grow unto an holy Temple in the Lord. 9. Christ as you heard before is not the Corner-stone or Foundation only but the Temple of God A Greater and more spacious Temple then all the building which is erected upon him which groweth up in him We must be living stones we must be Pillars in the house of God we must be Temples of God that is an habitation of God through the Spirit but no Foundations no chief corner-stones these are Christs prerogatives Behold I have graven thee to wit the Spiritual Sion saith the Prophet Isa 49. 16. upon the palms of my hands thy walls are continually before me that is as a late Interpreter of the Romish Church saith I have pitched thy foundations in my hands by the wounds which I received in them By whose diduction or rent a place was opened for this future edifice to be erected in him And for this cause Christ who is the Rock was every way digged into in his side in his hands in his feet The mysterie whereof is that he might exhibit a firm foundation out of which the fabrick of the Church should grow That we then become living stones in this edifice it is from our immediate Union with this chief corner-stone being united to him he is fashioned in us and by him fashioned in us we become living stones growing stones we grow from living stones to living pillars from living pillars to living Temples or habitations for our God That the children of God are not onely living stones but from living stones grow into pillars our Saviour himselfe hath taught us by S. John Rev. 3. 12. Him that overcometh will I make A Pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out and if wee be pillars in the temple of God we must be as immediately placed on the foundation or chief corner-stone as S. Peter or Christs other Apostles were We must be as intire Temples as they were And for this reason our Saviour adds upon every one whom he makes a pillar the name of God and the name of the City of God the new Jerusalem which cometh out of Heaven Know ye not saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 19. That your bodie is the temple of the Holy Ghost As wee say the Kings presence makes the Court So it is Gods Holy Spirits extraordinary presence in man which makes him his Temple And the Reason why Christ is called The Temple of God is because the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily And for the like reason every one in whom Christ dwelleth by faith is in a participated sense called The Temple of God And as visible Cities consist of severall houses and as the beautie of every Citie consists in the Uniformitie of houses well built and joyned together so the heavenly Jerusalem consists of several Temples whose beautie or Uniformitie consists in this that Christ Jesus is the life and light of every severall Temple and that his spirit is uniformely diffused through all 10. Christ as you have read before Communicates his Titles unto his Saints but not the Reall Prerogative of his Titles He is The Rock so was Peter a rock so are wee rocks but not The rock on which the Church is built He is the Chiefe Corner-stone we are living stones he is the temple and the Priest of the most high God and he makes us both temples and Priests unto his God So saith S. Peter 1. Ep. cap. 2. vers 5. Yee all as lively stones are built up a spirituall house an holy Priest-hood to offer up Spirituall sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ The Modell of this spirituall Temple and Priest-hood that is of the new Jerusalem and the service of God performed in it was exhibited by Moses Exod. 24. 4 5. at the making of the first covenant Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and rose up earely in the morning and builded an altar under the Hill and twelve pillars according to the 12. tribes of Israel And he sent yong-men of the Children of Israel which offered burnt offrings and sacrificed peace offerings of Oxen unto the Lord. Immediately after this Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu saw the God of Israel and there was under his feete as it were a paved work of a saphire stone and as it were the bodie of Heaven in his clearnesse ver 9. The yong men which he sent to offer sacrifices as the best interpreters observe were the first-born of their families For till that time and at that time which was before the consecration of Aaron and his sonnes it was Lawfull for the First born male of every family to execute the office of the Priest This was his dutie So that every family was as a little parish-Church and had his Priest to performe this service of God Now though all that are built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles are not admitted to be Architects or master-builders though all be not publick teachers or pastors yet all that are or hope to be parts of this building have the same Prerogative which the First-born males of Israel had before Aaron was consecrated All must be Priests to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices unto God But seeing wee must grow unto an holy temple and growth as was said before supposeth nutrition let us now see what is the nourishment by which we must grow from living stones to be living pillars from pillars to be living Temples yea Kings and Priests unto our God 11. The nature and qualitie of the Nutriment by which wee must grow cannot in fewer words be more pithily exprest than it is by S. Peter 1 Pet. 2. cap. vers 2. It is the sincere milk of the word But how good soever the nutriment be it doth not kindly nourish unlesse wee have an appetite to it Therefore the same Apostle addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desire or long after the sincere milk of the word We must then desire to have the word dwell in us plentifully and wee must desire to have it sincere that is pure and unmingled Now this milk may become unsincere or mingled sometimes by the default of the Pastor or teacher sometimes by the default of the hearers The dutie which concernes us teachers is that wee do not mingle the word with the Traditions of men how ancient soever they be This is the fault of the Romish Church which the Church our mother hath sufficiently prevented by publick edicts or decrees But many otherwise averse enough from Traditions of the Romish or other ancient Church ofttimes corrupt it with their own Conceits or Phansies which will easily mingle themselves with the word unlesse we speak out of premeditation and have both art and leasure to revise and examine aswell our own meditations as the meditations or expositions of others whose help wee use Since the ordinary Gifts of the Spirit did cease there is no facultie under the sun which more requires the help of art and study than the
wanton motions and mimick gestures into wailing and gnashing of teeth And as for you Reverend Fathers or you my much Respected Brethren to whom any charge of others either private or publick is committed Consider I beseech you what places you bear in these Houses of God All of you in your several Charges sustain the place of righteous Job in his Familie for your fatherly care over inferiors Whilest then your Sons thus banquet in their houses every one his day and send and call their friends to eat and drink with them Be you sure the Lord will require at your hands that you be so much more vigilant in your Callings not only in punishing the Chief Offendors in this kind as some of you have begun though this no doubt will be an acceptable sacrifice unto God but even in offering up your evening and morning sacrifice for them according to the number of their transgressions For doubtless your Sons have grievously offended and blasphemed God in their hearts And therefore you must be so much the more diligent to offer up the sweet incense every day For all of us Beloved in our Lord and Saviour see the dayes wherein we live are extraordinary evil and the time must be redeemed by our extraordinary vigilancie sobriety and sanctitie As others double and treble the sins of this present in respect of former times so must we in like proportion increase our industry and diligence fervent prayer good exhortation charitable deeds and sacred functions Thus would you Reverend Fathers go before us in these duties as you do in dignitie God would restore your lost sons to you again and besides Jobs Restitution in this life you shall certainly be partakers of Daniels Blessing in the life to come For thus turning others unto righteousness by your good Examples you shall shine like Starrs for ever God grant you Governors wise hearts thus to rule And all inferiors Grace to follow your good Examples and Advice Amen The Later Sermon upon this Text. CHAP. XXXVI JEREM. 45. v. 5. For Behold I will bring a Plague or evil upon All Flesh saith the Lord but thy life will I give thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest The Second Doctrine propounded Chap. 35. Sect. 4. handled 1. In Thesi Touching the natural esteem of life in general 2. In Hypothesi Of the Donative of Life to Baruch as the Case then stood That men be not of the same Judgment About the price of Life when they be in heat Action and prosperitie which they be of in dejection of spirit and adversitie proved by instances Petrus Strozius Alvarez De Sande Gods wrath sharpens the Instruments and increases the Terror of Death Life was a Blessing to Baruch though it shewed him all those evils from sight of which God took away good King Josiah in favour to him Baruch as man did sympathize with the miseries of his people As a faithful man and a Prophet of the Lord He conformed to the just will of God The Application 1. OF the Two Aphorisms deduced out of the Text The later left before untouched comes now to be handled And it is This. In times of publick Calamitie or desolation the bare Donative of life and liberty is a priviledge more to be esteemed then the Prerogative of Princes Or in other Terms thus Exemption from General Plagues is more then a full recompence for all the Grievances which attend our ministerial charge or service in denouncing them Of this by Gods Assistance I shall treat without further Division or Method more accurate then that Usual One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First Of the Natural Esteem of Life or Exemption from common Plagues in General Secondly Of it as the Case here stands with Baruch Vox populi etiam vox Dei est It is the voice of Nature uttering only what is engraven by the Creators Finger in the heart of man and of creatures otherwise dumb Life is sweet and would be so esteemed of all could we resolve to live at home endeavouring rather to improve those seeds of happiness which grace or Nature have sown in us then to encompass large or vast materials of forreign Contentments But unto men whose desires are once diverted from the true End of life unto the remote Meanes destinated for its procurement unto such men as have set their thoughts such Roving Progresses as Pyrrhus did or with the fool in the Gospel are not able to give their souls their Acquietances until they have enlarged their store-houses and laid up goods for many years the attaining of such particulars as for the present they most seek after doth rather whet then satiate their appetite of the like Hence life attended with mean appurtenances becomes either loathsom or little set by because the provision of necessaries actually enjoyed is as nothing in respect of those impertinencies which they have swallowed in hope or have in continual chase The want of these latter unto men wedded unto vast desires is more irksom then the possession of them can be pleasant so that to live without them seems a kind of loss Me-thinks Plinies Hyperbolical or Fabulous Narration of the greedy wild-goose which plucks so eagerly at the roots of what plants I now remember not but so fixt to the ground that she oft-times leaves her neck behind her may be a true Emblem of such mens intemperate pettish hopes usually so fastened to the matters which they much desire that sooner may their souls be drawn out of their bodies then weaned from these Wounds though deep and grievous are scarce felt to smart whilst the blood is hot or the body in motion No marvel then if in the fervent pursuit of honour gain or pleasure men sometimes suffer their souls to escape out of their prison before the flight be discerned In fine as young Gallants for speedy supplies of luxurious expences usually morgage their Lands ere they know their worth So life it self is oftentimes hazarded upon light termes by such as know not what it is to live We have heard of a Souldier so forward to take the advantage which Chance of War had given that he cried out unto his Captain Follow and we shall have a day of them whereas a perpetual night was taking possession of his eyes his entrals being let out whilst he uttered these words I can more easily believe this of an English spirit though not in print because it is upon Authentick Record that Petrus Strozius a famous Italian Commander being shot with a bullet of a larger size under the left pap fell down dead to the ground leaving these words behind him in the air The French King hath lost a true and faithful servant It seems his heart had been too full fraught with swelling Conceits of his own worth I could instance in many did the time permit which have either encountred death with such und antedness or suffered life to be taken from them with so
Meridian and runs away out of their Hemisphere And in his stead a Comet ariseth out of Egyptian exhalations which portends nothing but war and blood This is Jehoiakim whom Pharaoh Nechoh which slew his father hath now appointed to be King over this people for his purpose the successe of whose Raign in general the people might well prognosticate by his life and manners the Epitome of which Iosephus lib. 10. cap. 5. hath given very pithily in two words He was neither religious towards God nor just towards men And yet besides this his natural disposition was particularly incensed against this people for preferring his younger brother to the Crown and so more ready to wreak his spite by reason of his dependance upon the Egyptian out of whose Country he had the Prophet Uriah brought to satiate his thirst of blood Jer. 26. 23. which bloodie Fact of his and the like with their like successe is the train I have pursued in these present Meditations I will conclude them with that of Solomon Prov. 28. 2. For the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes thereof And of Iudah never a good one after Iosiah such they were as might serve to scourge this people until they were cast like Vagabonds and unprofitable Members out of that City and Land which had bred them 10. Thus you see Gods largest Promises have their limits greatest prosperity hath a period and mightiest Kingdomes have their fall You have likewise seen how for the uncircumcised hearts of this people is he slain by uncircumcised hands who had so throughly cleansed Ierusalem and Iudah from all the abominations of the Heathen The Heroical attempts of whose Princely resolution and zeal in restoring the true worship of God unto this people needs not mine it hath the commendations of Gods Spirit who hath been curious in calculating his particular good deeds throughout this Chapter to have been matchless in Davids Race and how then possible to be parallell'd in any other Princes Line And what If through the religious care and industrie of some one or two Princes whom the Lord in mercie had raised up as Lights unto this Land the foggie mists of Superstition Heresie and Idolatry be driven hence This is an Infallible testimonie of Gods former love unto our forefathers no sure Document of our continuance in his favour if yet this Land and People may be taken in the very manner of those capital Crimes which did condemn Iudah his first-born amongst the Nations in the dayes of good Iosiah even whilest it was acquitted from profession of Idolatrie and Superstition What shall it avail us that those forrain hungrie Hell-hounds which brought Commissions of Charter Warrant for hunting out the good things of this Land and made this people a prey for maintenance of the many-headed beast have been long time prohibited to continue their wanted raunge if the Princes which are left within her be as roaring Lions and her Judges as wolves in the evening which leave not the bones until the morrow What availes it that the secular Priests and Jesuite are would God they were transported out of this Land if her owne Prophets be light and wicked persons and her Priests pollute the Sanctuary and wrest the Law Or what shall it avail us that the Light of the Gospel doth shine amongst us if the just Lord be in the midst of us and every morning bring forth judgment unto light and fail not and yet the wicked will not learn to be ashamed Or what avails it that we have cast off all blind obedience to the Sea of Antichrist if we will not suffer Gods providence to be a Rule and Christs word a Light unto our paths but walk on still in the wayes of the heathens making secular observations our chief confidence and worldly policie our greatest trust Or what avails it to have purged our hearts from all conceit of merit if we pollute our hands with bribes Or what availes it to give God the glory in all good actions and yet daily dishonor his name with bad dealings I will speak more plainly What advantageth it us to object unto the Papists that they seek to merit heaven by their works and share with God in the honour of good deeds if they can truly reply upon us That the free Almes of Papists Founders have been by Protestants set on sale unto their brethren Or that secular Appendices and Alliance of Spiritual men devour a great part of that liberal maintenance which was allotted only for Prophets and Prophets children 11. Beloved in our Lord were we our selves without sin without these enormous sins which I have mentioned all of us might freely attempt to stone that filthy Whore and all her foul Adulterers unto death But such of us as seek most to purge the Land of them and seek not withal to cleanse our own hearts of those sins which have procured Gods wrath against it may justly dread lest we find no better success then good Josiah did to provoke the enemie to do more mischief then haply they meant Mistake me not I beseech you as though I misliked such as sollicite severitie against that Nation yet cannot I hope but some will be as jealous of me as these Iews of Iosiah's and Jehoiakim's dayes were alwayes of the Prophet Jeremy whose footsteps I have resolved to follow through good and bad report Give me leave to explain my meaning thus As from my heart I reverence their religious labors who have of late so effectually stirred up our Sovereignes heart to this purpose and earnestly request your heartie prayers unto Almighty God that his Holy Spirit may continually enflame his royal heart with those good motions which have been kindled in it of late so do I desire from the very centre of my soul both that men of place Authoritie Gravitie Learning and Integritie of life may prosecute it and that young Divines whether young in years or manners it skills not would oftentimes even for Sions sake hold their peace or at least be wary where and when they open their mouths in this argument For he that looks into the temper of this present people with a discreet religious not with a turbulent factious eye may easily discerne that many ill tempered and extravagant invectives against Papists made by men whose Persons wanting Authoritie as much as their speeches do Reason do nothing else but set an edge upon our Adversaries sword whilst the light behaviour and bad example of the Inveighers life infuseth courage to their hearts and addeth strength unto their armes In one word Many of our words in this place increase the wrath and many of our lives out of this place increase the number of that Faction 12. Though all of us by Profession are Christs Soldiers yet every Soldier is not fit for any service Albeit I discourage no man I only advise that every man that means to be a valiant Soldier in Christ and would do his
Prophets Wise men and Apostles to reclaim them if they would have hearkned to him or his Messengers Admonitions S. Luke puts this out of Controversie for repeating part of this story he saith expresly Therefore also said the Wisdom of God I will send them Prophets c. And Christ is styled The Wisdom of God not as man but as God and Consequently He spake these words not as man only but as God The same compassion and burning Love the same thirst and longing after Jerusalems safety which we see here manifested by a manner comprehensible to flesh and blood in these words of our Saviour in my Text or the like uttered by him Luke 19 with tears and sobs we must believe to be as truly as really and unfeignedly in the Divine Nature though by a manner incomprehensible to flesh and blood How any such flagrant desire of their welfare which finally perish should be in God we cannot conceive because our minds are more dazeled with that inaccessible Light which he inhabits then the eyes of Batts and Owles are by gazing on the Sun To qualifie this Incomprehensible Glorie of the Deitie the Wisdom of God was made Flesh that we might safely behold the true module or proportion of Divine Goodness in our Nature as the eye which cannot look upon the Sun in his strength or as it shines in the Firmament may without offence behold it in the water being an Element homogeneal to its own substance Thus should all Christs Prayers desires or pathetical wishes of mans safetie be to us as so many visible pledges or sensible Evidences of Gods Invisible and Incomprehensible Love and so he concludes his last Invitation of the Jewes I have not spoken of my selfe but the Father which sent me he gave me Commandment what I should say and what I should speak And I know that his Commandment is everlasting life whatsoever I spake therefore even as the Father said unto me so I spake Joh. 12. ver 49 50. And what saith our Saviour more in his own then the Prophet had done in the Name and Person of his God Isai 49. v. 14. Sion complained the Lord hath for saken me and my Lord hath forgotten me But he answered Can a woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palmes of my hands c. These and the like Places of the Prophets compared with our Saviours speech here in my Text give us plainly to understand That whatsoever Love any mother can bear to the fruit of her womb unto whom her bowels of compassion are more tender then the fathers can be or whatsoever affection any dumb Creature can afford unto their tender brood the like but greater doth God bear unto his children Unto the Elect most will grant But is his Love so tender towards such as perish Yes the Lord carried the whole Hoste of Israel even the stubborne and most disobedient as the Eagle doth her young ones upon her wings Exod. 19. 4. Earthly Parents will not vouchsafe to wait perpetually upon their children The Hen continueth not her Call from morning to night nor can she endure to hold out her wings all day for a shelter to her young ones as they grow great and refuse to come she gives over to invite them But saith the Lord by his Prophet I have spred out my hand all the day unto a rebellious people which walketh in a way that was not good after their own thoughts A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face that sacrificeth in gardens and burneth incense upon Altars of bricks which remain among the graves and lodg in the monuments which eat Swines flesh and broth of abominable things is in their vessels which say adding hypocrisie unto filthinesse and Idolatry stand by thy self come not neer unto me for I am holier then thou Isai 65. ver 2 3 4. Such they were and so conceited of our Saviour with whom he had in his life time oft to deal and for whose safetie he prayed with teares before his Passion These and many like passages of Scripture are pathetically set forth by the Spirit to assure us That there is no desire like unto the Almighties desire of sinful mans Repentance no Longing to his Longing after our Salvation If Gods Love to Iudah comen to the height of rebellion had beene lesse then mans or other Creatures Love to what they affect most dearely If the Meanes he used to reclaim her had been fewer or lesse probable then any others had attempted for obtaining their most wished End his Demand to which the Prophet thought no possible Answer could be given might easily have been put off by these incredulous Jewes unto whom he had not referred the judgment in their own Cause if they could have instanced in man or other Creature more willing to do what possibly they could do either for themselves or others then he was to do whatsoever was possible to be done for them And now O Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah judg I pray you betwixt me and my Vineyard what could more have been done to my vineyard that I have not done to it Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wild grapes Isa 5. v. 3 4. 6. But the greater we make the Truth and Extent of Gods Love the more we increase the difficultie of the Second Point proposed For amongst women many there be that would amongst dumb Creatures scarce any that would not redeeme their sucklings from death by dying themselves Yet what is it that they can do which they would not do to save their owne lives And did not God so love the world that he gave his only begotten Son for it Yes for the world of the Elect I see not why any should be excluded from the number But to let that passe Gods desire of their repentance which perish is undoubtedly such as hath been said Yet should we say that he hath done all that could be done for them How chanceth it that all are not saved Was the Vineyard more barren then Sarah the fruit of whose womb he made like the Stars of the sky or as the sands by the Sea shore innumerable Was it a matter more hard to make the impenitent Jew bring forth fruits worthy of Repentance then to make a Virgin conceive and beare a son If it were not how chanceth it the Word of the Lord and that but a short one should bring the One to joyful Issue whilst the other the repentance of the Jewes and other ungodly men after so many exhortations and threatnings after so many promises of comfort and so many denunciations of woes as the Prophets the Apostles and their Successors have used is not to this day nor ever will be accomplished If repentance of men born and brought up in