an ill memory to forgive them is a capital sign of true charity but to do good for evil is the happy evidence of sound Religion Since 't is no Comet among the vapors of this age to account him a man of the best stomack that can digest least wrongs let this stand for no Paradox That the meekest minde hath the highest Spirit Psal 127.6 An injury well remembred is ill retain'd and half reveng'd If ever thou hope thy charity should live after thee let the injuries of others dye before thee and if ever thou expect thy blood should cry How long Lord under the Altar let it cry Forgive Lord over thy Grave Thus Stephen kneeled down and cryed with a loud voyce Lord lay not this sin to their charge and when he had said this he fell asleep Acts 7.60 Reliance on Providence Therefore take no thought saying What shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be cloathed for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things Mat. 6.31,32 NOt to believe God is to give him the lye and not to acquiesce in his Promises doth as well dispute the point of his Power as question the infalibility of his Truth Gods promises are the Patrimony of the faithful whereby they keep heaven in hand but let out the lower world to inferior Peasants Gods Providence is the yonger brothers Inheritance and a fair one too or Josephs Vice-Royalty Gen. 41.40 was but a dream Rather then Elijah shall want a Providence to feed him in a famine or Sampson the like to feast him the Raven of Fowls shall be a Cater for the one and the Lyon of Beasts an Epulary for the other yea the Lyon and the Raven though the prey-Creatures of earth and ayr yet seek their meat of God Psal 104.21 and 147.9 whereas the earthly minded who know no better Providence then their own make a god of their Meat Phil. 3.19 a whole flock of such Peacocks that glory in their train is not worth one Sparrow which lights not on ground without a conveyance of Providence If Solomons gallantry came short of those withering blushes that but enamell'd the earth well worth the trusting is that Providence with the care of that earth he refin'd for the superscription of his own image to enamel it with the graces of his Spirit To call this unhappy accident or that unexpected circumstance the issue of Chance or Fortune is but a rustick piece of sophistical Atheism There 's not a hair of thy head but is placed to accompt in the the Diary of Providence the number whereof though incalculable yet comes far short of ballancing the summa totalis of thy sins And though for want of better spectacles that seems Chance in respect of us which is Providence in respect of God yet that Sect of Understanders who refer all things to Gods absolute will in a way of fatal necessity do as much calumniate that superintendent Attribute of his Mercy as the other detract from the irresistability of his Power If thou wouldst live by Providence take God to his Word for Providence without a promise may be large Bounty without the least mercy Now all his promises are Yea and Amen Therefore take no thought what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink or wherewithal c. Matth. 6.31,32 See thou do it not And I fell at his feet to worship him and he said unto me See thou do it not Rev. 19.10 'T Was well prevented the Prophetical Divine was within a foot of Idolatry There was but an Almost between Agrippa and a Christian and there was no more between John and an Idolater the one had almost overtaken by his Faith that Scribe or discreet respondent in the Gospel travelling on the Dromedary of his works to the Kingdom of God from which he was not far Mat. 12.34 the other was as fast posting to the Kingdom of Satan had he not in the way when he fell stumbled on a Vide ne feceris Had not the Angel entred a caveat the Divine had proved a most false Will-worshipper thus he that was so well seen in the visions of God was dazled with too much light And are not the Saints then much ingaged to those Sacrilegious Idolists of the western Babylon for doing them more honor then Angels dare admit of indeed unless their worship were better it s no matter who had it if God could be so satisfied Idolatry is the Epidemical sin of the world there 's scarce a Nation this side Heaven a people in any Nation a profession in any people a person in any profession a soul in any person or a faculty in any soul to whom it may not be said See thou do it not Not to do what we are commanded is Disobedience or Rebellion to do what we are not commanded uperstition to do what we ought in that way we ought not Idolatry If we worship the true God in a false way we make an Idol of God if we worship a false god in the true way we make a god of an Idol Indeed all thoughts cogitable all words articulable and all actions performable by the Creature as they tend either to the honor or dishonor of the Creator so have they in them a true worship or downright Idolatry For Covetousness which is idolatry Col. 3.5 may not be measured onely by thy purse-strings but dilates it self to all the evils man naturally covets to commit Thus the whole world makes but one Idol to our Savior it was the Devils gratituity if he would condescend to worship him to us it is the Devils Dagon which he hath set up for all People Nations and Languages at the sound of the inchanting Musick of his temptations to fall down and worship or be cast into the burning fiery Furnace of Persecution and where shall we finde a trusty Daniel indeed we have many that will burn rather then fall to the least superstition yet take them out of the road of notorious idolatry and let the Idol be compounded of Spiritual Pride invisible Covetousness Equivocated Love to earthly Temporals or any other materials of their own Ingredients and Erection and you shall finde Christendom nonplus'd to parallel such a Trinity of unidolatrous Children insomuch that as the corrupter ages have been ever bowing to the great Idol of Antichristianism which mystical Nebuchadnezzar hath set up so the more refined times to the brazen Serpent in their own hearts those dregs of remaining corruption to which the most superstitionless Saint would fall down worship and finally Sacrifice did not the Angel of the Covenant by his Spirit intervene with a See thou do it not Rev. 19.10 The mad Prodigal And when he came to himself he said How many hired servants of c. Luke 15.17 ANd when he came to himself Why whither went this yonger brother how far had he been from himself truly he had been with Swine you may guess what
in a stews and fornicates with hell who thus becomes his self-destroyer is a Rebel to that God that made him a Vagabond from his presence for ever is an Enemy proclaim'd in Hell to all Religion is a Traytor to Reason â—n Apostate to Sence a Fool â—o the very Bruits and a Slave to the Devil Who shall shed his blood that hates his brother for he 's a murtherer too 1 John 3.15 that restrains charity or usurps revenge the Prerogative Royal of the most High Who shall shed that Pastors blood that starves his Flock or erroneously mis-guides them by his life or Doctrine like Sheep unto the slaughter who shall shed that Lawyers blood that most butcherously cuts his innocent Clyents throat by betraying his righteous Cause for a bribe ore-ballancing an honest Fee prostrating the nakedness of truth to the foul insultings of corrupt injustice that with-holds the truth it unrighteousness that Janus like looks both ways at once and hath an Ambodextrous tongue to suck blood from both yet distribute right to neither Who shall shed that Empericks blood that kills others that himself may live that practises on the Bodies of men with less conscience then he takes fees and destroys more lives by his desperate ignorance then the Judicious Phisitian by his Chymical Practice Who shall shed the Machivilians blood that like the Wolf in the Breast gnaws out the bowels of his Countrey and to feed his vulturous designs preys on that State that bred and foster'd him and rather then have his invisible projects countermin'd will cap in hand petition the Devil to summon a Councel in Hell that may furnish him thence with Auxiliary Legions to come in for his assistance Lastly Who shall shed the Usurers blood that sucks out the Vitals of his Neighbors Estate with Jewish Exaction and then extorts his very Liberty from him even Natures Prerogative till the last gasp of all his Fortune be conveyed him and having onely reserved to himself for term of life a few years of beggary and too late repentance entails the remainder of his misery to his injured innocent Posterity whilest his own sad soul to prevent the gastly hungerbits of merciless Famine does oft career on the resolves of some desperate courses to the Shipwrack of his Conscience that so being now undone in soul and body state and posterity he may go to his grave if it be his happiness to have one compleatly miserable But let none of these forget That there is a God that judgeth the earth and hath enacted That whosoever sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed Gen. 9.6 Babel Go to let us go down and there confound their Language Gen. 11.7 BUt yet one Century of years expired since the Deluge and behold the Sons of men ripe for a second confusion they are now scaling Heaven not by Faith but Presumption are daubing up a stately Mole-hill as if they meant to ore-top the most High over-power the Almighty mighty parley with their Creator go to Heaven in a carnal way or at least secure themselves from future Deluges by erecting this Castle in the ayr for a place of retreat but the Lord descends from on high blows off the Pyramide of their Pride by sweeping away their Cobweb Edifice with the besom of Confusion Of these proud Masons oNimrod was the chief the Captain the Master Workman the first Tyrant and as some suppose the first that brought Idolatry in fashion indeed he erected a very stately Idol for such ambitious fools to worship as imitate the vapour of his brain To establish themselves a Name in all the Earth was their grand design they would fain be great and high enough to peep into heaven but the dissipation they doubted was the judgement they suffered their attempting the prevention of what they feared prevented their accomplishing of what they projected and the foundation they had laid whereon to build their greatness became the ground-work of their ruine They call'd a general Councel or rebellious Confederacy and voted for a Tower whose top should reach unto Heaven A Fabrick of that heighth would require a Basis deeper then the Earth but he that will ascend Heaven must not lay his foundation in Hell no question but this ambitious rout in the results of their desperate resolves were as well compact as their building and that as uniform as their Language but as they went up the Lord came down scattered the one and confounded the other Had these men been at Jerusalem when the Apostles inspired with the gift of Tongues became such expert Linguists they might have seen the like power in a contrary effect to this of Babylon this came by the sin of man that by the mercy of God the one from Babylon the other from Jerusalem No marvel then that at this day are such audacious Theomachists in mystical Babylon where that proud Antichristian Nimrod exalting himself above God sits in the Temple as God Indeed the whole Christian Earth was once of one Language and of one Speech but when Babylon sadled her Ass and took a Journey to Rome when they said Go to Let us make Martyrs and burn them throughly when they took the brick of their own inventions in stead of Sions Stone a tryed and precious Stone Isaiah 28.16 and the frothy slime of their own brain for the well-tempered morter of the infallible word and said Go to Let us build us a City of Spiritual Whoredoms and a Tower of Merits whose top may reach unto Heaven no marvel then I say that the Lord should at the brightness of his coming scatter those Idolatrous Vermin or Jesuitical Imps like dust before the wind upon the face of all the earth and with the Spirit of his mouth confound the Language of the beast 2 Thess 2.8 Abram's Call Now the Lord had said unto Abram Get thee out of thy Countrey and from thy kindred and from thy fathers house unto a Land that I will shew thee Gen. 12.1 IT is the perfect freedom of a childe of God to come and go at his Command out of whose service to be manumitted is the dishonorablest Vassalage under the Sun Our obedience to God admits not the Sophisms of flesh and blood to debate the point of obedience with God by delays is to enter our selves the Devils slaves without dispute He that asks leave of his lust to part with it in obedience to God seems to take leave of his God and part with him in obedience to his lust Nay if the Land of thy Nativity or the vastness of thy Possessions if the honors of thy State-Offices or the Profits of thy Corruption therein if the quality of thy Birth or the vanity of thy pleasures if the exquisiteness of thy Endowments or the popular Hosanna's of Idolatrous Flattery if the Wife of thy Bosom or the issue of thy Loyns if all or any of these counterballance the least of Gods Commands in the scale of thy judgement or
Heaven Gods Will is a Law yet his Peoples Obedience no Slavery but perfect Freedom the Prince his Will is a Law too where he hath none but Slaves to His Subjects Where the Engines of State-policy make the wheels of the Peoples Obedience run Counter to the Primum Mobile or main Spring of Gods revealed pleasure it may be feared lest the frame of the whole work and the body of the Land retrograde to the first Chaos of Confusion Obedience to man rather then God is as the sin of Witchcraft yea the Prince who delivers not his Commands from God or derives not his Commission from Heaven neither fears God nor honors himself and whosoever obeys him in such Commands is guilty of that obedience as Treason against the highest Majesty A special Command from God legitimates a thing unlawful in it self it had not been murther in Abraham to have slain his Son but thus it is not with Princes on Earth therefore the Egyptian Midwives approved their loyalty to God by their disloyalty to Pharaoh for They feared God and did not as the King of Egypt commanded them but saved the men-children alive Exod. 1.17 Heavenly Eloquence Go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say Exod. 4.13 THe Spirits dictates are the Saints best Rhetorick the plainest Language where the Spirit is Orator is too profound for the deepest apprehension of meer natural judgements not he that hath most learning but he that hath most grace is best learn'd he that is seen in all Arts Sciences is held an able man but he that hath learn'd Christ is the best Schollar A poor weak Christian that doth practice Christ speaks his Language with more grace then the most exquisite Orator of meer nominal Christians and hath more perswasive Rhetorick in his sweet Conversation then many of our learned Gown-men in their life and Doctrine There are a Generation of men in this refined and new-modell'd Age that have fled exceeding high in their expression some think they have out-shot all objects of reason to comprehend and of faith to believe as if too mysterious to make reasonable sense of and too superluminary to conclude non-sense this is not heavenly Eloquence Others there are that draw their Language to so fine a thrid that it oft breaks in the spinning and nought but a Spider crawls from the Web sometimes it breaks into sense ridiculous and sometimes into errors venimous now into self-interest and anon into faction or if the thrid hold it serves onely to sâ—w Pillows under the drowsie declensions of most uncorrupted Patrons neither is this heavenly eloquence The great Doctor of the Gentiles Paul that Gospel-Orator accosted not the Corinthians with the perswasible inticements of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of Power and this was heavenly Eloquence for when the Spirit prompts the heart the tongue cannot but speak eloquently the volubility whereof flowing onely from some principle of nature is but as the wagging of an Apsenleaf compared with the Seraphick Language of a gracious heart where the Spirit giveth utterance Such Language Christ promised his Disciples when called to attest his Truth and such Language God promised Moses when he imployed him as his Agent into Egypt to uninslave his bondag'd people saying Go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say Exod. 4.13 Jehovah-nissi Exod. 17.15 THey who in their spiritual warfare list themselves under Gods Command to fight the Lords Battels not onely have Christ for their Captain but even the Lord of Hosts for their Jehovah-nissi the Lord for their Banner Suppose the Generalissimo of all the infernal Janizaries muster up all his Forces and draws them into Battalia against thy naked soul ranking the honors profits and pleasures of this life on the right wing the hideous troops of all thy fearful sins on the left placing thy most conquering lusts in the main body keeping whole Regiments of that gallant Brigade of most specious Sanctity whose leader is Spiritual pride for a Reserve with divers ensnaring temptations lying in Ambush with as many occasions and opportunities of sinning as so many Scouts to discover the state posture and motion of thy soul all this supposed yet the being on thy side thou needest not to fear For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength Isa 26.4 He is the Church-Militants Banner against which the gates of hell shall not prevail To the wicked the Lord is a consuming fire dissolving them like the fat of Lambs but his Church like Moses his Bush is preserved in the midst of fiery persecutions to lustre forth as well the glory as the power of the Almighty The Church never yet fought with the Prince of the Ayr but either won the day by being victorious or gained by being persecuted And why because the Lord was her Banner and indeed where the Lord of Hosts leads the Van Victory must needs attend the Rere When that stripling David was to Duel that monstrous Goliah he advanced towards him onely in the name of the Lord of Hosts 1 Sam. 17.8 Whilest Moses's supported arm was Gods Standard Joshuah defeated the uncircumcised Amalekites Therefore Moses built him an Altar and called it Jehovah-nissi Exod. 17.15 Stand still Fear ye not stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord Exod. 14.13 DIstrust the Brat of slavish fear is the first step leads downward to Despair he that will not trust God on his word will scarce confide in his miracles To fancy safety out of Gods protection is an argument of wretched security and little policy but to doubt his protection in the midst of his encompassing mercies an argument of more ingratitude and less faith As it is most desperate presumption and an ungracious tempting of God to stand still when he opens us a door of flight and as it were bids us fly for our life either by revealing us his Will by his Word or by whispering it in our hearts by his Spirit or by proclaiming it by his past or present deliverances so is it a no less desperate Cowardise and most Atheistical distrust to fly when God bids us stand either by shutting against us the door of escape or by giving us pledges of victory or promises of protection It had been a strange piece of self-enslaving and rebellious madness in Peter to have staid in prison when the Angel unshackled him and opened the door yet but an ill-purchas'd freedom in Paul to have bribed Felix Cesaria's Governor for his enlargement In our inevitablest straights we are in all humble observance and faithful patience to attend the pleasure of God without disputing the Justice of his Providence and by a holy recumbancy without the least murmuring distrustfulness to acquiesce in the Faith of his Promises The invisible Politician may and is oft brought to his wits end but a just man is never at his Faiths end Art thou degraded in the world and undeservedly
Expositors of the Law yet we see not what niceties thereof they or their surviving hanging-sleeves at this day can plead in Bar to that Action of Damage which the poor mans Advocate hath commenced against them in Mat. 23.4 The Jews Proverb was The People of the Land are the footstool of the Pharisees ours may be The footstool of the People are the Pharisees of the Land The Scribes were the Law-Criticks The Pharisees Gospel-mimicks The Scribes being Lawyers made no conscience of washing their hands after a bribe as the other before a feast Mark 7.3 nor with much difficulty obtained the Hypocrites portion but the Pharisees took more pains for eternal pains and were more exact in going to Hell It would nonplus a Synagogue of Rabbies to riddle whether they were more swoln with Ambition or over-scurfed with hypocrisie It is not worth one dram of Super-rational Faith to believe the lying Spirit in Ahab's Prophets was no other then the Spirit of Naboth whom he had formerly slain yet the creating Vote of this Supercilious Generation is sufficient to Enact it in the Talmud for a tradition of faith to Posterity Those whited-Sepulchres would far better become a Charnel-house then Moses Seat They had an excellent faculty of paying Tithe to a grain but Wo to widows Houses when they said their Prayers It was their charity to loud Musick that made them ambitious of it to the Poor Their devotion was very zealous for the Chief Seats in the Synagogues and the uppermost Room was their best Cheer at a Feast where they had a very good stomack to feed on the Chair at the Tables end If this generation of Vipers can answer our Savior how they can escape the damnation of Hell Matt. 23.33 then let those blinde guides be greeted in our Markets as too frequently they are with the idolatrous salutations of Rabbi Rabbi Peace be still And he arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea Peace be still and the wind ceased and there was a great calm Mark 4.39 VVHilst Christ slept the winds awaked whilst he lay down the storm rose when Christ arose the winds fell and when he spake they held their peace when Christ took his rest the Ship took none but silence commanded and the Winds the Sea the Ship and all are pacified Where 's the miracle Shall not the Sea become a standing Pool when he rebukes the wind at whose rebuke the waters were unchanell'd and the foundations of the world discovered Psal 18.15 shall not the troubled Ocean become a bed of rest for him who layeth the Beams of his Chambers in the Waters Psalm 104.3 or shall not he bridle the wind who maketh the clouds his Chariot Psal ibid. shall not he that brings the winds out of his Treasuries Psalm 135.7 whistle them back again shall not he clip the wings of the wind that flies thereon Psalm 18.10 shall not that stormy wind fulfil his word Psalm 148.8 whose word fills full the wind with storms Psalm 107.25 shall not his voyce still the Seas Psalm 65.7 at whose presence the Earth trembles Psalm 18.7 shall not he that giveth snow like wool Psalm 147.16 scatter the Sea-froth like ashes shall not his path be plain Psal 27.11 whose way is in the sea Psal 77.19 No wonder his mercy should still the surface of the waves Psal 65.7 whose wrath shakes the foundation of the hills Psal 18.7 Say then the world were all afloat with blood and in unconstant motions say Antichristianism blew a storm that whilest the Master-Pilot seemed to have slept the doubtful Mariners shifting the sayls of their Religion with the wind of every doctrine had anticipated their danger by the self-shipwrack of their own faith say Truth the Churches Cargaison lay at the mercy of the insulting waves or tumult of the People Psal 65.7 say all the blood from righteous Abel to Zacharias slain between the Temple and the Altar emptied it self into the bloody Ocean of these latter ages Cannot he that turned the Red-sea into dry Land Psalm 66.6 repeat one wonder in a Gospel-season say the East and Western storms of persecution together with intestine whirlwinds threaten inevitable ruine to the distressed Vessel cannot that High Lord to whom the wind and sea owe their Allegiance silence those Euroclydons spunge those impetuous Waves and land his Ark upon the Ararat of his holy Hill in Sion or say the State full fraighted and deep loaden with the invalluable riches of that long-acquiring yet perishable treasure of all Civil Happiness were in the Bedlam-surges of a Civil War so tossed and fluctuated by the violence of factious winds and gusts of Machivilianism that all the Steersmen seem'd beside their Compass and every common Marriner ready to make Ship-wreck of a good conscience on the open ledges of most desperate prophaneness or invisible Quick-sands of some dangerous Opinion yet he before whom all nations are as nothing Isa 40.17 can soon annihilate the stirs of one he that stilleth the noise of the Waves can quickly appease the madness of the People Psal 65.7 if he touch the Hills they smoak Psal 104.3 and if he touch the heart though as hard and lofty as the other shall it not melt Doubtless he that rebuked the wind and gave to the sea his decree Prov. 8.29 can as easily muzzle the rage of wicked men and say to the Church Peace and to the State Be still The Charitable Martyr And he kneeled down and cryed with a loud voyce Lord lay not this sin to their charge and when he had said this he fell asleep Acts 7.60 A Good evening Prayer to bedward a set form of charity not unworthy our every nights practice if Stephens heart be our bed-fellow To forgive an Enemy is the gallant'st way of conquering and he that can dye pardoning his persecutors survives their malice in his immortal charity Revenge justifies a wrong but patient forgiveness heaps coals of fire on the Marble-wretch till by confession through the repercussions of a self-inditing conscience he drops out all the blood he formerly had suck'd and his frozen heart be throughly dissolved Behold this soft-hearted though stoned Saint call him Stephen the Baptist to Christs death Luke 12.50 Mat. 20.23 this Pelican of Martyrs how to the life he dyes in charity Not to bless them which curse us is the ready way to double that curse upon us and by the not forgiving such as trespass us we not onely unpray our prayers and deprecate our own happiness but we pray God we may be damned we endeavor to delude God by our fraudulent petitions we give our selves the lye and the world our hypocrisie To forget an injury is more then nature can promise yet to forgive it is less then charity commands or grace can perform for to pray for an Enemy implies more then forgiveness and any thing less then forgiveness implies nothing less then revenge To forget injuries is the best use we can make of