earth build desolate places for themselves lie still and are at rest saith Job but so did not he we know better then so what he did I believe The third day he rose again and ascended into Heaven and at that house we have toucht already but yet from none of these houses not that eternal house of our Lord comes any comfort to us till that Spirit of the Lord the Comforter come from him to us to dwell in us so putting us all into one houshold of Faith the common faith and making us all the habitation of God by the Spirit 10. And to make fit this house this Lord the blessed Carpenter was put to work it out of the rough and troubled to take to break down a Partition-wall whose more then Alpine rockiness no Hannibal but he could conquer and no fire no liquor but his heart blood could penetrate Nothing but his living-dead body raise this dead living frame of Saints built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone in whom all the building fitly framed together grows into an holy Temple in the Lord Eph. 2.20 21. There 's right Dominicum every way The house of the Lord In the Lord On the Lord By the Lord. This house then in no case to be left out nor we left out of it you know who would allow us no room in their Inn at the Popes head and by that device exclude us out of the Church which is called a great house 2 Tim. 2. and the foundation stands sure but sure it stands not all upon the cloudy Apennine This is just like private Mass that 's proper Communion a right Bull to pin down Universal in a particular corner as if to thrust twenty royal Courts into one Room like that people wise in their own conceit that to make sure of Conquest pinned and riveted the Goddess Victory to their City wals So these Reckoners go to it stilo novo the Romane Computation this and it is a good confession their fat Bishop Spalatâ— makes in all their names Ecclesians Catholicam nobiscum esse vel cogitamus vel cogimus They would fain think so and fain force us to think so but we are not much to trouble our selves at their Cogitamus God knows the thoughts of men to be but vain and the divisions of Reuben were from great thoughs of heart but from their Cogimus Libera nos Domine He hath and doth and will deliver us if we embrace our Creed and by vertue thereof belong to this house of the Catholick Church 11. Nay we our selves our souls and bodies are his Church and Temple which house we are 1 Cor. 6. wherein God remains under our roof gracing even the houses of his Saints bodies while they stand and faln watches over their Atoms while the spirits return to him and will recollect and raise them up in far greater State and Glory So that Mors shall not be ultima not the last line strectht upon this building but a linea yet more ultimate reaching from Earth to Heaven And so with much ado having so many houses to call at by the way which very calling yet hath done us some service and may do us more we are come Christo auspice to this very house in the Text and seen in a quarter of an hour this Sun pass through all those houses to this which is the last in our Zodiack The Temple which David prepared and Solomon built for the service of the Lord and in which house God hath a propriety stiled therefore by way of Excellency The house of the Lord. 12. Where the first service we can do for Domus Dominus both is to wake them meet with and meet for one another For is there not a mighty discrepance betwixt them the Temple a stately piece the Joy of the whole earth Par domus haec coelo But you know what follows will not serve his turn though as God by his Eternity transcendently and supereminently comprehends all time so by his immensity all places And Dominus here though true of Christ as we heard and may hear more anon is Jehovah and he dwell in Temples Temples plural if set altogether made with hands Heaven of Heavens cannot What house can contain him then What house will you build for me no house Lord to comprehend thee who art God incomprehensible but for thy name and an house for thy worship and service that may comprehend us But what matter if no such houses at all neither on this Mount nor yet at Jerusalem but right service in Spirit and Truth So say some haunted perchance with a worldly and dangerous spirit we deny not our best sacrifice on the heartaltar best worship in Spirit Yet if God were undelighted with a set local Worship why would the Scripture mention Hannahs motion 1 Sam. 2. And another Anna the Prophetess residing in the Temple why our Saviour dayly in the Temple and Synagogues and his Apostles Peter the chief and John the beloved of Jesus ascending at the hour of prayer Or would the Spirit of God have put it into the heart of David a man after Gods own heart to prepare him service in a Temple or his Prophet in his name so cry out upon this deserting this house of God and bring his double action of Wast vain Wast on our own ceiled houses and laying wast this house of God My house lie wast Hgg. 1. so the propriety held then and if we follow it to the spring-head we find indeed Cultus Domini before Domus Abel sacrificed and in Enos time they invocated Immolation and Invocation both in the beginning of Genesis but go on and you come to a place framed before you go out of Exodus and even in Genesis we have Noahs and Abrahams Altars and Jacobs Bethel But to clear this at once only that in Deut. 12. The reason why Cultus was not set in order because no proper Domus for this Dominus ver 8. Now you serve me as you lâ—â—â— hievery man what is right in his own eyes and why no Reformation v. 9. you are not yet come to the rest and inheritance which the Lord your God gives you but when you go over Jordan a better order then then there shall be a place which the Lord shall chuse to cause his name to dwell there So far is Dominus from dis-avowing Domus that he ordains both Domus Cultus and therefore let them remain all there as we find them here in order Cultus Domus Domini Do you not find too every precious stone and string appointed to Moses by pattern in the Mount and David had the Platform of the Temple in writing 1 Chron. 28.19 And Dominus then took possession of Domus his Glory appeared before the Tabernacle and filled the Temple at Solomons dedication yea he made his Residence in both took up his seat in the Tabernacle his Mercy seat too wherein
he most delights to shew and shine forth in perfect beauty and majesty and of the Temple he saith Mine eyes and my heart shall be there continually This is my rest for ever Here I will dwell The place where his honor dwels which he owns My house and gives it a name An house of Prayer and our Saviour confirms it in the New Testament too it shall be so My Fathers house shall be so called and therefore I pray you in Gods name let him have it so The house of the Lord let it be Let him rest and dwell in this house for ever but a thousand pities he should dwell alone no body to attend him What! The Courts of the Lords house and no Courtiers Are there no Places no Pensions no Offices in this Court where are then the servants of his Majesty I hope they be even here even all the true and loyal and faithfull servants of the earthly majesty will rejoyce and be glad by the benign Influence of a royal example to become faithful and obedient Worshippers of the Majesty in Heaven PART 3. THis comes in right and puts us on Cultus our next particular Service 't is no domineering word an humble expression this and must be co nomine therefore exalted for it is indeed the word in the Text most predominant in a sense above Dominus and all for take out Dominus and what becomes of Domus Domus and Rus may then be likewise used that is as Rustically as Rudely as you will Well! Take out Cultus and I am sure Dominus will never abide it All staies or goes with this Cultus the main and mainly to be insisted on and Cultus absolute is due to Dominus first In Equiparence to his other houses and service in them all why this house far worse then all the rest as many as we called at in all Gods houses before I told you they might do us more service yet 1. First In the Maorocosm all things serve this their Lord up at Matins of Prayer seeking their meat at God at Vespers of Laws with the Anthem 1. It is He that hath made us and not We our selves 2. In Heaven his Angels ministring Spirits with Holy Holy Holy and a great voice of much people Rev. 19. saying Hâ—lelujahs Salvation and Glory and Honor and Power unto the Lord. 3. And in the womb of the blessed Virgin the house is aired and consecrated for his Conception by the holy Ghost And when he first brings in his first begotten Son into the world and Let all the Angels of of God worship him The Baptist did him service then unborn springing in the womb for joy and his own blessed mother Mary sings her service to to him while yet in her body My soul doth magnifie the Lord my Spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour In one and the same little house and Chappel royal of her great and mighty Lord the first St. Maries that ever was at once conceiving and containing him and her Devotion 4. And as for the house of flesh and Bethlems manger put them both together not all those clouds and swadling clouts of obscurity could dim the Light of the world nor hide this glorious Lord from the attendance of an host of Heavenly Courtiers and Souldiers running down the hill of Heaven to salute him Imperator with an Hymn of Gloria Deo in excelsis nor conceal him from those Kings some say wise men we are sure that came from the East to worship this Oriens who fell down before him opened their Treasures and presented him They could not hide him from old Simeons eyes after in the Temple for he then saw clearly the presence of the Lord in him that was there presented to the Lord even the Lords Christ whom he served with gladness and carolled out a blessing on him in his arms 5. Nor was this worship wanting in the very dwelling and banqueting houses of his servants 6. Simeon entertains him Levi makes him a great Feast and even there was Wisdom justified of her children One example above all in the house of that Simon the Pharisee that which went beyond his banquet and all the service there was the poor sinners service from her box of precious oyntment and her more precious tears serving to wash his feet 7. Next apply to him on shipboard and behold him not only heard with reverence by the shore-audience but St. Peter down at his knees with his Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord. 8. But in or at his grave no service That house so ill and low situate that none obliged to pay or tender service there 9. That 's the desolate house even of Kings saith Job the train forsakes them there Yet behold even in that house as Joseph and Nicodemus spare no coft of linnen cloaths and spices with a mixture of Myrrhe and Aloes of an hundred weight so the two Maries faild not with their oyntment and early visitation at the Sepulchre But as it was Johns eager spirit that out-ran Peter so Magdalen her loving spirit out-went them all in a constant service and devotion for when left alone she stood she wept she stoopt she lookt into the Sepulchre and there at length she lights on other fellow-servants of her Lord even two Angels in white sitting at the head and feet that is where those blessed head and feet of their Lord where the body of Jesus had layn John 20.12 10. As for service in his next house the Catholick Church we know as in the Jewish he was the only Lord of Israel and Moses and David wear that name of his servants So in the Christian Church What stile take Peter and Paul but servants of Jesus Christ and even the weaker sex behold the lowliness of his hand-maid an humblâ— Maid-servant at 16. and a blessed woddow-servant Anna in her great Climackterick Luke 2. That departed not from the Temple but served the Lord with fasting and prayer night and day 11. Lastly Our own souls and bodies what are they if rightly used but Organs and living Oratories and when here assembled a Box or Nest of little temples in His Temple which houses all his Saints and servants are carefull to possess in honor and keep them clean not for Bacchus or Venus but the pure and sacred Spirit of the Lord to keep out the Tempter to escape the pollutions of the world For if God be well served in these inner Temples the service of this house of the Lord would be the better set in order and that 's the last in our Zodiack There we are now again at service in this very place proper to Divine service this very place inclining as the cell to study the grove to Contemplation a Church or Chappel to Devotion ever this the house of the Lord both by way of excellency and propriety But remember I am upon Cultus absolute due to Dominus upon another double ground first Qua
meat and drink to do service And here again Corpus aptasti I am sure we sure were â—â—â—er so fitted for a body and for an house For were it not for this house in woful state were all the great houses of the Land all the Princely houses of all Christian lands the famous houses of York and Laneaster Valois Burbon Medices and Austria The right descent and purest royal blood is from this house of flesh but for this house and his wearing it and bearing all ours sins on the top of it For into the house they came not What Title but from this Ancestour to Paradise the Palace the Nonsuch above not a Tarquin Priscus or Superbus but beholden to this Servius nay the best and purest votaties in this house of God the place of his service not David or Solomon or good King Ezekiah not Constantine or Theodosius or Jacobus or Carilaus no gratious King of famous Memory or present Merit no body though never so embellisht or embraved shall ever joyn in that Quire of his Saints and holy Angels above without the mediation of the body of Jesus our Lord and the service done in that body 5. But what service in that Inn at Bethlem where was no room for him it was yet made serviceable for us for there we Inn to this day all at that Star we Gentiles claim by those that were Primitiae first Guests to that house of Gold and Incense we find there he had and we Partakers of his fine Gold and good service hath his Incense done us I am sure We pray Lord increase our faith and he that could help our unbelief Lord might do us good service if so surely a hundred Sermons in this house not more available then the dumb Cradle of our Lord in that cratch The Scripture speaks evidently saith the Apostle the Scripture lies mute thâ— Cradle house yet therein is an herald to proclaim the fulfilling of two great Prophecies one was Et tu Bethlem there Christ to be born The other that of his poverty A Worm shame of men out-cast of the people Upon the very Pillars of this house which are but the staves of the Cratch may we safely relie and build our Faith this blinded and madded the Jew but thus it must be thus must Christ be born if ever he do us good this obscureness to manifest him this emptiness to be his fulness of a Messiah to fulfill the Scripture that so our joy might be full full of joy and Peace in believing This the service he doth our Faith and no less service in making us humble I believe Lord and may not every one say I am humble Lord too but Lord help our unhumility Help us off with the double lets of outward Pomp and inward Pride Behold this Royal Insant reaches out his hand to serve us from his Cratch in our Bed-chambers and by his powerfull his high and mighty and stupendious Humility thrusts it to our hearts and strips off all from the souls and bodies of his faithfull servants all that may offend the eye of his heavenly Father and in that voice comes from him in this Cradle though yet inarticulate we hear him in the evidence of his holy Word and Spirit say Learn of me Put on the Lord Jesus Christ who thus in this House serves us and helps his servants both in their Faith and their Humility 6. and 7. In the sixth and seventh the private houses and banqueting houses of his servants the Lord serves as a Builder and a Watch-man and a â—â—aplain to say Grace and bless and loves to do â—â—vice there in the freedom of his conversation said in his dish by the proud Pharisee and in dayly working that Miracle of warry juice turned into Wine concoct into fresh and cheerfull blood 8. Next he serves us in those water-houses Wilt not thou O Lord go forth with our Armies saith the Psalmist so we may say The Lord hath gone forth with our Navies as in 88. so Quadragesimus octavus too Mirabilis Annus And then it is the Lord and the Power of his Might that hath saved the Metaphorical ships of Church and State kept those Bottoms from forreign invasive storms and dangerous Schisms and Leaks at home Skilfull Mariners may do well but he the Pilote at the Helm Christo Duce auspice regno is a Right Prophetick and true Inscription by Land and Water His bloody Cross a braver Flag and nobler Badge then Lucida sidera Castor Pollux This Pollens Lux ipsa the true Light to guide the whole feet He did us worthy service who first came by ship to conveigh the Light of the Gospel hither some years before a spark of fire at Rome What doth Lux by whose blessing on our ships we may by the same way derive the Light to other Nation yet in darkness as importing so thus exporting too the unsearchable Riches of Christ to which all Treasures of East and West are pale and drowsie and muddy things as a little Gravel in comparison Thus venture I still on with my frail bark and well enough if still Cesarem veho bear his well tryed Patience and attention along while Dominum Caesarem vebo That Lord who now could find no further house-room on earth or water but ceas'd not yet to do us further service in his very Sepulchre 9. For till he came thither thither we were come dead and buried bound hand foot in the grave-cloaths of our sins sealed up and claspt down with a stony weight of the wrath of God which would have prest us to the nethermost Hell But behold in that short time of his abode in this house what Rare Redoubts and Mines this mighty Engineer casts and contrives works a descent through the Iron jaws of death down to Hell and like a Conqueror ascends leading in Triumph Captivity Captive opening so and seasoning and sweetning so this house before so dreadfull filled with ultimum terribilium that his Disciples all that love and seek him in Life and Death shall never find discomfort in a Grave Nothing but a Requiem and Dormitory with Angels sitting at the head and feet till he awake them in Tuba novissima and raise them to a meeting in the clouds where all his servants shall enter into the joy of that their Lord. 10. As for the Catholick Church to demand his service there is to ask What good the Vine the Head the Bridegroom the Corner-stone do to the Branches Members Spouse and Building in those strict Unions nay closer then all those per euâ—dem spiritum Behold so am with you never to offer to part from you never to suffer you to part from me to the end of the world in the end and world without end which will be soon discovered by the Service done to each particular Member in every â—fâ—nr Souls and Bodies in that house For is not our body his house wonderfully and fearfully built that little world of beauty shaken
course both the Baptist Christ Jesus come preaching the Kingdom of Heaven upon our conversion to God It is observable that as God hath bound himself to a perpetual Revolution of Winter and Summer that Spring and Harvest in Autumn shall never fail So his whole will Word is a miscellany of Law and Gospel and such lightsome and comfortable Texts as this found in Isay many and in David many very many Evidences Evangelical and we in that respect to attend this hour to the Gospel of St. Malachy For not a Prophet of God not the least or last but hath an Inlay of mercy wrought up with Judgement and sweet and gracious Promises mingled with comminations They bring us down to discontent by the waters of Marab and Babylon to bitter weeping in the Valley of Tears to persecution of a red Sea the biting of fiery serpents and a killing letter of the Law But they leave us not without discovery of a Brazen serpent to cure us and many precious assurances that God will put all our tears in his bottle and wâ—pâ— away all tears from our eyes That he will take us out of many waters and bring his own again from the deep of the sea and revive us by the glad tidings of the Gospel of Peace and Reconciliation And experimentally Gods servants shall find it so in his actual dealing with them that look how God hath not left himself without witness in his general Providence showring down on earth his balmy Influences from Heaven so in his secret impartments of hidden Manna and in his open appliances to his holy Ones in those celestial dews of mercy which sall only on the fleeces of his Pasture-sheep when t is dry upon all the ground beside we find this exemplified in the head of his Church who as in himself he is a Light shining in darkness so as the darkness comprehends it not so his whole life and death was like light in a Lanthorn or lightnings from summer clouds pauses of sorrow and dejection with various glimpses and coruscations of his glory mixt and interweav'd For crucified dead and buried our Creed assists us with a glorious Resurrection and Ascension and Exaltation of that same crucified dead and buried Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus So to present you with several members of his mystical Body in their interchangeable Robes of sackcloth and tissue their Coronets of thornes and Roses were an easie task I name but two the Father of the faithful and the man after Gods own heart whom one while we find in fear horrour and great darkness and an horrible dread hath overwhelmed them another while rejoycing in hope and assurance of Gods All-sufficiency and with hearts dancing for joy as that sweet singer expresses it and how could I make this truth notorious but without a sailing over to the prime Apostles in the New Testament which I purposely reserve for a new and latter discovery when we come to close with the consummation of this Consolation mean time in this very first opening of the Mine you see enough discovered to consute such as think there is no Golden Vine nor branch of comfort in Gods service but seduced by Satan pretend an inequality a rugged unevenness in the wayes of God which God himself disclaims and imputes it to our wayes It is not the Religion of God that is unprofitable or vain as those foolish people in this Chapter openly profess'd nor does his service incline men inevitably to sadness and melancholy A second Material from this Mine is the connection and combination of this comfort in that God chains this mercy to a preceding mercy He begins here with a conjunction and they shall be mine and then couples it to a succeeding mercy and I will spare them c. Comfort past and present and to come Many feathers of Gods Wing many showers of Manna and of Quailes The whole srame and pile of comfort from the beginning of the sixteenth to the end of the seventeenth ver is pitcht as a Tabernacle of Joy with courtains coverings with loops and taches of consolations in conjunction God is and ever was a God of conjunction and communion a God of Order and combination Discord and dis-union are from the Devil God in Essence from before all beginning was unsolitary God that in wisdom saw it was not fit for man to be alone in his wisdom saw it was not good for God to be alone He is God alone that is there is no other But I am not alone sayes Christ never was so that is without the Father and the Holy Ghost All the three blessed and glorious persons as co-essential so co-eternal and coequal which makes for us we better apprehend and better apply God in the Trinity of persons so branching and reaching out more fruit to us then the contemplation of the Unity And as in Essence so in works of God which respecting us externally are all co-operations of all three Persons we find in nature first all things produc'd in number weight and measure and all things in connexion still One brother holds another by the heel and as our eyes enwrapt in several tunicles each under other so are those films and skins of sphears imaginary nothing but the vaultages and enwombings and enwrapings and swathings of the constellations and coverings ore those conjoyned Elements which are lodg'd in one anothers laps and inlaid and mortis'd into one anothers bosomes And so in his mornings and evenings dole and distribution in his daily providence and Dispensation all is done in order and by a set conjuncture of his Officers The Heavens appointed to hear the earth the earth to hear the corn and wine and oyl and they to hear us Hos 2.22 Such a chain of causes in things natural while the Cause of causes and the God of all these conjunctures hath the upmost link fastened to his Divine will in heaven But all the Links let down are wrapt about his beloved creature man in mercies that compass him round and embrace him on every side In midst whereof guarded by Angels that pitcht their tents about him man takes Repose and sleeps to the musick of the hollow murmuring winds and waters which seem to whisper in his ears a memento of his service to that Lord for whose sake they are yet in service to man But secondly in works of Grace is God observable to be a God of conjunction In his first gracing of his chosen Israel to enable them for a great and wise people he gave them a Law from heaven Deut. 4.6 which was a Law conjunctive both affirmative Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul and with all thy strength and thy neighbour as thy self Two tables joynd by Gods own hands and a Rejoinder by our Saviour This is the first and great Commandement and the second is like unto it keep both or neither he that fails in any one is guilty of all and
victorious Army of boyes or Pesants chance to over-run a Kingdom with noise of weapons as the Prophet describes it and rowling of garments in blood what then become of all their glory their Pattents and painted wax If then you seek for right enobling and to be truly honorable or if you would be men of good estates indeed and enjoy certainties and perpetuities sludy to be in the favour and protection of the Lord of Hosts for then however it go for this world you shall be sure of Eternal blessedness in another at that day when he shall make up his Jewels Secondly a contrary use for all those wretched souls as pride themselves in being none of Gods Elect that mock at mention of Grace and Godliness whose language is fully recorded in the second of Wisdim and their Posterity to this day praise their saying and continue the same frontless impudence A Race of impious scorners Solomons fools imagining it the utmost of disgrace that can be stuck upon them to be call'd or counted Religious or Lovers of God a profession fit for a crue of sullen melancholy simpletons Mean time in what a fearful condition do these Jewels of the Devil live I and glory in their shame and perdition for let me speak to some one roaring Leader of this band and say who hath bewitcht thee into this Delusion It may indeed advance thee to some friend ships and full tables that thou art a full swearer a curious drunkard or an Eloquent Historian of those sins wherewith thy body bewrayes thy youth to have abounded and yet thou art content to belye thy self in the Relation and being thus far from remorse thus given over to a Reprobate mind thou art not able to conceive the Apostle where he tells thee they are without hope that are without God and that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands what is it to fall out of the hands of the living God and so that he which made thy soul filled it with noble faculties offers it Grace and Holiness and Purification should be forced by thy wilful rejection of Grace and Mercy to give over his work to cast thee off for ever that thy soul should contract so much dross and defilement thy works of darkness so extinguish all impressions of Light and Beauty as thy Creator should not I am sure will not own thee but say to thy everlasting horror and astonishment Depart from me I know no such workers and boasters of iniquity Thirdly to trie our selves Dost thou believe that God esteems thee as a Jewel purchased by Jesus blood and that he sets his heart upon thee O take heed this be not vanity and mad presumption Reflect on what we said last of those properties inherent or ascribed to precions stones and shew me first thy faith by thy works What are the vertues and precious operations of thy faith and profession If thou beest of a refined and sanctified nature thou wilt be a grace and an honor to thy God And where is that thy love to his name thy zeal to his glory and then is thy life operative upon others by thy example won to goodness Art thou precisely carefull and curious to preserve others specially those within thy charge from Ignorance Idleness Prophaness Wantonness Bribery Drunkenness Or on the contrary Is thy manner of conversing with men scandalous and ignoble sinfull and shamefull O remember then however thou mayest have a name to live thou art but dead though thou seem pure in thy own eyes or the applause of Parasites yet those eyes truly enlightned would see thy own deformity that thou art yet in thy sins and not cleansed from thy wickedness yet in thy pure that is thy impure naturals and far from being any Partaker of the divine Nature Consider then our selves by those two propertie especially Solidity and Clearness First Are we firm and sound no counterfeits constant in the practice as well as profession of Christ Never worse times then these of late but never better times for trial And if our hearts have been preserved unshaken there is yet a Scrutiny and an Inquest after our Holiness and Purity and Clearness for God will have his Jewels untainted Our God is of pure and fiery eyes and no impure thing must tarry in his sight Come out saith God and touch no unclean thing and then you shall be precious in my sight be my Sons and Daughters 2 Cor. 6. In those precious stones on Aarons brest-plate was engraven Holiness to the Lord and Gods material Temple so beautified tipically prescribes what those souls should labor to be which God vouchsafes to make Temples for his holy Spirit Unclean spirits inhabit wicked souls but the holy Ghost takes it in despite is grieved and quencht with our pollutions and so for God the Father the Father of Lights he will not endure the deeds of darkness under colour of his service Pure religion and undefiled even before God the Father is in a main branch to keep a mans self unspotted of the world James 1. ulc i. e. escaping the corruptions which are in the world through lusts God is good to Israel i. e. to all that are of a clean heart Indeed a Jewel of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath its honor thence vocatus fuit inclytus is the Paraphrase so called for its excelling Purity And so lastly in reference to our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that redeemed us to be a peculiar people to himself and like himself Tiberius would not suffer the image of Augustus in Ring or Coin to be born into any unseemly Place so the adopted Sons and Servants of God will be carefull of disgracing the glorious Image of Christ Jesus sealed and imprinted in their souls by admitting stains and blemishes but be carefull to abstain from the least appearance of evil and to purifie themselves even as he is pure because till then he is not throughly enamour'd of his spouse the Church till her neck be comely with rowes of stones till she be as the Rose and Lilly all fair and no spot in her Yet all this is spoken and must be taken with the Apostles Caution and Restriction not as if any had or ever could attain perfection here No they reckon a number of infirmities that the most precious Jewels are subject to There is Fumus Vmbra Nubeculae Scabrities Capillus Sal Punctum Scobes Plumbago Ferrugo Rubigo Vomica which distain the purest stones So in the choicest of Gods people in the rarest vessels of his honor prepared unto Glory remain those Reliques like Clouds and Ices They have all their grains and spots Delict a quotidianae incursionis and St. Austin speaking of the Churches brightness and perfection adds Ad hoc Electa non ut jam sit talis sed ut ad hoc paretur Their goodness may be true because unfeigned but not altogether fair save only by comparison So hath sin poisoned the
and umbragious being chas'd away by the fiery indignation of a powerfull God especially with this co-consideration that his treason had been committed against a Lord so gracious But whether this Gracious and great Lord God was the second Person the Lord of Glory our blessed Redeemer Christ Jesus as some will have it conceivd both of this and other apparitions in the old Testament I stay not to determine nor to enquire But thus far only this Note will easily fall upon and into our consciences if we resist not if we despight not the Spirit of this Grace Namely that we should bear an infinite derestation to sin which procured at first and hath that malignant properte intrinsick and everlasting in all successive sin and sinners to provoke still the anger and offence of a most gracious Lord and if so then to think further of that infinite Grace and Love and goodness which even after sin committed could procure that Lord to compassion and could draw so deep a descent of Mercy as to submit himself to his most bitter Passion whereby he gives every wounded soul a clear assurance in an open pardon sealed in his own blood and also in this very Name leaves an Intimation that all our disobedience all our foul and many and weighty sins fall yet within the measure and compass and cannot sink us past or beneath the mercies of a gracious Lord God And therefore we to raise our souls upon this double Name as on a pair of powerfull wings oversoaring despair and flying up into his bosom who is our hope and life our dread and Love our Judge indeed but yet our Advocate that calls to us Come to me and whose blood cryes for us and we therefore to cry to him with that Disciple newly awakened to that frightfull and that delightfull double sight at once both of his sin and his salvation in Christ which made him so resolutely and so cheerfully take and wreath these Names together with Mâ—us in the appliance Dominus Deus meus my Lord and my God 12. This instruction I know and so you will apprehend it fits far better with the â—exts of the new and yet is no stranger in the old Testament For even Isay and Malaâ—hy in their clear and frequent forementions of our Lord retain as well the Relishes of Evangelists as Prophets and David openly sings and playes him on his Harp as Evidently as Elegantly Nay not so vail'd in Moses but that this very place of Genesis so early in the worlds infancy reveals some think the very person sure we are the Office of our Lord and Saviour whose after-manifestation and coming to destroy the works the Devil had made is promised within six verses and call'd a bruising of the Serpents head 13. But let us pursue this same consideration another way that a gracious and so a glorious Lord and God is offended and by sin drawn to an opposition to an enmity with his beloved creature man The vileness of sin is many wayes discovered in the language of the Holy Ghost It is to a main height of expression when God descends to so low a comparison as that in Amos I am prest under your sins as a Care is prest under many sheafs My Rebellion my stubbornness is a dangerous sin done against my Prince or Pastor or Parents And my violences my cruelties are heavy sins because in them I oppress my brother as a good man it may be better in his eye that made us both then my self But did I ever understand till now that I may oppress him that is optimus maximus my God also Is it not enough to weary men sayes the Prophet but shall I dare to vex and weary my God also and afflict and grieve my gracious Lord and his Holy Spirit No wonder we find David complaining My sins are a sore burden too heavy for me to bear when Davids Lord tunes his voice to the same key Your sins are a sore burden too heavy for me to hear Dost thou not see O vain man by this the vileness the odiousness of thy sin which makes him impotent that is Omnipotent As also in that term of Abomination How frequent is the use thereof in holy Scripture to cause us to write this lesson into all our souls from thence Nothing makes us so ugly spectacles to that Lord our God as sin which causes him to turn his face away in displeasure not able to abide us in his sight nay forced to deny his own workmanship Depart I know you not thus making him ignorant that is Omniscient And yet above and beyond and beneath all these we may collect the height and breadth and depth of a sinners dangerous and fearfull condition by those speeches of anger and provocation The wrath of a King is as Messengers of death the Wise man tells us and he that provokes him to anger sins against his own soul What is it when we provoke the holy one of Israel to anger O Lord rebuke me not in thy anger if in that mood I be called into Judgement O Lord who is able to abide it And this is doubtless one of the depths of Satan one of his main aims in provoking us to sin that thereby God being provoked to anger may declare himself our enemy What shall we then say Men and Brethren What will we then do May we not then say justly that other Lords have unjustly reigned over us Infoelix Lolium steriles dominantur our base and barren lusts and pleasures have indeed justly by Gods permission and by way of punishment had dominion over us by our willing submission of our souls to their sway and tyranny And will we still do so continue in sin still make a mock of gross and grievous sins never startle or admit the least umbrage of remorse at open blasphemies and often Adulteries drunkennesses Are not such mens Souls and Bodies States and Children in a fearfull manner engaged to the wrath of God which they hourly provoke by these abominations Alas poor wretched man or woman however titled Preacher or Hearer Lawyer or Courtier Lord or Lady every wickedness every known sin I dwell and delight in and resolve on is not only a touching pitch whence inevitable defilement nor a carrying fire in my bosom impossible to escape detriment but is an opposition a rebellious outstanding and sleighting of my God enmity for the wrath of God is manifoldly proclaimed from Heaven and Wisdom cries it in the streets Gods Declaration we are not ignorant of and dare we then despise If I be a Lord where 's my fear What earthly Monarch the anointed of the Lord unless super-anointed with the spirit of patience and meekness above mortals can endure his lawfull Commands to be vilified And can we look for less then suddain execution of that wrath which is drawn out and ready to fall on sinners and hath been the sinners case from the beginning Adam was our first Father
SERMONS AND DEVOTIONS OLD and NEW Revived and publisht as an Oblation of gratitude to all such of the Nobility Gentry and Clergy as retain the noble conscience of having ministred to the weak Condition of the Author now aged 73. The SERMONS at Court were before the War brake forth betwixt King and Parliament Also a Discourse of DUELS being a Collection and Transtation of other mens Opinions with some Addition of his own And this in special dedicated for their Use To the Right Honourable THOMAS LORD VISCOVNT BEAVMONT of Coleorton and Mr. ROBERT SVTTON Heir to Mr. Rich. Sutton of Tongue in Leicestershire By THOMAS PESTEL the meanest amongst his late Majesties Chaplains in ordinary Nonumque premantur in annum Hor. LONDON Printed for Nathaniel Ekins at the Gun in Pauls Charch-yard 1659. DEVOTIONS ON Certain Anniversary FEASTS and other Occasions First on Ascension Day 1625. TO day white Saints and holy Angels sing To that pure Lamb some new triumphant thing Whereat the whole frame of the world ascends Each Bird on wings across his Journeys bends Upright and from the most exalted twist His voioe proclaims his Joyes above consist Earth swels to rise and heaves her Issue fair In swift perfumes to latch the mounting Air. Rise then my soul and every power awake Can wals of Dust so strong Resistance make Lo Thy Redeemer that brave Eagle flies With Cage and all breaking the marble skies His way to climb was fitst to be deprest Lay then his bloody Cross upon thy brest Which will be such a load as birds wings are To bear thee where his pleading wounds prepare A Crown of Glory made by conquest thine Was his by Nature where he will refine Thee and thy case of clay bright as his own When join'd in Glory both ascend one Throne The Relief on EASTER EVE LIke an Hart the live-long day That in thorns and thickets lay Rouse thee soul thy flesh forsake Got to relief from thy brake Shuddring I would have thee part And at every motion start Look behind thee still to see If thy frailties follow thee Deep in silence of the night Take a sweet and stoln delight Graze on Clover by this calm Precious spring of bleeding Balm Thou remembrest how it ran From his side that 's God and man Taste the pleasures of this stream Thou wilt think thy fâ—â—sh a dream Nightly this Repast go take Got to Relief from thy brake On WHITSUNDAY or God is Light GOD is all Light All eye who first gave sight To the dark Caos yielding no delight To him the double Parent whiles it lay So deep in night that nothing yet was day Wherein nought pleas'd his eye that blindly stood But when it saw He saw that all was good He whose eternal Essence House and Robe Are all one Light one boundless Christal Globe Fathers of Lights whose Son is from on high The day-spring and whose spirit an inward eye Which through this worlds wide Engine moves and rouls But dwels in us illumining our souls To search and find that whole and only Bliss Which of all three in one the Vision is Expostulation on the loss of a noble Gentlemans eye Mr. H. Ha. 1634. THou dreadfull Potter may thy humble clay Ask if Deformities or Darkness may Be pleasing in thy sight or why we find So many born so many striken blind Troops of diseases Change of chance to marr Thy work and leave a cloud where was a star If sin still made thy wrath thus heavy fall Alas thou mightst rain Darkness on us all If sins excess their pride that have their eyes Would all exceed for they would all despise But what on sins slaves as a plague is thrown Like manna fals and mercy to thine own The Sodomites were blind so Tobie was It fell on Paul as well as Elymas And to thy book thy glass when we repair Where as all scruples all solutions are That blind-born man so pos'd and quarrel'd there His parents too by thine own doom are clear And opening his thou giv'st us eyes to see That Natures Blemish may thy Glory be So canst thou blend these things and make us wealth Of Poverty and of a sickness health Want teaches Plenties use were night away We should grow wanton-weary of the day Blows Bruises Blindness ere thy work be done May into Medcine Balm and Eye-salve run God that through Darkness se'st down through my Rains And knowst how close this grief my heart constrains How this blow striks my eyes still that to weep I find them apter then to look or sleep Thou know'st the Muse was no phantastick fit Brought forth this verse I am not sick of wit But these disordered lines like Amraes deep Fetcht srom my soul in lowly murmur creep Up to thy Throne of Grace The rest is lost On New-years Day a New-years Gift Out of Gal. 4.4 God sent his Son made of a woman made under the Law First God sent his Sone GOD sent his Son to make mans joy begun From first to last in endless circle run Without Beginning God who never ends From boundless Being mans Beginning sends Mans double guard of Sun and stars we see Angels unseen all of his sending be A foodfull Garden after food came rest Then woman came of Visibles the best Her seed in Promise then in Gods intent Before all worlds into the world was sent But till all other sendings fail and fade The Blood that seal'd this mission was unmade Man first was sent to Reasons goodly Lamp Which dul'd he found and dim'd in sinful damp Then Sacrifice and Prayer which heard he saw New Light down sent him in a flaming Law Wild sinners scourge But School and Guide to those That tir'd by sin by Faith on him repose To make whose joyes in endless circle run From first to last Behold God sent his Son Made of a Woman MAde of a woman Heark you Race Of men no more this Sex disgrace The Lord of Glory leaves his place To Bour with Mary full of Grace God above all that 's great or good Is made of womans flesh and blood How rare a Vivary was this Our Lord within our Lady is O look Amazed Angels look But cannot read this my stick Book Till that Babes blood unclose the seal And so himself himself reveal The woman first that wrought our wo Remember first from man did grow Here all by Virgins blood was done Gods only Partner in his Son Made of a woman Heark you Race Of men no more this Sex disgrace Made under the Law UNder the Law He that the Ground-work laid Of Earth and gave the seas a Law was made Who gives the charge to this Eternal Word Supream-and-sole-law-giving mighty Lord. Proud slime and worms God bows our yoak to bear Put on in love to put us out of fear To service homage vassalage descends * Jan. 1. To day and first fruit of his blood he spends What Feind Eccentrick then shall force our souls
From motions regular about his Poles Shall even deadly sins in disaray Keep off our minds from his Diurnal sway Under the Law made he his resting place And chose the cutse to leave us under Grace But still to morals tied our hearts and hands Scorn not his easie yoak nor break his bands Without those Grates all fire of vertue cools None lawless thus but Devils Popes and Fools An Hymn on Trinity Sunday 1625. Tuned according to S. Bernards Cur mundus militat c. SIDesideria cordium satias Aeternas volumus agere gratias O pater Luminum pater illius Qui pater noster est tibi filius Per quem Coelestia singula feceris Quicum fundamina terrae conjeceris Quorum mens agitat molem mirabilis Atque operarius est ineffabilis OTRINE rejici quanquam sim meritus Me tamen refici dignare spiritus Re visas obsecro sol semper oriens In Lutum recidens Cor meum moriens Vt quae refulserit exinde Puritas Sit illi salus sancta securitas Heu sines animam hac in putredine Mundani pulveris omni dulcedine Supernae Gratiae privatam degere Quam nutu facili possis protegere Si Desideria cordium satias Aeternas volumus reddere gratias Ad Iesum Redemptorem Tu qui Serpentis caput contuderis Qui Preces Lachrymas sanguinem fuderis Orcum post tumulum qui penetraveris Et mortis Dominum morte prostraveris Et super nubium tractus ascenderis Ac modis milites mille defenderis Labimur labimur Heu dicto citiùs Jesu suavissime ni sis propitius Menteis irradians faveris lumine Ac labes diluens cruoris flumine Et sancti spiritus accendens flamine Nos incredibili leves solamine Si Desideria cordium satias Aeternas volumus habere gratias On the Holy SACRAMENT LOrd to thy flesh and blood when I repair Where dreadfull joyes and pleasing tremblings are Then most I relish most it doth me good When my soul faints and pines and dies for food Did my sins murder thee To make that plain Thy pierc'd-dead-living body bleeds again Flow sad sweet drops what diffring things you do Reveal my sins and seal my pardon too A Psalm for Christmass day morning 1 FAirest of morning Lights appear Thou blest and gaudy day On whom was born our Saviour dear Make haste and csme away 2 See See our pensive breasts do pant Like gasping Land we lie Thy holy Dews our souls do want We faint we pine we die 3 Let from the skies a joyfull Rain Like Mel or Manna fall Whose searching drops our sins may drain And quench our sorrows all 4 This day prevents his day of Doom His mercy now is nigh The mighty God of love is come The day-spring from on high 5. Behold the great Creator makes Himself an house of clay A Robe of Virgin flesh he takes Which he will wear for ay 6 Heark heark the wise Eternal Word Like a weak Infant cries In form of servant is the Lord And God in Cradle lies 7 This wonder struck the world amaz'd It shook the stary frame Squadrons of spirits stood and gaz'd Then down in Troops they came 8 Glad Shepherds ran to view this sight A quire of Angels sings And Eastern Sages with delight Adore this King of Kings 9 Bis. Joyn then all hearts that are not stone And all our voices prove To celebrate this holy One The God of Peace and Love PRAYER and PRAISE TO work strong lines and wreath a Crown of Baies For Jesus Brows Take servent Prayer and Praise 1. That runs and flows and bears a deeper sense Then winding Verse or ratling Eloquence It rises first and breaks through hearts of stone But not till Aarons rod be struck thereon Cleft with Remorse then climbs through weeping eyes With silver feet transcending far the skies To wash his feet whose purple drops divine Will turn this water into Angels wine 2. This made of words which are but vapor pent In forge of flesh by panting bellows sent To mix with mother Air yet this to me Shall both a blessing and an honor be Saith God who cals those things as if they were Which are not so or do not so appear To us And look how sweet it strikes the sense When vernal winds inspire their Influence On flowery Meads so thanks like Incense rise And Heavan takes praise as perfum'd sacrifice A Psalm for Sunday Nights 1 COme Ravisht souls with high Delight In sweet immortal Verse To crown the day and welcome night Jehovahs praise Reherse 2 O sing the Glories of our Lord His Grace and Truth resound And his stupendious acts Record Whose mercies have no bound 3 He made the All informing Light And hosts of Angles fair 'T is he with shadows cloaths the night He clouds or clears the Air. 4 Those restless skies with stars enchaste He on firm hindges set The wave embraced earth he plac'd His hanging Cabinet 5 Wherein for us all things comply Which he hath so decreed That each in order faithfully Shall evermore proceed 6 We in his Sommer sun-shine stand And by his favour grow We gather what his bounteous hand Is pleased to bestow 7 When he contracts his brow we mourn And all our strength is vain To former dust in death we turn Till he inspire again 8. Then to this mighty Lord give praise And all our voices prove The Glory of his name to raise The God of Peace and Love The Christians Reply to Christs Venite POssum good Lord by thee inclinal Volo sometimes with ease I find Nolo yet runs so in mind Male still makes me lag behind PRIDE will fall but Grace to the Humble 1. THis fall Fell Lucifer first tries Who endlong fell never to rise Woman the next then man and all Proud flesh from them have caught the fall 2. From this foul falling sickness shall The fall of one recover all Mankind that medcin'd by his Spirit His best of Graces shall inherit Whereby he still in it doth fall Upon his humble servants all His conjugal Prayer Domestick GOD infinitely Great and Good Purge all our sins by Jesus blood From serpentine three deadly foes The Gardens of our souls enclose That Spirit which Grace and Truth affords Rule all our actions thoughts and words Our hearts into his Temples raise Our tongues loud Organs of his praise Lord make our selves and Race throughout Pure humble sober chast devout Loyal and gratefull wise and just On thee and industrie to trust Blest with a low but glad estate In food and Rayment moderate Nor rich of poor to be en ied Nor poor to be by rich supplied Give freedom Order Health and Peace Then in thy favour to decease When Nature here by Grace prepar'd May look for Glory afterward Vpon a Bible presented to a young Lady the Lady Kath. C. 1624. THE world is Gods large Book wherein we learn Him in his glass of wonders to discern But
Let us then lift up our hearts together with our hands to Go◠in the Heavens 1. OUR first part is Vitis and that is Christ we way take his own word John 15. 1. I am the true Vine Poor hedge and harth wine you may wring from natural knowledge and from moral Books and dull muddy stuff the world affords mingled with Mandragoras whose effect is betwixt sleep and poison But would you that above the spirit of Cecub or Falernian wine The Vine which breeds a liquor potent and mighty in operation Quod cum spe divite manet in Venas A cup of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that fills with holy Raptures and Extasies and lifts your Spirit up to become Partaker of the divine Nature Then come to me saith he He all alone at this He and none but He can give this Grace Search the Vineyards the Scriptures They testifie of him Those Cherubins the Old and New Testament clap all their wings together for the enclosing him who is A. and Ω. the same Rock and Mannae Jesus Christ yesterday and to day and the same for ever The Book of God is Paradise everywhere Trees of knowledge bowing their eminent tops But Christ Jesus the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden The Fruit and Kernel of which Fruit is here in Vitis Objection 1. 2. But in 1 Pet. 1.3 we find this made the Act of God the Father Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath begotten us again c. and ascribable to him as an Act of Power and Wonder first above that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And secondly As an Act of Love of which he is the Fountain While not as a Father alone but as a Mother too he conceives in the womb of Predestion brings forth in Vocation tenders and bears in arms and on his wings of Providence and hath Viscera misericordiarum in the plural And again this is made the work of the holy Ghost Tit. 3.8 By the washing of the new birth and renewing of the Holy Ghost c. And so much seems implied in that Commission Receive you the holy Ghost and then Whose sins you remit c. For answer hereto briefly we learn from the school that though in the sacred Trinity be order yet no Degree and in their Acts ad extra they all blessedly conspire as in this particular the Apostle informs us 1 Cor. 6. By the Grace of God the Father through the blood of his Son are we raised as so many Temples of the holy Ghost And as the Son is in at Creation by him were all things made he being the power and wisdom of the Father so the Spirit is called his Gift too whom I will send you from the Father and in the Galatians it is stild the Spirit of Christ All build then this holy frame But he lies down as the Foundation as that precious corner-stone on whom his Saints relie by vertue of their precious Faith and partake all these precious Promises in him Yea and Amen He that Olive of whose fatness and Vine from whose root live all the Branches which he performs in special too by a double distillation of his Grace and blood while the blood of that Vine is made ours and we through it and him made Sons of God and most properly in this Filiation here mentioned his Act who is in nature Filius He by generation to make us so by Regeneration Thus have we endeavoured to dig and discover this to the root indeed that root ineffable of three in one God the Father as Author and Fountain the Son as means and merit the Spirit forming cherishing and preserving the new Creature A Grace flowing from the Father by the Son in the Power and Operation of the holy Ghost Objection 2. 3. But where 's the Text then How do we receive it by Faith Our Saviour Answers it in the fifteenth of St. John This is done by insition as we by it receive him that is abide in him and that cannot be without assenting and obeying both By both which we begin to live and draw sap and conrinuating strength of spiritual Life The life I now live I live by the power of the Son of God 'T is his Act and Gift in the first Light and Influence and first Attraction and bowing our will to receive him and in obediential performaces too asubsequent and concurrent Grace yet a Nostrality too so far as a non fugere saith St. Austin nay as a Sequi too and an Agere a co-working with the work of him that works all in all and all our works in us And the manifest of this Insition by believing and so receiving him is a plain and easie Decision of that drie and tedious Jangle which infects the mysterie of Godliness For nor Faith nor works alone Nor they without their root Nor it without his fruits Poscit opem conjurat amice Faith working by Love Objection 3. 4. But which way How can these things be Which way is the Light parted saith Job c. Where comes our divine Light of Reason to clasp and Grace it self under that noble and ampler Lamp of Faith The Answer is prepard by St. Peter who tells us where it grows the immortal seed of his his Word called therefore the Word of Life and the Word of his Grace and this very Grace the Word of Faith to which is ever annext the use and blessing of those Sacraments of the one whereof our Saviour tells us Except a man be born again and of the other Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood no life is in you no kingdom of Heaven for you PARTICVLAR 2. 5. THus far of Vitis Our second Particular is Racemus The bunch of Grapes 'T is rendred here by Power but is understood in an Excellency Power cum Priviledgio This indeed intended as Caput Votorum For as he saith Quid voveat dulci alumno So what is it that thy soul desires Is it Beauty Belive there are no such Roses and Lilies in their Midsummer as Gods Sons in their early Spring That being true of every member which is spoken of the body in general Thou art all fair No deformity not that of sickness nor that of age nor spot nor wrinckle Free from all defilement of sin a brave and high victorious and insolent Beauty that pure fair white and red in his innocence and in the blood of the Lamb. Is it riches How faint and cold and poor a word to this that makes a man rich in God! And rich in faith is equivalent to that For by that is a poor wretch under all made Heir to God who is rich over all and enjoyes not these shadows of the world but those unsearchable riches of Christ not filthy lucre defiling in the acquist but fine Gold So that thy adoring Mammon is but a mockery to thy soul It cannot make thee it may marr it
may undo thee nor can it redeem or preserve thee or thou it For Fool thy soul may be suddainly snatcht away And then whose shall those things be But if made a man indeed made for ever thou must be melted and refined and new made the Son of God in Christ Thirdly If long life be a blessing desireable Think all thy possessing here of all those dreams of the-shapes of pleasures shaddows can endure but for a vapory moment saith St Janes but he that believes in the Son of God hath everlasling Life saith St. John haves it in full and quiet possession by the power of his faith and having named everlasting life there need no addition of pleasure Food Rayment yet all these in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even in this life fulness of joy as full as humane nature can hold yea overflowing exceedingly abounding with all joy and peace in believing which Graces and replenishing of his Saints bosomes are therefore in the old resembled by saturity marrow fatness and in the new by manna hid and living fountains of water which mixt and cuited by the bleeding balm which drops from those holes of the Rock the peirced side of our Saviour becomes a cordial and soveraign Receipt against venom of sin and poison of the Serpent And lastly If felicity consist in knowledge or as he puts it Sapere fari with sapience like believing with the heart What Eloquence so puissant and clear like confessing with the mouth to salvation What learning to that Cross which makes Philosophy a fool suspends pales the sages and Disputers of this word Angels desire to prie into it and he that was full of Revelations desired to know nothing else 6. But take another view of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the two usual notions of the word Honour and Power Honour first It is so thin and aerie a thing as who can tell you what it is Something derivable from the prince the fountain of Honour yet he only alike to direct us where to lay and place the Title and the Ornaments He can bow no mans heart to any performance for it is a thing wholly in honorante in him that will do us honour if he lift and when he lift And what are the materials and the dress Reckond they are Esd 13. Thirdly Clothed in Purple and fine linnen eat in gold sleep on gold a Chariot with bridles of Gold Now usurpt by vulgars and then to sit next the King and to be called his Cousin Glories well worth the wearing when purchased by a long descent of noble blood and vertue mingled or by that vertue singular Yet how uncertain is the Possession In times of Peace how oft hath Glory vanisht all honour been laid in the dust and still attended on beside the shade of envy with those two certain Ravishers extream old age and death and in times of war or danger how subject to the pillage and affront of every Ruffin But here 's an honorable addition with a perpetuity enough if our hearts were filled with ambitious fires to give satisfaction and acquiescence Sons of the most high which stile though some on earth may wear yet God their Father wears it with a difference Some most high among men in their morning and meridian Glory may be full low before the evening But thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom Thou O Lord art most high for evermore With cordial water it is that the Church sprinckles all our hearts when she teaches us to pray O Lord whose Kingdom is everlasting and Power infinite To be Son then to him is a Title which anoints us in Grace as Christ in nature above all our fellows of mankind and in a sort above Angels For to which of the Angels said God at any time Thou art my Son A Title wherein all Titles imperial are appaled impoverisht lost or far exceeded For I can ask as great or I can think beyond all honour ever worn by mortal But this Gods tells me is above Demand and Cogitation above all that we are able to ask or think Secondly In the notion of Power as it is here rendred What a formidable army doth the people present and oppose to the militant Christian Eph. 6.14 Principalities and Powers and then the vantage ground in high places enough to daunt the courage of the stoutest flesh and blood to encounter Legions of such spirits yet mark his oration to the soldiour verse 11. My Brethren Be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his might There is a compleat armour beaten out in Heaven and we fight under him who hath blood and spirit ready to run into and fill our veins to make us stand and standing fight and fighting conquer more then Conquerors for we are made to triumph in Christ who triumpht over all those powers for us And if there be more Troopers in the way of our Salvation as there is a world of enemies yet this is your victory whereby you overcome the world even your faith and against all the treasons and rebellions of the flesh the servant of God hath no other rescue granted him upon his instant petition but my Grace shall be sufficient for thee and my power shall be made â—erfect in Weakness PARTICVLAR 3. 7. I Have done with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and am come to Torcular the Wine-press of Application By which I promised first to draw a cup of consolation which is soon done by contemplating the Grace and Mercy of God in Christ Jesus His abundant manifold Grace and the multitude of his Mercies his sweet and tender mercies differenced from mens first in being sure then in their eternity The Lord is gracious and his mercy is everlasting And lastly mercy mingled of pardoning and rewarding both together which no man uses to a riotous Son or refractory servant yet our case was more desperate and behold God sets forth his love to us being enemies and in defiance Then he sent again his only Son that whosoever believes might not perish Is not that enough No But might have everlasting life The solemnity of this fulness of delight in the enjoying of Gods mercy thus in Christ makes it up a wedding Hos 2. and in the Gospel And the Saints said to rejoice in their beds The spouse in Thalamo And all that Psalm of David Ps 45. and all Solomons Song are nothing but Epithalamions at these nuptials wherein the Bride though bare and poor and naked and miserable before is now by the rich Dowry and Joynture of her Grace in Christ stated and possest and enobled and arayed and adorned above her wish and to her everlasting consolation but for we are too apt too easily to let such Comforts issue from such Texts as this therefore I told you this cup must awhile be set by till we have tasted first a Cup of sober consideration for a cooler Be sober and suspitious was the Heathens and Christians rule alike is Be
good a man a man â—â—er Gods own heart so gracious a King that 〈◊〉 his people with a faithful and true heart and rul'd them prudently with all his power anointed by God with his holy oil and appointed by him to be Head over all the Tribes assured from God â—hat his holy hand arm and all should hold him faâ—â— and strengthen him against the violence of his enemies and yet to see this Head over the people 〈◊〉 surrounded with evil members such a roar about him of populorum multorum maximorum for so Tremellius reads it and so we translate iâ— Of all the mighty and the word will bear botâ— multitude and magnitude from all these in steâ—â— of Magnificat and Benedictus which were due ouâ— flie Reproaches blasphemies slanders thick a hail at every step he takes Vestigia it is hereâ— That may be all the prints and tracts of his wordâ— and actions defac'd and blur'd They found Erraâ—â— in them all in all he said or did they dayly mistaâ—â—â— my words is gone before Ps 56.5 And here theâ—â— slander my actions the footsteps of thy Anointed Is this all No the Kings enemies here are Goâ—â— enemies too Slandering David the Lords servant blaspheming Jehova Davids Lord. No wondeâ— then at Recordare Domine in the top here more woâ—der at Benedictus in the bottom Notwithstandingâ— this Rebuke and slander and blasphemy nay 〈◊〉 all this for all these Praised be the Lord for eveâ— more Amen 3. Less then two Parts we cannot make David Supplication and his Consolation or let the fâ—â—â— Part be his Malady and the second his Remeâ—â— First the Malady we shall see will draw to it all 〈◊〉 matter of the Supplication and take in all the pâ—â—sons as well those affected to it as those infeâ—â—â— by it and then the Remedy will heal up and make a fair hand of all when we have discovered it throughout the Text from Recordare down to Benedictus 4. This Malady then for the name we may call it here Opprobrium Reproachful or disgraceful language It hath other names here of Rebuke Slander Blasphemy three Channels all drain'd into one sink of Opprobrium That is the Monster the Bawling Cerberus foaming with Aconitum a strong poison working and drenching through all and if it light upon a King you see it obstructs his Pectoral parts sits near his very heart gestare in sinu doth not signifie nothing 5. But what causeth this Maladie whence comes fit not desuper not from the Father of Light from him none but good and perfect Gifts nor from his Son whose wisdom is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated who when he was reviled reviled not again nor comes it from that Spirit which proceeds from them both which came down in shape of a Dove it comes the other way then de subter from the fowl unclean spirit from the Prince of Darkness A dire and dreadful vapour it is from Hell that blasts the day and all the children of light But yet so welcome is this spirit to the spirit of a meer natural man while it lusteth after envy and lies soakt in flesh and blood that the carnal man loves it as his own flesh and blood nourishes and cherishes it till wonted once and grown familiar it goes from man to man and from house to house crescit eundo grows a foggy ugly unweldly and monstruous thing and that it fall among a crew of Populorum and gathers still upon multorum maximorum then it soon poisons and putrifies it condenses and putrifies the very air hurls rotten and killing slanders round about the earth and shoots up blasphemies as high as heaven 6. We may go another way to work and seek these blatant beasts Infamy and Blasphemy Slander and Reproach and find them all concentred in St. James his world of wickedness and a fitter Centre can never be for as in this great world we have infinite atomes feathers and dust flying aloft but massie and drossie things sink downward to the centre of the earth So in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have store of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 light and vain and foolish words upon the wing but still the most filthy the mineral and visceral and intestine the basest and heaviest dregs and lees and tartar the drossiest and lowest stuff even as low as the bottomless pit that which showes man likest and draws him nearest to the Devil is this Devilish part and price of opprobrium 7. Thus having fixt upon this Centre see if the Text will furnish out a Circumference and here are choice materials for of whom speaks the Prophet this of himself or of some other of himself and very many other We are told this Psalm and the former were made by two Brothers Ethan and Heman and by them cast as two Molds of Prayer both in private difficulties for which the former and in publike affliction or subversion of the Republike in which this Psalm is the pattern both prepared to warn and arm Gods people of and against dangers and both applicatory to Christ and his Church in all ages I told you Opprobrium would draw to it all the matter and take in all the persons in the Text and more it seems then I conceived to be therein contained at first for now we may include all the Lords servants at large and then all his Chiefs David and every anointed of the Lord and then the Lord Christ Jesus himself and God in his unspeakable name of Jehovah too this Circumference will embelish our skeme and yet as high and holy and heavenly as these persons are they may be vext and endangered by this malady all infested or offended from this Center 8. Not possible Is this in the power of Populorum What Sling What Engine What Ordinance have they to shoot as high as Heaven The Sun can dart a raie down through the bowels of the earth The Dog-star fling pernitious defluxions But these Caniculars that grin like a Dog and run through the City can they from a throat like an open Sepulcher vent such a steam such a ravenous and destructive vapour as will kill at that distance Should Earth swell out into 10000 Tenariffs they could not bore the moon Earths shadows run into nothing before they reach the Sun What earth born people then so malignant to produce a plague so powerfull You have heard of a people sowen in the dust and which grew up from a Dragons teeth 't is thus far true The race of Populorum maximorum and all came from the Dust which is the Serpents food and we are all the worse to this day for the Serpents tooth in the forbidden fruit and worst of all for the Serpents tongue in the first tentation for there and thence this spreading poison was instilled As he was a Murderer so a Lier and Slanderer from the beginning even Inimicus tuus Domine Satan The Arch-enimy that blasted and disordered
and defiled both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 soon after they were made There 's opprobrium ab origine Thence all slanderers may count their Pedigree For the devil infusing this venom into those Giants enflamed them to the scaling of Joves Throne or if not that we will believe the Scripture that if Nimrod the mighty light upon a rout of Populorum such babling and bawling sots as he found in Shinar all of one lip Gen. 11.1 they in their wicked conspiracy so it is called Wisd 10.5 would soon be at it for a City and Tower unperishable Make it of Brick incombustible and for drowning they 'l take order with the Almighty for the top shall reach to Heaven 9. So deduce Opprobrium from the old Dragon to a Serpentine Cadmean Nimrodian race of Giants mixt of Populorum and Maximorum too And what shamefull work will they make a mad work indeed even a world of wickedness time to look to the Circumference For if these have all one language concur in voting for a new frame and have a mind to be towring aloft nothing will stay them but Sidera feriam ero sicut Altissimus then that 's reaching Heaven right but the wrong way for they are not at Heaven yet Such a piece of work in hand and they bragged of a mountain-birth But Quid exit You know who blasted the business by a consusion first and a diffusion and dispersion afterwards and observe the just recompence the Sentence ex ore tuo Nequam Their babling to marr their building their own tongues to make them to fall fall out and fall off no longer able to stand to their great work because unable to understand one another 10. But for all that sundring at Babel soderd again we find them in the Text. This Generation of Nimrod Belus let him be and these right sons of Belial for no yoak will hold them for observe this confluence of Omnium Populorum Maximorum and find Jusque datum sceleri ex plebiscitis Senatus consultis seelera exercentur all exceeded When mens hands are once at liberty no King in Jsrael why then every man doth what seems good in his own eyes and so here when their tongue 's once loose the Lords anointed shall be reproacht The Lord himself blasphem'd And what Lord shall controul them so floats the ship without an Helm so flings the horse without a Bridle and so their tongues run madding through the world far worse so that the Apostle St. James cries it thrice Fire Fire Fire How great a mischief comes of this Fire setting on fire the the course of nature and is set on fire of Hell thirher still it brings us you see this untuly evil full of deadly and divelish poison all contract in this Malady all concentered in opprobrium 11. But be this poison of Populorum never so noxious and those that ejaculate never so mighty What are these all to the Almighty these Maximi to him Christ is opt max. Shall Jehovab suffer by such a Typhoeus or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be liable to such aspersion No Inimici tui Domine shall not be able to do this violence to thy anointed David nor move a tongue to infest the meanest of thy servants This is indeed the point under tryal for all this seems asserted in holy Scripture 1. First Servi are servati They should indeed be sure to be pelted and dusted and stoned from this Center painted with infamous spots and tokens of this plague in their bosom but for Jehovah here a good Domine that hath chosen and though not quite taken them out of this present evil world yet as good for they use it as if they used it not their Conversation is in Heaven and themselves within three steps In Eph. 2. He hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus And is not that high and aloof far and free from Opprobrium 2. Next is David the Lords anointed his body secured in the Sepulchre and this Monster is no Hyena Pascitur in vivis His immortal part is mounted not on Doves but Angels wings and past the clouds and storms of Populorum here hath met those acclamations on mount Zion and made one of that innumerable company the general Assembly and Church of the first-born among the Spirits of just men made perfect and in a Kingdom that cannot be moved all this in Heb. 12.22 23. So David himself is free body and soul from the strife of tongues and left above this world of wickedness 3. Much more is Davids Lord advanced set on the right hand of his Father all his enemies made his foot-stool far above all Principalities and Powers and at his coronation all knees have bowed and all tongues confessed that Jesus is the Lord to the glory of God the Father 4. And for God the Father What can Opprobrium do to him The Lord is King be the people never so impatient the earth never so unquiet God that is very high exalted higher then the highest far aboue all Gods above all men sure out of their reach 't is he too that can still the raging of the waves and the madness of the people If the Fremuerunt be never so loud against the Lord and against his anointed He that sits in Heaven shall laugh The Lord shall have them in derision And now where is Davids Petition What is become of our Circumserence Servi Christus Domini Jehovah all free from Opprobrium nay never a one of all these for all this begin with the highest first and if this Monster set on Jehovah flie in his face he will sure spare none of the rest 1. And we need not go far for proof they corrupt others and speak of wicked Blasphemy their talking is against the most high they blasphem thee dayly saith David even weeping ripe that God would not redress and repress those Blasphemies We need go but to this very Text Remember it O Lord thy enemies have blasphemed thee we need not so much Alas We cannot stop our ears against words cloathed in death and jeasts flumine dignos and those execrable Oaths and Perjuries for which the land mourns spent in despight of God and of his Prophets flying roul full of plagues against such Swearers who yet roul on and roul out their hours in hellish Blasphemies as if they practised here against their coming thither No wonder then if earthly Gods put up and bosome many and mighty reproaches and abuses when it is here upon Record and evidence too much every where of this Crimen laesae Majestatis as high as Heaven 2. Next for Christ Jesus Pursue his story but from his Baptism for all the opening of Heaven and the Doves descent and his Fathers attestation coming among his own How did they receive him Not as the Lord Messiah but as a Messiah in
mockery so they anointed him with spittle made him a Crown of Thorns and a Scepter of a Reed but these were rude and rough Souldiers What was Vox populi a Deceiver a Madman a Glutton and a Wine bibber a friend to Publicans and sinners What said Maximi why the more good he does the more evil they speake of him Doth he heal on the Sabbath day they vote it illegal He is a licencious person a Breaker of the Sabbath straight yea his very Vertues were convitiate his great and stupendious Miracles blasphemed He casts ous Devils by the Prince of Devils and these were his passive Diurnals and his Annals his Chronicles and his Panegyricks with these Dice did they devour till altogether resounded that bloody Epiphonema of Crucifige nay upon the very cross was that verified a scorn of men and out-cast of the people All that see me laugh me to scorn They shoot out their lips and shake their heads saying He trusted in God that he would deliver him Let him deliver him if he will have him But Christ is now in Heaven and Opprobrium cannot hunt or hurt or hurle Aspersions thither yes certainly For as Calvin and Tremellius both will have the Text understood of those Scoffers which while the Church of God expected a Messiah derided then that expectation so a new brood in St Peters time we read of that cried Where is the Promise of his second coming and Teachers he soretels and we have heard of such Teachers in our time damnable Teachers denying the Lord that bought them and too many following their pernicious way by reason of whom the way of Truth and in that he who is the Way and the Truth are blasphemed And St. Paul saith lewd and debosht Christians crucifie again the Lord of Glory make a mock of him and put him to an open shame See now if any David can look to rise or set to finish his course without opprobrium when this Giant adventurous pursues and would vomere in sinum as far as his Hel-hound tongue can stretch poison the Glory of Christ Jesus himself at his Fathers right hand in Heaven 3. David shall consess it for himself My enemies revile me all the day long are mad upon me sworn together against me with tongues like Serpents poison of Asps and Adders under their lips these of the Populorum The basest dregs of the Rabble Abjects Drunkards Dogs and a dead Dog and some of the mighty too too mighty for him To these add Shebaes Clamorque virum Clangorque Tubarum and for bosom injuries besides those of his kindred his own bowels his own issue and his own flesh his own wife gave him his hand full and his bosom full of opprobrium 'T is true Davids soul is now in Power and Glory but yet he stands here for all his fellows all that are made so much more excellent then their Brethren of mankind as they have obtained a more excellent name then they and that name is here The anointed and all such may glass themselves in Davids sufferings and find that a true Maxime among his Maxims Benefacere male audire Regium est Reproacht and abused oftentimes by those to whom they have been most gracious and greatest Benefactors This raises a shallow brook of Disobedience to a soul deep sea of Rebellion for Judas made really rich by his Masters bag to run over to a company of wicked Elders with his Quid dabitis for the Viper which came out of Pauls bundle of sticks and now grown warm to hang upon his hand indeed no harm was done he flung the Viper into the fire But so could not David be rid of the Serpent in his bosome here that stung him to the heart Thou of my counsel we took sweet counsel together of the same Profession we walkt in the house of God as friends Thou my familiar friend Hie niger est bunc tu Britanne caveto 4. Thus far it s carried against Jehovah Christ Jesus the Lords anointed and then be sure it will take in Christians too It is the lot of all Gods servants all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer this scourge of tongues For the lofty Poplars will shead their venemous fel-dews on Robur and Cedar and Palms planted in the house of the Lord. The lying lips will cruelly dispitefully and disdainfully speake against the Righteous Our souls and Bosoms must be filled with the scornfull Rebukes of the wealthy and mighty and with the despitefulness both of the proud and ignorant Thus this Monster tramples on God and all good men and drags them at the heels presses upon Vestigia their footsteps so this first in David and then in Christ himself 1. David first Though a man worth thousands of them whose heart was not haughty nor his eyes lofty but walkt uprightly before them and led them as a faithfull Shepheard and walkt not for so the word is in things too great or too high for him but so behaved so quieted his soul as a child that is weaned of his Mother ruling justly over men in the fear of God like a light of the morning of a morning without clouds and yet had many clouds and dusty slanders raised upon his Vestigi◠his footsteps upon his flittings and removes Ps 56. though in danger of his life as we know he was very often All that helpt him in his escapes from Saul that get him away even Jonathan reproached with perverse Rebels and scarce free from the stroke of a Javelin and all that relieve him by the way as Abimelech the Priest that do but give him bread when ready to starve if Doeg the Edomite may be the executioner of Sauls ordinance shall be slain with the sword What path What step of Davids can be free when even his humble Devotions to his God his fasting and putting on Sackcloth and then his wearing the linnen Ephod and dancing before the Ark are made a mockery 2. But what say we to Vestigia Christi Were not his feet deadly pursued not only at the last pass when they came after him with swords and staves but even the cost bestowed upon those blessed feet counted but waste We find in his story he could not step abroad for their lying in wait the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken from Hunters eager on their game so they sought to intrap or to catch some thing from him he could not go to take an entertainment at the Table not walk in the Corn-fields not go out to heal or preach or do Miracles but still they cavilled and some desire him even to be gone and to depart out of their Coasts If he come from Nazareth no good comes from thence if he remove to Cana or Capernaum they ask Why thither Why Cures and other great Works in other places and none in his own Country and all the while the fault their own Who thought they were astonisht at his Understanding and Answers
and the winter house Solomons house in Jerusalem and that in the Green and that in the forest of Libanon 1 King 7. And if many houses for a man for a King What for the King oâ— Kings Why the Scripture besides this in the Text mentions very many houses of the Lord a multiplicity a Zodiack of houses for the Sun of Righteousness for our Lord and Master Christ Jesus both to receive our service and to do us service in them all c. 1. First Mundi machina the Universe the whole round world with many fair and goodly rooms 2. then that named Habitaculum ejus sacrum Heaven his dwelling place the new Jerusalem of miraculous Structure past Amphions or Apollo's fingring The work of thy fingers saith David yet he speaks it only of this rough cast out-building stuck with stars which though a glorious sight yet is but the cover or shell of this great hollow Egg wherein as in a perfect Vivary full of Cages and Parks and ponds he hath ark't and housed together us and all inferiour Creatures But of his higher Palace His Empyreal in most court imperial for his Saints and Angels the Apostle calls it an House not made with hands but as he is light and his robe is so cloaths himself with light so is the house Light inaccessible Domine bonum est Let us dwell here No more go down from this mount but 3. we must descend as he vouchsafed to do to the womb of the Virgin Sol in Virgine sometime it s one of his houses in the Zodiack and now the Son of Righteousness was there there was God hid and housed for a time nay Gemini in virgine not in a Nestorian but in a sober sence and to crie up the Miracle such as never was God and Man together though in two natures yet in one person remaining what he was yet taking and made what he was not There was a right vivary indeed when the Lord of Glory blessed for ever took lise blood of the blessed Virgin our Lady O what a Store-house Treasure house Jewel house was that that confined that reserved such a Rarity What a strange new earthly heaven for God to dwell and dress himself in and yet behold without breaking that house forth he comes and brings a fourth house on his back another new house of his own making still though assisted in the nchoation yet terminated in his person 4. he only of the blessed Trinity wearing that garment they all wrought upon which creando assumpsit sumendo creavit non extra sed in persona sua which rayment was a body real not phantastick as Marcion that eldest child of Satan so Polycarpus called him and the Marichees imagined For then is all our faith imaginary too if no true conception then nor birth nor death nor resurrection true then is our preaching and your believing vain This destroyes all but we have not so learned Christ if we have been taught as the Truth is in Jesus We have learned that our Lord here took our very nature and true flesh woven with sinews a clay-house moated round about like one of ours that is compast with all mans infirmities sin except but very man of the substance of his mother No substance out of God or new caelestial or sidereal or Elementary matter as Valentinus thought A body then like ours yet in this unlike that in ipso articulo in the very moment of Conception it was proved entire and perfect in all the parts and endued with a rational soul at once which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saâ—tb Damascen the very extract of all novelty when that invisible and incommunicable verity by the Spirit took a soul and by the soul a body saith both Damascen and St. Cyprian when not by any addition or aggregation of Parts by degrees and leisurely sed uno conâ—extu the whole figure and frame of the body set 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the mighty work of Gods holy Spirit faith St. Austin and the School into which though a flow of manifold Graces from the divine nature of Wisdom Power Glory yet in the two natures united we preserve those adverbs all of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that is without Mutation Confusion Division Separation as the Council of Chalcedon against Eutyches Corpus aptasti it is in the Psalm Never so fitted for an house For in this house dwels the fulness of the God-head bodily that is not by a simple Inhabitation nor Assistance or Habitude or Dignity or that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 willing consent or what they call Equality of honor or Nuncupation or Beneplacitum only None of all these will serve but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Union or Unition rather hypostatical In this house dwelt our Lord many years submitting to clouds and waves of Our Infirmities and in this house new-raised from ruine and made glorious this blessed Eagle flew Cage and all This holy Inhabiter of Eternity ascended house and all to his Holy Habitation in Heaven and is there enthroned on the right hand of his heavenly Father 5. But while he was an infant Lord in the hand of his blessed Virgin Mother here he dwelt a while in his Cradle-house the stable-cratch then the Palace of a great King at the sign of the Star in Bethlehem then the right house of Bread Panis Angelorum The true Bread-house and true Head-house though low and little of all his greater Houses his famous Churches after at those great Cities of Jerusalem Caesarea Antioch and in good time their sister Rome her self their little Sister earst that had no brests but since ovationed for Mater Domina as if Domus Cultus Dominus himself had been born and upbrought there ab Origine 6. But stay a while Let us observe Dominus Domus yet better and we shall find him returned from AEgypt abiding at Nazareth and Capernaum and Jerusalem but commonly in the dwelling houses and banqueting houses of his Converts 7. Let these then if I staied too long at the former serve briefly for two Removes of our Lord. And because the Sea of Tiberias is near at hand we may safely walk with him on the water or see him take ship or hear him preach from thence and then a Ship is more then Domus 't is Domus Domini the house of the Lord then indeed 8. From the Press of people he was fain to hide himself in that house But no house must hide or hold him long Over the brook Cedron there was a Garden and oft he resorted thither and thence betrayed was brought from house to house to Annas house and Caiphas to Pilats's Judgement-hall to Heroa's and back again to Pilate's so to his Cross and never rested till the noble Joseph laid him in his Garden-house in a new Sepulchre where never man lay yet that the common house and lodging of mankind the Grave 9. There Kings and Counsellors of the
Dominus and then qua Servus 1. As Dominus For we may ask Pharoahs question but not with Pharoahs mind Whois the Lord and nothing but Jehovah will answer that in excellency which takes in all the three persons of the glorious Trinity but yet as we are forbidden by the Christian verity to say there be three but one Lord so observing both old and new Testament the second person by joynt assent of both the other is made made both Lord and Christ Lord every way Lord by Creation 〈◊〉 him were all things made Lord by preservation The Government upon his shoulder who is the mighty Lord and all things upheld by him who is the mighty word Lord by Redemption too The Lord our Righteousness made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.20 So to him all Power and Dominion is given in Heaven and Earth and at his exaltation his Coronation confirmed The homage of knees and tongues That Jesus is the Lord is was and is to come yesterday to day and the same for ever so goes our hope He shall come to judge so begins our Christian Creed In Jesus Christ our Lord so end our prayers through Jesus Christ our Lord so every Christian with St. Thomas makes a glad profession My Lord and my God If our eyes be not held that we shall not know him if once out of weakness we be made strong in the Lord if once out of darkness we be made light in the Lord if anointed with the eye-salve of the Sanctuary we then in him in whom the eye of Judas the worlds eye the Jews eye could see no beauty in that Worm they trod and spit upon that slave they scourged that Malefactor they crucified shall clearly find to our everlasting comfort both a gracious man and a glorious God breaking through all those clouds darting majestick raies contracting all our sight and uniting and fixing all our eyes on that only lovely Object who after all the Eclipses and shadows of the earth and hell gone over him shines forth in perfect beauty crowned with the Sun and under his feet a Moon with deaths pale head and a red Dragon upòn his thigh his name inscribed Dominus Dominorum Men and Brethren what shall we do What manner of men ought we to be in holiness and fear What think you Is not our obedience due in reason a reasonable service to this Lord above others Other Lords have ruled over us Satan and our vices have been Lords of Misrule But there goes vertue still out of this Dominus and vertue there is in Dominus a magnetick intrinsique vertue to draw even Ironhearts to his service Stands not Dominus over Domus here and so over every Church and Chappel like the herald star to beckon us to invite all that are wise to salvation O come let us worship and fall down before the Lord. Down O down with every high thing and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ Jesus our Lord This qua Dominus 2. And then qua servus still more reasonable service if such a Dominus stoop to Servus strange if all those houses you heard of prove our houses another while and he 'l do us service in them all first in the great house of the round world it is so both in the Mechaniks and Oeconomicks In the beginning of his book we find him as a Carpenter at work by the week making partitions measuring and figuring with his Elements in square and skies in circle stricking up Lights and pinning them to the body of the Sun then mixing other mysteries of Gardiner and Painter limming to the life his pieces this our Lords doing all Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation the work of thy hands Heb. 1.10 And for whose sake so fair a frame for Birds or Beasts the Heathen could tell you no 〈◊〉 Sanctius his Man made Lord to name his vassals at his pleasure and when God gives him possession the very word is Dominamini all at his service So in Occonomy as built so all upheld for us Habendum Tenendum by his Manu-tenency kept in repair from crumbling out to Atoms and not an empty house that would do us no service but herein by 10000 hidden providential quils distils and works out food and rayment by whole loads saith David Psal 68. and changes fresh every morning saith Jeremie Lam. 3.22 And therein descending past Offices of Stateâ—eward Treasurer Chamberlane to the meanest of Baker Cook and Butler with his bottles of Heaven clouds droping fatness finest wheat and liquor of the Grape so low in this great Domus is this greatest Dominus diminisht doing his servants all these Services 2. Secondly As Terram dedit so Coelum dabit His upper house shall be ours after one life that but a span long 'T is his by nature ours by conquest we come in with the Conqueror therefore we look at it still in hope as Travellers going home that abiding City whose Builder and Maker he is and where he is still at work for us preparing a place many Mansions Crescit sub principe Coelum where he keeps possession for us in our name and in our nature and whence he sends to us continually his holy Angels to serve us and thence will come with all those Angels to fetch us up to his last supper and there again serve us himself while we sit down with Abraham Jsaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven 3. Thirdly In the womb of the blessed Virgin he was an humble servant abased himself in not abhorring that whereon we dare not stay our trembling thoughts so many minutes as he endured it moneths and this service only for us for us men and for our salvation he was incarnate to burn out our stains and corrosive the leprosie of our nature For he by the holy Ghost which at first moving on the Chaos created a world of beauty being there conceived was thereby filled with Grace in out Nature which Grace in our measure was from him to be spread and shed in our hearts by the same holy Ghost which is given us Rom. 5. So was he our servant there and Factor for us and therefore stript of all that might unfit him for that Ministry 4. In the fourth house of our flesh he comes lowly with love I come to do service in the form of a servant to minister to serve the curt of souls and bodies too See the great Arch-Prelate Primate of Heaven and Earth Lord and Bishop of our souls whose Sea is from sea to sea and from the River to the worlds end to whom we may give all Bellarmines fifteen great names and all too little is yet content and that not in jest but in Deed and in Truth with servus servorum Domini who though he served his foes for a mocking-stock and never was man so shamefully served yet despising the shame he served out his time and counted it his
out of dust and bals of living fire fiâ—xt in our eye-brow what work makes this heavenly Potter even with that clay in white red blew after all his polishing forced to take it down and like China earth hiding some for many 1000 years will shew his Power in their raising far fairer then before and yet able to dispatch the same effect on others in a moment in the twinckling of an eye changed and not die by a suddain dissolution and a suddain re-union But far rarer Workmanship is the Recreation of our souls washt brighter in his blood and heightned by his Spirit We need but two things for our souls Grace Truth and both came by Jesus Christ from his fulness we receive both by whose service and Ministry we are made New Creatures invested in a Robe and admitted to an Order past the Fleece and Garter the Right Order of the holy Ghost Brag not vain man O run not up into some beastly figure if guilding like a snail or tracing the way of thy preferment by thy blood or match thou be mounted to a local state of Wealth and Honor for these can add no new substantial forms But this access of Spirit from this Lord is right enobling and superinduces a new soul which like fire devours and takes up all within thee and winding in one Coelestial flame and embracing Understanding Will Affections wings and lifts up all to Heaven 12. Lastly In this very house where we assemble for the Worship and Service of the Lord it is the Lord himself that does the Service to the whole Assembly So that a non nobis Domine is fixable upon the porch of this and every house of God For first he invites us hither Come I Call upon me Seek you my face The skie of Scripture hung round with provocations calling us to service and being entered who executes the parts of our Divine Service in this house of Prayer And is it not he that prays for us in us with us before us and teaches us to pray and say after him Our Father and as once by himself in Prayers and strong cries so here assists our dulness and deadness of Spirit by his own quickning Spirit inditing our Prayers and raising our Devotion with sighs and groans that cannot be exprest It is secondly a house of preaching and we indeed preach Jesus and our selves your servants for Jesus sake nay him a Servant for your sakes But if we speak him right it is he that speaks the word of the Lord heavenly Treasure from our earthen vessels that the excellency might be of God and not of us 'T is he that first did write the word which is his Power and Wisdom to our salvation and 't is he that spels the Gospel and reads and speaks to us in his Word and he that laies out and distributes sentences to several bosoms as every man hath need and he alone that follows the Sermon home and saies it all over again to our hearts Finally his House is a House of Communion for the Saints and Churches of God for the due receiving of his holy Sacraments And as in the Baptistery it is he that receives the Infants in his arms and washes their Souls in his blood and makes the water there a Laver of Regeneration So in the Supper of the Lord it is the same Lord who first shed those primordial purple drops at his Circumcision the first fruits of his all powerfull blood to begin the work of our Salvation and ever since at every holy Communion gives both body and blood the food of faithfull and repentant Spirits and makes those sad sweet drops fall again to the anguish first and then the healing of our souls For such a different office hath this blessed Sacrament that it serves both to discover our sins and to seal our Pardons Wherein while faithfully we receive him he really receives us into him and we him into us So all of us become one body and one Spirit and all by the service of one and the same for ever Jesus Christ to whom c. S. D. G. A SERMON Preached at YORK 1640. AT The Council of King and Lords EPHE 5.8 For you were once darkness but are now Light in the Lord. Walk as Children of Light IN the Skie of Scripture shines the Sun of Divinity And all Divinity all that Sun is shed in these thee Radii The Lapse the Restoring the Duty These are a perfect Catechism And a sum of these is the Epistle to the Romans injust Methode and this Text a methodical Brâ—â—iat of that Epistle indeed an Epitome of all the Book of God for here we have the Creation the World struck out of Chaos or what is more mysterious It could not chuse but please the Angels then to see the LIGHT rise out of darkness by a powerfull FIAT and the earth anon to emulate heaven by vertue of a Producat But this This Rare Work the Angels desire to prie into 1 Pet. 1.12 And if we pace along we shall find here Enoch walking with God Abraham called out of VR to another VR a purer Light The deliverance from Egypt the Red Sea the Rock the Mannae the Ark the Mercy-seat And here are all the Sacrifices the Life and Substance of them all with the Fulness and Light of all the Promises and Prophesies and here is the new Testament The Star appears Behold we bring you glad tidings Run Shepherds and see the great Shepherd of all our Souls whiles yet an Infant Loe He is wrapt here in the Swadling bands of this Text. He is the Word and this his Comment his Paraphrase and Explication You were once c. These words are a Tree laden with fruit most precious the very shell the rind is precious But if we open this Onyx this Pearl Cabinet it contains rare Food and Medicine and Wine and Balsam a Quintessence an Extraction beyond the Spirits of Oyl and Wine and Spices For what Chymist can draw Light Is not that that thing my sterious in Job 38. which way saith he is the Light parted yet here is more the Sun the Spring of Light here is that Sun of Righteousness and the Father of Light and the Spirit of Illuminations All All the holy blessed and glorious TRINITY unfolded here we may with Moses in a pious sense see him that is invisible Behold that rare workman tasking himself in his main project busie in dispatch of all his Miracles at once The Leper is cleansed the Lame walk the Blind receive their sight the dead are raised Nay Majus opus moveo The earth raised up to Heaven Flesh wrought up to Spirit Nature changed to Grace and dust advanced to he Partaker of Divine Nature For you were once Darkness c. A Comprehensive Text it is will take in all persons Speak I to a King or Lords Will they not all be glad at heart to be enlightned by this Dominus in the
Lastly As it is implyed that our Saviours victory on the Cross was his purchase of the Gentiles Rev. 2.26 27. and Phil. 2. His stooping even to the Cross precedes his exaltation and then a Genuflexion and universal Acclamation All tongues to confess him c. So the mission of his Apostles to the Gentiles was after his passion and a little before it we find in John 12.24 some Greeks desired to see him and he answers in a Riddle If the grain of wheat die it will bring forth much fruit which was meant of himself saith St. Austin He was to die by the unbelief of the Jews and then to be multiplyed in the faith of all Nations as we see it come to pass But that faith saith St. Paul Rom. 10. it grows not in nature comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God And this hath brought us a little on our way in the understanding of our second part which we now pursue Lux in Domino Light That 's the matter here and the manner is in Domino or the other way for the matter indeed is in Domino and the manner by way of Illumination For what is meant surely that great work of God Mans restoring is meant included in a second great work Illumination of our minds and that in a third great work The light of the Sun in our eyes How rare and choice a fruit must that be which hath such curious Coverings The very Metaphor or rather Box and Nest of Metaphors is observable Is God a Metaphorical God saith one D. D. And he answers himself In a pious and humble meaning respecting the Scriptures heights and Excellencies in Allegories not only sinews in the Milk of Gods Word and things in his Words but spreadings and strange Rhetorical passages and curtains of figures flowing into figures Where are those Sophisters and Grand Seniors and grave Rabbies with their old dissembled Ensigns of Ignorance the Beard the Habit and the Title that will allow men no use of humane Learning in disclosing Divine Mysteries Is the Grape therefore harsh because such Strainers cannot reach it Theology shall remain the crowned Queen of Sciences but will admit her Hand-maids to carry keys to her Cabinets But ere we look in here be pleased to arrest your consideration on the covering of this Ark that is the Light of Heaven And as before in Darkness so here again we are blind with dazling How many are the opinions of those rowling Torches of Heaven the Sun and Moon St. Austin and in his old age too for it is in his Euchir ad Lauren. knew not whether he might account them to the Angels And for the Light Who shall tell us what it is When it comes to our doors and beats upon our eves we know not whether it have a real Being in the Air or an Intentional The first the second both and neither of both are defended Look into the Microcosm and Fiat Lux else all invisible no form no distinction and all inglorious nor use nor beauty 'T is Plenitudo the filling of all the Creatures and gives them Cognition Life Motion View the Microcosm the Light of the Body is the eye and not the Organ so much as the visive Power the light within that sits behind those Glass-windows with a balance and a file and weighs and works upon the shapes of things that enter But both these Lights are Darkness if the Medium be not illuminated if the Air be dark and searching the Scripture though we find not what it is yet we find a world of wonders in it Five things imparted yet remain entire Knowledge Vertue Happiness Joy and Light and this the Embleme of them all No good thing but Light takes it in by comparison all good things but never any ill Wisdom Health Beauty Food Joy and Reputation All the Graces of God Knowledge Faith Love Hope Joy Consolation yea the very Glory to come all our Joy and endless Bliss in that vision of Light And if God should ask us What house we would make him or to what compare him Should we offend in saying LIGHT though nothing resemble God exactly yet something better shews how far he is beyond all resmblance and by that Light his Creatures afford our admiration of his Incomprehensibleness may be raised higher and higher and with it so raised our longing after him enlarged And sure as in the works of Grace none liker God then LOVE So in the works of Nature Light as it is the eldest so the amiablest and the likest to the Father and what the Fathers affection is to it we may see by his first giving Light to the Chaos It could yield him no delight who was the double Parent so long as it lay in Night and Darkness and so deep in too that nothing yet was day What stood thus blindly could not be pleasing in his eye who is all eye But when it saw the Text saith God saw that all was good Doth he not dwell in Light and cover himself with Light as with a Garment May we not say his House and Robe and Eternal Essence are all one boundless christal Globe of Light Doth not he say so God is Light the Father the Father of Lights and the Son is God of God and Light of Light and the Holy Spirit as in this wide Engine of the world it is an inward eye which moves and rowls Spiritus in us alit So in our Souls it is the Spirit of Illuminations directing us to that place where in his Light we shall see Light even see God face to face and know him even as we are known I had not staid so long on this this cover here but that I conceived it might be in our way to discover what remains remembring my Promise to pass this part in explanation so demonstrating in an Orb where every part gives Light unto one another Here by the way might be inferred the usefulness of our sight and how we are bound to bless God that enjoy that Comfort And secondly How to compassionate the blind that sit in darkness considering there is no perfect joy on earth without it no nor in Heaven it being one of the torments in hell Darkness and contrary to the Inheritance of the Saints in Light And thirdly Applying to such times as these Rejoyce in this favour of Heaven that earthly men cannot restrain or excise the comforts of the Air and Light c. But we pass to our fruit it self the meaning of this Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in our restoring veil'd here under this God-like Creature of Light That illumination which we receive from him by his Spirit relieving us from our state of corruption and bondage of darkness and translating us into his marvelous Light and glorious liberty of the Sons of God For you were c. In Domino In Domino For he is Light in the abstract others by participation He the true Light the cause efficient
knowest it is wind by that but knowest not whence nor whither So is every one that is born of the Spirit The cause and course is secret but the effect discernable As in Creation our soul and body meet by breathing so here the mystick work is Inspiration and infusion of manifold graces but those graces have activities and such whereby you shall easily perceive that you were once darkness but are now Light in the Lord. These Graces then will give us further Light whose excellencies are laid out in those expressions of Water Floods Fountains and Fire and Milk and Manna and Oyntment and their Efficacies in those names of Seal and Evidence and Earnest and Witness and Joy and Consolation And are there not fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. Fruits that grow not up from the bitter Root of corrupted nature but from another Principle and which in their bloom and freshness render a man not like those Ethnick Graces only facile and sweet in conversation though they do that too but gracious in Gods aspect and glorious too shining as a Light in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation If we shall taft a fruit or two in specialty I will only trie to do it in this notion here and under this Capacity of Light 1. Knowledge even that of nature is a Light and mans soul still is the Lamp of God saith Solomon and a Wisdom residing therein that Recedes as far from folly as Light ftom Darkness and this was all those great Philosophers Animalia Gloriae had which puft them up so For this hath some tincture of the Serpent and soon inflates yet alas Mans salvation is that Grove and Mysterie Nulli penetrabilis astro not pervious nor peirceable by the star-light of Reason There must come a supernatural Light from Heaven which as in the Giver it is called a Sun of Righteousness rising with healing in his wings the day-spring from on high and the True Light so in the Receiver it is called a great and marvellous Light of which Will you hear St. Paul I count all loss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the supereminence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord this indeed is all for in this is all This is Eternal life to know Thee and him whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ to know him for my Jesus to apprehend him for my Justifier by a second Grace by a true and lively Faith 2. Faith then is another Light of the sanctifying Spirit superinduced on the Light of Reason to raise and perfect it for it is not in stones or beasts God can from stones raise up Children unto Abraham but if so the work must first be done by Infusion of a rational soul and the golden Key of this Grace then fitted to the prepared wards of reasonable Nature It is not amiss to compare it to Sybillaes golden bough which grew to and upon the Trce and as he adds Auri per Ramos aura refulsit So this superstructure out-shines the utmost endeavours and perfections of Nature and Reason and resembled it is by some as the Seal to Wax It is not naked and meer reason as Air is Fire but Faith is rather printed reason and there joined Light if we wilfully exstinguish not their flames will yield the bearer fair Direction and Confidence and Consolation There may be there will be a coarctation a compression of this flame in the act of Faith a damp upon the alacrity thereof yet if there be not in us an evil heart desirous nay wilfully set to depart from the living God If you abide in me saith our Saviour then certainly as his Father and he with the sacred Spirit joyntly made Light at first and pin'd it to that Sun which was never wholly darkned since and as he the true Light breaking from the clouds of the blessed Virgins body and joyned to mans nature retains that nature still now glorified so the Spirit of this Grace possessing thy spirit loves never to part again but grieves when we offer to quench his coelestial fires O then learn not to despair of Mercy and Assistance Clouds and Eclipses obscure and wandring and wicked thoughts self-accusings and self-condemnings and Satans suggestions may trouble and affright us But if we abide in him and be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his Might and resist the Devill he will flie from us and our hope in Christ and the Power of his Resurrection like a rising Morn will scatter all the delusions and rebellions of the Night and remember his gracious Promise Hell-gates shall not prevail against a Faith of Adherence All the Powers of Darkness let loose upon St. Paul yet he was safe I know in whom I have believed I live saith he no not I but Ckrist lives in me and it is his Spirit only that can give assurance that whereas I was darkness my Faith in him makes me light in the Lord. 3. As for Love another Grace the Grace of Graces the bond of perfection and especially of that coelestial Armor and Ardor of the soul to God What might we say Whatdo they feel into whose breasts is shot this right coelestial flame and there shed abroad by the holy Ghost which is given them Away then with all wanton fires of earthly Love or ambition set them but by this and they will appear poor and wan discolour'd pale and drousie things and like meretritious females shewn with modest and noble Matrons dasht all out of countenance 4. Lastly for I am not too long to insist on these Graces so perceptible to the Possessors if we would have true and lasting joy Where shall we seek it Is it to be found among those Pangs and Convulsions and Palpitations of an earthly sensuall mind Mala mentis gaudia as the heathen Poet calls them and plac'd by him far within the Porch of hell Meteors of imperfect mixture Scansory and seeming to mine and aim at lightsomness and height of Spirit But having crackt awhile and blaz'd down they slide again and resolve into their first earth and drossiness But he that hath tasted of the heavenly gift the joy in the Holy Ghost wherein the Kingdom of Heaven on earth doth principally consist can tell you of a joy that is full a joy unspeakable and glorious consisting in a dispersion of all that is dark and desolate and a true Light that is Lux in Domine Light in the Lord. Thus have we trac'd this Oriens ex alto and thus far described that Method that Lucidus Ordo of Gods procedure in descent of his Spirit and defluence of his Graces Thus far we are come to meet with this great Bishop of all our souls this blessed Visitor and have observed his way of baptizing with the Holy Ghost and with enthean fire and confirming his People with the manifold Graces of his Spirit But yet since he is in Heaven and that Spirit is to descend on us we are not satisfied till we
Hosts in that Psalm we may first consider God in this Name as a Warriour and as the Lord Generalissimo of the War but not so as men receive that Name for their Command over one and their own Army but as Commander over all Armies and all wars Offensive or Defensive that have been are or shall be in the world For it is not only in spiritual Furn ture that Isay dresses God and arms him Cap à pee but the Prophets ost in the literal sense as if God took a special complacency in the stile and none more frequently then David so present him In Psalm 46.8 9. he calls us to behold his Mirabilia and addâ— a special proof of all by Gods not Warring but doing a greater work then that in making wars to cease in all the world O were it once so his great and gracious work in this our orbis Divisus our little world of great Britain He breaks the how and knaps the spear in sunder and burns the Chariots in the fire But when he will war and shew how dreadfully he can come on the Text tells us he looks but on the earth and it trembles but touches the mountains and they smoak And even Nebuchadnezzâ—r will in the end acknowledge as much to his glory that all the Inhabitants of the earth are reputed before him not only as Grashoppers but as meer nothing and he does what he will in the Army of Heaven and him that walks in pride he is able to abase And therefore an horse is counted but a vain thing to save a man from this God of Battails No King can be sase by the multitude of his Host 'T is this Lord incline the Victory as he pleases Secondly whereas other names of God in Scripture are less luminous in reference to his servants succour and protection such as shield and fortress and Desence like particular refulgent stars in the Firmament of his Power and Providence This as the Sun wherein he shines forth more Illustriously more diffusively more manifoldly This a whole Heaven a circling and enwrapping skye with all the Constellations and affluences of his own Essential and immediate with those of the Angels and other Creotures co-assistances So that a gracious and a glorious a full and clear and constant consolation is derivable from the fulness of this Name and every souldier and servant of his may sing and say with the Prophet and the Apostle The Lord is my light and my salvation the Lord of Hosts is with us And if that Lord be with us no matter how many Lords and earthly Kings be against us Diogenes could boast deride and chuse all Tragick fortune upon that conceit that he was a friend of Jupiters and the Jesuit Serarius sayes even the flames of Purgatory are not dreadful respecting the assistance of the Patients good Angel How much more and on what better ground may we build and raise a foot of comfort and erect a lively hope from the true Jupiter Opt. max. the God of those good spirits and whose Charriors are two hundred thousand even thousands of his victorious Angels What wars or rumors of wars what numbers of enemies can dismay the man of God when Eliahs boy can espy these battalias in the clouds of Heaven whereof one alone in one night without hoft or Cannon or sword or spear or noise is able to slaughter 180000 thousand of Assyrians And as great Chiefs are vigilant to take places of advantage and so to dispose their troopes as one may give Relief unto another so this Soveraign Commander for the succor of his poor Infantry here below hath lodg'd those Legions and bright squadrons of winged spirits above to be in readiness and in whose aid that man of God sayes he will be confident and so he may and so may every Dauid for God himself hath plac'd that Guard while himself is pleas'd to attend the watch and go the round and designs and emploies those flaming Ministers in their Ranks and Orders for the service of his Elect. Is it not so Art they not all ministring spirits sent out for the good of all them that shall be heirs of Salvation Thus far the Materials of comfort drawn from this Mine both in the radiant mixture and connexion and expansion of those diffusive joyes whose nature is to supple and sustain them in adversity and all this again complicated and arrested upon the contemplation and proof of their Lords being Dominus Exercituum And now lastly to keep promise I shall trie to superinduce a Roof and Crown of pure Gold over all these Materials which is the Consummation of the Saints Consolation as God becomes ours and we His in the only Mediator Christ Jesus which before we can well discern it is requisite we discover to the bottom of this Mine and find the first foundation of Gods people laid upon the only love of God in making choice of them at first for his Peculiar For to be his in general is the common lot of all his Creatures The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof Again His delight was ever with the sons of men Acts 17. and he made of one blood all mankind to dwell on all the face of the earth All live and move and are in Him and His Off-spring and Generation and he provides for all Light and Influences and showers of fatning rain to fill their hearts with food and gladness But in Exodus 19.5 where we find this very word in the Text denoting Singularity and Choiceness God tells his Israel whom he had derived from Abraham the father of the faithfull that if they would obey his words indeed and keep his Covenant then they should be a peculiar Treasure to him above all people For all the earth saith God is mine but not so mine as You for he goes on You shall be a kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation Only the Lord there laies down the Corner-stone of this building and discovers the bottom reason of his electing them which was not saith he your multitude for you were the fewest nor your inclination to my service for you were an obstinate and stiff-necked people but only he had a delight in their Fathers so we have it Deut. 10. to love them above all people Which love of God as it drew on his first calling them so it occasioned his preserving them from all the world when planting this Vine in Aegypt where it was pincht and straitned he made room for it and transplanted it to grow and flourish in the vast and barren Wilderness and on the sandy botome of the sea till removing Nations greater and mightier then they he made that people possess the gates of their enemies and his Blessings and Protections still eminent and imminent still over their heads even then when they provoke him to send them into captivity from whence yet he gathered them again and as that daughter of Sion that Church through the four
invest us with a Light yet inaccessible will also place another Crown of Glory inaccessible And so in the allusion the contemplation of those joyes that go before the entrance into our Masters Joy and those that follow after in fruition will easily stir and fire our souls to cry or sing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this son of David Blessed be he that comes thus in the name of the Lord and is the Lord that comes thus from the Father and God Totius of all consolation anointed to his great Office and Design of binding up the broken hearted by the Holy Ghost the Comforter Luke 1. and is himself by way of Excellency stil'd the consolation of Israel And thus this first glad priviledge of Gods fearful and faithful servant is refin'd and wrought up to perfection from this Mine in Malachy the last of the Prophets to that Mine of St. John the last and liveliest of the Evangelists or rather that Mine of our Lords own discovery in Iohn 17.10 Thine they are and all mine are thine and thine are mine Mine But who is he All our comfort even now was complicated and conserv'd in Dominus Exercituum And is he so That stile indeed wears out in the New Testament but is abundantly recompenc'd in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The only Potentate the Lord of Life and Glory Most of all in that name above all names which all tongues must confess and at which all knees should bow that sweet and powerful that gracious and glorious Name of Jesus a Saviour and able to save to the utmost in whom all fulness dwels and in whose hand is all power in heaven and earth And had not their eyes been held down and the Jews hearts vaild over they would have perceived and received him for the true Messiah in this very notion and nature of a Lord of Hosts For in him were all their Moses's Joshuales all their Captains and Saviours their Baraks and Gideons and Sampsons and Davids and Macchabees all reviv'd and restor'd to the world But they knew not the manner of their King and to mistake a King may be a world of misery nor of his Kingdom nor the force of his Artillery in the dreadful Canon and Ordinance of his Word Spirit Nor that the Scepter of his new Law should prove the Iron Rod to break and subdue both men and Devils They considered not his stupendious Miracles proving him the Lord of Hosts in commanding over the whole frame of Heaven and Earth and Seas and all the host of them and bowing whole created nature to his obedience To rebuke tempestuous winds roaring waves as a Nurse her child with Peace and be still nay suspend and silence and deprive Devils of their possessions with a word To lay his command on Death it self and force him to let go his hold after four dayes seisure in the grave Will Iews or Jewish hearts attend my voice that would not hear the thunder of those Miracles But for support of the true Catholick faith and for the consummation of all our consolation King and people Christ Jesus is become our Dominus Exercituum Christo auspice regno regnabo too and his bloody Cross a braver badge then that of Castor and Pollux This is polleus lux ipsa For is it not he alone destroyes our raging lusts and nails them to his cross and he alone that ' gainst a world of opposition and all the opposition of this evil world cryes to his host be of good comfort I have overcome the world He alone that came to dissolve destroy the works the strong holds of Satan and to vanquish powers and Principalities in high places that had the vantage ground over us He that breaks in on death and sin and hell and like a Conquerer in the triumphal Chariot of his Cross made a shew of them openly and as Triumphers us'd to do when he ascended up on high and led captivity captive he gave gifts unto men But yet more to prove him the Lord of Hosts by being more then that name can imply for this Name is observed to be too yong for the ancient of Dayes that is a Name taken up since and from the Creation A Name indeed that draws and scatters on us all we can look for from our Maker and Preserver But all his powers and mercies are resolved and melted into this Name of Christ Jesus Without Christ without God sayes the Apostle in the world we are but meer pieces of the masse nay far worse is our condition born children of wrath and in state of enimies and so the Lord of Hosts is against us and all the hosts of Heaven and spirits of Hell and all the creatures and our selves against our selves And when there was no Name under heaven to save and deliver us from present and wrath to come then came this Prince of peace and became our Peace pledg'd himself for us gave his life a Ransome so making peace So prevailing over the Lord of Hosts binding his Almighty hands and God content to accept terms of peace may we not say so Came not that Voyce from Heaven This is my beloved Son in quo acquiesco in whom I am at peace with all the world If all this prove him not a Lord of Hosts he will one day to the further consolation of all that love his appearing appear to the consternation of all his Despisers in flaming fire to render vengeance And as in the dayes of his flesh then unglorified and compast about with all mans infirmities he could have been encompast with more then twelve Legions of Angels so then he will meet those two Hosts those droves and flocks of sheep and goats with another Army of his Saints and Angels from Heaven with whom we shall be caught up to meet that Lord in the ayr and so shall be ever with the Lord. If we desire yet higher to raise this Crown of consummate consolation in Christ I will come to Visions and Revelations I will open that of St. Steven Acts 7.56 I see heaven opened and the son of man set on the right hand of God which place being further opened by St. John makes us see him on a Throne of Glory covered with light as with a garment under his feet Deaths pale head and a red Dragon and all his enemies about him stand the Armies of his Angels and of mankind a greater number then any man can number of all Nations Languages On his thigh that Name written Rex Regum Dominus Dominorum The Elders casting down their Crowns adore him that has many Crowns upon his head And we may safely add this Title to those Crowns of Dominus Exercituum and rejoyce to think how those Crowns are encinctur'd and enchas'd with precious stones for the twelve Tribes of Israel and with manifold unions of God and man of grace and glory for the consolation of the Gentiles also thereby fully made perfect
and partakers of the divine Nature and all these Unions contracted in the blood red shining Summit of his cross by the power whereof that Throne and Robe and all those Crowns are become ours and we become one with him in an union most high and holy even as he and his Father are one and higher we need not we cannot go nor well so high for that it should be thus we scarce dare ask but how it should be thus is above all that we are able to ask or think Thus far the first priviledge of Gods servants in being his Peculiar The second now should follow of being his Jewels with the usefull application of them both together with the Assignation of those several Dayes wherein these Jewels are to be made up all which I believe will make up a second and a third Exercise For this time I proceed no further but to beg the Blessing of God upon what we now have heard P.R. S.D.G. THE SECOND SERMON September 1643. MALAC. 3.17 And they shall be mine said the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels THE Word of God saith St Paul is not bound nor we that preach it bound to Formalities and courtly Decencies or much to care whether our Hearers be in good humor or no t is true nor are we to be Time-servers as we have been charged nor Men-pleasers in any ill sense yet since we are at liberty throughout the Garden of the Scripture to cull a Posie such as seemes best to us affording us a pleasure why may we not be thought therein also to preserve our just Devotion to God together with an intention for the complacency of good men too For which cause I blush not to acknowledge my respective choice or rather my recollection of this Text whereon I have preacht in royal audience before because though it look back upon vicious times and most ungodly men yet it will allow us for the present a Prospect as I verily belive upon some choice spirits and Gods gracious servants yet by his Reserve and special Mercy left alive while they are yet alive and I alive to apply this Scripture to them in special which in general suits with the condition of this time As men the sons of Time so Times themselves have their Parallels As the days of Noah were saith our Saviour Mat. 24. so shall also the coming of the son of man be eating drinking marrying till the day that Noah entered into the Ark and knew not till the flood came and tooke them all away so it shall be in the last times and so it is And we have no livelier proof that these are the last times then such our usages and in them such our security The Scripture foretels a soul and dangerous Sea of corruption that should prove rough and swell run high and the waves thereof rage horribly toward the end of the world when men should be more then imbrutished void of natural affection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implacable traiterous heady high minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God pretending the Spirit but being sensual and bringing in damnable Heresies having a show of godliness but denying the power thereof pretending to Piety and Law and Order but reviling Dignities which God hath ordained with Balaam greedily loving the wages of unrighteousness and perishing in the contradiction of Core But alas We have undone both Prophesie and Description put down both History and Poetry Examples and Imagination too even those Gyants before the flood are now not monstrous for we have defiled and made the earth more corrupt filled it with a bloodier cruelty and violence provoking the holy one of heaven to hurle down hils of miseries on our heads and hearts and to let in Torrents of his fierce wrath mingled wiih Christian blood in every street and a surrounding universal Scourge and Deluge to overwhelm three whole flourishing Kingdoms at once from end to end and burie them in endless desolation while senseless sinners we seem to contemn the Power of Gods wrath by letting loose the reins to all licenciousness when he is pouring down the vials of his anger and tumbling delightfully in our own tear up the wounds of our Saviour betrampling the sacred Blood that redeemed us and counting the blood of his Covenant a Covenant of Mercy and Peace an unholy thing crucifying again to our selves the Lord of Life and Glory and making a mock of him by grieving quenching and doing despight to the Spirit of his Grace So that our condition is worse then of this people here in this Prophet though in very many things resembling us for in the first chapter we read of their Unkindness Irreligiousness Profaness snuffing at the Table of the Lord and holding it contemptible In the second we find their Idolatry Adultery Infidelity In this third Sorcery false Swearing Oppression Sacriledge and at last it breaks into open rebellion and defiance of God voting down all divine service and decreeing it vain and no profit to walk longer in his Ordinances and then this was a brave time it must needs be so for proud and wicked people which were lift up like a skum over the face of clear and wholsom waters only such saith our Prophet were built to Wealth and Honor. And yet for all this sorrow there is a comfort comes up close at the sixteenth verse of use and advantage now for us Gods people still remained though secret not altogether silent they spake one to another admonished exhorted comforted one another mutually and these their Colloquies and Consultations were frequent and succesfull God came into their Assembly sate President in this Council and a book of Remembrance was written before him for all them that â—eared before him and thought upon his name and after all comes out his gracious Proclamation of Peace and Love The Patent under seal Teste meiâ—so and they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels Which words afford a double priviledge of Gods servants be the times what they will in reference to their Owner described by his high and stately stile of Dominus Exercituum First His own they are his peculiar Secondly Esteemed of him at a high rate for they are his Jewels There is a third part The day or time set for the making up of these Jewels admitting a four-fold Interpretation 1. Either the day of punishing the ungodly or 2. The day of powerfull preaching the Word 3. The day of death and 4. The last day the day of final Judgement In all these days God will manifest his Mercy and his Power both enwrapt in Dominus exercituum here and then the Specification the Verification the real and actual spreading of both in this that God in his holiness hath spoken it It shall certainly be so for so saith the Lord of Hosts The first priviledge is laid down in this plain conclusion They that in a
riding on his horse of wood over all the surges that devoured the world of the ungodly So in the time of Ahab and in the time of Queen Mary in our own land when the waves of persecution rouled high and raged horribly God reserved many Prophets in a cave by means of Obadiah and many thousands that bowed not the knee to Baal or were won to crouch to the Romish superstition or shrink from the Reformed Religion This is the mercy of God that when sometimes the wicked are swept away as the house of a Spider when the arrow flies by day and terror by night then comes out the Indulgence and Dispensation Touch not mine Anointed a thousand shall fall before thee and ten thousand at thy right hand Psalm 91.7 Or if God do not ever in publique calamity give his own a temporal deliverance for Cadit Ripheus yet he promises to redeem their soul from deceit and violence and precious shall their death be in his sight Psalm 72.14 Secondly The day of making up these Jewels is understood by some of the time of powerfull preaching of the Gospel principally when Christ himself and his fore-runner the Baptist entered on the office of converting the world so much also is intended here of that Sun of Rightcousness rising with healing in his wings his day-star coming in the Spirit of Eliah cap. 4.2 And we find indeed the time of our Saviour called the time of Reformation surely by that powerable Instrument of his Word it is that his Jewels are made up John prepared the Way and cleansed the people by baptism to repentance Christ wrought up many by himself more by his Apostles after St. Peter at one Sermon three thousand at another five thousand souls And in that time of our Saviour those Jewels were made bright and manifest even to their Despisers See Anna Elizabath Zachary Simeon whom the curious Pharisees reckoned among the base vulgar that knew not the Law but they then were known for Jewels and the other for a generation of Vipers Thus when the World in the Wisdom thereof knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe and to make what the world accounts weakness his Power to salvation For to this is ascribed first the birth and breeding of these Jewels For to which of the Angels said God at any time This day I have begotten thee But as that speech hath a natural Interpretation of Christ our elder Brother so applyed to us in a supernatural Of his own Will begat he us by the Word of Truth Jam. 1.18 which is therefore stil'd the uncorruptible seed 1 Pet. 2.12 God makes thee as he made this All a work of power but in recreating in producing Light of Christianity uses his Word and Wisdom to give thee form so in the New Testament his Word precedes his Miracles and the Donative to the Apostles first was Fieri Vehicula scientiae such as enliven the Receivers For man lives not by bread only and for this cause the Saints are called living stones built on the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself the chief Corner-stone Again The word as it breeds and gives life so Light Grace and Lustre We cannot with the waxen wings of sense or reason flie up to the Deity not as revealed in Christ and ripeness and perfection and rectifying of meer Reason gains us nothing It loses rather and builds downward disclosing the earthly Globe and shutting up Heaven Only God is able by the power of his word to take hold of our souls and like so many keyes apply the graces of Faith and Hope and Love to the wards of prepared rational Nature For the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is that which by original Purity and perfect obedience and satisfaction in his death he hath acquired to and for all his members But the noble Instrument to work that Grace a way into our souls is the declaration of his Gospel in use and Ministry of his Word Yea the Scripture informs us of Illumination by this same means in the very Angels Eph. 3. But the purest Saints are all in darkness till this flaming light be held from heaven no previous disposition in the soul no Platonick Recordation would ever bring us to the least glympse of salvation were it not for this dew of Grace which from the Word we drink into our understanding and thereby direct our Wills and even in their imaginations find it powerfull against all those starts and exorbitancies reducing and bringing into Carptivity every thought to the obedience of Christ Jesus For as health is the absence of sickness and serenity nothing but the avoidance of clouds and shadows so the Word where it comes hath an innate and genuine property to dispel sin like Davids harp driving out Sauls devil You are clean saith our Saviour propter Sermonem by reason of the Word therefore resembled to rain medicines fonntains Such an eager and piercing operation and opposition as it penetrates the closest sin and is a Discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart so Magdalens whoredom and nest of Devils dislodged Zacheus swoln to a Camels grosseness abated to the smalness of a thred fit to be drawn through the eye of a Needle fit to enter into the kingdom of Heaven with this was Lydia's heart opened all other appliances but charms or holy water This mighty word of stones able to raise up children unto Abraham this the double edged sword of the spirit this the fire and the hammer and file to frame and work out Gods Jewels from the rough till piece by piece God thereby hath removed those ruines which through Adams fall opprest all humane nature and hid away the primitive beauty and perfection of our souls Lastly 'T is this that transforms from Prophaness Rebellion Hypocrisie and purges the most dissolute Were with shall a young man reform of all other the most difficult by taking heed according to thy Word and then this Word it is which adorns and teaches how to hang about the neck and ears of Gods holy ones all those shinning graces of precious Faith and Hope and Charity and Meekndss and heavenly-Mindedness c. And therefore in our passage are we not to take notice of this I say we both Preachers and people we first as Jewellers to sever the precious from the vile if speak to speak as the words of God and yet to furnish themselves with all helps of learning the better to insinuate by Similes and riches of discourse and so to raise the imagination and fill the understandings of their hearers but above all it points directly at the curiosity of our pains and carefull industry to be work-men needing not to be ashamed They must be work-men indeed that dcal with Jewels specially with cuting them to the life and perfect beauty and fashioning them in all their points that the man of God may be
perfect lacking nothing Alas if the unprofitable servant be cast out what shall become of the Malignant the Covetous the Proud the Luxurious How are we then to think of that triple charge of Pasce of Jacobs enduring frost and heat of the shepheards keeping watch by night and then of Leo Rugiens to devour both Pastor and Flock And how are they able to resist if we assist not unless we exhort rebuke exhort and minister a word of consolation to every soul that is weary and then the people to be swift to hear How precious is the treasure we bring though in earthen vessels Is it not the Word of God we bring and offer you To mens words we owe temporary belief if they speak wisely and a Resignation of our Judgements till we hear them out But to the Word of God which is diffused into a Sermon or else woe to him that makes it we owe an absolute Resignation and perpetual captivity Take heed then of contempt or wanton ranging after an heap of such Teachers as are after our own lusts lest we cause God to withold this bread from Heaven and endanger the famishing of our souls Let England remember the error of the Jewish Church once the Jewel and peculiar of the Lord of Hosts the defection of the Romish the Degeneration and then the demolition and abolition of Antioch Ephesus Corinth and many others O think in time for we draw very near it of this peoples sin here at the twelfth and thirteenth verses They held the Table of the Lord contemptible and snuffed at it perchance respecting the gorgeous Idols of the Gentiles In the same corrupt affection as many carnal Gospellers not ashamed to let men hear their wishes for the stately and triumphant shews again of Masse Dirges Processions Pilgrimages God hath blest the Land and Church even to the stupor and envy of our Neighbours with abundance of the Gospel of peace and the blessing of God in his Ordinance and with many curious and exact work-men Jewelers of souls and will we not bless the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever Will we not prize this unsearchable Riches of Christ Shall we rather strive to quench and do despite to the Spirit of his Grace by despising Prophecying and like Swine and Dogs trample upon and turning again rend and tear such as pour these precious Pearls before us stoning them that are sent unto us with hard and bitter censures If the ministration of the Law was glorious what is that of the Gospel Examine it Is it not the Power and Wisdom of God and in the Administration of the Sacrament is not the bread we break the communion of the body and the cup we reach out into you from God the communion of the blood of Jesus Are not the offices of the Church such as distinguish us from Dogs and Infidels Let me then first creep a little into mount Ebal and bitterly curse all those thas have evil will at Sion and then flie into Gerizim and cheerfully bless with blessings of the right band Praise and Honor and Salvation upon the heads of all those Christian Kings Princes and people of all conditions who in their several places seek the advancement of the Truth of God and the encouragement of his faithfull servants while their own hearts strike them with the conscience and guilt of maliciousness and propenseness to Idolatry or schismatick Innovations that dare not say Amen 3. We come briefly to the third day to which we must all come the day of death when Gods own having past the fervor of youth and clean escaped the flesh and worlds contagions and the fiery darts of Satan having in short done what they came for they descend into the grave with their bodies like a rick of corn into the Barn in due season and their spirits return to God that gave them when even death is to them precious as well for rest and security as for that new Newness of life which then begins in death clearing to them that whereof Euripides doubted whether to die were indeed to live and contrary for so St. Paul determines it Christ is to me life and death is to me advantage and therefore desired he this day of his dissolution wherein he might be more perfectly united to his Jesus For these his holy Jewels are never so well set as when inset in the joy and Glory of their Lord and Master which makes that in such souls even the approaching towards death fils and purifies with high and heavenly apprehensions as it is in natural motions nearer still to the center or as in Diggers in a Myne who work most earnestly when near the Treasure But if it happen that any of these Jewels be so far dignified as his Lord accepts his life in sacrifice by Martyrdome consummate in sealing the Truth of Jesus with his blood how doth this add fresh ornament and addition of honor to these Servants of God as came to pass with that Protomartyr St. Stephen first made up a Jewel after his Master those stones the Persecutors threw surrounding his head as a precious Crown of Glory However they are all that die in the Lord enfranchised from those chains of corruption which abide the best alive for we dare not boast our Saints as Bellarmine doth Gouraga or his Fellow doth Phil. Nerius who was fain to pray God to depart from him and draw back his mind from heavenly things No we have learnt another way of humble acknowledgement from St. Paul I know that in me that is in my flesh dwels no good thing and St. James In many things we sin all and the day of absolute absolution from sin is not till this day of dissolution wherein these Jewels by death come to take possession of everlasting life 4. The last is the last of dayes Novissimus and the day of Renovation which none but the ancient of days can know and of which also there is a mixt mention in the beginning of this fourth chapter The day of the Lord comes as a furnace and Rev. 6. The great day of his wrath called the day of the Lord Jesus and the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ Rom. 16. The first day we spake on the day of affliction and the last we spake on the day of death do roule up sometime all together It befals alike saith the Preacher to the clean and unclean to him that swears and to him that fears an oath and for the second the day of powerfull preaching the word Hypocrites elude it The devil can transform himself into an Angil of Light and his zanies may make a fair shew in the flesh saith the Scripture But at this great day shall be a real Partition of Sheep and Goats of Wheat and Tares which yet flock and grow together then he will gather his elect from the four winds and declare his mighty Power in glorifying both their souls and
Of his wrath who is a consuming fire and will come so inflaming fire to render vengeance with strange effects the Sun obscur'd the Moon lost Stars fallen Powers of Heaven shaken the Heavens themselves passing away with a noyse Elements melting with fervent heat Earth and all her works burnt up 2 Pet. 3. with the great sound of a Trumpet which even the dead shall hear Graves shall fling open their marble doors and Seas vomit up Millions of drowned Carcases Hell it self shaking thereat and yet all this passing in a moment in a twinkling falling on the world as a snare stealing as a thief rowling as the flood confounding like lightning from the East Then for strictness in this Judges proceedings as for reward first wherein mens Laws are lame defective there 's a Kingdom his own thy Masters joy the same Throne Rev. 13. and then the Purity of that Bliss which Angels enjoying adore and last The Eternity in Psal 16. at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore So contrary those four conditions of hell torments for variety the most greatness insufferable for Purity unmixt with least allay of comfort or hope of mitigation and for continuance everlasting Is it not high time to debate Answer and thither we are come Consider this you that forget God that is you that would forget him that would damp out your own light you that say in your hearts that is you that wish in your hearts there were none what will you do what answer him He hath answered me already that you shall not be able to answer him not able to stand when he stands up in Judgement for the mouth of all wickedness shall be stopped your answer may be a vain cry to the hils and rocks to fall and cover you from the presence of that Judge But I preach not I hope to Atheists and Desperates But when St. Peter saith The righteous shall scarce be saved Doth he not enforce a necessity of debating Had we a tryal in law or Debts on Interest we would fall to reckoning This is more The title of our souls and eternal salvation is at trial a Debt doubled and re-doubled in sins of Youth of Age of Ignorance of Presumption and are our Purses neerer then our souls But is there no avoiding None not for the young men that are least touched with remorse He will bring thee to Judgement Eccle. 11. We must all appear There are wayes and those wayes are trodden too many go those wayes to elude the temporal Judgement of men But in Rom. 14.12 it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every one must account and every one for himself no Atturneyes no Proxies Think too think of our distance shall I speak to the Lord that am but dust and ashes What words shall I chuse saith he Job 9.15 Alas all thought of answer then will be in vain for besides that we are not able to answer him one thing of a thousand that day is his day his day of wrath the time of mercy is over past irrevocably past his day of Doom is come 't is come to sentence and therefore what shall we do Why while we have time put in our answer yet the Chancery and Court of Request is open Now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation My Text is future yet He shall come he shall visit Here is a latitude for Repentance yet he expects calls for our answer and we know to what we have his Bill his Articles Interrogatories that is his Law written and engraven in our hearts we must now frame and put in our answer What is it Repentance first For so may that of the Apostle be understood in Eph. 6. where he enjoyns the Christian souldier to have his feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace I know some take that preparation of the Gospel for a readiness to preach that Gospel which should then belong alone to us Ministers others for a promptness in profession others Evangelical Obedience and some take it to be Patience and not unlikely But may it not also endure this meaning of Repentance too considering it is made the first step in the way of Life and so the first entrance into the field against Satan by John first the day-star who rose before the Sun and came to prepare the way How Repent c. And our Saviour in the same mind upon the same Text Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven it at hand Sad sighs and prayers and tears make up the first part of Repentance and make up so the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart which God will not despise And hast thou this Is the rock cloven Come drops of warm blood in anguish from thy heart Break there floode of bitter weeping from thine eyes This is a fair piece of an answer Such tears have a voice that reaches Heaven and not from David only The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping but from Manasseth too a fearfull sinner because thou hast wept before me I have heard it 'T is Musick to the Almighties-self and raises a joy in Heaven Can the Prodigal that had wasted all his stock of Grace say but Father I have sinned See before he can came to say so God he meets him on the way and receives him to Mercy But this Answer hath a second part Take beed lest your hearts be hardened by sins deceitfulness It is a Circe a Syren we must stop our ears and resolve to be deaf to all her charms charm she never so wisely never so worldly wisely giving not a faint and cold but a peremptory final Answer with the Psalmist Away from me for I will keep the Commandments of my God Will keep them I that is I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed This is the meaning of the Apostle Tit. 3. The Grace of God hath appeared teaching us What Our Answer And how that by denying Ungodliness and worldly Lusts The best Answer is a flat denyal a round Refusal like our Head Christ Jesus who being tempted had his Answer ready And this is our first Answer in a full Repentance made up of grief and resolution 2. A second Answer is Obedience our Works for words will not carry it Not every one that saith Lord Lord And some Answers we read of shall nor serve the turn Some will answer Lord thou hast preached in our streets and we have preached in thy name Tell not me of preaching said our Saviour unless your lives have preacht too Away from me ye workers of iniquity God will have this Answer complexioned of Piety and Honesty when these are marryed they are crowned with the Grace and Blessing of God A number deceive themselves as the Jews when they cry Corban once as the Papists crack of Ecclesia Catholica Romana so these conclude all lies in being Professors zealous magnifying themselves and despising others But what were the
Pharisees by Christs own Testimony religious and yet wicked People may draw near with their lips and their hearts far enough off If thou hast Faith saith St. James let us see it Let your Light shine How why in action shine or else to bare Profession our Saviour threats a round and proportional Answer At that day I will profess to you I know you not Objection But will the weak soul say May I trust to these Answers I may I first trust to my Repentance I feel indeed the weight of sin and finding the offence of an infinite Justice I am horribly afraid dejected like David when he asked his sad soul Why art thou so heavy I am so so wounded pierced struck thorow and my heart rebounds into my eyes I weep and I crie mightily for Mercy but can I hope it Is not sin a Serpent a Sea a Fire a Poison Was I not stung by this Serpent drowned in this sea miserably schorcht by this fire envenomed in the whole Mass of my nature with this corruption before I was born And since alas I have added to this Ocean put fewel to this fire help to infix this sting and work into my heart the contagion and then am I able to resolve against sin to deny ungodliness to reject the Tempter to give my lusts their final answer I find indeed natural men moral men when they will compound an happy man put inthis one ingredient Responsare cupidinibus sibi imperiosus enabling him to check and controul to command and subdue rebellious Passions by the dictates of rectified Reason and their several answers to diverse corrupt affections are enough to shame me and all that profess themselves Christians But were they able to keep their own rules or am I able What to hate sin so as I ought with a perfect hatred I flie some enormous vices for fear of Laws But Tolle periclum Jam vaga prosiliet c. And though I know there is death in the Pot the wages of sin is no better though I pull the fruit and taste it and prove it to be nought but Gall and Bitterness nay barrenness and shame yet such is my madness to pursue a new shame and seek death in the error of life falling like a Bird or a Beast Nay no brid no beast would so oft fall into the same snare same pit into the same sin whereof I have again and again repented me What then shall I do Shall I rely on my second answer and trust in my own righteousness Some bold men dare do so and dare teach others so dare boast a stock and treasure of mercy and satisfaction But Lord I find the language of Canaan thy holy Word and the cries of thy holy servants far otherwise I find thy Bernard say Nolo Horreo meritum Thy David O Lord If thou enter into judgement no flesh shall be justified and thy blessed St Paul I find another Law haling me c. Rom. 7. and therefore I hear him crying ripe to say O miserable man who shall deliver me These are yet the Ejaculations of an humble soul asking seeking knocking at the gate of heaven and this very debating is a fruit of the Spirit growing on to a perfect answer In mens consultings and resolvings for worldly affairs they may they do usually mis-count miscarry fortune choaks their artillery But in these holy provisions the end is ever gracious success glorious If the Jailor in the Acts and St. Peters Hearers come but to a wounded conscience to be prickt at their hearts and cry What shall I do Mark what follows and how fast it follows Believe Repent be baptized and saved Saved How by Believing in him that is able to frame a sufficient Answer He that made them wonder at his gracious answers and to whom no man was able to answer a word Who was that and where is he to be had If any man sin any man that finds himself a sinner Let him put his answer to this Advocate for we have him saith St. John we have an Advocate Jesus Christ the righteous He is the Propitiation for our sins Take then thy shield of faith and quench all the fiery darts of the devil This is the new and living way of answering God by his Son by the blood of Jesus Hebrews 10. May not then the Christian Believer have access with boldness For shall both bleed for sin or shall he bleed in vain Peccavi peccatum grande saith he I have committed an hainous sin yet on my Faith and Repentance I will go to God and say Lord thou canst have but Blood Merit Sacrifice Satisfaction exact Obedience Take then thy Son Jesus He is all these and all these to me for he is mine I receive him by faith and I find comfort hope lively hope full assurance in him I will not therefore flie with Cain and cry with him My sin is greater No thy mercy rejoyces against sin and now therefore there is no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus My answer then to thy Bill is it was torn when his body was torn it is cancelled and was nailed to his Cross My debt was great but is paid to the utmost farthing Thy wrath let it be a cup he hath drunk it of Let it be more a whole Wine-press he hath trode it alone I will then put on my Lord Jesus and come in the rayment of my elder Brother and be roab'd in his innocency and canst thou then deny me No thou canst not thou mayest as well deny thy self For if I have it fair to shew under thy own hand Every gracious Promise in thy Gospel is such yea this was thine own Act in my salvation For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself But may I not prodigally and presumptuously fling away my soul in a vain confidence of Mercy Yes many do so that will do nothing themselves not when they have the assistance and proffer of help from Heaven Therefore I will compound and put all these answers together I will trust to my Saviours merit But I will repent too and pray too and work too and so work out mine own salvation with fear and trembling And though I have no Holiness of mine own and without it no seeing thee at the Day of Judgement yet thou the God of my peace wilt sanctifie me against that day 1 Thess 5. O blessed and full answer now and O blessed condition of such happy souls so far from affrightment at thought of the Judges coming that they shall then rejoyce and lift up their faces and in the mean time are of the number and communion of those Saints that love his appearing looking for and hasting to the comming of their Lord in glory calling and crying Bow the Heavens and come down and Lord how long And come Lord Jesus come quickly I have done with the explication of my Text. There is a fourfold application First In general to
make the Seer overseen to lose the eyes of his mind to drown his holy unction in drink and suffocate the Spirit of Grace he must be apt to teach saith the Apostle and in the same place it follows Not addict to Wine left that disqualifie his Palate and Brain and render him Ineptum unfit to teach or to be taught But I hasten to a fourth and last sort of Visitors that is all Christians in performance of that general Duty which concerns both preacher and People and is indeed a prime part of Christianity and that which St. James calls Pure Religion namely to visit the fatherless and widdows in their adversity and that which will be remembred and enquired after at the great and dreadfull visitation by the Judge of all the world who will demand not what we have preacht or heard or professed bnt what we have done And among those works of mercy that shall follow and felicitate such as die in the Lord and shall then rise in the Power of his Resurrection this is a Chief our visiting the sick and those in prison And the omission of this shall be taken as a neglect and refusing of Christ Jesus in person In as much as you have not done it to them you have not done it to me Consider what I have said and the Lord give you and me and us all Understand in all things Let us pray for a Blessing c. THE FIRST SERMON AT COVRT GEN 3.9 The Lord God called unto the man and said Adam where art thou 1. A Text antient and catholique for all times seasonable fit for all places fit for all places and persons Is it to a King that I preach I may tell him this Sermon whereof my Text is a piece was the first piece of sound Divinity and preacht to the first Monarch-Lord of all the earth yet preacht by a greater King even the King of Kings and Lord of Heaven and Earth If I were preaching to a Parliament I could tell them this was the first that ever was in which the first malignant-Party was justly sentenc'd and the two first Delinquents in mankind put to Fine and Ransom 2. Take us together without respect of persons and the Text will serve to call upon every man here that professes himself a son and a servant and yet is apt to forget the Law of the Lord his God Where art thou first for the place In whose house in whose Courts in whose presence-Chamber and even this Demand considering our usual inconsideration is enough to shiver us as it did lacob with Surely God is in this place and I was not aware And then where art thou In whose Court of Judicature and even now to be called to thy answer for the same business as Adam here The breach and violation of Gods Commandment For thou hast eaten also of the forbidden fruit for so is the committing of any thing against which Gods prohibition lies and are we like then to be found Recti in Curia Can we answer him any one thing of a thonsand so the Call will concern us and the sense of the words will penetrate to our hearts also if we refuse not if we run not away from God and seek to hide our transgressions in summ it is a Text well worthy our serious attention 3. We may call it an Introduction to a judicial proceeding of God against man after his sin For after sin comes Judgement Premit comes So it was ab origine Adams case The first book-case that ever was And Judgement as St. Peter saith begins at the house and more here it begins with the Son of God for as in fulness of time he sent his only begotten Son in the similitude of sinfull flesh and to condemn sin in the flesh and though he knew no sin yet to be punished for sin being made sin for us and bearing all our sins in his body So here he comes in the beginning of time to arraign and condemn sinfull flesh in his own Son Christ is his honourable true and only Son begoten of his Father before all worlds by an everlasting generation and ineffable that none can declare But all the sons of men are his sons too by a generation declared in Ethnique Poety first and then in antient Catholique and Apostolick Divinity made of that Poety Acts 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are his Off-spring and Generation we all are so but our Forefather was so by a kind of Primogeniture as St. Luke expresly Which was the Son of Adam which was the Son of God Whence even thus early may we make application that certainly it will be then a poor and barren a silly and impotent a base and impudent hope for any son of Adam to look for Impunity Rather all must look in severals one day to hear this Call of God Where art thou Wheresoever thou shalt be or howsoever found dead among those that live in pleasures drowned and soakt in fleshly lusts or choacht in wordly cares or quick from the dead from that dispersion and resolution to watery slime and mud to earthly dust or aerie Atoms All the Mass and Collective body of mankind once made and then at once remade by his mighty Word shall hear his almighty Word that Voyce and Trump of God Return you sons of men Arise and come to Judgement Let us in Gods name and fear do so now Arise quicken our thoughts prepare for since prevent we cannot that last by considering of this first Judgement 5. Wherein the parts are four our two first parts are the two Parties appearing in and at this Judgement God the Judge and man the Delinquent Our third particular is the manner of the process Calling The Lord God called unto the man And the last is the matter of the Summons Where art thou which in the literal sense is Whether art thou fled But in the Mystick it bears a kind of secret Increpation and a touch of pitty Where art thou The glory of my Workmanship become the shame of all the Creatures Into what a miserable condition reduced that thou art ashamed of thy self Alas Adam where art thou and before we finish our Observations on the Text we may come to make use of both these Interpretations 6. The first part of this Judgement is the two persons appearing so I said there were two But yet it is not so The first person spoken of is the Judge and he is present The Lord is at hand But the guilty sinner he flies for 't Et non est inventus But it is not possible for him to escape or lie hid the sin will find him out and we must all appear Rejoyce O young man saith Ecclesiastes Eccle. 11. in th◠youth in excess of Riot Pomp Rage thou canst cover all under the fig leaves of youth but know that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgement young and old without difference every soul to answer for every thing
to himself And when I hear his servants Job and David put that Query What is man they both put it to God himself to answer and in those very answers which they make by Gods own inspirations we find and know still that man cannot be found and known and that there are corners and Incognita's in this Microcosm that are not laid out fully in any Chart but left only to the discovery of him that is the searcher of hearts But yet for our present purpose and suddain apprehension of man I will turn you but to two books if I do that for there is much reason I 'le be brief if for nothing else yet a little to quit and recompence my former being too long And the first book shall be this of the Creation this very book of Genesis and but one place in the book Chapter 2. verse 7. The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into him into his Nostrils the breath of life and man became a living foul Soire we say is per causas and here they are at least here we may ground our selves upon the ground-work of all that is in our bodies All that gentle noble royal blood in mens veins and all the matter of the Merchants of the Divines of the Councellors or Courtiers or States-mens very brains all our pride and honor if we be proud of any materials in blood or brain or face or hand or foot we may soon find all our pride and honor in the dust with a double mention and Inculcatiou of Dust and dust upon all mankind God at first beats down all Supremacies still amongst men in compare with God all right or wrong Honorable and so all right or wrong Reverend too Here we have ventured at this instant to make an Assembly of our selves in the presence of God and in the Courts of his own house male and female with differing faces differing out-sides too or cloathed in Purple and fine linnen with hanging on of Gold or costly Array or clad in skins of beasts over our own hides and with girdles of skins as John the Baptist but yet with far more differing insides full of youthfull or wanton fires some and some with fierce and cruel or treacherous and bloody thoughts some perchance willing Hearers and some glad only to be here at this time if for nothing else yet out of an hope to catch something from the Preacher if he should be so silly as to flow into distempered and partial Invectives and anon sad to find their malice deluded Nay we may well suppose that some Papist may drop in upon us now or Separatist at other times afford his company and sneak into the Church to hear what News and then hit his very heart against this supposition But I will enlarge my self in a comprehensive Note for all this Audience whatsoere we are what use soever ye mean to make of the Preacher and the Sermon being both plain homely stuff and will serve perchance at dinner to fill out discourse and help to hold comparisons However God deprehend us now or apply himself to us here or we to him and his Vicegerent in our affections or intentions good or bad Once however we differ yet one primordial and finall sentence is past upon us all one Law gone out and over all mankind that arrests and enwraps takes in all Prince and people and layes up all together Dust thou art be sure and as sure to dust thou shalt return Every son of man like the first from the earth earthy A good touch this is by the way to humble us even in our most exalted imaginations 16. And though we hearken to the rest of mans Description with more alacrity which tells us so man became a living soul yet if thou do not become that soul but spoil'd it in the wearing nay if that soul serve thee only for salt to keep thy flesh from putrefaction if that soul become not a new soul though man be a living soul yet better he had had neither soul nor life unless the new man the second Adam the Lord from heaven heavenly become the life of thy soul and thou lead a new life by the power of the Son of God if the quickening Grace of his mighty Spirit if the same hand of the Lord God here that formed do not reform thee We talk of Reformation and Reformation in State and Church I am not able to look to those things of my self but I am able by Gods gracious assistance to look to this reformation of my self And certainly as families make towns and they make Common-wealths and Churches so private and particular persons are the roots and springs of all and their several Reformations are the roots and springs of all Reformation too But yet as in Reforming States I doubt not but Statesmen and the most stately of them had need to be instant in prayer to God or else without his blessing all may prove but a shock and conflict of wits nay worse for Bella horrida Bella may ensue except he bless unless the Lord God keep us Builders and Watchmen shall do all in vain So is it manifest in the reforming of our souls for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works Eph. 2.10 And this discerning the work of God in his own brest is that other book to which I would refer man for discovery of himself The book of conscience it is which lies open and layes man open to himself if he read there and find digitum Dei the Hand-writing of God both of Law and Gospel in his heart ingrav'd in that Table then it is another a second book of Genesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new beginning of new Light struck up and a new Birth of a new world of Beauty and harmony struck from his old chaos of corrupt Nature and a new Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The book of his Regeneration Gods spirit bearing witness with his spirit that he is the child of God and a Volume a tome a piece of Gods works nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 2 10. A Poem a masterpiece of Gods own workmanship in Christ Jesus Reformed review'd view'd and corrected by the Author and purged from infinite errors is in Lucem editus Reprinted and comes forth into the Light multò auctior locupletior that is Emendatior in this new and second Edition But how shall I know this Indeed that Question is turned into a tormenting scruple by some evil Informers but the knowledge is easie to them that will observe the alteration Even as we know an A B C from a Testament by the contents and augmentation And even as certainly and as sensibly as I find my self past Genesis when I am in Exodus For this Genesis doth ever resolve into an Exodus that is a going out of Aegypt in a Deliverance evidenced to his soul from the thraldom of sin and tyranny
of his own corruptions by Gods mighty hand and out-stretched arm and a Passover by the Lambs blood sprinkled and flesh eaten with the sowr herbs of Repentance and a leaving behind him those rocky dangers and roaring wilds of sin and sea of vanity from whence when he looks back he stands still and beholding the Salvation of the Lord he fears the Lord and believes the Lord as t is in Exod. 14. ult and sings that song of Moses and the children of Israel Exod. 15. The Lord is my strength the Lord is become my salvation who is like unto thee O Lord glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders If now we should proceed from hence to fall upon the Redargution of such as mind no part of this Learning and hating to be reformed are loth to look into these books I should shew my self unmindfull of this presence and too far stretch my abusing of a Royall patience reserving therefore what may make up another exercise I conclude with prayer S. D. G. THE SECOND SERMON ON THIS TEXT AT COVRT GEN 3.9 The Lord God called unto the man and said Adam where art thou 1. IN the first opening of this Scripture which is an Introduction to Gods judicial Proceeding against Man after his sin and so the first Book-case that ever was recorded and being a loading case should therefore premonish all the sons of Adans to prevent a Second by a timely consideration of this first Judgement I made four parts the two first are the two parties appearing in this Judicature God the Judge and Man the Delinquent The other two are the manner of the Process by way of calling and the matter of the Summons Where art thou Of which the sense is double by way of Question first and then in a way of Commiseration 2. Concerning the first particular and the Judges names of Lord and God I spake fully the last time and of the dangerous nature of sin which provokes so great and then so gracious a Lord God to indignation to hate and then to punishment Finding this boundless Ocean of God his Names and Nature too profound we came to a discovery of Man our second Particular and observing how hard it is for man to search into himself for the advancement of every mans learning in this difficult point I pointed you to two books the first this book of Genesis and therein Principally the fourth Chapter verse 7. wherein is laid down by God such a description of man as will let us easily discern our wretched and earthly materials which to reform I told you of the other book the book of Conscience wherein as in a Glass a man man view himself and see of what fashion he is that is whether yet abiding in Genesis or be past over into an Exodus and escaped in some good measure the corruptions which be in nature and in the world through Lusts And now it is fit we fulfill what was promised of â—nnexing hereunto a Redargution of such proud or dull people as seem to scorn the Perusal of these two volumes full of heavenly Instruction but specially abhor to look into the last and therefore my Reproof shall chiefly intend and pitch upon that part of their Delinquency 3. Two sorts of men then there are both ignorant and arrogant that reject this book of Conscience as Apocryphal nor endure thereby to be put to their Purgation to their Clergy where the Versicle is both Greck and Latine Heathen and Christian too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Miserere mei too both irksom and unpleasant Doctrines to them The first of these is the Painted Pharisee who thinks himself and thinks he is scarce to thank God and thanks himself that he is not like other men but one per se that can predestinate elect call justifie sanctifie and glorifie himself for he can view and review and discover and relate at pleasure those Records above and find or set down there his own certain and it may be the name of a special friend of his too if he think fit in that book of life above without searching those rouls above or examining the book of his own life For as we have Mushrum Preachers Lecturing before reading and a birth before conception miraculous Fellows And I would that were the worst would it were but froth and vanity and a tedious nothing and that they did not conceive mischief and bring forth sedition So their Disciples or rather their Patrons and Matrons too can make sure work of their salvation without working it out with fear and trembling and are pefect in Heavens way by a directory of their own private spirit without book The second is the meer worldling Filius terrae earth-born and bred that comes up like a vernal flower in green and yellow a kind of Narcissus and like him becomes his own glass and book There he studies and pores and doats day and night and esteems himself a rare piece because fairly bound up in Velome with silk strings painted and guilded and embost with his Arms and Empress engraven and printed cum priviligio in a large Folio Stultitiam patiuntur opes But Quid intus He that runs may read him through In the very Frontispice and Title-page in capital Letters stand Caro and Carion and Carcase and nothing else but a few scatterred Principles and Conclusions of flesh and blood Or if Homo be there 't is sunk beneath his species and drowned in Animals in malis not beset with or set on by but set in evil in maligno positus and it is a Permalignancy like a compleat Armor from the Crown of the head saith I saiah to the sole of his foot It is not quartering nor a Party per pale but his whole Scutcheon is una litera Coat and Crest and Supporters and all He walks with a stiff neck saith the Scripture and strengthens himself in his wickedness and makes his boast that he can and will do mischief and yet this wretched thing will brag of Descent and coming in with Conquerors and Kings Alas Where art thou O vain man Here I am sure both he and we were once in Massa corrupta Our prime Ancestor you see a Rebel and the next of our kin Illud quod dicere nolo we can get no Credit by naming him And then in this miserable condition if he be a King on earth never so highly born unless he be born again he can never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven unless washt and made Kings and Priests in his blood and restored in that second Adam The meer natural man may derive himself from Belus but Gods calls every such man a son of Belial and his condition is Bellual nay worse then that of the brute beast though he be a man still And though this may anger and offend him to be told thus barely of it yet such a man but I shall hope there is no such man here must know that if
saies he nor so loud but like as the Trumpet of the Law began low at first but now he presses the offenders conscience where first for Gods cause that is for Gods Glory let me crave again this advertency in your discerning what it is that calls us from sin The same Spirit that began in the Creation Revisits his own work and excels himself in thy Recreation It was God which call'd Abraham out of VR which signifies a fire or light and then brought him to a sweeter clearer fire and better and purer Light even that Light which was both revealed to the Gentiles after and remain'd the glory of his people Israel All the Israel of God united both Jews and Grecians bond or free on whom nor circumcision nor uncircumcision was regardable For those are nothing saies the Apostle what then is something Nay what is it then that is all things This only To become a new creature wherewith shall a yong man that is the sot the Prodigal in the Parable that hath wasted all his stock and is mad out of his right mind how shall this man that is troubled with the Scotomy and Vertigo a youthful wildness and unstayedness in his brains how shall he recover come to himself again and from his blinded and distempered flight find the way of Returning to hir heavenly Father This is hard but may be effected by taking heed according to thy Word There is a power in Nature but the wisdom of God shining in his Word by the joynt operation of his Spirit for these two ever work together is a power indeed mighty in operation to cast down the strong holds of Satan Not as it is the Ministry of men though the Dispensation be ours no not all those Clarious of his holy Prophets that spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost to which we do well to attend saies St. Peter as a more safe Word and as to a Light shining in a dark place till the day dawn till God send the marvailous light of his Gospel And then it is not in the Instruments Not in John greater then a Prophet and a stout and plain deliverer of the Truth and not a Reed shaken with the wind and bending his Doctrines to humour his variously inclin'd Audiences Nor in Paul thas was Os orbi sufficiens as that Golden-mouth'd father calls that blessed Apostle And all his Successors in any part of the world must know that their Voyces are but still and soft Musick and a sound qui aures percutit reaching only to the ear But the inward Minister of whom we heard before instructs the heart T is Gods Ephata that can do that That alone can call from the sleep and death of sin and from the grave of corruption Qui dixit sine me non potestis cogitare bene multo magis dixit sine me non potestis credere To believe is a greater work and of greater Grace and Power then to conceive a good thought Yet both those rich streams run from one and the same Fountain 7. But this Impotency will not be believ'd to press and lie on all mankind How gladly would some men find out some way in themselves whereby they might be less beholden to the Grace of God I Ungracious to God for his Grace and would gladly forget or fain to forget that God so incessantly remembers men with his preventing exciting with his inchoative and concomitant and subsequent and persevering Graces Graces of all sorts and all seasons Bold and presumptuous men that purposely neglect to magnifie the operations of Gods Graces on them because they would derive the Magnificat and Benidictus on themselves and so sacrifice to their own nets not looking up to the prime and constant mover of all not regarding the strong God of their Salvation There is indeed a Rate and a Sect of men who will perchance be content that God shall be kind and gracious to some feeble ones that stand in need of his assistance Sick and weak people may need the Physick of that Heavenly Doctor But not such able men such Saints and perfectists as they men that are wholly taken up with the admiration of themselves and their own purity Who yet must know that if they have been kept from falling into gross sins and are therefore apt to deride mine or any other mans weaknesses who have been and do confess as much frequently overtaken and overcome yet it is still the same gracious hand that hath done the several cures on both That God whose Grace was all the while a preservative to them was to me and him that slipt a Restorative Where is boasting then it is or it ought to be excluded and exploded out of all Christian books and out of all sober and religious brains and hearts Be not high-minded but fear is a Canon that uo wise man will cry down lest he fall with it For simply in the state of nature both he and I were even that is even able to do nothing as of our selves So far from being sure of Gods Election that we were not yet under this Grace of Vocation nor Law nor Gospel-calling and so without Christ so without God in the world Therefore here the exhortation is to be renew'd of calling upon God for this call and crying ardently unto the Throne of Grace that so we may obtain Grace to help us in time of need and that is at all times while we bear about flesh and blood wherein dwells corruption 8. Secondly Take notice of the mercy enlarg'd in this double call of God and this extension of the Voyce as in that to his Spouse Return O Shullamire Return Return and that convincing Interrogatory Why will you die As I live saies the Lord I would not the death of him that dies And this course we find God ever took sending his Prophets rising up early with many sweet invitements O come and taste how gracious the Lord is Come and drink of the waters of his Mercy freely And when those Prophets had spent their strength stretched out their hands in vain and had their cries returned in Reproiches and their reward was nothing but stones and persecutions then rose the Baptist with a new crie who was more then a Prophee then any son of man before him respecting the excellency of his Office in the present assignation of the Messiab and exhibiting the long longed for Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world He redoubled his crie in the wilderness of Repent and reason for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand so at hand that he could indigitate him that was and is the King of Heaven with his Ecce Agnus ' Dei Behold him that is come to call sinners to Repentance and Remission that hath brought abundance of Grace and Truth no more in Promise or Prophesie but in Act and personal performance and yet this John the Baptist you know how rewarded they extingnished this burning
and shining Lamp in a base Report of a Demoniack and no wonder for in the fulness of time he sent his Son the Son of God himself for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven the high Priest of our profession made man and made a Minister of that Profession which was never more despicable then now unless it be in a few Peplicolaes of our own or fugitives from the Roman Church And did not he find as we must on his experiment and Prediction expect a stony-hearted and stony-handed generation though all his Errand was but a woing Embasie from Heaven and an unfained hearty Invitation Come unto me all that be weary for refreshing and if my Word will not pass my Blood shall witness and confirm it under seal And last A Race of Evangelists and Teachers in his name beseeching men to be reconciled unto God and which in despight of the worlds base usage he will continue to the end of the world 9. Thirdly Observe the Progress and Degrees of sin Adams heart possessed deafs his ear Satans Policy having obtained the inmost Fort he salls to fortifie in outworks whereof the ear is of prime Regard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gate of Learning the Inlet to all discourse of Reason and Religion We therefore in Wisdom ought to labor to prepossess this gate of our enemy else Christ may stand and knoch and call and we reply if at all we do it with vix audivi Domine by reason Satan hindred us by prevention and holds the Fort against Christ by prescription We therefore as for spiritual eye-salves to resort to him that calls us to that Mercate Buy of me the best Collyrium so far Aures perforatae which is the Mark of Christs sheep ears set open and attentive to his Word that is ears to hear him and his true Wisdom pure and peaceable and not the susurrations not those subtile whispers of the Serpent who is the Charmer now though he charm never so fleshly never so worldly wisely with his Eritis sicut Dii as to the first Adam here or omnia dabo all these will I give thee as to the second Adam For if we be not thus cautelous we shall incur his high displeasure that God that made and still searches the heart abhors it from his heart if the devil be lodged there for through the narrow straiteness of of one ear these two Christ and Satan will never agree to pass and if Satan possess it wholly Alas Adam then Where art thou 10. That 's our fourth and last particulat in this perusal of the literal sense the matter of the Summons Vbi tu Where art thou Was God ignorant of his abode No but desirous to bring man to confession and so to draw the corruption of his heart through his mouth Confession of sin a prime and noble part of our divine service but how extremely neglected My son give Glory to God saith Joshuah to Achan How by confession Beloved in our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus Give Glory to God in the congregation of your fellow-servants Give Glory to this Lord of all Lords and shun not scorn not that early that glorious piece of Adoration and thereby this very day of God to call for his consession Observr and learn this god like lenity a soft and dilatory proceeding to judge thy brother Do not be hasly through wrath for the wrath of man fulfils not the Righteousness of God nor through bitter envy to which all mankind is prone The spirit of man lusteth after envy and that accursed poisonous vulture finding no outward glory wealth or place the usual food it feeds upon will quarrel rather then miss a prey upon the very Grace and meekness and innocency of onr blessed Saviour himself For Pilate knew saith the Gospel that for envy they had delivered him unto the Judgement Lastly Advise with that Apostle who himself had been too sierce Brethren saith he if any man be fallen and any man may take a fall since the fall of the first Man specially those that are set in high and slippery places if the Tempter cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every man is not so wise as ever more to abhor that suggestion in that case of falling by insirmity Restore such an one saith the Apostle or if that may not be yet judge such a one in the spirit of Meekness Why Behold thy own face in that Glass acknowledge thy own frailty knowing our selves even the best of us lest we also be tempted Be just then O man It is with an Emphasis Thou O man that judgest another But be not too just for in cool and calm proceedings man is like his God Shall he delay and shall we be too rash and eager Is not Gods Word to be believed or his example unworthy our imitation 11. The Lord God called unto the Man where our next note is that sin makes a separation sends us like the Prodigal into a strange Courtry far from our heavenly Father Every act of wickedness is a departing from God Non pedibus corporis sed animi affectibus It disacquaints us first and then grows and gathers to a disaffection If in that state we draw near to God with our eyes and lips our hearts are far from him If we speak to God in that state we do but flatter with our tongue and deceive him if we could with our double heart Alas How comes this strangeness betwixt God and our souls It is not long of him He is immutable Men that are highly exalted make their own alterations causes of strangness to others and that pride is worthily plagued oftentimes among all Tribes even our own in the evidence and eyes of men But God that is very high exalted he that is higher then the highest that sits upon an Arch and Throne erected over all their heads and wears a Crown of immortality and Glory immarcescible the great Bishop of all our souls the only Potentate comes after us and cals and cries to seck and to save us wandring sheep the most dangerous straglers that would lose our selves in endless Labyrinths and never seek the Shepherd 12. Last of all There is an Emphasis in Thou Vbi tu No man loves to be the second person no man loves to be spoken to not thus to be questioned This opens the head-spring of all humane misery Lord is it I Reviling one another Tush that 's nothing robbing spoiling grinding one another in pieces Let the question be put as it is here Where art thou you know what was answered Lord is it I and to this very hour among all the variety of Sects and Divisions as many as there be all deme the fault every one ready to excuse themselves Lord is it I as the very devilish Traitor himself the child of perdition had learnt this lesson from Adam to hide his sin But the heathen will teach us to reduce our wandring censoriousness and to look into
our self-guiltiness Quae in alto quaeris intus in visceribus haerent Thou O man saith the Apostle that condemnest another dost the same things thy self or if not the self same as bad or worse Thou abhorrest a sin it may be some sin thou dost not practise some sin will not yield thee any profit or no surther profit some sin will do thee no pleasure now Thou abhorrest Idols or thou dost not commit Adultery but thou committest Sacrilege Is there not a Vbi tu for thee Will there not be a calling to Judgement one day for that and then where art thou And so against all fig-leaves against all pretences and excuses here 's nothing in this Vbi in this place but bare and naked Tu. Thou mayest condemn the Serpents envy and thy wive solicitation thou mayst as well lay thy gluttony unto the Cook or to thy friend inviting thee God singles out his Dear and shoots this ungaged arrow deep into our several brests but yet such wounds from his hand are better then the kisses of an enemy All flattering all false inflations of the Serpent will but make us Pharisees With Lord I am not like other men But such a touch of this would take out that venom make us all strike on our proper bosoms and every man answer God Where art thou with Lord Here I am But Lord be mercifull to me a sinner and so Lord be mercifull to us all miserable sinners Be mercifull O Lord to us not for ours but for his sake who was made sin for us the second Adam that bore all our sins in his body on the Tree even Jesns Christ the Righteons to whom c. S. D. G. THE THIRD SERMON ON THIS TEXT GEN 3.9 The Lord God called unto the man and said Adam where art thou THIS is now the third Entrance on this Entrance of Gods Judgement upon man after his Lapse which is the first of all the three pieces of Divinity And this Third this our new consideration of this Judgement and Gods Method in proceeding may open by his assistance another door of utterance and so we may make another and another Method of proceeding with this or any other Text of Scripture For as there is little reason for that Painter who uses to inscribe his pieces to bind all other Work-men to his device So though it is impossible for any man dividing the Truth aright and speaking out of the pure Word of God things consentaneous thereunto for instruction of Gods people to avoid Doctrine or for any but grraceless Hearers not to suffer the Word of Exhortation of Reproof of Consolation to have a gracious use in their hearts and hands for Religion should be hearted first and handed after in their Understanding first and then in their Life and Conversation Yet I never found in the Sermons of the Lord Jesus himself nor in those of his Apostles nor in their Successors the Primitive Fathers of the first well-formed Churches nor in those of the now deformed Church of Rome nor in those of the first Reformed Churches that they confin'd themselves much less bound over all others on pain of sin or absurdity to one and such only form and way of Teaching which beside the violence offered to mens spirits is to my Understanding a kind of Restraint put upon the free Spirit of that God which works all in all yet deals by a diversity of gifts and distributes in variety of those gifts to every mans necessity and Capacity So that in this for the Divine that rule of the Moralist will hold Nullius addictus c. tied to none nor ever to a mans own Methode witness this attempt of mine in this farther process upon this very Text as it includes a Judgement and the Method of that Judgement These are now our two and all our parts 1. For the first When the story hath told us of Man and Womans Disobedience it shews us after their sin their shame for that 's the first born issue of sin Now they saw and knew themselves every way outwardly and inwardly in bodies and souls naked despoil'd and destitute They run from God and would hide themselves then both from him and themselves Arguments ever of guilty minds fore casting cruel things and then enters the Text with Judgement but what is here begun spreads as far as v. 20. before the sentence be ended 2. Whence the point of Doctrine on easie Inference may be that our Judgement shall certainly overtake and come upon us Hath the Senate condemned me to die saith he Why so Hath Nature condemned them to die too So hath God called me to sit and judge other men perchance those other men might better sit upon me and peradventure they shall yet ere I die If that be unexampled it is not impossible but it is impossible to escape the Judgement of God There is a Prevision of that and of the Conflagration and of the Consternation which shall be then all as old as the visions of Daniel chap. 9. verse 9. When the Thrones were cast down and the Antient of days did sit A fiery stream issued and came forth before him Thousands of thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the Judgement was set and the Books were opened And another vision of that as new and as late as the last piece of all Gods Revealed Will to men in Rev. 20.11 12 13. verses I saw a white Throne saith St. John and him that sat thereon from whose face the earth and the heaven fied away and there was found no place for them and I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works and the sea gave up his dead and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works And these proofs these large allegations from the old and new Testament we may use instead of larger reasons for if those reasons men speak so much of rise clearly from the fountain Truth of Gods eternal Word they are worthy of some higher and nobler names then Reasons but if not taken from clear Scripture Grounds or if they flow from other principles then to the clearing of divine Truth what reasons are they Two things only then I would gladly print on every soul and from this double vision which opens and closes up this Instruction 1. Put you first in mind of St. Pauls Caveat Rom. 14.10 where the Doctrine is not to judge Not to set at nought our Brother and this is made the reason We shall all stand before the Judgement-seat of Christ and every one of us give account of himself to God 2. The other is St. Judes Induction remembring us of Gods constant course preceding in destruction
of the unbelievers among his own people in reserving the lapsed Angels to everlasting chains under darkness to the Judgement of the great day in Sodom and Gomorrha suffering the vengeance of temporal and eternal sire and concludes with the Prophecy as old as Enoch the seventh from Adam our exampe here which so early gave the world warning and witness of this Lords coming to execute Judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly of all their ungodly deeds and of all their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their rough and hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him So that as David in the 19. Psalm confounds the Atheists denying the Glory of God by a declaration of the Heavens and confirmed by the firmament under Gods own hand and utters it by the speech and voice of day and night all which speak all languages and as the blessed Apostle applies that to the preaching of the Gospel Rom. 10. The sound whereof went into all the earth and to the ends of the world and then asks the question Did not Israel know so I may apply all those passages in Scripture concerning Gods coming in flaming fire to rende Vengeance to all that are or mean to be of the Israel of God Have we not known that which was fore-known so many ages since in the famous confession of the Heathen Affore Tempus quo mare quo tellus ardeat so abundantly testimonied by the Prophets by our Saviour and the Apostles That as the flood of water was to rince the old world so all the corruptions of the New shall again be purged in streams of purifying fire 2 Thess 3. 2 Pet. ult and that none of all the corrupt mass of mankind shall avoid that tryal Is there not fair warning a fair Intimation here for all the branches by Gods striking at the root and by his Inquisition made against the first Offender that ever was The Lord God called unto the man c. 3. And here we might infer that usefull part of Sermons in uses of which the chief are still but two reducible they are all to two heads Timor Amor 1. Fear Come then and I will teach you the fear of the Lord Come and by this coming of the Lord learn and by this calling on the first Let us all at last learn to call one upon another but most of all upon our own souls to stand in aw of this Judge of all the world as for man we understand his Power is lined and chalkt out and we know what is his ultima linea But there is a line yet more ultimate that reaches down to the infernal pit and to the second death Fear him that is able to cast both body and soul into fire unquenchable Before whose Judgement-seat no Proxie is admitted from whose just Doom no Bribe no Lords Letter no Kings intercession can deliver us 2. And then Amor too not to be forgotten for all this For for all this executing of Judgement for all this erecting a Judgement-seat in Paradise against the first sinners there yet even there and then was laid the foundation of a Mercy-seat in Christ The womans seed was promised then which was sent in sulness of time to deliver us from that wrath to come And therefore can there be a greater Impulsive or Incentive to man to love the Lord No saith the Apostle He that considers this and loves not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maraxatha accursed till that coming of the Lord in a second Judgement 4. Thus far our first part The Judgement with the Doctrine and the uses upon that to shew that as I will not be bound to follow so will I never abhor even that easie Methode of making Sermons Our second and last part of the Text in this last dividing of it which is the Methode of this Judgement which we shall look upon by your patience in a double respect one to the delinquent Adam and another to God the Judge 5. First for the man He is here brought first into question God calls first to him and not to the Serpent or to the woman And in such occasional observations as this that clearing and light which the soul receives in apt solutions when she doubts or is in darkness may most properly be called the rendring of a reason It is not requisiâ—e it is impossible sometimes to reason upon some points of manifest Doctrine unless we mean to obscure them under a pretence of giving light as to tell why God is just or why mercifull The Mercy of God in the first act is his inclination in the second it is the exhibition of Mercy to us No reason of the first at all and of the second no reason at all but the first But where the thing we teach may fall under question there it is a sweet and delightfull thing to mans understanding to receive satisfaction such at least as if it do not fill up all Scruple in us may yet in the things of God possess our souls with a moderate reverend acquiescence As in this case of Adams the reason is afforded why he comes first to the bar First the Serpent was now incorrigible and had no share in this gracious Call which was ad Correctionem non ad ruiram And then in compare with the woman he was the greater sinner first as a man and then as her Husband In use it is nor sex nor person but sin the Lowdness of that which calls and cries for this calling to Judgement And even here the last in offending may be as bad as the first or worse Jacobs other sons inexcusable because they came afterwards and on more advantage to the slaughter of the Sechemites Greatness then or Superiority is no bar to this Inquest Jeroboam is branded for making Israel to sin so Adam for pertaking wilfully in the sin of Eve If David sin with Bathsheba the Prophet of God is sent to him with a special Writ and it not mistaken it was no false arrest Thou art the man Nay our persons and high places are motives to Judgements which like rains sall most on hills and eminent places 6. Secondly Respecting the other party who is offended God is Judge himself so is he ever in all acts of true Judgement though done by Delegates but here is an act immediate The Lord God in his own person It is not ever so for observe that as God here in the first foundation of mankind judges the first Monarch so in that first foundation of his people under Kings he judges Saul for inobedience like another Alam and David too for murder like another Cain The remarkable difference of the process is Here he doth it by himself To Adam he comes calling Vbi es and to Cain Gen. 4 9. Vbi est Abel But to the two Kings he sends two of his Ministers two of his Prophets Samuel and Nathan Why this different addressing of the Judgement Was
it the foulness of the offence Sauls first seems a grosser disobedience then Adams Regardless of Gods express prohibition he reserves Agag and the fattest and best of the spoils as Adam took the fruit forbidden and then iterates his offence in offering Sacrifice intruding on the sacred function which never King could violate without exemplary punishment As Jeroboam and Vzziah stand for proofs in Chronicles and then Davids sin seems souler then Cains Adulterating Vriahs wife making him drunk and then contriving so to murder him though it drew on the slaughter of many of his own Souldiers and Gods servants and occasioned the enemy the uncircumcised enemy to triumph in their bloods A sin doubtless most horrible and as the School-men thwack and throng into Adam sin almost all kind of wickednesses as Pride Gluttony c. so is this of Davids a Rapsody and Fardel horribly complicated and enwrapped with other sins And the wonder is enlarged in the greatness of these royal persons to whom God could have addrest Angels as he might in Adams cause for he had those winged Pursivants even then as we read he did by a destructive execution of the Assyrians in many thousands by one Angel 2 Reg. 19 35. And as he did even to David punishing his other sin of Pride by the sword of a destroying Angel in 2 Sam. 24. 7. For Resolution of this we learn first from some Interpreters that this was done with this difference because there those Kings offences were manifest and had witnesses enough These Delinquents sinning the fruit think to escape under the leaves as if God could mistake them for trees To teach Rulers in such cases that Rule of Joh in searching out the matter diligently When Herod feared the ruine of his Kingdom by an Hebrew Infant he enquired diligently of the Wise men all that could inform him for prevention So all wise and just Judges both Soveraign and Dependant ought to be curious and not to cast to non-regardance the search and tryal of gross Offenders For as on the one side no such acceptable sacrifice to God and Angels and good men as the blood af a bloody Murderer or such like Monster No such golden world as where great and grievous sinners are shel'd and disheltered from out their trees and fig-leaves all presumptions in wealth or power So on the other side The Lord beholds all Iniquity wrongful dealing when by clear evidence of naked Truth as in the example here men are careless in judging or punishing their brethren For if to accuse be enough you know who said none could be innocent 8. Which sad and serious Jndagation of the Truth and Execution of Judgement and Justice in inferior Courts would be a blessed sight where too commonly men crie that the Rod of coertion is turned into a devouring Serpent or made an angle-rod to fish for silver in the deep purse of a muddy sinner where the gallant guilt-head or soul Porcpisce and all above his size shall easily break the line or be let go but the poor Pilcher is fetcht up with a vengeance though his greatest fault perchance be but Faut d'argent But these are things like his Aruspices ever complained of and evermore retained and I do but only call upon them in my passage being upon a point of Judgement here which is executed immediately by the Almighty himself to teach all Judges and Rulers some think at least in some crimes a personal Inspection Solomon to that purpose hath a speech of Kings sitting in the Throne of Justice and chasing away all iniquity with their eyes And as we read of Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 19.8 In Jerusalem he set of the Levites and of the ' Priests and of the chief fathers of Israel For what For the Judgement of the Lord and for Controversies This was a Commission Yes it was so to Priests and Levites and chief Fathers of Israel This was a standing Court of Justice in Jerusalem But the King himself in person at the fourth verse goes through the people from Bersheba to mount Ephraim and sets Judges in all the fenced Cities and there he gives them a charge a Caveat with an Enim Take heed what you do for you judge not for man but for God verse 6. 9. Again For Gods referring some to his Ministers of Justice and proceeding to immediate judging others another reason is given or another instruction is gained which is all one namely this That if we can evade or elude humane Tribunals yet none should be so shameless as to hope avoidance of him who is Supernus Inspector that holy One in his Watch-tower above which Lucretius that lookt into the book of nature markt in the usual break of too great Greatness Res abdita quaedam some hidden thing there was so he stiles the divine Peovidence which did Proculcare still kick down the highest things Et sibi Ludibrio habere seemed to take a pleasure in so doing And in the book of Scripture we find what desolation God threatns oft and oft seems delighted to bring upon the high ones of the world in bringing them low So he seems to triumph over the Amorite whose height was as the Cedars yet I destroyed saith he his friut from above and his root from beneath So he doth menance Edom though high-roosted and nested among the stars yet even thence will I fetch thee down saith the Lord Jer. 49.16 These high ones may escape all Power on earth but yet become the quarrie of him that is higher then the highest So the Hern and Vulture outflying both Falcon and gree-falcon are by the Sacre seized on in an instant which fowl as the name imports is made by all a Symbol and Hieroglyphick of the Deity which in sharpest Judgements comes horribly and speedily upon wicked Governors in high places which little of this Methode in Gods proceeding may help us much against distrust in Gods Providence or fretting our souls too far against the Execution of his Justice 10. Thus far upon these words in a review as they deliver us this Text taken in those two parts Of Judgement and the Methode of that Judgement Now we shall further make good our former Assertion that every part of Holy Scripture sets open to several Expositors or Preachers several doors of utterance Be pleased in this last passage over the words to recall that which in the first Sermon I called the Mystick sense of Gods question here that is for so I find it opened Where is thy former Happiness To what a miserable state art thou now by thy sin reduced How hath thy fall bruised the Seal and defaced that glorious Image I erected in thee Alas Adam where art thou From which passionate Increpation and Rebuke mixt with a gracious Bemoaning of Mans Fall divers doctrinal Points might be raised as the term is if a man should raise as some do such things as would sleep and be quiet or lie for dead if no such Raisers