Ishmael Thus by looking on the Persons in the Text you may plainly see the face and condition of the Church and that no priviledge she hath can exempt her from persecution This will yet more plainly appear from the very Nature and Constitution of the Church which is best seen in her blood when she is Militant Which is more full and expressive then any other representation or title that she hath The Church of Christ and the Kingdomes of the earth are not of the same making and constitution have not the same soul and spirit to animate them These may seem to be built upon Air they are so soon thrown down That is raised upon a holy Hill These have a weak and frail hand to set them up and as weak a hand may cast them down That is the work of Omnipotency which fenceth it about and secureth it from Death and Hell These depend upon the Opinions upon the Affections upon the Lusts of men which change oftner then the wind upon the breath of that monster the Multitude which is any thing and which is nothing which is it knoweth not what and never agreeth with it self is never one but in a tempest in tumult and sedition That is founded upon the eternal Decree and Will of God and upon Immutability it self and shall stand fast for ever These when they are in their height and glory are under uncertainty and chance The Church under the wing and shadow of that Providence which can neither erre nor miscarry but worketh mightily and irresistibly to its end His evertendis una dies hora momentum sufficit These are long a raysing and are blown down in a moment But the Church is as everlasting as his love that built it In a word these are worn out by Time The Church is but melted and purged in it and shall then be most glorious when Time shall be no more I know well Persecution appeareth to us as a Fury sent from hell and every hair every threat is a snake that hisseth at us but it is our Sensuality and Cowardise that whippeth us Yet the common consent of all men hath given her a fairer shape and they that run from her do prefer the suffering part And as our Saviour said Acts 20.35 It is more blessed to give then to receive so is it vox populi the voice of the People though they practice it not It is better to suffer then to oppress Even they who have the sword in their hand and breath nothing but terrour and death will rage yet more if you say they persecute you and either magnifie their cruelty with the name of Justice or else seek to perswade the world that they and they alone suffer persecution Every man flieth persecution and every man is willing to own it The Arians complained of the cruelty of the Orthodox and the Orthodox of the fury of the Arians Epist 48 68. Vos dicitis pati persecutionem saith Augustine to the Manichees You say you suffer but our houses are laid wast by you You say you suffer but your armed men put out our eyes You say you suffer but we fall by the sword What you do to us you will not impute to your selves but what you do to your selves you impute to us Thus it was then And how do we look back upon the Marian daies as if the bottomless pit did never smoke but then And are not they of the Romish party as loud in their complaints as if the Devil were never let loose till now We bring forth our Martyrs with a faggot on their shoulder and they theirs with a Tiburn-tippet as Father Latimer calleth it and both glory in Persecution We see then every party claimeth a title to Persecution and counteth it honour to be placed in the number of those that suffer And indeed Persecution is the honour the prosperity the flourishing condition of the Church for it maketh hâ—r indeed visible Nazianzene I remember calleth it the Sacrament and mystery of blood a visible sign of invisible grace where one thing is seen and another thing done where the Christian suffereth and rejoyceth is cast down and promoted falleth by the sword to rise to eternity where Glory lieth hid in Disgrace Advantage in Loss and Life in Death a Church shining in the midst of all the blackness and darkness and terrours of the world Epist 20. â—â— Floridi Martyres they are called by S. Cyprian But this you may say is true if we take the Church as Invisible made up of Sheep onely as Collection of Saints To speak truly Charity buildeth up no other Church For all she beholdeth are either so or in a possibility of having that honour though the eye of Faith can see but a small number to make up that body But take the Church under what notion you please yet it will be easie to observe that Persecution may enlarge her territories increase her number and make her more visible then she was when the weather was fair and no cloud or darkness hung over her that when her branches were lopt off she spread the more that when her members were dispersed there were more gathered to her that when they were driven about the world they carried that sweet-smelling savour about them which dtew in multitudes to follow them that in their flight they begat many children unto Christ Apolog. Crudelitas vestra illecebra est sectae saith Tertullian In the last place As it was then so it is now S. Paul doth not say It may be so or It is by chance but so it is by the Providence of God Provedentia ratio ordinis rerum ad finem Aquin. which is seen in the well ordering and bringing of every motion and action of man to a right end which commonly runneth in a contrary course to that which Flesh and Blood humane Infirmity would find out Eternity and Mortality Majesty and Dust and Ashes Wisdome and Ignorance steer not the same course nor are they bound to the same point My wayes are not your wayes nor my thoughts yours Isa 55.8 saith God by his Prophet to a foolish Nation who in extremity of folly would be wiser then God Mine are not as yours not such uncertain such vain such contradictory and deceitful thoughts but as far removed from yours as heaven is from the earth God hideth himself under a veil Deus tum maximè magnus eum homini pusillus tum maximè optimus cum ho â—ini non bonus Tert l. 2. adv Marcion c. 2. and is merciful when he seemeth angry and just when in outward appearance he favoureth oppression he shadoweth us under his wings when we think he thundreth against us and raiseth his Church as high as heaven when we tremble and imagin he hath opened the gates of hell to devour her Were Flesh and Blood to build a Church we should draw our lines out in a pleasant place It should
erecteth a pillar a saving Hope a Hope which is not ashamed to enter the Holy of Holies and lay hold on the Mercy-seat which was hidden and veyled before Why art thou cast down O my soul Psal 42. 43. and why art thou troubled within me Trust thou in the Lord And if thou fear him and leave thy evil wayes thou mayest trust him He will not he cannot fail thee Thou hast him fettered and entangled with his own promises which are Yea and Amen and all the powers on earth 2 Cor. 1.20 all the Devils in hell nay his own Power cannot reverse them For his Justice his Wisdom his Mercy hath sealed them Read his character and he made it himself Psal 116.5 He is merciful righteous and full of compassion And S. Ambrose it was that observed it that here is Mercy twice mentioned and Justice but once And he addeth for our encouragement what to hope nay but to turn that we may hope In medio Justitia est gemino septo inclusa Misericordiae Justice is shut up in the midst and hedged in on every side with Mercy If thou turn from thy evil wayes Mercy shineth upon thy tabernacle and Justice is the same it was but confined and bound up that it cannot that it shall never reach thee to destroy thee When thou sinnedst he was just to punish thee and now thou turnest from thy evil wayes unto him 2 Tim. 4.8 he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a righteous Judge still but to receive and reward thee They in the Primitive times who fell away for fear of persecution and afterwards returned to the bosome of the Church and confessed and bewailed their apostasie though it were rather a verbal then a real one having been drawn thereunto rather by fear of smart then by hatred of the Gospel were said by the Greek Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. De Lapsis which S. Cyprian interpreteth elatum primâ victoriâ hostem secundo certamine superare to recover the field and by a second onset to foil that enemy who did glory in a former conquest and to defie the Tempter after a fall The Novations called themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Puritanes of those times And they had good reason so to do as good reason as a deformed man hath to call himself Boniface or a wicked man to write himself Innocent For they were proud merciless and covetous Nazianzene layeth it to their charge goodly and fit ingredients to make up that sweet composition of Purity These withstood the receiving of lapsed persons into the Church but not without the Churches heaviest censure Saint Hierome for all their name calleth them by one quite contrary immundissimos the impurest men of all the world pietatis paternae adversarios the enemies of Gods mercy and goodness Orat. 14. And Nazianzene telleth them their Religion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impudence and uncleanness which had nothing but the name of Purity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. which they made saith he a bait to catch and cajol the ignorant and unwary multitude who are taken more with the Trumpet of a Pharisee then with his almes and are fed with shews and pretenses as they say Chamelions are with air For as Basil and Nazianzene observe that severe doctrine of those proud and covetous men drove the offending brethren into despair and despair plunged them deeper in sin and left them wallowing in the mire in their blood and pollution being held down by a false opinion that no hand could draw them out and that pardon was impossible whereas a Convertimini the doctrine of Repentance might have raised them from the ground drawn them out of their blood and filth Hebr. 12.12 strengthned their feeble knees and hands that hung down put courage and life into them to turn from that evil which had cast them down and to stand up to see and meet the salvation of th Lord. And this is the proper and natural effect of Mercy to give sight to the blind that they may see to bind up a broken limb that it may move to raise us from the dead that we may walk to make us good who were evil For this it shineth in brightness upon us every day to enlighten not onely them who sit in darkness but many times the children of light themselves who though they sit not in darkness yet may be under a cloud raised up and setled in the brain not from a corrupt but from a tender and humble heart For we cannot think that every man that saith he despaireth is cast away and lost or that our erroneous judgement of our state and condition shall be the rule by which God will proceed against us and judge us at the last day that though we have set our hearts to serve God and have been serious in all our wayes though we have made good the condition that is our part of the Covenant as far as the Covenant of Grace and the equity and gentleness of the Gospel doth exact yet God will refuse to make good his part because we cannot think well of our selves but though we have done what is required perswade our selves that we are fallen so short in the performance of our duty that we shall never reach to the end in a word that God will forbear to pronounce the EVGE Well done because we are afraid and tremble at all our works that he will put us by and reject us after all the labour of our charity for a melancholick fit that he will condemn the soul of any man for the distemper of his body or for some perturbation of his mind which he had not strength enough to withstand though he were strong in the Lord Ephes 6.10 and in the power of his might did cheerfully run the wayes of his commandments It were a great want of charity thus to judge of those whose troublesome and most afflicting errour was conceived and formed in the very bowels of charity For sometimes it proceedeth from some distemper of the body from some indisposition of the brain And if we have formerly striven and do yet strive to do God service he is not so hard and austere a Master as to punish us for being sick Sometimes it ariseth from some defect in the Judicative faculty through which as we make more Laws to our selves and so more sins then there are so we are as ready to pass sentence against our selves not only for the breach of those laws which none could bind us to but our selves but even of those also which we were so careful to keep For as we see some men so strong or rather so stupid that they think they do nothing amiss so there be others but not many so weak or rather so scrupulous that they cannot perswade themselves they ever did any thing well This is an infirmity and disease but not epidemical The first are a great multitude
his devotions there No he goeth to the Temple And in the Temple Christ findeth him and sheweth him yet a more excellent way To make some use of this I know the Temple is demolished not a stone left upon a stone But yet all places of publick worship did not fall with the Temple Even common Reason doth teach all Nations to erect and set apart places for this end For how can many meet together but in one place Temples we still must have where we may offer though not beasts as the Jews did yet the calves of our lips and the breathings and groans of a broken and contrite heart which is a sacrifice that God will not despise where we may worship the Father in spirit and in truth and also present our bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is our reasonable service Yet I do not plead the absolute necessity of our publick meetings in Churches Indeed there is not there cannot be any such necessity For God will not suffer necessity to lye upon any thing but that which is in our power It is absolutely necessary that we should pray For that we may do if our tongue were tacked to the roof of our mouth It is necessary that we should eat the flesh and drink the bloud of Christ For that we may do though we receive not the Sacrament It is necessary that we should serve the Lord For that we may do though every Church were beat down with axes and hammers Necessitas lex temporis Necessity is the Law of the times And whilest this Law is over us we are free from all Law of Order or Ceremony not tied to circumstances of Time and Place neither to the Sabbath nor the Temple which otherwise might well require our due observation For where Necessity is of a truth there in truth is no Law Quicquid cogit defendit Whatsoever it compelleth us to do it excuseth when it is done Then a grot or a cave or an upper room may serve for a Church But when the fetters of Necessity are once shaken off and this Law cancelled then even Convenience it self is Necessity and that which is most advantageous for us bindeth us most Then not to go to Church out of humour or out of a groundless phansie that any other place is as holy is to be a Recusant indeed and in the worst sense Heb. 10.25 Then to forsake the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is is a ridiculous schism and the first step downwards to Apostasie We see men run first from one congregation and then from another and at length from all and so from Religion from the Truth from Christ himself Stocks they are and stones who attribute Holiness to walls And yet stocks they are and stones that do profane and disgrace them What are Churches holy A stout question to be put up by the masters of the Assembly a nail to be driven home to open the heart and to discover a Papist or Prelatical Protestant Which terms have now the same signification What are Churches holy Yes they are but no otherwise then as set apart for holy uses no otherwise then in relation to the end And then certainly they are as holy as they who are so witty to give them new names and who prefer their Parlors or their Stables before them For these will be as holy as they are if men do not profane them And they will serve for that end for which they were erected but these men ever wanton in their religion and never religious but in wantonness and contention set up other ends of their own and soon forget and fly from that for which they were created that they may overtake the other and then write Holiness in their forhead and proclaim it to all the world thâ—t they are holy and they alone And no marvel they will not admit the Church the place of publick worship to be holy who dare not call the Mother of Christ himself a Saint The time was Beloved when this was counted a holy language and holy men of God the Doctors and Martyrs of the Church spake it and feared not to gain thereby that foul imputation of being superstitious The time was when Sacrilege was a sin But now men have learned an art to do what that Lamb of God never did to take away sins by committing them to take them away and make them no sins to take them away and make them virtues And to them nothing is holy For first they look upon the Holy things as a prey and in a manner sweep away the rest with them For to compass this the Word must be no more the Word of God but what they will make it a nose of wax to be tempered and fitted to what form they please Prayer is made a formality a babling formality The Sacraments are not so much as signs The Water is dried up in the Font and the Lord's Supper is no more then what the Anabaptists heretofore called it a twopeny feast And for Discipline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where is it the very name of it is lost First they condemn what they hate because it standeth in the way in which Covetousness leadeth them and then they study arguments to ratifie and make good that sentence of condemnation which if you be so bold as to answer and confute they pursue you as a troubler of Israel as if they should give you a blow on the face and tell you it were to this end to keep you off from making a riot Oh Folly whence art thou come to cover the face of the earth and to shake the pillars of the Church How hath the Love of the world filled our mouths with arguments with murmurings and disputings Phil. 2.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with bitter disputings which adde not one cubit one hair to the body of Religion or growth of Piety Wherein when we have run never so far the one from the other if common Reason may prevail we shall meet again and find it nothing else but a quarrel and controversie about words But how shall common Reason find a place in those hearts which are so filled with the World And therefore men are bold to ask the question Whether the Word of God be his Word or no Whether there be a Temple or a Church Whether there be any Priests or Ministers of the Gospel Whether every man may not take that Office upon him What use there is of the Sacraments When and How and By whom they are to be administred God grant it be not at last put to the question Whether there be any God or no. But you will say This will not fit nor can it be set to our Meridian I wish it may not nor to any other but rather to any then ours But surely I cannot see how Profaneness and Sacrilege can drive out Superstition I will say no more but methinks I see them opening a
is not Reason if the Church say it They that will not believe their Sense how can they believe their Reason And how can they believe their Reason who have debauched and prostituted it and bound it to the high Priests chair Do they give that honour unto the Saints which is due unto God alone and call upon them in the time of trouble Psal 50.15 It is very right and meet and our bounden duty so to do for the Church commandeth it Must there be a fire more then that of Hell The Church hath kindled it Must the Merits of the Saints be drawn up into a common treasury and thence showred down in Indulgences and supplies for them who are not so rich in Good works The Church is that treasury and her breath hath called them up Whatsoever is said or done must have a Bene dictum and a Bene factum subscribed under it is Truth and Righteousness if the Church say and do it So the Church is let down as the Tragedians used to do some God or Goddess when they were at a loss or stand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as by slight and engine to solve the difficulty and untie the knot and so make up the Catastrophe Or it serveth them as Anaxagoras his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Metaphysicks to answer and defeat all arguments whatsoever And this prejudice of theirs they back and strengthen with many others Of Antiquity making that most true which is most antient and the Truth it self a lie if it shewed it self in glory but yesterday And yet omnia vetera nova fuere that which is now old was at first new and by this argument Truth was not Truth when it was new nor the Light Light when it first sprung from on high and visited us Truth though it find Professours but in its later age yet is the first born because Errour is nothing else but a deviation from it Errour cometh forth last and layeth hold on the heel of Truth to supplant it They have another prejudice of Councels as if the most were alway the best and Truth went by voices Nazianzen was bold to censure them as having seen no good effect of any of them And we our selves have seen and our eyes have dropped for it what a mere name what prejudice can do with the Many and what it can countenance Besides these they have others Of Miracles which were but lies Of Glory which is but vanity Of Universality which is bounded and confined to a certain place With these and the like that first prejudice That the Church cannot erre is underpropped And yet these depend upon that Such a mutual implication there is of Errours as in a bed of Snakes If the first be not true these are nothing And if these pillars be once shaken that Church will soon sink in its reputation and not sit so high as to dictate to all other Churches in the world And these are soon shaken for they are but problemes and may justly be called into question and brought to trial For if they have any thing of Truth it is rather verisimile then verum rather the resemblance of Truth then Truth it self And this a foul errour may have And to fix my judgement upon a resemblance is most prejudicial For a thing may be like the Truth and appear in that likeness which is not true and therefore must needs be false A resemblance or likeness participateth of both and may be either true or false I have looked too long abroad upon this Queen of Churches but it was to set her up as a glass to see our own She saith we are a schismatical we are bold upon it that we are a Reformed Church and so we are But may not Prejudice find a place even in Reformation it self May we not dote upon it as Pygmalion did upon the statue and so please and flatter and laugh our selves to death Illiacos intra muros peccatur extra Hor. l. 1. Ep. 2. Rome alone is not guilty of Prejudice but even some members of the Reformation also who think themselves most nearly united to Christ when they run furthest from that Church though sometimes by so doing they run from the Truth For what is this else but prejudice to judge all is well with us because the lines are fallen to us in so pleasant a place as a purged Church to be less reformed because that is Reformed or to think that an heaven and happiness will be raised up and rest upon a word a name What is this but to run round in a circle and to meet the Church of Rome where we left her What is this but to speak her very language That to be in this Ark this Church is to be safe and when a floud of Sin and Errour hath overwhelmed us to think we are securely sailing to our Ararat our eternal rest Or what hope is there that he should grow and encrease in grace who if he be planted once in this Church or that Sect counteth himself a perfect man in Christ Jesus Almost every Sect and every Congregation laboureth under this prejudice and feeleth it not but runneth away with its burden Oh unhappy men they that are not fellow-members with us though it be of such a body as hath but little Charity to quicken it and no Faith to move it but a phansie Yet these cannot but do all things well these cannot erre and they who will not cast in their lot with them Prov. 1.14 and have the same purse are quite out of the way can speak nothing that is true nor do any thing that is good Matth. 23.5 Do ye not see the Pharisees spread their phylacteries do ye not hear them utter the same dialect Luk. 18.11 We are not as those Publicanes I might enlarge my self but I know ye understand me and can tell your selves what might be said further by that which hath been said already To be yet more particular The Lutherane Church doth grant indeed that every particular Church may erre and so doth not exempt it self But do not many of them attribute as much to Luther as the other do to their Church Are they not ready to subscribe to whatsoever he said upon no other reason or motive but because he said it Do they not look upon him as upon a man raised up by God to redeem the Truth and shew it to the world again after it had been detained in unrighteousness and lost in ceremony and superstition And is not this Prejudice equal to the former Do not they depend as much upon a person as the Papists do upon their Church so that to them whatsoever he said is as true as an article of faith and whatsoever is not found in him is heretical quasi fas non sit dicere Lutherum errâsse as if it were unjust and an injury to think that Luther could erre in any thing I accuse him not of errour yet
by their words and by their works Let us think we hear him say Go and do likewise Did I say God speaketh by St. Paul and by all the Saints There be who will allow Paul holy but not Saint which is as if they should say he were a reasonable creature but not a Man But Saint is a name of danger and hath brought men on their knees to commit Idolatry By this argument the Sun must also lose its name and not be called the Sun because some have worshipped it But it hath been given to wicked men Saint Ignatius and Saint Garnet And I fear it is given at this day to those who are as wicked as they But God forbid that an honest man should lose his name because sometimes it is given to a Knave and because we call him Honest friend who is our deadly enemy What though the Pope have canonized them and wrote them down in red letters in the Kalender That I am sure cannot expunge their names out of the Book of life nor yet unsaint them unless you will say that a Virgin is no more a Virgin if once a strumpet call her so or that Christ was not the Son of the living God because he was called by that name by a Legion of Devils Such Gnats as these do these men strain at who every day before the sun and the people shallow down camels They check at every feather and pull milstones upon their heads They will not call Paul and the Apostles and the blessed Martyrs Saints oh take heed of that but they take that title to themselves and in that name work not wonders but commit those abominations which the blessed Saints of God abhorred They scruple at the name of Saint and triumph in that of a man of Belial They tremble at a shadow which themselves cast and court a monster They startle at a straw and play with a thunderbolt O beloved let not us be afraid of the name Saint not be afraid to give it to others though our Humility will not let us fix it on our selves There were Saints at Corinth and Saints at Philippi and Saints at Colosse and Saints at Ephesus St. Paul calleth them so And shall we be afraid to give him and the rest of the Apostles and the Martyrs of Christ that name Nay rather In the second place let us bless God for his Saints and look upon them and follow them in those wayes which made them Saints though honour and dishonour through fire and water through terrours and affrightments through the valley of death into the land of the living and the paradise of God Let their glory work in us an holy emulation Let us be sorry to see our selves at such a distance let us be angry at our own backwardness let us love that virtue which hath crowned them and let us labour in hope to overtake them and live with them in the same region of happiness Envy is a torment but Emulation filleth us with Hope which is a comforter Indeed when we speak of the glorious Saints of God we need make no mention of Envy we are free enough from that If any man be rich or mighty or honourable or learned we are presently on the rack But if any man be good we are well content he should be so alone Righteousness and Temperance and Martyrdom which are bought at a dear rate and cost us our very life and bloud are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without envy We look back upon those Worthies which were our fore-runners in the way to heaven as upon sad and uncouth spectacles We are ready to fright our selves with the conceit of impossibilities we talk of nothing else The Law we say is impossible and to follow the Saints is impossible And why is it not to reign with them also impossible And all this is for want of that Hope which we are as willing to stifle as the Examples of good men are active to kindle it in our hearts Beloved these great Ensamples are strong arguments against us nec tà m praecipiunt quà m convitium faciunt they do not only call after us but upbraid us if we follow not They have virtue and power in them to raise a hope within us which may stir us up to action and pull our hands out of our bosom Quid deficimus Quid desperamus Quicquid fieri potuit potest Why do we faint or despair Whatsoever hath been done by any Saint of God may be taken up by us and done again The very Heathen maketh it his argument Ignem Mutius exsilium Rutilius Mutius overcame the fire Socrates poison Rutilius banishment Cato death Singula vicerunt jam multi nos vincamus aliquid Many have overcome several evils let us overcome something Is obedience difficult Abraham would have sacrificed his son his only son at the command of God Is Patience a burthen Job blessed God when he lay on the dunghill Is Humility distasteful You may behold the King of Israel in a dance Is Martyrdom terrible We have a cloud of ensamples purpuratas nubes those purple clouds which have watered the field of Christ with showres of bloud that after them there may grow up Martyrs through all generations This power this influence have the Examples of the Saints if we will but receive it that we may grow up thereby Brethren I may boldly speak to you of the blessed Patriarchs Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob David and of the blessed Apostle S. Paul that they are both dead and buried And though we have not their Sepulcres with us yet we have their Inscriptions PERFECT NOAH FAITHFUL ABRAHAM DEVOUT DAVID PAUL THE SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST Which we should reade and translate into our selves to drive us to Perfection to confirm our Obedience to nourish our Faith and to raise the heat of our Devotion Therefore In the last place let us emulate the best Par est optimum quemque ad imitandum proponere saith the Philosopher It is fit we should propose the best paterns Nay Stultissimum est it is folly not to do so saith the Oratour Elige Catonem saith Seneca Chuse such a man as Cato for thy example Elige Paulum Chuse such a one as S. Paul S. Peter S. Stephen And when any difficulty or tentation assaulteth thee as S. Cyprian would often call for Tertullian's Works DA MAGISTRUM Give me my Master so do thou Da Magistros Give me the examplcs of those glorious Saints of God to settle and compose and establish me in all my wayes A shame it is that after so long a time after so many fair and bright examples after so great a multitude of Professors when all Arts and Sciences are advanced every day Grace and Holiness should suffer a kind of solstice nay go back more then ten degrees That so many Peters and Pauls should pass by us and not so much as their shadow reach us That so many examples of perfection should shine in the
For why should that be urged with that vehemency to which mens natural bent and inclination carrieth them and would certainly continue them and hold them up in eaven course of Justice and Honesty did not education and their familiar converse and dalliance with the world corrupt and blind them To this Law of Nature S. James seemeth to call us back chap. 3. where he maketh it as a strange thing to be wondred at James 3.9 c. that the same tongue that blesseth God should yet curse men who are made after the similitude of God As if he should have said Curse him not Deceive him not for if thou curse him if thou deceive him thou cursest and deceivest God after whose similitude he is made My brethren these things ought not so to be They are as much against Nature as for the same fountain to send forth sweet and bitter water or for a fig-tree to bear olives or a vine figs. S. Paul shutteth up the Lyars mouth with the same argument Ephes 4 25. Wherefore cast off lying and speak truth every one to his neighbour The reason followeth For we are members one of another Thou art a part of him and he is a part of thee being both hewn out of the same rock formed and shaped of the same mould therefore by lying to thy brother thou puttest a cheat upon thy self and as far as in thee lyeth upon that God that made you both and gave you Tongues not to lye but to instruct and Wits not to deceive but counsel and help one another And therefore he deterreth men from fraud and violence by no other argument then this That God is the avenger of such things 1 Thess 4.6 as if the Lye had been told unto and the Cheat put upon him When Mans Justice to man faileth there Gods vengeance is ready to make a supply For saith Clemens Vidisti fratrem tuum vidisti Deum tuum Clem. Alex. Strom. 2. When thou lookest upon thy brother thou seest God himself as near as Mortality can discover him He is the fairest copie thou canst see him by fairer then the Heaven of heavens and those ministers of light fairer then the fairest Star then the Sun in the Firmament when he rejoyceth to run his race 1 John 4.20 Hence S. John concludeth positively and peremptorily If a man say he loveth God and hateth his brother and he that deceiveth him he that oppresseth him hateth him or else despiseth him which is worse he is a lyar And his reason is irrefragable For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen in whom he seeth himself in whom he seeth his God and so hath Love conveyed into his heart by his very eye many visible motives to win him to this duty how can he love God whom he hath not seen 1 Tim. 6.16 whom no man hath seen or can see but as the Apostle speaketh 1 Cor. 13.12 through a glass darkly in his Words and in his Works of which Man is the brightest mirrour and giveth the fairest and clearest representation of him So that now we may see all Mankind tyed and united together in this love-knot of Nature knit together as Men that they should not fly asunder and then return again one upon another not as Men but as Snakes and Vipers look back but with an evil eye approch neer but in a cloud or tempest not look but envy not speak but lye not touch but strike not converse with but defraud and oppress one another Which is against that Law with which we were born and which we carry about with us whithersoever we go and whatsoever we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How gratious and helpful a creature is one man to another if he continue so a Man and receive no new impression from the Flesh from Self-love and those transitory Vanities below if he be not byassed and wheeled from this natural motion by the World and so fit to be driven into the field with Nebuchadnezzar being turned Fox or Lion or Tiger or Panther or worse then any of those Beasts because he is a Man For so many forms he may receive having once degenerated from his own And then it is not Look upon men as of the same mould and frame as brethren by nature as auxiliaries and supplyes as keepers and guardians but CAVETE AB HOMINIBVS Beware of men Matth. 10.7 A warning and caution given by our Saviour himself and a strange caution it is from him who so loved men that he dyed for them Beware of men beware of them thus transformed thus brutifyed That smiling friend may be a tempter He that calleth himself a Saint may be a seducer His oylie tongue may wound thee his embrace crush thee to pieces that demure countenance shadow a legion of Devils Look not upon his phylacteries the Man is a Pharisee and this Angel-keeper may be thy murderer And thus it is when the course of nature is turned backward and Man degenerateth from himself and maketh his Reason which should be an instrument and promoter of Justice a servant to Sin and a weapon of Unrighteousness This the Love of the world and the Wisdome of the flesh can do Victrix etiam de Natura triumphat When it prevaileth it moveth and troubleth the wheel as S. James calleth it the whole course of our Nativity and triumpheth over Nature it self Now to draw this yet nearer to our purpose Speak what we will of Profit and Commodity the Heathen Oratour by the very light of Nature hath told us That they who divide Profit from Justice and Honesty and call that profit and advantage which is unlawfully gotten or detained with the same hand lift at the very foundation of Nature and strive to put out that light which they cannot utterly extinguish Ista duo facimus ex uno saith Seneca Though we make Profit and Honesty two things yet they are but one and the same And therefore to rise upon another mans ruines Subvertunt homines ea quae sunt sundamenta Naturae cùm utilitatem ab honestate sejungunt Tull. De Off. l. 3. to enrich our selves by fraud and deceit is as much against Nature saith Tully as Poverty which pincheth it or Grief which afflicteth it or Death which dissolveth it For Poverty may strip the body Grief may trouble it and Death may strike it to the ground but yet they leave a soul and Injustice is its destruction and leaveth a dead soul in a living body For as we have already shewn Man is naturally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sociable creature but Violence and Deceit quite destroy all society And Tully giveth the same reason in his Offices which S. Paul doth against Schisme in his Epistles 1 Cor. 12.26 If one member suffer all the members suffer with it and therefore the intent and purpose of all must be saith the Oratour ut eadem sit utilitas uniuscujusque
not be a House subject to weather but some house of pleasure a Seraglio not in Egypt or Babylon but in the Fortunate Islands or in Paradise Our Lily should be set far enough from the Thorns We would go to Heaven without any Ifs or And 's without any Buts or difficulties We would be eased but not weary be saved but not believe or believe but not suffer Acts 14.22 We would enter into Gods Kingdome but not with tribulation that is we would have God neither provident nor just nor wise that is which is a sad interpretation we would have no God at all But Gods method is best Honorem operis fructus excusat Tâ—rtul Scorpiac c. 5. Luk. 17 25. 24.46 And that which we call Persecution is his art his way of making of Saints De perverso auxiliatur He raiseth us by those evils we labour under As in his manifold wisdome he redeemed mankind so the manner and method of working out our salvation is from the same Wisdome and Providence which as it set an Oportet upon Christ to suffer for us so it set an Oportet upon the Church to have a fellowship in his sufferings â—ct 14 22. We must through many afflictions be consecrated be made perfect and so enter into the Kingdome of God We must first be made more spiritual by the contradiction of those who are born after the flesh more Isaacs then before for the many Ishmaels So Perfection is not onely agreeable to the wisdome of God but convenient to the weakness of Man God will not save us we cannot be saved any other way Phil. 1.29 Oportet we must go this way Nay Datum est It is a gift It is given not onely to believe but to suffer a gift for which heaven it self is given Matth. 5. And it is a Beatitude Blessed poverty blessed mourning blessed persecution Blessedness is set upon these as a Crown or as â—ich embroyderie upon sackcloth or some courser stuff 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 Abraham's family Ishmael mocketh and persecuteth Isaac In the world the Synagogue persecuteth the Church and in the Church one Christian persecuteth 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 dreadful but blessed sight and see what advantage we can work what light we can strike out of this cloud of blood to direct and strengthen us in this our warfare Revel 2.10 that we may be faithful unto death 1 Pet. 4.12 and so receive the crown of life And first let us not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Peter speaketh think it strange or be amazed at the fiery trial not be dismayed when we see that befall the Church which befalleth all the Kingdoms and Common-wealths in the world when we see the face of the Church gather blackness and not shine in that beauty in which formerly we beheld her For what strange thing is it that Ishmael should mock Isaac The Church so far as she is visible in respect of her 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 2 Cor 4.18 those which are eternal are not seen 1 Cor. 7.31 The fashion of this world passeth away saith S. Paul and so doth the fashion of the Church And when the scene is changed it cometh forth with another face and speaketh now like a servant who spake before like a Queen In brief the Church turned about on the wheel of change is subject to the same storms to the same injuries to the same craft and violence which the Philosopher saith make that alteration in States change them not into those which may bear some faint resemblance of them but into that which is most unlike and contrary to them setteth 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 Gen. 3.15 which is the face of the Church nor hath the Seed of the woman so bruised the Serpents head but that he still biteth at the heel Exod. 17. Behold the children of Israel in the wilderness sometimes in straits anon in larger wayes sometimes fighting 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 sweetness as Mithkah and sometimes in places of bitterness as Marah Behold them in a more settled 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 professours were there when Elijah the great Prophet could see but one And how can that have alwayes the same countenance which is under the powers 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 Candelsticks which are now removed out of their place Rev. 1.12 20. 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 years 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 have been willing to believe 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 frail Man It dieth it wasteth it giveth up the ghost Job 14.10 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 Europe and if the Candlestick
that as the old world perished by water so this shall by fire For what guilty person doth not study to drive the thought of a Judge coming out of his mind He that hath his delight and his heaven in this world is not willing to hear of another to come VENIT The Lord cometh is not in his Creed Sed nulla est mora ejus quod cerâ—ò eveniet The deferring or delay of that which will certainly come should not come into our consideration Come he will though he come not yet and when he is come all the time past and before in which we grew wanton and presumptuous and beat our fellow-servants Luke 12.45 is not in true esteem so much as a moment or the twinkling of an eye It is not slackness it is not delay That is our false Gloss who when we break the Law are as willing to misinterpret the Law-giver The Hypocrite thinketh him as very a dissembler as himself and is well perswaded that though he threaten yet he meaneth it not though he hath denounced judgment against those that sin and repent not yet he will not be so good or rather so bad as his word The Sacrilegious person looketh upon him as an enemie to Churches and him that putteth the hammer into his hand to beat down his own Temple The Profane person would excaecare providentiam Dei Tertull. de Animi put out the eye of Gods Providence and the moral Atheist would pull him from his throne and thrust him out of the world Every man frameth such a God as will fit him and proportioneth him to his lusts We draw God out as the Painter did the Goddess in the likeness of those vanities which we most dote on and so we entitle him to our fraud and oppression Invenimus quomodo etiam avarum faceremus Petrarch We have found an art to bring him in as an abettour and a promoter of our covetousness and ambition and so as much as in us lieth make him as ambitious and covetous as our selves Psal 50.21 Thou thoughtest verily that I was like unto thee saith God to the Hypocrite Behold Christ sitteth at the right hand of God in full power and majesty ready to descend but he cometh not yet and hence the scorner concludeth he will never come This is a false gloss and a false conclusion the result and inference of flesh and blood For it is not slackness that is the dictate of our lusts but if Truth interpret it it is long suffering and his long-suffering should end and be eased in our repentance 2 Pet. 3 15. S. Peter telleth us it is salvation It is what it should be If it be not salvation we have drove it from it self and see now it is nothing but wrath and indignation His long suffering is either our salvation or our condemnation And this is the true reason why Christ is not yet come but as it were a coming For Time is nothing unto him nor is it any thing in it self nec intelligitur nisi per actus humanos Isid l. V. nor can we conceive or understand it but by those actions which we do now and again and which we cannot do at once Psal 90.4 A thousand years in his sight are but as yesterday but not so long not so long as a thought He delayeth not but he beareth with us in this our time We look upon the day of judgment as upon a day to come but to him it is present That he is not come to us is for our sakes For the Church of Christ till the consummation of all things is in fluxu in corpore temporum as Tertullian speaketh is wrapt up in the body of Time cometh not simul semel at once but successively gaineth the addition of parts S. Paul calleth it a body And though it be not such a body as the Stoicks phansied quod more fluminum in assiduâ diminutione adjectione est which like Rivers receiveth every day encrease and every day diminution and is not the same to day which it was yesterday yet is it corpus aggregatum a collected body which is not made up at once in every part but receiveth its parts successively She is terrible as an army with banners Cant. 6.4 as it is said of the Spouse in the Canticles and in an army you know the van may lodge there to night where the rere cometh not till the morning So it is with the Church it hath alwaies its parts yet hath alwaies parts to be added So we read Acts 2.47 that the Lord added to the Church daily that is successively such as should be saved Quantum iniquitatis grassatur tantum abest regnum Dei quod secum affert plenam rectitudinem saith the Father Christ is come and yet is still a coming Whilst there are heresies and schismes in the Church whilst the one undermineth the bulwarks without and the other raiseth a mutany within whilst the Devil rageth and men sin there be yet some to be gathered to Christs sheepfold and though in respect of his power he be already come yet for his elects sake he will not execute it yet And this is the very reason which Justine Martyr giveth of the proroguing and delay of his coming and why the consummation and end of all things is not yet Apol. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for mankinds sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the seed of Christians which is yet to be propagated For by his eternal wisdome he foreseeth that many there be who will believe and turn to him by repentance and some that be not even many who are yet unborn For the promise is made to you and to your children saith S. Peter Acts 2.39 Et natis natorum qui nascentur ab illis and to all that are afar off even to as many as the Lord our God shall call How many thousands are not yet who shall be Saints For their sakes it is that the Lord doth not consume the world with fire that he doth not come to judge the world that wicked men are permitted to revel on the earth and the devil to rage that he suffereth that which he abhorreth suffereth injustice to move its arms at large and spread it self like a green bay-tree and leaveth Innocency bound in chains that he suffereth men to break his commands to question his providence to doubt of his being and essence that we see this disorder and confusion the world in a manner dissolved before its end But when that number is full a number which we know not or if we did cannot know when he will fill it up when that is complete then Time shall be no more then lo he cometh and will purge the world of heresie and schism will appear in that majesty that the Atheists shall confess he is God and see all those crooked wayes in which his providence seemed to walk made even and
ground and fell flat on his face yet he rose again and took courage to betray the Israelites to that sin with the Midianitish women which brought a curse upon them and death upon himself Num. 31.8 for he was slain for it with the sword What evidence can prevail with what terrour can move a wicked man hardned in his sin who knoweth well enough and can draw the picture of Christ coming and look upon it and study to forget it and then put on an ignorance of his own knowledge and though he know he will yet perswade himself he will not come And he that can thus stand out against his own knowledge in the one may be as daring and resolute in the other and venture on though Hell it self should open her mouth against him and breathe vengeance in his face For howsoever we pretend ignorance yet most of the sins we commit we commit against our knowledge Tell the Foolish man that the lips of the harlot will bite like a Cocatrice he knoweth it well enough and yet will kiss them Prov. 20.1 Tell the Intemperate that wine is a mocker he will taste though he know he shall be deceived The cruel Oppressour will say and sigh it out that the Lord is his God and yet eat up his people as he eateth bread Psal 14.4 53.4 Matth. 7.12 Who knoweth not that we must do to others as we would have others do to us and yet how many are there I may ask the question that make it good in practice Who knoweth not what his duty is and that the wages of sin is death Rom. 6.23 and yet how many seek it out and are willing to travail with it though they die in the birth Cannot the thought of judgment move us and will the knowledge of a certain hour awake us Will the hardned sinner cleave to his sin though he know the Lord is coming and would he let it go and fling it from him if the set determined hour were upon record No they wax worse and worse saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.13 Earth is a fairer place to them then Heaven it self nor will they part with one vanity nor bid the Devil avoid though they knew the very hour I might say though they now saw the Lord coming in the clouds For wilt not thou believe God when he cometh as near thee as in wisdome he can and as his pure Essence and infinite Majesty will suffer and art thou assured thou wilt believe him if he would please to come so near as thy sick phansie would draw him Indeed this is but aegri somnium the dream of a sick and ill-affected mind that complaineth of want of light when it shineth in thy face For that information which we so long for we cannot have or if we could it would work no more miracles then that doth which we already have but leave us the same lethargicks which we were In a word if Christ's doctrine will not move us the knowledge which he will not teach would have little force And though it were written in capital letters At such a time and such a day and such an hour the Lord will come we should sleep on as securely as before and never awake from this death in sin till the last Trump To look once more upon the Non nostis horam and so conclude We may learn even from our Ignorance of the hour thus much That as the Lords coming is uncertain so it will be sudden As we cannot know when he will come so he will come when we do not think on it cum totius mundi motu Apol. c. 33. cum horrore orbis cum planctu omnium si non Christianorum saith Tertullian with the shaking of the whole world with the horrour and amazement of the Vniverse every man howling and lamenting but those few that little flock which did wait for his coming It is presented to us in three resemblances 1 Thes 5.2 3. Luke 21.35 1. of travel coming upon a woman with child 2. of a Thief in the night and 3. of a Snare Now the Woman talketh and is chearful now she layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff and now she groaneth Now the Mammonist locketh his God up in his chest layeth him down to sleep and dreameth of nothing else and now the Thief breaketh in and spoileth him Now our feet are at liberty and we walk at large walk on pleasantly as in fair places Now the bitterness of death is past and now the Snare taketh us Now we phansie new delights send our thoughts afar off dream of Lordships and Kingdoms Now we enlarge our imaginations as Hell anticipate our honours and wealth and gather riches in our mind before we grasp them in our hand Now we are full now we are rich now we reign as Kings now we beat our fellow-servants and beat them in our Lord's name and in this type and representation of hell we entitle our selves to eternity of bliss we are cursed and call our selves Saints and now even now he cometh Now sudden surprisals do commonly startle and amaze us but after a while after some pause and deliberation we recover our selves and take heart to slight that which drove us from our selves and left us as in a dream or rather dead But this bringeth either that horrour or that joy which shall enter into our very bones settle and incorporate it self with us and dwell in us for evermore Other assaults that are made upon us unawares make some mark and impression in us but such as may soon be wiped out We look upon them and being not well acquainted with their shapes they disturb our phansie but either at the sight of the next object we lose them or our Reason chaseth them away Aul Gel. Noct. Att l. 19. c. 1. The tempest riseth and the Philosopher is pale but his Reason will soon call his blood again into his cheeks He cannot prevent these sudden and violent motions but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth not consent he doth not approve these unlookt-for apparitions and phantasies He doth not change his counsel but is constant to himself Sudden joy and sudden fear with him are as short as sudden But this coming of our Lord as it is sudden so it bringeth omnimodam desolationem an universal horrour and amazement seiseth upon all the powers and faculties of the Soul chaineth them up and confineth them to loathsome and terrible objects from which no change of objects can divert no wisdome redeem them No serenity after this darkness no joy after this trembling no refreshing after this consternation For no coming again after this coming for it is the last Ser. 140. de Tempore And now to conclude Veniet fratres veniet sed vide quomodo te inveniet saith Augustine He shall come he shall come my brethren His coming is uncertain and his coming is sudden
which it is hard to number quocunque sub axe They are in every climate and in every place but most often in the Courts of Princes and in the habitations of the Rich who can do evil but will not see it who can make the loud condemnation of a fact and the bold doing it the business of one and the same hour almost of one and the same moment The others are not many for they are a part of that little Flock Luk. 11.32 And the good Shepherd will not drive them out of the fold for the weak conceit they had that they had gone too far astray Errour is then most dangerous and fatal when we do that which is evil not when we shun and fly from it as from the plague and yet cannot believe we are removed far enough from the infection of it Therefore again Despair may have its original not onely from the acrasie and discomposedness of the outward man or from weakness in judgement and ignorance of our present estate which may happen to good men even to those who have made some fair proficiency in the School of Christ and to which we are very subject amidst that variety of circumstances that perplexity and multiplicity of thoughts which rise and sink and return again and strangle one another to bring in others in their place but it may be brought in by our very care and diligence and intensive love For care and Diligence and Love are alwayes followed with Fears and Jealousies Love is ever a beginning till all be done and is but setting out till she be at her journeys end The liberal man is afraid of his almes the temperate mistrusteth his abstinence the Meek man is jealous of every heat Pietas etiam tuta pertimescit Piety is afraid even of Safety it self because it is Piety and cannot be safe enough And if it be a fault for a man thus to undervalue himself it is a fault of a fair extraction begotten not by blood Joh. 1.13 or the will of men not by Negligence and Wilfulness and the pollutions of the Flesh but by Care and Anxiety and an unsatisfied Love which will sometimes demur and be at a stand in the greatest certainty so that though the lines be fallen to him in a fair place Psal 16.6 and he have a goodly heritage a well-setled spiritual estate yet he may sometimes look upon it as bankrupts do upon their temporal worn out with debts and Statutes and Mortgages and next to nothing Every man hath not a place and mansion in heaven who pretendeth a title to it nor is every man shut out who doubteth of his evidence This diffidence in ones self is commonly the mark and character of a good man who would be better Though he hath built up his assurance as strong as he can yet he thinketh himself not sure enough but seeketh for further assurance and fortifieth it with his Fear and assiduous Diligence that it may stand fast for ever Whereas we see too many draw out their own Assurance and seal it up with unclean hands with wicked hands with hands full of blood We have read of some in the dayes of our forefathers and have heard of others in our own and no doubt many there have been of whom we never heard Phil. 1.27 whose conversation was such as became the Gospel of Christ and yet they have felt that hell within themselves which they could not discover to others but by gastly looks out-cryes deep grones and loud complaints to them who were neer them that Hell it self could not be worse nor had more torments then they felt And these may seem to have been breathed forth not from a broken but a perishing heart to be the very dialect of Despair And indeed so they are For Despair in the worst acception cannot sink us lower then hell But yet we cannot we may not be of their opinion and think what they said that they are cast out of Gods sight No God seeth them looketh upon them with an eye full of compassion and most times sendeth an Angel to them in their agony Luke 22.43 as he did unto Christ a message of comfort to rowse them up But if their tenderness yet raise doubts and draw the cloud still over them we have reason to think and who dareth say the contrary that the hand of Mercy may even through this cloud receive them to that Sabbath and rest which remaineth for the people of God Hebr. 4.9 I speak of men who were severe to themselves watchful in their warfare full of good works and constant in them and yet many times when they were even at the gates of heaven and near unto happiness felt sore terrours and affrightments These being full of Charity could not be quite destitute of Hope although their own sad apprehensions and the breathings of a tender conscience made the operation of it less sensible Their Hope was not like Aaron's rod cut off dryed up and utterly dead but rather like a tree in winter in which there is life and faculty yet the absence of the Sun and the cold benumming it suffereth no force of life to work But when the Sun draweth near and yieldeth its warmth and influence it will bud again and blossom and bring forth leaf and fruit The case then of every man that despaireth is not desperate But we must consider Despair in its Causes which produce and work it If it be exhaled and drawn up out of our corrupt works and a polluted conscience the steam of it is poysonous and deleterial the very smoke of the bottomless pit But if it proceed from the distemper of the body which seiseth upon one as well as another or from weakness of judgement which befalleth many who may be weak and yet pious or from an excessive solicitude and tenderness of soul which is not so common we cannot think it can have that force and malignity as to pull him back who is now striving to enter in at the narrow gate or to cut him off from salvation who hath wrought it out with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 At the day of judgment the question will be not what was our opinion and conceit of our selves but what our conversation was not what we thought of our estate but what we did to raise it not of our phansied application of the promises but whether we have performed the condition For then the promises will apply themselves God hath promised and he will make it good We shall not be asked what we thought but what we did For how many have thought themselves sure who never came to the knowledge of their errour till it was too late how many have called themselves Saints who have now their portion with hypocrites how many have phansied themselves into heaven whose wilfull disobedience carried them another way On the other side how many have believed and yet doubted how many have been sincere in
was muzled he was silent he could not speak a word For conclusion then Let us as the Wise-man counselleth keep our heart Prov. 4.23 our Will with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life and out of it are the issues of Death Let us take it from Death and confine and bind it to its proper object bind it with those bonds which were made to bind Kings and Nobles the most stout and stubborn and imperious heart bind it with the Fear of Death with the Fear of that God which here doth ask the question and not seek to ease our selves by an indiscreet and ill-applied consideration of our natural Weakness For how many make themselves wicked because they were made weak How many never make any assay to go upon this thought That they were born lame Original Weakness is an article of our Creed and it is our Apologie but it is the Apologie of the worst of the Covetous 1 John 2.16 of the Ambitious of the Wanton when it is the lust of the eyes that burieth the covetous in the earth the lusts of the flesh that setteth the Wanton on fire the pride of life that maketh the Ambitious climb so high Prima haec elementa these are the first Elements these are their Alphabet They learn â—â—â—m their Parents they learn from their friends they learn from servants to raise a bank to enoble their name to delight themselves in the things of this world These they are taught and they have their method drawn to their hands By these evils words which are the proper language and dialect of the world their manners are corrupted And for this our father Adam is brought to the bar when it is Mammon Venus and the World that have bruised us more then his fall could do Secondly pretend not the Want of Grace For a Christian cannot commit a greater soloecisme then to pretend the want of that which hath been so often offered which he might have had if he would or to conceive that God should be unwilling he should do his will unwilling he should repent and turn unto him This is a charge as well as a pretense even a charge against God forbidding us rise up and walk when we were lame and not affording us a staff nor working a miracle Grace is of that nature that we may want it though it be not denied we may want it when we have it and indeed we want Grace as the covetous man wanteth money we want it because we will not use it and so we are starved to death with bread in our hands For if we will not eat our daily bread we must die In the next place let us not shut up our selves in our own darkness nor plead Ignorance of that which we were bound to know which we do know and will not which is written with the Sun-beams which we cannot say we see not when we may run and read it For what mountainous evils do men run upon what gross what visible what palpable sins do they foster quae se suâ corpulentiâ produnt sins which betray themselves to be so by their bulk and corpulency Sacrilege is no sin and I cannot see how it now should for there is scarce any thing left for its gripe Lying is no sin it is our Language and we speak as many lies almost as words Perjury is no sin for how many be there that reverence an oath Jura perjura Iusjurandum rei servandae non perdendae conditum est Plaut Rud. Act. 5. sc 3. Mantile quo quotidianae noxae extergentur â—aber is an Axiome in our Morality and Politie and secureth our estates and intaileth them on our posterity Deceit is no sin for is is our trade Nay Adultery is no sin you would think with the Heathen with those who never heard of the name of Christ nay but with those who call upon it every day and call themselves the knowing men the Gnosticks of this age And whilst men love darkness more then light with some men there will scarce be any sins upon that account as sins till the day of judgement Next bring not in thy Conscience to plead for that sin which did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beat and wound thy Conscience For the office of thy Conscience is before the fact to inform thee and after the fact if it be evil to accuse thee and what comfort can there be in this thought That thou didst not follow her information That she called it a sin and thou didst it That she pointed out to it as to a rock and thou wouldst needs chuse it for thy haven No commonly this is the plea of those whose hearts are hard and yet will tell you they have a tender conscience And so they have tender in respect of a ceremony or thing indifferent Here they are struck in a manner dead quite beside themselves as if it were a basilisk here they are true and constant to their conscience which may erre but not tender in respect of an eternal Law where it cannot mistake Here they too often leave their conscience and then excuse themselves that they did so In the one they are as bold as a Lion in the other they call it the frailty of a Saint This they do with regret and some reluctancy that is by interpretation against their will Last of all do not think thy action is not evil because thy Intention was good For it is as easie to fix a good intention upon an evil action as it is to set a fair and promising title on a box of poison Hay and stubble may be laid upon a good foundation 1 Cor. 3.12 but it will neither head vvell nor bed vvell as they say in the vvork of the Lord. We must look as vvell to vvhat vve build as to the Basis vve raise and set it on or else it vvill not stand and abide We see vvhat a fire good Intentions have kindled on the earth and vve are told that many of them burn in hell I may intend to beat down Idolatry and bury Religion in the ruines of that I beat down I may intend the establishing of a Common-wealth and shake the foundation of it I may intend the Reformation of a Church and fill it with Locusts and Caterpillars innumerable I may intend the Glory of God and do that for which his Name shall be evil spoken of and it will prove but a poor plea when we blasphemed him to say we did it for his Glory Let us then lay aside these Apologies for they are not Apologies but accusations and detain us longer in our evil wayes then the false beauty and deceitful promises of a tentation could which we should not yield to so often did not these betray us nor be fools so long if we had not something to say for our selves And since we cannot answer the Expostulation with these since these will be no plea in the court of
None of these will fit us but SICVT ACCEPIMVS as we have received from Christ and his Apostles which is the onely sufficient Rule to guide us in our Walk 1. Not SICVT VIDIMVS as we have seen others walk No though their praise be in the Gospel and they are numbred amongst the Saints of God For as S. Bernard calleth the examples of the Saints condimentum vitae the sawce of our life to season and make pleasant what else may prove bitter to us as Job's Dunghill may be a good sight for me to look upon in my low estate and his Patience may uphold me David's Groans and Complaints may tune my sorrow Saint Pauls Labours and Stripes and Imprisonment may give me an issue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a way 1 Cor. 10.13 a power to escape the like temptation by conquering it I may wash off all my grief with their tears wipe out all disgrace with their contumelies and bury the fear of Death in their Graves so they may prove if we be not wary venenum vitae as poyson to our life and walk For I know not how we are readier to stumble with the Saints then to walk with them readier to lie down with David in his bed of lust then in his couch of tears readier to deny Christ with Peter upon a pretense of frailty then to weep bitterly out of a deep sense of our sin In the errours and deviations of my life I am Noah and Abraham and David and Peter I am all the Patriarchs and all the Apostles but in that which made them Saints I have little skill and less mind to follow them It will concern us then to have one eye upon the Saint and another upon the Rule that the actions of good men may be as a prosperous gale to drive us forward in our course and the Rule the Compass to steer by For it will neither help nor comfort me to say I shipwrackt with a Saint James 2.1 My brethren saith S. James have not the faith of Christ in respect of persons It is too common a thing to take our eye from the Rule and settle it upon the Person whom we gaze upon till we have lost our sight and can see nothing of Man or Infirmity in him His Virtue and our Esteem shine and cast a colour and brightness upon the evil which he doth upon whatsoever he saith though false or doth though irregular that it is either less visible or if it be seen commendeth it self by the person that did it and so stealeth and winneth upon us unawares and hath power with us as a Law Could S. Augustine erre There have been too many in the Church who thought he could not and to free him from errour have made his errours greater then they were by large additions of their own and fathered upon him those mishapen births which were he now alive he would startle at and run from or stand up and use all his strength to destroy Could Calvine or Luther do or speak any thing that was not right They that follow them and are proud of their names willing to be distinguished from all others by them would be very angry and hate you perfectly if you should say they could And we cannot but be sensible what strange effects this admiration of their persons hath wrought upon the earth what a fire it hath kindled hotter then that of the Tyrant's fornace Dan. 3. For the flames have raged even to our very doors Thus the Examples of good men like two-edged swords cut both wayes both for good and for bad and Sin and Errour may be conveyed to us not onely in the cup of the Whore but in the vessels of the Sanctuary They are as the Plague and infect wheresoever they are but spread more contagion from a Saint then from a man of Belial In the one they are scarce seen in the other they are seen with horror In the one we hate not the sin so much as the person and in the other we are favourable to the sin for the person's sake and at last grow familiar with it as with our friend De Abrog priv Miss Nihil perniciosius gestis sanctorum said Luther himself There is nothing more dangerous then the actions of the Saints not strengthened by the testimony of Scripture and it is far safer to count that a sin in them which hath not its warrant from Scripture then to fix it up for an ensample for it is not good to follow a Saint into the ditch Let us take them not whom men for men may canonize themselves and others as they please but whom God himself as it were with his own hand hath registred for Saints Hebr. 11.32 Numb 25.7 8 Psal 106.30 Samson was a good man and hath his name in the catalogue of Believers Phinehas a zealous man who staid the plague by executing of judgement but I can neither make Samson an argument to kill my self nor Phinehas to shed the bloud of an adulterer Lib. 2. de Baptismo q. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 10.24 S. Basil observeth that amongst those many seeming contradictions in Scripture one is of a Fact or Work done to the Precept The Command is Thou shalt not kill Samson killed himself Phinehas with his spear nailed the adulterous couple to the earth but every man hath not Samson's spirit nor Phinehas's commission The Father's rule is the rule of Wisdome it self When we read in Scripture a Fact commended which falleth cross with the Precept we must leave the Fact and cleave to the Precept For Examples are not rules of life but provocations to good works SICVT VIDIMVS As we have seen then is not a right SICVT We must be like unto Elias but not consume men with fire like unto Peter but not cut off a mans ear like unto S. Paul 1 Cor. 11.1 but himself correcteth it with a SICVT EGO CHRISTI as I am unto Christ 2. In the next place if not SICVT VIDIMVS as we have seen others then not SICVT VISVM FVERIT as it shall seem good in our own eyes For Phansie is a wanton unruly froward faculty and in us as in Beasts for the most part supplieth the place of Reason Vulgus ex veritate pauca Pro Roscio Comaedo ex opinione multa aestimat saith Tully The Common people which is the greatest part of mankind for vulgus is of a larger signification then we usually take it in are led rather by Opinion then by the Truth because they are more subject and enslaved to those two turbulent Tribunes of the Soul the Irascible and the Concupiscible appetite and so more opinionative then those who are not so much under their command It is truly said Affectiones facilè faciunt opiniones Our affections will easily raise up opinions For who will not soon phansie that to be true which he would have so which may either fill his
yet be dead to the world and so make his way through the valley and shadow of death to his journeyes end Psal 23.4 to that rest which remaineth for the people of God who are but strangers Hebr. 4.9 and pilgrimes upon earth This is the best supply Hebr. 11.13 And for this the Psalmist putteth up his petition in the words of my Text I am a stranger upon earth hide not thy commandments from me They are the words of the Kingly Prophet And in the thirty ninth Psalm he hath the very same Hold not thy peace at my tears Psal 39.12 for I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my fathers were In them he presenteth unto us his state and condition and in his own the condition of all mankind Menander fecit Andriam Perinthiam One man is the map of all Mankind and he that knoweth one knoweth them all David was and then all men are but accolae inquilini 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 We have here first a Doctrine declaring what we are We are but strangers upon earth That is 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 He that hath one eye upon his Frailty and Defects will have another upon a Supply He that knoweth himself a stranger will desire a guide Or you have 1. our Character We are strangers and 2. our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Viaticum our Provision in our way the commandments of God Or if you please you may consider I. the Person I David II. 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 powerful Prince and a poor Pilgrime him that sitteth on the Throne and him that grindeth at the mill the crowned Head and that Head which hath not a hole to hide it seif in And III. 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 IV. your Provision the commandments of God and shew you of what use they be to you in this your peregrination and pilgrimage First we must look on the Person that speaketh And we may peradventure wonder that he speaketh it that he who was as a God upon earth one of those whom God himself 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 speach of some one of the Rechabites who by their father Jonadab were forbidden to build houses Jer. 35 7. to sow seed to plant vineyards or to have any but all their lives to dwell in tents or of some one of the Essenes a Sect amongst the Jews who left the City and betook themselves to fields and mountains Nat. Hist l. 6. 1◠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 one of them of whom the Apostle speaketh Hebr. 11.38 that wandred in desarts and mountains in dens and caves of the earth or of some Ascetical Monk devoted and shut up in some cloyster or of some Anchorete shut up between two walls This speach 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 yielding 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 regardeth not this Rhetorick observeth not this art which indeed is made up but by the eye His method is è schola Coeli drawn out by that Wisedome which formed and fashioned us and knoweth whereof and what we are made And that which flesh and bloud counteth a soloecisme with him is the most exact propriety of language What with us is lookt upon as 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 maketh choice of a person to an eye of flesh most unlikely 1 Kings 18.33 as Elijah took water to kindle the fire upon the Lords Altar A King on the earth and a stranger on the earth 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 temporúmque Lords of the times and of all affairs and carry all before them 1 Sam. 8.11 c. This shall be the manner of the King saith Samuel He shall take your sons 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 striketh a terrour into us and putteth out 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 Eccl. 8.4 What dost 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 appeareth he is but a stranger Behold here the Kingly Prophet maketh it his profession layeth by the title of a King as guilty of a Misnomer and calls himself a Pilgrime And as in the darkness of Popery he that vowed a Pilgrimage either to our Lady or some other Saint to Rome or to Jerusalem did present himself before the Altar and then receive his Scrip and Staff so am I here this day occasioned by this Pilgrime this honoured Knight to exhort you to vow a Pilgrimage not to this or that Saint but to the King of Saints and this you may do and stay at home In your house and peivate closets this Pilgrimage is best vowed
the Truth hath no power at all over us we may look upon our selves as Temples dedicated to the Truth and yet we put it far from us These two evil Spirits then we must cast out before the Spirit of Truth will enter into us I shall now therefore shew the horrour and danger of them both that ye may eject them and so become fit merchants of the Truth I. Praejudicium est quod obstat futuro judicio saith the Civilians Prejudice is that which hindreth and keepeth off any further and future judgment It hath alwaies Pertinacie to accompany it which as a rock beateth back all those batteries which Reason can make The mind is so setled upon one conclusion that it looketh upon all others as false though they be true Dan. 6.8 12. Our own sentence is like the Law of the Medes and Persians unalterable We are resolved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher speaketh to hold fast our conclusion against all the strength of reason and argument that can be brought to the contrary This is in effect to do what the Spies did who were sent to view the land of Canaan Numb 13.32 to bring up an evil report of the Truth that we dare not venture to buy it this is to condemn the Truth and suffer no advocate to stand up and speak in its defense Nor indeed do we lie and labour so much under the rage of our Affections as under the tyranny of Prejudice For our Affections most commonly are blind and so without prejudice When they carry us along with violence we do not judge but chuse Vnicuique sua cupiditas tempestas est Every mans inordinate desire is not onely a wind to drive him forward but a tempest to wheel and whirl him about from errour to errour till a spirit of giddiness possess him that he cannot discern any thing as it is And as according to the common saying nulla tempestas diu durat no tempest is long but soon breatheth it self out so is it here the cloud of Passion is quickly blown over Gen. 27.41 44 45. Gen. 33.4 and then the eye is clear In his Wrath Esau will kill his brothor Jacob but when time had turned his fury away he became a brother again and ran to meet Jacob and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him and wept Then he would shed his brothers bloud now his own tears David's Lust brought him to a forbidden bed but the voice of a Prophet maketh him wash it with tears Fear made Peter deny and forswear his Master but the crowing of a cock and a look from Christ make him deny his denial and weep bitterly What is done out of Affection we do we know not how we do it and the greatest reason we have many times is because we do it If in passion we pass any judgment it is not long-lived but wasteth and decayeth and dieth with the passion But Prejudice is a rooted and lasting evil an evil we are jealous of because we think it good we build upon it as upon a foundation and he that but breatheth upon it that but looketh towards it appeareth as an enemy that cometh to dig it up Sometimes indeed Prejudice is raised in us by the Affections sometimes the Affections intermingle and interweave themselves with it but commonly the Affections come in the rear of Prejudice and follow as its effects and help to strengthen it We love him that is of our opinion because it is ours and we hate him that contradicteth it Upon the same reason we are afraid of every profer angry at every word that is spoken against it And this gathereth every conventicle mouldeth every sect coineth every heresy This is that Sword which our Saviour speaketh of Matth. 10.34 35 36. that divideth a man from his father and the daughter from her mother and maketh enemies of those who are of a mans own houshold This is that East wind which bringeth in those Locusts that cover the face of the Church Exod. 10 13 15 and make it dark and eat up all those fruits which we should gather Prejudice then doth suppose Judgment Judgment doth in a manner form it otherwise it could not be Prejudice Nor do we understand by Prejudice all judgment made and passed before-hand in the mind For such judgment may be true as well as false Nor would we so free the mind from Prejudice as to leave it unsetled and in doubt determining and concluding nothing For this were to cast out the soul it self by depriving it of Reason and Judgment which is the prime act and proper effect of Reason without which it cannot be an humane Soul We leave the mind free to judge but not so to dote on and deifie its own decree and determination as to fall down and worship it so to favour and fix upon it so to stand to it as to stand strong or rather stubborn against all those reasons that are fit and ready and may be brought to oppose and demolish it Nor do we hear mean those conclusions which are known and assented to as soon as they are tendred and presented to us which with their light overcome us and make us yield at the first sight as That we ought to worship God live honestly injure no man give every one that is his be grateful to our benefactors honour our parents and the like For here Prejudice hath no place In these our first judgment is our last because it must needs be right Once we determine and proceed no further But we understand those deductions and inferences which we make when we apply those known truths to particular practice which peradventure we may do with diligence and with the help and advice of others and yet not so build and establish our conclusions as to make them necessary everlasting and indisputable For a man may dishonour God when he thinketh he worshippeth him one may oppress his neighbour and call it justice be profane yet canonize himself for a Saint conclude one beholding to him whom he injureth be disobedient to his parents and think he honoureth them lift up his heel against his patrone and yet perswade himself that he exactly observeth all the rules of gratitude Here Prejudice may come in and be as a veil before our eyes that we cannot see the Truth which we should buy for our use which must needs withdraw it self when we worship our own imaginations when we conclude and rest upon that judgment as right which we have preconceived when we set up those reasons which peradventure we framed when we consulted with flesh and bloud against all that can be said to the contrary and precondemn all other judgment as false because it steppeth from this and cannot agree with it Suppose the first judgment in these be true yet is it no derogation from the Truth in this kind to be put to the question 2 Cor. 13.5 If we be in
so have our Desires theirs which is their end And here we have them both the Object of our Knowledge delivered first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a generality UT COGNOSCAM ILLUM That I may know him that is Christ secondly dilated and enlarged in two main particulars 1. Resurrection 2. his Passion In the one he beholdeth power in the other fellowship and communion which includeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conformity to his death Christ indeed is risen but he suffered first so must we be conformable to his death if we will feel the power of his resurrection So these three are most considerable 1. Christ 2. the power of his resurrection 3. the fellowship of his sufferings these are three rich Diamonds and if they be well set if we take the words in their true Syntaxis and joyn configuratus to cognoscam our conformity to his death to our knowledge of his sufferings and resurrection we shall place them right even so fix them in the Understanding part that they will reflect or cast a lustre on the Heart even such a lustre as will light us through the midst of rocks and difficulties unto the end here aimed at the Resurrection of the dead Of these then in their order Of the Object first then of the Nature of our Knowledge which will bring us to the End though beset with words of fear and difficulty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if by any means We begin I say with the Object in general That I may know him We begin with Christ who is Α and Ω the beginning and the ending From whom we have saith the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to live and to live well and to live for ever If we begin without him we run into endless mazes of errour and delusion every on-set is danger every step an overthrow And if we end not in him we end indeed but it is in misery without an end John 17.3 To know him is life eternal Then our Ignorance must needs be fatal and bring on a death as lasting For where can we be safe from the Deluge but in the Ark Where can we rest our feet but upon this Stone Where can we build but upon this Foundation For let Philosophie and the Law divide the world into Jew and Genâ—ile and then open those two great Books of God his Works and his Words and see the Philosopher hath so studied the Creature that he maketh his God one Rom. 1 23. and turneth his glory saith the Apostle into the similitude of corruptible Man nay into Birds and Beasts â—â—d Creeping things And the Jew's proficiency reached but so far as to know he was the worse for it On every letter he findeth gall and wormwood and the very bitterness of Death The Philosopher hath learned no more then this that he can be but happy here and the Jew that without a better guide he must be unhappy for ever Reason the best light the Heathen had could not shew them the unsteddy fluctuations of the mind the storms and tempests of the soul the weakness of nature and the dimness of her own light how faint her brightness is how she is eclipst with her own beams how Reason may behold indeed a supreme but not a saving Power because she will be Reason It is true the light of Reason is a light and from heaven too But every light doth not make it day nor is every star the Sun And though we are to follow this light which every man brought with him into the world yet if we look not on that greater Light the Sun of Righteousness which hath now spread his beams over the face of the earth we cannot but fall into the ditch even into the pit of destruction The light then of Reason will not guide us so far in the wayes of happiness as to let us know we stand in need of a surer guide and therefore the Gospel you know is called that wisdom which descended from above But now in the next place for the Jew Ye will say that the Law was the Law of God and so made to be a lantern to their feet and a light to their paths 'T is true it was so But the Apostle will tell us that by this light too we may miscarry as being not bright enough to direct us to our end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 7.18 because it giveth a weak and unprofitable light In the verse before my Text S. Paul seemeth to run away from it and utterly to renounce the Law not quoad substantiam not indeed in regard of the duties therein contained but quoad officium justificandi in that it could not justifie not make him perfect not lead him to his end It may threaten accuse contemn and kill and so in Scripture it is said to do And then what guilty person will sue for pardon from a dead letter which is inexorable We may say of the Law as S. Paul speaketh of the yearly sacrifice Heb. 10.1 that is did not make the comers thereto perfect but left behind it a conscience of sin not onely ex parte reatus a conscience that did testifie they sinned and affright them with the guilt but ex parte vindictae a conscience which questioned not onely their sin but their atonement and told them plainly that by the Law no man could be justified And therefore S. Chrysostom on that place will tell us In that the Jews did offer sacrifice it seemed they had conscience that accused them of sin but that they sacrificed continually argued that they had a conscience too which accused their sacrifice of imperfection Wherefore then served the Law The Apostle answereth well Gal. 3.19 It was added because of trangressions not to disannul the Covenant but as an attendant an additament as a glass to discover sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens The Law doth not beget sin for that it cannot do but manifest it Non est in speculo quod ostenditur I may shew you a Death's head in a glass but there is no such horrid substance there And the Law which is most perfect in it self may represent my wants unto me and make me flie to some richer Treasury for a supply Now to draw this home When both Lights fail when the Law of Nature is so dim that it cannot bring us to our journey's end and the Law written is as loud to tell us of our leasings as to direct us in our way what should we do but look up upon the Sun if righteousness Christ Jesus who came to improve and perfect Nature and who is the end of the Law and the end of our hopes and the end of our faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father calleth him that great Sabbath in which the Jew and the Gentile may rest in which the Father resteth as well pleased and the holy Ghost resteth in whom the Saints and Martyrs and the whole Church have
hoarcely as if they had lost their voice vvhen they faulter in their speech and speak in points of Divinity as Bassianus did vvhen he had slain his brother Geta ut qui malint intelligi quà m audiri as vvilling to be understood indeed but not to speak out and so cunningly disperse their doctrine that they may instruct their friends yet give no advantage to their enemies you may be sure the Heart is not warm nor really affected But vvhen vve speak vvith boldness vvhat vve have heard and seen vvhen vve cast down our gauntlet and stand in defense of the Truth against the vvorld vvhen neither Pharisee nor Divel can silence us but in omni praetorio in omni conscitorio in every judgment-seat in every consistory when Malice and Power come towards us in a tempest vve lift up our voice and dare speak for the Truth vvhen others dare persecute it it is an evident sign that a fire is kindled within us and we are warmed with it that vvith the Woman here vve see some excellencies in Christ some beauty and majesty in the Truth vvhich others do not whose lips are sealed up In a vvord to speak of Christ before the Pharisees to lift up our voice and speak of his name when for ought vve know it may be the last vvord vve shall speak to be true prophets amongst four hundred false ones vvhen the Pharisees call Christ Beelzebub to cry Hosanna to the Son of David to bless the womb that bare him and the paps that gave him suck vvhen others say he is a Samaritane and hath a devil is truly to make this devout Woman a patern to make that use of her voice which she did of Christs voice and of his miracle vvho could not contein her self nor keep silence but having received in her heart the lively character of Christs power and wisdome in the midst of his enemies in the midst of a multitude vvhen some reviled him and others vvere silent she lift up her voice and blessed the womb that bare him and the paps which gave him suck Which is her Diction our next part and should come now to be handled but the time being past vve shall reserve it for part of our task in the Afternoon The Four and Thirtieth SERMON PART II. LUKE XI 27 28. And it came to pass as he spake these things a certain woman of the company lift up her voice and said unto him Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps which thou hast sucked But he said Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it WE have already handled the circumstantial parts of the Text We are now to treat of the substantial the Womans speach and our Saviours We begin with the Womans Blessed is the womb that bare thee c. And that the mother of Christ was blessed we need not doubt For we have not onely the voice of this woman to prove it but the voice of an Angel Blessed art thou among women Luke 1.28 v. 31 32. and Thou hast found favour with God and shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son even the Son of the Highest And we have her cousins testimony in the very words of the Angel Blessed art thou amongst women v. 42. and blessed is the fruit of thy womb And we have the witness of a babe unborn who leaped in the womb prophetavit antequam natus est and spake this truth when he could not speak And indeed though the womb be not capable of true blessedness which all the privileges and prerogatives in the world of Birth or Honour or Wisdome or Strength cannot reach for neither the earth nor paradise it self can bring forth this fruit of Blessedness which is onely at the right hand of God who begins it here and compleats it in the highest heavens yet to be the Mother of Christ carries with it a kind of resemblance and likeness with that which is truly Blessedness For Blessedness is a state and condition in which is treasured up all the perfection which created substances are capable of all defects and imperfections which mingle themselves with the best things here on earth and taint and corrupt them being quite removed and taken away As if we seek for Pleasure we shall find it in Heaven both pure and fine from those dregs which do here invenom and imbitter it and make even Pleasure it self tedious and irksome If you would have honour here it is without burden Here are Riches and no fear of loosing them Here is Life without vexation here is Life without end This the Womb is not capable of yet we may see a representation of it in the Womb of the Virgin in the birth of our Saviour which was not ordinary but miraculous where she that brought the Child had the joy of a Mother and the honour of a Virgin had all things but the imperfection of a Mother I will not labour in this argument Thus far we may safely go All generations shall call her blessed and while we speak of the Mother in her own language and in the language of the Son we have truth and religion on our side But yet some there be who will not venture so far and though they allow her blessed yet bogle at the Saint as a name of danger and scandal and because others have drest her up toyishly with borrowed titles they do little less then rob her of her own and take it to themselves take it from the Mother of Christ and give it to a wicked and an adulterous generation Others on the contrary side by making her more then a Saint have made her an Idole They have placed her in the House of God as Mother of the family put into her hands the keys of Mercy to let in whom she please called her the Fountain of life the Mother of the living and the Raiser of the dead written books of her miraculous Conception and Assumption and of the Power and Majesty she hath in heaven Of which we may say as Pliny doth of the writings of the Magicians that they have been published non sinu contemptu irrisu generis humani not without a kind of contempt and derision of men not without this insolent thought that men would be so brutish as to approve and such fools as to believe whatsoever fell from the pen of such idle dreamers For thus without the least help of the breath of the Spirit and without any countenance from any syllable in the word of God they have lifted the holy Virgin up and seated her in Gods throne and every day plead her title in the very face of Christendome and as Tully spake of some superstitious frantick Philosophers quidvis malle videntur quà m se non ineptos they seem to affect and hug this gross and ungrounded errour and had rather be any thing then not be ridiculous But these extremes have men run upon whilest
they neglect that rule by which they were to walk the one upon the rock of Superstition the other as it oft falls out in disputes of this nature not onely from the errour they oppose but from the Truth it self which should be set up in its place Between these two we may walk safely and guide our selves by the Womans voice and the Angels voice and call her Blessed and Saint though not God and we may place her in heaven though we set her not in the throne BLESSED as the occasion of so much good For when we see a clear and sylver stream we bless the Fountain And for the glory and quickning power of the beams some have made a God of the Sun Whatsoever presents it self unto us in beauty or excellency doth not onely take and delight us but in the midst of wonder forceth our thoughts to look back to the coasts from whence it came For Virtue is not onely glorious in it self but casts a lustre back upon generations past and makes them blessed it blesseth the times wherein it acts it blesseth the persons wherein it is and it blesseth all relations to those persons and the neerest most We often find in Scripture famous men and women mentioned with their relations Arise Barak thou son of Abinoam Blessed shal Jael be Judg. 5. the wife of Heber the Kenite David the son of Jesse Solomon the son of David Blessed was Abraham who begat Isaac and blessed was Isaac who begat Jacob and then thrice blessed was she who brought forth the Blessing of the world JESVS CHRIST a Saviour Therefore was Barrenness accounted a curse in Israel because they knew their Messias was to be born of a woman but did not know what woman should bring him forth Again if it be a kind of curse to beget a wicked son or as Solomon did the foolishness of the people Eccl. 47.23 The Historian observes that many famous men amongst the Romans either died childless or left such children behind them that it had been better their name had quite been blotted out and they had left no posterity And speaking of Tully who had a drunken and a sottish son he adds Huic soli melius fuerat liberos non habere It had been better for him to have had no child at all then such an one Who would have his name live in a wanton intemperate sâ—t who would have his name live in a betrayer of his countrey in a bloudy tyrant If this curse reflect upon those who have been dead long ago and is doubled on the living who look upon those whom they call affectus their affections and caritates their love as their greatest grief and torment then certainly a great blessing and glory it is for a parent to have a virtuous child in whom he every day may behold not onely his own likeness but the image of God which shines in the face of every looker on and fills their hearts with delight and their mouths with blessings If it be a tyrant a Nero we wish the doors of his mothers womb had been shut up Job 3.10 and so sorrow and trouble hid from our eyes Ventrem feri saith the mother her self to the Centurion who was sent to kill her Strike strike this cursed belly that brought forth that monster But if it be a Father of his country if it be a wise just and merciful Prince if he be a Titus we bless the day wherein he was born we celebrate his Nativity and make it a holy-day and we bless the rock from whence he was hewen the very loynes from whence he came And therefore to conclude this we cannot but commend both the Affection of this Woman and her Speech the one great and the other loud For the greatness the intention of the affection is not evil so the cause be good and it cannot move too fast if it do not erre If the sight of virtue and wisdome strike this heat in us it is as a fire from heaven in our bowels And such was this womans affection begot in her by Wisdome and Power and both Divine It rose not from any earthly respect secular pomp or outward glory but she hearing Christs gracious words and seeing the wonders which he did the fire kindled and she spake with her tongue And she still speaketh that we may behold the same finger of God as efficacious and powerful in Christ to cast out the devil out of us the devil which is dumb that we may speak his praises and the devil that is deaf that we may hearken to his words the devil that is a serpent that we may lay aside all deceit the devil that is a lyon that we may lay aside all malice the devil that wicked one that we may be freed from sin that so we may put on the affection of this Woman and with her lift up our voice and say Blessed is the womb that bare Christ and the paps which he sucked And further we carry not this consideration We come next to our Saviours gentle Corrective IMO POTIUS Yea rather And this Yea rather comes in seasonably For the eye is ready to be dazled with a lesser good if it be not diverted to a greater as he will wonder at a storm that never saw the Sun We stay many times and dwell with delight upon those truths which are of lesser alloy and make not any approch towards that which is saving and necessary we look upon the excellencies of Christ and find no leisure to fall down and worship him we become almost Christians and come not to the knowledge of that truth which must save us and make us perfect men in Christ Jesus The Philosopher will tell us that he that will compare two things together must know them both What glory hath Riches to him who hath not seen Virtue as Plato would have her seen naked and not compassed about and disguised with difficulties disgraces and hardships What a brightness hath Honour to bind that hath not tasted of the Favour of God What a Paradise is carnal pleasure to him that a good Conscience never feasted What a substance is a Ceremony to him that makes the Precepts of the Law but shadows How doth he rely on a Priviledge who will not do his duty How blessed a Thing doth she think it to bring forth a Son that can work miracles who knows not what it is to conceive him in her heart who can save her Therefore it is the method of Wisdome it self to present them both unto us in their just and proper weight not to deny what is true but to take off our thoughts and direct them to something better that we may not dote so long on the one as to neglect and cast off the other From wondring at his Miracles Christ calleth us to the contemplation of the greatest miracle that was ever wrought the Redemption of a sinner from his Miracles to his Word for
us to bliss But when the Will is subdued and made obedient to the Truth then Gods precepts which are from heaven heavenly fill the soul with a joy of the same nature not gross and earthy but refined and spiritual a joy that is the pledge and the earnest as the Apostle calls it of that which is to come When the Will is thus subject and framed and fashioned according to the rule and pattern which God hath drawn it cloths it self as it were with the light of heaven which is the original of this chast delight Then what a pearl is Wisdome what glory is in poverty what honour in persecution what a heaven in obedience Then how sweet are thy words unto my tast Psal 119.103 yea sweeter then honey unto my mouth saith David In quibus operamur in illis gaudemus for such as the work is such is the joy A work that hath its rise and original from heaven a work drawn out according to the law which is the will of God begun in an immortal soul and wrought in the soul promoted by the Spirit of God and the ministery of Angels and breathing it self forth as myrrh or frankincense amongst the children of men will cause a joy like unto it self a true and solid joy having no deceit no carnality no inconstancy in it a beam from heaven kindled and cherisht by the same Spirit a joy which receives no taint nor diminution from those sensible evils which to those that keep not Gods word are as Hell it self and the onely Hell they think of but giving a relish and sweetness to that which were not evil if we did think it so making Poverty Disgrace and Death it self as fewel to foment and increase it upholding us in misery strengthning us in weakness and at the hour of death and in the day of judgment streaming forth into the ocean of eternal Happiness Blessedness invites attends and waits upon Obedience and yet Obedience ushereth it in being illix misericordiae it inviteth Gods Mercy and draws it so near as to bless us and it makes the blessing ours not ex rigore justitiae according to the rigour of justice as I call that mine which I buy with my money For no obedience can equal the reward And what can the obedience of a guilty person merit but ex debito promissi according to Gods promise by which he hath as it were entailed Blessedness on those who hear his word and keep it Hebr. 6.10 and God is not unrighteous to forget our work and labour of love Oh let neither our obedience swell and puff us up as if God were our debtor nor let us be so afraid of merit as not to keep Gods word Let not our anger against Papists transform us into Libertines and let us not so far abominate an errour in judgment as to fall into a worse in practice let us not cry down Merit and carry a Pope nay Hell it self along with us whithersoever we go Let us not be Papists God forbid And God forbid too that we should not be Christians Let us rather move like the Seraphims which having six wings covered their face with the uppermost Isa 6.2 and not daring to look on the majesty of God and covered their feet with the lowest as acknowledging their imperfection in respect of him but flew with those in the midst ready to do his will Let our obedience be like unto theirs Let us tremble before God and abhor our selves but between these two let the middle wings move which are next to the Heart and let our hearty Obedience work out its way to the end For conclusion Let us not look for Blessedness in the land of darkness amongst shades and dreams and wandring unsetled phantasmes Phansie is but a poor petard to open the gates of heaven with Let us not deceive our selves To call our selves Saints will not make us Saints to feign an assurance will not seal us up to the day of redemption Presumption doth but look towards Blessedness whilst Disobedience works a curse and carries us irrecoverably into the lowest pit What talk we of the imputed righteousness of Christ when we have none of our own what boast we of Gods grace when we turn it into wantonness The imputed righteousness of Christ is that we stand to when we are full of all iniquity and this we call appearing in our elder brothers robes and apparel that as Jacob did we may steal away the blessing Thus the Adulterer may say I am chast with Christs chastity the Drunkard I am sober with Christs temperance the Covetous I am poor with Christs poverty the Revenger I am quiet with Christs meekness he that doth not keep his word may keep his favour and if he please every wicked person may say that with Christ he is crucified dead and buried As Calvisius Sabinus in Seneca thought he did do himself what any of his Servants did if his servant were a good Poet he was so if his servant were well-limb'd he could wrestle if his servant were a good Grammarian he could play the Critick And so if Christ fasted fourty dayes and fourty nights we fast as long though we never abstain from a meal If Christ conquered the devil when he tempted him we also are victorious though we never resist him If Christ opened not his mouth when he was haled to the slaughter we also are as sheep though we open our mouth as a sepulchre And therefore as Seneca speaks of that rich man Nunquam vidi hominem indecentius I never saw a man whose Happiness did less become him so most true it is This obedience is but an unbeseeming garment because it had no other artificer but the Phantasie to spin and work and make it up Beloved if we keep God's word he will keep his and impute righteousness to us though we have sinned and come short of the Glory of God! What talk we of applying the promises which he may do who is an enemy to the cross of Christ If we keep his word the promises will apply themselves And indeed applying of the promises is not a speculative but a practick thing an act rather of the Will then of the Understanding When the Will of man is subject to the will of God this dew from heaven will fall of it self Vpon them that walk according to the rule shall be mercy and peace and upon the Israel of God To conclude If we put on the Lord Jesus if we put him on all his Righteousness his Obedience his Love his Patience that is if we keep his word he will find his Seal upon us by which he will know us to be his and in this his likeness he will look upon us with an eye of favour bless us here with joy and content and so fit and prepare us for everlasting blessedness at the end of the world when he shall pronounce to all that have kept his word that blessed
done we never set a finger to the work But the Emphasis is here in the Object Be ye followers of me and as many as with me follow Christ All the Saints of God are a copy for a Christian to take out And he is scarce a good Christian who though he attain not to it striveth not to be as good as nay better then the best There are no bounds set to our Coveting the best gifts none to this holy Ambition For can we be too like Christ Can we come too near heaven Who would not be the happiest in heaven and therefore who should not be the best on earth It is good to look over this Paradise and pick the choicest flowers As the Orator telleth us that he that will attain to the sublimity and majesty of speech must fansie to himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how Demosthenes or Plato or Thucydides would have spoken upon such a subject so should we in the wayes of Christianity contemplate with our selves what St. Paul or St. Peter or some other of the blessed Martyrs would have done in such a case Would they have turned the back in the day of battel or have spoke or sworn against their conscience at the sight of a glittering Sword Would they have strook sail at every Pirat's threat How did they pray and fast and endeavour towards the end What Resolution was there in one what meekness in another what Patience in a third what Perseverance in all Quid ergò non satis est sic omnia facere quemadmodum Paulus fecit Quintilian asketh the question of Tully and I of St. Paul more famous for Piety then he for Eloquence Is it not enough to do all things as St. Paul did and make him our patern Yes certainly And he maketh a glorious on-set that doth but seriously attempt But as he there goeth on it will be very advantageous in the wayes of Eloquence to imitate the force and vigour of Caesar the acuteness of Caelius the diligence of Pollio and the judgement of Calvus So must we look upon St. Paul and withall take notice of the particular vertues of other holy men of God and it well be our spiritual wisdom to make that our own which is best in every man This is that commendable diligence which Nazianzene admired in great Athanasius that he placed before his eyes Moses and Aaron and Samuel and Elias and other men of God and culled out the Meekness of one the Zele of another the Constancy of a third aliorum multa aliorum omnia many vertues from some all from others and so made up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one specious and glorious image of goodness This honour have all Gods Saints Though we may not worship them or pray unto them This were to dishonour not onely that God who crowned them but themselves also for Honour where it is not due is a kind of contumely yet this honour we must give them to follow them on the same ladder by which they ascended up to heaven By this we raise them as it were from the dead again we revive their memories we personate them in the world and act their parts Our actions are the resultances of theirs our praises the echos of their songs and our selves the living pictures of the Saints Nor can any scruple here arise to deter us For though we are offended with their Pictures we need not startle at their Piety Though we will not be Idolaters God forbid we should yet we must be Saints Though we fall not down and worship them yet we must follow them Though there be no profit in their dust yet there may be in their memory Though they hear us not yet we may hear of them with delight and advantage and hear them calling us out of the world to that bliss which they enjoy Though we may not worship their dead bones yet we are bound to imitate their piety and goodness which are verae Sanctorum reliquiae as Cassander speaketh the true relicks of the Saints Nec parva virtus Dei amicos sic honorare saith the Father And it is no small vertue thus to honour the Saints and friends of God For those that thus honour them God will honour everlastingly And thus much be spoken concerning the Use and Benefit of Example and also of the Object here St. Paul and under his name all the Saints of God In whom we must behold that which made them Saints and take it out and express it in our selves that we also may deserve that name We should now descend to take notice of the Abuse of Examples Which we may avoid by having Christ in our eye as well as the Saints Be ye followers of me but then it followeth even as I also am of Christ But let us first make some use of that which hath already been spoken And first let us with thankful hearts lay hold on those helps and means which God hath fairly offered and setteth up in our way to forward us in our passage unto bliss to kindle and revive our hope to strengthen our weak hands and feeble knees that we may run the wayes of Gods commandments which to flesh and bloud are rugged and unpleasant full of rubs and difficulties And why should we despair to trace those paths which so many have trod before us or reach that glory which so many have already attained Heaven was not made for St. Paul alone but for as many as will be like him It is true the Grace of God is sufficient for us nor can we magnifie it enough if we understand what we say But to talke of the Grace of God and not make use of it is to be an enemy to it This is to cry Hosanna to the Son of David and then to crucifie him We have the Grace of God to stir and move us but not to carry us by violence into heaven We have his promises of Peace and Eternal life and that is a Grace We have the ministry of the Angels who do many good offices for us to this end though we perceive it not and this is a Grace a favour For Grace and favour are all one And we have the ministery of Men who either went before us or are our companions in our way and this is a Grace Grace worketh in us by means by the Word by Promises by the ministry of Angels and by the ministry of Men by their Doctrine and by their Ensample And having such a wide open and effectual door Grace doth lead but will not thrust us in And therefore let us glorifie God for his Grace by making use of it by hearkning what the Lord God will say though he speak unto us by men like unto our selves subject to the same passions and infirmities Let us not loath the water of life when it is conveyed to us in earthen vessels but think that God speaketh to us by St. Paul and by all the Saints that he speaketh to us
them nay the very same the Faith that must qualifie and prepare us for Christ's second coming must be like his coming full of glory and power must shake the powers of the Grave must awake those that sleep must demolish Sin must make us like unto Christ not onely in his passion but also in his rising from the dead must be to us as the trump of God to call us out of our graves not fides inermis a weak and unarmed faith which hath neither buckler nor sword which can neither defend nor strike a stroke but is well content to stand by and see our Saviour fight it out but fides pugnax a faith armed against the day of trial that can fight it out against principalities and powers and against all the fearful signs which shall be set up and fides vincens a faith that overcometh the world and the love of the world and fides triumphans a faith that every day triumpheth over Sin and the Devil maketh a shew of them openly and manifesteth it self to God to Angels to men This Faith hath a clear and strong eye and can look upon these terrible signs By this faith Christ doth dwell in our hearts and if Christ dwell there Ephes 3.17 he bringeth with him courage and resolution How fit is he to behold the Sun darkned who hath this light in him to see the falling of the Stars who hath this bright Morning-star fixed in his heart And what if the world end if he be with him who is the Begining and the End This Faith will make us fit to behold any object will settle us in the knowledge of the providence of God of which we had before but certain confused notions little better then dreams This Faith is like the Emperour 's large Emerald in which he beheld wars and ruine slaughter and desolation whose colour tempered the object and made it appear less terrible then it was This Faith heareth a voice from heaven speaking to the whole host and army of calamities to all these fearful signs which shall usher in the end of the world as David did concerning Absalom Do the young man no harm Do my anointed my peculiar people no harm In a word this Faith will stay with us will wait and attend us in the midst of all this tumult and confusion And when the powers of heaven are shaken and the elements melt with fire and the world is ready to be dissolved it will bring us good news of help at hand Fear you not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. For this Faith alwaies bringeth with it Repentance which is another end why we are called upon to behold these things For that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that long-suffering of God's which calleth us to repentance improveth and increaseth the means as we increase our hardness The more heavy our sleep is in sin the more noise and stir God maketh to awake us After we have spent our estate amongst harlots and fed with swine yet if we return he will receive us If we will not behold and consider him when he shineth upon our tabernacles yet if we fall down before him when these signs appear when he cometh with a tempest round about him then he will receive us When the world regardeth us not when it frowneth upon us when it is ready to be dissolved yet if we return he will receive us In wars and rumours of wars when the Sun is darkened and the Moon turned into bloud yet if we return he will receive us Never was the world so full of wickedness as in this last age of it for as our forefathers went before us in time so do we before them in iniquity And therefore were there never greater means to reclaim it So that this time of judgement is a time of mercy wherein Mercy even whilest Justice holdeth up the sword whilest she is striking spreadeth her wing and waiteth till we come under the shadow of it And these signs if we will behold them as we should and make them so may be signs of the dissolution of the body of Sin as vvell as of the frame of the Universe For the long-suffering of God is repentance saith S. Peter and will bring forth the fruits of it if it be not abused and hindered And the destruction of a sinner is never so absolutely decreed by God but that there is still hope of recovery even then when his foot is upon the very brink of death and desolation Let him then pull back and return to his God and he shall find that with him there is mercy and plentiful redemption Behold I have told you before And I have told you that you may behold and consider it that you may excutere veternum awake from that sleep in which security and self-love have lulled you that you may quicken your faith and perfect and complete your repentance and so be signed with these signs that the Spirit may sign and seale you to the day of redemption And this is the compasse of the Ecce And in this compasse we may walk and behold these signes behold them with a watchful eye with a believing eye with a repentant eye washing off all their malignity with tears These are the several rayes of consideration And if we thus behold these signs we shall be also fitted and prepared to meet Christ at his second coming Being thus qualified we shall look upon all the ill-boding calamities in the world which appear unto us in a shape of terrour as upon so many John Baptists telling us that the Kingdome of heaven is at hand we shall-look upon Death when he cometh towards us on his pale horse and not fear him we shall look upon the Son of man when he cometh towards us with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and it shall be as musick to us For he hath promised that where he is we shall be also and he hath made death and these signes and the dissolution of the world it self a promise For if we should not dye if the world should not be dissolved we could not enjoy the promise But when these signs shall usher him in when he shall come again then shall he free us from the yoke and harrow from oppression and tyranny Then the meek shall be higher then the proud and Lazarus richer then Dives Then that bloudy hypocrite which called himself a Saint shall have his portion with the Devil and his Angels and the innocent the despised condemned innocent shall look up and lift up his head Then though the heavens be shaken he shall stand fast as Mount Sion though the sea roar he shall be at peace though the Stars fall his heart shall be fixed Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinae And when the Son of man shall come in the clouds he shall be ready to meet him and when the heavens shall be gathered
the mother such is the daughter As after pride cometh a fall so after this glorying cometh shame And indeed they are both built up upon the same materials upon thin and aiery speculations and they feed on shadows instead of meat as the Chameleons do on air Vilia popularis aurae mancipia they suck and draw in the breath of popular applause which turneth oftner then the wind is now loud in an Hosanna and anon louder in a Crucifige now maketh Gods and then stoneth them And as they feed on air so are they made out of air the ebullitions and resultances of formalities and shews and outward performances A truly pious mind keepeth at home in it self is modest and silent Deo solo contentus judice feasteth on a good conscience is ambitious of no eye but his that seeth all things desireth no other Euge but his Of Mortification of Fighting with our selves of Denying our selves of bridling our Anger of quenching our Lusts of composing our Affections there is little noise in the world unless it be in our pulpits as little noise as practice but Fasting and Prayer and Alms busie not the mind so much as the tongue and as we bring them forth with no great travel and pain so we love to see them gracious in mens eyes and to reflect back upon us with honour I fast twice in the week must be writ in the forehead of a Pharisee that men may see it and learn to call him Rabbi Rabbi He is his own chronicle his own history and the multitude must read and applaud it Therefore our Saviour putteth in a caution When ye fast look not sowre as the hypocrites Matth. 6.16 for they disfigure their faces that they may seem to men to fast Verily I say unto you they have their reward Now in the third place these two Pride and Vain-glory usher in Hypocrisie They are augmentum sterilitatis simulationis janua As they bring a leanness into the soul and a barrenness of good works for what doth he bring forth that is delivered of a shadow so they make up that gate which standeth wide open to let in Hypocrisie For he that lifteth his head on high he that would have his name carried about by the breath of the people he that would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some great one will fill up that greatness though it be but with shews and though he be not yet will he seem to be that for which he desireth to be pointed at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the great faster This is the devout man This will make some sound and noise which may echo back upon him Nay Hypocrisie is more curious and busie many times then the Truth it self It hath nothing and yet seemeth to have more of Religion then that which is truly so So a Parasite is wont to exceed a friend a Mountebank to promise more then a Physician a Sophister to be more grave then a Philosopher a babler more formal then a Divine and a Pharisee more strict and severe then a Disciple of Christ Hypocrisie and Ostentation with the Orator are all one We read of Nero who was a great actor on the stage that representing the madness and fury of Hercules and being as the argument of the Fable required bound with chains a certain souldier beholding him thought he had been assaulted with violence and ran to his rescue So hath every age afforded us some skilfull actors of their parts Kings that are but slaves Prophets that are but impostors and Saints that are but images who can rage in their zeal and poure forth bitter imprecations when themselves are that execrable thing that should be put away who censure all condemn what is best shake that which should stand and set up a Babel on the ruines of Jerusalem And all this is performed with that earnestness and life that standers by not so cunning but even as wise as themselves never once deliberate or ask the question Are these things so but conclude that it is so in truth and so run in with as great fury to assist them and never discover that it was fraud and cruelty and oppression that made the noise that it was not Hercules but the Tyrant that acted his part For the people who are but shadows are much taken with shews ex veritate pauca ex opinione multa aestimant they are not led by the Truth but turned about upon Opinion as on a wheel For bring an actor from the school of Statilius saith Tully and though he excell even Roscious himself yet no man will take the pains to behold him but let one come from Roscius's school and spectators will flock to him although he be far worse then Statilius Vulgus pessimus veritatis interpres The common people are the most corrupt interpreters of truth for they look upon it and call it Error They make Saints and Reprobates at pleasure and will canonize a man of Belial if he be of their humour and faction when they set the mark of the Beast upon him who maketh conscience of his wayes and is so good that he cannot be like them Therefore ambitious and vain-glorious men were alwayes great flatteres of the people and still gave them lettice fit for their lips The Pharisee is for the streets and the multitude there you shall behold him spreading his phylacteries an large I fast twice in the week his Doxology is fitted for himself Ego runneth through his whole Litany Thrice is the glory is not in his Pater noster And if truth may expound it I fast by interpretation is I am proud I am vain-glorious I am an hypocrite From the Pharisee's Fast we may draw out this useful observation That an outward act though enjoyned by God and though to the eye of man most exactly performed if it proceed not from a pure and single heart if it be not driven to that end for which it was commanded is so far from finding acceptance with God that it is odious and hateful in his sight Some duties there are which are relativi juris and are commanded for a further end as Prayer and Hearing and Fasting and the like and there be others that have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaketh of Sapience their end in themselves as Denying our selves Crucifying the old man Putting on the new Piety and Sincerity all these are done for themselves and have no other end unless it be glory The first alwayes have reference to the last We pray and hear and fast that we may be fitter for the harder works If we pray as we should the power and efficacy of prayer followeth and assisteth us in our daily conversation If we hear as we should we shall obey If we fast as we should we shall abstain from sin What though we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 buffet and discipline our flesh what though we should what Dominicus Loricatus is said to have done
vanity or the next business will drive it away and take its place Nor let us make a room for it in our Phansie For it is an easie matter to think we are free when we are in chains Who is so wicked that he is not ready to persuade himself he is just And that false persuasion too shall go for the dictate of the Holy Ghost Paganism it self cannot shew such monsters as many of them are who call themselves Saints But let us gird up our loins and be up and doing the work those works of piety which the Gospel injoyneth It is Obedience alone that tieth us to God and maketh us free denisons of that Jerusalem which is above In it the Beauty the Liberty the Royalty the Kingdom of a Christian is visible and manifest For by it we sacrifice not our Flesh but our Will unto God and so have one and the same will with him and if we have his will we have his power also and his wisdom to accompany it and to to fulfil all that we can desire or expect Servire Deo regnare est To serve God is to reign as Kings here and will bring us to reign with him for evermore Let us then stand fast in our obedience which is our liberty against all the wiles and invasions of the enemy all those temptations which will shew themselves in power and craft to remove us from our station In a calm to steer our course is not so difficult but when the tempest beateth hard upon us not to dash against the rock will commend our skill Every man is ready to build a tabernacle for Christ when he is in his glory but not to leave him at the Cross is the glory and crown of a Christian And first let us not dare a temptation as Pliny dared the vapour at Mount Vesuvius and died for it Let us not offer and betray our selves to the Enemy For he that affecteth and loveth danger is in the ready way to be swallowed up in that gulf Valiant men saith the Philosopher are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quiet and silent before the combat but in the trial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ready and active But audacious daring men are commonly loud and talkative before encounters but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flag and fail in them The first weigh the danger and resolve by degrees the other are peremptory and resolve suddenly and talk their resolution away It is one thing to talk of a tempest at sea another to discourse of it leaning against a wall It is one thing to dispute of pain another to feel it Grief and Anguish hath not such a sting in the Stoicks gallery as it hath on the rack For there Reason doth fight but with a shadow and a representation here with the substance it self And when things shew themselves naked as they are they stir up the affections When the Whip speaketh by its smart not by my phansie when the Fire is in my flesh not my understanding when temptations are visible and sensible then they enter the soul and the spirit then they easily shake that resolution which was so soon built and soon beat down that which was made up in haste Therefore let us not rashly thrust our selves upon them But in the second place let us arm and prepare our selves against them For Preparation is half the conquest It looketh upon them handleth and weigheth them before hand seeeth where their great strength lieth and goeth forth in the power of the Spirit and in the name of Christ and so maketh us more then conquerers before the sight And this is our Martyrdom in peace For the practice of a Christian in the calmest times must nothing differ in readiness and resolution from times of rage and fire As Josephus speaketh of the military exercises practised amongst the Romans that they differed from a true battel only in this that their battel was a bloudy exercise and their exercise a bloudless battel So our preparation should make us martyrs before we come to resist ad sanguinem to shed a drop of bloud To conclude as the Apostle exhorteth let us take unto us the whole armour of God that we may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand to stand against the horrour of a prison against the glittering of the sword against the terrour of death to stand as expert souldiers of Christ and not to forsake our place to stand as mount Sion which cannot be moved in a word to be stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord. For whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed The Seven and Fortieth SERMON PART VII JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed TO Persevere or continue in the Gospel and To be blessed for ever are the two stages of a Christian the one here on earth the other in heaven and there is scarce a moment but a last breath between them nothing but a mouldering and decaying wall this tabernacle of flesh which falleth down suddenly and then we pass and enter And that we may persevere and continue means are here prescribed first assiduous Meditation in this Law we must not be forgetful hearers of it but look into it as into a glass vers 23 24. yet not as a man that beholdeth his natural face in a glass and then goeth away and forgetteth himself not as a man who looketh carelesly casteth an eye and thinketh no more of it but rather as a woman who looketh into her glass with intention of mind with a kind of curiosity and care stayeth and dwelleth upon it fitteth her attire and ornaments to her by a kind of method setteth every hair in its proper place and accurately dresseth and adorneth her self by it And sure there is more care and exactness due to the soul then to the body Secondly that we may continue and persevere we must not only hear and remember but do the work For Piety is confirmed by Practice To these we may now add a third which hath so near a relation to Practice that it is even included in it and carrried along with it And it is To be such students in Christ's School as S. Paul was Acts 24.16 To study and exercise our selves to have alwayes a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Not to triflle with our God or play the wanton with our Conscience Not to displease and wound her in one particular with a resolution to follow her in the rest Not to let our love of the world or fear of danger make that a truth which we formerly
it requireth no more at our hands for the obtaining of eternity of bliss but this Faith this persuasion If so be we be holy and innocent and remain in this Law and by this faith overcome the world BLESSEDNES then is as the Sun and looketh and shineth on all putteth life in the Law raiseth our Perfection begetteth and upholdeth our Liberty maketh Conscience quick and lively either to affright or joy us either to seourge or feast us If in this life onely we had hope our faith were vain nay this Law the Gospel were vain And therefore in every storm and tempest under the shadow and wings of this Hope we find shelter We flie for refuge saith the Apostle to lay hold upon the hope which is sâ—t before us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We flie out of the world a shop of vanity and uncertainty the region of changes and chances to this Hope as to an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast which cannot deceive us if we lay hold on it for it entereth into that within the veil and so is firm and safe fastened on this Blessedness as an anchor that reacheth to the bottom and sticketh fast in the ground Blessedness upholdeth and setleth our Hope and on our Hope our Obedience is raised to reach that Blessedness on which our Hope is setled In a word Blessedness like Christ himself is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first and the last the end and yet the first mover of us in those wayes which lead unto it Christiano coelum antè patuit quà m via Heaven is opened to a Christian and then the way And he that walketh in it shall enter in he that doeth the work shall be blessed in it Now BEATUS ERIT He shall be blessed may either look upon this span or upon that immeasurable space of eternity And it is true in both both here where we converse with Men and Misery and there where we shall have the company of Seraphim and Cherubim and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth Here we have something in hand there the accomplishment some ears we have we shall have the whole sheaf Here we have one part of Blessedness peace of conscience there remaineth the greater the reversion in the highest heavens As Christ said of the two Commandements This is the great Blessedness and the other is like unto it that Joy which is the resultance of every good work which we call our Heaven upon earth That which is to come is a state of perfection an aggregation of all that is truly good without the least tincture and shew of evil as Boethius speaketh This cannot be found here on earth in the best Saint whose joy and peace is sometimes interrupted for a while by the gnawings of some sin or other which overtaketh him or by the sight of imperfection which will not suffer his joy to be full The best peace on earth may meet with disturbance Therefore Peace is found alone in the most perfect Good even God himself who is Perfection it self whose delight and paradise is in his own bosom Which he openeth and out of which he poureth a part of it on his creature and of which we do in a manner take possession when we look into and remain in the perfect Law of Liberty which is an emanation from him a beam of that Law which was with God from all eternity and by which as we are made after the image so are we transformed after the similitude of God which Plato himself calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assimilation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 union with God In whom alone those two powers of the soul those two Horseleaches which ever cry Give Give the Understanding which is ever drawing new conclusions and the Will which is ever pursuing new objects have their eternal sabbath and rest He that doeth the work shall be blessed in the work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this man and none but this shall be blessed So then this is the conclusion That Evangelical Obedience the constant observation of this Law of Liberty of the doctrine of Faith and Good works is the onely and immediate way to Blessedness For not the hearers of the word but the doers shall be justified saith S. Paul And indeed there is no way but this For First God hath fitted us to this Law and this Law to us He hath fitted us for this heavenly treasure For can we imagine that God did thus build us up and stamp his own Image upon us that we should be an habitation for owles and satyres Rom. 12 3. for wild and brutish imaginations that he did give us Understandings to forge deceit to contrive plots to find out an art of pleasure a method and craft of enjoying that which is but for a season that he did give us Wills to wait upon the Flesh which fighteth against the Spirit and his Image which is in us Was the Soul made immortal for that which passeth away as a shadow and is no more or hath he given us dominion over the beasts of the field that we should fall and perish with them No We are ad majora nati born mortal but to eternity And we carry an argument about us against our selves if we remain not in this Law For take it in credendis in those conclusions which it commendeth to our Faith though Faith indeed in respect of the remoteness of its object and its elevation be above Nature yet in the soul God hath left a capacity to receive it and if the other condition of persevering in it did not lie heavy upon the flesh the brutish part we should be readier scholars in our Creed then we are If we could hate the world we should soon be in heaven If we could embrace that which we cannot but approve our Infidelity and Doubtings would soon vanish as the mist before the Sun S. Augustine hath observed it in his book De Religione that multitudes of good moral men especially the Platonicks came in readily and gave up their names unto Christ The Moral man did then draw on the Christian But now I know not how the Christian is brought in to countenance those who deserve another name But then for the Agenda and precepts of practice They are as the seed and the Heart of man the earth the Matrix the womb to receive them And they are so proportioned to our Reason that they are no sooner seen but approved they bring as it were of near alliance and consanguinity with those notions and principles which we brought with us into the world Onely those are written in a book these in the heart indeed the one are but a commentary on the other What precept of Christ is there which is not agreeable and consonant to right Reason Doth he prescribe Purity The heart applaudeth it Doth he bless Meekness The mind of man soon sayeth Amen Doth he enjoyn Sobriety We soon subscribe
mind whence 554. Men love to hide their sins and to make shew of their good deeds 167 168. Man is never free but while he is obedient to Law 1100 c. v. Liberty How Man is Lord of all his actions 257. Man ever laid open to tentations how and why 280. Few Men fully perswaded of their mortality 250 251. Manichees 8. 165. 171. 412. 705. 752. Many v. Multitude Marcion 8 9. 21. 23. 246. 390. 412. 808. Marie the Mother of our Lord a blessed person 985. Some will not call her Saint 986. Others make her more 986. Mark xiv 36. expounded 25. Marriage v. Husband Perfection may be had as well in a Married as in a single life 1090. The inconveniencies of Marriage nothing so dangerous as Sin 1090. Martyrdome An excellent encomium of it 754. How to be armed for Martyrdome 192. A good life and a good cause go to the making of a Martyr 705. Their gallant and triumphant carriage in their sufferings 26. 568 569. Fear of hell made them so couragious 391. v. Sufferings Every Christian is designed to Martyrdome 573. There may be a Martyrdome before Martyrdome 82. The Devil and Errour have their Martyrs as well as God and the Truth 704 705. 912. Some slain for throwing down Images not allowed the title of Martyrs 215. Massalians 705. Mass-book Some condemn some truths because they are in the Mass-book 671. Masters of families Their Duty 545. Mathematicks No such certainty to be looked for in Ethicks as in M. 1015. Matth. v. 22 28 32 34 39 44. 1079. ¶ 48. 1087. how eluded 690. ¶ vi 25 34. 222. ¶ vii 12. 127. ¶ viii 26. 314. ¶ x. 16. 130. ¶ xi 30. 481. ¶ xxii 30. 939. ¶ xxiv Christ's Sermon in this chapter concerning the signes of his second coming nearly concerneth us 1042 1043. Matrimonie and Virginity weighed together 1090. Meaning A good Meaning or intention a poor excuse for sin 443. 447 448. Means v. End Many gaze and dote on the Means and regard not the end 988 989. Means if not made good use of turne to our great disadvantage 424. 555. Measures v. Weights Meats now under the Gospel may be indifferently used or not used 1098. Mecenas 383. Mechanick A witless etymon of the word 522. Meddling with other mens matters reproved 212. 640 641. It is against not onely the laws of Christianity 213. but also the method of Nature 214 216. Meddling busy-bodies are enemies to others and themselves also 215. They are ridiculous and prodigious 216. Idleness is the root of this vice 218. Meditation on good things how advantageous 206. 691. It is to be seconded by Practice 207. Meditation what 597. 1107. Memorie Of the Memorie 828. What a gratious efficacie the Memorie of God's Mercy hath upon the soul 828 829. Our Memories are apt to forget God's mercies and have need of reviving 589. 596. ¶ What care vvas taken to preserve the Memorie of the Saints 1019. Mercy praised 138. 147. It is an inseparable companion of Justice 138 139. We are as much bound to do acts of Mercy as not to do an injurie 139. 142 143. Nothing more sutable to the Nature of Man then Mercy 140. Mercy maketh Man like unto God 279. What influence God's Mercy and ours have one upon another 815. v. Forgiveness Mercy maketh a sympathie and harmonie in the Church 141. Why worldly men like it not 142. It is often rewarded in this life but in the next infallibly 143. The M. of the primitive Christians how far beyond ours 144 145. Less danger to exceed herein then to fall short 145. Distinctions coyned to elude Texts that enjoyn Mercy 146. Compassion the spring of Mercy 147. 149. v. Almes To love Mercy what 150. Mercie is natural 150. constant 151. sincere 152. delightful 153. Objects of Mercy appear every where 154. Motives to Mercy 153. Our Mercy to others is the rent God respecteth for his M. to us 154. God's Mercy and his Justice reconciled by Christ's Death and our Repentance 347. Why the antient Fathers were so profuse yet sparing tenderers of God's Mercy 349 350. The Mercy of God fearfully abused by some 276. Make not Mercy an occasion of sin 352 353. Mercy and Judgment should compose our song 353. Judgement followeth Mercy at the heels 360. v. GOD. The use we should make of God's Mercies 579. 590. 1072. Sins after Mercy the greater 612 613. Mercy is of most efficacie to humble our hearts 643. Merits The doctrine of Merits overthrown 812 813. 1126. All we can do or suffer is far short of meriting heaven 233. 993. 1126. Messias Christ is not such a Messias as the Jews looked for and as some worldly-minded Christians frame to themselves 33. A glorious Messiah was exspected by the Jews 553 554. 559. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 336. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 336. Metaphors fruitfull of controversie 46. Their use 229. Metellus Numidicus 668. Method and Order how necessarie to be followed 885. as necessarie in Christ's School as in humane Arts and Sciences 68. 947. Want of Method what mischief it worketh in the world 892. c. 945 946. Meum and Tuum quarrelsome vvords 840. Milk by some not allowed to be eaten 752. Mind v. Man The Mind is the Man and the action too 622 623. It cannot intend several things at once 509. Whether it be not necessarie that the Mind should still fluctuate and be lost in uncertainties 678. The Mind is apt to be dazled with some lesser good vvhen it should be intent upon far greater 988 989. Ministers must not flatter 511 512. v. Flattery Miracles v. Conversion The end and use of Miracles 572 c. 957 c. 968 969. 978. 988. In respect of the Agent properly there is no Miracle 969. Why M. are now ceased 970. Of Popish Miracles 970. He that will not believe the Word vvould not believe a Miracle 734. 970. What Christ did in person he doth still spiritually by his Church 970. Christ's Miracles preferred before Moses's 978. Christ's M. were supernaturall publick quick perfect 979. Miracles should fill us with admiration 979. Miracles may be scoffed at by profane men 956 c. Miserie to be chosen rather then Iniquity 127. Mockery Most mens conversation is but a Mockery of God 919 c. 958. How vvicked men are said to mock God vvho in very deed cannot be mocked 923 c. God will return the Mock upon them that mock him 925. v. Scoff Moderation to be observed 56. Moderation in the pursuit of Knowledge commended 248. Modestie in apparel to be used 1101. Monitours vve should be to one another 576. Monks and Friars censured 220. v. Perfection Solitarie Montanus 65. 752. Morality scorned and derided by speculative hypocrites 83. Morall Laws v. Ceremonie Morall virtues are not natural 199. but must be studied and laboured for 205. Of the Morall virtues of the Heathen 663. v. Heathen Morose v. Christianity Mortality Of our Mortality 538. How little believed
of Eden Gen. 2 10 11 12. to water the dry places of the earth There you shall find gold and good goldâ—bdellium and the onyx stone all that is precious in the sight of God and man But the heart of an Unjust man is as a rock on which you may strike and strike again but no water will flow out but instead thereof gall and wormwood blood and fire and vapour of smoke The tender mercies Joel 2.30 Prov. 12.10 the bowels of the wicked are cruel Their kisses are wounds their favours reproches their Indulgences Anathema's their bread is full of gravel and their water tainted with blood If their Craft or Power take all and their seeming Mercy their Hypocrisie put back a part that part is nothing or but trouble and vexation of spirit Thus do these two Branches grow and flourish and bring forth fruit and thus do they wither and dye together And here we have a fair and full vintage For indeed Mercy is as the Vine which yieldeth wine to chear the hearts of men Judg. 9.13 15. hath nothing of the Bramble nothing of the fire nothing that can devour It yieldeth much fruit but we cannot stand to gather all I might spread before you the rich mantle of Mercy and display each particular beauty and glory of it But it will suffice to set it up as the object of our Love For as Misery is the object of our Mercy so is Mercy the object of our Love And we may observe it is not here to do mercifully as before to do justly and yet if we love not Justice we cannot do it but in express terms the Lord requireth that we love mercy that is that we put it on wear it as a robe of glory delight in it make it as God doth make it his our chiefest attribute to exalt and superexalt James 2.13 and make it triumph over Justice it self Justice and Honesty give every man his own but Mercy openeth those treasuries which Justice might lock up and taketh from us that which is legally ours maketh others gatherers with us and partakers of our basket and bringeth them under our own vine and fig-tree Et haec est victoria This is the victory and triumph of Mercy Let us then draw the lines by which we are to pass And we shall shew you Mercy 1. in the Fruit it yieldeth 2. in its Root first in its proper Act or Motion casting bread upon the waters Focl 11.1 1 Sam. 2 8. Psal 113.7 and raising the poor out of the dust secondly in the Form which produceth this Act or the Principle of this Motion which is the Habit the Affection the Love of Mercy For so we are commanded not onely to shew forth our mercy but to love it What doth the Lord require but to love mercy c. We begin with the first The proper Act of Mercy is to flow and to spend it self and yet not be spent to relieve our brethren in misery and in all the degrees that lead to it necessities impotencies distresses dangers defects This is it which the Lord requireth And howsoever Flesh and Blood may be ready to perswade us that we are left at large to our own wills and may do what we will with our own yet if we consult with the Oracle of God we shall find that these reciprocal offices of Mercy which pass between man and man are a debt that we are bound as much to do good to others as not to injure them to supply their wants as not rob them to reach forth a hand to help them as not to smite them with the fist of wickedness Isa 58.4 Luke 16.7 And though my hundred measures of wheat be my own and I may demand them yet there is a voice from Heaven and from the Mercy-seat which biddeth me take the bill and sit down quickly and write fifty Do we shut up our bowels and our hands together Behold habemus legem we have a Law and the first and greatest Law the Law of Charity to open them It is true what we gain by the sweat of our brows what Honesty and Industry or the Law hath sealed unto us is ours ex asse wholly and entirely ours nor can any hand but that of Violence divide it from us but yet habemus legem we have a Law another Law which doth not take from us the propriety of our goods but yet bindeth us to dispense and distribute them In the same Court-roll of Heaven we are made both Proprietaries and Stewards The Law of God as well as of Man is Evidence for us that our possessions are ours but it is Evidence against us if we use them not to that end for which God made them ours They are ours to have and to hold nor can any Law of man divorce them from us or question us For what Action can be drawn against want of Mercy Who was ever yet impleaded for not giving an almes at his door What bar can you bring the Miser to Who ever was arraigned for doing no good But yet in the Law of God and in the Gospel of Christ which is a Law of Grace Matth. 25.41 c. we find an Action drawn de non vestiendis nudis for not clothing the naked not feeding the hungry not visiting the sick I saith Nazianzene could peradventure be willing that mercy and Bounty were not necessary but arbitrary not under a Law but presented by way of counsel and advice for the Flesh is weak and would go to heaven with as little cost and trouble as may be but then the mention of the Left hand and the right of the Goats and the Sheep of the torments they shall be thrown into not who have invaded other mens goods but who have not given their own not who have beat down but who have not supported these Temples of the Holy Ghost this is that which striketh a terrour through me and maketh me think and resolve that I am as much bound to do acts of mercy as I am not to do an injury as much bound to feed the poor man as I am not to oppress and murder him To shew Mercy to others is not an Evangelical Counsel it is a Law Therefore as Homer telleth us that men did not call some things by their proper names for the Gods had other names for them Iliad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chalcidem homines Cymindim Dii vocant and he speaketh of a certain bird so when we call that ours which our net hath taken in our wit and industry hath brought it unto us we speak after the manner of men we speak the language of the world the dialect of Mammon but when we call them ours and make them ours for the use and benefit of others we do à Christo discere disciplinam as Tertullian speaketh we speak in the language of our Saviour in that phrase and sense which God and
the holy Saints do ever take them Did I say it was the language of men It is the language of the two daughters of the Horsleach Prov. 30.14 15. of Covetousness and Ambition Give Give alwaies taking in never emptying themselves It is the dialect of that generation whose teeth are swords and their jawteeth as knives to devour the poor of the earth It is the voice of Luxury and Riot which must be fed as Devils are Sanguis Daemonis pabulum Tertull. Apol. c. 22. Rev. 9.11 lib. Off. 1. with the bloud of others who like that Behemoth can drink up rivers of bloud It is the language of the Devil himself who is no helper but a Destroyer The language of Nature is more mild and gentle Misericordiâ nihil est naturae hominis accommodatius saith Tully There is nothing more suitable with the nature of Man then Mercy and a desire to do good to others For when thou seest a man thou beholdest thy self as in a glass In him thou beholdest thy self now chearful and anon drooping now standing and anon sinking now in purple and anon naked now full and anon hungry Thou seest thy self in the weakness in the mutability in the mortality of thy condition and his present necessities are not onely a lesson and an argument which plainly demonstrate to thy very eye what thou or any other man may be but withall a silent and powerful appeal to thy Mercy a secret beseeching thee I might say a legal requiring thee to do unto him as thou wouldst be done to in the like case which thou art as liable to as he to be of the same mind now which thou wilt be certainly of when with this Lazar thou lyest at the gates of another But if this light of Nature be not bright enough Errat olim istae sententia Ne mo aliis nascitur meriturus sibi Tert de pall c. 5. 1 Cor 12 26. yet by the light of Scripture by the light of the Gospel we may easily discern the truth of this parallel For the Servant of God the true Christian is born again not for himself alone but for all those who are parts of the same building and members of the same body If one member suffer all the members suffer with it And this maketh not onely all the riches but withall all the miseries all the necessities all the afflictions of our brethren ours And what a celestial Harmony doth Mercy make which putteth those who are at liberty in bonds with the prisoners which makeeth the rich lye down with the poor the strong simpathize with the weak What Harmony is that which riseth out of such discords when the joyful heart weepeth with them that weep Rom. 12.15 16. and the sorrowful Spirit rejoyceth with them that rejoyce when all men are of the same mind one with another the rich naked with the poor and the poor abounding with the rich the whole Church imprisoned in one man and every man comforting his bondage with the peace and prosperity of the whole This is an harmony indeed But I fear I may say it is like the harmony of the Sphears which was never heard or at the least we have more reason then we would to believe that there is scarce any such Musick in our dayes But thus it should be and this Musick Mercy doth make I know the waies of God are past finding out Rom. 11.33 and the reasons of his judgement saith Basil are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Jewels fit to be hid and reserved in the treasuries of God alone and are understood onely by that Wisdome which sendeth them abroad Yet if you ask why one is born a servant and another free why one grindeth at the mill and another fitteth on the throne why one lyeth at the gates whilest another feasteth in his palace I may with confidence give you this reason for one This God doth to exercise the patience and humility of the one and to stir up and awake the mercy of the other The rich and poor meet together Prov. 22.2 the Lord is the maker of them both saith Solomon not that his immediate hand made them rich and poor poured down with his left hand riches into the bosome of the one and withdrew it from the other and so left him naked For this is not manifest God forbid that we should have such a conceit of God that he should fill the usurers bags or enlarge the territories of the wicked Nor can we say that every poor man was predestinated to beggery nor make it good that God hath thus discerned and distinguished them for we know Luxury and Idleness cloatheth many with rags and Industry gathereth much and Craft and Power more But God is the maker of them both They were both the work of his hands and from his hands they were the same though now the fashion of the world hath brought in a disparity between them And God saith the Father did make both poor and rich ut in pauperibus divitum misericordiam probaret that he might make the want of the poor as a touchstone to try the mercy of the rich For no doubt he could send the Ravens to feed them he could send Angels to feed them he could let down all manner of flesh in a sheet as he did to Peter his Providence is never at a stand Acts 10. but can find out waies which we cannot think of But Christ hath so ordered it that though we cannot have him John â—2 8 yet the poor and miserable we shall alwaies have with us ut locupletem aliena inopia ditaret that what all the world cannot anothers poverty may do that is enrich and bless us Et tu neminem praetereas nè is quem praeteris Christus sit And let thy mercy saith Augustine pass by none lest it pass by Christ himself This he put into the Covenant which he made with us when he was on the earth and sealed it with his blood and now he looketh that we should make it good and to that end presenteth and offereth himself unto us in these and even boweth before us to the end of the world And certainly it is strange that we should thus stand out with him and deny him that which is his by Covenant that we should lock up all from him who opened his heart and let out his blood for us But so it is The vice we delight in maketh that virtue which is contrary to it a punishment and when we love the world to give an almes is as irksome and grievous to us as to pay a forfeiture Liberality is a penalty and therefore we use all means but pay down nothing but excuses to take it off Mercy is no thriving virtue but seemeth to come upon us as a thief and a robber to strip and spoil us and to make us like unto them whom she bindeth us to relieve and therefore we shut her up in a
c. He who hath no part in the first R. shall have none in the second 996. Newness of life often called Rising 997. The woful state of a Soul not yet risen from the death of Sin 997. Our Conversion may be stiled Rising because this World may go for a grave 998. and because as in that of the Body so in this of the Soul there will be a change 999. and that universal of every part 1000. In both our corporal and spiritual R. God is all in all 1001. yet in that of the Soul we are bid to do something 1001. It behoveth us rather to enquire Whether we are willing to be raised then How we are raised 1001. Our spiritual R. should be early and without delay 1002. c. We must manifest our spiritual R. by our good Works 1004. and by our Affection to the things above 654. Revelation Of the Book of the Revelation and its Interpreters 244. Rev. i. 12-18 paraphrased 36. ¶ xiv 13. 709. ¶ xx 6. 244. Revenge though perhaps allowed by the Old T. is forbidden by the New 1079. It is allowed by Philosophers c. is forbidden by the Gospel 202. It is an act and argument of impotency 820. Reverence What 460. Some allege Reverence to excuse their neglect of Communicating 459 460. Reverence and Obedience must go together 462. Reverent gestures in God's service not to be blamed as Idolatrous Popish superstitious 963. R. though by some held superstitious is comely and necessary 162 163. 745. 755 c. and to be used in our service of God 634 635. v. Form Humility Worship Where there is Devotion there is also a Reverent deportment 755. 757 758. 981. It is due in God's house in respect of the Angels 857. and of Men both good and bad 858. Covetousness and Sacriledge drive Reverence out of the Church 755. Some questions for them to answer who scruple outward R. in the Church 757. Irreverent persons arguments answered 859. v. Irreverence The Papists say of us That having no Reverence we have no Church 757. The Reverence of the primitive times and that of this Age how different 757 758. 981. Rewards the most powerful Rhetorick 636. v. Laws Riches and Honours and Pleasures the creatures of our Phansie 32. v. World These even Reason teacheth us to contemn 126. 134. Why God giveth Riches 139 c. Neither do Riches invite Christ nor Poverty exclude him 974. Our Riches are then most ours when we part with them to the poor 142. For we are Stewards rather then Proprietaries 140. 142. The best use of Riches 143. R. how abused 594. 620. c. As Riches may be a snare so Poverty may be a gulf 1089. R. may be an instrument of Perfection as well as Poverty 1090. R. are not as the World accounteth them certain signs of God's love 619. They are held Necessaries and Ornaments of Virtue yet are not so 620. but rather an hindrance to it 620. and helps to evil 621. Yet they are not so in themselves but men make them so 621. 897 898. Rich men are admired and even adored in the world 616 617. but a Wo is denounced against them by God 616 c. Pelagius's opinion That no Rich man can be saved is a wholsome errour 618. What it is that draweth the Wo upon the Rich 622. That Rich men may escape the Wo they must cast away their Riches but how 622. 1090. Riches must be brought into subjection to Christianity 622. We must not set our hearts on them 623. 1090. We must contemn them 623. or else they will make us contemn our brethren 623. and draw contempt on us 624. We must be jealous of our selves that we love them too well 624. How R. should be looked upon and handled and used by us 625. 896 c. Right hand v. Christ Righteous The R. sometimes suffer with the wicked and why 291 c. They are often preserved in publick calamities 294. Though they tast of the same cup with others yet it hath not the same tast to both 294. v. God's people Righteousness Many call that Righteousness which is quite another thing 867. 883. 891 892. The R. of the Heathen though it could not save them yet shameth many among us 868. The R. of the Jews very weak and imperfect 869. The R. of the Scribes and Pharisees what 869. Legal and Evangelical R. how different 870. Christ's imputed R. vindicated from mis-interpretations 870 c. The R. of Faith what 872. What R. the Gospel requireth of us 873. Many challenge the name of R. who bid defiance to the thing 873. Imputed R. should be a motive to Inherent R. 872 c. 993. Many conceit they are Seekers of Righteousness vvhen they are not 875. To name R. yea to commend it is not enough 876. Neither is Hearing of R. as many think enough 877. No nor bare Praying for it 877 878. Seeking of R. is To have a Will ready to entertein it 878. and that a chearful quiet Angelical Will 879 880. and a Will that is constant and regular that will make us seek R. sincerely as God seeketh our happiness 880 881. If vve seek R. aright we shall still be sensible of our want of it 881 882. we shall love and affect it exceedingly 882 and shall be kept from it neither by flattery nor affrightments 883 884. R. is to be sought in the first place before the things of this life 884 c. If we seek it not first vve seek it not at all 890. What a world of wickedness proceedeth from seeking these things before Righteousness 891 c. But they who first seek R. cannot doubt of a sufficient portion of these things 900. Rom. i. 28. 3. 9. ¶ vii 19. 879. ¶ viii 15. 397. ¶ 28 29 30. 697. ¶ ix 3. 1007 1008. ¶ xi 20 21. 392. Romanes They having been at first all for handsome servants were afterwards as much for dwarfs applied 651. Romish The R. Church counteth all goats that are not within her fold 319. S. SAbellius 5. Sabinus Calvisius Sabinus a man strangely conceited 870. 993. Sacraments A Sacrament must be immediately instituted by Christ himself 451. Out of Christ's side came both the Sacraments 469. How quarrelled by many 582 583. They are highly to be honoured 303. v. Word They are too highly esteemed by some too little by others 81. Sacrifices no essential part of God's service 70 71. not really good in themselves but onely as commanded 72. Why the Jews vvere commanded to offer S. to God 72. v. Ceremonies Outward worship The Sacrifices of Christians 83 84. A broken heart the best S. 325. Chastity Temperance Patience present our bodies as a S. unto God 749 754. Sacrilege once was a sin now some count it a virtue 581 582. Against S. 848 849. 854. Saints as St. Hierome saith never called in Scripture inhabitants of the earth 536. How to be honoured by us 1021. Some forsooth will not allow the title
of Saint to the Apostles and Martyrs yet take it to themselves 1022. They are no less Saints because canonized by the Pope and idolized by the Papists 1022. Let us bless God for them and follow them 1022 1023. How they are to be followed 525 526. We should not fright our selves with the difficulty and impossibility of imitating them 1023. In the best Saints there is some sin and errour 1025 c. Their examples may do much good and much hurt 525 526. Men are apt to imitate their vices and to mistake their virtues 1025. Their memory how carefully preserved of old 1019 Their Examples to be followed now 1020. but no further then themselves followed the Rule 1025 c. v. Examples Whether a Saint can fall finally from grace 1112 c. Salvation where to be found 34. v. Save Samson Of his killing himself 526. 1 Sam. ii 25. 289. Satisfaction none from the Creature 537. 786. onely in God 787. 1124. Satisfaction for sin we cannot make unto God 325. Of Popish Satisfaction 340. Save God can but will not save us without our selves 434 435. 628 629. 722. Saul v. David His sparing some Amalekites applied 602. Scandal not to be given to weak brethren 639. 1102. Schismes and Sects whence 641. 676. Schismes proceed from want of Charity and Prudence 59. from Envy Covetousness and Ambition 842 843. Schism is the first step to Apostasie and Atheism 581 582. a sin not to be expiated by Martyrdome 853. A religious man can hardly be a Schismatick 853. Scholars Great Scholars sometimes come short of plain Christians in faith 734 735. Scipio Tettus an Atheist 705. Scoff Of all expressions of distast a Scoff is the worst 955. It oft ushereth in Persecution 187. Scripture a complete and perfect rule 58. 524 525. v. Gospel It is to be read diligently 96. Who is the best reader of it 412. It s business and end is to draw our minds from earth to heaven 646. It is plain and easy in matters of practice 933. and necessary points 1084 1085. v. Necessary Obscurer places like to the Sun in winter the plainer to the Sun in summer 600. One part must be expounded by another 831. Corrupt passions make men interpret S. to serve their purposes 97 98 It is wont to be wrested by wicked men to countenance their sins 222. 287. 349. 951. Scripture the onely shop of comfort 948. c. Comforts drawn hence are general and solid 949. We must be very careful how we gather apply comforts from thence 950. for many are forward to misapply them 951. Scripture-comforts are milk and honey to the humble soul but deadly poison to the impenitent 951. Season Outward things have their proper Season but the Practice of godliness is at all times seasonable 1002. Secure persons awakened 434 435. 502. Sedition and Schism whence 641. Seducers craft 506 507. Seeking of God what 789. v. GOD. Oh that we would seek God as he seeketh us 881. Seek Righteousness v. Righteousness Self v. Wrong Self-conceit most dangerous 160 161. 633. 1028. Self-deceit causeth a world of wickedness 912 913. disgraceth our Profession 913. c. aggravateth our sin 916. deserveth no pity 916. The Self-deceiver chideth down his own Reason 916. Rules to avoid Self-deceit 933. Self-denial how necessarie 789. 867. Self-love what 1047. Self-love is lawful but abuse maketh it a great sin 1047. how pernicious 207. 481 c. 557. 856. 1046 c. Its remedie 482. Self-opinion of how ill consequence 556 557. Sell. v. Trades-men The Romans when they sold any thing were to discover its faults to the buyer 128. 659. To sell the Truth what 693. Semiramis her tomb 559. Sending doth not alwayes imply subjection 56 57. Senses the windows of the Soul at which Sin and Death enter in 261 c. to be carefully watched 264. Their wonderful frame 246. 727. Tentations may enter the S. without sin 264. 270. The S. though they beget not Faith may help to confirm us in it 727. That of Seeing is the principall 727. Tertullian blameth the Academicks for questioning the S. 727 728. Sermons Hearing of S. nothing worth without practice 221. 277. S. used in London on sundry occasions 422. Serve God serveth us more then we serve him 50. To serve our brethren is no disparagement but an honour to us 57. God would be served with that which we value most 850. God is to be served with both soul and body 160-163 632 635. Private Service of God is good but publick is better 2. In our Service of God we must not rest in the work done 451 452. We must prepare our selves beforehand 478. Servant of Christ a most eminent title to be made good by us 509 The duty of Christ's Servant 510. He must follow his Master 510. If we serve not Christ oh how many tyrants will rule over us 511. One Servant cannot have many Masters 509. Servants are not to interpret but to execute the will of their Lord 511. Seven a mysterious number to some 249. Shame is an effect of Sin 1038. and should be a means to prevent it 1039. but by the policie of Satan it is made a cloke to cover it 1039. What use we should make of Shame 1038 1039. The Devil casteth-off all shame of sin 1038. Shewing Christ's death what 473. Sickness Our advantage by it 565. 592. S. is a far worse time to serve God in then health 593. How much more easily we perceive our Sickness then our sins 480. Signes of Christ's second coming should awaken us to repentance 1045. Though never so many appear Atheists and Epicures regard them not 1046. Self-love maketh men unfit and unprofitable spectators of them 1047 1048. as also doth want of faith 1048 c. Signes wrought but in few a belief of Christ's first coming and they now work but in few a fear of his second 1046 c. Sin and Sinners Sin is an aversion from God and a conversion to the creature 328. It is a deformity in Nature and a breach of Order 930. Sin hath for its original neither God nor the Devil nor our own Nature but our own Will 424 c. How S. is conceived brought forth 260 c. 270. 280. Our Senses Thoughts Phansie Appetite may be set on objects that occasion Sin and yet without Sin 264 c. Sin is not alwayes the effect of Infidelity but sometimes of Incogitancy 771. It was necessarie Man should be subject to S. but not that he should sin 603 604. The doctrine of the Not-possibility of avoiding Sin if it be true not fit to be published 605. Whether there be a possibility of not sinning 602 c. ¶ Sin of all things is good for nothing 443. It doth all the mischief in the world 444. Every Sin is unnatural unreasonable maketh a Man worse then the Beasts 378 Sin is a spot and defilement 280. How it polluteth 167. 1019. v. Creature It s poison is like to