earth and as much above a fouler sinner as heaven is above hell But how then cometh it to pass that the roof of hell should be so nigh as I may so speak to the floor of heaven that there should be so little difference between the Apogaeum and highest of moral Heathens or other natural men and the Epigaeum or lowest of a collapsed or go-by-ground Christian Doth not this puff up proud Nature and if not debase the Divine yet make our Philosophical Christians think low and meanly of it Make it in these mens esteem but a name a thin fine notion and them that are partakers of it some Eutopian fancies which Preachers talk of but the world seeth little of SERMON XIX ON 2 PET. 1. 4. AND therefore that we may either prevent or refute these Preacht at St. Maries Jan. 17. 165â— their misprisions and blasphemies and convince them that this we speak of is a very reality be we exhorted to 3. things 1. To aspire and indeavour really to attain to this high dignity Vse 4 of being indeed partakers of this divine nature 2. Then to walk answerably to it and worthy of it 3. Because both will be here imperfect to long for heaven where both will be in their full perfection 1. First I say let us with our whole might aspire to this highest dignity and not rest till we arrive at this Divine Prerogative of being the Sons of God and so partakers of the divine nature John 1. 1â— And to quicken us hereto consider 1. How studious and ambitious men have alwayes been of nearness to great Princes and for that purpose of an imitation Camerar med cent 1. cap. 66. Eunomius cum impeditae linguae erat hoc facundiam fuisse dixit Philostorgius Niceph. lib. 12. cap. 29. Epist ad Laetam and likeness of their deportment fashions gestures and oftentimes even of their both moral yea and natural vices and deformities Poppea's yellow locks a beauty in the Court Leonides his gate and manners Alexander could not forbear to imitate as his Courtiers did many things in him A wry neck or a long hooked nose much doted on because it looked like an Emperours And for the minds complexion Hierom from experience could say Quorum virtutes assequi nequeas citò imitaris vitia when we cannot reach their vertues we are very prone to take up in imitating their vices like foolish wanton children when we cannot stride their steps in fair way we will follow them through the dirty puddle Exempla exemplaria so that the imitation As Lactantius observes lib. 5. c. 6. mores ac vitia regis imitari genus obsequii judicatur of their manners and vices their subjects account to be a piece of the homage they owe to them which therefore made Tully say that plus exemplo quam peccato nocent 3 de legibus they do more mischief by their example than by their sin Great mens examples I say are Laws and holy mens tempers and carriages have a kind of necessitating cogency in them to imitation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Paul to Peter Why compellest thou the Gentiles to Judaize Gal. 2. 14. So like do we desire to be to good at least to great men but how much rather should we aspire and endeavour to be like to him who is Optimus Maximus to the great King and most holy God even God blessed for ever whose nature is most holy whose works are truth and his ways judgment Dan. 4. 37. in whose Divine Beauty is no deformity And therefore as our Saviour said to his Dâ—sciples Ye believe in God believe also John 14. 1. in me I may well say to all Do you imitate man shall we not imitate God and Christ rather If foolish men glory in an Apish symbolizing with men like themselves and that in their humane infirmities how glorious and therefore desirable should it be to us to partake with God in his Divine Nature and perfections 2. And this the rather because this high honour and happiness Obj. But you will say heaven is high and we cannot reach it God infinitely higher and therefore no possibility of imitation is attainable The happy event puts it out of question Many in all Ages of the Church have arrived at this height who have shewn forth the vertues of God who hath called them 1 Pet. 2. 9. who by emanations of Divine Grace in heart and life have expressed a participation of the Divine Nature and what in this kind hath been in some by the same Grace may be in others Ab esse posse c. did we but put forth the strength and activity of Pauls faith who could be and do all things through Christ strengthning him Phil. 4. 13. The Text in hand had we nothing else doth sufficiently clear this possibility for it doth not only say that precious promises were given to them that they may be partakers of the Divine Nature and Gospel-promises do at least assure us of a possibility and when by faith laid hold on of a certainty of their accomplishment but withal adds the happy event in their having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust In which this actual participation of this Divine Nature in part consisteth and by which according to the true sense and intention of the Apostle in his adding of those words it is evidenced Well then it 's hence plain that such a participation of the Divine Nature may be had and truly then such a may-be of such a mercy should be enough to any awaekned spirit to imploy and improve its utmost endeavours for the attaining of it It encouraged the Widow of Tekoah to make a great petition to David because she said in her self It may be the King will grant it 2 Sam. 14. 15. And It may be the Lord will look on mine affliction said David himself and upon that ground patiently endured it 2 Sam. 16. 12. Who knoweth saith the Prophet Joel 2. 14. and Who can tell said the people of Nineveh Jonah 3. 9. whether God will turn and repent and so the more seriously they set upon their duty that he might Truly Gods may-be's are better than mans shall-be's A may-be of salvation is one of the first casts of faiths eye to justification In matters of outward estate we much value even our possibilities and they set the whole world upon busie action What crowds of poor where a doal may be had What trâ—dging over sea and land for a may-be of profit And if such an height of honour or place may be got up to what creeping up though upon hands and feet as Jonathan 1 Sam. 14. 4 13. V. 6. between sharp rocks to come at it upon this very ground it may be the Lord will work for us As it was enough for Jacob to hear that there was corn in Egypt to be had though he was not assured to have any of it to
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not after Christ Col. 2. 8. And for themselves To say the Truth but in Christ Rom. 9. 1. 2 Tim. 2. 7. To speak as of Sincerity as of God as in the sight of God but in Christ 2 Cor. 2. 17. 12. 19. that their Hearers might have a proof of Christ speaking in them 2 Cor. 13. 3. And that where-ever they came they might triumph but in Christ and be unto God a sweet savour in all but a sweet savour of Christ 2 Cor. 2. 14 15. To teach us that for the Matter of our Preaching we should not read a Lecture of Philosophy or bare Morality which they that never heard of Christ might do as well as we and so as some complained of the Schoolmen make Aristotle's Ethicks our Bible or the Documents of Plato whom we call Divine our Divinity And so none might find Christ in our Sermons more than Austin did his Name in Tullie's Works Nor for the manner of it to make some Nose-gays of our own Wit Fansie and affected Eloquence to smell to our selves which to do to the holy Perfume in the Law was deadly Exod. 30. 38. or to fan to our selves the sweet scent of it by the Breath or Applause of others but that the Matter we Preach be Christ and a Crucified Christ in a Crucified manner and so prove a sweet savour of Christ and that such a savour of Life as may quicken dead Sinners to the Life of Christ which other affected Discourses Cant. 7. 9. fall wholly short of Animam non dant quia non habent Thus let Christ as a Quickening Spirit be the Life of our Preaching and in such like Preaching let our Life be spent and so to us to live will be Christ as we are Ministers in our Preaching 2. And secondly whether as Ministers or other Christians He that said 1 Thes 3. 8. we live if ye stand fast in the Lord would say I live if I live to the Lord Christ this calls for the like care of us in our Lives and Practices that in the Sense aforesaid To us to live may be Christ The Grace and Interest of Christ may be that which the whole business of our Life upon a true account is summ'd up and resolved into I say Christ And not 1. Self Not Self-ends and Self-interests I mean our own Profits Pleasures or Preferments which too usually the very spirit and vigour the whole of most Men's lives is intensly fixed and so spent upon which should they be taken out of their Lives it would be a lifeless Life that would be left when in those otherwise very active Spirits you can scarce discern the least moving or so much as breathing after God in Christ But how empty a Vine is Israel whilst he bringeth forth Fruit only to himself Hos 10. 1. Or if they be called Christians what another kind of Christ do they make of him than He was who said that His Kingdom was not of this World John 18. 36. and then not his Life neither In all this thou hast but found the life of thy hand as the Prophet calls it Isa 57. 10. and that 's but a poor withering dying Life It 's but Wind Job 7. 7. A Vapour James 4. 14. Thin vain empty and if full only of Vanity and Sorrows that we are weary of it Job 10. 1. Isa 38. 12. Despise it Job 9. 21. Hate it Eccles 2. 17. Acts 20. 24. Even our own frail Life consists not in the abundance of those outward things we possess Luke 12. 15. much less the Life of Christ Our bodily Life is more than Meat c. Mat. 6. 25. And therefore the Life of Christ sure is much more Even our natural Life is not that which in it self especially in compare with Christ we should so much look after for if to us to live be only to live yea or to live delicately with the Courtier Luke 7. 25. or with the Whore Rev. 18. 7. Deliciously is not Operae pretium not worth the while for Christ's being our Life in the Text is called the fruit of our Labour in the following Verse Christ and Self are two things very distinct and otentimes directly opposite so that we may be forced to deny the one if we would own the other even be dead to the World and Self if ever we would live either to Christ or with Him who therefore died that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but unto him who died for them 2 Cor. 5. 15. And accordingly you read of their Resolution and Practice for none of us liveth to himself and no Man dieth to himself but whether Rom. 14. 7 8 9. we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we did unto the Lord yea and sometimes for Him too with Ittai's professed Resolution to David and the like should ours be to Christ As the Lord liveth and as my Lord the King liveth in what place my Lord the King shall be whether in Death or in Life there also will thy Servant be 2 Sam. 15. 21. Hoc scilicet vere est Christo vivere mori cum nobis posthabitis ferimur quo Christus nos Calrin in Phil. 1. 23. vocat rapimur To us to live must be Christ not Self 2. Much less Sin or sinful Self or Satan for they always stand in a flat contrariety to Christ What concord hath Christ with Heb. 7. 26. Belial 2 Cor. 6. 15. or sin with him who is Holy and Harmless and separate from Sinners And yet should we observe many Men's lives should we not see that the vigour and very life of their lives is exerted and run out in the eager pursuit of Mic. 7. 3. Jer. 22. 17. Jer. 23. 10. dead Works who do evil with both Hands earnestly whose whole course is evil and their force is not right as the Prophet speaketh who in a course of Sensuality live the Beast not the Man much less the Christian do not eat to live but rather live to eat and to whom Bibere est vivere or in a mischievous way live the very Devil who breaths in their Oaths and Blasphemies and playeth the very Devil in their mischievous Impieties cannot live unless they take away some others Lives or do some other Mischief Prov. 4. 16. Et si non aliquà nocuisset mortuus esset But is this Christ or any thing like the Life of God or Christ who you heard was Holy and Harmless and came to save Men's lives and not to destroy them If Peccatum be Deicidium Luke 9. 56. it cannot partake of that Life which it doth destroy it put Christ to Death and therefore cannot consist with his Life To live in Sin and to live to Christ are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore we must Die to the one if ever we would Live to the other If to live to us be Christ it 's not Self
which thou shouldst especially desire and expect from them It 's no good thou gainest by them But on the contrary 3. Much hurt and dammage for if not for the better it will certainly be for the worse 1 Cor. 11. 17. and that every way both in point 1. Of sin 2. Of misery 1. Of Sin and hence it is that we often find worst men under best Ordinances Sowrest grapes brought forth where most cost hath been spent Isa 5. 2 7. strong Physick if it do not Cure strengthning and enraging the Disease and so 1. For more spiritual or rather devilish sins seldom shall you meet with more keen anger and rage or more invenomed malice and hatred against God and Godliness than in such men who having enjoyed means of Salvation not being by all Christs intreaties prevailed with to be reconciled friends prove most inveterate Enemies So we find the men of Penuel Judg. 8. 8. yea the young Children in Bethel 2 King 2. 23. to have been virulent scoffers and from the Scribes and Pharisees downward greatest pretenders to Gods worship most malicious persecutors 2. Nor are sensual lusts though 2 Sam. 12. 4. expressed under the notion of a traveller wont to be strangers to those whom we now speak of Paul writes of such fornication to have been among the Corinthians with whom he had stayed and preached longer than in most other places as was not so much as named 1 Cor. 5. 1. among the Gentiles And Peter and Jude speak of false Prophets 2 Pet. 2. 10 12 13 14 18 19 20. Jude 4 8 10 16 18 19. and Professors in the Church as in this kind abominably guilty whom we should never have so well understood if our Libertines and Ranters in the former and present age had not imitated and out-acted in their loathsome practises to the most impious defiling of the Church and scandal of the Gospel God in his just judgment revenging their rejecting of Christ and his Holy Spirit by suffering them as the Gentiles of old to give themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness yea with Ephes 4 19. the blasphemous pretences of Gospel-liberty and holiness I do not now insist on all that either open or secret uncleanness either of profane sinners or close Hypocrites amongst us which God and their own Consciences and it may be other men are privy to This that I have said is sufficient to have shewed that dead Trees grow the more corrupt and rotten by being often rained upon 3. I only add a third sin which they who gain not Christ by the enjoyment of his Ordinances take occasion to lull themselves asleep in and that is carnal security and presumption and obdurateness that they are not only Sermon and Ordinance-proof can rebel against the light Job 24. 13. but think they have by them gotten a protection and plea which will hold at the last Judgment-Bar to secure them against the accusations of all their other abominations that Christ hath preached in their streets as you heard out of Luke 13. 26. and those other fore-mentioned instances and so it cometh to pass that these blessed helps prove their greatest hindrances and diversions in the way to life whilst taking up with outward attendance on Ordinances as the way they sit down and rest in it and so never come to their intended journeys end or rather most dangerously mistaking the way to Hell for that to Heaven before they be aware come to a sadder end of it than they ever thought of and so as I said they find best helps to prove greatest hindrances of their peace and salvation And heaviest aggravations both of their sin and condemnation Of their sin when at an higher rate because against greater light And of their Condemnation which will be exceeding heavy when Gospel-Grace neglected pronounceth the sentence and the wrath of the meek Lamb proves heavier than rocks and mountains Revel 6. 16. But this leads me to 2. The second thing propounded that by Ordinances without Christ gained by them we come to be worse as in point of sin so of judgment and this temporal spiritual and eternal I confess the Case is very sad when our Physick proves poyson It was one of the saddest Curses that David could imprecate against his worst Enemies that their table should become a snare and what should have been for their welfare a trap Psal 69. 22. and yet that 's sadder which the Prophet expresseth that the acceptable year of the Lord should become the day of vengeance of our God Isa 61. 2. and yet another Prophet fore-tells it will so be that very day in which the Sun of Righteousness would shine upon some should burn like an Oven to others Mal. 4. 1 2. and a third assureth us that the Lord God is a witness against Sinners even out of his holy Temple Micah 1. 2. not only from Mount Sinai Calvin in loc but even Sion too God thunders in judgment against such that make not sure of Christ for their shelter And that Earth is nearest to a Curse and its end is most sure to be burnt that drinketh in the rain from heaven and yet brings forth nothing but briars and thorns Heb. 6. 7. which make fewel for the fire even the savour of life proves to such the savour of death 2 Cor. 2. 16. A surfeit of Bread some say is most dangerous but how deadly will it be if a surfeit of this Bread of life The Cure is desperate when as Austin speaks ipsa medicamenta convertuntur in vulnera if my Medicine wound De Temp Serm. 55. me and the word of life kill me And yet so it doth if Christ be not gain'd but rejected Ordinances though enjoyed will be so far from proving means of Salvation that they or rather our abuse of them will be the inlet and means of 1. Heaviest temporal judgments both to persons and nations Scripture for this is pregnant and instances too frequent In the giving and instituting of Ordinances Passover Law Gospel Lords Supper Promises are join'd with Threats The burden of the valley of Vision Isa 22. 1. The Controversie of Zion Isa 34. 8. the quarrel of God's Covenant Levit. 26. 25. and the vengeance of his Temple Jer. 50. 28. are very reverend and terrible and speak loud to this purpose Holy Ordinances are sharp-edged tools and we had need of great care how we handle them as being in great danger to wound our selves with them if we do it not dextrously Such showrs that should quench the fire prove Oil to kindle it This in part made the Elders of Bethlehem tremble at the Prophet Samuels coming to them and the Widow of Sarepta in a passion to 1 Sam. 16. 4. 1 King 17. 18. say to the Prophet Elijah what have I to do with thee O thou man of God Art thou come unto me to call my sins to remembrance and slay my Son This the men
's the first Rest not secure in the bare outward enjoyment of Ordinances for so they may prove empty and at best do thee no good 2. Nay secondly Rejoice with trembling Chearfully and thankfully 2. They without Christ may do us much hurt therefore with all holy care and fear converse with them receive and entertain them yet with much awful reverence and solicitousness for we may so handle the matter that as hath been shewn by them we may come by much hurt and disadvantage as the Israelites and Bethshemites received the Ark with much joy 1 Sam. 4. 5. and Chap. 6. 13. but by their Carnal confidence in it in the former place and their too bold and rude usage of it in the latter their joy was soon damp'd and extinguished with their tears and bloud Precious Ordinances being like great chear and high fare in an Inn which though it please whilest eating yet at last it brings in a great and heavy reckoning and some have paid very dear for their abuse of God's bounty and cost in these spiritual entertainments The Devil entred into Judas with the sop as many take their Bane in the Sacrament John 13. 27. are blasted by the breath of the word Never fruit grow on thee hereafter and by their guilt and frowardness make the very Gospel though it be not the Ministry of Condemnation to 2 Cor. 3. 7. pronounce the sentence of their Condemnation like the mad man that strangleth himself with the Cord that is let down to him to draw him out of the Dungeon as if Jeremiah had put that Cord about his neck and not under his armholes How sollicitous Jer. 38. 12. therefore should we be instead of rushing into God's presence according to Solomon's advice Eccles 5. 1. to take heed to our foot when we go to the house of God lest we tread awry and wrench it to be of the number and temper of those who tremble at his word Isa 66. 5. not to weaken faith but to quicken our care and such awful thoughts as these are God now though upon a throne of grace is yet upon a Judgment-seat so that when I go to his word I go upon my trial and if I look not better to it this Letter that I read if it be only a letter without spirit may kill this word that I hear may be the matter of my guilt and 2 Cor. 3. 6. sentence me to death This Sacrament that I receive is a seal but may seal to me my damnation I had need therefore pray and read and hear and receive for my life draw near to God as an holy God who will be sanctified in all them that come nigh him Levit. 10. 3. entertain and converse in holy Ordinances with all care and reverential fear as by which through my neglect and abuse of them I may make them loss and dammage by procuring to my self much hurt but shall be no gainer at my last account unless with the Apostle here I win and gain Christ with them and by them 2. Which leadeth to the second part of the Instruction which this point teacheth us in reference to Christ and so it calleth upon us for two things 1. To prize Christ above all Ordinances the choicest and when most purely and regularly dispensed such was Circumcision on the eighth day And yet that with Paul was but loss in compare with Christ And so they should with us Honour we our Ministers as the Ministers of God and as the Galatians sometimes did Paul even as Angels of God even as Christ Jesus but that Cap. 4. 14. As must be only of Similitude not of Equality It must be under Christ Their affection was so great to Paul that he saith they were ready to have plucked out their own eyes and have given them V. 15. to him but not thereupon to prove so blind as not to give their hearts to Christ Prize also all God's Ordinances Word Sacraments and the rest very much and you cannot over-prize them if it be kept in a subordination to Christ and his Grace which they are instituted as means to administer and convey and lead to as the great end of our endeavours and their appointment Let him therefore be ever after Pauls example prized above Ordinances 2. Desired made after and made sure of in and by Ordinances This also the Apostles sense and expressions fully hold out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 7. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 8. All was For Christ and That he might gain Christ as the main end he aimed at and the chief good which either with them or without them he looked after and so Go thou and do likewise In the use of Ordinances it is thy duty as Zacheus did to set thy self in Luke 19. 4. Christs way and walk but on purpose that thou maist meet with him in it and so receive him into thy heart as he entertain'd him in his house into which salvation that day came with the Saviour V. 9. so that he lost nothing by his invitation and entertainment So it was the One thing which David desired of the Lord and which he would still seek after that he might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life But that was that he might so behold the beauty of the Lord and enquire in his Temple Psal 27. 4. And elsewhere when now an exile in the Wilderness his Soul thirsteth and his flesh longeth for God to see his power and his glory as he had seen him in the sanctuary Psal 63. 1 2. It 's a choice mercy highly to be prized and earnestly to be thirsted after all our days to dwell in Gods house and peaceably to enjoy his Ordinances in the sanctuary But that 's not all that a David or any of his Spirit seeks after and takes up with He desires to go into yea to dwell in the Temple but it is to enquire after God and to meet with Christ there as God was wont to meet with Israel at the door of the Tabernacle and at the mercy-seat to see his power and glory in Exod. 29. 42. 25. 22. Mark 13. 1. the sanctuary not with the Disciples to gaze on the goodly outward structure and Ornaments of the Temple no nor so much to be taken with the solemn and stately outward worship and service of it which in its costly and precious Vessels and other Utensils the lustre of the Priests Vestments and the royal sound of so many Trumpets over their Sacrifices was very magnificent and a part of the Beauty of Holiness which the Scripture often speaks of which yet the more simple but more spiritual form and order of Gospel-worship far exceeds in glory but it 's the power and presence 2 Cor. 3. 9. of Christ in them that exceeds both that and this and all with a true Gospel Spirit The Gold glistered but it was the Altar that sanctified
fine trinkets in their Idolatrous service costly Processions affected mock penances and mortifications with their several Orders Habits Garbs Modes but also all our own self-invented will-worship-finery in Gods service and our affected niceties in our ordinary Carriages Such ugly outward shews and out-sides of Religion so little pleasing to men are more displeasing to God and are so unworthy of Christ that it were blasphemy to compare them with him Let all such therefore go for loss and dung And what loss can it be to part with such a Dung Hill But let us come to consider such outward appearances and Professions of Godliness which in themselves for their kind are holy and genuine approved by God yea and required in his Word And for them according to my former method I am to do two things 1. To shew their true worth in themselves that they may well come into Pauls Inventory here of his choicest moveables 2. But secondly that they are but loss and dung if compared with Christ especially if rested in and so set in opposition to him For the first The outward profession and appearance of Godliness is not to be under-valued much less despised and hated as too often it is by the profane World for 1. It is under Command Let your light shine before men that they may see c. Matth. 5. 16. not to be seen our selves but to shew forth God's Grace and give light to others So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 2. 15. we must appear yea shine as lights in the World as the luminaries in Heaven nor must Sun or Moon always muffle themselves up in a Cloud but shine forth though Dogs bark at them We must not be ashamed here to look out The like 2 Sam. 17. 11. See L. de Dieu Grotius but with them Jer. 50. 5. have our faces Zion ward as it 's said of our Saviour Luke 9. 53. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether you read it his face was Proficiscentis with Beza or more near to the words with the Arabick Proficiscens it comes all to one I say as Christs face was of one going or it self going to Jerusalem so ours to heaven sicut oculi loqui dicuntur qui innuunt quod dictum velis ità facies ire dicitur quae praese ferat iter aliquod destinatum esse as Erasmus well notes upon the place our eyes should speak and our faces go and not be ashamed to tell all that look on us that we are going thither It 's not to be neglected because under command 2. And that as of such moment that it 's as much as our Salvation is worth With the mouth Confession is to be made to salvation Rom. 10. 10. And whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words though in the midst of an adulterous and sinful Generation of him shall the son of man be ashamed saith our Saviour Mark 8. 38. 3. And therefore much less are we to value our esteem liberty yea or life for it The Lions Den shall not make Daniel shut his Dan. 6. window and although David will hide Gods word in his heart Psal 119. 11. yet so as not to be ashamed or afraid to declare it openly with his lips v. 13. and that before Kings v. 46. by whom he might be shent for it And although Nicodemus at first for fear came to Jesus by night yet both he and Joseph of Arimathea John 3. 2. grew up to more boldness in the faith Nicodemus cap. 7. 50. begins a little to recover himself and though timid yet something appeared for Christ cum adhue saperet noctis tenebras as Calvin upon the place but at last both of them in a more dark and dismal night in that hour and power of darkness more openly and boldly appear for him cap. 19. 38 39. ut qui vivo debitum honorem propter metum non detulerant quasi mutati in novos homines accurrant ad cadaver mortui they which before through base fear durst not openly own him whilst alive with an heroick courage and fortitude do appear for him now that he was dead How much more should we in worst times and in greatest dangers now that he is risen and is at the right hand of his father in glory and therefore however such fearful ones who with the Gnosticks and other ancient Hereticks and with David George and the Silentiarii Tacentes and Fratres Liberi amongst the Anabaptists of late hold it not necessary to profess Christ plead Nicodemus his example for their subterfuge yet it would be well if as they imitate him in his former sinful dastardliness so they would in his after-courage and boldness To whom in one thing as Calvin well observes they are like quod Christum quantum in se est sepultum curant that with him they take care to bury Christ he to bury his body these his truth and grace but Christ is to be buried now no more now that he is risen and reigns in glory that we should be ashamed of him and truly if they adventured to bury his body when dead then turpis pudenda ignavia est as he saith si regnantem in coelesti gloriâ fide confessione fraudemus If the Primitive Martyrs and Confessors had been of this mind where had been our Christian Religion No. They signed themselves with his mark in parte ubi signum pudoris est as Austin expresseth De verbis Apost Serm. 8. it and when Knox his Corps was put into the Grave Earl Morton by way of Epitaph said There lieth the body of him who in his life-time never feared the face of man It was the great sin of the Jews confessed by the Prophet Isa 53. 3. that they hid their faces from Christ as ashamed of him and ours is like to it when with David now got into Abimelechs Court we change our behaviour when got into bad Company we say with him Amos 6. 10. hold thy tongue for we may not make mention of the Name of the Lord like Snails that put out the horn to try if the way be clear and pluck it in at every touch and in nights to ring the Curfew But we should think of the sad doom of such fearful ones Revel 21. 8. and therefore when sin and profaness is so bare-faced and impudent Grace and Godliness which hath sure a more amiable Countenance and if managed with modesty and wisdom such a Majesty as is able to daunt the most obstinate should not sâ—eak but dare to look out in open view confession yea and profession of Christ and his ways as the efflorescentia and the out-beamings of inward light and life sincerity and reality for although all is not gold that glisters yet all gold should glister and the more by how much the more it 's rubbed upon by the profane Worlds Calumnies and Oppositions The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in Hebrew signifieth to cover and conceal in the
Believer that feeleth the benefit of it rejoiceth in it with humble thankfulness There is greatest reality in Gods giving and in faiths receiving Christ hath really satisfied for us and this is really conveyed and applied to us In this first step of justification we are brought to be possessed of Christ and then sure we are made to inherit substance And if such reality in Justification then it 's much more evident even to reason and sense in sanctification and what followes it till we come at last to Glory As for instance 1. They work very real changes in the hearts and lives of men so that it cometh to the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. â— to a transformation and renewal or new molding and that not only of the outside looks and gestures and carriages in an outward form of goodness but even of the mind yea of the very spirit of the mind Ephes 4. 23. of the very inmost and chiefest of the inward man so that although the convert be no such changling as not to be the same man in his natural individuality and so the change in that sense is not substantial yet in a true moral and spiritual sense it is eminently real Though it be the same string yet it is quite otherwise new tuned â—ll old things being past away and all things become new in this new creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. When the spirit of the Lord which was only a spirit of Government came upon Saul it is said he was turned into another man 1 Sam. 10. 6. But when another kind of spirit a spirit of real sanctification came upon another Saul or Paul he was much farther from being the former man he was and therefore saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 2. 20. which Beza and Grotius paraphrase Is qui fueram non sum I live but not the same man I was or if you say that be not the sense of the Apostle in that place and indeed I doubt it yet I am sure it 's that which many happy converts find in their hearts and lives so that they may say with that convert in Ambrose Ego non sum ego I am not my self no◠〈◊〉 former sinful self I am not more the same man that I was than the new man is the old man Ephes 4. 22 24. or light is darkness Act. 26. 18. when the Lion is become a Lamb Isa 11. 6. and Ephraim who was bid let alone as inseparably joined to Idols Hos 4. 17. saith what have I to do with Idols Hos 14. 8. when Paul of a persecutor is become a Preacher and Luther a zealous Protestant of a monachus insanissimus as he calleth himself of a mad monk ready as he confesseth to kill Praefat. in Tom. 1. suorum operum any that in unâ syllabâ should detract from the Popes obedience when the proud are made humble the froward meek the cruel merciful yea and such as by their natural tempers and accustomed practice were sometimes most unclean sensual and profane afterwards become eminently holy and spiritual and heavenly Such great changes Lactantius undertakes by the word of Christ to make and such Christ and His Grace hath made in all ages indeed so great that none else could make them and so visibly appearing not only to themselves and friends but to the eyes and consciences of their worst enemies that they could not be only notions and phansies juggles or outside hypocritical shews and visards but greatest realities and so clearest evidences that Jesus Christ is the Amen the faithful and true witness and Revel 3. 14. these are the real and actual putting of his servants into possession of part of that inheritance which he here in the Text bequeathes them where he promiseth them that he will cause them to inherit substance 2. A Second great work which Christ and his Grace work and thereby sully manifest their true and eminent reality is the quieting of Believers hearts and this triple 1. In satisfying their desires 2. In comforting them in their griefs and anguishes in this life 3. In most fully and eminently perfecting all in glory 1. In satisfying the desires of our Souls and they as we are men This is all my desire 2 Sam. 23. 5. are very large but as Believers and so far more enlarged by the Divine spirits breathings are in a manner infinite Now painted viands will not satisfie a real appetite nor will a man that is hungry indeed though he dream of eating when he is asleep be Isa 29. 8. satisfied with it when he is awake Indeed corporal food may satisfy bodily hunger a beast may have a belly full but that must be solid not frothy trash else you will soon again be hungry as some of late have told us of the Gage luscious fruits in America or they are very much distempered bodies and appetites which such stuff can saâ—â—â— Phansie may be satisfied with phantasms as children may be quieted with toyes and rattles but the intellectual appetite is more both curious and serious and in some things is not quieted without solid demonstrations and yet in some other things takes up in very thin and empty notions especially such is our self love if they be our own as Casaubon some where professeth that he In Athenaeis was fully apaid for all his labours in his studies with the content he took by one poor Criticism and Hadrian the Cardinal when he meets with an Aliud or Aliter or such like particle well De modo lat loq p. 19. set he thinks he hath found a Jewel But those more divine hungrings and thirstings which the spirit of God really raiseth in the hearts of his people are not satisfied with such husks and puff-pasts which do rather feed esuriem animae than esurientem animam Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not saith the Prophet Isa 55. 2. It must be bread the staff of man's life which upholdeth the bodily life and it must be the true bread of life which came down from heaven John 6. 32 33. which only can satisfie the truly hungring soul and feed it to everlasting life And that Christ and his grace both is and doth His flesh is meat indeed and his bloud drink indeed John 6. 55. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 panis supersubstantialis as some translate and expound that in Matth. 6. 11. Christ is substantial supersubstantial bread that really and more than substantially feeds and satisfieth the hungry soul his grace his peace and the light of his countenance do abundantly fill and feast its longing desires and appetite As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness saith David Psal 17. 15. I have all and abound I am full saith Paul Phil. 4. 18. when he had tasted of Christ's sweetness
upon it i. e. It shall have as many Senses as they Fancies and Fetches and so justifie Pighius his Blasphemy who called it a Nose of Wax which they may draw out or put together and alter and change as they think good I abhor and so I know do you all these Blasphemies God's Word is not so Broad But yet I thus far yield that it 's a safe way of interpreting Scripture to take it in as broad and large a Sense as all things considered it will bear And if I do so in expounding this place it self will bear me out in it for it saith that God's Commandment is exceeding broad Exceeding broad therefore because every way broad reaching to all Persons in its Commands awing the greatest Kings and in it's Promises comforting the poorest Begger Reaching all Conditions Prosperity v. 14 72. Adversity v. 54. Alâ— Sexes Times Places all parts of body faculties of Soul Actions of both and Circumstances of those Actions I cannot exemplifie them all If you will go no further than this Psalm and but mark what 's said of it in the several Verses you shall find more than I say It 's Life v. 93. Comfort of Life v. 50. End of Life v 17. the Way v. 35. Rule v. 30. Counseller v. 24. a chief Gift v. 29 Better than thousands of Gold and Silver v. 72. It 's our Love v. 47 48. Joy v. 14. Delight v. 16. Choise v. 30. Desire v. 20 40. Hope v. 43. Trust v. 42. Fear v. 120 161. that which he longs for v. 40 82. seeks after v. 45 94. cleaves to v. 31. It 's his All. And if it be all this and much more then sure it 's Exceeding broad But I cannot insist upon all these particulars Only for more distinct Consideration of it we must remember that God's Word is here compared with all other Perfections and its Breadth with their End Now therefore as we heard before of all other best Perfections there was a double End of them Of Length they lasted not alwayes And of Breadth they reached not to all our Occasions and Wants So now on the contrary there is an exceeding Breadth of Gods Word I. Because it reacheth to all Times II. And to all our Wants in them as able to be a Direction and to make a Supply in all 1. For the first Therefore it is exceeding broad because reaching to all Times The place parellel to the Text fully proves it Isa 40. 6 8. All flesh is Grass and all the goodliness of it as the Flower of the Field The Grass withereth and the Flower fadeth But the Word of our God shall stand for ever For ever that 's long but to stand or to be established for ever as the word signifieth is much more and yet no more than is true of every Word of God whether a Command I pray you mark that Expression Heb. 4. 11 12. Let us labour to enter into that rest For the Word of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quick and powerful or as the words are living and active It may be you 'l ask What 's the strength of the Apostle's Reason Strive to enter into this rest for the Word of God is quick c. 〈◊〉 It s from this Ground we are now upon He had before spoken of an Exhortation of David's Psal 95. Of striving to enter into rest which Exhortation the Apostle urgeth upon them in his time Nondum inquit mortua est vâ—x illa Dei vocantis nos Hodie c. Pareus in locum to whom he wrote But now it might be some would say But why trouble you us with a command of David so long time since spoken to the Men of his Generation and now by this time out of Date and antiquated Which kind of Objection the Apostle takes away as though he should say Nay but do not think that David's word is dead with him For it was not his word but God's and therefore as God never dies nor grows old no more doth his Word But it 's quick or living still It 's not dead no nor grown old and weak but it 's as active and powerful as ever And therefore as much concerns you now as it did them to whom David in Person spake it And so we see in this respect God's Commandment is exceeding broad reacheth from David's time to Paul's And so are hiâ— Threats One reached from Doeg to Judas compare Psal 109. 8. with Acts 1. 20. Yea one reached from Enoch the 7th from Adam to the Day of Judgment Jude ver 14 15. And so are all his Promises which David as I said in the Text principally intends In the first Verse of this Ogdoad he saith For ever O Lord thy Word is settled in Heaven A Word of a Promise is in Heaven and settled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there and that for ever a most strong and full Expression that whereas if a Man look to these outward Contentments there 's nothing settled or if settled yet it 's but poorly not for ever according to that as strong Expression Psal 39. 5. Verily every Man at his best estate is altogether vanity or as the Hebrew is all Men are all vanity even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same word in both places when most settled and established yet he continues not so long But when full of Riches and happy in Children and so in a seeming settledness yet it 's soon shaken Nay further whereas if a Man should look at God's Word and Promise as it is in our unsettled hearts we are ready to think that it 's as ready to waver as our Hearts are as the shadow of the Sun or Moon in the Water seems to shake as much as the Water doth which it shines in Yet for all this seeming shaking here below the Sun and Moon go on in a stedfast Course in Heaven So the Psalmist tells us that however our Hearts stagger at a Promise through unbelief nay and our Unbelief makes us believe that the Promise often is shaken withal and when we are at our Wits-end we are ready to think that God's Promise comes to an end too as Psal 77. 8. Yet God's Word is settled though not in our Hearts yet in Heaven yea and there for ever as settled as Heaven it self is yea more than so for Heaven and Earth may pass but not one jot or tittle of the Law and therefore of the Gospel shall fail Luke 16. 17. And thus we see that God's Commandment and Promise in this respect is Exceeding broad reaching to all Times Was a word of Command the Guide of thy youth I assure thee it will be as good a Staff of thine age And I assure you a good Promise is a good Nurse both to the young Babe and decrepit old Man Your Apothecaries best Cordials in time will lose their Spirits and sometimes the stronger they are the sooner But hath a Promise cheared thee say twenty thirty forty years ago
Water of Life freely Rev. 22. 17. And then as the Lord saith Jer. 30. 21. Who is he that engageth his heart to approach unto me So I in the Name of the Lord whilst I look upon this great Congregation am bold to ask the Question But who amongst you all is such an Enemy to his own good as will not now and henceforth ever hereafter engage his whole heart to make yet nearer approaches to this God who is so good and in drawing near to whom consists our everlasting happiness Some Interpreters upon that Text think that the Question Who is he that engageth his heart c. is made by way of a troubled admiration that so few do But I beseech you let it not so be but that as others rather think by way of encouragement as though he had said But who is that blessed Man that I may see him and go out to meet him And therefore as Jebu in another case said Who is on my side who and it 's added That two or 2 King 9. 32. three Eunuchs looked out Though I desire not in other things to make any sidings there are too many already yet in regard of our drawing near to God I make no factious question if I ask of you all But who will be on the Lord's side who Who of you will now engage your hearts to approach to God Let it not I beseech you be two or three but many O that I could prevail with you all Here say one and all I and I and as it 's said in the Prophet I will go also Let the forwardest Christian Zech. 8. 21. that hath advanced furthest say I by the Grace of God will make one and let the humbled sinner that is now but first looking after Christ say and I fain would make another Instead of our present uncomfortable estrangements from Christ and one another happy we if with our faces Sion-ward we could take hold one of another the strongest of the weakest and those that are estranged of them with whom they have been most at odds and so go hand in hand together saying Come let us Jer. 50. 5. join our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant never to be forgotten This joint drawing near to God in the good old way of the Power of Godliness which by our new Devices is now too much out of fashion would make us leave off our crooked by-paths and cross walkings in which we now so justle and at last so quite loose one another Loud calls and strong perswasions in this kind are not wanting 1. In this blessed Motion the Terminus ad quem is God who is so good as that there is in him vis infinita magnetica such a wonderful attractive power and force as may trahere nay rapere animam draw and snatch the Soul to him in a way of a sweet but irresistible violence Our Saviour said That when he was lifted up he would draw all Men to him John 12. 32. Even so Amen Lord Jesus thou faithful and true Witness Especially as God in Christ looks out and comes out to us how earnest is he to call us how glad to welcome us how ready more than half way to meet us When the Prodigal began to come the Father ran Luk. 15. 20. Desperate Prodigal when thy Heavenly Father draws near wilt thou draw backward Oh take heed of it lest God's Soul take no pleasure in thee Heb. 10. 38. Think what a step thy Saviour took in his Incarnation to come to thee Inaestimabilis dignatio penitus inexcogitabilis Serm. 1. de Advent quod in carceris hujus horrorem descendere dignata est Celsitudo as Bernard speaks When he cannot express it he cannot think of it without admiration Non est Consuâ—tudo divitum ut ad pauperes veniant c. At least therefore though we cannot go being lame and blind at saltem conetur erigere caput aliquatenus assurgere in occursum tanti Medici And yet besides in all the after-travel of his Soul think how he came leaping over Mountains and skipping over Hills that he might get to thee before thou perishedst eternally By his Word and Spirit doth he not sometimes come very near thee In the Sacrament though there be no Transubstantiation yet is there not a very near union with thee And is not all this enough to draw thee 2. If not consider then the Terminus a quo that estate which of thy self thou art in and think if it may not drive thee It may be thou art of their mind who when God bad them return return'd this answer We are Lords we will come no more unto thee Jer. 2. 31. Though God be never so good and it be very good to draw near to him yet we are so well that we need not trouble our selves in making out after him I so woful blind Creature that hast lost thy self and thine eyes together that thou canst not see it wer 't thou not deadlily lethargical thou wouldst be more sensible of thine own wants wert thou not wholly a stranger at home thou wouldst see nothing but misery and beggery there that would thrust thee out for supply elsewhere So far as thou art off from Christ so far from Righteousness Isa 46. 12. and just so far from blessedness And what then so deadly sick and not so much as to send for thy Physician such a Sinner and not so much as to look out for a Saviour Doth the Avenger of Blood pursue thee and dost thou not fly to the City of Refuge to the hope that is set before thee Doth Hell behind thee gape for thee and no need no care of Christ and Heaven to receive thee But had we less need in that kind yet even in outward respects the World is never so good but when at best it 's good to draw near to God But it 's now so bad that I think David's Prayer will not sound ill in any of our Mouths Lord be not thou far off for trouble is near I delight not to read State-Lectures out of a Pulpit I am not of the Privy-Councel either of God or our Governors to tell you what will be but without me your own hearts will tell you what very probably may be though the Weather for the present be somewhat fair yet at best it 's very doubtful If we consult our sins they 'l tell us that there is likely to be a Storm and then if we would consult our own peace we cannot but think it good to be provided of a shelter Our sad experiences of all that hitherto we have had recourse to fully evidence to us that none of them are tight enough but it may and will drop through save God only and therefore in such doubtful Circumstances I think it safest to join with the strongest Party But mistake me not I mean not such as Men out of self-interests are wont to close with that 's falseness
if we look to it may be the glorious Mansions of the Blessed God to dwell in and which to be sure we must dwell with either in weal or woe to Eternity Had we nothing else to say these two words might heighten our Souls worth and should our care in possessing of them 1. They are the purchase of the Blood of the Son of God And shall we trample under foot his Blood in so neglecting our Souls which were purchased by the Blood of the Shepherd of Souls 1 Pet. 2. 25. 2. And this that they might be holy and glorious Temples for the Blessed Spirit of God O then be sure to keep possession for so happy a Guest that the Devil may not prove an Intruder And thou that wilt be stiff and earnest and peremptory to maintain thine Interest in what thy Father or Friend left thee do not so under-value either thy Saviour or thy Soul as not to keep possession of that which He at so dear a rate hath purchased Our Souls should be precious that were purchased by Blood so precious Let that be said to every incroaching Enemy what Jephtah said to the invading Ammonite Judg. 11. 23. The Lord hath dispossessed the Amorites before his People and shouldst thou possess it And let their resolution ver 24. be ours Wilt thou not possess that which Chemosh thy God giveth thee to possess And so Whatsoever the Lord our God hath given to us that will we possess Our Souls he first made Jer. 38. 16. which we afterward lost which he repurchased by the Blood of his Son and restored to us to be kept as an everlasting pledg of his Love and therefore whatever else we lose look to it that we here keep possession But to the quickening of our care herein I need not seek for more particulars to set forth the Soul's worth than what I there propounded 1. Such as the saving and possessing of it 1. Crowns all other Enjoyments Wisdom with an Inheritance doth well Eccles 7. 11. but if mens sana in corpore sano it 's much better It was a Solomon's happiness that amidst all his delights of the Sons of Men his Wisdom also remained with him It 's an happy saving Bargain indeed if a Man especially in losing times when he saves his Estate and his Life can save his Soul too without which a Man with all his other Gettings and Enjoyments is but like a dead Body stuck with Flowers or as a Room round-about-hung and richly furnished and nothing but the dead Master's Hearse in the midst of it 2. Countervails all other Losses David's Mouth praiseth God with joyful Lips though in a dry and thirsty Land when his Soul is filled with marrow and fatness Psal 63. 1 5. And though he was for the outward Man at a weak pass yet it was a sufficient support that God had strengthned him with strength in his Soul Psal 138. 3. Though I possess months of vanity Job 7. 3. and with him be ejected out of all if yet in possession of my Soul I am no harbourless Object Though the invading Enemy hath quite broke down the Fence and laid all open and waste yet as long as with the Christians in Justin Martyr we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When they have possessed themselves and taken away all with them if they have left but a good God and a good Conscience a Soul and a Saviour it 's but the Casket that 's lost the Treasure is saved and lends them a Key for Paul's Riddle of having nothing and yet possessing all things In this sense dum Anima est spes est as long 2 Cor. 6. 10. as my Soul is mine own I am not only in hope but in possession No cause to faint though the outward Man perish if the inward Man be renewed 2 Cor. 4. 16. nor to complain if the same hand that casts the Christian's Body to the Beasts casts his Soul at the same time into his Saviour's Bosom Paul meant not to kill but to cure the incestuous Person when he would have him delivered even to Satan to the destruction of the flesh if his Spirit may but thereby be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5 5. and that will make amends for all Thus we see that the saving and possessing of the Soul crowns all Enjoyments more than Countervailes all other losses 2. But on the contrary the loss of it 1. Compleats all other losses and miseries and makes them utterly undoing David speaks of his Enemies spoiling of his Soul as their greatest cruelty and his chiefest misery Psal 35. 12. The Prophet Lam. 3. 65. when he had given that heavy blow that made the heart ake Lord give them sorrow of heart he strikes the Nail to the Head when he adds thy Curse unto them O woe unto thee thou hast added grief unto thy sorrow Jer. 45. 3. and a curse to both when by thy riotous unclean or otherwise vicious courses thou hast lost it may be thine Estate thy good Name the health and strength of thy Body and which is worst of all thy Soul and all Undone wretch It was a desperate prodigal expense which all the Money in thy Purse and thy whole other Substance could not discharge but thy Soul also must go in to pay the reckoning Thy Saviour's Soul being heavy to the death was more sad than all his bodily Mat. 26. 38. Sufferings and that thrust which lets out the heart-blood of thy Soul is far beyond all other Wounds and makes them deadly To see an Enemy in the Habitation is one of Eli's sorest Afflictions 1 Sam. 2. 32. and to be a possession to Enemies is Edom's heaviest Cursé Numb 24. 18. but not so heavy as to see an Enemy possessed of this inward Mansion The loss of the Soul compleats all other losses and miseries 2. Cannot be made up and recompenced with all other Gains and Enjoyments The round World is but a Cipher to it For what is a Man profited if he should gain the whole World and lose his own Soul saith our Saviour Matth. 16. 26. He that tenders a whole World makes a great offer but he that loses his Mar. 8. 37. Soul for it sustains a greater loss for that World which cannot satisfie the desires of a Soul before it be lost cannot satisfie for the loss of a Soul when it is And therefore the rich Man Luke 12. 19 20. was but a Fool for all his Riches and the Hypocrite Job 27. 8. is brought in as a desperate Fool for all his Gain when God took away both their Souls How miserable when dead to have so many Friends to accompany the Body to the Grave and Devils only the Soul to Hell such Funeral Pomp and Tombs He that hath lost his Soul is a poor undone Man though with the Young Man in the Gospel he have never so great possessions Mat. 12. 22. For a Silk Stocken will not cure
Patientiae and his Master Tertullian before him in his Book of the like Argument are large in this to shew that Impatience is not only a Sin but a Mother-sin that at first undid the Devil and afterward Adam thrust on Cain to his murder Esau to his profaneness the Jews to crucifie Christ and all Hereticks to corrupt and blaspheme the Truth of Christ which was but impatience to withstand their own Lusts but in suffering time to withstand the rage and lusts of the Devil and Men this the fearful unbelieving impatient Soul finds it oft an harder task and therefore rather than stand out basely yeelds up all and it self and all will be content to do all rather than suffer any thing We may tremble when we think of David counterfeiting the Mad-man Peter denying and forswearing his Lord and Master Cranmer subscribing and others of the choicest Servants of Christ faultring and fowly miscarrying in times of straits and dangers Even their Souls had hereby been lost if Christ had not saved them Peter had utterly sunk in that great Wave had not Christ reached out his hand and re-saved him But howl then Mat. 14. 30 31. Zech. 11. 2. ye Fir-Trees if the Cedars be fallen If the Righteous be scarcely saved where will the ungodly and sinners appear If the Godly for want of the exercise of Patience run such an hazard of their Souls how will the ungodly that wholly want the grace of Patience avoid the utter loss of theirs Upon two grounds 1. Their over-prising outward things which they cannot be without 2. Undervaluing their Souls especially seeing it is their Souls that they least of all look after and expose them to danger and loss rather than any thing else deal with them as the Levit did with his Concubine Judg. 19. 25. who to save himself did prostitute her to their lust to be abused to the very death as the Castor bites off and leaves that part of his Body which they most hunt after to save the rest Or like a Forlorn left to face and entertain the Enemy whilst they draw off their Bag and Baggage that they may secure Body Life Estate Esteem and the like leave the Soul at stake to be wounded and defiled with the fowlest and most horrid sins even to deny Christ and utterly to apostatize from him his Truth and Grace and so merely for want of Faith and Patience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in such a Luke 8. 13. time and pinch of tentation such fall away And so the best bargain they make of it is but to gain the World and lose the Soul But our Saviour in the place parallel to the Text saith He that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 endures to the end shall be saved Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Patience is the induring Grace and therefore is the saving Grace at least saves the Soul when it can secure nothing else dare suffer and thereby may expose the outward Man to danger and misery but dare not sin and thereby provides for the Soul's safety and so keeps possession that it be not lost at last 2. That it be not distemper'd and disguised for the present how distracting and intoxicating soever the exercise and affliction be Ira furor brevis As anger is a madness so impatience is an angry Sore that swells and burns Semper aeger caloribus impatientiae De Patientiâ c. 1. as Tertullian speaks of himself and so casts the Soul into a Burning Fever and thereby brings the Man to a perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is so distempered that he knoweth not what he saith or doth And so Asaph in this case by his own confession becomes like a Beast Psal 73. 22. And Heman though he continues a Man yet a distracted Man Psal 88. 15. David when his Heart waxt hot and the Fire burned he saith he spake with his Tongue Psal 39. 3. and as some expound that place more Junius than his share I am sure even Job himself when his Patience began a little to be inflamed into Passion spake over he confesseth that he uttered that he understood not Chap. 42. 3. And if these that were of so sober and gracious a Spirit were whilst in this case so much besides themselves then how stark wild may you expect to find such who have no such inward bridle to check such a wild Horse but lay the Reins loose on the Neck of passion and rage And what is it that you then see A Man in his right wits No but a wild Boar foaming at the Mouth a Lion sparkling with his Eyes a very Bedlam in the height of his phransy And how is the Soul then kept in possession But Patience cools such hot Distempers and being spiritualis Illyricus Patientia sanitatem Tertul. de pat c. 1. incolumitas as he calls it the very health of the Soul it either prevents or cures such phrensies keeps the Soul in a due temper that the Man is still himself as our Saviour That his Patience might have its perfect work in his sensible sufferings of the extremity of his torments refused that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mar. 15. See Galatinus 23. which some say was wont to be given to Men when they suffered to intoxicate and make senseless No better Receipt than a Patient Spirit against a light Head under heaviest Burdens and Afflictions though Job's Messengers trod one on the heel of another and that so long till at last they had nothing more to say because he had almost nothing more to lose yet as long as his Patience received their Messages and he heard them by that Interpreter though indeed at last he started up and rent his Mantle and shaved his Head and fell down upon the Ground and Satan that stood looking on to see how his Train that he had laid took it may be might now think that the distracted Man began his Anticks yet he fell short of his Hopes It 's added that after Job had done all this he worshipped and said Naked came I out of my Mother's Womb and naked shall I return thither The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away Blessed be the Name of the Lord Job 1. 20 21. Now as they said these are not the words of him that hath a Devil So those words of Job John 10. 21. have they the least touch or air of a Distraction or Distemper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You hear not in them a distracted Man's non-sense but rather a Man divinely inspired speaking Oracles Such a full possession and enjoyment of a Man's Soul and self doth Patience put and keep him in that if it have but its perfect work it makes an all of Joy when there is in view nothing but grief and sorrow Jam. 1. 2 4. so that when it comes to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man is round about beset with miseries and mischiefs that another Man is quite-out exanimated and distracted
who required these things or at least of your hands The discouragement Isa 1. 12. and despondency of mind in this case would be very great and the Event hath sometimes proved very dreadful but not more disheartning 2. Than on the other side the Conscience and clear Evidence that our errand is from God and that he hath sent us on it will be encouraging and strengthning and as good as Elijah's first and second Bâ—it with him to walk though it be in a Wilderness many a hot Summers-day and cold Winters night till we come to the Mount of God If it be a way of the Lord it 's Strength to the upright Prov. 10. 29. and if I be called by him to it my Call is my Comfort my Commission my Warrant which therefore Jeremiah Chap. 17. 16. 20. 7. Amos Chap. 7. 14 and our Blessed Saviour and his blessed Apostle Paul had often recourse to and still held out and pleaded against all Objections John 7. 29. Gal. 1. 1. 1 Cor. 9. 1. 15. 8 9 10. and Oppositions For who hath more Authority in the House than the Lord of the Houshold And if he have appointed and employed me what hath aâ—y Enemy or stranger yea or fellow Servant to do to appose or hinder me When I can without wrong make use of the Apostle's plea whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judg ye Acts 4. 19. it's a Back of Steel to my Bow and a full Gale in my Sail strongly engageth the heart To be ready and earnest to do our utmost in our Duty It was before the Lord that chese me saith David when he danced before the Ark with all his might and he would therefore be more vile 2 Sam. 6. 14 16 19. though so vile already in Michal's Eyes that she despised him The Lion hath roared who will not fear The Lord hath spoken who can but Prophesy Amos 3. 8. We cannot but speak Act. 4. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a necessity is laid upon me and woe unto me if I preach not the Gospeâ— 1 Cor. 9. 16. It engageth and encourageth the Heart to duty And in doing of it to expect and wait for God's Mercy If I be sure that my work be God's and that he hath called me to it I dare not but so far honour him as notwithstanding all discouragements to trust him and confidently to rely upon him for Acceptance For if in both my Place and Imployment I be his in accepting of me he owns himself else I may say Lord thou hast deceived me Jer. 20. 7. Assistance which other Masters are wont to afford their Servants in their work and our best Master is not wont to be worse in this kind to his Servants in theirs who never suffered his Servants to do his work by their own strength but first bespeaks Gideon's might Judg. 6. 12. and then v. 14. bids him go out in it and promiseth he shall save Israel by it Which adds a third thing Blessing Common Adultresses use not to be fruitful and so Bastard-Ordinances are barren but as we love our own so God who hath more cause useth to love and bless what 's his When Isaac sends Jacob to Padan-Aram he blesseth him Gen. 28. 1 2. i. e. he prayed for it but our Master when he sendeth us he so blesseth that he bestows it Because the false Prophets ran on their own heads they therefore went on a bootless ernand I sent them not therefore they shall not profit this People at all Jer. 23. 32. but had they stood in my Counsel they should have converted my People v 22. How do we go amain when we have the Wind as well as the Tide with us the Gale of Heaven as well as the current Stream of our Brethrens votes and desires Reward for whatever Man may do yet God never suffered his Servants to serve him gratis The same vertuous Woman that sether Servants their Task gives them also their portion of Meat Prov. 31. 13 14 15 and that God which sets you on work will be sure Mr. Moor of Norwich to pay you your wages For the outward Man Gainers many of you cannot be and it 's well that it is so and you might scape well if you were but gainers in the sense of that Phrase Act. 27. 21. where Paul speaks of gaining harm and loss that is in preventing and avoiding it Injuries and Losses may be all our gains from Men but there will be nothing lost by what we lose for God when we come to our last reckoning When God sends us of his errand he bids us indeed be stedfast and unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord but for our encouragement withal he tells us that our Labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. What follows was prepared but not Preached SERMON XXXVIII MAT. 24. 45 46. Who then is a faithful and wise Servant whom his Lord hath made Ruler over his Houshold to give them Meat in due season Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing BUt that Reward is the last part of my Text. We are before that to consider of our Work And that is the 2d Which having dispatched our 2 Work Office Servants and yet made Rulers over God's Houshold we come to in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It 's to give them their Food in due season 1. I will not insist upon that which yet some observe from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it 's a giving and not a selling of this Food to the Houshold Christ once whipt Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple but after-ages complained much that they were gotten in again This Food for the Houshold is the Masters Provision and only put into the Stewards hands for his Housholds use All thy Grace Wisdom Ability to dispense the Word and other Ordinances to govern the Church c. are God's Gifts which he never betrusted thee with to enjoy or make a Mercat of for thy self thine own gain or applause but for the Glory of thy Master and the service of his Spouse and therefore although the Labourer be worthy of his hire Luke 10. 7. yet neither be thou on the one side ever so mercenary as to account thy maintenance such an hire of thy Labour as which thou aimest at and puttest off the Ordinances of God for No in this sence freely thou hast received and therefore freely give Nor let the People be ever so mean as to think when they Mat. 10. 8. have paid their Pittance they have bought you for Slaves and like good Chapmen have made a fair purchase of the Word and the rest of God's Ordinances which they hereupon claim as their due and in case though by their own default they come short of you shall fall short of yours But how unworthy are such base