was to put all to the sword and the event was he spared one too many 2 Sam. 1. for one of them was his executioner God biddeth us destroy the whole body of sin Rom. 6.6 12. to leave no sin reigning in our mortal bodies and if we favour and spare but one that one if we turn not from it will be strong enough to turn us to destruction Again it is Obedience onely that commendeth us to God and that as exact and perfect as the equity of the Gospel requireth and so every degree of sin is rebellion God requireth totam voluntatem the whole will for indeed where it is not whole it is not at all it is not a will and integram poenitentiam a solid entire universal conversion True obedience saith Luther non transit in genus deliberativum doth not demur and deliberate I may add non transit in genus judiciale It doth not take upon it self to determine which commandment is to be kept and which may be omitted what is to be done and what to be left undone For as our Faith is imperfect if it be not equal to the truth revealed so is our Obedience imperfect when it is not equal to the command and both are unavailable because in the one we stick at some part of the truth revealed and in the other come short of the command and so in the one we distrust God in the other we oppose him What is a Sigh if my Murmuring drown it What is my Devotion if my Impatience chill it What is my Liberality if my Uncleanness defile it What are my Prayers if my partial Obedience turn them into sin What is a morsel of bread to one poor man when my Oppression hath eaten up a thousand What is my Faith if my Malice make me worse then an Infidel The voice of Scripture the language of Obedience is to keep all the commandments the language of Repentance to depart from all iniquity All the Virtues in the world cannot wash off the guilt of one unrepented sin Mic. 6.7 Shall I give my first born for my transgression saith the Prophet the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul Shall I bring the merits of one Saint the supererogations of another and add to these the treasury of the Church Shall I bring my Almes my Devotion my Tears All these will vanish at the guilt of one sin and melt before it as wax before the Sun For every sin is as Seneca speaketh of Alexander's in killing Callisthenes De Benef. crimen aeternum an everlasting sin which no virtue of our own but a full complete Repentance can redeem As oft as it shall be said that Alexander slew so many thousand Persians it will be replyed he did so but withal he slew Callisthenes He slew Darius it is true and Callisthenes too He wan all as far as the very Ocean it is true but he killed Callisthenes And as oft as we shall fill our minds and flatter our selves with the forbearance of these or those sins our Conscience will check and take us up and tell us But we have continued in this or that beloved sin And none of all our performances shall make so much to our comfort as one unrepented sin shall to our reproch And now because in common esteem One is no number and we scarce count him guilty of sin who hath but one fault let us well weigh the danger of any one sin be it Fornication Theft Covetousness or whatsoever is called sin and though perhaps we may dread it the less because it is but one yet we shall find good reason to turn from it because it is sin And 1. Every particular sin is of a monstrous aspect being committed not onely against the Law written but against the Law of Nature which did then characterize the soul when the soul did first inform the body For though we call those horrid sins unnatural which S. Paul speaketh against Rom. 1. yet in true estimation every sin is so being against our very Reason which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very first law written in our hearts Or. 34. saith Nazianzene Sin is an unreasonable thing nor can it defend it self by discourse or argument If heaven were to be bought with sin it were no purchase for by every evil work I forfeit not onely my Christianity but my Manhood I am robbed of my chiefest jewel and I my self am the thief Who would buy eternity with sin who would buy immortality upon such loathsome terms If Christ should have promised heaven upon condition of a wicked life who would have believed there had been either Christ or heaven And therefore it is laid as an imputation upon Man Solum hoc animal naturae fines transgreditur No Creature breaketh the bounds and limits which Nature hath set but Man And there is much of truth in it Man when he sinneth is more unbounded and irregular then a Beast For a Beast followeth the conduct of his natural appetite but Man leaveth his Reason behind which should be more powerful and is as natural to him as his Sense Man Psal 49.20 saith the Prophet David that understandeth not is like to the beasts that perish And Man that is like to a beast is worse then a Beast No Fox to Herode Luke 13.32 no Goat to the Wanton no Tiger to the Murderer No Wolf to the Oppressour no Horseleach to the Covetous For Beasts follow that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instinct of nature by which they are carried to the object but Man maketh Reason which should come in to rescue him from sin an instrument of evil so that his Reason which was made as a help as his God on earth serveth onely to make him more unreasonable Consider then though it be but one sin yet so far it maketh thee like unto a Beast nay worse then any though it be but one yet it hath a monstrous aspect and then turn from it 2. Though it be but one yet it is very fruitful and may beget another nay multiply it self into a numerous issue into as many sins as there be hairs of thy head It is truly said Omne verum omni vero consonat There is a kind of agreement and harmony in truths And the devout Schoolman telleth us that the whole Scripture is but one copulative proposition because the precepts therein contained are many and yet but one many in regard of the diversity of those works that perfect them yet but one in respect of that root of charity which beginneth them So peccatum est multiplex unum There is a kind of dependency between sins and a growth in wickedness one drawing and deriving poyson from another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius speaketh of Heresies Haeres Basilid as the Asp doth from the Viper which being set in opposition to any particular virtue creepeth on and multiplieth and gathereth strength to the endangering of
Truth Let us therefore fontem à capite fodere as near as we can lay open the ground of this mistake and errour and we shall find it to be an errour as great as this and to have the same tast and relish with the fountain from whence it flowed They who make Gods permissive will effective at the very mention of Gods will think of that absolute will of his which cannot be resisted by which he made the heavens and the earth and so acknowledge no will of God but that which is absolute and effective as if that will of his by which he would have us do something were the same with that by which he will do something himself and so in effect they make not onely the conversion but the induration of a sinner the work of Omnipotency But were not men blind to all objects but those they delight to look on they might easily discern a great difference and that Gods will is broken every day His natural Desire which is his will to save mankind is that fulfilled If it were there could be no hell at all His Command that is his will what moment is there wherein that is not resisted We are those Devils who kindle that fire which he made not for us We are those sons of Anak those giant-like fighters against Heaven who break his commands with as great ease as Samson did his threads of tow We are those Leviathans who break the bounds he hath set us Job 14.27 29. who esteem iron as straw with whom the threatnings which he darteth at us are accounted as stubble And can we who so often break his will say that his will is alwayes fulfilled Again we must not imagin that all things that are done in the world are the work of his hand or the effect of that power by which he bringeth mighty things to pass Nor can we so much forget God and his Goodness as to imagin that upon every action of man he hath set a DIXIT ET FACTVM EST He spake the word and it was done he commanded and it became necessary For some actions there be which God doth neither absolutely will nor powerfully resist but in his wisdome permitteth to be done which otherwise could dot be done but by his permission Nor doth this will of Permission fall cross with any other will of his Not with his Absolute will for he absolutely permitteth them Not with his Primary and Natural will for though by his Natural will he would bring men to happiness though he forbid sin though he detest it as that which is most contrary to his very nature and which maketh Men devils and enemies to him yet he may justly permit it And the reason is plain For Man is not as God qui sibi sufficit ad beatitudinem who is all-sufficient and Happiness it self and therefore he was placed in an estate where he might work out his own happiness but still with a possibility of being miserable And herein was the Goodness and Wisdome of God made visible As from his Goodness it was that he loved his creature so in his Goodness and Wisdome he placed before him good and evil that he might lay hold on happiness and be good willingly and not of necessity For it is impossible for any finite creature who hath not his completeness and perfection in himself to purchase heaven but upon such terms as that he might have lost it nor to lose it but upon such terms as that he might have took it by violenee For every Law supposeth as a possibility of being kept so also a possibility of being broken which cannot be without permission of sin 1 Tim. 1.9 Lex justo non est posita If Goodness had been as essential to Man as his nature and soul by which he is if God had interceded by his Omnipotenty and by an irresistable force kept Sin from entring into the world the Jews had not heard the noise of the trumpet under the Law nor the Disciples the sermon on the mount under the Gospel there had been no use of the comfortable breath of Gods Promises nor of the terrour of his Threatnings For who would make a law against that which he knoweth will never come to pass A Law against sin supposeth a permission to sin and a possibility of sinning Lastly it standeth in no shew of opposition to Gods Occasioned and Consequent will For we must suppose sin before we can take up the least conceit of any will in God to punish Omnis poena si justa est peccati poena est saith Augustine in his Retractations All punishment that is just is the punishment of sin and therefore God who of his natural goodness would not have man commit sin out of his justice willeth man's destruction and will not repent L. 2. adv Marcion Sic totus Deus bonus est dum pro bono omnia est saith Tertullian Thus God is entirely good whilest all he is whether merciful or severe is for good Minus est tantummodò prodesse quia non aliud quid possit quà m prodesse His reward might seem too loose and not carry with it that infinite value and weight if he could not reach out his hand to punish as well as to reward and some distrust it might work in the creature that he could not do the one if he could not do both So then sin is permitted though God hate sin That which bringeth us to the gates of Death is permitted though God hath tendered his will with an oath that he will not have us die Though he forbiddeth sin though he punisheth it yet he permitteth it I have said too little Nay he could not forbid and punish it if he did not permit it Yet Permission is permission and no more nor is it such a Trojane horse nor can it swell to that bulk and greatness as to hide and contein within it those monsters of Fate and Necessity of Excaecation and Excitation of Incliation and Induration which devour a soul and cannot be resisted which bind us over unto Death when the noise is loud about us Why will ye die For this Permissive will of God or his will of Permission is not operative or efficacious Neither is it a remitting or slackning of the will of God upon which sin as some pretend must necessarily follow nor is it terminated in the thing permitted but in the permission it self alone For to permit sin is one thing and to be willing that sin should be committed is another It is written in the leaves of Aeternity that God will not have sin committed as being most abhorrent and contrary to his nature and will and yet this permission of sin is a positive act of his will for he will permit sin though he hath clothed it with Death to make us afraid of it and upon pain of eternal damnation he forbiddeth us to sin though it were his will to permit it These two
out of the deformed body of Sin and to turn their glory into shame who dishonour him For Sin and Punishment are nothing of themselves but in us they are something the one voluntary the other penal The voluntary is a foul deformity in nature and therefore the penal is added to order and place it where it may be forced to serve for the grace and beauty of the whole where the punishment of sin may either chase it away or else wipe off the dishonour of sin If we sin he correcteth us but if we sin again a worse thing will certainly fall unto us A worse thing then his eight and thirty years sickness nay a worse evil then any of those which change the countenance wither the body and burn up the bones as a hearth an evil that withereth up the soul maketh it impotent and unable to help it self and less capable of the help of Grace For as pardon doth nullifie former sins so it maketh those we commit afterwards more grievous and fatal For those sins which we commit after reconciliation are of a higher nature then those we committed before And as it is observed that it is the part of a wise friend after reconcilement etiam leves suspiciones fugere to shun the lest suspicion of offense nè quòd fortuitò fecisset consultò facere videretur lest what might formerly be imputed to chance may now seem to proceed from wilfulness so when God is pleased so far to condescend as to take us into his favour to work a miracle upon us and of enemies not onely to make us his servants but to call us his friends it will then especially concern us to abstain from all appearance of evil to suspect every object we behold as the Devil's lurking-place in which he lieth in wait to betray us and not commit that any day of which we beg pardon every day lest we may seem to have begged pardon of our sins not out of hatred but love unto them and to have left our sins to commit them afresh We are bound now not onely in a bond of common duty but of gratitude For God's free favour is numella a kind of clog and yoke to chain and fetter and restrain us from sin A reason of this we may draw from the very love of God For the Anger of God in a manner is the effect or product of his Love He is angry we sin because he loved us He is displeased when we yield to temptations because he loved us And his anger is the hotter because his love was excessive As the husband which most affectionately loveth the wife of his youth would have her not allow another so much love from her as may be conveyed in a look or glance of the eye is jealous of her very looks of her deportment of her garments and will have her so behave her self ut quisquis viderit metuat accedere that no man may be bold to approch so near as to make mention of love and all because he affectionately loveth her So much nay far greater is the love of God to our souls which by pardon he hath married unto himself in whom he desireth to dwell and take delight So dearly he loveth them that he will not divide with the World and the Flesh but is straight in passion if we cast but a favourable look or look friendly upon that sin by which we first offended him if we come but near to that which hath the shew of a rival or adversary But if we let our desires loose and fall from him and embrace the next temptation that wooeth us then he counteth us guilty of spiritual whoredom and adultery his Jealousie is cruel as the grave and the coals thereof are as the coals of fire which hath a most vehement flame And this Jealousie which is an effect of his Love shall smoke against us First it was Love and Jealousie lest we might tender our service to strange gods and cast our affections upon false riches and deceitful pleasures but now when we have left Life for Death and preferred that which first lamed us before him that cured us it is Anger and Indignation that he should lose us whom he so loved that we should fling him off who so loved us that he should create and then lose us and afterwards purchase and redeem us and make us his again and then we should have no understanding but run back again from him into captivity For in the second place as our sins are greater after reconcilement so they cancel the former pardon and call those offences to remembrance which God had cast behind his back For as good works are destroyed by sin and revive again by repentance so our evil works which are covered by repentance revive again by sin Not onely my Alms are devoured by Oppression my Chastity deflowred by Uncleanness my Fasting lost in Luxury but my former sins which were scattered as the mist before the Sun return again and are as a thick cloud between me and the bright shining mercy of God Not that there is any mutability in God God repenteth not of his gifts But we may repent of our repentance and after pardon sin again and so bring a new guilt upon our souls and not onely that but vengeance also upon our heads for the contempt of his mercy and slighting of our former pardon Irascitur enim Deus contumeliis misericordiae suae Nothing provoketh God to anger more then the abuse of his goodness and mercy Nor doth his wrath at any time burn more violently then when having been first quenched and allayed with the tears of a sinner it is after kindled again by his sin Then he that was well pleased to be reconciled will question and condemn us and yet make good his promise he that forgat our sins will impute our sins and yet be Truth it self If the righteous relapse his righteousness shall not be mentioned Ezek. 18.21 24. nor shall the wickedness of the wicked be mentioned if he repent For the change is not in God but in our selves Aliter aliter judicat de homine aliter aliter disposito He speaketh in mercy to the penitent but in anger to the relapsed sinner The rule of God's actions is constant And in this particular this is his rule this is his decree To forgive the penitent and to punish the relapsed sinner So he forgiveth the sinner when he repenteth and punisheth him who falleth away Why should we ask whether God revoke his former pardon Quid prodest esse quod esse non prodest If we think he did not yet what profit is it that that should remain which doth not profit nay which doth aggravâ—te our sin What pardon is that that leaverh us When the servant falleth down the Lord is moved with compassion and looseth him Matth. 18. and forgiveth him the debt But when he taketh his fellow-servant by the throat he delivereth him
unto death There is lex Factorum the Law of Works For they are not all Credenda in the Gospel all articles of Faith there be Agenda some things to be done Nor is the Decalogue shut out of the Gospel Nay the very articles of our Creed include a Law and in a manner bind us to some duty and though they run not in that imperial strain Do this and live yet they look towards it as towards their end Otherwise to believe them in our own vain and carnal sense vvere enough and the same faith vvould save us vvith vvhich the Devils are tormented No thy Faith to vvhich thou art also bound as by a Law is dead that is is not faith if it do not vvork by a Law Thou believest there is a God Thou art then bound to vvorship him Thou believest that Christ is thy Lord Thou art then obliged to do what he commandeth His Word must be thy Law and thou must fulfill it His Death is a Law and bindeth thee to mortification His Cross should be thy obedience his Resurrection thy righteousness and his Coming to judge the quick and the dead thy care and solicitude In a word in a Testament in a Covenant in the Angel's message in the Promises of the Gospel in every Article of thy Creed thou mayest find a Law Christ's Legacy his Will is a Law the Covenant bindeth thee the Good news obligeth thee the Promises engage thee and every Article of thy Creed hath a kind of commanding and legislative power over thee Either they bind to some duty or concern thee not at all For they are not proposed for speculation but for practice and that consequence vvhich thou mayest easily draw from every one must be to thee as a Law What though honey and milk be under his tongue and he sendeth embassadours to thee and they intreat and beseech thee in his stead and in his name Yet is all this in reference to his command and it proceedeth from the same Love which made his Law And even these beseechings are binding and aggravate our guilt if we melt not and bow to his Law Principum preces mandata sunt the very intreaties of Kings and Princes are as binding as Laws preces armatae intreaties that carry force and power with them that are sent to us as it were in arms to invade and conquer us And if we neither yield to the voice of Christ in his royal Law nor fall down and worship at his condescensions and loving parlies and earnest beseechings we increase our guilt and make sin sinful in the highest degree Nor need we thus boggle at the word or be afraid to see a Law in the Gospel if either we consider the Gospel it self or Christ our King and Lord or our selves who are his redeemed captives and owe him all service and allegeance For first the Gospel is not a dispensation to sin nor was a Saviour born to us that he should do and suffer all and we do what we list No the Gospel is the greatest and sharpest curb that was ever yet put into the mouth of Sin The grace of God saith S. Paul hath appeared unto all men teaching us that is commanding us Tit. 2.11 to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Libertas in Christo non fecit innocentiae injuriam saith the Father Our liberty in Christ was not brought in to beat down innocency before it but to uphold it rather and defend it against all those assaults which flesh and bloud our lusts and concupiscence are ready to make against it Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world He taketh away those sins that are past by remission and pardon but he setteth up a Law as a rampire and bulwork against Sin that it break not in and reign again in our mortal bodies There Christ is said to take away not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sins but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sin of the world that is the whole nature of Sin that it may have no subsistence or being in the world If the Gospel had nothing of Law in it there could be no sin under the Gospel For Sin is a transgression of a Law But flatter our selves as we please those are the greatest sins which we commit against the Gospel And it shall be easier in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah then for those Christians who turn the grace of God into wantonness who sport and revel it under the very wings of Mercy who think Mercy cannot make a Law but is busie onely to bestow Donatives and Indulgences who are then most licencious when they are most restrained For what greater curb can there be then when Justice and Wisdom and Love and Mercy all concur and joyn together to make a Law Secondly Christ is not onely our Redeemer but our King and Law-giver As he is the wonderful Counsellour Isa 9 6. Psal 2.6 so he came out of the loyns of Judah and is a Law-giver too Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion The government shall be upon his shoulder He crept not to this honour Isa 9.6 but this honour returned to him as to the true and lawful Lord With glory and honour did God crown him and set him over the works of his hands Heb. 2.7 As he crowned the first Adam with Understanding and freedom of Will so he crowned the second Adam with the full Knowledge of all things with a perfect Will and with a wonderful Power And as he gave to Adam Dominion over the beasts of the field so he gave to Christ Power over things in heaven and things on earth And he glorified not himself Heb. 5.5 but he who said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee he it was that laid the government upon his shoulder Not upon his shoulders For he was well able to bear it on one of them For in him the Godhead dwelleth bodily And with this power he was able to put down all other rule autority and power 1 Cor. â—5 24 to spoil principalities and powers and to shew them openly in triumph to spoil them by his death and to spoil them by his Laws due obedience to which shaketh the power of Hell it self For this as it pulleth out the sting of Death so also beateth down Satan under our feet This if it were universal would be the best exorcism that is and even chase the Devil out of the world which he maketh his Kingdom For to run the way of Christ's commandments is to overthrow him and bind him in chains is another hell in hell unto him Thirdly if we look upon our selves we shall find there is a necessity of Laws to guide and regulate us and to bring us to the End All other creatures are sent into the world with a sense and understanding of the end for which they come and so without particular direction and yet unerringly
true Israelite because he is frequent at the altar is no better an argument then that which the Stoick so much derideth Arrian Epictet l. 4. c. 8. He hath a long cloak and beard Therefore he is a great Philosopher For neither is Sacrifice the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the matter and business of the Israelite to which his profession bindeth him but Justice and Mercy nor a grave Oâ—t-side of a Philosopher but Reason And the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Stoick calleth it of the Israelite is to do justice and love mercy as the Philosopher is in all his actions to make Reason his rule Cast your eye back upon some former passages in this Prophecy and you shall find that these Sacrificers were idolaters Mic. 1.7 ch 2.1.2 that they were oppressours that in the night they did study iniquity and in the morning practise it that they did covet fields and take them by violence oppress a man and his house even a man and his heritage that they were cruel and bloody minded did eat the flesh of the people ch 3.2 3. ch 6. and stay their skins from off them that they were unjust and ignorant and ungrateful and all this they did bear with ease when they led their sacrifices to the altar and there laid all to vanish away with that smoke It is a wonderful thing to observe how soon and easily we are perswaded to think well of our selves in our worst condition how a form of Religion will secure us to tread it under our feet how the doing that which is not good in it self will lift us up and make us active and cheerful in doing that which is absolutely evil how the nearer we come unto hell the less we fear it Bring a sacrifice set fire to your incense bowe the knee call upon that God whom you blaspheme and there will then be no more conscience of sin And therefore in this so great abuse God is forced to give a check to his own command and precisely to except against that Ceremony that part of worship which himself for some reasons had enjoyned Isa 1 11-15 When their hands are full of blood then satur est then is he also full troubled and wearied with their burnt-offerings then he asketh the question by his Prophet Will I be pleased with thousands of rams Isa 66.3 that is I will not Incense is an abomination He that killeth a bullock is as if he slew a man he that sacrificeth a sheep as if he cut off a dogs neck Tacit. Hist. 1. And that of the Historian proveth true Plura peccant dum demerentur quà m dum offendunt Their devotion is turned into sin their ceremonious diligence doth violate the majesty of God they provoke him to wrath with their peace-offerings and never offend him more then when they worship him We may then learn thus much from the Prophets Question That the ceremonious part of Gods worship though enjoyned by God and performed most exactly by men yet if it be not driven to that end for which it was commanded is so far from finding acceptance with God that it is odious and hateful in his sight For some duties there are relativi juris which are commanded for some farther end as Sacrifice and Prayer and Hearing and Fasting which if they end in themselves are but smoke but words but noyse but shews I may say but sins Others there are that have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaketh of Sapience their end in themselves as Denying our selves Crucifying the old man Justice Mercifulness and Humility These are done for themselves for they have no other end unless it be glory The first alwaies hath reference to the last and if they come alone or with no better a retinue then those sins and irregularities which they countenance then God removeth them as he did the high places cutteth them down as he did the Groves looketh upon them with the like detestation as he doth upon Idoles 2 Kings 18.4 as he did upon the brazen Serpent when the people did burn incense to it which though it was lifted up in the wilderness by his command yet by his command it was pulled down and broken to pieces by Hezekiah and made Nehushtan a lump of brass For 1. these outward performances of some part and the easiest part of the Law were not done out of any love to the Law or the Lawgiver For Love is of a quick and operative nature and cannot rest in shews and formalities but will draw them home to the end for which they were ordained Love presenteth the gift and the heart also and before he cometh to the Altar maketh the worshipper himself a sacrifice Love doth not stay at the porch but entreth the Holy of Holies doth not stay in the beginnings but hasteth to the end doth not contract the duty but extendeth it to the utmost doth not draw pictures but men doth not sacrifice the beast only but offereth and consumeth us bindeth us wholly to the work forceth and constraineth us never letteth us rest till we have fulfilled the will of him that commandeth improveth Sacrifice to Obedience Hearing to Practise Fasting to Humility and Repentance Love may begin but never endeth in Ceremony And this is the Reason why Religion hath so many professours and so few friends so many salutes and so many contempts flung upon her why she is so much spoke of as the bird of Jupiter that Eagle which must carry us to heaven but hath no more regard then the Sparrow on the house-top or the Owl in the desert why it is so much talkt of and so little practised For men do not love it but because it carrieth a kind of majesty and beauty along with it and striketh every eye that beholdeth it Because men speak well of her in the gates and we cannot but speak well of her whilest we are men therefore we are willing to give her a salute in the midst of all those horrid and hellish offices which are set up against her We give her a bowe and let her pass by as if her shadow could cure us or we lay hold on the skirts of her garment touch and kiss them are loud and busie in the performance of the easiest part bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar but not our lust and irregular desires but let them fly to every object every vanity which is to sacrifice a beast to God and our selves to the Devil 2. These formal worshippers do not only not love the command but they do it for the love of something else They love Oppression and Blood and Injustice better then Sacrifice And all this heat and busie industry at the Altar proceedeth not from that love which should be kindled and diffused in the heart but as the unruly Tongue is set on fire by hell hath no other original then an ungrounded and unwarranted love
its perfection of beauty you may consider it 1. as fitted and proportioned to our very nature 2. as fitted to all sorts and conditions of men 3. as lovely and amiable in the eyes of all 4. as filling and satisfying us 5. as giving a relish and sweet tast to the worst of evils which may befall us whilest with love and admiration we look upon it and making those things of the world which are not good in themselves useful and good and advantageous to us This is the object which is here set up and it is a fair one and Man is called to be the spectatour He hath shewed thee O man And if he look upon it with a stedfast and single eye with affection and love it will make him dignum Deo spectaculum an object fit for the Angels and God himself to look upon For 1. it is fitted to him 2. it is opened and made manifest placed before his eye He hath shewed thee it 3. Last of all it is required of him for what else doth he require It is proper for him It is displayed and laid open before him It is a Law to bind him He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require And first we cannot doubt but God built up Man for this end alone for this Good to communicate his Goodness to him to make him partaker of a Divine nature to make him a kind of God upon the earth to imprint his image upon him by which according to his measure and capacity he might express and represent God 1. By the Knowledge not only of natural and transitory things but also of those which pertain to everlasting life as it is Col. 3.10 being renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him 2. By the rectitude and sanctity of his Will Ephes 4.24 putting on that new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness and 3. By the free and ready Obedience of the outward parts and inward faculties to the beck and command of God which being Divine a breathing from God himself cannot but look forward and look upward upon its original and so teach us to be just as God is righteous in all his wayes to be merciful as he is merciful and to walk humbly before him who hath thus built us up out of the dust but to eternity I say God hath imprinted this image on Man And what communion can God have with evil 1 Cor. 7.31 What relation hath an immortal Essence to that which passeth away changeth every day and at last is not Take Man for the miracle of the world as Trismegistus calleth him that other that lesser world the tye and bond of all the other parts which were made for his sake and what conversation should he have but in heaven what should he look upon but that which is good Or take him as made after Gods image as having that property which no other creature hath to understand to will to reason and determin by which he was made capable of good and made to be partaker of it and we cannot think he had an Understanding given him only to forge deceit and contrive plots Job 24.15 to find out a twilight and an opportunity to do mischief to invent new delights to make an art of pleasure and draw out a method and law of wickedness that that which was given him as his counseller in relation to this good should be his purveiour in the works of the flesh and no better then a pander to his lust We cannot think that he had a Will given him to embrace shadows and apparitions which play with our Phansie and deceive us to wait upon the Flesh which fighteth against the Spirit and this Image within us We cannot think he had Reason given to distinguish him from the other creatures to make him worse then they This cannot be the thought of a Man whilest he remaineth so a Man Illud mirum malos esse tam multos nam ut aqua piscibus circumfusus nobis spiritus volucribus convâ—nit Ita certè facilius esse oportebat secundum naturam quà m contra eam vivere Quint. l. 12. Instit orat c. 11. 1 Cor. 15 45. who is formed and fitted and fashioned only for that which is good This consideration made Quintilian himself a heathen to pronounce That it was as natural for Man to be good as for Birds to fly or Fishes to swim because Man was made for the one as the Birds and Fishes were for the other Secondly there is no proportion at all between any corporeal or sensual thing and the soul of man which is a spirit and immortal and so resembleth that God which breathed it into us For as Lactantius said God is not hungry that you need set him meat nor thirsty that you should pour out drink unto him nor in the dark that you need light up candles And what is Beauty what is the Wedge of gold to the Soul The one is from the earth earthly the other is from the Lord of heaven The World is the Lords and the World is the Souls and all that therein is Psal 24.1 And to behold the Creature and in the World as in a book to study and find out the Creatour to contemplate his Majesty his Goodness his Wisdome and to discover that happiness which is prepared for it to behold the heavens the works of Gods hand and purchase a place there to converse with Seraphim and Cherubim this is the proper act of the Soul for which it was made this this alone was proportioned to it And herein consisteth the excellency and very essence of Religion and the Good which is here shewed us in exalting the Soul in drawing it back from mixing with the Creature in bringing it into subjection under God the first and only Good in uniting it to its proper object in making that which was the breath of God breathe nothing but God The Soul being as the matter and this Good here that is Piety and Religion the form the Soul being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so Plato calleth Matter the receptacle of this Good as the Matter is of the Form and never right and of a perfect being till it receive it this Good being as the seed and the Soul the ground the matrix and the womb And there is a kind of sympathy between this Good this immortal seed and the heart and mind of Man as there is between Seed and the womb of the Earth For the Soul no sooner seeth it unclouded unvailed not disguised and made terrible by the intervention of things not truly good but upon a full manifestation she is taken as the Bridegroom in the Canticles with its eye and beauty Heaven is a fair sight even in their eyes who tend to destruction so that there is a kind of nearness and alliance between this Good and those notions and principles which God
Jew busie at his Sacrifice and it looketh forward to the beauty of holiness and is levelled at the very heart of those errours which led the people from the city of God into the wilderness from that which is truly Good to that which is so but in appearance which did shew well and speak well but such words as were clothed with death First it checketh them in their old course and then sheweth them a more excellent way The Jew as we have told you formerly pleased himself in that piece of service which was most attempered to the Sense and might be passed over and performed with least vexation of the Spirit and labour of the Mind For what an easie matter was it to approch the courts of God to appear before the Altar Psal 118.27 What great trouble was it to bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of it Nay this was their delight this they doted on this they thought none could cry down but a false Prophet Did they not thus speak and murmur within themselves If this be not what is then Religion If to appear in his courts to offer sacrifice be not to serve God how should we bow before him and serve him As many say in their hearts now adayes If to go to Church to be zealous in a faction to cry down Superstition be not true Religion what Religion can there be Who can speak against it but an uncircumcised Philistin or he that hath drunk deep of the cup of the Whore He that preacheth any other Law or any other Gospel let him be Anathema And therefore the Prophet to silence this asketh another question Do you ask If this be not what is true Religion I ask also What doth the Lord require Not this in which you please your selves but something else to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God And this But as it is an Exclusive and shutteth out all other services whatsoever which look not this way or are not conducible to uphold and support and promote it so it doth colour as it were and place a kind of amiableness a philtrum upon that which may invite and win us to embrace it For commonly those duties which require the luctation of the Mind the strivings and victories of the Spirit are more formidable and so more avoided then those which imploy only the outward man the Eye the Tongue the Ear and the Hand Here every man is ready and officious and thrusteth himself into the service every man almost rejoyceth to run his race and there is a kind of emulation and contention who shall be the forwardest But those commands which set us at variance within our selves which busie the Spirit against the Flesh which sound the alarm and call us into the lists to fight the good fight of Faith against our selves against our Imaginations even those which lye unto us and tell us All is well these are that Medusa's head which turneth us into stones And we who were so active and diligent in other duties less necessary when these call upon us to move are lame and impotent we who before had the feet of hinds can move no more then he did who lay so long by the pool-side John 5. The Prophet Elisha biddeth Naaman the leper Go wash in Jordan seven times and thou shalt be clean 2 Kings 5.10 But Naaman was wroth and thought that may be done with the stroke or touch of the Prophets hand Are not Abanah and Pharpar 12. rivers of Damascus saith he better then all the rivers of Israel But the Servants were wiser then the Master and truly told him that what the Prophet enjoyned was no great thing for it was but this Wash and be clean 13. So it was with the Jew and so it is with us That which will cure and heal us we most distast Nauseat ad antidotum qui hiat ad venenum Tertul. Scorp c. v. The stomach turneth at the antidote that is greedy of poyson What bid us be Just and Merciful and Humble Will not Sacrifice suffice Are not our Sabbath-dayes exercise our Psalms and Hymns of force enough to shake the powers of heaven and draw down blessings upon us Why may he not speak the word and heal us Why may he not save us by miracle To be just and honest will shrink the curtains of our tabernacles To be merciful and liberal will empty our chests To be humble will lay us in the dust These are harsh and rugged hard and unpleasing commands beyond our power impossible to be done Nay rather these are the ebullitions and murmurs of the flesh the imaginations of corrupt hearts And therefore the Prophet Micah setteth up his But against them to throw them down and demolish them Quare formidatis compedes sapientiae Why are you afraid of the fetters of Wisdome They are golden fetters and we are never free but when we wear them Why do you startle at God's Law It is a Law that giveth life Why do you murmur and boggle at that which he requireth Behold he requireth nothing but that which is first Possible secondly Easie thirdly Pleasant and full of delight He requireth but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And first the Prophet here doth not bid us do any great things He doth not bid us work miracles remove mountains do that which is beyond our strength Do that which you cannot do Do justly for you cannot do so Be merciful for you cannot be so Walk humbly before me though it be impossible you should God never yet spake so by any Prophet This were to make God's commands such as S. Augustine telleth us those of the Manichees were not only nugatoria light and vain De Morib Manich but pugnatoria opposit and destructive to themselves For nothing is more destructive and contrary to a Law then to place it under an impossibility of being kept For the Keeping of a Law is the virtue and force and end of a Law the end for which it is enacted It is true Gal. 3.22 God hath now concluded all under sin And the reason is given For all have sinned Rom. 3.23 But the Apostle there delivereth it as an instance and matter of fact nor as a conclusion drawn out of necessary principles He doth not say All must sin but All have sinned For both the Gentiles might have kept the Law of Nature and were punisht because they did not as it is plain Rom. 1. and the Jews might have kept that Law which was given to them as far as God required it for so we see many of them did and God himself bore witness from heaven and hath registred the names of those in his Book who did walk before him with a perfect heart 2 Chr. 15.17 1 Kings 11.33 34 38. 2 Kings 22.2 as of Asa of David that he kept Gods Laws of Josias that he turned
full of business for others or to have no business but for my soul to be solicitous for that which cannot be done or to have no other care but to do what God requireth To do this will cost us no sweat nor labour We need not go on pilgrimage or take any long journey it will not cost us money nor engage us to our friends we need not sail for it nor plough for it nor fight for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Chrysostome If thou beest willing Orat. de ira obedience hath its work and consummation If thou wilt thou art just merciful and humble As Aristotle spake of his Magnanimous man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. l. 4. c. 3. Liber rectus animus omnia subjiciens sibi se nulli Sen. ep ult so to a resolved Christian nothing is great nothing is difficult It is not to dig in the minerals or labour in chains it is not to cleave wood or draw water with the Gibeonites but thy lines are fallen unto thee in a fair place it is but to do justly love mercy c. Lastly it is not onely easie but sweet and pleasant to do what God requireth For obedience is the onely spring from whence the waters of Comfort flow an everlasting foundation on which alone Joy and Peace will settle and rest For what place canst thou find what other foundation on which thou mayst build up a true and lasting joy Wilt thou look on all the works which thy hands have wrought Wilt thou prove thy heart with mirth and gather together all that is desireable and say Here it will lye All that joy will soon be exhausted and draw it self dry That Pleasure is but like that beast of the Apothecary to whom Julian the Pelagian likeneth S. Augustine Non sum similis pharmacopolae ut dicis qui promittebat bestiam quae seipsam comesset August Cont. Jul. Pelag. l. 3. c. 21. which he promised to his patient to be of great virtue which before the morning was come had eaten up himself But the doing what God requireth our Conformity to his will is the onely basis upon which such a superstructure will rise and towre up as high as heaven For it hath the Will and Power of God to uphold and perpetuate it against all those stormes and tempests which are sent out of the Devils treasury to blast or imbitter it Do you take this for a speculation and no more Indeed it is the sin and the punishment of the men of this world to take those truths which most concern them for speculations for groundless conceptions of thoughtful men for School-subtilties rather then realities Mammon and the World have the preeminence in all things and spiritual Ravishments and Heaven it self are but ingens fabula magnum mendacium as a tediously or a long tale that is told And there is no reason of this but their Disobedience For would men put it to the trial deny themselves and cleave to the Lord and do what he desireth there would then be no need of any Artist or Theologue to demonstrate it or fill their mouth with arguments to convince them of the truth of that which would so fill their souls Of all the Saints and Martyrs of God that did put it to the trial did we ever read that any did complain they had lost their labour but all of them upon a certain knowledge and sense of this truth betook themselves chearfully to the hardship of mortification renounced the world and laid down their lives poured out their blood for that Truth which paid them back again with interest even with fulness of joy Let us then hearken what this Lord will say and answer him in every duty which he requireth and he will answer us again and appear in glory and make the terrours and flatteries of the world the object not of our Fear and Amazement but of our Contempt and the displeasing and worser side of our Obedience our crown and glory the most delightful thing in the world For to conclude this why are we afraid why should we tremble at the commands of God why should their sound be so terrible in our ears The Lord requireth nothing of us but that which is 1. possible to rouse us up to attempt it 2. easie to comfort and nourish our hopes and 3. pleasant and delightful to woe and invite and even flatter us to obedience and to draw us after him with the cords of men Hos 11.4 We have now taken a view of the Substance of these words and we have looked upon them in the Form and Manner in which they lye What doth the Lord require Let us now draw them nearer to us And to this end they are sharpned into an Interrogation that as darts they might pierce through our souls and so open our eyes to see and our ears to hearken to the wonders of his Law First this word Lord is a word of force and efficacy It striketh a reverence into us and remembreth us of our duty and allegiance For if God be the Lord then hath he an absolute Will a Will which must be a rule to regulate our wills by his Jubeo and his Veto by his commands and prohibitions by removing our wills from unlawful objects and confining them to that which may improve and perfect them from that which is pleasing but hurtful to his Laws and commands which are first distastful and then fill us with joy unspeakable And this is the true mark and character of a servant of God To be then willing when in a manner he is unwilling to be strong when the flesh is weak to have no will of his own nor any other spring of spiritual motion but the will of his Lord. And therefore as God is the Lord over all so are his Laws over all Laws As to him every knee must bowe so to his Laws all the Laws of men must yield and give place Isa 45.23 Rom. 14.11 which are no further Laws or can lay any tye or obligation but as they are drawn from his and wait upon them and are subservient to them Common Reason will tell us and to that the Apostles Peter and John appeal when the rulers of the Jews commanded them to speak no more in the name of Christ Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more then to God Acts 4.18 19 20. judge you For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard And we cannot but be obedient for the Lord requireth it When Creon the Tyrant in Sophocles asked Antigone how she dared to bury her brother Polynices when he had enacted a law to the contrary her answer was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That this was not Jupiter's Law and that she buried he brother in obedience to a Law more ancient then that of the Tyrant's even to the Law of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For this Law was not of yesterday but eternal and I ought not for fear of any man to break the Law of God and Nature And what better answer can a Christian make to all unlawful commands either of those we love or of those we fear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God hath not enacted these I see more of the claw of the Devil then finger of God in them These are Novellae institutionis but of yesterday the breathings and dictates it may be of Lust and Covetousness of Pride and Ambition and I must not consider what Man what this Man this Lord or this Potentate but what the Lord of Lords and King of Kings requireth at my hands When his Laws are publisht all others must be silent or as little hearkened to as if they were as when the Sun appeareth the Stars are not seen nor seen at any time-but with that light which they borrow from it For again as he is Lord paramount and hath an absolute Will so his Will is attended with Power with that Power which made thee And he did not make thee a Man that thou shouldest make thy self a beast of burden to couch under every load which the hand of a Pharisee will be ready to lay upon thee He did not make thee capable of a Law that thou shouldst keep the Laws of the Flesh or of Men. He did not publish his will that upon this or that pretense thou shouldest resist it that the fear of a frown or the love of the world should be stronger and prevail with thee more then his Will For if thou wilt not do what he requireth he will not do what thou expectest but leave thee to thy choice to those new Lords and Masters under the same wrath and curse to walk delicately along with them to that vengeance which will fall upon the heads of those who will not hearken to this Lord. For thirdly by the same Power he preserveth and protecteth thee which all Power that is over us doth not For then the Thief may be said to protect him he robbeth the Strong man may be said to protect him he bindeth the Oppressour him whom he hath eaten up and Cain to have protected Abel when he knockt out his brains But the power of God is a saving and preserving Power and under the shadow of his wings we shall be safe And to this end he spreadeth his wing over us he guideth and holdeth us up that we may walk before him in all obedience in the land of the living bowing to his will against our Lust against our Ambition against all those machinations and temptations which press upon us to break his will even whilst we are under his wing What should a Wanton an Oppressour a man of Belial do under God's wing And yet we see many times they play and revel it in the shadow when they that do his will are beaten with the tempest and yet are safer there then the others are in their Paradise are the miracles of God's Providence to be manifested at last to all the world It is true the wicked are in some sort under God's wing for he upholdeth and continueth them and prolongeth their daies And if an eye of flesh may judge they are the greatest favourites of this Lord and if the world were heaven they were the onely Saints 1 Cor. 2.15 But the spiritual man judgeth all things and to his eye they are but a sad and ruful spectacle as condemned men led with musick to execution For God preserveth and protecteth them no otherwise then he doth Serpents and Vipers and Beasts of prey He upholdeth them no otherwise then he doth the Earth and the Devils and Hell it self which he preserveth for them as he reserveth them for it as S. Jude speaketh in his Epistle And then Jude 6. as Abraham said to the Rich man Son remember Luke 16.25 thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things so shall this Lord say to those to a Cain to a Nimrod an Ahab a Pharisee a Hypocrite Remember you were under my wing under my protection and remember what you did there how you beat your fellow-servants how you stripped one dispossessed another killed a third how even then when you were under my wing when I upheld and preserved you you said in your hearts there was no God Psal 14.1 This is a fearful and hideous change like the fall of Lucifer Onely he fell from heaven indeed these from an imaginary one a heaven built up with a thought but both fall into the same place Oh then since he made us since in him we live Acts 17.28 and move and have our being let us live unto this Lord let our motion be regular and let us be what he would have us to be Let it be our wisdome to follow him in those waies which his infinite Wisdome hath drawn out for us Let our Love be the echo of his Love This Wisdome is from above and this Love is kindled from the coal of a Cherubin is a fire from heaven kindled in our hearts and it will lick up all fluid and unbounded desires in us Let us remember that God hath endowed us with faculty and ability to do what he requireth that he hath committed and entrusted this unto us for this end that he doth now as it were manu suâ tenere debitores that he hath us in his power obliged and bound fast unto him by this his gift as by an instrument or bond 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Apostle's word Rom. 3.2 and it is the very word which the Civilians use He hath committed and entrusted his commandments and requireth something of us And as he that entrusteth his money doth not lose the propriety of it no more doth God of that substance of our intellectual and practick faculties which he hath put into our hands He hath not passed them over to us as a free and absolute gift Luke 19.13 but left them onely to traffick with and improve till he come For in receiving the Law and will and faculty to observe it Arist. Eth. 5. we make a kind of contract with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle For the Law it self is a kind of contract or covenant because he that cometh under a Law hath bound himself to keep it Let us remember then that we come under many obligations I cannot name the several waies we stand obliged to this Lord. We may comprehend all in that axiome of the Civilians Tot obligationes praesumuntur quot sunt scripturae We have as many engagements and obligations as there be instruments and writings betwixt us and there are as many as there be precepts and commands which are the best helps to promote us to perfection Let us then provide against the day of trial For not to keep covenant with this Lord but when he cometh to make inquisition whither
is in his office to beat it down and subdue it and so rule and govern it and We are bound to our Reason not to enslave it or place it under the vanities of this world And if we break these obligations we are the first that rise up against our selves The first man that condemneth a sinner is the sinner himself Se judice nemo nocens absolvitur In himself he beareth about with him a Court a seat of Justice from which no appeal lieth His Reason is his Judge his Conscience is his Accuser and he himself is his own Prisoner and he crucifieth and hangeth himself up every day though no forrein authority arrest him And these three are linkt together as in a chain For when we make good our obligations to God and our selves we never fail in that which is due unto Men and he that faileth in doing justly to Men hath ipso facto forfeited his obligation to God and himself For to do justly is a duty which he oweth to God and himself as well as to others He that is not just is not holy and he that is not holy is an enemy to God and himself For God made him to this end and God requireth it at his hands So that an unjust man at once breaketh this threefold cord and is injurious to God to Men to himself If we miss in one we are lost in all and are in a manner out-lawed from Men banished from Our selves Eph. 2.12 and so without God in this word We have a large field here to walk in but we must limit and confine our selves and pass by the Justice of the publick Magistrate whose proper work it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stand in the midst between two opposite sides till he draw them together and make them one to keep an equality even in equality to use his power either in cutting off the wicked from the earth and taking the prey out of his mouth or else in dividing to every man his own possessions in giving Mephibosheth his Lands again This is neither meant here in the Text nor can it concern this Auditory Read the 10 11 12. v. of this chapter and you will see what Justice it is the Prophet here speaketh of Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked and the scant measure that is abominable Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances and with the bag of deceitful weights For the rich men thereof are full of violence and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lyes and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth Is there yet the house of the wicked built by oppression and cemented with blood and will he not restore what he hath unjustly gained after so many warnings and threats Adhuc ignis in domo impii So the Vulgar Is there yet a fire in the house of the wicked not a Treasure but a fire which will consume all So that to do justly in this place is not onely the duty of the Magistrate and yet publick Justice is both a Serpent and a Rod not onely a Serpent to bite and sting the guilty person but a Rod to mete out to every man his own measure but to do justly is to give every man his own not to lay hold on or alienate or deceitfully withdraw or violently force from any man that of which he is a lawful possessour For quicquid jure possidetur injuriâ aufertur that which I possess by right cannot be taken from me but by injury And this is it which we call common Honesty or private Justice This bindeth my hand from oppression and robbery sealeth up my lips from guile and slander checketh and fettereth my phansie from weaving those nets of deceit which may catch my brother and entangle him limiteth my hands my wit my tongue not to do not to imagine not to speak that which may endamage him not to touch not to undermine his estate not to touch not to wound his reputation For Slander is a great injustice a kind of Murder jugulans non membra sed nomina saith Optatus to the Donatists not cutting off a limb or member but mangling and defacing a good and fair name and even treading it in the dirt Private Justice is of a far larger extent then that which is publick which speaketh and acteth from the tribunal For publick Justice steereth by no other Compass but the Laws of Men but this by the Laws of Nature and Charity which forbid many things which the Laws of Men mention not and restrain us there where humane Authority leaveth us in nostro mancipio to dispose of our selves as we please Nec enim quicquid honestum est legibus praecipitur for this Justice and Honesty bindeth us to that which no Law exacteth For Law-givers are not Diviners or Prophets they see little more then what is passed by them already or now before their eyes or which Probability hath brought so near that they even see it as a thing which if not prevented will certainly come to pass They have not the knowledge of all that is possible nor of all things that are under the differences of times past present and to come nor can they fathome the depth and deceitfulness of their own hearts much less of the hearts of other men which are fruitful in evil and find out new inventions and multiply them every day For as S. Augustine spake of the Lawyers of his time Nulla causa sine causa De verb. Dom. num 19. There was not a Cause brought to them which they could not so handle as that it should multiply in their hands and beget as many as they pleased so there is no fraudulent act which is not a step to another and that to a third Vsu probatum est leges egregias apud bonos ex delictis aliorum gigni c. Thras Paet apud Tacit Annal 15. and that third is now a teeming and ready to bring forth more Depunge ubi sistam Injustice hath the same subsistence and measures with our Covetousness and Lust and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knoweth neither bounds nor end So that those Laws by which Humane Societies are managed and upheld are rather occasioned by that which is past then by that which is to come and they that make them take their aim by their eye and some sensible inconvenience which is either visible in it self or in that which may cause it but cannot provide against that which is removed so far as that neither the eye nor thought neither wisdome nor suspicion can reach it but is to them as if it would never be in that darkness and obscurity wherein it was before they were born And therefore the rule of those duties which we ow one to another is of a larger extent then that of the Law Sen. 2 de Ira c. 27. Angusta est innocentia ad legem probum esse saith the Philosopher That
Honesty is but of a narrow compass which measureth it self out by that rule and reacheth no further then to that point which the Laws of men have set up and maketh that its Non ultra Fest. verb. Pietas Piety constraineth us to do many things where the Law leaveth us free What Law did force that pious Daughter to suckle her old Father in prison and nourish him with the milk from her own breasts Spartianus or Antonine the Emperour to lead his aged Father-in-law and ease and support him with his hand Again Humanity bindeth us where the Law is silent Humanitatis est quaedam nescire velle For where was it enacted that we should not open the letters no not of our enemies yet Julius Caesar burnt those which he found in their Tents whom he had conquered and the Athenians and Pompey did the like Liberality hath no Law and yet it is a debt No Law enjoyneth me to keep my promise and make good my faith and yet my promise bindeth me as firmly Beati divites quia caeteris prodesse possunt debent Alciat de verb. Significat and should be as sacred as my oath All these are extra publicas tabulas not to be found in our Statute-books that confineth his studies and endeavours to these that hath no other compass to steer by in the course of his life then that which he there findeth written Fides juramentum aequiparantur ut hoc servari debet ita illa Menoch cap. 367. cannot take this honour to himself this honourable title of a Just and Honest man For how many inventions and wiles have men found out to work iniquity as by a Law to drive the proprietary out of his possessions before the Sun and the people and then wipe their mouths and proclaim it as just to all the world How many eat no other bread but that which is kneaded by craft and oppression and sometimes with blood and yet count it as Manna sent down from Heaven How short is the hand of the Law to reach these Nay how doth the Law it self many times enable them to invade the territories of others and to riot it at pleasure How is it made their musick Consensere jura peccatis c. Cypr. ad Donat by which they dance in other mens blood Justice or common Honesty is but one word but of a larger compass then Ambition and Covetousness are willing to walk in In a word A thing may not be just and honest and yet there may be no Law to punish it no man that dare reprehend it Cicer. 2. de Finib â—3 Lex Stagiritarum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aelian Var. Hist l. 3. c. 46. Clem. Alex. 2. Strom. 398. Dolus quidam in contractu est non indicare errorem Hermias apud Damas in Phot. Bibl. saith Tully Take not up that which thou laid'st not down count that which thou findest in the way but as a pledge to be returned upon demand said the Stagirites If thou sell a thing declare the fault of it If thou under-buy a thing upon the discovery pay the full price These no humane Law but Justice and Honesty and the Law of Nature requireth To collect and draw out a catalogue of all those irregularities in behaviour which will not consist with Justice and Honesty as it is a thing not necessary to be done so is it impossible to do it For as day unto day teacheth the knowledge of that which is good so day unto day and hour unto hour teach the knowledge of that which is evil and it is not easie to open those Mysteries of iniquity The mind of Man when it is corrupted is restless in finding out new and untrodden paths which may lead to its desired end and is wheeled about from one falshood to another begetteth a second lye to defend the first and draweth in cheat upon cheat that it may have at least the shadow of Justice and Honesty to veil and obscure it And so long he is an Honest man that is not a detected knave as he is counted a good Lawyer who can find out something in fraudem legis some hansome colour or fetch to delude the Law He that hath the sentence on his side is Just and he that is fallen from his cause is fallen from the truth and so honesty is bound up in the verdict of the Jury and twelve perjured men may make an oppressour honest when they please We will not therefore go in Hue and Cry after every thief nor follow the deceitful person in those rounds and windings and turnings which he maketh And I can truly say Non multùm incola fuit anima mea I have been but a stranger and sojourner in these tents of Mesech I have not so much conversed in these waies of thrift and arts of living as to read a lecture upon them and discover the Method and course of them It may so fall out and doth too often that they who are the best artists in these are the worst of men For the wisdome of this world is not like that in Aristotle which resisteth in it self and never seeketh another end For in this the theory and the practice go hand in hand and advance one another Nor do we make use of it onely to preserve and defend our selves but we let it out to disquiet and diminish others And they that tread these hidden and indirect wayes though they hide themselves from others yet seldome do so far deceive themselves as not to know they walk deceitfully They check and comfort themselves at once they know they do not justly and yet this thought setteth them forward in their course even this poor and unworthy thought That it is good to be rich and so the light which they see is somewhat offensive but the Love of gain is both a provocative and a cordial Isa 28.17 We will therefore bring Justice to the line and Righteousnes to the plummet and have recourse to the Law and the Prophets not stand gazing upon the practice of the world and actions of men but look upon the rule by which a diligent eye may easily discover all particulars swervings and deviations though they be as many as the atomes before the Sun For as Seneca well difficile est animam suam effugere it is a hard matter for a man to fly from himself or to divest himself of those principles with which he was born or so to fling them from him as that they shall never return to restrain and curb him or at least to molest him when his flesh and lusts are wanton and unruly and violent to break their bounds And now what doth the Lord require but to do justly that is but to do that which first the Law of Nature requireth secondly that which he at sundry times by holy men and his Prophets hath taught Hebr. 1.1 and in the last daies hath urged and improved
by his Son Christ Jesus the Prince of Peace and Righteousness So that Justice doth raise it self upon these two pillars Nature and Religion which are like the two pillars in the porch of the Temple Jachin and Boaz 1 Kings 7.21 and do strengthen and establish Justice as that doth the pillars of the earth Cant. 5 15. or as the Legs of the Bridegroom in the Canticles which were as pillars of marble set upon sockets of pure gold For the wisdome and strength of Christ and Christianity consist in adorning and improving of Nature and setling a true and perfect Religion and the sockets the bases are of pure gold Basis aurea timor plenus disciplinae saith Ambrose The golden Basis which upholdeth all is a well-disciplined Fear by which we walk with circumspection and carefully observe the Law of Nature and the Law of Christ and by the Law of Nature and the brighter and clearer light of Scripture so steer our course that we dash not against those dangerous rocks of Deceit and Violence of Oppression and Wrong that we may not spem nostram alienis miseriis inaugurare increase our selves by diminishing others not rise by another mans ruin not be enriched by another mans loss not begin and inaugurate and crown our hopes and desires with other mens miseries nor bath our selves with delight in the tears of the widow and the fatherless but rather suffer wrong then do it rather lose our coat then take away our brothers vitâmque impendere vero rather lose that we have yea life it self then our Honesty and so by being Men and by being Christians fulfil all Righteousness And first Nature it self hath hewn and squared all Mankind as it were out of the same quarry and rock hath built them up out of the same Materials into a Body and Society into a City compact within it self For the whole World is but as one City and all the Men therein in respect of mutual offices of love are but of one Corporation Isa 51.1 Look unto the rock out of which you were hewn and the hole of the pit whence you were digged Look unto the common seed plot out of which you were all extracted and there you shall discover that near relation and fraternity that maketh every man a Neighbor a Brother to every man how they are not onely together children of Corruption and kin to the Worm and Rottenness but the workmanship of the same immortal Hand and illimitted Power Sons of one Father Gen. 1 26. who hath built them up in his image and according to his likeness which though it may be more resplendent and more improved in one then in another yet is that impression which is made and stampt on all From the same Rock are hewed out the weak and feeble man and Ish the man of strength Job 21.24 who hath milk in his breasts and marrow in his bones From the same Hand is that face we turn away from and that face we so much gaze on the Scribe and the active Idiote the narrow understanding that receiveth little and the active and piercing wit which runneth to and fro the earth the plain simple man that hath no ends and the subtile Politician who multiplieth his every day and can compass them all Of the same extraction are the purple Gallant and the russet pilgrime And he that made all casteth an equal eye on all bindeth every hand from violence and every heart from forging deceit maketh every man a guard and protection to every man giveth every man a guard and conduct for himself and others And to every man the word is given Psal 105.15 Touch not another and Do him no harm Thus hath God fensed us in and taken care that the strong man bind not the weak that the Scribe over-reach not the idiote that the Politician supplant not the innocent that the experienced man defraud not the ignorant but that every mans strength and wit and experience and wisdome should be advantageous and not hurtful to others that so the weak man may be strong with another mans strength and the ignorant man wise with anothers experience and the idiote be secured by the wisdome of the Scribe For who hath made all these have not I the Lord And then if he made them and linkt them together in one common tye of nature 1 Cor. 4.7 quis discernet as the Apostle speaketh who shall divide and separate them who shall divide the rich from the poor that he should set him at his footstool and despise him the strong from the weak that he should beat him to the ground the wise from the ignorant that he should baffle and deceive him Indeed some distance some difference some precedency of one before the other may shew it self to an eye of flesh but yet even an eye of flesh may see how to reunite and gather them together as one and the same in their original RESPICITE ZVR Look unto the rock the vein out of which you were taken and then what Moses spake to the Israelites when they strove together may be spoken to all the men in the world Acts 7.26 Sirs you are brethren why do you defraud or use violence why do you wrong one to another But in the next place besides this our common Extraction the God of Nature who hath built us all out of the same materials hath also imprinted those Principles those Notions those Inclinations in the heart of every man which may be as so many buttresses and supporters to uphold this frame and to make us dwell together in all simplicity and innocency of conversation not in envy and malice in fraud and deceit but with courtesie and affability helping and supporting one another which is that Justice which God requireth at our hands Nulla anima sine crimine quia nulla sine boni semine saith Tertullian No soul can plead Not guilty here because no soul is destitute of this seed of Goodness And thus we see in Rom. 1. where S. Paul maketh up that catalogue of foul irregularities Rom. 1.29 c. he draggeth the unrighteous the covetous the malicious the deceitful the inventors of evil things the covenant-breakers to no other tribunal then that of Nature and condemneth them by no other Law then that which we brought with us into the world Quaedam jura non scripta Senec. contr Solonis leges ligneis axibus incisae Gell. l. 2. c. 12. sed omnibus scriptis certiora saith the Oratour This Law is not written and therefore is written to all and being connatural to us is more sure and infallible then those which are written in wood or engraven in brass or marble And one would think that it were as superfluous and needless to make any other Law to bind us to Justice and upright dealing one towards another as to command children to love their parents or parents to be indulgent to their children
For why should that be urged with that vehemency to which mens natural bent and inclination carrieth them and would certainly continue them and hold them up in eaven course of Justice and Honesty did not education and their familiar converse and dalliance with the world corrupt and blind them To this Law of Nature S. James seemeth to call us back chap. 3. where he maketh it as a strange thing to be wondred at James 3.9 c. that the same tongue that blesseth God should yet curse men who are made after the similitude of God As if he should have said Curse him not Deceive him not for if thou curse him if thou deceive him thou cursest and deceivest God after whose similitude he is made My brethren these things ought not so to be They are as much against Nature as for the same fountain to send forth sweet and bitter water or for a fig-tree to bear olives or a vine figs. S. Paul shutteth up the Lyars mouth with the same argument Ephes 4 25. Wherefore cast off lying and speak truth every one to his neighbour The reason followeth For we are members one of another Thou art a part of him and he is a part of thee being both hewn out of the same rock formed and shaped of the same mould therefore by lying to thy brother thou puttest a cheat upon thy self and as far as in thee lyeth upon that God that made you both and gave you Tongues not to lye but to instruct and Wits not to deceive but counsel and help one another And therefore he deterreth men from fraud and violence by no other argument then this That God is the avenger of such things 1 Thess 4.6 as if the Lye had been told unto and the Cheat put upon him When Mans Justice to man faileth there Gods vengeance is ready to make a supply For saith Clemens Vidisti fratrem tuum vidisti Deum tuum Clem. Alex. Strom. 2. When thou lookest upon thy brother thou seest God himself as near as Mortality can discover him He is the fairest copie thou canst see him by fairer then the Heaven of heavens and those ministers of light fairer then the fairest Star then the Sun in the Firmament when he rejoyceth to run his race 1 John 4.20 Hence S. John concludeth positively and peremptorily If a man say he loveth God and hateth his brother and he that deceiveth him he that oppresseth him hateth him or else despiseth him which is worse he is a lyar And his reason is irrefragable For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen in whom he seeth himself in whom he seeth his God and so hath Love conveyed into his heart by his very eye many visible motives to win him to this duty how can he love God whom he hath not seen 1 Tim. 6.16 whom no man hath seen or can see but as the Apostle speaketh 1 Cor. 13.12 through a glass darkly in his Words and in his Works of which Man is the brightest mirrour and giveth the fairest and clearest representation of him So that now we may see all Mankind tyed and united together in this love-knot of Nature knit together as Men that they should not fly asunder and then return again one upon another not as Men but as Snakes and Vipers look back but with an evil eye approch neer but in a cloud or tempest not look but envy not speak but lye not touch but strike not converse with but defraud and oppress one another Which is against that Law with which we were born and which we carry about with us whithersoever we go and whatsoever we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How gratious and helpful a creature is one man to another if he continue so a Man and receive no new impression from the Flesh from Self-love and those transitory Vanities below if he be not byassed and wheeled from this natural motion by the World and so fit to be driven into the field with Nebuchadnezzar being turned Fox or Lion or Tiger or Panther or worse then any of those Beasts because he is a Man For so many forms he may receive having once degenerated from his own And then it is not Look upon men as of the same mould and frame as brethren by nature as auxiliaries and supplyes as keepers and guardians but CAVETE AB HOMINIBVS Beware of men Matth. 10.7 A warning and caution given by our Saviour himself and a strange caution it is from him who so loved men that he dyed for them Beware of men beware of them thus transformed thus brutifyed That smiling friend may be a tempter He that calleth himself a Saint may be a seducer His oylie tongue may wound thee his embrace crush thee to pieces that demure countenance shadow a legion of Devils Look not upon his phylacteries the Man is a Pharisee and this Angel-keeper may be thy murderer And thus it is when the course of nature is turned backward and Man degenerateth from himself and maketh his Reason which should be an instrument and promoter of Justice a servant to Sin and a weapon of Unrighteousness This the Love of the world and the Wisdome of the flesh can do Victrix etiam de Natura triumphat When it prevaileth it moveth and troubleth the wheel as S. James calleth it the whole course of our Nativity and triumpheth over Nature it self Now to draw this yet nearer to our purpose Speak what we will of Profit and Commodity the Heathen Oratour by the very light of Nature hath told us That they who divide Profit from Justice and Honesty and call that profit and advantage which is unlawfully gotten or detained with the same hand lift at the very foundation of Nature and strive to put out that light which they cannot utterly extinguish Ista duo facimus ex uno saith Seneca Though we make Profit and Honesty two things yet they are but one and the same And therefore to rise upon another mans ruines Subvertunt homines ea quae sunt sundamenta Naturae cùm utilitatem ab honestate sejungunt Tull. De Off. l. 3. to enrich our selves by fraud and deceit is as much against Nature saith Tully as Poverty which pincheth it or Grief which afflicteth it or Death which dissolveth it For Poverty may strip the body Grief may trouble it and Death may strike it to the ground but yet they leave a soul and Injustice is its destruction and leaveth a dead soul in a living body For as we have already shewn Man is naturally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sociable creature but Violence and Deceit quite destroy all society And Tully giveth the same reason in his Offices which S. Paul doth against Schisme in his Epistles 1 Cor. 12.26 If one member suffer all the members suffer with it and therefore the intent and purpose of all must be saith the Oratour ut eadem sit utilitas uniuscujusque
singulorum that the benefit of one and every man may be the same So that what Deceit hath purloyned or stoln away or Violence snatcht from others is not Profit because it is not honest Res furtiva quousque redierit in domini potestatem perpetuò vitiosa est And the Civilians will tell us that that which is unjustly deteined is not valuable is of no worth till it return to the hands of the lawful proprietary Again in the second place Justice and Honesty are more agreeable to the nature of Men then Profit or Pleasure For these Reason it self hath taught us to contemn He most enjoyeth himself who desireth not pleasure he is the richest man who can be poor and we are never more Men then when we least regard these things But if we forfeit our Integrity and pervert the course of Justice we have left our selves nothing but the name of Men. Si quod absit spes felicitatis nulla saith S. Augustine If we had no eye to eternity nor hope of future happiness si omnes Deos hominé que celare possimus Tull. Off. 3. saith Tully if we could make darkness a pavilion round about us and lye skreened and hid from the eyes of God and Man yet a necessity would lye upon us to be what we are made to observe the lessons and dictates of Nature saith one Nihil injustè faciendum saith the other Nothing must be done unjustly though God had no eye to see it nor hand to punish it This doctrine is current both at Athens and Jerusalem both in the Philosophers School and in the Church of God To give you yet another reason but yet of near alliance to the first Whatsoever we do or resolve upon must habere suas causas as Arnobius speaketh must be commended by that cause which produceth it Now what cause can move us to desire that which is not ours What cause can the Oppressour shew that he grindeth the face of the poor the Thief that he divideth the spoyl the deceitful Tradesman that he hath false weights pondus pondus a weight and a weight a weight to buy with and a weight to sell with If you ask them What cause they will either lye and deny it or put their hand upon their mouth and be ashamed to answer Here their wit will fail them which was so quick and active to bring that about for which they had no reason It may be the cause was an unnecessary Fear of poverty as if that were a greater sin then Cousenage It may be the Love of their children saepe ad avaritiam cor parentis illicit Foecunditas prolis saith Gregory In 1 Job c. 4. Many children are as many temptations And we are soon overcome and yield willing to be evil that they may be rich and calling it the Duty of a Parent when we feed and cloth them with our sin Or indeed it is the Love of the world and a Desire to hold up our heads with the best These are no causes but defects and sins the blemishes and deformities of a soul transformed after the image of this world These are but sophismes and delusions and of no causality For it is better I were poor then fraudulent better my children should be naked then my soul better want then be unjust better be in the lowest place then swim in blood to the highest better be driven out of the world then shut out of heaven It is no sin to be poor no sin to be in dishonour no sin to be on a dunghil or in a prison no sin to be a slave But it is a sin and a great sin to rise out of my place or either flatter or shoulder my neighbour out of his and take his room It is no sin to be miserable in the highest degree but it is a sin to be unjust or dishonest in the least Iniquity and Injustice have nothing of reason to countenance them and therefore must run and shelter themselves in that thicket of excuses must pretend Want and Poverty and Necessity and so the object of my concupiscence must authorize my concupiscence the wedge of gold must warrant my theft and to gain something be my strongest argument to gain it unjustly De Offic. 3. And therefore Tully saith well If any man will bring in and urge these for causes argue not against him nor vouchsafe him so much as a reply Omnino enim hominem ex homine tollit For he hath most unnaturally divided Man from himself and left nothing but the beast Nature it self our first Schoolmistress loatheth and detesteth this nor will it suffer us by any means to add to our own by any defalcation from that which is anothers And such is the equity of this position that the Civil Law alwaies appealeth unto it Videtur dolum malum facere qui ex alienâ jacturâ lucrum quaerit He is guilty of cosenage and fraud who seeketh advantage by another mans loss Where by Dolus malus is understood whatsoever is repugnant to the Law of Nature or Equity For with the beams of this Law as with the beams of the Sun were all humane Laws written which whip Idleness which pin the papers of Ignominy the best hatchments of a Knave in the hat of the Common barretter which break the teeth of the Oppressour and turn the bread of the Deceitful into gall Upon this basis this principle of Nature Whatsoever you would that men should do unto you Matth. 7.12 even so do unto them hang all the Law and the Prophets For the rule of behaviour which our Saviour set up is taken out of the treasury of Nature For this is the Law and the Prophets that is Upon this Law of Nature depend the Law and the Prophets or By the due and strict observing of this the Law is fulfilled as S. Paul speaketh or This is the sum of all which the Law and the Prophets have taught to wit concerning Justice and Honesty and those mutual offices and duties of men to men A rule so equitable so visible even to the eye of a natural man that Severus a heathen Emperour made it his motto and some have engraven it in their rings VISNE HOC FIERI IN AGRO TVO QVOD ALTERI FACIS Wilt thou do that in another mans field which thou wouldst not have done in thy own Would any Impostour be caught by craft Would any Spoiler be spoiled Would any Cheat be cozened Would any Oppressour have his face ground Would any Calumniatour be slandred And why should any man claim the privilege of his Humanity if he be not willing to grant it to all Why should this secure me from injuries and leave my brother as a mark for Deceit to go about and Malice and Covetousness and Power to shoot at Why should not this Law of Nature be an amulet to secure all mankind from the venom of Fraud and Injustice This Law of Nature
brought forth a Regulus a Cato a Fabricius and many other Worthies who shewed to posterity the possibility of keeping this Law so far as to be Just and do as yet teach and upbraid us Christians By this Law and by no other then this were the Aediles or Clarks of the market in Rome directed to lay it down as a Law That whosoever sold any commodity was to disclose to the buyer what fault what defect what imperfection it had If he sold an house in which the plague had been he was to proclaim it by the common cryer Pestilentem domum vendo I sell an infectious house If he sold a horse he was to make known the diseases if a piece of cloth the falshood of it For if he did not this there lay an action against him actio redhibitoria by which he was constrained to take back his wares again or make good the damage to the buyer Solebant Aediles malas merces in flumen jactare Plin. Nat. Hist p. 638. By this they flung all false and deceitful wares into the river This hath been done in Gath and Ashkelon what a strange sight would it be in Jerusalem This hath been done amongst Heathens aliens from the grace of God and is it not pity it should appear as ridiculous amongst us Christians who make our boast of Gods grace all the day along Should we put it in practice what objects of scorn and laughter should we be made to the men of this world who would call us fools or set us down for none of the wisest or which is the easiest censure place us in the number of those who may be wise perhaps but will not be wise for themselves Hier. ad Eustoch Amittit meritò proprium qui alienum appetit Vide Auson Epiced in patrem vet Interp. in Sat. Juvenal Deut. 27.17 Qui terminum exarasset ipse boves sacri Fest in verbo Terminus But S. Hierome goeth further and addeth Aliena appetentes publicae leges puniunt The publick Laws did punish even those who did but seek after or desire another mans possessions perhaps alluding to that custome of the Antients who straitly forbad that any man should add to or diminish that which he possest Lastly this was it that made them sacrifice Deo Termino to the God of bounds And as God laid a curse upon him that removed the land-mark so did Numa by the light of Nature even upon him who though by chance had plowed it up Such is the tye of Nature so great an obligation doth it carry with it For whatsoever is done against Nature all men saith Tertullian esteem as monstrous but Christians sacrilegious against God who is the Lord and Authour of Nature And further we press not this consideration For in the second place Justice and Honesty have yet a fairer pillar more polished and beautiful more radiant and manifest to the eye Besides the Law of Nature or Humane Laws which are but the extracts and resultations from it we have a Law written the Law of God who is the God of truth Deut. 32.4 Hab. 1.13 and of pure eyes that cannot behold deceit and violence and the Law of that great Law-giver the Prince of Righteousness in whose mouth there was found no guile 1 Pet. 1.22 And this maketh our obligation to do justly the stronger De relig c. 6. Lex prohibens omnia delicta congeminat saith Augustine The superaddition of a Law to the Law written in our hearts aggravateth and multiplieth a sin because after the open promulgation of a Law we do not onely that which is unlawful in it self but also that which is by supreme authority forbidden Now when we speak of a Law we do not mean the Law of Moses although that commandeth to make our Hin right and our Ephah right Levit. 19.36 Leges 12 Tabul Nè Agrum defraudanto Nè frugem aratro quaesitam noctu furtâ—m depascunto Puberes si secanto Cereri eos suspendunto Impuberes arbâ—trio Praetoris verberanto Ac noxae tal onem decernunto Plin. Nat Hist l. 28. c 3. That that should be restored which was either violently or deceitfully taken away Levit. 6.4 That that which goeth astray or is lost should be restored Deut. 22.1 2 3. That the hired servant be not oppressed Deut. 24.14 15. That he that killeth a beast shall restore it Levit. 24.21 That he that smiteth a man so that he keepeth his bed shall pay for the loss of his time and cause him to be throughly healed Exod. 21.18 19. That if a man feed his beast in another mans field he shall make restitution out of his own field Exod. 22.5 That in buying and selling they should not oppress one another Levit. 25.14 but legem Evangelicam the Law which was preached and promulged by Righteousness it self the best Master Christ Jesus And by this Christians are obliged above all the men in the world because they are Disciples of a better Testament For Christ came not to destroy the Law of Nature but to establish and improve it And though Christs Law propose some duties to which peradventure by clear evidence we are not obliged by the Law of Nature yet they who have most improved and perfected their Reason even by the light of Reason will subscribe to them that they are just and good and as they concern our conversation with men most fit to be done and most worthy of observation Innocentiam perfectè nôrant Christiani perfecto Magistro revelatam Apolog. saith Tertullian That Innocency of life which beateth down all violence checketh and confuteth all Sophistry and deceit in dealing is most exactly learnt by Christians from the best and perfectest Master that ever was Who that we may not kill hath taught us not to be angry that we may shut out uncleanness hath shut up our eyes that we may not do evil hath prohibited us to speak or think it and is so far from permitting his disciples to do any injury that he hath expresly and straitly commanded them with patience to bear any that is offered Quis illic sicarius quis manticularius quis sacrilegus What Christian saith he is a murderer or a theif or a sacrilegious person Or will he steal thy coat who by his profession is bound to give thee his and his cloak also It was a common saying amongst them Bonus vir Caius Seius Caius Seius was a just good man certainly and there was but one fault in him and that was that he was a Christian When the Souldiers askt John the Baptist What shall we do Luk. 3.13 14. he returned an answer which did not disarm them but bound their hands from violence and wrong Do no violence accuse no man falsly and be content with your wages The Publicanes were odious even to a proverb yet he vouchsafeth them an answer Exact no more then is appointed you Will you hear our Saviour from the mount You cannot but
end for it it will be eternal Thus have we seen Justice or Honesty in its full shape and beauty fastned upon its proper pillars the Law of Nature and the Law of the God of Nature Let us now see by way of application with what eye and favour the world of Men and the world of Christians have lookt upon it whether they have not relied more on those pillars of smoke and air their private Phansie and private Interest then upon these pillars of marble that God himself hath set up which are firm and strong and might bear them up to build upon them that Justice which would raise them up above the dying and killing glories of this world to that which is everlasting in the highest heavens First the complaint is old that Justice or honesty hath long since left the earth or rather is driven out of it To speak truth when her territories were largest when she stretcht the curtains of her habitation furthest she did but angustè habitare took up but little room and her retinue was but small She never yet could tithe the children of men and it had been well if she had taken in one of an hundred It were even a labour to shew the divers arts and inventions of men which they make use of to work out their way to honour and the riches of this world Ad haec simplicem hactenus vivendi rationem excogitatis mensuris ponderibus immutavit pristinámque sinceritatem generositatem ignaram talium artium in novam quandam versutiam depravavit Joseph Antiq. Judaic l. 1. c. 3. Sen de Benef. l. 7. c. 10. Cain is blamed by Josephus for first finding out Weights and Measures which was a tacite and silent accusation that that age was corrupt in which so much caution was necessary Quid foenus kalendarium faith Seneca What are Interest and the Kalendar and your Count-Books but names extra naturam posita found out quite besides and beyond the intention of Nature What are your Bills and Obligations and Indentures but as so many libels wherein you profess to the world that you dare not trust one another and that you believe men cannot be honest unless they be bound Plus annulis quà m animis creditis Your Seal-rings are a better assurance then your Faiths And how do too many sell themselves but not for bread How in all sorts and conditions of men have some used their Power others their Wit pro lege publica instead of a publick Law and have entitled themselves the just possessours of that estate into which they have wrought themselves with hands of Oppression Robbery and Deceit It hath been an old reproach laid upon Common-wealths That they did set common honesty to sale The Athenians had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a tribute out of the stews and we are told that Christians have so if Rome may yet be thought to be in Christendome Look into the Civil Law Codice de Spect. Scen. Lenonibus of Theatrical Shews Stage-playes and Bawds and you shall find that even from hence from these loathsome and nasty dunghills of corruption Emperours and Common-wealths have sucked gain Mathematicians Juglers Fortune-tellers Thieves and which the Father could not tell whether he should grieve or blush at inter hos Christiani vectigales Tert. Apolog. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. Arist 2. Rhet. Fest Verb. uxor Tacitus amongst this rabble Christians also were brought in as tributary This was exacted from Poor men from Statues from Dead-men from very Urine and this to the Emperour was a sweet-smelling savour In one age they did Vxorium pendere pay a sum of money for not being married in another etiam Matrimonia obnoxia they who were married were liable to this exaction Quocunque modo rem Gain was welcome at what gate or postern soever it came in So soon did they forget they were Men so little did they regard the Law of Nature And it were to be wished that this evil had stayed here that this art of unjust and unlawful acquisition had been onely known in the tents of Kedar But by degrees it stole in and found enterteinment in the Church of God and Christians forgetting their profession quae nil nisi justum suadet which should be known by Justice and Equity and Contempt of the world began to think stolen waters sweet and to feed greedily on the bread of Deceit and Violence For as the Pharisees did teach their children to say to their Father and Mother Mark 7.11 Corban which is not a curse as some have imagined for the Pharisees were too wise to be so openly wicked as to teach men to curse their parents to have done this had been to forfeit their phylacteries but it was their craft and policy an art to fill their Treasurie to teach children who were offended with their parents to consecrate their wealth to the Treasury that so they might defeat that other Law which bound them to supply their parents in want and distress So even within the pale of the Church there have been found men whose Phylacteries were as broad as theirs who by holy fraud did take into their hands the possessions of the earth and at last laid claim unto the whole world and that upon the score of Religion taught men to redeem their ill-spent time with a piece of silver What were else the Prayers for the dead as they were used in the Church of Rome but the price of mens souls For the very thought of the power and efficacy of them drove men to a more supine and negligent conversation to weary themselves in the wayes of wickedness having such a pillow to sleep on For what need they be diligent to make their election sure whilest they live who are fully perswaded that this may be done by proxy for them when they are dead This is truly the Pharisees Corban to teach men to rob their parents to endanger their souls by religion that so their treasuries may be full This is to make that monumentum sceleris a lasting monument of craft and policy which should have been specimen pietatis an example and expression of piety This is to cheat men into charity and liberality which should be free and voluntary with false hopes It was the saying of Martine Luther Papatus est robusta venatio Romani Episcopi that Popery was nothing else but a close senting and following of gain and hunting after the riches and pomp of the world For if men will not give or yield up their estates either Policy shall betray or Power like a whirlwind snatch them away When Peter's Keyes are too weak Julius the Second flingeth them into the River Tiber with this Christian resolution to try what Paul's Sword could do We may say with the Wise man that this is an evil disease under the Sun a disease which did not onely envenome that politick Estate which is nothing else but a Disease but did also
of the soul which are called by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 puffings up for riches or learning or beauty or strength or eloquence or virtue or any thing which we admire our selves for elations and liftings up of the Mind above it self stretching of it beyond its measure 2 Cor. 10.14 making us to complain of the Law as unjust to start at the shadow of an injury to do evil and not to see it to commit sin and excuse it making our tongues our own Psal 12.4 our hands our own our understandings our own our wills our own leaving us Independents under no law but our own The Prophet David calleth it highness or haughtiness of the heart Solomon Psal 131 1. Prov. 16.18 haughtiness of the spirit which is visible in our sin and visible in our apologies for sin lifting up the eyes Psal 10.4 and lifting up the nose for so the phrase signifieth and lifting up the head and making our necks brass as if we had devoured a spit as Epictetus expresseth it I am and I alone Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellant Arrian in Epict. is soon writ in any mans heart and it is the office and work of Humility to wipe it out to wipe out all imaginations which rise and swell against the Law our Neighbour and so against God himself For the mind of man is very subject to these fits of swelling Humility Our very nature riseth at the mention of it Habet mens nostra sublime quiddam impatiens superioris saith the Oratour Mens minds naturally are lifted up and cannot endure to be overlookt Humility It is well we can hear her named with patience It is something more that we can commend her But quale monstrum quale sacrilegium saith the Father O monstruous sacrilege we commend Humility and that we do so swelleth us We shut her out of doors when we entertein her When we deck her with praises we sacrilegiously spoil her and even lose her in our panegyricks and commendations We see for it is but too visible what light materials we are made of what tinder we are that the least spark will set us on fire to blaze and be offensive to every eye We censure Pride in others and are proud we do so we humble our brethren and exalt our selves It is the art and malice of the world when men excel either in virtue or learning to say they are proud and they think with that breath to level every hill that riseth so high and calleth so many eyes to look upon it But suppose they were alass a very fool will be so and he that hath not one good part to gain the opinion of men will do that office for himself and wonder the world should so mistake him Doth Learning or Virtue do our good parts puff us up and set us in our altitudes No great matter the wagging of a feather the gingling of a spur a little ceruss and paint any thing nothing will do it nay to descend yet lower that which is worse then nothing will do it Wickedness will do it 〈◊〉 10.3 He boasteth of his hearts desire saith David he blesseth himself in evil Prov. 2.14 He rejoyceth in evil saith Solomon he pleaseth and flattereth himself in mischief And what are these benedictions these boastings these triumphs in evil but as the breathings the sparkles the proclamations of Pride Psal 10.4 The wicked is so proud he careth not for God God is not in all his thoughts When Adam by pride was risen so high as to fall from his obedience God looketh upon him in this his exaltation or rather in this ruine and beholdeth him not as his creature but as a prodigie and seemeth to put on admiration 〈…〉 22. ECCE ADAM FACTVS TANQVAM VNVS E NOBIS See the man is become as one of us God speaketh it by an Irony A God he is but of his own making Whilest he was what I made him he was a Man but innocent just immortal of singular endowments and he was so truly and really but now having swelled and reached beyond his bounds a God he is but per mycterismum a God that may be pitied that may be derided a mortal dying God a God that will run into a thicket to hide himself His Greatness is but figurative but his misery is real Being turned out of paradise he hath nothing left but his phansie to deifie him This is our case our teeth are on edge with the same sowr grapes We are proud and sin and are proud in our sins We lift up our selves against the Law and when we have broke it we lift up our selves against Repentance When we are weak then we are strong when we are poor and miserable then we are rich when we are naked then we clothe our selves with pride as with a garment And as in Adam so in us our Greatness is but a tale and a pleasing lye our sins and imperfections true and real our heaven but a thought and our hell burning A strange soloecisme a look as high as heaven and the soul as low as the lowest pit It was an usual speach with Martine Luther that every man was born with a Pope in his belly And we know what the Pope hath long challenged and appropriated to himself Infallibility and Supremacy which like the two sides of an Arch mutually uphold each other For do we question his Immunity from errour It is a bold errour in us for he is supreme Judge of controversies and the conjecture is easie which way the question will be stated Can we not be perswaded and yield to his Supremacy Then his Parasites will tell you that he is Infallible By this we may well ghess what Luther meant For so it is in us Pride maketh us incorrigible and the thought that we are so increaseth our Pride We are too high to stand and too wise to be wary too learned to be taught and too good to be reproved We now stand upon our Supremacy See how the Worm swelleth into an Angel The Heart forgetteth it is flesh and becometh a stone and you cannot set Christs Impress HVMILITY upon a stone Learn of me for I am humble The Ear is deaf the Heart stubborn Matth. 11.29 the Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Theodoret a reprobate Rom. 1.28 reverberating mind a heart of marble which violently beateth back the blow that should soften it Now the office of Humility is to abate this swelling its proper work is to hammer this rock and break it to pieces Jer. 23.29 to drive it into it self to pull it down at the sight of this Lord to place it under it self under the Law under God to bind it as it were with cords to let out this corrupt blood and this noxious humour and so sacrifice it to that God that framed it to depress it in it self that
devastat They so busie their thoughts upon other mens actions that they have none left for their own Being sent abroad into the world they leave a devastation a wilderness at home They fly to every mark which is set up but that which their calling and Religion directeth them to aim at Their whole life and imployment is to do other mens business and sleep in their own It is safe neither for Church nor Commonwealth that such busie-bodies should walk in matters so far above their sphere and compass nor is it fit that Phaeton should sit too long in the chair For if these turbulent and domineering spirits prevail if the Mercy and Providence of God prevent it not the whole course of nature will be set on fire or else dislocated and perverted the Foot shall stand where the hand doth the Ear shall speak the Tongue hear and the Foot see all shall be Prophets all Teachers I might say all shall be Kings and I might add all will be Athiests If then we will study peace or desire to be quiet in our place let Religion guide us which hath drawn out to our hands the most exact method and most proportioned to that end Or let us follow the method of Nature it self And in the course of Nature thus we set it The Heavens are stretcht forth as a canopy to compass the Air the Air moveth about the Earth Psal 104 19. the Earth keepeth its centre and is immoveable the Moon knoweth her seasons and the Sun his going down the Stars start not from their spheres Heavy bodies ascend not nor do the light go downwards but all the parts of the Universe are tyed and linkt together by that law of Providence and Order that they may subsist And so it is both in Church and Commonwealth We are not in termino we cannot be quiet and rest but in our own place and function What should a Star do in the earth or a Stone in the firmament What should an Inferiour step into a Superiours seat and set himself above those who are over him in the Lord This I am sure is to be out of his place where he cannot move but disorderly If men would but fill their own they would have but little leisure to step into anothers mans place or to be so much fools as to set their foot within their neighbours doors Thucydides The Historian hath observed that those men who neglect their private affairs are ever very busie in examining publick proceedings well skill'd in every mans duty but their own Julius Caesar before the Civil war said it of himself Quà m multis indigeo ut nihil habeam Who fitter to change the face of a Commonwealth then he that was so far indebted that he dared not to shew his own who wanted so much that he might be worth nothing Who more ready to shake and dissolve a State then he that hath wasted his own with riotous living Who will sooner be a traytour then a bankrupt I might here urge and press this duty which confineth every man to his own businness 1 à decoro from the Grace and Beseemingness of it For what garment can fit us better then our own what business more natural to us then our own what motion more graceful then our own Our own place best becometh us and we are ridiculous and monstrous in any other Apelles with an aul in his hand or the Cobler with his pencil Midas with asses ears or an Ass in purple Nero with his fiddle or a Fidler with a crown Commodus in his artifex quae stationis imperatoriae non erant c Ael Lamprid. Commodus making of Glasses a good dancer and a sword-player or a Glass-man and a Dancer giving laws a Tradesman in the pulpit or a Divine with the meteyard in his hand the Lord in his servants frock and the Servant on his footcloth are objects of that nature that they command our finger and our smile and the first and easiest censure we pass on them is our laughter and it were happy for Common-wealths if they deserved no worse But they are not onely ridiculous but ominous and prodigious and appear like comets threatning and ushering in some plague or war some strange alteration in Church or Commonwealth Whereas our own place be it what it will doth not onely conserve but become and adorn us and our regular motion in it is a fair prophesie of peace to our selves and to all that are about us And though it be the lowest we may be honourable in it as Themistocles once said being chosen into a mean office that he would so manage it as to make it of as great repute in Athens as the highest 2. Ab utili from the Advantage it bringeth Quod enim decet ferè prodest Instit. l 10 c. 1. saith Quintillian For that which becometh us commonly doth also further and promote us We usually say Our plough goeth forward And when the plough goeth and is ours when we sow our own seed in our own ground we have laid the foundation of a fair hope and we seldome miss of a rich and plenteous harvest When we venture out of our place we venture as at a Lottery where we draw many Blanks before we have one Prize and when that is drawn it doth not countervail the fourtieth part of our venture but the trumpet soundeth as at a triumph and we leave behind us more then we carryed with us and go away with the loss So it is when we move in another mans place we move upon hopes which most times deceive us When we do our own business we find no difficulty but in the business it self and no enemy but Negligence But when we break our limits and leap into other mens affairs we meet with greater opposition we meet with the Law which is against us and very often too strong for us we meet with those who will be as violent to defend their station as we are to trouble it and if we chance to break through all these yet when we have cast up our accounts and reckoned up the trouble we have undergone the illegality and injustice of our proceedings the detestation of all good men and the vengeance which hangeth over us with that benefit which we have reapt we may put our advantage in our eyes as they say and drop it out 3. Lastly à necessario from the Necessity of doing it I do not mean a legal and causative Necessity as the Civilians speak a precise Necessity which the Law and Honesty lay upon us but a Necessity in respect of the end which is to be quiet which we cannot attain to but by our motion in our own place Other paths are strange paths and heterogeneous to it and the further we go in them the further we are off and meet with nothing but that which is diametrically opposed to it Injustice Hatred the Curse both of God and man
as a Command and as S. Pauls Command First it cometh under command Which leaveth it not to us to do when and how we please but maketh it necessary to be observed as necessary for us to do as to Believe in Christ For howsoever we may count these as petty duties and of a lower form yet our blessed Saviour putteth an high esteem upon them yea upon the least title and Iota of them Matth. 5.19 and telleth us plainly that if any shall break one of these least commandments which regulate our conversation with men he shall be called the least in the kingdome of heaven that is shall be of no esteem at all shall be shut out of that Kingdom And indeed a strange thing it may seem that Faith and Hearing and Prayer and Fasting and many times but the formality of them should make up the main Battalia in our spiritual Warfare Judg. 7.6 7. as those three hundred did in Gideon's army and those homiletical virtues Silence Peaceableness Honesty Meekness Doing our own business Industry in our calling like those who lapped not should be left behind as not fit for service Matth. 16.18 It is true the Church is founded upon a rock upon Faith in Christ but then Faith implyeth Practice even the practice of those virtues which concern us as members of the Commonwealth as well as of the Church For the Commonwealth is not in the Church but the Church in the Commonwealth for every Commonwealth is not Christian 1 Tim. 3.5 And as S. Paul telleth us that he that knoweth not how to rule his own house is not fit to take care of the Church no more can he who at pleasure breaketh these tyes and ligaments with which Nature and Religion have linkt him in a body politick and that many times under pretense of Religion boast or comfort himself in his relation to Christ He that is not a good member of the Commonwealth is not a true member of the Church He that is not a good Servant or a good Master a good Governour or a good Subject he that is not a Just dealer an honest Tradesman a faithful Labourer he that loveth not his neighbour as himself he that is not quiet and peaceable and industrious let him deceive himself as he please can have nothing but the name of a Christian For what will Hearing onely or Praying or Fasting lye upon this foundation 1 Cor. 3.10 11. Was Jesus Christ laid as the foundation onely to bear up speculative and phansiful men onely to bear up Pharisees and Hypocrites Will not Discretion and seasonable Silence and Honesty and Diligence in our calling concurre to that superstructure which must rise up as high as heaven Will our Eye or Tongue or Ear or Knee or Phansie bow and incline God and will he not once look down upon our Order upon our peaceable and honest Conversation with men Is Religion turned Anchorete and shut up within our selves there onely to listen after words and sounds and breathe them out again and must not she come forth to order our steps amongst men May she not be seen in a settled Mind and Eye in a labouring Hand as well as in an open Ear and a busie Tongue which speaketh loud and oft of Gods Kingdom when we do those things which will shut us out Let us not deceive our selves To be quiet to meddle in our own business to labour with our hands are sub praecepto under command and binding tendred to us and prescribed as a Law Indeed Nature and Reason one would think should bind us and guide our motion in that sphere or place wherein we are fixt For why should not every man be what he is made to be And although I do not think that every command in the Gospel is juris naturalis and so made known to us by the light of Nature for Nature certainly could not teach us to dye for our brethren 1 John 3.16 which yet the Gospel doth yet there is nothing commanded there which carryeth not with it a natural dignity and beseemingness Vide Grot. l. 1. de Jure Belli pacis c. 12. §. 6. to which with a little instruction and upon serious consideration we shall willingly subscribe And these duties which we now speak of may seem clearly to issue from those dictates of Nature That we should do to others as we would be done to That all things should be done decently and to edification That nothing should be done against conscience which had been of force for the ordering of mens actions of this nature though the Scripture had never expressed them and were of force before the Gospel was written and did bind us not onely because they were written but because they were just For why should he who would not be spoiled himself rob another Why should he who maketh his house his castle be so ready to invade and break into his neighbours Why should he who is even sick of a cheat be so ready to put one upon another Why should he that would be quiet at home be so troublesome abroad Why should not Ahab be as willing to part with his crown as to take Naboths vineyard But Christ the best Master and Lawgiver that ever was came not to destroy but to perfect Nature not to blot out those common notions which we brought into the world with us but to make them more legible to improve them and so make them his Law And if we look upon them as not belonging to us we our selves cannot belong to the Covenant of grace for even these duties are weaved in and made a part of the Covenant and if we break the one we break the other and not onely if we believe not but if we live not peaceably Heb. 3.18 if we stretch beyond our line if we labour not in our calling Rom. 12.18 we shall not enter into his rest For these also are his Laws 2 Cor. 10.14 15. and these doth our blessed Apostle teach and command And to conclude such a power hath Christ left in his Church conferred it first on his Apostles and then on those who were to succeed and supply their place who were to speak after them in the person and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ We will not dispute now what power it is It is sufficient to say it is not an earthly but a heavenly power derived from Christ himself the Fountain and Original of all Power whatsoever As Christs Kingdom is not of this world Joh. 18.36 so is not this Power of that nature as to stand in need of an army of souldiers to defend and hold it up but it is like the object and matter it worketh upon spiritual a power to command to remember every man of his duty in Church or Commonwealth For the Church and Commonwealth are two distinct but not contrary things and both powers were ordained to uphold and defend
which we offer him a place and seat for honours sake who hath done some notable and meritorions service And so Christ having spoiled the adversary by his death having led captivity captive and put the Prince of darkness in chains at his return with these spoils heareth from his Father Sit now down at my right hand Nor doth God's right hand point out to any fixt or determined place where he sitteth For Christ himself telleth the high Priest that they shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of God and coming in the clouds of heaven Mark 14.62 which if literally understood we must needs conceive him coming and sitting at the same time All agree it is a Metaphor and some interpret it of that Supremacy Christ hath above the Creature For so he is described sitting at the right hand of God in heavenly places Eph. 1.20 21. far above all principality and power and every name that is named not onely in this world but in the world to come Some have conceived that by this honour of sitting at the right hand of God not onely an Equality with God is implyed but something more Equal to the Father as touching his God head Atha Nas Cr. Not that the Son hath any thing more then the Father for they are equal in all things but because in respect of the exercise and execution of his Royal office he hath as it were this dignity to sit in his Royal seat as Lord and Governour of his Church For the Father is said as I told you to commit all judgement to the Son But we may say with Tertullian Malo in scripturis fortè minùs sapere quà m contrá De Pudicit c. 9 We had rather understand less in Scripture then amiss rather be wary then venture too far and wade till we sink And that will prove the best interpretation of Scripture which we draw out of Scripture it self And then S. Paul hath interpreted it to our hands For whereas the Prophet David telleth us The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand the Apostle speaketh more expresly 1 Cor. 15.25 He must reign till he hath put down all enemies under his feet and in the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 8.1 We have such an high Priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens that is We have such an high Priest who is also a Lord and King of majesty and power to command and govern us who hath absolute authority over things in heaven and things in earth over all the souls and bodies of men and may prescribe them Laws reward the obedient and punish offenders either in this world or the next or in both For though he were a Lord and King even in his cratch and on his cross yet now his dominion and Kingly power was most manifest and he commandeth his Disciples to publish the Gospel of peace and those precepts of Christian conversation to all the world and speaketh not as a Prophet but as a Prince in his own name enjoyneth repentance and amendment of life to all the nations of the earth which were now all under his dominion Thus saith Christ himself Luke 24.46 47. it is writen and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his name among all nations And his Dominion is not subordinate Matth. 8.9 but absolute He commandeth not as the Centurion in the Gospel who had divers under him yet himself was under authority but Prov. 30.31 as Solomon's King he is Rex ALKVM a King against whom there is no rising up And now that it may appear that he is not for ever thus to sit at the right hand of God but there sitteth to rule and govern us to behold and observe us in every motion and in every thought and will nay must come again with a reward for those who bow to his sceptre and with vengeance to be poured forth upon their heads who contemn his laws and think neither of him nor the right hand of God and will not have him reign over them though they call him their King let us a little further consider the nature and quality of his Dominion that our fear and reverence our care and caution may draw him yet a little nearer to us and we may not onely conceive of him as sitting at the right hand of God but so live as if he were now coming in the clouds Tell ye the daughter of Sion Matth. 2.51 Behold thy King cometh to thee meek and sitting on an ass and a colt the foal of an ass This was his first coming in great humility Philip. 2.8 9. And this and his retinue shew that his Kigdom was not of this world He humbled himself saith S. Paul wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name given him power dignity and honour and made him our Lord and King For his Prophetical office which he exercised in the land of Judea was in a manner an act and effect of his Kingly office by which he sitteth as Lord in the throne of Mejesty For by it he declared his Fathers will and promulged his Laws throughout the world As a King and Lord he maketh his Laws and as a Prophet he publisheth them a Prophet and a Priest and a Lord for ever For he teacheth his Church he mediateth and intercedeth for his Church and governeth his Church to the end of the world Take then the Laws by which he governeth us the virtue and power the compass and duration of his Dominion and we shall find it to be of a higher and more excellent nature then that which the eye of flesh so dazleth at Rev. 19.16 that he is The LORD of Lords and KING of Kings And first the difference between his Dominion and the Kingdomes of the world is seen not onely in the Authours but the Laws themselves The Laws of men are enacted many times nec quid nec quare and no reason can be given why they are enacted good reason there is why there should be Laws made against them and they abolished Some written in blood too rigid and cruel some in water ready to vanish many of them but the results and dictates of mens lusts and wild affections made not so safeguard any State but their own But Christs are pure and undefiled exact and perfect such as tend to perfection to the good of his Subjects and will make them like unto this Lord heirs together with him of eternity of bliss And as the reward is eternal so are they unchangeable the same to day and to the end of the world not like the Laws of the Heathen which were raised with one breath and pulled down by another which were fixed by one hand and torn down by a
meaning is His absolute will is that they should die And let them shift as they please and wind and turn themselves to slip out of reach after all defalcations and subtractions they can make it will arise near to this sum which I am almost afraid to give you That God is willing we should die For to this purpose they bring in also Gods Providence To this purpose I should have said to none at all For though God rule the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this law of Providence as Nazianzene calleth it though he disposeth and ordereth all things and all actions of men yet he layeth not any law of Necessity upon all things Some effects he hath fitted with necessary causes Prima part q. 22. art 4. that they may infallibly fall out saith Aquinas and to other effects which in their own nature are contingent he hath applyed contingent causes so that that shall fall out necessarily which his Providence hath so disposed of and that contingently which he hath left in a contingency And both these in the nature of things necessary and contingent are within the verge and rule of his Providence and he altereth them not but extra ordinem when he would do some extraordinary work Psal 104.19 when he would work a miracle The Sun knoweth his seasons and the Moon its going down and this in a constant and unchangeable course but yet he commanded the Sun to stand still in Gibeon and the Moon in the valley of Ajalon Josh 10.12 But then I think all events are not as necessary as the change of the Moon or the setting of the Sun for all have not so necessary causes Unless you will say to walk or stand to be rich or poor to fall in battel or to conquer are as necessary effects as Darkness when the Sun setteth or Light when it riseth in our Horizon And this indeed may bring in a new kind of Predestination to walk or to stand to Riches and Poverty to Victory and Captivity as well as to everlasting Life and everlasting Perdition But posito sed non concesso Let us suppose it though we grant it not that the Providence of God hath laid a necessity upon such events as these yet it doth not certainly upon those actions which concern our everlasting welfare which either raise us up to heaven or cast us down to destruction It were not much material at least a good Christian might think so whether we sit or walk whether God predetermin that we be rich or poor that we conquer or be overcome What is it to me though the Sun stand still if my feet be at liberty to run the wayes of Gods commandments What is it to me if the Moon should start out of her sphere if I lose not the sight of that brightness which should direct me in my way to bliss What were it to me if I were necessitated to beggery so I be not a predestinate bankrupt in the city of the Lord Let him do what he will in heaven and in earth let the Sun go back let the Stars lose their light let the wheel of Nature move in a contrary way let the pillars of the world be shaken Let him do what he will it concerneth us not further then that we say Amen so be it For we must give him leave who made the world to govern it If all other events and actions were necessary we might well sit down and lay our hands upon our mouth But here lis est de tota possessione We speak not of riches and poverty or fair weather and tempests but of everlasting life and everlasting damnation And to entitle God either directly or indirectly to the sins and death of wicked men so to lay the Scene that it shall appear though masked and vailed with limitations and distinctions and though they be not positive yet leave such premisses out of which this conclusion may easily be drawn is a high reproch to Gods infinite Goodness a blasphemy however men wipe their mouthes after it of the greatest magnitude Not to speak the worst it is to stand up and contradict God to his face and when he sweareth he would not have us die to proclaim it to all the world that there be thousands whom he hath killed already and destroyed before they were and so decreed to do that from all eternity which in time he swore he would not do I speak not this to rake the ashes of any of those who are dead that either maintained or favoured this opinion nor to stir the choler of any man living who may love this child for the fathers sake but for the honour of God and his everlasting Goodness which I conceive to be strangely violated by this doctrine of efficacious Permission or by that shift and evasion of a positive Efficiency joyned as it is said inseparably with this Permission of sin which is so far from colouring it over or giving any loveliness to it that it rendreth it more horrid and deformed and is the louder blasphemy of the two which clotheth as it were a Devil with Light who yet breaketh through it and rageth as much as if he had been in his own shape Permission is a fair word and bodeth no harm but yet it breatheth forth that poysonous exhalation which killeth us For but to be permitted to sin is to be a child appointed to death The antients especially the Athenians did account some words ominous and therefore they never used to speak them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Prison they called the House Helladius apud Photium the Hangman the Common Officer and the like And the Romanes would not once mention Death or say their friend was dead but Humanitus illi accidit We may render it in the Scripture-phrase He is gone the way of all the earth Josh 23.14 1 Kings 2.2 What their phansie led them to Religion should perswade us to think that some words there be which we should be afraid to mention when we speak of God Excitation to sin Inclination Induration Reprobration as they are used are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ill-boding words But yet we must not with the Heathen onely change the language and mean the same thing and call it Permission when our whole discourse driveth this way to bring it forward and set it up for a flat and absolute Compulsion For this is but to plough the wind to make a way which closeth of it self as soon as it is made This is not to teach men but to amaze them Sermo per deflexus anfractus veritatem potiùs quaerit quà m ostendit saith Hilary When men broach these contradictions to known and common principles when they make these Meanders these windings and turnings in their discourses they make it also apparent that they are still in their search and have not yet found out the
all tender and favourable to our own sins and because they pleased us when we committed them we are unwilling to revile them now but wipe off as much of their filth as we can because we resolve to commit them again and those transgressions which our Lusts conceived and brought forth by the midwifery of our Will we remove as far as we can and lay them at the door of Necessity and are ready to complain of God and Nature it self Now this complaint against Nature when we have sinned is most unjust For God and Nature hath imprinted in our souls those common principles of goodness That good is to be embraced and evil to be abandoned That we must do to others as we would be done to those practick notions those anticipations Natura nos ad optimam mentem genuit Quint. l. 12. Inst as the Stoicks call them of the mind and preparations against Sin and Death which if we did not wilfully stifle and choke them might lift up our souls far above those depressions of Self-love and Covetousness and those evils which destroy us quae ratio semel in universum vincit which Reason with the help of Grace overcometh at once For Reason doth not onely arm and prepare us against these inrodes and incursions against these as we think so violent assaults but also when we are beat to the ground it checketh and upbraideth us for our fall Indeed to look down upon our selves and then lift up our eyes to him from whom cometh our salvation Psal 62.1 121.1 is both the duty and security of the sons of Adam And when we watch over our selves and keep our hearts with diligence when we strive with our inclination and weakness as well as we do with the temptation Psal 103.14 then if we fall God remembreth whereof we are made considereth our condition that we are but men and though we fail his mercy endureth for ever But to think of our weakness and then to fall and because we came infirm and diseased into the world to kill our selves Wisd 1.12 to seek out Death in the errour of our life to dally and play with danger to be willing to joyn with the temptation at the first shew and approch as if we were made for no other end and then to complain of weakness is to charge God and Nature foolishly and not onely to impute our sins to Adam but to God himself And thus we bankrupt our selves and complain we were born poor we criple our selves and then complain we are lame we deliver up our selves and fall willingly under the temptation and then pretend it was a son of Anak too strong for such grashoppers as we We delight in sin we trade in sin we were brought up in it and we continue in it and make it our companion our friend with which we most familiarly converse and then comfort our selves and cast all the fault on our temper and constitution and the corruption of our nature and we attribute our full growth in sin to that seed of sin which we should have choked which had never shot up into the blade and born such evil fruit but that we manured and watered it and were more then willing that it should grow and multiply And this though it be a great sin as being the mother of all those mishapen births and monsters which walk about the world we dress and deck up and give it a fair and glorious name and call it Humility Which is Humilitas maximum fidei opus Hil. in Psal 130. saith Hilary the hardest and greatest work of our faith to which it is so unlike that it is the greatest enemy it hath and every day weakneth and disenableth it that it doth not work by charity but leaveth us Captives to the world and sin which but for this conceit it would easily vanquish and tread down under our feet We may call it Humility but it is Pride a stubborn and insolent standing out with God that made us upon this foul and unjust pretense That he made us so humilitas sophistica saith Petrus Blesensis the humility of hypocrites which at once boweth and pusheth out the horn in which we disgrace and condemn our selves that we may do what we please and speak evil of our selves that we may be worse Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched men that we are we groan it out and there is musick in the sound which we hear and delight in and carry along in our mind and so become wretched indeed even those miserable sinners which will ever be so And shall we call this Humility If it be Col. 2.18 it is as the Apostle speaketh a voluntary humility but in a worse sense He is the humblest man that doth his duty For that Humility which is commended to us in Scripture letteth us up to heaven this which is so epidemical sinketh us into the lowest pit That Humility boweth us down with sorrow this bindeth our hands with sloth that looketh upon our imperfections past this maketh way for more to come that ventureth and condemneth it self condemneth it self and ventureth further this runneth out of the field and dare not look upon the enemy Nec mirum si vincantur qui jam victi sunt And it is no marvel they should fall and perish whom their own so low and groundless opinion hath already overthrown For first though I deny not a derived Weakness and from Adam though I leave it not after Baptisme as subsistent by it self or bound to the centre of the earth with the Manichee nor washt to nothing in the Font with others yet it is easie to deceive our selves and to think it more contagious then it is more operative and more destructive then it would be if we would shake off this conceit and rowse our selves and stand up against it Ignaviâ nostrâ fortis est It may be it is our sloth and cowardise that maketh it strong Certainly there must be more force then this hath to make us so wicked as many times we are and there be more promoters of the kingdom of Darkness in us then that which we brought with us into the world Lord what a noise hath Original sin made amongst the sons of Adam and what ill use hath been made of it When this Lion roareth all the Beasts of the forrest tremble and yet are beasts still We hear of it and are astonished and become worse and worse and yet there are but few that exactly know what it is When we are Infants we do not know that we are so no more then the Tree doth that it grows Much less can we discover what poyson we brought with us into the world which as it is the nature of some kind of poyson though it have no visible operation for the present may some years after break forth from the head to the foot in swellings and sores full of corruption and not be fully purged out to our
so have our Desires theirs which is their end And here we have them both the Object of our Knowledge delivered first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a generality UT COGNOSCAM ILLUM That I may know him that is Christ secondly dilated and enlarged in two main particulars 1. Resurrection 2. his Passion In the one he beholdeth power in the other fellowship and communion which includeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conformity to his death Christ indeed is risen but he suffered first so must we be conformable to his death if we will feel the power of his resurrection So these three are most considerable 1. Christ 2. the power of his resurrection 3. the fellowship of his sufferings these are three rich Diamonds and if they be well set if we take the words in their true Syntaxis and joyn configuratus to cognoscam our conformity to his death to our knowledge of his sufferings and resurrection we shall place them right even so fix them in the Understanding part that they will reflect or cast a lustre on the Heart even such a lustre as will light us through the midst of rocks and difficulties unto the end here aimed at the Resurrection of the dead Of these then in their order Of the Object first then of the Nature of our Knowledge which will bring us to the End though beset with words of fear and difficulty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if by any means We begin I say with the Object in general That I may know him We begin with Christ who is Α and Ω the beginning and the ending From whom we have saith the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to live and to live well and to live for ever If we begin without him we run into endless mazes of errour and delusion every on-set is danger every step an overthrow And if we end not in him we end indeed but it is in misery without an end John 17.3 To know him is life eternal Then our Ignorance must needs be fatal and bring on a death as lasting For where can we be safe from the Deluge but in the Ark Where can we rest our feet but upon this Stone Where can we build but upon this Foundation For let Philosophie and the Law divide the world into Jew and Genâ—ile and then open those two great Books of God his Works and his Words and see the Philosopher hath so studied the Creature that he maketh his God one Rom. 1 23. and turneth his glory saith the Apostle into the similitude of corruptible Man nay into Birds and Beasts â—â—d Creeping things And the Jew's proficiency reached but so far as to know he was the worse for it On every letter he findeth gall and wormwood and the very bitterness of Death The Philosopher hath learned no more then this that he can be but happy here and the Jew that without a better guide he must be unhappy for ever Reason the best light the Heathen had could not shew them the unsteddy fluctuations of the mind the storms and tempests of the soul the weakness of nature and the dimness of her own light how faint her brightness is how she is eclipst with her own beams how Reason may behold indeed a supreme but not a saving Power because she will be Reason It is true the light of Reason is a light and from heaven too But every light doth not make it day nor is every star the Sun And though we are to follow this light which every man brought with him into the world yet if we look not on that greater Light the Sun of Righteousness which hath now spread his beams over the face of the earth we cannot but fall into the ditch even into the pit of destruction The light then of Reason will not guide us so far in the wayes of happiness as to let us know we stand in need of a surer guide and therefore the Gospel you know is called that wisdom which descended from above But now in the next place for the Jew Ye will say that the Law was the Law of God and so made to be a lantern to their feet and a light to their paths 'T is true it was so But the Apostle will tell us that by this light too we may miscarry as being not bright enough to direct us to our end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 7.18 because it giveth a weak and unprofitable light In the verse before my Text S. Paul seemeth to run away from it and utterly to renounce the Law not quoad substantiam not indeed in regard of the duties therein contained but quoad officium justificandi in that it could not justifie not make him perfect not lead him to his end It may threaten accuse contemn and kill and so in Scripture it is said to do And then what guilty person will sue for pardon from a dead letter which is inexorable We may say of the Law as S. Paul speaketh of the yearly sacrifice Heb. 10.1 that is did not make the comers thereto perfect but left behind it a conscience of sin not onely ex parte reatus a conscience that did testifie they sinned and affright them with the guilt but ex parte vindictae a conscience which questioned not onely their sin but their atonement and told them plainly that by the Law no man could be justified And therefore S. Chrysostom on that place will tell us In that the Jews did offer sacrifice it seemed they had conscience that accused them of sin but that they sacrificed continually argued that they had a conscience too which accused their sacrifice of imperfection Wherefore then served the Law The Apostle answereth well Gal. 3.19 It was added because of trangressions not to disannul the Covenant but as an attendant an additament as a glass to discover sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens The Law doth not beget sin for that it cannot do but manifest it Non est in speculo quod ostenditur I may shew you a Death's head in a glass but there is no such horrid substance there And the Law which is most perfect in it self may represent my wants unto me and make me flie to some richer Treasury for a supply Now to draw this home When both Lights fail when the Law of Nature is so dim that it cannot bring us to our journey's end and the Law written is as loud to tell us of our leasings as to direct us in our way what should we do but look up upon the Sun if righteousness Christ Jesus who came to improve and perfect Nature and who is the end of the Law and the end of our hopes and the end of our faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father calleth him that great Sabbath in which the Jew and the Gentile may rest in which the Father resteth as well pleased and the holy Ghost resteth in whom the Saints and Martyrs and the whole Church have
their eternal rest For such an high Priest became us saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate from sinners Heb. 7.26 separate from the Gentile's blindness and separate from the Jew's stubbornness and imperfection of a transient mortality and a permanent beatitude a God and a Man that he might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gather together into one both Jew and Gentile Law and Reason make the Law Natural useful and the Law written useful that so those fair whispers of Truth which mis-led the Gentile and that loud accusing Truth which affrighted the Jâ—w may be in subserviency and attendance on Christ himself that the light of Nature and the light of the Law which were but scattered beams from his eternal Brightness may be collected and united in Christ again who is Α and Ω the Beginning and the End in which Circle and Compass they are at home brought back again to their Original And do we not now begin to look upon our Reason as useful indeed but most insufficient to reach unto the End Do we not renounce the Law our selves all things Do we not melt in the same flame with our Apostle Is it not our ambition to be lost to all the world that we may be found in Christ Shall we not cast all things behind us that we may look forward upon him What would we not be ignorant of that we may know him That we may know him we will know nothing else Our understandings here are fixed and cannot be removed Nor shall our contemplation let him go till we have seen him rising from the dead and known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power of his resurrection Which is the next Object we are to look upon and our next Part. That Christ is risen from the dead is an article of our Faith fundatissimae fidei saith the Father a principle of the Doctrine of Christ a truth so clear and evident that the malice and envy of the Jew cannot avoid it For let them be at charge to bribe the watchmen and let the watchmen sleep so soundly that an earthquake cannot wake them and then say his Disciples stole him away this poor shift is so far from shaking that it confirmeth our faith For if they were asleep how could they tell his Disciples stole him away Or if they did steal him what could they take away more then a carcase He is risen he is not here If an Angel had not said it yet the Earthquake the Clothes the Grave it self did speak without an epitaph Or if these were silent yet where such strange impossibilities are brought in to colour and promote it a Lie doth confute it self and Malice helpeth to confirm the Truth For it we have a verdict given up by Cephas and the twelve 1 Cor. 15.5 we have a cloud of witnesses even five hundred brethren and more who saw him We have a cloud of bloud too the testimony of Martyrs who took their death on it so certain of this Truth that they sealed to it with their bloud and because they could not live to publish it proclaimed it by the loss of life And can we have better evidence Yes we have a surer word the word of God himself a surer verdict then of a Jury a better witness then five hundred a louder testimony then the bloud of Martyrs And we have our Faith too which will make all difficulties easie and conquereth all And therefore we cannot complain of distance or that we are so many ages removed from the time wherein it was done For now Christ risen is become a more obvious object then before The diversity of the Mediums have increased and multiplied him We see him through the bloud of Martyrs and we see him in his Word and we see him by the eye of Faith Christ is risen according to the Scriptures 1 Cor. 15. Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem saith S. Augustine When the Jews stumbled at him he presented but the bigness of a stone but our Infidelity can find no excuse if we see him not now he appeareth as visible as a mountain Christ then is risen from the dead And we have but touched upon it to give you one word of the day in the Day it self But that our Easter may be a feast indeed and our rejoycing not in vain let us as the Apostle speaketh go on to perfection and make a further search to find the reason of our joy in the power of his resurrection And what is the power of his resurrection The Apostle telleth us it was a mighty power Eph. 1.19 Indeed it rent the rocks and shook the earth and opened the graves and forced up the dead bodies of the Saints We may adde It made the Law give place and the Shadows vanish it abolished the Ceremonies broke down the Altars levelled the Temple with the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great wonders all Magnitudo virtutis ostenditur in effectu The greatness of power is most legible in the effects it worketh And here the volume is so great that the world cannot contain it Come see saith the Angel the place where the Lord lay A Lord he was though in his grave And by the same power he raised both himself and us By the same power he shook the earth and will shake the heaven also Heb. 13. disannulled the Law and established the Gospel broke down one alter and set up another abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 shall raise our vile bodies and shall raise our vile souls Shall raise them He hath done it already Conresuscitavit saith the Apostle Eph. 2.6 we are raised together with him both in soul and body and all by the power of his resurrection For 1. Christ's Resurrection is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at least an exemplary cause of our spiritual rising from the death of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene Christ is risen from the dead that we may follow after him we who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 planted together in the likeness of his death Rom. 6.5 dead to our lusts as he was to the functions and operations of life and planted with him in the likeness of his resurrection rising and exalting our selves and triumphing over Sin and Death so grafted in him that we may spring and grow green and blossom and bring forth fruit both alike and by the same power Now as Christ's Resurrection is a patern of our soul's resurrection so is it of our bodie 's also For we are not of Hymenaeus and Philetus mind to think the resurrection past already and make it but an Allegory No Christ hath cast the model of our bodie 's Resurrection also Plato's Idea and common Form by which he thought all other things had their exsistence was but a dream This is a real patern The Angel descended at his and shall at ours He is risen in our nature Isaac's figurative Resurrection
pleasure is alwayes clouded with impurity and carrieth its filth along with it When it passeth those bounds which that God who knoweth whereof we are made hath set up with this Inscription Hitherto thou shalt go and no further NOT BURN BUT MARRY when it breaketh out beyond this brutish men may in their ruff and jollity count it what they please call it their Pleasure their Paradise but it breaketh forth like a plague and infection and is as loathsome as Hell it self The Apostle Rom. 1.26 calleth ungoverned lusts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vile and dishonourable he might have said brutish affections But indeed Beasts in this are not unconfined as Men they do not kick at and revolt from that law and order of Nature in which they were made so oft as Men do who should have dominion over them and themselves nor have they that curb of Reason which Man hath to check and bound them And therefore that wandring lust of theirs which carrieth them with a swindge and violence to the next object doth not dishonour them for it leaveth them what they were but Beasts still But Man who hath a power within him to controll his flesh and temper and regulate every inclination who hath a spirit given him to spiritualize his flesh and not his flesh to effeminate his spirit when he letteth the weaker prevail against the stronger the worse part against the better the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosophers call the body the beast against the Man doth not onely pollute his soul but leaveth a peculiar and proper blemish upon his body and may be compared to the beasts that perish Nay he is worse then they For when Man is compared to the Beasts he is the worst of all the herd It is against the very nature of the body thus to be used against that order which God hath constituted and established amongst men The body is not for fornication It was not made to bow to every smile to be ravished with every sound to worship every painted Jezebel but for the Lord and in the power of his strength to be killed and crucified and when it looketh forward beyond its bounds to feel the curb to be so subdued as if it were not as if it were soul or at least in a perpetual subserviencie and obedience to it Indeed if you read ver 15. you will think if it be not as the soul yet it hath near affinity with it and is copartner of the same honour Know ye not saith S. Paul that your bodies are the members of Christ What this vile body of ours to be a member of Christ Yes he bought it and united it to his mystical body as well as the soul and will at last raise it up and make it like unto his most glorious body And what doth the Apostle infer Even that which may make the wanton blush which may make him an Eunuch for the kingdom of heaven Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot It is an argument ab absurdo which will either drive us from uncleanness or upon a most fatal and hellish absurdity Even the young man in the Proverbs who was destitute of understanding would soon agree that it were the greatest folly in the world to think the soul can be united to Christ though it bring the member of an harlot along with it or to excuse our selves by nature and the inclination of our temper or because there is a fire within us to think it is better to let it burn and consume us then to quench it or that God may be glorified as he was by the Three children in this fiery furnace that God may be glorified vvhen that body vvhich is the vvork of his hands is dishonoured Fly fornication saith the Apostle vers 18. Other sins that a man committeth are without the body but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body Malice and Theft abuse the hand Pride lifteth up the head Curiosity rowleth the eye Anger changeth the countenance and dyeth the face Sloth foldeth the arms Envy gnaweth the heart but Lust and Uncleanness is a noisome steam exhaled from the flesh which when it hath conceived and brought forth blasteth and polluteth it Even Nature it self hath declared thus much in that it brought in that custom amongst the Heathen for what else could bring it in after unlawful pleasures to wash and bath themselves by which they did at once acknowledge and strive to purge away that pollution Other sins are from the flesh but this is more carnal then any of them it leaveth more spots and loathsome impressions on the flesh yea many times it bringeth its Hell its fire into it it-maketh it self so visible in the very face and body of man that you may run and read it or rather run from the man for fear of the fornicator now branded and disguised with his sin I remember Salust speaking of Covetousness disgraceth it in these words that it doth corpus animumque virilem effoeminare effeminate and corrupt not onely the mind but also the body of man And Phavorinus in Gellius giveth the reason Because they who make haste to be rich are many of them sedentary men versed onely in the easie and delicate wayes of gain as the Usurer whose plough as they say goeth on the Sabbath and whose work is done while he sleepeth and many others who we see grow rich without sweat of brow or trouble of body And in such no marvel if the vigour and generosity of their minds and bodies do languish and be lost Or rather this is the reason Because the covetous person hath his mind like a bow alwayes bent set continually upon his gain and having all his thoughts gathered together and sent that way he letteth them loose but seldom to imploy them for the behoof either of his body or his soul Now one would think that of Salust were a more proper expression of the effects of Uncleanness For certainly that doth effeminate both the mind and the body Indeed it doth more It not onely weakeneth but polluteth both Nay it is the Devil's net with which he catcheth two at once and dishonoureth them both For what difference between an harlot and the member nay the body of a harlot For he that joyneth himself with a harlot is one body For two saith he shall be one flesh vers 16. Therefore Christ who came to purge both body and soul doth guard and sense it against the very appearance of this sin doth omnium sylvam libidinum caedere as the Father speaketh cut down the whole wood and lop off every branch and sprig of Lust He tieth up the Tongue from filthy communication shutteth up the Eye from looking upon that beauty which may raise a desire stoppeth the Ear that it open not to flattery cutteth off the very beginnings and first offers and risings of lust that we may
may enter an action he is a debtour who is any wayes obliged to me For obligatio parit actionem an obligation doth naturally produce an action Now as there be divers sorts of Obligations so there be of Debts As there is obligatio ex contractu an obligation upon contract and stipulation so there is obligatio ex debito maleficio an obligation by some offence or evil we commit against our neighbour either by theft or rapine by damage or injury For not onely my Goods but my Good name is mine and my Body is mine and he that falleth upon my goods and taketh them away he that falleth upon my sheep and camels and driveth them away he that sharpneth his tongue as a razor to wound my reputation he that putteth forth his hand to touch my flesh and my bones obligeth himself and becometh my debtour Qui injuriam facit minor est He that doth an injury for that very reason is under him that suffered it and obliged to him the greatest Tyrant to the meanest peasant in the land Indeed I may forfeit all these to the Law and Justice and so make my riches and possessions nay my life and good name as debts For in punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher There is a kind of giving and receiving in which the nature of all contracts consisteth He that receiveth by injustice must give punishment his goods to be confiscate his name to infamy his body to prison and his life to the Law So that when the hand of violence or deceit taketh from me my goods when the cruel and bloud-thirsty man spoileth me of my life when the tongue that is set on fire by hell rageth against my good name when evil men defraud and spoile me though they rejoyce as those who have made a great purchase and conquest yet if they cast up their accounts and take a just calculation they shall find that all this is but debt and that they are obliged to those whom they have put in fetters ingaged to those whom they have disgraced and indebted to those whom they have made poor Briefly to take the full compass and latitude of this word debts Whatsoever may distast us whatsoever may raise our anger whatsoever may bear an action be it an injury which the Law doth punish or a disgrace and contumely quà m magis queri quà m exequi possumus against which we can oppose nothing but complaint be it a blemish on our name or a furrow on our back or a devastation of our estate be it Ishmael's scoff or Shimei's railing or Zedekiah's blow on the cheek whatsoever our weakest enemy can think or speak whatsoever our strongest can do against us whatsoever we may unjustly suffer all these come under this name and may be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debts And now having shewed you what these Debts are we come next to declare the Manner how we must forgive them and to draw out the force and extent of this SICUT that we may see wherein the parity and similitude consisteth and how our forgiveness of our brother's debts must answer God's remission of ours And here we cannot well tell how to fix the SICUT whether upon our selves or upon God nor suddenly determine whether God should forgive us as we forgive or we forgive as God doth For first as S. Hierome falling upon that speech of our Saviour Be it unto thee according to thy faith breaketh forth into a pious admiration of it Hanc ego vocem audire nolo I will not hear this speech for it is terrible in my ears For if it be done unto me according to my faith I am utterly lost because the Envious man hath sown tares amonst the wheat so we may more feelingly and truly pronounce that if God do forgive but as we forgive we may be cast into prison with our pardon and release in our hands For what is our Forgiveness We forgive many times when we cannot revenge we do not bite because we have no teeth We forgive the loss of our honour which Ambition hath made something the loss of our goods which our Covetousness hath set a price upon We forgive a blow for fear of a greater Our Forgiveness is commonly the child of Fear or Necessity or Weakness or at the best shaken from us by this thunder That if we forgive not we our selves shall lie in prison till we have paid the utmost farthing SICUT ET NOS as we forgive is such a condition as we shall hardly trust to a part of our Pater Noster but we most unfit to say it But then for us to forgive as God is impossible For Mercy which is but a quality in us is essential in him And he punisheth and forgiveth without any change at all I may say both his Revenge and Forgiveness are effects of the same Goodness which he is When we offend him it is impossible to stand in his sight because he is good but when by repentance we leave off to be evil we then draw near unto him for the same reason And thus to the good he is a wing to shadow them but to the evil a consuming fire So that there will be found a greater distance between our Forgiveness and his then there is between heaven and earth between a mortal Man and immortal God And the SICUT will hold on neither side If God should forgive as Man we were most miserable and for Man to forgive as God is impossible We must then limit and confine the SICUT the similitude to the thing it self to Remission of debts and the likeness must be placed in this not that we forgive as God or God as us but that as God forgiveth our debts so we forgive our debtours But now because a condition and necessity is laid upon us to forgive our debtours though we cannot raise it to so high a pitch as to equal his yet we must make his the rule and pattern of ours Neque enim aliter in nobis erit dignitas Divinae majestatis nisi imitatio fuerit Divinae voluntatis saith Leo For we can be no otherwise partakers of his excellency and Divine majesty then by imitation of his Divine will And if any virtue then this certainly of Mercy and Compassion doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make us like unto God And to strive for perfection in this kind though our perfection cannot in any kind equal his is the greatest commendation we can give a Christian That which Quintillian giveth to Tully in respect of Eloquence Defuit ei summa illa ad quam tamen nemo propriùs accessit He cometh short of the perfection of God yet none ever came nearer then he Now though we cannot but be unwilling that God should proportion out his forgiveness by ours yet we shall find it a great part of our spiritual wisdom to regulate ours by his and to forgive our debtours SICUT as he forgiveth us And first
esse Caesar sed tunc maximè occidi videretur that they conceived it not as a thing done and past as if he were killed already but as if he were now under the parricides hands Certainly no blot can be great enough for injuries nor are they truly and sincerely forgiven till we are willing till we study to forget them Nemo diu tutus periculo proximus There is no long safety to be expected where danger is at hand Therefore we must in this as in all other duties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow God as the Pythagoreans counselled For if we measure our selves by our selves if we raise not the SICUT as high as our Father of whom we beg mercy we shall fail of the condition and so bring upon our selves an uncapability of pardon But to forgive freely and voluntarily to forgive sincerely and fully to take off not onely our anger from injuries but to drive them out of our memory is Divino more ignoscere to forgive as God And indeed in the next place this maketh us like unto God and investeth us with his power by which we overcome all injuries whatsoever and scatter them as dust before the wind By this we break the cedars of Libanon in pieces the tallest enemies we have by this we â—ill the raging of the sea and the madness of the people Fot who would 〈◊〉 forgive a bedlam by this we pour coals of fire upon our most obdurate enemies and melt and thaw them by this we work miracles And indeed Mercy is a great miracle For Beloved that power which we use in resistance and revenge is not power but weakness Vera magnitudo est non posse nocere verior nolle The true power by which a Christian prevaileth is seen in this not to be able to do hurt the greatest power not to be willing And if we will make a truce with our Passions and a while consult with Reason we shall soon discover that the desire to shew our power in revenge of an injury hath its beginning from extreme weakness Omnis ex infirmitate feritas saith Seneca All fierceness and desire of revenge is from infirmity and proceedeth from that womanish and brutish part of man nay from those vices which make us worse then the beasts that perish Chap. 4.1 From whence come wars and fightings saith S. James from whence contentions and strifes come they not from hence even from your lusts which war in your members from Pride Covetousness Luxury Ambition and Self-love In urbe luxuria creatur saith Tully ex luxuria exsisttat avaritia necesse est ex avaritia erumpat audacia unde omnia scelera gignuntur In the city Luxury is begot and that calleth in Covetousness as a necessary supply to feed and nourish it Covetousness bringeth in Audacious and impudent behaviour and this filleth all with Bloud and Oppression Ambition giveth the stab for a lye Covetousness layeth hold on the throat for a peny Luxury will wade to pleasure though it be through bloud and Self-love maketh every look a frown every frown a blow and every blow death And this is extreme weakness and infirmity We may think indeed we have done wonders when we have laid our brother at our feet when we have put him in fetters and ript up his bowels and made him pay his debt with his bloud but in all this our glory is our shame For in this contention we never triumph till we yield When we are weak then are we strong when we suffer disgrace then are we honourable and we overcome not when we resist but when we dye By this an enemy is a friend By this saith the Father the Mother in the Macchabees priùs viscera carnifici quam verba impendit gave the executioner her bowels but not a word This restoreth what was stoln from me bringeth back what the robber taketh keepeth my name when it is most defiled as a precious ointment and maketh the day of death better then the day of my birth In a word this Deus averruncus chaseth away all evil whatsoever cancelleth all debts is a severe act and the onely antidote against Malice which cannot be overcome saith the Apostle but with good and sheweth from whence it hath its original by manifesting it self in a full and plenary forgiveness of all injury and oppression and contumely of all that cometh under the name of debt I may now seem perhaps to have stretched this Condition too far For we are very willing that God should enlarge his mercy but that ours be drawn into as narrow a compass as may be We would clip our wings to cover but a few but call upon him to spread his wings to cover all offences And therefore it is safer to stretch the condition then to contract and confine it because we are so ready transilire lineas to leap over the bounds which are set us and so take line and liberty to exact some debts and at last break loose upon all and when our revenge hath its full swinge say we seek but our own I had rather therefore tell you what you may not do then what you may And if you shall ask me whether it be not lawful in some cases to fetch back and exact your own I shall say as St. Augustine do of Time If you ask me once I can tell you but if you ask me again I can give you no answer For I fear such a question proceedeth from an evil disposition which would fain break its bounds For can Charity ask how far she may molest a brother and be Charity Would Mercy which should run like a river and overflow to refresh every dry place seek out inventions to divert or dam up her self Shall we strive to make the condition easier which in respect of the promise would be very easie though it were much harder then it is But yet by this I neither strike the sword out of the Magistrate's hand nor make the Laws of men void and of no effect For the Condition here is put in respect of injuries For though it be far better I should lose my coat then revenge my self because by the law of equity no man can be judge in his own cause yet let the Magistrate restore my coat to me and the act is not revenge but justice Justice saith Plutarch accompanieth God himself and breatheth revenge against those who break his Law which men also by the light of nature use against one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are citizens and members of a body politick This SICUT therefore this Condition is laid down to order and compose our minds to the pardon of those wrongs which are offered to our private persons but it bindeth not the Judge who is a publick person and standeth in the midst as it were between two opposite sides to draw them together and make them one again to use his power not onely rescindendo peccatori to cut of the wicked
from the earth but also communi dividundo to divide every man his own right his own possessions and he looketh upon the offender vultu legis with no other countenance then that of the Law In my own cause it is lawful for me to do what I will with my own I may give it I may suffer it to be torn from me and thus to do may be my virtue which may crown me but when I sit on the tribunal as a Judge the cause is not my own and to pardon injuries which are done to other men may be injustice or corruption at least groundless and inconsiderate pity but a virtue it cannot be And as we pull not down tribunals so neither do we disannul Laws Sunt jura sunt formulae saith the Oratour There be laws and forms prescribed almost for every thing that no man may erre or mistake himself either in genere injuriae or ratione actionis either in the nature of the injury or of his action expressae sunt ex uniuscujusque damno dolore incommodo and they are drawn out and fitted to the grievance the incommodation the injury of any man And by these we may contestari litem declare and make protestation of our suit before the Judge and as the town clerk of Ephesus telleth Demetrius the crafts-men Acts 19.58 if we have a matter against any man the Law is open we may implead one another Both are true we must forgive our brother and we may implead him It is true the rules of Charity are of a larger extent then those of the Law If thou owe an hundred measures of oyl Charity taketh the bill and sitteth down quickly and writeth fifty but the Law observeth a just Arithmetical proportion a talent for a talent measure for measure And it is as true that Charity beginneth at home and that he that provideth not for his family is worse then an infidel A truth it is but much mistaken and misapplied and pulled on like a buskin by the Love of the world on every angry design and purpose and so maketh men far worse then infidels But in another kind Non est plena humanitas te excluso saith the Father Charity is not full and complete if it reach all men but thy self and we subscribe and shut up our bowels to all but our selves Cùm omnes te habeant esto tu de habentibus unus When all partake of thy goodness be thou one of that All and we like it so well that that one is all We will not lay a clog upon the consciences of private men nor deterre them from imploring the aid of the Magistrate for this were to cut off the fairest piece of wisdom which sheweth it self in justice and executing judgment which checketh the course of the violent and stoppeth him in his full career The sword of Justice is both a sword and a buckler too if it be not in the hand of a man of Belial for then none fall down by it but the innocent And to deny or stop the course of Justice were mutare regna in magna latrocinia to let in oppression and violence and make Commonwealths the receptacles and congregation of thieves and every City like to the hills of the robbers But yet let me tell you that good and holy men have been alwayes jealous of it Augustine in his Enchiridion telleth us that the justice of our cause which we pretend and bring in to safeguard our charity is commonly but an excuse For so to go to Law with a brother omnino delictum est is utterly a fault Yet saith he since the Apostle permiteth the judgments of things pertaining to this life in the Church of Christ but forbiddeth it with great vehemency before the unbelievers manifestum est quòd secundùm veniam concedatur infirmis it is plain enough that he doth but indulge thus much to the weaker sort Bonus non rectè vindictam injuriae petit quam tamen judex rectè infligit A good man may not alwayes seek that revenge and punishment which yet the Law and Judge may most justly inflict And we know the Poetry of the Schools Expedit infirmis licet absque dolo sine lite Praelatis licet hoc non expedit Anachoretae It is lawful for weaker Christians lawful if there be neither fraud nor deceit which maketh the Law a rock to true men an haven for pirats a castle for thieves and a prison for the innocent And to establish this law and course of proceeding we have all the four Causes brought in 1. the Efficient or Impulsive cause Lawful it is if neither envy nor hatred nor covetousness nor desire of revenge draw it on 2. the Material cause if we do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contend for smoke for matters of nought and which can be nothing worth but to the Lawyer qui alienum jurgium praedam suam putat who rejoyceth at a needless quarrel and contention as at a great spoil 3. the Formal cause that we go to Law legally that we lay no snares suborn no false witness study not to entangle the cause or to obscure the truth 4. and lastly the End or Final cause It must not be to the loss or infamy of our brother but the recovering of that which is ours and to the glory of God who as he is the giver so is he the preserver of all things All this is true but we must consider that many truths are very dangerous as even good meats are to sick and queasie stomachs Because there are Laws we count it little less then a virtue to implead our brother according to those Laws And for those precepts of giving up our coat of turning the other cheek of being ready rather to receive a wrong then return it we can wind and shift our selves out of them as we please We can be angry and sin we can weary the Magistrate with our suits and call upon him for revenge and though we ruine one another yet all is but play as Abner calleth it when all fall down together 2 Sam. 2.14 Thus upon that which is lawful we build many times that which is unjust upon a good foundation lay hay and stubble Et unde possumus esse boni qui in bonis sic sumus mali Why should we flatter our selves that we are good who can thus turn good into evil and are very wise and cunning to deceive and cheat our selves Again it is not safe to let the reins too loose and to measure out to men that Charity which should diffuse and pour it self abroad and say Thus much is Enough For what Aristotle speaketh of the common people is most true of the common sort of Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though they be never filled with Pleasures and never satisfied with increase of Wealth yet they are content with a small portion of Virtue willing to take that as it were on the point of a knife
Father doth of Idolatry It is summus seculi reatus tota causa judicii It is a vocal crying sin which like the importunate Widow in the Gospel will not suffer the Judge to rest till he do justice This filleth the world with the evil of sin and of punishment not so much a firm opinion that God may be deceived and mocked as a bold presumption by which we make him such a God as we would have him a God that may be trifled with a God that like the Heathen Gods may be taken by the beard that those fierce astonishing speeches which we find in Scripture are but words of art 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoken to affright men rather then words of intended truth which will bring effect according to their natural meaning as indulgent fathers many times threaten their children with much hard language which they never intend to make good And this conceit of Gods facility and easiness that he so quickly admits of excuse is the principal ground and occasion of all the sins in the world To make it plainer yet and point out to some particulars in which we mock God when we imagine no such thing and so to conclude this point I cannot imagine when I consider that Majesty which no mortal can comprehend that Dust and Ashes the works of Gods hand should be able to put a trick upon him and mock him This were to set his creature in his Throne and place extreme Weakness and Folly above Wisdome it self Psal 50. Thou verily thoughtest I was like unto thee saith God to the Hypocrite It was but a thought a wavering imagination which enters and goes out and never remains at one stay God is not cannot be mocked For if he had believed there was a God Diagoras himself would not have mockt him nor ever thought it possible But the truth is as the relation stands betwixt God and his creature Man is said to do that which he doth not which he cannot do to fight with him who is omnipotent to dispute with him whom we cannot answer one of a thousand to contend to grieve him who cannot be moved to weary him to press him as a cart is with sheaves who by his word made and by his word beareth all things who is to himself an everlasting sabbath and rest Non ille minùs peccat cui sola deest facultas saith the Casuist We do not do it the less because we cannot do it because we vvould do it if we could Ipsa sibi imputatur voluntas saith the Father To vvill it is to do it To look upon a woman and lust after her is to commit adultery yet the vvoman as chast as before So God cannot be mockt yet vve may mock him As in the rape of Lucrece two are in the fact yet but one as Augustine speaks committed adultery For if Tully could truly say that to resist the Law of Nature and to vvalk contrary to that light which vve brought vvith us into the vvorld is nothing less then Gigantum more bellare cum Diis to vvage vvar vvith the Gods as the Giants did then may vve as truly affirm that to dissemble vvith God to flatter him vvith our lips vvhen our heart is far from him to fall down before him in a complement vvhen vve break his laws to act our part as upon a stage to vvish he had no eye to study to believe it is to mock him To be more particular yet For yet you may ask vvherein vve mock him For vve are very slow and unwilling to believe any evil of our selves and are hardly induced to think vve ever did that vvhich vve do every day Mock God! nay God forbid And that God forbid that prayer Mal. 3.7 is but a mock God calls to the Jews Return unto me and they reply Wherein shall we return as if they never had been averse from him but had been alwayes vvith him even in his bosome And vers 8. Ye have robbed me saith God and they say Wherein have we robbed thee as if they vvere utterly ignorant of any such matter but had been vvholly imployed in bringing tiths into his store-house and meat into his house They forsook him they robb'd him and yet are innocent They did and did not and God himself is made no better then a columniator So that this position is true in this sense also God is not mocked for no man thinks no man vvill acknovvledge no man dares profess that he mocks him But vve cannot thus shake off the guilt nor put it from us For vvhen vve do those things to God vvhich vve do to men vvhen vve mock them this is enough to put us into the seat of Mockers and enroll us amongst the Mockers of God When Laban gave Jacob blear-ey'd Leah for beautiful Rachel Gen. 29.25 it vvas a mock What hast thou done saith Jacob did not I serve thee for Rachel why hast thou mocked me When Micah laid an image in the bed for David and said he was sick it vvas a mock For Saul said unto Micah why hast thou deceived me When God requires justice and righteousness and we bring him vain oblations when he calls for the heart and we lift up our voice when he calls for a working fighting conquering faith and we give him a dead faith when God calls for Faith which is a stone a corner-stone to build that Obedience upon which shall reach to Heaven and we make Faith a pillow to sleep on and sin the more securely because we believe when God bids us strengthen our hands that hang down and we open our ears when God bids us Vp and be doing and we count all done in Hearing when God calls for a New creature and we return him circumcision and uncircumcision empty sacraments and lazy formalities Deut. 15. when God requires a sacrifice without blemish and we offer up that which is lame or blind when God requires perfection and we give him our weak blind halting endeavours when God seeks a Man and we give him a picture Psal 35.16 what are we but hypocritical mockers For what are Hypocrites but Players the Zanias of Religion whose art it is to deceive who are so long conversant in outward performances that they rest in them as in the end of the Law are content with shews and expressions and at last think there is no service no religion but in these As the poor Spartan travailing into another country and seeing the beams and posts of houses squared and carved which he had never seen before asked if trees did grow so in those countries So these mockers of God these formal professours having been long acquainted with a form of Godliness sqared and carved and set out with shew and advantage considering what eloquence there is in an attentive Ear a turned Eye an Angels Tongue a forced Sigh to win applause and make them glorious in the eyes of men fall at last upon this
poor nor rich by nature He that made that face which gathers blackness made also that face that shines He that made the Ideot made the Scribe He that made Dives made the Lazar at his door And here ONE ANOTHER is but one the Strong as the Weak the Wise as the Simple the Rich as the Poor For he that made thee casts an equal eye on them all And who hath made all these Have not I the Lord And if he hath made them all and linkt them together in one common tye of Nature quis discernet who shall divide and separate them one from another the wise from the simple the strong from the weak the rich from the poor One is as another and all is but one another Some distance some difference some precedency may shew it self to the eye of flesh and yet even an eye of flesh may see how to gather and reunite them together as one and the same in their original Look unto the rock and vein out of which they were Cut and one and another are the same But now besides this common extraction the God of Nature who hath built us out of the same materials hath also imprinted those principles and notions and inclinations in every man which may be as so many buttresses and supporters to uphold one another and make us dwell together as one man He hath left a Law within us which we call the Law of Nature which is the same in one man and in another S. Paul calls it a Law And one would think it were as superfluous and needless to make any Law to bind us one to another as to command children to love their Parents or Parents to be indulgent to their children But a Law it is within us and our natural bent and inclination carries us to this to love and comfort one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could the ancient Comedian say How gracious and how helpful a creature is one man to another if he continue a Man and receive no other new form no other new impression by Self-love and these transitory vanities below if he be not byassed and wheeled from his Natural motion by the world And in this relation all men stand one to another by Nature One man is as another and every man by himself is a weak indigent creature a tottering sinking house if standing yet ready to sall if rich in a possibility to be poor if lifted up on high in the way to a fall if walking delicately yet neer to his death subject to danger when he hath escapt it and open to injuries when he offers them when his heart is merry neer to that evil which may swallow him up and fill him with sorrow And therefore by his very temper and natural disposition he is a sociable creature as needing so desirous of those mutual offices by which we support and uphold each other Fac nos singulos take us asunder by our selves and what are we But as a mark for every venemous shaft as a tottering wall in danger of every touch as a reed to be shaken with every wind Therefore Nature hath supply'd this noble but weak creature Man with those helps which shail uphold and strengthen him against all these first with Reason by which he may discover Evil in its approch and prepare against it or take away its terrour and smart when it is come and secondly with the Society of others which may be as so many seconds and as a guard mutually to help and assist each other And here their being Divers makes them more One For as there are divers men so there are divers gifts and divers administrations One man exceeds in wisdome another abounds in wealth one man surpasseth in strength another in providence one man is rich another is poor And whatsoever distinguisheth them on earth sets them one above another Nature hath made them equal nay servants one to the other to serve one another in love The Poor man may assist the rich with his wisdome and the Rich relieve the poor with his wealth The Strong man may carry the Lame and the lame direct the strong the one may be as eyes the other as leggs and so make up each others defect So ONE ANOTHER that is all men may be as one But now in the next place there is a neerer relation which binds Men together in a bond of peace their relation in Christ Major est fraternitas Christi quam sanguinis The fraternity and brotherhood they have by Christ is a greater and neerer rye then that they have by Nature In him they are called to the same faith baptized in the same laver led by the same rule filled with the same Grace sealed with the same seal ransomed with the same price comforted with the same glorious promises and shall be crowned with the same glory And being one in these they are to be as one in all duties and offices which are required to the perfect accomplishment of these They must joyn hand in hand to uphold one another on earth and to advance one another to that glory which is prepared for one as well as for another in heaven And thus they are linkt together in one by Charity which is copulatrix virtus as Cyprian calls it that coupling uniting virtue which as a command lyes on every man Matth. 22.38 Thus our blessed Saviour in his answer to the Lawyer though he calls that commandment which binds us to the love of God the first and greatest commandment yet adds The second is like unto it like unto it in respect of the same Act say some because by one and the same act of Charity we love both God and our Neighbour in respect of the same Object saith Chrysostome because I therefore love my neighbour because I love God for if I love him not for God and in God I love him not at all God is the principal object of my Love because he is good and Goodness it self But this Goodness I see shining in his Creature which he hath also made capable of Glory and I cannot truly fall down and worship him unless I love and adore him also in his Creature For as there is an invisible union of the Saints with God by which God hath joyned to himself and made one as it were his Church in his Son by the virtue of the holy Ghost so is there also an union of the Saints amongst themselves consisting in a sweet and brotherly uniting of their Souls together which is the cementing of Gods holy Temple the constituting and building of Christs Church Now this union though the eye of flesh cannot behold it yet it must appear and shine and be resplendent in those duties and offices which must attend it As the Head infuseth life and vigour into the whole body so must the Members also anoint each other with this oyl of Gladness Each member must be busie and industrious to express that virtue
cruelty can there be then to have a box of oyntment in our hand and not to pour it forth on him that languisheth but leave him dying and say we wish him well No to Comfort is to restore and set one another at rights again the Erring by counsel the Weak by assistance the Poor by supply the Sorrowful by sweet and seasoanble argument and perswasion Otherwise it is not comfort For what comfort is that which leaves us comfortless which leaves the Ignorant in his darkness the Poor in want the Weak on the ground and the Sorrowful man in his gulf LOQUIMINI AD COR Speak to the Heart If we speak not to the heart to lift up that our words are wind Comfort by Counsel is very useful for those who mourn in Sion Rei infinitatem ejicere optima medicina To bound the cause of mens grief to remove those many circumstances which increase and multiply it and so to bring it in as it is and shew what little cause men have to grieve is the best Physick in this particular Our present and future condition our Mortality and our Resurrection are of force enough to wipe all tears from our eyes and to make our Grave appear as a house of rest rather then as a pit of destruction But this is but one particular in which we are obliged to this duty Comforting one another Charity hath more hands then Briareus and more eyes then Argus She hath an eye on every one that is as the Canonist speaketh persona miserabilis a miserable and wretched person She hath a hand on every sore and malady And yet she hath but one hand and one eye but reached forth and rowling on every corner of the earth where storms arise ready to slumber and becalm them Now to Comfort is a work of Charity and Charity hath a double act actum elicitum and actum imperatum an inward act and outward and the latter is the perfecting and consummation of the former For what a poor empty Thing is a Thought or a Word without a Hand and what an uncharitable Thing is Comfort without Compassion then I truly comfort my brother when my Hand is active as well as my Heart And yet if they be true they are never severed For if the Bowels yearn the Hand will stretch it self forth and those comforts which are sincere and real are nothing else but the largess and donatives of the Heart It was a speech of a churl in Plautus familiam alere non possum misericordiâ Compassion and Charity will not feed a family But the Christian is the better husband Qui spargit ecclesiae colligit sibi He that scattereth his comforts to the distressed gathereth for himself and in a religious policy by emptying his store filleth his garners This was the practice and the policy of the first and purest times verba in opera vertere to turn words into works that they might be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words of comfort but quickned and enlivened with action Frequent visitation of the sick sustentation of the needy gratulations and benedictions speak plainly the sickness and the heat of their Charity and upbraid the verbal Religion of these latter times which breaths forth ayre instead of comfort and talks of the way to heaven but never treads in it That was Comfort indeed which clothed the naked and fed the hungry made the dry stick blossome and revived the drooping spirits as Jacobs were revived when he saw the chariots which his son Joseph had sent To draw towards a conclusion We must well consider from what principle this Act is wrought from what spring it moves For we may think we do it when we do not so much as think to do it We may give scorn and contempt for comfort or comfort with scorn and contempt which is panis lapidosus bread made up with gravel that will trouble us in taking it down Our comfort may proceed from a hollow heart and then it is but a sound and the mercy of a bloudy Pharisee It may be ministred through a trumpet and then it is lost in that noyse Nay it may be an act of cruelty to make Cruelty more cruel as we read of an Emperour that did never pronounce sentence of death sine perfectione clementiae but with a preface of Clemency a well-worded mild prologue before a Tragedy Lastly Comfort may be the product of Fear We may be free in our comforts for fear of offence and help one that we displease not another And what pitty is it that so free and noble a virtue as Charity should be enslaved But indeed Charity is not bound nor is that Charity which is beat out with the hammer and wrought out of us by force All these are false principles Pride Hypocrisie Vain-glory Fear and Charity issues from these as water through mud and is defiled in the passage Therefore it is best raised on the Law of Nature and on the royal Law of Grace These are pillars that will sustein it Remember them that be in adversity as being your selves also in the body Hebr. 13.3 in a body mortal and corruptible a body of the same mould 1 Cor. 15.53 like to that which you cherish and uphold And then we are to love and comfort one another even as Christ loved us saith the Apostle Christ is our pattern our motive the true principle of Charity and what is done it should be though it be but the gift of a cup of cold water which is done in his name Then the waters of comfort flow kindly and sweetly when they relish of a bleeding heart and the bloud of a merciful Redeemer Then this act is mightily performed when we do it as the sons of Adam and as the members of Christ Acts 17.26 when we do it as men of one bloud and of one common faith Tit. 2.4 And now to conclude Let us do it yea let us be ambitious to do it For as we have great motives so we have many occasions sad occasions to draw it forth Day unto day uttereth knowledge Every day presents us with some object or other And Occasion they say will make a thief why should it not make a Comforter If it can work out evil out of a corrupt I see no reason why it should not work out this good out of a compassionate heart why it should not work that compassion in us which will stream forth in rivers of comfort Shall Occasion be no where powerful but in evil I remember Chrysologus speaking of the Rich man in the Gospel tells us that God did on purpose cast Lazarus down at his gate that he might be pietatis conflatorium as a forge to melt his iron bowels Tot erant pauperis ora quot vulnera he had so many mouths to bespeak and admonish the rich man as he had sores and wounds His whole body and his ulcerated flesh was as a stage prepared and fitted for Compassion and
and when she saw it she lift up her voice and said unto him Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps that thou hast sucked And so we descend to that which we proposed in the third place the vehemency and heat of her Affection which could not contein it self in her heart but brake forth at her mouth And herein we shall consider 1. That she spake 2. What she spake She lifted up her voice c. Matth. 12.34 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh saith our Saviour When that is full it cannot contein it self sed emanat in habitum eructat à conscientia in superficiem ut forìs inspiciat quasi supellectilem suam It evaporateth it self into the outward habit breaks forth into voice opens her shop and wares that she may behold her own provision and riches abroad Hence the Fathers call the motion of the mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circular by which the soul of man is carried from the object into it self where after some pause or rather upon the first impression she calls all her faculties together and then takes-in the members of the body and by them conveyeth her self to the very eye and ear and in a manner is both heard and seen It is so in evil and it is so in good Habent suas voces affectus Every affection hath its proper language and dialect If we be afraid we lift up our voice and cry Whither shall we fly If we grieve we break forth into threnodies and lamentations If we hope we ask How long How long If we be angry we breathe forth hailstones and coals of fire Se cùm nolit cor prodit The heart when it is full cannot but open it self and though it would conceal it self yet it must vent The angry man speaks nothing but swords and challenges Gen. 4.8 the language of Cain For so the Septuagint to make the sense plain adde this clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us go into the field Where S. Peter giveth the character of profane and unclean persons amongst other marks he setteth this is as one that they have eyes full of adultery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full of the adulteress as if they carried her about in their very eyes and had alwayes her image before them and therefore must needs speak swelling words of vanity 2 Pet. 2.14.18 The covetous person converseth with Gold as with his God he speaks of it he dreams of it he commits idolatry with it dum tacet hoc loquitur when he is silent he talks of it within himself In every place of Scripture Wickedness is brought forth not onely with a hand but with a tongue 2 Sam. 13.11 Come lye with me my Sister saith Amnon Give Prov. 30.15 Prov. 1.14 Wisd 2.8 Give saith the Covetous Come let us cast in our lots together saith the wicked Let us crown our selves with rose-buds say they Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And so it is in the wayes of Goodness First it fills the heart then it makes the tongue as the pen of a ready writer First it speaks within us and then we preach it on the house-top My heart is prepared O God my heart is prepared saith David Psal 57.7 And then it follows I will sing and give praise First his heart is full and then he speaks to his glory his Tongue to awake And Psal 45.1 v. 8. My heart hath endited a good matter ERVCTAVIT or EBVLLIIT My heart hath fryed or boyled a good matter A similitude taken from the meat-offering or mincah in the Law which was dressed in the pan First it is but prepared in the Prophets heart Lev. 2.5 and then grace is powred out in his lips by which he presenteth it For we sacrifice our voice to God as we do our bodies saith Nazianzene When the Priests and the Sadduces did straitly threaten the Apostles Acts 4.17 18. v. 20. that they should speak thenceforth no more in the name of Christ Peter and John answered We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is impossible as the Law calls that impossible which ought not to be done Nay it cometh near to a physical impossibility it is almost impossible in nature to love the truth and not to publish it 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ constraineth us saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are in travel as it were with the Truth and long to be delivered It is a grievous thing for a man at liberty to be bound and one would think the same fetters would serve for the Feet and Hands and tongue and tye them up all at once yet saith S. Paul I suffer trouble as an evil doer 2 Tim. 2.9 even unto bonds but yet the word of God is not bound The mind is free and the tongue is free and I speak as boldly as if I were at liberty Such a symphony such a fair correspondence there is between the Heart and the Tongue that they send up the same hymne and song of praise unto God The love of the truth turneth the heart and the heart the tongue Inter cor linguam totum salutis humanae genitur sacramentum saith Chrysologus Between these two the business of our salvation moveth and is carried about For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness Rom. 10.10 and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation For what is faith in the heart if it have no tongue nor hand The Father calls it a sacrament or mystery for a divine power is the midst of them The Heart speaks unto God for he understands the language of our thoughts The Mouth and the Tongue satisfie men Or to speak truly they must joyn together both for the service of God and edification of men for on these two as on two golden hinges not onely Faith but Charity and all those other vertues which encircle and compass her about as with a crown hang and turn about in that order and glory which is delightful to God to Angels to men And this is the advantage that Love hath of Knowledge Knowledge may be idle and unactive but Love is a restless thing and will call up and imploy every part of the body and every faculty of the soul to compass its end Love is active and will pace it on where Knowledge doth but stand at gaze Knowledge doth not alwayes command our tongue nay many times we speak and act against our knowledge but who speaks against that which he doth love who will trample that under his feet Speculation may be but a look a cast of the eye of the Understanding and no more but Love hath already taken in the object and devoured it and made it one with the soul Knowledge many times begets but a purpose of mind a faint velleity a forced and involuntary approbation
the means and so go to heaven with hell about us And indeed Wickedness could never so fill the hearts of men if they did not entertain this conceit that the Gospel and the Law are at as great a distance as Liberty and Captivity And by this the Gospel declineth and groweth weak and unprofitable not able to make a new creature which is made up in righteousness and holiness and obedience to those Laws which had not the Prince of this vvorld blinded us we might easily see and take notice of even in the Gospel it self For Christ did neither dissolve the Law of Nature nor abrogate the Moral Law of Moses but improved and perfected them both He left the Moral Law as a Rule but not as a Covenant pressed it further then formerly it had been understood and shewed us yet a more excellent way And as God gave to Adam a Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as matter for the freedom of his will to see which way it would bend and to try his obedience So did Christ in this new Creation even when he came to heal the broken-hearted and set at liberty those that were in prison publish his precepts which are not Counsels but Laws as matter of that obedience which will keep our heart from polluting again and strengthen our feet that we may standfast in that liberty wherewith he hath made us free For without obedience to these Laws the plague is still at our heart and our fetters cleave close to us He is come and hath finished all and for all this we are yet in our sins I will not say with Tertullian Quisquis rationem jubet legislator est Whosoever commandeth that which Reason suggesteth is a Law-giver For every man that can speak Reason hath not authority to make Laws But Christ was not onely the Wisdom of his Father but had Legislative power committed to him being the supreme Head over all men that by his Laws as well as his Bloud he might bind them to that obedience which may make them fit citizens of his new Jerusalem And as he is CHRIST anointed by his Father anointed to his office to teach and command so he distilleth his ointment on every member of his And the same anointing teacheth us of all things and is truth and is no lie and maketh us Christians that we may be obedient to the Christian Law Christ saith This new Commandment I give you and his Apostle calleth it a Law and we need not be afraid of the name We will but draw it down to our selves by way of use and application and so conclude And first we should not be afraid of the word Law if we were not afraid of our Duty nor look up upon God's decree which is hidden from us but fulfill the royal Law which is put into our mouth and into our hearts For his Decree and his Command are not at such opposition but the command may be a decree also And he decreed to save us by Faith and Obedience to his Evangelical Laws and he decreed to crown us but by those means which are fit to set the crown upon our heads Therefore we cannot but condemn that conceit which hath stained the papers of many who call themselves Gospellers and polluted the lives of more That Christ came into the world to do his Father's will that is to redeem us but not to do his Father's will that is to teach and command us Which is in effect to redeem us and yet leave us in chains That Christ is a Saviour and not a Law-giver That the Gospel consisteth rather in certain Articles to be believed then in certain Precepts to be observed That to speak properly there is no precept at all delivered in the Gospel That it belongeth to the Law to command That the breath of the Gospel is mild and gentle and smelleth of nothing but frankincense and myrrhe those precious promises which we gaze upon till our eyes dazle that we can see nothing we have to do no thought to stifle no word to silence no lust to beat down no temptation to struggle with but we let loose our phansie and our thoughts flie after and embrace every vanity we set no watch to the door of our lips we prove not our works but do whatsoever the flesh suggesteth because we have nothing to do we tempt even Temptation it self and will be captives because we have a Saviour for we are taught and are willing to believe it That the will of God is laid down in the form and manner of a Law but not so to be understood by the Elect which every man can make himself when he please but as a Promise which God will work in those his chosen ones but will not work in others who from all eternity are cast away That Faith it self which is the chief and primary precept of the Gospel is rather promised then left as a command Qui amant sibi somnia fingunt With such ease do men swallow the most gross and dangerous falshoods and then sit down and delight themselves in those phansies which could find no room but in the sick and distempered brain of a man sold under sin and bound up in carnality For if we would but look upon Christ or upon our selves and consider what is most proper to unite us to him if we would but hear him when he speaketh You cannot love me unless you keep my commandments we should not thus smooth and plain our way to run upon the pricks we should easily with one cast of our eye see what distance there is between a Promise and a Law and distinguish them by the very sound which flesh and bloud and our weariness in the paths of righteousness do so easily joyn together and make one Caelum mari unitur ubi visio absumitur quae quamdiu viget tam diu dividit saith Tertullian At some distance the heavens seem to close with the sea not so much by reason of the beams which are cast upon it but because the sight and visive power is weary and faint which whilest it remaineth quick and active is able to divide objects one from the other In like manner we may conceive that a Promise and a Precept which are in their own nature diverse and sâ—veral things for a Promise waiteth upon a Precept to urge and promote it and obedience to the Precept sealeth the Promise and maketh it good unto us yet may sometimes be taken for the very same For the Promises are glorious and cast a lustre upon the Precepts that they are less observable and so our duty is lost in the reward that looketh towards us Besides this it could not be that men should so mistake but that their eyes are dull and heavy by gazing too long upon the absolute decree of Predestination in which though they be never so far asunder the Precept and the Promise may well meet they think and be concentred Certainly a dangerous
errour of which many a soul may be guilty and know it not call the doctrine of the Gospel a Law and yet bury it in the Decree as in a land of oblivion And what is this but to make Christ's Sermon on the mount not a catalogue of holy duties but rather a collection of promises They will say perhaps that the Gospel is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good news And so it is the best that ever was brought from Heaven to Earth and yet nothing the worse because it containeth both Promises and Laws For they are as it were of the same bloud and kinred and in a manner connatural one with the other No promise without condition no precept without a promise annexed What need then these chymical or rather phantastical extractions to sever them one from the other For is it good news that we shall be saved and is it not good news that we must work out our Salvation Is the Promise good news and is not the Law good news Is Heaven a fair sight and is a Law so terrible Is it good news to the captive that his fetters shall be strook off and is it not good news that he must shake them from him Is he welcome that sheweth us the way to happiness and shall we turn away the face when he biddeth us walk in it Let us not deceive our selves He that truly desireth heaven desireth holiness He that looketh for the Promise loveth the Law He that will meet Christ at his second must fall down before him at his first coming He that longeth for the Euge the reward will take delight also in his Law He that taketh Christ for a Saviour will bow before him also as a Lord. We cannot possibly dimidiare Christum divide Christ and take him by halves Nor can we divide a Christian to hang as Solomon is painted between Heaven and Hell lifting himself up at the Promises and treading the Precepts under foot magnifying Grace and denying the power of it trusting in God and yet sacrificing to his own nets adoring his providence yet consulting with the witch the Devil at Endor seeking his inventions driving on his purposes and carrying on his ends with those winds which can blow out of no treasury but that of Hell For if these might consist and stand together the camel with his bunch the miser with his load the high-swoln Politician that is the Gallant knave the deceitful with all his nets the revenger with the sword in his hand all these giant-like sinners might enter in at the needle's eye at the narrow gate For the grace of God hath appeared unto all men and the promises are made unto all men and if there be no condition no Law in the Gospel then homini homo quid praestat then all are Sheep and there be no Goats then the Disciples might have spared their question Are there few that shall be saved for Judas might have entered in as well as John and Simon Magus as Simon Peter But Strive to enter in at the streight gate is indeed an exhortation and Christ's exhortations are laws for he exhorteth us to nothing but that which we are bound to by covenant and which the very nature and tenor of the Gospel requireth In a word To deny our selves To take up our cross To love our enemies are Precepts and no where else to be found but in the Gospel and are all beams and emanations from God's eternal Law by which his Love his Wisdom his Justice are manifested to all the world For none but these could so fitly draw us near unto him or raise our nature to a capacity of eternal glory Therefore to draw it yet homer Whilest we thus gaze upon the Mercy-seat and never look upon the Tables of the covenant whilest we take the sceptre out of Christ's hand and leave him nothing but a reed whilest we leave him to tread the wine-press alone leave him to the pain and drudgery of his office and take from him his Legislative power we take his place and are a Law unto our selves Our thoughts are our own our tongues are our own our hands are our own for who is Lord over us we are domini rerum temporúmque commanders of the times and of our actions Quae sylva legum What a wood of Laws what a world of Law-givers have we and Christ is left alone hanging on the cross Every sect every faction is straight a framing of Laws and making of Articles and publishing of Constitutions to uphold it self And as they fall or rise as the times favour or frown on them so they either give or are subject unto Laws which are as the trophees and triumphs of a prevailing party Now the Papist giveth laws to the Protestant and draggeth him to the stake Anon the wheel is turned and the face of the Commonwealth changed and the Protestant proscribeth him The Papist hateth the Lutheran and the Lutheran the Calvinist and they of the Reformed party hate one another as by a Law And no peace can be expected till they yield to one anothers Laws though the law of charity which is Christ's Law be lost and trode under foot in the quarrel Lord how ready are we to make Laws who will acknowledge none but those we make no not his who was called Wonderful Counsellour the mighty God of the increase of whose government there shall be no end Which so amuseth the Many who are but novices in the School of Christ that they talk much of Religion and are ever to chuse because they have not yet learned to bow to Christ and serve him but in a faction It was the reply of a Prince in Germany to the Lutherans when they would have persuaded and drawn him in to be one of their party If I joyn my self to you I am condemned by others and if I comply with others I fall under your sentence Quid fugiam video quid sequar haud video What to shun I see but what to follow in this diversity of Laws and shapes of Religion I cannot apprehend From hence have been raised those many needless controversies and unprofitable questions which have not taught but distracted the world and have made more noise then reformation to make men good they have made men worse and to stretch the curtains of a Church or rather a Faction for every Faction is a Church they have enlarged the Kingdom of Satan From hence are wars from hence are tumults from hence that fire in the world which would soon be quite put out if the Law of the Gospel might take place for if we could once bow to that there could be none at all What speake we of the Laws of men There is a Law in the members Rom. 7.23 and that swayeth and governeth the world when the Evangelical Law is laid a side It is a dream of Mercy and Liberty that giveth it strength and power that giveth it a full swindge to tread down
his Word in his perfect Law There we shall see a true Christ his full image his will There we shall see him as he is behold him in his Nature in his Offices behold him with all his graces his precepts his promises with all the riches of his Gospel There we shall with open face not through the veil of Types and Ceremonies not through our own carnal lusts and phansies behold as in a glass accurately and studiously observe the glory of our Lord and Law-giver and be changed into the same Image be like unto him heavenly as he is heavenly be changed from glory to glory from the glory to serve him to the glory to reign with him even as by the Spirit of the Lord and the power of his Word and perfect Law By the power of which Law we walk on from strength to strength from vertue to vertue from one perfection to another till we be perfect men in Christ Jesus and fitted for that crown which is prepared and laid up for all those who love him in sincerity and truth and bow before him and keep his commandments and are obedient to this perfect Law The Three and Fortieth SERMON PART III. JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed WE began the last day to speak of the Perfection of the Gospel our Second point in the Character the Apostle here giveth us of it And the time not then permitting us to handle it throughly we shall make it the subject also of our present discourse We told you that God who proposed eternity of Happiness as the end of all Man's actions was never deficient or wanting in the administration of those means which might raise him to it God who built his Church upon a Rock upon the confession of that faith which will lift it up to heaven made it Militant and gave it rules and orders Laws and precepts by the observation of which it might become triumphant Take Man in what capacity you please in the Gospel he may find that which will fill and fit him in every condition We shewed this at large Now we will adde something and then apply all more home to our selves God as he made Man after his own image so made him to be partaker of that happiness vvhich He is This he called him to and pointeth out the vvay vvhich leadeth to it This is the way walk in it and be blessed And first he set up a light vvithin him conveying it in those natural impressions vvhich Tertullian calleth a legal Nature or a natural Law By that light vvhich is impossible to be extinguished every man that hath had some mediocrity of civil education is enabled to discern vvhat is good and just vvhat evil and unjust From this light breaketh forth one main beam vvhich shineth in all mens faces even that known precept so much commended by Heathens themselves As ye would that men should doe unto you even so doe ye unto them A command so equitable that the most unjust dare not quarrel it so evident that if it vvere possible to study ignorance none could ever attain to that height as to lose the knovvledge of it Non iniquitas delebit saith Augustine Sin it self though it blur and deface yet cannot utterly blot it out And one vvould think those characters vvhich God hath so firmly and deeply imprinted upon our souls were light enough to carry us on in our way And we find that by the help of this light alone some Heathens who never knew Christ have raised themselves to that pitch and height of natural and moral goodness that most Christians seem to stand in the valley below and look up and gaze upon them with admiration to see them to have made a fairer progress and steered a steadier course of virtue by the leading of this star then themselves have done by the lustre of the Sun of righteousness But yet this is not enough Sublimius quid sapit Christianus The Christian how faintly soever he goeth forward yet looketh higher then the natural man could possibly sore upon the wings of natural endowments He that draweth out his actions by the line and level of Nature onely is not yet a Christian Natura est prima omnium disciplina saith Tertullian Nature is our first School mistress But God added to this his written Law and in the last dayes spoke by his Son and revealed his will perfectly and fully in the Gospel Instrumentum literaturae adjecit siquis velit de eo inquirere He hath drawn an instrument and to Nature and Moses added his Gospel in which whosoever will enquire may most fully learn his will Here we are taught that fundamental lesson to Believe Which the Father calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a voluntary submission of the soul the obedience of the will and applying it to every precept Here we have those Divine precepts of Sanctity and Holiness the faithful commentaries of God's will which though they present nothing to our understanding to which the wisest Philosophers would not have subscribed yet forbad some things vvhich vvere not absolutely unlavvful by the Lavv of Nature even those acts in vvhich though to a natural eye there appeared no irregularity yet Reason it self vvould soon conclude it vvere better not to do then to do them For many lessons there be vvhich by the vvit of man had never been collected had not Christ the true Lawgiver gathered them to our hands What is said fabulously of some grounds in Italy that they bear an Olive and under that Olive a Vine and under that Vine Corn and under that Corn omne olerum genus all kind of profitable herbs and that without any hinderance of each other is most true of the doctrine of the Gospel There is in it such a real and profitable fertility that it beareth and yieldeth all the fatness of the Olive the sweetness of the Vine the strength of Corn something for every temper something that will prove food for every stomach The will of God declared by Christ is all these and more And in the Gospel it is proposed and laid open to the eye in its full proportion That doctrine which leadeth to happiness is plain and obvious Who knoweth not what it is to Believe in Christ and to Deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Who understandeth not our Saviour's Sermon on the mount If there be any more doctrines then we find in the Gospel then certainly they are of the number of those quae salvâ fide ignorari possunt which will not endanger us if we know them not And did we practise what is easie to know we should not thus be troubled to know what to practise It is not any defect in the rule any obscurity in the Gospel but the neglect of piety and religion and that integrity of life which
under the name of Perfection because it tendeth to it So there is the Perfection of a beginner for he is a perfect beginner and the Perfection of a proficient for he is a perfect proficicent And there is a higher degree of Perfection of those who are so spiritualized so familiar with the Law of Christ that they run the wayes of his commandments But there is none so perfect but he may be perfecter yet none so high but he may exalt himself yet further in the grace and favour of God And even the beginner who seemeth to follow Christ yet a far off by that serious and earnest desire he hath to come nearer may be brought so near unto him as to be his member For there be babes in Christ and there be strong men And Christ looketh favourably even upon those babes and will take them into his arms and embrace them For his mercy is a garment large enough to cover all to reach even from the top to the last round and step of that ladder which being reared on earth reacheth up to heaven and to carry on those who first set foot in the wayes of life with a desire to ascend higher For all these are within within the pale of his Church Without are dogs and sorcerers and they who love and make a lie who have no relish of heaven no savour of Christ's ointment no desire of those things which are above no taste of the powers of the world to come For where this desire is not where it is not serious Christ is quite departed out of those coasts For Christ did not build his Church as Plato formed his Commonwealth who made such Laws as no man could keep but he fitted his Laws to every man and requireth no more of any then what every one by the strength which he will give may exactly accomplish It is a precept of a high nature and which flâ—sh and bloud may well shrink at be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Mat. 5.48 This is a hard and iron speech and he must have the stomach of an Ostrich that can digest it Therefore the Church of Rome hath sauced it to make it easie of digestion and hath made it not a peremptory Precept but a Counsel or Advice left it to our free choice whether we will keep it or no. To neglect and pass it by will hazard aureolam non auream it is their own distinction not the crown of life but some brooch or top some degree of happiness there And this is a great errour either to adde to or to take off from that burthen which it hath pleased Christ our Lawgiver to lay upon us Seem this precept never so harsh this burthen never so heavy yet if we consult with that patience and strength wherewith it hath pleased Christ to endue us by his blessed Spirit we shall be able to bear it without any abatement or diminution For we may deal with it as Protagoras did with his burthen of sticks dispose of it in so good order and method as to bear it with ease and have no reason to complain of its weight It is not so hard as we at first suppose And that we may gather from the illative particle Therefore Which hath reference to the verses going before and enjoyneth a Love above the love of Publicans whose love was negotiatio a bargaining a trafficking love vvho payed love for love loved none but those who loved them and so raiseth our Love to the love of our heavenly Father as to the most perfect rule and then draweth it down to compass and bless even the worst enemies we have And so this Perfection here doth not signifie an exact performance of all the commandments but the observation of this one The Love of our neighbour and that not in respect of the manner of observing it but the act it self That we love not onely our friends but our enemies And this indeed is a glorious act worthy the Gospel of Christ For to love them that love us is but a kind of necessary and easie gratitude the first beginings and rudiments of Piety the dawning of Charity But when we have attained to this to love them that love us not that hate us that persecute us then our Charity kindled from the the Love of our Father shineth forth in perfection of beauty He that can doe this hath fulfilled the Law For he that can love him that hateth him will love God that loveth him will love him when he frowneth on him when he afflicteth him when as Job speaketh he killeth him For indeed he cannot doe one but he must doe both But then for the manner of that love there he must needs come short of the patern Dust and ashes cannot move with equal motion in this sphere of Charity with the God of Love That we may love our enemies is possible but that we love them with the same extension or intension of love as God loveth them is beyond our belief and conceit and so impossible to be reached by the best endeavours we have God may give us strength but he cannot give us his arme He may make us wise and strong and good but not as good and wise and strong as himself What cruelty is our Mercy to his What weakness in our Power to his Almightiness Hovv ignorant is our Knovvledge to his light If vve speak of Wisdom he alone is vvise if of Povver he onely can doe what he will in heaven and in earth If vve speak of Mercy his Mercy reacheth over all his works Man is a finite mortal creature and all his goodness and wisdom and mercy are as mortal and changeable as himself and if it do measure out his span and hold out to the end of it yet it will retain a tast and relish of the cask and vessel of flesh and mortality and corruption But yet the Law is perfect and required a perfect man cum Dei adjutorio in nostrâ potestate consistit saith Augustine often and it is in our power with the help of God's grace to be perfect Rom. 16.25 God doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stablish us 1 Cor. 1.8 he doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confirm us he doth work in us to will and to do by giving us the sight of his glory and by his Spirit exciting and strengthening us He doeth it that giveth sufficient helps and advantages to do it The whole honour of every effect is due and returneth to the first Cause By this help we may be perfect as perfect as the prescript of the Gospel and the new covenant of Grace requireth For 1. God requireth nothing that is above our strength And certainly we can do what we can do we can do what by him we are enabled to do I can do all things saith S. Paul through Christ that strengtheneth me We may love him with all our mind with all our heart with all
an Ear listening after lies are the faculties and passions and members or rather the marks and reproches of a stigmatized slave For can he be thought free who imployeth all the power he hath to make himself a prisoner No liberty then without subordination and subjection to this Law Behold I shew you a mystery which you may think rather a paradox A Christian a Gospeller is the freest and yet the most subject creature in the world the highest and yet the lowest delivered out of prison and yet confined set at liberty and yet kept under a Law S. Paul saith to the Galatians Brethren you have been called unto liberty Gal. 5.13 He meaneth Liberty in things indifferent neither good nor evil in their own nature There our fetters are broken off Onely use not your liberty as an occasion to the flesh There we are limited and confined So that Christian Liberty it self is under a Law which bindeth us ab illicitis semper quandoque à licitis from unlawful things alwayes and sometimes from that which is lawful Nay it is under many Laws 1. The Law of Sobriety and Temperance which must bound and limit the outward practice of it God hath given as I told you before every moving thing that liveth to be meat for us Gen. 9. â— All meats under the Gospel all drinks are lawful fish and flesh bread and herbs and the rest But there is a Law yet to bound us We are free but not so free as to surfeit and be drunken and to devour our souls with care for our bodies to make an art of eating and indulge so long to luxury till we can indulge no more Wine is from the vine In which saith S. Augustine God doth every year work a miracle and turn water into wine But if Sobriety be not the cup bearer if we look not on Temperance as a Law it may prove to us what the Manichees feigned it to be fel principis tenebrarum the gall of the Prince of darkness Again all apparel all stuff all cloth all colours are lawful Foâ— he that clotheth the grass of the field will doe much more for us But this Liberty doth not straight write us Gallants nor boulster out our excessive pride and vanity this doth not give us power to put the poor's and Christ's patrimony on our backs Modesty must be our Tire-woman to put on our dress and our garments and not Phansie and Pride Tertullian thought it not fit to supplicate God in silk or purple Cedò acum crinibus distinguendis Bring forth saith he your crisping-pins and your pomanders and wash your selves in costly baths and if any ask you why you do so Deliqui dicito in Deum say I have offended against God Itaque nunc maceror crucior ut reconciliam me Deo and therefore I thus macerate and afflict my self and am come in this gay and costly outside that I may reconcile my self to God Thus did he bitterly and sarcastically lâ—sh the luxury of his times What think you would he say if he saw what we see every day even when the dayes are gloomy and black Ecclesia in attonito when mens hearts even fail them for fear and Vengeance hovereth over us ready to fall upon our heads But if he were too streight-laced we ought to remember that Apparel was for covert and not for sight to warm the body that weareth it and not to take the eye of him that beholdeth it We have freedom to use but Modesty and Temperance must be as Tribunes and come in with their Veto and check and manage this Liberty that we abuse not the creature 2. Our Liberty is bounded with another Law even the Law of Charity Of Charity I say both to my self and to my brethren For our selves A right hand is to be cut off and a right eye plucked out if they offend us We must remove every thing out of the way which may prove a stone to stumble at though it be as useful as our Hand and as dear as our Eye at least make a covenant with our Eye and with our Hand to forbear those lawful things which may either endanger the body or occasion the ruine of the soul For what is an Eye a Hand to the whole And what a serpent is that occasion which If I touch it will sting me to death And as for our selves so also for others we must not use the creature with offence or scandal of our weaker brethren LICET It is lawful is the voice of Liberty but the Charity of the Gospel which is as a Law to a Christian bâ—â—ngeth in an EXPEDIT and maketh onely that lawful in this case which is expedient For as every thing which we please as Bernard speaketh is not lawful so every thing that is lawful is not expedient Nihil charitate imperiosius There is nothing more commanding then Charity and no command fuller of delight and profit then hers For how quickly doth she condescend to the weakness of others How willing is she to abridge her self rather then they should fall What delight doth she take to deny her self delight that she may please them She will not touch nor taste that they may not be offended And then thus in matters of this nature to restrain Liberty bringeth with it huge advantage For how will he flie with ease from that which â—e may not do who can for another's sake abstain from that which he may Liberty is a word of enlargement and giveth us line biddeth Rise and eat but a NON EXPEDIT It is not expedient which is the language of Charity putteth the knife to our throat cometh in case of scandal to pinion us that we reach not our hand to things otherwise lawful A NON EXPEDIT maketh a NON LICET It is not expedient in matters of this indifferencie is the same with It is not lawful The Gospel you see then is a Law of liberty but it is also a Law to moderate and restrain it Lastly as it is a Law of liberty so it limiteth and boundeth it in respect of those relations which are between man and man between Father and Son Master and Servant Superiour and Inferiour For Christ came not to shake these relations but to establish them He left the Servant the Son the Subject as he found them but taught them to bow yet a little lower before their Master their Father their Lord for the Gospel's sake to do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with fear and reverence as to the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as the heathen slaves in chains but in simplicity and truth as unto Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with good will not driven on with the goad and whip and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as servants not of men but of Christ He giveth them liberty yet tieth them up and confineth them in the Family in the Commonwealth in the Church A Christian is the most free and the most
subject creature in the world And accordingly it was not heard that any Christian for some hundreds of years did break his bands or rise up against Autority Not a more obedient Son not a more humble Servant not a more faithful Subject then a Christian For when Presumption on our Christian Liberty like a flould is ready to cast down all before it there is a Law in the Gospel which steppeth in and speaketh in the voice of God himself Hitherto shalt thou go and no further We say nay Christ saith that we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truly free and he saith and hath taught us both by his word and ensample that we must be truly charitable truly sober truly obedient The errour in these later ages hath been to remove this Liberty and take it from Sin and Conscience and set it up against the face of the Superiour and so to level and throw down all relations We are now not free from the bondage and guilt and dominion of Sin not free from the clamours of Conscience wherein our Christian Liberty principally consisteth but free from Dependence free from all Subjection and thus we forfeit our Freedom by defending it fling of our obedience to those who are set over us and so come under a worse yoke even the yoke of the Devil For conclusion then Let us with joy and thankfulness remember that we are called to liberty but let us not forget that we are under a Law to regulate and bound us that this royal Law is not nulled and maid void by our Liberty nor our Liberty lost in this Law that it speaketh nothing but Peace and Liberty but withall exacteth Obedience which is the instrumental cause the helper and promoter of them both that Christ hath taken from us one yoke but put upon us another and that an easie one Which if we fling from us or break asunder our Liberty will flie away and leave us in bonds enslaved to our own passions and lusts bowing to every Master but our Master which is in heaven who bought us with a price waiting on our Ambition lacquaying it after the World sweating in a Faction busie and toiling in a Sedition and carried on with a swinge upon the weak and feeble wings of an opinion of Liberty and so making our selves evil because we have learned that the Son hath made us free And therefore let us stand fast in our liberty And the onely way to settle and fix us is this Royal Law To this if we take heed carrying along with us that Charity Sobriety Modesty Prudence which it requireth we shall stand and not incline and sink either to the right hand or to the left neither fall into such a superstitious tenderness as not to be able to take up a straw nor yet run into that profaneness as to beat down all relations before us to see neither Father nor Master nor Magistrate having our eyes dazled with the beauty and glory of our Christian Liberty To conclude Brethren you have been called to liberty Onely use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh to promote that in its lusts and affections You are made free from the Guilt of sin Adde not guilt unto guilt nor bloud unto bloud Be not worse then Jews and Turks because you are Christians You are made free from the Dominion of sin Make use of the power of the Gospel to triumph over it You are made free by this Law of liberty but you must work out this your Freedom with fear and trembâ—ing The Gospel is of power to break our bands asunder but we must shake them off For it doth not redeem those who love their captivity and delight rather in their fetters then enlargement If thou wilt thou shalt be saved and if thou wilt thou art set at liberty Again ye are free from the Rigour of the Law and walk now rather as before a Father then before a Judge But even a Father may be angry and his anger may be heavier then that of a Judge if we abuse his lenity and turn his grace into wantonness if we be too daring and bold under his indulgence and loving kindness and as the flesh swayeth and leadeth us venture now upon these acts of sin now upon others and be less careful what we do because he will not be extreme to mark what is done amiss and so at last make up those cords of vanity that cart-rope of iniquity with which we shall be dragged not as sons but as slaves and beasts to the slaughter Lastly you are made free and have liberty to use the Creature Use it to his glory that gave it that the bread that you eat the garments you wear the beam in the house cry not out and witness against you And you are free from Ceremonial precepts but not from Order and Discipline free in things indifferent but not left in this indifferencie to do what you please In a word free but yet bound bound to serve one another in love and bound even by the Law of Nature which this Law of Liberty doth not abrogate to do every thing decently and in order And thus if you walk as free and yet serving poising and moderating your Liberty by a Law manifesting your freedom even in this service and exalting this your service in your Liberty you shall be free indeed free in whatsoever relation you stand either in Family or City or Church or Common-wealth and by it be made free-denizons of the City of the Lord who shall deliver you from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of his sons in the highest heavens where you shall be free for evermore The Five and Fortieth SERMON PART V. JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed HAving now finished our first Part The Character of the Gospel we pass to our second the Character of the true Gospeller And first we find that he doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 look into the perfect Law of liberty And one would think that were soon done Who doth not look into the Gospel He that loveth it looketh into it and he looketh into it who is an enemy to it But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a word of a fuller signification and implieth not a slight cast of the eye a careless and perfunctory look but a look with the bend and incurvation of the body John 20. â— It is the word S. John useth he telleth us that Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stooping down Vers 21. and looking in saw the linen clothes lying And again of Mary Magdalene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre And of the Gospel it self S. Peter saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Angels desire or love to look into it It is then a serious fixed earnest look not
it requireth no more at our hands for the obtaining of eternity of bliss but this Faith this persuasion If so be we be holy and innocent and remain in this Law and by this faith overcome the world BLESSEDNES then is as the Sun and looketh and shineth on all putteth life in the Law raiseth our Perfection begetteth and upholdeth our Liberty maketh Conscience quick and lively either to affright or joy us either to seourge or feast us If in this life onely we had hope our faith were vain nay this Law the Gospel were vain And therefore in every storm and tempest under the shadow and wings of this Hope we find shelter We flie for refuge saith the Apostle to lay hold upon the hope which is sâ—t before us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We flie out of the world a shop of vanity and uncertainty the region of changes and chances to this Hope as to an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast which cannot deceive us if we lay hold on it for it entereth into that within the veil and so is firm and safe fastened on this Blessedness as an anchor that reacheth to the bottom and sticketh fast in the ground Blessedness upholdeth and setleth our Hope and on our Hope our Obedience is raised to reach that Blessedness on which our Hope is setled In a word Blessedness like Christ himself is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first and the last the end and yet the first mover of us in those wayes which lead unto it Christiano coelum antè patuit quà m via Heaven is opened to a Christian and then the way And he that walketh in it shall enter in he that doeth the work shall be blessed in it Now BEATUS ERIT He shall be blessed may either look upon this span or upon that immeasurable space of eternity And it is true in both both here where we converse with Men and Misery and there where we shall have the company of Seraphim and Cherubim and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth Here we have something in hand there the accomplishment some ears we have we shall have the whole sheaf Here we have one part of Blessedness peace of conscience there remaineth the greater the reversion in the highest heavens As Christ said of the two Commandements This is the great Blessedness and the other is like unto it that Joy which is the resultance of every good work which we call our Heaven upon earth That which is to come is a state of perfection an aggregation of all that is truly good without the least tincture and shew of evil as Boethius speaketh This cannot be found here on earth in the best Saint whose joy and peace is sometimes interrupted for a while by the gnawings of some sin or other which overtaketh him or by the sight of imperfection which will not suffer his joy to be full The best peace on earth may meet with disturbance Therefore Peace is found alone in the most perfect Good even God himself who is Perfection it self whose delight and paradise is in his own bosom Which he openeth and out of which he poureth a part of it on his creature and of which we do in a manner take possession when we look into and remain in the perfect Law of Liberty which is an emanation from him a beam of that Law which was with God from all eternity and by which as we are made after the image so are we transformed after the similitude of God which Plato himself calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assimilation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 union with God In whom alone those two powers of the soul those two Horseleaches which ever cry Give Give the Understanding which is ever drawing new conclusions and the Will which is ever pursuing new objects have their eternal sabbath and rest He that doeth the work shall be blessed in the work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this man and none but this shall be blessed So then this is the conclusion That Evangelical Obedience the constant observation of this Law of Liberty of the doctrine of Faith and Good works is the onely and immediate way to Blessedness For not the hearers of the word but the doers shall be justified saith S. Paul And indeed there is no way but this For First God hath fitted us to this Law and this Law to us He hath fitted us for this heavenly treasure For can we imagine that God did thus build us up and stamp his own Image upon us that we should be an habitation for owles and satyres Rom. 12 3. for wild and brutish imaginations that he did give us Understandings to forge deceit to contrive plots to find out an art of pleasure a method and craft of enjoying that which is but for a season that he did give us Wills to wait upon the Flesh which fighteth against the Spirit and his Image which is in us Was the Soul made immortal for that which passeth away as a shadow and is no more or hath he given us dominion over the beasts of the field that we should fall and perish with them No We are ad majora nati born mortal but to eternity And we carry an argument about us against our selves if we remain not in this Law For take it in credendis in those conclusions which it commendeth to our Faith though Faith indeed in respect of the remoteness of its object and its elevation be above Nature yet in the soul God hath left a capacity to receive it and if the other condition of persevering in it did not lie heavy upon the flesh the brutish part we should be readier scholars in our Creed then we are If we could hate the world we should soon be in heaven If we could embrace that which we cannot but approve our Infidelity and Doubtings would soon vanish as the mist before the Sun S. Augustine hath observed it in his book De Religione that multitudes of good moral men especially the Platonicks came in readily and gave up their names unto Christ The Moral man did then draw on the Christian But now I know not how the Christian is brought in to countenance those who deserve another name But then for the Agenda and precepts of practice They are as the seed and the Heart of man the earth the Matrix the womb to receive them And they are so proportioned to our Reason that they are no sooner seen but approved they bring as it were of near alliance and consanguinity with those notions and principles which we brought with us into the world Onely those are written in a book these in the heart indeed the one are but a commentary on the other What precept of Christ is there which is not agreeable and consonant to right Reason Doth he prescribe Purity The heart applaudeth it Doth he bless Meekness The mind of man soon sayeth Amen Doth he enjoyn Sobriety We soon subscribe
to it For what man would profess himself a beast And from hence it cometh to pass that we see aliquid optimi in pessimis something that is good in the worst that we hear a Panegyrick of Virtue from a man of Belial that Truth is cried up by that mouth which is full of deceit that when we do evil we would not have it go under that name but are ready to maintain it as good that when we do an injury we call it a benefit No man is so evil that he desireth not to enroll his name in the list of those who are Good Temperance the drunkard singeth her praises Justice every hand is ready to set a crown upon her head Wisdom is the desire of the whole earth So you see these precepts are fitted to the soul and the soul to these precepts But secondly as this Law of Liberty is proportioned to the Soul so being looked in and persevered in it filleth it with light and joy giveth it a taste of the world to come For as Christ's yoke is easie but not till it is put on so his precepts are not delightful till they are kept Aristotle's Happiness in his books is but an Idea and Heaven it self is no more to us till we enjoy it The Law of Liberty in the letter may please the Understanding part which is alwayes well-affected and inclinable to that which is apparently true but till the Will which is the commanding faculty have set the feet and hands at liberty even that which we approve we distaste and that which we call honey is to us as bitter as gall Contemplation may delight us for a time and bring some content but the perversness of the Will breedeth that worm which will soon eat it up For it is a poor happiness to speak and think well of Happiness to see it as in picture quae non ampliùs quà m videtur delectat which delighteth no longer then it is seen as from a mount to behold that Canaan which we cannot enjoy A Thought hath not wing and strength enough to carry us to Blessedness But when the Will is subdued and made obedient to this Law then this Law of Liberty which is from the heaven heavenly filleth the soul with a joy of the same nature with a spiritual joy of which the joy in heaven is the complement and perfection with a joy which is not onely the pledge but the earnest of that which is to come When the Will is thus subact and framed and fashioned according to this Law according to this pattern which God hath drawn then it clotheth it self as it were with the light of Heaven which is the original of this joy Then what a pearl is Wisdom What glory is in Poverty What a triumph is it to deny our selves What an ornament is the Cross What brightness reflecteth from a cup of cold water given to a Prophet What do you see and feel then when you intercede with your Bounty and withstand the evil dayes and take from them some of their blackness and darkness when you sweeten the cup of bitterness the onely cup that is left to many of the Prophets when you supply their wants and stretch forth your hand to keep them from sinking to the dust when you do this to the Prophets in the name of Prophets Tell me doth it not return upon you again and convey into your souls that which cannot be bought with money or money-worth Are you not made fat and watered again with the water you poured forth Are you not ravished in spirit and lifted up in a manner into the third heaven I cannot see how it should be otherwise For that God which put it into your hearts to do it when your hearts have eased and emptied themselves by your hands is with you still and filleth them up with joy Every act of Charity payeth and crowneth it self and this Blessedness alwayes followeth the giver But hath the receiver no joy but in that which he receiveth Yes he may and ought or else he is not a worthy receiver It is indeed a more blessed thing to give then to receive and therefore there is more joy But the receiver hath his and his joy is set to his songs of praises to God and acknowledgments to man There is musick in Thanks and when I bless the hand that helped me I feel it again My praises my prayers my thanks are returned with advantage into my bosom The giver hath his joy and the receiver hath his It is a blessed thing to give and it is a most becoming and joyful thing to be thankful In quibus operamur in illis gaudemus saith Tertullian As the work is such is the joy A Work that hath its rise and original from heaven drawn out according to the royal Law which is the will of God begun and wrought in an immortal soul and promoted by the Spirit of God and ministery of Angels and breathing it self forth as myrrh and frankincense amongst the children of men And a Joy like unto it a true and solid joy having no carnality no inconstancy in it a beam from heaven kindled and cherished by the same Spirit a joy which receiveth no taint or diminution from sensible evils which to those who remain not in this Law are as hell it self and the onely hell they think of but giving a relish and sweetness to that which were not evil if we did not think it so making Poverty Disgrace and Death it self as fuel to foment and increase it upholding us in misery strengthening us in weakness and in the hour of death and in the day of judgment streaming forth into the ocean of eternal happiness BEATUS ERIT IN OPERE He that doth the work shall be blessed here in this life in his works and when he is dead his works shall follow him and compass him about as a triumphant robe Thus Blessedness first inviteth then attendeth and waiteth upon Perseverance in obedience and yet obedience ushereth it in illex misericordiae first the work of God's Grace and Mercy and then drawing it so near unto us as to bless us And it maketh the blessing ours not ex rigore justitiae according to the rigour of justice as I call that Mine which I buy with my money For no obedience can equal the reward And what can the obedience of a guilty person merit All is from Grace saith S. Paul And when the will of God is thus made manifest he deserveth nothing but a rebuke that disputeth longer of Merit Nor can I see how a guilty and condemned person can so much as give it entrance into his thought It did go once but for a work good or evil and no more If it be more in its best sense it is then more then it can be and so is nothing but ex debito promissi according to God's promise by which he hath as it were entailed Blessedness on those who look into the Law
Israel and of England compared 422 423. J. JAmes St. James and St. Paul seem to contradict each other but do not 276. Jealousie vvhat in Man vvhat in God 381. 613. 643. Jer. xxv 18-29 299. JESUS how excellent a name 732 733. That JESUS is the Lord though Law and Custome and Education teach us yet vve cannot say it but by the holy Ghost 759 c. Many say so yet but few say it 763 764. He vvho saith it aright saith it vvith his Tongue 764. 770. with his Heart 765. 770. and vvith his Hand 766. 270 c. Oh vvhat pity and shame it is that Man should suffer the Flesh the World and the Devil to Lord it over him and not Jesus 768. Jews vvhy commanded to offer sacrifice 72. Why blamed sometimes for so doing 80. 82. They pleased themselves exceedingly in this and in other outward servics 108. v. Formality Their great privileges 418. Privileges of Christians greater then theirs 419. Many things vvere permitted to be done by the Jews vvhich are unlawful for a Christian 869. Their course of sinning 611. Jew a term of reproch 194. Job's case 292. 903. Joh. vi 63. 468. ¶ viii 36. 742. 1 Joh. ii 4. 723. ¶ 16. 280. ¶ iv 18. 398. ¶ v. 3. 112. St. John v. Charity St. John Baptist a burning and shining light 549 c. How the Jews at first admired him 553. but vvithin a vvhile disliked him 554. Joy good and bad 338. Sensitive and Rational 553. It is configured to the soul that receiveth it 860. God's Joy over us and our Joy in Him and in one another 861. Against them that rejoyce in the sins or calamities of others 862 863. Joy that ariseth from Contemplation of good is nothing to that which ariseth from Action 1125. True Joy floweth from Love 153. and from Obedience 113. 992. 1125 1126. Sorrow is vvont to go before Joy 560. Judas's repentance 336. his despair 343. Judge neither others sinners because afflicted nor thy self a Saint because prosperous 295 c. 616. We may disannul our former Judgment upon better evidence vvithout inconstancie 676 c. The Judgment of God and of the World how different 964. God's J. and Man's differ much 616. That of Men for the most part corrupt and partial 246 247. Judgment Few believe there shall be a day of Judgment 926. Though scoffers say Nay it will assuredly come 237 238. Why it is so long in coming 238. It cannot be the object of a wicked man's hope 242. 737. v. CHRIST Curious enquiry after the time of the last Judgment condemned 248 c. We ought to exspect and wait for it 250. Signes of the day of Judgment 1043 c. Judgments Of God's temporal Judgements 611. Judgments justly fall even on God's own people vvhen they sin 290. In general J. many times the good are involved vvith the evil vvithout any prejudice to God's Justice 291. Reasons to prove that point 292. A fearful thing to be under J. and not to be sensible of them 643. Judgments should fright us from sin and drive us to God 364. 800. If they vvork not that effect they are forerunners of hell-torments 365. 801. We should especially be afraid of those sins vvhich are vvont to bring general J. on a Nation 297. It is the greatest judgement not to fear J. till they come 502. 615. We must studie God's J. 615. v. Punishment Judge The Judge's calling necessary 821. His office 120. How his autority may be lawfully made use of 822. Julian the Apostate 957. His liberality 143. His malitious slander of the Christians 148. He wounded Religion more with his wit then with his sword 959. His death 959. Justice of how large extent 119. What it is 120. Private J. is far larger then publick 121. Our common Nature obligeth to live justly 123. and so doth the Law of Nature 124. 126. c. 134. and Fear of God's Vengeance 125. and the written Law of God 128. especially Christ's Gospel 129. How strict observers of Justice some Heathens have been 128. How small esteem Justice hath in the world 131. Motives to live justly 134 c. That which is not Just can neither be pleasant nor profitable 126. v. Mercy Justification what 811. The Church of Rome's doctrine confuted 812 813. Faith justifieth but none but penitents 872. The several opinions about Justification may all be true 1074 c. But many nice and needless disputes there be about it 1075. Wherein Justification consisteth 1075. K. KEyes Power of the Keyes neither to be neglected nor contemned 47. Kingdomes v. Fate Kings though mighty Lords on the earth are but strangers in the earth 532. 535. K. love not to be too much beholding to their subjects 232. It is not expedient for the world to have onely one King 233. Kneeling in the service of God proved by Calvine to be of Divine autority 756. Knowledge Want of Knowledge many alledge to excuse themselves but without cause 437. Pretended K. how mischievous 556 557. Three impediments of K. 96 c. Four wayes to get K. 66. Of which Practice is the chief 68 69. K. is the daughter of Time and Industrie 956. What kind of K. it is that we have in this life 678. God's wayes are not to be known by us his will and our duty easily may 93. We should not studie to know things not revealed 248. Though the K. of what is necessary be easy and obvious 93. 95. yet it is to be sought for with all diligence 96. K. even in the Apostles grew by degrees 61. K. of all future things if we had it would do us no good 789. K. of Sin v. Sin K. of Nature Medicine Laws Husbandry is very excellent 656 657. Saving K. is onely necessary 59 60. 248. K. of Christ surpasseth all other K. 715 c. but it must be not a bare speculative K. but practical 723 c. Many know the Truth but love it not 549. 690. Knowledge Will Affections all to be employed in the walk of a Christian 516 c. Speculative K. availeth nothing without Love 517. It is but a phantasm a dream 518 519. 724 725. It is worse then Ignorance 518. 520. 523. 690. 723. Adde therefore to K. Practice 519 725. As K. directeth Practice so Practice encreaseth K. 520. 693. Words of Knowledge in Scripture imply the Affections 463. Love excelleth Knowledge 977. How God is said not to know the wicked 173. L. LAbour is the price of God's gifts 219. It is not onely necessary but honourable 220. No grace gotten by us no good wrought in us without Labour and pains 667 c. v industrie Sin is a laborious thing 927. more laborious then Virtue 928. It is sad to consider that many will not labour so much to be saved as thousands do to be damned 928. Law Whether going to Law be lawfull 821. Good men have alwayes scrupled the point 822. Cautions and rules to be observed 822. 824. Lawfull
actions are sometimes to be forborn if they be not expedient 639. 1102. Laws necessary for Man 1066. Laws still are framed and given by the prevailing party 1070. Reasons why humane Laws must needs be defective 121. 131. If we will be just we must do many things that mens L. enjoyn not 121. Many wayes to pervert and elude the Laws 122. 132. The Law of Nature more firm and binding then any written Law 124. 127 128. How far it carried some Heathen 1083 1084. Laws of Men and Laws of God compared 168. 228. 230. The Law of God is perfect 1088. but not so perfect as the Gospel 1078. Christ came not to dissolve the Law either of Nature or of Moses 1068. What arguments some Gospellers use to shake off the yoke of the Law 1068. Some will not allow Christ to be a Law-giver nor his Gospel a Law 1068 c. What a world of Laws are they subject to that will not obey Christs 1070 1071. Christ hath reformed and enlarged the Law and exacteth far more of us then the Law did 1078 1079. 1098. The Law of Christ teacheth us to look higher then the natural man could sore 1084. Christ's Laws as well as Mans have their force and life from Rewards and Punishments 390. 1122. Their nature and excellent effects 1067. Whether God's Laws may be exactly and fully obeyed 109 c. v. Gospel Many think Law and Liberty contrary things and that they are never free but when lawless 1099. But there is no liberty but under some Law 1099. ¶ Lawgivers the Disciples of God 106. v. GOD. Lev. x. 10. 1033. ¶ xix 17. 293. Libellatici 1121. Libertines errours confuted 392 c. v. Papists Liberty Our Christian Liberty wherein it consisteth 1097 c. Many abuse it 640. 1103. It is restrained by Sobriety Charity Autority 638 c. 1101 c. Men love to hear of Christian L. but not to have it confined 691. Doctrines of Liberty though true yet are not to be pressed 618. How to stand fast in our Christian Liberty 1103. How Law and Liberty can both be said of the Gospel 1099. c. Obedience to Law is Liberty to Angels to Men to the inanimate Creatures 1100. Lie The Persians told their children they might lie to their enemies but not to their friends 134. Life of Man short and uncertain 356. It is too pretious a thing to be prodidally flung away for a trifle 705 706. but it must be willingly parted with for Righteousness sake 706. We live not indeed till our new birth 1003. London's privileges and London's sins 422 423. 920. D. Longinus 103. LORD This word expresseth the Majesty and Greatness of God 103. and remembreth us of our allegeance 114. If we will not own Christ for our Lord he will not be our Saviour 760 c. 1072. v. Christ Jesus Love v. Charity Christ God Love is the most eminent and potent among the Affections 66. 550 551. It s mighty force 23. 66. 75. 192 193. It setteth all the other Affections on work 550 551. It is like Fire 550 743. Love Worldly and Godly 338. Love of our Selves how dangerous 856 857. v. Self-love They who love the World have no Love to God or Man 890 891. v. World How strangely Love blindeth the Judgment 670. That which we love is either our joy or our grief 570. Love both in God and Man is accompanied with Jealousie 743. What it is to love God 1012. Its effects in the soul 1013. It is the noblest motive to duty 395. 743. It maketh a man earnest and chearfull in duty 843 c. Where Love is cold and defective there is an irregular and inconstant behaviour 845. It may stand with Fear 394. v. Fear If not tempered with Fear it may be too bold 396. 399. Love coupleth not onely Men but also Faith and Hope together 242. 736. Love hath the advantage of Knowledge 977. It is better to love good then to do it 149. Not to love that which is good is to hate it 689 690. What a strange strait St. Paul's Love of Christ brought him into 1006 c. 1010. Our Love should be fixed on the Truth 672. Love of the Truth will not onely burn within us but also shine forth to others 551 c. Our Love of God hath inseparably united to it the Love of our Brethren 1009. To love them that love us is but the rudiments of Charity Christians have an higher an harder lesson 1087. Love of our Brother how to be shewn 576 c. Luk. xi 41. 831. ¶ xii 4 5. 394. ¶ 32. 397. ¶ xiv 13 14. 690. ¶ xvi 25 617. ¶ xvii 10. 1092. ¶ xix 41 c. 359. 795 c. ¶ xxii 42. 266. Lust v. Ignorance Luther 526. 682. Lutheranes depend no less on Luther then the Papists do on the Pope or on their Church 682. The reply of a Prince to the Lutheranes 1070. Luxurie Unnecessary Arts at first the daughters now the nurses of Luxurie 219. Lycurgus 231. 301. M. MAd-men v. Fools Majesty what 311. Maldonate's spite against Calvine 922. He rejected an interpretation that he held best onely because Calvine's 671. Malice and Ign. misconstrue every thing 961 962. 965 966. But their mis-interpretations will not prevail against the Truth 963. Malice against the Truth is downright or interpretative and both must be cast away 688 c. Man created and preserved by God and vvhy 104 105. 107. 115 116. 647. 649. Why created so excellent a creature 87. 647. His beauty and perfection consisteth in obedience and conformity to God 107. Man is a most goodly creature if not transformed by sin 125 135. By sin he is become worse then any Beast 378. How degenerated from his original and how to be restored 782. How weak and indigent 313. 938. How uneven and changeable 383. 773. How subject to chance 936. Other creatures can attein their ends of themselves but Man cannot without a guide 1066. How Christ hath honoured Man and how he ought to honour himself 218. He is too excellent a creature to mind earthly things 647 c. 653. He is a voluntary agent in the work of his conversion 435 436. 584-587 Man is a fair mirrour to behold God in 125. He is a theatre where the Flesh and the Spirit are fighting continually 312. 767. Every Man is a glass for another to see himself in 936 937. All have one common extraction 938. In Nature's Heraldry all Men are equal 279. All by nature are brethren and therefore should help and not hurt one another 123. 938. Arguments to move us thereunto 938. What helps Nature hath supplied Man with 939. His Body and Soul opposit each to other 159. His Mind curious and restless 218. 248. It should not be overtasked 249. What it is that can satisfie him 90 91. 786. Impossible for Man to equal God 1087. He is not to be accounted a Man who wanteth reason 96. The fickleness of Man's
mind whence 554. Men love to hide their sins and to make shew of their good deeds 167 168. Man is never free but while he is obedient to Law 1100 c. v. Liberty How Man is Lord of all his actions 257. Man ever laid open to tentations how and why 280. Few Men fully perswaded of their mortality 250 251. Manichees 8. 165. 171. 412. 705. 752. Many v. Multitude Marcion 8 9. 21. 23. 246. 390. 412. 808. Marie the Mother of our Lord a blessed person 985. Some will not call her Saint 986. Others make her more 986. Mark xiv 36. expounded 25. Marriage v. Husband Perfection may be had as well in a Married as in a single life 1090. The inconveniencies of Marriage nothing so dangerous as Sin 1090. Martyrdome An excellent encomium of it 754. How to be armed for Martyrdome 192. A good life and a good cause go to the making of a Martyr 705. Their gallant and triumphant carriage in their sufferings 26. 568 569. Fear of hell made them so couragious 391. v. Sufferings Every Christian is designed to Martyrdome 573. There may be a Martyrdome before Martyrdome 82. The Devil and Errour have their Martyrs as well as God and the Truth 704 705. 912. Some slain for throwing down Images not allowed the title of Martyrs 215. Massalians 705. Mass-book Some condemn some truths because they are in the Mass-book 671. Masters of families Their Duty 545. Mathematicks No such certainty to be looked for in Ethicks as in M. 1015. Matth. v. 22 28 32 34 39 44. 1079. ¶ 48. 1087. how eluded 690. ¶ vi 25 34. 222. ¶ vii 12. 127. ¶ viii 26. 314. ¶ x. 16. 130. ¶ xi 30. 481. ¶ xxii 30. 939. ¶ xxiv Christ's Sermon in this chapter concerning the signes of his second coming nearly concerneth us 1042 1043. Matrimonie and Virginity weighed together 1090. Meaning A good Meaning or intention a poor excuse for sin 443. 447 448. Means v. End Many gaze and dote on the Means and regard not the end 988 989. Means if not made good use of turne to our great disadvantage 424. 555. Measures v. Weights Meats now under the Gospel may be indifferently used or not used 1098. Mecenas 383. Mechanick A witless etymon of the word 522. Meddling with other mens matters reproved 212. 640 641. It is against not onely the laws of Christianity 213. but also the method of Nature 214 216. Meddling busy-bodies are enemies to others and themselves also 215. They are ridiculous and prodigious 216. Idleness is the root of this vice 218. Meditation on good things how advantageous 206. 691. It is to be seconded by Practice 207. Meditation what 597. 1107. Memorie Of the Memorie 828. What a gratious efficacie the Memorie of God's Mercy hath upon the soul 828 829. Our Memories are apt to forget God's mercies and have need of reviving 589. 596. ¶ What care vvas taken to preserve the Memorie of the Saints 1019. Mercy praised 138. 147. It is an inseparable companion of Justice 138 139. We are as much bound to do acts of Mercy as not to do an injurie 139. 142 143. Nothing more sutable to the Nature of Man then Mercy 140. Mercy maketh Man like unto God 279. What influence God's Mercy and ours have one upon another 815. v. Forgiveness Mercy maketh a sympathie and harmonie in the Church 141. Why worldly men like it not 142. It is often rewarded in this life but in the next infallibly 143. The M. of the primitive Christians how far beyond ours 144 145. Less danger to exceed herein then to fall short 145. Distinctions coyned to elude Texts that enjoyn Mercy 146. Compassion the spring of Mercy 147. 149. v. Almes To love Mercy what 150. Mercie is natural 150. constant 151. sincere 152. delightful 153. Objects of Mercy appear every where 154. Motives to Mercy 153. Our Mercy to others is the rent God respecteth for his M. to us 154. God's Mercy and his Justice reconciled by Christ's Death and our Repentance 347. Why the antient Fathers were so profuse yet sparing tenderers of God's Mercy 349 350. The Mercy of God fearfully abused by some 276. Make not Mercy an occasion of sin 352 353. Mercy and Judgment should compose our song 353. Judgement followeth Mercy at the heels 360. v. GOD. The use we should make of God's Mercies 579. 590. 1072. Sins after Mercy the greater 612 613. Mercy is of most efficacie to humble our hearts 643. Merits The doctrine of Merits overthrown 812 813. 1126. All we can do or suffer is far short of meriting heaven 233. 993. 1126. Messias Christ is not such a Messias as the Jews looked for and as some worldly-minded Christians frame to themselves 33. A glorious Messiah was exspected by the Jews 553 554. 559. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 336. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 336. Metaphors fruitfull of controversie 46. Their use 229. Metellus Numidicus 668. Method and Order how necessarie to be followed 885. as necessarie in Christ's School as in humane Arts and Sciences 68. 947. Want of Method what mischief it worketh in the world 892. c. 945 946. Meum and Tuum quarrelsome vvords 840. Milk by some not allowed to be eaten 752. Mind v. Man The Mind is the Man and the action too 622 623. It cannot intend several things at once 509. Whether it be not necessarie that the Mind should still fluctuate and be lost in uncertainties 678. The Mind is apt to be dazled with some lesser good vvhen it should be intent upon far greater 988 989. Ministers must not flatter 511 512. v. Flattery Miracles v. Conversion The end and use of Miracles 572 c. 957 c. 968 969. 978. 988. In respect of the Agent properly there is no Miracle 969. Why M. are now ceased 970. Of Popish Miracles 970. He that will not believe the Word vvould not believe a Miracle 734. 970. What Christ did in person he doth still spiritually by his Church 970. Christ's Miracles preferred before Moses's 978. Christ's M. were supernaturall publick quick perfect 979. Miracles should fill us with admiration 979. Miracles may be scoffed at by profane men 956 c. Miserie to be chosen rather then Iniquity 127. Mockery Most mens conversation is but a Mockery of God 919 c. 958. How vvicked men are said to mock God vvho in very deed cannot be mocked 923 c. God will return the Mock upon them that mock him 925. v. Scoff Moderation to be observed 56. Moderation in the pursuit of Knowledge commended 248. Modestie in apparel to be used 1101. Monitours vve should be to one another 576. Monks and Friars censured 220. v. Perfection Solitarie Montanus 65. 752. Morality scorned and derided by speculative hypocrites 83. Morall Laws v. Ceremonie Morall virtues are not natural 199. but must be studied and laboured for 205. Of the Morall virtues of the Heathen 663. v. Heathen Morose v. Christianity Mortality Of our Mortality 538. How little believed