form by which he thought all things have their existence is but a dream to this this is a true and reall an efficacious working pattern For as an Artificer hath not lost his art when he hath finished one piece no more did Christ his power when he had raised himself which as he is is everlasting and it worketh still to the end of the world perfectum est exemplar minùs perfecti that which he wrought upon himself is most exact and perfect a fit pattern of that which he means to work on us which will be like to his indeed but not so glorious And now ego vivo I live is as loud to raise our hope as the last trump will be to raise our bodies and how shall they be able to hear the sound of the trump who will not hear the voice of their Saviour ego vivo Christ life derives its vertue and influence on both on the Body with that power which is requisite to raise a body now putrified and incinerated and well near annihilated and on the Soul with such a power which is fitted to a soul which hath both understanding and will though drawn and carried away from their proper operations for which they were made we do not read of any precept to bind us or any counsel to perswade us to contribute any thing or put a hand to the resurrection of our bodies nor can there be for it will to be done whether we will or no but to awake from the pleasant sleep of sin to be renewed and raised in the inward man to die to sin and be alive to righteousness we have line upon line and precept upon precept and though this life of Christ work in us both the will and the deed yet a necessary and a law lies upon us and wo will be unto us if we work not out our salvation By his power we are raised in both but not working after the same manner there will be a change in both as the flesh at the second so the soul at this first resurrection must be reformata Angelificata must be spiritualized refined and angelified or rather Christificata if I may so speak Christified drawing in no breath but his having the same mind which was in Christ Jesus Whilst our bed is in the darkness whilst corruption is our Father and the worm our Mother and Sister we cannot be said to be risen and whilest all the alliance we have is with the world whilest it is both Father and Mother and Sister to us whilest we mind earthly things we are still in our graves nay in hell it selfe Death hath dominion over us for let us call the world what we please our Habitation our Delight our Kingdome where we would dwell for ever yet indeed it is but our Grave If we receive any influence from Christs life we shall rise fairly not with a Mouth which is a Sepulchre but with a Tongue which is our Glory not with a withered hand but with a hand stretched out to the needy not with a gadding Eye but an eye shut up by covenant not with an itching but with an obedient eare not with a heart of stone but with a heart after Gods own heart Our life saith the Apostle Colos 3.3 is hid with Christ in God and whilest we leave it there by a continuall meditation of his meritorious suffering by a serious and practicall application of his glorious Resurrection we hide it in the bosome of Majesty and no dart of Satan can reach it When we hide it in the mineralls of the earth in the love of the world he is the Prince of the world and is there to seize on it when we hide it in malicious and wanton thoughts they are his baits to catch it when we hide it in sloth and idlenesse we hide it in a grave which he digged for us we entomb our selves alive and as much as in us lies bury the Resurrection it self but when we hide it in Christ we hide it in him who carrieth healing and life in his wings when we do per Christum Deum colere worship God through Jesus Christ our Lord and put our life in his hands then the life of Christ is made manifest in our mortall flesh 2 Cor. 2.4 then we have put off the old man and in a manner put off our mortality we are candidati aeternitatis as Tertul. speaks candidates for eternity and stand for a place with Abraham and Isaac for we have the same God and he is not the God of the dead but of the living We see now what vertue and power there is in this vivo Vivo in aeternum I live for evermore in the life of Christ But we must rise yet higher even as high as eternity it self for as he lives so behold he lives for evermore a Priest for ever and a King for ever Heb. 7.16 being made not after the law of a carnall Commandement after that law which was given to men that one should succeed another but after the power of an endlesse life the Apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a life that cannot be dissolved that cannot part from the body And thus as he lives for evermore so whatsoever issues from him is like himself everlasting the beams as lasting as the light his Word endureth for ever his Law is eternall his Intercession eternall his Punishments eternall and his Reward eternall Not a word which can fall to the ground like ours who fall after it and within a while breath out our souls as we do our words and speak no more Not lawes which are framed and set to the times and alter and change as they do and at last end with them but which shall stand fast for ever aeterae ab aeterno eternall as he is eternall he hath spoken this once and he will speak no more not an Intercession which may be silenced with power but imprinted in him and inseparable from him and so never ceasing an Intercession which omnipotency it self cannot withstand and his punishment not transitory which time may mitigate or take away but an everlasting worm not a Reward which may be snatched out of our hands but lasting as the Heavens nay as Christ himself and they who would contract and shrink it up in the one and so make a temporary perishing everlastingness which shall last as long as it lasts do stretch beyond their line which may reach the right hand as well as the left and put an end of the Reward as they would do to the Punishment for of the one as well as of the other it is said that it shall be everlasting all that flowes from him is like himself yesterday and to day and the same for ever And such an High Priest it became us to have who was to live for ever for what should we do with a mortall Saviour or what can a mortall Saviour do for us what could an arm of
if he be angry we have provoked him if he come in a Tempest we have rais'd it if he be a consuming fire we have kindled it we force him to be what he would not be we make him Thunder who is all Light Tert. advers Marc. l. 2. c. 11. Bonitas ingenita severitas Accidens Alteram sibi alteram rei Deus praestitit saith the Father his goodnesse is Naturall his severity in respect of its Act Accidentall for God may be severe and yet not punish for he strikes not till we provoke him his Justice and severity are the same as everlasting as himself though he never speak in his wrath nor draw his sword If there were no Hell yet were he just and if there were no Abrahams Bosome yet were he Good if there were neither Angel nor men he were still the Lord blessed for evermore in a word he had been just though he had never been Angry he had been mercifull though man had not been miscrable he had been the same God just and good and mercifull though sin had not entred in by Adam nor Death by sinne God is active in Good and not in Evill he cannot doe what he doth detest and hate he cannot Decree Ordaine or further that which is most contrary to him he doth not kill me before all time and then in time aske me why I will die He doth not Condemne me first and then make a Law that I may break it He doth not blow out my Candle and then punish me for being in the dark That the conviction of a sinner should be the onely end of his Exhortations and Expostulations cannot consist with that Goodness which God is who when he comes to punish Isai 28.21 sacit opus non suum saith the Prophet doth not his owne worke doth a strange work a strange Act an Act that is forced from him a worke which he would not doe And as he doth not will our Death so doth he not desire to manifest his Glory in it which as our Death proceeds from his secondary and occasion'd will For God saith Aquinas seeks not the manifestation of his Glory Aquin. 2.2 q. 132. art 1. for his own but for our sakes His glory as his Wisdome and Justice and Power is with him alwayes as eternall as himself no Quire of Angels can improve no raging Devil can diminish his Glory which in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphin and Cherubin in the midst of all the Blasphemies of men and Devills is still the same and his first will is to see it in his Image in the conformity of our wills to his where it strives in the perfection of Beauty rather then when it is decay'd and defaced rather then in a Damned Spirit rather in that Saint he would have made then in that Reprobate and cursed soul which he was forced to throw into the lowest pit and so to receive his Glory is that which he would not have which he was willing to begin on Earth and then have made it perfect and compleat in the highest Heavens Tert. ibid. Exinde admortem sed ante ad vitam The sentence of Death was pronounced against man almost as soon as he was man but he was first created to life we are punished for being evill but we were first commanded to be good his first will is That we glorify him in our Bodies and in our soules but if we frustrate his loving expectation here then he rowseth himself up as a mighty man and will be avenged of us and work his Glory out of that which dishonor'd him and write it with our blood In the multitude of the People Prov. 14.28 is the Glory of a King saith the wisest of Kings and more Glory if they be obedient to his laws then if they rebell and rise up against him That Common-wealth is more glorious where every man fills his place then where the Prisons are filled with Theeves and Traytors and men of Belial and though the Justice and wisedome of the King may be seen in these yet 't is more resplendent in those on whom the Law hath more Power then the sword In Heaven is the glory of God best seen and his delight is in it to see it in the Church of the First-borne and in the soules of just men made perfect it is now indeed his will which primarily was not his will to see it in the Divel and his Angels For God is best pleased to see his Creature man to answer to that patteâ—e which he hath set up to be what he should be and what he intended And as every Artificer glories in his work when he sees it finish't according to the rule and that Idea which he had drawne in his minde and as we use to look upon the work of our hands or witts with that favour and complacency we doe upon our Children when they are like us so doth God upon man when he appeares in that shape and forme of Obedience which he prescrib'd for then the Glory of God is carried along in the continued streame and course of all our Actions breaks forth and is seen in every worke of our Hands is the Eccho of every word we speak the result of every Thought that begat that word and it is Musick in his eares which he had rather heare then the weeping and howling of the Damned which he will now heare though the time was when he us'd all fitting meanes to prevent it even the same meanes by which he raised those who now glorify him in the Highest Heaven God then is no way willing we should die not by his Naturall will which is his prime and antecedent will for Death cannot issue from the Fountaine of Life and by this will was the Creature made in the beginning and by this preserved ever since by this are administred all the meanes to bring it to that perfection and happiness for which it was first made for the goodness of God it was which first gave a being to man and then adopted him in speâ—… regâ—…i design'd him for immortality and gave him a Law by the fulfilling of which he might have a Tast of that Joy and Happinesse which he from all Eternity possest And therefore secondly not voluntate praecepti not by his will exprest in his command in his precepts and Laws For under Christ this will of his is the onely destroyer of Death and being kept and observ'd swallows it up in victory for how can Death touch him who is made like unto the living Lord or how should Hell receive him whose conversation is in heaven Ezek. 16. â—1 13.21 If we do them we shall even live in them saith the Prophet and he repeats it often as if Life were as inseparable from them as it is from the living God himself by which as he is life in himself so to man whom he had made he brought life and immortality to light
we beleeve that he shall Judge the world and we read that the Father hath committed this Judgement to the Son John 5.22 take him as God or take him as man he is our Lord Cum Dominus dicitur unus agnoscitur for there is but one faith and but one Lord so that Christ may well say you call me Lord and Master 1. Cor. 6.20 Colos 2.15 and so I am a Lord as in many other respects so jure Redemptionis by the redemption having bought us with a price and so jure belli by way of Conquest by treading our enemies under our feet and taking us out of slavery and bondage And that we may not think that Christ laid down his power with his life or that he is gone from us never to come again we will a little consider the nature of his Dominion and behold him there from whence he must come to judge the quick and the dead and the Prophet David hath pointed out to him sitting at the right hand of God where we should ever behold him Psal 110.1 and fix our thoughts our eye of faith upon him in this our watch The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand Psal 110. till I make thy enemies thy footstool which speech is Metaphorical and we cannot draw it to any other sense then that on which the intent of the speaker did levell it which reacht no further then this to shew that his own kingdom was nothing in comparison of Christs which was of another Non exparabolis materias comment mur sed exmaterijs parabolas interpretamur Tert. de puducir c. 8. and higher nature as Tertul. spake of parables we do not draw conclusions and Doctrines out of Metaphors but we expound the Metaphor by the Doctrine which is taught and the scope of the teacher nor must we admit of any interpretation which notwithstanding the Metaphor might yeeld which is not consonant and agreeable to the Doctrine and analogie of faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher we can neither bring a Metaphor into a definition nor can we build an argument upon it we may say of Metaphors as Christ spake of the voice from heaven they are used in Scripture for our sakes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist 5. Top. c 2. for likenesse and proportions sake and serve to present Intellectual objects to the eye and make that light which we have of things familiar to us a help and medium by which we may more clearly see those which are removed and stand at greater distance For he cannot be said to sit there at the right hand of God from the position and site of his body we cannot entertain so grosse an Imagination and Saint Stephen tells us Acts. 7. he saw him standing at the right hand of God but it may declare his victory his triumph and rest as it were from his labour secundum consuetudinem nostram illi consessus offertur qui victor adveniens Honoris gratia promeretur ut sedeat it is borrowed saith Saint Ambrose from our customary speech by which we offer him a place and seat for honours sake who hath done some notable and meritorious service and so Christ having spoiled the adversarie by his death having lead captivity captive and put the Prince of Darknesse in chaines at his return with these spoiles hears from his Father Sede ad dextram sit now down at my right hand Nor doth his right hand point out to any fixt or determined place where he sits For Christ himself tells the high Priest That they shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of God Mar◠14.12 and coming in the clouds of heaven which if it be litterally 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 he 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 principalities and powers 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 Ath. Cr. not that the Son hath any thing more then the Father for they are equall 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 Tertul de pudicit c. 9. But we may say with Tertul. malo in scripturis forte minus sapere quam contra we had rather understand lesse in Scripture then amisse 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 Saint Paul hath interpreted it to our hands for where as the Prophet David Tells us the Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand the Apostle speaks more expresly Oportet eum regnare 1 Cor. 15. he must reign till he hath put down all his enemies under his feet Heb. 8.1 and in the Epistle to the Hebrews we have such an high Priest that sits at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the Heavens that is we have such an high Priest which 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 bodyes 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 crosse yet now his Dominion and kingly power was most manifest and he commands his Disciples to publish the Gospel of peace and those precepts of Christian conversation to all the World and speaks not as a Prophet but as a Prince in his own name enjoyns Repentance and amendment of life to all the Nations of the earth which were now all under his Dominion Thus saith Christ himself it is written and thus it behoved him to suffer and to rise again that Repentance and remission of sin Luk. 24.47 might be preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his name among all Nations and his Dominion is not subordinate but absolute he commands not as the Centurion in the Gospel who had divers under him yet himself was under authority but as Solomons King he is Rex Alkum 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 sits
onely in this sense said to have an end when indeed it is in its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perfection when there will be no enemy stirring to subdue no use of Laws when the Subjects are now made perfect when this Lord shall make his subjects Kings and Crowne them with Glory and Honor for ever Here 's no weaknesse no Infirmity no abjuration no resignation of the Crowne and Power but all things are at an end his enemies in Chaines and his subjects free free from the feare of Hell or Temptations of the Devill the World or the flesh and though there be an end yet he reignes still though he be subject yet he is as high as ever he was Though he hath delivered up his Kingdome yet he hath not lost it but remaines a Lord and King for Evermore And now you have seen this Lord that is to come you have seen him sitting at the right hand of God His right and Power of Government his Laws just and Holy and wise the virtue and Power the largeness and the duration of his Government a sight fit for those to look on who love and look for the comming of this Lord for they that long to meet him in the Clouds cannot but delight to behold him at the right Hand of God Look upon him then sitting in Majesty and Power and think you now saw him moving towards you and were now descending with a shout for his very sitting there should be to us as his comming it being but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preparation to that great Day Look upon him and think not that he there sits Idle but beholds the Children of men those that wait for him and those that Think not of him and he will come down with a shout not fall as a Timber-logge for every Frogg every wanton sinner to leap upon and croake about but come as a Lord with a Reward in one hand and a Vengeance in the other Oh 't is farre better to fall down and worship him now then not to know him to be a Lord till that time that in his wrath he shall manifest his Power and fall upon us and break us in pieces Look then upon this Lord and look upon his Lawes and write them in your hearts for the Philosopher will tell us that the strength and perfection of Law consists not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the wise and discreet framing of them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the right and due performance of them for obedience is the best seal and Ratification of a Law He is Lord from all eternity and cannot be divested of his royal office yet he counts his kingdom most compleat when we are subject and obedient unto him when he hath taken possession of our hearts where he may walk not as he did in Paradise terrible to Adam who had forfeited his allegiance but as in a garden of pleasures to delight himself with the sons of men Behold he commands threatens beseeches calls upon us again and again and the beseechings of Lords are commands preces armatae armed prayers backt with power and therefore next consider the vertue and power of his dominion and bow before him do what he commands with fear and trembling let this power walk along with thee in all thy wayes when thou art giving an almes let it strike the trumpet out of thy hand when thou fastest let it be in capite jejunii let it begin and end it when thou art strugling with a tentation let it drive thee on that thou faint not and fall back and do the work of the Lord negligently Jer. 48.10 when thou art adding vertue to vertue let it be before they eyes that thou mayest double thy diligence and make it up compleat in every circumstance and when thou thinkest of evil let it joyn with that thought that thou mayest hate the very appearance of it and chace it away why should dust ashes more awe thee then Omnipotency why should thy eye be stronger then thy faith not onely the frown but the look of thy Superior composeth and models thee puts thee into any fashion or form thou wilt go or run or sit down thou wilt venture thy body would that were all nay thou wilt venture thy soul do any thing be any thing what his beck doth but intimate but thy faith is fearlesse as bold as blind and will venture on on the point of the sword fears what man not what this Lord can do to him fears him more that sits on the bench than him that sits at the right hand of God If we did beleeve as we professe we could not but more lay it to our hearts even lay it so as to break them for who can stand up when he is angry let us next view the largenesse and compasse of his Dominion which takes in all that will come and reacheth those who refuse to come and is not contracted in its compasse if none should come and why shouldest thou turn a Saviour into a destroyer why should'st thou die in thy Physitians armes with thy cordials about thee why shouldest thou behold him as a Lord 'till he be angry he caleth all inviteth all that come why should Publicans and sinners enter and thy disobedience shut thee out Lastly consider the duration of his Dominion which shall not end but with the world nor end then when it doth end for the vertue of it shall reach to all eternity and then think that under this Lord thou must either be eternally happy or eternally miserable and let not a flattering but a fading world thy rebellious and traiterous flesh let not the father of lies a gilded temptation an apparition a vain shadow thrust thee on his left hand for both at his right and left there is power which works to all eternity The second his Advent or coming Venit he will come And now we have walkt about this Sion and told the towers thereof shewed you Christs territories and Dominion the nature of his laws the vertue and power the largenesse and compasse the duration of his kingdom we must in the next place consider his Advent his coming consider him as now coming for we cannot imagine as was said before that he sat there idle like Epicurus his God nec sibi facessens negotium nec alteri not regarding what is done below but like true Prometheus governing and disposing the state of times and actions of men M. Sen. Contr. Divinum numen etiam qua non apparet rebus humanis intervenit his power insinuates it self and even works there where it doth not appear Though he be in heaven yet he can work at this distance for he fills the heaven and the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he beholdeth all things he heareth all things he speaks to thee and he speaks in thee he hears thee when thou speakest and he hears thee when thou speakest not in his book are
shewed thee O man what is good and wilt thou not believe him fath is the substance of things not seen and though they be not seen yet they are evident the Meanes evident and the End as evident as the Meanes In our sad and sober thoughts when we talk like speculative men as evident as what is open to the eye But such an evidence we have which a covetous man would soon lay hold on for a title to a faire inheritance and the ambitious for an assignment of some great place for if such a record had been transmitted to posterity if the Scripture which conveighs this Good had entailed some rich Mannor or Lordship upon them it should have then found an easie belief and been Gospel a sure word of prophecy unquestionable undoubtable like the decrees of the Medes and Persians which must stand fast for ever and cannot be altered for too many there be who had rather have their names in a good leaf then in the book of life and this is the reason why we are so ignorant of that which is good indeed and so great clerks in that which is calted good but by the worst why we are so dull and indocile in apprehending that wisdome which is from above and so wise and witty to our own damnation why we do but darkly see this Good which is so plainly shewed unto us What shall we say then nay what saith the Scripture Awake thou that sleepest in sloth and idlenesse thou that sleepest in a tempest in the midst of thy unruly and turbulent passions arise from the grave and sepulchre wherein thy sloth hath intomb'd thee arise from the dead from that nasty charnel-house of rotten bones where so many vitious habits have shut thee up break up thy monument cast aside every weight and every sinne that presseth down and rise up and be but a man improve thy reason to thy best advantage and this Good shall shine upon thee with all its beames and brightnesse and Christ shall give thee light if not to see things to come to satisfy thy curiosity yet to see things to come which shall fill thy soul as with marrow and fatnesse if not to know the uncertain yet certain wayes of Gods providence yet to know the certain and infallible way to blisse if not to know things too high for thee yet to know that which shall exalt thee to heavenly places in Christ Jesus He hath shewn thee O man what is Good doest thou see it doest thou believe it thou shalt see greater things then these thou shalt see what thou doest believe enjoy what thou doest but hope for thou shalt see God who hath shewed thee this Good that thou mightest see him thou shalt then have a more exact knowledg of his wayes and providence a fuller taste of his love and goodnesse a clearer sight of his beauty and majesty and with all his Angels and all his Saints behold his glory for evermore Thus much of this Good as it is an object to be lookt on we shall in the next place consider it as a Law Quid requirit what doth the Lord require HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE The Three and Twentieth SERMON PART III. MICAH 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to doe justly c. HE hath shewed thee O man what is good what it is thou wert made for even that which is fitted and proportioned to thy soul that which is lovely and amiable and so a fit object to look on that which will fill and satisfy the soul and turn the greatest evil the world can lay as a stone of offence in our way into good and raise it self upon it to its highest pitch of glory and this he hath made plain and manifest drawn out in so visible a character that thou mayest run and read it And thus far we have already brought you We must yet lead you further even to the foot of mount Sinai what doth the Lord require of thee which is as the publication of it and making it a law For with the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the Trumpet and the voice of words this voice was heard I am the Lord. Thus saith the Lord It is the Prophets Warrant or Commission I the Lord have spoken it is a seal to the Law By this every word shall stand by this every Law is of force It is a word of power and command and authority for he that can doe what he will may also require what he will in heaven or in earth So then If he be the Lord he may require it and in this one word in this Monosyllable all power in heaven and in earth is contained For in calling him Lord he assignes unto him an absolute will which must be the rule of our will and of all the actions which are the effects and works of our will and issue from it as from their first principle and mover And this his will is attended 1. with Power 2. with Wisdome 3. with Love 1. By his power he made us 2. he protects and preserves us and from this issues his legislative power 3. as by his Wisdome he made us so by the same wisdome he gives us such a Law which shall sweetly and certainly lead us to that End for which he made us And last of all his Love it is to the work of his own hands thus to lead us And all these are shut up in this one word Lord. And let us view and consider these and so look upon them as to draw down their influence and vertue into our souls which may work that obedience in us which this Lord requires and will reward And 1. Quid requirit Dominus what doth the Lord require It is the Lord requires it and I need not trouble you with a recitall of those places of Scripture where God is called the Lord. For if the Scripture be as the Heaven this is a Star of the greatest magnitude and spreads its beams of Majesty and power in the eyes of all men and to require is the very form of a Law I will I require if power speak It is a law It will be more apposite and agreeable to our purpose that we may the more willingly embrace and entertain this Good which is publisht as a law to look upon this word Lord as it expresses the Majesty and greatnesse of God for he is therefore said to be the Lord because he is omnipotent and can do all things that he will He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzen a vast and boundlesse Ocean of essence and he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a boundlesse and infinite sea of power Take the highest pitch of Dominion and Lordship that our imagination can reach yet it falls short of his who is Lord of Lords to whom all earthly Majesty must vaile and at whose feet all Princes lay down their Crowns
shall meet with flattering objects and loath them with terrorus contemn them use the world as if he used it not in poverty yet not poor in affliction but not distrest in many a storm and passe through and rejoyce in it living in the world and yet dead in the world and so make his way through the valley and shadow of death to his journeyes end to that rest which remaines for the people of God who are but Strangers and Pilgrimes upon earth This is the best supply and for this the Prophet puts up his petition in the words of my text I am a stranger upon earth hide not thy commandments from mee They are the words of the Kingly Prophet and in the thirty ninth Psalme he hath the very same Hold not thy peace at my teares for I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my Fathers were and in them he presents unto us his state and condition and in his own of all mankind Menander fecit Andriam Perinthiam one man is the map of all mankind and he that knows one knows them all David was and then all men are but accolae inquilini and howsoever their Pomp and Glory may dazle the eyes of men yet if we will define them aright and set them out as they are they are but strangers and Pilgrimes upon earth So that we have here first a doctrine declaring what we are we are but strangers upon earth that 's our condition he that is least in it is so and he that hath most and is Lord of it is no more secondly the use or inference hide not thy commandments from me For he that hath one eye upon his frailty and defects will have another upon a supply he that knows himself a stranger will desire a guide Or you have our character we are Accolae strangers and our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or viaticum our provision in our way the commandments of God Or if you please you may consider first the person I King David secondly his quality and condition a King and yet a stranger on the earth and these two draw together into one the two most different states of the world a powerfull Prince and a poor Pilgrime him that sits on the Throne and him that grinds at the mill the crowned head and that head which hath not a hole to hide it self And thirdly the reason why the Holy Ghost to teach us our condition doth make choice of a King out of which we shall raise this doctrine which is but a Paraphrase of the text first that man by nature is but a stranger to the world secondly that he is to make himself so And that you may I must hold out to you your viaticum your provision the commandments of God and shew you of what use they have been to you in this your peregrination and pilgrimage I am a stranger in the earth c. And first we must look on the person that speaks and we may peradventure wonder that he speaks it that he who was as a God upon the earth and one of those whom God himselfe calleth so should yet speak in the low and humble language of a Lazar and count himself a stranger We may well think the character doth but ill befit him It may seem rather to be the speech of some one of the Rechabites who by their Father Jonadab were forbad to build houses to sow seed to plant vineyards or to have any but all their lives to live in Tents Jer. 35.6,7 Or of some of the Essenes a Sect amongst the Jews who left the City and betook themselves to Fields and Mountains Plin. Nat. Hist l. 6.17 Gens aeterna in qua tamen nemo nascitur said Pliny of them a lasting Nation in which notwithstanding none were born for they begat Sectaries and not Children or of some of them of whom the Apostle speaks Heb. 11. that wandred in desarts and mountains in dens and caves of the earth or of some Asceticall Monk devoted and shut up in some cloyster or of some Anchoret shut up between two walls This speech had well befitted one of these and had Demosthenes or Tully been to draw the character of a stranger upon earth they would have brought him out of the streets or high-wayes out of some Cell or Prison with all the marks about him but their imagination would have passed by the Palaces of Princes as yeelding nothing of him For a King is but a nick-name but a soloecisme if he be not at home in every place But the holy Ghost regards not this Rhetorick observes not this art which indeed is made up but by the eye his method is è chola Coeli drawn out by that wisdome which formed and fashioned us and knows whereof and what we are made and that which flesh and blood counts a soloecisme with him is the most exact propriety of language what with us is lookt upon as that which is against the rules of art with him is most regular I may say truth is the spirits art and those words which convey it are the best Elegancies and thus to commend this lesson to us he makes choice of a person to an eye of flesh most unlikely as Elias in the book of Kings takes water to kindle the fire upon the Lords Altar A King on the earth and a stranger on the earth non benè convenient and will hardly be coupled together in the same proposition For how can they be strangers on earth who are the onely Lords and proprietaries of it Kings are Domini rerum temporumque are Lords of the times and of all affaires and they carry all before them this shall be the manner of the King saith Samuel 1.7 He shall take your sonnes and your daughters and make them his servants He shall take your fields and your vineyards and turn them to his own use A King the very name strikes a terrour in us and puts out of the best eye we have our reason that we cannot discern between the King and the Man nor the man and the stranger that we judge of him by what he is Si libet licet His will is his Law and what he doth is just or he will make it so for who dares say what doest thou And yet this King this God is but a stranger take him in his zenith take all his broad-blown glories his swelling titles his over-spreading power and all are drawn together and shrunk up in this one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Accola whatsoever he is whatsoever he appeares he is but a stranger Behold here the Kingly Prophet makes it his profession layes by the title of a King as guilty of a Misnomer and calls himself a Pilgrime and as in the darknesse of Popery he that vowed a Pilgrimage either to our Lady or some Saint to Rome or to Jerusalem did present himself before the Altar and then receive his Scrip and Staff So am I
and that there is no such pleasing variety of colours there as we see so the pomp and riches glory of this world are of themselves nothing but are the work of our opinion and the creations of our fancy have no worth nor price but what our lusts and desires set upon them luxuria his pretium fecit 't is our luxury which hath raised the market and made them valuable and in esteem which of themselves have nothing to commend them and set them off My covetousnesse makes that which is but earth a God my ambition makes that which is but aire as heaven and my wantonnesse walks in the midst of pleasures as in a Paradise there is no such thing as Riches and Poverty Honour and Peasantry Trouble and pleasure but we have made them and we make the distinction there are no such plants grow up in this world of themselves but we set them and water them and they spread themselves and cast a shadow and we walk in this shadow and delight or disquiet our selves in vain Diogenes was a King in his tub when great Alexander was but a Slave in the world which he conquered how many heroick persons lie in chains whilest folly and basenesse walk at large and no doubt there have been many who have looked through the paint of the pleasures of this life and beheld them as monsters and then made it their pleasure and triumph to contemn them And yet we will not quite exclude and shut out riches and the things of this world from the summe for with Christ they are something and they are then most valuable when for his sake we can fling them away for it is he alone that can make Riches a gift and Poverty a gift Honour a gift and Dishonour a gift Pleasure a gift and Trouble a gift Life a gift and Death a gift by his power they are reconciled and drawn together and are but one and the same thing for if wee look up into heaven there we shall see them in a neer conjunction even the poor Lazar in the rich mans bosom In the night there is no difference to the eye between a Pearl and a Pibble-stone between the choicest beauty and most abhorred deformity In the night the deceitfulnesse of riches and the glory of affliction lie hid and are not seen or in a contrary shape in the false shape of terrour where it is not or glory where it is not to be found but when the light of Christs countenance shines upon them then they are seen as they are and we behold so much deceitfulnesse in the one that we dare not trust them and so much hope and advantage in the other that we begin to rejoyce in them and so make them both conducible to that end for which he was delivered and our convoyes to happiness All things is of a large compasse large enough to take in the whole world but then it is the world transformed altered the world conquered by Faith the world in subjection to Christ All things are ours when we are Christs for there is a Civil Dominion and right to these things and this we have jure creationis by right of Creation for the earth is the Lords and he hath given it to the sons of men and there is an Evangelical Dominion not the power of having them but the power of using them to his glory that they may be a Gift and this we have jure adoptionis by right of Adoption as the sons of God begotten in Christ Christ came not into the world to purchase it for us or enstate us in it he did not suffer that we might be wanton nor was poor that we might be rich nor was brought to the dust of death that we might be set in high places such a Messias did the Jewes look for and such a Messias doe some Christians worse than the Jewes frame to themselves and in his name they beat their fellow-servants and strip them deceive and defraud them because they fancy themselves to be his in whom there was found no guile and they are in the world as the mad Athenian was on the shore every ship every house every Lordship is theirs and indeed they have as fair a title to their brothers estate as they have to the kingdome of Heaven for they have nothing to shew for either I remember in 2 Corinth 4.4 S. Paul calls the Divel the God of this world and these in effect make him the Saviour of the world for as if he had been lifted up and nailed to the Crosse for them to him every knee doth bow nor will they receive the true Messias but in this shape for thus they conceive him giving gifts unto men not spirituall but temporall not the Graces of the Spirit Humility Meeknesse and Contentednesse but Silver and Gold dividing Inheritances removing of Land-marks giving to Ziba Mephibosheths land making not Saints but Kings upon the earth and thus they of the Church of Rome have set it down for a positive truth that all civil Dominion is founded in Grace that is in Christ a Doctrine which brings with it a Pick-lock and a Sword and gives men power to defraud or spoyle whom they please and to take from them that which is theirs either by fraud or by violence and to do both in the name and power of Christ But let no man make his charter larger than it is and in the Gospel we finde none of such an extent which may reach to every man to every corner of the earth which may measure out the world and put into our hands any part of it that either our wit or our power can take in for Christ never drew any such conveyance the Gospel brought no such tidings but when labour and industry have brought them in sets a seal imprints a blessing on them sanctifies them unto us by the Word and by Prayer and so makes them ours our servants to minister unto and our friends to promote and lift us forward into everlasting habitations Our Charter is large enough and we need not interline it with those Glosses which the Flesh and the love of the World will soon suggest with Christ we have all things which work to that end for which he was delivered we have his commands which are the pledges of his love for he gave us them that he might give us more that he might give us a Crown we have his promises of immortality and eternall life Faciet hoc nam qui promisit est potens he shall do it for he is able to perform it with him every word shall stand he hath given us faith for that is the gift of God to apprehend and receive them and hope to lift us up unto them He hath given us his Pastors to teach us that is scarce looked upon as a gift but then he hath given us his Angels to minister unto us and he hath given us his Spirit fills us
flesh a withering dying arm avail us shadow us to day and leave us to morrow raise us up now and within a while let us fall into the dust and at last fall down and perish with us Man is weak and dieth man given up the ghost and where is he where is I will not say Alexander or Caesar but where is Moses that led his people through the red sea where are his lawes where is David S. Peter speaks it freely that he was both dead and buried and that his Sepulchre was with them unto that day but the son of David is ascended into Heaven is our Priest for ever and lives for evermore And this title of eternity is wrought in his Girdle and Garment may be seen in his Head and Eyes of fire adorns his burning feet is engraven on his sword may be read in his countenance and platted in his crown and doth well become his power his wisdome his justice his goodnesse for that which is not eternall is next to nothing what power it that which sinks what wisdome is that which failes what riches are they that erish what mercy is that which is as the morning dew which soon falls and is as soon exhaled and dryed up again Vertue were nothing Religion were nothing Faith it self were nothing but in reference to eternity Heaven were nothing if it were not eternall Eternity is that which makes every thing something which makes every thing better than it is and addes lustre to light it self I live evermore gives life unto all things Eternity is a fathomlesse ocean and it carries with it powâ—r and wisdome and goodnesse and an efficacious activity a gracious and benevolent power a wise and provident goodness for if he live for evermore then is he independent if he be independent then is he most powerfull and if he be most powerfull then is he blessed and if be blessed then is good He is powerfull but good good but wise and these Goodnesse and Care and Wisdome and a diligent care for us meet in him who lives for evermore and works on us for our eternall salvation And first as he lives for evermore so he intercedes for us for evermore and he can no more leave to intercede for us than he can to be Christ for his Priesthood must faile before his Intercession because this power of helping us is everlastingly and inseparably inherent in him St. Paul joyns them together his sitting at the right hand of God and his interceding of us Rom. 8.34 so that to leave interceding were to leave the right hand of God where he looks down upon us is present with us and prepares a place for us his Wounds are still open his Merits are still vocall his Sufferings are still importunate his everlasting presenting of himself before his Father is an everlasting prayer Jesus at the right hand of the father more powerfull than the full vials the incense the prayers the grones the sighs the roarings of all the Saints that have been or shall be to the end of the world and if he sate not there if he interceded not they were but noise nay they were sins but his intercession sanctifies them and offers them up and by him they are powerfull and by this power the sighs the breathing the desires of mortall fading men ascend the highest heavens and draw down eternity And this is a part of his Priestly office which he began here on earth and continues for us makes it compleat holds it up to the end of the world Again this title of eternity is annexed to his Regality and is a flower of his Crown not set in any but his Thou art a King for ever cannot be said to any mortall Did he not live for evermore he could not threaten eternall death nor promise everlasting life for no mortall power can rage for ever but passeth as lands do from one Lord to another lyes heavy on them and at last sinks to the ground with them all nor can the hand that must wither and fall off reach forth a never-failing reward Infinitude cannot be the issue and product of that which is finite and bounded within a determined period And this might open a wide and effectuall door unto sin and but leave a sad and disconsolate entrance for Vertue and Piety which is so unsatisfying to flesh and blood that the perseverance in it requires no lesse a power than that which Eternity brings along with it to draw it on How bold and daring would men be before the Sun and the People what joy and delight would fill them did not the thought of a future and endless estate pierce sometimes through them and so make some vent to let it out when the evill that hangs over them is but a cloud which will soon vanish few men are so serious as to look about and seek for shelter Post mortem nihil est Ipsaque mors nihil there is nothing after death and death it self is nothing sets up a chair for the Atheist to sit at ease in from whence he looks down upon those who are such fools as to be vertuous and smiles to see them toil and sweat in such rugged and unpleasing wayes carried on with a fear on the one side and a hope on the other of that which will never be And indeed how weary and how soon weary would men be of doing good if there were not a lasting recompence if they were not half perswaded for a ful perswasion is but rare that there were something laid up in everlasting habitations Honour Repute and Advantage these may bring forth a Hypocrite these may bind on the phylacteries on a Pharisee but nothing can raise up a Saint but eternity nor can that which fleeteth and passeth away build us up in a holy faith and then there would be no such ship as Faith which might feare a wreck 2 Tim. 1.19 no such anchor as Hope our faith were vain our hope were also vain and we were left to be tossed up and down on the waves of uncertainty having no haven to thrust into but that which is as turbulent uncertain as the sea it self and with it ebbs and flowes and at last will ebb into nothing But vivo in aeternum I live for evermore derives an eternity to that which in it self is fading makes our actions which end in the doing of them and are gone and past eternall our words which are but wind eternall and our thoughts which perish with us eternall for we shall meet them again and feel the effect of them to all eternity It makes Hell eternall that we may flie from it and Heaven eternall that we may presse towards it and take it by violence Christs living for ever eternizeth his threatnings and makes them terrible his promises and makes them perswasive and eloquent eternizeth our faith and hope eternizeth all that is praise-worthy that they may be as a passe or letters commendatory to
prevaile and procure us admittance into his presence who onely hath immortality and can give eternall life This is the vertue and operation of this vivo in aeternum I live for evermore for though a time will come when he shall not govern and a time when he shall not intercede yet the power of his Scepter the vertue of his Intercession is carried on along with the joy and happiness of the Saints as the cause with the effect even to all eternity and shall have its operation in the midst of all our glorious ravishments and shall tune our Halellujahs our songs of Thanksgiving to this our Priest and King that lives for evermore We pass now from the duration and continuance of his life to his power He hath the keyes of Hell and of Death Habeo claves I have the keyes is a metaphoricall speech Et metaphorae feracissimae controversiarum saith Martin Luther Metaphors are a soyl wherein controversies will grow up thick and twine and plat themselves one within the other whilest every man manures them and sowes upon them what seed he please even that which may bring forth such fruit which may be most agreeable to his taste and humour Lord what a noyse have these keyes made in the world you would think they were not keyes but bells sounding terrour to some and making others more bold and merry than they should be Some have gilded them over others have even worn and filed them quite away put them into so many hands that they have left none at all For though they know not well what they are yet every man takes courage enough to handle them and let in and let out whom they please one faction turns them against another the Lutheran against the Calvinist and diabolifies him and the Calvinist against the Lutheran and superdiabolifies him The Church of Rome made it a piece of wisdome to shut us out and all that will not bow unto her as subordinate and dependent on that Church which was but idle physick which did neither hurt nor good but was as a dart sent after those who wee gone out of reach a curse denounced against those who heard it and blest themselves in it indeed a point of ridiculously affected gravity such as that Church hath many for what prejudice could come to us by her shutting us out who had already put our selves out of her Communion unlesse you will think the valour of that Souldier fit for Chronicle who cut off the head of a man who was dead before I have the keyes saith Christ and it is most necessary he should keep them in his hands for we see how dangerous it may prove to put them into the hand of a mortall man subject to passions and too often guided and commanded by them and we know what Tragedies the mistaking of the keyes have raised in the world And yet he that hath these keyes this power hath delegated also a power to his Apostles not onely to preach the Gospel but to correct those who disobey it I would not attribute too much to the Pastors of the Church in this dull and iron or rather in this wanton age where any thing where nothing is thought too much for them where all hath been preaching till all are Preachers yet I cannot but think they have more than to speak in publick which 't is thought every Christian may do They are the Ambassadours of Christ set apart on purpose in Christs stead to minister to his Church nay but to rule and govern his Church it is S. Pauls phrase and they carry about with them his commission a power delegated from him to sever the Goats from the Sheep even in this life that they may become sheep to segregate them Abstinâ—râ— Cyp. Segregare exauctorare virgâ Pastorali serire Hier. c. to abstein or withhold them to exauctorate them to throw them out to strike them with the pastorall rod to anathematize them c. this was the language of the first and purest times which by degrees fell in its esteem by some abuse of it by being drawn down from that most profitable and necessary end for which it was given which at last brought all Religion into disgrace nor indeed could it be otherwise for if upon the abuse of a thing we must straight call for the beesome to sweep it away what can stand long in its place the Temple is prophaned that must down to the ground Liberalty is abused shut up your purse and your bowels together Prayer is abused and turned into babling tack up your tongues to the roof of your mouth nay every thing in the world is abused if this argument be good the world it self should long since have had its end But such a power Christ did leave unto his Church and the neglect of it on the one side and the contempt of it on the other hath brought in that lukewarmness that indifferency amongst the professors of Christianity which if God prevent not will at last shake and throw down the profession it self and fill the world with Atheists which will learn by no Masters but such as instruct fools nor acknowledge any keyes but those which may break their head But indeed we have had these keyes too long in our hands for though they concern us yet are they not the keyes in the Text nor had we lookt upon them but that those of the Romishparty wheresoever they find the keyes mentioned take them up and hang them on their Church But we must observe a difference betwixt the keyes of the kingdome of Heaven which were given to Peter and the keyes of Hell and of Death although with them when the keyes are seen Heaven and Hell are all one For the keyes of David which opens and no man shuts and shuts and no man opens were not given to the Apostles but are a regality and prerogative of Christ who onely hath power of life and death over Hell and the Grave who therefore calls himself the first and the last because although when he first publisht his Gospel he died and was buried yet he rose again to live for ever so to perfect the great work of our salvation and by his power to bind those in everlasting chains who stood out against him and to bring those that bow to his Scepter out of prison into liberty and everlasting life The power is his alone and he made it his by his sufferings He was obedient to death therefore God did highly exalt him became a Lord by putting on the form of a servant but he hath delegated a power to his Apostles and those that succeed them to make us capable sit subjects for his power to work upon which neverthelesse will have its operation and effect either let us out ot shut us up for ever under the power of Hell and of Death were not he alive and to live for evermore we had been shut up in darknesse and oblivion for
who best knew his own meaning interprets it that beleeveth in me v. 35. that so feeds on the mystery of my Incarnation that can look upon my crosse to which my flesh was fastned and there with the eye of faith behold and wonder at those rich treasuries of wisdom and Patience of Humility of Obedience and love which are the truest title and superscription which could be written on his Crosse that can look upon the several passages of my blessed Aeconomy and receive and digest them and turn them into nourishment that can look upon my Birth and be regenerate and born again upon my precepts and make them his daily bread upon my Crosse and be crucified to the world upon my Resurrection and be raised to newnesse of life He that thus eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him You have the occasion and sum of these words for more then an allusion to our eating and drinking in the Sacrament I cannot see and that too though the Church of Rome would have more is more then we can prove I may call it the true Character of a Christian and who could draw it better then Christ it consists as you see of two parts 1. The Christians or the Beleevers part He dwells in Christ. 2. Christs part he dwells in every man that is Regenerate So that in this our union with Christ there passeth a double action one from us to Christ another from Christ to us and as in arched buildings all the stones do mutually uphold each other and if you remove and take one away the rest will fall so do these two interchangeably hold up and prove one another For if we dwell not in Christ Christ will not dwell in us and if he dwell not in us it is impossible we should dwell in him Or we may resemble these two our relation to Christ and Christs to us to the two Cherubins Exod. 25. covering the mercy seat with their wings and their faces one to the other with the Covenant in the midst between them and the Cherubins though they were both Cherubins and very like yet were two distinct Cherubins so though our dwelling in Christ and Christs dwelling in us tend to the same and yet they are two and the Covenant is in the midst between them if we will be his people he will be our God if we dwell in him he will dwell in us Take it then in these two propositions or Doctrines 1. That something some act is required on our parts which is here exprest by dwelling in him 2. Something is done by Christ some virtue some efficacy proceeds from him which is here called dwelling in us In both which is seen that mutual interchangeable reciprocation between Christ and a Regenerate Soul as he dwelleth in Christ so Christ dwelleth in him and as Christ dwelleth in him so he dwelleth in Christ I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine He that eateth my flesh c. We begin with the first that some act of ours is required which is here exprest by dwelling in him Now to dwell in Christ is a phrase peculiar to this our Evangelist and he often useth it both here and in his first Epistle and it is full and expressive and operative implying a real durable interest in him a reliance and dependance on him alone not onely on his person that they are bold to do who crucifie him again but on his offices as he is a King to Govern us a Priest to mediate and intercede for us and a Prophet to teach us such a dependance which makes us truely his Subjects his purchase his Disciples We usually say the lover dwells not in himself but in him he loves dwells there and delights in such an habitation nor is ever satisfied with pleasures of it as we read Gen. 44. That Jacobs soul was bound up with the soul of Benjamin his life was knit with the young mans life his life hanged and depended on his and by this we may discover what is meant by this phrase when our souls are bound up with Christs when our understandings wills and affections are bound up with his will for what Cassian speaks of his Monk is true of the Christian Nescit judicare quis quis didicit perfecto obedire Câ—ss l. 4 de instit Canob Nescit judicare he hath no judgement non habet suum velle he hath no will of his own when our understandings wills and affections are his as if we were but one flesh and one blood and one soul that we will neither know nor serve nor hearken to any but Christ that we will have no King no Priest no Prophet but him then we dwell in him More particularly thus if we dwell in him we shall first discover and admire the majesty of Christ Secondly acknowledge his power and love his command Thirdly rely and depend upon him alone as our sure castle and protection We shall dwell as it were within the Beauty of his rayes within his Jurisdiction and under the shadow of his wing And 1. if we dwell in him we shall discover and admire the Majesty of Christ for we may observe every thing that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in any emenency sends a kinde of Majesty from it as the Sun doth its Beams which makes a welcome and pleasing glide into the minds of men and at once strikes them with admiration and love sometimes it appears in the persons sometimes in the manners and behaviour of men sometimes in the order and policy of a well governed Common-wealth so we read the skin of Moses face after he had talked with God did shine so bright that Aaron and the people were afraid to come neer him Exod. 34. So when holy Job went out to the gate the young men saw him and hid themselves and the Aged arose and stood up Job 29.8 and it shewes it self in a well ordered Common-wealth Majestas est in imperin at â—ue in omni Pop. Rom. dignitate Quint. l. 7. instit c. 3. it was called majestas pop Romani the Majesty of the people of Rome Now if Christ be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 considered of thee as one in eminnecy and Supreme thou wilt behold him not onely faire and lovely but clothed with Majesty I doe not mean his Majesty in his transfiguration when his face did shine as the Sun and his Disciples fell on theirs Matth 17. nor his Majesty when he shall come to judge the quick and the dead and yet these are fit objects for the eye of faith to look on but his Majesty in his cratch his Majesty in his Humility his Majesty on the Crosse for even there the theef discovered it and it was imputed to him for righteousness and made the Crosse it self a gate and passage into Paradise but these are too remote and for the many we look upon them as at distance have so small regard of them as if
Beatitude Blessed Poverty Matth. 5. blessed mourning blessed persecution blessedness set upon these as a Crown or as rich Embroyderie upon Sackcloth or some courser stuff And thus you see the Church is not cannot be exempt from Persecution if either we consider the Quality of the Persons themselves or the Nature and constitution of the Church or the Providence and Wisdome and Mercy of God As it was then So is it now In Abrahams Family Ismael mocks and persecutes Isaac In the World the Synagogue persecutes the Church and in the Church one Christian persecutes another It was so it is so and it will be so to the end of the World Let us now look back upon this dreadfull blessed sight and see what Advantage we can worke what light we can strike out of this cloud of blood to direct strengthen us in this our Warfare That we may be Faithfull unto Death and so receive the Crown of Life And first knowing these Terrors as the Apostle speaks seeing Persecution entaild as it were upon the Church seeing a kind of Providence and Necessity that it should be so Let us not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Peter speaks Think it Strange or be amazed at the fiery Tryall not be dismay'd when we see that befall the Church which befalls the Kingdoms and Common-wealths in the world when we see the face of the Church gather blacknesse and not to shine in that Beauty in which formerly we beheld her For what strange-thing is it that Ismael should mock Isaac that a serpent should bite or a Lion roar that the world should be the world or the Church the Church For the Church so far as she is visible in respect of its visibility and outward form is as subject to change as any other thing that is seen as those things which we use to say are but the balls of fortune to play with for those things of the Church which are seen are but temporal those which are eternal are not seen 2 Cor. 4. last v the fashion of the world passeth away saith Saint Paul and so doth the fashion of the Church and when the scene is changed it comes forth with another face and speaks like a servant that spoke like a Queen in brief it is turnd about on the wheel of change subject to the same stormes to the same injuries to the same craft and violence which the Philosopher sayes make that alteration in States changes them not into those which may bear some faint resemblance of them but into that which is most unlike and contrary to them sets up that in their place leaving them lost and labouring under the expectation of another change Thus it is and ever was and ever shall be with the Church in respect of outward profession which is the face of the Church nor hath the seed of the woman so bruised the Serpents head but that he still bites at the heel Behold the Children of Israel in the wildernesse sometimes in straits and anon in larger wayes sometimes sighting Exod. 17. sometimes resting as at mount Sinai sometimes going forward and sometimes turning backward sometimes on the mountains and sometimes in the vallies sometimes in places of sweetnesse as Mithkah and sometimes in places of bitternesse as Marah Behold them in a more setled condition when their Church had Kings for her Nursing-fathers how did Idolatry follow Religion at the heel and supplant it and of all their kings how few of them were not Idolaters how many professors were there when Eliah the great Prophet could see but one and how can that have alwayes the same countenance which is under the power and wills of mortal men which change so oft sometimes in the same man but are never long the same in many amongst whom one is so unlike the other that he will not suffer that to stand long which a former hand hath set up but will model the Church as he please and of those who look upon it with an eye of distast will leave so few and under such a cloud that they shall be scarce visible Not to speak of former times of those seven Golden candlesticks which are now removed out of their place nor of those many alterations in after ages but to come home to our selves our reformed Religion cannot boast of many more years then make up the age of a man That six yeers light of the Gospel in the dayes of Edward the Saint was soon overspread and darkned with a cloud of blood in Queen Maries reign since when we willing to beleeve for we made our boast of it that it shined out in beauty to these present times which have thought fit to reform the Reformation it self and now for the glory of it for its order and Discipline which is the face of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where is it to be seen we may say of it as Job doth of the frailty of man It dieth it wasteth it giveth up the ghost and where is it talk what we will of perpetuity of visibility of outward profession Quod cuiquam accidere potest cuivis potest what we have seen done to one Church may certainly be done to another may be done to all what was done in Asia may be done in Europ and if the candlestick be removed out of one it may be removed out of any place nor is that Church which calls her self the mother and Queen of the rest secure from violence but may be driven from her seat and pomp though she be bold to tell the world that the Gatesof Hell shall not prevail against her Religion 't is true is as mount Sion which cannot be moved but standeth sast for ever no sword no power can divide me from it nor force it out of my embraces this hath its protection its salaogardium from Omnipotency but the outward profession of it the form and manner in which we professe it in a word that face of the Church which is visible is as subject to change as all those things are which are under the Moon All I shall say is Nolite mirari wonder not at it for whatsoever changes and alterations there be in the outward profession of Religion Religion and the Church of Christ is still the same the same in her nakednesse and poverty which she had in her cloth of wrought Gold and all her Embroyderie Marvel not then for this admiration is the childe of ignorance an exhalation from the flesh and hath more in it of Ismael then of Isaac The third Inference And that we may not think it strange let us in the next place have a right judgement in all things and not set up the Church in our fancy and shape her out by the state and pomp of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our mindes Rom. 12.2 For by looking to stedfastly on the world we carry the image of it about with us whithersoever we go and make
thus if we look up to the Hills from whence commeth our Salvation Luk. 21.28 wee shall also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Look up and lift up our Heads behave our selves as if all Things did goe as wee would have them look up and lift up our Heads as herbs peep out of the Earth when the Sunne comes neere them and Birds sing when the Spring is neere so look up as if our Redemption our Spring were neere Thus if wee Importune Him by our Prayers wait on Him by our Patience walk before him when the Tempest is loudest in the syncerity and uprightnesse of our Hearts and put our Cause into his Hands if there bee any Ismael to persecute us any Enemies to trouble us hee will cast them out either so melt and transforme them that they shall not trouble us or if they doe they shall rather advantage them then Hurt us rather improve our Devotion then coole and abate it rather increase our Patience then weaken it raise our Syncerity rather then sink it rather settle and confirme our Confidence then shake it in a word shall so cast them out as to teach us to doe it that wee may so use them as wee are Taught to use the unrighteous Mammon to cast them out by making them Friends even such Friends as may receive us into Everlasting Habitations which God Grant for His Sonne JESUS CHRISTS sake c. THE FOURTEENTH SERMON MATTH 24.42 Watch therefore For you know not what hour your Lord doth come I. PART WHich words are the words of our Blessed Saviour and a part of that Answer which he return'd to that Question which was put up by his Disciples ver 3. Tell us When shall these things be and what shall be the signe of thy comming and of the end of the world Where we may observe that he doth not satisfy their Curiosity which was measuring of Time even to the last point and moment of it when it shall be no more but resolves them in that which was fit for them to know and passeth by in silence and untoucht the other as a thing laid up and reserved in the Bosome of his Father The Time he tells them not but foretells those Fearfull signes which should be the Fore runners of the Destruction of Jerusalem and the ends of the world which two are so interweaved in the Prediction that Interpreters scarce know how to distinguish them We need not take any paines to disentangle or put them asunder At the 30. v. he presents himself in the Clouds with Power and Glory the Angels sound the Trumper at the next the two men in the Field and the two women grinding at the Mill in the Verses immediately going before my Text the one taken the other lest are a faire Evidence and seem to point out to the end of the world which will be a time of discrimination of separating the Goats from the sheep And then these words will concerne us as much as the Apostles In which he who is our Lord and King to Rule and Govern us He that was and that is Revel 1.4 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is to come tells us of his comming opens his will and manifests his Power and as he hath given us Laws tells us he will come to require them at our bands He that is the Wisedome of his Father he that neither slumbers nor sleeps calls upon us makes this stirre and noise about us and the Alarum is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be watchfull Call it what we please an Admonition or an Exhortation it hath the necessitating and compulsive force of a Law and Christ is his own Herald and proclaims it as it were by the sound of the Trumpet for this vigilate ergo watch Therefore is tuba ante Tuham is as a Trumpet before the last and thus it sounds To you it is commanded to fling your selves off from the bed of security to set a Court of Guard upon your selves to rowze up your selves to stand as it were on a Watch-Tower looking for and expecting the comming of the Lord. I may call it a Law but it is not as the Laws of men which are many times the result of mens wills which are guided and determined by their Lusts and Affections and so Ambition makes Laws and Covetousnesse makes Lawes and private Interest makes Laws with this false Inscription Bono publico For the Publick Good but it is prefac'd and ushered in with Reason which concerns not so much the Head as the Members not the Lord as his Servants not the King as his Subjects for us men and for our salvation For him that is in the Field and him that is in the House For him that sitteth on the Throne and the woman that Grindes at the Mill for the whole Church is the warning given This Law promulg'd and every word is a Reason 1. That he is our Lord that is to come 2ly That he will come 3ly That the time of his comming is uncertaine A Lord to seal and ratify his Laws with our blood which we would not subscribe too nor make good by our Obedience and a Lord gone as it were into a farre Countrey and leaving us to Traffick till he come but after a while to come and reckon with us and last of all at an uncertain time at an Hour we know not That every hour may be unto us as the hour of his comming for he that prefixes no Hour may come the next every one of these is a Reason strong enough to enforce this Conclusion Vigilate ergo Watch therefore A Lord he is and shall we not fear him To come and shall we not expect him To come at an hour we know not and shall we not watch these are the premises and the conclusion is Logically and formally deduced primae necessitatis the most necessary conclusion that a servant or subject can draw so that in these words we have these things considerable First the person coming Dominus vester your Lord Secondly his Advent veniet he will come Thirdly the uncertainty of that hour we know not when it will be out of which will naturally follow this conclusion which may startle and awake us out of sleep vigilate ergo watch therefore Watch therefore for you know not the Hour c. We will follow that method which we have laid down and begin with the premises and first it will concern us to look upon the person for as the person is such is our expectation and could we take the Idea of him in our hearts and behold him in the full compasse and extent of his power we should unfold our armes and look about us veternum excutere shake off our sloth and drowsinesse and prepare for his coming for it is Christ our Lord. Ask of me and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance Psal 2. saith God to Christ and Christ sayes John 10.30 I and the Father are one
Church which was shut up within the narrow confines of Judea now under the Gospel is as large as the world it self The Invitation is to all and all may come They may come who are yet without and they might have come who are bound hand and foot and cannot come The Gate was once open to them but now 't is shut Persa Gothus Judus Philosophantur saith Saint Hierom the Persian and the Goth and the Indian and Egyptian are subjects under this Lord Barbarisme it self bows before him and hath chang'd her Harsh notes into the sweet melody of the Cross There was dew onely upon the Fleece the people of the Jews but now that fleece is dry and there is dew upon all the earth The Gospel saith our Saviour must be Preached to all Nations and when the Holy Ghost descended to seale and confirme the Laws of this Lord Act. 2,6 there were present at this great sealing or Confirmation some saith the Text of all Nations under Heaven that did heare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wonderfull things of God every one in his owne language so that the Gospel might seem to have been Preached throughout the world before the Apostles did stirr a foot from Jerusalem But here we may observe that Christ who hath jus ad omnem terram hath not in strictnesse of speech jus in omni Terrâ The right and propriety is his for ever but he doth not take possession of it all at once but successively and by parts It is as easy for him to illuminate all the world at once as the least nook and corner of it but this Sonne of Righteousness spreads his beames gloriously Joh. 11.1 but is not seen of all because of the Interposition of mens sinnes who exclude themselves from the Beames thereof This true light came into the world but the world received him not but yet what our sensuality will not suffer him to doe at once he doth by degrees and passeth on and gaineth ground That so successively he may bee seen and known of all the world But suppose men shook off their Allegiance as too many the greatest part of the world the greatest part of Christendome doe suppose there were none found that will bow before him which will never be suppose they Crucify him againe yet is he still our King and our Lord the King and Lord of all the world such an universall falling a way and forsaking him would not take away from him his Dominion nor remove him from the right hand of God and strip him of his Power If all the world were Infidells yet he were a Lord still and his Power as large and irresistible as ever For his Royalty depends not on the Duty and fidelity of his subjects if it did his Dominion would be indeed but of a very narrow Compasse the sheep not so many as the Goates his flock but little Indeed he could have no right at all if it could be taken from him Neither deceit nor violence can take away a right no man can lose his right till he forfeit it which was impossible for this supreame Lord to doe All the Contradictions of all the men in the world cannot weaken his Title or contract his Power If all should forsake him if all should send this Message to him Nolumus hunc regnare Luk. 19.14 we will not have thee Reign over us yet in all this scorn and contempt in this open Rebellion and Contradiction of sinners he is still the Lord and as he favours those subjects who come in willingly whom he guides with his staffe so he hath a rod of Iron to bruise his Enemies and this Lord shall command and at his command his servants and Executioners shall take those his Enemies who would not have him reign over them and slay them before his face He will not use his Power to force and dragg them by violence to his service but if they refuse his help abuse the means which he offers them and turn his grace into wantonness then will he shew himself a King and his anger will be more terrible then the roaring of a Lion They shall feele him to be a Lord when 't will be too late to call him so when they shall weep and curse and gnash with their teeth and Howle under that Power which might have saved them for the same Power opens the gates of heaven and of Hell In his hand is a Cup saith the Psalmist Psal 75.8 and in his hand is a reward and when he comes to Judge he brings them both along with him the same Power brings Life and Death as Fabius did Peace or Warre to the Carthagenians in the lap of his Garment and which he will he powres out upon us and in both is still our Lord when faith failes and Charity waxeth cold and the world is set on wickedness when there be more Antichrists then Christians he is our Lord yesterday and to day and the same for ever Heb. 13.8 4 And in the last place as the Dominion of our Lord is the largest that ever was so is most lasting and shall never be destroyed and shall break to pieces and destroy all the Kingdomes of the Earth but it self shall stand fast for ever no violence shall shake it Dan. 2.44 no craft shall undermine it no Time wast it but Christ shall remaine our Lord for ever The Apostle indeed speaks of an end of delivering up his Kingdome and of Subjection 'T is true there shall be an end 1 Cor. 15.24 but 't is when hee hath delivered up his Kingdome and hee shall deliver up his Kingdome but not till he hath put down all Authority Finis hic defectio non est nec Traditio Amissio nec subjectio infirmitas saith Hilary This end is no fayling This delivery no losse this Subjection is no weakness nor Infirmity Regnum Regnans tradet He shall deliver up his Power and yet be still a Lord. Take Nazianzens Interpretation and then this subjection is nothing else but the fulfilling of his Fathers will Orat. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he in his 36. Oration which he made against the Arrians Take others and by Christ is meant his Church which in Computation is but one Person vvith Christ and when His Church is perfected then doth he deliver up his Power and Dominion But let us but observe the manner of the ending of this Kingdome and the Fayling and Period of others and we shall gaine light enough to guide us in the midst of all these doubts and difficulties For other Kingdoms are undermined by craft and shaken by the madness of the People who shun the whip and are beaten with Scorpions cast off one yoak and put on a heavier as the young men in Livy complain'd either Kingdoms are chang'd and alter'd as it pleaseth those who are victorious whose right hand is their God but the Power of this Lord is then and
else but the Flattery of our Sense because when I breake the Law my will stoops downe to please my sense and betray my reason but yet when I please my sense I doe not alwayes sinne for I may please my sense and be Temperate I may please my eye and make a Covenant with it I may please my Tast and yet set a knife to my Throat I may please my sense and it may be my Health and Virtue as well as my sinne so in like manner to please men against God is the basest slattery and Saint Paul flings his Dart at it but to please men in reference to God is our Duty and takes in the greatest part of Christianity for thus to please men may be my Allegiance my Reverence my meekness my Longanimity my charitable care of my Brother I may please my superior obey him I may please my obliged Brother and forgive him I may please the poore Lazar and relieve him I may please an erring Brother and convert him and in thus doing I doe that which is pleasing both to God and man What then is that which here St. Paul condemnes Look into the Text and you shall see Christ and men as it were two opposite Termes If the man be in Error I must not please him in his Error for Christ is Truth If the man be in sinne I must not please him for Christ is Righteousness And in this case we must deale with men as Saint Austin did with his Auditory when he observed them negligent in their Duties we must tell them that which they are most unwilling to heare Quod non vult is facere Bonum est saith he That which you will not doe That which you are afraid of and run from That which with all my Breath and Labor I cannot procure you to love That is it which we call to doe good That which you deride That which you Turne away the care from with scorne That which you loath as poyson That which you persecute us for Quod non vultis audire verum est That which you distast when you heare as gall and Wormwood That which you will not Heare That which you call strange Doctrine That is Truth As Petrarch told his friend Si prodessevis scribe quod Doleam Petrarch l 7. de Re. F c. ult If you will profit and Improve me in the wayes of Goodnesse let your Pen drop Gall write something to me which may trouble and grieve me to read so when men stand in opposition to Christ when men will neither heare his voice nor follow him in his wayes but delight themselves in their owne and rest and please themselves in Error as in Truth to awake them out of this pleasant Dreame we must trouble them we must thunder to them we must disquiet and displease them for who would give an Opiate Pill to these Lethargiques To please men then is to tell a sick man that he is well a weak man that he is strong an erring man That he is Orthodox in stead of purging out the noxious Humour to nourish and increase it to smooth and strew the wayes of Error with Roses that men may walk with case and Delight and even Dance to their Destruction to find out their palate and to fittit to envenom that more which they affect as Agrippina gave Claudius the Emperor Poyson in a Mushrome what a seditious Flatterer is in a Common-wealth that a false Apostle is in the Church For as the seditious Flatterer observes and learnes the Temper and Constitution of the place he lives in and so frames his speech and Behaviour that he may seem to settle and establish that which he studies to overthrow to be a Patriot of the Publick good when he is but a Promoter of his private ends to be a servant to the Common-wealth when he is a Traytor so do all Seducers and false Teachers They are as loud for the Truth as the best Champions shee hath but either substract from it or adde to it or pervert and corrupt it that so the Truth it self may help to usher in a lye when the Truth it self doth not please us any lye will please us but then it must carry with it something of the Truth For Instance To acknowledge Christ but with the Law is a dangerous mixture It was the Error of the Galatiams here To magnisy Faith and shut out Good Works is a Dash That we can doe nothing without Grace is a Truth but when we will doe nothing to impute it to the want of Grace is a bold and unjust addition To worship God in Spirit and Truth our Saviour commands it but from hence to conclude against outward worship is an injurious Defalcation of a great part of our Duty The Truth is corrupted saith Nyssen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 1. Cont. Ennom To stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free The Apostle commands it but to stand so as to rise up in the Face of the Magistrate is a Gloss of Flesh and Blood and corrupts the Text Letevery soul be subject to the higher Powers That 's the text but to be subject no longer then the Power is manag'd to our will is a chain to bind Kings with or a Hammer to bear all Power down that we may tread it under our Feet and when we cannot relish the text these mixtures and Additions and Substractions will please us These hang as Jewells in our Eares these please and kill us beget nothing but a dead Faith a graceless life not Liberty but Licentiousnesse not Devotion but Hypocrisy not Religion but Rebellion not Saints but Hypocrites Libertines and Traytors And these we must avoid the rather because they goe hand in hand as it were with the truth and carry it along with them in their Company Tert. de Proscript as Lewd persons doe sometimes a Grave and Sober man to countenance them in their sportiveness and Debauchery De nostro sunt sed non nostrae saith Tertul. They invade that Inheritance which Christ hath left his Church some furniture some colour something they borrow from the truth something they have of ours but Ours they are not And therefore as St. Ambrose adviseth Gratian the Emperor of all Errors in Doctrine we must beware of those which come neerest and border as it were upon the truth and so draw it in to help to defeat it self Because an open and manifest Error carries in its very forehead an Argument against it self and cannot gain admittance but with a vaile whereas these Glorious but painted Falshoods find an easy entrance and begge entertainment in the Name of truth it self This is the Cryptick method and subtill Artifice of men-pleasers that is Men-deceivers to grant something that they may win the more and that too in the end which they grant not rudely at first to demolish the truth but to let it stand that they may the more securely raise
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 if we stretch beyond our line if we labour not in our calling we shall not enter into his rest For these also are his Laws 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 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 originall of all power whatsoever As Christs kingdom is not of this world 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 is like to the object and matter it works upon spirituall a power to command to remember every man of his duty in the Church or Common-wealth for the Church and Common-wealth are two distinct but not contrary things and both powers were ordained to uphold and defend each other the civill power to exalt Religion and Religion to guard and fence the civill power and both should concur in this that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godlinesse and honesty Our commission is from heaven and we need no other power then his that sealed it and the virtue and Divinity of it shall then be made manifest when all earthly power shall cease and even Kings and they who did what they list shall tremble before it We see that power which is exercised here on earth though the glory of it dazle an eye of flesh yet sits heavy upon them who weare it we see it tortures them that delight in it eats up them that feed on 't eats up it self and driving all before it at last falls it self to the ground and falls as a milstone upon him that hath it and bruiseth him to pieces It is not such a power but I may be bold to say though it be lookt upon laught at despised by the men of this world yet is it a greater power than that which sometimes sets it up on high and sometimes makes it nothing and hath its end when it hath not its end for to publish our masters will to command in his name is all and though the command prove to some the savour of death unto death yet the power is still the same and doth never faile and if men were what they professe themselves Christians if they had any taste of the powers of the world to come they would more tremble at this then at the other be more afraid of a just reproof then a whip of an excommunication then a sword of the wrath of God which is yet scarce visible then of that which comes in fire and tempest to devour us for his favour or his wrath ever accompanies this power which draws his love neerer to them that obey it and poures forth his vengeance on them that resist it To conclude then look upon the command and honor the Apostle that brings it for the commands sake for his sake whose power and command it is A power there is proper and peculiar to them who are called to it and if the name of power may move envy for we see men fret at that which was ordeined for their good and so wast and exhale all their Religion till it be nothing if the name of power beare so harsh a sound we will give you leave to think it is not much materiall whether you call it so or no whether we speak in the imperative mood hoc fac do this upon your perill or onely positively point as with the finger this is to be done we will be any thing do any thing be as low as you please so we may raise you above the vanities of the world above that wantonnesse which stormes at that which was ordained for no other end but to lift you out of ruine into the highest heavens Our power and the command of Christ differ not so much but the one includes and upholds the other and if you did but once love the command you would never boggle at the name of power but blesse and honour him that brings it Oh that men were wise but so wise as not to be wiser then God as not to choose and fall in love with their own wayes as more certain and direct unto the end then Gods as not to preferre their own mazes and Labyrinths and uncertain gyrations drawn out by lust and fancy before those even and unerring paths found out by an infinite wisdome and discovered to us by a mercy as infinite oh that we could once work out and conquer the hardship of a command and then see the beauty of it and to what glory it leads us we should then receive an Apostle in the name of an Apostle and look upon the command though brought in an earthen vessell as upon heaven it self oh that we were once spirituall then those precepts which concern our conversation on earth would be laid hold on and embraced as from the Heaven Heavenly then should we be as quiet as the Heavens which are ever moving and ever at rest because ever in their own place then should we be as the Angels of Heaven who envy not one another malice not one another trouble not one another but every Angel knows his office and moves in his own order and our assiduous labour in our calling would be a resemblance of the readynesse of those blessed spirits who at the beck of Majesty have wings and haste to their duty who are ever moving and then in their highest exaltation when they are in their ministery In aword then should we every one sit under his own vine and figtree and no evill eye should look towards him no malice blast him no injury assault him no bold intrusion unsettle him but we should all rejoyce together the poore with the rich the weak with the strong the low with the high all blesse one another help one another guard one another and so in the name of the prince of peace walk peaceably together every one moving in his own place till we reach that peace which yet we do not understand but shall then fully enjoy to all Eternity The One and Twentieth SERMON PART I. MICAH v. 6. Wherewith shall I come
not in it and do but talk on 't Math. 6.23 The light that is in them is darker then darknesse it self their judgment is corrupt their will is averse and looks another way from the Region of light Without faith 't is impossible to please God It is true but without Justice and Honesty faith is but a name for can we imagin that Religion should turn Theef and Devotion a Cutpurse To conclude then That you may do justly and walk honestly as in the day consider injustice oppression and deceit in their true shape and proportion and not dawbed over with untempered morter not disguised with the pleasures and riches of the world not vailed and drest up with pretences and Names which make them lovely and make them worse consider well and weigh the danger of them and from what they proceed For first If we would find out the fountain from whence they flow we shall find it is nothing else but a strange distrust in God and a violent love of the world a distrust in that God who is so far from leaving man destitute of that which is convenient for him that he feeds the young Ravens that call upon him For if the windows of heaven do not open at our call if riches increase not to fill our vast desires we murmure and repine and even chide the Providence of God and by foul and indirect meanes pursue that which would not fall into our mouths As aul in the book of Kings Acheronta movemus when God will not answer we ask counsel of the devil Secondly we may think perhaps that they are the effects of Power and Wisdome the works of men who beare a brain with the best that they are the glorious victories of our wit and Trophies of our Power but indeed they are the infallible Arguments of weaknesse and impotency and as the devils marks upon us Non est vera magnitudo pesse nocere It is not true power nor true greatnesse to be able to injure our brethren It is not true wisdome to be cunning artists in evil and to do that in the dark which may be done with more certainty and Honour in the light and to raise up that with a lye which will rise higher and stand longer with the truth That power more emulates the power of God by which we can do good That comes neerer by which we will nor can we attribute wisdome to the fraudulent but that which we may give to a Jugler or a Pick-purse or indeed to the Devil himself And commonly these scarabees are bred in the dung of Lazinesse and Luxury and their crafty insinuating their subtle sliding into other mens estate had its rise and beginning from an indisposition and inability to manage their own He that can bring no demonstration must play the Sophister and if the body will not do then he that will be rich saith Nevisanus the Lawyer must venture his soul Lastly weigh the danger of it for though the bread of deceit have a pleasant taste and goes down glibly yet passing to thee through so foul a chanel as fraud or oppression it will fill thee with the gall of Asps The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them saith Solomon Prov. 21.7 shall fall upon them like that talent of lead and fall upon the mouth of their Ephah and lye heavy upon it Serrabit eos as it is rendred by others shall teare their conscience as with a saw exossabit as others shall consume them to the very bones and break them as upon a wheele or as others Rapina eorum diversabitur That which is got unjustly shall not stay long with them It may give them a salutation a complement peregrinabitur like a traveller on the way it may lodge with them for a night but dwell longer as with a friend it will not but take the wing and fly away from these unjust usurpers never at rest but in those hands which are washt in innocency and in that mouth which knows no guile will dwell with none but those that do justly To conclude Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man who doth that which is evil and unjust to the oppressor and deceiver to the man that boasteth himself in his power and to the man that blesseth himself in his craft to the proud Hypocrite and the demure Politician but to those that do justly that are as God is just in all their waies and righteous in all their dealings that walk holily before God and Justly with men shall be Glory and Honour and peace and immortality and eternall life Thus much of Justice and Honesty the next is the Love of Mercy but c. HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE The Five and Twentieth SERMON PART V. MICAH 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to doe justly to love mercy c. WE have laid hold of one branch of this tree of life and beheld what fruit it bare we must now see what we can gather from the second Mercy or Liberality which grows upon the same stock and is watered with the same dew from heaven and brings forth fruit meet for repentance and answerable to our Heavenly calling whether you take it in actu elicito or in actu imperato whether you take it in the habit or in the Act which is misericordia eliquata that which runs from it in the melting as it were the love of mercy includes both both a sweet and heavenly disposition a rich treasurie of goodnesse full and ready to empty it self and those severall acts which are drawn out of it or rather which it commands And here though miracles be ceased yet by the blessing of a God of mercy it retains a miraculous power it heales the sick binds up the wounded raises the poor out of the dust and in a manner raises the dead to life again upholds the drooping and the fainting spirit which is ready to faile intercedes and fights against the cruelty of persecutors fills up the breaches which they make raises up that which they ruine clothes the naked whom they have stripped builds up what they have pulled down and is as a quickning power a resurrection to those whom the hand of wickednesse and injustice hath laid low and even buried in the dust A branch it is which shadows and refresheth all those who are diminished and brought low by oppression evil and sorrow And these too Justice and Mercy are neighbouring branches so enwrapped and entwined one within the other that you cannot sever them For where there is no Justice there can be no mercy and where there is no Mercy there Justice is but Gall and wormwood and therefore in the Scripture they go hand in hand unto the upright man there ariseth light in darknesse he is gracious and full of compassion and righteous Psal 112.4 There is an eye of Justice a single and upright eye as well as
cannot endure the check and restraint of a command which it breaks under that name the two greatest evils under the Sunne we are too wise and we are too willfull Now the pride of our will is quickly seen and therefore the more curable It shewes it self in the wild irregular motions of the outward man If lifts up the hand it moves the tongue it rowles the eye it paints it self upon the very countenance either in smiles or frownes either in cheerfulnesse or terror It is visible in each motion and there be Lawes to check and curb it that it may not be so troublesome and destructive as otherwise it would be but quae latent nocent The serpent at the heele an over-weening conceit of our own knowledge of our own perfections how invisible doth it enter us how deceitfully doth it flatter us how subtilly ensnare us Benè sapimus in causa nostra we are wise in our own cause we have dig'd deep and found the truth which others do but talk of we cannot be deceived and the thought that we cannot be deceived doth deceive us most Now we are rich now we are learned now we are wise now we reigne as kings and carry all before us we controll the weak with our power the ignorant with our knowledge the poore with our wealth the simple with our wisdome and confute our selves with our own arguments and are poore because we are so rich are deceived because we are so wise can do little because we can do so much and manifest our folly unto all men because we are so wise For whither will this high conceit of our selves lift us even above our selves besides our selves against our selves for wheresoever we stand we stand a contradiction to our selves and others and are as far from what we would set up as they are who would set up something else which is nothing like it We conceive the world is shaken and out of order and we put forth our hand to beare up the pillars of it We form Common-wealths we square out one by another and know the dimensions of neither We modell Churches draw out their Government that is make a coat for the moon we make a Church and clothe it with our fancy fit it with a government as with a garment which will never be put on or if it be The next power may pluck it off and leave it naked leave it nothing or put on some other which may be worne with more honour and safety to that power which put it on This is visible and open to the eye and that eye is but weak and dull which doth not see and observe it why should then our pride and self-conceit thus walk as in shadow as in a dreame why should we thus disquiet our selves in vaine and busie our selves and trouble others to build up that to which we can contribute no more then a poore feeble wish which hath not power enough to raise it to that desired height in which we would have it seen but will leave it where it was first set up an uselesse unregarded thing in our brain and imagination Christ and his Apostles did not leave the Church naked but fitted her with a garment which she wore for many ages in which there were scarce any that did stand up and say It did not become her and if we do not now like the fashion but sit down and invent another we do but teach and prompt others to do the like and so we shall have many more and none at all be ever chusing ever changing even to the end of the world This is it which hath divided Christians which have but one name and given them so many that it will cost us labour and study but to number them This rends the Church with Schisme for men that will not be confined are ever asking how they should be governed and they are busiest to question the present form of discipline who would have none and if you observe the behaviour of the Schismatick you may behold him walk as if he had the Urim and Thummim on his breast the breast-plate of judgement ever with him for by a thought which is but a look of the mind he discovers and determines all things so dangerous is this spirituall pride both to our selves and others Nor is the high conceit of our own perfections and holinesse lesse dangerous but most fatall to our selves For that he aven which we draw out in our fancy hath no more light and joy in it then the region of darknesse onely what is wanting in reality we supply with thought but to no more purpose then that souldier who having no other pillow to lay his head on but his head-piece that he might make it more easie filled it with chaffe We think our selves to be something as the Apostle speaks Gal. 6. and we are nothing and are deceived pride is but a thought and pride is folly now we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more regular then the rule more exact then the Law Nazian more bright then light above the command not to believe us is infidelity not to obey us is a kind of rebellion not to admire us is profanenesse not to joyne with us is schisme not to subscribe to what we say is heresie We are and we alone we are as he that lyeth on the top of the mast and we sleep and dreame out the tempest we may be Adulterers Murderers Traytors and the Favourites of God we may be men after Gods own heart and yet do what his soul hateth All our sinnes are veniall though never so great our sinnes do not hurt but rather advantage us the greatest evil that is in us will turn to our good for our faith is stedfast our hope lively and our Election sure and to this height our imagination hath raised us and from this we fall and are lost for ever And therefore it will concern us to captivate both both our understanding and our will not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to be over-wise not to be wise in our own conceits Rom. 12.16 not to be such Gnosticks not to seem to know what we do not nay sometimes not to seem to know what we do know and this will defend us from Errour and our Brethren from offence and then to subdue our will to our reason and the rule to subject our will against our naturall desire and inclination to the will of God ad nutum ejus nutu citiùs obedire to obey every beck of his as soon as the beck is given in the twinkling of an eye without deliberation or demur In a word not to doe what thou wouldst but to obey in what thou wouldst not and which the flesh shrinks from which is the crown and perfection of Obedience put on by the hand of Humility And this is the Humility of the Soule But is this enough No Psal 40. Tertull. de Pallio Corpus aptâ sti mihi
could abide with or would abide with him but was still as a passenger and stranger on the earth Now to give you a second reason why the spirit of God makes choice of a King to preach this lesson as he chuseth the best and most experienced masters so doth he condescend and indulge to our infirmity and appoints the fittest for us and those of whom we will soonest learn whose first question commonly is who is the Preacher who deliver up our judgements to our affections and converse rather with mens fortunes then their persons and make use of no other rule in our censure of what is done or said then the man himself that did or spake it if honour or power or wealth have made the man great in our eyes then whatsoever he speaks is an Oracle though it be the doctrine of devils and have the same Father which all other lyes have Truth doth seldome goe down with us unlesse it be presented in the cup in which we love to divine and prophesie There was a poor wise man found saith Solomon that delivered the City by his wisdome Eccles 9.15 but none remembred or considered this poor wise man For poverty is a cloud and casts a darknesse over that which is begot of light sullies every perfection that is in us hides it from an eye of flesh which cannot see wisdome and poverty together in one man whereas folly it self shall go for wisdome and carry away that applause which is due to it if it dwell in the heart or issue from the mouth of a purple and gallant fool ut sumus sic judicamus as we are so we judge and it is not our reason which concludes but our sence and affection If we love beauty every painted wanton is as the Queen of Sheba and may ask Solomon a question If riches Dives with us will be a better Evangelist then Saint Luke If our eyes dazle at Majesty Herods royall apparrell will be a more eloquent orator then he that speaks and the people shall give a shout and cry the voice of God and not of man Doe but ask your selves the question doth not affection to the person beget admiration in you and admiration commend whatsoever he sayes and gild over errour and sinne it self and make them current do not your hopes or feares or love make up every opinion in you and build you up in your most unholy faith Is not the Coward or the Dotard or the Worldling in your Creed and profession do you not measure out one another as you do a tree by the bulk and trunk and count him best who is most worth Is not this the compasse by which you steere the bond of your peace Is not this the cement of all your friendship doth not this outward respect serene or cloud your countenance and as the wind the state of things change make you to day the dearest friends and to morrow the deadliest enemies can you think ill of them you gain by or speak ill of them you fear or can he be evil who is powerfull or dare you be more wise then he that hath thirty legions We may say this is a great evil under the sunne but it is the property of the blessed spirit to work good out of evil to teach us to remember what we are by those who so soon make us forget what we are to make use of riches which we dote on of power which we tremble at of that glory which we have in Admiration to instruct us to the knowledge of our condition and to put us in mind of our mortality and frailty by Kings whom we count as Gods Behold a King from his Throne proclaimes it to his subjects and all the world That his power is but as a shadow cast from a mortall his glory but his garment which he cannot weare long and his riches but the embroidery which will be as soon worn out And when we have gaz'd and fallen down and worshipt and are thus lost in our own thoughts if we could take away the filme from our eye which the world hath drawn over it and see every thing in its nature and substance as it is we should behold in all these raies of glorie and power and wealth nothing but David the stranger So that we see Kings who are our nursing Fathers are become our School-masters to teach us For we see the ignorant and foolish men perish and they dye as fooles dye not remembred nor thought on as if nothing fell to the ground but their folly The begger dyes but what is that to the rich who cannot see him carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosome the righteous also perish and no man layes it to heart I but Kings of the earth fall and cannot fall but with observation but they fall as a star are soon mist in their orbe and soon forgot But then living Kings make their Throne a Pulpit and preach from thence and publish to the world their own fraile and fading condition measure out their life by a span and prophesie the end of it call their life a Pilgrimage and shall we not hearken what the Lord God doth say by such royall Prophets shall their power make us beasts of burden to carry it whithersoever their beck shall direct us and shall not their doctrine and example perswade us that we are men travelling men hasting to another country behold then here David a Prophet and a King made and set up an ensample to us and if David be a stranger upon the earth we can draw no other conclusion then this then certainly much more we If David and all his Fathers If pious Kings and bloody Tyrants If good and bad found no settled estate no abiding place here why should we be so foolish and ignorant as to turmoile or sport and delight our selves under the expectation of it If Kings be pulled down from their Thrones and fall to the dust we have reason to cast up our accounts and reckon upon it that we are gliding and passing nay posting and flying as so many shadows and that our removall is at hand For these things happened to them for ensamples and they are written for our admonition They prophesied to us and they spake to us I may say they died to us and to all that shall follow them to the last man that shall stand upon the earth When Adam had lived nine hundred and thirty yeares he dyed lead the way to his posterity not that they should live so long but that they should surely dye to every sonne of his till the coming of the second and last Adam Abraham a stranger and Moses a stranger and David a stranger that we might look back upon them and see our condition And when Patriarchs and Prophets when Kings preach not onely living but dying not onely dying but dead we shall not onely dye but dye in our sinnes if we take not out the lesson and learn to speak
the grave Consummatum est all is finished and he is returned victoriously with the spoils of his enemies and of this last enemy death But for all this his triumph death may be still the King of terrours and as dreadfull as before All is finisht on his part but a covenant consists of two and something is required on ours He doth not turn Conditions into Promises as some have been willing to perswade themselves and others It must be done is not thou shalt do it If thou wilt believe is not thou shalt believe But every promise every act of grace of his implies a condition He delivers those that are willing to be delivered who do not feed death and supply this enemy with such weapons as make him terrible All the terrour death hath is from our selves our sin our disobedience to the commands of God that 's his sting And our part of the covenant is by the power virtue of Christs death every day to be plucking it from him and at last to take it quite away We we our selves must rise up against this King of terrours and in the Name and Power of Christ take the Scepter out of his hand and spoile him of his strength and terrour And this we may do by parts and degrees now cut from him this sin now that now this desire and anon another and so dye daily as Saint Paul speaks dye to profit dye to pleasure dye to Honour be as dead to every temptation which may beget sin in us and a sting in him and so leave him nothing to take from us not a desire not a hope not a thought nothing that can make us feare death Then we shall look upon it not as a divorcement from those delights which we have cast off already or a passage into a worse condition from that we loved too well to that we never feared enough but we shall consider it as a sleep as it is to all wearied pilgrims as a message sent from Heaven to tell us our walk is at an end and now we are to lay down our staffe and scrip and rest in that Jerusalem which is above for which we vowed this pilgrimage Et quis non ad meliora festinat Tert. de patientia What stranger will be afraid to return to his Fathers house or lose that life quam sibi jam supervacuam fecit which by dying daily to the world he hath already made superfluous and unnecessary To conclude this He that truly fears God can feare nothing else nor is Death terrible to any but to those who would build their tabernacle here who love to feed with swine on husks because they have not tasted of the powers of the world to come who wish immortality to this mortall before they put it on who are willing to converse and trade with vanity for ever who desire not with David to be spared a little but would never goe hence Last of all It will moderate our sorrow for those our friends who are dead or rather fallen asleep or rather at their journeys end For why should any man who knows the condition of a stranger how many dangers how many cares how many stormes and tempests he was obnoxious to hang down the head and complain that he had now passed through them all and was set down at his journeys end why should he who looks for a City to come be troubled that his fellow pilgrime came thither and entred before him It might be a matter of holy Emulation perhaps but why it should afflict us with grief I cannot see unlesse it be because we have not made it our meat and drink to keep Gods commandments which might give us a taste of a better estate to come unlesse it be because we have not well learnt to act the part of a stranger Miserable men that we are that we will be that know not our own quality and condition that are strangers and yet unwilling to draw neer our selves or to see others come to their home but think them lost where they are made perfect We stand by the bed of our sick and dying friend as if he were now removed to a place of torment and not of rest and to be either nothing or more miserable then he was in a region of misery we send out shreeks and outcries to keep time with his gasps to call him back if it were possible from heaven and to keep him still under the yoke and harrow when as the fainting of his spirits the failing of his eyes the trembling of his joynts are but as the motion of bodies to their center most violent when they are neerest to their end And then we close up his eyes and with them our hopes as if with his last gasp he had breathed out his soul into aire when indeed there is no more then this one pilgrime is gone before his fellows one gone and left others in their way in trouble and more troubled that he is gone to rest Migrantem migrantes praemisimus saith Saint Hierom we are passing forward apace and have sent one before us to his journeys end his everlasting sabbath With this contemplation doth religion comfort and uphold us in our way and keeps us in that temper which the Philosopher commends as best in which we do sentire desiderium opprimere she gives nature leave to draw teares but then she brings in faith and hope to wipe them off Sen. ad Marciam she suffers us to mourn for our friends but not as men without hope Nature will vent and love is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Orator ever querulous and full of complaints when the object is removed out of sight and God remembers whereof we are made is not angry with our love and will suffer us to be men but then we must silence one love with another our naturall affection with the love of God at least divide our language thus Alas my Father Alas my Husband Alas my Friend but then he was a stranger and now at his journeys end and here we must raise our note and speak it more heartily Blessed are such strangers blessed are they that dye in the Lord even so saith the spirit that they rest from their labours For conclusion let us feare God and keep his commandments this is the whole duty of a stranger to observe those Lawes which came from that place to which he is going let these his Lawes be in our heart and our heart will be an elaboratory a limbeck to work the water of life out of the vanities and very dregs of world through which we are to passe It shall be as a rock firm and solid against every wave and temptation that shall beat against it and a shop of precious receipts and proper remedies against every evil It shall be spoliarium mortis a place where death shall be stript and spoiled of its sting and of its terrour In a word It