30 makes as one with him makes us as Christ speaks his brother and sister and mother This is our affinity this is our honour this is in a manner our Divinity on earth For God and man saith Synesius have but this one onely thing common to them both and that is Heb. 13.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do good To do good and to distribute forget not for with such sacrifices God is pleased This then may well go for one part or limb of Religion And in the next place as in the visitation of the fatherlesse and widows all charity to our Brother is implyed so all charity to our selves is shut up in this other in keeping our selves unspotted of the world And this phrase in keeping our selves is very significant and that its weight for those spots which so defile us and make us such Leopards are not so much from the world as from our selves as a cheat is not onely from the cunning of the Impostor but from the want of wisdom and experience in him that is deceived 't is Ignorance that promotes the cheat that draws the power and faculty into Act makes him that hath a subtle wit injurious and t is an evil heart that makes the world contagious for wisdom prevents a cheat and watchfulnesse a spot This world in it self hath nothing in it that can defile us for God saw all that he made was good Tertul. despectaculis c. 2. and it was very good but Nihil non est Dei quod Deum offendit there is nothing by which we offend God but is from God that beauty which kindles lust is his gift that gold which hath made that desolation upon the earth was the work of his hands he gives us the bread we surfet on he filleth the cup that intoxicates us the world is the Lords and all that therein is but yet this world bespots us not because 't is his who cannot behold much lesse could make any unclean thing We must therefore search out another world and you need not travell far 1 ep 2.16 for you may stay at home and finde it in your selves S. John hath made the discovery for you in his first Epistle where he draws the map of it and divides it to our hands into three provinces or parts the first the lust of the flesh where unlawfull pleasures sport themselves secondly the lust of the eyes where covetousnesse builds her an house thirdly and the pride of life which whets a sword for the Revenger erects a throne for the Ambitious raiseth up a triumphant Arch for the vain-glorious this is the world saith S. John even a world of wickednesse this inverteth the whole course of Nature makes the wheel of the Creation move disorderly this world within us makes that world without us an enemy makes beauty deceitfull wine a mocker riches a snare works that into sinne out of which we might have made a key to open the gates of Heaven drops its poyson under every leaf upon every object and by its mixture with the world ingenders that serpent which spets the poyson back again upon us and not onely bespots James 1.15 and defiles but stings us to death for when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sinne and when sinne is finished it defiles a man and leave those spots behinde it which deface him and gives him a thousand severall shapes the Schools call it maculam peccati the blot and stain of sinne which is of no positive reality but a deprivation and defect of beauty in the soul and varies as shadows do according to the diversity of those bodies that cast it We see then that there is a world within us as well as without us and when these two are in conjunction when our lust joyns it self to the things of this world as the prodigall is said to do to a master in a farr countrey then follows pollution and deformity and as many spots as there be sins which are as many as the hairs of our head Beauty brings in deformity riches poverty plenty brings leanness into the soul and therefore to conclude this to keep our hearts with diligence and to keep our selves unspotted of the world is a main and principall part of our Religion and will keep us members of Christ and parts of the Church when prophanenesse and coverousnesse which is Idolatry shall have laid her discipline her honor in the dust A man of tender bowels and a pure heart is as the Church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against him By this we imitate that God we worship we draw neer unto him as neer as flesh and mortality will permit our escaping the spots and pollutions of this world makes us followers of that God who marks every spot we have and is not touched sees us in our blood and pollution and is not defiled beholds all the wickednesse in the world and yet remains the same for ever even goodnesse and purity it self this makes us partakers as Saint Peter speaks of the Divine nature in a word 2 Pet. 1.4 to be in the world and tread it under our feet to be in Sodom and to be a Lot on the hills of the robbers and do no wrong to be in the midst of snares and not be taken to be in Paradise Import and see the Apple pleasant to the sight to be compast about with glorious objects of delight and pleasures and not to Taste or Touch or Handle is the neerest assimilation that Dust and Ashes that mortall man can have to his Creator I may well then call these two the Essentiall parts of Religion Antigoni Imaginem â—…otegenes obliquam fecit ut quod corpore deerat picturae potius deesse videretur tantumque eam partem oslendit quam toram poterat ostendere Plin. Nat. Hist l. 35. c. 11. of which as you have taken a short severall view so be pleased to observe also their mutuall dependance and necessary connexion for if either be wanting you spoil the whole peece for neither will my charity to my brother entitle me to Religion if I be an enemy to my self nor my abstaining from evil Canonize me a saint if my goodnesse be not diffusive on others and if we draw out in our selves the picture of Religion but with one of these we do but like the painter who to flatter Antigonus because he had but one eye Drew but the half face For first to visit the Fatherlesse and widdows i. e. to be plenteous in good works ista sunt quasi incunabula pietatis saith Gregory Augustin these are the very beginings and nurcery of the love of God and there is no surer and readier step to the love of God whom we have not seen then by the love of our Brethren whom we see Gregor Tunc ad alta charitas mirabiliter surgit cum ad ima proximorum se misericorditer attrahit Then our charity begins to improve itself
withdraw his grace that we might fall from him and perish And therefore Hilarie passeth this heavy censure upon it impiae est voluntatis it is the signe of a wicked Heart and one quite destitute of those graces and riches which are the proper Inheritance of beleeving Christians to pretend they therefore want them because they were not given them of God A dangerous errour it is and we have reason to fear hath sunk many a soul to that supine carelessnes to that deadnesse from whence they could never rise again for this is one of the wiles of our enemy not onely to make use of the flying and fading vanities of this world but of the best Graces of God to file and hath hammer them and make them snares and hath wrought temptations out of that which should strengthen us against them Faith is suborn'd to keep out Charity the spirit of truth is named to lead us into errour and the power of Gods Grace hath lost its authority and Energie in our unsavorie and fruitlesse Panegyricks we hear the sound and name of it we blesse and applaud it but the power of it is lost not visible in any motion in any Action in any progresse we make in those wayes in which along grace will assist us floats on the Tongue but never moves either heart or hand For do we not lie still in our graves expecting till this Trump will sound do we not cripple our selves in hope of a miracle Non est honae solidae fidei omnia ad volumatem Dei referre ut non intelligamus aliquid esse in Nobis ipsis Tertul. Exhort ad Castitatem do we not settle upon our lees and say God can draw us out wallow in our blood because he can wash us as white as snow do we not love our sickness because we have so skilful a Physitian and since God can do what he will doe what we please This is a great evil under the Sun and one principal cause of all that evil that is upon the earth and makes us stand still and look on and delight in it and leave it to God alone and his power to remove it as if it concern'd us not at all and it were too daring an attempt for us mortals the sons of Adam to purge and clense that Augaean stable which we our selves have filled with dung as if Gods wisdom and Justice did not move at all and his mercy and power were alone busie in the work of our salvation busie to save the adulterer for though he be the member of an Harlot yet when God will he shall be made a member of Christ to save the seditious For though he now breath nothing but Hail-stones and coals of fire yet a time will come where he shall be made peaceable whether he will or no to save them who resolve to go on in their sin for he can check them when he please and bring them back to Obedience and holinesse in a word to save them whose Damnation sleepeth not I may say with the Father utinam mentirer would to God in this I were a lier but we have too much probability to induce us to beleeve it as a truth that they who are so ready to publish the free and irresistible power of Gods Grace and call it his Honour dishonour him more 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 sorbids and themselves weak and impotent to do what by the same wisdom he commands and then when they commune with their heart and finde not there those longings and pantings after piety that true desire and endeavour to mortifie their earthly members which God requires when in this Dialogue between one and himself their hearts cannot tell them they have watched one houre with Christ flatter and comfort themselves that this emptinesse and nakednesse 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 't 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 darknesse over them both They hear and commend vertue and piety and since they cannot but think that vertue is more then a breath and that it is not enough to commend it they pray and are frequent in it pray continually but do nothing pray but do not watch pray but 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 Gods will to have it so for if he would have had it otherwise he would have heard their prayers and wrought it in them and therefore 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 comes to passe that though they be very evil yet they are very secure this being the triumph over 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 they are heartlesse 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 signe of their election before all times 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 comming 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 ergo ista non gratia saith Arnobius this were not grace or royal favour but a strange kinde of emulation to gain the upper hand We cannot magnifie the Grace of God enough which doth even expect and wait upon us John 1. ep 2 c. 27. v. wooe and serve us it is that unction that precious ointment Saint Iohn speaks of but we must not poure it forth upon the
be who have subscribed to the venturus est that the Lord will come who have little reason to hope for his coming How many beleeve hee will come and bring his reward with him and yet strike off their own Charriot wheels and drive but heavily towards it how many beleeve there is a Judge to come and wish there were none Faith Saving Faith Hope Hope that will not make ashamed cannot dwell in the heart till Charity hath taken up a roome but when she is diffusa in cordibus shed and spread abroad in our Hearts then they are in Conjunction and meet together and kisse each other Faith is a Foundation and on it our love raiseth it self as high as heaven in all the severall branches and parts of it Because I beleeve I love and when my love is reall and perfect my hope springs up and blooms and flourishes my Faith sees the object my Love imbraceth it and the means unto it and my Hope layes hold of it and even takes possession of it And therefore this venturus est 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 venturus est he will come is a Thunder-bolt And thus as it lookes upon Faith and Hope so it calls for our Charity For whether we will or no whether we beleeve or no whether we hope or no veniet he will certainly come but when we love him then we love also his appearance and his coming and our Love is a subscription to his Promise 2 Tim. 4.8 by which we truly Testify our consent and sympathize with him and say Amen to his Promise That he will come we eccho it back againe unto him Even so come Lord Jesus For that of Faith may be in a manner forc'd That of Hope may be groundless but this of Love is a free and voluntary subscription Though I 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 Scornfull 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 improv'd 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 then Faith openeth and displayeth her self and Hope towreth 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 doe come crying out with the soules under the Altar How long Lord How long How long is the very breathing and language of Hope Then Substantia mea apud te Psal 62.5 as the vulgar reads that of the Psalmist my expectation my substance my being is with the Lord and I doe not onely subscribe to the veniet 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 Testifies these Things and confirmes this Article of his coming with this last word etiam venio surely I come so shall I be able truely to Answer Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly The End of his Coming And now venturus est 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 spirituall and his coming to punish sinne and reward Obedience to make us either Prisoners in Darkness or Kings and Priests to reigne with him and offer up spirituall Sacrifices for evermore He comes not to answer the Disciples question to restore the Kingdom to Israel for his Kingdome is not such a one as they dreamt of nor to place the Mother of Zebedees 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 carnall conceits might suite well with the Synagogue which lookt upon nothing but the Basket and yet to bring in this Error the Jews as they killed the Prophets so must they also abolish their Prophecies which speak plainely of a King of no shape or beauty Esai 53.2 Zech. 9.9 Isa 9.6 of his first coming in lowlinesse and poverty of a Prince of Peace and not of warr of the Increase of whose Government there shall be no end Nor doth he come to lead the Chiliast the Dreamer of a Thousand yeares of Temporall Happiness on Earth into a Mahometicall Paradise of all Corporall Contentments That after the Resurrection the Elect and even a Reprobate may think or callhim self so may reigne 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 becomes Christians who must look for a better and more enduring substance who are strangers and Pilgrims Heb. 10.34 Heb. 11.13 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 paine of eternall separation from this our Lord to weane 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 fitt 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 Tast these Things and then glut us with them because we did not Touch them and can it now change its Nature and be made a Recompence of those Virtues which were as the wings on which we did fly away and so kept our selves untoucht unspotted of this Evill But they urge Scripture for it and so they soon may for it is soon misunderstood soon misapplyed It is written they say in the 20. of the Revel at the 6. v. that the Saints shall reign with Christ a thousand yeers shall reign with Christ is evidence faire 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 passe the divers interpretations of that place some making the number to be definite some to be indefinite some beginning the thousand yeers 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
commit but costs us deare what more painfull then Anger what more perplext and tormenting then Revenge what more intangled then Lust what can more disquiet us then Ambition what more fearefull then Cruelty what sooner disturbed then pride nay further yet how doth one sinne incroche and trespasse upon another I fling off my Pleasure and Honor to make way to my Revenge I deny my Lust to further my Ambition and rob my Covetousnesse to satisfie my Lust and forbeare one sinne to commit another and so do but versuram facere borrow of one sinne to lay it out on another binding and loosing my self as my corruption leads me but never at ease Tell me which is easier saith the Father to search for wealth in the bowells of the earth nay in the bowells of the poore by oppression then to sit down content with thy own night and day to study the world or to embrace Frugality to oppresse every man or to relieve the oppressed to be busie in the Market or to be quiet at home to take other mens goods or to give my own to be full of businesse for others or to have no businesse but for my soul to be solicitous for that which cannot be done or to have no other care but to do what God requires To do this will cost us no sweat nor labour we need not go a Pilgrimage or take any long journey it will not cost us money nor enage us to our friends we need not saile for it nor plough for it nor fight for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Chrysostome if thou beest willing Chrysost orat de ira obedience hath its work and consummation if thou wilt Arist l. 4 Eth. c. 3. thou art Just Mercifull and Humble As Aristotle spake of his Magnanimous man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so to a resolved Christian nothing is great Liber rectus animus omtia subjiciens sin se nuili Sen. cp ult nothing is difficult 'T is not to dig in the Mineralls or labour in chaines 't is not to cleave wood or draw water with the Gibeonites but thy lines are fallen unto thee in a faire place 't is but to do Justly love Mercy c. Lastly it is not onely easie but sweet and pleasant to do what God requires For Obedience is the onely spring from whence these waters of comfort flow it is 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 will draw it self dry That pleasure is but like that beast of the Apothecary to whom Julian the Pelagian likens Saint Austin Non sum similis pâ—arm â—copolae utâ—d t is qui promit tebat Bestiam quae seipsam com sset August Cont. Iul. Pelag. l. 3. c. 21. which he promised his patient of great virtue which before the morning was come had eaten up himself But the doing what God requires 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 the groundlesse conceptions of thoughtfull men for school subtilties rather then realities Mammon and the world have the preeminence in all things and spirituall ravishments and heaven it self are but ingens fabula magnum mendacium as a tedious ly or a long tale that is told And there is no reason of this but their disobedience for would they put it to the triall deny themselves and cleave to the Lord and do what he desires 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 triall did we ever read that any did complain that they had lost their labour but upon a certain knowledge and sense of this truth betook themselves cheerfully 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 fulnesse of joy Let us then hearken what this Lord will say and answer him in every duty which he requires and he will answer us again and appeare in glory and make the terrours and flatteries of the world the object not of our feare and amazement but contempt and the displeasing and worser side of our obedience our Crown and Glory the most delightfull 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 eares The Lord requires nothing of us but that which first is possible to rouse us up to attempt it secondly which is easie to comfort and nourish our hopes and thirdly which is pleasant and delightfull to do to woe and invite and even flatter us to obedience and to draw us after him with the cords of men And what doth he require but to do justly and love mercy c. We have now taken a view of the substance of these words The Application and Conclusion 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 neerer to us for 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 eares to hearken to the wonders of his Law And first this word Lord is a word of force and efficacy and strikes a reverence in us and remembers us of our duty and allegiance for if he 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 vete by his commands and prohibitions by removing our wills from unlawfull objects and confining them to that which may improve and perfect them from that which is pleasing but hurtfull to his Laws and commands which are first distastfull and then fill them 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
hungry was spet upon was whipt was nayld to the Crosse which were as so many parts of that discipline which taught him to be mercifull to be mercifull to them who were tempted by hunger because he was hungry to be mercifull to them who were tempted by poverty because he was poore to be mercifull to those who tremble at disgrace because he was whipt to be mercifull to them who will not yet will suffer for him who refuse and yet chuse tremble and yet venture are afraid and yet dye for him because as man he found it a bitter Cup and would have had it passe from him who in the dayes of his flesh offer'd up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares for mortall men for weak men for sinners pertinacissimè durant quae discimus experientiâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ariâ—… Anâ—… post l 2. c. xix This experimentall knowledge is so rooted and fix'd in him that it cannot be removed now no more then his naturall knowledge he can as soon be ignorant of our actions as our sufferings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher Experience is a collection of many particulars registred in our memory and this experience he had and our Apostle tells us didicit he learnt it and the Prophet tells us he was vir sciens infirmitatum Es 53. a man well read in sorrowes acquainted with grief and carryed it about with him from his Cradle to his crosse and by his Fasting and Tentation by his Agony and bloudy sweat by his precious Death and Buriall he remembers us in famine in Tentation in our Agony he remembers us in the houre of death in our grave for he pitties even our dust and will remember us in the day of judgement We have passed through the hardest part of this Method and yet it is as necessary as the end for there is no coming to it without this no peace without trouble no life without death Not that life is the proper effect of death for this cleare streame flowes from a higher and purer fountaine even from the will of God who is the fountaine of life which meeting with our obedience which is the conformity of our will to his maketh its way with power through fire and water as the Psalmist speaks through poverty and contumilies through every cloud and tempest through darknesse and death it self and so carryes it on to end and triumph in life I was dead that was his state of humility but I am alive that 's his state of Glory and is in the next place to be consider'd Vivo I am alive Christ hath spoken it who is truth it self and we may take his word for it for if we will not believe him when he sayes it neither should we believe if we should see him rising from the dead And this his life and resurrection is most conveniently placed in that Non dabis thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption for what stronger reason can there be found out in matters of faith then the will pleasure of that God who brings mighty things to pass to this end Saint Paul cites the 2. Psalme and S. Peter the 16. and in this the humble soule may rest and behold the object in its glory and so gather strength to rayse it self above the fading vanities of this world and so reach and raise to immortality What fairer evidence then that of Scripture what surer word then the word of Christ He that cannot settle himself on this is but as S. Judes cloud carryed about with every wind wheel'd and circled about from imagination to imagination now raysed to a belief that it is true and anon cast down into the midst of darknesse now assenting anon doubting and at last pressed down by his own unstablenesse into the pit of Infidelity He that will not walk by that light which shines upon him whilst he seeks for more must needs stumble and fall at those stones of offence which himself hath laid in his own way why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead to life If such a thought arise in a Christian Acts 26.8 reason never set it up I verily thought my self saith Saint Paul in the next verse but it was when he was under the Law and he whose thoughts are staggered here is under a worse law the law of his members his lusts by which his thoughts and actions are held up as by a law is such a one that studies to be an Atheist is ambitious to be like the beasts that perish and having nothing in himself but that which is worse than nothing is well content to be annihilated For why should such a temptation take any Christian why should he desire clearer evidence why should they seek for demonstration or that the Resurrection of Christ should be made manifest to the eye That is not to seek to confirm and establish but to destory their faith for if these truths were as evident as it is that the sun doth shine when it is day the apprehension of them were not an act of our faith but of our knowledg and therefore Christ saith Tertullian shewed not himself openly to all the people at his Resurrection ut fides non mediocri praemio destinata Tert. Apol. non nisi difficultate constaret that faith by which we are destined to a crown might not consist without some difficulty but commend it self by our obedience the perfection and beauty whereof is best seen in making its way through difficulties and so Hilary Habet non tam veniam quà m praemium Hil. l. 8. de Trin. ignorare quod credis not perfectly to know what thou certainly believest doth so little stand in need of pardon that it is that alone which drawes on the reward For what obedience can it be for me to assent to this that the whole is greater then the part that the Sun doth shine or any of those truths which are visible to the eye what obedience is it to assent to that which I cannot deny but when the object is in part hidden in part seen when the truth we assent to hath more probability to establish it then can be brought to shake it then our Saviour himself pronounceth Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed Besides it were in vain he should afford us more light who hath given us enough for to him that will not rest in that which is enough nothing is enough When he rained down Manna upon the Israelites when he divided the red sea wrought wonders amongst them the Text sayes For all this they sinned still and believed not his wondrous works The Pharisees saw his miracles yet would have stoned him they saw him raise Lazarus from the dead and would have killed them both The people said He hath done all things well yet these were they that crucified the Lord of life Did any
and rise as high as Heaven when it bowes and descends and falls low to sit with a Brother in the Dust and if you search the Scriptures if you look over Christs Sermon on the Mount you will easily be induced to beleeve that the greatest service we can do to God is to serve one another in love who made us all and to this end alterutra diligentia charitatis as Tertul. calls it This mutual and reciprocal work of charity in upholding each other is that which makes us indeed the servants of Christ Secondly as compassion to our Brethren is a fair preparation to purity of life so doth purity of conversation commend our liberality and makes it to be had in remembrance in the sight of the Lord Compassion in a prophane impure person is but a sudden forced motion is but by fits and starts for sure it cannot stay and dwell in such a sty He that wallows in the pleasures of this world he that devotes himself to riot and luxury cannot gain the title of religious by some cup of cold water some peece of mony which he gives He that gathers by oppression and then le ts fall an Almes doth but steal an Oxe to make a Sacrifice perdere scit Tae 1. Hist donare nescit as Piso said of Otho He knows how to blast and spoile but not how to give an Almes and commonly those winds blow not out of the Treasury of the Lord this bounty flows not from the clear Fountain of Divine love but hath some other spring Thus to visit the fatherless and widows and to reach out that hand unto them which is stained with the blood of others is not pure and undfiled Religion it may be Bread 't is not an Almes that is brought by the Hand of an Oppressor or Pharisee And therefore in the next place as they bear this fair correspondence and mutually uphold each other so we must not think it possible to separate them For some there be who come on slowly to the works of charity because they are not guilty of those sins Greg. Hom. 36. in Evang. which have shame written in their very foreheads pigri ad exercenda bona praecipua quia securi quod non commiserint mala Graviora as Greg. are very backward to to good because they have not been overforward to do evil dull and heavie to the performance of the best deeds because they have not been active in the worst men for the many of them of more forecast then conscience that owe their morality not to the love of God but the world knowing well enough that those vices which the world cries down are commonly enemies to thrift delightful but costly there being scarce any one of them which is not a stake in his way which makes haste to be rich and therefore they do abstain that they may not abstain abstain from these disgraced expensive vices that their abstinence from these may be as a warrant or commission for them to make their Brethren their daily sustenance and to eat them up as they eat Bread to devour these Temples of the Holy Ghost with as little regret as they do those which are made with hands And this is a common fault amongst Christians to think the performance of one part of our Duty to be an Apologie for the neglect of the other and that the observance of some few precepts will absolve us from the breach of the rest that a sigh is louder then an oath and can sooner call down a pardon then the flying Book can bring a curse that the diligence of the Eare will answer for the boldness of the Hand That a Fast will make Sacriledge a Virtue and the keeping of the seventh Day acquit us of those sins which we have resolved already to corumit in the other six Indeed saith Basil it is a great deal easier to do nothing at all then to finish and perfect a good work Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit Adultery Thou shalt not steal Those are Negative precepts and require but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but forbeatance and sitting still a not drawing to the Harlots lips a not touching the wedge of gold a not taking up the instruments of cruelty but to love our Neighbour as our selves to fell all and give to the poor to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 works fit for a Souldier Basil in Ps 1. and strong man in Christ and we must beat down many enemies many wilde passions in our way before we can raise our selves to this height nor can any man take this Honour to himself but he that is called and fitted of God as were Abraham and Isaac and those Patriarcks and Apostles who were full of good works Both then are required at our hands and if God hath joyned them both together let no man take upon him to divorce or put them asunder For in the next place these two thus linkt and united together will keep Religion pure and undefiled which I told you were as the colours and beauty of it the Beauty of Holiness which hath its colour and Grace from whence it hath its being and strength and if it be true will shine in the perfection of Beauty Religion if it be true and not a name only is as a virgin pure and undefiled and makes us so and espouses us to Christ and as the father tells us Omnia virginis virgo sunt all that a virgin hath is so a virgin Basil l. de virginitate her eyes not touch't with vanity her ears not defloured with evil communication her thoughts not ravish't with the insiliencie of wanton desires her tast not violated with studied dainties and devised meats but in all is like her self a Virgin So is this Religion simple and solid Full of it self and receives no Heterogeneous matter but is ever the same and about the same There is nothing in our love which sowres our Justice nothing in our Justice to kill our Compassion nothing in our liberality to defile our Chastity nothing in our Fear to beat down our Confidence Tertul. de coren mel nothing in our Zeal to consume our Charity Christianus nusquam est aliud a true Religious man is alwayes himself And as it is pure without mixture so it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and cannot subsist with pollution and prophaneness 2 Tit. 2.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now are our Olympicks Now is the great trial to be made before God and the Father and our Religion consists in this to fight it out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 legally a condition they were bound to who were admitted to those games and exercises for before they did contend in the proclamation was made to this purpose whether they were not Servants or Theeves or otherwise of an infamous life and if any of these were proved against them they were put back The same proclamation
joyned with it which might produce such an effect and what need of any such Decree or Action to make them disobedient who refuse to hearken to their Father or to harden them whose sinne was now great before the Lord But we must conclude these two within the 34000. that were slain And now C 2.17 the delivering up the people in such a number to the sword may seem to prejudice and call in question the Justice of God what His people His own people cull'd out of the Nations of the earth must these fall by the sword of these Aliens these enemies to God that know not his Name shall not the Judge of all the earth do right yes he will for even in this Dominus est It is the Lord. For as the Lord once said to his people Es L. 1. where is the bill of your mothers divorcement whom I have put away so here he may ask were is that Bill and obligation which I made to protect you if there be any brought forth we shall finde it rather like a Bill of sale then the conveyance of an absolute Gist on the one side God promiseth something on his behalf on the other there is something required on ours Read the Covenant and contract between them they had his promise to be their God and they were the sons of promise Gal. 4. but then these promises were conditionall and in every conditionall promise there is an obligation and command I will be their God that is his promise and they shall be my people that 's their duty and if these meet not the promise is void and of none effect There is not a more true and naturall glosse upon this promise than that of Azariah in the Chronicles 2 Chron 15.2 Hear you men of Asa of all Judah and Benjamin The Lord is with you whilst you are with him and if you seek him he will be found of you but if you forsake him he will forsake you both must go together or both are lost for if they will be his people then his promise is firm being found in the eternall essence of God and so as constant and immutable as Himselfe but if they break his commandment and put it from them Then to be their God were not to be their God then to make good his promises were to vilisy and debauch them This were liberalitarem ejus mutare in servitutem Tertul. to turn his liberality into slavery prodigally to pour the Pretious oyl of his goodnesse into a vessell that could not hold it to protect and countenance a man of Belial because he bears the name of an Israelite And therefore in the 27. of Isaiah at the 11. verse where God upbraids his people of folly he presently cancells the bill and puts them out of his protection Therefore he that made them will not have mercy upon them he that sramed them will shew them no favour what though they be the people which he hath purchased yet he will take no care of his own purchase though they be his possession he will give them up he will not do what he promised and yet be Truth it self for if they do not their Duty he did not promise Though he made them though he formed them yet he will not own them but forsake and abhor his own work he will surrender them up and deliver them to Destruction Even here upon the forehead of a desolate and rejected Israelite we may set up this Inscription Dominus est It is the Lord. And now if we look up upon the Inscription Dorrinus est It is the Lord we may read and interpret it without a Guide and learn not to Trifle with God because he is our Lord not to mock him with our Hypocrisy and force in our profession to countenance our Sin to be worse then Philistines because we are Israelites to be his Enemies because we call our selves Gods people to be worse then Turks or Jews because we are Christians Oh the Happy times of the Infant Church when the Pagan could finde nothing amongst the Christians to accuse but their Name and then what Times are These when you can scarce see any thing commendable in the Christian but the Name you may call it if you please the dotage or blindnesse of the Church for the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord The Israelite the Israelite The Christian the Christian the Protestant the Protestant This is the Musick with which most use to drive away the evil Spirit all sad and melancholy thoughts from their hearts but indeed saith Basil the Devil doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth daunce and leap for joy to hear it when he hears not withal the noise of our groanings of our prayers of our good works nor the Harmony of a well tuned and well composed life to go up to Heaven along with it Oh what pitty is it that God should place us in Paradice in a place of pleasure and safety and we forfeit it that he should measure out unto us as it were by the line a goodly Heritage and we pluck up our own hedges and lay our selves open to every Wild-Beast that he should make us his people and we force him to be our Enemy in a word that our Inheritance should begger us our security betray us and our royal prerogative undo us and further we carry not this consideration 2. We passe to the second particular and in the second place in so great a number as 34000 I may say in the whole Common-wealth of Israel for a Common-wealth may suffer in a far less Number we cannot doubt but some there were that fearred the Lord and shall there be as the Wise-man speaks 2 Eccle. 14. Horat. Gen. 18.23 the same event to the righteous and the wicked to the clean and him that sacrificeth not will God Incesto addere integrum will he destroy saith Abraham the righteous with the sinner This indeed is the depth of God and a great part of the world have been troubled at the very sight of it but yet if we behold it with that light which Scripture holds forth we shall finde it is not so unfordable but we shall make some passage through it For I if we could not make answer or render any reason yet this ought not to prejudice or call in question the justice of it especially with us men who are of Dull and slow understandings and when we have wearied our selves in searching out causes of natural things yet after all our sweat and oyle cannot attain so far as to know why the grasse which is under our feet is green rather then purple or of any other colour and therefore far below those Supernaturals and most unfit to search out those causes which God may seem to have lockt up in his own Brest God is the lord of all the earth Psal 90.4 and as the Prophet tells us a thousand years in his sight
but not to cut off a mans eare and like unto Saint Paul but himself corrects it with another sicut 1 Cor. 11.1 sicut ego Christi as I am unto Christ Secondly But in the next place if not sicut vidimus as we have seene others then not sicut visumfuerit as it shall seem good in our own eyes for fancy is a wanton unruly froward faculty and in us as in Beasts for the most part supplies the place of reason vulgus ex veritate pauca Pro Rose Comaedo ex opinone multa aestimat saith Tull. the Common people which is the greatest part of mankinde are lead rather by Opinion then by the truth for vulgus is of a larger signification then we usually take it in because they are more subject and enslaved to those two turbulent Tribunes of the soul The Irascible and Concupiscible Appetite and so more opinionative then then those who are not so much under their command It is truly said Affectiones sacilè faciunt opiniones our affections will easily raise up opinions for who will not soon fancy that to be true which he would have so which may either fill his hopes or satisfy his lusts or justifie his anger or answer his love or look friendly on that which our wild Passions drive us to Opinion is as a wheele on which the greatest part of the world are turned and wheeled about till they fall off severall waies into severall evills and doe scarce touch at Truth in the way Opinion builds our Church chuseth our Preacher formeth our Discipline frameth our gesture measureth our Prayers Methodizeth our Sermons Opinion doth exhort instruct correct Teaches and commands If it say Goe we goe and if it say Doe this we doe it we call it our conscience and it is our God and hath more worshippers then Truth For though Opinion have a weaker Ground-work then Truth yet she builds higher but it is but Hay and stubble fit for the fire Good God what a Babel may be erected upon a Thought I verily thought saith Saint Paul and what a whirlwind was that thought Act. 26.9 which drove him to Damascus with Letters and to kick against the pricks Shall I tell you it was but Fancy that in Davids time beat downe the carved works with Axes and Hammers It was but a Thought that destroyed the Temple it self that killed the Prophets and persecuted the Apostles and crucified the Lord of life Himself And therefore it will concern us to watch our Fancy and to deal with it as Mothers doe with their children who when they desire that which may hurt them deny them that but to still and quiet them give them some other thing they may delight in take away a Knife and give them an Apple so when our Fancy sports and pleaseth it self with vaine and aery speculations let us suspect and quarrell them and by degrees present unto it the very face of Truth as the Stoick speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. fist and winnow our imaginations bring them to the light and as the devout Schoolman speaks resolve all our effectuall notious by the Accepistis Gers by the Rule and so demolish all those Idolls which our Passions by the help of Fancy have set up for why should such a deceit pass unquestioned why should such an Imposture scape without a marke Thirdly But now if we may not walke sicut visum est as it seemeth good unto us yet we may sicut visum est Spiritui sancto as it seemeth good to the Holy Ghost Yes for that is to walke according to the rule for he speaketh in the word and to walk after the Spirit and to walk by this Rule are one and the same thing but yet the World hath learn'd a cursed Art to set them at distance and when the Word turnes from us and will not be drawn up to our Fancy to carry on our pleasing but vaine imaginations we then appeal to the Spirit wee bring him in either to deny his owne word or which in effect is the same to interpret it against his own meaning and so with Reverence be it spoken make him no better then a Knight of the post to witnesse to a lie This we would doe but cannot for make what noise we will and boast of his Name we are still at visum est nobis it is but Fancy still 't is our own spirit not the Holy Ghost For as there be many false Christs so there are many false spirits and we are commanded not to beleeve 1 Joh. 4.1 but to try them and what can we try them by but by the Rule and as they will say lo here is Christ or there is Christ so they will say Lo here is the spirit and there is the spirit The Pope laies claime to it and the Enthusiast laies claim to it and whoso will may lay claim to it on the same grounds when neither hath any better Argument to prove it by then their bare words no Evidence but what is forg'd in that shop of vanities their Fancy idem Actio Titioque both are alike in this And if the Pope could perswade mee that â—e never open'd his mouth but the spirit spake by him I would then pronounce him Infallible and place him in the chaire and if the Enthusiast could build me up in the same faith and belief of him I would be bold to proclaim the same of him and set him by his side and seek the Law at his mouth would you know the two Grand Impostors of the World which have been in every age and made that desolation which we see on the Earth They are these two A pretended zeal and a pretence of the spirit If I be a Zealot what dare I not doe and when I presume I have the Spirit what dare I not say what Action so foule which these may not authorize what wickedness imaginable which these may not countenance what evill may not these seale for good and what good may they not call evill oh take heed of a false light and too much fire these two have walkt these many Ages about the Earth not with the blessed Spirit which is a light to illuminate and as Fire to purge us but with their father the Devil transform'd into Angels of light and burning Seraphins but have led men upon those Precipices into those works of Darknesse which no night is dark enough to cover Conclus 1. I might here much enlarge my selfe for it is a subject fitter for a Sermon then a part of one and for a Volume then a Sermon but I must conclude And for conclusion let us whilst the light shineth in the world walk on guided by the rule which which will bring us at last to the holy Mount For objects will not come to us but have onely force to move us to come to them Aeternall Happiness is a faire sight and spreads its beames and unvailes its beauty
Crucified his death for sinne 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 and he dyed that we might live and turn unto the Lord and he rose againe for our Justification and to gaine Authority to the doctrine of Repentance Our convertimini our Turne is the best Commentary on the consummatum est it is Finished for that his last Breath breathed it into the world we may say It is wrapt up in the Inscription Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jewes for in him even when he hung upon the Crosse were all the Treasuries of Wisdome and Knowledge hid 2 Coloss 3. In him 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 seale our Pardon we were in our Blood and her voice was Live we were miserable and she was ready to relieve us our heart was sick and her bowells yearn'd but then Justice held up the Sword ready to latch in our sides God loves his Creature whom he made but hates the sinner whom he could not make and he must and yet is unwilling to strike If Justice had prevail'd Mercy had been but as the morning Dew and soon vaâ—…sh'd before this raging heat and if Mercy had swallowed up Justice in victory his hatred of sinne and fearfull menaces against it had been but bruta fulmina and had portended nothing Deus purgari homines à peccato maxime cupit ideoque agere poenitentiam jubet Lact. l. 6. c. 24. had been void and of no effect If he had been extreme to marke what is done amisse men had sinned more and more because there could be no hope of Pardon and if his Mercy had seal'd an absolute Pardon men would have walked delicately and sported in their Evill wayes because there could be no feare of punishment And therefore his wisedome drew them together and reconciled them both in Christs propitiatory Sacrifice and our Duty of Repentance the one freeing us from the Guilt the other from the Dominion of sinne and so both are satisfy'd Justice layes downe the sword and Mercy shines in perfection of Beauty God hates sinne but he sees it condemned in the flesh of his Sonne and fought against by every member he hath sees it punisht in him and sees it every day punisht in every repentant sinner that Turnes from his evill wayes beholds the Sacrifice on the Cross and beholds the Sacrifice of a broken Heart and for the sweet savour of the one accepts the other and is at rest his death for sinne procures our Pardon and our death to sinne sues it out Christ suffers for sinne we turne from it his satisfaction at once wipes out the guilt and penalty our Repentance by degrees Tert. de anima c. 1. destroyes sinne it self Haec est sapientia de scholâ caeli This is the method of Heaven this is that Wisedome which is from above Thus it takes away the sinnes of the world And now wisedome is compleat Justice is satisfyed and Mercy triumphs God is glorified man is saved and the Angels rejoyce Tert de poenit c. 8. Heus tu peccator bono animo sis vides ubi de tuo reditu gaudeatur saith Tert. Take comfort sinnner thou seest what joy there is in heaven for thy returne what musick there is in a Turne which begins on earth but reaches up and fills the highest Heavens A repentant sinner is as a glass or rather Gods own renewed Image on which God delights to look for there he beholds his wisedome his Justice his mercy and what wonders they have wrought Behold the shepherd of our souls see what lies upon his shoulders you would think a poor Sheep that was lost nay but he leads sinne and Death and the Devill in Triumph and thou mayst see the very brightnesse of his Glory the fairest and most expresse Image of these Three his most glorious Attributes which are not onely visible but speake unto us to follow this heavenly Method His wisedome instructs us his Iustice calls upon us and Mercy Eloquent mercy bespeaks us a whole Trinity of Attributes are instant and urgent with us To Turne à viis malis from our evill wayes And this is the Authority I may say the Majesty of Repentance for it hath these Three Gods Wisedome and Iustice and Mercy to seale and ratify it to make it Authentique The 2. part Turn ye Turn ye We come now to the dictum it self and it being Gods and it being Gods we must well weigh and ponder it and we shall find it comprehends the Duty of Repentance in its full latitude For as sin is nothing else but aversio à Creatore and conversio ad creaturam and aversion and Turning from God and an inordinate conversion and application of the soul to the Creature so by our Repentance we doe referre pedem start back and alter our course worke and withdraw our selves a viis malis from evill waies and Turne to the Lord by cleaving to his Lawes which are the minde of the Lord and having our feet enlarged run the way of his Commandements We see a streight line drawne out at length is of all lines the weakest and the further and further you draw it the weaker and weaker it is nor can it be strengthened but by being redoubled and bow'd and brought back againe towards its first point Eccles 7.20 The Wise man will tell us That God at first made man upright that is simple and single and syncere bound him as it were to one point but he sought out many Inventions mingled himself and Ingendered with Divers extravagant Conceits and so ran out not in one but many lines now drawne out to that object now to another still running further and further sometimes on the flesh and sometimes on the world now on Idolatry and anon on Oppression and so at a sad Distance from him in whom he should have dwelt and rested as in his Center and therefore God seeing him gone so farr seeing him weak and feeble wound and Turned about by the Activity of the Devill and sway of the Flesh and not willing to loose him ordained Repentance as a remedy as the Instrument to bend and bow him back again that he might recover and gain strength and subsistencie in his former and proper place to draw him back from those Objects in which he was lost and so carry him on forward to the Rock out of which he was hewed whilst he is yet in viis malis in his evill wayes all is out of Tune and Order for the Devil who doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Hom. de poenitent invert the order of things placeth shame upon repentance and boldness and senlessness upon sinne but Repentance is a perfect Methodist upon our Turne we see the danger we plaid
their name calls them by one quite contrary Immundissimos the impurest men of all the world pietatis paternae aversarios Nazianz. or 14. the Enemies of Gods mercy and goodnesse and Nazianzen tells them their Religion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impudence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. and uncleannesse which had nothing but the name of Purity which they made saith he a bait to catch and cajol the ignorant and unwary multitude who are taken more with the Trumpet of a Pharisee then with his almes and are fed with shewes and pretenses as they say Camelions are with air For as Basil and Nazianzen observe this severe Doctrine of these proud and covetous men did drive the offending Brethren into despair and despair did plunge them deeper in sin left them wallowing in the mire in their blood and pollution being held down by a false opinion that no hand could draw them out and that pardon was impossible whereas a Convertimini the Doctrine of Repentance might have raised them from the ground drawn them out of their blood and failth strengthned their feeble knees and hands hat hang down put courage and and life into them to turn from that evil which had cast them down and stand up to see and meet the Salvation of the Lord. And this is the proper and Natural effect of mercy to give sight to the blinde that they may see to binde up a broken limb that it may move and to raise us from the dead that we may walk to make us good who were evil For this is shines in brightnesse upon us every day not onely to enlighten them who sit in darknesse but many times the children of light themselves who though they sit not in darknesse yet may be under a cloud raise up and setled in the brain not from a corrupt but a tender and humble Heart For we cannot think that every man that sayes he despairs is cast away and lost or that our erroneous Judgement of our state and condition shall be the rule by which God will proceed against us and Judge us at the last day that when we have set our hearts to serve him and have been serious in all our wayes when we have made good the condition i. e. our part of the Covenant as far as the Covenant of Grace and the equity and gentlenesse of the Gospel doth exact it he will refuse to make good his part because we cannot think well of our selves and though we have done what is required perswade our selves that we are fallen so short in the performance of our duty that we shall never reach to the end in a word that he will forbear to pronounce the Euge well done because we are afraid and tremble at all our works or put us by and reject us after all the labour of our charity for a melancholly fit or condemn the soul for the distemper of the body or some perturbation of the minde which he had not strength enough to withstand though he were strong in the Lord and in the power of his spirit did cheerfully run the wayes of his Commandements It were a great want of Charity thus to Judge of those whose troublesome and most afflicting errour was conceived and formed in the very bowels of charity For sometimes it proceeds from the distemper of the body from some indisposition of the brain and if we have formerly and do yet strive to do him service he is not so hard and austere a Master as to punish us for being sick Sometimes it arises from some defect in the judicative faculty through which as we make more Laws to our selves and so more sins then there are so we are as ready to passe sentence against our selves not onely for the breach of those Laws which none could binde us to but our selves but even of those also which we were so careful to keep for as we see some men so strong or rather so stupid that they think they do nothing amisse so there be others but not many so weak or rather so scrupulous that they cannot perswade themselves that they ever did any thing well This is an infirmity and disease but it is not Epidemical The first are a great multitude which 't is hard to number quocunque sub axe they are in every Climate and in every place but most often in the Courts of Princes and the habitations of the Rich who can do evil but will not see it who can make the loud condemnation of a fact and the bold doing it the businesse of one and the same hour almost of one and the same moment The other are not many for they are a part of that little Flock and the good Shepherd will not drive them out of the fold for the weak conceit they had that they had gone too far astray For errour is then most dangerous and fatal when we do that which is evil not when we shun and fly from it as from the plague and yet cannot beleeve we are removed far enough from the infection of it And therefore again it may have its Original not onely from the Acrasie and discomposedness of the outward-man or the weaknesse in Judgement or that ignorance of their present estate which may happen to good men even to those who have made some fair proficiency in the School of Christ and to which we are very subject amidst that variety of circumstances that perplexity and multiplicity of thoughts which rise and sink and return again and strangle one another to bring in others in their place but it may be brought in by our very care and diligence and an intensive love For care and diligence and love are alwayes followed with fears and jealousies love is ever a beginning till all be done and is but setting out till she be at her journeyes end The liberal man is afraid of his Almes and the Temperate mistrusts his abstinence the meek man is jealous of every heat pietas etiam tuta pertimescit piety is afraid even of safety it self because it is piety and cannot be safe enough And if it be a fault thus to undervalue himself it is a fault of a fair extraction begotten not by blood or the will of men not by negligence and wilfulnesse and the pollutions of the flesh but of care and anxiety and an unsatisfied love which will sometimes demur and be at a stand in the greatest Certainty so that though the lines be fallen to him in a faire place and he have a Goodly Heritage a well setled spiritual Estate yet he may sometimes look upon it as Bankrupts doe upon their temporall worne out Debts and Statutes and Mortgages and next to nothing Every man hath not a place and mansion in Heaven that pretends a Title to it nor is every man shut out that doubts of his evidence This diffidence in our selves is commonly the mark and Character of a Good man who would be better and though he hath
heard of the name of Christ nay but with those who call upon it every day and call themselves the knowing men the Gnosticks of this age and whilst men love darknesse more then light with some men there will scarce be any sins upon that account as sins till the day of Judgement Next bring not in thy conscience to plead for that sin which did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beat and wound thy conscience for the offie of thy conscience is before the fact to inform thee and after the fact if it be evil to accuse thee and what comfort can there be in this thought that thou didst not sollow her information that she called it a sin and thou didst it that she pointed out to it as to a rock and thou wouldest needs chuse it for thy Heaven no commonly this is the plea of those whose hearts are hard and yet will tell you they have a tender conscience and so they have Tender in respect of a ceremony or thing indifferent here they are struck in a manner dead quite besides themselves as if it were a Basilisk here they are true and constant to their conscience which may erre but not tender in respect of an eternal Law where it cannot mistake here they too often leave their conscience and then excuse themselves that they did so in the one they are as bold as a Lion in the other they call it the frailty of a Saint this they do with regret and some reluctancy that is by interpretation against their will Last of all do not think thy action is not evil because thy intention was good for it is as easie to fix a good intention upon an evil action as 't is to set a fair and promising title on a box of poison hay and stubble may be laid upon a good foundation but it will neither head well or bed well as they say in the work of the Lord we must look as well to what we build as the Basis we raise and set it on or else it will not stand and abide we see what a fire good intentions have kindled on the earth and we are told that many of them burn in Hell I may intend to beat down Idolatry and bury Religion in the ruins of that which I beat down I may intend the establishing of a Conmmon-wealth and shake the foundation of it I may intend the Reformation of a Church and fill it with Locusts and Caterpillars innumerable I may intend the Glory of God and do that for which his Name shall be evil spoken of and it will prove but a poor plea when we blasphemed him to say we did it for his Glory Let us then lay aside these Apologies for they are not Apologies but Accusations and detain us longer in our evil wayes then the false beauty and deceitful promises of a temptation could which we should not yeeld to so often did not these betray us nor be fools so long if we had not something to say for our selves And since we cannot answer the expostulation with these since these will be no plea in the Court of heaven before the tribunal of Christ let us change our plea and let us answer the last part of the Text with the first the moriemini with the convertimini answer him that we will Turn and then he will never ask any more Why will ye die but change his Language and assure us we shall not die at all And our answer is penn'd to our hands by the Prophet Jerem. Ecce accedimus Behold we come we turn unto thee for in our God is the Salvation of Israel and our Saviour hath registred his in his Gospel and left it as an invitation to turn Come unto me all ye that be weary of your evil wayes and are heavie laden feel the burden you did sweat under whilest you were in them and I will ease you that is I will deliver you from this body of sin fill you with my Grace enlighten your understandings sprinckle your Hearts from an evil Conscience direct your eye level your intentions lead you in the wayes of life and so fit and prepare you for my kingdom in Heaven To which he bring us c. THE THIRTEENTH SERMON GAL. 4.39 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so is it now IN which words the Apostle doth present to our eye the true face of the Church in an Allegory of Sarah and Hagar of Ismacl and Isaac of mount Sinat and mount Sion which things are an Allegory verse 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it speaks one thing and means another and carries wrapt up â—n it a more excellent sense then the words at first hearing do promise Take the full scheme and delineation in brief 1. Here is Sarah and Hagar that is Servitude and Freedom 2. Here are two Cities Jerusalem that now is the Synagogue of the Jews and that Jerusalem which is above the vision of peace and mother of all the faithful for by the New Covenant we are made children unto God 3. Here is the Law promulged and thundered out on mount Sinai and the Gospel the Covenant of Grace which God published not from the mount but from Heaven it self by the voice of his Son In all you see a faire correspondence and agreement between the Type and the thing but so that Jerusalem our mother is still the Highest the Gospel glorious with the liberty it brought and the Law putting on a yoke breathing nothing but servitude and fear Isaac an heire and Ismael thrust out the Christian more honorable then the Jew The curtain is now drawn and we may enter in even within the vail and take that sense which the Apostle himself hath drawn out so plainly to us And indeed it is a good and pleasing sight to see our priviledge and priority in any figure to finde out our inheritance in such an Heire our liberty and freedom though in a woman who would not lay claim to so much peace and so much liberty who would not challenge kindred of Isaac and a Burgesseship in Jerusalem 't is true every Christian may But that we mistake not and think all is peace and liberty that we boast not against the branches that are cut off he brings in a corrective to check and keep down all swelling and lifting up our selves the adversative particle sed but But as then so now we are indeed of Sarah the free-woman we are children of the promise we are from Jerusalem which is from above sed but if we will inherit with Isaac we must be persecuted with Isaac if we will be of the Covenant of grace we must take up the Crosse if we look for a City whose maker and founder is God we must walk to it in our blood in other things we rise above the Type but here we fall and our condition is the same But as then he that was born after
onely in this sense said to have an end when indeed it is in its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perfection when there will be no enemy stirring to subdue no use of Laws when the Subjects are now made perfect when this Lord shall make his subjects Kings and Crowne them with Glory and Honor for ever Here 's no weaknesse no Infirmity no abjuration no resignation of the Crowne and Power but all things are at an end his enemies in Chaines and his subjects free free from the feare of Hell or Temptations of the Devill the World or the flesh and though there be an end yet he reignes still though he be subject yet he is as high as ever he was Though he hath delivered up his Kingdome yet he hath not lost it but remaines a Lord and King for Evermore And now you have seen this Lord that is to come you have seen him sitting at the right hand of God His right and Power of Government his Laws just and Holy and wise the virtue and Power the largeness and the duration of his Government a sight fit for those to look on who love and look for the comming of this Lord for they that long to meet him in the Clouds cannot but delight to behold him at the right Hand of God Look upon him then sitting in Majesty and Power and think you now saw him moving towards you and were now descending with a shout for his very sitting there should be to us as his comming it being but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preparation to that great Day Look upon him and think not that he there sits Idle but beholds the Children of men those that wait for him and those that Think not of him and he will come down with a shout not fall as a Timber-logge for every Frogg every wanton sinner to leap upon and croake about but come as a Lord with a Reward in one hand and a Vengeance in the other Oh 't is farre better to fall down and worship him now then not to know him to be a Lord till that time that in his wrath he shall manifest his Power and fall upon us and break us in pieces Look then upon this Lord and look upon his Lawes and write them in your hearts for the Philosopher will tell us that the strength and perfection of Law consists not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the wise and discreet framing of them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the right and due performance of them for obedience is the best seal and Ratification of a Law He is Lord from all eternity and cannot be divested of his royal office yet he counts his kingdom most compleat when we are subject and obedient unto him when he hath taken possession of our hearts where he may walk not as he did in Paradise terrible to Adam who had forfeited his allegiance but as in a garden of pleasures to delight himself with the sons of men Behold he commands threatens beseeches calls upon us again and again and the beseechings of Lords are commands preces armatae armed prayers backt with power and therefore next consider the vertue and power of his dominion and bow before him do what he commands with fear and trembling let this power walk along with thee in all thy wayes when thou art giving an almes let it strike the trumpet out of thy hand when thou fastest let it be in capite jejunii let it begin and end it when thou art strugling with a tentation let it drive thee on that thou faint not and fall back and do the work of the Lord negligently Jer. 48.10 when thou art adding vertue to vertue let it be before they eyes that thou mayest double thy diligence and make it up compleat in every circumstance and when thou thinkest of evil let it joyn with that thought that thou mayest hate the very appearance of it and chace it away why should dust ashes more awe thee then Omnipotency why should thy eye be stronger then thy faith not onely the frown but the look of thy Superior composeth and models thee puts thee into any fashion or form thou wilt go or run or sit down thou wilt venture thy body would that were all nay thou wilt venture thy soul do any thing be any thing what his beck doth but intimate but thy faith is fearlesse as bold as blind and will venture on on the point of the sword fears what man not what this Lord can do to him fears him more that sits on the bench than him that sits at the right hand of God If we did beleeve as we professe we could not but more lay it to our hearts even lay it so as to break them for who can stand up when he is angry let us next view the largenesse and compasse of his Dominion which takes in all that will come and reacheth those who refuse to come and is not contracted in its compasse if none should come and why shouldest thou turn a Saviour into a destroyer why should'st thou die in thy Physitians armes with thy cordials about thee why shouldest thou behold him as a Lord 'till he be angry he caleth all inviteth all that come why should Publicans and sinners enter and thy disobedience shut thee out Lastly consider the duration of his Dominion which shall not end but with the world nor end then when it doth end for the vertue of it shall reach to all eternity and then think that under this Lord thou must either be eternally happy or eternally miserable and let not a flattering but a fading world thy rebellious and traiterous flesh let not the father of lies a gilded temptation an apparition a vain shadow thrust thee on his left hand for both at his right and left there is power which works to all eternity The second his Advent or coming Venit he will come And now we have walkt about this Sion and told the towers thereof shewed you Christs territories and Dominion the nature of his laws the vertue and power the largenesse and compasse the duration of his kingdom we must in the next place consider his Advent his coming consider him as now coming for we cannot imagine as was said before that he sat there idle like Epicurus his God nec sibi facessens negotium nec alteri not regarding what is done below but like true Prometheus governing and disposing the state of times and actions of men M. Sen. Contr. Divinum numen etiam qua non apparet rebus humanis intervenit his power insinuates it self and even works there where it doth not appear Though he be in heaven yet he can work at this distance for he fills the heaven and the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he beholdeth all things he heareth all things he speaks to thee and he speaks in thee he hears thee when thou speakest and he hears thee when thou speakest not in his book are
condition To these Dominus veniet the Lord will come and his coming is called the consummation of all things that which makes all things perfect and restores every thing to its proper and natural condition The creature shall have its rest the earth shall be no more wounded with our plowshares nor the bowels of it digg'd up with the mattock there shall be no forbidden fruit to be tasted no pleasant waters to be stolen no Manna to surfet on no Crowns to fight for no wedge of gold to be a prey no beauty to be a snare Dominus veniet the Lord will come and deliver his Creature from this bondage perfect and consummate all and at once set an end both to the world and vanity Lastly Dominus venit the Lord will come to men both good and evil he shall come in his glory Math. 25.31,32 and he shall gather all Nations and separate the one from another as a Shepherd divideth his sheep from his goats and by this make good his Justice and manifest his providence in the end for his Justice is that which when the world is out of order establisheth the pillars thereof for sin is an injury to the whole Creation and inverts that order which the Wisdom of God had first set up in the World My Adultery defileth my body my oppression grindeth the poor my malice vexes my brother my craft removes the Land-mark my particular sins have their particular objects but they all strike at the vniverse disturb and violate that order which wisdom it self first establisht and therefore the Lord comes to bring every thing back to its proper place to make all the wayes of his Providence consonant and agreeable to themselves to Crown the Repentant Sinner that recover'd his place and bind and setter the stubborn and obstinate offendor who could not be wrought upon by promises or by Threats to move in his own sphere Dominus veniet the Lord will come to shew what light he can strike out of Darkness what Harmony he can work out of the greatest disorder what beauty he can raise out of the deformed body of sinne for sinne is a foul deformity in Nature and therefore he comes in judgement to order and place it there where it may be forced to serve for the Grace and Beauty of the whole where the punishment of sinne may wipe out the disorder of sinne where every thing is plac'd as it should be and every man sent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 1.25 Gers to his proper place nec pulchrius in coelo Angelus quant in Gehennâ Diabolus Heaven is a fit and proper place for an Angel of light for the Children of God and Hell is as fit and proper for the Devil and his Angels Now the wayes of men are crooâ—ed Intricate and their Actions carried on with that contrariety and contradiction that to quit and help himself out of them and take himself off from that Amazement Duos Ponticus deos tanquam duas Symplegadas naufragii sui adsert quem negare non potuit i.e. creatorem i. e. nostrum quem procare non poteâ—it i. e suum Tert c. 1. adv Marcion Marcion ran dangerously upon the greatest Blasphemy and brought in two Principles one of Good and another of Evill that is two Gods but when he shall come and lay Judgement to the line all things will be even and equall and the Heretick shall see that there is but one now all is jarring discord and confusion when he comes he makes 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 sinne hath made and manifest his wisedome and Providence which here are lookt upon as hidden mysteries in a word to make his Glory shine out of Darkness as he did light when the earth was without forme That the Lord may be all in all Here in this world all lyes 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 Judgement is not the Result of our Reason but is rais'd 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 witts to disgrace it If he be in Power our eyes dazle and we see a God come downe 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 Sunne what he speaks is an Oracle and what he doth is an Example and the Coward the Mammonist or the Beast gives 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 passe 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 one another but never judge righteous Judgement for as we Judge of others so we do of our selves Judicio favor officit our self-love puts out the eye of our Reason or rather diverts it from that which is good and imployes it in finding out many Inventions to set up Evill in its place as the Prophet Esay speaks wee feed on Ashes a deceived Heart hath Turned us aside Isa 44.20 that we cannot deliver our soul and say is there not a lie in our Right Hand Thus he that sows but sparingly is Liberall He that loves the world is not Covetous He whose eyes are full of the Adultress is chast He that sets up an Image and falls down before it is not an Idolater he that drinks down blood as an Oxe doth water is not a Murderer He that doth the works of his Father the Devill is a Saint Multa injustè fieri possunt quae nemo possit reprehendere Cic. de Finibus 93. Many things we see in the world most unjustly done which we call righteousnesse 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'â— statutes be kept we soon perswade our selves that the power of this Lord will not reach us and if our names hold faire amongst men we are too ready to tell our selves That they are written also in the Book of Life This is
foule a shape to me before that Title was written in his forehead for I consider more what he is then what he is called and thousands are now with Christ in heaven who yet never knew this his great Adversary on earth and why should I desire to know the time when Christ will come when no other command lies upon me but his to watch and prepare my self for his coming when all that I can know or concerns me is drawn up within the compasse of this one word watch which should be as the center and all other truths drawn from it as so many lines to bear up the circumference of constant and a continued watch Christ tells us he will come Hoc satis est dixisse Deo and this is enough for him to tell us and for us to know he tells us that we cannot know it that the Angels cannot know it that the Son of man himself knows it not that it cannot be known that 't is not fit to be known and yet we would know it some there have been who pretended they knew it by the secret Revelation of the spirit though it were a lying spirit or a wanton fancy that spake within them For men are never more quick of belief then when they tell themselves a lie and yet the Apostle exhorts the Thessalonians that they would not be shaken in minde 2 Thes 2.2 nor troubled neither by spirit nor word nor by letter as from him as that the day of Christ is at hand others call in tradition others finde out a Mystery in the number of 7. and so have taken the full age of the world which is to end say they after 6. hundred yeers and this they finde not onely in the six moneths the Ark floated on the waters and its rest on the mountains of Ararat in the seventh in Moses coming out of the cloud and the walls of Jericho falling down the seventh day but in the seven vials and the seven Trumpets in the Revelation such time and leisure hear men found perscrutari interrogare latebras numerorum to Divine by numbers by their art and skill to digg the aire and finde pretious metal there where men of common apprehensions can finde no such treasure inter irrita exercere ingenia to catch at Attomes and shadows and spend their time to no purpose For curiosity is a hard task-master sets us to make brick but allows us no straw sets us to tread the water and to walk upon the wind put us to work but in the dark and we work as the spirits are said to do in Minerals they seem to digg and cleanse and sever Metals but when men come they finde nothing is done It is a good rule in husbandry and such rules old Cato called oracles imbecillior esse debet ager Columel quam Agricola the Farm must not be too great for the Husband-man but what he may be well able to manure and dresse and the reason is good quia si fundus praevaleat colliditur Dominus because if he prevail not if he cannot mannage it he must needs be at great losse and it is so in the speculations and works of the minde those inquiries are most fruitful and yeeld a more plentiful increase which we are able to bring unto the end which is truely to resolve our selves thus it is as a little plot of ground well tilled will yeeld a fairer crop and harvest then many Acres which we cannot husband for the understanding doth not more foully miscarry when it it is deceived with false appearances and sophismes then when it looks upon and would apprehend unnecessary and unprofitable objects and such as are set out of sight res frugi est sapientia spiritual wisdom is a frugal and thirsty thing sparing of her time which she doth not wantonly waste to purchase all knowledge whatsoever but that which may adorn and beautifie the minde which was made to receive vertue and wisdom and God himself to know that which profits not is next to ignorance but to be ambitious of impertinent speculations carries with it the reproach of folly Basil Hem. 29 ad vâ—calumn S. Trin. what is it then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaks to seek with such diligence for that which is past finding out And 1. the knowledg of the houre of his coming is most impertinent and concerns us not non est nosirum nosse tempora It is not for us to know the times as our dayes so the times are in his hands and he disposeth and dispenseth them as it pleaseth him fits a time to every thing which all the wisdom of the world cannot doe Thou wouldest know when he would take the yoke from off thy neck 't is not for thee to know that which concerns thee is to possesse thy soul with patience which will make thy yoke easie Thou wouldst know when he will break the teeth of the ungodly and wrest the sword out of the hand of them that delight in blood it is not for thee to know thy task is to learn to suffer and rejoyce and to make a blessing of Persecution Thou wouldst know when the world shall be dissolved why shouldst thou desire to know it thy labour must be to dissolve the body of sin and set an end and period to thy transgressions Thou wouldest know what hour this Lord will come It is not for thee to know but to work in this thy hour and be ready and prepared for hsi coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the present the present time that is thine and thou must fill it up with thy obedience that which is to come of what aspect so ever it be thou must onely look upon and consider as an help and advantage to thee in thy work Dominus venturus the Lord will come speaks no more to me then this to labour and sweat in his vineyard 'till he come All the daies of my appointed time will I wait saith Job Job 14.14 There is a time and an appointed time and appointed by a God of eternity and I do not study to calculate or finde out the last minute of it but expectabo I will wait which is but a syllable but of a large and spreading signification and takes in the whole duty of man For what is the life of a Christian but the expectation the waiting for the coming of the Lord David indeed desires to know his end and the measure of his dayes Psal 39.4 but he doth not mean so to calculate them as Arithmeticians do and to know a certain and determin'd number of them not so to number them as to tell them at his fingers ends and say This will be the last but himself interprets himself and hath well explained his own meaning in the last words Let me know the measure of my dayes that I may know how sraile I am know not exactly how many but how few they be let me so measure them
when we awake we watch to look about and see what danger is neere when we work wee watch till our work be brought to perfection That no Trumpet scatter our Alms no Hypocrisy corrupt our Fast no unrepented sinne denie our prayers no wandring Thought defile our Chastity no false fire kindle our zeal no Lukewarmnes dead our Devotion when we strive we watch that lust which is most predominant and Faith if it be not Dead hath a restless Eye an eye that never sleeps which makes us even here on Earth like unto the Angels for so Anastasius defining an Angel calls him a reasonable Creature but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a one as ver sleeps Corde vigila Fide vigila spe vigila charitate vigila saith St. August an active Faith a waking Heart a lively hope a spreading Charity assiduity and perseverance in the work of this Lord these make up the vigilate the watching here These are the seales Faith Hope and Charity set them on and the Watch is sure But this is to Generall To give you yet a more particular acaccount we must consider 1. That God hath made man a Judge and Lord of all his Actions and given him that freedom and Power which is Libripens emancipatià Deo Boni Tert. l. 2. cont Marcion which doth hold as it were the ballance and weigh and poyse both good and evill and may touch or strike which Scale it please that either Good shall out-weigh Evill or Evill good for man is not evill by Necessity or Chance but by his will alone See I have set before thee this Day Life and Good Death and Evill Therefore chuse Life Deut. 30.19 Secondly he hath placed an apparency of some good on that which is evill by which he may be wooed and enticed to it and an apparency of smart and evill on that which is Good Difficulty Calamity persecution by which he may be frighted from it But then thirdly he hath given him an understanding by which he may discover the horror of Evill though colour'd over and drest with the best advantage to Deceive and behold the Beauty and Glory of that which is good though it be discolour'd and defaced with the blacknesse and Darkness of this world He hath given him a Spirit Prov. 20.27 which the Wise man calls the Candle of the Lord searching the inward parts of the belly his Reason that should sway and govern all the parts of the body and faculties of the Soule by which he may see to eschew evill and chuse that which is good adhere to the Good though it distast the sense and fly from evill though it flatter it By this we discover he Enemy and by this we conquer him By this we 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 Hurtfull and chuse that which is Agreeable with their Nature as the Cocles which saith Pliny carent omni alto sensu quam Câ—bi periculi C. 9. N. 1 Q. c. 30. have no sense at all but of their food and of 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 and shewes with Realities and faire Promises with bitter effects may shew him a way to escape the one 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 Attende tibi ipsi saith Moses Deut. 4.9 Tom. 1. Take heed to thy self and Basil wrote a whole Oration or Sermon on that Text and considers man as if he were nothing else but mind and soul and the Flesh were the Garment which cloth'd and coverd it and that it was compast about with Beauty and Health Sicknesse and deformity Friends and Enemies Riches and Poverty from which the mind is to guard and defend it self that neither the Gloty nor Terror of outward Objects have any power or influence on the mind to make a way through the flesh to deface and ruine it and put out its light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take heed to thy self prae omni custodiâ serva cor tuum Keep thy heart with Diligence ab omni cautione so 't is rendered by Mercer out of the Hebrew from every thing that is to be avoided ab omni vinculo 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 paine whether it be a fayre and well promising or a black Temptation keep it with diligence and keep it from these Incumbrances and the reason is given For out of it are the Issues of Life processiones vitarum the Issues and Proceedings of many lives for so many Conquests as we gaine over Temptations so many lively motions we feele animated and full of God which increase our Crown of joy All is comprehended in that of our Saviour Math. 26.41 Watch and pray lest you enter into Tentation If you watch not your heart will lie open and Tentations will Enter and as many Deaths will issue forth Evill Thoughts Fornications Murders Adulteries Blasphemy as so many Locusts out of the Bottomlesse Pit To watch then Philip. 2. is to fixe our mind on that which concernes our Peace To work out our Salvation with fear and trembling to perfect holiness in the Feare of God 2 Cor. 7.1 Heb. 12.28 2 ep John 8. to serve him with Reverence and Godly Feare 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 Feare and these two are like the two Pillars in the Porch of the Temple of Solomon Jachin and Boaz. 1. of Kings and the second to establish and strengthen our Watch For this certainly must needs be a Soveraign Antidote against sinne 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 consider him as a witness who shall be our Judge That all we doe we doe as Hilary speaks in Divinitatis sinu in his very presence and Bosome when we deceive our selves and when we deceive our brethren when we sell our Lord to our Feares or our Hopes when we betray him in our craft crucify him in our Revenge defile and spit upon him in our uncleanness we are even then in his Presence if we did firmly beleeve it we would not suffer our eyes to sleep nor our eye-lids to slumber For how carefull are we how anxious how sollicitous in our behaviour how
shewed thee O man what is good and wilt thou not believe him fath is the substance of things not seen and though they be not seen yet they are evident the Meanes evident and the End as evident as the Meanes In our sad and sober thoughts when we talk like speculative men as evident as what is open to the eye But such an evidence we have which a covetous man would soon lay hold on for a title to a faire inheritance and the ambitious for an assignment of some great place for if such a record had been transmitted to posterity if the Scripture which conveighs this Good had entailed some rich Mannor or Lordship upon them it should have then found an easie belief and been Gospel a sure word of prophecy unquestionable undoubtable like the decrees of the Medes and Persians which must stand fast for ever and cannot be altered for too many there be who had rather have their names in a good leaf then in the book of life and this is the reason why we are so ignorant of that which is good indeed and so great clerks in that which is calted good but by the worst why we are so dull and indocile in apprehending that wisdome which is from above and so wise and witty to our own damnation why we do but darkly see this Good which is so plainly shewed unto us What shall we say then nay what saith the Scripture Awake thou that sleepest in sloth and idlenesse 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 intomb'd 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 cast aside every weight and every sinne 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 beames and brightnesse and Christ shall give thee light if not to see things to come to satisfy thy curiosity yet to see things to come which shall fill thy soul as with marrow and fatnesse if not to know the uncertain yet certain wayes of Gods providence yet to know the certain and infallible way to blisse 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 doest thou see it doest thou believe it thou shalt see greater things then these thou shalt see what thou doest believe enjoy what thou doest 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 knowledg of his wayes and providence a fuller taste of his love and goodnesse 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 Quid requirit what doth the Lord require HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE The Three and Twentieth SERMON PART III. MICAH 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to doe 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 the soul and turn the greatest evil the world can lay as a stone of offence in our 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 which is as the publication of it and making it a law For with the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the Trumpet and the voice of words this voice was heard I am the Lord. Thus saith the Lord It 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 doe 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 and in this one word in this Monosyllable all power in heaven and in earth is contained For in calling him Lord he assignes unto him an absolute will which must be the rule of our will and of all the 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 1. By his power he made us 2. he protects and preserves us and from this issues his legislative power 3. as by his Wisdome he made us so by the same wisdome he gives us such a Law which 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. And let us view and consider these and so look upon them as to draw down their influence and vertue into our souls which may work that obedience in us which this Lord requires and will reward And 1. Quid requirit Dominus what doth the Lord require It is the Lord requires it and I need not trouble you with a recitall 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 spreads 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 apposite and agreeable to our purpose that we may the more willingly embrace and entertain this Good which is publisht as a law to look upon this word Lord as it expresses the Majesty and greatnesse of God for he is therefore said to be the Lord because he is omnipotent and can do all things that he will He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzen a vast and boundlesse Ocean of essence and he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a boundlesse and infinite sea of power Take the highest pitch of Dominion and Lordship that our imagination can reach yet it falls short of his who is Lord of Lords to whom all earthly Majesty must vaile and at whose feet all Princes lay down their Crowns
the Law against our brethren against God himself making us to complain of the Law as unjust to start at the shadow of an injury to do evil and not to see it to commit sinne and excuse it making our tongues our own our hands our own our understandings our own our wills our own leaving us independents under no Law but our own The Prophet David calls it the highnesse or haughtinesse of the heart Ps 131. Solomon the haughtinesse of the spirit Prov. 16.18 which is visible in our sinne and visible in our Aplogies for sinne lifting up the eyes and lifting up the nose for so the phrase signifies Ps 10.4 lifting up the head making our necks brasse as if we had devoured a spit as Epictetus expresses it I am and I alone Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellant Arrian Epict. is soon writ in any mans heart and it is the office and work of humility to wipe it out to wipe out all imaginations which rise and swell against the Law our neighbour and so against God himself For the mind of man is very subject to these fits of swelling humility our very nature riseth at the mention of it Habet mens nostra sublime quiddam impatiens superioris saith the Orator mens minds naturally are lifted up and cannot endure to be overlookt Humility 'T is well we can heare her named with patience it is something more that we can commend her but quale monstrum quale sacrilegium saith the Father O monstrous sacriledg we commend humility and that we do so swells us we shut her out of doores when we entertain her when we deck her with praises we sacrilegiously spoile her and even lose her in our Panegyricks and commendations We see for it is but too visible what light materialls we are made of what tinder we are that the least spark will set us on fire to blaze and be offensive to every eye We censure pride in others and are proud we do so we humble our brethren and exalt our selves It is the art and malice of the world when men excell either in virtue or learning to say they are proud and they think weith that breath to levell every hill that riseth so high and calls so many eyes to look upon it But suppose they were alas a very fool will be so and he that hath not one good part to gain the opinion of men will do that office for himself and wonder the world should so mistake him Doth learning or virtue do our good parts puff us up and set us in our Altitudes No great matter the wagging of a feather the gingling of a spur a little ceruse and paint any thing nothing will do it Nay to descend yet lower That which is worse then nothing will do it wickednesse will do it He boasteth of his hearts desire saith David Ps 10.3 he blesseth himself in evil he rejoyceth in evil saith Solomon Prov. 2.14 he pleaseth and flattereth himself in mischif And what are these benedictions these boastings these triumphs in evil but as the breathings the sparkles the proclamations of pride The wicked is so proud he careth not for God he is not in all his waies When Adam by pride was risen so high as to fall from his obedience God looks upon him in this his exaltation or rather in this ruine and beholds him not as his creature but as a prodigie and seemes to put on admiration Ecce Adam factus tanquam unus è nobis See the man is become like unto us and he speaks it by an Irony A God he is but of his own making whilest he was what I made him he was a man but Innocent Just immortall of singular endowments and he was so truly and really but now having swelled and reach'd beyond his bounds a God he is but per mycterismum a God that may be pitied that may be derided a mortall dying God a God that will run into a thicket to hide himself His greatnesse is but figurative but his misery is reall being turned out of Paradise hath nothing left but his fancy to Deifie him This is our case and our Teeth are on edge with the same sowre grapes we are proud and sinne and are proud in our sinnes we lift up our selves against the Law and when we have broke it we lift up our selves against repentance when we are weak then we are strong when we are poor and miserable then we are rich when we are naked then we clothe our selves with pride as with a garment and as in Adam so in us our greatnesse is but a tale a pleasing lye our sins and imperfections true and reall our Heaven but a thought and our hell burning a strange soloecisme a look as high as heaven and the soule as low as the lowest pit It was an usuall speech with Martin Luther That every man was born with a Pope in his belly we know what the Pope hath long challeng'd and appropriated to himself Infallibility Supremacy which like the two sides of an Arch mutually uphold each other for doe we question his Immunity from Errour it is a bold errour in us for he is supreme Judge of Controversies And the Conjecture is easie which way the question will be stated Can we not be perswaded and yield to his supremacy then his Parasites will tell you that he is Infallible by this we may well guesse what Luther meant for so it is in us Pride makes us incorrigible and the thought that we are so increaseth our pride we are too high to stand and too wise to be wary too learned to be taught and too good to be reproved we now stand upon our supremacy see how the worme swells into an Angel The heart forgets it is flesh and becomes a stone and you cannot set Christs Impresse Humility upon a stone Learne of me for I am humble The eare is deafe and the heart stubborne the mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Theodoret a reprobate reverberating mind a heart of marble which violently beats back the blow that should soften it Now the office of humility is to abate this swelling It s proper work is to hammer this rock and break it to pieces Jer. 23.29 to drive it into it self to pull it down at the sight of this Lord to place it under it self under the Law under God to bind it as it were with cords and let out this corrupt blood and this noxious humour and so sacrifice it to that God that framed it In a word depressing it in it self that it be not too wise too full That it may behold it self of more value then the whole world and then shut it self up that it wander not abroad after those vanities which will soon fill it with aire and swell it This is the method and this is the work of humility It pulls out our eyes that we may see spoiles us of our