Helias To this ignorant zeal referr rash zeal when without due consideration of particulars on the sudden men engage and rush upon action Moses anger we read waxed hot when upon his coming Exod. 32. 19. down from the Mount he saw the golden calf and the people dancing and though his sudden breaking of the tables upon it was ordered by God to convey a good Moral to us yet that passionate hastiness it may be had a touch of this Rashness or if not as some See Calvin in locum Chrysestom Hierom Ainsworth conceive it had not yet that of Israels sudden resolution of going to war against the two Tribes and half Josh 22. 12. and against the Benjamites Judg. 20. 8. had in it too much precipitancy Hitherto refer also all indiscrete zeal when not managed with sobriety and wisdom as Psal 112. with zeal v. 1. is joined discretion v. 5. but so weakly and indiscreetly with such antique looks and gestures such foolish attempts and actions as makes all ridiculous And can that which is so justly unsightly to men be in it self or make us pleasing in the sight of God No remember the four beasts Revel 4. 8. had alas oculatas their wings full of eyes which zelum cum scientia ac fide conjunctum designavit Mede as one well upon that place The wings expressed zeal but the eyes in them wisdom and knowledge to guide it as John Baptist was not only a burning but also a shining light John 5. 35. But yet more burning than shining Fervor ei quodammodo substantialior videtur as Bernard saith of him and this withal Serm. 3. de verbo Isaiae p. 68. Lucet Joannes tanto utique clarius quanto amplius fervet tanto verius quanto minus appetit lucere as when David◠heart was hot yet his tongue was silent Psal 39. 2 3. there had need be light as well as heat else there will be more of the smothered heat of hell than of the kindly warmth of heaven in it especially if Secondly It wants sincerity as well as knowledge for the ground-work and carrying on of it as when in hypocrisy and out of design it 's wholly or in part counterfeit for our own sinister ends worldly advantage vain-glory and applause and accordingly managed with pride and ostentation In all which Jehu's zeal was grosly faulty when pretending God his eye was on a Kingdom and yet would have mens eyes on him as a great zealot Come and see my zeal for the Lord 2 Kings 10. 16. This the Pharisees zeal was also deeply guilty of that they might be seen of men and Matth. 6. ◠5 10. have glory of them of which also Luther accused the Monks and Friars of his time that were very loud and seemed to be exceeding zealous but it was rather for their Paunch than the Pope whilst he said of himself At non eram it à glacies frigus ipsum in defendendo Papam his zeal for his then-Religion was more plain and honest hearted whilst theirs was selfish and counterfeit which is so far from commending us to God as it justly makes us abominable both to God and Man Too costly a paint to be laid on so rotten a Sepulchre that zeal that noble spark which is the flower vigour spirit and quintessence of all the affections should be so debased as to be prostituted and made a stalking-Horse to such poor and low projects that divine flame to be only a torch to give them light more speciously to go about their works of darkness The Apostl◠gave it too good a Name when he here called it dung not only to be lost but with detestation to be cast away that we may win Christ 3. And the like we may say of our zeal if it be not principled and guided with love pity meekness and moderation For how should love be absent from our zeal which is the chief ingredient of it It being intense love of God and our Brethren that should make us zealous for him and against any practice or person so that it should not burn up our compassion and meekness even towards them against whom we are so zealous The fine flower of the meat-offering in the law was to be baked we heard in the frying-pan which the Ancients I told you said typed out zeal but it was to be mingled with oil Levit. 2. 7. by which the same Authors would have us understand meekness and gentleness which should always go with our zeal the better to temper it as the hot heart in nature hangs in water the better to cool and moisten it And as our Saviour sent forth his disciples by pares so he suted them when he joined a zealous Luther and a meek Melanchthon together and so the hard stone and the soft morter built up the wall the sooner as before a zealous Elijah and a meek Moses were speaking with Christ in the Mount It 's into the Mount to a great height that we then get when such a Moses and an Elijah Matth. 17. 3. meet if we be meekly zealous especially if they meet and speak with Christ if they be truly Religious and Christian not only with whom but in whom a Moses and Elijah fully and transcendently met Highest zeal you 'l say when you see it eating him up whilst he whips the buyers and sellers out of the Temple John 2. 15 17. But you must say too and most compassionate pity and meekness at the same time when you read Mark 3. 5. that whilest he was most angry and you never expresly read him angry Exod. 32. 19. Levit. 10. 16. Numb 12. 3. Berengosius in Bib. Patrum Tom. 2. p. 556. but there yet even then and there you read too that out of compassion he was grieved for the hardness of their hearts as Moses we sometimes find very angry in the cause of God and yet the meekest man upon earth as the same spirit which appeared upon the Apostles in the resemblance of fire Acts 2. 3. descended upon Christ in the likeness of the meek dove Matth. 3. 16. If therefore on the contrary our zeal instead of love be imbittered with hatred and malice it 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bitter zeal as the Apostle calls it James 3. 14. zelus amaritudinis non amoris as Divines speak the one of which is to be blown up but the other to be put out and quite extinguished Or if it be inflamed into discontent a touch whereof David had when his heart was hot and glowed Psal 39. 3. and Ezekiel when he went on God's errand but in the bitterness and heat of his spirit Ezek. 3. 14. or Rage and Fury that like Solomon's mad Prov. 26. 18. man it casts fire brands arrows and death Boanerges thunderclaps all devouring words and actions as zealous Jehu used to drive 2 King 9. 20. Luke 13. 14. Act. 5. 17 33. 7. 54. 13. 45. 22. 23. furiously and those
FORTY SERMONS UPON Several Occasions By the Late REVEREND and LEARNED Anthony Tuckney D. D. Sometimes Master of Emmanuel and St John's Colledge successively and Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of CAMBRIDGE Published according to his own Copies By his Son JONATHAN TVCKNEY M. A. Sometimes Fellow of St John's Coll. in Cambridge LONDON Printed by J. M. for Jonathan Robinson and Brabazon Aylmer at the Golden Lyon in St Pauls Church-Yard and at the three Pigeons in Cornhill MDCLXXVI TO THE READER Christian Reader THat thou art here presented with the ensuing Sermons is from the same desire and design that acted the Reverend Author in the preaching of them viz. of recommending the Truth and Grace of God to whomsoever they shall come And having been with approbation and acceptance entertain'd in those publick Auditories where they were delivered It is to be hoped that being now exposed to publick view from the Press they will no less both profit and delight The matter and contexture of them will easily induce any who knew the Author to believe them to be his But that none may think themselves imposed upon they may be assured that they have all been carefully and faithfully transcribed out of his own Notes which he left behind him And though some of them may be more peculiar in their use to some sort of persons according to the Auditories whereto they were preached yet even in them there is handled matter of universal Christian knowledge That therefore the great end of all Preaching Writing and Reading namely Knowing Loving and Living to God in Christ may hereby be promoted God Himself of His mercy grant who teacheth his to profit And so neither shall the Publisher to whom the Author's memory ought to be ever precious nor the Reader have cause to repent them Decemb. 6. 1675. Jonathan Tuckney THE TEXTS OF THE Several Sermons 12 SErmons on Phil. 3. 8. and on 5 and 6 Verses viz. V. 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. V. 5. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the Tribe of Benjamin an Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the Law a Pharisee V. 6. Concerning zeal persecuting the Church touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless Sermon 13 14 15 and 16. on Prov. 8. 21. That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance and I will fill their Treasures Sermon 17 18 19 and 20. on 2 Pet. 1. 4. That by these you might be partakers of the Divine Nature Sermon 21. on Philip. 1. 27. Only let your Conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ Sermon 22 and 23. on Psalm 119. 96. I have seen an end of all perfections but thy Commandment is exceeding broad Sermon 24. on Exodus 28. 36. Holiness to the Lord Sermon 25. on Matth. 5. 13. Ye are the salt of the earth but if the salt have lost his savour wherewith shall it be salted it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under-foot of men Sermon 26 and 27. on Isa 32. 1 2. V. 1. Behold a King shall reign in righteousness and Princes shall rule in Judgment V. 2. And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the Tempest as rivers of water in a dry place and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land Sermon 28. on John 5. 14. Afterward Jesus findeth him in the Temple and said unto him Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee Sermon 29 30 31. on Psalm 73. 28. But it is good for me to draw near to God Sermon 32 33. on Luke 21. 19. In your patience possess ye your Souls Sermon 34 35 and 36. on Gen. 49. 18. I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord. Sermon 37 and 38. on Matth. 24. 45 and 46. Who then is a faithful and wise Servant whom his Lord hath made ruler over his Houshold to give them meat in due season Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Sermon 39 and 40. on Philip. 1. 21. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain SERMON I. PHILIPPIANS 3. 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. THE Creature at best is but finite so that we may At St. Maries in Cambridge July ..... 1646. very easily look round about it and as it is Psal 119. 96. see an end of all the perfection of it and withal so empty and defective that the nearer Sermon I we come to it the more we discover the blemishes of it and oftentimes our own folly also in overvaluing it Fuit manè ecee fuit Leah But Infinitum Gen. 29. 25. non potest transiri the infinite perfection and fulness of Christ is such that as none knows it but he that enjoys it so he that knows and enjoys it most sees further cause to account him more than all and all besides him nothing As the longer the eye looks upon the body of the Sun the more it 's blinded from seeing other things below whilst it is more and more dazled with its light and brightness It was so here with our Blessed Apostle whilst he by an eye of faith was looking up to the Sun of righteousness there was heighth and depth length and breadth which he could not comprehend Divine Beauty more ravishing at the second view a growing excellency and worth as sometimes of the Sibylls Books at every after prizing rising to a higher rate And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 latter thoughts proved the better that as time was when Christ in himself grew and increased in favour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jacturam feci C. à lapide similitud◠est sampta à navigantibus Calvin in locum both with God and man Luke 2. 52. So he is a rising Sun still in S. Paul's increasing admiration and love of him and that even when he had lost all for him To which purpose in these 7th and 8th Verses which we may call Paul's Bill of Rates there are two things very observable 1. How he doubles his words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all three words twice used and if you will take in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 7th verse and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 8th you have them thrice in two verses To express as the strength of his affection so the setledness of his judgment that what he said non excidit imprudenti was not a rash inconsiderate brag which afterward upon better thoughts he ate up again but what with his whole heart and most deliberate resolution he would stand to Nor is this all But consider as first how he doubles and trebles his words so 2. Secondly ut crescit surgit oratio how his speech riseth 1. From an 〈◊〉
Ans much good to us or the rich gifts of Gods distinguishing bounty Non fecit taliter omni Nationi Psal 147. 20. It was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chief of that much every way advantage which the Jew had that to them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 1 2. a prime sign of Gods love and therefore set first Deut. 33. 3. he loved his people and then it follows they sat as Scholars at his feet to receive of his word and his law was their inheritance v. 4. and therefore they are heavily distempered Souls which call this Heavenly Manna Numb 21. 5. 1. Cor. 1. 21 23. light food right out mad that judicially account and call it the foolishness of preaching Were these Ordinances of so little worth ungodly men should not pay so dear for their neglect and abuse of them as the Asian and other Eastern Churches in their present desolation and Capernaum of whom Christ upon this account said that it will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah than for them Matth. 11. 24. Now it doth not consist with the Justice at least with the sweetness of God to take great forfeitures or to inflict great punishments for small offences And were Preaching such Foolishness why then are they who so much declaim against it such fools as so frequently after their fashion to practise it By that it seemeth they have so much wit as to understand the usefulness of it at least to uphold and increase their party as the Seekers for that purpose will have their Ecclesiam Hoornbech in summâ Controv. lib. 6. p. 429 430. c. in Apologiâ pro Ecclesiâ Christianâ c. Conniventiae as they call it It 's not preaching therefore but the preachers that they are so much against whom they would have to be none but themselves who in this further most foully mistake that they take their Cursing and railing to be the only Gospel-Preaching than which nothing is more contrary to the spirit of the Gospel-Ordinances therefore are not to be sleighted even our Enemies being Judges But on the contrary to be desired loved attended upon delighted in improved and profited by It will be a very guilty taking of Gods Name in vain if when there is so much in them we gain nothing by them carry away empty vessels from these full wells of salvation as I might shew at large But that which suits most with my present purpose and which Use I shall make the Application of this part of my Discourse is that they should be highly valued and honoured First Both in our esteem of them And secondly In our expectation of much blessing and benefit from them in our due use of them The first is our very high esteem and valuation of them next under Christ and his Grace which these are means to interest us in to be set in the highest rank of blessings 1. For the enjoying of which we should part with the choicest outward Conveniencies the hunger-starved man will give gold for bread as the Priests and Levites and others who set their 2 Chron. 11. 14 16. hearts to seek God left all they had to come to the Temple at Jerusalem like him that selleth all to buy the field in which was the treasure Matth. 13. 44. 2. The enjoyment of which should counter-vail the greatest wants and losses as the keeping of my treasure may bear out the casting-over-board my timber in a tempest as bread of adversity and water of affliction was good fare as long as their eyes saw their teachers Isa 30. 20. brown bread and the Gospel good chear 3. The loss of which should be the greatest and most punishing loss as starving hunger the greatest torment This of the Soul more than that of the body It was not only an Idolatrous Micah that cried he was undone when he had lost his Priest and his Teraphim Judg. 18. 24. but an holy David that when in a barren wilderness cried out of a dry and thirsty land especially in regard of his spiritual thirst because he could not there see the power and glory of God as he had seen him in the sanctuary Psal 63. 1 2. and there envieth the sparrow and the swallow for having a nearer approach than he could have to Gods Altar Psal 84. 3. In other respects it was very sad with Israel but amongst and above all the taking of the Ark brake Elies neck and his good daughter in laws heart 1 Sam. 4. 17 18 c. 4. The want of which should imbitter our sweetest other contentments as David though he had a Palace yet whilst he had no Temple to go to he had no heart to come into his house nor go up into his bed Psal 132. 3 4 5. Haud grata unquam futura mansio Mâ—is in locum in domo vel dormitatio in lecto his Palace could not content him nor his Couch ease him as they story it of R. Joseph when for his great advantage he was urged to go to a place where there was no Synagogue refused and excused himself returning that of the Psalmist The Law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands Psal 119. 72. of gold and silver 5. For so in the last place the enjoyment of them should like Oil swim aloft be accounted the highest and sweetest of all our other enjoyments as the Psalmist expresseth it For proffer and advantage more to be desired than gold than fine gold and much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it and so with the Apostle he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he gives his vote for the value of it sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb Rom. 7. 16. Two words and either of them singly in the Proverbs are used to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 express the Honey-comb but both here put together by the Psalmist to express a double sweetness as of the live-honey flowing Ainsworth from the dropping Honey-comb which of all is the sweetest And so with the same Apostle he adds to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 7. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whilst he accounts it his choicest pleasure and delight as well as his greatest profit and advantage even the very end why he desired to live that he might vacare Deo to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple Psal 27. 4. and therefore Muis in locum it was that he accounted a day in his Courts better than a thousand Psal 84. 10. Etiam eâ lege ut postridie moriar as Muis very well noteth upon the place to be the Psalmists meaning that but one days enjoying Communion with God in his Ordinances though it were but one day and he should die the next was more to him than a whole life without such a blessing So highly should and do
and as Macrobius out of Plato observeth Sâ—mn Scip. l. 1. cap. 6. though the four Elements be divers and have opposite qualities and so are at odds one with another yet God in his wisdom hath so order'd it that every one of the four Elements have two qualities and so although with one they fight against each other yet by the other they are linked together to a likeness and consistency as water being cold and moist and the Earth cold and dry though in moisture and driness they are opposite yet both agree in coldness and so in the rest of the Elements ut per tam jugabilem competentiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foederari possint so and much rather in the Body of Christ though there be much variety in the members and that if not better looked to may be occasion of too much opposition yet in that they are by one spirit united unto one head and by reason of many other ties and ligaments they have much more to unite and keep them together than there can be to disunite and pluck and keep them asunder It should make us do our utmost to endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace But because it 's the God of Peace and Love who only can make us to endeavour and then make our endeavours successful to so glorious an end and because he may be sooner intreated than froward man be perswaded I end this particular with Noahs wish and prayer Gen. 9. 27. The Lord perswade Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem that our many Sects and Schisms being abandoned and all our rents and breaches made up once at last our Jerusalem may be builded as a City that is compacted together even a Psal 122. 3. Isa 33. 20. quiet habitation a Tabernacle that neither shall be taken down nor any of the Cords thereof broken SERMON X. ON PHILIPPIANS 3. 5 6. THIS is the first Particular which from these words As Touching the Law or the Sect I was of a Pharisee That it is not the being of any Sect or Party that commends us to God or is to be rested in no not though never so learned for such was that of the Pharisees who had their name of Pharisees from their greater skill in explaining the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus expresseth it and therefore were accounted De bello Judaico l. 1. c. 4. amongst their chief Doctors and opposed to the rude ignorant multitude as John 7. 49. Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him But this people who knoweth not the Law are cursed The Jewish Jesuits I called them as for their pretence of greater sanctity so for their either real or pretended knowledge and learning above others And Paul had been one of these and if you consider what is said of him in Scripture or what even Porphyrie thought of him or what he speaks of himself Gal. 1. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he profited in the Jews Religion that is as some expound it in the study and knowledge of the Law and Jewish In Judaicae Religionis notitiâ sive legis studio Grotius Religion above many his equals in his own Nation that he was * Acts 22. 3. 5. 34. brought up at the feet of Gamaliel the great Doctor of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 institutus accuratè as the Tigurine rendreth it most exactly instructed in the Law of his Fathers yea and in other humane literature above all the rest of the Apostles as his disputes and writings testifie I say If you consider all this you will conclude that as he was a Pharisee so one of the highest form amongst them for parts and sufficiencies And therefore when he was but a young man made use of by them as a fit Act. 9. 1 2 3 14. 22. 5. 26. 10 12. and choice instrument for their purpose And yet though he was a Pharisee and such a Pharisee both for his Order and his personal accomplishments so knowing and eminently learned yet this he valueth not himself by nor rests in but counts it also loss and dung that he might gain Christ Whence This Note ariseth That it is not our greatest parts or learning Note 2. either natural or acquired abilities that can so commend us to God that we may rest in them but they also are loss and dung in comparison of Christ and are so to be accounted by us that we may gain Christ And of this now I cannot say as I did of the former that it is of little or no worth No. Next under Christ and his Grace above all things in the World of greatest Excellency Solomon who had most of it can best tell us the true worth of it and he saith that Fools indeed despise wisdom and hate knowledge but Pro. 1. 7 22. he calls them fools for it But for his own judgment it 's positive that Wisdom excelleth folly as far as light excells darkness both Eccles 2. 13. in its own nature and for the admirable usefulness of it which the ignorant fool whilest in the dark perceiveth not but when he once cometh into the light is made sensible of as theâ— frantick or deadly sick man as long as such feels not his malady till he begin to recover out of sickness and madness and then he begins to discern the difference Scientia Deorum vita They accounted it the life of their Gods and it 's indeed a bright beam of heaven This transcendent worth of knowledge and learning learned men usually know too well whilst they little know themselves and therefore as the Apostles word is swell in pride and are puff'd 1 Cor. 8. 1. up with the conceit of it that like Saul they are higher by the head than all their Neighbours and so do tanquam ex alto despicere 1 Sam. 10. 23. all others as their underlings nay lift up themselves against Christ himself his Truth ways and Ordinances as poor low things too inferior for their Altitudes to stoop to A Psalm of David a dull piece to an Ode of Pindar A Believer an half-witted crackt brain Simplician To such Preachers as to the Athenians are but vain bablers Act. 17. 18. it's the foolishness of preaching and therefore they think they more wisely spend their 1 Cor. 1. 21. time in reading of a Book than in hearing of a Sermon Yea Christ himself though the Wisdom of God to the learned Greeks is no better than foolishness 1 Cor. 1. 23. as to the Jews he was a stumbling block And therefore they thought their saying Have any of the wise Rulers or the learned Pharisees believed in him laid a sufficient block in the way for any that had wiâ— in their heads ever to have a purpose in their hearts to come to him And such thoughts it 's likely enough our learned Paul had of Christ whilst he continued a Pharisee
angerly nor dealt more roughly than in this Case John 2. But if it be as it was always in him rightly guided it proveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cant. 8. 7. the flame of God in which the Soul like Elijah mounts up to heaven in a fiery chariot 2 King 2. 11. Judg. 13. 20. or the Angel that appeared to Manoah in the flame of the Altar It 's the fire on the Altar a live coal whereof we find the glorious Seraphim having in his hand Isa 6. 6. all the holy Angels being a flaming fire Hebr. 1. 7. but those Seraphims have in a special manner their Name from Burning and are thereby in the upper rank of those Celestial Hierarchies and proportionably zeal makes us God-like Angelical sets such divinely inflamed Souls far above the ordinary forms of Christians as the fire is above the dull earth and other inferior Elements 2. And yet as essential to a Christian is inkindled in the breast of the weakest and youngest Christian for there is warmth even in conception 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 51. 5. my mother did conceive me or as the word is did warm me and in the very first kindlings of our spiritual conception and new birth in our first conversion when there was otherwise so much smoak there was some of this Divine fire yea very much of it yea and then usually more lively felt glowing and working for God and against sin than it may be afterwards What a fire did it make of those new converteds conjuring books Act. 19. 19. Had it then been a dilute flame and not more than ordinarily hot it would never have so burnt asunder those strong cords of sin and Satan which till then we were bound with as while frigus doth congregare bomogenea heterogenea calor doth congregare bomogenea segregare heterogenea So necessary is this natural radical heat and so unseparable are life and warmth that we cannot first ascend to the highest pitch no nor secondly reach the lowest degree of true spiritual life without some greater or lesser measure of it 3. At least not to any degree of lively activity How nimble and active is the fire whilst the torpid dull earth either sinks down or abides still and stirs not How listless are we to move and unable to do any thing to purpose whilest frozen and benummed with cold but when well warmed how pliable and active The warm wax then works and the melted metal runs And when the Prophet had his lips once touched with a live coal from the altar Isa 6. 6 7. then instead of his former wo is me v. 5. you hear him presently saying here am I send me v. 8. like the Seraphim that touched him with it who had Six wings v. 2. to express the greater readiness and swiftness of those heavenly Ministers as in Ezekiels vision we find their appearance to be like lamps and burning coals Chap. 1. 13. and accordingly we find they had wings to their hands and their feet sparkled for heat and hast v. 7 8. They ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning v. 14. and so we must be fervent in spirit if we would serve the Lord to purpose Rom. 12. 11. be zealous if you would repent or amend Rev. 3. 19. as John Baptist the Preacher of repentance was a burning and shining light John 5. 35. And hence it is that God useth to inkindle this Divine flame in the hearts of those of his Servants whom he raiseth up to any more extraordinary and heroick service and employment We read of Baruch as a special repairer of Jerusalems wall but we read then withal that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flagrante animo instauravit he did much but he was warm at his work and hot upon it Nehem. 3. 20. Apollos Acts 18. 25. was fervent in spirit and then he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord. Fervet opus Phineas Elijah Jeremiah Numb 25. 7 8. 1 King 19. 14 14. Jer. 20. 9. Luke 1. 17. 2 King 19. 31. Isa 9. 7. 37. 32. John Baptist Luther Knox all noted to have been very active in their generations and that they were very zealous too In Scripture when some great thing to be done is spoken of it 's said the zeal of the Lord shall do this and it is the zeal which he inkindleth in the hearts of his more eminent servants that must go through with any such more noble atchievements whilst it either breaks or burns through all difficulties and oppositions as whilest the man that creeps or slowly goeth up the hill is wearied before he goes to the top of it another that putting to his strength runs up with more ease ascends it or as whilst a cold blunt-pointed iron cannot enter if sharpned especially if made red hot makes its way easie In the cold winter and cool night we freeze and sleep It 's the warm day and summer when we are abroad at our work and the heat of harvest that ripens and Isa 18. 4. brings in the crop The Palm-trees which are the ensignes of victory delight to grow in hot soiles on the contrary Bernard well observes that Adami voluntas non habuit fortitudinem quia non habuit fervorem Great is the proportion of activity in the hotter Elements above that which is in the more cool and heavy And proportionably there is a far greater riddance made of God◠work by them that are warm than by them that freeze at it When God washeth away the filth of the daughters of Zion and Jerusalem it 's by the spirit of burning Isa 4. 4. It 's hot water that washeth out such souler stains and defilements And accordingly it adds much to the valuableness of zeal that God so highly valueth and esteemeth of it that as he makes it the end he aims at in mercies bestowed he redeems us to make us a people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. So when angry he is pacified by it So he professeth that the heat of Phineas his zeal had quenched the fire of his wrath against Israel Numb 25. 11. that he accepts it and is prevailed with by it The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much James 5. 16. and without some measure of this lively warmth best duties avail nothing The richest sacrifices if not burnt with this altar-fire and Berengosius Bib. Patr. Tom. 2. pag. 550 551 552. the finest flowr and sweetest oyl if not baked in this frying pan as some of the Ancients apply it have no relish make no sweet savour in Gods nostrils No are very distastful He that is a spirit therefore will be served in spirit and in truth had rather you would let his work alone John 4. 24. than that you should freeze at it He will have the dull asses neck rather broken than offered to him in sacrifice and the slow creeping snail is among the unclean creatures His infinite
am enabled as couragiously to suffer for him and stedfastly to hold fast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning of my confidence or substance as the word is and Ambrose renders it and that unto the end Heb. 3. 14. This This is to be a Christian indeed and in good earnest which really and actually instateth us in this bequest in the Text in which Christ promiseth to cause them who love him to inherit substance SERMON XV. ON PROV 8. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That I may cause to inherit WE have hitherto in the first particular treated of what At St. Maries August 10. 1656. Christ is in himself and to them that love him And that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 substantial reality In the second we are now come to consider the Tenure and Title in which they are promised to be seized and possessed of him and this that other word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expresseth It is by way of free and perpetual inheritance so that what Solomon elsewhere saith that wisdom is good with an inheritance that he avoucheth to be found in Eccles 7. 11. the wisdom here spoken of both substance and Inheritance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I may cause them to inherit substance And that holdeth forth to us as I even now hinted 1. The freeness of it our claim to it not being merit or purchase or self-procurement but only free gift and inheritance for however to inherit often signifieth in general to possess and so Haeres and Dominus or Herus are the same and an inheritance may be said to be gotten by the father Prov. 20. 21. yet the Child that cometh to enjoy it neither purchased it by his penny nor procured it by his labour Inheritances were wont to be divided by lot Ezek. 47. 22. which speaks God's allotment and are now usually either born to or by favour adopted to and so are of the Father's Prov. 19. 14. not of the Child's procurement In Ravenell ad vocem Haereditas Schindler in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word both from Scripture and common use an inheritance is in part described to be that quod gratis cedit in possessionem And so it is here Christ and that Grace and Glory which cometh to us by him are only and altogether of mere grace by none of our merit or purchase and therefore in this sense are all said in Scripture to be conveyed to us by way of inheritance He that overcometh shall inherit all things Rev. 21. 7. To have all things is a great possession but yet all by Inheritance So we are said to be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ Gal. 3. 29. Rom. 8. 17. to inherit promises Heb. 6. 12. to be heirs of righteousness Heb. 11. 7. of Salvation Heb. 1. 14. of the Kingdom James 2. 5. which the Elect shall at last inherit Matth. 25. 34. Come ye blessed of the Father Inherit the Kingdom That word inherit tells us by what Title we come by it as also those that follow prepared for you from the foundation of the world that if so early provided for us before we were it was not of our purchasing but of God's preparing as here in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I may cause them to inherit substance If it be an heritage it 's God's causing us to inherit it not any thing in us that may procure or merit it Away then with the proud doctrine of Merit and let every Vse humble soul be glad and thankful that he may have all of free gift and inheritance And if you say that Col. 3. 24. we read those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as though this inheritance were a reward I only say that they are strangers in the Scriptures that know not that there may be a reward of grace and not of merit and that the Psalmist spake not contradictions when he said Psal 62. 12. Vnto thee O Lord belongeth mercy for thou rewardest every man according to his work non quod mereantur sed quia Deus misereatur as Austin speaks and therefore as Basil observes that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Retributio Donum Gods In Psal 7. reward is his free gift So in other places and in that mentioned the Apostle speaking of Christian servants he telleth them for their comfort that such servants are by adoption made Sons and See Bâ—za Piscator in locum so instead of the reward or the wages of servants they shall receive an inheritance of Sons so that their inheritance is not so much a reward as their reward an inheritance and therefore as the word reward doth not imply merit so that other word inheritance doth exclude it Our reward is our inheritance and our inheritance is from our Birth and Sonship and that is merely only from our Father and his love We never made our selves heirs John 1. 13. Ephes 1. 5. 1 John 3. 1. but as the word in the Text is He causeth us to inherit Here is no free will but free-grace no merit but mere mercy Indeed David often in his prayers pleads both God's righteousness and his own righteousness But when Gods it 's either for his righteous taking vengeance on his enemies or his righteous fulfilling of his promise and both these speak free mercy When he pleads his own righteousness it 's either the righteousness Vide Contarenum de Justificatione pag. 594. edit Paris of his cause in reference to unjust men or the integrity of his heart before God But there 's no merit in all this for our righteousness is our duty and it 's but righteous for us to perform it and in that respect our very mercy is justice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some read that Matth. 6. 1. And on the contrary God's righteousness in those places is all one with his Benignity and Mercy unless you will with some Muiâ— in Psal 36. 12. thus distinguish them that his righteousness is in vouchsafing as much as he promiseth and his mercy in giving more and such it is even to them who may seem to be most deserving So David when he had thankfully acknowledged that God had recompensed him according to his righteousness Psal 18. 24. immediately in the 25. verse he adds with the merciful thou wilt shew thy self merciful He doth not say just in giving him what he deserveth but even with the merciful who might bid the fairest for merit thou wilt shew thy self merciful i. e. in giving what thy mercy freely vouchsafeth not what even his mercy can justly challenge And therefore to put an end to this particular let us all the best of us all pray and say with the same Psalmist shew us thy Psal 85. 7. mercy O Lord and grant us thy Salvation Whatever we are God sheweth us his free and great mercy if he grant us his salvation so here in the Text this causing of us to inherit
Crown Revel 3. 11. Let no man gull or thrust thee out of thy inheritance say I. It is God in Christ And therefore resolve with Asaph when heart and flesh fail that He shall be the strength of thy heart Psal 16. 5. and thy portion and that for ever Psal 73. 26. It is his word and Truth and therefore Contend for it Jude v. 3. with David take it an heritage and that for ever Psal 119. 111. It 's his Grace and therefore stand to it persevere in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Revel 2. 3. how elegant the expression But how much more pleasing to God is the thing In vindicating and securing this inheritance to labour without fainting to continue the suit and to hold on the conflict without ceasing So two of the best of Gods servants in either Testament express their practice and resolution by their I have done and I do I have and I will I have suffered the loss of all things for Christ and I do count them dung saith Paul Phil. 3. 8. and one thing I have desired of the Lord and that which I will seek after saith 2 Sam. 6. 21 22. Hos 6. 4. David Psal 27. 4. Oh that our goodness were not as the morning-cloud but as the morning-sun that as Christ and his Grace is inheritance an everlasting inheritance so we might cleave fast Pro. 4. 18. to him and enjoy him everlastingly An Inheritance when had do not part with him And upon the same ground as such let us prize and chuse him Vse 3 Let other things have their due value as they are Gods gifts But let Christ alone be esteemed and desired as our inheritance Job 17. 11. The thoughts and desires of the heart are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the possessions of the heart i. e. that which the heart is possessed with Such possessions Job there tells us may be broken off and we from them Such thoughts though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gay glittering ones as the word signifieth may perish Psal 146. 4. and such desires though impetuous ones may fail Eccles 12. 5. And all such things which we have so firmly fixt our thoughts and desires on may either fade of themselves or be taken away by the violence of others Such inheritances we may easily be cast out of as the Prophet speaks of some who oppress a man and his heritage Micah 2. 2. and the lamenting Church complains that their inheritance was turned unto strangers and their houses to aliens Lam. 5. 2. The most ancient Mannor houses may not prove Mansions but time or violence may ruine them The Houses of Ivory shall perish and the great houses shall have an end saith the Lord Amos 3. 15. We have need therefore of some better foundations of a building not made with hands eternal in the heavens 2 Cor. 5. 1. Pleasures especially of sin are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 last but for a season flowers that soon wither in our hand And although in our Hebr. 11. 25. vain wanton youth whilst we enjoy them we promise our selves ver perpetuum and if we might but continue to enjoy them so brutish are we that we could be content to have no other no better inheritance yet a summers scorching heat of many inflamed lusts of youth often on the sudden burns them up or an Autumns decay in after-times withers them or to be sure old ages winter frost will at last quite kill them We had need therefore of something that is more solid and lasting and which will afford us strong and everlasting consolation Hebr. 6. 18. 2 Thes 2. 16. Should honour and esteem and applause in the world be that which we would make a portion of this were but to inherit the wind as Solomon's phrase is the wind of anothers breath or Pro. 11. 29. applause and such wind continueth not to blow from the same quarter always Unstable would that house be which is turned about like the fan or weather-cock on the top of it as several nay contrary blasts of wind blow it Indeed Solomon speaks of the wise mans inheriting glory Prov. 3. 35. and the honour and fame of some prudent pious men continueth longer than themselves and descendeth as an inheritance sometimes to their posterity But how often is it buried with them or before them or afterwards obscured by their off-springs baseness Such an inheritance is soon spent unless by taking hold of Christ and Gods Covenant we so gain an everlasting Name that shall not be cut off Isa 56. 4 5. Riches also are not for ever but make to themselves wings to fly Pro. 23. 5. See Cart. wright in lo. cum away like-Eagles so that either we never with all our haste overtake them or when once had and enjoyed and afterward flown away we are never able to recover them so that we have no reason to câ—use our eyes to fly on them as the word there is which so fâ—y from us And doth the Crown endure to every generation Prov. 27. 24. Remove the Diadem and take off the Crown 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this shall not be the same I will overturn overturn overturn it and it shall be no more saith God by his Prophet Ezek. 21. 26 27. Our knowledge and experience hath told us that even hereditaty Crowns and Kingdoms may be removed and alienated And how should this therefore alienate our affections from such moveables and make us lay more sure hold on Christ upon whom His Crown flourisheth Psal 132. 18. is not a withering garland is substance and an inheritance that will abide by us will live and on which we may live for ever As therefore he is said to chuse the inheritance of his people for them Psal 47. 4. O that he would once teach us all to chuse right by making choice of him that we had fixed everlasting thoughts and desires of this everlasting inheritance as it 's called Hebr. 9. 15. These are the sure mercies of David We that are wont to be so Isa 55. 3. careful to make sure other estates and inheritances to ourselves and children and friends O that we were so good friends to our selves and them as to take more care to ascertain this which is incorruptible undefiled and which fadeth not away Which if once secured Happy for ever happy we because we Vse 4 are made for ever Substance and inheritance as I said are two great words which may prove very strong supporters of the most broken arms How well and comfortably do some live on Annuities that last but for a time but how much more contentedly and joyfully doth the heir on his inheritance which if he do not prodigally waste but husband will prove a perpetuity But what abundant satisfaction may this be to the heirs of life that whereas all other earthly inheritances will be certainly consumed if not before yet at the last day when the whole earth and all the
seems to signifie all those goodly fine Thoughts that great Men please themselves in Now all these perish and often their Glory with them It shall not descend after him saith the Psalmist Only this you may find on his Grave-stone and there the poor Man may tread on him on whom before he durst not look This is Pharaoh and all his multitude Ezek. 31. 18. Which if you would but take up and look into the Graves and Tombs of those Chief ones of the Earth as the Prophet calls them when nothing else is left their very Bones would speak and say We have been something yea all things as dying Severus said of himself but now are nothing And so you have an end likewise of that Perfection What should I now speak further of multitude of Friends whose Friendship usually ends with our Wealth and themselves often before Where ever we come either a Widdow of Tekoah lamenting that her Husband is dead or a David bewailing the untimely death of a faithful Jonathan or a beloved Absalom or a Centurion seeking for the Health of a Servant that is dear to him but now ready to die do all cry aloud that there is an end of that Perfection If it be delicate Fare thou affectest thou must know that it could not keep Dives from Hell Ahasuerus made a Feast that lasted an hundred and fourscore days Esth 1. 3 4. yet at last those many days were expired ver 5. If costly Apparel know that as thou camest in so thou must go out of the World naked Or if thy Friends will vainly spend as much on thy Carcase when thou art dead as thou dost on it now when thou art alive yet be sure as Jupiter in Plato said he would have it thou shalt be Judged naked To add no more If they be goodly Buildings in which thou seatest thy Self and thy Perfection yet as Luke 21. 5 6. the left Ruines of such vast Edifices do plainly witness that if there were no Lightning to consume nor Wind to overturn nor Cannon to beat down yet Time would undermine the strongest I will smite the Winter-House and the Summer-House and the Houses of Ivory shall perish and the great Houses shall have an end saith the Lord Amos 3. 15. And so an end of that Perfection Thus we have seen some of this All which that I may return to my first Draught are we see but as Grass or the Flower of the Field and as they have a double end which I must now briefly point at either wither of themselves or are pluckt up or cut down by others First I say Of themselves they will wither compared to Summer-Fruits Amos 8. 2. which are pleasant but last not represented by Wheels in Ezekiel's Vision and therefore ever turning and by the Moon Rev. 12. 1. and therefore often decaying All that I would say in this particular we have summ'd up 1 John 2. 17. And the World passeth away and the Lust thereof The whole World that is now grown old shall shortly have an end which is the end as some think in the Text which David by Faith foresaw and the Lust thereof whether you take it passively with Calvin Concupiscentia for Quicquid concupiscitur for that which is most desirable and so the same with Perfection in the Text Or actively with others for our Desire and Affection after it though the World should continue yet both it's Desirableness and our Desire of it will pass away This Flower of the Field often loseth its sweet Smell before its Beauty The best of the former Perfections often cease to please and content before they ceasâ— to be and that either from a Satiety which they bring and so often the young Man is weary of his Lust and partly from a Weakness and Indisposition in us and so the old Man saith Eccles 12. 1. I have no pleasure in them And so we see if left to themselves there will be this way an end of all Perfection Secondly But how often in the second place is this Flower pluckt in the Bud before it be fully blown And the Grass cut down before it come to it 's full height How often are these outward Contentments taken away before either they or our desire come to the Perfection For before the Harvest when the Bud is perfect and the sowre Grape is ripening in the Flower he shall cut off the Sprigs with pruning-hooks and take away the Branches Isa 18. 5. Yea How often when these Perfections and our Desires have grown up together and are now married they affording and we receiving most Contentment are they violently pluckt asunder Thus Isa 33. 9. Lebanon is ashamed and cut down and Sharon is like a Wilderness and Bashan and Carmel shake off their Fruit. When Babel is most stately and Nebuchadnezzar admiring I know not whether it or himself more and saying Is not this great Babel c. Even while the word was in his Mouth there fell a Voice from Heaven saying O King Nebuchadnezzar To thee even to thee it 's spoken the Kingdom is now departed from thee Thus the Psalmist saw the Wicked flourishing And that you may think is not much because Autumn might be at hand and then such flourishing Trees left bare and naked but it 's added as a green Bay tree And that seemeth to promise Continuance against which the Winter-frosts do not usually prevail He saw it but it was but once for he looked again and sought it but it could not be found Psal 37 35 36. And all that he then saw was this in the Text An end of all Perfection And thus in both these respects we see plainly that all the fore-named and the like Perfections are indeed but like Puddles or shallow Waters in which you may as you think see the Sun and Moon and conceive them as deep as the Heaven is high which if you shall try you shall find far otherwise And that as a Shower made them so the next Sun-shine will dry them up These outward Contenâ—ments make a show of having more Depth and Solidity than upon trial we shall find in them They are but Puddles for Swine to wallow in impure unconstant so that what was said of Elijah's 1 Kings 17. 7. After a while the Brook dried up may be said of all these broken Cisterns and deceitful Brooks as Job called his Friends At the end of a few days as the phrase there is We all that are present here all that are any where alive shall be laid low and at the end of some few Years there will come a last end of all take it as large as you will an universal end of all Perfection And so we have done with the first Vanity the end of Length and Continuance they will not last always Secondly The other end which David saw is of Breadth and Extent Whereas God's Word is exceeding broad that is reaching to all Persons and all their Occasions and Wants
later Speech of David was spoken thoughts of their end never come welcome You cannot do them a worse turn than by putting them in mind of their Mortality But it would be well that we with David here would be continually thinking of ours And that 1. To keep us humble that when we are in this kind perfect in our ways as we have the Phrase of the Prince of Tyre Ezek. 28. 15. we be not like him lift up and so grow contumelious to God or Man lest we come to his end which in that Chapter is excellently described that with Jesurun when we are grown fat we kick not against God or with those Idol-Shepherds stamp upon and tread under foot his Children that now in this joyful time we do not revel it with Belshazzar and with those drunken Prophets Isa 56. 12. say Come I will fetch Wine and we will fill our selves with strong Drink to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant For We know not what a day may bring forth I am sure that very Night a Hand wrote something on the Wall that dasht all Belshazzar's Jollity and made an end of his Mirth and Monarchy together And therefore when thou art the highest be not high minded but fear that thy Sun may go down at Noon that even then may come an end of all that thy Perfection 2. Labour to see an end of all perfection that so thence thou mayst learn a sanctified Moderation in the enjoying and patient Contentedness in loosing any or all of them And here truly we may admire God's Wisdom and Mercy towards us in so Ordering it that these Perfections will not last or help always For if they could such is the Atheism of our Hearts that we should make Flesh our Arm be so glued to these lower Contentments as we should never look after more divine Perfections But now that the Fashion of this World passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. we are now to learn another Lesson to rejoyce as though we rejoyced not and to use this World as though we used it not to sit loose in our Affections from these outward things that sit so loose from us And therefore let not our Affections be more constant than the things and if they be finite let not our desires after them be infinite let 's not hold fast Spiders webs Job 8. 14 15. And truly how incongruous is it for the covetous Worldling to have no end of his Labour Eccles 4. 8. And to enlarge his desires as Hell for these Perfections that are both short and narrow that help not much nor long And therefore their end should put an end to our longing desires teach us an holy Weanedness from them when we have them I added a contented Patience in their Loss For in this I conceive the Stoicks Rule is good Always to consider what thou admirest and lovest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If it be God that thou lovest think what God is and that if thou losest Him thou losest thy happiness thy self and that will keep thy Soul close to Him But if it be a Wife a Child a Friend think what they are and that thou canst not lose more in their loss than they come to and that is but a mortal Creature Hence on the contrary it was that Micah's Mother did so fret and curse when she lost her Silver Judg. 17. 2. And that we oftentimes in such cases are so disconsolate and sometimes desperate because we only gaze and dote on these Perfections and never look through them to their end Whereas David as Wise Men use to do looking especially at Issues and Events is before-hand prepared for any and can bid the worst welcome And therefore when the Amalekites 1 Sam. 30. had carried away Wives and Sons and Daughters and all Captives though he was greatly distressed yet he could encourage himself in God ver 6. Vide in hanc rem Chrysost in 2. ad Corin. hom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore in the Third place Let God's Children labour to see an end of all Perfection for their own comfort And that in a double respect 1. Against the Insolency and Fury of all their Enemies which I confess may last as long as themselves and therefore we have Ezek. 21. 29. themselves and their Iniquity ending together And yet the Comfort is that they themselves will not last long And it may be their Perfection gone before them and they remain but like Bees that have lost their Stings and so would hurt but cannot Thus David comforted himself when he rejoyced over his Adversaries Psal 9. 6. O thou Enemy thy destructions are come to a perpetual end And if we would but oâ—serve God's dealing now in this kind we should often see such Lions teeth broken either their Power weakned or their Counsels disappointed or themselves taken away Or if they continue and prosper some longer time yet be sure as God saith Deut. 32. 35. Their foot shall slide in due time And so an end of their Perfection often puts an end to the Church's Persecution Presently upon Herod s being eaten up of Worms it 's added that the Word of God grew and multiplied Acts 12. 24. From which the Church of God in these troublesome Times may have one Argument of Comfort 2. A second from this Ground is by comparing that Perfection which God's Children in their lowest Ebb have with all that which wicked Men can have when their Comforts flow in to them in greatest abundance The one we have heard hath an end but against their desire and expectation But the end of the other's Faith is their Salvation and therefore called an Expected end Jer. 29. 11. And there is hope in it Jer. 31. 17. The one hath an end and then as Nabal's 1 Sam. 25. their hearts die within them The other have no end or at least an happy one and therefore Psal 22. 26. Their hearts live for ever Well fare therefore every true Christian that in his worst takings can yet say thus much My flesh and my heart faileth me There 's an end of all outward Perfection But God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psal 73. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was that by which He encouraged his Souldiers to the Fight and you have heard of the patience of Job and have seen what end the Lord made saith the Apostle James Chap. 5. 11. so happy that it 's as well worth our marking as the end of other things was worth David's in the Text For Mark the perfect Man and behold the Vpright for the end of that Man is peace Psal 37. 37. 3. Labour to see an end of all these Perfections that thou mayst thereby be stirred up to do as much good with them as thou canst whilst they last for we see if we do not spend them they will spend of themselves And therefore it would be our Wisdom to take them in season
sinners woe because they are Sarmenta ad damnationem non firmamenta ad salutem Yet the contentment of sin is soon over and ends the sooner that the punishment thereof may last for ever Otherwise in Grace which as it is that heavenly Panoply of Breadth and Extent sufficient to cover the whole Man there being no want but some particular Grace or other can make a Supply So for Continuance it resembles the Eternal Fountain from which it springs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Chrysostom Love never faileth 1 Cor. 13. 8. The Fear of the Lord endureth for ever Psal 19. 9. This is that Way everlasting Psal 139. 24. Which either hath no end or a very happy one Rom. 6. 22. You have your fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting Life Thirdly And that 's the last Pefection which is as Immortal as thy Soul and as Large as thine Appetite When the Sun shall no more go down neither the Moon with draw her Light but the Lord shall be thine everlasting Light And the days of thy Mourning shall be ended as the Prophet speaketh This Perfection I confess is not here to be attained to Paul acknowledged himself not to be already perfect Phil. 3. 12. But yet it 's good now to prepare our selves for it and to make sure of it that when Death and Judgment shall come and we stripped naked of all these fading Perfections may not then be found altogether naked but be Cloathed upon with our House from God Eternal in the Heavens That so when many a wicked Man that had his good things in this Life will be constrained to say I was indeed once rich and honourable and happy as I my self thought and others took me I was as that perhaps was the Cause of my present Misery and the very thought of it now augments it I had Wisdom and Beauty and Strength and the rest but now I see a woful end of all such Perfections We on the contrary to our eternal Comfort may say something we have lost though indeed no losers we were sinful and miserable but now we see an end of all that with Comfort But withal something we had which we yet have and shall for ever We were holy and humble and thankful c. And so we are now and so shall remain to all Eternity never to see an end of this Perfection And therefore to conclude all in a word Let us all so labour with David here to see and end of all these Perfections that we may have that begun here which we may have at that day fully perfected but never ended SERMON XXIII PSAL. 119. 96. At Boston at Mr. Francis Empson's Daughters Funeral But thy Commandment is exceeding broad IN this Verse we have the exceeding Perfection of God's Word set out by comparing it with the fading Shortness and narrow Scantness of all other outward Perfections I have seen an end of all Perfection But thy Commandment is exceeding broad Upon a like Occasion I have spoken of the Shortness and Scantness of other Perfections out of the First words I have seen an end of all Perfection I come now to speak to that which is especially intended in the Text The large Extent and never-ended Length of God's Word Thy Commandment is exceeding broad The Point is That in the end of all other Perfections God's Doct. Commandment is and a Child of God may find it exceeding broad In which two things to be explained 1. What is meant by God's Commandment 2. What by it's Exceeding breadth First For the first What 's meant by Commandment You must remember that God's Word in this Psalm in which the Psalmist intended to set out the Glory of it to the full is called by diverse Names all which in themselves have their distinct Vide Calv. Bucer Heresback alios in praefat suis in hunc Psalmum ite Tho. Cartwright in Prov. 19. 20. Significations as either signifying some distinct parts of the Word or the same Word under different Notions and Considerations So sometimes it 's called his Law Word Truth Way Righteousness his Precepts Testimonies Judgments and here Commandment The distinct Opening of every which word would now be too long and though useful even to you yet so as would hinder Speech about that which at least at this time may be more seasonable It will be sufficient for our present Satisfaction that most agree that all these Words in the main signifie the same thing namely the Word of God in the Extent of it whether Commands or Promises or Threats And so in this Text though called by the Name of a Commandment yet he means the whole word or any part of it whether a Commandment as the word here used properly signifieth or a Threat or a Promise for both are Virtual Commands God's Threats virtually command us to Fear and his Promises virtually command us to Believe And so God's Word his Commandments his Threats especially in reference to the Psalmists present Meaning and Occasion his Promises are exceeding broad Secondly What 's then meant by this exceeding Breadth What we translate exceeding broad the Vulgar and the Antients according to their usual Translation of this word and not inâ—legant read Latum nimis Too broad And indeed it 's too broad for us poor shallow weak Creatures fully either to comprehend or fulfil And so the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth an Excess in whatever thing it 's added to and accordingly our Translators as in the Comparative read it exceeding Broad indeed exceeding all length and breadth of other Perfections But withal we must know that this same word in Hebrew Language which hath no such degrees of Comparison as other Languages have expresseth not only the Comparative degree as though God's Commandment were only exceeding broad that is much broader than other Perfections But it 's one of the ways by which they express their Superlative degree so that his meaning is that it 's Vide Martinium lib. 2. Cum nomine adjectivo efficit superlatirum Schinler in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only exceeding broad broader in the Comparative but that it is exceeding broad broadest of all in the Superlative But still you will ask But wherein consists this Comparative Superlative exceeding yea even Exceeding exceeding breadth of God's Word Some * Climacus Talmudici finxerunt quemlibet locum posse 70 modis enarrari Bucer have conceived that God's Word is here said to be exceeding broad by reason of the multiplicity of Senses that it bears as they say and as the Papists urge who make it not only to have as many Senses as there are Differences in the Hebrew Greek and vulgar Latine readings But which is worse a great deal and no better than Blasphemy as many if you will believe their Cardinal Cusa as the Church in several Ages and See Bancrofts Sermon at P. Cross upon several Occasions shall be pleased to put
next place it 's a word of both comfort and direction Vse 5 in the end of all other Perfections that God 's Commandment is exceeding broad I say first Comfort that whereas all other imperfect Contentments are but short and narrow if I have but my share in God's Word and Promise I have that which in the loss of all them will reach me comfort to all Times and in all Wants Truly Brethren all outward Contentments be they never so glorious and comfortable they will not last long nor reach far not longer than Life not so far as Heaven no not so far as mine inward Man Babylon's broad Walls are thrown down Jer. 51. 58. they are unstedfast as Waters and as it is said in anokind the face of such Waters is soon straitned Fair large Job 37. 10. Estates soon brought into a narrow compass great Families soon reduced to a small number To speak to the present occasion pretty little Children are like pretty little Books in which a Parent sometimes reads much that very well likes him But it may be he cannot read long for tears when the Book is taken away and at best he cannot read much because it is but a little one But blessed be God may a Child of God say who is sure that he hath part in God and his Promise that I have another Book of a larger Volumn of a far broader Page than all these outward comforts come to They are but narrow Rivers at the best and they soon dried up too But God in his Word in his Kingdom hath broad Rivers that you read of Isa 33. 21. and they deep ones too in which I may bathe and not be straitned and out of which I may drink for ever and yet they never dried up but spring up to everlasting life This is a Christian's comfort in such cases and it should be his direction too in them that when he sees an end come of this perfection and of that to be still thinking that there will at last come an end of all and yet in the end of all even then to look unto this Commandment and word and promise of God which the Text saith is so exceeding broad As Hath God straitned me in my estate Take that out of the breadth of Gods Word Hath he taken this pretty little child this pretty little book out of my hand that I cannot read in it as formerly Truly let us get a better a bigger a broader book into our hands God's book and see what we can read there if not enough to make a full supply of all such wants that whereas other men shuffle and shift have this fetch and that reach and as they use to say when the Lion's skin is not big enough to cover all they sew the Fox skin to it to make it broad enough and yet all will not do because there will be an end of all perfection a Christian is or at least should be able out of God's Word and Promises as out of a rich Treasury to make a supply of all such wants Here he gets a promise for himself and there another for his friend Here one for a live-dead parent and there another for himself though his child be dead In a word that 's it I call for as much as we are straitned in outward comforts let us labour to be so much enlarged in God and as much as he takes from us of outward contentments to get as much and more from him in this broad Commandment and large Promises and then we shall be no losers This one word also that Gods Commandment is exceeding broad Vse 6 is ground of great comfort to other of God's children in other cases as much satisfying them in two main doubts they stick at 1. The first is They are so sinful and so unworthy and set so far off and estranged from God that his mercy they think will never reach them But let such think then of this exceeding broad Commandment There is breadth and length and heighth and depth in Gods love passing knowledge Ephes 3. 18 19. And there is such a breadth and exent in Gods promises that they can cover our greatest sores reach the furthest out-liers if they would but come in Boaz hath a skirt to cast upon Ruth though a poor handmaid Ruth 3. 9. And much more hath Christ to cover the Ne cogitemus ad nos non pertinere promissionem sicut enim perpetuò durat et persistit verbum quod primum erat ita latum est valde i. e. undique ad omnia tempora aetates ad omnes homines qui fide hanc doctrinam amplectuntur se extendit M. nakedness of his poorest servants Mens blessings and favours are strait and when Jacob hath got away the blessing Esau may cry bitterly and say bless me even me also O my father and Isaac have it not for him But God hath for all that will unfeignedly ask and beg of him He hath a blessing for me and another for thee and a third for a third and even for them that are afar off Acts 2. 38 39. though never so far off yet if with the like bitterness but not the like profanesse that Esau had thou cryest blesse me even me also O my father If thou canst but call him Father thy Father hath a blessing for thee also for his Commandment is exceeding broad to reach to all thy needs and wants and sins 2. And to all times and by that a second trouble is removed for a child of God though he hath gotten beyond the former doubt that God hath had mercy for him to bring him at first to him yet he sees his weakness such and his lusts so strong that he fears he shall never hold out in grace to heaven but that there will be as well an end of this as of all other perfections but let such remember that however their strength reacheth not far is scant and soon spent yet that God's promise and truth and mercy ne cogitemus fieri posse ut nos in medio cursu destituamur Molerus is of a far broader extent and longer continuance for God's Word those that have had longest experience of it have yet cause to say as vers 152. Concerning thy testimonies thy promises I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever and in the end of health and peace and strength and life to end all with this word last in his mouth I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad SERMON XXIV EXOD. 28. 36. August 19. 1634. Before Sir Nathanael Brent Visitor for the Arch-Bishop of Cant erbury in his Metropolitical Visitation Holiness to the Lord. VErbum Diei in die suo A fit time had it been by an abler hand to bring forth the Priests garments out of the Scripture's vestry whilst the eye of Authority is present to see them put on and here the first peece
command Reverence Thus our Saviour's Sweetness allured and John Baptist's Gravity made even an Herod fear A Minister's care should be to have a fit mixture of both that others frowardness may be sweetned by his amiableness and yet that the least wantonness might blush under such a Christian Cato's eye It was his advice Vt plebeculae aspectum fugiat vel coram plebe se tanquam mysterium adhibeat He would have him either not seen or at least that seen in him by the worst which may either win them or awe them One required such a Sagacity in a Minister that Mr. Marbury should make him pick an use out of his hearers Forehead but I should think such Sanctity even in outward carriage were more necessary that the beholder might read a Lecture of Holiness in his Forehead In a word this requireth and implieth such an holy Boldness as not to be ashamed of an holy Way but therein to have a Forehead as long as Holiness is engraven on it As also a greater forwardness both with word and presence to check sin in whom they see it more than others may as having besides a common Christian's boldness and zeal the advantage of a Minister's Calling to bear them out in it And therefore to conclude this It 's for others to stand aloft with Adultery Drunkenness Blasphemy pinned on their Fore-heads not for those that in these places as the Prophets of old 2 Chron. 24. 20. stand above God's People Let Drunkenness be read in other Men's misfigured Copper-faces but Aaron's Frontlet must be a plate of Gold with this ingravure Holiness to the Lord. 3. There but Ingraven there like the graving of a Signet This is the third particular which signifieth not only the Clearness Scriptura â—â—ara distincta ver 27. of the Character so the Chaldee but also the depth of the Sculpture And this for two Causes 1. To sink deep against Hypocrisie 2. To last long against Apostacy 1. Ingraven to sink deep through the Fore-head into the Head yea and Heart too The Holiness which a Minister must express must not be a bare out-side Fore-head-paint of Pharisaical Mat. â—3 hypocrisie or Friar-like humility or Pope's holiness forsooth For so indeed Rome's high Priest when in his Pontificalibus would have that title like another Aaron on his Fore-head Holiness to the Lord. But St. John unmasks the Whore and sheweth you her true Frontlet Revel 17. 5. On her Fore-head was a Name written Mystery if Holiness yet in a Mystery but in plain terms as followeth Babylon the great the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth But not so with the genuine Sons of Aaron His Garments were not only of Embroidered which hath only a fair outside but also of cunning work of which they say that both sides were alike Holiness on the Fore-head but so ingraven that it may reach even that which is within nay it should begin there first and look out only in outward holy demeanour Thus ingraven to sink deep against Hypocrisie 2. And again Ingraven to last long to be always on his Forehead ver 38. against Apostacy Paint is soon rubbed off but Ingravure is longer in wearing out though it were longer and it may be brake some Tools in getting in Over-hasty precocity in this kind hath ever been dangerous to the Church soon ripe soon rotten Some Preachers have been Christian Hermogenes's Men when Children but Children ever after Some so hasty that they cannot stay the time of Engraving and Polishing A little Painting or washing over with the Name rather than the Learning of a year or two's-continuance in the University fits too many for the Country which would have been too deep they think if they had stayed longer like the plain Country-man that carried his Son to Melancthon to have him made a preacher but if he might not carry him back again with him a day or two after fully accomplished he could not stay longer tuning of the instrument But what comes of it too often discords in the Church of Christ Ordinarily it comes to this that either they make wash-way of preaching and so their sermons are as shallow as themselves or else at first get on some Saul's armour â—â—n another's borrowed paines which after such levis armaturae miliâ—â—s cannot go in winding up the string to so high a peg as iâ— cracks â—â—e long as not long since somewhere sad experienâ—e hath testified To prevent this Paul puts by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Novice from holy orders 1 Tim. 3. 6. as for other things so for profâ—ssion and grace especially Not that I dare with them Micah 2. 7. straitâ—â— Gods spirit or hinder him to breath when and where he pleaseth and sometimes to ripen some exâ—raordinarily but only I add that every one is not a Cyprian in whom tritura sementâ—m praevênit vindemia palmitem poma radicem as Pontius his Dâ—acon speaks of him in his life for he adds ille fuit primus puto solus exemplo plus fide posse quam tempore promovere Sure I am it 's via tuta to stay a graving time for learning and godliness and not to content our selves with a paint of either The one will last long whilst the other ere long will wear off Time hath seen some hot-spurs run out of breath and the world hath shewn whom preferments have choaked and taken off It hath been no wonder to hear of the Vine and Olive-tree when once they come to bear rule over other trees to lose their former fatness and sweetness but the more to blame they who when they have better helps and tools less work is done or less exactly Good ingraving at first would help all this and when God's Law is within Christs heart Psal 40. 8. it was such a lasting deep fountain there as made him grow upon his work and as Divines have Cartwr Horm in Luke 19. 47. observed out of the course of the Gospel to have been more frequent in preaching toward the end of his Ministry and well he might he being that stone of which God said Zech. 3. 9. Behold I will engrave the engraving thereof On our blessed High-priest's forehead was thus deeply ingraven Holinesse to the Lord. Thus in these three particulars we have seen that holinesse must be graven on Aaron's forehead 4. But the fourth must needs be added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holiness and thus ingraven but to the Lord and his glory not seeming holiness for my profit like a Jesuitical holinesse â—n excellent pageant out of which they suck no small advantage Nor for my credit like Pelagius who they say was a strict seeming-holy Pelagii viri ut audio sancti non parvo profectu Christiani Augustin 3. de peccat merit remiss 1. istum sicut eum quinoverunt loquuntm bonum ac praedicandum virum Ibid. cap. 3. Alexander de Alex. lib. 6. cap. 6. man to give the better credit
that lame man had attained in the presence of them all Acts 3. 16. The Humours in this great and greatly diseased Body are yet in an hurry we bleed still at best our Wounds are but in healing and not yet fully whole But yet humble and hearty thanks be to our heavenly Physician we cannot but see as it were this poor Man in the Text arising our Sanballats and Tobiahs whom our Healing wounds and cuts to the heart even they to their grief hear and see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the phrase is Neh. 4. 7. that an healing Plaister is mercifully applyed to our bleeding Wounds that unless we be stupid and sensless we cannot but with the Woman when her bloudy Issue was stopt know and feel what is done in us Matth. 5. 33. and unless lothsomly ingrateful say as it is Ezek. 21. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is not this we are not what we were that a great change is wrought in the Patient and we hope in a healing way so that though not wholly yet in part though not absolutely yet comparatively in regard of what we were we are made whole And therefore O London O England Behold Behold thy former Wound and thy present Cure Behold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from what depths of Misery into which thy sins had cast thee to what hopeful and happy beginnings of Health and Peace the healing hand of thy pitiful Physician hath raised thee thy Religion wofully corrupted now graciously begun to be reformed thy Liberty before inslaved now vindicated a most unnatural and bloody War the other day most eagerly prosecuted by the malice of Man more powerfully and miraculously ceased through the Mercies of God This poor Man that had been sick so long could not have believed that ever he should have been well so soon nor had we Faith to believe that were so hastily dying away in the beginning of the last year we should be so happily recovering by the end of this Let therefore the Voice of the Cryer and through God's Mercy not now as that might have been in a Wilderness call out all your heedfullest attentions and let an unworthy Minister use the holy Prophet's words Come and behold the Works of the Lord we might of late have added as it 's there what desolations he hath made but now what Restaurations what Salvation he hath wrought in the Earth He maketh Wars to cease he breaketh the Bow and cutteth the Spear in sunder and burneth the Chariot in the fire Psal 46. 8 9 c. Truly the Lord hath so wrought his wonderful Works that they ought to be full in our eye and heart for the present and to be had for the future in everlasting remembrance O set up our Eben-ezer with this impress upon it Hitherto hath the Lord helped us Behold thus far O England thou art made whole and what remains but 2. The second duty injoyned in the following word sin O sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee Sin no more Now the Lord be more merciful for I fear many of us sin more than ever Oppressions in many more aggravated Heresies more openly maintained Christ the Holy Ghost and Holy Scriptures more horribly blasphemed Factions and Divisions more multiplied the Scene only changed but the same or a worse part acted the Weapons struck out of the hands of Enemies and more taken up by Brethren and Friends Were Christians ever so mutually estranged and imbittered Were your publick Church-Assemblies ever so neglected In your civil Meetings your Elections and other Affairs ever with such confusion I had almost said brutish rage as of late so transacted as though we had put off Christianity and Civility and Humanity together But think in all your hearts and all your souls Is this to sin no more Is it not to revolt more and more O think that you see God angrily looking upon you and saying but do you thus requite me O foolish people and unwise Think that you see Jesus Christ standing and weeping over you and saying as once O Jerusalem Jerusalem if thou hadst known even thou in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace thou wouldst have made a better return lest before thou art aware they be hid from thine eyes I charge thee once more sin no more serve me thus no more O do not this abominable thing that I hate Jer. 44. 4. at last be thou instructed O Jerusalem O England lest my soul depart from thee lest I make thee desolate a Land not inhabited Jer. 6. 8. Do we remember our former fears and troubles were they not bad enough that we now grow worse that they may be renewed and aggravated Do we remember our resolutions vows and promises that we then made to prevail with God for Mercy were they that we would be worse than ever if God would deliver us and do we think that upon those terms he would have helped us Do we consider to what happiness we have for the present arrived to an Harbour after a Tempest to a day of joy and gladness after the sad times of our griefs and fears And shall our sins damp our joyes drive us again into the deep and overcloud our Sun in a clear day unless we be weary of our Mercies let us not weary Amos 8. 9. our God by our sins Noli gemmam perdere in die festo is an Arabick Proverb O do not that in a good day which will undo all the comfort of it Or lastly do we think what yet we may be Are we so absolutely cured that we are past all possibility of a relapse May not the wound rankle and grow angry and then come to Judab's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there be no remedy 2 Chron. 36. 16. O why should Israel's stubborness when come to the borders of Canaan drive them back to the Red Sea again why should we cast poyson into the wound that 's healing O why will we dye O pity a tender Mother a dear Native Country which beseecheth you by the Womb that bare you and by the Breasts that gave you suck that now that she is recovering you would not be a means of her death that first gave you breath If you will not pity your selves yet pity the excellency of your strength the desire Ezek. 24. 21. of your eyes and that which your soul pityeth your sons and your daughters which may do God more service than ever you have done when you are dead and gone Eat not the sour Grapes that their teeth be not set on edge that instead of rising up and calling us blessed they do not gnash their teeth and curse us that by our sins in this Crisis when we might have made both our selves and them happy have utterly undone both without recovery I might in this kind say much yet when I had said all I could say no more than the Text doth And therefore when I have done speaking let
Paradise Haec est maxima merces interminabilis is the highest Point of the Alcoran's Divinity I omit to shew how in point of honour and preferment in which the ambitious place the highest pitch of their happiness such statelier Plumes lure high-soaring Spirits how Beauty draws after it many Men's eyes the loving Wife the pleasant Child the faithful Friend take our very hearts and that too often from God In company and enjoyment of them our Souls are so snatcht to them so immersed do so dwell in them that we are ready to sit down and say with Peter and more inconsiderately than he it 's good to be here rather than to advance on and with the Psalmist in the Text to say It 's good to draw near to God 2. Which is the other part of our sin namely our Aversio a Deo our froward aversness and awke hanging off from God as from the greatest Stranger or worst Enemy So false-hearted that after fair Advances we often draw back in a sly retrograde Motion Heb. 10. 38 39. So peevish that when he reacheth out the hand we pluck away the shoulder Nehem. 9. 29. when called to him we run the faster and farther from him Hos 11. 2. So proud that we are Lords and will not come at him Jer. 2. 31. So profane that we are either afraid or ashamed to be near him and therefore such bid the Almighty depart Job 21. 14 15. and the Prodigal gets himself into a far Country that so he might be further out of his Father's fight and so with more freedom satisfie his lusts and will rather join himself to a Farmer to feed Hogs and to be fed with Husks than to come home to his Father to have Childrens Bread any way rather than home and Sub oculo Catonis Cupiditas junxit porcis a patre piissimo quem sejunxit Chrysolog Serm. 1. any thing rather than a Father's presence Fond desperate Soul Nescis temeraria nescis Quem fugias ideoque fugis Didst thou but know what thou leavest thou wouldst draw nearer and what thou pursuest thou wouldst stand further off Will a fainting Man leave the Snow of Lebanon And shall the cold flowing Waters be forsaken Jer. 18. 14. Do not such Shadows the faster thou pursuest them fly the faster from thee Like the foolish Boy running after the Bee to catch it sequendo labitur assequendo laeditur Have not all such things which draw out thy Soul so after them as to withdraw it from God have they not either a Wing to fly away that thou never overtakest what thou seekest or a sting to hurt thee when thou hast overtaken them that thou gettest more hurt than good by them Is not Dina ravished thy Soul abused and defiled by such out-gaddings Is not I say not Health Estate Esteem but it may be thy Life thy Soul lost in such ramblings and which is worst of all and above all God lost too Cain went out of the presence of the Lord but he thereupon dwelt in the Land of Nod as a trembling amazed vagrant Wretch in a most unsetled condition ever after Gen. 4. 14 16. Jonah also fled frrom the presence of the Lord but a tempestuous Wind is sent out with Hue and Cry after him and when laid up in the close Prison of the Whale's belly he then confesseth he had forsaken his own mercy The Prodigal went into a far Country but the further from his Father the nearer to Ruine Though we are studious to put far from us the evil day Amos 6. 3. Yet as the Lord liveth there is but a step between us and death as long as we keep at such a distance from the God of our Salvation mischiefs then near at hand to come and irrecoverable when come It 's said that Laish had no Deliverer because it was far from Zidon Judg. 18. 28. But who will be thy Deliverer when Enemies are near Ezek. 9. 1. Death near Psal 107. 18. Judgment near Heb. 10. 25. And thou further from God In this case H. de S. Victore tells us what In Psal 63. Men usually betake themselves to Aliis in necessitate bonum est consilium suum aliis in prosperitate bonum est gaudium suum mihi unicum bonum est adhaerere Deo In Prosperity they think it 's good for them to betake themselves to their delights and in straits to their shifts But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This one direct course of drawing near to God will be of more use than all their other Shifts and Applications Illos consilium non liberat gaudium non conservat as the same Author there adds all other nearest and dearest Friends may fail us may not come at us Nehem. 4. 19. may cast us off as Psal 27. 10. It 's God only drawing near that must relieve us And then wo to us if he only draw near to us as an Enemy or Judg as Mal. 3. 5. to take vengeance not to rescue us as our best Friend And therefore in the last place this is of special use for direction Vse 5 1. Of our Judgment in a right estimate of true goodness which most Men are inquisitive after It 's the Voice of Nature Who will shew us any good Psal 4. 6. and yet which very few are well resolv'd in according to that of Solomon Who knoweth what is good for Man c. Eccles 6. 12. But the Psalmist affords a full Answer to both those great Questions when after a long and strong debate in the foregoing part of the Psalm he concludeth It 's good for me to draw near to God and by good as we have shown he meaneth the prime and chiefest and best Good mihi quidem optimum so the Arabick hath it Now then primum in unoquoque genere est mensura reliquorum The first and chiefest in every kind is the Rule and Measure of the rest Let this therefore be the Standard by which we always measure the goodness of every thing that we most value and set the highest price on and let this be the Rule which in such prizings we go by that that is indeed good by which we are drawn near to God and that best by which we get nearest My God is my goodness Psal 144. 2. and therefore that only at least that principally I must call good by which I am drawn nearer to God Indeed because Bonum Ens convertuntur we are ready to call any thing good and because finis bonum convertuntur accordingly every thing is good at least in our eyes which either is an end we aim at or a means conducing to it And so as the Apostle said in another kind There be Gods many and Lords many but to us there is but one God 1 Cor. 8. 5 6. So there are many things which in Scripture-phrase and ordinary use are called good a good Day good Company a good Work or Employment and so of the rest But in a
which Patience doth not either receive life from or give life to or both It 's joyned with Faith Heb. 6. 12. Rev. 2. 19. 13. 10. Faith begets Patience Jam. 1. 3. and Patience back again strengthens Faith Fidei fundamentum firmiter munit Cyprian And the like I may say of Hope Sometimes in Scripture Patience seems to be made the fruit of Hope Rom. 8. 25. 1 Thes 1. 3. and sometimes Hope the effect of Patience Rom. 5. 4. 15. 4. And so I might shew of other Graces But that of Cyprian in the general may suffice De unius quidem nominis fonte proficiscitur sed exundantibus venis per multa gloriarum itinera diffunditur This one blessed Fountain spreads it self into many happy streams The patient Man as such believes and hopes is Loving Humble Meek Wise Valiant by it approved to be sincere and trained up to be Heavenly-minded And so of the rest that the Soul that is thus guarded need not fear to be kept in possession How sweetly and fully doth that happy Soul enjoy it self while Patience takes time and by what it suffers opportunity and advantage to exercise all other Graces And whilst it 's suffered to have its perfect work so fully completes our happiness that we are as the Apostle expresseth it Jam. 1. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfect Entire and wanting nothing And sure there is full possession kept where there is nothing wanting And thus Patience doth first as it is a suffering Grace 2. As it is a waiting and expecting Grace So the Husbandman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 waits and expects a Crop in his Wait patiently Psal 37. 7. long patience Jam. 5. 7. And so with Christians that sow for Eternity though it be in tears of Affliction yet it 's with patience because with expectance of a better Harvest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If we hope for it then with patience we wait for it Rom. 8. 25. Christian Patience though it suffer much yet is full of Hope and thereby full of Heart And so keeps the Soul in life according to that of the Prophet The Just shall live by his faith Hab. 2. 4. and he there speaks of dying Hours Even in them the Heart may live Psal 22. 26. and that it doth as long as the Man hath in him that lively Hope the Apostle speaks of 1 Pet. 1. 3. and in this a Christian's Patience so much exceeds that of the choicest Heathens as his Hope exceeds theirs They sometimes with patience suffered much it may be out of love of Virtue and hope of Applause But he may more patiently suffer more when it 's out of love of Christ and hope of Glory Nothing more exanimates and dispossesseth a Man of himself than Despair makes Cain run wild out of God's presence Gen. 4. And them Rev. 16. 10 11. gnaw their Tongues and blaspheme God like Mad men And he that you read of 2 Kings 6. when he hopes for no relief from God in stead of keeping possession he gives up all for lost is short-winded and will not wait on the Lord any longer But a patient Christian though he sorrows yet it is not as others that have no Hope and here then invert the saying Dum spes est anima est Till he is Hopeless he is not Heartless He keeps possession of his Soul as long as it 's possessed with a lively assurance of an happy close at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aeschylus was said you know to animate some to patience and courage Sutable to which is that of the Apostle You have heard of the patience of Job 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and have seen what end the Lord made Jam. 5. 11. and his expectation of such an Chap. 19. 25 26 c. end was that which helped him to possess his Soul with such patience And well may the Soul be possessed with that patience now which assures that at last it shall be possessed of Glory It 's through Faith and Patience that some inherited the Promises as the Apostle speaks Heb. 6. 12. Promises are of things to come and therefore patience is put to stay and wait but faints not away in waiting because it 's joyned with Faith and so is assured of inheriting it at last and therefore mean-while keeps the Soul in quiet possession And this I say in these two respects 1. As it 's enabled to suffer much from Man 2. To expect more from God So that what the Apostle said of Charity 1 Cor. 13. 7. that Charity beareth all things endureth all things and withal believeth all things and hopeth all things ver 7. and thereupon in the very next words adds that Charity never faileth may fitly according to the former particulars be applied to Patience Because it 1. Beareth and endureth all things And 2. Believeth and hopeth all things it therefore never faileth nor will suffer the Christian's Heart to fail that the spoiling of his Goods Heb. 10. 34. should come to the spoiling of his Soul Psal 35. 12. but that in greatest Direptions and Depredations he may in patience possess his Soul Which for Application calleth upon us for an earnest endeavour Vse after this Grace and such a due exercise of it that whatever we lose we may be kept in possession of our Souls by it The Apostle's word is strong and very general Let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing Jam. 1. 4. Some Christians then were forward and quick at the first Assault but when the Battery continued long were too ready to faint and so by giving out in the Race fell short of the Prize For want of patience too soon plucked off the Plaister And so came not to a perfect Cure And therefore the Apostle's advice is that they would but stay that it might have its perfect work and then assures them that it will make them perfect and so entire that when come 〈◊〉 to the worst it will come to a Nec habeo nec careo that even when they have nothing they shall then want nothing Such a perfect and perfecting Grace is this Grace of patience that by its perseverance it sets the Crown upon the head of all other Graces For Omnes virtutes certant sola perserverantia vincit coronatur The Arguments by which the Ancients much commend this Tetullian Cyprian Basilius M. Ephrem Syrus c. Grace to us are many The Example Of God who with much long-sufferance doth not only bear his undutiful Childrens manners Acts 13. 18. but his professed Enemies rebellions and insolencies forbearing to punish them when their sins would enforce him and causing his Sun to shine Justis similiter injustis indiscretas pluvias largiatur Cyprian and his Rain equally to fall on them and on them that are dearest to him insomuch that he suffers because they do not and that even by them too whilst they are ready to think that
in the Event not till the death of our Bodies is the body of Sin quite dead in us but then it will be for as Sin entred into us at the first union of Body and Soul so it goeth not out till their last dissolution But being then parted As to the Body for fins of omission this lump of Earth doth no longer aggravare animam clog the Soul from doing duty nor as to sins of commission doth this Earthly dusty tabernacle any longer defile the Soul as being a fomes and an Instrument by which it acts its self-pollution And as to the Soul though wicked Mens Souls are in statu separato as sinful as they were before yet the spirits of just Men are then made perfect Heb. 12. 23. and therefore not liable to sin which is the greatest imperfection And what a gain this is a holy Heart will tell you when now groaning under the Burden and Pollution of some defiling lust would give a whole World to be rid of it even exchange his life for Death because by it he shall gain a full deliverance from it And as Death ends the Believer's sin So also all that misery which by reason of his sin he more or less all his Life long was exercised with No more inward sorrows or fears or anguishes and perplexities in and from himself no more temptations from Satan no more molestations or persecutions from the World or if any he is no more sensible of them There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary are at rest there the Prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the oppressor Job 3. 17 18. And if you say that for these outward troubles it is then as well with the wickedest sinners as with the holiest Saints I say but it is not so as to those inward anguishes and perplexities which are the greatest miseries for they in the wicked are not then ended but as to their greatest extremities then begin But for the Godly no more then any of these They then cease from all their Labours Revel 14. 13. and rest quietly in their Beds Isa 57. 2. not one bodily pain or disquieting thought more as Mr. Knox on his death-bed being asked whether his See his Life pains were great answered that he did not esteem that a pain which would be to him the end of all trouble and the beginning of endless Joys Serve the Lord in Fear and Death shall not be troublesome to you Blessed is the Death of those that have part in the Blood of Jesus And is not he who hath attained to this proved a great Gainer having all his former sins and miseries so well and for ever ended 2. And whatsoever of both kinds if he had lived longer he might have fallen into most happily prevented The Apocryphal Solomon saith that Enoch was speedily taken away lest wickedness should have altered his understanding Wisdom 4. 11. But I am sure from authentical Scripture that Josiah was that he might not see that desolation which was coming upon his people 2 Chron. 34. 28. and that the Righteous are taken away from the evil to come Isa 57. 1. of which some expound that Dr. Hammond Revel 14. 13. Blessed are they that dye in the Lord namely at that time there meant because after that time there would be greater misery It may be we cannot but think how miserable some Men would have been if they had lived any longer yea and what sinful Snares some of God's Servants would have been in danger to have been taken in if they had not died the sooner But when they were now falling a Fathers watchful eye saw their danger and with a wary hand snatcht them out of it and took them into his own Bosom out of the reach of it Blessed Father Happy Child And gainful Death that put them into harbor when the storm was coming that would have sunk them prevented those sins and miseries that might have undone them And thus Death to the Godly is gain privatively in preventing loss 2. Secondly Positively in bringing in reallest Gains 1. Of Grace made perfect and that in the most perfect exercise and operation of it Faith then completed in Vision and Hope in Fruition and therefore called the end of our Faith 1 Pet. 1. 9. not so much of cessation as the consummation and perfection of both and for Love what was here imperfect shall then be done away 1 Cor. 13. 10. So that it shall be perfectly then exerted toward God and one another when we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 20. 36. like to the Angels of God every way pliable and expedite in doing his will And we who think how well it is with us when we can here in any measure of freedom and liveliness meditate and pray or in any other kind with enlarged hearts run the way of God's Commandments and feel how burdensom it is to lye under the burden of Sin and have our Chariot-Wheels taken off so that we drive heavily in what he sets us to what unvaluable a gain shall we esteem it when all these cloggs shall be taken off and we shall find our Souls as upon the Chariots of Amminadab freely to expatiate in those latifundia of Eternity and with those Angels in Ezekiel's Vision whither the Spirit is to go to go without hinderance and Ezek. 1. 12. weariness Now a true Christian estimates Gain not by that of Mony as it 's called Judg. 5. 19. or other commodities which the Men of the World traffique in but that which ariseth from being Rich in Faith James 2. 5. and God's fear Prov. 22. 4. Which is the * Luke 16. 11. true and the †Prov. 8. 18. everlasting Riches as our Saviour and Solomon calls them and therefore when such Riches and Gains are come in fullest he accounts himself the greatest gainer and that will be when in Death Grace is perfected 2. And happiness completed and that will be then also if you will only abate that which will arise from the Souls reunion with the Body which will not be till the last day But at Death Paul makes account that when he departs hence he shall be with Christ which he esteems to be best of all v. 23. of this Chapter in a more full Vision and Fruition of God and what attends that Estate and in what else can be our best happiness Mr. Mede indeed saith that he remembers not that Death is On Rev. 14. 13. Diem mortis diem mercedis indigitari ever in Scripture said to be the time of reward Nor it may be is it so said in those express words nor indeed is it the time of the reward of the most full and compleat payment of it which is reserved to the Resurrection-day But I am sure if Paul said true that upon his departure he should be with Christ that the greatest part of the reward is then given and that not only