were changeable The life it self and the light of the world was in the Son of God John 13. And now dwelleth bodily in Christ who is God and man and when he shall appear the life which is in him shall be imprinted on us we shall be partakers of the life which is unchangeable And as is life he so is he light it self light unchangeable And when we shall see him as he is our knowledge shall from this vision be as He is without possibilitie of change without decay or diminution God saith the Apostle is Love and when we shall see him as he is we shall become like him in this Attribute also that is as his Love to us was everlasting without beginning so our love to him shall be uncessant unchangeable without ending And what expression of true happiness can be more full then to be everlastingly beloved of him who is Love it self and to love him everlastingly The fruition of all things which we desire or love cannot be so much as the the fruition of him who as he is all things else so is he love it self And as was said before although we have all things else which our hearts desire yet till we enjoy his presence we cannot have our hearts desire we cannot have the accomplishment of our love untill we enjoy his presence who is love it self But some will ask What shall we do that we may enjoy the comfort of his everlasting love and presence The Psalmist hath told us in few words Psal 37. 4. Delight thou in the Lord and he shall give thee thy hearts desire But how shall we delight in him whom we have not seen or how should we love him whom we know not We must take notice of our love to God who is invisible from the experience of our love unto our brethren whom we have seen we cannot assure our selves that we delight in him unlesse we delight in his Saints that are on earth This is the Importance of Saint Johns words He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hoth not seen 12. These are the usual Marks or Tokens whereby we are taught to know the truth of Our love towards God and of Our Allegeance to Christ But many there be who call themselves Brethren which have no other bond of brotherhood then Simeon and Levi had Many there be which boast in the Communion of Saints which have no other Union then such as Corah Dathan and Abiram had an Union in Conspiracie against Moses and Aaron against the visible Church and her Governors The Papists will tell you that the Communion of Saints is amongst them in their Church So will the Brownists and other Separatists So will such as live amongst us and yet complain of the burthen of Ceremonies in our Church And how shall men the unlearned specially know which of all these or whether any of these are the true Brethren of Christ or the Saints in which we are bound to delight This as will be replied you may know by their delight in hearing the word for he that loveth God loveth his word he that delights in God delighteth in his word Yea but many delight in the outward letter of the word only or in the word as it is interpreted by Teachers of their own Faction or after their own Fancie men either not able to discern the Evidence of truth or not willing to have it manifested unto them And how then shall any man know whether he love the Lord whether he delight in the Lord by delighting in any of their Societies which pretend themselves to be Christs Brethren to be Gods Saints Surely there is a better way then all these to delight aright in the Lord and to know that we delight in him and yet a way made known unto us by Gods Word A way A direct and plain way which we can not follow but by sincerely delighting in his Word The Word of God doth tell us and all sorts or Sects of men confess it that God is love that he is righteousnesse that he is holinesse that he is the God of all peace that he is good to all that he is merciful and long-suffering Now he that in these things doth imitate God he that is charitable and loving to all he that is merciful and beneficial to all so farre as his means will suffer him he that deals justly and truly with his neighbor he that doth delight in so doing he doth truly delight in the Lord and the Lord in his good time shall give him his hearts desire As there is a sinceritie of Conversation required towards men so likewise there is a Puritie of heart and Conscience towards God and he that delights in this or seeks after this doth delight in the Lord and he only shall truly know that he delights in the Lord or that his hope is stedfast For every one as Saint John saith that hath this hope to wit of seeing God as he is doth purifie his heart as he is pure And our Saviour saith as a blessing to the pure in heart that they shall see God They shall see him in this Life in his Word and in his works and in the life to come they shall see him as he is and be partakers of everlasting life which is the Crown of puritie and holiness CHAP. XXII ROMANS 6. 22 23. But now ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life The Gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Of the Accidental Joyes of the Life to come A particular Terrar or Map of the Kingdom prepared for the Blessed Ones in a Paraphrase upon the Eight Beatitudes or the Blessedness promised to the Eight Qualifications set down in St. Matthew Chapter 5. Eternal Life the strongest obligation to all Duties Satans Two usual wayes of Tempting us Either Per Blanda or per Aspera 1. BUt if in the next life we enjoy His Presence who is Life it self who is Love it self who is All in All at whose right hand is Fulness of pleasures for evermore What need is there of any Access of Accidental or Concomitant Joyes It is true There is no need of them for so they should not be Accidental Therefore are they called Accidental because such as enjoy Gods Presence might be fully happy without them So God himself is most happy in himself he is Happinesse it self Yet even in this that he is Goodnesse it self that he is Happinesse it self he communicates both Goodness and Happiness to his Creatures so far as they are capable of them not by any Necessitie but Freely And when it is said that when we shall see him as he is we shall be like him part of this likeness doth herein consist that we shall communicate this Goodness and happiness to others so far as they are capable of it So that the Accidental or Concomitant Joyes of the life to come whose Essence
of Syria and he went away from Jerusalem But though the Chaldeans had burnt the House of God and the Palaces of Ierusalem with fire had destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof yet the Lord doth not utterly forsake his vineyard his Church the Quire of Saints still nestles in the branches that are transplanted whose off spring within seventy years is restored unto their native soyl Jerusalem repaired the Temple re-edified and the Land of Iudah sown with the seed of man and beast After this State thus raised again from Civil Death if posterity will not believe nor bring forth better fruits then heretofore their fathers have done neither would they believe though Moses and the Prophets were raised from the dead to exhort them to repentance For this reason after their return from Babylon and re-edification of the Temple God sends no more Prophets save such as they brought with them until the fulness of time or the Third Climacterical Period of this State wherein the disease being become more desperate he sent his only Son the Heir of all things as knowing that if he could not none ever after should be able to recover it This his Son was that Lord which by his peculiar presence had brought this vine out of Egypt but after he had planted it in Iudea and let it out unto these husbandmen went into a farre Country that is he appeared not unto them as he did to Moses to Joshuah c. until in the last dayes he descended from Heaven in the true form and substance of man to receive the fruits He looked at this time especially his vineyard should had brought forth grapes but it brought forth more wild grapes then before He looked for weighty matters of the Law and behold tithing of Mint Annise and Cummin He looked for judgment mercy and faith But behold covetousness extortion pride and cruelty grapes more bitter then the grapes of Sodom Sourness it self the very leaven of Hypocrisie yet upon the first denial of such fruits as he expected he departs not from them he accuseth them not unto his Father But as they had two or three fore-warnings more remarkable then ordinary in several Generations of their Ancestors so he expects a loyal Answer at more times of fruit then one or two presenting himself to them for three years and more together at every several Passover besides other anniversary solemnities And yet at last for constant delivery of that Embassage which he had from his father they caught him and condemned him in the vineyard but carry him out of it to be crucified in Mount Calvarie And thus at length Zachariah's Prophecie against Ioash and his wicked Princes and his Imprecation at his death are fulfilled in this wicked generation they formally forsook their God when they cried We have no King but Caesar and demanding Barabbas a murtherer the son of their father the Divle they destoyed Iesus the Son of God And the Lord hath utterly forsaken them not the Temple and City only but the Inhabitants but the whole race of the Jewish Nation and hath let forth His Vineyard to us Gentiles They were so rich by his bounty that they were ashamed to acknowledge so mean a man as Our Saviour for their Lord and Owner of the Land they inhabited And as the Prophet foretold they hid their faces from him And therefore as Moses testified against them in his dying Song The Lord hides his face from them Darkness did over-spread the Land of Iudah at his Passion and the light of his countenance since that time hath never shined upon that Nation They lost Gods extraordinary Illumination by Urim and Thummim as some hold at Zachariah's death as most agree at the destruction of Salomon's Temple but now are destitute of the light of Scripture without all knowledge of Gods Word since they rejected Him which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world In the very sun-shine of the Gospel they grope like blind men that cannot see a beaten way and must so continue throughout their generations unto the worlds end until they shall unfeignedly confess the iniquity of their fathers and that they have walked contrary unto me And that I also have walked contrary unto them and have brought them into the land of their enemies Lev. 26. 40 41. As the sins of those Jews which rejected the Light of the world and solemnly revolted from their King have been thus remarkably visited upon their children that will not confess their sins in so doing nor acknowledge him whom they rejected for their expected Redeemer So were the sins of that generation which slue Zachariah visited upon this which crucified our Saviour because they neither did truly confess them but rather revive and increase them nor finally admit of his Sacrifice which was appointed for the expiation of that Prodigious Fact as of all others wherewith the City and Temple had been polluted Unless God's mercy had warded off the stroke of his justice Ierusalem it self had been made an heap of stones when King Ioash stoned Zachariah to death So had the Temple it self wherein his guiltless blood lay uncovered been covered with Dust The whole Nations plagues in rigour of justice might have been much greater at that time then they have been since Now all the mercie or mitigation of Justice which former Generations found was through the Mediation of the Son of God And seeing these later have been more refractorie to this their Mediator himself then were their fathers to his Prophets seeing they have solemnly disavowed him and bid a defiance to his Embassadors Gods mercies which had daily shrowded Ierusalem from his wrath as the hen doth her young ones from the storm leave it and her children open to his justice For Resolution of the main Point or difficulty proposed The forsaking or putting the Son of God to death is for ought I can gather no direct and positive cause of all the miseries expressed or intimated in my Text Only such a Cause of Ierusalems destruction as the Pilots absence is of shipwrack a Cause of it only in this sense that her inhabitants by forsaking him have exempted themselves from his wonted protection and God's justice which had long watched his departure from the City and Temple as Sergeants do their egress which have taken Sanctuary now attatches them when there is none to become their Surety none to intercede for mitigation of Justice none to hinder why judgments heretofore alwayes abated and oft-times altogether deferred may not be executed upon them in full measure But that their Personal Offences against their Mediator should wholly or specially procure this woful doom or come at all into the Bill of their Indictment is in my Opinion no way probable The character of his own speeches as well in my Text or elsewhere altogether disclaims this Assertion as unconsonant to the form of wholsome doctrine But may we say that albeit his blood did not augment their
ready to put in execution Now this Judgment of Sodom was but as a Private or Particular Sessions to give the world an undoubted pledge of that General and Terrible Judgment which must be given upon all such as they were by the same Lord 's visible appearance before whom Abraham did now appear as Advocate or Intercessor for these men of Sodom So St. Iude instructs us Ver. 6 7. And the Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great day Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire There were Three in number which then appeared unto Abraham under the shape and likeness of men yet to his apprehension more then Men Angels of the Lord or the Lord Himself in a Trinity of Angels representing the Blessed Trinity in which as Athanasius tels us there are not three Lords but one Lord Yet though there be but one Lord Iehovah and though the Father Son and Holy Ghost be This One Lord yet as we said Chap. 6. 7. The Son of God is Adonai or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord or Judge by peculiar Title and by such personal Right as God the Father and God the Holy Ghost is not Lord and Judge And for this reason albeit there were Three that appeared to Abraham yet Abraham directs his speech unto One as unto his Lord this Lord did vouchsafe his answer unto Abraham after the men which appeared unto him turned their faces thence and went towards Sodom Other Testimonies to this purpose are most frequent in the book of Psalms Psal 50. 1 2 3. The mighty God even the Lord hath spoken and called the Earth from the rising of the Sun unto the going down of the same Out of Sion the perfection of beauty God hath shined Our God shall come and shall not keep silence a fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him And ver 6. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness for God is Judge himself Psal 93. 1 2. The Lord reigneth he is clothed with Majesty the Lord is cloathed with strength wherewith he hath girded himself The world also is established that it cannot be moved Thy Throne is established of old thou art from everlasting Every Throne or Tribunal is established for execution of Judgment But this Throne though established of old or from Eternity yet was not the Judgment for which this Throne was established executed from eternity or so executed at any time before the Date of this Psalm as the Psalmist expected in due time or at the end of time it would be And the Author of the next Psalm whether the same or some other conceives a solemn prayer for the speedy execution of that Judgment which was to proceed from the former Throne which had been established from everlasting and to be executed by that God to whose honor the former Psalm was consecrated O Lord God saith the Psalmist Psal 94. 1 2 3 4. to whom vengeance belongeth O God to whom vengeance belongeth shew thy self lift up thy self thou Judge of the Earth render a reward to the proud Lord how long shall the wicked how long shall the wicked triumph how long shall they utter and speak hard things and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves To omit other testimonies to the like purpose This one Observation is general to all As the Messias who was first promised and but Promised only to Adam was afterwards Promised by Oath to Abraham and to David and by them to all mankind So this future general Judgement which was first revealed for ought we read to Enoch afterwards known to Abraham and to David and to the Psalmists were they one or more was afterwards confirmed by the Oath of God himself unto the Prophet Esay Cap. 45. ver 22 23. Look unto me and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else I have sworn by my self the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto me every knee shall bow every tongue shall swear 3. All these Testimonies are Concludent that God is Judge of all the earth and that there shall be A final Judgment executed by God himself But the Point wherein the Reader as I suppose expects satisfaction is From what authentick Testimony of Scripture it is or may be made as clear and evident that This final Iudgment shall be personally executed by the Son of God or by the Man Christ Jesus As much as to this purpose can be required is avouched by our Apostle St. Paul Rom. 14. 11. It is written as I live saith the Lord Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God The written Testimony which he avoucheth is That before last cited Esay 45. 23. And from this Testimony he infers these Two Conclusions the Former ver 10. which is the same with 2 Cor. 5. 10. We shall all stand before the Iudgment seat of Christ The Later ver 12. So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God The Issue or Corollary of both Conclusions is That Iesus Christ is that Lord and God which had interposed his Oath unto the Prophet Esay that every knee should bow unto him This Issue of both Conclusions Rom. 14. is more fully exprest Phil. 2. 9 10 11. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every name that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow of things in heaven and things on the earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father But for more full satisfaction some here may justly Demand Whether St. Paul did make this interpretation of the Prophet Esay by some new Revelation of the Spirit made in particular to him unknown to most others before that time Or whether the interpretation of the Prophet Esay and of other like prophecies which he made were literally and really included in the prophecies themselves and ratified by the General Analogie of Faith or by the Common Rule of interpretation in those times sufficiently known to the learned whose eyes were not blinded with passion nor prejudiced with partiality to their own Sects or Factions To this we Answer that St. Paul's Interpretation of the Prophet was really included in the literal sense of the Prophecie and the literal sense or construction which he made of the fore-cited passage in the Prophet Esay and other Prophets was warrantable by the Common Rule of Interpretation sufficiently known in those times The Rule is General That all those places of the old Testament which
Gideon exempt his Successors from the like or greater fear upon notice of Gods extraordinary presence For so Manoah Samsons father after long Conference with the Lord after he knew that it was an Angel of the Lord which had brought the Message to him of Samsons birth said unto his Wife Judg. 13. 22. We shall surely die because we have seen God But his Wife said unto him if the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things neither would he at this time have told us such things as these ver 23. So then Gods extraordinary presence is terrible even to his servants to flesh and blood without exception though in the issue it will prove comfortable to such as truly fear him and faithfully rely upon his promises St. Peter long after this time was a man less conscious of many grievous sins then most of us alive this day are yet not upon any sight or spectacle of Gods Extraordinary Presence but only upon an instinct or secret apprehension of his Peculiar Presence in Christ as man notified unto him by the miraculous draught of fishes which he took by his direction and command cries out Lord depart from me for I am a sinful man Luke 5. 8. And St. Paul before his conversion fell to the earth upon a suddain glimpse or representation of that glorious light wherein Christ shall appear at the last day Acts 9. 3 4. And after he had heard A Voyce saying unto him though in no extraordinary manner for terror Saul Saul why persecutest thou me He trembling and astonished at the name of Jesus said Lord what wilt thou have me to do ver 6. No marvel if St. Paul being conscious of persecution intended by him against Christs Church and having by Fact and Resolution declared himself to be Christs Enemy were thus affrighted at the Sight and Voice when as St. Peter St. James and St. John after long and peculiar familiarity with Christ and after many gracious promises made unto them of Gods special protection over them were thrown down to the earth with a more placid and comfortable Voice then that which St. Paul heard The Voice which they heard out of the cloud was this This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him And when they heard it saith the text Matth. 17. 6. they fell on their faces and were sore afraid until Christ came and touched them and said arise and be not afraid This strange dejection of these three great Apostles at so mild and gentle a Voice yet a Voice uttered from the extraordinary presence of God gives us a Remarkable Document or grounded Observation of the truth of that saying of St. Paul 1 Cor. 15. 50. Now this I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption Christ had told these Three Matth. 16. 28. that they should see not God but the Son of man coming in his Kingdom Peter had a desire to have inherited that joy wherewith his heart was ravished at the sight of our Saviours Transfiguration which as you heard before was but a representation of his coming in glory to Judge the world and out of this desire he said Lord it is good for us to be here if thou wilt let us make here three Tabernacles one for Thee one for Moses and one for Elias Yet as soon as he heard the Voice the Antipathie between sinful flesh and the fruition of Gods presence or the inheritance of that Kingdom of Christ which was then represented begun to shew it self And what shall We do then which are conscious of more grievous sins then St. Peter S. Iames or S. John then were unto whom both the Spectacle of Christs glorious presence and the Voice or Sound which in that day shall be heard from heaven will be far more terrible then any manifestation of Gods presence whether made by Voice or Sight unto our First Parents unto Gideon unto Manoah or unto any of his Apostles recorded in Scripture 4. Let us now take a view of such representations or descriptions of the Terrible Spectacles which shall be seen and of the Terrible Voices or sounds which in that last day shall be heard as Gods Prophets or Evangelists have framed to us These representations are of Two Sorts either Charactred out unto us in meer Words or in Matters of Fact historically related To begin with the Terrible Spectacles which shall appear before the last day or at the least before the Process or Judgment begin These are most punctually exprest by the Prophet Joel Cap. 2. 30 31. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth blood and fire and pillars of smoak the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come And Ioel 3. 15 16. The Sun and the Moon shall be darkned and the Stars shall withdraw their shining The Lord also shall roar out of Sion utter his voice out of Jerusalem the heavens the earth shall shake The Terrors here foretold were really represented by the first desolation of Iudah and destruction of Jerusalem by the Assyrians and Chaldeans whose approach to execute Gods Judgments upon that land and people was prophesied of by this Prophet in the beginning of this Second Chapter yet so foretold by him as the plagues there threatned might by Repentance have been prevented So could not the Terrors foretold in the Second Prophecie at least the Prophet expresseth no means for averting these fearful signs in the heavens and earth This later prophecie is in particular exemplified by our Saviour Matth. 24. 27 29 30. For as the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West So shall also the coming of the Son of man be Immediately after the tribulation of those dayes shall the Sun be darkned and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars of heaven shall fall and the Powers of the heavens shall be shaken And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven and then shall all the Tribes of the Earth mourn and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory Both the Prophecie of Joel and this prediction of our Savior were in part fulfilled shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus by the burning of the Mount Vesuvius in Campania a Province of Italy the manner and effects whereof how fearful and terrible they were not to Rome onely or Italy but to a great part of Africa to Egypt to Syria and to Constantinople with the Countries adjoyning and how consonant they were unto the Prophet Joels and our Saviors Prediction may be gathered from Dion in his 66. and 68. Books and from other Roman Heathenish
Precept of our Saviour binds every man to further his Neighbor or Fellow Creature in all such desires that is Generally in all desires which pertain either unto the necessary supplies or comforts of this life or to the hopes and means of attaining the life to come Unto what part of the Affirmative Precept it is most requisite I should exhort you or from what part of the Negative I should disswade you I cannot tell because I am ignorant in what part of the one you are defective or in what part of the other you most exceed In both no doubt we all offend both In not doing to others in sundry cases as we desire it should be done to us and also in doing that to others which we would not have them do to us Two especial Breaches of this Law of Nature I have observed so farre as my experience reacheth and have heard noted by others to be almost general through out the Land The one in not affording our distressed brethren that comfort for the support of this life which in their case we would desire The other in procuring their undoing or grievous loss by our greedy desires of enlarging our own estates advancing our selves or increasing our wealth and commoditie For the First None of us can be ignorant how in ofttimes Sometimes the Famin oft-times nay alwayes for this seven or eight years past the Plague of Pestilence hath raged one where or other throughout the Land The grievousness of that Maladie albeit we know not fully yet that we know it in some sort and esteem of it as a grievous maladie A Plague indeed sent from God our fear of it when it is near unto us doth sufficiently witness and from the measure of our own fear or care to avoid it we may gather how desirous we would be of any comfort if it should seize upon us Of any comfort I say either bodily to case the pain by Lenitives or to prevent the last danger of it by Physick and good Diet. Or if in these we could have no Hope the less we had in them the more desirous would we be of spiritual comfort under the wings of the Almighty The less help Art or Nature or men themselves could afford us the more earnestly would we desire hearty prayers for succor and comfort from the Almightie It would much strengthen our Faith and Hope to know that others did joyn with us in fervent prayers for mercie and it would much lessen our bodily grief and discontent of mind to know that they did bear a part with us it would abate our sorrow to know that they did abate their wonted mirth and jollitie as in compassion to us The Saying is most true Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris But the solace is most comfortable when men do willingly and not by constraint share with us in our miserie for then they take as it were part of our burthen from us and put it upon their own shoulders So as that which is most heavie and grievous whilst it is only laid upon one or some few becomes very light and easie when it is divided and laid upon many willing to communicate in the burden These and many like but more effectual Arguments all of us could plead for our selves if we were in this or any other kind of miserie But who is he of a thousand that would lay half of this to heart when sorrow lies heaviest upon his poor distressed brethren I know not how men in this place are affected but elsewhere for the most part if they be so mindful of their distressed brethren as to relieve their wants and furnish them with the necessaries of this life they think it almost a work of super-erogation and if they should not be commended for it at first they would be more slack to do the like again But that they should afflict or pinch themselves for others penurie That they should abate their ordinary mirth for others sorrow is an ungrateful Doctrine almost a Point of Puritanism Or if some be thus well minded towards their neighbors or allyes they think they have sufficiently discharged their dutie They think this Precept of our Saviour extends it self no further then the Statutes of the Land binding them to do good such good as they would have done to them only to the men of their own or the next Parish As for the miseries of such as are afarre off the sound of them enters not into their ears their sighs and groans move not their hearts If we should tell the people of one Shire or Countrie That they ought to mourn and lament to fast and pray for the afflictions of others some forty miles off or in the utmost confines of another Countrie in this Realm They would be ready I am afraid to laugh at our folly and count us as uncivil as any voluntary disturbes of their sports But here I trust I may be bold to say as much as the Lord hath said whose word requires at least as much I think much more then I have done 20. Consider I beseech you What was their sin to whom Amos pronounceth the dreadful Wo Amos. 6. 1. Wo to them that are at ease in Sion Why What harm was there in this May not men take their ease Yea when the Times so permit But now their Brethren of Samaria were disquieted by their Enemies ease which before was good was now unseasonable and preposterous because not consorting with their Brethrens Estate They lie upon Beds of Ivorie and stretch themselves upon their Beds and eat the Lambs out of the Flock and Calves out of the Stall What of all this Doth any man keep a Flock and eats not of the milk thereof Doth any man plant a Vineyard and not eat of the Fruit thereof Yea of all or any the increase thereof at his pleasure Yet is not all kind of eating of moderate eating fit for every season There is a Time as well of Fasting as of eating and Feasting Herein then was their sin that they did not sympathize with their brethren who were either pined for hunger or fed with the bread of Affliction They sing saith the Prophet unto the sound of the Viol they invent to themselves Instruments of Musick like David Why Could they have followed a better Example Not if they had followed it aright for Davids Musick was invented to praise the Lord. And Yet as the Sons or Daughters of Sion might have replied partly to delight himself and his friends It may be so Where is the point of difference then There is a Time to be sad saith Solomon and a Time to be merrie a Time to weep and a Time to laugh Every thing hath its appointed Time and every thing out of his Time is preposterous and evil If David did solace himself with pleasant mirth it was because prosperitie flourished in those Times he did not use it when news was brought him of Saul and
true members of Christ suffer that flock which he hath purchased with his precious blood to starve for want of spiritual Food That flock from which they have reap't carnal Commodities in greatest plenty But here I will not dispute whether Non-Residence or Pluralitie be simply unlawful suppose in former times both had been lawful both necessary when the greatest scarcitie was of Scholars sufficiently qualified for the ministry Is it therefore Now as expedient It had been once more lawful for Baruch to have sought the Ease of a retired life then ever it was for any man to trouble himself with joyning house to house Land to Land or Church to Church But now it is unlawful seekest thou great things for thy self Yet what was his seeking to theirs or what are many of their deserts to his Theirs especially who have scarce been so much as scribes to a learned Prophet scarce ever brought up in Jerusalem at any Gamaliels feet but only came to this our Sion as so many spies to find out the weakness of the place to discover by what devices good Statutes might be frustrate and means made for conferring degrees upon Drones And Drones having once gotten A degree or place in this Bee-hive by others perjury will make shift to get spiritual preferment by their own After unto their Titles in the Schools they have gotten an Ite Praedicate from the Generals of our spiritual warfare they make their entrance into the Church of Christ just so as if it were into the Enemies soyl once inabled to compass a convenient Seat they never think they were placed there as labourers in Christs harvest to gather and break the bread of life to his people they only use it as a Fort or Sconce to gather strength in till they can watch an opportunity for expugning a better And advancements into highest Offices in this spiritual Charge go oft not so much by virtues as the golden mean Experiments are so rife and frequent that not the meanest Arcadian Creature but lives in hope to make himself Lord of the greatest dignitie the Land affords if he be once furnished sufficiently for practise of the Macedonian Stratagem This seeking after great things especially in men of so little worth is at all times odious in the sight of God and injurious to men But in these present times fraught either with examples or fearful threatnings of Gods heavie Judgments in these times wherein superstition increaseth as a Plague growing up to quell hypocrisie and licentiousness farre less desires even all unnecessary seekings are preposterous and abominable and yet in all States through the Land very usual and being so They are Ominous Which was the Corollary proposed I must omit discourse and fall to instance 12. One Age may afford sufficient store of Examples A curious Searcher shall not be able to find any disease either more Dangerous or more Genoral then this late specified disease of Baruch in the Christian world at that time when the Lord did so grievously lance the whole body of it with the swords and spears of the Vandals Gothes Hunnes and other Barbarians scarce known before by name The approach of all or most of them was so sudden and unexpected that a man could scarce imagine what other Errand they had to visit these parts of Europe save only to be Gods Chirurgions in cutting of the dead and unrecoverable members of the Church Of what sort or kind soever the sins of any Age or People be when sinners once come to such height or progress in them as the sight of Gods Judgments or experience of his displeasure cannot perswade men to forsake them It is a true Crisis of General plagues or desolations approaching No sign more deadly then intemperate longing after unseasonable mirth or pleasures of what kind soever especially of such as are contrary to that course of life whereunto God for the present cals men For they that seek after such things plainly declare That they say in their hearts VVe shall have Peace albeit we walk according to the stubbornness of our own hearts Deut. 29. 19. At cum dicant Pax tuta omnia tunc repentinum eis imminet Exitium That the General constitution of the Christian World when the Barbarians over-ran it was altogether such as we have said such as this people for the most part is at this day Salvianus A Reverend Bishop of those times hath left recorded The disease of Carthage he thus discribeth Captivus corde sensu nonne er at populus iste qui inter suorum supplicia ridebat qui jugulari se in suorum jugulis non intelligebat qui se in suorum mori mortibus non putabat Fragor ut it a dixerim extra muros intra muros Proeliorum Ludicrorum Confundebatur c. The like stupiditie and intemperance the same Author out of his experience attributes unto one of the Chief Cities of the Galles whose Inhabitants were so besotted with drunkenness that they could not shake it of when they were beset with death Ad hoc postremo rabida vini aviditate Perventum est ut Principes urbis istius ne tunc quidem de conviviis Surgerent cum jam urbem hostis intraret He that made the Sword then to them hath also made the Plague of Pestilence his Messenger unto us both their Commissions are of equal authority both their Summons should be alike dreadful and yet what day did any die in this City by the Arrow of God but as many or more were dead drunk or had surfeited of their beastly banquets Again in Trevers one of the most flourishing Cities of the Galles and as I take it the Reverend Bishops native soyl so intemperately were the Inhabitants set on their wonted delights and vanitites that after their Citie had been three or four times sacked and did not retain so much as the likeness of what it had been yet they are still the same And as if they had never sowen unto the spirit but altogether unto the flesh as if their sportings and pastimes had been the only harvest they cared to reap No sooner was this storm of War and blood broken up And the beams of peace restored again but they errected their stages even in the fresh Sent of deadly vapors exhaling from their murthered Citizens buried in their Cities ashes Pauci nobiles qui excidio super-fuerant quasi pro summo deletae urbis remedio Circenses ab Imperatoribus postulabant And may not we think unless our Magistrates Religious care had been the greater to have prohibited Stage-playes in these dangerous times of visitation that a great many in this City would have adventured to have been in Circo though death had been appointed to keep the Play-house door Should the Stage-player or other instrument of vanitie have visited our Suburbs within two monethes after our fourth or fifth visitation past more of better rank amongst us would have been more