flesh a withering dying arm avail us shadow us to day and leave us to morrow raise us up now and within a while let us fall into the dust and at last fall down and perish with us Man is weak and dieth man given up the ghost and where is he where is I will not say Alexander or Caesar but where is Moses that led his people through the red sea where are his lawes where is David S. Peter speaks it freely that he was both dead and buried and that his Sepulchre was with them unto that day but the son of David is ascended into Heaven is our Priest for ever and lives for evermore And this title of eternity is wrought in his Girdle and Garment may be seen in his Head and Eyes of fire adorns his burning feet is engraven on his sword may be read in his countenance and platted in his crown and doth well become his power his wisdome his justice his goodnesse for that which is not eternall is next to nothing what power it that which sinks what wisdome is that which failes what riches are they that erish what mercy is that which is as the morning dew which soon falls and is as soon exhaled and dryed up again Vertue were nothing Religion were nothing Faith it self were nothing but in reference to eternity Heaven were nothing if it were not eternall Eternity is that which makes every thing something which makes every thing better than it is and addes lustre to light it self I live evermore gives life unto all things Eternity is a fathomlesse ocean and it carries with it powâ—r and wisdome and goodnesse and an efficacious activity a gracious and benevolent power a wise and provident goodness for if he live for evermore then is he independent if he be independent then is he most powerfull and if he be most powerfull then is he blessed and if be blessed then is good He is powerfull but good good but wise and these Goodnesse and Care and Wisdome and a diligent care for us meet in him who lives for evermore and works on us for our eternall salvation And first as he lives for evermore so he intercedes for us for evermore and he can no more leave to intercede for us than he can to be Christ for his Priesthood must faile before his Intercession because this power of helping us is everlastingly and inseparably inherent in him St. Paul joyns them together his sitting at the right hand of God and his interceding of us Rom. 8.34 so that to leave interceding were to leave the right hand of God where he looks down upon us is present with us and prepares a place for us his Wounds are still open his Merits are still vocall his Sufferings are still importunate his everlasting presenting of himself before his Father is an everlasting prayer Jesus at the right hand of the father more powerfull than the full vials the incense the prayers the grones the sighs the roarings of all the Saints that have been or shall be to the end of the world and if he sate not there if he interceded not they were but noise nay they were sins but his intercession sanctifies them and offers them up and by him they are powerfull and by this power the sighs the breathing the desires of mortall fading men ascend the highest heavens and draw down eternity And this is a part of his Priestly office which he began here on earth and continues for us makes it compleat holds it up to the end of the world Again this title of eternity is annexed to his Regality and is a flower of his Crown not set in any but his Thou art a King for ever cannot be said to any mortall Did he not live for evermore he could not threaten eternall death nor promise everlasting life for no mortall power can rage for ever but passeth as lands do from one Lord to another lyes heavy on them and at last sinks to the ground with them all nor can the hand that must wither and fall off reach forth a never-failing reward Infinitude cannot be the issue and product of that which is finite and bounded within a determined period And this might open a wide and effectuall door unto sin and but leave a sad and disconsolate entrance for Vertue and Piety which is so unsatisfying to flesh and blood that the perseverance in it requires no lesse a power than that which Eternity brings along with it to draw it on How bold and daring would men be before the Sun and the People what joy and delight would fill them did not the thought of a future and endless estate pierce sometimes through them and so make some vent to let it out when the evill that hangs over them is but a cloud which will soon vanish few men are so serious as to look about and seek for shelter Post mortem nihil est Ipsaque mors nihil there is nothing after death and death it self is nothing sets up a chair for the Atheist to sit at ease in from whence he looks down upon those who are such fools as to be vertuous and smiles to see them toil and sweat in such rugged and unpleasing wayes carried on with a fear on the one side and a hope on the other of that which will never be And indeed how weary and how soon weary would men be of doing good if there were not a lasting recompence if they were not half perswaded for a ful perswasion is but rare that there were something laid up in everlasting habitations Honour Repute and Advantage these may bring forth a Hypocrite these may bind on the phylacteries on a Pharisee but nothing can raise up a Saint but eternity nor can that which fleeteth and passeth away build us up in a holy faith and then there would be no such ship as Faith which might feare a wreck 2 Tim. 1.19 no such anchor as Hope our faith were vain our hope were also vain and we were left to be tossed up and down on the waves of uncertainty having no haven to thrust into but that which is as turbulent uncertain as the sea it self and with it ebbs and flowes and at last will ebb into nothing But vivo in aeternum I live for evermore derives an eternity to that which in it self is fading makes our actions which end in the doing of them and are gone and past eternall our words which are but wind eternall and our thoughts which perish with us eternall for we shall meet them again and feel the effect of them to all eternity It makes Hell eternall that we may flie from it and Heaven eternall that we may presse towards it and take it by violence Christs living for ever eternizeth his threatnings and makes them terrible his promises and makes them perswasive and eloquent eternizeth our faith and hope eternizeth all that is praise-worthy that they may be as a passe or letters commendatory to
ever but Christ living infuseth life into us that the bonds of Hell and of Death can no more hold us than they can him There is such a place as Hell but to the living members of Christ there is no such place for it is impossible it should hold them and you may as well place Lucifer at the right hand of God as a true Christian in Hell for how can light dewll in darknesse how can purity mix with stench how can beauty stay with horrour If Nature could forget her course and suffer contradictories to be drawn together and to be both true yet this is such a contradiction which unless Christ could die again which is impossible can never be reconciled Heaven and earth may passe away but Christ lives for evermore and the power and vertue of his life is as everlasting as everlastingnesse it self And againe There was a pale Horse Rev. 6.8 and his name that sate on him was death and he had power to kill with the sword with hunger and with the beasts of the Earth but now he doth not kill us he doth but stagger and sling us down to rise again and tread him under our feet and by the power of an everliving Saviour to be the Death of death it self Death was a king of terrors and the Feare of death made us slaves Heb. 2.15 brought us into servility and bondage all our life long made our pleasures lesse delightfull and our virtues more tedious then they are made us tremble and shrink from those Heroique undertakings for the truth of God but now they in whom Christ lives and moves and hath his Being as in his own dare look upon him in all his horror expeditum morti genus saith Tertull and are ready to meet him in his most dreadfull march with all his Army of Diseases racks and Tortures and as man before he sinned knew not what Death meant and Eve familiarly conversed with the Serpent so doe they with death and having that Image restored in them are secure and feare it not for what can this Tyrant take from them Their life that is hid with Christ in God It cannot cut them off from pleasure for their delight is in the Lord It cannot rob them of their treasure for that is laid up in heaven It can take nothing from them but what themselves have already crucified their Flesh It cannot cut off one hope one thought one purpose for all their thoughts purposes and hopes were leveld not on this but on another life And now Christ hath his keys in his hand Death is but a name it is nothing or if it be something it is such a thing that troubled S. Austin to define what it is we call it a punishment but indeed it is a benefit a favour even such a favour that Christ who is as Omnipotent as he is everlasting who can work all in all though he abolished the Law of Moses the law of Ceremonies yet would not abrogate this law by which we are bound over unto death because it is soprofitable and advantageous to us it was threatned it is now a promise or the way unto it for death it is that lets us in that which was promis'd it was an end of all it is now the beginning of all it was that which cut off life it is now that through which as through a gate we enter into it we may say it is the first point and moment of our After-eternity for t is so neer unto it that we can hardly sever them for we live or rather labour and fight and strive with the world and with life it self which is it self a temptation and whilst by the power of our everliving Christ we hold up and make good this glorious contention and fight and conquer and presse forward towards the mark either nature faileth or is prest down with violence and we dye that is our language but the spirit speaketh after another manner we sleep we are dissolved we fall in pieces our bodies from our soules and we from our miseries and Tempâ—…tions and this living everliving Christ gathers us together again breaths life and eternity unto us that we may live and reign with him for evermore And so I have viewed all the parts of the Text being the maine Articles of our faith 1. Christs death 2. his life 3. his eternall life and last of all his power of the keys his Dominion over hell and death we will but in a word fit the Ecce the behold in the Text to every part of it and set the seale to it Amen and so conclude And first we place the Ecce the behold on his death he suffer'd and dyed that he might learne to have compassion on thy miseries and on thy dust and rayse thee from both and wilt thou learne nothing from his compassion wilt thou not by him and by thy own sinnes and miseries which drew from him teares of Bloud learne to pitty thy self wilt thou still rejoyce in that iniquity which troubled his spirit which shed his bloud which he was willing should gush out of his heart so it might melt thine and work but this in thee to pitty thy self we talk of a first Conversion and a second and I know not what Cycles and Epicycles we have found out to salve our irregular motion in our wayes to blisse if we could once have compassion on our selves the work were done and when were you converted or how were you converted were no such hard questions to be answer'd for I may be sure I am converted if I be sure that I truly pitty my self shall Christ onely have compassion on thy soule But then again shall he shed his bloud for his Church that it may be one with him and at unity in it self and canst thou not drop a teare when thou seest this his body thus rent in pieces as it is at this day when thou seest the world the love of the world break in and make such havock in the Church oh 't is a sad contemplation will none but Christ weep over Jerusalem Secondly let us look upon him living and not take our eye from off him to fill and feed and delight it with the vanities of this world with that which hath neither life nor spirit with that which is so neer to nothing with that which is but an Idol Behold he liveth that which thou so dotest on hath no life nor can it prolong thy life a moment who would not cease from man whose breath is in his nostrills and then what madnesse is it to trust in that which hath no breath at all shall Christ present himself alive to us and for us and shall we lay hold of corruption rottennesse and when heaven opens it self to receive us run from it into a charnell-house and so into hell it self But then in the third place Behold he lives for evermore and let not us bound and imprison our thoughts
within a span and when immortality is offer'd affect no other life but that which is a vapour Let us not rayse that swarme of thoughts which must perish Colos 3.3 but build up those works upon our everliving Saviour which may follow us follow us through the huge and unconceivable tract of eternity Doth our Saviour live for evermore and shall we have no spirit in us but that which delights to walk about the earth and is content to vanish with it Eternity is a powerfull motive to those who never have such pensive thoughts as when they remember their frailty and are sick even of health it self and in a manner dead with life when they consider it as that blessing which shall have an end Eternity is in our desire though it be beyond our apprehension what he said of time is truer of eternity if you doe not ask what it is we know but if you ask we are not able to answer and resolve you or tell you what it is when we call it an infinite duration we doe but give it another name two words for one a short Paraphrase but we doe not define what it is And indeed our first conceptions of it are the fairest for when they are doubled and redoubled they are lost in themselves and the further they extend themselves the more weary they are and at greater losse in every proffer and must end and rest at last in this poore unsatisfying thought that we cannot think what it is Yet there is in us a wild presage an unhandsome acknowledgment of it for we fancy it in those objects which vanish out of sight whilst we look upon them we set it up in every desire for our desires never have an end Every purpose of ours every action we doe is Aeternitati sacrum and we doe it to eternity we look upon riches as if they had no wings and think our habitations shall endure for ever we look upon honour as if it were not Aire but some Angel confirm'd a thing bound up in eternity we look upon beauty and it is our heaven and we are fixt and dwell on it as if it would never shrivel nor be gathered together as a scroule and so in a manner make mortality it self eternall And therefore since our desires doe so far enlarge themselves and our thoughts doe so multiply that they never have an end since we look after that which we cannot see and reach after that which we cannot graspe God hath set up that for an object to look on which is eternall indeed in the highest Heavens and as he hath made us in his own image so in Christ who came to renew it in us he hath shewed us a more excellent way unto it taught us to work out eternity even in this world in this common shop of change to work it out of that in which it is not which is neer to nothing which shall be nothing to work it out of riches by not trusting them out of honour by contemning it out of the pleasures of this world by loathing them out of the flesh by crucifying it out of the world by overcoming it and out of the Divell himself by treading him under our feet For this is to be in Christ and to be in Christ is to be for evermore Christ is the eternall Sonne of God and he was dead and lives and lives for evermore that we may dye and live for evermore and not onely attaine to the Resurrection of the dead but to eternity Last of all let us look upon the keys in his hand and knock hard that he may open to us and deliver our soule from hell and make our grave not a prison but a Bed to rise from to eternall life or if we be still shut in we our selves have turn'd the key against our selves for Christ is ready with his keyes to open to us and we have our keys too our key of knowledge to discerne between Life and Death and our key of Repentance and when we use these Christ is ready to put his even into our hands and will derive a power unto us mortalls unto us sinners over hell and death And then in the last place we shall be able to set on the Seal the Amen be confirmed in the certainty of his Resurrection and power by which we may raise those thoughts and promote those actions which may look beyond our threescore yeares and ten through all successive generations to immortality and that glory which shall never have an end This is to shew and publish our faith by our works as S. James speaks this is from the heart to believe it as S. Paul for he that thus believes it from the heart cannot but be obedient to the Gospel unless we can imagine there could be any man that should so hate himself as thus deliberately to cast himself into and to run from happinesse when it appeares in so much glory He cannot say Amen to life who kills himself for that which leaves as soul in the grave is not faith but fancy when we are told that honour cometh towards us that some golden shower is ready to fall into our laps that content and pleasure will ever be neer and wait upon us how loud and hearty is our Amen how do we set up an Assurance-office to our selves and yet that which seemes to make its approch towards us is as uncertain as uncertainty it self and when we have it passeth from us and as the ruder people say of the Devil leaves a noysome and unsavoury scent behind it and we look after it and can see it no more but when we are told that Christ liveth for evermore and is coming is certainly coming with reward and punishment vox fancibus haeret we can scarce say Amen so be it To the world and pomp thereof we can say Amen but to Heaven and Hell to eternity we cannot say Amen or if we do we do but say it For conclusion then The best way is to draw the Ecce and the Amen the Behold and our assurance together so to study the death and life the eternall life and the power of our Saviour that we may be such proficients as to be able with S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to meet the Resurrection Phil. 3.11 to look for and hasten the coming of the Lord when his Life and Eternity and Power shall shine gloriously to the terrour of those who persecute his Church and to the comfort of those who suffer for Righteousnesse sake when that Head which was a forge of mischief and cruelty that Hand which touched the Lords Anointed and did his Prophets harm shall burn in hell for ever when that Eye which would not look on vanity shall be filled with glory that Eare which hearkned to his voice shall heare nothing but Hallebujahs and the musick of Angels and that Head which was ready to be laid down for this living everliving
built up his assurance as strong as he can yet thinks himself not sure enough but seeks for further assurance and fortify's it with his Feare and assiduous diligence that it may stand fast for ever whereas we see too many draw out their owne Assurance and seale it up with unclean Hands with wicked hands with hands full of Blood We have read of some in the dayes of our Fore-fathers and have heard of others in our own and no doubt many there have been of whom we never heard whose Conversation was such as became the Gospel of Christ and yet have felt that hell within themselves which they could not discover to others but by gastly looks Out-cryes and deep Groanes and loud complaints to them who were neere them That Hell it self could not be worse nor had more Torments then they felt And these may seem to be breath'd forth not from a broken but a perishing heart to be the very Dialect of Despaire and indeed so they are for Despaire in the worst acception cannot sink us lower then hell But yet we cannot we may not be of their opinion and think what they say that they are cast out of Gods sight No God sees them looks upon them with an Eye full of compassion and most times sends an Angel to them in this their Agony as he did unto Christ a message of Comfort to rowse them up but if their tendernesse should yet raise doubts and draw the cloud still over them we have reason to think and who dares say the contrary that the hand of Mercy may even through this cloud receive them to that Sabbath and rest which remaines for the people of God I speak of men who have been severe to themselves and watchfull in this their Warfare full of good works and continued in them and who have many times when they were even at the gates of heaven and neere unto happinesse these Terrors and affrightments who are full of Charity and therefore cannot be destitute of hope although their owne sad apprehensions and the breathings of a Tender Conscience have made the operation of it lesse sensible and their hope be not like Aarons rod cut off dryed up and utterly dead but rather like a tree in Winter in which there is life and faculty yet the absence of the Sun or the cold benumming it suffers no force of life to worke but when that draws neere and yeelds its warmth and Influence it will bud and blossome and bring forth fruit and leafe together The Case then of every man that Despaires is not desperate but we must consider dispair in its Causes which produce and work it If it be exhal'd and drawn up out of our corrupt works and a polluted Conscience the streame of it is poysonous and deleteriall the very smoake of the bottomlesse pit but if it proceed from the distemper of the body which seises upon one as well as another or a weakness of Judgement which befalls many who may be weak and yet Pious or an excessive sollicitude and tendernesse of soul which is not so common we cannot think it can have that force and malignity as to pull him back who is now thus striving to enter in at the narrow gate or to cut him off from salvation who hath wrought it out with Feare and trembling At the Day of Judgement the Question will be not what was our Opinion and conceit of our selves but what our conversation was and what we thought of our Estate but what we did to raise it not of our fancied application of the Promises but whether we have performed the Condition For then the Promises will apply themselves God hath promised and he will make it good we shall not be askt what we thought but what we did for how many have thought themselves sure who never came to the knowledge of their Error till it was too late How many have called themselves Saints who have now their portion with Hypocrites How many have fancied themselves into Heaven whose wilfull disobedience carried them another way on the other side how many have beleeved and yet doubted how many have been synceere in the wayes of Righteousnesse and yet drooped How many have fainted even in their Savours Armes when his Mercies did compassed them in on every side how many have been in he greatest Agony when they were neerest to their Exaltation How many have condemned themselves to hell who now sit crowned in the highest Heavens I know nothing by my self 2 Cor. 4.4 saith Saint Paul yet am not thereby Justified Hoc dicit Dialogo adv Pelagium ne forte quid per ignorantiam deliquisset saith Saint Hierom though he knew nothing yet something he might have done amisse which he did not know and though our Conscience accuse us not of greater crimes yet our Conscience may tell us we may have committed many sins of which she could give us no Information and this may cast a mist about him who walketh as in the Day In a word a man may doubt and yet be saved and a man may assure himself and yer perish a man may have a groundless Hope and a man may have a groundlesse Feare and when we see two thus contrarily Elemented the one drooping the other cheerfull the one rejoycing in the Lord whom he offends the other trembling before him whom he loves we may be ready to pitty the one and blesse the Condition of the other cast away the Elect and chuse the Reprobate and therefore we must not be too rash to Judge but leave the Judgement to him who is Judge both of the quick and dead and will neither condemne the Innocent for his Feare or justifie the man that goes on in his sinne for his Assurance Take Comfort then thou disconsolate soule which art strucken down into the place of Draggons and art in this terror and anguish of heart This feare to thine is but a cloud and it will drop down and distill in Blessings upon thy head This Agony will bring down an Angel This sorrow will be turned into joy and this Doubt answered this despaire vanish that Hope may take its proper place againe the Heart of a poenitent Thy Feare is better then other mens confidence thy anxiety more Comsortable then their security Thy doubting more favoured then their assurance Timor tuus securitas tua thy feare of Death will end in the firme expectation of Eternall life Though thou art tost on a Tumultuous Sea thy Mast spent and thy Tackling torne yet thou shalt at last strike in to shore when these proud Saylors shall shipwrack in a Calme Misinterpret not this thy dejection of Spirit thy sad and pensive Thoughts nor seek too suddenly to remove them an afflicted Conscience in the time of health is the most hopefull and Soveraigne Physick that is thy feare of Death is a certaine Symptome and infallible signe of life there is no Horror of the Grave to him that lies
many woes he pronounced against sinners perhaps he would not have fallen into that impious conceit of two Gods for though the dispensation have not the same aspect under the Law as under the Gospel yet God is the same God still 2 Cor. 5.11 as terrible to sinners that will not Turne as when he thundred from Mount Sinai and if we will not know and understand these Terrors of the Lord if we make not this use of them to drive us unto Christ and to root and build us up in him the Gospel it self will be to us as the Law was to the Jews a killing Letter For again as Humane Laws so Christs precepts have their force and life from reward and punishment and to this end we finde not onely scripta supplicia those woes and menaces which are written in the Gospel but God hath imprinted a fear of punishment in the very hearts of men Esse aliquos manes subterranea regna Juvenal That there remained punishments after life for sin was acknowledged by the very Heathen and we may easily be perswaded that had not this natural domestick fear come in between the World had been far more wicked then it is we see many are very inclinable to deny that there is either Heaven or Hell and would believe it because they would have it so many would be Atheists if they could but a secret whisper haunts and pursues them This may be so there is an appointed time to die and after that judgement may come There can be no danger in obedience there may be in sinne and this though it do not make them good yet it restraines them from being worse quibus incentivum impunitas timor taedium freedom from punishment makes sin pleasant and delightsome and so makes it more sinful but the fear of punishment makes it irksome brings those reluctancies nd gnawings those rebukes of Conscience for without it there could be none at all till the whip is held up there is honey on the Harlots lips and we would taste them often but that they bite like a Cockatrice 1 Pet. 5.6 non timemus peccare timemus ardere it is no sin we so much startle at but Hell fire is too hot for us And therefore Saint Peter when he would work repentance and Humility in us placeth us under Gods hand Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God which expresseth his power his commanding Attribute his Omniscience findes us out his Wisdom accuseth us his Justice condemns us potentia punit but 't is his hand his power that punisheth us Psal 78.34 Take away his hand and who feareth his Justice or regardeth his wisdome or tarrieth for the twi-light to shun his alseeing eye but cum occidat when we are told that he can kill and destroy us then if ever we return and seek God Early Again as the fear of death may be as Physick to purge and cleanse our souls from the contagion of sin so it may be an Antidote and preservative against it it may raise me when I am fallen and it may supply me with strength that I fall not again It is a hand to lift me up and it is an hand to lead me when I am risen inter vada freta through all the dangers that attend me in my way as it is an introduction to piety Tract 1. in Psalm c. 8. so is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gr. Nyssen a watch a guard upon me to keep me that no temptation no scandal no stone of offence make me turn back again into my evil waies For we must not think that when we are Turned from our evill wayes we have left feare behind us no she may goe along with us in the wayes of Righteousnesse and whisper us in the eare that God is the Lord most worthy to be feared she is our Companion and she leaves us not nor can we shake her off till we are brought to our Journeys end Our love such as it is may well consist with Feare Chrysost l. 1. de compunct c. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Feare of Judgement Look upon the blessed Saints David a man after Gods own heart yet he had saith Chrysost the memory of Gods Judgements written in his very heart his thoughts were busied with it his Meditations fixt here and it forced from him à Domine nè in furore Correct me not O Lord in thy angeer nor chastise me in thy wrath Hezekiah one of the best of the Kings of Judah yet walkt in the bitterness of his soul did mourne like a Dove Isa 38.14 and chatter like a Crane Saint Paul builds up a Tribunal and calls all men to behold it Rom. 14.10 Wee shall all stand before the Judgement seat of Christ Saint Hierom had the last Trump alwayes sounding in his eares and declaring to Posterity the strictnesse of his life his Teares his fasting his solitarinesse confesses of himself Hier. 1. Tom. ep 141. Ille ego qui ob Gehennae metum tali me carcere damnaveram Scorpiorum tantum socius ferarum I that condemned my self to so straight a prison as to have no better companions then Scorpions and wild Beasts for fear of Hell and Judgement did all this and was not ashamed to acknowledge that not so much the love unto it nor the Author of it as the dread of Hell and punishment confin'd and kept him constant in the practise of it And what should I say more for the time would faile me to tell you of other Saints of God who through feare wrought Righteousness obtained Promises out of weakness were made strong Behold love in its highest elevation in its very Zenith behold it when it was stronger then Death look upon the Glorious Army of Martyrs they had tryall of cruell mockings and scouragings yea moreover of Bonds and Imprisonment they were stoned and slaine with the sword And greater love then this hath no man saith our Saviour then this that a man lay downe his life for his friend and yet Saint Ambrose upon the 118. Psalme will tell us that this great love was upheld and kept in life by this gale of wind by Feare That the feare of one Death was swallowed up in the feare of another the feare of a temporall ion the feare of an Eternal The bloody Pagans to weaken their faith Pont. Diac. vit Cypr. urged the feare of present Death Consule tibi Noli animam tuam perdere favour your self cast not away your life Reverence your age and these they thought suggestions strong enough to shake their Constancy and Resolution but the consideration of the wrath of God and eternall separation from him did strengthen and establish them what is my breath to Eternity what is the fire of Persecution to the fury of Gods wrath what is the rack to hell sic animas posuerunt and with these Thoughts they laid down their lives and were
hugg themselves in it are very weak even Children in understanding Gerson the devour Schoolman tells us Mulieres omnes propter infirmitaetem consilii mâ—jores nostri in Tutorum potestate esse voluerunt Cicero pro Mutaena it is most commonly in Women quarum aviditas pertinacior in assectu fragilior in cognitione Whose affections commonly outrunne their understanding who affect more then they know and are then most enflamed when they have least light and it is in men too and too many who are as fond of their groundless Fancies and ill-built Opinions as the weaknesse of that sex could possibly make them are as weak as the weakest of women and have more need of the bitt and Bridle then the Beasts that perish what greater weaknesse can there be then to follow a blind guide and deliver our selves up to our Fancy and affective Notions and make them Masters of our Reason and the only Interpreters of that word which should be a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathes For if we check not our Fancy and Affections they will run madding after shadows and apparitions They will shew us nothing but Peace in the Gospel nothing but Love in Christianity Nothing but Joy in the Holy Ghost They will set our Love and Joy on Wheeles and then we are straight carried up to Heaven in these siery Chariots One is Elioas Another John Baptist Another Christ himself If the Virgin Mary have an Exultat they have a Iubilee If Saint Paul be in the Spirit They are above it and right Reason too and the Spirit is theirs if he put on that shape which best likes them If he be a Spirit of Counsel we are his Secretaries of his Closet and can tell what he did before all Times and Number over his Decrees at our Fingers ends If a Spirit of strength we bid defiance to Principalities and Powers If a Spirit of Wisedome we are filled with him the wise-men the sages of the World though no man could ever say so but our selves If a Spirit of Ioy we are in an Extasy if of Love we are on fire But if he be Spiritus Timoris a Spirit of Feare there we leave him and are at Ods with him we seem to know him not and we cannot Feare at all because we are bold to think that wee have the Spirit 'T is true whilst we stand thus affected a Spirit we have but 't is a Spirit of illusion which troubles and distorts our Intellectualls and makes us look upon the Gospel ex adverso situ on the wrong side on that which may seem to flatter our infirmities but not on that which may cure them and as Tully told his friend That he did not know Totum Caesarem all of Caesar so we know not totum Christum all of Christ wee know and consider him as a Saviour but not as a LORD wee know him in the Riches of his Promises but not in the Terror of his Judgements know him in that life he purchas'd for Repentant sinners but not in that death he threatens to Unbeleevers For to let passe the Law of works Heb. 12.20 we dare not come so neere as to touch at that for we cannot endure that which was commanded Let us well weigh and consider the Gospel it self which is the Law of Faith was not that establish'd and confirmed with promises of Eternal life and upon penalty of Eternall Death In the Gospel we are told of weeping and gnashing of Teeth of a condition worse them to the a Mill-stone hanged about our necks and to be throwne into the bottom of the Sea and by no other then by the Prince of Peace then by Christ himself who would never have put this feare in us if he had knowne that our Love had had strength enough to bring us to him And therefore in the Tenth of St. Matthews Gospel at 28. verse he teacheth us how we shall feare Rectâ methodo he teacheth us to be perfect methodists in Fear that we misplace not our Feare upon any Earthly Power he sets up a Ne Timete Feare not them that can kill the Body and when they have done that have done all and can do no more and having taken away one feare he establisheth another But feare him who can both cast Body and Soul into Hell fire and that we might not forget it for such troublesome guests lodge not long in our memory he drives it home with an Etiam Dico Yea I say unto you feare him Now Him denotes a Person and no more and then our feare may be Reverence and no more It may be Love it may be Fancy it may be nothing but qui potest is equivalent to quia potest and is the reason why we must feare him even because he can punish And this I hope may free us from the Imputation of sinne if our Love be blended with some Feare and if in our Obedience we have an eye to the hand that may strike us as well as to that which may fill us with good things and if Christ who is the Wisedome of the Father think it fit to make the Terror of Death an argument to move us we cannot have Folly laid to our charge if we be moved with the Argument Fac Fac saith Saint Austin vel timore poenae si non Potes adhuc amore justitiae Doe it man Doe it if thou canst not yet for Love of Justice yet for fear of punishment I know that of Saint Austin is true Brevis differentia legis Evangelii Amor Timor Love is proper to the Gospel and Feare to the Law but 't is Feare of Temporall punishment not of Eternall for that may sound to both but is loudest in the Gospel The Law had a whip to fright us and the Gospel hath a Worm to Gnaw us I know that the Beauty of Christ in that great Work of Love the work of our Redemption should transport us beyond our selves and make us as the Spouse in the Canticles is said to be even sick with love but we must consider not what is due to Christ but what we are able to pay him and what he is willing to Accept not what so great a Benefit might challenge at our hands but what our Frailty can lay downe for we are not in Heaven already but passing towards it with Feare and trembling And he that brings forth a Christian in these colours of Love without any mixture of Feare doth but as it was said of the Historian votum accomodare non historiam present us rather with a wish then an History and Character out the Christian as Xenophon did Cyrus Non qualis est sed qualis esse deberet not what he is but what he should be I confesse thus to fear Christ thus to be urged and chased to Happinesse is an Argument of Imperfection but we are Men not Angels We are not in heaven already we are not yet perfect and
doth he alwaies ask Counsell of his reason to choose that which is made and fitted to remove it but through the importunate irksomness of his paine he layes hold of that which is next and that 's the best though it leave him under the same load and pressure and all his Art and continuance hath gain'd no more then this That he thinks it lighter then it was when it is the same but with a large addition of weight And thus we sin but cannot perswade our selves we were willing to sinne we run upon our death and yet 't is that which both our eye and our will abhors we die for 1. we were born weak 2. We want means to avoid it 3. We want light to see our wayes 4. We walk on in them but we walk in pain and though we make no stop yet we have many a check we would not and yet we will go on we condemn our selves for what we do and do it and last of all we seek death but we mean life we do those things whose end is death but to a good end and so make our way to heaven through hell it self intend well and do those things which can have no other wages but death These are pillows which we sew under our own elbows Original weaknesse want of grace ignorance of our wayes the reluctancy of our Conscience which we call Involuntarines and if these be not soft and easie enough to sleep on we bring in a good meaning a good intention to stuff and fill them up and on these we sleep securely as Sampson did in the lap of Dalilah till our strength go from us and we grow weak indeed fit for nothing but to grinde in his prison to do him service who put out our eyes able to die and perish but not able to live strong to do evil but faint and feeble and lost to that which is good The second pretence For as we have sought for ease from the beginning of the world so have we also from the beginning of the Gospel as Saint Mark hath it Mark 1.1 as we have brought in the first Adam infecting and poysoning us so we would finde some deficiency in the second as if that Grace which he plenteously spreads in our hearts had not vertue enough to expel and purge it out as we pretend want of strength so we pretend want of help and succour the want of that Grace which we might have which we have but will not use and have nothing more common in the world even in their mouths who know not what it is What mention we the many what talk we of those who like those narrow mouthed vessels receive but little because it is powred out too fast and many times have as little feeling of what they receive as those earthen vessels to which we compared them Grace it is in every mans mouth the sound of it hath gone through the earth and they hear it and Eccho it back again to one another they talk and discourse of it and yet all are not saved by that Grace they talk of Ebrius ad phialam Augustin mendicus ad januam the drunkard speaks of it in his cups and by the Grace of God he will drink no more and yet drinks drunk 'till there be no appearance in him either of Grace or Nature either of the Christian or the man the Beggar he makes it his Topick and hopes it will melt him he beggs of into compassion which had not power to unfold his hands to work that he may need no relief it sounds in every ear and every ear is delighted with it and it is to them as the sound of a consecrated Bell is to the superstitious and they conceive it hath power to drive the devil out of their coast whilst they not fall but run into those temptations which they might have overcome by that Grace they talkt of What speak we of these even they who have a great name for learning and are of the first ranck and file have not brought it forth to the Sun and people in that simplicity and nakednesse that upon the first sight they may say This is it Somtimes it is an infused habit somtimes is is a motion or Operation sometimes they know not how to distinguish it from faith and Charity it is one and the same and yet 't is manifold it excites and stirs us up it works in us and it works with us it prevents and follows us and thus they handle Grace as the Philosophers do the Soul they tell us what wonders it works but not its essence they tell us what it doth but not plainly what it is But let us take it in its most plain and vulgar sense for that speciall and supernatural Assistance which promotes and upholdes us in that course and those Actions which carry us on to a supernatural end but not shut out that Grace of God by Christ Jesus by which we are justified which in Scripture is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grace and favour of God and in most places is opposed to the works of the Law nor those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those gifts and graces as quicknesse of wit depth of understanding and the like not in his mercies by which we are so often intreated nor his promises which do even wooe and allure us nor any beams of the glory of that gospel which are all agents and instruments in working us out a Crown in bringing us to that end for which we were made and designed and he that shall look back upon these cannot conceive that God will shorten his hand and be desicient and wanting to us in that help and assistance which is fit and necessary for us in this our race that he wil speak to us by his Son speak to us by his Blood speak to us by his mercies speak to us from heaven and then leave us as the Ostrich doth her young ones in the sand open to injuries and temptations naked and without help to defend us against that violence which may tread us to death this certainly cannot consist with his Justice and his goodnesse who having given us Christ will with him give us all things for how should it be otherwise saith Saint Paul who giveth to all men liberally Rom. 8.32 Jam. 1.5 and upbraideth not saith Saint Iames and to pretend a want of Grace and assistance from God what is it but to cast all our imperfections upon him as well as upon Adam as if we sinned and were defective in our duty not through our own negligence and corrupt and perverse wills but because God refused to give us strength to do it gave us a Law and lest us in fetters bid us go and meet him in our Obedience when we were as lame as Mephibosbeth and had no servant to help us as if the heavens were as brasse and denied their Influence and god did on purpose hide himself and
cast not the least shadow for envy or detraction to walk in for amongst all the Heresies the Church was to cope withall we read of none that called his piety into question and all this propter nos for our sakes that in his Meeknesse we may shut up our Anger in his Humility abate our Pride in his Patience still and charm our Frowardnesse in his Bounty spend our selves in his Compassion and Bowels melt our stony hearts and in his perfect Obedience beat down our Rebellion not in the Cloud or in the fiery Pillar not in Darknesse and Tempest not in those wayes of his which are as hard to finde out as the passage of an arrow in the aire or a ship in the sea but in tegmine carnis as Arnobius speaks under no other Covert than that of our Flesh so like us that we may take a pattern by him This indeed may seem an indignity to God and in all ages there have been found some who have thought so not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Heathen who in Tatianus in plain terms tel the Christians they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betray too great a folly in believing it but even Christians themselves and children of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Naz calls them ill lovers of Christ who did rob him with a complement and to uphold his honour did devest him of his Deity and whilest with great shew of piety and reverence they stood up to remove from God the Nature they unadvisedly put upon him the weaknesse of man drew him out to our distempers and sick constitution as if God were sicut homo as man like unto us in our worst complexion who are commonly very tender and dainty what likenesse we take and affect that similitude alone which presents us greater and fairer than we are For our pictures present not us but a better face and a more exact proportion and with it the best part of our wardrobe we are but grashoppers but would come forth and be seen taller than we are by the head and shoulders in the largenesse and height of an Anakim This opinion we have of our selves and therefore are too ready to perswade our selves that God is of our mind and that God will descend so low or take the likenesse of a mortall though he tell us so himself yet we will not believe it which is to measure out the immense goodnesse and wisdome of God by our Digite and Scantling by the imaginary line of a wanton and sick fancy to bound and limit his determinate will to teach God and put our owne shapes upon him to confine him to a Thought and then Christ hath two Persons or but one Nature a Body and not a Body is a God alone or a Man alone the whole body of Religion and our Christian Faith must shiver and flie to pieces Nos autem non sic but we have not so learned Christ not learned to abuse and violate his great love and call it good manners and then urge our fears and unprescribed and groundlesse jealousies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall his honour be the lesse because he hath laid it down for our sakes Naz. ib. shall he lose in his esteem because he fell so low for our advancement or can we be afraid of that Humility which purchased us glory and returned in triumph with the keyes of Hell and of Death He made himself a Sheepherd and laid down his life for his Sheep and shall we make that an argument that he is not a King He clothed himself with our Flesh he lights a Candle he sweeps the House descends to low Offices for our sake so far from being ashamed of our Nature that he made hast to assume it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and dost thou impute this to God No to us his Humility is as full of wonder as his Majesty Non erubescimus de Christo we are not ashamed of the man Christ expecting the leisure of nine moneths Travel passing through and enduring the loathsome Contumelies of our Nature born in a Stable cradled in a Cratch wrapped up in Clouts poor and despised non de crucifixo Christo not of our crucified Lord hanging on the Cross but wonder heighteneth our joy and joy raiseth our wonder and we cry out with S. Austin Oh prodigia oh miracula Oh prodigie oh miracle of Mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oh the strangenesse of this New Birth with the Wise-wen we open our Treasuries and present him gifts and worship him as a King though we finde him in a manger And this is signum è terra a sign from the depth from the low condition of our Flesh factus similis saith the Apostle Psal 40. made like unto his Brethren corpus aptasti mihi saith he himself in the Psalm a Body hast thou prepared me so like us that the Divel himself as quick-sighted as Marcion or Manes took him for no other and was entrapped 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the outward garment and vaile of his flesh and venturing upon him as man found him a God Naz. Or. 39. and striking at the First Adam was overcome with the Second beat down and conquered with that blow which he levelled But as he hath taken our Flesh must he take our Soul too may not his Divinity as Apollinarius fancied supply the place of our better part shall we not free him from those passions and affections which when they move and are hot within us our common Apologie is Humanum est that we are but men No to S. Hilaries Corporatio we must adde the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if S. Hilaries incorporating of Christ will not reach home their inhumanition will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 draw them together and unites them both both body and soul he came to save both and both he took to free the body from Corruption and the soul from Sin to refine our Drosse into Silver and our Silver into pure Gold to raise our Bodies to the Immortality of our Souls and our Souls to the purity of the Angels perfect God and perfect Man of a reasonable Soul and humane Flesh subsisting And now being made up of the same Mould and Temper having taken from man what makes and constitutes man being the same wax as it were why may he not receive the same impressions of Love and Joy Grief and Feare Anger and Compassion affectus sensualitatis even those affections which are seated in the sensitive part Behold him in the Temple with a Scourge in his Hands you will say he was angry Goe with him to Lazarus his Grave and you shall see his Sorrow dropping from his eyes Mark his eye upon Jerusalem and you shall see the very bowels of Compassion Follow him to Gethsemane and the Evanglist will tell you he began to be grievously troubled Ecce tota haec Trinitas in Domino saith Tertull. Tert. de Anim. c. 1. Behold here is
and Attire Clothed he was with a garment down to the foot which was the Garment of the High Priest and his was an unchangeable Priesthood Heb. 7.24 and he had a golden Girdle or Belt as a King v. 13. for he is a King for ever and of his kingdome there shall be no end Righteousnesse shall be the girdle of his loynes and Faithfulnesse he girdle of his reines Es 11.5 His head and his haires were white as wooll v. 14. and as white as snow his Judgement pure and uncorrupt not byassed by outward respects not tainted or corrupted by any turbulent affection but smooth even as waters are when no wind troubles them His eys as a flame of fire piercing the inward man searching the secrets of the heart nor is there any action word or thought which is not manifest in his sight His feet like unto fine brasse sincere and constant like unto himself in all his proceedings in every part of his Oeconomy his voyce as many waters v. 15. declaring his fathers will with power and authority sounding out the Gospel of peace to all the world and last of all out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword v. 16. not onely dividing asunder the soul and the spirit but discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart and taking vengeance on those who persecute his Church His Majesty dazled every mortall eye his Countenance was as the Sun shining in his strength and now of him who walks in the midst of his Church whose Mercy is a large Robe reaching down to the feet who is girt with Power who is clothed with Justice whose Wisdom pierceth even into darknesse it self whose Word is heard from one end of the world to the other whose Majesty displayes its beams through every corner of it we cannot but confesse with Peter This is Christ the Sonne of the living God And can the Saviour of the world the desire of the Nations the glory of his Father can Beauty it self appeare in such a shape of Terrour shall we draw out a mercifull Redeemer with a warriours Belt with eyes of Fire with feet of Brasse with a voyce of Terrour with a sharp two-edged Sword in his mouth Yes such a High Priest became us who is not onely mercifull but just not onely meek but powerfull not onely fair but terrible not onely clothed with the darknesse of Humility but with the shining robes of Majesty who can dye and can live again and live for evermore who suffered himself to be judged and condemned and shall judge and condemne the world it self S. John indeed was troubled at this sight and fell down as dead but Christ rouzeth him up and bids him shake off this feare for he is terrible to none but those who make him so to Hereticks and Hypocrites and Persecutors of his Church to those who would have him neither wise nor just nor powerfull non accepimus iratum sed fecimus he is not angry till we force him 't is rather our sins that turn back again upon us as furies than his wrath that makes him clothe himself with vengeance and draw his sword To S. John to those that bow before him he is all Sweetnesse all Grace all Salvation and upon these as upon St. John he layes his right hand quickens and rouzeth them up Feare not neither my girdle of Justice nor my eyes of fire nor my feet of brasse nor my mighty voice nor my two-edged sword for my Wisdom shall guide you my power shall defend you my Majesty shall uphold you and my Mercy shall crown you Fear not I am the first and the last more humble than any more powerfull than any scorned whipped crucified and now highly exalted and Lord of all the world I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore c. Which words I may call as Tertullian doth the Lords Prayer breviarium Evangelii the breviary or summe of the whole Gospel or with Austin symbolnm abbreviatum the Epitome and abridgement of our Creed and such a short Creed we find in Tertullian which he calls Regulam veram immobilem irreformabilem the sole immutable unalterable rule of Faith and then The articles or parts will be these 1. The Death of Christ I was dead 2. The Resurrection of Christ with the effect and power of it I am he that liveth 3. The duration and continuance of his life which is to all eternity I live for evermore 4. Power of Christ which he purchased by his death the power of the keyes I have the keyes of Hell and of Death And these 1. Are ushered in with an Ecce Behold that we may consider it 2. Sealed ratified with an Amen that we may believe it That there be not in any of us as the Apostle speaks an unbelieving heart to depart from the living God I am he that liveth and was dead And of the death of Christ we spake the last day Par 1. we shall onely now look upon it in reference to the Resurrection consider it as past for it is fui mortuus I was dead and in this we may see the method and proceeding of our Saviour which he drew out in his blood which must sprinkle those who are to be saved and make them nigh unto him to follow in the same method à morte ad vitam Luke 24.25 Heb. 2.20 from suffering to glory from death to life Tota ecclesia cum Christo computatur ut una persona Christ and his Church are in computations but one person he ought to suffer and we ought to suffer they suffer in him and he in hem to the end of the world nor is any other method either answerable to his infinite Wisdome and Justice which hath set it down in indelible characters nor to our mortall and frail condition which must be bruised before it can be healed must be levelled with the ground before it can be raised up quicquid Deo convenit Tetuil homini prodest that which is convenient for Christ is profitable for us that which becometh him we must wear as an ornament of grace unto our head there is an oportet set upon both he ought and we ought first to suffer and then to enter into glory to die first that we may rise again And first it cannot consist with the wisdome of God that Christ should suffer and die and we live as we please and the reign with him and so pass à deliciis in delicias from one paradise to another that he should overcome the Divel for those who will be his vassals that he should foile him in his proud temptations for those who will not be humble beat off his sullen temptation for those who will distrust and murmure that he should make his victorious death commeatum delinquendi a licence and charter for all generations to fling away their weapons and not strike a stroke If he should have done this
we could not have taken him for our Captaine and if we will not enter the lists he will not take us for his Souldiers non novimus Christum si non credimus we do not know Christ if we believe him not to be such a one as he is a Captaine that leads us as Moses did the children of Israel through the Wildernesse full of fiery Serpents into Canaan through the valley of death into life Nor is it expedient for us who are not born but made Christians and a Christian is not made with a thought whose lifting up supposes some dungeon or prison in which we formerly were whose rising looks back into some grave Tolle certamen ne virtus quidem quicquam erit take away his combat with our spiritual enemies with afflictions and tentations Religion it self were but a bare name and Christianity as Leo the tenth is said to have called it a fable What were my Patience if no misery did look towards it what were my Faith if there were no doubt to assoile it what were my Hope if there were no scruple to shake it what were my Charity if there were no misery to urge it no malice to oppose it what were my Day if I had no Night or what were my Resurrection if I were never dead Fui mortuus I was dead saith the Lord of life and it is directed to us who do but think we live but are in our graves entombed in this world which we so love compassed about with enemies covered with disgraces raked up as it were in those evils which are those locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomlesse pit when we hear this voice by the vertue and power of it look upon these and make a way through them we rise with Christ our hope is lively and our faith is that victory which overcometh the world Nor need this Method seeme grievous unto us for these very words Fui mortuus I was dead may put life and light into it and commend it not onely as the truest but as a plaine and easie method For by his Death we must understand all those fore-running miseries all that he suffer'd before his death which were as the Traine and Ceremony as the officers of the High priest to lead him to it as poverty scorne and contempt the burden of our sinnes his Agony and bloudy sweat which we must look upon as the principles of this Heavenly science by which our best master learned to succour us in our sufferings to lift us up out of our graves and to rayse us from the dead There is life in his death and comfort in his sufferings for we have not such an High priest who will not help us but which is one and a chief end of his suffering and death who is touch'd with the feeling of our Infirmities and is mercifull and faithfull Heb. 2.17 hath not onely power for that he may have and not shew it but a will and propension a desire and diligent care to hold up them who are ready to fall and to bring them back who were even brought to the Gates of death Indeed mercy without power can beget but a good wish Saint James his complementall charity Be ye warmed and be ye filled and be ye comforted which leaves us cold and empty and comfortlesse and Power without mercy will neither strengthen a weak knee nor heale a broken heart may as well strike us dead as revive us but Mercy and Power when they meet and kisse each other will work a miracle will uphold us when we fall and rayse us from the dead will give eyes to the blind and strength to the weak will make a fiery furnace a Bath a Rack a Bed and persecution a Blessing will call those sorrowes that are as if they were not such a virtue and force such life there is in these three words I was dead For though his compassion and mercy were coeternall with him as God yet as man didicit he learnt it He came into the world as into a Schoole and there learnt it by his sufferings and death Heb. 5.8 For the way to be sensible of anothers misery is first to feele it in our selves it must be ours or if it be not ours we must make it ours before our heart will melt I must take my brother into my self I must make my self as him before I help him I must be that Lazar that beggs of me and then I give I must be that wounded man by the way side and then I powre my oyle and wine into his wounds and take care of him I must feele the Hell of sinne in my self before I can snatch my Brother out of the fire Compassion is first learnt at home and then it walks abroad and is eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and heales two at once both the miserable and him that comforts him for they were both under the same disease one as sick as the other I was dead and I suffer'd are the maine strength of our Salvation For though Christ could no more forget to be mercifull then he could leave off to be the sonne of God yet before he emptyed himself and took upon him the forme of a servant sicut miseriam expertus non era ita nec miscricordiam experimento novit saith Hilary as he had no experience of sorrow so had he no experimentall knowledge of mercy and compassion his own hunger moved him to work that miracle of the loaves for it is said in the Text He had compassion on the multitude his poverty made him an Crator for the poore and he begs with them to the end of the world He had not a hole to hide his head and his compassion melted into tears at the sight of Jerusalem When he became a man of sorrowes he became also a man of compassion And yet his experience of sorrow in truth added nothing to his knowledge but rayseth up a confidence in us to approach neer unto him who by his miserable experience is brought so neer unto us and hath reconciled us in the Body of his flesh Coloss 1.21 for he that suffer'd for us hath compassion on us and suffers and is tempted with us even to the end of the world on the Crosse with Saint Peter on the Block with S. Paul in the fire with the Martyrs destitute afflicted tormented would you take a view of Christ looking towards us with a melting eye you may see him in your own soules take him in a groane mark him in your sorrow behold him walking in the clefts of a broken heart bleeding in the gashes of a wounded spirit or to make him an object more sensible you may see him every day begging in your streets when he tells you He was dead he tells you as much In as much as the children were partakers of flesh and Bloud he also himself took part of the same and in our flesh was a
hungry was spet upon was whipt was nayld to the Crosse which were as so many parts of that discipline which taught him to be mercifull to be mercifull to them who were tempted by hunger because he was hungry to be mercifull to them who were tempted by poverty because he was poore to be mercifull to those who tremble at disgrace because he was whipt to be mercifull to them who will not yet will suffer for him who refuse and yet chuse tremble and yet venture are afraid and yet dye for him because as man he found it a bitter Cup and would have had it passe from him who in the dayes of his flesh offer'd up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares for mortall men for weak men for sinners pertinacissimè durant quae discimus experientiâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ariâ—… Anâ—… post l 2. c. xix This experimentall knowledge is so rooted and fix'd in him that it cannot be removed now no more then his naturall knowledge he can as soon be ignorant of our actions as our sufferings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher Experience is a collection of many particulars registred in our memory and this experience he had and our Apostle tells us didicit he learnt it and the Prophet tells us he was vir sciens infirmitatum Es 53. a man well read in sorrowes acquainted with grief and carryed it about with him from his Cradle to his crosse and by his Fasting and Tentation by his Agony and bloudy sweat by his precious Death and Buriall he remembers us in famine in Tentation in our Agony he remembers us in the houre of death in our grave for he pitties even our dust and will remember us in the day of judgement We have passed through the hardest part of this Method and yet it is as necessary as the end for there is no coming to it without this no peace without trouble no life without death Not that life is the proper effect of death for this cleare streame flowes from a higher and purer fountaine even from the will of God who is the fountaine of life which meeting with our obedience which is the conformity of our will to his maketh its way with power through fire and water as the Psalmist speaks through poverty and contumilies through every cloud and tempest through darknesse and death it self and so carryes it on to end and triumph in life I was dead that was his state of humility but I am alive that 's his state of Glory and is in the next place to be consider'd Vivo I am alive Christ hath spoken it who is truth it self and we may take his word for it for if we will not believe him when he sayes it neither should we believe if we should see him rising from the dead And this his life and resurrection is most conveniently placed in that Non dabis thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption for what stronger reason can there be found out in matters of faith then the will pleasure of that God who brings mighty things to pass to this end Saint Paul cites the 2. Psalme and S. Peter the 16. and in this the humble soule may rest and behold the object in its glory and so gather strength to rayse it self above the fading vanities of this world and so reach and raise to immortality What fairer evidence then that of Scripture what surer word then the word of Christ He that cannot settle himself on this is but as S. Judes cloud carryed about with every wind wheel'd and circled about from imagination to imagination now raysed to a belief that it is true and anon cast down into the midst of darknesse now assenting anon doubting and at last pressed down by his own unstablenesse into the pit of Infidelity He that will not walk by that light which shines upon him whilst he seeks for more must needs stumble and fall at those stones of offence which himself hath laid in his own way why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead to life If such a thought arise in a Christian Acts 26.8 reason never set it up I verily thought my self saith Saint Paul in the next verse but it was when he was under the Law and he whose thoughts are staggered here is under a worse law the law of his members his lusts by which his thoughts and actions are held up as by a law is such a one that studies to be an Atheist is ambitious to be like the beasts that perish and having nothing in himself but that which is worse than nothing is well content to be annihilated For why should such a temptation take any Christian why should he desire clearer evidence why should they seek for demonstration or that the Resurrection of Christ should be made manifest to the eye That is not to seek to confirm and establish but to destory their faith for if these truths were as evident as it is that the sun doth shine when it is day the apprehension of them were not an act of our faith but of our knowledg and therefore Christ saith Tertullian shewed not himself openly to all the people at his Resurrection ut fides non mediocri praemio destinata Tert. Apol. non nisi difficultate constaret that faith by which we are destined to a crown might not consist without some difficulty but commend it self by our obedience the perfection and beauty whereof is best seen in making its way through difficulties and so Hilary Habet non tam veniam quà m praemium Hil. l. 8. de Trin. ignorare quod credis not perfectly to know what thou certainly believest doth so little stand in need of pardon that it is that alone which drawes on the reward For what obedience can it be for me to assent to this that the whole is greater then the part that the Sun doth shine or any of those truths which are visible to the eye what obedience is it to assent to that which I cannot deny but when the object is in part hidden in part seen when the truth we assent to hath more probability to establish it then can be brought to shake it then our Saviour himself pronounceth Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed Besides it were in vain he should afford us more light who hath given us enough for to him that will not rest in that which is enough nothing is enough When he rained down Manna upon the Israelites when he divided the red sea wrought wonders amongst them the Text sayes For all this they sinned still and believed not his wondrous works The Pharisees saw his miracles yet would have stoned him they saw him raise Lazarus from the dead and would have killed them both The people said He hath done all things well yet these were they that crucified the Lord of life Did any
of the Pharisees believe in him we might ask Did any of his Disciples believe in him Christ himself calls them Fools and slow of heart to believe what the Prophets had foretold their Feare had sullied the evidence that they could not see it the Text sayes they forsook him and fled And the reason of this is plain For though faith be an act of the understanding yet it depends upon the will and men are incredulous not for want of those meanes which may raise a faith but for want of will to follow that light which leads unto it do not believe because they will not and so bear themselves strongly upon opinion preconceived beyond the strength of all evidence whatsoever when our affections and lusts are high and stand out against it the evidence is put by and forgot and the object which calls for our eye and faith begins to disappear and vanish and at last is nothing quot voluntates tot fides so many wills Hilary so many Creeds for there is no man that believes more than he will To make this good we may appeale to men of the slendrest observation least experience we may appeale to our very eye which cannot but see those uncertain and uneven motions in which men are carried on in the course of their life For what else is that that turnes us about like the hand of a Diall from one point to another from one perswasion to a contrary How comes it to pass that I now embrace what anon I tremble at what is the reason that our Belief shifts so many Scenes and presents it self in so many severall shapes now in the indifferency of a Laodicaean anon in the violence of a Zelot now in the gaudiness of Superstition anon in the proud scornful slovenry of factious Profaneness that they make so painfull a peregrination through so many modes and forms of Religion and at last end in Atheist what reason is there there can be none but this the prevalency and victory of our sensitive part over our reason and the mutability yea and stubbornesse of our will which cleaves to that which it will soon forsake but is strongly set against the truth which brings with it the fairest evidence but not so pleasing to the sense This is it which makes so many impressions in the mind Self-love and the love of the world these frame our Creeds these plant and build these root and pull down build up a Faith and then beat it to the ground and then set up another in its place A double-minded man saith S. James is unstable in all his wayes Remember 2 Tim. 2.8 saith S. Paul that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised up from the dead according to my Gospel that is a sure foundation for our faith to build on and there we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fair and certain pledges of it which are as a Commentary upon ego vivo I live or as so many beams of light to make it open and manifest to every eye which give up so fair an evidence that the malice of the Jew cannot avoid it Let them say his Disciples stole him away whilest their stout watchmen slept what stole him away and whilest they slept it is a dream and yet it is not a dream it is a studied lye and doth so little shake that it confirmes our faith so transparent that through it we may behold more clearly the face of truth which never shines brighter than when a lye is drawn before it to vaile and shadow it He is not here he is risen if an Angel had not spoken it yet the Earthquake the Clothes the clothes so diligently wrapt up the Grave it self did speak it and where such strange impossibilities are brought in to colour and promote a lye they help to confute it id negant quod ostendunt they deny what they affirm and malice it self is made an argument for the truth For it we have a better verdict given by Cephas and the twelve 1 Cor. 12.15 We have a cloud of witnesses five hundred brethren at once who would not make themselves the Fathers of a lye to propagate that Gospel which either makes our yea yea and nay nay or damnes us nor did they publish it to raise themselves in wealth and honour for that teacheth them to contemn them and makes poverty a beatitude and shewes them a sword and persecution which they were sure to meet with and did afterwards in the prosecution of their office and publication of that faith nor could they take any delight in such a lye which would gather so many clouds over their heads and would at last dissolve in that bitternesse which would make life it self a punishment and at last take it away and how could they hope that men would ever believe that which themselves knew to be a lie These witnesses then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are many and beyond exception We have the blood too the testimony of the 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 or 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 multiplied it we see him in his word we see him through the blood of Martyrs we see him with the eye of faith Christ is risen alive secundum scripturas saith S. Paul and he repeats it twice in the same chapter Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem it is S. Austins let it passe for his sake when the Jew stumbled at him he presented but the bignesse of a stone but our infidelity will find no excuse if we see him not now when he appears as visible as a mountain Vivo Vivo that is vivifico I give life saith Christ I am alive there is more in this vivo than a bare rising to life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he liveth is as much as he giveth life there is virtue 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 shall raise them nay he hath done it already conresuscitati we are risen together with him and we live with him for 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 Christs living breathes life into us and 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 eternall pattern for ours 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 reall an efficacious working pattern For as an Artificer hath not lost his art when he hath finished one piece no more did Christ his power when he had raised himself which as he is is everlasting and it worketh still to the end of the world perfectum est exemplar minùs perfecti that which he wrought upon himself is most exact and perfect a fit pattern of that which he means to work on us which will be like to his indeed but not so glorious And now ego 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 ego vivo Christ life derives its vertue and influence on both 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 which 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 to perswade us to contribute any thing or put a hand to the resurrection of our bodies nor can there be for it will to 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 be alive 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 yet a necessary and a law lies 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 this first resurrection must be reformata Angelificata must be spiritualized refined and angelified or rather Christificata if I may so speak Christified drawing in no breath but his 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 whilest 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 selfe 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 Christs life we shall rise fairly not with a Mouth which is a Sepulchre but with a Tongue which is our Glory not with a withered 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 eare not with a heart of stone but with a heart after Gods own heart Our life saith the Apostle Colos 3.3 is hid with Christ in God and whilest we leave it there by a continuall meditation of his meritorious suffering by a serious and practicall 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 mineralls of the earth in the love of the world he is the Prince of the world and 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 idlenesse 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 when we do per Christum Deum colere worship God through Jesus Christ our Lord and put our life in his hands then the life of Christ is made manifest in our mortall flesh 2 Cor. 2.4 then we have put off the old man and in a manner put off our mortality we are candidati aeternitatis as Tertul. speaks 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 but of the living We see now what vertue and power there is in this vivo Vivo in aeternum I live for evermore in the life of Christ But we must rise yet higher even as high as eternity it self for as he lives so behold he lives for evermore a Priest for ever and a King for ever Heb. 7.16 being made not after the law of a carnall Commandement after that law which was given to men that one should succeed another but after the power of an endlesse life the Apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a life that cannot be dissolved that cannot part from the body And thus as he lives for evermore so whatsoever issues from him is like himself everlasting the beams as lasting as the light his Word endureth for ever his Law is eternall his Intercession eternall his Punishments eternall and his Reward eternall Not a word which can fall to the ground like ours who fall after it and within a while breath out our souls as we do our words and speak no more Not lawes which are framed and set to the times and alter and change as they do and at last end with them but which shall stand fast for ever aeterae ab aeterno eternall as he is eternall he hath spoken this once and he will speak no more not an Intercession which may be silenced with power but imprinted in him and inseparable from him and so never ceasing an Intercession which omnipotency it self cannot withstand and his punishment not transitory which time may mitigate or take away but an everlasting worm not a Reward which may be snatched out of our hands but lasting as the Heavens nay as Christ himself and they who would contract and shrink it up in the one and so make a temporary perishing everlastingness which shall last as long as it lasts do stretch beyond their line which may reach the right hand as well as the left and put an end of the Reward as they would do to the Punishment for of the one as well as of the other it is said that it shall be everlasting all that flowes from him is like himself yesterday and to day and the same for ever And such an High Priest it became us to have who was to live for ever for what should we do with a mortall Saviour or what can a mortall Saviour do for us what could an arm of
prevaile and procure us admittance into his presence who onely hath immortality and can give eternall life This is the vertue and operation of this vivo in aeternum I live for evermore for though a time will come when he shall not govern and a time when he shall not intercede yet the power of his Scepter the vertue of his Intercession is carried on along with the joy and happiness of the Saints as the cause with the effect even to all eternity and shall have its operation in the midst of all our glorious ravishments and shall tune our Halellujahs our songs of Thanksgiving to this our Priest and King that lives for evermore We pass now from the duration and continuance of his life to his power He hath the keyes of Hell and of Death Habeo claves I have the keyes is a metaphoricall speech Et metaphorae feracissimae controversiarum saith Martin Luther Metaphors are a soyl wherein controversies will grow up thick and twine and plat themselves one within the other whilest every man manures them and sowes upon them what seed he please even that which may bring forth such fruit which may be most agreeable to his taste and humour Lord what a noyse have these keyes made in the world you would think they were not keyes but bells sounding terrour to some and making others more bold and merry than they should be Some have gilded them over others have even worn and filed them quite away put them into so many hands that they have left none at all For though they know not well what they are yet every man takes courage enough to handle them and let in and let out whom they please one faction turns them against another the Lutheran against the Calvinist and diabolifies him and the Calvinist against the Lutheran and superdiabolifies him The Church of Rome made it a piece of wisdome to shut us out and all that will not bow unto her as subordinate and dependent on that Church which was but idle physick which did neither hurt nor good but was as a dart sent after those who wee gone out of reach a curse denounced against those who heard it and blest themselves in it indeed a point of ridiculously affected gravity such as that Church hath many for what prejudice could come to us by her shutting us out who had already put our selves out of her Communion unlesse you will think the valour of that Souldier fit for Chronicle who cut off the head of a man who was dead before I have the keyes saith Christ and it is most necessary he should keep them in his hands for we see how dangerous it may prove to put them into the hand of a mortall man subject to passions and too often guided and commanded by them and we know what Tragedies the mistaking of the keyes have raised in the world And yet he that hath these keyes this power hath delegated also a power to his Apostles not onely to preach the Gospel but to correct those who disobey it I would not attribute too much to the Pastors of the Church in this dull and iron or rather in this wanton age where any thing where nothing is thought too much for them where all hath been preaching till all are Preachers yet I cannot but think they have more than to speak in publick which 't is thought every Christian may do They are the Ambassadours of Christ set apart on purpose in Christs stead to minister to his Church nay but to rule and govern his Church it is S. Pauls phrase and they carry about with them his commission a power delegated from him to sever the Goats from the Sheep even in this life that they may become sheep to segregate them Abstinâ—râ— Cyp. Segregare exauctorare virgâ Pastorali serire Hier. c. to abstein or withhold them to exauctorate them to throw them out to strike them with the pastorall rod to anathematize them c. this was the language of the first and purest times which by degrees fell in its esteem by some abuse of it by being drawn down from that most profitable and necessary end for which it was given which at last brought all Religion into disgrace nor indeed could it be otherwise for if upon the abuse of a thing we must straight call for the beesome to sweep it away what can stand long in its place the Temple is prophaned that must down to the ground Liberalty is abused shut up your purse and your bowels together Prayer is abused and turned into babling tack up your tongues to the roof of your mouth nay every thing in the world is abused if this argument be good the world it self should long since have had its end But such a power Christ did leave unto his Church and the neglect of it on the one side and the contempt of it on the other hath brought in that lukewarmness that indifferency amongst the professors of Christianity which if God prevent not will at last shake and throw down the profession it self and fill the world with Atheists which will learn by no Masters but such as instruct fools nor acknowledge any keyes but those which may break their head But indeed we have had these keyes too long in our hands for though they concern us yet are they not the keyes in the Text nor had we lookt upon them but that those of the Romishparty wheresoever they find the keyes mentioned take them up and hang them on their Church But we must observe a difference betwixt the keyes of the kingdome of Heaven which were given to Peter and the keyes of Hell and of Death although with them when the keyes are seen Heaven and Hell are all one For the keyes of David which opens and no man shuts and shuts and no man opens were not given to the Apostles but are a regality and prerogative of Christ who onely hath power of life and death over Hell and the Grave who therefore calls himself the first and the last because although when he first publisht his Gospel he died and was buried yet he rose again to live for ever so to perfect the great work of our salvation and by his power to bind those in everlasting chains who stood out against him and to bring those that bow to his Scepter out of prison into liberty and everlasting life The power is his alone and he made it his by his sufferings He was obedient to death therefore God did highly exalt him became a Lord by putting on the form of a servant but he hath delegated a power to his Apostles and those that succeed them to make us capable sit subjects for his power to work upon which neverthelesse will have its operation and effect either let us out ot shut us up for ever under the power of Hell and of Death were not he alive and to live for evermore we had been shut up in darknesse and oblivion for
eyes and with our hands handle the word of truth In a word we manifest the truth and make it visible in our actions and the Spirit is with us and ready in his office to lead us further even to the inner house and secret closet of truth displayes his beames of light as we press forward and mend our pace every day shining upon us with more brightnesse as we every day strive to increase teaching us not so much by words as by actions and practice by the practice of those vertues which are his lessons and our duties we learn that we may practice and by practice we become as David speaks Psal 119.99 wiser then our teachers to conclude day unto day teacheth knowledge and every act of piety is apt to promote and produce a second to beget more light which may yet lead into more which may at last strengthen establish us in the truth and so lead us from truth to truth to that happy estate which hath no shadow of falshood but like the Spirit of Truth endureth for evermore THE FIRST SERMON JAMES I. Vers ult Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is This to visite the fatherlesse and widdows in their affliction and to keep himselfe unspotted from the World NOthing more talkt of in the world then Religion nothing lesse understood nothing more neglected there being nothing more common with men then to be willing to mistake their way to withdraw themselves from that which is indeed Religion because it stands in opposition to some pleasing errour which they are not willing to shake off and by the help of an unsanctified complying fancy Multi fibi fidem ipsi potiut constitunut quam accipiunt dum quae velunt sapiunt nolunt sapepere quae vera sunt cum sapientiae haecveritas sit ea interdum sapere quae nolis Hilar. 8. de Trin. V. 22. to frame one of their own and call it by that name That which flatters their corrupt hearts That which is moulded and attempered to their bruitish desigus That which smiles upon them in all their purposes which favours them in their unwarrantable undertakings That which bids them Go on and prosper in the wayes which lead unto death That with them is True Religion In this Chapter and indeed in every Chapter of this Epistle our Apostle hath made this discovery to our hands Some there were as he observes that placed it in the ear did hear and not do and rested in that some did place it in a formall devotion did pray but pray amisse and therefore did not receive some that placed it in a shadow and appearance Verse 25. seemed to be very religious but could not bridle their tongue and were safe they thought under this shadow others there were that were partiall to themselves despisers of the poor that had faith and no works in the second Chapter and did boast of this others that had hell fire in their Tongue and carried about with them a world of iniquity which did set the wheel the whole course of Nature on fire in the third Chapter and last of all some he observed warring and fighting killing that they might take the prey and divide the spoil in the fourth Chapter And yet all religious Every one seeking out death in the errour of his life and yet every one seeming to presse forward towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus To these as to men ready to dash upon the rock and shipwrack doth our Apostle cry out as from the shore to turn their compasse and steer their course the right way and seeing them as it were run severall wayes all to meet at last in the common gulph of eternall destruction He calls and calls aloud after them To the superstitious and the prophane To the disputer and the scribe to them that do but hear and to them that do but babble To them that do but professe and to them that do but beleeve the word is Be not deceived This is not it but Haec est This is pure Religion is vox à Tergo as the Prophet speaks Esay 30. a voice behinde them saying This is the way walk in it This is as a light held forth to shew them where they are to walk as a royal Standard set up to bring them to their colours This doth Infinitatem rei ejicere as the Civilians speak Take them from the Devils latitudes and expatiations from frequent and fruitlesse hearing from loud but heartless prayer from their beloved but dead faith from undisciplined and malitious zeal From noise and blood from fighting and warring which could not but defile them and make them fit to receive nothing but the spots of the world from the infinite mazes and by-paths of Errour and brings them into the way where they should be where they may move with joy and safety looking stedfastly towards the End Let us now hear the conclusion of the whole matter whatsoever Divines have taught whatsoever Councels have determined or the schoolmen defined whatsoever God spake in the old times whatsoever he spake in these last dayes That which hath filled so many volumes and brought upon us Fatigationem Carnis that weariness of the flesh Ecclesia 1 2.12 which Solomon complains of in reading that multitude of Books with which the world doth now swarm with That which we study for which we contend for which we fight for as if it were in Democritus his Well or rather as the Apostle speaks in Hell it self quite out of our reach or if there be any truth that is necessary or any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying even in this of Saint James Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit c. I way call it the picture of Religion in little in a small compasse and yet presenting all the lines and dimensions the whole signature of Religion fit to be hung up in the Church of Christ and to be lookt upon by all that the people which are and shall be born may truly serve the Lord May it please you therefore a while to cast your eyes upon it and with me to view First The full proportion and severall lineaments of it as it were the essentiall parts which constitute and make it what it is and we may distinguish them as the Jew doth the Law by Do and Do not The first is Affirmative To do Good to visit the fatherlesse and widdows in their affliction The second not to do evil to keep our selves unspotted from the world And then secondly to look upon as it were the colours and beauty of it and to look upon it with delight as it consists First in its purity having no mixture Secondly in its undefilednesse having no pollution And then thirdly the Epigraph or title of it the Ratification or seal which is set to it to make it Authentick
sicuts all other Rules whatsoever and bids us beware of men beware of our selves and try every spirit for it is not sicut vidimus as we see others walke nor sicut visum est as it may seem good in our own eyes for no man more ready to put a cheat upon us then our selves nor sicut visum est spiritui as it may seeme good to every spirit for we are too prone to take every lying spirit even our owne which is but our Humour or Lust for our Holy Ghost what Saint Iohn said of Antichrist may also be said of the spirit we have heard that the spirit shall come and behold now there are many spirits the world is full of them so that there are as many Rules almost as men by which they walk severall wayes but to the same end pressing forward to the delights and glory of this world nothing doubting of their right and title to the next thus joyning together God and the World as Iulian the Apostate did his own statues Naz. Orat. 3. Invect prior and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they may be worshipt both together None of these will fit us but sicut accepimus as we have received from Christ and his Apostles which is the onely sufficient Rule to guide us in our walke And first not sicut vidimus as we have seen others walke no though their praise be in the Gospel and they are numbred amongst the Saints of God For as St. Bern. calls the examples of the Saints condimentum vitae the sawce of our life to season and make pleasant what else may proue bitter to us as Iobs Dunghill may be a good sight for me to look upon in my low estate and his patience may uphold me Dauids Groanes and complaints may tune my sorrow Saint Pauls labours and stripes and Imprisonment may giue me an Issue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 10.13 a way a Power to escape the like Temptation by conquering it I may wash off all my Grief with their Teares wipe out all disgrace with their contumelies and bury the feare of Death in their graves so they may prove if we be not wary venenum vitae as poyson to our life and walke For I know not how we are readier to stumble with the Saints then to walke with them Readier to lie downe with David in his bed of lust then in his Couch of teares Readier to deny Crist with Peter upon a pretense of frailty then to weep bitterly out of a deep sense of our sinne In the errors and deviations of my life I am Noah and Abraham and David and Peter I am all the Patriarchs and all the Apostles but in that which made them Saints I have little skill and lesse minde to follow them It will concern us then to have one eye upon the Saint and another upon the rule that the Actions of good men may be as a prosperous Gale to drive us forward in our course and the rule the Compasse to steere by for it will neither help nor comfort me to say I shipwrackt with a Saint My Brethren saith Saint Iames have not the saith of Christ in respect of Persons Iam. 2.1 for it is too common a thing to take our eye from the rule and settle it upon the Person whom we gaze upon till we have lost our sight and can see nothing of man or infirmity in him His virtue and our esteeme shines and casts a colour and brightness upon the Evill which he doth upon whatsoever he saies though it be false or does though it be irregular that it is either lesse visible or if it be seene commends it self by the person that did it and so steales and wins upon us unawares and hath power with us as a Law Could St. Augustine erre There have been too many in the Church who thought he could not and to free him from error have made his errors greater then they were by large additions of their owne and fathered upon him those mishapen Births which were he now alive he would startle at and run from or stand up and use all his strength to destroy Could Calvin or Luther doe or speak any thing that was not right they that follow them and are proud of their Names willing to be distinguish'd from all others by them would be very Angry and hate you perfectly if you should say they could and we cannot but be sensible what strange effects this admiration of their Persons hath wrought upon the Earth what a fire it hath kindled hotter then that of the Tyrants Furnace Dan. 3. for the flames have raged even to our very doores Thus the Examples of good men like two-edged swords cut both wayes both for good and for bad and sinne and error may be conveighed to us not onely in the Cup of the Whore but in the Vessells of the Sanctuary They are as the Plague and infect wheresoever they are but spread more contagion from a Saint then from a man of Belial in the one they are scarce seene in the other they are seen with horror in the one we hate not the sinne so much as the person and in the other we are favourable to the sinne for the persons sake and at last grow familiar with it as with our freind Nihil perniciosius Gestis sanctorum Luther de Abrog priv Miss said Luther himself There is nothing more dangerous then the Actions of the Saints not strengthened by the Testimony of Scripture and it is farre safer to count that a sinne in them which hath not its warrant from Scripture then to fix it up for an ensample for it is not good to follow a Saint into the Ditch Let us take them not whom men for men may Canonize themselves and others as they please but whom God himself as it were with his owne hand hath registred for Saints Sampson was a good man and hath his name in the catalogue of beleevers Numb 25. Phinehas a zealous man who staid the Plague by executing of judgement but I can neither make Sampson an argument to kill my self nor Phinehas to shed the blood of an Adulerer Lib. 2. de Baptismo q 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10.24 Saint Basil observes that amongst those many seeming contradictions in Scripture one is of a fact or worke done to the Precept The command is Thou shalt not kill Sampson killed himself Phinehas with his speare nailes the adulterous couple to the earth but every man hath not Sampson's spirit nor Phinehas commission The Fathers rule is the rule of wisdome it self when we read in Scripture a fact commended which falls crosse with the Precept we must leave the Fact and cleave to the Precept for examples are not rules of life but provocations to good works sicut vidimus as we have seene is not a right sicut sicut Elias like as Elias but not to consume men with fire like unto Peter
which is no service but the glorious liberty of the sons of God then thou art in him thou mayest assure thy self thy residence thy abode thy dwelling is in Christ Thirdly If we dwell in Christ we shall rely and depend on him as on our tutelary God and Protector and so we may be said to dwell in him indeed as in a house which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Civilian our fort and Sanctuary commune perfugium saith Tull. our common place of refuge and what is our hope whither should we fly but to him I am thine save me saith David because I am thine because I have none in Heaven but thee and on earth desire none besides thee Thou art my House my Castle my Fortresse and Defence thou art my Hope to the ends of the World thou art my Christ And this is a principal mark of a true Christian of a man dwelling in Christ that he wholy flings himself into his Protection that he here sixeth his hope and doth not busie himself to finde any shelter but here for as the full perswasion of the Almighty power of God was the first rise to Religion the fountain from which all worship whether true or false did flow for without this persuasion there could be none at all and we finde this relying on his power not onely rewarded but magnified in Scripture Heb. 11. so the acknowledgement of Gods wonderful power in Christ by which he is able to make good his rich and glorious promises to subdue his and our enemies and do abundantly above all that we can conceive to work joy out of sorrow peace out of trouble order out of confusion life out of death is the foundation the pillar the life of all Christianity and if we build not upon this if we abide not if we dwell not here we shall not finde a hole to hide our heads For man such is out condition even when he maketh his nest on high when he thinks he can never be moved when he exalteth himself as God is a weak indigent insufficient creature subject to every blast and breath subject to misery as well as to passion subject to his own and subject to other mens passions when he is at his highest pitch shaken with his own fear and pursued with other mens malice rising soaring up aloft and then failing sinking and ready to fall and when he falls looking about for help and succour when he is diminished and brought low by evil and sorrows he seeks for some refuge some hole some Sanctuary to flie to as the sieman speaks of the Conies they are a generation not strong and therefore have their Burrows to hide themselves in Prov. 30. Now by this you may know you dwell in Christ if when the tempest come you are ready to run under his wing and think of no house no shelter no protection but his Talk what we will of Faith if we doe not Trust and rely on him we doe not believe in him For what is faith but as our Amen to all his promises our subscription to his Wisdom and power and goodnesse and here we fix our tabernacle and will abide till the storm be overpast Beleeve in him and not trust in him you may say as well the Jews did love him when they nayled him to his Crosse Why are you fearful Matt. 8.26 Oh ye of little faith said Christ to his Disciples that faith was little indeed which would let in fear when Christ the wisdom of the Father and mighty power of God was in the ship little lesse then a grain of mustardseed which is the least of seeds so little that what Christ calls here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 little faith he plainly calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unbelief Matt. 17.20 the faith of this World the weak and cowardly faith of this world which speaks of principalities and powers speaks swelling words and at the sight of a cloud which is not so big as a mans hand strikes in and is not seen but leaves us groaning under every burden for to such a faith every light affliction is so leaves us to complaints and despaire or to those inventions which will plunge us in greater evils then those we either suffer or fear The unbeleeving man he that dwells not in Christ hath either no place to fly to or else that he flyes to is as full of molestation and torment as that which he did fly from he flies to himself from himself he flies to his wit and that befools him he flies to his strength and that overthrows him he flies to his friend and he failes him he asks himself counsel and mistrusts it asks his friend Counsel and is afraid of it he flies to a reed for a staff to impotency and folly and hath not what he lookt for when he hath what he lookt for is ever seeking ease and never at rest and when these evils without him stir up a worse evil within him a confiscience which calls his sins to remembrance what a perplext distracted thing is he what shifts what evasions doth he catch at her runs from room to room from excuse to excuse from comfort to comfort he flutters and flies to and fro as the Raven and would rest though it were on the outside of the Ark. This is the condition of those who are not in Christ but he that dwelleth in him that abideth in him knoweth not what fear is because he is in him in whom all the treasuries of Wisdom and power are hid and so hath ever his protection above him knows not what danger is for wisdom it self conducts him knows not what an enemy is for power guards him what misery is for he lives in the Region of happinesse he that dwells in him dwells in his armory cannot fear what man what devil Eph. 7. what sin can do unto him because he is in his armory abides in him safely as in a Sanctuary as under his wing I know whom I have trusted saith Saint Paul not the world not my friends 2 Tim 1,12 not my riches not my self for not onely the world and riches and friends are a thin shelter to keep off a storm but I know nothing in my self to uphold my self but I know whom I have trusted my Christ my King my Governour and Counsellor who hath taken me under his roof who cannot denie himself but in these evil dayes in that great day will be my patron my defence my protection And thus doth the true Christian dwell and abide in Christ 1. admiring his majesty 2. Loving his command and 3. by depending wholy upon his protection these three fill up our first part our first proposition that some act is required on our parts here exprest by dwelling in him 2. part We passe now to our second that something is also done by Christ in us some virtue proceeds from him which is here called dwelling in us There goes forth virtue
Lact. l. 6 de ver cult c. 24. A thing indeed it is which may seem strange to flesh and blood and Lactantius tells us that Tully thought it impossible but a strange thing it may seem that the sigh of a broken heart should slumber a Tempest That our sorrow should bind the hands of Majesty that our Repentance should make God himself repent and our Turne Turne him from his wrath and a change in us alter his Decree and therefore to Iulian that cursed Apostate it appear'd in a worse shape not onely as strange but as ridiculous and where he bitterly derides Constantine for the profession of Christianity he makes up his scoffe with the contempt and derision of Repentance Julian Caesar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whosoever is a corrupter or defiler of Women whosoever is a man-slayer whosoever is an uncleane Person may be secure 't is but dipping himself in a little water and he is forthwith clean yea though he wallow again and againe in the same mire pollute himself with the same monstrous sinnes let him but say he hath sinned and at the very word the sinne vanisheth let him but Smite his breast or strike his forehead and he shall presently without more adoe become as white as snow And 't is no marvaile to hear an Apostate blaspheme for his Apostacie it self was blasphemy no more then 't is to heare a Devill Curse both are fallen from their first estate and both hate that estate from whence they are fallen and they both howle together for that which they might have kept and would not upon Repentance there is Dictum Domini thus saith the Lord and this is enough to shame all the witt and confute all the Blasphemy of the world As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of a sinner but that he Turne and in this consists the Priviledge and power of our Turn this makes Repentance a Virtue and by this word this Institution and the Grace of God annexed to it A Turne shall free us from Death a Teare shall shake the powers of Heaven a repentant Sigh shall put the Angels into Passion and our Turning from our Sinne shall Turne God himself even Turne him from his fierce wrath and strike the Sword out of his hand Turne ye Turne ye then is Dictum Domini a voice from Heaven a command from God himself And it is the voice and dictate of his Wisdom an Attribute which he much delights in more then in any of the rest saith Naz. Orat. 1. for it directs his power for whatsoever he doth is done in wisedome in Order Number and Measure whatsoever he doth is best his raine falls not his Arrowes fly not but where they should to the marke which his Wisedome hath set up It accompanies his Justice and make his wayes equall in all the disproportion and dissimilitude which can shew it self to an eye of flesh It made all his Judgements and Statutes It breathed forth his Promises and Menaces and will make them good in Wisedome he made the Heavens and in Wisedome he kindled the fire of Hell nothing can be done in this world or the next which should not be done Againe it orders his Mercy for though he will have Mercy on whom he will have Mercy yet he will not let it fall but where he should not into any Vessell but that which is fit to receive it for his Wisedome is over all his works as well as his Mercy he would save us but he will not save us without Repentance he could force us to a Turne and yet I may truly say hee could not because he is wise he would not have us die and yet he will desTroy us if we will not Turne he doth nothing either good or evill to us which is not convenient for him and agreeable to his wisedome Nor can this bring us under the Imputation of too much boldnesse to say The Lord doth nothing but what is convenient for him for 't is not boldnesse to magnifie his wisedom They rather come too neer and are bold with Maiesty who fasten upon him those Counsells and determinations which are repugnant and opposite to his wisedome and goodnesse and which his soul hates as That hedid Decree to make some men miserable to that end that he might make his Mercy glorious in making them happy that he did of purpose wound them that he might heale them That he did threaten them with Death whose names he had written in the book of Life That he was willing man should sinne that he might forgive him That he doth exact that Repentance as our Duty which himselfe will worke in us by an irresistible force That he commands intreats beseeches others to Turne and Repent whom himselfe hath bound and fetter'd by an absolute Decree that they shall never Turne That he calls them to Repentance and Salvation whom he hath damn'd from al eternity and if any certainly such Beasts as these deserve to be struck through with a Dart. No 't is not boldness but Humility and Obedience to his will to say He doth nothing but what becommeth him what his wisedome doth justify and he hath abounded towards us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint tPaul Ephe. 1.8 in all Wiedome and Prudence His wisedome findes out the meanes of Salvation and his Prudence orders and disposeth them his wisedome shewes the way to life and his Prudence leads us through it to the end I Wisedome was from everlasting Proverb 8. and as she was in initio viarum in the beginning of Gods wayes so she was in initio Evangelii in the beginning of the Gospel which is called the wisedome of God unto salvation and she fitted and proportioned meanes to that end means which were most agreeable and connaturall to it It found out a way to conquer Death Heb. 2.14 and him that hath the power of Death the Devill with the weapons of Righteousness to digge up sinne by the very Roots that no work of the flesh might shoot forth out of the Heart any more to destroy it in its effects that though it be done yet it shall have no more force then if it were annihilated then if it had never been done and to destroy it in its causes that it may be never done againe Immutabile quod factum est Quint l. 7. to draw together Justice and Mercy which seemed to stand at distance and hinder the work and to make them meet and kisse each other in Christs Satisfaction and ours for our Turne is our satisfaction all that we can make which she hath joyned together Condigna est satisfatio mald facta corrigere est correcta non reiterare Ber. de Just. Dom. c. 1. Satisfactio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antiochens conc can 2. never to be severed his Sufferings with our Repentance his Agony with our sorrow his Blood with our Teares his Flesh nailed to the Crosse with our lusts
certainly ours let us not send our Thoughts and hopes afarr off to that which hath no better foundation to rest on then uncertainty it self let us not hope to raise Eternity upon a Thought of that which may bee or rather of that which may not be For we may as well consult and determine what we will do when we are dead as what we will doe in this kind Hereaster and if it be never wrought out of its contingency if it never come to passe the difference is not great For that which may be Arestot de interp c. 9. and that which never shall be may be the same That which may be and may not be hath no Entity at all and so cannot be the object of our Knowledge nor beare either an Affirmation or Negation and wilt thou settle a Resolution on such a Contingency Resolve to doe that at such a Time which thou canst not tell whether it will ever come or no Resolve upon that of which thou canst neither affirme nor deny that it shall ever be wilt thou hazard the favour of God thy soul and Salvation upon the hope of that which is not and may be nothing This were to let go Juno and embrace a cloud to set thy happinesse on the cast of a die to call the things that are not as if they were but in vain in brief to set up an Idol a false hope a gilded nothing and fall down and worship it and forsake that present opportunity which is the voice of God and bespeaks us to make no more delayes but to turn Now. The word now sounds and let us hearken now we have been told by him and we have been told by them who had it from Christ as Christ had it from his Father that now is the acceptable time now is the day of Salvation and we were never yet told of any other day For did ever yet any Prophet or Apostle exhort you to turn to morrow At what time soever is not when you please but though you have not yet lest your evil wayes yet now you may turn At what time soever is now Divinity or the Doctrine of the Gospel is practical and considers not contingencies but necessaries In it there is nothing presented to us in the futurtense but Salvation which is a thing of another world the means are all derived to us in the present To day if you will hear his voice Deny your selves take up your Crosse mortifie your fleshly lusts to day beleeve now love him now hope in him now that which is to come or may be in respect of our duty is not considerable in that science but left in his hands who is the Ancient of dayes who is eternal who may indulge as many opportunities as in wisdom be shall think fit Dan 7 9 but his command is Now who may receive us at any time but bindes us to the present We have been told nay we can tell our selves that now is better then to morrow that we have but one day and moment which we can call ours and after that Time may be â—o more we have heard that delay is a Tyrant a Pharaoh and layes more work upon us doubles trebles nay infinitely multiplies our Task and yet allows us no straw withdraws the means the helps and advantages we had to turn or else makes us weak and impotent lesse able to use them delivers us over to more difficulties more pangs and troubles and more tormenting Agonies then we should have felt if we had cast her off and begun betimes And shall we yet delay we have heard that it is a sinne to delay and makes sinne yet more sinful that it is the devils first heave to throw us into that Gulph out of which we shall have neither power nor will to come that it is a leading sin the forerunner to the sin against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven and shall we yet delay we have been taught that it is a high presumption to leave Christ working out his part of the covenant in his blood which was once shed for us Non expectat Deus frigescentes Senectu is annos nec emortuam jam per consuetudinem vitio rum consuetudinem vult longi praelij militem Hilar. in Psal 118. Beth. and intercedes for us for ever and wilfully to neglect our part and drive it off from time to time from the cheerfulnesse and vigor of youth to the dulnesse and lazinesse of old age to withered hands trembling joynts to weak memories heavy hearts and dull understandings to the unactive amazednes the would but cannot of a bedrid-sinner then to strive against sin when we are to struggle with our disease then to do it when we can do nothing and so when we cannot finish and perfect our Repentance fill and make it up in a Though or Sigh a faint and sick acknowledgement which are rather sad Remonstrances against our former neglect and delay then Infallible Testimonies or Demonstrative Declarations of a wounded and Broken Heart This we have been told and shall wee yet delay in brief we have been taught That Delay if we cut it not off betimes will at last cut us out of the Covenant of Grace That it will make the Gospel as killing as the Law The Promises which are yea and Amen Nothing to us that it will make a Gracious God a consuming fire and Jesus a Destroyer That a dying man can no more Turne to God then the Dead prayse him That after we have thus scared our Consciences drawn out our life in a continued disobedience the Gospel is sealed up and concernes us not at the houre of Death who would not lay hold of one houre of our life to Turne in and therefore cannot goe the same ordinary way to heaven with the Apostles Agens poenitentiam reconciliatus cum sanus est poste à benè viveus securus hinc exit Agens poenitentiam ad ultimum recenciliatus si securus hinc exit ego non sum securus Aug. Hom. 41. and Martyrs and the souls of just men made perfect with those who have put off the old man and put on the new with those who have escaped the pollutions of the world and were never againe entangled in them but are left to that Mercy which was never promised and which they have little reason to hope for who have so much abused it to their own perdition All that can be said is scarce worth their Hearing Non dico salvabuntur non dico Damnabuntur we cannot say they shall be saved we cannot say they shall be Damned They may be safe but of this we cannot be sure because we have no Revelation for it but rathere for the contrary onely God is not bound to Rules and Lawes as man is no not to his owne but keepes to himself his Supreame right and power entire and may doe what he will with his owne and may
take that for a Turne which he hath not declared to be so and doe that which he hath threatned he will not doe but 't is ill depending upon what God may doe for for ought that is revealed he will never doe it never doe it to him who presumes he will because he may and so puts off his Turne his Repentance to the last leaves the ordinary way and trusts to what God may doe out of Course never doe it to a man of Belial who runs on in his sinnes yet looks for such a Charriot to carry him into Heaven We have no such Doctrine nor the Church of Christ Her voice is Turne ye now at Last will be too late This is the Doctrine of the Gospel but yet the Judgement is the Lords And all this we have heard and we cannot gaine-say or confute it and shall we yet delay Certainly if we know these Terrors of the Lord and not Turne now we shall hardly ever Turne If we heare and beleeve this and doe not repent we are worse then Infidells our Faith shall helpe the Devill to accuse us and it shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrha then for us If we heare this and still fold our hands to sleep still Delay if this noise will not stirr and move us if this doe not startle us in our evill wayes we have good reason to feare we shall never awake till the last Trump till that day till the last Day which is a Day of Judgement as this our day is of Repentance We say we beleeve it that now heaven is offered and now we must strive to enter in we say we pray for it we hope for it we long for it if we do Then Now is the Time Festina fides Alacris Devotio spes impigra Amb. Epist c. 10. Ep. 82. saith Saint Ambrose Faith is on the wing and carries us along with the speed of a Thought through all difficulties through all distasts and affrightments and will not let us stay one moment in the house of vanity in any slippery place where we may fall and perish Devotion is full of Heat and Activity and Hope that is deferr'd is an Affliction If we are lead by the Spirit of God Devotio est actualis voluntas prompte faciendi quae ad Dei cultum spectant Aquin. 22. q. 82. Art 1. we are lead apace drawne suddenly out of those wayes which lead unto death we are called upon to escape for our lives and not to look behind us and as it was said of Cyprian we are at our journeys end as soon as we fet out God speakes and we heare he begins good thoughts in us and we nourish them to that strength that they break forth into Action he poures forth his Grace Praeproperâ velocitate pietatis paene ante coepit persectus esse quam disceret Pontius Draconus de Cypriani vitâ and we receive it he makes his benefits his lure and we come to his hand he thunders from heaven and we fall down before him In brief Repentance is as our Passeover and by it we sacrifice our heart and we doe it in the Bitternesse of our Soul and we do it in hast and so passe from Death to Life from darknesse to Light from our evill wayes to the Obedince of Faith and God passeth over us sees the blood our wounded Spirits our Teares our Contrition and will not now destroy us but feeing us so soon so farre removed from our Evill wayes will favour us and shine upon us and in the light of his Countenance we shall walke on from strength to strength through all the hardship and Troubles of a continued Race to that Rest and Peace which is Everlasting Thus much of the first property of Repentance it must be matura Conversio a speedy and a present Turne Festina haerentis in Salo naviculae funem magis praecide quam solve Hier. Paulino THE EIGHTH SERMON PART IIII. EZEKIEL 33.11 Turne ye Turne ye from your evill ways For why c. TO stand out with God and contend with him all our life long to try the utmost of his patience and then in our Evening in the shutting up of our Dayes to bow before him is not to Turne nor have we any reason to conceive any Hope that a faint Confession or sigh should deliver him up to Eternity of Bliss whom the swinge of his lusts and a multiplyed continued disobedience have carryed along without checque or controul to his chamber and Bed and the very mouth of the Grave who have delighted themselves in evill till they can do no good Delay if it ben ot fatall to all for we dare not give Lawes to Gods Mercy yet we have just reason to feare it is so to those that trust to it and runne on in their Evill wayes till the hand of justice is ready to cut their Thread of life and to set a period to that and their sinnes together Turn ye Turn ye that is now that it be not too late The second property or the Sincerity of our Turn This ingemination hath more heat in it not onely to hasten our motion and turn but to make it true and real and sincere For when God bids us turn he considers us not as upon a stage but in his Church where every thing must be done not acted where all is real not in shadow and representation where we must be Holy as he is Holy perfect as he is perfect true as he is true where we must behave our selves as in the House of God which is not pergula pidoris a Painters shop where all is in shew nothing in truth where not the Garments but the heart must be rent that as Christ our head was crucified indeed not in shew or in phantasme as Marcion would have it so we might present him a wounded soul a bleeding Repentance a flesth crucified and so joyn as it were with Christ in a real and sincere putting away and abolishing of sin God is truth it self True and faithfull in his promises if he speak he doth it if he command it shal stand fast and therefore hateth a feined forced wavering imaginary Repentance to come in a vizor or disguise before him is an abomination nor will he give true joy for feigned sorrow Heaven for a shadow nor everlasting happinesse for a counterfeit momentary turn Eternity for that which is not for that which is nothing For Repentance if it be not sincere is nothing The holy Father will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. or 19 that which is feigned is not lasting that which is forced failes and ends with that artificiall spring that turns it about as we see the wheels of a clock move not when the Plummet is on the ground because the beginning of that motion is ab extrà not from its internal Form but from some outward violence or Art without simplex recti cura multiplex pravi there is
do our evils which are covered by Repentance revive againe by sinne Not onely my Almes are devoured by oppression my Chastity defloured by my uncleanness my Fasting lost in my luxurie but my former sinnes which were scattered as mist before the Sun return again and are a thick cloud between me and the bright and shining mercy of God Not that there is any mutability in God no God doth not repent of his gifts but we may of our Repentance and after pardon sinne again and so bring a new guilt upon our soules and not onely that but vengeance upon our Heads for the contempt tempt of his Mercy and slighting of his former pardon For nothing can provoke God to Anger more then the abuse of his goodness and Mercy nor doth his wrath burn more violently then when 't is first quencht and allaid with the Teares of a sinner and afterwards kindled againe by his sinne Then he that was well pleased to be reconciled will question and condemne us and yet make good his Promise he that forgat our sinnes will Impute our sinnes and yet be Truth it self For remission of sinnes is a continued Act and is and remains whist the condition which is required remains but when we faile in that the door of Mercy which before was wide open unto us is shut against us for should he Justify and forgive him who breaks his Obligation and returns to the same place where he stood out against God and fought against him shall he be reconciled to him who will be againe his Enemy if the righteous relapse his righteousness shall not be mention'd Ez. 18.21.24 nor shall the wickedness of the wicked be mentioned if hee repent for the change is not in God but in our selves aliter aliter judicat de homine aliter et aliter disposito he speaks in Mercy to the Penitent but in anger to the relapsed sinner The Rule of Gods Actions is constant and like himself and in this particular this is the Rule this his Decree To forgive the Penitent and punish the relapsed Sinner So hee forgives the sinner when he repents and punisheth him when he falls away And why should it be put to the Question whether God revoke his first Pardon Quid prodest esse quod esse non prodest as Tertull. speakes if we think he did it not or cannot doe it yet what profit is it that that should remain which doth not profit nay which doth aggravate our sin or what Pardon is that which may remaine firme when he to whom it was given for his revolt may be Turned into Hell when the Servant falls down he is moved with Compassion Matth. 18. and looseth him and forgives him the debt But when he takes his fellow servant by the Throat he delivers him to the Tormenters till he should pay the utmost farthing because God is ever like unto himself constant to his Rule and he forgives and punisheth for this reason because he is so and cannot change For as we begg our Pardon upon promise so doth he grant it upon supposition of perseverance for he doth not pardon us our sinne that we should sinne again and if we break our Promise we cut selves have made a Nullity of the Pardon or made it of as little Virtue and Power as if it had never been For as the Schools tell us that the Sacraments are Protestationes fidei the Protestations of our Faith so is our Prayer for Pardon a Protestation and promise of Repentance which is nothing else but a continued obedience we pray to God To cast our Sinnes behinde his back with this Resolution to extirpate them and upon this Condition God seales our Pardon which we must make a motive not to sinne and fall back but to a new life and Constant obedience If we Turne and Turne back againe he may Turne his face from us for Ever Againe in the Third Place we have reason to arme our selves against Temptation after Pardon because by our relapse we doe not onely add sin to sin but we are made more inclinable to it and anon more familiar with it and so more averse and backward to the Acts of Piety Tert. l. 1. ad uxorem c. 8. for as Tertullian observes viduitas operosior virginitate that it is a matter of more difficulty to remaine a Widow then to keep our Virgin not to tast of pleasure then when we have tasted to forbeare so it is easier to absteine from sin a first then when we are once engaged when we have tasted of that Pleasure which commends it And then when we have loath'd it for some bitterness it had for some misery some Disease it brought along with it and when that 's for got look towards it again and see nothing but those smiles and allurements which first deceived us we like and love it more then we did before it gave us any such distast and at last can walk along with it though wrath be over our heads and Death ready to devour us and what we did before with some reluctancy we do now wiht greediness we did but lap before with some feare and suspition at last we take it downe as the Oxe doth water And what an uneven distracted course of life is this to sin and upon some distast to repent and when that is off since againe and upon some pang that we feel Repent again and after some ease meet and joyn with that which hath so pleased which hath so troubled us The Stoick hath well observed homines vitam suam amant simul oderunt some men at once both hate and love themselves now they send a divorce to sinne anon they kisse and embrace it now they banish it anon recall it Now they are on the wing for Heaven anon cleaving to the Dust now in their Zenith and by and by in their Nadir Saint Ephreem the Syrian expresseth it by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calls it a falling rise or a rising fall a course of life consisting of Turning and Returning in rising and relapsing in sinning and repenting because men find it more for their ease deprecari crimen quam vacare crimine to begg Pardon for sinne committed then to forbeare committing it after and so sinne and Repent and sin againe and as solemnly by their sinne renounce their Repentance as they doe by their Repentance recant their sinne We deale with our beloved sinne as Maecenas did with his Wife Sen. ep 114. quae cum unam habuit millies duxit saith Seneca who had but one yet married her and divorced her from him and then married her againe a Thousand times First we look upon the painted face and Countenance of sinne and are taken as it were with her Eye and Beauty and wee draw neere and embrace it but anon the worm gnaweth us our conscience is loud and troublesom and then we would put it from us when it flatters we are even sick
with love and when it turns its worst face towards us we are weary of it and have an inclination a velleity a weak and feeble desire to shake it off our soul loveth it and loatheth it we would not and we will sin and all upon presumption of that mercy which first gave us ease upon hope of forgiveness quis enim timebit prodigere quod habebit posteà recuperare Tertul. de pudicitia c. 9. for who will be tender and sparing of that which he hopes to recover though lost never so oft or be careful of preserving that which he thinks cannot be irrecoverably lost so that Repentance which should be the death of sin is made the security of the Sinner and that which should reconcile us to God is made a reproach to his mercy and contumelious to his goodness in brief that which should make us his friends makes us his enemies we turn and return we fall and rise and rise and fall till at last we fall never to rise again And this is an ill signe a signe our Repentance was not true and serious but as in an intermitting fever the disease was still the same onely the fit was over Gravedinosos quosdam quosdam tor ninosor 〈◊〉 mus non quia semper sed quia saepesunt Tul. Tusc q. l. 4 Galen de fanitat Tuendâ or as in an Epilepsie or the falling sickness it is still the same is stil in the body though it do not cast it on the ground and such a Repentance is not a Repentance but to be repented of by turning once for all never to turn again or if it be true we may say of it what Galen said of his art to those that abuse it who carry it not and continue it to the end perindè est ac si omnino non esset it is as if it were not at all nay it is fatal and deleterial It was Repentance it is now an accusation a witness against us that we would be contrà experimenta pertinaces even against our own experience taste that cup again which we found bitter to us and run into that snare out of which we had escaped and turn back into those evil wayes where we saw death ready to seise upon us and so run the hazard of being lost for ever And these four are the necessary requisities Concl. and properties of Repentance it must be early and sudden upon the first all For why should any thing in this world stop and stay us one moment in our journey to a better is not a span of time little enough to pay down for Eternity it must be true and sincere for can we hope to binde the God of Truth unto us with a lie or can a false Turn bring us to that happinesse which is real it must be perfect and exact in every part for why should we give him lesse then we should who will give us more then we can desire or how can that which is but in part make us shine in perfection of Glory Last of all it must be constant and permanent for the crown of life is promised unto him alone who is faithful unto death Turn ye Turn ye now suddenly in reality and not in appearance Turn ye from all your evil wayes Turn never to look back again and this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint render it to turn for ever and so to presse forward in the wayes of righteousnesse till we are brought to that place of rest where there is no evil to Turn from but all shall turn to our Salvation Thu much of the exhortation Turn ye Turn ye the next is the Reason or Expostulation For why will you die O House of Israel THE NINTH SERMON PART V. EZEKIEL 33.11 Turne ye Turne ye from your evill wayes For why will you die Oh House of Israel WHY will you die is an Obtestation or Expostulation I called it a reason and good reason I should do so for the moriemini is a good reason that we may not die a good reason to make us turn but tendered to us by way of expostulation is another reason and puts life and efficacy into it makes it a reason invincible unanswerable The Israelite though now in his evil wayes dares not say He will die and therefore must lay his hand upon his mouth and Turn For God who is truely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free from all passion being to deal with man subject to passion seems to put it on exprimit in we have here a large field to walk over but we must bound our discourse within the compass of those observations which first offer themselves and without any force or violence may naturally be deduced from these words and we shall first take notice of the course and method God takes to turn us he draws a sword against us he threatens death and so awakes our fear that our fear might carry us out of evil our wayes Secondly that God is not willing we should die Thirdly that he is not any way defective in the administration of the means of life Last of all that if we die the fault is onely in our selves and our own will ruines us Why will ye die O house of Israel We begin with the first the course that God takes to turn us he asks us why will ye die in which we shall passe by these steps or degrees First shew you what fear is Secondly how usefull it may be in our conversion Thirdly shew it not onely useful but good and lawful and enjoyned both to those who are yet to turn and those who are converted already The fear of death the fear of Gods wrath may be a motive to turn me from sin and it may be a motive to strengthen and uphold me in the wayes of righteousnesse God commends it to us timor iste timendus non est and we need not be afraid of this Fear Quare moriemini Why will ye Die And death is the King of terrours to command our fear that seeing death in our evil wayes ready to destroy us Job 18.16 we might look about and consider in what wayes we were and for feare of death turn from sin which leads unto it for thus God doth Amorem timore pellere subdue one passion with another drive out love with fear the love of the world with the fear of death present himself unto us in divers manners according to the different operations of our affections sometimes with his rich promises to make us Hope and sometimes with fearful menaces to strike us with fear sometimes in glory to encourage us and sometimes in a tempest Clem. Alexand. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whirle-winde to affright us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 various and manifold in the dispensation of his goodnesse that if hope drive us not to the promises yet fear might carry us from death and death from sin and so at last beget a Hope
therefore have need of this kind of remedy as much need certainly as our first Parents had in Paradise who before they took the forbidden fruit might have seen Death written and engraved on the Tree and had they observ'd it as they ought to have done had not forfeited the Garden for one Apple had this Feare walked along with them before the coole of the Day before the rushing wind they had not heard it nor hid themselves from God in a word had they Feared they had not fell for they fell with this Thought that they should not fall that they should not die at all Imperfection though it be to Feare yet 't is such an Imperfection that leads to perfection Imperfection though it be to Feare yet I am sure it is a greater Imperfection to sin and not to feare It might be wished perhapps that we were tyed and knit unto our God quibusdam internis commerciis as the devout School-man speaks with those inward ligaments of Love and Joy and Admiration that we had a kind of familiar acquaintance and intercourse with him That as our Almes and Prayers and fasting came up before him to shew him what we do on earth so there were no imper fection in us but that God might approach so nigh unto us with the fulness of Joy to tell us what he is preparing for us that neither the Feare of Hell nor the Hope of Heaven and our Salvation but the Love of God and Goodnesse were the only cause of our cleaving to him That we might love God because he is God and hate sinne because it is sinne and for no other reason that we might with Saint Paul wish the increase of Gods Glory though with that heavy condition of our own Reprobation But this is such an Heroick spirit to which every man cannot rise though he may at last rise as high as Heaven this is such a condition which we can hardly hope for whilst we are in the flesh we are in the body not out of the body we struggle with doubts and difficulties Ignorance and Infirmity are our Companions in our way and in this our state of Imperfection contenti simus hoc Catone Dictum Augusti cum hortaretur ferenda esse praesentia qualiacunque sunt Suet. Octav. August c. 87. we must be content to use such means and Helpes as the Law-giver himself will allow of and not cast off fear upon a Fancy that our Love is perfect for this savours more of an Imaginary Metaphysicall subtility of a kind of extaticall affectation of Piety then the plaine and solid knowledge of Christian Religion but continue our Obedience and carry on our perseverance with the Remembrance of our last end with this consideration That as under the Law there was a curse pronounced to them that fulfill it not so under the Gospel there is a flaming fire to take vengeance of them that obey it not 2. Thess 1.8 It was a good censure of Tully which he gave of Cato in one of his Epistles Thou canst not saith he to his friend love and Honor Cato more then I doe but yet this I observe in him optimo animo utens summâ fide nocet interdum Reip. he doth endammage the Common-wealth but with an Honest mind and great Fidelity l. 2. ad Attic. ep 1. for he gives sentence as if he lived in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Platonis non in faece Romuli in Plato's Common-wealth and not in the dreggs and Rascaltry of Romulus And we may passe the same censure on these seraphical Perfectionists who will have all done out of pure Love nothing out of Feare They remember not that they are in fraece Adami the off-spring of an Arch-Rebell that their father was an Amorite and their mother an Hittite and that the want of this Feare threw them from that state of Integrity in which they were created and by that out of Paradise and so with great ostentation of love hinder the Progresse of Piety and setting up to themselves an Idaea of Perfection take off our Feare which should be as the hand to wind up the Plummet which should continue the motion of our Obedience the best we can say of them is summâ fide pio animo nocent Ecclesiae If their mind be pious and answer the great shew they make then with a Pious mind they wrong and trouble the Church of Christ For suppose I were a Paul and did love Christ as Cato did Virtue because I could no otherwise Nunquam recte fecit ut faces videretur sed quià aliter facere non poterat Vell. ratere l. 2. Hist suppose I did feare sinne more then Hell and had rather be damned then commit it suppose that every thought word and worke were Amoris foetus the issues of my Love yet I must not upon a speciall favour build a general Doctrine and because love is best make Feare unlawfull make it sinne to feare that punishment the Feare of which might keep me from sinne for this were in Saint Pauls phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to put a stumbling-block in our Brothers way with my love to overthrow his feare that so at last both Feare and Love may fall to the ground for is there any that will fear sinne for punishment if it be a sinne to Feare What 's the language of the world now we heare of nothing but filiall feare and it were a good hearing if they would understand themselves for this doth not exclude the other but is upheld by it we are as sure of happinesse as we are of Death but are more perswaded of the Truth of the one then of the other more sure to goe to heaven then to die and yet Death is the gate which must let us in we are already partakers of an Angelicall Estate we prolong our life in our own Thoughts to a kind of Eternity and yet can feare nothing we challenge a kind of familiarity with God and yet are willing to stay yet a while longer from him we sport with his Thunder and play with his Hayl-stones and Coales of fire we entertain him as the Roman Gentleman did the Emperor Augustus Macrobius in Saturnal coenâ parcâ quasi quotidianâ with course and Ordinary fare as Saul in the 15. of the first of Sam. with the vile and refuse not with the fatlings and best of the sheep and Oxen Did we dread his Majesty or think he were Jupiter vindex a God of Revenge with a Thunder-bolt in his hand we should not be thus bold with him but feare that in wrath and Indignation he should reply as Augustus did Non putaram me tibi fuisse tam familiarem I did not think I had made my self so familiar with my Creature I know the Schools distinguish between a servile and Initial and a Filial feare there is a Feare by which we feare not the fault but the punishment and a feare which feareth the punishment
Errors because they have so many and that none can Erre but he that sayes he cannot and for which we call him Antichrist This bandying of Censures and Curses hath been held up too long with some loss and injury to Religion on both sides Our best way certainly to confute them is by our practice so to live that all men say The Feare of God is in us of a Truth to weave Love and Feare into one Peece to serve the Lord in feare and rejoyce in Trembling Hilar. in Fs 2. ut sit timor exultans exultatio tremens that there may be Trembling in our Joy and Joy in our Feare not to Divorce Jesus from the LORD nor the Lord from Jesus not to Feare the Lord the lesse for Jesus nor love Jesus the less for the Lord but to joyne them both together and place Christ in the midst and then there will be a pax vobis peace unto us his Oyntment shall drop upon our Love that it be not too bold and distill upon our Feare that it faint not and end in despaire that our Love may not consume our Feare nor our Fear chill our love but we shall so Love him that we do not Despaire so Fear him that we do not presume That we may Feare him as a Lord and love him as Jesus and then when he shall come in Glory to Judge both the quick and the dead we shall find him a Lord but not to affright us and a Jesus to save us our Love shall be made perfect All doubting taken from our Faith nay Faith it self shall be done away and the feare of Death shall be swallowed up in Victory and we who have made such use of Death in its representation shall never dye but live for evermore And this we have learnt from the Moriemini Why will you Die THE TENTH SERMON PART VI. EZEKIEL 33.11 why will you die Oh House of Israel WEE have lead you through the Chambers of Death through the school of Discipline The School of feare For why will ye Die Look upon Death and feare it and you shall not Dye at all Thus farre are we gone We come now ad domum Israelis to the House of Israel Why will ye die oh house of Israel For to name Israel is an Argument Take them as Israel or take them as the House of Israel Take the House for a Building or take it for a family and it may seem strange and full of Admiration that Israel which should prevaile with God should embrace Death That the House of Israel compact in it self should ruine it self In Edom 't is no strange sight to see men run on in their evill wayes In Mesheck or the Tents of Kedar there might be at least some colour for a Reply but to Israel it is Gravis expostulatio a heavy and full Expostulation Let the Amorites and Hittites let the Edomites let Gods enemies perish but let not Israel the People of God Dye Why should they die The Devil may be an Edomite but God forbid he should be an Israelite The Quarè moriemini why will ye Die we see is levell'd to the marke is here in its right and proper place and being directed to Israel is a sharp and vehement exprobration Oh Israel why will ye die I would not have you die I have made you gentem selectam a chosen people that you may not Die I have set before you Life and Death Life that you may chuse it and Death that you may run from it and why will you die My sword is drawne to affright and not to kill you and I hold it up That I may not strike I have placed death in the way that you may stop and retreat and not go on I have set my Angel my Prophet with a sword drawne in his Hand That at least you may be as wise as the Beast was under Baalam and sink and fall down under your Burden I have imprinted the very Image of Death in every sinne will ye yet goe on will ye love sinne that hath such a foule face such a terrible countenance that is thus clothed and apparrell'd with Death Quis furor oh Cives what a madnesse is this oh ye Israelites As Herod once upbraiding Cassius for his seditious behaviour in the East 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wrot no more but this Herod to Cassius Thou art mad Philostrat in vit Herodis so God may seem to send to his People God by his Prophet to the Israelites you are mad Therefore doe my people run on in their evill wayes Isa 5.13 because they have no understanding For now look upon Death and that affrights us Look upon God and he exhorts us Reflect upon our selves and we are an Israel a Church of God There is no cause of dying but not Turning no cause of destruction but Impenitency If we will not die we shall not die and if we will Turne we cannot die at all for that if we die God passeth sentence upon us and condemnes us but kills us not but perditio tua ex te Israel our destruction comes from our selves It is not God it is not death it self that kills us but we die because we will Now by this Touch and short descant on the words so much Truth is conveyed unto us as may acquit and discharge God as no way accessary to our death and to make our Passage cleer and plain we will proceed by these steps or degrees draw out these three Conclusions 1. That God is not willing we should die 2. That he is so far from willing our death that he hath plenteously afforded sufficient meanes of life and salvation which will bring in the Third and last That if we die our death is voluntary That no other reason can be given of our death but our own will And the due consideration of these three may serve to awake our shame Naz. Or. 20. as death did our feare which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen speaks another Help and furtherance to worke out our Salvation Why will ye die oh House of Israel And first That God is not willing we should die is plaine enough First from the Obtestation or Expostulation it self Secondly from the Nature of God who thus expostulates For 1. why will ye die is the voice of a friend not of an enemy He that askes me why I will die by his very Question assures me he intends not to destroy me God is not as man that he should lie what he works he workes in the cleer and open day His fire is kindled to enflame us his water flows to purge and cleanse us his oyle is powred forth to supple us his commands are not snares nor his Precepts Accusations He stamps not the Devill 's face upon his Coyne He willeth not what he made not and he made not Death saith the Wiseman He wisheth he desireth we should live he is angry Wisd 1.12 and
if he be angry we have provoked him if he come in a Tempest we have rais'd it if he be a consuming fire we have kindled it we force him to be what he would not be we make him Thunder who is all Light Tert. advers Marc. l. 2. c. 11. Bonitas ingenita severitas Accidens Alteram sibi alteram rei Deus praestitit saith the Father his goodnesse is Naturall his severity in respect of its Act Accidentall for God may be severe and yet not punish for he strikes not till we provoke him his Justice and severity are the same as everlasting as himself though he never speak in his wrath nor draw his sword If there were no Hell yet were he just and if there were no Abrahams Bosome yet were he Good if there were neither Angel nor men he were still the Lord blessed for evermore in a word he had been just though he had never been Angry he had been mercifull though man had not been miscrable he had been the same God just and good and mercifull though sin had not entred in by Adam nor Death by sinne God is active in Good and not in Evill he cannot doe what he doth detest and hate he cannot Decree Ordaine or further that which is most contrary to him he doth not kill me before all time and then in time aske me why I will die He doth not Condemne me first and then make a Law that I may break it He doth not blow out my Candle and then punish me for being in the dark That the conviction of a sinner should be the onely end of his Exhortations and Expostulations cannot consist with that Goodness which God is who when he comes to punish Isai 28.21 sacit opus non suum saith the Prophet doth not his owne worke doth a strange work a strange Act an Act that is forced from him a worke which he would not doe And as he doth not will our Death so doth he not desire to manifest his Glory in it which as our Death proceeds from his secondary and occasion'd will For God saith Aquinas seeks not the manifestation of his Glory Aquin. 2.2 q. 132. art 1. for his own but for our sakes His glory as his Wisdome and Justice and Power is with him alwayes as eternall as himself no Quire of Angels can improve no raging Devil can diminish his Glory which in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphin and Cherubin in the midst of all the Blasphemies of men and Devills is still the same and his first will is to see it in his Image in the conformity of our wills to his where it strives in the perfection of Beauty rather then when it is decay'd and defaced rather then in a Damned Spirit rather in that Saint he would have made then in that Reprobate and cursed soul which he was forced to throw into the lowest pit and so to receive his Glory is that which he would not have which he was willing to begin on Earth and then have made it perfect and compleat in the highest Heavens Tert. ibid. Exinde admortem sed ante ad vitam The sentence of Death was pronounced against man almost as soon as he was man but he was first created to life we are punished for being evill but we were first commanded to be good his first will is That we glorify him in our Bodies and in our soules but if we frustrate his loving expectation here then he rowseth himself up as a mighty man and will be avenged of us and work his Glory out of that which dishonor'd him and write it with our blood In the multitude of the People Prov. 14.28 is the Glory of a King saith the wisest of Kings and more Glory if they be obedient to his laws then if they rebell and rise up against him That Common-wealth is more glorious where every man fills his place then where the Prisons are filled with Theeves and Traytors and men of Belial and though the Justice and wisedome of the King may be seen in these yet 't is more resplendent in those on whom the Law hath more Power then the sword In Heaven is the glory of God best seen and his delight is in it to see it in the Church of the First-borne and in the soules of just men made perfect it is now indeed his will which primarily was not his will to see it in the Divel and his Angels For God is best pleased to see his Creature man to answer to that patteâ—e which he hath set up to be what he should be and what he intended And as every Artificer glories in his work when he sees it finish't according to the rule and that Idea which he had drawne in his minde and as we use to look upon the work of our hands or witts with that favour and complacency we doe upon our Children when they are like us so doth God upon man when he appeares in that shape and forme of Obedience which he prescrib'd for then the Glory of God is carried along in the continued streame and course of all our Actions breaks forth and is seen in every worke of our Hands is the Eccho of every word we speak the result of every Thought that begat that word and it is Musick in his eares which he had rather heare then the weeping and howling of the Damned which he will now heare though the time was when he us'd all fitting meanes to prevent it even the same meanes by which he raised those who now glorify him in the Highest Heaven God then is no way willing we should die not by his Naturall will which is his prime and antecedent will for Death cannot issue from the Fountaine of Life and by this will was the Creature made in the beginning and by this preserved ever since by this are administred all the meanes to bring it to that perfection and happiness for which it was first made for the goodness of God it was which first gave a being to man and then adopted him in speâ—… regâ—…i design'd him for immortality and gave him a Law by the fulfilling of which he might have a Tast of that Joy and Happinesse which he from all Eternity possest And therefore secondly not voluntate praecepti not by his will exprest in his command in his precepts and Laws For under Christ this will of his is the onely destroyer of Death and being kept and observ'd swallows it up in victory for how can Death touch him who is made like unto the living Lord or how should Hell receive him whose conversation is in heaven Ezek. 16. â—1 13.21 If we do them we shall even live in them saith the Prophet and he repeats it often as if Life were as inseparable from them as it is from the living God himself by which as he is life in himself so to man whom he had made he brought life and immortality to light
Pharaohs heart was hardned 3. God hardned Pharaohs heart and now let us Judge whether it be safer to interpret Gods induration by Pharaohs or Pharaohs by Gods for if God did actually and immediately harden Pharaohs heart then Pharaoh was a meer patient nor was it in his power to let the people go and so God sent Moses to bid him do that which he could not and which he could not because God had hardned him but if Pharaoh did actually harden his own heart as 't is plain enough he did then Gods Induration can be no more then a just permission and suffering him to be hardned which in his wisdom and the course he ordinarily takes he would not and therefore could not hinder sufficit unus Huic operi one is enough for this work of induration and we need not take in God for to keep to the letter in the former hakes a main principle of truth that God is in no degree Author of sin but to keep to the letter in the latter cleeres all doubts prevents all objections and opens a wide and effectual door to let as in to a cleer sight of the meaning of the former For that man doth harden his owne heart is undeniably true But that God doth harden the heart is denied by most is spoken darkly and doubtfully by some nor is it possible that any Christian should speak it plainly or present it in this hideous monstrous shape but must be forced to stick and dresse it up with some far fetcht and impertinent limitation or distinction For lastly I cannot see how God can positively be said to do that which is done already to his hand For induration is the proper and natural effect of sin and to bring in God alone is to leave nothing for the devil or man to do but to make Satan of a Serpent a very flie indeed and the soul of man nothing else but a forge and shop to work those sins in which may burn and consume it everlastingly God and nature speak the same thing many times Aristot l. 7. Eth. c. 1. though the phrase be different that wihch the Philosopher calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ferity and brutishnesse of nature that in Scripture is called hardnesse of heart for every man is shaped and formed and configured saith Basil to the actions of his life whither they be good or evil one sin draws on another and a second a third and at last we are carried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our own accord and as it were by the force of a natural inclination till we are brought to that extremity of sin which the Philosopher calls Ferity a shaking of all that is man about us and the holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reprobate minde And such a minde had Pharaoh 1 Rom. 2.8 who was more and more enraged by every sin which he had committed as the Wolf is most fierce and cruel when he hath drawn and tasted blood For it is impossible that any should accustome themselves to sin and not fall into this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this hardesse of heart and indisposition to all goodnesse and therefore we cannot conceive that God hath any hand in our death if we die and that dereliction Incrassation excaecation hardnesse of heart are not from God further then that he hath placed things in that order that when we accustome our selves to sin and contemn his grace blindnesse and hardnesse of heart will necessarily follow but have no relation to any will of his but that of permission and then this expostulation is real and serious Quare moriemini Why will ye die And now to conclude I have not been so particular as the point in Hand may seem to require nor could I be in this measure of Time but onely in Generall stood up in defence of the Goodness and Justice of God for shall not the Judge of all the Earth doe right shall he necessitate men to be evill and then bind them by a Law to be good shall he exhort beseech them to live when they are dead already shall his Absolute Dominion be set up so high from thence to ruine his Justice This indeed some have made their Helena but 't is an ugly and ill-favoured 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 Charriot then to pace it thither with Trouble and paine That GOD hath absolutely Decreed the salvation of some particular men and passed sentence of Death upon others is as Musick to some eares like Davids Harpe to refresh them and drive away the Evill Spirit Et qui amant sibi somnia fingunt mens desires doe easily raise a belief and when they are told of such a Decree they dreame 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 Controverly of the Inheritance of Heaven is on foot to whom it belongs they do as the Romanes did who when two Cities contending about a piece of Ground made them their Judge to determine whose it was fairly gave sentence on their own behalf and took it to themselves because they read of Election elect themselves which is more indeed then any man can deny and more I am sure then themselves can prove And now Oh Death where is thy sting The sting of Death is sin but it cannot reach them and the strength of sinne is the Law but it cannot bind them for sinne it self shall Turne 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 Hypocrisy and disobedience in all that uncleannes and pollution of sinne which is enough to wipe out any name out of the Book of Life Hoc saxum defendit Manlius Sen. Controv. hic excidit For this they rowse up all their Forces this is their rock their fundamentall Doctrine their very Capitol and from this we may feare many thousands of soules have been Tumbled down into the pit of Destruction at this rock many such Elect Vessells 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 who have not Cor in Corde as Austin speaks who have their Judgement not in their Heart but in their sense they soon conceive a fatall necessity and one there is that called it so Fatum Christianum the Christian mans Destiny they think themselves in chaines and shackles that they cannot Turne when they cannot be predestinate not to Turne but
to die because they will not Turne I will give you a remarkable instance and out of Mr. Calvin Quintinus Cont. Libertin And yet his own followers use the â—am words bring the same Lexis and Apply them as the Libertines did vide Piscat Aphorismos the Father of the Libertines as Calvin himself calls him as he rides in company by the way lights upon a man slaine and lying in his goare and one asking who did this bloody deed he readily replies I am he that did it if thou desire to know it and art thou such a Villaine saith the party againe to doe such an Act I did it not my self saith he but it was God that did it And being askt againe whether we may impute to God those hainous sinnes 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 Quintanus is long since dead but his error dyed not with him Fataliter constiâ—utam est quando quantâ—perè unusquisque nostrum pietatem colere vel non colere 〈◊〉 Piscator ad â—uplicat Vorstij p. 2â—8 for it is the policy of our common Enemy to remove our Eye as farre 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 kill'd already never doe our Duty because God doth whatsoever he will in Heaven and in Earth never strive to be better then wee 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 doe or what he hath done from all Eternity let us not busy our selves in the fruitlesse study of the Book of Life which no man in Heaven or in Earth is able to open and look into but only the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah Revel 5.3,5 in that Book saith Saint Basil Comment in 10. c. Isai no names are written but of them that Repent Let us not seek what God Decrees which we cannot find out but hearken to what he Commands which is nigh us even in our mouthes The Book of Life is shut and sealed up but he hath opened many other Books to us and bids us sit downe and read them The Book of his Works of which the Creatures are the leaves and the Characters the Goodnesse and Power and Glory of God and the Book of his Words 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 impartiall 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 look forward to eternity of Blisse For Conclusion we read of the Philosopher Thales that lifting up his eyes to observe the Course of the Starres he fell into the water which gave the occasion to a Damsell called Thressa of an ingenious and bitter scoffe 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 Gods Eternall Decree many times they fall dangerously into those Errours which swallow them up they are too bold with God and so negligent of themselves Talke more what he does or hath done or may doe then do what they should are so much in Heaven and to so little purpose that they lose it But the Apostles method is sure to use diligence to make our Election sure and so read the Decree in our Obedience and syncere conversation and if we can perswade our selves that our Names are written in the Book of Life yet so to behave our selves so to work on with Feare and Trembling as if it were yet to be done as it was told the Philosopher that he might have seen the figure of the Starres in the water but could not see the water in the starres All the knowledge we can gaine of the Decree is from our selves it is written in heaven and the Characters we read it by on Earth are Faith and Repentance if we beleeve and repent then God speaks to us from heaven and tells us we shall not die If we be dead to sinne and alive to Righteousnesse we are enrolled and our names are written in the book of Life here here alone is the Decree legible and if our eye faile not in the one it cannot be deceived in the other If we love Christ and keep his Commandements we are in the number of Elect and were chosen from all Eternity Be not then cast downe and dejected in thy self with what God hath done or may do by his absolute Power for thou maist build upon it He never saved an Impenitent nor will ever cast away a Repentant sinner Behold he calls to thee now by his Prophet Quare morieris Why wilt thou die didst thou ever heare from him or from any Prophet a morieris that thou shalt die or a Mortuus es that thou art dead already Thou hast his Prayers his intreaties and besseechings Expandit manus he spreads forth his hands all the day long Thou hast his wishes Oh that thou wert wise so wise as to look upon the moriemini to consider thy last end Thou hast his Covenant Deut. 23.29 which he sware to our fore-fathers Abraham and his seed for ever His Comminations his obtesTations his expostulations thou mayest read but didst thou ever read the book of life Look on the moriemini look on the deaths head in the Text look not into the book of life thou hast other care that lies upon thee thou hast other businesse to do thou hast an understanding to adorn a will to watch over affections to bridle the flesh to crucifie temptations to struggle with the devil to encounter Think then of thy duty not of the decree and the syncere performance of the duty will seal the decree and seal thee up to the day of redemption It is a good rule which Martin Luther gives us Dimitte Scripturam ubi obscura est tene ubi certa
Die O House of Israel Why will ye die we may perhaps answer we are Dead already Haeret lateri lethalis Arundo The poyson'd and Deadly Dart is in our sides Adam sinned and we die Omnes eramus in illo uno cum ille unus nos omnes perdidit we were all in the loines of that one man Adam when that one man slew us all And this we are too ready to confesse that we are Borne in sinne nay we fall so low as to damne our selves before we were born which some may doe in Humility but most are well content it should be so well pleased in their Pedegree well pleased to be brought into the world in that filth and uncleannesse which God doth hate and make the unhappinesse of their Birth an Advocate to plead for those pollutions for those wilfull and Beloved sinnes which they fall into in the remaining part of their life as being the proper and naturall Issues of that weaknesse and Impotency with which we were sent into the world which is not True in every part for that weaknesse whatsoever it is can draw no such necessity upon us Licentiam usurpare praetexto necessitatis Tert. de cul Faem nor can be wrought into an Apology for sinne or an excuse for dying for to include and wrap up all our Actuall sinne in the folds of Originall weakeness is nothing else but to cancel our own Debts and Obligations and to put all upon our first Parents score and so make Adam guilty of the sinnes of the whole world Our naturall and Originall weakness I will not now call into question since it hath had such Grandees in our Church men of great Learning and Piety for its Nursing Fathers and that for many Centuries of yeares but yet I cannot see why it should be made a Cloak to cover our other Transgressions or why we should miscarry so often with an Eye cast back upon our first fall which is made ours but in another man nor any reason though it be a plant watered by the best Hands why men should be so delighted in it why they should lie downe and repose themselves under its shadow why they should be so willing to be weak and so unwilling to heare the contrary why men should take so much paines to make the way to happiness narrower and the way to death broader then it is In a word why we should thus magnify a Temptation and disparage our selves why we should make each Importunate object as powerfull and Irresistible as God himself and our selves as Idols even nothing in this world Magna pars humanarum querelarum non injusta modo materiâ Petrarch 1.3 R. S. c. 1. sed stulta est the world is full of complaints and excuses but the complaints which the world puts forth are for the most most unjust and void of that reason which should present and commend them For when our souls are pressed down and overcharged with sin when we feel the Gripes and Gnawings of our Conscience we commonly lay hold on these remedies which are worse then the discase and suborne an unseasonable and ill applied conceit of our own natural weaknesse which was more dangerous then the temptation as an excuse and comfort of our overthrow we fall and plead we were weak and fall more then seven times a day and hold up the same plea still till we fall into that place where we shall be muzled and speechlesse not able to say a word where our complaints wil end in curses in weeping and wailing Hierenym Amando and gnashing of teeth Omnes nostris vitijs favemus quod propriâ facimus voluntate ad naturae referimus necessitatem we are all tender and favourable to our own sins and because they pleased us when we committed them we are unwilling to revile them now but wipe off as much of their filth as we can because we resolve to commit them again and those transgressions which our lusts conceived and brought forth by the Midwifry of our will we remove as far as we can and lay them at the Door of Necessity and are ready to complain of God and Nature it self Now this Complaint against nature when we have sinned is most unjust For God and nature hath imprinted in our Soules those common principles of goodnesse as that good is to be embraced and evil to be abandond That we must do to others as we would be done to those practick notions those anticipations as the Stoicks call them of the minde Natura nos ad optimam mentem genuit Quint. l. 12. Inst c. and preparations against sin and death which if we did not wilfully stifle and choke might lift up our souls far above those depressions of self love and covetousnesse and those evils which destroy us quae ratio semel in universum vincit which reason with the help of Grace overcomes at once For reason doth not onely arm and prepare us against these inrodes and incursions against these as we think so violent assaults but when we are beat to the ground checks and upbraides us for our fall Indeed to look down upon our selves and then lift up our eyes to him from whom cometh our salvation is both the duty and security of the sons of Adam and when we watch over our selves and keep our hearts with diligence when we strive with our inclination and weaknesse as well as we do with the temptation then if we fall God remembers whereof we are made considers our condition that we are but men and though we fail his mercy endureth for ever but to think of our weaknesse and then to fall and because we came infirm and diseased into the world to kill our selves to seek out death in the errour of our life to dally and play with danger to be willing to joyn with the temptation at the first shew and approach as if we were made for no other end and then to complain of weaknesse is to charge God and nature foolishly and not onely to impute our sins to Adam but to God himself and thus we bankrupt our selves and complain we were born poor we criple our selves and then complain we are lame we deliver up our selves and fal willingly under the temptation and then pretend it was a son of Anack too strong for such Grashoppers as we we delight in sin we trade in sin we were brought up in it and we continue in it and make it our companion our friend with which we most familiarly converse and then comfort our selves and cast all the fault on our temper and constitution and the corruption of our nature and we attribute our full growth in sin to that seed of sin which we should have choked which had never shot up into the blade and born such evil fruit but that we manured and watered it and were more then willing that it should grow and multiply And this though it be a great sin as being the
hairy scalp of wilful offenders who loath the means despise prophecy quench the spirit and so hinder it in its operation of men who are as stubborn against Grace as they are loud in its commendations as active to resist as to extol it For this is to cast it away and nullifie it this is to make it nothing by making it greater nay to turn it into wantonnesse But it may be said that when we are fallen from God we are not able to rise again of our selves we willingly grant it that we have therefore need of new strength and new power to be given us which may raise us up we denie it not and then Thirdly that not onely the power but the very act of our recovery is from God ingratitude it self cannot denie it and then that man can no more withstand the power of that grace which God is ready to supply us with then an infant can his birth or the dead their Resurrection that we are turned whether we will or no is a conclusion which these premises will not yeeld This flint will yeeld no such fire though you strike never so oft we are indeed sometimes said to sleep and sometimes to be Dead in sin but it is ill building conclusions upon no better Basis then a figure or because we are said to be dead in sin infer a necessity of rising when we are called nor is our obedience to Gods inward call of the same nature with the obedience of the Creature to the voice and command of the Creator for the Creature hath neither reason nor will as man hath nor doth his power work after the same manner in the one as in the other How many Fiats of God have been frustrate in this kinde how often he hath he smote our stony and rocky hearts and no water flowed out how often hath he said Fiat lux let there be light when we remained in darknesse for we are free agents and he made us so when he made us men and our actions when his power is mighty in us are not necessary but voluntary not doth his power work according to the working of our Fancy nor lies within the level of our carnal Imaginations to do what they appoint but is accompanied and directed by that wisdom which he is and he doth nothing can do nothing but what is agreeable to it As it was said of Caesar in Lucan though in another sense Velle putant quodcunque potest We think that God can do whatsoever he can but we must know that as he is powerful and can do all things so he is wise and sweetly disposeth all things as he will and he will not save us against our will for to necessitate us to goodnesse were not to try our obedience but to force it quod necessitas praestat depretiat ipsa Necessity takes of the price and value of that it works and makes it of no worth at all And then God doth not voluntarily take his grace from any but if the power of it defend us not from sin and death it is because we abuse and neglect it and will not work with it which is ready to work with us For Grace is not blinde as Fortune nec cultores praeterit nec haeret contemptoribus she will neither passe by them who will receive her nor dwell with those persons which contemn her nor save those who will destroy themselves To conclude this He is most unworthy to receive Grace who in the least degree detracts from the power of it and he is as unworthy who magnifies and rejects it and makes his lise an argument against his Doctrine sayes he cannot be resisted and resists it every day he that denies the power of it is a scarse a Christian and he is the worst of Christians who will not gird up his loins and work out his salvation but loiters and stands idle all the day long shadows and pleaseth himself under the expectation of what he will do and so Turns it into wantonnesse Let us not abuse the Grace of God and then we cannot magnifie it enough but he that will not set his hand to work upon a fancy that he wants Grace he that will not hearken after Grace though she knock and knock again as Fortune was said to have done at Galbas gate till she be weary hath already despised the Grace of God and cannot plead the want of that for any excuse which he might have had but put it off nay which he had but so used it as if it had been no grace at all They that have grace offered and repell it they that have Antidotes against death and will not use them can never answer the expostlation Why will ye die The third pretence And certainly he that is so liberal of his grace hath given us knowledge enough to see the danger of those wayes which lead to death and therefore in the next place ignorance of our wayes doth not minuere voluntarium doth not make our sin lesse wilfull but rather aggrandize it For first we may know if we will know every duty that tends to life and every sin that bringeth forth death we may know the Devils enterprises saith saint Paul 2 Cor. 2.11 and the ignorance of this findes no excuse when we have power and faculty light and understanding when the Gospel shines brightly upon us to dispel those mists which may be placed between the truth and us Sub silentiae faâ—ultate nesâ—ire repudiatae magis quà m non com pertae veritatis est reatus Hil. in Psal 1.8 then if we walk in darknesse and in the shadow of death we shall be found guilty and not so much of not finding out the truth as of refusing it as Hilary speaks of a strange contempt in not attaining that which is so easily atchieved and which is so necessary for our preservation I know every man hath not the same quicknesse of apprehension nor can every man make a Divine and it were to be wisht every man would know it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not for him that thresheth out the corn to resolve controversies or State-questions but Saint Peter requires that every man should be able to give an answer 1 Pet. 3.15 a reason of his faith and if he can do that he that knows the will of God is well armed and prepared against death and may cope with him and destroy him if he will And this is no perplext nor intricate study but fitted and proportioned to the meanest capacity he that cannot be a Seraphical Divine may be a Christian he that cannot be a Rabbi may be an honest man and if men were as diligent in the pursuit of the truth as they are in managing their own temporal affaires if men would try as many conclusions for knowledge as they do for wealth and were as ambitious to be good as they are to be rich and great if they were as much
Beatitude Blessed Poverty Matth. 5. blessed mourning blessed persecution blessedness set upon these as a Crown or as rich Embroyderie upon Sackcloth or some courser stuff And thus you see the Church is not cannot be exempt from Persecution if either we consider the Quality of the Persons themselves or the Nature and constitution of the Church or the Providence and Wisdome and Mercy of God As it was then So is it now In Abrahams Family Ismael mocks and persecutes Isaac In the World the Synagogue persecutes the Church and in the Church one Christian persecutes another It was so it is so and it will be so to the end of the World Let us now look back upon this dreadfull blessed sight and see what Advantage we can worke what light we can strike out of this cloud of blood to direct strengthen us in this our Warfare That we may be Faithfull unto Death and so receive the Crown of Life And first knowing these Terrors as the Apostle speaks seeing Persecution entaild as it were upon the Church seeing a kind of Providence and Necessity that it should be so Let us not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Peter speaks Think it Strange or be amazed at the fiery Tryall not be dismay'd when we see that befall the Church which befalls the Kingdoms and Common-wealths in the world when we see the face of the Church gather blacknesse and not to shine in that Beauty in which formerly we beheld her For what strange-thing is it that Ismael should mock Isaac that a serpent should bite or a Lion roar that the world should be the world or the Church the Church For the Church so far as she is visible in respect of its visibility and outward form is as subject to change as any other thing that is seen as those things which we use to say are but the balls of fortune to play with for those things of the Church which are seen are but temporal those which are eternal are not seen 2 Cor. 4. last v the fashion of the world passeth away saith Saint Paul and so doth the fashion of the Church and when the scene is changed it comes forth with another face and speaks like a servant that spoke like a Queen in brief it is turnd about on the wheel of change subject to the same stormes to the same injuries to the same craft and violence which the Philosopher sayes make that alteration in States changes them not into those which may bear some faint resemblance of them but into that which is most unlike and contrary to them sets up that in their place leaving them lost and labouring under the expectation of another change Thus it is and ever was and ever shall be with the Church in respect of outward profession which is the face of the Church nor hath the seed of the woman so bruised the Serpents head but that he still bites at the heel Behold the Children of Israel in the wildernesse sometimes in straits and anon in larger wayes sometimes sighting Exod. 17. sometimes resting as at mount Sinai sometimes going forward and sometimes turning backward sometimes on the mountains and sometimes in the vallies sometimes in places of sweetnesse as Mithkah and sometimes in places of bitternesse as Marah Behold them in a more setled condition when their Church had Kings for her Nursing-fathers how did Idolatry follow Religion at the heel and supplant it and of all their kings how few of them were not Idolaters how many professors were there when Eliah the great Prophet could see but one and how can that have alwayes the same countenance which is under the power and wills of mortal men which change so oft sometimes in the same man but are never long the same in many amongst whom one is so unlike the other that he will not suffer that to stand long which a former hand hath set up but will model the Church as he please and of those who look upon it with an eye of distast will leave so few and under such a cloud that they shall be scarce visible Not to speak of former times of those seven Golden candlesticks which are now removed out of their place nor of those many alterations in after ages but to come home to our selves our reformed Religion cannot boast of many more years then make up the age of a man That six yeers light of the Gospel in the dayes of Edward the Saint was soon overspread and darkned with a cloud of blood in Queen Maries reign since when we willing to beleeve for we made our boast of it that it shined out in beauty to these present times which have thought fit to reform the Reformation it self and now for the glory of it for its order and Discipline which is the face of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where is it to be seen we may say of it as Job doth of the frailty of man It dieth it wasteth it giveth up the ghost and where is it talk what we will of perpetuity of visibility of outward profession Quod cuiquam accidere potest cuivis potest what we have seen done to one Church may certainly be done to another may be done to all what was done in Asia may be done in Europ and if the candlestick be removed out of one it may be removed out of any place nor is that Church which calls her self the mother and Queen of the rest secure from violence but may be driven from her seat and pomp though she be bold to tell the world that the Gatesof Hell shall not prevail against her Religion 't is true is as mount Sion which cannot be moved but standeth sast for ever no sword no power can divide me from it nor force it out of my embraces this hath its protection its salaogardium from Omnipotency but the outward profession of it the form and manner in which we professe it in a word that face of the Church which is visible is as subject to change as all those things are which are under the Moon All I shall say is Nolite mirari wonder not at it for whatsoever changes and alterations there be in the outward profession of Religion Religion and the Church of Christ is still the same the same in her nakednesse and poverty which she had in her cloth of wrought Gold and all her Embroyderie Marvel not then for this admiration is the childe of ignorance an exhalation from the flesh and hath more in it of Ismael then of Isaac The third Inference And that we may not think it strange let us in the next place have a right judgement in all things and not set up the Church in our fancy and shape her out by the state and pomp of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our mindes Rom. 12.2 For by looking to stedfastly on the world we carry the image of it about with us whithersoever we go and make
it the Idea and platform of a Church a Mornarchy is the best form of Government saith the Philosopher and therefore say they at Rome the fittest for the Church Judges are set up to determine controversies in the Common-wealth and by this pattern they erect a Tribunal for a Judge in matters of faith Temporal felicity and peace is the desire of the whole earth hence they have made it a note and mark of the Church of Christ like the wanton Painter in Pliny who drew the picture of a Goddesse in the shape and likenes of his Paramour and thought that was best and fittest which he best likt From hence it is from our too much familiarity with the world from our daily parlies with vanity from our wanton Hospitality and free reception of it into our thoughts and the delight we take in such a guest we are deceived and lose all the strength of our judgement not able to distinguish between Heaven and earth or discern that one differeth from the other in glory and being thus blinded having this vail drawn before our face we are very apt to take the Church and the world to be alike miscere Deum saeculum to mingle God and the world together and place our selves betwixt them and so make vanity it self our companion in our way to happinesse From hence it is that when we see the sword and persecution to rage against the professors of the Gospel we think that not onely the Glory is departed but the light of Israel is quite put out that when a kingdom is shaken and wasted the gates of Hell hath prevailed against the Church as groundlesse a conceit well neer as if we should take the description of Heaven in the Revelation to be true in the letter and think that it is a City of pure Gold that the foundations of the walls are adorned with precious stones that every gate is pearl and the streets shine like Glasse And therefore in the third place let us cast down these imaginations these bubbles of winde and aire The third blown up by the flesh the worser part which doth soonest bring on a persecution and soonest fear it and let us in the place of these build up a royal fort build our selves up in our holy faith and so fit and prepare our selves against the fiery trial For as amongst the Heathen those Ceremonies were called Mysteries which were precedaneous and went before the Mysteries Clem. Alex l. 1. strom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he may be said to fight who doth but flourish and arms and fits himself for the battle so the blessed spirit every where calls upon those who are born of him to watch and pray and stand upon their guard Ephe. 6.11 to put on the whole armour of God that when the devil assaults them in a storm of persecution they may be able to stand in time of peace to prepare for war to look upon the sword before hand to behold the glittering of it all its terrour and take it up and handle it and then by the wisdom which the spirit teacheth dispute it out of its force and terrour saying within themselves This can but kill the body which is every day in killing it self living and dying building up it self which is next to ruine but if I faint and fall under it I lose my soul which God breathed into me and then made as immortal as himself and whilest I fly from the edge of the sword my backsliding carries me into the pitt of destruction Thus by a familiar conversing with it before the blow In pace labore incommodis bellum pati discunt in armis deambulando campum decurrendo fossam metrendo c. Tert. ad Marry res c. 3. by opposing our Hopes of Happiness to the smart and Death it may bring by setting up Life against Death and Eternity against a moment we may abate its force and violence and so conquer before we fight This is our military Discipline this is our Spirituall exercise our Martyrdome before Martyrdome This bindes the sacrifice with cords to the Hornes of the Altar and makes it ready to be offered up This prepares us for Warre that we may have peace peace before we fight whilst we rest on the Authority In militaris disciplinae sinu rutela serenus beatae pacis status acquiescit Val. Max. l. 7. c. 3. and command of our Emperor and in his strength for we may doe all Things in Christ that strengthneth us and then peace everlasting Peace the reward and Crown of victory Every day to a Christian Souldier is Dies Praeliaris a day of Battell in which he makes some assault or other and gaines advantage on the adversary for however the day may be faire and no cloud appeare yet the sentence is gone out All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus must suffer Persecution 2 Tim 3.12 What shall all be torne on the rack and bruis'd on the wheel shall all be sacrific'd shall all be Martyrs yes all shall be Martyrs though many of them lose not a drop of blood Habet pax suos Martyres for there is a kinde of Martyrdome in Peace for he that thus prepares and fitts himself he that by an assiduous mortifying of himself which indeed is in some degree to Deify himself builds up in himself this firme resolution to leave all to suffer all for the name of Christ and the Gospel he suffers before he suffers he suffers though he never suffers there wanting nothing to compleat it but an Ismael but the Tyrant and the Executioner he cannot but be willing to leave the world who is gone out of it already Be ye therefore ready for in an Houre when you think not Matt. 24.44 the Son of man the Captain of your Salvation may come and put you into the lists though the trumpet sound not to battell yet Bellum status est nomen qui potest etiam esse cum operationes ejus non exerit Grot. de Jure belli pacis is it not peace And if you ask mee how you shall make ready and address your selves what preparation is required I may say it is no more then this To love the Truth which you professe to make it your guide your Counsellour your Oracle whilst the light shines upon your head when that sayes Go to Goe and when it sayes Do this to doe it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 4.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil de Humil. to exercise your soules unto Godliness and so incorporate as it were and make it Consubstantiall with them leave and imprint them there in an Indeleble Character For if you thus display and manifest it in every Action of your life if you thus fasten it to your soul and make it a part of it in time of peace you will not then part with it at a blast at the mock of an Ismael or the breath of
and floods of this present world If then thou wilt stand up against Israel be sure to be an Isaac a childe of promise and an heir to the faith of Abraham if thou wilt be secure from the flesh be renewed in the spirit if thou wilt be fit to take up the crosse first crucifie thy self thy lusts and affections if thou wilt be prepared against persecution first raise one in thy own brest smother every idle thought silence every loud desire check and correct thy wanton sancy beat down every thing that stands in opposition to the truth Be thus dead unto thy self and then neither death nor life neither fear of death nor hope of life shall be ever able to separate thee from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus This is all the preparation that is required which every one that is born after the spirit doth make and there needs no more for he that is thus fitted to follow Christ in the regeneration against the Ismaelites of this world is well qualified and will not be afraid to meet him in the clouds and in the air when he shall come in terrour to judge both the quick and the dead Conclus And now to conclude what sayes the Scripture Cast out the bond-woman and her son for the son of the bond-woman shall not inherit with the son of the free-woman 'T is true Ismael was cast out into the wildernesse of Beersheba Gen. 21.14 and the Iew is cast out ejectus saith Tert. coeli et soli extorris cast out of Jerusalem scattered and dispersed over the face of the earth and made a proverb of obstinate impiety Tertul adv Judaeos c. 13. Apolog. 21. so that when we call a man a Jew putamus sufficere convitium we think we have railed loud enough But now how shall the Church cast out those of her own bowels of her house and family for such enemies she may have which hang upon her breasts called by the same word sealed with the same Sacraments and challenging a part in the same common salvation To cast out is an act of violence and the true Church evermore hath the suffering part but yet she may cast them out and that with violence but then it is with the same violence we take the kingdom of Heaven a violence upon our selves 1. By laying our selves prostrate by the vehemency of our devotion by our frequent prayers that God would either melt their hearts or shorten their hands either bring them into the right way or strike off their chariot wheels fot this kinde of spirit these malignant spirits cannot be cast out but by prayer and fasting which is energeticall and prevalent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Euseb a most invincible and irresistible Thing placing us under the wing of God far above all principalities and powers above all the flatteries and terrours of the world there with Steven pleading for Saul the persecutor till he become Paul the Apostle which is in effect to cast out the persecution it self Secondly by our patience and long suffering For patience worketh more miracles then power it giveth us those goods which our enemies take from us it makes dishonour glorious it dulleth the edge of the sword it cooleth the flames of fire it wearieth cruelty shames the Devil and like a wise Captain turns the Ordnance upon the face of the enemy Rom. 5.3 Patience is the proper effect of faith for if we beleeve him who hath told us our condition what will we not suffer for his sake and it is omnipotent Philip. 4.13 by the virtue of which Saint Paul professes he could do and suffer all things It may seem strange indeed that a mortal fraile man should be omnipotent and do all things yet it is most evidently true so true that we cannot denie it unlesse we denie the faith for if the eye of our faith were as clear as the reward is Glorious it would neither dazle at the smile and beauty of a flattering nor at the terrour of a black temptation but pleasure would be vanity and persecution a crown So that you see to sit still and do nothing to possesse our souls with patience and to suffer all things is to cast them out 3. By our innocency of life and sincerity of conversation and thus we shall not onely cast them out but persecute them as righteous Lot did the men of Sodom this is to keep our selves to mount Sion to that Jerusalem which is above to defend our priority our primogeniture our Inheritance this is to be born after the spirit Hom. 8.10 There is saith Austa Just persecutio there is a just and praiseworthy persecution for Isaac to be Heire was a persecution to Ismael for the Church to be built upon the foundation of the Apostles Christ being the head corner stone was a persecution to the Jews for no sooner had Paul mention'd his sending to the Gentiles but they fling off their cloathes and fling dust in the aire and cry Acts 22.23 Judaeorum Synagogae fontes persecutionum Tertul. Scorp c. 10. Away with such a fellow from the Earth and nothing more odious to a Jew to this Day then a Christian The holy and strict conversation of the just is a persecution to the wicked castigat qui dissentit hee that walkes not by our Rule Wisd 2.12 but draws out his Religion by another is as a Thorne in our eyes and a whip in our sides and doth not instruct but controll and punish us Doe they not speake it in plaine words Contrarius est he is contrary to our Doings it grieves and vexes us to look upon him He will not digge with us in the Mine for Wealth he will not wallow with us in Pleasure nor climbe with us to Honor he will not cast in his Lot with us to help to advance our purposes to their End And let us thus persecute them with our Silence with our Patience with our Innocency even persecute those Ismaelites no other way but this by being Isaacs The fourth and last Lastly Psal 55.22 we may cast them out by Casting our Burden on the Lord by putting our cause into his Hands who best can plead it by citing our Persecuters before his Tribunall who is the Righteous Judge If we thus cast it upon him we need no other Umpire no other Revenger If it be a loss he can restore it if an injury he can returne it if grief he can heale it if disgrace he can wipe it off and will certainly doe it if we so cast it upon him as to trust in him alone the full perswasion of Gods Power being that which awaketh him as one out of sleep puts him to cloth himself with his Majesty sets his power a working to bring mighty Things to passe and make himself Glorious by the delivery of his People Conclus To shut up all and Conclude Thus if we cast our burden upon him
when we awake we watch to look about and see what danger is neere when we work wee watch till our work be brought to perfection That no Trumpet scatter our Alms no Hypocrisy corrupt our Fast no unrepented sinne denie our prayers no wandring Thought defile our Chastity no false fire kindle our zeal no Lukewarmnes dead our Devotion when we strive we watch that lust which is most predominant and Faith if it be not Dead hath a restless Eye an eye that never sleeps which makes us even here on Earth like unto the Angels for so Anastasius defining an Angel calls him a reasonable Creature but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a one as ver sleeps Corde vigila Fide vigila spe vigila charitate vigila saith St. August an active Faith a waking Heart a lively hope a spreading Charity assiduity and perseverance in the work of this Lord these make up the vigilate the watching here These are the seales Faith Hope and Charity set them on and the Watch is sure But this is to Generall To give you yet a more particular acaccount we must consider 1. That God hath made man a Judge and Lord of all his Actions and given him that freedom and Power which is Libripens emancipatià Deo Boni Tert. l. 2. cont Marcion which doth hold as it were the ballance and weigh and poyse both good and evill and may touch or strike which Scale it please that either Good shall out-weigh Evill or Evill good for man is not evill by Necessity or Chance but by his will alone See I have set before thee this Day Life and Good Death and Evill Therefore chuse Life Deut. 30.19 Secondly he hath placed an apparency of some good on that which is evill by which he may be wooed and enticed to it and an apparency of smart and evill on that which is Good Difficulty Calamity persecution by which he may be frighted from it But then thirdly he hath given him an understanding by which he may discover the horror of Evill though colour'd over and drest with the best advantage to Deceive and behold the Beauty and Glory of that which is good though it be discolour'd and defaced with the blacknesse and Darkness of this world He hath given him a Spirit Prov. 20.27 which the Wise man calls the Candle of the Lord searching the inward parts of the belly his Reason that should sway and govern all the parts of the body and faculties of the Soule by which he may see to eschew evill and chuse that which is good adhere to the Good though it distast the sense and fly from evill though it flatter it By this we discover he Enemy and by this we conquer him By this we see danger and by this we avoid it By this we see Beauty in Ashes and vanity in Glory And as other Creatures are so made and framed that without any guide or Leader without any agitation or business of the mind they turn from that which is Hurtfull and chuse that which is Agreeable with their Nature as the Cocles which saith Pliny carent omni alto sensu quam Câ—bi periculi C. 9. N. 1 Q. c. 30. have no sense at all but of their food and of Danger and naturally seek the one and fly the other So this Light this Power is set up in man which by discourse and comparing one thing with another the beginning with the end and shewes with Realities and faire Promises with bitter effects may shew him a way to escape the one and pursue life through rough and rugged wayes even through the valley of Death it self And this is it which we call vigilancy or watchfulness Attende tibi ipsi saith Moses Deut. 4.9 Tom. 1. Take heed to thy self and Basil wrote a whole Oration or Sermon on that Text and considers man as if he were nothing else but mind and soul and the Flesh were the Garment which cloth'd and coverd it and that it was compast about with Beauty and Health Sicknesse and deformity Friends and Enemies Riches and Poverty from which the mind is to guard and defend it self that neither the Gloty nor Terror of outward Objects have any power or influence on the mind to make a way through the flesh to deface and ruine it and put out its light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take heed to thy self prae omni custodiâ serva cor tuum Keep thy heart with Diligence ab omni cautione so 't is rendered by Mercer out of the Hebrew from every thing that is to be avoided ab omni vinculo so others from every tye or bond which may shackle or hinder thee in the performance of that Duty to which thou art obliged whether it be a chain of Gold or of Iron of pleasure or paine whether it be a fayre and well promising or a black Temptation keep it with diligence and keep it from these Incumbrances and the reason is given For out of it are the Issues of Life processiones vitarum the Issues and Proceedings of many lives for so many Conquests as we gaine over Temptations so many lively motions we feele animated and full of God which increase our Crown of joy All is comprehended in that of our Saviour Math. 26.41 Watch and pray lest you enter into Tentation If you watch not your heart will lie open and Tentations will Enter and as many Deaths will issue forth Evill Thoughts Fornications Murders Adulteries Blasphemy as so many Locusts out of the Bottomlesse Pit To watch then Philip. 2. is to fixe our mind on that which concernes our Peace To work out our Salvation with fear and trembling to perfect holiness in the Feare of God 2 Cor. 7.1 Heb. 12.28 2 ep John 8. to serve him with Reverence and Godly Feare That we lose not those things which we have wrought so that by the Apostle our Caution and watchfulness is made up of Reverence and Feare and these two are like the two Pillars in the Porch of the Temple of Solomon Jachin and Boaz. 1. of Kings and the second to establish and strengthen our Watch For this certainly must needs be a Soveraign Antidote against sinne and a forcible motive to make us look about our selves when we shall Think that our Lord is present every where and seeth and knoweth all Things when we consider him as a witness who shall be our Judge That all we doe we doe as Hilary speaks in Divinitatis sinu in his very presence and Bosome when we deceive our selves and when we deceive our brethren when we sell our Lord to our Feares or our Hopes when we betray him in our craft crucify him in our Revenge defile and spit upon him in our uncleanness we are even then in his Presence if we did firmly beleeve it we would not suffer our eyes to sleep nor our eye-lids to slumber For how carefull are we how anxious how sollicitous in our behaviour how
be fit every day A great shame it is that any man should be dragg'd to a feast for what a strange law would that seem which should bind a hungry man to eat or a sick man to take physick or a dying man to taste of the water of life look upon the Primitive Christians whose practice hath bin accounted the best interpreter of Scripture and if thou canst not with them do it every day yet let every faire opportunity set thy day Christs dead yet all quickning carkase is the same still and we should be Eagles as well as they to fly to it The Blood of Christ is the same his death as full of vertue and efficacy he is still a fountain of life to them who will taste him nor was his most precious blood shed for the first Christians and in tract and continuance of time dryed up at last At this fountain we may draw as well and as oft as they if our pitcher be as fit and if we loved the cup of blessings we should not fear how oft it came into our hands But to speak truth we have degenerated from that devotion that love that zeale which inflamed their breasts and retain nothing but the memory of their exceeding piety which we look upon rather as a pious error then a just and regular devotion and because we are unfit and therefore unwilling to do it perswade our selves that superstition had an early birth and did follow religion at the heels to supplant it that by this their busy and too frequent remembrance of Christ they did rather flatter then worship him or at best that they did that which with more Christian prudence they might have left undone For if it were devotion then it could not be lost in the body and flux of time which could have no such influence upon it as to change it so that it should become a sin in the last age which was thought a duty in the first since devotion is like Christ himself yesterday and to day and the same for ever Devotion is still the same but we are not the same but have been bold with her name and in that name have conjured up those evill spirits which blast the world and breathe nothing but profanenesse have started questions raised scruples made new cases of conscience which they walking in the simplicity and integrity of their hearts never heard nor thought of and so did do it and do it often with lesse art and noise but with more piety and with a zeale of a purer flame and a heat more innocent their devotion was to do it often ours is to talk and magnifie it and to do it when we please The duty it self of celebration how oft hath it been neglected and set at derision in this latter age what tragedyes raised about a name what comedies what scoffs and jests upon the holy action what grosse and impious partiality in admitting men unto it how have we distinguisht and made a strange difference of one from another and counted none fit but of such a part or such a faction when were we not too far engaged in the world and did not the world too far engage and bind us to such a side or faction we could not but see that the very being of a side or faction the dividing our selves from our brethren for things no whit essentiall to Christianity hath force enough not onely to drive us from this table but to shut us out of heaven For what should such uncharitable men do at a feast of love what should such carnall men the Apostle calls them so feed on this spirituall food I will not stand to confute these groundlesse and ridiculous but dangerous and destructive fancies for these men have more need of our teares and prayers then our confutation I had rather remove those hindrances and retardances those pretences and excuses which men not well exercised in piety use to frame and lay in their own way and so fearing a fall and bruise at that which no hand could set up against them but their own make not their approches so oft as they should to this holy table For when we are to do a thing one thing or other intervenes and startles and troubles us that we omit and do it not And the first and great pretense is our own weaknesse and unworthinesse which is the issue of our own will begot in us by the sense of some habit of sin which we have discovered reigning still in our mortall bodies at the sight of which we start back even from that which might help us and cannot compose and qualify our selves for the celebration Before the action they are afraid even afraid of the feast afraid of life at the table they have a sad and cast down countenance drawn out more by a disquieted troubled mind then that reverentiall joy which it shewes forth in the outward man when it is at rest and we go away from it with the same burden we brought to it which we would and would not lay down are weary but seek not ease but from those aversions which make it heavier then it was and then we feel it again and so are ever preparing and never prepared to come to this feast For our preparation is our mortifying of our sinfull lusts which is not done whilest any one sin hath this power and dominion in us For how can he come to this fountain of life who is unwilling to live how can he partake of Christs blood who yet loves that sin for the washing away of which Christ shed it so that he sinnes if he come and he sinnes if he come not a miserable dilemma that sinne drives him upon that like the servant in the comedy si faxit perit si non faxit vapulat if he do it he eats his own damnation and shall neverthelesse be punisht if he do it not For not onely acts but omissions are evil It is a sinne to kill my father and it is a sin not to help him it is a sin to oppresse and it is a sin not to give an almes It is a sin to resist a superiour and 't is a sin not to honor him It is a sin to contemn the sacrament and 't is a sin not to receive it and the one leads to the other neglect or indifferency to open profanenesse the sinnes of omission to sinnes of commission he that doth not what he should hath made a bridge for his lusts which will soon carry him over to do what he should not He that will not help his parents will be drawn on by the least temptation to dishonor them he that will not feed the poore will be soon induced to grind their face he that will not honor the king when opportunity favours him will pull him from his throne he that neglects the sacrament or is indifferent within a while may be ready to take it away as a thing of no use at all sin
large for this excuse to palliate and cover For 1. By this their abstaining they do either pity or condemn those that are more forward as those that venture too far upon that formidable mystery which they look upon at distance and tremble and dare not come neere as those that do not well consider what they do and therefore are bold to do it as men whom not conscience but presumption brings to the Altar They will say perhaps they passe no such censure on their brethren they condemn them not but yet they may and speak not a word condemn them by their actions as Noah did condemn the world by his faith for when in our behaviour we turn our back upon them there is something of a sharpe reprehension flyes from us like an arrow from a Parthians bow after those who walk another way And this utterly is a fault by my not eating to condemn them that eat This is contristari fratres this is to grieve our brethren to make them think that mors in olla that death is in the pot danger in eating the Bread of life this is to walk uncharitably and for ought we know to destroy him with our not eating for whom Christ dyed Or 2ly Their refraining to come may keep others at the same distance and it is not easy to determine utrùm pejor us an pejori exemplo agatur as Cato speaks to another purpose in Livy whether is more dangerous their absence to themselves or the example to others For if Moses turn his back who will not be afraid to come neere to the mount If men of more reserved conversation who keep themselves unspotted of the world tremble and dare not come nigh how may many weak Christians who hope here to receive their additionall strength be struck with terror and so refuse to come and think of these mysteries as the Germans in Tacitus did of those offices which they performed to their Goddesse Hertha the earth The Goddesse was washed and they who ministred unto her were swallowed up in the same lake Arcanus hinc terror sanctaque Tacitus ignorantia saith the Historian quid sit illud quod tantùm perituri vident Hence a secret terror and holy ignorance possest them who wondred what that divine power should be which none could see but they who were to perish in the sight for minister to it was to dye I know we cannot give too much reverence unto it we cannot give enough but that servant doth but little honour his master who will bow and cringe and kisse his hand and keep at distance and yet sleep in his service Obedience and reverence are twins they are borne and grow up and dye together I am not truly reverent till my obedience speaks and publisheth it and if I obey not my reverence is but a name and it profiteth nothing as Saint Paul spake in another case If be a breaker of the law my Circumcision is made uncircumcision If I doe not come as Christ commands I may call it reverence but he will count it a great dishonour to his love We complaine much of the superstition of the Romish party we are angry with their Altars their vestments their bowings and cringes and count it a kind of Theatricall Idolatry and I think without breach of Charity we may for as they make it it is one of the greatest Idols in the world but we must take heed how we cry down superstition in others whilst we suffer it to lye at our own doores how we condemn it as a monster as it walks abroad when we hug and cherish it in our own breasts Superstâ—tio error insanus est amandos timet quos colit violat Quid enim interest utrum Deos neges an infames Sen. ep 123. For what is superstition but a groundlesse feare what is it but a feare where no feare is or if there be a feare which we are bound to abolish A feare to doe our duty is something worse then superstition and if we doe not make the Sacrament an Idol yet by this kind of lazy reverence we make it nothing in this world and as much as in us lyes frustrate the grace of God which in these outward elements is presented in a manner to the eye I have dwelt the longer on this subject because I see this duty so much neglected some not fit to come others not so much unfit as unwilling some so spirituall or rather so carnall and profane that they contemn it some so careless that they seldome think on t but suffer their soule to run to ruine not to be raiss'd and repaired till it be taken from them some pleading their own infirmity others the high dignity of these mysteries the best of which pretenses is a sinne which one would think we but a hard and uneasie pillow for a sick conscience to rest on Not come because I care not not come because I will not not come because I dare not not come That utterly is a fault and neglect doth aggrandize it contempt doth make it yet greater and infirmity and conceit of our unworthinesse is another fault and our high esteeme of the Ceremony cannot wipe it out but it shewes it self even through this reverence and shewes us guilty of the Body and bloud of Christ though we eat not this Bread nor drink this cup we pretend indeed we cannot but the truth is we will not come Let us not then bring in our unworthinesse as an excuse for such an Apology is our doome which we passe against our selves which removes and sets us a farre off from any relief of that mercy which should seale our pardon because we say we need it not we ought not to doe what we ought to doe and we are unworthy to doe our duty is brought in as an excuse but it is our condemnation Let us then doe it and let us doe it often and in the last place let us doe it to that end for which he did first institute and ordaine it Let us doe it in remembrance of him And now we may imagine that this is a thing soon done a matter of quick dispatch for as the Jewes had Moses so have we Christ read in our Churches every Sabbath day he is the story the discourse of the times and we name him almost as often as we speak and too often name him but not with that reverence which we should but thus to remember him may be a greater injury then forgetfulnesse and better we never knew him then thus to remember him And therefore we must remember that this remembrance consists not in a bare calling back into our mind every passage of his glorious Oeconomy by bringing him from his cratch to his crosse and from his crosse to his grave for words of knowledge in scripture evermore imply the affections when Joseph desired Pharaohs Butler to remember him his meaning was he should procure his liberty when Nehemiah prayes to
those rules and precepts hath raised such a fence and hedg about every common-wealth which if we did not pluck it up our selves might secure and carry them along in the course of things even to their end that is to the end of the world but this we talk of as we do of many other things and talk so long till we believe it and rest on our guesse and conjecture as on a demonstration but the truth is we are our own fate and destiny we draw out our thread and cut it we start out of our places and divide our selves from one another and then indeed and not till then Fate and Necessity lye heavy upon a kingdom and it cannot stand Christianity binds us to our own businesse and till we break loose till some one or other steps out of his place from it there is peace we are safe in our lesser vessels and the ship of the common-wealth rides on with that smoothnesse and evennesse which it hath from the consistencie of its parts in their own place for though all are one in Christ Jesus yet we cannot but see that there is a main difference between the inward qualification of his members and the outward administration and government of his Church In the kingdomes of the world and so in the Church visible every man is not fit for every place some must teach and some govern some must learne and obey some must put their hand to the plough some to this trade and some to that onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks those who are of more then ordinary wit and ability 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot l. 6 Polit. c. 5. must beare office in Church or Common-wealth One is noble another is ignoble one is learned another is ignorant one is for the spade and another for the sword one for the flaile and sheephook another for the scepter and such a disproportion is necessary amongst men for nihil aequalitate ipsa inaequalius Plin. Epist there is no greater inequality in the world then in a body politick where all the parts are equall for that equality which commends and upholds a Common-wealth ariseth from the difference of its parts moving in their severall measures and proportions as musick doth from discords when every part answers in its place and raiseth it self no higher then that will beare when the magistrate speaks by nothing but the Laws and the subject answers by nothing but his obedience when the greater shadow the lesse and the lesse help to fortifie the great when every part doth its part and every member its office then there is an equality and an harmony and we call it peace For if we move and move cheerfully in our own sphere and calling we shall not start forth to discompose or disorder the motion of others in theirs if we fill our own place we shall not leap over into anothers our desires will dwell at home our covetousnesse and ambition dye our malice cease our suspicion end out discontent vanish or else be soone changed and spiritualized our desires will be levelled on happinesse we shall covet the best things we shall be ambitious of heaven we shall malice nothing but malice and destroy it suspect nothing but our suspicion and be discontent with nothing but that we are so and so in this be like unto God himself and have our Center in our selves or rather make peace our Center that every motion may be drawn from it that in the compasse and Circumference of our behaviour with others all our Actions as so many lines may be drawn out and meet and be united in peace And this is not onely enjoyned by Religion and the Gospel but it is the Method of nature it self which hath so ordered it that every thing in its own place is at quiet and rest and no where else The earth moves not water is not ponderous in its proper place the fire burnes not in its sphere but out of it it hath voracitatem toto mundo avidissimam saith Pliny it spreads it self most violently and devours every thing it meets with nay poyson it self is not hurtfull to those tempers that breed it Senec. ep 81. Illud venenum quod serpentes in alienam perniciem proferunt sine suâ continent saith Seneca The venome of the Scorpion doth not kill the Scorpion and that poyson which serpents cast out with danger and hurt to others they keep without any to themselves And as it is in nature so is it in the society of men Our diligence in our own businesse is soveraign and connaturall to our estates and conditions but most times poysonous abroad and dangerous and fatall to our selves and others When Uzzah put forth his hand to hold up the Ark of God and keep it from falling though his intention were good yet God struck him for his error and rashnesse in moving out of his place and struck him dead 2 Sam. 6.7 because he did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe his own businesse when Uzziah invades the Priests office the 2. Chr. 26. and would burn Incense and Azariah the Prophet told him ad te non pertinet it pertaineth not to thee it is not thy businesse even while the censer was yet in his hand his sinne was writ in his forehead he was struck with a leprosie cut off from the city of the Lord v. 21. When Peter was busie to enquire concerning John What shall this man doe Our Saviour was ready with a sharp reply quid ad te what is that to thee thy businesse is to follow me When Christians out of a wanton and irregular zeale did throw down Images and were slaine by the Heathen in the very fact the Church censured them as disturbers of the peace rather then Martyrs and though they suffer'd death in the defiance of Idolatry yet allowed them no place in the Dypticks or in the Catalogue of those who laid down their life for the truth Corah riseth out of his place and the earth swallows him up Sheba is up and blowes a Trumpet and his head flyes over the wall Absalom would up into the Tribunall which was none of his place and was hang'd in the Oke which was fitter for him and if any have risen out of their place as we use to say on the right side and been fortunate villaines their purchase was not great honey mingled with gall Honour drugg'd with the hatred and curses of men with feares and cares with gnawings within and Terrors without all the content and pleasure they had by their great leape out of their place was but as Musick to one stretcht out on the Rack or as that little light which is let in through the crack or flaw of a wall into him that lyes fettered in a loathsome dungeon and at last their wages which was death eternall death and howling for ever Nay when we are out of our place and busie in that which
duty and performance By Jesus Christ there is our seale to make good and sure our acceptance Chrysostome besides that great Sacrifice of the Crosse hath found out many more Chrysost in Ps 5â— Martyrdome Prayer Justice Almes Praise Compunction and Humility and he brings into the preaching of the World which all make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil ep 87. saith Basil a most magnificent and precious sacrifice We need not cull out any more then these in the Text for in offering up these we shall find the true nature and reason of a Sacrifice observed For to make any thing a true Sacrifice there must be a plain and expressed change of the thing that is offered It was a Bull or a Ram but it is set apart and consecrate to God and it is a Sacrifice and must be slain And this is remarkable in all these in which though no Death befall us as in the Beast offered in Sacrifice but that Death which is our Life our death to sin yet a change there is which being made to the honour of Gods Majesty is very pleasing and acceptable in his sight When we doe justly we have slain the Beast the worst part of us our love of the world our filthy lusts our covetousnesse and ambition which are the life and soul of fraud and violence and oppression by which they live and move and have their being When we offer up our Goods there is a change For how strong is our affection to them how do we adore them as Gods are they not in common esteeme as our life and blood and do we not as willingly part with our breath as with our wealth Now he that doth good and distribute he that scatters his wealth poures forth his very blood binds the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the Altar le ts out all worldly desires with his wealth and hath slain that sacrifice saith Saint Paul with which God is well pleased And last of all Humility wasts and consumes us to nothing makes us an Holocaust a whole burnt-offering Nothing in our selves nothing in respect of God and in htis our Exinanition exalts all the graces of God in us fills us with life and glory with high apprehensions with lively anticipations of that which is not seen but laid up for us in the Treasuries of heaven These are the Good mans sacrifice and they naturally flow from this Good which is here shewed in the Text and are the parts of it These were from the beginning and shall never be abolisht and if we offer up these we shall never be questioned nor askt will God be pleased with these for he is pleased onely with these and for these with whatsoever we offer and he will love us for them and accept us in him who to sanctifie and present these offered himself an offering a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour even Jesus Christ the righteous who is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck Thus have we taken a view of this Good which is shewen in the Text as it stands in opposition with the Sacrifices of the Law and outward formality and now the vail is drawn we shall present it in its full beauty and perfection in our next HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE The Two and Twentieth SERMON PART II. MICAH 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to doe justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God WE have shewed you That Piety is termed Good in it self in opposition to Sacrifice and the ceremonies of the law which were but ex instituto for some reasons instituted and ordained but in themselves were neither Good nor Evil. We might now take a view of this Good as it stands in opposition to the things of this world which either our Luxury or Pride or Covetousnesse have raised in their esteeme and above their worth and called Good as the heathens consecrated their affections their diseases their very vices and placed them in the number of their Gods For Good is that which all desire which all bowe and stoop to but yet it hath as severall shapes as there be opinions and constitutions of men and all the mistake is in our choice that we set up something to look upon which is not worth a glance of our eye That we call Evil Good and that Good which is neither evil nor good but may make us so Good if we use it well and Evil if we abuse it Non est bonum quo uti malè possis and that cannot be truely and in it self good Sence ep 20. which we may use to an evil end saith Seneca that we propose to our selves objects which are attended with danger and very often with horror and give to them this glorious title paint out of our selves some deformed strumpet and call her a goddessE and kisse the lips of that which wil bite like a Cockatrice Good we desire and when our desires have run to that which we set up for good we meet with nothing but evil which shewes not it self till it be felt we hoyse up our sailes and make towards it and are swallowed up in that Sea as Austin calls it of the good things of this world which we thought mighty carry us to the end of our hope we take it for bread and in our mouth 't is gravell we took it for pleasure and when we tasted it it was gall we hunt after riches as Good and they begger us climb to honour and that breaks our neck and though we swallow down these good things as the Oxe doth water yet we are never full Saint Hilary in his comments on the first Psalme having observed that some there were who drew down all their interpretations of that book respectively to spirituall things and God himself because they thought it some disparagement to that book that terrene and secular matter should so often interline it self yet passeth on them no heavier censure then this haec corum opinio argui non potest c. We need not be so severe as to condemn this opinion of theirs because it proceeds from a mind piously and Religiously affected and it is a thing which deserves rather commendation then blame by a favourable endeavour to strive to apply all things to him by whom all things were made For these things are not Good but onely go under this deputative and borrowed title The world hath cryed them up but the scripture hath no such name for them it is Good to praise the Lord nay 't is Good to be afflicted this we read but where do we read It is good to be rich It is good to be honorable It is good to go in purple and fare deliciously every day we find many curses and woes sent after them but we never find them graced with the title of good Thou hast received thy good things faith Abraham to
shall be the Temple of God an house of feasting and joy where sorrow may look in at the window at the sensitive part but be soon chased away It shall be even ashamed of its Tabernacle of flesh and pant and beat to get out that it may be clothed upon and mortality be swallowed up of life In brief it will make us strangers and keep us strangers even such strangers which shall be made like unto the Angels and whom when they come to their journeys end the Angels shall meet and welcome and receive into their Fathers house where they shall rest and rejoyce for evermore I have done with my Text and now must turn your eyes and thoughts upon this pilgrime here this Honoured and worthy Knight who hath now passed through the busie noise and tumults of this world to his long home and rest In which passage of his as I have received it from men of place and worth and unquestioned integrity he hath so exactly performed the part and office of a stranger and pilgrime that he is followed with the applause of them that knew him and as in his death he is become an argument to prove the doctrine which I have taught so in his life he made himself a great ensample for them to look upon who are now travelling and labouring in the same way Look upon him then in every capacity and relation either as a part of the Common-wealth or a member of the City or a Father of a Family and you shall discover the image and faire representation of a stranger in every one of these relations for no man can take this honour to himself to be a good Common-wealths-man a good master of a family but he who is as David was a stranger All the ataxie and disorder all the noise we heare and mischiefs we see in the world are from men who love it too well and would live and dwell and delight themselves in it for ever For the first I may truly say as Lampridius did of Alexander Severus he was vir bonus Reipublicae necessarius he was a good man and of necessary use in a Common-wealth and laid all the strength he had to uphold it and preferred the peace and well-fare of it to his own as well knowing that a private house might sink and fall to the ground and yet the Common-wealth stand and flourish but that the ruine of the whole must necessarily draw with it the other parts and at last bury them in the same grave And here he found as rough a passage as Aufidienus Rufus in Tacitus did in that commotion and rebellion of Percennius Tacit. l. 1. Annal. who was pulled out of his chariot loaded first with scoffs and reproches and then with a fardell of stuffe and made to march foremost of all the company and then ask'd in scorn whether he bore his burden willingly or whether so long a journey was not tedious and irksome to him so was this worthy Knight taken from his wife whom he entirely loved and from his children those pledges of his love conveyed to ship and by ship to prison in a remote City where he found some friends and then brought back from thence to a prison neerer home where if the providence of God had not gone along with him and shadowed him he had met the plague so that in some measure that befell him which Saint Paul speaks of himself He was in journeying often in perills of waters in perills of his own Country-men in perills in the City in perills on the Sea in perills amongst false brethren But it may be said what praise is it to suffer all this if he suffer as an evil doer and for conscience towards God I come not hither to dispute that but am willing to refer it to the great triall which shall open every eye to behold that truth which now being dazled with feares and hopes and even blinded with the love of the world it cannot see But if it were an errour and not knowledg but mistake drove him upon these pricks yet sure it was an errour of a faire descent begot in him by looking stedfastly on the truth by having a steddy eye on the oath of God Eccles 8.2 and if here he fell he fell like a Christian who did exercise himself to keep a good conscience for he that follows not his conscience when it errs will be as far from hearkning to it when it speaks the truth for even errour it self shews the face of truth to him that erres or else he could not erre at all And yet I need not feare to say it It is an errour of such a nature that it may rather deserve applause then censure even from those who call it by that name for we do not use to fall willingly into so dangerous vexatious and costly errours errours which will strip us which will put a yoke upon us errours which will put us in prison no to fly from these we too oft fly from the truth it self when 't is as open as the day and commands or faith though not our tongue and forceth our assent when we renounce it Private interest love of our selves feare of restraint hope of advancement these are the mothers commonly of this monster which we call errour when we do not erre and in these it is ingendred and bred as serpents are in carrion or dung He that erres and loseth by it erres most excusably and shews plainly that he would not erre for who would do that which will undoe him Again take him in the City in which he bore the highest honour and filled the greatest place and was rather an ornament to it then that unto him for he sate in it as a stranger and a pilgrime as a man going out of the world nor did so much consider his power as his duty which lookt forward and had respect on that which cannot be found in this but is the riches and glory of another world and therefore this world was never in his thoughts never came in to sowre Justice to turn judgement into worm-wood by corrupting it or into vinegar by delaying it no cries of orphans no teares of the widdow no loud complaints of the oppressed to disquiet him in his passage which use to follow the oppressor even to the gates of hell and there deliver him up to those howlings which are everlasting How oft hath he been presented to me and that by prudent and judicious men as the honour and glory of the City And thus he went on his way full of temptations and troubles and full of honours even of those honours which he refused for you may remember how he bore this great office and you may remember how he refused it and gained as much honour in the hearts of men by the last as by the first as much honour by withdrawing himself and staying below as he did formerly in sitting in the highest place with the sword