in the Law of God even the written Word that no Heathen durst venture to intersert any pieces of it into their Writings So Holy it was accounted that they durst not contaminate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their profane mouths as Iosephus writes from the testimony of Hecataeus Demetrius in the same Historian reports that one Theopompus grew distracted by being too bold and busie with these Writings And that Theodectes the Tragaedian lost his sight And no wonder for by Iosephus's relation these men sought rather for Flowers to adorn their Works than for wholesome Instructions to reform their Lives Theodectes it's likely spyed somewhat there that would grande sonare that would sound gravely and make a majestick noise fitting his Tragick buskin but the man had little mind to set his feet in those Lawes of God to do them And hence so much distraction phrensie and blindness possesseth us this very day Yet like bold impudent Flies we sieze confidently upon those precious Oyntment-pots of the Apothecary and in this plenty of wholesome refreshment have Wings and Feet clung together and lose our Life even in the very Book of Life Prov. 25. If thou hast found honey eat so much as is sufficient for thee That is as much as thou canst well digest into practice For so it is with the Word as it is with Meat Not taken it doth no good Taken in and not digested it brings but Diseases But taken in and perfectly digested by honest labour and exercise preserveth Life and Health 4. But these Considerations are more proper to the Fourth and last Reason why we should be Doers of the Word Which hath reference to us and is the Reward of keeping his Commandments By them is thy servant taught and in keeping of them there is great reward Psal. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Threefold great Reward A reward in Estate a reward in Body and a reward in Soul 1. A reward in Estate Blessed shalt thou be in thy basket and in thy dough Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground and the fruit of thy cattle and the increase of thy kine and the flocks of thy sheep Deut. 28. But if we think Moses word not sufficient Christ himself will put in security for supply of all necessaries if we take but the condition of Obedience Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Matth. 6. So the Psalmist The lyons rore and suffer hunger but they that fear the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good There are manifold Testimonies in Scripture to this purpose and so obvious that quotation is needless 2. The second reward is in a mans Body for Strength Health and Beauty Fear the Lord and depart from evil so health shall be to thy navel and marrow unto thy bones Prov. 3. Envy Anger Hatred and discontented Melancholly which reign in either proud or pusillanimous Souls weaken Nature and destroy the Body but Life and Vigour is in the perfect Law of Charity A chearful Conscience purifies and refines the Blood but disobeying the inward Light is the choaking of the Vital Spirits A sound heart is the life of the flesh saith Solomon but envy is the rottenness of the bones This for Health and Strength Now for Beauty The wisdom of a man doth make his face to shine Ecclesiastes 8. and Ecclesiasticus 25. The wickedness of a woman changeth her face and maketh her countenance black as a sack The heart of a man changeth his countenance saith the Wise Man whether it be in good or evil So if there be a continual vigorous habit in the heart of shining Vertue and lovely Charity it will issue even into the face of a man in all friendly amiableness Moses was so fill'd with this Heavenly Beauty that the Children of Israel could not look upon him for his glorious splendour But the works of darkness make the spirit of a man to set in gloomy obscurity and deadness 3. But now we come to the third reward which is in the Soul Psal. 19. 7. The law of the Lord is an undefiled law converting the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Septuagint the word which the Platonists use For the clear understanding of the dignity of this Conversion we are to take notice of the nature thereof Conversion therefore includes two things a leaving and a making toward somewhat And here in this Christian Conversion that which is to be left is the Creature and that which is to be turned unto is God The leaving of the Creature is the forsaking of whatsoever is not God but especially the renouncing of our own selves For while we cleave unto the Creature we most of all cleave unto our own selves for we adhere unto it for our own sake Self-love is the hinge or centre upon which we turn from God to the Creature and upon which we begin to circle from the Creature to God again But the accomplishment of Conversion breaks this thing abolisheth this centre and then we have our fixation in God and all our motion and operation of will and affection is upon him and from him That AEgyptian King as Herodotus reports in his Second Book when he had prohibited his Subjects sacrificing to God and had shut up all the Temple doors in AEgypt he presently employes all his people in his own Service and sets them to leed Stones to build Pyramids for his own Honour and the lasting Memorial of himself No man would be so mad as to forsake the Service of God to be a drudge to an inferiour Master But without question the plot is to be his own God and his own Master and to employ all his strength for himself But how the Law of God doth convert the Soul from this Idolatry and that which we falsely seek after how it brings us truly more near unto will be seen from the manner of this Conversion of the Soul to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Proclus in Plato's Theology The conversion of things to their causes or principles is to receive assimilating influence from them or to rise up and ascend nearer and nearer unto them and to become more and more like them To return therefore unto God is to become like to him by the recovery of the lost Image of Adam who was made according to the similitude of God Now the Image of God what it is seems not to be unknown even to the very Heathens The ancient Greek Poet brings in Vlysses musing with himself amongst his travels what a kind of People he had fallen among after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What a kind of People be the Inhabitants of the Land into which I come Are they injurious barbarous and unjust Or are they of a loving disposition courteous unto strangers and of a Godlike mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
of God For this Life and Spirit is not drawn into the Soul but with the Body of Christ which is the Holy Temple of God Wherefore when we come to that Dispensation which we call the Living Law or the Law that giveth Life this is a main progress indeed in our Journey through the Valley of Baca and in this especially is that verify'd that it is turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into a springing Well which as I intimated before is to be understood of the Spirit This Spirit of Life in us the Soul being one with it she will cleanse her self of all dirtiness and uncleanness like a bubling Spring into which if a man fling any dirt it will work it out again And so will this Spirit of Life work out all filth and falshood out of the Soul it not enduring any such heterogeneous stuff in it Here therefore the Vertues become Cathartical in an eminent degree But when Corruption is laid aside and kept at a distance when Regeneration is compleated and the new man well knit and compacted together then is the House or Temple of God built which these Travellers in Baca seek after And this degree of Vertue you may if you will in Plotinus his Phrase call Paradigmatical though not in his Sense who understands thereby a sensless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Soul as if she had to do with no Matter at all and was to be reduced to a perfect Apathy But the Body of Christ and the Temple of God though they be very Pure Holy and Heavenly yet they are not perfectly Immaterial And it is that Idea or Example that we are to imitate and according to which our perfection is and therefore when Vertue has arrived to this degree it may well in this solid Sense be called Paradigmatical for all things are here according to the Pattern in the Mount And we have now brought our Travellers through the Valley of Baca to Mount Sion or rather to that part of that Tract so called in which the Temple was built which is Mount Moriah the Mountain of Myrrhe as some would have it signifie which implies the dryness and sterility of the Soil as well as the Notation of Sion does which has its name from aridity or dryness For this Temperature wherein the lubricous and luxuriant moisture of the Concupiscible or Desires of the Flesh of what nature soever and pleasures thereof are dry'd up and consumed by that more heavenly heat and zealous desire after the House of God This is the true Terra Sancta the Consecrated Ground in which the Temple of God will at last be erected and wherein those Travellers through the Valley of Baca will at last to their unspeakable comfort find it and with it the most solid Happiness the Soul of man is capable of which is the last particular 6. The Entertainment of these Travellers at their Iourneys end It is no less than a Beatifick Vision They shall every one of them appear before God in Sion For these are the generation of them that seek him even them that seek the face of the God of Iacob And here they are said to appear before the God of Gods in Sion and so to see his face which is the greatest satisfaction that the Soul of man can either desire or find according to that in the 17th Psalm As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake into thy likeness Which men can never do till they are brought into this Terra Sancta the moist fumes and vapours of a foul lushious Blood and unsanctify'd and unpurify'd Body will keep them fast in an heavy Sleep accompanied at the best but with vain and frivolous Dreams and the false Pleasures and Joyes of this perishing Life till they enter seriously into this Journey through the Valley of Baca and ascend into the Mountain of Myrrh which will prove to them the Mountain of the Vision of God which is an indubitable Etymology of Mount Moriah in which the Temple and Presence of God was amongst the Iews in which God exhibits himself visible to his People Blessed are the pure in heart which is the true Terra Sancta for they shall see God Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness whose Soul thirsts after God as a thirsty land as the Psalmist speaks for these shall be satisfied These are arriv'd to Mount Sion that dry hungry and thirsty Soil and consequently to the Holy Temple And therefore will not fail of being satisfied with the fatness of Gods house and of drinking plentifully of the river of pleasures that flows there For with thee is the fountain of life and in thy light shall we see light that is to say we shall see God who is light by his communicating his Image to us and making us Deiform This will be the Entertainment of these Travellers through Baca when they are come to Mount Moriah the Mountain of the Vision of God as the word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The God of Gods will appear to them in Sion The God of Gods the Summum Ronum O Lord our God other Lords besides thee have had dominion over us but in this thy Holy Temple we will make mention of thy name only It was our ignorance of thee and because we had not seen the beauty and comfort of thy Countenance that we have served other Gods before thee that we have sought satisfaction in the power or riches of this World in the honour or applause of Men in the lust and pleasures of the Flesh in needless and fruitless subtilities of Knowledge or from any self-reflections on our own conceited worth or precellency before others or whatever else is rellish'd by the mere Natural man It was our ignorance that we were any time servants to these or that they were any way the guides of our Life or the joy of our Hearts But they are dead dry'd up and withered and shall not live they are deceased and shall not rise to lord it again over us For thou only art Holy thou only art the Lord and thou only oughtest to possess us who only art able to satisfie us and fill us and so to fill us and satisfie us as that as there is no need so there is no room left for any worldly or carnal satisfactions that nothing unholy or unclean may crowd into this thy Holy Temple or approach this thy Holy Mountain wherein thou hast appointed that day of Feasting that Feast of fat things that Feast of refined Wines and of fat things full of Marrow as the Prophet Esay speaks This is the entertainment of our Travellers through the Valley of Baca when they are once arrived to the House of God God does not only show himself unto them but welcome them after their long travel with a joyful Feast and all delicious refreshments Behold I stand at the door and knock If any man hear my voice and
delight is with the sons of men as Solomon witnesseth of her And S. Iames bids us pray for her If any man want Wisdom let him ask it of God So that when the Prophet Baruch saith No man knoweth her way nor thinketh on her path is as much as if he should say No man by the Natural Spirit of a man can reach so far But S. Peter faith that we have precious promises of being made partakers of the Divine Nature And our Blessed Saviour argueth thus in the 11th of S. Luke If so be that men being evil know how to give good gifts to their children How much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him But what Shall therefore every one that saith Lord Lord or that can repeat their Pater noster receive the Holy Spirit of Wisdom No in no wise Only they that do the will of my Father which is in Heaven saith our Saviour If I encline to wickedness in my heart saith the Psalmist the Lord will not hear my prayer And indeed the old blind Poet could see so far into Divinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that obeys God God hears him So that we see that the foundation or beginning of this great work of Wisdom is that which the present Text points at viz. The fear of God The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom The words are plain and without ambiguity In the English especially The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not of so a determinate sense but that it may signifie the principal the first best or chiefest of Wisdom as well as the beginning of Wisdom But the latter I take to be the better if not the only sense For Fear hath torment saith the Apostle but perfect love casteth out fear Wherefore this Fear is not the choicest or chiefest of true Wisdom But if we compare this place with its parallel we shall yet more plainly see that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies merely a beginning or entrance Prov. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The entrance or first impenetration into Wisdom is the fear of God For the word comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to boar or pierce So that it is evident that the English Translation is the only sense of this place of Scripture In the handling whereof I will endeavour these two things 1. To shew somewhat more largely out of other places of Scripture the truth of this present Text That the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom 2. Why there is no other entrance than this into true Wisdom THE former is manifest out of many places of Scripture 1. Ecclesiastie 4. 17. For first she will walk with him by crooked wayes and bring him unto fear and dread and torment him with her discipline until she have tryed his soul and have proved him by her judgments Then will she return the streight way unto him and comfort him and shew him her secrets and heap upon him her treasures of Knowledge 2. Also Esai 66. at the beginning of the Chapter Thus saith the Lord The heaven is my throne and the earth is my foot-stool Where is that house that you will build unto me And where is that place of my rest Presently after he subjoineth To him will I look even to him that is of a poor and contrite spirit and trembleth at my words He therefore that fears the Lord shall become the Temple of God And it should seem no strange thing to us being the Apostle makes mention of the same more than once or twice Know you not that your bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost in the first Epistle to the Corinthians And in the same Epistle Know you not that you are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you Now what Benefit accrues to us by being the Temple of God we may gather by the nature and use of these Material Temples these Temples made with hands In these we know amongst the Heathen were the Initiations into the Mysteries of whatsoever Deity the place was Consecrate to But we need not straggle We see the use of outward Temples dayly here among our selves They are for Prayers Hymns and for Instruction out of the Word of God the literal Word of God in a gross material Temple Therefore in analogy in the Temple of our Souls and Spirits shall the essential word the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eternal Word of God or God himself teach and instruct us And who teacheth like him as is said in Iob. There was so great Vertue in the very presence of the Person of Socrates as you may see in Plato that his Scholars profited very much merely by being in the same Room with him though he spake not unto them How much more shall they profit with whom the Spirit of Christ abideth as in his own proper House and Temple With what joy and admiration shall they be taken when in the Synagogue of their Hearts he shall stand up and read as in that Synagogue at Nazareth He hath sent me that I should heal the broken-hearted that I should preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind When he shall begin to say This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears Then shall all the powers and faculties of a mans Soul bear him witness and wonder at the gracious words that proceed out of his mouth Such a Teacher shall all such have that truly fear God 3. Again That Wisdom is usherd in by terrour fear and horrour seems to be the subject of the 29th Psalm The voice of the Lord is upon the waters the God of glory maketh it to thunder the Lord is upon the great waters Now that Waters are an Emblem of the moveable and tumultuous flowings of the Earthly Nature that Learned Iew doth teach us when as he calls the Waters of Edom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Waters towards which the King of Egypt made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Platonists make but a sliding passing dream of corporeal and sensible things saying of them that they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they slide continually from the true essence by perpetual flowing So the Soul being united cum rebus fluxis caducis dissolved as it were and incorporate after a manner into their Watery nature and lost amongst it The mighty energy of the All-powerful Voice of God or Word of God doth operate upon these Waters for the producing of Light in them as in the first Creation And according to this Analogy speaks the Apostle 2 Cor. 4. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ. But to proceed further in the Psalm The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars yea the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon The voice of the Lord maketh
but as the Prophet expresses it a meer dream of eating and drinking It is even as when a hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty or as when a thirsty man dreameth and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint and his soul hath appetite Isa. 29. Such is the condition of all the adversaries of Sion the holy people of God that hunger and thirst after God and his Righteousness the fulfilling of the Will of God for this alone can fill the Soul of man He that feeds of any thing else sucks but in a rotten mist or fog of scarce so good as the Prodigals husks of no better than Mahomets Ezeck that infernal Tree whose fruit be but Devils heads and root streams with flames of fire and tracts of smoke of which who tasts feeds not but is fed upon ever consuming in unsatiable fiery appetite and restless desire But the sound and satisfying meal of the Soul is the Will of her Maker not when it is done without her but when her Life is that and she never finds her self to live but in that The very Life and Spirit of God drunk in by mans thirsty Soul that by continual repast from thence growes stronger and stronger and sucks so sweet delight from these breasts that she never hungers nor thirsts again never desires the tempting Poysons the pernicious Pleasures and false Contentments of this vain World This is Christ alive in us quite another Principle of Life and another Food from all that feeds our Eyes or Ears or worse than these our inordinate desires of Pleasure Profit or Honour This is that true Manna that Bread from Heaven Of this our Saviour witnesses viz. of himself I am the bread of life He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst Iohn 6. 35. DISCOURSE VI. JAM i. 22. Be ye Doers of the Word and not Hearers only deceiving your own selves NOT to be troublesome neither to you nor to my self by any tedious Preface or Introduction The Text will afford us at least these Three Doctrines 1. We must be Hearers of the Word 2. We must be Doers of the Word as well as Hearers 3. We are not to deceive our selves I. WE must be Hearers of the Word To exhort men to hear sith there is naturally in them such an itching Desire of hearing and knowing it may seem but a losing of time and labour But because some mens dispositions are low and groveling veluti pecorum quae natura prona atque ventri obedientia finxit as Salust speaks all their desires and imagination tending downward it will not be amiss to shew what good Causes there are that men should give their mind to the hearing of the Word 1. And surely no mean one is the Resuscitation of that better part of Mans Soul that lieth slumbering in a Trance which many times being strongly called upon by the Word with much adoe is reared up and slowly and heavily moves its dull sight that darkness so strongly had possessed before But if so be a man here be not propitious to himself and foster that Life which is then given him like one not perfectly recovered out of a swound he sinks down again out of the hands of him that held him and many such neglects may enter his name amongst the Dead whom Death gnaweth upon because he heard not the Monitions of his Teachers The eye that slighteth his fathers counsel and despiseth the instruction of his mother the ravens of the valley will pick it out He lying thus like a dead carryon exposed to the fowls of the Air the accursed Angels of darkness shall seize upon him and quite eradicate the principles of true light and sight in the valley of the shadow of death Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Awake thou that sleepest that Christ may give thee light Surge ne longus tibi somnus unde Non times detur And indeed a man least of all suspects his Friend to be his deadly enemy Yet it fares so with foolish wicked men Righteousness is immortal But unrighteousness bringeth death and the ungodly call it unto them both with hands and words and while they think to have a friend of it they come to nought Wisd. 1. Which mischief might happily be prevented by giving due heed and attention to the Word 2. For this Word if we were grown fitly prepared for the receiving of it is the Seed of Eternal Life whereby we may be born again and regenerate into the image of Christ And it is our Saviours own gloss The seed is the word of God Luke 8. Wherefore as in Nature were it not for Seed there would be no Herbs no Plants no Living Creatures so without the Word there would be no generation of the New Creature which S. Paul also confirms For this is plain where no Salvation no Regeneration and without the calling upon the Lord no Salvation For so it is written in the 10th to the Romans Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved But how shall they call on him on whom they have not believed And how shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a preacher And at last he concludes Then faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God But here some for the infringing of the necessity of this Seed perhaps may demand otherwise than the Apostle for he presently annexeth But I demand have they not heard Some might be prone to say Have they heard But the Answer is indifferent to both No doubt their sound went through all the earth and their words to the end of the world And this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the voice of the Heavens or the voice of that vast expansum from the Earth upward For that no man too confidently restrict and straiten this Preaching and this Word that S. Paul speaks of in this place the Quotation is a part of the 19th Psalm which begins The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theon calls it in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon Aratus this far-stretched Firmament or all-incircling Air 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We never let rest ever anvelling out its Makers praise by Air-beating sounds and voices Yea that lower noise of the breathing of Men and Beasts call aloud unto us for obedient thankfulness to him that is the life and breath of all living things that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Life of the World as R. Moses the AEgyptian calls him who if he should draw in his rayes of livelihood out of this great Universe the World would be as a dead fabrick in silence and desolation But this by the way for the due extent of S. Pauls words in that place For I
and in the mean time abstain from no manner of pleasure in anger impotent in good fortune insolent in adversity impatient remember the Name of God and in the mean while be held with all manner of Passions overcome no kind of perturbation Vertue arrived at its due pitch with true Wisdom and Prudence shews God unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But without true Vertue the naming of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but a name a word a sound an eccho nothing See how the Heathen Philosopher triumphs over those unworthy Christians whose Religion was but Opinion and their Life the depth of filth and corruption Or see rather how moderately and civilly he carries himself toward them that in their Controversies are ready to eat up and devour one another 2. But I will endeavour to convince them with the Apostles own Argument viz. That they that hear and do not deceive their own selves There be many testimonies of Scripture that will witness this deceit Gal. 6. 7 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting So S. Iohn Little children be not deceived he that doth righteousness he is righteous even as he is righteous He that commits sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning 1 Cor. 6. Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor wantons nor defilers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor railers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God How frequent are the Apostles in inculcating this so plain a Truth That righteousness of life is that which leads to God and his Eternal Kingdom Surely those Holy Watchmen of Israel did see the time would come that the delusions of the Devil would so strongly possess the heads and hearts of men that they would be fast glewed in hypocritical holiness to some outward form of Religion as the formal Hearing of the Word and such like that they might with a more quiet false Conscience omit the greater things of the Law as Justice Temperance Charity Humility and the whole quire of Holy Vertues The other they ought to do but by no means to leave these undone But now I will endeavour to shevv how this simple sort of Souls are befooled Galat. 6. If any man seem to himself that he is somewhat when he is nothing he deceiveth himself in his imagination Now these empty Hearers of the Word that they think themselves to be somewhat is plain from hence else would they seek something better but being that they set up their rest in this outward performance it 's a sign that they seem to themselves not to have got nothing But that they are as surely nothing as it is sure they take themselves to be something is easily proved out of 1 Cor. 13. Though I speak with the tongue of men and angels and have not charity I am as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal And although I had the gift of prophesie and knew all secrets and all knowledge yea if I had all faith so that I could remove mountains and had not love I were nothing Now that they that are but idle Hearers of the Word have not Charity and so consequently are nothing will be proved out of the effects of Charity Love suffereth long They are impatient Love is bountiful They are griping and covetous Love envieth not They are choaked with malice Love is not puffed up They are swoln with deceitful imagination Love disdaineth not They regard not the humble It seeketh not its own They are not contented with their own It is not provoked to anger They are implacable It thinks no evil They meditate no good It rejoyceth in the truth They are contemners of the Truth It believeth all things They believe no more than serves their own turn It fulfils the Law They only hear the Law The estate of this kind of people is well described by the Prophet Esay The multitude of all nations that fight against the altar shall be as a dream or vision of the night Even all they that make the war against it and strong-holds against it and lay siege unto it And it shall be like as an hungry man dreams and behold he eateth and when he awaketh his Soul is empty Or like as a thirsty man dreameth and lo he is drinking and when he awaketh behold he is faint and his Soul longeth So shall the multitude of nations be that fight against mount Sion That we are to sacrifice our selves that is our wickedness and fleshly life no man I think will deny But so exceeding misery it is and smart to Flesh and Blood to undergo this mortification and to lye broiling in this consuming fire that there needs a steddy strong upholding instrument for this so weighty performance which is all-bearing Patience This holds up the mortified Soul in its extreme burning anguish and therefore is not unlike an Altar that bears the Sacrifice Now they that fight against this real Service of God which is the mortification of our sinful Lusts the sacrificing of our evil Life and against Sion which God calls the Hill of his Holiness Let them dream never so strongly nor phansie never so deeply that such a measure of Righteousness will serve their turn a formal Hearing of the Word and a favourable false Application out of the same all this sweet repast and imaginary trust and perswasion will prove but a vision of the night and a feasting upon phansie in deceivable sleep For these Dreamers instead of purging the Flesh by the sacrifice of fire defile the Flesh with the fire of Lust Great pretenders to Knowledge and therefore sedulous Hearers but no Doers Clouds without water and they you know make a goodly show of whitish shining light though not so thoroughly enlightned as the blew Sky Stars they are but wandering Stars the end of whose staggering period is to set in everlasting blackness of darkness But I go on now to two other Arguments 3. A third Argument is taken from the Dignity of the Word it self Thou hast magnified thy name and thy Word above all things saith the Psalmist Hitherto belongs the Purity of the Word Thy Word is most pure therefore they servant loveth it Psal. 119. And it is Philo's observation upon the manner of the giving of the Law out of Fire and Smoke and Lightening 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Well and befittingly may the Word of God be said to come out of the fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the holy oracles of God are accurately purged and tryed even as gold in the fire So the Psalmist Psalm 12. The words of the Lord are pure words even as silver which from the earth is tryed and purifyed seven times in the fire So great Purity was conceived to be
meat and do all drink of the same spiritual drink and are all incorporate into one Body all quickened by the same Spirit all conspire into one Will through unity of the same Life so that all 's in peace and good order And thus much for the Persons assembled Which if you doubt of or are perswaded that you shall not continually enjoy their company yet I will shew you an assembly that so long as you enjoy a pure Conscience you shall alway enjoy their company in a true Paradise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Holy Paradise where are assembled Vertue Wisdom and all Decency and Discretion And these are excellent companions tho' they were known to no body but him that lives with them And He lives with them that hath a pure Heart for the Father of them abides in the sincere Spirit 2. But it were time now to speak of the Provision had I not spoke already somewhat of it almost before due time But no tongue can declare it I will rather use the Psalmists words O taste ye and see how gracious the Lord is For they that fear him shall lack nothing The lyons do lack and suffer hunger but they that do seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good So then here is apparatus non neglectus at least no want if not redundancy Ay but it 's a poor Feast you 'll say where there is no overplus If any man suspect he shall come to such a slender Dinner I will use the words of our Saviour Mat. 16. O ye of little faith why think you thus within your selves Do you not perceive neither remember the five loaves when there were five thousand men and how many baskets were taken up neither the seven loaves when there were four thousand men and how many baskets were taken up If Christ could satisfie such multitudes of men with so few loaves so that so many fragments were left Surely we need not fear but when he feeds us with himself who is that Heavenly Bread and the foecundity or fulness of God but that we shall be unspeakably satisfied and superabundantly refreshed So we have plainly seen how excellent our company how good our chear shall be I will interfeit one accomplishment which Varro omits in his Feast And that is Musick The concent of Musicians at a Banquet is as a Signet of Carbunoles set in Gold As the Signet of an Emerald well trimmed with Gold so is the melody of Musick in a pleasant banquet Ecclesiasticus 32. 5 6. Now that this Feast is not devoid of Musick will thus appear For Righteousness is nothing else but an harmony of the lower parts of a mans Soul with the upper of the Affections with Reason as the Pythagorists define it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Polus the Pythagorean When as the inclinations of a mans Will or Desire answer the dictates of true Reason these are Heavenly responses indeed fit for a Celestial Quire When Reason begins the point and all the Affections chearfully follow it as Philo comments upon that Song of Moses and Miriam I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously the horse and his rider he hath over-thrown in the Sea The Lord is my strength and praise and he is become my salvation Who is like unto thee O Lord among the gods Who is like unto thee so glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders Then Miriam the rest of the women following her with Timbrels and with Dances takes up her Timbrel in her hand and answers Sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously the horse and the rider hath he over-thrown in the Sea Such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as these such Triumphal Songs against our Spiritual Enemies will become this Feast well The same exultation of Spirit you shall find in the blessed Psalmist The Lord is my strength and my shield my heart hath trusted in him and I am helped Therefore my heart danceth with joy and in my song will I praise him Psalm 28. This is that which the Apostle exhorts to Eph. 5. Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit speaking unto your selves with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts Hitherto then is this Feasting very compleat good Companions good Chear good Musick 3. But what is all this if not in a good convenient place Iobs Children you know as they were making merry at their elder Brothers a strong Whirlwind took a corner of the house and buried them with the ruins in the midst of their merriment But whosoever dwelleth under the defence of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty that is under the protection of him that is able to keep them safe Ps. 91. And at the 90th Psalm Lord thou hast been our habitation from generation to generation Before the mountains were made and before thou hadst formed the earth even from everlasting to everlasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou art the strong God a more sure sustentation than the steddy Earth a more strong safeguard than the massy Hills So then this Holy Assembly feast under a safe roof far from the reach of any tumult or tempest God is our hope and strength a very present help in trouble Therefore will we not fear though the earth be moved and though the hills be carryed into the midst of the sea Though the waters thereof rage and swell and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same Yet there is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God the holy place of the tabernacle of the most high In all this danger and stir you see here 's secure Feasting and Joy in the Tabernacle of the most High The voice of joy and gladness is in the dwelling of the righteous safe pleasure and never fading delight in the habitation of the upright in Heart and pure in Conscience But if any man be not contented with the Safeness of the place but would curiously inquire into the Beauty of it that Description is done to our hands in the 21th of S. Iohns Revelation Gold and pearl and precious stones is a slight glimpse of the Glory of that Habitation and the Beauty of God 4. I will pass now to the fourth thing considerable in a Feast The convenience of time And no time surely is inconvenient to these Feasters who have the preeminence exceedingly above them that enjoy any outward delight For these men be confined to Seasons and Opportunities which be but poor small parcels of time But all Time and Eternity too is but one entire Opportunity for those Spiritual Feasters to enjoy themselves in A good Heart or a pure Spirit is one continual everlasting Feast It was well said of Diogenes to one that was too much taken with the seldom solemnity of an outward Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What saith
point of Religion exerciz'd all the time God himself bears witness against them Ezekiel 33. They speak every one to his brother saying Come I pray you and hear what is the word that cometh from the Lord. They come unto thee and sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after covetousness And lo thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument for they hear thy words but they do them not And Reading of the Scripture privately is so like the publick Preaching of it that I need not take any new pains to refute the vanity of it if it be not accompanied with due obedience We may fetch that up to Divinity which Epictetus hath both wittily and gravely of Moral Theorems The Sheep tell not their keeper how much Fodder or Grass they eat but shew that they feed sufficiently by their Milk and Wooll Let us not therefore Beloved do as vain Limners they say have done drawn Venus and the Virgin Mary according to the feature of some Face they themselves love best Let us not I say picture out Religion to our own liking and then be in love with an Idol of our own making but love and like that which the Apostle has so plainly pourtray'd to us That whose description consists in visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction and keeping our selves unspotted of the world Which in two words is this Charity and Purity Of these two consists that true Religion acceptable to God For I conceive visiting the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction excludes not other good deeds from this definition but by a Synecdoche is put for the whole office of Charity 1. The First branch is Charity I will not curiously and artificially set out the bounds of this Vertue It will be enough to intimate that it is not confin'd to the relief of the Body only as he is not only Fatherless that wants his Natural Parent but he much more that has not God for his Father through the seed of the new birth Nor she alone a Widow that has lost her Natural Husband but every Soul is a Widow that is estranged and divorced from her God whose sins have made a separation betwixt her and her Maker Thy Maker is thy Husband Esa. 11. 54. He is so indeed to those that are not faithless and play the Harlot for of such saith the Lord She is not my Wife neither am I her Husband Hosea 2. 2. He therefore that can reconcile a Soul unto God doth not only relieve the Fatherless and Widow but procures an Husband and Father for them and wholly rids them out of their distressful estate These outward transient actions tending to the spiritual or temporal good of our Neighbour are fit testimonies of our sincere Religion before men but for every mans private satisfaction concerning himself there be divers inward and immanent motions of the Soul which will abundantly help on this confirmation I will reckon them up out of the mouth of the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. Where I will not balk those that be at ad extra too they being all very well worth our taking notice of Charity suffereth long and is kind Charity envieth not Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up Doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth Beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things 2. I pass on now to the Second branch Purity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep himself unspotted from the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies properly such kind of spots as are in Clothes by spilling some liquid or oyly thing on them An hard task certainly to be Religious at this height Is it to be thought possible that we should wear this Garment of Mortality every day nay every hour and moment for thirty forty fifty sixty years together and soil it by no mischange or miscarriage either of careless Youth violent Manhood or palsied Old Age To pass through the hurry and tumult of this World and never be crouded into the dirt nor be spattered by them that post by us But verily this is not the meaning of the Apostle or of his description of Religion that no man is Religious but he that is absolutely spotless But he sets before us an Idea or Paradigme of true Religion that men having their eyes upon it may know how much or rather how little of Religion they have attained to By how much nearer conformable to this pattern by so much more Religious by how much further off by so much the less Religious He that is not so much as within the sight of it has not so much as seen the least glimpse or glance of Godliness but may be without any wrong to him writ down Atheist Let every man herein examine himself and ask his own Conscience how unspotted he has kept himself from the World And here as hard a difficulty represents it self if not harder than before To keep himself unspotted from the World Is it not pure Irreligiousness to think so Impossible to be so Who can keep himself pure I answer it may be a mistake in the Idiom of the Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be kept unspotted from the World Hithpael for Niphai as there is elsewhere Niphal for Hithpael Acts 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Beza Or to keep himself unspotted from the World is to be understood so far forth as is in our power which in truth is very little Here therefore steps in the power of Christ that strong Arm of God for our Salvation the stay and trust of all Nations and the hope of the ends of the Earth For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. We walk though it be in the power of that Spirit of Life in Christ as our Body moves by vertue of our Natural Spirit But whether this act of purification or keeping our selves pure be so from God that it is not in any wise from us I leave to them to dispute that are more at leasure That it must be in us if there be any Religion in us is all that the Text affords me and 't is enough for the tryal of our Religion Pure Religion is to keep our selves unspotted from the World What to keep our selves
we will take in a more full narration of it And Israel abode in Shittim and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab and they called the people unto the sacrifice of their Gods and Israel joined himself unto Baal-Peor Ver. 1 2 3. of that Chapter That which is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacrificia Deorum is in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacrificia mortuorum Which makes further for that I drove at before viz. That the Gods of the Heathen are mostwhat the Souls of dead men THUS I have dispatched the two former Parts of my task viz. the Explication and Confirmation of the truth of this Text so far as was needful III. The Inferences following are these First From those words They joined themselves to Baal-Peor we may observe That it is long of a mans self when he sins Thus Ecclesiasticus 15. 11 12. Say not thou that it is through the Lord that I fell away For thou oughtest not to do the thing that he hateth Say not thou that he hath caused me to err For he hath no need of the sinful man So Iam. 1. 13 14. Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God For God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed To say therefore that it is the all-swaying Providence of God that bore men to this or that evil action is to blaspheme the Sacred Name of God and contradict Reason and Scripture Or which seems more plausible to say the Devil ought us a spight is but to be gull'd by the Devil and to add a new errour to our former misdeed The Devil may suggest but not compel But to exalt the strength of the evil Spirit above the dominion and power of him that is the Prince of Spirits as tho' they were stronger than he is to cast God out of his Throne and to place Satan in his stead Surely God who hateth Sin with a perfect hatred will not let the Devil prevail against that Will in us that is conformable to his If we be against Sin God will aid us If we fall into Wickedness it is long of our selves Yea though the greatest of Wickednesses For they joined themselves to Baal-Peor c. Not forced or necessitated by the Devil against a good Will and sincere aversation of Sin for this is the Will of God and he will help his own Will Nor led on by God for God will not beget to life that which he hates to see But the truth is God who is the God of Love and Freedom would have us to serve him out of a free Principle and so neither constrains us to good nor over-sways us to evil Secondly They joined themselves also to Baal-Peor The Calf in Horeb their envying and murmuring against Moses and Aaron their lusting after the flesh-pots of Egypt all these did not satisfie but as if these were a light matter they add Whoredom and Idolatry in this business of Baal-Peor Hence we may observe That the wickedness of a mans heart knows no bounds but his evil desires are enlarged like Hell Thirdly If we compare the greatness of this transgression with the great experience they had of the Power and Love of God to them who had done great things for them in Egypt wondrous works in the Land of Ham and fearful things by the Red Sea who had given them from Mount Sinai an express Law against Idolatry in Thunder and Lightning Clouds and Vapours of Smoke to the utter dismaying of them from Sin who had given them Manna in the Wilderness and fed them with Angels food who had guided them by two mighty Pillars a Cloudy Pillar by day and a Pillar of Fire to give light by night who had made them eye-witnesses of so many Miracles of his Almighty Arm That these People should so fouly Apostatize argues plainly an excessive weakness in the Children of Adam And the best Use we can make of it is this To be vigilant over our own wayes and merciful to our Brother when he slides Fourthly and Lastly We may gather also a kind of disability in all outward stays and props of our Souls in goodness all visible helps for Piety if something stronger within do not sustain us and keep us What more forcible outward means could have been used than Israel had experience of But all the terrour upon Mount Sinai and all that tempest and dread in giving of the Law all the Miracles that were wrought by the hand of Moses and the visible presence of God or his Angel all those passed out of their minds like a dream and vanished as a vision of the night all those failed them when the present object possessed their Eyes when the beauty of the Daughters of Moab had ensnared their Hearts and captivated their Souls to the commiting of folly The Young man in Macarius who in an high Rapture beheld glorious sights 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faces of Light and the shining Lustre of Heaven after fell into the filth of the Flesh and deplorable deformity of Life The best use we can make of this is Not to satisfie our selves with any outward or momentany Worships or Ceremonies as to rest in them but to seek an inward Principle of never failing Life Else so soon as we are departed the Church and that honour we do there to God we may be easily carried into the service of the Devil the committing any wickedness Whereas if we had the living Spring of Truth and Righteousness in us we should also have a perpetual sense of what is good or evil And as our Natural Life is tender of it self and perceives the least touch of harm that approacheth it so would that Spirit of Life and Truth be exceeding sensible of whatsoever is contrary to it or the Will of God which would always be very fresh and vivid in our Minds and Will But to attain to this Spirit of Life and Righteousness there is no way but Mortification a death to Sin and our own selves that the Life of God may alone rule in us Then shall not the Daughters of Moab inveigle us that is as Philo the Iew interpreteth it the false allurements of the bewitching Senses Nor shall we then worship Baal-Peor or partake of his Sacrifices that is according to the same Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We shall not dilate all the openings of our Bodies for receiving the influx or strong impressions the unwholesome vapours of this intoxicating World and the pleasures thereof and so drown our Souls in the bottom of Corruption For so he interpreteth the name of this Idol as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimating his power to lye in all the openings of the Body or rather outward Skin through which the influences of this sensible World if they be not kept out by due vigilancy stream