for which it was held First we consult Secondly we settle and establish our Consultations and last of all we gaine a Constancy and perseverance in those Actions which our Consultations have engaged and encouraged us in and all these three we owe to Feare Did we not Feare we should not Consult did not Feare urge and drive us on we should not determine and when this breath departeth our Counsells fall and all our Thoughts perish Present Christ unto us in all his beauty with his Spicy cheeks and Curled locks with hony under his Tongue as he is described in the Canticles present him as a Jesus and we grow too familiar with him Present him on the Mount at his Sermon and perhaps we will give him the hearing Present him as a Rock and we see a hole to run into sooner then a Foundation to lay that on which is like him and we run on with ease in our evill wayes having such a friend such an indulgent Saviour alwaies in our Eye but present him descending with a shout and with the Trump of God and then we begin to remember that for all these Evill wayes we shall be brought into Judgement Our Counsells shift as the wind blowes and upon better motion and riper consideration we are ready to alter our Decrees For these three follow close upon each other pallemus horrescimus Circumspicimus Plin. Epist. saith Pliny first Feare strikes us pale then puts into a fitt of Trembling at last wheeles us about to fee and consider the danger we are in this consideration follows us nor can we shake it off longiorisque timoris causa Timor est this wind increaseth as it goes drives us to consultation carries us on to determine and by a continued force binds and fastens us to our Counsells And therefore Aquinas tells us that our Turne proceeds from the feare of punishment tanquam à primo motu as from that which first sets it a moving for though true Repentance be the gift of God yet fear works that Disposition in us by which we Turne when God doth Turne us The Feare of punishment restraines us from sin in the restraint a hope of Pardon shewes it self upon this hope we build up strengthen our Resolution and at last see the horror of sin not in the punishment but in the sin hate our folly more then the whip and our evill wayes more then Death it self which we call a Filial feare which hath more of love then feare and yet doth not shut out this Feare quite for a good sonne may feare the Anger of a good Father and thus God is pleas'd to condescend to our weakness and accept this as our reasonable service at our hands though our chiefest motive to serve him at first were nothing else but a flash from the Quare moriemini nothing else but a feare of Death For in the last place Bas in Psal 32. this is a principall effect of the feare of punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil as it brings us to Consultation so is it a faire Introduction to Piety it self Feare takes us by the hand and is a Schoolmaster unto us and when Feare hath well disciplin'd and Catechised us then love takes us in hand and perfects our Conversion so that we may seem to goe from Feare to Love as from a School to an Universitie In the 28. of Genesis at the Twelfth verse Jacob sees a Ladder set upon the Earth and the Top of it reaching up to heaven and we may observe that Jacob makes Feare the first step of the ladder for when he awakes as in an extasie he cryes out Quam terribilis iste locus how dreadfull is this place verse 17. so that feare is as it were the first rung and step of the Ladder and God on the top and Angels Ascending and Descending Love and Zeal and many Graces between Think what we please disgrace it if we will and fasten to it the badge of slavery and servility it is a blessed thing thus to feare the first step to happiness and one step helps us up to another and so by degrees we are brought ad culme Sionis to the top of the Ladder to the Top of perfection to God Himself whose Majesty first wounds us with feare and then gently bindes us up and makes us to love him who leads us through this darkness through this dread and terror into so great light makes us Tremble first that we may at last be as mount Sion and stand fast and firme for ever We now passe and rise one step higher to take a view of this feare of punishment not onely as usefull but lawfull and commanded not under the Law alone but under the Gospel as a motive to Turne us from sinne and as a motive to strengthen and uphold us in the wayes of Righteousnesse not onely as a restraint from sionne but as a preservative of Holiness and as a help and furtherance unto us in our progresse in the wayes of perfection And here it may seem a thing most unbefitting a Christian who should be led rather then drawn Plat. l. de Rep. and not a Christian alone but any moral man and therefore Plato calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an illiberal and base disposition to be banisht the School of morality and our great master in Philosophie makes punishment one of the three things that belong to slaves as the whip doth saith Solomon to the fooles back for to be forced into goodnesse to be frighted into health argues a disposition which little sets by Health or goodnesse it self But behold a greater then Plato and Aristotle our best master the Prince of Peace and love himselfe strives to awake and stirre up this kind of feare in us tells us of Hell and everlasting Darkness of a Flaming Fire of weeping and gnashing of Teeth presents his Father the Father of Mercies with a Thunder-bolt in his hand with Power to kill both body and soul shews us our sinne in a Deaths Head and in the fire of Hell as if the way to avoid sinne were to feare Death and Hell ad if we could once be brought to feare to die we should not die at all Many glorious things are spoken even of this feare The Philosopher calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basan Ps 31. Tert. de poenit c. 6. the bridle of our Nature Saint Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bridle of our lusts Tertullian Instrumentum poenitentiae an Instrument to worke out Repentance Pachomius placeth it supra decem millia paedagogorum makes it the best Schoolmaster of ten Thousand Harken to the Trumpet of the Gospel be attentive to the Apostles voice what found more frequent then that of Terror able to shake and divide a soul from its sinne Had Marcion seen our Saviour with a whip in his hand Had he heard him cursing the Figg-tree and by that example punishing our sterility had he weigh'd the
cast not the least shadow for envy or detraction to walk in for amongst all the Heresies the Church was to cope withall we read of none that called his piety into question and all this propter nos for our sakes that in his Meeknesse we may shut up our Anger in his Humility abate our Pride in his Patience still and charm our Frowardnesse in his Bounty spend our selves in his Compassion and Bowels melt our stony hearts and in his perfect Obedience beat down our Rebellion not in the Cloud or in the fiery Pillar not in Darknesse and Tempest not in those wayes of his which are as hard to finde out as the passage of an arrow in the aire or a ship in the sea but in tegmine carnis as Arnobius speaks under no other Covert than that of our Flesh so like us that we may take a pattern by him This indeed may seem an indignity to God and in all ages there have been found some who have thought so not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Heathen who in Tatianus in plain terms tel the Christians they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betray too great a folly in believing it but even Christians themselves and children of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Naz calls them ill lovers of Christ who did rob him with a complement and to uphold his honour did devest him of his Deity and whilest with great shew of piety and reverence they stood up to remove from God the Nature they unadvisedly put upon him the weaknesse of man drew him out to our distempers and sick constitution as if God were sicut homo as man like unto us in our worst complexion who are commonly very tender and dainty what likenesse we take and affect that similitude alone which presents us greater and fairer than we are For our pictures present not us but a better face and a more exact proportion and with it the best part of our wardrobe we are but grashoppers but would come forth and be seen taller than we are by the head and shoulders in the largenesse and height of an Anakim This opinion we have of our selves and therefore are too ready to perswade our selves that God is of our mind and that God will descend so low or take the likenesse of a mortall though he tell us so himself yet we will not believe it which is to measure out the immense goodnesse and wisdome of God by our Digite and Scantling by the imaginary line of a wanton and sick fancy to bound and limit his determinate will to teach God and put our owne shapes upon him to confine him to a Thought and then Christ hath two Persons or but one Nature a Body and not a Body is a God alone or a Man alone the whole body of Religion and our Christian Faith must shiver and flie to pieces Nos autem non sic but we have not so learned Christ not learned to abuse and violate his great love and call it good manners and then urge our fears and unprescribed and groundlesse jealousies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall his honour be the lesse because he hath laid it down for our sakes Naz. ib. shall he lose in his esteem because he fell so low for our advancement or can we be afraid of that Humility which purchased us glory and returned in triumph with the keyes of Hell and of Death He made himself a Sheepherd and laid down his life for his Sheep and shall we make that an argument that he is not a King He clothed himself with our Flesh he lights a Candle he sweeps the House descends to low Offices for our sake so far from being ashamed of our Nature that he made hast to assume it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and dost thou impute this to God No to us his Humility is as full of wonder as his Majesty Non erubescimus de Christo we are not ashamed of the man Christ expecting the leisure of nine moneths Travel passing through and enduring the loathsome Contumelies of our Nature born in a Stable cradled in a Cratch wrapped up in Clouts poor and despised non de crucifixo Christo not of our crucified Lord hanging on the Cross but wonder heighteneth our joy and joy raiseth our wonder and we cry out with S. Austin Oh prodigia oh miracula Oh prodigie oh miracle of Mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oh the strangenesse of this New Birth with the Wise-wen we open our Treasuries and present him gifts and worship him as a King though we finde him in a manger And this is signum è terra a sign from the depth from the low condition of our Flesh factus similis saith the Apostle Psal 40. made like unto his Brethren corpus aptasti mihi saith he himself in the Psalm a Body hast thou prepared me so like us that the Divel himself as quick-sighted as Marcion or Manes took him for no other and was entrapped 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the outward garment and vaile of his flesh and venturing upon him as man found him a God Naz. Or. 39. and striking at the First Adam was overcome with the Second beat down and conquered with that blow which he levelled But as he hath taken our Flesh must he take our Soul too may not his Divinity as Apollinarius fancied supply the place of our better part shall we not free him from those passions and affections which when they move and are hot within us our common Apologie is Humanum est that we are but men No to S. Hilaries Corporatio we must adde the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if S. Hilaries incorporating of Christ will not reach home their inhumanition will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 draw them together and unites them both both body and soul he came to save both and both he took to free the body from Corruption and the soul from Sin to refine our Drosse into Silver and our Silver into pure Gold to raise our Bodies to the Immortality of our Souls and our Souls to the purity of the Angels perfect God and perfect Man of a reasonable Soul and humane Flesh subsisting And now being made up of the same Mould and Temper having taken from man what makes and constitutes man being the same wax as it were why may he not receive the same impressions of Love and Joy Grief and Feare Anger and Compassion affectus sensualitatis even those affections which are seated in the sensitive part Behold him in the Temple with a Scourge in his Hands you will say he was angry Goe with him to Lazarus his Grave and you shall see his Sorrow dropping from his eyes Mark his eye upon Jerusalem and you shall see the very bowels of Compassion Follow him to Gethsemane and the Evanglist will tell you he began to be grievously troubled Ecce tota haec Trinitas in Domino saith Tertull. Tert. de Anim. c. 1. Behold here is
the true cause in the bosome of the Father nay in the bowels of his Son and there see the cause why he was delivered for us written in his Heart it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 3.4 the love of God to mankind and what was in mankind but enmity and hostility sinne and deformity which are no proper motives to draw on his love and yet he loved us and hated sinne and made haste to deliver us from it Dilexisti me domine plusquam te quando mori voluisti pro me saith Aust Lord when thou dyedst for me thou madest it manifest that my soule was dearer to thee then thy self such a high esteeme did he set upon a Soule which we scarce honour with a thought but so live as if we had none For us men then and For us Sinners was he delivered the Prophet Esay speaks it and he could not speake it so properly of any but him He was wounded for our transgressions and broken for our Iniquities So that he was delivered up not onely to the crosse E◠53. and shame but to our sinnes which nayled him to the crosse which crucified him not onely in his Humility but in his glory now he sits at the right hand of God and puts him to shame to the end of the world Falsò de Judaeis querimur why complain we of the Jewes malice or Judas's treason of Pilates injustice we we alone are they who crucifyed the Lord of life Our Treachery was the Judas which betrayed him Our malice the Jew which accused him our perjury the false witnesse against him our Injustice the Pilate that condemned him our pride scorned him our envy grinned at him our luxury spet upon him our covetousnesse sold him our corrupt bloud was drawn out of his wounds our swellings prickt with his Thornes our sores launced with his speare and the whole Body of sinne stretched out and crucified with the Lord of life Tradidit pro nobis he delivered him up for us sinners no sinne there is which his bloud will not wash away but finall impenitency which is not so much a sinne as the sealing up of the body of sinne when the measure is full pro nobis for us sinners for us for us the progeny of an arch-traytor and as great traytors as he take us at our worst if we repent he was delivered for us and if we do not repent yet he may be said to be delivered for us for he was delivered for us to that end that we might repent Pro nobis Pro nobis omnibus so us all for us men and for us sinners he was deliver'd pro infirmis for us when we were without strength pro impiis for us when we were ungodly pro peccatoribus for sinners Rom. 5.6,7 for so we were consider'd in this great work of our Redemption and thus high are we gone on this scale and ladder of love There is one step more pro nobis omnibus he was deliver'd for us all all not consider'd as elect or reprobate but as men as smners for that name will take in all for all have sinned And here we are taught to make a stand and not to touch too hastily and yet the way is plaine and easie pro omnibus for all this some will not touch and yet they doe touch and presse it with that violence that they presse it almost into nothing make the world not the world and whosoever not whosoever but some certaine men and turne all into a few deduct whom they please out of all people Nations and Languages and out of Christendome it self and leave some few with Christ upon the Crosse whose persons he beares whom they call the elect and meane themselves sic Deus dilexit mundum so God loved the world that is the Elect say they John 3.16 they are the world where t is hard to find them for they are called out of it and the best light we have which is of Scripture discovers them not unto us in that place and if the Elect be this world which God so loved then they are such Elect which may not believe and such elect as may perish and whom God will have perish if they doe not believe T is true none have benefit of Christs death but the Elect but from hence it doth not follow that no other might have had theirs is the kingdome of heaven but are not they shut out now who might have made it theirs God saith Saint Peter would not that any should perish 2 Pet. 3.8 and God is the Saviour of all men saith Saint Paul but especially of those that believe 1 Tim. 4.10 all if they believe and repent and those who are obedient to the Gospel because they doe the bloud of Christ is powred forth on the Believer and with it he sprinkles his heart and is saved the wicked trample it under their foot and perish That the bloud of Christ is sufficient to wash away the sinnes of the world nay of a thousand worlds that Christ paid down a ransome of so infinite a value that it might redeeme all that are or possibly might be under that Captivity that none are actually redeemed but they who make him their Captaine and doe as he commands that is believe and repent or to speak in their own language none are saved but the elect In this all agree in this they are Brethren and why should they fall out when both hold up the priviledge of the believer and leave the rod of the stubborne Impenitent to fall upon him The death of Christ is not applyed to all say some It is not for all say others the virtue of Christs meritorious passion is not made use of by all say some it was never intended that it should say others and the event is the same for if it be not made use of and applyed it is as if it were not as if it had never been obtain'd onely the unbeliever is left under the greater condemnation who turned away from Christ who spake unto him not onely from heaven but from his crosse and refused that grace which was offer'd him which could not befall him if there had never been any such overture made for how can he refuse that which never concern'd him how can he forfeit that pardon which was never seal'd how can he despise that spirit of grace which never breathed towards him They who are so tender and jealous of Christs bloud that no drop must fall but where they direct it doe but veritatem veritate concutere undermine and shake one truth with another set up the particular love of God to believers to overthrow his generall love to Mankind confound the virtue of Christs passion with the effect and draw them together within the same narrow compasse bring it under a Decree that it can save no more then it doth because it hath its bounds set hitherto it shall go and no further and was ordained to quicken
form by which he thought all things have their existence is but a dream to this this is a true and reall an efficacious working pattern For as an Artificer hath not lost his art when he hath finished one piece no more did Christ his power when he had raised himself which as he is is everlasting and it worketh still to the end of the world perfectum est exemplar minùs perfecti that which he wrought upon himself is most exact and perfect a fit pattern of that which he means to work on us which will be like to his indeed but not so glorious And now ego vivo I live is as loud to raise our hope as the last trump will be to raise our bodies and how shall they be able to hear the sound of the trump who will not hear the voice of their Saviour ego vivo Christ life derives its vertue and influence on both on the Body with that power which is requisite to raise a body now putrified and incinerated and well near annihilated and on the Soul with such a power which is fitted to a soul which hath both understanding and will though drawn and carried away from their proper operations for which they were made we do not read of any precept to bind us or any counsel to perswade us to contribute any thing or put a hand to the resurrection of our bodies nor can there be for it will to be done whether we will or no but to awake from the pleasant sleep of sin to be renewed and raised in the inward man to die to sin and be alive to righteousness we have line upon line and precept upon precept and though this life of Christ work in us both the will and the deed yet a necessary and a law lies upon us and wo will be unto us if we work not out our salvation By his power we are raised in both but not working after the same manner there will be a change in both as the flesh at the second so the soul at this first resurrection must be reformata Angelificata must be spiritualized refined and angelified or rather Christificata if I may so speak Christified drawing in no breath but his having the same mind which was in Christ Jesus Whilst our bed is in the darkness whilst corruption is our Father and the worm our Mother and Sister we cannot be said to be risen and whilest all the alliance we have is with the world whilest it is both Father and Mother and Sister to us whilest we mind earthly things we are still in our graves nay in hell it selfe Death hath dominion over us for let us call the world what we please our Habitation our Delight our Kingdome where we would dwell for ever yet indeed it is but our Grave If we receive any influence from Christs life we shall rise fairly not with a Mouth which is a Sepulchre but with a Tongue which is our Glory not with a withered hand but with a hand stretched out to the needy not with a gadding Eye but an eye shut up by covenant not with an itching but with an obedient eare not with a heart of stone but with a heart after Gods own heart Our life saith the Apostle Colos 3.3 is hid with Christ in God and whilest we leave it there by a continuall meditation of his meritorious suffering by a serious and practicall application of his glorious Resurrection we hide it in the bosome of Majesty and no dart of Satan can reach it When we hide it in the mineralls of the earth in the love of the world he is the Prince of the world and is there to seize on it when we hide it in malicious and wanton thoughts they are his baits to catch it when we hide it in sloth and idlenesse we hide it in a grave which he digged for us we entomb our selves alive and as much as in us lies bury the Resurrection it self but when we hide it in Christ we hide it in him who carrieth healing and life in his wings when we do per Christum Deum colere worship God through Jesus Christ our Lord and put our life in his hands then the life of Christ is made manifest in our mortall flesh 2 Cor. 2.4 then we have put off the old man and in a manner put off our mortality we are candidati aeternitatis as Tertul. speaks candidates for eternity and stand for a place with Abraham and Isaac for we have the same God and he is not the God of the dead but of the living We see now what vertue and power there is in this vivo Vivo in aeternum I live for evermore in the life of Christ But we must rise yet higher even as high as eternity it self for as he lives so behold he lives for evermore a Priest for ever and a King for ever Heb. 7.16 being made not after the law of a carnall Commandement after that law which was given to men that one should succeed another but after the power of an endlesse life the Apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a life that cannot be dissolved that cannot part from the body And thus as he lives for evermore so whatsoever issues from him is like himself everlasting the beams as lasting as the light his Word endureth for ever his Law is eternall his Intercession eternall his Punishments eternall and his Reward eternall Not a word which can fall to the ground like ours who fall after it and within a while breath out our souls as we do our words and speak no more Not lawes which are framed and set to the times and alter and change as they do and at last end with them but which shall stand fast for ever aeterae ab aeterno eternall as he is eternall he hath spoken this once and he will speak no more not an Intercession which may be silenced with power but imprinted in him and inseparable from him and so never ceasing an Intercession which omnipotency it self cannot withstand and his punishment not transitory which time may mitigate or take away but an everlasting worm not a Reward which may be snatched out of our hands but lasting as the Heavens nay as Christ himself and they who would contract and shrink it up in the one and so make a temporary perishing everlastingness which shall last as long as it lasts do stretch beyond their line which may reach the right hand as well as the left and put an end of the Reward as they would do to the Punishment for of the one as well as of the other it is said that it shall be everlasting all that flowes from him is like himself yesterday and to day and the same for ever And such an High Priest it became us to have who was to live for ever for what should we do with a mortall Saviour or what can a mortall Saviour do for us what could an arm of
which is set to not of men or by men but divinâ manu by the hand of God Himself which drew the first copy and pattern For this is true Religion apud Deum patrem with God and the Father and as he gave witnesse to his Son from Heaven This is my beloved Son so doth he also to Christiain Religion of which he was the Author and Finisher Haec est This is it and in this I am well pleased Pure Religion and undefiled before God c. Let us now in order view these and these two To do Good and abstain from Evil our charity to others in the one and our charity to our selves in the last in being as those Dii benefici those Tutelar Gods to the Widows and Fatherlesse and those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep all evil from our selves I call the effentiall parts of Religion without which it can no more subsist then a man without a soul For as the body without the spirit is dead even so faith without works is dead also Not that we exclude Faith or Prayer or Hearing of the Word for without faith religion is but an empty name and it comes by hearing and is increased by devotion Faith is a foundation upon a Foundation for as Truth is the foundation of faith Amb. in Psal 118. so is faith the Foundation of an Holy Conversation in this we edifie our selves and in this we sustain and uphold others in this we stand and in this we raise up others From faith are the issues of life from this as from a fountain flow those waters of comfort which refresh the widow and fatherlesse and that water of separation Num. 31.23 which purifies us keeps us unspotted as white as snow But our Apostle mentions none of these and I will give you some reason at least a fair conjecture why he did not And first not Faith we see here where he tells us what Pure Religion is he doth not so much as name it for indeed it is the ground of the whole draught and portrayture of Religion and as we observe it in Pictures it is in shadow not exprest out yet seen supposed by Saint James writing not to Insiders but to those who had already given up their names unto Christ And it is like those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Mathematicks which Tully calls Iuitia Mathematicorum the beginnings and principles of that science which if we grant not we can make no further progresse in that science In the sixth to the Hebrews Saint Paul calls it a principle of the Doctrine of Christ and what necessity was there for my Apostle to commend that unto them which they already embraced to direct them in that in which they were perfect to urge that which they could not deny not deny nay of which they made their boast all the day long No Saint James is for Ostende mihi he doth not once doubt of their faith but is very carnest to force it out that it may evaporate and shew it self in their works of piety Then faith is a starre 2 Tim. 1.19 and when it streams out light and the beams are the works of charity Then faith is as a ship when Pure Religion is the rudder to steer and guide it that it dash not on a rock and ship-wrack Then faith is the soul of the soul when by its quickning and enlivening power we run the wayes of Christs commandments pure creduat pure ergo loquantur faith the Father Their belief is right therefore let their conversation be sincere no other conclusion can naturally be deduced from faith and of it self it can yeeld no other and this it will yeeld if you do not in a manner destroy it and spoyle it of its power and efficacy for what an unnaturall inconsequence is this I beleeve that Christ hath taught me to be mercifull as my heavenly Father is mercifull That charity hath the promise of the world to come Therefore I will shut up my bowels this I am sure is one part of our belief if it be not our Creed is most imperfect and yet such practicall conclusions doth our avarice and luxury draw Our faith is spread about the world but our charity is as a candle under a bushell the great errour and folly of this our age which can shew us multitudes of men and women which as the Apstle speaks are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth which have con'd their Creed by heart but have little skill or forgot their skill they have in the royall Law who cry up faith as the Jews did the Temple of the Lord and are very zealous for it yet suffer it to decay and waste till it be dead as my Apostle speaks cat out the very heart of it by a carelesse and prophane conversation as the Jews with their own hands did set fire on that Temple which they so much adored And this may be a second reason why he mentions not faith in his character of Religion for having every where preacht up the power and efficacy of faith men carnally minded did so fill their thoughts with the contemplation of that fundamentall vertue that they left no roomfor other vertues not so efficacious indeed to justifie a sinner yet as necessary as faith it self did commend extol the power of faith when it had none at all in them nay which is the most fatall miscarriage of all did make it an occasion Rom. 6.6 through which sinne revived which should have destroyed in them the whole body and juncture of sin it being common to men at last to fix and fettle their minds upon that object which is most often presented to their mindes as the Countrey peasant having heard much talk of the City of Rome began at last to think there was no other City but that If we look forward to the second Chapter of this Epistle we shall think this more then a conjecture for there he seems to take away from faith its saving attribute Numquid fides potest salvmn sacere Can faith save a man What an Heretick what a Papist would he be that should but put up this question in these our dayes wherein the sola justificat hath left faith alone in the work of our salvation and yet the question may be put up and the resolve on the negative may be true It cannot save him certainly that saith he hath faith and hath not works And thus though he dispute indeed against Simon the sorcerer and others as we may gather out of Irenaeus yet in appearance he levels his discourse against Paul the Apostle for not by works but by saith faith Saint Paul not by faith but by works saith Saint James and yet both are true the one speaking to the Jews who were all for the Law the other to those who were all for faith and to them who had buried all thought of good works in the
untill midnight or to hear a Sermon every day Bid the wanton leave the lips of the harlot Acts 20. bid the ambitious make himself equall to them of low degree bid the mammonist be rich in good works and if he do not openly profess it yet the conjecture will be easy and probable that the wanton would chuse rather to fast twice in the week with the Pharisee than to make himself an Eunuch for the Kingdom of Heaven the ambitious and covetous rather say their prayers for such can but say them then to stay themselves in the eager pursuit of their ends but so long as to give an almes the ambitious will pray and hear and do any thing rather than fall lower and the Miser chain his ears to the Pulpit rather than to open them to the complaint of the poor S. Basil observed it long since 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Grat. ad Ditescentes and tels us that he knew many who without any great pains might be brought to fast and pray and to perform all parts of Religion which were not chargeable but could not be wonne with the most powerfull eloquence or strongest reason to any part of it which did cost them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but one half-peny 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cheap Religion is as easy as cheap but Go sell all that you have and give to the poor is a better pill which we hardly let down and with a sowre countenance and should we prescribe it now to men of this Iron age would they not as S. Paul speaks in another case say that we were out of our wits And therefore in the last place These two if they be truly in us are never can never be alone but suppose faith which is sigillum bonorum operum Serm. 23. as Chrysologus speaks the seal to every good work to make it currant and authentick and he that is perfect in these cannot be to seek in the rest He that can govern a ship in a storm when the Sea rages and is unquiet may easily mannage a cockboat in a calm he that can empty himself to his brother that thinks the bellies of the poor the best granaries for his corn and the surest treasury for his money that can give unto God the things that are Gods and return them back by the hands of his Ambassadours the poor who beseech us in his Name he that is an exile at home and hath banisht himself from the world he lives in so uses it as if he used it not he that hates sin as an infectious plague and in a holy pride will keep his distance from it though it bow towards him in the person of his dearest friend that can detest sacriledge though his father were intricht by it and passed it over to him as an inheritance He that can thus keep himself unspotted of the world will lift up pure hands and beat down his body and be ready to hearken what the Lord God will say he that sends up so many sacrifices to God he that thus makes himself a sacrifice will offer up also the incense of his prayers he that can abstain from sinne may fast from meat he that hath broke his heart will open his car In a word he that approves himself in these two cannot but be active and exact in the rest And now having shewed you what is but shadowed in this picture and description of Religion let us look upon the picture it self so look upon it that we may draw it out and expresse it in our selves in every limb and part of it that they that behold us may say God is in us of a truth and glorifie him at the sight of such religious men And first we see Charity stretching forth her hand and casting her bread upon the waters the bitter waters of Affliction going about to the widow and fatherlesse and doing good doing all those things which Jesus began to teach walking in love as Christ loved us Ciem 2. strom 404. And this we may well call a part of Religion and a fair representation of it for by this the image of the likenes of God is repaired in us saith Bern is made manifest in us and as it were visible to the eye For in every Act of charity he that dwels on High comes down in the likeness of men speaks by the tongue gives by the hand of a mortal man moves in him moves with him to perfect this work This makes us as God in stead of God one to another for Homint homo quid praestat one man is not superiour to another as he is a man for in the Heraldry of Nature all are of the same degree all are equal for all aremen but when charity filleth his Heart and stretcheth forth his Hand he takes the higher place the place of God is his Embassadour and Steward not of the same Essence with God but bearing about with him his Image saith Clem. Al. Put you on saith S. Paul bowels of mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the elect of God when we have put them on we then are indeed the elect of God endowed with his spirit carrying about with us the mercies of God sent as it were from his mercy seat with comfort and relief to those who are minished and brought low by oppression affliction sorrow we may flatter our selves and talk what we please of Election and if we please intail it on a Faction but most sure it is without charity our election is not sure and without bowels we can be no more Elect then Judas the traytor was Elect that is by interpretation the sons of perdition It is doing good alone that makes us a Royall priesthood and this Honour have all his Saints the kings of the Gentiles saith our Saviour exercise authority upon them and they that exercise authority over them are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 benefactors or gratious Lords are called what they should be not what they are for if they were gratious Benefactors then were they kings indeed annointed with the oil of mercy which is sent down from Heaven being from the Heaven Heavenly that day when this distilled not from him on others Titus the Emperour did count as lost Diem perdidi so it is in Sueton but Zonaras hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have not reigned to day this day I was not Gods vicegerent we read in the book of the Kings that God gave Solomon a large Heart and Pineda glosses it liberalem fecit He made him liberall and mercifull we read that David was a man after Gods own heart and Procopius upon that place gives this as the probable reason of this denomination that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of the poor mercifull as he is merciful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imitation gives us a kinde of neernesse and familiarity with God that in which we represent him Synes Epist
fear God and his goodnesse not to make Mercy an occasion of sinne and so consequently of Judgement which she is so ready to remove For at the very name of Mercy at the sound of this Musique we lie downe and rest in Peace It is Mercy that saves us and we wound our selves to death with Mercy And as he that lookes upon the Sun with a steady eye when he removes his eye hath the Image of the Sun presented almost in every object so when we have long gazed on the Mercy-seat our eye begins to dazzle and Mercy seems to shine upon us in all our Actions and at all times and in every place We see Mercy in the Law quite abolishing and destroying it silencing the many woes denounced against sinners When we sinne Mercy is ready before us That we may do it with lesse regret That no worme may gnaw us when our Conscience chides Mercy is at Hand to make our Peace And this in the time of Health and when our strength fayleth and sickness hath laid us on our Bed we suborne and corrupt it to give us a visit then when we can scarce call for it to stand by us in this Evil day when we can doe no good that we may die in Hope who had no Charity and be saved by that Jesus whom we have Crucifyed And as it falls out sometimes with men of great Learning and Judgement who can resolve every doubt and answer the strongest Argument and objection yet are many times puzzled with a peece of Sophistry so it is with the formal Christian He can stand out against all motives and Beseechings and all the Batteries of God all his Calls and Obtestations against the Terrors of Hell and sweet allurements of his Promises but is shaken and foyled with a Fallacie with the Devills Fallacie à Dicto secundum quid ad Dictum simpliciter That Mercy doth save sinners that Repent and Therefore it saveth all and upon this Ground which glides away from us upon this reason which is no Reason the pleasures which are but for a season shall prevail with us when heaven with its blisse and eternity cannot move us and the trouble which Repentance brings to the flesh shall affright us from good more then the torments which are eternal can from sin And therefore to conclude Let us fear the mercy of God so fear it that it may not hurt us so fear it that it may embrace us on every side so fear it that it may save us in the Day of the Lord Jesus Let our song be made up as Davids was of these discords Mercy and Judgement Let us set and compose our life by Judgement that we may not presume and Turn our fear by Mercy Psal 101.1 that we may not despair remember we were Prisoners and remember we were Redeemed Remember we were weak and impotent and remember we were made whole Remember what Christ hath done for us and remember what we are to do for our selves and so work out our salvation with fear and trembling and then draw neer with a true heart in full assurance of faith to the throne of Grace that Gods Wisdom and Justice and Mercy may guide us in all our wayes till they bring us into those new Heavens wherein dwelleth righteousnesse where God shall be glorified in us and we glorified in him to all eternity THE SEVENTH SERMON PART III. EZEKIEL 33.11 Turne ye Turne ye from your evill wayes c. THE word is loud the call sudden and vehement and we have heard it loud in the ears of them that Despair Turn Turn ye it is not too late and terrible to them that presume Turn ye Turn ye it is not soon enough and it cannot sound with terrour enough For we see presumption is a more general and spreading evil and it lames and criples us makes us halt in our turn that we Turn not soon enough or if some judgement or affliction Turn us about our Turn is but a profer a turn in shew not in reality or if we do Turn indeed it is but a turn by halfs a turn from this sin but not from all or a false hope deludes us and we are ever a turning and never turn Our December is our January our last moneth is our first day of the yeer our thirty dayes hence nay our last hour is to morrow is now Cate cras prosiciscetur h e. post triginta dies Plutarch in vitâ Cat. Vtic. as Cato's servents used to say of him our picture is a man our shadows substances our feigned repentance true our limb is a body our partial Repentance a complet one and a single Turn from one sin universal And therefore the Schools will tell us that presumption stands at greater opposition with Hope then with Fear One would think indeed the presumption did include a Hope and shut out Fear and so she doth even lead us madly over all over the Law and over the Gospel over the Threatnings of God and the wrath of God upon the point of the sword upon death it self But yet presumption is a deordination of Hope rather a brutish temerity a wilful rashnesse then Hope and moves contrary to her Hope layes hold on the promises but 't is the condition that stretcheth forth her hand she looks up to Heaven but 't is this Turn t is Repentance that quickneth her eye But presumption runs hastily to the promises but leapeth over the condition or treadeth it under her feet Presumption is in Heaven already without grace without Repentance without a Turn or at best it is serotina latewards in the evening in the shutting up of our dayes or ficta a formall repentance or manca a lame imperfect Repentance a false hope it is and therefore most contrary to Hope and therefore no Hope at all Now this sudden and vehement call should have more force and energie with it then to awake and startle us then to make us for a while look about It was so loud to hasten our repentance to give it a true being and essence to complete perfect and settle it for ever Our Repentance is our Sacrifice and it must be 1. matutinum sacrificium our morning early Sacrifice 2. Vivum a living Sacrifice breathing forth piety and holinesse not a dead carcase or the picture of Repentance and 3. integrum a Sacrifice without blemish perfect in every part and it must be in the last place juge sacrificium a continued sacrifice a Repentance never to be repented of a turn never to turn or looke back again The First The first matutinum Sacrificium An early Sacrifice Sen ep 7. There is a time for all things under the Sun saith the wiseman and it is a great part of wisdom occasionem observare properantem to watch and observe a fair opportunity and not to let it slip away between our fingers to hoyse up our sailes dum ventus operam dat Hier. ad
World thus to play with danger To seek Death first in the Errors of ourlife and then when we have run out our Course when Death is ready to devour us to look faintly back upon light For the Endeavors of a man that hath wearyed himself in sinne can be but weak and faint like the Appetite of a dying man who can but think of meat and loath it The later we Turne the lesse able we be to Turne the further we stray the lesse willing shall we be to look back For sinne gathers strength by delay devotes us unto it self gaines a dominion Over us holds us as it were in Chaines and will not soon suffer us to slip out of its power when the will hath captivated it self under sinne a wish a sigh a Thought is but a vaine thing nor have they strength enough to deliver us One Act begets another and that a Third many make up a habit and evill Habits hold us back with some violence What mind what motion what Inclination can a man that is drown'd in sensuality have to God who is a Spirit A man that is buried in the Earth for so every Covetous man is to God who sitteth in the highest heavens He that delights in the breath of Fools to the Honor of a Saint Here the further we go the more we are In That which is done once hath some affinity to that which is done often and that which is done alwayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Rhet. c. 11. saith Aristotle when an arme or Limbe is broke it may have any motion but that which was naturall to it and if wee doe not speedily proceed to cure it will be a more difficult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to set it in its right place againe that it may performe its natural functions now in sinne there is a deordination of the will there is a luxation of that faculty hence weakness seiseth upon the will and if we neglect the first opportunity if we doe not rectifie her betimes and turne her back againe and bend her to the rule it will be more and more infeebled every day move more irregularly and like a disordered clock point to any figure but that which should shew the Houre and make known the time of the day Wee may read this truth in Aged men saith Saint Basil Orat. ad Ditescentes when their body is worne out with Age and there is a generall declination of their strength and vigour the mind hath a malignant influence on the body as the body in their blood and youth had upon the mind and being made wanton and bold with the Custome of sinne heightens and enflames their frozen and decay'd parts to the pursuit of pleasures past though they can never overtake them nor see them but in Essigie in their Image or Picture which they draw themselves They now call to minde the sinnes of their youth with delight and act them over againe when they cannot Act them as youthfull as when they first committed them They have milk they thinke in their Breasts and marrow in their bones they periwigg their Age with wanton behaviour Their Age is Threescore and Ten when their speech and will is but Twenty They boast of what they cannot Act and would be more sinfull if they could and are so because they would It is a sad contemplation how we startled at sinne in our youth and how we ventured by degrees and engaged our selves how fearfull we were at first how indifferent afterwards how familiar within a while and then how we were setled and hardened in it at the last what a Devill sinne was and what a Saint it is become What a Serpent it was and how now we play with it we usually say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Ibid. Custome is a second Nature and indeed it follows and imitates naturall motion It is weake in the beginning stronger in the Progresse but most strong and violent towards the end Transit in violentiam voluntas antiqua That which we will often we will with eagernesse and violence Our first on-set in sinne is with feare and Reluctation wee then venture further and proceed with lesse regret we move forwards with delight Delight continues the motion and makes it customary and Custome at last drives and bindes us to it as to our Center vitia insolentiora renascuntur saith Seneca Sin growes more insolent by degrees first flatters then commands after enslaves and then betrays us First gains consent afterwards works delight at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shamelesness in sinne Jere. 6.15 Were they ashamed They were not ashamed nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nihil magis in naturâ suâ laudare se dicebat quam ut ip sius verbo utar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suet. Caligula a senselesnesse and stupidity in sinne and Caligula's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stubbornnesse and perverseness of disposition which will not let us Turne from sinne For by neglecting a timely remedy vitia mores fiunt Our evill wayes become our manners and common deportment and we look upon them as upon that which becomes us upon an unlawfull Act as upon that which we ought to do Nay peccatum lex sinne which is the Transgression of the Law is made a Law it self Saint Austin in his Confessions calls it so Lex peccati est violentia consuetudinis That Law of sinne which carries us with that violence to sinne is nothing else but the force of long Custome and Continuance in sinne For sinne by Custome gaines a Kingdome in our soules and having taken her seat and Throne there Lex alia in membris meis repugnavit legi mentiâ—… 〈◊〉 Româ— Lex n. peccati est violentia consuetudinis quâ trahitur tenetur etiam invitus animus eo merito quo in eam volens illabitur Aug. l. 8. Confess c. 5. promulges Lawes If she say Goe we goe and if she say Doe this we doe it Surge inquit Avaritia she commands the Miser to rise up early and lie downe late and eate the bread of sorrow she sets the Adulterer on fire makes him vile and base in his owne eyes whilst he counts it his greatest honor and preferrment to be a slave to his Strumpet She drawes the Revengers sword she feeds the intemperate with poyson And she commands not as a Tyrant but having gain'd Dominion over us she findes us willing subjects shee Holds us Captive and we call our Captivity our liberty Her poyson is as the poyson of the Aspick she bites us and we smile and Die and Feele it not 2. The danger of delay in respect of God Secondly It is dangerous in respect of God himself whose call we regard not whose counsels we reject whose patience we dally with whose Judgements we slight to whom we wantonly turn the back when he calls after us to seek his sace and so tread that mercy under foot which should save us
For as the Philosopher well tells us that we are not onely beholding to those who accurately handled the points and conclusions in Philosophy but to those also and even to Poets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who did light upon them by chance and but glaunce upon them by allusion so may we receive instruction even from these Hypocrites who did repent tanquam aliud agentes so slightly as if they had some other matter in hand We must fast and put on sackcloth with Ahab we must hear the word with Herod we must beg the prayers of the Church with Simon Magus but finding we are yet short of a true turn we must presse forward and exactly make up this divine science that our turn may be real and in good earnest that it may be finished after his form who calls so loud after us that it may be brought about and approved to him in all sincerity and truth Thus much of the second property of Repentance The third property of our Turn It must be total and Vniversal The third is it must be poenitentia plena a total and Universal conversion a turn from all our evil wayes For if it be not total and Universal it is not true A great errour there is in our lives and the greatest part of mankinde are taken pleased and lost in it to argue and conclude à parte ad totum to take the part for the whole and from the slight forbearance of some one unlawful act from the superficial performance of some particular duty to infer and vainly arrogate to themselves a hatred to all and an universal obedience as if what Tiberius the Emperor was wont to say of his Half-eaten-meats were true of our divided our parcel and curtail'd Repentance Suet. Tiber. Cas cap. 34. Omnia eadem habere quae totum every part of it every motion and inclination to newnesse of life had as much in it as the whole body and compasse of our Obedience and there were that mutual agreement and sympathy of duties in a Christian as Physitians say there are of the parts of a living Creature the same sapor and taste in a disposition to Goodness as in a Habit of goodness The same Heat and Heartiness in a Thought as in a constant and earnest perseverance in a velleity as much activity as in a will as much in a Pharisees pale countenance as in Saint Pauls severe discipline Hippocrat de locis in Homine and mortification and as Hippocrates speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the least performance all the parts of our obedience in a meer approbation a desire in a desire a will in a leaving one evil way a turning rom all and cutting off but one limb or part the utter destruction of the whole body of sinne And therefore as if God did look down from Heaven and from thence behold the children of men and then saw how we turn'd oen from luxury to covertousnesse another from superstition to prophanesse a third from Idols to sacriledge as if he beheld us turning from one sin to another or from some great sin not another from our scandalous and not from our more Domestick Retired and speculative sins he sends forth his voice and that a mighty voice turn ye turn ye not from one by-path to another not from one sin and not another but turn ye turn ye that you need turn no more turn ye from all your evil wayes Curt. l. 6. c. 3. In corporibus aequis nihil nociturum medici relinquunt Physitians purge out all noxious humours from sick and crazy bodies and so doth our great physitian of soules sanctifie and cleanse them that he may present them to himself not having spot or wrinckle Eph. 5.26,27 or any such thing that they may be Hely and without Blemish For to turn from one sin to another from prodigality to sorditude and love of the world from extreme to extreme is to flee from a Lion to meet a Bear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extremities are equalities Amos 5.19 though they are extremes and distant yet in this they agree that they are extreames and though our evil wayes be never so far asunder yet in this they meet that they are evil Superstition dotes prophanesse is mad covetousnesse gathers all prodigality scatters all rash anger destroyes the innocent soolish compassion spares the guilty We need not ask which is worst when both are evil for sin and destruction lie at the door of the one as well as of the other To despise prophesying and to hear a Sermon as I would a song not to hear and to do nothng else but hear to worship the walls and to beat down a Church to be superstituious and to be prophane are extremes which we must equally turn from down with superstition on the one side and down with prophanesse on the other down with it even to the ground Because some are bad let not us be worse and make their sin a motive and inducement to us to run upon a greater because some talk of merits be afraid of good works because they vow chastity pollute our selves because they vow poverty make hast to be rich because they vow obedience speak evil of Dignities It is good to shun one rock but there is as great danger if we dash upon another Superstition hath devoured many but prophanesse is a gulph which hath swallowed up more Phod cod 77 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Photius in his censure of Theodorus Antiochenus for that which is opposite to that which is worst is not good for one evil stands in opposition to another and both at their several distance are contrary to that which is good nor can I hope to expitate one sin with another to make amends for my Oppression with my wasteful expences to satisfie for bowing to an Idol by robbing a Church for contemning a Priest by hearing a Sermon for standing in the way of sinners by running into a conventicle for I am still in the seat of the scornful this were first to make our selves worthy of death and then to run to Rome or Geneva for sanctuary first to be villaines and men of Belial and at last turn Papists or Schismaticks in both we are what we should not be nor are our sins lost in a faction this were nothing else but to think to remove one disease with another and to cure the cramp with a Fever Turn ye turn ye whither should we turn but to God In hoc motu convertit se anime adunitatem et identitatem in this motion of turning Gerson the soul strives forward through the vanities of the world through all extreames through all that is evil though the branches of it look contrary wayes to unity and Identity to that good which is ever like it self the same in every part of it and is never contrary to it self strives forward to be one with God as God is one in us and as he
such a sin when he that commits it wonders as much that he should fall into the Contrary For the Enemy applies himself to every Humour and Temper and having found where every man lies open to invasion there strives to make his Battery where every man is most assaultable and there enters with such forces which we are ready to obey with a sword which the Revenger will snatch at with Riches which the Covetous will digge for with a dish of dainties which the Glutton will greedily devour and what bait soever we taste of we are in his Snare he hath his severall Darts and if any one pierce the heart he is a Conqueror For he knows the wages of any one sinne unrepented is death We are indeed too ready to flatter and comfort our selves in that sinne which best complies with our Humour ever more to favour and Pardon our selves in some sinne or other and to make our obedience to one precept an Advocate to plead for us and hold us up in the breach of another I am not as other men are there are more Pharisees then one that have spoke it Some sinne or other there is either of Profit or pleasure or the like to which by Complexion we are inclin'd which we too oft dispense with as willing it should stay with us as Austin confesses of himself that when he prayed against Lust he was not very willing to be heard or that God should too soon divorce him from his beloved sinne At the same time we would be Good and yet evill we would partake of life and yet joyne with that which tends unto death we would be converts and yet wantons we would Turne from one sin and yet cleave fast to another Oh let me Hugg my Mammon saith the Miser and I le defy lust let me take my fill of love saith the wanton and I le spurn at Wealth Let me wash my feet in the blood of my enemies saith the Revenger and all other pleasure I shall look upon and loath I will fast and pray saith the Ambitious so they may be wings to carry me to the highest place where I had rather be then in heaven it self Every man may be induced to abstaine from those sinnes which either hinder not or promote that to which he is carried by the swindge of this naturall Temper and disposition And as every Nation in the times of Darkness had its severall God which they worshipt and neglected others so every man almost hath his beloved sinne which he cleaves to and rather then he will Turne from it will fling off all respect and familiarity to the rest will abstaine from evill in this kind so he may take in the other which is pleasant to him will be for God so he may be for Baal too will not Touch so he may Tast will not look on this forbidden Tree so he may pluck and Tast of the other And this is to sport and please our selves in that evill way which leads to Death For what though I scape the Lion if the Beare teare me in peeces what is it to leane our hand and rest upon the forbearance of some sinnes if a Serpent bite us what is it to Turne from many sinnes and yet be too familiar with that which will destroy us Saul wee know spared many of the Amalekites when Gods command was to put all to the sword and the event was he spared one too many for one of them was his Executioner God bids us destroy the whole Body of finne to leave no sinne reigning in our mortall Bodies and if we favour and spare but one that one if we Turne not from it will be strong enough to Turne us to Destruction For againe It is Obedience onely that commends us to God and that as exact and perfect as the equity of the Gospel requires and so every degree of sinne is rebellion God requires totam voluntatem the whole will for indeed where it is not whole it is not at all it is not a will and integram poenitentiam a solid entire universall Conversion True Obedience saith Luther non transit in genus deliberativum doth not demurr and deliberate I may add non transit in genus judiciale doth not take upon it self to determine which Commandement is to be kept and which may be omitted what in it is to be done and what is to be left undone For as our Faith is imperfect if it be not equall to that Truth which is revealed so is our obedience imperfect when 't is not equall to the command and both are unavailable because in the one we stick at some part of the Truth reveal'd and in the other come short of the command and so in the one distrust God in the other oppose him what is a sigh if my murmuring drown it what is my Devotion if my Impatience chill it what is my Liberality if my uncleanness defile it what are my Prayers if my partiall obedience turne them into sinne what is a morsell of bread to one poore man when my oppression hath eaten up a Thousand what is my Faith if my malice make me worse then an Infidell The voice of Scripture the Language of Obedience is to keep all the Commandements the language of Repentance to depart from all Iniquity For all the Virtues in the world cannot wash off the guilt of one unrepented sin Shall I give my first-born for my Transgression saith the Prophet the fruit of my body for the sinne of my soule shall I bring the merits of one Saint the supererogations of another and add to these the Treasure of the Church shall I bring my Almes my Devotion my Teares all these will vanish at the guilt of one sinne and melt before it as the wax before the Sun for every sinne is as Seneca speaks of Alexanders in killing Calisthenes Crimen aeternum Sen. de Benef. an everpentance can redeeme For as oft as it shall be said that Alexander slew so many thousand persians it will be reply'd he did so but withall he slew Calisthenes He slew Darius 't is true and Calisthenes too He wan all as farre as the very Ocean 't is true but he killed Calisthenes and as oft we shall fill our mindes and flatter our selves with the forbearance of these or those sinnes our Conscience will check and take us up and tell us but we have continued in this or that beloved sin and none of all our performances shall make so much to our comfort as one unrepented sinne shall to our Reproach And now because in common esteeme one is no number and we scarce count him guilty of sin who hath but one fault Let us well weigh the danger of any one sinne be it Fornication Theft or Covetousnesse or the like be it whatsoever is called sinne and though perhaps we may dread it the lesse because it is but one yet we sahll find good reason to Turne from it because it is sinne
And first Every particular sinne is of a monstrous aspect being committed not onely against the Law written but against the Law of Nature which did then Characterise the soule when the soule did first enforme the Body for though we call those horrid sinnes unnaturall which Saint Paul speaks against in the 1. to the romanes yet in true estimation every sin is so being against our very Reason which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 34. the very first Law written in our hearts saith Naz. for sin is an unreasonable Thing nor can it desend it self by discourse or argument If Heaven were to be bought with sin it were no Purchase for by every evill work I forfeit not onely my Christianity but my manhood I am robb'd of my chiefest Jewel and I my self am the Theef Who would buy eternity with sinne who would buy Immortallity upon such loathed Termes If Christ should have promis'd Heaven upon condition of a wicked life who would have beleeved there had been either Christ or Heaven And therefore it is laid as an imputation upon man Solum hoc animal Naturae fines transgreditur no Creature breaks the bounds and limits which Nature hath set but Man and there is much of Truth in it man when he sinnes is more unbounded and irregular then a Beast For a Beast follows the conduct of his naturall Appetite but man leaves his Reason behind which should be more powerful and is as naturall to him as his sense Man saith the prophet David that understands not is like to the Beasts that perish and Man that is like to a Beast is worse then he No Fox to Herod no Goat to the Wanton no Tyger to the Murderer no Wolfe to the Oppressor no Horse-leech to the Covetous for Beasts follow that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that instinct of Nature by which they are carried to the Object but man makes Reason which should come in to rescue him from sin an Instrument of Evill so that his Reason which was made as a help as his God on Earth serves onely to make him more unreasonable Consider then though it be but one sinne yet so farre it makes thee like unto a Beast nay worse then any though it be one yet it hath a monstrous aspect and then Turne from it Secondly though it be but one yet it is very fruitful and may beget another nay multiply it self into a numerous issue into as many sins as there be haires of thy head for as it is truly said omne verum omni vero consonat there is a kind of agreement and harmony in truthes and the devout School-man tells us that the whole Scripture is but one copulative proposition because the precepts therein contained are many and yet one many in regard of the diversity of those works that perfect them but yet one in respect of that root of charity which begins them so peccatum multiplex unum there is a kinde of dependencie between sins and a growth in wickednesse one drawing and deriving poyson from another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius speaks of heresies Epiphan Heres Bastlid as the Asp doth from the Viper which being set in opposition to any particular vertue creepeth on and multiplies and gathers strength to the endangering of all And sin may propagate it self first as an efficient cause Removens prohibens weaking the power of grace dimming the light of the Gospel setting us at a greater distance from the brightnesse of it making us more venturous taking off our blush of modestty which should restrain us one evil act may dispose us to commit the like and that may bring on a thousand Secondly as a material cause one sin may prepare matter for another thy covertousnesse beget debate debate enrage thee more and that not end but in murder Last of all as the final cause thou mayest commit theft for fornication and fornication for theft that thou mayest continue a Tyrant be more a Tyrant that thou mayest uphold thy oppression oppresse more that thou mayest walk on in safety walk on in the blood of the innocent that thou mayest be what thou art be worse then thou art be worse and worse till thou art no more Ambition leads Absolon to conspiracy conspiracy to open Rebellion Rebellion to his Fathers Concubines at last to the Oak where he hung with three darts in his side For sin saith Basil like unto a stone that is cast into the water multiplies it self by infinite Gyres and Circles The sins of our youth hasten us to the sins of our age an the sins of our age look back upon the follies of our youth pride feathers my ambition and ambition swells my pride gluttony is a pander to my lust and my lust a steward to my gluttony Sins seldom end where they begin but run on till they be infinite and innumerable And now this unhappy fruitfulness of sin may be a strong motive to make me run away from every sin and fear one evil spirit as that which may bring in a Legion Could I think that when I tell a lie I am in a disposition to betray a kingdom could I imagine that when I slander my Neighbour I am in an aptitude to blaspheme God could I see luxurie in gluttony and incest in luxurie strife in covetousness and in strife murder in idleness theft and in theft sacriledge I should then Turn from every evil way and at the sight of any one sin with fear and trembling cry out behold a troop cometh But in the Third place if neither the monstrosity of sin nor the fruitfulnesse of sin moves us yet the guilt it brings along with it and the obligation to punishment may deter us For sin must needs then be terrible when she comes with a whip in her hand indeed she is never without one if we could see it and all those heavy judgments which have fallen upon us and prest us well-neer to nothing we may impute to what we please to the madnesse of the people to the craft and covetousnesse of some and the improvidence of others but t was sin that called them down and for ought we know Josh 7.2 Sam. the last c. but one For one sin as of Achan all Israel may be punisht for one sin as of David threescore and ten thousand may fall by the plague For Jonahs disobedience a Tempest may be raised upon all the Marriners in the ship and what stronger winde can there blow then this to drive us every one out of every evil way how should this consideration leave a sting behinde it and affect hand startle us It may be my sacriledge may the Church-robber It may be my luxury may the wanton It may be my bold irreverence in the House of God may the prophane man say whatsoever sin it is it may be mine which hath wrought this desolation on the earth and then what an Achan what a Jonah what a Murderer am I I
makes it gravell in our mouths and strips us of our rayment and drives us amongst Swine For Friendship It may tie a knot but it will fly in pieces of it self for the friendship of evill men is as false and deceitfull as themselves For our Families It raises a Tempest even in these Basons Fluctus in Simpulo Proverb Tull. 3. de leg these little bodies these petty resemblances of a Republick It sets Father against Sonne and sonne against Father makes a servant a Traytor and raises enemies within doores and draws out a Battalio in a Cottage For Common-wealths the least sinne may sooner overthrow them then the greatest set them up and of all their Glories they cannot shew any one of them that was brought in by either It may raise them for a time perhaps to some height butthen it gets up above them lies heavy upon them and presseth them downe breaks them to pieces and Buries them in their Rubbish this it doth and shall that which can doe nothing but worke desolation be a fit prop for Religion to leane on when shee seems to sink or to bring her back when the voice is that she is gone out of our Coasts Can evill be fitt for any Thing but that which is like it But we are told Tale critopus tuum qualis Intentio Bernard de modo bene vivendi c. 15. that our work doth follow the Nature and quality of our Intention True if the Intention be Evill If I build a Church to set up Idolls If I build a colledge to perpetuate my name If I be very holy on the sudden and pay my vow to usury a Crown if I do a good act in it self for some evil end for then the intention alters and changes the Nature of it and makes it like unto it self and the reason is plain because any one bad Circumstance is enough to make an Action evil but bonum ex causâ intergrâ the concurrence of all is required to denominate it good Greg. Past Cur Part. c. 4. multa non illcitavitiat animus the minde and intention doth bring in a guilt upon those Actions which are otherwise lawful but cannot make that just which is forbidden cannot answer for the breach of a Law Briefly a good intention and a good action may be joyned together and be one nor can they be good but in this conjunction but to joyn a good intention to a bad action is with Mezentius in the Poet to tie a living Body to a Carcase it may colour indeed and hide a bad Action but it cannot consecrate it it may disguise a man of Belial but it cannot make him a Saint it may be as a Ticket or a passe to carry a wicked man to the end which he sets up and there leave him more secure it may be but without doubt more wicked then before For Murder now hath no voice Faction is Devotion Sacriledge is zeal all is well because we mean well we fix up a good intention in our fancy and that is our pole-star and having that in our eye we may steer our course as we please and buldge but swell our sayles and bear forward boldly till at last we are carried upon that rock which sinks us for ever and therefore to conclude this a good intention cannot pull out the sting from death nor the guilt from sin but if we sin though it be with an honest minde we sin voluntarily in brief though we know it not to be a sin though from the Tribunal of conscience we check our selves before we commit it though we do evil but intend good though we see it not though we approve it not though we intend it not as evil yet evil it is and a voluntary evil and without repentance hath no better wages then death and this expostulation may be put up to us Quare moriemini Why will ye die for we cannot say but they are willing to die who make such hast to the pit of ruine and in their swift and eager pursuit of death do but cast back a faint look toward the land of the living We must now draw towards a conclusion and we must conclude and shut up all even death it self in the will of man we cannot lay it upon any natural weaknesse nor upon the want of grace and Asistance we cannot plead ignorance nor the distaste and reluctancy of our minde nor can a good intention name that will good which is fixt on evil nor the means which we use commend and secure that end which is the work of sin and hath death waiting upon it if we die we can finde no other answer to this question Why will ye die but that which is not worth the putting up 't is quiavolumus because we will die Take all the weaknesse or corruption of our nature look upon that inexhaustible sountain of Grace but as we think dryed up take the darknesse of our understanding the cloud is from the will Nolumus intelligere we will not understand take all those sad symptomes and prognosticks of death a wandring unruly fancy 't is the will whiffs it about turbulent passions the tempest is from the will etiam quod invitus facere videor si facio voluntate facio even that which I do with some reluctancy if I do it I do it willingly all provocations and incitements imaginable being supposed no love no fear no anger not the devil himself can determine the will or force us into action and if we die it is quia volumus because we will die If death be the conclusion that which infers it is the will of man which brought sin and death into the world And this may seem strange that any should be willing to die Ask the prophanest person living that hath sold himself to wickednesse and so is even bound over to death and he will tell you he is willing to be saved heaven is his wish and eternal happines his desire as for death the Remembrance of it is bitter unto him death if you do but name it he trembles The Glutton is greedy after meat but loathes a disease the wanton seeks out pleasures but not those evils they carry with them under their wing the Revenger would wash his feet in the blood of his enemy but not be drownd in 't the Thief would steal but would not grinde in the prison but the Philosopher will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot. Ath. 2.1 the beginning of all these is in the will and he that will be intemperate will surfet he that will be wanton will be weak he that taketh the sword will perish by the sword he that will spoil will be spoiled and he that will sin will die Clem. Alex. strom 2. every mans death is a voluntary act not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of any natural appetite to perish but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his own choice who did chuse it though not in se
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 darknesse 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 offie 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 sollow her information that she called it a sin and thou didst it that she pointed out to it as to a rock and thou wouldest needs chuse it for thy Heaven 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 besides 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 't is to set a fair and promising title on a box of poison hay and stubble may be laid upon a good foundation but it will neither head well or bed well as they say in the work of the Lord we must look as well to what we build as the Basis we raise and set it on or else it will not stand and abide we see what a fire good intentions have kindled on the earth and we are told that many of them burn in Hell I may intend to beat down Idolatry and bury Religion in the ruins of that which I beat down I may intend the establishing of a Conmmon-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 temptation could which we should not yeeld 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 heaven before the tribunal of Christ let us change our plea and let us answer the last part of the Text with the first the moriemini with the convertimini answer him that we will Turn and then he will never ask any more Why will ye die but change his Language and assure us we shall not die at all And our answer is penn'd to our hands by the Prophet Jerem. Ecce accedimus Behold we come we turn unto thee for in our God is the Salvation of Israel and our Saviour hath registred his in his Gospel and left it as an invitation to turn Come unto me all ye that be weary of your evil wayes and are heavie laden feel the burden you did sweat under whilest you were in them and I will ease you that is I will deliver you from this body of sin fill you with my Grace enlighten your understandings sprinckle your Hearts from an evil Conscience direct your eye level your intentions lead you in the wayes of life and so fit and prepare you for my kingdom in Heaven To which he bring us c. THE THIRTEENTH SERMON GAL. 4.39 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so is it now IN which words the Apostle doth present to our eye the true face of the Church in an Allegory of Sarah and Hagar of Ismacl and Isaac of mount Sinat and mount Sion which things are an Allegory verse 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it speaks one thing and means another and carries wrapt up â—n it a more excellent sense then the words at first hearing do promise Take the full scheme and delineation in brief 1. Here is Sarah and Hagar that is Servitude and Freedom 2. Here are two Cities Jerusalem that now is the Synagogue of the Jews and that Jerusalem which is above the vision of peace and mother of all the faithful for by the New Covenant we are made children unto God 3. Here is the Law promulged and thundered out on mount Sinai and the Gospel the Covenant of Grace which God published not from the mount but from Heaven it self by the voice of his Son In all you see a faire correspondence and agreement between the Type and the thing but so that Jerusalem our mother is still the Highest the Gospel glorious with the liberty it brought and the Law putting on a yoke breathing nothing but servitude and fear Isaac an heire and Ismael thrust out the Christian more honorable then the Jew The curtain is now drawn and we may enter in even within the vail and take that sense which the Apostle himself hath drawn out so plainly to us And indeed it is a good and pleasing sight to see our priviledge and priority in any figure to finde out our inheritance in such an Heire our liberty and freedom though in a woman who would not lay claim to so much peace and so much liberty who would not challenge kindred of Isaac and a Burgesseship in Jerusalem 't is true every Christian may But that we mistake not and think all is peace and liberty that we boast not against the branches that are cut off he brings in a corrective to check and keep down all swelling and lifting up our selves the adversative particle sed but But as then so now we are indeed of Sarah the free-woman we are children of the promise we are from Jerusalem which is from above sed but if we will inherit with Isaac we must be persecuted with Isaac if we will be of the Covenant of grace we must take up the Crosse if we look for a City whose maker and founder is God we must walk to it in our blood in other things we rise above the Type but here we fall and our condition is the same But as then he that was born after
to rule and govern us to behold and observe us in every motion and in every thought and wil nay must come again either with a reward for those who bow to his Scepter or 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 Dominon that our fear and reverence our care and caution may draw him yet a little neerer to us and we may conceive of him as not onely sitting at the right hand of God but so live as if he were now coming in the clouds Tell the daughter of Sion behold thy king coming to thee meek on a colt Math. 2.51 the foal of an Asse this was his first coming in great humility and this and his retinue that his Kingdom was not of this world Philip. 2.8,9 He humbled himself saith Saint Paul wherfore 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 and act and effect of his kingly Office by which he sits as Lord in the Throne of Majesty for by it he declared his Fathers will and promulged his Laws throughout the world as a king and Lord he makes his Laws and as a Prophet he published them a Prophet and a Priest and a Lord for ever For he teacheth his Church he mediates and intercedes for his Church and Governs his Church to the end of the world Take then the Laws by which he Governs us the vertue and power the compasse and duration of his Dominon and we shall finde it to be of a higher and more excellent Nature then that which the eye of flesh so dazles at 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 Authors but the Laws themselves for 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 wilde affections made not to safeguard any State but their own But his 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 heires together with him of eternity of blisse 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 pull'd down by another which were fixed by one hand and torn down by a second Licurgi leges emendatae saith Tert. Lycurgus his Lawes were so imperfect so ill fitting the Common-wealth that they were brought under the hammer and the file to be beat out and fashioned in another form more proportionable to that body for which they were made Tert. Apol. c. 4. were corrected by the Lacedemonians which undervaluing of his wisdom did so unman him that he would be a man no longer but starved himself to death Vetus et squallens sylva legum edictorum securibus Truncata the whole wood of the old Laws now sullied and weakned with age were cut down by the edicts and rescripts of after Emperors at the very root as with an axe all of them are in the body of time and worn out with it either fail of themselves or else are cast aside humane Laws being but as shadows cast from men in power and when they fall to the ground lost with them no more to be seen nec uno statu consistunt sed ut coeli facies et maris ità rerum et fortunae tempestatibus variantur Gel. Noct. Att. l. 20. nor do they remain in one state but alter as the face of the Heavens and the Sea now smile anon frown now a calm and by and by a tempest now the strong man sayes do this anon a stronger then he comes and I forfeit my head if I do it they are too oft written with the point of the sword and then the character follows the hand that beares it Thus it is with the Laws of men but the Laws of this our Lord and Law-giver can no more change then he that made them no bribe can buy out their power no dispensations wound them no power can disanul them Dispensationes vulnera legum but they are the same and of the same countenance they moult not a feather they alter not in one circumstance but direct the Obedient and stare the offender in the face and by the power of this Lord kindle a Hell in him in this life and will appear at the great day to accuse him for we either stand or fall in judgement according to these Laws in a word humane Lawes are made for certain Climates and fitted to the complexion and temper of certain Common-wealths but these for the whole world Rome and Britanny and Jerusalem all places are bound alike and as his Dominion so his Laws reach from one end of the earth to another and these which he publisht at the first are not onely Laws but promises and pledges of his second coming for he made them not for nought but hath left them with us till he come again in Glory to judge both the quick and the dead according to his Gospel Besides the Laws of men are too narrow and cannot reach the whole Body of sin cannot comprehend all not the inward man Leges non omnia comprehendunt non omnia vetant nec absolvunt Sen. 3. de Benef. c. 6. the thoughts and surmises of the heart no not every visible act they forbid not all they absolve not all some irregularities there be which these Laws look not upon nor have they any other punishment then the common hatred of men who can passe no other sentence upon them then this that they dislike them and we are forced to leave them to the censure and anger of the highest saith Seneca Quoties licet non opertet Every thing that is lawful for me to do is not fit to be done and his integrity is but lame that walks on at pleasure and knows no bounds but those which the Laws of men have set up and never questions any thing he doth till he meets with a check is honest no further then this that he fears not a Prison nor the Gibbet is honest because he deserves not to be hang'd How many are there who are called Christians who yet have not made good their
condition To these Dominus veniet the Lord will come and his coming is called the consummation of all things that which makes all things perfect and restores every thing to its proper and natural condition The creature shall have its rest the earth shall be no more wounded with our plowshares nor the bowels of it digg'd up with the mattock there shall be no forbidden fruit to be tasted no pleasant waters to be stolen no Manna to surfet on no Crowns to fight for no wedge of gold to be a prey no beauty to be a snare Dominus veniet the Lord will come and deliver his Creature from this bondage perfect and consummate all and at once set an end both to the world and vanity Lastly Dominus venit the Lord will come to men both good and evil he shall come in his glory Math. 25.31,32 and he shall gather all Nations and separate the one from another as a Shepherd divideth his sheep from his goats and by this make good his Justice and manifest his providence in the end for his Justice is that which when the world is out of order establisheth the pillars thereof for sin is an injury to the whole Creation and inverts that order which the Wisdom of God had first set up in the World My Adultery defileth my body my oppression grindeth the poor my malice vexes my brother my craft removes the Land-mark my particular sins have their particular objects but they all strike at the vniverse disturb and violate that order which wisdom it self first establisht and therefore the Lord comes to bring every thing back to its proper place to make all the wayes of his Providence consonant and agreeable to themselves to Crown the Repentant Sinner that recover'd his place and bind and setter the stubborn and obstinate offendor who could not be wrought upon by promises or by Threats to move in his own sphere Dominus veniet the Lord will come to shew what light he can strike out of Darkness what Harmony he can work out of the greatest disorder what beauty he can raise out of the deformed body of sinne for sinne is a foul deformity in Nature and therefore he comes in judgement to order and place it there where it may be forced to serve for the Grace and Beauty of the whole where the punishment of sinne may wipe out the disorder of sinne where every thing is plac'd as it should be and every man sent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 1.25 Gers to his proper place nec pulchrius in coelo Angelus quant in Gehennâ Diabolus Heaven is a fit and proper place for an Angel of light for the Children of God and Hell is as fit and proper for the Devil and his Angels Now the wayes of men are crooâ—ed Intricate and their Actions carried on with that contrariety and contradiction that to quit and help himself out of them and take himself off from that Amazement Duos Ponticus deos tanquam duas Symplegadas naufragii sui adsert quem negare non potuit i.e. creatorem i. e. nostrum quem procare non poteâ—it i. e suum Tert c. 1. adv Marcion Marcion ran dangerously upon the greatest Blasphemy and brought in two Principles one of Good and another of Evill that is two Gods but when he shall come and lay Judgement to the line all things will be even and equall and the Heretick shall see that there is but one now all is jarring discord and confusion when he comes he makes an everlasting Harmony he will draw every thing to its right and proper end restore Order and beauty to his work fill up those breaches which sinne hath made and manifest his wisedome and Providence which here are lookt upon as hidden mysteries in a word to make his Glory shine out of Darkness as he did light when the earth was without forme That the Lord may be all in all Here in this world all lyes as in a night in darkness in a Chaos or confusion and we see neither what our selves nor others are we see indeed as we are seen see others as they see us with no other Eyes but those which the Prince of this world hath blinded Our Judgement is not the Result of our Reason but is rais'd from by and vile respects If it be a friend we are friends to his vice and study Apologies for it If it be an enemy we are Angry with his virtue and abuse our witts to disgrace it If he be in Power our eyes dazle and we see a God come downe to us in the shape of a man and worship this Meteor though exhaled and raised from the dung with as great Reverence and Ceremony as the Persians did the Sunne what he speaks is an Oracle and what he doth is an Example and the Coward the Mammonist or the Beast gives sentence in stead of the man which is lost and buried in these If he be small and of no repute in the world he is condemned already though he have reason enough to see the Folly of his Judges and with pitty can null the Censure which they passe If he be of our Faction we call him as the Manichees did the chiefest of their Sect one of the Elect but if his Charity will not suffer him to be of any we cast him out and count him a Reprobate The whole world is a Theatre or rather a Court of corrupt Judges which judge themselves one another but never judge righteous Judgement for as we Judge of others so we do of our selves Judicio favor officit our self-love puts out the eye of our Reason or rather diverts it from that which is good and imployes it in finding out many Inventions to set up Evill in its place as the Prophet Esay speaks wee feed on Ashes a deceived Heart hath Turned us aside Isa 44.20 that we cannot deliver our soul and say is there not a lie in our Right Hand Thus he that sows but sparingly is Liberall He that loves the world is not Covetous He whose eyes are full of the Adultress is chast He that sets up an Image and falls down before it is not an Idolater he that drinks down blood as an Oxe doth water is not a Murderer He that doth the works of his Father the Devill is a Saint Multa injustè fieri possunt quae nemo possit reprehendere Cic. de Finibus 93. Many things we see in the world most unjustly done which we call righteousnesse because no man can commence a suit against us or call us into question and we doubt not of Heaven if we fall not from our cause or be cast as they speak in Westminster Hall If Omri'â— statutes be kept we soon perswade our selves that the power of this Lord will not reach us and if our names hold faire amongst men we are too ready to tell our selves That they are written also in the Book of Life This is
foule a shape to me before that Title was written in his forehead for I consider more what he is then what he is called and thousands are now with Christ in heaven who yet never knew this his great Adversary on earth and why should I desire to know the time when Christ will come when no other command lies upon me but his to watch and prepare my self for his coming when all that I can know or concerns me is drawn up within the compasse of this one word watch which should be as the center and all other truths drawn from it as so many lines to bear up the circumference of constant and a continued watch Christ tells us he will come Hoc satis est dixisse Deo and this is enough for him to tell us and for us to know he tells us that we cannot know it that the Angels cannot know it that the Son of man himself knows it not that it cannot be known that 't is not fit to be known and yet we would know it some there have been who pretended they knew it by the secret Revelation of the spirit though it were a lying spirit or a wanton fancy that spake within them For men are never more quick of belief then when they tell themselves a lie and yet the Apostle exhorts the Thessalonians that they would not be shaken in minde 2 Thes 2.2 nor troubled neither by spirit nor word nor by letter as from him as that the day of Christ is at hand others call in tradition others finde out a Mystery in the number of 7. and so have taken the full age of the world which is to end say they after 6. hundred yeers and this they finde not onely in the six moneths the Ark floated on the waters and its rest on the mountains of Ararat in the seventh in Moses coming out of the cloud and the walls of Jericho falling down the seventh day but in the seven vials and the seven Trumpets in the Revelation such time and leisure hear men found perscrutari interrogare latebras numerorum to Divine by numbers by their art and skill to digg the aire and finde pretious metal there where men of common apprehensions can finde no such treasure inter irrita exercere ingenia to catch at Attomes and shadows and spend their time to no purpose For curiosity is a hard task-master sets us to make brick but allows us no straw sets us to tread the water and to walk upon the wind put us to work but in the dark and we work as the spirits are said to do in Minerals they seem to digg and cleanse and sever Metals but when men come they finde nothing is done It is a good rule in husbandry and such rules old Cato called oracles imbecillior esse debet ager Columel quam Agricola the Farm must not be too great for the Husband-man but what he may be well able to manure and dresse and the reason is good quia si fundus praevaleat colliditur Dominus because if he prevail not if he cannot mannage it he must needs be at great losse and it is so in the speculations and works of the minde those inquiries are most fruitful and yeeld a more plentiful increase which we are able to bring unto the end which is truely to resolve our selves thus it is as a little plot of ground well tilled will yeeld a fairer crop and harvest then many Acres which we cannot husband for the understanding doth not more foully miscarry when it it is deceived with false appearances and sophismes then when it looks upon and would apprehend unnecessary and unprofitable objects and such as are set out of sight res frugi est sapientia spiritual wisdom is a frugal and thirsty thing sparing of her time which she doth not wantonly waste to purchase all knowledge whatsoever but that which may adorn and beautifie the minde which was made to receive vertue and wisdom and God himself to know that which profits not is next to ignorance but to be ambitious of impertinent speculations carries with it the reproach of folly Basil Hem. 29 ad vâ—calumn S. Trin. what is it then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaks to seek with such diligence for that which is past finding out And 1. the knowledg of the houre of his coming is most impertinent and concerns us not non est nosirum nosse tempora It is not for us to know the times as our dayes so the times are in his hands and he disposeth and dispenseth them as it pleaseth him fits a time to every thing which all the wisdom of the world cannot doe Thou wouldest know when he would take the yoke from off thy neck 't is not for thee to know that which concerns thee is to possesse thy soul with patience which will make thy yoke easie Thou wouldst know when he will break the teeth of the ungodly and wrest the sword out of the hand of them that delight in blood it is not for thee to know thy task is to learn to suffer and rejoyce and to make a blessing of Persecution Thou wouldst know when the world shall be dissolved why shouldst thou desire to know it thy labour must be to dissolve the body of sin and set an end and period to thy transgressions Thou wouldest know what hour this Lord will come It is not for thee to know but to work in this thy hour and be ready and prepared for hsi coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the present the present time that is thine and thou must fill it up with thy obedience that which is to come of what aspect so ever it be thou must onely look upon and consider as an help and advantage to thee in thy work Dominus venturus the Lord will come speaks no more to me then this to labour and sweat in his vineyard 'till he come All the daies of my appointed time will I wait saith Job Job 14.14 There is a time and an appointed time and appointed by a God of eternity and I do not study to calculate or finde out the last minute of it but expectabo I will wait which is but a syllable but of a large and spreading signification and takes in the whole duty of man For what is the life of a Christian but the expectation the waiting for the coming of the Lord David indeed desires to know his end and the measure of his dayes Psal 39.4 but he doth not mean so to calculate them as Arithmeticians do and to know a certain and determin'd number of them not so to number them as to tell them at his fingers ends and say This will be the last but himself interprets himself and hath well explained his own meaning in the last words Let me know the measure of my dayes that I may know how sraile I am know not exactly how many but how few they be let me so measure them
scrupulous of every word and look and gesture what Criticks are we in our deportment if we stand before them whom we call our betters indeed our fellow Dust and Ashes and shal we make our face as Adamant in the presence of our Lord shal we stand Idle and sport and play the wantons before him shall we beat down his Altars blaspheme his Name beat our Fellow-servants before his face shall we call him to be witness to a Lie make him an Advocate for the greatest sin suborne his Providence to own our impiety his Wisedome to favour our Craft his permission to consecrate and ratify our sin can we doe what a Christian eye cannot look upon which reason and Religion condemnes and even Pagans tremble at can we do it and do it before his Face whose Eye is pure Tertul. de Testim animae c. 2. Vnde haec tibi anima non Christiana and Ten thousand times brighter then the Sun Deus videt and Deus judicat God will see and God will Judge is taken out of the Common Treasurie of Nature and the Heathens themselves have found it there who speak it as their Language And if his awfull Eye will not open ours our Lethargie is mortall we are Infidells if we beleeve it not and if we doe beleeve it yet dare do those things which afflict his eye we are worse then Infidels Let us then look upon him think him present and stand upon our guard let us stand in awe and not sin let one fear call upon another the fear of this Lord the fear of cautelousnesse and circumspection which is as our angel keeper to keep us in all our wayes in the smooth and even wayes of peace and in the rough and rugged wayes of adversity to lead us against our enemies which are more then the haires of our head as many as there are temptations in the world and help us to defeat them is our best buckler to keep off the darts of Satan and as a Canopie to keep our vertues from soyl to keep our liberality cheerful our chastity fresh and green our devotion fervent our Religion pure and undefiled to waste the body of sin and perfect and secure our obedience in a word to do that which the Heathens thought their Goddesse Pellonia did to drive and chase all evil out of our coasts For let us well weigh and consider it let us look upon our Enemies the world with all its pageantry the flesh with all its lusts the Devil with all his snares and wiles and enterprises let us look upon him coming towards us either as an Angel of light to deceive us or as a Lion to devour us and then let us consider out Lord and Captain Heb. 3.1 the Apostle and High-Priest of our profession opening the gates of Heaven unto us man festing his glory streaming forth his light ready with his strength free in his assistance powring forth his Grace now triumphing over these our enemies leaving us onely the chase and pursute of them and to fill up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some small matter that is behind Coloss 1.25 which is nothing in respect of that which he both did and suffered let us lay this to heart and view it well all our dangers and all our advantages and we shall finde that it is not the strength nor multitude of our adversaries nor yet our own weaknesse and infirmity which we so willingly acknowledge 't is not the craft of Satan for we have wisdom it self on our side 't is not his strength or power for he hath none but our want of watchfulnesse and circumspection that gives us the blow and strikes us on the ground For want of this our first Parents fell in Paradise Ep. ad Olymp. and had certainly fal'n saith Saint Chrysostom had there been no Serpent no Tempter at all for he that watcheth not tempts the Tempter Himself who would not assault us so often did we not invite him would not fling a dart towards us did he see us in our Armour did he see us with our buckler and upon our watch By this Adam sell and by this Adams posterity after the fall recovered their state escaped the corruption which is in the world and fled from the wrath to come so necessary is it for a Christian that had we no other defence but this yet we could not be overcome Fortis saepe victus est cautus rarissimè the strong man hath often ruin'd with his own strength but he that stands upon his guard though the adversarie lay hard at him yet is never overthrowne we may look back with comfort upon the eternal purpose and decree of God I mean to save penitent beleevers but we must give diligence to make our calling 2 Pet. 1.10 our election sure we cannot but magnify the Grace of God which bringeth salvation but we must work it out with fear and trembling Philip. 2.12 we cannot deny the power of the Gospel but 't is watchfulnesse that makes it the savour of life unto life 2 Cor. 2.16 2 Tim. 4.8 we look for a crown that is laid up but 't is watchfulnesse that must put it on And now having as it were set the watch we must next give you the particular orders to be observed in our watch and we must frame and fashion them not onely by the majesty of the Lord which is to come but the power and force and manner of working of those temptations which we are to cope with all and watch against that when they compasse us about we may finde a way and escape them solus Christianus novit Satanam saith Tert. 't is the character of a Christian alone and 't is peculiar to him Veget. l. v. to know the Devil and his enterprises difficilè vincitur qui potest de suis adversarij copiis judicare saith Vegetius it is a very hard matter to overcome him who truly knoweth his own strength and the strength of his adversary And first we must know our selves how we are framed and fashioned how the hand of God hath built us up and we shall see that he hath ever laid us open to tentations and set us up as Job speaks as a mark for the enemy to shoot at that man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one creature Naz or 38. but made up of two different natures the flesh and the spirit and put into this world which is a shope of tentations hung sull with vanities which offer themselves and that with some importunity to the eye and ear and every sense he hath into which when God first put him he made him upright Eccles 7.29 but with all mutable the root of which mutability was his will by which he might encline to either side either bargain or passe by Legem dedit Deus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz or 38. either embrace temptations or resist them In hoc est lex constituta non
be fit every day A great shame it is that any man should be dragg'd to a feast for what a strange law would that seem which should bind a hungry man to eat or a sick man to take physick or a dying man to taste of the water of life look upon the Primitive Christians whose practice hath bin accounted the best interpreter of Scripture and if thou canst not with them do it every day yet let every faire opportunity set thy day Christs dead yet all quickning carkase is the same still and we should be Eagles as well as they to fly to it The Blood of Christ is the same his death as full of vertue and efficacy he is still a fountain of life to them who will taste him nor was his most precious blood shed for the first Christians and in tract and continuance of time dryed up at last At this fountain we may draw as well and as oft as they if our pitcher be as fit and if we loved the cup of blessings we should not fear how oft it came into our hands But to speak truth we have degenerated from that devotion that love that zeale which inflamed their breasts and retain nothing but the memory of their exceeding piety which we look upon rather as a pious error then a just and regular devotion and because we are unfit and therefore unwilling to do it perswade our selves that superstition had an early birth and did follow religion at the heels to supplant it that by this their busy and too frequent remembrance of Christ they did rather flatter then worship him or at best that they did that which with more Christian prudence they might have left undone For if it were devotion then it could not be lost in the body and flux of time which could have no such influence upon it as to change it so that it should become a sin in the last age which was thought a duty in the first since devotion is like Christ himself yesterday and to day and the same for ever Devotion is still the same but we are not the same but have been bold with her name and in that name have conjured up those evill spirits which blast the world and breathe nothing but profanenesse have started questions raised scruples made new cases of conscience which they walking in the simplicity and integrity of their hearts never heard nor thought of and so did do it and do it often with lesse art and noise but with more piety and with a zeale of a purer flame and a heat more innocent their devotion was to do it often ours is to talk and magnifie it and to do it when we please The duty it self of celebration how oft hath it been neglected and set at derision in this latter age what tragedyes raised about a name what comedies what scoffs and jests upon the holy action what grosse and impious partiality in admitting men unto it how have we distinguisht and made a strange difference of one from another and counted none fit but of such a part or such a faction when were we not too far engaged in the world and did not the world too far engage and bind us to such a side or faction we could not but see that the very being of a side or faction the dividing our selves from our brethren for things no whit essentiall to Christianity hath force enough not onely to drive us from this table but to shut us out of heaven For what should such uncharitable men do at a feast of love what should such carnall men the Apostle calls them so feed on this spirituall food I will not stand to confute these groundlesse and ridiculous but dangerous and destructive fancies for these men have more need of our teares and prayers then our confutation I had rather remove those hindrances and retardances those pretences and excuses which men not well exercised in piety use to frame and lay in their own way and so fearing a fall and bruise at that which no hand could set up against them but their own make not their approches so oft as they should to this holy table For when we are to do a thing one thing or other intervenes and startles and troubles us that we omit and do it not And the first and great pretense is our own weaknesse and unworthinesse which is the issue of our own will begot in us by the sense of some habit of sin which we have discovered reigning still in our mortall bodies at the sight of which we start back even from that which might help us and cannot compose and qualify our selves for the celebration Before the action they are afraid even afraid of the feast afraid of life at the table they have a sad and cast down countenance drawn out more by a disquieted troubled mind then that reverentiall joy which it shewes forth in the outward man when it is at rest and we go away from it with the same burden we brought to it which we would and would not lay down are weary but seek not ease but from those aversions which make it heavier then it was and then we feel it again and so are ever preparing and never prepared to come to this feast For our preparation is our mortifying of our sinfull lusts which is not done whilest any one sin hath this power and dominion in us For how can he come to this fountain of life who is unwilling to live how can he partake of Christs blood who yet loves that sin for the washing away of which Christ shed it so that he sinnes if he come and he sinnes if he come not a miserable dilemma that sinne drives him upon that like the servant in the comedy si faxit perit si non faxit vapulat if he do it he eats his own damnation and shall neverthelesse be punisht if he do it not For not onely acts but omissions are evil It is a sinne to kill my father and it is a sin not to help him it is a sin to oppresse and it is a sin not to give an almes It is a sin to resist a superiour and 't is a sin not to honor him It is a sin to contemn the sacrament and 't is a sin not to receive it and the one leads to the other neglect or indifferency to open profanenesse the sinnes of omission to sinnes of commission he that doth not what he should hath made a bridge for his lusts which will soon carry him over to do what he should not He that will not help his parents will be drawn on by the least temptation to dishonor them he that will not feed the poore will be soon induced to grind their face he that will not honor the king when opportunity favours him will pull him from his throne he that neglects the sacrament or is indifferent within a while may be ready to take it away as a thing of no use at all sin
consists as well in the negation or non-performance of that we are bound to as in the doing of some act which is contrary to it in which commonly it ends at last nor is it then onely when the will is directly carried to the omission it self when I will not do it because I will not do it which is high contempt but when the will settles and rests upon that by which I am hindred from doing that which I am bound to do and which I would willingly and might easily do but for this obstacle which I my self set up against my self but for that sin which is the issue of my lust and which I had rather cleave to then to the command of Christ so that now I do not abstain from the Lords table upon necessity but voluntarily nor can I say I would receive when I thus say within my self I will yet sin for he that will not prepare himself will not sit down at his table but we may heare sometimes large expressions of sorrow from those who are so backward in this duty and troubled they are that they are such but not fit for a Physician that they are hungry but have no stomack to that which should feed and nourish them that they love the feast but are not yet prepared to eat I am sorry is soone said even by them who yet take pleasure reap profit and advantage from that sin which they bewayle who condemne it by these mournfull and sad declarations of their mind and yet give it the highest place in their heart I am sorry is too often a lye but if it be not a lye it is and will be accepted as our preparation for godly sorrow brings forth repentance not to be repented of and every prenitent is a fit communicant He that hath mingled his teares with his Saviours blood is a welcome guest at this table What then is to be done in this case when the conscience of some habit of sin keepeth us from coming for certainly a great sin it must needs be to make one sin an apology for another to excuse a sin of omission by a sin of commission and when I will not do that whsch I should to put in that plea that I have done what I should not This knot then like the Gordian knot must be cut asunder with the sword with the sword of the spirit This habit of sinne must be shaken off and we must use a violence upon our selves strive and labour with earnestnesse and by practsing that which is contrary to it to be lesse and lesse fetter'd and entangled every day For to remaine in it cannot be infirmity or weaknesse for that name we give even to malice it self but obstinacy and a pleasing and wilfull perseverance in sinne Why wilt thou not come or rather why wilt thou still sinne for what wert thou made a Christian for what did the grace of God appeare for what did his most precious blood gush out of his sides but to purge and cleanse thee from thy sinne why doest thou love thy disease why doest thou favour thy flesh and corruption why doest thou envenom and fester thy sore why art thou such a Judas first to betray thy Saviour and then hang thy self why doest thou still stand out and wilt not be cured why doest thou preferr thy sin before the sacrament thy husks before the Bread of Life why art thou sick and wilt be sick dying and resolvest to dye thou wilt not come because thou hast sinned break of thy sin and come if thou condemnest thy self why doest thou not forsake thy self doest thou acknowledge what thou art and yet continue what thou art thou who wilt strike that man to the ground who stands in thy way to honor or wealth hast not heart enough to destroy that sin which thou sayst doth obstruct thy passage and keep thee from this feast from the table of the Lord which was spread on purpose that thou shouldst first demolish and remove thy sin and then come and eat This then is but a hindrance a block of offence of our own hewing an evil spirit which we invited to us and we must cast it out Tell me canst thou believe why then thou mayst come if this faith be strong enough to cast down those imaginations which set themselves up against Christ to work in thee holy cesires and holy resolutions and art thou now in an agonie in this blessed contention with thy self art thou serious in the resistance of this thy enemy and dost thou gain some conquest over him every day then thou maist come though thou art not yet made perfect For we must remember that the weaker Christian lye not down under his burden not able to move towards the cup of Blessings when it is reacht forth unto him we must remember I say that Faith and true sanctifying Grace have a wide latitude that they are not so quick and active in one man as in another and yet may save both There be who by continuall watching over themselves by continuall struggling with themselves by a vehement and incessant pressing forward are wel neer come unto the mark that have so confirmed themselves in the profession and exercise of Christian Religion that they run their race with ioy and are scarce sensible of a tentation who have made holinesse so familiar to them that no wile or enterprize of Satan can divorce them In a word who by that seed which is in them keep themselves that he wicked one toucheth them not as S. John speaks These have no Oxen nor Farmes 1 Joh. 3.7 and 5.18 These are not married to the world and therefore they will come Again there be some who are but as it were Incipients in the school of Christ and in their way but labouring and panting forward and are as it were in fieri in the making framing and composing themselves by that royall law which the Church of Christ holds forth unto them who though they have for some time suckt the breasts of the Church and received the sincere milk of the Word yet are not yet grown thereby into perfect men in Christ Jesus have not yet that strength to destroy the whole body of sin but fall sometimes into this sin sometimes into that but those they fall into are not so many nor so manifest not so offensive and hurtfull to others not of that number or bulk as to shut them out of the Church or to exclude them from the communion of Saints These have not yet attained but they follow after and though they have an eye toward the world yet they come to Christs Table with a firm resolution to pluck it out and though their right hand offends them yet they will cut it off and with all their strength and with all their soul shake off the yoke of sinne and take Christs upon them and even now are they hot and intentive on that work These men I say may nay
before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings c. MICAH v. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to doe justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God THere be many who say Who will shew us any good saith the Pophet David Ps 4.6 For Good is that which men naturally desire and here the Prophet Micah hath fitted an Answer to this Question He hath shewed thee O man what is good And in the discovery of this Good he useth the same method which the Philosopher doth in the description of his Morall Happinesse First shews us what it is not and then what it is And as the Philosopher shuts out Honour and Riches and Pleasure as being so little necessary that we may be happy without them so doth the Prophet in the verses going before my Text in a manner reject and cast by burnt offerings and all the Ceremoniall and Typicall part of Moses law all that outward busie expensive and sacrificing Religion as no whit essentiall to that good which he here fixeth up as upon a pillar for all eyes to look upon as being of no great alliance or nearnesse nor fit to Incorporate it self with that piety which must commend us to God and as a true Prophet he doth not onely discover to the Jews the common error of their lives but shews them yet a more excellent way Non satis est reprehendisse peccntem si non doceas recti viam Columel de Re Rust l. 11. c. 1. first asking the question will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rammes whether sacrifice be that part of Religion with which we may appear and bow before our God and be accepted and then in his answer in the words of my Text quite excluding it as not absolutely necessary and essentiall to that which is indeed Religion And here the question will the Lord he pleased with sacrifice adds Emphasis and Energy and makes the Denyall more strong and the Conclusion in the Text more positive and binding then if it had been in plain termes and formally denyed then this Good had been shewed naked and alone and not brought in with the spoyles of that Hypocrisie which supplants and overthrowes it and usurps both its place and name shall I come before him with burnt offerings is in effect I must not do it That which is good that which is Religion hath so little relation to it that it can subsist without it and most times hath been swallowed up and lost in it It was in the world before any command came forth for Sacrifice and it is now most glorious when every Altar is throwne down and hath the sweetest favour now there is no other smoke The Question puts it out of all question That this good is best without it What will the Lord do to the Husbandmen that killed the heire Math. 21.41 Our Saviour puts it up by way of question and you know how terrible the answer is what will he doe what will he not do 1 Cor. 11. He will miserably destroy those Husbandmen Is it comely that a woman pray uncovered Judge in your selves you cannot say it is comely As the Athenians used to ask the guilty person who was arraigned before them and by sufficient evidence convict of the crime Are you not worthy of death That they might first give sentence against themselves and acknowledge the sentence to be just which was to passe upon them so doth the Prophet here ask the sacrificing Jews who so doted on outward Ceremony that they scarce cast an eye or look towards that which was truly the service of God as if there were no more required at their hands then that which was to be done at the Altar shall you bring burnt offerings shall you offer up your first-born the fruit of your body for the sinne of the Soul your selves shall be witnesse against your selves and out of your own mouth shall you be condemned O ye Hypocrites you cannot be so ignorant as to think nor so bold as to professe that this is the true service of God I remember Gregory Nazianzen calls man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we may call this good in the Text so a spirituall heavenly statue and as the statuary by his art and with his Chezell doth work off all that is unnecessary and superfluous and having finisht and made it compleat in every part fixeth it as the lively representation of some God or Goddesse or Heroick person whose memory he would perpetuate in the minds of those who are to look upon it so doth the Prophet Micah here being to delineate and expresse the true servant of God in his full and perfect proportion first out of the Lump and Masse which made up the body of the Jews Religion strikes off that which was least necessary and most abused all that formality and outward ceremony in which they most pleased themselves Burnt offerings and calves of an year old these he layes aside as that which may be best spared as that which God did not require for it self or for any good there was naturally in it and then draws him out in every part in those parts which do indeed make him up in that perfection in which he may shine as a great example of eternall happinesse Wherewith shalt thou come before the Lord and bow thy self before the high God not with burnt offrings those he puts by as no essentiall materialls as the scurfe and least considerable part of Religion but with thy heart and with thy will and affections with a Just and mercifull and Broken heart with these thou shalt walk with him or before him even with Justice and Mercy and Humility with those graces which will make thee like unto him and transforme thee into the Image of God and set thee up as a faire statue and representation of thy maker He hath shewed thee O man what is good c. Or if you please you may conceive of true piety and that which is good as of a tree of life planted in the midst of Paradise in the midst of the Church spreading as it were its Branches whereof these 3. in the Text are the fairest 1. Justice and uprightnesse of conversation a streight and even Branch bearing no fruit but it s own 2. Mercy and Liberality yielding much fruit to those weary and faint soules who gather it and are refresht under the shadow of it and 3. Humility a Branch well laden full and hanging down the head More plainly and for our better proceeding thus He taketh away the one that he may establish the other He taketh away Ceremony and Sacrifice that he may set up true piety and that which is Religion indeed which here is first termed That which is good in it self and for it self which sacrifices and all other Ceremonious parts of Gods worship were
quae deterior redditur That cannot be said to be restored which is returned worse then it was when it was first put into our hands and what can accrew to a soul by sacrifice by Ceremony by any outward formality if it receive no deeper impressions then these can make if we return it back to him with nothing but words and noise and shews in the posture of a bragging coward with his scarfs and ribbons and big words and glorious lyes with no better hatchments then these we return it far worse then we received it worse then it was when it was as a smooth unwritten table when it was such a soul qualem habent qui solam habent such a one which they have Tertull. de Testim anim who have it onely as other creatures have to keep them alive and in being and no more and better we had breathed it out when it was first breathed in then that we should thus keep and retain it and then return it with no better furniture no better endowed and filled then with shadows and lyes That which adornes and betters a soul and makes it fit to be returned must be as spirituall as it self Self-denyall Sincerity and Honesty love of mercy humility these are the riches and glories of a soul which must make it fit to be presented back again into the hands of its Creator For these for the advancement of these were all outward Ceremony and Formality ordained and without these sacrifice is an abomination and the Brownists calumny or rather blasphemy will be a truth our preaching will be but Preachments our time of preaching but disputing to an houre-glasse our Pulpits prescript places our solemn fasts but stage playes wherein one acts sinne another Judgment a third Repentance and a fourth the Gospel and the blessed Sacrament will be but as a two-peny-feasT Or which is worse our outward formality and busie diligence in those duties which require the least will but serve Contenebrare incesta as the Father speaks Tertull. Apol. to cast a mist and darknesse upon our impurities which may hide them from our own eyes whom it most concerns to see them and for a while from others who see the best of us which indeed is the worst of us because it makes us worse and worse whilest the evil they shadow and hide is in our very bowels and spreads it self and works on insensibly but most strongly and certainly to our ruine and then it appeares more ugly and deformed to his pure and all-seeing eye who never hates an oppressor more then when he sees him at the Altat and is most offended with that fraudulent man who is called Christian We read in the Historian when Nero had but set his foot into the temple of Vesta he fell into a fit of trembling facinorum recordatione saith Tacitus being shaken with the remembrance of his monstrous crimes for what should he do in the temple of Vesta who had defiled his own mother And how shall we dare to enter Gods courts unlesse we leave our sinnes behind us how dare we speak to a God of truth who defraud so many why should we fast from meat who make our brethren our meat and eat them up at that great day of separation of true and false worshippers when he shall bespeake those on his right hand Come ye llessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you The forme or reason is not for you have sacrificed often you have fasted often you have heard much you were frequent in the temple and yet these are holy duties but they are ordinata ad aliud they were ordained for those that follow and therefore are not mentioned but in them implyed For I was hungry and you gave me meat I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was naked and you clothed me sick and in prison and you visited me Then outward worship hath its glory and reward when it drawes the inward along with it then the sacrifice hath a sweet-smelling savour when a just and mercifull man offers it up when I sacrifice and obey heare and do pray and endeavour contemplate and practice fast and repent and thus we are made one fit to be lookt upon by him who is Onenesse it self not divided betwixt sacrifice and oppression a forme of godlinesse and an habituall course in sinne a dissembling with God and fighting against him betwixt an Hosanna and a Crucifige a professing Christ and Crucifing him In this unnity and conjunction every duty and virtue as the stars in the firmament have their severall glory and they make the Israelite the Christian a child of light but if we divide them or set up some few for all the easiest and those which are most attempered to the sence for those which fight against it and bring in them for the maine which by themselves are nothing if all must be sacrifice if all must be Ceremony and outward formality if this be the conclusion and summe of the whole matter If this be the body of our worship and Religion then instead of a blessing and an Euge we shall meet with a frown and a check and God will question us for appearing before him in strange apparell which he never put upon us question us for doing his command and tell us he never gave any such command because he gave it not to this end will he be pleased with burnt offerings with Ceremony and formality he asks the question with some indignation and therefore 't is plain he will not but loaths the sacrifice as he doth the oppressor and unclean person that brings it We see then that we may yet draw it neerer to us that there was good reason why God should thus disclaime his own ordinance because he made it for their sakes and to an end quite contrary to that to which the Jew carried it we see the Prophet might well set so low an esteeme upon so many thousand rams because Idolaters and oppressors and cruell blood-thirsty men offered them We see Sacrifice and all out ward Ceremony and formality are but as the garment or shadow of Religion which is turned into a disguise when she weares it not and is nothing is a delusion when it doth not follow her For oppression and sacriledge may put on the same garment and the greatest evil that is may cast Wuch a shadow He that hates God may sacrifice to him he that blasphemes him may praise him The hand that strips the poore may put fire to the incense and the feet that are so swift to shed bloud may carry us into the Temple When all is Ceremony all is vaine nay lighter then vanity for in this we doe not worship God but mock him give him the skin when he looks for the heart we give him shadows for substances and shews for realities and leaves for fruit and we mortifie our lusts and affections as Tragedians die upon the Stage and are the
wealth that we may be rich takes us out the raies that we may have light takes us from our selves that we may possesse our selves bids us depart from God that we may enjoy him This is Janitrix scholae Christi faith Bernard for when we bow and lye prostrate we are let in This is as Saint John Baptist to prepare the way to make every mountain low and the rough places plaine to depresse a lofty head and sink a haughty eye and beat down a swelling heart In a word this is the best Leveller in the world and there need none but this Wee see then in what humility consists in placing us where we should be at the footstool of God admiring his majesty and abhorring themselves distrusting our selves and relying on his wisdome bowing to him when he helps us and bowing to him when he strikes us denying ourselves surrendring our selves being nothing in our selves and all things in him Which will more plainly appeare in the extent of this duty which reacheth the whole man both body and soul It was the speech of Saint Austin Domine duo creasti alterum propete alterum prope nihil Lord thou hast made two things in the world one neere unto thy self divine and celestiall the soul the other vile and sordid next to nothing the body These are the parts which constitute and make us men the subject of sinne and therefore of humility Let not sinne reign in your mortall bodies Rom. 6.12 but let humility depose and pluck it from its throne Ind delinquit homo unde constat saith Tertullian from thence sinne is from whence we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzen with our selves we fight against our selves we carry about with us those forces which beset us we are that Army which is in battell aray against us videas concurrere Bellum Atque virum Our enemies are domestick at home within us and a tumult must be laid where first 't was raised Between them both saith the same Father Naz. orat 8. there is a kind of warlike opposition and they doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were pitch their Tents one against the other when the body prevailes the soul is lost and when the body is at the lowest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then is the soul is high as heaven and when the soul is sick even bedrid with sinne then the body is most active as a wild Asse or wanton Heifer In both there is matter for humility to work on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesyc In both there are excrescences and extuberations to be lopt off and abated the body must he used as an enemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Paul I buffet it I beat it black and blew I handle it as a Rebell or profest enemy and it must be used as a servant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I hold it in subjection like a captive like a slave after conquest And the soul to be checked contracted and depressed in it self ne in multa diffluat that it spread not nor diffuse it self on variety of objects It must not be dimidiata humilitas an humility by halves but Holocaustum a whole burnt-offering both body and soul wasting and consuming all their drosse in this Holy Conflagration I know not how good duties are either shrunk up in the conveyance not drove home by the Masters of the Assembly or else taken into pieces in the performance Doth God proclaime a Fast See the head hangs down the look is changed you may read a Famine in the countenance and yet the Fast not kept Walk humbly with him So we will he shall have our knee our look he shall see us prostrate on the ground say some who are as proud on the ground as when they stood up He shall have the heart no knee of ours say others as proud as they If we can conceive an Humiliation and draw forth its picture but in our fancy nay if we can but say It is good to be humbled it is enough though it be a lye and we speak not what we think We are most humble when we least expresse it so full of contradictions is Hypocrisie and what a huge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and gulph is there between Hypocrisie and Humility so reaching at Impossibilities which may draw Pride and Humility together to be one and the same which yet are at greater distance one from the other then the Earth is from the Heaven And thus we divide Humility nay thus we divide our selves from our selves our soules from our bodies either our Humility is so spirituall that we cannot see it neither dropping at the eyes nor changing the countenance nor bowing the knees nor heare it in complaints and grones and roarings which were wont to be the language of humility or so corporeall that we see it all God hath his part and but a part and so hath none and then the conjecture is easie who hath it all But our selves include both neither is my Body my self nor my Soul my self but I am one made up of both the knot that tyes them both together and my Humility lasts no longer then whilst I am one of both Whilst then we are so let us give him both and first the Soule For there is no vice so dangerous or to which we are more subject then spirituall pride Other vices proceed from some defect in us or some sinfull imbecillity of nature but this many times ariseth out of our good parts Others fly from the presence of God this dares him to his face and makes even Ruine it self the Foundation of its Tabernacle Intestinum malum periculosius The more neere the evil cleaves to the soule the more dangerous it is the more inward the more fatall I may wean my self from the world and fling off vanity I may take off my soul from sensible objects I may deny my appetite I may shut up my eye I may bind my hands I may study pleasure so long till I truly understand it and know it is but madnesse and the world till I contemn it but Pride ultima exuitur is the last garment which we put off when we are naked we can keep her on and when we can be nothing we can be proud And therefore some have conceived humility to be placed in the soul as a Canopy covering and shadowing both the faculties binding and moderating the understanding and subduing the will and whilest they sit under humility they sit in state the understanding is crowned with raies and light and the will commands just things as from its Throne never imploys the eye or hand in any office for which the one should be pluckt out and the other cut off but are both in their highest exaltation being both now under the will of God Our understanding many times walks in things too high for it yet thinks she is above them and our will inclines and that too oft to things forbidden because they are so
like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with great state and pomp They set it up as Nebuchadnezzar did his Image of Gold threescore Cubits high to be seen of all boast of their Atheisme and look down upon them with a contemptuous pity as shallow weak men who goe about to perswade such men as they of quick and searching wits that there is a God who both sees and heares them and take it very ill if we doe but wish them well Thus it is in every bold presumptuous sinner even as it was with the Devil Depuduit no sooner doe they cast themselves down from Heaven but they cast away all shame and their modesty flyes from them in the very fall and their Motto is Tush God doth not see And this sure is not to walk with God but to walk and strut as Nebuchadnezzar did in his Palace This is the Palace which I have built Thus thus have I done and who dares fling a stone at it To walk as Goliah did in a coat of Brasse and defie the Host of Israel and God himself Golias in fronte c. saith Austin Golias was smote in the forehead and so are they The disease indeed is in the heart but it hath made an impression and left a mark in the forehead He that hath forgot to blush doth not well remember that there is a God who looks upon him Secondy the dissembling sinner the Hypocrite walks not with God for he is but a Player of Religion and being but a Slave comes forth a King and then treads his measures puts it to the triall whether God hath an eye whether he will take drosse for silver a superficies for a substance a Fast for Repentance a picture for the new creature Archidamus said well of an old man that had died and discoloured his haire 'T is not likely he should speak truth qui mendacium in capite circumfert who carries about with him a lye on his head nor can he walk as with his God whose very speech and gesture whose very look is a lye Where there are false lights there the ware is not warrantable where there are privy doors there the Priests will practise collusion and eat up the Idols meat If you see a labyrinth it is either to conceale a strumpet or a Minotaure That is true of the hypocrite which the Rabbies conceived of their Priests He is like an Angel visible or invisible as he please Now this is not to walk with God but to walk with our lusts with our malice and Covetousnesse to look upon them as we should do upon our God to be carefull that they are pleased and satisfied to reverence them to follow their behests and commands to provide that these horse-leaches be fed our lust fed with pleasure and our covetousnesse with gold for these are the Hypocrites gods As for the true God they leave him behind them and walk with nothing but his Name Thirdly The Apologizing sinner walks not with God but runnes himself into the thicket of excuses Covers his transgressions as Adam and hides his iniquity in his bosome Job 31.33 Covers himself over with these leaves which have no heat no solidity in them but will wither and dye when the Sun shews it self and be scattered before the wind and leave him naked and miserable He hath learnt an art and he may quickly learne that of his sinne which needs and teacheth it pavimentare peccata it is Saint Austins phrase to smooth or plaster and parget over his deformities he excuses the breach of one commandment with his zeal to another the breach of his charity by his love to his faith He excuses sacriledge by his hatred to Idolatry his malice by his zeal he pleads ignorance where there is light enough and weaknesse when he might be strong and infirmity where he presumes and willingnesse when he had no will and will not consider that the devil speaks by all these as he did to our first parents by the serpent For this is no sinne at all and you shall not dye at all are all one He speaks saith Saint Austin by the mathematician That he sinnes not but his starre He speaks by the Manichee That he sinnes not but the Prince of Darknesse I may add he speaks by the Anabaptist 'T is not he sinnes but the Asse his body By the Libertine That God sins in him and by the many that the devil onely is in fault If we look upon it well and send our eye abroad into the world we may peradventure be tempted to think that the world and all that therein is were onely made to yield matter out of which to forge and fashion an excuse for what is there almost in the world which we do not lay hold on for that end Adam the first man is the first excuse and we drew it out of his loines Originall sinne and after that the Law the flesh the will the understanding sinne obedience the devils and God himself are forced in to speak for us and what was made the matter of virtue and obedience is by us made the matter of excuse we may be bold to say This is not to walk with God as if he had an all-seeing eye but to flutter up and down as the Raven did upon the waters from excuse to excuse but far from God and the Arke so to walk as if we were quite out of his reach and sight Last of all The speculative sinner doth not walk with God I meane the man that breaks not out into action but yet perfects his work in his mind where the sinner doth that which he never doth joynes with that object which he shall never touch commits adultery and yet may be an Eunuch plots revenge and yet never strikes a stroke grasps the wealth which he will not labour for marryes that beauty which he saw but once and shall never see again and there acts over those sinnes which he shall never bring into act delights in that which he shall never enjoy and robs and slayes and rides in triumph on a thought and so leaves his God who gave him this power and faculty to another end and not to wallow in this mire nor to be enslaved to the drudgery of so vile an imployment and yet too many are willing to perswade themselves that God neither sees it nor regards it that a thought is such Gozamour of so thin an appearance that it escapeth the eye and so they set up a whole family of them in the mind and dally and delight themselves with them as with their children And yet this is the ground of all evil and evil it self wrought in the soul which works by its faculties as the body doth by its members the eye and the hand and thus it may beat down Temples murder men lay Kingdomes levell with the ground and it growes and multiplies reflects upon it self with joy and content omnia habet
see them Debauch their reason and deliver up their understandings and wills to a Face to a voice to the Gesture and Behaviour and sleight of men when every empty cloud that comes towards them shall be taken for heaven and he that speaks not so much reason as Balaams Asse shall be received for a Prophet when men are so enclined so ready so ambitious to be deceived we need not wonder to see so many Blind Bartimeus's in our streets that Grope at noone-day and stumble at every straw That blindness is happened to Israel That Truth is become a Monster and error a Saint we need not wonder that the Pharisees have more Disciples then Christ Men and Brethren what should I say why should you desire to be pleased if we thus please you we damne you why should we study to please you if we study to please you we damne our selves 'T is not your Favour your Applause which we affect we know well enough out of what Treasury those windes come and how uncertainly they blow one applause of Conscience is worth all the Triumphs in the World Bring then the Ballance of the Sanctuary The Touch-stone of the Scripture If our Doctrine be not minus Habens be not light but full weight If it be not Refuse Silver but current Coine and beare no other Image but of the King of Kings even for the Truths sake for our common Masters sake whose servants we are lay aside all malice and guile and Hypocrisy and receive it That you may grow thereby but if nothing yet be Truth which doth not please you then what shall we say but even tell you another Truth vero verius most true it is you will not heare the Truth And therefore in the last place Heb. 10 14. Ephes 4. Let us all both Teachers and Hearers purge out this evill Humour of pleasing and being pleas'd and let us as the Apostle exhorts Consider one another to provoke unto love and Good works Let us speak Truth every one to his Neighbour For we are members one of another This is the true and surest Method of pleasing one another for Flattery like the Bee carries Honey in its mouth but hath a sting in its Tayle but Truth is sharp and bitter at first but at last more pleasant then Manna He that would seale up thy lips for the Truth which thou speakst will at last kisse those lips and Blesse God in the Day of his Visitation And this if we doe we shall please one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Edification and not unto ruine And thus all shall be pleased the Physitian that he hath his Intent and the Patient in his Health The strong shall be pleas'd in the weak and the weak in the strong The wise in the Ignorant and the Ignorant in the wise and Christ shall be well pleas'd to see Brethren thus walk together in Unity strengthning and inciting one another in the wayes of Righteousnesse and when we have thus walkt hand in hand together to our journeys End shall admit us into his presence where there is fulnesse of joy and pleasures for evermore HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE THE EIGHTEENTH SERMON BEING A PREPARATION TO THE HOLY COMMUNION 1 COR. 11.25 This doe ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me THat which is made to degenerate from its first institution is so much the worse by how much the better it would have been if it had been levell'd and carried on to that end for which it was ordained the truth of which is plain and visible as in many others so in this great businesse of the Administration of the Lords Supper which in its right and proper use might have been as physick to purge and as manna to feed the soul to eternall life but being either raised higher or brought lower than it self either made more than it is or lesse than it is either made miraculous or nothing hath become fatall and destructive and hath left most men guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. For some we see have quite changed and perverted the Ordinance of Christ scarce left any shadow or sign of its first institution have made of a Supper for the living a Sacrifice for the dead turned the Minister into a sacrificing Priest Bread and Wine into very Flesh and Blood and Bones the remembrance of Christs Death into the adoration of the outward Elements have written books filled many volumes in setting out the miraculous vertue it hath of which we may say as Pliny did of the writings of those magicall Physicians that they have been published non sine contemptu irrisu generis humani not without a kind of contempt and in derision of all the world as if there breathed not in it any but such who were either so bruitish as not to know or such fools as to believe whatsoever fell from the pen of such idle dreamers Others have fell short have been more coldly affected and have lost themselves in a strange indifferency as not fully resolved whether it be an institution that binds or no and look upon it rather as an invention of man than the word and command of Christ Others run far enough from Superstition as they think and are great enemies to Popery and yet unawares carry a Pope with them in their belly lean too much to the opus operatum to the bare outward action think what they will not say that if they come to the Feast it is not much materiall what garment they come in that the outward elements are of vertue to sanctifie the Profaner himself that though they have been haters of God yet they may come to his Table though they have crucified Christ yet here they may taste and see how gracious he is These extreams have men run upon whilest they did neglect the plain and easie rule by which they were to walk the one upon the rock of Superstition the other as it falls out most commonly not onely from the errour which they were afraid of but from the truth it self which should be set up in its place we see at the first institution almost and when this blessed Table was as it were first spread that many abuses crept in to poyson the feast some by factiousnesse others by partiality and some by drunkennesse v. 21. prophaned it did come and sit down and eat and drink but to their punishment and damnation saith S. Paul and therefore having laid open their grosse errours and prophanations having set their irregularities in order before them he prescribes the remedy and calls them back to the first institution and the example of Christ himself v. 23 24. First he shewes the manner of Christs institution He took the bread and gave thanks brake it and gave it them Secondly The mystery signified thereby The breaking of the Bread and pouring out of the Wine representing the brusing of his Body and shedding of his Blood for
the remission of sins and last of all the end of this institution and of this celebration of the Lords Supper in the words of my Text This doe as oft as you do it in remembrance of me Which words I read to you as S. Pauls but indeed they are Christs delivered by him and received from Christ as he tells us v. 23. In which you may behold his love streaming forth as his blood did on the Crosse for not content once to dye for us he will appear unto us as a crucified Saviour to the end of the world and calls upon us to look upon him and remember him whom our sins have pierced presents himself unto us in these outward elements of Bread and Wine and in the breaking of the one and pouring out of the other is evidently set forth before our eyes and even crucified amongst us as S. Paul speaks Gal. 3.1 thus condescending and applying himself to our infirmities that he may heal us of our sins and make and keep us a peculiar people to himself And since the words are his we must in the first place look up and hearken to him who breaths forth this love secondly consider what task his love hath set us what we are to do thirdly ex praescripto agere since it is an injunction whose every accent is love doe it after that form which he hath set down after the manner which he hath prescribed So the parts are four First the Author of the Institution Secondly the duty enjoyned to do this Thirdly to do it often Lastly the end of the Institution or the manner how we must do it we must do it in remembrance of him i.e. of all those benefits and graces and promises which flowed with his blood from his very heart which was sick with love and with these we shall exercise your Christian devotion at this time And first we must look upon the Author of the Institution for in every action we do it is good to know by what authority we do it and this is the very order of nature saith S. Austin Aug. l. 1. de Morib Eccl. c. 2. ut rationem praecedat autoritas that Authority should go before and have the preheminence of Reason that where Reason is weak Authority may come in as a supply to strengthen and settle it For what can Reason see in Bread and Wine to quicken or raise a soul what is Bread to a wounded spirit or Wine to a sick soul 1 Cor. 8.8 For neither if we eat are we the better the more accepted nor if we eat not are we the worse saith S. Paul 'T is true the outward elements are indifferent in themselves but authority changes even transelements them gives them vertue efficacy a commanding power even the force of a Law He that put vertue into the clay spittle to cure a bodily eye may do the same to bread and wine to heal our spiritual blindness he that made them a staff to our body may make them also a prop to our souls when they droop and sink and then if he say this do ye though our reason should be at a stand and boggle at it as at a thing which holds no proportion with a soul yet we must do it because he sayes it It may be said Is not his word sufficient which is able to save our souls is it not enough for me to beat down my body to pour forth my prayers to crucifie my flesh No nothing is sufficient but what the authority of Christ hath made so nescit judicare quisquis didicit perfectè obedire is true in matters of this nature we have no judgement of our own our wisdome is to obey and let him alone to judge what is fit who alone hath power to command Authority must not be disputed with nor can it hear why should I do this for such a question denies it to be authority if it were possible that God to try our obedience should bid us sow the rocks or water a dry stick or teach a language which we do not know as the Jesuits do their Novices a necessity would lie upon us and woe unto us if we did it not how much rather then should we obey when he commands for our advantage gives us a law that he may give us more grace binds us to that which will raise us neerer to him when he spreads his table prepares his viands bids us eat and drink and then sayes grace bids a blessing himself unto it that we may grow up in his Favour and be placed amongst those great examples of eternall happinesse Look not then on the Minister howsoever qualified for a brasse seal makes the same impression which a ring of Gold doth and it is not materiall whether the seal be of baser or purer mettall so the image and character be authentique saith Nazianz. Look not on the outward elements for of themselves they have no power at all no more than the water of Jordan had to cure a Leper but their power and vertue is from above the force and vertue of a Sacrament lies in the institution all the power it hath is from the Author Before it was but Bread but common Bread now it is Manna the bread of strength the bread of Angels and this truth thou maist build upon nor doth the Church of Rome deny it and though they have added five Sacraments and may adde as many more as they please Quicquid arant homines navigant aedificant any thing we do may be made a Sacrament when the fancy is working she may spin out what she please yet they cannot deny that every Sacrament must have immediate institution from Christ himself from his own mouth or else it is of no validity and therefore are forced to pretend it though they cannot prove it in those which themselves have added for their own advantage Think then when thou hearest these words Take eat this is my body which was broken thou hearest thy Saviour himself speaking from heaven think not of the Minister or the meannesse of the Elements but think of him who took thee out of thy blood and sanctified thee with his and by the same power is able to sanctifie these outward Elements by the vertue of whose institution The cup of blessing which we blesse which he blessed first shall be to every one that comes worthily the Communion of the Blood and the Bread which we breake which he first brake the Communion of the Body of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 And thus much of the Author Let us now consider what he enjoyns us to do and the command is to do this that is to do as he did though to another end to take Bread and to give Thanks and eat it and so of the Cup to take and drink it and if this be done with an eye to the Author and a lively faith in him this is all for this table was spread not for the