engage to be true and faithful to my own ruin pay allegiance to my perdition Thou hast my worship and my service by bargain and by oath I have sworn Thou art my Lord. Now all this is of much more force in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper where I do formally and knowingly seal to this Covenant and when we do this on our knees in the most solomn manner that is possible this must needs be a more express entring into Christ's oath than that there of the Jewss was the entring God's oath which was in probability onely coming and standing before the Lord to hear the Covenant which God had struck with that nation before in Horeb. Or if it were performed with Sacrifice which may seem probable in that it is exprest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thou shouldest pass into the covenant So your Margent reads there verse the 12. alluding to their manner of confirming Covenants by dividing the beasts and setting one half against the other and passing betwixt the divisions so we see Jer. 34. 18. This is passing into the Covenant and therefore the LXX read here Deut. 29. 12. That thou shouldest enter into the Covenant of the Lord thy God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that rite of dividing and passing thro being onely the Symbol of curses against them that shall break their Covenant and imprecations in Hieroglyphicks so that in Jer. 34. 18. 't is most literally if we translate the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to their importance I will make those men that have transgressed my Covenant the calf or as the calf as the Syriac reads I will divide and separate them among the Nations and give them to the sword and cut them in pieces the ceremony signifying to be don to him that does not stand to his Covenant Now surely this is don to more advantage in the Sacrament where Christ's body is torn and his bloud poured out no doubt with the like commination implied that being the very meaning of pouring out bloud in Covenants so that we entred there the Lord's Covenant and imprecation swearing that he shall be our Lord with a most threatning sense And surely if we be not careful to observe our oath we have vow'd agonies to our selves and sworn our own condemnation when there I curse myself with all the curses of the Covenant if Christ be not my Lord. And now it will be needless for me to go on and prove that if we be not careful to fulfil the importance of this relation my Lord in order to what it requires 't will be in vain to expect the benefit of that relation in what it does import He that hath not don service as to his Lord must not look to enter into the joys of his Lord he that hath not don his will 't will be in vain for him to cry at the last day Lord Lord altho he come with never so applying Titles and cry my Lord and tho he call upon any other Title of his Jesus He died indeed for our sins but he rose again for our justification His Resurrection did entitle him to be our Lord. If he be risen to thee he is thy Lord. But these two make up the confession of a Christian Rom. 10. 9. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved and look not for it from any other relation to him Thy Priest may sacrifice for thee but Christ thy Lord must pardon thee thy Jesus on the Cross must pay thy ransom but if the Lord make you free then are ye free indeed John 8. 36. Do not deceive thy self with looking no farther than to thy Jesus in his sufferings thou must relate to him also in his Power and Autority thou must depend upon thy Jesus dying and risen too not onely on thy Jesus on the Cross but on thy Jesus on the Throne thou must cry out My Savior and thou must cry My Lord and if thou canst in truth and in reality he is the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him that is he is an everlasting Savior to them to whom he is a Lord. His all Autority will be emploied in thy deliverance he will shew himself a Lord to thee onely in pardoning saying and rewarding thee and his all-power both in Heaven and Earth will be to thee Omnipotence of mercy for he that is thy Lord he is thy God also The third thing My God I must take the same method here that I us'd before First see what the Resurrection did contribute towards this Title God and what that Title does imply both as to what it doth require and as to what it imports by way of promise and encouragement Secondly see what the Sacrament contributed towards making the application My God and what that imports in order to both the other things 1. Altho this Son of God according to his Divine Nature was Everlasting God and as the Nicene Creed expresses begotten of his Father before all worlds God of God Light of Light very God of very God and was called so in Scripture John 1. 1. and the Word was God yet it is sure this person Jesus Christ was declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead Rom. 1. 4. And this text is the first place in the New Testament where this person is expresly called God Thomas upon the evidence of this Resurrection crying out I do acknowledge that thou art my very Lord and that is a most certain argument to me that thou art the Omnipotent God of Heaven and this his Resurrection did contribute to his Title God Now I enquire what this implies and that will be made clear from Deut. 26. 16 17 18 19. This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart and with all thy soul. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his ways and to keep his statutes and his commandments and his judgments and to hearken unto his voyce And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made in praise and in name and in honor and that thou maiest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God as he hath spoken So that you have there the certain meaning of that mutual relation My God and My People as to what it requires and so we see 't is but the same engagement that the other Title did import onely with an higher inforcement and ground of obligation and therefore God himself that by his Prophet Malachy c. 1. had used the other-argument of Master or Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 6. and Governor v. 8. Offer
in these instances See pride and passions swoln up to an height which Christ's Mount cannot reach and which he must not level by his precepts For since he was not pleas'd to consider how inconsistent in this last age of the World his rules would be with those of honour and in making his Laws took no care of the reputation of a Gentleman 't is fit his Laws should give way to the constitutions ' of some Hectors and he must bear the violation of them And all this must be reasonable too Good God! what prodigy of age is this when Christ the Lord cannot be competent to judge either of right of honour or of realon When to be like God and to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect is to be most fordid and unworthy of a Gentleman and in the name of God these men that are too great for virtue that brave out Religion and will needs give rules to God what rank do they intend up stand in at Gods Judgment seat on the last day Lord God! grant us to stand among the week on that hand with the sheep and those that are too poor in spirit to defy their enemies and thy commands for however the â—eek maketh himself a prey and is so far from enjoying the promise of inheriting the Earth that the virtue is sacrce allow'd to sojourn in the Earth as if it had breath'd it's last in this our Martyrs prayer took it's flight with his spirit and those stones that flew him were the Monument of loving enemies of praying for those that persecute and murder and such Charity were not to be found among us any more yet sure I am these Charitable persons shall enjoy the friendship and the glories of that Lover that did Bless do good to Pray and Dye for Enemies and these meek men shall reign with the Lord who was stain and is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing all which be ascribed to him and to the Father of all mercies the God of Consolation and to the Spirit of Love now and for evermore FINIS * John 20. 30 31. a Hil. l. 1. de Trinâ—t p. 53 54. Clemens Al. Strom. 6. p. 675. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Justin. Mart. ad Diognetum p. 499. Athanas ad Serapionem tom 1. p. 191. 194 edit Par. 1672. c Justin. ex Trogo l. 36. Diod. Sicul. l. 1. Stâ—abo l. 16. Plin. 30. Tac. Hist. 5. Joseph contra Apionem mentions many others d Exod. 7 8 9 10. Chapters e Exod. 14. 21. f Exod. 16. 15. Deut. 8. 24. g Exod. 16. 20. h Exod. 16. 24. i Num. 11. 16. 20. 31 32. k Num. 20. 8. 11. l Exod. 20. m Jossh 6. 20. n Josh. 6. 20. o Num. 2. 32. Num. 11. 21. p Jer. 25. 11 12. q Isa. 44. 26. 21. 28. 45. 1. r Dan. 9. 24. c. s Tac. An. l. 15. t Vid. Raim Martin pugfid p. 2. c. 8. u Celsus apud Orig. l. 2. Julian Cyril contra ipsum 6. Origâ—n contra Cels. l. 2. c. 69. x Mat. 8. Mar. 1. Luc. 4. y Mat. 8. Mar. 5. Luc. 8. z Mat. 9. Mar. 2. Luc. 5. a Mar 5. Luc 8. b John 5. c Luc. 7. d Maâ— 14. Mar. 6. Luc. 9. John 6. e Mat. 15. Mar. 8. f Mat. 17. Mar. 9. Luc. 9. g John 11. h Mat. 24. Mar. 13. Luc. 21. i Mar. 26. Mar. 14. John 12. k Mat. 27. Mar. 15. Luc. 23. John 19. l â—hlegen apud Origen conâ—ra Cels. l. 2. p. 8â— Euseb. ad Olyn 20â— ann 4 〈◊〉 lop Georg. Syncd Thallâ—s apud African vid. Scal. ammad ad Euseb. Chron. p. 186 ad ann 2044. Etiam vide Just. Mart. p. 76. p. 84. Tertull. Aâ—pol c. 21. de isto terrae motu agere Tacitum Plin. l. 2. c. 84. scribit Oros. m Mat. â—8 Mar. 16. Luc. 29. John 24. n Mar. 16. 9. o Luc. 24. 5. p V. 33. q V. 13. r V. 36 37 41. s John 20. 24 t John 21. u Mat. 28. 16. Mar. 15. 6 x 1 Cor. 15. 7. y Luc. 24. 49. Acts 1. 4. 5. z Acts 1. 9. Luc. 24. 5â— a Acts 2. 6 7 8. b Luc. 1. 14. c 1 Cor. 4. 9. d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suidas in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e Whence Eusebius says l. 2. Eccl. hist. c. 14. they at Rome not thinking it enough to have heard the Gospel once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not being contented with the preaching of the heavenly doctrine while it was but an unwritten doctrine earnestly entreat St Mark that he would leave in writing with them a monument of that doctrine which had bin delivered to them by preaching Nor did they give over till they had prevail'd which when St Peter knew by revelation of the H. G. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being extremly pleas'd with that desire and their earnestness in it He approv'd it and appointed it to be read in their assembly f Euseb. l. 3. c. 37. g l. 10. epist. 97. h Just. Mart. dial cum Tryph. Judaeo p. 247 302 311. Iren. l. 2. c. 56 57. i Excerpt ex Quadrat Apolog. ad Hadrianum apud Euseb. l. 4. c. 3. k Just. Mart. Apol. 2. p. 98. l Iren. l. 3. c. 1. m Just. Mart. Apol. 2. Eccl. Smyrnens apud Euseb. l. 4. c. 15. Ecclesiarum Viennen Lugdun comment de passiene Martyr suorum apud Euseb. l. 5. c. 1. Niceph. l. 3. 4. n Orig. contra Cels. l. 2. p. 62. p. 80. Tertul Apol. c. 23. o Niceph. l. 5. c. 29. p V. Euseb. l. 6. 7. fere integros de Sev. Spartian Tertul. de Decio S. Cypr. q Euseb. l. 8. c. 2. â— 6. Niceph. l. 7. c. 6. Euseb. l. 8. â— 11. c. 9. Sulp. Sev. l. 2. Oros. l. 7. c. 25. Ignatii Patr. Antioch literas apud Scalig. de emend temp l. 5. p. 496. Spond ad annum 302. n. 4. Luke 1. 4. r Ego quidem etiamsi non semel sed saepe id in sacris moniment is scriptum extaret non id circo tamen ita rem prorsus se habere crederem Socin de Jesu Chr. Servatore parte 3. c. 6. operum tom 2. p. 204. s John 10. 30. t 1. John 5. 7. The Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one 8. The Spirit and the Water and the Blood and these three agree in one u Heb. 1. 10 11 12. x Psal. 102. 25 26 27. y The reasonableness of this supposition might be demonstrated if there were any need of it z L. 1. de Sanct. Beatit c. 17. a Psal. 27. 8. b Psal. 4. 6. c Psal. 45. 12. d Concil tom 18. p. 295. e Sigon de regno Ital. ad annum 712. l. 3. p. 94. f Sigon de regno Ital. ad annum 726. l. 3. p. 103. g Leonis imperium respuerunt ac
commandment begets sin but how it makes sin condemning begets death and therefore I believe they are mistaken who expound sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence as if it meant the Law onely prohibiting but not quelling sin in me the more it was restrain'd the more it wrought all manner of concupiscence in me especially since there was no punishment assign'd to that sin in the Law it took advantage thence more powerfully to engage me in the pursuit of all my lusts since thence I might have hop't without any fear of punishment to pursue them For this seems perfectly to thwart his aim which was to shew us how the Law wrought condemnation and inflicted death by threatning it It seems to mean I had not onely not known sin to be so dangerous but I had not known some things to be sins and by consequence condemning things but by the Law particularly I had not known concupiscence to be so had not the Law said thou shalt not covet The next words do not seem intended to declare how the Commandment work sin that being brought in by the by as it were thus but sin the corruption of my nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had wrought in me all manner of concupiscence all actual lusts and wickednesses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 got advantage over me or strength against me by the Law which he there proves for without the law sin is dead not as to stirring in us by its sinful motions sure corruption would not fail to do that and more if there were no check but dead had no strength nor power to condemn me For it follows when the commandment came sin reviv'd got strength to do that and I died was sentenc'd to death by it and the commandment which was ordain'd to life could I have obey'd it I found to be unto death by condemning me to death for my transgression of it For sin by the Commandment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 getting advantage over me slew me not onely made me liable to death but by its guilt envenoming that death for the sting of death is sin which that it is and how it is so is the second thing I am to speak to Sin is the sting of death which I could make appear two manner of ways in relation to two senses that may be given to the words both pertinent and the one but the Anticipation of the other The first is this Sin is the sting of death 't is Sin makes the thoughts of death pungent and stinging the wicked man cannot think of his last dying day without horrors the onely imagination of a sickness stings him because he is conscious to himself of sin and he knows that that after Death cometh the Judgment and he dares not think of beholding the face of his Judg with his guilt upon him To prove this to you I shall not need to fetch any heathen Testimonies that call the Conscience of Sin a whip a sting a goad a lancing knife things that gash and prick and gall and fret all words of all kinds of terrifying punishment but if there be any gross customary Sinner that now hears me I shall need no other way of proof but by appealing to his own conscience whether when he comes hot from his iniquity he dares entertain the thought of dying And why not Alas he is too deep in arrears to venture upon account with so impartial a Judg books must be laid open if he come there the closet curtain sins nay the bosom villanies must be displaied and every one receive his doom he hath heard that all the refuge of a deplored Sinner at that great and terrible Day of the Lord is but to fly unto the Mountains to cover him and to the Rocks to hide him A wretched hope for how shall the Hills hide him whose iniquities are like Mountains or how shall the rocks cover him whose rebellions are like the great deep as the Scripture words it To such a person Death and Judgment are words of too dangerous a sense and it 's easier for him as many do to resolve there is no such thing as one of them than to think of them and go merrily on in sinning For tell me what is the design of that variety of iniquities in which thou dost ingulf thy self that circle of sins wherein one relieves and succeeds another Sure by such a perpetuity of diversified delights to stave off those severer thoughts which if there were an intermission of sinning or a nauseating of one sin for want of variety would creep in the noise of our riots is not to please the ear but to drown the barking of our consciences When the Sinner's candle is put out if weariness in wickedness do not at once close up his eyes and thoughts if the dark solitary night do but suggest some melancholly thoughts into him how do's he tumble up and down as if he thought to role away from his imagination and he do's ransack his fancy and call up the memory of his past sins about him to entertain himself with all and keep out the torturing remembrance of that sad Day which the Scripture calls putting far from them the evil day for the truth is he dares not give it place least it should happen to him as to a man upon a pointed precipice as himself is indeed situated to whom the apprehension would be as mortal as the danger and he would tumble down for fear of falling So here his sin adds such sharps to the imagination of death that he dares not entertain the thought And if Sin be such a sting in the onely thought of death that the mere remembrance of it is insupportable the use is very natural by the frequent calling of death to mind to stop the current of sin For if the wicked cannot endure to think of death he that does think on it cannot well go on to be wicked Remember thy latter end and thou shalt not do amiss I would give this counsel Think thou art to die while doing it The original of the Turks Turbant which was but by continual wearing of his winding sheet by wrapping his head in his grave-cloaths to have always a shrowd and death upon his thoughts and the Philosophers defining their wisdom to be but contemplatio mortis are not such pregnant inforcers of this use as this practical apprehension of it The man that liv'd among the Tombs tho he had a legion of Devils in him yet when he saw Jesus afar off he ran and worshipped him Mark 5. 6. The sight of graves and conversation with monuments will make even Demoniacks Religious and is so far from thrusting Praiers out of the Liturgy of Burial that it brings the very Devils on their knees But there is yet another and a fuller sense of these words which St Paul repeats out of the LXX translation of Hosea 13. 14. tho not verbatim for there insteed of 〈◊〉
see him as he is add this Every man that hath this hope purifieth himself as he is pure doth righteousness in the words following and so is righteous even as he is righteous But that we may know what King David means by beholding Gods face in Righteousness we must know that first by Righteousness is meant uprightness and sincerity of a religious holy virtuous life and as for the beholding of Gods face we may take notice that altho God saith he spoke to Moses face to face yet he tells the same Moses that he cannot see his face and live Exod. 33. 11 10. so that Davids beholding of his face is not seeing him as he did hope to do when he did awake up after Gods likeness but 1. As for God to lift up the light of his countenance Psalm 4. 6. and to make his face to shine upon a man Psalm 31. 16. is to be favorable to him and to hide Psalm 30. 7. or turn away his face 2 Chron. 30. 9. is to withdraw his favor and to be displeased so also to seek his face 1 Chron. 16. 11. is to endeavor to obtain his kindness and accordingly to see or behold his face is to be in his favor to be in a state of enjoying it But besides this also 2. As those that are said to behold the face of Kings are those that minister about them do them service of the nearest admission and that stand in their presence and are ready still to execute whatever they command So 2 King 25. 19. and he took five men of those that saw the King's face of those that serv'd him in ordinary and so very often Ester 1. 14. c. And as secondly the Angels that are ministring Spirits sent forth by God to minister perpetually are said to see the face of God always Matt. 18. 10. so when David says of God thou settest me before thy face Psalm 41. 12. the Jews expound set me that he might serve minister unto him for that is to stand before the face of one 1 Kings 1. 2 4. and c. 10. 8. and c. 17. 1. c. as he had said dost appoint me for thy service and by consequence to see his face or to behold his presence is to wait upon him in all duty and obedience to his commands whom they attend accordingly to walk before him or walk with him in his presence is to serve him constantly with all uprightness Gen. 17. 1. and to please him Heb. 11. 5. cum Gen. 5. 24. But particularly in the acts of Worship and Religion his House the place that 's dedicated to his Worship being call'd his Court his presence Psalm 95. 2. and 100. 2 4. because he sate upon and spoke from the Mercy-seat Exod. 25. 22. Numb 7. 89. and the Ark is therefore his presence and his face those that serve there are said to minister before him in his presence those that come there to appear before him Psalm 42. 2. those that pray to seek his face 2 Chron. 7. 14. and to intreat the face of the Lord 1 Kings 13. 6. and our King David did desire one thing of the Lord which says he I will require even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord Psalm 27. 4. So that to behold God's face in righteousness here does signify all this I will serve thee truly faithfully attend thy commands and wait upon thee in a constant diligent performance of my duty live as always in thy presence holily and righteously especially in attendance on thy Worship when I come to seek thy face to put my self before thee in thy presence and so doing I make no doubt but that thou wilt lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and I shall behold thy face to shine upon thy servant And indeed that this is the means and that there is no other way to arrive at this state is not difficult to prove for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness saith the same David Psalm 11. 7. his countenance will behold the thing that is just whereas without this no man shall see the Lord and thereupon the Prophet Micah after strict inquiry in the peoples name what they were to do that they might find God's face look pleasingly upon them and see his favorable countenance wherewithall shall I come before the Lord and how myself before the most High God Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams If his favor be to be bought tho at the greatest price 't will be abvisable to give it and the dearest purchase would be a reasonable one Or shall I give ten thousand rivers of oyl thereby to make his face to shine and look upon me with a chearfull countenance This sure were to be don Or farther yet shall I give my first-born for my transgression or the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul Time was indeed when men would do that offer up their tender infants in the fire to Moloch to preserve themselves from those sins of the other Tophet as if the burnt child were to expiate the foul heats that begat it I know not whether men believe now such transgressions can deserve so severe atonements that a sin of theirs is valuable at the life of their own first-born tho they take upon them to profess the faith that they were valued at the life of the first-born of God however there our Prophet shapes this answer to that question wherewithall shall I come before the Lord He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And truly if we come before the Lord to behold his presence in the duties of Religion we must see his face in Righteousness otherwise he will either turn away his Face or else our praiers will but call his frowns upon us and indanger us to perish at the rebuke of his countenance The Prophet Isaiah speaking as from God to that vainglorious nation of the Jews saith c. 1. v. 12 c. When ye come to appear before me who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts Bring no more vain oblations incense is an abomination to me it is iniquity even your solemn meetings Sabboths and your appointed feasts my soul hateth they are a trouble unto me I am weary to bear them And when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many praiers I will not hear Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgment right the oppressed c. And surely if men do not put away the evil of their doings from them when they come before his face how lowd
as some do by their poor mean Relations but this shame will be return'd severely when the Son shall come in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels And then compare the disreputes to be asham'd of virtue because debauchees that are as far from knowing what is true repute as they are from being virtuous will think meanly of me for it or to have the Son of God in glory with all his Host of Heaven think contemtibly of me when I shall be asham'd so as to call out to the mountains and the hills to cover my confusion at the valley of Jehoshaphat before all the world Let them delight and satisfy themselves with their choice of their commendable vices sins that are in reputation rejoyce with glory in their shame But as for me I will behold thy face in Righteousness And what remains but that we take up this resolution and put on the courage of it firmly purposing to do it tho by doing so we should go against the general customs of the world To make a resolv'd open avowed profession of a good life provided that we do it without ostentation or hypocrisy is a great advantage towards living so makes it much easier For however some it may be the prime ministers of hell Satan's cheifest agents in temtations such as cannot bear that any other should be virtuous 't is such a reproch to them will the more endeavor to betray such 't is their luxury yet generally speaking most men will not offer it but rather fear them having an aw of them and will themselves avoid the doing ill before them in some measure Indeed since none can promise themselves that such will comply with them if they temt them nor think it probable that they will most men however forward in assaulting innocence will let them alone Besides that such have put themselves by having publickly profest whatever the world does they will live righteously under a necessity of avoiding all their evil practices and 't is a happy and great advantage towards a good life to be under a known obligation of well living such as they themselves have taken on them out of perfect aversation to ill actions Do not you think that most men miscarry out of want of that which resolution would be able to effect with its own strength We see in other things it does attemt it go's thro with much greater difficulties than lie in the way to virtue which is so known so every day an object of mens eyes that I should be asham'd to go about to prove it But when this resolution secondly shall be taken up and be avow'd against the open practice of the world out of a dislike and abhorrency to it when it is made eager too by aversation sharpned by much opposition and by being publickly profest and own'd as a peculiar concern since the very shame of being foil'd in the contest and proving false to ones own solemn resolution would have stings in point of honor to push it forwards for to that shrine even Atheists are contented to pay homage this must prosper unless men have a mind to be conquer'd think it easier to retreat and sordidly desert their resolutions they cannot fail Especially thirdly if men consider all this is manag'd in Gods presence to his face if they set the Lord always before them as the object and the end of all their resolutions and their actions and do this with all sincerity as seeing his eyes over them as witness and judg of their behavior and behold his face too with all hope and confidence imaginable knowing he looks over them to encourage their endeavors to behold their needs of help and to give them grace sufficient and to crown their fidelity then such resolutions cannot possibly miscarry What success soever they may have in that war which the world here that is at enmity with all that love and serve God wages with them and tho it do not onely frown on them but humble them into the dust of death yet keeping firm to their resolutions of beholding Gods face in Righteousness when they awake out of that dust after his likeness they shall be satisfied with it SERMON XII OF CHRISTS BEING LORD and GOD. John 20. 28. My Lord and my God THAT which we have seen with our eies which we have lookt upon and our hands have handled of the word of life declare we unto you saith St John Epist. 1. c. 1. v. 1. And truly these same senses did declare to Thomas the richest Article of the Christian Faith the Resurrection and helpt him to conclude that Christ was therefore Lord and God For when he had beheld Christ's hands and thrust his own hands into his side he answered and said My Lord and my God We have another sense comes in to evidence and makes the application we have this day not onely seen and handled but also tasted the Bread that is this Lord and if we have received it worthily and being become one with him we may upon our own most sure and close experience cry out My Lord and my God The Text you see answers both the Solemnities of the day The Resurrection evidenced him to be Lord and God to Thomas and so also to us and our faithful receiving him will evidence him to be our Lord and our God and in order to both these I shall handle them for there be in the words these parts 1. A Compellation given to Christ upon his appearance at his being risen Lord and God 2. The Relation of these applied My Lord and my God I shall shew 1. That the Resurrection did instal him to that title Lord. 2. Shew what that title does import 1. By way of requiring what kind of relation it hath to respect and homage 2. By way of promise what it holds out for hope Then as to a word of application I will shew how the Sacrament applies both those importances 1. How it is an assurance to perform what that title requires 2. How it does confer what the title does promise To the first that the Resurrection did install Christ to the Title Lord. As Christ was God he had indeed all Power and Autority from everlasting that comes not under our consideration But as he was the person sent and commissioned by God to bring mankind to Salvation he was first to die for them then to rule over them and first to be their Priest and then their Lord. After his crucifying when he was risen again then he says All power is given to me both in heaven and earth Matt. 28. 18. or in more express words Acts 2. 36. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that fame Jesus whom they have crucified both Lord and Christ. His Cross was a step to his Throne it merited that Autority for him and was in part undertaken for it Phil. 2. 8 9. And then for the importance of this Title as to that
at a price he became our Lord Ye are bought with a price 1 Cor. 7. 23. They that do not acknowledge this are in the number of those men of whom St Peter speaks Epist. 2. c. 2. v. 1. denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction and you may judge what kind of Lord he ought to be by the price he paid for the Title what service he expected by the rates at which he purchased them even at the bloud of God Acts 20. 28. He died I told you that he might be Lord. And now Lord what is thy servant that thou shouldst thus value him or what are his performances that thou shouldst buy them at these rates And shall I give to Sin or Sathan those services which he thus values and thus buys No if thou art content to purchase that so dear which was thy own just due before surely now by all rights thou art My Lord. But 3. He is so also by my own most solemn contract and engagement And to pass by all the rest and to stick to that of this day onely we did contract so in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and in receiving that we did most solemnly assume to do him faithful service and took him for our Lord. And this would easily appear from hence if Christ's bloud be the price with which he bought the right to be thy Lord and this day thou didst come and here didst take that bloud to all those ends and uses it was given for then in so doing thou didst ratify the contract and take possession of the relation but to do it more solemnly and here I will not stand upon that proof which I have formerly made to you from the account that Pliny gave to Trajan the persecuting Emperor tho truly it be strange that a Heathen should discern this was the meaning of their Sacrament and Christians will not believe it He when he was emploied to persecute the Christians tells him what he had found of them by racking some and by confessions of others at their death Soliti stato die convenire seque Sacramento obstringere ne furta ne latrocinia ne adulteria committerent c. to take an oath they knew no other sense of the word Sacrament to do what their Lord had commanded them What have you don this day Why Christ was sworn your Lord this day and you have taken an oath of service entred into a bond of duty and obedience and if you wilfully shall fail of doing this your Worships will be brought against you your Communions will come in as so many evidences that you have forfeited so many oaths that you have broken No sure I will henceforwards tie my self to better performance for I have hamper'd my self with obligations entangled my self with one other engagement I have again sworn at the Altar Thou art my Lord. But I have a more solemn proof of this that he who comes to the renewing of a Covenant with God now Christ we know saith that that cup is the new Covenant in his bloud he does enter into an oath of God Deut. 29. from verse 10. to 15. Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God your captains of your tribes your elders and your officers with all the men of Israel your little ones your wives and thy stranger that is in thy camp from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water that thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God and into his oath which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day that he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself and that he may be unto thee a God as he hath said unto thee and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob neither with you onely do I make this covenant and this oath but with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God and also with him that is not here with us this day Now out of this they who are not convinc'd that our first entring Covenant with God by Baptism is a vow altho the Church require that we should look upon it under that Solemnity and tho St Peter call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stipulation or if they think it something like it yet 't is a vow but in the childrens name and so it does not strike those apprehensions of so sacred an engagement into them themselves may see here at an entring Covenant little ones entring into an oath and this was not the first giving of the Covenant that so any thing might be thought peculiar to that but onely a repeting of the Covenant in their presence verse 1. and least that we should think their standing there in solemn manner might imply something more than ordinary verse 14. 15. take us that stand here this day before the Lord our God but also with him that shall be born hereafter Many expositors and the Jerusalem Exposition says with all the generations of you that are to come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if they stood with us this day And the Targum of Jon. Vziel says they do stand that is as to this intent and purpose that as soon as they are admitted into Covenant by Circumcision they are within this oath Littles ones therefore that can be admitted into a Covenant by receiving of the sign of it they then enter an oath of keeping it And then my Brethren we have entred an oath to continue Christ's faithful Soldiers and Servants unto our lives end and that is thou and I and every one have sworn he is my Lord. O my Savior I was baptized and at that time did swear service and then if I should fail thee now I renounce my Allegiance I go from my fealty and I throw of my Covenant Every evil action I deliberately commit brands me with the dishonorable base stile of one that slights his oaths there is no hold of his vows not his most sacred ones those that he makes to God Every vain or passionate oath how true soever speaks me perjured the draughts of intemperance would wash off the water of my Christendom every unclean lust every impurity of Flesh or Spirit does as it were bemire and wipe out my contract with my Lord. For I covenanted to be pure and clean for I was wash'd into the very name of his retainer I could not have that title of that relation without being cleansed There I did swear defiance against all his Enimies the Devil World and Flesh and all worldly and carnal lusts that I would neither follow not be led by them and if I should serve them now I should be a Rebel and a Traitor to my Lord against my bond and covenant and oath No my Lord I will not serve these where death must be my wages the Fiends my Comrades and my Conquest Hell I 'le not do homage to destruction
this should seem onely an Argument ad hominem I will urge onely one instance There was a time when the immaculate Conception of our Lady stood by oral practical Tradition for in the publick Liturgies of their Church it was expresly own'd and celebrated For in their Liturgy printed 1551. after a devout Praier to the B. Virgin there is added Ave Hail Mary full of grace c. Blessed also be Saint Anne thy Mother out of whom thy virgin flesh came without any stain immaculate And again Hail c. woman blessed be thy Mother Anne out of whom thou didst proceed a Virgin without any stain or sin Once more in another Praier All hail thou most chast Mother of God c. and blessed be thy Parents Joachim and Anne out of whom thy virgin flesh proceeded without stain immaculate The same too was defin'd expresly in their Oecumenical Council at Basil in a session on purpose for it c. 36. after long debate decreeing that she never had Original or Actual sin but was immaculate and tho the Pope for other reasons and not this definition would not confirm this Council yet besides that by the way of oral practical Tradition his Holiness is declar'd to have but one vote and no negative yet if his vote signify Alexander VI. a little after gave ten thousand years of pardon for all mortal sins twenty for venial toties quoties to all that said devoutly in that Worship of our Lady and St Anne the former Praier Rubr. Now if the Church did not believe what was thus in her publick Praiers in her definitions which was the judgment of her Pastors of the whole Church Representative but if somwhat else must intervene to prove what is of Faith the Rule is insignificant it is impossible to know their Churches Faith at any time But we are bound to think they would not in their Solemn Divine Worship owne what they did not believe and they could not believe any thing by this Rule but what they did receive and so their Faith and Practice consequent must have bin always and must be infallible Yet we know that was defin'd the Doctrine taken up merely to countenance the Worship that had formerly bin given to the Blessed Virgin in the celebrating her Conception For since it always was the Churches Rule never to solemnize with a Festival but what they did account was Holy according to that saying of St Bernard quo pacto festus habetur qui minime sanctus est And accordingly the present Church that does still celebrate it also in her new Reformed Breviaries calls it Sanctam Conceptionem having therefore entertain'd the Festival they must needs entertain the Doctrine And the forenamed Council does expresly owne this in defining it ut consonum cultui Ecclesiastico in that it was agreeable to that Worship which the Church perform'd in the celebration of it But if you would know how the Solemnity began you may receive it from themselves thus A Canon of a Church in France greatly devoted to the Blessed Virgin returning home over the large mouth of the Seine in a vessel alone from the other side where he had bin committing Adultery with another man's wife and as he sail'd singing the Hours of the Blessed Virgin a great troop of Devils drown his vessel himself in the deep and his soul they drag'd away to torments On the third day while they were tormenting him the Mother of our Lord came thither with a train of Angels asking why they did unjustly so torment the soul of her servant Whom they answer'd that they had a just right to it for it was taken in its being about their employment she replies if it ought to be theirs whose service it was in then of right it is mine for you seiz'd it as he sung my Mattins so that you are guilty Upon which they fled and left it and the Blessed Virgin brought his soul back to his body and himself alive to shore where falling at her feet he said Dear Lady what shall I render unto thee for so great benefits that thou hast don unto me she replies I desire that henceforward thou commit no more Adultery least the later end be worse than the beginning I desire moreover that thou wouldest devoutly celebrate the Feast of my Conception yearly on the eighth day of December Good Lord that singing Mattins to our Lady should attone for him whose Vespers had bin offer'd up to a foul shrine to his Paramour celebrated in the vile Embraces of his Neighbor's Wife That the Blessed Virgin should be so concern'd for her own immaculate Conception so indifferent so easy or indeed indulgent to the gross Adultery of others However as it well became him he obey'd her and observ'd it and upon two other such like visions so did several others But the Worship by all this was onely private mens particular devotions therefore there was one more made to Anselme who immediatly began it in his Priory and being made Archbishop afterwards of Canterbury made it publick and then Innocent the III. did so in France and so the Worship became universal in their publick Services and to justify that Worship too the Doctrine of immaculate Conception was receiv'd into those Services and then defin'd in that great Council above mention'd Had this but bin in one of the dark Ages it had certainly prevail'd but somthing checking with the doctrin of the whole world that was more awake then the Popes afterward altho they kept the Worship up durst not vouch the Doctrin for a point of strict Faith tho sought to by two solemn Embassies from two Kings of Spain Philip III. and IV. Now truly by the equipage pursuit and carriage of the business one would think they came to crave an Audience for some new Faith as they were wont for any extraordinary grant or dispensation that at Rome they could decree Divinity as they did Acts of the Conclave and give out Articles as they did Cardinals Caps and make a new Creation for belief for sure they did not send that Embassy to enquire whether their own immediat Forefathers had so taught them and so forwards that there had bin always a perpetual succession But tho that would not do 't is evident there was a doctrinal Point defin'd by the great Representative of their whole Church and for some Ages receiv'd with the Devotions and the Worship of their whole Church and by consequence into their Faith for otherwise they gave Worship upon that account which they did not believe and it is also evident to sight how doctrines did come in into their Faith upon all least pretence of Visions the known way some that were devout men began a practice after other some in power adopted and gave credit to it and then gave autority by this means the practice in a while grew universal then became their Doctrine and their Faith Now I would know whether it was so it
accordingly you may see many that otherwise are not very apt to sin yet then they will offer at little Atheistical beginnings of it they will endeavor because they will be in the fashion of the company And this is one of Satans advantageous seasons when as we see if there be but one by of a sober and discreet virtue that dares speak meek reason or dares when they do swill their Souls in filthy folly of one or other sort or are loud in the rants of vice by disliking gestures let them know that such unclean entertainments are detestable to a sober person or withdraws abruptly by such a departure shews that he scorns to stay to behold or hear such impurities this often does not onely hinder those beginners take them off that would have bin dabbling but does somtimes a little damp the progress of the most professed Sinner It is a bridle to his neck he will not march so furiously in his carrier of oaths or of obsceness or whatever other sin he does not indulge himself so full a licence and so by this means God gets some respect and Religion a little repute when they see it hath some followers and God hath some that will not see him dishonored And truly my Brethren do but consider what a storm it does use to raise in any man to hear an absent Friend or Relation abused or evil spoken of If we be in any degree of them the world calls Gentlemen then nothing but the sword must make return to such a word nothing but life and soul can answer nothing but bloud and death repair and 't is this resentment we in whose company the disgrace was offer'd think ourselves more concern'd than that Friend that was the subject of And then methinks you should not think it strange if there be some that do believe they have so much relation to God and that he hath approv'd himself to be so much their Friend they cannot but take it unkindly and speak when they hear him affronted and see him dishonor'd And methinks too it should not be unreasonable to expect this from all of us to whom God hath bin Friend enough that we should do this handsom this noble glorious thing as to right the Lord in companies where we are and to credit our Maker and not let vice exalt over him where we shall chance to be Truly my Brethren this is the least that God hath reason to expect from us even the reproof of our words that of our open holy lives by which as the wicked say in Wisdom 2. 12. The Righteous do reprove their thoughts and upbraid them with their offending the Law and object to their infamy their transgressions This is strictly and to an high degree required by God of every one of us that we may have influence upon others to be open and exemplary to shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father which is in Heaven which was the reason of the command and the end of our very being Now to God the Father c. SERMON XV. OF THE ACCEPTED TIME the Day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6. 2. Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of Salvation THE words foregoing of which these I now read are the application run thus for he saith I have heard thee in a time accepted and in the day of salvation I have succour'd thee which God saying in the 49th of Isaiah 8. signified as in the type in relation to the Church and Nation of the Jews he had days of Salvation fit and proper seasons to deliver them from their affictions and calamities for Salvation often signifies that had his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tempus placentiae time of grace wherein he was well pleas'd to hearken to their cries and wants and in those he heard and succour'd them so in the Antitype and in relation of the Christian Church and all the Members of it for of these St Paul here useth it expresly he hath his accepted time days not onely for such temporal deliverance of which some will have the Salvation meant here but much more for Salvation Eternal But then as Kings when they publish acts of grace and oblivion do not onely set appoint but limit out the time for Subjects to come in submit and return to their fidelity and allegiance which if once elapst they are incapable of benefit by any such grant cannot at least plead it so it seems God does too and it is not sure that whosoever at what time soever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Rom. 10. 13. but as King David told him they shall make their praier to thee in a time of finding Psalm 32. 6. in a time when his good pleasure it the very word here Psalm 69. 13. and this time St Paul restrains here to the present now meaning not onely in the general now in times while they are under grace are in the Covenant of it and when the day-spring from on high hath visited them and while they had the Gospel that word of this Salvation for whilest men live under this gracious dispensation they may let the opportunities of laying hold of it go by them while the light of the Gospel shines upon them yet the day of Salvation may be quite gon out of which St Paul here seems sollicitous for his Corinthians who had receiv'd the Gospel least yet they may have receiv'd that grace in vain and the Salvation should escape them To prevent which saith he there is no other sure way but by seizing on the present Behold now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation so that the words afford these subjects of discourse 1. There is a time wherein we may be certainly accepted if we come to God and there is a day of Salvation offer'd us 2. This time is limited 't is a day of salvation consequently we may possibly outstand it and may suffer it to pass irrecoverably 3. The onely sure way to prevent that is to lay hold on the present to begin now 1. There is a time wherein we may be certainly accepted if we come to God and there is a day of Salvation offer'd us The Text does make sufficient proof of this for if the accepted time be now and if now be the day of salvation then there is such a day and time which our Lord commanded to be preached to every humane creature in the world Indeed the preaching of the Gospel is nothing else but publishing this truth the Gospel being but a tender of Salvation upon pardon of whatever we have don amiss and the accepting us whenever we repent and truly turn to God believing on him and resolving to continue faithful to him and all this assur'd to us by Covenant such as God himself both made and ratified in the bloud of Christ and to prevent exception since he gave command to have this Gospel preach'd
more absolutely than in others but in all these there are promises and promises were made to be believ'd and every faithful Christian that trusts to them does know whom he hath believ'd But yet it cannot be denied since God hath threatned Ezek. 14. 13 14 c. When a Land sinneth against him by transgressing grievously then he will stretch out his hand against it and if he say sword go thro the Land and pour out fury upon it in bloud and break the staff of bread thereof he swears tho Noah Daniel and Job were in it they should but deliver their own souls then if we chance to see wickedness overspread a Nation vice and profaness grown so universal and habitual that 't is almost natural when impunity hath made it safe and upon that account familiar and then familiar practice made it necessary yea and great examples made it honorable and by this all virtue is made mean and contemtible and insolently domineer'd over or derided petulantly when a people looks so like the thing God threaten'd so 't is hard to apply the promises of safety to it or with confidence rely upon God for its preservation And yet there is the resolution of a case so like this in the Prophet Micah c. 7. as is able to revive a dying hope and give it vigor and security Wo is me for I am as when they have gathered the summer-fruits as the grape-gleanings of the Vintage there is no cluster to eat the good man is perished out of the Land and there is none upright among men they all lie in wait for bloud they hunt every every man his brother with a net That they may do evil with both hands the Prince asketh and the Judg asketh for a reward and the great man uttereth his mischievous desire so they wrap it up The best of them is as a briar the most upright sharper than a thorn-hedg and then he adds the day of visitation cometh now shall be their perplexity but he recollects himself and says Therefore I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation my God will hear me Rejoice not against me O mine Enimy when I fall I shall arise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me So that when we cannot hope well of the Commonwealth yet we may hope in God still And I pray you tell me whether way looks quieter and safer hath more comfortable expectations to confederate make factions lay plots dark somtimes illegal and unjust contrivances and sow the seeds of trouble and dissention and think with these to carry all their own away not enduring to submit to Providence or be contented with God's dispensations but will help him as if he had need of such arts or instruments and could not govern except his commands were broke when 't is certain such contrivances if they do not thwart his counsels which if they comport not with he laughs at and defeats yet they do his commands and then he will punish them however he may let them give a while some trouble And then whether is this better or to do our duty faithfully and trust God when we are assur'd if one sparrow two of which are worth yet but one farthing fall not to the ground without our Heavenly Father a Church and State shall not fall without him But yet 't is certain Governments are somtimes broken or else fall in pieces and while the fury of the sword does ravage all the innocent as well as guilty suffer the same miseries and the same carnage does devour the righteous with the wicked yea Religion hath bin swept away too by the inundation and whole Churches have bin quite un-Christian'd and no doubt there was all reason in the world for this Yet tho I will not take upon me to mark out the lines by which God moves either in his ways of mercy or of judgment nor to give the reasons of them yet when plenty hath brought in all sorts of luxury and dissoluteness and as it must needs that corrupts all loosens all the bonds by which Societies and Government consist the very bonds of common right and justice those that either mens propriety or their security and lives depend on and besots men so as that they take no other rule or measure of their interests than as things serve the ends and satisfactions of luxurious appetites and if Religion also while 't is trampled on despised and scofft down by such sensual persons that have no Religion and so not having countenance being injur'd and cut short by others does decay or else if willing to comply and save it self it grow it self debaucht in some measure learn by formalities to serve worldly purposes yea possibly learns to adopt principles and consecrate some practices which are enimies to the very nature of Religion wound destroy Christianity and dishonor the God of it if every thing does thus seem to provoke and call for present ruin and God stir himself up as he did in the Prophet Shall I not visit for these things shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this yet in such a Nation if there be enough remaining of those that can stand in the gap and maintain the breach against him as once Moses alone did he will turn away his indignation so as not to stir up his whole wrath and altho he leave them not altogether unpunisht he will not destroy them utterly Now he knows what the numbers are of faithful Christians such as wrestle day and night with him and do not let him rest If the hairs of our heads be all numbred sure the knees are that cleave to the ground in humble adorations and petitions to him Yea and so they are for when Elijah brought his charge in against Israel whose condition lookt so desperate that he thought there was no servant of God but himself I even I onely am left 1 Kings 19. 10. God tells him v. 18. he had seven thousand knees in it that had never bowed to Baal and when those three Noah Daniel and Job are not able seven thousand men yet may prevail Indeed if once Religion grow so low be so defiled that 't is not worth preserving with all those corruptions that get into it when not onely the Professors of it are deprav'd but its very constitution in its vitals in the doctrines both of faith and manners vitiated and it is hard to shew where God did ever overthrow a Church and a Religion wholly where it was not so and then it was not he that did destroy it it destroy'd it self If also in a state Judgment be turned into Wormwood and you find oppression for Justice and for Righteousness behold a crying in a word if a Church and State sink by such proportions as Sodom and the rest of the Cities of the Plain when in all Pentapolis there was not ten Righteous for whose sake five great
Cities might be spar'd in fine when once they have wrought out the measure of God's mercies and their iniquity is full it is no wonder if the measure of their Judgment be full too and it self irreversible and utter But yet tho in all these Judgments whether partial or final Innocent and Righteous persons suffer with the wicked All things come alike to all there is one event to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Ecclesiastes 9. 2. So as that it should seem the sincere Christian can no more depend than others or if he do his trust will fail him yet to omit the reasons of this dispensation of God's Providenc which are many very just ones that alone sufficeth good men in the midst of all such Judgments to depend upon which St Paul writes on the very account of such distresses and necessities Rom. 8. 28. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God even those afflictions working for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. They are God's words and so trusting and depending on them we know whom we have believed namely God the person and my last part wherein I am to enquire on what accounts especially he that does depend upon him in these cases hath assurance such as that he can profess I know whom I have believed Now there is scarce that Attribute in God which is not a firm ground for resignation of our selves to and of reliance on him But to pass all those which are every where in God's Book to be met with and are urg'd with all advantage and to name two other onely First 't is certain that we may with the most comfortable hope and greatest confidence rely on him who when we have most need is readiest to relieve As we read in the Scripture of an accepted time of the day of Salvation to let us know that it is not to be catcht in every season as if whensoever we shall have a mind to be delivered and ask for it God must hearken and command deliverances no sure there are proper set times and we must be unwearied in waiting for it so also ordinarily that the time of greatest need is God's opportunity and the day of extremity the day of Salvation is obvious All other times he tries us and does exercise our virtues but when we are past all other help then he relieves us Therefore David is most peremtory with the Lord on that account Psalm 102. 13 14. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for it is time that thou have mercy upon her yea the time is come And why thy servants think upon her stones and it pitieth them to see her in the dust and Psalm 9. 9. The Lord also will be a refuge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXXII in opportunitatibus in tribulatione in the true opportunity that is when trouble comes And we shall find a reason for this way of working in his Praier Psalm 109. 26 27. O save me according to thy mercy that they may know that this is thy hand and that thou Lord hast don it When we are in such distress as is past man's aid then if deliverance come we cannot chuse but know the hand when we are in darkness and dimness of anguish and if we look unto the earth behold nothing but darkness as of the shadow of death then if any light arise we know it is the day-spring from on high that visits us And if besides this reason and those Texts we but consult the Annals of God's actings we shall find it always thus and not to mention those that refer to particular persons of which Joseph's single story is a manifold instance which also gave birth to those great events which shall make up a demonstration that this is the way of God's procedure In Egypt when the design was laid so that the People of Israel could not have lasted longer than one Age for posterity was forbidden and the Nation was to be murder'd by a prohibition of being born and when they could not to avoid this persecution get out thence except the sea would at once make a passage for them and a wall and rampart to secure that passage and if it also should do so it would but land them in a wilderness and they but fled from water to perish for want of it and escapt being drown'd to die with thirst a place too where unless the desert can bring forth the bread of Heaven unless Flesh and Manna can grow there where nothing grew they have but chang'd their fate and brought themselves into a more unavoidable and speedy ruin when this state of exigence was come then God comes in by weak means a stammering tongue and little rod works all deliverance And again afterwards in the captivity of that Nation a state which Jeremy the Prophet when he had bewailed in sorrowful eloquence in lamentations that live still yet wish'd his head had bin a fountain of tears to weep for it when in seventy years the people was so mixt incorporated with their Conquerors as must needs be very hard to separate and tear them asunder and as for their Temple it was ruin'd and despoil'd of all its holy furniture which was not onely rob'd but desecrated and profan'd so as not to be likely nor scarce fit to be returned the vessels of the Sanctuary being made the utensils of their Idol-feasts and their own riots and those holy bowls made up their drunkeness as well as sacriledge yet when these conquering Robbers were enjoying their spoils and crimes as if wine in those holy bowls did stupity men past all sense they and the great Babylon are taken ere they knew it and the Jews return strait follow'd Again when Cestius Gallus had sate down before Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles when the Nation being oblig'd by their Religion was all in that City and the Christians of the Land were there too after several assaults and when he might have taken it he on a sudden rais'd the siege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Josephus without any reason no body knows why but onely as God put it in his heart to do so to give way for the Christians to obey that voice which the same Josephus saith was heard in the Temple at the Feast of Pentecost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us go hence and upon it all the Christians went to Pella not one staid but every one escapt that ruin which Titus sitting down before that City brought upon that People the great Enimies of his Church to a final utter desolation Once more when after the nine Persecutions which like so many torrents of fire had swept away the Christians in flame Dioclesians like a tenth wave came as if it meant to swallow not
the Heir of both the worlds And this he did to settle us in an inheritance of infinite eternal glory and the approching day began this state to him a day sure to be reckon'd not with the riots but with the charities of hospitality with feasts not for our sins but feasts for Christ and for his members feasts such as his own Table is fit to be the leading entertainment in O Lord who hast taught us that all our doings without Charity are nothing worth send thy Holy Ghost and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of Charity the very bond of peace and of all vertues without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee grant this for thine onely Son Jesus Christ's sake Amen THE END ERRATA Vol. 1. PAge 4. line 15. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 5. l. 26. for meres r. metes p. 19. l. 42. for no r. do p. 23. l. 22. for an r. can p. 50. l. 14. for despute r. dispute p. 51. l. 1. for of any of one kind r. of any one kind p. 60. l. 28. after found r. them p. 63. l. 7. for it is r. is it p. 65. l. 6. read after evil p. 65. l. 49. for Palms read Psalms p. 66. l. 48. for but that r. than the. p. 70. l. 41. dele and. p. 77. l. 4. for censor r. censer p. 82. l. 1. for coersively r. coereively p 83. l. 14 for Antimonians r. Antinomians p. 84. l. 13. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 85. l. 6. dele that p. 85. l. 41. for beleif r. disbeleif p. 90 l. 41. for what r. when p. 110. l. 43. for salisfaction r. satisfaction p. 118. l. 24. before proved r. is p. 119. l. 1. for breast r. beast p. 123. Marg. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 125. l. 31. for difference r. deference p. 129. l. 29. for persecutions r. persecutors p. 132. Marg. for Thoma r. Thomae for precamus r. precamur p. 133. Marg. read homagil for homigii ordinat for ordinatu p. 171. l. 17. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marg for Ps. 77. r. 78. p. 176. l. 31. for with r. which p. 185. l. 18 dele re p. 186. l. 24. dele to p. 187. l. 2. for no r. now p. 191. l. 17. for fins r. sins p. 195. l 1. dele is p. 198. l. 35. for insalliable r infallible p. 201. marg for feri r. fere p. 203. l. 41. after other r. that p. 205. l. 31. dele to p. 206. l. 37. for immitate r. imitate p. 210. marg for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 212. l. 11. for powr'd read pour'd ip 218. marg for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 220. l. 6. for entertain r. entertain p. 221. marg for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. marg r. Galatians p. 222. l. 20. for St. Peter's r. St. Paul's p. 229. l. 4. before man r. no. p. 236. l. 12. for where r. were p. 238. l. 7. for Isral r. Israel Vol. 2. Page 11. line 2. for unto readâ—nto â—nto p. 26. l. 36. f. an r. and. p. 39. l. 27. f. renverse r. reinverse p. 58. l. 33. place the Comma that is after Tenents after government p. 64. l. 16. after tenth r. v. l. 32. f. put r. puts p. 73. l. 45. before arrive r. men p. 74. l. 43. f. permetted r. permitted p. 75. l. 21. before will r. that p. 79. l. 4. dele the Comma after is l. 22. dele the Comma after sacrifices p. 86. l. 26. dele are p. 88. l. 42. f. ad r. and p. 104. l. 43. before it r. of p. 110. l. 6. f. it r. I. p. 122. l. 34. after beleive dele the stop and for That r. that p. 133. l. 5. f. art r. are p. 142. l. 20. f. one r. once p. 150. l. 35. f. sins r. fires p. 153. l. 3. dele the. p. 162. l. 14. f. solomn r. solemn p. 171. l. 21. before heal dele to p. 172. l. 11. f. measuress r. measures p. 181. l. 20. f. faith wich r. faith which p. 199. l. 28. f. whom them r. them whom p. 203. l. 36. f. kearkning r. hearkning p. 224. l. 40. for pcesrib'd r. prescrib'd p. 225. l. 40. f. nâ— r. us p. 238. l. 28. f. Statute r. Statutes p. 244. l. 14. f. too r. to p. 248. 16. f. too r. to p. 256. l. 32. f. theiâ— r. their p. 262. l. 20. f. to all r. of all p. 264. l. 35. f. 1 Pet. 14. 14. r. 4. 14. p. 267. l. 38. before answers r. he l. 41. f. too r. to p. 269. l. 37. f. obortive r. abortive p. 270. l. 6. f. ense r. sense p. 271. l. l. ult f. the r. thee p. 279. l. 4. f. pronunct r. pronounct p. 292. l. 37 after my arm r. fall p. 295. l. ult before Kingdome r. his p. 297. l. 47. before became r. he p. 300. l. 24. f. Matt. 16. 33. r. John 16. 33. The First SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL January 27. 1660. 1 PET. IV. 1. He that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin SO great a flatterer is Man of himself that from all kind of Events how various soever he will adventure to conclude himself in the right way to Blessedness and rather than want Argument contradictions shall conspire to make him happy If he prosper then God allows his doings and the success of actions is his mark and Seal that they are acceptable and dear to Him And if this Argument be good The Tribe of Benjamin while it conquer'd as they did Conquer those that fought Gods Battels and that by his immediate commission yet all that while those Sodomites and foul Adulterers the men of Gibeah were Saints But when calamity does take away this Argument then on the other side the Gibbet though the punishment of Villany is only execution of that Decree whereby God hath predestinated them To be conform'd to the Image of his Son As if they died most like Christ who died with the most Guilt about them and they will needs be Martyrs when they suffer for their vices and if this Argument be good Aegypt was blest with all her Plagues and the consuming fire that ran upon the ground was the light of God's countenance upon them Yet both these Arguments have been made use of lately by each several party of us in the variety of Gods dispensations to us Now this each could not do of right Some Parties of us made false and unjust pleas to them both Now to decide which did so not à priori from the cause though that alone does guild prosperity and that alone too makes the Martyr not the sufferings But men will never be agreed of that while whatsoever happens whether their cause prosper or be opprest
it would A setled tendency a resolv'd inclination to sin that presseth with its utmost agitation is that weight which though it may perchance be stop'd in its career yet it tends to the Abysse its center and will not rest but in that Pit that hath nor rest nor bottom the Heart in this case is as liable as it can be because here it hath done its worst and such a Will shall be imputed to its self And now I need not tell those who are still designing sin or mischief in the heart although it never dares come out of those recesses how far they are removed from the goodness of God to Israel A Father finds a way to prove such souls have larger doses of Gods Vengeance who when he had asserted that the soul does not die with the body and then was ask'd what it did in that long interval for sure it is not reasonable that it should be affected with any anticipations of the future Judgment because the business of the day of Judgment should be reserved to its own day without all prelibation of the sentence and the restitution of the Flesh is to be waited for that so both soul and body may go hand in hand in their Recompences as they did in their demerits joynt Partners in the Wages as they were in the Works To this he answers The Soul does not divide all its operations with the Body some things it acts alone and if there were no other cause it were most just the Soul should there receive without the Body the dues of that which here it did commit without the Body That 's for the former sort of sins those meerly of the Heart And for the latter sort the Soul is first engaged in the commission that does conceive the sin lays the design of compassing and does contrive and carry on the machination and then why should not that be first in Punishment which is the first in the Offence Go now and reckon that thy outward gross Transgressions are the only dangerous and guilty ones and slight thy sins of Heart but know that while thy flesh is sleeping in the quiet Grave at rest and ease thy Spirit then 's in Torments sor thy Fleshes sins and feels a far severer Worm than that which gnaws thy Body Poor Soul Eternity of Hell from Resurrection to For-ever is not enough to punish it all that while it must suffer with the Body but it must have an age of Vengeance besides particularly for it self to plague it for those things it could not execute and punish it for what it did not really enjoy only because it did allow it self to desire and contrive them and it must be tormented for those unsatisfied desires And though indeed desires where they are violent if they be not allayed by satisfaction are but so much agony yet do they merit and pull on them more these Torments shall be plagued and the soul suffer for its very passion even from Death to the last Judgment and 't is but just that being it usurp'd upon the pleasures and the sins of Flesh it should also seize on and take possession of the Vengeance appointed for those sins it should invade and should usurp their condemnation But why do I stand pressing aggravations against uncleanness of Heart in an Age when God knows Vice hath not so much modesty or fear to keep within those close and dark restraints Instead of that same Cleanness which the Text requires we may find Purity indeed of several sorts but 't is either pure Fraud or pure Impiety the one of these does make a strange expression very proper pure Corruption for so it is sincere and without mixture nothing but it self no spots of Clean to chequer it but all stain The other is pure white indeed but it is that of whited Sepulcres a Life as clean as Light a bright pure Conversation but it shines with that light onely which Satan does put on when he transforms himself into an Angel of Light and it is but a glory about a fiend But yet this shines however whereas others do stand Candidates of Vice and would be glorious in wickedness and that is such a splendor as if Satan should dress himself with the shine of his own flaming Brimstone and make himself a glory with the streamings of his Lake of Fire And yet thus is the World we do not onely see men serve some one peculiar vicious inclination and cherish their own wickedness but they make every Vice their own as if the Root of bitterness branch'd out in each sort of Impiety in them such fertile soyls of sin they are here insincerity were to be wish'd and where there is not cleanness that there were a Mask that there were the Religion of Hypocrisie We may remember God was good to Israel of old by Obligation and performance the one as great as he could enter the other great to Miracle and astonishment when after seventy years Captivity and Desolation he did rebuild a Temple where there was no Monument of its Ruines and raised a Nation and Government of which there was no Reliques And yet at last when the Religion of some turned into Faction of others into Prophaneness when the strictest Sect of them the Pharisees became most holy outwardly to have the better means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to mischief those that were not of their Party and got a great opinion of Sanctity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as to be believed in whatsoever they did speak against the King or chief Priests and that so far as to be able openly to practise against both and raise Commotions They are Josephus's words of them and when another Sect the Zelots the most pernicious of all saith Bertram did commit Murders Sacriledg Prophanations and all kind of Villanies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with good Intentions saith the same Josephus and when those who did not separate into Sects but were the Church of Israel became lukewarm supine and negligent in their Profession yea and licentious and Prophane fit only to be joyned with Publicans in Christs expressions when sin grew generally Impudent when they did live as if they would be Scandalous as well as vicious as if they lov'd the guilt as much as the delights of sin and cared not to be wicked to themselves but must debauch as if they did enjoy the ruine of other persons sinning just as the Devil does who does not taste the sin but feasts upon the Sinners Condemnation Then did God execute a Vengeance whose prediction was fit to be mistaken for that of the Day of Judgment and whose event almost fulfill'd the terrors of that day I need not draw resemblances shew how Gods goodness to our Israel does equal that to them applying to our selves their Raptures how when the Lord turned the Captivity of our Sion we also were like them that dream surprized with Mercy Indeed as in a Dream Ideas
God alone for thus expiation of sins was wrought Even so to make that expiation mine besides reliance on it I must transcribe the Copy of the Sufferings of that Son transplant the Garden of Gethsemane into my breast If his Soul be sorrowful even unto Death my Soul must be afflicted too Humiliations must prostrate me upon my face to deprecate that Fire and Brimstone burning Tempest that is the portion of the Sinners Cup saith David O my Father let this Cup pass from me The lustful Feavers of my blood must excern themselves in cold sweat of fear and grief in Agonies of Penitence and my excessive draughts not onely make me to cry out I thirst but give me Vinegar and Gall to drink sorrow as bitter as my riotous egestions have been my Oaths that have struck through the Name of God must pierce my Soul with grief as pungent as his Thorns and Nails In a word I must so afflict my Soul as to crucifie the body of sin and nail it to his Cross. And this is that which in its own proportion was required of the Jews this Day here in the Text to the work of which Day how the Afflicting of the Soul in both the given senses does contribute was my Second and the next Enquiry Secondly What this Day was the Verse before the Text informs us it was their Day of Expiation or Atonement Now that the Jews esteem Fasting and Humiliation expiatory Sacrifices appears from a Form of Prayer which even yet they use on such a day where he that fasted says O Lord the Governour of all the World I have now finished my Fast before thee thou knowest that when we had a Temple standing the man that sinned was bound to expiate it by a Sacrifice the Blood of which was poured out and the Altar consumed the Fat to make amends for his offence but now by reason of our many wickednesses we have neither a Temple Altar or Priest to make Atonement for us I beseech thee therefore O Lord my God the God of my Fathers to accept of that little portion of my own Flesh and Blood which this days Fasting hath torn from me in lieu of a Sin-offering and be thou reconciled unto me for thy mercies sake Thus when he cannot give a Lamb for his Transgression he gives some of himself he offers Hunger for Shewbread and Thirst for a Drink-offering he consecrates a Meal instead of a Beast and sheds a sower fasting sigh for Incense and this he hopes God will accept as Sacrifice And truly the Text says no day of Expiation could be kept without it Nor does the Scripture want great instances of its effect towards Atonement of Gods wrath How when Judgment was given on a Nation or Person and Execution going out against them yet this revers'd the Sentence Ahab is a great proof of this 1 King xxi 27. And it came to pass when Ahab heard those words that he rent his Clothes and put Sackcloth upon his flesh and Fasted and lay in Sackcloth and went softly And the word of the Lord came unto Elijah the Tishbite saying Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me Because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his days On Fasting-day secured a Life the weaknesses it brought upon the body upheld it against all Gods threats Vengeance pronounc'd and coming out against him falls to ground if Ahab humble and afflict his Soul Gods stretch'd out Arm will not strike Sackcloth nor wound through Fasting Garments One fit of it removes his Judgments a whole Age and had it been sincere and persevering how had it wip'd them out to everlastingness Ninive is another instance of the practice and success of this even among the Heathens Nor should it seem to have less Efficacy among Christians The Primitive Fathers call these severities Satisfaction for sin and Compensations the Price with which they are bought off the things that cover them and blot them out and which Propitiate and appease God for them not in their sense who force up these Expressions to a strange height of meaning and yet have quite beat down the Practice as to the publique wholesom use of them out of the Church But though these sayings assign not the Power and just Efficacy of that discipline in it self yet they do the acceptance and effect of it by virtue of Christs Satisfaction A Fainting Body cannot bear indeed the weight of our iniquities nor will lowest prostrations in the dust bury them in the dust or Tears alone blot out our Guilt but Christ having done that which is effectual to all this and requiring no more of thee to make that thine as he does every where most solemnly avow but faithful humbling of thy self in an afflictive sorrow for what 's past and so to mortifie as to work out Repentance the doing this is doing what he does require and consequently will accept These satisfie the Command and therefore God though not by a condignity of performance yet as Conditions which his Covenant of Grace hath set us which when they are fulfilled then God is satisfied thy sins are expiated and thou art pardoned And so in this lower sense these are thy Satisfactions with which God is well pleased And thus these self Afflictions of the Sinner supply Gods Indignation and divert it They leave no place nor business for it and by these short severities upon himself he does make void he does expunge the Sentence of eternal Torments saith Tertullian As thou becomest severe against thy self so will the Lord abate of his severities and he will spare and he will pity thee in that he sees thou wilt not spare thy self How can he choose but be appeased towards thee when he shall see thee executing his Sentence even upon thy own self and punishing his Enemies although they be thy Members so that by this means thou dost censure thy self into Gods Absolutions afflict thy self into his Pardons and dost condemn thy self into eternal Life Our Church says the same thing That in the Primitive Church there was a Godly Discipline that at the beginning of Lent such Persons as were notorious Sinners were put to open Pennance and punished in this World that their Souls might be saved in the Day of the Lord and she does wish if her wishes be of any force and value when her Orders and Constitutions are not that Discipline could be restored But this I shall not press if all those whom the Primitive Church Condemned or S. Paul sentenced were so used if every Schismatick that lies tearing himself and others off from the Lords Body were rejected and if the Fornicator that joyns himself to his unclean Accomplice were disjoined from Christ and not suffered to make his members be the members of an Harlot if every scandalous debauching Offender that lies corrupting Christs Body spreading Contagion thrusting the Gangreen forward were cut off and these and all
that he was laid hold on by these sufferings the Epistle to the Hebrews does evince 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostome in that Way he pursued me till he catch'd me his Agony was but his strife to overtake me his Sweat the issue of his Race When he came down from Godhead in his Incarnation he pursued us then into our nature he laid hold of our Flesh and followed us from Heaven to the lowest parts of the Earth But when he went thus to his Cross here he pursued us then into our guilts he laid hold of our sins and took them up and bore them on the Tree then he descended into Hell to follow us This as it was formally done once for all so in its virtue influence and bless'd effects 't is still in doing as to thee and me and all of us and the approaching season is to represent it so Now sure we need no motives to prepare the way for him who runs that he may obtain our Salvation who though he laboured under such a dismal burden yet still presses on to catch us so to rescue us from sin and Hell If he think fit and can endure to strive thus I will make all ready and stand fair to have my guilt seized from me and to be laid hold on for my Blessedness to be the Prize the Crown of all Christ's Agonies that which he thinks worthy with so much strugling to contend for Now the same Preparation is required here that made way for his other coming that is Repentance in one word a disposition and sincere desire of heart to part with every evil and corrupt affection to quit every sin Sin lying in the way made it so dreadful God laid upon him the iniquity of us all and that weight threw him prostrate on the Earth and sunk him into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And yet if any were more galling 't was the weight of those that were clog'd with Impenitence this was more heavy more afflictive to him than his Cross. To bewail this and the issues of it he left off to consider his own Sufferings and required others also to do so Weep not for me weep for your selves And sure it was for want of such Tears to dilute and temper his sad Potion that his Cup was so amazing to him It was for this the Angel that came from Gods presence to comfort him left him still in Agonies could not do it because the joyes and comforts of that presence are at Sinners that Repent Luke xv 10. And God himself in Hoseah seeing Ephraim would not reform cries out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consolatio abscondita est ab oculis meis Comfort is hidden from mine Eyes so the LXX also Now they that refuse to do themselves this Honour that the Angel could not do to comfort their God in his Agony how will he ease himself on them How will he laugh at their Calamity be comforted in their Destruction at his coming as a King in Executions the next Way that we must prepare and my last Part. A Progress this I confess that is not usual to our King nor is according to the Method of his Government God call'd it his strange Work under the Law and much more is it so under the Gospel when he Governs by the Law of Faith For Faith being the evidence of things not seen shews us Rewards and Punishments not present but at distance out of sight in the World to come to keep us in our Duty And then why should the Ax be now laid to the root of the Tree when as there is to be an universal Conflagration where every Tree that beareth not good Fruit shall be cast in And upon this we see events do not discriminate deservings things happen to the good and bad alike we may have seen the wicked in great Power spreading himself like a green Bay-tree like a triumphal Garland as he were all Ensign of Victory all verdant spreading Conquest Yea and when the Ax is at the root of the Tree we know not whether it designs it for the Temple or the Kitchen to make a Fire or to make a God The Day that cometh shall declare all when the delay both of Rewards and Punishments shall be compensated with interest And it does scarce seem equal to inflict them twice But yet O Lord in days when Scoffers appear that walk after their own lusts and say where is the promise of his coming For except that the Fathers fell asleep some men are dead and others risen in their place all things else continue as they were from the beginning there always were vicissitudes of Flourish and Decay in every Nation and in these things there are no footsteps of a Providence or Judgment In days when men resist and deny thy Hand because they do not feel it and since thy Judgments are removed out of their sight defie Thee too and dash thy self out of the World in such days 't is but just that thou shouldst come to their conviction and confute them with thy Judgments into Ruine And truly since it must be horrid provocation that makes him come beyond the compass of his Covenant to Revenge the Executions are mostly very fatal as if they were what they seem to prevent the last Day and the final Doom upon such Nations For to the Jews they look as if they had fulfilled all that the Prophecy was mistaken to foretel and were as irreversible and utter as the Sentence of the Day of Judgment Now to prepare for such Approaches of the Lord our King there is one onely means that is resolving Fealty and Allegiance to him and that not formal onely or but idle Homage but renouncing all Confederacy with his Enemies Sin and the Devil and serving him with all the heart and all the strength For he is that King in the 19. of S. Luke who did not onely cause his contumacious Enemies such as would not have him to reign over them to be slain before him v. 27. making his way over their Necks whose Hearts he could not set up his Throne in not did onely cause those Servants who were so far from preparing his Way that upon confidence he delay'd his coming they smote their fellow Servants and did eat and drink with the drunken were unjust to others and indulg'd themselves in all licentious living cause them to be cut asunder and to have their portion in the Region of weeping where these intemperate should have onely tears to drink and for their Riots onely gnashing of teeth Teeth ready to revenge their former Luxuries on themselves gnashing as to devour one another Matth. xxiv 48. But he is that King too that Executed Sloth as well as Treason in Matth. xxv 30. who having given one a Talent trusted him with abilities of doing service in the station he had put him in which for his not endeavouring to do though he corrupted not his faculties
own Indictment yea and his own Sentence too for our own heart condemns us saith S. John And when ever it does so Oh that we would follow it through all the gradations that brought Christ to Death and use our wickedness as he was us'd strip it from its Cloaths bare it from its fair pretexts it useth to be dress'd in Lay our anger naked from all those excuses which our provocations that either wrath or humour will be sure to think intolerable do make for it strip our Pride and Vanity from those paints and dresses which the Custom of the Age that does require and warrant strange things dawbs the sin with use our Luxuries and Intemperances so and the other greater and more thirsty dropsie that of Wealth and of unjust unworthy gains which there are richer Luxuries in too And there are none of these but have their pleas their colours which they set themselves out in to please the Appetite and to deceive the Mind all which we must strip off and then when we have laid them naked spit upon them vomit all our spleen and contumelious despite at that which hath made us so ugly in Gods sight scourge it with Austerities and buffet it as they did Christ and S. Paul did himself 1 Cor. xvi 27. And when the Body of Sin is thus tamed and weakened it will be easie then to lead it out and crucifie it A Crucifiction this that does make our Good-Friday be a day of Expiation and Atonement to us A sight which next to that of his own Son upon the Cross is the most acceptable to the Lord when he does see us execute his Enemies although they be our selves and Crucifie the dear Affections of our bosom as God did This is indeed to be conform'd unto the death of Christ. If I might have leave to go before you and to let you into the Example draw the Curtain from before the Passion I would call my Sins out drag them to behold that Prospect hale them into the Garden shew them how he was us'd there You my Extravagancies of my youth my mad follies and wild jollities come see my Saviour yonder how he swoons when guilt began to make approaches towards him and can I make my self merry with nothing else but that which made him die tickle chear and heighten my self with Agonies You my intemperate Draughts my full Bowls and the riotous Evenings I have past look yonder what a sad night do these make Christ pass look what a Cup he holds which makes him fall lower to deprecate than ever my Excesses made me lie You my lazy Luxuries Fulness of Bread and Idleness whereby I have controul'd Gods Curse and onely in the Sweat of others Faces eat my Bread and in that dew drank up the Spirits of those multitudes that toil to faintings to maintain my dissolute life see how he is forc'd to bear the whole Curse for me how the Thorns grow on his head and how he Sweats all over You my supine Devotions which do scarce afford my God a knee and less an heart not when I am deprecating an Eternity of all those Torments which kill'd Christ look yonder how he prays behold him on his Face petitioning see there how he sweats and begs You my little Malices and my vexatious Anger 's that are hot and quick as Fire it self and that do fly as high too that are up at Heaven strait for the least wrong on Earth look how he bears his how his patience seems wounded onely in a wound that fell upon his Persecutors and when one that came to apprehend him wrongfully was hurt as if the Sword of his defence had injur'd him he threatned and for ever curs'd the black deeds of that angry Weapon and made restitution of what he had not taken made his Adversary whole whom he had not hurt See how with his cruel Judges he is as a Sheep that not before his shearers onely but before his Butcher too is dumb You my Scorns and my high Stomach that will take no satisfaction but Blood and Soul for the faults of inadvertency for such as not the wrong but humour makes offences lookhow they use him they buffet and revile and spit upon him Ye my dreadful Oaths and bitter imprecations which I use to lace my speeches with or belch out against any one that does offend me in the least making the Wounds and Blood of God and other such sad words either my foolish modes of speaking or the spittings of my peevishness There you may see what 't is I play with so you may behold the Life of Christ pouring out at those Wounds which I speak so idly of and what I mingle with my sportive talk is Agony such as they that beheld afar off struck their breasts at and to see them onely was a Passion Ye my Atheisms and my Irreligion but alas you have no prospect yonder it 's but faint before you who out-do the Example whatsoever Judas and the rest did to the Man Christ Jesus you attempt on God you invade Heaven Sentence Cruicifie Divinity it self And now having shewed my Sins this Copy of themselves what they are in their own demerits when my bowels do begin to turn within me at that miserable usage which Christ underwent it will be a time to execute an act of Indignation at my self who have resetted in my bosom all these Traytors to my Saviour made those things the joy and entertainment of my life which had their hands in the Blood of my God and what a stupid sensless Soul have I that was never troubled heartily at that which did make him almost out of hope and if this be the effect of sin then it is time for me to throw it off O my Jesu sure I am I am not able to support the weight of that thou didst sink under Thou didst come to bear our sins in thy own Body on the Tree therefore in thy Body they were nailed to the Cross and then certainly I will not force and tear them thence No there I leave them and will never re-assume them more which resolution is the effect of that vertue and efficacy which is in the Cross of Christ to the crucifying of sin which is the second sense in which the Christian does profess with S. Paul I am Crucified with Christ. There are some Learned Men that when they would assign reasons sufficient to move God to lay the punishment of our iniquities upon his Son and execute that Indignation that was due to us on the most innocent most Holy Jesus give this onely that this was the highest and most signal way imaginable to discover Gods most infinite displeasure against Sin and by consequence to terrifie men from the practice of it For if any thing in Heaven or in Earth could make us fear and from henceforth commit no such evil it was surely this to see Sin sporting in the Agonies of Christ Iniquity
and Sedition rather and therefore must needs look upon damnation in them these differences make as great a gulf and chasm as that which does divide Dives from Abraham's bosom It is one God one Faith one Worship makes hearts one Hands lifted up together in the Temple they will joyn and clasp And so Religion does fulfil its name à religando binds Prince and Subjects all together and they who thus do seek the Lord their God will also seek David their King God's next direction and my second part 2. And here three things offer themselves a King their King and David their King I am not here to read a Lecture of State-policy upon a vie of Governments why seek a King not any other sort of Government and why their King one that already was so by the right of Succession not whom addresses or election should make so And though I think 't were easie to demonstrate only Monarchy had ever a divine or natural original and that elective Monarchy is most unsafe and burthensome full of dangerous and uneasie consequences and this so much to sight that choice for the most part bounds it self proves but a ceremony of Succession yet this I need not do for I am dealing with the Jews who had God's judgment in the case and his appointment too and to me that is argument enough And when God hath declar'd for the transgressions of a land many are the Princes thereof many at once as in a common-wealth or many several families successively for so God reckons also one or many 't is still we see David their King while 't is in David's line and so the King does truly never die while his race lives If either of these many be Gods punishment for the sins of a land I will not say that they who love the many Princes love the transgressions which God plagues so but I will say they who do chuse that which God call his plague that quarrel for his vengeance and with great strife and hazard take his indignation by force I can but pity them in their own opinions and enjoyments But O my soul enter not thou into their counsels As for seeking their King I shall content my self with that which Calvin says upon the words Nam aliter verè ex animo Deum quaerere non potuit quin se etiam subjiceret legitimo imperio cui subjectus erat For they could not otherwise truly and with all their heart seek God except they did subject themselves to his Government to whom they did of right belong as Subjects And I shall add that they who do forsake their King will soon forsake their God The Rabbines say it more severely of Israel that they at once rejected three things the Kingdom of the house of David and the Kingdom of Heaven and the Sanctuary And truly if we do consult that State from the beginning we shall find that when they were without their King they always were without their God Moses was the first King in Jeshurun and he was only gone into the Mount for forty days and they set up a Golden Calf they make themselves a God if they want him whom the Lord makes so as he does the Magistrate If they have not a Prince that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living Image of God then they must have an Idol When Moses his next successor was dead we read that the man Micah had an house of Gods and consecrated one of his Sons to be his Priest And truly he might make his Priest who made his Deities And the account of this is given in those days there was no King in Israel Jud. 17. 5 6. The very same is said ch 18. 1. to preface the Idolatry of the Tribe of Dan There was no heir of restraint as it is worded ver 7. It seems to curb impiety is the Princes Inheritance which 'till it be supprest he hath not what he is heir to But Vice will know no Boundaries if there be no King whose Sword is the only mound and fence against it for if we read on there 19 20 21. ch we shall find those dismal Tragedies of Lust and War the one of which did sin to death the Levites wife the other besides 40000. slain of them who had a righteous cause and whom God did bid fight destroyed also a Tribe in Israel These all sprang from the same occasion for so the story closes it In those days there was no king in Israel ch 21. 25. Just upon this when God in their necessities did raise them Judges that is Kings read all their story you will find to almost every several Judge there did succeed a several Idolatry God still complaining the Children of Israel did evil again after the death of such an one 'till he raised them another Those 450. years being devided all betwixt their Princes and their Idols After them Jeroboam he that made the great secession of that people from their Prince hath got no other Character from God but this the Man that did make Israel to sin at once against God and against their King Yea upon this account they are reckon'd by God to sin after both their Idolatry and State were ended when their calves and their Kingdom were destroyed Ezek. 4. 4 5. the Lord does bid the Prophet lie on his left side 390 days to bear the iniquity of Israel according to the number of the years of their iniquity But this was more then the years of their State which were only 255 390 years indeed there were betwixt the falling off of the Ten Tribes and the destruction of Jerusalem by the King of Babel but those ten Tribes were gone their Kingdom perfectly destroy'd above 130 years before But their iniquity was not it seems that does outlive their State so long as that God's Temple that King's house did stand from which they did divide As if Seditious men and schismaticks sin longer then they are even while those are whom they do sin against in separating from 'T is true there was an Ahaz and Manasseh in the house of David but Hezekiah and Josiah did succeed Mischief did not appear entail'd on Monarchy as 't is upon rebellion and having no King It does appear their Kings were guards also to God and his Religion the great defenders of his faith and worship God and the Prince for the most part stood and fell together Therefore St. Paul did afterwards advise to pray for Kings that we might live in godliness and honesty and still they were the same who sought the Lord their God and David their King But why David their King For could his Kingdom disappear and be to seek of whom the Lord had said I have sworn once by my Holiness I will not fail David Psal. 89. And his Throne therefore was as sure as God is holy But yet the Lord had said to the
Condition There never was so much pretence of seeking God as in those late days of his absence from us and it should seem indeed we knew not where to find him we took such several ways to seek him But if God did not look down from heaven then as he did Psal. 14. to see if any did understand and seek after God should he not then have found it here as there They are altogether gone out of the way their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues have they deceived the poison of asps is under their lips their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and unhappiness is in their ways and the way of peace have they not known there is no fear of God before their eyes They eat up my people as it were bread and which is worse in these then them they even then call upon God as if they craved a blessing from the Lord upon that meal that did devour his people and when they did seek God they meant to find a prey Yet where were any others that did seek him Or that do cleave to him now The Schismatick does not seek God who shuns the place where he appears and meets and dwells nor does he cleave to God who tears himself off from the Lord's body Mark such as cause divisions saith S. Paul and avoid them and if all Christians must avoid them then I am sure God is not with them The other Schismaticks that divide from the World by cutting off the World from them do they seek God that are diverted by so many Saints and Angels that terminte divinest Worship in a creature Or do they cleave to God when their devotion embraceth stocks and stones Or did they seek God for the purpose of my Text who did not seek David their King but did apply themselves to several foreign Princes and to others which they hoped would set up their Golden Calf Incendiaries that make fires and raise commotions these are farr from God for the Lord was not in the fire or in the Earth-quake but in the still small voice in the soft whispers of peace and love The Atheist he that says in his heart there is no God will not seek God you may be sure nor does he care to seek David his King who is equally well under all Governments that will allow his Licences and who hath no Religion to tie him to any If he at all disliked the former it was upon reasons of Burthen or of Pride or Libertinism So much Religion though counterfeit was a reproach to him and the face of such strictness was uneasie to him These are so far from seeking God that God says these did drive him out of Israel Ezek. 9. 9. And then when that hath so long been the Wit that it is now the Complexion of the Age and they who thought fit to shew their not being Hypocrites by License and to give it an easie word by drollâ—ry in sacred things have now made nothing to be sacred to them how shall the Lord dwell among such They are enough to exercise God out of a Nation The Hypocrite also for all his Fasts and Prayers never did seek God for he is but a whited Sepulcher our Saviour says Now who would seek the Living God among the dead the Lord of Life sure is not to be found in Graves Golgotha was a place to crucifie him in not Worship him He takes not in the Air of Funeral Vaults for Incense it was a Demoniack that used to be among the Tombs The subtle false and faithless men that walk in Mazes never shall meet God These are the windings and the tracts of the Old Serpent and they lead only to his habitation They that do climb as if they meant to find God on his own Throne that follow Christ up to a pinnacle of the Temple or to the top of that exceeding high Mount whence they can over-look the glories of the World and pick and chuse these do not go to seek Christ there It is the Devil that does carry up thither upon his own designs Nor is it possible to seek the Lord in the ways that lead to the strange Womans house for her house is the way to hell Solomon says and he did know nay more her steps take hold on hell seise on those everlasting burnings which her foul heats kindle and begin In a word they that seek their own that turn all meerly to their advantage they cannot seek God too he will not be joynt God with Mammon And then where are the men that sought him That did retrive him to us Or with whom does he dwell If he be not among us we do in vain flatter our selves in our prosperity and peace gawd it in all our bright appearances Have we not seen the Sun rise with a glory of day about him and mounting in his strength chase away all the little receptacles and recesses of the night not leave a cloud to shelter the least relicks of her darkness or any spot to chequer or to fleck the countenance of day When strait a small handful of vapor rais'd by that Sun it self did creep upon his face and by little and little getting strengh be-dasht his shine and pour'd out as full streams of storm as he had done of light 'till it even put out the day and shed a night upon the Earth in spight of him So may prosperity it self if the Lord and his blessing be not in it raise that which will soon overcast and benight the most glorious condition of a Nation That Wine which now makes your hearts glad may prove like that which did commit the Centaâ—res and the Lapithae first kindle Lusts then Wars and at last onely fill a Cup of trembling and astonishment and that Oyl that does make you chearful countenances may make your paths slippery and nourish flames that will devour and ruine all But God who is found of them that seek him not nay who himself sought the lost sheep and carried him when with his straying he was wearied into impossibility of a return as also sought and found and brought together us and our great Shepherd For this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes These ways of his also are so past finding out that we may well conclude they are the meer foot-steps of his incomprehensible goodness and we have onely now to fear that goodness But give me leave to say Those that despise his goodness do not fear it and they whom it does not lead to repentance do despise it S. Paul says Rom. 2. 4. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-sufferance not knowing that the goodness of the Lord leads thee to repentance And now O Lord what sort of men among us hath thy goodness wrought upon and made repent Those whom it was directed to convince