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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37274	Sermons preached upon severall occasions by Lancelot Dawes ...; Sermons. Selections	Dawes, Lancelot, 1580-1653.	1653 (1653)	Wing D450; ESTC R16688	281,488	345

the Gospel of peace his ministers the Ambassadours of peace his natural Son the Author of peace his adopted sons the children of peace if then ye will be the sons of the most highest your endeavor must be this to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Consider what I say and the Lord give you wisdome and understanding in all things Finally to speake unto all and so to make an end of all seeing that we are all Tenants at will and must be thrust out of the doors of these earthly Tabernacles whensoever it shall please our great landlord to call us hence let us have our loines girt and our lampes continually burning that whensoever the Lord shal call us hence in the evening or in the morning at noon-day or at mid-night he may find us ready Happy is the man whom his Master when he comes shall find watching Let us every day sum up our accounts with God Ita aedificemus quasi semper victuri ita vivamus quasi cras morituri let us build as if we would ever live but let us live as if wee were ever ready to dye Then may every one of us in the integrity of heart and syncerity of conscience when the time of his departing is at hand say with the blessed Apostle If have fought a good fight and have finished my course I have kept the faith from hence forth is laid up for me a crowne of righteousnesse which God the righteous Judge shall give me at that day Unto this God one eternall omnipotent and unchangeable Iehovah in essence three persons in manner of subsistence the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit be ascribed all honour and glory power might and majestie both now and forever more Amen Galathians 3. 10. As many as are of the workes of the Law are under the Cuurse for it is written cursed is every man that continueth not in all things which are written in the booke of the law to do them IN which words observe two things 1. A Doctrine 2. A Reason of the doctrine in the former part the reason in the latter I have spoken of the doctrine I purpose now to speake only of the reason for it is written c. wherein observe three things 1. It is to no purpose to begin a good course of life unlesse thou hold it out and continue till the end 2. It s not enough for a Christian to performe obedience to some of Gods precepts and to bear with himself wilfully in the breach of others Cursed is he that continueth not in all 3. That the rule of our obedience is no unwritten tradition but the written Word of God that are written in the booke of the Law But before I speak of these I gather from the connexion this conclusion That no man can in this life perfectly fulfill the Will of God it followeth thus because as it is written Cursed c. So it is written This doe and thou shalt live and the man that doth these things shall live in them So that the Apostle takes this for granted or else his argument is of no force this is evidently confirmed by many places of Scripture 1 Kings 8. 49. Eccles 7. 22. Psal 143. 2. Isa 64. 6. Acts. 15. 10. Acts. 13. 39. 1 Ioh. 1. 8. 2. It is confirmed by reason the first is drawn from the corruption of nature which is in the best Christians from which wee may thus argue he that consisteth of flesh as well as of Spirit canno● fulfill the Law no not in his best actions but the best Christian that ever lived consisteth of flesh as wel as of Spirit therfore he cannot fulfill the law The minor hath been formerly proved The Major is plaine for as he is carnall he is sold under sinne The wisdome thereof is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Thus it is proved from the the death of Christ for if righteousnesse be by the workes of the Law then Christ dyed without a cause Gal. 3. 21. and if they which are of the law be heires then saith is made void and the promise is made of no effect Rom. 4. 14. for he came to fulfill the law Matth. 5. 17. which was impossible to be fulfilled of us in as much as it was weake because of the flesh Therefore God sent his sonne in the similitude of sinfull flesh Rom. 8. 3. But the Romish Sophisters answer that this maketh against the Pelagians which were of opinion that a man might by the strength of nature fulfill the law not against them which hold that this abilitie comes from grace and that the good workes of a Christian proceed from Christ as the juice in the branches proceedeth from the Vine To this I answer 1. That neither the Pelagians nor these against whom the Apostle disputeth did altogether exclude grace and therefore if it be strong against them it will be of force against the Papists too 2. Their answer is grounded upon a false supposition as that the works of a Christian doe proceed wholly from Christ for they they doe in part proceed from the flesh and therefore though as they are the workes of the holy Ghost who applieth unto the faithfull the force and efficacie of Christs resurrection they be perfect yet in respect of the flesh they be stained and polluted 3. Christ died for us not by any inherent but by his imputed righteousnesse which righteousness is applyed and appropriated unto us principally by the holy Ghost instrumentally by faith whereby wee are incorporate into Christ and so partakers of his righteousnesse wee might be justified I thinke Abraham was as holy a man as Ignatius the father of Jesuits or Dominicus and Franciscus the founders of Friers in whom saith Bellarmine their very adversaries can find nothing that deserveth reprehension praeter nimiam sanctitatem save their too much holiness and yet it was not his good workes but his faith for which he was counted righteous I know that this imputative righteousnesse is counted with them a putative and imaginarie righteousness but herein the injurie is not done unto us but unto him who saith to him that worketh not but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is imputed for righteousnesse Even as David declareth the blessednesse of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousnesse without workes saying Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth no sinne wee say that faith was imputed to Abraham for righteousnesse now it is not written for him only that it was imputed unto him for righteousness but also for us to whom it shal be imputed for righteousnesse c. A third reason to prove that no man can fulfill the Law is because all have need to say forgive us our debts who more excellent amongst the old people saith Austin then the holy Priests and yet the Lord commanded them that

hath for iron Glaucus made no good market with Diomedes when he changed his golden armour for armour of brasse but many clients complain that they meet with worser merchants who for a pu●se full of angels give them nothing but a black boxe full of papers Procrastinations and unnecessary delayes for filling of the lawyers coffers and pilling of the poor clients is a fault which I have glanced at heretofore and might a thousand times hereafter ere ever it be reformed For never was it more spoken against then now and never was it so much practised as now Well fare the old Athenian lawes which as Anacharsis once said were like unto Spider-webs that catched the little Flies and let the Waspe and the Bee and the Beetle burst though them in respect of them that hold Waspe and Bee and Beetle and all and scarce any can burst through them But what do I now Condemn I the law I do wrong Is the law sinne saith Paul he speaks of the moral law Nay the law is holy and just and good but I am carnal sold under sinne So say I is our law sin Nay our law is just and good Here is the break-neck of all too many of our Solliciters Atturnies and learned Scribes are meerly carnal and sold under sinne using it not to that end for which it is ordeined the glory of God and the peace of the common-wealth But as the fowler doth his net for catching of plovers to inrich themselves withal making that which should be for the common good a Monopolie for themselves a profession of mockerie and a meer shop of most horrible and detestable covetousnesse But it is the worst thriving in the world to rise with an other mans fall It was a short but a sharp quip which a captive gave unto Pompey the great Nostrâ misiriâes Magnus It is our misery that gave thee thy surname It is so in this case Nostrâ miseriâ es Magnus may the client say to his counsellour As the swelling of the splene argueth the consumption of other parts so the inriching of the lawyer the impoverishing of the client If then his cause be good alas why is it never ended If it be nought why is it still defended If the cause be nought the defence is worse then nought Understand me rightly it may be a Counsellours hap to be a speaker in an ill cause and yet he not worthy any blame The party may misinform him in the truth of the cause Judgements in the like case may be different or some other circumstance may deceive him But where it plainly appears to be nought indeed by nimblenesse of wit and volubility of tongue to smooth it over with colourable probabilities thereby as farre as thou canst to give the truth an overthow this is but to guild over a rotten post to call good evil and evil good to let loose Barabbas and destroy Jesus to make the devil who is a fiend of darknesse to appear in the likenesse of an angel of light and therefore worse then nought Better with Papinian to have thy head parted from thy shoulders then to be a common Advocate in such causes There is a kind of men in the world who though they know before they begin their suits or at least before they have waded farre in them as well as they know their own names and the number of their fingers that the matter which they prosecute by extremity of law is manifest wrong yet either out of a malitious humour to give their adversaries an overthrow or because their ability is such that it will hold them out or because others do joyn with them and make it a common quarrel or because they love Salamander-like to be broyling in the fire of contention can by no means be disswaded from their wicked enterprise This matter so wickedly and mischievously begun one counsellour or other that loves with the Eele-catchers in the old comedie to be fishing in muddy waters and desires alife to bathe himself in any pool that an Angel shall trouble must manage He must find some probable title in the law for it he must as long as the law will afford him any kind of weft weave it out in length and when it fails he must Spider-like spinne it out of his owne bowels He must prolong judgement and deferre the matter from one day to another from one tearm to another from one year to another from one court to another till at length he who hath both God and the law and a good conscience on his side for very wearinesse be enforced to give it over or be brought to extreme beggery that he can follow his suit no longer or till Atropos have cut in sunder the thred of his dayes and so made an end of the quarrell Well were it for the Commonwealth if such seditious quarrellers and make-bates were by some severe punishment taught not to delude justice and oppresse the truth that others by their example might be terrified from such wicked attempts and that honest and godly men might live in more peace and tranquillity If my words do sound harsh to som of my hearers I must say of them as Hierom saith of som in his epistle to Rusticus dum mihi irascuntur suam indicant conscientiam multoque pejùs de se quam de me judicant If they be offended with me they bewray their own guilty consciences and have a farre worse opinion of themselves then they have of me I name none I know none I speak in generall against sinne and if any mans conscience condemn him God is greater then his conscience and knoweth all things and therefore let him goe his way and sinne no more lest a worse thing happen unto him My hope is that all you are of a better disposition But I kow ye are all men and therefore subject to the like passions and infirmities that others are Let me therefore once againe to returne to that from which I have a little digressed beseech you in all your pleadings and legall proceedings to remember that account that yee must make unto God when yee shall be called hence Remember that there is woe denounced against them that call good evill and evill good Remember the end of your profession it is not to sowe dissention to fill your own coffers to make a mart to utter your own wares to shew your ready wits and voluble tongues in speaking probably of every subject good or bad but to help every man to his right to cut away strife and contention and to restore peace and unitie in the common-wealth that all the Members of the body politick may be of one heart and one soule Even as there is one hope of our vocation one Lord one faith one baptisme one God one father of all which is above all and through all and in us all Remember that our God is called the God of peace his Gospel