use 2. So Christ is said to sanctifie himself when he dedicated himself to be a sacrifice for the sins of his people c. so it takes in a dedication and devoting of them to a holy use And thus the Nazarites Temple Mount Zion the Sabbath day and other Festival dayes are said to be holy under the Law In short the whole Jewish Religion did lie in holy times holy places holy persons and holy things and certainly without this holiness without this dedicating of our selves to God we shall never come to a glorious fruition of God he that doth not dedicate himself really to God wholly to God only to God and alwayes to God on earth shall never come to a sight and vision of God in heaven if we do not give up our selves to God God will never give up himself to us Hos 3.3 And I said unto her Thou shalt abide for me many dayes thou shalt not play the harlot and thou shalt not be for another man so will I also be for thee God will be only theirs that are really his and he will be altogether theirs that are wholly his he will only be a husband to them that dedicate themselves to him as a wife doth to her husband he will devote himself theirs who devote themselves his he will avouch himself to be theirs who avouch themselves to be his Deut. 26.17 18 19. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his wayes and to keep his Statutes and his Commandments and his Judgements and to hearken unto his voice And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee and that thou shouldst keep all his commandments And to make thee high above all Nations which he hath made in praise and in name and in honour and that thou mayst be a holy people unto the Lord thy God as he hath spoken That is an apt saying of Tertullian Negotiatio est aliquid amittere ut majora lucreris That is right merchandise when something is parted with to gain more God will resign himself up to them who resign themselves up to him he will give up himself to them that have given up their names and their hearts to him He will bestow himself as the greatest pearle of price upon them that shall make a surrender of themselves to him There is no way to be higher then others happier then others more noble and honourable then others then by making a dedi-gift of our selves to God He that dedicates himself to God dedicates all he that doth not dedicate himself dedicates nothing at all What Eschines once said to Socrates Others said he give thee Gold Silver Jewels but I give thee my self That must a Christian say to his God Ah Lord there are some that give thee their lips but I give thee my heart others give thee good words good expressions but I give thee the best of my affections others give thee a few cold prayers but I give thee my whole soul and had I as many hearts in my body as I have hairs on my head I would give them all to thee for thou art worthy thou only art worthy What the King of Israel once said to the King of Syria 1 Kings 20.4 I am thine and all that I have that must a Christian say to his Christ I am thine O Lord and all that I have A Christian must cry out with him who cried Lord I have two mites a soul and a body and I give them both to thee Bernard And this was the honour and commendations of the Macedonians that they gave up themselves to the Lord 2 Cor. 8.5 Having no better present at hand they present themselves to God and certainly there is no present more honourable Romans 12.1 dilectable and acceptable to God then this of giving up our selves to God Well remember this That man was never really holy that is not relatively holy nor that man will never be really happy that is not relatively holy without Relative holiness there will be no vision of God in everlasting happiness We must be separated from the corruptions and pollutions of the world and we must dedicate our selves to God or we shall never come to a future fruition of God But Fifthly There is an imputative holiness and that is the holiness of Christ imputed to us For to prevent mistakes you may please to take notice that there is a twofold holiness in Christ Consult these Scriptures Luke 1.35 Mark 1.24 Heb. 7.26 Rom. 5.19 Col. 1.22 Rom. 2.3 4. 2 Cor. 5.21 22. Galat. 3.13 Jerem. 23.6 first there is his essential and personal holiness as he is God Now this essential holiness of Christ cannot be imparted nor imputed to any mortal man it is essential to him But Secondly there is his mediatory holiness or that holiness which he wrought for us as Mediator Now the holiness of Christ as Mediator did consist both in the habitual holiness of his person in the absence of all sin and in the rich and plentiful presence of all holy and supernatural qualities as also in the actual holiness of his life and death by his active obedience by his subjecting of his heart and life to divine precepts he perfectly fulfilled the commands of the Law and by his passive obedience his voluntary sufferings he fully satisfied the comminations penalties and curses of the Law Now this mediatory holiness of Christs is ours by imputation and by vertue of which we stand recti in curia justified in the sight of God 1 Cor. 1.30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption This Mediatory holiness of Christ reckoned unto a believing sinner is that whereby he is constituted holy in foro Dei and upon this account they are said to be all fair Cant. 4.7 Nemo-bonus qui non ex malo bonus Aug. to be without spot or wrinckle Ephes 5.25 26 27. to be compleat in him Col. 2.10 and to be without fault before the throne of God Rev. 14.4 5. And certainly without this mediatory holiness of Christ there is no appearing before God there is no glorious vision nor fruition of God Hab. 1.13 God is a God of that infinite purity and holiness that no holiness below the imputative holiness of Christ can make a man stand before him or bring a man to the fruition of him It was a very sweet and excellent saying of Bernard when in his own opinion he was at the point of death I confess said he I am not worthy Guliel Abbas in vita Bern. lib. 1. cap. 12. I have no merits of mine own to obtain heaven by but my Lord had a double right thereunto An hereditary right as a Son and a Meritorious right as a Sacrifice He was contented with the one right himself the other right he hath
Winter is past and the singing of birds is come and anone you say your Winter is like to be longer then ever now you say there is Balm in Gilead and anon you say your wound is incurable now you say all is your own and anon you are ready to give up all as lost c. and thus your hearts rise and fall according to the working of second causes When you have full purses and powerful Armies and subtle Councellors Psal 30.6 7 8. and great Allies then you are ready to say surely our mountain is strong and we shall never be removed but when your bags are empty and your forces broken and your counsels dissipated and your Allies faln off then you are ready to cry out O now there is no hope there is no help O but now were you eminent in holiness then under the saddest and crossest workings of second causes 2 Chron. 14.11 you would say with Asa O Lord it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no power 2 Kin. 6.16 17. Exod. 14.13 and with Elisha They that be with us are more then they that be with them and with Moses Stand still Psal 118.6 and see the salvation of God and with David The Lord is on my side I will not fear what man can do unto me Holiness in any considerable heighth will set the power of God in opposition to all the power of the world Psal 65.6 11. and then divinely triumph over them Plutarch in vita Pomp. Pompey once gloried in this that with one stampe of his foot he could raise all Italy up in Arms but the great God with one stampe of his foot or with one word of his mouth can raise not onely Italy but also all the Angels in heaven and all the men on earth in Arms at his pleasure and in the power of this God raised holiness will enable a man to glory all the day long Where holiness is weak there men stand and fall as second causes work but where holiness is eminent there men will live upon the first cause and however second causes may wheel about yet such a man will live upon him and look up to him that hath a wheel within every wheel Ezek. 1.15 22. But Seventhly You have but little holiness witness that soul-leanness Psal 106.15 Isa 24.16 and Chap. 10.16 barrenness and unfruitfulness that is among you at this very day Ah how may most cry out with the Prophet Isaiah O my leanness my leanness O our leanness our leanness our barrenness our barrenness c. though God has waited many three years for fruit yet behold nothing but leaves I have read of the Indian Fig-tree how that its leaves are as broad as a Target Athenaeus de Ipnosoph lib. 3. but its fruit is no bigger then a Bean Ah how many Christians be there in these days whose leaves of profession are very broad but their fruits of righteousness and holiness are very small and as the Indian Fig-tree though it be of fair and goodly dimensions yet it riots out all its sap and juce into leaves and blossoms So many in these days who though they carry it fair and make a goodly shew yet they riot out all that spiritual sap and life that is in them into the mear leaves and blossoms of an empty profession Ah how are many of our hearts like to the Isle of Pathmos which is so barren that nothing that is good will grow on 't all the good things that grow there is from the earth that is brought from other places Look as a company of Ants are very busie about a Mole-hill running to and fro and wearying themselves in their several movings and turnings this way and that and yet never grow great for after all their motions and stiring they are still the same as to the slender proportion of their bodies so many Christians in these days run to and fro they run from one duty to another and from one ordinance to another and from one opinion to another and from one principle to another and from one Minister to another and from one Church to another and from one way to another and from one notion to another and yet they make little progress in holiness 2 Pet. 3.18 2 Tim. 3.6 7. they grow but little in the love the life the likeness and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ they are like those silly women that Timothy speaks of who were ever learning and yet never able to come to the knowledge of the truth and they are like Nazianzens country of Ozizala which abounded with gay flowers but was barren of corn so these abound in gay notions and flourishing parts but are barren of grace and holiness Seneca hath long since observed that as the Philosophers in his time grew more and more learned so they grew less and less moral and is there any thing more evident in these days then this viz. that as men grow more and more in empty airy notions and in a pompous Religion and profession so they grow less and less zealous and religious The reason say some why Christ cursed the Fig-tree though the time of bearing fruit was not come was because it made a glorious shew with leaves and promised much but brought forth nothing What 's a barren tree a barren ground or a barren womb to a barren heart Many in our days are like the Cypress-tree Joh. 15.6 which the more it is watered the more it is withered so the more many are watered with the means of grace the more they wither the more the dews of heaven falls upon them and the more heavenly Manna is daily rained round about them the more lean fruitless and barren they grow Such souls may do well to remember that those trees that are not for fruit are for the fire Heb. 6.8 Augustin For a close let me tell you that I fear with that Father that many grieve more for the barrenness of their lands then they do for the barrenness of their lives and for the barrenness of their trees then they do for the barrenness of their souls and for the loss of their Cattel then they do for the loss of Gods countenance But Eigthly lastly You have but little holiness witness that great indifferency and inconstancy that is to be found among you My Lord Paulet kept both great favor and places under Henry the eighth a Papist and under King Edward the sixth a Protestant and under Queen Mary a Papist and under Queen Elizabeth a Protestant being ask'd how he could do so he answered that he always imitated the willow and not the oak Ah how many Christians are there in these days of Gospel-light who are indifferent who they hear or what they hear who are indifferent whether they pray or not or walk in Gospel-order or not or keep Sabbaths or not or maintain
more eyes then it hath done good to hearts O this golden-wedge this silver squinsie hath made many men silent and speechlesse in good causes Titus Vespasian was so delighted in doing of justice that if a day had past over his head wherein he had done no 〈◊〉 of justice he would cry out Amici diem perdidi O my friends I have lost a day And so Epaminondas a Heathen though he was very poor and often tempted with great bribes and presents to be unjust yet he refused and scorned all and would commonly say that if the cause were good he would do it without a bribe because it was good but if the cause was bad he would not meddle with it for a world These Heathens will one day rise in judgement against all such corrupt Judges and Justices that will not do justice without a bribe If this Treatise should fall into the hands of any such I would then let them know that God will one day make good that dreadful word against them that you have in Job 15.34 For the Congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate and fire shall consume the Tabernacles of bribery Or as the Septuagint reads it of men that take gifts fire shall consume or rather as the Hebrew hath it Fire shall eat the Tabernacles it shall feed on their Tabernacles as greedily as a hungry man doth feed on his meat O the sumptuous buildings and brave structures that have been built by the hands of bribery shall be set on fire by a hand of justice Prov. 10.2 3. and chap. 3.33 If bribery brings in a thousand one year Divine justice will cast away two for it the next year God will one day burn up on both hands all the comforts and all the contentments and all the enjoyments of corrupt Magistrates Judges and Justices I have read of a Polonian Judge that stood up very stoutly and resolutely a long time for a poor Plaintiff against a rich Defendant but at last he received from the Defendant a great summe of money stamped with the usual stamp of that Countrey which is a man in compleat armour and at the next Session in open Court he adjudged the Cause in the favour of the Defendant and being sharply blamed by his friends for it he shewed them his large bribe and demanded of them Who could stand out against so many men in compleat armour Ah England England it would be better with thee if this spirit did not still survive but alas what good will all these mens men in armour do them in the great day of our Lord when the thoughts of all such corrupt Magistrates Judges and Justices shall be exceedingly troubled their countenances changed their hearts terrified their consciences awakened their souls amazed and their knees dashed one against another O that all Judges and Justices would for ever make Isa 5.23 their daily companion Wo to them which justifie the wâ—cked for a reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him I have read of Sysamnes a covetous tenacious Judge who for filthy lucre pronounced a false sentence whereupon Cambyses King of Persia commanded him to be killed and flead and his skin to be nailed over the Tribunal and then he commanded his son to sit as Judge there that so this sight might arm him against all injustice and be a terrour to all that succeeded him If Princes did but exercise such Royal justice upon all corrupt covetous Judges and Justices justice would be had at a cheaper rate and poor men would not be so often put to pawn their Coats nor rich men would not so often empty their Purses nor mortgage their inheritances But Fourthly As you must do justice sincerly so you must do justice deliberately you must have one ear for the Defendant and another for the Plaintiff Deut 17.4 or else you will tell the world at once that you are both weak and wicked Deut. 19.17 18 19. vide It argues much weakness and emptiness of spirit to judge a matter before all is heard that can be said Job 29.16 Jobs piety and prudence shined forth eminently in this that the Cause that he knew not he searched it out Before God would pronounce judgement upon Adam Gen. 3. he first examins him and propounds several interrogatories to him And in those two great and famous acts of justice when God confounded Babels builders Gen. 1. and chap. 18. and rained hell out of heaven upon Sodom and Gomorah he tells you that he will go down and see You are called gods in this it is as much your glory as it is your duty to imitate the great God Though Solomon was in all his glory yet he had patience to hear both what the mother and the harlot had to say The Holy-Ghost puts the fool upon him that answers a matter before he hears it Prov. 18.13 It was the usual custom of Philip King of Macedon to step one of his ears whilest the accuser was speaking that so he might reserve it for the defendant I have read of some who have deeply suffered both in their civil liberties and in their consciences for their rash and hasty passing of judgement upon others Why hath God given the Judges of the earth two ears and but one tongue 〈◊〉 that they should be swift to hear and slow to speak I have read of Lewis King of France that when he had through inadvertency granted an unjust suit as soon as ever he had read those words of the Psalmist Blessed is he that doth righteousness at all times Psalm 106.3 he presently recollected himself and upon better thoughts gave his judgemâ—nt quite contrary Certainly all acts of justice ought to flow from mature deliberation All Magistrates Judges and Justices in their administrations of justice and judgement should wisely observe by what principles they act and by what Rules they act and by what Authority they act and in what manner they act and to what ends they act and how all these important things can be done without serious deliberation I cannot for the present understand Justice in the Emblem is represented with a Ballance in the one hand and a Sword in the other to note that matters must be first delibâ—rately weighed in the Ballance before Judgement can be passed He that only useth the Sword and not the Ballance may smite an innocent Naboth and acquit a guilty Ahâ—b The Civil Law concludes it very unreasonable for any man to give Advice or Judgement before he hath considered and weighed the whole Cause Civile dig 4. de legis senatusque consul And therefore by your own Laws you are bound to deliberate before you give Judgement Unlesse you will tell the world that you even you are unreasonable men who above all others should be the Masters of the greatest reason as well as men of the greatest measures of grace and holinesse But Fifthly As you must do Justice deliberately so you must
paper and wrote upon the top of the leaf Moderation and in the middle of the leaf Moderation and at the bottom of the leaf Moderation signifying thereby thus much to the King that the best way in the world to have his Crown set fast and to keep his Kingdom safe was to manage throughout all his affairs with moderation And there is nothing more evident in Scripture and History then this that many by scruing the pegs of Government too high have broke all in pieces about their ears Now my Lords and Gentlemen there are five things or Rules that will be of singular use to help you in this case to steer such a course as may be safe and honourable to you and as may render you a mercy and a blessing to the Nation And the first is this never make those things to be sins which God never made to be sins to make those things to be sins which God hath made to be no sins is to make gods of your selves yea it is to lift up your selves above God himself as if you were more holy more wise more just and more righteous then the holy one of Israel is Indeed the Papists that are will-worshippers and commonly highly conceited of their own wisdom and worth they frequently transgresse this Rule with their Touch not Col. 2.21 23. taste not handle not which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will-worship c. but why should you why should you who have a higher profession upon you and a more clear Gospel-light shining every day more strongly upon you But Secondly Never make those things to be absolute and necessary duties that God hath nowhere declared to be such Isa 33.22 Jam. 4.12 Such things that do neither fall under a general nor a particular command of God may not be imposed upon the consciences of men as absolute and necessary duties to be performed by them a faithful observing of these two Rules would prevent a multitude of sins a sea of sorrows and a world of troubles But Thirdly In all your administrations of justice take the Authority of the Word with you this will yield you most comfort most peace most security and most boldnesse in the great day of your account But Fourthly Never put off your own souls with any such pleas or arguments now that are not pleadable in the Court of conscience when you shall lie upon your dying-beds nor that are not pleadable before the Court of heaven when you shall stand before Christs Judgement-feat But Fifthly and lastly In all your administrations of justice and judgement be sure that you act nothing upon the account of any command commission or authority under heaven that you dare not own plead and stand by before the great authority of heaven when the King of Kings shall make a narrow inspection into all your Judicial proceedings and accordingly passe judgement upon you What though this command and that commission and the other authority may bear you out in this world yet if they are too weak to bear you out in the other world you will curse the day that ever you were born and wish that you had rather been a turning of spits or lying under an hedge or a begging at the rich mans door then that you had ever sate in seats of Judicature to act upon such grounds as are no wayes pleadable before the Lord Jesus Christ when he shall come in the glory of his father with all his holy Angels to judge all the Kings Princes Nobles Judges and Justices of the earth My Lords and Gentlemen if these five things or Rules were but sincerely seriously resolutely and constantly followed no heart can conceive nor no tongue can expresse the hainous sins the sore troubles and the dreadful calamities and woful miseries that thereby would be prevented And thus my Lords and Gentlemen I have done with those special Rules that you are carefully diligently faithfully and constantly to observe in all your Judicial administrations but how you will be able to act suitable and answerable to these Rules without a spirit of holinesse without a principle of holinesse and without an experiment of the powerful operations of holinesse in your own souls I am not able to see If you please to read from page 433. to page 447. you will find many more weighty arguments to move you to labour after holiness and therefore how much it stands you upon that want that holinesse that this Treatise holds forth to study holinesse to love holinesse to prize holinesse to countenance holinesse to encourage holinesse to promote holinesse and to be restlesse till you have experienced the power and life and sweet of holinesse in your own hearts and lives I must leave you to Judge And O that after all this pains that I have taken upon the account of your immortal souls I may not have cause to complain as once Marcus Antonius did Alas saith he those Graces which the Deity sent down as so many pillars to stay up humane Societies viz. Faith and Modesty Justice and Verity they found such cold entertainment in the world that they are fled back to heaven I shall follow these weak endeavours with my best prayers that you may all put on holinesse as a Royal Robe and that all your Judicial administrations may savour of a spirit of holinesse and of the power and prevalency of holinesse that so you may be as high in happinesse above others as you are now in power and place exalted above others If this Treatise should fall into any of their hands who call and account themselves the only Ministers of Jesus Christ I mean such who preach rather to please then to profit to tickle the ear then to awaken the conscience that are better at fleecing of their Flocks then they are at feeding of their Flocks Ezek. 13. read it throughout Mat. 23.23 Mat. 15.1 10. that seek more mens goods then their good that set up mens Traditions above Gods own institutions that prefer humane commands before divine commands that are very zealous and warm for Mint Anise and Cummin but are very cold carelesse and negligent in the great and weighty matters of the Law viz. Judgement Mercy and Faith That can blesse God in the Church and blaspheme him in the Tavern That prefer musick in the Church Gentlemen if you please to turn to page 296 297 298 299. of this book you will find more matter that concerns you before singing of Hallelujahs in heaven That prefer a fat Benefice before an interest in an heavenly inheritance That can kneel devoutly behind a pillar and in their drunken fits rail as stoutly against a post That pretend a greaâ— deal of reverence to the name of Jesus and yet in their lives do daily crucifie the Lord Jesus That with Judas can kisse Christ and betray Christ in a breath That pretend much kindnesse to the head and yet shew nothing but unkindnesse to
the body That preach as if they had no mind to go to heaven and live as if they were resolved to go to hell That feast their own bodies but starve their peoples souls That are very devout upon a Saints day but very loose and prophane upon the Lords day That think it a greater sin to eat flesh in Lent then it is to lie with their neighbours wife That speak ten words for themselves and hardly two for Christ and that instead of preaching up holinesse and promoting of holinesse and countenancing and encouraging of holinesse do all they can to discountenance holinesse to brow-beat holinesse to keep down holinesse to bespatter holinesse to work men out of love with holinesse and to hinder the growth and encrease of holinesse O that these men would seriously consider how unlike to the Ministers of Jesus Christ they are Do but look into a Scripture glass and you may easily see that Hell is not more unlike to Heaven nor sin more unlike to grace nor Satan more unlike to God then you are unlike to the holy conscientious painful c. Ministers of Jesus Christ Several Authors in Print have proved this to my hand at large and therefore I shall not enlarge upon it only give me leave to say that Gods holy things ought to be handled with fear and reverence rather then with wit and dalliance Spiritual niceness is the next degree to unfaithfulnsse See my Precious Râ—medies against Satans Devices from page 349. to page 357. And see my Unsearchable Riches of Christ from page 291. to page 314. Ministers must not be like the drug that the Physitians say is hot in the mouth and cold in the operation hot in the Pulpit but cold carnal and carelesse in their conversations Those that stand before Princes must be exact in their carriages God appointed both the weights and measures of the sanctuary to be twice as large as those of the Common-wealth to shew that he expects much more of those that serve him there then he doth of others The souls of Priests I may say of Ministers must be purer then the Sun-beams saith golden-mouth'd Chrysostom Gay things in a Sermon are only for men to gaze upon and admire What are high strains and flashes of wit new minted words and phrases but like gay weeds and blew-bottles to the good corn Doctrine is but the drawing of the bow application is the hitting of the mark How many are wise in generals but vain en dia-lâ—gism is in their practical inferences A general Doctrine not applyed is as a sword without an edge not in it self but to others or as a whole loaf set before children that will do them no good A garment fitted for all bodies is fit for no body and so that which is spoken to all is taken as spoken to none Aarons bells were golden bells Dulce sonantes sounding pleasantly and not as sounding brasse or tinkling Cymbals as many of the carnal Clergy of this Nation are this day Many there be that account themselves the only Ministers of Jesus Christ that are but like empty Orators that have a flood of words and but a drop of matter of whom we may truly say Multa loquuntur nihil dicunt they speak much and yet say nothing because they say nothing to the purpose When the Lacedemonian in Plutarch heard how sweetly the Nightingale sang O said he that I had this Bird surely it is a rare dish but when he had taken it and eat it and found nothing but a little picking meat he concluded with that proverbial saying Voxes praeterea nihil Now I see that thou art a meer voice and nothing else How applicable this is to many Preachers in these dayes who have good lungs but bad brains and worse hearts and lives the prudent Reader may easily see John the Baptist was a burning and a shining light as well as a voice His Sermons were stuft with divine and weighty matter c. and not filled up with big words or strains of wit Many there be that have Johns voice in the Ministry that have not that heat and life that John had in his Ministry That great Orator Demosthenes himself could say that the riches of Greece did not consist in words The Oracle would have King Philip of Macedon to use silver lances in winning an impregnable for t c. But it is not for Ministers to use golden sentences strong lines frothy wit in winning of souls to Christ for it is iron and not gold that killeth in the encounter it is the steel sword and not the golden sword that winneth the field Job 38.2 We to such Preachers that darken counsel by words without knowledge that affect sublime notions obscure expressions uncouth phrases making plain truths difficult and easie truths hard that seek abstrusities and love to soar aloft in dark expressions and take pleasure to shoot their arrows over their hearers heads The heathenish Priests had their Mythologies and strange canting expressions of their imaginary unaccessible Deities to amaze and amuse their blind superstitious followers and thereby to hold up their Popish and Apish Idolatries in greater veneration And is not this spirit now revived among many Certainly men of abstracted conceits and sublime speculations are but wise fools and commonly they are as erronious as they are curious Such as mind more the humoring of their hearers fancies then the saving of their souls do little consider that of Seneca Aeger non quaerit medicum eloquenâ—em sed sanantem Sick men are not bettered by Physitians sugared words but by their skilful hands The sword of the spirit never wounds deep till it be pluckt out of the gaudy scabards of humane eloquence Mr. Greenham speaking of non-Residents wisheth that this Motto might be written on their study doors without and walls within on all their books they look on on all the beds they lie on and on all the tables they sit at c. The price of blood the price of blood the price of blood A Preachers life should be a Commentary upon his doctrine his practice should be the counterpane of his Sermons heavenly doctrines should alwayes be adorned with a heavenly life Preachers are the Glass the School the Book Where peoples eyes do learn do read do look Gentlemen by these short hints you may see as in a glasse if you will not put a cheat upon your own souls how unlike to the true holy and faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ you are O Sirs do not you know that the holy Scriptures that never spoke Treason nor Sedition do clearly evidence that an ignorant prophane scandalous superstitious insufficient and soul-flattering Clergy are the greatest Pest Plague Affliction Judgement c. that can befall a people as you may easily see by comparing these Scriptures together Mich. 2.11 Isa 30.10 11. Jer. 5. ult Lam. 2.14 Isa 9.16 Ezek. 3.18 Jer. 23.9 18. Ezek. 13.22 Jer. 6.14 and chap. 27.14
that when he hath a suit of cloathes to make would send for a bungling Taylor to make it surely none And why then should not men be as wise for their souls Do not you know that that sort of persons that now I am a speaking of have been the greatest instruments of bringing the greatest calamities and miseries and the sorest desolations and destructions that ever have been brought upon Cities Nations Kingdoms and Countries Compare the Scriptures in the margin together Jer. 26.8 9 11 14 15. Lam. 4.11 12 13. Amos 7.10 11. 1 Kings 22. 2 Chron. 18. and then let conscience speak And who is so ignorant as not to know that it was the High-Priests Scribes and Pharisees that brought the innocent blood of our Lord Jesus Christ upon that once great and glorious Nation of the Jews to their utter destruction and desolation about forty years after Christs Ascension when the Romans came and took their City and practised the greatest severity and cruelty imaginable upon them as Josephus and other Historians shew In the Marian dayes and in the Massacre of the Protestants in France how great a hand this sort of men had that I am now a reasoning with all the world knows And so the Pagan Priests stirred up the Pagan Emperours to be desperate Persecutors of the people of God that were within their Empires which occasioned Tertullian to give that good counsel to Scapula a Pagan persecutor God saith he will surely make inquisition for our blood and therefore if thou wilt not spare us yet spare thy self if not thy self yet spare thy Countrey which must be responsible when God comes to visit for blood Do not you know that his Majestie hath very Christianly Zealously argumentatively and smartly declared against drunkennesse lewdnesse prophansse c. and that he hath declared that his resolution is and shall be to promote the power of godlinesse to encourage the Exercises of Religion both publick and private to take care that the Lords day be applyed to holy Exercises without unnecessary divertisements and that insufficient negligent and scandalous Ministers be not permitted in the Church Do not you know that when the great Shepherd our Lord Jesus Christ shall appear 1 Pet. 5.2 3 4 Ezek. 3.17 18 19. that he will call you to a particular and exact account for every soul that hath miscarried under your charge either by reason of your ignorance insufficiency prophanesse loosnesse or superstition c. and how will you then be able to stand in that day c. Gentlemen if you say you know not these things and that they are Riddles and Mysteries to you how dare you say that you are the Ministers of Jesus Christ But if you shall say that you know very well that these things are certainly true yea that they are such clear and undenyable truths that no Devil can deny and yet shall continue in your ignorance insufficiency prophanesse loosnesse superstition c. what man on earth is there that hath but read the Scriptures and that can but write his own name and that would not be begged for a fool in folio will believe you to be the true faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ Well Gentlemen I have read of Alexander the great how that he had a souldier of his name that was a Coward which when he understood he commanded him either to fight like Alexander or else to lay down the name of Alexander So say I to you Gentlemen either preach as the Ministers of Jesus Christ ought to preach viz. plainly spiritually powerfully fâ—elingly fervently frequently c. and live as the Ministers of Jesus Christ ought to live viz. heavenly graciously holly humbly righteously harmlesly and exemplarily c. Or else lay down your very names of being the Ministers of Jesus Christ and put no longer a cheat upon your selves nor upon the people by making them believe that you are the only Ministers of Jesus Christ when you have nothing of the Spirit of Christ nor of the Anointings of Christ nor of the Grace of Christ nor of the life of Christ in you Gentlemen if this counsel be seriously minded and faithfully followed it will turn more to your accounts in the great day of our Lord Jesus and do you more good then then all the profits preferments and honours of this world can do you good now But if you shall slight and despise this counsel now I shall be found a true Prophet to your wo and misery in that great day c. If this Treatise should fall in the hands of any Ladies and Gentlewomen as I suppose it may that have not yet experienced the sweet and powerful operations of holinesse in their own souls I would then say Ladies and Gentlewomen your souls are as precious and as immortal and as capable of union and communion with Christ here and of an eternal fruition of Christ hereafter as the souls of any men in the world are I have read a sad story of one Bochna a woman which had but two sons in all the world and whilst she was walking with the one towards the River she heard the other crying out and hastening back she found a knife sticking in his side which killed him immediately then she made haste to the other child but he in her absence was fain into the River and drowned and so she lost both her sons at once Now Ladies this is your very case every one of you have two children as I may say a soul and a body a life eternal and a life temporal and O what a dreadful and unspeakable losse would it be to lose both these at once and yet as certain as there is a God in Heaven you will lose them both without Holinesse All know that know any thing of Scripture or History that there have been many great Ladies and Gentlewomen that have been great lovers of holinesse and great delighters in holinesse and great prizers of holinesse and great admirers of holinesse and great countenancers of holinesse and great encouragers of holinesse and great promoters of holinesse and great followers after holinesse and great experiencers of the sweet and powerful operations of holinesse in their own souls And O that this might be all your honour and happinesse to be in all respects as famous for holinesse as any of your sexe hath been before you Christ hath prayed as much for your souls as he hath for the souls of others and he hath paid as much for your souls as he hath for the souls of others and he hath sweat and wept and bled as much for your souls as he hath for the souls of others and he hath suffered and satisfied as much for your souls as he hath for the souls of others and he hath purchased and prepared as great and as glorious things for your souls as he hath for the souls of others if you will be but a holy people to him and what doth all this speak
us and will â—od admit such to cohabit with him that never had any acquaintance or familiarity with him Surely no. In history we read of such Towns and Cities as would not admit strangers to inhabit among them and such a City is that above Exod. 33.12 17. It hath been long since concluded that In coelo nullus erit alienus in heaven there shall be no strangers none shall be admitted into that state but such as God knows by name Charon in Lucian requesting Mercurius to shew him Jupiters Palace above how sayes Mercurius that such a caitiff as thou whose conversation hath been altogether with black shades and impure ghosts shouldst set thy foot in that pure place of light what a dishonour and derogation were that to the place The Application is easie Unholy persons have fellowship and familiarity with Satan and therefore doubtless God will have no familiarity nor fellowship with them 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16. As righteousness can have no fellowship with unrighteousness nor light with darkness nor Christ with Belial nor heaven with hell no more can a holy God have any communion or fellowship with unholy souls for they are Satans house Luke 11.21 he keeps possession of them as a man doth of his house Rev. 18.2 and hath familiarity with them as a man hath with those of his house he is their Father and they are his children John 8.44 and look what familiarity a Father hath with his children that hath an unholy devil with unholy souls A workman cannot be more familiar with his tools then Satan is with unholy souls and therefore he is said to work in the children of disobedience as a Smith worketh in his forge or as an Artificer worketh in his shop Ehpes 2.2 Unholy persons have bosome fellowship with Satan 1 John 5.19 And we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness or in that wicked one the Devil as the Greek will bear they lie as it were in the bosom of Satan as the child lies in the bosom of the Mother or as the Wife lyes in the bosom of the Husband or as a friend lyes in the bosom of his friend Unholy persons partake with him at his Table they eat with him and drink with him and converse with him 1 Cor. 10.21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of Devils ye cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and of the Table of Devils If Judas was at the Sacrament the greater was his wo. Ambrose brings in the Devil boasting against Christ and challenging Judas as his own thus He is not thine Lord Jesus he is mine his thoughts beat for me He eats with thee but is fed by me he takes bread from thee but money from me he drinks with thee and sells thy blood to me By all which you may see what fellowship and familiarity there is between Satan and a sinner Now what is this less then blasphemy to assert that a holy God will have fellowship with them that have fellowship with the Devil God hath not cast Satan out of heaven that he may make room for his familiars in heaven if heaven was too holy to hold unholy devils it will be found at last to be too holy to hold unholy souls certainly they shall not lie in the bosome of God who have the Devil for their bed-fellow Fourthly Unholy persons are full of contrariety to God their natures principles practises aims minds wills affections judgements intentions and resolutions Lev. 26.21 22 23 24 27 28 40 41. Isa 58.4 5 6. Jerem. 44.16 17 18. Ch. 2.25 Ch 18.11 12 are contrary to God his name nature being truth and glory you may as soon bring East and West North and South light and darkness heaven and hell together as you shall bring a holy God and unholy souls together Antipathies will never incorporate as soon may midnight be married to the noon-day as a holy God embrace an unholy sinner That unholy persons are made up of contrarieties to God is most evident as you may see in Isa 22.12 13. And in that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldnest and to girding with sack-cloth And behold joy and gladness slaying oxen and killing sheep eating flesh and drinking wine let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die These sad souls practise quite contrary to what the Lord calls for at their hands Rom 8.7 Iames 4 4. Pope Julius the third would have his Pork though it was forbidden him by hâ—s Physitians in despite of God himseâ—f he calls them to weeping and mourning and behold joy and gladness he calls them to fasting and behold here is nothing but feasting carousing and making merry and jovial and that in contempt of God and his dreadfull judgements Unholy persons are like the Rainbow now the Rainbow is never on that side of the world that the Sun is on but whensoever it appears it is still in opposition against the Sun if the Sun be in the East the Rainbow is in the West c. So unholy souls in all tâ—eir actings and walkings will still be opposite to God they will still be cross and contrary to him John 8.38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father and ye do that which ye have seen with your Father Unholy hearts are full of the highest strains of contrariety and opposition against the Lord. I have read of a King that Reigned in no very remote part of the world who having received a blow from the hand of God took a solemn Oath to be revenged on him and ordained that for ten years space no man should pray to him speak of him nor so long as he was in Authority to believe in him O the vanity the contrariety and blasphemy of this Prince Now we will not admit such to be about us who are made up of contrarieties to us and will God will God heaven and earth fire and water the Woolf and the Lamb the Winds and the Sea will sooner accord then a holy God and an unholy heart There can be no amity where there is a spiritual Antipathy 5. Fifthly Without holiness no man can have any spiritual communion with God in this world he may hear but he can have no communion with God in hearing without holiness he may pray but he can have no communion with God in prayer without holiness he may come to the Sacrament but he can have no communion with God in the Sacrament without holiness he may come into the communion of Saints but he can have no communion with God in the communion of Saints without holiness he may read and meditate but he can have no communion with God in reading and meditation without holiness Deut. 23.14 For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy Camp to deliver thee and to give up thine enemies before thee therefore shall thy Camp be
shall not tarry in his sight Psal 5.5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight or as the Hebrew hath it before thine eyes thou hatest all workers of iniquity God will never admit fools to be his favourites he will at last shut the door of glory against them Mat. 25.4 13. A seventh Argument to prove that without real holiness there is no happiness that without holiness on earth no man shall ever come to a blessed vision or fruition of God in heaven is this Unholy persons are to be excluded and shut out from sacred from special communion and fellowship with the Saints in this world and therefore without all peradventure they shall never be admitted to everlasting communion and fellowship with God Christ Angels and Saints in that other world That they are to be shut out from having any special communion with the Saints here is most plain and evident from several Scripures take these for a taste Lev. 10.10 Lev. 13.46 Numb 5.1 2 3 4. Exod. 12.48 Lev. 22.3 4 5 6 7. As oft said One as I have been among wicked men I return home less a man then I was before The Docrenean well will quench a burning torch so will bad company the most burning and most shining Christians as you see in Joseph and Peter Psal 106.35 when they were mingled among the Heathen they quickly learn their works Psa 119.115 And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy and between unclean and clean Ezek. 44.23 And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and prophane and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean And because the Priests did not improve their power and interest to preserve the things of God from prophaning and polluting the Lord was very much offended and provoked Ezek. 22.26 Her Priests have violated my Law and have prophaned mine holy things they have put no difference between the holy and prophane neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths and I am prophaned among them And in Chap. 44.7 8. God sadly complains that they brought into his Sanctuary strangers uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh and prohibits such from entring into his Sanctuary ver 9. Thus saith the Lord God No stranger uncircumcised in heart nor uncircumcised in flesh shall enter into my Sanctuary of any stranger that is among the children of Israel God expects that faithfull teachers should put a difference between person and person between the holy and prophane between the clean and the unclean in all holy administrations Jerem. 15.19 Therefore thus saith the Lord If thou take forth the pretious from the vile then thou shalt be as my mouth let them return unto thee but return not thou unto them Now certainly if under the Ceremonial Law natural uncleanness did exclude and shut out the Israelites from a participation in holy things then certainly moral uncleanness may justly exclude and shut out Christians from a participation in holy things under the Gospel Mat. 7.6 Give not that which is holy unto dogs neither cast ye your pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rent you Holy things are too precious to be spent and spilt upon swinish sinners Gospel administrations are pretious pearls that must not be given to swine 2 Cor. 6.17 Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you Prophane scandalous blind and ignorant persons are very unclean things and from them we must come out as we would be in with God we must be out with them we must reject them as we would have God to receive us 2 Tim. 3.5 Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away Our Saviour Christ hied him to the wilderness amongst the beasts and carried his Disciples with him holding their fellowship to be less hurtfull and dangerous It is better to live among beasts then to live among men of beastly principles and beastly practises Now there are ten sorts of persons that Christians must turn from that they must have no intimate no special communion with in this world First Unbelievers 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16. We should not close with them that have not closed with Christ nor give our selves up to them who have not given up themselves to Christ Every unbeliever is a condemned person the Law hath cast him John 3.18 the Gospel hath cast him and his own conscience hath cast him and what sacred communion what delightfull fellowship can believers have with condemned persons Ver. 36. Every Unbeliever is under the wrath of the great God he is under that wrath that he can neither avoid nor abide and what communion can such have who are under love with those that are under wrath Every unbeliever makes God a Lyar. 1 Iohn 5.10 And what children will have communion with such who every day give their Father the Lye to his very face Every unbeliever doth practically say Tush there is no such loveliness or comeliness there is no such beauty or glory there is no such fulness or sweetness there is no such goodness or graciousness in Jesus as men would make us believe and what is this but to give God the Lie Tus◠there is no such favour there is no such peace there is no such pardon there is no such Righteousness there is no such Grace there is no such glory to be reaped by Christ as God and men would perswade us and what is this but to tell God he lyes to his very teeth And what ingenuous child can take pleasure in such who are still a spitting in his Fathers face Every unbeliever is a disobedient person Numb 14.11 Heb. 11.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 5.8 2 Cor 6.14 15. 1 Cor. 14.23 ult 2 Tim. 3.1.6 and therefore unbelievers and disobedient are in the Greek expressed by one word and what communion can obedient children have with those that are disobedient and rebellious Every unbeliever is a Pagan a Heathen in the Scripture dialect and what communion can those who are of the houshold of faith have with Pagans and Heathens Every unbeliever is a Traytor he commits Treason daily against the Crown and dignity of heaven and what Loyal Subjects will hold communion with Traitors Unbelievers are the greatest Robbers they rob God of his declarative glory though they cannot rob him of his Essential glory they rob h m of the glory of his truth and faithfulnesse as if he would falsifie the word that is gone out of his mouth as if he were yea and nay and as if his credit was so low and contemptibe that he must needs run a hazzard that shall trust to him or roul himself upon him They rob him of the glory of his goodness and mercy as if there were any sins too great
the grave sometimes it signifies extraordinary great anguishes and distresses and sometimes it signifies hell or the place of the damned as here and as in Job 11.8 Prov. 15 1â— Psal 9.17 The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the Nations that forget God In the Hebrew there ar two into 's into into Hell that is the wicked shall be turned into the nether most hell into the lowest and darkest dungeon of Hell They shall be turned into hell that is they shall be certainly turned into hell they shall be vehemently forcibly turned into hell God will as it were with both hands thrust them into hell The wicked shall from hell to judgement and from judgement they shall be turned with a witness into hell The Photinians hold that there is no hell and many now adayes say there is no hell but what a man finds in his own conscience and multitudes with Caesar do think that all that is spoken of hell is false and fabulous They will not believe that there is a hell till they come to feel themselves in hell till they find everlasting flames about their ears They are sentenced to the fire to everlasting fire they are doomed to fire and brimstone Mat. 25.41 Then shall he say unto them on the left hand Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels This terrible sentence breaths out nothing but fire and brimstone terror and horror dread and wo. The last words that ever Christ will speak in this world will be the most tormenting and amazing the most killing and damning the most stinging and wounding Depart from me there is rejection Pack be gon get you out of my fight let me never see your faces more It was a heavy doom that was past upon Nebuchadnezzar that he should be driven from the society of men Daniel 4.25 and in an extremity of a sottish melancholy spend his time amongst the beasts of the field but that was nothing to this soul-killing word Depart from me it was nothing to mens being cast out of the presence of Christ for ever The remembranre of which made one to pray thus Bernard in Psalm 91. O Lord deliver me at the great day from that soul killing word Depart And what saith another Sphinx This word Depart the Goats with horror hears But this word Come the Sheep to joy appears Ye cursed there is malediction But Lord if we must depart Oh let us depart blessed no depart ye cursed You have cursed others Cursings now are their hymns but in hell they shall be their woes Rev. 16.9.11.21 and now you shall be curst your selves you have delighted your selves in cursing and now you shall be curst for ever You shall be curst in your bodies and curst in your souls you shall be curst of God and curst of Angels and curst of Saints and curst of Devils and curst of your companions yea you shall curse your very selves your very souls You loved not blessing and therefore you shall have cursing enough Depart from me ye cursed all your curses all your malidictions shalt at last recoyl upon your own souls Now thou cursest every man and thing that stands in the way of thy lusts and that crosses thy designes but at last all the curses of heaven and hell shall meet in their full power and force upon thee But Lord if we must depart and depart cursed Oh let us go into some good place no depart ye into everlasting fire Therefore they do but dream who think and say that the devil and damned shall be delivered at last Psalm 11.6 Alsted there is the vengeance and continuance of it You shall go into fire into everlasting fire that will neither consume it self nor consume you Eternity of extremity is the hell of hell The fire in hell is like that stone in Arcadia which being one kindled could never be quenched If all the fires that over were in the world were contracted into one fire how terrible would it be yet such a fire would be but as a painted fire upon the wall to the fire of hell The greatest and the hottest fires that ever were on earth are but Ice in comparison of the fire of hell If it be so sad a spectacle to behold a malefactors flesh consumed by peice-meals in a lingring fire Ah how sad how dreadfull would it be to experience what it is to lie in unquenchable fire not for a day a moneth or a year or a hundred or a thousand years but for ever and ever If it were saith one but for a thousand years I could bear it but seeing is for eternity this amazeth and affrighteth me I am afraid of hell saith another because the worm there never dies Cyril and the fire never goeth out It is called unquenchable fire Mat. 18.8 and eternal fire in the Epistle of Jude ver 7. The torments of the damned are very grievous for the bitternesse of them but more grievous for the diversity of them but most of all grievous for the eternity of them To lye in everlasting torments Dionys in A ocaleps 18. fol. 301. Matth. 25. ult goes beyond all the bounds of desperation To roar for ever for disquietnesse of heart to rage for ever for madnesse of soul to weep and grieve and gnash the teeth for ever for vexation of spirit is a misery beyond all expression Suetonius reports of Tiberius Caesar that being petitioned by a certain offendor to hasten his punishment and to grant him a speedy dispatch Lâ—b 3 cap. 6. he made him this Answer Nondum tecum in gratiam redii Stay Sir you and I are not friends yet So if after a damned soul hath been in hell a thousand years he should petition the Lord for a speedy death the Lord would answer after the same manner Stay soul you and I are not yet friends if after thousands and millions of thousands of years the request should be renewed the Answer would still be the same Stay you and I are not yet friends Wronged Justice can never be satisfied and therefore the sinner must be for ever tormented the sinner in hell will sin for ever and therefore he must be punished for ever It will not stand with the unspotted Justice and righteousnesse of God to cease punishing where the sinner ceases not sinning One tells us of some Devout personages Jo. Pet. Camois B. of Betty in France in his draught of eternity Dan. 3. c. who caused those words of the Prophet Isa 33.14 Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings to be written in letters of gold upon their chimney pieces The fear of Nebuchadnezzars fiery furnace made men do any thing to avoid it and shall not the fear of eternal flames of everlasting burnings work men to bewail their sins to hate all their bitter sweets and to lay hold on
fullest of holiness and who hath most to shew for a fair estate in the other world Certainly to an holy man there is no wife to an holy wife no child to an holy child no friend to an holy friend no Magistrate to an holy Magistrate no Minister to a holy Minister nor no servant to an holy servant internal excellencies carries it with a holy man before all external glories The Jews say that those seventy souls that went with Jacob into Egypt were as much worth as all the seventy Nations in the world Doubtless seventy holy persons in the esteem and judgement of those that are holy are more worth then a whole world Plato could say that no Gold or precious stones doth glister so gloriously as the prudent spirit of a good man yea then seventy worlds of unrighteous souls A soul truly holy sets the highest price upon those that are holy holy Paul prized holy One simus as his Son Philem. v. 10. as himself v. 17. yea as his own bowels v. 12. 2 Sam. 22.27 With the pure thou wilt shew thy self pure or as the Hebrew will bear it with the choice thou wilt shew thy self choice Pure souls are the choicest souls in all the world They are choice in every eye but their own All worldly excellencies in the judgement of a holy man are but as Copper Brass Tin and Lead but holiness is the tryed silver the gold of Ophir the pearl of price in his eye that hath purity in his heart They only rate and value men aright who rate and value them according to their holiness and if men were thus rated and valued most men in the world would be found not worth the money that Judas sold his Master for If thou prizest others for their holiness thou art a holy person no man can truly prize and highly value holiness in another but he that hath holiness in his own heart Some prize Christians for their wit others prize them for their wealth some prize them for their birth and breeding others prize them for their beauty and worldly glory some prize them for the great things that have been done by them others prize them for the good things that they have received from them some prize them for their Eagles eyes others prize them for their silver tongues but he that is truly holy prizes them for their holiness he values them for their purity and sanctity But Fourthly He that is truly holy will be still a reaching and stretching himself out after higher degrees of holiness Psal 84.7 Psal 119.106 Col. 1.10 2 Cor. 7.1 yea a man that is truly holy can never be holy enough he sets no bounds nor limits to his holiness the perfection of holiness is the mark that he hath in his eye he hears and prayes and mourns and studies and strives that he may come up to the highest pitch of holiness Phil. 3.12 13 14. Not as though I had already attained or were already perfect but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind A Metaphor from runners in a race who strain and stretch out themselves to the utmost that they may take hold on the mark or prize that is set before them and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Received measures of holiness will not satisfie a holy soul so much holiness as will keep hell and his soul asunder will not satisfie him nor so much holiness as will bring him to happiness will not satisfie him he will be still reaching and stretching out after the highest measures of holiness his desires are for more holiness Psalm 27.4 the beauties of holiness do so affect him and inflame him that he cannot but desire to be more and more holy Lord saith the soul I desire to be more holy that I may glorifie thy name more that I may honour my profession more and that I may serve my generation more Lord I desire to be more holy that I may sin less against thee and that I may enjoy more of thee I would be more holy that I may be more prevalent with thee and that I may be more victorious over all things below thee And as a man of holiness desires more holiness so a man of holiness earnestly prayes for more holiness Psalm 51.2 7. Job 17.9 Prov. 4.18 He prayeth that he may be filled with the fruits of righteousness and that he may go on from faith to faith and from strength to strength he prayeth that his spark of holiness may be turned into a flame his drop of holiness into a Sea and his mite of holiness into a rich Treasurie he prayeth that he may like the Eagle fly higher and higher and that his soul may be like the rising Sun that shines brighter and brighter till it be perfect day he prayeth that he may like the Gyant refreshed rejoyce to run his course and that holiness in his soul like the waters in Ezekiel's sanctuary Ezek. 47. may still be rising higher and higher It was Beza's prayer Lord perfect what thou hast begun in me that I may not suffer Shipwrack when I am almost at heaven And as a man of holiness prayeth for more holiness so a man of holiness believes for more holiness Psalm 51.7 in your Translations you read the words prayer-wise but in the Hebrew the words run in the future thus Thou wilt purge me from sin with Hyssop and I shall be clean thou wilt wash me and I shall be whiter then snow In the sense of all his sinfulness and vileness he believes that God will give out greater measures of purity and sanctity to him Thou wilt purge me and I shall be clean thou wilt wash me and I shall be whiter then snow So in Psal 65.3 Iniquities prevail against me as for our transgressions thou shalt purge them away Though for the present iniquity did prevail yet he had faith enough to believe that God would purge him from his transgressions and that he would mortifie prevailing corruptions And as a man of holiness believes for more holiness so a man of holiness hopes for more holiness 2 Pet. 3.14 1 John 3.2 3 4. In every ordinance he hopes for more holiness and under every providence he hopes for more holiness and under every mutation and change of his condition he hopes for more holiness When he is in prosperity he hopes that God will make him more zealous thankfull cheerfull fruitfull and usefull and when he is in Adversity he hopes that God will inflame his love and raise his faith and increase his patience and strengthen his submission and quiet his heart in a gracious resignation of himself to God I dare boldly say that that
dearly affectand delight in their Idols but when God should come to put a spirit of holinesse upon them then their hearts should rise in hatred and detestation of their Idols as you may see in Isa 30.18.25 mark ver 22. Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven Images of Silver and the ornament of thy molten Images of gold thou shalt cast them away as a menstrous cloth thou shalt say unto it Get thee hence They were so delighted and enamoured with their Idols that they would deck then up in the greatest glory and bravery they would attire them with the most rich costly After the return of the Jews out of Babylon they so hated abhorred Idols that in the time of the Romans they chose rather to die then to suffer the Eagle which was the Imperial Arms to be set up in their Temple pompous and glorious rayment O but when a spirit of holinesse should rise upon them then they should defile deface and disgrace their Idols then they should so hate and abhor them they should so detest and loath them that in a holy indignation they should cast them away as a menstrous cloth and say unto them get ye hence pack be gon I will never have any more to do with you God hath now made an everlasting divorce between you and me And so in Isa 2.20 In that day that is in the day of the Lords exaltation in the hearts lives and consciences of his people ver 17. a man shall cast his Idols of silver and his Idols of gold which they made each one for himself to worship to the moles and to the Bats In the day of Gods exaltation they shall expresse such disdain and indignation against their Idols that they shall take not only those made of trees and stones but even their most pretious and costly Idols those that were made of silver and gold and cast them to the moles and to the bats that is they shall cast them into such blind holes and into such dark filthy nasty and dusty corners as moles make under ground and as Bats roust in So when holinesse comes to be exalted in the soul then all a mans darling and bosom sins which are his Idols of silver and his Idols of gold these are with a holy indignation cast to the moles and to the bats they are so loathed abandoned and casheered that he desires they may be for ever buried in oblivion and never see the light more Idols were Ephraims bosom sin Hos 4.17 Ephraim is joyned or glewed to Idols let him alone but when the dew of grace and holinesse fell upon Ephraim as it did in Chap. 14.5 6 7. Then saith Ephraim what have I any more to do with idols v. 8. Now Ephraim loaths his Idols as much or more then before he loved them he now abandons and abominates them though before he was as closely glewed to them as the wanton is glewed to his Dalelah or as the Enchanter is glewed to the Devil from whom by no means he is able to stir Ephraim becoming holy cryes out What have I any more to do with Idols O I have had to do with them too long and too much already O how doth my soul new rise against them how do I detest and abhor them surely I will never have more to do with them But now unholy hearts are very favourable to bosome sins they say of them as Lot of Zoar Gen. 19.20 Is it not a little one and my soul shall live And as David spake of Absalom 2 Sam. 18.5 Deal gently for my sake with the young man even with Absalom Beware that none touch the young man Absalom ver 12. And the King said Mark Acts 19.24.30 Is the young man Absalom safe ver 29. An unholy heart is as fond of his bosom sins as Herod was of his Herodias or a Demetrius was of his Diana or as Naaman was of the Idol Rimmon 2 Kings 5.18 which was the Idol of the Syrians or as Judas was of bearing the bagg or as the Pharisees were of having the uppermost seats and of being saluted in the market place with those glorious titles Rabbi Rabbi Matthew 6. Bosom sins have at least a seeming sweetnesse in them and therefore an unholy heart will not easily let them go Let God frown or smile stroke or strike lift up or cast down promise or threaten yet he will hide and hold fast his darling sins Job 20.12 13. let God wound his conscience blow upon his estate leave a blot upon his name crack his credit afflict his body write death upon his relations and be a terror to his soul yet will he not let go his bosom lusts he will rather let God go and Christ go and grace go and heaven go all go then he will let some pleasurable or profitable lusts go An unholy heart may sigh over those sins and make war upon those sins that war against his honours profits or pleasures and yet at the same time make truce with those that are as right hands and right eyes an unholy person may set his sword at the breasts of some sins and yet at the same time his heart may be secretly courting of his bosom sins But now an holy heart rises most against the Dalilah in his bosom against the Benjamin the son the sin of his right hand And thus you see how an holy heart hates and disdains all sins he abhors small sins as well as great secret sins as well as open and bosom sins as well as others that have not that acquaintance and acceptance with the soul Real holiness will never mix nor mingle it self with any sin it will never incorporate with any corruption Wine and water will easily mix so the wine of gifts and the water of sin the wine of civility and the water of vanity the wine of morality and the water of impiety will easily mix but oyl and water will not mix they will not incorporate so the oyl of grace the oyl of holiness will not mix it will not incorporate with sin the oyl of holiness will be uppermost Mark natural and acquired habits and excellencies as a pregnant wit an eloquent tongue a strong brain an iron memory a learned head all these with some high speculations of holiness and some profession of holiness and some commendations of holiness and some visible actings of holiness are consistent with the love of lusts with the dominion of sin witness the Scribes and Pharisees Judas Demas and Simon Magus but the real infused habits of true grace and holiness will never admit of the dominion of any sin whether great or little whether secret or open But Sixthly Persons of real holiness are cordially affected and afflicted Ezek. 36.25 26 31. grieved and troubled about their own vileness and unholiness you may see this in holy Job chap. 40. 3 4 5. Then Job answered the Lord and said Behold I am
the field that he bought of Ephron currant money not counterfeit pure not adulterate shekels of silver not shekels of brass silver'd over he paid the price that was pitcht and he paid it in such coyn as would go currant in one Countrey as well as another So holy Jacob in Gen. 43. supposing that the money that was returned in the sacks of corn that his sons brought out of Egypt was through some mistake or oversight he very honestly and conscientiously ordered them to carry the money back again Ver. 12. And take double money in your hand and the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks carry it again in your hands peradventure it was an oversight A holy heart will not a holy heart dares not take an advantage from anothers errour to do him wrong it is but justice to return and restore to every man his due So holy Moses in Numb 16.15 And Moses was very wroth and said unto the Lord Respect not thou their offering I have not taken one Ass from them neither have I hurt one of them He sought their good not their goods he preferred their safety before his own life he did right to every man he did wrong to no man he did every man some good he did no man the least hurt So holy Samuel in 1 Sam. 12.3 4 5. Behold here am I witness against me before the Lord and before his anointed whose Ox have I taken or whose Ass have I taken or whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith And I will restore it you And they said Thou hast not defrauded us nor oppressed us neither hast thou taken ought of any mans hand And he said unto them the Lord is witness against you and his anointed is witness this day that ye have not found ought in my hand And they answered he is witness He makes a solemn protestation before the Lord before his anointed and before the people that he had so lived in the exercise of justice and righteousness amongst them that they could not accuse him of the least unrighteousness they could not say black was his eye they could not say that he had lessened them to greaten himself or that he had impoverished them to enrich himself or that he had ruined them to raise himself upon his appeal they unanimously declare his innocency and integrity So holy Daniel in Dan. 6.4 5. Then the Presidents and Princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the Kingdom but they could find no occasion nor fault forasmuch as he was faithful neither was there any errour or fault found in him Then said these men we shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the Law of his God Though envy be the father of cruelty and malice the mother of murder and ambition the plotter of others destruction yet holy Daniel was so just and righteous so innocent and prudent so careful and faithful in the administration of his high office that none of his envious malicious and ambitious enemies could after their unity in a hellish cruel conspiracy charge him with the least spot of injustice or shew of unrighteousness they narrowly scan'd all his administrations and diligently weighed all his actions and yet themselves being Judges Daniel is found innocent They could not so much as charge him with a colourable fault Luke 1.5 6. So Zacharias and Elizabeth they walked in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless they walked not only in the Ordinances but also in the Commandments of the Lord and they walked not only in some Commandments but in all the Commandments of the Lord they walked in the Commandments of the second Table as well as in the Commandments of the first Table they were as well for righteousness towards man as they were for holiness towards God So the Apostles in 2 Corin. 7.2 Receive us we wronged no man we have corrupted no man we have defrauded no man The Apostle would have the Corinthians to make room for them in their hearts and houses as the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports for that they had wronged no man in his name or reputation as the false Apostles had neither had they corrupted any man in his judgement by false Doctrines or evil Examples as the false Apostles had neither had they defrauded any man in his estate as the false Apostles had who made a prize of their followers and hearers of the same import is that of the Apostle in 1 Thes 2.10 Ye are witness and God also how holily justly and unblamably we behaved our selves among you that believe He takes God and them to witness that they had lived holily in respect of God and righteously in respect of the world and unblameably in respect of them that believe By all which it is most evident That where there is real holiness towards God there will be the exercise of righteousnesse towards men But now where there is but the shews and appearances of holiness Mat. 23.14 there persons make no conscience of exercising righteousness towards men witness the Scribes and Pharisees who under a pretence of praying made a prey of widdows houses who under a pretence of piety exercised the greatest covetousness unrighteousness and cruelty and that upon widdows who are usually the greatest objects of pitty and charity they made no bones of robbing the widdow under pretence of honouring of God So Judas John 12.6 who was a Cato without but a Nero within who under a pretence of laying up for the poor robb'd the poor he made use of counterfeit holiness as a cloak to cover all his thievish villanies he pretended to lay up for the poor but he intended only to lay up for himself to provide against a rainy-day it is like he had no great mind to stay long with his Lord and therefore he was resolved to make the best market he could for himself that so when he should lay down his Stewardship he might have something to live upon Judas acted the part of a Saint in his profession and discourses that so he might be the less suspected to act the part of a thief in his more secret practises Judas had not been long in office before he put Conscience out of office and Conscience being put out of office Judas sets up for himself and under a Cloak of holiness he practises the greatest unfaithfulness Though the Eagle sores high yet still her eye is upon her prey so though Judas did sore high in profession yet his eye was still upon his prey upon his bags and so he might have it he cared not who went without it so he might be rich he did not care though his Lord and his retinue grew never so poor 2 King 5.20 26. Judas had Jacobs voice but Gehazies heart and hands and therefore he
can Look as fire will assimilate and turn every thing that comes near it into its own nature so will a holy heart labour to make all that comes near him like himself Look as one drunkard labours to make another and one swearer another and one wanton another and one thief another and one idle person another and one fearful person another and one doubtful person another and one erroneous person another c. So one holy heart labours to make another one gracious heart labours to make another he that is humble will labour to make others humble he that is sincere will labour to make others sincere he that is faithful will labour to make others to be faithful he that is fruitful will labour to make others fruitful and he that is watchful will labour to make others watchful A heart that is truly holy will labour by prayers reproofs tears example counsel and commands to make others like himself He knows that there is no love no wisdom no care no pains next to that which he takes with his own heart to that which is laid out to make unholy hearts holy And therefore he prayes and weeps and weeps and prayes that holiness may be written upon all that his name is written upon he learns and teaches and he teaches and learns and all that he may teach and learn others to be holy he counts it not worth while to live in this world were it not for the glory of God and the good of his own and others souls but now what shall we say of those persons who are so far from being holy who are so far from drawing others to be holy that they do what they can to make those that are holy to become unholy and who strongly tempt those that are unholy to be more unholy these are factors for hell and certainly such solicitors shall at last be most dreadfully handled by hellish tormentors But Tenthly He that is really holy will be holy in the use of earthly and common things as well as in the use of spiritual and heavenly things Titus 1.15 He will be spiritual in the use of carnal things and heavenly in the use of earthly things There is a silver vein of sanctity that runs through all his worldly concernments If you look upon him in his eating and drinking you shall find him holy 1 Cor. 10.31 If you look upon him in his buying and selling in his paying and receiving you shall find him holy Isa 23.18 And her Merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord. Before Tyres conversion she laboured to inrich her self by hook and by crook all was fish that came to Tyres net Tyre could say any thing or do any thing or be any thing for gain Oh but when Tyre is converted and sanctified then all her merchandise and hire then all her gettings and earnings shall be holiness to the Lord. Tyre now shall write holinesse upon all her wares and commodities Tyre shall buy nothing nor sell nothing nor exchange nothing but there shall be holinesse written upon it And Tyre shall be as well holy in using and improving of her merchandise and hire as she hath been holy in the getting of them for so it follows in the same verse It shall not be treasured nor laid up for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord to eat sufficiently and for durable clothing Tyre before her conversion hoorded up riches and laid up her merchandise to spend upon her lusts to spend upon her pride and wantonnesse and luxuriousnesse c. But now being converted she uses and improves what she hath in the Service of the Lord and for the comfort support and relief of the poor and needy When Tyre is once made holy Calvin renders it Stables of horses which are the most stinking and contemptible places and yet these should be holily used then Tyre will be holy in the use of all her earthly enjoyments If you look upon a holy man going to war then you shall find holinesse written upon the bridles of his horses Zach. 14.20 21. In that day shall there be upon the bridles or bells of the horses holiness unto the Lord. Yea every Pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of Hosts Here is holinesse written upon the bridles of the horses they ride on and holinesse written upon the cups and pots they drink in a holy heart will be holy in the use of the meanest things that are for common use Every piece of his civility shall savour of sanctity and in all the parts of his common conversation you shall be able to discern something of the power of religion Job 5.24 And thou shalt visit thy habitation and shalt not sin Thou shalt be holy in thy commerce and holy in thy converse holinesse shall be written upon thy dealings with thy servants and holinesse shall be written upon thy carriages towards thy children and holinesse shall be written upon all thy behaviours towards thy friends What ever thou puttest thy hand to in thy habitation shall have holinesse written upon it thou shalt make a Jacobs ladder of all thy earthly enjoyments all the comforts that be in thy habitation shall be as so many bright morning stars to lead thee on in a way of holinesse and to lead thee up to a holy God Look upon a holy man in his calling and you shall find him holy Look upon him in the use of the creatures and you shall find him holy Look upon him in his recreations and you shall find him holy The habitual frame and bent of his heart is to be holy in every earthly thing that he puts his hand unto A spirit of holinesse runs and shines in all the common actions of his life But now look upon those who have only the shews and appearances of holinesse and you shall find that they have but a common spirit in common things take them out of their duties and you shall find them in a course to be earthly in the use of earthly things and carnal in the use of carnal things and worldly in the use of worldly things All their religion all their holinesse lyes in a few duties take them out of these and you shall find them as carnal as vain as foolish as filthy and as frothy as light and as slight as those that have not so much as a cloak of holinesse upon them But he that is really holy will be holy as well out of duties as in duties If you look narrowly upon him in all his worldly concernments you shall find some footsteps of the aw fear dread authority and glory of God upon his spirit Look as an unholy heart is carnal in spiritual things and earthly in heavenly things and unholy in holy things so a man that is truly holy he is as well holy in the ordinary affairs and actions of this life as he is holy in any of the
as so many rising Suns in the places where they were bred and born Melancthon was called the Phenix of Germany and Luther was the glory of the age wherein he lived And so were many of the antients before them and many since who have been burning and shining lights in the places of their abode Look as an unholy person is a plague and a curse to the very place he lives in and hasteneth down wrath and vengeance upon it as Bias the Philosopher hath long since observed for he being at Sea in a great tempest among many prophane debauched fellows and perceiving them to call upon their gods as the worst of men usually do in such cases he comes to them and desires them to hold their peace lest the gods should take notice that they were in the Ship and so not only themselves but others also should suffer for their sakes It was the wickednesse of the wicked that brought the sweeping flood upon the old world and it was the wickednesse and filthynesse of the Sodomites that caused God to rain hell out of heaven upon the Cities where they lived Let men be never so honourable or never so potent or never so witty or never so wealthy c. yet if they are prophane if they are wicked they will hasten down the wrath and vengeance of God upon the places of their abode So a holy person is an honour and a blessing to the very place he lives in As you may see in Jacob and Joseph who were choice and noble blessings to the very families where they lived O Sirs as ever you would be an honour to your relations to your Countrey and to the places of your abode labour for holiness Some venture life and limb As many of the Romans did and many a better thing to reflect honour upon their relations and upon their Countrey and why then should not you venture far and venture high for holinesse which will be not only an honour to your selves but also an honour and a glory to all persons and places that you have relation to Seventhly Consider that holinesse is the very ear-mark the very livery and badge of Christs servants and subjects Isa 63.8 For he said Surely they are my people children that will not lye so he was their saviour And ver 18. they are called the people of his holiness Gods people are too holy to lye they will not lye for his glory nor for their own worldly good They will rather die then lye Job 13.7 Rom. 3.7 8. Rev. 14.5 with that brave woman that Jerom writes of who being upon the Rack bade her persecutors do their worst for she was resolved rather to die then lye Neither the merry lye nor the jesting lye nor the officious lye nor the pernicious lye will down with those that are the people of Gods holinesse or that are his holy people saith God It is said of golden mouthed Chrysostom that he never lyed answerable to this Isa 63.8 I have been at so much cost and charge about them I have carried it so kindly so bountifully so sweetly so favourably so nobly to them I have been such an all-sufficient Saviour such a mighty preserver and such a glorious deliverer of them that certainly they will not lye they will not deceive my expectation they will not deny me they will not deal disloyally nor unworthily by me they are of Augustines opinion who hath long since told us that we must not tell so much as an officious lye though it were to save all the world So Jer. 2.3 Israel was holiness unto the Lord and the first fruits of his increase all that devour him shall offend evil shall come upon them saith the Lord. Holinesse to the Lord is the mark that God sets upon all his precious ones Psalm 4.3 Know that God hath set apart him that is godly for himself God hath wonderfully gloriously marvelously yea miraculously set apart the pious the holy the merciful the godly man the gracious Saint by some mark of distinction for himself The Hebrew word Chasid imports as much Josh 2. Judg. 11. 2 King 9. Matth. 26. that is for his own honour and glory and service and delight Look as Rahahs house was known by a red thred and the Ephraimites by their lisping and Jehu by his driving and Peter by his speaking so real Christians are known by their holinesse Holinesse is King Jesus his Livery by which all his subjects and servants are known and differenced from all other persons in the world And in the Primitive times a Christian was known from another man only by the holinesse of his conversation as Tertullian witnesses Look as our Lord Jesus Christ by the spirit of holiness raising him up from the dead Rom. 1.4 was declared to be the Son of God so it is the spirit of holinesse it is principles of holinesse it is the life and practice of holinesse 2 Cor. 6.17 18. that declares us to be the sons of God Holinesse is that golden character by which God differences and distinguisheth his people from all others in the world Rev. 13.16 chap. 14.9 10. chap. 19.20 A man were better be a beast then to have the mark of the beast upon him Look as the worshippers of the Beast are known by the mark of the Beast that is upon them so the worshippers of Christ the people of Christ are known by that mark of holinesse that Christ hath set upon them This title this compellation Saints is given fourscore times to the people of God in Scripture as if God took a greater delight to have his children known by this badge and livery then by any other As for such that have the name of Saints upon them The Title of a Saint is but an empty thing without holiness but nothing of the nature of a Saint in them that have a name to be holy and yet are unholy that have a name to be gracious and yet are gracelesse that have a name to live and yet are dead these God will in that day unmask when he shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity An unholy Saint is a white Devil he is a monster among men Christ sweat and prayed and died and was raised to make sinners Saints to make the rebellious religious and the licentious conscientious all he did and suffered was to stamp the seal and impresse of holinesse upon them And therefore as ever you would be owned and honoured by Christ another day look that the holy Spirit sets the seal of holinesse upon you If the impresse of holinesse be upon you in the day that the Lord makes up his Jewels he will declare you to be his before all the world He will say These are my sheep these are my sons I know them by that mark of holiness that I find upon them But Eighthly Consider this that a man of holinesse or a holy man is a common
judgement proof The day of judgement will be to a holy man a marriage day a day of redemption a day of coronation a day of exaltation and therefore he may well lift up his head and rejoyce Look as the Israelites who had the blood of the Passeover on their door-posts Exo. 12.7.11 though the destroyer was abroad and a dreadfull cry was all over Aegypt yet they were not slain not stricken they did not fear not tremble but had their loyns ready girt and staves in their hands boldly and cheerfully expecting when the happy and joyful hour of their redemption would come Heb. 9.14 So those that have the door-posts of their hearts and consciences sprinkled with holinesse in this terrible day of the Lord they shall with boldnesse and cheerfulnesse lift up their faces because the day of their redemption is come Sermon de Signis prae extr Júd And this made Luther say that he had rather never have been born then not to be in hope of this day This day to Gods holy ones will be melodia in aure Psalm 1.5 2 Thess 2.7 8 9 10. jubilum in corde like musick in the ear and a Jubilee in the heart It is true the ungodly shall not stand in Judgement Stand they must to be arraigned sentenced and condemned Stand they shall but not with any boldnesse or cheerfulnesse comfort or content Stand they shall but not to be approved acquitted or absolved Chaff and stubble cannot stand before that God that is a consuming fire When Belshazzar saw the hand writing upon the wall Heb. 12. ult Dan. 5.5 6. O how was he affrighted how was his countenance changed his joints loosed and his knees dashed one against another O how do many ungodly men now tremble at a thunder-crack in the clouds and at a flash of lightning in the air but how will they tremble and quake when the whole frame of heaven and earth shall break in pieces and be set in a flame about their ears O what trouble of mind what horror and terror of conscience what weeping and wailing what crying and roaring what wringing of hands what tearing of hair and what gnashing of teeth will there be among the ungodly in this day when they shall see their sins charged on them on the one side and divine Justice terrifying them on the other side when they shall look upward and there see an angry God frowning upon them and look downward and there see hell gaping ready to receive them and look inward and there find conscience accusing and gnawing of them When they shall look on their right hands and there behold the good Angels standing with so many flaming swords to keep them out of heaven and look on their left hands and there behold the devil and his Angels ready prest to dragg them down to the lowest hell O now how will they wish for the Rocks to fall upon them and the mountains to cover them how will they wish that they had never been born or that they might now be unborn how will they now wish that their immortal souls were mortal or that their souls might be turned into the nature of Beasts Birds Stones Trees or Air or any thing rather what they are I have read a story of two Souldiers Holcot who being in the valley of Jehosaphat in Judea the one said to the other Here in this place shall be the general Judgement and therefore I will now take up my place where I will then sit and so lifting up a stone he sate down upon it as taking possession before hand but being sate and looking up to heaven such a quaking and trembling fell upon him that falling to the earth he remembred the day of Judgement with horror and amazement for ever after But alas what heart is able to conceive or what tongue is able to expresse the fear and dread the horror and terror the astonishment and amazement that will fall upon all ungodly persons in this day And yet even now Gods holy ones shall lift up their heads and hearts they shall be bold and stedfast they shall be far from fear shame or trembling And thus you see that godlinesse that holinesse is the most gainfull trade And therefore Sirs as you love gain as you tender your own profit and advantage labour to be holy But Twelthly Consider this that holinesse will put the greatest splendour and majesty upon persons that can possibly be put upon them Job 29.8 9 10 11. vide Prov. 12.26 There is nothing that imprints such a reverence and Majesty upon man as holinesse doth There is nothing that is such a grace to man as grace It is holinesse that puts the greatest excellency and majesty upon man Psalm 16.3 But to the Saints that are in the earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight Saints are the most excellent ones Arias Montanus Junius c. The Hebrew word Veadire from Adar that is here rendred excellent signifies magnificis the magnificent ones or the noble glorious or wonderfull ones Saints or holy persons are the most excellent magnificent noble glorious ones And in Dan. 8.24 the holy people are called mighty because there are no people upon the earth that have might and Majesty stampt upon them as they have Cant. 6.10 Some by the Moon understand inherent righteousness and by the Sun they understand imputed righteousness Who is she that looketh forth as the morning fair as the Moon clear as the Sun and terrible as an Army with banners The light grace glory and holinesse of the Church rises by degrees and this makes her terrible to all her enemies Every degree of holinesse is terrible to the unholy but the higher the Church rises in holinesse the more terrible and majestical it grows Holinesse puts such a splendor and graceful Majesty upon all persons that have it as even dazles the eyes sometimes of wicked men and begets in them an awe and reverence As it is evident in Saul 1 Sam. 24.17 And Saul said to David Thou art more righteous then I for thou hast rewarded me good whereas I have rewarded thee evil So Herod in Mark 6.20 it is said That he feared John knowing that he was a just man and holy and observed him Holinesse is very Majestical the greatest Monarchs fall down before it Herod reverences John not for his birth or breeding but for his holinesse not for his Arts or Parts but for his holinesse not for his Schollarship or greatnesse but for his holinesse 2 Kings 11.1 2. So that great Monarch King Joash fell down before the holinesse of Jehojada whilest he lived And so did the holinesse of the three children command tespect and honour from that great Monarch Nebuchadnezzar And so did the holinesse of Daniel Daniel 3. cause King Darius to reverence him and to cast a favourable Aspect upon him And so did the Holinesse that was written upon
and to be shut out from the presence of the Lord 2 Thes 1.7 11. and from the glory of his power If it were such an unspeakable grief and misery to the Primitive Christians as indeed it was to be debarred of one anothers society and company by being confined to Isles and Mines and strong holds O then what an unspeakable grief and misery will it be to all unholy persons to be for ever debarred of the blessed society of God Christ Angels and Saints and to be everlastingly confined to the strong holds of hell and to the society and company of that damned crew who will be still a cursing and a blaspheming of God and adding to one anothers torments O Sirs it is the sight of God in heaven wherein mans happiness and blessedness doth consist it is the fruition of God in heaven that is the life the honour the crown and glory of Angels and Saints Heaven it self would be but a low thing yea it would be but magnum nihil a great nothing without the sight and fruition of God there Now without holinesse there is no seeing of God there is no possessing or enjoying of God there is no possibility of ever obtaining a part or portion in God Ah friends without holiness all is lost thy soul is lost thy Christ is lost thy God is lost thy Crown is lost thy Heaven is lost thy glory is lost and what are all other losses to these losses Demorrathus of Corinth saith they lost the chiefest part of their lives happiness that did not see Alexander sit on the throne of Darius but what was their loss to that unconceivable and unexpressible loss that all unholy persons must sustain who shall never see the King of Kings in his beauty who shall never behold the Lord on the throne of his glory Well Sirs if none of these Arguments can prevail with you to labour after holiness I must conclude that divine Justice hath hardened you and that Satan hath blinded you and that your lusts have besotted you and that this world hath bewitched you and that it had been ten thousand thousand times better for you that you had never been born then to live without holiness and to die without holinesse and to be everlastingly damned for want of holinesse And thus much for the Motives I come now to lay down some means and helps to holiness Supposing that the language of some of your souls may be this O what shall we do to be holy O what course what way what means must we use that we may obtain this holiness without which we now clearly see that we shall never come to a fruition of happiness Methinks I hear some of you crying out Oh none but holiness none but holiness As that Martyr once cryed out Oh none but Christ none but Christ Methinks I hear you crying out O give me holiness or I die As Sampson once cryed out Give me water or I die Or as Rachel once cryed out Give me children or I die So you cry out O give us holiness or we die give us holiness or we eternally die O what shall we do to be holy we see we are undone without holiness we shall be damned without holiness O! that we were but made holy that hereafter we may be assuredly happy Well then if you are in good earnest resolved to be holy I would thus advise and counsel you First take heed of some things Secondly Labour to put in practise other things The things that you are to avoid and shun even as you would shun poyson in your meat or a Serpent in your way yea as you would shun the Devil himself or hell it self are these First Take heed of mistaking some particular Scriptures as that of Ezek. 14.6 Chap. 18.30 31 32. and Chap. 33 11 14 16 19. from these and such like Scriptures many unholy hearts are apt to conclude that they can repent when they please and that though they do defer their repentance yet it is no such difficult thing to confess their sins at last cast and to be sorry for their sins at last cast and to forsake their sins at last cast and to beg the pardon of their sins at last cast And that if they do so God hath given his Word for it he hath given it under his own hand that he will pardon their sins and save their souls Now to prevent these soul-undoing mistakes thou must know O sinner First that thou canst as well wash a Blackamore white at pleasure as thou canst repent at pleasure thou canst as well raise the dead at pleasure Jer. 13.23 chap. 31.18 Lam. 5.21 Acts 5.31 Eph. 1.17 18 19. 2 Tim. 2.25 Acts 11.18 as thou canst repent at pleasure thou canst as well make a world at pleasure as thou canst repent at pleasure thou canst as well stop the course of the Sun at pleasure as thou canst repent at pleasure thou canst as well put the Sea in a Cockle-shell at pleasure and measure the earth with a span at pleasure as thou canst repent at pleasure witness the proofs in the margin I confess that if to repent were to hang down the head like a Bull-rush for a day or to whine with Saul for an hour or to put on sackcloath and walk softly with Ahab for a short space or to confess with Judas I have sinned or to say with Simon Magus Pray to the Lord for me or to tremble with Felix for a moment I say if this were to repent doubtless you might repent at pleasure but alas friends to repent is another thing to repent is the hardest and difficultest work in the world and that will appear in the next particular And therefore Secondly To repent is to turn a flint into flesh it is to turn darkness into light hell into heaven and is this easie Ezek. 36.25 26. Acts 26.18 Ezek. 16.61 62 63. To repent is to make all clean in-side clean and out-side clean it is to make a clean head and a clean heart a clean lip and a clean life and is this easie True repentance includes a true sense of sin a deep sorrow for sin a hearty loathing of sin and a holy shame and blushing for sin chap. 29.43 and is this easie To repent is for a man to loath himself as well as his sin and is this easie for man that is so great a self-lover 2 Corin. 7.10 11. and so great a self-exalter and so great a self-admirer to become a self-loather To repent is to cross sinful self it is to walk contrary to sinful self yea it is to revenge a mans self upon himself and is this easie To repent is to pluck out right eyes and to cut off right hands and offer up only Isaacs and is this easie True repentance is a daily turning of the soul further and further from sin and a daily turning of the soul nearer and nearer to God It is a repentance not to
to say with those in Ezekiel Behold they of the house of Israel say the vision that he seeth is for many days to come Amos 6.3 Ezek. 12.27 Luk. 12. and he prophesieth of the times that are afar off So the rich man in the Gospel reckoned upon many years when he had not many monthes no not many weeks no not many days no not many hours to live in this world Unholy persons are very apt to say to death as Pharaoh said to Moses Get thee from me Exod. 10.28 and let me see thy face no more When death knocks at the poor mans door he sends it to the rich mans gate and the rich man translates it to the Schollar and the Scholar posts it away to the Citizen and the Citizen to the Courtier and the Courtier to his Lady and his Lady to her Maid so death is posted away as it were from one to another every one crying out to death O let me not see thy face O let me not see thy face 'T was even a death to Queen Elizabeth Sigismund the Emperor Lewes the 11 of France Cardinal Beauford and others to think of death or to hear of death and therefore they strictly charged all their servants about them that when they saw them sick they should never dare to name that bitter word Death in their ears And Pashur can't cast his eye upon death but he is presently a Magor Missabib a terror to himself Jer. 20.3 And Saul though he was a valiant King yet at the news of death he falls on his face 1 Sam. 28.20 And so Belshazzar though he was a mighty Emperor Dan. 5.1 7. yet a letter to him from him whom Bildad calleth the King of terrors Job 18.14 Ah how does it amaze astonish affright and terrifie him and how many are there who with Mecaenas in Seneca had rather live in many diseases then die and with the most famous Heathens prefer the meanest life on earth above all the hopes they have of another world like Achilles who had rather be a servant to a poor country Clown here then to be a King to all the souls departed or like Withipoll a rich and wretched man who when he was in danger of death earnestly desired that he might live five hundred years Vitellius looking for the messenger of death made himself drunk to drown the the thoughts of it though it were but in the shape of a Toad Near Lewes in Sussex a woman being ill one of her neighbors coming to visit her told her that if she died she should go to heaven and be with God and Jesus Christ and with Angels and Saints the sick woman answered that she had no acquaintance there she knew no body there and therefore she had rather live with her and her other neighbors here then to go thither to live amongst strangers And thus you see how apt persons are to shrug at death which is a common lot and to say to it as Ephraim did to his Idols Get you hence what have we more to do with you but this is and must be for a lamentation that men put off the thoughts of their latter end to the latter end of their thoughts Man naturally is a great life-lover and therefore he will bleed sweat vomit purge part with an estate yea with a limb I limbs to preserve his life like him that cryed out O give me any deformity any torment any misery so you spare my life And upon this account 't is that he desires that such a guest as death may not knock at his door but Ah that all such vain men would consider that by putting the day of their death far from them they do but gratifie Satan strengthen their sins provoke the Lord and make the work of faith and holiness more hard and difficult and so lay a deep foundation for their own eternal destruction Well sirs remember this the serious thoughts and meditations of death if any thing will work you to break off your sins to mend your lives and to look to the salvation of your souls there is nothing that will sooner work a man to a holy fear of offending God in any thing and to a holy care of pleasing God in every thing then the serious meditation of death Though that text Remember thy latter end and thou shalt never do amiss be Apocryphal yet the truth asserted is Canonical I have read a story of one that gave a young prodigal a Ring with a Deaths-head on this condition that he should one hour in a day for seven days together think and meditate upon Death which accordingly he did and it bred a great change and alteration in his life and conversation O! man thou doest not know but that the serious thoughts of death may work that desireable thing in thee viz. holiness which yet has not been wrought in thee by all the holy counsels the gracious examples the fervent prayers the sorrowful tears of thy dearest friends thou doest not know but that the serious meditation of Death may do thee more good then all the Sermons that ever thou hast heard or then all the books that ever thou hast read or then all the prayers that ever thou hast made or then all the sighs or groans that ever thou hast poured out and why then shouldest thou put the thoughts of death far from thee Certainly as he is a sinner in grain that dares look death in the face and yet sin that dares cut a purse when the Judge looks on so he is a monster rather then a man that dares look death in the face and yet satisfie himself to live without holiness that dares look death in the face and yet say I 'll drink and be drunk I 'll sware and swagger I 'll roar and whore I 'll cheat and cozen I 'll hate and oppose I 'll quarrel and kill and my hands shall be as bloody as my heart and let death do her worst if such a person be not in the ready way of being miserable for ever I know nothing Well sirs remember these three things First That there is nothing more certain then death That Statute Law of heaven Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Gen. 3.19 will take hold of all the sons of men There is no man that lives and shall not see death Psal 89.48 Gen. 32. Though Jacob wrestled with an Angel and prevailed yet death was too hard for him though Hazael was as light of foot as a wild Roe yet he could not out-run death 2 Sam. 2.18 and Absalom could not out-ride it nor Pharoah out-drive it though Saul and Jonathan were as swift as Eagles and as strong as Lyons yet were they slain among the mighty 'T was not Solomons wisdom that could deliver him nor Sampsons strength that could rescue him nor Hamans honor that could secure him nor Goliahs sword that could defend him nor Dives riches that could
ransom him from the grave and therefore why should men put this day so far from them But Secondly As there is nothing more certain then death so there is nothing more sudden then death When the old world when Sodom when Pharaoh when Hagar when Amalek when Haman when Nebuchadnezzar when Belshazzar when Dives when the Rich fool and when Herod were all in their prime and pride when they were in their most flourishing estate when they were at the very top of their glory Ah how suddenly how sadly how strangely how unexpectedly and how wonderfully were they brought down to the Grave yea to Helâ— O! the thousand thousands of crosses losses diseases sicknesses calamities dangers and deaths which attends the life of man and by the least of which he may be suddenly surprized and carried into another world and therefore why should man cry out cras cras to morrow to morrow when he does not know whether he shall have a to morrow when he does not know but that he may dye before he had begun to live Waldus a rich Merchant of Lyons in France seeing one suddenly drop down dead in the streets went home repented changed his life studied the Scriptures and became a worthy Teacher Father and Founder of the Christians called the Waldenses or poor men of Lyons And O! that the serious thoughts of the suddenness of death might have that happy effect upon your souls as to work you to break your league with sin and to fright you as it were into a love of holiness and into a life of holiness O! swearer what doest thou know but that death may seize on thee whilst the oath is in thy mouth And what doest thou know O drunkard but that death may step in between the cup and the lip as it did to Belshazzar And what dost thou know O adulterer but that a poisoned dart may strike thorough thy liver whilst thou art in the very flagrancy of thy lust as it did thoâ—ough Zimries and Cozbies And what dost thou know O proud Haman but that thou who art thus noblely feasted one day mayest be a feast for the Crows the next day And what dost thou know who art so crafty O Ahitophel but that if thy subtile counsel be rejected one hour thou mayest hang thy self the next hour And what doest thou know O thou opposing and murmuring Corah but that the earth may suddenly open and swallow thee up and therefore why should you put that day so far from you that may so suddenly overtake you Berline in Germany charged Saint Paul with a lye in the Pulpit Scultet Annal. and was suddenly smitten with an Apoplexy and fell down dead in the place And what doest thou know who art so apt to charge the people of God with lying but that God may strike thee both dumb and dead whilst the lye is in thy mouth Bibulus a Roman General riding in Triumph in all his glory a Tyle fell off from a house in the street and knockt out his brains And what doest thou know O vain glorious man but that whilst thou art triumphing in thy world glory by some unexpected blow thou mayest be sent into another world Lepidus and Avsidius stumbled at the very threshold of the Senate and died the blow came in a cloud from heaven God by an invisible blow may send thee out of this visible world Sophocles died suddenly by excessive joy and Homer by immoderate grief excessive joy or excessive grief may suddenly bring thee to thy long home Theater of Gods judgements lib. 1. cap. 9. p. 64. Olympus the Arrian Heretick speaking against the Holy Trinity as he was a Bathing himself was struck dead by a threefold Thunderbolt We may run and read some mens sins in the very face of their punishments Mr. Perkins speaks of One who when it thundered scoffingly said It was nothing but Tom Tumbrel a hooping his Tubs c. and presently he was struck dead with a thunder-bolt from heaven There would be no end of recounting the several judgements that have suddenly surprized all sorts of sinners let these few instances suffice to stir up every unholy heart to take heed of putting far off the day of death But Thirdly As there is nothing more sudden then death so there is nothing more short then life Job 8.9 Psal 102.11 Psal 73.20 90.5 Job 20.8 ch 7.7 and why then should you put the day of your death so far from you If you consider the life of man absolutely 't is but short 't is but as a span a shadow a dream a bubble a blast a puff of wind a pile of dust a fading leaf or a tale that is told c. The life of man is as a dream that vanisheth when one awaketh 't is a wind that goeth away and cometh not again 't is as a cloud that is soon dispersed with the wind 't is as a vapor that appeareth for a time and then vanisheth away 't is as the grass that soon withereth 't is as the flower that soon fadeth 't is as the candle that every light puffe of wind bloweth out The life of man is rather made up of days then years Psal 90.12 So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom Moses does not say Lord teach us to number our years but Lord teach us to number our dayes fallen man is apt to misreckon and to compute days for years and therefore this holy Prophet desires that God would teach them this Divine Arithmetick of numbering their days it being a lesson that none but a God can teach So Job 14.1 2. Man that is born of a woman is of few days or short of dayes and full of trouble He cometh forth like a flower and is out down he floeth also as a shadow and continueth not He speaks not of an Age nor of years nor of many dayes but of a few days mans days are short in themselves and shorter in respect of the troubles that attends this present life Mans life is so short Aug. l. 1. Confess Austin doubteth whether to call it a dying life or a living death Now these few days of mans life are upon the wing hastning and flying from us as the Eagle hastneth to his prey and therefore man had need set a greater price upon every moment and minute of time then he does upon all the world and accordingly improve it Secondly If you consider the life of man comparatively 't is but short and that will appear briefly thus First If you compare the life of man to what man might have reach't to had he continued in his primitive glory had man stood fast in innocency he had never known what death and misery had mean't death is a fall that came in by a fall had man kept sin out of the world he had kept death out of the world had man kept fast his holiness and purity he had remained a piece of
immortality to this day death could never have carried man out of the world had not man first let sin into the world Rom. 5.12 ult Secondly If you compare the life of man to the long lives of the Patriarchs before the stood then the life of man is but short threescore years and ten is mans age Psal 90.10 And where one man lives to this age how many thousands die before they come to it But what is this age to the age that men lived to in former times Enoch lived as many yeers as there be days in the year and Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years and Methuselah lived nine hundred sixty and nine years Gen. 5. Now what were Platoes eighty years or Thomas Pars 160. years or Johannes de Temporibus John of the times three hundred threescore and one years to the long lives of the Patriarchs and though in Davids time old age and seventy often shook hands yet 't is otherwise in our times for as mens wickedness do more and more increase so their days do more and more decrease the more wicked any generation is the shorter liv'd that generation shall be God will quickly dispatch them out of the world who make quick dispatches in ways of wickedness Thirdly The life of man is but short if you compare it to what it shall be after the morning of the Resurrection O then mans day shall reach to eternity eternity is that unum perpetuum hodie one perpetual day that shall never have end when men after the resurrection begin to live they shall never dye after that day every man shall live in everlasting bliss or in everlasting wo when the last Trumpet has sounded man shall live for ever and ever Fourthly The life of man is but short if you compare it with the days of God Psal 39.5 Mine age is nothing before him all time is nothing to eternity mans life is but a minute 't is but a point of time to the days of eternity what head what heart can conceive or reckon up the duration of God who ever was who still is and who ever will be every child and every fool can tell you their age but what man on earth or what Angel in heaven can tell you the years of the Most High surely none Fifthly and lastly the life of man is but short if you compare it with the lives of other creatures some say that 't is neither age nor sickness that killeth the Eagle she casteth her feathers yearly and so gets new whereby her youth strength is renewed Pliny August Calvin Psal 103.5 by which means she will live till she be an hundred years old she dies not till her upper Bill be so grown over her under that she cannot take in her meat and so at last she is staryed And some Elephants live three hundred years witness Aelian Solinus and Strabo c. by all which you see the brevity of mans life And why then should man be so weak so vain as to put the day of his death so far from him I have read of the Birds of Norway that they flye faster then the fowls of any other Country they knowing by an instinct that God has put into them that the days in that Climate are very short not above three hours long say some do therefore make the more haste to their nests And O! that all that hear me this day would learn by these birds of Norway to make haste to believe and to make haste to repent and to make haste to love God and to make haste to be holy c. seeing their day of life is so short and their night of death is posting towards them And as the life of man is very short so 't is very considerable that a very small matter a very little thing may quickly put an end to mans life When the Emperor threatned the Philosopher with death he replyed Conrad Ves perg Nancler Jo. Boel in Adrian Paulus Jovius Elog. lib. 2. what is that more then a Spanish flie may do An ordinary flye flying casually into the mouth of the proud Pope Adrian stifled him that made the highest state then in the Christian world stoop even to the holding of his stirrop Tamberlain a Scythian Captain the terror of his time died with three fits of an Ague Anacreon the Poet was choaked with the kernel of a Grape Aeschylus was killed by the shell of a Tortoise which fell from an Eagles Talons who as some conceive took his bald head for a white rock The Lord Mountaigne tells us of a Duke of Britany that was stifled to death in such a throng of people as is in some great congregations on the Lords day An Emperor died by the scratch of a Comb and one of the Kings of France died by the chock of an Hogg and one that was brother to a great Lord playing at Tennis received a blow with a ball a little above the right ear which struck him into his grave There is nothing so small but may be a mans bane The paring of a Toe the cutting off a corn the scratch of a nail the prick of a pin a fish-bone a hair a drop of water a crum of bread a bad air or an evil smell may bring a man to his long home yea a little smoak may soon stifle him or his own spittle let down unwarily may suddenly choak him And O! that all that I have spoken upon this account might be so blest as to work you to take heed of putting the day of your death so far from you The evil servant when he thought his Master was gone afar off Luke 12.45 then he layes about him distempers himself Prov. 7.19 20. and beats his fellow-servants And so the leud woman in the Proverbs when the good man was gone a long journey when he was far from home then she grew wanton vain and secure so when men put afar off the day of their death then they grow more loose prophane and unholy whereas a serious and frequent eying and minding of death as at hand as at a mans elbow would alarm a man to break off his sins by repentance and to labor for holiness as a man would labor for life it self I have read of the women in the Isle of Man that the first Web they make is their winding sheet wherwith they usually gird themselves when they go abroad to shew that they are still mindful of their mortality Ah friends a constant minding of your mortality would contribute very much towards the making of you holy He that daily looks upon death will be daily a looking after holiness the oftener any man looks into the grave the oftener that man will be looking up to heaven and a begging that God would make him holy even as he is holy But Sixthly and lastly Take heed of settling your selves under a leud and scandalous Ministry or of having any inwardness with
are none that will be so tender of your salvation as these nor none that will labour so much for your conversion as these nor none that will so spend themselves to prevent your damnation as these 2 Cor. 12.15 Oh Sirs upon tryall you will finde that there are none so able to counsel you nor none so faithfull to reprove you nor none so ready to help you nor none so compassionate to simpathize with you nor none so strong to support you nor none so advantaged to convert you as those that are holy and why then will you not labour to be one of this society Oh Sirs of all fellowships the fellowship of Saints is the most noble the most honorable the most pleasant the most amiable the most desireable the most profitable and the most commendable fellowship and why then will you still live strangers yea enemies to this fellowâ—hip Ah Sirs holy men will still be awakening and alarming of your drowsie spirits they will be still a knocking at the doore of your hearts and asking of you whether it be good going to hell they will still be enquiring of you what provision you have made for another world and how all things stands within they will still be jogging at your elbowes that you may not dye in your sins they will still be whispering in your eare that your souls may live for ever The Jewes have a Proverb That two dry sticks put to a greene one will kindle it Oh there is nothing in all the world that contributes so much to the kindling to the firing and to the inflaming of mens hearts after holiness as the society of those that are holy Algerius an Italian Martyr had rather be in prison with Cato then to live with Caesar in the Senate-house Oh it is ten thousand times better to live with those that are holy though in a dark prison then to live amongst those that are unholy though in a Royal Palace Vrbanus Regius Adam in vita Regii p. 78. having one dayes converse with Luther tells us that it was one of the sweetest dayes that ever he had in all his life Oh sinners did you but experience for one day the sweete and happinesse of the communion of Saints you would then cry out Oh there is no society to the society of Gods holy ones And therefore as ever you would be holy let holy men have more heart-roome and house-roome with you But Fifthly If ever you would be holy then dwell much upon those solemn Vowes and Covenants that you have formerly made in the dayes of your distress Ah how often have you in the dayes of your calamity and misery and in the dayes when sicknesses and weaknesses did hang upon you and when the terrours of death were upon you how frequently in those dayes did you solemnly vow and promise that by the strength and assistance of the Lord you would break off your sins by repentance and that you would make it your greatest care and your greatest business and worke in this world to minde holiness and to press after holiness and to give your souls no rest till you had experienced the power excellency and sweetness of holiness As David by an oath bound himselfe to keep Gods righteous judgements Psal 119.106 I have sworne and I will performe it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments a religious vow is nothing else but a solemn promise or oath whereby a man engages himselfe to the great God that he will decline such wayes means and methods as lead to wickedness and that he will set in good earnest upon the practice of all the wayes and means of holiness by the strength and assistance of divine grace so you have by many vowes and promises engaged your selves to cast off the workes of darkness Rom. 13.12 and to put on the Armour of light sutable to the Apostles exhortation And as the people in Nehemiah's time did enter into a curse and an oath to walk in Gods Law and to observe and doe all his Commandements Neh. 10.29 So you have in the times of your outward and inward distresses vowed to the Lord that you would observe all his Statutes and walke in all his holy wayes and doe all his righteous Commandements Job 31.1 2. Job once made a covenant with his eyes that he would not lustfully look upon a maid but how often have you made a covenant with your thoughts that you would not thinke of vanity and with your eyes that you would not behold vanity and with your eares that you would not heare vanity and with your tongues that you would not speak vanity and with your hearts that you would not contrive vanity and with your hands that you would not act vanity now your vowes and your covenants are upon you Prov. 2.17 oh that you would not with the strange woman in the Proverbs forget the covenant of your God oh 't is better ten thousand times not to vow Eccl. 5.5 then to vow and not to pay God can take no pleasure in such as are off and on with him nor in such who are forward to vow but make no conscience to pay their vowes these are fools in folio and therefore God cannot but detest them and turne his back upon them If good Jacob who is called the father of vowes was so backward to pay his vowes that God was forced not only to round him in the eare againe and againe with a goe up to Bethel and there build me a Chappel but also severcly to punish his delayes both in the rape of his daughter and in the cruelty of his sons c. Gen. 35. Ah how severely then may God deale with such who doe not only delay the paying of their vowes but who live also in the daily breach of their vowes Most men have need of that counsell which the Bishop of Colen gave Sigismund the Emperour that ask't him what he should doe to be happy Live said he as you promised and vowed to doe when you were last sick of the Stone and Gout Ah that all men would make more conscience of living out and of living up to the covenants vowes and promises that they have made to God in the dayes when the hand of the Lord has gone out many wayes against them and when terrours of conscience have been strong upon them O what repentance O what reformation O what amendment have they promised in those dayes and yet no sooner have these outward and inward stormes been over but they have been as vaine and loose and base as ever In the time of the great Sweat in King Edwards dayes as long as the heate of the plague lasted O how did every one cry out peccavi peccavi I have sinned I have sinned mercy Lord O mercy mercy good Lord. Then Lords and Ladies and people of all sorts cryed out to the Ministers for the Lords sake Sirs tell us what shall we doe to avoyd
nihil a great nothing and who then would spend an houres time to secure it neare and deare relations cannot for the delight of Ezekiels eyes is taken away with a stroake Ezek. 24.16 Job 1.10 and all Jobs children are snatcht away in a day all our nearest and dearest relations are like a Nose-gay which the oftner we smell to it the sooner it withers But now holiness may be made sure witness the spirits of just men made perfect in heaven Heb. 12.23 and witness the many thousands of Christians this day in the world who doe experience the principles of holiness in their hearts and who doe evidence the power of holiness in their lives O Sirs if the serious consideration of the preciousness and worth of your souls will not draw you out to study holiness to love holiness to prize holiness and to press after holiness what will O Sirs 't is only holiness that is the happiness of the soul the safety and security of the soul the prosperity and felicity of the soul and the lustre and glory of the soul and therefore why should you not labour as for life after this inestimable Jewel holiness O let the remembrance of the preciousness of your souls be an effectuall means to draw you to heare that you may be holy and to pray that you may be holy and to reade that you may be holy and to mourne that you may be holy and to sigh and groane after holiness as after that which is the souls only happiness O Sirs there is nothing below heaven so precious and noble as your souls and therefore doe not play the Courtier with your souls now the Courtier do's all things late he rises late and dines late and sups late and repents late O doe not poyson your precious souls by gross enormities O doe not starve your souls by the omission of religious duties O doe not murther and damne your souls by turning your backs upon holy Ordinances I have read of a Woman who when her house was on fire so minded the saving of her goods that she forgot her only childe and left it burning in the fire at last being minded of it she cryes out Oh my childe oh my poore childe but all too late all too late so there are many men now so mad upon the world and so bewitcht with the world that they never mind they never regard their poor souls till they come to fall under everlasting burnings and then they cry out O our souls O our poor souls O that we had been wise for our souls O that we had got holiness for our souls O that we had made sure worke for our souls but all too late all too late the Lord make you wise to prevent soul-burnings at last If he be rather a monster then a man that feasts his slave but starves his wife what shall we say of those that pamper their bodies but starve their souls and that have thred-bare souls under silke and sattin Cloaths and that please themselves with deformed souls under beautifull faces surely it had been good for these that they had never been born I have read of a Scythian Captain who having for a draught of water yeelded up the City cryed out Quid perdidi quid prodidi What have I lost what have I betrayed So all unholy persons will at last cry out we have betrayed our immortall souls we have lost a precious Father we have lost a deare Redeemer we have lost the company of glorious Angels we have lost the society of the spirits of just men made perfect and we have lost all the pleasures and joyes and delights that be at the right hand of the most High We have lost these we have lost all these and we have lost them for ever and ever surely there is no hell to this hell For a close of this direction remember this that as the soul is the life and excellency of the body so holiness is the life and excellency of the soul and as the body without the soul is dead so the soul without holiness is dead This my Son was dead and is alive if you get holiness into your souls your souls shall live for ever but if you die without holiness your souls shall die for ever and ever I have read that there was a time when the Romans did weare Jewels on their shooes oh that in these dayes most men did not doe worse oh that they did not trample under feete that matchless Jewel their precisouls But Seventhly If ever you would be holy then set in good earnest upon reading of the holy Scripture many a man has been made holy by reading of the holy Word Luther com in Gen. cap. 19. The Bible is the book of books 't is the onely book all other books in the world are but waste paper to it Augustin crys out away with our writings that room may be made for the book of God notwithstanding the greatness and multiplicity of the affairs of Princes yet they were diligently to read the word Deut. 17.19 And it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to do them God looks that the greatest Princes on earth should make use of this Library Though David was a great Prince and had a multitude of weighty businesses upon his hand yet he was so much in reading meditating on the word that he made it his Counsellors the word was Davids Learned Counsel Psal 119.24 to which he reforted for counsel advice and comfort in all his necessities and miseries Alphonsus King of Arragon hath been highly extolled for reading the Scriptures fourteen times over with glosses and expositions notwithstanding his great publike employments And Alphonsus King of Naples read over the Bible forty times notwithstanding many great affairs were upon his hand Theodosius the Emperor and Constantine the Great were much taken up in reading of the Scriptures So Queen Elizabeth when she passed in triumph through the streets of London after her Coronation and had the Bible presented to her at the little Conduit in Cheap-side she received the same with both her hands and kissing it Speeds Hist laid it to her breasts saying That the same had ever been her chiefest delight and should be the rule whereby she meant to frame her Government And 't is very observable that the Eunuch was reading the Scripture when Philip was commanded Acts 8.26.40 by Commission from the Holy Ghost to joyn himself to his Chariot and to instruct him in the knowledge of Christ which proved his conversion and salvation And Junius was converted by the reading of that first of John In the beginning was the Word c. being amazed with the strange majesty of the stile Lib. 8. conf cap. 12. and the profound misteries therein contained And Augustine was
strangely converted by hearing a voice from heaven saying Tolle lege Tolle lege Take and read take and read and taking up the Bible the first passage of Scripture that he cast his eyes upon was that Rom. 13.13 14. Let us walk honestly as in the day not in gluttony and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof and no sooner had he read the verses but the work of conversion was finished and pious resolutions for a through reformation of life was settled in him The Gospel read is sometimes the power of God to salvation as well as the Gospel heard Rom. 1.16 Cyprian confesseth that he was converted from Idolatry and Negromancy by hearing the history of the Prophet Jonas read and expounded by Cecilius whom therefore he calleth the father of his new life And Luther confesseth that he was converted by reading I have read of a scandalous Minister that was struck at the heart and converted in reading that Rom. 2.21 22. Thou therefore which teachest another teachest thou not thy self thou that preachest a man should not steal doest thou steal Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery doest thou commit adultery thou that abhorrest Idols doest thou commit sacriledge There is a Schollar now alive who being perswaded by an honest poor man to leave reading of Poetry and to fall upon reading of the Bible did so and before he had read out Genesis his heart was changed and he was converted O sirs as you tender your conversion your salvation make more conscience of reading the Scripture then ever you have done be often in wheting of these Scriptures upon your hearts Deut. 6.6 7 8 9. ch 31.11 12. Jer. 36.6 7. John 5.39 In these Scriptures God requires all sorts of people both men women children and strangers both learned and unlearned to read the Scriptures and to search after the heavenly treasures that are laid up in them as men search for Gold and silver in the Oar. And Paul charges Timothy that he gives attendance to reading And blessed is he saith John 1 Tim. 4.13 Rev. 1.3 that heareth and readeth the words of this Book Yea Christ himself hath highly honored reading with his own example for coming to Nazareth as his custom was he stood up to read the Scriptures Luk. 4.16.21 and the Bereans for reading and searching of the Scriptures are stiled more noble then the Jews of Thessalonica or as the Greek has it Acts 17.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were better born and bred they were better Gentlemen they were of a more noble and ingenious disposition though they did belong to the Country Town of Barea then the Thessalonians were who dwelt in the rich and stately City of Thessalonica sometimes there is more true nobility and ingenuity under a Russet coat then there is under a Sattin suit The Holy Ghost gives a very large Encomium high commendation of the Scriptures in that 2 Tim. 3.15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus 'T is observable that in these words you have not simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy Scriptures but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Scriptures the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is very emphatical and 't is used by the Holy Ghost to distinguish these sacred writings from all prophane writings and to note the eminency and excellency of the holy Scriptures above all other mens writings whatâ—oever Now the Scriptures have this adjunct this Epithet Holy given them in five respects 1. In respect of their Author and original viz. a Holy God 2. They are holy in respect of the Pen-men who were holy men of God 2 Pet. 1.21 3. They are holy in respect of their matter they treat of the holy things of God a vein of holiness runs through every line of Scripture the Scripture calls for holy hearts and holy lives it calls for holy principles and holy practises holy words and holy works holy affections and holy conversations 1 Pet. 1.15 4. They are holy in respect of their effects and operations they are a means to effect and work holiness and they are a means to compleat and perfect holiness Joh. 17.17 The word is not onely a pure word but also a purifying word 't is not only a clean word but also a cleansing word Psal 19.8 9. 5. They are called holy by way of distinction and in opposition not onely to all humane and prophane writings but also to the writings of the best and choicest men that ever wrote for they have had their failings weaknesses and infirmities and therefore must have their many grains of allowance but the holy Scripture is most perfect and compleat Now sirs if ever you would be holy it stands you upon to make more conscience of reading the holy Scriptures then ever yet you have done many a man has been made holy by reading the holy Scriptures and why maist not thou also be made holy by reading of the same holy word Certainly all the Angels in heaven and all the men on earth can't tell to the contrary but that thou mayest be made holy even by reading of the holy word the Holy Ghost is a free Agent and he can as well work holiness in thy heart by reading as by hearing and therefore set thy self about this noble and necessary work Ah friends the Scriptures are Gods Epistle they are Gods love-letter to the sons of men and why then will you not read them Count Anhalt that princely preacher was wont to say that the Scriptures were Christs swadling bands the child Jesus being to be found almost in every page in every verse and in every line Oh who would not therefore be often in looking upon and in handling of these swadling bands O sirs there are no histories that are comparable to the histories of the Scripture First For Antiquity Moses is found more antient then all those whom the Grecians make most ancient as Homer Hesiod and Jupiter himself whom the Greeks have seated in the top of their divinity Secondly For rarity Thirdly For brevity here you have much wrapt up in a little room heâ— you have Homers Iliads compriz'd in a Nut-shell Fourthly For perspicuity the foundations of Religion and happiness are so plain and clear that every one may run and read them 'T was a true saying of Augustin Inclinavis Deus Scripturas ad infantium lactentium capacitatem That God hath bowed down the Scriptures to the capacities even of Babes and Sucklings Fifthly For harmony though there may seem to be a contrariety between Scripture and Scripture yet there is a blessed harmony between all the parts of Scripture the contrariety is seeming not real As when a man is drawing water out of a well with two
vessels of a different mettal the water at the first seemeth to be of a different colour but when he draweth up the vessels nearer to him the diversity of colours vanish and the water appeareth to be of one and the same colour and when he tasteth them they have one and the same relish So though at first sight there may seem to be some contradictions in the Scriptures yet when we look more nearly and narrowly into them and compare one place with another we shall finde no contrariety no repugnancy in them at all but a perfect harmony and a full and sweet consent and agreement between one place and another between text and text Scripture and Scripture Sixthly For verity the Scriptures are most sure and certain heaven and earth shall pass away before one jot or tittle of the Scripture shall pass unfulfilled Seventhly For variety there are no varieties to those that are to be found in Scripture as in Noahs Ark all sorts of creatures were to be found so in this heavenly Ark the Scriptures all varieties are to be found here you may finde Physick for every disease and Balm for every wound and a plaister for every sore Here the Lamb may wade and here the Elephant may swim here is milk for Babes and here is meat for strong men here is comfort for the afflicted and succour for the tempted and support for the distressed and ease for the wearied here is a staff to support the feeble and a sword to defend the mighty That which a Papist reports lyingly of their Sacraments of the Mass viz. That there are as many misteries in it as there are drops in the sea dust on the earth Angels in heaven Stars in the sky Atoms in the Sun-beams or sands on the Sea shore c. may be truly asserted of the holy Scriptures there are many thousand thousand varieties in this garden of Paradise the Scripture Eighthly For fulness the Scriptures are full of light and full of life and full of love they are full of righteousness and full of holiness and full of all goodness 'T was a weighty saying of Tertullian Adoro plenitudinem scripturarum I adore the fulness of the Scripture Many men talk much of the Philosophers Stone that it turns Copper into Gold and of Cornucopia that it had all things necessary for food in it and of the Herb Panaces that it was good for all diseases and of the Drugg Catholicon that it is instead of all purges and of Vulcans armor that it was full proof against all thrusts and blows but that which they vainly attribute to these things for bodily good may safely and honorably be attributed to the blessed Scriptures in a spiritual manner the Scriptures turns hearts of Copper into hearts of Gold 't is a Paradise that is full of the Trees of life Rev. 22.2 and these trees of life are both for food Physick here is all manner of fruit to feed you fill you to delight you and satisfie you and the very leaves of these Trees are singular medicines to heal you and cure you the Scripture prescribes the choicest druggs to purge you viz. Repentance and the blood of Christ and 't is the Scripture that furnishes you with the best armor of proof against all principalities and powers and against all spiritual wickednesses in high places Eph. 6.11.18 Oh how should the consideration of all these things work you to be much in reading of the holy Scriptures if you will but make trial you should be sure to finde in them stories more true more various more pleasant more profitable and more comfortable then any you will find in all ancient or modern writers Ah friends if you would but in good earnest set upon reading of the holy Scriptures you may finde in them so many happinesses as cannot be numbred and so great happinesses as cannot be measured and so copious happinesses as cannot be defined and such precious happinesses as cannot be valued and if all this woâ—â—t draw you to read the holy Scriptures conscientiously and frequently I know not what will It 's said of Mary that she spent the third part of her time in reading of the word and Caecilia a Roman Maiden of noble parentage carried always about her the New Testament and spent much time in reading it Alfredus once King of England compiled Psalms and prayers into one book and called it a Manuel which he always carried about him and spent much time in the perusal of it Augustin Vide Pos in vita Aug. caused Davids penitential Psalms to be drawn upon the walls of his Chamber that he might read them as he lay in his bed he read and wep't and wept and read Well if all this will not prevail with you to be much in reading of the Scriptures consider that Agesilaus an excellent King of Sparta would never go to bed nor rise up before he had looked into Homer whom he called Amasium suum his sweet heart but what was Homers books to Gods Book which is the book of books as Charles the great did signifie when he crowned it with his own crown And Scipio Africanus was much commended Plutarch Moral for that he usually had in his hands the books of Xenophon But Oh how much more commendable will it be for you to have always in your hands the book of God Alphonsus had always in his bosom the commentaries of Caesar and he was so much delighted with the history of Titus Livius that he once commanded certain Musitians that were very skilful in that Art to depart his presence saying he could read a more pleasant story out of Livius Alas what are Livius his stories to the blessed stories that be in the Bible Oh sirs if Lipsius when he did but read Seneca thought that he was even on the top of Olympus above mortality and humane things And if Julius Scaliger thought twelve verses in Lucan better then the German Empire O then of what infinite worth and value is the blessed Scripture shall Heathens take such pleasure in reading of the Works of Heathens and shall not Christians take as much pleasure in reading of the holy Scriptures wherein there is so much of the Spirit hand and heart of God Shall they set so high a price upon the books of Heathens and shall we so slight and undervalue the books of God as not to thinke it worth a opening once a day verily I am afraid I am afraid that there are some among us that hardly open their Bibles once a weeke and others that hardly open their Bibles once a moneth and not a few that hardly open their Bibles once a quarter c. Certainly as the rustiness of some mens gold Jam. 5.1 2 3. will be a witness against them in the great day of the Lord so the mustiness of some mens Bibles will be a witness against them in that great day Quest But is it not lawfull
be thou clean his prayer was short and sweet and his answer was sudden and gracious Eighthly Tell him that thou art unwilling to be miserable for ever tell him that thou canst not bare the thoughts of an eternall separation from him and yet this must be thy portion except he will glorifie the riches of his grace in bestowing of that pearle of price holiness upon thee oh tell him that thy want of holiness is now thy greatest hell tell him that thou art now fully resolved to give him no rest till he has changed thy heart and made thee in some measure to be what he would have thee to be c. It is observable amongst the worst of men the Turks yea amongst the worst of Turks the Moores that by their Law it is a just exception against any witness that he hath not prayed six times every natural day it being a usual custome with them to pray for day before the day brake and when 't is day they give thanks for day light and at noone they give thanks to God that halfe the day is past and then at last they pray that they may have a good night after their day Ah sinners sinners shall not these Turks rise up one day in Judgement against you that thinke not holiness worth a praying for Object But the prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord Pro. 15.8 Chap. 28.9 and he casts their sacrifices as dung in their faces Isa 1.11 16. Ch. 58.1 7. their very prayers are sinfull and therefore they were better neglect prayer till God shall worke graciously and savingly upon them then to pray and so to sin as often as they pray c. To this I answer First The prayers of the wicked may be materially good when they are not formally good yea when they are Theologically evil 2 Chron. 25.2 Amaziah did that which was perfect in the sight of the Lord as to the matter but not with a perfect or sincere heart he failed not in the matter but in the manner he did not doe that good he did from principles of faith love c. nor to a right end divine glory many unsanctified persons may have the gift of prayer that have not the spirit of prayer Psal 78.36 37. Pro. 1.27 28. Isa 58.1 2 3 4. nor the grace of prayer Math. 7.21 Ch. 23.14 Now certainly where God gives such a gift he requires the use of it the gift of prayer is from the Spirit as well as the grace of prayer and who can tell but that upon the use of the gift of prayer the Spirit may give the grace of prayer however 't is dangerous to neglect a gift the sloathfull servant was not cast into utter darkness for rioting out his Talent but for not improving of his Talent Math. 25.30 That the prayers of a wicked man are not formally good must be granted yea that they are abominable and ineffectual cannot be denied they are like the precious stone Diacletes which though it hath many excellent Soveraignties in it yet it looseth them all if it be put in a dead mans mouth so prayer though it hath many vertues and excellencies in it yet it looseth them all when 't is performed by a man that is spiritually dead that is dead God-wards and Christ-wards and heaven-wards and holiness-wards but if you consider the matter of a wicked mans prayers so they may be good yea so good as that they may prevaile with a good God for much temporal good as I shall shew you before I close up all my answers to this objection But Secondly 'T is a less sin for an unholy person to doe a religious dutie then 't is to omit it now of two sins whereupon not God but a mans selfe hath inevitably put him to commit one of them he must chuse the least he must chuse rather to sin in the manner in not doing of it so well as he should then to faile in the matter and so quite neglect the duty it selfe for this is most certain when God commands a duty absolutely to be done it is a greater sin not to doe it at all then to doe it amiss and the reason is evident because our disobedience is totall in not doing at all and but only partial in doing it otherwise then we ought As for a man wilfully and peremptorily to refuse to heare the word is a greater and a fouler fault then to heare it with a forgetful or a disobedient heart there being more hope of the latter then of the former for some that have come to catch have been caught by the word John 7.46 And therefore come saith Latimer to the word though thou comest to sleepe it may be God may take thee napping Joh. Sleidani Comment When Mr Henry Sulphen was preacher at Breme several Roman Catholiques sent their Chaplains to trap him in his words but the power of God was so wonderfully seen in his preaching that the greatest part of them that came to ensnare him were converted by him 'T is good to come to the word though a man comes with an ill intent to come though he should come with a purpose to catch for in so coming he may be catch'd as Augustine was by Ambrose without doubt there is no disobedience to that which is total partial disobedience is no disobedience to that which is total That wife that totally disobeys her husband and that child that totally disobeys the father and that servant that totally disobeys his Master is much more to blame and doe much more provoke then those that are onely partiall in their disobedience and so 't is between God and sinners c. Thirdly If there were any strength in this objection it would lye as strong against a wicked man's civil actions as it do's against his religious actions Prov. 21.4 The plowings of the wicked is sin not only the prayers of the wicked but also the plowings of the wicked are sin not only the spiritual but also the natural and civil actions of a wicked man are sin and therefore according to their arguing a wicked man must not exercise himselfe in his calling in his plowing and sowing c. because that his civil actions are sinfull as well as his religious and 't is as impossible for him to please God in the one as 't is to please him in the other but surely all men that are in their wits will either sigh or laugh at such kinde of reasonings But Fourthly This objection lyes as strong against wicked mens natural actions viz. their eating drinking and sleeping c. as it do's against their praying 1 Cor. 10.31 when a wicked man eats he is to eate to divine glory and when he drinks he is to drinke to divine glory and when he recreates himselfe he is to recreate himselfe to divine glory and when he sleeps he is to sleep to divine glory in all these natural and common actions he is
man unserviceable in his generation a covetous man is like a Swine that is good for nothing whilst he lives the Horse is good to bare and carry the Ox is good to draw the Sheep is good for cloth the Cow is good to give milk and the Dogg is good to keep the house but the Hogg is good for nothing whilst he lives so a covetous man is neither good for Church nor State he is no wayes serviceable in his generation onely when he is dead that Scripture often proves true viz. That the riches of a sinner are laid up for the just Job 27. By all which you may see the greatness of this sin of covetousness that is so closely charged upon them But Secondly He grew worse under the afflicting hand of God I was wroth and smote him and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart They were like pevish froward stubborn children that grow more cross crooked and perverse under all the chastenings of their Father and this was no small aggravation of their sin Lib. de superstitione that they grew worse under the Rod. Plutarch writes that 't is the quality of Tygres that if the Drums or Tabouâ—s sound about them they will grow mad and rend and tear their own flesh in pieces and so 't was with these sinners in the text Oh how did they fret and fume and tear and take on when they were under the rebukes of God But Thirdly He persever'd and went on against all gain-sayings I have seen his ways that is I have seen his obstinacy and incorrigibility in sin Ah poor creature says God he sees not his present misery and slavery he takes no notice of his own folly and vanity of his own frowardness and pevishness he scorns to bend or bow under my mighty hand he is resolved to stand it out to the death he will persist on in his own wayes though he eternally perishes though hell stands at the end of his ways yet on he will Well what is the issue of all this God saith I have seen his ways and will heal him 't is not I have seen his ways and will curse him no but I have seen his ways and will heal him 't is not I have seen his ways and will never have any more to do with him no but I have seen his ways and will heal him 't is not I have seen his ways and will damn him no but I have seen his ways and will heal him Oh the freeness Oh the unsearchableness Oh the riches of Gods grace And thus you see that the precious promises last cited are promises that are made over to sinners as sinners And this is further evident in that Isa 43.22 23 24 25. For sins of omission and sins of commission what can be more charged upon a sinful people then here is charged upon them they were not onely negligent of his worship and service but they were also weary of his worship and service and counted it rather a burden then a benefit a toyl then a pleasure in all their outward observances they did but court the Lord they did but complement with God for whilst they were in his service their hearts were secretly weary of his service and by their sinful commissions Oh how did they grieve vex oppress and burden the Holy one of Israel and yet in vers 25. God does passionately and emphatically proclaim their free pardon I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins The Metaphor is taken from mens blotting out of debts out of their debt-book now when a debt is blotted out of the debt-book 't is never charged upon the debtor more 't is never regarded nor remembered more so when God proclaimes the sinners pardon when he forgives him his transgressions he blots he rases he crosses his books and cancels all bonds so as that he will never object his sins against him and never charge his sins upon him but being once forgiven they shall be for ever forgotten they shall never come into his remembrance more And all this he will do for his name sake and for the praise and glory of his own Free-grace So in Ezek. 36.26 27 28. and 37. compared Now by all these Scriptures 't is most plain and evident that the precious promises of special grace and mercy are made over to sinners as sinners and if so then doubtless sinners may lawfully put these promises into suit Oh sirs don't you know that desire is the soul of prayer and who but such as are witless and graceless will say that a wicked man may not desire the accomplishment of Gods gracious promises that will say an unregeneraâ—e man may not desire to be pardoned sanctified and renewed and that the Lord would bestow his spirit upon him and that by the finger of the same spirit the Law of the Lord may be written in his heart that he may observe his Statutes and do them these are things that God has engaged himself to do for poor sinners and therefore certainly sinners may put God in mind of his engagements But Sixthly and lastly God would never have encouraged and rewarded with temporal favors wicked and unregenerate mens religious duties and services as he has done if he would not have had them exercise themselves in Religious duties now that he has thus encouraged and rewarded wicked and unregenerate men is evident in these instances 1 Kings 21.19 ult Jonah 3.4 ult 2 Chron. 26.5 Vzziah sought God in the days of Zechariah and when he sought the Lord God made him to prosper had he been really godly had he had the root of the matter in him had he been a sincere a throughout Christian he would have sought the Lord all his days he would have held on and held out in well-doing but being carnal hypocritical and unregenerate his Religion dies with Zechariah Another instance you have of this among the sailors that usually are the worst of sinners Psal 107.23 30. And another you have in that known case of Jehu from all which we may well conclude that God expects and looks that wicked men that unregenerate men should be found in the exercise of Religious duties It is an excellent observation of Calvin upon Gods rewarding the Rechabites obedience Jer. 35.19 God saith he oft recompenceth the shadows and seeming appearances of vertue to shew that complacency he takes in the ample rewards he hath reserved for true and sincere piety To conclude It was as easie for Boaz to have given Ruth as much corn at once as would have yielded her an Ephah of Barly so have sent her home without any more ado but he would not being resolved that she should use her endeavor to gather and glean it and beat it out too when she had gleaned it so 't is as easie a thing for God to give his Christ to give his Spirit and to give his Grace immediately
to poor sinners without their using of the means but he won't being resolved that they shall use the means of hearing reading praying and conference c. and when they have done leave the issue of all their labors and endeavors to his good Will and pleasure I have taken the more pains fully and clearly to answer this objection that it may never more have a resurrection in any of your souls Ninthly If ever you would be holy then when you have done all wait Oh hear and wait and wait and hear pray and wait and wait and pray read and wait and wait and read confer and wait and wait and confer watch and wait and wait and watch Oh sirs shall the husbandman wait for a good harvest Jam. 5.7 8. and the Merchant for good returns and the Watchman for the dawning of the day and the Patient for a happy cure and the poor Client for a day of hearing c and will not you wait for Christ and wait for the spirit and wait for pardon and wait for grace and wait for glory c Oh sinners sinners remember you are at the right doore and therefore wait Oh remember that whilst you are waiting for mercy God is preparing of mercy Oh remember that 't is mercy that you may wait for mercy devils and damned spirits can't wait for mercy wait they must but O 't is for more wrath anger and fiery indignation Oh remember your condition bespeaks waiting for you are poor halt lame blinde and miserable creatures Oh remember that mercy is sweetest when it comes after a patient waiting Deut. 32.13 He made him to suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock That is he made him to suck water that was as sweet as honey out of the rock out of the flinty rock Oh remember that a patient waiting for mercy is the onely way to greaten your mercy The longer said the Emperors son the Cooks are a preparing the meat the better the chear will be his meaning was the longer he staid for the Empire the greater it would be So the longer a soul waits for mercy the greater and the better it will be when it comes as you may see in that famous instance of the poor man that lay eight and thirty years at the Pool of Bethesda Joh. 5.2.16 Famous was the patience of Elijah's servant 1 King 18.8 who in obedience to his Masters command went seven several times up and down steep Carmel which could not be without danger and difficulty and all to bring news of nothing till his last journey which made a recompence for all the rest with the tydings of a cloud arising Oh so do but patiently wait upon the Lord and that grace that favour that mercy will come at last which will fully recompence you for all your waitings remember that the mercies of God are not styled the swift Isa 55.3 but the sure mercies of David mercy may be sure though it be not presently upon the wing flying towards us And the same Prophet saith the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward Isa 58.8 now this we know comes up last to secure and make good all the rest for where Grace leads the Front Glory at last will be in the Rere Oh do but patiently wait Heb. 10.37 and he that shall come will come and will not tarry not a year not a quarter not a month not a week not a day no not an hour beyond the prefixed time that he hath set of shewing mercy to poor sinners O how sad was it that Saul should lose his Kingdom for want of two or three hours patience but O how much more sad will it be if thou shouldst lose all the prayers that thou hast made and all the Sermons that thou hast heard and all the tears that thou hast shed and all other pains that thou hast taken and all for want of a little more patience yea how woful sad would it be if thou shouldst lose thy God and lose thy Christ and lose thy soul and lose an eternity of glory and all for want of a little patience to wait the Lords leisure O therefore resolve to hold on waiting to the death and if thou must perish to perish in a waiting way which if thou shouldst thou wouldst be the first that ever so perished O remember that if God should come and mercy come and pardon come and grace come when thy Sun is near setting when thy glass is almost out and when there is but a short step between thee and eternity it will infinitely recompence thee for all thy waiting and therefore wait still and to keep up thy spirits and to uphold thy soul in a waiting way O! that thou wouldest make these following promises thy daily food thy daily friends thy daily companions Psal 27.14 Waâ—t on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart wait I say on the Lord. Prov. 20.22 Wait on the Lord and he shall save thee Isa 30.18 And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of judgement Blessed are all they that wait for him Chap. 40. ult But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint Chap. 49.23 They shall not be ashamed that wait for me And Chap. 64.4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him Pro. 8.34 Blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at my gates waiting at the posts of my doors O how should these precious promises encourage your hearts to wait on the Lord O how should they lengthen and draw out your patience to the utmost But Tenthly and lastly Dwell much upon the memorable judgements of God that even in this life has faln upon unholy persons Remember Lots wife O! remember her sin and punishment that so fearing the one Luk. 17.32 you may learn to take heed of the other Isa 26.9 When thy judgements are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness that is they should learn righteousness for so the words may be read they should learn to fear thee and learn to turn unto thee and learn to forsake their sins and amend their lives When thy judgements thy memorable judgements are abroad in the world it highly concerns all the sons of men to look after holy dispositions holy affections and holy conversations that so it may go well with them in the day of the Lords wrath others sense the words thus When thy judgements are on the earth the inhabitants of the world that is sinners as well as Saints
have walked cross to God and cross to one another and God has walked as cross to them you have cross't the commands of God and the truths of God and the ways of God and the works of God and the designs of God and God has cros't you in your hopes desires prayers and endeavors and God gave you warning of this before hand by a Fish by a miracle to provide for the cross but you would not and therefore 't is that the cross lies so heavy upon you this day When Mr. Bradford was told that his chain was a buying and that he must be burnt he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said I thank God for it I have looked for this along time it comes not to me suddenly but as a thing waited for every day yea every hour in the day the Lord make me worthy thereof If upon Gods warning you will but prepare for sufferings you will never fear nor faint under sufferings yea then you will be able under the greatest persecutions to bare up bravely and with holy Bradford bless the Lord that has called you to so high an honor as to count you worthy to suffer for his name But Thirdly I answer that all the troubles afflictions and persecutions that do befall you for holiness sake shall never hurt you nor harm you they shall never prejudice you nor wrong you in your main and great concernments Exod. 3.2 The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a dry bush a bramble bush and therefore it was the more strange and miraculous that it was not consumed Deut. 4.24 Heb. 12.29 And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a Bush and he looked and behold the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed Here you have a bush a dry bush a bramble bush all on a light fire and yet not consumed this burning-bush was an excellent emblem of the Church in the fire of tribulation and persecution though the Church may seem to be all on fire by reason of afflictions and persecutions yet it shall be preserved it shall not be destroyed though God be a consuming fire yet he will never consume the bramble-bush the bush was on fire and yet the fire did not in the least hurt or harm the bush it did not one whit prejudice or wrong the bush So though the Church of God be on fire by the means of fiery trials yet these fiery trials shall never hurt nor harm the Church they shall never prejudice it nor wrong it Psal 105.12 13 14 15. when they were but a few men in number yea very few and strangers in it when they went from one Nation to another from one Kingdom to another people he suffered no man to do them wrong yea he reproved Kings for their sakes saying That is the King of Egypt and the King of Gerar. Gen. 12.17 Ch. 20.3 and Ch. 35.5 Zach. 2.8 Touch not mine anointed nor do my Prophets no harme God would not suffer his anointed ones his sanctified ones so much as to be touch't hurt or harmed by those who had malice enough in their hearts and power enough in their hands not onely to hurt them but even to destroy them Sanctified persons are sacred persons and they that touch them touch the Apple of Gods eye and whosoever shall be so bold to touch the Apple of Gods eye shall dearly smart for it 't was no small affliction to have no settled habitation to flye from place to place from Kingdom to Kingdom and from Nation to Nation was without all peradventure an afflicted condition doubtless many fears and frights many hazards and dangers did attend them when they considered that they were as Lillies among the thornes and as a few Sheep among a multitude of Wolves Deut. 7.1 In the Land of Canaan there were seven mighty Nations now for the people of God who were so few in number that they might easily and quickly be told to sojourn and wander among these As David laid a charge upon his souldiers 2 Sam. 18.5 That by no means they should hurt his son Absolom so God laid a prohibition upon the enemies and persecutors of his people that they should not touch them that they should not in in the least hurt or harm them could not but be very dangerous and perilous and yet such was the love of God to them and the care of God over them that he suffered no man whether he was high or low honorable or base rich or poor civil or prophane to hurt or harm them Dan. 3.25 27. And the King answered and said Lo I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt and the form of the fourth is like unto the Son of God And the Princes Governors and Captains and the Kings Councellors being gathered together saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power nor was an hair of their head singed neither were their coats changed nor the smell of fire had passed on them Though these holy men were cast into a furnace into a fiery furnace into the midst of a hot fiery furnace yet God will work a miracle yea a glorious miracle rather then the fire shall in the least hurt or harm them God gives a commission to the fire to burn those mighty men that made the fire and that cast his children into the fire and whom the King would have to be spared and saved and he lays a law of restraint upon the fire that it should not hurt nor harm them whom the King would have destroyed Those whom the King of kings will not have hurt shall not be hurt let Kings and Princes do their worst that fire that burnt their bonds had no power to burn no nor to touch their bodies God would not suffer the fire to singe a hair of their heads nor to change the colour of their coats nor to leave so much as an ill smell upon his people that those heathen Princes might see how tender he was of them and how willing he was to put forth his Almighty power rather then he would see them wronged or harmed So Chap. 6.21 22 23. Then said Daniel unto the King O King live for ever My God hath sent his Angels and hath shut the Lyons mouths that they have not hurt me forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me and also before thee O King have I done no hurt Then was the King exceeding glad for him and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the Den so Daniel was taken up out of the Den and no manner of hurt was found upon him because he believed in his God Holiness innocency and integrity will preserve a man even among Lyons Daniel preferred the worship of his God before his life he made no great reckoning of his life when it stood in competition with divine glory
and therefore rather then Daniel shall be hurt God will by a miracle preserve him he will stop the mouthes of the hungry Lyons and he will tame their rage and over-master their cruelty rather then a hair of Daniels head shall perish when Daniel was taken out of the Den there was no hurt no wound no sore no bruise found upon him Daniel was a harmless man and God keeps him from harms in the midst of harms Acts 18.9 10. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision be not afraid but speak and hold not thy peace For I am with thee and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee for I have much people in this City Paul met with many trials and troubles bonds and prisons oppositions and persecutions Acts 20.23 and yet none of all these hurt him but God miraculously preserved him even to old age All the troubles Phil. 9. afflictions and persecutions that attends holiness can never reach a Christians soul they can never diminish a Christians treasure they reach the shell not the kernel the Case not the Jewel the lumber not the goods the out-house not the Palace the ribbon in the hat not the gold in the purse the most fiery trials and persecutions can never deprive a Christian of the special presence of God nor of the light of his countenance Psal 23.4 2 Cor. 1.8 9 12. nor of the testimony of a good conscience nor of the joys of the spirit nor of the pardon of sin nor of fellowship with Christ nor of the exercise of grace nor of the hopes of glory and therefore certainly they can't hurt a Christian they can't wronge a Christian in his greatest and chiefest concernments O Christian let persecutors do their worst they can't reach thy soul thy God thy comfort thy crown thy Paradise c. and therefore let no man be kept off from pursuing after holiness because of afflictions or persecutions seeing none of these can reach a Christians great concernments When the Emperor Valens threatned to confiscate Basils goods and to torment him and to banish him or kill him Basil makes this noble reply He needs not fear confiscation of goods that hath nothing to loose nor banishment to whom heaven onely is a country nor torments when his body may be dash't with one blow nor death which is the onely way to set him at liberty the Emperor hearing of him thus undantedly to speak told him that he was mad to whom he replyed opte me in aeternum sic delirare I wish that I may be for ever thus mad Basil knew that no torments nor sufferings could hurt him or harm him and therefore he bravely triumphs over them They may kill me said Socrates of his enemies but they cannot hurt me So may a Saint say they may kill my body but they cannot hurt my soul they may take away my natural life but they cannot take away my spiritual life for that is hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 they may take away this and that outward comfort Heb. 11. but they cannot take away my Christ they may take away my costly ornaments but they cannot take away that Robe of righteousness that Christ has put upon me Isa 61.10 they may take away my earthly crown but they cannot take away that crown of righteousness which Christ the righteous Judge 2 Tim. 4.8 has laid up for all that love his appearing Methinks said one of the Martyrs I tread upon pearls when he trod upon hot burning coals Vincentius and I feel said he no more pain then if I lay in a bed of Doune and yet he lay in flames of fire I have read of Nero that he had a shirt made of a Salamanders skin so that if he walk't through the fire in it it would keep him from burning it would keep him from being hurt or harmed by the fire our Lord Jesus Christ is this Salamanders skin that will keep the Saints from burning yea from being hurt or harmed by the most fiery afflictions and persecutions that can befall them in this world But Fourthly I answer That the condition of persecutors of all conditions under heaven is the most sad and deplorable condition and this will appear by the consideration of these five things First By the prayers and enditements that the Saints have preferred against them in the highest court of Justice I mean in the Parliament of Heaven Psal 35.3 9. Psa 69.22 29. Neh. 4.3 4 5. turn to it Draw out the Spear and stop the way against them that persecute me say unto my soul I am thy salvation Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt Let them be as chaffe before the winde and let the Angel of the Lord chase them Let their way be dark and slippery or darkness and slipperiness and let the Angel of the Lord persecute them For without cause have they hid for me their net Both good and evil Angels are at Gods beck ready to execute vengeance upon his and his peoples enemies and persecutors and therefore the Text may be understood of both in a pit which without cause they have digged for my soule Let destruction come upon him ar unawares and let his net that he hath hid catch himselfe into that very destruction let him fall So in that 83 Psalme David sighs out his sad complaints against his persecutors from ver 2. to ver the 9th and from ver the 9. to ver the 18. he prayes against them turne to it 't is a text that is worthy of your most serious meditation Psal 119.84 How many are the dayes of thy servant when wilt thou execute judgement on them that persecute me Jer. 15.15 O Lord thou knowest remember me and visite me and revenge me of my persecutors take me not away in thy long suffering know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke Chap. 17.18 Let them be confounded that persecute me but let not me be confounded let them be dismayed but let not me be dismayed bring upon them the day of evill and destroy them with double destruction or break them with a double breach Lam. 3.61 ult Thou hast heard their reproach O Lord and all their imaginations against me The lips of those that rose up against me and their device against me all the day Behold their sitting down and their rising up I am their musick or I am their song Render unto them a recompence O Lord according to the work of their hands Give them sorrow of heart thy curse unto them Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord. 2 Tim. 4.14 Alexander the Copper-smith did me much evill the Lord reward him according to his works Thus you see how the hearts of the Saints have been drawn out against their persecutors Prayers are the Armes that
the Roman Emperour with his incestuous Herodias the suggester of that murder they were banished and fell into such misery and penury that they ended their wretched lives with much shame and misery Herod Agrippa was a great persecutor of the Saints Acts 12. Joseph Antiq. l. 19. ch 7. and he was eaten up of wormes In the third yeare of his Reigne as Josephus observes he went to Caesarea to keep certain Playes in the honor of Caesar the Gowne he was in as the same Author relates was a Gowne of silver wonderfully wrought and the beames of the Sun reflecting upon it made it so glister that it dazled the eyes of the beholders and when he had made an end of his starched Oration in this his bravery his flatterers extolled him as a God crying out 'T is the voice of a God Acts 12.21 22 23. Joseph Antiq lib. 18. ch 13. Thales Milesius the prime wise man of Greece being demanded what he had observed to be of most difficulty in the world Answered Tyrannum senem To see a Tyrant live to be an old man and not of a man whereupon he was presently smitten by the Angel of the Lord and so dyed with wormes that eate up his very intrailes the blow the Angel gave him was an inward blow and so not visible to others and his torments more and more increasing upon him the people put on sackcloth and made supplication for him but all in vaine for his paines and torments growing stronger and stronger every day upon him they seperated his wretched soule from his loathsome body within the compass of five dayes And 't is very probable that the prayers of the persecuted Church did helpe to speed this persecutor out of the world * Euseb Caiaphas the high Priest who gathered the Councel and suborned false witnesses against the Lord Christ was shortly after put out of his Office and one Jonathan substituted in his roome whereupon he killed himself †Euseb Hist li. 2. c. 7. Not long after Pontius Pilate had condemned our Lord Christ he lost his Deputiship and Caesars favour and being fallen into disgrace with the Roman Emperour and banished by him he fell into such misery that he hanged himselfe Nero that Monster of men who raised the first bloody persecution to pick a quarrel with the Christians set the City of Rome on fire and then charged it upon them under which pretence he exposes them to the fury of the people who cruelly tormented them as if they had been common burners and destroyers of Cities and the deadly enemies of mankinde yea Nero himself caused them to be apprehended and clad in wild Beasts skins and torne in pieces with Doggs others were crucified some he made Bonfires of to light him in his night-sports to be short such horrid cruelty he used towards them as caused many of their enemies to pitty them but God found out this wretched persecutor at last for being adjudged by the Senate an enemy to mankinde he was condemned to be whipt to death for the prevention whereof he cut his own throat Domitian the Author of the second persecution against the Christians was by the consent of his wife slaine by his own houshold servants with daggers in his privy chamber his body was buried without honour his memory cursed to posterity and his Armes and Ensignes were thrown downe and defaced Trajan raised the third persecution against the Church and the vengeance of God followed him for first he fell into a Palsie then lost the use of his senses afterwards he fell into a Dropsie and dyed in great anguish There was not one of those persecuting Emperours that carried on the Ten bloody persecutions against the Saints but came to miserable ends yea Histories tell us of three and forty persecuting Emperours who fell under the revenging hand of God and came to untimely ends Among the many thousand thousands of instances that might be given of the Judgements of God that have fallen upon the persecutors of the people of God in these latter dayes I shall only give you a few Faelix Earle of Wartenburge was a great persecutor of the Saints and swore that ere he dyed he would ride up to the spurs in the blood of the Lutherans but the very same night wherein he had thus sworne and vowed he was choaked with his own blood nothing would serve him but the blood of Gods people and God makes him drunk with his own blood Sir Thomas More once Lord Chancelour of England was a sworn enemy to the Gospel and persecuted the Saints with fire and faggot and amongst all his praises he reckons this the chiefest that he had been a persecutor of the Lutherans i. e. the Saints but what became of him he was first accused of Treason and then condemned and at last beheaded Judge Morgan was a great persecutor of the people of God but shortly after he had passed the sentence of condemnation upon that vertuous Lady the Lady Jane Grey he fell mad and in his mad raving fits he would continually cry out Take away the Lady Jane take away the Lady Jane from me and in that horror he ended his wretched life Drahomira after the death of her husband usurped the Government of Bohemia and was a cruell persecutor of the people of God but by a righteous hand of God it so fell out that on that very place where the Ministers bones lay unburied the earth opened of it self and swallowed her up alive with her Chariot and those that were in it which place is now to be seen before the Castle of Prague Acts and Mon. 1911. The Arch-Bishop of Toures was an earnest Sutor for the erection of a Court called Chamber Ardent for the condemning of the French Protestants to the fire but before he dyed he had fire enough for he was stricken with a disease called The Fire of God which began at his feete and so ascended upward which occasioned one member to be cut off after another and so he ended his miserable dayes Thomas Arundell Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was a grievous persecutor of the people of God and a great suspender and silencer of good Ministers he made use of his tongue braines and power to stop the mouthes and tye up the tongues of Gods faithfull Ministers but God in his righteous Judgement so struck him in his tongue that it swel'd so big that he could neither swallow nor speak for some dayes before his death and so he was starved choked and killed by this strange tumour of his tongue Mr. Groves Gleanings p. 155 156. I have read of one Mr. W. who was very busie in prosecuting an Indictment against his Minister at a Quarter Sessions for omitting the Cross in Baptisme and being a man in high favour with the Justices he made no question of prevailing at night according to his usual manner he falls to drinking till he was so extream drunk that he was faine
most despised hands 1 Cor. 1.21 25 27. as it is evident in this instance The Apostles did not fret and fume and storm and take on because these Brethren preacht the Lord Jesus without ordination to the work of the Ministry O no but they were glad and rejoyced in their bringing in of souls to Christ and they made it their work to exhort encourage and build up those that were brought in neither did they prohibit these Brethren from preaching because they had not Apostolical hands laid on them By these Lay-mens preaching Christ is revealed and multitudes are converted and truth is advanced and the Apostles are gladded Now by what hath been said it is most evident that persecuting times are truth-advancing times But Seventhly and lastly As persecuting times are truth-advancing times so persecuting times are a Christians rejoycing times A Christians heart is never so full of joy as it is when he is under sufferings Acts. 5.41 Acts 7.55 56. Chap. 16.25 Oh how my heart leapeth for joy said Mr. Philpot that I am so near the apprehension of eternal life Eph. 3.1 Chap. 4.1 2 Tim. 1.8 Phil. 1.9.23 And they departed from the presence of the Council rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name They counted it an honour to be dishonoured for Christ they took it as a grace to be disgraced for Jesus Stephen found the joyes of heaven in his heart as the stones came clattering about his ears So Paul and Sylas when they were in prison their hearts were so full of joy that they could not hold but at mid-night when others were a sleeping they must fall a singing out the praises of the most High they found more pleasure then pain more joy then sorrow more comfort then torment in their bonds the Rods with which they were whipt Col. 4.10 Rom. 16.7 Paul rattles his chaine which he bears for the Gospels sake and was as proud of it as a woman of her ornaments saith Chrysostom were as Rods made up all of Rosemary branches divine consolations rise so high in their souls that their prison was turn'd into a Pallace yea into a Paradise Paul was a man that took a great deale of pleasure in his sufferings for Christ 2 Cor. 12.10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake He did not only bare his sufferings patiently but chearfully also he often sings it our I Paul a prisoner as you may see by comparing the Scriptures in the margent together of Jesus Christ not I Paul an Apostle nor I Paul wrapt up in the third heaven nor I Paul that have more gifts parts and learning then others but I Paul a prisoner to shew how much he rejoyced in his bonds and sufferings for Christ Chrysostom did not hold Paul so happy for his rapture into Paradise as he did for his imprisonment for Christ So Rom. 5.3 4. And not only so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation works patience and patience experience and experience hope Old Souldiers could not glory and joy more in their marks and scars of honour then these Saints did in their tribulations and persecutions for Christs sake Rabbi Simeon Ben Jochai liv'd twelve years in a dark Dungeon for feare of the Roman persecution in the Reigne of Trajane the Emperour and he call'd his dark Dungeon Zohar that is splendor because God had turn'd his darkness into light and made up the want of the light of the Sun by the light of his countenance and by the shinings of the Sun of righteousness upon his soul Eusebius tells us of Algerius the Italian martyr how that writing to his friend from a stinking Dungeon he dates his Letter from my delicate Orchard Acts and Mon. fol. 857. And Master Glover the Martyr wept for joy of his imprisonment William Hunters Mother that suffered under Bonner told him that she was glad that ever she was so happy as to beare such a childe as could finde in his heart to die for Christs sake such were his divine consolations that they turn'd his Dungeon into a pleasant Orchard I with my Fellowes saith Mr. Philpot were carried to the Cole-house where we doe rouze together in the straw as chearfully we thank God as others doe in their beds of downe Mr. Bradford put off his Cap and thanked the Lord when his Keepers wife brought him word that he was to be burnt the next day And Mr. Taylor fetcht a frisk when he was come neare to the place where he was to suffer Henry and John two Augustin Monks being the first that were burnt in Germany and Mr. Rogers the first that was burnt in Queen Maries dayes did all sing in the flames If men did but know by experience the sweet that is in suffering for Christ they would desire with Chrysostom if it were put to their choice rather to be Paul a prisoner of Jesus Christ then Paul wrapt up in the third heaven One of the holy Women that suffered Martyrdom in this Nation rejoyced that she might have her foot in the same hole of the Stocks in which Mr. Philpots had been before And Luther Luther Fire sword death prison famine are all pleasures they are all delightfull to me saith Basil Modestus Lieutenant to Julian the Emperour told him that when the Christians suffered they did but deride them and the torments said he with which Christians are tormented are more terrible to the tormentors then they are to the tormented râ—ports of that famous Martyr Saint Agatha that as she went to prisons and tortures she said she went to Banquets and Nuptials Vincentius laughing at his Tormentors said that death and tortures were to Christians Jocularia ludicra matters of sport and pastime and he joyed and gloried when he went upon hot burning Coales as if he had trod upon Roses Philip Lansgrave of Hesse being a long time prisoner under Charles the fifth 't was demanded what upheld him all that time and he answered that he felt the divine consolations of the Martyrs Basil in his Oration for Barlaam that famous Martyr saith that he delighted in the close prison as in a pleasant green meddow and he took pleasure in the severall inventions of tortures as in severall sweet flowers William Tims Martyr in a Letter to a friend of his a little before his death writeth thus Now I take my leave of you till we meet in heaven and hie you after I have tarried a great while for you and seeing you are so long in making ready I will tarry no longer for you you shall finde me merrily singing Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabboth at my journeys end c. And when they kindled the fire at the feete of James Bainkam me-thinks said he you strew roses before me And Hawkes the Martyr lifted up his hands above his head and clapt them together when he was in the fire as
if he had been riding in state and triumph And holy Mr. Saunders speaking of his consolations in his sufferings saith that he found a wonderfull sweet refreshment flow from his heart unto all the members of his body and from all the parts of his body to his heart againe By all these instances 't is most evident that persecuting times are the Saints rejoycing times God reserves the best and strongest wine of consolation to a day of persecution sutable to that 2 Cor. 1.3 4 5. Blessed be God even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of mercy and the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ Oh the sweet looks the sweet words the sweet hints the sweet in-comes the sweet joggings the sweet imbraces the sweet influences the sweet discoveries the sweet love-letters the sweet love-tokens and the sweet comforts that Christians experience in their sufferings for Christ in all their afflictions and persecutions they may truly say we have sweet-meats to eate and waters of life to drinke and heavenly honey-combes to suck that the world knows not of and indeed when should the Torch be lighted but in a dark night and when should the fire be made but when the weather is cold and when should the cordiall be given but when the patient is weak and when should the God of comfort the God of all kinds of comfort and the God of all degrees of comfort comfort his people but under their afflictions and persecutions for then comfort is most proper necessary seasonable and sutable and then God will be sure to poure in of the oyle of joy into their hearts And thus you see the great and glorious advantages that will redowne to the people of God by all their afflictions and persecutions But Eighthly I answer That to suffer affliction and persecution for holiness sake is the greatest and the highest honour that you are capable of in this world To die for Christ is the greatest promotion that God can bring any in this vale of misery unto said Mr. Philpot the Martyr the crowne of a Mrtyrdom is a crowne that the Angels those Princes of glory are not capable of winning or wearing and O who art thou what art thou O man that God should set this crowne upon thy head 1 Pet. 4.14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you on their part he is evill spoken of but on your part he is glorified The very suffering condition of the people of God is at the present a glorious condition for the Spirit of glory rests upon them and they must needs be glorious yea very glorious upon whom the Spirit of gloâ—y dwells Dan. 3. The sufferings of the three Children tended very much to their honour and advancement even in this world and had those vessels of honour slipt their opportunity of suffering they had lost their glory In the primitive times when some good people came to comfort some of the Martyrs that were in prison and ready to suffer they called them blessed Martyrs O no said they we are not worthy of the name of Martyrs These holy humble hearts thought Martyrdom too high an honour for them The Apostles all along counted their sufferings for Christ their highest honour And that is a remarkable Scripture that you have in that 11 Heb. 36 37 38. And others had tryall of cruell mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment They were stoned they were sawn asunder they were tempted they were slaine with the sword they wandred about in sheep-skins and goat-skins being destitute afflicted and tormented O but these were surely the most sad miserable wretched and forlorne creatures in all the world O no and that is most evident if the testimony and judgement of the holy Ghost may be received for ver 38. They were such of whom the world was not worthy the persecuting world was not worthy of their love nor worthy of their prayers nor worthy of their presence nor worthy of their fellowship and therefore God call'd them home and set them downe upon thrones by himself And to me 't is very observable that when that great Apostle Paul would glory in that which he accounted his honour glory and excellency he do's not glory in his high Office nor in his being wrapt up in the third heaven nor in the interest that he had in the hearts of the Saints nor in his arts or parts c. but he glories in his sufferings in that 2 Cor. 11.23 28. In stripes above measure in prisons more frequent in deaths oft Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one Thrice was I beaten with Rods once was I stoned thrice I suffered shipwrack a night and a day have I been in the deep In journeying often in perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils by my own Countrey men in perils by the heathen in perils in the City in perils in the wilderness in perils in the Sea in perils among false brethren In weariness and painfulness in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and nakedness Thus you see that this blessed Apostle looks upon his sufferings as his greatest glory To suffer for Christ is the greatest honour and promotion that God gives in this world said old Father Latimer John Noyes Latimer John Noyes took up a Fagot at the fire and kissed it saying Blessed be the time that ever I was borne to come to this preferment When they had fastned Alice Driver Alice Driver with a chaine to the stake to be burnt Never said she did Neckarchief become me so well as this chaine Balilus Balilus the Martyr when he was to die requested this favour of his persecutors viz. that he might have his chaines buried with him as the Ensignes of his honour When Ignatius Ignatius was to suffer it 't is better for me saith he to be a Martyr then to be a Monarch What are we poore wormes full of vanities and lyes that we should be called to be maintainers of the truth for sufferings for Christ are the Ensignes of heavenly Nobility said Calvin Calvin 'T was a notable saying of a French Martyr when the rope was about his fellow Give me said he that Golden chaine and dub me Knight of that noble Order I am the unincetest man for this high office of suffering for Christ that ever was appointed to it said blessed Sanders I shall conclude this head with that excellent saying of Prudentius Their names saith he that are written in red letters of blood in the Churches Calender are written in Golden letters in Christs Register the
be the Herald of his honor Psal 7.15 16. He made a pit and digged it Histories would furnish us with many hundred instances of this nature and is fallen into the ditch which he hath made His mischief shall return upon his own head and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate The wicked shall be undone by their own doings all the Arrows that they shoot at the righteous shall fall upon their own pates Maxentius built a false bridge to drown Constantine but was drowned himself Henry the third of France was stabbed in the very same Chambe where he had help't to contrive the cruel Massacre of the French Protestants And his brother Charles the ninth who delighted in the blood of the Saints had blood given him to drink for he was worthy Afterwards he was made Lord Cobham Soon after Thomas Arundel Arch-bishop of Canterbury had condemned Sir John Oldcastle a godly Knight it pleased the Lord to strike the Arch-bishop so in his tongue that he could neither swallow down any food nor speak a word before his death and so he was starved to death The Duke of Somerset in King Edward the sixth's days by consenting to his brothers death made way for his own by the same Ax and hand that beheaded his brother 'T is usuall with God to take persecutors in the snares and pits that they have laid for his people as many thousands in this Nation have experienced and though Rome her confederates are this day a laying of snares and traps and a digging of pits for the righteous who will rather burn then bow to their Baal yet do but wait and weep and weep and wait a little and you shall see that the Lord will take them in the very snares and pits that they have laid and digged for his people But Sixthly and Lastly God sometimes preserves his people from persecuting hands by providing Cities of refuge to shelter them and by providing hiding places to hide them in Mat. 10.23 If they persecute you in one city flye to another God has always found one City of refuge or another to shelter his persecuted people in And so when bloody persecuting Jezebel had cut off many of the Lords Prophets God provided an Obadiah to hide an hundred of them by Fifty in a Cave 1 Kin. 18.4.13 The Learned judge that there were several others in Israel that kept other Prophets of the Lord from Jezabels fury besides those that Obadiah hid Three years before Titus Vespasian besieged Jerusalem there was a voice frequently heard go up to Pella go up to Pella which very many of the Jews did and were saved God never wants a Chamber of presence a chamber of providence a chamber of protection a chamber of salvation to hide his people in Isa 26.20 I have read of one that in the time of the Massacre at Paris crept into a hole to hide himself and as soon as he was in there came a spider and weaved a Web before the hole the next morning the murderers came to search for him search in that hole said one and see if he be not there O no said another he can't be there for there is a Cob-web at the holes mouth upon which they did not suspect his being there by which means he was preserved from the rage and fury of those men of blood Constantius the Emperor promised a reward to those Captains or Souldiers that should bring Atharasius head to him but God hid him in a pit and fed him there a long time by the hand of a friend but being at last discovered by a Maid-servant the very night before his adversaries search't for him the providence of God opened away for his escape and sent him into the West by which means he was preserved from the rage and fury of his adversaries I think no men under heaven have had larger experience of this truth then English men Ah what Cities of refuge what hiding places has God provided for them to hide them from the wrath and rage of their persecutors for many years And thus I have given you a brief account of some of those ways which God takes to deliver his people out of persecuting hands But Quisquis volens detrahit famae meae nolens addit mercidi meae saith Augustin Twelfthly and lastly I answer That all the persecutions that you meet with on earth shall advance your glory in heaven the more Saints are persecuted on earth the greater shall be their reward in heaven as persecutions do increase a Christians grace so they do advance a Christians glory Mat. 5.10 11 12. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Luk. 6.22 23. Blessed are ye when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and * Excommunicate and Anathematize you as notorious shameful and abominable offenders cast out your name as evil for the son of mans sake Rejoyce ye in that day and leap for joy for behold your reward is in heaven for in the like manner did their fathers unto the Prophets They that are now opposed and persecuted by men shall at last be owned and crowned by God yea and the more afflictions and persecutions are multiplyed upon them in this world the greater shall be their recompence in another woâ—ld The Original words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Matthew and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Luke signifies exceeding great joy such as men usually express by skipping and dancing let your hearts leap and let your bodies leap for joy for great is your reward in heaven Look as wanton young cattle in the Spring when every thing is in its prime and pride do use to leap and skip for joy so says Christ do you leap and skip under all the afflictions and persecutions that befalls you for righteousness sake for great is your reward in heaven Bernard speaking of persecutors saith That they are but his Fathers Goldsmiths who are working to add Pearls to the Saints Crowns It is to my loss said Gordius the Martyr if you abate me any thing of my present sufferings sufferings for Christ are the Saints greatest glory they are those things wherein they have divinely glorified Crudelitas vestra gloria nostra your cruelty is our glory say they in Tertullian and the harder we are put to it the greater shall be our reward in heaven Chrysostom hit the nail when he said if one man should suffer all the sorrows of all the Saints in the world yet they are not worth one hours glory in heaven By the consent of the Schoolmen all the Martyrs shall appear
under a black Cassock they dare be such they make no bones on 't to sin by prescription and to damn themselves with Authority Austin brings in some excusing their compliances with the sinfull customes of those times in drinking healths thus Great personages urged it and it was at the Kings Banquet where they judged of Loyalty by Luxury and put us upon this election drink or die they thought it a sufficient excuse to plead the examples of great men And if their examples are vertuous there are none so winning and drawing as theirs Carus the Romane Emperour us'd to say Bonus duae bonus comes A good leader makes a good follower It is observable in the very course of nature that the highest Spheres are alwayes the swiftest in their motion and carry about with them the inferior Orbes by their celerity so men that are high and eminent in Authority power and dignity and eminent also in grace and holiness they carry the inferior people by their examples to a liking of holiness and to a love of holiness and to a pursuit after holiness As the biggest Stars in the Firmament are alwayes the brightest and gives the greatest lustre to those of a lesser magnitude so those that in respect both of Greatness and grace are as so many shining Stars they give the greatest light and lustre to others by their shining conversations O! what a world of good will the gracious example of a good Prince provoke unto 'T was the saying of Trajanus a Spaniard Qualis Rex Talis Grex Subjects prove good by a good Kings example Stories tells us of some that could not sleep when they thought of the Trophies of other Worthies that went before them the gracious examples of great men are very awakening quickning and provoking to that which is good as is most evident in all those Kingdomes Countries Cities and villages where such men live And therefore great men are the more obliged to be good men and honorable men to be holy men But Fourthly Of all men under heaven you will have the greatest accounts to make up with God and therefore you have the more cause to seek after holiness Where God gives much Luke 12.48 It was excellent counsell that the Heathen Oratour gave his hearers Ita vi vamus ut â—ationem nobis reddendam arbitremur Let us so live as those that must give an account of all at last there he looks for much O Sirs God will bring you to an account for that Talent of honor and that Talent of wealth and that Talent of birth and that Talent of power and that Talent of Authority and that Talent of interest and that Talent of Time c. that he has intrusted you with and how will you be able to stand in the day of account without holiness in your hearts King Philip the third of Spaine whose life was free from gross evills professing that he would rather lose all his Kingdoms then offend God willingly yet being in the Agony of death and considering more thorowly of his account that he was to give to God feare struck into him and these words brake from him Oh would to God I had never reigned oh that those years I have spent in my kingdome I had lived a private life in the Wilderness oh that I had lived a solitary life with God! how much more securely should I have now dyed how much more confidently should I have gone to the Throne of God What do's all my glory profit me but that I have so much the more torment in my death Well Gentlemen there is a day a coming wherein the Lord will call you to a strict account both for the principall and also for the interest of all those Talents of honor riches and greatness c. that he has put into your hands and how will you be ever able to hold up your heads in this day of account without you experience principles of holiness in your hearts and hold forth the power of godliness in your lives If Saul was astonished when he heard Jesus of Nazareth but calling upon him Acts 22.7 8. Mark 6.16 1 Sam. 21.9 Num. 7.10 If Herod was affrighted when he thought that John Baptist was risen from the dead If the Philistians were afraid when they saw Davids Sword If the Israelites were appalled when they saw Aarons Rod Den. 38.2 If Judah was ashamed when he saw Thamars Signet and Staffe And if Belshazzar was amazed when he saw the hand writing on the wall Dan. 5.9 O! how astonished how affrighted how ashamed and how amazed will the great ones of the world be who live and die without holiness when God shall bring them to the Barr and command them to give an account of all the Talents that he has put into their hands If the Carthagenians were troubled when they saw Scipio's Sepulchre If the Saxons were terrified when they saw Cadwallon's Image And if the Romans were dashed when they saw Caesars bloody Robe Ah how will all the Great unholy ones of the earth be troubled terrified and dashed in the great day of their accounts there are none that will have such large accounts to give up as the great ones of the world and therefore there are none that stand so strongly engaged to look after holiness as they doe But Fifthly The greater any men are on earth if they live and die without holiness the greater will be their torments in hell all their Greatness Glory and Gallantry will but sink them the lower in hell The Scribes and Pharisees were the rich the high and the great ones of the times Math. 23.14 and these Christ lays under the greater damnation The Germans have this proverb The pavement of hell say they is made of the bare sculs of the Priests and the glorious Crests of Gallants Their meaning is that the more eminent any are in Church or State and doe not employ their eminency power and Authority in wayes of piety and sanctity the lower they shall lye in hell yea these men of all others shall lye lowest in hell Rev. 18.7 Isa 47.8 How much or in as much as she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her for she saith in her heart I sit a Queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow Babylons torment and sorrow must be sutable to her sin Babylon excell'd all others in pride haughtiness luxury and blasphemy c. and her punishments must be answerable So the Great the rich the high and the mighty men of the world they usually exceed all others in pride drunkenness uncleanness filthiness oppression vaine-glory Gluttony and Tyranny c. and answerable to their sins will be their torments and their punishments in hell Isa 30.33 For Tophet is ordained of old I it may be for the poore meane and beggarly of the world yea for the King it is prepared he hath made it deep
of Religion and for purity of worship and ordinances James 1.27 in opposition to all mixtures and corruptions whatsoever O Sirs the great God stands upon nothing more in all the world then upon purity in this worship there is nothing that do's so provoke and exasperate God against a people as mixtures in his worship and service Math. 21.12 13. John 2.15 16 17. polutions in worship do sadly reflect upon the name of God the honor of God the truth of God and the wisdom of God and therefore his heart rises against them The very spirit life and soul of the second Commandement lyes in these words Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image c. In matters of divine worship God abhors that men should mix their water with his wine their dross with his Gold their chaffe with his wheate c. when once men come to be so bold as to defile his worship with their mixtures Lev. 10.1 2. Ezek. 5.11 12. Ch. 23.38 39. Jer. 7.29 30. Ezek. 8.17 18. Rev. 2.22 23. Deut. 4.2 Chap. 12 32. then God is resolv'd to be a swift and a terrible witness against them as you may clearly see by comparing those notable places of Scripture together in the Margent there is no sin that do's so incense and provoke God to Jealousie and wrath against a people as mixtures in worship God can bare with defilements any where rather then in his worship and service And that First â—ecause mixtures in worship are cross to Gods express commands and who art thou O man that darest run cross to his commands who can command thee into the dust yea into hell at pleasure c Secondly because this is to accuse the blessed Scripture of insufficiency for if the Scripture be a sufficient rule to order guide and direct us in all matters of worship The Scriptures are sufficient to direct us as to all the parts of worship As 1. That of publick prayer 2. And that of reading expounding 3. And that of preaching 4. And that of singing 5. And that of the Seales both of Baptisme and the Supper of the Lord. then how doest thou O man detract from the sufficiency of the Scripture who minglest thine own or other mens inventions with divine institutions and settest up thy posts by Gods posts O Sirs the Scriptures are sufficient to direct us fully in every thing that belongs to the worship and service of God so as that we need not depend upon the wisdom prudence care or Authority of any men under heaven to direct us in matters of worship 2 Tim. 3.16 17. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction for instruction in righteousness That the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works The Scriptures are sufficient to informe the ignorant to confute the erronious to reforme the vitious and to guide and direct support and comfort those that are gracious here a Lamb may wade and an Elephant may swim here is milke for babes and meate for strong men here 's comfort for the afflicted and succour for the tempted and ease for the troubled and light for the clouded and enlargement for the straitned c. O how full of light how full of life how full of love how full of sweetnesse how full of goodness how full of righteousness and holiness c. is every Chapter and every verse in every Chapter yea and every line in every verse The Rabbins say that a mountaine of matter hangs upon every word of Scripture yea upon every tittle of Scripture God never sends his people to the shop of mens traditions and inventions but he still sends them to the Scripture Isa 8.20 To the Law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light or no morning in them Chap. 34.16 Seek ye out of the book of the Lord and read no one of these shall fail 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 none shall want her mate for my mouth it hath commanded and his Spirit it hath gathered them And in the New-Testament Christ sends his hearers to the Scriptures John 5.39 Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternall life and they are they which testifie of me The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is here rendred Search signifies a strict narrow curious diligent search we must search the Scripture as we would search for Gold or for some precious stones which we would faine finde we must search the Scriptures as Hunters seek and search out their Game And so the Apostle sends his hearers to the Scriptures 2 Pet. 1.19 22. As to a surer word then that of Revelation All which speaks out the sufficiency of the Scripture to direct us in all matters that concern our internal or eternal welfare O that you would for ever remember these two things First That that which bred the Popish Religion Superstition Idolatry and pompious worship was mens departing from the word and not cleaving to the word as a sufficient Rule to direct them in all matters of worship And Secondly That that which hath occasioned all those discords divisions heats heart-burnings animosities and contentions c. about Ceremonies Liturgey formes Gestures c. has been mens not keeping close to the blessed word of God when men forsake this perfect Rule whether won't they run and what won't they doe Ah who art thou O vaine man that accuseth the holy Scriptures of insufficiency and how wilt thou blush and be ashamed and confounded when in the great day the Lord shall plead the excellency and vindicate the sufficiency and Authority of his blessed booke in opposition to all the mixtures of mens Traditions with divine institutions Thirdly God won't nor can't bare with mixtures in his worship and service because to bring them in is to accuse and charge God with weakness and folly Heb. 3.4 5 6. John 4.23 24. as if God were not careful enough nor faithful enough nor mindful enough nor wise enough nor prudent nor understanding enough to order direct and guide his people in the matters of his worship but must be beholding to the wisdom Psal 39.5 prudence and care of man of vaine man of sinful man of vile and unworthy man of weak and foolish man to compleat perfect and make up something that was wanting in his worship and service c. Fourthly God won't bare with mixtures in his worship and service because all mixtures debases the worship and service of God Isa 29.13 14. Math. 15.3 6 8 9. and makes the worship a vaine worship as the mixing of water with wine is the debasing of the wine and the mixing of Tin with silver or brass with gold is the debasing of the silver and gold so for men to mix and mingle their Traditions and inventions with Gods institutions is to debase the worship and
closet communion with God or not or enjoy the Lords Supper or not c. And O what inconstancy is to be found among many in these days many persons are onely constant in inconstancy now they are for Ordinances and anone they are against them now Ordinances are precious and glorious things and anone they are poor low things now they cry up this and that for glorious truths and anone they cry down the same things as dangerous and pernicious errors now they cry up Paul and cry down Apollo and anon they cry up Apollo and cry down Paul now they are for this form and anon they are for that now they are very zealous and anon they are very lukewarm now they are for worshipping of God according to rule and anon they are for worshipping of God according to the prescriptions of men now they have their gales of devotion and anon they are quite becalmed now they are full of life and anon they are very lumpish now they stand fast and anon they are wavering now they are confident all will be well and anon they give up all as lost now they will lay down their lives for Christ and anon they are afraid to own Christ c. Now what does this indifferency and inconstancy speak out but either a total want of holiness or else that holiness is at a very low ebb in these mens souls Now these eight Arguments do clearly evidence that many O that I could not say that most Christians have attained but to small measures and degrees of holiness But Secondly To provoke you to labor after higher degrees of holiness Consider that 't is possible for you to attain to greater measures of holiness then any yet you have reach't unto Though the work be hard yet 't is possible and what great things things won't men attempt upon the account of a possibility Now that 't is possible that you may attain to a greater perfection of holiness I shall evidence these five wayes First By many precious promises that are scattered up and down in the blessed Scriptures as that Job 17.9 The righteous shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger Or as the Hebrew has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall add strength that is he shall go on from one degree of spiritual strength to another he shall go on from a lesser degree to a greater degree and from a lower degree to a higher degree of spiritual strength a holy man shall not onely have his spiritual strength maintained but encreased he shall not onely retain that spiritual strength he has but he shall be still a adding of strength to strength Psal 84.7 Me chaiil el chaiil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies vigor courage alacrity power success and an Army wherein usually most power is required and manifested They go from strength to strength or from power to power or as the word may be read from company to company or from Troop to Troop in allusion to the custome of the Jews when all the Males went up thrice a year to Jerusalem now when they went up to Jerusalem they went up with their flocks and in Troops now those that were lively active and strong they over took this company and that and this Troop and that and so they went on their power and strength increasing daily more and more till they appeared before God in Zion or look as the Bee goes from flower to flower to gather Honey so those that had a principle of grace and holiness in them they went from one good company to another from one Troop of Christians to another still gathering up heavenly honey as they went O Sirs there is no such way to perfect holiness as to be still a going on from duty to duty and from ordinance to ordinance from praying to hearing and from hearing to praying from reading to meditating from meditating to reading from publike duties to closet duties and from closet duties to publike duties c. Psal 92.12 13 14. The righteous shall flourish like the Palm-tree he shall grow like a Cedar in Lebanon Those that be planted in the house the Lord Ille non est bonus qui non vult esse molior shall flourish in the Courts of our God They shall still bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing The promise of flourishing is three times repeated in these three verses they shall flourish they shall flourish they shall flourish to note the more then ordinary flourishing estate of the Saints even in their old age I have read of an old Christian who being asked whether he grew in goodness or no answered I believe I do because the Lord has promised that his people shall bring forth fruit in old age Pliny writing of the Crocodile tells us that she grows to her dying day so Christians that are rooted in Christ and planted in the house of the Lord they will be still growing up in grace and holiness even to their dying day 'T is with real Christians as 't is with wine the older the better or as 't is with the Sun which shines most gloriously and amiably when 't is near seting Gracious souls are like the Laurel or the Bay-tree whose leaves are always green not onely in the Summer of youth but also in the Winter of old age Pliny The Palm-tree is always green it never loseth his leaves or fruit and the more it is loaded the deeper it is rooted and so it shall be with throughout Christians So in that Isa 46.3 4. God has promised to carry us on to old age Hearken unto me O house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel which are born by me from the belly which are carried from the womb And even to your old age I am he and even to hoar hairs will I carry you I have made and I will bear even I will carry and will deliver you That God that begins a work of Grace and Holiness in his peoples hearts that God will perfect and carry on that work Mothers and Nurses express their tender care love and delight by carrying their Babes in their arms till they can go alone but God surpasses them in his love care tenderness and divine fondness for he will carry them even to hoary hairs This word I that is Six times repeated in verse the fourth is doubtless of very great importance and signifies not onely Gods eternal Essence and that he will be ever like himself but also his unchangeableness in regard of us for whatever our thoughts may be concerning God yet we shall always find him one and the same he will be as good to his people at last as he was at first even to old age he will carry them So in that Prov. 4.18 But the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day A
truth with his blood Mr. John Hus was a man eminent in holiness he was borne in Prague in Bohemia A Prophesie and was Pastor of the Church of Bethleem his name Hus in the Bohemian language sâ—gnifies a Goose at his Martyrdome he told them that if they rosted him in the fire out of the ashes of the Goose an hundred years after God would raise up a Swan in Germany that should carry the Cause on for which he suffered and whose singings would affright all those Vulters which was exactly fulfilled in Luther whose name in the Bohemian language signifies a Swan for God raised him up as a famous instrument in his hand who carried on that glorious Cause with mighty success and upon his death the Bohemians under Ziska rose in Armes and had most admirable success against the Emperour and the Papists A Prophesie Luther was a man of great holiness and being one time more then ordinarily earnest with God in prayer he came downe to his Friends and told them with a very great confidence that it should goe well with Germany all his dayes he knew what was done in heaven by that which God had done in his own heart accordingly it fell out The Martyr that was burnt last in Smithfield A Prophesie told the people that they should be of good comfort for he was fully perswaded that he was the last that should suffer under Queen Mary and so he was Thus you see that men of greatest holiness have had the clearest and choicest manifestations discoveries of God and of his mind made knowne to them Suitable to that choice promise that you have in that 33 Jer. 3. Call unto me and I will answer thee and shew thee great and mighty or hidden things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hidden as bunches of Grapes are hidden under the leaves of the Vines which thou knowest not God will make knowne to his holy ones the most hidden and abstruse things and the more holy they are the more they shall know of the most secret and mysterious things of God John 7.17 If any man will doe his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my selfe Christ will be most open to them that are most obedient to him they shall know most of the doctrine of Christ who are most complying with the will of Christ David was a man of great holiness as is evident by that glorious testimony that God has given of him in that 13 Acts 22. And when he had removed him that is Saul v. 21. he raised up unto them David to be their King to whom also he gave testimony and said I have found David the son of Jesse a man after mine own heart which shall fulfill all my will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All my wills to note the eminency transcâ—ndency universality and sincerity of his obedience Now if you will but look into that 2 Sam. 7.27 there you shall see how the Lord declares and makes knowne himselfe and his intentions towards him For thou O Lord of Hosts God of Israel hast revealed to thy servant saying I will build thee an house But the Hebrew is more full and excellent in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it runs thus Lord thou hast revealed this to the eare of thy servant Now the emphasis lyes in those words to the eare of thy servant When God makes knowne himselfe and his intentions to such as are eminent in holiness he do's it in their eare God tells David in his eare that he will build him an house that is that he would continue his kingdome to him and to his posterity after him this was blessed newes and this God tells in his eare Such as are our special friends and favourites we often whisper them in the eare when we would acquaint them with our most secret and weighty purposes intentions and resolutions we give them a whisper in the eare such persons that are eminent in holiness are the great favourits of heaven and God tells them in the eare of many a rare secret which all others are kept ignorant of Well Sirs for a close remember this that there are no persons on earth that are so prepared and fitted for the clearest fullest and highest manifestations of God as those that are eminent in holiness nor none that set so high a price upon the discoveries of God as men that are eminent in holiness nor none that are so able to bare the Revelations of his will as men that are eminent in holiness nor none that will make such an humble faithful constant and through improvement of all that God shall make knowne to them as men that are famous for holiness and therefore as ever you would have God in an eminent way to manifest and discover himselfe and his mind unto you O labour after a greater measure of holiness But Eighthly To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of holiness Consider that the more holy any man is the more singular delight and pleasure God will take in all his religious duties and services Generally 't was the custome of the Eastern countries to wash before worship The very heathen gods would be served in white the very emblem of purity holiness puts a divine savour upon all a mans services there are no duties so sweet as those that have most holiness in them Mal. 3.3 4. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purifie the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the dayes of old and as in former years After the Lord Jesus Christ hath been to his people as a refiners fire and as Fullers sope that is after he hath refined scoured and purged his people from their drossiness filthiness earthliness selfishness and sensualness c. then their offerings shall be pleasant to the Lord. Look as light makes all things pleasant and delightful to man so holiness makes all a mans duties and services pleasant and delightful to the Lord. Zach. 13.9 And I will bring the third part through the fire and will refine them as silver is refined and will try them as gold is tryed they shall call on my name and I will heare them I will say it is my people and they shall say the Lord is my God When God has refined his people as silver is refined then he will bow his eare and open his hand and grant them the desires of their hearts O the pleasure and delight that God takes in the prayers tears hearings readings meltings mournings and repentings of such who are eminently purged and sanctified the more holiness any man has the less of the flesh polution and corruption there is in all his duties and services and the less there is of
matters Job was the onely man he was chosen by all and advanced by all above all in all Assemblies and places of Judicature c. whoever was of the Committee yet Job was still Chair-man who ever was of the counsel yet Job was still President and whoever was of the Court yet Job was still King yea he dwelt as a King in the Army Job was guarded as a King in the Army and honored as a King in the Army and beloved and admired as a King in the Army and obeyed and served as a King in the Army and feared and reverenced as a King in the Army I might give you further instances of this in Joseph Moses Nehemiah Mordecai the three Children and Daniel but I shall forbear Faith is but a piece a part a branch of holiness and yet O what an honorable mention doth Paul make of the Romans faith in that Rom. 1.8 First This is a figurative expression according to the stile and manner of speaking then I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the world The Romans had attained to an eminency in faith and the report thereof sounded thoroughout the Roman Empire yea throughout the world for there being a great resort to Rome from all parts of the world and by every ones discoursing and admiring of the Romans faith their faith came to be spread abroad among all the Churches all the world over Look as Christs fulness of grace was his highest glory in this world Psal 45.1 2. so a Christians fulness of holiness is his highest honor in this world O sirs there is no such way to be high in honor and renown both in the consciences of sinners and Saints as to be high in holiness Jewel was a man eminent in holiness and his holiness set him high in the very judgements and consciences of the Papists The Dean of the Colledge though a Papist yet speaks thus of him In thy faith I hold thee an Heretick but surely in thy life thou art an Angel thou art very good and honest but a Lutheran Among the very Heathens those were most highly honored that were most excellent and eminent in moral vertues Aristides was so famous among the Athenians for his Justice Plutarch that he was called Aristides the Just c. O Christians 't is your highest honor and glory in this world to be so eminent and famous for holiness that men may point at you and say there goes such a one the wise there goes such a one the humble there goes such a one the heavenly and there goes such a one the meek there goes such a one the patient and there goes such a one the contented and there goes such a one the Just and there goes such a one the merciful and there goes such a one the zealous and there goes such a one the couragious and there goes such a one the sincere and there goes such a one the faithful c. well for a close remember this that though great places great offices great revenues and great honours c. may exalt you set you high in the uppermost seats and roomes among men yet 't is only an eminency in holiness that will exalt you and set you high in the consciences of sinners and Saints But Fourteenthly To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of holiness Consider that the times wherein you live calls for this at your hands Jer. 51.5 Ah how is this Land filled with sin yea with the worst of sins against the holy One of Israel Hell seems to be broken loose and men strive to exceed and excell one another in all kinds of wickedness O the scarlet sins that are now to be found under many scarlet Robes O the black transgressions that are now to be found under many black Cassocks O the new-found oaths the hellish blasphemies the horrid filthinesses and the abominable debaucheries that are committed daily in the face of the Sun ah how shameless how sensless are sinners grown in these dayes Jer. 3.3 sin every where now appears with a whores forehead ah what open opposition do's Christ meet with in his Gospel offices Math. 24.12 members wayes worship and works ah how do's all iniquity abound and how bold and resolute are multitudes now in dishonoring of God in profaning his Sabbaths in poluting his ordinances in destroying their own souls and in treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 c. Now the worser the times are the better every Christian must labour to be the more profane the Age is wherein we live the more holy we must endeavour to be O Sirs how else will you recompence the great God if I may so speak for all the dishonors that are cast upon him by the matchless loosness and wickedness of the present times Phil. 2.15 how else will you shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation how else will you convince the consciences 1 Pet. 2.15 and stop or button up the mouths of wicked and unreasonable men how else will you be the Lords witnesses against this sinful and adulterous Generation Isa 43.10 12. And ch 44.8 how else will you manifest your great love to Christ and your exceeding tenderness of the honor and glory of Christ how else will you give an undeniable testimony of the glorious operations of the Spirit in you how else will you satisfie your own consciences Psal 18.20 25. Heb. 11.7 that your hearts are upright with God and how else will you with Noah condemne a wicked world well Christians remember this 't is more then time for you to perfect holiness in the feare of the Lord when so many thousands labour day and night to perfect wickedness in despite of the Lord 't is time for you to be Angels in holiness when multitudes strive to exceed the very devill in wickedness since Christ was on earth there has been no times that have called louder for the perfecting of holiness then the present times wherein we live But Fifteenthly To provoke you to lâ—bour after higher degrees of holiness consider how the men of the world do study and strive to abound and encrease in worldly blessings O what ado is there among worldlings to lay house to house and field to field Isa 5.8 to make a hundred a thousand and a thousand ten c Many men rise early and go to bed late yea they cross their light Psal 127.1 2. wound their consciences and decline their principles and endanger their immortall souls and all to adde to their worldly stores This Age is ful of such Ahabs 1 Kings 21. that are even sick for their neighbours Vineyards yea that rather then they will goe without them will wade through Naboths blood to them And how many rich fools be there amongst us who instead of minding their souls and
building up of Saints and partly because his eye is still upon it and his protection is still over it Psal 121.3 4 5 6 7 8. and his presence is still with it Isa 27.2 3. In that day sing ye unto her a vineyard of red wine I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment lest any hurt it I will keep it night and day But Solomons eye was not alwayes upon his vineyard neither was his hand of protection alwayes over it neither was his kingly presence alwayes with it and partly because all his treasure is laid up in his vineyard his Church his treasures of grace Eph. 3.10.17 18 19 20. his treasure of mercy his treasures of comfort his treasures of goodness c. is all laid up in his Church but Solomon as rich as glorious a King as he was yet he had no such treasures laid up in his vineyard Solomon never made his vineyard his treasury and partly because his vineyard was given to him for ever Psal 2.7 John 6.39 Ch. 17.6 8 12. as an everlasting inheritance but Solomons was but temporary and mutable Now all those that are painfull and faithfull labourers in Christs vineyard shall receive a noble a liberall compensation and recompence for their labours no man shall shut a dore nor open a dore in Christs vineyard for nought no man shall labour an houre there without a reward all faithfull Ministers are Fellow-labourers with Christ in the spirituall husbandry 1 Cor. 3.8 9. they dig with Christ they plant with Christ and they prune with Christ and they water with Christ and they watch with Christ therefore Christ will allow them a fift part of the glory and reward with himselfe as he has his thousand pieces of silver so he will look to it that they shall have their two hundred pieces of silver a thousand is the number of perfection and here it may note that fulness of glory that Christ should have the two hundred may note that very great proportion of heavenly glory that all the faithfull labourers in Christs vineyard shall have Math. 19.27 28 29. who have helpt forward the flourishing estate of that vineyard Look as the thriving of the child adds to the comfort and the credit of the Nurse and the fruitfulness of the field adds to the pleasure and delight of the Husbandman and the health and increase of the Flock adds to the joy and reward of the Shepherd so the increase of holiness the thriving the fruitfulness of souls in holiness adds to the credit and comfort to the pleasure and delight to the joy and reward of faithful painful Ministers who are Nurses Husbandmen and Shepherds in the language of the holy Scriptures Though it be true that faithful Ministers are a sweet savour to God both in them that are saved 2 Cor. 2.15 and in them that perish though their labour whether it hit or miss is accepted and shall be rewarded of the Lord Isa 49.45 as the Physitian has his Fee though the patient dies the Nurse has her wages though the child don't thrive and the Vine-dresser has his hire though the Vines don't bare fruit yet the more they win men to heaven and the more by their means the work of holiness is carried on in the hearts lives of men the weightier will be their crowne of glory and the greater will be their joy and rejoycing in the great day of our Lord. O Sirs did you but see your faithfull Ministers tears did you but heare their heavy sighs and groanes were you but acquainted with their fervent and frequent prayers on your behalfes did you but believe how they beare their brains and how willing they are not only to spend themselves but even to spit out their very lungs in the service of your souls how would you call upon your own souls to adde holiness to holiness yea charge your own souls to perfect holiness in the feare of the Lord. Well friends as ever you would adde to your faithfull Ministers comfort here and to their joy and crowne at the coming of our Lord labour after higher degrees of holiness But Lastly To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of holiness consider that the more holiness you have here the more happiness you shall have hereafter the more grace you have on earth the more glory you shall have in heaven Now before I come to make good this Argument viz. that some Saints shall partake of more glory in heaven then others shall give me leave to promise these few things to prevent mistakes First That the object of their happiness which is God blessed for ever will be one and the same to all Saints all glorified Saints shall have but one God among them all God shall be no more one Saints God then he shall be every Saints God in heaven c. Secondly That the beatifical vision shall be seen by all the Saints and communicated to all the Saints they shall all have a happy and blessed fruition and possession of God all the vessels of glory shall be filled to the brim with a cleare sight of God and with a full injoyment of God and yet doubtless for all this some Saints shall apprehend more of God then others and comprehend more of God then others and enjoy more of God then others though all shall be filled with those everlasting springs of pleasure and delight that be at Gods right hand Psal 16. ult yet some shall be able to take in more of those pleasures of Paradise then others shall 2 Kings 4.3 8. Though all the widows vessels were filled to the brim with oyle yet doubtless some being greater and larger then others they accordingly contained more oyle then others and so 't will be with the Saints when they come to heaven There shall be no lack of glory to any of the Saints in glory all the Saints shall be fill'd with glory according to their capacity If you bring a thousand vessels of different sizes to the Sea the Sea fills them all though their sizes differ and some are bigger and others lesser yet all are fill'd every little vessell hath its fill as well as the greater so every Saint shall have his fill of glory when he comes to glory the felicity of every Saint shall be perfect God will be all in all to all Saints Psal 17.15 Thirdly All Saints shall be freed from all evills alike they shall all be freed from the aking head and from the unbelieving heart they shall all alike be free from the evill of sin and from the evill of sufferings there shall not be a Saint in glory that shall ever feele a pricking brier Ezek. 28.24 or a grieving thorne there all sorrow shall be removed from all their hearts and all tears shall be wipt from all their eyes Rev. 7.17 Fourthly and lastly the degrees of glory that Saints shall
that treasure that he has put into their hands and yet this doth not infer merit of works but a gracious disposition in God to encourage his servants in a way of well-doing c. The fift Scripture is that Dan. 12.3 From this very Text your English Annotators conclude that there are degrees of glory in Heaven c. And they that bee wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever The glory of Heaven is here laid out in shining terms for look how gloriously the shining of stars doth excel the shining of the Firmament so some Saints shall as far out-shine others in glory as the Stars do now out-shine the Firmament look as the Stars are a more beautiful and glorious part of the Orb than the Firmament is so some Saints shall have a great deal more beauty and glory upon them than others shall And look as there are different degrees of glory between the glory of the Firmament and the glory of the Stars now so there shall bee different degrees of glory between one glorious Saint and another at last All the Saints shall at last shine as the firmament but those that by their Doctrine Instruction and Conversation turn many to righteousness these shall shine as the Stars for ever and ever Some of the highest seats in glory shall bee for such Act. 26.18 who turn sinners from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to Jesus Christ T is very observable that as the Apostles were very eminent in this work so Christ has given it under his own hand Matth. 19 28. Luke 22.28.29 that they shall sit upon twelve Thrones as so many Kings judging the twelve tribes of Israel they had done and suffered more for Christ than others and therefore Christ will put a greater glory upon them than upon others though many learned men differ about the interpretation of those words yee also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel and therefore I dare not peremptorily conclude this or that to bee the sense of them yet this is most plain and evident in the Text that the Apostles are under a promise of some peculiar and more eminent degree of honour glory and dignity than others are under look as their Service to Christ was a peculiar and eminent service so Christ promises them a peculiar and eminent Reward every man of them shall have his particular Throne and every one of them shall have the honour and dignity of judging that is of governing and ruling the twelve tribes of Israel Look as Embassadors and cheif Counsellors and Presidents have the highest and chiefest seats in the Kingly Assembly Heb. 12.22 23 so the Apostles shall have the highest and the chiefest seats in the general Assembly and Church of the first born in Heaven they shall sit as it were on the Throne or on the Bench with Christ so highly and greatly shall they bee exalted If wee cannot hit upon the meanings of the Reward here promised yet wee may safely and easily gather from the description of it that there shall bee different degrees of glory in Christs Kingdome of glory The Apostles followed Christ through great tribulations and afflictions and they continued with him in all his temptations they forsook all to waite on him and after they had faithfully laboriously successfully and very eminently served him they made themselves an offering for him as I have formerly shewed you and therefore Christ will at last in a more eminent way exalt them and glorifie them than hee will others that have never seen that of Christ nor received that from Christ nor done that for Christ nor suffer'd that for Christ as they have done degrees of glory shall at last bee proportion'd out answerable to those degrees of service which in this life men have been drawn out to Such a thing as this the Apostle Paul do's more than hint if I mistake not in that 1 Thes 2.19 20. For what is our hope or joy or Crown of rejoycing are not even yet in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming For yee are our glory and joy the crown that Paul speaks of here is not that common crown of righteousness nor that common crown of life and immortality 2 Tim. 4.8 Jam. 1.12 Rev. 2.10 1 Pet. 5.4 nor that common crown of glory that all the Saints shall bee crown'd with at last but hee speaks here of an Apostolical crown of a special peculiar crown that should accrue to him upon the account of his serviceableness to their Souls and of this crown hee speaks again in that Phil. 4.1 Therefore my brethren my dearly beloved and longed for my joy and crown so stand fast in the Lord my dearly beloved hee calls the Philipians his crown and that partly because their spiritual growth constancy and perseverance was now his glory among other Churches but mainly because they should bee his particular crown of rejoycing in the great day of our Lord Jesus hee knew that the Philipians profit would bee his crown and his advantage another day The Apostle alludes here to the custome of the Romans who as they had their common crownâ— of Bayes Ivie and Lawrell c. and these were such that their horses which won the race were often crown'd with which occasioned Theocritus to say see what poor things the world glories in for as their Conquerours are crown'd so are their Horses so they had their peculiar their special crowns that were the rewards of their Conquerors that had done special service for their country So there are common crowns that belong to all the Saints as Saints as the crown of righteousness the crown of life and the crown of glory and as there are these common crowns so there are special and peculiar crowns that they shall bee crown'd with that are exercised in more high and excellent services than others have been employed in and this is the crown that here the Apostle speaks of hee knew very well that his reward should bee answerable to his work for though God never did nor never will reward men for their works as if they were the meritorious cause of the reward yet hee will for degrees reward them according to their works there are peculiar crowns special crowns for those that have done peculiar and special services for Christ on Earth A sixt Scripture is that Matth. 5.11 12. Blessed are yee when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake Rejoyce and bee exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven Suffering Saints persecuted Saints shall bee sure of great rewards God will reward upon his people not only their innocencie integrity patience and courage under their sufferings but the more their sufferings revilings and persecutions are multiplyed in this world the more shall
Secondly There are degrees of Torments in Hell and therefore by the Rule of Contraries there shall bee degrees of Glory in Heaven Now that there are degrees of torments in Hell is most evident from several plain Scriptures as from that 10th of Matth. v. 14 15. And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words when yee depart out of that house or City shake off the dust of your feet Verily I say unto you Contempt of Christ and his Gospel is worse than Sodomy it shall be more tollerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement than for that City Sodom and Gomorrah shall have an easier and cooler Hell than such Cities shall have that have contemned the tenders of Grace and the offers of Mercy 'T is very observable that the punishments that God in this life hath inflicted upon the Jews for their contempt of Christ and his everlasting Gospel have been more terrible than his raining Hell out of Heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah for on a sudden and in a moment God consumed them and burnt them up but God hath for above this sixteen hundred years been a raining Hell out of Heaven upon the Jews hee hath for a long time vext them with all manner of adversity and to this very day hee hath made them all the world over a spectacle of his dreadful severity but all those plagues and punishments that the Jews have been and still are under are but flea-bitings and scratches on the hand to those dreadful and amazing judgements that God in the great day of account will inflict upon all Christs refusers and Gospel-despisers And so chap. 11.20 21 22 23. Then began hee to upbraid the Cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not Woe unto thee Chorazin wee unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes But I say unto you it shall bee more tollerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of Judgement than for you And thou Capernaum which art exalted up to Heaven shalt bee brought down to Hell for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom it would have remained until this day The more mercy hath been upon the bare knee intreating sinners to repent the more earnest the Lord Jesus hath been in wooing sinners to beleeve on him and to resign up themselves wholly and only to him the more clearly and sweetly the everlasting Gospel hath sounded in sinners ears and the more neer and the more often Heaven hath been brought to sinners doors and yet they have bid defiance to all and hardened themselves in their sins with the greater violence and with the more dreadful vengeance shall such be plunged into the lowest Hell And so in that Mat. 23.14 Woe unto you Scribes Pharisees and Hypocrites for yee devour Widdows houses and for a pretence make long prayer therefore yee shall receive the greater damnation Hypocrites shall bee double-damned the hottest and the darkest place in Hell is reserved for them Give him his portion with hypocrites for number and weight there are no torments in Hell to the torments of hypocrites Counterfeit sanctity is double iniquity and therefore 't is but justice that the hypocrite should have double torment And so in that Luke 12.47 48. That servant that knows his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes and hee that knew it not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall bee beaten with few stripes Sins against light and knowledge are sins against the noblest remedy they waste and wound the conscience most they most open sinners mouths to blaspheme God and they most harden sinners hearts in sinning against God and every way they dare God most and provoke God most to strike with an Iron-Rod and to whip the knowing transgressor not with Rods but with Scorpions 'T is very observable that the more light and knowledge men sin against in this world Rom. 1.21 22 23. the greater judgements God gives them up to even in this life take a remarkable instance in the most refined and civil Heathens who are presumed to have most light and knowledge who were given up to the most beastly errours about the nature of God as the Romans and Grecians who worshipped Feavers and humane passions yea every paltry thing c. whereas the Scythians and more barbarous Nations worshipped the Sun and the Thunder c. things terrible in themselves Oh how much more then will God in the great day give them up to the greatest judgements who have given themselves up to the greatest sins Certainly the Professors of this age yea of this City whether they go to Heaven or Hell will be the greatest debtors that shall be in either place the one to the Free-grace of God and the other to his Justice that they that have most of Hell in their mouths and most of Hell in their hearts and most of Hell in their lives should have most of Hell in their souls at last is but justice I shall conclude this second Argument with a saying of one of the Antients Augustin Look saith hee as in Heaven one is more glorious than another so in Hell one shall be more miserable than another Now if there be degrees of torments in Hell which I suppose the Scriptures but now cited doth undeniably prove then doubtless there will be degrees of glory in Heaven Thirdly God in this life dispenses the gifts and graces of his Spirit unequally among his Saints to some hee gives two Talents to others five and to others ten Hence 't is you read both of a weak Faith and of a strong Faith Matth. 25. and ch 8.10 26. ch 15.28 Why are yee afraid O yee of little Faith And O woman great is thy Faith And Verily I have not found so great Faith no not in Israel And hence it is that you read both of weak Christians and of strong Christians Hee that is weak in the Faith receive Rom. 14.1 2. 1 Cor. 9.22 2 Cor. 12.10 Heb. 5.13 14 1 Pet. 2.2 v. 1. Another who is weak eateth herbs And to the weak I became as weak that I might win the weak Wee then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves When I am weak then am I strong And hence 't is that you read of Babes and of Children and of young Men and of old Men in the Scripture Saints are of different growths Some are but babes in gifts and grace others are children others young men and others old men That God that distributes the good things of this world unequally among the Sons of men as to some more to others less to some great things to others little things to some high things to others low things that God unequally distributes
obscure others that their own Sun may shine the brighter these labour to lessen others reputation hoping thereby to greaten their own these admire themselves and contemn others these look upon themselves as the greatest Doctors and upon all others as the worst of Dunces from these turn aside Some there be that spend their time and their strength in studying and preaching of dry and sapless controversies which are so far from bettering of mens hearts and from reforming of mens lives that they leave men as much and many times more under the power of sin and dominion of Satan than they were before from these turn aside And others there be that stand most upon easie things and little things upon things of least worth and weight and in these they will be very nice and curious 1 Tim. 1.5 6 7. Mat. 23.25 ch 6.3 4 5. and yet readily pass over the great and the weighty things both of the Law and of the Gospel they stand more upon circumstantials than upon substantials upon a saints-Saints-day than upon a sabbath-Sabbath-day upon an Easter-offering than upon offering up of themselves to the Lord upon a Pipe a Vesture a Gesture than upon saving of immortal souls from these turn aside Some there be that speak two words for Christ Ezek. 13. 2 Pet. 2.1 2 3 4 Rev. 18.11 12 13. and ten for themselves that are very zealous to fleece their flocks but are neither headed nor hearted to feed their flocks that minde mens goods more than their good and the serving of themselves than the saving of souls So they may be clad sprucely and fate deliciously and live lazily they care not though millions of souls go to Hell yearly to pick your purses they will indulge your consciences and so it may go well with them in this world they care not what becomes of you in the other world from these turn aside And others there be that take more pains to make Proselites than to make men holy they make it their great business to win over men to their opinions Mat. 23.15 when they should be a winning of men over to Jesus Christ they make it more their work to convert men to their way than they make it their work to better mens hearts or mend their lives or save their souls they will compass Sea and Land to make men one with themselves and yet think all that time and pains lost that is spent in indeavouring to make men one with Christ these are Factors for Hell and resemble the Prince of darkness to the life for as hee so they will spare no pains to gain Proselytes from these turn aside And give up your selves to their labours who make it the top of their glory to preach holiness to advance holiness to magnifie holiness and to practise holiness and this will be an excellent means to raise you up to higher degrees of holiness But Fourthly Be most in with them that are most eminent and excellent in holiness let the delight and joy of your hearts run most out to them who are still adding to their stock of holiness Thus it was with that Princely Prophet in that Psal 16.2 3. My goodness extendeth not to thee But to the Saints that are in the Earth and to the Excellent in whom is all my delight The Disciples by discoursing with Christ had a holy flame raised up in them Luk. 24.32 And they said one to another did not our hearts burn within us while hee talked with us by the way Act. 18.5 and opened to us the Scriptures And when Paul met Silas and Timotheus hee burned in spirit these two men were eminent in holiness and by their company and communion the zeal and courage of the Apostle Paul was very much heated and raised Look as one flaming Bavin may kindle a thousand so one precious Saint in whom grace is strong and holiness is high may by a divine and secret operation convey heat and life power and vigour into all that touch him or come neer unto him even as the Load-stone by a secret operation conveyeth power and vigour into Iron The prayers the conferences the counsels and all the carriages of a man eminent in holiness will mightily help on the work of holiness in their hearts where the streams of holiness runs but low Look as rich and costly Banquets do refresh and raise and strengthen their spirits that are weak and faint So men that are rich in grace and holiness will raise and strengthen their spirits who are weak in grace and who for want of greater measures of holiness are apt to faint Look as young plants will not thrive under dropping-trees so such as are weak in holiness will never thrive so long as they only associate themselves with those that are weak Look as many times one rich man makes many poor men rich so many times one man rich in holiness makes many rich in holiness and therefore as over you would abound in holiness look not so much at gifts as at grace look not so much at Saints out-sides as at their in sides look not so much at their external Garb as at their internal worth and alwaies make them your choicest and your chiefest companions who do most excel in grace and holiness their tongues their lips their lives will still be a droping divine marrow and farness and therefore be sure to keep most in with them But Fifthly If ever you would attain to higher degrees of holiness then be much in the exercise and actings of that holiness you have all the honour and glory that God hath from us in this world is from the exercise of holiness Look as the frequent actings of sin is the strengthening of sin so the frequent actings of holiness is the strengthening of holiness Look as the non-exercise of holiness brings upon the soul a decay of holiness so the exercise of holiness breeds in the sould an increase of holiness Holiness is alwaies made more and more perfect by acting Look as Wells are the sweeter for drawing and Fountains the better for overflowing so holiness is sweerest and best when it is drawn into action Look as the running-water is the best and sweetest water so the active Christian is the best and sweetest Christian That musical Instrument alwaies makes the sweetest melody that is most frequently used and so doth that Christian that is most frequent in the exercise of grace and holiness Wee get nothing by dead and useless habits talents hid in a Napkin gather rust and the noblest faculties are imbased when not improved in exercise and therefore the Apostle exhorts Timothy to stir up the gift of God that was in him in that 2 Tim. 1.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It signifies to rekindle or revive when the world the flesh and the Devil go about to put out that Divine Fire that should bee alwaies â—â—â—ning in our hearts wee must do all wee can to foster it and keep
ever was or that is this day in the world all the seeds of holiness and all the roots of holiness that are to be found in Angels or men Phil. 1.11 are of the Lords sowing and planting All that holiness that the Angels had in Heaven and all that holiness that Adam had in Paradise and all that holiness that Christ had in his humane nature and all that holiness that ever any Saints have had was from God and all that holiness that any Saints now have is from God The Divine Nature is the first root and original fountain of all sanctity and purity James 1.17 Ministers may pray that their people may be holy and Parents may pray that their children may be holy and Masters may pray that their servants may be holy and husbands may pray that their wives may be holy and Wives may pray that their husbands may be holy but none of these can give holinesse none of these can communicate holinesse to their nearest and dearest relations t is only God that is the giver and the Author of all holinesse If holy persons could convey holinesse into others souls they would never suffer them to go to Hell for want of holiness to hand out holiness to others is a work too high for Angels and too hard for all mortals 't is only the Holy One that can cause holiness to flow into sinners hearts 't is only hee that can form and frame and infuse holiness into the souls of men A man shall sooner make a man yea make a world and unmake himself than hee shall make another holy t is only a holy God that can enlighten the mind and bow the will and melt the heart and raise the affections and purge the conscience and reform the life and put the whole man into a holy gracious frame and temper But Sixthly As God is originally radically and fundamentally holy Isa 44.24 Rev. 1.18 so God is independently holy the Holiness of God depends upon nothing below God God is the Alpha the fountain from â—â—ence all holinesse springs and hee is the Omega the Sea to which all glory runs As all our holiness is from God so all our holiness must terminate in the honour and glory of God 'T is God alone that is independently holy All that holiness that is in Angels and men is a dependent holiness it depends upon the Holiness of God as the streams depend upon the Fountain the beams upon the Sun the branches upon the Root and the members upon the Head God is Unum principium ex quo cuncta dependent one beginning upon whom all things depend God hath his Being only of himself and 't is hee alone that gives Being unto all other things God is the first cause and without all causes himself the very Beings that Angels and men have they have by participation from God And 't is the first cause that giveth unto all causes their proper operations Isa 44.6 I am the first and I am the last and besides mee there is no God God never had a cause of his Being as all other creatures have He is a glorious being a holy being without all causes either efficient or formal or material or final and therefore hee must needs be independently holy Look as the power of God is an independent power and the wisdome of God an independent wisdome and the goodness of God an independent goodness and the righteousness of God an independent righteousness so the holiness of God is an independent holiness And as it is the glory of his power that his power is an independent power and the glory of his goodnesse that his goodnesse is an independent goodnesse so 't is the glory of his holinesse that his holinesse is an independent holinesse And look as all that power that Angels and men have depends upon the power of God and as all that wisdome that Angels and men have depends upon the wisdome of God and as all that goodnesse that Angels and men have depends upon the goodnesse of God so all that holinesse that Angels and men have depends upon the holinesse of God c. Philo could say that God is such a fountain that hee breaks forth with the streams of his goodnesse upon all things but receives nothing back again from any to better himself therewith There are none in Heaven nor none on Earth that are absolutely independent but God alone Seventhly As God is independently holy so God is constantly holy hee is unchangeably holy hee was holy yesterday and hee is holy to day and hee will be holy for ever What is natural is constant and lasting Now Gods holinesse is natural to him 't is as natural for God to be holy as 't is for us to breathe yea as 't is for us to bee unholy God can as well and as soon cease to bee as hee can cease to be holy Holinesse is his nature as well as his name and therefore his holinesse cannot decay though ours may whatever wee may lose of our holinesse yet 't is certain that God can never lose one grain of that holinesse that is in him Here our holinesse ebbs and flows but the Holinesse of God never ebbs but is alwaies a flowing and over-flowing there is still a full tyde of Holinesse in God Though the Saints cannot fall from that seed of holinesse that is sown in their hearts 1 Joh. 3.9 yet they may fall from some degrees of holinesse that they have formerly attained to they that have been old men in holinesse may fall from being old men to be but young men in holinesse and they that have been young men in holinesse 1 Joh. 2.12 13 14. 2 Pet. 2.1 2 3. may fall from being young men to be but children in holinesse and they that have been children in holiness may fall from being children to be but babes in holiness but now that holiness that is in God is never subject to any decayings abatings or languishing that spring that Sea of holiness that is in God is no waies capable of diminution nor of Augmentation Plato could say that God is one and the same Pierius and alwaies like himself And it was a custome among the Turks to cry out every morning from a high Tower God alwaies was and alwaies will bee and so salute their Mahomet O Sirs God hath been alwaies holy and God will bee alwaies holy whatever men may lose yet God is resolved that hee will never lose his honour nor his holiness But Eighthly and lastly As God is continually holy so God is exemplarily holy Levit. 20.26 Remember this you and I must answer for examples as well as precepts Hee is the Rule Pattern and Example of holiness 1 Pet. 1.15 Bee yee holy as I am holy Gods Holiness is the great example and pattern of all that holiness which is in the creatures Gods holiness is the Copy that we must alwaies have in our eye and indeavour most
exactly to write after Carnal friends and this blinde world and Antichrist and such as love to Lord it over the conscience will be still a presenting to you other examples and patterns but 't is your wisdome and your work to cast them all behinde your backs and to trample them under your feet and to follow that form and pattern that the Lord hath set before you And that is to bee holy as hee is holy All our holiness is to be brought to the Holiness of God as the standard and measure of it and therefore oh what cause have wee to be still a perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. And thus I have done with the second thing viz. Means to increase holiness and to raise you up to the highest pitches and degrees of holiness And so I come to the third thing proposed and that was to lay down some signs or evidences whereby persons may know whether they have attained to any high pitch or eminent degrees of holiness or no. Now Sirs if you desire in good earnest to know whether you have attained to any perfection of holiness or no then seriously weigh these following particulars and try your selves by them First The more a man can warm his heart at the Promises and cleave to the Promises and rest upon the Promises and suck marrow and fatness and sweetness out of the breasts of the Promises when Divine Providences seem to run cross to Divine Promises The greater measure of holiness that man hath attained to where there are but little measures of holiness there every seeming contrariety to the Promise troubles a man and every little cloud that hangs over the Promise will mightily perplex a man c. But where holiness is raised to any considerable height there that man will suck hony out of the flint hee will suck sweetness out of the Promise even then when providence looks sowrely upon the Promise yea when Providence seems to bid defiance to the Promise witness Jacob in that Gen. 32.6 7 8. compared with v. 9 11 12. And the Messengers returned to Jacob saying Wee came to thy Brother Esau and also hee cometh to meet thee and four hundred men with him Then Jaâ—ob was greatly afraid and distressed and hee divided the people that were with him and the Flocks and Herds and the Camels into two bands And said if Esau come to the one company and smite it then the other company which is left shall escape And Jacob said O God of my Father Abraham and God of my Father Isaac the Lord which saidst unto mee return unto thy Country and to thy Kindred and I will deal well with thee Deliver mee I pray thee from the hand of my Brother from the hand of Esau For I fear him lest hee will come and smite mee and the Mother with the children And thou saidst I will surely do thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the Sea which cannot bee numbred for multitude Now here you see holy Jacob in the midst of all his fears and frights in the midst of all his perils and dangers in the midst of all his damps and dreads and in the midst of all cross amazing and amusing providences hee turns himself to the breasts of the Promise and sucks marrow and sweetness out of those breasts Jacob puts the Promise into suit hee sues God upon his own bond and so bears up sweetly under dark and dismal providences And so did Moses in that Numb 10.29 And Moses said unto Hobab the Son of Raguel the Medianite Moses Father-in law wee are journying unto the place of which the Lord said I will give it you come thou with us and wee will do thee good for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel Moses had been almost now forty years in the wilderness and many thousands were fallen on his right hand and on his left yet saith hee to Hobab in the face of all those dismal providences come go along with us and be as eyes unto us and wee will certainly do thee good Vers 31. but Hobab might have objected Alas what good can I expect in a wilderness condition where so many are weak and so many are sick and so many thousands are fallen asleep and where all the people are every day surrounded with a thousand dangers difficulties and deaths well saith hee though al this be true yet go along with us and be serviceable and useful to us and wee will do thee good for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel Here this holy man Moses turns himself to the Promise and in the face of all sad providences hee draws comfort and incouragement from the Pâ—omise And so did Jehosaphat in that 2 Chron. 20. When the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir came against him to battel v. 1.10 hee turns himself to the Promise v. 7 8 9. and gathers life and spirit from thence And so did David in that Psal 60. in the 1 2 3. v. you have a Narrative of many cross and dreadful Providences and yet in the face of them all holy David sucks strong consolation out of the breasts of the Promise vers 6. God hath spoken in hâ—s holiness I will rejoyce I will divide Shechem and mete out the valley of Succoth God hath promised in his Holiness that David should bee King over all Israel and therefore notwithstanding all strange providences David triumphs in the Promise and looks upon himself as Master of all those strong-holds that are mentioned in v. 7 8 9. And so Abraham hee wanted a Son and God promised him an Isaac Now in the face of all his own deadness and natural inâ—biâ—ities as to generation and Sarah's deadness and barrenness Rom. 4.17 18 19 20 1. hee turns about to the Promise and his Faith and Holiness being high hee draws sweetness and satisfaction from thence Notwithstanding present providences the nâ—keâ— Promise was a well of Life and Salvation to him O Sirs 't is an Argument of a very great measure of holiness when troubles and difficulties vanish upon the sight of a Promise when all things work quire cross and contrary to sense and feeling Now for a man to imbrace a Promise to hug a Promise to kiss a Promise and to draw content and satisfaction from a Promise argues a great degree of holiness 'T is a very hard and difficult thing for a man exactly to take the picture of Divine Providence at any time for many aâ—e the voices and the faces of providence and there are as great deeps in Providences as there are in Prophecies and many Texts of Providence are as hard as dark and as difficult to be understood as many Texts of Scripture are 't is as hard to reconcile the Works of God Psal 36.6 Rom. 11.33 as 't is to reconcile the Word of God for as in the Word of God there are many seeming contradictions so in the Works of God there are many
with his own heart that he had no such Trophies to shew but had spent his time in courting of Ladies rather than in encountring of Knights and that hee was better for a dance than for a march and that hee knew no Drum but the Tabret nor no courage but to bee Drunk and Rant hereupon hee presently retired himself repented entred into a combate with his own lusts and affections and subdued them and became temperate continent valiant and vertuous Now when the Souldiers came to receive their Wreaths their Crowns their Honours c. Hee steps in and challenges a Wreath a Crown for himself but being asked upon what title his challenge was grounded hee answered if honours bee given to Conquerours then they must bee given to mee too for I have gotten the noblest conquest of all and it being demanded wherein he answered these have subdued strange Foes and conquered their outward enemies but I have subdued my self I have conquered the enemies that were in my own bosome O Sirs there are no mens names written in the book of life but theirs who by grace and holinesse have subdued and brought under their sinful selves and who have conquered the corruptions that bee in their own bosoms that is in respect of love and dominion many there bee who are exceeding inquisitive to know whether their names are written in Heaven or no I would say to such there is no such way to know this Phil. 4.3 Heb. 11.38 Seneca though a Heathen saw so much excellency that morality put upon a man that hee cryes out Ipse aspectus boni viri delectat the very looks of a good man delights one Sapiens dei comes est saith Philo. as by your holinesse hast thou broke off thy sins by sound repentance hath the Gospel chang'd thy inside and thy outside hath it made thee a new creature and turned thee from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to Jesus Christ c. then without all peradventure thy name is written in Heaven and thou art the person that hast the greatest cause in the world to joy and rejoyce Again the Holy Christian is the best Christian in the world nay hee is such a one of whom this world is not worthy and therefore God cannot but take singular pleasure and delight in him many there are which are accounted deep Scholars great Linguists profound Philosophers good Grammarians excellent Mathematicians sharp Logitians cunning Polititians fine Rhetoritians sweet Musitians c. but the truth is hee is the best Grammarian that hath learn't to speak the truth from his heart and hee is the best Astronomer that hath his conversation in Heaven and he is the best Musitian that hath learn't practically to sing out the praises of God and hee is the best Arithmetitian that knows how to number his daies and hee is the best read in Ethicks that every day grows holier and holier and hee is the best skild in Oeconomicks that trains up his Family in the fear of the Lord and hee is the best Polititian that is as good at taking good counsel as hee is at giving good counsel and hee is the best Linguist that speaks the language of Canaan and therefore God cannot but take the greatest content and satisfaction in such Again the Holy Christian is the only man for whom God hath wrought the greatest miracles hee can tell you that he was blinde but now God hath given him eyes to see sin to bee the greatest evil and Christ to bee the choisest Good hee can tell you that once hee was so deaf that though God called very often and very loud upon him by his word and by his works by his rods at home and by his judgements abroad and by his spirit and conscience that were still a preaching in his bosome sometimes Life sometimes Death sometimes Heaven and sometimes Hell yet hee could not hear but now God hath given him an hearing ear so that now hee can with delight hear the sweet Musick of the promises on the one hand and with a holy trembling lissen to the voice of divine threatnings on the other hand Psal 45.1 Jude 3. The very Heathen could say quando sapiens loquitur aulea animi aperit When a wiseman speaketh hee openeth the rich treasure and wardrob of his minde hee can tell you that once hee was so dumb that if hee might have had the whole world hee could not have spoke a good word for God nor for his waies nor for his people nor for his ordinances nor for any of his concernments in the world O but now his tongue is as the pen of a ready writer and hee is never better than when hee is a speaking either of God or for God and his concernments now hee can contend for the faith and speak for Saints and plead for Ordinances and though in some cases hee may want power to act for God yet hee never wants a tongue to speak for God The Spouses lips drop honey combs in that 4 Cant. 11. And the tongue of the just is as choice silver in that 10. Prov. 20. yea his tongue is a tree of life whose leaves are medicinable in that 12. Prov. 18. Hee can tell you that once hee was so lame that hee was not able to move one foot Heaven-wards or Christ-wards or Holiness-wards c. but now his feet delights not only to go but to run in all the waies of Gods commands Psal 119.32 Yea hee can tell you that once hee was dead as to all his soul concernments but now hee is alive and the life that hee leads in the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God that hath loved him and given himself for him Gal. 2.20 It was by a miracle that the River Jordan was driven back and t is no less a miracle to see a sinner that was accustomed to do evil habituated now to do good That the tyde of sin which before did run so strong should bee so easily turned that the sinner which a little before was sailing Hell-ward and wanted neither wind nor tyde to carry him thither should now on a sudden alter his course and tack about for Heaven what a miracle is this To see the earthly man become heavenly a carnal man become spiritual a loose man become precise a proud man become humble a covetous man become liberal and a froward man become meek c. is to behold no less than miracles To see a sinner move cross and contrary to himself in the waies of Christ and holiness should bee as wonderful in our eyes as to see the Sun go backward or the Earth to fly upward or the Dead to raise themselves or the Bowl to run contrary to its own byass Now how can God but take infinite delight and pleasure in his holy ones considering the many miracles that hee hath wrought both in them and for them Psa 4.6 7. Again there are no persons under Heaven that
you yet let this support you let this rejoyce you that you are high in the favour of God But Tenthly If thou art a holy person if thou art one that hast that real holiness without which there is no happiness then know for thy comfort that all thy duties and services are very pleasing Act. 10.4 Mal. 3.3 2 Tim. 2.21 delightful and acceptable to the Lord and this roundly follows upon the former for when ever a mans person comes to bee accepted of God and to bee high in favour with God then all his services and sacrifices comes to bee acceptable to God Gen. 4.4 And Abel hee also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering God had first a respect to his person in Christ and then to his offering and so his sacrifice was accepted for the man and not the man for the sacrifice Heb. 11.4 By Faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Kain by which hee obtained witness that hee was righteous God testifying of his gifts and by it hee being dead yet speaketh God will alwaies welcome the holy man into his presence and hee shall alwaies have his ear at command God will still bee a warming his heart Isa 45.11 and a cheering up his spirit and a satisfying of his soul in meeting of him in all holy means and in giving gracious answers to all his requests Isa 64.5 Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness those that remember thee in thy waies Prov. 21.8 The way of man that is of unholy man is froward and strange but as for the pure his work is right When God hath cleansed ◠mans heart and sanctified his nature then his work his religious work is right 't is then right in the eye of God and in the account of God and in estimation of God and therefore his Petitions are as soon granted Isa 65.24 as they are offered and his requests performed Sealh here is a special note of observation to work us to a serious marking of the things that are mentioned as things that are of special weight and of highest concernment to us as soon as they are mentioned Psal 32.5 I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Selah Holy David had an inward purpose and resolution to confess his sin but before hee could do it God throws him his pardon thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin God loves to bee before-hand with his people in acts of grace and favour Gods eye and his ear was in Davids heart before Davids confession could bee in his tongue O! the delight of God O! the pleasedness of God with the duties and services of his holy ones Psal 4.3 But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself the Lord will hear when I call upon him that is the Lord will approve of my prayer hee will accept of my prayer he will delight in my prayer and hee will answer my prayer when I call unto him and what can the Godly man desire more Psal 61.1 Hear my cry O God attend unto my prayer Aquinas saith that some read the words thus Intende ad cantica mea attend unto my songs and so the words may bee safely read from the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ranah which signifies to shout or shrill out for joy to note that the prayers of the Saints are like pleasant songs and delightful dirties in the ears of God no mirth no musick can bee so pleasing to us as the prayers of the Saints are pleasing to God Cant. 2.14 Psal 141.2 Let my prayer come before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifize What 's more sweet what 's more pleasing and what 's more perfuming then incense why the prayers of the Saints Rev. 5.8 ch 8.3 4 as they are in the hands of a Mediatour are as sweet and pleasing to God as incense that is made up of the choicest and sweetest spices are sweet and pleasing unto us 1 Pet. 3.12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open unto their prayers or rather as the Greek hath it his ears are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their prayers that is when their prayers are so faint and weak that they cannot reach to God that they cannot travel as far as Heaven then God will come down to them and lay his ears as it were unto their prayers O what matter of joy and comfort is this to all the holy seed that God will graciously bow his ears to their prayers when hee turns his back with the greatest disdain and indignation upon the most costly sacrifices of the wicked O you precious Sons of Zion that are daily lamenting and mourning over the weaknesses that cleaves to your best services know for your comfort and joy that though with Moses you can but stammer out a prayer God once accepted of a handfull of Meal for a sacrifice and of a gripe of Goats hair for an oblation Artaxerxes the Persian monarch accepted with a cheerful countenance a little water as a present from the hand of a poor labourer c. or with Hannah weep out a prayer or with Hezekiah chatter out a prayer or with Paul sigh and groan out a prayer yet the Lord will own your prayers and accept your prayers and delight in your prayers O what a rare comfort is this for a Christian to consider that when hee is under outward wants and inward distresses that when hee hath sickness upon his body and reproach upon his name and death knocking at his door that in all these cases and in all other cases hee may run to God as to a Father and tell God how 't is with him and when hee hath done that hee may sit down satisfied and assured of Audience and Acceptance in Heaven O Sirs this is a priviledge more worth than a thousand worlds and had unsanctified persons as many Kingdomes to give as they have haires on their heads they would give them all for an interest in this priviledge when guilt and wrath is upon their consciences and when the arrows of the Almighty stick fast in them and when the terrours of death are round about them and when the dreadful day of their account is every moment remembred by them O! if it bee so great a favour to have the ears of an earthly King at pleasure what a transcendent savour must it bee to have his ear at pleasure who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and yet this favour hath all his Saints But Eleventhly If thou art a Holy Person if thou art one that hast that real holiness without which there is no happiness then know for thy comfort that Jesus Christ will certainly preserve thy holiness Next to Christ holiness is a
towards their desired Harbour And so 't is with a holy heart sometimes the gales of the spirit blow very fair and sweet very strong and powerful upon a gracious soul and then a Christian sails most sweetly most speedily and most successfully on in a way of Holiness and towards his Port of Happiness but anon the spirit is either resisted or grieved or neglected or quenched or vexed or disobeyed and then his gales his influences his breathings are slacked and then a poor Christian sails but very slow on in a way of holiness then hee doth but even creep towards the Harbour of everlasting blessedness Again no Saints have at all times alike the same external helps advantages and opportunities of being holy and of thriving in holiness It may bee they have not the word so clearly so powerfully so sweetly so faithfully nor so frequently preacht to them as formerly they have had or it may bee they have not other Ordinances so lively so purely so spiritually so evangelically dispenced to them as formerly they have had It may bee they have had stones instead of bread and bones instead of flesh and chaffe instead of wheat and muddy water instead of choice wine and then no wonder if they do not thrive in holiness as they did when God rained Mannah every day about their Tents and when they were fed with the best of the best that their Heavenly Fathers Table Wine-seller and House did afford When Children have not as good Food and as good Physick and as good lodging and as good looking to as they have formerly had no wonder if they thrive not as at other times And so 't is here look as no men have alwaies the same helps the same advantages the same opportunities to grow great and rich and high and honourable in the world that sometimes they have had so no Christian hath alwaies the same helps advantages and opportunities to grow rich and high in holiness as sometimes hee hath had It may bee hee hath not that communion and fellowship with the people of God that once hee had or if hee hath yet it may bee their communion is not so pure so holy so lively so heart-warming so soul-inriching as once it hath been or it may bee hee hath not as good counsel as formerly nor as good examples as formerly nor as good encouragement as hee hath formerly had to bee holy or it may bee their calling imployment and outward condition is so altered and changed from what once it was that they have not that time for closet Duties and to wait on publick Ordinances that once they had or it may bee bodily infirmities weaknesses diseases aches and ailements are so increased and multiplied upon them that they cannot make that improvement that once they did of those very advantages and opportunities that yet by a hand of grace is continued among them now these cases being incident to the people of God there is no reason to wonder if at some times Saints are more holy than they are at others and if at some seasons they shoot up more in holiness than they do at others The serious weighing of this Position may serve to prevent many fears and scruples many debates and disputes that often rise in the hearts of Christians upon the often ebbings and flowings of holiness in their souls The sixt Position is this There will come a time when in this world holiness shall bee more general and more eminent than ever it hath been since Adam fell in Paradise The Scripture speaks clearly roundly and fully to this Deut. 30.5 6 8. The Lord thy God will bring thee into thine own Land and the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord and do All His Commandements This gracious Promise was made to the Jews above two thousand years ago and yet to this very day it hath not been fulfilled and therefore there will certainly come a time wherein God will make it good Isa 11.6 The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb c. and they shall not hurt c. for the Earth shall bee Full of the Knowledge of The Lord As the Waters Cover The Sea This glorious Promise hath not been made good to this day but there is a time a coming wherein it shall bee accomplished Isa 35.8 There shall bee a high-way and it shall bee called a way of Holiness THE UNCLEAN SHALL NOT PASSE OVER IT Isa 59.21 This is my Covenant my WORD AND MY SPIRIT SHALL NEVER DEPART from thee for ever Isa 60.21 Thy People shall bee ALL RIGHTEOUS Jer. 32.40 41. I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good But I will put my fear into their hearts So Ezek. 36.23 to v. 30. Mal. 4.1 2. 2 Pet. 3.13 that they shall not depart from mee yea I will rejoyce over them to do them good and will plant them in this Land assuredly WITH MY WHOLE HEART AND WHOLE SOUL Now it is very observable that this great Promise must bee fulfilled when the Jews shall return and bee settled in their own Land And so the Prophet Ezekiel speaking of the glorious state of the Church in the last daies Ezek. 44.7 9. adds Thus saith the Lord no stranger uncircumcised in HEART shall enter into my Sanctuary Zeph. 3.13 The remnant of Israel SHALL NOT DO INIQUITY nor SPEAK LYES neither shall a DECEITFUL TONGUE bee found in their mouths Now the context clearly shews that these words relate to the glorious state of the Church on Earth and they have never yet received their accomplishment but shall in the last daies for hee is faithful that hath spoken it Zach. 14.20 21. Upon ALL SHALL BEE HOLINESSE TO THE LORD I have opened this Text pretty fully to you already in my former discourses on holiness and therefore shall pass it by now Rev. 21. verse the first See the English Annotations on these words and verse the last And I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth and I saw the holy City New Jerusalem coming down from God out of HEAVEN Behold the Tabernacle of God is WITH MEN c. and there shall in no wise enter into it any thâ—ng that DEFILETH c. but they that are written in the Lambs Book I have formerly proved by several Arguments as divers of you knows that this chapter cannot be understood of Heaven but must necessarily and beyond all dispute bee understood of the glorious state of the Saints on Earth which they shall certainly enjoy in the last daies By all these Scriptures it is most evident that there will come a time when holiness shall bee more general and at a fuller height than ever yet it hath been since man fell from his Original holiness and therefore pray
and the more careful they should be in pleasing of him Divine blessings should be the greatest obligations in the world upon a Christian to keep at a distance from sin and to keep close to a holy God the greater the mercy is and the more miraculous the deliverance and the salvation is that God crowns his people with the greater are the ingagements that God hath put upon them to be a holy people to him So in that 116. Psal David gives in a bill of particulars in the eight first verses hee gives you a choice Narrative of the singular favours and blessings of God both in respect of his inward and his outward man God had been good to his soul and hee had been kind to his body hee tells you of Gods sparing mercy and of his preventing mercy and of his preserving mercy and of his delivering mercy and of his supporting mercy and of his multiplying mercy and of his pardoning mercy hee tells you that God hath heard his prayers and wip'd off his tears and preserved his feet from falling and his soul from death And then in the following words hee tells you what his resolution is upon the whole I will walk before the Lord in the Land of the Living vers 9. or rather as the Hebrew hath it Ethhallech Liphne Jehovah I will walk before the face of the Lord The Hebrew word that is here rendred walk signifies a continued action or the reiteration of an action David resolves that hee will not only take a turn or two with God or walk a pretty way with God as Orpah did with Ruth Ruth 1.10 15. and then take his leave of God as Orpah did of her Mother but hee resolves whatever comes on it that hee will walk constantly resolutely and perpetually before God or before the face of the Lord Now walking before the face of the Lord doth imply a very exact circumspect accurate and precise walking before God and indeed no other walking is either suitable or pleasing to the eye of God But is this all that hee will do upon the receipt of such signal mercies O no! for hee resolves to take the cup of salvation and to call upon the Name of the Lord and â—o offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving v. 13. and 17. but is this all that hee will do oh no! for hee resolves that hee will presently pay his vows unto the Lord in the presence of all his people v. 14 and 18. but is this all that hee will do O no! for hee resolves that hee will love the Lord better than ever and more than ever v. 1. Hee loved God before with a real love but having now received such rare mercies from God hee is resolved to love God with a more raised love and with a more inflamed love and with a more active and stirring love and with a more growing and increasing love than ever And so the Apostle in that Rom. 12.1 2. I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service And bee not conformed to this world but bee yee transformed by the renewing of your mind that yee may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God When this great Apostle would work up the Romans to a full resignation of themselves to God and to his service and would sence and arm them against the sinful fashions customes examples dispositions and practices of a corrupt and wicked world hee sets the mercies of God before them the Apostle very well knew that there was no such spur to holiness nor no such preservative against wickedness as this was the Apostle could have set threatnings before them and the curse before them and wrath before them and former and latter judgements before them and hell before them and yet hee passes over all these things and presents the mercies of God before them as the most effectual means under Heaven to engage them to holiness and to fortify them against all sinful conformity and worldly vanity O Sirs you are all under several signal mercies this day you are out of Hell and is not that a signal mercy you have many mercies that others want and is not that a signal mercy yet God rains Mannah every day about your Tents when others wander several miles and are too often put off with stones instead of bread and is not that a signal mercy That wicked mens hearts should be so full of wrath rage revenge envy and malice and you cast at their feet and yet not trod to death is a signal mercy that you should stand when others fall that you should be faithful when others are false that you should persevere when others backslide that you should be for God when so many are for Baal and that you should be followers of the Lamb when so many thousands are dancing after Antichrists Pipes are all very rare and signal mercies and calls aloud upon you to be holy yea to be eminently holy c. But Thirdly Times of personal afflictions are times wherein God calls aloud for holiness when the Rod of God is upon our backs See my Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod c. it highly concerns us to look that our words are full of grace and that all our waies and works are full of holiness Now God looks that his people should be divinely fearful of offending him and divinely careful in pleasing of him and divinely willing to resign up themselves to him and divinely patient in waiting on him and divinely humble in submitting to him and divinely wise in justifying of him and divinely resolute in serving of him Heb. 12.10 But hee afflicts us for our profit that wee might be made partakers of his holiness why they were before partakers of his holiness that 's true and these words declare that the great reach and design of God in all the afflictions that hee brings upon his people is to make them more and more holy and therefore for Christians to be proud under the Rod and carnal under the Rod and worldly under the Rod and froward under the Rod and stupid under the Rod and wanton under the Rod and wicked under the Rod is to cross and frustrate the great design of God in afflicting of them In afflictions God looks that his people should shine brighter and brighter and grow better and better and holier and holier O there is nothing that pleases God more that delights God more that affects God more or that wins upon God more than to see his people a holy people in the daies of their afflictions Well-waters are hottest in the winter c. Jer. 2.2 3. Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem saying Thus saith the Lord I remember thee the kindness of thy youth the love of thine Espousals when thou wentest after mee in the wilderness in a Land that was not sown Israel
except there be sound repentance on their sides and pardoning mercy on Gods they are so abominable debauched and wicked But Eightly When God hath separated and severed his people from the corrupt and sinful customes and manners of the world and brought them into fellowship with himself and into Gospel-Communion with one another O then in a special manner hee calls aloud upon them to be holy Levit. 20.23 24 26. And yee shall not walk in the manners of the Nation which I cast out before you for they committed all these things and therefore I abhorred them But I have said unto you ye shall inherit their Land and I will give it unto you to possess it a Land that floweth with milk and hony I am the Lord your God which have separated you from other people And yee shall be holy unto mee for I the Lord am holy and have severed you from other people that yee should bee mine Distinguishing mercies should breed and nourish distinguishing qualities O Sirs 't is not for you who are separated and severed from the world by God to be proud and carnal and formal and distrustful and hypocritical and earthly and froward c. as the world is 't is not for you to deny your principles to debauch your consciences to change your notes to turn your coats to defile your souls to blot your names and to scandalize your profession O Sirs if God hath separated you and severed you from the world by a call from Heaven it highly concerns you not to think as the world thinks nor to speak as the world speaks nor to judge as the world judges nor to walk as the world walks nor to worship as the world worships but so to think speak judge walk and worship as may make most for the honour of God the glory of the Gospel and as best becomes those that have had the honour and the happiness of being separated and severed by God from the world But Ninthly When the day of the Lord draws neer and when wee look for the accomplishment of great things O then God calls aloud upon his people to bee holy 2 Pet. 3.10 11 12 13 14. But the day of the Lord will come as a Theif in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Element shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall bee burnt up Seeing then that all these things shall bee desolved what manner of persons ought yee to bee in all holy conversation and godliness Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God wherein the Heavens being on fire shall bee desolved and the Element shall melt with fervent heat Never-the-less wee according to his promise look for a new Heaven and new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness Wherefore Beloved seeing that yee look for such things bee diligent that yee may bee found of him in peace without spot and blameless The neerer the day of Christ is to us and the more great and glorious things wee expect from God Isa 65.17 18 19 20. the more holy the more spotless and the more blameless wee must labour to bee I know there are many that look for new heavens and a new earth that is for a glorious Church-state here on earrh wherein shall dwell righteousness 't is certain that the highest Heavens where God keeps his Royal Court was never without righteousness righteousness hath been alwaies the habitation of his Throne righteousness hath alwaies dwelt in the highest Heavens and indeed Heaven would bee no Heaven yea it would rather hee a Hell than a Heaven if righteousness did not alwaies dwell there neither can the highest Heaven ever wax old neither were they ever made of Earth or Brittle mouldering matter the Pallace of the great King will bee alwaies new fresh shining and gloriousness but indeed the Earth in all Ages have been full of injustice unrighteousness wickedness tyranny cruelty and oppression so that righteousness seems to have been banished out of the world ever since Adam fell from his primitive righteousness and holiness O! but there is a glorious day a coming wherein the Earth shall bee full of righteousness and holiness as I have formerly proved at large from other Scriptures Now Christians the more great and glorious things you expect from God as the downfall of Antichrist the conversion of the Jews the conquest of the nations to Christ the breaking off of all yoâ—ks the new Jerusalems coming down from above the extraordinary pouring out of the spirit and a more general union among all Saints the more holy yea the more eminently holy in all your waies and actings it becomes you to bee many there bee that will talke high and speak big words and tell you stories of great things that they expect and look for in these daies which are the last of the last times and yet if you look into their lives you shall finde them loose and vain and what not O! that these would for ever remember that the more great and glorious things wee expect and look for from God the more holiness God expects and looks for from us and therefore as wee would not have God fail our expectation let not us frustrate his and the higher your expectation rises the higher alwaies let your holiness rise Eccle. 12 2 3 4 5. for there is nothing that will hasten that desirable day of glory upon the world like this But Tenthly and lastly When you draw neer your end when there are but a few steps between you and the Grave between you and Eternity when you have but a little time to live when death stands at your backs and treads on your heels and knocks at your doors when the eyes begin to grow dark when the grinders begin to cease when the keepers of the house the hands and the arms begin to tremble and when the strong men the legs and thighs begin to bow and stagger and totter as being too weak to bear the bodies burden O then what a holy people should you bee this very consideration had a very great influence upon that great Apostles spirit in that 2 Pet. 1.12 13 14 15. Wherefore I will not bee negligent to put you alwaies in remembrance of these things though yee know them and bee established in the present truth Yea I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To rouse you up The Greek word signifies to awaken rouse and raise such as are a sleep There is a sinful slugishness and drousiness that often hangs upon the best of men and therefore they stand in much need of being awakned and roused up to look after their spiritual and eternal concernments to stir you up by putting you in remembrance knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle even as our Lord Jesus Christ shewed me Moreover I will endeavour that you
greater shall bee my reward hereafter and therefore O my Soul grow in grace perfect holiness and abound in the work and service of the Lord knowing that thy labour shall not bee in vain in the Lord And thus I have given you the reasons that prove that there shall bee degrees of glory in Heaven Now I have nothing further to do upon this point but to give a few brief Answers to such Objections as are commonly raised against this truth that I have asserted and proved Obj. First Some object and say that one Christ bought us all and that all our portions are bought by the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and that therefore all beleevers shall share alike in the inheritance of the Saints in light now to this Objection I shall Answer First That all Saints shall bee equal sharers in the substantial and essential glory of Heaven c. but of this I have spoken before and therefore Secondly Though a Father buyes a rich inheritance for all his Children yet this laies no necessity nor obligation at all upon him to alot to every one of his Children an equal portion so though our Lord Jesus Christ hath by his blood purchased a rich inheritance for his Children yet this layes no necessity nor obligation at all upon Jesus Christ to divide this rich inheritance by equal portions among his Children t is true that Christ hath purchased all with his blood and t is as true that hee may divide his purchase among his people as hee pleases if every man may do with his own as hee pleaseth why may not Christ must hee needs bee bound when others are free Thirdly and lastly I answer that as it is true that the merits and satisfaction of Christ is the ground and foundation of our reward and that alone which makes our works capable of a reward so t is as true that our works are the subject of reward and this is most agreeable to the compact that was made between Christ and his Father that everlasting happiness and blessedness that eternal glory and felicity should bee measured out to the Saints according to their different measures of grace and different degrees of service that they have been engaged in in this world and all this upon the credit of Christs blood certainly there is nothing under heaven below the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that can make differing works capable of a different reward the Papists are most sadly out for they are so blinde and bold as to affirm that the more grace any man hath the more glory hee merits by his grace these men make degrees of grace and not the blood of Jesus Christ to be the meritorious cause of degrees of glory and therefore of all men I think they are furthest from glory certainly this is the beleevers glory and his crown of rejoycing that all recompences and rewards shall flow in upon him not upon the account of his merits but upon the account of Christs blood and thus much shall suffice to have spoken by way of Answer to this Objection Obj. 2. But now in the Second place I shall come to answer their grand and main objection and that is taken from that Parable in the 20 Matth. where the Kingdome of Heaven is compared to a vineyard now in this Parable there is mention made of a Husband-man that call'd several labourers into his vineyard at several hours in the day some hee call'd at the first hour and some hee call'd at the third and some at the ninth and some at the eleventh now when they came all to receive their wages the story tells us that hee gave every man a penny hee gave every man an equal reward they that laboured from the first hour and they that laboured from the third hour and they that laboured from the sixth hour of the day had no greater a recompence than hee that came in at the eleventh hour and so had labour'd but one hour in the vineyard and bore but little if any of the heat of the day from whence the Objectors conclude that there are no degrees of glory in Heaven but that all shall have glory alike happiness and blessedness alike every man shall have his penny every man shall have an equal reward and no mans penny in Heaven shall bee brighter or bigger than anothers Now by way of answer to this objection give mee leave to premise these three things First That this Parable of the housholder in giving to every man a penny hath no reference at all to Heaven nor to the reward nor to the glory that shall bee confer'd upon the Elect and this I shall clearly and fully prove by these four following Arguments First This illative particle for in vers 1. sheweth that this Parable is inserted to expound the former conclusion viz. that the first shall bee last and the last shall bee first and therefore the end of the Parable is concluded with the repetition of the same sentence vers 16. the last shall bee first and the first shall be last Christ by this Parable would teach his hearers that there is no reason under Heaven why they which are first called in respect of time should boast or triumph over others because hee can easily call the uncalled at pleasure and either make them equal with them or else prefer them before them which are first The scope of Christ in this Parable is not to set forth the equality of celestial glory 't is not to prove that the happiness and blessedness of the Saints shall be equal in Heaven but the very drift of the Parable is to shew that they which are first called and converted have no cause at all to despise the uncalled unconverted or to trample upon them with the foot of pride considering that they who are yet in their sins and in their blood and in an unconverted and unsanctified estate may yet be called and either made equal to them or preferred before them But Secondly Interpreters do generally agree in this that by the Husbandman wee are to understand God himself and by the Labourers men upon earth and by the Vineyard the Church of God and several of them say Chrysostom Origen Jerom Gregory Austin that by the five hours in the Parable wee are to understand the five ages of man First By those who were called in the morning See my Apples of Gold and sent into the Vineyard wee are to understand those who in their childhood are called and converted they are such who begin to seek the Lord and to serve the Lord even as soon as they are capable of the use of reason As Samuel did and as Josiah did and as Timothy did Secondly By those who are called at the third hour wee are to understand those who are converted and turned to the Lord in their youth in the prime the spring and morning of their daies Thirdly By those who were called at the
sixth hour wee are to understand those who are turned to the Lord in their strength and in their full and perfect age Fourthly By those who were called at the ninth hour wee are to understand those who are converted and turned to the Lord in their declining age And fifthly By those who were called at the eleventh hour wee are to understand those who are converted and turned to the Lord in their decrepit old age when they have one foot in the grave and there is but a short step between them and eternity when with the Theef upon the crosse they are even ready to bee turned off of the Ladder of life Now the Vineyard being the Church all that this parable proveth is no more but this that whether men are cal'd into the Vineyard of the Church either sooner or later either at the first hour or at the ninth or eleventh hour Yet this shall neither greaten nor lessen their reward for if they are called at the first hour their recompence shall bee never the greater upon that account or if they are called at the eleventh hour their reward shall be never the lesser upon that account the reward shall not bee different according to the different times of mens being called and converted and that this Parable proves but the reward shall bee different according to the diversity of our works and that my former arguments prove But Thirdly If the Penny The Roman penny is the eight part of an ounce which after five shillings the ounce is seven pence half penny that every one had in the Parable be meant of glory then it will roundly follow that murmurers shall be saved and glorified as well as others for the murmurers had their Penny as well as the rest vers 10 11 12. But when the first came they supposed that they should have received more and they likewise received every man a Penny And when they had received it they murmured against the good man of the house saying These last have wrought but one hour and thou hast made them equal unto us which have born the burden and heat of the day The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is here rendred murmured signifies to grunt as Swine grunt they grumbled and grunted and they grunted and grumbled and pray tell mee what should such Swine as murmurers are do grunting and grumbâ—ing in Heaven doubtless the Crown of Glory is too bright too noble too glorious and too weighty a Crown to be set upon murmurers heads Heaven would be no Heaven if there were but one gruntler or murmureâ— there in Heaven all the vessels of Glory shall be full and there shall not be the least shadow of envy or repining there In the streets of that new Jerusalem above none shall ever complain that others have too much or that themselves have too little every glorified Saint shall sit down fully satisfied and contented with his portion there Now should wee by the Penny understand a glorified estate and condition then this would unavoidably follow that many shall be brought to a state of glory which are not elected nor sanctified nor prepared for glory but this can never nor must never be granted and therefore without all peradventure this Parable doth no way hold out that state of glory and felicity which all the called and chosen of God shall have at Christs coming to judge the quick and the dead But Fourthly The Penny that is here mentioned in this Parable cannot nor may not be interpreted so as to signifie an equality of glory or an equality of happiness and blessedness that the Saints shall have in Heaven because such an interpretation such an exposition is cross and contrary to the common and received Rules of interpreting and expounding of Scripture Now among other Rules that are to be observed in the interpreting and expounding of Scripture there are these two First You must so interpret and expound one Text of Scripture that you do not set it at strife and variance with another Text of Scripture for though there is a seeming contradiction between Scripture and Scripture yet there is a blessed harmony and a glorious correspondency between all the parts of Scripture 'T is a very dangerous thing so to interpret Scripture as to raise contests and opposition between Scriptures and Scriptures 't is an evil thing to raise up Scripture against Scripture and so to interpret one as to make it affront another Woe to him that by his interpretations of Scripture proclaims the Scriptures to be at open war amongst themselves Now to interpret the Penny in the Parable so as to make it signifie an equality of glory and happiness among the Saints in Heaven is to set this Scripture at variance and strife withall those Scriptures that I have produced to prove an inequality in the glory and happiness of the Saints in Heaven and therefore such an interpretation is rather to be abhorred than to be received But Secondly Another Rule that is to be observed in the interpreting of Scripture is this wee must alwaies interpret those Scrptures that are more dark and mysterious by those Scriptures that are more plain and clear and not interpret those Scriptures that are plain and clear by those that are dark and mysterious Job 38.2 for this were to darken counsel by words without knowledge Now they that interpret the Penny in the Parable to signifie an equality of glory among the Saints in Heaven they transgress this second Rule for they must then interpret all those clear and plain Scriptures that I have brought to prove degrees of glory in Heaven by this dark and mysterious Parable whereas they should interpret this dark and mysterious Parable if I may so say by those plain and clear Scriptures that I have already cited and therefore their interpretation must be rejected 'T is true of some Parables wee may say as Gregory doth viz. That they rather require a Practicer than an Interpreter And 't is as true Psal 49.4 Psal 78.2 John 16.29 that other Parables are so dark obscure and mysterious that wee shall never understand them without the sweat of our brows and the beating of our brains and such a Parable this seems to be and therefore wee must interpret the parts of it rather by other clear Scriptures than to make clear and plain Scriptures bow to this that seems to have a vail upon it And thus you see by these Arguments that the Penny in the Parable hath no reference at all to Heaven nor to any equality of glory that shall be among the Saints there Secondly Chrysostome's Vide Chrisostom in hunc locum counsel on the Text should be eyed and followed saith hee Wee should not strain every particular of a Parable but only consider the scope of Christ in the propounding of it and accordingly apply it Wee look not on every particular colour in a well drawn picture but on the whole peice