to this rencounter of the object of its strong affections no rest but in the labors that work towards it no calm but in those violences And much of this there must be in Religion where the heart is set upon the hopes of it on heaven He must be eager in it as the covetous is on his gains the proud man on his pomps the pleasurist on his sports the Epicure on his excesses It is not possible a man should have no heart to that on which his heart is set He therefore that hath set his heart on heaven must be religious and holy and so it is concluded that the liberal-minded must needs be so The progress of which proof is this he whose heart is in heaven his conversation will be there his life will be Christian and holy he whose treasure is in heaven his heart is in heaven he that hath taken off his heart from the world and out of liberality of heart gives alms he laies his treasure up in heaven and then it is concluded that he is religious And this now may apply it self without my help to press it to you Ah my Brethren chuse and strive towards a vertue that will help you to all the rest that will calm and moderate your affections to this world and the dying follies of it and that will draw your hearts to heaven and set them on the world to come Who would not labor for one disposition of mind that comes with such a train of pieties that hath all Christianity in its attendance and brings all into the soul with it Who would not give alms if by doing so he give himself a shole of vertue to whom is this man bountiful but to himself indeed Here is a ground for men to beg after the fashion of Lombardy Be good to your self Sir and bestow an alms upon me for he indeed is good unto himself who what he gives laies up in heaven as a treasure for eternity and at the same time entertains the disposition to all piety in his heart receives all vertue into him I sahll not need to call in accessory proofs fetch in auxiliary motives tell you that works of charity are called good works in Scripture and the liberal man good So Rom. 5. 7. the good man signifies and Tit. 2. 5. where the women are commanded to be good it is merciful so works of mercy are call'd good works Acts. 9. 36. doing good Matt. 12. 12. Heb. 13. 16. good fruits James 3. 17. So to work good signifies Gal. 6. 9. and every good work 2 Cor. 9. 8. is works of mercy as if he did engross all goodness and that same vertue did fulfil the title Nay I tell you more that the merciful man and the perfect man are but two words for the same person Matt. 5. 48. Luke 6. 36. all Christianity is so sure appendant to this disposition of the heart when it is in the soul I tell you not when it is now and then in the actions that this alone is perfectness 't is entire lacking nothing And then here is a clear account why at the last great trial nothing should come upon account but charity that is the only thing the Judg takes cognizance of at the day of final doom When I was hungry ye gave me meat the words of everlasting Judgment pass only in relation to this nothing but charity do's come into that sentence for all the rest is implied in this and where the heart is liberal the whole life will be Christian this is an evidence will pass at God's Assise stand before the Searcher of the heart and reins And therefore it may well be a sign to us and make proof that this grace in the heart bounty of mind is a great evidence of a truly Christian heart the second Proposition Blessed Savior thou that wert all bounty to us that didst emty thy self to enrich us and didst chuse rather to die thy self than not relieve us when we were sick to everlasting death give us grace to be like-minded shed into our hearts this disposition of soul that will make us so remember thee a disposition that will make our affections even and moderate to things of this earth which by teaching us to part with wealth contentedly will work us out of the world and teach us not to be enamoured on the advantages of wealth not to be passionate for pomps or pleasures or for any superfluities which wealth procures which will set our hearts in heaven and lay up treasures for us there which if it rob us of the pomps and the magnificences of this world will give us for them pomps of piety the whole train of vertues a long attendance of graces if it deprives us of some heights or some excess of pleasures it will recompence with the satisfactions of relieving Christ in his members here and reigning with him hereafter in Kingdom SERMON XXII THE LIGHT OF THE BODY is the Eye Matt. 6. 22 23. The light of the body is the eye if therefore thy eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light But if thine eye be evill thy whole body shall be full of darkness If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness PHILOSOPHY do's say that all vertues are so annext and tied together that it is not possible for any man to have any one truly and compleat but he must needs have all they are like pearls upon the necklace from which if any violence pull one the string is broke and all are shatter'd and disorder'd And S. James saith c. 2. 10. Whosoever shall offend in one point is guilty of all and sure the vertue of the Text makes good both these Positions if liberality of heart be that one point he that excludes it from his Soul shuts out the rest at once All the graces are as train to that leading vertue are its such close attendants that they must needs have the same fate and either dwell together in the heart or all together be thrust thence for if thine eie be single thy whole body shall be full of light but if thine eie be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness An envious discontent uncharitable mind makes the whole life un-Christian and he that do's offend in that one point must needs be guilty of all and if Charity that bond of perfectness in S. Paul that tie of graces that do's unite them to it self and with each other if that be there all graces must be there and liberality of heart makes the life Christian for if thine eie be single thy whole body shall be full of light But I am now to shew you that bounty in the heart is a great Sign of a true Christian heart that that person who not out of easiness or modesty of constitution not knowing how to deny when he is askt nor out of inconsideration or vanity bestows an alms or else when importunities
evitavit Qua alii ambiunt Cui rectius visum Ecclesiam defendere instruere ornare Quam regere Laboribus studiisque perpetuis exhaustus Morte si quis alius praematura Obiit Vir desideratissimus Januarii XXVII An. M.DC.LXXX Aetatis LX. Nobile sibi monumentum Areae adjacentis latus occidentale Quod à fundamentis propriis impensis struxit Vivus sibi statuit Brevem hanc Tabellam Haeredes defuncto posuere TABLE of the First VOLUME 1 Pet. 4. 1. He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin Pag. 1. Psalm 7â— 1. Truly God is loving to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart 15. Levit. 16. 31. Ye shall afflict your soul by a statute for ever 29. John 15. 14. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you 43. Ezek. 33. 2. Why will ye die 57. Psalm 73. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee 69. Mark 1. 3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. 81. 1 John 5. 4. This is the victory which overcometh the world even our faith 95. Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ. 109. Luke 9. 55. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of 123. Luke 16. 30 31. Nay father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And he said unto him if they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho one rose from the dead 137. Luke 2. 34. Behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against Pag. 151. James 4. 7. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you 165. Phil. 3. 18. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enimies of the cross of Christ. 181. Mark 10. 15. Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child he shall not enter therein 195. Acts 13. 2. The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them 209. Hos. 3. 9. Afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their king and shall fear the Lord and his goodness 227. Matt. 5. 44. But I say unto you love your enimies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them that despightfully use you and persecute you 243. TABLE of the Second VOLUME 2 Tim. 3. 15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation thro faith which is in Christ Jesus Pag. 1. Rom. 6. 3. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptiz'd into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death 21. Matt. 9. 13. Go ye and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice Pag. 36. Psalm 102. 13 14. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for the time to favor her yea the set time is come For thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof 50. Acts 24. 16. And herein I exercise my self to have alwaies a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man 65. Matt. 5. 4. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted 79. 1 John 3. 3. Every man that has this hope in him purifies himself as he is pure 93. Isaiah 26. 20. Come my people enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast 107. Matt. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest 118. 1 Cor. 15. 57. Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory thro our Lord Jesus Christ. 133. Psalm 17. 15. As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness 143. John 20. 28. My Lord and my God 157. Mark 9. 24. Lord I believe help thou my unbelief 170. Matt. 5. 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven 191. 2 Cor. 6. 2. Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation 201. 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed 215. Luke 16. 8. The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light 230. Matt. 6. 22 23. The light of the body is the eie if therefore thy eie be single thy whole body shall be full of light But if thy eie be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness 247. Serm. 2. 261. Serm. 3. 272. Serm. 4. 284. Serm. 5. 296. THE Divine Autority AND USEFULNESS OF THE Holy Scripture ASSERTED IN A SERMON On the 2 Tim. 3. 15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Iâ—sus THE words are part of St. Pauls reasoning by which he presseth Timothy to hold fast the truth he had receiv'd and not let evil men seducers work him out of what he had bin taught urging to this end both the autority of the Teacher himself who had secur'd the truth of his doctrine by infallible evidence and beyond that as if that were a more effectual enforcement pressing him with his own education in the Scriptures how he had bin nurst up in that faith suckt the Religion with his milk that it was grown the very habit of his mind that which would strengthen him into a perfect man in Christ and make him wise unto salvation if he did continue in the faith and practice of it which he proves in the remaining verses of the Chapter In the words read there are three things observable 1. Here is a state suppos'd Salvation and put too as of such concernment that attaining it is lookt upon as wisdom wise unto salvation Now since true wisdom must express it self both in the end that it proposeth and the means it chooseth for that end to be pursued with and attain'd by and take care both these have all conditions that can justifie the undertaking and secure the prudence of it and this wisedom to salvation therefore must suppose both theâ—e in order to them both we have here 2. That which with all divine advantage does propose this end and also does prescribe most perfect means for the attaining it and that is Holy Scripture through faith which is in Christ Jesus Thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus Holy Scripture probably of the Old Testament for there was hardly any other Timothy could know from a child scarce any other being written then The faith of
them with them to that Sacrament set them at Christs table as it were to feed on that body which they crucified make them imbrue their hands in that blood which they shed And this is the return they make to that blood shed for them They bring them and their vows against them both together to the Altar and they leave their vows there but they take their Sins back with them and serve them still Now does eternal ruin look so lovely to us as that we will break thro all oaths to get at it Is 't worth the while to be at once false to God and our own blessedness Do vows so straiten us that we cannot endure the obligations to be happy In Gods name be at last more true to your own Souls consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding A SERMON OF THE PREROGATIVE OF MERCY in being the best SACRIFICE Matth. 9. 13. Go yee and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice THE words are part of a reply of our Saviors to a cavilling question of the Scribes and Pharisees who seeing him converse familiarly accept the friendship of an invitation sit and eat with open noted Sinners and which was as bad a name amongst them Publicans ask his Disciples why they and their Master do what they know was forbidden and unlawful To whom having answer'd that he did converse with them only in order to their cure now a Physitian that goes to visit his sick Patients is not therefore blam'd for going to them because they are sick he further justifies himself by an account of Gods own mind and dealing set down in the Scripture of whose meaning if they had not taken notice hitherto he bids them now go learn it For God tells them by his Prophet Hosea that he prefers acts of mercy doing good to others before any Ceremonies of his Worship tho himself ordain'd them whether Sacrifices or whatever others For I will says he have mercy and not sacrifice Therefore Christ did but comply with Gods own will when he accepted of an invitation from such sinners merely to have the better opportunity to invite them to repentance and to heaven and in doing so did but preferr the acts of highest mercy in the world the doing everlasting blessed good to souls before obedience to such ritual precepts as forbad converse with the unclean and sinful I need not here observe that the negation is but comparative and means I will not have Sacrifice but Mercy rather yea I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice where I cannot have both or that by Sacrifice also is meant all Ceremonies of Gods Worship altho instituted by himself and those not taken by themselves and merely external Acts and void of the inward zeal and devotion that should spirit them but taken in their best states yet God will have works of Mercy rather And that doctrine is it seems worth learning and attending to for so in the text there is besides the proposition it self I will have mercy and not sacrifice also the insinuation of its usefulness in those words go and learn what that means I shall not break these into other parts but raise some Propositions for the subjects of my discourse And First since God compares two sorts of things here in the text and says he will have or is pleas'd with one and not the other which other yet 't is plain that he was pleas'd with and would have for he commanded them 't is evident he does imply that as these call'd here Sacrifices were grateful to him as they were obedience to his precepts so the other therefore which he does prefer to those they must be good and acceptable to him in themselves not only as they are commanded Some actions therefore have an intrinsic honesty are of themselves in their own nature morally good and well-pleasing to God as some also are the contrary 2dly Of all that are so in that manner good those of Mercy are in an especial manner such I will have mercy 3dly Of all acts of mercy those are best and most well-pleasing in Gods sight which are employ'd in reducing Sinners from their evil ways those were such our Savior is here pleading for And 4thly 'T is onely the opportunity and the design and hope of doing good to Sinners by reforming them that can make familiar converse with them excusable and lawful I mean where no duty of a relation do's oblige to it Christ himself had no other plea to justify his eating with them but that he intended it as a mercy to them as his opportunity to call them to repentance All these we see flow naturally from the words First some actions have an intrinsic honesty are of themselves in their own nature morally good and well-pleasing to God as some are the contrary When I say they have an intrinsic honesty and are in nature good I mean the rule of them is intrinsic and essential to the agent is indeed his nature and by consequence their goodness is as universal and eternal as that nature Now it is a doctrine that hath had Advocates as ancient as the great Carneades and the Sect of the Pyrrhonians that in nature antecedent to all laws and constitutions there is no rule of unjust or just good or evil honest or dishonest and that nothing of it self is one or other but as our concerns or interests do make it to our selves to prosecute which is the only inclination and the only rule that nature gives us or else as the public interests incline superior powers to prescribe them whom it is our interest also to obey Accordingly we find â—this saying in Thucydides that to them that are in power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing is unreasonable that is useful And the Athenians being stronger tell the Melii that by rules of human reason things are just in that degree that they are necessary And then as necessities and interests do chance to vary good and just must change into their contrary and as different countries and persons cannot but have opposite rules and mesures of necessity and usefulness so they must of just and honest thus the laws of Vertue serve like Almanacks but for such a latitude and a different elevation of the Pole quite alters them and makes them good for nothing A pleasant sort of good and honest this which any wall or dike that divides Provinces or Countries can give boundaries lines and rules to so as that it shall be vertue and right on one side vice and error on the other as if those principles of good and evil which seem planted in us and the world calls natural were nothing else but prejudices taken in from early conversation as dogs learn they say the skill of chase And it were great pity if this age which so much needs the patronage of such a principle to give countenance to their licentious practices had not also found out some that
the first voice of nature teacheth us the direct contrary And whosoever he be that is I will not say unjust to others but not kind friendly and apt to do good to them he that hath regard for onely self and mesures all by his own inclinations and interests is such a thing if nature onely judg of him as ought to have bin expos'd when he was born and to have no pity shew'd him when in teares and in his blood he cri'd for it he should be still abstain'd and seperated from as one whom Nature her self excommunicates as one who is no part of human society but the proper native and inhabitant of the desert But he that is unrighteous who by worng whether of violence or fraud or but of debt makes his own satisfactions that to serve his uses and occasions dares take or but detain from others what is due to them and supports his pomp and plenty with that which of right ought to cloth and feed others and so eats the bread and drinks the tears and may be blood of Creditors he that is so unmerciful as to be thus cruel tho Almighty God were silent even Nature would her self prosecute such a person with her out-cries as we do fire when 't is broke out and rages for he is all one fire also spreads and seises all it can come near whether mans or Gods house to make fuel for it self and to encrease its blaze so that the other should be lookt upon with the same dreads and abhorrency for he is the same disorder in the frame of Nature and in this the voice of Nature is the voice of God which is our other medium to discover what is natural Now since we have declar'd that natural vertue is in man the imitation of God is as it were the workings off of those forms of goodness that are in him and the lines and rules of it are but the lineaments of his perfection 〈◊〉 will be easy to evince that the rule for mercy is a most important law of Nature since the practice of it is so natural to God himself Now to prove this passing by all other methods of probation I shall content my self with that one declaration of himself he made when he proclaim'd himself the Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and that will by no means utterly cut off the guilty so I understand it out of Jer. 46. 28. will not make a full end a clear riddance of them when I visit God seems here to have taken flesh in his expressions e're he was incarnate that he might have words to phrase his goodness in and he had bowels of mercy before he was made man and yet all this he says are but the back parts of his goodnes Exod. 33. v. ult but that of it which we meet with in his dealings with the Sons of men as we see it à posteriori and in its effects here but the face and glory of it was so bright and dazeling that he tells his friend there Moses that 't was not possible for him to see it and live Yet now St Paul saith God hath given us the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. Indeed there was Divinity of mercy and more too humanity was taken in that God Almighty might be able to bestow more then himself and all that he might shew compassion on us men It seems O Lord thou wilt have Mercy yea and Sacrifice too If thou require such an offering as the Sacrifice of thine own blood and of thine own Son that thou mightest have mercy on us and then let men dispute that vindicative justice is essential to God that sin and its punishment are annext by as unchangable necessity as Gods Attributes are to his being and that by the express exigence of his nature he no less necessarily executes it then the fire burns we may well be content it should be so when this strict necessity if such there were did but make way for was subservient to the ends of infinite Mercy and by that demonstrates that benignity compassion and forgiveness are much more the inclinations of his nature and if he intended man in any thing his image sure he did in mercy therefore do's our Savior charge us be yee merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful who as he had no other reason to create the world so 't is most certain that he had no other reason to redeem it That Oeconomy was intended as the means of mercy to poor Sinners in reducing them which is the Mercy my third observation speaks of which was this that of all acts of Mercy those are best and most well-pleasing in Gods sight which are emploi'd in the conversion of Sinners that was such for which our Savior is here pleading when he saith I will have Mercy But here I mean not such conversions as they are emploi'd about who compass sea and land not so much to convert men from the evil of their waies to the true real practice of Christianity as to convert them to their Church to which men would not go so fast but that by the debauch of all good Christian discipline there are such easy absolutions to be had tho men be not converted from their evil waies for it is impossible to find a Church or a Religion in the world which men may sin so hopefully and comfortably in as that of Rome as it now stands But these busy Agitators of conversion besides that they convert not men to Catholic Christianity but to a name and indeed faction have made Catholic a word of party if they should multiply we should soon find they would have Sacrifice not Mercy I do not mean their Host that Sacrificium incruentum bloody Sacrifices we know are a main part of their doctrine and their practice who have us'd to turn whole Nations into shambles for their Church's sake and make bonfires with burnt-offerings of their fellow Christians But waving these Conversions those the proposition speaks of are such as reduce Sinners from their evil doings to the universal faithful practice of all virtue and all piety Now of all acts of Mercy that those which endeavor this are best Nature herself would judg since they do aim at reinstating man the crown of all her workmanship in the integrity and rectitude of Nature which is his own true perfect state and is therefore the most proper and best for him as relating to that state But God who beyond that design'd to make man who had faln from his own nature to partake of the Divine Nature as St Peter saith 2. Pet. 1. 4. and in order to it call'd us to glory and vertue v. 3. cannot but account that kindness which endeavors the recovery of Sinners from corruption and misery to the state of vertue
give me leave to run into the snare who bids me cut my foot off rather then be taken sure he suppos'd we would be willing of our selves to divorce and tear our selves from the allurements and occasions who thought it unnecessary to prescribe such easy remedies as to avoid them and requires of us that when the allurements shall surprize or force themselves upon our senses we tear out the organ rather then yeild and be overcome Or he thought at least that altho the companions of my vices are grown dearer to me then mine own eies their converse more useful and more necessary to my satisfaction then my hand or foot is to me yet to pluck out cut off and cast all from me But were I proof against temtation and perfectly secure from the contagion of such conversation yet 't is Fourthly less excusable in respect to Gods concern then any other To sit and see vertue not onely violated and deflour'd with loose unclean discourses but like Thamar then thrust out of doors despis'd Religion scoft and turn'd in ridicule all that is Holy laugh'd at and profan'd and Gods Lawes vilifi'd his Word burlesqu'd and droll'd upon his Name blasphem'd and himself raill'd curst renounc't yea and deni'd a being and hearing this I do not say to find delight and entertainment in this sort of company for none but those that are of reprobate minds can do that possibly take pleasure in that which hath nothing in the world to recommend it but the boldness of the villany but to sit patient without any least sense of resentment as one that had not any least concern for God Almighty's honor or his being is ingratitude to such a bulk and brutishness of guilt as is beyond the power and art of aggravation or indeed expression It was not onely death by Gods Law to dishonor or blaspheme his Name but at the hearing it tho but in repetition by a Witness all the Jews that were in hearing were oblig'd to rent their garments as their Laws assure us in their Talmud Yea we find the Courtiers in Isaiah 36. 22. coming with their cloths rent to King Hezekiah to report the words of Rabshakeh an Alien who but in a message from his own King had spoken sleightly of their God and the High Preist whom it was forbid to in most cases in such did it And one would think that it should rent our hearts of which the other was but a Symbolic Ceremony and implied that duty To hear one slight tho but by inadvertency a person whom some one or other of the company hath the least relation or but any little obligation to requires that person by the laws of honor indispensably to call for reparation To touch the reputation of a Mistress or what 's worse and own'd to be so ought they say to be no otherwise then fatally resented and these are accounted such just causes of mens indignation that a man that 's unconcern'd will take it for a glory to be second in them and he that never had the honor to be drunk in the man's company will venture to be kill'd and to be damn'd for him in such a quarrel Therefore every man unless he do design to quarrel purposely does think himself bound to forbear offences of such kind in company where any one 's oblig'd in honor or by rules that men have set it to take notice of it Now tho it were prodigious insolence to urge in parallel to this that it should seem that God Almighty is not thought so much a friend to any none have such relation to him nor on any account have reason to be so concern'd for him or for his honor that men should forbear him in their company yet it seems dreadful after such plenties of his blessings Miracles of kindness in stupendous rescues and deliverances where to pass by all those Mercies that concern Eternity his temporal preservations have contested with our provocations and overcom them and so often that they have out numbred all our hours and all other numbers but our sins that these endearments should not yet be able to oblige us so far as to move us when we hear his Laws or his Religion or his Word and Name or himself dishonor'd to desire them to forbear that God that hath bin so kind to us or if that be judg'd unmannerly by the Sword-men yet at leastwise by uneasiness and by withdrawing to assure them that we cannot bear the hearing it God did once say in a severe threatning determination Those that honor me I will honor and they that despise me shall be lightly esteem'd Go ye and learn what that means consider I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things SERMON IV. Of Gods method in giving Deliverance Psalm 102. 13 14. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for the time to favor her yea the set time is come For thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof According to the version us'd in the Liturgy Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for it is time that thou have mercy upon her yea the time is come And why thy servants think upon her stones and it pitieth them to see her in the dust THE address of this text is not ordinary they use to be directed to men for their instruction and practice but this do's treat with God seems to prescribe to and appoint him and now not to excuse this by a plea that since men have bin deaf to all addresses from this place that have bin made unto them 't is time to change the method and seeing we cannot persuade men try if we can in that sense of St Paul's words persuade God but to say for our selves when human wisdom cannot find expedients for us and our distresses are beyond the succors of their power or their counsel 't is fit then to betake our selves to God to plead with the Lord and never let him rest and when the help of man is vain to to cry out O be thou our help and with holy confidence thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion Indeed addresses to God use to be made otherwise in a petitionary form at least and it would seem much more to become us if we humbly beg'd Arise O God have mercy upon Sion yet this here in the Text is such a form as does need nothing else but faith in the Petitioner to make it acceptable There is some difference in the reading of the latter verse the one version rendring for why thy servants think upon her stones and it pitieth them to see her in the dust the other thus for thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof yet this is easily reconcil'd they think upon her stones indeed with sorrow for acknowledgments of their demerits which did call down this calamitous condition and being passionately thus affected with the sense of it they willingly receive contentedly
and cheerfully accept this punishment of their iniquity this return of their demerits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and since it is on their account namely thro their demerit that she is so low since they are sensible themselves did make her fall into the dust they cannot chuse but be more tender love and pity her the more and be more willing to do what they can to raise her up pulverem ejus evehere cupiunt In the words there is an holy confidence that God will grant the thing they long for mercy to Sion thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion 2dly A Reason of that Confidence for the time of shewing favor the appointed time for it is come 3 dy A ground for that because thy servants think upon her stones and it pitieth them to see her in the dust In handling which I shall consider 1. The Stones of Sion and those in the dust or at least in great danger of impendent ruin 2. That tho God is not alwais minded to succor his own Sion yet he hath set appointed times for that 3. That when the Sons of Sion are affected towards her as the Text expresses then is usually Gods season for deliverance his time of mercy and of shewing favor then the appointed time for it is come and then we may take holy confidence and in full assurance of faith say Thou shalt arise First of the Stones of Sion and those in the dust Sion was we know either the City of the King where there was the seat of Judgment the thrones of the house of David Psalm 122. 5. or else it was the mountain of the Lords house and so the stones of Sion are either the stones of the seat of Judgment of the Throne in the dust or the stones of the Lords house the Sanctuary there Both these therefore might be treated of and I shall speak to both but more particularly to the later And those stones may be either taken naturally as they are the stones of a material Sanctuary or else mystically in that sense they often have in Scripture which sais we as lively stones are all built up a Spiritual house 1 Pet. 2. 5. 1. The stones of Sion the material Sanctuary in the dust the Psalmist thought an object for so much pity that some Psalms are but the Liturgies of his pious resentments upon that occasion Psalm 74. is full herein Think upon Mount Sion where thou hast dwelt lift up thy feet that thou maist utterly destroy every Enimy which hath don evil in thy Sanctuary Thine Adversaries roar in the midst of thy Congregations and set up their banners for tokens they break down all the carved work thereof with axes and hammers they have set fire upon thy holy Places and have defil'd the dwelling place of thy name even unto the ground yea they said in their hearts let us make havock of them all together It is not many years since this was our complaint concerning both the house of God and of the King the Church and Monarchy as if the life of one were bound up in the others life We saw Gods honor at least the place where his honor dwelt laid in the dust nor was it suffer'd to stay there the stones of Sion not allow'd to find a place for burial in that dust which is the common grave the Church it self had not a Monument nor the tombs a sepulcher but the very ruins were disquieted the rubbish troubled and the stones and dust suffer'd a deportation us'd as if men thought with them to build a Sanctuary for those Sins that demolisht them and make a Refuge for their Sacrilege 'T is true to many this seem'd no sad spectacle nor would it now to such as think any occasional room of the lowest name and usage might do as well for the uses of Gods service Strange when there was never a Religion in the world that did acknowledg any sort of God but would allot some place peculiar to his worship with them whose deities were Sicknesses the Feaver had its Temple Yea and stranger in a world that does devote set rooms to every use of nature of convenience and of pleasure the recreations have a place made for them and the meanest instruments of sport have so meals have one and feasts have another luxury hath its offices State hath many chambers antichambers and withdrawing places merely because there may be so many rooms of which there is no use for that is Pomp if God should not have one too for all uses that relate to him to meet us in with all his train of Angels and to bless us and to entertain us with the food of heaven with himself But whether men desire it so again yet so it lately was and when his table was remov'd his entertainment too was laid aside and the Sacrament become as desolate as the Altar Gods houses his mysteries too in the dust God did arise I cannot chuse but see that we have no such object of resentment now but how much farther off it is from being thus at this time and how much less apposite to our condition at this present the discourse is so much greater demonstration of what my Text affirms that when Gods honor is affronted thus and his house vilified and ruin'd then the time for favor the appointed time is come and when the stones of Sion are thrown down into the dust his Servants humbled too into the dust with sorrow and resentments then God shall arise for so he did It was so also if we look upon the Stones of Sion in their mystical and figurative sense Now altho every sincere Christian every one in whom on the foundation of a true sound faith an holy life is superstructed be not onely in St Peters words a lively stone but in St Pauls a Temple yet more properly the whole community of Christians is in Scripture represented to us as the body of a building St Peter tells them ye are built up a Spiritual house 1 Pet. 2. 5. and St Paul saith built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone in whom all the building fitly fram'd together groweth up a holy Temple in the Lord in whom ye also are built up together for an habitation of God thro the Spirit Eph. 2. 20 21 22. The ends for which 't is call'd so seem indeed more lively represented in the parallel resemblance of a natural body Rom. 12. 1 Cor. 12. 12. and that body the body of Christ Eph. 1. 23. or that of which he is the head Col. 1. 18. from which all Christians do receive their life and motion their increase and strength no otherwise then as they are united and tied by joints and nerves to one another and that head Eph. 4. 16. and have all one Spirit also 1 Cor. 12. 13. Of all which expressions as one end is to enforce such unity in the profession
of their faith and communion in Gods public worship among Christians as there is unity and communion between the several parts of one same person that their union in it should be so strict that all their assemblies for it should make but one body with one spirit so another end is to assure that as in one same body there are several parts for several uses without which it could not be an organiz'd complete animal body so in the one body of Christ the Church too there are several ministeries offices and powers some more noble others more inferior and the whole body may as well be all eie as each member in the Church a Seer every part be tongue as every man a Teacher St Paul from that Analogy deducing a necessity of several parts and their subordination also in that 1 Cor. 12. v. 28. and accordingly saith he God hath set several orders first Apostles after Prophets Teachers helps or ministerial offices and governments without which governments and which diversity 't is as impossible it can subsist as for a body to see without an eie or speak without a tongue consult direct and call it self without a brain or understanding Yet this same is exprest all in the other body of a building which my text relates to for Eph. 4. 11. Christ gave also some Apostles and some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and some Teachers for the perfecting the Saints compacting holding Christians together in assemblies for Gods public worship for the work of the ministry for the edifying or building up of the body of Christ. Now this embleme to the body of a building as the other is a type of Unity but yet of several and subordinate stations in the Churches unity For stones however excellently squar'd fitted are yet no parts of the structure till they be cemented to the rest that lean on the foundation the number possibly may make a heap but not a frame until they be dispos'd and order'd in their several stations for there are such in this body also every hewn stone cannot be a pinnacle nor corner stone so in the Church all are not capable of the same ministeries offices or powers And yet we may remember when it was so all assum'd all seiz'd the offices usurpt the powers executed all the ministeries all subordination was demolisht order broken Governments under foot the stones of the Sanctuary pour'd out in the top of every street as Jeremy laments the Vrim and the Thummim stones that gave the heavenly Oracles lost in ruins Now then God to make good the promis'd method of his Providential mercies when it was thus when these stones of Sion were in the dust the Ephod and the Priests thrown into it and the Priesthood and the Fathers of it the the whole life with all its offices and powers dying almost all that could continue it being laid in the dust and Sions Enimies expecting the expiring of the Order then the appointed time was come and God not onely did himself arise but made a resurrection of the Church too and from the dust these stones were again most miraculously built into a Spiritual House I cannot but acknowledg that the breaches which this desolation made were not wholly made up nor were well cemented and as uncemented breaches use to do decai'd more and more daily what arts were us'd to keep them open yea to widen them by whom for what ends too is so evident I shall not touch it But 't is sure we had not much face had no great appearance of the bodies that the Scripture represents the Church by for in those that were before broke off from her there was no subordination nor no order nor no unity every broken divided piece of ruin took upon it self to be the entire building the whole body every Faction was Christs Church each Assembly was his flock his Congregation when indeed it was onely a Spiritual riot And when things were dispos'd thus then at once to break down all the poor remainders he that takes his place to whom Christ said Thou art Peter and on this rock I will build my Church who yet as not content to thrust Christ out from being the alone foundation then which none can lay another true one 1 Cor. 3. 11. would be the chief head stone in the corner also on which whosoever should fall shall be broken but on whosoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder Matth. 21. 44. He I say in confifidence of that success attemts this on the Reformation and particularly on this as they thought tottering Church to lay her stones all in the dust And truly such the instruments emploi'd are that humanely speaking it must seem impossible to be avoided For in Gods name under the Autority of Religion with the greatest Sacredness that can be they contrive the bloudiest most irreligious most inhumane murders treasons assassinations imaginable make the holy Eucharist the bond of their confederacy in those so tremendous villanies Christ's bloud becomes the very obligation both to commit not confess them for which end they say and swear even at the point of death and upon their Salvation prov'd and confest falshoods Now what security or guard can mankind have against such whom no ties of Religion or humanity have any force on Whether these be the doctrines of their Church tho that be true in most part yet it matters not to them who are to be massacred if they be the constant practices and if they have such guides of conscience as can satisfy and thereupon engage the instruments that must effect them to those practices How they do that I must confess seems strange for they yet look upon those actions as for which they would have absolution therefore sins For tho there have bin dispensations sent from Rome permitting them to promise swear subscribe and do what else should be requir'd of them so as in mind they did continue firm and us'd their diligence to advance the Roman faith in secret yet such dispensations might be intercepted as those were in 1580. and brought to King James in Scotland and so might discover plots if they were us'd to give them in all such occasions besides that they would stare the head of that Church in the face betray his being privy to and abetting those designs of bloud which now if they miscarry they can cast at first upon some private Desperado's and then after lye laugh them out of mens belief Such dispensations therefore being not to be expected still they took other ways For seven years after Sextus V. offering by the Bishop of Dunblain to that King a marriage with the Infanta of Spaine if he would become a Catholic as he call'd it and join with them against the English and this being mightily resisted by the then Lord Chancellor which made that ineffectual and who was their constant adversary Father William Chrichton who had
evade onely I allow 1. That Christ came down to settle his Religion plant the Christian Faith without a grant from or the leave of Secular Powers when he commissioned his Apostles to conveigh the Gospel thro the world they did expect or ask no Pass-port from the several Princes but in opposition to the Magistrates and Governors and Kings against whom he promis'd them to justify and bear them out they preach'd it I allow too 2. That he autoriz'd and gave right to Christians as such to assemble for Gods Worship and Service according to the rule of his Religion whatever prohibition threats or persecution they should meet from Secular powers on account of doing so Accordingly the Apostles and their Converts did so and St Paul gives it in charge to the Hebrews not to forbear doing so for any fear or suffering whatsoever not forsaking the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is Now he that does require that they shall do so notwithstanding any opposition from the Secular Powers gives them right to do so tho in opposition to those Powers for all must have a right to do their duty and accordingly the Christians of the first Ages did meet for Gods Worship against all the edicts all the persecutions of the Heathen Emperors But 3. Tho our Savior by this grant seems to pass by those Powers unregarded or at least not taken notice of when he gives their Subjects Privilege to meet in public full assemblies such as those of Christians ought to be without their leave yea and against their orders yet does not this grant diminish or intrench upon their safety in the least because the onely men he gives it to are such as can design or do no hurt to any Government For Christ conferr'd this privilege merely on the account of that Religion which he instituted and to men as his Disciples and Followers in it Now himself so renounc'd all pretence to any Secular interest or power practisâ—d such obedience to his Governors tho most unjust taught such subjection to all in Authority whether good or bad Patrons or Enemies to the Religion nursing Fathers to his Followers or Slaughter-men and Executioners and hath made all this so much the temper and the constitution of Christianity which condemns all enterprizing upon any rights of others and much more of Princes that it is impossible that companies of such men that is of such Christians such to whom alone Christ gives the privilege of meeting can create a danger or a jealousy in any State men that must indeed assemble but must not resist act or contrive against their Governors but die if they and laws will have it so for that their meeting So the Primitive Christians did so 20000 in one day at Nicomedia for assembling But men whose Principles or former practices upon their principles have any thing that tends to sedition in them especially if they have us'd such meetings to foment it or tho they did not that the other also till they can give such security as will satisfy the state of which the State is to judg can no more by their Christian birth-right by Christs whether grant or injunction of assembling for Gods Worship claim a privilege of such assemblies then notoriously sinful scandalous Christians or then open Heretics can by vertue of that same injunction claim the privilege of the public Assemblies till they satisfy the Church for the Church may excommunicate these and the State may restrain those others and they have no right or plea in conscience against it The rights he gave were given to men so far as they should follow the Religion which he instituted he gave no more privilege to the seditious then the scandalous He did not by requiring such assemblies for religious Worship mean to weaken the security of Governments which his Religion is above all other institutions fram'd to settle and establish which therefore by the grant of Christs Religion as well as by a right inherent in their office Governors may take care to provide for by restraints of that kind not at all examining mens pretension whether their Religion or their Principles be true or false for that were endless and to no effect every mans Religion and his Principles are true to himself but onely if they tend towards commotions or give cause of jealousy which still Governors must judg of Which if they cannot satisfy they can plead no Privilege to which they have no further right then as they free themselves from such suspicions In fine they cannot claim this on account of Christianity since Christianity admits of nothing that is prejudicial or gives fear to Governments but is the basis of Obedience the cement of Society Ecclesiastical and secular it compacts all the Stones of Sion of the House of God and of the seat of David of the Sanctuary and the Throne And therefore in the 4th place Romanists and 't is the same of every other Sect of men so far as they abet such Principles or have ever shew'd themselves in prosecution of them but Romanists for instance at the present who by all ways of assurance have convinc'd the world the most destructive Tenets to government most abhorrent from the state of Christianity are their Principles their Faith as namely by the general dictates of their Schole-men their allow'd Theology of their Canonists their allow'd Laws of a shole of particular Councils and some general their allow'd Rule of Faith of their Popes their infallible Judg and what 's worse by multitudes of practices the most inhumane that were ever heard of and would never yet however call'd on or accus'd retract or sentence but still justify and practise them Since they therefore know themselves incapable of claming Toleration by the Laws of Christianity we can interpret them to mean no other thing by claming and endeavoring it but to get more opportunities to destroy the Government both of Church and State to widen and to make more breaches in the gaping tottering walls of Sion tumble down her stones into the dust and make their dust their grave Nor need I discourse how others turn these mercies into gall and bitterness to contrive for parties and widen their own interests and the breaches of the Government the outcry for liberty ending alwaies in its denial of it to all besides themselves Such is our prospect of the stones of Sion it looks fatal but it hath this Argument of comfort in it that when Sion is in this condition that it is usually Gods time of mercy and of shewing favor then the appointed time for it is come the next thing that I am to speak to That this is ordinarily Gods time of appearing to shew mercy is notorious from Davids challenging his aids elsewhere upon the same account Psal. 119. 126. It is time for thee Lord to work or it is time for Thee to put to thine hand for they have made void thy
Cities might be spar'd in fine when once they have wrought out the measure of God's mercies and their iniquity is full it is no wonder if the measure of their Judgment be full too and it self irreversible and utter But yet tho in all these Judgments whether partial or final Innocent and Righteous persons suffer with the wicked All things come alike to all there is one event to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Ecclesiastes 9. 2. So as that it should seem the sincere Christian can no more depend than others or if he do his trust will fail him yet to omit the reasons of this dispensation of God's Providenc which are many very just ones that alone sufficeth good men in the midst of all such Judgments to depend upon which St Paul writes on the very account of such distresses and necessities Rom. 8. 28. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God even those afflictions working for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. They are God's words and so trusting and depending on them we know whom we have believed namely God the person and my last part wherein I am to enquire on what accounts especially he that does depend upon him in these cases hath assurance such as that he can profess I know whom I have believed Now there is scarce that Attribute in God which is not a firm ground for resignation of our selves to and of reliance on him But to pass all those which are every where in God's Book to be met with and are urg'd with all advantage and to name two other onely First 't is certain that we may with the most comfortable hope and greatest confidence rely on him who when we have most need is readiest to relieve As we read in the Scripture of an accepted time of the day of Salvation to let us know that it is not to be catcht in every season as if whensoever we shall have a mind to be delivered and ask for it God must hearken and command deliverances no sure there are proper set times and we must be unwearied in waiting for it so also ordinarily that the time of greatest need is God's opportunity and the day of extremity the day of Salvation is obvious All other times he tries us and does exercise our virtues but when we are past all other help then he relieves us Therefore David is most peremtory with the Lord on that account Psalm 102. 13 14. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for it is time that thou have mercy upon her yea the time is come And why thy servants think upon her stones and it pitieth them to see her in the dust and Psalm 9. 9. The Lord also will be a refuge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXXII in opportunitatibus in tribulatione in the true opportunity that is when trouble comes And we shall find a reason for this way of working in his Praier Psalm 109. 26 27. O save me according to thy mercy that they may know that this is thy hand and that thou Lord hast don it When we are in such distress as is past man's aid then if deliverance come we cannot chuse but know the hand when we are in darkness and dimness of anguish and if we look unto the earth behold nothing but darkness as of the shadow of death then if any light arise we know it is the day-spring from on high that visits us And if besides this reason and those Texts we but consult the Annals of God's actings we shall find it always thus and not to mention those that refer to particular persons of which Joseph's single story is a manifold instance which also gave birth to those great events which shall make up a demonstration that this is the way of God's procedure In Egypt when the design was laid so that the People of Israel could not have lasted longer than one Age for posterity was forbidden and the Nation was to be murder'd by a prohibition of being born and when they could not to avoid this persecution get out thence except the sea would at once make a passage for them and a wall and rampart to secure that passage and if it also should do so it would but land them in a wilderness and they but fled from water to perish for want of it and escapt being drown'd to die with thirst a place too where unless the desert can bring forth the bread of Heaven unless Flesh and Manna can grow there where nothing grew they have but chang'd their fate and brought themselves into a more unavoidable and speedy ruin when this state of exigence was come then God comes in by weak means a stammering tongue and little rod works all deliverance And again afterwards in the captivity of that Nation a state which Jeremy the Prophet when he had bewailed in sorrowful eloquence in lamentations that live still yet wish'd his head had bin a fountain of tears to weep for it when in seventy years the people was so mixt incorporated with their Conquerors as must needs be very hard to separate and tear them asunder and as for their Temple it was ruin'd and despoil'd of all its holy furniture which was not onely rob'd but desecrated and profan'd so as not to be likely nor scarce fit to be returned the vessels of the Sanctuary being made the utensils of their Idol-feasts and their own riots and those holy bowls made up their drunkeness as well as sacriledge yet when these conquering Robbers were enjoying their spoils and crimes as if wine in those holy bowls did stupity men past all sense they and the great Babylon are taken ere they knew it and the Jews return strait follow'd Again when Cestius Gallus had sate down before Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles when the Nation being oblig'd by their Religion was all in that City and the Christians of the Land were there too after several assaults and when he might have taken it he on a sudden rais'd the siege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Josephus without any reason no body knows why but onely as God put it in his heart to do so to give way for the Christians to obey that voice which the same Josephus saith was heard in the Temple at the Feast of Pentecost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us go hence and upon it all the Christians went to Pella not one staid but every one escapt that ruin which Titus sitting down before that City brought upon that People the great Enimies of his Church to a final utter desolation Once more when after the nine Persecutions which like so many torrents of fire had swept away the Christians in flame Dioclesians like a tenth wave came as if it meant to swallow not
the relicks onely of Christ's Church but also all the memory of the other cruelties when in one small Province in a month he put to death one hundred and fourty four thousand Christians banish'd seven hundred thousand more and proportionably so in other places thro the Roman world with such success that he took confidence to write on his triumphal Arches Deleto nomine Christiano as he had blotted out the very name of Christians then at the last gasp of his Church it pleas'd the Lord to raise up Constantine and strait the whole face of the world was Christian and Dioclesian himself liv'd to see it I might have instanced in our own so fresh deliverance but that it would not look like an incouragement it may be to rely and cast our selves again upon him if so soon we call upon our selves the same needs by the same wretchless methods and there are some they say that apprehend so And God knows the ruin of the Reformation and our Church hath from its first beginning bin still working by her restless indefatigable Enimies and hath often bin preserv'd onely on the account I am now speaking that when things are past all humane help then is God's set time for relief I know the Churches Adversaries brag of multitudes and they come up on every side close to her yea and which is worse we seem to labor to make God himself our Enimy or at least provoke him to desert that Chutch and Reformation we pollute so put out the Worship we unhallow and profane so by ill lives make those that will have nothing of Religion but some forms it may be loose them too and let them die for want of substance and the shew go out not leave so much as the hypocrisy of piety Indeed a flood of Atheism and contemt of all Religion and virtue looks like a just dereliction of them who would not let God be in their thoughts nor Religion or Morality in their actions Nay may it not look like a kindness to remove the Gospel which proves onely the savor of death unto death put out that light which men are but resolv'd to sin against Or can there be a greater mercy than to refuse all the means of mercy to such men as onely make them work out condemnation to them O Lord to us indeed belongs confusion of face but notwithstanding to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses tho we have rebelled against him and as he knows how to reserve the ungodly to the day of Judgment to be punish'd he knows too how many thousand knees do bow to him in secret reckons all those tears that are pour'd out in Religion's and the Churches cause and how wicked soever the Professors of Religion the Church Members may be if the constitution of Religion and the Church themselves yet be not vitiated or defective there is hope still And truly whereas many blame the Reformation that it did not keep more hold upon the Consciences of the Community did not retain some power which altho not of Divine Institution but things warily and by degrees brought in as seeming to work towards piety and most certainly in humane ways of judging serving to procure more veneration and outward security of the Church and Religion to work out which the other consequential worldly interests we see the very scheme of some Professions not their discipline onely but their faith too is contriv'd I think on the other side if our Reformation instead of doing thus as it consulted not at first with carnal Politicks but Christ's institutions as the Scripture and other primitive Records conveied them and design'd no more to themselves than those bare naked Spiritual doctrines rights and powers which Christ gave them left to Cesar whatsoever was Cesar's knowing God had promis'd Kings should be their Nursing-fathers and to be so is part of their Office trusting therefore God and Governments with their protection and defence of Church and Religion So also if thro all succeeding times whether of flourish or depression and calamity Religion it self whatever its Professors are have retain'd always the same simplicity of principles be it self untainted not new model'd to serve ends or interests then whenever men shall begin to clip it I do not say in maintenance seizing what their Father's sacriledge had left them but I mean because ours did not so as other Churches grasp some usurpt power to secure their own shall therefore cut her Spiritual powers short so that they cannot serve the ends of piety because they know her Children will not cannot by their principles resist i. e. if they endeavor to destroy them for this reason that they make men the best Subjects and of the most Christian Principles that is persecute their Christianity it self and martyr that I must profess that it will look like God's set appointed time to arise and to have mercy upon Sion when it is expos'd a naked Orphan left to his protection onely then he cannot pass it by but when he sees it in its bloud thus he will say unto it live and tho he plague her wicked and ungracious Sons and possibly take away many of the good ones from the evil to come yet the Religion will not die Let them believe it hopeless who desire a pretence to leave it who do what they can to stab their Mother and make it a reason to forsake her then because she is so desperately wounded and let them declare it who design to betray men out of it But whether is wiser to believe these or the God from whom we have these promises and these experiences and the other grounds of trust Sure we know better whom we have believed especially since the very trust to him is an engagement to him not to fail us that 's my last ground 'T is it self a means prescrib'd us by himself Isaiah 50. 10. Who is he among you that feareth the Lord that walketh in darkness hath no light Let him trust in the name of the Lord stay upon his God There is nothing in the world that more engages any man that is not profligately false than trusting to him and for God there is no other piece of piety or virtue gives such honor to him his Attributes as sincere dependance on him do's It does acknowledge his Omniscience that he knows our needs be they never so perplext intricate knows how to help them his Omnipresence that he is at hand on all occasions his Omnipotence how he is able above all our possibility of want his Mercy Goodness Benignity in that he condescended to be willing to relieve us his Faithfulness Truth and Justice in observing his good promises and never failing them and his Immutability in all these and his other Attributes of loving kindness Now truly as our miseries requir'd all these so our trust to him gives him the glory of all these and therefore 't is no wonder if
judgment the soul shall be rewarded with the blessing of its intentions As it did often do its part in piety without the body so it shall have a crown before the body shall forestal happiness and for a while it shall alone be blessed as oftentimes it hath been vertuous alone in good intentions when it could not act 4. But all this is not strange that the great mercy of our God should so interpret to our advantage our designs of piety as to impute good meanings to our glory as if they were good doings and consequently where the intentions are holy the actions must be holy and where this eye is clear the body must have light but 't will be very strange if a clear eye make the whole body full of light illustrate those performances which have no relation to the soul. Most of the actions of our life are common and indifferent serve only the necessities or recreations of nature and how can these be holy Why yes by pure Religious intentions a man may sanctify all the actions of his life and if thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do do all to the glory of God saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 10. 31. Every therefore the most common action may be intended to Gods glory and then 't is sanctified That the Lord should look for honor from the devout performances of our strictest Religion 't is no wonder for therefore he requires them but that when in the meanest instance I do serve my self in doing so I should be able to give glory to my God is sure by vertue of some strange stratagem some Divine elixar that will so transmute things why a good meaning will do this To shew thee how when thou goest about the employments of thy lawful calling have but good thoughts about thee good intentions in them and the actions of thy calling are for the uses of grace and thy necessities do prove thy vertue As for instance when thou labourest do but consider to what pains sin hath put thee sells thee thy bread for sweat for if man had not sin'd Eden had furnish't him with all the delicacies of Paradise without his care or contribution and he had had the fruits of the tree of life without the pains of planting any thing 't is sin that gives thee all this toil and then do but resolve to use this as an argument to thy self to make thee hate the cause of so much trouble I will sure labour most against that which hath so chang'd and debas'd my condition and which do's aim to make me far more miserable to eternity If I am weary of my work e're night what shall I be of everlastingness of torment If little thirsty heats and drops of sweat offend me what will unquenchable feavors and what a lake of brimstone And think again upon the mercies of thy God who offers thee at the rate of easier endeavors the food that lasteth to eternal life the calling of a Christian being the least painful and yet it brings the greatest fruits the price of that high calling being blessedness if thou but labor in it If thou be sustaining the necessities of nature in meat and drink look up to him that do's provide for them and resolve only not to use his blessings to his dishonor by excesses not to spew his mercies out into his face again but use them as assistances of nature to enable thee for such emploiments as his providence hath assign'd to thee And in thy recreations also do but take notice thankfully how God hath provided for delights too how he hath not only brought forth bread to strengthen man but wine to make his heart glad and oyl to make him a cheerful countenance and instruments of sport to delight him and but acknowledg all these things to God and intend with thy self to use them only to his ends Thy calling either to provide for thy subsistence here that thou may'st serve him or to do good to others Thy meals for preservation of that life which he hath lent thee for his uses and recreations for refreshment and for health and make no doubt if nothing do interpose to spoil these instances that thou art serving God in all of these that thy most secular actions are thus make spiritual imploiments by being dedicated so to God undertaken in his fear and intended for the uses of his providence so that if whensoever thou art going about any thing thou do but ask thy self why thou do'st set upon it and can'st but make a good intention look towards it and resolve only to let it serve such ends resolve not to transgress in it the bounds that God hath set thee either of time or measure and to make all subordinate and to assist towards piety some way or other and then sometimes with eyes lift up call for and look for a blessing down upon thee in it and by this means the action is sanctified so thou dost consecrate thy deeds to God and he accepts thy meaning in it as an offering to him the action is adopted into the stock of Religion meant to God and so thy whole life may be made pious by such good intentions and thus thy single eye makes thy whole body full of light And this consideration alone might apply it self with pressingness upon us Shall I think God not easy to be serv'd when I may teach my recreations to serve him Shall I think Heaven placed out of my possibilities when I can learn my sports to wing me towards it Religion sure is not so very difficult when a good honest meaning can transmute every action of my life into Religion and then who would not at such easy rates change his imployments which he must do and his sports which he will do into pieties when it is don by putting good intentions into them by good thoughts and ejaculations engaging God along in them But the last words do urge an application which I promised in one word But if thine eye be evil thy whole body is full of darkness My brethren if ill intentions have so destructive an influence upon our actions that when the end is foolish tho the action I practise be a vertue yet that aim do's defeat it of its vertuosness it loseth all its tast of piety and an ill enddo's debauch it into vice as I have prov'd and so for want of a good meaning I either lose my Religion or my Religion becomes sin unto me Unhappy I that when with such intentions I practise duty I lose the pleasures or the profits of the sins I might have practis'd every jot as innocently and much more usefully as to those ends and I lose the duty and by the very duty I purchase condemnation enjoy neither the vice I do omit nor yet the piety I practise nor any thing but the sad sentence of they have their reward And on the
taken from thee it is its own defence and shine for righteousness shall go before thee and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward and then 't is clearly prov'd that such a single Eie shall make the body full of light 2. Light do's signify holiness of life deeds truly Christian walk as Lights in the Lord nothing more common in Scripture and Darkness signifies a sinful and un-Christian life a life that 's full of deeds of darkness And then the words mean thus as the eie is the candle of the body lightens and directs it well if it be as it ought but otherwise very ill and the man is in the dark if his eie be ill and do not serve him so is the heart of man as to the guidance and direction of his actions if his eie be single if he have an heart taken off from the world a liberal bountiful mind not set upon the love and desire of the things of this world his whole body will be full of light his whole life will be very Christian all his actions holy and heavenly and to the making of them so liberality of mind hath a very observable influence It will incline a man wonderfully to pious courses it is a leading vertue as the eie is a leading part But if the eie be evil but if the heart be worldly set upon wealth either for it self or for those heights or fine things or pleasures which wealth do's procure if it be unsatisfied in these things for it self or envious at others for them the whole body will be full of darkness the whole life will be very un-Christian such a disposition of mind as that quite draws a man off from the temper that Christ requires the unsatisfied the envious and the covetous person can never serve God but only Sin those dispositions being the root of all evil Now if the light that is in thee be darkness if thy heart be un-Christian and if thy leading vertue that was to take thee off from all worldly inclinations be extinct and dark in thee how great is that darkness what an un-Christian life will there be and whatever light do's shine about thee of the Gospel whatever light thou dost pretend of knowledg or of whatsoever else there is a deep darkness dwells upon thy heart and is in all thy actions Now this sense we see connects what went before and that which follows after drives on our Savior's design that he is pressing here and to this sense Scripture alwaies speaks in the expressions of single and of evil eie of light and darkness and therefore this was certainly the sense that was intended by our Savior and to the prosecuting of it I shall shew 1. That to have a generous liberal mind an heart taken off from the self uses and advantages of wealth is the great means the great engine and instrument of making all the actions very Christian the life holy 2. This grace in the heart bounty of mind is a great evidence of a true Christian heart 3. A worldly heart loving and desiring wealth troubled at its condition envying others that are in better and for the ends of any advantages to it self straitning its liberality is not only in it self an un-Christian temper but such as is the root and cause of a life wholly un-Christian and unholy Of these in their order 1. To have a liberal mind c. That the throwing of this earth out of the heart is a most hopeful way of making the man clean and pure we have most pregnant Scripture Luke 11. 39 40 41. Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter but your inward part in full of ravening and wickedness Ye fools did not be that made that which is without make that which is within also But rather give alms of such things as you have and behold all things are clean unto you which bears this sene ye hypocritical Pharisees wash yor selve as if a man should wash his vessels the outside of them only leaving the insides of them full of filthiness for thus do ye wash your bodies leaving your souls full of all uncleaness This is an extreme folly for it your outward washings were in obedience to God you would cleanse the insides your hearts and souls as well as your bodies The best way of purifying your selves your estates your meats and drinks c. from all pollution cleaving to them is by works of mercy and liberal alms gifts and not by washing pots and vessels Thy broken meats thy scraps thy charities shall cleanse thy platters more than washing them shall do alms shall make all things clean But how this To cleanse hath two aspects either on the guilt of past actions or on the habits and dispositions to future commissions and is to cleanse us from the evil that we have don or to make us clean from those vices that were in us and which would make us do more evil the first of these is don by Repentance not by Alms. Indeed the Wise man saies the alms of a man is as a signet with the Lord and he will keep the good deeds of a man as the apple of an eie and give repentance to his sons and daughters Ecclesiasticus 17. 22. the happiest way of purchase for a family in the world The give to children an estate perchance is but to give an instrument of vice bestow the means of sining on them at best 't is but to leave them pomp and superfluity but to give Repenetance to them is to give security of everlasting blessedness this is as it were to entail Heaven on ones children But this is not the thing we mean we are to see how Alms should make us clean from vice It is observ'd by a Reverend Expositor that our Savior speaking Syriack useth a word for alms which in that language and Arabick signifies cleansing that is give Alms which as it comes from a word that signifies to cleanse so all shall be clean to you and they give this reason of the notion they derive Alams from a word that signifies to cleanse quod opes ab inquinamento animum ab avaritiae sordibus purgat because 1. Alms purgeth our wealth from the pollution and filthiness that adheres to it As among the Jews it was not lawful for any man to use the increase of his own land or cattle to eat part of his own harvest nor feed on his own vineyard or imploy the profits of any one beast of his own herd or flock till he had given up to God the first-born of that beast offered the first fruits every year of his fruit-yards and dedicated a first sheaf of his harvest this must sanctify all the rest which till then was unclean not to be used by him to this it seems our Savior do's look in his direction There is an unclean tacke in every thing that comes from earth it do's derive a soil and
8. which if after all the Husbandmans methods of Care and Art it brings forth only thorns and briars it is rejected by him he will bestow no more labour on it but can hardly forbear cursing such an ill piece of ground and its end is to be burnt So we after Gods Husbandry of Afflictions when the Plowers plowed upon our backs and made long furrows and the Iron teeth of Oppressors as it were harrowed us if we bring forth only the fruits of the Flesh we are rejected reprobated God will bestow no more Arts on us we are not far from his curse and there remains only a fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation If any did continue refractory to the Rod sinn'd under and against Judgment and did commit with an high hand even while the Lords hand was stretch'd out against them what shall reform what can express their guilt To have beheld that tragical iniquity we read of Lyons where when the City was so visited with the Pestilence that scarce any were free that the Dead without a figure buried their dead falling down one upon another each being at once a Carcass and a grave the Soldiers of the Cittadel would daily issue forth and deflour Virgins now giving up the ghost defile Matrons even already dead committing with the dust warming the grave with sinful heats and coupling with the Plague and Death would not this have seemed the Landskip of Hell to us when they suffer and sin together Yet when a Church and State were on their death-beds Gods Tokens on them visited with the treasures of his Plagues and our selves sinking in that our Ruin if any went a whoring after their own flesh still fulfilling the lusts thereof and in the midst of Deaths searching for sins what was this but to do the same things whose story does affright us while the actions please and in this case what method will be useful do we think our selves of that generous kind that will do nothing by compulsion but will for kindness and though we would not be chained yet we will be drawn to Vertue by the cords of Love and now God hath shewn mercy on us we will return him service out of gratitude Truly I make no question but most of us have promised some such things to God how if he would but save us from our Enemies that we might serve him without fear that we would do it in holiness and Righteousness before him And if he would restore his opportunities of Worship how we would use them Thus we did labour to tempt God and draw him in to have compassion and this was Ephraims Imagination just I heard Ephraim bemoaning himself saith the Prophet as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke turn thou me and I shall be turned turn my Captivity and I will turn my life But this was as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke that did not like the straitness and pressure of it and would promise any thing to get it off thought it more easie to reform than bear Affliction But is this hopeful think you The Soldiers of Lyons that would ravish Death and break into the Grave for Lust it may be would have been modest and retired from the fair Palaces that are prepared to tempt and entertain that Vice Cold and insensible of all those heats that Health and Beauty kindle but remember it was the taking off Gods hand that hardened Pharaohs heart and a release from punishment was his Reprobation And as for those that were humbled under the Rod and when God had retrench'd from their enjoyments did put restraints upon themselves gave over sinning I have a word of Caution for them that they examine well and take a care it be a ceasing from sin like that in the Text a dying to it that they no longer live the rest of their time in the flesh to the lusts of men For if this Old Man be only cold and stiff not mortified by the calm and sunshine of Peace likely to be warm'd into a recovery if thou owe all thy Innocence to thy Pressure wert only plunder'd of thy sins and thy Vertue and Poverty hand in hand as they were born so they will die together thy Vices and Revenues come in at once What is this but to invite new Desolations which God in kindness must send to take away the opportunities and foments of our ruining sins 'T is true when God has wrought such most astonishing miracles of mercy for us when he did make Calamity contribute to our Happiness when we were Shipwrackt to the Haven and the Shore when Ruins did advance us and we fell upwards it is an hopeful argument God would not do such mighty works on purpose to undo them we have good ground of confidence that he will preserve his own mercies and will not throw away the issues of his goodness in which his bounty hath so great an interest and share But yet if we debauch Salvation and make it serve our undoing if we order these opportunities of mercy so that they only help us to fill up the measure of our sins if we teach Gods long-suffering only to work out our eternal sufferings these Mercies will prove very cruel to us and far from giving any colour for our hopes When the Prodigal was received into his Fathers house and arms had a Ring put on him and the fatted Calf killed for him if he should strait have invited the companions of his former Riot to that fatted Calf and joyn'd his Harlot to him with that Ring he had deserved then to be disinherited both from his Fathers house and pitty who would have had no farther entertainment nor no bowels for him To prevent such a fate let us make no relapses but quite cease from sin which if we do not a little Logick will draw an unhappy inference from this Text if he that hath suffered hath ceast from sin then he that hath not ceast from sinning hath not suffered and then what is all this that we have felt and so lain under What is it if it be not suffering If this be but preparative then what is the full Potion the Cup of Indignation when all his Vials shall be poured into it If such have been the beginnings of sufferings what shall the issues be If the morning dew of the day of punishment have been so full of blood what shall the Storm and Tempest be the deluge and inundation of Fury Take heed of making God relapse 't is in your power to prevent it your Reformation will be his preservative and Antidote That is the way to keep all whole to settle Government and Religion both at once to establish the Kings Throne and Christs For notwithstanding mens pretensions these Thrones are not at all inconsistent For that there must be no King but Christ that there cannot be a Kingdom here of this World because there is a Kingdom that is not of this World is such