in the Christian Dypticks And you see to day we have revived the Custom here 3. But 't is not a meer remembring them for honour but also a real remembring them and them that do them for a blessing all sorts of blessings So that would I commend to my dearest friend a Trade to make him rich and happy it should be doing good to the House of God 'T is an old Jewish saying Decima ut dives fias Pay thy Tyths if thou wilt grow rich Build God a House say I and he will build thee one again Do good to His House say I and he 'll do good to thine and a wicked Son shall not be able to cut off the Entail For 't is worth the notice that when God promised David a House upon this account he tells him that though his Son commit iniquity he would not utterly take his mercy from him I know there are that to be excused talk much of unsetled times This is the way to settle them When God and man shall see we are in earnest for the House of God and the Offices thereof all your Sects will cease to trouble you and vanish Some cry the State must be setled first Why Fundamenta ejus in montibus Sanctis says the Psalm the foundations of Hierusalem are upon the Holy Hills Lay your foundations there and you shall never be removed God of his goodness will make your Hill so strong No better way to fix the House of the Kingdom or your own than to begin with His. Others to get loose tell us of the decay of Trade Why how can it be other says God Hag. i. 9. You looked for much and it came to little and when you brought it home and 't was scarce worth bringing home I did blow upon it blew it into nothing And why was it says the Lord of Hosts Because of my house that lieth waste and ye run every man to his own house You dwell in Cedars and you lap your selves in Silks and Silver and you have all neat and fine about you but the House of God that lies in the dust and rubbish But is it time for you O ye says he for I know not what to call you to dwell in cieled houses and my house lie no better Did God think you make Gold and Silver Silks and Purples Marbles and Cedars for us only and our houses and not for himself also or his own Or do you think to thrive by being sparing to it or holding from it No says God from the day that the Foundation of the Lords Temple was laid consider it from this that day will I bless you Hag. ii 18 19. And prove him so say I for he bids so himself Mat. iii. 10. and see if he will not pour you out a blessing Indeed he has been before us with it He has brought us home and stablisht our Estates and restor'd our Religion done more to us and to our houses than we durst desire or hope and is it not all the reason in the world we should do good to his again Hang up our remembrances upon the Walls pay our acknowledgments upon his Altars and bless all the Offices of his house for so great blessings God will remember you again for what ever it is If you would yet more engage him to you know God loves the Gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of Iacob Psal. lxxxvii 2. must needs therefore love these most that most love them And I doubt not but we shall find many here that do so many too that will so express it Yet not according to what a man has not but to what he has says our St. Paul does God accept him We cannot expect that all that love most can express most Yet according to their abilities they will do it A cup of cold water I confess to a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall not lose the reward no more shall a single Mite to the house of God as his Every one however may do somewhat towards it They that cannot give much may give a little they that cannot pay may yet pray for it And to wish it well and to rejoyce in the prosperity and welfare of it the repairing and adorning of it are two mites that any one can give and God will accept where there can be no other Only where there is most we must present it with humility as David did 1 Chron. xxix What am I O Lord that I should be able after this sort to offer thus to do it And where there is but little we must present it with a regret that we can do no more Will God remember and accept us remember and pardon us remember and bless us with blessings of the right hand and blessings of the left remember us in all places both at home and abroad in all conditions both in the days of our prosperity and in the time of trouble in our goings out and in our comings in in our Persons and in our Estates in our selves and in our Posterities with them shall remain a good inheritance and their children shall be ever within the Covenant And when all earthly glances shall be forgotten that which we have done to the House of God shall be still remembred when our bodies shall lie down in dust our names shall live in heaven when a cold stone shall chill our ashes our bones shall flourish out of their graves when time shall have eaten out our Epitaphs our righteousness shall not be forgotten God will remember it for ever And though the general conflagration shall at last calcine these glorious structures into ashes we shall dwell safe in buildings not made with hands eternal in the heavens where the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb shall be the Temple and we sing the Offices of heaven with Angels and Archangels and all the holy Spirits with joy and gladness for evermore To which glorious House and Office God of his mercy bring us in our several times and orders through c. THE FIRST SERMON On the Day of the PURIFICATION OF THE Blessed Virgin St. LUKE ii 27 28. And when the Parents brought in the Child Iesus to do for him after the custom of the Law Then took he him up in his arms and blessed God AND when That When was as this day When the days of the blessed Virgins Purification according to the Law of Moses were accomplished forty days after Christs Nativity this day just then they brought him to Ierusalem to present him to the Lord ver 22. Then blessed Mary and Ioseph brought then devout Simeon and Anna blessed and if we be either Maries or Anna's Iosephs or Simeons holy men or devout women we too will this day bless God for the blessing of the day For this day also of his presentation as well as those other days of his Birth Circumcision and Manifestation Candlemas-day as well as Christmas-day New-years-day or Epiphany is a day
whoever shall take him shall take us too We will not part no not in death we will live and die and sleep and rise again together He that will have him shall have us whether he will or no He is in our arms there we will keep him Yet in lieu of parting with him we will part with our selves and offer our selves for him if that will do it yes and that will do it Duo minuta habeo Domine corpus animam says the devout Father I have two mites O Lord I have two mites to offer to give thee for thy Son to offer thee for him my soul and my body Them thou shalt have willingly I am content to part with them so I may keep him and they will content him Offer them up then a living reasonable sacrifice for it will be an acceptable service too an acceptable blessing of him Yet as we offer up our selves we must now lastly offer up Christ too He gave him to us to be an offering for us to sanctifie all our offerings for a blessing to us to bless all our blessings And for the imperfection of all our righteousness offerings and sacrifices prayers and praises and blessings to make them accepted which in themselves and their weak performances no way deserve he was given us to offer His perfection will make amends for our imperfections his purity for our impurities his strength for our weakness and for them when we have done all we can to be accepted we must offer him or have all rejected We must when we begin to bless turn our selves with old Iacob to this Caput lectuli this beds-head whereon only the soul can rest or leaning upon the top of this Staff as the Apostle renders it the only staff wherein old Israel trusts the only staff whereon we rely for mercy and acceptance This is the name of the Angel in whom only we are to bless in whom only we are blest in whom either God blesses us or we him This is the sum he the chief of all our oblations all our blessings by oblation and the blessing both of our resolutions and endeavours all without whom we can do neither the one nor other neither resolve good nor practice it He therefore is to be offered with all thankfulness to God by us his merits only to be pleaded by us and the form of all our blessing thus to run Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy holy Son the Child Iesus give the praise It was not our own arm that helped us to him 't is not our own arms that can hold him 't is not our own strength that can keep him 't is not our own hands that can present any offering worthy of the least acceptance To God only therefore be the praise to Chrìst only the merit of all our blessings Thus are we lastly to pray too that God would accept us and our blessing Bless him with our petitions 1. That he would please to pardon all our sins or pass by all our weaknesses in this days in every days performance our neglects our coldnesses our drinesses our wearinesses and all the issues of our infirmities any ways That 2. he would accept our offerings and be pleased with us in his Son accept us in his beloved That 3. he would grant us the benefit of that holy Sacrament which we have this day received all the benefits of his Death and Passion the full remission of all our sins and the fulness of all his graces signified and conveyed by those dreadful mysteries That 4. he would particularly arm us every one of us against their particular corruptions with strength and grace proportionable to every one and effectual to us all For proper and particular petitions rising from the sense of our several necessities are this day proper to be askt and as easie to be obtained whilst it is his own day in which he invited us to him and will deny us nothing that we shall earnestly faithfully and devoutly ask him For this also to pray to petition is benedicere and it is a way of blessing God to offer up our prayers thereby acknowledging and confessing his power and goodness which is no less in other words than to praise and bless him He that offers praise honours him and he that presents prayers professes and proclaims him Almighty Father gracious and good and glorious God at the very first dash God blessed for evermore Light up now your Candles at this evening Service for the glory of your morning Sacrifice 't is Candlemas Become we all burning and shining lights to do honour to this day and the blessed armful of it Let your souls shine bright with grace your hands with good works Let God see it and let man see it so bless we God Walk we as Children of the light as so many walking lights and offer we our selves up like so many holy Candles to the Father of light But be sure we light all our lights at this babes eyes that lies so enfolded in our arms and neither use nor acknowledge any other light for better than darkness that proceeds from any other but this eternal light upon whom all our best thoughts and words and works must humbly now attend like so many petty sparks or rays or glimmerings darted from and perpetually reflecting thankfully to that glorious light from this day beginning our blessing God the only lightsome kind of life till we come to the land of light there to offer up continual praises sing endless Benedicite's and Allelujahs no longer according to the Laws or Customs upon earth but after the manner of Heaven and in the Choire of Angels with holy Simeon and Anna and Mary and Ioseph all the Saints in light and glory everlasting Amen Amen He of his mercy bring us thither who is the light to conduct us thither he lead us by the hand who this day came to lie in our arms he make all our offerings accepted who was at this Feast presented for us he bless all our blessings who this day so blessed us with his presence that we might bless him again and he one day in our several due times receive our spirits into his hands our souls into his arms our bodies into his rest who this day was taken corporally into Simeons arms has this day vouchsafed to be spiritually taken into ours Iesus the holy Child the eternal Son of God the Father To whom with the holy Spirit be all honour and praise and glory and blessing from henceforth for evermore Amen A SERMON ON THE First Sunday in Lent 2 COR. vi 2. Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of Salvation ANd truly such a time is worth beholding For the business of it here being of no less concernment than Gods reconciling us to himself ver 18 19. of the former Chapter the committing the word and office of this reconciliation to his Ministers ver 20. of the
our pleasures and vagaries our mirths and vanities our successes and prosperities to steal away the time we are to spend in giving God thanks and glory for them Nor 2. to permit our selves so much time to the reflection upon our griefs and troubles as to omit the praising God that they are no worse and that he thus fatherly chastises us to our bettering and amendment does all to us for the best Yet not to cease praising him day and night seems still to have some difficulty to understand it The Angels perhaps that neither eat nor drink nor sleep nor labour they may do it but how shall poor man compass it Why first Imprint in thy soul a fixt and solid resolution to direct all thy words and actions to his glory Renew it 2. every day thou risest and every night thou liest down Renounce 3 all by-ends and purposes that shall at any time creep in upon thee to take the praise and honour to thy self Design 4. thy actions as often as thou canst particularly to Gods service with some short offering them up to Gods will and pleasure either to cross or prosper them and when they be done say Gods Name be praised for them And lastly omit not the times of Prayer and Praise either in publick or in private but use thy best diligence to observe them to be constant and attentive at them Thus with the Spouse in the Canticles when we sleep our hearts awake and whether we eat or drink or walk or talk or whatsoever we do we do all to the glory of God and may be said to praise him day and night and not cease saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come And so I come to the second General The form here set us to praise him in In which first we have to consider the glory it self that is expresly given him Holy Holy Holy To speak right indeed the whole sentence is nothing else yet this evidently referring to that of Isai. vi 3. where the Seraphims use this first part in their Hymn of praise I conceive this the chief and most remarkable part of of it which may therefore bear the name before the rest Now this saying Holy Holy Holy is attributing all purity perfection and glory to God as to the subject of it himself and the original of it to others thereby acknowledging him only to be worship'd and ador'd So that saying thus we say all good of him and all good from him to our selves Thrice 't is repeated which according to the Hebrew custom is so done to imprint it the deeper in our thoughts and may serve us as a threefold cord which is not easily broken to draw us to it But another reason the Fathers give And it is 1. they say to teach us the knowledge of the holy and blessed Trinity Indeed why else thrice and no less or more Why follows Lord God Almighty three more words why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three yet again and yet but three who was who is who is to come Why do the Seraphims in Isaiah say no more yet say so too Why have we in the following verses Glory and Honour and Thanks ver 9. and Glory and Honour and Power so punctually thrice and thrice only offered to them How came it to be so universally celebrated throughout the World and put into all the Catholik Liturgies every where words fall not from Angels and Angelical Spirits by chance or casually The holy Penmen write not words hap hazard Nor is it easie to conceive so hard a doctrine so uneasie to reason should be so generally and humbly entertain'd but by some powerful working of Gods Spirit This may be enough to satisfie us that the blessed Trinity is more then obscurely pointed out to us here And 2. to be sure the Fountain of all Holiness is here pointed to us that we may learn to whom to go for grace that we may see we our selves are but unholy things that nothing is in it self pure or holy none but God And 3. it points us out what we should be Be ye holy as I am holy says God No way otherwise to come near him no way else to come so near him as to give him thanks for out of polluted lips he will not take them For in the second place the Lord God Almighty it is we are to give this glory to The three Persons here me thinks are evident however God the Father the Lord the Son and the Almighty Spirit that made all things that does but blow and the waters flow that does but breath and man lives that with the least blast does what he will Yet these three it seems are still but one one Lord and one God and one Spirit Ephes. iv 4 5 6. all singulars here nounes verbs articles and participles all in the singular number here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we might see though a Trinity there be to be believed yet 't is in unity though three Personalities but one Nature though three Persons but one God All the scruple here can but arise from the setting Lord the Son before God the Father but that 's quickly answered when they tell you there is none here afore or after other none greater and lesser than another and therefore no matter at all for the order here where all is one and one is all Lord God Almighty Yet now to encourage us the better to our Praises and Thanksgivings see we in the last place the benefits they here praise him for and they are intimated to us in the close of all Who was and is and is to come In the first we understand the benefit of our creation God it was that created us In the second we read the benefit of our Redemption the Lord it is that redeems us daily pardons and delivers us In the third we have the benefit of our Glorification still to come the Holy Spirit here sealing us and hereafter enstating us in glory In them all together we may in brief see as in a Prospect that all the benefits we have received heretofore he was the Author of them that all the mercies we enjoy he is the Fountain of them that all the joys or good we hope for he is the donour of them he was he is he must be the bestower of them all without him nothing he was and is and will be to us all in all And now sure though I have not the time to specifie all the mercies we enjoy from this blessed Lord God Almighty and indeed had I all time I could not and all tongues Si mihi sint linguae centum sint oraque centum I could not yet we cannot but in gross at least take up a Song of Praise for altogether say somewhat towards it Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty holy in our Creation Holy in our Redemption holy in our Sanctification Holy in Heaven holy in Earth holy under the Earth too Holy in glorifying of his Angels holy in justifying his Saints holy in punishing the Devils Holy in his Glory and holy in his Mercy and
with the multitudes before and behind the whole multitude of Saints of so many Ager then with a few scattered headless heedless companies forbear it better pray and praise with them then prattle and prate with these better their Hosanna and Benedictus to him that cometh in the name of the Lord then these mens sensless Sermons and Discourses who come in their own name and of their own heads without Gods sending them at all Having then so full a Choir so many voices to bear us company let us also now sing with them Yet that we may be sure to sing in Tune let 's first listen a little to the key and more they bless in 'T is a loud one for 't is a crying they cried not in the sense we often take it for a mournful tone or note for 't is an expression of joy and gladness So S. Luke xix 37. They began to rejoyce c. but with a loud voice it was they praised him that 's the meaning so expressed in the same verse by that Evangelist Indeed true it is God has turn'd our songs of joy into the voice of weeping as the Prophet complains taken away our Feasts and gaudy days and we may well cry and cry aloud in that sadder sense of the word crying yet for all that must we not lay down the other or forget the Song of prayer and praise especially upon the point of Christs coming to us Here it must be crying in another tone singing speaking proclaiming the great favour and honour of him that cometh in the name of the Lord. Blessing and honour and glory to him that so cometh Now that we be not out in tune or note let 's mind the word we shall find the sweetest ways of blessing in it 1. 'T is a loud crying such is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that teaches us to be devout and earnest in our prayers and praises in blessing Christ. 2. 'T is loud and to be heard to instruct us not to be asham'd of our way of serving Christ he that is Christ will be asham'd of him so Christ professes S. Mark viii 38. 3. 'T is the crying of a multitude many multitudes and intimates to us what prayer and praise does best even the Puâ—lick and Common Service 4. 'T is the crying of several multitudes the same thing and insinuates peace and unity that 's the only Christian way of praising God one God and one Faith and one Christ says the Apostle and one heart and mind of all that profess them and 't were best one way of doing it the same Hosanna the same Benedictus the same voice and form of prayer and praise and Worship if it could be had 5. 'T is of some before and some that follow 't is not a confused or disorderly note or way hudling and confounding all together but the voice of Order where every one sings in time in tune and place some begin and others follow and the Chorus joyns all in decency and order this to preach decency and order to them that come in at any time or call any where upon the name of Christ even the very multitude here in Christs praise keep their parts and order 6. 'T is a crying yet of joy we told you the voice of mirth and gladness that we may know Christ is best served with a chearful spirit Christianity is no such dull heavy thing as some have fancied it it admits of Mirth and Songs so they be in nomine Domini either to the praise of God or not to his dishonour so they be not light or wanton or scurrilous or such like 7. This crying here is general and our praises of God must be so too all that is without me and all that is within me praise his holy name all the powers of my soul superiour and inferiour all the organs of my body all the instruments of my life and living my estate and means all to concur in giving praise to God in celebrating the mercies the humilities the condescensions the out-goings and in-comings of my Redeemer Thus we have the key and tune of blessing God and Christ devoutly confidently publickly unanimously orderly chearfully and universally with all our faculties and powers Let 's now hear the Song of praise Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he c. And that we may sing in tune let 's know our parts Three parts there are in it as in other Songs Bassus Tenor and Altus the Bass the Tenor and the Treble Hosanna to the Son of David there 's the Bass the deepest and lowest note the humanity of Christ in filio David being the Son of David the Bass sings that that 's low indeed for him we can go no lower Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord there 's the Tenor or middle part he and the name of the Lord joyn'd together God and Man united that 's a note higher then the first the Mediator between God and Man God in the highest Son of David in the lowest the middle note then follows And Hosanna in altissimis the Altus or Treble the highest note of all we can reach no higher strain we never so high We begin low that 's the way to reach high Hosanna to the Son of David Yet as low as it is 't is hard to hit hard to reach the meaning of it Hosanna a hard note so Interpreters have found it St. Augustine will have it an Interjection only to express rejoycing like that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Greeks or Io triumphe among the Latines The truth is 't is an expression and voice of joy and gladness though no Interjection an expression us'd by the Jews at the Feast of Tabernacles a joyful acclamation enough to authorize common and received expressions of joy though it may be they that use them do not perfectly understand them especially joy inexpressible such as ours should be for the Son of Davids coming may be allow'd to express it self as it can or as it does in other rejoycings when it can do no better Some interpret it Redemption others an Hymn or Praise others Grace others Glory others Boughs to the Son of David All yet concur in this that 't is a joyful wish for prosperity to Christ under the title of the Son of David Grace Redemption Praise and Glory Psalms and Hymns and all the other outward expressions of Thanks Respect and Joy be given to him who now comes to restore the Kingdom of his Father David Nothing too much to be given to the Messiah for him they always mean by the Son of David No inward or outward joy enough for the coming of our Redeemer But though Hosanna mean all these several rendrings yet the construction is no more then Salvum fac or salva obsecro Save we beseech thee like our Vivat Rex God save the King Save the Son of David we beseech thee and save us by the Son of David For
cannot but afflict us at his coming so it is we must see him See we must though but to see the justice of our own damnation Nothing can be more certain then this sight sight it is the surest sense and to see him at his coming is to be certain of it at the least but to see the Son of man at his coming is certainly with evidence and to be bound to see it to have such a tie upon us such a condition on us that we shall see it whether we will or no is a certainty with a necessity upon it That so no man may doubt of a final retribution whilst he is certain he shall one day see him who will reward every man according to his work Let not then the unjustly oppressed innocent let not the less prosperous godly spirit droop or the glorious and yet triumphing sinner the prosperous Rebel or thriving Atheist pride himself in the success of his Sins for he is coming that shall come and make the just mans eyes run over with joy and happiness for his fore-passed tears and fill the others eyes with shame and confusion for all their glory It may be long before he comes but come he will at last and his reward is with him 5. But who is this that comes so the Prophet once so we now or in what shape will he appear God is the Judge of all the earth and who is it that can see God Or if he has committed all judgment to the Son as it is S. Iohn iii. Yet who can see him either being of one substance with the Father the same individual and invisible Essence That therefore he may be seen he comes in the form of the Son of man This was that which Daniel foresaw in his night visions Dan. vii 13. one like the Son of man coming with the Clouds of Heaven that which S. Peter told Cornelius that he it was who was ordain'd to be the judge of quick and dead Acts x. 42. Not as he was Lord of Heaven and Earth or as he was the eternal off-spring of the Deity for so he could not be ordain'd he himself being from all eternity but as the Son of man for he hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man St. John v. 27. That was it by which he obtain'd the Throne of Judgment having in that form both done and suffered all things for our salvation God thinking but just that he should be our Judge who came to save us from judgment that he should judge us who had been partaker of our infirmities and knew our weaknesses and would by the compassion of nature easier acquit us or with more evidence of justice condemn us himself having once been subject to the like humane though not sinful passions This is the form in which all eyes may see him all Nations behold him nor shall the scars of his wounds be covered but that even by them we may acknowledge our crucified Saviour is become our Judge Who whilst he judges us in the form of man will condemn us for nothing above the power of man And yet even by his actions as he was man will he condemn ours His Humility our Pride his Abstinence our Gluttony and excess his Patience our Impatience his Chastity our Lusts his paying Caesar beyond his due our undutiful with-drawings from him in a word his Goodness Piety and Devotion our ungodliness impieties and prophaneness And as it is a mercy thus to be judg'd by one who is sensible of our frail condition so is it a glory besides that our nature is so high exalted as to be the Judge of the world not of men only but Angels too What favour may we not expect when he is our Judge who is our Saviour who will not lay aside our nature in his Glory that he may retain that sympathy and compassion to us which was taken with it when he took it from us 6. I shall not here need to spend much time to tell you 6. what he comes for who have told you so often of a day of Judgment and the Son of man to sit on the tribunal His coming is to Judgment for he comes with power and that power of a Judge Only I must tell you 2. that his motion is no faster then an easie coming So loth is he to come to Judgment so unwilling to enter into dispute with Flesh and Blood that he delays the hasty prayers of the afflicted Saints under the Altars of Heaven seems a little to with-hold the full beams of mercy which he has laid up for the Saints rather then to post to the destruction of the wicked Yet for the elects sake to hasten he does a little and therefore he makes a Cloud the Chariot of his Power that when he once begins to come he may come quickly And not so only but come in Glory which is the last observable in his coming in a Cloud with Power and great Glory In a Cloud he ascended Acts 1. and the Angel told the Disciples there that he should so come as they saw him go In the Clouds say the other Evangelists they speak of more then one His cloud is not a single cloud there are attendant clouds upon it Angels surround his Throne S. Mat. xxv 31. the Trumpet of the Archangel sounds before him 2 Thess. i. 7. his Throne is a throne of Glory S. Mat. xix 28. and his Apostles Thrones are round about him and all things are in subjection under his feet 1 Cor. xv 27. Thus is he rewarded with Majesty and Glory for his meekness and humility that we seeing the recompence of those despised vertues may learn to embrace them by so strong incentives and allurements What will ye one day say O ye obstinate Iews when you shall see his Glory whose poverty you so despised What will ye do at his Throne of Judgment who would not receive him in his Cradle of Mercy How will his enemies bemoan themselves with them Wisd. v. We fools thought his life madness and his end without honour How is he now numbred among the children of God the first born amongst many brethren Fools indeed to count him what we did for he shall come again with Majesty and Glory Glory is a word by which Christ seems as it were ever and anon to refresh the fainting spirits of his Disciples which are ready to betray their Masters to despair upon the apprehension of the fears and terror which their Lord had told them should precede and accompany the latter day This word recalls their spirits that they begin to look up again and lift up their heads For having thus as it were amaz'd their thoughts and unhing'd their patience he setles them again with some special comfort that when these things begin to come to pass they should look up and lift up their heads for however it fall out to others their Redemption draweth nigh Never
into Heaven cannot now but look askew upon the earth To look up into Heaven is 2. to despise and trample upon all things under it He is not likely to be a Martyr that looks downward that values any thing below Nay he dies his natural death but unwillingly and untowardly whose eyes or heart or sences are taken up with the things about him Even to die chearfully though in a bed of Roses one must not have his mind upon them He so looks upon all worldly interests as dust and chaff who looks up stedfastly into heaven eyes all things by the by who eyes that well The covetous worldling the voluptuous Gallant the gaudy Butterflies of fashion will never make you Martyrs they are wholly fixt in the contemplation of their gold their Mistresses their Pleasures or their Fashions He scorns to look at these whose eyes are upon Heaven Yet to scorn there but especially to fit us against a tempest or a storm of stones there is a third looking up to Heaven in Prayer and Supplication It is not by our own strength or power that we can wade through streams of Blood or sing in flames we had need of assistance from above and he that looks up to Heaven seems so to beg it It was no doubt the spirit of Devotion that so fixt his sight he saw what was like to fall below he provides against it from above looks to that great Corner-stone to arm him against those which were now ready to shower upon his head It is impossible without our prayers and some aid thence to endure one petty pebble But to make it a compleat Martyrdom we must not look up only for our own interests for we are 4. to look up for our very enemies and beg Heavens pardon for them He that dies not in Charity dies not a Christian but he that dies not heart and hand and eyes and all compleat in it cannot die a Martyr Here we find S. Stephen lifting up his eyes to set himself to prayer 't is but two verses or three after that we hear his prayer Lord lay not this sin to their charge This was one thing it seems he lookt up so stedfastly to Heaven for A good lesson and fit for the occasion so to pass by the injuries of our greatest enemies as if we did not see them as if we had something else to look after then such petty contrasts as if we despis'd all worldly enmities as well as affections minded nothing but heaven and him that St. Stephen saw standing there All these ways we are to day to learn to look up to Heaven as 1. to our hop'd for Country as 2. from things that hinder us too long from coming to it as 3. for aid and help to bring us thither as 4. for mercy and pardon thence to our selves and enemies that we may all one day meet together there The posture it self is natural 'T is natural for men in misery to look up to Heaven nay the very insensible creature when it complains the Cow when it lows the Dog when he howls casts up its head according to its proportion after its fashion as if it naturally crav'd some comfort thence 'T is the general practice of Saints and holy persons Lift up your eyes says the Prophet Isa. xl 26. I will lift up my eyes says Holy David Psal. cxxi 1. And distrest Susanna lifts up her eyes and looks up towards Heaven ver 35. Nay Christ himself sighing or praying or sometimes working miracles looks up to Heaven who yet carried Heaven about him to teach us in all distresses to look up thither in all our actions to fetch assistance thence If we had those thoughts of Heaven we should I know how little of the eye the earth should have Vbi amor ibi oculus where the love is there 's the eye We may easiy guess what we love best by our looks if Heaven be it our eyes are there if any thing else our eyes are there 'T is easie then to tell you St. Stephens longings where his thoughts are fixt when we are told he so stedfastly lookt up to heaven And indeed it is not so much the looking up to Heaven as the stedfast and attentive doing it that fits us to die for Christ. 'T is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a a kind of stretching or straining the eye-sight to look inquisitively into the object To look carelesly or perfunctorily into Heaven it self to do it in a fit to be godly and pious now and then or by starts and girds will not serve turn to mind seriously what we are about that 's the only piety will carry it Plus vaâ—â—t hora fervens quam mensis tepens One hour one half hour spent with a warm attention at our prayers is worth a month a year an age of our cold Devotions 'T is good to be zealous says St. Paul somewhat hot and vehement in a good matter And it had need be a stedfast and attentive Devotion that can hold out with this But. To stand praying or looking up to Heaven when our enemies are gnashing their teath upon us and come running head-long on us to have no regard to their rushing fury nor interrupt our prayers nor omit any ceremony of them neither for all their savage malice now pressing fiercely on us but look up stedfastly still not quich aside this looks surely like a Martyr The little Boy that held Alexander the candle whilst he was sacrificing to his Gods so long that the wick burnt into his finger and yet neither cried nor shrunk at it lest he should disturb his Lords Devotions will find few fellows among Christians to pattern him in the exercise of their strictest pieties Let but a leaf stir a wind breathe a fly buzz the very light but dwindle any thing move or shake and our poor Religion alas is put off the hinge 't is well if it be not at an end too What would it do if danger and death were at our heels as here it was Oh this attentive stedfast fastning the soul upon the business of heaven were a rare piety if we could compass it This glorious Martyr has shew'd us an example the lesson is that we should practise it But all this is no wonder seeing he was full of the Holy Ghost That Almighty Spirit is able to blow away all diversions able to turn the shower of stones into the softness and drift of Snow able to make all the torments of Death fall light and easie If we can get our souls filled once with that we need fear nothing nothing will distract our thoughts or draw our eyes from Heaven Then it will be no wonder neither to see next the Glory of God and Iesus standing at the right hand of God I call'd this point St. Stephens confirmation or his encouragement to his death He that once comes to have a sight of God and Christ of Gods Glory and Christ at the right hand of
their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more ver 10. 12. a Covenant of pardon and remission such as the Sacrifices of the Law could not give were not able And new Books we have it written in as authentick as those old ones in the Iewish Canon where we may find all seal'd by the testimony of the Spirit Heb. vi the Author of the new Testament as well as of the old 6. The new Church has its new Sacraments Ite Baptizata for Ite Circumcidite Baptism for Circumcision and the Lords Supper for the Passeover in both which of ours there is more than was in theirs in those legal Ceremonies not only outward signs as they but inward graces 7. New Sacrifices the calves of our lips instead of Calves and Goats the sacrifices of Praises and Thanksgivings nay the sacrifice of a contrite heart and humble spirit the sacrificing of our lusts and the offering up of our souls and bodies a living holy acceptable Sacrifice Rom. xii 1. 8. A new Priesthood to offer them an unchangeable Priesthood now Heb. vii 24. Christ our High-Priest and the Ministers of the New Testament 2 Cor. iii. 6. as so many under-Priests to offer them up to God Christ offer'd himself a Sacrifice offers up also our Prayers and Praises to his Father has left his Ministers in his Name and Merits to do it too and this a lasting Priesthood to last for ever 9. We have a new Altar too so St. Paul Heb. xiii 10. an Altar that they which serv'd the Tabernacle have no power to eat of Take it for the Cross on which Christ offered up himself or take it for the holy Table where that great Sacrifice of his is daily commemorated in Christian Churches Habem says the Apostle such an one we have and I am sure 't is new 10. Temples we have many new the Temples of our bodies 1 Cor. vi 19. those both to offer in and offer up and 2. Churches many for that one Temple so long since buried in dust and rubbish 11. There is above these a new Spirit Ezek. xxxvi 26. not the spirit of bondage again to fear but the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. viii 15. the spirit of love and not of fear the spirit of Sons and not of Servants a spirit that will cause us to walk in Gods Statutes keep his Commandments and do them Ezek. xxxvi 27. a new thing indeed that can make the Beasts of the Field to honour him as the Prophet speaks of it Isa. xliii 19. the Dragons and the Owls to do so the most sensual fierce cruel and dullest natures bow unto him that gives waters in the Wilderness and Rivers in the Desart Isa. xliii 19. 20. that blows but with his wind and these waters flow Psal. cxlvii 18. this is a new spirit that is so powerful And from this spirit it is that we 12. receive new life and vigour that we walk not under the Gospel so dully and coldly as they under the Law where the outward work to the letter serv'd the turn but according to the spirit in the inward purity of the heart as well as in the outward purity of the body To which lastly there is a new inheritance annexed a new Heaven and a new Earth which we may look for according to his promise 2 St. Pet. iii. 13. And are not these new things all good news worth our rejoycings Can we be ever old that enjoy such mercies are they not enough to revive the dying spirit nay to raise the dead one to set forth his praises who thus renews us as the Eagle renews his mercies to us every morning makes us Kings and Priests gives us easie Laws and pleasing Covenants effectual Sacrifices and saving Sacraments turns our bodies into his Temples and our hearts into Altars makes us a glorious Church and builds us Churches inspires us with a new Spirit and gives us a second life gives us a Kingdom gives us Heaven and all This is the new state under Christ since his coming ended and renewed our years unto us And therefore says our Apostle just before the Text If any man be in Christ he is a new creature all this new work is done upon him that 's the second way we are now to consider the words That in the Christian truly such all old things are past away and all things become new He is dead to sin Rom. vi 2. and he is dead to the Law Rom. vii 4. or if you will sin and the Law are both dead to him they can hold him no longer he is alive unto God Rom. vi 11. new created in righteousness and true holiness Will you have it more particular Why first then the Heathen ignorance and error that is past with them they are enlightned Heb. vi they know God and are known of him they are light in the Lord the very children of it The Heathen sins they are past with them in them they walkt once Ephes. ii 2. such they were some of them 1 Cor. vi 11. but now they are washt but now they are sanctified but now they are justified Nor are they now 2. under so slender a providence as the poor Heathen were God visits them often now and not only now and then and suffers them not to go on or fall back again into the old ways of infidelity But they are not only out of the Heathen condition but out of the Iewish too no more in bondage to the Law The sacrificing of Rams and Goats of all sensual affections is done already the unreasonable part is mortified in them they have been washt and need be wash'd no more they are oblig'd to no differences of meats no Iewish Sabbatizing no Circumcision no one particular place of Worship no legal Rites or Ceremonies Christ having abolished in his flesh the Law of Commandments says S. Paul contained in ordinances Ephes. ii 15. We are now at liberty he has made us free And we are now 3. under a new course of providence God leads us now by spiritual and eternal promises he threatens spiritual and everlasting punishments guides us by a clearer light than Prophesie the evidence of the Word and Spirit ties us not up to the Covenant of Works nor empty Ceremonies these things are past Makes us not rich that he may accept us but accepts us as we are He reckons not of us by our wealth or honour or learning or our parts we know no man so now ver 16. not Christ so now according to the flesh we value not any man now for any thing but holiness and righteousness for so much as he is in Christ. Nor does the Christian value himself now for any thing but for that of Christ which is in him riches he contemns honour he despises learning he submits all outward and externall priviledges and commendations he lays at the foot of Christ devotes them to his commands
foundation of the earth it covers the deep with its wings covers Heaven and Earth with the Majesty of its glory IV. Yet so it might and we ne're the better but that fourthly 't is a Name of Grace and Mercy as well as Majesty and Glory Iesus is a word of which I may more justly say as Tully says of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it contains so much ut Latino uno verbo exprimi non possit It cannot be exprest in any one Latin or English word or any one indeed besides it self Mercy and Grace dwell in it it engrosses all and without it there is none any where to be found no Mercy out of Iesus no Grace but from Iesus no Name under heaven given by which we can be saved but the Name of Iesus Acts iv We are Baptized in the Name of Iesus Acts xix 5. We receive remission of our sins in the Name of Iesus Ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Iesus 1 Cor. vi 11. Ye are sanctified in the Name of the Lord Iesus in the same verse We are glorified by the Name of Iesus in that Name we live in that name we die To Iesus it is we run for grace and assistance whilst we live To Iesus we cry for Grace and Mercy when we die To Iesus we commit our spirits when we breath them out We can neither live nor die without our Iesus Thy name says the Spouse is oyntment poured forth Cant. i. 3. Now Oyl has three special uses for light for meat for medicine We have all in Iesus 1. He is the light that lighteth every one that comes into the world St. John i. 9. 2. He 's the meat that never perishes S. John vi 27. and feeds us up to everlasting life S. Iohn vi 54. 3. He 's the cure and medicine of all our maladies He wants nothing that has Iesus and he has nothing that wants him Omnia Iesus nobis est si volumus c. says St. Ambrose Iesus is all things to us if we will Curari desideras medicus est si febribus aestuas fons est si gravaris iniquitate justitia est si auxilio indiges virtus est si mortem times vita est si ire desideras via est si tenebras fugis lux est si cibum appetis alimentum est Dost thou want health he is the great Physician Art thou fried in the flames of a burning Fever he is the well-spring to cool thy heat Art thou over-laden with thine iniquity he is thy righteousness to answer for thee Dost thou want help he is ever ready at hand to succour thee Art thou afraid of death he is thy life Wouldst thou fain be going any whither he is the way Art thou in darkness and fearest to stumble he is a light to thy feet and a lanthorn to thy paths Art thou hungry or thirsty he is nourishment and food and meat and drink the truest What is it that thou desirest that he is not that this name will not afford thee Why it heals our sicknesses it supports our infirmities it supplies our necessities it instructs our ignorances it defends us from dangers it conquers temptations it inflames our coldnesses it lightens our understandings it rectifies our wills it subdues our passions it raises our spirits and drives away all wicked spirits from us it ratifies our petitions it confirms our blessings and crowns all our prayers In this name they end all that end well through Iesus Christ our Lord. In thy name O blessed Iesus we obtain all that we obtain through it we receive all that we receive so that say we may well with that holy Father Iesus meus omnia Iesus meus omnia Iesus is my all Jesus he is and all I have nothing else but him I will have nothing else but him and I have all if I have him V. And well may we now say fifthly 't is a name of sweetness and comfort too a seet name indeed oyntment we told you it was and a sweet oyntment it is that fills all the house with its precious odour insomuch as it makes the Virgins therefore love thee says the Spouse there in the fore-cited place of the Canticles Mel in ore in aure melos in corde subilus says S. Bernard 'T is honey in the mouth 't is musick in the ear 't is melody in the heart The soul and all its powers the body and all its members may draw sweetness thence O how sweetly sounds the Name of Iesus or a Saviour to one in misery to one in danger to one in any calamity or distress how does it rejoyce the heart and quicken the very bones Gyra regyra versa reversa says the devout S. Bernard non invenies pacem vel requiem nisi in solo Iesu. Quapropter si quiescere vis pone Iesus ut signaculum super cor tuum quia tranquillus ipse tranquillat omnia Turn you and turn you again which way you will which way you can you can never find such peace and quiet as there is in Iesus you will find none any where but in him If you would fain therefore lay you down to rest in peace and comfort set the seal of Iesus upon your heart and all will be quiet no dreadful visions of the night shall affright you no noon days trouble shall ever shake you In the midst of that terrible storm of stoâ—es about St. Stevens ears he but looking up and seeing Iesus falls presently into a quiet slumber and sweetly sleeps his last upon a hard heap of pebbles more pleasantly than upon a Bed of Down or Roses For 't is remarkable that the holy Martyr there calls out upon the Name of Iesus rather than that of Christ as if that only were the name to hold by in our last and greatest agonies Nor is it to be forgotten that this Name was set upon the Cross over our Saviours head to teach us that 't is a Name which set upon the head of all our Crosses will make them easie the thought of Iesus the reference to that holy Name the suffering under that will give both a sweet odour and a pleasant relish to whatever it is we suffer This looking unto Iesus as the Apostle advises Heb. xii 2 3. will keep us from being weary or fainting under them will make us conquerours more than conquerours Rom. viii 37. sure of our reward to sweeten all For neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus ver 38 39. This same Iesus at the end fixes and fastens all the love of God in Iesus will never leave us never forsake us keep but that devoutly in our hearts and piously in our mouths and we need fear nothing Come what can it sweetens all Methinks
consider the practise of those first Christian Saints and Martyrs those daily pains and cares their days and nights were spent in we would think our Race to heaven another-gates business Christianity another manner of thing than we make it now a days or are willing to conceive it Were there no other word than this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text this run to express it we might understand it to be a work of labour and if we take it with that reference it has to the Olympick Races there are many things in the performance that will sufficiently shew it What a deal of pains and care did they take first to fit and prepare themselves And then with what might and main did they pursue their course How often have such Racers been taken up at the Goal so tired and spent that they have had much ado to recover their life or spirits Ah! did we but half so much for heaven there were no doubt of it Running take we it how we will is a violent exercise that for the time imploys all the parts and powers 'T is that the Apostle would have here that all the faculties and powers of our souls and bodies should be taken up in the business of heaven Our heads study it our hearts bend wholly to it our affections strive violently after it our hands labour for it our feet run the ways of Gods Commandments to come to it our eyes run down with water for it and our bodies with sweat about it 'T will cost somewhat more to come to heaven than a few good words at the last than a Lord forgive me and have mercy upon me when we are going out of the World or than a hot fit or two of Piety when we are in it or a cold and careless walking and stragling up and down in it throughout even all our lives Nay more 't is not running over whole Breviaries of Prayers 'T is not running over good Books only neither reading and studying of good things but running as we read that all that run may read in our running the Characters of heaven Would men but lay this to heart that it is no such easie or perfunctory business to get thither their courses would be better their lives holier themselves heavenlier than they are nor would so many put off the work to the last cast make a meer death-bed business of it as if they then were fit enough to run Gods ways when they cannot stir a hand or foot whereby 't is more then to be fear'd they deceive themselves and being then in no possibility to run they go they know not whither II. And yet for all the pains and running we talk of if now secondly it have not an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to rule and steer it if it be not a so running such a one as is right set to obtain we had as good sit still This so to run is 1. To run lawfully 2. To run carefully 3. To run speedily 4. To run willingly 5. To run stoutly 6. To run patiently 7. To run constantly and to the end To run 1. lawfully according to the Laws and Rules prescribed to obtain it 2. Carefully the way to obtain it 3. Speedily with the speed requisite to obtain it 4. Willingly with spirit to obtain it 5. Stoutly to endure any thing to obtain it 6. Patiently to expect to obtain it 7. Constantly not giving out till we obtain it 1. Lawfully according to the Laws and Rules of the Race we are to run we are not crowned else says our Apostle 2 Tim. ii 5. Now the Laws of the Christian Race are Gods Commandments according to which we are diligently to direct our steps Yet three Laws there are more particular and proper to it the Law of Faith the Law of Hope and the Law of Charity These the three more peculiar Rules of it We must run in a full belief of Gods Promises in Christ that in him they are yea and in him Amen that God will not let one tittle of them fall to the ground Looking unto Iesus the Author and finisher of our faith Heb. xii 2. of our course too We must secondly run in hope that through his grace we also even we though the most unworthy shall obtain laying hold upon the hope so set before us Heb. vi 18. And thirdly in Charity must be our course though we strive for the mastery it must not be in strife or envy but in love and charity in unity and peace in love unfeigned our selves 2 Cor. vi 6. and provoking one another to it Heb. x. 24. no other strifes or provocation but who shall go before one another in love so keeping the bond of peace which once broken our clothes and garments which were tied up to us with it as with a girdle fall all down about us and hinder us both in our Race and of our Crown Those who have broke this bond and rent the Churches Robes and their own souls by their unhappy separations will after all their labour with those in the Psalm sleep their sleep and find nothing nothing but that they have hindered both others and themselves of the Crown of glory Run we lawfully and orderly then that first And 2. run we carefully too neither to the right hand nor to the left neither looking after sensual pleasures or worldly profits or sinful lusts not turning aside after those golden balls which the Devil the Flesh and world are always casting in the way to hinder us but straight on our course carefully shunning all temptations stumbling-blocks and stones of offence which are likely to trip up our heels and throw us in our race what carefulness says St. Paul 2 Cor. vii 11. has your godly sorrow wrought will earnest desire of a heavenly Crown say I work in you if you would think upon it It would make you 3. gather up all your strength set to all your force put to all your speed you would think you could not come soon enough to so glorious a Goal Let us go speedily and pray before the Lord say they in Zachary viii 21. Make haste and come down says our Saviour to Zacheus St. Luke xix 6. as if he that meant to see Christ here at his own house or hereafter in his must make what haste he can Running is our speediest motion and the more haste to Heaven the better speed though to earthly things the proverb says it is not and the reason may be indeed because our swiftest motion is to be towards Heaven to be reserv'd for that Yet willingly 4. must it be we must do it without Whip or Spur they are for unreasonable Beasts and not for men in running We are not to look that God should force and drive us to his work he loves no such workmen A ready mind is Gods Sacrifice he accepts no other If I do it willingly says our Apostle ver 17. I have a reward no reward else to
themselves are inconstant to themselves no wonder then if so to us Health loses it self when it fails it Master Riches decrease not more to their owner than to themselves Pleasure fades at the same time wherein it leaves the pursuer Honour becomes but air when it is departed from him it honoured All earthly hopes only therefore fail us because their own natures fail them The things we hope for perish and we therefore lose them All this might be endured to be fail'd by failing hopes But that a Hope in him who cannot fail should fail us a hope in him that cannot deceive should delude us who could think it Yet too true it is Such a hope many such a one there is When though the object be right or at least materially so even Christ our Saviour yet either 1. the formality or way of apprehending him is wrong or 2. the ground false or 3. the reason none or 4. the order ill or 5. the managing of it naught or 6. the nature of it not right or 7. the strength of it not competent or the continuance too short We shall best understand what this false hope in Christ is by considering what is required to make up that which is the true one And to it are required 1. a right apprehension 2. sure grounds 3. good reason 4. order 5. discretion 6. purity 7. stedfastness and constancy 1. True hope should have a right apprehension of its object as well as an object that is right 'T is not enough to justifie our hope that we say it is in Christ unless it be in Christ truly apprehended To conceive Christ so to be the Saviour of sinners as remaining sinners to imagine he will give us heaven because we imagine it to expect he should violently draw us thither whether we will or no to hope that he will save us without doing any thing our selves is presumption at the easiest I can speak it but some part of it is Blasphemy viz. To make Christ so to receive sinners as even to approve the sins by taking the persons into favour and justifying them or declaring them to be just and righteous whilst they wilfully continue in them and so far from truth it is as that himself professes he came not to save them otherwise than by calling them to repentance St. Mat. ix 13. Yet as bad a hope as it is it is too common now commonly profest and preacht too as well as practised though most injuriously to Christ and as dangerously to themselves 2. Hope that is true Hope should be well grounded now there is a groundless one that must needs be nought The ground of hope is the Word of God In thy Word do I hope says David Psal. cxix 81. And that in the Scripture ye might have hope says St. Paul Rom. xv 4. That which hath other foundation is without foundation Gods Word not mans Comment Christs Promise not mans Fancy must ground our hope To hope we shall be saved only because we hope so To hope God will save us only because he is merciful infinitely merciful or that we shall to heaven because we perswade our selves we are Elected and Predestinated or conceive our selves the only Saints and darlings of the most High To make either our own groundless and sudden hopes or Gods general mercies only or temporal successes and prosperities which are common also to the most wicked or rash and obscure fancies of Predestination and Election or our own meerly imagined holiness and Saintship or yet some new revelation or inspiration or some extraordinary strange light and motion within us which may as well proceed from him who too often changes himself into an Angel of light as from the Father of lights for ought we know nay for we know it does so if it be contrary to any parcel of Gods revealed will in Scripture that from God it is not if it be so upon any of these I say nay upon all of them together yea though the Prophets we have chosen to our selves add their word to it to assert it to found our hope is to build it upon the sand that when any storm shall come from heaven any wind or tempest of Gods displeasure beat upon it when temptations afflictions or persecutions sickness or death shall smite the corners of this specious building of our hope down it falls and in the dust there lies our hope yea the fall is great so much the greater by how much the higher the larger built He that will ground his hope aright must not be too sudden Qui crediderit ne festinet says the Prophet Let him not be too hasty to believe He that believeth shall not make haste To Gods general goodness and Promises he must add some inward feelings For his opinion of being Predestinated or Elected he must find some ground from his effectual calling inward Sanctification and Renovation constancy of faith and resolution as well as from Gods goodness and mercy His holiness and Saintship too he must not measure by his own conceit but by the square of Gods Commandments Does he do that which is holy and just Then a Saint not otherwise in the Scripture Phrase New Revelations beyond the Word of God he must renounce if he mean not to reject the Word of God as insufficient and his new lights and inspirations he must bring to the light of Gods written Word his Teachers Doctrines must be tried also by the same evidence and rule and answer to it too or his hope will be as groundless as his who never heard of Christ or God only serve to make him miserable For so he is and so will be who thus fixes not his ground who has nothing else but those forsaid imaginations to go upon Nay 3. Reason too is required to our hope Be ready says St. Peter always to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in you 1. Pet. iii. 15. Hope without reason is an unreasonable hope fit for beasts not men unreasonable to be required of reasonable men He that requires me to hope contrary to reason requires of me either an impossibility or a folly I cannot truly hope that which is impossible to my reason that which I really conceive impossible or I am a fool to go about desire or pursue it whilst I think so Hope above hope I must nay hope against hope I may too sometimes as Abraham is said to have done Rom. iv 18. that is against the ordinary course of Nature or Affairs but then only though when greater reason perswades me to hope against it then to fear with it when God expresly sends me word or some other way assures me he will transcend the ordinary way with me and not bind himself to Laws of inferiour nature and course and then indeed it is greater reason that I should believe God than rely upon natural reason and ability or ordinary
a cold sweat to think of it before 't was built Gen. xxviii 17. Will the Lord dwell on earth Is it true says Solomon Can it be so Lord What am I says Holy David and my people that we should but offer to it Lord What is it that we should be allow'd to touch so holy ground with our unhallowed feet look upon so holy a sight with our unholy eyes that such a glo-worm as Man should be set upon a Hill But above all 3. Lord what is man Lord what is man that thou should'st so regard him as to advance him also into the holy Hill of Heaven too Lord what can we say what can we say Shall corruption inherit incorruption dust Heaven a worm creep so high What he that lost it for an Apple come thither after all he in whom dwelleth no good thing be let stay there where none but good and all good things are He that is not worth the Earth worth nought but Hell be admitted Heaven Lord What is Man or rather what art Thou O Lord how wonderful in mercies that thus priviledg'st the sons of men Admirable it is worth the whole course of your days to admire it in and you can never enough It will appear yet the more by the glory that accompanies it It is a glorious priviledge indeed even admirable for its glory Even in all the senses we take the words 't is 5. a Glorious Priviledge Glorious to be Sains they are heirs of Glory Glorious to be Saints in Churches for the Angels that are there 1 Cor. xi 10. to wait upon us and carry up our Prayers for the beauty of holiness that is seated there for the God of Glory whose presence is more glorious there But it is without comparison to be Saints in Glory Grace is the portion of Saints that 's one ray of Glory The Church the House of God is the Gate of Heaven Gen. xxviii 17. that 's the entrance into Glory What then is Heaven it self What is it to enter there into the very Throne of the King of Glory Lift up your heads O ye Gates lift up your heads and let us poor things in to see the King of Glory the Hill of the Lord can be no other then a Hill of Glory His holy place is no less than the very place and seat of Glory And being such you cannot imagine it 6. but hard to come by the very petty glories of the World are so This is a Hill of Glory hard to climb difficult to ascend craggy to pass up steep to clamber no plain campagnia to it the broad easie way leads some whether else St. Mat. vii 13. the way to this is narrow ver 14. 't is rough and troublesome To be of the number of Christs true faithful servants is no slight work 't is a fight 't is a race 't is a continual warfare fastings and watchings and cold and nakedness and hunger and thirst bands imprisonments dangers and distresses ignominy and reproach afflictions and persecutions the worlds hatred and our friends neglect all that we call hard or difficult is to be found in the way we are to go A man cannot leave a lust shake off bad company quit a course of sin enter upon a way of vertue profess his Religion or stand to it cannot ascend the spirtual Hill but he will meet some or other of these to contest and strive with But not only to ascend but to stand there as the word signifies to continue at so high a pitch to be constant in Truth and Piety that will be hard indeed and bring more difficulties to contrast with And yet to rise up to keep to that Translation that is to rise up in the defence of holy ways of our Religion is harder still to bloud it may come at last but to sweat it comes presently cold and hot sweats too fears and travels that 's the least to be expected Nor is it easie as it often proves to gain places to serve God in Temples are long in building that of Hierusalem 64 years together Great preparation there was by David and Solomon to that before and no little to the rearing of the Tabernacle It was 300 years and upward that Christianity was in the World before the Christians could get the priviledges of Sanctuaries and Churches The more ought we sure to value them that we come so hardly by them We would make more of the priviledge if we considered what pains and cost and time they cost how unhandsom Religion looks without them how hard it is to perform many of the holy offices where we want them how hard it would be to keep Religion in the minds of men if all our Churches should be made nests of Owls and Dragons and beds of Nettles and Thistles Yet I confess it is hard too to enter into those holy places with the reverence that becomes them to rise up holy there Every one that comes into the Church does not ascend he leaves his soul too oft below comes but in part his body that gets up the Hill the mind lies grovelling in the Valley amongst his Grounds and Cattel Nor may every one be said to rise up or stand in his holy place that stand or sits there in it unless his thoughts rise there unless his attention stands erect and stedfast up to Heaven when he is there he is indeed in the place but he unhallows it it is no longer holy in respect of him He must ascend in heart and soul raise up eyes and hands voice and attention too that can be properly said to ascend into the Hill of the Lord or rise up in his holy place Which how hard it is the very stragling of our own thoughts there will tell us we need not go to the Prophet to find a people that sit there as if they were Gods people and yet are not that hear his Word and stand not to it that raise up their voices and yet their hearts are still beneath We can furnish our selves with a number too great of such enow to tell us how hard it is to ascend into the Hill of the Lord and rise up in his holy place so few do it And if these two ascensions be so hard what 's the third the very righteous are scarcely sav'd 1 Pet. iv 18. If by any means I may says St. Paul 1 Cor. ix 27. supposes he may not he is afraid at least after all his Preaching he should become a cast-away fall short of the goal miss the Crown come short of the top of the Hill of the holy Place So hard a thing is Heaven so clogg'd are the wings of our soul so heavy and drossie are our spirits and our earth so earthy that it is hard to ascend so high We feel we find it and they but deceive themselves that think 't is but a running leap into Heaven a business to be done wholly or easily upon our Death-beds when we can
only that meek and merciful man St. Gregory that valiant Lion St. Ambrose that laborious Oxe St. Ierome that sublime Eagle St. Augustine as some please to fancy these four beasts or the four first Patriarchates as others have interpreted them but all the four corners of the earth have since profest it and with the twenty four Elders faln down and worshipt it The lustre and glory of that glorious mystery has shone thorow all the quarters of the World and all his famous mercies to his people and his judgments against their enemies are still daily celebrated and magnified in all the Congregations of the Saints This St. Iohn foresaw and here foretels the poor persecuted Christians then that how hard soever things went with them then they should ere long turn all their sighs and lamentations into Songs of praise for their deliverance and salvation This they should and 3. we should as much It was foretold of them they should it is commanded us we should Therefore glorifie him says the Apostle 1 Cor. vi 20. glorifie him in your bodies and glorifie him in your spirits glorifie him with the bodies that glorifie him and glorifie him with the Spirits that glorifie him bear them all company in so doing do it all the ways you can you can neither do it too many nor too much Put on the faces of Eagles in the Temple and raise your souls up there and praise him Put on the faces of men at home and let the holiness of your conversation praise him there Put on the appearance of Oxen in your Callings and let the diligence of your Actions and Vocations praise him Put on the appearance of Lions abroad in all places of temptations and let your courage in the resisting and repelling them praise him there Thus we truly copy out our pattern Yet to transcribe it perfectly well we must now secondly also transcribe their earnestness For here they not only give praise and glory unto God but they do it earnestly they rest not doing it they rest not saying that is 1. They cannot rest unless they say it And I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep nor mine eye-lids to slumber neither the temples of my head to take any rest till I have found out a way to praise my God till I have offered up the service of my thanks and added something to his glory must be the Christians resolution 2. They rest not saying is they say it and say it again say it over and over Holy Holy Holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in some Copies nine times read Holy nine times repeated they think they can never say it enough No more it seems did David when he so oft repeated For his mercy endureth for ever in one single Psalm Psal. cxxxvi And hence it is the Church to imitate this holy fervour so often reiterates the Doxologie and inserts so many several Hymns and even either begins almost all its Prayers and Collects with an acknowledgment either of his Mercy Goodness and Providence or ends them with acknowledgment of his Majesty Power and Glory this both to imitate the glorious Saints and to obey the Apostles injunction of being fervent in Prayers and Praises 3. They rest not saying is they rest not but in so doing That 's their rest their joy their happiness to do so thus to be always praising God It would be ours too had we the same affections to it or the same senses of it We could not go to rest nor lie down to sleep could not sit down and take our rest till we had first lift up our eyes and hearts nay and voices too sometimes till we had first paid our thanks and given him praise for his protections in our ways and labours untill then 3. But to be thus eager and earnest at it is not all So we might be for a start and give over presently but 't is day and night that Angels and good men do it There is no night indeed properly with the Angels 'T is with them eternal day yet all that time which we call day and night they are still a saying it The Morning comes and they are at it the Night comes and they are at it still Let me go for the day breaketh says the Angel that strove with Iacob Gen. xxxii 26. And I must sing my Mattens adds the Chaldee Paraphrase as if he had said I can stay no longer I must go take my Morning course in the heavenly Choirs And in the depth of night we find them by whole hosts and multitudes at their Gloria in Excelsis Glory be to God in the highest St. Luke ii 13. The first fervours of Christian Piety were somewhat like this of the Angels You might have seen their Churches full at midnight all the Watches of the night you might have heard them chanting out the praises of their God and all the several hours of the day you might have found some or other continually praising God in his holy Temples as well as in their Closets Nay in the Iewish Temple they ceased not to do so Ye that by night stand in the House of the Lord Psal. cxiv 2. Praise him ye says holy David for indeed ye stand there to praise him and the Temple it self stood open all the day for all comers to that purpose when they would Therefore shall every good man sing of thy praise without ceasing says the Psalmist Psal. xxx 13. 'T is a good thing to do so Psal. xcii 1 2. To tell of thy loving kindness early in the morning and of thy Truth in the night season so good that David himself resolves upon it Psal. cxlv 2. Every day will I give thanks unto thee and praise thy Name for ever and ever prays also that his mouth may be filled with Gods praise that he may sing of his glory and honour all the day long Psal. lxxi 7. from morning to night and from night again to morning he would willingly do nothing else Nay be the night and day taken either in their natural or moral sense either properly for the spaces and intervals of light and darkness or morally for the sad hours of affliction and adversity and those bright ones of jollity and prosperity good men praise God in them both do not cease to do it if sorrows curtain up their eyes with tears and put out all their light of joy and comfort yet blessed be the Name of the Lord cry they out with patient Iob Chap. i. 21. Again if their paths be strow'd with light and the Sun gild all their actions with lustrous beams if Heaven shine full upon them they are not yet so dazell'd but they see and adore Gods mercy in them and in the mid'st of all their glories and successes they are still upon his praise and render all to him Neither the one night nor this other day make them at any time forget him A good item to us hence 1. not to suffer
consider it as the voice of a sinful man of humane nature corrupted with sin Though all created Substances contract a kind of trembling or drawing back at the approach of God the very Seraphims covering their faces with their wings yet did not sin and folly cover them with a new confusion the weakest and poorest of them would draw a kind of solace and happiness from the beams of that Majesty that so afrighted them 'T is sin that speaks the Text in a louder key that more actually cries to him not softly and weakly out of weakness but aloud and strongly out of wilfulness to depart It does more then so It drives God from us not only bids him go but forces him It is not so mannerly as to intreat him it discourteosly and unthankfully thrusts him out of doors Exi a me Get you out says the sinful soul to God no obsecro no entreaty added not go out I pray thee or depart I beseech thee We should do well to think how uncivilly we deal with God we are not content to put him out of his own house and dwelling the temples of our bodies the altars of our souls by our sins nay and his holy Temples by sacriledges and profaneness but sometimes in ruder terms we bid him be gone and thrust him out by wilful and deliberate transgressions by solemn and legal sacriledges and profanenesses which we commit and reiterate in contempt of him as if expresly we said to him Go from us we will have nothing to do with thee any longer thou shalt not only not dwell but not stand or be amongst us The people of Gennesaret besought Christ to depart out of their Coasts These sinners will out with him whether he will or no and though he come again and knock to be let in and continue knocking till his head be wet with the dew and his locks with the drops of the night yet can he hear no other welcome from us then depart from us we are in bed well at ease in our accustom'd sins and we will not rise to let thee in we will not be troubled with thy company with a course so chargeable or dangerous as is thy wonted service Strange it is that we should thus deal with God but thus we do yet no man lays this unkind usage to his heart never considers how he thus dayly uses God If good motions arise within us we bid them be gone they trouble us they hinder our sports or projects our quiet or interest If good opportunities present themselves without we bid them go we are not at leisure to make use of them they come unseasonably If the Word preached desire to enter in if it touch our Consciences and strike home we bid that depart too it is not for our turn it crosses our interests or our profits or our pleasures we will not therefore have it stay any longer with us If God by any other way as of afflictions or of deliverances by blessings or curses or any other way come to us they are no sooner over nor these any sooner tasted but we send them gone to purpose and think of them again no more our sins return and send them going make us forget both his justice and his mercies This is the course the sinner treads to God-ward From whence it is that the soul thus ill apparell'd with its own sins dares not look God in the face without the mediation of a Redeemer She has driven God from her by her sins and having thus incens'd him flees away when he draws towards her Thus Adam and Eve having by sin disrob'd themselves of their original righteousness when they hear the voice of God though but gently walking towards them and calling to them they run away and hide themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the Garden Gen. iii. 8. They felt it seems they wanted something to shelter them from the presence of God into the thickets therefore they hie themselves as if they then fore-saw they had need of the Rod out of the stem of Iesse the branch out of his roots as the Prophet calls Christ Isa. xi 1. to bear off the heat of Gods anger from them Under the leaves of this branch alone it is that we are covered sheltered from the wrath to come His leaves his righteousness it is that clothes our nakedness the very garments which our first Parents were fain to get to themselves before they durst venture again into his presence There is no enduring Gods presence still no coming nere him unless we look upon him through these leaves from under the shelter of this branch of Iesse Tell the sinner who keeps not under this shelter that lies not at this guard of Gods coming to him of his looking towards him of his approach to judgment and with Felix he trembles at it puts off the discourse to another time refuses to hear so terrible news as Gods coming is if Christ came not with him Such a one has sin made him that he desires not to see him whose eyes will not behold sin Depart from me O Lord in stead of Thy Kingdom come is his daily Prayer Yet as hardly or unadvisedly as nature or corruption may deliver this speech of St. Peter's it may be delivered in a softer sweeter tone and so it was by him It may 3. be the voice of the humble spirit casting himself down at the feet of Iesus and confessing himself altogether unworthy of so great a favour as his presence If we peruse the speeches of humble souls in Scripture by which they accosted their God or their Superiors we shall see variety of expression indeed but little difference in the upshot of the words I am but dust and ashes says father Abraham Gen. xviii 27. Now how can dust and ashes with their light scattering atoms endure the least breath of the Almighty The Prophet Isaiah saw the Lord in a Vision sitting upon a Throne and presently he cries out Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts Isai. vi 5. What undone Isaiah Yes Wo is me I am undone for mine eyes have seen the Lord of Hosts who certainly cannot but consume me for so boldly beholding him I am not worthy says the Centurion to Christ St. Matth. viii 8. that thou should'st come under the roof of my house speak the word only as if his presence were so great he might not bear it And St. Paul assoon as he had told us that he had seen Christ 1 Cor. xv 8 tells us he was one born out of due time was the least of the Apostles and not meet to be called an Apostle as if the very seeing of Christ had made him worth nothing Indeed it makes us think our selves so of whom we ever think too much till we look up
19. We cannot discern his track by reason of their tumultuous doings These are they that are to be prepared and stilled and quieted the Soul calm'd and laid and smooth'd that Christ may come into it But this is the way into which and not by which he comes The way by which he comes or we meet him is first the way of Faith Faith is the way by which he comes into the souls of men the way in which St. Paul worshipped the God of his Fathers Acts xxiv 14. in and by which we first come unto our Lord and worship him as did our fathers Prepare your hearts for it prepare them for him that when he comes he may find faith upon the earth in this earth of ours where e're else he miss it And here as Faith is the way so the several Articles of it may pass for the paths God grant we keep them right and streight and our selves streight to them in this perverse and crooked generation 2. The way secondly by which we meet him is the Law Mandata Legalia says another Not much distant from St. Paul's stiling it Schoolmaster to Christ the way to bring us to him The terrors and threatnings of the Law a good way to prepare us for his coming the Types and Figures a good way to lead us to him that we may see he is the same that was and is and is to come the Saviour of all that were and are and shall be sav'd the same the Patriarchs promised the Sacrifices prefigured the Prophets prophecied of the Iews expected the Apostles preach'd of the world believed on and all must be saved by With such thoughts as these then are we to set upon our preparation 1. To break our high and haughty spirits by the consideration of the terrors of the Law the curses due to them that break it and alas who is it that does not so to make way to let him in Then 2. by the Types and Figures to confirm our faith and make them so many several paths to trace out his foot-steps and know his coming 3. The third way by which we are prepared or which we are to prepare for him is Repentance The very way St. Iohn Baptist came to preach His Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand being the same with this Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths streight Those words of the Prophet the Text and his the Comment No way indeed to Christ but by this way No way but by Repentance to begin it Turn ye turn ye says the Prophet we are all out of the way God knows from the beginning If we will into the way again into the way of our Lord turn we must repent we must of our former ways and doings get us into better ways And then paths here will be the streight and narrow ways the rigours and austerities of repentance the streightning our selves of all our former liberties and desires making our paths so streight and narrow that no tumour of pride no swellings of lust no pack-horses or heavy carriages of the world or Devil may pass by that way any more nothing but Christ and his little flock of humble vertues such as can enter at the streight state none else henceforward to walk in it Prepare we repentance and all its parts and paths for the third way and its paths A fourth is Baptism the way St. Iohn Baptist came in too a way that nam'd him so the way that was always thought to lead all to Christ and his Kingdom that came there in any ordinary way Arise and be baptized Acts xxii 16. that 's the way to the Lord Iesus The way he sent his Disciples in to bring in the world unto him St. Mark xvi 16. whatever shorter way our new men of late have found for their Disciples The Articles and conditions of the Covenant of Baptism promised and undertaken by the baptized either in their own persons or by proxy are the title paths of this great way the several tracks that make it up the ways and paths we are to walk in if we intend ever to meet the Lord. The fifth way is Gods Commandments a way that we all must make ready for him his own way indeed drawn out by his own hands and fingers a way of which himself professes that he came not to destroy it as some vainly delude themselves but to fulfil it to perfect to exalt it to a greater height from the outward act to the inward thought from the lower degree of vertue to the highest of it from bare precepts to additional counsels from meer external performances to right and regular intentions in them And here as the moral Precepts are the great plain way so the Christian Enhâ—â—sements of them to the highest pitch the regulations of them to right intentions and Christian counsels are the paths the narrow and straiter paths The sum and short is this Holy Christian life and conversation in all its parts according to our powers and capacities is the fifth way to be prepared by them that seek the Lord and expect to see his face And yet if there be room and leave for a private conjecture the way of Gods providence in his judgments and mercies towards Ierusalem the way of his mercy in saving the believing and destroying the unbelieving Iew now near at hand may come in for a sixth way of the Lord A way indeed past finding out in all its secret paths yet to be prepared for and more then pointed at by the Prophet Isaiah in that place whence the words are taken and by St. Iohn in this God there bids comfort his captive people for their deliverance from Babylon was now nigh at hand and their enemies near destruction calls to them therefore to prepare themselves for it to make ready and expect it And here S. Iohn Baptist tells the people the Kingdom of Heaven is now at hand S. Matth. 3. 2. which by comparing it with that wrath to come threatned to the Pharisees and Sadduces v. 7. with his exhortation to flee from it and by the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord mentioned by the Prophet Malachi iv 5. in the place where S. Iohn Baptists coming is foretold and the dreadfulness of it exprest Chap. iii. 2. where he is said to come to prepare his way before him but ver 1 c. S. Iohns inviting to repentance to divert or shun it can be no other than Christs coming in Judgment against Ierusalem to execute vengeance upon his enemies and deliver his faithful servants vengeance and deliverance the two great manifestations of his Power and Kingdom and sure no more then need to cry out to us to prepare and make right paths against that coming make way for his judgments to pass by us and his mercies to come to us Thus you have the way and paths observe them many several paths but one only way to Christ and Heaven
observe that too and though many ways I shewed you they all come into one Law and Gospel Baptism and Repentance Faith and Obedience Mercy and Judgment Precepts and Counsels all into one 'T is way in the singular to shew that peace and unity is the only way of the Lord the only way of Christ. Yet 2. both paths and way it is We must descend to particulars every one to cleanse his own his own private paths Not only shew me thy ways O Lord says David but teach me thy paths too Psal. xxv 3. Not only to rectifie the outward action but the inward thoughts not to content our selves with a general profession but to come to a particular practice of Religion of the way of Christ. Observe that too Particular practice I say and yet 3. of the general way of the way generally and Catholickly held by all and 2. of all things generally in that way all the several tracks of vertue none to be omitted seeing the paths indefinitely one as well as another none as I hear excepted are here to be made strait that 's a third thing I wish observed But lastly the way first prepared then the paths made streight Christs way is a way of order First a general resolution to make all streight and ready then a particular entring into every path to do it Resolve first upon the way of Piety then take the paths that lead best to it parate first then facite prepare good resolutions then set to do them Nothing done well before them nothing well done without them And viam first then semitas the plain way of the Commandments for beginners the harder and streighter way of Counsels for great proficieâ—ts and perfect men II. The way and path thus now found out we are next to enquire whose it is or to whom it leads Viam Domini the Lords it is so the Septuagint and Evangelists all render it in the Genetive and Domino it is too so the Hebrew in the Dative to him it is or for him it is to him it is it leads for him it is prepar'd the preparation all for him Viam Domini 1. His way first and not our own Non sunt viae meae viae vestrae Isa lv 8. His ways are not ours ours are Lust Covetousness Ambition Hypocrisie meer superficial and external Works Vanity and Error The ways we spoke of Mercy and Truth Faith Hope Charity Obedience and all good ways are his not ours we have no good ones of our own Nay even our Souls those ways too into which he comes are his his and not our own the Soul of the Father and the Soul of the Son of all Fathers and Sons all mine says God Ezek. xviii 4. Our Bodies too they are Gods 1 Cor. vi 20. bodies and spirits all his made and prepared for his own way and Service all again to be prepared by us that they may be fit for him to walk and be in For 2. Viam Domino it is To him all our ways and paths must be directed to his Glory and Worship all lead to him as to the end of all from him all good ways come to him all good ways tend he is Alpha and Omega is and must be the beginning and end of them They are Domini Domino both of the Lord and to the Lord all our ways and preparations or all are wrong To him as to my Lord the King visiting us in mercy and gracing us with his presence and to him as to my Lord Judge to visit us in judgment and punish all offenders as a Lord to us or a Lord against us as our own King in triumph or another King in fury and to him in each consideration there is a proper way and a proper way of preparing it III. And now 3. Be it what way it will and to the Lord under what notion or way we will a preparation there is due a preparation next enjoyn'd us Indeed there is no meeting him unprepar'd better meet a Lion in the way or a Bear robb'd of her Whelps than him unprepar'd Prepare your hearts unto the Lord says the Prophet Samuel 1 Sam. vii 3. And make streight paths for your feet says the Apostle Heb. xii 13. Law and Gospel both for preparation If thou come to serve the Lord prepare thy soul says the Son of Sirach Ecclus. ii 1. 2. If thou goest into his house prepare thy foot keep it keep an eye over it that it slip not there says the Son of David Eccles. v. 1. go not in rashly and in haste 3. Prepare thy mouth too that it be not too hasty to utter any thing says he ver 2. 4. If thou goest any where to pray before thou prayest prepare thy self Ecclus. xviii 23. they that fear the Lord will do so Ecclus. ii 17. will prepare their hearts yea and ponder their paths too for so Solomon advises us Prov. iv 26. Ponder the paths of thy feet and let all thy ways be established Nay ponder them and all thy ways shall be established so it may be read and so Iotham found it became mighty says that Text 2. Chron. xxvii 6. because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God No way to become great mighty and powerful with God or Man like preparing Gods way in righteousness keeping our selves streight to the ways of God a reward sufficient to establish it for a duty That we may do it as we should we are now next to enquire what is meant by this preparing and making streight and how we are to do it The word in the Original is either from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 panim facies and may be construed either by faciem date h. e. speciem make the way look fair give it a handsom face and so to prepare the way will be to cleanse the way or by faciem obverter or a facie amovere change the face of it or remove things off the surface of it and so to prepare it will be to clear the way of rubs and blocks to remove our sins out of the way Or 2. from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 angulus a corner and may be rendred Angulate corner it out and lay it to the line and rule And then to prepare will be to make it smooth regular and equal Put them together and to prepare the way will be to remove all soil and filth all blocks and impediments all roughness and unevenness out of our ways which are like any ways to hinder our Lords coming to us so to put all by that he may have way to come to us and we the easier and fullier receive him when he comes Thus to prepare his way will be to remove all hindrances and to make his paths streight will be to bring all furtherances to his coming To remove our sins by repentance which else would hinder him from coming is to prepare the way to regulate and order our paths to the rule of his Commandments
holy in his Justice holy in his Seraphims and holy in his Cherubims and holy in his Thrones holy in his Power and holy in his Wisdom and holy in his Providence Holy in his Ways and holy in his Laws and Holy in his Promises holy in the Womb and holy in Manger and holy on the Cross holy in his Miracles and holy in his Doctrines and holy in his Examples holy in his Saints and holy in his Sacraments and holy in his Temples holy in Himself holy in his Son holy in his Spirit Holy Father holy Son and Holy Spirit Therefore with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of Heaven and all the Saints in Heaven and Earth we laud and magnifie thy glorious Name evermore praising thee and saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory Glory be to thee O Lord most High Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Glory and Honour and Thanks be unto Thee for ever and ever Amen Amen Amen THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE Calling of St. Peter St. LUKE v. 8. Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord. A Strange Speech for him that speaks to him 't is spoken from St. Peter to his Saviour One would think it were one of the Gadarens who thus intreated him to depart the Coasts Strange indeed to desire him to depart without whom we cannot be stranger to give such a reason for it a reason that should rather induce us to intreat him to tarry than to go for being sinful men we have most need of him to stay with us but strangest of all it is for St. Peter to desire it and upon his knees to beseech it To desire Christ to go away from us to go from us because we have need of his being with us and for such a one as St. Peter and that so earnestly to inintreat it is a business we well skill not at the first dash Yet if we consider what St. Peter was when he so cried out or what made him to do it or how unfit he being a sinful son of man thought himself for the company of the Son of God we shall cease to wonder and know it is the sinners case for ever so to do to be astonished at miracles not to bear suddenly the presence of our Lord and when we first apprehend it to cry out to him with St. Peter here to withdraw from us for a while for that we are not able to endure the brightness and terrour of his Splendour and Majesty It was a miraculous and stupendious draught of Fish after they had given up all hopes of the least suddenly came to Net which thus amazed St. Peter and his Fellows They had drudged and toyl'd all night and not a Fish appeared but when Christ came to them then came whole showles and thrust so fast into the Net that they brake it to get in as if the mute and unreasonable creatures themselves had such a mind to see him by whose Word they were created that they valued not their lives so they might see or serve his pleasure And yet St. Peter makes as much means that he might see him no longer whom if he had not seen and seen again notwithstanding his desires to the contrary it had been better he had never seen nor been at all But such is our mortal condition that we can neither bear our unhappiness nor our happiness unreasonable Creatures go beyond us in the entertainment of them both according to their kinds though it may be here St. Peters humility speaks as loud as his unworthiness or inability to endure the presence of his Lord. St. Peter we must needs say was not thorowly call'd as yet to be a Disciple this humble acknowledgment of his own unworthiness to be so was a good beginning Here it is we begin our Christianity which though it seems to be a kind of refusal of our Master is but a trick to get into his service who himself is humble and lowly and receives none so soon as they that are such none at all but such whom by the posture of their knees and the tenours of hearty and humble words you may discern for such And to sum up the whole meaning of the words to a brief Head they are no other nor no more than St. Peters profession of his own humble condition that he is not worthy that his God and his Redeemer should come so near him and therefore in an Extasie as it were at the sight of so glorious a Guest desires him to forbear to oppress his unworthy servant with an honour he was not yet able to bear Yet we cannot but confess the words may have a harder sense upon them as the voice of a stupid apprehension or an insensibleness of such heavenly favours as our Saviours company brings with it We shall have time to hint at that anon It shall suffice now at first to trouble you only with two evident and general parts Christs absence desired And The Reason alledged for it I. Christ desired to be gone Depart from me And II. Why he is so For I am a sinful man O Lord. The Desire seems to be the voice of a threefold person and such is St. Peters now 1. Of a man 2. Of a sinful man and yet 3. Of an humble man Me that me here confessing my self a sinful man The Reasons equal the variety of the desires or Desirers Three they are too 1. For I am a man 2. For I am a sinful man 3. For thou O Lord thou art God and I a man 'T is a Text to teach us what we are to whom we speak and how to speak to him And if you go hence home without learning this you may say perhaps you have heard a Sermon but you have learnt nothing by it It shall be your faults if you do not And unless we cry in a sense contrary to St. Peters meaning Depart from us O Lord out of a kind of contempt and weariness of his Word and not out of the conscience of our own unworthiness of so great a blessing then though our words be somewhat indiscreet though we sometimes speak words not fitting for our Saviour to hear though they seem to shew a kind of refusal of him yet being no other than the meer expression of the apprehension of his glorious presence and our own unworthiness Christ will comfort us and call out to us presently as he doth to St. Peter ver 10. not to fear we shall not lose by his Word or Presence nor by our so sensible apprehension of his glory though we be but a generation of sinful men That our desires first may be set right though peradventure not always speak so the desires being the hinge upon