Christ in his shame in his sorrow in his agony take him hanging on the cross take him and take a pattern by him that as he was so we may be troubled for our sins that we may mingle our tears with his blood drag Sin to the bar accuse and condemn it revile and spit in its face at the fairest presentment it can make and then nail it to the cross that it may languish and faint by degrees till it give up the ghost and die in us Then lye we down in peace in the grave and expect a glorious resurrection when we shall receive Christ not in humility but in Majesty and with him all his riches and abundance all his promises even Glory and Immortality and Eternal life A SERMON Preached on Easter-Day REV. I. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of Death WE do not ask Of whom speaketh S. John this or Who is he that speaketh it For we have his character drawn out in lively colours in the verses going before my Text. The Divine calls him a voyce ver 12. when he meaneth the man who spake it I turned to see the voyce that spoke with me and in the next verse telleth us he was like to the Son of man in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks governing his Church Lev. 26.11 12. setting his Tabernacle amongst men not abhorring to walk amongst them and to be their God that they might be his people Will you see his robes and attire Clothed he was with a garment down to the foot v. 13. which was the garment of the High Priest Hebr. 7.24 And his was an unchangeable Priesthood He had also a golden girdle or belt as a King For he is a King for ever and of his kingdome there shall be no end Luk. 1.33 Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loyns and faithfulness the girdle of his reins Isa 11.5 His head and his hairs were white as woll and as white as snow v. 14. his Judgment pure and uncorrupt not byassed by outward respects not tainted or corrupted by any turbulent affection but smooth and even as waters are when no wind troubleth them His eyes as a flame of fire piercing the inward man searching the secrets of the heart nor is there any action word or thought which is not manifest in his sight His feet like unto fine brass v. 15. sincere and constant like unto himself in all his proceedings in every part of his Oeconomy His voyce as the sound of many waters declaring his Fathers will with power and authority sounding out the Gospel of peace to all the world And last of all out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword v. 16. not onely dividing asunder the soul and the spirit Hebr. 4.12 but discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart and taking vengeance on those who persecute his Church His Majesty dazled every mortal eye his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength And now of him who walketh in the midst of his Church whose Mercy is a large robe reaching down to the feet who is girt with Power and clothed with Justice whose Wisdome pierceth even into darkness it self whose Word is heard from one end of the world to the other whose Majesty displayeth its beams through every corner of it we cannot but confess with Peter This is Christ Matth. 16.16 John 6.69 Hagg. 2.7 the Son of the living God And can the Saviour of the world the Desire of all nations the Glory of his Father Beauty it self appear in such a shape of terrour Shall we draw out a merciful Redeemer with a warriours belt with eyes of fire with feet of brass with a voyce of terrour with a sharp two-edged sword in his mouth Yes Such a High Priest became us Hebr. 7.26 who is not onely merciful but just not onely meek but powerful not only fair but terrible not onely clothed with the darkness of Humility but with the shining robes of Majesty who can dye and can live again and live for evermore who suffered himself to be judged and condemned and shall judge and condemn the world it self S. John indeed was troubled at this sight and fell down as dead but Christ rouzeth him up and biddeth him shake of that fear For he is terrible to none but those who make him so to Hereticks and Hypocrites and Persecutors of his Church to those who would have him neither wise nor just nor powerful Non accepimus iratum sed fecimus He is not angry till we force him It is rather our sins that run back again upon us as Furies than his wrath These make him clothe himself with vengeance and draw his sword To S. John to those that bow before him he is all sweetness all grace all salvation and upon these as upon S. John he layeth his right hand quickneth and rouzeth them up Fear not v. 17. neither my girdle of Justice nor my eyes of fire nor my feet of brass nor my mighty voyce nor my two-edged sword for my Wisdom shall guide you my Power shall defend you my Majesty shall uphold you and my Mercy shall crown you Fear not I am the first and the last more humble than any more powerful than any scorned whipped crucified and now highly exalted and Lord of all the world I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore c. These words I may call as Tertullian doth the Lord's Prayer breviarium Evangelii the Breviary or Sum of the whole Gospel or with Augustine Symbolum abbreviatum the Epitome or Abridgement of our Creed And such a short Creed we find in Tertullian which he calls Regulam veram immobilem irreformabilem the sole immutable and unalterable rule of Faith And then the Articles or parts will be 1. The Death of Christ I was dead 2. The Resurrection of Christ with the effect and power of it I am he that liveth 3. The Duration and continuance of his life It is to all eternity I am alive for evermore 4. The Power of Christ which he purchased by his death the Power of the keyes I have the keyes of Hell and of Death And all these are 1. ushered in with an ECCE Behold that we may consider it and 2. sealed and ratified with an AMEN that we may believe it that there be not in any of us as the Apostle speaketh an unbelieving heart to depart from the living God Hebr. 3.11 I am he that liveth and was dead Of the Death of Christ we spake the last day Par. 1. We shall onely now look upon it in reference to the Resurrection and consider it as past For it is FVI MORTVVS I was dead And in this we may see the method and proceeding of our Saviour which he drew out in his blood which must sprinkle those who are to be
each other the civil Power to exalt Religion and Religion to guard and fence the civil Power and both should concur in this 1 Tim. 2.2 that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Our commission is from Heaven and we need no other power then his that sealed it And the virtue and divinity of it shall then be made manifest when all earthly Power shall cease and even Kings and they who did what they list shall tremble before it We see that Power which is exercised here on earth though the glory of it dazle an eye of flesh yet sitteth heavy upon them who wear it we see it tortureth them that delight in it eateth up them that feed on it eateth up it self driving all before it at last falleth it self to the ground and falleth as a milstone upon him that hath it and bruiseth him to pieces It is not such a power But I may be bold to say though it be lookt upon and laught at and despised by the men of this world yet is it a greater power than that which sometimes setteth it upon high and sometimes maketh it nothing and hath its end when it hath not its end For to publish our Master's will to command in his name is all And though the command prove to some the savour of death unto death yet the Power is still the same and doth never fail And if men were what they profess themselves Christians Heb. 6.5 if they had any tast of the powers of the world to come they would more tremble at this then at the other be more afraid of a just Reproof then of a Whip of an Excommunication then of a Sword of the wrath of God which is yet scarce visible then of that which cometh in fire and tempest to devour us For Gods favour or his wrath ever accompanieth this power which draweth his love nearer to them that obey it and poureth forth his vengeance on them that resist it To conclude then Look upon the command and honour the Apostle that bringeth it for the commands sake for his sake whose power and command it is A Power there is proper and peculiar to them who are called to it And if the name of Power may move envy for we see men fret at that which was ordained for their good and so wast and exhale all their Religion till it be nothing if the name of Power bear so harsh a sound we will give you leave to think it is not much material whether you call it so or no vvhether vve speak in the Imparative mood HOC FAC Do this upon your peril or onely positively point as vvith the finger This is to be done We vvill be any thing do any thing be as lovv as you please so vve may raise you above the Vanities of the vvorld above that Wantonness vvhich stormeth at that vvhich vvas ordained for no other end but to lift you out of ruine into the highest heavens Our Povver and the Command of Christ differ not so much but the one includeth and upholdeth the other And if you did but once love the command you vvould never boggle at the name of Power but bless and honour him that bringeth it Oh that men vvere vvise but so vvise as not to be vviser then God as not to choose and fall in love vvith their own wayes as more certain and direct unto the end then Gods as not to prefer their own mazes and labyrinths and uncertain gyrations drawn out by Lust and Phansie before those even and unerring paths found out by an infinite Wisdome and discovered to us by a Mercy as infinite Oh that we could once work out and conquer the hardship of a command and then see the beauty of it and to what glory it leadeth us We should then receive an Apostle in the name of an Apostle Matth. 10.40 look upon the command though brought in an earthen vessel as upon Heaven it self Oh that we were once spiritual Then those precepts which concern our conversation on earth would be laid hold on and embraced as from Heaven heavenly then should we be as quiet as the Heavens which are ever moving and ever at rest because ever in their own place then should we be as the Angels of heaven who envy not one another malice not one another trouble not one another but every Angel knoweth his office and moveth in his own order and our assiduous labour in our calling would be a resemblance of the readiness of those blessed Spirits who at the beck of Majesty have wings and hast to their duty who are ever moving and then in their highest exaltation when they are in their ministery in a word then should we every one sit under his own vine and figtree and no evil eye should look towards him no malice blast him no injury assault him no bold intrusion unsettle him but we should all rejoyce together the poor with the rich the weak with the strong the low with the high all bless one another help one another guard one another and so in the name of the Prince of Peace walk peaceably together every one moving in his own place till we reach that Peace which yet we do not understand but shall then fully enjoy to all eternity The Tenth SERMON PART I. MATTH XXIV 42. Watch therefere For yee know not what hour your Lord doth come THese are the words of our blessed Saviour and a part of the answer he returned to that question which was put up by his Disciples vers 3. Tell us When shall these things be and what shall be the signe of thy coming and of the end of the world Where we may observe that he doth not satisfy their curiosity which was measuring of Time even to the last point and moment of it when it shall be no more but he resolveth them in that which was fit for them to know and passeth by in silence and untoucht the other as a thing laid up and reserved in the bosome of his Father The time he telleth them not but foretelleth those fearful signes which should be the forerunners of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the end of the world Which two are so interwoven in the prediction that Interpreters scarce know how to distinguish them We need not take any pains to disintangle or put them asunder At the thirtieth verse our Saviour presents himself in the clouds with power and great glory The Angels sound the Trumpet at the next The two men in the Field and the two women grinding at the mill in the verses immediately going before my Text the one taken the other left are a fair evidence and seem to point out to the end of the world which will be a time of discrimination of separating the Goats from the Sheep And then these words will concern us as much as the Apostles In which He who is our Lord and King to rule
and help himself out of them and take himself off from that amazement Marcion ran dangerously upon the greatest blasphemy Duos Ponticus Deos tanquam duaâ— Symplegadas naufragit sui adfert quem negare non potuit i. e. creatorem i. e. nostrum quem probare non poterit i. e. suum Tertull. 1. adv Marcion c. 1. and brought in two Principles one of Good and another of Evil that is two Gods But when the Lord shall come and lay judgment to the line all things will be even and equal and the Heretick shall see that there is but one Now all is jarring discord and confusion but the Lord when he cometh will make an everlasting harmony He will draw every thing to its right and proper end restore order and beauty to his work fill up those breaches which Sin hath made and manifest his Wisdome and Providence which here are lookt upon as hidden mysteries in a word he will make his glory shine out of darkness as he did Light when the earth was without form 1 Cor. 15.28 That the Lord may be all in all Here in this world all lyeth as in a night in darkness in a Chaos or confusion and we see neither what our selves nor others are We see indeed as we are seen see others as they see us with no other eyes but those which the Prince of this world hath blinded Our Judgment is not the result of our Reason but is raised from by and vile respects If it be a friend we are friends to his vice and study apologies for it If it be an enemy we are angry with his virtue and abuse our wits to disgrace it If he be in power our eyes dâ—zle and we see a God come down to us in the shape of a man and worship this Meteor though exhaled and raised from the dung with as great reverence and ceremony as the Persians did the Sun What he speaketh is an oracle and what he doth is an example and the Coward the Mammonist or the Beast giveth sentence in stead of the Man which is lost and buried in these If he be small and of no repute in the world he is condemned already though he have reason enough to see the folly of his Judges and with pitty can null the censure which they pass If he be of our faction we call him as the Manichees did the chiefest of their sect one of the Elect But if his Charity will not suffer him to be of any we cast him out and count him a Reprobate The whole world is a theatre or rather a Court of corrupt Judges which judge themselves and one another but never judge righteous judgment For as we judge of others so we do of our selves Judicio favor officit our Self love putteth out the eye of our Reason or rather diverteth it from that which is good and imployeth it in finding out many inventions to set up evil in its place as the Prophet speaketh We feed on ashes Isa 44.20 a deceived heart hath turned us aside that we cannot deliver our soul nor say Is there not a lye in our right hand Thus he that soweth but sparingly is Liberal he that loveth the world is not covetous he whose eyes are full of the adulteress is chast he that setteth up an image and falleth down before it is not an Idolater he that drinketh down bloud as an ox doth water is not a Murderer he that doth the works of his father the Devil is a Saint Many things we see in the world most unjustly done Multa injustè fieri possunt quae nemo possit reprehendere Cic. de Finibus Mic. 6.16 which we call Righteousness because no man can commence a suit against us or call us into question and we doubt not of Heaven if we fall not from our cause or be cast as they speak in Westminster-hall If Omri's statutes be kept we soon perswade our selves that the power of this Lord will not reach us and if our names hold fair amongst men we are too ready to tell our selves that they are written also in the book of life This is the judgment of the world Thus we judge others and thus we judge our selves so byassed with the Flesh that for the most we pass wide of the Truth Others are not to us nor are we to our selves what we are but the work of our own hands made up in the world and with the help of the world For the Wisdome of this world is our Spirit and Genius that rayseth every thought dictateth all our words begetteth all our actions and by it as by our God we live and move and have our being And now since Judgment is thus corrupted in the world even Justice requireth it Et veniet Dominus qui malè judicata rejudicabit the Lord will come and give judgment against all these crooked and perverse judgements and shall lay Righteousness to the plummet Isa 28.17 and with his breath sweep away the refuge of lyes and shall judge and pass another manner of sentence upon us and others then we do in this world Then shall we be told what we would never believe though we have had some grudgings and whisperings and half-informations within us which the love of this world did soon silence and suppress Then shall he speak to us in his displeasure and Aliud est judicium Christi aliud anguli su surrorum Hier. though we have talked of him all the day long tell us we forgot him If we set up a golden image he shall call us Idolaters though we intended it not and when we build up the sepulchres of the Prophets and flatter our selves and accuse our forefathers tell us we are as great murderers as they and thus find us guilty of that which we protest against and haters of that which we think we love and lovers of that which we think we detest and take us from behind the bush from every lurking hole from all shelter of excuse take us from our rock our rock of ayr on which we were built and dash our presumptuous assurance to nothing Nor can a sigh or a grone or a loud profession or a fast or long prayers corrupt this Lord or alter his sentence but he shall judge as he knoweth who knoweth more of us then we are willing to take notice of and is greater then our Conscience which we shrink and dilate at pleasure 1 John 3.20 and fit to every purpose and knoweth all things and shall judge us not by our pretense Rom. 2.16 our intent or forced imagination but according to his Gospel VENIET He shall come when all is thus out of Order to set all right and straight again And this is the end of his Coming And now being well assured that he will come we are yet to seek and are ready with the Disciples to ask Matth. 24.3 When will these things be and What hour will he
the professours of it Hebr. 11 â—7 but when they are slain with the sword and wander up and down destitute afflicted tormented is still the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil of the same hue and complexion and in true esteem more fair and radiant when her poor witnesses are under a cloud and in disgrace Nay I will be bold to say and whosoever rightly understandeth the nature of Religion will never gainsay it that if it had not one professour breathing on the earth not one that did dare to name and own it as Elijah once thought there was but one yet Religion were still the same 1 Kings 19.10 14. reserved in the surest archives we can imagin even in sinu Dei in the bosome of God the Law-giver Religion being nothing else but a defluxion and emanation from him a beam of his eternal Law So that that which maketh and constituteth a true Israelite which is one inwardly Rom. 2.29 as S. Paul speaketh and in the spirit hath too much of Immortality of God in it to fall to the ground or exspire and be lost with the Israelite Let not your hearts be troubled Religion can no more suffer then God himself For seconly If Religion could suffer it suffered more by the Priests and peoples sins then by the Philistines sword for by them the name of God and Religion was evil spoken of Isa 52.5 Rom 2.24 and that which cannot suffer was made the object of malice and scorn and as Nazianzene spake of Julian's persecution it was both a Comedy and a Tragedy Invect 2. a Comedy full of scoffs and obtrectations and a Tragedy full of horrour and yet the Comedy was the more Tragical and bloody of the two God jealous of his honour awaketh as one out of sleep Psal 78.65 returneth the scoff upon the Philistine and maketh up the last Act of the Tragedy in his blood First he punisheth the guilty Israelite and then the Executioner Psal 78.66 The Psalmist saith He smote them in the hinder parts and put them to perpetual shame forcing them to make the similitude of their Emerods in gold and to send them back with the Ark as an oblation for their sin So you see here Gods method by which he ordinarily proceedeth First he prepareth a sacrifice as we read Zeph. 1.7 that is appointeth his people to slaughter then bids his guests sanctificat vocatos suos as the Vulgar readeth it he sanctifieth that is setteth apart these Philistines that they may be as Priests to kill and offer them up And when this is done God falleth upon the Priests themselves and maketh them a sacrifice Gaza shall be forsaken and Ashkelon a desolation Zeph 2.4 they shall drive out Ashdod at noon day and Ekron shall be rooted out And now we may conclude that God is just in all his wayes Psal 145.17 and righteous in all his judgements and fix up our Inscription upon this particular also When Israel is delivered up into the hand of the Philistine DOMINVS EST It is the Lord. And now if we look well upon the Inscription we shall find it to be like the pillar of the cloud Exod. 14.20 a cloud of darkness to the Philistine but giving light to the Israelite First the Philistine hath no reason to boast of this as a preferment that he is made the instrument of God in the execution of his judgements upon his people We shall find that this hath been one of the most dangerous and fatal offices in the World Nebuchadnezzar was by God called into it Jer. 50.21 Go up against the land of Merothaim or of Rebells And he did lead Israel into captivity V. 23. But hear the word of the Lord Jer. 51.41 Jer. 25.18 How is the hammer of the Lord cut asunder and broken Jerusalem is taken but Sheshach also shall fall That cup which was sent to Jerusalem and the Cities of Judah and the Kings thereof V. 26 c. and put into their hands to drink is afterward put into the hand of the King of Sheshach to drink and to be drunken to spew and fall and rise no more Thus saith the Lord yee shall certainly drink it And he giveth the reason V. 29. For lo I begin to bring evil upon the City which is called by my Name or where my Name is called upon and shall ye go free shall ye go utterly unpunished If ye can raise such a hope then hear a voice from heaven which shall dash it to pieces I have said it and I will make it good Ye shall not go unpunished I have begun with my own house but I am coming towards you in a tempest of fire to devour yours I have shaken my own tabernacle and the house of Dagon shall not cannot stand They whom God appointeth executioners of justice upon his people are like the Image which the Tyrant saw in his dream partly iron Dan. 2.42 and partly clay partly strong and partly broken God findeth them apt and fit full of malice and gall Whose hands were fitter to fling stones at David then his whose mouth was full of curses Who fitter to keep Gods people in bondage then Pharaoh Who fitter to lead them into captivity then he whom God did afterwards drive into the fields amongst the beasts Who could have crucified the Lord of life but the Jews Then finding them apt and fit he permitteth these serpents to spit their poison giveth these hang-men leave to do their office This his not hindring them was all the warrant and commission they had Jer. 50.21 Go up against the land can be no more then this I know you are upon your march and I will not stand in your way to stay youâ— but you shall do me service against your wills with that malice which my Soul hateth For we cannot think that God inspired the Tyrant or sent a Prophet to him with the message to bid him do that which he threatneth to punish No he doth but permit them and give them leave to be his executioners And in this his permission is their strength They pursue the Israelite and lay on sure strokes Their Malice is carried on in a chariot of four wheels made up of Cruelty Impatience Ambition Impudence and drawn as Bernard expresseth it In Cant. Ser. 39 with two wild horses earthly Power and secular Pomp. And now they drive on furiously and God is as one asleep as one that marketh them not because he will not hinder them But within a while he will awake strike off their chariot-wheels and restrain them Job 38.11 say to them as he doth to the swelling Sea Hitherto you shall go and no farther And then they are but clay they crumble and fall to nothing Why should the Philistine boast himself in his mischief Psal 52.2 the goodness of God endureth yet dayly It is every day and in every age the same
and opposite to his Wisdome and Goodness and which his soul hateth as That he did decree to make some men miserable to the end he might make his Mercy glorious in making them happy that he did of purpose wound them that he might heal them That he did threaten them with death whose names he had written in the book of life That he was willing Man should sin that he might forgive him That he doth exact that Repentance as our duty which himself will work in us by an irresistable force That he commandeth intreateth beseecheth others to turn and repent whom himself hath bound and fettered by an absolute decree that they shall never turn That he calleth them to repentance and salvation whom he hath damned from all eternity If any certainly such beasts as these deserve to be struck through with a dart No it is not boldness Exod. 19.12 Hebr. 12.20 but humility and obedience to God's will to say He doth nothing but what becometh him and what his Wisdome doth justifie Eph. 1.8 He hath abounded towards us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul in all wisdome and prudence His Wisedome findeth out the means of salvation and his Prudence ordereth and disposeth them His Wisdome sheweth the way to life and his Prudence leadeth us through it to the end Wisdome was from everlasting Prov. 8.23 And as she was in initio viarum in the beginning of God's wayes so she was in initio Evangelii in the beginning of the Gospel which is called the wisedome of God And she fitted and proportioned means to that end means most agreeable and connatural to it She found out a way to conquer Death and him that hath the power of Death the Devil Hebr. 2.14 with the weapons of Righteousness to dig up Sin by the very roots that no work oâ— the flesh might shoot forth out of the heart any more to destroy it in its effects that though it be done yet it shall have no more force then if it were annihilated then if it had never been done and to destroy it in its causes that it may be never done again Immutabile quod factum est Quint. l. 7 to draw together Justice and Mercy which seemed to stand at distance and hinder the work and to make them meet and kiss each other in Christ's Satisfaction and ours for our Turn is our satisfaction all that we can make Condigna estsatisfactio mala facta corrigere correcta non reiterare Bern. de â—ust Dom. c. 1. Satisfactio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antioch â—â—neil can 2. These she hath joyned together never to be severed Christ's Sufferings with our Repentance his agony with our sorrow his blood with our tears his flesh nailed to the cross with our lusts crucified his death for sin with our death to it his resurrection with our justification For he bore our sins that he might cast them away he shed his blood to melt our hearts he dyed that we might live and turn unto the Lord and he rose again for our justification and to gain authority to the doctrine of Repentance Our CONVERTIMINI our Turn is the best Commentary on his CONSVMMATVM EST It is finished for that his last breath breathed it into the world We may say it is wrapt up in the Inscription John 19.19 JESVS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS For in him even when he hung upon the cross were all the treasures of Wisdome and Knowledge hid Col. 2.3 In him his Justice and Mercy are at peace for to reconcile us unto God he reconciled them one to another The hand of Mercy was lifted up ready to seal our pardon we were in our blood and her voice was Live we were miserable Ezek. 16.6 and she was ready to relieve us our heart was sick and her bowels yerned But then Justice held up the sword ready to latch in our sides God loveth his Creature whom he made but hateth the Sinner whom he could not make And he must strike and yet is unwilling to strike If Justice had prevailed Mercy had been but as the morning dew Hos 6.4 13.3 and soon vanished before this raging heat And if Mercy had swallowed up Justice in victory God's hatred of sin and his fearful menaces against it had been but bruta fulmina and portended nothing but been void and of none effect Psal 130.3 Deus purgari homines à peccato maxime cupit ideoque agere poenitentiam jubet Lact. l. 6. c. 24. If God had been extreme to mark what is done amiss men would have sinned more and more because there would have been no hope of pardon And if his Mercy had sealed an absolute pardon men would have walked delicately and sported in their evil wayes because there would have been no fear of punishment And therefore his Wisdome drew his Justice and Mercy together and reconciled them both in Christ's propitiatory Sacrifice and our duty of Repentance the one freeing us from the guilt the other from the dominion of sin And so both are satisfyed Justice layeth down the sword and Mercy shineth in perfection of beauty Rom. 3.3 God hateth Sin but he seeth it condemned in the flesh of his Son and fought against by every member he hath He seeth it punisht in Christ and punisht also in every repentant sinner that turneth from his evil wayes He beholdeth the Sacrifice on the Cross and the Sacrifice also of a broken heart and for the sweet savour of the one he accepteth the other and is at rest Christ's death for sin procureth our pardon and our death to sin sueth it out Christ suffereth for sin we turn from it His satisfaction at once wipeth out the guilt and penalty our Repentance by degrees destroyeth Sin it self Tert. De anima c. 1. Haec est sapientia de schola caeli This is the method of Heaven This is that Wisdome which is from above Thus it taketh away the sins of the world And now Wisdome is compleat Justice is satisfied and Mercy triumpheth God is glorified Man is saved and the Angels rejoyce Heus tu peccator De poenit c. 8. bono animo sis vides ubi de tuo reditu gaudeatur saith Tertullian Take comfort sinner thou seest what joy there is in heaven for thy return What musick there is in a Turn which beiginneth on earth but reacheth up and filleth the highest heavens A repentant sinner is as a glass or rather Gods own renewed image on which God delighteth to look for there he beholdeth his Wisdome his Justice his Mercy and what wonders they all have wrought Behold the Shepherd of our souls see what lieth upon his shoulders Luke 15.5 6. You would think a poor Sheep that was lost Nay but he leadeth Sin and death and the Devil in triumph And thou mayest see the very brightness of his glory and the express image of his three most glorious
by the neglect of their duty which is quite lost and forgot in an unseasonable acknowledgement of what God can and a lazy expectation of what he will work in them and so make God Omnipotent to do what his Wisdom forbiddeth and themselves weak and impotent to do what by the same Wisdom he commandeth and then when they commune with their heart and find not there those longings and pantings after piety that true desire and endeavour to mortifie their earthly members which God requireth when in this Dialogue between one and himself their hearts cannot tell them they have watched one hour with Christ flatter and comfort themselves that this emptiness and nakedness shall never be imputed to them by God who if he had pleased might have wrought all in them in a moment by that force which flesh and blood could never withstand And thus they sin and pray and pray and sin and their Impiety and Devotion like the Sun and the Moon have their interchangeable courses it is now night with them and anon it is day and then night again and it is not easie to discern which is their day or which is their night for there is darkness over them both They hear and commend Virtue and Piety and since they cannot but think that Virtue is more then a breath and that it is not enough to commend it they pray and are frequent in prayer pray continually but do nothing pray but do not watch pray but do not strive against a temptation but leave that to a mightier hand to do for them and without them whilst they pray and sin call upon God for help when they fight against him as if it were God's will to have it so If he would have had it otherwise he would have heard their prayers and wrought it in them And therefore he will be content with his Talent though hid in a napkin which if he had pleased might have been made ten and with his seed again which if he had spoke the word had brought forth fruit a hundred-fold Hence it cometh to pass that though they be very evil yet they are very secure 1 Joh. 5.4 this being the triumph of their Faith not to conquer the world but to leave that work for the Lord of hosts himself and in all humility to stay till he do it For they can do nothing of themselves and they have done what they can which is nothing And now this heartless and feeble and if I may so speak this do-nothing devotion which may be as hot on the tongue of a Pharisee and tied to his phylactery must be made a sign of their election before all times Gal. 5.21 Phil. 3.18 who in time do those things of which we have been told often that they that do them shall not inherit the kingdome of heaven I do not derogate from the power of Gods Grace They that do are not worthy to feel it but shall feel that power which shall crush them to pieces They rather derogate from its power who bring it in to raise that obedience which coming with that tempest and violence it must needs destroy and take away quite For what obedience is there where nothing is done where he that is under command doth nothing Vis ergò ista non gratia saith Arnobius This were not Grace or Royal favour but a strange kind of emulation to gain the upper hand We cannot magnifie the Grace of God enough which doth even expect and wait upon us woo and serve us It is that unction that precious ointment 1 John 2.27 1 Thess 5.19 20. S. John speaketh of but we must not pour it forth upon the hairy scalp of wilful offenders who loath the means despise prophecy quench the spirit and so hinder it in its operation of men who are as stubborn against Grace as they are loud in its commendations as active to resist as to extoll it For this is to cast it away and nullifie it this is to make it nothing by making it greater nay to turn it into wantonness But it may be said That when we are fallen from God we are not able to rise again of our selves We willingly grant it That we have therefore need of new strength and new power to be given us which may raise us up We deny it not And thirdly That not onely the power but the very act of our recovery is from God Ingratitude it self cannot deny it But then That man can no more withstand the power of that grace which God is ready to supply us with then an infant can his birth or the dead their resurrection That we are turned whether we will or no is a conclusion which those premisses will not yield This flint vvill yield no such fire though you strike never so oft We are indeed sometimes said to sleep and sometimes to be dead in sin but it is ill building conclusions upon no better Basis then a figure and because we are said to be dead in sin infer a necessity of rising when we are called Nor is our obedience to Gods inward call of the same nature with the obedience of the Creature to the voice and command of the Creatour for the Creature hath neither reason nor will as Man hath nor doth Gods power work after the same manner in the one as in the other How many Fiats of God have been frustrate in this kind How often hath he smote our stony and rocky hearts and no water flowed out How often hath he said Fiat Lux let there be light and we remained still in darkness We are free agents and God made us so when he made us men and our actions when his power is mighty in us are not necessary but voluntary nor doth his Power work according to the working of our phansie nor lie within the level of our carnal imaginations to do what they appoint but it is accompanied and directed by that Wisdom which he is and he doth nothing can do nothing but what is agreeable to it As it was said of Caesar in Lucane though in another sense Velle putant quodcunque potest we think that God will do whatsoever he can But we must know that as he is powerful and can do all things so he is wise and sweetly disposeth all things as he will and he will not save us against our will For to necessitate us to goodness were not to try our obedience but to force it Et quod necessitas praestat depretiat ipsa Necessity taketh off the price and value of that it worketh and maketh it of no worth at all And then God doth not voluntarily take his Grace from any but if the power of it defend us not from Sin and Death it is because we abuse and neglect it and will not work with it which is ready to work with us For Grace is not blind as Fortune nec cultores praeterit nec haeret contemtoribus She will neither pass
Body and his Bloud and S. Paul calleth it the Bread and the Cup Nor is S. Paul contrary to Christ but determineth and reconcileth all in the end both of Christ's suffering and our receiving in the words of my Text As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew or shew ye the Lord's death till he come In which words the Death of the Lord of life is presented to us and we called to look up upon him whom our sins have pierced through to behold him wounded for our transgressions ex cujus latere aqua sanguis Isa 53.5 utriusque lavacri paratura manavit as Tertullian out of whose side came water and bloud to wash and purge us which make the two Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper And the effect of both is our Obedience in life and conversation that we should serve him with the whole heart who hath bought us at so dear a price that we should wash off all our spots and stains and foul pollutions in the laver of this Water and the laver of this Bloud And therefore as he offered himself for us on the Cross so he offereth himself to us in the Sacrament his Body in the Bread and his Bloud in the Cup that we may eat and drink and feed upon him and taste how gracious he is Which is the sum and complement and blessed effect of the duty here in the Text to shew the Lord's death till he come For he that sheweth it not manducans non manducat eating doth not as Ambrose doth eat the Bread but not feed on Christ But he that fully acquitteth himself in this shall be fed to eternal life Let us then take the words asunder And there we find What we are to do and How long we are to do it the Duty and the Continuation of it the Duty We must shew forth Christ's death the Continuation of it We must do it till he come again to judgment In the Duty we consider first an Object what it is we must shew the death of the Lord Secondly an Act what it is to shew and declare it The death of the Lord a sad but comfortable a bloudy but saving spectacle And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew a word of as large a compass as Christianity it self And the duration and continuation of it till he come that is to the end of the world Of these in their order The object is in nature first and first to be handled the death of the Lord. And this is most proper for us to consider For by his stripes we are healed and by his death we live And in this he hath not onely expressed his Love but made himself an example that we may take it out and so shew forth his death First it is his Love which joyned these two words together Death and the Lord which are farther removed then Heaven is from the Earth For can the Lord of life die Yes Amor de coelo demisit Dominum That Love which brought him down from his throne to his footstool that united the Godhead and Manhood in one Person hath also made these two terms Death and the Lord compatible and fastned the Son of God to the Cross hath exprest it self not onely in Beneficence but also in Patience not onely in Power but also in Humility and is most lively and visible in his Death the true authentick instrument of his Love He that is our Steward to provide for us who supplieth us out of his rich treasur◠who ripeneth the fruit on the trees and the corn in the fields who draweth us wine out of the vine and spinneth us garments out of the bowels of the worm and the fleece of the flock will also empty himself and pour forth his bloud He who giveth us balm for our bodies will give us physick for our souls will give up his ghost to give us breath and life And here his love is in its Zenith and vertical point and in a direct line casteth the rayes of comfort on his lost creature This Lord cometh not naked but clothed with blessings cometh not empty but with the rich treasuries of heaven cometh not alone but with troops of Angels with troops of promises and blessings Bonitas foecunda sui Goodness is fruitful and generative of it self gaineth by spending it self swelleth by overflowing and is increased by profusion When she poureth forth her self and breatheth forth that sweet exhalation she conveyeth it not poor and naked and solitary but with a troop and authority with ornament and pomp For Love bringeth with it whatsoever Goodness can imagine munera officia gifts and offices doth not onely give us the Lord but giveth us his sufferings his passion his death not onely his death but the virtue and power of it to raise us from the lethargy and death of Sin that we may be quick and active to shew and express it in our selves Olim morbo nunc remedio laboramus The remedy is so wonderful it confoundeth the patient and maketh health it self appear but fabulous Shall the Lord of Life die why may not Man whose breath is in his nostrils be immortal Yes he shall and for this reason Because it pleased the Lord of Life to die We need not adopt one in his place or substitute a creature a phantasm as did Arius and Marcion in his office For he took our sins and he will take the office himself Isa 63.3 he will tread the wine press alone and will admit none with him Nor doth this Humility impair his Majesty but rather exalt it Though he die yet he is the Lord still The Father will tell us that they who denied this for fear were worse then those who denied it out of stomach and the pretense of his honour is more dangerous then perversness For this is to confine and limit this Lord to shorten his hand palos terminales figere to set up bounds and limits against his infinite Love and absolute Will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shape and frame him out to their own phansie and indeed to blaspheme him with reverence to take from him his heavenly power and put into his hand a sceptre of reed His Love and his Will quiet all jealousies and answer all arguments whatsoeever It was his will to die and he that resteth in God's Will doth best acknowledge his Majesty For all even Majesty it self doth vail to his Will and is commanded by it What the Lord of life equal to the Father by whom all things were made shall he die Yes quia voluit because he would For as at the Creation he might have made Man as he made other creatures by his Word alone yet would not but wrought him out of the clay and fashioned him with his own hands so in the great work of our Redemption he did not send an Angel one of the Seraphim or Cherubim or any finite creature which he might have done
in Scripture words of Command and Duty carry with them more then they shew and have wrapped up in them both the Act and the End and are of the largest signification in the Spirit 's Dictionary To HEAR is to Hear and to Doe To KNOW is to Know and to Practice To BELIEVE is to Believe and to Obey The Schools will tell us FIDES absque addito in Scriptura formata intelligitur Where Faith is named in Scripture without some addition as a dead Faith a temporary Faith an hypocritical Faith there evermore that Faith is commended which worketh by Charity And so to shew or to preach the death of the Lord is more then to Utter it with the tongue and Profess it For thus Judas might shew it as well as Peter thus the Jews might shew it that crucified him Thus the profane person that crucifieth him every day may shew it Yea Christ's death may be the common subject for discourse and the language of the whole world Therefore our shewing must look farther even to the end For what is Hearing without Doing What is Knowledge without Practice What is Faith without Chariâ—y What is shewing the death of the Lord if we do it not to that end for which he did die Our hearing is but the sensuality of the ear our Knowledge but an empty speculation our Faith but phansie and our shewing the death of the Lord a kind of nailing him again to the cross For to draw his picture in our ear or mind to character him out in our words and yet fight against him is to put him to shame We must then understand our selves when we speak to God as we understand God when he speaketh to us and in the same manner we must shew him to himself and the world as he is pleased to shew and manifest himself unto us Christ did not present us with a picture with a phantasm with a bare shew and appearance of suffering for us Nor must we present him with shadows and shews And what is God's shewing himself Psal 80. Thou that sittest between the Cherubims shew thy self saith the Psalmist shine thou clearly to our comfort and to the terrour of our enemies God manifesteth his Power and breaketh the Cedars of Libanus He maketh known his Wisdom and teacheth the children of men He publisheth his Love and filleth us with good things His Words are his blessings and his demonstrations in glory He speaketh to us by peace and shadoweth us by plenty and our garners are full And see how the creature echoeth back again to him The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work Day unto day uttereth welleth out speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge God's language is Power God's language is Love and God's language is Hope God planted a vineyard Isa 5. that expresseth his Power and built a tower in it and made a wine-press therein there is his Love and he lookâ—d for grapes there Hope speaketh for he that planteth planteth in hope He spake by his Prophets he spake by his judgments and he spake by his mercies but still he spake in hope for he doth neither shine nor thunder but in hope This is the heavenly dialect and we must take it out We must not speak as one that beggeth on a stage but as he that beggeth on the high way naked and cold and pinched with hunger Verba in opera vertenda By a religious Alchymie we must turn words into works and when God speaketh to us by his Prophets answer him by our obedience when he speaketh to us in Love give him our hearts and when he looketh for grapes be full of good works This is Christ's own dialect and he best understandeth it and his reply is a reward But from shews and words he turneth away his ears and will not hear that is for still in God's language more is understood then spoke he will bring us to judgment And now we see what it is to shew the death of the Lord not to draw it out in our imagination or to speak it with the tongue but to express the power and virtue of it in our selves to labour and travel in birth till Christ be fully formed in us till all Christian virtues which are as the spirits of his bloud be quick and operative in us till we be made perfect to every good work And thus we shew his death by our Faith For Faith if it be not dead will speak and make it self known to all the world speak to the naked and clothe him to the hungry and feed him to those who erre and are in darkness and shine upon them This is the dialect of Faith But if the cold frost of temptations as S. Gregorie speaketh hath so niped it that it is grown chil and cold and can speak but faintly if we have talked so long of Faith till we have left her speechless if she speak but imperfectly and in broken language now by a drop of water and now by a mite and then silent shew the death of Christ onely in some rare and slender performance behold this is your hour and the power of light this your time of receiving the Sacrament is the time to actuate and quicken your Faith to make it more apprehensive more operative more lively to give it a tongue that it may shew and preach the wonderful works of the Lord. And as we shew the Lord's death by our Faith so we shew it by our Hope which if it be that Hope which purifieth the heart will awake our glory the Tongue If it be well built and underpropped with Charity it will speak and cry and complain And the language is the same with that of the souls under the Altar How long Lord Rev. 6. How long shall the Flesh fight against the Spirit How long shall we struggle with temptations When wilt thou deliver us from this body of death When shall we appear in the presence of our God Though we fall we shall rise again Though we are shaken we shall not be overthrown Though thou killest us yet we will trust in thee This is the dialect of Hope And here at this Table we must learn to speak out to speak it more plainly to raise and exalt it to a Confidence which is the loudest report it can make Thirdly we shew and preach the Lord's death by our Love Which is but the echo of his Love And we speak it fully as he doth to us fill up the sentence and leave not out a word make it manifest in the equality and universality of our obedience as he offered up himself a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice for us Quicquid propter Deum fit aequaliter fit Our love to Christ must be equal and like himself not meet him at Church and run from him in the streets not embrace him in a Sermon and throw him from us in our conversation not flatter him with a peny
is somewhat without that hath either flattered our sense or complied with our reason The effect doth in some sort demonstrate the cause And the cause of Joy is the union and presence of some good And as the cause is such is the effect as the object is such is the joy If our joy spring from the earth it is of the same nature earthy muddy gross unclean Eccl The Wise-man calleth it madness But if it be from heaven and those things which are above it is bright serene and clear What is it then that maketh David so glad that he thus committeth his joy to a Song and publisheth it to the world The next words tell us Something that he heard the voice of a company earnest in expectation and loud in expression hasting and even flying to the service of God and to the place where his honour dwelleth They said unto me We will go into the house of the Lord. Now if ye look upon the object so divine and consider David a man after God's own heart ye cannot wonder to find him awakening his harp and viol and tuning his instrument of ten strings to hear him chanting his Laetatus sum and to see him even transported and ravished with joy So now you have the parts of the Text 1. David's Delight 2. the Object or Reason of it In the Object there are circumstances enough to raise his joy to the highest note First a Company either a Tribe or many of or all the people They said unto me So in another place he speaketh of walking to the house of God in company Psal 55.14 A glorious sight a representation of heaven it self of all the Angels crying aloud the Seraphim to the Cherubim and the Cherubim echoing back again to the Seraphim Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth Secondly their Resolution to serve the Lord dixerunt they said it And to say in Scripture is to Resolve We will go is either a Lie or Resolution Thirdly their Agreement and joynt Consent We This is as a Circle and taketh in all within its compass If there be any dissenting unwilling person he is not within this Circumference he is none of the We. A Turk a Jew and a Christian cannot say We will serve the Lord and the Schismatick or Separatist shutteth himself out of the house â—f the Lord. We is a bond of peace keepeth us at unity and maketh many as one Fourthly their Chearfulness and Alacrity They speak like men going out of a dungeon into the light as those who had been long absent from what they loved and were now approching unto it and in fair hope to enjoy what they most earnestly desired We will go We will make haste and delay no longer Ipsa festinatio tarda est Speed it self is but slow-paced We cannot be there soon enough Fifthly and lastly the Place where they will serve God not one of their own chusing not the Groves or Hills or High-places no Oratory which malice or pride or faction had erected but a place appointed and set apart by God himself Servient Domino in domo sua They will serve the Lord in his own house They said unto me We will go into the house of the Lord. Thus much the Object affordeth us enough to fill such an heart as David's with joy Now let us look upon the Psalmist in his garment of joy And we may observe First the nature of his Joy It was as refined as spiritual as heavenly as its object What they said was holy language and his Joy was true and solid the breathing and work of the Spirit of truth Secondly the Publication of it He could not contein himself Psal 39.3 but his heart being hot within him he spake with his tongue and not content with that he conveyed his speech into a song He said it he sung it he committed it to song that the people being met together at Jerusalem might sing it in the house Lord. I was glad when they said unto me We will go into the house of the Lord. These are the Parts and of these we shall speak in order We begin with the Object for in nature that is first We cannot tell what a mans Joy is till we see what raised it The Object therefore of David's joy must be first handled Therein the first circumstance is That there were many a Company that resolved to go into the house of the Lord. v. 4. The tribes go up saith the Psalmist even the tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel that is the people of Israel go up according to the covenant made with Israel Psal â—8 11 And The Lord gave the word great was the company of those that published it He speaketh as if there were some virtue in Number And so his son Solomon Two and if two Eccles 4.9 then certainly many are better then one Yet such an imputation lieth upon the Many that peradventure I might well have omitted this circumstance Non tam bene cum rebus humanis agitur ut plures sint meliores The world was never yet so happy that the most should be best 1 Cor. 1.26 Not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called saith St. Paul And Many are called saith Christ but few are chosen Matth. 20.16 It was the Many that resisted the holy Ghost that stoned the Prophets that persecuted the Apostles It is the Many that now divide the Church that disturbe and shake the common-wealth that work that desolation on the earth What security nay what religion can there be when our estates and our lives when Truth it self must be held by Votes must rise or fall by most voices Christus violentiâ suffragiorum in crucem datus saith Tertullian This is it which layeth the cross upon us which nailed the Son of God himself to the Cross I did not well to mention it For indeed it is the errour not of the Church of Rome alone but of all others also to judge of the Church by the multitude of Professours as the Turk doth of an army by its number nec aestimare sed numerare not to weigh and consider what the professours are but to number them And they have made Multitude a note of the true Church As if to shew you the Sun-rising I should point to the West or where there are but a few cry out Behold a troup cometh Matth 7 14. Luk. 13.23.24 Our Saviour saith there are few that shall be saved But say they if ye will know the true Church indeed behold the multitudes and nations behold the many that joyn with her that fall down and worship her Every faction striveth to improve it self Every Heretick would gain what proselytes he can Every Church would stretch forth the curtains of her habitation All would confirm themselves in their errour by the multitude of those who are taken in it Cùm error singulorum
So there is nothing in the Church to drive any out of it nothing in the We to divide it Whatsoever things are true â—it 4.8 whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise these make a company a congregation at unity within it self these make many one and carry them together to the house of God with joy and triumph We must then seek for the cause of dis-union abroad For Religion can no more make it then the Sun when it shineth can produce darkness Light and darkness may assoon meet in one as true Religion and Division No Inimicus homo the envious man the Devil doth this It is Covetousness and Pride and Malice and Envy the fruitless fruits of the evil Spirit that have torn the seamless coat of Christ yea that have divided his body that have set up the partition-wall and made of one many 1. Aemulatio mater schismatum saith Tertullian Envy is the mother of division An evil eye which striketh and hurteth when others are in glory which when it cannot behold its own good delighteth in others evil Arius will break forth and trouble all if Alexander be in the chair before him 2. Covetousness that would not onely depopulate but gather in the whole world unto it self Etiam avaritia quaerit unitatem saith S. Augustine Even Covetousness is a great lover of unity would swallow all into it self And then where were the WE It is the observation of Aristotle that that friendship which is enterteined for pleasure is subject but to few quarrels that which is for vertue and honesty to none but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all complaints and quarrels arise from that which is grounded upon profit While they are assistant to one anothers designs so long they have but one purse but one soul but when they come short and fail then they flie asunder and keep distance and look back upon one another as enemies They are one to day and to morrow they are divided Quòd unum velimus duo sumus We therefore disagree because we are so like we are not one and the same because we love one and the same thing Quod vinculm amoris esse debebat seditionis odii causa idem velle That which should draw and knit us together divideth and separateth us namely having the same desires the same mind the same will Covetousness neither careth for union nor community And this is it which raiseth seditions in the Common-wealth and maketh rents in the Church This sent that swarm of Flies and Locusts the Novations the Puritanes of those times disciples of Novatus who would be stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pure But saith Nazianzene as pure as he was he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very covetous A disease which may seem to have cleaved to his sect and followers throughout all generations to this day Consider of it judge and give sentence 3. Ambition looketh not back leaveth all behind will be on the top of the ladder Pride lifteth up the nose as the Psalmist speaketh keepeth distance and her word is a Isa 65.5 Go from me for I am holier then thou b Rev. 18.7 I sit as a queen c Isa 47.8 I am and none else besides me The proud man loveth to be alone and would have no companion but would be learned alone beautiful alone rich alone strong alone religious alone d Luk. 18.11 I am not as other men I am not as this Publicane was the Manifesto of a Pharisee and he was proud To conclude These vices which distract us in our selves can never make nor keep us at one with others No it is Humility and Patience and Contempt of the world and the Love of Christ which alone knit this love-knot e Eâ—h 2.14 15. break down the partition wall and make them one cause f Psal 133.1 brethren to dwel together in unity draw them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint have it to the same thing to have the same faith the same purpose the same mind the same wealth the same wit the same understanding or to be as assistant to one another as if they were the same in a word which make them one in Christ as g Joh. 10.30 Christ and the Father are one that they be of the same quire and sing the same song with the people of Israel IBIMUS Let us or We will go into the house of the Lord. I have been carried away ye see as with a stream but the waters were pleasant Bonum jucundum saith the Psalmist Psal 133.1 Good and pleasant it is for brethren to go together There is but one stage more and we shall be at the journeys end even at the Temple-gates but one circumstance to consider and we shall lead you in and that is 4. Their alacrity and chearfulness in going I told you their long absence rendred the object more glorious For what we love and want we love the more and desire the more earnestly When Hezekiah having been sick unto death had a longer lease of life granted him Isa 38.1 22. he asketh the question What is the sign not that I shall live but that I shall go up to the house of the Lord Love is on the wing chearful to meet its object yea it reacheth it at a distance and is united to it while it is afar off But when it draweth near and a probable hope leadeth us towards it then is Loves triumph and jubilee Love saith one is a Sophister and a Philosopher witty and subtile to compass its own ends a Magician able to conjure down all difficulties and oppositions that lie in its way How doth the Covetous hast to be rich the Ambitious fly to the pinnacle of State the Glutton run to a banquet When the fool had filled his barns he sung a Requiem to his soul When Haman was advanced by the King Luk. 12.19 Esth 5.10 11. he sent and called for his friend and Zerish his wife and told them of his glory We read of one who hired a horse from the cirk to ride to a feast Love is alwayes in hast delighting it self in thoughts of hope and carried on them as on the wings of the wind Thus it is in sensual Love and thus it is also in spiritual When we have once tasted the good word of God Hebr 6.5 and the powers of the world to come when our hearts are possessed with love of God's glory when our minds are truly principled when as the Apostle speaketh Colos 2.6 7. we have received Christ Jesus the Lord and are rooted and built up in him Lord what an heaven is virtue what glory is there in obedience what beauty in holiness what a holy place is a Church how do we faint and pant not onely after religion
narrow understandings could receive it would not add one hair to our stature and growth in grace That Christ is God and Man that the two Natures are united in the Person of thy Saviour and Mediatour is enough for thee to know and to raise thy nature up to him Take the words as they lye in their native purity and simplicity and not as they are hammered and beat out and stampt by every hand by those who will be Fathers not Interpreters of Scripture and beget what sense they please and present it not as their own but as a child of God Then Lo here is Christ and there is Christ This is Christ and that is Christ Thou shalt see many images and characters of him but not one that is like him an imperfect Christ a half-Christ a created Christ a phansied Christ a Christ that is not the Son of God and a Christ that is not the Son of Man and thus be rowled up and down in uncertainties and left to the poor and miserable comfort of conjecture in that which so far as it concerneth us is so plain easie to be known Do thoughts arise in thy heart do doubts and difficulties beset thee doth thy wit and thy reason forsake thee and leave thee in thy search at a loss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Justine Martyr Thy Faith is the solution and will soon quit thee of all scruples and cast them by thy Faith not assumed or insinuated into thee or brought in as thy vices may be by thy education but raised upon a holy hill a sure foundation the plain and express word of God and upheld and strengthned by the Spirit Christian dost thou believe Thou hast then seen thy God in the flesh from Eternity yet born Invisible yet seen immense yet circumscribed Immortal yet dying the Lord of life yet crucified God and man Christ Jesus Amaze not thy self with an inordinate fear of undervaluing thy Saviour wrong not his Love and call it thy Reverence Why should thoughts arise in thy heart His Power is not the less because his Mercy is great nor doth his infinite Love shadow or eclipse his Majesty For see he counteth it no disparagement to be seen in our flesh nor to be at any loss by being thus like us Our Apostle telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there was a Decorum in it and it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren That Christ was made like unto us is the joy of this Feast but that he ought to be so is the wonder and extasie of our joy That he would descend is mercy but that he must descend is our astonishment Oportet and Debet are binding terms words of duty Had the Apostle said It behoved us that he should be made like unto us it had found an easy belief the Debuit had been placed in loco suo in its proper place on a sweating brow on dust and putrefaction on the face of a captive All will say it behoved as much But to put a Debet upon the Son of God and make it a beseeming thing for him to become flesh to be made like unto us is as if one should set a Rubie in clay a Diamond in brass a Chrysolith in baser metall and say they are placed well there as if one should worry the lambs for the woolf or take the master by the throat for the debt of a Prodigal and with an Opertet say it should be so To give a gift and call it a Debt is not our usual language On earth it is not but in heaven it is the proper dialect fixed in capital letters on the Mercy-seat It is the joy of this Feast the Angels Antheme SALVATOR NATVS A Saviour is born And if he will be a Saviour an Undertaker a Surety such is the nature of Fidejussion and Suretiship DEBET he must it behoveth him he is as deeply engaged as the party whose Surety he is And oh our numberless accounts that engaged God! Oh our prodigality that made him here come sub ratione debiti Adam had brought God in debt to death to Satan to his own Justice and God in Justice did ow us all to the Grave and to Hell Therefore if he will have us if he will bring his children unto glory he must pay down a price for us Heb. 2.14 he must take us out of his hands who hath the power of death if he will have his own inheritance he must purchase it And let us look on the aptness of the means and we shall soon find that this Foolishness of God as the Apostle calls it is wiser than men 1 Cor. 1.26 and this weakness of God is stronger than men and that the Debuit is right set For medio exsistente conjunguntur extrema If you will have extremes meet you must have a middle line to draw them together And behold here they meet and are made one The proprieties of either Nature being entire yet meet and concentre as it were in one Person Majesty putteth on Humility Power Infirmity Eternity Mortality By the one our Saviour dyeth for us by the other he â—â—seth again By the one he suffereth as Man by the other he conquereth as God by both he perfecteth and consummateth the great work of our Redemption This Debuit reacheth home to each part of the Text First to Christ as God The same hand that made the vessel when it was broken and so broken that there was not one sherd left to fetch water at any pit ought to repair and set it together again that it may receive and contain the water of life Qui fecit nos debuit reficere Our Creation and Salvation must be wrought by the same hand and turned about upon the same wheel Next we may set the debuit upon Christ's Person He is media Persona a middle Person the office therefore will best fit him even the office of Mediatour Further as he is the Son of God and the Image of his Father most proper it may seem for him to repair that Image which was defaced and well near lost in us We had not onely blemished God's Image but set the Devil's face and superscription upon God's coyn For righteousness there was sin for purity pollution for beauty deformity for rectitude perversness for the Man a Beast scarce any thing left by which God might know us Venit Filius ut iterum signet The Son cometh and with his blood reviveth the first character marketh us with his own signature imprinteth the graces of God upon us maketh us current money and that his Father may know us and not cast us off for refuse silver sheweth him his face Indeed the Father and the holy Ghost dignified the Flesh but took it not filled it with their Majesty but not with their Persons wrought in the Incarnation but were not Incarnate As three may weave a garment and but one wear it as Hugo And as in Musick saith St.
Echo by which he heareth himself at the rebound and thinketh the Wiseman spoke unto him Flattery is the ape of Charity It rejoyceth with them that rejoyce and weepeth with them that weep it frowneth with them that frown and smileth with them that smile It proceedeth from the Father of lies not from the Spirit of truth Hebr. 13.8 who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Who reproveth drunkenness though in a Noah adultery though in a David want of faith though in a Peter His precepts are plain his law is in thunder his threatnings earnest and vehement What he writeth is not in a dark character Thou mayest run and read it He presenteth Murder wallowing in the blood it spilt Blasphemie with its brains out Theft sub hasta under sale He calleth not great plagues Peace nor Oppression Law nor camels gnats nor great sins peccadillos but he setteth all our sins in order before us He calleth Adam from behind the bush striketh Ananias dead for his hypocrisie and for lying to the holy Spirit depriveth him of his own Thy excuse with him is a libel thy pretense fouler than thy sin Thy false worship of him is blasphemy and thy form of godliness open impiety And where he entereth the heart Sin which is the greatest errour the grossest lye removeth it self heaveth and panteth to go out knocketh at our breast runneth down at our eyes and we hear it speak in sighs and grones unspeakable and what was our delight becometh our torment In a word he is a Spirit of truth and neither dissembleth to deceive us nor flattereth that we may deceive our selves but verus vera dicit being Truth it self telleth us what we shall find to be most true to keep us from the dangerous by paths of Errour and Misprision in which we may lose our selves and be lost for ever And this appeareth and is visible in those lessons and precepts which he giveth so agreeable to that Image after which we were made to fit and beautifie it when it is defaced and repair it when it is decayed that so it may become in some proportion and measure like unto him that made it and then so harmonious and consonant and agreeing with themselves that The whole Scripture and all the precepts it containeth may in esteem as Gerson saith go for own copulative proposition This Spirit doth not set up one precept against another nor one Text against another doth not disanul his promises in his threats nor check his threats with his promises doth not forbid all Fear in Confidence nor shake our Confidence when he bids us fear doth not set up meekness to abate our Zeal nor kindleth Zeal to consume our Meekness doth not teach Christian Liberty to shake off Obedience to Government nor prescribeth Obedience to infringe and weaken our Christian Liberty This Spirit is a Spirit of truth and never different from himself He never contradicteth himself but is equal in all his wayes the same in that truth which pleaseth thee and in that which pincheth thee in that which thou consentest to and in that which thou runnest from in that which will raise thy spirit and in that which will wound thy spirit And the reason why men who talk so much of the Spirit do fall into gross and pernicious errours is from hence That they will not be like the Spirit in this equal and like unto themselves in all their wayes That they lay claim to him in that Text which seemeth to comply with their humour but discharge and leave him in that which should purge it That upon the beck as it were of some place of Scripture which upon the first face and appearance looketh favourably upon their present inclinations they run violently on this side animated and posted on by that which was not in the Text but in their lusts and phansie and never look back upon other testimonies of Divine Authority that army of evidences as Tertullian speaketh which are openly prest out and marshalled against them and might well put them to a halt and deliberation stay and drive back their intention and settle them at last in the truth which consisteth in a moderation betwixt two extremes For we may be zealous and not cruel devout and not superstitious we may hate Idolatry and not commit Sacrilege Gal. 5.1 1 Pet. 2.16 stand fast in our Christian liberty and not make it a cloak of maliciousness if we did follow the Spirit in all his wayes who in all his wayes is a Spirit of truth For he commandeth Zeal and forbiddeth Rage he commendeth Devotion and forbiddeth Superstition he condemneth Idolatry yea and condemneth Sacrilege he preacheth Liberty 1 Cor. 12.4.8 9 11. and preacheth Obedience to Superiours and in all is the same Spirit And this Spirit did come and Christ did send him And in the next place to this end he came to be our Leader to guide us in the wayes of truth to help our infirmities to be our conduct to carry us on to the end And this is his Office and Administration Which one would think were but a low office for the Spirit of God and yet these are magnalia spiritûs the wonderful things of the Spirit and do no less proclaim his Divinity then the Creation of the world We wonder the blind should see the lame go Matth. 11.5 the deaf hear the dead be raysed up but doth it now follow The poor receive the Gospel Weigh it well in the balance of the Sanctuary and this last will appear as a great miracle as the former And this Advent and Coming was free and voluntary For though the Spirit was sent from the Father and the Son yet sponte venit he came of his own accord And he not onely cometh but sendeth himself say the Schools as he daily worketh those changes and alterations in his creature These words Dicit Mittam ut propriam autoritatem ostendat Tum denique veniet quo verbo Spiritûs potestas indicatur Naz. Orat. 37. to be sent and to come and the like are not words of diminution or disparagement He came in no servile manner but as a Lord as a friend from a friend as in a letter the very mind of him that sent it Which sheweth an agreement and concord with him that sent him but implyeth no inferiority no degree of servility or subjection Yet some there have been who have stumbled at the shadow which this word hath cast or indeed at their own and for this made the holy Spirit no more then a Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a supernumerary God brought in to serve and minister and no distinct Person of the blessed Trinity But what a gross error what foul ingratitude is this to call his goodness servility his coming to us submission and obedience and count him not a God because by his gracious operation he is pleased to dwell in men and make them his tabernacle Why may we
man else They leap over all their Alphabet and are at their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their end before they begin They are at the top of the ladder before they have set a foot to the first step or round They study heaven but not the way to it Faith but not Good works Repentance without a Change or Restitution Religion without Order They are as high as Gods closet in heaven when they should be busie at his foot-stool They study Predestination but not Sanctity of life Assurance but not that Piety which should work it Heaven and not Grace and Grace but not their Duty And now no marvel if they meet not with saving Truth in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this so great disorder and confusion No marvel when we have broke all rules and order and not observed the method of the Spirit if the Spirit lead us not who is a Spirit that loveth order and in a right method and orderly course leadeth us into the truth 4. The last is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exercitation and Practice of the truths we learn This is so proper and necessary for a Christian that Christian Religion goeth under that name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Al. Strom. l. 4. and is called an exercise by Clemens Alexandrinus Nyssene Cyrill of Hierusalem and others And though they who lead a Monastical life have laid claim to it as their own they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet it may well belong to every one that is the Spirit 's Scholar who is as a Monk in the world shut up out of it even while he is in it exercising himself in those lessons which the Spirit teacheth and following as he leadeth Which is to make the World it self a Monastery A good Christian is the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by this dayly exercise in the doctrines of the Spirit doth drive the Truth home and make it enter into the soul and spirit Talis quisque est qualibus delectatur Inter artificem artificium mira cognatio est Anaxagoras said well Manus causa sapientiae It is not the brain but the hand that causeth knowledge and worketh wisdome And true wisdome that which the Spirit teacheth consisteth not in being a good Critick and rightly judging of the sense of words or in being a good Logician drawing out a true and perfect definition of Faith and Charity or discoursing aptly and methodically of the Lessons of the Spirit or in being a good Oratour setting out the beauty and lustre of Religion to the very eye No saith the Son of Sirach Ecclus. 34.10 He that hath no experience knoweth little Ex mandato mandatum cernimus By practising the command we gain a kind of familiarity a more inward and certain knowledge of it If any man will do the will of God Joh 7.17 he shall know the Doctrine In Divinity and indeed in all knowledge whose end is practice that of Aristotle is true Those things we learn to do we learn by doing them We learn Devotion by prayer Charity by giving of alms Meekness by forgiving injuries Humility and Patience by suffering Temperance by every-day-fighting against our lusts As we know meat by the tast so do we the things of God by practice and experience and at last discover Heaven it self in piety And this is that which S. Paul calleth doctrine according to godliness We taste and see how gracious the Lord is 1 Tim. 6.3 Psal 34.8 1 Joh. 1.1 we do as it were see with our eyes and with our hands handle the word of truth In a word when we manifest the Truth and make it visible in our actions the Spirit is with us and ready in his office to lead us further even to the inner house and closet of Truth He displayeth his beams of light as we press forward and mend our pace He every day shineth upon us with more brightness as we every day strive to increase He teacheth us not so much by words as by actions and practice by the practice of those virtues which are his lessons and our duties We learn that we may practice and by practice we become as David speaketh Psal 119 99. Psal 19.2 wiser then our teachers To conclude Day unto day teacheth knowledge and every act of piety is apt to promote and produce a second to beget more light which may yet lead us further from truth to truth till at last we be strengthned and established in the Truth and brought to that happy estate which hath no shadow of falshood but like the Spirit of Truth endureth for evermore The First SERMON PART I. MICAH VI. 6 8. v. 6. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt offerings c. v. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Psal 4.6 THere be many who say Who will shew us any good saith the Prophet David For Good is that which men naturally desire And here the Prophet Micah hath fitted an answer to this question He hath shewed thee O man what is good And in the discovery of this Good he useth the same method which the Philosopher doth in the description of his moral Happiness First he sheweth us what it is not and then what it is And as the Philosopher shutteth out Honour and Riches and Pleasure as being so little necessary that we may be happy without them so doth the Prophet in the verses going before my Text in a manner reject and cast by Burnt-offerings and all the cerimonial and typical part of Moses Law all that outward busie expensive and sacrificing Religion as no whit esseâ—tial to that Good which he here fixeth up as upon a pillar for all eyes to look upon as being of no great alliance or nearness nor fit to incorporate it self with that Piety which must commend us to God And as a true Prophet he doth not only discover to the Jews the common errour of their lives but sheweth them yet a more excellent way first asking the question Non satis est reprehendisse peccantem si non doceas recti viam Colum. de Re Rust l. 11. c 1. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams Whether Sacrifice be that part of Religion with which we may appear and bow before our God and be accepted and then in his answer in the words of my Text quite excluding it as not absolutely necessary and essential to that which is indeed Religion And here the Question Will the Lord be pleased with sacrifice addeth emphasis and energy and maketh the Denyal more strong and the Conclusion in the Text more positive and binding then if it had been in plain terms and formally denyed Then this Good had been shewed naked and alone and not brought in with
Scripture Eph. 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest in Sloth and Idleness thou that sleepest in a tempest in the midst of thy unruly and turbulent Passions arise from the grave and sepulchre wherein thy Sloth hath intombed thee arise from the dead from that nasty charnel-house of rotten bones where so many vitious Habits have shut thee up Break up thy monument Hebr. 12.1 cast aside every weight and every sin that presseth down and rise up and be but a Man improve thy Reason to thy best advantage and this Good shall shine upon thee with all its beams and brightness and Christ shall give thee light if not to see things to come to satisfie thy Curiosity yet to see things to come which shall fill thy soul as with marrow and fatness Psal 63.5 if not to know the uncertain yet certain wayes of Gods providence yet to know the certain and infallible way to bliss if not to know things too high for thee yet to know that which shall exalt thee to heavenly places in Christ Jesus He hath shewn thee O man what is good Dost thou see it dost thou believe it Thou shalt see greater things then these Thou shalt see what thou dost believe and enjoy what thou dost but hope for Thou shalt see God who hath shewed thee this Good that thou mightest see him Thou shalt then have a more exact knowledge of his Wayes and Providence a fuller tast of his Love and Goodness a clearer sight of his Beauty and Majesty and with all his Angels and all his Saints behold his Glory for evermore Thus much of this Good as it is an Object to be lookt on We shall in the next place consider it as a Law QVID REQVIRIT What doth the Lord require The Third SERMON PART III. MICAH VI. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly c. HE hath shewed thee O man what is good what it is thou wert made for even that which is fitted and proportioned to thy Soul that which is lovely and amiable and so a fit object to look on that which will fill and satisfy thy Soul and turn the greatest evil the world can lay as a stone of offense in thy way into good and raise it self upon it to its highest pitch of glory And this he hath made plain and manifest drawn out in so visible a character that thou mayest run and read it And thus far we have already brought you We must yet lead you further even to the foot of mount Sinai What doth the Lord require of thee This is as the publication of it and making it a Law Hebr. 12.19 For with the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the trumpet Exod. 20.2 and the voice of words this voice was heard I AM THE LORD THVS SAITH THE LORD is the Prophets Warrant or Commission I THE LORD HAVE SPOKEN IT is a seal to the Law By this every word shall stand by this every Law is of force It is a word of power and command and authority For he that can do what he will may also require what he will in heaven or in earth So then if he be the Lord he may require it In this one word in this Monosyllable all power in heaven and in earth is contained For in calling him Lord he assigneth unto him an absolute Will which must be the rule of our Will and of all our actions which are the effects and works of our Will and issue from it as from their first principle and mover And this his Will is attended 1. with Power 2. with Wisdome 3. with Love By his Power he made us and still protecteth and preserveth us and from this issueth his legislative Power Again as by his Wisdome he made us so by the same Wisdome he giveth us such a Law as shall sweetly and certainly lead us to that end for which he made us And last of all his Love it is to the work of his own hands thus to lead us And all these are shut up in this one word Lord. Let us view and consider all these and so look upon them as to draw down their influence and virtue into our souls to work that obedience in us which this Lord requireth and will reward First it is the Lord requireth I need not trouble you with a recital of those places of Scripture where God is called the Lord. For if the Scripture be as the Heaven this is a Star of the greatest magnitude and spreadeth its beams of Majesty and Power in the eyes of all men And to require is the very form of a Law I will I require if Power speak it is a Law It will be more apposit and agreeable to our purpose that we may the more willingly embrace and entertein this Good which is publisht as a Law to look upon this word Lord as it expresseth the Majesty and Greatness of God He is therefore said to be the Lord because he is omnipotent and can do all things that he will He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene a vast and boundless Ocean of Essence and he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a boundless and infinite Sea of Power Take the highest pitch of Dominion and Lordship that our imagination can reach yet it falleth short of his who is Lord of Lords to whom all earthly Majesty must vail and at whose feet all Princes lay down their Crowns and Sceptres And therefore Dionysius Longinus falling upon the story of the Creation De sublimi genere orat Sect. 7. maketh that expression of Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let there be light and there was light Let there be earth and there was earth the highest and most sublime that the art or thought of man could reach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for thus the Majesty of God is best set forth He no sooner speaketh but it is done Nor can it be otherwise For as he is a Lord and hath an absolute and uncontrollable Will so his Will is attended by an infinite Power which is inseparable from it You may find them both joyned together Acts 4.28 All things are done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever his hand and his counsel determined to do Because he can do all things therefore he bringeth to pass whatsoever he will And his Hand and Power hath here the first place because all Counsell falleth to the ground if Power be not as a pillar and supporter to uphold it What is the strength of a strong man if there be a stronger then he to bind and disarm him What is it to conceive something in the womb of the mind to shape and form and fashion it and to bring it even to the door of life if there be no strength to bring it forth What is my Will if it be defeated Libera voluntas in nullum habet imperium praeterquam in se Hierocles apud
Phot. Bibl. 1394. Thus it falleth out with dust and ashes with Man whose will is free when his hands are bound who may propose miracles but can do nothing who may will the dissolution of the world when he hath not power to kill a fly or the least gnat that lighteth upon him But Gods Power is infinite nor can any thing in heaven or earth limit it but his Will which doth regulate and restrain it for otherwise it must needs have a larger flow If he cut off or shut up or gather together who can hinder him Job 11.10 The voice of the Lord that is his Power for his word is power is full of majesty Ps 29.3 6. It breaketh the Cedars of Lebanon and maketh them skip like a calf Ps 19.4 5. It hath set a tabernacle for the Sun he biddeth it run its race and commandeth it to stand still He doth whatsoever he will in heaven or in earth Ps 135.6 I need not here enlarge my self Every work of his is a miracle every miracle is eloquent to declare his Power Ps 150.6 Every thing that hath breath speaketh it and that which hath neither breath nor life speaketh it That which hath voice speaketh it and that which is dumb speaketh it Day unto day uttereth speach and night unto night sheweth knowledge Ps 19.2 3. There is no speach nor language where their voice is not heard The Power of this Lord is the proper language of the whole world Non ut ait ille Apul. de mundo silere melius est sed vel parùm dicere It is not good to be silent nay we cannot be silent but yet it is not good to speak too much of the Power of this Lord because we cannot speak enough nor can any finite understanding comprehend it Now by this Power first God created Man and breathed into him a living soul made him as it were wax fit to receive the impressions of a Deity Psal 139.14 made him a subject capable of a Law I am fearfully and wonderfully made saith David marvellously made excellently made set apart selected culled out as it is Psal 4.4 from all the other creatures of the earth Gen. 17.1 to walk with God and be perfect My members were curiously wrought drawn as with a needle for so the word there signifieth embroidered with all variety as with divers colours every part being made instrumental either to the keeping or breaking of the Divine Law I am as it were built and set up on purpose to hearken what that Power which thus set me up will require of me Psal 100.3 In a word It is he that made us not we our selves And he made us to this end to his glory to be united to himself to bowe under his power to be conformed to his will and so to gain a title to that happiness which is ready to meet them that run unto it by doing what he requireth at their hands Again by his Power as God createth so he continues Man and protecteth him doth not leave him as an artificer doth his work to the injuries of time to last or perish as the strength of the materials is of which it consisteth but as by his power he made him so by the same power he upholdeth and preserveth him that in this life he may move and press forward to a better he moveth in him and moveth with him that in this span of time he may make a way to Eternity Acts 17.25 He giveth to all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life and breath but in a more eminent manner to Man to whom he hath communicated part of his Power and given him Dominion over himself and other creatures 27. He is not far from every one of us he is near us Wisd 6.7 with us within us He hath made the small and the great and careth for all alike Sceleratis sol exoritur saith Seneca His Sun riseth upon the evil and the good Matth. 5.45 saith our Saviour His Power moveth in the hand that smiteth his brother and in the hand that lifteth him out of the dust in the Tyrant which walketh in his palace and in that poor man who grindeth at the mill 2 Sam. 6.6 7. Deus salus est perseverantia earum quae effecerit rerum Apul. de Mundo Psal 31.15 By it Uzzah's hand was stretched out to uphold the Ark and by it he was smitten and dyed It moveth in the eye that is open to vanity and in the eye that is shut up by covenant All the creatures all men all motions and actions of men are in manutenentia Divina My times are in thy hand saith David And in this sense the Schools tell us that the Creation of Man and his Conversation are but one continued act that we may say of every creature so long as it is that so long God createth it because Creation respecteth the being of the creature as made out of nothing and Conservation the being of the same creature as continually quickned and upheld that it fall not back again into that Nothing out of which it was made For God's Power is the Being of the creature and the withdrawing of it is its Annihilation 2 Pet. 3.5 7. The Heavens and the Earth are by the word of God and are established by his power and when he will no longer uphold them all shall be dissolved 12. and the Elements shall melt with heat It is no more but the withdrawing of his Power and the world is at an end Now in the next place from this Ocean of God's Power naturally issueth forth his Power of giving Laws of requiring what he please from his creature For as there is but one omnipotent God so there is but one Lawgiver James 4.12 who is able to save and to destroy For the one is the ground and foundation of the other Psal 100.3 If he made us and not we our selves if he preserve us and not we our selves then not we our selves but he is to give us Laws It is here Do ut des and Facio ut facias He giveth us our Being and Continuance that we should give him our Obedience and Subjection he doth this for us that we may do something for him even whatsoever he shall require The Stoicks say well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All duties are measured out by relations Epict. Enchir. c. 28. The Care of the Father calleth for the Honour of the Son The Oversight of the Master commandeth the Obedience of the Servant And the Father and the Master are to the Son and Servant as Moses is said to be to Pharaoh Exod. 4.16 instead of God domestici magistratus saith Seneca De Benef. 3.11 domestick Lords or Magistrates He is my Father if he speak the word it is done He is my Master and Lord if he say Go I go The reason of this is plain For
another mightily and doth sweetly order all things For which way can frail Man come to see his God but by being like him What can draw him near to his pure Essence but Simplicity and Purity of spirit What can carry us to the God of Love but Charity What can lead us into the courts of Righteousness but Justice What can move a God of tender mercies but Compassion Certainly God will never look down from his Mercy-seat on them that have no bowels In a word what can make us wise but that which is good those virtues Temperance Justice and Liberality which are called the labours of Wisdome Wisd 8.7 Hebr. 6.5 What can bring us into Heaven but this full tast of the powers of the world to come So that there is some truth in that of Gerson Gloria est gratia consummata Glory is nothing else but Grace made perfect and consummate For though we cannot thus draw Grace and Glory together as to make them one and the same thing but must put a difference between the Means and the End yet Wisdome it self hath written it down in an indeleble character and in the leaves of Eternity That there is no other key but this Good in the Text to open the gates of the kingdom of Heaven and he that bringeth this along with him shall certainly enter Heaven and Glory is a thing of another world but yet it beginneth here in this and Grace is made perfect in Glory And therefore in the last place God's absolute Will is not only attended with Power and Wisdome but also with Love And these are the glories of his Will He can do what he will and he will do it by the most proper and fittest means and whatsoever he requireth is the dictate of his Love When he sent his Son the best Master and Wisest Lawgiver that ever was on whose shoulders the government was laid Isa 9.6 he was ushered in with a SIC DILEXIT So God loved the world John 3.16 God's Love seemeth to have the preeminence and to do more then his Power This can but annihilate us but his Love if we embrace it will change our souls and angelifie them change our bodies and spiritualize them endow us with the will and so with the power of God make us differ as much from our selves as if we were not annihilated which his Power can do but which is more made something else something better something nearer to God This is that mighty thing which his Love bringeth to pass We may imagin that a Law is a mere indication of Power that it proceedeth from Rigour and Severity that there is nothing commanded nothing required but there is smoke and thunder and lightning but indeed every Law of God is the natural and proper effect and issue of his Love from his Power it is true but his Power managed and shewn in Wisdome and Love For he made us to this end and to this end he requireth something of us not out of any indigency as if he wanted our company and service for he was as happy before the creation as after but to have some object for his Love and Goodness to work upon to have an exceptory and vessel for the dew of Heaven to fall into As the Jews were wont to say propter Messiam mundum fuisse conditum that the world and all mankind were made for the Messias Psal 2.7 whose business was to preach the Law which his Father said unto him and to declare his will And in this consisteth the perfection and beauty of Man For the perfection of every thing is its drawing near to its first principle and original The nearer and liker a thing is to the first cause that produced it the more perfect it is as that Heat is most perfect which is most intense and hath most of the Fire in it So Man the more he partaketh of that which is truly Good of the Divine nature of which his Soul is as it were a sparkle the more perfect he is because this was the only end for which God made him This was the end of all Gods Laws That he might find just cause to do Man good That Man might draw near to him here by obedience and conformity to his Will and in the world to come reign with him for ever in glory And as this is the perfection so is it the beauty of Man For as there is the beauty of the Lord Psal 27.4 so is there the beauty of the Subject The beauty of the Lord is to have Will and Power and Jurisdiction to have Power and Wisdome to command and to command in Love So is it the beauty of Man to bow and submit and conform to the will of the Lord for what a deformed spectacle is a Man without God in this world Eph. 2.12 which hath Power and Wisdome and Love to beautifie Beauty is nothing else but a result from Perfection The beauty of the Body proceedeth from the symmetrie and due proportion of parts and the beauty of the Soul from the consonancy of the will and affections to the will and law of God Oh how beautiful are those feet which walk in the wayes of life How beautiful and glorious shall he be who walketh in love as God loved him Eph. 5.2 who resteth on his Power walketh by his Wisdome and placeth himself under the shadow of his Love And thus much the substance of these words affords us What doth the Lord require Let us now cast an eye upon them in the form and habit in which they are presented and consider the manner of proposing them Now the Prophet proposeth them by way of interrogation And as he asked the question Wherewith shall I come before the Lord so doth he here ask what doth the Lord require He doth not speak in positive terms as the Prophet Jeremiah doth Ask for the old paths Jer 6.16 where is the good way and walk therein Isa 30.21 or as the Prophet Isaiah This is the way walk in it but shapeth and formeth his speach to the temper and disposition of the people who sought out many wayes but missed of the right And so we find Interrogations to be fitted and sharpned like darts and then sent towards them who could not be awaked with less noyse nor less smart And we find them of diverse shapes and fashions Sometimes they come as Complaints Psal 2.1 Why do the heathen rage sometimes as Upbraidings How camest thou in hither Matth. 22.12 2 Sam. 2 22. Matth. 22.18 sometimes as Admonitions Why should I now kill thee sometimes as Reproofs Why tempt ye me you Hypocrites And whithersoever they fly they are feathered and pointed with Reason For there is no reason why that should be done of which Christ asketh a reason why it is done The question here hath divers aspects It looketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forward and backward It looketh back upon the
full of business for others or to have no business but for my soul to be solicitous for that which cannot be done or to have no other care but to do what God requireth To do this will cost us no sweat nor labour We need not go on pilgrimage or take any long journey it will not cost us money nor engage us to our friends we need not sail for it nor plough for it nor fight for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Chrysostome If thou beest willing Orat. de ira obedience hath its work and consummation If thou wilt thou art just merciful and humble As Aristotle spake of his Magnanimous man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. l. 4. c. 3. Liber rectus animus omnia subjiciens sibi se nulli Sen. ep ult so to a resolved Christian nothing is great nothing is difficult It is not to dig in the minerals or labour in chains it is not to cleave wood or draw water with the Gibeonites but thy lines are fallen unto thee in a fair place it is but to do justly love mercy c. Lastly it is not onely easie but sweet and pleasant to do what God requireth For obedience is the onely spring from whence the waters of Comfort flow an everlasting foundation on which alone Joy and Peace will settle and rest For what place canst thou find what other foundation on which thou mayst build up a true and lasting joy Wilt thou look on all the works which thy hands have wrought Wilt thou prove thy heart with mirth and gather together all that is desireable and say Here it will lye All that joy will soon be exhausted and draw it self dry That Pleasure is but like that beast of the Apothecary to whom Julian the Pelagian likeneth S. Augustine Non sum similis pharmacopolae ut dicis qui promittebat bestiam quae seipsam comesset August Cont. Jul. Pelag. l. 3. c. 21. which he promised to his patient to be of great virtue which before the morning was come had eaten up himself But the doing what God requireth our Conformity to his will is the onely basis upon which such a superstructure will rise and towre up as high as heaven For it hath the Will and Power of God to uphold and perpetuate it against all those stormes and tempests which are sent out of the Devils treasury to blast or imbitter it Do you take this for a speculation and no more Indeed it is the sin and the punishment of the men of this world to take those truths which most concern them for speculations for groundless conceptions of thoughtful men for School-subtilties rather then realities Mammon and the World have the preeminence in all things and spiritual Ravishments and Heaven it self are but ingens fabula magnum mendacium as a tediously or a long tale that is told And there is no reason of this but their Disobedience For would men put it to the trial deny themselves and cleave to the Lord and do what he desireth there would then be no need of any Artist or Theologue to demonstrate it or fill their mouth with arguments to convince them of the truth of that which would so fill their souls Of all the Saints and Martyrs of God that did put it to the trial did we ever read that any did complain they had lost their labour but all of them upon a certain knowledge and sense of this truth betook themselves chearfully to the hardship of mortification renounced the world and laid down their lives poured out their blood for that Truth which paid them back again with interest even with fulness of joy Let us then hearken what this Lord will say and answer him in every duty which he requireth and he will answer us again and appear in glory and make the terrours and flatteries of the world the object not of our Fear and Amazement but of our Contempt and the displeasing and worser side of our Obedience our crown and glory the most delightful thing in the world For to conclude this why are we afraid why should we tremble at the commands of God why should their sound be so terrible in our ears The Lord requireth nothing of us but that which is 1. possible to rouse us up to attempt it 2. easie to comfort and nourish our hopes and 3. pleasant and delightful to woe and invite and even flatter us to obedience and to draw us after him with the cords of men Hos 11.4 We have now taken a view of the Substance of these words and we have looked upon them in the Form and Manner in which they lye What doth the Lord require Let us now draw them nearer to us And to this end they are sharpned into an Interrogation that as darts they might pierce through our souls and so open our eyes to see and our ears to hearken to the wonders of his Law First this word Lord is a word of force and efficacy It striketh a reverence into us and remembreth us of our duty and allegiance For if God be the Lord then hath he an absolute Will a Will which must be a rule to regulate our wills by his Jubeo and his Veto by his commands and prohibitions by removing our wills from unlawful objects and confining them to that which may improve and perfect them from that which is pleasing but hurtful to his Laws and commands which are first distastful and then fill us with joy unspeakable And this is the true mark and character of a servant of God To be then willing when in a manner he is unwilling to be strong when the flesh is weak to have no will of his own nor any other spring of spiritual motion but the will of his Lord. And therefore as God is the Lord over all so are his Laws over all Laws As to him every knee must bowe so to his Laws all the Laws of men must yield and give place Isa 45.23 Rom. 14.11 which are no further Laws or can lay any tye or obligation but as they are drawn from his and wait upon them and are subservient to them Common Reason will tell us and to that the Apostles Peter and John appeal when the rulers of the Jews commanded them to speak no more in the name of Christ Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more then to God Acts 4.18 19 20. judge you For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard And we cannot but be obedient for the Lord requireth it When Creon the Tyrant in Sophocles asked Antigone how she dared to bury her brother Polynices when he had enacted a law to the contrary her answer was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That this was not Jupiter's Law and that she buried he brother in obedience to a Law more ancient then that of the Tyrant's even to the Law of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
and govern us He that was and that is and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to come telleth us of his coming openeth his will Rev. 1.4 and manifesteth his power and as he hath given us Laws telleth us he will come to require them at our hands He that is the Wisdome of his Father He that neither slumbreth nor sleepeth calleth upon us maketh this stir and noise about us and the alarum is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be watchful Call it what we please an Admonition or an Exhortation it hath the necessitating and compulsive force of a Law and Christ is his own Herald and proclaimeth it as it were by the sound of the trumpet For this VIGILATE ERGO Watch therefore is tuba ante tubam is as a trumpet before the last trumpet and thus it soundeth To you it is commanded to fling your selves off from the bed of security to set a court of guard upon your selves to rowze up your selves to stand as it were on a watch-tower looking for and expecting the coming of the Lord. I may call it a Law but it is not as the laws of men which are many times the result of mens wills and are guided and determined by their lusts and affections and so Ambition maketh laws and Covetousness maketh laws and private Interest maketh laws with this false Inscription BONO PVBLICO For the publick good But it is prefaced and ushered in with Reason which concerneth not so much the Head as the Members not the Lord as his Servants not the King as his Subjects for us men and for our salvation For him that is in the field and him that is in the house for him that sitteth on the throne and her that grindeth at the mill for the whole Church is this warning given is this law promulged And every word is a reason 1. That he is our Lord that is to come 2. That he will come 3. That the time of his coming is uncertain A Lord to seal and ratifie his laws with our blood which we would not subscribe to nor make good by our obedience Matth. 25.14 and a Lord gone as it were into a far Countrey Luk. 19.12 13. and leaving us to traffick till he come but after a while to come and reckon with us and last of all at an uncertain time at an hour we know not that every hour may be unto us as the hour of his coming for he that prefixeth no hour may come the next Every one of these is a reason strong enough to enforce this Conclusion Watch therefore A Lord he is and shall we not fear him To come and shall we not expect him To come at an hour we know not and shall we not watch These are the Premisses and the Conclusion is Logically and formally deduced primae necessitatis the most necessary Conclusion that a servant or subject can draw So that in these words we have these things considerable first the Person coming your Lord secondly his Advent He will come thirdly the Uncertainty of the hour We know not when it will be Out of which will naturally follow this Conclusion which may startle and awake us out of sleep Watch therefore We will follow that method which we have laid down and begin with the premisses First it will concern us to look upon the Person For as the person is such is our expectation And could we take the Idea of him in our hearts and behold him in the full compass and extent of his power we should unfold our arms and look about us veternum excutere shake off our sloth and drowsiness and prepare for his coming For it is Christ our Lord. Ask of me Psal 2.8 and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance saith God to Christ John 10.30 And Christ saith I and the Father are one We believe he shall judge the world John 5.22 and we read that the Father hath committed all judgement to the Son Take him as God or take him as Man he is our Lord. Cùm Dominus dicitur unus agnoscitur for there is but one faith Eph. 4 5. and but one Lord. So that Christ may well say John 13.13 You call me Lord and Master and so I am A Lord as in many other respects so jure redemtionis by redemption having bought us with a price 1 Cor. 6.20 and jure belli by way of conquest by treading our enemies under our feet and taking us out of slavery and bondage And that we may not think that Christ laid down his power with his life or that he is gone from us never to come again we will a little consider the nature of his Dominion and behold him there from whence he must come to judge the quick and the dead And the Prophet David hath pointed out to him sitting at the right hand of God where we should ever behold him and fix our thoughts and our eye of faith upon him in this our watch Psal 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand till I make thy enemies thy footstool Which speech is metaphorical and we cannot draw it to any other sense then that on which the intent of the speaker did level it which reacht no further then this To shew that his own Kingdom was nothing in comparison of Christs which was of another and higher nature Non ex parabolis materias commentimur sed ex materiis parabola◠interpretamur Tertull De Pudicit c 8. As Tertulian spake of Parables We do not draw conclusions and doctrines out of Metaphors but we expound the Metaphor by the doctrine which is taught and the scope of the teacher nor must we admit of any interpretation which notwithstanding the Metaphor might yield that is not consonant and agreeable to the doctrine and analogie of faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher We can neither bring a Metaphor into a definition nor can we build an argument upon it We may say of Metaphors as Christ spake of the voice from heaven They are used in Scripture for our sakes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist 5. Top. c. 2. for likeness and proportions sake and serve to present intellectual objects to the eye and make that light which we have of things familiar to us a help and medium by which we may more clearly see those which are removed and stand at greater distance For he cannot be said to sit there at the right hand of God from the position and site of his body We cannot entertain so gross an imagination Acts 7.56 And S. Stephen telleth us he saw him standing at the right hand of God But it may declare his victory his triumph and his rest as it were from his labour Secundùm consuetudiuem nostram illi consessus offertur qui victor adveniens honoris gratiâ promeretur ut sedeat It is borrowed saith S. Ambrose from our customary speech by
him in his mount to the Hypocrite and cannot strike off his mask to the Politician 2 Tim. 3.15 and cannot make him wise unto salvation that cannot make us displease our selves that cannot make us love our selves not aw an eye not bind an hand not silence a word not stifle a thought but leaveth us with as little power and activity as they who have been dead long ago although the VENTVRVS EST the doctrine of Christs second advent sound as loud as the Trump shall do at the last day Faith shall we call this or a weak and faint perswasion or a dream or an echo from an hollow heart which when all the world proclaimeth he will come resoundeth it back again into the world a Faith which can speak but not walk or work a Faith which may dwell in the heart of an hypocrite a murderer a devil For all this one may believe or at least profess and yet be that liar that Antichrist 1 Joh. 2.22 4.3 which denieth Jesus to be Lord or that he ever came in the flesh or will come again to judge both the quick and the dead Secondly as it casteth an aspect upon our Faith so it doth upon our Hope Padag 1. which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the blood of our Faith saith Clemens Alexandrinus without which it will grow faint and pale and languish Oportet habere aliquem spei cumulum Advers â—â—ostic c. 6. saith Tertullian and therefore this addition of Hope to Faith is necessary For if we had all Faith and had not Hope this Faith would profit us nothing Faith without Hope may be in hell as well as on the earth Believe who does not or at least say so But how many expect Christs coming how many are saved The Apostle speaketh of a fearful looking for of judgement Heb. 10.27 Indeed they who hope not for Christs coming who do but talk of it and are unwilling to believe themselves may be said to look for it because they ought to do it And his coming is as certain as if they did Truly and properly they cannot be said to expect it For how should that be in their expectation which is not so much as in their thought Hope will not raise it self upon every Faith nor is that Faith which most of the world depend on a fit basis for hope to build upon Even he that despaireth believeth or else he could not despair For who will droop for fear of that veniet of that Judgement which he is so willing to perswade himself will never come Foolish men that we are who hath bewitched us that we should glory in Faith and hope and make them the subjects of our songs and rejoycing when our Faith is but such a one as is dead and our Hope at last will make us ashamed when our Faith is the same which is in hell and our Hope will leave us with the Devil and his angels a Faith worse then Infidelity and a Hope more dangerous then Despair Faith when we do not believe and a Hope when there is great reason we should despair and which will serve onely to add to the number of our stripes yet this is the Faith this is the Hope of the Hypocrite of the formal Christian These are thy Gods O Israel Therefore in the last place that we may joyn these two together Faith and Hope we must draw in that excellent gift of Charity which is Copulatrix virtus saith Cyprian the uniting and coupling Virtue not onely of men but of these two Theological Virtues which will not meet together but in Love or if they do with so little truth and reality that they will rather disadvantage then help us For where Virtue is not the name is but an accusation I told you before that Hope doth suppose Faith For we cannot hope for that which we do not believe Yet Faith such as it may be may shew it self and speak proud words when Charity is thrust out of doors Many there be who have subscribed to the VENIVRVS EST that the Lord will come who have little reason to hope for his coming Rev. 22.12 How many believe he will come and bring his reward with him and yet strike off their own chariot-wheels and drive but heavily towards it How many believe there is a Judge to come and wish there were none Rom. 5.5 Faith saving Faith Hope Hope that will not make ashamed cannot dwell in the heart till Charity hath taken up a room But when she is shed and spread abroad in our hearts then they are in conjunction meet together and kiss each other Faith is a foundation and on it our Love raiseth it self as high as heaven in all the several branches and parts of it Because I believe I love And when my Love is real and perfect my Hope springeth up and bloometh and flourisheth My Faith seeth the object my Love imbraceth it and the means unto it and my Hope layeth hold on it and even taketh possession of it And therefore this Coming of the Lord is a threat and not a promise if they meet not If Faith work not by Love and both together raise not a Hope VENTVRVS EST he will come is a thunderbolt And thus as it looketh upon Faith and Hope so it calleth for our Charity For whether we will or no whether we believe or no whether we hope or no he will certainly come but when we love him 2 Tim. 4.8 then we love also his appearance and his coming and our Love is a subscription to his Promise by which we truly testifie our consent and sympathize with him and say Amen to his Promise that he will come we echo it back again to him Even so come Rev. 22.20 Lord Jesus For that of Faith may be in a manner forced that of Hope may be groundless but this of Love is a free and voluntary subscription Though I know he will come yet I shall be unwilling he should come upon me as an enemy that he should come to me when I sit in the chair of the scornful or lie in the bed of lust or am wallowing in the mire or weltring in my own blood or washing my feet in the blood of my brethren For can any condemned person hope for the day of execution But when I love him and bow before him when I have improved his talent and brought my self to that temper and constitution that I am of the same mind with this Lord and partaker of his divine nature 2 Pet. â— 4 then Faith openeth and displayeth her self and Hope towreth us up as high as the right hand of God and would bring him down never at rest never at an end but panting after him till he do come crying out with the souls under the altar How long Lord How long How long This is the very breathing and language of Hope Then Substantia mea apud te Psal 39.7 as
the Vulgar readeth that of the Psalmist My expectation my substance my being is with the Lord and I do not onely subscribe to his Coming because he hath decreed and resolved upon it but because I can make an hearty acknowledgement that the will of the Lord is just and good and I assent not of necessity but of a willing mind and I am not onely willing but long for it and as he testifieth these things Rev. 22.20 and confirmeth this Article of his Coming with this last word ETIAM VENIO Surely I come so shall I be able truly to answer Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly And now the Lord will come And you may see the necessity of his coming in the end of his coming For qualis Dominus talis adventus As his Dominion is such is his Coming his Kingdome spiritual and his Coming to punish sin and reward Obedience to make us either prisoners in darkness or Kings and Priests to reign with him and offer up spiritual sacrifices for evermore He cometh not to answer the Disciples question to restore the Kingdome to Israel Acts 1.6 Matth. 20.21 Luk. 14.15 for his Kingdome is not such a one as they dreamt of nor to place Zebedee's children the one at his right hand and the other at his left nor to bring the Lawyer to his table to eat bread with him in his kingdome These carnal conceits might suit well with the Synagogue which lookt upon nothing but the Basket And yet to bring in this errour the Jews as they killed the Prophets so must they also abolish their Prophecies Isai 53.2 Zech. 9.9 Isa 9.6 7. which speak plainly of a King of no shape or beauty of his first coming in lowliness and poverty of a Prince of Peace and not of war of the increase of whose government there shall be no end Nor doth he come to lead the Chiliast the Dreamer of a Thousand years of temporal happiness on earth into a Mahometical Paradise of all corporal contentments that after the Resurrection the Elect and even a Reprobate may think or call himself so may reign with Christ a thousand years in all state and pomp and in the affluence of all those pleasures which this Lord hath taught them to renounce A conceit which ill becometh Christians Heb. 10.34 11.13 Phil. 3.20 who must look for a better and more enduring substance who are strangers and pilgrims and not Kings on earth whose conversation is in heaven and whose whole life must be a going out of the world Why should we be commanded and that upon pain of eternal separation from this our Lord to wean our selves from the world and every thing in the world if the same Lord think these flatteries of our worser part these pleasures which we must loath a fit and proportionable reward for the labour of our Faith and Charity which is done in the inward man Can he forbid us to touch and taste these things and then glut us with them because we did not touch them And can they now change their Nature and be made a recompense of those virtues which were as the wings on which we did fly away and so kept our selves untoucht and unspotted of this evil But they urge Scripture for it And so they soon may for Scripture is soon misunderstood and soon misapplyed It is written they say in Revel 20.6 that the Saints shall reign with Christ a thousand years Shall reign with Christ is evidence fair enough to raise those spirits which are too high or rather too low already 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No sooner is the word read but the crown is on To let pass the divers interpretations of that place some making the number to be definite others indefinite some beginning the thousand years with the persecution of Christ and ending it in Antichrist others beginning it with the reign of Constantine when Christianity did most flourish and ending it at the first rising of the Ottoman-Empire others beginning it at the year 73 and drawing it on to conclude in the year 1073 when Hildebrand began to tyrannize in the Church To let pass these since no man is able to reconcile them we cannot but wonder that so gross an errour should spread so far in the first and best times of the Church as to find entertainment with so many but less wonder that it is revived and fostered by so many in ours who have less learning but more art to misinterpret and wrest the Scriptures to their own damnation For what can they find in this Text to make them Kings no more then many of them can find in themselves to make them Saints And here is no mention of all the Saints but of Martyrs alone who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus v. 4. But we may say of this Book of the Revelation as Aristotle spake of his books of Physicks that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 publisht and not publisht publisht but not for every man to fasten what sense he please upon it Though we cannot deny but some few of later times and so few as are but enough to make up a number by their multiplicity of reading and subtil diligence of observation and by dextrous comparing those particulars which are registred in story with those things which are but darkly revealed or plainly revealed to S. John but not so plainly to us have raised us such probabilities that we may look upon them with favour and satisfaction till we see some fairer evidence appear some more happy conjectures brought forth which may impair and lessen that credit which as yet for ought that hath been seen they well deserve But this is not every mans work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every mans eye is not so quick and piercing to see at such distance And we see since so many men have taken the courage and been bold to play the interpreters of dark Prophesies they have shaped out what phansies they please and instead of unfolding Revelations have presented us with nothing but dreams as so many divers Morals to one Fable Rev. 11. 13. And so for two witnesses we have a cloud for one Beast 1 John 2. almost as many as be in the forrest and for one Antichrist every man that displeaseth us But let men interpret the thousand years how they please Mark 12.24 27. our Saviour calleth it an errour an errour that striketh at the very heart of Christianity which promiseth no riches nor power nor pleasure but that which is proportioned to those virtues and spiritual duties of which it consisteth For in the resurrection neither do they marry wives nor are married Matth 22.30 We may adde Neither are there high nor low neither rich nor poor Gal. 3.28 but all are one in Christ Jesus And his words are plain enough John 18.36 Quaedam sic digna revinci ne gravitate adorentur Tert adv Valentin My Kingdom is not
ground and fell flat on his face yet he rose again and took courage to betray the Israelites to that sin with the Midianitish women which brought a curse upon them and death upon himself Num. 31.8 for he was slain for it with the sword What evidence can prevail with what terrour can move a wicked man hardned in his sin who knoweth well enough and can draw the picture of Christ coming and look upon it and study to forget it and then put on an ignorance of his own knowledge and though he know he will yet perswade himself he will not come And he that can thus stand out against his own knowledge in the one may be as daring and resolute in the other and venture on though Hell it self should open her mouth against him and breathe vengeance in his face For howsoever we pretend ignorance yet most of the sins we commit we commit against our knowledge Tell the Foolish man that the lips of the harlot will bite like a Cocatrice he knoweth it well enough and yet will kiss them Prov. 20.1 Tell the Intemperate that wine is a mocker he will taste though he know he shall be deceived The cruel Oppressour will say and sigh it out that the Lord is his God and yet eat up his people as he eateth bread Psal 14.4 53.4 Matth. 7.12 Who knoweth not that we must do to others as we would have others do to us and yet how many are there I may ask the question that make it good in practice Who knoweth not what his duty is and that the wages of sin is death Rom. 6.23 and yet how many seek it out and are willing to travail with it though they die in the birth Cannot the thought of judgment move us and will the knowledge of a certain hour awake us Will the hardned sinner cleave to his sin though he know the Lord is coming and would he let it go and fling it from him if the set determined hour were upon record No they wax worse and worse saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.13 Earth is a fairer place to them then Heaven it self nor will they part with one vanity nor bid the Devil avoid though they knew the very hour I might say though they now saw the Lord coming in the clouds For wilt not thou believe God when he cometh as near thee as in wisdome he can and as his pure Essence and infinite Majesty will suffer and art thou assured thou wilt believe him if he would please to come so near as thy sick phansie would draw him Indeed this is but aegri somnium the dream of a sick and ill-affected mind that complaineth of want of light when it shineth in thy face For that information which we so long for we cannot have or if we could it would work no more miracles then that doth which we already have but leave us the same lethargicks which we were In a word if Christ's doctrine will not move us the knowledge which he will not teach would have little force And though it were written in capital letters At such a time and such a day and such an hour the Lord will come we should sleep on as securely as before and never awake from this death in sin till the last Trump To look once more upon the Non nostis horam and so conclude We may learn even from our Ignorance of the hour thus much That as the Lords coming is uncertain so it will be sudden As we cannot know when he will come so he will come when we do not think on it cum totius mundi motu Apol. c. 33. cum horrore orbis cum planctu omnium si non Christianorum saith Tertullian with the shaking of the whole world with the horrour and amazement of the Vniverse every man howling and lamenting but those few that little flock which did wait for his coming It is presented to us in three resemblances 1 Thes 5.2 3. Luke 21.35 1. of travel coming upon a woman with child 2. of a Thief in the night and 3. of a Snare Now the Woman talketh and is chearful now she layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff and now she groaneth Now the Mammonist locketh his God up in his chest layeth him down to sleep and dreameth of nothing else and now the Thief breaketh in and spoileth him Now our feet are at liberty and we walk at large walk on pleasantly as in fair places Now the bitterness of death is past and now the Snare taketh us Now we phansie new delights send our thoughts afar off dream of Lordships and Kingdoms Now we enlarge our imaginations as Hell anticipate our honours and wealth and gather riches in our mind before we grasp them in our hand Now we are full now we are rich now we reign as Kings now we beat our fellow-servants and beat them in our Lord's name and in this type and representation of hell we entitle our selves to eternity of bliss we are cursed and call our selves Saints and now even now he cometh Now sudden surprisals do commonly startle and amaze us but after a while after some pause and deliberation we recover our selves and take heart to slight that which drove us from our selves and left us as in a dream or rather dead But this bringeth either that horrour or that joy which shall enter into our very bones settle and incorporate it self with us and dwell in us for evermore Other assaults that are made upon us unawares make some mark and impression in us but such as may soon be wiped out We look upon them and being not well acquainted with their shapes they disturb our phansie but either at the sight of the next object we lose them or our Reason chaseth them away Aul Gel. Noct. Att l. 19. c. 1. The tempest riseth and the Philosopher is pale but his Reason will soon call his blood again into his cheeks He cannot prevent these sudden and violent motions but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth not consent he doth not approve these unlookt-for apparitions and phantasies He doth not change his counsel but is constant to himself Sudden joy and sudden fear with him are as short as sudden But this coming of our Lord as it is sudden so it bringeth omnimodam desolationem an universal horrour and amazement seiseth upon all the powers and faculties of the Soul chaineth them up and confineth them to loathsome and terrible objects from which no change of objects can divert no wisdome redeem them No serenity after this darkness no joy after this trembling no refreshing after this consternation For no coming again after this coming for it is the last Ser. 140. de Tempore And now to conclude Veniet fratres veniet sed vide quomodo te inveniet saith Augustine He shall come he shall come my brethren His coming is uncertain and his coming is sudden
see danger and by this we avoid it By this we see beauty in ashes and vanity in glory And as other Creatures are so made and framed that without any guide or leader without any agitation or business of the mind they turn from that which is hurtful and chuse that which is agreeable with their nature as the Goddess which saith Pliny Nat. Hist l. 9. c. 30. carent omni alio sensu quà m cibi periculi have no sense at all but of their food and danger and naturally seek the one and fly the other So this Light this Power is set up in Man which by discourse and comparing one thing with another the beginning with the end shews with realities and fair Promises with bitter effects may shew him a way to escape Death and pursue Life through rough and rugged wayes even through the valley of Death it self And this is it which we call Vigilancy or Watchfulness Deut. 4.9 Take heed to thy self saith Moses Tom. 1 and Basil wrote a whole Oration or Sermon on that Text and considereth Man as if he were nothing else but Mind and Soul and the Flesh were the garment which clotheth and covereth it and that it is compast about with Beauty and Deformity Health and Sickness Friends and Enemies Riches and Poverty from which the Mind is to guard and defend it self that neither the glory nor terrour of outward objects have any power or influence on it to make a way through the flesh to deface and ruine it and put out its light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take heed to thy self PRAE OMNI CVSTODIA SERVA COR TVVM Keep thy heart with all diligence AB OMNI CAVTIONE Prov. 4.23 so it is rendred by Mercer out of the Hebrew from every thing that is to be avoided AB OMNI VINCVLO so others from every tye or bond which may shackle or hinder thee in the performance of that duty to which thou art obliged whether it be a chain of gold or of iron of pleasure or of pain whether it be of a fair and well promising or a black temptation keep it with all diligence and keep it from the incumbrances And the reason is given For out of it are the issues of Life PROCESSIONES VITARVM the Proceedings of many lives So many conquests as we gain over temptations so many lively motions we feel animated and full of God which increase our crown of joy All is comprehended in that of our Saviour Watch Matth. 26.41 and prâ—y lest you enter into temptation If you watch not your heart will lie open and tentations will enter and as many deaths will issue forth Evil thoughts Fornications Murders Adulteries Blasphemy as so many locusts out of the bottomless pit To watch then is to fix our mind on that which concerneth our peace to work out our salvation with fear and trembling Philip. 2.12 to perfect holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 Heb. 12.28 2 John 8. to serve him with reverence and godly fear to look to our selves that we lose not those things which we have wrought So that by the Apostle our Caution and Watchfulness is made up of Reverence and Fear And these two are like the two pillars in the porch of the Temple of Solomon 1 Kings 7.11 Jachin and Boaz to establish and strengthen our Watch. This certainly must needs be a sovereign antidot against sin and a forcible motive to make us look about our selves when we shall think that our Lord is present every where and seeth and knoweth all things when we shall consider him as a Witness who shall be our Judge that all we do we do as Hilary speaketh in Divinitatis sinu in his very presence and bosome that when we deceive our selves when we deceive our brethren when we sell our Lord to our Fears or our Hopes when we betray him in our craft crucifie him in our Revenge defile and spit upon him in our Uncleanness we are even then in his presence If we did firmly believe it we would not suffer our eyes to sleep nor our eye lids to slumber How careful are we how anxious how solicitous in our behaviour how scrupulous of every word and look and gesture what Criticks in our deportment if we stand before them whom we call our Betters indeed our fellow dust and ashes And shall we make our face as adamant in the presence of our Lord shall we stand idle and sport and play the wantons before him Shall we beat down his Altars blaspheme his Name beat our fellow servants before his face Shall we call him to be witness to a lie make him an advocate for the greatest sin suborn his Providence to own our impiety his Wisedome to favour our craft his Permission to consecrate and ratifie our sin Can we do what a Christian eye cannot look upon which Reason and Religion condemn and even Pagans tremble at Eccl. 23.17 Tertul. de Testm animae c. 2. Vnde haec tibi anima non Christiani can we do it and do it before his face whose Eye is pure and ten thousand times brighter then the Sun DEVS VIDET and DEVS JVDICAT God will see and God will Judge is taken out of the common treasury of Nature and the Heathens themselves have found it there who speak it as their language And if his awful Eye vvill not open ours our Lethargie is mortal We are Infidels if vve believe it not and if vve do believe it yet dare do those things vvhich afflict his eye vve are vvorse then Infidels Let us then look upon him think him present and stand upon our guard Psal 4.4 Let us stand in aw and not sin Let one Fear call upon another the Fear of this Lord upon the Fear of cautelousness and circumspection which is as our angel-keeper to keep us in all our vvayes in the smooth and even vvayes of peace and in the rough and rugged vvayes of adversity to lead us against our enemies vvhich are more then the hairs of our head as many as there are temptations in the world and to help us to defeat them to be our best buckler to keep off the darts of Satan and as a canopy to keep our virtues from soyl to keep our Liberality cheerful our Chastity fresh and green our Devotion fervent our Religion pure and undefiled to wast the body of Sin and perfect and secure our Obedience in a vvord to do that vvhich the Heathens thought their Goddess Pellonia did to drive and chase all evil out of our coasts For let us well weigh and consider it let us look upon our enemies the World with all its pageantry the Flesh with all its lusts the Devil with all his snares and wiles and enterprises let us look upon him coming towards us either as an Angel of light to deceive us or as a Lion to devour us and then let us consider our Lord and
there it is visible to be seen In its joy it leapeth there in its grief it languisheth there in its fear it droopeth there in its anger it threatneth there in its hope it looketh out chearfully and in its despair it sinketh in again and leaveth the living man with no more motion then a carkass The heart of man changeth his countenance saith the Wise man If we stand not upon our guard the state and peace of our mind will soon be overthrown Respexit oculis saith S. Ambrose sensum mentis evertit os libavit crimen retulit The man did but look back and his mind was shaken he did but open his ear and lost a good intention he did but lightly touch and shadow the object and took in a sin he did but touch and was on fire You see now the force and strength of the enemy you see him in his mine and you see him in his march with his flatteries and menaces with his glories and terrours with his occasions and arguments And if to these you oppose your prudency and watchfulness your fortitude and Christian resolution you put him to flight or tread him under your foot For first temptations may enter the Senses without sin To behold the object A. Gell. Noct. Att. L. 19. c. 2. Tertull. de Coron Mil. c. 5. to touch or tast which are called belluini sensus our more brutish senses is not to commit sin because God himself hath thus ordered and framed the Senses by their several instruments and organs Auditum in auribus fodit visum in oculis accendit gustum in ore conclusit saith the Father He hath kindled light in the Eyes he hath digged the hollow of the Ear for Hearing and hath shut up the Tast in the Mouth or Palate and hath given Man his Senses very fit for the trial and reward of virtue For as he made the Eye to see so he made every thing in the world to be seen Frustrà ii essent si non viderentur saith Ambrose They were to no end if they were not to be seen And seen they may be to our comfort and to our peril As temptations may enter in at the Eye or Ear or any of the other senses so we may make them the matter of virtue as well as the occasion of sin In a word make a covenant with our Eye bridle our Tast bind our Touch purge our Ears and so sanctifie and consecrate every sense unto the Lord and this is indeed to watch Secondly temptations may enter the thoughts and be received into the Imagination and yet if we set our Watch not overcome us For as yet they are but as it were in their march bringing up their forces but have made no battery or breach into the soul For as God hath Blood Uncleanness and all the foul actions which are done in the world written in his book and yet every leaf thereof is fair and clean as Purity it self so may the Mind of man mingle it self with the most polluted objects that are and yet be a virgin still chast and untoucht I may entertein all the Heresies that are in my thoughts and yet be orthodox I may think of evil and with that thought destroy it It is not the sight of the object nor the knowledge of evil nor the remembrance of evil nor the contemplation of evil that can make me evil for if I watch over my self and it I may think of it and loath it I may remember and abhorre it For how could a Prophet denounce judgement against sin if he did not think of it How could I abhorre and avoid sin how could I repent of it if it were not in my thought This we cannot doubt of But then Thirdly the Sense and Phansie may receive the object with some delight and natural complacency and yet without sin if we stand upon our guard suffer it to win no more ground but then oppose it most when it most pleadeth for admittance For thus far it will advance And as the rational and intellectual delight is from some conclusion gained and drawn out of the principles of discourse which is the work of Reason so there is a sensible complacency Arnob. l. 7. adv Gent. which is nothing else but adulatio corporis the pleasing of the sense by the application of that which is most agreeable to it as of a better red and white to the Eye of a more pleasant voice to the Ear. That which is sweet the Tast judgeth so that which is fair the Eye receiveth so for this is natural to it and inseparable from it and so it is to the Phansie to entertein objects in that shape and form they represent themselves But then we must stay and question them here at their first approch and arrival in these their raies and glory God hath made Man keeper of his heart as of a castle which he betrayeth not till he hath delivered it up into the enemies hands Bern Clavis hujus castri cogitatio est The key of this castle is his Thought this openeth his Heart and may shut it this giveth way and room for the tentation to enter which is not done till he think as the enemy would have him till he busie and roul about his thought which is as the turning of a key to open a door and passage unto him I may think it is a fair sight and my Will may turn from it I may think it Musick and my Will may be deaf I may think it pleasant to the tast and my Will may distast and loath it when Reason hath discovered death in the apple But when we draw near to it and in a manner invite it to enter when we delight in that Beauty which attempteth our Chastity that Pleasure which assaulteth our Continence and stay and dwell and solace our selves with these unlawful objects then it is more then a thought it is more then a natural complacency it is a sin for not onely the Sense is pleased but the Will For we would not have set it up so high in our phansie we would not have deified it there if we had not been willing to fall down and worship it And now though it be but a thought it is a work of the Flesh wrought and finished in the Mind and wanteth nothing but opportunity to bring it into act Nec enim cogitatus licèt solos De resurrect carnis c. 15. licèt non ad effectum per carnem deductos à collegio carnis auferimus saith Tertullian So far is it that the Soul should be alone in the actions of our life that we cannot take these thoughts which are alone and not yet brought into act from the society and fellowship of the Flesh which worketh in the Soul as the Soul doth by it For in the Flesh and with the Flesh and by the Flesh that is done by the Soul which is done in the heart and inward man
seemeth him good THese words are the words of old Eli the Priest and have reference to that message which young Samuel brought him from the Lord such a message as made both the ears of every one that heard it tingle Come see the work of Sin what desolation it maketh upon the earth Hophni and Phinehas the two profane and adulterous Sons must die old Eli their indulgent Father the High Priest must die Thirty four thousand Israelites must fall by the sword of the Philistines The Ark the glory of Israel must be taken and delivered up in triumph unto Dagon This was the word of the Lord which he spake by the mouth of the child Samuel v. 19. Rom. 4.17 and not a word of his did fall to the ground What God foretelleth is done already With him who calleth the things that are not as if they were as the Apostle speaketh there is no difference of times nothing past nothing to come all is present So that Eli saw this bloody Tragedy acted before it was done saw it done before the signal to battle was given saw his sons slain whilst the flesh hook was yet in their hands saw himself fall whilst he stood with Samuel saw the Israelites slain before they came into the field and the Ark taken whilst it was yet in the Tabernacle A sad and killing presentment whether we consider him as a Father or as a High Priest as a Father looking upon his Sons falling before the Ark which they stood up and fought for as a High Priest beholding the people slain and vanquished and the Ark the glory of God the glory of Israel in the hands of Philistines But the word of the Lord is gone out Isa 55.11 and will not return empty and void For what he saith shall be done and what he bindeth with an oath is irreversible and must come to pass And it is not much material whether it be accomplished to morrow or next day or now instantly and follow as an echo to the Prediction Nam una est scientia futurorum saith S. Hierome Ad Pammach adversus errores Joan. Hierosol The knowledge of things to come is one and the same And now it will be good to look upon these heavy judgments and by the terrour of them be perswaded to fly from the wrath to come as the Israelites were cured by looking on the Serpent in the wilderness For even the Justice of God though it speak in thunder maketh a kind of melody when it toucheth and striketh upon an humble submissive yielding heart Behold old Eli an High Priest to teach you who being now within the full march and shew of the enemy and of those judgements which came apace towards him like an armed man not to be resisted or avoided and hearing that from God which shook all the powers of his soul settleth and composeth his troubled minde with this consideration That it was the Lord and with this silenceth all murmur slumbreth all impatience burieth all disdain looketh upon the hand that striketh and boweth and kisseth it and being now ready to fall raiseth himself up upon this pious and heavenly resolution It is the Lord. Though the people of Israel fly and the Philistines triumph though Hophni and Phinehas fall though himself fall backward and break his neck though the Ark be taken yet DOMINVS EST It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Which words are a Rhetorical Enthymeme perswading to humility and a submissive acquiescence under the hand the mighty hand of God by his power his justice his wisdome which all meet and are concentred in this DOMINVS EST It is the Lord. He is omnipotent and who hath withstood his power He is just and will bring no evil without good cause He is wise and whatsoever evill he bringeth he can draw it to a good end And therefore FACIAT QVOD BONVM IN OCVLIS SVIS Let him do what seemeth him good Or you may observe first a judicious Discovery from whence all evils come It is the Lord. Secondly a well grounded Resolution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to behave himself decently and fittingly as under the Power and Justice and Wisdome of God Let him do what seemeth him good The first is a Theological Axiome It is the Lord There is no evil in a city which he doth not do Amos 3.6 The second a Conclusion as necessary as in any Demonstration most necessary I am sure for Weakness to bow to Omnipotency In a word the Doctrine most certain It is the Lord All these evils of punishment are from him And the Resolution which is as the Use and Application of the Doctrine most safe Let him do what seemeth him good Of these we shall speak in their order And in the prosecution of the first for we shall but touch upon and conclude with the last that you may follow me with more ease we will draw the lines by which we are to pass and confine our selves to these four particulars which are most eminent and remarkable in the story 1. That Gods people the true professours may be delivered up to punishment for sin 2. That in general judgments upon a people the good many times are involved with the evil and fall with them 3. That Gods people may be delivered up into the hands of Philistines and aliens men worse then themselves 4. That the Ark the glory of their profession may be taken away These four points I say we shall speak of and then we shall fix up this Inscription DOMINVS EST It is the Lord and when we have acquitted his Justice and Wisdome in all these particulars we shall cast an eye back upon the Inscription and see what beams of light it will cast forth for our direction In the first place of Hophni and Phinheas the Text telleth us that they hearkened not unto the voice of their Father 2 ch v. 25. because the Lord would destroy them Which word Quia is not causal but illative and implyeth not the cause of their sin but of their punishment They did not therefore sin because God would punish them but they hearkened not to the voice of their father therefore the Lord destroyed them As we use to say The Sun is risen because it is day for the day is not the cause of the Suns rising Chap. 2.12 but the Sun rising maketh it day They were sons of Belial vessels already fitted for wrath as we may see by their many fowl enormities and therefore were left to themselves and their sins and to wrath which at last devoured them God's decree whatsoever it be is immanent in himself and therefore cannot be the cause of disobedience and wickedness which is extraneous and contrary to him Nor can there be any action of God's either positive or negative joyned with his decree which may produce such an effect And what need of any such Decree or Action to make the sons of Eli disobedient
them to whom God himself had given that name Luke 10.30 Let us look upon the man who fell amongst thieves who stript him and wounded him and left him half dead and who can tell but that he less deserved thus to be handled then the Priest and the Levite who did but look and pass by on the other side Behold a man destitute afflicted tormented clad with rags full of sores covered over with disgraces and contumelies a man of sorrows a Lazar of no reputation for ought an eye of flesh can discern he may be a man of God also a man designed to eternity and that deformity which thy pride scorneth to look upon may be but his pilgrims habit in which he is travelling to the new Jerusalem And now on the other side behold a man whom all the blessings which are promised under the law have overtaken a man honoured in the city conquering in the field blessed in the fruit of his body blessed in his cattle and flocks of sheep boasting of his hearts desire puffing at his enemies as the Psalmist speaketh Psal 10.5 12.5 chasing them before him treading them under his feet Why art thou cast down oh my soul and why art thou vexed within me there may be but a wall of earth and that mouldring too between this man this God and eternal destruction It is not Quà but Quò it is not Which way but Wither you go is considerable One man may go through a prison through fire and water into Paradise and another may ride in triumph into hell Let us not then make either Misery the livery of a bad nor outward Happiness of a good man For Misery though it be a sorry covert may be clothed upon with Honour and Glory and Prosperity though it be like Herods royal apparel glorious as the Sun and dazling a carnal eye yet it will fall at last from us and we may fall too into the lowest pit In a word these are no marks to judge by nor is the outward man the image of the inward but the judgment is the Lords Deut. 1.17 2 Tim. 2.19 who alone knoweth them that are his We will give you but one Use more and so conclude In the last place the sight of this Inscription It is the Lord that sometimes spareth the Philistine and striketh the Israelite and when he striketh sometimes throweth down the righteous with the wicked and involveth them both in the same judgment this I say may strike terrour into us and make us afraid of those sins which bring general judgments on a Nation as Oppression Uncleanness Profaneness Sacriledge Hypocrisie These crying and importunate sins will not let the Judge alone but break the vials of his wrath even whilst he holdeth them in his hand unwilling to pour them forth I say the consideration of the general judgments of God is a notable argument to work the conversion of the most obstinate sinner in the world Shall we continue in those sins which we see carry a train that will enwrap our Posterity our Famâ—ly our whole Countrey yea like the Dragons tail in the Revelation draw down the stars from heaven bring good men even the Saints of God within the compass and smart of them Parce Carthagini si non tibi said Tertullian to Scapula If you will not be good to your self yet spare Carthage spare your Country spare the Charets of Israel and the horsemen thereof spare those Lots which keep your Sodome from burning who when a Nation is ready to sink and dissolve bear up the pillars of it Psal 75.3 1 Cor 6.2 Know ye not that the Saints shall judge the world saith S. Paul They being first acquitted by Christ shall sit with him as his friends and assessours and judge and condemn those sins which brought them within the reach of Gods temporal judgments and overwhelmed them in the common calamity and ruine of their country 3. We pass now to the third particular If Israel must fall yet let him not fall by the sword of a Philistine Tell it not in Gath 2 Sam. 1.20 publish it not in the streets of Askelon was part of the Threnodie and Lamentation of David on the like occasion and he giveth his reason lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoyce lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph Besides the misery to have such an enemy rejoyce in their misery which will make that affliction which is but a whip prove a scorpion this defeat might seem to cast some disgrace even upon their Religion there being nothing more common in the world then to commend a false Religion by some fatal miscarriage of the Professours of the true then to judge of Religion by its State and spreading then to cry it up for orthodox when the Church hath peace and to anathematize it as heretical when she is militant and under the Cross Nothing more common with wavering and carnal men then to lull themselves asleep in most dangerous errours by no other musick then the cryes and lamentations of those who oppose them If Hophni and Phinehas fall in the battle if Eli the High Priest break his neck if the the Ark be taken then Dagon is God any thing is God which is either the work of our hands or of our phansie Therefore this may seem not onely a rueful but a strange spectacle and as Diogenes said of Harpalus a notorious but prosperous thief testimonium adversus Deum dicere Cic. De Nat. Deor. l. 3. to stand up as a witness against God himself and his government of the world But Tertullian will tell us Malus interpres Divinae providentiae humana infirmitas The weak and shallow considerations of men are but bad interpretations of the providence of God The wit of man is a poor Jacobs staff to take the height and depth the true and full proportion of it For as we cannot judge of the beauty of the Universe because in regard of the condition of our mortality we can be placed but in part of it and so cannot at once at one cast of our eye see the whole in which those parts which offend us are at peace no more can the Soul of man which is confined within a clod of earth judge of the course and method of that Providence which is most like it self in those events which seem most disproportionable which is then most straight and even when sinners flourish and just men are oppressed most equal when the honest man hath not a mite and the deceitful a talent 1 Kings 22.27 when the true Prophets are fed with bread of affliction and every Balaam hath his wages when Israel falleth and the Philistine prevaileth because we cannot behold him but in this or that particular and can no more follow him in all his wayes then we can grasp the world in the palm of our hands By this light we may discover first That true Religion cannot suffer with
this to perswade a polluted sinful soul that when he hath scornfully rejected the substance that piety which should make him strong in the Lord at the last in the time of danger and the furious approach of the enemy a shadow should stand forth and fight for him when he had broken the Law and the Testimony not regarded the Oracles forgot all the mercies of God and robbed him of his glory that then I say the shell the Ark the Shittim-wood should be as the great power of God to maintain his cause that he should anger God with his sin and appease him with his name forfeit his soul by deceit and cruelty by intemperance and lust and then save it by hearing a Sermon against it Certainly if this be not a wile of the Devil I know no snare he hath that can catch us if this be not to deceive our selves I shall think there is no such thing as Errour in the world But again in the second place and on the contrary as they did deificare Arcam as the Father speaketh even deifie the Ark attribute more unto it then God ever gave it or was willing it should have so they did also depretiare vilifie and set it at naught They called it their strength their glory their God but imployed it in baser offices then ever the Heathen did their Gods Pulcra Laverna Da mihi fallere c. Hor. l. 1. Epist 16. who called upon them to teach them to steal and deceive Not long since their Priests committed rapes at the very door of the Tabernacle and now they expect the Ark should help those profane miscreants who had so polluted it Oh the Ark the Ark the glory of God! that is able to becalm and slumber a tempest to binde the hands of the Almighty that he shall not strike to scatter an army to make Kings fly to crown a sinful nation with victory to bring back an adulterer laureate a ravisher with the spoils of a Philistine That shall be a buckler and a protection to defend them who but now defiled it that shall be their God which they made their abomination Bring forth the Ark and then what are these uncircumcised Philistines God heard this Psal 78.59 saith the Psalmist and was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel And seeing that all the cry was for the Ark no thought for the Statutes and Testimonies which lay shut up in the Ark and oblivion together seeing the Sign of his presence had quite shut him out of whose presence it was a sign seeing it so much honoured so much debased so sanctified and so polluted he delivereth up the people and the Ark together into the Philistines hands that they might learn more from the Ark in the temple of Dagon then they did when it stood in their own Tabernacle learn the right use of it now which they had so fouly abused when they enjoyed it In a word God striketh off their embroydery that they might learn to be more glorious within I remember there is a constitution in the Imperial Law Si feudatarius rem feudi c. If he that holdeth in fee-farm useth contrary to the will and intent of the Lord redit ad Dominum it presently returneth into the Lord's power And we may observe that the great Emperour of heaven and earth proceedeth after the same manner with his liege-men and homagers the Jews Hos 2.9 When they fell to idolatry and bestowed the corn and the wine which God gave them upon Baal then presently God taketh to himself away the corn in the time thereof and the wine in the season thereof and recovereth his flax and his wooll recovereth it as his own thus unjustly usurped and detained by idolaters V. 11. I will also cause all her mirth to cease her feast dayes her new-moons and her sabbaths as if he had said I will defeat my own purpose I will nullifie my own ordinance I will abolish my own law I will put out the light of Israel which to my peopl◠hath been but as a meteor to make them wander in the crooked wayes of their own imaginations Rom. 8.21 22. I will deliver the creature from the bondage of corruption which seemeth to groan and travel in pain under these abuses it being a kind of servitude and captivity to the creature to be dragged and haled by the lusts and phansies and disordinate affections of profane men to be put to the drudgery of the Gibeonite which I made to be as free as the Israelite himself to be kept in bondage and slavery under the pride and extravegant desires under the most empty and brutish phansies of corrupt men I will take them away from such unjust usurpers What should a prodigal do with wealth what should a robber do with strength what should a boundless oppressour do with power what should Hophni and Phinehas adulterers oppressours what should a sinful nation a people laden with iniquity do with the Ark of the covenant of the Lord I will begin and I will also make an end 1 Sam. 3.12 This glory shall depart from Israel and the Ark shall be taken And here when the Ark is taken and the glory departed from Israel the word and inscription is still the same DOMINVS EST It is the Lord. Now to apply this last particular shall I desire you to look up upon the Inscription It is the Lord Behold the Prophet hath done it to my hand Go to my place which was in Shiloh where I set my name at the first Jer. 7.12 and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Go unto Shiloh and there purge the corruption the plague of your hearts wash off the paint of your hypocrisie with the blood of those four and thirty thousand Israelites Look upon the Ark but not so as to be dazled therewith and to dote on the glory and beauty of it not so as to lose the sight of your selves and of those sins which pollute it Look upon the Word and Sacraments but not so as to make them the non ultrà of your worship and to rest in them as in the end to eat and wash and hear and no more to say The word of God is sweet yet not to taste and digest it to attribute virtue and efficacy to the Sacrament yet be fitter to receive the Devil then the sop at once to magnifie and profane it to call it the Bread of life and make it poyson This is to come neer the Ark and to handle these holy things without feeling in a word this is to make them first an idole and then nothing in this world My brethren it is a very dangerous thing thus to overvalue those things which in themselves are highly to be esteemed and are above comparison with any thing in the world For when we make them more then they are we in effect make them less then they are and at last nothing
of no use at all Nay we make that a snare unto us which was made for a help Every creature within the bounds of its nature is useful and profitable so also these external helps the Ark of God the Word and Sacraments of the Church are great blessings and highly to be honoured whilst we use them to that end for which they were first instituted whilst we walk within that compass and circle which God hath drawn according to that form which he hath shewed us That Jew deserveth not the name of an Israelite that either by word or gesture dishonoureth the Ark when we see he was not permitted to touch it But he that of a sign of the presence of God in the day of battle shall make it his God is so much a Jew that he deserveth to be flung out of the Synagogue And that Christian that boweth not to the majesty of the Word and receiveth it not as a letter and epistle from God as S Augustine calleth it that esteemeth not of the Sacraments as those visible words the signs and pledges and conveiances of God's great love and favour to us in Christ hath too little of the Christian to make him so much as one of the visible Church But he that is high in his panegyrick and ever calling Speak Lord for thy servant heareth and then lieth down to sleep or if he be awake is onely active in denying the power of that Word he so much magnified and called for and thinketh he hath done all duties and offices to God if he do but give him the ear which is to trust in the Ark more then in God he that shall make the Sacrament first an idole and then a seal to shut up treason in silence as the Jesuite or use it as an opiate once or twice in the year to quiet his conscience his viaticum and provision rather to strengthen him in sin then against it he that shall thus magnifie and thus debase it thus exalt and thus tread it under foot is guilty of Heresie saith Erasmus which is not properly an Heresie but yet such a kinde of Heresie may make him Anathema though he be of the Church and at last sever him as a Goat from the Sheep And now let us judge not according to the appearance let us judge righteous judgement Or rather if you please do but judge according to the appearance Cast an eye upon these unhappy times which if they be not the last yet so much resemble those which as we are told shall usher in the great day that we have great reason to look about us as if they were the last Weigh I say the controversies the business of these times and concerning those duties and transactions which constitute and consummate a Christian you shall finde as great silence in our disputes as in our lives and practice The great heat and contention is concerning Baptisme the Lord's Supper and the Government and Discipline of the Church It is not Whether we should deny our selves and abstain from all fleshly lusts but Whether we may wash or not Whether eat or not Whether Christ may be conveighed into us in Water or in Bread Whether he hath set up a chair of infallibility at Rome or a consistory at Geneva Whether he hath ordained one Pope or a million What digladiations what tragedies are there about these points And if every particular phansie be not pleased the cry is as if Religion were breathing out its last when as the true Religion consisteth not principally in these but these may seem to have been passed over to us rather as favours and honours and pledges of God's love then as strict and severe commands That we must wash and eat are commands but which bring no burden or hardship with them the performance of them being most easie as no whit repugnant to flesh and blood It is no more but Wash and be clean Eat in remembrance of the greatest benefit that ever mankind received All the difficulty is in the performance of the vow we make in the one and the due preparation of the soul for the other which is the subduing of our lusts and affections the beautifying of our inward man This is truly and most properly the service of Christ the Ark of our Ark the Glory of our Glory and the crown of all those outward advantages which our Lord and Master hath been Pleased to afford us We may ask with the Prophet Mich. 6.6 7. Wherewith shall we come before the Lord or bow our selves before the high God Will he be pleased with the diligence of our Ear with our Washing v. 8. and Eating and answer with him He hath shewed thee O man what he doth require to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Go to Shiloh and there learn we to disdeceive our selves by the example of the Israelites if all our Religion be shut up with theirs in the Ark all in outward ceremony and formality God strike both us and the Ark we trust to recover and call back those helps and gracious advantages from such prodigal usurpers For when all is for the Ark nothing for the God it representeth when we make the Pulpit our Ark and chain all Religion to it when the lips of the Preacher which should preserve knowledge Mal 2.7 Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and be as a Ship as Basil speaketh to conveigh that Truth which is more precious then the Gold of Ophir bringeth nothing but Apes and Peacocks loathsome and ridiculous phansies when the hearers must have a song for a Sermon and that too many times much out of tune when both Hearer and Speaker act a part as it were upon a stage even till they have their Exit and go out of the world when we will have no other laver but that of Baptisme no bread but that in the Eucharist when we are such Jewish Christians as to rely on the shell and outside on external formalities and performances more empty and less significant and effectual then their ceremonies we have just cause to fear that God will do unto us as he did unto Shiloh or as he threatned the same people Amos 8. send a famin into the land not a famin of bread but of hearing the word and such a famin we may have though our loaves do multiply though Sermons be our daily bread that he may deprive us of our Sacraments or deliver them up to Dagon to be polluted by Superstition or to be troden under foot by Profaneness which of the two is the worst that we may even loath and abhor that in which we have taken so vain so unprofitable so pernicious delight and condemn our selves and our own foul ingratitude and with sorrow and confusion of face subscribe to this Inscription DOMINVS EST It is the Lord. And now we have setled the Inscription upon every particular And it may seem at first not well placed
which he saw would be done if he gave way And to these two we cannot but yield unless we will deny him to be God For if we believe him just or wise we cannot but say FIAT Let him do what he will Let him be angry and let him carry on his anger in what wayes and by what means he please He is our Father and loveth us O felicem cui Deus dignatur irasci Tertull. and if we will be enemies to our selves he doth but an act of Justice and of Mercy if he use the rod. What though he give line to wicked men to do that which his soul hateth and suffer that to be done which he forbiddeth He permitteth all the evil that is done in the world If he did not permit it it could not be done And if he did not permit evil Obedience were but a name For what praise is it not to do that which I cannot do Whatsoever evil he suffereth his Wisdome is alwaies present with him for he is Wisdome it self and can draw that evil which he but suffereth to be done and make it serve to the advancement of that good which he will do He will make it as the hand of Justice to punish offenders and execute his will and as his Rod or Discipline to teach sinners in the way If we could once subdue our wills to that will of his which is visible in his precepts if we could answer love with love and love him and keep his commandments John 14.15 we should have no such aversness from the other two no such dislike if he do what he is forced to do or permit that to be done which he hath condemned already If we do whatsoever he commandeth us and be his friends what is it to us Job 38.31 Deut. 28.23 Job 38.38 though he binde the sweet influences of the Pleiades or loose the bonds of Orion though he make the heavens as brass and the earth as iron though the clods cleave fast together and the clouds distil not upon them What is it to us if he beat down his own Temples when the tower of Babel reacheth up to heaven if the black darkness be in Goshâ—n and the Egyptians have light if fools sport and triumph in their folly and the whip be laid on the back of the innocent What is it to us how or where he casteth about his hail-stones and coals of fire Si fractus illabatur orbis Horat. od 3. l. 3. Impavidos ferient ruinae In all these sad and dismal events in these judgments which fall cross with our judgment and as the eye of flesh looketh upon them to the mind of God himself in all these perplexities these riddles of Providence the friend of God is still his friend and favoureth nay applaudeth whatsoever he doth or is pleased to suffer to be done which he would not suffer did not his Justice and Wisdome require it which are able to make the most crooked paths straight to fill every valley and levell every mountain to work good out of evil and so make all those seeming extuberancies that which to us seemed disorder and confusion that which our ignorance wondered at smooth and plain and even at the last It is the Lord When that word is heard let every mouth be stopt or let it declare his glory amongst the nations and his wonders among the people Psal 96.3 Phil. 2.10 At that word let every knee bow both of things in heaven and things in earth let Men and Angels say Amen His will be done DOMINVS EST It is the Lord is the antecedent and the most natural consequent or conclusion that can be drawn from it is this of old Eli the High Priest FACIAT QVOD BONVM IN OCVLIS Let him do what seemeth him good To conclude then When we are thus wrought and fashioned to God's hand and will thus meek and yielding to his sceptre when we follow him in all his wayes and question not but obey his Providence which is the bridle of the world and fit for no hands but his when with old Eli here we joyn our Faciat with his Fecit and are willing he should do whatsoever is done when the Lord thunders from heaven and shooteth his arrows abroad and we can look upon them sticking in our own sides and say Thus thus it should be Psal 19.9 The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether then we have the spirit of God and we have the will of God And these arrows will be to us as Jonathan's were to David 1 Sam 20 20 c. signs and warnings to fly from some danger neer at hand that those evils we suffer may work that patience which may make us cooperarios Dei as Tertullian spake of Job De patient fellow-workers with God and joyn us with him in the conquest of those temptations which they bring along with them Rom. 5.4 5. that our Patience may beget Experience how weak and frail we are when we are moved and guided by our own will and this Experience Hope even that Hope which being founded on the promises of the God of truth can neither deceive us nor make us ashamed a Hope that our Ark will return and God will restore to us all those helps and advantages which he shall think necessary for us in this our warfare He that hath the will of God hath this hope built upon his Power and Wisdome which alwaies accompany his Will He that hath the will of God hath what he will hath power and wisdome In the strength of which we shall be able to lift up our heads in the midst of all the busie noyse the World shall make 1 Cor. 15.58 be stedfast and immovable when the tempest is loudest and when our sun shall be darkned Matth 24.29 and the stars fall from heaven when there shall be sects and divisions and great perplexity Luke 21.25 when our Ark shall be taken and the glory depart from Israel we shall be able to look upon all with an eye of Charity or as Erasmus speaketh with an Evangelical eye and walk on in a constant course of piety and contention with those infirmities which so easily beset us beating down sin in our selves though we cannot destroy errour in our brethren and so become as Nazianzene once spake of his people of Nazianzum like the Ark of Noah and by this our spiritual wisdome escape that deluge and inundation of Contention which hath neer overflowed and swallowed up the whole Christian world and so walk upon these floods and waves Christ himself going before till we rest upon our Ararat our holy Hill that new Jerusalem that City of peace where there will be no envy no debate no sects no divisions no contentions no wars no rumour of wars but love and peace and unity and joy and unconceivable bliss for evermore The Fifteenth SERMON JOHN VI. 56. He that eateth
the wayes of righteousness and yet drooped how many have fainted even in their Saviours arms when his Mercies did compass them in on every side how many have been in the greatest agony when they were nearest to their exaltation how many have condemned themselves to hell who now sit crowned in the highest heavens I know nothing by my self 1 Cor. 4.4 saith S. Paul yet am not thereby justified Hoc dicit Dialogo adv Pelagium nè forte quid per ignorantiam deliquisset saith S. Hierom Though he knew nothing yet something he might have done amiss which he did not know Though our conscience accuse us not of greater crimes yet our conscience may tell us we may have committed many sins of which she could give us no information And this may cast a mist about him who walketh as in the day Rom. 13.13 In a word a man may doubt and yet be saved and a man may assure himself and yet perish A man may have a groundless hope and a man may have a groundless fear And when we see two thus contrarily elemented the one drooping the other cheerful the one rejoycing in the Lord whom he offendeth the other trembling before him whom he loveth we may be ready to pity the one and bless the condition of the other cast away the elect and chuse the reprobate Therefore we must not be too rash to judge but leave the judgment to him who is Judge both of the quick and dead and will neither condemn the innocent for his fear nor justifie the man that goeth on in his sin for his assurance Take comfort then thou disconsolate soul Psal 44.19 which art strucken down into the place of dragons and art in terrour and anguish of heart This fear of thine is but a cloud and it will drop down and distill in blessings upon thy head This agony will bring down an Angel This sorrow will be turned into joy this doubt be answered this despair vanish that Hope may take its proper place again the heart of a penitent Thy fear is better then other mens confidence thy anxiety more comfortable then their security thy doubting more favoured then their assurance Timor tuus securitas tua Thy fear of death will end in the firm expectation of eternal life Though thou art tost on a tumultuous sea thy mast spent and thy tackling torn yet thou shalt at last strike in to shore when those proud Saylers shall shipwrack in a calm Misinterpret not this thy dejection of spirit thy sad and pensive thoughts nor seek too suddenly to remove them An afflicted conscience in the time of health is the most hopeful and soveraign Physick that is Thy fear of death is a certain symptome and an infallible sign of life There is no horrour of the grave to him that lieth in it Death onely is terrible to the living And then there can be no stronger argument that thou art alive then this that thou doubtest thou art dead already And lift up thy head too thou despairing and almost desperate sinner whom not thy many sins but thy unwillingness to leave them hath brought to the dust of death who first blasphemest God Psal 22.15 and then drawest the punishment nearer to thee then he would have it and art thy own hangman and executioner not that pardon is denyed but that thou wilt not sue it out Look about thee and thou mayest see Hope coming towards thee and many arguments to bring it in An argument from thy Soul which is not quite lost till it be in hell and if thou wilt possess it it shall not be lost An argument from thy Will which is free and mutable and may turn to good as well as evil An argument from the very habit of Sin that presseth thee down which though it be strong yet is it not stronger then the Grace of God and the activity of thy Will It is very difficult indeed but the Christian mans work is to overcome difficulties An argument from those sholes and multitudes of Offenders who have wrought themselves out of the power of death and the state of damnation from many who have committed as many sins as thou but this one of Despair from those Publicanes and sinners who have entred into the kingdome of heaven An argument from thy own Argument which thou so unskilfully turnest against thy self It is no argument it is but a weak peremptory Conclusion held up without any Premisses or Reason that can enforce it For Despair is but Petitio principii proveth and concludeth the same by the same maketh our Sins greater then Gods Mercies because they are so and Repentance impossible because it is so Though the Soul be not quite lost till it be lost for ever though the Will be free and Grace offereth it self though the voice of God be Turn though multitudes have turned and that which hath been done may be done again though the argument be no argument yet Despair doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against what reason soever hold up the Conclusion Thou sayest that God cannot forgive thee If he cannot then he is not merciful neither is he just and so he is not God and then what needest thou despair We begin in sin proceed to blasphemy and so end in despair But a God he is and merciful But thy sins are greater then his mercies which is another blasphemy and bringeth in something more infinite then God taketh Gods office from him dispenseth his Mercies of which he alone is Lord shutteth up his rich treasury of Goodness when he is ready and willing to lay it open and so ruineth us in despite of God But thou sayest thou canst not repent which is thy greatest errour and the main cause of thy despair For when the heart is thus hard it beateth off all succours that are offered all those means that might be as oyl to supple it Thou canst not is not true Thou shouldst say Thou wilt not repent for if thou wilt thou mayest For thou canst not tell whether thou canst repent or no because thou never yet didst put it to the tryal but being in the pit didst shut the mouth of it upon thy self and stop it up with a false opinion of God and of thy self with dark notions and worthless conceits of impossibilities Behold God calleth after thee again and again His Grace as a devout Writer speaketh is most officious to take thee out his Mercy ready to embrace thee if thou do not stubbornly cast her off Behold a multitude of Penitents who having escaped the wrath to come becken to thee by their example to follow after them and retire from these hellish thoughts and conclusions unto the same shadow and shelter where they are sale from those false suggestions and fiery darts of the enemy And if this will not move thee then behold the blood of an immaculate Lamb streaming down to wash away thy sins and with them thy despair
faction What press on to make thy self better and make thy self worse go up to the Temple to pray and profane it What go to Church and there learn to pull it down Why Oh why will ye thus die O house of Israel Oh then let us look about us with a thousand eyes let us be wise and consider what we are and where we are that we are a House and so ought every man to fill and make good his place and mutually support each other that we are a Family and must be active in those offices which are proper to us and so with united forces keep Death from entring in that we are the Israel of God his chosen people chosen therefore that we may not cast away our selves 1 Tim. 3.15 that we are his Church which is the pillar and ground of truth a pillar to lean on that we fall not and holding out and urging the truth which is able to save us that we may not die We have God's Word to quicken us his Sacraments to strengthen and confirm us his Grace to prevent and follow us We have many helps and huge advantages And if we look up upon them and lay hold on them if we hearken to his Word resist not his Grace neither idolize nor profane his Sacraments but receive them with reverence as they were instituted in love if we hear the Church if we hear one another if we confirm one another Rom. 6.9 Gal. 7.16 if we watch over our selves and one another Death shall have can have no more dominion over us we shall not we cannot die at all but as many as thus walk in the common light of the house of Israel peace shall be upon them and mercy and upon the Israel of God And now we must draw towards a conclusion and we must conclude and shut up all in nobis ipsis in our selves If we die it is quia volumus because we will die For look above us and there is God the living God the God of life saying to us Live Look before us and there is Death breathing terrour to drive us from it shewing us his dart that we may hold up our buckler Look about us and there are armouries of weapons treasuries of wisdome shops of physick balm and ointments helps and advantages pillars and supporters to uphold us that we may stand and not fall into the pit which openeth its mouth but will shut it again if we flie from it which is not cannot be is nothing if we do not dig it our selves The Church exhorteth instructeth correcteth God calleth inviteth expostulateth Death it self threatneth us that we may not come near Thus are we compassed about auxiliorum nube with a cloud of helps and advantages The Church is loud Death is terrible God's Nolo is loud I will not the death of a sinner Ezek. 33.11 and confirmed with an oath As he liveth He would not have us die And it is plain enough in his lightning and in his thunder in his expostulations and wishes in his anger in his grief in his spreading out his hands in his administration of all means sufficient to protect and guard us from it And it excludeth all Stoical Fate all necessity of sinning or dying There is nothing above us nothing before us nothing about us which can necessitate or bind us over to Death so that if we die it is in our volo in our Will we die for no other reason but that which is not reason Quia volumus Because we will die We have now brought you to the very cell and den of Death where this monster was framed and fashioned where it was first conceived brought forth and nursed up I have discovered to you the original and beginnings of Sin whose natural issue is Death and shut it up in one word the Will That which hath so troubled and amused men in all the ages of the Church to find out that which some have sought in heaven in the bosome of God as if his Providence had a hand in it and others have raked hell and made the Devil the authour of who is but a perswader and a soliciter to promote it that which others have tied to the chain of Destiny whose links are filed by the phansie alone and made up of air and so not strong enough to bind men much less the Gods themselves as it is said that which many have busied themselves in a painful and unnecessary search to find out openiâ—g the windows of Heaven to find it there running to and fro about the Universe to find it there and searching Hell it self to discover it we may discover in our own breasts in our own heart The Will is the womb that conceiveth this monster this viper which eateth through it and destroyeth the mother in the birth For that which is the beginning of action is the beginning of Sin and that which is the beginning of Sin is the cause of Death In homine quicquid est sibi proficit saith Hilary In Psal 118 There is nothing in Man nothing in the world which he may not make use of to avoid and prevent Death And in homine quicquid est sibi nocet There is nothing in Man nothing in the world which he may not make an occasion and instrument of sin That which hurteth him may help him That which circumspection and diligence may make an antidote neglect and carelesness may turn into poyson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil As Goodness so Sin is the work of our Will not of Necessity If they were wrought in us against our will there could be neither good nor evil I call heaven and earth to witness Deut. 30.19 said GOD by his servant Moses I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing And what is it to set it before them but to put it to themselves to put it into their own hands to put it to their choice Chuse then which you will The Devil may tempt the Law occasion sin Rom. 7.11 the Flesh may be weak Temptations may shew themselves but not any of these not all of these can bring in a necessity of dying For the Question or Expostulation doth not run thus Why are you under a Law Why are you weak or Why are you dead for reasons may be given for all these and the Justice and Wisdome of God will stand up to defend them But the Question is Why will ye die for which there can be no other reason given but our Will And here we must make a stand and take our rise from this one word this one syllable our Will For upon no larger foundation then this we either build our selves up into a temple of the Lord or into that tower of Babel and Confusion which God will destroy We see here all is laid upon the Will But such is our folly and madness so full of contradictions is a wilfull sinner Wisd 1.16 that
beauty and glory when it is drest up with advantage and cometh toward us smiling to flatter and woo us but it joyneth with it when it is cloathed with Death when it is reviled by Conscience and hung round about with all the curses of the Law it swalloweth down Sin not when it is as sweet as honey but when it hath a mixture and full taste of the bitterness of gall and so though our sin be against our Conscience yet it is not against our Will and therefore is the more voluntary Besides in the last place this is a thing which almost befalleth every man that is not delivered over to a reprobate sense whose eye of Reason is not quite put out vvho is not unmanned and hath quite lost all feeling or sense of that vvhich is evil and that vvhich is good Nay it vvas in Cain it vvas in Judas it is in every despairing sinner or else he could not despair These pauses and deliberations these doubtings and disputes and divided thoughts are common to righteous and to vvicked persons Duplici in diversum scindimur hamo Pers sat 5. Hunccine an hunc sequimur Most men are more or less thus divided in themselves And as Plautus observeth that it is the humour of some men when they are at a feast to dislike the dishes but no whit the more to abstain Culpant sed comedunt tamen they find fault with their meat and yet eat it up so it is with us We oft disrelish Sin and swallow it down we cannot but condemn Sin and we are as ready to commit 〈◊〉 and with him in the Comedy ask Quid igitur faciam What shall we now do when we are knocking at the harlots door and ready to break forth into action And therefore this conceit That a regenerate man doth not sin with a full consent in that his conscience calleth after him to retire in the very adventure is very dangerous and may be mortal to the heart that fostereth it For when this conceit hath filled and pleased us we shall be ready with Pilate to wash our hands when they are full of blood Matth. 27.24 and cry out we are innocent when we have released Barabbas let loose our Sense Appetite and Affections to run riot and delivered Jesus the Just one to be scourged and crucified delivered up our Reason to be a slave and ministerial to all those evils which the Flesh or Devil can suggest and delivered up our Affections to be torn and scattered as so many straws upon a wrought sea and never at rest in a word we shall contemnere peccata quia minora putamus slight and pass by our sins in silence because we will not behold them in their just shape and proportion in that horrour and terrour and deformity which might fright us from them And this conceit is a greater tentation then that which first took us for it bringeth on and ushereth in the tentation taketh from it all its displacency that it may enter with ease and when it hath prevailed it shutteth out Repentance which should make way for that mercy and forgiveness which alone must make our peace Every man favoureth himself and is very open to entertain any doctrine which may cherish and uphold this humour and make him less wicked or more righteous then he is And though at first we find no reason which commendeth it to us and craveth admittance for it â—et because it speaketh so friendly to our infirmities and helpeth to raise up that which we desire to see in its height we take it upon trust and believe it to be true indeed and stand up and contend for it as a part of that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. And having this mark of the righteous That we sin but check our selves in it we take our selves to be so righteous persons though we be so ill qualified that an impartial eye beholdeth it and findeth so much probability as pointeth to it as to the mark of the Beast It is with many of us as it was with the slave in Tacitus Annal. 2. who being like Agrippa in outward favour and the lineaments of his body did also take upon him to counterfeit his person and being asked by Caesar How he came to be Agrippa stoutly answered As thou camest to be Caesar Nemo non benignus sui judex There are but few or none at all that are not too favourable judges in their own cause and though they be slaves and servants unto Sin yet will be ready to put on the person of a Prince of a Saint of a chosen vessel and by the help of Imagination and the frequency of those pleasing and deceitful thoughts at last verily believe himself to be so And if reluctancy and regret and the turning away of the face of the soul the Conscience at the evil we do be a mark of a regenerate man then certainly a very Pagane a notorious sinner may find this mark about him and though he commit sin with greediness yet may he lay him down and rest and sleep upon this conclusion That hating sin as he doth and committing that sin which he thinketh he hateth his name may be written in heaven and he be also one of the elect But then to conclude this a strange thing it may seem that we should first wound our Conscience and then force her to pour in this balm first not hear her speak and then bring her in to make this plea that we did not hear her first slight and offend her and then make her our advocate I spake unto you and you heard not It is your happiness Had I not spoken your sin had been greater then it is And thus we do evil with less danger That is our â—â—â—ught because we first told our selves that we should not do it But call we our sin what we please a sin of infirmity or a sin with a half-will with a half consent with a will and no will Non mutatur vocabulis vis rerum Quintil. l. 9. Inst. c. 1. Words and names have no power to change and alter the nature of our sin or to abate any degree of its poyson and malignity And pretend we what we will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sentence and judgment is the Lord's and in his sight even those sins which we do with reluctancy and some contention with our selves are voluntary and without repentance bind us over to death Even of them who sin though they check and condemn themselves before the act who say they would not and yet do it this Question may be asked Why will ye die We come now to the last pretense which is commonly taken up by men who are willing to be evil but not willing to go under that name And we shall but touch it for it will soon fall to pieces with a touch This pretense is made up of a bad will and a good intention or
out as unclean beasts because they discover something of the frailty of man Even such as these it is plain S. Paul admitted in this chapter and he pleads for them Gal. 6.1 as for those who are to be restored with the spirit of meekness and we cannot shut them out from his Table or presence whom Christ is so willing to meet when being weary and heavy laden they come unto him Nor doth this admitting weaker Christians open a door to let in wilfull offenders nor a gap to let in the Goats to feed in the same green pastures with the Sheep These beasts Hebr. 12.20 if they come too near will be thrust through with a dart But then all sins are not of the same malignity and we must put a difference between Judas's fall and Peter's All sins do not strike us out of the Covenant and therefore do not drive us from Christs Table where we are to renew and confirm it There be some sins which are devoratoria salutis and swallow up all hope of salvation whilest they remain in us There be peccata fortia boistrous and mighty sins Amos 5.12 which do urge the Justice of God and even weary and conquer his clemency There be others which weaker Christians through frailty fall into even in the state of grace and which God will not be extreme to punish though in justice he might but remaineth a Father still of those who seriously endeavour yet sometimes fail for his covenants sake which he made in his Son Jesus Christ And of these sins S. John speaketh If we sin 1 John 2.2 we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is a propitiation for our sins In a word if all that sin were excluded the Feast were at an end and if some that sin were not excluded the Table were no more a Table but an Altar for thieves and murderers to fly to Fear then of infirmity is no excuse but we should shake it off with our sin It is an evil spirit of our own raising and we must conjure it down But there is another pretense and it is drawn from a high conceit of the Sacrament and an apprehension of an excessive and Angelical kind of perfection which some conceive is necessary to the due celebration of it And so they are going towards it but make no speed are in action but do nothing are coming but never come This may seem to be great humility but as Bernard speaketh ista humilitas tollit humilitatem this humility putteth true Humility from its office For it is she alone that taketh us by the hand and leadeth us to this Supper Dicendo se indignum fecit se dignum saith the same Father of the Centurion in the Gospel If we can truly say We are unworthy we make our selves worthy and thus we set forward towards it But groundless Scrupulofity which many times is rather the issue of Pride then the daughter of humility seeth the way and then sitteth down in it and then maketh every pibble a mountain puzzleth and perplexeth us setteth us a framing and fashioning dangers and inconveniences to our selves and summing them up like the man in Lucian who sat on the sea-shore numbring each wave as it came towards him till at last the waves driving one another beat on and wrought themselves over his head and drowned him In a word it weakneth and disenableth us in the performance of our duty and with it we are so good that as the Italian proverb is we are good for nothing This is but a scruple indeed and it weigheth no more and the least breath is strong enough to blow it away For upon the same inducement we must seal up our lips and never pray we must stay at home and not go to Church For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what mortal is fit for these things How can Dust and Ashes speak to the Majesty of Heaven What ear is purged enough to hear his word Whose feet are clean enough to tread his courts And why do we pretend Weakness or Unworthiness Are we too weak are we too unworthy to do his will Or can Christ command us that which our Unworthiness will make a sin for us to do When the trumpet hath sounded when the Law is promulged this fear must vanish When our Saviour hath once spoken it Take eat this is my body shall we neglect to do it and make this our plea That we are not worthy to do it When he would cleanse and purge us shall we cry We are unworthy unfit to do his will but not unfit to break it unfit to be redeemed but not unfit to perish unfit to empty our selves of our pollution but not unfit to settle on our lees Oh it is ill thus to apologize and dispute and fret our selves to destruction to lye sick and bed-rid in sin and say we are unfit and unworthy to be healed And what Reverence is that to Christ which crucifieth him again and trampleth his bloud under our feet For not to receive it not to be purged and bettered by it I am sure is in the highest degree to dishonour it I shall insist the longer upon this for I see too many withdraw and put from them this favour and grace of God and call it Reverence But they might well blush at this their apology if they did rightly consider what Reverence is Now Reverence is nothing else but a kind of justice paying back that which is due to a benefit for some good it hath brought or may bring unto us and is either our verbal or our real gratitude Ye shall reverence my Sanctuary Levit. 19.30 for here we offer up our selves to God and God descendeth in blessings upon us The word of the Lord is reverend Rom. 1.16 Psal 119.128 Psal 111.9 for it is the power of God unto salvation Therefore I esteem all thy precepts saith David and Holy and reverend is his name for whatsoever good we do we do in God's name And yet see if we take not heed Eccl. 5.1 if we keep not our feet we may bow in his temple and offer up the sacrifice of fools We may greedily hearken what God will say and yet despise his word We may call upon his Name do wonders in his Name and yet blaspheme it as the Jews bowed before Christ when they mockt him and spet upon him and smote him on the head No Reverence is the payment of a debt And what is due to the Sanctuary 1 Tim. 2.8 Even that we should lift up holy hands What do we ow unto the Word Even obedience And what reverence is due to the Sacrament In Scripture we read of none in terminis for there need no command to bind us to honour it Who will not reverence that love which is breathed forth from Majesty Who doth not reverence the meanest gift that cometh from the hands of a King But what Reverence is that that
This is my body And be not faithless but believing Here shake off that chilness that restiveness that acedie that weariness that faintness of your Faith here warm and actuate and quicken it that it may be a working fighting conquering Faith For thus to do it is to do this in remembrance of Christ Secondly It taketh in Repentance By this we do most truly remember Christ remember his Birth and are born again for Repentance is our new birth remember his Circumcision and circumcise our hearts for Repentance is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great circumcision saith Epiphanius go about with him doing good for Repentance is our obedience remember him on his Cross for Repentance setteth up a Cross in imitation of his and lifteth us up upon it stretcheth and dilateth all the powers of our soul pierceth our hearts and so crucifieth the flesh and the affections and lucts thereof Our Repentance if it be true is an imitation of Christs suffering a revenge upon our selves for what the Jews did to him the proper issue and effect of his Love For what Christ worketh in us he first worketh upon us maketh us see and feel and handle his Love that we may be active in those duties of love which by his command and ensample we owe to him and in him to our brethren He dyed to be a propitiation for our sins that is 1 John 2.2 4.10 that he might make sin to cease for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implyeth He giveth us strength by Repentance quite to extinguish and abolish sin Thus if we repent thus if we do we do it in remembrance of him And this we are alwaies to do but then especially when we prepare our selves to make our addresses to Christs Table For though Repentance be the fruit of a due Examination of our selves yet we may and must examin our Repentance it self And the time to do it is now Now thou art to renew thy Covenant thou must also renew thy Repentance In the feast of the Atonement the Lord telleth his people Lev. 23.29 Whatsoever soul should not be afflicted that day should be cut off This is a day for it in this day thou must do it This is the season to ransack thy soul to see how many grains of Hypocrisie were left behind in thy former Repentance what hollowness was in thy Grones what coldness in thy Devotion to see what advantage Satan hath since taken what ground he hath won in thy soul And then in remembrance of Christs Love set afresh to the work of Mortification wound thy heart deeper lay on surer blows empty thy self of thy self of all that rust and rubbish which thy Self-love left behind And then stir up those graces in thee which through inadvertency and carelessness lye raked up as in the ashes In a word refine every Virtue quicken every Grace intend thy Will exalt thy Faith draw nearer to Christ and so renew thy Covenant and sit down at his Table And thus if thou do it thou dost it in remembrance of him I might here take in the whole train the whole circle and crown of Christian graces and virtues and draw them together and shut them within the compass of this one word Remembrance for it will comprehend them all Knowledge Obedience Love Sincerity Thankfulness from whence the Sacrament hath its name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meditation and Prayer For he that truly believeth and repenteth as he is sick of sin so is he sick of Love of that Love which in the Sacrament is sealed and confirmed to us he is full of saving knowledge is ever bowing to Christs sceptre is sincere and like himself in all his wayes will meditate on Christs Love day and night will drive it ab animo in habitum as Tertullian speaketh from the mind to the motions and actions of the body from the conscience into the outward man till it appear in liberal hands in righteous lips and in attentive ears will breathe forth nothing but Devotion Prayers Hallelujahs Glory Honour and Praise for this his Love And so he will become as the picture and image and face of Christ reflecting all his favours and graces back upon him as a pillar engraven with Gods loving kindnesses a memorial of Gods goodness thankfully set up for ever And thus to do it is to do it in remembrance of Christ To conclude Thus if we do it if we thus remember him he will also remember us Cant. 8.6 remember us and set us as seals upon his heart and signets on his arm remember us as his peculiar treasure And as our Remembrance of him taketh up all the duty of a Christian so doth his Remembrance of us comprehend all the benefits of a Saviour Our Love of him and his Love to us are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian orat 17. will be as matter and fuel to nourish and uphold this remembrance between us for ever We shall remember him in humility and obedience and he shall remember us in love and power We shall remember him on earth and he shall remember us in heaven and prepare a place for us He shall remember our affliction and uphold us he shall remember our prayers and make them effectual our almes and make them a pleasing sacrifice He shall remember our failings and settle and establish us our tears and turn them into joy He shall remember all that we do or suffer all but our sins those he hath buried in his grave for ever And now we are drawing near to his Table with fear and reverence he will remember us and draw nearer to us in these outward Elements then Superstition can feign him beyond the fiction of Transsubstantiation Psal 36.8 He will abundantly satisfie us with the fatness of his house feed us though not with his flesh yet with himself and move in us that we may grow up in him In a word he will remember us in heaven more truly then we can remember him on earth and distill his grace and blessings on us be ever with us and fill our hearts with rejoycing Which will be a fair pledge of that solid pure and everlasting joy in the highest heavens And Lord remember us thus now thou art in thy Kingdome The Five and Twentieth SERMON 1 COR. XI 26. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew or shew ye the Lord's death till he come THere is nothing so good in it self but it may prove the the worst of evils if it be not carried on to its right end and fitly applied to that use for which it was ordained Frustrà est quod rationem finis non ducit saith the Philosopher Every thing hath its use from its end If it decline from that it is not onely unprofitable but hurtful I do not warm my self with a plainer nor smooth a table with fire for this were not onely vain but would destroy my work The
Arts themselves are not liberal but when they make men so free and ingenuous Arithmetick and Geometry are but a kind of Legerdemain if they teach men onely metiri latifundia accommodare digitos avaritiae to measure Lordships and to tell money What need we instance in these The Word of God which bringeth salvation may bring death if it be not received with the meekness of a babe that we may grow thereby The Sacrament the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which hath been magnified too much and yet cannot be magnified enough was ordained as Physick to renew and revive and quicken our souls but if it be not received to that end for which it was first instituted it is not Physick but damnation Non QUID sed QUEMADMODUM vers 29. It is not the bare Doing of a thing but the Manner of doing it the driving it on to its right end which giveth it its full beauty and perfection A sincere Heart and the Glory of God set the true image of Liberality on the gift of a mite Attention and Obedience make the Word the savour of life Humility and Repentance sanctifie a fast and Shewing of the death of the Lord maketh us truly partakers of his body and bloud Our Saviour Christ hath fully decided this controversie in a word and with one breath as it were hath said enough to still the tumults of the disputers which have been as the raging of the sea and to settle all the vain and needless controversies of this age John 6.63 even in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The flesh profiteth nothing it is the Spirit that quickeneth For to say his flesh profiteth nothing is a plain declaration that he meant not to give it us to eat That which is nourishment to the body is not proportioned to the soul nor will that which reneweth a soul restore the body to a healthful temper Who would go about to recover a sick man with an Oration of Tully's or set a joynt with an axiom of Philosophy Who can restore a sick soul with bread and wine with flesh or bloud Although these two parts the Soul and the Body are knit and united rogether and do sympathize so as that which refresheth the body doth affect and please the mind and that which cheareth the mind doth strengthen the body yet both the parts receive that which is proper to them the body that which is of a corporeal nature and the soul that which is spiritual and both mutually communicate to each other the fruit and benefit of both without the least confusion of their operations and proprieties Although we see the actions of the body as Hunger and Thirst many times attributed to the soul and the functions of the soul as to Will and the like to the body Therefore we must distinguish between the Meritorious cause and the Efficiency and Application of it which are both joyntly necessary but their manner of operation is diverse It was necessary that the flesh and bloud of Christ should be separated from each other in his violent death on the cross that his most precious bloud should be poured out for remission of sins but to make it a physical potion to make it nourishment to our souls it was not necessary that his bodily substance should be taken into ours For if it should our Saviout telleth us it would profit nothing And the reason is plain Because the merit and virtue of his death which is without us is made ours not by any fleshly conjunction or union with him who merited for us by offering himself but 1. by his Will by which he in a manner maketh it over unto us and 2. by our due receiving of it which is made complete by our Consent and Faith and Giving of thanks which is the work alone of that Spirit which quickeneth and giveth life The blessed Virgin did no doubt partake of the merit of Christ but not because she conceived and bore him nine moneths in her womb but in that she conceived him by faith in her heart Luke 11.27 28. The womb was blessed that bare him and the paps that gave him suck but they rather were blessed who heard his word and kept it The Flesh and Bloud of Christ doth truly quicken us as it was offered up for us a sacrifice on the cross as a meritorious cause and as he gave it for the salvation of the world But it doth not quicken by being received into our bodies but by being received into our souls His merit was enough to save the whole world and yet his merit were nothing if not applied and that application is not wrought without but within us not by the Spirit of life but by the force and power of his death and passion the meritorious cause Rom. 8.2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death What need we hear stir this Water of life and turn it into gall and bitterness Why should this Bread be gravel between our teeth Why should Christ's love be made the matter of war and contention It is called the Body and Bloud of Christ and it is called Bread and Cup in my Text And it is a miserable servitude saith Augustine signa pro rebus accipere to take the signs of things for the things themselves and not to be able to lift up the eye of our mind a-above the corporeal creature to take in eternal light That we may lift up ours let us fix it upon the end for which Christ offered his body and bloud and upon the end for which we are to receive the Sacrament and signs of it And let one end be the measure and rule of the other Let Christ lifted upon the cross draw us after him to follow as he leadeth His body was bruised and his bloud shed to purge us from all iniquity and to make us a peculiar people unto himself That was Christ's end And our end must be proportioned to it So to receive the Sacrament of his body and bloud that it may be instrumental to that end Which cannot be by eating his flesh and bloud that flesh which was crucified and that bloud which was shed One would think it impossible that any should think our Saviour should command us that which is impossible or shew us a way which cannot lead to the end Flesh and Bloud taken down into the stomach can no more feed and quicken a Soul then it can enter into the Kingdom of heaven But his Obedience his Humility his Cross and Passion his meritorious Suffering and Satisfaction these have power and influence on the Soul These are here presented to us as Manna and better then Manna and if we take them down and digest them they will turn into good bloud and feed us to eternal life His Body and Bloud were thus given and thus we must receive them Our Saviour calleth it his
manifested his Wisdome his Justice his Love in whom he hath made the fullest discovery of himself that he is to us merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth whom he offereth unto us to be seen with the eye of our faith to be embraced with the arms of our affections to be received into the stomach of our souls and so to be conveyed through all the powers and parts of the inward man that we may grow up in him who is our Head and being partakers of him be made partakers of that glory which he hath purchased for us All this is made good unto us by Faith but In the last place not by a dead and unactive Faith looking up upon Christ but gathering no strength or virtue from him and no more considering our high Priest then as if he had never offered himself never satisfied for us for how can we think that heaven should be built upon such aire that that peace which passeth our thought should be bought at so cheap a rate as a thought but a Faith which worketh by Charity and that both towards God and towards our brethren For these two Christian virtues are inseparable and bear witness one to the other My Faith begetteth my Charity and my Charity publisheth and declareth my Faith They go hand in hand and help and advance each other He that separateth them doth not thereby prove that they are separate in themselves but that they are separate from him and that he hath but one of them and that also not the thing but the name For what Faith is that that worketh not by Love and what Love is that that is not kindled in us by Faith They are like Hippocrates his twins they live and die together When Faith is alive Charity is working of miracles healing the sick giving eyes to the blind and scattering her bread on the waters When Faith doth but float on the tongue Charity is but good words Depart in peace c. When Faith waxeth feeble Charity is but cold and when Charity cannot stretch out the hand nor open the mouth the Apostle telleth us Faith is dead It hath been the great fault of the world to make Faith an Idol and Charity Nothing But we must joyn them together before we come to Christ's Table or else we do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 approve our selves Nay they must be joyned together or they will not subsist but such a Faith and such a Charity as are heard but neither seen nor felt such a Faith and such a Charity as are but names and may be written on the visour of an hypocrite Let them therefore both meet and be united in our trial and preparation to this Sacrament which is a Sacrament of Union not onely of the Head with the Members but of the Members one with another under one Head Christ joyneth us unto himself by Love and by the same Love commandeth us to grow up together into one body and not to flie asunder by pride and malice and contention He that loveth God will love his brother also If we believe in Christ if the eye of our Faith be so clear as to see him with all his riches and glories with that glory which he hath prepared for us we cannot but love him and if we love him this Love will distil to the very skirts of his garment to the lowest member he hath Our Love of God consisteth in our admiration of his Majesty in a due acknowledgment of and subjection to his Wisdom and Justice and Power which we see but at distance in those effects which they produce but it is most visible in these our communications one to another I love God is soon said but it is a lie saith S. John if I love not my brother also It is reported of this Evangelist in whose Epistles this precept of LOVE is so often mentioned that being aged and brought to the congregation in a chair because through weakness he was not able to hold out in a continued speech his whole Sermon was but a repitition of these words Children love one another And being asked the reason his answer was Quia praeceptum Christi est si solum fiat sufficit That it was the precept of the Lord and if this onely were observed all was done And no doubt it is the peculiar precept of the Lord and sufficient of it self For if it be done as it ought it cannot but proceed from the Love of God since the Love of our selves and the Love of the world is the onely hinderance of this Love For why doth an injury stir my bloud and invenom my gall but because I love my passion and had rather be its slave then at the command of Christ to master it Why doth a disgrace cloud me with melancholy but because I had rather have my name great on earth then written in the book of life Why do we persecute and oppress our brethren but because we seek rather esteem from men then the face and favour of God Private interest is the great God of this world to which most do homage before which millions of men fall down and worship and then leave the Love of God behind them tread their brethren under feet and make that desolation which at this day we see on the earth Love of one another is a plant of our heavenly Father's setting But where doth it grow May we find it in the Commonwealth There is Love but it is set in dung in earthly hopes or fleshly respects And it groweth up in shew of some bulk and greatness but it beareth no better fruit then Complement and Good language If you shake and trouble it this fruit falleth and is turned into stones It beginneth in a kiss and endeth in a wound Like the thieves Salvian speaketh of it embraceth and killeth Shall we look for it in the Church That is a Paradise indeed and there it should grow But then it is in that Church which is not seen for there is little of it in that which is visible There are almost as many sects as men There every phansie is a sword keen enough to make a division Every slight opinion setteth men at variance and for that which is but opinion for that which is nothing men bite and devour one another A Church militant indeed it may well be called in this sense For there is nothing but wars and fighting noise and confusion such a Church Militant as in the greatest part of it shall never be Triumphant And yet here in the Church visible it is preached on the house tops Here it is taught by the Word and here it is taught by the Sacrament But to the most the one is but a sound and the other a sign and if it be but a sound and no more it is a knell and if we receive no more then a bare sign we receive more then we should the sentence of condemnation In
Adversùs publicos hostes omnis homo miles est saith Tertullian in another case Against traytours and common enemies every man is a souldier Every one that is of strength to pull a soul out of the fire is for this business by counsel by advise by rebuking is a Priest Nor must he let him lie there to expect better help Thou shalt not see thy brother sin but thou shalt rebuke and save thy brother Lev. 19.17 Common charity requireth thus much at thy hand And to make question of it is as if thou shouldst ask with Cain Am I my brother's keeper This is the true and surest method of pleasing one another For Flattery like the Bee carrieth honey in its mouth but hath a sting in its tayl but Truth is sharp and bitter at first but at last more pleasant than Manna He that would seal up thy lips for the Truth which thou speakest will at last kiss those lips and bless God in the day of his visitation And this if we do we shall please one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to edification Rom. 15.2 and not unto ruine And thus all shall be pleased the Physician that he hath his intent and the Patient in his health The strong shall be pleased in the weak and the weak in the strong the wise in the ignorant and the ignorant in the wise And Christ shall be well pleased to see Brethren thus to walk together in unity strengthening and inciting one another in the wayes of righteousness And when we have thus walkt hand in hand together to our journeys end he shall admit us into his presence Psal 16.11 where there is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore The Eight and Twentieth SERMON COLOSS. II. 6. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him NOthing more familiar in Scripture then to compare a Christian mans life to a Walk and Christianity to a Way Acts 24.14 After the way which they call Heresie so worship I the God of my Fathers saith S. Paul And the resemblance fitteth very well For as they who travel in the way meet with variety of objects it may be a Plant or Flower In Psal 1. saith S. Basil it may be a Serpent or a Lyon objects to delight them and objects to terrifie them all to retard and detein them and stay them longer from their journeys end so in the course of Religion in our way to happiness every step is with danger our paths are ensnared and our progress intangled If a Plant or Flower the pomp and glory of the world Prov. 22.13 stay us not yet there is a Lion in the way difficulties we must struggle with 2 Cor. 7.5 Serm. 1. in Matth. and there are Fears in the way fightings without and terrours within Inter casus ambulamus saith Augustine We walk in the midst of ruine where every object may prove a temptation and every temptation an overthrow nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Isidore with our ruine about us Not onely the way but our feet also are slippery We need not go far for instance for every man may find one in himself But we will take this which S. Paul hath put into our hands of the Colossians the occasion of my Text. And of them S. Paul professeth in this Epistle that they had made a fair onset in Christianity and were forward in their way v. 5. He beholdeth them with joy and rejoyceth to see them walk to see their order and their stedfast faith in Christ But withal perceiving some uneven steps some dangerous swervings and declinations from the will of Christ and those wayes which his wisdome drew out in the Gospel he calleth loud upon them and at once commendeth and instructeth them and armeth them against those false teachers who by their mixtures and additions had made another Gospel He commendeth them for their choice of their way and directeth them how to walk in it v. 8 But there was Philosophus in via the Philosopher in their way with his subtilties to spoil and rob them And then the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no man make a spoil of you draw you by force out of the vvay by the vain deceit of philosophical speculations And there was Angelus in via an Angel in the way v. 18. with his glorious excellencies to amaze them And here the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no man defraud you of your reward of that liberty which Christ hath granted you which maketh a fair and open way to you without the mediation of Angels Last of all there was Lex in via the Law in the way with her shadows and ceremonies to detein them And there the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no man judge or condemn v. 16. you of a holy-day or new-moon or the sabbath dayes Hearken not to the Philosopher but to him in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily v. 9. and to that wisdome which the holy Ghost teacheth Bow not to an Angel 1 Cor. 2.13 Col. 2.10 but to him who is head of all Principality and Power And look not unto the Law which is but a shadow but to the body the truth and solidity of the things themselves which is in Christ. These three are all And these three are one I may say these three cautions and directions are but one at least drawn up and collected in this one which I have read unto you Three several lines but meeting in this centre Walk in Christ as ye have received him which is as a light from heaven to direct us in our way that we be not taken by the deceit of Philosophy that we stoop not to the glory of Angels that we catch not at the Shadow when we should lay hold on the Substance In a word this keepeth us close to Christ and his doctrine which must not be mixed or blended either with the Law or Philosophy or that voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels which is Idolatry As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him At the very hearing of this Exhortation I know every man will say that it is good and wholsome counsel well fitted and applyed by S. Paul to the errours and distempers of that Church to which he writ but not so proper and applyable to ours For so far are we from being ensnared with Philosophy that we see too many ready to renounce both their Sense and Reason to be less then Men nay to be inferiour to the Beasts neither to discourse nor see not to see what they see nor to know what they cannot be ignorant of that they may be Christians as if Christ came to put out our eyes and abolish our Reason And for Voluntary worship there is no fear of that in them who will scarce acknowledge any obligation and can with ease turn a Law into a Promise
yet be dead to the world and so make his way through the valley and shadow of death to his journeyes end Psal 23.4 to that rest which remaineth for the people of God who are but strangers Hebr. 4.9 and pilgrimes upon earth This is the best supply Hebr. 11.13 And for this the Psalmist putteth up his petition in the words of my Text I am a stranger upon earth hide not thy commandments from me They are the words of the Kingly Prophet And in the thirty ninth Psalm he hath the very same Hold not thy peace at my tears Psal 39.12 for I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my fathers were In them he presenteth unto us his state and condition and in his own the condition of all mankind Menander fecit Andriam Perinthiam One man is the map of all Mankind and he that knoweth one knoweth them all David was and then all men are but accolae inquilini Howsoever their pomp and glory may dazle the eyes of men yet if we will define them aright and set them out as they are they are but strangers and pilgrimes upon earth We have here first a Doctrine declaring what we are We are but strangers upon earth That is our condition He that is least in it is so and he that hath most and is Lord of it is no more Secondly the Use or Inference Hide not thy commandments from me He that hath one eye upon his Frailty and Defects will have another upon a Supply He that knoweth himself a stranger will desire a guide Or you have 1. our Character We are strangers and 2. our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Viaticum our Provision in our way the commandments of God Or if you please you may consider I. the Person I David II. his Quality and Condition a King and yet a stranger on the earth And these two draw together into one the two most different states of the world a powerful Prince and a poor Pilgrime him that sitteth on the Throne and him that grindeth at the mill the crowned Head and that Head which hath not a hole to hide it seif in And III. the Reason why the holy Ghost to teach us our condition doth make choice of a King Out of which we shall raise this Doctrine which is but a Paraphrase of the Text first That Man by nature is but a stranger to the world secondly That he is to make himself so And that you may I must hold out to you IV. your Provision the commandments of God and shew you of what use they be to you in this your peregrination and pilgrimage First we must look on the Person that speaketh And we may peradventure wonder that he speaketh it that he who was as a God upon earth one of those whom God himself calleth so should yet speak in the low and humble language of a Lazar and count himself a stranger We may well think the character doth but ill befit him It may seem rather to be the speach of some one of the Rechabites who by their father Jonadab were forbidden to build houses Jer. 35 7. to sow seed to plant vineyards or to have any but all their lives to dwell in tents or of some one of the Essenes a Sect amongst the Jews who left the City and betook themselves to fields and mountains Nat. Hist l. 6. 1◠Gens aeterna in qua tamen nemo nascitur said Pliny of them a lasting nation in which notwithstanding none were born for they begat Sectaries and not Children or of some one of them of whom the Apostle speaketh Hebr. 11.38 that wandred in desarts and mountains in dens and caves of the earth or of some Ascetical Monk devoted and shut up in some cloyster or of some Anchorete shut up between two walls This speach had well befitted one of these And had Demosthenes or Tully been to draw the character of a Stranger upon earth they would have brought him out of the streets or high-wayes out of some cell or prison with all the marks about him but their imagination would have passed by the Palaces of Princes as yielding nothing of him For a KING is but a nick-name but a soloecisme if he be not at home in every place But the holy Ghost regardeth not this Rhetorick observeth not this art which indeed is made up but by the eye His method is è schola Coeli drawn out by that Wisedome which formed and fashioned us and knoweth whereof and what we are made And that which flesh and bloud counteth a soloecisme with him is the most exact propriety of language What with us is lookt upon as against the rules of art with him is most regular I may say Truth is the Spirits art and those words which convey it are the best elegancies And thus to commend this lesson to us he maketh choice of a person to an eye of flesh most unlikely 1 Kings 18.33 as Elijah took water to kindle the fire upon the Lords Altar A King on the earth and a stranger on the earth will hardly be coupled together in the same proposition For how can they be strangers on earth who are the onely Lords and proprietaries of it Kings are Domini rerum temporúmque Lords of the times and of all affairs and carry all before them 1 Sam. 8.11 c. This shall be the manner of the King saith Samuel He shall take your sons and your daughters and make them his servants He shall take your fields and your vineyards and turn them to his own use A KING The very name striketh a terrour into us and putteth out the best eye we have our Reason that we cannot discern between the King and the Man nor the Man and the Stranger that we judge of him by what he is Si libet licet His will is his Law and what he doth is just or he will make it so for who dares say Eccl. 8.4 What dost thou And yet this King this God is but a stranger Take him in his Zenith take all his broad-blown glories his swelling titles his over spreading power and all are drawn together and shrunk up in this one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Accola Whatsoever he is whatsoever he appeareth he is but a stranger Behold here the Kingly Prophet maketh it his profession layeth by the title of a King as guilty of a Misnomer and calls himself a Pilgrime And as in the darkness of Popery he that vowed a Pilgrimage either to our Lady or some other Saint to Rome or to Jerusalem did present himself before the Altar and then receive his Scrip and Staff so am I here this day occasioned by this Pilgrime this honoured Knight to exhort you to vow a Pilgrimage not to this or that Saint but to the King of Saints and this you may do and stay at home In your house and peivate closets this Pilgrimage is best vowed
not work to the end and have that effect which was intended and is proper to it Again if Christ urge forvvard his vvork and desisteth not but follovveth us still to find us out vvhen vve think all is done maketh a miracle but the preface and forerunner of a greater vvork it vvill concern us to uphold this course of love both to others and our seâ—â—es 1. To others To be instant in season and out of season in our leisure and in our business To stir up and quicken in them the beginings of grace Not upon ill success to go back and fall off but still to labour and travel with them as S. Paul speaketh till Christ that is all Christian duties be fully formed in them To be their solicitours their advocates their remembrancers and vvhâ—n God hath vvrought a miracle and delivered them from poverty or prison or death to speak to them â—â—â—ok back and behold What though vve prevail not yet let us 〈◊〉 desist The husbandman doth not take off his hand from the plough for one bad year nor doth the merchant leave off navigation for one wreck at sea Spargenda est manus saith Seneca succedet aliquando multa tentanti We must scatter again and again all will not be lost after many attempts The sower in the Gospel sowed his seed in four places though it came up and yielded increase but in one Jer. 20.8 9. The word of the Lord saith the Prophet was made a reproch unto me and a derision daily Then I said I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his name But it followeth His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay He then that cannot expect his brother that cannot hope well of his brother is neither a true Prophet nor a good Christian That plain Axiom of S. Augustine is of good use De nullo vivente desperandum We may not despair of any man alive but whilest he breatheth we must hope we must pray for him and find him out and instruct him That common speech of some in S. Chrysostom's time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leave off from admonishing and counselling these kind of men the Father calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the deceit of the Devil an engine made by him to undermine and shake all religion and piety Some we have had of late who have pronounced it unlawful to pray for the salvation of all men An errour of so monstrous a shape that former ages were afraid of it and it was reserved for this last and worst age to wait upon its mishapen damme that ill-begotten phansie of the absolute decree of Reprobation I could not easily believe that any should take delight in such a speculation which striketh off all hope of salvation and all care of our brother withall that he may go whither he will For whithersoever he goeth he is lost for ever never to be found This doctrine leaveth some men in worse case then the Swine in the Gospel The Devils entered into them indeed but presently carried them violently into the sea and drowned them but by this doctrine some men there be prepared on purpose to be an habitation of Devils for ever But withall I see they who cut off all hope of life from some and with it the prayers and instructions of the Church are all sheep themselves pure and innocent and so sure of their salvation that in this they rest as in a miracle as if nothing more were to be done and therefore they will not work it out They tell us That some be vessels of wrath and therefore that we ask and attempt an impossible thing That the condemnation of many and the Salvation of all cannot both be brought to pass because this implieth a contradiction I answer It is true it implieth indeed a contradiction that â—ll should be saved yet many damned but yet I see no force in the contradiction to fright us from our devotion or shut up our mouths that we may not instruct and remember every man of his present condition that when we have begun we may not follow and find him out and instruct him yet more fully This foundation standeth very sure The Lord knoweth who are his But we do not read in Scripture that God hath any where imparted this knowledge unto any man Suppose it were true that God doth indeed sit in heaven and pass an irreversible sentence upon the lives of some certain men yet doth this nothing concern us nor can we judge by any outward marks upon our brother what God doth in his secret closet and counsel Judgement belongeth unto him and duty unto us Let God do what he please in heaven or in earth a necessity lieth upon us and wo-will be unto us if we instruct not our brother Nor is the secret will of God any rule of our actions nor can it be For it is the property of a Rule to be manifestly known and if it be not known it is not a Rule The rule that concerneth us is as manifest as the light That we must love our brother That we must find him out and instruct and save him That we must begin and promote and as far as in us lieth perfect and finish this work That we must seek the conversion of all men Haec regula ab initio Evangelii decucurrit This is a constant and everlasting rule and hath run along in a continued stream of light ever since the Son of righteousness did arise in the hemisphere of the Church But for what God will do with particulars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a thick cloud cast a veil drawn before it that no mortal eye can discern the least glimpse or scintillation of it We read in the Scripture that the number of true believers is but small but my duty to my brother in praying for him and promoting his spiritual health is not grounded upon that act which apprehendeth the number of the elect to be but few but upon that which apprehendeth the mercies of God to be infinite and that it cannot stand with his goodness to make any man purposely to destroy him And it is an act of our Charity which like some artificial glasses multiplieth the object a thousand times And this is a kind of privilege and prerogative which Charity hath above Faith Christ hath already begun with my brother the miracle is wrought his wounds are still open and they will drop their medicinal power and virtue upon the weakest member he hath yea upon him that is yet no member and my care must be to help him to apply it There is no heart so much stone which Christ's bloud cannot soften and out of it raise a child unto Abraham No piece so crooked ever sprung from Adam's root but of it God can erect a statue of himself None is so miserably desperate of whom we are not
doth one good action one good word one good thought exalt and canonize us How are small beginnings any thing nothing taken for that violence which must take the kingdome of heaven And this is the bitter effect of hypocrisie For when we will not be what we should be we study to appear both to our selves and others what we are not Thus are we content to tithe mint anise and cumin and to omit the weightier matters of the Law judgement mercy and truth to begin in the spirit and end in the flesh Outward profession false shews fair pretencces profers and beginnings these are the portion the substance the riches of the hypocrite As the impotent man here when he was made whole went his way and placed all his happiness in this thought of nothing but this that he was made whole Therefore Christ's care we see was to find him out and more fully to instruct him to shew him a greater defect the cause of the former to discover a worse disease to be cured So do we settle and fix our minds on common favours on our calling our profession on good intentions and good thoughts and not look forward to the denial of our selves to the crucifying of the flesh to the purging of the soul nor look backward upon these beginnings or if we do we behold them on the wrong side not as beginnings but perfection it self Even these beginnings are significant if we would understand them and they bespeak us to press forward Every benefit is an obligation Take up thy bed and walk the words are plain but there is more understood then said There is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a depth in them which is not fathomed at first When our Saviour cometh to interpret them they will bear this sense Sin no more In a word every beginning looketh forward to the end For that which hath a beginning may have an end For nothing can be done or be begun to be done saith the Philosopher which is impossible A good bginning if it be not brought to perfection is an argument against us that we have left it as the Ostrich doth her eggs in the sand never to be hatched and nourished but to be crushed by every foot and broke by every wild beast Therefore if it be but one talent one favour one benefit we must improve it If it be Riches thou must be rich in good works If it be Strength thou must labour in thy calling If it be Length of dayes thou hadst them from his right hand and thou must not still be a child in understanding If it be Health thou must work out thy salvation If Beauty thou must not make it a snare If Eloquence thou must speak to the heart of the oppressed If a Good profession thou must make it good If a Good thought it was Christ that sent it and thou must not be so unkind as to stifle it If a Good resolution it was his hand and power that raised it and it will be sacrilege for thee to pull it down To conclude this As Christ's love and care did still look forward so must ours As he findeth us out so must we find out our selves Nor must our endeavours end no more then his loving kindness doth in this miracle And thus much we gather from Christ's care here in following and finding the man out and further we carry not this consideration We will now follow him into the Temple Jesus findeth him in the Temple a place proper and fit for the man that was healed to offer his sacrifice of praise in and a place fit for Christ to teach and admonish him in And it is as requisite sometimes to observe the Place as the Time In his Temple Psal 29.9 Psal 22.22 Psal 96.9 saith David doth every one speak of his glory and I will praise thee in the midst of the great congregation and Oh worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness Nor doth an hymn of praise sound so well or yield such musick in private as in the Temple the place where God's honour dwelleth Here we publish our gratitude and by that teach others how they should tune their harps and set their songs Here it goeth up with a shout here we all render to God those things that are God's Power and Wisdom and Mercy and rejoyce and sing as it were in our selves that God is so wise and powerful and merciful and so give him what we can all honour and praise Here the Angels are present saith Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Scribes to register every word that we speak Here are the tribes gathered together even the tribes of the Lord and every man speaketh of his wondrous works Here God himself is present weighing and pondering the thoughts and affections of men For if where two or three be gathered together in his name Matth. 18.20 God be in the midst of them present with them and favour them then certainly where many are met together he is at hand ready to receive their sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving I cannot but think that this recovered Paralytick leaped for joy as soon as he could stand up that he went along praising of God that this thought came along with him and brought him to the Temple I acknowledge that of Tertullian to be true In triviis habet pietas suum secretum A pious and thankful heart hath its Oratory wheresoever it is But yet Devotion is more proper in its proper place it is more proper to praise God in the house of God nor is any service so powerful as that which is tendered in publick Thou canst not saith the Father praise God so well in thine own private house as in God's There thou findest many fires to kindle thy zeal the presence and example of others the reverence of order the presence of God Here we meet together as an army like that fulminatrix Legio that thundering Legion to besiege aâ—â— invade the Majesty of Heaven to force God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Greek Fathers to put him so to it that he cannot but accept us And God not onely requireth modestum fidei the modesty of our faith and private devotion but likewise he requireth these things to be done in publick by troups and sholes of men Haec vis grata Deo With this kind of force and violence God is well pleased So acceptable is this to God that when David had but a thought to build an house to this purpose God told him that he did well when he had done nothing neither might do any thing 2 Chron. 6.10 onely had the design in his heart and did think and resolve to do it This man then did what was fit to be done the work of the place in the place of the work he did what others what the Apostles what Christ himself did He did not stay himself with this thought That he might return to his own house and perform
his devotions there No he goeth to the Temple And in the Temple Christ findeth him and sheweth him yet a more excellent way To make some use of this I know the Temple is demolished not a stone left upon a stone But yet all places of publick worship did not fall with the Temple Even common Reason doth teach all Nations to erect and set apart places for this end For how can many meet together but in one place Temples we still must have where we may offer though not beasts as the Jews did yet the calves of our lips and the breathings and groans of a broken and contrite heart which is a sacrifice that God will not despise where we may worship the Father in spirit and in truth and also present our bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is our reasonable service Yet I do not plead the absolute necessity of our publick meetings in Churches Indeed there is not there cannot be any such necessity For God will not suffer necessity to lye upon any thing but that which is in our power It is absolutely necessary that we should pray For that we may do if our tongue were tacked to the roof of our mouth It is necessary that we should eat the flesh and drink the bloud of Christ For that we may do though we receive not the Sacrament It is necessary that we should serve the Lord For that we may do though every Church were beat down with axes and hammers Necessitas lex temporis Necessity is the Law of the times And whilest this Law is over us we are free from all Law of Order or Ceremony not tied to circumstances of Time and Place neither to the Sabbath nor the Temple which otherwise might well require our due observation For where Necessity is of a truth there in truth is no Law Quicquid cogit defendit Whatsoever it compelleth us to do it excuseth when it is done Then a grot or a cave or an upper room may serve for a Church But when the fetters of Necessity are once shaken off and this Law cancelled then even Convenience it self is Necessity and that which is most advantageous for us bindeth us most Then not to go to Church out of humour or out of a groundless phansie that any other place is as holy is to be a Recusant indeed and in the worst sense Heb. 10.25 Then to forsake the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is is a ridiculous schism and the first step downwards to Apostasie We see men run first from one congregation and then from another and at length from all and so from Religion from the Truth from Christ himself Stocks they are and stones who attribute Holiness to walls And yet stocks they are and stones that do profane and disgrace them What are Churches holy A stout question to be put up by the masters of the Assembly a nail to be driven home to open the heart and to discover a Papist or Prelatical Protestant Which terms have now the same signification What are Churches holy Yes they are but no otherwise then as set apart for holy uses no otherwise then in relation to the end And then certainly they are as holy as they who are so witty to give them new names and who prefer their Parlors or their Stables before them For these will be as holy as they are if men do not profane them And they will serve for that end for which they were erected but these men ever wanton in their religion and never religious but in wantonness and contention set up other ends of their own and soon forget and fly from that for which they were created that they may overtake the other and then write Holiness in their forhead and proclaim it to all the world thâ—t they are holy and they alone And no marvel they will not admit the Church the place of publick worship to be holy who dare not call the Mother of Christ himself a Saint The time was Beloved when this was counted a holy language and holy men of God the Doctors and Martyrs of the Church spake it and feared not to gain thereby that foul imputation of being superstitious The time was when Sacrilege was a sin But now men have learned an art to do what that Lamb of God never did to take away sins by committing them to take them away and make them no sins to take them away and make them virtues And to them nothing is holy For first they look upon the Holy things as a prey and in a manner sweep away the rest with them For to compass this the Word must be no more the Word of God but what they will make it a nose of wax to be tempered and fitted to what form they please Prayer is made a formality a babling formality The Sacraments are not so much as signs The Water is dried up in the Font and the Lord's Supper is no more then what the Anabaptists heretofore called it a twopeny feast And for Discipline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where is it the very name of it is lost First they condemn what they hate because it standeth in the way in which Covetousness leadeth them and then they study arguments to ratifie and make good that sentence of condemnation which if you be so bold as to answer and confute they pursue you as a troubler of Israel as if they should give you a blow on the face and tell you it were to this end to keep you off from making a riot Oh Folly whence art thou come to cover the face of the earth and to shake the pillars of the Church How hath the Love of the world filled our mouths with arguments with murmurings and disputings Phil. 2.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with bitter disputings which adde not one cubit one hair to the body of Religion or growth of Piety Wherein when we have run never so far the one from the other if common Reason may prevail we shall meet again and find it nothing else but a quarrel and controversie about words But how shall common Reason find a place in those hearts which are so filled with the World And therefore men are bold to ask the question Whether the Word of God be his Word or no Whether there be a Temple or a Church Whether there be any Priests or Ministers of the Gospel Whether every man may not take that Office upon him What use there is of the Sacraments When and How and By whom they are to be administred God grant it be not at last put to the question Whether there be any God or no. But you will say This will not fit nor can it be set to our Meridian I wish it may not nor to any other but rather to any then ours But surely I cannot see how Profaneness and Sacrilege can drive out Superstition I will say no more but methinks I see them opening a
wide gate to let Irreligion and Atheism in But from all Sedition and privy Conspiracy from all false Doctrine and Heresie from Hardness of heart and Contempt of Gods Word and Commandment Good Lord deliver us To conclude To the Temple the man went who was made whole and in the Temple Jesus found him In the Temple he praised God and in the Temple Christ instructed him Acts 3.1 To the Temple went Peter and John at the hour of prayer And into the Temple went up the Pharisee and the Publican the one a Sectary the other odious to a proverb yet no scruple no contention between them both went up together to the Temple to pray And as they had a Temple so have we the Church And if theirs was the Holy place as it is called so is ours being ordained to the same end I may say to a better Theirs to offer up the flesh of beasts ours to offer up our selves Theirs for corporal and carnal ours for spiritual sacrifices And why not ours then as Holy as theirs God himself cannot imprint Holiness in a stone All is from the end The Church is a house of prayer let it not be made a den of thieves to rob God of his glory It is Bethel the House of God let it not be made Bethaven a House of vanity Let our devotion and not our vanity here display it self Let the contention be not who shall be most vain most phantastick but who shall be most devout most humble most reverent It is a house of peace oh what pity what shame is it that we should from this place first hear the alarm to war It is a house where God's Honour should dwell let not Ziim and Ochim satyrs and screech-owles profane persons dance and revel here Last of all it is a place consecrate that is set apart for God's worship then if there be such a sin it it will be foul sacrilege to pull it down I will read to you some part of Psalm 83. Keep not thou silence O God hold not thy peace and be not still O God For lo thy enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have lift up the head They have taken crafty counsel against thy people and consulted against thy hidden ones They said let us take to our selves the houses of God in pessession O my God make them like a wheel as the stubble before the wind Fill their faces with shame that they may seek thy name O Lord. That men may know that thou whose name alone is JEHOVAH art the most High over all the earth Tell me now Is this a Psalm set to those times or a Prophecy of ours He that awaketh not he that trembleth not at this thunder is not asleep but dead Seneca speaketh of some who seem to be made as serpents and vipers for no other end but to hiss and trouble the world And such are they who disgrace and profane places set apart for publick devotion What is there in a Church that a religious mind can check at If we must meet together what scruple can arise concerning the place If any do arise it riseth like a fog and steameth from a foul and corrupt heart from Pride the mother of Pertinacy and Contradiction which will not be brought down to conform to the counsels of the wise no nor to the wisdom of God himself but calleth Truth Heresie because others speak it Bounty waste because others lay it out Reverence superstition because others bow and will pull down Churches because others build them kicketh at every thing that is received nihil verum-putans nisi quod diversum thinketh nothing true but that which is diverse and contrary nothing true but that which breatheth in opposition against the Truth as ridiculously but more maliciously scrupulous then Tyridates in Pliny who would not venture on ship-board nor could endure navigation because he thought it an unlawful thing to spit into the sea For see God hath rained down Manna upon us and we startle and ask What is this God hath given us his Word and we quarrel it He hath given us the Sacrament of Baptism and we ask By whom At what ages and How we must be washed It was a River then a Font now a Bason and can you tell can they tell who trouble these waters what it will be next If God prevent it not it will be Nothing Christ hath invited us to his Table and we know not whether we should sit or stand or kneel whether we must come as subjects or as his fellows and companions whether we receive him really or in a trope and figure whether we may not do it too often As Seneca speaketh of Philosophy so may we of Christianity Fuit simplicior aliquando inter minora peccantes When men were more sincere they were less scrupulous and had no leisure to find knots in every bulrush in that which was made smooth and even to their hands They did do their duty and not run about the world and ask How and When they must do it especially where the duty was open and easie to the understanding that they might run and read it They heard the Word and obeyed it They did submit to those who were supreme and not ask How they should be governed The great question of the world at this day and that which troubleth the world They honoured their Pastours and were not busie to teach them how to teach them They were baptized for remission of sins They received the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and fed on Christ They went into the Temple the Church to pray with and in the midst of the congregation but never consulted nor asked counsel how to pull it down In a word they were religious and did not seem so Christ found the man he had cured in the Temple and there taught and instructed him And if he find us there he will teach and instruct us also by them to whom he hath committed the Oracles of God Hitherto we have been in the Temple and yet we are but in the porch of our Text. It is high time now to proceed and to hear what the Oracle what Christ doth say Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worst thing come unto thee Here mercy having freed the man of his Palsie spreadeth her wings further to shadow and protect him from a worse disease even Sin Before she did but walk and seek now she speaketh and poureth her self forth as a precious oyl upon his soul to cleanse and heal it And this though we are not willing to think so is the greater mercy of the two There is far more mercy in the Remembrance Tit. 2.11 in the Precept then in a Miracle The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men A saving grace and appearing Who is not willing to behold such an apparition who doth not clap his hands and rejoyce as if Heaven it self did open to take
we love him then we love also his appearance and his coming 2 Tim. 4.8 And our Love is a subscription to his promise by which we truly testifie our consent and sympathize with him and say Amen to the Angels promise Amen Even so come Lord Jesus That of Faith may be forced that of Hope may be groundless but this of Love is a free and voluntary subscription Though I know he will come yet I shall be unwilling he should come to me as an enemy that he should come to me when I sit in the chair of the scornful or lie in the bed of lust that he should come to me and find me with a strumpet in my arms or a sword in my hand fighting against that Power which is his ordinance For doth any condemned person hope for a day of execution But when I love him and bow before him when I have improved his Talent and brought my self to that temper and constitution that I can idem velle idem nolle will and nill the same things and be of the same mind with that Jesus who is to come when I have made my self the friend of the Judge then Spes festina then Hope is on the wing then substantia mea apud Christum as the Vulgar readeth it my expectation my substance my being is with Christ Nec pareo Deo sed assentior And I do not onely subscribe to the VENIET to his coming because he hath decreed and resolved it but because I can make an hearty acknowledgment that the will of Christ is just and good and I assent not of necessity but of a willing mind And as he who testifieth these things confirmeth the Angels promise with this last word Surely I come quickly so shall I be able truly to answer Even so come Lord Jesus In the last place this VENIET this foretelling of Christ's second coming hath another operation and is powerful to work in us Fear and Circumspection the very prop and foundation of those three Theological vertues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preservative of all the good we have It tempereth our Love that it be not too bold our Faith that it be not too forward and our Hope that it be not too confident It is as a watch and guard upon us to keep us in all our wayes VENIET is of the future tense and though it be most certain that Christ will come yet the time is not determined that we may so love Christ as that we may be fit to believe and hope and long for his coming The VENIET may end this moment and the promise be made good as well this day or the next as a thousand years hence The When God hath kept as a secret in his own breast ut pendulâ expectatione solicitudo fidei probetur saith Tertullian that by suspending our expectation and leaving us uncertain of the time he may make trial of the watchfulness of their faith whom he meaneth to place among the few but great examples of eternal happiness Semper diem observant qui semper ignorant semper timent qui quotidie sperant Whilest men are ignorant of the day they observe every day and fear that Christ may come this minute who they know will come at last Veniet fratres veniet sed vide quomodo te inveniet saith Augustine Brethren he will come he will come assuredly and we must be careful how he findeth us when he cometh He will come not as at the first in the form of a servant but as a King not as a sheep that openeth not his mouth but with a mighty voice shaking the heaven and earth with Angels and with Archangels by the power of his Trump raising the dead out of their graves and bringing them all to his seat of judgment He shall come in great majesty and glory So come say the Angels as ye have seen him go into heaven Which pointeth to the manner of Christ's coming and should now come to be handled But the time will not permit Onely for conclusion let us remember that he shall come and shall not keep silence that a fire shall devour before him and a tempest round about him that he shall come cum totius mundi motu cum horrore orbis cum planctu omnium si non Christianorum with an earthquake and the horrour of the world and with the lamentation of all except Christians Et qui nunc ventilat gentes per fidem tunc ventilabit per judicium And he that now winnoweth the nations and separateth them one from the other by faith will then search and divide the whole world by his last and decretory sentence And let this noise startle the Adulterer in his twilight strike the sword out of the hand of the Rebellious and awake the Atheist out of his deep sleep and lethargy For this Jesus this same Jesus shall so come who placed Adultery in the eye and Murther in the thought and commanded to give unto Caesar the things which are Caesar'◠and he shall judge the Adulterer and the seditious Rebel according to that Gospel which he preached in great humility and which many Christians Atheistical Christians trample under their feet with as great pride 2 Cor. 5.11 And let this terrour of the Lord as S. Paul calleth it persuade men to lay aside every weight and those sins which do so easily beset us our Covetous desires which fasten us to the dust our Pride which though it lift up our heads on high yet at last will have a fall our Ambibition which though it reach the pinnacle yet cannot build its nest in heaven our Seditious and Atheistical imaginations which can never enter that place where Obedience and Humility sit crowned for neither Covetousness nor Pride nor Rebellion can ascend with Christ who was humble and yet the Prince of peace But SURSUM CORDA Let us lift up our hearts even lift them up unto the Lord. Let our conversation be in heaven Imitemur quod futuri sumus Let our life be a type of the Ascension and our present holiness an imitation of our future bliss Let us mortifie our earthly members now that then they may be glorified Let us ascend in heart and with all the powers of our soul now in this life that when this Jesus shall come again in glory and great Majesty we may be caught up in the clouds and meet the Lord in the air and be with him for evermore The Fifteenth SERMON PART I. 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's WE have in our last presented before your eyes the bloudy and victorious Passion and glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ The later our Apostle mentioneth ver 14. And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power raise us not onely out of the grave but out of that deep prison and dungeon
which must not be left out unless we will dimidiare Christum 1 John 1.7 take Christ by halfs by Purging and clensing us from all our sins And all by the virtue of this price For he did not buy us that we should sell our selves He did not pay our debts that we should run on in arrears He did not buy us out of the power of Satan to leave us there He did not satisfie for sins to make us greater sinners And what Purgation is that which leaveth us more unclean beasts then before Christ doth both or he will do neither He freeth us from the condemnation of sin and he freeth us from the tyranny and dominion of sin His bloud speaketh better things then that of Abel It speaketh for pardon but speaketh for repentance it distilleth sweetly to wash out the guilt of sin and to wash out the pollution of sin In a word Christ did not pay down a price for our liberty to leave us still in bonds he did not come down from heaven to carry us thither with all our sins that is with Hell about us But when he buyeth us out of prison he looketh and waiteth to see with what chearfulness we will come forth When he calleth us to liberty he calleth to us as the Angel did to S. Peter Gird your selves cast your sins from you and follow me FACIO UT FACIAS as it is in the Law Ye are bought with a price that is Christ's act But our act also is required which may bear a fair correspondence and analogy with his Ye are redeemed that is the Benefit and a great one and Therefore glorifie God our Duty is the inference And our Duty should as naturally issue from a Benefit as Light doth from the Sun or a Conclusion from its Principles If Christ begin and pay down the price we must and right reason will have us conclude Therefore glorifie God in our body and in our spirit which are God's This I say is our Duty and commendeth it self in the next place to your consideration It is the nature of a Benefit to bind us to the performance of that which shall make it a benefit to establish a Law which shall establish that and make it beneficial Love will empty it self but it will not lose it self but deriveth its influence upon the heart it shineth on to work something in it which may bear some similitude and likeness to its self which indeed is Glory When God speaketh to us in love he expecteth that it should echo back again upon him in glory For why should so great love be lost And lost it is and even dead in us if it work no life nor spirit in us to magnifie his name if we look upon it as that which will deliver us whether we will or no and save us though we slight it God loveth us that we may love him and so love our selves And all his commands all our duties and obligations are founded on his love Therefore as he hath a bright and piercing so he hath a jealous eye His name is Jealous Exod. 34.14 And if we will see his likeness and representation we may behold it in the Prophet's vision where he presenteth God like unto a man made of amber Ezek. 8.2 whose upper part did shine and his lower was of fire Which representeth God unto us as a Lover and a Jealous Lover The appearance of brightness did express the purity and vehemencie of his Love And it never shined brighter then in our Redemption And the fire downward his Jealousie and Anger which will smoke against those that dishonour him after such a favour Of all the attributes of God this of Love seemeth to have the dominion and preeminence and sheweth and declareth it self by most manifest signs and notorious effects And this Love in God as in Man is alwayes accompanied with Jealousie which cannot endure a rival or an enemy or that that which he bought with a price should be snatched out of his hands Nec adversarium patitur nec comparem He can neither endure an adversary nor a sharer A sharer is no better to him then an adversary His Love carrieth the resemblance of the love of a husband to his wife And so he speaketh to Jerusalem as to his espoused wife Thy beauty was perfect which I put upon thee But thou playedst the harlot Ezek. 16. and hast poured forth thy fornications on every one that passed by Where we may conceive God to be as it were in trouble and in rage in such a passion as a man is when he taketh his wife in the act of adultery And his anger is the greater because his love was so great For Jealousie which is nothing at first but the vehemencie of Love when it hath an image of jealousie set up to provoke it groweth hotter and hotter and at last burneth like fire God's Love is jealous and would not be cast away and here in this his buying us it shineth most brightly wherefore if it work nothing in us by its beams it will become a fire to consume us For shall Christ call us to glory and we dishonour him Shall his Love make up the Premisses and shall we against nature deny the Conclusion Shall the benefit come towards us and we run from our duty Shall he redeem our souls from hell and our bodies from the grave and shall we prostitute and pawn and sell them to the Destroyer No The Glory of God is like Himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Beginning and the End the first wheel and the last Take the whole subsistence of a Christian in the state of Grace and in the state of Glory and it is nothing else but one continued and constant motion of glorifying God For why hath God done these great things for us why did he buy us with a price but ad laudem gloriae suae as S. Paul repeateth it again and again Ephes 1. to the praise of his glory and S. Peter that we shew forth his praise 1 Pet. 2.9 Herein is my Father glorified saith Christ that you bear much fruit Joâ—n 15.8 So you see our Redemption principally dependeth upon the glory of God Eph. 3.10 In that it beginneth For it was his manifold wisdom that made way for it For that it is furthered and promoted For we are strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man according to the riches of his glory Eph. 3.16 Then it is completed to his Glory The same word in Scripture includeth both Revel 19.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salvation and the Glory of our salvation It is the voice of the people in Heaven Hallelujah salvation and glory and honour and power to the Lord our God The choicest and last end which God proposeth to himself in the work of our salvation is the manifestation of his perfection that is his Glory Which consisteth in
crop and harvest of our Devotion This is truly cum parvo peccato ad ecclesiam venire cum peccatis multis ab ecclesia recedere to bring some sins with us to Church but carry away more for fear of the smoke to leap into the fire for fear of coming too near to Superstition to shipwreck on Profaneness for fear of Will-worship not to worship at all like Haggards to check at every feather to be troubled at every shew and appearance to startle at every shadow and where GLORY TO THE LORD is engraven in capital letters to blot it out and write down SUPERSTITION I see I must conclude Beloved fly Idolatry fly Superstition you cannot fly far enough But withal fly Profaneness and Irreverence and run not so far from the one as to meet and embrace the other Be not Papists God forbid you should But be not Atheists that sure talk what we will of Popery is far the worse Do not give God more then he would have but be sure you do not give him less Why should you bate him any part who giveth you all Behold he breathed into you your Souls and stampt his Image upon them Give it him back again not clipt not defaced but representing his own graces unto him in all holiness and purity And his hands did form and fashion your Bodies and in his book are all your members written Let THE GLORY OF GOD be set forth and wtitten as it were upon every one of them and he shall exalt those members higher yet and make thy vile Body like to his most glorious body In a word Let us glorifie God here in soul and body and he shall glorifie both soul and body in the day of the Lord Jesus The Seventeenth SERMON PART I. 1 COR. XII 3. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost THat Jesus is the Lord was seen in his triumph at Easter made manifest by the power of his Resurrection The earth trembled the foundations of the hills moved and shook the graves opened at the presence of this Lord. Not the Disciples onely had this fire kindled in their hearts that they could not but say The Lord is risen but the earth opened her mouth and the Grave hers And now it is become the language of the whole world Jesus is the Lord. All this is true But we ask with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What profit is it What profit is it if the Earth speak and the Grave speak and the whole World speak if we be dumb Let Jesus be the Lord but if we cannot say so he may and will be our Lord indeed but not our Jesus we may fall under his power but not rise by his help If we cannot say so we shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fall cross with him nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speak the quite contrary If we cannot call him Lord then with the accursed Jew we do indeed call him Anathema we call the Saviour of the world an accursed thing Si confiteamur exsecramur If we confess him not we curse him And he that curseth Jesus needeth no greater curse We must then before we can be good Christians go to school and learn to speak not onely Abba Father but Jesus the Lord. And where now shall we learn it Shall we knock at our own breasts and awake our Reason to lead us to this saving truth Shall we be content with that light which the Laws and Customs of our Country have set up and so cry him up for Lord as the Ephesians did their Diana for company and sit down and rest our selves in this resolution because we see the Jew hated the Turk abhorred and Hereticks burned who deny it Shall we alienis oculis videre make use of other mens eyes and so take our Religion upon trust These are the common motives and inducements to believe it With this clay we open our eyes thus we drive out the dumb Spirit And when we hear this noise round about us that Jesus is the Lord our mouth openeth and we speak it with our tongue These are lights indeed and our lights but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deceitful My Reason is too dim a light and cannot shew me this great conjunction of Jesus and the Lord. Education is a false light and misleadeth the greatest part of Christians even when it leadeth them right For he that falleth upon the Truth by chance by this blind felicity erreth when he doth not erre having no better assurance of the Truth then the common vogue He walketh indeed in the right way but blindfold He embraceth the Truth but so as for ought he knoweth it may be a lye And last of all the greatest Authority on earth is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a faint uncertain and failing proof a windy testimony if it blow from no other treasury then this below No we must have a surer word then this or else we shall not be what we so easily persuade our selves we are We must look higher then these Cathedram habet in coelo Our Master is in heaven And JESUS IS THE LORD is a voice from heaven taught us saith the Apostle by the holy Ghost who is vicarius Christi as Tertullian calleth him Christ's Vicar here on earth and supplieth his place to help and elevate our Reason to assure and confirm our Education and to establish and ratifie Authority Would you have this dumb spirit dispossessed The Spirit who as on this day came down in a showre of tongues must do it Would you be able to fetch breath to speak The holy Ghost must spirare breathe into us the breath of spiritual life inable us by inspiration Would we say it we must teach it If we be ignorant of this the Apostle here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would have us to understand that No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost And now we have fitted our Text to the Time the Feast of Pentecost which was the Feast of the Law For then the old Law was given then written in tables of stone And whensoever the Spirit of the living God writeth this Law of Christ THAT HE IS THE LORD in the fleshly tables of our hearts then is our Pentecost the Feast of the holy Ghost then he descendeth in a sound to awake us in wind to move and shake us in fiery tongues to warm us and make us speak The difference is This ministration of the Spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaketh far more glorious And as he came in solemn state upon the Disciples this day in a manner seen and heard so he cometh though not so visibly yet effectually to us upon whom the ends of the world are come Though not in a mighty wind yet he rattleth our hearts together Though no house totter
at his descent yet the foundations of our souls are shaken No fire appeareth yet our breasts are inflamed No cloven tongues yet our hearts are cleft asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every day to a Christian should be the day of Pentecost the Feast of the holy Ghost We may now draw the lines by which we are to pass and take our Text into those material parts it will afford And they are but three 1. the Lesson we are to learn To say Jesus is the Lord 2. the Teacher the holy Ghost 3. his Prerogative he is not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our chief Instructer but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our sole Instructer Not onely none to him but none but him Without him all other helps are obstacles all directions deceits all instructions but noise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle None can say Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost Of these parts in their order In the first part we must consider first What the Lesson is secondly What it is to say it The Lesson is but short Jesus is the Lord but in it is comprised the sum of the whole Gospel Here is JESUS a Saviour and DOMINUS the Lord And as they are joyned together in one Christ so no man must put them asunder If we will have Christ our Saviour we must make him our Lord And if we make him our Lord he will then be our Saviour Now to hear of a Saviour is Gospel the best news we can hear Gospellers we all would be and when this trumpet soundeth then Hear O Israel is a good preface and we are willing to be attentive But the Lord is a word that startleth us that carrieth thunder with it calleth for our knee and subjection As if we were again at mount Sinai and the mountain smoking we remove our selves and stand afar off A Saviour is musick to every ear but a Lord is terrible In the first and best times of the Church the first and greatest labour was to win men from Idols to the living God to teach them to love that Name besides which there is no other name under heaven to be saved by No strife or variance then unless it were whose zele should be most fervent whose devotion most intensive who should most truly serve him as a Lord whom they believed to be their Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Onely Piety and Profaneness divided the world But when the Church had stretched the curtains of her habitation and peace had sheathed the sword which had hewen down thousands that professed the Gospel and sealed their Profession with their bloud then arose hot debates and contentions about the Person of Christ his Godhead and his Lordship were called into question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 DOMINUS DOMINICUS the Lord but half a Lord The word indeed S. Augustine himself had used but after retracted it Some would mak him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mere man adopted to the participation of Divine honour Some contracted him some divided him like men who had found a rich Diamond and then fell to quarrel what it was worth In all ages Christ hath suffered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 12.3 the contradictions of sinners For every sinner standeth in a contradiction to Christ not onely Judas who betrayed him to the Jews and the Jews which crucified him but the sinner who for less then thirty pieces of silver selleth and betrayeth him every day Not onely the Heretick who denieth him to be the Lord but the Hypocrite who calleth him Lord Lord and doeth not his will the Wanton who betrayeth him for a smile the Covetous that giveth him up for bread for that which is not bread the Ambitious that selleth him for breath for air and the Superstitious that selleth him for his picture for an Idol which is nothing For we know saith S. Paul that an Idol is nothing in the world Every sin every sinner is a contradiction to this Lord. Not onely Judas and Christ and Pilate and Christ are terms contradictory but the rich man and Christ the profane person and Christ Not onely they that persecute him but even they that fight for him not onely they who say he is not the Lord but they who cry Lord Lord may stand at as great a distance from him as that which is not doth from that which hath a being For in this respect they are not they have no Entity at all They have nothing of Christ nothing of his Innocency his Meekness his Goodness And as an Idol is nothing in the world so are they nothing in the Church All the being they have is to be without God in this world which is far worse then not to be How many give to themselves flattering titles They call themselves the Regenerate the Elect the Children Servants Friends of this Lord when they are but contradictions to him as contradictory to him as Nothing is to Eternity as that which is worse then Nothing is to Goodness and Happiness it self To this day there are that make his Honour not their practice but dispute and whilest they are busie to set the bounds of his Dominion let Jesus slip and lose him in controversie Nor did ever Christian Religion receive more wounds then from them who stood up as champions in her defence who let go the Law in the bold inquisition after the Law-giver and forget the service which they owe by putting it too often to the question How he is the Lord. For the greatest errour is in our practice and as it is more dangerous so it is more universal Salvian will tell us of the Arians in his time Errant sed bono animo errant non odio sed affectu Dei They erred indeed but with a good mind not out of hatred but affection to Christ And though they were injurious to his Divine Generation yet they loved him as a Saviour and honoured him as a Lord. But we are more puzzled in agendis quà m in credendis in our Practicks then in our Creed and are sick rather in the heart then in the head Preach the Gospel we are willing to hear it and we kiss the lips that bring it But let Christ speak to us as a Lord Keep my commandments we are deaf and place all Religion in bringing the very principles of Religion into question and make that our argument which should be our rule Or if we give him the hearing the Good news hath swallowed up the Law the Gospel our Duty and Jesus the Lord. The truth is our Religion for the most part wanteth a rudder or stern to guide and carry us in an even course between Love and Fear between God's Goodness and his Power As Tully said Totum Caesarem so we Totum Christum non novimus We know not all of Christ When we hear he is a Saviour we fetter our selves the more And when we are told he is a Lord
we sit down aâ—d dispute As he is a Saviour we will find him work enough but as he is a Lord we will do nothing When we hear he is a Stone we think onely that he is LAPIS FUNDAMENTALIS a sure stone to build on or LAPIS ANGULARIS a corner stone to draw together and unite things naturally incompatible as Man and God the guilty person and the Judge the Sinner and the Law-giver and quite forget that he may be LAPIS OFFENSIONIS a stone of offence to stumble at a stone on which we may be broken and which may fall upon us and dash us to pieces And so not looking on the Lord we shipwreck on the Saviour For this is the great mistake of the world To separate these two terms Jesus and the Lord and so handle the matter as if there were a contradiction in them and these two could not stand together Love and Obedience nay To take Christ's words out of his mouth and make them ours MISERICORDIAM VOLO NON SACRIFICIUM We will have mercy and no sacrifice We say he is the Lord it is our common language And though we are taught to forget our Liturgy yet we remember well enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Lord have mercy And here Mercy and Lord kiss each other We say the Father gave him power and we say he hath power of himself Psal 2. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance saith God to Christ And Christ saith I and the Father are one We believe that he shall judge the world John 5.22 and we read that the Father hath committed this judgment to the Son Dedit utique generando non largiendo God gave him this commission when he begat him and then he must have it by his eternal generation as the Son of God So Ambrose But S. Augustine is peremptory Whatsoever in Scripture is said to be committed to Christ belongeth to him as the Son of Man Here indeed may seem to be a distance but in this rule they meet and agree God gave his commission to Christ as Man but he had not been capable of it it he had not been God As he is the Son of God he hath the capacity as the Son of man the execution Take him as Man or take him as God this Jesus is the Lord. Cùm Dominus dicatur unus agnoscitur saith Ambrose There is but one Faith Vers 4 5 6. and but one Lord. In this chapter operations are from God gifts from the Spirit and administrations from the Lord. Christ might well say You call me Lord and Master and so I am a Lord as in many other respects so jure redemtionis by the right of Redemption and jure belli by way of conquest His right of Dominion by taking us out of slavery and bondage is an easie Speculation For who will not be willing to call him Lord who by a strong arm and mighty power hath brought him out of captivity Our Creation cost God the Father no more but a DIXIT He spake the word and it was done But our Redemption cost God the Son his most precious bloud and life onely that we might fall down and worship this our Lord A Lord that hath shaken the powers of the Grave and must shake the powers of thy soul A Lord to deliver us from Death and to deliver us from Sin to bring life and immortality to light and to order our steps and teach us to walk to it to purchase our pardon and to give us a Law to save us that he may rule us and to rule us that he may save us We must not hope to divide Jesus from the Lord for if we do we lose them both Save us he will not if he be not our Lord and if we obey him not Our Lord he is still and we are under his power but under that power which will bruise us to pieces And here appeareth that admirable mixture of his Mercy and Justice tempered and made up in the rich treasury of his Wisdom his Mercy in pardoning sin and his Justice in condemning sin in his flesh Rom 8.3 and in our flesh his Mercy in covering our sins and his Justice in taking them away his Mercy in forgetting sins past and his Justice in preventing sin that it come no more his Mercy in sealing our pardon and his Justice in making it our duty to sue it out For as he would not pardon us without his Son's obedience to the Cross no more will he pardon us without our obedience to his Gospel A crucified Saviour and a mortified sinner a bleeding Jesus and a broken heart a Saviour that died once unto sin and a sinner dead unto sin Rom. 6.10 these make that heavenly composition and reconcile Mercy and Justice and bring them so close together that they kiss each other For how can we be free and yet love our fetters how can we be redeemed from sin that are sold under sin how can we be justified that resolve to be unjust how can we go to heaven with hell about us No Love and Obedience Hope and Fear Mercy and Justice Jesus and the Lord are in themselves and must be considered by us as bound together in an everlasting and undivided knot If we love his Mercy we shall bow to his Power If we hope for favour we shall fear his wrath If we long for Jesus we shall reverence the Lord. Unhappy we if he had not been a Jesus and unhappy we if he had not been a Lord Had he not been the Lord the world had been a Chaos the Church a Body without a Head a Family without a Father an Army without a Captain a Ship without a Pilot and a Kingdom without a King But here Wisdom and Mercy and Justice Truth and Peace Reconcilement and Righteousness Misery and Happiness Earth and Heaven meet together and are concentred even in this everlasting Truth in these three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. And thus much of the Lesson which we are to learn We come now to our task and to enquire What it is to say it It is soon said It is but three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. The Indian saith it and the Goth saith it and the Persian saith it totius mundi una vox CHRISTUS est Christ Jesus is become the language of the whole world The Devils themselves did say it Matth. 8.29 Jesus thou Son of God And if the Heretick will not confess it dignus est clamore daemonum convinci saith Hilary What more fit to convince an Heretick then the cry of the Devils themselves Acts 19. The vagabond Jews thought to work miracles with these words And we know those virgins who cried Lord Lord open unto us were branded with the name of fools and shut out of doors Whilest we are silent we stand as it were behind the wall we lie
hid in the secret pavilion of our thoughts but the Tongue is the door by which we go out and manifest and expose our selves to the publick view But even this gate this door may be a wall a pavillion to skreen us and many times we are least seen when we are most exposed For words are deceitful upon the balance When you come to weigh them those words which went for talents weigh not a mite and though they present unto us the softness of butter yet upon the touch and trial they have an edge and wound like swords To bless with the mouth and curse with the heart is the Devil's lecture who in these last Atheistical times hath set the heart and tongue at such a distance that they hold no intelligence Hosanna is the word when we wish Christ on the cross and we call him Lord when we trample him under our feet If we look upon the greatest part of Christendom we may take them not for a Church but rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a convention or congregation of idle talking men who say it and never say it say it often but never speak it as they should To say it then is of a more spreading signification and taketh in the Tongue the Heart the Hand taketh in 1. an outward Profession 2. an inward Persuasion 3. a constant Practice answerable to them both This is the best language of a Christian when he speaketh by his Tongue his Eye his Ear his Hand by every member that he hath Rom. 10.9 First we are bound to say it That we may be saved we must confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus 1 John 4.15 God dwelleth in him that confesseth Jesus is the Son of God The Mouth is named by S. Paul in allusion to that of Moses The word is in thy mouth Where by a Synecdoche the Mouth is mentioned when all the other parts of the body are understood For if the Mouth were enough if to say it were sufficient there needed no holy Ghost to descend to teach it We might learn to say Jesus is the Lord as the Pye or Parrot did to salute Caesar and between our Jesu Domine and the birds Ave Caesar the difference would not be great And indeed if we send our eyes abroad and take a survey of the conversation of most Christians we shall find that our Confession is much after the language of birds To name Christ and speak well of his name To bless the child Jesus and to curse the Jews this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the total of our Say of our Confession And if we were to frame a Religion out of mens lives as one is said to have done a Grammar out of Homer's works we should find none but this For what can we discover in most mens lives but noise and words How good is the Lord How beautiful are the feet of Jesus Doth any man speak against Jesus Ad ignem leones Let him die for it And thus some say it because they are inwardly convinced and willing to think so For not onely out of the mouths of babes and sucklings but also out of the mouths of wicked men hath God ordained strength And Jesus is justified and magnified not onely by his children but also by his enemies Again some are Christians in a throng and dare not but say it for very shame dare not oppose it lest the multitude of those they live with should confute or silence them or stone them to death Si nomen Christi in tanta gloria non esset tot professores Christi sancta Ecclesia non haberet saith Gregory If the name of Christ had not been made glorious on the earth the Church of Christ would fall short in her reckoning and number of Professours whereof the greatest part name him but for companie 's sake And that is the reason why so many fall from him in time of persecution and are so ready to forget him For that Religion which we take up by the way will never bring us forward upon the point of the sword Besides the Heart doth not alwayes sympathize and keep time with the Voice but is often dull and heavy when our Hosannas and Hallelujahs are loudest nay most times turneth away from that which our Profession tendeth to The Voice may be for Jesus and the Heart for Mammon the Voice for Christ the Heart on his Patrimony the Voice for his miracles the desire for his loaves We may say he is the Lord when are ready to crucifie him O miserable disproportion and contradiction of Voice and Heart Foolish men that we are to profess the Gospel is true and yet so live as it were most certainly false I did not well to mention this For thus to say it is not to say it This Confession is at best but a beam cast forth from the light of Reason but an acknowledgement against our wills and we may truly say Vox est preterea nihil It is a voice a sound of words and no more Thus they may name him who never name him but in their cursed oaths and exsecrations who shall be said never to have named Jesus because they name him too often and whom he will not know because they have been too familiar with him Thus the Profane person may say it who teareth him pieces the Sacrilegious person who devoureth him the Covetous who selleth him the Ambitious who treadeth upon him the Devil who will have nothing to doe with him and that white Devil the Hypocrite that trumpet of an uncertain sound that monster with the voice of an Angel and the malice of a fiend But this is not to say it And we must learn to distinguish between Samuel and the Devil which the witch brought up in his mantle Outward Profession will not reach home But In the next place as there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word floating on the tongue so there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word conceived and shaped in the mind the word of the Heart a kind of dialogue within our selves as Plato calleth it when by due examination and comparing one thing with another and well weighing the inducements and evidences which are brought we are well persuaded of the Truth and settle our selves upon this conclusion That Jesus is the Lord. We commonly call it Faith Which of it self is operative as a fire in the bones which will not be concealed My heart was hot within me and whilst I was musing the fire burned Psal 39. Psal 116. then spake I with my tongue saith David I believed and therefore have I spoken The love of Christ constraineth us saith S. Paul And indeed of its own nature so it will For it is of an active nature Sometimes we read of its valour it stoppeth the mouths Lions Sometimes of its policy it is not ignorant of the Devil's enterprises Sometimes of its strength that it removeth mountains And we find
furta fidei the thefts and pious depredations of Faith But that Faith should be idle or speechless or dead is contrary to its nature and proceedeth from our depraved dispositions from Love of the world and Love of our selves which can silence it or lull it asleep or bury it in oblivion Thus we may have Faith as if we had it not and use it as we should use the world as if we used it not or worse abuse it not believe and say it but believe and deny it not believe and be saved but believe and be damned For the Devil can haereticare propositiones make propositions which are absolutely true heretical Believe and be saved is as true as Gospel nay it is the Gospel it self but by his art and deceit many believe and are by so much the bolder in the wayes which lead unto Death believe Jesus to be the Lord and contemn him believe him to be a Saviour and upon presumption of mercy make themselves uncapable of mercy and because he saveth sinners will be such sinners as he cannot save because they believe he taketh away the sins of the world will harden themselves in those sins which he will not take away Many there be who do veritatem sed non per vera tenere maintain the Truth but by those wayes which are contrary to the Truth make that which should confirm Religion destroy Religion and their whole life a false gloss upon a good Text having a form of godliness but denying the power of it crying Jesus is the Lord but scourging him with their blasphemies as if he were a slave and fighting against him with their lusts and affections as if he were an enemy sealing him up in his grave as if he were not that Jesus that Saviour that Lord but in the Jews language that deceiver that blasphemer But this is a most broken and imperfect language And though we are said to believe it when we cannot believe it to have the habit of Faith when we have not the use of Reason and so cannot bring it forth into act as some Divines conceive though it be spoke for us at the Font when we cannot speak and though when we can speak it we speak it again and again as often almost at we speak Lord Lord though we gasp it forth with our last breath and make it the last word we speak yet all this will not make up the Dicere all this will not rise to thus much as to say JESUS IS THE LORD Therefore In the third place that we may truly say it we must speak it to God as God speaketh to us whose word is his deed who cannot lie who Numb 23.19 if he saith it will doe it if he speak it will make it good And as he speaketh to us by his Benefits which are not words but blessings the language of Heaven by his Rain to water the earth by his Wool to clothe us and by his Bread to feed us so must we speak to him by our Obedience by Hearts not hollow by Tongues not deceitful by Hands pure and innocent Our heart conceiveth and our obedience is the report made abroad And this is indeed LO QUI to speak out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make our works vocal and our words operative to have lightning in our words and thunder in our deeds as Nazianzene spake of Basil that not onely Men and Angels may hear and see and applaud us but this Lord himself may understand our dialect and by that know us to be his children and accept and reward us In our Lord and Saviour's Alphabet these are the Letters in his Grammar these are the Words Meekness and Patience Compassion and Readiness to forgive Self-denial and Taking up our cross This must be our Dialect We cannot better express our Jesus and our Lord then idiomate operum by the language of our works by the language of the Angels whose Elogium is They doe his will the Tongue of Angels is not so proper as their Ministery for indeed their Ministery is their Tongue by the language of the Innocents who confessed him to be the Lord not by speaking but by dying by the language of the blessed Martyrs who in their tumultuary executions when they could not be heard for noise were not suffered to confess him said no more but took their death on it And this is truly to say Jesus is the Lord. For if he be indeed our Lord then shall we be under his command and beck Not a thought must rise which he would controll not a word be uttered which he would silence not an action break forth which he forbideth not a motion be seen which he would stop The very name of Lord must awe us must possess and rule us must inclose and bound us and keep us in on every side Till this be done nothing is done nothing is said We are his purchase and must fall willingly under his Dominion For as God made Man a little World so hath he made him a little Commonwealth Tertullian calleth him Fibulam utriusque substantiae the Clasp or Button which tieth together two diverse substances the Soul and the Body the Flesh and the Spirit And these two are contrary one to the other saith S. Paul are carried diverse wayes the Flesh to that which is pleasing to it and the Spirit to that which is proportioned to it looking on things neither as pleasing nor irksom but as they may be drawn in to contribute to the perfection and beauty of the soul Gal. 5.17 They lust and struggle one against the other and Man is the field the theatre where this battel is fought and one part or other still prevaileth Many times nay most times the Flesh with her sophistry prevaileth with the Will to joyn with her against the Spirit against those inclinations and motions which the Word and the Spirit beget in us And then Sin taketh the chair the place and throne of Christ and is Lord over us reigneth as S. Paul speaketh in our mortal bodies If it say Go we go and if it say Come we come and if it say Doe this we doe it It maketh us lay down that price for dung with which we might purchase heaven See how Mammon condemneth one to the mines to dig for metalls and treasure for that money which will perish with him See how Lust fettereth another with a look and the glance of an eye and bindeth him with a kiss which will at last bite like a serpent See how Self-love driveth on thousands as Balaam did his beast on the point of the sword And thus doth Sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 6.12 Lord it and King it over us And in this bondage and slavery can we truly say Jesus is the Lord when he is disgraced deposed and even crucified again Beloved whilest this fighting and contention lasteth in us something or other will lay hold on us and draw us within its
jurisdiction something or other will have the command of us either the World or the Flesh or Jesus Therefore we ought to consider what it is that beareth most sway in our hearts what it is we are most unwilling to lose and afraid to depart from Whether we had rather dwell in the world with all its pomp and pageantry in the flesh in a Mahumetical paradise of all sensual delights or with Jesus the Lord though it be with persecutions Suppose the Devil should make an overture to thee as he did to our Saviour of all the Kingdoms of the world and the Flesh should plead for her self as she will be putting in for her share and shew thee Pleasure and Honour and Power and all that a heart of flesh can desire in those Kingdomes and on the other side Jesus the Lord should check thee as he doth in his Gospel and pull thee back and tell thee that all this is but a false shew that this present shew will rob thee of future realities that the pleasures which are but for a season are not to be compared to that eternal weight of glory that in this terrestriall Paradise thou shalt meet with the sword and wrath of God and from this seeming painted heaven fall into hell it self Here now is thy trial here thou art put to thy choice If thy heart can now truly say I will have none of these if thou canst say to thy Flesh Who gave thee authority over me What hast thou to doe with me if thou canst say with thy Jesus Avoid Satan and then bow to Jesus and acknowledge no power in heaven or in earth no Dominion but his then thou hast learned this holy language perfectly and mayst truly say JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. And now to apply it in a word Is it not pity nay a great shame that Man who was created to holiness who was made for this Lord as this Lord was made man for him whose perfect liberty is his service whose greatest honour is to be under his Dominion and whose crown of glory it is to have Jesus to be his King should wait and serve under the World which passeth away should be a parasite to the Flesh which hath no better kin then Rottenness and Corruption should yield and comply with the Devil who seeketh to devour him and fling off the service of Christ as the most loathsome painful detestable thing on earth who is a Jesus to save him and a Lord that hath purchased him with his bloud Is Jesus the Lord Nay but the World is the Lord and the Flesh is the Lord and the Devil is the Lord. This is Vox populi the language of the world And therefore Saint Cyprian bringeth in the Devil thus bragging against this Jesus and magnifying his power above his and laughing us to scorn whom he hath filled with shame Ego pro istis sanguinem non fudi I have not spent one drop of bloud for these I gave them wine to mock them I presented them beauty to burn them I made riches my snare to take them I flattered them to kill them All my study was to bring them to death and everlasting destruction Tuos tales demonstra mihi Jesu Thou that openedst thy bowels and pouredst forth thy bloud for them shew me so many servants of thine so ready so officious so ambitious to serve thee And what a shame is this to all that bear the name of Christ and call him both their Jesus and their Lord that the malice of an enemy should win us and the love of a Saviour harden us that a Murtherer should draw us after him and a Redeemer drive us from him that Satan an Adversary and the Devil an Accuser should more prevail then Jesus the Lord Lacrymis magìs opus est quà m verbis Here let us drop our tears and lay our hands upon our mouths and abhor our selves in dust and ashes go into the house of mourning the school of Repentance and there learn this blessed dialect learn it and believe it and speak it truly JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. For conclusion Ye that approch the Table of the Lord to receive the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud consider well whose Body and Bloud it is Draw near for it is Jesus but draw near with reverence for it is the Lord. And as he was once offered upon the Cross so in these outward elements he now offereth himself unto you with all the benefits of his death For here is comprehended not onely Panis Domini but Panis Dominus not onely the bread of the Lord John 6. but also the Lord himself who is that living Bread which came down from heaven And how will ye appear before your Jesus but with love and gratitude and with that new song of the Saints and Angels Rev. 5.12 Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing And how will ye appear before your Lord but with humility and reverence with broken hearts for your neglect and strong and well-made resolutions to fall down and worship and serve him all the dayes of your life For if the ancient Christians out of their high esteem of the Sacrament were scrupulous and careful that not one part of the consecrated Bread nor one drop of the consecrated Wine should fall to the ground but thought it a sin though it were but a chance or misfortune quanti piaculi erit Deminum negligere what an unexpiable crime will it be to neglect the Lord himself If the Sacrament hath been thought worthy of such honour what honour is due to Jesus the Lord Bring then your offerings and oblations and offer them here as he offered himself upon the cross your Gold and Frankincense and Myrrh your Temporal goods your Prayers your Mortification that this Lord may hold forth his golden sceptre to you that you may touch the top of it and be received into favour For what else doth the Eucharist signifie We call the Sacraments the signs and seals of the Covenant of Grace But they are also saith Contarene the protestations of our Faith by which we believe not onely the articles of our Creed but the Divine Promise and Institution And Faith is vocal and will awake our Viol and Harp our Tongue and all the powers and faculties of our soul and breathe it self forth in songs of thanksgiving And they are the protestations of our Repentance also which will speak in sighs and grones unutterable And they also are the protestations of our Hope which is ever looking for and rejoycing in and talking of that which is laid up And they are the protestations of our Charity which maketh the tongue and hand as the pen of a ready writer whose words are more sweet whose language is more delightful then that which is uttered by the tongues of men and of Angels And if ye thus
speak in Faith speak in the bitterness of your souls speak in Hope and speak in the heavenly dialect which is Love ye then truly say JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. And this Jesus shall be your Jesus shall plead and intercede for you fill you with all the comforts and ravishments of his Gospel And this Lord shall descend to meet you here and welcome you to his Table And when he shall descend with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God he will enable and encourage you to meet him in the air and take you up with him into heaven that ye may be and rejoyce with Jesus the Lord for evermore Which the Lord grant for his infinite mercy's sake The Eighteenth SERMON PART II. 1 COR. XII 3. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost WE have hitherto detained you in the Lesson Which is indeed a short one but in it is comprised the whole Gospel For when we have let loose our phansie and sought out many inventions when we have even wearied our selves in the uncertain gyres and Meanders which our imaginations cut out when we have laid out that time in following that we cannot overtake which we should have imployed in that work which is visible and put into our hands when our Curiosity hath even spent it self this is all Jesus is the Lord. And to profess him to be the Lord whom we must obey in all things who hath power in heaven and in earth a power to command our Understandings to bow to the Truth and our Wills to imbrace it is compendium Evangelii the sum of Religion the whole intent and scope of the Gospel of Christ This is the Lesson And I told you in the next place we must learn to say it that is first to Profess it But that is not enough All Nations have said it and the Devils have said it And what Religion is that in which the sons of perdition and the Devils themselves may joyn with us What a Profession is that which may be heard in Hell What a poor progress do we make towards happiness if the cursed Spirits go along with us and reach as far as we There is then secondly verbum mentis a word conceived in the mind a perswasion of the Truth And this also may come too short For many times there is not so much Rhetorick and power in this to move us to our duty as there is in a piece of money or a painted face to carry us from it but it lieth useless and of no efficacy at all suffering our members to rebel our flesh to riot it our passions to break loose and hurry us into by-wayes and dangerous precipices speaking to us for the Lord whilst we despise and tread him under foot For if we consider that intimacy and familiarity that many men have with those sins which cannot but present to the mind so much monstrosity as might fright them from them if we behold with what eagerness and delight men pursue that which is as loathsome as Hell it self how they labour and dig for it as for treasure how they devote both body and mind to its service how every trifle is in esteem above Grace and every Barabbas preferred before Jesus the Lord we might easily be induced to conclude that they do not believe that there is a God or that Jesus is the Lord but as the Heathen in scorn did ask Ecquis Christus cum suâ fabulâ count the Gospel and Christianity as a fable For it is not easie to conceive how a man that is verily persuaded in his heart that Jesus is the Lord and that to break Christ's command is to forfeit his soul that for every wilful sin he loseth Paradise and for a moments brutish pleasure he shall find no better purchase then an irreversible state in hell should dare to do that which he doeth every day in a kind of triumph and Jubilee or dip but the tip of his finger in the water of bitterness which he drinketh down greedily as an oxe But upon a review and more mature consideration we may observe that Sin is not alwaies the effect of Infidelity but sometimes of Incogitancy and because we do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stoop and look intentively upon this truth that we have indeed learned this lesson but when we should make use of it to restrain us are willing to forget that Jesus is the Lord. We believe that we shall die but so live as if we were eternal We believe there is hell-fire but stoln waters are sweet and quench those flames We believe that there is a heaven but every trifle is a better sight We believe that Jesus is the Lord but the object that next smileth upon us becometh our Master We believe but are willing to forget what we believe Heaven and Hell the Law and the Gospel and the Lord himself In a word we believe that Death is the wages of sin but the pleasures and vanities of the world come towards us in a gaudy and triumphant march and swallow up this faith and this persuasion in victory detain it and put it in chains that it is not able to do its office not to move and work by Charity For if Heaven did display all its glory and Hell breathe forth all its terrour yet if we do but look upon it and then turn away our eye our persuasion will soon shrink back and withdraw it self and leave us naked and open to every temptation weak and impotent not able to struggle and resist it and we shall laetari in rebus pessimis rejoyce in evil sport and delight our selves at the very gates of hell as an intoxicated thief may laugh and jest at the ridge of the gallows Be not then too well persuaded of every persuasion For if it be but the word and the language of the mind it may soon be silenced And therefore we must nourish and soment it stir it up and enliven it that in the last place it may be of force to move the Tongue and the Hand that as the Heart doth speak to the Lord by a sincere belief Lord I belive so we may speak it with our Hands and Eyes and Feet and sound it out with every member that we have and together make that glorious report which may enter the highest heavens Lord we are ready to do whatsoever thou commandest that we may pray in his ears and weep in his ears Numb 11.18 that our Alms may speak louder then our Trumpet and our Fasting and Humility may houl unto him and not our exterminated face that he may hearken to our thoughts as well as to our words and that an universal Obedience may declare our Faith as the heavens do his glory This is the language of Canaan the
celestial dialect and not as some of late have been ready to make it the language of the Whore of Babylon as if Faith onely did make a Protestant and Good works were the mark of a Papist What mention we Papist or Protestant The Christian is the member of this Body and Common-wealth this is his language Zeph. 3.9 the pure language When Hand and Tongue Faith and Good works a full Persuasion and a sincere Obedience are joyned together then we shall speak this language plainly and men will understand us and glorifie God the Angels will understand and applaud us and the Lord will understand and crown us We shall speak it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faintly and feignedly ready upon any allurement or terrour to eat our words but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we shall make it plain by an Ocular demonstration And this is truly to say JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. This is the Lesson our first Part. And thus far we are gone And we see it is no easie matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak but these three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. For we must comprehend Eph. 3.18 saith the Apostle the breadth and length and depth and height of this Divine mystery the breadth saith S. Augustine in the expansion and dilatation of my Charity the length by my continued perseverance unto the end the height in the exaltation of my hope to reach at things above and the depth in the contemplation of the bottomless sea of God's mercies These are the dimensions And if we will learn these Mathematicks because we see the Lesson is difficult we must have a skilful Master And behold my next Part bringeth him forth bringeth us news of one who is higher then heaven broader then the sea and longer then the earth as Job speaketh It is the holy Ghost For no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost And indeed good reason that he should be our Teacher For as the Lesson is such should the Master be The Lesson is spiritual the Teacher a Spirit The Lecture is a lecture of piety and the Spirit is an holy Spirit The Lesson proposeth a method to joyn Heaven and Earth God and Man Mortality and Immortality Misery and Happiness in one to draw us near unto God and make us one with him and the holy Ghost is that consubstantial and coeternal Friendship of the Father and the Son nexus amorosus as the Schools speak the essential Love and Love-knot of the undivided Trinity Flesh and blood cannot reveal this great mystery it must be a Spirit And the Spirit of this world bringeth no news from Heaven we may be sure It must be SPIRITUS SANCTUS the holy Ghost SPIRITUS SANCTUS for JESUS DOMINUS the holy Ghost for Jesus the Lord that by the grace of the holy Spirit we may learn the Power of the Son and by the inspiration of his Holiness learn the mystery of Holiness For it is not sharpness of wit or quickness of apprehension or force of eloquence that can raise us to this Truth but the Spirit of God must lead us to this tree of Knowledge Therefore Tertullian calleth Christian Religion commentum Divinitatis the invention of the Divine Spirit as Faith is called the gift of God not onely because it is given to every believer but because the Spirit first found out the way to save us by so weak a means as Faith O qualis artifex Spiritus sanctus What a skilful Artificer what an excellent Master is the blessed Spirit who found out a way to lift up Dust it self as high as Heaven and clothe it with eternity whose least beam is more glorious then the Sun and maketh it day unto us whose every whisper is as thunder to awake us cujus tetigisse docuisse est whose every touch and breathing is an instruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene For this Spirit is wise and can he is loving and will teach us if we will learn He inspireth an Herdsman and he straight becometh a Prophet He calleth a Fisherman and maketh him an Apostle Et non opus est morâ Spiritui Sancto He standeth not in need of any help from delay Without him Miracles are sluggish and of no efficacy but upon his breathing our Saviour shall appear glorious in his ignominy and the Thief shall worship him on his cross as if he had been in his Kingdom in whom he wrought such an alteration that in S. Hierom's phrase mutavit homicidii poenam in martyrium he was so changed that he died not a thief or murtherer but a Martyr And such a powerful Teacher we stood in need of to raise our Nature and that corrupt unto so high a pitch as the participation of the Divine Nature For no act and so no act of holiness or spiritual knowledge can be produced by any power which is not connatural to it and as it were a principle of that act So that as there is a natural light by which we are brought to the apprehension of natural principles whether speculative or practick by which light many of the Heathen proceeded so far as to leave most of them behind them who have the Sun of righteousness ever shining upon them so there must be a supernatural light by which we may be guided to attain unto truths of a higher nature Which the Heathen wanting did run uncertainly as S. Paul speaketh and beat the air and all those glorious acts by which they did out shine many of us were but as the Rainbow before the Floud for shew but for no use at all The Power must ever be connatural to the Act. Nature may move in her own sphere and turn us about in that compass to do those things which Nature is capable of but Nature could not make a Saint or a member of Christ To spiritualize a man to make him Christi-formem to bring him to a conformity and uniformity with Christ is the work alone of the Spirit of Christ Which he doth sweetly and secretly powerfully characterizing our hearts and so taking possession of them The Apostle telleth us that Christ dwelleth in us by his Spirit by his power and efficacy Rom. 8.11 which worketh like fire enlightning warming and purging our hearts Matth. 3.11 which are the effects of Fire First by sanctifying our knowledge of him by shewing us the riches of his Gospel and the beauty and majesty of Christ's Dominion and Kingdom with that evidence that we are forced to fall down and worship by filling the soul with the glory of it as God filled the Tabernacle with his Exod. 30. that all the powers and faculties of our soul are ravished at the sight that we come willingly and fall down willingly before this Lord in a word by bringing on that Truth which our heart assenteth to with that clearness and fulness of demonstration that it passeth through all the
The treasures thereof are infinite the minerals thereof are rich assiduè pleniùs responsura fodienti The more they are digged the more plentifully do they offer themselves that all the wit of men and Angels can never be able to draw them dry But even this Word many times is but a word and no more Sometimes it is a killing letter Such vain and unskilful pioneers we are that for the most part we meet with poisonous damps and vapours instead of treasure I might adde a third Teacher Christ's Discipline which when we think of nothing but of Jesus by his rod and afflictions putteth us in remembrance that he is the Lord. This Teacher hath a kind of Divine authority and by this the Spirit breatheth many times with more efficacy and power then by the Church or the Word then by the Prophets and Apostles and holy Scriptures For when we are disobedient to his Church deaf to his Word at the noise of these many waters we are afraid and yield our necks unto his yoke All these are Teachers But their authority and power and efficacy they have from the Spirit The Church if not directed by the Spirit were but a rout or Conventicle the Word if not quickned by the Spirit a dead letter and his Discipline a rod of iron first to harden us and then break us to pieces But AFFLAT SPIRITUS the Spirit bloweth upon his Garden the Church and the spices thereof flow And then to disobey the Church is to resist the Spirit INCUBAT SPIRITUS The holy Ghost sitteth upon the seed of the Word and hatcheth a new creature a subject to this Lord. MOVET SPIRITUS The Spirit moveth upon these waters of bitterness and then they make us fruitful to every good work In a word The Church is a Teacher and the Word is a Teacher and Afflictions are Teachers but the Spirit of God the holy Ghost is all in all I might here enter a large field full of delightful variety But I forbear and withdraw my self and will onely remember you that this Spirit is a spirit that teacheth Obedience and Meekness that if we will have him light upon us we must receive him as Christ did in the shape of a Dove in all innocency and simplicity He telleth us himself that with a froward heart he will not dwell and then sure he will not enlighten it For as Chrysostom well observeth that the Prophets of God and Satan did in this notoriously differ that they who gave Oracles from God gave them with all mildness and temper without any fanatick alteration but they who gave Oracles by motion from the Devil did it with much distraction and confusion with a kind of fury and madness so we shall easily find that those motions which descend not from above are earthly sensual and devilish that in them there is strife and envying and confusion and every evil work but the wisdom which is from above from the holy Ghost is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated James 3. full of mercy and good fruits Be not deceived When thy Anger rageth the Spirit is not in that storm When thy Disobedience to Government is loud he speaketh not in that thunder When thy Zele is mad and unruly he dwelleth not in that fiery hush When the faculties of thy soul are shaken and dislocated by thy stubborn and perverse passions that thou canst neither look nor speak nor move aright he will not be in that earthquake But in the still voice and the cool of the day in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the calm and tranquility and peace of thy soul he cometh when that storm is slumbred that earthquake setled that thunder stilled that fire quenched And he cometh as a light to shew thee the beauty and love of thy Saviour and the glory and power of thy Lord. And though he be sole Instructor yet he descendeth to make use of means and if thou wilfully withdraw thy self from these thou art none of his celestial Auditory To conclude Wilt thou know how to speak this language truly that Jesus is the Lord and assure thy self that the Spirit teacheth thee so to speak Mark well then those symptoms and indications of his presence those marks and signs which he hath left us in his word to know when the voice is his For though as the Kingdom of heaven so the Spirit of God cometh not with observation yet we may observe whether he be come or no. Remember then first that he is a Spirit and the Spirit of God and so is contrary to the Flesh and teacheth nothing that may flatter or countenance it or let it loose to insult over the Spirit For this is against the very nature of the Spirit as much as it is for light bodies to descend or heavy to move upwards Nay Fire may descend and the Earth may be moved out of its place the Sun may stand still or go back Nature may change its course at the word and beck of the God of Nature but this is one thing which God cannot do he cannot change himself nor can his Spirit breathe any doctrine forth that savoureth of the World or the Flesh or Corruption Therefore we may nay we must suspect all those doctrines and actions which are said to be effects and products of the blessed Spirit when we observe them drawn out and levelled to carnal ends and temporal respects For sure the Spirit can never beat a bargain for the world and the Truth of God is the most unproportioned price that can be laid out on such a purchace When I see a man move his eyes compose his countenance order and methodize his gesture and behaviour as if he were now on his death-bed to take his leave of the world and to seal that Renouncement which he made at the Font when I hear him loud in prayer and as loud in reviling the iniquities of the times wishing his eyes a fountain of tears to bewail them day and night when I see him startle at a mis-placed word as if it were a thunderbolt when I hear him cry as loud for a Reformation as the idolatrous Priests did upon their Baal I begin to think I see an Angel in his flight and mount going up into heaven But after all this devotion this zele this noise when I see him stoop like the Vultur and fly like lightning to the prey I cannot but say within my self O Lucifer son of the morning how art thou fallen from heaven how art thou brought down to the ground nay to hell it self Sure I am the holy Ghost looketh upward moveth upward directeth us upward and if we follow him neither our doctrine nor our actions will ever savour of this dung Remember again that he is SPIRITUS RECTUS a right Spirit as David calleth him Psal 51. not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 winding and turning several wayes now to God and anon nay at once to Mammon now glancing
on heaven and having an eye fixed and buried in the earth And that he is a Spirit of truth And it is the property of Truth to be alwayes like unto it self to change neither shape nor voice but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak the same things He doth not set up one Text against another doth not disannul his Promises in his Threats nor recall his Threats in his Promises doth not forbid Fear in Hope nor shake our Hope when he biddeth us fear doth not command Meekness to abate my Zele nor kindle my Zele to consume my Meekness doth not preach Christian Liberty to take off Obedience to Government nor prescribe Obedience to infringe and weaken my Chiristian Liberty Spiritus nusquam est aliud The holy Spirit is never different from it self never contradicteth it self And the reason why men who talk so much of the Spirit do fall into so gross and pernicious errours is from hence that they will not be like the Spirit in this but upon the beck of some place of Scripture which at the first blush and appearance looketh favourably on their present inclinations run violently on this side animated and posted on by those shews appearances which were the creatures of their Lust Phansie never looking back to other testimonies of Divine authority that army of evidences as Tertull. speaketh which are openly prest out marshalled against them which might well put them to an halt deliberation which might stay and drive back their intention and settle them at last in the truth which consisteth in a moderation O that men were wise but so wise as to know the Spirit before they engage him to look severely impartially upon their own designs as seriously consider the nature of the blessed Spirit before they voice him out for their abettor or make use of his name to bring their ends about Not to do this I will not say is the sin though perhaps I might but sure I am it is a great sin even Blasphemy against the holy Ghost But I must conclude Let us then as the Apostle speaketh examine our selves and bring our selves and our actions to trial Prove your selves and prove the Spirit Are your steps right and your wayes straight Do your actions answer the rule and still bear the same image and superscription Are you obedient to the Church and do you not think your selves wiser then your Teachers Are you reverent to God's word and receive it with all meekness without respect or distinction of those persons that convey it To come close to the Text Do you not divorce Jesus from the Lord riot it upon his mercy and then bow to him in a qualm and pinch of conscience Do you not fear the Lord the less for Jesus nor love Jesus the less for the Lord Are you as willing to be commanded as to be saved and to be his subjects as his children Are you thus qualified And are you still the same not making in your profession those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crooked and unsteddy bendings those staggerings of a drunken man now meek as Lambs and anon raging like Lions now hanging down the head and anon lifting up your horn on high at the altar forgiveness and in your closet revenge courting your brother to day and to morrow taking him by the throat Are you as ready to bow the knee in Devotion and stretch forth the hand in Charity as you are to incline your ear to a Sermon Are you in all things in subjection unto this Lord Is this proposition true and dare ye subscribe it with your bloud JESUS IS THE LORD Then have ye learnt this language well and are perfect Linguists in the Spirit 's dialect Then let the rainfall and the flouds come let the winds and waters of affliction beat thick upon us and the waves of persecution go over our soul let the windy sophisms of subtil disputants blow with violence to shake our resolution in the midst of all temptations assaults and encounters in the midst of all the busie noise the world can make we shall be at rest upon the rock even upon this fundamental truth That the Spirit is the best teacher and That Jesus is the Lord. In which truth the Spirit of truth confirm us all for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake The Nineteenth SERMON ISA. LV. 6. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near THE withdrawing of every thing from its original from that which it was made to be is like the drawing of a straight line which the further you draw it the weaker it is nor can it be strengthned but by being redoubled and brought back again towards its first point Now the Wiseman will tell us Eccles 7.29 That God hath made man upright that is simple and single and sincere bound him as it were to one point but he hath sought out many inventions mingled himself and ingendered with divers extravagant conceits and so run out not in one but many lines now drawn out to that object now to another still running further and further from the right and from that which he should have staid in and been united to as it were in puncto in a point and so degenerated much from that natural simplicity in which he was first made This our Prophet observeth in the people of Israel that they did their own wayes Chap. 58.13 Chap. 63.17 and erred from God's wayes run out as so many ill-drawn lines one on the flesh another on the world one on idolatry another on oppression every man at a sad distance from him whom he shoud have dwelt and rested in as in his Centre Therefore in every breath almost and passage of this Prophesie he seemeth to bend and bow them as it were a line back again to draw them from those objects in which they were lost and to carry them forward to the rock out of which they were hewen to strengthen and settle and establish them in the Lord. All this you have here abridged and epitomized Seek ye the Lord while he may be found The words are plain and need not the gloss of any learned interpreter If we look stedfastly upon the opening of them we shall behold the heavens open and God himself displaying his rayes and manifesting his beauty to draw men near unto himself to allure and provoke them to seek him teaching dust and ashes how to raise it self to the region of happiness mortality to put on immortality and our sinful nature to make its approches to Purity it self that where he is we may be also The parts are two 1. A Duty enjoyned Seek ye the Lord. 2. The Time prescribed when we must seek him while he may be found But because the Object is in nature before the Act and so to be considered we must know what to seek before we can seek it and because we are ready to mistake and to think that we
against those assaults and tentations which as so many winds beat upon it to drive it from that object to which God hath confined it to that indeed which it may cleave to being a free faculty but that there is a Veto a prohibition writ upon it to dull and by degrees to take off that inclination For talk what we will of seeking him as who talk more then they that scarce look after him yet we never seek him till we have lost denied and hated our selves Yet by the surrendry of our wills we do not lose them but make them more ours For herein consisteth the beauty and rectitude and true liberty of the will in that it conformeth to his will who is Wisdom it self and followeth his imperious command Multum est abnegare quod habes sed valde multum est negare quod es saith Gregory It is much for a man to renounce what he hath but it is very much and more praise-worthy to renounce what he it and yet he is not truly till he doth renounce it For as St. Bernard telleth us nihil ardet in inferno praeter propriam voluntatem nothing sinketh us to hell but our own will so is it most true nothing bringeth us to God but denial of our selves and renouncing of our wills That is the best holocaust when our will is sacrificed For as they who lay siege to cities when they have taken the chief and principal fort soon make themselves masters of the town so it fareth in our spiritual warfare and search Till we have given up our will unto God taken it from those vanities and forbidden objects which we most hunt after and sacrificed it to him we seek him not though we call upon him louder then those idolatrous priests did upon their Baal Till he hath taken that we are none of his For though he fetter our hands and put out our eyes and tack up our tongues to the roof of our mouths yet we may still stand out and fight against him by murther without a hand by blasphemy without a tongue by lust without an eye For though the Will be frustrate of its effect yet it remaineth a will still and may finish and determine its act and make us guilty as evil-doers when nothing is done But when this principal fort this commanding faculty is taken and captivated then God taketh possession of all entereth with all his graces dwelleth there and reigneth as King for ever All the faculties of our soul all the parts of our body are ready at his beck we seek him and we find him the Understanding is open to saving knowledge the Memory faithful to retain it the Phansie catcheth not at shadows but becometh an elaboratory and workhouse of wholsom thoughts which are winged to flye after God Then we do not onely seek but run after God totâ fidei substantiâ as Tertullian speaketh with the whole strength and power and substance of our faith our Eye seeketh him whilest we wait on his providence our Ear seeketh him whilest we hearken to his voice our hands seek him whilest we cast our bread upon the waters our Tongue seeketh him by being an instrument of his glory our Faith layeth hold on him our Hope attendeth him our Patience waiteth upon him and our Love embraceth him and will not let him go You may call it what you please Obedience or Holiness or Repentance or Denial of our selves and Renouncing of our wills but this is truly to seek the Lord. That we may thus seek the Lord we must make use of that light which God holdeth up unto us and those means which he hath graciously afforded us to help and forward us in our search Some duties there are which look further then those acts vvhich seem to perfect and accomplish them and if they attain not that end they are nothing yea vvhich is vvorse they are sins but being rightly performed they expedite and facilitate those actions of our life vvhich being linked and united together are as an ornament of grace unto our head and chains about our neck in vvhich dress and glorious habit vve make our approches unto the Lord. I name but three Hearing and Reading of the Word Fasting and Prayer Exercising our selves in these is commonly called seeking the Lord by those vvho either do not or vvill not understand what they speak Many thus seek him vvho nevertheless run from the presence of the Lord further then Jonah did not to some Tarshish or to the bottom of the ship but to Hell it self They hear and run from him fast and run from him pray and run from him They hear that they may sin fast that may continue in it pray that it may prosper and as if it vvere some head corner stone they bring it out with shoutings and cry Grace Grace unto it But vve must remember these are means appointed but not to this end and next that they are the Means and not the End For first the Word of God as it is the mother vvhich begetteth this desire in us so is it the nurse to cherish it as it first began that motion vvhich tendeth to God so it improveth every day our activity in seeking keepeth every vvheel in its ovvn place fitteth and applieth it self to every one of the generation of seekers of vvhat state and condition soever But novv If all be hearing where is our smelling vvhere is our eye and hand And if to hear of him be to seek him there needeth no Prophet's voice to rowse us up there needeth no Moses to bid us Hear Oh Israel For they who are lame and impotent criples and so lye at the beautiful gate of the Temple and cannot move at all when he biddeth them take up their cross and follow him without the help of a Peter without a miracle will walk and leap and be as swift as a roe to run to a sermon to hear of him But this indeed is to abuse those helps and means which God doth plentifully afford us For Hearing of it self is of singular use if it drive to a right end and therefore it was wise counsel which Demosthenes gave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to work the first cure upon our ear that it may be fit to receive the Word of God and conveigh it downward into the heart and so beget a new creature a child of God that we may not count Hearing seeking but so hear that we may seek the Lord. Secondly that our ears may be purged that we may have clean ears and so have pure hands we must beat down our body and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bring it into subjection by Fasting and abstinence make it a servant that every part may be ready at the beck of Reason For to this end Fasting is enjoyned not to a politick but spiritual not a natural but a supernatural end God forbid that a fast should either keep us evil or make us worse It is but as a stage-play as
the Anabaptists call it if it be not levelled to its right end which is not to afflict but to purge and refine us to withdraw us from the present momentany pleasures that we may be fitted for the future for those which are not seen which are eternal that we may so abstain from meats ut solo Deo alamur as Tertullian speaketh of Moses and Elias that we may feed on God alone which is to seek him Last of all Prayer is of great force and availeth much saith Saint James It is the best guide and conduct to lead us in our way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nyssene it addeth wings unto us even the wings of a Dove that we may fly after God and be at rest It is impossible that it should return empty if we ask for grace not wealth that we may do God's will and not that we may bring our own purposes about and then say it is his will The wicked are not heard for God regardeth not their prayers but loatheth them as an abomination And yet they are heard and have that which they request granted them but for another end even as God gave the Israelites a King in his wrath and indignation and to their further condemnation But when we bow before God and desire power and ability to seek him that is to walk in his wayes we pray for that which God is alwayes ready to give We pray that we may seek him who beseecheth and commandeth us to seek him who sendeth his Prophets to call upon us to seek him Such prayers are as musick in the ears of the Almighty and our diligence in seeking him is the resultance We may call Prayer with Dionysius the Areopagite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bright and radiant chain by which we ascend unto God and God descendeth unto us by which we are drawn to follow and seek the Lord. To conclude this part then these three Hearing Fasting and Prayer as they are helps to forward our repentance so are they signs of a troubled spirit probable symptoms of a heart thirsting and panting after God and yet through the corruptions of our hearts they are nothing else but bare signs and types and shadows Signs but such as signifie nothing Types but such as have no Antitypes Shadows of which the substance was never seen For as it was observed of the Jews that the greatest sacrifices so it may be amongst Christians that the most frequent hearers the greatest fasters and they that are longest and loudest in prayer may be the greatest sinners It is well we can be brought to these if it be in God's name but commonly some other wind driveth us to the Temple some other hand putteth on our sackcloth and our love nay the Prince of this world may bring us on our knees and then in these our devotion is terminated and if we can well pass over these as we may well for we delight and pride our selves in them we think we have God in a chain and bound him with our merits that we have past through as many punishments as they did who were to be consecrated to Mithras the God of the Persians In a word in these three Hearing Fasting and Prayer our devotion our seeking is at an end We please and content our selves with the service of the ears of the body of the lips with a Sermon I should say many Sermons with a Fast and that is not complete without something which they call by that name with the labour of the lips with a Prayer and that too must have something of the Sermon and something of the Libel when as indeed our turning to God is the best commendation of a Sermon to loose the bonds of wickedness of that wickedness we now stand guilty of before God and men is the best sanctifying of a Fast and to seek the Lord with all the heart the most effectual Prayer we can make To this end are these duties enjoyned and to this end alone they are useful and serviceable that we may seek the Lord. We have beheld the Object which we must seek the Lord who is the sole and adequate object of our desires in whom alone they may rest If we desire Wealth the earth is the Lord's and all that therein is if Strength he is the Lord of Hosts if Wisdom he created her and poured her out upon all his works if Life he is the living God if Immortality he onely is immortal And if we seek not him our riches are snares our greatest wisdom the greatest folly our strength will overthrow us and our momentany life will deliver us over to eternal death We have also seen what it is to seek the Lord namely to seek him in Christ to seek him in those wayes of obedience and humility which he hath drawn out unto us in his Gospel in a word to bow our wills and receive him into our hearts that God in us may be all in all Now we pass from the Act to the Time when we must seek the Lord while he may be found my last part And do we ask when we should seek the Lord We do not well to ask it because we should not stay so long as to ask the question before we seek him Huic rei perit omne tempus quodcunque alteri datur All time is lost to this which we bestow in any thing else For shall we prefer our pleasure our profit our health our life before God Nor is there need of deliberation in that action wherein all the danger is not to do it Fides pura moram non patitur If we love God and truly believe in him we cannot be so patient as to endure the least delay We may miss of happiness but certainly we cannot meet it too soon I know God may be found at any time which we can call ours at any time of our life in the morning or at noon in the heat of the day or in the cool of the evening But a great presumption it is to promise to our selves to seek and find him when we please He may be found in our old age but it is most safe to remember him in our youth he may be found in affliction but it is not good to stay till the rod be on the back he may be found in war and yet it is hard to find the God of peace in war and therefore it is a folly to delay seeking him till we see the glittering spear and hear the noise of the whip and the prauncing of the horses If we will determine and fix a time we must take the first opportunity lay it to the first beam and dawning of our reason The second or third opportunities though they come not peradventure too late to find him yet they come too late for us to begin to seek him because we lost the first which for ought we knew might have been the last To morrow may be but Now is the while
we speak to our servant and say Go he must go if we say Do this he must do it and he must do it now dicto citiùs as soon as it is spoken A deliberative pausing obedience obedience in the future tense to say I will do it strippeth him of his livery and thrusteth him out of doors And shall dust and ashes take a convenient time to seek the Lord Shall our Now be when we please Shall one morrow thrust on another and that a third Shall we demur and delay it till we are ready to be thrust into our graves If the Lord say Now this Now is it and no other For all other Nows as our dayes are in his hands and he may shut them up if he please and not open them to give thee another Domini non servi negotium agitur The business is the Lord's and not the servant's and the time is in his hands and not in ours Now then now the word soundeth in thy ears now is the time Again now that thou hast any good thought any thought that hath any relish of salvation For that thought if it be not the voice if the whisper of the Lord. If it be a good thought it is from him who is the fountain of all good and he speaketh to thee by it as he did to the Prophets by visions and dreams In a dream in a vision of the night in a thought then he openeth the ears of men Job 33.15.16 and sealeth their instruction And why should he speak once and twice and we perceive it not Why should the Devil that would destroy us prevail with us more then our God who would save us Why should an evil thought arise in our hearts and swell and grow and be powerful to roule the eye to lift up the head to stretch out the hand to make our feet like hind's feet in the wayes of death and a holy thought a good intention which is it were the breath of the Almighty be stopped and checked and slighted and at last chased away into the land of oblivion Why should a good thought as a bubble vanish as soon as it is seen and an evil thought increase and multiply shake the powers of the soul command the will and every â—aâ—â—â—y of the mind and every part of the body and at last bring forth a Cain an Esau a Herod a Pharisee a profane person an hypocrite an adulterer a murderer Why should vve so soon devest our selves of the one and morari stay and dvvell in the other as in a place of pleasure a Seraglio a Paradise Let us but give the same friendly enterteinment to the good as vve do to the bad let us as joyfully embrace the one as vve do the other let us fix our heart on the things above as vve do on the things belovv let us be as speculative men in the vvayes of God as vve are in our ovvn and then vve shall seek the Lord. I appeal to your selves and shall desire you to ask your selves the question How often do you enjoy ravishing thoughts Hovv often do you feel the good motions of the Spirit and seem as it vvere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to vvalk on the pavement of heaven to converse vvith Seraphim and Cherubim and to be lull'd in your Saviour's lap Hovv often are you so composed and biassed by these svveet and heavenly insinuations that heart and hand are ready to joyn together as partners in the seeking of the Lord the heart ready to endite a good matter and the tongue and hand to be as the pen of a ready writer Hovv often art thou the Preacher and telleth thy self Vanity of vanities all is vanity that there is no rest but in God I speak to those vvho have any sense and feeling of a future estate any tast of the powers of the world to come for too many vve see have not I speak this to our shame novv is the time nunc nunc properandus acri Fingendus sine fine rota novv thou must turn the vvheel about and frame and fashion thy self into a vessel of honour consecrate unto the Lord make up a child of God the new creature Now nourish and make much of these good motions They are fallen upon us and entred into us but how long they will stay how long we shall enjoy them we do not know A smile from the world a dart from Satan if we take not heed may chase them away Let us now run and meet our Saviour whilest he knocketh and lay hold on him lest if we seek him not whilest he cometh crowned with all his rayes and beauty whilest he may be found he withdraw himself that we shall not find him or which is worse so forsake us that we shall not seek to find him or if we do then seek him when we shall find nothing but despair This is the DONEC the While the time the Now. For at another time being fallen from this heaven our cogitations may be from the earth earthy such durty thoughts as will not melt but harden in the sun Our Faculties may be corrupt our Understandings dull and heavy our Wills froward and perverse that we can either not will that which is good or so will it that we shall not act it approve incline to it look towards it and then start back as from an enemy as from that which suiteth not with our present disposition but is distastful to it Now now let us close with it whilest it is amiable in our eyes whilest our heart is towards it For another time Vanity it self may appear in glory and Obedience may be a monster Now God is God but anon the World will be our God and we shall seek and worship that The first Now the first opportunity is the best the next is uncertain the next may be never But now if we will stand to distinguish times by the events by the several complexions they receive either by prosperity or adversity certainly the best time to seek the Lord is when he seeketh us when he shineth upon our tabernacle when he wooeth us by his manifold blessings The best time to call upon him is when he calleth upon us and loadeth us daily with his benefits cùm prata rident when our vallies do stand so thick with corn that they do even laugh and sing when God speaketh to us not out of the whirlwind but in a still voice when Plenty crowneth the Commonwealth and Peace shadoweth it when God appeareth to us not as the Poet 's Jupiter to Semele in thunder but as to Danae in a showre of gold whilest he standeth at the door and knocketh as it were with his finger by the motions of the blessed Spirit and not stay till he knock with the hammer of his judgments till he break in upon us with his sword Because then tâ— seek him in this brightness will rather be an act of our love then of our fear
word which is a work which will break forth into action a word like unto that of God who spake and it was done Psal 33.9 Psal 62.11 who speaketh and repenteth not God hath spoken once that is immobiliter saith a Father His word is immutable IBIMUS We will go Here is their Resolution a strong will begotten of Love vehemens bene ordinata voluntas a vehement and well-ordered will Lord Psal 26.8 I have loved the habitation of thy house saith the Psalmist This is invictissimè constantissimè velle as S. Augustine speaketh a preserving and unconquered will a resolution taken up once for all not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Stoicks speak an assent that it is fit so to do but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an active motion by which the mind is carried along and in a manner forced to that it desireth a full perswasion as that of Abraham Rom. 4. as that of S Paul Acts 21. who Rom. 4.21 Acts 21 11-14 though he was so sure to be bound and put in fetters by the Jews at Jerusalem yet he would go up thither and by no arguments nor intreaties nor tears be persuaded to the contrary as that of Martine Luther who would enter the city Wormes though every tile on every house were a devil as that of the blessed Martyrs whom neither threats nor flatteries could at all work upon but their firm and setled purpose of mind added strength to the weaker part animated and quickned and as it were spiritualized their bodies and made them subservient and ministerial to bring their resolution into act Hence in a manner they suffered as if they suffered not They seemed to be ignorant of their stripes senseless of their wounds unconcerned in their torments Death appeared to them in as fair a shape as Life it self yea was desired before it This is it we call Resolution to will and do or to will which is to do For quicquid imperavit sibi animus obtinuit Whatsoever the mind commandeth it self whatsoever it resolveth on is as good as done already For when we have looked upon the object and approved it when we have beheld its glory and confirmed our selves in the liking of it when we have cast by all objections which flesh and bloud may bring in of danger or difficulty when we have fastned the thing to our soul and made it as it were a part of it when it is become as Christ saith our meat John 4.34 then there is such an impression of it made iâ—â—he heart such a character as is indeleble and we are as violently carried towards it as an hungry man is to his food and refreshment neither difficulty nor danger neither principalities nor powers neither life nor death can so stand between as to keep us from it My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed saith David Psal 57.7 and then he cannot but sing and give praise The heart being fixed to the object carrieth it about with it is joyned to it even when it is out of sight when at the greatest distance Finis operi adulatur The end we propose and the glory thereof doth give light and lustre to our endeavours yea and cast a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and loveliness even on that which would deterre us from it and leaveth not in us the consideration or memory of any thing besides it self This is Resolution This maketh an IBIMUS We will go significant without this we cannot clearly pronounce IBIMUS we cannot truly say We will go into the house of the Lord. Such a resolution David here observed at least supposed in the people of Israel For whether the Ark were to be setled or the Temple to be edified or re-edified any of these might well stir up a desire in them and a resolution to see it done For the Ark was a Sam. 4.21 22. Psal 78.61 the glory of Israel and b Jer. 7.4 The Temple of the Lord was a frequent and solemn word in their mouthes they c Psal 44.8 made it their boast all the day long their long absence therefore could not but whet their desire raise their expectation fix and setle their will and make them impatient of delay Oh when shall we appear in the presence of God! When shall we go into the house of the Lord Thence we heard the oracles of God There is the mercy-seat There we offered sacrifices and burnt-offerings There we called upon God's name There are set thrones of judgment the thrones of the house of David There the glory of the Lord appeared and made it as heaven it self We will go This was their Resolution We now pass to behold 3. Their Agreement and joynt Consent Which is visible in the pronoun WE We will go Much hath been said of Pronouns of the power and virtue of them of Meum and Tuum what swords they have whet what bloud they have spilt what fires they have kindled what tumults they have raised in the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene How long shall we hear in the Church these quarrelsome words Mine and Thine My understanding and Thy understanding My wit and Thy wit My preacher and Thy preacher My Church and Thy Church It is not Mine or Thine but Ours WE is a bond of peace and love that tieth us all together and maketh us all one We are all Israelites we are one people we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fellow-citizens and members of the same body We have one Law one Temple one Religion one Faith one God one Heaven cur non omnes unus dicantur saith Origen and why may not all then be one Yes we are all one And there is as great unity between us if we be of the same body saith Cyprian as there is between the beams and the Sun between rivers and their fountain between branches and their root WE taketh in a whole nation a whole people the whole world and maketh them one DECERNIMUS We decree We ordein is taken for a word of state and majesty but it is indeed a word of great moderation and humility an open profession that though Princes command yet they do it not alone but by the advise and counsel of others For in making a Law the King and his Counsel are but one So WE maketh Manasseh and Ephraim all Israel all the Tribes one WE maketh a Common-wealth and WE maketh a Church Though there be Lords and peasants Pastours and people Acts 1.15 though the number of the names together be an hundred and twenty yea many millions yet WE by interpretation is but one 1 Cor. 12.8 c. To one is given the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge to another faith to another the gifts of healing to another the working of miracles c. But it is by one and the same Spirit And as there is but one Spirit so there is but one Christ and in
in spirit and truth But this they cannot do together but in some place and the Spirit which breatheth upon the Church will not blow it down nor the place where they meet who make up a Church We remember also that S. Paul enjoyneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that men pray every where 1 Tim. 2.8 But those words carry not any such tempest with them as to overthrow the houses of the Lord. S. Basil who had as clear an eye and as quick an apprehension as any that age or after-ages have afforded could spy no such meaning in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he doth not take-in those places which are deputed to humane and profane uses but extendeth and dilateth the worship of God beyond the narrow compass of Jerusalem to every place in the whole world It is written that all shall be Priests of God but yet it is not meant that all shall exercise the Priests office I am ashamed to exercise my self against rotten posts set up by wanton and malicious men which will fall to the dust to nothing of themselves and to spend my time and pains to beget a good opinion of the house of God in their minds who know not what to think or what they would have who fear their own shadow which their ignorance doth cast and run from a monster of their own begetting the creation of a troubled or rather a troublesome spirit and an idle brain God then hath an House and he calleth it his Nor can he be guilty of a Misnomer And if it be God's then it is holy not holy as he is holy but holy because it is his Why startle we It is no ill-boding word that we should be afraid of it Donatus the Grammarian observeth Si ferrum nominetur in comoedia transit in tragoediam that but to name a Sword in a Comedie is enough to turn it into a Tragedie I know not whether that word have such force or no sure I am there is nothing in this word Holy why so much noise and tumult should be raised about it as if Superstition had crept in and were installed and inthroned in our Church The house of God is holy What need we boggle at it or what reason is there of fear when the lowest degree of charity might help us to conclude that it is impossible that he who calleth it so should mean that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. I ask Hebr. 12.14 Is it possible that this should ever enter into the heart of any man who is not out of his wits I will be bold to say Matth. 3.9 that God who can raise up children unto Abraham out of stones cannot infuse holiness into stones till they be made children of Abraham I dare not shorten his hand or lessen his power yet I may say His Power waiteth in a manner upon his Wisedome and He cannot do what becometh him not He cannot do what he hath said he never will do But when Stones are piled together and set apart for his service he himself calleth it his holy place because of the relation it beareth to his service and to holiness and in respect of the end for which it was set up Holy that is set apart from common use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 10.14 common and profane signifie the same in holy Writ So the Gentiles were common and profane and the Jews were holy that is culled and taken out from the rest of the world sanctified and set apart to the Lord. For as holy a people as they were how many of them did embrace that holiness which beautifieth the inward man and might make them like to the Holy one of Israel Again SANCTUM est ab hominum injuria munitum That which is holy is fenced from the injuries of men and the hand of Sacrilege Things thus holy God looketh upon as his with an eye of jealousie And as he gave charge concerning his Anointed so he doth concerning his House Psal 105.15 Nolite tangere Touch it not And he that toucheth it with a profane and sacrilegious hand toucheth the apple of his eye and if he repent not of his wickedness God will one day put him to shame for that low esteem he had of the place where his honour dwelleth Psal 16 8. It is the end which maketh it holy and to hinder it of its end is to profane it though the pretense be never so specious What is it then to laugh and jest at this name that we may pull it down in earnest Oh trust not to a pretense And if we lean upon it whilest we deface the house of God it will fail and deceive us and our fall will be the greater for our support we shall fall and be bruised to pieces our punishment shall be doubled and our stripes multiplied first for doing that which is evil and then for taking in that which is good to make it an abettour and assistant to that which is evil which is to bring in God pleading for Baal and to suborn Religion to destroy it self Oh why do men boast in their shame What happiness can it be to devour holy things Prov. 20.25 and then be caught in that snare which will strangle them To dance in the ruines of the Church and then sink to hell Time was Beloved when this was counted an holy language and holy men of God and blessed Martyrs of Christ spake it Then it was not superstition but great devotion And no other language was heard almost till the dayes of our grandfathers But then Covetousness under the mask of false Zele which was rather burning then hot and carried with it more rage then charity swallowed up this Devotion in victory led it in triumph disgraced and vilified it and gave it an ill name Then the Devil shewed himself in the colours of light and did more mischief then if he had appeared as a roaring Lion Then the very name of holy was a good argument to beat down a Temple which must down for this because it was called so Before this There were Holy Means and they were called so the Word Prayer Sacraments Ecclesiastical Discipline and for the applying of these Means to the end for which they were ordained there were Holy Times when and Holy Persons by whom they were to be administred and there were Holy Places too or else the rest were to no purpose And holy things S. Paul calleth them 1 Cor. 9.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy things out of the holy place All these are so linked together as a chain that you cannot sever them For neither can there be Holiness without fit means nor Means administred without fit Persons nor Persons do their office but in a fit Place Holiness indeed is properly inherent in none but God Angels and Men in God essentially in the blessed Spirits and Men by participation as far as their
nature is capable The Scripture is holy because it breatheth and conveyeth holiness The Sacraments are holy because they help to promote it Some Times are holy because they occasion it the Sabbath it self is holy onely in respect of its end the practice of holiness Discipline is holy as being the way to restore it Some Persons are holy because they are the helpers of our joy 2 Cor. 1.24 which is a beam of Holiness Then also some Places must be holy I will not say and yet the wisest have said it because sensible helps to stir up devotion and to better our best actions for we are so spiritual so elevated so Seraphical that we need no such helps and we are bold to profess it but here we meet together for holiness sake as a congregation or Church holy to the Lord here holiness is breathed into us and here we receive it here we assemble as so many copies of holiness and one transcribeth from another here God is present you will say with men and if with the men in the place here he speaketh to us and here we speak to him here he delivereth his oracles and here we receive them here he proclaimeth his Law and here we promise obedience here he wooeth and beseecheth us and here we kneel and importune him here he promiseth and we rejoyce here he threatneth and we tremble here he speaketh as a Father and we bless him here he thundereth and we bow before him even God in his holy place Wherefore if we loved holiness we should love the house of God for its ends sake if we loved holiness we should love any thing that doth perfect it yea that doth but promote but begin it any means time person place that is ministerial to it we should love all these for holiness that is for the Lord's sake and not strain at a gnat that we may swallow a camel not question a name or attribute or title that we may devour the thing not raise a tempest in a bason where there is so little water nor contend about that which yieldeth so little matter of strife Oppugnat Christum qui illi stultè favet An indiscreet defense of Christ and his glory doth dishonour him For whilest we thus look towards his glory for it is but a look we lose it in that look whilest we thus contend for it where there is no cause the blow we give in defense of it beateth it to the ground Beloved all storms may be slumbred all tempests calmed by these two words DOMUS DOMINI It is the house of the Lord. And if it be the house of the Lord then it should be honoured as his house not honoured as he himself is for it is not capable of such honour but honoured because it is his honoured as we bless the poor and give him an alms for the Lord's sake Honoured you will say what adorned and beautified A stout question to be put Yes certainly so far honour it as to make it the more useful for that end for which it was erected and adorn it as far as the rules of decency and the nature of the place will permit For quod docet ferè prodest as the Oratour saith That which is decent not onely presenteth a grace and beauty which may take our eye and please it but carrieth also its profit along with it and is advantageous to the work we have to do God did never yet tell us that it is his delight to dwell beggerly nor should it be ours to serve him so In the Prophet Malachi he complaineth of Israel's unkindness Mal. 1.6 that though he was their Father yet they honoured him not and though he was their Master yet they feared him not and that they despised his name And when they seemed ignorant wherein they had despised his name Mal. 1.7 8. he telleth them In that they offered polluted bread upon his altar and in that they said The table of the Lord is contemptible in that they offered the blind and the lame and the sick such as they would not have offered to their governour What if their hearts were upright in them By their questions Wherein have we despised thy name Wherein have we polluted thee it seemeth they thought so yet to think any thing good enough for God was an high contempt offered to the Majesty of heaven Prov. 23.26 My son give me thy heart It is true but my son give me that too which is fit to be offered to thy Father thy Master thy Lord Esteem not that good enough for me of which thou thy self hast no esteem All the creatures in the world from the Gnat to the Elephant all the things in the world are alike to God for they are all the works of his hands but he taketh them upon our account and expecteth that from us whereon we set the greatest price For how can our affection be shewn in giving that we care not for but are as willing to lose as to keep it That of S. Paul is an universal and eternal rule and concerneth all the men in the world from Adam to him who shall stand the last upon the earth 1 Cor. 14.40 Let all things be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decently This is it we first look upon And what decorum can it be that your private houses where some few meet should be trimmed and set out with all advantage and the house of God where many hundreds assemble should be ruinous and sordid even to the offense of the eye that you should have a fairer room where you meet to eat then where you meet to pray that God by dust and ashes should be served in dust and ashes inter ruta caesa amongst rubbish and lumber that decencie should be confined to yours and find no room in the house of God Yet this is the decorum which those who call themselves Spiritual men would observe that Luxury should dwell in state and Devotion in a cottage In which they shew so little of the Christian that nothing appeareth of the Man For what man till he be unmanned by the spirit of delusion and madness can be so unreasonable Who can account what is laid out in this kind to be unnecessary wast but either a Judas who would have it in his purse or such an one as Julian's Treasurer who thought the vessels of the Church too rich and glorious for the Son of Mary The Kingly Prophet could not attain to such a speculation but from his own house he draweth an argument to build and beautifie the Lord's I dwell saith he 2 Sam. 7.2 in an house of cedar but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains This he deemed the most incongruous thing in the world and therefore he would not give sleep to his eyes Psal 132.4 5. nor slumber to his eye-lids until he found out a place for the Lord an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob Psal
neminem ausurum coram catone peccare no body had the impudence to do any thing amiss before Cato And Tully saith of him Oh happy man of whom no man ever durst ask any thing that was unfit to be given And Job saith Job 19 8. that when the young men saw him they hid themselves and the aged arose and stood up But there is a reverence due in this place in respect of every man in the place lest we offend some and teach others offend some who know what order and decency is and teach others who understand so little of it that they are not willing to learn more but come to Church one would think on purpose to be irreverent as if it were a part of the Service as if they counted it devotion not to be devout reverence to be profane humility to out-face the Congregation and God himself And indeed why should they thus confidently doe it if they did not place a kind of religion in it especially in this place which is set apart onely for religious duties But let them know that by thus doing they not onely offend God and his holy Angels but also scandalize pious and well-affected persons and confirm and encourage those who are negligent and profane in their unbeseeming and irreligious behaviour Job 32.7 For when dayes do this and multitude of years by their example teach it as a piece of wisdome Job 8.9 they that are but of yesterday that is the younger sort will quickly be as wise that is as irreverent as they I will not press this any further 1 Cor. 11 1â— but onely say with the Apostle Judge in your selves Is this comely And that you may judge aright ye must resolve the thing the action into its first principle from whence it had its rise and beginning as the Schools speak Consider with your selves what it is that moveth you to this careless and graceless deportment Whether Scripture or Reason The Word of God it cannot be for that breatheth nothing but reverence and devotion It biddeth us keep our feet when we go to the house of God Eccles 5.1 I do not find that we are any where bid to take such care of our heads We need no spur for that Neither can Reason plead for us but contrà stat ratio Reason is against us and telleth us in our ear That we should be more reverent before God and his Angels then in the presence of Men in the house of the Lord then in a great mans parlour That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy duties are to be performed holily that is with reverence which ever attendeth and waiteth upon holiness and is inseparable from it as on the contrary no two things are more unlike and at greater distance one from the other then Holiness and Irreverence Dic Quintiliane colorem What colour then have we for rude and unhandsome demeanour in God's house Fear of superstition That hath long since received its deaths blow and it is now buried but not in its proper grave a regular devotion but rudely and disorderly raked up in profaneness Fear that others should imagine we did reverence to the walls Nothing but extreme ignorance can raise such a thought For who knoweth not that a wall is but a wall and that he that setteth up a cottage may build a Church He that passeth this sentence upon thee may as well conclude thou art not a man or that coming into the house of God thou leavest thy reason behind thee But thou art weak and sickly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is but a shift and excuse For if thou art sick thou mayest I might say thou art bound to stay at home God will have mercy and not sacrifice Hos 6.6 Matth. 9.13 12.7 And his mercy shall stay with thee in thy private closet when his sacrifice doth not draw thee to the Church He doth not require thy presence to hasten thy end but looketh favourably upon thy private devotion which prepareth thee for it What is the matter then I fear it is Pride which swelleth in opposition against every plant which it self hath not planted and would root it out Quod ego volo pro canone sit as Constantius the Arian said The continued practice of the Church for many hundred years is no Directory for us What we say or do that must go for Canonical that must be the rule And so to seem wise we become I am unwilling to say what but the best and wisest men have ever accounted it the extremest folly in the world For what wisdom what honour is it first to be unreasonable and then to comfort our selves with this thought That we are wiser then our teachers and then all the holy men of God that went before us In a word then It is but an humour let us purge it out it is pride let us beat it down It is the house of the Lord ye come into and there reverence is due Ye know well enough and are not to seek what Reverence is I am sure that behaviour in Churches which is of common use is so unlike it that ye cannot commit a greater soloecisme then to give it that name unless ye call it so as the Poet calleth Covetousness sacred because it is a cursed thing or as War is termed Bellum that is good and pleasant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is not so but the worst and most displeasing thing in the world We will go into the house of the Lord. This one word LORD one would think might answer all arguments purge out every evil humour check and pull down our pride bow our hearts and knees I might adde uncover our heads especially in the time when we perform that which we call Divine Service This one word LORD should be of more force to bring in reverence into the Church then any argument that Humour or Pride or Faction have contrived to keep it out We have long insisted upon the Object of David's joy we will now therefore leave it yet so as to have it ever and anon in our eye while we consider the other part of the Text and behold the Psalmist in his triumph and jubilee in these words LAETATUS SUM I was glad Herein we observe 1. The Nature of David's delight It was like the Object like himself after God's own heart a company going to the house of the Lord. Psal 69.9 And what fitter object for him to look upon whom the zele of God's house and a studious care to preserve it holy had even eaâ—â—n up A Temple filled with Tribes falling down and worshiping must needs fill that heart with joy which was before filled with devotion Those things which delight us saith the Philosopher are alwayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fitted and sutable to our nature And this maketh our delights so various so contrary The Philosopher flingeth his money into the sea because he hath a pure and
he hath put a pardon into our hands We must therefore seek out another Righteousness And we may well say we must seek it for it is well near lost in this Imputed Righteousness is that we hold by and Inherent righteousness is Popery or Pâ—lagianism We will not be what we ought because Christ will make us what we would be We will not be just that he may justifie us and we will rebell because he hath made our peace As men commonly never more forfeit their obedience then under a mild Prince But if the love of the world would suffer us to open our eyes we might then see a Law even in the Gospel and the Gospel more binding then ever the Law was Nor did Christ bring in that Righteousness by faith to thrust out this that we may do nothing that we may do any thing because Faith can work such a miracle No saith S. Paul he establisheth the Law He added to it he reformed it he enlarged it made it reach from the act to the look from the look to the thought Nor is it enough for the Christian to walk a turn with the Philosopher or to go a Sabbath-day's journey with the Jew or make such a progress in Righteousness as the Law of Moses measured out No Christ taught us a new kind of Righteousness and our burthen is not onely reserved but increased that this Righteousness may abound a Righteousness which striketh us dumb when the slanderer's mouth is open and loud against us which boundeth our desires when vanity wooeth us setteth a knife to our throat when the fruit is pleasant to the eye giveth laws to our understanding chaineth up our will when Kingdoms are laid at our feet shutteth up our eyes that we may not look upon a second woman which a Jew might have embraced calleth us out of the world whilest we are in the world and maketh us spiritual whilest we are in the flesh Justitia sincera a sincere Righteousness without mixture or sophistication and justitia integra an entire and perfect Righteousness Righteousness like to the love of our Saviour integros tradens integrum se danti a Righteousness delivering up the whole man both body and soul unto him who offered up himself a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world For conclusion of this point and to make some use of it Beloved this is the Object we must look on And we must use diligence and be very wary that we mistake it not that we take not that to be our Juno which is but a cloud that to be Righteousness which flesh and bloud our present occasions our present necessities our unruly lusts and desires may set up and call by that name This is the great and dangerous errour in which many Christians are swallowed up and perish not to take Righteousness in its full extent and compass in that form and shape in which it is tendered and so fulfil all righteousness but to contract and shrink it up to leave it in its fairest parts and offices and to vvork all unrighteousness and then make boast of its name And thus the number of the Righteous may be great the Goats more then the Sheep the gate vvide and open that leadeth unto the Kingdom of God Thus the Hypocrite vvho doth but act a part is righteous the Zelote vvho setteth all on fire is righteous the Schismatick vvho teareth the seamless coat of Christ is righteous he whose hands yet reek vvith the bloud of his brethren is righteous righteous Pharisees righteous Incendiaries righteous Schismaticks righteous Traitours and Murtherers not Abel but Cain the righteous All are righteous For this hath been the custom of vvicked men to bid defiance to Righteousness and then comfort themselves with her name We vvill not mention the Righteousness of the heathen For they being utterly devoid of the true knowledge of Christ it might perhaps diminish the number of their stripes but could not adde one hair to their stature or raise them nearer to the Kingdom of God Nor will we speak of the Righteousness of the Jew For they vvere in bondage under the Elements of the world nor could the Lavv make any of them perfect We Christians on vvhom the Sun of Righteousness hath clearly shined depend too much upon an Imputed Righteousness An imputed Righteousness why that is all It is so and will lift us up unto happiness if we adde our own not as a supplement but as a necessary requisite not to seal our pardon for that it cannot do but to further our admittance For we never read that the Spirit did seal an unrighteous person that continued in his sin to the day of his redemption No Imputed Righteousness must be the motive to work in us inherent Righteousness and God will pardon us in Christ is a strong argument to infer this conclusion Therefore we must do his will in Christ. For Pardon bringeth greater obligation then a law Christ dyed for us is enough to win Judas himself those that betray him and those that crucifie him to repentance The death of Christ is verbum visibile saith Clement a visible word For in the death of Christ are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Righteousness If you look upon his Cross and see the inscription JESUS OF NAZERETH KING OF THE JEWS you cannot miss of another HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS TO THE LORD There hung his sacred body and there hung all those bracelets and ornaments as Solomon calleth them those glorious examples of all vertues There hung the most true and most exact pictures of Patience and Obedience and unparallel'd Love And if we take them not out and draw them in our selves imputed Righteousness will not help us or rather it will not be imputed What Righteousness imputed to a man of Belial Christ's Love imputed to him that hateth him his Patience to a revenger his Truth to the fraudulent his Obedience to the traitour his Mercy to the cruel his Innocency to the murtherer his Purity to the unclean his Doing all things well to those who do all things ill God forbid No let us not deceive our selves Let us not sleep in sin and then please our selves with a pleasant dream of Righteousness which is but a suggestion of the enemy whose art it is to settle that in the phansie which should be rooted in the heart and to lead us to the pit of destruction full of those thoughts which lift us up as high as heaven Assumed names false pretences forced thoughts these are the pillars which uphold his kingdom and subvert all Righteousness Vera justitia hoc habet omnia in se vertit True Righteousness complieth with nothing that is contrary or diverse from it It will not comply with the Pharisee and make his seeming a reality it will not comply with the Schismatick and make his pride humility it will not comply with the prosperous Traitour and make him a Father of his
not in their heart or hand but onely in their ear Who for fear they should not find it get them a heap of teachers as S. Paul prophesieth of them but it is according to their own lusts teachers whom they must teach as a master doth his scholar that lesson which he must but repeat again The Preacher and the hearers may seem to abound in charity for they are alwayes of the same mind in all things He is our Preacher we have made him ours And then how do we love his errours how do we applaud his ignorance how do we cry up those frivolous toyes and that witless wit which little conduce to Râ—ghteousness and are far below the majesty of the word of God! O pudor would the Father have cried What a shame is this Can we conceive any thing more ridiculous Nay what a grief is this that so many should take such pains and be at such charge to be deceived that so many should please and flatter themselves to their own destruction I will therefore grow further upon you and be bold to conclude that in this formality of hearing I say in this formality of hearing because I would not be mistaken for hearing of it self is the ordinary means of salvation but in this formality we betray more vanity then we do in any other action of our life For tell me is it not a vain thing to take up water in a sieve to let in and out nay to let in and loath and in this reciprocal intercourse of hearing and neglecting to spin out the thread of our life and at the end of it to look for the kingdom of heaven to come so oft to hear of Righteousness with a resolution to let it pass no further then the ear to give Righteousness no larger place to breathe in then from the pulpit to our pew from the Preacher's mouth to our ear to come in all our vanity to hear a declamation against Vanity nay to make a Sermon of Righteousness a prologue to that unrighteousness which an Heathen would have cursed to have the ear full of Righteousness and the hands full of bloud Certainly if those actions be vain which are not driven to a right end then this Hearing is in vain Did I call it a vain action of our life I will yet increase upon you and be bold to pronounce it a Sin and that of the greatest magnitude Will you have it in plain terms It is no less then a mockery of God For do we not in a manner tell God to his face for our very thoughts are words to him Lord we will come into thy courts to hear of Righteousness and leave that and the Church together behind us We will hear the burthen of pride and make it a garment to cloath us of Temperance and drink down the thought of it of Chastity and defile it We will hear of Righteousness and set up all the faculties of our souls and all the members of our bodies against it except the Ear. What is this but to be learning our Alphabet all the dayes of our life and never put the letters together to make up one word or syllable towards Righteousness What is this but to think to please God with a piece of service vvhich doth most please our sense What is this but to mock God Be not deceived God is not mocked Righteousness is res morosa a coy and severe thing and will not dwell in the hollow of the ear but must be seen in the world in our houses in the education of our children in the streets in our modest deportment in the Church in our reverence in the Commonwealth in our peaceable conformity Every place must be a shrine for Righteousness nor is she confined to the Church alone Therefore S. Basil will tell us that Hearing in Scripture is of another nature from that which we so much delight and pride our selves in For when God biddeth us hear his meaning is we should obey He that hath ears to hear saith our Saviour let him hear Why Speak Lord and thy servant must needs hear But let him hear that is let him seek Righteousness Bare Hearing then will not reach home There is yet a third thing behind Though our Profession and frequent Hearing do not yet the Breathing forth of our Prayers and Supplications to God may reach home As I do not derogate from Hearing but Hearing only so I cannot attribute enough to Prayer Hearing may seem to be a duty conditional and respective in respect of the weak condition of our nature If we could obey without it Hearing were of no use at all But Prayer is absolute and necessary to which we should be bound were we again in Paradise For even the Saints and Angels tender their Prayers And Christ himself in whom there was no sin in the dayes of his flesh offered up strong supplications and doth yet intercede and pray for us This then may come near it When we are on our knees and breathe forth our desires to God we may seem to be like the dry and parched ground and to open our selves that the dew from heaven this Righteousness may distil upon us and fill us But yet we must not be too hasty to determine and conclude this is it For that may befall Praying which doth Hearing It may be alone and our prayers may be loud and frequent vvhen our desires are asleep nay our Desires may run contrary to them and deny our Prayers We may ask for fish when we would have a serpent ask for Righteousness when we desire riches and beg for eternity in heaven when we had rather dwell and delight our selves with the children of men Many times we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wander from our selves and follow our flying thoughts to that vanity which we pray against Our understandings are taken up with two contrary objects Now a sigh anon a burning thought now an eye lifted up to heaven anon full of the adulteress now a strong abjuration of sin and before the Amen be said as strong a resolution to retain it We grind the face of the poor and desire God to instill thoughts of mercy into us We every day break his Law and are every day earnest with him that we may keep it We pray for Righteousness which God is readier to give then we to ask and upon the fairest proffer turn our backs and which is an extremity of folly will not have that which we so oft beg upon our knees We are then yet to seek what it is to seek Righteousness For our Profession we may carry with us when we run from Righteousness our frequent hearing is but a listning after it or rather after something which may be as musick to the ear and last of all we may pray for it and seek the contrary You will ask then What is it to seek Righteousness I deny not but there may be great use of these but these do
that deceived me every man vvould be ready to say Ah my brother or Ah his glory but vvhen it is I my self deceive my self when I my self am the cheater and the fool and never think my self vviser then vvhen I beguile my self it is a thing indeed to be lamented with tears of bloud but yet it deserves no pity at all Nulla est eorum habenda ratio qui se conjiciunt in non necessarias angustias saith the Civilian The Law helps not those vvho entangle themselves with intricate perplexities nor doth the light of the Gospel shine comfortably upon those vvho vvill not see it It is a true saying He that will not be saved must perish Dyed Abner as a fool dyeth saith David Doth this man erre as a fool erreth or is he deceived for want of understanding or because of the remoteness and distance of the object Then our Saviour himself will plead for him John 9. If you were blind you should have no sin But in the Self-deceiver it is not so His hands are not bound nor his feet tyed in fetters of brass His eye is clear but he dimms it The object is near him even in his mouth and his heart but he puts it from him The law is quick and lively but he makes it a dead letter He turns the day into darkness gropeth at noon as at midnight and turns the morning it self into the shadow of death We have a worthy Writer who himself was Ambassadour in Turky that hath furnisht us with a polite narration of the manners of the people and the customes of the places Amongst the rest he tells us what himself observed that when the Turks did fall to their cups and were resolved to fill themselves with such liquor as they knew would intoxicate and make them drunk they were wont to make a great and unusual noyse with which they called down their Soul to the remotest part of their bodies that it might be as it were at distance and so not conscious of their brutish intemperance Beloved our practice is the very same When we venture upon some gross notorious sin which commends and even sanctifieth it self by some profit or pleasure it brings along with it we straight call down our Reason that it may not check us when we are reaching at the prey nor pull us back when we are climbing to honour nor work a loathing in us of those pleasures which we are drinking down as the ox doth water we say unto it Art thou come to blast our riches and to poyson our delights Shall we now part with the wedge of gold shall we fly the harlots lips as a cocatrice Shall we lay our honour in the dust Shall every thing which our soul loveth be like the mountain which must not be toucht Avoid Reason not now Reason but Satan to trouble and torment us What have we to do with thee Thou art an offense unto us a stone of offense a scandal And now if there be a Dixit Dominus against us if the Lord say it he doth not say it if a Prophet speak it he prophesies lyes if Christ speak it we bid him Depart from us for we will be sinful men And hence it comes to pass that our errour is manifest and yet not seen that our errour is known but not acknowledged that our errour is punisht but not felt Hence it comes to pass that we regard not the truth we are angry with the truth we persecute the truth that admonitions harden us that threatnings harden us that judgments harden us that both the sunshine and the storm when God shines upon us and when he thunders against us we are still the same knowing enough but basely prostituting our knowledge and experience to the times and our lusts false to God and our selves and so walking on triumphantly in the errours of our life dreaming of eternity till at last we meet with what we never dreamt of death and destruction Read 2 Kings 8. and see the meeting of Elisha and Hazael The Text saith v. 11 12 13. The man of God wept And when Hazael askt him Why weepeth my Lord the Prophet answered Because I know the evil that thou wiâ—t do to the children of Israel Their strong holds thou wilt set on fire and their young men thou wilt slay with the sword and wilt dash their children and rip up their women with child What did Hazael now think Even think himself as innocent as those children What is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing Should the same weeping Prophet have wept out such a Prophesie to some of after ages and have told them Thus and thus you shall do actions that have no savour of Man or Christian actions which the Angels desire not to look upon and which Men themselves tremble to think on would they not have replied as Hazael did Are we Dogs and Devils that we should do such things And yet we know such things have been done I might here enlarge my self and proceed to discover yet a further danger For Errour is fruitful and multiplies it self It seldom ends where it begins but steals upon us as the Night first in a twilight then in thicker darkness Onely the difference is it is commonly night with us when the Sun is up and in our hemisphere We run upon Errour when Light it self is our companion and guide First we deceive our selves with some gloss some pretense of our own Our passion our lust our own corrupt heart deceiveth us And anon our Night is dark as Hell it self and we are willing to think that God may be of our mind well pleased with our errour Now against this we must set up the Wisdom of God Be not deceived It is not so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is not mocked saith our Apostle This I call'd the Vindication of Gods Wisdom my second part Of which in the next place The Nine and Twentieth SERMON PART II. GALAT. VI. 7. Be not deceived God is not mocked For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap HAving done with the first part of the Text a Dehortation from Errour in these words Be not deceived I proceed to the second which I call a Vindication of God's Wisdome in the next words God is not mocked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an undeniable position The eyes of the Lord saith the Prophet 2 Chron. 16.9 run to and fro throughout the whole earth Deus videt and Deus judicat are common notions which we receive è censu naturae out of the stock and treasury of Nature there being such a sympathy betwixt these principles and the mind of Man that so far forth as the acknowledgment of these will bring us the soul is naturaliter Christiana a Christian by nature it self without the help of Grace There was no man ever who acknowledged a God but gave him a bright and piercing eye This is
and Desolation This phansie pleaseth me now this thought ravisheth me this action is my crown my joy it is sowen in honour in pleasure in applause but what will it be vvhen it riseth again what vvill it be at the harvest Will a gloss or pretense alter the nature of the seed and change it as vve our selves shall be in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye Let us never build a resolution but upon this of the Apostle What a man sows that shall he also reap O quanta subtilitas judiciorum Dei saith Gregory Oh the subtile and exact method of the Justice of God vvhich gives to every seed it s own body The Eye vvhich vvould not look upon God shall be filled with horrour The Understanding vvhich vvould not receive Light shall receive no impression but of Darkness and everlasting separation And the Will vvhich made the sin shall it self be made a punishment It is now a vvanton Thought it well then be a gnawing Worm It is now Lust it will be a burning Flame It is now Blasphemy it will be Howling and Gnashing of Teeth We must now conclude and we cannot better conclude then with that of S. Peter Brethren if these things be so if you believe there be such things be deligent that at the great harvest you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless free from Self-deceit walking and trembling before your God not plowing the Wind to reap the Whirlwind but sowing seed in Righteousness and Sincerity that you may reap Peace and Joy in this life a fair promising Spring which gives a full assurance of a rich Harvest of Glory and Immortality in the life to come Both which God grant us through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Thirtieth SERMON PART I. THESS IV. 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words THe words are plain and easie They are as the Use of that Doctrine of the Coming of the Lord which is set down at large in the precedent verses For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout c. a doctrine seasonably opened and applied to the Thessalonians now hanging down their heads with grief and weeping over the graves of their friends as men without hope inter praecepta virtutum spem resurrectionis even then when S. Pauls doctrine and the hope of the Resurrection should have armed them against all assaults even then languishing and falling away and bating from their spiritual growth as if they had almost forgotten that article of their Belief the Coming of the Lord and lost not onely their friends but their faith It was fitted for them and in this case but it may serve for any Meridian for any who are brought low by oppression evil and sorrow It was preacht in the first age of the Church when she began to be militant which was as soon as she began And it is an antidote as it were put into her Hands which she may use even in her last age which she must use till she be triumphant And therefore we will not bind and confine it to this present case of the Thessalonians but propose it as a preservative against all evil whatsoever And since the two affections which weigh down the afflicted are Sorrow and Fear we will set up this to remove them both For be sorry why should they Let the Heathen be so who are without Hope And fear what need they Have they lost their friends they do but sleep Have their goods been torn from them They shall receive an hundred fold Is their life in jeopardy It is in his Hands who is coming who shall descend from heaven with a shout and the voyce of the Archangel and the dead in Christ shall rise first wherefore comfort one another with these words These words I called a Use of that Doctrine which S. Paul had formerly preacht at Thessalonica and it lieth in the form of an exhortation in these black and gloomy dayes in these last and perilous dayes in these dayes of misery and mourning most necessary when so many weak hands are to be Hâ—ld up and so many feeble knees to be strengthned Herein briefly I observe the Matter and the Manner the Action and the Rule or square of that action The Matter Comfort you one another the Manner how this duty must be performed with these words But for our more plain and orderly proceeding we will speak first of the Object or Persons ALII ALIOS one another And these we shall look upon first in their common nature and condition as they are of the same passions Wis 7.3 subject to the same infirmities falling upon as the Wiseman speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the earth which is of like Nature All men have the like entrance into life and the like going out and I may say are subject to the same depressions and miscarriages which even Life that we are so unwilling to part with hath wrapt up in her and carries as in her womb a short life and full of misery Next we will look upon them in that near relation which they have one to another and that as they are either Men or Christians For the second doth not take away but establish the first Grace doth not destroy Nature but perfect it and if the last be upheld the former can never fall to the ground And this alii alios the Persons will afford us Comfort you one another Secondly this Habitude and mutual Dependance doth even invite the Act which will be our next consideration What it is to comfort one another And this in the third place requires the Rule and Method how we should perform it with these words with the words of Truth with the words of the Gospel Which is indeed to draw the waters of Comfort out of the wells of Salvation You have then 1. the Persons one another 2. the Act Comfort 3. the Method with these words Wherefore comfort one another with these words First of the Persons one another And indeed one man is the image of another because the same image of God is on all Every man is as the Text and every man is as the Commentary Every man is what he is and yet one man interprets another and declares what he is We be as glasses each to other and one sees in another not onely what he is but what he may be The Beggar is a glass for a King and a King for a Beggar The Sheephook hath been turned into a Sceptre and the crowns of mighty Kings have been cast to the ground These things I write to thee saith Plato of Man who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by nature and condition mutable now on the wing for heaven anon cleaving to the dust now sporting in the Sunshine of prosperity and anon beaten down with a storm now rejoycing with his friends and anon bewayling them now vvith a shining anon vvith a cloudy countenance novv vvith a cheerful anon
Murderer with his sword in his Hand the Sacrilegious person with his axes and hammers should he come and find thee chipping and commixting his coyn abusing his Comforts should he come and find thee drawing him on to countenance those sins which he first came to destroy Shall he come and find thee more hypocrite then the Pharisees that opposed him more bloudy then the Jews that crucified him Shall he come and see thee not casting out Devils but doing their works in his name Can there be any ccmfort now to hear the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God Can there be comfort in that fire which shall devour before him or in that Tempest which shall be round about him Hilary mistook that place of David My soul breaketh for the desire it hath to thy judgements alwayes yet his sense is good Non desiderat judicium David sed ut desideret concupiscit David doth not here desire that the day of judgement should come but his desire is that his innocency may so qualifie him that he may safely desire it He doth not so much comfort himself that it will come as he longs to be prepared that it may come with comfort That these words then that all the comforts of the Gospel which are upheld by this of the coming of the Lord may prove comfortable and physical we must use them as physick be very wary in applying them We talk much of Applying the promises and comforts of the Gospel and I should not much mislike the phrase if either men understood what they said or did not so dangerously abuse it But how easie is it to bring that to us by our phansie which will never come near us how easie to apply that which will not fit us May not a beggar phansie himself into the royal apparel of a King Phansie makes Saints every day more then the Truth doth and yet Heaven is never a whit the fuller Men may think they have a place there may say they are assured of it who if they shake not off their presumption and fall down in all the Humility of repentance will never come there The Truth is If we perform the condition the promises and comforts will apply themselves and be made good unto us If we be righteous God will not suffer us to perish if we faint he will uphold us if we be troubled he will comfort us if we beleeve comfort is at hand if we be risen with Christ here we shall leave our miseries behind us and rise with him in glory Then we may wait upon his descent with joy and make the showt and the voice of the Archangel Musick and the doctrine of his Coming cordial and comfortable to our souls we may then comfort our selves with these words which breath nothing but Majesty and Terrour to others For conclusion Let us seek Comfort in loco suo in its proper plaâ—e let us draw it out of its true fountain E coelo misericordia the seaâ— of Mercy is Heaven and from thence are all those comforts derived which refresh a weary soul labouring under the burden of misery and sorrow even from the Wisdome and Goodness and Providence and Justice of God who preserves our tears registers every groan can tell the number of our sufferings looks on and behold us stemming the waters of bitterness and strugling with injuries and will not forget the work and labour of our love Heb 6.10 Let us not seek it in the Earth that sends forth nothing but noysome vapours and corruption the region of change and uncertainty The comfort that grows there is but Herba solstitialis springs up and blossoms and fades and all in the twinckling of an eye Let us not dig for it in the Minerals seek for it in the Riches and Glory of the world for they have wings and all the comfort they bring flies away faster than they When our Sins shall compass us about when our Conscience shall pursue us and Death come towards us when we bear about with us the sharp rebukes of the one and fear the terrours of the other it will yield us but small comfort to sit down and think that we are rich Let us not place it in Hopes in hopes that our misery will end for this is rather to delude then comfort our selves Hope sees afar off not that which is but that which may be and most times falls off from the object whilest it looks on it as it is in the picture of a Battel not a stroke strook nothing gained What redemption is that which is made in a thought let us not seek it in the bowels of our Enemies and wish them out for what will it profit us to see them spoyled who spoyled us them destroyed who destroyed us This is but the comfort of Devils and will but torment us more as it doth them They would bring others to the same condemnation and are deeper in themselves But let us seek for it in the bowels of that Lamb which took away the sins of the world in the bowels and mercy of a God of consolation Let us wait upon his Justice his Wisdom his Providence with patience till our appointed time shall come and if in our span of time it come not yet this is comfort enough that our redemption draweth very near and that comfort will come when there will be no span no measure of time when Time shall be no more Here if we fix our hope it will be spes viva a living substantial hope but if we fix it not here it will be but a faint representation of comfort that will pass away like a shadow and be no more Here then let us build it up let us lay it upon this foundation upon the Apostles and Prophets the word of God Jesus Christ himself being the Head corner-stone who shall descend and come again male judicata rejudicaturus who shall reverse every false sentence and condemn the Judge that gave it and manifest his Justice and Providence in setting all at rights in the punishment of the triumphant sinner and the exaltation of the innocent who is trod under feet in changing the scene and face of things and shewing Dives in Hell and Lazarus in Abrahams bosom Here we may find physick for every disease and comforts for all maladies Here the sick may find a bed the feeble a staff the hungry bread the prisoner liberty Here the disconsolate may find what the Philosopher professed but could not teach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an art to forget all grief With these words well understood and well applied we may bathe our selves in our tears we may feed our selves with hunger cloth our selves with nakedness and make our selves rich with nothing we may descant on our misery and make each sigh and grone Musical With these words we may comfort one another the rich may comfort the poor that he shall want nothing and the poor the rich that he shall
truly stiled Catholick Some reason perhaps they may have to rely upon Number because indeed they have neither reason nor autority to uphold the state and supremacy of their Church Therefore having no better forces they make use of this their forlorn hope like men who having a bad cause care not what aid they take-in The Oratour said well of the three hundred Spartanes now doubting to go up against the numerous army of Xerxes Lacones se numerant non aestimant that the Spartanes did number not esteem themselves And it might be justly said of us if this Mormo should affright us if we should distrust our cause because there be so many that oppose it What though a troop cometh Yet if the Truth be on our side one of us shall be able to chase ten thousand Isa 37.6 Be not afraid of the words which ye have heard as the Prophet said to Hezekiah Be not afraid of their number nor ashamed of the Truth when her retinue is but small The multitude may perish that are born in vain as the Lord said to Esdras And we say of it as Tertullian doth of the unveiling of Virgins Id negat quod ostendit Multitude is so far from being a note of the Church that it doth rather deny then demonstrate it For see amongst so many men in comparison but few there are who profess the name of Christ amongst so many professours but few orthodox amongst so many orthodox but few righteous persons amongst the multitude but one woman that lifteth up her voice in the behalf of Christ And as it was no prejudice to the Truth that she was but one no more was it that she was a Woman For why might not a woman whose eye was clear and single see more in Christ then the proudest Pharisee who wore his phylacterie the broadest All is not in the miracle but in the eye in the mind which being goggle or misset or dimmed with malice or prejudice beholdeth not things as they are but through false mediums putteth upon them what shape it pleaseth receiveth not the true and natural species they present but vieweth them at home in it self as in a false glass which returneth back by a deceitful reflection And this is the reason why not onely Miracles but doctrinal Precepts also find so different enterteinment Every man layeth hold on them and wresteth them to his own purpose worketh them on his own anvile and shapeth them to his own phansie and affections as out of the same mass Phidias could make a Goddess and Lysippus a Satyre Do ye wonder to hear a Woman bless the womb that bare Christ and the Pharisees blaspheme him It is no wonder at all For though the acts of the Understanding depend not on the Will and the Mind of man necessarily apprehendeth things in those shapes in which they present themselves yet when the Will rejecteth those means that are offered when Anger raiseth a storm and Malice and Prejudice cast up a mist then the Understanding groweth dim and receiveth not the natural shapes of things but those false appearances which the Affections tender to it When the Will is perverse non permittit intellectum diu stare in dictamine recto saith Scotus The Understanding followeth her planetary motion and having no better guide runneth into the very den of Errour Therefore the complaint in Scripture is They will not understand Experience will teach us how common a thing it is in the world for men to stand stiff in their opinions against all evidence whatsoever though it be as clear as the day S. Augustine observeth of the Manichees Scio esse quosdam qui quanquam bono ingenio ista videant malâ tamen voluntate quâ ipsum quoque ingenium sunt amissuri Lib. de morib Manich. pertinaciter negant I know saith he many of you who have sharp and quick understanding and cannot but see the truth but your Will is evil which betrayeth the Understanding and leadeth you to that pertinacy that will never consent to the truth but seeketh out rather what probably may be said against it And this very reason Arnobius giveth of the Heathens obstinacies Quid facere possumus considerate nolentibus c. saith he What can we do or say or how can we convince them who will not be induced once to deliberate and weigh things as they are nor condescend to speak and confer with themselves and with their own reason This I take to be the meaning of that in Hilary Quot voluntates tot fides every man frameth his belief by his disposition and his will So many wills so many faiths He might as well have said there be as many Creeds as passions For the Passions are subversivae rationis apt and ready to captivate the Will and to overthrow the Reason even when she standeth most erect against Errour and looketh most stedfastly on the truth While Reason hath the command they are profitable servants but when she yieldeth they are cruel tyrants and put out her eyes It is wonderful to see what a power they have in changing the face and countenance of objects Fear maketh a shadow a man and a man an hobgoblin Anger mistaketh a friend for an enemy Love of the world putteth horrour upon virtue and obstinate Malice can set nothing but the Devil's face in a miracle Common reason no doubt did perswade the Pharisees here that Christ had wrought a miracle and we cannot but think that they saw as much of the beauty of Christ's excellencies as the Woman But their gross conceit of the Messias and their love of Moses law made them find no room to entertein Him who came in a posture so contrary to their expectation no though even in the midst of them God approved him by miracles Acts 2.22 wonders and signs as they themselves knew It was their knowledge that kept them ignorant 1 Cor. 26 27. and their wisdome made them fools Not many wise after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise saith S. Paul Not that God did reject and cast men off because they were wise or mighty or noble and choose others onely for this cause because they were poor We must not think so saith Oecomenius No Tros Tyriúsve fuat nullo discrimine habetur Wise or ignorant mighty or mean noble or ignoble all are one to God neither is there with him any respect of persons But the poor received the Gospel and the rich and mighty and wise did not because it brought with it a check to their wisdome cast disgrace on their riches and a slur on their nobility with which they were so filled that there was no room for Christ Nec enim vult aeterna Sapientia haberi nisi ubi habens nihil de suo tenuit ut illam haberet The eternal Wisdome of God will keep residence in that soul
time of age it was best for men to marry it was answered That for old men it was too late and for young men too soon This was but a merry reply But the truth is many of our civil businesses whensoever they are done are either done too soon or too late for they are seldome done without some inconvenience But this our Rising may peradventure be too late for old men but it can never be too timely for the young It is a lesson in Husbandry Serere nè metuas Be not afraid to sow your seed when the time comes delay it not And it is a good lesson in Divinity Vivere nè metuas Be not afraid to live You cannot be alive too soon Vult non vult He wills and he wills not is the character of a Sluggard which would rise and yet loves his grave would see the light and yet loveth darkness better then light like the twin Gen. 38. puts forth his hand and then draws it back again doth make a shew of lifting up himself and sinks back again into his sepulchre Awake then from this sleep early and stand up from the dead at the first sound of the trump at the first call of grace But if any have let pass the first opportunity let him bewail his great unhappiness that he hath stayed longer in this place of horrour in these borders of hell then he should and as travellers which set out late moram celeritate compensare recompense and redeem his negligence by making greater speed And now we should pass to our last consideration That the manifestation of this our Conversion and Rising consists in the seeking of those things which are above But the time is welnear spent and the present occasion calls upon me to shorten my Discourse For conclusion Let me but remember you that this our Rising must have its manifestation and as S. James calls upon us to shew our faith by our works so must we shew and manifest our Resurrection by our seeking those things which are above It is not enough with S. Paul to rise into the third heaven but we must rise and ascend with Christ above all heavens Nor can we conceal our Resurrection and steal out of our graves but as Christ arose and was seen 1 Cor. 15. as S. Paul speaks of above five hundred brethren at once and as S. Luke having told us of Christ The Lord is risen presently adds and hath appeared unto Simon so there must be after our Resurrection an Apparuit we must appear unto our brethren appear in our Charity forgiving them in our Patience forbearing in our Holiness of life instructing them in our Hatred of the world and our Love of those things which are above Indeed some mens rising is but an apparition a phantasme a shadow a visour and no more But this hinders not us when we are risen but we may make our appearance nor must the Pharisee fright away the Christian Quaedam videntur non sunt Many things appear to be that which indeed they are not But this action cannot be if it do not appear If there be no apparition there is no Resurrection It is natural to us when we rise to shâ—w our selves If we rise to honour Acts 25. you may see us in the streets like Agrippa and Bernice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with great pomp If we rise in our Estates for that is the Worldlings Resurrection and not to rise thus with him is indeed to be dead you may see it in the next purchase If we rise and increase in knowledge which is a rising from the grave of Ignorance then scire meum nihil est we are even sick till we vent knowledge is nothing it the world cry us not up for men of knowledge And shall we be so ready to publish that which the world looks upon with an evil eye and conceal that from mens eyes which onely is worth the sight and by beholding of which even evil-doers may glorifie God in the day of visitation Shall Dives appear in his purple and Herod in his royal apparel and every scribler be in print and do we think that rising from sin is an action so low that it may be done in a corner that we may rise up and never go abroad to be seen in albis in our Easter-day-apparel in the white garment of Innocency and Newness of life never make any shew of the riches and glory of the Gospel have all our Goodness locked up in archivis in secret nothing set forth and publisht to the world What is this but to conceal nay to bury our Resurrection it self Nay rather since we are risen with Christ let us be seen in our march accoutred with the whole armour of God Ephes 2. â—0 Let us be full of those good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them for by these we appear to be risen and they make us shine as stars in the firmament We may pretend perhaps that God is the searcher and seer of the heart Well he is so sed tamen luceat opera saith the Father yet let thy light shine forth make thy apparition For as God looketh down into thy heart so will thy good works ascend and come before him and he hath pleasure in them Lift up your hearts They are the words we use before the Administration and you answer We lift them up unto the Lord. Let it appear that you do And therefore as you lift up your hearts so lift up your hands also Lift up pure and clean hands such hands as may be known for the hands of men risen from the dead Let us now begin to be that which we hope to be spiritual bodies that the Body being subdued to the Spirit we may rise with Christ here to newness of life which is our first Resurrection and when he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead we may have our second Resurrection to glory in that place of bliss where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God To which he bring us who is our Resurrection and Life even Jesus Christ the righteous who died for our sins and rose again for our justification To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all honour and glory for evermore The Six and Thirtieth SERMON PHILIPP I. 23. For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Or For I am greatly in doubt on both sides desiring to be loosed and to be with Christ which is best of all WE may here behold our blessed Apostle S. Paul as it were between heaven and earth doubtfully contemplating the happiness which his Death and the profit which his Life may bring perplexed and labouring between both and yet concluding for neither side To be with Christ is best for him to remain on earth is best for the Philippians
unto death There is lex Factorum the Law of Works For they are not all Credenda in the Gospel all articles of Faith there be Agenda some things to be done Nor is the Decalogue shut out of the Gospel Nay the very articles of our Creed include a Law and in a manner bind us to some duty and though they run not in that imperial strain Do this and live yet they look towards it as towards their end Otherwise to believe them in our own vain and carnal sense vvere enough and the same faith vvould save us vvith vvhich the Devils are tormented No thy Faith to vvhich thou art also bound as by a Law is dead that is is not faith if it do not vvork by a Law Thou believest there is a God Thou art then bound to vvorship him Thou believest that Christ is thy Lord Thou art then obliged to do what he commandeth His Word must be thy Law and thou must fulfill it His Death is a Law and bindeth thee to mortification His Cross should be thy obedience his Resurrection thy righteousness and his Coming to judge the quick and the dead thy care and solicitude In a word in a Testament in a Covenant in the Angel's message in the Promises of the Gospel in every Article of thy Creed thou mayest find a Law Christ's Legacy his Will is a Law the Covenant bindeth thee the Good news obligeth thee the Promises engage thee and every Article of thy Creed hath a kind of commanding and legislative power over thee Either they bind to some duty or concern thee not at all For they are not proposed for speculation but for practice and that consequence vvhich thou mayest easily draw from every one must be to thee as a Law What though honey and milk be under his tongue and he sendeth embassadours to thee and they intreat and beseech thee in his stead and in his name Yet is all this in reference to his command and it proceedeth from the same Love which made his Law And even these beseechings are binding and aggravate our guilt if we melt not and bow to his Law Principum preces mandata sunt the very intreaties of Kings and Princes are as binding as Laws preces armatae intreaties that carry force and power with them that are sent to us as it were in arms to invade and conquer us And if we neither yield to the voice of Christ in his royal Law nor fall down and worship at his condescensions and loving parlies and earnest beseechings we increase our guilt and make sin sinful in the highest degree Nor need we thus boggle at the word or be afraid to see a Law in the Gospel if either we consider the Gospel it self or Christ our King and Lord or our selves who are his redeemed captives and owe him all service and allegeance For first the Gospel is not a dispensation to sin nor was a Saviour born to us that he should do and suffer all and we do what we list No the Gospel is the greatest and sharpest curb that was ever yet put into the mouth of Sin The grace of God saith S. Paul hath appeared unto all men teaching us that is commanding us Tit. 2.11 to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Libertas in Christo non fecit innocentiae injuriam saith the Father Our liberty in Christ was not brought in to beat down innocency before it but to uphold it rather and defend it against all those assaults which flesh and bloud our lusts and concupiscence are ready to make against it Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world He taketh away those sins that are past by remission and pardon but he setteth up a Law as a rampire and bulwork against Sin that it break not in and reign again in our mortal bodies There Christ is said to take away not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sins but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sin of the world that is the whole nature of Sin that it may have no subsistence or being in the world If the Gospel had nothing of Law in it there could be no sin under the Gospel For Sin is a transgression of a Law But flatter our selves as we please those are the greatest sins which we commit against the Gospel And it shall be easier in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah then for those Christians who turn the grace of God into wantonness who sport and revel it under the very wings of Mercy who think Mercy cannot make a Law but is busie onely to bestow Donatives and Indulgences who are then most licencious when they are most restrained For what greater curb can there be then when Justice and Wisdom and Love and Mercy all concur and joyn together to make a Law Secondly Christ is not onely our Redeemer but our King and Law-giver As he is the wonderful Counsellour Isa 9 6. Psal 2.6 so he came out of the loyns of Judah and is a Law-giver too Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion The government shall be upon his shoulder He crept not to this honour Isa 9.6 but this honour returned to him as to the true and lawful Lord With glory and honour did God crown him and set him over the works of his hands Heb. 2.7 As he crowned the first Adam with Understanding and freedom of Will so he crowned the second Adam with the full Knowledge of all things with a perfect Will and with a wonderful Power And as he gave to Adam Dominion over the beasts of the field so he gave to Christ Power over things in heaven and things on earth And he glorified not himself Heb. 5.5 but he who said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee he it was that laid the government upon his shoulder Not upon his shoulders For he was well able to bear it on one of them For in him the Godhead dwelleth bodily And with this power he was able to put down all other rule autority and power 1 Cor. â—5 24 to spoil principalities and powers and to shew them openly in triumph to spoil them by his death and to spoil them by his Laws due obedience to which shaketh the power of Hell it self For this as it pulleth out the sting of Death so also beateth down Satan under our feet This if it were universal would be the best exorcism that is and even chase the Devil out of the world which he maketh his Kingdom For to run the way of Christ's commandments is to overthrow him and bind him in chains is another hell in hell unto him Thirdly if we look upon our selves we shall find there is a necessity of Laws to guide and regulate us and to bring us to the End All other creatures are sent into the world with a sense and understanding of the end for which they come and so without particular direction and yet unerringly
Powers and Principalities Laws and Precepts and all that is named of God Ambition maketh Laws Jura perjura Swear and forswear Arise kill and eat Covetousness maketh Laws condemneth us to the mines to dig and sweat Quocunque modo rem Gather and lay up Come not within the reach of Omri's statutes of humane Laws and you need not fear any Law of Christ. Private Interest maketh Laws and indeed is the Emperour of the world and maketh men slaves to crouch and bow under every burthen to submit to every Law of man though it enjoyn to day what it did forbid yesterday to raise up our heads and then duck at every shadow that cometh over us but we can see no such formidable power in the Royal Law of Christ because it breatheth not upon it to promote and uphold it but looketh as an enemy that would cast it down biddeth us deny our selves which we do every day for our lusts for our honour for our profit but cannot do it for Christ or for that crown which is laid up for those that do it Thus every thing hath power over us which may destroy us but Christ is not hearkned to nor those his Laws which may make us wise unto salvation For we are too ready to believe what some have been bold to teach that there are no such Laws at all in the Gospel Therefore in the last place let us cast this root of bitterness out of our hearts let us look upon it as a most dangerous and baneful errour an errour which hath brought that abomination of desolation into the world and into the lives and manners of Christians which have made them stink amongst the inhabitants of the earth amongst Jews and Pagans and Infidels which tremble to behold those works of darkness which they see every day not onely done but defended by those who call themselves the children of light Because in that name we bite and devour one another for this they despise the Gospel of Christ because we boast of it all the day long and make use of it as a Licence or Letters patent to be worse then they riot it in the light beat our fellow-servants defraud and oppress them which they do not in darkness and in the shadow of death The first Christians called the Gospel legem Christianam the Christian Law and so lived as under a Law so lived that nothing but the name was accused But the latter times have brought forth subtle Divines that have disputed away the Law and now there is scarce any thing left commendable but the name A Gospeller and worse then a Turk or Pagan a Gospeller and a Revenger a Gospeller and a Libertine a Gospeller and a Schismatick a Gospeller and a Deceiver a Gospeller and a Traitor a Gospeller that will be under no Law a Gospeller that is all for Love and Mercy and nothing for Fear I may say the Devil is a better Gospeller for he believeth and trembleth And indeed this is one of the Devils subtilest engines veritatem veritate concutere to shake and beat down one Truth with another to bury our Duty in the Good news to hide the Lord in the Saviour and the Law in the covering of Mercy to make the Gospel supplant it self that it may be of no effect to have no sound heard but that of Imputative righteousness From hence that irregularity and disobedience amongst Christians that liberty and peace in sin For when Mercy waiteth so close upon us and Judgment is far out of our sight we walk on pleasantly in forbidden paths and sin with the less regret sin and fear not pardon lying so near at hand To conclude then Let us not deceive our selves and think that there is nothing but Mercy and Pardon in the Gospel and so rely upon it till we commit those sins which shall be pardoned neither in this world nor in the world to come Nemo promittat sibi quod non promittit Evangelium saith Augustine Let no man make the promise larger then the Gospel hath made it nor so presume on the Grace of God as to turn it into wantonness so extol it as to depress it so trust to Mercy as to forfeit it but look into the Gospel and behold it in its own shape and face as pardoning sin and forbidding sin as a royal Release and a royal Law And look upon Christ the authour and finisher of our faith as a Jesus to save us Psal 2. and a Lord to command us as preaching peace and preaching a Law Rom. 8.3 condemning sin in his flesh dying that sin might dye and teaching us to destroy it in our selves In a word let us so look into the Gospel that it may be unto us the savour of life unto life and not the savour of death unto death so look upon Christ here that he may be our Lord to govern us and our Jesus to save us that we may be subject to his Laws and so be made capable of his mercy that we may acknowledge him to be our Lord and he acknowledge us before his Father that Death may lose its sting and Sin its strength and we may be saved in the last day through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Two and Fortieth SERMON PART II. JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed THat the Precepts of the Gospel do bind us as Laws ye have heard already and how the Doctrine of the Gospel is a Law We must in the next place see how it is a perfect Law And first That is perfect saith the Philosopher cui nihil adimi nec adjici potest from which nothing can be taken and to which nothing can be added Such is the Gospel You cannot adde to it you cannot take from it one lota or tittle If any shall adde unto these things Rev. 22.18 God shall adde to him the plagues that are written in this book And if any shall take away from them God shall take away his part out of the book of life There needeth no second hand to supply it and that hand deserveth to be cut off that shall corrupt or alter it For look upon the End which is Blessedness There you have it drawn out in the fairest lines that flesh and bloud can read in as large a representation as our humane nature is capable of Then view the Means to bring us to that end They are plainly exprest and set out there in such a character that we may run and read them open to our understanding exciting our faith raising our hope and even provoking us to action There is nothing which we ought to know nothing which we must believe nothing which we may hope for nothing which concerneth us to do nothing which may lift us up to happiness and carry us to the end but it is written
vanity or the next business will drive it away and take its place Nor let us make a room for it in our Phansie For it is an easie matter to think we are free when we are in chains Who is so wicked that he is not ready to persuade himself he is just And that false persuasion too shall go for the dictate of the Holy Ghost Paganism it self cannot shew such monsters as many of them are who call themselves Saints But let us gird up our loins and be up and doing the work those works of piety which the Gospel injoyneth It is Obedience alone that tieth us to God and maketh us free denisons of that Jerusalem which is above In it the Beauty the Liberty the Royalty the Kingdom of a Christian is visible and manifest For by it we sacrifice not our Flesh but our Will unto God and so have one and the same will with him and if we have his will we have his power also and his wisdom to accompany it and to to fulfil all that we can desire or expect Servire Deo regnare est To serve God is to reign as Kings here and will bring us to reign with him for evermore Let us then stand fast in our obedience which is our liberty against all the wiles and invasions of the enemy all those temptations which will shew themselves in power and craft to remove us from our station In a calm to steer our course is not so difficult but when the tempest beateth hard upon us not to dash against the rock will commend our skill Every man is ready to build a tabernacle for Christ when he is in his glory but not to leave him at the Cross is the glory and crown of a Christian And first let us not dare a temptation as Pliny dared the vapour at Mount Vesuvius and died for it Let us not offer and betray our selves to the Enemy For he that affecteth and loveth danger is in the ready way to be swallowed up in that gulf Valiant men saith the Philosopher are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quiet and silent before the combat but in the trial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ready and active But audacious daring men are commonly loud and talkative before encounters but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flag and fail in them The first weigh the danger and resolve by degrees the other are peremptory and resolve suddenly and talk their resolution away It is one thing to talk of a tempest at sea another to discourse of it leaning against a wall It is one thing to dispute of pain another to feel it Grief and Anguish hath not such a sting in the Stoicks gallery as it hath on the rack For there Reason doth fight but with a shadow and a representation here with the substance it self And when things shew themselves naked as they are they stir up the affections When the Whip speaketh by its smart not by my phansie when the Fire is in my flesh not my understanding when temptations are visible and sensible then they enter the soul and the spirit then they easily shake that resolution which was so soon built and soon beat down that which was made up in haste Therefore let us not rashly thrust our selves upon them But in the second place let us arm and prepare our selves against them For Preparation is half the conquest It looketh upon them handleth and weigheth them before hand seeeth where their great strength lieth and goeth forth in the power of the Spirit and in the name of Christ and so maketh us more then conquerers before the sight And this is our Martyrdom in peace For the practice of a Christian in the calmest times must nothing differ in readiness and resolution from times of rage and fire As Josephus speaketh of the military exercises practised amongst the Romans that they differed from a true battel only in this that their battel was a bloudy exercise and their exercise a bloudless battel So our preparation should make us martyrs before we come to resist ad sanguinem to shed a drop of bloud To conclude as the Apostle exhorteth let us take unto us the whole armour of God that we may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand to stand against the horrour of a prison against the glittering of the sword against the terrour of death to stand as expert souldiers of Christ and not to forsake our place to stand as mount Sion which cannot be moved in a word to be stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord. For whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed The Seven and Fortieth SERMON PART VII JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed TO Persevere or continue in the Gospel and To be blessed for ever are the two stages of a Christian the one here on earth the other in heaven and there is scarce a moment but a last breath between them nothing but a mouldering and decaying wall this tabernacle of flesh which falleth down suddenly and then we pass and enter And that we may persevere and continue means are here prescribed first assiduous Meditation in this Law we must not be forgetful hearers of it but look into it as into a glass vers 23 24. yet not as a man that beholdeth his natural face in a glass and then goeth away and forgetteth himself not as a man who looketh carelesly casteth an eye and thinketh no more of it but rather as a woman who looketh into her glass with intention of mind with a kind of curiosity and care stayeth and dwelleth upon it fitteth her attire and ornaments to her by a kind of method setteth every hair in its proper place and accurately dresseth and adorneth her self by it And sure there is more care and exactness due to the soul then to the body Secondly that we may continue and persevere we must not only hear and remember but do the work For Piety is confirmed by Practice To these we may now add a third which hath so near a relation to Practice that it is even included in it and carrried along with it And it is To be such students in Christ's School as S. Paul was Acts 24.16 To study and exercise our selves to have alwayes a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Not to triflle with our God or play the wanton with our Conscience Not to displease and wound her in one particular with a resolution to follow her in the rest Not to let our love of the world or fear of danger make that a truth which we formerly
actions are sometimes to be forborn if they be not expedient 639. 1102. Laws necessary for Man 1066. Laws still are framed and given by the prevailing party 1070. Reasons why humane Laws must needs be defective 121. 131. If we will be just we must do many things that mens L. enjoyn not 121. Many wayes to pervert and elude the Laws 122. 132. The Law of Nature more firm and binding then any written Law 124. 127 128. How far it carried some Heathen 1083 1084. Laws of Men and Laws of God compared 168. 228. 230. The Law of God is perfect 1088. but not so perfect as the Gospel 1078. Christ came not to dissolve the Law either of Nature or of Moses 1068. What arguments some Gospellers use to shake off the yoke of the Law 1068. Some will not allow Christ to be a Law-giver nor his Gospel a Law 1068 c. What a world of Laws are they subject to that will not obey Christs 1070 1071. Christ hath reformed and enlarged the Law and exacteth far more of us then the Law did 1078 1079. 1098. The Law of Christ teacheth us to look higher then the natural man could sore 1084. Christ's Laws as well as Mans have their force and life from Rewards and Punishments 390. 1122. Their nature and excellent effects 1067. Whether God's Laws may be exactly and fully obeyed 109 c. v. Gospel Many think Law and Liberty contrary things and that they are never free but when lawless 1099. But there is no liberty but under some Law 1099. ¶ Lawgivers the Disciples of God 106. v. GOD. Lev. x. 10. 1033. ¶ xix 17. 293. Libellatici 1121. Libertines errours confuted 392 c. v. Papists Liberty Our Christian Liberty wherein it consisteth 1097 c. Many abuse it 640. 1103. It is restrained by Sobriety Charity Autority 638 c. 1101 c. Men love to hear of Christian L. but not to have it confined 691. Doctrines of Liberty though true yet are not to be pressed 618. How to stand fast in our Christian Liberty 1103. How Law and Liberty can both be said of the Gospel 1099. c. Obedience to Law is Liberty to Angels to Men to the inanimate Creatures 1100. Lie The Persians told their children they might lie to their enemies but not to their friends 134. Life of Man short and uncertain 356. It is too pretious a thing to be prodidally flung away for a trifle 705 706. but it must be willingly parted with for Righteousness sake 706. We live not indeed till our new birth 1003. London's privileges and London's sins 422 423. 920. D. Longinus 103. LORD This word expresseth the Majesty and Greatness of God 103. and remembreth us of our allegeance 114. If we will not own Christ for our Lord he will not be our Saviour 760 c. 1072. v. Christ Jesus Love v. Charity Christ God Love is the most eminent and potent among the Affections 66. 550 551. It s mighty force 23. 66. 75. 192 193. It setteth all the other Affections on work 550 551. It is like Fire 550 743. Love Worldly and Godly 338. Love of our Selves how dangerous 856 857. v. Self-love They who love the World have no Love to God or Man 890 891. v. World How strangely Love blindeth the Judgment 670. That which we love is either our joy or our grief 570. Love both in God and Man is accompanied with Jealousie 743. What it is to love God 1012. Its effects in the soul 1013. It is the noblest motive to duty 395. 743. It maketh a man earnest and chearfull in duty 843 c. Where Love is cold and defective there is an irregular and inconstant behaviour 845. It may stand with Fear 394. v. Fear If not tempered with Fear it may be too bold 396. 399. Love coupleth not onely Men but also Faith and Hope together 242. 736. Love hath the advantage of Knowledge 977. It is better to love good then to do it 149. Not to love that which is good is to hate it 689 690. What a strange strait St. Paul's Love of Christ brought him into 1006 c. 1010. Our Love should be fixed on the Truth 672. Love of the Truth will not onely burn within us but also shine forth to others 551 c. Our Love of God hath inseparably united to it the Love of our Brethren 1009. To love them that love us is but the rudiments of Charity Christians have an higher an harder lesson 1087. Love of our Brother how to be shewn 576 c. Luk. xi 41. 831. ¶ xii 4 5. 394. ¶ 32. 397. ¶ xiv 13 14. 690. ¶ xvi 25 617. ¶ xvii 10. 1092. ¶ xix 41 c. 359. 795 c. ¶ xxii 42. 266. Lust v. Ignorance Luther 526. 682. Lutheranes depend no less on Luther then the Papists do on the Pope or on their Church 682. The reply of a Prince to the Lutheranes 1070. Luxurie Unnecessary Arts at first the daughters now the nurses of Luxurie 219. Lycurgus 231. 301. M. MAd-men v. Fools Majesty what 311. Maldonate's spite against Calvine 922. He rejected an interpretation that he held best onely because Calvine's 671. Malice and Ign. misconstrue every thing 961 962. 965 966. But their mis-interpretations will not prevail against the Truth 963. Malice against the Truth is downright or interpretative and both must be cast away 688 c. Man created and preserved by God and vvhy 104 105. 107. 115 116. 647. 649. Why created so excellent a creature 87. 647. His beauty and perfection consisteth in obedience and conformity to God 107. Man is a most goodly creature if not transformed by sin 125 135. By sin he is become worse then any Beast 378. How degenerated from his original and how to be restored 782. How weak and indigent 313. 938. How uneven and changeable 383. 773. How subject to chance 936. Other creatures can attein their ends of themselves but Man cannot without a guide 1066. How Christ hath honoured Man and how he ought to honour himself 218. He is too excellent a creature to mind earthly things 647 c. 653. He is a voluntary agent in the work of his conversion 435 436. 584-587 Man is a fair mirrour to behold God in 125. He is a theatre where the Flesh and the Spirit are fighting continually 312. 767. Every Man is a glass for another to see himself in 936 937. All have one common extraction 938. In Nature's Heraldry all Men are equal 279. All by nature are brethren and therefore should help and not hurt one another 123. 938. Arguments to move us thereunto 938. What helps Nature hath supplied Man with 939. His Body and Soul opposit each to other 159. His Mind curious and restless 218. 248. It should not be overtasked 249. What it is that can satisfie him 90 91. 786. Impossible for Man to equal God 1087. He is not to be accounted a Man who wanteth reason 96. The fickleness of Man's
not dare so oft to offend and which is most strange had not Christ so loved us we had not persecuted him had he not been a sacrifice we had been more willing to have made him an ensample For we hope his Love that nailed him to the cross will be ready to meet and succour and embrace us in any posture in any temper whatsoever though we come towards him clothed with vengeance Zeph. 1.8 in anger and fury with strange apparel in wantonness and lust polluted and spotted with the world Thus doth the sophistry of our Sensual part prevail against the demonstrations of Reason which doth bring Christ in as dead for our sins but withall as a Lord to help us to destroy Sin by the power of his death For both these are friendly linked together in the Lord's Death his Love and his Ensample Et magnum nobis quà m parvo constat exemplum And this great example how little doth it cost us Not to be spit upon and buffeted and crucified not to suffer and die It is no more then this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew it forth in our selves till he come Which is the Act here required and my next Part. And this we must do if we will be fitted for this Feast and be welcome guests at the Lord's Table Divines have told us of a threefold manner of feeding on the flesh of Christ a Sacramental alone a Spiritual alone and a Sacramental and Spiritual both Which distinction may not be rejected if it be rightly understood 1. They that come to this Table and receive the Sacrament without faith and devotion may be said indeed to eat the Body of Christ as that name is usually given to the Sacrament and sign and the Sacrament of the body of Christ after a manner is the Body of Christ and yet that of S. Augustine is true He that sheweth not forth his death eateth not his flesh but is guilty of the body and bloud of Christ a Communicant and no Communicant an enemy and not a guest fitter to be dragged to the bar then to be placed at his Table And what a morsel is that with which we take down Death and the Devil together 2. Some there be whom not contempt and neglect but necessity the great patroness of humane infirmitie keepeth from the Lord's Table and Sacrament and yet they shew his death look up upon his cross draw it out in their heart in bleeding characters apply it by faith and make it their meditation day and night And these though they feed not on him Sacramentally yet spiritually are partakers of his body and bloud and so made heirs of salvation though they eat not this bread nor drink of this cup. For what cannot be done cannot bind Some Actions are counted as done though they be never brought forth into act If the heart be ready though the tongue be silent as a viol on the wall yet we sing and give praise Persecution may shut up the Church-doors yet I may love the place where God's honour dwelleth Persecution may seal up the Priest's lips shut me up in prison and feed me with no other bread then that of affliction yet even in the lowest dungeon I may feed on this Bread of life I may be valiant and not strike a blow I may be liberal and not give a mite hospital when I have not a hole to hide my head in He that taketh my purse from me doth not rob me of my piety he that sequestereth my estate yet leaveth me my charity and he that debarreth me the Table cannot keep me from Christ As I told you out of Ambrose Manducans non manducat I may eat the Bread and not be partaker of the Body so Non Manducans manducat Though I take not down the outward elements yet I may feed on Christ But happy yea thrice happy is their condition who can do both so receive panem Domini the Lord's bread that they may receive also pane 〈◊〉 Dominum be partakers of the Lord himself who is the Bread of life Blessed is he that thus eateth Bread with him at his Table For he feedeth on him Sacramentally and spiritually both Here he findeth those gracious advantages his Faith actuated his Hope exalted his Charity dilated the Covenant renewed the Promises and Love of Christ sealed and ratified to him with his bloud And this we shall do this comfort and joy we shall find even a new heaven in our souls if we shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preach and publish his death Which we may look upon at first as a duty of quick dispatch but if we look upon it again well weigh and consider it we shall find that it calleth for and requireth our greatest care and industry For it is not to turn the story of Christ's passion into a Tragedy to make a scenical representation of his death with all the art and colours of Rhetorick to declaim against the Jews malice or Judas's treason or Pilate's in justice but rather to declaim preach against our selves to hate and abhor crucifie our selves Nos nos homicidae We we alone are the murtherers Our Treachery was the Judas that betrayed him our Malice the Jew which accused him our Perjury the false witness against him our Injustice the Pilate that condemned him Our Pride scorned him our Envy grinned at him our Luxury â—pit upon him our Covetousness sold him Our corrupt bloud was drawn out of his wounds our swellings pricked with his thorns our sores lanced with his spear and the whole body of Sin stretched out and crucified with the Lord of life This indeed doth shew his death This consideration doth present the Passion but in a rude and imperfect piece The death of the Lord is shewn almost by every man and every day Some shew it but withal shew their vanity and make it manifest to all men Some shew it by shewing the Cross by signing themselves with the sign of it Some to shew it shew a Body which cannot be seen being hid under the accidents of Bread and Wine Some shew their wit instead of Christ's Passion lift it up as he was upon the cross shew it with ostentation Some shew their rancour and malice about a feast of Love and so draw out Christ with the claw of a Devil Phil. 1.15 Some preach it as S Paul speaketh out of envy and strife and some also of good will Some preach it and preach against it Some draw out Christ's Passion and their Religion together and all is but a picture and then sound a trumpet make a great cry as the painter who had drawn a Souldier with a sword in his hand did sound an alarm that he might seem to fight But this doth not shew the Lord's death but as Tertullian speaketh id negat quod ostendit denieth what it sheweth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew to preach the death of the Lord is more We may observe that