words and syllables so that at last it was shut up and lost in phrases and second notions and terms of art which brought little improvement to the better part and made men rather talkative then wise For we may observe that the same noysome and pestilent wind which so withered Philosophy till it was shrunk up into a name being nothing but a body of words hath blown also upon Divinity and blasted that which was ordained to be the very life of our souls Which was more pure and plain when mens lives were so but is now sullied with much handling and made much unlike it self daubed over with glosses as with untempered morter wrought out into Questions beat out into Distinctions and is made an Art which is the Wisdome of God to Salvation The Schoolmen did toze and draw it out and then made it up in knots The Postillers played with it and made it well-neer ridiculous And we have seen some such unseemly Jigs in our dayes And there have been too many Theorical Divines who have stretched beyond their line beyond the understanding of their hearers and beyond their own wrought darkness out of light made that obscure which was plain that perplexed which was easie have handled Metaphors as Chymists do metals and extracted that out of them which Christ never put into them made them less intelligible by pressing them so far and by beating them out have made them nothing made them more obscure then the thing which they should shew yield us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sea of words but not a word of sense To be regenerate is something more then to be made good who were evil To be a new creature is something more if we could tell what it were then to be a just and righteous man and we are born and made what we are against our will And what hath followed this bold obtruding of our own thin and forced conceits upon the Church under the high commanding form of necessary truths Even that which hath been observed of Philosophy When men made Wisdom the only aim and end of their studies then Philosophy was it self in its prime and natural glory being drawn up unto its proper end But when they applied themselves to it only to fill up their time or satisfie their ambition or delight their wits then she lost her native complexion or strength and degenerated into folly then Epicurus raised a swarm of Atomes Diogenes made him a Tub and the Stoicks brought in their Decrees and Paradoxes then were there Mille familiarum nomina so many sects that it is not easie to draw them into a catalogue some there were who declared their different opinions and disputed one against the other by outward signes alone as by Weeping and Laughing So we find it also in the Church of Christ that Divinity never suffered so much as when it was made matter of wit and ambition and Policy and Faction became moderatours and staters of questions Then every man became an interpreter of Scripture and every interpreter had need of another to interpret him Then men taught the Law as Moses received it out of a thick cloud and Darkness was drawn over the face of Life it self and men received it as it was taught and did understand them who did not understand themselves received it as newes out of a far country and conceived of it either more or less then it vvas received it in parcels and fragments which hung like meteors in their phansie or as indigested lumps in their minds which soon broke out into sores and ulcers and one was a Libertine another an Anabaptist another a Leveller and some there were vvho did distinguish themselves by the motion and gesture and some vvhich is strange by the nakedness of their bodies And thus mischief grew up and multiplied through the blindness or deceitfulness of teachers and the folly and madness of the people Which evil had not certainly so far over-run the Church if men vvould have kept themselves vvithin their own limits and not took upon them to be vviser then God if the Truth had been as plainly taught as it vvas first delivered and not held out by mens ignorance or ambition and set forth vvith vvords and phrases and affected notions of our own if all men would have contended for and rested in that Faith alone which was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. And this I markt and avoided and in the course of my Ministery run from as far as a good will with my weakness could carry me And as I strook at those errours which are most common and did strive to set up in their place those truths which are most necessary so I did indeavour to do it to the very eye with all plainness and evidence and as near as I could in the language of him who for us men and for our salvation did first publish them to the world To which end and to which alone next to the glory of God these my rude and ill-polished papers are consecrate And if they attein this in many or few or but one I have a most ample recompense for my labour and Praise and Dispraise shall be to me both alike for the one cannot make these Sermons better nor the other worse I know others before me have raised themselves up to a higher pitch and strook at Errour with more art and brought more strength to the building up of the Truth and I have seen Truth exalted and Falshood led in triumph gloriously by those whom God and their industry hath more fitted to the work I have therefore offered my self up to it but as some Succours which come when the day and heat is over who though they do not help yet shew their good will And we know that even they who bring on the baggage do some service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 20. The God of patience and consolation grant that we may be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus that we may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 15.5 6. A Table directing to the Texts of Scripture handled in the following Sermons Four Festival Sermons ON Christmass-day Hebr. 2.17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be like unto his brethren On Good Friday Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things On Easter-day Rev. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of Death On Whitsunday Joh. 16.13 Howbeit when He the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth Twenty eight Sermons more Micah 6.6 8. WHerewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt offerings c. v. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what
which we offer him a place and seat for honours sake who hath done some notable and meritorions service And so Christ having spoiled the adversary by his death having led captivity captive and put the Prince of darkness in chains at his return with these spoils heareth from his Father Sit now down at my right hand Nor doth God's right hand point out to any fixt or determined place where he sitteth For Christ himself telleth the high Priest that they shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of God and coming in the clouds of heaven Mark 14.62 which if literally understood we must needs conceive him coming and sitting at the same time All agree it is a Metaphor and some interpret it of that Supremacy Christ hath above the Creature For so he is described sitting at the right hand of God in heavenly places Eph. 1.20 21. far above all principality and power and every name that is named not onely in this world but in the world to come Some have conceived that by this honour of sitting at the right hand of God not onely an Equality with God is implyed but something more Equal to the Father as touching his God head Atha Nas Cr. Not that the Son hath any thing more then the Father for they are equal in all things but because in respect of the exercise and execution of his Royal office he hath as it were this dignity to sit in his Royal seat as Lord and Governour of his Church For the Father is said as I told you to commit all judgement to the Son But we may say with Tertullian Malo in scripturis fortè minùs sapere quà m contrá De Pudicit c. 9 We had rather understand less in Scripture then amiss rather be wary then venture too far and wade till we sink And that will prove the best interpretation of Scripture which we draw out of Scripture it self And then S. Paul hath interpreted it to our hands For whereas the Prophet David telleth us The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand the Apostle speaketh more expresly 1 Cor. 15.25 He must reign till he hath put down all enemies under his feet and in the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 8.1 We have such an high Priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens that is We have such an high Priest who is also a Lord and King of majesty and power to command and govern us who hath absolute authority over things in heaven and things in earth over all the souls and bodies of men and may prescribe them Laws reward the obedient and punish offenders either in this world or the next or in both For though he were a Lord and King even in his cratch and on his cross yet now his dominion and Kingly power was most manifest and he commandeth his Disciples to publish the Gospel of peace and those precepts of Christian conversation to all the world and speaketh not as a Prophet but as a Prince in his own name enjoyneth repentance and amendment of life to all the nations of the earth which were now all under his dominion Thus saith Christ himself Luke 24.46 47. it is writen and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his name among all nations And his Dominion is not subordinate Matth. 8.9 but absolute He commandeth not as the Centurion in the Gospel who had divers under him yet himself was under authority but Prov. 30.31 as Solomon's King he is Rex ALKVM a King against whom there is no rising up And now that it may appear that he is not for ever thus to sit at the right hand of God but there sitteth to rule and govern us to behold and observe us in every motion and in every thought and will nay must come again with a reward for those who bow to his sceptre and with vengeance to be poured forth upon their heads who contemn his laws and think neither of him nor the right hand of God and will not have him reign over them though they call him their King let us a little further consider the nature and quality of his Dominion that our fear and reverence our care and caution may draw him yet a little nearer to us and we may not onely conceive of him as sitting at the right hand of God but so live as if he were now coming in the clouds Tell ye the daughter of Sion Matth. 2.51 Behold thy King cometh to thee meek and sitting on an ass and a colt the foal of an ass This was his first coming in great humility Philip. 2.8 9. And this and his retinue shew that his Kigdom was not of this world He humbled himself saith S. Paul wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name given him power dignity and honour and made him our Lord and King For his Prophetical office which he exercised in the land of Judea was in a manner an act and effect of his Kingly office by which he sitteth as Lord in the throne of Mejesty For by it he declared his Fathers will and promulged his Laws throughout the world As a King and Lord he maketh his Laws and as a Prophet he publisheth them a Prophet and a Priest and a Lord for ever For he teacheth his Church he mediateth and intercedeth for his Church and governeth his Church to the end of the world Take then the Laws by which he governeth us the virtue and power the compass and duration of his Dominion and we shall find it to be of a higher and more excellent nature then that which the eye of flesh so dazleth at Rev. 19.16 that he is The LORD of Lords and KING of Kings And first the difference between his Dominion and the Kingdomes of the world is seen not onely in the Authours but the Laws themselves The Laws of men are enacted many times nec quid nec quare and no reason can be given why they are enacted good reason there is why there should be Laws made against them and they abolished Some written in blood too rigid and cruel some in water ready to vanish many of them but the results and dictates of mens lusts and wild affections made not so safeguard any State but their own But Christs are pure and undefiled exact and perfect such as tend to perfection to the good of his Subjects and will make them like unto this Lord heirs together with him of eternity of bliss And as the reward is eternal so are they unchangeable the same to day and to the end of the world not like the Laws of the Heathen which were raised with one breath and pulled down by another which were fixed by one hand and torn down by a
Truth and the glory of God That the righteous are ordained to suffer for righteousness and so to be like to the Sun of righteousness is laid down in terminis in plain words We need not seek for more proofs out of Scripture These are plain and positive And the reason is as plain even written with the Sun-beams For 1. in this God dealeth with them as a loving father He doth it ad probationem fidei for the tryal or rather the demonstration of their faith to make it appear that they do not gratiam fingere in odio make a profession of their love when they hate him in their heart depend upon him for their salvation and happiness and when persecution cometh leave him and exchange him for the world rather yield and fall under the burthen then stand fast in the faith and retain him as their God Our praying to him our bending our knees our magnifying his name our Hosanna's and Hallelujah's our falling down at his footstool are but communia signa as the Oratour speaketh in the like case but deceitful signs and indications of our affection towards him For the language of an enemy may be as pleasing as that of a friend A Pharisee may be louder in prayer then a disciple of Christ There must some occasion and opportunity be offered some danger some cross that may fright me and when I withstand all and cleave fast unto Christ then it will appear that I am his friend and servant This is it which bringeth forth the true professour in his own shape and unmasketh the Hypocrite Nauclerum tempestas Christianum persecutio probat saith the Father A mariner is best seen in a tempest and a Christian is best known when persecution rageth In a calm sea when the weather is fair and no wind nor tempest stirreth inglorius subit portum the pilote indeed arriveth at the wished for haven but without praise or honour But cùm strident funes strepent gubernacula when the tackling is torn and the mast rent when the storm is violent and the sea high-wrought then to drive to shore commendeth his skill and maketh him glorious to the beholders When our life is becalmed when no temptetion beateth upon it who can tell whether we do not sub alterius habitu alteri militare wear Christ's colours but fight for his enemies And therefore Gregory observeth of Job Si non flagellaretur non agnosceretur Job had never been known had he never been tormented If God had not pulled down his hedge we had seen perhaps the man in the land of Uz but not Job the example of patience Persecution is the matter and occasion of Vertue which is then in her full lustre when she doth eluctari os extra nubem strike and force her self out of that cloud which doth meet her in her course and would obscure her Faith and Hope are not the vertues of the Church triumphant but militant And we must buckle on the whole armour of God and stand ready-harnessed against the day of battel Not to fight is not to overcome For it is opposition that crowneth the conquerour Many professours we have many who say Lord Lord and live and die Christians of whom though we must hope well yet are we not certain that they are Saints For how know we whether he who held fast his profession when all was quiet and still about him would not have let go his hold upon the blast of a strong temptation How know we whether he who spake glorious words in the sun-shine would not have renounced them had the weather altered and the heavens been dark about him whether he who went for a defender of his faith till he fell down into his grave would not have forsook it at the sight of a sword or would have gone along with it to the stake and the fire and have took his death upon it It falleth out with some Christians as it doth with deformed women Non animus illis deest sed corruptor They are indeed very chast but not for want of will in themselves to play the wantons but for want of will in others to defile them and are more beholden to a bad face then a pure mind for their integrity Many are not Achans because there is no wedg◠of Gold before them many are not Judasses because there is no proffer made of thirty pieces many deny not Christ with Peter because there is none to question them Our faith is never seen in its full proportion and beauty till she come forth russata sanguine in her red garment with her back plowed upon in her own gore and bloud Thus doth God bring forth his choicest servants into the field against the sword and persecution his mighty men as if David should imploy the chiefest of his mighty men to break through the host of the Philistines as if Alexander should appoint a Parmenio or Caesar a Scaeva old experienced souldiers to bear the brunt of the battel Thus doth God handle those quos in magnis aeternae beatitudinis constituit exemplis whom he meaneth to make as great examples to draw others to the pursuit of eternal happiness and to fix them in the firmament of the Church for all eyes to behold 1 Pet. 1.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Beza rendereth it experimentum the tryal but it implyeth more the approbation of faith For in this sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used in Scripture as Rom. 1.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reprobate mind a mind that cannot be approved and Rom. 2.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 approvest the things that are excellent and in divers other places That the tryal the approbation of your faith may be found to praise and glory For it is spoken of the righteous whose minds he must needs see and know who searcheth the heart and reins And therefore well knowing them he approveth them bringeth them forth before the Sun and the people to act their parts as on a theatre putteth them upon difficulties draweth them out as Gideon did his three hundred and sendeth the rest to their tents not tryeth but approveth them as his souldiers and biddeth them fight his battels As Gregory well expresseth When he is disposed to set up a picture in his Church to be well observed of all that shall come after that the people which shall be born may praise the Lord he doth it not by limning and painting but by the art of cutting and embroidery He dealeth not in colours as the Painter which according to his phansie he tempereth and layeth out to the view of the eye but he dealeth as the Embroiderer in more costly matter which he cutteth into pieces and fragments To adorn his Church with some rare pictures of Christian vertues he taketh his children and cutteth and mangleth them as it were into bits and pieces with crosses and calamities and then maketh them up again into most heavenly and angelical forms to
is a main difference nor can we expect an ocular and visible descent Therefore if we will be taught by the Spirit we must use the means which the same Spirit hath prescribed in those lessons which he first and extraordinarily taught the Apostles and not make use of his name to misinterpret those lessons or bring in new of our own and as new so contrary to them For what is new must needs be contrary because he then taught all truth and what is more then all is nothing what is more then all truth must needs by a lye Nor did he lead them into all truth for themselves alone but for those who should come after them for all generations to the end of the world He made them Apostles and sent them to make us Christians to make that which he taught them a rule of life and to fix it on the Church as on a pillar that all might read it that none should adde to it or take away from it Eph. 2.20 And for this they are called a Foundation and we are said to be built upon them Jesus Christ being the head corner-stone But this we could not be if their testimony were so scant and defective that there were left a kind of necessity upon us to hew and square out what stones we please and lay new ones of our own to cast down theirs withal and to bear up whatsoever our insolent and boundless lusts will lay upon them And now what is become of my Text For if this be admitted we cannot say the Spirit led them For what leading is that which leaveth us so far behind at such a distance from the end thâ—â— in every age the Spirit must come again and take us by the hand and draw us some other way even contrary to that which he first made known And what an all is that to which every man may adde what he please even to the end of the world For every mans claim and title to the Spirit is the same as just and warrantable in any as in one And when they speak contrary things the evidence is the same that is none at all unless this be a good Argument He hath the Spirit because he saith so which is as strong on his side that denyeth it upon the same pretense Amongst the sons of men there are not greater fools then they who have nothing to say for what they say but That they say it and yet think this Nothing enough and that all Israel are bound to hearken to them as if God himself did speak This is an evil a folly a madness which breatheth no where but in Christendome was never heard of in any other body or society but that of Christians Though many Governours of Common-wealths did pretend to a kind of commerce and familiarity with some God or Goddess when they were to make a law yet we do not read of any as far as I remember that did put up the same pretense that they might break a law but when the law was once promulged there was nothing thought of but either obedience or punishment But Christians who have the best Religion have most abused it have played the wantons in that light in which they should have walkt with fear and trembling finding themselves at a loss and meeting with no satisfaction to their pride and ambition to their malice to their lusts from any lesson the Spirit hath yet taught have learnt an art to suborn something of their own to supply that defect and call it a dictate of the Spirit Nor is this evil of yesterday nor doth it befall the weakest onely But the Devil hath made use of it in all ages as of the fittest engine to undermine that truth which the Spirit first taught Tertullian as wise a man as the Church then had being not able to prove the Corporeity of the Soul by Scripture Post Ioannem quoque prophetiam meruimus consequi c. Tertull. de Anim. montanizans flyeth to private Revelation in his Book De anima Non per aestimationem sed revelationem What he could not uphold by reason and judgment he striveth to make good by Revelation For we saith he have our Revelations as well as S. John Our sister Priscilla hath plenty of them and trances in the Church She converseth with Angels and with God himself and can discern the hearts and inward thoughts of men S. Hierome mentioneth others Contra Libertin and in the dayes of our forefathers Calvine many more who applyed the name of the Spirit to every thing that might facilitate and help on their design as Parish-priests it is his resemblance would give the name of six or seven several Saints to one image that their offerings might be the more I need not go so far back for instance Our present age hath shewn us many who though very ignorant yet are wiser then their teachers so spiritual that they despise the word of God which is the dictate of the Spirit This monster hath made a large stride from foreign parts and set his foot in our coasts If they murder the Spirit moved their hand and drew their sword If they throw down Churches it is with the breath of the Spirit If they would bring in Parity the pretence is The Spirit cannot endure that any should be supreme or Pope it but themselves Our Humour our Madness our Malice our Violence our implacable Bitterness our Railing and Reviling must all go for Inspirations of the Spirit Simeon and Levi Absalom and Ahithophel Theudas and Judas the Pharisees and Ananias they that despise the holy Spirit of God these Scarabees bred in the dung of sensuality these Impostors these men of Belial must be taken no longer for a generation of vipers but for the scholars and friends of the holy Ghost Whatsoever they do whithersoever they go he is their leader though it be to hell it self May we not make a stand now and put it to the question Whether there be any holy Ghost or no and if there be Whether his office be to lead us Indeed these appropriations these bold and violent ingrossings of the blessed Spirit have I fear given growth to conceits well near as dangerous That the Spirit doth not spirare breath grace into us That we need not call upon him That the Text which telleth us the holy Ghost leadeth is the holy Ghost that leadeth us That the Letter is the Spirit and the Spirit the Letter an adulterate piece new coyned an old heresie brought in a new dress and tire upon the stage again That he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strange unheard of Deity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. Orat 37. Quis vetâ—rum vel recentium adoravit Spiritum quis or avit c. Sic Macedoniani Eunomiani Ibid. an ascriptitious and supernumerary God I might say more dangerous For to confess the Spirit and abuse him to draw him on as an accessory and
not They are not what they are and they do not what they do And why they are so and what shall be their end is casus reservatus is lockt up and reserved in the bosome of God alone And he that shall ask how it cometh to pass that they are thus and thus may well claim kindred of them both To these this Good is not shewn who are as far removed from being Men as they are from the use of Reason How should he see a star in the firmament Lib. 1. De doct Christ saith S. Augustine who cannot see so far as to my finger which pointeth up to it And how should they see this Good who are destitute of Reason which is the only eye with which we can behold it The Second hindrance is Sloth and Neglect that we do not search it out not fix our eyes upon it but walk on towards our journeys end sport our selves in the way and only salute it in the by and then as travellers do many objects and occurrences they meet with behold it pass by and forget it James 1.23 or as S. James speaketh look on it as on a glass not as Women with curiosity and diligence but as Men perfunctorily and slightly and never once think more of what we have seen We first slight and at last loath it For a negative contempt is the immediate way and next step to a positive Plaut Mostell Venit ignavia ea mihi tempestas fuit saith he in the Comedy Sloth cometh upon us bindeth our faculties and that is the tempest which spoileth us of our crop of that fruit which we might have gathered from this tree of life For though this Good be most fully and perspicuously set forth in Scripture shewn in all its beams and glory yet this giveth no encouragement to neglect those means which God hath reached forth unto us to guide and direct us in our search There is light enough and it is plain is no argument that we should shut our eyes For as we do not with the Church of Rome pretend extreme difficulty and with this pretense quite strike the Scripture out of the hands of the Laity and busie their zeal with other matters bind them as a horse is bound to the mill and lead them on in the motion of a blind obedience so do we require the greatest diligence both in reading Scripture and also in asking counsel of the gray hairs and multitude of years of the learned of those whom God hath placed over them in the Church And if the great Physician Hippocrates thought it necessary in his art for those who had taken any cure in hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to ask advice of all Hippocrat in praecept Naz. ep 120. even of Ideots and those who knew but little in that art much rather ought we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ask counsel of God by prayer and be ready to be instructed by any who is a Man For though the lesson be plain yet we see it so falleth out that Negligence doth not pass a line when Industry and Meditation have run over the whole book that Diligence hath a full sight of this Good when Sloth and Neglect have but heard of its name S. Hierome speaketh of some in his time qui solam rusticitatem pro sanctitate habebant who accounted Rusticity and Ignorance the only true Holiness and called themselves the scholars and disciples of the Disciples of Christ who we are told were simple and unlearned fishermen Idcirco sancti quòd nihil scirent as if Ignorance were the best argument to demonstrate their piety and they were therefore holy because they knew not what it was to be so I will not say Such we have in these our dayes no they are not such as profess ignorance but who are as ignorant as they could be who did profess it Like the Lillies of the field they labour not they study not Matth. 6.28 29. and yet Solomon with all his wisdome was not so wise as one of these Some crums fall from their Masters table some passage they catch and lay hold on from some Prophet which they call theirs and this so filleth them that they must vent that it runneth over and defileth and corrupteth that which they will not understand For bring them to a trial and you shall find them as well skilled in Scripture as he was in Virgil who having studied it long at last asked whether Aeneas was a man or a woman Faith is their dayly bread their common language Religion they speak of as oft almost as they do speak Piety dwelleth with them Purity is their proper passion or essence rather but then this Good in the Text Justice and Mercy and Honesty in conversation if we may judge of the tree by his fruits is not as the Psalmist speaketh in all their thoughts Psal 10.4 for it is scarce in any of their wayes and we have that reason which we would not have to fear that they do but talk of it Now to cast a careless look upon this Good is not to see it to talk of it is not to understand it to name it is not to embrace it For all these may be in a man who hath the price in his hand but hath no heart to buy it Prov. 17.16 As the Philosopher said of those who were punisht after death in their carcasses Relicto cadavere abiit reus The body was left behind but the guilty person the parricide was departed and gone So here is a lump of flesh but the Man is gone nay dead and buried covered over with outward formalities with words and phansie This is not the Man in the Text and then no marvel if he cannot see this great sight The third impediment is Improbity of manners a mind immerst and drowned in all the filth and pollution of the world evil-affected Acts 14.2 Corrupt 2 Tim. 3.8 For wickedness is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Eth. b. 5. Maguis sceleribus jura naturae intereunt Sen. Cont. Prov. 20.27 saith the Philosopher doth corrupt the very principles of nature and make that Candle as Solomon calleth it which God hath lighted up in our hearts burn but dimly As we read that when the earth was without form and void darkness was upon the face of the deep Matth. 6.23 so when the Perturbations of our mind interpose themselves as the Earth there is straight a darkness over the Soul An Evil eye cannot behold that which is Good 2 Pet. 2.14 An eye full of adulteries cannot discover the beauty of Chastity 1 Joh. 2.16 A lustful eye cannot see Justice A Lofty eye can neither look upon Mercy nor Humility Ps 131.1 The Love of Honour maketh the judgement follow it to that pitch and height which it hath set and markt out The Love of money will gloss that Blessing which our Saviour hath annext to Poverty of spirit Matth. 5
the Vulgar readeth that of the Psalmist My expectation my substance my being is with the Lord and I do not onely subscribe to his Coming because he hath decreed and resolved upon it but because I can make an hearty acknowledgement that the will of the Lord is just and good and I assent not of necessity but of a willing mind and I am not onely willing but long for it and as he testifieth these things Rev. 22.20 and confirmeth this Article of his Coming with this last word ETIAM VENIO Surely I come so shall I be able truly to answer Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly And now the Lord will come And you may see the necessity of his coming in the end of his coming For qualis Dominus talis adventus As his Dominion is such is his Coming his Kingdome spiritual and his Coming to punish sin and reward Obedience to make us either prisoners in darkness or Kings and Priests to reign with him and offer up spiritual sacrifices for evermore He cometh not to answer the Disciples question to restore the Kingdome to Israel Acts 1.6 Matth. 20.21 Luk. 14.15 for his Kingdome is not such a one as they dreamt of nor to place Zebedee's children the one at his right hand and the other at his left nor to bring the Lawyer to his table to eat bread with him in his kingdome These carnal conceits might suit well with the Synagogue which lookt upon nothing but the Basket And yet to bring in this errour the Jews as they killed the Prophets so must they also abolish their Prophecies Isai 53.2 Zech. 9.9 Isa 9.6 7. which speak plainly of a King of no shape or beauty of his first coming in lowliness and poverty of a Prince of Peace and not of war of the increase of whose government there shall be no end Nor doth he come to lead the Chiliast the Dreamer of a Thousand years of temporal happiness on earth into a Mahometical Paradise of all corporal contentments that after the Resurrection the Elect and even a Reprobate may think or call himself so may reign with Christ a thousand years in all state and pomp and in the affluence of all those pleasures which this Lord hath taught them to renounce A conceit which ill becometh Christians Heb. 10.34 11.13 Phil. 3.20 who must look for a better and more enduring substance who are strangers and pilgrims and not Kings on earth whose conversation is in heaven and whose whole life must be a going out of the world Why should we be commanded and that upon pain of eternal separation from this our Lord to wean our selves from the world and every thing in the world if the same Lord think these flatteries of our worser part these pleasures which we must loath a fit and proportionable reward for the labour of our Faith and Charity which is done in the inward man Can he forbid us to touch and taste these things and then glut us with them because we did not touch them And can they now change their Nature and be made a recompense of those virtues which were as the wings on which we did fly away and so kept our selves untoucht and unspotted of this evil But they urge Scripture for it And so they soon may for Scripture is soon misunderstood and soon misapplyed It is written they say in Revel 20.6 that the Saints shall reign with Christ a thousand years Shall reign with Christ is evidence fair enough to raise those spirits which are too high or rather too low already 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No sooner is the word read but the crown is on To let pass the divers interpretations of that place some making the number to be definite others indefinite some beginning the thousand years with the persecution of Christ and ending it in Antichrist others beginning it with the reign of Constantine when Christianity did most flourish and ending it at the first rising of the Ottoman-Empire others beginning it at the year 73 and drawing it on to conclude in the year 1073 when Hildebrand began to tyrannize in the Church To let pass these since no man is able to reconcile them we cannot but wonder that so gross an errour should spread so far in the first and best times of the Church as to find entertainment with so many but less wonder that it is revived and fostered by so many in ours who have less learning but more art to misinterpret and wrest the Scriptures to their own damnation For what can they find in this Text to make them Kings no more then many of them can find in themselves to make them Saints And here is no mention of all the Saints but of Martyrs alone who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus v. 4. But we may say of this Book of the Revelation as Aristotle spake of his books of Physicks that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 publisht and not publisht publisht but not for every man to fasten what sense he please upon it Though we cannot deny but some few of later times and so few as are but enough to make up a number by their multiplicity of reading and subtil diligence of observation and by dextrous comparing those particulars which are registred in story with those things which are but darkly revealed or plainly revealed to S. John but not so plainly to us have raised us such probabilities that we may look upon them with favour and satisfaction till we see some fairer evidence appear some more happy conjectures brought forth which may impair and lessen that credit which as yet for ought that hath been seen they well deserve But this is not every mans work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every mans eye is not so quick and piercing to see at such distance And we see since so many men have taken the courage and been bold to play the interpreters of dark Prophesies they have shaped out what phansies they please and instead of unfolding Revelations have presented us with nothing but dreams as so many divers Morals to one Fable Rev. 11. 13. And so for two witnesses we have a cloud for one Beast 1 John 2. almost as many as be in the forrest and for one Antichrist every man that displeaseth us But let men interpret the thousand years how they please Mark 12.24 27. our Saviour calleth it an errour an errour that striketh at the very heart of Christianity which promiseth no riches nor power nor pleasure but that which is proportioned to those virtues and spiritual duties of which it consisteth For in the resurrection neither do they marry wives nor are married Matth 22.30 We may adde Neither are there high nor low neither rich nor poor Gal. 3.28 but all are one in Christ Jesus And his words are plain enough John 18.36 Quaedam sic digna revinci ne gravitate adorentur Tert adv Valentin My Kingdom is not
not work to the end and have that effect which was intended and is proper to it Again if Christ urge forvvard his vvork and desisteth not but follovveth us still to find us out vvhen vve think all is done maketh a miracle but the preface and forerunner of a greater vvork it vvill concern us to uphold this course of love both to others and our seâ—â—es 1. To others To be instant in season and out of season in our leisure and in our business To stir up and quicken in them the beginings of grace Not upon ill success to go back and fall off but still to labour and travel with them as S. Paul speaketh till Christ that is all Christian duties be fully formed in them To be their solicitours their advocates their remembrancers and vvhâ—n God hath vvrought a miracle and delivered them from poverty or prison or death to speak to them â—â—â—ok back and behold What though vve prevail not yet let us 〈◊〉 desist The husbandman doth not take off his hand from the plough for one bad year nor doth the merchant leave off navigation for one wreck at sea Spargenda est manus saith Seneca succedet aliquando multa tentanti We must scatter again and again all will not be lost after many attempts The sower in the Gospel sowed his seed in four places though it came up and yielded increase but in one Jer. 20.8 9. The word of the Lord saith the Prophet was made a reproch unto me and a derision daily Then I said I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his name But it followeth His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay He then that cannot expect his brother that cannot hope well of his brother is neither a true Prophet nor a good Christian That plain Axiom of S. Augustine is of good use De nullo vivente desperandum We may not despair of any man alive but whilest he breatheth we must hope we must pray for him and find him out and instruct him That common speech of some in S. Chrysostom's time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leave off from admonishing and counselling these kind of men the Father calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the deceit of the Devil an engine made by him to undermine and shake all religion and piety Some we have had of late who have pronounced it unlawful to pray for the salvation of all men An errour of so monstrous a shape that former ages were afraid of it and it was reserved for this last and worst age to wait upon its mishapen damme that ill-begotten phansie of the absolute decree of Reprobation I could not easily believe that any should take delight in such a speculation which striketh off all hope of salvation and all care of our brother withall that he may go whither he will For whithersoever he goeth he is lost for ever never to be found This doctrine leaveth some men in worse case then the Swine in the Gospel The Devils entered into them indeed but presently carried them violently into the sea and drowned them but by this doctrine some men there be prepared on purpose to be an habitation of Devils for ever But withall I see they who cut off all hope of life from some and with it the prayers and instructions of the Church are all sheep themselves pure and innocent and so sure of their salvation that in this they rest as in a miracle as if nothing more were to be done and therefore they will not work it out They tell us That some be vessels of wrath and therefore that we ask and attempt an impossible thing That the condemnation of many and the Salvation of all cannot both be brought to pass because this implieth a contradiction I answer It is true it implieth indeed a contradiction that â—ll should be saved yet many damned but yet I see no force in the contradiction to fright us from our devotion or shut up our mouths that we may not instruct and remember every man of his present condition that when we have begun we may not follow and find him out and instruct him yet more fully This foundation standeth very sure The Lord knoweth who are his But we do not read in Scripture that God hath any where imparted this knowledge unto any man Suppose it were true that God doth indeed sit in heaven and pass an irreversible sentence upon the lives of some certain men yet doth this nothing concern us nor can we judge by any outward marks upon our brother what God doth in his secret closet and counsel Judgement belongeth unto him and duty unto us Let God do what he please in heaven or in earth a necessity lieth upon us and wo-will be unto us if we instruct not our brother Nor is the secret will of God any rule of our actions nor can it be For it is the property of a Rule to be manifestly known and if it be not known it is not a Rule The rule that concerneth us is as manifest as the light That we must love our brother That we must find him out and instruct and save him That we must begin and promote and as far as in us lieth perfect and finish this work That we must seek the conversion of all men Haec regula ab initio Evangelii decucurrit This is a constant and everlasting rule and hath run along in a continued stream of light ever since the Son of righteousness did arise in the hemisphere of the Church But for what God will do with particulars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a thick cloud cast a veil drawn before it that no mortal eye can discern the least glimpse or scintillation of it We read in the Scripture that the number of true believers is but small but my duty to my brother in praying for him and promoting his spiritual health is not grounded upon that act which apprehendeth the number of the elect to be but few but upon that which apprehendeth the mercies of God to be infinite and that it cannot stand with his goodness to make any man purposely to destroy him And it is an act of our Charity which like some artificial glasses multiplieth the object a thousand times And this is a kind of privilege and prerogative which Charity hath above Faith Christ hath already begun with my brother the miracle is wrought his wounds are still open and they will drop their medicinal power and virtue upon the weakest member he hath yea upon him that is yet no member and my care must be to help him to apply it There is no heart so much stone which Christ's bloud cannot soften and out of it raise a child unto Abraham No piece so crooked ever sprung from Adam's root but of it God can erect a statue of himself None is so miserably desperate of whom we are not
The treasures thereof are infinite the minerals thereof are rich assiduè pleniùs responsura fodienti The more they are digged the more plentifully do they offer themselves that all the wit of men and Angels can never be able to draw them dry But even this Word many times is but a word and no more Sometimes it is a killing letter Such vain and unskilful pioneers we are that for the most part we meet with poisonous damps and vapours instead of treasure I might adde a third Teacher Christ's Discipline which when we think of nothing but of Jesus by his rod and afflictions putteth us in remembrance that he is the Lord. This Teacher hath a kind of Divine authority and by this the Spirit breatheth many times with more efficacy and power then by the Church or the Word then by the Prophets and Apostles and holy Scriptures For when we are disobedient to his Church deaf to his Word at the noise of these many waters we are afraid and yield our necks unto his yoke All these are Teachers But their authority and power and efficacy they have from the Spirit The Church if not directed by the Spirit were but a rout or Conventicle the Word if not quickned by the Spirit a dead letter and his Discipline a rod of iron first to harden us and then break us to pieces But AFFLAT SPIRITUS the Spirit bloweth upon his Garden the Church and the spices thereof flow And then to disobey the Church is to resist the Spirit INCUBAT SPIRITUS The holy Ghost sitteth upon the seed of the Word and hatcheth a new creature a subject to this Lord. MOVET SPIRITUS The Spirit moveth upon these waters of bitterness and then they make us fruitful to every good work In a word The Church is a Teacher and the Word is a Teacher and Afflictions are Teachers but the Spirit of God the holy Ghost is all in all I might here enter a large field full of delightful variety But I forbear and withdraw my self and will onely remember you that this Spirit is a spirit that teacheth Obedience and Meekness that if we will have him light upon us we must receive him as Christ did in the shape of a Dove in all innocency and simplicity He telleth us himself that with a froward heart he will not dwell and then sure he will not enlighten it For as Chrysostom well observeth that the Prophets of God and Satan did in this notoriously differ that they who gave Oracles from God gave them with all mildness and temper without any fanatick alteration but they who gave Oracles by motion from the Devil did it with much distraction and confusion with a kind of fury and madness so we shall easily find that those motions which descend not from above are earthly sensual and devilish that in them there is strife and envying and confusion and every evil work but the wisdom which is from above from the holy Ghost is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated James 3. full of mercy and good fruits Be not deceived When thy Anger rageth the Spirit is not in that storm When thy Disobedience to Government is loud he speaketh not in that thunder When thy Zele is mad and unruly he dwelleth not in that fiery hush When the faculties of thy soul are shaken and dislocated by thy stubborn and perverse passions that thou canst neither look nor speak nor move aright he will not be in that earthquake But in the still voice and the cool of the day in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the calm and tranquility and peace of thy soul he cometh when that storm is slumbred that earthquake setled that thunder stilled that fire quenched And he cometh as a light to shew thee the beauty and love of thy Saviour and the glory and power of thy Lord. And though he be sole Instructor yet he descendeth to make use of means and if thou wilfully withdraw thy self from these thou art none of his celestial Auditory To conclude Wilt thou know how to speak this language truly that Jesus is the Lord and assure thy self that the Spirit teacheth thee so to speak Mark well then those symptoms and indications of his presence those marks and signs which he hath left us in his word to know when the voice is his For though as the Kingdom of heaven so the Spirit of God cometh not with observation yet we may observe whether he be come or no. Remember then first that he is a Spirit and the Spirit of God and so is contrary to the Flesh and teacheth nothing that may flatter or countenance it or let it loose to insult over the Spirit For this is against the very nature of the Spirit as much as it is for light bodies to descend or heavy to move upwards Nay Fire may descend and the Earth may be moved out of its place the Sun may stand still or go back Nature may change its course at the word and beck of the God of Nature but this is one thing which God cannot do he cannot change himself nor can his Spirit breathe any doctrine forth that savoureth of the World or the Flesh or Corruption Therefore we may nay we must suspect all those doctrines and actions which are said to be effects and products of the blessed Spirit when we observe them drawn out and levelled to carnal ends and temporal respects For sure the Spirit can never beat a bargain for the world and the Truth of God is the most unproportioned price that can be laid out on such a purchace When I see a man move his eyes compose his countenance order and methodize his gesture and behaviour as if he were now on his death-bed to take his leave of the world and to seal that Renouncement which he made at the Font when I hear him loud in prayer and as loud in reviling the iniquities of the times wishing his eyes a fountain of tears to bewail them day and night when I see him startle at a mis-placed word as if it were a thunderbolt when I hear him cry as loud for a Reformation as the idolatrous Priests did upon their Baal I begin to think I see an Angel in his flight and mount going up into heaven But after all this devotion this zele this noise when I see him stoop like the Vultur and fly like lightning to the prey I cannot but say within my self O Lucifer son of the morning how art thou fallen from heaven how art thou brought down to the ground nay to hell it self Sure I am the holy Ghost looketh upward moveth upward directeth us upward and if we follow him neither our doctrine nor our actions will ever savour of this dung Remember again that he is SPIRITUS RECTUS a right Spirit as David calleth him Psal 51. not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 winding and turning several wayes now to God and anon nay at once to Mammon now glancing
light to stand up against our helps and to disgrace that for which the Saints of God have offered up the calves of their lips Hebr. 13.15 the sacrifice of praise from generation to generation But when we have no peace within we trouble all that is about us When the love of our selves and of the world hath gained a throne and power within us it presently raiseth a tempest distracteth and maddeth our passions and sendeth them abroad our Anger on that we should love our Fear on that we should embrace our Sorrow on that which should make us glad our Anger on the Temple whilest our Love is carried with a swinge to the gold of the Temple And then what an unruly thing is Phansie in men who talk much and know little in men of narrow minds and heavy understandings in men who have bound their reason to the things of this world and not improved it by the knowledge of the truth What Comedies and Tragedies will it make what ridiculous but withall sad effects will it produce If this humour were general as it is in too-too many within a while we should not know where or when or what to pray we shall not know how to move our selves how to stand or go or kneel we should make some scruple and be troubled to take up a straw we should fall out with others and disagree with our selves we should to day build a Church and within a while pull it down and shortly after set it up again we should kneel to day and stand to morrow and every day change our postures and appear in as many shapes as Proteus we should do and undo and every day do what we should not do be Antipodes to all the world and which is strange to our selves also and so having been every thing at last turn Apostates first oppose the private spirit to Scripture and then as some have done of late deny it to be the word of God first wrest and abuse it and then take it quite away These are the common operations of a sick and distempered brain the evaporations of a corrupt heart Nor can we look for grapes from thorns nor for figs from thistles Matth. 7.16 It cannot be expected that things sacred should escape the hands of Violence and Profaneness till men begin to love Religion for it self and cease to think every thing unlawful that may be spoken against till they have learnt that totum Christiani that which maketh a Christian indeed learnt to subdue their affections to the truth and not to draw down the truth to be subject to their unquiet and turbulent passions When true devotion hath once purified and warmed our hearts we shall not trouble our selves or others with low and groundless questions concerning God's house Though he be indeed every where yet we shall think him more present here then in any other place more ready to shine upon us to distill his blessings as dew upon us in his own house then in our closet or shop more ready to favour the devotion of many assembled together then of one single person and yet hearing and favouring both Or if we do not think the Lord more present here then elsewhere yet we shall demean our selves as if we did think so we shall use all reverence as in the sight of God before vvhom vve present our selves vve shall use all reverence as being before the holy Angels What you will say do Angels come to Church Yes They did in St. Paul's time And certainly they do still unless we chase them away with our irreverence One argument that the Apostle useth why women should be veiled and covered in the Church and men uncovered is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the Angels 1 Cor. 11.10 Nor need we strain and study for an interpretation and say he meant the Pastours of the Church because in Scripture sometime they are called Angels Hagg. 1.13 Mal. 2.7 For this is too much forced and maketh the reason less valid and putteth the Veil upon the Man as well as the Woman Nor can we understand the evil Spirits Psal 78.49 Matth. 25.41 Rev. 12.7 9. Hebr 1.14 which are no where called Angels but with addition Nor can I see any reason why we may not understand the holy Angels to be there meant For they are ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation then doubtless they minister to us in the Church assoon as in any other place They rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner Luke 15. ◠10 then doubtless they rejoyce also at our prayers and praises in the house of the Lord. But say some the Apostle in that place exhorteth women to imitate the reverent and modest behaviour of the Angels Isa 6.2 who are said to cover their faces before the throne of God But then this again would concern Men as well as Women All will be plain if we consider that at that time it was a received custome for women to be veiled and men uncovered in the Church 1 Cor. 11.7 13. The words are plain A man indeed ought not to cover his head and Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered If the women therefore will not be covered because of men 11. let them do it because of the Angels who are sent by Christ into the congregations of Christians to take care of them to help them in every occasion and withall to observe whether they behave themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 14.40 decently and in order Here they are present in the name of their Lord here they stand as witnesses of what is done To them as to their Lord that sent them modest and reverent behaviour is pleasing boldness profaness and disorder hateful As they do their duty in ministring to us so they rejoyce to see us doe ours in serving God Why should they be grieved who are so ready to attend on us Therefore it will concern Women not to neglect or alter the custome of the Church lest by so doing they give offense to the blessed Angels who are great lovers of decency and order and make them who would minister to them to become witnesses against them upon the beck of Majesty executioners of judgement upon their heads This I take to be the meaning of the Apostle in that place Reverence is due to the house of God not onely because God is present there Ye shall reverence my sanctuarie Levit. 19.30 I am the Lord but because the Angels are present there also who are the ministers of the God of order and rejoyce in our order and are offended at the contrary Further yet a reverent deportment in the Church is necessary in respect of men Some men by their severity and eminency in virtue have obtained to themselves this privilege and prerogative that no man dareth do any evil or undecent thing in their presence Seneca saith
not in their heart or hand but onely in their ear Who for fear they should not find it get them a heap of teachers as S. Paul prophesieth of them but it is according to their own lusts teachers whom they must teach as a master doth his scholar that lesson which he must but repeat again The Preacher and the hearers may seem to abound in charity for they are alwayes of the same mind in all things He is our Preacher we have made him ours And then how do we love his errours how do we applaud his ignorance how do we cry up those frivolous toyes and that witless wit which little conduce to Râ—ghteousness and are far below the majesty of the word of God! O pudor would the Father have cried What a shame is this Can we conceive any thing more ridiculous Nay what a grief is this that so many should take such pains and be at such charge to be deceived that so many should please and flatter themselves to their own destruction I will therefore grow further upon you and be bold to conclude that in this formality of hearing I say in this formality of hearing because I would not be mistaken for hearing of it self is the ordinary means of salvation but in this formality we betray more vanity then we do in any other action of our life For tell me is it not a vain thing to take up water in a sieve to let in and out nay to let in and loath and in this reciprocal intercourse of hearing and neglecting to spin out the thread of our life and at the end of it to look for the kingdom of heaven to come so oft to hear of Righteousness with a resolution to let it pass no further then the ear to give Righteousness no larger place to breathe in then from the pulpit to our pew from the Preacher's mouth to our ear to come in all our vanity to hear a declamation against Vanity nay to make a Sermon of Righteousness a prologue to that unrighteousness which an Heathen would have cursed to have the ear full of Righteousness and the hands full of bloud Certainly if those actions be vain which are not driven to a right end then this Hearing is in vain Did I call it a vain action of our life I will yet increase upon you and be bold to pronounce it a Sin and that of the greatest magnitude Will you have it in plain terms It is no less then a mockery of God For do we not in a manner tell God to his face for our very thoughts are words to him Lord we will come into thy courts to hear of Righteousness and leave that and the Church together behind us We will hear the burthen of pride and make it a garment to cloath us of Temperance and drink down the thought of it of Chastity and defile it We will hear of Righteousness and set up all the faculties of our souls and all the members of our bodies against it except the Ear. What is this but to be learning our Alphabet all the dayes of our life and never put the letters together to make up one word or syllable towards Righteousness What is this but to think to please God with a piece of service vvhich doth most please our sense What is this but to mock God Be not deceived God is not mocked Righteousness is res morosa a coy and severe thing and will not dwell in the hollow of the ear but must be seen in the world in our houses in the education of our children in the streets in our modest deportment in the Church in our reverence in the Commonwealth in our peaceable conformity Every place must be a shrine for Righteousness nor is she confined to the Church alone Therefore S. Basil will tell us that Hearing in Scripture is of another nature from that which we so much delight and pride our selves in For when God biddeth us hear his meaning is we should obey He that hath ears to hear saith our Saviour let him hear Why Speak Lord and thy servant must needs hear But let him hear that is let him seek Righteousness Bare Hearing then will not reach home There is yet a third thing behind Though our Profession and frequent Hearing do not yet the Breathing forth of our Prayers and Supplications to God may reach home As I do not derogate from Hearing but Hearing only so I cannot attribute enough to Prayer Hearing may seem to be a duty conditional and respective in respect of the weak condition of our nature If we could obey without it Hearing were of no use at all But Prayer is absolute and necessary to which we should be bound were we again in Paradise For even the Saints and Angels tender their Prayers And Christ himself in whom there was no sin in the dayes of his flesh offered up strong supplications and doth yet intercede and pray for us This then may come near it When we are on our knees and breathe forth our desires to God we may seem to be like the dry and parched ground and to open our selves that the dew from heaven this Righteousness may distil upon us and fill us But yet we must not be too hasty to determine and conclude this is it For that may befall Praying which doth Hearing It may be alone and our prayers may be loud and frequent vvhen our desires are asleep nay our Desires may run contrary to them and deny our Prayers We may ask for fish when we would have a serpent ask for Righteousness when we desire riches and beg for eternity in heaven when we had rather dwell and delight our selves with the children of men Many times we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wander from our selves and follow our flying thoughts to that vanity which we pray against Our understandings are taken up with two contrary objects Now a sigh anon a burning thought now an eye lifted up to heaven anon full of the adulteress now a strong abjuration of sin and before the Amen be said as strong a resolution to retain it We grind the face of the poor and desire God to instill thoughts of mercy into us We every day break his Law and are every day earnest with him that we may keep it We pray for Righteousness which God is readier to give then we to ask and upon the fairest proffer turn our backs and which is an extremity of folly will not have that which we so oft beg upon our knees We are then yet to seek what it is to seek Righteousness For our Profession we may carry with us when we run from Righteousness our frequent hearing is but a listning after it or rather after something which may be as musick to the ear and last of all we may pray for it and seek the contrary You will ask then What is it to seek Righteousness I deny not but there may be great use of these but these do
and Monarch of the Church who hath full and absolute power to determine of those things which concern our peace and to judge the Law it self to discover its defects and to supply and perfect it And here upon this foundation what a Babel of confusion may be built Upon these grounds what errour what foul sin may not shew its head and advance it self before the Sun and the people and outface the world With the one Scripture is no Scripture but a dead letter And with the other it hath no life but what they put into it With the one it is nothing and with the other it is imperfect which in effect is nothing For what difference in matters of this nature and in respect of a Law between being nothing and not being what it is For to take away the force of a Law is in a manner to annihilate it With them as Calvin speaketh of those in his time St. Paul was but a broken vessel John a foolish young man Peter a denier of his Master and Matthew a Publican And the language of ours at this day is little better And with the other they are little less For when they speak plainest they teach them how to speak And now that which was a sin yesterday is a vertue to day vertue is vice and vice vertue as the one is taught within and the other is bold to interpret it The Text is Defraud not thy brother The inward Word biddeth thee spoil him The Text is Touch not mine anointed By the autority of the Church thou mayest touch and kill him And let me tell you the inward Word will do as much Deceit Injustice Sacrilege Rebellion Murther all may ride in in triumph at this gate for it is wide enough to let them in and the Devil together with all his wiles and enterprises withall his most horrid machinations He did but mangle and corrupt the Scripture to make a breach into our Saviour These take it away or make it void and of no effect to overthrow his Church Must the Church of Rome be brought in like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts with great pomp and state with Supremacy and Infallibility Then Peter is brought out and his Rock nay his Shadow to set out the Mask and the Autority of the Church leadeth him on And they open their vvardrope and shew us their Traditions such deceitful ware that we no sooner look upon it but it vanisheth out of sight Again must some new phansie be set up which will not bear the light of Scripture but flieth and is scattered before it as the mist before the Sun Must some horrid fact be put in execution which Nature it self trembleth at and shrinketh from and which this perfect Law damneth to the lowest hell Then an inward Word is pretended and God is brought in to witness against himself to disanul his own Law and ratifie the contrary to speak from heaven against that which he declared by his Son on earth to speak within and make that a duty which he openly threatned to punish with everlasting fire What is become now of our perfect Law It is no Law at all but as the Son came down to preach it so there is a new holy Ghost come into the world to destroy it Which is to do worse then the Jews did For they only nailed Christ's body to the cross these crucifie his very mind and will Which yet will rise again and triumph over them when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to his Gospel For what man of Belial may not take up this pretence and leave Nature and Grace Reason and Religion behind them and walk forward with it to the most unwarrantable and unchristian designs that a heart full of gall and bitterness can set up Ahithophel might have taken it up and Judas might have taken it up even parricides have taken it up And if every inward persuasion the off-spring of an idle phansie and a heart bespotted with the world be the voice of God then Covetousness may be a God and Ambition may be a God and the Devil himself may be a God For these speak in them these speak the word which they hear which because they are ashamed to name they make use of that Name which is above every name to usher in these evil spirits in which Name they should cast them out In the name of Piety what is this inward Word this New light It may be the echo of my lust and concupiscence the resultance of an irregular appetite the reflexion of my self upon my self It is the greatest parasite in the world For it moveth as I move and sayeth what I say and denieth what I deny As inward as it is its original is from without The Object speaketh to the Eye and the Eye to the Heart and the Heart hot with desire speaketh to it self A rent and divided Church will make up my breaches A shaken Commonwealth will build me up a fortune A dissolved College will settle me in an estate And I hear it for I speak it my self And it is the voice of God and not of man Of this they have had sad experience in forein parts in both the Germanies and in other places And we have some reason to think that this monster hath made a large stride and set his foot in our coasts But if it be not this it is Madness Nay if this Word within may not be made an outward word it is Nothing For this Word within as they call it bringeth with it either an intelligible sense or not intelligible If it bring a sense unintelligible and which may not be uttered and expressed then it is no Word or the Word of a fool that uttereth more then his mind and speaketh of things which he knoweth not For what Word is that which can neither be understood nor uttered But if it bear a sense intelligible then it may be received of the understanding and uttered with the tongue and written in a book and then the same imputation will lye upon it which they lay upon the outward Word that it is but an ink-horn phrase And written with ink it may be For with amazed eyes we have seen it written with bloud I am even weary of this argument But men have not been ashamed openly to profess what we blush within our selves to confute And this Word within this loathsom phansie this Nothing hath had power to invenom the Word of life it self and make it the savour of death unto death For conclusion then Let us not say Lo here is Christ or Lo there is Christ Let us not frame and fashion a Christ of our own For if he be of our making he is not the Son of God but a phantasm And such a Christ may speak what we will have him speak to our hearts our lusts our vices Such a Christ will flatter us deceive us damn us But let us behold him in
made perfect where we and every thing shall be made perfect where there is perfect Love perfect Joy perfect Happiness for evermore The Four and Fortieth SERMON PART IV. JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein be being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed THese two dayes we have been treating of the Perfection of the Gospel called by S. James a perfect Law And yet there remaineth something to be said The rules and orders which Christ hath given us to observe are plain and easie and open to the understanding Adblandiuntur nostrae infirmitati They friendly walk hand in hand with the weakest to lead him to his journey's end How readest thou Canst thou keep the commandments Or hast thou kept them from thy youth Wantest thou yet any thing Then repair to some further rule For us we may well presume we have done enough when we have done what our Law-giver requireth For Christ did make Laws for his Church as Phaleas in Aristotle did for his Common-wealth who took good order for preventing of smaller faults but left way enough to greater crimes No he strook down all digged up all by the roots both the cedars and the shrubs both the greatest and the smallest He laid his ax to the very beginnings of them and would not let them breathe in a thought nor be seen in a look Nor did he like that famous Grecian painter begin his work but die before he could perfect it It were the greatest opposing of his will to think so He left nothing imperfect but sealed up his Evangelical Law as well as his Obedience with a Consummatum est What he began he ever finished In a word His will is most fully and perspicuously expressed in his Gospel But yet to urge this home this giveth no encouragement to contemn those means which God hath reached forth to direct us in our search For as we do not with the Church of Rome pretend extreme difficulty of Christ's Law and upon this pretence strike the Scripture quite out of the hands of the Laiety and occupy their zeal with other matters as Archytas did children with rattles to keep them from handling things more precious so do we require an exact diligence both in reading the Scripture and also in asking counsel of gray hairs and multitude of years of men of learning and understanding whom God hath placed over them in his Church And if the great Physician Hippocrates thought it necessary in his art for those who had taken any cure in hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to ask advice even of ideots and unexpert men much rather ought we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ask counsel of God by prayer and meditation and of those whom God hath set up to teach us those things which concern our everlasting-peace The Gospel as it is said of the Civil Law Vigilantibus scriptum est is written to watchful and industrious men Though the lessons be plain yet we see many times Negligence cannot pass a line when Industry hath run over the whole book Nor can we think that that Truth which will make us perfect is of so easie purchase that it will be sown in any ground and like the Devil's tares grow up whilest we sleep S. Hierom speaketh of some in his time qui solam rusticitatem pro sanctitate habebant who accounted rusticity and ignorance the onely true holiness and called themselves the scholars of the Disciples who were simple and unlearned fishermen quasi id circo sancti sint quòd nihil scirent as if their ignorance were a good argument of their piety and they were therefore holy because they knew nothing I cannot say that such we have in these our dayes No They are not such who profess ignorance but are as ignorant as they could be and profess it not yea they stretch beyond their line and exalt themselves to teach even their Teachers Like the Lilies of the field they labour not they study not and Solomon with all his wisdom was not so wise as one of these Some crum falleth from their master's table Some empty and unsignificant passage they catch at from some Doctor and Preacher that pleaseth them and whom they call theirs as well they may for he bringeth them lettice fit for their lips and theirs let him be And this filleth them so full more then the whole loaf of another and it runneth out at their mouth in some censure of those Truths they neither do nor will understand But bring them to the trial and you shall find them as well skilled in the Truth and Gospel as poor Mycillus in Lucian was in coins who knew not whether a peny were square or round But even these know more of the will of Christ then they put in practice Faith It is their common language Religion They talk of nothing more The Truth of Christ They fight for it Piety It dwelleth with them Purity It is their proper passion or essence rather Honesty of conversation Justice and Integrity The truth is we have just cause to fear they do but talk of it But I am willing to take my hand from this sore And I did but adde this to the rest as a necessary caution that we might not neglect this light which shineth in our faces and pointeth out to our journey's end even to Perfection Now if you ask to how many degrees this Perfection may be intended the answer is easie Our Perfection hath no NON ULTRA in this world nor is he a good Christan who striveth not to be best Nec est periculum nè sit nimium quod esse maximum debet There is no danger of excess in that which can never be great enough They who ask what degrees of Perfection are sufficient think they may sit down and rest in any think any holiness sufficient to bring them to the sight of God But a Christan's Perfection must not be measured by the ordinary standard by some scant and thrifty measure It must be large and liberal heaped up and thrust down measured out not by the King's shekel but by the shekel of the Sanctuary which was double to the other When our Saviour giveth a Law unto our Lust he restraineth not onely Adultery and Fornication and the rest of those grosser sins but telleth us that the Sanctitie of a Christan suffereth not so much as a lascivious look in the eye or a wanton thought in the heart When he rectifieth the vice of our Speech he forbiddeth not onely profane Oaths impure language and the like but censureth every Idle word so that a Christian can scarce breathe without danger Where he prescribeth unto us a measure of Patience he not onely forbiddeth all Revenge but every contumelious word every angry thought and setteth us at such a distance from Anger and Revenge as that he commandeth us to pray for those that curse
God's benefits whether Beauty or Wit or Riches or Health is to make them benefits indeed But if we turn them into wantonness they will be turned into judgements we shall be the verier fools for our Wit the poorer for our Riches the more deformed for our Beauty the more despicable for our Power our Health shall be worse then a disease and Miracles themselves shall stand up to condemn us But if we behold that is consider them they will be as the influences of heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defluxions from God himself distilling upon us to refresh and quicken us and make us active in those duties which return them back again with praise unto their Fountain And in the strength of them we shall walk on from faith to virtue from virtue to knowledge from knowledge to temperance from temperance to patience till we are brought into the presence of God who is the giver of all things In a word If we thus behold and consider God's benefits we shall sin no more nor shall a worse thing come unto us Which is our third and last part and cometh next to be handled The Fifth SERMON PART III. JOHN V. 14. Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee MAN hath not found out more wayes to destroy himself then God hath to save him You shall find God's preventing mercy his following mercy Psal 59.10 Psal 23.6 Psal 119. Psal 6.2 his reviving and quickening mercy his healing mercy Here they are all even a multitude of mercies Healing Preventing Following and Reviving Here I told you is 1. Misericordia solicita Mercy sollicitous to perfect and complete the cure The healing of this impotent mans body was but as a glimmering light as the dawning of the day Mercy will yet shine brighter upon him 2. Misericordia excitans Mercy rousing him up to remember what he was by the pool's side and to consider what he now is in the Temple And these two we have already displayed before you 3. The last now sheweth it self in rayes and light and full beauty Misericordia praecipiens Mercy teaching and prescribing for the future I may call it a Logical Rational Concluding Mercy making the miracle as the Premisses and drawing from it Salvation as the Conclusion Behold thou art made whole Therefore sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee The words are plain and need not the gloss of any learned Interpreter And we find that those lessons which are most plain are most necessary as those things which are most common are most useful When we are to build an house we do not go to the mines for gold or to the rocks for perle but to the quarry for stone Corn which feedeth us groweth almost in every field and Sheep which clothe us grase in flocks upon the mountains But those things quibus luxuria Pretium fecit which would be of little esteem did not our luxury set a price upon them are remote and in a manner hidden from us and we find them out with labour and hazard of our lives So it is in spiritual matters Those truths which are necessary lie open and naked to the understanding so that he that runneth may read them But more abstruse and subtle speculations as they are not necessary so are they set at distance and are hard to find out For it is not Curiosity but Humility that must build us up in our most holy Faith And yet the plainest truths in Scripture require our pains and labour as much as the obscurest We may observe that in the winter-season when the Sun is far removed from us we lay our selves open and walk the fields and use means to receive the light and heat of it but in the summer when it is almost over our heads we retire our selves and draw a curtain to exclude both light and heat The same behaviour we put on in our Christian walk When the Sun of righteousness cometh near us and shineth in our very faces we run with Adam into the thicket and hide our selves in excuses but when he withdraweth and as it were hideth himself and will not tell us what is not necessary for us to know we gaze after him and are most busie to walk where we have no light The obscurer places in Scripture are like unto the Sun in winter We delight to use all means to gain the light and meaning of them But the plainest are like the Sun in summer They come too near our Zenith their light and heat offend us they scald and trouble us by telling us plainly of our duty and therefore we use art and draw the curtain against them to keep off their heat As we have heard of the people of Africk that they every morning curse the Sun because the heat of it annoyeth them These plain words of the Text are a notable instance For to defeat the true meaning of them what art do we use what curtains do we draw When we should sin no more we question the possibility of the precept and whether there be any such estate or no As if Christ did bid us sin no more when he knew we could not but sin again and again And then we multiply our sins as we do our dayes and make them keep time almost with every hour and moment of our life And to this end we draw distinctions before the words to keep of their light SIN NO MORE that is Not unto death or SIN NO MORE that is Not with a full consent Not without some reluctancy or strugling of conscience And now where is this Text Even lost and swallowed up and buried in the glosses of flesh and bloud We may we think observe it and yet sin as oft as the flesh or the world shall require it Let us then take some pains to raise the Text from this grave and take off those cloths in which it is enwrapped let us draw it from those clouds and curtains wherewith it is obscured In the course of our speech we shall meet with some of them Now we shall take the words in their natural meaning as they lie And in them you may observe 1. the Prescript or Caution Sin no more 2. the Danger of not observing it If we sin again a worse thing will come unto us And by these we may try our selves as the Eagle doth her young ones If with open eyes w◠can look upon the Text as it lies in its full strength and meaning then are we of the true airy but if we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we be weak sighted and cannot endure the light and heat of it we may then justly suspect our selves to be but bastard and counterfeit Christians First of all we shall consider how far the words Sin no more do extend and stretch themselves secondly the Possibility of keeping of them The first is a consideration of some consequence that we may not violate the word of God nor do the Scripture any
wrong We see many interpret Scriptures as Jonathan shot his arrows sometimes beyond sometimes beside sometimes short of the sense of them Now that we may take the extent of these words aright we must observe that our Saviour doth not say Sin no more in this or that sin but simply and positively Sin no more And out of this necessarily followeth this conclusion He that will enter into the kingdom of heaven must have no sin remaining in him And of this we have a fair representation in the present miracle Which as all miracles are was complete and absolute The impotent man had his bodily health perfectly restored So it is also in the cure of the Soul That is a thorow and exact change The Lion is turned into a Lamb the Leopard into a Kid and the Old man into a New creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene Most men applaud and even bless themselves if they abstain from some sins which they observe in others The Luxurious person comforteth himself because he is not such a cormorant as that Usurer and that Usurer huggeth himself for not being such a swine as that Drunkard The Zelote is almost in heaven already because he is not so brutish in his understanding as that Idolater and he maketh it an argument of his love to Christ that he hateth the very sign of his Cross and that Idolatry applaudeth himself seeing he is not so wicked as he who breaketh all the commandments of Christ by an indiscreet and irregular defending of one But however men may satisfie themselves with their parcel and partial obedience certainly it will never content him who offered up himself a whole sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the world We are told by those who have skill in cattel that if we would have fair and white flocks of sheep we must have especial care that the rams be white Neither is it enough that their fleece be fair but we must also see that they have not a black spot under their tongue For if they have though their coats be never so white they will quickly change the colour of the stock And so it is with us Though we wash and purge our selves of sin though our fleece seemeth never so white and fair yet whilest there is this black spot under our tongue whilest there is one sin lurking in us this one will prove enough to make us unprofitable in the flock of Christ The young man in the Gospel that had kept all the commandments from his youth who would not have taken him for a goodly sheep in this flock But you see the great Shepheard of the flock our blessed Saviour quickly espied the black spot under his tongue Yet one thing wantest thou go sell all that thou hast His stomach turned at this and therefore our Saviour sendeth him away with this sad farewel How hardly shall they who have riches enter into the kingdom of God! If that which the Schools teach us be true then is the danger of this one black spot of some one sin remaining very great and the contagion reacheth very far For it is a conclusion of theirs That whosoever is in the state of any one mortal sin unrepented of all that he doth his Alms his Prayers his Divine offices and whatsoever good act besides it forwith becometh mortal sin If that be not true yet certainly this is If our righteousness be never so great though it shall not become sin yet thereby it shall become unprofitable Again we observe that every man is not equally prone to every sin but according to different tempers and constitutions that is lothed by one which is liked by another And it is the policy of our Enemy to assault us where we lie most open and to lay such baits in our way as are most agreeable to our humour Therefore as Quintilian adviseth Schoolmasters to observe the several dispositions of their scholars and accordingly to apply themselves unto them so must we study our selves observe our own inclination and be most instant and diligent against that temptation which it looketh towards with most favour and complacency Animadvertenda ea peccata maximè quae difficilè praecaventur saith Tully We must keep a steddy eye and watch over those tentations which we are most like to fall into and to which the bent of our corruptions doth especially sway us Let the Melancholick beware of Envy the Cholerick prepare himself against injuries the Glutton put a knife to his throat the Wanton beat down and chastise his body As wise Captains use to plant their engines where the city is weakest and as it is the wisdom of Governours iis malis maximè mederi quibus Resp maximè laborat to be most diligent to cure those evils with which the Common-wealth is most molested and as good Physicians purge out the predominant humour so must we take a strict survey of our selves and set the strongest guard there where we are most attemptable If it be Anger tie it up if Lust quench it if Sloth chase it away Ante omnia necesse est teipsum astimare It is the chief and principal Work of man to weigh and ponder himself For as it is good to know our own strength so is it also useful to take notice of our own weakness that we may make use of our strength to defend us there where we are weakest and to quench the fire of that dart which is most likely to enter In a word thus looking into our selves let us provide against that danger which threatneth abroad and by often ripping up our hearts let us purge and clense them as Moses did his hand by putting it again into his bosom When God sent Saul out against Amalek he gave him charge to put all without exception to the sword but Saul as we find took upon him authority to dispense with God's command and found pretences to spare many of the people And see the event of this irregular and unseasonable mercy He spared one too many and preserved him to be his executioner For he that he gave him his last blow and bereft him of his life was an Amalekite 2 Sam. 1. And thus it is with us many times We go out in these spiritual battels of the Lord even as Saul did against Amalek too too favourably and peaceably inclined and spare many times where we ought to kill Whereas our charge is not a partial charge like that of David Touch not the young man Absolom Touch not the sons the sins of your desire nor like that of the King of Syria Fight not against small or great save onely with the King of Israel Fight not against those lesser sins nor against those which by their bulk and corpulency betray themselves and are loathed as soon as seen But our Commission is general without limitation Sin no more All must to the sword The whole body of sin as S. Paul calleth it must be destroyed For if