protestationes fidei 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 sins behind his back Isa 38.17 with this resolution to exstirpate them And upon this condition God sealeth our Pardon Which we must make a motive not to sin and fall back but to lead a new life and to perform constant obedience If we turn and turn back again God may turn his face from us for ever Again in the third place we have reason to arm our selves against temptation after pardon because by our relapse we not onely add sin to sin but are made more inclinable to it and anon more familiar with it and so more adverse and backward to acts of piety For as Tertullian observeth Lib. 1. ad uxorem c 8. Viduitas operiosior virginitate it is a matter of more difficulty to remain a widow then to keep our virgin not to tast of pleasure then when we have tasted to forbear So it is easier to abstain from sin at first then when we are once engaged and have tasted of that pleasure which commendeth it And when we have loathed it for some bitterness it had for some misery or some disease it brought along with it and afterwards when that is forgot look towards it again and see nothing but those smiles and allurements which first deceived us we then 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 with greediness we did but lap before with some fear and suspicion but now we take it down as the ox doth water And what an uneven and distracted course of life is this to sin and upon some distast to repent and when that is off to sin again and upon some pang that we feel to repent again and after some ease to 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 Sin anon they kiss 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 by and by in their Nadir S. Ephrem the Syrian expresseth it by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calleth it a falling rise or a rising fall a course of life consisting of turning and returning rising and relapsing sinning and repenting Men find it more for their ease deprecari crimen quà m vacare crimine to â—â—g pardon for sin committed then to forbear committing it after and so they sin and repent and sin again and as solemnly by their sin renounce their repentance as they do by their repentance recant their sin We deal with our beloved sin as Maecenas did with his wife quam Epist. 114. cùm unam habuit millies duxit saith Seneca who had but one yet married her and divorced her from him and then married her again a thousand times First we look upon the painted face and countenance of Sin and are taken as it were with her eye and beauty and then draw near and embrace it But anon the worm gnaweth us our conscience is loud and troublesome and then we would put it from us When it flattereth we are even sick with love but when it turneth 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 lotheth 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 poste à recuperare saith Tertullian De pudicitia c. 9. For who will be tender and sparing of that which he hopeth to recover though lost never so oft or be careful of preserving that which he thinketh cannot be irrecoverably lost So 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 reproch to his Mercy and contumelious to his Goodness In brief that which should make us his friends maketh 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 sign a sign our Repentance was not true and serious but as in an intermitting fever the disease was still the same Gravedinosos quosdam quosdam torminosos dicimus non quia semper sint sed quia saepe sint Tull. Tusc q. l. 4. De sanitate tuenda onely the fit was over or as in the epilepsie or falling sickness it is still the same still 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 and continue it not to the end Perinde est ac si omnino non esset It is as if it were not all nay it is fatal and deleterial It was Repentance it is now an accusation a witness against us that we would be contra experimenta pertinaces even against our own experience tast that cup again we found bitter to us run into that snare out of which we had escaped turn back into those evil wayes where we saw Death ready to seize upon us so run the hazard of being lost for ever These four are the necessary requisites and properties of Repentance It must be early and sudden upon the first call 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 bind the God of Truth unto us with a lie or can a false Turn bring us to that happiness which is real It must be perfect and exact in every part For why should we give him less 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 Rev. 2.10 it must be constant and permanent For the crown of life is promised unto him alone who is faithfull 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 This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint render it to turn for ever and so to press
then evident that it is one thing to say that Christ's righteousness is imputed to us another that faith is imputed for righteousness or which is the very same our sins are not imputed unto us Which two Imputation of faith for righteousness and Not-imputation of sin make up that which we call the Justification of a sinner For therefore are our sins blotted out by the hand of God because we believe in Christ and Christ in God 1 Cor. 1.30 That place where we are told that Christ of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification is not such a pillar of Christ's Imputed righteousness in that sense which they take it as they phansied when they first set it up For the sense of the Apostle is plain and can be no more then this That Christ by the will of God was the onely cause of our righteousness and justification and that for his sake God will justifie and absolve us from all our sins and will reckon or account us holy and just and wise not that he who hath loved the error of his life is wise or he that hath been unjust is righteous in that wherein he was unjust or he that was impure in that he was impure is holy because Christ was so but because God will for Christ's sake accept receive and embrace us as if we were so Unless we shall say that as we are wise with Christ and holy and righteous so with Christ also we do redeem our selves For he who is said to be our righteousness is said also to be our redemption in the next words I would not once have thought this worth so much as a salute by the way but because I see many understand not what they speak so confidently and many more and those the worst are too ready to misapply it are will be every thing in Christ when they are not in him and well content he should fight it out in his own gore then they though they fall under the enemy in him may be styled conquerours Why should not we content our selves with the language of the Holy Ghost That certainly is enough to quiet any troubled conscience unless you will say it is not enough for a sinner to be forgiven not enough to be justified not enough to be made heir of the kingdom of heaven But yet I am not so out of love with the phrase as utterly to cast it out but wish rather that it might either be laid aside or not so grosly misapplied as it is many times by those presumptuous sinners who die in their sins If any eye can pierce further into the letter and find more then Imputation of faith for righteousness and Not imputation of sins for Christ's righteousness sake let him follow it as he please to the glory but not to the dishonour of Christ let him attribute what he will unto Christ so that by his unseasonable piety he lose not his Saviour so that he neglect not his own soul because Christ was innocent nor take no care to bring so much as a mite into the Treasury because Christ hath flung in that talent which at the great day of accounts shall be reckoned as his So that men be wary of those dangerous consequences which may issue from such a conceit quisque abundet sensu suo let every man think and speak as he please and add this Imputation of Christ's righteousness to this which I am sure is enough and which is all we find in Scripture Forgiveness and Not-imputation of sins and the Imputation of faith for righteousness I pass then to this Righteousness the Righteousness of Faith which indeed is properly called Evangelical Righteousness because Christ who was the publisher of the Gospel was also authour and finisher of our Faith And here we may sit down and not move any further and call all eyes to behold it and say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is it Nec curiositate opus est post Jesum Christum When Christ hath spoken and told us what it is our curiosity need not make any further search The Righteousness of faith is that which justifieth a sinner Rom. 1.17 For the just shall live by faith or as some render it the just by faith shall live Mar. 9.23 If thou canst believe saith our Saviour and Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Acts 16.31 and thou shalt be saved and thy houshould saith S. Paul to the Gaoler Isa 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to these waters yea come buy wine and milk without money or money-worth I doubt not but every man is ready to come every man is ready to say I believe Lord help my unbelief But here it fareth with many men as it doth with those who first hear of some great place fallen unto them but afterwards find it is as painful as great The later part of the news sowreth and deadeth the joy of the former and the trouble taketh off the glory and dignity Believe and be saved is a messuage of joy but Believe and repent or Repent and believe is a bitter pill But we must joyn them together nor is it possible to separate them they both must meet and kiss each other in that Righteousness which is the way to the Kingdom of God It is true Faith is imputed for righteousness but it is imputed to those who forsake all unrighteousness Faith justifieth a sinner but a repentant sinner It must be vera fides quae hoc quod verbis dicit moribus non contradicit a faith which leaveth not our manners and actions as so many contradictions to that which we profess Faith is the cause and original of good actions and naturally will produce them and if we hinder not its casuality in this respect it will have its proper effect which is to Justifie a sinner This effect I say is proper to Faith alone and it hath this royal prerogative by the ordinance of God but it hath not this operation but in subjecto capaci in a subject which is capable of it In a word it is the Righteousness of a sinner but not of a sinner who continueth in his sin It is a soveraign medicine but will not cure his wounds who resolveth to bleed to death For to conceive otherwise were to entitle God to all the uncleanness and sins of our life past to make him a lover of iniquity and the justifier not of the sinner but of our sins Christ was the Lamb of God which took away our sins John 1.29 And he took them away not onely by a plaister but also by a purge not onely by forgiveness but also by restraint of sin He suffered those unknown pains that we should be forgiven and sin no more not that we should sin again and be forgiven He fulfilled the Law but not to the end that we should take the more heart break it at pleasure and adde rebâ—â—lion to rebellion because
Joh. 2.6 when in all our carriage and behaviour we can truly say Sic oculos sic Ille manus sic ora ferebat Thus did or thus said my Saviour The lives and actions of men are subject to errour and the best of God's Saints in all ages have had their falls David is said to have been a man after God's own heart yet if we should follow David in all his paths he would lead us into those two fearful precipices Adultery and Murther Peter was a great Apostle but if we should imitate all Peter's actions we should not follow Christ but deny him In our imitation therefore of men we must observe the Apostles Caution here in the Text and be followers of the Saints even as they also are followers of Christ and no further When they go awry from Christ's example we must leave them be they what they will and carefully follow the presedent that our Lord hath set us He is the Way and the Truth and the Life He never went astray himself Joh. 14.6 neither can he mislead us He will be unto us as the Pillar of the cloud and of sire was to the Israelites a sure Guide to the Land of promise to the heavenly Canaan If we keep our eye still fixed upon him and heedfully and constantly follow his conduct we shall walk in the wayes of Truth and Peace walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called worthy of the name whereby we are called CHRISTIANS we shall give testimony of the truth and sincerity of our Faith and perform the promise and profession made at our Baptism which is to follow the example of our Saviour Christ and be made like unto him we shall adorn the Gospel honour our Master and glorifie our Father which is in heaven in a word we shall guide others in the way to happiness by our good example shining among them as lights in the world and we our selves having served our own generation by the will of God shall in the regeneration and the times of restitution of all things be received by him whom we have followed into those mansions of rest and glory which he is gone to prepare for us that where he is there we may be also The Eight and Thirtieth SERMON PROV XXVIII 13. He that covereth his sinnes shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Rom. 12.16 Prov. 3.7 Prov. 26.12 BE not wise in your own conceits It is St. Paul's counsel And it is the Wisemans counsel also And he giveth the reason for it Seest thou a wise man in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool then of him more hope of him that hath no use of reason then of him that hath and abuseth it that draweth it down to vile and base offices that maketh it ministerial and serviceable to his lusts that first imployeth it as a midwife to bring forth that sinne which his lust hath conceived and then when it hath brought it forth maketh it as a nurse to cherish it first to find out wayes to mature and perfect it and then to cast a shadow to cover it Certainly there is more hope of a fool then of him For a fool setteth not up to himself any end and so is not frustrate or defeated of it But he that is wise in his own conceit is the more unhappy fool of the two for he proposeth to himself an end and doth not only fail and come short of it but falleth and is bruised on a contrary He promiseth to himself glory and meeteth with shame he looketh towards Prosperity and is made miserable he flattereth himself with hope of Life and is swallowed up by death he smileth and pleaseth and applaudeth himself and perisheth he lifteth up himself on high and falleth and is buried in the mire and filth of his own conceits That which he seeketh flyeth from him and that which he runneth from overtaketh him The truth of which hath been visible in many particulars and written as it were with the bloud of those who have sought death in the errour of their lives and here Solomon hath manifested it in this Proverb or wise sentence which I have read unto you For how happy do we think our selves if we can sin and then hide and cover our sin from our own and others eyes and yet Wisdom it self hath said He that doth so shall not prosper What a disgrace do we count it to confess and forsake sin and yet he that doth so shall find mercy Our wayes are not as God's wayes That which we gather for a flower is a noysome and baneful weed that which we make our joy is turned into sorrow that which we apply to heal doth more wound our balm is poyson and our Paradise Hell Ye have heard of the wisedom of Solomon Hearken to it in this particular which crosseth the wisedom of this world He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Which words teach us these two things 1. The Danger of covering or excusing our sins He that covereth his sins shall not prosper 2. The Remedy or way to avoid this danger but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy The first we shall especially insist upon and shew it you in respect 1. of God 2. of our selves First the danger of covering our sins appeareth in this that sin cannot be covered cannot admit of excuse Omnis excusatio sui aequitate nititur say the Civilians All excuse is founded on equity and none is good but so far as equity commendeth it As far then as Sin may be covered or excused so far it is not sin at least not lyable to punishment For our own experience will tell us that where excuse with reason may run there it exempteth the accused both from fault and punishment We read Levit. 10. Vers 19. that when Aaron's sons had not eaten the goat of the sin-offering according to the Law and Aaron had made that reasonable excuse which we find that his sorrow for his two sons Nadab and Abihu had made him unfit to eat of those Holy things vvhich they vvere to do rejoycing Deut. 12.7 Deut. 26.14 and vvhen they brought their sanctified things they vvere to say I have not eat thereof in my mourning vvhen he had made this excuse the Text telleth us When Moses heard that he was content And this is the difference betwixt Moral and Ceremonial Laws Aliud sunt imagines saith Tertullian aliud definitiones Imagines prophetant definitiones gubernant We are governed not by Ceremonies vvhich pass away as a shadow but by Laws vvhich are immutable and indispensable Ceremonies are arbitrary and not only Reason but God himself doth in this case frame excuses and putteth them in our mouth and covereth what deformity soever they may present to men that cannot but misinterpret what they understand not David in his Hunger eateth of the shew-bread
and opposite to his Wisdome and Goodness and which his soul hateth as That he did decree to make some men miserable to the end he might make his Mercy glorious in making them happy that he did of purpose wound them that he might heal them That he did threaten them with death whose names he had written in the book of life That he was willing Man should sin that he might forgive him That he doth exact that Repentance as our duty which himself will work in us by an irresistable force That he commandeth intreateth beseecheth others to turn and repent whom himself hath bound and fettered by an absolute decree that they shall never turn That he calleth them to repentance and salvation whom he hath damned from all eternity If any certainly such beasts as these deserve to be struck through with a dart No it is not boldness Exod. 19.12 Hebr. 12.20 but humility and obedience to God's will to say He doth nothing but what becometh him and what his Wisdome doth justifie Eph. 1.8 He hath abounded towards us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul in all wisdome and prudence His Wisedome findeth out the means of salvation and his Prudence ordereth and disposeth them His Wisdome sheweth the way to life and his Prudence leadeth us through it to the end Wisdome was from everlasting Prov. 8.23 And as she was in initio viarum in the beginning of God's wayes so she was in initio Evangelii in the beginning of the Gospel which is called the wisedome of God And she fitted and proportioned means to that end means most agreeable and connatural to it She found out a way to conquer Death and him that hath the power of Death the Devil Hebr. 2.14 with the weapons of Righteousness to dig up Sin by the very roots that no work oâ— 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 again 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 kiss each other in Christ's Satisfaction and ours for our Turn is our satisfaction all that we can make Condigna estsatisfactio mala facta corrigere correcta non reiterare Bern. de â—ust Dom. c. 1. Satisfactio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antioch â—â—neil can 2. These she hath joyned together never to be severed Christ's Sufferings with our Repentance his agony with our sorrow his blood with our tears his flesh nailed to the cross with our lusts crucified his death for sin with our death to it his resurrection with our justification For he bore our sins that he might cast them away he shed his blood to melt our hearts he dyed that we might live and turn unto the Lord and he rose again for our justification and to gain authority to the doctrine of Repentance Our CONVERTIMINI our Turn is the best Commentary on his CONSVMMATVM EST It is finished for that his last breath breathed it into the world We may say it is wrapt up in the Inscription John 19.19 JESVS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS For in him even when he hung upon the cross were all the treasures of Wisdome and Knowledge hid Col. 2.3 In him his Justice and Mercy are at peace for to reconcile us unto God he reconciled them one to another The hand of Mercy was lifted up ready to seal our pardon we were in our blood and her voice was Live we were miserable Ezek. 16.6 and she was ready to relieve us our heart was sick and her bowels yerned But then Justice held up the sword ready to latch in our sides God loveth his Creature whom he made but hateth the Sinner whom he could not make And he must strike and yet is unwilling to strike If Justice had prevailed Mercy had been but as the morning dew Hos 6.4 13.3 and soon vanished before this raging heat And if Mercy had swallowed up Justice in victory God's hatred of sin and his fearful menaces against it had been but bruta fulmina and portended nothing but been void and of none effect Psal 130.3 Deus purgari homines à peccato maxime cupit ideoque agere poenitentiam jubet Lact. l. 6. c. 24. If God had been extreme to mark what is done amiss men would have sinned more and more because there would have been no hope of pardon And if his Mercy had sealed an absolute pardon men would have walked delicately and sported in their evil wayes because there would have been no fear of punishment And therefore his Wisdome drew his Justice and Mercy together and reconciled them both in Christ's propitiatory Sacrifice and our duty of Repentance the one freeing us from the guilt the other from the dominion of sin And so both are satisfyed Justice layeth down the sword and Mercy shineth in perfection of beauty Rom. 3.3 God hateth Sin but he seeth it condemned in the flesh of his Son and fought against by every member he hath He seeth it punisht in Christ and punisht also in every repentant sinner that turneth from his evil wayes He beholdeth the Sacrifice on the Cross and the Sacrifice also of a broken heart and for the sweet savour of the one he accepteth the other and is at rest Christ's death for sin procureth our pardon and our death to sin sueth it out Christ suffereth for sin we turn from it His satisfaction at once wipeth out the guilt and penalty our Repentance by degrees destroyeth Sin it self Tert. De anima c. 1. Haec est sapientia de schola caeli This is the method of Heaven This is that Wisdome which is from above Thus it taketh away the sins of the world And now Wisdome is compleat Justice is satisfied and Mercy triumpheth God is glorified Man is saved and the Angels rejoyce Heus tu peccator De poenit c. 8. bono animo sis vides ubi de tuo reditu gaudeatur saith Tertullian Take comfort sinner thou seest what joy there is in heaven for thy return What musick there is in a Turn which beiginneth on earth but reacheth up and filleth the highest heavens A repentant sinner is as a glass or rather Gods own renewed image on which God delighteth to look for there he beholdeth his Wisdome his Justice his Mercy and what wonders they all have wrought Behold the Shepherd of our souls see what lieth upon his shoulders Luke 15.5 6. You would think a poor Sheep that was lost Nay but he leadeth Sin and death and the Devil in triumph And thou mayest see the very brightness of his glory and the express image of his three most glorious
all men to behold it We shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ 1 Tom. ep 141. S. Hierom had the last trump alwayes sounding in his ears And declaring to posterity the strictness of his life his tears his fasting his solitariness he confesseth of himself Ille ego qui ob gehennae metum tali me carcere damnaveram scorpiorum tantùm socius ferarum I that condemned my self to so strait a prison as to have no better companions then scorpions and wild beasts for fear of hell and judgement did all this And he was not ashamed to acknowledge that not so much the love unto piety nor the Authour of it as the dread of hell and punishment confined and kept him constant in the practice of it And what should I say more Hebr. 11.32 for the time would fail me to tell you of other Saints of God who through fear 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 Cant. 8.6 look upon the glorious army of Martyrs They had tryal of cruel mockings and scourgings Heb. 11.36 37 yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment They were stoned and slain with the sword And greater love hath no man saith our Saviour then this John 15.13 that a man lay down his life for his friend In Psal 118. And yet S. Ambrose will tell us that this great love was upheld and kept in life by this gale of wind by Fear that the fear of one death was swallowed up in the fear of another the fear of a temporal in the fear of an eternal The bloody Pagans to weaken their faith urged the fear of present death Consule tibi Pont. Diac. vit Cypriani 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 eternal 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 Et sic animas posuerunt With these thoughts they laid down their lives and were crowned with Martyrdome We cannot now think that these Martyrs sinned in setting before their eyes the horrour of death and fear of hell or think their love the less because they had some fear or that their love was lost in that which was ordained and commanded as a means to preserve it Their love we see was strong and intensive and held out against that which laid them in the dust but lest it should faint and abate they borrowed some heat even from the fire of hell and made use of those curses which God hath denounced against all those who persevere not to the end The best of men are but men but flesh and blood subject to infirmities so that in this our spiritual warfare and navigation we should shipwrack often did we not lay hold on the anchor of Fear as well as on that of Hope Each temptation might shake us each vanity amaze us L. 6. Mor. c. 27 each suggestion drive us upon the rocks but ancora cordis pondus timoris saith Gregory the weight of Fear as an ancor poyseth us and when the storm is high settleth and fasteneth us to our resolutions We walk in the midst of snares Ecclus 9.13 saith the Wise man and if we swerve never so little one snare or other taketh us for there be many a snare in our lusts a snare in the object a snare in our religion and a snare in our very love If Fear come not in to cool and allay it to guide and moderate it our Love may grow too warm too saucy and familiar and end in a bold presumption Therefore S. Paul in that his parable of the Natural and Wild Olive advising the new-engrafted Gentile not to wax bold against the Root Rom. 11.20 maketh Fear a remedy Be not high minded saith he Trust not to your love of God nor be over-bold with Gods love to you because he hath grafted you in but fear And he giveth his reason v. 21. For if God spared not the natural branches much less will he spare you Fear then of being cut off if S. Paul's reason be good is the best means to repress in us all proud conceits and highness of mind which may wither the most fruitful and flourishing branch and make it fit for nothing but the fire Thus is fear necessary and prescribed to all sorts of men to them that are fallen that they may rise and to them that are risen that they may not fall again to them that are weak that they may be strong and to those that are strong that their strength deceive them not And yet an opinion is taken up in the world That Fear was onely for Mount Sinai that it vanisht with that smoke and was never heard of more when that Trumpet was laid by Hebr. 12.18 19 We will not have this word spoken to us any more There is no blackness nor darkness nor tempest in the Gospel but all is to be done out of pure love Luke 1.74 that we being delivered from our enemies may serve him without fear Nor is this conceit of yesterday but the Devil hath made use of it in all ages as an engine to undermine and blow up the Truth it self and so supplant the Gospel which is the wisdome of God unto salvation that so he may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gregory Nyssen speaketh sport with us in our evil wayes lead us on in our dance and wantonness of sin and so carry us along with musick and melody to our destruction Tertullian in his book De Praescriptionibus adversùs haeret c. 43. mentioneth a sort of Hereticks who denyed that God was to be feared at all unde illis libera omnia soluta whence they took a liberty to sin and let loose the rains to all impiety Saint Hierome relateth the very same of the Marcionites and Gnosticks In 4. Hos and it is probable Tertullian meant them For say they Iis qui fidem habent nihil timendum If we have Faith we may bid Fear adieu how many and how foul soever our sins be God regardeth what we believe not what we do and if our faith be true the obliquity of our actions cannot hurt us J. Gers T. 1. After these ex eodem semine from the same root sprung up the Begardi and Begardae and others who from their opinion That no sin could endanger the state of those who were predestinated and justified took their name and were called Praedestinatiani the Praedestinarians After these the Libertines breathed forth their blasphemy with the like impudence Calvin contra Errores Anabaptistarum whom Calvin wrote
one For this they fight unto death even for the Book of life till they have blotted out their names with the blood of their Brethren This is drest out unto them as savoury meat set for their palate who had rather be carried up to heaven in Elias fiery chariot then pace it thither with trouble and pain That GOD hath absolutely decreed the salvation of some particular men and passed sentence of death upon others is as musick to some ears like David's harp to refresh them and drive away the evil spirit Et qui amant sibi somnia fingunt Mens desires do easily raise a belief and when they are told of such a decree they dream themselves to heaven For if we observe it they still chuse the better part and place themselves with the Sheep at the right hand and when the controversie of the inheritance of Heaven is on foot to whom it belongeth they do as the Romanes did who when two Cities contending about a piece of ground made them their Judge to determin whose it was fairly gave sentence on their own behalf and took it to themselves Because they read of Election they elect themselves which is more indeed then any man can deny and more I am sure then themselves can prove And now O Death 1 Cor. 15.55 56 where is thy sting The sting of Death is Sin but it cannot reach them and the strength of Sin is the Law but it cannot bind them For Sin it self shall turn to the good of these elect and chosen Vessels And we have some reason to suspect that in the strength of this Doctrine and a groundless conceit that they are these particular men they walk on all the daies of their life in fraud and malice in hypocrisie and disobedience in all that uncleanness and pollution of sin which is enough to wipe out any name out of the book of Life Sen. Controv. Hoc saxum defendit Maulius hinc excidit For this they rowse up all their forces this is their rock their fundamental doctrine their very Capitol and from this we may fear many thousands of souls have been tumbled down into the pit of destruction at this rock many such elect Vessels have been cast away Again others miscarry as fatally on the other hand For when we speak of an absolute Decree upon particulars unto the vulgar sort vvho have not cor in corde as Augustine speaketh who have their judgement not in their heart but in their sense they soon conceive a fatal necessity and one there is that called it so fatum Christianum the Christian mans Destiny tâ—ey think themselves in chains and shackles that they cannot turn when they cannot be predestinate not to turn but to die because they will not turn I will give you a remarkable instance and out of Mr. Calvine Quintinus Contr. Libertin c. 13. And yet his own followers use the same words bring the same Texts and apply them as the Libertines did Vide Piscat Aphorismos the Father of the Libertines as Calvine himself calleth him as he rideth in company by the way lighteth upon a man slain and lying in his gore and one asking Who did this bloody deed he readily replyeth I am he that did it if thou desire to know it And art thou such a villain saith the party again to do such an act I did it not my self saith he but it was God that did it And being ask't again Whether may we impute to God those hainous sins which in justice he will and doth so severely punish So it is said he Thou didst it and I did it and God did it For what thou or I do God doth and what God doth that thou and I do for we are in him and he in us he worketh in us he worketh all in all Quintinus is long since dead but his errour dyed not with him Fortaliter constitutum est quando quantoperè unus uisque nostrûm pietatem colere vel non colere debeat Piscator ad Duplicat Vorstii p. 228. For it is the policy of our common Enemy to remove our eye as far as he can from the Command and he cannot set it at a greater distance then by fixing it on Eternity that so whilst we think upon the Decree we may quite forget the Command and never fly from Death because for ought we know we are killed already never do our duty because God doth whatsoever he will in heaven and in earth never strive to be better then we are because God is all in all Let us then walk on in a middle way and neither flatter nor afflict our selves with the thought of what God may do or what he hath done from all eternity Let us not busy our selves in the fruitless study of the Book of life Rev. 5.3 5. which no man in heaven or in earth is able to open and look into but only the Lion of the tribe of Judah In that book saith S. Basil Comment in Isai 10. no names are written but of them that repent Let us not seek what God decreeth which we cannot find out but hearken to what he commandeth which is nigh us even in our mouthes Rom. 10.8 The book of Life is shut and sealed up but he hath opened many other Books to us and biddeth us sit down and read them The book of his Works of which the Creatures are the leaves and the characters the Goodness and Power and Glory of God The book of his Words Matth. 1.1 2 Cor. 3.2 The Book of the Generation of JESVS CHRIST to be known and read of all men and if these words be written in thy heart thy name is also written in the book of Life And the book of thy Conscience for the information of which all the Books in the world were made And if thou read and study this with care and diligence and an impartial eye and then find there no bill or indictment against thee then thou maist have confidence towards God that he never past any decree or sentence of death against thee and that thou art ordained to life This is the true method of a Christian mans studies not to look too stedfastly backward upon Aeternity but to look down upon our selves and ponder and direct our paths and then to look forward to eternity of bliss We read of the Philosopher Thales that lifting up his eyes to observe the course of the stars he fell into the water Which gave occasion to a damsell called Thressa of an ingenious and bitter scoff That he who was so busy to see what was done in heaven could not observe what was even before his feet And it is as true of them who are so bold and forward in the contemplation of God's eternal Decree many times they fall dangerously into those errours which swallow them up They are too bold with God and so negligent of themselves talk more what he doth or hath
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 detracteth from the power of it And he is as unworthy who magnifieth and rejecteth it and maketh his life an argument against his doctrine saith Grace cannot be resisted and resisteth it every day He that denieth the power of God's Grace is scarse a Christian And he is the worst of Christians who will not gird up his loins and work out his salvation but loitreth and standeth idle all the day long shadoweth and pleaseth himself under the expectation of what God will do and so turneth his grace into wantonness 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 phansie that he wanteth Grace he that vvill not hearken after Grace though she knock and knock again as Fortune vvas said to have done at Galba's gate till she be vveary hath despised the Grace of God and cannot plead the vvant of that for any excuse vvhich he might have had but put it off nay vvhich he had but so used it as if it had been no Grace at all They that have Grace offered and repel it they that have antidotes against Death and vvill not use them can never ansvver the expostulation Why will ye die And certainly he that is so liberal of his Grace hath given us knovvledge enough to see the danger of those vvayes vvhich lead to Death And therefore in the next place Ignorance of our vvayes doth not minuere voluntarium make our sin less vvilful but rather aggrandize it For first vve may if vve vvill knovv every duty that tendeth to life and every sin that bringeth forth death 2 Cor. 2.11 We may know the Devils enterprises saith S. Paul And the ignorance of this findeth no excuse when we have power and faculty light and understanding When the Gospel shineth brightly upon us to dispell those mists which may be placed between the Truth and us Sub scientiae facultate nescire repudiatae magìs quà m non compertae veritatis est reatus Hil. in Psal 118. then if we walk in darkness and in the shadow of death we shall be found guilty not so much of not finding out the truth as of refusing it as Hilary speaketh 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 quickness 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 S. Peter requireth 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 knoweth the will of God and 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 affairs 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 afraid of Gods wrath as they are of poverty and the frown of a mortal this pretense of want of knowledge would be soon removed and quite taken out of the way Tit. 2.11 Acts 17.30 For now the Grace of God hath appeared unto all men and commanded all men every where to repent and turn from their evil wayes What apologie can the Oppressour have when Wisdome it self hath sounded in his ears and told him Lev. 19.18 Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self for even flesh and bloud would soon conclude that no man will oppress himself What can the Revenger plead after the thunder Rom. 12.19 Vengeance is mine What can the Covetous pretend when he heareth Go sell all and give to the poor What can the Seditious say Matth. 19.21 when he is plainly told He that resisteth shall receive damnation Rom. 13.2 Can any man miss his way where there is so much light to direct him when he brought a great part of his lesson along with him into the world which he may run and read and understand How can he there erre dangerously where the Truth is fastned to a pillar where there is such a Mercury to shew him his way And therefore in the second place if we be ignorant it is because we will be ignorant If we could open a window into the breasts of men we should soon perceive a hot contention between their Knowledge and their Lusts strugling together like the twins in Rebekah's womb till at last their Lust supplanteth their Knowledge and gaineth the preeminence Nolunt intelligere nè cogantur facere saith Augustine They will not understand their duty lest that many draw upon them an obligation to do it nor will they see their errour because they have no mind to forsake it For their Knowledge pointeth towards life but not to be attained to but by sweat and blood which their Lust loatheth and trembleth at And therefore this knowledge is too wonderful for them Psal 139.6 nay it is as the gall of bitterness unto them As Nero's mother would not suffer him to study Philosophy quia imparaturo contraria Suet. Nerone c. 25. because it prescribeth many moral virtues as Sincerity Modesty and Frugality which sort not well with the Crown and must needs fall cross with those actions which Politie and Necessity many times ingage the Monarchs of the earth so do these look upon the Truth as a thing contrary to them as checking their Pride bridling their Malice bounding their Ambition chiding their Injustice threatning their Tyranny and so they study to unlearn suppress and silence it and will not hear it speak to them any more but set up a Lie first the childe then the parasite of their Lusts and enthrone it in its place to reign over them and guide them in all their waies I remember Bernard in one of his Sermons upon the Canticles telleth us that he observed many cast down and very sad and dejected upon the knowledge of the Truth not so much for that it did shew them the danger they were in and withal an open and effectual door to escape but that it choaked the passages and stopped up the way to their old asylum and sanctuary of Ignorance For Truth is not onely a light but a fire to scorch and burn
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 Hebr. 13.8 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 evil spirits which blast the world and breathe nothing but profaneness 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 less art and noise but with more piety with a zeal of a purer flame and with 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 tragedies raised about a name what comedies what scoffs and jests upon the holy action what gross 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 essential 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 carnal men the Apostle calleth them so feed on this spiritual food I will not stand to confute these groundless and ridiculous but dangerous and destructive phansies for these men have more need of our tears and prayers then our confutation I had rather remove those hindrances and retardances those pretenses 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 interveneth and startleth and troubleth us that we omit and do it not And the first and great pretense is our own Weakness and Unworthiness 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 mortal bodies at the sight of which we start back even from that which might help us and cannot compose and qualifie our selves for the celebration Before the action we are afraid even afraid of the feast afraid of life At the Table we have a sad and cast-down countenance drawn out more by a disquieted troubled mind then that reverential joy which it sheweth 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 the burden 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 sinful 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 bloud who yet loves that sin for the washing away of which Christ shed it such a one sinneth if he come and he sinneth if he come not a miserable Dilemma that Sin driveth him upon that like the servant in the Comedy si faxit perit si non faxit vapulat if he do it he eateth his own damnation and shall nevertheless be punisht if he do it not For not onely acts but also omissions are evil It is a sin to kill my father and it is a sin not to help him It is a sin to oppress and it is a sin not to give an alms It is a sin to resist a superiour and it is a sin not to honour him It is a sin to contemn the Sacrament and it is a sin not to receive it And the one leadeth to the other Neglect or Indifferency to open Profaneness sins of Omission to sins 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 dishonour them He that will not feed the poor will be soon induced to grind their face He that will not honour the King when opportunity favoureth him will pull him from his throne He that neglecteth the Sacrament or is indifferent within a while may be ready to take it away as a thing of no use at all Sin consisteth as well in the negation or non-performance of that we are bound to as in the doing of some act which is contrary to it in which commonly it endeth at last Nor is it then onely when the Will is directly carried to the omission it self when I will not do it because I will not do it which is high contempt but when the Will settleth and resteth upon that by which I am hindred from doing that which I am bound to do and which I would willingly and might easily do but for this obstacle which I my self set up against my self but for that sin which is the issue of my Lust and which I had rather cleave to then to the command of Christ So that now I do not abstain from the Lords Table upon necessity but voluntarily Nor can I say I would receive when I thus say within my self I will yet sin For he that will not prepare himself will not sit down at Christs Table But we may hear somtimes large expressions of sorrow from those who are so backward in this duty Troubled they are that they are sick but not fit for a Physician that they are hungry but have no stomach to that which should feed and nourish them that they love the feast but are not yet prepared to eat I am sorry is soon said even by them who yet take pleasure in and reap profit and advantage from that sin which they bewail who condemn it by these mournful and sad declarations of their mind and yet give it the highest place in their heart I am sorry is too often a lye But if it be not a lye it is and will be accepted as our preparation For godly sorrow bringeth forth repentance not to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 and every Penitent is a fit Communicant He that hath
mingled his tears with his Saviours bloud is a welcome guest at this Table What then is to be done in this case when the conscience of some habit of sin keepeth us from coming Certainly a great sin it must needs be to make one sin an apology for another to excuse a sin of omission by a sin of commission and when I will not do that which I should to put in this plea That I have done what I should not This knot then like the Gordian knot must be cut asunder with the sword with the sword of the spirit That habit of sin must be shaken off and we must use a violence upon our selves strive and labour with earnestness and by practising that which is contrary to it to be less and less fettered and entangled every day For to remain in it cannot be Infirmity or Weakness for that name we give even to Malice it self but Obstinacy and a pleasing and wilfull Perseverance in sin Why wilt thou not come or rather why wilt thou still sin For what wert thou made a Christian For what did the grace of God appear For what did his most pretious bloud gush out of his sides but to purge and cleanse thee from thy sin Why dost thou love thy disease Why dost thou favour thy flesh and corruption Why dost thou envenom and fester thy sore Why art thou such a Judas as first to betray thy Saviour and then hang thy self Why dost thou still stand out and wilt not be cured Why dost thou prefer thy Sin before the Sacrament thy husks before the Bread of life Why art thou sick and wilt be sick dying and resolved to die Thou wilt not come because thou hast sinned Break off thy sin and come If thou condemnest thy self why dost thou not forsake thy self Dost thou acknowledge what thou art and yet continue what thou art Thou who wilt strike that man to the ground who standeth in the way to honour or wealth hast not heart enough to destroy that sin which thou sayst doth obstruct thy passage and keep thee from this Feast from the Table of the Lord which was spread on purpose that thou shouldst first demolish and remove thy sin and then come and eat This then is but an hindrance and a block of offense of our own hewing an evil spirit which we invited to us and we must cast it out Tell me canst thou believe Why then thou mayst come Is thy faith strong enough to cast down those imaginations which set themselves up against Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 to work in thee holy desires and resolutions And art thou now in an agony in a blessed contention with thy self Art thou serious in the resistance of thy enemy and dost thou gain some conquest over him every day Then thou maist come though thou art not yet made perfect For we must remember that the weaker Christian lye not down under his burden not able to move towards the cup of blessing when it is reacht forth unto him we must remember I say that Faith and true sanctifying Grace have a wide latitude that they are not so quick and active in one man as in another and yet may save both There be who by continual watching over themselves by continual strugling with themselves by a vehement and incessant pressing forward are welnear come unto the mark who have so confirmed themselves in the profession and exercise of Christian Religion that they run their race with joy and are scarce sensible of a tentation who have made Holiness so familiar to them that no wile or enterprise of Satan can divorce them In a word who by that seed which is in them keep themselves that the Wicked one toucheth them not 1 John 3.9 and 5.18 Luke 14.18 c. as S. John speaketh These have no Oxen nor Farms these are not married to the World and therefore they will come Again there be some who are but as it were Incipients in the School of Christ in their way labouring and panting forward as it were in fieri in the making framing and composing themselves by that royal Law which the Church of Christ holdeth forth unto them who though they have for some time suckt the breasts of the Church and received the sincere milk of the Word 1 Pet. 2.2 are not yet grown thereby into perfect men in Christ Jesus have not yet that strength to destroy the whole body of sin but fall sometimes into this sin sometimes into that but those they fall into are not so many nor so manifest not so offensive and hurtful to others not of that number or bulk as to shut them out of the Church or to exclude them from the Communion of Saints Phil. 3.12 These have not yet attained but they follow after Though they have an eye toward the world yet they come to Christs Table with a firm resolution to pluck it out Though their right hand offendeth them yet they will cut it off and with all their strength and with all their soul shake off the yoke of sin and take Christ's upon them and even now are they hot and intentive on that work These men I say may nay ought to come and here quicken their Faith improve their Charity strengthen and fix their Resolutions And they who are so severe and over-rigid as to drive them from it do shut themselves out though not from the Table yet from the Feast and are more unfit then they because they want that Charity which is required of a guest Matth. 12.20 even that Charity which will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax Numb 11.29 It was a pious wish of Moses Would God all the Lords people were Prophets And it were as much piety to wish and with his spirit Would all Christians were perfect that every one were as S. Paul 1 Cor. 4.4 and knew nothing by himself But we are in via And as travellers on the way one man maketh more hast then another walketh with more ease and delight slippeth not falleth not so often another walketh after though not with the same speed and chearfulness because he meeteth with rubs and difficulties which he every day contendeth with and both at last by the guidance of the same Spirit and by the power of a compassionate Saviour come to their journeys end and he that goeth before and he that cometh more faintly and slowly after meet at last and sit down together in the same heaven And now in such variety of tempers such diversity of tentations amongst so many errours which some men quit themselves of with less some with more trouble we may applaud those who are near the top of perfection but we must not despise those who are in their ascent and labouring and striving forward after them not quench the spirit in any man though it burn not so brightly in some as it doth in others who are more fully enlightned not shut them
Arts themselves are not liberal but when they make men so free and ingenuous Arithmetick and Geometry are but a kind of Legerdemain if they teach men onely metiri latifundia accommodare digitos avaritiae to measure Lordships and to tell money What need we instance in these The Word of God which bringeth salvation may bring death if it be not received with the meekness of a babe that we may grow thereby The Sacrament the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which hath been magnified too much and yet cannot be magnified enough was ordained as Physick to renew and revive and quicken our souls but if it be not received to that end for which it was first instituted it is not Physick but damnation Non QUID sed QUEMADMODUM vers 29. It is not the bare Doing of a thing but the Manner of doing it the driving it on to its right end which giveth it its full beauty and perfection A sincere Heart and the Glory of God set the true image of Liberality on the gift of a mite Attention and Obedience make the Word the savour of life Humility and Repentance sanctifie a fast and Shewing of the death of the Lord maketh us truly partakers of his body and bloud Our Saviour Christ hath fully decided this controversie in a word and with one breath as it were hath said enough to still the tumults of the disputers which have been as the raging of the sea and to settle all the vain and needless controversies of this age John 6.63 even in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The flesh profiteth nothing it is the Spirit that quickeneth For to say his flesh profiteth nothing is a plain declaration that he meant not to give it us to eat That which is nourishment to the body is not proportioned to the soul nor will that which reneweth a soul restore the body to a healthful temper Who would go about to recover a sick man with an Oration of Tully's or set a joynt with an axiom of Philosophy Who can restore a sick soul with bread and wine with flesh or bloud Although these two parts the Soul and the Body are knit and united rogether and do sympathize so as that which refresheth the body doth affect and please the mind and that which cheareth the mind doth strengthen the body yet both the parts receive that which is proper to them the body that which is of a corporeal nature and the soul that which is spiritual and both mutually communicate to each other the fruit and benefit of both without the least confusion of their operations and proprieties Although we see the actions of the body as Hunger and Thirst many times attributed to the soul and the functions of the soul as to Will and the like to the body Therefore we must distinguish between the Meritorious cause and the Efficiency and Application of it which are both joyntly necessary but their manner of operation is diverse It was necessary that the flesh and bloud of Christ should be separated from each other in his violent death on the cross that his most precious bloud should be poured out for remission of sins but to make it a physical potion to make it nourishment to our souls it was not necessary that his bodily substance should be taken into ours For if it should our Saviout telleth us it would profit nothing And the reason is plain Because the merit and virtue of his death which is without us is made ours not by any fleshly conjunction or union with him who merited for us by offering himself but 1. by his Will by which he in a manner maketh it over unto us and 2. by our due receiving of it which is made complete by our Consent and Faith and Giving of thanks which is the work alone of that Spirit which quickeneth and giveth life The blessed Virgin did no doubt partake of the merit of Christ but not because she conceived and bore him nine moneths in her womb but in that she conceived him by faith in her heart Luke 11.27 28. The womb was blessed that bare him and the paps that gave him suck but they rather were blessed who heard his word and kept it The Flesh and Bloud of Christ doth truly quicken us as it was offered up for us a sacrifice on the cross as a meritorious cause and as he gave it for the salvation of the world But it doth not quicken by being received into our bodies but by being received into our souls His merit was enough to save the whole world and yet his merit were nothing if not applied and that application is not wrought without but within us not by the Spirit of life but by the force and power of his death and passion the meritorious cause Rom. 8.2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death What need we hear stir this Water of life and turn it into gall and bitterness Why should this Bread be gravel between our teeth Why should Christ's love be made the matter of war and contention It is called the Body and Bloud of Christ and it is called Bread and Cup in my Text And it is a miserable servitude saith Augustine signa pro rebus accipere to take the signs of things for the things themselves and not to be able to lift up the eye of our mind a-above the corporeal creature to take in eternal light That we may lift up ours let us fix it upon the end for which Christ offered his body and bloud and upon the end for which we are to receive the Sacrament and signs of it And let one end be the measure and rule of the other Let Christ lifted upon the cross draw us after him to follow as he leadeth His body was bruised and his bloud shed to purge us from all iniquity and to make us a peculiar people unto himself That was Christ's end And our end must be proportioned to it So to receive the Sacrament of his body and bloud that it may be instrumental to that end Which cannot be by eating his flesh and bloud that flesh which was crucified and that bloud which was shed One would think it impossible that any should think our Saviour should command us that which is impossible or shew us a way which cannot lead to the end Flesh and Bloud taken down into the stomach can no more feed and quicken a Soul then it can enter into the Kingdom of heaven But his Obedience his Humility his Cross and Passion his meritorious Suffering and Satisfaction these have power and influence on the Soul These are here presented to us as Manna and better then Manna and if we take them down and digest them they will turn into good bloud and feed us to eternal life His Body and Bloud were thus given and thus we must receive them Our Saviour calleth it his
Body and his Bloud and S. Paul calleth it the Bread and the Cup Nor is S. Paul contrary to Christ but determineth and reconcileth all in the end both of Christ's suffering and our receiving in the words of my Text As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew or shew ye the Lord's death till he come In which words the Death of the Lord of life is presented to us and we called to look up upon him whom our sins have pierced through to behold him wounded for our transgressions ex cujus latere aqua sanguis Isa 53.5 utriusque lavacri paratura manavit as Tertullian out of whose side came water and bloud to wash and purge us which make the two Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper And the effect of both is our Obedience in life and conversation that we should serve him with the whole heart who hath bought us at so dear a price that we should wash off all our spots and stains and foul pollutions in the laver of this Water and the laver of this Bloud And therefore as he offered himself for us on the Cross so he offereth himself to us in the Sacrament his Body in the Bread and his Bloud in the Cup that we may eat and drink and feed upon him and taste how gracious he is Which is the sum and complement and blessed effect of the duty here in the Text to shew the Lord's death till he come For he that sheweth it not manducans non manducat eating doth not as Ambrose doth eat the Bread but not feed on Christ But he that fully acquitteth himself in this shall be fed to eternal life Let us then take the words asunder And there we find What we are to do and How long we are to do it the Duty and the Continuation of it the Duty We must shew forth Christ's death the Continuation of it We must do it till he come again to judgment In the Duty we consider first an Object what it is we must shew the death of the Lord Secondly an Act what it is to shew and declare it The death of the Lord a sad but comfortable a bloudy but saving spectacle And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew a word of as large a compass as Christianity it self And the duration and continuation of it till he come that is to the end of the world Of these in their order The object is in nature first and first to be handled the death of the Lord. And this is most proper for us to consider For by his stripes we are healed and by his death we live And in this he hath not onely expressed his Love but made himself an example that we may take it out and so shew forth his death First it is his Love which joyned these two words together Death and the Lord which are farther removed then Heaven is from the Earth For can the Lord of life die Yes Amor de coelo demisit Dominum That Love which brought him down from his throne to his footstool that united the Godhead and Manhood in one Person hath also made these two terms Death and the Lord compatible and fastned the Son of God to the Cross hath exprest it self not onely in Beneficence but also in Patience not onely in Power but also in Humility and is most lively and visible in his Death the true authentick instrument of his Love He that is our Steward to provide for us who supplieth us out of his rich treasur◠who ripeneth the fruit on the trees and the corn in the fields who draweth us wine out of the vine and spinneth us garments out of the bowels of the worm and the fleece of the flock will also empty himself and pour forth his bloud He who giveth us balm for our bodies will give us physick for our souls will give up his ghost to give us breath and life And here his love is in its Zenith and vertical point and in a direct line casteth the rayes of comfort on his lost creature This Lord cometh not naked but clothed with blessings cometh not empty but with the rich treasuries of heaven cometh not alone but with troops of Angels with troops of promises and blessings Bonitas foecunda sui Goodness is fruitful and generative of it self gaineth by spending it self swelleth by overflowing and is increased by profusion When she poureth forth her self and breatheth forth that sweet exhalation she conveyeth it not poor and naked and solitary but with a troop and authority with ornament and pomp For Love bringeth with it whatsoever Goodness can imagine munera officia gifts and offices doth not onely give us the Lord but giveth us his sufferings his passion his death not onely his death but the virtue and power of it to raise us from the lethargy and death of Sin that we may be quick and active to shew and express it in our selves Olim morbo nunc remedio laboramus The remedy is so wonderful it confoundeth the patient and maketh health it self appear but fabulous Shall the Lord of Life die why may not Man whose breath is in his nostrils be immortal Yes he shall and for this reason Because it pleased the Lord of Life to die We need not adopt one in his place or substitute a creature a phantasm as did Arius and Marcion in his office For he took our sins and he will take the office himself Isa 63.3 he will tread the wine press alone and will admit none with him Nor doth this Humility impair his Majesty but rather exalt it Though he die yet he is the Lord still The Father will tell us that they who denied this for fear were worse then those who denied it out of stomach and the pretense of his honour is more dangerous then perversness For this is to confine and limit this Lord to shorten his hand palos terminales figere to set up bounds and limits against his infinite Love and absolute Will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shape and frame him out to their own phansie and indeed to blaspheme him with reverence to take from him his heavenly power and put into his hand a sceptre of reed His Love and his Will quiet all jealousies and answer all arguments whatsoeever It was his will to die and he that resteth in God's Will doth best acknowledge his Majesty For all even Majesty it self doth vail to his Will and is commanded by it What the Lord of life equal to the Father by whom all things were made shall he die Yes quia voluit because he would For as at the Creation he might have made Man as he made other creatures by his Word alone yet would not but wrought him out of the clay and fashioned him with his own hands so in the great work of our Redemption he did not send an Angel one of the Seraphim or Cherubim or any finite creature which he might have done
but at the word 's speaking He crieth Lo I come to do it my self Look upon this object of Majesty and Humility yet once again and see the power and omnipotencie of his Love In this laying down his life for us he was pleased to give a price infinitely above the merchandize and as in the world some buyers are wont to do to buy his own affection to us to pay down not a talent for a talent but a talent for a mite Himself for a worm and his Love for the world nay by his infinite Love to bound as it were his infinite Power his infinite Wisdom and his illimited Will For here his Power Wisdom and Will find a NON ULTRA and are at the furthest He cannot do He cannot find out He cannot wish for us more then he hath done then being equal with God to take upon him the form of a servant and in that form to humble himself to the death of the cross How should this spectacle of Love and Power of Majesty and Humility affect and ravish our souls How should this fire of Love these everlasting burnings kindled in our flesh enflame us That benefit is great which preventeth our prayers That is greater which is above our hope That is greatest which pre-occupateth and forestalleth our desires But what is that which over-runneth our opinion and even swalloweth it up in victory Had not he revealed his will and told us he would die we could not have desired it but our prayers had been turned into sin our hope had been madness and our opinion impiety All that we can say is that it was his infinite Love And his Love defendeth his Majesty and exalteth the Humility of his Cross and maketh it as glorious as his Throne For when he was fastned to it when he died it was his Throne and from it he threw down Principalities and Powers and Sin and Death it self Love hath this priviledge that it cannot be defamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plato By a kind of law it hath the prerogative of Honour and maketh Bondage free Disgrace honourable Infirmity omnipotent Death life it worketh a harmony out of these two inconsistent terms Death and the Lord which is the joy of the whole earth Thus is Christ's Death made a spectacle unto us and his Love bespeaketh us to behold it and there needeâ—h no other Oratour to perswade us For where Love is denied the tongues of Men and of Angels are but as a tinckling cymbal But this is not all For In the second place Christ hangeth not on the cross onely as a sacrifice That every eye is willing to behold even the eye of flesh the eye that is full of adulteries But he standeth there as an Ensample to us of Humility Patience Obedience Love This Altar hath an inscription TOLLITE CRUCEM Take up your cross and follow me Not an Ensample alone that cometh too short Nor a Sacrifice alone for shall he be offered up for those who deny him Not an Ensample alone For flesh and bloud may follow him but never overtake him no not in those wayes which he marked out with his bloud of Obedience and Love Nor Satisfaction alone For how can he satisfie for those who will be in evil what he is in good yesterday and to day and the same for ever 1 Pet. 2.21 Christ suffered for us saith S. Peter leaving us an ensample that we should follow his steps Can an humble Saviour be a sacrifice for the proud Can a meek Saviour dye for a revenger Can a poor Christ give himself for him who will neither clothe nor feed him Can he in whom there was found no guile plead for him who is full of deceit Can a Lamb be a sacrifice for a Fox a Wolf or a Lion He is sacrificed and all is done on his part There is a CONSUMMATUM EST It is finished But our Obedience is not shut up in that but beginneth where Christ's did end and by the power and force of his Love must be carried on in an even and constant course unto our Consummatum est till we end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have redemption Ephes 1.7 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pattern Jussit fieri qui fecit He sacrificed himself for us 1 Tim. 1.16 that we might offer our selves a lively sacrifice to the Lord. Jesus Christ is a pattern to them who shall believe on him to life everlasting We dare not say with some that Christ came into the world non ad satisfactionem sed exemplum not to satisfie at all but to direct us by his example in the wayes of life not to pay down our debts but to teach us an art of thrift to be able to pay them our selves But most true it is if we make him not an ensample he will not be a sacrifice nor will there remain any sacrifice for sin God forbid that our Malice should shelter it self in his Love that his Meekness should be a buckler for our Revenge that his Righteousness should shadow our Unrighteousness that all our Obedience should be lost in his Sacrifice that because he suffered so much to lead us the way we should take the less care to follow after him that by the Gospel as by the Law Sin should revive that the Law should convince the conscience and the Gospel flatter it that the Law should affright sinners and Christ encourage them that the Cross of Christ which is a School of virtue should be made a Sanctuary for wilful offenders that Christ should nail the handwriting against us to his cross and then let fall a Dispensation from all righteousness and make it less necessary for us to observe so strictly the moral Law that this ease and benefit should accrue to Christians by the death of Christ that we may be more indulgent to our selves do what we list Pardon lying so near at hand that we should destroy our selves because he is a Jesus pollute our selves because he is Christ to anoint us be more rebellious because he is our Lord and live in sin because he died for it A conceit so unreasonable that even common reason abhorreth it Had our Saviour given up his ghost and left no precept behind him had his Apostle been silent and said no more but that he died for our sins the weakest understanding might easily draw out this conclusion that we are to forsake them For why should he dye for that which he was willing should survive Or who would lay his axe to the root of the tree and not cuâ— it down to the ground And yet as gross a conceit as it is we open our hearts to receive it And it is summus seculi reatus the great guilt of the age the pit out of which locusts swarm which are as scorpions to bring evil on the earth Were it not for this Physick men would not be so sick were it not for hope of reconciliation men would
their eternal rest For such an high Priest became us saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate from sinners Heb. 7.26 separate from the Gentile's blindness and separate from the Jew's stubbornness and imperfection of a transient mortality and a permanent beatitude a God and a Man that he might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gather together into one both Jew and Gentile Law and Reason make the Law Natural useful and the Law written useful that so those fair whispers of Truth which mis-led the Gentile and that loud accusing Truth which affrighted the Jâ—w may be in subserviency and attendance on Christ himself that the light of Nature and the light of the Law which were but scattered beams from his eternal Brightness may be collected and united in Christ again who is Α and Ω the Beginning and the End in which Circle and Compass they are at home brought back again to their Original And do we not now begin to look upon our Reason as useful indeed but most insufficient to reach unto the End Do we not renounce the Law our selves all things Do we not melt in the same flame with our Apostle Is it not our ambition to be lost to all the world that we may be found in Christ Shall we not cast all things behind us that we may look forward upon him What would we not be ignorant of that we may know him That we may know him we will know nothing else Our understandings here are fixed and cannot be removed Nor shall our contemplation let him go till we have seen him rising from the dead and known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power of his resurrection Which is the next Object we are to look upon and our next Part. That Christ is risen from the dead is an article of our Faith fundatissimae fidei saith the Father a principle of the Doctrine of Christ a truth so clear and evident that the malice and envy of the Jew cannot avoid it For let them be at charge to bribe the watchmen and let the watchmen sleep so soundly that an earthquake cannot wake them and then say his Disciples stole him away this poor shift is so far from shaking that it confirmeth our faith For if they were asleep how could they tell his Disciples stole him away Or if they did steal him what could they take away more then a carcase He is risen he is not here If an Angel had not said it yet the Earthquake the Clothes the Grave it self did speak without an epitaph Or if these were silent yet where such strange impossibilities are brought in to colour and promote it a Lie doth confute it self and Malice helpeth to confirm the Truth For it we have a verdict given up by Cephas and the twelve 1 Cor. 15.5 we have a cloud of witnesses even five hundred brethren and more who saw him We have a cloud of bloud too the testimony of Martyrs who took their death on it so certain of this Truth that they sealed to it with their bloud and because they could not live to publish it proclaimed it by the loss of life And can we have better evidence Yes we have a surer word the word of God himself a surer verdict then of a Jury a better witness then five hundred a louder testimony then the bloud of Martyrs And we have our Faith too which will make all difficulties easie and conquereth all And therefore we cannot complain of distance or that we are so many ages removed from the time wherein it was done For now Christ risen is become a more obvious object then before The diversity of the Mediums have increased and multiplied him We see him through the bloud of Martyrs and we see him in his Word and we see him by the eye of Faith Christ is risen according to the Scriptures 1 Cor. 15. Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem saith S. Augustine When the Jews stumbled at him he presented but the bigness of a stone but our Infidelity can find no excuse if we see him not now he appeareth as visible as a mountain Christ then is risen from the dead And we have but touched upon it to give you one word of the day in the Day it self But that our Easter may be a feast indeed and our rejoycing not in vain let us as the Apostle speaketh go on to perfection and make a further search to find the reason of our joy in the power of his resurrection And what is the power of his resurrection The Apostle telleth us it was a mighty power Eph. 1.19 Indeed it rent the rocks and shook the earth and opened the graves and forced up the dead bodies of the Saints We may adde It made the Law give place and the Shadows vanish it abolished the Ceremonies broke down the Altars levelled the Temple with the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great wonders all Magnitudo virtutis ostenditur in effectu The greatness of power is most legible in the effects it worketh And here the volume is so great that the world cannot contain it Come see saith the Angel the place where the Lord lay A Lord he was though in his grave And by the same power he raised both himself and us By the same power he shook the earth and will shake the heaven also Heb. 13. disannulled the Law and established the Gospel broke down one alter and set up another abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 shall raise our vile bodies and shall raise our vile souls Shall raise them He hath done it already Conresuscitavit saith the Apostle Eph. 2.6 we are raised together with him both in soul and body and all by the power of his resurrection For 1. Christ's Resurrection is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at least an exemplary cause of our spiritual rising from the death of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene Christ is risen from the dead that we may follow after him we who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 planted together in the likeness of his death Rom. 6.5 dead to our lusts as he was to the functions and operations of life and planted with him in the likeness of his resurrection rising and exalting our selves and triumphing over Sin and Death so grafted in him that we may spring and grow green and blossom and bring forth fruit both alike and by the same power Now as Christ's Resurrection is a patern of our soul's resurrection so is it of our bodie 's also For we are not of Hymenaeus and Philetus mind to think the resurrection past already and make it but an Allegory No Christ hath cast the model of our bodie 's Resurrection also Plato's Idea and common Form by which he thought all other things had their exsistence was but a dream This is a real patern The Angel descended at his and shall at ours He is risen in our nature Isaac's figurative Resurrection
and casteth us on the ground and maketh us fome at our mouths fome out our own shame it casteth us into the fire and water burneth and drowneth us in our lusts And if it bid us Do this we do it We are perjured to save our goods beat down a Church to build us a banquetting-house take the vessels of the Sanctuary to quaff in fling away eternity to retain life and are greater devils that we may be the greater men Whilest Sin reigneth in our mortal bodies the curse of Canaan is upon us we are servi servorum the slaves of slaves And if we will judge aright there is no other slavery but this Now empti estis By the power of Christ these chains are struck off For he therefore bought us with a price that we should no longer be servants unto Sin but be a peculiar people unto himself full of good works which are the ensigns and flags of liberty which they carry about with them whose feet are enlarged to run the wayes of God's commandments Again there is a double Dominion of Sin a dominion to Death and a dominion to Difficulty a power to slay us and a power to hold us that we shall not easily escape And first if we touch the forbidden fruit we dye if we sin our sin lieth at the door ready to devour us For he saith our Saviour that committeth sin is the servant of sin obnoxious to all those penalties which are due to sin under the sentence of death His head is forfeited and he must lay it down Ye are dead saith S. Paul in trespasses and sins not onely dead as having no life no principle of spiritual motion not able to lift up an eye to heaven but dead as we say in Law having no right nor title but to death we may say heirs of damnation And then Sin may hold us and so enslave us that we shall love our chains and have no mind to sue for liberty that it will be very difficult which sometimes is called in Scripture Impossibility to shake off our fetters Sin gaining more power by its longer abode in us first binding us with it self and then with that delight and profit which it bringeth as golden chains to tye us faster to it self and then with its continuance with its long reign which is the strongest chain of all But yet empti estis Christ hath laid down the price and bought us and freed us from this dominion hath taken away the strength of Sin that it can neither kill us nor detain us as its slaves and prisoners There is a power proceedeth from him which if we make use of as we may neither Death nor Sin shall have any dominion over us a power by which we may break those chains of darkness asunder Look up upon him with that faith of which he was the authour and finisher and the victory is ours Bow to his Sceptre and the Kingdom of Sin and Death is at an end For though he hath bought us with a price yet he put it not into the hands of those fools who have no heart but laied it down for those who will with it sue out their freedom in this world For that which we call liberty is bondage and that which we call bondage is freedom Rom. 6.20 When we were the servants of sin we were free from righteousness and we thought it a glorious liberty But this Liberty did enslave us Prov. 10.24 For that which the wicked feared shall come upon him They that built the tower of Babel did it that they might not be scattered and they were scattered say the Rabbies in this world and in the world to come So whilest men pursue their unlawful desires that they may be free by pursuing them they are enslaved enslaved in this world and in the world to come But let us follow the Apostle But now being made free from sin Rom. 6.22 you are servants unto God See here a service which is liberty and liberty which is bondage the same word having divers significations as it is placed And let us sue out Liberty in its best sense in foro misericordiae in the Court of Mercy Behold here is the price the bloud of Christ And you have your Charter ready drawn If the Son make you free John 8.36 Acts 16. that is buy you with a price ye shall be free indeed Which words are like that great earthquake when Paul and Sylas prayed and sung Psalms At the very hearing of them the foundation of Hell shaketh and every mans chains are loosed For every man challengeth an interest in the Son and so layeth claim to this freedom Every man is a Christian and so every man free The price is laid down and we may walk at liberty It fareth with us as with men who like the Athenians hearken after news Whilest we make it better we make it worse and lose our Charter by enlarging it But if we will view the Text we may observe there is one word there which will much lessen this number and point out to them as in chains who talk and boast so much of freedom And it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye shall be free indeed not in shew or persuasion For Opinion and Phansie will never strike off these chains but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really substantially free and indeed not free 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in appearance or in a dream which they may be whose damnation sleepeth not Many persuade themselves into an opinion they call it an Assurance of freedom when they have sold themselves Many sleep as S. Peter did between the two souldiers bound with these chains Many thousands perish in a dream build up to themselves an assurance which they call their Rock and from this rock they are cast down into the bottomless pit and that which is proposed as the price of their liberty hath been made a great occasion to detain them in servitude and captivity which is the more heavy and dangerous because they call it Freedom Therefore we must once more look back upon that place of S. John and there we shall find that they shall be free whom the Son maketh free So that the reality and truth of our freedom dependeth wholly upon his making us free If he make us free if we come out of his hand formed by his Word and transformed by the virtue of the price he gave for us then we shall be free indeed If we have been turned upon his wheel we shall be vessels of honour And now it will concern us to know aright what the meaning of his buying is and the manner how he maketh us free 1 Cor. 7.23 By Purchase by buying us with a price and so it is here Col. 2.14 By Taking away the hand-writing which was against us and nailing it to his cross Eph. 5.2 By Satisfaction being made a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God for us But then also
we sit down aâ—d dispute As he is a Saviour we will find him work enough but as he is a Lord we will do nothing When we hear he is a Stone we think onely that he is LAPIS FUNDAMENTALIS a sure stone to build on or LAPIS ANGULARIS a corner stone to draw together and unite things naturally incompatible as Man and God the guilty person and the Judge the Sinner and the Law-giver and quite forget that he may be LAPIS OFFENSIONIS a stone of offence to stumble at a stone on which we may be broken and which may fall upon us and dash us to pieces And so not looking on the Lord we shipwreck on the Saviour For this is the great mistake of the world To separate these two terms Jesus and the Lord and so handle the matter as if there were a contradiction in them and these two could not stand together Love and Obedience nay To take Christ's words out of his mouth and make them ours MISERICORDIAM VOLO NON SACRIFICIUM We will have mercy and no sacrifice We say he is the Lord it is our common language And though we are taught to forget our Liturgy yet we remember well enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Lord have mercy And here Mercy and Lord kiss each other We say the Father gave him power and we say he hath power of himself Psal 2. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance saith God to Christ And Christ saith I and the Father are one We believe that he shall judge the world John 5.22 and we read that the Father hath committed this judgment to the Son Dedit utique generando non largiendo God gave him this commission when he begat him and then he must have it by his eternal generation as the Son of God So Ambrose But S. Augustine is peremptory Whatsoever in Scripture is said to be committed to Christ belongeth to him as the Son of Man Here indeed may seem to be a distance but in this rule they meet and agree God gave his commission to Christ as Man but he had not been capable of it it he had not been God As he is the Son of God he hath the capacity as the Son of man the execution Take him as Man or take him as God this Jesus is the Lord. Cùm Dominus dicatur unus agnoscitur saith Ambrose There is but one Faith Vers 4 5 6. and but one Lord. In this chapter operations are from God gifts from the Spirit and administrations from the Lord. Christ might well say You call me Lord and Master and so I am a Lord as in many other respects so jure redemtionis by the right of Redemption and jure belli by way of conquest His right of Dominion by taking us out of slavery and bondage is an easie Speculation For who will not be willing to call him Lord who by a strong arm and mighty power hath brought him out of captivity Our Creation cost God the Father no more but a DIXIT He spake the word and it was done But our Redemption cost God the Son his most precious bloud and life onely that we might fall down and worship this our Lord A Lord that hath shaken the powers of the Grave and must shake the powers of thy soul A Lord to deliver us from Death and to deliver us from Sin to bring life and immortality to light and to order our steps and teach us to walk to it to purchase our pardon and to give us a Law to save us that he may rule us and to rule us that he may save us We must not hope to divide Jesus from the Lord for if we do we lose them both Save us he will not if he be not our Lord and if we obey him not Our Lord he is still and we are under his power but under that power which will bruise us to pieces And here appeareth that admirable mixture of his Mercy and Justice tempered and made up in the rich treasury of his Wisdom his Mercy in pardoning sin and his Justice in condemning sin in his flesh Rom 8.3 and in our flesh his Mercy in covering our sins and his Justice in taking them away his Mercy in forgetting sins past and his Justice in preventing sin that it come no more his Mercy in sealing our pardon and his Justice in making it our duty to sue it out For as he would not pardon us without his Son's obedience to the Cross no more will he pardon us without our obedience to his Gospel A crucified Saviour and a mortified sinner a bleeding Jesus and a broken heart a Saviour that died once unto sin and a sinner dead unto sin Rom. 6.10 these make that heavenly composition and reconcile Mercy and Justice and bring them so close together that they kiss each other For how can we be free and yet love our fetters how can we be redeemed from sin that are sold under sin how can we be justified that resolve to be unjust how can we go to heaven with hell about us No Love and Obedience Hope and Fear Mercy and Justice Jesus and the Lord are in themselves and must be considered by us as bound together in an everlasting and undivided knot If we love his Mercy we shall bow to his Power If we hope for favour we shall fear his wrath If we long for Jesus we shall reverence the Lord. Unhappy we if he had not been a Jesus and unhappy we if he had not been a Lord Had he not been the Lord the world had been a Chaos the Church a Body without a Head a Family without a Father an Army without a Captain a Ship without a Pilot and a Kingdom without a King But here Wisdom and Mercy and Justice Truth and Peace Reconcilement and Righteousness Misery and Happiness Earth and Heaven meet together and are concentred even in this everlasting Truth in these three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. And thus much of the Lesson which we are to learn We come now to our task and to enquire What it is to say it It is soon said It is but three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. The Indian saith it and the Goth saith it and the Persian saith it totius mundi una vox CHRISTUS est Christ Jesus is become the language of the whole world The Devils themselves did say it Matth. 8.29 Jesus thou Son of God And if the Heretick will not confess it dignus est clamore daemonum convinci saith Hilary What more fit to convince an Heretick then the cry of the Devils themselves Acts 19. The vagabond Jews thought to work miracles with these words And we know those virgins who cried Lord Lord open unto us were branded with the name of fools and shut out of doors Whilest we are silent we stand as it were behind the wall we lie
weighs the simplicity and severity of Christian religion from whence it should come to pass that many Christians surpass even Turks and Jews in fraud deceit and cruelty And the resolution is almost as strange For by the policy of Satan our very Religion is suborn'd to destroy it self which freely offering mercy to all offenders many hence take courage to offend more and more pardon being so near at hand They dare be worse then Turks upon this bare encouragement that they are Christians So that to that of S. Paul Rom. 7. Sin took an occasion by the Law we may adde Sin takes an occasion by the Gospel and so deceiveth us It is possible for an Atheist to walk by that light which he brought with him into the world Even Diagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might have been an honest man For that Wisdom vvhich guides us in our common actions of morality is nothing else saith Tully but ratio adulta perfecta Reason improved and perfected But the Christian hath the advantage of another light another lavv a light which came down from heaven and a royal Law to vvhich if he take heed he cannot go astray Miserable errour shall I call it It is too good a name It is Folly and Madness thus to be bankrupt with our riches to be weaker for our helps to be blinded with light in montes impingere as S. Augustine speaks having so much light to run upon such visible palpable and mountanous evils to enter the gates of our enemies as friends and think our selves in Dothan when we are in the midst of Samaria Let us not deceive our selves which were bought with a price and redeemed from errour Let us not flatter our selves to destruction It is not the name of Christian that will save us no more then Epictetus his lamp could make a Philosopher Nay it is not the name of Christ that can save us if we dishonour it and make it stink amongst the Canaanites and Perizzites among Turks and Jews and Infidels Behold thou art called a Christian and restest in the Gospel and makest thy boast of Christ If thou art a Christian then know also thou art the Temple of Christ not onely in which he dwells but out of which he utters his oracles to instruct others in the wayes of truth If thou art a Christian thou art a member of Christ a member not a sword to wound thy sick brother unto death The folly of thy wayes thy confidence in errour doth make the Turk smile and the Jew pluck the veil yet closer to his face It is a sad truth but a truth it is This stamping Religion with our own mark and setting upon it what image and superscription we please hath done more hurt to Christianity then all the persecutions for Christ to this day These by diminishing the number of Christians have increased it and by the blessing of God have added to the Church from day to day such as should be saved The Sword and the Flame have devoured the Christian but this is a gulff to swallow up Christianity it self What Seneca spake of Philosophy is true of Religion Fuit aliquando simplicior inter minora peccantes When men did frame and square their lives by the simplicity and plainness of the rule it was not so hard and busie a thing and there were fewer errours when the greatest errour was Impiety But after by degrees it began to spend and wast it self in hot and endless disputations one faction prescribing to another and promulging their dictates as Laws which many times were nothing else but the trophies of a prevailing side waxing worse and worse deceiving and being deceived And now all is heat and words and our Religion for the most part if I may so speak is a negative religion hath no positive reality in it at all Not to be a Papist is to be a Christian not to love the picture is to be a Saint not to love a Bishop is to be a Royal Priesthood not to be a Brownist or Anabaptist is to be Orthodox Should a Pagan stand by and behold our conversation he might well say Where is now their God Where is their Religion Thus hath the Church of Christ suffer'd from her own children from those who suck her breasts She had stretched her curtains further to receive in those who were without had they not been frighted back by the disconsonancy and horrour of their lives whom they saw in her bosome and she had had many mo children had not they who called her Mother been so ill-shapen and full of deformity and that is verified in her which was said of Julius Caesar Plures illum amici confoderunt quà m inimici She hath received more wounds from her friends then from her enemies Last of all This Errour in life and conversation this wilfull mistake of the rule we should walk by is an errour of the foulest aspect of greater allay then any other For in some things licet nescire quae nescimus it is lawfull to erre Errour in it self having no moral culpable deformity In some things oportet nescire quae nescimus we must not be too bold to seek lest we loose our way Some things are beside us some things are above us some things are not to be known and some things are impertinent In some things we erre and sin not for errantis nulla est voluntas saith the Law He that hath no knowledge hath no will But Self deceit in the plain and easie duties of our life is so far from making up an excuse that it aggravates our sin and makes it yet more sinfull For we blind our selves that we may fall into the ditch we will erre that we may sin with the less regret we place our Reason under the inferiour part of our soul that it may not check us when we are reaching at the forbidden fruit we say unto Reason as the Legion of Devils said to our Saviour What have we to do with thee art thou come to torment us before our time Art thou come to blast our delights to take the crown of roses from off our heads to retard and shackle us when we are making forward towards the mark to remove that which our eye longeth after to forbid that which vve desire and to command us to hate that vvhich vve best love We persuade down Reason vve chide down Reason vve reason down Reason and vvill be unreasonable that vve may be vvorse then the beasts that perish First vve vvash our hands vvith Pilate and then deliver up Jesus to be crucified Therefore thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that thus deceivest thy self Yea so far is this Self-deceit from making up an excuse that it deserveth no pity For vvho vvill pity him vvho is vvilling to be deceived vvho makes haste to be deceived vvho makes it his crown and glory to be deceived Had it been an enemy that deceived me or had it been a friend
welcome Come ye Blessed children of my Father receive the kingdome and Blessedness which was prepared for you from the beginning of the world The Five and Thirtieth SERMON COLOS. III. 1. If then you be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God THe Resurrection of the dead is the prop and stay the very life and soul of a Christian Illam credentes sumus saith Tertullian By believing this we have our being and are that which we are and without this it were better for us not to be If there be no resurrection of the dead saith the Apostle then are we of all men most miserable Now much better were it for us not to be at all then to be miserable For let us take a general survay not as Solomon doth in the book of the Preacher of all the pleasures in the world but of all the virtues of a Christian onely deny the Resurrection of the dead and what are they else but extreme vanity and vexation of the spirit To cleanse our hearts and wash our hands in innocency to hold a strict watch over all our ways to deny unto our selves the joyes and pleasures of the world to pine our bodies with fasting to bestow our hours on devotion our goods on the poor and our bodies on the fire this and whatsoever else is so full of terrour to the outward man and so full of irksomness to the flesh what may it seem to be but a kind of madness if when this little span of our life be measured out there remain no crown no reward of it if after so many strivings with our selves so many agonies so many crucifyings of our selves so many pantings for life we must in the end breath out our last But beloved Christ is risen and our faith in his Resurrection is an infallible demonstration and a most certain pledge to us that we shall rise as he hath done Of which that we may the better assure our selves we must observe that as S. Paul tells us As we have born the image of the earthy so must we bear the image of the heavenly so on the contrary we must make an account that as we hope to bear the image of the heavenly so must we first bear the image of the earthy and if we will bear a part in the resurrection to glory which is a heavenly resurrection we must have our part in a resurrection to grace which is a resurrection here on earth S. John distinguishes for me in his Revelation Ch. 20.5.6 Blessed is he that hath his part in the first resurrection And he that hath none there shall bear at all no part in the second resurrection As it is with us in nature at the end of our dayes there is a death and after that a resurrection so is it with us in grace yet the days of sin can have an end in us there is a death For the Apostle tells us we are dead to sin and we are buried with him in Baptisme Then after this death to sin cometh the resurrection to newness of life Mors perire est resurgere restingui nisi mors mortem resurrectio resurrectionem antecedat To die is quite to perish to rise again worse then to have lien for ever rotting in the grave if this first death go not before a second death and this first resurrection before the second Secondly as in our life time we die and rise again with Christ so do we likewise in a manner ascend with him into heaven For to seek those things which are above is a kind of flight and ascension of the Soul into heavenly places And as God commanded Moses before he died to ascend up into the mountain Deut. 32.49 to see a far off and discover that good land which he had promised to the Jews So it it his pleasure that through holy conversation and newness of life we should raise our selves far above the rest of the world and in this life time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzene speaks as it were from an exceeding high mountain discover and have some sight of that good land and of those good things which God hath laid up for those which are his Hebr. 6. So by the Apostle our regeneration and amendment of life that is our first resurrection is called a taste of the good spirit and word of God a relish and taste of the powers of the world to come Now of this first Resurrection doth our blessed Apostle speak in these words which I have read unto you If you be risen with Christ seek those things which are above Which speech though it go with an If and therefore seems to be conditional yet if we look neerer into it we shall find that indeed it is a peremptory and absolute command in effect as if he had said Rise with Christ and seek the things which are above Acts 12. And as the Angel said to Peter being in prison Arise up quickly at which words the chains fell off from Peters hands so God by his blessed Apostle comes to us who are in a stricter prison and commands us in the first words Arise quickly and in the next seek the things which are above and so makes as it were the chains fall off our hands and delivers us out of prison into the glorious liberty of the Saints of God For the things of this world and our love unto them are fetters to our feet and manacles to our hands holding us down groveling on the earth And except these chains fall off we can never Arise and follow the Angel as Peter did When Elias in a whirlwind went up to heaven the text tells us that his mantle fell from him And he that will go up into heaven with Elias 2 Kings 2. and seek the things that are above cannot go with his cloke thither he must be content to leave his mantle below forgo all things that are beneath and as S. Hierome speaks nudam crucem nudus sequi follow the naked cross naked and stript from all the glory and pomp of the world Now this part of Scripture which I have read is a part of the practice of our spiritual Logick for it teacheth us to frame an argument or reason by which we may conclude unto our selves that our first resurrection is past For if we seek the things which are above then are we risen with Christ if not we are in our graves still our souls are putrified and corrupt And again If we be risen with Christ then as Christ at his resurrection left in his grave the cloths wherein he was buried so these things of the world in which we lye as it were dead and buried at our resurrection to newness of life we must leave unto the world which was the grave in which we lay As it is in arched buildings all the stones do enterchangeably and mutually rest upon and hold
this they did contradict themselves who brought in their Wiseman sensless of pain even on the rack and wheel When the Body is an unprofitable burden unserviceable to the Soul oportet educere animam laborantem we ought to do drive the Soul out of such an useless habitation Cum non sis quod esse velis non est quod ultrà sies When thou art what thou shouldst be there is no reason thou shouldst be any longer Quare mori voluerim quaeris En quia vivam Would you know the reason why I would dye The onely reason is because I do live These were the speeches of men strangers from the common-wealth of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of those who were without without Christ and so without God in this world But the Christian keeps his station and moves not from it injussu Imperatoris but when the Lord of all the world commands who hath given us a Soul to beautifie and perfect with his graces but hath not given us that power over it when it is disquieted and vexed as he hath given to the Magistrate over us if we offend and break the peace of the common-wealth Qui seipsum occidit est homicida si est homo He that kills himself is a murderer and homicide if he be a man And he that thus desires death desires it not to that end for which it is desireable to be with Christ but to be out of the world which frowns upon him and handles him too roughly which he hath not learnt to withstand nor hath will to conquer This desire is like that of the damned that hills might cover them and mountains fall on them that they migâ—â— be no more No this desire of S. Paul is from the heaven heavenly drawn from that place where his conversation was wrought in him by the will of God and bowing in submission to his will a longing and panting after that rest and sabbath which remains after that crown which was laid up for him And this Desire filled the hearts of all those who with S. Paul loved God in sincerity and truth in whom the Soul being of a divine extraction and like unto God and cleaving and united to him had a kind of striving and inclination to the things above and was restless and unquiet till it came to rest in him who is the centre of all good Here they acted their parts in the world as on a stage contemned hated reviled it trod it under foot and longed for their exit to go out Vae mihi quia incolatus meus prolongatus est saith David Wo is me that I sojourn in it any longer So Elias who could call down fire from heaven give laws to the clouds and shut and open heaven when he would cryes out unto God It is enough Take away my life for I am not better then my fathers And this affection the Gospel it self instills into us in that solemn Prayer Thy kingdome come wherein we desire saith Tertullian maturius regnare non diutiùs servire to reign in heaven sooner and not to stay longer and serve and drudge upon the earth Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death this whole state and generality of sins of Calamities and those evils which the world swarms with life brings along with it So Pharaoh speaking of the Locusts which were sent Intreat saith he the Lord your God to take away this death from me This desire that vvas in S. Paul in some degree possesseth the heart of every regenerate person and is nourished and fomented in them by the operarion of the blessed Spirit as a right spirit a spirit of Love vvorking in us the Love of God and as a spirit of Peace filling our hearts vvith Peace making our conscience a house of Peace as the Ark of God as the Temple of Solomon where no noise was heard We love Christ and would be there where his honour dwelleth our conscience is at rest and we have confidence in God Now first to love God is not a duty of so quick despatch as some imagin It is not enough to speak good of his name to call upon him in the time of trouble to make laws against those which take his name in vain to give him thanks for that he never did and will certainly punish to make our boast of him all the day long For do not even hypocrites and Pharisees the same But to love him is to do his will and keep his commandments John 17. By this we glorifie him I have glorified thee on earth saith Christ and the interpretation follows I have finished the work thou gavest me to do that is I have preached thy law declared thy will publisht both thy promises and precepts by the observation of which men may love thee and long after thee and be delivered from the fear of death Idem velle idem nolle ea demùm est firma amicitia then are we truly servants and friends to God when we have the same will when we have no will of own The sting of Death is sin and there is no way to take it out to spoil this King of terrour of his power but by subduing our Affections to our Reason the Flesh to the Spirit and surrendring up our wills unto God Then we dare look Death in the face and ask him Where is thy terrour Where is thy sting God loves them that love him nay he cannot but love them bearing his Image and being his workmanship in Christ And he that is thus loved and thus loves cannot but hasten and press forward and fly like the Doves as the Prophet speaketh to the windows of heaven It is a famous speech of Martin Luther Homo perfectè credens se esse haeredem Dei non diu superstes merueret A man that perfectly and upon sure grounds doth believe himself to be the child and heir of God would not long survive that assurance but would be swallowed up and dye of immoderate joy This is that transformation and change by which our very nature is altered Now Heaven is all and the World is Nothing All the rivers of pleasures vvhich this world can yield cannot quench this love What is Beauty to him that delights in the face of God what is Riches to him vvhose treasure is in heaven vvhat is Honour to him vvho is candidatus Angelorum vvhose ambition is to be like unto the Angels This true unfeigned Love ravisheth the soul and setteth it as it were in heavenly places This makes us living dying men nay dead before we depart not sensible of Pleasures which flatter us of Injuries vvhich are thrown upon us of Miseries vvhich pinch us having no eye no ear no sense no heart for the world vvilling to loose that being which vve have in this shop of vanities and to be loosed that vve may be with Christ Secondly this Love of God and this Obedience to his will
his own Like a man a man of sorrows a worm and no man a despised rejected man He will have us call him so he hath put it into our Creed and counts it no disparagement He set a time for it and when the appointed time came he was made like unto us and all generations may speak it to his glory to the end of the world Before he appeared darkly wrapped up in Types veiled in Dreams beheld in Visions That hee appeareth in the likeness of our flesh that he appeareth and speaketh and suffereth in our flesh is the high prerogative of the Gospel And here he publisheth himself in every way of representation 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our Image or likeness in the form of a servant our very picture a living picture a picture drawn out to life indeed such a picture as one man is of another 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of Comparison For how hath he spread and dilated himself by a world of comparisons He is a Shepherd to guide and feed us a Captain to lead us a Prophet to teach us He is a Priest and he is the Sacrifice for us He is Bread to strengthen us a Vine to refresh us a Lamb that we may be meek a Lion that we may be valiant a Worm that we may be patient a Door to let us in and the Way through which we pass into life He is any thing that will make us like him Sin and Error and the Devil have not appeared in more shapes to deceive and destroy us then Christ hath to save us 3. Lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his exemplary Virtues and those raised to such a high pitch of perfection that neither the cursed Hereticks nor the miscreant Turk nor the Devil himself could reach and blemish it Never was Righteousness in its vertical point but in him where it cast not the least shadow for Envy or Detraction to walk in Amongst all the Heresies the Church was to cope withal we read of none that called his piety into question And all this for our sakes that in his Meekness we may shut up our Anger in his Humility abate our Pride in his Patience still and charm our Frowardness in his Bounty spend our selves in his Compassion and Bowels melt our stony hearts and in his perfect Obedience beat down our Rebellion He appeared not in the Cloud or the fiery Pillar not in Darkness and Tempest not in those wayes of his which are as hard to finde out as the passage of an arrow in the air 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 tell the Christians they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betray too great a folly in believing it but even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Justine Martyr speaketh Christians themselves and children of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzene calls them ill lovers of Christ who did rob him with a complement and to uphold his honour did devest him of his Deity Marcian and Valentinus could not endure to hear that Christ took the same nature and substance with Man but will have him to have brought a body from heaven The Manichees would not yield so much but ran into the phansie of an aereous imaginary body Arius circumscribed him within the nature of Man and brought him within the circle and circumgyration of Time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There was a time when he was not was an article of his Creed Nestorius did not in terminis divide Christ into two Persons but denying the Communication of Idiomes did in effect bring in what he seemed to deny a Duality of Sons Homo Christus nascitur non Deus The Man Christ was born not God saith he And it was his common proverb Noli gloriari Judaee The Jew had no cause to boast who had crucified not the Lord of life but a man Bimestrem trimestrem Deum nunquam confitebor was his reply to Cyril at Ephesus and so he flung out of the Councel Whilest with great shew of piety and reverence they stood up to remove from God the Nature they unadvisedly put upon him the Weakness of Man drew him out to our distempers and sick constitution as if God were like unto us in our worst complexion who are commonly very tender and dainty what likeness we take and affect that similitude alone which presents us greater and fairer than we are 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 largeness and height of the 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 as to take the likeness of a mortal though he tell us so himself yet we will not believe it Which is to measure out the immense Goodness and Wisdome of God by our digit and scantling by the imaginary line of a wanton and sick phansie to bound and limit his determinate will by a piece of sophistry and subtle wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phot. to teach God to put our own 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 into pieces But we have not so learned Christ not learned to abuse and violate his great love and to call it good manners not to make shipwrack of our faith and then to urge our fears and unprescribed and groundless jealousies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why should we fear where no fear is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene Shall his honour be the less because he hath laid it down for our sakes 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 Shepherd 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 lights a candle 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
Christ in his shame in his sorrow in his agony take him hanging on the cross take him and take a pattern by him that as he was so we may be troubled for our sins that we may mingle our tears with his blood drag Sin to the bar accuse and condemn it revile and spit in its face at the fairest presentment it can make and then nail it to the cross that it may languish and faint by degrees till it give up the ghost and die in us Then lye we down in peace in the grave and expect a glorious resurrection when we shall receive Christ not in humility but in Majesty and with him all his riches and abundance all his promises even Glory and Immortality and Eternal life A SERMON Preached on Easter-Day REV. I. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of Death WE do not ask Of whom speaketh S. John this or Who is he that speaketh it For we have his character drawn out in lively colours in the verses going before my Text. The Divine calls him a voyce ver 12. when he meaneth the man who spake it I turned to see the voyce that spoke with me and in the next verse telleth us he was like to the Son of man in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks governing his Church Lev. 26.11 12. setting his Tabernacle amongst men not abhorring to walk amongst them and to be their God that they might be his people Will you see his robes and attire Clothed he was with a garment down to the foot v. 13. which was the garment of the High Priest Hebr. 7.24 And his was an unchangeable Priesthood He had also a golden girdle or belt as a King For he is a King for ever and of his kingdome there shall be no end Luk. 1.33 Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loyns and faithfulness the girdle of his reins Isa 11.5 His head and his hairs were white as woll and as white as snow v. 14. his Judgment pure and uncorrupt not byassed by outward respects not tainted or corrupted by any turbulent affection but smooth and even as waters are when no wind troubleth them His eyes 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 brass v. 15. sincere and constant like unto himself in all his proceedings in every part of his Oeconomy His voyce as the sound of many waters 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 Hebr. 4.12 but discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart and taking vengeance on those who persecute his Church His Majesty dazled every mortal eye his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength And now of him who walketh in the midst of his Church whose Mercy is a large robe reaching down to the feet who is girt with Power and clothed with Justice whose Wisdome pierceth even into darkness it self whose Word is heard from one end of the world to the other whose Majesty displayeth its beams through every corner of it we cannot but confess with Peter This is Christ Matth. 16.16 John 6.69 Hagg. 2.7 the Son of the living God And can the Saviour of the world the Desire of all nations the Glory of his Father Beauty it self appear in such a shape of terrour Shall we draw out a merciful Redeemer with a warriours belt with eyes of fire with feet of brass with a voyce of terrour with a sharp two-edged sword in his mouth Yes Such a High Priest became us Hebr. 7.26 who is not onely merciful but just not onely meek but powerful not only fair but terrible not onely clothed with the darkness 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 condemn the world it self S. John indeed was troubled at this sight and fell down as dead but Christ rouzeth him up and biddeth him shake of that fear 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 powerful Non accepimus iratum sed fecimus He is not angry till we force him It is rather our sins that run back again upon us as Furies than his wrath These make him clothe himself with vengeance and draw his sword To S. John to those that bow before him he is all sweetness all grace all salvation and upon these as upon S. John he layeth his right hand quickneth and rouzeth them up Fear not v. 17. neither my girdle of Justice nor my eyes of fire nor my feet of brass nor my mighty voyce 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 powerful 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 am alive for evermore c. These words I may call as Tertullian doth the Lord's Prayer breviarium Evangelii the Breviary or Sum of the whole Gospel or with Augustine Symbolum abbreviatum the Epitome or Abridgement of our Creed And such a short Creed we find in Tertullian which he calls Regulam veram immobilem irreformabilem the sole immutable and unalterable rule of Faith And then the Articles or parts will be 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 It is to all eternity I am alive for evermore 4. The Power of Christ which he purchased by his death the Power of the keyes I have the keyes of Hell and of Death And all these are 1. ushered in with an ECCE Behold that we may consider it and 2. sealed and ratified with an AMEN that we may believe it that there be not in any of us as the Apostle speaketh an unbelieving heart to depart from the living God Hebr. 3.11 I am he that liveth and was dead Of the Death of Christ we spake the last day Par. 1. We shall onely now look upon it in reference to the Resurrection and consider it as past For it is FVI MORTVVS 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 from suffering to glory from death to life Tota ecclesia cum Christo computatur ut una persona Hebr. 2.10 Christ and his Church are in computation but one person He ought to suffer and they ought to suffer They suffer in him and he in them Luke 24.26 to the end of the world Nor is any other method answerable either to his infinite Wisdome and Justice which hath set it down in indeleble characters or to our mortal and frail condition which must be bruised before it can be healed and be levelled with the ground before it can be raised up Quicquid Deo convenit homini prodest saith Tertullian 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 Luke 24.26 He ought and we ought first to suffer and then to enter into glory to die first that we may rise again First it cannot consist with the Wisdome of God that Christ should suffer and die and that we might live as we please and then reign with him and so pass à deliciis in delicias from one paradise to another that he should overcome the Devil for those who will be his vassals that he should foil him in his proud temptations for those who will not be humble and 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 Captain 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 Captain that leadeth us as Moses did the children of Israel through a wilderness 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 supposeth some dungeon or prison in which we formerly were whose rising looketh back into some grave Tolle certamen nè virtus quidem quicquam erit Take away this combat with our spiritual enemies with afflictions and tentations and Religion it self will be but a bare name and Christianity as Leo the tenth is said to have called it but a fable What were my Patience if no Pain did look towards it What were my Faith if there were no Doubt to assault 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 I was dead saith the Lord of life And his speech is directed to us who do but think we live being indeed 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 that are those locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit Rev. 9 3. And when we hear this voice and by the virtue and power of it look upon these and make a way through them we rise with Christ 1 John 5.4 our hope is lively and our faith is that victory which overcomeh the world Nor need this method seem grievous unto us For these very words I was dead may put life and light into it and commend it not onely as the truest but as a plain and easie method For by Christ's Death we must understand all those miseries that he suffered before which were as the train and ceremony of his Death as the officers of the High priest to lead him to it as Poverty Scorn and Contempt the Burden of our sins his Agony and bloody Sweat These 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 raise 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 Hebr. 4.15 2.17 but which is one and a chief end of his suffering and death who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and is merciful and faithful hath not only power for that he may have and not shew it but will and propension also 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 S. James his complemental charity Be ye warmed and Be ye filled and Be ye comforted Jam. 2.16 which leaveth us cold and empty and comfortless And Power without Mercy will neither strengthen a weak knee nor heal a broken heart It may as well strike us dead as revive us But Mercy and Power when they meet and kiss each other will work a miracle will uphold us when we fall and raise 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 sorrows 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 coeternal with him as God yet as Man he learnt them He came into the world as into a school and there learnt them by his sufferings and death Hebr. 5.8 For the way to be sensible of anothers misery is first to feel it 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 beggeth of me Luke 16. Luke 10.30 34. and then I give I must be that wounded man by the way-side and then I powre my oyl and wine into his wounds and take care of him I must feel the Hell of sin in my self before I can snatch my brother out of the fire Compassion is first learnt at home and then it walketh abroad Job 29.15 and is eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and so healeth two at once both the miserable and him that comforts him They were both under the same disease one as sick as the other I was dead and I suffered are the main strength of our salvation For though Christ could no more forget to be merciful then he could leave off to be
the Son of God yet before he emptyed himself and took upon him the form of a servant sicut miseriam expertus non erat ita nec misericordiam experimento novit saith Hilary as he had no experience of sorrow so had he no experimental knowledge of mercy and compassion His own Hunger moved him to work that miracle of the Loaves for it is said in the Text Matth. 15.32 He had compassion on the multitude His Poverty made him an Orator for the poor and he beggeth 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 sorrows 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 Col. 1.21 22. and hath reconciled us in the body of his flesh For he that suffered for us hath compassion on us and suffereth and is tempted with us even to the end of the world on the cross with S. Peter on the block with S. Paul in the fire with the Martyrs Hebr. 11.37 destitute afflicted tormented Would you take a view of Christ looking towards us with a melting eye You may see him in your own souls take him in a groan 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 telleth you He was dead he telleth you as much In as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood Hebr. 2.14 he also himself likewise took part of the same and in our flesh was hungry was spet upon was whipt was nayld to the cross which were as so many parts of that discipline which taught him to be merciful to be merciful to them who were tempted by hunger because he was hungry to be merciful to them who were tempted by poverty because he was poor to be merciful to those who tremble at disgrace because he was whipt to be merciful 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 pass from him who in the dayes of his flesh offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears for mortal men Hebr. 5.7 for weak men for sinners Pertinacissimè durant quae discimus experientiâ This experimental knowledge is so rooted and fixed in him that it cannot be removed now no more then his natural knowledge He can as soon be ignorant of our actions as of our sufferings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot. Anal. post l. 2. c. 19. Hebr. 5.8 Isa 53.3 Experience saith the Philosopher is a collection of many particulars registred in our memory And this experience Christ had and our Apostle telleth us he learnt it and the Prophet telleth us he was vir sciens infirmitatum a man well read in sorrows acquainted with grief one who carryed it about with him from his cradle to his cross And by his Fasting and Tentation by his Agony and bloody sweat by his precious Death and Burial he remembreth us in famine in tentation in our agony he remembreth us in the hour of death and in our grave for he pitieth even our dust and will remember us in the day of judgment 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 the end without it no peace without trouble no life without death Not that Life is the proper effect of Death for this clear stream floweth from a higher and purer fountain even from the Will of God who is the fountain of life which meeting with our Obedience which is the conformity of our will to God's maketh its way with power through fire and water as the Psalmist speaketh through poverty and contumelies through every cloud and tempest through darkness and death it self and so carryeth it on to end and triumph in life I was dead that was his state of Humility but I am alive that is his state of Glory and is in the next place to be considered I am he that liveth Christ hath spoken it who is Truth it self and we may take his word for it And if we will not believe him when he sayth 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 Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy one to see corruption Psal 16.10 For what stronger reason can there be found out in matters of faith then the Will and Pleasure of that God who bringeth mighty things to pass To this end S. Paul citeth the second Psalm and S. Peter the sixteenth And in this the humble soul 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 reach and rise 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. Jude's cloud Jude 14. carryed about with every wind wheeled and circled about from imagination to imagination now raysed to a belief and anon cast down into the midst of darkness now assenting anon doubting and at last pressed down by his own unstableness into the pit of Infidelity He that will not walk by that light which shineth upon him whilst he seeketh for more must needs stumble and fall at those stones of offence which himself hath laid in his own way Acts 26.8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead to life If such a thought arise in a Christian 9. Reason never set it up I verily thought with my self saith S. Paul 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 he is such a one as studieth 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 he seek for demonstration or that the Resurrection of Christ should be made manifest to the eye This is not to seek to confirm and establish but to destroy our faith For if these truths were as evident as it is that the Sun doth shine when it is day the apprehension of
We have also the testimony of Martyrs who took their death on 't and when they could not live to publish it laid down their life and sealed it with their Blood And therefore we on whom the ends of the world are come have no reason to complain of distance and that we are removed so many ages from the time wherein it was done For now Christ risen is become a more obvious object than before the diversity of mediums have increased and multiplyed it We see him in his Word we see him through the Blood of Martyrs and we see him with the eye of faith Christ is risen and alive 1 Cor. 15.3 4. secundum scripturas saith S. Paul and he repeateth it twice in the same chapter Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem it is S. Augustines and let it pass for his sake When the Jew stumbled at him he presented but the bigness of a stone but our Infidelity will find no excuse if we see him not now when he appeareth as visible as a mountain There is more in this VIVO than a bare rising to life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He liveth in as much as He giveth life There is vertue and power in his Resurrection a power to abolish Death 2 Tim. 1.10 and to bring life and immortality to light a power to raise our vile bodies and a power to raise our viler souls He will raise them nay he hath done it already Col. 2.12 3.1 We are risen together with him and we live with him We cannot think that he that made such haste out of his own grave can be willing to see us rotting in ours From this VIVO it is that though we dye yet we shall live again Christ's Living breatheth life into us In his Resurrection he cast the modell of ours Idea est eorum quae fiunt exemplar aeternum saith Seneca And this is such a one an eternal pattern Plato 's Idea or common Form by which he thought all things have their existence is but a dream to this This is a true and real an efficacious and working pattern For as an Artificer hath not lost his art when he hath finished one piece no more did Christ lose his power when he had raised himself but as he is so it is everlasting and worketh still to the end of the world Perfectum est exemplar minùs perfecti That which Christ wrought upon himself is most exact and perfect a fit pattern of that which he meaneth to work on us which will be like to his indeed but not so glorious And now VIVO I live is as loud to raise our Hope as the last trump will be to raise our Bodies And how shall they be able to hear the sound of the trump who will not hear the voice of their Saviour Christ's life derives its vertue and influence on both Soul and Body on the Body with that power which is requisite to raise a body now putrified and incinerated and well near annihilated and on the Soul with such a power as is fitted to a soul which hath both Understanding and Will though drawn and carried away from their proper operations for which they were made We do not read of any precept to bind us or any counsel â—o perswade us to contribute any thing or put a hand to the resurrection of our bodies nor can there be it will be done whether we will or no But to Awake from the pleasant sleep of sin to be Renewed and raised in the inward man to Die to sin and Live to righteousness we have line upon line and precept upon precept And though this Life of Christ work in us both the will and the deed Phil. 2.12 Phil. 2.13 yet a necessity and a law lieth upon us and wo will be unto us if we work not out our salvation By his power we are raised in both but not working after the same manner There will be a change in both As the flesh at the second so the soul at the first resurrection must be reformata Angelificata spiritualized refined and angelified or rather Christificata If I may so speak Christified drawing in no breath but Christs Phil. 2.5 Job 17.13 14 having the same mind which was in Christ Jesus Whilst our bed is in the darkness whilst Corruption is our father and the Worm our mother and sister we cannot be said to be risen and whilest all the alliance we have is with the World and it is both Father and Mother and Sister to us whilest we mind earthly things we are still in our graves nay in hell it self Death hath dominion over us For let us call the World what we please our Habitation our Delight our Kingdome where we would dwell for ever yet indeed it is but our Grave If we receive any influence from Christ's life we shall rise fairly not with a mouth which is a sepulchre but with a tongue which is our glory not with a withred hand but with a hand stretched out to the needy not with a gadding eye but an eye shut up by covenant not with an itching but with an obedient ear not with a heart of stone but with a heart after Gods own heart Our Life Col. 3.3 saith the Apostle is hid with Christ in God and whilest we leave it thereby a continual meditation of his meritorious suffering by a serious and practical application of his glorious resurrection we hide it in the bosome of Majesty and no dart of Satan can reach it When we hide it in the minerals of the earth in the love of the world the Devil who is the Prince of the world is there to seize on it when we hide it in malicious and wanton thoughts they are his baits to catch it when we hide it in sloth and idleness we hide it in a grave which he digged for us we entomb our selves alive and as much as in us lies bury the Resurrection it self But when we hide it in Christ we hide it in him who carrieth healing and life in his wings Mal. 4.2 When we worship God through Jesus Christ our Lord and put our life in his hands 2 Cor. 4.11 then the life of Jesus is made manifest in our mortal flesh then we have put off the old man yea in a manner put off our mortality we are candidati aeternitatis as Tertullian speaketh Candidates for eternity and stand for a place with Abraham and Isaac for we have the same God and he is not the God of the dead Matth. 21.32 but of the living We see now what virtue and power there is in this VIVO in the Life of Christ But we must rise yet higher even as high as Eternity it self Hebr. 6.20 Hebr. 7.16 For as he liveth so behold he is alive for evermore a Priest for ever and a King for ever being made not after the law of a carnal commandment after that law which was given to
men that one should succeed another but after the power of an endless life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a life that cannot be dissolved that cannot part from the body And thus as he liveth for evermore so whatsoever issueth from him is like himself everlasting the beams as lasting as the light His Word endureth for ever his Law is eternal his Intercession eternal his Punishments eternal and his Reward eternal Not a Word which can fall to the ground like ours who fall after it and within a while breathe out our souls as we do our words and speak no more Not Laws 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 Psal 62.11 aeternae ab aeterno eternal as he is eternal He hath spoken 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 Not a a transitory Punishment 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 into one and so make a temporary perishing everlastingness that shall last as long as it lasteth do stretch beyond their line which may reach the Right hand as well as the Left and do put an end to 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 floweth from Christ is like himself yesterday Hebr. 13.8 Hebr. 7.26 and to day and the same for ever And such an High Priest became us who was to live for ever For what should we do with a mortal Saviour or what could a mortal Saviour do for us What could an arm of 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 Job 14.10 and dieth man giveth 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 speaketh it freely that he is both dead and buried Acts 2.29 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 liveth for evermore And this title of Eternity is wrought in his Girdle and Garment may be seen in his Head and Eyes of fire adorneth 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 Goodness For that which is not eternal is next to nothing What Power is that which sinketh What Wisdome is that which faileth What Riches are they that perish What Mercy is that which is as the morning dew which soon falleth and is as soon exhaled and dryed up again Virtue were nothing Religion were nothing Faith it self were nothing but in reference to Eternity Heaven were nothing if it were not eternal Eternity is that which maketh every thing something maketh every thing better than it is and addeth lustre to Light it self I live evermore giveth life unto all things Eternity is a fathomless Ocean and carrieth with it Power and Wisdome and Goodness an efficacious Activity a gracious and benevolent Power a wise and provident Goodness If Christ live for evermore then is he independent if independent then most powerful if most powerful then blessed and if blessed then good He is powerful but good good but wise And these Goodness and Power and Wisdome and a diligent Care for us meet in him who liveth for evermore and worketh on us for our eternal salvation And first as he liveth for evermore so he intercedeth for us for evermore and he can no more leave to entercede for us than he can to be Christ His Priesthood must fail before his Intercession because this power of helping us is everlastingly and inseparably inherent in him St. Paul joyneth them together his Sitting at the right of God and his interceding for us Rom. 8.34 So that to leave interceding were to leave the right hand of God where he looketh down upon us is present with us and prepareth a place for us His wounds are still open his merits are still vocal 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 is more powerful than the full vials the incense the prayers the groans the sighs the roarings of all the Saints that have been or shall be to the end of the world If he sate not there if he interceded not they were but noise nay they were sins but his Intercession sanctifieth them and offereth them up and by him they are powerful By his power the sighs and breathings and desires of mortal men ascend the highest heavens and draw down eternity And this is a part of Christ's Priestly office which he began here on earth and continueth for us maketh it compleat holdeth it up to the 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 mortal Did he not live for evermore he could not threaten eternal death Nor promise everlasting life For no mortal power can rage for ever but passeth as lands do from one Lord to another lyeth heavy on them and at last sinketh 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 vvithin a determined period And this might open a vvide and effectual door unto Sin and but leave a sad and disconsolate entrance for Virtue and Piety vvhich is so unsatisfying to flesh and blood that the perseverance in it requireth no less a povver than that vvhich Eternity bringeth along with it to draw it on How bold and daring would men be before the Sun and the People What joy and delight vvould fill them did not the thought of a future endless estate pierce sometimes through them and so make some vent to let it out When the evil that hangeth over is but a cloud vvhich vvill soon vanish few men are so serious as to look about and seek for shelter Post mortem nihil est ipsáque mors nihil est There is nothing after death and Death it self is nothing setteth up a chair for the Atheist to set at ease in
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 Romish party wheresoever they find keys mentioned take them up and hang them on their Church But we must observe a difference betwixt the keyes of the kingdome of heaven Matth. 16.19 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 key of David Rev. 3.7 which openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth was not given to the Apostles but is a regality and prerogative of Christ who only hath power of Life and Death over Hell and the Grave who therefore calleth 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 sceptre out of prison into liberty and everlasting life The power is his alone and he made it his by his sufferings Phil. 2.8 9. He was obedient to death therefore God did highly exalt him Phil. 2.7 11. He became a Lord by putting on the form of a servant But he hath delegated his power to his Apostles and those that succeed them to make us capable and fit subjects for his power to work upon which nevertheless will have its operation and effect either let us out or 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 darkness and oblivion for ever But Christ living infuseth life into us that the bands 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 You may as well place Lucifer at the right hand of God as a true Christian in Hell For how can Light dwell in Darkness 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 be both true yet this is such a contradiction as unless Christ could die again which is impossible can never be reconciled Matth. 5.18 Heaven and earth may pass away but Christ liveth for evermore and the power and virtue of his Life is as everlasting as Everlastingness it self Rev. 6.8 And again There was a pale horse and his name that sat on him was Death and he had power to kill with the sword and with hunger and with death and with the beasts of the earth But now he doth not kill us he doth but stagger us and fling us down that we may rise again and tread him under our feet and by the power of an everliving Saviour be the death of Death it self Job 18.14 Death was the King of terrors and the fear of Death made us slaves Heb. 2.15 and kept us in servility and bondage all our life long made our pleasures less delightful and our virtues more tedious made us tremble and shrink from those Heroick undertakings for the truth of God But now they in whom Christ liveth and moveth and hath his being as in his own dare look upon Death in all his horror expeditum morti genus saith Tertullian and are ready to meet him in his most dreadful march with all his army of Diseases Racks and Tortures Man before he sinned knew not what Death meant then Eve familiarly conversed with the Serpent so do Christians with Death Having that Divine Image restored in them they are secure and fear it not For what can that Tyrant take from them Col. 3.3 Their life That is hid with Christ in God Psal 37.4 It cannot cut them off from pleasure for their delight is in the Lord. Matth. 6.20 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 Gal. 5.24 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 keyes in his hand Death is but a name it is nothing or if it be something it is such a thing as troubled S Augustine 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 and of Ceremonies yet would not abrogate the law by which we are bound over unto death because it is so profitable and advantageous to us It was indeed threatned but it is now a promise or the way unto it for Death it is that letteth us into that which was promised 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 it is so neer unto it that we can hardly sever them 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 press 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 souls and we from our miseries and temptations and this living everliving Christ gathereth us together again breatheth life and eternity into us that we may live and reign with him for evermore And so I have viewed all the parts of the Text being the main articles of our Faith 1 Christs Death 2. his Life 3. his eternal Life and last of all his Power of the Keyes 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 Seal Amen to it and so conclude And first we place the ECCE the Behold on his Death He suffered and dyed that he might learn to have compassion on thy miseries and on thy dust and raise thee from both and wilt thou learn nothing from his compassion
can imagine there can be any man that can so hate himself as deliberately to cast himself into hell and run from happiness when it appeareth in so much glory He cannot say Amen to Life who killeth himself For that which leaveth a soul in the grave is not Faith but Phansie 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 near 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 seemeth to make its approach 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 leaveth a noysome and unsavoury sent 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 faucibus haeret we can scarce say Amen So be it To the World and the pomp thereof we can say Amen but to Heaven and 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 the Life the eternal Life and the Power of our Saviour that we may be such Proficients as to be able with S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3.11 to meet the Resurrection 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 Righteousness sake when that Head which was a forge of mischief and cruelty and that Hand which touched the Lords anointed Psal 105.15 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 when that Ear which hearkned to his voice shall hear nothing but Hallelujahs and the musick of Angels when that Head which was ready to be laid down for this living everling powerful Lord shall be lifted up and crowned with glory and honour for evermore Which God grant unto us for Christ's sake A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday JOHN XVI 13. Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth WHen the Spirit of truth is come c. And behold he is come already and the Church of Christ in all ages hath set apart this day for a memorial of his Coming a memorial of that miraculous and unusual sound Acts 2.2 3. that rushing wind those cloven tongues of fire And there is good reason for it that it should be had in everlasting remembrance For as the holy Ghost came then in solemn state upon the Disciples in a manner seen and heard so he cometh though not so visibly yet effectually to us upon whom the ends of the world are come that we may remember it though not in a mighty wind yet he rattleth our hearts together though no house totter at his descent yet the foundations of our very souls are shaken no fire appeareth yet our breasts are inflamed no cloven tongues yet our hearts are cloven asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every day to a Christian is a day of Pentecost his whole life a continued holy-day wherein the holy Ghost descendeth both as an Instructer and as a Comforter secretly and sweetly by his word characterizing the soul and imprinting that saving knowledge which none of the Princes of this world had not forcing or drawing by violence but sweetly leading and guiding us into all truth In the words we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Epiphany or Apparition of the blessed Spirit as Nazianzene speaketh or rather the Promise of his coming and appearance And if we will weigh it there is great reason that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ his that he should say Lo I come Psal 40.7 For in the volume of the book it is written of him that the Spirit of the Lord should rest upon him Isa 11.2 and I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh Joel 2.28 Christus Legis Spiritus Sanctus Evangelii complementum Christ's Advent for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirit 's for the fulfilling and compleating of the Gospel Christ's Advent to redeem the Church and the Spirit 's to teach the Church Christ to shed his blood and the Spirit to wash and purge it in his blood Christ to pay down the ransome for us captives and the Spirit to work off our fetters Christ Isa 61.2 Luke 4.19 to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit to interpret it For we may soon see that the one will little avail without the other Christ's Birth Death and Passion and glorious Resurrection are but a story in Archivis good news sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it and teach us to know him and the virtue and power of his resurrection and make us conformable to his death Phil 3.10 This is the sum of these words And in this we shall pass by these steps or degrees First we will carry our thoughts to the promise of the Spirit 's Advent the miracle of this day Cùm venerit When he the Spirit of truth is come in a sound to awake the Apostles in wind to move them in fire to enlighten and warm them in tongues to make them speak Acts 2.2 3. Secondly we will consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work and employment of the Holy Ghost He shall lead you into all truth In the first we meet with 1. nomen Personae if we may so speak a word pointing out to his Person the demonstrative pronoun ILLE when He 2. nomen Naturae a name expressing his Nature He is the Spirit of truth and then we cannot be ignorant whose Spirit he is In the second we shall find nomen Officii a name of Office and Administration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a leader or conducter in the way For so the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to be the Apostles leader and conducter that they might not erre but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep on in a straight and even course in the way And in this great Office of the Holy Ghost we must first take notice of the Lesson he teacheth It is Truth Secondly of the large Extent of this Lesson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He leadeth into all truth Thirdly of the Method and Manner of his discipline It is a gentle and effectual leading He driveth us not he draweth us not by violence but he taketh us as it were by the hand and guideth and leadeth us into all truth Cùm venerit ille Spiritus veritatis First though we are told by some
on those actions which in themselves are lawful Nay multa mandata vitiat it may make that unlawful which is commanded Hebr. 10.31 Oh it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God! but how fearful is it to have his hand fall upon us when we stand at his Altar to see him frown and hear him thunder when we worship in anger to question us when we are doing our duty What a dart would it be to pierce our souls through and through if God should now send a Prophet to us to tell us that our frequenting the Church and coming to his Table are distastful to him that our fasts are not such as he hath chosen and that he hateth them as much as he doth our Oppression and Cruelty to which they may be the prologue that he will have none of the one because he will have none of the other And yet if we terminate Religion in these outward formalities make them wait upon our lusts to bring them with more smoothness and with more state and pomp and applause to their end to that which they look so earnestly upon if we thus appear before God he that shall tell us as much of our Hearing and Fasting and Frequenting the Church shall be as true a Prophet as Micah the Morasthite was And now to conclude if you ask me wherewith ye shall come before the Lord and bow your selves before the most High look further into the Text and there you have a full and complete Directory Do justly love mercy and walk humbly with your God With these you may approch his courts and appear at his altar In aram Dei justitia imponitur saith Lactantius De vero cultu l. 6. c. 24. Justice and Mercy and Sincerity are the best and fittest sacrifices for the Altar of God which is the Heart of man an Altar that must not be polluted with blood Hoc qui exhibet toties sacrificat quoties bonum aliquid aut pium facit The man that is just and merciful doth sacrifice as oft as he doth any just and merciful act Come then and appear before God and offer up these Nor need you fear that ridiculous and ungodly imputation which presenteth you to the world under the name of mere moral men Bear it as your crown of rejoycing It is stigma Jesu Christi a mark of Christ Jesus And none will lay it upon you as a defect but they who are not patient of any loss but of their honesty who have learnt an art to joyn together in one the Saint and the Deceiver who can draw down heaven to them with a thought and yet supplant and overreach their brother as cunningly as the Devil doth them Bonus vir Caius Seius Caius Seius is a good man Tertull. Apolog. his only fault is that he is a Christian would the Heathen say He is a good moral man but he is not of the Elect that is one of our faction saith one Christian of another I much wonder how long a good moral man hath been such a monster What is the Decalogue but an abbridgment of Morality What is Christs Sermon on the mount but an improvement of that and shall Civil and honest conversation then be the mark of a Reprobate Shall Nature bring forth a Regulus a Cato a Fabricius Just and Honest men and shall Grace and the Gospel of Christ bring forth nothing but Zanies but Players and Actours of Religion but Pharisees and Hypocrites Or was the New creature the Christian raised up to thrust the Moral man out of the world Must all be Election and Regeneration Must all Religion be carried along in phrases and words and noise and must Justice and Mercy be exposed as monsters and flung out into the land of oblivion Or how can they be elect and regenerate who are not just and merciful No The Moral man that keepeth the commandments is not far from the kingdome of God Mark 12.34 and he that is a Christian and buildeth up his Morality and Justice and Mercy upon his Faith in Christ and keepeth a good conscience and doth to others what he would that others should do unto him Matth. 7.12 shall enter in and have a mansion there when speculative and Seraphick Hypocrites who decree for God and preordain there a place for themselves shall be shut out of doors Come then and appear before God with these with Innocence and Integrity and Mercifulness Wash your hands in innocency Psal 26.6 Rev. 1.6 and compass his altar For Christ hath made us Priests unto his Father there is our Ordination To offer up spiritual sacrifice 1 Pet. 2.5 there is our duty and performance By Jesus Christ there is our seal to make good and sure our acceptance Chrysostom besides that great Sacrifice of the Cross In Psal 59. hath found out many more Martyrdome Prayer Justice Almes Praise Compunction and Humility and he bringeth in too the Preaching of the Word Epist. 87. Which all make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil a most magnificent and pretious 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 express 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 do justly we have slain the Beast the worst part of us our Love of the world our filthy Lusts our Covetousness 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 esteem as our life and blood and do we not as willingly part with our breath as with our wealth Hebr. 13.16 Now who so doth good and distributeth and scattereth his wealth he poureth forth his very blood bindeth the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar letteth out all worldly desires with his wealth and hath slain that sacrifice saith S. Paul with which God is well pleased And last of all Humility wasteth and consumeth us to nothing maketh us an Holocaust a whole-burnt-offering nothing in our selves nothing in respect of God and by this our exinanition it exalteth all the Graces of God in us filleth us with life and glory with high apprehensions with lively anticipations of that which
not be a House subject to weather but some house of pleasure a Seraglio not in Egypt or Babylon but in the Fortunate Islands or in Paradise Our Lily should be set far enough from the Thorns We would go to Heaven without any Ifs or And 's without any Buts or difficulties We would be eased but not weary be saved but not believe or believe but not suffer Acts 14.22 We would enter into Gods Kingdome but not with tribulation that is we would have God neither provident nor just nor wise that is which is a sad interpretation we would have no God at all But Gods method is best Honorem operis fructus excusat Tâ—rtul Scorpiac c. 5. Luk. 17 25. 24.46 And that which we call Persecution is his art his way of making of Saints De perverso auxiliatur He raiseth us by those evils we labour under As in his manifold wisdome he redeemed mankind so the manner and method of working out our salvation is from the same Wisdome and Providence which as it set an Oportet upon Christ to suffer for us so it set an Oportet upon the Church to have a fellowship in his sufferings â—ct 14 22. We must through many afflictions be consecrated be made perfect and so enter into the Kingdome of God We must first be made more spiritual by the contradiction of those who are born after the flesh more Isaacs then before for the many Ishmaels So Perfection is not onely agreeable to the wisdome of God but convenient to the weakness of Man God will not save us we cannot be saved any other way Phil. 1.29 Oportet we must go this way Nay Datum est It is a gift It is given not onely to believe but to suffer a gift for which heaven it self is given Matth. 5. And it is a Beatitude Blessed poverty blessed mourning blessed persecution Blessedness is set upon these as a Crown or as â—ich embroyderie upon sackcloth or some courser stuff 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 Abraham's family Ishmael mocketh and persecuteth Isaac In the world the Synagogue persecuteth the Church and in the Church one Christian persecuteth 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 dreadful but blessed sight and see what advantage we can work what light we can strike out of this cloud of blood to direct and strengthen us in this our warfare Revel 2.10 that we may be faithful unto death 1 Pet. 4.12 and so receive the crown of life And first let us not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Peter speaketh think it strange or be amazed at the fiery trial not be dismayed when we see that befall the Church which befalleth all the Kingdoms and Common-wealths in the world when we see the face of the Church gather blackness and not shine in that beauty in which formerly we beheld her For what strange thing is it that Ishmael should mock Isaac The Church so far as she is visible in respect of her 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 2 Cor 4.18 those which are eternal are not seen 1 Cor. 7.31 The fashion of this world passeth away saith S. Paul and so doth the fashion of the Church And when the scene is changed it cometh forth with another face and speaketh now like a servant who spake before like a Queen In brief the Church turned about on the wheel of change is subject to the same storms to the same injuries to the same craft and violence which the Philosopher saith make that alteration in States change them not into those which may bear some faint resemblance of them but into that which is most unlike and contrary to them setteth 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 Gen. 3.15 which is the face of the Church nor hath the Seed of the woman so bruised the Serpents head but that he still biteth at the heel Exod. 17. Behold the children of Israel in the wilderness sometimes in straits anon in larger wayes sometimes fighting 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 sweetness as Mithkah and sometimes in places of bitterness as Marah Behold them in a more settled 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 professours were there when Elijah the great Prophet could see but one And how can that have alwayes the same countenance which is under the powers 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 Candelsticks which are now removed out of their place Rev. 1.12 20. 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 years 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 have been willing to believe 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 frail Man It dieth it wasteth it giveth up the ghost Job 14.10 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 Europe and if the Candlestick
For nihil aequalitate ipsâ inaequalius There is no greater inequality in the world then in a body politick where all the parts are equal That Equality which commendeth and upholdeth a Commonwealth ariseth from the difference of its parts moving in their several measures and proportions as Musick doth from discords When every part answereth in its place and raiseth it self no higher then that will bear when the Magistrate speaketh by nothing but the Laws and the Subject answereth by nothing but his obedience when the greater shadow the less and the less help to fortifie the greater 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 chearfully in our own sphere and calling we shall not start forth to discompose and disorder the motion of others in theirs If we fill our own place we shall not leap over into anothers our Desires will dwel at home our Covetousness and Ambition die our Malice cease our Suspicion end our Discontent vanish or else be soon changed and spiritualized our Desires will be levelled on Happiness we shall covet the best things be ambitious of Heaven malice nothing but Malice and destroy it suspect nothing but our Suspicion and be discontent with nothing but that we are discontent and so in this be like unto God himself have our centre in our selves or rather make Peace our centre that every motion may be drawn from it that in the compass 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 also 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 in its place Water is not ponderous in its proper place The Fire burneth not in its sphere but out of it it hath voracitatem toto mundo avidissimam saith Pliny it spreadeth it self most violently and devoureth every thing it meeteth with Nay Poyson is not hurtful to those tempers that breed it Epist. 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 business is soveraign and connatural to our estates and conditions but most times poysonous abroad and dangerous and fatal to our selves and others 2 Sam. 6.6 7. When Vzzah 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 errour and rashness in moving out of his place and struck him dead because he did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do his own business When Uzziah invaded the Priests office 2 Chron. 26 16-21 and would burn incense and Azariah the Priest told him It pertaineth not to thee It is not thy business even while the censer was yet in his hand his sin was writ in his forehead he was struck with a leprosie and cut off from the house of the Lord. When Peter was busie to enquire concerning John Joh 21.21 22. What shall this man do our Saviour was ready with a sharp reply What is that to thee thy business is to follow me When Christians out of a wanton and irregular zeal did throw down Images and were slain by the Heathen in the very fact the Church censured them as Disturbers of the peace rather then Martyrs and though they suffered death in defiance of Idolatry yet allowed them no place in the Diptychs in the Catalogue of those who laid down their lives for the Truth Dathan and Abiram rise out of their place Numb 16 1-30 2 Sam. 20.1 22. 2 Sam. 15. c. and the earth swalloweth them up Sheba is up and bloweth a Trumpet and his head flyeth over the wall Absalom would up into the tribunal which was none of his place and was hanged in the Oak 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 villains their purchase was not great Honey mingled with Gall Honour drugged with the Hatred and Curses of men with Fears and Cares with Gnawings within and Terrours without All the content and pleasure they had by their great leap 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 lyeth fettered in a loathsome dungeon And at last their wages was Death eternal Death and Howling for ever Nay when we are out of our place and busie in that which concerneth us not though what we do may be in it self lawful and most expedient to be done yet we make that act a sin in us which is another mans duty and so shipwrack at that point to which another was bound perish in the doing of that which he shall perish for not doing The best excuse that we can take up is That we did honestâ mente peccare That we did that which is evil as we say for the best That we did sin and offend God with a good intention and pious mind Which Gloss may be fitted to the greatest sin and is the fairest chariot the Devil hath to carry us to hell If we would be particular the instances in this kind would be but too many For such Agents the Enemy of the Truth hath alwayes had in all the ages of the Church who have unseasonably disturbed the publick peace and their own whose business it was and sure it could be none of their own to teach Pastours to govern and Divines how to preach every day to make a new coat for the Church to hammer and shape out a new form and discipline as if nothing could be done well because they stood not by and had a hand in the doing it and so make the Church not so fair but certainly as changeable as the Moon One Sect disliketh this and another that and a third quarrelleth at them both and every one of them if their own phansie had been set up and establisht by another hand would have kickt it down For this humour is restless and endless and for want of matter will at last feed on him that nourisheth it As it was in that experiment of the Egyptians in Epiphanius who filled a bag with serpents and when afterwards they opened it found that the greatest had eat up the rest and half of it self We may well say of them as Gregory the great doth Illos alienorum actuum sagax cogitatio
It will concern us to take heed how he findeth us when be cometh Oh let him not find us digging of pits and spreading of nets to catch our brethren spinning the spiders web wearying and wasting our selves in vanity Let him not find us in strange apparel in spotted garments in garments stained with blood Let not this Lord find thee in rebellion against him this Saviour find thee a destroyer this Christ who should anoint thee find thee bespotted of the world Let not an humble Lord find thee swelling a meek Lord find thee raging a merciful Lord find the cruel an innocent Lord find thee boasting in mischief the Son of man find thee a beast But to day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts This is your Day and this day you may work out Eternity Psal 95.7 8. This is your hour to look into your selves to be jealous of your selves Hebr. 3.7 8. vereri omnia opera to be afraid of every word work and thought every enterprise you take in hand For whatsoever you are saying whatsoever you are doing whatsoever you are imagining whilst you act whilst you speak before you speak whilst you think and that thought is a promise or prophecy of riches and delights and honours which are in the approch and ready to meet you or a seal and confirmation of those glories which are already with you whilst you think as the Prophet David speaketh that your houses shall continue for ever Psal 49.11 even then he may come upon you and then this inward thought all your thoughts perish or return again upon you like Furies to lash and torment you for ever And therefore to conclude since the Premisses are plain the Evidence fair Since he is a Lord and will come to judge us Since he will certainly come Since the time of his coming is uncertain and since it is sudden he is no Christian he is no Man but hath prostituted that which maketh him so his Reason to his Sense and Brutish part who cannot draw this Conclusion to himself That he must therefore watch Which is in the next place to be considered The Twelfth SERMON PART III. MATTH XXIV 42. Watch therefore c. WE have seen Christ our Lord at the right hand of God considered him 1. as our Lord 2. as coming 3. as keeping from our eye and knowledge the time of his coming And now what inference can we make He is a Lord and shall we not fear him To come and shall we not expect him To come at an hour we know not and shall we not watch This every one of them naturally and necessarily affordeth and no other conclusion can be drawn from them But when we consult with Flesh and Blood we force false conclusions even from the Truth it self and to please and flatter our sensual part conclude against Nature to destroy our selves Sensuality is the greatest Sophister that is worketh Darkness out of Light Poyson out of Physick Sin out of Truth See what paralogismes she maketh God is merciful Therefore presume He is patient Therefore provoke him He delayeth his coming We may now beat our fellow-servants and eat and drink with the drunken It is uncertain when he will come Therefore he will never come This is the reasoning of Flesh and Blood this is the Devils Logick And therefore that we be not deceived nor deceive our selves with these Fallacies behold here Wisdome it self hath shewn us a more excellent way and drawn the Conclusion to our hands VIGILATE ERGO He is a Lord and to come and at an hour ye know not of Watch therefore And this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vigilate is verbum vigilans as Augustine speaketh a waking busy stirring word and implieth as the Scholiast telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all manner of care and circumspection And what are all the Exhortations in Scripture but a commentary and exposition of this Duty There we find it rendred by Awaking Working Running Striving Fasting Praying We shall find it to be Repentance Faith spiritual Wisdome that golden chain wherein all Virtues and Graces that Vniversitas donorum as Tertullian speaketh that Academy that World of spiritual Gifts meet and are united When we awake we watch to look about and see what danger is near When we work we watch till our work be brought to perfection that no trumpet scatter our Alms no hypocrisie corrupt our Fast no unrepented sin deny our Prayers no wandring thought defile our Chastity no false fire kindle our Zeal no lukewarmness dead our Devotion When we strive we watch that lust which is must predominant And Faith if it be not dead hath a restless eye an eye that never sleepeth which maketh us even here on earth like unto the Angels For so Anastasius defining an Angel calleth him a reasonable creature but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a one as never sleepeth Corde vigila fide vigila spe vigila charitate vigila saith S. Augustine 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 seals Faith Hope and Charity set them on and the Watch is sure But this is too general To give you yet a more particular account we must consider first That God hath made man a Judge and Lord of all his actions and given him that freedom and power which is libripens emancipati à Deo boni Tert. l. 2. cont Marcion doth hold as it were the ballance and weigh and poyse both good and evil and may touch or strike which scale it please that either Good shall out weigh Evil or Evil Good For Man is not evil by necessity or chance but by his will alone See Dent. 30.15.19 I have set before thee this day Life and Good Death and Evil Therefore chuse Life Secondly God hath placed an apparancy of some good on that which is evil by which Man may be wooed and enticed to it and an apparency of smart and evil 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 horrour of Evil though coloured over and drest with the best advantage to deceive and behold the beauty and glory of that which is good though it be discouloured and defaced with the blackness and darkness of this world He hath given him a Spirt Prov. 20.27 which the Wiseman calleth 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 soul by which he may see to eschew evil and chuse that which is good adhere to the good though it distaste the sense and fly from evil though it flatter it By this we discover the 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 hurtful and chuse that which is agreeable with their nature as the Goddess which saith Pliny Nat. Hist l. 9. c. 30. carent omni alio sensu quà m cibi periculi have no sense at all but of their food and 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 shews with realities and fair Promises with bitter effects may shew him a way to escape Death 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 Deut. 4.9 Take heed to thy self saith Moses Tom. 1 and Basil wrote a whole Oration or Sermon on that Text and considereth Man as if he were nothing else but Mind and Soul and the Flesh were the garment which clotheth and covereth it and that it is compast about with Beauty and Deformity Health and Sickness Friends and Enemies Riches and Poverty from which the Mind is to guard and defend it self that neither the glory nor terrour of outward objects have any power or influence on it to make a way through the flesh to deface and ruine it and put out its light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take heed to thy self PRAE OMNI CVSTODIA SERVA COR TVVM Keep thy heart with all diligence AB OMNI CAVTIONE Prov. 4.23 so it is rendred by Mercer out of the Hebrew from every thing that is to be avoided AB OMNI VINCVLO 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 of pain whether it be of a fair and well promising or a black temptation keep it with all diligence and keep it from the incumbrances And the reason is given For out of it are the issues of Life PROCESSIONES VITARVM the Proceedings of many lives So many conquests as we gain over temptations so many lively motions we feel animated and full of God which increase our crown of joy All is comprehended in that of our Saviour Watch Matth. 26.41 and prâ—y lest you enter into temptation If you watch not your heart will lie open and tentations will enter and as many deaths will issue forth Evil thoughts Fornications Murders Adulteries Blasphemy as so many locusts out of the bottomless pit To watch then is to fix our mind on that which concerneth our peace to work out our salvation with fear and trembling Philip. 2.12 to perfect holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 Heb. 12.28 2 John 8. to serve him with reverence and godly fear to look to our selves 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 Fear And these two are like the two pillars in the porch of the Temple of Solomon 1 Kings 7.11 Jachin and Boaz to establish and strengthen our Watch. This certainly must needs be a sovereign antidot against sin 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 shall consider him as a Witness who shall be our Judge that all we do we do as Hilary speaketh in Divinitatis sinu in his very presence and bosome that when we deceive our selves when we deceive our brethren when we sell our Lord to our Fears or our Hopes when we betray him in our craft crucifie him in our Revenge defile and spit upon him in our Uncleanness we are even then in his presence If we did firmly believe it we would not suffer our eyes to sleep nor our eye lids to slumber How careful are we how anxious how solicitous in our behaviour how scrupulous of every word and look and gesture what Criticks in our deportment if we stand before them whom we call our Betters indeed our fellow dust and ashes And shall we make our face as adamant in the presence of our Lord shall we stand idle and sport and play the wantons before him Shall we beat down his Altars blaspheme his Name beat our fellow servants before his face Shall we call him to be witness to a lie make him an advocate for the greatest sin suborn his Providence to own our impiety his Wisedome to favour our craft his Permission to consecrate and ratifie our sin Can we do what a Christian eye cannot look upon which Reason and Religion condemn and even Pagans tremble at Eccl. 23.17 Tertul. de Testm animae c. 2. Vnde haec tibi anima non Christiani can we do it and do it before his face whose Eye is pure and ten thousand times brighter then the Sun DEVS VIDET and DEVS JVDICAT God will see and God will Judge is taken out of the common treasury of Nature and the Heathens themselves have found it there who speak it as their language And if his awful Eye vvill not open ours our Lethargie is mortal We are Infidels if vve believe it not and if vve do believe it yet dare do those things vvhich afflict his eye vve are vvorse then Infidels Let us then look upon him think him present and stand upon our guard Psal 4.4 Let us stand in aw and not sin Let one Fear call upon another the Fear of this Lord upon the Fear of cautelousness and circumspection which is as our angel-keeper to keep us in all our vvayes in the smooth and even vvayes of peace and in the rough and rugged vvayes of adversity to lead us against our enemies vvhich are more then the hairs of our head as many as there are temptations in the world and to help us to defeat them to be our best buckler to keep off the darts of Satan and as a canopy to keep our virtues from soyl to keep our Liberality cheerful our Chastity fresh and green our Devotion fervent our Religion pure and undefiled to wast the body of Sin and perfect and secure our Obedience in a vvord to do that vvhich the Heathens thought their Goddess Pellonia did to drive and chase all evil out of our coasts For let us well weigh and consider it let us look upon our enemies the World with all its pageantry the Flesh with all its lusts the Devil with all his snares and wiles and enterprises let us look upon him coming towards us either as an Angel of light to deceive us or as a Lion to devour us and then let us consider our Lord and
affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world NOthing more talkt of in the world then Religion nothing less 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 standeth in opposition to some pleasing errour which they are not willing to shake off Multi sibi sidem ipsi totuis consttiuunt quà m accipiunt dum quae volunt sapiunt nolunt sapere quae verá sunt cùm sapientiae haec veritas sit ea interdum sapere quae nolis Hilar l. 8. De Trin. Jam. 1.22 23. Ch. 4.3 Ch 1 26. and by the help of an unsatisfied and complying phansie to frame one of their own and call it by that name That which flattereth their corrupt hearts that which is moulded and attempered to their brutish designs that which smileth upon them in all their purposes and favoureth them in their unwarrantable undertakings that which biddeth them Go on and prosper in the wayes that leadeth 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 observeth that placed Religion in the ear did hear and not do and rested in that Some placed it in a formal devotion did pray but pray amiss and therefore did not receive Some placed it in a shadow and appearance seemed to be very religious but could not bridle their tongue and were safe they thought under this shadow Others there were that were partial in themselves despisers of the poor Ch. 2.4.6 17 c. Ch. 3.6 that had faith but no works and did boast of this Others 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 Last of all some he observed warring and fighting and killing that they might take the prey Ch. 4.1 2. and divide the spoil Yet all these were religious Wisd 1.12 Every one sought out death in the errour of his life Phil. 3.14 and yet every one seemed to press 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 shipwrack doth our Apostle cry out as from the shore to turn their compass and steer their course the right way Seeing them as it were run several wayes all to meet at last in the common gulf of eternal destruction he calleth and calleth aloud after them To the superstitious to the profane to the disputer the scribe to them that do but hear and to them that do but babble to them that do but profess and to them that do but believe the word is Be not deceived That is not it but this is pure Religion This is as the Prophet speaketh a voice behind them Isa 30.21 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 taketh them from the Devils latitudes and exspatiations from frequent but fruitless 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 bringeth them into the way where they should be where they may move with joy and safety Eccl. 12.13 looking stedfastly towards the end Let us now hear the conclusion of the whole matter Whatsoever Divines have taught whatsoever Councels have determined whatsoever Schoolmen have 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 that weariness of the flesh which Solomon complaineth of Eccl. 12.12 in reading that multitude of books which the world doth now swarm with that which we study and contend and fight for as if it were in Democritus his well Rom. 13.9 or rather in Hell it self quite out of our reach or if there be any truth that is necessary any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying even in this of S. James Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the fatherless and widows c. I may call it the Picture of Religion in little in a small compass yet presenting all its 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 I. The full Proportion and several Lineaments of it as it were its essential Parts which constitute and make it what it is 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 fatherless and widows in their affliction The second is negative Not to do evil To keep our selves unspotted from the world II. The colours and Beauty of it first in its Purity having no mixture secondly its Vndefiledness having no pollution III. The Epigraphe or Title of it the Ratification or Seal which is set to it to make it authentick and that not of men or by men but by the hand of God himself Matth. 3.17 17.5 which drew the first copy and pattern This is pure Religion before God and the Father As he gave witness to his Son from heaven This is my beloved Son so doth he also to Christian Religion Hebr. 12.2 of which he is the Authour and Finisher HAEC EST This is it and in this I am well pleased Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this Let us now in order view these And these two To do Good and To abstain from Evil our Charity to others in the one and our Charity to our selves in the other in being as those Dii benefici those Tutelar Gods to the Widows and Fatherless and as those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keeping all evil from our selves I call the essential parts of Religion without which it can no more subsist then a man can without a soul Jam. 2.26 For as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also Not that we exclude Faith or Prayer or Hearing of the Word For without Faith Religion is but an empty name and it cometh by Hearing and is increased by Devotion Amb. in Psal 118. Faith is a foundation upon a foundation for as Truth is the foundation of
Daniel and his fellows were among them I will give you one reason more and I borrow it from S. Augustine who in his first book of the City of God touching upon this question Why the righteous partake with the wicked in common calamities maketh one especial cause to be That they use not that liberty they ought in reprehending of sinners but by their silence do as it were consent and partake in their sin and therefore in justice ought to partake in their punishment For indeed a great error it is and of so great an allay that it taketh us out of the shadow and protection of the Almighty outlaweth us from his common favours to imagine that the duty of reprehension is impropriate ad pertaineth onely to the Minister It is true the right of publick reprehension is intrusted as it were upon his office alone For if every member were a Tongue where were the Ear If every man were a publick Teacher where were the Hearer We need not preach against this for put it once in practice and it will soon preach down it self For if every man will act the King the Play is at an end before it begins And if every man can teach in publick I see no reason why any man should learn Yet as Tertullian spake in another case in publicos Hostes omnis homo miles est against traytors and common enemies every man is a Souldier so is it true here Every one that is of strength to pull a soul out of the fire is for this business by counsel by advise by rebuke a Priest neither must thou let him lie there to expect better help Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy brother and not suffer sin upon him or Levit. 19.17 according to the Hebrew that thou bear not sin for him This is spoke not to the Priest but to the people And in this respect the Cure of Souls is committed to every man as well as to the Priest Every man thus hath a cure of souls either of his child or his servant or his friend or his neighbour And if any of these perish through our default their blood shall be required at our hands For if we be bound to bring home our brothers beast if we find him go astray much more are we bound to bring home our straying brother himself Common charity requireth thus much at our hands And to make question of it is as if thou shouldst ask with Cain Am I my brothers keeper Art thou his keeper Yes thou art and his keeper to keep him in all his wayes his Physician to heal him his Counsellor to advise him his Priest his Bishop to rebuke and exhort him with all long-suffering And the neglect of this duty though in it self a great sin yet in this respect is much greater because it interesteth us in other mens sins It maketh a chast man in some sort guilty of uncleanness an honest man accessary to theft a meek man a kind of second to the murderer it bringeth the innocent person at least under the temporal curse that followeth those sins which his soul hateth but hath not soul enough to reprehend and so falleth into the same fire which he should have striven to have pulled his brother out of Therefore to conclude this since the neglect of this duty doth as it were pull down the banks and open a wide gap to sin and wickedness we have no reason to be at a stand and amazed if we see the righteous person sometimes overwhelmed with those flouds to which himself hath opened the way or under those judgments which his intempestive silence as well as other mens open sins hath called down upon a Nation And this may suffice to clear God's Justice from all imputation in the execution of his general judgments 3. It may be we need not move any question at all about this matter For in those common calamities which befall a people it may be God doth provide for the Righteous and deliver him though we perceive it not Some examples in Scripture make this very probable The old World is not drowned till Noah be shipt and in the Ark the shower of fire falleth not on Sodome till Lot be escaped Daniel and his fellows though they go away into captiviy with rebellious Judah yet their captivity is sweetned with honours and good respects in the Land into which they go and which was a kind of leading Captivity captive they had favour and were intreated as friends by their enemies who had invaded and spoiled them And may not God be the same still upon the like occasions How many millions of righteous persons have been thus delivered whose names notwithstanding are no where recorded Some things of no great worth are very famous in the world when many things of better worth lie altogether buried in obscurity Hor. l. 4. od 9. caruerunt quia vate sacro because they found none who could or would transmit them to posterity Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona No doubt but before and since millions have made the like escapes though their memory lieth raked up and buried in oblivion But suppose the righteous do tast of the same cup of bitterness with the wicked Calamitas non est poena militia est Min. Felix yet it hath not the same tast and relish to them both For Calamity is not alwaies a whip nor doth God alwaies punish them whom he delivereth over to the sword To lose my goods or life is one thing to be punisht another It is against the course of Gods providence and justice that Innocency should come under the lash Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 Yes he shall yet without any breach of justice he may take away that breath of life which he breathed into our nostrils Rom. 5.14 though we had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression For he may do what he will with his own Matth. 20.15 and take away our goods or lives from us when and how he pleaseth because he is Lord over them and we have nothing which we received not from his hands God is not alwaies angry when he striketh nor is every blow we feel given by God the avenger He may strike as a Father Therefore these evils change their complexions and very natures with the subject upon whom they are wrought They are as Devils and have the blackness of darkness to some but are as Angels and messengers of light to others They lead the righteous through the valley of death into the land of the living when the wicked are hewn down by the sword to be fuel for the fire What though they both be joyned together in the same punishment as a Martyr and a Thief in the same chain August De civitate Dei l. 1. c. 8. yet manet dissimilitudo passorum in similitudine passionum Though the penalties may seem alike yet the difference is great betwixt
separate our selves from our selves from our wilfulness and stubbornness and animosities and so place Christ in his throne Eph. 3.15 reinstate our selves into his house his family his kingdom that Christ may be all in all And thus it is Whilst this fighting and contention lasteth in us which will be as long as we last in our mortal bodies something or other will lay hold on us and have command over us There is no aequilibrium in a Christian man's life no time when the scales are even when he hangeth as Solomon is pictured between heaven and hell but one side or other still prevaileth Either we walk after the Flesh Rom. 8.1 when that is most potent or after the Spirit when that carrieth us along in our way against the solicitations and allurements of the Flesh One of them is alwayes uppermost It will therefore concern us to take a strict account of our selves and impartially to consider to which part our Will inclineth most whether it be hurried away by the Flesh or led sweetly and powerfully on by the Spirit which of these beareth most sway in our hearts whether we had rather be led by the Spirit Rom. 13.14 or obey the Flesh in the lusts thereof whether we had rather dwell in the world vvith all its pomp and pageantry in a Mahometical Paradise of all sensual delights or dwell with Christ though it be with persecutions Suppose the Devil should make an overture to thee as he did once to our Saviour of all the kingdoms of the world Matth. 4.8 and the Flesh should plead for her self as she will be putting in for her share and shew thee Honour and Power all that a heart of flesh would leap at in those Kingdoms and on the other side the Spirit thy Conscience enlightned should check thee and pull thee back and tell thee that all this is but a false shew that Death and Destruction are in these kingdoms veiled and drest up with titles of honour in purple and state that in this terrestrial Paradise thou shalt meet with a fiery sword the wrath of God and from this imaginary painted heaven be thrown into hell it self Here now is thy tryal here thou art put to thy choice If thy heart can say I will have none of these If thou canst say to thy Flesh What hast thou to do with me who gave thee authority who made thee a ruler over me If thou canst say to the Spirit Thou art in stead of God to me If thou canst say with thy Saviour Avoid Satan I know no power in heaven or in earth no dominion but Christ's then thou art in his house in his service which is no service Rom. 8.21 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 3. If we dwell in Christ we shall rely and depend on him as on our tutelary God and Protectour And so we may be said to dwell in him indeed as in a house which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saiâ—h the Civilian our fort and sanctuary commune perfugium saith Tullie our common place of refuge And what is our hope whither should we fly but to him I am thine Psal 119.94 Psal 73.25 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 fortress and defense thou art my hope to the end 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 wholly flingeth himself into his protection that he here fixeth his hope and doth not busie himself to find 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 perswasion there could be none at all and we find this relying on God's power not onely rewarded but magnified in Scripture so the acknowledgment of God's wonderful power in Christ by which he is able to make good his rich and glorious promises to subdue his and our enemies to 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 find a hole to hide our heads For man such is our condition even when he maketh his nest on high when he thinketh 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 and soaring up aloft and then failing sinking and ready to fall and when he falleth looking about for help and succour When he is diminished and brought low by evil and sorrows he seeketh for some refuge some hole some Sanctuary to fly to as the Wise-man speaks of the Conies They are a generation not strong and therefore have their burrows to hide themselves in Prov. 30.26 Now by this you may know you dwell in Christ If when the tempest cometh 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 do not trust and rely on him we do not believe in him For what is Faith but as our Amen to all his promises our subscription to his Wisdome and Power and Goodness And here we fix our tabernacle and will abide till the storm be overpast Believe in him and not trust in him You may say as well the Jews did love him when they nayled him to the cross Matth. 8.26 Why are ye fearful O ye of little faith said Christ to his Disciples That Faith was little indeed which would let in fear when Christ the Wisdome of the Father and the mighty Power of God was in the ship little less then a grain of mustard-seed which is the least of seeds so little that what Christ calleth there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 little faith he plainly calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unbelief Matth. 17.20 The faith of this world the weak and cowardly faith of this world speaketh of principalities and powers great swelling words yet at the sight of a cloud not so big as a mans hand striketh in and is not seen but leaveth us groaning under every burden for to such a faith every light affliction is a burden leaveth us to complaints and despair or to those inventions which vvill plunge us in greater evils then those we either suffer or fear
the wayes of righteousness and yet drooped how many have fainted even in their Saviours arms when his Mercies did compass them in on every side how many have been in the greatest agony when they were nearest to their exaltation how many have condemned themselves to hell who now sit crowned in the highest heavens I know nothing by my self 1 Cor. 4.4 saith S. Paul yet am not thereby justified Hoc dicit Dialogo adv Pelagium nè forte quid per ignorantiam deliquisset saith S. Hierom Though he knew nothing yet something he might have done amiss which he did not know 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 Rom. 13.13 In a word a man may doubt and yet be saved and a man may assure himself and yet perish A man may have a groundless hope and a man may have a groundless fear And when we see two thus contrarily elemented the one drooping the other cheerful the one rejoycing in the Lord whom he offendeth the other trembling before him whom he loveth we may be ready to pity the one and bless the condition of the other cast away the elect and chuse the reprobate Therefore we must not be too rash to judge but leave the judgment to him who is Judge both of the quick and dead and will neither condemn the innocent for his fear nor justifie the man that goeth on in his sin for his assurance Take comfort then thou disconsolate soul Psal 44.19 which art strucken down into the place of dragons and art in terrour and anguish of heart This fear of 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 this doubt be answered this despair vanish that Hope may take its proper place again the heart of a penitent Thy fear is better then other mens confidence thy anxiety more comfortable then their security thy doubting more favoured then their assurance Timor tuus securitas tua Thy fear of death will end in the firm expectation of eternal life Though thou art tost on a tumultuous sea thy mast spent and thy tackling torn yet thou shalt at last strike in to shore when those proud Saylers shall shipwrack in a calm 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 hopeful and soveraign Physick that is Thy fear of death is a certain symptome and an infallible sign of life There is no horrour of the grave to him that lieth in it Death onely is terrible to the living And then there can be no stronger argument that thou art alive then this that thou doubtest thou art dead already And lift up thy head too thou despairing and almost desperate sinner whom not thy many sins but thy unwillingness to leave them hath brought to the dust of death who first blasphemest God Psal 22.15 and then drawest the punishment nearer to thee then he would have it and art thy own hangman and executioner not that pardon is denyed but that thou wilt not sue it out Look about thee and thou mayest see Hope coming towards thee and many arguments to bring it in An argument from thy Soul which is not quite lost till it be in hell and if thou wilt possess it it shall not be lost An argument from thy Will which is free and mutable and may turn to good as well as evil An argument from the very habit of Sin that presseth thee down which though it be strong yet is it not stronger then the Grace of God and the activity of thy Will It is very difficult indeed but the Christian mans work is to overcome difficulties An argument from those sholes and multitudes of Offenders who have wrought themselves out of the power of death and the state of damnation from many who have committed as many sins as thou but this one of Despair from those Publicanes and sinners who have entred into the kingdome of heaven An argument from thy own Argument which thou so unskilfully turnest against thy self It is no argument it is but a weak peremptory Conclusion held up without any Premisses or Reason that can enforce it For Despair is but Petitio principii proveth and concludeth the same by the same maketh our Sins greater then Gods Mercies because they are so and Repentance impossible because it is so Though the Soul be not quite lost till it be lost for ever though the Will be free and Grace offereth it self though the voice of God be Turn though multitudes have turned and that which hath been done may be done again though the argument be no argument yet Despair doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against what reason soever hold up the Conclusion Thou sayest that God cannot forgive thee If he cannot then he is not merciful neither is he just and so he is not God and then what needest thou despair We begin in sin proceed to blasphemy and so end in despair But a God he is and merciful But thy sins are greater then his mercies which is another blasphemy and bringeth in something more infinite then God taketh Gods office from him dispenseth his Mercies of which he alone is Lord shutteth up his rich treasury of Goodness when he is ready and willing to lay it open and so ruineth us in despite of God But thou sayest thou canst not repent which is thy greatest errour and the main cause of thy despair For when the heart is thus hard it beateth off all succours that are offered all those means that might be as oyl to supple it Thou canst not is not true Thou shouldst say Thou wilt not repent for if thou wilt thou mayest For thou canst not tell whether thou canst repent or no because thou never yet didst put it to the tryal but being in the pit didst shut the mouth of it upon thy self and stop it up with a false opinion of God and of thy self with dark notions and worthless conceits of impossibilities Behold God calleth after thee again and again His Grace as a devout Writer speaketh is most officious to take thee out his Mercy ready to embrace thee if thou do not stubbornly cast her off Behold a multitude of Penitents who having escaped the wrath to come becken to thee by their example to follow after them and retire from these hellish thoughts and conclusions unto the same shadow and shelter where they are sale from those false suggestions and fiery darts of the enemy And if this will not move thee then behold the blood of an immaculate Lamb streaming down to wash away thy sins and with them thy despair
conquereth Kingdoms It is the best Physician and doth more then Art can do without it Art can do nothing It is the best Politician and without it Wisdome can do nothing It is the best Souldier for without it Power can do nothing It is all in all in every thing But in our spiritual politie and warfare it hath not strength enough to turn us about it is not able to bow our knee or move our tongue much less to rend our heart Yea such is our extremity of folly such is the hardness of our hearts Ipsa opportunitas fit impietatis patrocinium One opportunity raises in us a hope of another and maketh us waste our time in the wayes of evil which should be spent in our Return extendeth our hopes from day to day from year to year from one hour to another even till our last minute till Time flieth from us and Opportunity with it till our last sand and when that is run out there is no more time for us and so no more opportunity The voice of Opportunity is Psal 95.7 8. Hebr. 3.7 8. To day Now if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts This is his voice Now It is true but there may be more Nows then this and it is but There may be to morrow may yield an opportunity Thus we corrupt her language In my youth it is true but I may recover it in my riper age My feeble age will have strength enough to turn me or I may turn in my bed when I am not able to turn my self Now there be more Nows then Now What need such haste My last prayer my last breath my last gasp may be a Turn Psal 49.13 Now this our way uttereth our foolishness For what greater folly can there be then when Grace and Mercy and Heaven is offered now to refuse it Plutarch Vitâ Pelopidae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let Sin devour the opportuniy and to morrow we will turn is a speech that ill becometh a mortal's mouth whose breath is in his nostrils Psal 39.5 for it may be his last His age is but a span long but a hand-breadth as nothing in respect of God The Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertullian Nullificamina others Nihilitudines or Nihilietates which is Nothings And in such a Nothing shall I let slip that opportunity which may make me Something even eternal Shall I make so many removes so many delayes within the compass of a span Whatsoever my span my nothing may be my opportunity is not extended beyond this span is no larger then this nothing And here is the danger Whether this Span be now at an end and measured out I cannot tell My Span may be but a fingers breadth my age but a minute that which I fill up with so many Nows so many opportunities Nothing And then if I turn not now I am turned into hell where I can never turn Care not then for the morrow Matth. 6.34 let the morrow care for it self There is no time to turn from thy evil wayes but now Secondly it is the greatest folly in the world thus to play with danger to seek death first in the errours of our life Wisd 1.12 and then when we have run out our course when death is ready to devour us to look faintly back upon light For the endeavours of a man that hath wearied himself in sin can be but weak and faint like the appetite of a dying man who can but think of meat and loath it The later we turn the less able we be to turn The further we stray the less willing shall we be to look back For Sin gathereth strength by delay devoteth us unto it self gaineth dominion over us holdeth us as it were in chains and will not soon suffer us to slip out of its power When the Will hath captivated it self under Sin a wish a sigh a thought is but a vain thing nor hath strength enough to deliver us One act begetteth another and that a third Many acts make up a habit and evil habits hold us back with some violence What mind what motion what inclination can a man that is drowned in sensuality have to God who is a Spirit a man that is buried in the earth so every covetous man is to God who sitteth in the highest heavens he that delighteth in the breath of fools to the honour of a Saint Here the further we go the more we are in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Rhet. c. 11. That which is done oft hath some affinity to that which is done alwayes saith Aristotle When an arm or other limb is broke it may have any motion but that which was natural to it And if we do not speedily proceed to the cure it will be the more difficult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to set it in its right place again that it may perform its natural functions Now in Sin there is a deordination of the Will a luxation of that faculty Hence weakness seiseth upon the Will and if we neglect the first opportunity and do not rectifie it betimes and turn it back again and bend it to the rule it will be more and more infeebled every day move more irregularly and like a disordered clock point to any figure but that which should shew the hour and make known the time of the day We may read this truth in aged men saith S. Basil Orat ad Ditescentes When their body is even worn out with age and there is a general declination of strength and vigour the mind hath a malignant influence on the body as the dody in their blood and youth had upon the mind and being made wanton and bold with the custome of sin it heighteneth and enflameth their frozen and decayed parts to the pursuits of pleasures past though they can never overtake them nor see them but in effigie in that image or picture which they draw themselves They now call to mind the sins of their youth with delight and act them over again when they cannot act them as youthful as when they first committed them They have milk they think in their breasts and marrow in their bones They periwigg their Age with wanton behaviour Their age is threeseore and ten when their speech and will is but twenty They boast of what they cannot act and would be more sinful if they could and are so because they would It is a sad contemplation how we startled at sin in our youth and how we ventured by degrees and engaged our selves how fearful we were at first how indifferent afterwards how familiar within a while and then how we were setled and hardened in it at the last What a Devil Sin was and what a Saint it is become what a serpent it was and how now we play with it We usually say Custome is a second Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Ibid. and indeed it followeth and
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 Mat. 12.31 We have been taught that it is high presumption to leave Christ working out his part of the covenant in his blood once shed for us Non expectat Deâ—s frigescentes senectâ—â—is annos nec â—mortuam jam per aetatem vitiorum consâ—etudinem Vult longi pâ—aelii militem Hilar. in Psal 118. Beth. and interceding for us for ever and wilfully to neglect our part and drive it off from time to time from the cheerfulness and vigour of youth to the dulness and laziness of old age to withered hands and trembling joynts to weak memories heavy hearts and dull understandings to unactive amazedness to 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 no thing and when we cannot finish and perfect our Repentance to fill and make it up in a thought or sigh in a faint and sick acknowledgement which are rather sad remonstrances against our former neglect and delay then infallible testimonies of demonstrative declarations of a wounded and broken heart This we have been told and shall we yet delay In brief we have been taught that Delay if we cut it not off betimes will at last cut us off from the Covenant of Grace 2 Cor. 1.20 that it will make the Gospel as killing as the Law the promises which are Yea and Amen Hebr 12.19 nothing to us that it will make a gracious God a consuming fire Psal 115.17 Agens poenitentiam reconciliatus cùm sanus est postea bene viveus securus hinc exit Agens poenitentiam ad ultimum reconciliatus si ecurus hinc exit ego non sum securus Aug. Hom. 41. and Jesus a destroyer That a dying man can no more turn to God then the dead can praise him That after we have thus seared our consciences and drawn out our life in a continued disobedience the Gospel is sealed up and concerneth us not at the hour of death who would not lay hold of one hour of our life to turn in That such cannot go the same ordinary way to heaven with the Apostles and Martyrs and the souls of just men made perfect with those who put off the old man and put on the new with those who escaped the pollutions of the world and were never again entangled in them but are left to that Mercy which was never promised and which they have little reason to hope for having 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 rather for the contrary Onely God is not bound to rules and Laws as Man is no not to his own but keepeth to himself his supreme right and power entire may do what he will with his own take that for a Turn which he hath not declared to be so and do that which he hath threatned he will not do But it is ill depending upon what God may do For for ought that is revealed he will never do it He will never do it to him who presumeth he will because he may and so putteth off his Turn and Repentance to the last leaveth the ordinary way and trusteth to what God may do out of course He will never do it to a man of Belial who runneth on in his sins yet looketh for a chariot to carry him into heaven We have no such doctrine nor the Church of Christ Her voice is Turn ye now at last will be too late This is the doctrine of the Gospel But yet the judgement is the Lords All this we have heard and we cannot gainsay or confute it And shall we yet delay Certainly if we know these terrours of the Lord and not turn now we shall hardly ever turn If we hear and believe this and do not repent we are worse then Infidels Our Faith shall help the Devil to accuse us and it shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrha then for us If we hear this and still fold our hands to sleep still delay if this noise do not stir and move us if this do not startle us in our evil wayes we have good reason to fear 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 believe 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 saith S. Ambrose Epist c. 10. Ep. 82. Faith is on the wing and carrieth 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 Devotio est actualis voluntas prompte faciendi quae ad Dei cultum spectant Aquin 22. q. 82. art 1. Praepropera velocitate pietatis pene aute coepit perfectus esse uam disceret Pontius Diaconus de Cypriani vita Devotion is full of heat and activity and Hope that is deferred is an affliction If we are led by the Spirit of God we are led apace drawn suddenly out of those wayes which lead unto death 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 set out God speaketh and we hear he begetteth good thoughts in us and we nourish them to that strength that they break forth into action he poureth forth his grace and we receive it he maketh his benefits his lure and we come to his hand he thundereth from heaven and we fall down before him In brief Repentance is as our Passeover By it we sacrifice our heart and we do it in the bitterness of our soul and in hast and so pass from death to life from darkness to light from our evil wayes to the obedience of Faith and God passeth over us seeth the blood our wounded spirits our tears our contrition and will not now destroy us but seeing us so soon and so far removed from our evils wayes will favour us and shine upon us and in the light of his countenance we shall walk 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
bound our discourse within the compass of those observations which first offer themselves and without any force or violence may naturally be deduced from the words And we shall first take notice of the course and method God taketh to turn us He draweth a sword against us he threatneth Death and so awaketh our Fear that our fear may carry us out of our evil wayes Secondly God is not willing we should die Thirdly He is not any way defective in the administration of the means of life Last of all If we die the fault is onely in our selves and our own wills ruine us Why will ye die O house of Israel We begin with the first the course that God taketh to turn us He asketh us Why will ye die In which we shall pass by these steps or degrees Shew you 1. what Fear is 2. how useful it may be in our conversion 3. that it is not onely useful but good and lawful and injoyned both to those who are yet to turn and those who are converted already The fear of death and 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 righteousness God commendeth it to us timor iste timendus non est we need not be afraid of this Fear Death is the King of terrours to command our Fear that seeing Death in our evil wayes ready to destroy us Job 18.14 we may look about and consider in what wayes we are and for fear of death turn from sin which leadeth unto it 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 He presenteth 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 and whirlwind Clem. Alexandr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to affright us He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 various and manifold in the dispensation of his goodness 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 and delight and ravish us with the glory of that which before we could not look upon Now what Fear is we may guess by Hope for they are both hewed as it were out of the same rock Expectation is the common matter out of which they are framed As hope is nothing else but an expectation of that which is good so Fear saith the Philosopher hath its beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the imagination of some approching evil Arist Rhet. 2. c. 6. Where there is Hope there is Fear and where there is Fear there is Hope For he that doth fear some evil may befal him retaineth some hope that he may escape it and he that hopeth for that which is desirable standeth in some fear that he may not reach and possess it So you see Hope and Fear though they seem to look at distance one upon the other yet are alwayes in conjunction and are levelled on the same object till they lose their names and the one end in Confidence the other in Despair Now of all the passions of the mind Fear may seem to be the most unprofitable Wisd 17.12 Curt. l. 3. For the Wise man will tell us it is nothing else but the betraying of those succours which Reason offereth And the Historian speaking of the Persians who in their flight flung away their weapons of defence shutteth up all with this Epiphonema Adeò pavor ipsa auxilia formidat Such is the nature of Fear that it disarmeth us and maketh us not onely run from danger but from those helps and succours which might prevent and keep it off It matureth and ripeneth mischief anticipateth evil and multiplieth it and by a vain kind of providence giveth those things a being which are not Spe jam praecipit hostem saith the Poet It presenteth our enemy before us when he is not near and latcheth the sword in our bowels before the blow is given And indeed such many times are the effects of Fear But as Alexander sometimes spake of that fierce and stately steed Bucephalus Curt. l. 1. Qualem isti equum perdunt dum per imperitiam mollitiem uti nesciunt What a brave Horse is spoiled for want of manning so may we of Fear A most useful passion is lost because we do not manage and order it as we should We suffer it to distract and amaze when it should poyse and byas us We make it our enemy when it might be our friend to guard and protect us and by a prophetical presage or mistrust keep off those evils which are in the approch ready to assault us For prudentia quaedam divinatio est Vit Pompon Attici our Prudence which alwayes carrieth with it Fear is a kind of divination Our Passions are as winds and as they may thrust us upon the rocks so they may drive and carry us on to the haven where we would be All is in the right placing of them Passiones aestimantur objectis Our passions are as the objects are they look on and by them they are measured and either fall or rise in their esteem To fear an enemy is Cowardise to fear labour is Slothfulness to fear the face of man is something near to Baseness and Servility to be afraid of a command because it is difficult is Disobedience but Pone Deum saith S Augustine place God as the object and to fear him not onely when he shineth in mercy but when he is girded with Majesty to fear him not onely as a Father but as a Lord nay to fear him when he cometh with a tempest before him is either a virtue or else leadeth unto it Now to shew you how fear worketh and how useful it may be to forward our Turn we may observe first that it worketh upon our Memory reviveth those characters of sin which long custome had sullied and defaced and maketh that deformity visible which the delight we took in sin had vailed and hid from our sight When the Patriarchs had sold their brother Joseph into Egypt for ten years space and above whilst they dreaded nothing they never seemed to have any sense of their fact but looked upon it as lawful or warrantable sale or made as light of it as if it had been so Joseph was sold and they thought themselves well rid of a Dreamer But when they were now come down into Egypt Gen. 42.21 22 and were cast into prison and into a fear withall that they should be there chained up as captives and slaves then and not till then it appeared like an ill bargain then they could give it its right name and call it
I were a Paul and did love Christ as Cato did virtue because I could do no otherwise suppose I did fear sin more then hell and had rather be damned then commit it suppose that every thought word and work were amoris foetus the issues of my Love yet I must not upon a special favour build a general doctrine and because Love is best make Fear unlawful make it sin to fear that punishment the Fear of which might keep me from sin For these were in S. Paul's phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 14.13 to put a stumbling block in our brothers way with my Love to overthrow his Fear that so at last both Fear and Love may fall to the ground For is there any that will fear sin for punishment if it be a sin to fear What is the language of the world now We hear of nothing but filial Fear 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 happiness as we are of death but are more perswaded of the truth of the one then of the other more sure to go to heaven then to die and yet Death is the gate which must let us in We are already partakers of an angelical estate we prolong our life in our own thoughts to a kind of eternity and yet can fear 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 coals of fire We entertein him as the Romane Gentleman did the Emperour Augustus Macrobius in Saturnal coena parcâ quasi quotidianâ with course and ordinary fare as Saul 1 Sam. 15. 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 fear that in wrath and indignation he should reply as Augustus did Non putarum 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 Fear There is a Fear by which we fear not the fault but the punishment and a Fear which feareth the punishment and fault withall and a Fear which feareth no punishment at all I know Aquinas putteth a difference between Servile Fear and the Servility of Fear as if he would take the Soul from Socrates and yet leave him a Man These are niceties more subtile then solid Senec. epist. in quibus ludit animus magìs quà m proficit which may occasion discourse but not instruct our understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As near as we can let us take things as they are in themselves and not as they are beat out and fashioned by the work and business of our wits and then it will be plain that though we be Sons yet we may fear fear that evil which the Father presenteth before us to fright us from it that we may make the Fear of death an argument to turn us and a strong motive to confirm us in the course of our obedience that it is no servility to perform some part of Christs service upon those terms which he himself alloweth and hath prescribed to us Let us call it by what name we please for indeed we have miscalled it and brought it in as slavish and servile and so branded the command of Christ himself yet we shall find it a blessed instrument to safeguard and improve our Piety we shall find that the best way to escape the judgments of God is to draw them near even to our eyes For Hell is a part of our Creed as well as Heaven God's threatnings are as loud as his promises and could we once fear Hell as we should we should not fear it For I ask May we serve God sub intuitu mercidis with respect unto the reward It is agreed upon on all sides that we may for Moses had respect unto the recompense of the reward Hebr. 11.26 Hebr. 2.12 and Christ himself did look upon the joy that was set before him Why then may we not serve God sub intuitu vindictae upon the fear of punishment Will God accept that service which is begun and wrought out by virtue and influence of the reward and will he cast off that servant which had an eye upon his hand and observed him as a Lord Why then hath God propounded both these both Reward and Punishment and bid us work in his Vineyard with an eye on them both if we may not as well fear him when he threatneth as run to meet him when he cometh towards us and his reward with him Let us then have recourse to his Mercy-seat but let us tremble also and fall down before his Tribunal and behold his Glory and Majesty in both But it may be said and some have thought it their duty to say it that this belongeth to the wicked to the Goats to fear but when Christ speaketh to his Disciples to his Flock the language is NOLITE TEMERE Fear not little flock for it is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdome Luke 12.32 It is true it is your Fathers will to give it you and you have no reason to fear or mistrust him But this doth not exclude the Fear of the wrath of God nor the use of those means which the Father himself hath put into our hands not that Fear which may be one help and advance towards that Violence which must take it For our Saviour doth not argue thus Matth. 11.12 It is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdome Therefore persevere not for any fear of punishment But the Fear which Christ forbiddeth is the Fear of distrustfulness when we fear as Peter did upon the waters when he was ready to sink and had therefore a check and rebuke from our Saviour Why fearest thou oh thou of little faith So that Fear not Matth. 14.31 little flock is nothing else but a disswasion from infidelity A Souldier that putteth no confidence in himself yet may in his Captain if he be a Hannibal or a Caesar for an army of Harts may conquer said Iphicrates if a Lion be the leader So though we may something doubt and mistrust because we may see much wanting to the perfection of our actions yet we must raise our diffidence with this perswasion that the promise is most certain and that the power of Heaven and Hell cannot infringe or null it We may mistrust our selves for of our selves we are Nothing 2 Cor. 12.11 Gal. 6.3 2 Cor. 1.20 but not the Promises of CHRIST for they are Yea and Amen But they are ready to reply that the Apostle S. Paul is yet more plain Rom. 8.15 where he
to destroy which threatneth striketh and then is no more When this Lion roareth every man is afraid is transelemented unnaturalized unmanned is made wax to receive any impression from a mighty but mortal hand And shall not the God of heaven and earth who can dash all this Power to nothing deserve our Fear shall we be so familiar with him as to contemn him so love him as to hate him Shall a shadow a vapour aw us and shall we stand out against Omnipotency and Eternity it self Shall Sense brutish Sense prevail with us more then our Reason of Faith And shall we cross the method of God make it our wisdome to fear man and count it a sin to fear God who is only to be feared This were to be wiser then Wisedome it self which is the greatest folly in the world I have brought you therefore to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this School of Fear set up the Moriemini shewed you a Deaths-head to discipline and catechize you that you may not die but live and turn from your evil wayes and turn unto him who hath the keys of Hell and of Death who as he is a Saviour Rev. 1 1◠so is he also a Judge and hath made Fear one ingredient in his Physick not onely to purge us but to keep us in a healthful temper and constitution And to this if not the danger of our souls yet the noise of those who love us not may awake us Stapleton a learned man Promptuar Moral but a malitious fugitive layeth it as a charge against the Preachers of the Reformed Churches that they are copious and large in setting forth the Mercies of God but they pass over graviora Evangelii the harsher but most necessary passages of the Gospel suspenso pede lightly and as it were on their tiptoes and go softly as if they were afraid to awake their hearers That we are mere Solifidians and rely upon a reed a hollow and an empty Faith Bellarmine is loud that we do per contemplationem volare hover as it were on the wings of Contemplation and hope to go to heaven in a dream Pamelius in his Notes upon Tertullian is bold upon it That the Primitive Church did anathematize us in the Marcionists and Gnosticks and if they were Hereticks then we are so And what shall we now say Recrimination is rather an objection then an answer And it will be against all rules of Logick to conclude our selves good because they are worse or that we have no errours because they have so many and that none can erre but he that sayeth 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 Fear of God is in us of a truth to weave Love and Fear into one piece to serve the Lord in fear and rejoyce in trembling Psal 2.11 Hilar. in Ps 2. Vt sit timor exsultans exsultatio tremens that there may be Trembling in our Joy and Joy in our Fear not to divorce Jesus from the LORD nor the Lord from Jesus not to fear the Lord the less for Jesus nor love Jesus the less for the Lord but to joyn 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 Fear that it faint not and end in despair that our Love may not consume our Fear nor our Fear chill our Love but we may so love him that we do not despair so fear him that we do not presume That we may fear 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 1 Joh. 4.17 Our Love shall be made perfect all doubting taken from our Faith Nay Faith it self shall be done away and the Fear 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 ye die The One and Twentieth SERMON PART VI. EZEKIEL XXXIII 11. why will ye die O house of Israel Prov. 7.27 WE have led you through the chambers of Death through the school of Discipline the school of Fear For why will ye die Look upon Death and fear it and you shall not die at all Thus far are we gone We come now to the house of Israel Why will ye die O house of Israel 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 prevail with God Gen. 32.28 Psal 122.3 should embrace death that the house of Israel compact in it self should ruine it self In Edom it is no strange sight to see men run on in their evil wayes Psal 120.5 In Meseck 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 die Why should they die The Devil may be an Edomite but God forbid he should be an Israelite The QVARE MORIEMINI why will ye die we see is levelled to the mark is here in its right and proper place and being directed to Israel is a sharp and vehement exprobration O 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 Deut. 30.15 19 Life that you may chuse it and Death that you may run from it And why will ye die My sword is drawn to affright 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 Num. 22.23 my Prophet with a sword drawn in his hand that at least you may be as wise as the beast was under Balaam and sink and fall down under your burden I have imprinted the very image of Death in every sin And will ye yet go on Will ye love Sin that hath such a foul face such a terrible countenance that is thus clothed and apparrelled with Death Quis furor ô cives What a madness is this O ye Israelites As Herode once upbraiding Cassius for his seditious behaviour in the East Philostrat in vit Herodis
wrote no more but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herode to Cassius Thou art mad So God may seem to send to his people GOD by his Prophet to the Israelites You are mad Therefore do my people run on in their evill wayes because they have no understanding Isa 5.13 For now look upon Death and that affrighteth us Look upon God and he exhorteth 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 turn we cannot die at all If we die God passeth sentence upon us and condemneth us but killeth us not but perditio tua ex te Israel our destruction cometh from our selves It is not God it is not Death it self that killeth 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 accessory to our death And to make our passage clear and plain we will proceed by these steps or degrees and 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 means 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 as Death did our Fear which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 20. as Nazianzene speaketh another help and furtherance to work out our salvation And that God is not willing we should die is plain enough first from the Obtestation or Expostulation it self secondly from the Nature of God who thus expostulateth For 1. Why will ye die is the voice of a friend not of an enemy He that asks me why I will die by his very question assureth me he intendeth not to destroy me God is not as man Numb 23.19 that he should lie What he worketh he worketh in the clear and open day His fire is kindled to enflame us his water floweth to purge and cleanse us his oyl is powred forth to supple us His commands are not snares nor his precepts accusations He stampeth not the Devil's face upon his coyn He willeth not what he made not Wisd 1.13 and he made not Death saith the Wise man He wisheth he desireth we should live he is angry and sorry if we die He looketh down upon us and calleth after us he exhorteth and rebuketh and even weepeth over us Luk. 19.41 as our Saviour did over Jerusalem And if we die we cannot think that he that is Life it self should kill us If we must die why doth he yet complain why doth he expostulate For if the Decree be come forth if we be lost already why doth he yet call after us How can a desire or command breathe in those coasts which the power of an absolute will hath laid waste already If he hath decreed we should die he cannot desire we should live but rather the contrary that his Decree be not void and of no effect Otherwise to pass sentence and irrevocable sentence of death and then bid us live is to look for liberty and freedome in Necessity for a sufficient effect from an unsufficient cause to command and desire that which himself had made impossible to ask a dead man why he doth not live and to speak to a carcass and bid it walk Indeed by some this Why will ye die is made but sancta simulatio a kind of holy dissimulation so that God with them setteth up Man as a mark and then sticketh his deadly arrows in his sides and after asketh him why he will die And Why may he not saith one with the same liberty damn a soul as a hunter killeth a deer A bloody instance As if an immortal soul which Christ set at a greater rate then the world itself nay then his own most pretious blood were in his sight of no more value then a beast and God were a mighty Nimrod and did destroy mens souls for delight and pleasure Thus though they dare not call God the Authour of sin for who is so sinful that could hear that and not anathematize it yet others and those no children in understanding think it a conclusion that will naturally and necessarily follow upon such bloody premisses And they are more encouraged by those ill-boding words which have dropt from their quills For say some Vocat ut induret He calleth them to no other end but that he may harden them He hardeneth them that he may destroy them He exhorteth them to turn that they may not turn He asketh them why they will die that they may run on in their evil wayes even upon Death it self When they break his command they fulfil his will and it is his pleasure they should sin it is his pleasure they should die And when he calleth upon them not to sin when he asketh them why they will die he doth but dissemble for they are dead already horribili decreto by that horrible antecedaneous decree of Reprobation And now tell me If we admit of this what is become of the Expostulation what use is there of the Obtestation why doth he yet ask Why will ye die I called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reason unanswerable But if this phansie this interpretation take place it is no reason at all Why will ye die The answer is ready and what other answer can a poor praecondemned soul make Domine Deus tu nôsti Lord God thou knowest Thou condemnedst us before thou madest us Thou didst destroy us before we were And if we die even so good Lord For it is thy good pleasure Fato volvimur It is our destiny Or rather Est Deus in nobis Not a Stoical Fate but thy right hand and thy strong irresistable arm hath destroyed us And so the Expostulation is answered and the Quare moriemini is nothing else but Mortui estis Why will ye die that is the Text The Gloss is Ye are dead already But in the second place that this Expostulation is true and hearty may be seen in the very nature of God who is Truth it self who hath but one property and quality saith Trismegistus and that is Goodness Therefore he cannot bid us live when he intendeth to kill us Consider God before Man had fallen from him by sin and disobedience and we shall see nothing but the works of Goodness and Love Psal 8.3 The heavens were the works of his fingers He created Angels and Men He spake the word and all was done Hom. in Famem siccitatem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil What necessity was there that he should thus break forth into action Who compelled
him who perswaded him who was his counsellour He was all-sufficient and stood in need of nothing l. 4. c. 28. Non quasi indigens plasmavit Adam saith Irenaeus It was not out of any indigencie or defect in himself that he made Adam after his image He was all to himself before he made any thing nor could million of worlds have added to him What was it to him that there were Angels made Athenag Legat pro Christianis or Seraphim or Cherubim He gained not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle For there could be no accession nothing to heighten his perfection Did he make the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athenagoras calleth it as an instrument to make him musick Did he clothe the lilies and dress up Nature in various colours to delight himself Or could he not reign without Man saith Mirandula God hath a most free and powerful and immutable will and therefore it was not necessary for him to work or to begin to work but when he would For he might both will and not will the creation of all things without any change of his will But it pleased him out of his goodness thus to break forth into action Sext. Emperic adv Mathemat pag. 327. Will you know the cause saith the Sceptick why he made world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was good Nihil ineptius saith one quà m cogitare Deum nihil agentem There is nothing more vain then to conceive that God could be idle or doing of nothing And were it not for his Goodness we could hardly conceive him ad extrà agentem working any thing out of himself who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all-sufficient and blessed for evermore infinitely happy though he had never created the heaven and the earth though there had neither been Angel nor Man to worship him But he did all these things because he was good Bonitas saith Tertullian Adv. Marcion l. 2. otium sui non patitur hinc censetur si agatur Goodness is an active and restless quality and it is not when it is idle It cannot contain it self in it self And by his Goodness God made Man made him for his glory and so to be partaker of his happiness placed him here on earth to raise him up to heaven made him a living soul ut in vita hac compararet vitam that in this short and transitory life he might fit himself for an abiding City Heb. 13.14 and in this moment work out Aeternity Thus of himself God is good nor can any evil proceed from him If he frown we first move him if he be angry we have provoked him if he come in a tempest we have raised it if he be a consuming fire we have kindled it Heb. 12.29 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 God's Goodness is natural his Severity in respect of its act accidental For God may be severe and yet not punish For he striketh 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 Luk. 16. If there were neither Angel nor Man he were still the Lord blessed for evermore In a word he had been just though he had never been angry he had been merciful though Man had not been miserable he had been the same God just and good and merciful Rom. 5.12 though Sin had not entred in by Adam and Death by Sin God is active in good and not in evil He cannot do what he doth detest and hate he cannot decree ordain or further that which is most contrary to him He doth not kill me before all time and then in time ask me why I will die He doth not condemn 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 cometh to punish facit opus non suum saith the Prophet Isa 28.21 doth not his own work doth a strange work a strange act an act that is forced from him a work which he would not do And as God doth not will our Death so doth he not desire to mani-his glory in it which as our Death proceedeth from his secondary and occasioned will For God saith Aquinas Aqui 1. 2 2. q 132. art 1. ◠seeketh not the manifestation of his glory for his own but for our sakes His glory as his Wisdome and Justice and Power is with him alwayes as eternal as himself No quire of Angels can improve no raging Devil can diminish his glory which in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphim and Cherubim in the midst of all the blasphemies of Men and Devils 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 shineth in the perfection of beauty rather then where it is decayed and defaced 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 ad mortem sed antè 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 evil but we were first commanded to be good God's first will is that we glorifie him in our bodies and in our souls 1 Cor. 6.20 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 dishonoured him Prov. 14.28 and write it with our blood In the multitude of the people is the glory of a king saith the wisest of Kings and more glory if they be obedient to his laws then if they rebel and rise up against him That Common-wealth is more glorious where every man filleth his place then where the prisons are filled with thieves and traytours and men of Belial And though the justice and wisdome of the King may be seen in these yet it 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 to see it in the Church of the first
born and in the souls of just men made perfect Hebr. 12.23 It is now indeed his will which primarily was not his will to see it in the Devil and his Angels God is best pleased to see his creature Man to answer to that pattern which he hath set up to be what he should be and what he intended And as every artificer glorieth in his work when he seeth it finished according to the rule and that Idea which he had drawn in his mind and as we use to look upon the work of our hands or wits with that favour and complacency we do upon our children when they are like us So doth God upon Man when he appeareth in that shape and form of obedience which he prescribed For then the Glory of God is carried along in the continued stream and course of all our actions breaketh forth and is seen in every work of our hands is the echo of every word we speak the result of every thought that begat that word It is Musick in Gods ears which he had rather hear then the weeping and howling of the damned which he will now hear though the time was when he used all fitting means to prevent it even the same means by which he raised those who now glorifie him in the highest heaven God then is no way willing we should die not by his natural Will which is his prime and antecedent Will. For Death cannot issue from the Fountain of Life By this Will was the Creature made in the beginning and by this preserved ever since by this are administred all the means to bring it to that perfection and happiness for which it was first made For the Goodness of God it was which first gave being to Man and then adopted him in spem regni designed him for immortality and gave him a Law by the fulfilling of which he might have a taste of that joy and happiness which he from all eternity possessed And therefore secondly not voluntate praecepti not by his Will exprest in his commands precepts and laws For under Christ this Will of his is the onely destroyer of Death and being kept and observed swalloweth 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 Phil. 3.20 Ezek. 20.11 13 21. If we do them we shall even live in them saith the Prophet And he repeateth it often as if Life were as inseparable from God's Laws as it is from the living God himself by which as he is Life in himself so to Man whom he had made 2 Tim. 1.10 he brought life and immortality to light And these his Precepts are defluxions from him the proper issue of his natural and primitive Desire of that general Love of good-will which he did bear to his Creature and the onely way to draw on that Love of friendship that nearer relation by which we are one with him and he with us Rom 8.16 by which he calleth us his children and we cry Abba Father His first Will ordained us for good his second Will was published and set up as a light to bring us to that good for which we were made and created But we are told there is in God voluntas permissionis a permissive Will or a Will of permission And indeed some have made great use of this word permission and have made it of the same necessitating power and efficacy with that by which God made the heaven and the earth For we find it in terminis in their writings Positâ peccati permissione necesse est ut peccatum eveniat That upon the permission of sin it must necessarily follow that sin must be committed They call it permission but before they wind up their discourses the word I know not by what Logick or Grammar hath more significations put upon it then God or Nature ever gave it Romani ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant say the antient Britons in Tacitus The Romanes Vita Agricol◠where by fire and sword they lay the land waste and turn all to a wilderness call it Peace So here the word is permission but currente rotâ whilst they are hot and busie in their work at last it is excitation stirring up inclining hardning Permittere is no less then Impellere Permission is Compulsion and by their Chymistry they are able to extract all this out of this one word and more as That God will have that done which he forbiddeth us to do That God doth not will what he telleth us he doth will That some are cast asleep from all eternity that they may be hardned And all this with them is but permission And to make this good we are told That God hath on purpose created some men with an intent to permit them to fall into sin And this at first sight is a fair Proposition that carrieth truth written in the very forehead But indeed it is deceitful upon the weights One thing is said and another meant God hath created some And why some and not all For no doubt the condition of creation is the same in all And why with a purpose to permit them to fall into sin Did he not also create them with a purpose that they should walk in his commandments Certainly both and rather the last then the former For God indeed permitteth sin but withal forbiddeth it but he permitteth nay he commandeth us to do his will Permission looketh upon both both upon Sin and upon Obedience on the one side it meeteth with a check on the other with a command that we may not do what is but permitted and forbidden and that we may yield ready obedience to that which is not permitted onely but commanded It was a custome amongst the ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 3. to number and cast up their accounts with their fingers as we do by figures and counters whence Orontes the Persian was wont to say Eundem digitum nunc decem millia nunc unum ostendere that the same finger with some alteration and change did now signifie Ten thousand and in another posture and motion but One. The same use some men have made of this word permission which they did of their fingers In its true sense and natural place it can signifie no more then this A purpose of God not to intercede by his Omnipotency and hinder the committing of those sins which if he permitted not could not once have a being But men have learnt so to place it that it shall stand for Ten thousand for Inclination and Excitation and Induration and all those fearful expressions which leave men chained and fettered with an inevitable necessity of sinning and so they make that which in God is but merely permission infallibily effective and so damn men with gentler language and in a softer phrase He permitteth them That he doth that he must do but their
done or may do then do what they should are so much in heaven and to so little purpose that they lose it But the Apostle's method is sure 2 Pet. 1.10 to use diligence to make our election sure and so read the Decree in our Obedience and sincere Conversation and if we can perswade our selves that our names are written in the book of Life yet so to behave our selves Phil. 2.12 so to work on with fear and trembling as if it were yet to be done As it was told the Philosopher that he might have seen the figure of the stars in the water but could not see the water in the stars All the knowledge we can gain of the Decree is from our selves It is written in heaven and the characters we read it by on earth are Faith and Repentance If we believe and repent then God speaketh to us from heaven and telleth us we shall not die If we be dead to sin and alive to righteousness we are enrolled and our names are written in the book of Life Here here alone is the Decree legible and if our eye fail not in the one it cannot be deceived in the other If we love Christ and keep his commandments we are in the number of the elect and were chosen from all eternity Be not then cast down and dejected in thy self with what God hath done or may do by his absolute Power For thou maist build upon it He never saved an impenitent nor will ever cast away a repentant sinner Behold he calleth to thee now by his Prophet QVARE MORIERIS Why wilt thou die Didst thou ever hear from him or from any Prophet a MORIERIS that thou shalt die or a MORTVVS ES that thou art dead already Thou hast his Prayers his Entreaties and Beseechings He spreadeth forth his hands all the day long Isa 65.2 Rom. 10.21 Deut. 32.29 Luke 1.55 73. Thou hast his Wishes Oh that thou wert wise so wise as to look upon the MORIEMINI to consider thy last end Thou hast his Covenant which he sware to our fore-fathers Abraham and his seed for ever His Comminations his Obtestations his Expostulations thou mayest read but didst thou ever read the Book of life Look on the MORIEMINI look on the Deaths head in the Text look not into the Book of life Thou hast other care that lieth upon thee thou hast other business to do Thou hast an Understanding to adorn a Will to watch over Affections to bridle the Flesh to crucifie Temptations to struggle with the Devil to encounter Think then of thy Duty not of the Decree and the sincere performance of the duty will seal the Decree Eph. 4.30 and seal thee up to the day of redemption It is a good rule which Martine Luther giveth us Dimitte Scripturam ubi obscura est tene ubi certa Where the Text is dark and obscure suspend thy judgement and where it is plain and easy express and manifest it in thy conversation which is the best descant on a plain song Thou readest there are vessels made to dishonour Rom. 9.21 2 Tim. 2.20 Whether God made them so as some will have it or they made themselves so as Basil and Chrysostom interpret it it concerneth not thee That which concerneth thee is plain thou mayest run and read it 1 Thes 4.4 Jude 20. that thou must possess thy vessel in honour and build up thy self in thy holy faith The Quare moriemini is plain It is plain that God is not willing thou shouldest die but hath shewed thee a plain passage unto life He hath not indeed supplied thee with means to interpret riddles and untie knots and explain and resolve hard texts of Scripture but he hath supplied thee with means of life hath brought thee to the gates of paradise Psal 16.6 to the wayes of life to the vvells of salvation The lines are fallen to thee in a fair place Behold he hath placed thee in domo Israelis in the house of Israel in domo salutis in the house of salvation Which is next to be considered The Two and Twentieth SERMON PART VII EZEKIEL XXXIII 11. For why will ye die O house of Israel GOD is not vvilling vve should die He is Goodness it self and no evil can proceed from him no not the evil of punishment For it is his strange work Orat. Quid Deus non sic autor mali and rather ours then his saith Basil If our sins did not call and cry out for it he vvould not do it as delighting rather to see his glory in that image vvhich is like him then in that vvhich is defaced and torn and mangled and novv burning in hell Ipse te subdidisti poenae that is the stile of the Imperial Law His wrath could not kindle nor Hell burn till we did blow the coals We bring our selves under punishment and then God striketh and we die and are lost for ever It was his Goodness that made us and it was his Goodness which made a Law and made it possible to be kept And in the same stream of Goodness were conveyed unto us sufficient and abundant means by the right use of which we might be carried on in an even and constant course of obedience to that Law and so have a clearer knowledge of God a nearer union with him a taste of the powers of the world to come Hebr. 6.5 Psal 16.12 a share and part in that fulness of joy which is at his right hand for evermore And why then will ye die O house of Israel And indeed why should Israel why should any of the house of Israel die For take it in the letter for the Jews take it in the application for us Christians take it for the Synagogue which is the type Rom. 9.6 or take it for the Church which is Israel indeed as the Apostle calleth it and a strange thing it is and as full of shame as wonder that any one should die in the house of Israel or perish in the Church Si honoratior est persona Salvian l. 1 de Gub. M. major est peccantis invidia The malice of sin is proportioned to the person that commits it It is not so strange a thing to die in the streets of Askelon as in the house of Israel nor for a Turk or Infidel to be lost as for a Christian For though the condition of the person cannot change the species of the sin for Sin is the same in whomsoever it is yet it hath not so foul an aspect in one as in another it crieth not so loud in the dark as in the light It is most fatal and destructive where there are most means to avoid it and most mortal where there is most light to discover its deformity A wicked Israelite is worse then an Edomite and a bad Christian worsâ— then a Turk or a Jew To be in the house of Israel to be a member of the Church
parts which make up the Syntaxis of a Republick And he that endeavoureth not the advancement of the whole is a letter too much fit to be expunged and blotted out But in the Church whose maker and builder is God Heb. 11.10 this is required in the highest degree especially in those transactions which may enlarge the circuit and glory of it Here every man must be his own and under Christ his brothers Saviour For as between these two Cities so between the happiness of the one and the happiness of the other there is no comparison As therefore every Bishop in the former ages called himself Episcopum Catholicae Ecclesiae a Bishop of the Catholick Church although he had jurisdiction but over one Diocess so the care and piety of every particular Christian in respect of its diffusive operation is as Catholick as the Church Every soul he meeteth with is under his charge and he is the care of every soul Jam. 5.20 In saving a soul from death every man is a Priest and a Bishop although he may neither invade the Pulpit nor ascend the Chair I may be eyes unto him as it was said of Hobab Numb 10.31 I may take him from his errour and put him into the way of truth If he fear I may scatter his fear if he grieve I may wipe off his tears if he presume I may teach him to fear and if he despair I may lift him up to a lively hope that neither Fear nor Grief neither Presumption nor Despair swallow him up Thus may I raise a dead man from the grave a sinner from his sin and by that example many may rise with him who are as dead as he and so by this friendly communication we may transfuse our selves into others and receive others into our selves and so run hand in hand from the chambers of Death And thus far we dare extend the Communion of Saints place it in a House a Family a Society of men called and gathered together by Christ raise it to the participation of the privileges and Charters granted by Christ calling us to the same faith leading us by the same rule filling us with the same grace endowing us with several gifts that we may guard and secure each other and so settle it in those Offices and Duties which Christianity maketh common and God hath registred in his Church which is the pillar of truth 1 Tim. 3.15 where all mens Joyes and Sorrows and Fears and Hopes should be one and the same And then to die surrounded with all these helps and advantages of God above ready to help us of Men like unto our selves prest out as auxiliaries to succour and relieve us of Precepts to guide us of Promises to encourage us of Heaven even opening it self to receive us then to die 2 Sam 3.33 34. is to die as fools die to suffer their hands to be bound and their feet put in fetters and to open their breast to the sword For to die alone is not so grievous not so imputable as to die in such company to die where it is no more but to will it and I might live for ever Oh how were it to be wisht that we well understood this one Article of our Faith the Communion of Saints that we knew to be Vessels to receive the Water of life and Conduits to convey it that we would remember that by every sin we bring trouble to a million of Saints and by our obedience make as many Angels merry Luk. 15.13 30. that when we spend our portion amongst harlots we do not onely begger our selves but rob and spoil our brethren that when we yield our selves to the enemy we betray an Army Oh that we knew what it were to give counsel and what it were to receive it what it were to shine upon others and to walk by their light Oh that we knew the power and the necessity of a Precept the riches and glory of a Promise that we would consider our selves as men amongst men invited to happiness invited to the same royal feast If this were rightly considered we should then ask our selves the question Why should we die Why shâ—uld we die not in the wilderness amongst beasts upon our turf or stone where there is none to help but in domo Israelis in a house and in the house of Israel where Health and Safety appear in every room and corner Why should we fall like Samson with the house upon us and so endanger and bruise others with our fall If I be a string why should I jarre and spoil the harmony If I be a part why should I be made a schisme from the body If I be under command why should I beat my fellow-servants If a member why should I walk disorderly in the family Why should I why should any die in the house of Israel And now to reassume the Text Why will ye die O house of Israel What a fearful exprobration is it What can it work in us but shame and confusion of face Why will ye die ye that have Christ for your Physician the Angels for your Ministers the Saints for your example the Church a common shop of precious balm and antidotes ye who are in the House of Israel where you may learn from the Priest learn from the oracles of God learn from one another learn from Death it self not to die In this House in this Order in this Union in this Communion in the midst of all these auxiliary troops to fall and miscarry To have the Light but not to see it the bread of Life but not to tast it To die with our antidotes about us Quale est de Ecclesiâ Dei in Ecclesiam Diaboli tendere de coelo in coenum Tert. De spect c. 25. Aug. De Civ Dei l. 14. c. 15. to go per portâ—â— coeli in gehennam thorow the house of Israel into Tophet thorow the Church of Christ into hell may well put God to ask questions and expostulate and can argue no less then a stubborn and relentless heart and not onely a defect but a distast and hatred of that piety quae una est sapientia in hac domo which is the onely wisdome and most useful in the house of Israel which is our best strength against our enemy Death And here to apply this to our selves Let us compare the state of the house of Israel with the state of the people of this Nation and Jerusalem with this City Isa 5.4 and we may say What could God have done more for us which he hath not done Onely his blessings and privileges will rise and swell and exceed on our side and so make our ingratitude and guilt the greater They had their Priests and Levites we have our Pastours and Ministers They had their Temple and Synagogues we our Parochial Churches They had their Sacraments Circumcision and the Paschal Lamb Acts 15.21 we Baptism and the Lords
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 midwifery 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 souls those common principles of goodness That good is to be embraced and evil to be abandoned That we must do to others as we would be done to those practick notions those anticipations Natura nos ad optimam mentem genuit Quint. l. 12. Inst as the Stoicks call them of the mind and preparations against Sin and Death which if we did not wilfully stifle and choke them might lift up our souls far above those depressions of Self-love and Covetousness and those evils which destroy us quae ratio semel in universum vincit which Reason with the help of Grace overcometh 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 also when we are beat to the ground it checketh and upbraideth us for our fall Indeed to look down upon our selves and then lift up our eyes to him from whom cometh our salvation Psal 62.1 121.1 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 weakness as well as we do with the temptation Psal 103.14 then if we fall God remembreth whereof we are made considereth our condition that we are but men and though we fail his mercy endureth for ever But to think of our weakness and then to fall and because we came infirm and diseased into the world to kill our selves Wisd 1.12 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 approch as if we were made for no other end and then to complain of weakness 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 fall willingly under the temptation and then pretend it was a son of Anak 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 mother of all those mishapen births and monsters which walk about the world we dress and deck up and give it a fair and glorious name and call it Humility Which is Humilitas maximum fidei opus Hil. in Psal 130. saith Hilary the hardest and greatest work of our faith to which it is so unlike that it is the greatest enemy it hath and every day weakneth and disenableth it that it doth not work by charity but leaveth us Captives to the world and sin which but for this conceit it would easily vanquish and tread down under our feet We may call it Humility but it is Pride a stubborn and insolent standing out with God that made us upon this foul and unjust pretense That he made us so humilitas sophistica saith Petrus Blesensis the humility of hypocrites which at once boweth and pusheth out the horn in which we disgrace and condemn our selves that we may do what we please and speak evil of our selves that we may be worse Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched men that we are we groan it out and there is musick in the sound which we hear and delight in and carry along in our mind and so become wretched indeed even those miserable sinners which will ever be so And shall we call this Humility If it be Col. 2.18 it is as the Apostle speaketh a voluntary humility but in a worse sense He is the humblest man that doth his duty For that Humility which is commended to us in Scripture letteth us up to heaven this which is so epidemical sinketh us into the lowest pit That Humility boweth us down with sorrow this bindeth our hands with sloth that looketh upon our imperfections past this maketh way for more to come that ventureth and condemneth it self condemneth it self and ventureth further this runneth out of the field and dare not look upon the enemy Nec mirum si vincantur qui jam victi sunt And it is no marvel they should fall and perish whom their own so low and groundless opinion hath already overthrown For first though I deny not a derived Weakness and from Adam though I leave it not after Baptisme as subsistent by it self or bound to the centre of the earth with the Manichee nor washt to nothing in the Font with others yet it is easie to deceive our selves and to think it more contagious then it is more operative and more destructive then it would be if we would shake off this conceit and rowse our selves and stand up against it Ignaviâ nostrâ fortis est It may be it is our sloth and cowardise that maketh it strong Certainly there must be more force then this hath to make us so wicked as many times we are and there be more promoters of the kingdom of Darkness in us then that which we brought with us into the world Lord what a noise hath Original sin made amongst the sons of Adam and what ill use hath been made of it When this Lion roareth all the Beasts of the forrest tremble and yet are beasts still We hear of it and are astonished and become worse and worse and yet there are but few that exactly know what it is When we are Infants we do not know that we are so no more then the Tree doth that it grows Much less can we discover what poyson we brought with us into the world which as it is the nature of some kind of poyson though it have no visible operation for the present may some years after break forth from the head to the foot in swellings and sores full of corruption and not be fully purged out to our
by a sinister and unnecessary conceit of our own weakness rob and deprive our selves of that strength which might have defended us from Sin and Death which now is voluntary because we cannot derive it from any other fountain then our own Wills For Last of all be the blemishes in the Understanding and Will which we are said to receive by Adam's fall what they may be either by certain knowledge or conjecture yet we shall not die unless we will And if such we were all yet now we are washed now we are sanctified 1 Cor. 6.11 now we are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Leper who is cleansed complaineth no more of his disease but returneth to give thanks The Blind man who is cured doth not run into the ditch and impute it to his former blindness but rejoyceth that he can now see the light and walketh by the light he seeth And we cannot without foul ingratitude deny but what we lost in Adam we recovered again in Christ and that improved and exalted many degrees For Not as the offense Rom. 5.15 19â— so is also the free gift saith the Apostle For as by the offense of one many were made sinners that is were under the wrath of God and so considered as if they had themselves committed that sin so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous made so not onely by imputation That we would have and nothing else have sin removed and be sinners still but made so that is supplyed with all helps and with all strength that is necessary and sufficient to forward and perfect those duties of piety which are required at the hands of a justified person For do we not magnifie the Gospel from the abundance of light and grace which it affordeth Do we not count the last Adam stronger then the first 2 Cor. 10.4.5 Is not he able to cast down all the strong holds all the towring imaginations which Flesh and Blood though tainted in the womb can set up against him And therefore if we be truly what we profess our selves Christians this Weakness cannot hurt us and if it hurt us it is because we are not Christians To conclude If in Adam we were all lost in Christ we are come home and brought nearer to heaven Et post Jesum Christum when we have given up our names unto Christ and profess our selves members of that mystical Body whereof he is the Head all our complaints of Weakness and disabilitie to move in our several places is vain and unprofitable and injurious to the Gospel of Christ Rom. 1.16 which is the power of God unto salvation And a gross and dangerous errour it is when we run on and please our selves in our evil wayes to complain of our hereditary infirmities and the weakness and imperfection of nature For God may yet breathe his complaints and expostulations against every son of Adam that will not turn Though you are weak though you have received a bruise by the fall of your first Parents yet in me is your strength and then Hos 13.9 Why will ye die O house of Israel We must now remove those other pretenses of Flesh and Blood But in our next and last Part. The Three and Twentieth SERMON PART VIII EZEKIEL XXXIII 11. Turn ye Turn ye from your evil wayes For why will ye die O house of Israel WE are told and can tell our selves that Sin is a burden and he that lieth under â— burden seeketh Ease Nor doth he alwaies ask counsel of his Reason to choose that which is made and fitted to remove it but oftentimes through the importunate irksomness of his pain he layeth hold on that which is next and that 's the best though it leave him under the same load and pressure and all his art and contrivance hath gained no more then this that he thinketh 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 sin we run upon our death and yet it is that which both our eye and our will abhorreth We die for 1. we were born weak 2. we want means to avoid death 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 weakness Want of grace Ignorance of our wayes the Reluctancy of our Conscience which we call Involuntariness And if these be not soft and easie enough to sleep on we bring in a good meaning and a good intention to stuff and fill them up And on these we sleep securely Judg. 16. as Samson did in the lap of Delilah till our strength go from us and we grow weak indeed fit for nothing but to grind in his prison and 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 For as we have sought for ease from the beginning of the world so have we also from the Beginning of the Gospel Mark 1.1 as S. Mark hath it As we have brought in the first Adam infecting and poysoning us so we would find some deficiency in the second as if that Grace which he plenteously spreadeth in our hearts had not virtue enough to expel the venome 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 there is nothing more common in the world even in their mouthes who know not what it is What mention we the Many What talke 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 mendicus ad januam August The Drunkard speaketh of it in his cups and by the Grace of God he will drink no more and yet drinketh drunk till there be no appearance in him either of Grace or Nature either of the Christian or the Man The Beggar he maketh it
the heart with so much joy in the doing it Shall we not take and eat that which is so pleasant to the tast Last of all it is not onely convenient pleasant and profitable but it is necessary to do it For if this Sacrament could have been well spared that men might have well kept the Law of the inward man without it our Lord who came to beat down all the rites and ceremonies of the Law would not have raised up this But he knew it necessary and therefore left it upon record as binding as a Law and for ought we find nay without all doubt did never recall or dispense with it Do this is plain and Do it often is plain enough but Do it not or Do it seldome is never read But he calleth and commandeth us to his Table to feed on the Body and Bloud of Christ and in the strength thereof to walk before him and be perfect that when our souls be run to decay when good habits are weakned and the graces of God discoloured and darkned in us when our knees are enfeebled and our hands hang down when our faculties begin to shrink and be parched as with the drought of summer we may come to this fountain and fill our cisterns and recover our former strength and beauty Our fault it is and a great one to be ever enquiring what bindeth and what is necessary and if Necessity drive us not like dull beasts we will not mend our pace and are more led by Omri's statutes by humane laws then Christs instituitions when if we rightly weigh it whatsoever is convenient for us whatsoever may be advantageous to us in the service of our Lord should be as powerful with us as if it came under the imperial form of a Law and what is convenient and fitted to us in such a case is also necessary for us in the same condition necessary I say if a more violent necessity come not to cross and hinder it for when nothing is wanting but a will then a necessity lyeth upon us and wo unto us if we do it not So now you have them all four And to conclude this if these will not quicken and move us to come we are dead in sin and have lost our tast Will convenience move us We talk much of it Here is a duty fitted and proportioned to our present condition Will Profit move us and whom doth not Profit add a wing to Lo here it is in this duty the due performance of which repayeth all our cost and pain with interest Will Pleasure move us and whom doth not Pleasure transport Here is Joy here is Paradise here is Pleasure and there is none but it Last of all will Necessity move us It is said that will drive us and if the rest be but gentle gales this is as a whirlwind Behold here is Necessity a duty as necessary as our own wants and the authority of our High Priest and King can make it who hath not onely commanded us to do it but to do it often Which now offereth it self to our consideration As often as you do it implyeth a doing it often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 includeth a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and doth not leave it at large to our will and pleasure as an arbitrary thing to be taken up when our discretion shall appoint the time I will not be so bold as to prescribe how often nor is it necessary to be determined Every mans want and necessity in this should be a law unto him and as oft as he findeth his soul to droop and faint here he is to refresh it as oft as he feeleth the inward man to decay here to repair it as oft as he seeth the temple of the holy Ghost to gather dust and filth here to sweep and purge it when his faith beginneth to fail here to confirm and strengthen it If we come like rude and unmannerly guests once is too often but if we purge and cleanse our hearts if our stomachs be clean if we come prepared for the feast often we may come but we cannot come too often Sic vive saith S. Ambrose Si quotidianus est cibus cur post annum sumis Amb. l. 6. de Sacram. c. 4. Cypr. ep 54. 69. ut quotidie mereare accipere So pass every day of thy life that thou mayest be fit to do it every day I will not urge nor bind you to the practice of the first Christians who received every day because in time of persecution as children appointed to dye they looked upon every day as their last Although S. Cyprian will tell us they did it also in times of peace and Sanit Augustine calleth it Quotidianum ministerium Dominici corporis Epist 180. a dayly office and ministery The truth is the Sacrament is fit for every day but we are not every day fit for it And in this different variety of circumstances of time and the dispositions and qualifications of men every man must be his own judge and lawgiver and yet the royal Law bindeth him to be fit every day A great shame it is that any man should be dragged 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 tast of the water of life Look upon the primitive Christians whose practice hath been accounted the best interpreter of Scripture and if thou canst not with them do it every day yet let every fair opportunity set thy day Christ's dead yet all-quickning Carkase is the same still Matth. 24.28 and we should be Eagles as well as they to fly to it The Bloud of Christ is the same his death as full of virtue and efficacy he is still a fountain of life to them who will tast him nor was his most pretious Bloud shed for the first Christians and in tract and continuance of time dryed up 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 blessing 1 Cor. 10.16 we should not fear how oft it came into our hands But to speak truth we have degenerated from that Devotion that Love that Zeal which inflamed their breasts and retain nothing but the memory of their exceeding piety which we look upon rather as a pious errour then a just and regular devotion And because we are unfit and therefore unwilling to do it we perswade our selves that Superstition had an early birth and did follow Religion at the heels to supplant it that by their busie and too frequent remembrance of Christ the primitive Christians 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
refuseth it Or is he reverent who when he is invited to a royal feast will not come What Reverence is that that leaveth Christ's Body as it were hanging on the Cross and his Bloud poured out on the ground and will not stoop to take it up If we look upon it well we shall find that excuse hath not a more ugly face in any defect which it is brought in to countenance then in this For tell me why should we not be afraid to hear the Word Why have we such itching ears Why do we throng and press into God's courts Is there not as great a preparation due unto that Is it so easie a matter to fling off all our unruly affections Are we so soon made fit to speak unto God that he may hear or to hear when he doth speak Or may we as soon do it as pull off our shooes from our feet and make good the thing it self as easily as we can the representation Indeed we make it our Apology but it is foul Ingratitude And we cannot call it by a worse name for it taketh in all our Negligence our Lukewarmness our Imprudency our Carnality our Love of those evils which first trouble us and then make us loath our peace first make us sick and then afraid of the Physician This excuse I am sure is not put up by those whom Christ biddeth depart into everlasting fire They do not say We are unworthy to feed or clothe Matth. 25.44 or visit thee but We never saw thee hungry or naked or in prison They did not think that Christ had been shut in prison with John the Baptist or that he had begged in Lazarus If Heaven should open it self to receive thee wouldst thou stay below with Sin and Misery and cry thou art unworthy to strive to enter in Behold here in the Sacrament Paradise is as it were again laid open to thee and no Cherub standeth against thee and shall this weak Pretense of a wilfull sinner be as a flaming sword to keep thee from the tree of life Say then to these Pretenses as thou shouldst to Satan who is the forger of them Avoid get you behind me For this is a command laid upon all Christians and supposeth all able to receive it and no man is infirm or weak or unworthy but he that maketh himself so God's commandments are not grievous saith S. John 1 John 5.3 and amongst them all there is not one less grievous then this For is it not easier to do this then to deny our selves to take up the cross to love our enemies Matth. 16.24 Matth. 5.44 1 John 3.16 to lay down our lives for the brethren And yet under this heavy obligation we lye Whether we make it good or no I know not but whether it be done or not no man I think did ever put up this pretense That he was unworthy to do it And shall we even offer our selves to the hardest task to the weightier matters of the Gospel and startle and fly back and be afraid of the Sacrament Are we fit to receive Christ's commands which exact our goods and our life and shall there be a time when we shall be unfit to receive the pledges of his love Are we worthy to be Christians and not worthy to be Communicants I do not here forbid Preparation for it is that I urge and press But Unworthiness is the worst excuse because we are bound to cast it off and we cannot more dishonour the Sacrament then by not receiving it For from what root but that of Bitterness doth this evil weed this baneful pretense spring up Let us take an inventory of all those things which occasion it and we shall find them all to be such fruit of which we may well be ashamed The best of them is our Calling and necessary Imployments in the world And is the World which passeth away 1 Cor. 7.21 of such value with us that we will not leave it behind us for a while to meet with Christ at his Table Is our daily bread sweeter to us then the bread of life Is Mammon a greater God then God himself But then the rest are of that nature that we should be afraid to think of them Lukewarmness in religion Love of our sins Unwillingness to part with them or to be saved too soon These are the rotten bones which lye under this painted sepulchre this glorious pretense of great Reverence to the Sacrament Our Farm our Ox our Wife our Vanity our Sin is preferred before Christ and then we say we reverence him But now take this pretense of Reverence with the best interpretation you can give it Suppose they that pretend it are not men devoted to the world and vanity but such as do try and examin themselves every day and keep a careful watch over their hearts And yet it is scarce probable such men should pretend Unworthiness For these tares of excuses commonly grow upon the Rocks and Barrenness and not upon good ground But suppose this high Reverence they have of the Sacrament may keep them off and make them afraid to come near Yet as S. Paul speaketh in another case This is utterly a fault in them If not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 6.7 yet it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not so bad as Profaneness but a fault it is and a neglect too large for this excuse to palliate and cover For 1. by this their absteining they do either pity or condemn those that are more forward as persons that venture too far upon that formidable mystery which they look upon at distance and tremble and dare not come near as those that do not well consider what they do and therefore are bold to do it as men whom not Conscience but Presumption bringeth to the Altar They will say perhaps they pass no such censure on their brethren they condemn them not But yet they may and speak not a word Hebr. 11.7 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 sharp reprehension flyeth from us like an arrow from a Parthians bow after those who walk another way And this utterly is a fault Rom. 14. by my not eating to condemn them that eat This is contristare fratres to grieve our brethren to make them think that mors in olla 2 Kings 4.40 death is in the pot danger in eating the Bread of life This is to walk uncharitably Rom. 14.15 and for ought we know to destroy him with our not eating for whom Christ dyed Or 2. their refraining to come may keep others at the same distance And it is not easie to determin utrùm pejor res an pejori exemplo agatur as Cato speaketh to another purpose in Livy whether is more dangerous their absence to themselves or the example to others For if
a word where there is no true Charity there can be no true Church and where there is the least Charity there it is least Reformed Talk not of Reformation Purity and Discipline They may be but names and make up a proud malicious faction but it is Charity and Charity alone that can build up a Church into a body compact within it self Malice and Pride and Contention do build indeed but it is in gehennam downwards to hell and present men on earth as so many damned Spirits And there is no greater difference between them then this that the one may the other can never repent An imbittered faction is a type and representation of Hell it self Let then Faith and Charity meet in our Trial and Preparation Faith is a foundation but if we raise not Charity upon it to grow up and spread and dilate it self in all its acts and operations it is nothing it is in vain and we are yet in our sins Let not Anger or Rancour or Malice keep you from this Table and bring you within that sad Dilemma That you must and may not come That to come and not to come is damnation And do not forfeit so great mercy to satisfie so vile and brutish affections Lose not the hope of being Saints by pleasing your selves in being beasts Why should LOVE be wrote so thick on your walls and scarce any character any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any title of it in your hearts The Heart is the best table to receive it There engrave it with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond and then it will be legible also in your actions Remember it was Love that brought down Christ from heaven that nailed him to his cross that drew his heart-bloud from him and all to beget Love in us Love of God and Love of our Brethren And let this Love rule in our hearts and put down all our Malice Bitterness and Evil speaking all these our enemies under our feet Sacrifice and offer them up before we come to the Altar then shall we be fit to sit down at this Table Thus we must put our Charity to trial For this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a feast of Love Examine therefore whether thy Charity be firm and strong such a Charity as is stronger then Death a Charity that in Christ's cause will stand out against Poverty Imprisonment and Death it self a Charity which in respect of thy brethren will bear all things bear injuries kiss the hand that striketh thee bow to them that are in the dust condescend to the lowest a Charity which will die for the brethren For that Charity which speaketh big and doeth nothing scattereth words but casteth no bread on the waters defieth a tempest and runneth away at a blast can embrace a brother and yet persecute him forgive and yet wound him that is love and yet hate him will never fit and qualifie us for this feast of Love Let us then examine our selves And let us consider also him that inviteth us the Apostle and high Priest of our profession Christ Jesus Consider him as our high Priest and that we shall soon do For what captive would not be set at liberty Who that hath a debt to pay would not have a Surety that should pay it down for him Who that hath a request to put up would not have an Intercessour All this we may desire and yet not consider him as our high Priest And we must not think that he was such an high Priest for such as would not consider him and that he came to free those who did love their fetters to satisfie for wilful bankrupts to deliver them who all their life time delight in bondage to offer up those prayers which malice or oppression or deceit or hypocrisie have turned into sin Therefore let us also consider him as our Prophet putting into our hands those weapons of righteousness that spiritual armour those helps and advantages which are necessary and sufficient to work our liberty to strike off our fetters and demolish in us the Kingdom of Sin And here put it to the trial and ask thy self the question Art thou willing to hearken to this Prophet Art thou willing he should teach thee Wouldst thou not make the way to heaven wider and his yoke easier then he hath made it Hast thou not looked on these helps and advantages as superstitious and unnecessary As he is thy Prophet so art not thou his interpreter and hast taught him to speak friendly to thy lusts and sensual appetite Hast thou not given a large swinge to Revenge let out a longer line to Christian Liberty and given a broader space for the Love of the world to trade in then ever this Prophet did This is not to consider him but effoeminare disciplinam to corrupt his discipline and to make Christianity it self which is a severe Religion wanton and effeminate by the interpretations And therefore thou must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 examine thy self yet more and more Bring it to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a judgment till thou hast censured and condemned those thy glosses and presented in thy conversation an Expurgatory Index of them all till thou canst digest his precepts with all the aloes and gall with all the hardness and bitterness that is in them and then thy stomach also and thy heart will be prepared for this Bread of life for this celestial Manna Last of all canst thou consider him as thy King and Lord Is his fear to thee as the roaring of a Lion and his wrath as messengers of death And art thou willing to kiss to bow and worship him that he be not angry Canst thou discover Majesty in him now Majesty in his discipline wisdom in his Laws power in weakness now in this life when he is whipped and scourged and crucified again when his precepts are made subject to flesh and bloud and dragged in triumph after the wills of men when for one Hosanna he hath a thousand Crucifiges for one formal and hypocritical acknowledgment a thousand spears in his sides Who hath most command over thee the Prince of this world or this King Will not a smile from beauty move thee more then the glory of his promises Art thou not more afraid of the frown of a man of power then of his wrath Will not the love of the world drive thee against more pricks and difficulties then the love of a Saviour Will not that carry thee from east to west when the command of this King shall not draw thee a Sabbath dayes journey to visit the fatherless and widows Art thou of the same mind with him Are thy will and affections bound up in his will Is his will thy Law and his Law thy delight Then he is thy Priest and hath sacrificed himself to make thee a Feast He is thy Prophet to invite and fit thee and thy King to welcome thee and he shall gird himself and make thee sit
None of these will fit us but SICVT ACCEPIMVS as we have received from Christ and his Apostles which is the onely sufficient Rule to guide us in our Walk 1. Not SICVT VIDIMVS as we have seen others walk No though their praise be in the Gospel and they are numbred amongst the Saints of God For as S. Bernard calleth the examples of the Saints condimentum vitae the sawce of our life to season and make pleasant what else may prove bitter to us as Job's Dunghill may be a good sight for me to look upon in my low estate and his Patience may uphold me David's Groans and Complaints may tune my sorrow Saint Pauls Labours and Stripes and Imprisonment may give me an issue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a way 1 Cor. 10.13 a power to escape the like temptation by conquering it I may wash off all my grief with their tears wipe out all disgrace with their contumelies and bury the fear of Death in their Graves so they may prove if we be not wary venenum vitae as poyson to our life and walk For I know not how we are readier to stumble with the Saints then to walk with them readier to lie down with David in his bed of lust then in his couch of tears readier to deny Christ with Peter upon a pretense of frailty then to weep bitterly out of a deep sense of our sin In the errours 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 less mind 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 Compass to steer by For it will neither help nor comfort me to say I shipwrackt with a Saint James 2.1 My brethren saith S. James have not the faith of Christ in respect of persons 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 Esteem shine and cast a colour and brightness upon the evil which he doth upon whatsoever he saith though false or doth though irregular that it is either less visible or if it be seen commendeth it self by the person that did it and so stealeth and winneth upon us unawares and hath power with us as a Law Could S. Augustine erre There have been too many in the Church who thought he could not and to free him from errour have made his errours greater then they were by large additions of their own 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 Calvine or Luther do or speak any thing that was not right They that follow them and are proud of their names willing to be distinguished 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 Tyrant's fornace Dan. 3. For the flames have raged even to our very doors Thus the Examples of good men like two-edged swords cut both wayes both for good and for bad and Sin and Errour may be conveyed to us not onely in the cup of the Whore but in the vessels 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 seen in the other they are seen with horror In the one we hate not the sin so much as the person and in the other we are favourable to the sin for the person's sake and at last grow familiar with it as with our friend De Abrog priv Miss Nihil perniciosius gestis sanctorum said Luther himself There is nothing more dangerous then the actions of the Saints not strengthened by the testimony of Scripture and it is far safer to count that a sin 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 own hand hath registred for Saints Hebr. 11.32 Numb 25.7 8 Psal 106.30 Samson was a good man and hath his name in the catalogue of Believers Phinehas a zealous man who staid the plague by executing of judgement but I can neither make Samson an argument to kill my self nor Phinehas to shed the bloud of an adulterer Lib. 2. de Baptismo q. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 10.24 S. Basil observeth that amongst those many seeming contradictions in Scripture one is of a Fact or Work done to the Precept The Command is Thou shalt not kill Samson killed himself Phinehas with his spear nailed the adulterous couple to the earth but every man hath not Samson's spirit nor Phinehas's commission The Father's rule is the rule of Wisdome it self When we read in Scripture a Fact commended which falleth cross 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 SICVT VIDIMVS As we have seen then is not a right SICVT We must be like unto Elias but not consume men with fire like unto Peter but not cut off a mans ear like unto S. Paul 1 Cor. 11.1 but himself correcteth it with a SICVT EGO CHRISTI as I am unto Christ 2. In the next place if not SICVT VIDIMVS as we have seen others then not SICVT VISVM FVERIT as it shall seem good in our own eyes For Phansie is a wanton unruly froward faculty and in us as in Beasts for the most part supplieth the place of Reason Vulgus ex veritate pauca Pro Roscio Comaedo ex opinione multa aestimat saith Tully The Common people which is the greatest part of mankind for vulgus is of a larger signification then we usually take it in are led rather by Opinion then by the Truth because they are more subject and enslaved to those two turbulent Tribunes of the Soul the Irascible and the Concupiscible appetite and so more opinionative then those who are not so much under their command It is truly said Affectiones facilè faciunt opiniones Our affections will easily raise up opinions For who will not soon phansie that to be true which he would have so which may either fill his
through which we are to pass It shall be a Rock firm and solid against every wave and temptation that shall beat against it It shall be a Shop of pretious receipts proper remedies against every evil It shall be spoliarium Mortis a place where Death shall be stript and spoiled of its sting and its terrour It shall be the Temâ—le 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 2 Cor. 5.4 and pant and beat to get out that it may be clothed upon and mortality be swallowed up of life In brief this will make us strangers and keep us strangers even such strangers as 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 buisie 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 fair 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 or a good Master of a family but he who is as David was a Stranger All the ataxie and disorder all the noise we hear 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 a good man and of necessary use in the Common-wealth He laid all the strength he had to uphold it and preferred the peace and welfare 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 l. 1. Annal. who was pulled out of his chariot loaden first with scoffs and reproches and then with a fardel of stuff and made to march foremost of all the company and then asked 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 and conveyed to ship and by ship to prison in a remote City where he found some friends and then was brought back from thence to a prison nearer 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 S. Paul speaketh of himself 2 Cor. 11.26 He was in journeying often in perils of waters in perils of his own country-men in perils in the city in perils on the sea in perils amongst false brethren But it may be said What praise is it to suffer all this 1 Pet. 4.15 2 19 20. if he suffer as an evil-doer and not for conscience towards God I come not hither to dispute that but am willing to refer it to the great Trial which shall open every eye to behold that truth which now being dâ—zled with fears and hopes and even blinded with the love of the world it cannot see But if it were an errour and not knowledge but mistake that drove him upon these pricks yet sure it was an errour of a fair descent begot in him by looking stedfastly on the truth and by having a steady eye on the oath of God Eccl. 8.2 And if here he fell he fell like a Christian who did exercise himself to keep a good conscience Acts 24.16 For he that followeth not his Conscience when it erreth will be as far from hearkning to it when it speaketh the truth For even Errour it self sheweth the face of Truth to him that erreth or else he could not erre at all And yet I need not fear 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 and 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 it is as open as the day and commandeth our faith though not our tongue and forceth our assent when we renounce it Private Interest Love of our selves Fear 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 erreth and loseth by it erreth most excusably and sheweth plainly that he would not erre For who would do that which will undo him Again take him in the City In this he bore the highest honour and filled the greatest place yet 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 to that which cannot be found in this but is the riches and glory of another world Therefore this world was never in his thoughts never came in to sowr Justice to turn Judgment into wormwood by corrupting it or into vinegar by delaying it There were no cries of orphans no tears of the widow no loud complaints of the oppressed to disquiet him in his passage which use to follow the oppressour 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
libidinibus exarsit The Physick must be proportioned to the disease if that be violent the Physick must needs be strong that purgeth it Dei sancti infirmiores sunt quia si fortes sint vix sancti esse possunt saith Salvian The Saints of God do many times lose their joy and strength because it is a very hard matter to be in prosperity and to be Saints It is observed that in Common-wealths dissensions seditions and luxury are longae pacis mala the issues of a long-continued peace And many times States are rent in pieces through civil dissentions if outward wars hinder not S. Augustine telleth us Plùs nocuit eversa Carthago Romanis quà m adversa that Carthage in her rubbish brought more disadvantage to Rome then when she stood out in defiance as an enemy And were it not for this outward jarre in our bodies by sickness and in our souls by disgrace and other calamities we should find no peace within for the soul hath no such practising enemy as the body wherein she liveth And as Cato thought it good husbandry to maintain some light quarrels and jarres amongst his houshold-servants lest their agreement amongst themselves might prejudice their master so it may seem spiritual wisdom for the Soul that the body and inferiour faculties be kept in perpetual jarre that there be a thorn in the flesh something set up in opposition against it lest it prove wanton and hold out too stubbornly against the Spirit Febris te vocare potest ad poenitentiam saith Ambrose It may so fall out that the sight of a Physician may more promote thy conversion then the voice of a Preacher a Fever then a Sermon The heathen Oratour could tell us Optimi sumus dum infirmi sumus that we are never well but when we are sick never better then when we are worst In this case saith he who sendeth his hopes afar off who waiteth upon his ambitious and covetous desires◠who thinketh of his pleasure and wantonness who shutteth not up his ears against detraction and malicious speech how do we betake our selves to our beads and prayers so that if you would look out the perfect pattern of a true Christian you shall find it no where so soon as on the ground and on the bed of sickness The heathen shutteth up all in this conclusion Look saith he what the Philosophers with many words and large volumes do endeavour to teach that can I most compendiously teach both my self and you Tales esse sani perseveremus quales nos futuros profitemur infirmi Let us be indeed such when we be well as we promise we will be when we are sick A lesson almost equivalent to that great commandment and contains in it all the Law and the Prophets We mourn I am sure in our sickness For what is sickness but the very drooping and languishing of our spirits And it may seem to be a part of that discipline by which the Apostles did govern the primitive Church For when S. Paul had delivered over the incestuous person to Satan for the mortifying of the flesh that the spirit might be saved S. Chrysostom and S. Ambrose do joyntly interpret it that S. Paul did with him as God did with Job deliver him to Satan to be afflicted with diseases and sickness under which he might mourn And this is the reason why our Saviour thus joyneth Blessedness and Mourning together because this is the end for which we are delivered up to sorrow and grief ad interitum carnis for the mortifying of the flesh and the refreshing of the spirit ut in ipsa sit censura supplicii in qua fuit causa peccati that that part may smart with sorrow which hath offended with pleasure and riot Look back upon the ancient Worthies of the Church and you would think they made Sorrow a science and studied the art of mourning For as if the Devil had not been the Devil still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Chrysostom calleth him a spiritual executioner to afflict them as if the World had left off to be the World an enemy and had not misery enough to fling on them as if there had not been an Ismael left to persecute Isaac nor a Dragon to pursue the Woman in the wilderness they did sit down and deliberate and condemn themselves to sorrow and mourning Ingrediatur utique putredo in ossibus meis saith Bernard Let infirmity seise upon my body let rottenness enter and fill up my bones let it abound in me onely let me find peace of conscience in the day of my tribulation The Heathen conceived they did it not for the exercise of virtue but as Philosophers did abstain from pleasures that death might be less dreadful nè desiderent vitam quam sibi jam supervacuam fecerant that they might not nourish too much hope of life which they had now made superfluous and unnecessary to them by a voluntary abdication of all delights Indeed this might be one reason And Tertullian replieth Si ita esset tam alto consilio tantae obstinatio disciplinae debebat obsequium If it were so yet this was the power of Christian discipline to learn to contemn death by the contempt of pleasure Jejuniis aridi in sacco cinere volutantes saith the same Father We are dried up with fasting and debarred of all the comforts of this life we roll in sackcloth and ashes What should I mention their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their minds dejected their bodies macerated their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufferings in secret which was saith the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full of pain and grief You might behold them kissing the chains of imprisoned Martyrs washing the feet of Lazars wallowing at the Temple-doors on their knees begging the prayers of the Saints You might see them stript and naked their heir neglected their bodies withered and their knees of horn as Nazianzene speaketh Orat. 12. But what do I mention these This would go for superstition in these dayes as every thing else doth that hath but any savour of dejectedness and humility Religion then hung down the head and went in blacks it is now grown lofty and bold walketh in purple and fareth deliciously every day The way to comfort was streit and narrow then it is made broader now even the same broad way which leadeth to destruction There were some of old who so far exceeded in fasting and austerity ut indigerent Hippocratis fomentis that they stood more in need of the counsel of a Physician then of a Divine but few now-a-dayes are like to offend this way we stand in need rather of the spur then of the bridle Their austerity may at least commend unto us Sadness and Mourning as a thing much be fitting a Christian and very conduceable to happiness The Philosopher will tell us Melancholici sunt ingeniosi that melancholick men are most commonly witty and ingenious because their thoughts are
and whatsoever the Premisses are stand out against the Conclusion Of God's Power we may cry out with the Prophet Who hath believed our report or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed And his Will we do but pray it may be done and fulfil our own What now will move us Our last part presenteth a most winning motive And it is God's hand still but his hand not armed with a thunder-bolt but holding out a reward an Exaltation stronger then a Demonstration Goodness is more persuasive then Power and a Promise more rhetorical then a Command Omnes mercede ducimur He that commandeth with promise he that cometh with a reward shall more prevail then seven wise men that can render a reason Of the Duty we have spoken already in general We called it an Exercise and we shewed you in what it doth consist We gave you the extent of it and told you that it is an exercise full of pain and toilsome in which we fight against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness and against the wantonness of the flesh beating down imaginations all aversness in the Understanding and all frowardness in the Will subduing both Soul and body to the obedience of the truth working wonders in the Soul and manifesting it self also in the outward man in a cast-down eye in a weak hand in a feeble knee glorifying God both in soul and body Let us now descend to a more particular delineation And there is a word in my Text which if well and rightly placed giveth all the lines and dimensions of it and that word is but a Preposition and the Preposition but a monosyllable But the sound of it is harsh in our ear and findeth no better entertainment and welcome with us then if it were a Satyre or a Libel It is the Preposition SUB We must humble our selves under Et quantum turbat monosyllabon How are we troubled with this one monosyllable Our nature is stiff and stubborn and this Preposition this monosyllable is a yoke SUB TUTORIBUS under tutors a hard Text for the Heir G l 4.2 O how doth he expect and long for the appointed time when he shall be his own man and Lord of all SUB POTESTATE DOMINI under the power of the Master so should Servants be Eph. 6.5 But they are not so alwayes with good will doing service It is many times but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the down-cast of the eye You see them on the ground at your feet but in their mind they are on horse-back SUB POTESTATE VIRI under the power of the husband Gen. 3.16 is scarce good Scripture with every Wife No set the Servant on horse-back make the Heir a Lord and the Wife the head either no coming under no SUB at all or else misplace it But SUB PRAECEPTO under the Command there we should be For as that was made for us so were we elemented and made up and sitted for that for a Law and Precept Which whilest we keep under we are in the way to perfection In Religion there is Order and in Order there is a SUB a coming under Here there is a precept Humble your selves How come we under it No otherwise then if we were brought under a yoke Every command is our captivity every injunction an imprisonment Lex ligat Enact a Law and we are in fetters Nay Lex occidit the Law is a killing letter in this sense too He that bringeth us a command might as well present us with poison or a sword and bid us kill our selves At the first hearing one goeth away sorrowful another angry another laborem fingit in praecepto hath seen a lion some perillous difficulty in the way Every man is ill-affected and wisheth him silenced that bringeth it Nay further yet The Gospel of peace an Angel bringeth it yet we know what enterâ—ainment it found Nay how was he intreated who is α and ω the Beginning and the End the Author and Finisher of the Gospel Let him be crucified say the Jews Ecquis Christus cum suâ fabula say the Heathen Away with Christ and his Legend And now we who name Christ and delight in that name and make our boast of the Gospel all our life long how do we struggle and strive under it as dying men do for breath Deny your selves Take up your cross they are the voice of Wisdom crying out unto us and no man regardeth it Not SUB LEGE under the Law the Gospel hath taken away that SUB but not SUB GRATIA we are unwilling to come under Grace and SUB CHRISTO under Christ himself The shadow of his wings is as full of terrour to us as the shadow of Death This this was it which killed God's Prophets stoned his Messengers burned his Martyrs crucified the Lord of life himself and at this day crucifieth him afresh and putteth him to open shame our want of Humility our falling out with and not obeying the Gospel of Christ. It is the Apostle's phrase 2 Thes 1.8 This trampleth under foot the bloud of the new Testament as if it were a profane and unholy thing But we must remember that this SUB this neglected and scorned Preposition is that we hold by all we can shew all the Patent we have for heaven Had not Christ come SUB TEGMINE CARNIS as Arnobius speaketh under the covert of our flesh in the form of a servant had he not been made SUB LEGE under the Law had he not been brought SUB CULTRO under the knife at his circumcision had he not been SUB CRUCE undergone the Cross we had been SUB PECCATO under sin under the cross and as low as Hell it self It it most true Nothing but Humility could save us And when we could not bring an Humility equal to our Pride nor a Repentance answerable to our Disobedience then He that was above all was made under the Law Col. 1.24 and humbled himself But yet there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something behind of the afflictions and humility of Christ Not that his Humility was imperfect but that ours be also his required For an humble Head and proud Members an humble Christ and a stiff necked Christian is a foul incongruity a monster made up of God and Belial Something then of Christ's Humility is behind not that his Humility was imperfect but that ours is also requisite not ex parte operationis suae as if he had not fully accomplished the work of our Redemption but ex parte cooperationis nostrae in respect of something to be performed by us not that it was his Talent and our mite his three parts and our one No he payed down the price of our Redemption at one full and entire payment and that de suo of his own he borrowed not of us His SUB his Humility was able to raise a thousand worlds and yet our Humility must come in with a SUB too we must be under his
preferment Balaam's reward 2 Pet. 2.15 Jude 11. will make us leave the wayes of Truth and run after his errour For this taketh us from our selves enslaveth our understandings and alienateth our minds that we dare not venture and bid frankly for the Truth nay we will not admit it nor hearken after ought that is displeasing to those Balaks who can promote us to honour Numb 22.17 37. Thus we see daily the power of a mortal man is more prevalent then that which we so magnifie the Grace of God and the Court gaineth more proselytes then the Church mens religion being drawn by their hopes not of Eternity but of Riches which have wings and of Honour which is but a breath Prov 23.5 Magnus Deus est Error as Martine Luther speaketh Errour is the great God of this world and Hope waiteth upon it to bring in multitudes for reward whilest Truth with all her glorious promises Luke 12.32 findeth but a little flock For thus do those fools argue Why should we despise so good a friend who can raise us from the dung-hill and make us hold up our heads with the best and follow such a guide as Truth which will lead us upon pricks into prison unto the block This is the Sophistry of our worldly Hopes and it easily deceiveth us who are far sooner convinced with false shews then with the real arguments and enforcements of Truth Besides this we look upon it as a kind return and a piece of gratitude to joyn in errour with them who feed our lusts to make them our prophets who have made themselves our patrons to have the same authours of our faith and of our greatness and with the same chearfulness to receive their dictates and their favours The world is full of such parasites Phil. 3.19 whose belly is their God whose Hope looketh downward on the earth and so keepeth them from the sight of the Truth who cannot see a sin or an errour in them that pour down these fading and perishing graces on them For if they should grant they erre in any thing they might be brought at last to fear that they erre also in this in doing them good and heaping benefits upon them Thus do our hopes blind us And therefore if we will purchase the Truth we must cast them away And yet Beloved we need not cast our Affections quite away They are implanted in us by the same hand which set up a candle Prov. 20.27 as the Wise-man calleth the light of Reason in the soul And God hath placed them in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in such order that they may be very usefull and advantageous to us They may indeed as ye have heard be powerful to withdraw us from the Truth and they may also be serviceable and instrumental to promote it Wherefore the Apostles counsel is that we crucifie the affections Gal. 5.24 2 Cor. 10.5 not quite extinguish them that we bring them into a glorious captivity and obedience to the Truth I may buy food with a piece of gold and I may buy poyson I may surrender my affections to Errour and I may bestow them on the Truth And happy is that man who is ready thus to spend and to be spent 2 Cor. 12.15 For he who thus spendeth himself he who thus wasteth and tameth his affections doth not quite lose them but loseth onely that of them which would destroy him Therefore in this negotiation we must observe the method of Socrates and drive out one love with another and one hatred with another supplant one hope and chase away one fear with another First Love is a passion imprinted in the soul for this end that it may be fixed on the truth And when once it is so it will be restless and unquiet till it have purchased it It will overcome all difficulties it will meet the Devil in all his horrour it will meet him in his armour of light and pass through all to this mart Nor is there any thing that can hinder it or keep it back Rom. 8.38 neither death nor life nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come No Love beareth us and carrieth us aloft over all as it were on the wings of the wind and bringeth us to the Truth Let us so love the Truth that we buy it and so buy it that we love it the more These two are alwaies in conjunction as the Heat and Light of the Sun The hotter the Sun-beams be the more light there is so the more heat there is in my Love the more bright is the light of the Truth and the more this light shineth the more servent is my Love The love of Truth and the Truth which we love are mother and daughter each to the other mutually begetting and bearing one another We speak of traffick and it is Love alone that maketh all the bargains that are made For who ever yet bought that which he loved not and can there be too great a price set upon that we love if we truly love a thing what will we not give for it As we deal with our Love so let us also with our Hatred Why should I hate any man who am my self a man But then to transferre my hatred from the person to the Truth and to revile it for his sake cometh near to that which we call the sin against the holy Ghost The Truth is the same in whomsoever it be and ought to be received for it self Else we must blot out one article of our Creed for the Devil himself confessed Jesus to be the Son of the most high God Mark 5.7 The Truth rather should force us to the love of the man then our hatred of the man make us enemies to the Truth It is true Though Socrates be a friend and Plato be a friend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Ethic. l. 1. c. 4. yet the Truth is to be preferred before them both And it is as true Though Socrates be an enemy and Plato an enemy yet the Truth whosoever professeth it is still to be accounted a friend Whether in Heretick or Orthodox whether in Papist or Protestant whether in Arminian or Calvinist the Truth is ever the same And he who cannot look through all these impertinent considerations and by-respects will prove as great an enemy to the Truth as those he condemneth He who casteth a veil of his own working over his face cannot behold the beauty of Truth cannot see to buy it If we will buy the Truth we must learn to hate this Hatred and to fling it out we must learn to abstract the man from his opinion what he saith or holdeth from what he appeareth to us For while we judge of things by the person whom we first hate and then draw him out in our minds in a monstrous shape Virtue and Truth in him will appear to us under the same loathed aspect yea Scripture
bargain who wanteth his eye-sight Again let not the authority of any man be the compass by which we steer For it may point to Beth-aven and call it Beth-el present us with a box whose title is TRUTH when it containeth nothing but the poyson of Falshood Why should there be such power such a spell such witchcraft in a name Why should the Truth be built upon a Church which must be built upon it or else it is not a Church Or why upon a name which though it be glorious in the world is but the name of a man who is subject to errour Tolle mihi è causa nomen Catonis saith Tully Cato was a name of virtue and that carried authority with it and therefore the Oratour thought him not a fit witness in that cause against Muraena So tolle è causa nomen Augustini Take away the name of Augustine of Luther Acts 4.12 of Calvine of Arminius when ye come to this mart There is but one name by which we can be saved and his name alone must prevail with us Hebr. 12.2 He onely hath authority who is the Authour and Finisher of our faith Let us honour others but not deifie them not pull Christ out of his throne and place them in his room There is not there cannot be any influence at all in a name to make a conclusion true or false If we have fixed it on high in our mind as in its firmament it will sooner dazle then enlighten us And it is not of so great use as men imagine For they that read or hear can either judge or are weak in understanding To those who are able to judge and discern Errour from Truth a Name is but a name and is no more esteemed For such look upon the Truth as it is and receive it for it self But as for those who are of a narrow capacity a Name is more likely to lead them into errour then into truth or if into Truth it is but by chance for it should have found the same welcome and entertainment had it been an errour for the Names sake All that such gain is They fall with more credit into the ditch Wherefore in our pursuit of Truth we must fling from us all Prejudice and keep our mind even after sentence past free and entire to change it upon better evidence and not tye our faith to any man though his rich endowments have raised his name above his brethren follow no guide but him that followeth right Reason and the Rule not be servants of men for though they be great yet there is a greater then they though they be wise yet there is a wiser then they even he that is the Truth it self Let Augustine be a friend and Luther a friend and Calvine a friend but the Truth is the greatest friend without which there is no such thing as a friend in the world When the rule is fixed up in a plain and legible character though we may and must admit of the help of advice and the wisdome of the learned yet nothing can fix us to it but right Reason He who maketh Reason useless in the purchase of Truth maketh a Divine and a Christian a beast or a mad man Suprae hoc non potest procedere insania It is the height and extremity of madness to judge that to be true and reasonable which is against my Reason For thus we walk amongst Errours as Ajax did amongst the Sheep and take this or that Errour for this or that Truth as he did the Rams one for Menelaus another for Ulysses and a third for Agamemnon It hath been said indeed that right Reason is not alwaies one and the same but varieth and differeth from it self according to the different complexions of times and places But this even Reason it self confuteth For that which is true at Rome is true at Jerusalem and that which was true in the first age of the world is true in this and will be true in the last though it bind not alike That Truth which concerneth our everlasting peace Hebr. 13.8 that which we must buy is the same yesterday and to day and for ever And as the Truth so our Reason is the same even like the decrees proposed to it Prov. 20.27 it never changeth This candle which God hath kindled in us is never quite put out Whatsoever agreeth with it is true and whatsoever dissenteth from it is false Affectus citò cadunt aequalis est ratio saith the Stoick The Affections alter and change every day but Reason is alwaies equal and like unto it self or else it is not Reason The Affections like the Moon now wax anon wane and at length are nothing They are contrary one to another and they fall and end one into another What I loved yesterday I lothe to day and what now I tremble at anon I embrace What at the first presentment cast me down in sorrow at the next may transport me with joy But the judgement of right Reason is still the same She is fixed in her tabernacle as the Sun still casteth the same light spreadeth the same beams rejoyceth to run her race from one object to another and discovereth every one of them as it is When we erre it is not Reason that speaketh within us but Passion If Pleasure have a fair face it is our Passion that painteth it If the world appear in glory it is our Passion that maketh it a God If Death be the terriblest thing in the world it is our Fear and a bad Conscience that make it so Right Reason can see through all these and behold Riches as a snare Pleasure as deceitful and Death though terrible to some yet to others to be a passage into endless life We may erre with Plato and we may erre with Socrates we may erre out of Passion and Prejudice these being the Mother and Nurse of Errour But that we should erre and yet have right Reason on our side is an errour of the foulest aspect for it placeth errour in Truth it self which is not Truth but as it agreeth with right Reason It is true indeed right Reason hath not power enough of it self to find out every Truth For as Faith Eph. 2.8 so all the precepts of Truth are the gift of God commentum Divinitatis saith Tertullian the invention of the Deity But it is true also that Reason is sufficient to judge and discern them when they are revealed according to his mind who revealed them and set up this light within us to this end Though the thing be above Reason yet Reason can judge it true because God who is Truth it self revealed it Take away the use of Reason ye take away all election and choice all obedience all virtue and vice all reward and punishment For we are not carried about in our obedience as the Sphears are in their motions or the brute creatures in theirs as natural or irrational
forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee Beloved the Truth is our lot our inheritance Agnoscite haereditatem in Christo saith the Father Acknowledge and keep the inheritance ye have by Christ not Peace onely but Truth also which is the mother of Peace Let no temptation though as strong as the King as Money as Profit make us yield to the sale of it but let our answer be like that of Naboth God forbid that we should give away the inheritance of Christ God forbid that when the World proferreth fairly to us we should give it for a smile or when our Lusts solicit we should give it up to satisfie them or when the Persecutor breatheth nothing but terrour we should sell it to our fears and at every question that is asked us deny and forswear it God forbid we should sell it as bankrupts do their lands for want or as wantons do for pleasure or as cowards do for safety or as Esau did his birthright for hunger or as the Patriarchs sold Joseph for envy For this were to sell our selves for that which is not bread Isa 55.2 Let the Truth be like the Land of promise which might not be sold for ever Levit. 25.23 because it was the Lord's and so Truth is the Lords and to be destitute of the Truth Ephes 2.12 is to be without God in this world Let us therefore love the Truth and keep it and hold it fast and we shall find the merchandise thereof better then the merchandise of silver Prov. 3.14 and the gain thereof then fine gold Isa 23.8 The merchants hereof are princes and the most honourable traffickers of the earth even Kings and Priests unto God The Lawyers question to Christ was Revel 1.6 What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life Matth. 19.16 17. The answer whereunto is Keep the commandments that is being interpreted the Truth for they both interpret each other This is the price of eternity With this in our hearts in our inward parts but made manifest by our hands in our outward actions we draw near unto happiness in full assurance of faith With this we purchase peace here for it is one seal to the covenant of peace and it shall open the gates of heaven and give us possession of the kingdome of peace with the God of Truth and Peace for evermore Which God grant Amen The Twelfth SERMON MATTH V. 10. Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven THis is the last Beatitude of the eight and looketh back upon all the rest For by this the Christian is brought to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his height and perfection being never nearer heaven then when he is trod under foot upon earth never more righteous then when he suffereth for righteousness never more glorious then in his bloud The first seven consist in action Where we may behold the Poor man fighting against the Pomp of the world the Mourner slighting of Pleasure the Meek subduing his Anger the Just man hungring and thirsting after righteousness feeding on it himself and commending it as the best food to others working it himself and promoting it in others the Merciful binding up wounds and scattering his bread the Pure man washing his hands in innocency and clensing his heart and the Peace-maker closing up every breach and tying the bond of love at peace with himself and all men drawing all men together as far as in him lieth to be of one mind and one heart This last which I now propose unto you consisteth in passion in a willingness and readiness of mind to suffer for all these And this is the seal and ratification of the rest an argument a protestation a demonstration that the rest were in us of a truth And as the first fit us for the last so this declareth and manifesteth the first Then we may know we are righteous when we are ready to suffer for righteousness sake then our Love is made known when we bear about with us the marks of the Lord Jesus For it is a higher degree of perfection to suffer for doing of good then it is to do it In the first we stand out against our selves in the last against our selves and others In the first we fight against our lusts and affections in the last against principalities and powers against fire and sword against the king of terrours Death it self Greater love then this hath no man John 15.13 that a man lay down his life for his friends And therefore Aquinas telleth us that this last Beatitude carryeth with it the perfection of all the rest For he that to nourish and uphold the rest is ready as S. Paul speaketh to spend himself and to be spent to lose his own head and life rather then one hair one tittle or Iota should fall from them doth manifest to God and proclaim to the world that he hath discovered beauty and glory and a heaven in them that his body and goods and life laid in the scales are found too light in comparison of them that they are of no use unless it be to make up a sacrifice to be offered for them When we are willing to part with our goods when we can leave the pleasures which last but for a season and go into the house of mourning when we can chase away our anger and make it set before the Sun when we can make righteousness our daily bread and long for it more then for the honey or the honey comb when we have melting and compassionate hearts when we have clean hearts unspotted of the world when we are at peace with all men and strive to make all men at peace with one another we have made a fair progress in the waies of righteousness But nondum ad sanguinem Hebr. 12.4 we have not yet resisted unto bloud When we can lay down our lives for righteousness sake when we can do that which is just and suffer for that we do then have we crowned the rest and fitted our own heads for a crown of glory He that can suffer what the rage of man or Devil can inflict rather then let go his righteousness he maketh it plain that it is his possession his inheritance his life fastned to his soul never to be divorced his honour when he is in disgrace his riches when he hath not a hole to hide his head in his tabernacle in a storm his delight in torment and when the sword shall part the soul from the body ascending up to heaven and accompanying it to the place of bliss For when the man is killed the Saint is gone home and is escaped to the holy hill In this relation and dependance doth this Beatitude stand with the rest If we be not righteous we cannot suffer for righteousness sake and if we be truly righteous Persecution is a
world of our name or credit above the truth of Christ which calleth us out of the world Again this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this full persuasion of mind is prevalent on both sides both in good and evil both for truth and errour A thief may go as chearfully to his death as a martyr The Egyptians saith Tully would endure any torture rather then violate their Ibis or an Aspe or a Dog or a Crocodile The Priests of Mithras passed the sword the fire and famine even fourscore several torments and that with ostentation of alacrity onely that they might be his Priests We have read of Hereticks who have sung in the midst of the flames Nay of Atheists as Scipio Tettus who now burning for setting up a school of Atheism clapped his hands in the midst of his torments Such strength hath persuasion on both sides In illis pietas in istis cordis duritia operatur The love of the truth prevaileth in the righteous and the love of errour in the other Such a power hath the Devil over those hearts which by God's permission he possesseth He can perswade Judas to deny his Master and he can perswade him to hang himself He can drive men into errour and lead them along in triumph rejoycing to their death He can teach men first to kill others then themselves He can first make the grossest errour delightful and then death it self Habet Diabolus suos martyres For the Devil hath his martyrs as well as God The Manichees were Martyrs for they boasted that they suffered persecution and yet did those outrages which none but persecutours could do The Donatists were Martyrs and yet did ravish virgins break open prisons fling the Communion-bread to dogs Garnet was a Martyr and Faux a Martyr when they would have blown up a Kingdom which may be done without gunpowder The Massalians in Epiphanius buried their bodies who were killed for despising and denying the Law and for worshipping of Idols and sung hymns and made panegyricks on them and called them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sect of Martyrs So that you see every man is ready to say he is persecuted every man suffereth for righteousness sake every man is a Martyr In every nation and in every people in every sect and in every conventicle we may find Martyrs But this is not the noble army of Martyrs where none are listed but those who suffer for righteousness sake It is not pretense but Truth that must set this crown upon our heads This is praise worthy saith St. Peter 1 Pet. 2.19.20 if a man for conscience toward God endure grief and that not an erring conscience it is very strange we should erre in any of those things for which we must suffer For what glory is it if when you are buffetted for your faults you take it patiently but if when you do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God St. Bernard determineth all in brief proposing to us two things which make death precious and persecution a blessing vitam causam sed ampliùs causam quà m vitam the life of them that suffer and the cause for which they are persecuted but the cause more then the life For seldom will an evil man suffer in a good cause and he is not good who suffereth in a bad for that for which he suffereth maketh him evil If he suffer as a malefactour he is one But when both commend our sufferings then are they praise-worthy That sacrifice is of a sweet-smelling savour which both a good cause and a good life offer up And first the Cause it must be the love of Righteousness For we see as I told you men will suffer for their lusts suffer for their profit suffer for fear suffer for disdain as Cato is blamed by Augustine for killing himself because the haughtiness of his mind could not stoop to be beholden to Caesar and therefore cùm non potuit pedibus fugit manibus whom he could not fly from with his feet he did with his hands and killed himself Which argued a lower spirit and was an act of more dejection and baseness then it would have been to have kissed the foot of Caesar Some we see will venture themselves for their name and hazard their souls for reputation which is but another man's thought But neither are these our pleasure our profit our honour causes why we should suffer death or venture our lives To be willing rather to lose my goods then my humour and my life then my reputation is not to set a right estimate upon them For my goods are God's blessings and I must not exchange them but for better My life is that moment on which eternity dependeth and we should not look back upon that opinion of honour which remaineth behind us but rather look forward upon that infinite space that eternity of bliss or pain which befalleth us immediately after our last breath Be sure your cause be good or else to venture goods or life upon it is the worst kind of prodigality in the world For he that knoweth what life is and the true use of it had he many lives to spare yet would be loth to part with any one of them but upon the best terms We must deal with our life as we do with our money We must not be covetous of it desire life for no other use but to live as covetous persons desire money onely to have it Neither ought we to be prodigal of life and trifle it away upon every occasion To know when and in what cases to offer our selves to suffer and die is a great part of our spiritual wisdom Nam impetu quodam instinctu currere ad mortem cum multis commune Brutishly to run upon and hasten our death is a thing that many men may do as we see brute beasts many times run upon the spears of such as pursue them Sed deliberare causas expendere utque suaserit ratio vitae mortisque consilium suscipere vel ponere ingentis est animi Wisely to look into and weigh every occasion and as judgment and true discretion shall direct so to entertain a resolution either of life or death this is indeed true fortitude and magnanimity Every low and light consideration is not to hold esteem and keep equipage with that Truth which must save us There is nothing but Righteousness which hath this prerogative to call for our lives and it will pay them back with eternity Righteousness which is nothing else but our obedience to the Gospel of Christ and those precepts which he hath left behind to draw us after him We must rather renounce our lives and goods then these rather not be men then not be good Christians Matth. 10.39 Here that is true He that findeth his life for they who to escape danger deny the truth count that escape a thing found and gained look upon it as a new purchase
of themselves but he that thus findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it The loss of our lives for righteousness sake is a purchase Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven For this Stephen was stoned Paul beheaded the Martyrs tortured So persecuted they the Prophets which were before you In the next place as a good Cause so a good Life doth fit and qualifie us to suffer for righteousness sake Non habent martyrum mortem qui non habent Christianorum vitam saith Augustine He dieth not the death of a Martyr who liveth not the life of a Christian An unclean beast is not fit to make a sacrifice Nor will the crown of Martyrdome sit upon his head who goeth on in his sin It is to the wicked that God saith What hast thou to do to declare my statutes and What hast thou to do to suffer for them For he that suffereth for them declareth them Therefore S. Augustine calleth the Donatists who in a perverse emulation of the glory of the true Martyrs leapt down from rocks and flung themselves into the water and were drowned sceleratos homicidas wicked homicides and unnatural murtherers of themselves What Cyprian speaketh of Schism is as true of other mortal sins not repented of Non Martyrium tollit not Martyrdom it self can expiate or blot it out For can we think that he that hath taken his fill in sin all his life long and still made his strength the law of unrighteousness should in a moment wash away all his filth and pollutions baptismo sanguinis with his own bloud It may supply for those other pious souls who were never washed in the other laver that of Baptism because persecution or death deprived them of that benefit for what cannot be done cannot oblige But how a man should draw out his life in an open hostility to Christ and trifle with him and contemn him all his dayes and then before repentance and reconciliation which indeed is in the very act of hostility bow to him and die for him I cannot see Take S. Pauls black catalogue of the works of the flesh Adultery Gal. 3. fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulation wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murthers drunkenness revellings and not one of these but will infringe and weaken the testimony of any man and render him a suspected witness in our Courts on Earth And shall the truth of Christ stand in need of such Knights of the post who will speak for her when they oppose her Take that bed-roll of wicked men which the Apostle prophesied should come in these last and perilous times 2 Tim. 3 1-5 Lovers of their own selves Covetous Boasters Proud Blasphemers Disobedient to parents Vnthankful Vnholy Without natural affection Truce-breakers False accusers Incontinent Fierce Despisers of those that are good Traitors Heady High minded Lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof and may not the Gospel be ashamed of such Professors and Martyrs as these Or shall we look for heaven in hell and hope to find a Martyr amongst a generation of vipers Or is he fit to be advocate for any truth who hath the faith of Christ with respect of persons Then we shall have factious Martyrs seditious Martyrs malicious Martyrs profane Martyrs sacrilegious Martyrs And if these be Martyrs we may say of them as Tertullian did of the Heathen Gods Potiores apud inferos There be honester men in hell then these No a good Cause and a good Life must be our conductors to the Cross must lead us by the hand to the fiery trial must as it were anoint us to our graves and prepare us for this great work Otherwise whatsoever we suffer is not properly Persecution but an execution of justice It may be here perhaps demanded What then shall he do who having fettered himself in the snare of the Devil hath not yet shaken it off by true repentance whose conscience condemneth him of many gross and grievous sins which yet himself hath not condemned in his flesh by practising the contrary vertues What shall a notorious sinner do if he be called to this great office if his fortunes and life be brought in hazard for the profession of some article of faith or some truth which he believeth is necessary to salvation What shall he do being shut up between these three a bad conscience assurance of that truth he professeth and the terrour of death Shall he hold fast the truth or subscribe to the contrary Shall he suffer without true repentance of his former sins or repent of the truth which he professeth Shall he deny against his conscience what he knoweth to be true or shall he suffer and comfort himself in this one act as a foundation firm enough to raise a hope on of remission of sin Here is a great streight a sad Dilemma like that of the servant in the Comedy Si faxit perit si non faxit vapulat If he do it he may perish and if he do it not he may be beaten He may suffer for the truth and yet suffer for his sins and if he do it not he hath denied the faith and is worse then an infidel But beloved this is an instance like that of Buridan's ass between two bottles of hay knowing not which to chuse an instance of what peradventure never or very seldom cometh to pass We may suppose what we please we may suppose the heavens to stand still and the earth to move and some have thought so we may suppose what in nature is impossible And this if it be not impossible yet is so improbable that it hardly can gain so much credit as to win an assent For that he who all his life long hath cast Christ's word 's behind him should now seal them with his bloud that they are true that a conscience so beaten so wasted so overwhelmed with the habit of sins should now take in and entertain a fear of so little a sin as the denial of one truth in respect of the contempt of all that he that hath swallowed this monstrous camel should strain at this gnat that he that hath trampled Christ's bloud under his feet should shed his own for some one dictate of his is a thing which we may suppose but hardly believe Or tell me Where should this sting and power of conscience lye hid Or can conscience drive us to the confession of one truth which had no power to withhold us from polluting our selves with so many sins Holding faith saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 1.19 and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made ship-wreck So near an alliance there is between Faith and a good Conscience that we must either keep them both or lose them both Faith as Saint Paul intimateth in that Text is as the
the Church is and not like unto the world Wonder not then for the Church hath its peace even in persecution And that we may not think it strange let us not frame and fashion to our selves a Church by the world For by looking too stedfastly upon this world we carry the impression it maketh in us whithersoever we go and that maketh Persecution appear to us in such a monstrous shape that we begin to question the providence of God in suffering it to rage within his territories How doth it amaze us to see Innocency trod down by Power to see a Saint whipped by a Devil But in the world we are born in the world we are the world is the greatest part of our study and hence it cometh to pass that in the pursuit of the knowledge of Christ and his Church we are ready to phansie something to our selves like unto the world Temporal Felicity and Peace is the desire of the whole world and upon this some have made it a note and mark of the true Church like the Musician in Tully who being asked what the Soul was answered that it was an harmony is à principiis artis suae non recessit He knew not saith he how to leave the principles of his own art From hence it is that when we see persecution and the sword and fire rage against the true professours we are at our wits end and think that not onely the glory is departed but the light of Israel is quite put out that when desolation hath shaken a Kingdom the gates of hell have prevailed against the Church As groundless a conceit well near as if we should take the description of Heaven in the Revelation to be true in the letter and that it is a City of pure Gold that the foundations of the walls are adorned with pretious stones that every gate is a pearl and the streets shine like glass Let us then wipe out this carnal errour out of our hearts That the Kingdom of Christ doth hold proportion with the form and managing of these Kingdoms below here on earth that the same peace doth continue and the same division and pâ—â—secution dissolve and ruine both that the same violence which removeth the Candlestick doth blow out the light And let us abstract and wean our selvâ—â— from the world let us be dead to the world let us crucifie the world in a word let us not love the world nor the things of the world and we shall then begin to think persecution a blessing and all these conceits of outward peace and felicity will vanish into nothing And therefore in the third place let us cast down these imaginations these bubbles of wind blown and raised up by the flesh the worser part which doth soonest bring on a persecution and soonest fear one and let us in the place of these build up a royal fort build up our selves in our most holy faith and so fit and prepare our selves against this fiery tryal For as those are called mysteries which are precedaneous and go before the mysteries and he may be said to fight who doth but flourish and arm and fit himself for the battel so the blessed Spirit of God every where calleth upon those who are his souldiers to watch and stand upon their guard to put on the whole armour of God that when the devil assaulteth them in a storm of persecution they may be able to stand Eph. 6.11 to look upon the sword beforehand to take it up and handle it to dispute it out of its force and terrour and so by a familiar conversing with it beforehand by opposing our hopes of happiness and the promises of life to the terrours that death may bring opposing the second part of my Text to the first the Kingdom of heaven to persecution we may abate its force and violence and so by a due preparation conquer before we suffer and leave the persecutor no more power but to kill us And to this end let us view and well look upon the beauty and glory of Righteousness and learn to love it to make it our counsellour our oracle whilest the light shineth upon our heads to let it have a command over us and when it saith Do this to do it For if we thus make it our joy and our crown display it abroad in every action of our life in the time of peace we shall not part with it at a blast nor fling it off and forsake it in time of persecution If we love Righteousness Righteousness will love us and cleave close to us when our friends and acquaintance leave us and fall away like leaves in Autumn A good conscience is an everlasting never-failing foundation but the clamours and checks of a polluted one will give us no leisure at all to build up an holy resolution For when we have a long time detained the truth in righteousness kept it down as a prisoner and not suffered it to work in us when in the whole course of our life we have kept her captive under our sensual lusts and affections it is not probable that in time of danger and astonishment it should have so much power over us as to win us to suffer for its sake but these sensual lusts which in time of peace did keep the Truth and Righteousness under will now shew themselves again in time of persecution and be as forcible to deter us from those evils which are so but in shew and appearance as they were to plunge us into those evils of sin which are true and real If then thou wilt be fitted for Persecution and so for Blessedness first persecute thy self crucifie thy flesh with the lusts and affections raise up a persecution in thy own breast banish every idle thought silence every loud and clamorous desire whip and correct every wandring phansie beat down every thing that standeth in opposition to Righteousness be thus dead unto thy self and then neither death nor life neither fear of death nor hopes of life neither principalities nor powers neither present evils nor those to come shall ever be able to shake thy confidence or separate thee from the love of Righteousness which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And now as we have brought the Righteous person into this Field of bloud and prepared and strengthned him against the horror of it so must we bring the Persecutor also that he may behold what desolation he hath made Why boastest thou thy self in thy mischief O mighty man That thou hast sped that thou hast divided the prey that thou hast made Innocence it self to lick the dust of thy feet that thou hast spilt the bloud of the righteous as water on the ground Thus did the tyrants of old triumph and dance in the bloud which they shed Behold thou persecutest thy self and though the righteous fall under thee yet thou sufferest most Every blow thou givest them entereth into thy own soul that power with which
thou beatest them down as a whirlwind carrieth them to heaven but driveth thee back to the pit of destruction Thou makest them the off scouring of the world which will quickly loath vertue in such a dress but thou makest them glorious in the sight of God Thou wreakest thy wrath upon them but treasurest up wrath for thy self Thou spoilest them that is makest them richer thou disgracest them that is makest them more honourable thou tormentest them that is increaseth their joy thou sendest them into their graves that is into heaven An eye of flesh cannot discern this but the eye of faith glorieth in the Martyr and pitieth the murtherer For when he looketh upon those he hath oppressed and pleaseth himself in it So so thus would I have it he doth but subscribe to the sentence which is already past against him and in effect triumpheth in his own damnation Nor can this help him although sometimes it doth comfort him That God hath delivered them into his hand and so make power an argument of justice and good success a sign and mark of a predestinate Saint For God may deliver the soul of his turtle-doves into the hand of the wicked and yet they be as wicked as before Psal 71.11 You know who they were that cryed God hath forsaken him God may deliver the Jews into captivity and yet the Heathen be aliens still He doth not onely deliver up Sihon King of the Amorites and Og King of Basan but his own people into his enemies hands For it is one thing what God is willing to permit another what he is willing should be done He permitteth all the murthers and massacres and tragedies that have been acted in the world but his permitting them is no Plaudite no approbation of them He permitteth all the sin that hath or shall be committed from Adam the first man to him that shall stand last upon earth and yet that conclusion standeth firm The wages of sin is death Rom. 8.32 He delivered up his Son for us all and yet his bloud was upon those Jews that spilt it Neither is good success or ill success an argument of God's favour or dislike Lazarus was not in Abraham's bosome onely because he was poor nor Dives in hell for that he was rich Josiah did not fall to hell when he fell in battel nor was Pharaoh-Necho a Saint because he slew him But yet I should sooner suspect prosperity then adversity because it hath slain so many fools Blessed are they that are persecuted the words are plain But where do we read Blessed are they that prosper in their wayes Go and prosper and that shall be a sign to thee that thou art highly beloved Let this either in terms or by deduction be produced out of Scripture and I will straight subscribe to a conclusion which may canonize Infidels and Turks Cain and Nimrod and those brethren in evil Judas and the Jews and the Devil himself who too often prevaileth in his wiles and enterprizes and leadeth us captive according to his will Then that of Christ will be true in this sense also That Publicans and sinners harlots and men of Belial shall enter the kingdom of heaven and the children of the kingdom the poor unfortunate children shall be shut out I am weary of this argument And I hope there is none amongst us which will nourish such a serpent in his bosom which may at first flatter him shew him an apple something that is fair to look upon but at last sting him to death an opinion which may drive him upon any pricks on those sins which the righteous do tremble to think of an opinion which may waste and consume a soul and make it like to the souls of the beasts that perish I had rather turn my speech to them that suffer and so conclude and exhort them to humility and patience under the cross For Patience is one of the fairest branches of Righteousness the proper effect of Faith Rom. 5.3 for which we suffer all things and by which we suffer nothing which maketh tribulation joyful the cross a crown and persecution a blessing Adam brought in Labour and Abel Patience Sin invented the one and Righteousness the other Phil. 4.13 And by the virtue of it S. Paul professeth he could do and suffer all things And this the omnipotency of Patience is demonstratively true For if the eye of our faith were as clear as the reward is glorious we should not be either dazled with the smile and beauty of a flattering nor dismayed with the terrour of a black temptation but pleasure would be vanity and persecution a crown For what is this span of misery to bliss without end Persecution strippeth thee and Persecution clotheth thee Persecution beateth at the door of life to let out thy soul and it openeth the gates of heaven to place it there It is that violence which taketh the Kingdom of heaven He that is persecuted for righteousness beleaguereth Heaven undermineth it payeth down a price for it his sufferings Which though they be but momentany and too light yet are accepted as full weight To sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to give saith Christ Vendit Matth. 20.23 non intuitu consanguinitatis dat He doth not give it saith Augustine for relation and kindreds sake but he selleth it Coelum venale Deúsque see Heaven is set at a price and the price is thy bloud As there is a covenant so there is a contract a bargain between God and man and the covenant is a contract My son saith God give me thy heart Give me a contrite heart a bleeding heart a broken heart and thou shalt have for grief joy for labour rest for dishonour glory for ignominy honour for death life and for poverty a Kingdom For Persecution which is but momentany advanceth to a Kingdom which shall have no end The Thirteenth SERMON PHILIPP III. 10 11. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead THat I may know him carrieth but an imperfect sense and sendeth us back to that which goeth before Where we shall find our blessed Apostle at his holy Arithmetick at a strict computation ad digitos calculos cogentem casting up his accounts as it were at his fingers ends He beginneth with Circumcision ver 2. proceedeth to the Law ver 5. riseth up to the Righteousness which is in the Law ver 6. He taketh in his Stock his Tribe his Sect his Zele his unblameable Course of life And that his Audite may be exact ver 8. he bringeth in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things These be the Particulars But what is the Sum Circumcision the Law Zele Righteousness All things a large account and which is strange the sum is Nothing And will Nothing make a sum
him in the Sacrament we many times leave our callings but to hear of him But yet all these may be rather profers then motions rather pleasing thoughts then painful strugglings with our selves rather a looking upwards then a rising cogitationes similes conatibus expergisci volentium as S. Augustine speaketh of himself in his Confessions thoughts like unto the endeavours of men half-asleep who would and would not be awaked who seem to move and stir and lightly lift up the head and then fall down fast asleep fall back again into their graves and into the place of silence Nay 3. This Speculation this naked approbation is but a dream Visus adesse mihi Christ may seem to rouze us when he moveth us not at all And as in dreams we seem to perform we do every thing and we do nothing Nunc fora nunc lites we plead we wrastle we fight we triumph we sail we flie and all is but a dream So when we have seen the Gospel as in a map when we have made a phansiful peregrination through all the riches and glories and delights it affordeth when we have seen our Saviour in the cratch led him into the High priest's hall followed him to mount Calvary seen him on his cross brought him back again with triumph from his grave we may think indeed we are risen with him But when Conscience shall begin to be enlightned and dart her piercing raies upon us and plainly tell us that we have not fasted with him that we have not watched with him that we have not gone about with him doing good that we have been so far from crucifying our flesh for his sake that we have crucified him again to fulfil the lusts thereof that the World and not Christ hath been the form that moved us in the whole course of our life that our rising hath been nothing else but deceptio visûs an apparition a phantasm a jugling and Pharasaical vaunting of our selves behold then it will appear that all was but a dream that we have seen Christ rising from the dead and acknowledged the power of his resurrection but are no more risen our selves then our pictures that we have but dreamed of life and are still under the power of Darkness and in the valley and shadow of Death For conclusion then What saith the Scripture Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead For this is to know and feel the power of Christ's resurrection Let us not please our selves with visions and dreams with the flattery of our own imaginations Let us not think that if we have magnified the power of the Resurrection we are therefore already risen For we can never demonstrate this power till we actually rise Let Knowledge beget Practice and Practice encrease our Knowledge Let us know Christ that is obey him Let us know the power of his resurrection that is rise from the death of Sin to walk in righteousness For this is with open face to behold the glory of Christ and his Resurrection This practick and affective Knowledge maketh us one with Christ Col 3.5 Rom 6.6 Col. 3 3. 2 Cor. 5.15 giveth us a fellowship of his sufferings conformeth and fashioneth us to his death mortifieth our earthly members destroyeth the whole body of sin maketh us die with Christ and live unto Christ unto him who died for us and is risen again By this we are made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 limmers nay the very pictures of the Passion and Resurrection that we may be dead to sin and alive to righteousness that we may deal with our Sin as â—â—e Jews did with Christ hate and persecute it lay wait for it send forth a band of souldiers all the strength we have to apprehend and take it drag it to the bar accuse and condemn it revile and spit in its face that there may be vinegar in our tears and gall in our Repentance that we may nail Sin to the cross and put it out of ease that it live but a dying life not able to move our members more then he can his who is nailed to a tree that it faint and languish by degrees and at last give up the ghost and then that we may rise again that the good Spirit may descend from heaven and remove the many stones the many vicious habits and customs that lie heavy upon us that we may leave our graves and our grave-cloths behind us all pretenses and palliations all ties and bonds of sin and whatsoever hath any sent or savour of corruption To conclude This is truly to know Christ and the power of his resurrection And this Knowledge will melt us this liquefaction will transform us and this transformation unite us to Christ and this union will be our exultation and this exultation an everlasting jubilee In a word This will quit us of all uncertainties lead us through all difficulties and by these means we shall attain to not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bare but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full resurrection which no death no evil shall follow a Resurrection to eternity of life of bliss and glory The Fourteenth SERMON ACTS I. 10 11. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them in white apparel Which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing into heaven This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven HEaven is a fair sight and every eye beholdeth it but without Jesus we would not look upon Heaven it self Here we have them both presented to the eye This Jesus was taken up into heaven and that tâ—â— Disciples might see it he led them out as far as to Bethany Luke 24.50 he brought them to mount Olivet to an open and conspicuous place and made them spectators of his Triumph that they might preach it to the whole world Christ was willing to imploy their sight to confirm this main Article of the Ascension But yet as Christ liketh not every touch but there is a NOLI ME TANGERE Touch me not because I am not yet ascended so there is a QUID STATIS INTUENTES a check given to the eye because he is ascended already When the cloud hath taken him up no looking after him He loveth to be seen not to be gazed after Our love he approveth but not our curiosity Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they were looking stedfastly toward heaven there stood by them saith the Text two men IN ALBIS in white apparel in the same colour they saw them in at his Tomb and as there so here they came not by chance but were dispatched as messengers from heaven at once to draw the Disciples eyes from needless gazing and to confirm them in the belief of their Master's Ascension The one they do by way of Question Why stand ye gazing into heaven the other by a plain and positive
world then a learned fool So the Church of Christ and Religion never suffered more then from carnal men who are thus Spirit-wise For by acknowledging the Spirit they gain a glorious pretence to work all wickedness and that with greediness which whilest others doubt of though their errour be dangerous and fatal yet parciùs insaniunt they cannot be so outragiously mad But yet it doth not follow because some men mistake the Spirit and abuse him that no man is taught by the holy Ghost The mad Athenian took every ship that came into the harbour to be his but it doth not follow hence that no wise and sober merchant knew his own To him that is drunk things appear in a double shape and proportion geminae Thebae gemini soles two cities for one and two Suns for one Can I hence conclude that all sober men are blind Because I will not learn doth not the Spirit therefore teach And if some men take Dreams for Revelations must the holy Ghost needs loose his office This were to run upon the fallacy non-causae pro causâ to deny an unquestionable and fundamental truth for an inconvenience to dig up the Foundation because men build hay and stubble upon it or because some men have sore eyes to pluck the Sun out of his sphere This were to dispossess us of one evil Spirit and leave us naked to be invaded by a Legion To make this yet a little plainer We confess the operations of the Spirit are in their own nature difficult and obscure and as Scotus observeth upon the Prologue to the Sentences because they are quite of another condition then any thought or working in us whatsoever imperceptibiles not to be suddenly perceived no not by that soul in which they are wrought In which speech of his doubtless if we weigh it with charity and moderation and not extremity of rigour there is much truth Seneca telleth us Quaedam animalia cùm mordent non sentiuntur adeò tenuis illis fallens in periculum vis est The deadly bitings of some creatures are not felt so secret and subtle a force they have to endanger a man So on the contrary the Spirit 's enlightning us and working life in our hearts can at first by no means be described so admirable and curious a force it hath in our illumination Non deprehendes quemadmodum aut quando tibi profuit profuisse deprehendes That it hath wrought you shall find but the secret and retired passages by which it wrought are impossible to be reduced to demonstration We read that Mark Antony when with his Oration he shewed unto the people the wounded coat wherein Caesar was slain populum Romanum egit in furorem he made the people almost mad So the power of the Spirit as it seemeth wrought the like affection in the people who when they had heard the Apostles set forth the passion of Christ Acts 2. and lay his wounds open before their eyes were wrapt as it were in a religious fury and in it suddenly cryed out Men and brethren what shall we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text They were stung and as it were nettled in their hearts Now this could not be a thing done by chance or by any artificial energy and force in the Apostles speech this I say could not be For if we observe it Christ was slain amongst them and what was that to them or why should this hazard them more then the death of many other Prophets and holy men who through the violence of their Rulers had lost their lives And what necessity what coactive reason was there to make them believe that He was to save and redeem them who not long since had cruelly crucified him Dic Quintiliane colorem What art was there what strong bewitching power that should drive the people into such an ecstasie Or what could this be else but the effect of the operation of the holy Spirit which evermore leaveth the like impressions on those hearts on which he pleaseth to fasten the words of the wise Eccl. 12.11 which are like unto goads quae cum ictu quodam sentimus saith Seneca we hear them with a kind of smart as Pericles the Oratour is reproved to have spoken so that he left a sting behind in the minds of his Auditory And this putteth a difference betwixt natural and supernatural and spiritual Truths We see in natural Truths either the evidence and strength of Truth or the wit and subtilty of conceit or the quaintness of method and art may sometimes force our Understanding and lead captive our Affections but in sacred and Divine Truths such as is the knowledge of the Dominion and Kingdom of Christ the light of Reason is too dimme nor could it ever demonstrate this conclusion Jesus is the Lord which the brightest eye that ever the world had could of it self never see Besides the art by which it was delivered was nothing else but plainness and by S. Paul himself the worthiest Preacher it ever had except the Son of God himself it is called the foolishness of preaching But as it is observed that God in his works of wonder and his miracles brought his effects to purpose by means almost contrary to them so many times in his persuasions of men he draweth from them their assent against all rule and prescript of art and that where he pleaseth so powerfully that they who receive the impressions seem to think deliberation which in other cases is wisdom in this to be impiety But you will say perhaps that the holy Ghost was a Teacher in the Apostles times when S. Paul delivered this Christian axiom this principle this sum of Christianity when the Church was in sulco semine when the seeds of this Religion were first sown that then he did wonderfully water this plant that it might grow and increase But doth he still keep open School doth he still descend to teach and instruct us on whom the ends of the world are come Yes certainly he doth For if he did not teach us we could not vex him if he did not work in us we could not resist him if he did not speak unto us we could not lie unto him He is the God of all spirits to this day And uncti Christians we are And an anointment we have saith S. John and whilest this abideth in us we need not that any man teach us for this unction this discipline this Divine grace is sufficient And though this oyntment flow not so plenteously now as of old yet we have it and it distilleth from the Head to the skirts of the garment to the meanest member of the Church Though we be no Apostles yet we are Christians and the same Spirit teacheth both And by his light we avoid all by-paths of errour that are dangerous and discern though not all Truth yet all that is necessary They had an Ephah we an Hin yet our Hin is a measure
and time Care not for the morrow let the morrow care for it self There is no time to seek him but Now. For 1. It is the greatest folly in the world thus to play with danger to seek death first in the errours of our life and then when we have run our course and death is ready to devour us to look faintly back upon life For the endeavours of a man that hath wearied himself in sin can be but weak and faint like the appetite of a dying man who can but think of meat and loath it The later we seek the less able we shall be to seek the further we stray the less willing to return For Sin gathereth strength by delay devoteth us unto it self gaineth a dominion over us holdeth us as it were in chains and will not soon suffer us to slip out of its power When our Will hath captivated it self under sin a wish a sigh a thought are but vain things nor have they strength enough to deliver us One act begetteth another and that a third many make up a habit and evil habits hold us back with some violence from God What mind what motion what inclination can a man that is drowned in sensuality have to God who is a spirit a man buried in earth for so every covetous man is to God who is in Heaven he that delighteth in the breath of fools to the honour of a Saint Here the further we go â—he more we are in That which is once done hath some affinity to that which is done often and that which is done often is next to that which is done alwayes We say Custome is a second nature and indeed it imitateth natural motion It is weak in the beginning stronger in the progress but strongest towards the end Our first engagement our first onset in sin is with fear and reluctation we then venture further and proceed with less regret we move forward with delight delight continueth the motion and maketh it customary and costome at last driveth and bindeth us to sin as to our centre For though God in Scripture be said to Harden our hearts and some be very forward to urge those Texts as if Induration were not our fault but God's and would be comfort even in hell if we could say his hand threw us in yet Induration and hardening of the heart is the natural and proper effect of continuance in sin For every man is shaped and configured to the actions of his life whether they be good or evil An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit nor can a good tree bring forth evil Virtue constraineth us and Vice constraineth us One sin draweth on another and a second a third and at last we are carried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our own accord and as it were by natural inclination and brought to that extremity of sin which the Philosopher calleth ferity or brutishness and the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reprobate mind to delight in sin to triumph in sin to consecrate sin and call it virtue and religion to that difficulty of seeking God which the Lawyers call Impossibility in things which may but yet seldome come to pass For though God may be found even of these yet we have just cause to fear that few thus disposed ever seek him 2. It is dangerous in respect of God himself whose call we regard not whose counsels we reject whose patience we dally with whose judgements we slight to whom we wantonly turn our backs and run from him when he calleth after us to seek his face and so tread that mercy under our feet which should save us and will not seek him yet because we presume that though we grieve his Spirit though we resist his Spirit though we blaspheme his Spirit yet after all these scorns and contempts after all these injuries and contumelies he will yet sue unto us and offer himself and be found at any time in which we shall think convenient to seek him It is true God hath declared himself by his servant Moses and as it were become his own Herald to proclaim his own titles The Lord the Lord God Exod. 34.6 7. merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin Manasseth was the most notorious offender of all the Kings of Judah and wrought much wickedness saith the Text even above all the Amorites and this he did not for a little space but even till he was grown old and yet we see that patience attended his return and accepted his person when he prayed and humbled himself So loth is God to withdraw himself whilest there is any hope that we will seek him For he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most lovingly affected to man the chief and prince of his creatures he wooeth him he longeth after him he waiteth on him he wisheth he were so wise as to seek him His glory and Man's salvation meet and kiss each other for it is his glory to crown him Nor doth he at any time leave us himself till we dote on the world and sensuality and divorce him from us till we have made our Heaven below chosen other Gods and think him not worth the looking after In a word he is alwayes a God at hand never goeth from us till we force him by violence When he went to lead his own people through the wilderness how many murmurings and rebellions did he endure ere he left them Till they committed that intolerable sin in Horeb in which it seemeth they were resolved to try the strength of his patience he did himself in person conduct them in the way Exod. 32. And after he telleth them he would not himself go before them left he should destroy them but he sendeth his Angel his vicegerent to supply his room so that even when he left them he left also room for mercy and he forsook them that he might not forsake them forsook them in some degree that he might not be constrained to forsake them for ever Since therefore God is so loth to hide himself from us or cast us off till we have cast off all care and thought of seeking him I would be very loth to wrong that property of his in which he seemeth so much to rejoyce or set bounds to his mercies which are infinite Yet as Tertullian speaketh non potest non irasci contumeliis misericordiae suae we cannot imagine but God must needs wax angry at the contumelies and reproches which by our dalliance and delay we fling upon his mercy vvhich is so ready to cover our sins For how can he suffer the Queen of his attributes to be thus prostituted to our lusts What hope of that souldier that kicketh away his buckler or of that condemned man that flingeth his pardon into the fire or of that sick man who loveth his disease and counteth his physick poison The Prophet here when he calleth upon
behold God's precious promises but when we are urged with this undeniable Consequence That we must therefore forgive we start back and will not yield to the Conclusion nor be convinced by that evidence which is as clear as the day So prevalent is the flattery of this world above the Mercy of God! so powerful is a gilded vanity above the glory of the Mercy-seat It is argument of great force à majori ad minus If Christ forgave us who were his enemies then ought they that take his name upon them to forgive them who are their Brethren And he that is Christ's and truly religious must needs see the force of this argument and confirm and make it good by practice To this end in the next place we must make use of those helps which will draw this consequence out of these premisses which will so fit and prepare us that the Mercy of God may work kindly in us to bring its power into act that as God's Mercy is a convincing argument that we must be merciful so our Compassion to our brother may be as a strong confirmation and full assurance to us that God hath forgiven us First then as the Psalmist speaketh let us have God's Mercy in everlasting remembrance to curb our appetite to check our lusts to bridle our tongue to stay our hand to beat down all our animosity and to make our anger set before the Sun For the Memory saith S. Bernard is stomachus animi the stomach of the soul to make all God's benefits become food and nourishment to turn them into good bloud that we may be strong in the Lord and in the power of the Spirit strong to the casting down of all imaginations which may stand in opposition to the Mercy of God when it is begetting something in us like unto it self to turn them into the very bloud and substance of our soul that she shall not breath nor think nor speak nor actuate the hand but in a way of mercy And in this respect that of Plato may be true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We learn and are instructed by those notions which were formerly imprinted in our memory This is as it were parturire misericordiam to conceive and be in travel with Mercy till it be fully formed in us to work it out first in the elaboratory of our heart to have this article of our faith Remission of sins before our eyes that may check us at every turn that may break the bow and snap the spear asunder and burn every instrument revenge that may scatter those thoughts which warm our bloud and raise our spirits and make our glory and triumph to tread down our enemies under our feet The frequent meditation of this begat a love in many which was stronger then death This was the chain which bound the Martyrs to the stake this sealed up their lips when they were laughed to scorn Sic posuerunt animas suas With the remembrance of God's mercy in Christ they laid down their lives praying for their enemies with their last breath as Christ did for his commending their souls to the mercy of God whose bloudy cruelty had devoted their bodies to the fire By frequent contemplation of God's love we draw our soul from out of those incumbrances which many times involve and fetter her we recollect our mind into it self and do not let it out to our passions to be torn and distracted but fasten it upon the Goodness of God where it resteth as upon a holy hill from whence looking down it beholdeth every object in its proper shape It looketh upon the World as upon a a shop of vanity upon Riches as that which may be lost and we never the worse upon Beauty as that which is lost whilest we look on it upon Honour as on a falling star which shineth and falleth and is turned into dung upon Injury as a benefit upon Persecution as a blessing upon Contempt as upon that sword which will slay none but the scornful upon Oppression as that which shall undoe none but the covetous Yea it seeth Life in the face and countenance of Death Oh it is a sad speculation that our Memory should keep its retentive faculty to preserve that which is poisonous and deleterial but that we should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leak and let out the water of life which should quicken and refresh the soul and make it grow in grace that at the impression of a wedge of gold our Memory should conceive theft or fraud or rapine at the sight of a face bring forth lust at the shew of an injury set the soul on fire but be as marble to receive the signature of God's goodness that it should be a well-lockt treasury to every fading vanity but a through-fare for those lasting and powerful objects which should work and fashion the soul to a mild and heavenly constitution Oh that we should never call our Memory good but in evil Therefore in the second place it is not enough to behold these glorious phantasms and for a while to carry them about with us as precious antidotes unless we mould and fashion and rightly apply them For many times nitimur infirmamur saith Hilary Contemplation bringeth us forward but then letteth us fall to the ground we profer and look back we put on resolutions and fling them off again before they are well on we remember God's mercy and when our bloud is a little chafed study to forget it The good which we would which we approve that do we not and soon learn not to think it good Et mentis judicium rectitudinem conspicit sed ad hoc operis fortitudo succumbit We fall short of that rectitude which the eye hath discovered and which we have but weakly framed and set up in our mind and so leave the truth behind us and go on undauntedly to that which our Anger or Lust doth hurry us to We do not so place God's Mercy before our eyes as to conceive something like unto it as Jacob's sheep did amongst the rods This hindereth the powerful operation of Mercy that we see it as the Jews did their Manna and know not what it meaneth But if we will put on the bowels of mercy we must contemplate Mercy in its own sphere in that site and aspect in which it looketh upon us deliberare causas expendere deliberate and question with our selves for what cause it was thus set up and draw it down to the right end and use of it Now to what end was the hand of Mercy reached out unto us Questionless to work in us peace of conscience and save us But if we look again and view it more nearly and considerately we shall find another use namely to make us fruitful in every good work O thou wicked servant saith the Lord in the Gospel Matth. 18. I forgave thee all thy debt shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant even as
word which is a work which will break forth into action a word like unto that of God who spake and it was done Psal 33.9 Psal 62.11 who speaketh and repenteth not God hath spoken once that is immobiliter saith a Father His word is immutable IBIMUS We will go Here is their Resolution a strong will begotten of Love vehemens bene ordinata voluntas a vehement and well-ordered will Lord Psal 26.8 I have loved the habitation of thy house saith the Psalmist This is invictissimè constantissimè velle as S. Augustine speaketh a preserving and unconquered will a resolution taken up once for all not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Stoicks speak an assent that it is fit so to do but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an active motion by which the mind is carried along and in a manner forced to that it desireth a full perswasion as that of Abraham Rom. 4. as that of S Paul Acts 21. who Rom. 4.21 Acts 21 11-14 though he was so sure to be bound and put in fetters by the Jews at Jerusalem yet he would go up thither and by no arguments nor intreaties nor tears be persuaded to the contrary as that of Martine Luther who would enter the city Wormes though every tile on every house were a devil as that of the blessed Martyrs whom neither threats nor flatteries could at all work upon but their firm and setled purpose of mind added strength to the weaker part animated and quickned and as it were spiritualized their bodies and made them subservient and ministerial to bring their resolution into act Hence in a manner they suffered as if they suffered not They seemed to be ignorant of their stripes senseless of their wounds unconcerned in their torments Death appeared to them in as fair a shape as Life it self yea was desired before it This is it we call Resolution to will and do or to will which is to do For quicquid imperavit sibi animus obtinuit Whatsoever the mind commandeth it self whatsoever it resolveth on is as good as done already For when we have looked upon the object and approved it when we have beheld its glory and confirmed our selves in the liking of it when we have cast by all objections which flesh and bloud may bring in of danger or difficulty when we have fastned the thing to our soul and made it as it were a part of it when it is become as Christ saith our meat John 4.34 then there is such an impression of it made iâ—â—he heart such a character as is indeleble and we are as violently carried towards it as an hungry man is to his food and refreshment neither difficulty nor danger neither principalities nor powers neither life nor death can so stand between as to keep us from it My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed saith David Psal 57.7 and then he cannot but sing and give praise The heart being fixed to the object carrieth it about with it is joyned to it even when it is out of sight when at the greatest distance Finis operi adulatur The end we propose and the glory thereof doth give light and lustre to our endeavours yea and cast a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and loveliness even on that which would deterre us from it and leaveth not in us the consideration or memory of any thing besides it self This is Resolution This maketh an IBIMUS We will go significant without this we cannot clearly pronounce IBIMUS we cannot truly say We will go into the house of the Lord. Such a resolution David here observed at least supposed in the people of Israel For whether the Ark were to be setled or the Temple to be edified or re-edified any of these might well stir up a desire in them and a resolution to see it done For the Ark was a Sam. 4.21 22. Psal 78.61 the glory of Israel and b Jer. 7.4 The Temple of the Lord was a frequent and solemn word in their mouthes they c Psal 44.8 made it their boast all the day long their long absence therefore could not but whet their desire raise their expectation fix and setle their will and make them impatient of delay Oh when shall we appear in the presence of God! When shall we go into the house of the Lord Thence we heard the oracles of God There is the mercy-seat There we offered sacrifices and burnt-offerings There we called upon God's name There are set thrones of judgment the thrones of the house of David There the glory of the Lord appeared and made it as heaven it self We will go This was their Resolution We now pass to behold 3. Their Agreement and joynt Consent Which is visible in the pronoun WE We will go Much hath been said of Pronouns of the power and virtue of them of Meum and Tuum what swords they have whet what bloud they have spilt what fires they have kindled what tumults they have raised in the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene How long shall we hear in the Church these quarrelsome words Mine and Thine My understanding and Thy understanding My wit and Thy wit My preacher and Thy preacher My Church and Thy Church It is not Mine or Thine but Ours WE is a bond of peace and love that tieth us all together and maketh us all one We are all Israelites we are one people we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fellow-citizens and members of the same body We have one Law one Temple one Religion one Faith one God one Heaven cur non omnes unus dicantur saith Origen and why may not all then be one Yes we are all one And there is as great unity between us if we be of the same body saith Cyprian as there is between the beams and the Sun between rivers and their fountain between branches and their root WE taketh in a whole nation a whole people the whole world and maketh them one DECERNIMUS We decree We ordein is taken for a word of state and majesty but it is indeed a word of great moderation and humility an open profession that though Princes command yet they do it not alone but by the advise and counsel of others For in making a Law the King and his Counsel are but one So WE maketh Manasseh and Ephraim all Israel all the Tribes one WE maketh a Common-wealth and WE maketh a Church Though there be Lords and peasants Pastours and people Acts 1.15 though the number of the names together be an hundred and twenty yea many millions yet WE by interpretation is but one 1 Cor. 12.8 c. To one is given the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge to another faith to another the gifts of healing to another the working of miracles c. But it is by one and the same Spirit And as there is but one Spirit so there is but one Christ and in
So there is nothing in the Church to drive any out of it nothing in the We to divide it Whatsoever things are true â—it 4.8 whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise these make a company a congregation at unity within it self these make many one and carry them together to the house of God with joy and triumph We must then seek for the cause of dis-union abroad For Religion can no more make it then the Sun when it shineth can produce darkness Light and darkness may assoon meet in one as true Religion and Division No Inimicus homo the envious man the Devil doth this It is Covetousness and Pride and Malice and Envy the fruitless fruits of the evil Spirit that have torn the seamless coat of Christ yea that have divided his body that have set up the partition-wall and made of one many 1. Aemulatio mater schismatum saith Tertullian Envy is the mother of division An evil eye which striketh and hurteth when others are in glory which when it cannot behold its own good delighteth in others evil Arius will break forth and trouble all if Alexander be in the chair before him 2. Covetousness that would not onely depopulate but gather in the whole world unto it self Etiam avaritia quaerit unitatem saith S. Augustine Even Covetousness is a great lover of unity would swallow all into it self And then where were the WE It is the observation of Aristotle that that friendship which is enterteined for pleasure is subject but to few quarrels that which is for vertue and honesty to none but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all complaints and quarrels arise from that which is grounded upon profit While they are assistant to one anothers designs so long they have but one purse but one soul but when they come short and fail then they flie asunder and keep distance and look back upon one another as enemies They are one to day and to morrow they are divided Quòd unum velimus duo sumus We therefore disagree because we are so like we are not one and the same because we love one and the same thing Quod vinculm amoris esse debebat seditionis odii causa idem velle That which should draw and knit us together divideth and separateth us namely having the same desires the same mind the same will Covetousness neither careth for union nor community And this is it which raiseth seditions in the Common-wealth and maketh rents in the Church This sent that swarm of Flies and Locusts the Novations the Puritanes of those times disciples of Novatus who would be stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pure But saith Nazianzene as pure as he was he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very covetous A disease which may seem to have cleaved to his sect and followers throughout all generations to this day Consider of it judge and give sentence 3. Ambition looketh not back leaveth all behind will be on the top of the ladder Pride lifteth up the nose as the Psalmist speaketh keepeth distance and her word is a Isa 65.5 Go from me for I am holier then thou b Rev. 18.7 I sit as a queen c Isa 47.8 I am and none else besides me The proud man loveth to be alone and would have no companion but would be learned alone beautiful alone rich alone strong alone religious alone d Luk. 18.11 I am not as other men I am not as this Publicane was the Manifesto of a Pharisee and he was proud To conclude These vices which distract us in our selves can never make nor keep us at one with others No it is Humility and Patience and Contempt of the world and the Love of Christ which alone knit this love-knot e Eâ—h 2.14 15. break down the partition wall and make them one cause f Psal 133.1 brethren to dwel together in unity draw them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint have it to the same thing to have the same faith the same purpose the same mind the same wealth the same wit the same understanding or to be as assistant to one another as if they were the same in a word which make them one in Christ as g Joh. 10.30 Christ and the Father are one that they be of the same quire and sing the same song with the people of Israel IBIMUS Let us or We will go into the house of the Lord. I have been carried away ye see as with a stream but the waters were pleasant Bonum jucundum saith the Psalmist Psal 133.1 Good and pleasant it is for brethren to go together There is but one stage more and we shall be at the journeys end even at the Temple-gates but one circumstance to consider and we shall lead you in and that is 4. Their alacrity and chearfulness in going I told you their long absence rendred the object more glorious For what we love and want we love the more and desire the more earnestly When Hezekiah having been sick unto death had a longer lease of life granted him Isa 38.1 22. he asketh the question What is the sign not that I shall live but that I shall go up to the house of the Lord Love is on the wing chearful to meet its object yea it reacheth it at a distance and is united to it while it is afar off But when it draweth near and a probable hope leadeth us towards it then is Loves triumph and jubilee Love saith one is a Sophister and a Philosopher witty and subtile to compass its own ends a Magician able to conjure down all difficulties and oppositions that lie in its way How doth the Covetous hast to be rich the Ambitious fly to the pinnacle of State the Glutton run to a banquet When the fool had filled his barns he sung a Requiem to his soul When Haman was advanced by the King Luk. 12.19 Esth 5.10 11. he sent and called for his friend and Zerish his wife and told them of his glory We read of one who hired a horse from the cirk to ride to a feast Love is alwayes in hast delighting it self in thoughts of hope and carried on them as on the wings of the wind Thus it is in sensual Love and thus it is also in spiritual When we have once tasted the good word of God Hebr 6.5 and the powers of the world to come when our hearts are possessed with love of God's glory when our minds are truly principled when as the Apostle speaketh Colos 2.6 7. we have received Christ Jesus the Lord and are rooted and built up in him Lord what an heaven is virtue what glory is there in obedience what beauty in holiness what a holy place is a Church how do we faint and pant not onely after religion
nudam a common and naked will or rather a faint and feeble desire or a forced approbation of Righteousness but it is of a poisonous nature and infecteth the whole soul and at last leaveth not so much as an inclination lameth and cripleth us and turneth our weak desire to Righteousness into a strong resolution against it At first we applaud the precept as just and we think we are bound to do it nay perhaps faintly determine to betake our selves to action but as water taken from the fire groweth colder and colder and at last by some circumsistent cold is congealed into ice so this resolution waxeth fainter and fainter and in the end per frigus tentationum as Gregory calleth it by the chill cold of some tentation is bound up and we who before had Righteousness in our wish have it not now in all our thoughts but set all the powers of our soul against it If the will be not chearful it is not Angelical it is no will at all Again it must be Constant as also the Angels is They are pictured out unto us in those mystical Wheels Ezek. 1. to shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their perpetual and constant motion and in the shape of Young men to express the vigorous force and continual instauration of their obedience For an Angel cannot wax old or weary and faint He doth not minister to day and to morrow slack his obedience is not to day an Angel of light and to morrow a devil but is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 constant and immoveable in his ministerial office which is his Righteousness So should our will to Righteousness be constant and ever the same not a good intention and then flag We must not have those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immutations and reflexions in our proposals and desires which Nazianzene observed in Julian the Apostate to night passing a just sentence and the next morning reversing it not to day fasting and to morrow thirsting after bloud not setting the knife to our own throats now and anon to our brothers heri in ecclesia hodie in theatro yesterday in the Church and to day in the theatre now humbling our selves and within a while swelling above measure For if we have these ebbings and flowings in our pursuit of Righteousness now swelling towards it anon falling back it is manifest we never sought it Quae modò sunt modò non sunt is qui verè est non acceptat saith the Father He that is truly and everlastingly doth not accept of those desires which now are and anon are not of those fits in devotion those transitory offers which like some creatures appear not but at some times of the year For if we look towards Righteousness if we begin to move towards it and some black or smiling tentation strike as it were the hollow of our thigh and put our desires out of joynt that they either move not at all or move irregularly we may flatter our selves that we are still in our quest after Righteousness but indeed we are posting to the gates of death Did I say our will should resemble the will and motion of Angels Our seeking of Righteousness should be like Gods seeking of us which is real and hearty and ever the same For he would save us when we will perish and it is not he but we that in a manner alter his decrees change his counsels reverse his purposes break his promises For how oft would he and we would not We talk much of God's decrees I am sure he hath decreed it shall be to us even as we will If we will be saved he is ready to crown us But if instead of Righteousness we seek death in the errour of our life if we will perish we perish but it is against his first and primitive will which was serious and without dissimulation to save us And such should our wills be to Righteousness For if we can flatter our selves and think that God will be content with our faint desires and feeble wishes we cannot in any reason expect any other comfort from him then that he should tell us that he also did desire our salvation did wish that we would be wise If we pretend we are willing to be gathered into his garner what other answer can he give but this Oh how oft would I have gathered you and you would not How willing was I to have set the crown of glory upon your heads which yet I will not do against your wills Oh that there were that proportion and analogy which is meet and which even common reason requireth between our desire of Righteousness and God's desire of our Happiness between his will to do us good and our will to do our duty Oh that we were as willing to be righteous as he is we should be glorious What a shame is it that he should bow the heavens and come down and we run into holes and caverns and with Dathan and his complices bury our selves quick in the earth for so every covetous man doth saith Origen that he should appear in his glory and beauty and we should dote on that which is of near alliance to the worm and rottenness for so every lustful man doth that he should look upon us and woe us in our bloud and we wallow still and not once look up upon him for this every unrepentant sinner doth that he should wait and we delay that he should bid us live and we love death that he should be sorry for our sin and we triumph in our sin that he should long and we lothe that his bowels should yern and our hearts be stone that Righteousness should spread her beams display all her beauty and we turn away from it and joyn our selves with Deformity and Death that God should bid us seek him and we should seek Bethel and Gilgal the vanities of the world which shall come to nought This this is it which will draw the hand-writing against us in capital letters and be as terrible as Hell it self That we may then raise our desires and level them with the Object that we may not deceive our selves and think we seek Righteousness when our desires are carried another way let us as the Stoicks admonish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 check and stay our phansie prove and examine it by the right rule By this men may know you are my disciples saith our Saviour and by this you may know you do indeed seek Righteousness First there will be in us a sense and feeling of vacuity The fuller we are of Righteousness the more sensible we are of want Nor do any more earnestly seek it then they who have made it theirs and hold it as it were in possession I have not yet attained saith S. Paul when he had attained but I press forward The Pharisee is ever full but to the righteous ever something is wanting And this putteth a difference between our spiritual
things upon Righteousness as counting them but dung in respect of it in which alone we rest and look through Righteousness upon these things as that which seasoneth and sanctifieth every part of our life every action every thought of ours without which all our endeavours are but as so many approches to death and with which they are so many advantages and promotions to life And this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep a method an order a right course in our proceedings These outward things are but impedimenta the baggage of Righteousness which cannot as one speaketh well be spared or left behind but many times hinder the march and therefore great care must be taken that they lose not nor disturb the Victory We must then first make good the victory as Alexander once told Parmenio when his carriage was in danger we must by Righteousness overcome the world and then our baggage vvill be safe and these things vvill follovv us as captives do victors in their triumphs Let us first seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto us vvhich is the Promise annexed my last part and cometh novv in a vvord to be handled In this Promise God may seem to deal with us as indulgent fathers do with their children If we do what we should he will give us that which we desire By an argument drawn from gain and profit he laboureth to win our love to himself and as Rebecca dealt with old Isaac he provideth us such meat as our soul loveth Profit and commodity is a lure that calleth the greatest part of the world after it Most that we take in hand to do is copied out according to that pattern of Judas What will you give me What profit what commodity will accrue unto me is the preface and way to all our actions This is the price of good and evil Men are hardly induced to do either but by the way of bargain and sale It vvas the Devil's question unto God concerning Job Doth Job serve God for nought hast thou not hedged him in on every side Indeed in this the Devil mistook Job's mind for Job served not God for this but for another cause Yet there might be some reason to ask the question For vvho is there amongst the sons of men that can content himself to serve God for nothing Aristotle discoursing concerning the qualities and conditions of mans age telleth us that young men for the most part consider not so much profit as equity and duty as being led by their natural temper and simplicity vvhich teacheth them rather to do vvhat is good then vvhat is profitable And vve may observe natural conscience more strong and prevailing in youth then in age But old men have ends of their actions their minds run more upon profit and gain as being led by advice and consultation vvhose property it is to have an eye to conveniency and not so much to goodness vvhen it cometh tovvards them naked and bare I vvill not deny but there may be some found that are but young in the vvorld men that are children in evil to whom it may be said as one sometime told Amphiaraus that they have not tasted hovv svveet gold is nor knovv hovv pleasant a savour gain hath Yet no doubt most men even in their youngest dayes are old and expert enough in the vvorld For vve bring vvith us into the vvorld the Old man vvhose vvisdom and policy it is to have an ear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to enterprise any thing but for some further end then it self either pleasure or profit or honour These are thy Gods O Israel These are the Gods of the world These like God sit at the top of Jacob's ladder and all our actions are but steps and rounds to go up unto them God and Righteousness is not reward enough to draw men on Now God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens speaketh even studieth wayes to save us and is witty in inventing means to bring us unto him amongst other wayes of his hath made this weakness of ours a means to draw us home Matth. 13.29 And as the Husband man in the Gospel would not have the tares pulled up for fear the wheat should come up with them so God doth in a manner tolerate these tares in us lest the rooting out of our affections to the things of this life might draw a little too near the quick and quite choke up the love of God Or as a skilful artificer that vvorketh upon ill materials if he cannot make what he would yet he maketh that vvhich the stuff and matter vvill afford The New Testament indeed is not so frequent in mentioning earthly blessings and the reason that they are not there so fully taught may be because they are supposed to be learned and known as being sufficiently stood upon in the Old In the Old there is scarce any page which doth not entitle righteous men to the possession of some temporary good Yet even under the Gospel Righteousness hath its part of the blessings of this world whether of soul or body or goods And what the son of Sirach spake of those excellent men who lived before his time we have seen true in Christian Commonwealths The noble famous men reigned in their kingdoms they bare excellent rule in their wisdom wise sentences were found in their instructions They were rich also and could comfort They lived quietly at home Be it therefore Power or Wisdom or Riches or Peace or any other of those apples of Paradise which seem to the world so fair and lovely and so much to be desired God hath not rained them down upon the Cities of men so as that he hath left his own dry and barren and utterly unfâ—â—nished with them I will not dâ—spute unto whom of right these blessings belong whether to reprobate or the righteous They who have moved this question have stiled themselves Righteous and to gain these things have committed those sins which none but a reprobate could do For did ever any righteous person oppress or rob his brother But in this they do the same which the old Romans did who when two cities contending for a piece of ground did make them their Judge and Umpire wisely gave sentence on their own behalf took it from them both and adjudged it to themselves First they are righteous and a Saint is soon made up in their phansie and then every man is a wicked person whom they intend to spoil The thief is righteous and the oppressed innocent a reprobate But let the title to these things rest where it will Of this we may safely presume that God who is Lord of all the earth and in whom originally all the right to these things is doth so put forth his hand and dispose them as that they who first seek Righteousness cannot doubt of that portion of them which shall be sufficient for them Onely let
to Death should be to us as the strait and narrow way and that onely broad and easie which leadeth to life in a word that we should sow so sparingly in the one and so plentifully in the other so cheerfully in the one and so grudgingly in the other when the harvests are so different when the one shall bring us full sheaves of Comfort the other yield us nothing but Corruption and that Corruption which is worse then Nothing And so I pass from the Labour of the wicked in sowing to their Harvest I would not call it so but something it is they shall receive answerable to their labour For whatsoever a man sâ—wes that shall he also reap James 1.15 The Seed is sowen Lust hath conceived and brought it forth and with it brought forth Death something answerable to it Generat mortem It begetteth Death as a mother bringeth forth a child like unto her self And what more natural and more congruous then that a Mock should beget a Mock and Laughter Scorn and Neglect Anger and Sin Death If you set at naught all my counsel I also will laugh at your calamity Prov. 1.25 saith the Wisdom of God If you forsake him he will forsake you 2 Chron. 15.2 saith Azariah If you will walk contrary to me Lev. 26.27 28. I will walk contrary to you also in fury saith God by Moses If they stand out with him Jer. 44.11 he will set his face against them Such a reciprocation there is between the Seed and the Harvest between Sin and Punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher as in all contracts there is a giving and receiving He that receiveth by theft dat poenas That is the phrase must give punishment Ipse te subdidisti poena It is the stile of the Imperial Law You have sinned and brought your self under punishment you have sinned and must pay for it He that tasts the lips of the Harlot must feel the biting of the Cockatrice He that eateth stolne bread shall find it gravel in his mouth to break his teeth It was suavis sweet it will in the end be lapidosus as Seneca renders it stony bread Pride goeth before Destruction Prov. 16.18 saith Solomon goeth before it and ushereth it in The wages of sin is Death saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a metaphor taken from war which is a kind servitude for which they received diarium bread every day so that Punishment is the Sinners allotted daily bread The Latine word is merces Wages as due to the Sinner as Hire is to the Labouror and follows as naturally as Harvest doth the Seed-time Sin and Punishment are bound up as it were in the same volume in the beginning Sin in the close Punishment as the Seed-time and the Harvest are in the compass of the same year Nay Sin carries Punishment in its very womb and can be delivered of nothing else So that when the sinner is punished that is but done which in a manner is done already The Hebrew Doctours say Molitur farina molita That corn is ground which was ground before a dead lion is killed and a burning torch is put to the city which is on fire already And if we observe it the metaphor of Sowing doth speak so much For the Seed-time is but a kind of prophesie or rather an exspectation of the Harvest The husbandman is said exspectare annum to exspect the year in proximum annum dives rich upon the next year For he that plows 1 Cor. 9.10 plows in hope saith S. Paul and he that sows sows in hope The Seed lies in the womb of the Earth and Sin in the womb of Time and yet a little while and the harvest will come Onely the one is more certain then the other and here the metaphor will not hold For he that sows corn doth not alwayes reap The heavens may be as brass and the earth as iron Terra eunucha as one speaks the earth may be barren and not bring forth But he that sows to the flesh shall certainly reap corruption He smote the people in his wrath and none hindreth Isa 14.6 some time there is indeed between the Stripe and the Punishment but what is some time to eternity For as sinners mock God so God may seem in a manner to mock their security with his delay admonendi dissimulatione decipere not to favour them so much as to be angry with them as to give them any warning to use the same method in punishing which they do in sinning They defer their repentance and God deferreth his punishment They say Tush he doth not see and he is as still and silent as if he did not see indeed They are stubborn in their ways and he prepares his deadly weapons Cum perversis perversè ages saith the Prophet David by a kind of a Catachristical metaphor With the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward or perverse and obstinate as they He will deal with them by law of Retaliation that there shall be a kind of analogy and proportion of conveniency and likeness between the fact and the punishment that is their wayes were crooked though they seemed strait so the punishment which he inflicts shall be just though it seem perverse as being of another hue and colour from his behaviour to them in the time of their ruff and jollity that as they once judged their actions good because they felt no smart so now they shall know them to be evil by the smart which they shall feel and find what seed they sowed by the harvest which they shall reap And in this is seen first the Justice and secondly the Providence of God For first though God delight not in the death of a sinner though he made not Hell for Men nor Men for Hell yet he is delighted in his own Justice according to which punishment is due to sinners For is it not just that he that sows should reap I say God is delighted in his Justice He cloths himself with it as with a garment as with a robe of honour is clad with Zeal as with a cloak he puts it on as an helmet of salvation upon his head he rowseth himself up as a mighty man he cries out Ah I will be avenged of my enemies Though the pillars of the earth shake and the world be burnt with fire and the Heavens gathered together as a scroll yet Gods Justice is as eternal as himself and stands fast for evermore Dives's wealth cannot bribe it Tertullians's eloquence cannot charm it Herods glory cannot bow it all the power and wealth and eloquence of the world cannot move it but it is levelled at Sin and through all these sends its arrow to it as to a mark And neither God nor Man deny but that it is just saith Plato that he that sins should be punished that he that sows should reap Secondly here is manifestly seen God's Providence which brings Sin
there been no Sin there had been no Hell at all And therefore as it resembles it so it tends to it as naturally as a Stone doth to the centre Against the righteous the gates of Hell will not open but they are never shut to the wicked ever ready to receive him and take him in as his due and portion For again is it not fit that they who have made an agreement with it that with their words and works have called it to them that have studied and laboured for it all their life long that have made it their business that have broke their sleep for it that have had it in their will and desire should at last be thrown into that place which they have chosen and which they have made such hast to all the daies of their life Is it not fit that what they sow that they should also reap You will say This is impossible impossible that any man should will it should desire it should be ambitious of that place of horrour and count it a preferment But beloved as much as it may be this is the case and condition of every obstinate and unrepenting sinner For he that counts Sin a preferment must count Punishment a preferment too which can no more be separated from Sin then Poyson from a Serpent When thou first sinnest thou bowest towards Hell when thou goest on in thy sin thou runnest to destruction and to die and to be in Hell are the same period and term of thy motion Prov. 8.36 When thou lovest Sin thou lovest Death When thou drawest in Sin as the Oxe doth water thou drawest in the flames of Hell When thou thinkest thy self in Paradise thou art falling into the pit of Hell The Philosopher gives the reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The beginning is from thy self if therefore the end is from thy self the cause is from thy self and therefore the effect is from thy self For will any man say that the Glutton is sick the Wanton rotten the Sluggard poor against his will when they greedily do those things which naturally bring along with them Sickness Rottenness and Poverty Will you say he had a mischance that wilfully leapt into the Sea We will Death we love Death nay further yet exsultamus rebus pessimis we rejoyce to do evil Prov. 2.14 We are in an exstasie transported beyond our selves in our third heaven as S. Paul was in his we talk of it we dream of it we sweat for it we fight for it we travell for it we embrace it we have a kind of exsultation and jubilee in Sin And what is this but to hoyse up our sails and make forward towards the gulf of Destruction and the bottomless pit So that to conclude this by the Justice of God by the Providence of God by our own Wills as by so many winds by the tempest of our Passions as well as that of Gods Wrath we are driven to our end to the place prepared and fitted for the Devil and his Angels and for all those who have loved their tentations and embraced them with more affection then they have the oracles of God For if we thus deceive our selves and mock God God will mock us to our own place Still it is What a man soweth that shall he also reap We will but look back and so hasten to our journeys end adde one word of application and so conclude And 1. that we be not deceived let us as S. Augustine exhorts operam dare rationi let us therefore diligently observe the dictates of Reason and be attentive to the Spirit speaking in the Scripture not neglect the light of the one nor quench the heat of the other The Scripture cannot deceive us but when we are willing to deceive our selves When we are averse from that it bids us love and place our love where it commands our hatred then we are not interpreters but fathers of the Word as he spake of Origine and put what shape and sense we please upon it Nor can we urge the obscurity of the Text especially in agendis in matters of practice for I never thought it a matter of wit and subtilty to become a Christian And if we weigh the plainness and easiness of Scripture and the time and leisure which most have but mispend upon their lusts and the world I might bespeak them as Chrysostome bespake his auditory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What need have you of a preacher For why should our Wit serve us rather to make us rich then good Why may we not try out as many conclusions for saving Knowledge as we do for Riches and Honour and the things of this world 2. Let us not seek death in the errour of our lives Let us not plunge our selves in errour and then study to believe that which we cannot believe without fear and trembling Let us not present God unto us in a strange and aliene shape in that monstrosity which we affect and so make him like unto our selves Quid tibi cum Deo si tuis legibus What hast thou do with God if thou wilt be thy own Lawgiver and wilt live and be judged by no other Laws but those which thy self makest This is indeed to take the place of God whilst we give him but the name Oh beloved it is ill trying conclusions with him who tryeth both the heart and the reins From him no cloud can shadow us no deep can cover us no secret grot or cave can hide us And if we act by our own laws yet we shall be judged by his And what paint soever we put upon our sins he that numbreth the stars will number them all and call them by their right names What we call Religion shall be with him Profaneness What we call Faith with him shall be but Phansie What we call the Cause of God shall be the cause of our Damnation Quantas cuncque tenebras superfuderis Deus lumen est Cast what mists you will build what labyrinths you please God is Light and will find out thy Sin that monster that Minotaur Be not deceived God is not mocked but is rather more jealous of his Wisdome then of his Power At the very sight of Sin his Anger waxeth hot but when vve vvould hide our sin from his sight his Jealousie burneth like fire For he that sinâ—eth dallieth with God's Power but he that palliateth his sin playeth with his Wisdome and tryeth whether he can fraudulently circumvent and abuse him He who sinneth would be stronger then God but he who shifteth a sin into the habit of Holiness by a pretense would be wiser then God potior Jupiter quà m ipse Jupiter Then vvhich no impiety can be greater 3. And last of all let us remember the end When vve sow look forward toward the Harvest Say vve vvithin our selves What may this vvhich I now sow bring forth Will Light grow up here and Joy or shall I reap nothing but Darkness and Corruption
Providence and Grace is sufficient for them We are too bold with Scripture and with the precepts and comforts it conteins When we are unwilling to do what we should or in trouble for what we have done we are like men pent up and yet eager after liberty who strive to make a way to escape though they beat out their Brains at the door of the Prison The Covetous man comforts himself by the laborious Ant in the Proverbs the Ambitious by that good Ointment in Ecclesiastes The Hypocrite hath his Text too let your light so shine though his doth but blaze The Contentious man is glad to see Saul and Barnabas at odds The bloudy Gallant sleeps with David in his tent The Schismatick is bold upon his Christian Liberty The Lethargick Christian walks along in the strength of Gods Mercy And he that hath no part in the first resurrection challenges as great an interest as Abraham and Isaac in the second Few there be saith our Saviour yet all believe they shall be saved The gate is streight yet all enter the Miser with his baggs the Ambitious with his train the Revenger with his sword the Wanton with his lusts the Hypocrite with his masque Balaam with his wages Corah with his complices the Covetous in his sweat the Schismatick in fire the Tyrant in bloud All have sinned and all are saved All fall and all rowse themselves up with some misapplyed text of Scripture And if this were true if it were as they thought we might conclude with Pliny Major caelitum populus quà m terrae that Heaven was better peopled then the Earth But it is ill walking through a painted Paradise into torment ill pleasing our selves with those thoughts which will perish and leave us to destruction It is ill building up a Heaven in our phansy and loosing of that which hath a foundation whose builder and maker is God to be happy in a flying thought and then to dwell with Misery for ever O that so many should be saved in this world and yet so many perish in the next These are solatia deceptoria as the Father calls them truly though barbarously deceitful rather lies then comforts the Devils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which he doth stupefie us and take from us all pain and sense of evil comforts that betray us tormenting easments Davids musick to remove the fit that will return again And in carking after these we are as foolish as the shipwrackt person in Hierocles who instead of a planck of the ship laid hold on the anchor which sunk him with a swinge and violence into the bottom of the sea The Scripture it is most true is full fraught with the waters of Comfort but we must be very wary how we draw them Sometimes we draw them out of curiosity to pry into the closet of Gods secrets Sometimes out of pleasure and delight for not only the story but the precepts therein conteined must needs please our reason being so fitted and proportioned to it But they are never more deadly then when we make that a Cordial which we should use as a Purge the Comforts of the Gospel are milk and honey to the humble soul but deadly poyson to him that runs on in his Sin Experience will teach us that a foul corrupt stomach turns that which should nourish the body into a disease And as it is in our bodies if they be distempered good diet is so offensive to them and our appetite is only to trash and phantastical diet so if the crasis and constitution of our soul be vitiated and overthrown the comforts of the Gospel will be but like the sop which Christ gave Judas occasions of diseases and death To think of these as Comforts is but to deceive our selves for though we seem to relish and maintein some shew of life yet these false and misapplied comforts are but as physical and confectionary diet With it we cannot continue long and there is but a span between us and Death Thus then you see the Comforts drawn out of Scripture be best but not unless they be well used and fitly applied We have some reason to be afraid of our Comforts as well as to desire them for they may come too soon when we are not fit for them or we may take draw those to us that are not fit for us We may take them as the Stoick speaks ex adverso situ on the wrong side by a wrong handle and so sink under them as under a burden As it was said of the Fountain of all Comfort Christ himself We may fall upon them and be broken and they may fall upon us and grind us to powder And so we shall walk delicately to our death and dye in our Physicians arms with our Cordials about us We conclude From all evil and mischief from the crafts and assaults of the Devil and from all false and misapplied comforts good Lord deliver us And thus much be spoken in General and by way of deduction and in sensu quem faciunt in that sense which the words will naturally yeeld We come now to take them in sensu quo fiunt in that sense in which the Apostle took them in this particular and we will but touch upon it by way of conclusion Comfort you one another with this article of your faith the coming of the Lord and the Resurrection of the dead And to speak truly this is the ground of all comfort and without this all the rest were but a phansie all the promises all our hopes our faith it self were vain and we were yet in our sinnes under a burden and none to help us under misery and none to comfort us Virtue indeed and Piety are amiable in themselves being the beauty of that Image in which we were made If there were no future estate yet they would be the fairest garment that a reasonable creature could be seen in they would be still what they are but of small use Malo nullum bonum quam vanum saith the father I had rather have no good at all then that which is in vain Quid prodest esse quod esse non prodest What profit is it that they think should be which when it is doth not profit us at all But the coming of Christ will bring us to the Vision of God which like Aristotles Sophia in his Ethicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suum in se continet conteins all contents and comforts and is to be desired for it self alone This s the true fountain then of consolation but it is like the pool of Bethesda which was not medicinal till an Angel had stirred it Our phansied and humours may be as so many evil Angels and defile and take away the virtue from it We may a little change St. Paul's words Why should it be thought a thing so desirable with some men Acts 26. that Christ should come again For should he come to meet the Adulterer in the twilight the
time of age it was best for men to marry it was answered That for old men it was too late and for young men too soon This was but a merry reply But the truth is many of our civil businesses whensoever they are done are either done too soon or too late for they are seldome done without some inconvenience But this our Rising may peradventure be too late for old men but it can never be too timely for the young It is a lesson in Husbandry Serere nè metuas Be not afraid to sow your seed when the time comes delay it not And it is a good lesson in Divinity Vivere nè metuas Be not afraid to live You cannot be alive too soon Vult non vult He wills and he wills not is the character of a Sluggard which would rise and yet loves his grave would see the light and yet loveth darkness better then light like the twin Gen. 38. puts forth his hand and then draws it back again doth make a shew of lifting up himself and sinks back again into his sepulchre Awake then from this sleep early and stand up from the dead at the first sound of the trump at the first call of grace But if any have let pass the first opportunity let him bewail his great unhappiness that he hath stayed longer in this place of horrour in these borders of hell then he should and as travellers which set out late moram celeritate compensare recompense and redeem his negligence by making greater speed And now we should pass to our last consideration That the manifestation of this our Conversion and Rising consists in the seeking of those things which are above But the time is welnear spent and the present occasion calls upon me to shorten my Discourse For conclusion Let me but remember you that this our Rising must have its manifestation and as S. James calls upon us to shew our faith by our works so must we shew and manifest our Resurrection by our seeking those things which are above It is not enough with S. Paul to rise into the third heaven but we must rise and ascend with Christ above all heavens Nor can we conceal our Resurrection and steal out of our graves but as Christ arose and was seen 1 Cor. 15. as S. Paul speaks of above five hundred brethren at once and as S. Luke having told us of Christ The Lord is risen presently adds and hath appeared unto Simon so there must be after our Resurrection an Apparuit we must appear unto our brethren appear in our Charity forgiving them in our Patience forbearing in our Holiness of life instructing them in our Hatred of the world and our Love of those things which are above Indeed some mens rising is but an apparition a phantasme a shadow a visour and no more But this hinders not us when we are risen but we may make our appearance nor must the Pharisee fright away the Christian Quaedam videntur non sunt Many things appear to be that which indeed they are not But this action cannot be if it do not appear If there be no apparition there is no Resurrection It is natural to us when we rise to shâ—w our selves If we rise to honour Acts 25. you may see us in the streets like Agrippa and Bernice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with great pomp If we rise in our Estates for that is the Worldlings Resurrection and not to rise thus with him is indeed to be dead you may see it in the next purchase If we rise and increase in knowledge which is a rising from the grave of Ignorance then scire meum nihil est we are even sick till we vent knowledge is nothing it the world cry us not up for men of knowledge And shall we be so ready to publish that which the world looks upon with an evil eye and conceal that from mens eyes which onely is worth the sight and by beholding of which even evil-doers may glorifie God in the day of visitation Shall Dives appear in his purple and Herod in his royal apparel and every scribler be in print and do we think that rising from sin is an action so low that it may be done in a corner that we may rise up and never go abroad to be seen in albis in our Easter-day-apparel in the white garment of Innocency and Newness of life never make any shew of the riches and glory of the Gospel have all our Goodness locked up in archivis in secret nothing set forth and publisht to the world What is this but to conceal nay to bury our Resurrection it self Nay rather since we are risen with Christ let us be seen in our march accoutred with the whole armour of God Ephes 2. â—0 Let us be full of those good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them for by these we appear to be risen and they make us shine as stars in the firmament We may pretend perhaps that God is the searcher and seer of the heart Well he is so sed tamen luceat opera saith the Father yet let thy light shine forth make thy apparition For as God looketh down into thy heart so will thy good works ascend and come before him and he hath pleasure in them Lift up your hearts They are the words we use before the Administration and you answer We lift them up unto the Lord. Let it appear that you do And therefore as you lift up your hearts so lift up your hands also Lift up pure and clean hands such hands as may be known for the hands of men risen from the dead Let us now begin to be that which we hope to be spiritual bodies that the Body being subdued to the Spirit we may rise with Christ here to newness of life which is our first Resurrection and when he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead we may have our second Resurrection to glory in that place of bliss where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God To which he bring us who is our Resurrection and Life even Jesus Christ the righteous who died for our sins and rose again for our justification To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all honour and glory for evermore The Six and Thirtieth SERMON PHILIPP I. 23. For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Or For I am greatly in doubt on both sides desiring to be loosed and to be with Christ which is best of all WE may here behold our blessed Apostle S. Paul as it were between heaven and earth doubtfully contemplating the happiness which his Death and the profit which his Life may bring perplexed and labouring between both and yet concluding for neither side To be with Christ is best for him to remain on earth is best for the Philippians
his gate his tardity and slowness of speech And when he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man collected in himself and much given to meditation they affecting the like deportment fell into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sad kind of melancholy and stupidity These defects many times overtake us because we look upon the person and never consider the Rule How many are Sarahs but to tell a lye Rebekahs but to deceive Davids but to revenge or worse Therefore St. Augustine speaking of the sin of David in the matter of Uriah observeth that many upon the reading of that story did aedificare in ruinam build their fall upon David's fall and framed unto themselves this reason Si David cur non ego If David did thus then why not I And as we erre in taking the Saints vices to be vertues so do we many times grosly mistake those graces which do most commend them Multos saepe fallunt quae similia sunt saith Hilarie Those things which are like one another do oft deceive us Multa quae tarditatis ignaviae sunt gravitati consilio tribuuntur That which was Gravity in the copy is but Sloth and Dulness in the transcript That which was Zele in Phinehas is Madness in another That which would have been Obedience in Abraham would be cruel Murther in any man else That may be Gravity in the Saint which is Stupidity and Senslesness in me Hope when transcribed by imitation may be Presumption Bounty Prodigality Peaceableness want of Courage Devotion Superstition The Orator faith well Multa fiunt eadem sed aliter Many do the same things but not after the same manner A thief fighteth stoutly but we call him not Valiant A bad servant complaineth not under the whip but we commend not his Patience A traiterous Jesuite may smile perhaps at the very ridge of the gallows but we do not call it Martyrdom How soon is the complexion of a good duty changed and altered How fair is it in one and what deformity hath it in another It is gold here and anon it is but a counter at one time sealed with an Expedit approved as very expedient at another checked with a Non licet forbid as altogether unlawful To draw towards a conclusion There are some duties which are local Not the same Ceremonies at Eugubium as at Rome There are duties fitted to the times Not the same Discipline in the Church in the time of peace and in the time of persecution Not the same face of the Church now that was in the Apostles time now were it fit that in all things it should be drawn like to that Lastly there be personal and occasional duties which in some persons and upon some occasions are praise-worthy but in others deserve no other reward but Death The command is Thou shalt not kill Samson killed himself but every man is not a Samson hath not Samson's spirit Phinehas with his spear slayeth the adulterous couple but every man is not a Phinehas nor hath Phinehas's Commission S. Basil's rule is most certain Where we find a contradiction between the Work and the Precept when we read a fact commended which falleth cross with the command we must leave the fact and adhere to the precept David was a good man but no Apology for adultery Solomon a wise man but no pretence for Idolatry S. Peter was a Rock but we may dash upon this Rock and shipwreck and if we follow him in all his wayes we may chance to hear a serious check from Christ himself Get thee behind me Satan Be followers of Elijah but not to consume men with fire Be followers of Peter but not into the High Priest's hall to deny our Master Be followers of S. Paul and of all the blessed Saints of God but with S. Paul's Correction As they were of Christ Christ is the great Exemplar the supreme and infallible Pattern which all are to conform unto a perfect Copy for every one to imitate a principal standard Rule by which all other rules are to be examined and according to which all our lives ought to be squared and sitted Put ye on saith the Apostle Rom. 13.14 the Lord Jesus Christ Which is according to Chrysostom's exposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so to be clothed with him from top to toe that nothing appear in us but that which is of Christ All our affections must be sutable unto his Let the same mind be in you Phil. 2.5 saith S. Paul which was in Christ In all our actions we must tread in his steps I have given you an example saith he that ye should do as I have done unto you Joh. 13.15 In all our sufferings we must take up our cross and follow him Heb. 12.1 2. and as it is we must run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus Yet we must not here conceive that we are bound to walk in an universal conformity unto Christ in all things For there were many actions of his which as they far exceed our natural abilities so they require not our imitation It is not safe for us to follow him on the Sea lest we sink with Peter nor into the Wilderness to invite the Tempter by a solitary retiredness We are as unable to fast forty dayes and forty nights as we are to feed five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes We cannot command the Winds to be still nor Devils to come out nor drive away Diseases with a word or with a touch In brief we cannot follow Christ in the way of his Miracles They afford us matter of wonder not of imitation Neither secondly must we think to imitate him in his works of Merit Luk. 17.10 Do well we must and suffer ill we may But when we have done all we are still unprofitable servants And though we suffer never so much yet are the sufferings of this present time not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Therefore in the third place Rom. 8.18 we must follow Christ only in the works of his ordinary Obedience And thus he was unto us a living Commentary on his own written Law or rather a living and breathing Law for us to live by He was subject to his Parents obedient to the Magistrate assiduous in his calling painful in preaching frequent in praying zealous of God's glory and ever obedient to his will He was in his life an exact patern of Innocence He went about doing good and there was no guile found in his mouth at his death of Patience When he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not in both and in all of Piety and Humility Beloved we may assure ourselves that we do and walk aright when we frame and fashion our lives according to this Rule when we express and represent the life of Christ in our conversation when we so walk even as he walked 1
a bare and inefficacious knowledge that is here meant For who knoweth not the Gospel To whom hath not this arm of the Lord been revealed They that blaspheme it look upon it They that deny the power of it look upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implieth more not a naked knowledge but a knowledge with the bending and incurvation of the Will If a man say he looketh into the Gospel and knoweth Christ and keepeth not his commandments he is a liar 1 John 2.4 He that looketh but slightly looketh not at all or to as little purpose as if he had been blind He that saith he knoweth the power of the Gospel and yet is obedient to the flesh and the lusts thereof is a liar and the truth is not in him For how can one at once look into the Gospel and see the glory of it and despise it What a Soloecism is the Gospel in his mouth who is yet in his sins It is not a looking but a looking into not speculative but practick knowledge that must bring on the end and crown us with blessedness It were better not to look on the Gospel then to look and not to like better to be blind then so to see for if we were blind we should have no sin that is none so great we should have some excuse for our sin Carelesly to look on the Law of liberty is not a window to let in Religion but a door and barricado to keep it out of the heart For what a poor habitation is a Look for the Gospel and Grace to dwell in The Gospel is a royal Law and a Law of Liberty Liberty from the guilt and from the dominion of sin We look upon it and are content well it should be so We know it and subscribe to it But if this would make us Gospellers what an assembly of Pharisees and Hypocrites what a congregation of men of Belial might be the true Disciples of Christ I had almost said What a Legion of Devils might go under that name We look into the Gospel and talk of nothing more In our misery and affliction in anguish and distress of conscience we confess the Gospel must charm the storm and give medicine to heal our sickness Thus we preach and thus have you believed But all this is nothing if you do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bow and bend and apply your selves to the Gospel If you acknowledge its all-sufficiency and trust in the arm of flesh If when the tempest of affliction beateth upon you you make a greater tempest in your souls If ye look and go away and forget by such neglectful looking upon it ye make the word of life a killing letter For what is it to see Sin condemned in Christ's flesh and to justifie it in our own to sing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that triumphant song over Death and wilfully to run upon that disobedience of which Death is the wages to see Satan trod under our feet and yet to make our selves his slaves to look upon Life and yet to chuse Death to look upon a Law and break it upon a Law of Liberty and be servants of Sin worse then bored slaves To look then into the Law of liberty is so to weigh and consider it as to write it in our hearts and make it a part of our selves For every Look will not make a Christian The Jews did look upon Christ but they did not look upon him as the Lamb of God for then they had not butchered him We may look upon the heavens the work of God's fingers upon the Moon and the stars which he hath ordained upon this wonderful frame Rom. 1 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which may be known of God but we do not alwayes as David speaketh so look upon it as to consider it And then it doth not raise us up to a due admiration of God's Majesty nor bring us down to a due acknowledgment of our Subjection We are no more affected with it then as if all were still without form and void a lump or Chaos At first it is a glorious sight and no more and at last when we have familiarly looked upon it it is nothing We look upon our selves mouldering and decaying and yet we do not look into our selves for who considereth himself a mortal Dives in purple never thought how he came into the world nor how he should go out of it We neither look backward to what we were made nor forward to what we shall be Can a rich man die He will say he shall but doth he believe himself Can Herod an Angel a God be struck with worms We die daily and yet think we shall not die at all In a word We are any thing but what we are because we do not look into nor consider our selves We look upon Sin and condemn it and sin again For we do not look into it and consider it as the work of the Devil as the deformity of the Soul as a breach of that Law of liberty which was made to free us as that which hath no better wages then death and eternal separation from the God of life If we did look into it and consider it we could not commit it For no man ever yet did considerately destroy himself What then is it to look into the Law of liberty and in what is our Consideration placed He that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them saith our Saviour is he that looketh into this Law and observeth it He hath an Evangelical eye I may say an Angelical eye for he boweth and inclineth himself to see And no man hath a clear eye but he that doeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth a firm purpose of Doing which is to look into We must distinguish between an active and a Contemplative look or assent Then we look into this Law then we actively assent when we have first considered what difficulties accompany this Law what fightings within and terrours without what a body of sin we carry about with us what pleasing what black temptations are ready to meet us at every turn what enemies we have abroad and what in our own bosom how not onely the way but our feet also are slippery Then we must consider that eternal weight of glory which Christ hath promised to those who are obedient to this Law And then exactly observe that certain and inseparable connexion which is between this Law and Blessedness that if the one be observed the other must naturally and necessarily follow that if we be true Gospellers here we shall be Saints hereafter If this be looked into and rightly considered as it should the Will must needs bow and be obedient to this Law which as it is compassed with difficulty so it leadeth to happiness which bringeth a span of trouble and an eternity of bliss From hence ariseth that Love of Christ and his Law which
and malice vve make our selves the children of death to lie down and dream that our names are written in the book of life And vvhat folly is it to fall and fall again and think we cannot fall eternally to be ashamed of the Gospel to do those things upon which the Gospel it self hath fixed many Woes and yet to say we remain in it Why should we ask Whether David fell away totally when he fell so dangerously that had he not repented he had fallen into hell But I had rather commend Perseverance unto you as a condition annexed to every vertue so Bernard as that which compasseth every good grace of God about as with a shield so Parisiensis as that gift of God which preserveth and safe-guardeth all other vertues so Augustine For though every good gift and every perfect gift be from above Jam. 1. â—7 though those vertues which beautifie a Christian soul descend from heaven and are the proper issues and emanations as it were from God himself yet Perseverance is unica filia saith Bernard his onely daughter and heir and carrieth away the crown She alone bringeth the disciple of Christ into the King's bed-chamber For he that endureth to the end shall be saved He runneth in vain who runneth not to the mark He runneth in vain that fainteth in the way and obtaineth not Whatsoever is before the end is not the end but a degree unto it What is a Seed if it shoot forth and flourish and then wither What is a gourd which groweth up in a night and shadoweth us and then is smitten the next morning with a worm and perisheth What is a fair morning to a tempestuous day What is a Sabbath-dayes journey to him who must walk to the end of his hopes What is an hour in Paradise What is a look an approch towards heaven and then to fall back and be lost for ever Beloved to begin well and not to persevere to give up our names to Christ and not to dwell in him to be partakers of the holy Ghost and then to chase him away to be in the faith and not stablished to be in love and not abide in it to have hope and cast it away to have tasted of the powers of heaven and be shut out to look into the Gospel and not remain in it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostom the most miserable spectacle in the world more miserable then the murthering of a child in the womb and depriving him of life before he see the Sun And the reason is plain For it doth not onely make our beginnings nothing and to be in vain that is not the worst and yet the beginnings of life are so precious as who would lose them who would lose his title to a fair Lordship but then who would lose his title to Eternity but now which is a sad speculation our beginnings are not onely lost but cast an ill and malevolent look and aspect upon our progress and proceedings which are so unlike them and we are the worse because we were once good If Lucifer fall from heaven he is a Devil and he that remaineth not in the Gospel a revolted Christian is the worst of men You did run well who did hinder you And are you so foolish that Gal. 5.7 having begun in the Spirit you will end in the flesh To run well and then to faint to embrace the Truth and then to deny it to be dispossessed of an evil spirit and then to sweep and garnish the house for him is to receive him and with him seven other spirits more wicked then himself to become more foul because once clensed more entangled because once free more blind for the first light more dangerously sick because of a relapse and the last state is worse then the first nay is worse for the first and had not been so fatal if the first had not brought the beginnings of life And therefore look into the Gospel by all means but then be sure to remain in it A good beginning must be had but let the end be like unto the beginning Let not Jupiter's head be set upon the body of a Tyrant as the proverb is A young Saint and an old Devil but let Holiness like Joseph's coat of many colours be made up of many vertues but reaching down to the very feet to our last dayes our last hour our last breath For this is our eternity here on earth propter hoc aeternum consequimur aeternum Our remaining in the Gospel our constant and never-ceasing obedience to it is a Christian's Eternity below And for this span of obedience which is the mortal's Eternity we gain right and title to that real Eternity of happiness in the highest heavens To remain in the Gospel and to be blessed for ever are the two stages of a Christian the one here on earth the other in the kingdom of heaven To look into the Gospel that is the first And the second is like unto it to remain in it to set a court of guard about us that no deceitful temptation remove us out of our place Vera tota pura Virginitas nihil magis timet quà m semetipsam saith Tertullian Virginity if it be true and entire and pure is afraid of nothing more then it self it being then most in danger most attemptable as that which may soon be defiled by a touch or look And when we have embraced the Gospel we are indeed out of all other danger but onely the danger of losing our station or place For our Perseverance is a vertue which is never in actu completo never hath its complete act in this life Whilest we live we are men and whilest we are men we are mutable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul Not as though I had already attained Phil. 3.12 or were already perfect but I follow after certain of the reward of perseverance but not certain of perseverance For there is no certain victory saith S. Hierom till the earthly house of this frail tabernacle be dissolved Whilest we breathe we are in danger and therefore whilest we breathe we must watch And this was the doctrine of the ancient Fathers yea of Augustine himself and Prosper that followed him Nor doth this Doctrine draw dry the wells of Salvation nor stop the current of those comforts which flow from the inexhaust fountain of the Goodness of God No They ever flow fresh and the same but they do not water a dead but a bleeding heart The Grace and favour of God is then medicinable and doth rowse and revive our drooping spirits when we receive iâ— not in vain And we are certain of it when we stand fast and hold the profession of our faith without wavering not when we fall into those sins which are enmity to God and shut him out with all his comforts We may be certainly persuaded that his Grace is sufficient for us and will never forsake us whilest
to it For what man would profess himself a beast And from hence it cometh to pass that we see aliquid optimi in pessimis something that is good in the worst that we hear a Panegyrick of Virtue from a man of Belial that Truth is cried up by that mouth which is full of deceit that when we do evil we would not have it go under that name but are ready to maintain it as good that when we do an injury we call it a benefit No man is so evil that he desireth not to enroll his name in the list of those who are Good Temperance the drunkard singeth her praises Justice every hand is ready to set a crown upon her head Wisdom is the desire of the whole earth So you see these precepts are fitted to the soul and the soul to these precepts But secondly as this Law of Liberty is proportioned to the Soul so being looked in and persevered in it filleth it with light and joy giveth it a taste of the world to come For as Christ's yoke is easie but not till it is put on so his precepts are not delightful till they are kept Aristotle's Happiness in his books is but an Idea and Heaven it self is no more to us till we enjoy it The Law of Liberty in the letter may please the Understanding part which is alwayes well-affected and inclinable to that which is apparently true but till the Will which is the commanding faculty have set the feet and hands at liberty even that which we approve we distaste and that which we call honey is to us as bitter as gall Contemplation may delight us for a time and bring some content but the perversness of the Will breedeth that worm which will soon eat it up For it is a poor happiness to speak and think well of Happiness to see it as in picture quae non ampliùs quà m videtur delectat which delighteth no longer then it is seen as from a mount to behold that Canaan which we cannot enjoy A Thought hath not wing and strength enough to carry us to Blessedness But when the Will is subdued and made obedient to this Law then this Law of Liberty which is from the heaven heavenly filleth the soul with a joy of the same nature with a spiritual joy of which the joy in heaven is the complement and perfection with a joy which is not onely the pledge but the earnest of that which is to come When the Will is thus subact and framed and fashioned according to this Law according to this pattern which God hath drawn then it clotheth it self as it were with the light of Heaven which is the original of this joy Then what a pearl is Wisdom What glory is in Poverty What a triumph is it to deny our selves What an ornament is the Cross What brightness reflecteth from a cup of cold water given to a Prophet What do you see and feel then when you intercede with your Bounty and withstand the evil dayes and take from them some of their blackness and darkness when you sweeten the cup of bitterness the onely cup that is left to many of the Prophets when you supply their wants and stretch forth your hand to keep them from sinking to the dust when you do this to the Prophets in the name of Prophets Tell me doth it not return upon you again and convey into your souls that which cannot be bought with money or money-worth Are you not made fat and watered again with the water you poured forth Are you not ravished in spirit and lifted up in a manner into the third heaven I cannot see how it should be otherwise For that God which put it into your hearts to do it when your hearts have eased and emptied themselves by your hands is with you still and filleth them up with joy Every act of Charity payeth and crowneth it self and this Blessedness alwayes followeth the giver But hath the receiver no joy but in that which he receiveth Yes he may and ought or else he is not a worthy receiver It is indeed a more blessed thing to give then to receive and therefore there is more joy But the receiver hath his and his joy is set to his songs of praises to God and acknowledgments to man There is musick in Thanks and when I bless the hand that helped me I feel it again My praises my prayers my thanks are returned with advantage into my bosom The giver hath his joy and the receiver hath his It is a blessed thing to give and it is a most becoming and joyful thing to be thankful In quibus operamur in illis gaudemus saith Tertullian As the work is such is the joy A Work that hath its rise and original from heaven drawn out according to the royal Law which is the will of God begun and wrought in an immortal soul and promoted by the Spirit of God and ministery of Angels and breathing it self forth as myrrh and frankincense amongst the children of men And a Joy like unto it a true and solid joy having no carnality no inconstancy in it a beam from heaven kindled and cherished by the same Spirit a joy which receiveth no taint or diminution from sensible evils which to those who remain not in this Law are as hell it self and the onely hell they think of but giving a relish and sweetness to that which were not evil if we did not think it so making Poverty Disgrace and Death it self as fuel to foment and increase it upholding us in misery strengthening us in weakness and in the hour of death and in the day of judgment streaming forth into the ocean of eternal happiness BEATUS ERIT IN OPERE He that doth the work shall be blessed here in this life in his works and when he is dead his works shall follow him and compass him about as a triumphant robe Thus Blessedness first inviteth then attendeth and waiteth upon Perseverance in obedience and yet obedience ushereth it in illex misericordiae first the work of God's Grace and Mercy and then drawing it so near unto us as to bless us And it maketh the blessing ours not ex rigore justitiae according to the rigour of justice as I call that Mine which I buy with my money For no obedience can equal the reward And what can the obedience of a guilty person merit All is from Grace saith S. Paul And when the will of God is thus made manifest he deserveth nothing but a rebuke that disputeth longer of Merit Nor can I see how a guilty and condemned person can so much as give it entrance into his thought It did go once but for a work good or evil and no more If it be more in its best sense it is then more then it can be and so is nothing but ex debito promissi according to God's promise by which he hath as it were entailed Blessedness on those who look into the Law
of Liberty and remain in it Heb. 6.10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love O then neither let our obedience swell and puff us up as if God were our debtour nor let us be so afraid of Merit as not to do the work Let not our anger against Papists transform us into Libertines and let us not so far abominate an errour in judgment as to fall into a worse in practice cry down Merit and carry a Pope nay Hell it self along with us whithersoever we go Let us not be Papists God forbid And God forbid too that we should not be Christians Let us rather move like the Seraphims Isa 6. ◠who having six wings covered their face with the uppermost as not daring to look on the Majesty of God and covered their feet with the lowest as acknowledging their imperfection in respect of him but flew with those in the midst ready to do his will Let us tremble before him and abhor our selves and between these two let the middle wings move which are next to the heart and let our constant obedience work out its way to the end which is Blessedness For whoso looketh into the perfect Law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed And here I must set a period to my discourse as the present Power that is over us hath to the exercise of my Ministerial function And I could not better conclude then in Blessedness That is the end and conclusion of the whole matter the end of this Royal Law for thither it tendeth the end of Perfection for to that it groweth up and the end of our Liberty for thither it moveth In Blessedness they end or rather they do not end but are carried on with joy and triumph and exsultation to all eternity I might here wish you and what good thing would I not wish you the blessings of the basket the blessings of the right hand and the blessings of the left all the blessings promised in the Law and those blessings which are the glory of the Gospel I might here wish you those fourteen parts of Blessedness reckoned up by the Father whatsoever is Blessedness or whatsoever tendeth to it But here they all meet and are concentred This is your strength your liberty your security your joy your wisdom Your wisdom is Obedience to this Law and Obedience striveth and hasteneth to overtake and joyn it self with this Blessedness which includeth all that we can desire nay more then we can conceive Quid à Deo praestari possit homini habenti felicitatem saith Augustine What can God do more for us then make us blessed And therefore when men say Lo here is Christ or There is Christ Lo here is Blessedness or There is Blessedness go not after them For here here alone it is to be found Seek it not in your Phansie in a forced and false persuasion that you have attained it when you run from it that you are in a Paradise when you are seeking death in the errour of your life and are even at the mouth of hell For Blessedness will not lie wrapped up in a thought That hath made many thousands of Saints which shall never see the face of God What is an imaginary Saint What is a painted Heaven What is Blessedness in conceit Next seek it not in Formalities in the ceremonious diligence of Hearing and Fasting and loud Profession All the formalities and ceremonies in the world will not make a ladder to reach it all this noise will not call it down But then seek it not in a Faction in a Discipline in this or that Politie or Government For it will not be found in the rents and divisions which we make It is tied to no place it may be found in any This Law of Liberty never made Papist or Calvenist or Lutheran or Presbyterian It is the Christian Law and maketh Christians and maketh Christians to make them blessed Cùm omnes felicitatem expetant vix centesimus quisque eam à Deo exspectat All desire Blessedness and not one of an hundred will take it from God or that which he offereth but they make one of their own such a Blessedness as leaveth them miserable they do that which is evil and comfort themselves with a thought they neglect the Law and bless themselves in formalities in Hearing when they are deaf to every good work in Fasting when they fast to bloud and oppression in Praying when they deny themselves what they pray for in loud Profession which is as a loud lie When they swim in their own gall in the gall of bitterness they think themselves in the rivers of Canaan which flow with milk and honey They applaud themselves in their malice and deceit in every evil work They are what they should not be and yet are blessed because they are of such a Faction of this Consistory of this Classis of this Conventicle that is they are blessed because they are not so Oh that men were wise oh that they would be blessed Then would they look for it where it is in this Law of liberty and Obedience to it in this Law which doth purge the Ear and sanctifie a Fast and give wings to our Prayers which plucketh the visour from the face of the Hypocrite and strippeth him of his formalities which scattereth the people that delight in war and is a killing letter to them that first displease God by their impiety and then please and bless themselves in a faction Which is rem quietissimam inquietudine quaerere to seek for a sad serious quiet thing in distraction to seek for constancy in a whirlwind reality in a shadow life in a picture peace in tumult and joy and Blessedness in hell it self For conclusion then That we may find Blessedness let us look into this Royal Law that was made for Blessedness and Blessedness for it And we may look into this Law in the blackest day in the darkest time When Superstition flattereth we may look into it and when Profaness is bold we may look into it When we are poor this will make us rich when we are despised this will honour us when we are silenced this will speak for us when we are driven about the world this will make it a journey to Paradise and though we be imprisoned this cannot be bound and though we die this is eternal as eternal as that God whose Law it is his everlasting Gospel It will not leave us at our death but lie down with us in our graves and rise again with us to judgement and set the crown of glory on our heads And to the true love of this Law to this Blessedness I commend you It is my gift my last wish that the grace of God may dwell in you plenteously and strengthen you to every good work It is the blessing of him
said nothing else but Love one another 491. A reason given why some are so slow to actions of Ch. 281 282. Rules to try our Ch. by 492. v. Faith and Mercy Charles the V. quitted his Palace for a Cell 284. Children if virtuous are blessings if wicked curses 987. Chiliasts errour confuted 243. Choice We are here put to our choice 767 CHRIST The miserable estate of Man without him 2 3. If he had not been God he could not have saved us 3 4. How he is the Son of God 4 5. His Generation a mystery to be believed not curiously inquired into 5. ¶ His Incarnation the greatest expression of God's Love and bond of ours 6 22. His wonderful humility in taking our nature 6. He representeth himself to us three wayes 7. Christ's Incarnation by many thought absurd and unworthy of God 8. but we must not out of good manners either abuse God's love or make shipwrack of our own faith 8. 20 21. He took not onely our Flesh but our Soul also with the Affections 9. but without that disorder that our Passions are guilty of 10. 25. Of the manner how the two Natures are united 11. This is a mystery not impossible yet inexplicable 11. It behoved Christ for our redemtion to become Man 13 14. The other persons wrought in the Incarnation but were not incarnate 14. Christ's Incarnation was most free yet in some sense also necessary 14 15. ¶ As Christ was made like unto us so must we be like unto him 16. No easie matter to be like him 16. How we may be made like him 16. Nothing so absurd and mis-becoming as for a Christian to be unlike Christ 17. Conformity to him is that one thing necessary 17. It is a joy to God and his holy Angels 18. ¶ Christ is the chief of God's gifts and the fountain of all the rest 19 20. 33 34. God's Love to us in giving his Son is highly to be admired but upon no pretense to be denied 20 c. 470. This act flowed from God's mere pleasure 22. 28. God herein appeared more kind to us then to his own dear Son 20. and Christ to have loved us more then himself 29. God's Love herein exceeded his Power Wisdome Will yea far exceeded our Hopes Desires Opinion 22. 471. His Mercy alone was it that moved his Will to send C. 23 24. ¶ The manifold wayes that C. was delivered for us 24 c. ¶ Of his Fear and Grief at his Passion 25. Of his desire that the Cup might pass from him 266. How the Martyrs seemed more couragious at their deaths then He 26. In his greatest extremity he despaired not 25. yet were his sufferings without the least allay of comfort 27. Why He died for us Men and for our salvation and not for the Angels some conjectures are produced 28. The true cause is shewn 29. We had more hand in our Saviour's death then his Judge or Executioners 29. It was Love that made him die for us 470. 492. How since he died for all all are not saved by him 29 c. There is no difficiencie in him the fault is wholely in us 30 31. ¶ Every worldly thing is good with Christ but nothing without him 32. All things are loss and dung without him 714 715. How all things are ours by our being Christ's 33. We have all things by him which tend to our salvation 33. His Death the strongest motive to holiness and righteousness of life 872 c. From his Cross as from a Professor's chair we may learn Innocencie Obedience Humility Patience Love 34. He died not for us that we might live as we list 38. He died not onely to be a Sacrifice for us but also an Example to us 471 472. His Death should not make any but it doth make many presume 472. What it is to shew forth Christ's Death 473 c. Our part is to condemn our selves rather then to declaim against the Actors in that Tragedy 473. His Humility doth not empair his Majesty but exalt it 470. His experience of sufferings taught him to compassionate ours 39 40. His Compassion not to be denied but followed 147 148. What hand God had in Christ's death 301. What we should behold and admire in Christ's Cross 310. His Death and our Repentance must go together 327. ¶ Why Christ after his Resurrection would not shew himself openly 41. Arguments to prove his Resurrection 42 718. The efficacie of his Resurrection on our Bodies and on our Souls 43. 719 c. Christ and all that floweth from him everlasting 44 45. 48. ¶ Of Christ's Ascension 726 c. Why the Disciples were present at their Master's Ascension 727. They are checked at their wondring at it 728. Now Christ is ascended what it is that we must look upon and look to 731 732. Why He abode not still upon earth 733 734. ¶ How and why Christ is said to sit at God's right hand 229. ¶ Of his Intercession 45. ¶ Of his Dominion over Hell and Death 49 49. He hath bought us 739 c. It cost him more to redeem us then it did to create us 763. v. Redemtion That Jesus is the Lord his Resurrection declared 759. v. JESVS If we make him our Lord he will be our Jesus else not 760 c. 1069. What contradiction of sinners Christ suffereth in all ages 761. Few love to hear of his Lordship 761 c. The Arians less e-enemies to Christ then many Christians now 762. Many confess Christ but few do it heartily 763 c. What a shame it is to own any other for our Lord but Christ 768. The Devil brought in bragging he hath more Disciples then Christ 768. His humility offendeth many 560. The Majesty of Christ is to be discovered and admired by us even amidst the scorn and disgrace the world casteth upon him 311. 493. Of his Dominion 762. its nature 228 c. its power 232. 240. its extent 233. How he is Lord of all though most refuse him 234. 240. The acknowledgment of God's power in Christ is the foundation of Christianity 313. He is our Lawgiver 1066. v. Law They grosly erre who think Christ came to be our Redeemer but not our Lawgiver 1068. How his Laws excel all humane Laws 240 c. How men are wont to deal with his precepts 823. We must be ruled by his command 312. and depend on his protection 313. He is terrible to his enemies and gratious to his servants 37. ¶ How we must receive Christ 35. What it is to dwell in him 310 c. The benefits we have by his dwelling in us 314 c. Power and virtue still go out of him 314 315. He quickneth our Knowledge 315. and our Faith 316. and worketh in us an universal constant and sincere Obedience 316 317. There is a reciprocation between Christ and the Soul 317 318. Christ may bear with our infirmities but not with wilfulness and hypocrisie 319. No Church can