of a purified minde this glorious God as the prime beautie of the Sanctuarie and the only object of our religious worship wherein true Christians excell all other people who worship not this true God Religious worship in the Sanctuarie is the greatest worke we act in this life because we seeke happinesse in the union with that we worship For therein three things go together First our highest estimation of it as chiefe good in it selfe and so communicative of that goodnesse to our happinesse Next our highest affection loving it above all And these are the two maine parts of inward worship The third is a religious reverence arising of them manifesting it selfe in the acts of outward worship to pray to him and praise him According to the object wee worship so is our fruit For if wee worship the true God alone then wee come to happinesse both because our estimation affection and reverence are right placed And more because thereby he communicateth himselfe to us even to our conformitie with him for our due estimation of him is our excellencie that maketh us misprise all things beside and seeke him alone Our due affection to him is our union with him and a partaking of his divine nature in that we loath all things beside and adhere to him as our only happinesse Thirdly our religious reverence holdeth him ever in our eye as the paterne to the which wee conforme our selves So thereby undoubtedly wee attaine true happinesse But if wee worship any thing beside we make our selves more and more miserable Though wee should worship Angels and Martyrs neither can they communicate goodnesse to make us happy and their worship is impious and idolatrous and separateth us from God The pretended cause why Julian forbad Christians children the use of secular learning was lest they being armed therewith might more dextrously refute the Pagans But the secret cause was lest by reading the fables and histories of the Gods they should finde just matter of mocking and insulting over them As the old Senat burnt Numaes books because they expressed the secrets of their religion For their owne histories maketh them the worst men of their time yea monsters rather than men and yet after their death the world seeking a colour to their owne wickednesse made them gods And the devils the promoters of their worship for their owne behoofe made the world thinke that adulterie murther drunkennesse and such were good service to them If Iupiter Mars Apollo Bacchus were now living as they were at their best in their life time they would be abhorred as pests and cast out of the common-wealth This then is our happinesse that wee worship that God alone who made the heaven and the earth and finding him that all the parts of religious worship begin in him continue and abide in him Secondly the beautie of God in the Sanctuarie is in his working with his people for happinesse which wee consider in three First as it proceedeth from him Secondly the worke of his grace in the people meeting him Thirdly the worke of pastours betwixt both Gods worke toward his people goeth in foure First his offering of happinesse Secondly his exacting of service Thirdly his conferring or giving the grace that he offereth to them Fourthly his accepting of his worke in them as if it were theirs only The first is his offer of salvation and happinesse At the first it is thought that wee come to offer to him but indeed he bringeth us to his house to offer to us Here a great change God whome wee have made our enemie is our best friend Our Iudge who may plague us for our sinne turneth our repledger by his mercy rescuing us from Justice Our Creditour turneth our Pardoner and while hee might powre out all his wrath upon us he is to reconcile us to him And under this name our reconciliation goeth because he worketh the worke whereof wee are at first both ignorant and uncapable So in Scripture every where he calleth on us Come let us count together Come to mee yee that are wearie and laden and I will ease you Next in the Sanctuarie he exacteth service of us and that for our owne good only that seeing he is applying to us his happinesse purchased by his Son he craved of us preparations and dispositions to receive it So he craveth that wee lay up his word in our heart That wee repent our sinne unfainedly that we beleeve in him that wee love him with all our heart and all our soule and that we honour him in keeping his Commandements for even while he promiseth to ease us of our owne yoake he biddeth us take his yoake upon us That we pray to him for blessings wee have need of and that wee praise him for every blessing we receive For God commandeth no man any thing for his owne profit but for his profit whom he commandeth And all the businesse of our sacrifice under the Gospell is not for him but for our more profitable exercise in piety Thirdly he conferreth upon us and giveth the things that he both offereth and exacteth so hee worketh faith in us opening our hearts as hee did the heart of Lydia and while he biddeth us Come to his Sonne he draweth us to him both by alluring us with his excellencie and bowing of our wils to him He craveth of us that we understand his word and giveth us hearts to understand it when he circumciseth our eare and heart and writeth his Law therein As he commandeth that we love him with all our heart so he sheddeth abroad his love in our heart making all our heart powre it selfe out on him As he craveth obedience of us so he giveth the spirit of obedience putting his feare in our heart and causing us to walke in his Law His craving or exacting is not Legall but Evangelick for the legall is Doe and thou shalt live and yet gave no helpe to doe the thing that was commanded but the Evangelick exacting giveth us power to doe the thing that it commandeth giving us to know to will and to doe And their obedience differeth as well as the exaction for the legall obedience was to righteousnesse and salvation if they could attaine it but the Evangelick obedience is for gratitude and thankfulnesse to God for that happinesse which hee hath both purchased and applies to them freely Fourthly as a gracious Acceptor of that wee are able to doe by his grace which goeth in two First though it be his he counteth it ours for wee are not able of our selves as of our selves to thinke any good but all our sufficiencie is of him He giveth us the habite of faith of repentance and bringeth their acts out of them And though formally beleeving repenting c. be our worke because our wils moved by grace doe move themselves and so specifieth the acts of these habits yet the power
comfort others For this cause Luther said That a Theologue of affliction was a Theologue of light and though it be no part of our Church trials of intrant Pastors yet the consideration were profitable For whether we be afflicted it is for you c. For when beside all humane means without or labour within they are taught of God to know the vilenesse of their own sinne the deceit of their owne heart the weight of Gods wrath for both the terrours of an accusing conscience in all three the horrours of spirituall desertion the desolation and widowhood of the soule in such a case c. And on the other part the freenesse of Gods mercie pardoning sinne the sweetnesse of the peace of conscience under that assurance and joyes of the holy Ghost the sense of Gods favour shed abroad in our hearts better than life and the complete happinesse of the soule under sense of the presence of a reconciled God With this furniture they are made the more sufficient in those practick points wherein the life of Christiaanitie standeth to speake as men who have learned by exercise and experience This experience bringeth three things First a sort of obligement to communicate it according to our calling Secondly a lively speech Thirdly authoritie in both Obligement because wee get not experience for our own private use but to make others better thereby Come children I will teach you the feare of the Lord And Come I will tell you what God hath done to my soule Let men confesse before men the goodnesse of the Lord And he glorieth in it that he hid not Gods goodnesse from the great congregation Such communication of experienced men is profitable for thereby people come easily to the knowledge of that which otherwise they could not learn without great exercise And among other causes why God afflicteth Pastors grievously this is one both to furnish them with a body of experimentall doctrine and to bring the people easily to it by their communication Next it furnisheth them with a powerfull speech Our language is the daughter of our reason and our stile floweth from our complexion education and gift and the gift is laboured by experience The spirit createth the species in us the species give the notion the notion gives the stile to expresse it self Every science hath the own matter and termes so hath Divinitie The spirit who giveth the matter giveth also the stile of language and the doore of utterance comparing things spirituall with spirituall and fitly to expresse divine matters in a divine stile is his gift If we conceive things only by the minde we may speake properly but not affectuously nor effectually But if we take them in our affection our stile will be emphatick No purpose hath need to be more pertinently expressed than happinesse if it be coldly and warshly proponed it wakeneth not the affection But if they speak who have found the sweetnesse of it their words are vive lineaments both of their affection and the thing that hath affected them so that the common saying is true As is the knowledge so is the expression The Apostle condemneth humane eloquence and not divine and there is none comparable to Isay in eloquence and the Scripture hath the own pithie phrase without the flowers of humane oratorie Mens words testifie their gift and the measure of Gods working in them Nazianzens emphatick words are sentences and therefore is called the Theologue Augustine in many places hath a pathetick stile and Bernards stile is full of affection and sense and Calvin among the late Divines like another Nazianzen expresseth his deep conceptions in a pithie stile This is not only the language of Canaan but also the masculous Schiboleth their words have weight and are as goads piercing the hearts of the hearers and fastening them to God in the Sanctuarie This is the tongue of the learned not of man but of God to speake a word in due season Thirdly experience maketh them speak with authoritie Christ spake with authoritie and not as the Scribes For the Scribes spake warshly as men doing some other businesse or as Boyes in the schoole rehearsing other mens inventions But a faithfull Pastor speaketh with authoritie And that commeth of Conscience and Confidence Conscience of their calling from God of some competent furniture for the worke and of his presence with them in doing the worke Confidence of the warrant of their word from Scripture and from experience that they finde the power of it in their souls in private We beleeve and therefore we speak This maketh them speak affectuously uttering their very heart in their speech Their heart is in their words which go out with the weight of affection They are moved themselves with that they say when they feele the power of it renewed in them in publicke which they felt in secret But when a purpose though both sound and divine is rehearsed either from reading hearing or superficiall thinking there is not such union of the heart with the tongue or the word with the affection and so oft times as little union betwixt the word spoken and the heart of the hearer If any man would move his hearer he must be moved himselfe otherwise how can they think that hee beleeveth the thing he speaketh Preachers are lights and fires they must have light and heat if they would warme and lighten others So then this experience of Gods working is his speech to their heart and when he maketh them expresse it powerfully they speak to the hearts of the hearers When they speake to hearers that have experience they are heard earnestly but others judge of them according to their own disposition This made the Ancients in their sermons to cry out Give me one that thirsteth and he knoweth what I say c. Want of experience maketh uncharitable carping Fourthly the divine assistance is the beautie of their worke I shall be with thy mouth If we consider only how so fraile men in so eminent a place in the hearing possibly of some thousands can deduce heavenly matters without kything infirmitie speaking to God and man in such sort as the judicious hearer doeth confesse That God speaketh in them For God hath chosen the most part of Preachers of the meanest sort of people who possibly in common purposes can speake but little But so soone as they stand up in the chaire of truth they are overshadowed with a wonderfull presence of God that maketh them speake with authoritie But his assisting them to worke the worke of the Gospell is far more when they are workers with him to beget children to God to turne souls to him to cast down in the conscience of sinne and raise up in the confidence of mercie And though the fruit of the worke dependeth not on them for God hath put these treasures in
enriched so the increase of grace augmenteth the desire of it Gods Church is busie running to and fro seeking her beloved when other companies seeke their vanities That heavenly affection setteth her on work and the want of it made them idle Peter and John were most forward in running to the sepulchre because they loved him most and Simeon came oftner to the temple than others in Jerusalem because he longed more to see Christ in the flesh And it is ever seene that they who have most knowledge with holinesse are busiest to seek the Lord. God is so glorious and happinesse is so sweet that the more wee see them the more wee seeke them And the nature of true grace is to be so allured neither is there a better token of the livelinesse of the new man than to be set continually to seek his Creatour The word enquire in the originall pointeth also at the morning because the Soule is then most fit for enquiring and the Sun rising rayseth all things up with him with their first and best actions which at Even in his falling are not so Wisedome also promiseth that they that seeke her in the morning shall finde her and the light of the Spirit in the faithfull is compared to the morning light because Jesus Christ the Sunne of righteousnesse hath brought a new light into the world after the Evening of Adams fall Therfore in seeking happinesse we would be tymous in the morning of our age and vigour of our soule and not cast off that greatest worke to old age God biddeth us haste in the morning but Sathan biddeth us delay till the evening of our time And he who doth so what knoweth he if he shal live so long Or if he doe he knoweth not if God will continue the occasions of happinesse with him Or if they abide what knoweth hee if God will blesse them No it is just with God to neglect them in their old age who neglected him in their youth Because I cryed and ye would not answer therefore ye shall cry and I will not answer but laugh at your destruction Hee who spendeth the morning of his age dissolutely hath never earnestly thought of true happinesse This word offereth three things to our consideration 1. Our imperfection 2. Our changeable state 3. And the remedy of both in a diligent inquirie 1. Imperfection is in the best for we are here not capable of perfection because wee have flesh mixed with the spirit and are layed open to the continuall tentations of Sathan This cannot stand with happinesse for in heaven neither can the sinne of ill or tentation be admitted neither can the chiefe good be lost The most perfect after Christ confessed his imperfection Not that I have alreadie attained or am already perfect and that to the astonishment of the best And here we know but in part for where wee know one thing millions are hid from us and that same that we know is more hid than knowne and all our knowledge is but some thing of all but nothing of all but nothing of the whole And the undoubted testimonie of greatest knowledge is the greatest conscience of ignorance Take the knowledge of the best it is but ignorance confusion and full of uncertaintie Therefore one crieth out justly Woe to our straight knowledge woe to the povertie of our understanding If wee looke to God how small is our knowledge and though modestly wee may search his will but not curiously his Majestie lest we be oppressed we come but short And in the search of his will if we should study from 16. to an 100. yeere old we would daily finde matter of a new searching albeit there is as much plaine as to suffice people to salvation The conceit of perfection is the greatest imperfection and the greatest stay of proceeding When men set up these two mountaines in their way of presumption and vaine glorie they leave off to go forward For whither shall they go who thinke themselves already perfect The Jewes had this and would not submit them to the righteousnesse of God The Papists have it in their perfection obtained or to be obtained their merit supererogation and all vented in the confidence they put in their merits They who will not trust in God will trust in themselves and in their righteousnesse which is a non ens or rather their greatest sinne Pelagius had this pride when he boasted that there lacked not one to doe the things commanded but one to command more But God hath dauntoned that pride by the Law And one hath answered them in the person of the Jewes Behold fulfill the Law there lacketh not one to command but there lacketh one to obey Secondly the imperfect measure we have is subject to change and that because of the spirituall combat of decay defection and desertion 1. The spirituall combat proveth our weaknesse the flesh continually rebelling against the spirit so that the good we would doe we cannot doe it and the evill we would not doe we are forced to doe For though wee were even now in some good disposition yet the flesh yeelding to some tentation casteth us downe further than we can arise in many dayes Decay falleth in the best and most wakrife Christian For the knowledge that the minde hath layed up the memorie forgetteth and the softnes and tendernes of heart decayeth even in them who labour on their heart continually and that not so much by outward provocations as by the inward deceit and native backslyding of the heart it selfe When a workman leaveth his worke at evening he findeth it in the morning in that same case wherein he left it But if we lye downe with an heart softned with the sense of Gods mercies in the morning wee finde it oftentimes like a stone grace is a stranger to us and our nature at the best giveth it but a step-mothers intreatie it findeth opposition of our corruption and therefore is subject to hourely decayes Defection stayeth our proceeding in happinesse Every sinne is a defection and a falling from a better to a worse for it hath not only the double guiltinesse of the blemish and lyablenesse to punishment but likewise crosseth the grace of God in us as one contrary doeth another And as in our youth our food hath two workes One of sustentation the other of adding a new substance so when happinesse is begun in us we have need of double labour to intertaine it Sathan rageth and the flesh fretteth the more therefore wee have need of more diligence to resist them Desertion is most fearfull when we finde not God as wee were wont and under that dreariesome widowhood of our soule are put to that grievous task to seek him againe and to greatest necessitie to finde him Sometime it is procured by great sinnes as in David under his murther and adulterie