOLLITE CRUCEM Take up your cross and follow me Not an Ensample alone that cometh too short Nor a Sacrifice alone for shall he be offered up for those who deny him Not an Ensample alone For flesh and bloud may follow him but never overtake him no not in those wayes which he marked out with his bloud of Obedience and Love Nor Satisfaction alone For how can he satisfie for those who will be in evil what he is in good yesterday and to day and the same for ever 1 Pet. 2.21 Christ suffered for us saith S. Peter leaving us an ensample that we should follow his steps Can an humble Saviour be a sacrifice for the proud Can a meek Saviour dye for a revenger Can a poor Christ give himself for him who will neither clothe nor feed him Can he in whom there was found no guile plead for him who is full of deceit Can a Lamb be a sacrifice for a Fox a Wolf or a Lion He is sacrificed and all is done on his part There is a CONSUMMATUM EST It is finished But our Obedience is not shut up in that but beginneth where Christ's did end and by the power and force of his Love must be carried on in an even and constant course unto our Consummatum est till we end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have redemption Ephes 1.7 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pattern Jussit fieri qui fecit He sacrificed himself for us 1 Tim. 1.16 that we might offer our selves a lively sacrifice to the Lord. Jesus Christ is a pattern to them who shall believe on him to life everlasting We dare not say with some that Christ came into the world non ad satisfactionem sed exemplum not to satisfie at all but to direct us by his example in the wayes of life not to pay down our debts but to teach us an art of thrift to be able to pay them our selves But most true it is if we make him not an ensample he will not be a sacrifice nor will there remain any sacrifice for sin God forbid that our Malice should shelter it self in his Love that his Meekness should be a buckler for our Revenge that his Righteousness should shadow our Unrighteousness that all our Obedience should be lost in his Sacrifice that because he suffered so much to lead us the way we should take the less care to follow after him that by the Gospel as by the Law Sin should revive that the Law should convince the conscience and the Gospel flatter it that the Law should affright sinners and Christ encourage them that the Cross of Christ which is a School of virtue should be made a Sanctuary for wilful offenders that Christ should nail the handwriting against us to his cross and then let fall a Dispensation from all righteousness and make it less necessary for us to observe so strictly the moral Law that this ease and benefit should accrue to Christians by the death of Christ that we may be more indulgent to our selves do what we list Pardon lying so near at hand that we should destroy our selves because he is a Jesus pollute our selves because he is Christ to anoint us be more rebellious because he is our Lord and live in sin because he died for it A conceit so unreasonable that even common reason abhorreth it Had our Saviour given up his ghost and left no precept behind him had his Apostle been silent and said no more but that he died for our sins the weakest understanding might easily draw out this conclusion that we are to forsake them For why should he dye for that which he was willing should survive Or who would lay his axe to the root of the tree and not cuâ— it down to the ground And yet as gross a conceit as it is we open our hearts to receive it And it is summus seculi reatus the great guilt of the age the pit out of which locusts swarm which are as scorpions to bring evil on the earth Were it not for this Physick men would not be so sick were it not for hope of reconciliation men would
delivered from this body of death Nor is it enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stoop and look into it as Peter and John did into our Saviours For quod ferè fit non fit A perfunctory and flight examination is none at all and that which is but almost done is not done No. Scelera propiùs admovet Thou must draw thy sin nearer and nearer unto thee that it may appear in its full horrour without its dress and paint that monster which it is that thou mayest revile and destroy it When the Patriarchs had sold their brother Joseph into Egypt for ten years space and above they saw it not to be a sin or at such a distance that it never troubled them but when affliction drew it nearer to them they then cried Guilty We are verily guilty said they of our bother's bloud How still and quiet are the most crying sins because we will not hearken to them and what a Nothing is the greatest sin because we will not look stedfastly upon it Nor is it enough to look upon it thy self with distaste as upon a loathsom and stinking carcase for Sin cannot but work some distaste if it be looked upon But thou must try it by all the killing circumstances which made it a sin and made it more sinful that Contrariety it beareth to God and his purity that huge Incongruity it carrieth to that image after which thou wert created that Opposition it standeth into a most just Law so fitted and proportioned to thee and that sting it hath nay that Sting it is for it is the very sting of Death And then if thou grone in the spirit and trouble thy selfe as thy Saviour did at Lazarus's tomb if thou cry loud unto the Lord and send up strong grones and supplications this Lazarus this dead sinner will come forth And this thou must do in every sin Find it out and so find out and deprehend thy self Not onely those grosser sins which are open as the Apostle speaketh and manifest to all men and carry shame in their very foreheads as Adultery Drunkenness Murther quae suâ se corpulentiâ produnt which betray themselves by their bulk and corpulency which are like those rocks that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eminent in sight above the waters But those sins also which are as rocks covered with waves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 close and invisible as Malice Revenge Ambition Love of the world Evil thoughts Loose desires which are of a closer and more retired nature and so much the more dangerous by how much they are the less sensible even all those speculative sins which are acted within the compass of the heart and which no man can see and as they are espied by none so neither can they be restrained by any but our selves Those grosser sins which commonly disturb and break the peace of that Commonwealth whereof we are a part outward Laws and the authority of those who are set over us may cut down as the Angel did the branches and the body of the Tree Dan. 4. but we may bind the stump and preserve it in our hearts For to grub up the root to rectifie the heart to take away speculative and secret sins which no other eye can search and find out but our own this every man after due examination must do himself every man must be his own Angel For In the next place to draw out the full compass of this Duty and so give it you in its utmost extent and latitude this Examination reacheth further then the word in its native signification can import For To Examine is but To weigh and ponder To bring thy self and thy actions to a trial To behold thy own shape To see what thou art and in what state and condition and in what relation towards thy God To open and spread thy conscience which S. Augustine calleth stolam animae the garment of the soul and observe what is loose and ravelled by negligence what is stained and defaced by luxury what is sindged by anger what is cut and mangled by envy what is sullied by covetousness This is a good and advantageous work But then this work must not end in it self but we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propose the true end and draw all up to it which is To purge the conscience To supply what is defective To repair what is defaced To beautifie what is slurred To complete what is imperfect which is to renew our selves in the inward man Finis specificat actionem It is the end that commendeth the action and giveth it its perfection Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to prove and examine here in the Text the Apostle ver 31. interpreteth by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is here to examine is there to judge our selves Which includeth Repentance Revenge on our selves Tears and Fasting and Contrition and Humiliation all that severe discipline of Striving and Fighting with our selves of Denying our selves of Demollishing imaginations and of Crucifying our flesh that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great Circumcision of the heart all this we must pass through before we have brought our Trial and Examination to an end before we can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect fit to be received into the presence of God and admitted to his Table For what a vain work were it to examine a thief if we do not judge him to implead him and bring witnesses if after the bill is found we proceed not to sentence and condemn him Or wouldest thou find a thief lurking in a corner of thy house and not drive him out Canst thou see a sin rising up in thy soul ready to devour thee and not drown it with thy tears behold Oppression and not strike out its teeth Adultery and not stone it Deceit and Fraud and not put it to shame Hast thou found out the Devil in a garment of light and wilt thou still be a Pharisee Or again after a survey hast thou found thy soul run to ruine and decay and wilt not thou take pains to repair it a feeble Faith and not strengthen it A wavering Hope and not uphold and support it Or canst thou see thy Charity waxing cold and not stir it up and enliven it Shall thy House the Temple of the holy Ghost fall upon thee whilest thou standest and lookest on and at last art sunk and lost in the ruines This were like that unwise builder to begin and not be able to make an end or as the custom at feasts was at the beginning to bring forth good wine and when we have well tasted of it then that which is worse Which is to make the beginning nothing nay worse then nothing For it is the greatest folly in the world to discover an ambush and yet fall into it to see an enemy and not avoid him The sin groweth greater if we look upon it and not run from it If we behold its ugly threatning countenance and not bid defiance to it
his face as if he saw the face of God himself Even I saith S. Paul please all men in all things not seeking my own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I please them the same word with that in the Text. And in another place I am made all things to all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am made 1 Cor. 9.22 19 I even frame and fashion and force my self to it Though I am free I make my self a servant I undergo all the humility the drugery the hardship of a servant To the Jew I became a Jew that I might gain the Jew 20 And you have an example of it Acts 21.23 26. To those that are under the Law as under the Law to the Gentiles who were not bound to Moses Law as a Gentile To them that were without Law as without Law 21. as we find Acts 17.22 A Christian Proteus that wrought himself into any shape which might bring advantage to them who beheld him He was a Jew to the Jew to make him a Christian to them that were without Law as without Law to confirm them in the truth of the Gospel to them that were weak as weak to make them strong as all things to all men not to fill his purse but to gain their souls to cut of Circumcision by permitting Circumcision to converse with the Gentile and passing by to throw down their Altar by the inscription Acts 17. and by THE VNKNOWN bring them to the knowledge of the living God by being without the Law bring the Gentile to the grace of the Gospel and thus cedendo vincere by seeming to yield to overcome And this is not the pleasing of a Parasite but of an Apostle and careful Father even that discretion and wisdom which Quintilian commendeth in a Schoolmaster whose duty it is non statim onerare infirmitatem discentium sed temperare vires Lib. 1. Inst c. ◠not presently to overburden the weak capacity of Novices but to temper and moderate his own strength and consider not what he can teach but what they can learn with Jacob to lead his flock on softly lest they die Gen. 33.13 14 Besides the act it self was not unlawful because the Synagogue was indeed dead but not yet buried but to be buried with honour And it was Judaeis factus tanquam it was onely amongst the Jews For what himself did amongst the Jews at Jerusalem he reproveth S. Peter for doing it amongst the Gentiles at Antioch Gal. 2.11 14. Nihil Paulo indignum quod efficit Deo credere saith Hilary That which bringeth a Jew or Gentile to Christ may well become S. Paul an Apostle of Christ When we so please men that we please God also we cannot please them enough But when the case was otherwise when the Truth and honour of God were in hazard then S. Paul is in a manner Saul again Acts 13.11 1 Cor. 5.5 and breatheth forth threatnings and slaughter He striketh Elymas the Sorcerer blind delivereth up the incestuous Corinthian to Satan and when they are puffed up is ready with his goad to let out the wind cometh toward them in that imperious strain What will ye shall I come unto you with a rod which I am sure 1 Cor. 4.18.21 are not pleasing words but quae cum ictu quodam audiuntur such as are heard with a kind of smart and leave impression behind them Quà m exserta acies macherae spiritualis as Tertullian speaketh How naked and keen is the edge of reprehension In faciem impingit he striketh them on the face in os caedit he beateth them on the mouth jam vero singulari stylo figit and sometimes pointeth them out as a mark and darteth his reprehension and sticketh it in them What then would he do if he lived now and saw what we see Thus you see both these are true We may please men Ex Deo magis quam in contumeliam Dei hominibus placendum Hil. in Psal 52. and we may not please them We must please them and we must not please men if we will be the servants of Christ For if you please you may conceive that relation betwixt God and Man which is betwixt our Reason and our Sense Now Sin may seem to be nothing else but the flattery of our Sense because when I break the Law my will stoopeth down to please my Sense and betray my Reason But yet when I please my Sense I do not alwayes sin For I may please my Sense and be temperate I may please my Eye and make a covenant with it I may please my Tast Job 31.1 and yet set a knife to my throat Prov. 23.2 I may please my Sense and it may be my health and virtue as well as my sin So in like manner to please men against God is the basest flattery and S. Paul flingeth his dart at it but to please men in reference to God is our duty and taketh in the greatest part of Christianity For thus to please men may be my Allegiance my Reverence my Meekness my Longanimity my charitable Care of my Brother I may please my Superiour and obey him I may please my obliged Brother and forgive him I may please the poor Lazar and relieve him I may please an erring Brother and convert him and in thus doing I do that whch is pleasing both to God and Man What then is that which here S. Paul condemneth Look into the Text and you shall see Christ and Men as it were two opposite terms If the Man be in errour I must not please him in his Errour for Christ is Truth If the Man be in sin I must not please him for Christ is Righteousness And in this case we must deal with men as S. Augustine did with his Auditory when he observed them negligent in their duties We must tell them that which they are most unwilling to hear Quod non vultis facere bonum est saith he That which you will not do that which you are afraid of and run from that which with all my breath and labour I cannot procure you to love that is it which we call to do good That which you deride that which you turn away the ear from with scorn that which you loath as poyson that which you persecute us for Quod non vultis audire verum est That which you distast when you hear as gall and wormwood that which you will not hear that which you call strange doctrine Lib. 7. de Reutr fort c. ult that is Truth As Petrarch told his friend Si prodesse vis scribe quod doleam If you will profit and improve me in the wayes of goodness let your penne drop gall write something to me which may trouble and grieve me to read So when men stand in opposition to Christ when men will neither hear his voice nor follow him in his
errour conclude that it was possible for the justest man alive to have been wicked If not why did he strive and labour and offer violence to himself And that it was possible for the wickedest man alive to have been just for Judas not to have betrayed his master Else why do we condemn him of despair and make that his greatest sin Villicus si velit omnia rectè facit saith Columella of Husbandry The farmer if he will may do all things in it as he should And it is true in Divinity Augustine the great Champion for the Grace of God saith Homo potest peccare Contra Faust. Manich. Lib. 22. Deum negare si nolit non facit Any man may sin and deny God but he doth not unless he will And to take the will from that to which it doth incline and draw it to that which God commandeth is that which we call Obedience In the wayes of Goodness God doth help us but not force us he useth all means which he in his eternal wisdom knoweth fittest but doth not by his omnipotent power bind and constrain us He that is necessarily good is not good And it is impossible he should be evil who is fettered in the chains of impossibility of being good In a word God forbiddeth sin but permitteth it commandeth obedience but doth not force it God biddeth us sin no more but he doth not tell us we cannot sin again for this were to take away the first by adding the second For how can these two stand together Sin no more and You cannot sin again God doth what he can and when he doth what he can in this respect he doth not alwaies make us good Say I this of my self or doth not even the Scripture speak as much Doth not God say as much Isa 5.3 4. and he cannot blaspheme himself Judge I pray you between me and my vineyard He maketh the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah his and their own Judges What could I have done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it He fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest vine and built a tower in the midst of it he omitted nothing which might make it fruitful Hoc satìs est fecisse Deo And could he have done any more Yes he might he might have made it bring forth good grapes God saith he could not who is Truth it self Nor doth this any whit derogate from his omnipotent Power For even his Power doth seem to bow and act by his Wisdom And he can no more do what his Wisdom hath not set down then he cannot be wise then he cannot be God 3. That will of God's to permit sin and not to intervene with his omnipotency to hinder it doth not contradict that will which we call voluntatem praecepti his will exprest in the Command which he layeth upon his creature but the one supposeth the other For he doth not command us not to sin as he commanded the Paralytick to take up his bed and walk For every law as it supposeth a possibility of being kept so supposeth a possibility of being broken which could not be if God thought fit to make use of his uncontrollable and absolute power Lex justo non est posita If Goodness had been as essential to Man as his Nature and Soul by which he is if God's Omnipotency had interceded and by its irresistable force opposed Sin that it had not entered the world by Adam nor been known to his posterity the Jews had not heard the noise of the trumpet at the promulgation of the Law nor the Disciples the Sermon on the mount under the Gospel there had been no use of the comfortable breath of God's promises nor of the terrible sound of his threatnings For who will make a Law against that which he knoweth will never come to pass Last of all God's Permissive will standeth in no shew of opposition to his Occasioned and Consequent will by which he raineth down vengeance upon the disobedient For we must suppose a power to obey whether natural or as it is given we need not dispute but a power there must be but not such a power which is alwaies and infallibly brought into act We must suppose Sin or Obedience before we can take up the least conceit of any will in God to punish or to reward Omnis poena si justa est peccati poena est saith Augustine All punishment which is just is the punishment of sin And therefore God who biddeth Man sin no more out of his justice willeth his destruction when he sinneth and will not repent Sic totus Deus bonus est dum pro bono omnia est saith the Father Thus God is entirely good whilest all he is whether merciful or severe is for good Minus est tantummodo prodesse quia non aliud quid possit quà m prodesse His reward might lose and not carry with it that infinite value if he could not reach out his hand to punish as well as reward And some distrust it might work in the creature that he could not do one if he could not do both In a word neither is the Conversion nor the Induration of a sinner a work of God's incontrollable power nor of that will by which he made the heaven and the earth and by which he healeth the lame and raiseth the dead For when he speaketh the word the lame shall walk and when the trumpet soundeth the dead shall rise But how oft is his will to save us resisted How oft would I saith Christ and you would not For if it were fulfilled there could be no Hell at all Again the command is his will and what moment is there wherein that is not resisted We are those devils which kindle that fire which he made not for us We are those sons of Anak those giant-like fighters against Heaven which break God's commands with as much ease as Samson did his cords that bound him We are those Leviathans which break those bounds which God hath set us Which we could not do if he were pleased if he could be pleased if his wisdom would permit him to interpose his power to hinder us But it may be said that we lye in sin as this Paralytick did by the pool's side not able to help our selves and therefore have no power to work out our conversion We willingly grant it And therefore we have need of new strength and new power to be given us We deny it not And therefore not onely the power but the very act of our conversion is from God Who ever yet denyed it But then that Man can no more withstand his conversion then this man did his cure or an infant can its birth or the world could its creation or the dead can the resurrection that we are converted whether we will or no is a conclusion which these premisses will not yield This flint
plain How many truths now-a dayes are taken for the inventions of brain-sick men by those who have little brains and scarce common sense to judge of them And as it is in points of speculation so by the disorder of our passions it falleth out in matters of practice For he that will be evil will be ignorant He that knoweth well enough that Gold is but earth looketh upon it as upon a God He that knoweth well enough that Honour is but a breath yet is still climbing up to the pinnacle He that can declaim against Covetousness studieth wealth more then the Bible He that cryeth down Hypocrisie may be a very Pharisee He that knoweth that without holiness we cannot see God promiseth to himself the beatifical vision though a little holiness serveth his turn and he delighteth to call and make himself an unprofitable servant And all this is because men will not take notice of what they cannot but see in Wealth uncertainty in Honour vanity in Hypocrisie the Devil himself This their way uttereth their foolishness saith the Psalmist For a great folly it is thus wilfully to mistake Imperitia nonnullorum Catholicorum venatio est Haereticorum The ignorance of many saith Augustine that call themselves Catholicks hath made them a prey to Hereticks Uncautelous Christians void of spiritual wisdom expose themselves to that great Nimrod the Devil who hunteth after their souls to drive them into his toil For let us but appeal to our own experience and we cannot but confess that they are not the greatest sins but the weakest that have this power over us Murthers and Parricides and Rapes and Treasons and the rest of that rabble of arch-sins are not the strongest for then sure they would reign with the greatest latitude But Wandring thoughts Idle words Petty lusts Inconsiderate wrath Immoderate love to the things of this world and the rest of that swarm of ordinary sins these are they which have the largest extent and dominion and some of these or all of these more or less prevail with every man Now there can be no reason given why we should stand strong against the greater sins and fail and yield at the approach of the lesser unless we were like that fabulous rock in Pliny which if a man thrust at with his whole body he could not move it yet a man might shake it with one of his fingers unless the Laws of men have more force then the statutes of God a prison be more terrible then hell and the anger of a mortal man more formidable then the wrath of the Almighty Certainly thus to walk and to think we are in our way if greater sins assault us not and to go on chearfully with the burthen of the lesser about us as if they were no hinderance at all and we could not remove them is to deceive our selves to walk upon that Lion which will devour us to tread upon that Basilisk whose very eye will infect and poyson us and to run upon that Sword which will pierce through our hearts I have on purpose enlarged my self upon this point because I would not be misunderstood nor that doctrine should seem strange which is so profitable and requireth no more at our hands but this to stand upon our guard to be sedulous and serious in fighting against our lusts and in the duties of Christianity not to neglect the grace of God nor to receive it in vain not to wihstand the power of the Gospel and the rich alluring promises of Christ not to let this dull earth prevail with us more then the beauty and glory of heaven which if it were performed as under the penalty of eternal Death we are bound we should not then complain or rather be glad of our weakness nor think that impossible which we are bound by covenant and vow to perform Satanae nullae sunt feriae The Devil keepeth no Holy day No more should we but be as ready to observe him in his march as he is to invade us So necessary is cautelousness and circumspection that if we had no other buckler or defence yet we should not fall so often as we do Fortis saepe victus est cautus rarissimé The strong man hath often been ruined with his own strength but he who hath his feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel though the enemy set hard at him yet is he seldom overthrown Without this we lie open and naked to him but with it no violence can hurt us If we watch and prepare our selves we shall sin no more or if we do not remain in sin in any one sin which is inconsistent with the Covenant of Grace and the Gospel of Christ Ye have seen the Extent of this Command Sin no more and the Possibility of keeping it Let us now draw all nearer to our selves by way of application And first let us take heed that we build not our hopes on air on phansie but on a sure foundation one of the seals and inscriptions whereof is 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity It is one of the subtilest of the Devil's stratagems to make him believe he is the child of God who is his vassal The Roman Story telleth us that an army of theirs having by night fallen into a place of great disadvantage and danger whilst the night lasted the souldiers were quiet but no sooner did the light appear and shewed them the peril and hazard wherein they stood but they fell to tumult and combustion Assurance is not the work of phansie but of the heart to be wrought out with fear and trembling How easily do men fall into sin and then lift themselves up with this thought and so go in peace but when this thought shall perish they fall again like a dead man held up a while by violence who can stand no longer then he is held up Thus every man may commit sins and yet not be the servant of sin and whatsoever the premisses be they are bold to make this conclusion That they have their part in Christ It is a great deal more common to infer what pleaseth us upon a gross mistake then upon a truth and to assure our selves of peace upon no better evidence then that which flesh and bloud and the love of our selves is ready to bring in and to persuade our selves the sting of Death is out and sin cannot hurt us when we are full of nothing but malice and envy and uncleanness And what an assurance is this An assurance without a warrant an assurance which our selves have onely subscribed to with hands full of bloud Sin no more and then you may have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boldness and confidence towards God 1 John 3 21. Therefore in the next place let us confess our weakness to the glory of God's Grace but not suborn it to shadow and countenance our negligence and wilful disobedience and then give it the name
of a virtue and call it our Humility For that is true Humility with God quae caeteris cingitur virtutibus which is compassed about and guarded with the troop of all other virtues not which walketh securely in the midst of a multitude of transgressions When Christ biddeth us sin no more shall we be so humble as to sin more and more Pusillanimitas fingit quod sit Humilitas This is not Humility but base Pusillanimity and supine Negligence an Humility wrought in us by the love not of God but of the world not any one of the fruits of the good Spirit but of the Prince of darkness who careth not in what demure posture we fall so we fall into his snare Pure Humility before God and the Father is this Wholly to rely on him who is our strength and salvation and will never fail us unless we shrink and turn the back To adore him in his precepts and embrace him in his promises To lay hold on every good thought and inclination to foment and cherish it and not to make darkness our pavilion when he walketh in the midst of his seven golden candlesticks and speaketh unto us by his Spouse the Ministery of his Church To consider that as there be many temptations to sin so there be many fair allurements and provocations to obedience that as our Senses be the doors and portals by which Satan entereth so Reason is made to stand as a Sentinel and the Will by the assistance of God's Grace hath power to shut them up against him and not to shape a weakness in our Phansie which will make us weaker and carry it about with us as our Bona Dea or tutelary Saint to intercede for us and defend us from the guilt of sin Not to suppose that impotency which will quite disenable us Not so to acknowledge our sinful disposition as to make it either an occasion or apology for sin but as we have vowed and are bound by Covenant to strive and fight against it with all our heart and soul and with all the faculties we have To confess and bewail our weakness and look up to the God of all power and then advance and press forward as if we were strong Thus our obedience will stretch it self to the extent of the precept in that sense it is prescribed and we shall sin no more To this end thirdly let us not flatter our selves in a kind of ordinary course in a kind of fashion and formality of religion and bless and applaud our selves if we stand innocent from great transgressions from scandalous sins such as have shame written in their foreheads and such as the laws of men make dangerous or fatal As if to escape the prison were to be redeemed from hell and as if no disease were killing but the Plague when yet we see common diseases bring the heads of thousands into the grave If God could be held upon such easie and cheap terms if to abstain from great sins were not to sin at all then were the greatest Saints of God most miserable who made no end of cleansing their hearts and washing their hands in innocency Paul was a chosen vessel and Daniel greatly beloved these were the great favourites of God and likely of all others to find their Lord must indulgent yet they watched and prayed and were frequent in prayer which they needed not have done if their obedience might have been accepted at a cheaper rate Oh if this be the case of men so just so careful so high in the favour of God what then shall be the end of our partial imperfect and broken service If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appear Now the reason of this is plain It is obedience onely that commendeth us to God and that as exact and perfect as the equity of the Gospel requireth And then every degree of sin is rebellion and can we raise rebellion and yet not forfeit our obedience Sin no more and your obedience is perfect If you sin again you are but rebels Watch therefore and pray lest thou enter into temptation Strive and fight against that sin which hath the Dominion over thee Thou sayest thou dost But how long How many moneths how many weeks how many dayes how many hours hast thou set apart for this spiritual exercise for this agony and contention And if thou canst not name a moneth a week a day an hour in which thou hast bid defiance to thy sin thou hast no reason to wonder that that sin should prevail against thee which thou never yet hadst will or courage to fight against in any one the least part of thy span of time Lastly take the Father's counsel Nè sit tibi minimum non negligere minima Let it not seem a small thing to thee to watch and fight against the smallest and least sins even those which are as nothing in thy eyes For even these may make a breach to let in Death upon thee Therefore thou must take up the whole armour of God to resist and keep them out One evil humour unpurged may be the death of the body one cranny unstopt may be the drowning of the ship one little sin unrepented of may be the destruction of the soul Then take heed thou make not use of thy father's art of hiding thy sin of paring and filing it till what was great be nothing How soon will a sin vanish out of sight in a clear day What a force have Profit and Power and Prosperity to make the greatest sin invisible or set it out of sight Profit persuadeth Power commandeth Prosperity flattereth and at this musick Conscience falleth asleep A rich Oppressour is just a cunning Politician is honest and a prosperous gallant Villain is a Saint What need we fear to sin again when Sin it self is made a virtue These Profit Power Prosperity are the Devils carpets which he spreadeth in our way or his green pastures through which he leadeth us to the chambers of Death Let us then take heed of these as of Hell it self and not sin again though it may make me rich not sin again though it may make me great not sin again though it may raise me to the highest place from thence to look down upon our shame and count it glory But let us abstain from all appearance of sin from the face and representation of it and hate it in a picture Thus if we watch over our selves if we seriously strive and fight against sin we shall sin no more or if we do we shall sin as men not Angels fall of frailty not as Lucifer from heaven And then if after a strict watch and guard set upon our selves we sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous And he is the propitiation for our sins Now from the Extent of this Precept and the Possibility of observing it we come in the last place to discover the Danger of not observing
a sigh or a feigned and formal confession so far we are content to humble our selves And this we may deplore with tears of bloud but cannot hope to remove though we should speak with the tongue of men and Angels since it hath taken such deep root in the hearts of men that they who cry down this Expecting of grace and Fighting against grace and who had rather see a fair shew of it in their lives then in their Panegyricks and would think it a more delightful sight to see them grow in grace then commend it and resist it are themselves cryed down and counted bringers in of new doctrine and enemies to the Grace of God because they would establish it And so the Drunkard may swill his bowls and chear up his heart in the dayes of his youth and expect that happy hour when Sobriety and Temperance shall possess him unawares The Oppressour may grind the face of the poor more and more since God's Grace is sufficient to melt his heart He may hope he may be honest one day who as yet resolveth to be a knave He that is turbulent in all his wayes who like a Haggard checketh at every feather and is troubled with every gust of wind nay with every breath may imagin that Grace will soon settle and compose his mind that Content and Peaceableness will one time or other suddenly fall upon him as a sweet and pleasant sleep He that hath a high look and a proud heart may be brought down and humbled in the twinckling of an eye And what is this but to cast away the Grace of God as S. Paul speaketh to turn it into wantonness as S. Jude to make it nothing else but a pretense and excuse to prolong our time in the tents of Kedar to encourage us to sport it on in our evil wayes like the wild asse or the wanton heifer Oh 't is a dangerous thing to attribute so much to Grace as to make it void and of no effect to cry up its power and be unwilling to feel it to say it can do that which we will not suffer it to do It is the constant voice of Scripture to commend God's Grace but withal to awake our industry to encourage us with the sight of so sure a guide and then bid us Vp and be doing God beseecheth us to be reconciled and commandeth us to reconcile our selves His will is that we should be saved and his will is that we should work out our salvation He persuadeth us to be patient and he persuadeth us to possess our souls with patience Where we are told that he worketh in us both to Will and to Do Phil. 2.13 it is given as a reason why we should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 MAGIS OPERARI work more strenuously and intentively AUGESCERE IN OPERE as some increase and abound in our work Grace is a good wind to drive us on but must not be made a pillow to sleep on Humbled God would see us and he enjoyneth us to humble our selves S. Ambrose speaketh it plainly Non vult invitos cogere he will not save us against our wills And if we stand out and will not he cannot save us Non vult importunus irruere he breaketh not in by violence but when he entereth he calleth thee to open And this maketh our Humility voluntary that thy Will may lead thee and not Necessity draw thee A forced Humility is but Pride in a chain and a stubborn heart with a weight of led upon it Pharaoh's Humility Zech. 5. driven on with an East-wind and compassed with Locusts Ahab's Humility at the sound of the Prophet's thunder For here is the difference The righteous fall to the ground the wicked are tumbled down Their Humiliation is like Haman's going before Mordecai not like David's dancing before the Ark like the submission of a condemned man to the block which upon refusal he had been dragged to There is saith the devout Schoolman Humilitas poenalis and Humilitas medicinalis Humility which is not a virtue but a punishment and Humility which is not a punishment but a medicine Humility which is gall and wormwood and Humility which is an antidote When the vial is broken upon my head it poisoneth me but when I temper it my self and take it down it is a cordial The Gospel our Saviour calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a yoke and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a burthen a yoke which if we yield not our necks will break them and a burthen which if we bow not under will sink us but when Humility beareth it it is easie and when it weareth it light To be humbled then is not enough we must humble our selves and take some pains to do it Not enough to be on the ground unless our hand hath thrown us down Not enough to be in sackcloth unless we have put it on Not enough to be crucified unless we crucifie our selves Take them both together Be humbled and Take pains to humble your selves and you have crowned S. Peter's Exhortation We come now to our second Consideration and must shew you Wherein this Humbling of our selves consisteth The Oratour will tell us Virtutis laus in actione consistit Every virtue is commended by its proper act and operation and is then actually when it worketh And thus S. Paul exhorteth Timothy 1 Tim. 4.7 to exercise himself unto godliness which is learned by doing it and Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to exercise the soul Every virtue is seen in its proper act Thus Temperance doth bind the appetite Liberality open the hand Modesty compose the countenance Valour guard the heart and Humility work its contrary out of the mind every thing that riseth up every swelling and tumour of the soul 2 Cor. 12.20 The Apostle calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 puffings up for Riches or Learning or Eloquence or Virtue or something which we admire our selves for the elation and lifting up of our mind above it self 2 Cor. 10.14 the stretching of it beyond its measure setting it up against the Law against our brethren against God himself making us complain of the Law start at the shadow of an injury commit sin and excuse it making our tongues our own our hands our own our understandings our own our wills our own leaving us Independents under no Law but our own Psal 131.1 Prov. 16.18 The Prophet David calleth it the highness or haughtiness of the heart and Solomon the haughtiness of the spirit which is visible in our sin and visible in our apologies for sin lifting up the eyes Psal 10.4 and lifting up the nose as the phrase signifieth lifting up the head making our neck brass as if we had devoured a spit as Epictetus said I AM AND I ALONE is soon written in any man's heart and no hand but that of Humility can wipe it out For the mind of man is much subject to these fits of swelling Humility our
very nature riseth at Habet mens nostra sublime quiddam impatiens superioris saith the Oratour Mens minds naturally stand on tiptoe as it were and cannot endure to be overlooked HUMILITY It is well we can hear her name with patience It is something more that we can commend her But quale monstrum quale sacrilegium saith the Father O monstrous sacrilege we commend Humility and that we do so swelleth us We shut her out of doors when we entertain her When we deck her with praises we sacrilegiously spoil her and even loose her in our panegyricks and commendations We see what light materials we are made of what tinder we are that the least spark will set us on fire It is the world 's usual detraction from men eminent either in virtue or learning to say they are proud and then they think they have railed loud enough But put case they are alas a very fool will be so And he that hath not one good part to gain the opinion of men will do that office for it self and wonder the world should so mistake him Doth Learning or Virtue or our good parts puff us up and set us in our altitudes No great matter the wagging of a feather the jingling of a spur any thing nothing will do it nay to descend yet lower that which is worse then Nothing will do it Psal 10.3 Wickedness will do it He boasteth of his heart's desire saith David Prov. 2.14 He blesseth himself in evil He rejoyceth in evil saith Solomon He tickleth and flattereth himself in mischief And what are these benedictions these boastings these titillations in evil but as the very breathings and sparkles of our Pride The wicked is so proud he careth not for God he is not in all his wayes When Adam by pride fell from his obedience See saith God the man is become like unto us He speaketh by an Irony A God he is but of his own making Before he brake the bonds of his allegeance he was a Man but innocent immortal of singular endowments and all truly and really but now having swelled himself and stretched beyond the line a God he is but per Mycterismum a God that may be scoffed at a mortal a dying God a God that will run into a thicket to hide himself His greatness is but figurative his misery real Being turned out of Paradise his phansie is left to deifie him This is our case and our teeth are on edge with the same sowre grapes We are proud and sin and are proud in our sin We lift up our selves against the Law and when we have broken it we lift up our selves against Repentance When we are weak then we are strong When we are poor and miserable then we are rich When we are naked then we clothe our selves with pride as with a garment And as in Adam so in us our greatness is but a tale and a pleasing lie our sins and imperfections true and real our Heaven spread out by our phansie and our Hell burning A strange paradox A high look and the soul as low as the lowest pit Martin Luther said well that we were all born with a Pope in our belly and we well know what the Pope hath long usurped Infallibility and Supremacy which like the two sides of an Arch mutually uphold each other Do we bring his Immunity from errour into question Lo he is Supreme Judge of controversies and we may well guess which way the question will be stated Do we question his Supremacy His Parasites will tell you he is infallible Now we may well ken what Luther meant Naturally it is so in us Our Pride maketh us incorrigible and the thought we are so increaseth our Pride We are too high to stand and too wise to be wary And now see how the worm swelleth into an Angel We now stand upon our Supremacy and it must be a hand a mighty one that must pluck us from our chair and humble us For when the Heart forgetteth it is flesh it becometh a stone And you cannot see Christ's impress Humility upon a stone Learn of me for I am humble The ear is deaf the heart stubborn the mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.28 saith S. Paul reprobate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Theodoret a reverberating mind a heart of Marble that violently beateth back the blow that should soften it HUMILIAMINI then Humble your selves is good counsel And it cometh in time like the hand of a skilful Musician that when the strings of an instrument are rackt and wound up too high turneth the pins and letteth them down some notes lower that so upon a skilful touch we may have an harmony This is the proper work of Humility to abate swelling to humble the heart to hammer the rock Dan. 5.22 Jer. 23.29 and break it to pieces to drive it into it self to pull it down and by the consideration of the hand of God and its own emptiness to level it to place it under its self under the Law under God to bind it in as it were with cords and let out its corrupt bloud and humours and so sacrifice it to that God that framed it in a word depressing it in it self that it be not too wise too full and reflecting it upon it self that it may behold it self of more value then the whole world and then shutting it up in it self that it wander not abroad after those vanities which will soon fill it with air and swell it This pulleth out our eyes that we may see spoileth us of our wealth that we may be rich taketh us out of the rayes that we may have light taketh us from our selves that we may possess our selves biddeth us depart from God that we may enjoy him This is janitrix Scholae Christi saith Bernard the Door-keeper to the School of Christ and if we bow or lie prostrate she will let us in This is as John Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord to make every mountain low and the rough places plain to bow a lofty head and sink a haughty eye and beat down a swelling heart In a word this is the best Leveller in the world and there needeth no other then this Ye see Beloved in what our Humility consisteth in placing us where we should be at the footstool of God abhorring our selves admiring his Majesty distrusting our selves relying on his wisdom bowing to him when he helpeth us and bowing to him when he striketh us denying our selves and making surrendry to him alone nothing in our selves and all things in him This will more plainly appear in the extent of this duty which reacheth the whole Man Humble your selves saith the Text and your selves includeth the whole man both body and soul It was the speech of S. Augustine Domine duo creâsti alterum prope te alterum prope nihil Lord thou hast made two things in the world one near unto thy self divine and celestial the
and whatsoever the Premisses are stand out against the Conclusion Of God's Power we may cry out with the Prophet Who hath believed our report or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed And his Will we do but pray it may be done and fulfil our own What now will move us Our last part presenteth a most winning motive And it is God's hand still but his hand not armed with a thunder-bolt but holding out a reward an Exaltation stronger then a Demonstration Goodness is more persuasive then Power and a Promise more rhetorical then a Command Omnes mercede ducimur He that commandeth with promise he that cometh with a reward shall more prevail then seven wise men that can render a reason Of the Duty we have spoken already in general We called it an Exercise and we shewed you in what it doth consist We gave you the extent of it and told you that it is an exercise full of pain and toilsome in which we fight against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness and against the wantonness of the flesh beating down imaginations all aversness in the Understanding and all frowardness in the Will subduing both Soul and body to the obedience of the truth working wonders in the Soul and manifesting it self also in the outward man in a cast-down eye in a weak hand in a feeble knee glorifying God both in soul and body Let us now descend to a more particular delineation And there is a word in my Text which if well and rightly placed giveth all the lines and dimensions of it and that word is but a Preposition and the Preposition but a monosyllable But the sound of it is harsh in our ear and findeth no better entertainment and welcome with us then if it were a Satyre or a Libel It is the Preposition SUB We must humble our selves under Et quantum turbat monosyllabon How are we troubled with this one monosyllable Our nature is stiff and stubborn and this Preposition this monosyllable is a yoke SUB TUTORIBUS under tutors a hard Text for the Heir G l 4.2 O how doth he expect and long for the appointed time when he shall be his own man and Lord of all SUB POTESTATE DOMINI under the power of the Master so should Servants be Eph. 6.5 But they are not so alwayes with good will doing service It is many times but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the down-cast of the eye You see them on the ground at your feet but in their mind they are on horse-back SUB POTESTATE VIRI under the power of the husband Gen. 3.16 is scarce good Scripture with every Wife No set the Servant on horse-back make the Heir a Lord and the Wife the head either no coming under no SUB at all or else misplace it But SUB PRAECEPTO under the Command there we should be For as that was made for us so were we elemented and made up and sitted for that for a Law and Precept Which whilest we keep under we are in the way to perfection In Religion there is Order and in Order there is a SUB a coming under Here there is a precept Humble your selves How come we under it No otherwise then if we were brought under a yoke Every command is our captivity every injunction an imprisonment Lex ligat Enact a Law and we are in fetters Nay Lex occidit the Law is a killing letter in this sense too He that bringeth us a command might as well present us with poison or a sword and bid us kill our selves At the first hearing one goeth away sorrowful another angry another laborem fingit in praecepto hath seen a lion some perillous difficulty in the way Every man is ill-affected and wisheth him silenced that bringeth it Nay further yet The Gospel of peace an Angel bringeth it yet we know what enterâ—ainment it found Nay how was he intreated who is α and ω the Beginning and the End the Author and Finisher of the Gospel Let him be crucified say the Jews Ecquis Christus cum suâ fabula say the Heathen Away with Christ and his Legend And now we who name Christ and delight in that name and make our boast of the Gospel all our life long how do we struggle and strive under it as dying men do for breath Deny your selves Take up your cross they are the voice of Wisdom crying out unto us and no man regardeth it Not SUB LEGE under the Law the Gospel hath taken away that SUB but not SUB GRATIA we are unwilling to come under Grace and SUB CHRISTO under Christ himself The shadow of his wings is as full of terrour to us as the shadow of Death This this was it which killed God's Prophets stoned his Messengers burned his Martyrs crucified the Lord of life himself and at this day crucifieth him afresh and putteth him to open shame our want of Humility our falling out with and not obeying the Gospel of Christ. It is the Apostle's phrase 2 Thes 1.8 This trampleth under foot the bloud of the new Testament as if it were a profane and unholy thing But we must remember that this SUB this neglected and scorned Preposition is that we hold by all we can shew all the Patent we have for heaven Had not Christ come SUB TEGMINE CARNIS as Arnobius speaketh under the covert of our flesh in the form of a servant had he not been made SUB LEGE under the Law had he not been brought SUB CULTRO under the knife at his circumcision had he not been SUB CRUCE undergone the Cross we had been SUB PECCATO under sin under the cross and as low as Hell it self It it most true Nothing but Humility could save us And when we could not bring an Humility equal to our Pride nor a Repentance answerable to our Disobedience then He that was above all was made under the Law Col. 1.24 and humbled himself But yet there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something behind of the afflictions and humility of Christ Not that his Humility was imperfect but that ours be also his required For an humble Head and proud Members an humble Christ and a stiff necked Christian is a foul incongruity a monster made up of God and Belial Something then of Christ's Humility is behind not that his Humility was imperfect but that ours is also requisite not ex parte operationis suae as if he had not fully accomplished the work of our Redemption but ex parte cooperationis nostrae in respect of something to be performed by us not that it was his Talent and our mite his three parts and our one No he payed down the price of our Redemption at one full and entire payment and that de suo of his own he borrowed not of us His SUB his Humility was able to raise a thousand worlds and yet our Humility must come in with a SUB too we must be under his
God 1. by the Knowledge not onely of natural and transitory things but also of those which pertain to everlasting life Col. 3.10 Being renewed in knowledge after the image of him who created him 2. in the Rectitude and Sanctity of his Will Put on the new man Eph. 4.24 which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness 3. in the ready Obedience of the outward parts and inward faculties to the beck and command of Reason which being as a spark from the Divine nature a breathing from God should look forward and upward upon its Original and present our bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God I say Rom. 12.1 God hath imprinted his image on Man And what communion hath God with Belial or the image of God with the fashion of this world What relation hath an immortal substance with that which passeth away 1 Cor. 7.31 Take Man for that Miracle of the world as Trismegistus calleth him for that other that Lesser world the very tye and bond of all the other parts for whose sake they were made and in whose Nature the nature of the Universe is in a manner seen which order and harmony being disturbed was renewed and restored again by Christ who is the perfect Image of God the express character of his Person and brightness of his glory Rom. 8. And what conversation should we have but in heaven And if the whole nature of created things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the creature it self groneth to be delivered from the bondage of corruption certainly Man the compendium and tie of all the Little world which by his default made the other parts subject to vanity must needs grone in himself waiting for the adoption and redemption of his body not onely from corruption but from temptation when his eye shall behold no vanity his ear hear nothing but Hallelujahs and his very body become in a manner spiritual Or take man as made after God's Image by which he hath that property which no other creature hath to Understand and Will and Reason and Determine by which he sendeth his thoughts whither he pleaseth now beyond the seas by and by back again and then to heaven it self as Hilary speaketh by which he is capable of God and may be partaker of him And we cannot think we had an Understanding given us onely to forge deceit to contrive plots to find out the twilight an opportunity to do mischief to invent instruments of musick new delights to frame an art a method a craft of enjoying the pleasures which are but for a season we cannot think our Will was given us to catch at shadows and apparitions to wait upon the Flesh which fighteth against the Spirit and this Image within us we cannot think God gave us Reason to distinguish us from the other creatures that it should subject us to the creature that it should make us worse then the beasts that perish And therefore Christ the end of whose coming was to renew God's Image decayed and defaced in Man did lay the ax to the root of the tree did level all spreading and overtopping imaginations all thoughts which bowed themselves and inclined to the world 2 Cor. 10.5 bringing them into captivity unto the obedience of the Gospel put out our eyes and cut off our hands so far as they might be occasional to evil and nailed not onely our sins but our flesh to his cross For as we are risen with him so are we crucified with him who being lift up himself did draw us after him to heavenly things to heavenly places brought back the Lost sheep Psal 23. the soul into green and fat pastures out of the way of the world the way that leadeth to Death to the paths of righteousness bringeth back the Soul to its original to that for which it was made James 1.25 Hence the Gospel is called a perfect Law of Liberty Whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty A perfect Law because it barreth up every passage and rivulet shutteth up every crany that may let the soul out to wander after the things of this world tieth us up closer then humane Reason could and improveth and exalteth our Reason to busie it self on its proper object those things which are above And it is called a Law of liberty because they who will be subject to this Law who will be Gospellers indeed must free themselves from those defects and sins which no humane Law nor yet the Law of Moses did punish So that Christian Religion doth in a manner destroy the world before its dissolution maketh that which men so run after so wooe so lay hold on a thing of nothing or worse then nothing maketh that which we made our staff to lean on a serpent to run from or maketh the world but a prison which we must struggle to get out of but a Sodom out of which we must haste to escape to the holy hill to the mountain lest we be consumed or at best but as a stage to act our parts on where when we have disgraced reviled and trode it under our feet we must take our Exit and go out And indeed secondly there is no proportion at all between sensible things and a Soul which is a Spirit and immortal And in this also it resembleth that God who breatheth it into us As Lactantius saith God is not hungry that you need give him meat he is not thirsty that you need pour out drink to him nor is he in the dark that you need light up tapers The world is the Lord's and all that therein is So it is with the Soul What is a banquet of wine what is musick what is a feast what is beauty what is a wedge of gold to a Soul The world is the Soul 's and all that therein is And to behold the creature and in the world as in a book to study and find out the Creator to contemplate his Majesty his Goodness his Wisdom to discover that happiness which is prepared for it to find out conclusions to behold the heavens the work of God's fingers and to purchase a place there to converse with Seraphim and Cherubim elevated thoughts towring imaginations holy desires these are fit food for the Soul and proportioned to it And again as the things above are proportioned to the Soul so they alone can satisfie it The things below are too narrow too transitory Beauty like the Rainbow is oculi opus the work of the eye of the imagination Specta paulisper non erit Do but look a little longer and it will not be seen Riches bring care and torment as well as delight and when they have for a while mocked us they take the wing and flee away Honour I cannot well tell you what it is it is so near to Nothing But whatsoever it be it commonly falleth to the dust and findeth no better sepulchre then disgrace The fashion of
of themselves but he that thus findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it The loss of our lives for righteousness sake is a purchase Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven For this Stephen was stoned Paul beheaded the Martyrs tortured So persecuted they the Prophets which were before you In the next place as a good Cause so a good Life doth fit and qualifie us to suffer for righteousness sake Non habent martyrum mortem qui non habent Christianorum vitam saith Augustine He dieth not the death of a Martyr who liveth not the life of a Christian An unclean beast is not fit to make a sacrifice Nor will the crown of Martyrdome sit upon his head who goeth on in his sin It is to the wicked that God saith What hast thou to do to declare my statutes and What hast thou to do to suffer for them For he that suffereth for them declareth them Therefore S. Augustine calleth the Donatists who in a perverse emulation of the glory of the true Martyrs leapt down from rocks and flung themselves into the water and were drowned sceleratos homicidas wicked homicides and unnatural murtherers of themselves What Cyprian speaketh of Schism is as true of other mortal sins not repented of Non Martyrium tollit not Martyrdom it self can expiate or blot it out For can we think that he that hath taken his fill in sin all his life long and still made his strength the law of unrighteousness should in a moment wash away all his filth and pollutions baptismo sanguinis with his own bloud It may supply for those other pious souls who were never washed in the other laver that of Baptism because persecution or death deprived them of that benefit for what cannot be done cannot oblige But how a man should draw out his life in an open hostility to Christ and trifle with him and contemn him all his dayes and then before repentance and reconciliation which indeed is in the very act of hostility bow to him and die for him I cannot see Take S. Pauls black catalogue of the works of the flesh Adultery Gal. 3. fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulation wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murthers drunkenness revellings and not one of these but will infringe and weaken the testimony of any man and render him a suspected witness in our Courts on Earth And shall the truth of Christ stand in need of such Knights of the post who will speak for her when they oppose her Take that bed-roll of wicked men which the Apostle prophesied should come in these last and perilous times 2 Tim. 3 1-5 Lovers of their own selves Covetous Boasters Proud Blasphemers Disobedient to parents Vnthankful Vnholy Without natural affection Truce-breakers False accusers Incontinent Fierce Despisers of those that are good Traitors Heady High minded Lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof and may not the Gospel be ashamed of such Professors and Martyrs as these Or shall we look for heaven in hell and hope to find a Martyr amongst a generation of vipers Or is he fit to be advocate for any truth who hath the faith of Christ with respect of persons Then we shall have factious Martyrs seditious Martyrs malicious Martyrs profane Martyrs sacrilegious Martyrs And if these be Martyrs we may say of them as Tertullian did of the Heathen Gods Potiores apud inferos There be honester men in hell then these No a good Cause and a good Life must be our conductors to the Cross must lead us by the hand to the fiery trial must as it were anoint us to our graves and prepare us for this great work Otherwise whatsoever we suffer is not properly Persecution but an execution of justice It may be here perhaps demanded What then shall he do who having fettered himself in the snare of the Devil hath not yet shaken it off by true repentance whose conscience condemneth him of many gross and grievous sins which yet himself hath not condemned in his flesh by practising the contrary vertues What shall a notorious sinner do if he be called to this great office if his fortunes and life be brought in hazard for the profession of some article of faith or some truth which he believeth is necessary to salvation What shall he do being shut up between these three a bad conscience assurance of that truth he professeth and the terrour of death Shall he hold fast the truth or subscribe to the contrary Shall he suffer without true repentance of his former sins or repent of the truth which he professeth Shall he deny against his conscience what he knoweth to be true or shall he suffer and comfort himself in this one act as a foundation firm enough to raise a hope on of remission of sin Here is a great streight a sad Dilemma like that of the servant in the Comedy Si faxit perit si non faxit vapulat If he do it he may perish and if he do it not he may be beaten He may suffer for the truth and yet suffer for his sins and if he do it not he hath denied the faith and is worse then an infidel But beloved this is an instance like that of Buridan's ass between two bottles of hay knowing not which to chuse an instance of what peradventure never or very seldom cometh to pass We may suppose what we please we may suppose the heavens to stand still and the earth to move and some have thought so we may suppose what in nature is impossible And this if it be not impossible yet is so improbable that it hardly can gain so much credit as to win an assent For that he who all his life long hath cast Christ's word 's behind him should now seal them with his bloud that they are true that a conscience so beaten so wasted so overwhelmed with the habit of sins should now take in and entertain a fear of so little a sin as the denial of one truth in respect of the contempt of all that he that hath swallowed this monstrous camel should strain at this gnat that he that hath trampled Christ's bloud under his feet should shed his own for some one dictate of his is a thing which we may suppose but hardly believe Or tell me Where should this sting and power of conscience lye hid Or can conscience drive us to the confession of one truth which had no power to withhold us from polluting our selves with so many sins Holding faith saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 1.19 and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made ship-wreck So near an alliance there is between Faith and a good Conscience that we must either keep them both or lose them both Faith as Saint Paul intimateth in that Text is as the
and casteth us on the ground and maketh us fome at our mouths fome out our own shame it casteth us into the fire and water burneth and drowneth us in our lusts And if it bid us Do this we do it We are perjured to save our goods beat down a Church to build us a banquetting-house take the vessels of the Sanctuary to quaff in fling away eternity to retain life and are greater devils that we may be the greater men Whilest Sin reigneth in our mortal bodies the curse of Canaan is upon us we are servi servorum the slaves of slaves And if we will judge aright there is no other slavery but this Now empti estis By the power of Christ these chains are struck off For he therefore bought us with a price that we should no longer be servants unto Sin but be a peculiar people unto himself full of good works which are the ensigns and flags of liberty which they carry about with them whose feet are enlarged to run the wayes of God's commandments Again there is a double Dominion of Sin a dominion to Death and a dominion to Difficulty a power to slay us and a power to hold us that we shall not easily escape And first if we touch the forbidden fruit we dye if we sin our sin lieth at the door ready to devour us For he saith our Saviour that committeth sin is the servant of sin obnoxious to all those penalties which are due to sin under the sentence of death His head is forfeited and he must lay it down Ye are dead saith S. Paul in trespasses and sins not onely dead as having no life no principle of spiritual motion not able to lift up an eye to heaven but dead as we say in Law having no right nor title but to death we may say heirs of damnation And then Sin may hold us and so enslave us that we shall love our chains and have no mind to sue for liberty that it will be very difficult which sometimes is called in Scripture Impossibility to shake off our fetters Sin gaining more power by its longer abode in us first binding us with it self and then with that delight and profit which it bringeth as golden chains to tye us faster to it self and then with its continuance with its long reign which is the strongest chain of all But yet empti estis Christ hath laid down the price and bought us and freed us from this dominion hath taken away the strength of Sin that it can neither kill us nor detain us as its slaves and prisoners There is a power proceedeth from him which if we make use of as we may neither Death nor Sin shall have any dominion over us a power by which we may break those chains of darkness asunder Look up upon him with that faith of which he was the authour and finisher and the victory is ours Bow to his Sceptre and the Kingdom of Sin and Death is at an end For though he hath bought us with a price yet he put it not into the hands of those fools who have no heart but laied it down for those who will with it sue out their freedom in this world For that which we call liberty is bondage and that which we call bondage is freedom Rom. 6.20 When we were the servants of sin we were free from righteousness and we thought it a glorious liberty But this Liberty did enslave us Prov. 10.24 For that which the wicked feared shall come upon him They that built the tower of Babel did it that they might not be scattered and they were scattered say the Rabbies in this world and in the world to come So whilest men pursue their unlawful desires that they may be free by pursuing them they are enslaved enslaved in this world and in the world to come But let us follow the Apostle But now being made free from sin Rom. 6.22 you are servants unto God See here a service which is liberty and liberty which is bondage the same word having divers significations as it is placed And let us sue out Liberty in its best sense in foro misericordiae in the Court of Mercy Behold here is the price the bloud of Christ And you have your Charter ready drawn If the Son make you free John 8.36 Acts 16. that is buy you with a price ye shall be free indeed Which words are like that great earthquake when Paul and Sylas prayed and sung Psalms At the very hearing of them the foundation of Hell shaketh and every mans chains are loosed For every man challengeth an interest in the Son and so layeth claim to this freedom Every man is a Christian and so every man free The price is laid down and we may walk at liberty It fareth with us as with men who like the Athenians hearken after news Whilest we make it better we make it worse and lose our Charter by enlarging it But if we will view the Text we may observe there is one word there which will much lessen this number and point out to them as in chains who talk and boast so much of freedom And it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye shall be free indeed not in shew or persuasion For Opinion and Phansie will never strike off these chains but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really substantially free and indeed not free 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in appearance or in a dream which they may be whose damnation sleepeth not Many persuade themselves into an opinion they call it an Assurance of freedom when they have sold themselves Many sleep as S. Peter did between the two souldiers bound with these chains Many thousands perish in a dream build up to themselves an assurance which they call their Rock and from this rock they are cast down into the bottomless pit and that which is proposed as the price of their liberty hath been made a great occasion to detain them in servitude and captivity which is the more heavy and dangerous because they call it Freedom Therefore we must once more look back upon that place of S. John and there we shall find that they shall be free whom the Son maketh free So that the reality and truth of our freedom dependeth wholly upon his making us free If he make us free if we come out of his hand formed by his Word and transformed by the virtue of the price he gave for us then we shall be free indeed If we have been turned upon his wheel we shall be vessels of honour And now it will concern us to know aright what the meaning of his buying is and the manner how he maketh us free 1 Cor. 7.23 By Purchase by buying us with a price and so it is here Col. 2.14 By Taking away the hand-writing which was against us and nailing it to his cross Eph. 5.2 By Satisfaction being made a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God for us But then also
which must not be left out unless we will dimidiare Christum 1 John 1.7 take Christ by halfs by Purging and clensing us from all our sins And all by the virtue of this price For he did not buy us that we should sell our selves He did not pay our debts that we should run on in arrears He did not buy us out of the power of Satan to leave us there He did not satisfie for sins to make us greater sinners And what Purgation is that which leaveth us more unclean beasts then before Christ doth both or he will do neither He freeth us from the condemnation of sin and he freeth us from the tyranny and dominion of sin His bloud speaketh better things then that of Abel It speaketh for pardon but speaketh for repentance it distilleth sweetly to wash out the guilt of sin and to wash out the pollution of sin In a word Christ did not pay down a price for our liberty to leave us still in bonds he did not come down from heaven to carry us thither with all our sins that is with Hell about us But when he buyeth us out of prison he looketh and waiteth to see with what chearfulness we will come forth When he calleth us to liberty he calleth to us as the Angel did to S. Peter Gird your selves cast your sins from you and follow me FACIO UT FACIAS as it is in the Law Ye are bought with a price that is Christ's act But our act also is required which may bear a fair correspondence and analogy with his Ye are redeemed that is the Benefit and a great one and Therefore glorifie God our Duty is the inference And our Duty should as naturally issue from a Benefit as Light doth from the Sun or a Conclusion from its Principles If Christ begin and pay down the price we must and right reason will have us conclude Therefore glorifie God in our body and in our spirit which are God's This I say is our Duty and commendeth it self in the next place to your consideration It is the nature of a Benefit to bind us to the performance of that which shall make it a benefit to establish a Law which shall establish that and make it beneficial Love will empty it self but it will not lose it self but deriveth its influence upon the heart it shineth on to work something in it which may bear some similitude and likeness to its self which indeed is Glory When God speaketh to us in love he expecteth that it should echo back again upon him in glory For why should so great love be lost And lost it is and even dead in us if it work no life nor spirit in us to magnifie his name if we look upon it as that which will deliver us whether we will or no and save us though we slight it God loveth us that we may love him and so love our selves And all his commands all our duties and obligations are founded on his love Therefore as he hath a bright and piercing so he hath a jealous eye His name is Jealous Exod. 34.14 And if we will see his likeness and representation we may behold it in the Prophet's vision where he presenteth God like unto a man made of amber Ezek. 8.2 whose upper part did shine and his lower was of fire Which representeth God unto us as a Lover and a Jealous Lover The appearance of brightness did express the purity and vehemencie of his Love And it never shined brighter then in our Redemption And the fire downward his Jealousie and Anger which will smoke against those that dishonour him after such a favour Of all the attributes of God this of Love seemeth to have the dominion and preeminence and sheweth and declareth it self by most manifest signs and notorious effects And this Love in God as in Man is alwayes accompanied with Jealousie which cannot endure a rival or an enemy or that that which he bought with a price should be snatched out of his hands Nec adversarium patitur nec comparem He can neither endure an adversary nor a sharer A sharer is no better to him then an adversary His Love carrieth the resemblance of the love of a husband to his wife And so he speaketh to Jerusalem as to his espoused wife Thy beauty was perfect which I put upon thee But thou playedst the harlot Ezek. 16. and hast poured forth thy fornications on every one that passed by Where we may conceive God to be as it were in trouble and in rage in such a passion as a man is when he taketh his wife in the act of adultery And his anger is the greater because his love was so great For Jealousie which is nothing at first but the vehemencie of Love when it hath an image of jealousie set up to provoke it groweth hotter and hotter and at last burneth like fire God's Love is jealous and would not be cast away and here in this his buying us it shineth most brightly wherefore if it work nothing in us by its beams it will become a fire to consume us For shall Christ call us to glory and we dishonour him Shall his Love make up the Premisses and shall we against nature deny the Conclusion Shall the benefit come towards us and we run from our duty Shall he redeem our souls from hell and our bodies from the grave and shall we prostitute and pawn and sell them to the Destroyer No The Glory of God is like Himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Beginning and the End the first wheel and the last Take the whole subsistence of a Christian in the state of Grace and in the state of Glory and it is nothing else but one continued and constant motion of glorifying God For why hath God done these great things for us why did he buy us with a price but ad laudem gloriae suae as S. Paul repeateth it again and again Ephes 1. to the praise of his glory and S. Peter that we shew forth his praise 1 Pet. 2.9 Herein is my Father glorified saith Christ that you bear much fruit Joâ—n 15.8 So you see our Redemption principally dependeth upon the glory of God Eph. 3.10 In that it beginneth For it was his manifold wisdom that made way for it For that it is furthered and promoted For we are strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man according to the riches of his glory Eph. 3.16 Then it is completed to his Glory The same word in Scripture includeth both Revel 19.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salvation and the Glory of our salvation It is the voice of the people in Heaven Hallelujah salvation and glory and honour and power to the Lord our God The choicest and last end which God proposeth to himself in the work of our salvation is the manifestation of his perfection that is his Glory Which consisteth in
the highest heavens for evermore The Sixteenth SERMON PART II. 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's THese words are a Logical Enthymeme consisting of two parts an Antecedent Ye are bought with a price and a Consequent naturally following Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's God's by Creation and God's by Redemption the Body bought and redeemed from the dust to which it must have fallen for ever and the Soul from a worse death the death of sin from those impurities which bound it over to an eternity of punishment and therefore both to be consecrated to him who bought them How God is to be glorified in our spirit we have already shewn to wit by a kind of assimilation by framing and fashioning our selves to the will and mind of God He that is of the same mind with God glorifieth him by bowing to him in his still voice and by bowing to him in his thunder by hearkening to him when he speaketh as a Father and by hearkening to him when he threatneth as a Lord by hearkening to his mercy and by hearkening to his rod. For the Glory of a King is most resplendent in the obedience of his subjects In a word we glorifie God by Justice and Mercy and those other vertues which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defluxions and emanations from his infinite goodness and light In a just and perfect man God shineth in glory and all that behold him will say that God is in him of a truth The Glory of God is that immense ocean into which all streams must run Our Creation our Redemption are to his glory Nay the Damnation of the wicked at last emptieth it self and endeth here This his wisdom worketh out of his dishonour and forceth it out of blasphemy it self But God's chief glory and in which he most delighteth is from our submissive yielding to his natural and primitive intent which is that we should follow and be like him in all purity and holiness In this he is well pleased that we should do that which is pleasing in his sight Then he looketh with an eye of favour and complacency upon Man his creature when he appeareth in that shape and form which he prescribed when he seeth his own image in him when he is what he would have him be when he doth not change the glory of God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things when he doth not prostitute that Understanding to folly which should know him and that Will to vanity which should seek him nor fasten those Affections to the earth which should wait upon him alone when he falleth not from his state and condition but is holy as God is holy merciful as God is merciful perfect as God is perfect Then is he glorified then doth he glory in him Deut. 30.9 and rejoyce over him as Moses speaketh as over the work of his hands as over his image and likeness not corrupted not defaced Then is Man taught Canticum laudis nothing else but the Glory and Praise of his Maker Thus do we glorifie God in our spirit Now to pass to that which we formerly did but touch upon Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made up of both of Body and Spirit and therefore must glorifie God not onely in the spirit but in the body also For such a near conjunction there is between the Body and the Soul that nothing but Death can divorce them and that too but for a while a sleeping-time after which they shall be made up into one again either to howl out their blasphemie or to sing a song of praise to their Maker for evermore If we will not glorifie God in our body by chastity by abstinence by patience here we shall be forced to do it by weeping and gnashing of teeth hereafter It is true the body is but flesh 2 Cor. 4.11 yet the life of Jesus may be made manifest in this our flesh It is but dust and ashes but this dust and ashes may be raised up and made a Temple of the holy Ghost a Temple in which we offer up ch 6.19 not beasts our raging lusts and unruly affections nor the foul stench and exhalations of our corrupted hearts but the sweet incense of our devotion not whole drink offerings but our tears and strong supplications such a Temple which it self may be a sacrifice a holy and acceptable sacrifice Rom. 12.1 post Dei templum sepulcrum Christi saith Tertullian and being a Temple of God be made a sepulchre of Christ by bearing about in it the dying of our Lord Jesus For when we beat it down and bring it in subjection when we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep it chast and pure quench those unholy fires which are even ready to kindle and flame up in it bind and tye it up from joyning with that forbidden object to which its bent and natural inclination carrieth it when we have set a watch at every sense at every door which may be an in-let to the Enemy when we have learned so far to love it as to despise it to esteem of it as not ours but his that made it to be macerated and diminished to be spit upon and whipt to be stretched out on the rack to be ploughed up with the scourge to be consumed in the fire when his honour calleth for it when with S. Paul we are ready to offer it up then is the power of Christ's death visible in it and the beauty of that sight is the glory of God First we glorifie God in our bodies when we use them for that end to which he built them up when we make them not the weapons of sin but the weapons of righteousness when we do not suffer them to make our Spirit and Reason their servants to usher in those delights which may flatter and please them but bring them under the law and command of Reason Touch not Taste not Handle not which by its power may check the weakness of the Flesh and so uphold and defend it from those allurements and illusions from that deep ditch that hell into which it was ready to fall and willing to be swallowed up Now saith S. Paul vers 13◠the body is not for fornication It was not created for that end For how can God who is Purity it self create a body for uncleanness Not then for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body Who made it as an instrument which the mind might use to the improvement and beautifying of it self as a vessel to be possest by us in holiness and honour 1 Thes 4.4 his Temple and thy vessel his Temple that thou mayest not profane it and thy vessel that thou mayest not defile and pollute it nor defile thy soul in it For this kind of
we sit down aâ—d dispute As he is a Saviour we will find him work enough but as he is a Lord we will do nothing When we hear he is a Stone we think onely that he is LAPIS FUNDAMENTALIS a sure stone to build on or LAPIS ANGULARIS a corner stone to draw together and unite things naturally incompatible as Man and God the guilty person and the Judge the Sinner and the Law-giver and quite forget that he may be LAPIS OFFENSIONIS a stone of offence to stumble at a stone on which we may be broken and which may fall upon us and dash us to pieces And so not looking on the Lord we shipwreck on the Saviour For this is the great mistake of the world To separate these two terms Jesus and the Lord and so handle the matter as if there were a contradiction in them and these two could not stand together Love and Obedience nay To take Christ's words out of his mouth and make them ours MISERICORDIAM VOLO NON SACRIFICIUM We will have mercy and no sacrifice We say he is the Lord it is our common language And though we are taught to forget our Liturgy yet we remember well enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Lord have mercy And here Mercy and Lord kiss each other We say the Father gave him power and we say he hath power of himself Psal 2. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance saith God to Christ And Christ saith I and the Father are one We believe that he shall judge the world John 5.22 and we read that the Father hath committed this judgment to the Son Dedit utique generando non largiendo God gave him this commission when he begat him and then he must have it by his eternal generation as the Son of God So Ambrose But S. Augustine is peremptory Whatsoever in Scripture is said to be committed to Christ belongeth to him as the Son of Man Here indeed may seem to be a distance but in this rule they meet and agree God gave his commission to Christ as Man but he had not been capable of it it he had not been God As he is the Son of God he hath the capacity as the Son of man the execution Take him as Man or take him as God this Jesus is the Lord. Cùm Dominus dicatur unus agnoscitur saith Ambrose There is but one Faith Vers 4 5 6. and but one Lord. In this chapter operations are from God gifts from the Spirit and administrations from the Lord. Christ might well say You call me Lord and Master and so I am a Lord as in many other respects so jure redemtionis by the right of Redemption and jure belli by way of conquest His right of Dominion by taking us out of slavery and bondage is an easie Speculation For who will not be willing to call him Lord who by a strong arm and mighty power hath brought him out of captivity Our Creation cost God the Father no more but a DIXIT He spake the word and it was done But our Redemption cost God the Son his most precious bloud and life onely that we might fall down and worship this our Lord A Lord that hath shaken the powers of the Grave and must shake the powers of thy soul A Lord to deliver us from Death and to deliver us from Sin to bring life and immortality to light and to order our steps and teach us to walk to it to purchase our pardon and to give us a Law to save us that he may rule us and to rule us that he may save us We must not hope to divide Jesus from the Lord for if we do we lose them both Save us he will not if he be not our Lord and if we obey him not Our Lord he is still and we are under his power but under that power which will bruise us to pieces And here appeareth that admirable mixture of his Mercy and Justice tempered and made up in the rich treasury of his Wisdom his Mercy in pardoning sin and his Justice in condemning sin in his flesh Rom 8.3 and in our flesh his Mercy in covering our sins and his Justice in taking them away his Mercy in forgetting sins past and his Justice in preventing sin that it come no more his Mercy in sealing our pardon and his Justice in making it our duty to sue it out For as he would not pardon us without his Son's obedience to the Cross no more will he pardon us without our obedience to his Gospel A crucified Saviour and a mortified sinner a bleeding Jesus and a broken heart a Saviour that died once unto sin and a sinner dead unto sin Rom. 6.10 these make that heavenly composition and reconcile Mercy and Justice and bring them so close together that they kiss each other For how can we be free and yet love our fetters how can we be redeemed from sin that are sold under sin how can we be justified that resolve to be unjust how can we go to heaven with hell about us No Love and Obedience Hope and Fear Mercy and Justice Jesus and the Lord are in themselves and must be considered by us as bound together in an everlasting and undivided knot If we love his Mercy we shall bow to his Power If we hope for favour we shall fear his wrath If we long for Jesus we shall reverence the Lord. Unhappy we if he had not been a Jesus and unhappy we if he had not been a Lord Had he not been the Lord the world had been a Chaos the Church a Body without a Head a Family without a Father an Army without a Captain a Ship without a Pilot and a Kingdom without a King But here Wisdom and Mercy and Justice Truth and Peace Reconcilement and Righteousness Misery and Happiness Earth and Heaven meet together and are concentred even in this everlasting Truth in these three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. And thus much of the Lesson which we are to learn We come now to our task and to enquire What it is to say it It is soon said It is but three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. The Indian saith it and the Goth saith it and the Persian saith it totius mundi una vox CHRISTUS est Christ Jesus is become the language of the whole world The Devils themselves did say it Matth. 8.29 Jesus thou Son of God And if the Heretick will not confess it dignus est clamore daemonum convinci saith Hilary What more fit to convince an Heretick then the cry of the Devils themselves Acts 19. The vagabond Jews thought to work miracles with these words And we know those virgins who cried Lord Lord open unto us were branded with the name of fools and shut out of doors Whilest we are silent we stand as it were behind the wall we lie
blessings or by his judgments yet if we seek him he will be found Let us have as much feeling as the Cedars of Libanus which are shaken with his voice Let us seek him for there may be more wrath yet left in his vials let us seek him that he poure it not forth that our gold become not dim Lam. 4. that the pretious sons of Sion become not as earthen pitchers that the tongue of the suckling cleave not to the roof of his mouth for thirst that they amongst us who are brought up in scarlet embrace not the dunghils that our Jerusalem be not made a heap of stones And therefore let us with one heart and mind make a covenant to seek the Lord 2 Chron. 15.12 who now seemeth to stand behind the cloud and hide himself from us This is a Holy League a blessed Covenant indeed and we never yet read of any other Let those who have lost him by pride bow and seek him by humility those who have lost him by luxury seek him by temperance and severe discipline those who have lost him by profaneness seek him by reverence and devotion Let all seek him that he may be found of all and return to the many thousands of his Israel that we may be found in him in peace without spot and blameless and he may be found to us as light shining upon our Tabernacles but as a consuming fire devouring the adversary that the tryal of our faith which is much more pretious then gold that perisheth though it be tryed with fire may be found unto praise and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.7 and he may be found to us our exceeding great and everlasting reward The Twentieth SERMON PART I. MATTH VI. 12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors BEing to prepare you for a feast even the Supper of the Lamb there to partake of the body and bloud of Christ of all those benefits which issued from him with his bloud and are the effects of his love I could not invite your thoughts or call your meditations to a fitter and more proper object then this the Mercy of God covering your sins and at once working Mercy in you towards your brethren his Grace and Pardon and the Condition required to make it ours And here we have them both in this Petition God shining upon us with the bright beams of his mercy that it may reflect from us upon others Christ's bloud distilling upon our souls to melt them that as he was merciful we may be merciful as he forgiveth us our debts we may forgive our debtors In which Petition there are two parts or members which evidently shew themselves In the first is comprehended that which we desire in the second the cause or manner S. Cyprian calleth it the Law by which we put it up Forgive us our debts SICUT as we forgive our debtors God is ready if we be well qualified but if we forgive not then he shutteth his ears and is deaf to our petition For with what measure we mete he will measure to us again If we take our brother by the throat he will deliver us to the goaler If we will not forgive our brother an hundred pence a disgrace some injury some debt something which would be nothing if we were merciful he hath no reason to forgive us all Secundum nostram sententiam judicabimur He will pass no other sentence upon us then that which we have subsribed to in this Petition We beg for pardon on this condition SICUT ET NOS If or As we forgive our debtors And if we make not good our condition we do but prompt the Judge to the severity of a denial and ex ore nostro are condemned already out of our own mouth Let us then take a view of them both both of what we desire Forgiveness of our debts and what we bind our selves to in this request Forgiveness of others In the first we shall consider 1. Why Sins are called debts 2. What Remission of sin is What it is we desire when we pray for forgiveness of sins And this will fill up our first part In the second part 1. Who these Debtors are we must forgive 2. What Debts or Trespasses they be 3. In what the parity or similitude consisteth what extent the SICUT hath and how far our forgiveness must answer and resemble God's And of these we shall speak in their order First our Sins are compared to pecuniary Debts And they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a kind of analogy and proportion betwixt them For what S. Matthew here calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debts S. Luke calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sins And we may contemplate the wisdom of the holy Ghost in making choice of this resemblance in fashioning himself to the natural affections of men and bringing us to a sight of the deformity of our sins by that which is familiar to our eyes When we say that Sin is a transgression of the Law we are bold to ask whether it be a Substance and real thing or a Defect whether it be a Privation or Positive act We talk of the Act of sin and the Habit of sin and the Guilt of sin And we give it divers names according to its several effects and operations We call it a stain because it defaceth the image of God a pollution because of that contagion with which it doth infect the soul a prevarication because it is a kind of collusion and defeat of the command a crime because it deserveth to be brought to the bar and accused wickedness and abomination because it is injurious to the Majesty of the Highest But none of these appellations do express Sin so lively to the very sense as when we call it a debt Those names many times flie about us like atomes in the air shew themselves to the understanding and straight vanish away or if they enter they make no deep impression but this word is a goad cum ictu quodam auditur we hear it with a kind of smart Rem invisibilem per visibilis rei formam describit It conveyeth unto us that which is in its own nature invisible for who ever handled Wickedness who ever saw the wrath of God by the forms of things that are visible and familiar to us that we may more deeply apprehend and more firmly remember them And as in many places of Scripture God draweth reasons from outward blessings making our love to them a motive to bring us to himself so here he applieth himself to our infirmity and to drive us from sin calleth it by that name we love not to hear as mothers use to fright their froward children with the names of Hags and Spirits and Hobgoblins And this is the wisdom of the holy Ghost to take us by craft To win us to Wisdom by calling it a bracelet or ornament to bring the ambitious to him by telling
For a Debt and a Forfeiture may be paid at last and if the debtor be not able to pay he may give his service his body some satisfaction and some satisfaction is better then none But he that committeth Sin is the servant of sin for ever and can never redeem it if for no other reason yet for this alone that he did commit it For not a myriad of vertues can satisfie for any one breach of our obligation and no hand but that of Mercy can cancell and make it void If we be in debt with God nothing can quit us but forgiveness And therefore we pray Forgive us our debts And so we fall upon our next part What is meant by Remission of sins or Forgiveness of debts And here we lie prostrate before the throne of God and desire forgiveness And what that is we cannot be to seek if we consider those judicial terms which the Scripture useth For we read of a a 1 Cor. 4.4 Judge of a b 2 Cor. 5.10 judgment seat of a c Rom. 2.15 witness of a d Rom. 3.19 conviction of a e Col. 2.14 hand-writing of an f 1 John 2.1 Advocate and in this Petition our sins are delivered in the notion of debts So that when we pray for the forgiveness of our sins we do as it were stand at the bar of God's justice and plead for mercy acknowledge the hand-writing but beseech him to cancel it confess our sins but sue out our pardon that we may be justified from those things from which by the Law we could not and though we are not yet for his sake who is our Surety and Advocate to count us righteous and pronounce us innocent This is all we learn in Scripture concerning Remission of sins Et quicquid à Deo discitur totum est as the Father speaketh That which we learn from God is all we can learn But as the Philosophers agreed there was a chief good and happiness which man might attain unto but could not agree what it was so it hath fallen out with Christians They all consent that there is mercy with God that we may be saved they make Remission of sins an article of their Creed but then they rest not here but to the covering of their sins require a garment of righteousness of their own thread and spinning to the blotting out of their sins some bloud and some virtue of their own and to the purging them out some infused habit of herent righteousness and so by their interpretations and additions and glosses they leave this Article in a cloud then which the day it self is not clearer As Astronomers when a new star appeareth in their Hemisphere dispute and altercate till that star go out and remove it self out of their sight so have we disputed and talked Justification and Remission of sins almost out of sight For there is nothing more plain and even without rub or difficulty nothing more open to the eye and yet nothing at which the quickest apprehensions have been more dazled Not to speak of the heathen who counted it a folly to believe there were any such thing and could not see how he that killed a man should not be a homicide or he no adulterer who had defiled a woman quibus melius fide quam ratione respondetur whom we may give leave to reason whilest we believe It hath been the fault of Christians when the truth lay in their way to pass it by or leap over it and to follow some phansies and imaginations of their own How many combates had S. Paul with the false brethren who would bring in the observation of the Ceremonial and Moral Law as sufficient to salvation How did he travel in birth again of the Galatians that Christ might be truly formed in them And yet how many afterwards did Galaticari as Tertullian speaketh were as foolish as the Galatians How many made no better use of it then to open a gap and make a way to let in all licentiousness and profaneness of life nay went so far as to think it most necessary as if Remission of sins were not a medicine to purge but a provocative to inerease sin Nor was this doctrine onely blemished by those monsters of men who sate down and consulted and did deliberately give sentence against the Truth but received some blot and stain from their hands who were the stoutest champions for it who though they saw the Truth and did acknowledge it yet let that fall from their pens which posterity after took up to obscure this doctrine and would not rest content with that which is as much as we can desire and more then we can deserve Remission of sins Hence it was that we were taught in the Schools That Justification is a change from a state of unrighteousness to a state of righteousness That as in every motion there is a leaving of one term to acquire another so in Justification there is expulsion of sin and infusion of grace Which is most true in the concrete but not in the abstract in the Justified person but not in Justification which is an act of God alone From hence those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those unsavoury and undigested conclusions of the Church of Rome That to justifie a sinner is not to pronounce but to make him just That the formal cause of Justification is inherent sanctity That our righteousness before God consisteth not onely in remission of sins That we may redeem our sins as well as Christ we from temporal as he from eternal pain And then this Petition must run thus FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES that is Make us so just that we may need no forgiveness Forgive us the breach of the Law because we have kept the Law Forgive us our sins for our good works Forgive me my intemperance for my often fasting my incontinency for my zeal my oppression for my alms my murther for the Abby and Hospital which I built my fraud my malice my oppression for the many Sermons I have heard A conceit which I fear findeth room and friendly enterteinment in those hearts which are soon hot at the very mery mention of Popery or Merit In a word they say and unsay sometimes bring in Remission of sins and sometimes their own Satisfaction and so set S. Paul and their Church at such a distance that neither St. Peter himself nor all the Angels and Saints she prayeth to will be able to reconcile them and make his Gratis and their Merits meet in one It is true every good act doth justifie a man so far as it is good and God so far esteemeth them holy and good and taketh notice of his graces in his â—â—â—ldren he registereth the Patience of Job the Zeal of Phinehas the Devotion of David not a cup of cold water not a mite flung into the Treasury but shall have its reward But yet all the works of all the Saints in the world cannot satisfie
he hath put a pardon into our hands We must therefore seek out another Righteousness And we may well say we must seek it for it is well near lost in this Imputed Righteousness is that we hold by and Inherent righteousness is Popery or Pâ—lagianism We will not be what we ought because Christ will make us what we would be We will not be just that he may justifie us and we will rebell because he hath made our peace As men commonly never more forfeit their obedience then under a mild Prince But if the love of the world would suffer us to open our eyes we might then see a Law even in the Gospel and the Gospel more binding then ever the Law was Nor did Christ bring in that Righteousness by faith to thrust out this that we may do nothing that we may do any thing because Faith can work such a miracle No saith S. Paul he establisheth the Law He added to it he reformed it he enlarged it made it reach from the act to the look from the look to the thought Nor is it enough for the Christian to walk a turn with the Philosopher or to go a Sabbath-day's journey with the Jew or make such a progress in Righteousness as the Law of Moses measured out No Christ taught us a new kind of Righteousness and our burthen is not onely reserved but increased that this Righteousness may abound a Righteousness which striketh us dumb when the slanderer's mouth is open and loud against us which boundeth our desires when vanity wooeth us setteth a knife to our throat when the fruit is pleasant to the eye giveth laws to our understanding chaineth up our will when Kingdoms are laid at our feet shutteth up our eyes that we may not look upon a second woman which a Jew might have embraced calleth us out of the world whilest we are in the world and maketh us spiritual whilest we are in the flesh Justitia sincera a sincere Righteousness without mixture or sophistication and justitia integra an entire and perfect Righteousness Righteousness like to the love of our Saviour integros tradens integrum se danti a Righteousness delivering up the whole man both body and soul unto him who offered up himself a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world For conclusion of this point and to make some use of it Beloved this is the Object we must look on And we must use diligence and be very wary that we mistake it not that we take not that to be our Juno which is but a cloud that to be Righteousness which flesh and bloud our present occasions our present necessities our unruly lusts and desires may set up and call by that name This is the great and dangerous errour in which many Christians are swallowed up and perish not to take Righteousness in its full extent and compass in that form and shape in which it is tendered and so fulfil all righteousness but to contract and shrink it up to leave it in its fairest parts and offices and to vvork all unrighteousness and then make boast of its name And thus the number of the Righteous may be great the Goats more then the Sheep the gate vvide and open that leadeth unto the Kingdom of God Thus the Hypocrite vvho doth but act a part is righteous the Zelote vvho setteth all on fire is righteous the Schismatick vvho teareth the seamless coat of Christ is righteous he whose hands yet reek vvith the bloud of his brethren is righteous righteous Pharisees righteous Incendiaries righteous Schismaticks righteous Traitours and Murtherers not Abel but Cain the righteous All are righteous For this hath been the custom of vvicked men to bid defiance to Righteousness and then comfort themselves with her name We vvill not mention the Righteousness of the heathen For they being utterly devoid of the true knowledge of Christ it might perhaps diminish the number of their stripes but could not adde one hair to their stature or raise them nearer to the Kingdom of God Nor will we speak of the Righteousness of the Jew For they vvere in bondage under the Elements of the world nor could the Lavv make any of them perfect We Christians on vvhom the Sun of Righteousness hath clearly shined depend too much upon an Imputed Righteousness An imputed Righteousness why that is all It is so and will lift us up unto happiness if we adde our own not as a supplement but as a necessary requisite not to seal our pardon for that it cannot do but to further our admittance For we never read that the Spirit did seal an unrighteous person that continued in his sin to the day of his redemption No Imputed Righteousness must be the motive to work in us inherent Righteousness and God will pardon us in Christ is a strong argument to infer this conclusion Therefore we must do his will in Christ. For Pardon bringeth greater obligation then a law Christ dyed for us is enough to win Judas himself those that betray him and those that crucifie him to repentance The death of Christ is verbum visibile saith Clement a visible word For in the death of Christ are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Righteousness If you look upon his Cross and see the inscription JESUS OF NAZERETH KING OF THE JEWS you cannot miss of another HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS TO THE LORD There hung his sacred body and there hung all those bracelets and ornaments as Solomon calleth them those glorious examples of all vertues There hung the most true and most exact pictures of Patience and Obedience and unparallel'd Love And if we take them not out and draw them in our selves imputed Righteousness will not help us or rather it will not be imputed What Righteousness imputed to a man of Belial Christ's Love imputed to him that hateth him his Patience to a revenger his Truth to the fraudulent his Obedience to the traitour his Mercy to the cruel his Innocency to the murtherer his Purity to the unclean his Doing all things well to those who do all things ill God forbid No let us not deceive our selves Let us not sleep in sin and then please our selves with a pleasant dream of Righteousness which is but a suggestion of the enemy whose art it is to settle that in the phansie which should be rooted in the heart and to lead us to the pit of destruction full of those thoughts which lift us up as high as heaven Assumed names false pretences forced thoughts these are the pillars which uphold his kingdom and subvert all Righteousness Vera justitia hoc habet omnia in se vertit True Righteousness complieth with nothing that is contrary or diverse from it It will not comply with the Pharisee and make his seeming a reality it will not comply with the Schismatick and make his pride humility it will not comply with the prosperous Traitour and make him a Father of his
not in their heart or hand but onely in their ear Who for fear they should not find it get them a heap of teachers as S. Paul prophesieth of them but it is according to their own lusts teachers whom they must teach as a master doth his scholar that lesson which he must but repeat again The Preacher and the hearers may seem to abound in charity for they are alwayes of the same mind in all things He is our Preacher we have made him ours And then how do we love his errours how do we applaud his ignorance how do we cry up those frivolous toyes and that witless wit which little conduce to Râ—ghteousness and are far below the majesty of the word of God! O pudor would the Father have cried What a shame is this Can we conceive any thing more ridiculous Nay what a grief is this that so many should take such pains and be at such charge to be deceived that so many should please and flatter themselves to their own destruction I will therefore grow further upon you and be bold to conclude that in this formality of hearing I say in this formality of hearing because I would not be mistaken for hearing of it self is the ordinary means of salvation but in this formality we betray more vanity then we do in any other action of our life For tell me is it not a vain thing to take up water in a sieve to let in and out nay to let in and loath and in this reciprocal intercourse of hearing and neglecting to spin out the thread of our life and at the end of it to look for the kingdom of heaven to come so oft to hear of Righteousness with a resolution to let it pass no further then the ear to give Righteousness no larger place to breathe in then from the pulpit to our pew from the Preacher's mouth to our ear to come in all our vanity to hear a declamation against Vanity nay to make a Sermon of Righteousness a prologue to that unrighteousness which an Heathen would have cursed to have the ear full of Righteousness and the hands full of bloud Certainly if those actions be vain which are not driven to a right end then this Hearing is in vain Did I call it a vain action of our life I will yet increase upon you and be bold to pronounce it a Sin and that of the greatest magnitude Will you have it in plain terms It is no less then a mockery of God For do we not in a manner tell God to his face for our very thoughts are words to him Lord we will come into thy courts to hear of Righteousness and leave that and the Church together behind us We will hear the burthen of pride and make it a garment to cloath us of Temperance and drink down the thought of it of Chastity and defile it We will hear of Righteousness and set up all the faculties of our souls and all the members of our bodies against it except the Ear. What is this but to be learning our Alphabet all the dayes of our life and never put the letters together to make up one word or syllable towards Righteousness What is this but to think to please God with a piece of service vvhich doth most please our sense What is this but to mock God Be not deceived God is not mocked Righteousness is res morosa a coy and severe thing and will not dwell in the hollow of the ear but must be seen in the world in our houses in the education of our children in the streets in our modest deportment in the Church in our reverence in the Commonwealth in our peaceable conformity Every place must be a shrine for Righteousness nor is she confined to the Church alone Therefore S. Basil will tell us that Hearing in Scripture is of another nature from that which we so much delight and pride our selves in For when God biddeth us hear his meaning is we should obey He that hath ears to hear saith our Saviour let him hear Why Speak Lord and thy servant must needs hear But let him hear that is let him seek Righteousness Bare Hearing then will not reach home There is yet a third thing behind Though our Profession and frequent Hearing do not yet the Breathing forth of our Prayers and Supplications to God may reach home As I do not derogate from Hearing but Hearing only so I cannot attribute enough to Prayer Hearing may seem to be a duty conditional and respective in respect of the weak condition of our nature If we could obey without it Hearing were of no use at all But Prayer is absolute and necessary to which we should be bound were we again in Paradise For even the Saints and Angels tender their Prayers And Christ himself in whom there was no sin in the dayes of his flesh offered up strong supplications and doth yet intercede and pray for us This then may come near it When we are on our knees and breathe forth our desires to God we may seem to be like the dry and parched ground and to open our selves that the dew from heaven this Righteousness may distil upon us and fill us But yet we must not be too hasty to determine and conclude this is it For that may befall Praying which doth Hearing It may be alone and our prayers may be loud and frequent vvhen our desires are asleep nay our Desires may run contrary to them and deny our Prayers We may ask for fish when we would have a serpent ask for Righteousness when we desire riches and beg for eternity in heaven when we had rather dwell and delight our selves with the children of men Many times we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wander from our selves and follow our flying thoughts to that vanity which we pray against Our understandings are taken up with two contrary objects Now a sigh anon a burning thought now an eye lifted up to heaven anon full of the adulteress now a strong abjuration of sin and before the Amen be said as strong a resolution to retain it We grind the face of the poor and desire God to instill thoughts of mercy into us We every day break his Law and are every day earnest with him that we may keep it We pray for Righteousness which God is readier to give then we to ask and upon the fairest proffer turn our backs and which is an extremity of folly will not have that which we so oft beg upon our knees We are then yet to seek what it is to seek Righteousness For our Profession we may carry with us when we run from Righteousness our frequent hearing is but a listning after it or rather after something which may be as musick to the ear and last of all we may pray for it and seek the contrary You will ask then What is it to seek Righteousness I deny not but there may be great use of these but these do
we were afraid of when we drink down sin for some pleasant tast it hath when we know it will be our poyson The Prophet David plainly expresseth it Nolunt intelligere They will not understand and seek God Psal 3.6 The errour then in practice is from the Will alone which is swai'd more by the flatteries and sophistry of the Sense then by the dictates of the Understanding as we many times see that a parasite finds welcome and attention when we stop our ears to seaven wisemen that can render a reason An errour of a foul aspect and therefore we look upon it but at distance through masks and disguises we seek out divers inventions and out of a kind of fear that we may not erre at all or not erre soon enough we make Sin yet more sinfull and help the Devil to deceive us Sometimes we comfort our selves with that which we call a punishment and being born weak we are almost persuaded it is our duty to fall Sometimes the countenance of the Law is too severe and we tremble and dare not come neer and because we think it hard to keep we are the more active to break it Sometimes we turn the grace of God into wantonness and since he can do what he please we will not do what we ought Sometimes we turn our very remedy into a disease make the Mercy of God a kind of tentation to sin and that which should be the death of the sin the security of the sinner Sometimes we hammer out some glorious pretense propose a good end and then drive furiously towards it though we perish in the way to defend one Law break all the rest pluck the Church in pieces to fit her with a new garment a new fangled discipline fight against the King for the good of the Common-wealth tread Law and Government under foot to uphold them say it is necessary and do it as if there could be an invincible necessity to sin This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil calleth it the Devil's mothod to bring-in God himself pleading for Baal and to suborn the Truth as an advocate for Errour For to make up the cheat he paints our errour in a new dress makes it a lovely majestick errour that we begin to bow and worship it Similitudo creat errorem Errour saith Tully hath its being from the resemblance which one thing bears to another It is Presumption but it is like Assurance It is Sacrilege but it is like Zeal It is Rebellion but it is like the Love of our country For as the common principles of truth may be discovered in every sect even in those opinions which are most erroneous so the common seeds of moral Goodness have some shew and appearance in those actions which are wholly evil There is something of Love in Effeminacy something of Zeal in Fury some sound of Fidelity in the loudest Treason something of the Saint in the Devil himself These are fomenta erroris these breed and nourish Errour in us these bring forth the brat and nurse it up S. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certain wandring and stubborn imaginations the vapors of a corrupt heart exhaled and drawn up into the brain where they hang as meteors irregularly moving and wheel'd about by the agitation of a wanton phansie and S. Pau'ls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strong disputes and subtle reasonings against God and our own souls The Vulgar translates it consilia deleberate counsels to undo our selves We consult and advise we hold a kind of Parliament within us and the issue is we shake and ruine that State which we should establish Nor do these minuere voluntatem make our errour less wilfull but aggrandize it for of themselves they have no being no reality but are the creation of the mind the work of a wanton phansie created and set up to sanctifie and glorifie our errour There is no such terrour in the Law till we have made it a killing letter no difficulty which our unwillingness frames not no pretense which we commend not no deceiving likeness which we paint not Still that is true Cor nostrum nos decepit our Heart hath deceived us Our reason is ready to advise if we will consult and it is no hard matter to devest an action of those circumstances with which we have clothed it and to wipe out the paint which we our selves have laid on But as S. Augustine well observes Impia mens odit ipsum intellectum When we forsake our Reason and Understanding we soon begin to distast and hate it and because it doth not prophesie good unto us but evil are unwilling to hear it speak to us any more from thence we hear nothing but threatnings and menaces and the sentence of condemnation It exhorteth and corrects and instructs it is a voice behind us and a voice within us and we must turn back from the pleasing paths of errour if we listen to it Timemus intelligere nè cogamur facere we are afraid to understand our errour because we are unwilling to avoid it we are afraid to hear of Righteousness who are resolved to be unjust And what was an apologie for Ovid may be applyed to us to our condemnation Non ignoramus vitia sed amamus We are not ignorant of the errours of our life but we do love them and will be those beasts which we know must be thrust through with a dart I have now brought before your eye the Errour we must fly from and the Apostle exhorts us to make haste 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be not deceived It is tender'd as good counsel but indeed is a law For as Tertullian speaks If the ground of every Law be Reason Lex erit omne quod ratione constiterit à quocunque productum est Whatsoever Reason commends must be a law to us though it be not written in tables of stone nor proclaimed by the voice of the herald So had not this exhortatation been Apostolical yet it might well carry with it the force of a Law because nothing is more opposite to Reason then Errour I may say it is not onely a Law but compendium totius Eâ—angelii the sum of all the precepts of the Gospel or rather a â—â—â—lar to preserve them all pressing upon us a duty which if well observed will fit and qualifie us for all the duties of our life And thâ—refore what the Pope usurps upon weak grounds or none at all is the prerogative or rather the duty of every Christian in those things which concern his peace to be infallible One is no further a Christian nâ—si in quantum caeperit esse Angelus then so far forth as by casting off errour more and more he begins to have a tast of an Angelical estate And now we should descend to application And I could wish I could not apply it But if I should apply it I must make use of the Rhetorick of the antients who in a copions subject were wont to
tell their auditors that they were impoverisht with plenty streitned with abundance dull'd and cloy'd with too much matter and cry out with them Where should I begin or how should I end For we may behold the World as a theatre or stage and most men walking and treading their paces as in a shadow all in shew and visor nothing in substance maskt and hidden from others and masked and hidden from themselves fond of themselves and yet enemies to themselves loving and yet hating flattering and yet wounding raising and yet destroying themselves in their forehead Holiness to the Lord in their heart a legion of Devils breathing forth Hosanna's when they are a nayling their Saviour to the cross canonizing themselves saints when the Devil hath them in his snare hugging their errour proud of their errour glorying in their shame wiser then the Law wiser then the Gospel above command nauseating and loathing all advice and counsel whatsoever Reason or Revelation breaths against them as the smoke of the bottomless pit We may behold the Covetous grasping of wealth smiling at them that love not the world and counting them fools because they will not be so but this man is sick and dyeth this man perisheth and where is he We may behold the Ambitious in his ascent and mount and in his height looking down with scorn upon those dull and heavy spirits who will not follow after and yet every step he rises is a foul descent and he is never nearer to the lowest pit then when he is at his height This man falls and is dasht to pieces and where is he Behold the Seditious who moves and walks and beats up his march in the name of the Lord of hosts and thinks God beholding to him when he breaks his Law this man dyeth and perisheth and where is he Where is the Saint when the Covetous the Ambitious the Seditious man are in hell Oh beloved would we could see this and beware of it betimes before the Son of man comes who will pluck off our masks and disguises and make us a wofull spectacle to the world to men and to Angels Oh what a grief is it that we should never hear nor know our selves till we hear that voice Depart from me I know you not that we should deceive our selves so long till Mercy it self cannot redeem us from our errour That we should never see our selves but in Hell never feel our pain till it be eternal Oh what a sad thing is it that we should seal up our eyes in our own bloud and filth that we should delight in darkness and call it light that we should adore our errours and worship our own vain imaginations and in this state and pomp and triumph strut on to our destruction To day if you will hear his voyce harden not your hearts Hic meus est dixere dies This is our day to look into our selves to examine our selves to mistrust our selves to be jealous of our selves vereri omnia opera as Job speaks to be afraid of every work we do of every enterprise we take in hand to hearken to God when he speaks to us by our selves for Reason is his voice as well as Scripture By the one he speaks in us by the other to us to consult with our Reason and the rule to hear them speak in their own dialect not glossed and corrupted by our sensual affections to strive with our selves to fight against our selves to deny our selves and in this blessed agony and holy contention to lift up our hearts to the God of light to take up that of the Prophet David and make it our prayer Lord deliver us from the deceitful man that is from our selves I need not stand any longer upon this For even they that deceive themselves will willingly subscribe to all that I have said and commonly none defie Errour louder then they who call it unto them both with hands and words We will therefore rather as we proposed discover the Danger which men incurre by joyning with it that we may learn by degrees to shake it off to detest and avoid it In the first place this wilfull deceiving of our selves this deciding for our selves against our selves for our Sense against our Reason this easie falling upon any opinion or persuasion which may bring along with it pleasure or profit or honour all things but the truth is that which layes us open to every dart of Satan which wounds us the deeper because we receive it as an arrow out of Gods quiver as a message from Heaven For we see a false persuasion will build up in us as strong resolutions as a true one Saul was as zealous for the Law as Paul was for the Gospel hereticks are as ready for the fiery tryal as the orthodox the Turk as loud for his Mahomet as the Christian for his Christ In a word Errour produceth as strange effects as Truth Habet Diabolus suos martyres for the Devil hath his martyrs as well as Christ That which is a sin now and so appears a crying mortal sin and we stand at distance and will not come near it anon Profit or Pleasure those two parasites which bewitch the soul plead for it commend it and at last change the shape of it and it hath no voice to speak against us but bids us Go on and prosper It was a monster but now it is clothed and dressed up with the beauty of Holiness and we grow familiar with it It was as menstruous raggs but now we put it on and cloth our selves with it as with the robes of righteousness A false persuasion hath the same power which the Canonists give the Pope to make Evil good and Vice vertue It is a sin but if I do it not I shall loose all that I have and then I do it and then it is no sin It was Oppression it is now Law It was Covetousness it is now Thrift It was Sacrilege it is now Zeal It was Perjury it is now Wisdom Persuasion is a wheel on which the greatest part of the world are turned and circled about till they fall several wayes into several evils and do but touch at the Truth by the way Persuasion builds a Church and Persuasion pulls it down Persuasion formeth a Discipline and Persuasion cancels it Persuasion maketh Saints and Persuasion thrusts them out the Calendar Persuasion makes laws and Persuasion abollisheth them The Stoicks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of preoccupation of the minds the sourse and original of all the actions of our life as powerful when we erre as when the Truth is on our side and commonly carrying us with a greater swinge to that which is forbidden then to that to which we are bound to by a law This is the first mover in all those irregular motions of a wanton and untamed will This is the first wheel in the Devils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his devises and enterprises From this
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
that deceived me every man vvould be ready to say Ah my brother or Ah his glory but vvhen it is I my self deceive my self when I my self am the cheater and the fool and never think my self vviser then vvhen I beguile my self it is a thing indeed to be lamented with tears of bloud but yet it deserves no pity at all Nulla est eorum habenda ratio qui se conjiciunt in non necessarias angustias saith the Civilian The Law helps not those vvho entangle themselves with intricate perplexities nor doth the light of the Gospel shine comfortably upon those vvho vvill not see it It is a true saying He that will not be saved must perish Dyed Abner as a fool dyeth saith David Doth this man erre as a fool erreth or is he deceived for want of understanding or because of the remoteness and distance of the object Then our Saviour himself will plead for him John 9. If you were blind you should have no sin But in the Self-deceiver it is not so His hands are not bound nor his feet tyed in fetters of brass His eye is clear but he dimms it The object is near him even in his mouth and his heart but he puts it from him The law is quick and lively but he makes it a dead letter He turns the day into darkness gropeth at noon as at midnight and turns the morning it self into the shadow of death We have a worthy Writer who himself was Ambassadour in Turky that hath furnisht us with a polite narration of the manners of the people and the customes of the places Amongst the rest he tells us what himself observed that when the Turks did fall to their cups and were resolved to fill themselves with such liquor as they knew would intoxicate and make them drunk they were wont to make a great and unusual noyse with which they called down their Soul to the remotest part of their bodies that it might be as it were at distance and so not conscious of their brutish intemperance Beloved our practice is the very same When we venture upon some gross notorious sin which commends and even sanctifieth it self by some profit or pleasure it brings along with it we straight call down our Reason that it may not check us when we are reaching at the prey nor pull us back when we are climbing to honour nor work a loathing in us of those pleasures which we are drinking down as the ox doth water we say unto it Art thou come to blast our riches and to poyson our delights Shall we now part with the wedge of gold shall we fly the harlots lips as a cocatrice Shall we lay our honour in the dust Shall every thing which our soul loveth be like the mountain which must not be toucht Avoid Reason not now Reason but Satan to trouble and torment us What have we to do with thee Thou art an offense unto us a stone of offense a scandal And now if there be a Dixit Dominus against us if the Lord say it he doth not say it if a Prophet speak it he prophesies lyes if Christ speak it we bid him Depart from us for we will be sinful men And hence it comes to pass that our errour is manifest and yet not seen that our errour is known but not acknowledged that our errour is punisht but not felt Hence it comes to pass that we regard not the truth we are angry with the truth we persecute the truth that admonitions harden us that threatnings harden us that judgments harden us that both the sunshine and the storm when God shines upon us and when he thunders against us we are still the same knowing enough but basely prostituting our knowledge and experience to the times and our lusts false to God and our selves and so walking on triumphantly in the errours of our life dreaming of eternity till at last we meet with what we never dreamt of death and destruction Read 2 Kings 8. and see the meeting of Elisha and Hazael The Text saith v. 11 12 13. The man of God wept And when Hazael askt him Why weepeth my Lord the Prophet answered Because I know the evil that thou wiâ—t do to the children of Israel Their strong holds thou wilt set on fire and their young men thou wilt slay with the sword and wilt dash their children and rip up their women with child What did Hazael now think Even think himself as innocent as those children What is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing Should the same weeping Prophet have wept out such a Prophesie to some of after ages and have told them Thus and thus you shall do actions that have no savour of Man or Christian actions which the Angels desire not to look upon and which Men themselves tremble to think on would they not have replied as Hazael did Are we Dogs and Devils that we should do such things And yet we know such things have been done I might here enlarge my self and proceed to discover yet a further danger For Errour is fruitful and multiplies it self It seldom ends where it begins but steals upon us as the Night first in a twilight then in thicker darkness Onely the difference is it is commonly night with us when the Sun is up and in our hemisphere We run upon Errour when Light it self is our companion and guide First we deceive our selves with some gloss some pretense of our own Our passion our lust our own corrupt heart deceiveth us And anon our Night is dark as Hell it self and we are willing to think that God may be of our mind well pleased with our errour Now against this we must set up the Wisdom of God Be not deceived It is not so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is not mocked saith our Apostle This I call'd the Vindication of Gods Wisdom my second part Of which in the next place The Nine and Twentieth SERMON PART II. GALAT. VI. 7. Be not deceived God is not mocked For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap HAving done with the first part of the Text a Dehortation from Errour in these words Be not deceived I proceed to the second which I call a Vindication of God's Wisdome in the next words God is not mocked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an undeniable position The eyes of the Lord saith the Prophet 2 Chron. 16.9 run to and fro throughout the whole earth Deus videt and Deus judicat are common notions which we receive è censu naturae out of the stock and treasury of Nature there being such a sympathy betwixt these principles and the mind of Man that so far forth as the acknowledgment of these will bring us the soul is naturaliter Christiana a Christian by nature it self without the help of Grace There was no man ever who acknowledged a God but gave him a bright and piercing eye This is
hath written a book De arte nihil credendi of the Art of believing nothing and he lays it down as a tryed conclusion Oportet priùs Calvinistam fieri qui Atheus esse vult He that would be an Atheist must first turn Calvinist Which Maldonate the Jesuite receives as he would an Oracle But know from what coasts it breaths and may name it a prophane scoff and a most malitious speech merum pus venenum Yet this use we may make of it That we watch the Serpents head and beware the beginnings of evil For if we once serve in the Devils tents we may be engaged further then we ever thought we should and by going from our God we may learn to slight and mock him For there be steps and degrees and approches to Atheism nor is any man made an Atheist in the twinkling of an eye and this wilfull deceiving of our selves leads apace that way even to a distast of God We first mock our selves and then are willing to mock him For we never hate God till we have given him just reason to hate us Odium timor spirat saith Tertullian Hatred is an exhalation from Fear and we then begin to wish he had no Eye when we have cause to fear the weight of his Hands This is a sad declination even to the condition of the damned spirits nay of the Devil himself whose first wish was To be as God the next That there should be no God at all And thus much of the second point That we may have it in voto in our wish and desire to delude and mock God But now in the third and last place we may yet descend a step lower even to the gates of Hell it self I may say lower yet for as we may have it in voto so we may have it in studio As we may wish it were so so may we strive and study to believe it and use all means to make it present it self unto us as an article of our Creed which the damned cannot do We may strive to blot out those characters which are indeleble to rase out those afflicting thoughts of God out of our memory to drown the cry of one sin with the noise of more to feed our Love of the world with more wealth our Lust with more uncleanness and our Revenge with more bloud make a sin a vertue a crying sin an advocate by committing it often and answer our chiding Conscience with a song There be Amos 6. saith the Prophet that put far from them that evil day and to this end they chant to the sound of the viol and invent instruments of musick like David They bespeak the Vanities of the world to come in and make their peace call in the pleasure of the Flesh to abate the anguish of the Spirit work out the very thought of evil by the content and profit they reap in doing it laughing and jesting sin out of their memory adding sin unto sin till their conscience be seared as with a hot iron as the Apostle speaks Magnis sceleribus etiam jura naturae intereunt saith the Orator Whilest we are thus familiar with the works of darkness the light of Nature begins to wax dim and by degrees to vanish out of fight First as Bernard speaketh a spiritual chilness possesses the soul and finding no resistance seizeth on the inward man infects the very bowels of the heart chokes up the very wayes of counsel And then these domestick and inward remembrances the voice of Nature and the principles of Reason fail and speak in a broken and imperfect language In a word they are to us as we would have our God be not at hand as the Prophet speaketh but afar off The Historian will tell us that Theivery and Piracy were so frequently practised in some part of Greece that they were accounted no crimes at all And we read of those African parents that they made it a sport nay a religion to sacrifice their children and could not be disswaded from that inhumane custome and long it was before being conquered they were forced to lay it down And if we look abroad into the world we shall find some few indeed of those tender consciences who frame a law to condemn themselves by and so make more sins then there are But quocunque in populo quocunque sub axe in every nation in every corner of the earth we meet vvith those who frame mischief by a law take a pride to quarrel at Articles of their faith and are as active to nullifie the law of works Is Blasphemy a sin they speak it as their language Is Sacrilege a sin All things are alike to them as unholy as themselves Is Revenge a sin It an Heroick vertue Is adultery a sin It was a sin a mortal sin but in these latter and perillous times it hath spoke better things to them who are bold to present it as pleasing to their Understanding as to their Sense Is Rebellion a sin There be that call it by another name If the Son of man come shall he find sin upon the earth Certainly admit our glosses apologies distinctions evasions take us in our big triumphant thoughts there will be none that do evil no not one For what we read of the men of the first age that they know not what it was to dye but fell to their graves as men use to fall upon their beds is true of many now in respect of their spiritual estate they fall into sin as if it were nothing but to ly down and rest to satisfie the sense and please the appetite as if to sin were as natural as to eat And now all is night about us But even in this darkness there is sometimes a scintillation a beam of light darted in upon us which waxeth and waineth as the hand of God is upon us or removed In our ruff and jollity it seems well-near exstinct but in our misery and afflictions it revives many times and begins to move and at last when God strikes us to the ground when our feather is turned into a night cap when Death comes towards us on his pale horse it kindles and blazes as a Comet that foretells our everlasting destruction Now this our way uttereth our foolishness For what a folly is it to follow a Meteor exhal'd from the earth and not that light which is from heaven heavenly to be drove about with a ly and unmoveable as a rock when the Truth speaketh to preserve a wandring thought before an everlasting principle to embrace a suborn'd deceitful solicitation and turn our selves from those native and importunate suggestions from the dictates and counsel of the Spirit of God and though they haunt and pursue us run from them as from our enemies as if we were like to that fabulous rock in Pliny which you could not stir with all your strength but yet might shake with the touch of your finger We may say of this as the
to Death should be to us as the strait and narrow way and that onely broad and easie which leadeth to life in a word that we should sow so sparingly in the one and so plentifully in the other so cheerfully in the one and so grudgingly in the other when the harvests are so different when the one shall bring us full sheaves of Comfort the other yield us nothing but Corruption and that Corruption which is worse then Nothing And so I pass from the Labour of the wicked in sowing to their Harvest I would not call it so but something it is they shall receive answerable to their labour For whatsoever a man sâ—wes that shall he also reap James 1.15 The Seed is sowen Lust hath conceived and brought it forth and with it brought forth Death something answerable to it Generat mortem It begetteth Death as a mother bringeth forth a child like unto her self And what more natural and more congruous then that a Mock should beget a Mock and Laughter Scorn and Neglect Anger and Sin Death If you set at naught all my counsel I also will laugh at your calamity Prov. 1.25 saith the Wisdom of God If you forsake him he will forsake you 2 Chron. 15.2 saith Azariah If you will walk contrary to me Lev. 26.27 28. I will walk contrary to you also in fury saith God by Moses If they stand out with him Jer. 44.11 he will set his face against them Such a reciprocation there is between the Seed and the Harvest between Sin and Punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher as in all contracts there is a giving and receiving He that receiveth by theft dat poenas That is the phrase must give punishment Ipse te subdidisti poena It is the stile of the Imperial Law You have sinned and brought your self under punishment you have sinned and must pay for it He that tasts the lips of the Harlot must feel the biting of the Cockatrice He that eateth stolne bread shall find it gravel in his mouth to break his teeth It was suavis sweet it will in the end be lapidosus as Seneca renders it stony bread Pride goeth before Destruction Prov. 16.18 saith Solomon goeth before it and ushereth it in The wages of sin is Death saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a metaphor taken from war which is a kind servitude for which they received diarium bread every day so that Punishment is the Sinners allotted daily bread The Latine word is merces Wages as due to the Sinner as Hire is to the Labouror and follows as naturally as Harvest doth the Seed-time Sin and Punishment are bound up as it were in the same volume in the beginning Sin in the close Punishment as the Seed-time and the Harvest are in the compass of the same year Nay Sin carries Punishment in its very womb and can be delivered of nothing else So that when the sinner is punished that is but done which in a manner is done already The Hebrew Doctours say Molitur farina molita That corn is ground which was ground before a dead lion is killed and a burning torch is put to the city which is on fire already And if we observe it the metaphor of Sowing doth speak so much For the Seed-time is but a kind of prophesie or rather an exspectation of the Harvest The husbandman is said exspectare annum to exspect the year in proximum annum dives rich upon the next year For he that plows 1 Cor. 9.10 plows in hope saith S. Paul and he that sows sows in hope The Seed lies in the womb of the Earth and Sin in the womb of Time and yet a little while and the harvest will come Onely the one is more certain then the other and here the metaphor will not hold For he that sows corn doth not alwayes reap The heavens may be as brass and the earth as iron Terra eunucha as one speaks the earth may be barren and not bring forth But he that sows to the flesh shall certainly reap corruption He smote the people in his wrath and none hindreth Isa 14.6 some time there is indeed between the Stripe and the Punishment but what is some time to eternity For as sinners mock God so God may seem in a manner to mock their security with his delay admonendi dissimulatione decipere not to favour them so much as to be angry with them as to give them any warning to use the same method in punishing which they do in sinning They defer their repentance and God deferreth his punishment They say Tush he doth not see and he is as still and silent as if he did not see indeed They are stubborn in their ways and he prepares his deadly weapons Cum perversis perversè ages saith the Prophet David by a kind of a Catachristical metaphor With the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward or perverse and obstinate as they He will deal with them by law of Retaliation that there shall be a kind of analogy and proportion of conveniency and likeness between the fact and the punishment that is their wayes were crooked though they seemed strait so the punishment which he inflicts shall be just though it seem perverse as being of another hue and colour from his behaviour to them in the time of their ruff and jollity that as they once judged their actions good because they felt no smart so now they shall know them to be evil by the smart which they shall feel and find what seed they sowed by the harvest which they shall reap And in this is seen first the Justice and secondly the Providence of God For first though God delight not in the death of a sinner though he made not Hell for Men nor Men for Hell yet he is delighted in his own Justice according to which punishment is due to sinners For is it not just that he that sows should reap I say God is delighted in his Justice He cloths himself with it as with a garment as with a robe of honour is clad with Zeal as with a cloak he puts it on as an helmet of salvation upon his head he rowseth himself up as a mighty man he cries out Ah I will be avenged of my enemies Though the pillars of the earth shake and the world be burnt with fire and the Heavens gathered together as a scroll yet Gods Justice is as eternal as himself and stands fast for evermore Dives's wealth cannot bribe it Tertullians's eloquence cannot charm it Herods glory cannot bow it all the power and wealth and eloquence of the world cannot move it but it is levelled at Sin and through all these sends its arrow to it as to a mark And neither God nor Man deny but that it is just saith Plato that he that sins should be punished that he that sows should reap Secondly here is manifestly seen God's Providence which brings Sin
the priest denieth him not Matth. 12.7 Hos 6.6 and our Saviour in the Gospel acquitteth him out of the Prophet I will have mercy and not sacrifice Better all Ceremony should fall to the ground then any one Hungry soul should starve for bread But the laws given to the sons of men as a rule of life are not ceremonial and temporary but reall and eternal nor can those sins vvhich break them receive any cover or palliation And to plead excuse or dispensation against these is to turn mercy into sacrifice to plead for Baal to cover and boulster up and justifie sin vvhich is the greatest sin of all When Sacrifices were omitted or the Sabbath for some reasons not observed vve do not find that God doth complain and Christ maketh it lawful nay necessary in some particulars a sin not to do that which otherwise would be a sin not to neglect the Sabbath to save the life of a man nay of an ass What Ceremony almost can we name vvhich hath not at some time upon just occasion been omitted But vvhen the Moral Law is broken when God's people fall into Idolatry or follow lies vvhen they are murderers or oppressors then he hath a controversie with them and pleadeth against them Here no cover vvill fit no paint nor pargetting vvill serve all the excuses in the vvorld vvill not keep off the sentence of death To imagine that God vvill admit of excuse for the breach of such a Law as is eternal and bindeth all men and at all times vvere as the Father saith to make God Circumscriptorem suae sententiae by a kind of fraud to avoid and defeat his own decree This vvere to make his goodness imaginary his severity a phansie his commands nothing but security for offenders This vvere to turn his justice into iniquity and his vvisdom into folly So to cover our sin is but to make it greater and increase the punishments He that covereth it shall not prosper To urge this reason taken from God further yet We find the two attributes of God his Wisdom and his Power the highest attributes which he hath As his Power is unlimited so he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wisdom above all wisdom whatsoever In his actions ad extrà these two alwayes concur As by his Power the creatures were created Psal 104.24 so in wisdom hath he made them all Psal 104.24 saith the Psalmist Yet his Power seemeth to be subordinate to and receive direction from his Wisdom And therefore though all the attributes of God be infinite and consequently equal yet his Wisdom seemeth to have the precedency the first and highest place It is so we see in his creature Man Ingenii damna majora sunt quà m pecuniae He that disparageth our Wisdom hath laid upon us the bitterest imputation he can We can hear with patience many times that others are richer or stronger then our selves No man is vexed within himself that he is not a Milo or an Hercules or a Croesus But he that detracteth from our Wisdom is an enemy indeed Nulla contumeliosiùs fit injuria He doth us the greatest injury in the world that calleth us fools Qui velit ingenio cedere rarus erit We cannot wonder then if we observe the same in God if we see and read him more jealous of his Wisdom then of his Power that his indignation should wax hotter against the Excuse then the Sin For he that committeth sin dallieth with his Power but he that covereth and palliateth sin playeth with his Wisdom trieth whether he can per fraudem obrepere fraudulently circumvent and abuse God He that sinneth would be stronger then God but he that covereth his sin striveth as it were to put out his all-seeing eye and to be wiser then he potior Jupiter quà m ipse Jupiter as he in the Comedy saith a wiser Jupiter then Jupiter Himself which no impiety can equal And therefore we may observe that God forgiveth the greatest sins when they are laid open and confessed but casteth an angry look and layeth an heavy hand upon those sins which would hide and cover themselves with excuses 1 Sam. 15. 2. Sam. 12. We have a notable instance of this in David and Saul Take but the pains to compare them both and you will at the first view be soon perswaded that the heavy sentence which Samuel denounced against Saul should have passed upon David that of the two David more deserved to have had the Kingdom rent from him the Sceptre torn out of his hands For bring their sins to the balance and compare them both Saul spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen And what errour was here but only that the commandment was broken For when he spared the oxen and the sheep who was the worse Quid meruistis oves what sin was it to be merciful to the dumb and innocent creature Besides his end and pretense was good He did it to sacrifice them to the Lord. But to the sin of David no oratory is equal Who can express the hainousness of it Saul offendeth against but one command and that a positive one and which was only for the present and with which God did often dispense but David against an eternal Law written in his Heart with which God never did never will dispense Again Saul's sin was but one but David's was peccatum complicatissimum a sin carrying a train with it of which the least in appearance was greater then that of Saul's first Adultery then an Attempt to make Uriah drunk then Murder not only of Uriah himself whose bed he had defiled but also of all those who fell with him And to this we may add his long continuance in sin even a whole year without any sense or feeling of it It will not be easie to find out a parallel hereunto either in Divine or Humane story either amongst the Israelites or amongst aliens from the commonwealth of Israel I would not rip up the bowels of this Saint or shew you the full horrour of his sinne but to this end to discover and shew you withall this most necessary truth the danger of covering a sin We see David easily reconciled to God but Saul cast off eternally without possibility of pardon Yet Saul confesseth his sin thought it were late I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and Samuel prayeth for Saul Vers 24. and yet nothing prevaileth Now the reason of this may be plainly gathered out of the Text. Nathan no sooner cometh to David and sheweth him his fault but he presently without any ambages or circumstance confesseth it and upon confession receiveth pardon which followed the confession as close as an Echo doth the sound 2 Sam. 12.13 I have sinned is answered with The Lord hath put away thy sin But with Saul it was otherwise For he denyeth and then wipeth his mouth and receiveth the Prophet with a complement Blessed be thou of
the Lord 1 Sam. 15.13 I have performed the commandment of the Lord. Being after taken and detected he shifteth his sails and turneth the point of his compass and tryeth by fair pretenses and excuses whether he can catch God with guile The people v. 15. saith he spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God He breaketh the commandment of God upon pretence of sacrifice and so as much as in him lyeth abuseth the Wisdom of God with a kind of mockery and deceit And this is it which made that great difference between the action of David and the action of Saul and that great breach between Saul and his God What a dangerous thing is it then to study to cover a sin How great is this sin which not onely trespasseth against the highest attribute of God but also defeateth and cutteth off the usual wayes of reconcilement After other sins committed the means to make our way to God's favour are Confession and the Prayers of the Saints one for another St. James telleth us so much chap. 5.15 16. Now covering and excusing our sin evacuateth them both Saul you see made liberal though late confession of his sin Samuel faithful Samuel one of the greatest of the Lord's Prophets earnestly prayeth for him yet neither the delinquent's confession nor the Prophet's prayer procure any thing at the hand of God The prayer of the righteous shall save the sick saith St. James Then certainly covering and excusing a sin is a very desperate sickness which the prayer of so righteous a person as Samuel was could not recover Nay which is more the prayer of the Prophet is not onely refused but he is straightly charged to pray for him no more 1 Sam. 16.1 How long saith God wilt thou mourn for Saul since I have rejected him This sin then of Covering sin is it not a sin unto Death Either it is so or not far from it There is but one sin for which in Scripture we are forbidden to pray There is a sin unto death saith St. John 1 Joh. 5.16 I do not say that thou shouldst pray for it I conclude nothing but wish them who delight to cover their sin who sin often and yet never sin who run away with the dart in their sides and never feel it to lay this to heart For see Samuel here is forbidden to pray for Saul To conclude this What a strange sin is this sin of Excuse which being liker to a circumstance of sin then a sin yet maketh a lesser sin exceed the greatest and the greatest to be greater then it is which maketh a wanton look worse then adultery anger then murder the breach of a temporal Law more dangerous then of an eternal The Schools say well Maximum peccatum excusatio quia quodlibet peccatum facit majus That must needs be the greatest sin which maketh every sin greater Not to leave yet the consideration of the greatness of this sin in respect of God When sin hath entred our heart and shewn it self in the active irregularity of our members there are but these five wayes observed in our deportment and behaviour against it either 1. Concealing or Denyal so Sarah denyed that she laught Gehazi Gen. 18.15 2 Kings 5.25 when he had run after Naaman for a reward boldly told his Master Thy servant went no whither Or 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alleviation and lessening the fault when we excuse our selves à tanto though not à toto let something of our fault appear and cover the rest Or 3. Despair as in Cain and Judas Or 4. penitential Confession as in David and Job Or 5. Excuse as in Saul These five are 〈◊〉 Prophets baskets of figs the good very good Jer. 24.1 2 3. and that is but one 〈◊〉 the evil very evil and naughty but the worst of all is Excuse For in Denyal and Concealment though we deny the fact yet we acknowledge it to be Evil Nolumus nostrum quia malum agnoscimus We would never deny it did we not confess it to be Evil. In Alleviation there is confession made but tenderly Something we confess to be amiss but not much And in Despair there is a large acknowledgment but to no purpose And the despairing sinner though he destroyeth himself yet deserveth our pity more then the former To despair is not so much a sin as the committing those sins which plunged him in that gulf Concealment Denyal and Alleviation are wilful errours to avoyd the punishment which is due unto our sin but Despair is an argument against itself calleth the punishment on the offender further then God is willing executeth the delinquent not for want of pardon which is ready to be sealed but of suing it out But of all the Apologizer who is ready with a veil to cover his sin who can make a circumstance an anvil to forge an excuse on is far the worst In the rest there is some acknowledgment made and so far they partake of the nature of penitential Confession Some confess too little others too much The two first come short of Repentance the third exceedeth The two first confess tenderly the other unprofitably But in him that covereth his sin with excuse there breatheth no air of penitential Confession but instead thereof he maintaineth that to be good which his conscience will tell him is evil I may deceive and cozen the wicked saith the Hypocrite who is more wicked then they I may sin because I am weak and break the command because I cannot keep it and multiply actual sins because of original Gen. 34. Simeon and Levi murder the Shechemites and the excuse is ready Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot The sacrilegious person taketh the houses of God into possession for should they be abused to superstition The foulest sin hath a mantle to cover it and sometimes walketh under a Canopy of state We sin and will not be said or thought to sin and this maketh sin more sinful This doth fores occludere misericordiae not shut out the sin but God himself letteth fall a Portcullis between God's mercy and our soul emptyeth God as it were who of himself is an inexhaust fountain of mercy ever ready to flow and will not suffer him to be what he is to be so good as he is For by our impenitency he cannot do us what good he would we will not suffer him to be merciful we will not suffer him to wipe out our sins by forgiveness but hide them as much as we can from his light and beams cover them that he may not see them and by our evasions and excuses leave him no sin to wipe out To conclude this point If we sport thus with God's Wisdome if we strive to deceive him caecâ die in these dark shops and grots of excuses if we think that any cover will keep us from his eye who is greater
then our Conscience and seeth more of us then we do when we are most impartial to our selves and see most if we thus dally and trifle with Wisdome it self Mercy which tryumpheth over Justice will yield to Wisdome and if we cover our sins 1 Joh. 1.9 and not lay them open by Confession we shall find God just and faithful but not to forgive us our sins not to cleanse us from all unrighteousness We might here inlarge But we pass from the danger in respect of God to that in respect of our selves There is no one sin to which our Nature more strongly inclineth us then this of covering and excusing our sin So pleasing is excuse to our disposition so inseperable from Sin that cum ipso scelere nascitur soror filia it is both the daughter and sister of Sin We travel with Sin and Excuse as Thamar did with twins Excuse is not the first for Sin first maketh the breach and then calleth for Excuse but though it be not the first yet it followeth close at the Heels Now to give a reason for this First it is the very nature of Sin not onely to infect the soul but to bewitch it that it shall either not feel it or not be willing to evaporate and expel it It is compared to a Serpent and the poyson thereof is much like unto that of the Aspick which Cleopatra put to her arm It casteth us into a kind of sweet and pleasant slumber and killeth us without pain We are smitten and we feel it not we are stricken Prov. 23 35. and are not sick we are in the very mouth of Hell and yet secure It is called a burden and yet we feel it not nor doth it burden or lye heavy upon us But as it is with those who lye under the water they feel no weight though whole seas run over them fo is it with those who are overwhelmed and drowned in sin they feel no weight or if they do they soon relieve and ease themselves I say a burden it is and we are careful to cast it from us but not that way which God prescribeth but after a method forged and beaten out by our own irregular fancy we do not cast it away by loathing it and loathing our selves for it by resolving against it by fearing the return of it as we would the fall of a mountain upon our heads but we cast it upon our own Weakness and Infirmity which will not bear it upon God's Long-suffering and Mercy and presume to continue in it upon Christ Jesus and crucifie him again upon Excuse which is but sand and cannot bear that which pressed the Son of God himself to death Soli filii irae iram Dei non sentiunt They onely are insensible of the Anger of God who are the children of Wrath. Secondly though God hath set up a tribunal in our hearts and made every man a judge of his own actions yet there is no tribunal on earth so much corrupted and swayed from its power and jurisdiction as this No man is so partial a judge in another mans cause as in his own No man is so well pleased with any cheat as that which he putteth upon himself Though God hath placed a Conscience in us Exod. 28.30 as he put the Urim and the Thummim in the breast-plate of judgment by which he might give answer unto us what we are to do and what not to do what we have done well and what amiss as the High-priest by viewing his breast-plate saw whether the people might go up to War or not go up yet when we have once defiled our Conscience we care not much for looking upon it or if we do it giveth no certain answer but we lose the use of it in our slavery under sin as the Jews lost the use of their Urim and Thummim at the Captivity of Babylon as appeareth Ezr. 2.63 Neh. 7 65. The use of it I say which is to (a) Rom. 2.15 accuse to (b) 1 John 3.20 condemn to (c) Wisd 17.10 torment to make us have (d) Deut. 28.65 a trembling heart and (e) Levit. 26.36 a faint heart For it doth none of these offices neither accuse nor convince nor condemn nor afflict nor strike with fear At best it doth but shew the whip and then put it up again It changeth and altereth its complexion as our sins and hath as many names as there be evil dispositions in men Our conscience checketh us and we silence it Sin appeareth and we cover it Our conscience would speak more plainly if we did not teach it that broken and imperfect language to pronounce Sibboleth for Shibboleth to leave out some letter some aspiration some circumstance in sin Or rather to speak truth the Conscience cannot but speak out to the offender and tell him he hath broken the Law but as we will not hearken to Reason when she would restrain us from sin so we slight her when she checketh us for committing it We will neither give ear to her counsel and not sin nor yet hearken to her reproof when we have finned neither observe her as a Counseller nor as a Judge neither obey her as a friend nor as an enemy Hence it cometh to pass that at last in a manner it forgetteth its office and is negligent in its very property is a Conscience and yet knoweth nothing a Register yet recordeth nothing or if it do in so dark and obscure a character as is not legible a Glass and reflecteth nothing but a Saint for a man of Belial a Book of remembrance but containeth not our deceit and oppression and sacrilege but the number of Sermons we have heard the Fasts we have kept though for bloud the many good words we have spoke though from a hollow and unsanctified hart from our indignation against the world which hath nothing worse init then ourselves And this is the most miserable condition a sinner can fall into Rom. 1.18 This is saith St. Paul to hold the truth in unrighteousness by an habitual course of sin to depress and keep under the very principles of Goodness and Honesty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hold and have full possession of the Truth Luk. 19. but make no use of it to hide and bury it as the bad servant did his pound in a Napkin bury it in the loathsome sepulchre of a rotten and corrupt soul as if having a medicine about me I should chuse to take down poison having plenty starve my self to death having Honey and Manna lay it by till it stink and feed on Husks having a Conscience not keep it suborn my Counsellour to be my Parasite be endued with Reason and use it only to make me more unreasonable neglect and slight it when it bids me not do this and when I have done it paint and disguise it that I may not know the work of mine own hands nor see that sin which
firebrand in hell Better to blush now then burn for ever To draw towards a conclusion Ye see in the Text penitential Confession reaching even to the Mercy-seat The sinner falleth down breaketh his heart openeth his mouth breatheth his sins out loatheth and forsaketh them and Mercy scattereth them annihilateth them looketh upon them as if they were not Let us not then be more ashamed of confession then we are of mercy it self Let us learn exuere hominem to put off man to put off the old man to unnaturalize our selves and forget this though natural yet unseasonable modesty Est quaedam praevaricatrix modestia est quaedam sancta impudentia There is a modesty which betrayeth us and there is an holy and sanctified shamelesness and impudence when we lay our sins open and naked before God in their most deformed shape Sin is never less deformed in the eye of God then when it is in its own shape Masks and paintings and disguisings in other things if they add no beauty yet they conceal deformities but in Sin all this cost and labour is lost Nothing more deformed in the eye of God then a periwigged and painted sinner then a carnal man talking of the spirit then a wicked man wiping his mouth and saying I have done no evil Behold the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth From him no cloud can shadow us no deep can cover us no mountain can hide us To him we are never more open then when we are most concealed He looketh not at our sins when we read the roll and Catalogue our selves But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his revengeful eye is never off them when we seal the book or fold it up in silence when we study to disguise and conceal them Quintilian tells us Animalcula quaedam in foraminibus mobilia in campo deprehenduntur Some kind of small creatures there are which whilst they be amongst their burroughs and starting-hole are hardly taken but bring them into the open field and they are quickly seized on We cannot but apply it our selves Let us play least in sight with God as we please whilst our sins like those little foxes which spoil the vineyard of God do earth themselves or lurk in the holes and burroughs of excuses we shall never take them but being brought forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into confession before God as into the open field we shall quickly seize upon them and destroy them Tegentis non fatentis crimen est saith St. Ambrose Sin is never more sin hath never more upon it then when it is covered He that confesseth his sin hath found a plaister for it but he that covereth it flingeth it away and by too much tenderness suffereth his sore to fester For Sin is a disease and distemper of the soul and as we observe of some diseases of the body if it doth eructare se in superficiem as Tertullian speaketh if it breathe forth it self and drive its poison outward by confession it is like the Physicians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and restoreth the soul to its healthful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and constitution but if it strike inward and hide it self in the heart it is fatal and deleterial Sin is as the Leprosie and every sinner in whom the plague of sin is must be like the Leper under the Law Levit. 13.45 his cloths must be rent and his head bare and he must put a covering upon his upper lip and he must cry Unclean unclean And this we may observe that the Saints of God did so far abhor this sin of covering sin and so jealous have they been of it that they may seem to have bowed the stick too much the other way and to have erred too far on the other hand and studied expressions and forms of speech to that purpose Psal 51. When David bewailed his sin before God he thought it not enough to say he had not been free from sin since he was a child of a day old he durst not entitle himself to so much as a dayes innocency therefore he went up to the womb and confessed himself to be born in sin Nay this he thought too much yet and therefore went up to the instant of his conception In sin hath my mother conceived me He left not himself any moment free from pollution And so St. Paul that worthy servant of Christ Jesus shriving and confessing himself useth few but most quick and comprehending words It is a faithful saying and by all means to be received 1 Tim. 1 15. that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief Now what should that great sin be which should denominate him the chiefest of sinners If any then certainly it was this that he persecuted the Church and yet even this himself professeth he did ignorantly And as Origen considering with himself the occasion which moved Lot's daughters to incest breaketh forth into this speech Vereor nè illarum incestus castior sit multarum pudicitiâ that he feared much that this incest of theirs had more of chastity in it then the virginity of others so we may be easily perswaded that there was more of piety in St. Peul's persecuting the Church then many others have who seem to maintain and cherish and defend it For what moved him to it Zeal for the Law which God himself had made a jealousie lest the glory should depart from Israel and that service and religion be beat to the ground which God himself had established And yet St. Paul himself hath recorded it and all posterity must believe it that for this action of his whatsoever it was he nameth himself the chief of sinners This saith the Father is the property of every child of God to accuse himself for little sins as for great to hide his sins by revealing them to diminish them by addition to make them little yea nothing by making them great Confessio poenarum compendium Confession setteth a quick period to all sin and punishment Cum accusat excusat cùm squalidum facit magìs mundatum reddit even worketh a miracle lifteth a man up when it casteth him down maketh him most glorious when it most dishonoureth him beautiful when it defileth him when it accuseth it excuseth and when it condemneth it absolveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is the expression of the Greek Father in a manner making the Judge ashamed holding his hand when he is ready to strike striking the thunderbolt out of his hand and changing the shadow of death into a glorious morning Though we have run from him into a far Country yet if we return and say We have sinned he that was our Judge will be our Father and will run and fall upon our neck and kiss us and for open confession give us open absolution and put upon us the best robe even cloath us with the garment of righteousness behold us as his children and by his
I need not be large in their character you may know them by their language I fast twice in the we e. They fast and they pray and they hear and they believe and they are assured of heaven They are and they alone The rest stand before them as Publicans or excommunitate persons Can any good thing can any Prophet come out of Nazareth Can any know any good or do any good that is not of that faction Enlarge thy phylacteries if thou canst thou Pharisee and paint that sepulchre of rotten bones vvhich thou art vvith more art and coriosity then these blow thy trumpet louder or draw thy face to more figures then these Lord what is now become of Religion It was placed in judgment and mercy it is now managed with cruelty and craft It vvas committed to every nation and all people it is now shut up in a party It vvas seated in the Will and Understanding it is now whirled about in the Phansie It vvas a wedding-garment it is now made a cloke of maliciousness It vvas once true He that loved Christ and kept his commandments was his Disciple but he is now no good Christian who is so if he be not so after such a mode and such a fashion We see it in the Church of Rome No salvation out of her territories God grant vve feel it not nearer home Beloved he that shall look abroad and vvell consider the conversation of many may be tempted perhaps to an unworthy thought that either there is no Religion or that Religion is nothing For vvherein is it placed In a Fast and that to our ovvn vvills in Hearing and that but vain in Prayer and that many times but babling in Faith and that but dead in Formalities and Shews It s sound is gone through the earth and it is lost in the noise Religion vve fight for and Religion vve fight against Religion vve extoll and Religion vve shame We cry it up and tread it under foot and are never less religious then vvhen the Pharisee speaketh vvithin us and telleth the vvorld and maketh it known to all the people that we are so Non apparemus mali ut plus malignemur We will not appear evil that vve may do the more evil seem very good that vve may be vvorse and vvorse Let us take an Inventory of our Jewels and our best things let us set down our virtues We fast vvith all our sins about us full of iniquity and many times feed it vvith a fast We fast and make it a prologue sometimes to a Comedy sometimes to a Tragedy and at once call down judgments and deprecate them humble our selves before God and provoke him We hear and that is all and vvould to God that vvere all But here that curse is upon it Deut. 28.38 We carry much seed out but gather little in We hear much and remember little and practise less nay vve practise the contrary to that vvhich vve heard vvith so much attention and delight We pray for one thing and desire another We make it a trade a craft and occupation to take indeed a pearl but not the kingdom of heaven I but vve believe I am unwilling to say Faith is a ceremony but in many it is not so much and signifieth nothing at all a meteor hanging in the phansie vvhich portendeth nothing but sterility and barrenness rather a scutcheon for shew then a buckler to quench a fiery dart We call Christ a foundation and we build upon him We lay our cruelty upon him who was a Lamb our malice upon him who prayed who died for his enemies our pride upon him who made himself of no reputation our hypocrisie upon him who was Truth it self and our rebellion upon him who was a pattern of obedience We believe in Christ and crucifie him again For this the wrath of God is revealed from heaven Rom. 1 1â— because we hold the truth of God in unrighteousness For this his Anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still not so much for the breach as for the contempt of his word and commandments not so much tor our offending him as for our dallying with him not so much for our sin as for our hypocrisie not onely for our obedience but for our hearing not onely for our defects but for our devotion not onely for our infidelity but for our faith not onely for our intemperance but for our fast For what can provoke God more then to see such pearls trode under foot by swine I do not mention paying of tithes for neither the Law of God nor of man can defend them nor any thing else that looketh like a prey And therefore for conclusion let me bespeak you as Christ did his Disciples Take heed of the leven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisie Luke 12. for it will leven and sowre the whole lump the whole body of your Religion taint and poison your Fast frustrate your Hearing turn your Prayer into sin make your Faith vain and leave you in your sins The One and Fortieth SERMON PART I. JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed THere is nothing more talked of then the Gospel nothing more wilfully mistook nothing more frequently abused The sound of it is gone through the earth is heard from the East to the West but men have set and tuned it to their own lusts and humours No Psalm will please us but a Psalm of Mercy For Judgment is a harsh note Mercy and Judgment though David put them together in his Song with us are such discords that they yield no harmony Mercy and Judgment Law and Liberty though they may meet and delight us though they must meet to save us yet we set them at distance cleave to the one and hate the other please and delight our selves under the shadow of Mercy till Judgment falleth upon as a tempest to overwhelm us loose our Liberty in our embraces forfeit Mercy by laying hold of it and the Gospel of Christ is made the Gospel of man nay saith S. Augustine Evangelium Diaboli the Gospel of the Devil himself This our blessed Apostle had discovered in the dispersed Tribes to whom he wrote That they were very ready to publish and magnifie the Gospel that they loved to speak of it that they loved to hear of it that they were perfect in their Creed that Faith was set up aloft and crowned even when it was dead that they did believe and were partial that they did believe and despise the poor that they did believe and blaspheme that worthy Name by which they were called And therefore to draw them back from this so dangerous a deviation Vers 19. he exhorteth them first to hear the word of truth that he disliketh not but then secondly to receive it into their hearts
proceeded to the attaining of it The Stork in the air knoweth her appointed times Jer. 8.7 and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their coming Pliny speaking of the Bees telleth us Quod maximè mirum est mores habent A wonderful thing it is to see that natural honesty and justice which is in them Onely Man the soveraign Lord of all the creatures whom it most principally concerned to be thus endowed was sent into the world utterly devoid of any such knowledge nisi alienâ misericordiâ sustinere se nequit as Ambrose speaketh and without forein and borrowed help never so much as getteth a sight of his own proper end Amongst natural men none there are in whom appetite is so extinct but that they see something which they propose unto themselves as a scope of their hopes and reward of their labours and in the obtaining of which they suppose all their happiness to reside Yet even in this which men principally incline to direction is so faulty particulars so infinite that most sit down in the midst of their way and come far short of that mark which their hopes set up And if our Wisdom be so feeble and deficient in those things which are sensible and open to our view what laws what light what direction have we need of to carry us on in the way to that happiness which no mortal eye can approch Hannibal in Livy being to pass the Alps a thing that time held impossible yet comforteth himself with this Nullas terras coelum contingere nec inexsuperabiles humano generi esse That how high soever they were they were not so high as heaven nor unpassable if men were industrious The pertinacy of Man's industry may find waies through desarts through rocks through the roughest seas But our attempt is far greater The way we must make is from earth to heaven a thing which no strength or wit of man could ever yet compass Therefore Christ our King who knoweth Man to be a wandring and erring creature would not leave it to his shallow discretion who no sooner thinketh but erreth nor setteth down his foot but treadeth amiss but he cometh himself into the world promulgeth his Laws which may be to him as Tiresias his staff in the Poet able to guide his feet were he never so blind and in his Gospel he giveth him sound directions no way subject unto errour guideth him as it were with a bridle putteth his Law into his heart chalketh out his way before him and like a skilful Pilot sheweth him what course to take what Syrtes what rocks to avoid lest he make an irrecoverable shipwreck of body and soul His Laws are the Compass by which if he steer his course he shall pass the gulf and be brought to that haven where he would be 1 Pet. 2.9 Rom. 2. 6. Therefore hath Christ called us out of darkness into his wonderful light And we are the called of Jesus Christ gathered together into a Church an House a Family a City a Republick Our Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 municipatus as Tertullian rendreth it our Burgership is in heaven And the Philosopher will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that will erect a Society a Commonwealth must also frame Laws and fit and shape them to that form of Commonwealth which he intendeth For Lavvs are numismata Reipublicae the coins as it were by vvhich vve come to knovv the true face and representation of a Commonvvealth the different complexions of States and Societies And Christ our King hath dravvn out Laws like unto his Kingdom vvhich are most fit and appliable to that end for vvhich he hath gathered us into one body His sceptre is a sceptre of righteousness and his Laws are just He came down from heaven and his Laws carry us back thither He received them from his Father John 10.18 as himself speaketh and these make us like unto his Father These govern our Understanding nè assentiat that it yield not assent to that errour which our lusts have painted over in the shape of Truth and these regulate our Will nè consentiat that it do not bow and chuse it and these order our Affections that they may be servants and not commanders of our Reason These make a heaven in our Understanding these place the image of God in our Will and make it like unto his these settle peace and harmony in the Affections that they become weapons of righteousness and fight the battels of our King and Law-giver My Anger may be a sword my Love a banner my Hope a staff and my Fear a buckler In a word Christ's Laws will fit us for his Kingdom here and prepare us for his Kingdom hereafter Therefore in the next place they are necessary for us as the onely means to draw us nigh unto himself and to that end for which he came into the world Every end hath its proper means fitted and proportioned to it Knowledge hath study Riches have labour and industry Honour hath policy Even he that setteth up an end which he is ashamed of and hideth from the Sun and the people draweth a method and plot in himself to bring him to it The Thief hath his night and darkness and the Wanton his twilight And his hope entitleth and joyneth him to the end though he never reach it In the Kingdom of Satan there are rules and laws observed A thought ushereth in a Sin and one Sin draweth on another and at last Destruction And this is the way of that wisdome which is but foolishness And shall men work iniquity as by a law and can we hope to be raised to an eternity of glory and be left to our selves or to attain it by those means which hold no proportion at all with it Will the Gospel the bare Tidings of peace do it Will a phansie a thought a wish an open profession have strength enough to lift us up to it Happiness in phansie is a picture and no more In a wish it is less for I wish that which I would not have And barely to profess the means and acknowledge the way unto it is to give my self the lie nay to call my self a fool for what greater folly can there be then to say This is the way and not to walk in it If we were thus left unto our selves all our happiness were but a dream and every thought a sin against the holy Ghost We should wish our King neither just nor wise nor holy we should call him our King and leave him no sceptre in his hand no power to make a Law look forward toward the mark and run backward from it give Christ a Hail and crucifie him call an innocent Christ our King and be men of Belial an humble Christ and swell above our measure a merciful Christ and be cruel a just Christ and be oppressours hope to attain the end without the means and against
the means and so go to heaven with hell about us And indeed Wickedness could never so fill the hearts of men if they did not entertain this conceit that the Gospel and the Law are at as great a distance as Liberty and Captivity And by this the Gospel declineth and groweth weak and unprofitable not able to make a new creature which is made up in righteousness and holiness and obedience to those Laws which had not the Prince of this vvorld blinded us we might easily see and take notice of even in the Gospel it self For Christ did neither dissolve the Law of Nature nor abrogate the Moral Law of Moses but improved and perfected them both He left the Moral Law as a Rule but not as a Covenant pressed it further then formerly it had been understood and shewed us yet a more excellent way And as God gave to Adam a Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as matter for the freedom of his will to see which way it would bend and to try his obedience So did Christ in this new Creation even when he came to heal the broken-hearted and set at liberty those that were in prison publish his precepts which are not Counsels but Laws as matter of that obedience which will keep our heart from polluting again and strengthen our feet that we may standfast in that liberty wherewith he hath made us free For without obedience to these Laws the plague is still at our heart and our fetters cleave close to us He is come and hath finished all and for all this we are yet in our sins I will not say with Tertullian Quisquis rationem jubet legislator est Whosoever commandeth that which Reason suggesteth is a Law-giver For every man that can speak Reason hath not authority to make Laws But Christ was not onely the Wisdom of his Father but had Legislative power committed to him being the supreme Head over all men that by his Laws as well as his Bloud he might bind them to that obedience which may make them fit citizens of his new Jerusalem And as he is CHRIST anointed by his Father anointed to his office to teach and command so he distilleth his ointment on every member of his And the same anointing teacheth us of all things and is truth and is no lie and maketh us Christians that we may be obedient to the Christian Law Christ saith This new Commandment I give you and his Apostle calleth it a Law and we need not be afraid of the name We will but draw it down to our selves by way of use and application and so conclude And first we should not be afraid of the word Law if we were not afraid of our Duty nor look up upon God's decree which is hidden from us but fulfill the royal Law which is put into our mouth and into our hearts For his Decree and his Command are not at such opposition but the command may be a decree also And he decreed to save us by Faith and Obedience to his Evangelical Laws and he decreed to crown us but by those means which are fit to set the crown upon our heads Therefore we cannot but condemn that conceit which hath stained the papers of many who call themselves Gospellers and polluted the lives of more That Christ came into the world to do his Father's will that is to redeem us but not to do his Father's will that is to teach and command us Which is in effect to redeem us and yet leave us in chains That Christ is a Saviour and not a Law-giver That the Gospel consisteth rather in certain Articles to be believed then in certain Precepts to be observed That to speak properly there is no precept at all delivered in the Gospel That it belongeth to the Law to command That the breath of the Gospel is mild and gentle and smelleth of nothing but frankincense and myrrhe those precious promises which we gaze upon till our eyes dazle that we can see nothing we have to do no thought to stifle no word to silence no lust to beat down no temptation to struggle with but we let loose our phansie and our thoughts flie after and embrace every vanity we set no watch to the door of our lips we prove not our works but do whatsoever the flesh suggesteth because we have nothing to do we tempt even Temptation it self and will be captives because we have a Saviour for we are taught and are willing to believe it That the will of God is laid down in the form and manner of a Law but not so to be understood by the Elect which every man can make himself when he please but as a Promise which God will work in those his chosen ones but will not work in others who from all eternity are cast away That Faith it self which is the chief and primary precept of the Gospel is rather promised then left as a command Qui amant sibi somnia fingunt With such ease do men swallow the most gross and dangerous falshoods and then sit down and delight themselves in those phansies which could find no room but in the sick and distempered brain of a man sold under sin and bound up in carnality For if we would but look upon Christ or upon our selves and consider what is most proper to unite us to him if we would but hear him when he speaketh You cannot love me unless you keep my commandments we should not thus smooth and plain our way to run upon the pricks we should easily with one cast of our eye see what distance there is between a Promise and a Law and distinguish them by the very sound which flesh and bloud and our weariness in the paths of righteousness do so easily joyn together and make one Caelum mari unitur ubi visio absumitur quae quamdiu viget tam diu dividit saith Tertullian At some distance the heavens seem to close with the sea not so much by reason of the beams which are cast upon it but because the sight and visive power is weary and faint which whilest it remaineth quick and active is able to divide objects one from the other In like manner we may conceive that a Promise and a Precept which are in their own nature diverse and sâ—veral things for a Promise waiteth upon a Precept to urge and promote it and obedience to the Precept sealeth the Promise and maketh it good unto us yet may sometimes be taken for the very same For the Promises are glorious and cast a lustre upon the Precepts that they are less observable and so our duty is lost in the reward that looketh towards us Besides this it could not be that men should so mistake but that their eyes are dull and heavy by gazing too long upon the absolute decree of Predestination in which though they be never so far asunder the Precept and the Promise may well meet they think and be concentred Certainly a dangerous
Powers and Principalities Laws and Precepts and all that is named of God Ambition maketh Laws Jura perjura Swear and forswear Arise kill and eat Covetousness maketh Laws condemneth us to the mines to dig and sweat Quocunque modo rem Gather and lay up Come not within the reach of Omri's statutes of humane Laws and you need not fear any Law of Christ. Private Interest maketh Laws and indeed is the Emperour of the world and maketh men slaves to crouch and bow under every burthen to submit to every Law of man though it enjoyn to day what it did forbid yesterday to raise up our heads and then duck at every shadow that cometh over us but we can see no such formidable power in the Royal Law of Christ because it breatheth not upon it to promote and uphold it but looketh as an enemy that would cast it down biddeth us deny our selves which we do every day for our lusts for our honour for our profit but cannot do it for Christ or for that crown which is laid up for those that do it Thus every thing hath power over us which may destroy us but Christ is not hearkned to nor those his Laws which may make us wise unto salvation For we are too ready to believe what some have been bold to teach that there are no such Laws at all in the Gospel Therefore in the last place let us cast this root of bitterness out of our hearts let us look upon it as a most dangerous and baneful errour an errour which hath brought that abomination of desolation into the world and into the lives and manners of Christians which have made them stink amongst the inhabitants of the earth amongst Jews and Pagans and Infidels which tremble to behold those works of darkness which they see every day not onely done but defended by those who call themselves the children of light Because in that name we bite and devour one another for this they despise the Gospel of Christ because we boast of it all the day long and make use of it as a Licence or Letters patent to be worse then they riot it in the light beat our fellow-servants defraud and oppress them which they do not in darkness and in the shadow of death The first Christians called the Gospel legem Christianam the Christian Law and so lived as under a Law so lived that nothing but the name was accused But the latter times have brought forth subtle Divines that have disputed away the Law and now there is scarce any thing left commendable but the name A Gospeller and worse then a Turk or Pagan a Gospeller and a Revenger a Gospeller and a Libertine a Gospeller and a Schismatick a Gospeller and a Deceiver a Gospeller and a Traitor a Gospeller that will be under no Law a Gospeller that is all for Love and Mercy and nothing for Fear I may say the Devil is a better Gospeller for he believeth and trembleth And indeed this is one of the Devils subtilest engines veritatem veritate concutere to shake and beat down one Truth with another to bury our Duty in the Good news to hide the Lord in the Saviour and the Law in the covering of Mercy to make the Gospel supplant it self that it may be of no effect to have no sound heard but that of Imputative righteousness From hence that irregularity and disobedience amongst Christians that liberty and peace in sin For when Mercy waiteth so close upon us and Judgment is far out of our sight we walk on pleasantly in forbidden paths and sin with the less regret sin and fear not pardon lying so near at hand To conclude then Let us not deceive our selves and think that there is nothing but Mercy and Pardon in the Gospel and so rely upon it till we commit those sins which shall be pardoned neither in this world nor in the world to come Nemo promittat sibi quod non promittit Evangelium saith Augustine Let no man make the promise larger then the Gospel hath made it nor so presume on the Grace of God as to turn it into wantonness so extol it as to depress it so trust to Mercy as to forfeit it but look into the Gospel and behold it in its own shape and face as pardoning sin and forbidding sin as a royal Release and a royal Law And look upon Christ the authour and finisher of our faith as a Jesus to save us Psal 2. and a Lord to command us as preaching peace and preaching a Law Rom. 8.3 condemning sin in his flesh dying that sin might dye and teaching us to destroy it in our selves In a word let us so look into the Gospel that it may be unto us the savour of life unto life and not the savour of death unto death so look upon Christ here that he may be our Lord to govern us and our Jesus to save us that we may be subject to his Laws and so be made capable of his mercy that we may acknowledge him to be our Lord and he acknowledge us before his Father that Death may lose its sting and Sin its strength and we may be saved in the last day through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Two and Fortieth SERMON PART II. JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed THat the Precepts of the Gospel do bind us as Laws ye have heard already and how the Doctrine of the Gospel is a Law We must in the next place see how it is a perfect Law And first That is perfect saith the Philosopher cui nihil adimi nec adjici potest from which nothing can be taken and to which nothing can be added Such is the Gospel You cannot adde to it you cannot take from it one lota or tittle If any shall adde unto these things Rev. 22.18 God shall adde to him the plagues that are written in this book And if any shall take away from them God shall take away his part out of the book of life There needeth no second hand to supply it and that hand deserveth to be cut off that shall corrupt or alter it For look upon the End which is Blessedness There you have it drawn out in the fairest lines that flesh and bloud can read in as large a representation as our humane nature is capable of Then view the Means to bring us to that end They are plainly exprest and set out there in such a character that we may run and read them open to our understanding exciting our faith raising our hope and even provoking us to action There is nothing which we ought to know nothing which we must believe nothing which we may hope for nothing which concerneth us to do nothing which may lift us up to happiness and carry us to the end but it is written
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
evident and necessary consequence they are not to be reckoned in the number of those which are necessary because we are assured from the Truth it self that all such are within the reach and verge of this Law Some things indeed there be which are indifferent in themselves quae Lex nec vetat nec jubet which the Law neither commandeth nor forbiddeth but become necessary by reason of some circumstance of Time or Place or Quality or Persons c. For quod per se necessarium est semper est necessarium that which is necessary in it self is alwayes necessary But some things are made necessary for some place some person some times and yet are in their own nature indifferent still Lex haec ad omnia occurrit This Law reacheth even these and containeth rules certain and infallible to guide us even in these if we become not Lawes unto our selves and fling them by to wit the rules of Charity and Prudence to which if we give heed it is not possible we should miscarry It is Love of our selves and Love of this world not Charity and spiritual Wisdom which make this noise abroad this desolation on the earth The acts of Charity are manifest 1 Cor. 13. She suffereth long even errours and injuries and doth not rise up against shadows and apparitions is not rash to beat down every thing that our own hand hath not set up is not puffed up swelleth not against an harmless and useful constitution though it be of man doth not behave it self unseemly layeth not a necessity upon us of not doing that which Autority even then styleth an Indifferent thing when it commandeth it to be done seeketh not her own treadeth not the publick peace under foot to procure our own which is to satisfie an ill-raised humour is not easily provoked checketh not at every feather nor startleth at that monster which is a creation of our own thinketh no evil doth not see a serpent under every leaf nor Idolatry in every bow of devotion If we were charitable we should be peaceable If Charity did govern mens actions there would be abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth Multa facienda sunt non jubente lege sed liberâ charitate saith Augustine Charity is free to suffer and do many things which the Law doth not expresly command and yet it doth command them in general when it enjoyneth Obedience to Autority The acts I say of Charity are manifest But those of Prudence are not particularly designed Prudentia respicit ad singularia That eye is given us to view and consider particular occurrences And it dependeth upon those things which are without us whereas Charity is an act of the will and here we cannot be to seek For how easie is it to a willing mind to apply a general precept to particular actions especially if Charity fill our hearts which is the bond of perfection and the end and complement of the Law which indeed is our spiritual wisdom In a word In these cases when we go to consult with Reason we cannot err if we leave not Charity behind us But the time will not permit to press this further All that I intended was to shew the Perfection of the Gospel how sufficient means it administreth to bring us to to the end for which it was promulged So then it is perfect in it self In the next place it is perfect in respect of the Law of Moses That indeed was the Law of God and so made to be a lantern to our feet and a light to our paths But the Apostle telleth us that this light is not sufficient for us Heb. 7.18 as being not bright enough to direct us to our end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was a weak and unprofitable light Besides as the Law was altogether unsufficient to justifie a sinner so was it defective in respect of light which is more abundantly poured forth in the Gospel In the Law it is written Thou shalt not commit adultery Under the Gospel an Eunuch may commit that sin and do it with his eye For he that looketh upon a woman to lust after her is guilty of that pollution saith our Law-giver The Law permitted many wives The Christian is soli uxori masculus a Man to his wife alone an Eunuch to all the Sex besides The language of the Law was An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth But now it is Good for evil and a blessing for a curse Et Lex plus quà m amisit invenit saith Ambrose The Law was no loser by this precept but a gainer For the more perfect it is the more it is a Law You have heard it spoken to them of old Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thy enemy But I say unto you Love your enemies Here it is plain that Christ did advance and increase the strictness of the Law by adding something to it In melius reformavit He reformed it and made it better then it was Heb. 9.10 The Gospel is called the time of reformation Christ did enlarge the Law he set his last hand to it and did perfect it The Gospel saith Nazianzene is far easier then the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of the hope that is set before us and that great reward which is promised Such a mark will draw us The sight of Heaven smootheth every path maketh the weak strong bringeth him in as a giant to run his race Otherwise it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 far more painful and laborious hath a streighter way and a narrower gate In a word Whatsoever Moses required that doth our Law-giver exact and more an Humility more bending a Patience more constant a Meekness more suffering a Chastity more pure a Flesh more subdued because the heavenly promises are more and more clearly proposed in the Gospel then under the Law For is not Eternity a stronger motive then the Basket and temporary enjoyments is not Heaven more attractive then the Earth or when should we more love God then when he displayeth himself in all his beauty Hence it is that the old Law in comparison of the Gospel is said to be imperfect Heb. 7.19 Rom. 10.4 Gal. 3.24 And Christ is called the end of the Law And the Law a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ We know there is a Righteousness most proper to the Gospel which the Jew saw through types and figures as through a glass darkly but we see face to face by open manifestation And this very righteousness of Faith is so far from excluding the righteousness of Works that the Gospel exacteth them more then the Law and justifieth none that are not full of them And in this respect as the Christian hath more helps and light then the Jew so he must as far exceed the perfection of a Jew as the grace of the Gospel doth the rigour of the Law Crescit onus cum beneficio The larger the privilege
the greater the burthen A greater tribute is due unto Love then to Fear And our Saviour hath proposed it as an everlasting Truth That to whom much is given of him much shall be required And therefore he hath left these precepts more heavy on the back of Christians then formerly upon the Jews Not that the Law of Moses was not perfect in its kind and in it self but that it was less perfect then the Gospel So that what Christ brought in non adversario sed adjutore praecepto not by an opposite or contrary but an helping precept destroyed not what God esteemed as best then to be done but took away that which he permitted to be done only for a time It was no sin for a Jew to hate his enemy or in some case to take revenge at least it was not imputed as a sin not but that it was far better and more acceptable to God to have done otherwise but because God was pleased so far to indulge to their present condition and the hardness of their hearts as not to propose it under the commanding terms of a Law But Christ as he is more indulgent to us in giving his graces so he is less indulgent to us in giving his graces so he is less indulgent to us in exacting his Laws And that Christ doth not permit so much unto us is plain by the EGO VERO But I say uuto you By which he did not only clear the Law from those false glosses with which the Scribes and Pharisees had corrupted it but added something to it not to contradict but perfect it For had he meant to have expunged the false glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees no doubt he would have mentioned them whom he so often taxed by name And had it been their leaven he would have done what he often did injoyned his Disciples to beware of it Besides the Scribes and Pharisees were not of so long standing as Josephus thinketh This Sect had not its beginning long before Christ And it is probable that when the gift of prophesie ceased then men who were ambitious of a name and reputation did seek to gain it by severe discipline and austerity of life which might lift them up as high in the opinion of the people as the foretelling of things to come did the Prophets before them But I say unto you implieth then an addition to the Law of Moses or to that sense in which the Jews understood it and to which they were bound Let the Apostle conclude for me The Law made nothing perfect Hob. 7.19 brought none to that true and inward sanctity But if any attained to it they owed it not to the Law but borrowed it as it were from the grace of the Gospel But the bringing in of a better hope did by which we draw nigh unto God The Jews were under tutors and governours in bondage under the elements of the world but at the appointed time our Lawgiver brought us Laws from heaven out of the bosom of his Father and shewed us yet a more perfect excellent way I might here inlarge my self but we will only draw down all to our selves by application so conclude And if the Doctrine of the Gospel be a perfect Law of abundant power and sufficiency to bring us to our end then we may pass a censure upon those who argue it of great imperfection and therefore are bold to add to it or call it a dead letter and so receive it not as a Law but make one of their own as those of the Church of Rome and the Libertines or as they call themselves Spiritual men And we may observe that though they look several wayes yet they both tread their measures alike and finding themselves at loss finding no satisfaction in the Gospel to their pride and ambition to their malice and lust and feeing they cannot draw it to their part will put up and suborn something of their own to supply that defect Both agree in this to make something besides and above the Scripture the rule of their faith and actions But some difference and dissimilitude there is between them The Libertine layeth a foundation for a loose inconstant and uncertain Religion the Church of Rome for an ingrossed impropriated and tyrannical Religion For what the inward Word is to the Libertines that to those of the Romish faction are Traditions and the Autority of the Church The inward Word is common or rather proper to every particular man hath no other word without it self to regulate it and therefore is free for every man And so we may have as many Religions as there be several senses and inward words as they call them spoken or conceived And so there be as many Religions as there be men Proveniunt oratores stulti novi adolescentuli Young men and maids old men and children I may say fools and mad-men may hear this word or rather speak this word to themselves and so set up a Religion Again the Autority of the Church and Traditions being carried on by themselves and looking on no outward Word as a common rule to try them by put out the eyes of every private man devest him of his reason and judgement and leave him in the dark that he may be subject unto that Church alone and seek light from her as from the greatest luminary altenis oculis videre alienis pedibus ambulare see with her eyes and observe her steps and follow her precisely though it be in those paths which lead to the pit of destruction The Libertine attributeth it sometimes to one man the Papists to the Church and when the accounts are cast up that is but one man Both agree in this that they challenge to themselves infallibility in judgement We have a Revelation saith the one We have Traditions saith the other and a Church that cannot err The inward word saith the Libertine The Church the Church the oecumenical Catholick Church saith the Papist These are their spels and charms with which they take the simple and unwary people who are carried about with every puff of doctrine and are alwayes ripe and fitted for a cheat qui quod vident non vident who will not see what they cannot see who receive every novelty as an oracle every new phansie as the dictate of the Spirit and never bless or applaud themselves more then when they are deceived In a word The Libertine maketh as many Popes as there be men who pretend a skill in this Pythonick art and ventriloquy who can hear their lusts and passions speak within them and say it is the voice of the Spirit who do not stay till the third call but at every motion of the Flesh at every whirl of their Phansie are ready to answer Speak Lord for thy servant heareth And thus every man be a Pope But the Papists erect but one and set him in his throne to whom all other men must bow as to the Head
us That so men might be sooner weary of their improbity then we of our goodness As S. Hierom spake to his friend Paulinus so doth Christ in his perfect Law unto us who will be his disciples Nihil in te mediocre Te contentus sum totum summum totum perfectum desidero I cannot brook in you any mediocrity I can hear of nothing but fulness nothing but perfection nothing but excess In donationibus factis Ecclesiae optima mensura est rerum donatarum immensitas saith a Canonist Would you know in what measure you should give unto the Church There is no other measure saith he of such gifts but Greatness Would you know in what measure you ought to be perfect Immensitas est mensura The true measure of Perfection is Immensity and Excess For he that hath not yet attained to it Ephes 4.13 must yet look earnestly toward it and make it his mark till he come to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ The weak in faith must be strong in faith and they that begin well are bound to press forward toward the end There is indeed in Scripture mention made of a measure of faith and men have applied it to signifie a measure of Holiness supposed to be wrought by God in the hearts of Christians as if God did give the gifts of necessary righteousness and common honesty in some scant and defective measure to some more to others less which is in effect to say Where we see but little honesty there God hath given but little And the reason why one man is not so honest as another is not from the man himself but from God who was more liberal to the one then to the other And here I confess my weakness nor could I ever attain to discover the truth of this conceit but I see it carried up and down as a Pasport or Licence to be weak an Apology for our infant estate in Christ for an old man and a child in understanding for weakness and infirmity We are but such we think as God doth make us and if he had pleased we might have been more perfect then we are But tell me Doth God give us that in measure which he requireth of us in excess Doth he command us to be men to grow in grace and then withdraw himself and leave us in an impossibility of getting out of our swadling-bands Must we ever speak as a child and do as a child and are we so shrunk up and bedwarfed that we shall never become men nor put away childish things Let us take heed It was the evil servant in the Gospel that charged his Master with hardness that he gathered where he scattered not that he reaped where he sowed not I know that the Talents are distributed unequally to some one to some two to some five but then they are peculiar Talents and for honour and not common and necessary The first Talent the grace of necessary Righteousness as it cometh from God so is not given by measure In this every man should be his own measure Why one man is more or less honest then another the reason is not in God but in our selves For God's word to every one is Be ye perfect But the peculiar graces and Talents of ornament these God giveth onely in part and in such measure as seemeth best to his wisdom And so every man cannot be as strong as Samson nor as learned as Solomon nor prophesie as Jeremy nor work miracles as S. Paul All this is from God But why we are not righteous as Noah devout as David zelous as Elias we must find the cause in our selves and not lay the defect on God who in thâ—se graces of necessity requireth Perfection at our hands and therefore the judgment is alike upon all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaketh Judgment shall be proportionable to the gift For God will require no more but the account and use of what he gave And there can little reason be shewn why we should phansie to our selves such a thrift in God in the dispensation of those graces which are necessary who commandeth us to be perfect and delighteth himself and taketh pleasure in our obedience The Scripture it is true speaketh to us sometimes babes in Christ of such as have need of milk and not strong meat of Lambs as well as of Sheep It is plain and I must acknowledge it But yet I dare be bold to deny that this is an apology to continue in sin or to excuse any man if he come short of that Perfection which is required in the Gospel For the babe in Christ of whom the Scripture speaketh is not one defective in integrity of life but unripe in knowledge not deeply seen in the dark mysteries of Scripture And such a one S. Paul meant when he spake of the weak in faith whom he adviseth not to bring to doubtful disputations Perfection in knowledge requireth time Perfection in holiness resolution To conclude this on which I have insisted longer then I intended The Rule the Law is perfect and so requireth perfect obedience For we must not paint and set out Christians as the Church of Rome doth Christ an infant in his mother's arms as babes still rather then perfect men But we must apply our selves and proportion our actions to this perfect Rule carry the image of it about us whithersoever we go as our signet to engrave and shape and seal every thought and word and action that so we may grow up in grace and be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect And further we press not the consideration of this second attribute of the Gospel Pefection but bring you to The third and last That it is a Law of Liberty And certainly before the Gospel sounded all was captivity We were held under the Law an inexorable Law under the power of Sin and Satan the hardest task-masters that are We were captives Luk. â— 18 we were in a dungeon imprisoned in thick and palpable darkness and not onely so but blind we wanted not onely light but eyes We were in fetters and chains and were bruised with them But the sound of the Gospel was as the sound of the trumpet at the year of Jubilee then we recovered our eyes and saw a great light our captivity was led captive our chains fell off and we who were under Sin driven out from the face of God under the power of that Law which is a killing letter obnoxious to all the woes denounced against sinners did recover and receive our liberty were redeemed and brought back again and by free pardon quasi jure postliminii as by a law of recovery re-instated into that liberty which we lost and so did omnia nostra recipere receive all that might be ours our Filiation our Adoption our title to a Kingdom putamur semper fuisse in civitate as the Law speaketh and we are graciously
accepted as if we had never been lost as if we had alwayes been free-denizons of the City of God and never wandred from thence as if we had never forfeited our right In a word Our sins are wiped out as if they had never been And thus we were made free 1. à reatu peccati from the Guilt of sin which whosoever feeleth bath his Tophet his Hell here and whosoever committeth it doth at some time or other feel it It made Hezekiah chatter like a crane and mourn like a dove It withered David's heart like grass and burned up his bones as an hearth It made Peter's tears flow in bitterness What should I say more It made Judas hang himself Quis enim potest sub tali conscientiâ vivere For who can live under the guilt and conscience of sin But there is Balm in Gilead for this 2. We are made free à dominio peccati from the Power and tyranny of Sin Which many times taketh the chair and setteth us hard and heavy tasks biddeth us make brick but alloweth us no straw biddeth us please and content our selves but affordeth us no means to work it out condemneth one to the mines to dig for that money which will perish with him fettereth another with a look or with a kiss driveth a third as Balaam did his beast on the point of the sword through all the checks of conscience the terrours of the Law every thing that standeth in its way to the pit of destruction This power Sin may have and too oft hath in us But the power of the Gospel is greater then the power of Sin then the power of any Act and can abolish it of any Habit and may weaken and scatter it and is able to pull Sin from its throne and put down all its authority and power 3. We are made free à rigore Legis from the rigour from the strict and exact observation of the Moral Law which God at first required From the Law I say as it was a killing letter For this yoke is cast away when we put on the yoke of Christ who indeed requireth as you have heard before more holiness more integrity and greater perfection then the Law did but yet is not so extreme to mark what is done amiss nor doth he under this gracious dispensation punish every infirmity inadvertency and imperfection which the Law did HOC FAC ET VIVES Do this and thou shalt live And not to do it exactly is to break it and die 4. We are made free à servitute legis Ceremonialis from the servitude of the Ceremonial Law a busie and toilsome and expensive servitude in quâ non vivebant sed puniebantur saith S. Hierom in which they did not live but were punished A burthen saith the Apostle which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear This deliverance may seem more proper to the Jew For how could the Gentiles be freed from that Law of Ceremonies to which they were never bound For where S. John telleth us that if the Son make us free we shall be free indeed he speaketh of the freedom from the guilt and condemnation of sin which S. Paul in no place that I remember calleth our Christian liberty although he speaketh of it in many places but not under that name 5. Last of all this Law of Liberty passeth over to us as by patent the free use of the Creature that we are not bound by any Religion to these or these meats but may indifferently use or not use them The earth is the Lord's and all that there in is and he hath given it to the children of men But yet he was pleased upon some reasons to grant some meats for use and to forbid others as unclean Not that any were in their own nature unclean For whatsoever he made was good Sed ut homines mundarentur pecora culpata sunt But to reform and purge the manners of men he seemed to lay an imputation of Uncleanness upon the creature which could not be unclean in it self because it was the work of his hands In the Camel saith the Father he condemneth a crooked and perverse life in the Sow that walloweth in the mire he forbiddeth all pollution of sin in the Lizard our inconstancy and uncertain variety of life in the Hare our lust in the Swan our pride in the Batt our delight in darkness and errour These and the like enormities the Law did exsecrate in these creatures And the Jews were subject to these ordinances TOUCH NOT TASTE NOT HANDLE NOT. Which indeed were not so much prohibitions as directions and remedies that what was taken from their lusts might be added to their manners And such a restraint was fit for them who preferred the onions and garlick of Egypt before Manna it self and would not have liberty that they might still stay by the flesh pots of their enemies who were Lords over them But now claves macelli Christus nobis tradidit saith Tertullian Christ hath put the keys of the shambles or market into our hands The great sheet is let down from heaven and we may rise and kill and eat Every creature of God is good 1 Tim. 4.4 and none to be refused but to be received with thanksgiving and requireth no more sanctification or cleansing but by the word of God and by prayer And Whatsoever is set before you eat asking no question for conscience sake 1 Cor. 10.25 27. And The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost And he that is scrupulous in this Rom 14.17 and is fearful to touch or taste hath his face set as if he were returning to Jerusalem calleth that common which God hath cleansed as weak and vain as that Philosopher who would not venture into a ship because he thought it a sin to spit into the Sea These are the particulars of that Liberty which this perfect Law bringeth with it All which I once intended severally and more fully to handle But it would require more time then the present Power that is over us hath been willing to allow us We will therefore more strictly keep our selves to the words of the Text and see how we may reconcile these two things in appearance so contrary a Law which hath a severe and rigorous aspect and Liberty which hath so pleasing and flattering a countenance the Law which tieth us up and Liberty which seemeth to let us loose to do what we please For in this sense the world seemeth to take it which is fuller of Libertines then of Christians Who when they are under a Law are in bonds and never think themselves free but when they are a Law unto themselves that is when they are the veriest slaves in the world Et libertas libertate perit Liberty is made a gulf to swallow up it self It was a grave complaint of S. Hierom Non reddimus unicuique rei suum vocabulum We
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
subject creature in the world And accordingly it was not heard that any Christian for some hundreds of years did break his bands or rise up against Autority Not a more obedient Son not a more humble Servant not a more faithful Subject then a Christian For when Presumption on our Christian Liberty like a flould is ready to cast down all before it there is a Law in the Gospel which steppeth in and speaketh in the voice of God himself Hitherto shalt thou go and no further We say nay Christ saith that we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truly free and he saith and hath taught us both by his word and ensample that we must be truly charitable truly sober truly obedient The errour in these later ages hath been to remove this Liberty and take it from Sin and Conscience and set it up against the face of the Superiour and so to level and throw down all relations We are now not free from the bondage and guilt and dominion of Sin not free from the clamours of Conscience wherein our Christian Liberty principally consisteth but free from Dependence free from all Subjection and thus we forfeit our Freedom by defending it fling of our obedience to those who are set over us and so come under a worse yoke even the yoke of the Devil For conclusion then Let us with joy and thankfulness remember that we are called to liberty but let us not forget that we are under a Law to regulate and bound us that this royal Law is not nulled and maid void by our Liberty nor our Liberty lost in this Law that it speaketh nothing but Peace and Liberty but withall exacteth Obedience which is the instrumental cause the helper and promoter of them both that Christ hath taken from us one yoke but put upon us another and that an easie one Which if we fling from us or break asunder our Liberty will flie away and leave us in bonds enslaved to our own passions and lusts bowing to every Master but our Master which is in heaven who bought us with a price waiting on our Ambition lacquaying it after the World sweating in a Faction busie and toiling in a Sedition and carried on with a swinge upon the weak and feeble wings of an opinion of Liberty and so making our selves evil because we have learned that the Son hath made us free And therefore let us stand fast in our liberty And the onely way to settle and fix us is this Royal Law To this if we take heed carrying along with us that Charity Sobriety Modesty Prudence which it requireth we shall stand and not incline and sink either to the right hand or to the left neither fall into such a superstitious tenderness as not to be able to take up a straw nor yet run into that profaneness as to beat down all relations before us to see neither Father nor Master nor Magistrate having our eyes dazled with the beauty and glory of our Christian Liberty To conclude Brethren you have been called to liberty Onely use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh to promote that in its lusts and affections You are made free from the Guilt of sin Adde not guilt unto guilt nor bloud unto bloud Be not worse then Jews and Turks because you are Christians You are made free from the Dominion of sin Make use of the power of the Gospel to triumph over it You are made free by this Law of liberty but you must work out this your Freedom with fear and trembâ—ing The Gospel is of power to break our bands asunder but we must shake them off For it doth not redeem those who love their captivity and delight rather in their fetters then enlargement If thou wilt thou shalt be saved and if thou wilt thou art set at liberty Again ye are free from the Rigour of the Law and walk now rather as before a Father then before a Judge But even a Father may be angry and his anger may be heavier then that of a Judge if we abuse his lenity and turn his grace into wantonness if we be too daring and bold under his indulgence and loving kindness and as the flesh swayeth and leadeth us venture now upon these acts of sin now upon others and be less careful what we do because he will not be extreme to mark what is done amiss and so at last make up those cords of vanity that cart-rope of iniquity with which we shall be dragged not as sons but as slaves and beasts to the slaughter Lastly you are made free and have liberty to use the Creature Use it to his glory that gave it that the bread that you eat the garments you wear the beam in the house cry not out and witness against you And you are free from Ceremonial precepts but not from Order and Discipline free in things indifferent but not left in this indifferencie to do what you please In a word free but yet bound bound to serve one another in love and bound even by the Law of Nature which this Law of Liberty doth not abrogate to do every thing decently and in order And thus if you walk as free and yet serving poising and moderating your Liberty by a Law manifesting your freedom even in this service and exalting this your service in your Liberty you shall be free indeed free in whatsoever relation you stand either in Family or City or Church or Common-wealth and by it be made free-denizons of the City of the Lord who shall deliver you from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of his sons in the highest heavens where you shall be free for evermore The Five and Fortieth SERMON PART V. JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed HAving now finished our first Part The Character of the Gospel we pass to our second the Character of the true Gospeller And first we find that he doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 look into the perfect Law of liberty And one would think that were soon done Who doth not look into the Gospel He that loveth it looketh into it and he looketh into it who is an enemy to it But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a word of a fuller signification and implieth not a slight cast of the eye a careless and perfunctory look but a look with the bend and incurvation of the body John 20. â— It is the word S. John useth he telleth us that Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stooping down Vers 21. and looking in saw the linen clothes lying And again of Mary Magdalene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre And of the Gospel it self S. Peter saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Angels desire or love to look into it It is then a serious fixed earnest look not
a bare and inefficacious knowledge that is here meant For who knoweth not the Gospel To whom hath not this arm of the Lord been revealed They that blaspheme it look upon it They that deny the power of it look upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implieth more not a naked knowledge but a knowledge with the bending and incurvation of the Will If a man say he looketh into the Gospel and knoweth Christ and keepeth not his commandments he is a liar 1 John 2.4 He that looketh but slightly looketh not at all or to as little purpose as if he had been blind He that saith he knoweth the power of the Gospel and yet is obedient to the flesh and the lusts thereof is a liar and the truth is not in him For how can one at once look into the Gospel and see the glory of it and despise it What a Soloecism is the Gospel in his mouth who is yet in his sins It is not a looking but a looking into not speculative but practick knowledge that must bring on the end and crown us with blessedness It were better not to look on the Gospel then to look and not to like better to be blind then so to see for if we were blind we should have no sin that is none so great we should have some excuse for our sin Carelesly to look on the Law of liberty is not a window to let in Religion but a door and barricado to keep it out of the heart For what a poor habitation is a Look for the Gospel and Grace to dwell in The Gospel is a royal Law and a Law of Liberty Liberty from the guilt and from the dominion of sin We look upon it and are content well it should be so We know it and subscribe to it But if this would make us Gospellers what an assembly of Pharisees and Hypocrites what a congregation of men of Belial might be the true Disciples of Christ I had almost said What a Legion of Devils might go under that name We look into the Gospel and talk of nothing more In our misery and affliction in anguish and distress of conscience we confess the Gospel must charm the storm and give medicine to heal our sickness Thus we preach and thus have you believed But all this is nothing if you do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bow and bend and apply your selves to the Gospel If you acknowledge its all-sufficiency and trust in the arm of flesh If when the tempest of affliction beateth upon you you make a greater tempest in your souls If ye look and go away and forget by such neglectful looking upon it ye make the word of life a killing letter For what is it to see Sin condemned in Christ's flesh and to justifie it in our own to sing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that triumphant song over Death and wilfully to run upon that disobedience of which Death is the wages to see Satan trod under our feet and yet to make our selves his slaves to look upon Life and yet to chuse Death to look upon a Law and break it upon a Law of Liberty and be servants of Sin worse then bored slaves To look then into the Law of liberty is so to weigh and consider it as to write it in our hearts and make it a part of our selves For every Look will not make a Christian The Jews did look upon Christ but they did not look upon him as the Lamb of God for then they had not butchered him We may look upon the heavens the work of God's fingers upon the Moon and the stars which he hath ordained upon this wonderful frame Rom. 1 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which may be known of God but we do not alwayes as David speaketh so look upon it as to consider it And then it doth not raise us up to a due admiration of God's Majesty nor bring us down to a due acknowledgment of our Subjection We are no more affected with it then as if all were still without form and void a lump or Chaos At first it is a glorious sight and no more and at last when we have familiarly looked upon it it is nothing We look upon our selves mouldering and decaying and yet we do not look into our selves for who considereth himself a mortal Dives in purple never thought how he came into the world nor how he should go out of it We neither look backward to what we were made nor forward to what we shall be Can a rich man die He will say he shall but doth he believe himself Can Herod an Angel a God be struck with worms We die daily and yet think we shall not die at all In a word We are any thing but what we are because we do not look into nor consider our selves We look upon Sin and condemn it and sin again For we do not look into it and consider it as the work of the Devil as the deformity of the Soul as a breach of that Law of liberty which was made to free us as that which hath no better wages then death and eternal separation from the God of life If we did look into it and consider it we could not commit it For no man ever yet did considerately destroy himself What then is it to look into the Law of liberty and in what is our Consideration placed He that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them saith our Saviour is he that looketh into this Law and observeth it He hath an Evangelical eye I may say an Angelical eye for he boweth and inclineth himself to see And no man hath a clear eye but he that doeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth a firm purpose of Doing which is to look into We must distinguish between an active and a Contemplative look or assent Then we look into this Law then we actively assent when we have first considered what difficulties accompany this Law what fightings within and terrours without what a body of sin we carry about with us what pleasing what black temptations are ready to meet us at every turn what enemies we have abroad and what in our own bosom how not onely the way but our feet also are slippery Then we must consider that eternal weight of glory which Christ hath promised to those who are obedient to this Law And then exactly observe that certain and inseparable connexion which is between this Law and Blessedness that if the one be observed the other must naturally and necessarily follow that if we be true Gospellers here we shall be Saints hereafter If this be looked into and rightly considered as it should the Will must needs bow and be obedient to this Law which as it is compassed with difficulty so it leadeth to happiness which bringeth a span of trouble and an eternity of bliss From hence ariseth that Love of Christ and his Law which
is the root and foundation of all obedience Ephes 3 1◠upon which we build up as high as heaven For with such a Look we see the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God nay coming and having his reward with him It is the same method which our Saviour teacheth Luke 14.28 For you must do in Looking as you do in Building Which of you saith Christ intending to build a house sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it If you will look into this Law of liberty you must count what it may cost you It may cost you your goods It may cost you your credit even with those who profess the same thing with you who are ready to forsake you It may cost you your bloud But all these losses shall be made up and recompensed with eternity Canst thou see that smiling Beauty and turn away the eye Canst thou see that Honour ready to crown thee and defie it Canst thou behold Riches and esteem them as dung Canst thou meet the raging persecutor and pity and pray for him Canst thou meet Death it self with all its pomp and horrour and through all these undauntedly press forward towards Heaven Then thou hast stooped down inclined thy self and looked into this Law of liberty For if we have not this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and full persuasion if we have not laid this foundation and approved this Law of liberty both in our understanding and practice as the onely way to happiness we may look and look again upon it and be stark blind see nothing in it nothing of that heaven and bliss which is promised And then every breath is a storm every temptation will be an overthrow then every light affliction every evil that cometh towards us will remove the eye from this Law and place it on it self which we shall look on till we faint and fall down for fear and forfeit our obedience even study how to make that false which is so contrary to our lusts and affections Faith and a good Conscience make it a just and full look If we put that away 1 Tim. 1.19 presently concerning faith we make shipwreck For as in Scripture we are then said to know God when we love him so do we truly look into and consider this Law not when we make mention of it with our lips when we think of it remember it meditate of it which is but the extension of our thoughts but when we draw it fasten it to our soul make it as our form and principle of motion to promote those actions that obedience in us for which the Law was made This the Fathers call the circular motion of the mind which first settleth upon the object then is carried back into it self and there boweth and swayeth the powers of the soul and collecteth it self into it self from all forein and impertinent occurrences and then joyneth all its forces and faculties its Will and Affections to the accomplishing of that Good to which the Law of liberty inviteth us To look into the Law ye see is of larger extent then the words do import at first sight and is of singular use It poiseth and biasseth us in all our wayes that we may run evenly to that Blessedness which is set before us It is our Compass to steer our course amidst the waves the ebbings and flowings the changes and chances of this world It is our Angel to keep us in all our wayes It is as the opening of a window into the closet of our souls that that light may enter which may manifest every mote and atome where there was nothing before but vacuity It is our Spy to discover the forces of our Enemy and it is the best strength we have against him It is as the balance of the Sanctuary to weigh every blessing in the Gospel to a grain It is the best divider giving to God those things that are God's and to man those things which are man's It wipeth the paint off from sin and discovereth its horrour It taketh temptation from Beauty and sheweth us fading flesh dust and ashes It strippeth Riches of their glory and pointeth unto their wings It seeth a deceiver in the Devil in Christ a Lord and Saviour and in his royal Law it beholdeth Heaven and eternity of bliss All this virtue and power hath this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this looking into the Law and due considering of it Which by being looked into becometh the savour of life unto life but when we take off our eye is made the savour of death unto death A steddy and heedful look purchaseth and a careless glaunce forfeiteth our Liberty To look is to be free and not thus to look is to have Canaan's curse upon us to be servants of servants for ever And now tell me how many be there that thus look into the Gospel how many that thus weigh and consider it Many walk saith S. Paul Many look we may say of whom we may speak weeping that they are enemies to the Law of liberty The Papist looketh into it and there he findeth a Triple crown The Schismatick looketh into it and he findeth a sword to divide him from his brethren The Anti-papist Jesuite looketh into it and findeth the draught and model of a new Discipline The Enthusiast and Spiritual man looketh into it and findeth nothing but Ink and Words The Libertine looketh into it For the Law is in himself Quarunt quod nusquam est inveniunt tamen They look and seek that which cannot be found and yet they find it every man his humour and the corruption of his own heart There is much in the Eye For the Law of liberty is still the same It moulteth not a feather changeth not its shape and countenance But it may appear in as many shapes as there be tempers and constitutions of the eyes that looketh into it An Evil eye seeth nothing but faction and debate A lofty eye seeth nothing but priority and preeminence A Bloud-shot eye seeth nothing but cruelty which they call Justice All the errours of our life as the Philosophers speak of the colours of the Rainbow are oculi opus the work of the Eye For the Law it self can lend nothing towards them but stareth them in the face when the eye hath raised them to shake and demolish them It were good then to clear our eye before we look into the Law lest whilest we find what pleaseth us we find what will ruine us But oh that we should have such Eagles eyes in the things of this world and be such Batts in the Gospel of Christ The Covetous looketh into the world and that hath power to transform his soul into earth The wanton looketh upon beauty and that turneth his into flesh David beholdeth Bathsheba in her bath and is on fire Ahab looketh upon Naboth's vineyard and is sick The eye of flesh pierceth deep into
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
down before Him 642 643. But his Mercy is of most force to humble us 643. ¶ God is uncapable of defilement 166. That which cometh from God is to be received with all reverence 285. 847 c. what God once saith shall infallibly be done 288. His Decrees cause not our wickedness 290. His Promises are conditional and oblige us to duty 290. Godly A Godly man will be a godly man in any place whether alone or in company 1089. v. Religion How meek under sufferings 176. The Godly not onely submit to but favour and applaud whatsoever God doth 307. They are not exempted from poverty and common casualties 901. But in general calamities God taketh extraordinary care of them 901. The different condition of the Godly and ungodly here and hereafter 561. Good is ex causa integra but any one point amiss is enough to make a thing evil 444. That which is good in it self is good alwayes and every where 73. and cannot be used to an evil end 85. Worldly things how good 85 86. v. World Nothing Good without God every thing Good with him 784. ¶ Good men may be full of doubts and suffer fits of despair 344 c. Comforts for such 347. Good partake with the bad in common calamities and why 291 c. ¶ A Good name carefully to be preserved 1054. ¶ Good works how far esteemed by God and how far advantageous to us 812. They cannot justifie the worker 812 813. Doing Good and Eschewing Evil must be inseparably joyned 281 282. Many do Good works by halves 160. Goodness is God's chief property 404 405. If it were essential to Man there would have been neither Law nor Gospel 410. 586. It is not necessary but voluntary 587. 628 629. It forceth approbation even from bad-men 500 551. 518. 1125. v. Necessity Piety Gospel far more excellent then either Philosophy or the Law 201 202. Though all its rules are not juris naturalis yet some are 224. The G. is much talked of much mistook and abused 1062. 1105 1106. The G. is a Law 1063 c. yea the strictest Law 1065. How we are to look upon it 1072. Of the Perfection of the Gospel 1073 c. 1094. It is perfect in respect of the End and of the Means 1073. It alone can fill and fit a man in any condition 1074. It ordereth every part faculty act motion inclination 1076. It reacheth all cases that be necessary 1077. It forbiddeth all sins great and small 1094. It is not onely perfect it self but far more perfect then the Law of Moses 1078 1079. It requireth more of us then the Law did 1078. The Papists and Libertines censured for arguing the G. of imperfection 1079 c. The G. carrieth us much higher then the Moral Heathen could sore or ken 1084. There is neither defect nor obscurity in it 1084. Since the G. is perfect we must square out our actions by it 1085. 1098. Though it be plain and easie yet we must carefully read and hear and pray that we may understand it 1094 1095. The G. not onely restraineth gross offenses but idle words wanton looks and thoughts 1095 1096. Why called by St. James a perfect law of liberty 648. Before we were captives under Sin and Satan 1097. but by it we are freed from the Guilt of Sin 1097. from the Power of Sin 1098. from the Rigour of the Moral and the Servitude of the Ceremonial Law 1098. VVhat it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to look into the Gospel 1105 c. The singular use of looking into it aright 1108. How few do so 1108. We must not onely look upon the G. consider it but continue it 1110 c. VVe must not forget but remember it 1116. VVe must turn the words into works 1117 c. God hath fitted the G. to us and us unto it 1124. Being looked into and persevered in it filleth the soul with light and joy 1125 c. Goths VVhen they sacked Rome they spared those who fled into Churches 501. Grace much talked of little understood 433. VVhat it is 433. God will not leave us destitute of it 433 434. Though infused into us it is not infused without us 667 c. It is an errour to think every man hath a certain measure of saving Grace 1024. 1096. Saving Gr. hath its degrees 458. 1086. It encreaseth by exercise 1117 Grace onely bringeth to God and to Glory 106. Many lay all the stress upon the power of God's Grace and do nothing themselves 434 435. 588. 628 629. 667. 722. 1001. Gr. doth not force a man to be good 435 436. 584. 1022. 1115. Our duty is to use Gr. aright and by no means to abuse it 435. 629. 1022. Some pretending to magnifie the Gr. of God turn it into wantonness 1001. 1022. Gr. worketh in us by means 1022. Graces must be tried 38. Gr. never appeareth so bright as in time of trial 698 699. Riches but trash if compared with Gr. 619. Many phansie they have Graces which they have not 668 669. Some hold that Grace can neither be resisted at first nor lost afterwards 683. Of total and final falling from Grace 1112 1113. Grief v. Joy Mourning Repentance Sorrow Grief a heavy burden 936. One cannot properly be bid to grieve 331. Grief at the death of friends is lawful but it must be moderate 543. Grief wholesome for the soul 563 c. What Grief is godly and what not 331 332. Grow in grace 578. 606. H HAbits of virtue how acquired 205. 667. Habits of grace though infused into us are not infused without us 667. Hannibal 1066. Happiness to be attained neither by the light of Reason nor by the Law but by Christ alone 716 717. v. Heathen Harden How God is said to harden hearts 412. Hast is not good in a wrong way 855. Hatred transformeth men yea and the Truth it self 670 671. We must not hate any man much less the Truth for the man's sake 672 673. Health how excellent a blessing 591. It is the fittest time to serve God in 592. If it be not employed in the service of God it will be of the devil 594. Hearing of Sermons without doing far from Religion 221. 277. 303. 304. 522. 790 701. 990. 1060. It is a sin and flat mockery of God 877. What God meaneth when he biddeth us hear 876. How th◠Word is to be heard 512. v. Prayer Heart As the H. is affected so the Tongue speaketh 976 977. Heathen How far they went in the doctrine of Repentance 324. and in moral Righteousness 868. Many of them have outgone most Christians in the way of righteousness 128. 663. What was the happiness they could teach and reach unto 324 325. 716 717. They reteined some seeds of Truth 371. By the light of Nature they hated hypocrisie 372. Whether their virtuous actions were sins 375. Their moral virtues advantaged them but little because they were destitute of saving truth 663 868. Heaven
Israel and of England compared 422 423. J. JAmes St. James and St. Paul seem to contradict each other but do not 276. Jealousie vvhat in Man vvhat in God 381. 613. 643. Jer. xxv 18-29 299. JESUS how excellent a name 732 733. That JESUS is the Lord though Law and Custome and Education teach us yet vve cannot say it but by the holy Ghost 759 c. Many say so yet but few say it 763 764. He vvho saith it aright saith it vvith his Tongue 764. 770. with his Heart 765. 770. and vvith his Hand 766. 270 c. Oh vvhat pity and shame it is that Man should suffer the Flesh the World and the Devil to Lord it over him and not Jesus 768. Jews vvhy commanded to offer sacrifice 72. Why blamed sometimes for so doing 80. 82. They pleased themselves exceedingly in this and in other outward servics 108. v. Formality Their great privileges 418. Privileges of Christians greater then theirs 419. Many things vvere permitted to be done by the Jews vvhich are unlawful for a Christian 869. Their course of sinning 611. Jew a term of reproch 194. Job's case 292. 903. Joh. vi 63. 468. ¶ viii 36. 742. 1 Joh. ii 4. 723. ¶ 16. 280. ¶ iv 18. 398. ¶ v. 3. 112. St. John v. Charity St. John Baptist a burning and shining light 549 c. How the Jews at first admired him 553. but vvithin a vvhile disliked him 554. Joy good and bad 338. Sensitive and Rational 553. It is configured to the soul that receiveth it 860. God's Joy over us and our Joy in Him and in one another 861. Against them that rejoyce in the sins or calamities of others 862 863. Joy that ariseth from Contemplation of good is nothing to that which ariseth from Action 1125. True Joy floweth from Love 153. and from Obedience 113. 992. 1125 1126. Sorrow is vvont to go before Joy 560. Judas's repentance 336. his despair 343. Judge neither others sinners because afflicted nor thy self a Saint because prosperous 295 c. 616. We may disannul our former Judgment upon better evidence vvithout inconstancie 676 c. The Judgment of God and of the World how different 964. God's J. and Man's differ much 616. That of Men for the most part corrupt and partial 246 247. Judgment Few believe there shall be a day of Judgment 926. Though scoffers say Nay it will assuredly come 237 238. Why it is so long in coming 238. It cannot be the object of a wicked man's hope 242. 737. v. CHRIST Curious enquiry after the time of the last Judgment condemned 248 c. We ought to exspect and wait for it 250. Signes of the day of Judgment 1043 c. Judgments Of God's temporal Judgements 611. Judgments justly fall even on God's own people vvhen they sin 290. In general J. many times the good are involved vvith the evil vvithout any prejudice to God's Justice 291. Reasons to prove that point 292. A fearful thing to be under J. and not to be sensible of them 643. Judgments should fright us from sin and drive us to God 364. 800. If they vvork not that effect they are forerunners of hell-torments 365. 801. We should especially be afraid of those sins vvhich are vvont to bring general J. on a Nation 297. It is the greatest judgement not to fear J. till they come 502. 615. We must studie God's J. 615. v. Punishment Judge The Judge's calling necessary 821. His office 120. How his autority may be lawfully made use of 822. Julian the Apostate 957. His liberality 143. His malitious slander of the Christians 148. He wounded Religion more with his wit then with his sword 959. His death 959. Justice of how large extent 119. What it is 120. Private J. is far larger then publick 121. Our common Nature obligeth to live justly 123. and so doth the Law of Nature 124. 126. c. 134. and Fear of God's Vengeance 125. and the written Law of God 128. especially Christ's Gospel 129. How strict observers of Justice some Heathens have been 128. How small esteem Justice hath in the world 131. Motives to live justly 134 c. That which is not Just can neither be pleasant nor profitable 126. v. Mercy Justification what 811. The Church of Rome's doctrine confuted 812 813. Faith justifieth but none but penitents 872. The several opinions about Justification may all be true 1074 c. But many nice and needless disputes there be about it 1075. Wherein Justification consisteth 1075. K. KEyes Power of the Keyes neither to be neglected nor contemned 47. Kingdomes v. Fate Kings though mighty Lords on the earth are but strangers in the earth 532. 535. K. love not to be too much beholding to their subjects 232. It is not expedient for the world to have onely one King 233. Kneeling in the service of God proved by Calvine to be of Divine autority 756. Knowledge Want of Knowledge many alledge to excuse themselves but without cause 437. Pretended K. how mischievous 556 557. Three impediments of K. 96 c. Four wayes to get K. 66. Of which Practice is the chief 68 69. K. is the daughter of Time and Industrie 956. What kind of K. it is that we have in this life 678. God's wayes are not to be known by us his will and our duty easily may 93. We should not studie to know things not revealed 248. Though the K. of what is necessary be easy and obvious 93. 95. yet it is to be sought for with all diligence 96. K. even in the Apostles grew by degrees 61. K. of all future things if we had it would do us no good 789. K. of Sin v. Sin K. of Nature Medicine Laws Husbandry is very excellent 656 657. Saving K. is onely necessary 59 60. 248. K. of Christ surpasseth all other K. 715 c. but it must be not a bare speculative K. but practical 723 c. Many know the Truth but love it not 549. 690. Knowledge Will Affections all to be employed in the walk of a Christian 516 c. Speculative K. availeth nothing without Love 517. It is but a phantasm a dream 518 519. 724 725. It is worse then Ignorance 518. 520. 523. 690. 723. Adde therefore to K. Practice 519 725. As K. directeth Practice so Practice encreaseth K. 520. 693. Words of Knowledge in Scripture imply the Affections 463. Love excelleth Knowledge 977. How God is said not to know the wicked 173. L. LAbour is the price of God's gifts 219. It is not onely necessary but honourable 220. No grace gotten by us no good wrought in us without Labour and pains 667 c. v industrie Sin is a laborious thing 927. more laborious then Virtue 928. It is sad to consider that many will not labour so much to be saved as thousands do to be damned 928. Law Whether going to Law be lawfull 821. Good men have alwayes scrupled the point 822. Cautions and rules to be observed 822. 824. Lawfull
mind whence 554. Men love to hide their sins and to make shew of their good deeds 167 168. Man is never free but while he is obedient to Law 1100 c. v. Liberty How Man is Lord of all his actions 257. Man ever laid open to tentations how and why 280. Few Men fully perswaded of their mortality 250 251. Manichees 8. 165. 171. 412. 705. 752. Many v. Multitude Marcion 8 9. 21. 23. 246. 390. 412. 808. Marie the Mother of our Lord a blessed person 985. Some will not call her Saint 986. Others make her more 986. Mark xiv 36. expounded 25. Marriage v. Husband Perfection may be had as well in a Married as in a single life 1090. The inconveniencies of Marriage nothing so dangerous as Sin 1090. Martyrdome An excellent encomium of it 754. How to be armed for Martyrdome 192. A good life and a good cause go to the making of a Martyr 705. Their gallant and triumphant carriage in their sufferings 26. 568 569. Fear of hell made them so couragious 391. v. Sufferings Every Christian is designed to Martyrdome 573. There may be a Martyrdome before Martyrdome 82. The Devil and Errour have their Martyrs as well as God and the Truth 704 705. 912. Some slain for throwing down Images not allowed the title of Martyrs 215. Massalians 705. Mass-book Some condemn some truths because they are in the Mass-book 671. Masters of families Their Duty 545. Mathematicks No such certainty to be looked for in Ethicks as in M. 1015. Matth. v. 22 28 32 34 39 44. 1079. ¶ 48. 1087. how eluded 690. ¶ vi 25 34. 222. ¶ vii 12. 127. ¶ viii 26. 314. ¶ x. 16. 130. ¶ xi 30. 481. ¶ xxii 30. 939. ¶ xxiv Christ's Sermon in this chapter concerning the signes of his second coming nearly concerneth us 1042 1043. Matrimonie and Virginity weighed together 1090. Meaning A good Meaning or intention a poor excuse for sin 443. 447 448. Means v. End Many gaze and dote on the Means and regard not the end 988 989. Means if not made good use of turne to our great disadvantage 424. 555. Measures v. Weights Meats now under the Gospel may be indifferently used or not used 1098. Mecenas 383. Mechanick A witless etymon of the word 522. Meddling with other mens matters reproved 212. 640 641. It is against not onely the laws of Christianity 213. but also the method of Nature 214 216. Meddling busy-bodies are enemies to others and themselves also 215. They are ridiculous and prodigious 216. Idleness is the root of this vice 218. Meditation on good things how advantageous 206. 691. It is to be seconded by Practice 207. Meditation what 597. 1107. Memorie Of the Memorie 828. What a gratious efficacie the Memorie of God's Mercy hath upon the soul 828 829. Our Memories are apt to forget God's mercies and have need of reviving 589. 596. ¶ What care vvas taken to preserve the Memorie of the Saints 1019. Mercy praised 138. 147. It is an inseparable companion of Justice 138 139. We are as much bound to do acts of Mercy as not to do an injurie 139. 142 143. Nothing more sutable to the Nature of Man then Mercy 140. Mercy maketh Man like unto God 279. What influence God's Mercy and ours have one upon another 815. v. Forgiveness Mercy maketh a sympathie and harmonie in the Church 141. Why worldly men like it not 142. It is often rewarded in this life but in the next infallibly 143. The M. of the primitive Christians how far beyond ours 144 145. Less danger to exceed herein then to fall short 145. Distinctions coyned to elude Texts that enjoyn Mercy 146. Compassion the spring of Mercy 147. 149. v. Almes To love Mercy what 150. Mercie is natural 150. constant 151. sincere 152. delightful 153. Objects of Mercy appear every where 154. Motives to Mercy 153. Our Mercy to others is the rent God respecteth for his M. to us 154. God's Mercy and his Justice reconciled by Christ's Death and our Repentance 347. Why the antient Fathers were so profuse yet sparing tenderers of God's Mercy 349 350. The Mercy of God fearfully abused by some 276. Make not Mercy an occasion of sin 352 353. Mercy and Judgment should compose our song 353. Judgement followeth Mercy at the heels 360. v. GOD. The use we should make of God's Mercies 579. 590. 1072. Sins after Mercy the greater 612 613. Mercy is of most efficacie to humble our hearts 643. Merits The doctrine of Merits overthrown 812 813. 1126. All we can do or suffer is far short of meriting heaven 233. 993. 1126. Messias Christ is not such a Messias as the Jews looked for and as some worldly-minded Christians frame to themselves 33. A glorious Messiah was exspected by the Jews 553 554. 559. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 336. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 336. Metaphors fruitfull of controversie 46. Their use 229. Metellus Numidicus 668. Method and Order how necessarie to be followed 885. as necessarie in Christ's School as in humane Arts and Sciences 68. 947. Want of Method what mischief it worketh in the world 892. c. 945 946. Meum and Tuum quarrelsome vvords 840. Milk by some not allowed to be eaten 752. Mind v. Man The Mind is the Man and the action too 622 623. It cannot intend several things at once 509. Whether it be not necessarie that the Mind should still fluctuate and be lost in uncertainties 678. The Mind is apt to be dazled with some lesser good vvhen it should be intent upon far greater 988 989. Ministers must not flatter 511 512. v. Flattery Miracles v. Conversion The end and use of Miracles 572 c. 957 c. 968 969. 978. 988. In respect of the Agent properly there is no Miracle 969. Why M. are now ceased 970. Of Popish Miracles 970. He that will not believe the Word vvould not believe a Miracle 734. 970. What Christ did in person he doth still spiritually by his Church 970. Christ's Miracles preferred before Moses's 978. Christ's M. were supernaturall publick quick perfect 979. Miracles should fill us with admiration 979. Miracles may be scoffed at by profane men 956 c. Miserie to be chosen rather then Iniquity 127. Mockery Most mens conversation is but a Mockery of God 919 c. 958. How vvicked men are said to mock God vvho in very deed cannot be mocked 923 c. God will return the Mock upon them that mock him 925. v. Scoff Moderation to be observed 56. Moderation in the pursuit of Knowledge commended 248. Modestie in apparel to be used 1101. Monitours vve should be to one another 576. Monks and Friars censured 220. v. Perfection Solitarie Montanus 65. 752. Morality scorned and derided by speculative hypocrites 83. Morall Laws v. Ceremonie Morall virtues are not natural 199. but must be studied and laboured for 205. Of the Morall virtues of the Heathen 663. v. Heathen Morose v. Christianity Mortality Of our Mortality 538. How little believed
us 271. Preachers All may not preach and teach in publick 293. Who they are that commonly gain most respect 534 535. Precepts The antient Christians used to collect morall Precepts out of Ethnick Philosophers 129. God's Precepts though shut up sometimes in a word are of a large extent 452. 474. They are fitted to our Reason and so are no sooner seen but approved 991. And when embraced and kept by us they fill our hearts with heavenly joy 992. Precepts are a slower way of teaching then Examples 1016 c. Precepts oft are conteined in Examples 496 497. What to do when Examples cross Precepts 526. No Precept without a Promiss 1069. Some lift up themselves at the Promises but tread the Precepts under foot 1069. Prejudice what 675 c. The tyranny of Pr. is worse then the rage of the Affections 676. The great mischief it doth 679 c. 975. How heavy it lieth upon the Church of Rome 680. The Reformed Church is not quite clear 681. 974. It shutteth the door against the Truth 974. c. Preparation necessarie before Christian duties 478. Presumtion and Hope how different 354. Pr. is a main hinderance of Conversion 342. It is more dangerous then Despair 349 c. It maketh a man abuse the Mercy of God the Merits of Christ and the Means of salvation 350 c. 765 766. 793. How apt men are to presume 396. 400. 434. By what steps Presumtuous sinners rise to that height 170. Arguments against Presumtion 351. Pretenders to the Spirit dangerous persons 683 684. Pride is the Daughter of Self-love and Ignorance 483. It is even natural to Man 157. 630. Any thing nothing that which is worse then Nothing will make him proud 630. The mischief that Pride doth 483. 856. It maketh a man incorrigible 158. 631. No vice so dangerous as spiritual P. nor any that we are more prone to 160. 633. A large character of P. 1053. It s cure 483. Pride of Man to be expiated onely by Christ's Humilty 6. Priests are not as some profanely think the onely persons that are tied to live strictly 555. Priest and People have one and the same way to heaven 89. Primitive Christians Devotion we now are more apt to censure then follow 455. 566. 758. 981 c. What austerity and abstinence they exercised 565 566. How devout they were in building and adorning Churches 850. Privileges if abused undo us 424. Procrastination of Repentance v. Repentance Profaneness a more dangerous sin then Superstition 981. v. Superstition Profession of the Gospel is necessarie but not enough 764. Inward Perswasion must go along with it 765. and constant Practice 766. Many profess Christ for fashion for companie 's sake 759. 763 764. Profit is a lure that calleth the most after it 899. Young mens minds run less upon Profit then old mens 899. Nothing Profitable but what is also Honest 126. Promises and Threatnings motives to obedience 398. Pr. are conditionall 543. 1069. Some confound Promiss and Precept 1069. Let none promiss himself what the Gospell promiseth not 607. Why God promiseth earthly blessings 899. Such promises must not make the godly presume that they shall be exempted from common casualties 901. God oft performeth these promises to his children though they perceive it not 902. Prophesies a clear proof of Divine Prescience 166. Prophets speak as they were moved by the H. Ghost 324. Many evil men have had the spirit of Prophesie 549 Prosperity no sign either of a good man or of a bad 295. 620 c. 684. 712. It commonly doth us more hurt then Affliction 295. 671 672. 712. Prosperous villains what they get 215 217. Prosperity of sinners should not offend us 115. Prosperity of the wicked no good argument against God's Providence 298. 351 684. Prosperity a better time to turn to God in then Adversity 363. 799 800. Prov. xv 24. 646. ¶ xxi 25. 355. Providence of God past finding out 93. 189. 684. 703. Why man cannot judge of it 298. It shall be manifested at the last day 239. Psal v. 12 591. ¶ li. 5. 1040. ¶ lxxvii 9. opened 22. ¶ cxix 513. ¶ cxxxix 14. 104. Punishment Reward and Punishment are the two pillars of both Common-wealth and Church 1122 c. P. followeth Sin as Harvest the Seed-time as Wages the Work 929. And herein are manifested the Justice of the Providence of God 930. God hath appointed particular punishments for particular sins 931. He sometimes punisheth per legem talionis 931. Not to be punished at all is the greatest punishment of all 365. 612. v. Laws Fear of Punishment necessarie 387 c. v. Fear If less Punishments prevail not God will inflict greater 610 c. Q. QUestion 's The various use of Questions in Scripture 108. 385. 727. They add oftentimes great emphasis and force 70 71. 385. Needless Questions to be let alone 94. Many Questions in Divinity we may be ignorant of without danger 866. Quiet To be quiet what 198. 200. Many seem Quiet persons and are nothing less 198 199. 211. Some are Quiet perforce but assoon as the curb is out of their jaws most turbulent 199 200. Quietness is an Evangelical virtue 201. How much of this in the primitive times how little afterwards 203 204. But let whoso will be unquiet true Christians are not cannot be so 204. Quietness is to be laboured for 205. and made our meditation 206. and practiced 207. Self-love a great enemy to Qu. is to be cast out 207. and so must Covetousness and Ambition Evil-surmising 208. Three things cannot be disquieted 209. This virtue is truly religious Christian honourable 209. The best way to be Quiet is to abide every man in his own calling 212 Every thing is Quiet in its own place 214. The unquiet condition of Tyrants 215. 217. Quintinus 415. R. REad Ingenious wayes of teaching children to read 1016. Reason alone is not a sufficient guide to happiness 716 717. Yet it must not be thought useless in matters of Religion 686 687. It s office is to rule the Affections 206. v. Self-deceit It is a light but obnoxious to fogs and mists 959. 973. The Affections daily change but right Reason is still the same 687. Reason it is not but sensuality that leadeth us to sin 330. 337. 428. 973. v. Nature Affection swayeth most men more then Reason 534 535. Rebuke v. Reprehension Recreation 618. Redemtion Before we were redeemed we were slaves to Satan both by way of Sale and of Conquest 740. and slaves to Sin 741. How Christ redeemed us 741 742 It cost more to redeem us then to make us 763. Though Christ have fully redeemed us yet something must be done by us 739. 741 742. 763. 872 873. Universal Redemption how far allowable 29 c. Reformation Reformers of the Church though men of B. memory haply had done their work much better if they had been more moderate 133. Where our Church was before 286. Wherewith the Papists charge the
beauty and glory when it is drest up with advantage and cometh toward us smiling to flatter and woo us but it joyneth with it when it is cloathed with Death when it is reviled by Conscience and hung round about with all the curses of the Law it swalloweth down Sin not when it is as sweet as honey but when it hath a mixture and full taste of the bitterness of gall and so though our sin be against our Conscience yet it is not against our Will and therefore is the more voluntary Besides in the last place this is a thing which almost befalleth every man that is not delivered over to a reprobate sense whose eye of Reason is not quite put out vvho is not unmanned and hath quite lost all feeling or sense of that vvhich is evil and that vvhich is good Nay it vvas in Cain it vvas in Judas it is in every despairing sinner or else he could not despair These pauses and deliberations these doubtings and disputes and divided thoughts are common to righteous and to vvicked persons Duplici in diversum scindimur hamo Pers sat 5. Hunccine an hunc sequimur Most men are more or less thus divided in themselves And as Plautus observeth that it is the humour of some men when they are at a feast to dislike the dishes but no whit the more to abstain Culpant sed comedunt tamen they find fault with their meat and yet eat it up so it is with us We oft disrelish Sin and swallow it down we cannot but condemn Sin and we are as ready to commit 〈◊〉 and with him in the Comedy ask Quid igitur faciam What shall we now do when we are knocking at the harlots door and ready to break forth into action And therefore this conceit That a regenerate man doth not sin with a full consent in that his conscience calleth after him to retire in the very adventure is very dangerous and may be mortal to the heart that fostereth it For when this conceit hath filled and pleased us we shall be ready with Pilate to wash our hands when they are full of blood Matth. 27.24 and cry out we are innocent when we have released Barabbas let loose our Sense Appetite and Affections to run riot and delivered Jesus the Just one to be scourged and crucified delivered up our Reason to be a slave and ministerial to all those evils which the Flesh or Devil can suggest and delivered up our Affections to be torn and scattered as so many straws upon a wrought sea and never at rest in a word we shall contemnere peccata quia minora putamus slight and pass by our sins in silence because we will not behold them in their just shape and proportion in that horrour and terrour and deformity which might fright us from them And this conceit is a greater tentation then that which first took us for it bringeth on and ushereth in the tentation taketh from it all its displacency that it may enter with ease and when it hath prevailed it shutteth out Repentance which should make way for that mercy and forgiveness which alone must make our peace Every man favoureth himself and is very open to entertain any doctrine which may cherish and uphold this humour and make him less wicked or more righteous then he is And though at first we find no reason which commendeth it to us and craveth admittance for it â—et because it speaketh so friendly to our infirmities and helpeth to raise up that which we desire to see in its height we take it upon trust and believe it to be true indeed and stand up and contend for it as a part of that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. And having this mark of the righteous That we sin but check our selves in it we take our selves to be so righteous persons though we be so ill qualified that an impartial eye beholdeth it and findeth so much probability as pointeth to it as to the mark of the Beast It is with many of us as it was with the slave in Tacitus Annal. 2. who being like Agrippa in outward favour and the lineaments of his body did also take upon him to counterfeit his person and being asked by Caesar How he came to be Agrippa stoutly answered As thou camest to be Caesar Nemo non benignus sui judex There are but few or none at all that are not too favourable judges in their own cause and though they be slaves and servants unto Sin yet will be ready to put on the person of a Prince of a Saint of a chosen vessel and by the help of Imagination and the frequency of those pleasing and deceitful thoughts at last verily believe himself to be so And if reluctancy and regret and the turning away of the face of the soul the Conscience at the evil we do be a mark of a regenerate man then certainly a very Pagane a notorious sinner may find this mark about him and though he commit sin with greediness yet may he lay him down and rest and sleep upon this conclusion That hating sin as he doth and committing that sin which he thinketh he hateth his name may be written in heaven and he be also one of the elect But then to conclude this a strange thing it may seem that we should first wound our Conscience and then force her to pour in this balm first not hear her speak and then bring her in to make this plea that we did not hear her first slight and offend her and then make her our advocate I spake unto you and you heard not It is your happiness Had I not spoken your sin had been greater then it is And thus we do evil with less danger That is our â—â—â—ught because we first told our selves that we should not do it But call we our sin what we please a sin of infirmity or a sin with a half-will with a half consent with a will and no will Non mutatur vocabulis vis rerum Quintil. l. 9. Inst. c. 1. Words and names have no power to change and alter the nature of our sin or to abate any degree of its poyson and malignity And pretend we what we will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sentence and judgment is the Lord's and in his sight even those sins which we do with reluctancy and some contention with our selves are voluntary and without repentance bind us over to death Even of them who sin though they check and condemn themselves before the act who say they would not and yet do it this Question may be asked Why will ye die We come now to the last pretense which is commonly taken up by men who are willing to be evil but not willing to go under that name And we shall but touch it for it will soon fall to pieces with a touch This pretense is made up of a bad will and a good intention or
it self the most disorderly thing in the world into order and maketh that which stands us against his law to meet with his Justice and that which runs from the order that his Mercy hath set up to be driven to the order of Equity For Sin is an offense against the Creation a breach and invertion of that order which the Wisdome of God did at first establish in the world My Adultery defileth my body my Oppression grindeth the poor my Anger rageth against my brother my particular sins have their particular objects but they all strike at the Universe and at that order which was at first set up Luke 15. Father I have sinned against thee and against heaven saith the Prodigal against thee and against thy Power and that Order which thou hast establisht in the highest heavens And therefore his Providence ruleth over all to reduce this inequality to an equality and this confusion into order to shew what harmony it can work in the greatest disorder what beauty he can raise out of the deformed and unnatural body of Sin striking them down by his hand who would not bow to his will Sin and Punishment are nothing of themselves but in us or rather in the wayes of Gods Providence they are something The one is voluntary that is Sin the other penal that is Smart That which is voluntary Sin is a foul deformity in nature and in that course which God hath set up and therefore the penal is added to order and place it there where it may be forced to serve for the grace and beauty of the whole that the punishment of Sin may wipe out the dishonour of Sin that he who against the will of God would tast the pleasure of Sin may against his own will drink deep of the cup of Bitterness Interest mundo Therefore it concerns the world and all that therein is that Sin be punished and that every thing be set in its own place This the whole creation seems to grone for this it earnestly expects this is the Creatures Jubilee Rom. 8. it is deliverance from the bondage of corruption Turpis est pars quae suo toti non convenit It is an ill member for which the whole body is the worse Vt in sermone litterae As Letters in a Word or Sentence so Men are the principles and parts which concur to make up a Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Men are the World and Men are the City and Men are the Church Now every impertinent and unpunished Sinner is a letter too much or rather a blur in that sentence Let the hand of Providence therefore blot it out Let the whip be on the fools back and the sword in the murderers bowels Let Dives be in Hell let every seed have its own body and every work its proper wages and then every thing is in its own order and place and then the World is the work of Gods Hands the Church is the body of Christ and the composition is entire So this is an everlasting truth Gods Justice requires it his Providence works it the very Creature groans for it And deceive we our selves if we will and mock God if we dare If we do not well sin lyeth at the door Gen. 4.7 ready to break in with a whip and vengeance upon us For whatsoever a man sows that also shall he reap For in the next place God doth not onely punish sin but fits and proportions the punishment to the sin both in this life and in that which is to come He observes a kind of Arithmetical proportion and draws both parts together that the one may not crack of his purchase nor the other complain of his loss that the Sinner may not boast of his sin nor God lose any part of his glory The Prophet David hath fully exprest it He made a way to his anger LIBRAVlT ITER Psal 78 50. he weighed it as by the scales As they increased they sinned against me Hos 4.7 Therefore I will change their glory into shame Rom. 1.25 As they changed the truth of God into a lye so God delivered them up An Arithmetical and just proportion They took away Gods glory and they pay him with shame with the shame of a sinner which is Gods glory God under the Law did appoint particular punishments for particular sins as Famine by drought for Deteining of Tithes Pestilence for Injustice to destroy those that would not destroy the wicked nor plead the cause of the oppressed fierce and devouring Beasts for Perjury and Blasphemy and Captivity for Idolatry Lev. 10. Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire and were consumed by fire from Heaven Adonibezek had his thumbs cut off and his great toes Judg. 1.6 and in the next verse he confesseth Threescore and ten kings having their thumbs and great toes cut off gathered their meat under my table As I have done so God hath requited me Absalom's hearts desire was to get his Fathers crown and you may behold him with three darts thrust through his heart 2 Sam. 18 So in all ages it hath been observeable that men have been taken in their own net and been buried in the pit which they dig'd For this saith S. Basil is not onely a punishment but the very nature of Sin to make a net and to dig a pit for it self The Thief twists the halter that hangs him the Envious eateth out his own heart the Angry man slayeth himself the Wanton beast is burnt up with his own heat the Ambitious breaketh his own neck the Covetous pierceth his own soul and is choked as Crassus was with his own gold the Proud man breaks with his own swelling the Seditious is burnt with the fire he made So near doth Punishment follow Sin at the heels that in Scripture often one name and word serveth to signifie both and Sin is taken both for the guilt and the Punishment And this in this world But in the next Tophet is ordeined and prepared of old fitted and proportioned to every one that goes on in his sin as fit for an unrepentant sinner as a Throne is for a King or Heaven for an Angel For as there is some analogy between the joyes a good conscience yields on earth and thoss which we shall have at the right hand of God â—â—br 6.4 The Apostle calls it a tast of the heavenly gift and the Schoolmen tell us that Glory is the consummation of Grace which looked towards it and tended to it So is Sin an embleme of Hell carrying with it nothing but disorder confusion and torment Anselme thought it the uglier Hell of the two and more to be abhorred In Hell there is stench what more unsavory then Sin in Hell there is pain what more tormenting then Sin in Hell there is weeping what more lamentable then Sin in Hell there is a worm what more gnawing then Sin Sin entred in and then Hell was created Had
we hold up our obedience and carry it on in a continued course that he is with us whilest we are with him But we cannot be certain that we shall persevere when we do not persevere that God's grace and favour is the same when we kiss him and when we oppose him when we bow before him and when we lift up our selves against him He doth indeed look upon us in our bloud but we cannot be sure of his favour and loving kindness till we be cleansed The ground of all comfort is to remain in this Law of liberty but what comfort is it to persuade my self I do remain in it even then when I am an enemy to the Gospel of Christ I say this taketh not one drop of comfort from those who love Christ and keep his commandments For their comfort is that they do persevere in the grace and favour of God and that as long as they are obedient they are under his wing If our conscience condemn us not then have we boldness and confidence with God And what greater consolation can there be then this that whilest I remain in the Law of liberty I shall be blessed whilest I abide in the Vine I cannot wither whilest I am built upon the Rock I cannot be shaken And if I seek not my comfort here where shall I find it All the comfort which a Christian can have in this life is that he is in Christ Jesus and by his power hath crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts And it will be in vain to look back on Eternity For in the leaves of Eternity it is written in a character indeleble that none but they that repent shall be saved Thus the fountain of comfort lieth open to those who are obedient to the Gospel but is shut to those who stand out No drop of comfort is due to them who are free from righteousness and servants to sin To these and whilest they are in this condition to these and as they are such belong reprehensions and comminations and woes as the whip is most proper for the fool's back and not a robe of honour tribulation and anguish upon every soul that sinneth and repenteth not that he may repent When Nathan came to David after that complication of sins he doth not smooth him up and tell him Thou art a man after God's own heart Thou art a child of God an elect vessel Be of good comfort thou art faln into this great sin but not from the favour of God thou art fallen but if thou fall never so oft thou canst not fall for ever But when David himself had pronounced the sentence of death against the offendor he telleth him to his face Thou art the man that hast given great ocâ—asion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme and with this rod he smote the rock a heart unsensible of sin and the waters gushed forth and watered his couch and being open to let out those waters of bitterness it was open also to receive those of comfort which stream from the rivers of the Lord and make glad the heart Comfort is the inheritance of him that abideth in Christ not of him that departeth from him and leaveth him upon his Crosâ— and crucifieth him again To say we are certain of perseverance in what condition soever is to say we are certain to persevere when we do not persevere and so maketh Solicitude and Watchfulness in the wayes of Christianity unnecessary divideth and separateth the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maketh a look enough and leaveth remaining as a thing arbitrary or at least maketh them both one so that to look into the Gospel will be to remain in it For according to this new doctrine the same certainty of perseverance belongeth to them who fall and to them who stand to them who are weary and to them who continue in well-doing the same certainty may be had without which is and must be acquired and maintained by the exercise of piety alone And this is to tread the air or fluctuate upon the waters when we shall find no rest for our foot but on the Ark This is to set up a heaven in our phansie and gaze upon it till we quite lose the sight of that which is the portion of the Saints This is to build without a foundation or a foundation which is but air But no other foundation can any man lay but that which is laid which is Jesus Christ that is the doctrine of the Gospel of Christ And upon due obedience to this vve may raise our certainty as high as heaven Here it will lye firm and sure no wind shall scatter it no tempest shake it but it will remain in us as long as vve remain in our obedience to this Law of liberty the Gospel of Christ To remain in it and To be certain of happiness are joyned together by God and no man no Devil can put them asunder In a word To fall away and To be certain are incompatible but To remain and To be certain stand fast together for ever and are unseparable I might here enlarge my self and shew you that this denial of the certainty of our Perseverance as it doth not any way deprive the true Christian of his spiritual comfort but is rather an helper or promoter of it so neither doth it derogate from God's power For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene he doth not uphold us against our will And it is power he useth and not violence a power which may beget but not destroy obedience which cannot consist with violence and necessity Nulla laus non facere quod facere non potes It is no commendation not to do that which thou canst not do And what vertue vvhat obedience is it to do that which thou canst not but do The precept or Law supposeth a power left in him to vvhom it is made either to obey or disobey Nor doth it defeat God of his end and purpose For his end was upon condition and his end was to punish him that remaineth not and to crown him that persevereth But I am unwilling to lead you into the briars The truth is the vvay is plain and easie but some men have made it rugged and uneven by walking in it as he told the Orator vvho complained he was fallen in locum spinosum into a thorny and difficult place Pedes hîc non spinas calcant sed habent The thorns were on his feet not in the way Men have raised that dust with vvhich they vvere troubled and made that difficult which vvas easie by groundless and unnecessary doubts For vvhat should we talk of Not-falling vvhen vve see a man lying in the pit of Certainty of standing when he is most certainly on the ground of Remaining when he is gone away of his Perseverance who hath committed those sins of vvhich S. Paul saith He that doeth them shall not inherit the kingdom of
heaven We will therefore proceed to the next point the Meanes we must use to remain in this Law of liberty And 1. we must not forget what we hear 2. we must do the work We shall but lightly touch and paraphrase them and so draw towards a conclusion I. That vve may remain we must not be forgetful hearers For as it is true qui obscurè loquitur tacet he that speaketh darkly or as S. Paul speaketh in an unknown tongue is as if he were â—umb and silent so he that heareth and forgetteth is as if he were deaf Both fall short of that end for which Speech and Hearing were ordained This is to take up water in a sieve to let in and out nay to let in and loath and in this reciprocal intercourse of Hearing and Forgetting to spin out the thred of our life and at the end thereof to look for Blessedness which is due onely to the doing of the work This is to give the Law of Liberty no more space to breathe in then from the pulpit to our pew from the Preacher's mouth to our ear No If we vvill remain in it we must hear and not forget that is we must remember it bind it as a sign upon our hand and as frontlets between our eyes which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unmoveable write it on the posts of our doors Deut. 6.8 nay write it in our hearts and by continual meditation make it more visible more clear more appliable then before make that which written iâ— but a dead letter or spoken is but a sound of power and energy to quicken and enliven us make this Law as powerful as the voice of God when he teareth the rocks and breaketh the cedars of Libanus mighty through God to cast down imaginations and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of it self And this is to look upon it as the Priest did upon his Breast-plate upon the Urim and Thummim to direct vvhat to do and vvhat not to do when to go out against the enemy and vvhen to shun him when to encounter a temptation vvhen to flye from it Thus vve set it up in defence of it self set it up against that alluring Vanity which may steal away our Love against that Doubt that Suggestion vvhich may enfeeble our Hope against that Temptation vvhich may shake our Faith and so keep us in it keep us in all our vvayes that we forsake not our station This is to hear indeed Audire est aedificare saith Augustine To hear is to build up and settle our selves in this Law of Liberty Mens videt mens audit as Epicharmus said It is the Mind that seeth and the Mind that heareth Without it the Eye it self is blind and the Ear deaf of no use at all when they end in themselves II. We must not onely hear the Word and remember it but do the work by a religious Alchymy verba in opera vâ—rtere turn Words into Works that they may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words quickned and enlivened with action And this will make our soul like unto the Law signe and characterize it with it this will drive it home as a nail fastened by the Masters of the assemblies make it enter the soul and the spirit the joints and the marrow This is as the Philosopher speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to try and exercise the mind by frequent actions or as St. Paul to exercise our selves unto all godliness 1 Tim. 4.7 Et quantum valet exercitatio as Aeschylus cried out at a sword-â—â—ght O the force and power of practice and exercise The people are troubled and the wounded man is silent As Experience is a multiplication of particular remembrances so is a Habit which is a second Nature a body as it were made up of many actions Piety and Religion is increased and confirmed by use And as the painful Bee in opere nascitur is bred in the honey it maketh so is Goodness raised and exalted in the work that it doth Every good act is a degree to another Every portion of Grace is generative nourisheth it self and if it be not hindred begetteth a numerous issue Patience begetteth experience experience hope hope Rom. 5.4 confidence As it was said of Alexander Unaquaeque victoria instrumentum sequentis Every conquest he gained made way to a new one so every step we make in the way to happiness bringeth us not only so far in our way but enableth us with strength to go forward The further we go the more active we are He that denieth his Hunger will not hearken to his Lust He that is harsh to his appetite in one request will more easily put it off in a second He that strugleth with a temptation now will anon chase it away He that is liberal to the poor may in time sell all that he hath and at last lay down his life for the Gospel Some we see there be who for want of exercise and experience are shaken with every wind with every breath with shews and apparitions and are overthrown with a look either of allurement or terrour who know not what temptations mean and so suffer them to work and steal nearer upon them till they enter into their souls nay they are ready to tempt Temptation it self and greedily invite that to them which will destroy them Others there are who by frequent exercise and assiduous luctation and striving with themselves have gained such an habit of Piety and so subdued the Flesh to the Spirit that they find no such great difficulty in the combat but rejoyce as mighty men to run the race To them Musick is a sound and no more Gold but a clod of earth Beauty bur a vanishing colour They look upon shining temptations and are not taken upon the blackest temptations and are not dismayed but stand and remain in that Law of Liberty to which they were called free from the guilt of sin and so free from the dominion of sin that they slight its terrours and deny its flatteries defie and keep it out not only when it threatneth but when it fawneth and beggeth an entrance Such is the power of this spiritual Exercise such advantage we have by our continued obedience and doing the work The Hebrew Doctours have found out a double Crown Auditionis and Operis one for Hearing another for the Work I would not the Ear should lose its ornament yet sure Obedience and the Doing of the work have the especial promise of the crown It is S. Paul's doctrine Not the hearers of the Law are just before God Rom. 2.13 but the doers of the Law shall be justified For conclusion then Beloved let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and let us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 patiently remain in it Let us not give it a lodging in the hollow of the Ear for so it will not long stay with us but the next