it that however we may not act it then of all times else never pollute our mirth with sinning against our selves or others in it or defile our joys with the cries of the oppressed never bring Herod so near Christ again never make a Childermas of Christmas To go on yet in the order of the Text we begin with the Persecutor or murtherer of the Innocents whose day it is and that here we find was Herod Indeed there were under Officers that did the deed for some such are intimated when 't is said he sent and some such there will be always to do the drudgeries of sin for them that will employ them but the wickedness yet is laid at the contrivers doors that 's insinuated when the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notwithstanding is given to Herod by and by he did but send and yet he slew them says the Text. Let who will be the Executioner the plotter or commander is the Murtherer and God will brand him for it be he never so cunning never so great Herod with all his men of War shall not escape it But may we know what this Herod was an Idumean first he was you may know it by his hands red and rough No such hands I hope in Israel or in the dwellings of Iacob They are strangers to that at least that can be so cruel and it had been happy for the sheep happy for us of late if we had not known the voice of strangers men of another Country to help on our ruine but kept close to our own Shepherds as Christ tells us his own sheep do St. John x. 3 5. 2. Herod was a man but of an obscure and private family 'T is such commonly that build up their greatness upon blood and ruine the noble and generous soul abhors it 3. Yet thirdly this private and mean condition his subtilty and cunning had now advanc'd into a Throne the less wonder still that he should be so savage Tyrants and Vsurpers are so ever jealous and suspicious fierce and bloody They are they that dye their Purples in the gore of Innocents whilst Kings even undo themselves with their own mercies 'T is the Stepmother that would have the Child divided such only that are for divide impera that are for Divisions to maintain their interest or their plea. The true Mother had rather part with her Child and all she hath then see it murthered But the ambitious design of power and greatness the driving on an advantageous interest the keeping an unjust possession are things that slay all before them nor the tears of Mothers nor the cries of Infants nor the relations of nature nor the obligations of friendship nor the charms of innocence can do any thing against those furies Ahab and Iezabel and Zimri and Iehu and Herod are sufficient witnesses how cheap the heads of all sorts are that seem but to stand in the way of their designments how easily Iudges and Iudicatories are packt against them notwithstanding reason and law stand whole for them 4. From such a one as I have hitherto presented Herod we can perhaps look for no other But Herod I must tell you 4. was a great pretender to Religion a high dissembler of Zeal and Piety throughout none more zealous and importunate to know Christ and go and worship him then he ver 8. And is he the persecutor yes he It is not all Religion my Brethren that is called so nor are all for Christ that pretend for him The greatest Zealots have proved often the greatest persecutors And the Proselyte either to a false Religion or to the pretence only of a true and one of these was Herod is commonly two-fold more the Child of Hell then he that made him S. Matth. xxiii 15. We cannot you see by Herod trust all pretenders There are some that varnish over their very murthers with that pretext of Religion and whilst they pour out the blood of Innocents upon their Scaffolds dare say they sacrifice at the Altar of the God of Iustice. And had we not seen and felt it too from some huge Saints and Zealots I should have spar'd the note But you see e're we were aware we have discovered mysteries from the Text and shew'd you as I intimated I should other Herods there besides this one I am afraid I shall shew you more anon In the interim shall I give you Herods Character out of Chrysologus to conclude the Point Magister mali Minister doli Irae artifex c. says he He was a master of mischief a minister of deceit an artist in cruelty an inventer of wickedness a contriver of villany a destroyer of Religion an enemy of nature an oppressor of innocence bad to all worse to his own worst to himself from whom Iesus fled not so much that he might escape him as that he might not see him a fiery Dragon by his name Herodes jerud es so Arius Montanus etymologizes it from the Syriack a Dragon that devours all like fires before him spared not his own if they came but in his way near a kin sure to the Dragon in the Revelations Rev. xii 17. that was wroth with the woman and her seed did all he could to destroy it even the promised seed too could he have found him The fittest tempered man in the world this to begin the persecution of the Church and by whom we may learn what sort of persons they are who are still raising or continuing it Mushromes of a sudden growth men newly rais'd men covetous and ambitious proud and disobedient traiterous and heady men without natural affection brethren removed as I may say as the Edomites from the Israelites great pretenders though to godliness and the power of it yet without it Such make the perillous times the Apostle speaks of 1 Tim. iii. 2 3 4. or the times perillous both to men and children And now let 's see what occasion they take to do it Herod's here was his conceiting himself mockt by the Wise men II. We cannot help mens conceits though they help on our ruines nor cure a vain jealousie though death attend it at the heels We perish oftentimes by meer mistakes The Wise men mockt not Herod he only thought so nor wise nor good men use Kings or Princes so though they be Herods as bad as can be God calls them another way and he takes it for an affront that they paid not him the complement of a visit e're they returned A hard case that the attendance upon a command of God's should prove so prejudicial that obedience should be a crime but we can look for no other where an Herod is the interpreter of the action And yet 2. 't is harder a harder case to be undone for another mans error or omission It was so here the Wise men offend at least are thought so and the Children pay for 't beyond an imagination Delirant Reges plectuntur achivi The Wise men return another way
and I may say so uncertain a Journey could no whit deter them from their purpose to Ierusalem they will through all these difficulties But after all this pains to lose the Star that guided them to hear nothing at Ierusalem of him they sought to be left after all this at a loss in that very place they only could expect to find him and hear nothing there but a piece of an obscure Prophesie without date or time to be left now to a meer wild-goose search or a new Knight-errantry and yet still to continue in their search is an extream high piece both of Faith and Love that considers no difficulties that thinks much of no pains that maugre all will set afresh upon the pursuit that will be overcome with nothing is resolved come what will to find what they believe and desire such a piece of faith and love that we later Christians cannot Parallel How would a Winter journey scare us from our faith A cold or rainy morning will do it a little snow or wind or rain or cold will easily keep us from coming to the house where Iesus is from coming out to worship him How would so long a voyage make us faint to hear of it How would the least danger turn us back from the House of God Alas should it have been our cases which was theirs here if we could not presently have found him at Hierusalem the Royal City or had we lost the Star that led us how had we sate down in sorrow or returned in despair We would have thus reasoned with our selves Alas we are come hither and have lost our labour Certainly had this King been born it would have been in the Royal City or there certainly the news had been but there we hear of no such matter there neither any believes or regards or thinks of such a birth What then do we do here enquiring seeing his own people so much neglect it Surely the Star that led us hither was but a false fire of fancy and we are quite misled Nay and it appears no more so that if we would still go on our wandrings we know not whither we had best return Thus should we have reasoned our selves from Christ fainted and given over quite 'T is the fashion with us thus to reason our selves out of our Devotion and Religion 'T is the fashion too to object any thing to save our pains in Christs business Others Customs or others Negligences or others Ignorance are sufficient excuses to authorize ours and if perchance we want a guide though every man now thinks himself sufficient to guide and direct himself in all Points of his Religion yet even this he cares not for this he refuses and rejects shall yet serve him for an excuse for his negligence and irreligion nay God himself shall sometimes bear the blame his taking away or else not giving us a Star and light to guide and lead us his not giving us sufficient grace shall be pretended the cause why we come not to him When did not our own coldness more chill our joynts than the cold of Winter were we not afraid of every puff of wind when we are called to do any good did not the fear of I know not what only fancied and imagined dangers make us cowards in our Religion did we not fondly reason our selves out of our patient expectance of Christ did we not guide our selves more by the Fashions Customs and Ignorances of others than by the constancy of that which is only just and good did we not forsake our guides while we prefer our own carnal reasons interests and respects and lose the Star the Guide that heaven had sent us to conduct us by going to Hierusalem by addicting our selves to the vanity and fashion of Court and City by asking counsel of Herod of Scribes and Pharisees meer Politicians and Pretenders of Piety and Religion or Iewish Priests men addicted wholly to their own way to Iudaizing observations Iâ—daizing Saâ—batizing Christians were it not for these our doings and compliances with flesh and bloud the Star would not fail to guide us Gods grace would shine unto us the day star would arise in all our hearts and conduct us happily and safely too into the house where we should truly find Christ. The truth is if our coming to Christ if our Religion may cost us nothing nor pains nor cost nor cold nor heat nor labour nor time nor hurt nor hazard nor enquiry nor search then it may be we will be content to give Christ a visit and entertain his Faith and Worship but not else if it may not be had nor Christ come to without so much ado let him go let all go so we may sit at ease and quiet in our warm nests come of Christs Worship and of his house what will Yet thither it is 3. to his house that these Wisemen make with all their eagerness Many stately Buildings and Royal Palaces no doubt they had seen by the way fitter far for a King to be born in than the Inn they found him in but at these they stay not they and their Star rest not any where but at this house here indeed they may both heaven and earth set up their rest this house truly the house of God which now contained the God of heaven and earth To teach us that we are not to look to outward appearances nor judge always according to sight Christ may lie in the poorest Cottage in the meanest Inn as soon as in the highest Palace Nay in the low humble soul in the Beggars soul as well as in the Kings whose bodily presence as St. Paul speaks is weak and whose speech contemptible you shall sooner find him than under the gilded roofs of a vain-glorious vertue on a self-conceited and boasted Religion and Piety Indeed where ever the Star stands whatever house the heavenly light encompasses there must we alight and enter we must not think much of the meanest dwelling that heaven points out of the poorest condition that God designs us to That house is glorious enough that Christ is in that habitation and condition happiest how poorly soever it appear which the finger of God directs us to and the light of his countenance shines on and encompasses O my soul enter there always O my soul where God points out unto thee where the heavenly light shines over thee however earth look on thee Thou shalt find more contentment in a Stable amongst beasts in the meanest imployment than in the highest Offices of state and honour in an Inn amongst strangers than with thy brethren and kinsfolk at home in a thatcht Hovel in the poorest hardest lodging meanest dwelling and lowest condition than in the fairest house the sweetest seats the softest bed the most plentiful estate if God by his special finger or Star of providence guides thee to it out of his secret wisdom and Christ be with thee in it I do not wonder Interpreters
come upon us and hurry us hence before we are aware into the horrors and miseries of everlasting darkness 4. By this time you understand this ecce is not to set us a gazing up into Heaven or observing days and months and times and years but to retrive our months of vanity as holy Iob calls them and fill the days we live with more acceptable employments For God having so late accepted our persons and our complaints and prayers and tears or rather us indeed without them and desiring only of us that we would but accept and employ those mercies and all others of his to our own salvation we should be me thinks the most unreasonable of men to be so unkind to God as either not to receive his grace or receive it still in vain Worthy it is of better usage for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. iv 9. Accepted here the same with that worthy of all acceptation there The very time says our Apostle is such what then is the salvation of it that surely much more Accept we it therefore and the time of it with all readiness with all thankfulness with all humility Take we all the opportunities henceforward of salvation look every way about us and slip none we can lay hold on This ecce ecce reiterated is to rouse us and to tell us that our ecce should answer Gods Ecce tempus says he ecce me or nos say we Behold the time behold the day says God Behold us say we O God our hearts are fixed our hearts are fixed our hearts are ready our hearts are ready to accept it Ecce adsum says Abraham behold here I am Ecce venio says Christ Lo I come to do thy will O God Behold thy servants are ready says David to do whatsoever my Lord shall appoint And behold we are coming we are here we are ready with thee according to thy heart these are the returns or Eccho's we are to make God back again Nor is it time to dally now Time is a flitting Post Day runs into night e're we are aware this Now is gone as soon as spoken and no certainty beyond it and no salvation if not accepted e're we go hence There are I know that cry to day shall be as yesterday and to morrow as to day all things continue as they were since our Fathers fell asleep And this thing you call Religion does but delude us and our Preachers do but fright us this salvation they talk of we know not what to make of it if there be such a thing indeed the day is long enough we may think time enough of it many years hence Such scoffers indeed St. Peter told us we should meet with But I hope better things of you my beloved and such as accompany salvation And I have told you nothing to fright you from it I have not scar'd you with the antient rigour nor terrified you with primitive austerities I have only shewed you there is such a thing as salvation to be thought of and 't is time to set about it You cannot fast you 'l tell me you are weak and sickly it will destroy you You cannot watch you say it will undo you you cannot give Alms you have no moneys You cannot come so oft to Prayers as others your business hinders you But however can you do nothing towards it towards your own salvation can you not accept it when 't is offered can you not consider and think a little of it If you do but that I shall not fear but you will do more When you have business you can spare a meal now and then to follow it and nothing's made on 't when you are at your sports or play you can sit up night after night and catch no hurt for a new fashion impertinence or vanity you can find mony and time enough at any time for any of these I desire you would but do as much nay half as much I am afraid I may say the tenth part so much to save your souls spend but as much time seriously upon that as you do upon your dressing your visits your vanities not to require any thing so much of you upon that as upon worldly business and dare promise you salvation you shall be accepted at that day at that day when our short Fasts shall be turned into eternal Feasts our petty Lents consummate into the great Easters when time it self shall improve into eternity this day advance into an everlasting Sun-shine and salvation appear in all its glories Accept us now O Lord we pray thee in this accepted time save us we beseech thee in this day of salvation that we may one day come to that eternal one through him in whom only we are accepted thy beloved Son Christ Jesus To whom with thee and thy Holy Spirit be consecrated all our times and days all our years and months and hours and minutes from henceforward to whom also be all honour and praise all salvation and glory for ever and ever Amen A SERMON ON THE Second Sunday in Lent 1 COR. ix 27. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should be a castaway DVrus sermo A hard Text you 'l say a whipping Sermon towards that begins with castigo and ends with reprobus that is so rough with us at the first as to tell us of chastning and keeping under the body and so terrible at the last as to scare us with being castaways unless we do it And that too cum aliis praedicaverim the greatest Preachers the very Apostles themselves after all their pains no surer of their Salvation than upon such severe conditions If the Preacher will needs be preaching this tell us of disciplining our bodies talk to us of being castaways Quis cum audire potest who can endure him who can bear it Well bear it how we can think of it what we please be the doctrine never so unpleasing it must be preacht and bear it we must unless we know what to preach better than St. Paul or you what to hear or do better than that great Apostle And 't is but time for us to preach for you to hear it Men daily fool away their souls by their tenderness to their bodies and their salvation by the certainties they pretend of it 'T is time to warn them of it And this Time as fit a time as any can be to do it in the holy time of Lent A time set apart by the holy Church to chasten and subdue the body in And the opportunity is fallen into my hand among the rest and vae mihi si non I cannot excuse my self if I do not take it if I neglect the occasion to do my utmost to keep my self and you from being castawaies I know people do not love to hear on 't and the Preacher shall get
and the Morning came light and darkness succeeded one another so the day came no making else But of this 't is punctually said that it was made something in it or in the making more than ordinary Made 1. that is made famous by something done upon it death and hell and all the terrours of darkness this day put to flight for ever by Christs only Resurrection Made 2. that is appointed and ordained for something So Deus fecit Dominum Christum God is said to have made our Saviour Lord and Christ Acts ii 36. and of Christ that fecit nos Reges Sacerdotes that he made us that is ordained us Kings and Priests as God had him both Lord and Christ and upon this day both so that 't is no wonder if the day too be said to be made made or ordained and appointed to be remembred Made 3. to be celebrated too to be kept aniversary as a solemn day of joy and gladness of Praises and Thanksgivings Thus facere diem Sabbati Deut. v. 15. Pascha facere St. Mat. xxvi 18. is to keep the Sabbath and the Passeover what is there in Latine to make the Sabbath and the Passeover in our English is to keep them to make up or make out the day in Gods Worship and Service When God is said to make a day 't is for himself and we can make none but to him mar days we do when we spend them upon any thing or any else they are never made but when on him The greater sin theirs then that unmake the days that are thus made that both unsaint the Saints and unhallow the days and prophane both that make them for all but him all business but his as if the holiness of the Holiday were the only offence of it that which made the day or for which the day was made the only reason to them to unmake it 3. But however it pleases some to mar what God has made yet made days there have been many are and shall be Themselves are not yet so impudent to deny us all not the Lords days yet which yet are but so many little models of this great day But of made days all are not alike some high days some not so high though the one and the other made and constituted for Gods service Of made days this is the highest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The day so we told you out of Ignatius so we now tell you out of St. Augustine Principatum tenet 't is the prime As the blessed Virgin among women so this blessed day among the days says he The most holy Feast of Easter the good Emperour Constantine calls it four times in one Epistle to all the Churches Solenne nostrae religionis festum a little after the solemn Feast of our Religion by which we hold our hopes of immortality the very day of all our Religion and our hope Illa videtur dies clarior illuxisse sings Lactantius The fairest day that ever shone The Sun which so many hours withdrew its light and hid its face in sable darkness went down sooner into night at our Saviours Passion and to day rose so much sooner restored those hours to lengthen or encreased it beams to enlighten this glorious Day in the opinion or else Rhetorick of Chrysologus Eusebius and St. Augustine If so it was The Day indeed none like it ever since but if not There were two Suns rose to day to enlighten it the Sun of Heaven and the Son of God who is also stiled the Sun in the strictest spelling The Sun of righteousness needs must it be a glorious day indeed which is gilded with so much light so many glorious Rays All days were night before nothing but dark clouds and shadows under the Law of Moses nothing but a long unevitable night under the Law of nature nothing but a disconsolate night of sorrow under the power of sin and darkness this was the first bright day that dispell'd all darkness quite A kind of spring of day or glimmering twilight there was abroad from the first preaching of the Gospel but men could scarce see any thing not the Disciples themselves their eyes were ever and anon held not fully opened till the grave it self was this day opened and gave forth Christ to open the Scriptures to them by the evidence of the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the day when all this was done when this marvelous light shone forth to enlighten all the world The day of all the days before or since 4. And now 4. it may well be so when the Lord made it All his works are wonderful all perfect and complete deserve Articles and Notes to be set upon them But when he sets the Note himself and gives the Article then to be sure 't is somewhat more than ordinary somewhat he would have us to observe above the rest And when he entitles himself to it or challenges it unto himself day it self is not more clear than that such a day must be observed Things that are exceding eminent and full of greatness wonder or perfection are commonly attributed unto God This day is such at least because 't is said God made it a peculiar work and Ordinance of his more than the common Ordinance of day and night and if God made it what is man that he should mar it or the son of man that he should unmake it Or how dares man or Son of man make little of that which God made so great So great as to call it his so great as to make it the mother of one and fifty daughters of all the Lords days in the year besides This is the Lords doing indeed None could alter the Sabbath into the Lords day but he None put down that and set up another abolish the Seventh and set up the First but the Lord of all and may do all what he pleases in heaven and earth Lord it every where how he will Herein he shews he is the Lord and this day the Lady of the year from whence so many little weekly Easter days take both their rise and name All the former days God made the Lord made this the Lord Christ the ground and Author of this day Christs rising raising this to that height it is Now God or Christ is not only said to do or make that which they do immediately by themselves but that also which they do by those to whom they have committed such authority So Christ tells us St. Luke x. 16. He that heareth you heareth me he that heareth his Apostles his Church his Ministers heareth him himself their commands are his their orders his so long as they are not contrary to his word And thus we may evidently without much labour deduce the day to be his making From the Apostles times it came Palicarpus that Angel as is conceived of the Church of Smyrna Rev. ii 8. kept Easter saith Ireneaeus with St. Iohn and with the
a cold sweat to think of it before 't was built Gen. xxviii 17. Will the Lord dwell on earth Is it true says Solomon Can it be so Lord What am I says Holy David and my people that we should but offer to it Lord What is it that we should be allow'd to touch so holy ground with our unhallowed feet look upon so holy a sight with our unholy eyes that such a glo-worm as Man should be set upon a Hill But above all 3. Lord what is man Lord what is man that thou should'st so regard him as to advance him also into the holy Hill of Heaven too Lord what can we say what can we say Shall corruption inherit incorruption dust Heaven a worm creep so high What he that lost it for an Apple come thither after all he in whom dwelleth no good thing be let stay there where none but good and all good things are He that is not worth the Earth worth nought but Hell be admitted Heaven Lord What is Man or rather what art Thou O Lord how wonderful in mercies that thus priviledg'st the sons of men Admirable it is worth the whole course of your days to admire it in and you can never enough It will appear yet the more by the glory that accompanies it It is a glorious priviledge indeed even admirable for its glory Even in all the senses we take the words 't is 5. a Glorious Priviledge Glorious to be Sains they are heirs of Glory Glorious to be Saints in Churches for the Angels that are there 1 Cor. xi 10. to wait upon us and carry up our Prayers for the beauty of holiness that is seated there for the God of Glory whose presence is more glorious there But it is without comparison to be Saints in Glory Grace is the portion of Saints that 's one ray of Glory The Church the House of God is the Gate of Heaven Gen. xxviii 17. that 's the entrance into Glory What then is Heaven it self What is it to enter there into the very Throne of the King of Glory Lift up your heads O ye Gates lift up your heads and let us poor things in to see the King of Glory the Hill of the Lord can be no other then a Hill of Glory His holy place is no less than the very place and seat of Glory And being such you cannot imagine it 6. but hard to come by the very petty glories of the World are so This is a Hill of Glory hard to climb difficult to ascend craggy to pass up steep to clamber no plain campagnia to it the broad easie way leads some whether else St. Mat. vii 13. the way to this is narrow ver 14. 't is rough and troublesome To be of the number of Christs true faithful servants is no slight work 't is a fight 't is a race 't is a continual warfare fastings and watchings and cold and nakedness and hunger and thirst bands imprisonments dangers and distresses ignominy and reproach afflictions and persecutions the worlds hatred and our friends neglect all that we call hard or difficult is to be found in the way we are to go A man cannot leave a lust shake off bad company quit a course of sin enter upon a way of vertue profess his Religion or stand to it cannot ascend the spirtual Hill but he will meet some or other of these to contest and strive with But not only to ascend but to stand there as the word signifies to continue at so high a pitch to be constant in Truth and Piety that will be hard indeed and bring more difficulties to contrast with And yet to rise up to keep to that Translation that is to rise up in the defence of holy ways of our Religion is harder still to bloud it may come at last but to sweat it comes presently cold and hot sweats too fears and travels that 's the least to be expected Nor is it easie as it often proves to gain places to serve God in Temples are long in building that of Hierusalem 64 years together Great preparation there was by David and Solomon to that before and no little to the rearing of the Tabernacle It was 300 years and upward that Christianity was in the World before the Christians could get the priviledges of Sanctuaries and Churches The more ought we sure to value them that we come so hardly by them We would make more of the priviledge if we considered what pains and cost and time they cost how unhandsom Religion looks without them how hard it is to perform many of the holy offices where we want them how hard it would be to keep Religion in the minds of men if all our Churches should be made nests of Owls and Dragons and beds of Nettles and Thistles Yet I confess it is hard too to enter into those holy places with the reverence that becomes them to rise up holy there Every one that comes into the Church does not ascend he leaves his soul too oft below comes but in part his body that gets up the Hill the mind lies grovelling in the Valley amongst his Grounds and Cattel Nor may every one be said to rise up or stand in his holy place that stand or sits there in it unless his thoughts rise there unless his attention stands erect and stedfast up to Heaven when he is there he is indeed in the place but he unhallows it it is no longer holy in respect of him He must ascend in heart and soul raise up eyes and hands voice and attention too that can be properly said to ascend into the Hill of the Lord or rise up in his holy place Which how hard it is the very stragling of our own thoughts there will tell us we need not go to the Prophet to find a people that sit there as if they were Gods people and yet are not that hear his Word and stand not to it that raise up their voices and yet their hearts are still beneath We can furnish our selves with a number too great of such enow to tell us how hard it is to ascend into the Hill of the Lord and rise up in his holy place so few do it And if these two ascensions be so hard what 's the third the very righteous are scarcely sav'd 1 Pet. iv 18. If by any means I may says St. Paul 1 Cor. ix 27. supposes he may not he is afraid at least after all his Preaching he should become a cast-away fall short of the goal miss the Crown come short of the top of the Hill of the holy Place So hard a thing is Heaven so clogg'd are the wings of our soul so heavy and drossie are our spirits and our earth so earthy that it is hard to ascend so high We feel we find it and they but deceive themselves that think 't is but a running leap into Heaven a business to be done wholly or easily upon our Death-beds when we can
way we might pretend it uncomfortable Should we want the quickning eyes of beholders we might fear to faulter by the way for want of encouragement were we to run through the furies of flames we might startle at the hardness of the employment or should we be commanded to disavow the pleasures of a convenient life for all the austerities of a poenitential rigour we might stand confounded at the task were the way full of circling Labyrinths we might fear our erring inevitable or were the Race voluntary not set before us we might then use the freedom of our choice or were it of an uncertain length not set out to run in infinitum we might account it vain or were there no Crown to run for despair might kill the life of our affections But having a guide and that from heaven a cloud to compass and defend us that nothing harm us not the Sun look too hot upon us and discolour us so great that the wandring eye cannot lose it so near encircling us that the weary step may almost rest upon it a cloud that cleaves it self into an ample theater where you find both company and spectators where by the examples of a world of Saints surrounded where by the steps of tender Virgins and little Children taught the easiness of the way where by the Crowns and Robes and Palms of Martyrs too transcendently glorious assured of our reward seeing we are to bid adieu to nothing but our misery and our sin to leave only the courting of our own damnation when it is no more than an easie run to heaven no studied torments in the way no tedious or eternal journey a plain certain way directed by him who will as well help us forward as command us what colour of excuse for the least remissness Say no more but that we had a guide a guide is not given to go alone and a guide from heaven deserves not so to be disrespected but guide and company both thence to be neglected what name shall I stile it by Run while you have the Cloud The time may come when we shall have no Habentes when we shall not dare to look upon this Cloud for shame when our sins shall stand so thick about us that we cannot look through them nor up for them when we shall strive to run and this weight and snares so hinder us we cannot stir when these Witnesses shall turn to be Witnesses against us when we shall desire this Cloud to cover us and it will not be when we shall not have so much as cum patientiâ left to help us but weary of our selves run from hill to dale to hide us and cannot run out of sight and were it not better now to run for something than then to run in vain Great certainly is the force of example will that do it 'T is here to the full Did the Iewish Saints who had not so clear a light to run by nor so clear or full promises to run for nor so skilful guides to run after nor so full a glory to run into chearfully fulfil their course And shall we whose knowledge as much excels theirs as theirs did ignorance who do not so much see as enjoy the Promises after so fair a Troop into so perfect glory move on heavily How oft have Royal Virgins met the terrors of a long and subtile death with the same countenance they would have met their Wedding joys and Children run to torments as to play How oft have Kings and Princes fifty of our own within the space of two hundred years chang'd their Kingdoms for the house and bread of poverty O blessed Spirits how lamely do we halt after you How do we dishonour your aged glories by us so often boasted of and scatter as it were your sleeping ashes in the wind by our degenerate Christianity How do ye even hide your selves in clouds and blush to see us call that Religion which ye would not have call'd by so honourable a title as prophaneness What if without example Is it not enough that God propounds it Had it been some greater matter ought we not have done it Will reward But why stand I upon any when we have all And may I not then well add therefore run We have set the Ideoque upon Nubem upon Tantam upon Habentes upon Martyrum upon Circumpositam upon Pondus upon Peccatum upon Circumstans upon Curramus upon Certamen upon all and being now at the end I shall leave it upon the last Propositum nobis the reward of our pains That when this Pondus mortale this body be laid aside and we have done our Race we may sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob where for this Cloud we may dwell in light for this sin put off be cloathed upon with long white Robes for that sin which did beset us be circled with Cherubims and Seraphims about us for this Deponeutes find a Depositum for laying off a Crown laid up and for this weight an eternal weight of glory And in that last great Day when for this casting away this earth also now about us shall then cast off its heaviness into lightness and agility shall we our selves be caught up together with these Saints in the Clouds to run and meet the Lord in the air where though to others it be a day of clouds and thick darkness yet shall this Cloud and we in it shine like the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father To which he bring us who going hence ascended up in clouds with triumph and shall one day come again in clouds with power and glory to dispel all clouds and darkness into an everlasting day Iesus Christ. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Power and Praise and Honour and Thanksgiving and Worship now and for ever Amen A SERMON UPON St. Andrews Day St. MAT. iv 20. And they straightway left their Nets and followed him ' T Is well say I that Sundays and Holy days sometimes meet that 't is as well Sunday as Holy-day to day that so the Lord may be sometimes hallowed in his Saints as here followed by them Davids Praise God in his Saints for so 't is to be rendred Psal. cl 1. may by this means be sung still and preach'd yet sometimes in spite of that peevishness and malice that has so impudently and ungraciously un-sainted all the Saints Not so much as an Apostle allowed that Name Not a Saint left in the whole Christian Kalendar if I may call it Christian that so uses the Saints of Christ. Well though the course of the times has thus robb'd God of his glory in his Saints and the Saints of their honour and of if it could be their very rejoycing in their beds yet the course of the years as it were to confute that frowardness will bring it about ever and anon that the Master and the Disciple the Lord and his Saints shall rejoyce together upon a day and if they
fomenting all distates no reviving those wretched Principles and pretences that first ruin'd all our peace and quiet no scattering Libels and wonders up and down to amuse the people so to hinder them from reunion with the Church and keep them in perpetual discontent for they know not what These are not the words of such as seek the peace of Sion or heartily pray for the peace of Hierusalem They are not the words of peace my Brethren not the ways of it nor do they become the Messengers or Servants of the God of peace To raise needless scruples to canvase every word and tittle to make a noise and puther about every trifle to flutter and keep a stir as if we had much to say to make it out in number where it wants in weight to write and scrible over old objections answered over and over a thousand times to talk of peace and thus make ready for the battle if it must pass for peace 't is a peace that passeth all understanding in another sense than the Apostle meant we cannot conceive it we cannot understand it Would we but lay down our interests our envies our animosities our prejudices our pride our humours the justifying our selves and doings the glory we take in a false constancy that Magisterial conceit we have of our own judgment and that Popularity that undoes all were these out of the heart peace would be quickly in But if we stand upon punctilio's and will not pray but in our own words will not worship God unless we may do it in what Form we list our selves will no◠appear in the Congregation unless it be in one of our own gathering or choosing will quit the Church rather than an humour if the Church musick and harmony must drive all concord and agreement out of doors if the garments emblems of peace and purity affright us if order scare us if Uniformity drive us out of the Church if kneeling at the Altar and Feast of Peace must go for a reason to keep us from it if the very sign of the Cross of Christ by which we were reconciled for by his Cross it was says the Apostle must needs be made an Argument against all reconcilement 't is a sign we have no hearts for peace our hearts are not at all for it who may have it at so easie a rate upon so handsom terms and yet thus rudely thrust it from us as if we had sworn covenanted against it and all the ways that can lead to it Fain would we see some better expressions of it if it be otherwise Let 's try the Apostles in the next particular examine it by our ordinary deportment behaviour whether that be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mild and gracious as it should 5. What our common Translation here renders grati thankful St. Chrysostom and St. Ierom I told you and from them Erasmus turns gratiosi gracious In this sense we find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. v. 4. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. xi 16. Both senses the word may bear and the Connexion will bear them too And to do both right we will balk neither we will take both Gratiosi first Be we mild and gracious kind and amiable The Apostle says it fuller in ver 12 13. beseeches us to be tender and compassionate meek and humble patient and long-suffering forbearing and forgiving These are the best symptomes and expressions of peaces ruling The words of peace are smooth and sweet they are no swords the looks of peace are mild and chearful they are not sower or dogged the hands of peace are soft and open they are not rugged or close they are easie and stretched out to all that come in to them These are the ways of peace and the best means to draw it on To look always austere and muddy to carry scorn and superciliousness in the countenance to be unsociable and untractable to run as far contrary as is possible to receive or joyn with none but upon our own conditions and reject all that look and speak and understand not just as we do our selves is so far from the paths of peace that I shall not stick to call it an open defiance of all the World Yet such men there are some that add to all a renunciation of all the forms and words and signs of civility and make it Religion to be unmannerly and sullen I know not what sense these men can have of peace who come not so near as the salutation of it addresses to it And truly I have but little to say for them neither who after so many condescensions from their Soveraign so great compliances so long forbearances so much forgiveness so fair a time given them to consider and come in and resolve all petty scruples for there are no other are not yet composed for peace who the more is yielded the less they are satisfied the more graciously they are dealt with the more averse and froward they are to a reconcilement the nearer we come the further they fly from us Only I know I am bound by St. Paul here to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to think and speak as mildly and gently of them as the thing will bear I would they would do so too Yet methinks if they like not Gratiosi they might do Grati if they like not to be gracious they might however to be thankful thank God and thank the King and thank the Church for their graciousness and forbearance be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the second sense in that of thankfulness 'T is the last Motion I have to make out of the Apostles that ye would be thankful 6. 'T is a duty Ill assure you that lies upon us For it becometh well the just to be thankful Psal. xxxiii 1. I cannot tell you any thing more becoming No not more becoming us in regard of the mercies mentioned in the Text the Peace of God and the calling us to it in one body Each of them so ample subjects for our thankfulness that we cannot shew thankfulness enough for either Peace so great a blessing that Nil dulcius audiri nil delectabilius concupisci nil utilius possideri as one under St. Augustines name expresses it a blessing than which there is none more pleasant to be heard none more delightful to be desired none more profitable to be possessed And Gods calling us to it in one day calling us into one Church calling us then when we were almost out of call some of us in very remote parts of the earth some of us in dark corners at home some of us in dungeons some in dust almost ready to go down into it and be covered with it calling us all together out of our several graves as it were into a new life restoring us our head and uniting it to the members is so transcendent a mercy to us that we can never be sufficiently thankful Yet that we may be somewhat thankful