his alleigance induces an addition of punishment upon the devil himself Consider a little further our wretchedness in this prodigality we think those Laws barbarous and inhumane which permit the sute of men in debt for the satisfaction of Creditors but we sell our selves and grow the farther in debt by being sold we are sold and to even rate our debts and to aggravate our condemnation We find in the history of the Muscovits that it is an ordinary detainder amongst them to sell themselves and their posterity into everlasting bondage for hot drink In one winter a wretched man will drink himself and his posterity into perpetual slavery But we sell our selves not for drink but for thirst we are sory when our appetite too soon decaies and we would fain sin more than we do At what a high rate did the blessed Martyrs sell their bodies They built up Gods Church with their blood They sowed his field and prepared his harvest with their blood they got heaven for their bodies and we give bodies souls for hell In a right inventary every man that ascends to a true value of himself considers it thus First His Soul then His life after his fame and good name And lastly his goods and estate for thus their own nature hath ranked them and thus they are as in nature so ordinarily in legal consideration preferred before one another But for our souls because we know not how they came into us we care not how they go out because if I aske a Philosopher whither my soul came in by propagation from my parents or by an immediate infusion from God perchance he cannot tell so I think a divine can no more tell me whither when my soul goes out of me it be likely to turn on the right or on the left hand if I continue in this course of sin And then for the second thing in this inventary Life the Devil himself said true skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life Indeed we do not easily give away our lives expresly and at once but we do very easily suffer our selves to be cousened of our lives we pour in death in drink and we call that health we know our life to be but a span and yet we can wash away one inche in ryot we can burn away one inch in lust we can bleed away one inch in quarrels we have not an inch for every sin and if we do not pour out our lives yet we drop them away For the third peece of our self our fame and reputation who had not rather be thought an usurer then a beggar who had not rather be the object of envy by being great than of scorn and contempt by being poor upon any conditions And for the last of all which is our goods Seneca though our coveteousness appears most in the love of them in that lowest thing of all Adeo omnia homini cariora seipso so much does every man think every inferiour thing better than himself than his fame than his body than his soul which is a most perverse undervaluing of himself and a damnable humility yet even with these goods also as highly as he values them a man will past if to fuell and foment and maintain that sin that he delights in that which is the most precious our souls we undervalue most and that which we do esteem most though naturally it should be lowest our estate we are content to wast and dissipate for our sins And whereas the Heathens needed laws to restrain them from an expensive and wastful worship of their Gods every man was so apt to exceed in sacrifices and such other religious duties til that law Deus frugi Colunto Let men be thrifty moderate in religious expenses was enacted which law was a kind of mortmain and inhibition That every man might not bestow what he would upon the service of those Gods we have turned our prodigality the other way upon the devil whom we have made Haeredem in esse and our sole executor and sacrificed soul and life and fame and fortune all the gifts of God and God himself by making his religion and his Sacraments and the profession of his name in an hypocriticall use of them to be the devils instruments to draw us the easilyer and hold us the faster and what prodigality can be conceived to exceed this in which we do not onely mispend our selves Nihil but mispend our God The other point in this exprobration is that as we have prodigally sold our selves so we have inconsiderately sold our selves for nothing we have in our bargain diseases and we have poverty and we have unsensibleness of our miseries but diseases are but privations of health and poverty but a privation of wealth and unsensibleness but a privation of tenderness of Conscience all are privations and privations are nothing if a man had got nothing by a bargain but repentance he would think and justly he had got little but if thou hadst repentance in this bargain thy bargain were the better if thou couldst come to think thy bargain bad it were a good bargain but the height of the misery is in this that one of those nothings for which we have sold our selves is a stupidity an unsensibleness of our own wretchedness The Laws do annull and make void fraudulent conveyances and then the laws presume fraud in the conveyance if at least half the value of the thing be not given now if the whole world be not worth one soul who can say that he hath half his value it were not meerly nothing if considering that inventary which we spoke of before we had the worse for the better that were but an ill exchange but yet it were not nothing If we had bodies for our souls it were not meerly nothing but we finde that sin that sells our souls decays and withers our bodies our bodies grow incapable of that sin unable to commit that sin which we sold our souls for If we had fame and reputation for out bodies it were not nothing but we see that Heretiques that give their bodies to the fire are by the very law infamous and they are infamous in every mans apprehension If we had worldly goods for loss of fame and of our good name yet still it were not nothing but we see that witches who are infamous persons for the most part live in extreme beggery too So that the exprobration is just we have sold our selves for nothing and however the ordinary murmuring may be true in other things that all things are grown dearer our souls are still cheap enough which at first were all sold in gross for perchance an Apple and are now retailed every day for nothing Joseph was sold underfoot by his brethren but it is hard to say for how much some Copies have that he was sold for 20 pieces and some for 25 and some for 30 and S. Ambrose and S.
Augustin collects arguments at least allusions from this variety of Copies but all these say it was but so many pieces of silver The Septuagints in their translation extend them to gold to so many crowns or such Josephus multiplies them to pounds so many pounds all think it too low a price for Joseph to be sold for twenty pieces of silver But yet if it were so this was not for nothing and for this selling his brethren had some pretence of excuse ne polluantur manus they would but sell him least their hands should be defiled with blood but we sell our selves ut polluantur manus therefore that our hands may be defiled with blood even with our own blood with the loss of our bodies which we consume by sin and of our souls which perish eternally by it Our Saviour Christ every drop of whose blood was of infinite value for one of our souls is more worth than the whole world and one drop of his blood had been sufficient for all the souls of 1000 worlds if it had been applied unto them was sold scornfully and basely at a low price at most not above six pound of our money but vve sell our selves and him too we crucifie him again every day for nothing when our sin is the very crucifying of him that should save us who shall save us Earthly Princes have been so jealous of their honours as that they have made it Treason to carry their pictures into any low Office or into any irreverend place Beloved whensoever we commit any sin upon discourse upon consideration upon purpose and plot the image of God which is engraved and imprinted in us and lodged in our understanding and in that reason which we employ in that sin is mingled with that sin we draw the image of God into all our incontinencies into all our oppressions into all our extortions and supplantations we carry his image into all soul places which we haunt upon earth yea we carry his image down with us to eternal condemnation for even in Hell uri potest non exuri Imago Dei says S. Bernard The image of God burns in us in hell but can never be burnt out of us as long as the understanding soul remains the Image of God remains in it and so we have used the image of God as witches are said to do the images of men by wounding or melting the image they destroy the person and we by defacing the image of God in our selves by sin to the painful shameful death of the Cross Gen. 31. Rachel and Lea complained of their father Laban thus He hath sold us and hath eat and consumed the money they lamented it much to see themselves sold and by their father and their father never the better for the bargain But still our case is worse than any the devil hath bought us and he he who hath bought us hath eaten and consumed the money he pretends to buy us by giving us pleasure or profit for our selves and then those very pleasures and those riches which he pretends to give us are his food and his instruments to effect his mischievous and tyrannous purposes upon us And therefore let no man think himself exempt from this challenge that he hath sold himself for nothing Let no man present his Dutals his Court-rolls his Bacus his good Debts his titles of honour his Maces or his Staves or his Ensignes of power and Office and say call you all this nothing Compare all these with thy soul and they are nothing Now whilest thou wallowest in all these here thou mayest hear God say Quid habes quod non accepisti What hast thou of all this which thou hast not received but when the Bell tols then he shall say in the voyce of that Bell Quid habes quod accepisti What hast thou of all that thou hast received Is not all that come to nothing and then thou that thoughtest thy self strong enough in purse in power in favour to compass any thing and to embrace many things shalt not finde thy self able to attain to a door-keepers place in the kingdome of heaven Let no man therefore take too much joy to apply to himself those words of the parable Filii saeculi The children of this world which grow rich are wiser than the children of light for it is but In generatione sua Wiser in their generation and how litle a while that generation shall last God knows and what fools they shall appear to be for all generations after we know They are called the wisest amongst men as the Serpent was called the wisest amongst Beasts that is still the fittest for the devil to work in to make his instruments and engines to desire a curse upon themselves and their posterity Let no man wrest Gods example to his purpose and say if he do sell himself for nothing he does but as God himself did and as David told him he did Psal 44. Thou sellest thy people without gain and doest not increase their price That was not for nothing God had his end in that neither was it an absolute sale but a short term God sels us over to sickness to tribulations to afflictions for sometime perchance for the whole term of this short life but all this is but to improve us and that we may be the fitter for him when he Takes us into his owne hand again in that surrender of our self In manus tuas when we shall deliver up our souls to him that gave them for here no propriety is Destroyed still here is meum tuum betwen God and me It is still my soul and still his soul and when God looked mercyfully towards Job then Satans lease expired God doth not give his saints â—or Nothing for sanguis Semen The blood of the Martyrs was the seed of the Church ye are bought with a price sayes the Apostle 1. Cor. 6. It is pretiore ye are pretiously bought even with the pretious blood of the onely Sone of God And for our temporall and secular value in Gods account we see how God expressed his care of the people when he diverted Sennachrib from afflicting them Esa 43. by turning him upon other wars I gave Egypt for thy ransome Ethiopia and seba for the because thou wast pretious in my sight and thou wast honourable and I loved the therfore will I give man for the and people for thy sake And this leads us in to the second part The Consolation that Though nay because we have sold our selves for nothing we shall be Redemed with out mony Into this part then there is at first a strange Enterance 2 Part. Therfore That therfore because we have sold our selves we should be redeemed Therefore because we have been prodigal we should be made rich But this Therfore this reason relates to the prise not to the worke of the Redemption Because it was for nothing that we were sold it
the devil If God have made thy staff to blossom and bear ripe fruit in a night enriched thee preferred thee a pace this is not thy staff it is a Mace a mark of thy office that he hath made thee his Steward of those blessings To end this a mans own staff truly properly is nothing but his own natural faculties nature is ours but grace is not ours and he that is left to this staff of his own for heaven is as ill provided as Jacob was for this world when he was left to his own staff at Jordan when he was banished and banished in poverty and banished alone Thus far we have seen Jacob in his low estate Revertitur now we bring him to his happyness in which it is always one degree to make hast and so we will all is comprised in this that is was present Now I am two bands now it was first now quando revertitur now when he returned to his Countrey for he was come very near it when he speaks of Jordan as though he stood by it I came over this Jordan It is hard to say whether the returning to a blessing formerly possessed and lost for a while be not a greater pleasure then the coming to a new one It is S. Augustins observation that that land Aug. which is so often called the land of promise was their land from the beginning from the beginning Sem of whom they came dwelt there and though God restored them by a miraculous power to their possession yet still it was a returning and so the blessing is ever more expressed a return from Egypt a return from Babylon and a return from their present dispersion is that which comforts them still Christ himself had this apprehension clarifica me Glorifie me thou father Joh. 17.5 with that glory which I had with thee before the world was Certainly our best assurance of salvation is but a returning to our first state in the decree of God for our election when we can consider our interest in that decree we return Our best state in this life is but a returning to the purity which we had in our baptism whosoever surprises himself in the act or in the remorse of any sin that he is fallen into would think himself in a blessed state if he could bring his conscience to that peace again which he remembers he had the last time he made up his accounts to God and had his discharge sealed in the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ Jesus Cleanse thy self often therefore and accustome thy soul to that peace that thou mayest still when thou fallest into sin have such a state in thy memory as thou mayest have a desire to return to and the Spirit of God shall still return to thee Eccles 12.7 who lovest to receive it and at last thy spirit shall return to him that gave it and gave his own spirit for it Jacobs happiness appears first now quando revertitur Jubenrâ— Domino and now quando jubente Domino now when he returned and now when he returned upon Gods bidding God had said unto him Gen. 31.3 turn again into the land of thy fathers and I will be with thee Think no step to be directly made towards preferment if thou have not heard Gods voice directing the way Stre in usque stand upon the ways and inquire not of thy fathers but of the God of thy fathers which way thou shalt go for Gods voice may be heard in every action if we will stand still a little and hearken to it Remember ever more that Applica Ephod 1 Sam. 30.7 where David comes to ask counsell of the Lord he said to Abiathar Applica Ephod bring the Ephod and there David askes Shall I follow this company shall I overtake them when thou doubtest of any thing Applica Ephod take this book of God if to thine understanding that reach not home punctually to thy particular case thou hast an Ephod in thy self God is not departed from thee thou knowest by thy self it is a vain complaint that Plutrarch makes desectu oraculorum that oracles are ceased there is no defect of oracles in thine own bosome as soon as thou askest thy self how may I corrupt the integrity of such a Judge undermine the strength of such a great person shake the chastity of such a woman thou hast an answer quickly it must be done by bribing it must be done by swearing it must be done by calumniating Here is no defectus Oraculorum no ceasing of Oracles there is a present answer from the Devil There is no defect of the Vrim and Thummim of God neither If thou wilt look into it for as it is well said of the Morall Man Sua cuique providentia Deus every mans Diligence and discretion is a God to himselfe so it is well said of the Christian Father Augustin Rectaratio Verbum Dei a rectified Conscience is the word of God Applica Ephod bring thine Actions to the question of the Ephod to the debatment of thy conscience rectified and still shalt hear Jubentem Dominus or duni Revocantem God will bid thee stop or God will bid thee go forwards in that way Angeli But herein had Jacob another degree of happiness That the Commandement of God was persued with the Testimony of Angells Not that the voyce of God needs strength Teste me ipso witness my selfe was always witness enough and Quia os Domini Locutum The Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it was always seal enough But that hath been Gods abundant And overflowing goodness ever to succor the infirmity of Man with sensible and visible things unto the pillars in the Wilderness with the Tabarnacle after and with the temple and all the Misterious and significative furniture thereof after all So God leaves not Jacob to the general knowledge that the Angels of God protect Gods Children but he manifested those Angels unto him Occurrerunt ei the Angels of God met him The word of God is an infalible guid to thee But God hath provided thee also visible and manifest assistants the Pillar his Church and the Angels his Ministers in the Church The Scripture is thine onely Ephod but Applica Ephod apply it to thee by his Church and by his visible Angels and not by thine own private interpretation This was Jacobs nunc now when he was returned 2. Turmae returned upon Gods Commandement upon Gods Commandement pursued and testified by Angels and Angels visibly manifested now he could take a comfort in the contemplation of his fortune of his estate to see that he was two bands Here 's a great change we see his vowe and we see how far his wishes extended at his going out Gen. 28.20 If God will give me bread to eate and cloathes to put on so that I come againe unto my fathers house in safety then shall the Lord be my God In which
only in the earth nature and naturall reason do not produce grace but yet grace can take root in no other thing but in the nature and reason of man whether we consider Gods subsequent graces which grow out of his first grace formerly given to us and well employed by us or his first grace which works upon our natural faculties and grows there still this salvation that is this grace is near us for it is within us then the third term believing is either quando credidistis primum when you began to believe either in an imputative belief of others in your baptism or a faint belief upon your first Catechisings and Instrustions or quando credidistis tantum when you only professed a belief or faith and did nothing in declaration of that faith to the edification of others Salus First then salvation in this second sense is the internal operation of the holy Ghost in infusing grace for therefore doth St. Basil call the holy Ghost verbum Dei the word of God which is the name properly peculiar to the Son quia interpres filii sicut filius patris that as the Father had revealed his will in the Prophets and then the Son comes and interprets all that actually this prophecy is meant of my coming this of my dying and so makes a real comment and an actual interpretation of all the prophecies for he does come and he does die accordingly so the holy Ghost comes and comments upon this comment interprets this interpretation and tels thy soul that all this that the Father had promised and the Son had performed was intended by them and by the working of their spirit is now appropriated to thy particular soul In the constitution and making of a natural man the body is not the man nor the soul is not the man but the union of these two makes up the man the spirits in a man which are the thin and active part of the blood and so are of a kind of middle nature between soul and body those spirits are able to doe and they doe the office to unite and apply the faculties of the soul to the organs of the body and so there is a man so in a regenerate man a Christian man his being born of Christian Parents that gives him a body that makes him of the body of the Covenant it gives him a title an interest in the Covenant which is jus ad rem thereby he may make his claim to the seal of the Covenant to baptism and it cannot be denied him and then in his baptism that Sacrament gives him a soul a spiritual seal jus in re an actual possession of Grace but yet as there are spirits in us which unite body and soul so there must be subsequent acts and works of the blessed spirit that must unite and confirm all and make up this spiritual man in the wayes of sanctification for without that his body that is his being born within the Covenant and his soul that is his having received Grace in baptism do not make him up This Grace is this Salvation and when this Grace works powerfully in thee in the wayes of sanctification then is this Salvation neer thee which is our second term in this second acceptation propè neer This neerness which is the effectuall working of Grace Prope Heb. 4.12 the Apostle expresses fully That it pierceth to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit for though properly the soul and spirit of a man be all one yet divers faculties and operations give them somtimes divers names in the Scriptures Anima quia animat sayes St. Ambrose and spiritus quia spirat The quickning of the body is the soul but the quickning of the soul is the spirit If this Salvation be brought to this neerness that is this grace to this powerfulness thou shalt find it in anima in thy soul in those organs wherein thy soul uses thy body in thy senses and in the sensible things ordain'd by God in his Church Sacraments and Ceremonies and thou shalt find it neerer in spiritu as the spirit of God hath seal'd it to thy spirit invisibly inexpressibly It shall be neer to thee so as that thy reason shall apprehend it and neerer then that thy faith shall establish it and neerer then all this it shall create in thee a modest and sober but yet an infallible assurance that thy salvation shall never depart from thee Magnificabit anima tua Dominum as the B. Virgin speaks Thy soul shall magnifie the Lord all thy natural faculties shall be employed upon an assent to the Gospel thou shalt be able to prove it to thy self and to prove it to others to be the Gospel of Salvation And then Exultabit spiritus Thy spirit shall rejoyce in God thy Saviour because by the farther seal of sanctification thy spirit shall receive testimony from the spirit that as Christ is Idem homo cum te the same man that thou art so thou art Idem spiritus cum Domino the same spirit that he is so far as that as a spirit cannot be separated in it self so neither canst thou be separated from God in Christ And this this exaltation of Grace when it thus growes up to this height of sanctification is that neerness which brings Salvation farther than our believing does and that 's the last term in this part Believing Credidistis Now neerer then Believing neerer than Faith a man might well think nothing can bring Salvation for Faith is the hand that reaches it and takes hold of it But yet as though our bodily hand reach to our temporal food yet the mouth and the stomach must do their office too and so that meat must be distributed into all parts of the body and assimilated to them so though our faith draw this salvation neer us yet when our mouth is imployed that we have a delight to glorifie God in our discourses and to declare his wonderfull works to the sons of men in our thankfulness And when this faith of ours is distributed over all the body that the body of Christs Church is edified and alienated by our good life and sanctification then is this Salvation neerer us that is safelier seal'd to us then when we believed only Either then this quando credidistis when you believed may be refer'd to Infants or to the first faith and the first degrees thereof in men In Infants when that seminall faith or potentiall faith which is by some conceived to be in the Infants of Christian parents at their baptism or that actuall faith which from their parents or from the Church is thought to be applyed to them accepted in their behalf in that Sacrament when this faith growes up after by this new comming of Christ in the power of his Grace and his Spirit to be a lively faith expressed in charity then Salus proprior then is Salvation neerer than when they believed whether this belief were their
fixt the Almighty and immoveable God if it can be content to inquire after it self and take knowledge where it is and in what way it will finde the means of cleansing And so this second consideration The placing of this pureness in the heart enlarges it self also into the third branch of this part which is De Modo by what means this pureness is fix'd in the heart in which is involved the Affection with which it must be embrac'd Love He that loveth pureness of heart Both these then are setled Our heart is naturally foul Modus And our heart may be cleansed But how is our present disquisition Who can bring a clean thing out of filthiness There is not one Job 14.4 Adam foul'd my heart and all yours nor can we make it clean our selves Who can say I have made clean my heart There is but one way Prov. 20.9 a poor beggarly way but easie and sure to ask it of God And even to God himself it seems a hard work to cleanse this heart and therefore our prayer must be with David Cor mundum crea Create Psal 51.12 O Lord a pure heart in me And then comes Gods part not that Gods part begun but then for it was his doing that thou madest this prayer but because it is a work that God does especially delight in to build upon his own foundations when he hath disposed thee to pray and upon that prayer created a new heart in thee then God works upon that new heart and By faith purifyes it Act. 15.9 enables it to preserve the pureness as Saint Peter speaks He had kindled some sparks of this faith in thee before thou askedst that new heart else the prayer had not been of faith but now finding thee obsequious to his beginnings he fuels this fire and purifies thee as Gold and Silver in all his furnaces through Believing and Doing and suffering through faith and works and tribulation we come to this pureness of heart And truely he that lacks but the last but Tribulation as fain as we would be without it lacks one concoction one refining of this heart But in this great work the first act is a Renovation a new heart Coâ— Novâ—m and the other That we keep clean that heart by a continual diligence and vigilancy over all our particular actions In these two consists the whole work of purifying the heart first an Annihilating of the former heart which was all sin And then a holy superintendency over that new heart which God vouchsafes to create in us to keep it as he gives it clean pure It is in a word a Detestation of former sins and a prevention of future And for the first Chromakus Anno 390. Mundi corde sunt qui deposuere cor peccati That 's the new heart that hath disseised expelled the heart of sin There is in us a heart of sin which must be cast up for whilst the heart is under the habits of sin we are not onely sinful but we are all sin as it is truly said that land overflow'd with sea is all sea And when sin hath got a heart in us it will quickly come to be that whole Body of Death Rom. 7.24 which Saint Paul complains of who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death when it is a heart it will get a Braine a Brain that shall minister all Sense and Delight in sin That 's the office of the Brain A Brain which shall send for the sinews and ligaments to tye sins together and pith and marrow to give a succulencie and nourishment even to the bones to the strength and obduration of sin and so it shall do all those services and offices for sin that the brain does to the natural body So also if sin get to be a heart it will get a liver to carry blood and life through all the body of our sinful actions That 's the office of the liver And whilst we dispute whether the throne and seat of the soul be in the Heart or Brain or Liver this tyrant sin will praeoccupate all and become all so as that we shall finde nothing in us without sin nothing in us but sin if our heart be possest inhabited by it And if it be true in our natural bodies that the heart is that part that lives first and dyes last it is much truer of this Cor peccati this heart of sin for this hearty sinner that hath given his heart to his sin doth no more foresee a Death of that sin in himself then he remembers the Birth of it and because he remembers not or understands not how his soul contracted sin by coming into his body he leaves her to the same ignorance how she shall discharge her self of sin when she goes out of that body But as his sin is elder then himself for Adams sin is his sin so is it longer liv'd then his body for it shall cleave everlastingly to his soul too God asks no more of thee but fili da mihi cor Prov. 23.26 My son give me thy heart Because when God gave it thee it was but one heart But since thou hast made it Cor cor as the Prophet speaks a Heart and a Heart a double Heart give both thy Hearts to God thy natural weakness and disposition to sin The inclinations of thy heart And thy habitual practise of sin The obduration of thy heart cor peccans and Cor peccati and he shall create a new heart in thee which is the first way of attaining this pureness of heart to become once in a good state to have as it were paid all thy former debts and so to be the better able to look about thee for the future for prevention of subsequent sins which is the other way that we proposed for attaining this pureness detestation of former habits watchfulness upon particular actions Till this be done till this Cor peccati Peccata Minutiora this hearty habitualness in sin be devested there is no room no footing to stand and sweep it a heart so filled with foulness will admit no counsel no reproof The great Engineir would have undertaken to have removed the World with his Engine if there had been any place to fix his Engine upon out of the World I would undertake by Gods blessing upon his Ordinance to cleanse the foulest heart that is if that Engine which God hath put into my hands might enter into his heart if there were room for the renouncing Gods Judgements and for the application of Gods mercies in the merits of Christ Jesus in his heart they would infallibly work upon him But he hath petrified his heart in sin and then he hath immur'd it wall'd it with a delight in sin and fortified it with a justifying of his sin and adds daily more and more out-works by more and more daily sins so that the denouncing of Judgement the application of Mercies
where there was not one dead p. 285 SERMON XXII A Sermon Preached at the Temple Esther 4.16 Go and assemble all the Jews that are found in Shushan and fast ye for me and eat not nor drink in three days day nor night I also and my Maids will fast likewise and so I will go in to the King which is not according to the Law And if I perish I perish p. 298 SERMON XXIII A Sermon Preached at Lincolns-Inne Ascension-day 1622. Deut. 12.30 Take heed to thy self that thou be not snared by following them after they be destroyed from before thee and that thou inquire not after their gods saying How did these Nations serve their gods Even so will I do likewise p. 311 SERMON XXIV A Sermon Preached at Pauls Cross to the Lords of the Council and other Honorable Persons 24 Mart. 1616. It being the Anniversary of the Kings coming to the Crown and his Majesty being then gone into Scotland Prov. 22.11 He that loveth pureness of heart for the grace of his lips the King shall be his friend p. 322 SERMON XXV A Sermon Preached at the Spittle upon Easter-Monday 1622. 2 Cor. 4.6 For God who commanded light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ P. 357 SERMON XXVI Psal 68.20 And unto God the Lord belong the issues of Death from Death P. 397 A Lent-SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL February 20. 1617. SERMON I. Serm. 1. Luc. 23.40 Fearest not thou God being under the same condemnation THe Text it self is a Christning-Sermon and a Funeral-Sermon and a Sermon at a Consecration and a Sermon at the Canonization of himself that makes it This Thief whose words they are is Baptized in his blood there 's his Christning He dyes in that profession there 's his Funeral His Diocess is his Cross and he takes care of his soul who is crucified with him and to him he is a Bishop there 's his Consecration and he is translated to heaven there 's his Canonization We have sometimes mention in Moses his book of Exodus according to the Romane Translation Operis Plumarii of a kind of subtle and various workmanship imployed upon the Tabernacle for which it is hard to finde a proper word now we translate it sometimes Embroidery sometimes Needle-work sometimes otherwise It is evident enough that it was Opus variegatum a work compact of divers pieces curiously inlaid and varied for the making up of some figure some representation and likelyest to be that which in sumptuous buildings we use to call now Mosaick work for that very word originally signifies to vary to mingle to diversifie As the Tabernacle of God was so the Scriptures of God are of this Mosaick work The body of the Scriptures hath in it limbs taken from other bodies and in the word of God are the words of other men other authors inlaid inserted But this work is onely where the Holy Ghost is the Workman It is not for man to insert to inlay other words into the word of God It is a gross piece of Mosaick work to insert whole Apocryphal books into the Scriptures It is a sacrilegious defacing of this Mosaick work to take out of Moses Tables such a stone as the second Commandment and to take out of the Lords Prayer such a stone as is the foundation-stone the reason of the prayer Quia Tuum For thine is the kingdom c. It is a counterfeit piece of Mosaick work when having made up a body of their Canon-Law of the raggs and fragments torne from the body of the Fathers they attribute to every particular sentence in that book not that authority which that sentence had in that Father from whom it is taken but that authority which the Canonization as they call it of that sentence gives it by which Canonization and placing it in that book it is made equal to the word of God Thesaurus Catholicus It is a strange piece of Mosaick work when one of their greatest authors pretending to present a body of proofs for all controverted points from the Scriptures and Councels and Fathers for he makes no mention in his promise of the Mothers of the Church doth yet fill up that body with sentences from women and obtrude to us the Revelations of Brigid and of Katherine and such She-fathers as those But when the Holy Ghost is the workman in the true Scriptures we have a glorious sight of this Mosaick this various this mingled work where the words of the Serpent in seducing our first parents The words of Balaams Ass in instructing the rider himself The words of prophane Poets in the writings and use of the Apostle The words of Caiaphas prophesying that it was expedient that one should dye for all The words of the Divel himself Jesus I know and Paul I know And here in this text the words of a Thief executed for the breach of the Law do all concur to the making up of the Scriptures of the word of God Now though these words were not spoken at this time when we do but begin to celebrate by a poor and weak imitation the fasting of our Saviour Jesus Christ but were spoken at the day of the crucifying of the Lord of life and glory yet as I would be loath to think that you never fast but in Lent so I would be loath to think that you never fulfill the sufferings of Christ Jesus in your flesh but upon Goodfriday never meditate upon the passion but upon that day As the Church celebrates an Advent a preparation to the Incarnation of Christ to his coming in the flesh in humiliation so may this humiliation of ours in the text be an Advent a preparation to his Resurrection and coming in glory And as the whole life of Christ was a passion so should the whole life especially the humiliation of a Christian be a continual meditation upon that Christ began with some drops of blood in his infancy in his Circumcision though he drowned the sins of all mankinde in those several channels of Blood which the whips and nailes and spear cut out of his body in the day of his passion So though the effects of his passion be to be presented more fully to you at the day of his passion yet it is not unseasonable now to contemplate thus far the working of it upon this condemned wretch whose words this text is Division as to consider in them First the infallibility and the dispatch of the grace of God upon them whom his gracious purpose hath ordained to salvation how powerfully he works how instantly they obey This condemned person who had been a thief execrable amongst men and a blasphemer execrating God was suddainly a Convertite suddainly a Confessor suddainly a Martyr suddainly a Doctor to preach to others In a second consideration we shall see what doctrine he preaches not curiosities
and he hath transgressed that The necessary precipitations into sudden executions to which States are forced in rebellious times we are faine to call by the name of Law Martial Law The Torrents and Inundations which invasive Armies pour upon Nations we are fain to call by the name of Law The Law of Armes No Judgement no Execution without the name the colour the pretence of Law for still men call for a Law for every Execution And shall not the Judge of all the earth doe right Shall God judge us condemn us execute us at the last day and not by a Law by something that we never saw never knew never notified never published and judge me by that and leave out the consideration of that Law which he bound me to keep 1 Cor. 1.20 I ask S. Pauls question Where is the disputer of the world Who will offer to dispute unnecessary things especially where Authority hath made it necessary to us to forbear such Disputations Blessed are the peace-makers that command and blessed are the peace-keepers that obey and accommodate themselves to peace in forbearing unnecessary and uncharitable controversies 1 Tim. 3.16 but without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness The Apostle invites us to search into no farther mysteries then such as may be without controversie the Mystery of Godlinesse is without controversie and godliness is to believe that God hath given us a Law and to live according to that Law This this godliness that is Knowledge and Obedience to the Law hath the promises of this life and the next too all referr'd to his Law for without this this godliness which is holiness no man shall see God All referr'd to a Law This is Christs Catechisme in S. John That we might know the onely true God 17.3 and Jesus Christ whom he sent A God commanding and a Christ reconciling us if we have transgressed that Commandment And this is the Holy Ghosts Catechisme in S. Paul Deus remunerator Heb. 11.6 That we believe God to be and to be a just rewarder of mans actions still all referr'd to an obedience or disobedience of a Law The Mystery of godliness is great that is great enough for our salvation and yet without controversie for though controversies have been moved about Gods first act there can be none of his last act though men have disputed of the object of Election yet of the subject of Execution there is no controversie No man can doubt but that when God delivers over any soule actually and by way of execution to eternall condemnation that he delivers over that soule to that eternal condemnation for breaking his Law In this we have no other adversary but the over-sad the despairing soule and it becomes us all to lend our hand to his succour and to pour in our Wine and our Oyle into his Wounds that lies weltring and surrounded in the blood of his own pale and exhausted soule That soule who though it can testifie to it self some endeavour in the wayes of holinesse yet upon some collateral doubts is still suspicious and jealous of God How often have we seen that a needlesse jealousie and suspition conceived without cause hath made a good body bad A needlesse jealousie and suspition of his purposes and intentions upon thee may make thy mercifull God angry too Nothing can alienate God more from thee then to think that any thing but sin can alienate him How wouldst thou have God mercifull to thee if thou wilt be unmercifull to God himself And Qui quid tyrannicum in Deo Basil He that conceives any tyrannical act in God is unjust to the God of Justice and unmercifull to the God of Mercy Therefore in the 17. of our Injunctions we are commanded to arm sad souls against Despaire by setting forth the Mercy and the Benefits and the Godliness of Almighty God as the word of the Injunction is the godliness of God for to leave God under a suspicion of dealing ill with any penitent soule were to impute ungodliness to God Therefore to that mistaking soule that discomposed that shiver'd and shrivel'd and ravel'd and ruin'd soule to that jealous and suspicious soule onely I say Let no man judge you Coloss 2.16 sayes the Apostle intruding into those things which he hath not seene Let no man make you afraid of secret purposes in God which they have not nor you have not seen for that by which you shall be judged is the Law that Law which was notified and published to you The Law alone were much too heavy if there were not a superabundant ease and alleviation in that hand that Christ Jesus reaches out to us Consider the weight and the ease and for pity to such distrustfull souls and for establishment of your owne stop your devotions a little upon this consideration There is Chyrographum a hand-writing of Ordinances against me 14. a Debt an Obligation contracted by our first Parents in their disobedience and falne upon me And even that be it but Originall sin is shrewd evidence there 's my first charge But Deletum est sayes the Apostle there that 's blotted that 's defaced that cannot be sued against me after Baptisme Nay Sublatum cruci affixum it is cancel'd it is nailed to the Crosse of Christ Jesus it is no more sin in its self it is but to me to condemnation it is not here 's my charge and my discharge for that 28.15 But yet there is a heavier evidence Pactum cum inferno as the Prophet Esay speaks I have made a covenant with death and with Hell I am at an agreement that is says S. Greg. Audacter Indesinenter peccamus diligendo amicitiam profitemur We sin constantly we sin continually and we sin confidently and we finde so much pleasure and profit in sin as that we have made a league and sworn a friendship with sin and we keep that perverse and irreligious promise over-religiously and the sins of our youth flow into other sins when age disables us for them But yet there is a Deletum est in this case too our covenant with death is disanull'd sayes that Prophet when we are made partakers of the death of Christ in the blessed Sacrament Mine actuall sins lose their act and mine habituall sins fall from me as a habit as a garment put off when I come to that there 's my charge and my discharge for that But yet there is worse evidence against me then either this Chyrographum the first hand-writing of Adams hand or then this pactum this contract of mine own hand actuall and habituall sin for of these one is wash'd out in water and the other in blood in the two Sacraments But then there is Lex in Membris sayes the Apostle Rom. 7.21 I finde a law that when I would do good evil is present with me Sin assisted by me is now become a tyrant over me and hath established a government
upon me and there is a law of sin and a law in my flesh which after the water of Baptism taken and the water of penitent teares given after the blood of Jesus Christ taken and mine own blood given that is a holy readiness at that time when I am made partaker of Christs death to die for Christ throwes me back by relapses into those repented sins This put the Apostle to that passionate exclamation O wretched man that I am And yet he found a deliverance even from the body of this death through Jesus Christ his Lord that is a free an open recourse and access to him in all oppressions of heart in all dejections of spirit Now when this Chyrographum this bond of Adams hand Original sin is cancell'd upon the Cross of Christ And this Pactum this band of mine hand actual sins washed away in the blood of Christ and this Lex in membris this disposition to relapse into repented sins which as a tide that does certainly come every day does come every day in one form or other is beaten back as a tide by a bank by a continual opposing the merits and the example of Christ Jesus and the practise of his fasting and such other medicinall disciplines as I find to prevaile against such relapses when by this blessed means the whole Law against which I am a trespasser is evacuated will God condemn me for all this and not by a Law When I have pleaded Christ and Christ and Christ Baptism and Blood and Teares will God condemn me an oblique way when he cannot by a direct way by a secret purpose when he hath no law to condemn me by Sad and disconsolate distorted and distracted soul if it be well said in the School Absurdum est disputare ex manuscriptis it is an unjust thing in Controversies and Disputations to press arguments out of Manuscripts that cannot be seen by every man it were ill said in thy conscience that God will proceed against thee ex manuscripto or condemn thee upon any thing which thou never saw'st any unrevealed purpose of his Suspicious soul ill-presaging soul Is there something else besides the day of Judgement that the Son of Man does not know Disquiet soul Does he not know the proceeding of that Judgement wherein himself is to be the Judge But that when he hath died for thy sins and so fulfilled the Law in thy behalfe thou maist be condemned without respect of that Law and upon something that shall have had no consideration no relation to any such breach of any such Law in thee Intricated intangled conscience Christ tells thee of a Judgement because thou didst not do the works of Mercy not feed not cloath the poor for those were enjoyned thee by a Law But he never tells thee of any Judgement therefore because thy name was written in a dark book of Death never unclasped never opened unto thee in thy life He sayes unto thee lovingly and indulgently Fear not for it is Gods good pleasure to give you the Kingdome But he never sayes to the wickedest in the world Live in fear dye in anxiety in suspition and suspension for his displeasure a displeasure conceived against you before you were sinners before you were men hath thrown you out of that Kingdome into utter darkness There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus the reason is added because the Law of the Spirit of Life hath made them free from the Law of Sin and of Death All upon all sides is still referred to Law And where there is no law against thee as there is not to him that is in Christ and he is in Christ who hath endeavoured the keeping or repented the breaking of the Law God will never proceed to execution by any secret purpose never notified never manifested Suspicious jealous scattered soule recollect thy self and give thy self that redintegration that acquiescence which the Spirit of God in the means of the Church offers thee study the Mystery of godlinesse which is without all controversie that is endeavour to keep repent the not keeping of the Law and thou art safe for that that you shall be judged by is a Law But then this Law is called here a Law of Liberty and whether that denotation that it is called a Law of Liberty import an ease to us or a heavier weight upon us is our last disquisition and conclusion of all So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty Lex libertatis That the Apostle here by the Law of Liberty meanes the Gospel 1.25 was never doubted He had called the Gospel so before this place Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein shall be blessed in his deed that is blessed in doing so blessed in conforming himself to the Gospel But why does he call it so a Law of Liberty Not because men naturally affecting liberty might be drawn to an affection of the Gospel by proposing it in that specious name of Liberty though it were not so The Holy Ghost calls the Gospel a Pearle and a Treasure and a Kingdom and Joy and Glory not to allure men with false names but because men love these and the Gospel is truly all these a Pearle and a Treasure and a Kingdome and Joy and Glory And it is truly a Law of Liberty But of what kind and in what respect Not such a Liberty as they have established in the Roman Church where Ecclesiastical Liberty must exempt Ecclesiastical persons from participating all burdens of the State and from being Traitors though they commit treason because they are Subjects to no secular Prince nor the liberty of the Anabaptists that overthrowes Magistracy and consequently all subjection both Ecclesiastical and Laick for when upon those words Be ye not servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23 S. Chrysostome sayes this is Christian liberty Nec aliis nec sibi servire neither to be subjects to others nor to our selves that 's spoken with modification with relation to our first Allegeance our Allegeance to God not to be so subject to others or to our selves as that either for their sakes or our owne we depart from any necessary declaration of our service to God Deo First then the Gospel is a Law of Liberty in respect of the Author of the Gospel of God himself because it leaves God at his liberty Not at liberty to judge against his Gospel where he hath manifested it for a Law for he hath laid a holy necessity upon himself to judge according to that Law where he hath published that law But at liberty so as that it consists onely in his good pleasure to what Nation he will publish the Gospel or in what Nation he will continue the Gospel or upon what persons he will make this Gospel effectuall So Oecumenius who is no single witness nor speaks not alone but compiles the former Fathers places this
as they grant us and not to interpret this place of a temporal deliverance from Babylon but of the deliverance by the Messias And for the second which is the deliverance of the christians from the persecutions in the primitive times though the Christians did then with a holy cheerfulness suffer those persecutions when they could not avoid them without prevaricating and betraying the hour of Christ Jesus yet they did not wilfully thrust themselves into those dangers they did not provoke the Magistrate And the word which is here translated ye sold your selves vendictistis vos implies actionem spontaneam a free and voluntary action done by themselves and therefore cannot well be understood of the persecutions in the Primitive Church The third therefore as yet is the most usefull and most received so it is the most proper acceptation of the word that it is a deliverance from the bondage of sin to be wrought by Christ for as Saint Hierome says this Prophet Esay is rather an Evangelist than a Prophet because almost all that Christ did and said and suffered is foretold and prophetically antidated in his prophecy and almost all his prophecy hath some relation at least in a secondary sense of accommodation where it is not so primarily and literally to the words and actions and passions of Christ Following then this interpretation in general of the word that it is a deliverance from the wages of sin Death by Christ we may take in passing a short view of the miserable condition of man wherin he enwraped himself of the aboundant mercy of Christ Jesus in withdrawing him from that universal calamity by considering onely the sense and largeness and extention of those words in which the holy Ghost hath been pleased to express both these in this Text. For first the word in which our action is expressed which is Machar verdidistis ye have sold signifies in many places of Scripture dare proreatia a permutation an exchange of one thing for another and in other places it signifies Dedére upon any little attempt to forsake and abandon our defences and to suffer the enemy easily to prevail upon us so also it signifies Tradere not onely to forsake our selves but to concur actually to the delivering up of our selves and lastly it signifies Repellere to joyn with our enemies in beating back any that should come to our relief and rescue And then as we have so sold our selves for the substance of the Act as is expressed in that word Machar we have exchanged our selves at an undervalue and worse than that we have yeelded up our selves upon easie tentations and worse than that we have offered our selves exposed our selves invited the devil and tempted temptations and worse than that we have Rejected the succours and the supplies which have been offered us in the means and conduits and seals of his Graces As it stands thus with us for the matter so for the manner how we have done this that is expressed in that other word kinnan which signifies fecit as it is here Gratis for nought And in another place Frustra to no purpose for it is a void bargain because we had no title no interest in our selves when we sold our selves and it signifies temere rashly without consideration of our own value upon whom God had stamped his Image And then again it signifies Immerito undeservedly before God in whose jurisdiction we were by many titles had forsaken us or done any thing to make us forsake him So that our action in selling our selves for nothing hath this latitude That man whom God hath dignified so much as that in the Creation he imprinted his Image in him and in the Redemption he assumed not the Image but the very nature of man That man whom God still preserved as the Aple of his Eye and as he expresses himself often in the Prophets is content to reason and to dispute with man and to submit himself to any tryal whither he have not been a gracious God unto him That this man should thus abandon this God and exchange his soul for any thing in this world when as it can profit nothing to gain the whole world and loose our own soul and not exchange it but give it away thrust it off and be a devil to the devil to tempt the tempter himself to take it But then as the word aggravates our condemnation so it implies a consolation too for it is fructra That is unprovidently unthriftily inconsideratly vainly and that multiplies our fault but then it is invalidly and uneffectually too that is it is a void bargain and when our powerful Redeemer is pleased to come and claim his right and set on foot his title all this improvident bargain of ours is voided and reversed and not though but because we have sold our selves for nought we shall be redeemed without money For the other word in which the action of our Redeemer is expressed though it have somewhat different uses in the Scriptures yet it is evermore spoken of him Qui habet jus re dimendi no man by the Law could redeem a thing but he who had a title to that thing So the word is used where there are given Cities of refuge from the avengeâ— .. There the word is a redemptor from him that hath right to redeem his kinsmans blood to bring an Appeal and to prosecute for the death of his kinsman who was slaine So is the word used also where that Law is given c. If thy brother be impoverished he sell his possession then his redeemer c. That is he that is next to that land And so also when a man dyed without issue he who had the right and the obligation to raise seed to the dead man he was the redeemer I am thy kinsman saith Booz to Ruth but saith he Alius Redemptor magis propinquus Thou hast another Redeemer nearer in blood then I am How ill a bargain soever we made for our selves Christ Jesus hath not lost his right in us but is our Redeemer in all these acceptations of the world He is our sanctuary and refuge when we have commited spiritual murder upon our own Souls he preserves us and delivers us to the redemption ordained for us when we have sold our possessions our natural faculties He supplies us with grace and feeds us with his Word and cloaths us with his Sacraments and warms us with his Absolutions against all diffidence which had formerly frozen us up and in our barrenness he raises up seed unto our dead souls thoughts and works worthy of repentance All this thy Redeemer hath right to do when it pleases him to do it he does it sine argento without money when the now Casâ—ph signifies not onely money but Omne appeâ—ibile any thing that we can place our desires or cast our thougths upon This Redemption of ours is wrought by such means as the desire of man could never have fortuned upon
Lord of the world but that is in the person of Infidells and we are none of that world Though we have to do with Principallities and spiritual wickedness Ephes yet St Paul motions it thus much Est nobis Colluctatio He arms us at all points in that chapter fit to indure any violent or any long attempt and yet he tells us that all that we have to do with the Devil is but Colluctatio but a wrastling we may be throwen but we cannot be slain So also is the same state of the saints of Gods described That the Devil labours to Devoure That he walks about and seeks Those who are without the pale without the Church and these that are Rebellious and refractary within it these he may devoure without any resistance they fall into his mouth but for us who are embraced by thy Redemtion he is put to his labour and to lose his labour too He is put to seek and put to miss too He was put to sue out a Commission for Jobs good till then he conâ—essed to God Thou hast put a hedge about him He was put to renew this commision for his person Touch his bones but further he durst not ask He hath a Kingdom but no body knowes where I would we might still dispute whether it were in the Earth or in the Ayre and not finde this Kingdome in our owne hearts Expell him thence and Gods spirit is as the Air that admits no vacuity no emptiness destroy this kingdome of Satan in your selves and God will establish his God will be content with his place Himselfe you cannot see that 's one degree of his tiranny to Reserve him selfe and not be seen for his deformities would make ye hate him but in his glases in the riches in the vanities of this world you see him and know him not you see him and know him and embrace him St. Chrysost hath convinced you in all that can be sayd for the love of this world If thou wilt says he that I must therfore look after worldly things because they are necessary E regione respendeo says he Therefore thou needest not look after them because they are necessary Si essent superflua non deberes confidere quia sunt necessaria non debes ambigere for that which is more than necessary thou shouldest not labour and for that which is necessary thou shoudst not doubt for whatsoever God does not give thee he knows was not necessary for thee for he can make thee happy without these temporal things as his way in this text is to redeem without money which is our last circumstance Sine Argento In delivering his people out of Egypt he gave no money for them nay he made them get money and Jewels at their coming away In delivering them out of Babylon he brought them away rich Here in this redemption it had been bribery to have given in so good a cause and it had been a new kind of Simony never heard of to give money for the exercise of their own grace He gave no money then not because he had it not Amos 3. for Domini est terra The earth and all in it is his ye have taken my silver and my gold says God in one Prophet Agg. 2. and he makes his continual claim in another The silver is mine and the gold is mine But it was God and not the devil that was to be satisfied In devillish trading there is no passing without money in the Temple it self there were In the Church and Church affaires there are buyers and sellers too if there were no buyers there would be no sellers but there was a third sort that was whiped out too which were Changers But in oure case it was God that was to be satisfied and therefore we were not redeemed with corruptable things as silver and gold 1 Pet. 1. but with the precious blood of Christ Now this blood of Christ Iesus was not within the Compass of this word which is here translated Money though as I noted at the begining this word Casaph includes all that the heart can wish or desire for though the Application of the blood of Christ now that is shed is to be wished by every sinner to his own soul Though the sheding of that blood might have been wished by the patriarchs to whom God had revealed that in the fullness of time it should be shed at the second coming of Christ and the Resurrection may be wished for by us now yet if we take Rem integram if we take the matter at first without any such revealing of Gods purpose as he in his Scripture hath afforded us so no man might have wished or prayed without a greater sin in that wish and in that prayer than all his former sins that the Son of God might come down and dye for his sins If it could possibly have fallen into his imagination that this might have been a way for his redemption yet he ought not to have wished that way neither might it neither certainly did it ever fall within the desire of any desparing sinner that thought that the death of Christ appertaind not to him to wish that God the father or God the Holy Ghost would come down and become man and shed his blood for him Th blood of Christ by which we are redeemed was not this Casaph it was not Res appetibilis a thing that a sinner might or could desire to be shed for him though being shed he must desire that it may be applied to him And hence it is that some of the fathers argue that when the Devill began to tempt Christ he knew him not to be the Son of God for even to the devil himself the blood of Christ could not be Res appetibilis a thing that deliberately he could have desired should have been shed If the devil had considered that the shedding of that blood would have redeemed us would he have hastned the shedding of that blood He redeemed us then without money And as he bought so he sells He paid no money he asks no money but he proclaims freely to all Esa 55. Ho every one that thirsteth come to the waters and ye that have no silver come buy and eat come I say buy wine and milk without silver and without money But you must come and you must come to the market to the Magazine of his graces his Church And you must buy though you have no money he paid obedience and he asks obedience to himself and his Church at your hands And then as Joseph did to his brethren he will give you your corn and your money again he will give you grace and temporal blessings too he will refresh and re-establish your natural faculties and give you supernatural He hath already done enough for all even in his mercy he was just just to the Devil himself for as we had done so he did he gave himself both to the
exaltation That as man needed God and God would suffer for man so God should need man and man should suffer for God that after Gods general Commission fac hoc vives do this and thou shalt live I should receive and execute a new Commission Patere hoc vives abundantius suffer this and you shall have life and life more abundantly Joh. 10.10 as our Saviour speaks in the Gospel that when I shall ask my soul Davids question Psal 116.12 Quid retribuam what shall I render to the Lord I shall not rest in Davids answer Accipiam Calicem I will take the cup of salvation in applying his blood to my soul but proceed to an Effundam Calicem I will give God a Cup a cup of my blood that whereas to me the meanest of Gods servants it is honor enough to be believed for Gods sake God should be believed for my sake and his Gospel the better accepted because the feal of my blood is set to it that that dew which should water his plants the plants of his Paradise his Church should drop from my veines and that sea that red sea which should carry up his bark his Ark to the heavenly Jerusalem should flow from me This is that that poures joy even into my gladness and glory even into mine honor and peace even into my security that exaltes and improves every good thing Colos 1 24. Phil 2.17 every blessing that was in me before and makes even my creation glorious and my redemption precious and puts a farther value upon things inestimable before that I shall fulfil the sufferings of Christ in my flesh and that I shall be offerd up for his Church 1 Pet. 2.21 though not for the purchasing of it yet for the fencing of it though not by way of satisfaction as he was but by way of example and imitation as he was too Whether that be absolutely true or no which an Author of much curiosity in the Roman Church saies Pâ—rrecta in legem Not itio ultima that Inter tot millia millium amongst so many thousand thousands of Martyrs in the Primitive Church it cannot be said that ever one lack'd burial I know not whence he raises that certainly no Martyr ever lack'd a grave in the wounds of his Saviour no nor a tomb a monument a memorial in this life in that sense wherein our Saviour speaks in the Gospel That no man shall leave house Mar. 10.30 or Brother or wife for him but he shall receive an hundred fold in this life Christ does not mean he shall have a hundred houses or a hundred wives or a hundred Brethren but that that comfort which he lost in losing those things shall be multiplied to him in that proportion even in this life In which words of our Saviour as we see the dignity and reward of Martyrdome so we see the extent and latitude and compass of Martyrdome too that not only loss of life but loss of that which we love in this life not only the suffering of death but the suffering of Crosses in our life contracts the Name and entitles us to the reward of Martyrdome All Martyrdome is not a Smithfeild Martyrdome to burn for religion To suffer injuries and upon advantages offerd not to revenge those injuries is a Court Martyrdome To resist outward tentations from power and inward tentations from affections in matter of Judicature between party and party is a Westminster Martyrdome To seem no richer then they are not to make their states better when they make their private bargains with one another and to seem so rich as they are and not to make their states worse when they are call'd upon to contribute to publick services this is an Exchange-Martyrdome And there is a Chamber-Martyrdome a Bosome-Martyrdome too Habet pudicitia servata Martyrium suum Hierome Chastity is a dayly Martyrdome and so all fighting of the Lords battails all victory over the Lords Enemies in our own bowels all chearful bearing of Gods Crosses and all watchful crossing of our own immoderate desires is a Martyrdome acceptable to God and a true copy of our pattern Stephen so it be inanimated with that which was even the life and soul and price of all Stephens actions and passions that is fervent charity which is the last contemplation in which we propose him for your Example that as he you also may be just paymasters in discharging the debt which you owe the world in the signification of your Names and early Disciples and appliers of your selves to Christ Jesus and humble servants of his without inordinate ambition of high places and constant Martyrs 1 Cor. 15.31 in dying every day as the Apostles speaks and charitable intercessors and Advocates and Mediators to God even for your heaviest Enemies We have a story in the Ecclesiastical story of Nicephorus and Sapricius formerly great friends and after as great Enemies Charitas Nicephorus relented first and sued often for reconciliation to Sapricius but was still refused he was refused even upon that day when Sapricius being led out to execution as a Martyr for the Christian religion Nicephorus upon the way put himself in his way and upon his knees beg'd a reconciliation and obtained it not The effect of his uncharitableness was this Sapricius when he came to the stake recanted and renounced the christian religion and lost the crown of Martyrdome and Nicephorus who came forth upon another ocasion professed Christ and was receiv'd to the Coronation of Martyrdome Though I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing saies the Apostle but if I have not charity I shall not be admitted to that Sacrifice to give my body to be burnt St. Augustine seems to have delighted himself with that saying for he saies it more then once Si Stephanus non orasset if St. Stephen had not praid for Saul the Church had had no Paul and may we not justly add to that If Stephen had not praid for Saul Heaven had had no Stephen or Stephen had had no Heaven suffering it self is but a stubborness and a rigid and stupid standing under an affliction it is not a humiliation a bending under Gods hand if it be not done in charity Stephen had a pattern and he is a pattern Christ was his and he is our Example ut hoc dicam tibi at te primo audivi saies St. Augustine in Stephen's person to Christ Lord thou taughtest me this prayer upon the cross receive it now from me as the Father receiv'd it from thee then He prayed for his enemies as for himself and thus much more earnestly for them then for himself that he prayed for himself standing and kneeling for them Stephen was the Plantiff and when he comes to his Nolo prosequi and to release what hath the Judg to say to the Defendant If a potent adversary oppress thee to ruine to death if
Judg be desposed towards us well or not well there is this comfort given us here that that Judgment shall be per legem by a law we shall be judged by a law of liberty which is our second branch in this second part Per legem The Jews that prosecuted the Judgment against Christ durst not do that without pretending a law habemus legem say they we have a law and he hath transgress'd that The necessary precipitations into sodain executions to which States are forc'd in rebellious time we are fain to call by the name of law martial law the torrents and inundations which invasive armies power upon nations we are fain to call by the name of law the law of arms No Judgment no execution without the name the color the pretence of law for still men call for a law for every execution And shall not the Judg of all the earth do right shall God Judg us condemn us execute us at the last day and not by law by something that we never saw never knew never notified never publish'd and Judg me by that and leave out the consideration of that law which he bound me to keep 1 Cor. 1.20 I ask St. Pauls question Where is the disputer of the world who will offer to dispute unnecessary things especially where Authority hath made it necessary to us to forbear such disputations Blessed are the peace-makers that command and blessed are the peace-keepers that obey and accommodate themselves to peace in forbearing unnecessary and uncharitable controversies But without controversie great is the mystery of godliness the Apostle invites us to search into on farther mysteries then such as may be without controversie 1 Tim. 3.16 the mystery of godliness is without controversy and godliness is to believe that God hath given us a law and to live according to that law This this godliness that is knowledg and obedience to the law hath the promises of this life and the next too all referr'd to his law for without this this godliness which is holiness no man shall see God all referr'd to a law This is Christs Catechism in St. John that we might know the only true God 17.3 and Jesus Christ whom he sent a God commanding and a Christ reconciling us if we have transgress'd that commandment and this is the holy Ghost's Catechism in St. Paul Deus remunerator Heb. 11.6 that we believe God to be and to be a just rewarder of mans actions still all referr'd to an obedience or disobedience of a law The mystery of godliness is great that is great enough for our salvation and yet without controversie For though controversies have been mov'd about Gods first act there can be none of his last act though men have disputed of the object of election yet of the subject of execution there is no controversie no man can doubt but that when God delivers over any soul actually and by way of execution to eternal condemnation that he delivers over that soul to that eternal condemnation for breaking this law In this we have no other adversary but the over-sad the despairing soul and it becomes us all to lend our hand to his succor and so pour in our wine and our oyl into his wounds that lies weltring and surrounded in the blood of his own pale and exhausted soul that soul who though it can testifie to it self some endeavour to the waies of holiness yet upon some collatteral doubts is still suspicious and jealous of God How often have we seen that a needless jealousie and suspicion conceiv'd without cause hath made a good body bad a needless jealousie and suspicion of his purposes and intentions upon thee may make thy merciful God angry too Nothing can alienate God more from thee then to think that any thing but sin can alienate him How wouldst thou have God merciful to thee if thou wilt be unmerciful to God himself And qui quid tyrannicum in Deo Basil He that conceives any tyrannical act in God is unjust to the God of Justice and unmerciful to the God of mercy Therefore in the 17th of our injunctions we are commanded to arm sad souls against despair by setting forth the mercy and the benefits and the godliness of Almighty God as the word of the injunction is the godliness of God for to leave God under a suspicion of dealing ill with any penitent soul were to impute ungodliness to God Therefore to that mistaking soul that discompos'd that shiver'd and shriveled and ravell'd and ruin'd soul to that jealous and suspicious soul only I say with the Apostle let no man Judg you intruding into those things which he hath not seen Colos 2.18 Let no man make you afraid of secret purposes in God which they have not nor you have not seen for that by which you shall be Judged is the law that law which was notified and published to you The law alone were much too heavy if there were not a suprabundant ease and alleviation in that hand that Christ Jesus reaches out to us O consider the weight and the ease and for pitty to such distrustful souls and for establishing of your own stop your devotions a little upon this consideration first there is Chirograpbum A hand writing of Ordinances against me v. 14. a debt an obligation contracted by our first Parents in their disobedience and faln upon me And even that be it but original sin is shrewd evidence ther 's my first charge But deletum est saies the Apostle there that 's blotted that 's defac'd that cannot be sued against me after baptism nay sublatum cruci affixum 28.15 It is cancell'd it is naild to the Cross of Christ Jesus it is no more sin in it self it is but to me to condemnation it is not ther 's my charge and my discharge for that But yet there is a heavier evidence Pactum cum inferno as the Prophet Isai speaks I have made a Covenant with death with hell I am at an agreement that is saies St. Gregory Audacter indesinentur peccamus et diligendo amicitiam profitemur We sin constantly and we sin continually and we sin confidently and we find so much pleasure and profit in sin as that we have made a league and sworn a friendship with sin we keep that perverse irreligious promise over-religiously the sins of our youth flow into other sins when age disables us for them But yet there is a delectum est in this case too our Covenant with death is disannull'd saies that Prophet when we are made partakers of the death of Christ in the blessed Sacrament mine actual sins lose their act and mine habitual sins fall from me as a habit as a garment put of when I come to that ther 's my charge and my discharge for that But yet there is worse evidence against me then either this Chirographum the first hand writing of Adams hand or
then this pactum this contract of mine own hand actual and habitual sin for of these one is wash'd out in water and the other in blood Ro. 7.20 in the two Sacraments But then there is Lex in membris saith the Apostle I find a law that when I would do good evil is present with me Sin assisted by me is now become a Tyrant over me and hath establish'd a government upon me and therefore is a law of sin and a law in my flesh which after the water of baptism taken and the water of penitent tears given after the blood of Christ Jesus taken and mine one blood given that is a holy readiness at that time when I am made partaker of Christs death to die for Christ throws me back by relapses into those repented sins This put the Apostle to that passionate exclamation O wretched man that I am and yet he found a deliverance even from the body of his death through Jesus Christ his Lord that is a free and open recourse and access to him in all oppressions of heart in all dejections of spirit Now when this Chirographum this band of Adams hand Original sin is cancell'd upon the Cross of Christ and this pactum this band of mine own hand actual sins wash'd away in the blood of Christ and this Lex in membris this disposition to relapse into repented sins which as a tide that does certainly come every day does come every day in one form or other is beaten back as a tide by a bank by a continual opposing the merits and the example of Christ Jesus and the practice of his fasting such other medicinal disciplines as I find to prevail against such relapses when by this blessed means the whole law against which I am a trespasser is evacuated will God condemn me for all this and not by a law when I have pleaded Christ Christ and Christ baptism and blood and tears will God condemn mean oblique way when he cannot by a direct way by a secret purpose when he hath no law to condemn me by Sad and discomposed distorted and distracted soul if it be well said in the School absurdum est disputare ex manuscriptis it is an unjust thing in controversies and disputations to press arguments out of manuscripts that cannot be seen by every man it were ill said in thy conscience that God will proceed against thee ex manuscriptis or condemn thee upon any thing which thou never sawst any unreveal'd purpose of his Suspicious soul ill-presaging soul is there something else besides the day of Judgment that the Son of man does not know disquiet soul does he not know the proceeding of that Judgment wherin himself is to be Judg but that when he hath died for thy sins and so fulfill'd the law in thy behalf thou maist be condemn'd without respect of that law and upon something that shall have had no consideration no relation to any such breach of any such law in thee Intricated entangled conscience Christ tels thee of a Judgment because thou didst not do the works of mercy not feed not cloth the poor for these were enjoyn'd thee by a law but he never tels thee of any Judgment therefore because thy name was written in a dark book of death never unclaps'd never opened unto thee in thy life He saies to the lovingly indulgently fear not for it is Gods good pleasure to give you the Kingdom but he never saies to the wickedest in the world live in fear dy in anxiety in suspition and suspension for his displeasure a displeasure conceiv'd against you before you were sinners before you were men hath thrown you out of that kingdom into utter darkness There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus The reason is added because the law of the Spirit of life hath made them free from the law of sin and of death All upon all sides is still refer'd to a law And where there is no law against thee as there is not to him that is in Christ and he is in Christ who hath endeavoured the keeping or repented the breaking of the law God wil never proceed to execution by any secret purpose ever notified never manifested Suspicious jealous scattered soul recollect thy self and give thy self that redintegration that acquiescence which the spirit of God in the means of the Church offers thee study the mysterie of godliness which is without all controversie that is endeavour to keep repent the not keeping of the law and thou art safe for that you shall be judged by is a law But then this law is called here a law of liberty and whether that denotation that it is called a law of liberty import an ease to us or heavier weight upon us is our last disquisition and conclusion of all So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty Lex libertatis That the Apostle here by the law of liberty means the Gospel was never doubted he had call'd the Gospel so before this place whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty 1.25 and continueth therein shal be blessed in his deed that is blessed in doing so blessed in conforming himself to the Gospel but why does he call it so A law of liberty not because men naturally affecting liberty might be drawn to an affection of the Gospel by proposing it in that specious name of liberty though it were not so The holy Ghost calls the Gospel a pearl and a treasure and a kingdome and joy and glory Not to allure men with false names but because men love these and the Gospel is truly all these a pearl and a treasure and a kingdome and joy and glory And it is truly a law of liberty but of what kind and in what respect not such a liberty as they have established in the Roman Church where Ecclesiastical liberty must exempt Ecclesiastical persons from participating all burdens of the State and from being traitors though they commit treason because they are Subjects to no secular Prince nor the liberty of the Anabaptist that overthrows Magistracy and consequently all subjection both Ecclesiastical Laick for when upon those words 1 Cor. 7.23 Be ye not servants of men St. Chrysostome sayes This is Christian liberty Nec aliis nec sibi servire neither to be subjects to others nor to our selves that 's spoken with modification an allegiance with relation to our first allegiance to God not to be so subject to others or to our selves as that either for their sakes or our own we depart from any necessary declaration of our service to God Deo First then the Gospel is a Law of Liberty in respect of the author of the Gospel of God himself because it leaves God at his liberty Not at liberty to judg against his Gospel where he hath manifested it for a law for he hath laid a holy necessity upon himself
kindled Num. 11.15 there and only their doth Moses attribute even to God himself the feminine sex and speaks to God in the original language as if he should have call'd him Deam Iratam an angry she God all that is good then either in the love of man or woman is in this love for he is expressed in both sexes man and woman and all that can be ill in the love of either sex is purged away for the man is no other man then Christ Jesus and the woman no other woman then wisdom her self even the uncreated wisdom of God himself Now all this is but one person the person that professes love who is the other who is the beloved of Christ is not so easily discern'd in the love between persons in this world and of this world we are often deceived with outward signs we often mis-call and mis-judg civil respects and mutual courtesies and a delight in one anothers conversation and such other indifferent things as only malignity and curiosity and self-guiltiness makes to be misinterpretable we often call these love but neither amongst our selves much less between Christ and our selves are these outward appearances alwaies signs of love This person then this beloved soul is not every one to whom Christ sends a loving message or writs too for his letters his Scriptures are directed to all not every one he wishes well to and swears that he does so for so he doth to all As I live saith the Lord I would not the death of a Sinner not every one that he sends jewels and presents to for they are often snares to corrupt as well as arguments of love not though he admit them to his table and supper for even there the Devil entred into Judas with a sop not though he receive them to a kiss for even with that familarity Judas betrayed him not though he betroth himself as he did to the Jews Osc 2.14 sponsabo te mihi in aeternum not though he make jointures in pacto salis in a covenant of salt an everlasting covenant not though he have communicated his name to them which is an act of marriage for to how many hath he said ego dixit Dii estis I have said you are Gods and yet they have been reprobates not all these outward things amount so far as to make us discern who is this beloved person for himself saies of the Israelites to whom he had made all these demonstrations of love yet after for their abominations devorc'd himself from them I have forsaken mine house Jer. 12.7 I have left mine own heritage I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies To conclude this person beloved of Christ is only that soul that loves Christ but that belongs to the third branch of this first part which is the mutual love The Affection but first having found the person we are to consider the affection it self the love of this text it is an observation of Origens that though these three words Amor Dilectio and Charitas love and affection and good will be all of one signification in the sctiptures yet saies he wheresoever there is danger of representing to the fancy a lascivious and carnal love the scripture forbears the word love and uses either affection or good will and where there is no such danger the scripture comes directly to this word love of which Origens examples are that when Isaac bent his affections upon Rebecca and Jacob upon Rachel in both places it is dilexit and not amavit Cant 5.8 and when it is said in the Cant. I charge you Daughters of Jerusalem to tell my well-beloved it is not to tel him that she was in love but to tell him quod vulneratae charitatis sum that I am wounded with an affection good will towards him but in this book of Pro. in all the passages between Christ and the beloved soul there is evermore a free use of this word Amor love because it is even in the first apprehension a pure a chast and an undefiled love Eloquia Dominis casta sayes David All the words of the Lord and all their words that love the Lord all discourses all that is spoken to or from the soul is all full of chast love and of the love of chastity Now though this love of Christ to our souls be too large to shut up or comprehend in any definition yet if we content our selves with the definition of the Schools Amare est velle alicui quod bonum est love is nothing but a desire that they whom we love should be happy we may easily discern the advantage and profit which we have by this love in the Text when he that wishes us this good by loving us is author of all good himself and may give us as much as pleases him without impairing his own infinite treasure He loves us as his ancient inheritance as the first amongst his creatures in the creation of the world which he created for us He loves us more as his purchase whom he hath bought with his blood for even man takes most pleasure in things of his own getting But he loves us most for our improvement when by his ploughing up of our hearts and the dew of his grace and the seed of his word we come to give greaâ—â—r cent in the fruit of sanctification than before And since he loves â—s thus and that in him this love is velle bonum a desire that his beloved should be happy what soul amongst us shall doubt that when God hath such an abundant and infinite treasure as the merit and passion of Christ Jesus sufficient to save millions of worlds and yet many millions in this world all the heathen excluded from any interest therein when God hath a kingdome so large as that nothing limits it and yet he hath banished many natural subjects thereof even those legions of Angels which were created in it and are fallen from it what soul amongst us shall doubt but that he that hath thus much and loves thus much will not deny her a portion in the blood of Christ or a room in the kingdome of heaven No soul can doubt it except it have been a witness to it self and be so still that it love not Christ Jesus for that 's a condition necessary And that is the third branch to which we are come now in our order that this love be mutuall I love them c. If any man loves not our Lord Jesus let him be accursed Mutual saies the Apostle Now the first part of this curse is upon the indisposition to love he that loves not at all is first accursed That stupid inconsideration which passes on drowsilie and negligently upon Gods creatures that sullen indifferency in ones disposition to love one thing no more than another not to value not to chuse not to prefer that stoniness that in humanity not to be
creature til we come so far Remember then the Creator and remember thy Creator for Tâ—um Quis magis fidelis Deo who is so faithful a Counsailor as God Basil Quis prudentior Sapiente who can be wiser than wisdome Quis utilior bono or better than goodness Quis conjunctior Creatore or neerer then our Maker and therefore remember him What purposes soever thy parents or thy Prince have to make thee great how had all those purposes been frustrated and evacuated if God had not made thee before this very being is thy greatest degree as in Arithmatick how great a number soever a man expresse in many figures yet when we come to number all the very first figure is the greatest and most of all so what degrees or titles soever a man have in this world the greatest and the foundation of all is that he had a being by creation For the distance from nothing to a little is ten thousand times more than from it to the highest degree in this life and therefore remember thy Creator as by being so he hath done more for thee than all the world besides and remember him also with this consideration that whatsoever thou art now yet once thou wast nothing He created thee ex nihilo he gave thee a being Ex nihilo there 's matter of exaltation yet all this from nothing thou wast worse then a worm there 's matter of humiliation but he did not create thee ad nihilum to return to nothing again and there 's matter for thy consideration and study how to make thine immortality profitable unto thee for it is a deadly immortality if thy immortality must serve thee for nothing but to hold thee in immortal torment To end all that being which we have from God shall not return to nothing nor the being which we have from men neither Bern. As St. Bernard sayes of the Image of God in mans soul uti potest in gehenna non exuri That soul that descends to hell carries the Image God in the faculties of that soul thither but there that Image can never be burnt out so those Images those impressions which we have received from men from nature from the world the image of a Lord the image of a Counsailor the image of a Bishop shall all burn in Hell and never burn out not only these men but these offices are not to return to nothing but as their being from God so their being from man shal have an everlasting being to the aggravating of their condemnation And therefore remember thy Creator who as he is so by making thee of nothing so he will ever be so by holding thee to his glory though to thy confusion from returning to nothing for the Court of Heaven is not like other Courts that after a surfet of pleasure or greatness a man may retire after a surfet of sin there 's no such retiring as a dissolving of the soul into nothing but God is from the beginning the Creator he gave all things their being and he is still thy Creator thou shalt evermore have that being to be capable of his Judgments Now to make up a circle by returning to our first word remember As we remember God so for his sake let us remember one another In my long absence and far distance from hence remember me as I shall do you in the ears of that God to whom the farthest East and the farthest West are but as the right and left ear in one of us we hear with both at once and he hears in both at once remember me not my abilities for when I consider my Apostleship that I was sent to you I am in St. Pauls quorum quorum ego sum minimus 1 Cor. 15.9 the least of them that have been sent and when I consider my infirmities 1 Tim. 1.15 I am in his quorum in another commission another way Quorum ego maximus the greatest of them but remember my labors and endeavors at least my desire to make sure your salvation And I shall remember your religious cheerfulness in hearing the word and your christianly respect towards all them that bring that word unto you and towards my self in particular far bove my merit And so as your eyes that stay here and mine that must be far of for all that distance shall meet every morning in looking upon that same Sun and meet every night in looking upon the same Moon so our hearts may meet morning and evening in that God which sees and hears every where that you may come thither to him with your prayers that I if I may be of use for his glory and your edification in this place may be restored to you again and may come to him with my prayer that what Paul soever plant amongst you or what Apollos soever water God himself will give the increase That if I never meet you again till we have all passed the gate of death yet in the gates of heaven I may meet you all and there say to my Saviour and your Saviour that which he said to his Father and our Father Of those whom thou hast given me have I not lost one Remember me thus you that stay in this Kingdome of peace where no sword is drawn but the sword of Justice as I shal remember you in those Kingdomes where ambition on one side and a necessary defence from unjust persecution on the other side hath drawn many swords and Christ Jesus remember us all in his Kingdome to which Serm. 20. though we must sail through a sea it is the sea of his blood where no soul suffers shiprwack though we must be blown with strange winds with sighs and groans for our sins yet it is the Spirit of God that blows all this wind and shall blow away all contrary winds of diffidence or distrust in Gods mercy where we shall be all Souldiers of one Army the Lord of Hostes and Children of one Quire the God of Harmony and consent where all Clients shall retain but one Counsellor our Advocate Christ Jesus nor present him any other fee but his own blood and yet every Client have a Judgment on his side not only in a not guilty in the remission of his sins but in a Venite benedicti in being called to the participation of an immortal Crown of glory where there shall be no difference in affection nor in mind but we shall agree as fully perfectly in our Allelujah and gloria in exelcis as God the Father Son and Holy Ghost agreed in the faciamus hominem at first where we shall end and yet begin but then where we shall have continuall rest and yet never grow lazie where we shall be stronger to resist and yet have no enemy where we shall live and never die where we shall meet never part TWO SERMONS to the Prince and Princess Palatine the Lady Elizabeth at Heydelberg when I was commanded
The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart And then to have pure hands That we may lift up pure hands 1 Tim. 1.5 2 8. 3 8. without wrath or doubting And to have pure consciences Having the mystery of faith in pure consciences The heart is the fountain from which my good and holy purposes flow My hand is the execution and Declaration of those good purposes produc'd into the eyes of men and my conscience is the testification of the Spirit of God with my spirit that I have actually made those declarations that I have liv'd according to that profession This is Saint Pauls Puritan Pure in Heart pure in Hand pure in Conscience That I do believe I ought to do this That really I do it Thar my conscience tell me after it was rightly done for a man may do good ill and go by ill ways to good ends And then if our purity be but comparative and not positive that we onely look how ill other men be not how good we should be we shall become either Catharists purifying Puritans quarrelling with men with States with Churches and attempting a purifying of Sacraments and Ceremonies Doctrine and Discipline according to our own fancy Or Cathari purified puritans that think they may leave out the Dimitte debita they need ask no forgiveness And then Cains major iniquitas my sin is too great for God to forgive is not worse then this minor iniquitas Gen. 4.13 My sin is too little for God to consider I cannot have a pardon and I do not need a pardon It is impossible for me to get it and it is unnecessary for me to ask it are equal contempts against the Majesty and Mercy of God But this first consideration The nature of his pureness enlarges it self by flowing into the second branch of this first part that is The place where this pureness is established The Heart He that loves pureness of Heart the King shall be his friend Absolute pureness cannot be attained to In via Locus Cor. It is reserved for us In Patria At home in heaven not in our journey here is that pureness to be expected But yet here in the way there is a degree of it acceptable to God of which himself speaks and there it may be had Blessed are the pure in heart so the pureness be placed there all 's well for they shall see God Mat. 5.9 Whether that fight of God be spoken De cognitione Dei of that sight of God 1 Cor. 13.12 which we have here In speculo in a glass in that true glass of his own making his word explicated in the Church or de visione Beatifica of that beatifical vision of God which is salvation howsoever the reward the sight of God in the perfect fruition thereof may be reserved for the future They shall see God yet they are pure and they are blessed already Blessed are the pure in heart This pureness then must be rightly plac'd for in many things the place qualifies and denominates the things it is not Balsamum if it grew not in Palestine It is not pureness if it grew not in the Heart The Hypocrite is the miserablest of all other he does God service and yet is damned The shedding of our blood for God is not a greater service then the winning of souls to God and the Hypocrite many times does that his outward purity works upon them who cannot know it to be counterfeit and draws them truely and sincerely to serve God He does God service and yet perishes 1 Reg. 14.10 because he does it not from the heart God shall take him away as a man taketh away dung till it be all gone God does not say there that he will take away the dunge but the man not that he will take away the Dissimulation of the Hypocrite but he will take away the Hypocrite himself as dunge is taken away till it be all gone till this Hypocrite be swept not clean but clean away If he have a complacency a joy that he can deceive Job 20.5 and can seem that which he is not The joy of the Hypocrite is but for a moment He hath no true joy at all his joy is but dunge and in a moment comes a Cart and fetches away that dunge sweeps away even that false joy Can he hope for more 8.13 The Hope of the Hypocrite shall perish If he can conceive such a hope it shall perish in abortion and never have life Their Hope shall be as the giving up of the Ghost As soon as it is a Hope 11.20 it shall be as the giving up of the Ghost and a Cart shall carry away that dunge that Hope What Cart first God shall disappoint his Hope of deluding the world God shall discover him and lay him open That the Hypocrites reign not 34.30 lest the people be ensnar'd And then when God hath discovered him The innocent shall stir up himself against the Hypocrite that is 17.8 consider him observe him and arm himself against his imaginations And God shall not onely discover him to men but God shall discover himself to him and make him see his future condemnation Fearfulness shall surprize the Hypocrite Esa 33.14 Job 27.8 And then What is the hope of the Hypocrite when God taketh away his soul when the Cart comes for the last load of dunge his corrupt his putrified soul what hope hath the Hypocrite for the next life It is not pureness then except it be in the right place the heart But where is the heart The heart is vafrum inscrutabile Deceitful above all things Jer. 17.9 and desperately wieked who can know it It is uncertain and unsearchable And it is so because it pursues those things which are in fluxu ever in motion Cast but a paper into the river and fix thine eye upon that paper and binde thine eye to follow that paper whithersoever the river or the winde shall carry it and thou canst not imagine where thine eye will be to morrow For this paper is not addressed as a ship to a certain port or upon any certain purpose but expos'd to the disposition of the tyde to the rage of the winde to the wantonness of the Eddy and to innumerable contingencies till it wear out to nothing So if a man set his heart we cannot call it a setting if a man suffer his heart to issue upon any of these fluid and transitory things of this world he shall have cor vafrum inscrutabile He shall not know where to finde his own heart If Riches be this floating paper that his eye is fixed upon he shall not know upon what course If Beauty be this paper he shall not know upon what face If Honor and preferment be it he shall not know upon what faction his heart will be transported a month hence But if the heart can fix it self upon that which is
the soul it is the only means to recover thee But yet wert thou not better to make this grace thy diet then thy physick Wert thou not better to nourish thy soul with this grace all the way then to hope to purge thy soul with it at last This as a Diet the Apostle prescribes thee Whether you eat or drink do all to the glory of God He intends it farther there Whatsoever you do and farther then that in another place Whatsoever ye do in deed 1 Cor. 10.31 Col. 3.17 or in word do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Since there is no action so little but God may be glorified in it there is no action so little but the Devil may have his end in it too and may overthrow thee by a tentation which thou thinkest thy self strong enough to leap over And therefore if you have not given over all love of true weights and true measures weigh and measure your particular and indifferent actions before you do them and you shall see at least grains of iniquity in them and then this advantage will you have by this preconsideration and weighing your actions before hand that when you know there is sin in that action and know that nothing can counterpoise nor weigh down sin but onely the Blood of Christ Jesus you may know too that the Blood of Christ Jesus cannot be had before hand God gives no such non-obstantes no such priviledges no leave to sin no pardon for sin before it be committed And therefore if this premeditation of this action bring thee to see that there is sin in it it must necessarily put a tenderness a horror an aversion in thee from doing that to which being thus done with this preconsideration and presumption the Blood of thy Saviour doth not appertain To all your other Wares the baser and courser they are the greater weight and measure you are content to give to the basest of all to sin you give the lightest weight and scantest measure and you supply all with the excuses of the custom of the time that the necessity of your trade forces you to it else you should be poor and poorly thought of Beloved God never puts his children to a perplexity to a necessity of doing any sin how little soever though for the avoiding of a sin as manifold as Adams It is not a little request to you to beware of little sins It is not a little request and therefore I make it in the words of the greatest to the greatest for they are all one Head and Body of Christ to his Church Cant. 2.15 Capite vulpeculas Take us the little Foxes for they devour the Vines It is not a cropping not a pilling nor a retarding of the growth of the Vines but Demoliuntur as little as those Foxes are they devour the Vines they root them out Thy Soul is not so easily devoured by that Lion 1 Pet. 5.8 Apoc. 5.5 that seeks whom he may devour for still he is put to seek and does not always finde And thou shalt hear his roaring that is thou shalt discern a great sin and the Lion of the Tribe of Judah will come in to thy succor as soon as thou callest But take heed that thy Soul be not eaten up with vermin by those little sins which thou thinkst thou canst forbear and give over when thou wilt God punished the Egyptians most by little things Hailstones and Frogs and Grashoppers and Pharaohs Sorcerers Exod. 8.16 which did greater failed in the least in Lice It is true there is Physick for this Christ Jesus that receives thy greatest sins into his Blood can receive these Vermin too into his Bowels even at last but yet still make his Grace rather thy Diet by a daily consideration before hand then thy Physick at last It is ill to take two Physicks at once bodily and ghostly Physick too upon thy Death-bed The Apothecary and the Physician do well together the Apothecary and the Priest not so well Consult with him before at least consult with thine own Conscience in those little actions which either their own nature or the custom of the time or thy course of life thy calling and the example of others in thy calling made thee think indifferent For though it may seem a degree of flattery to preach against little sins in such a City as this where greater sins do abound yet because these be the materials and elements of greater sins and it is impossible to say where a Bowl will lie that is let fall down a Hill though it be let never so gently out of the hand and there is no pureness of heart till even these Cobwebs and Crums be swept away He that affects that pureness will consider well that of St. Augustine Psal 24.4 Interest inter rectum corde mundum corde a right heart and a clean heart is not all one He may have a right heart that keeps in the right way in the profession of the right Religion but he onely keeps his heart pure that watches all his steps even in that right way St. Augustine considers that question of David Psal 24.3 Quis ascendet and quis stabit Who shall ascend into the Hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place And he applies the answer Innocens manibus mundo corde He that hath clean hands and a pure heart Thus That he that hath clean hands clean from blood clean from bribery and oppression clean from fornication and such notorious sins Ascendet in montem He shall ascend into the Hill of the Lord he shall be admitted to all the benefits that the Christian Church can give him but onely he that hath a pure heart a care to glorifie God in a holy watchfulness upon all his particular actions to the exclusion of lesser sins stabit shall stand safe confident unshaken in his holy place even in the judgment of God clean hands justifie him to men a pure heart to God And therefore this pureness of heart is here wrapped up in the richest mantle in the noblest affection that the nature of man hath that is love For this is not onely a contentment an acquiescence a satisfaction a delight in this pureness of heart but love is a holy impatience in being without it or being in a jealousie that we are without it and it is a holy fervor and vehemency in the pursuit of it and a preferring it before any other thing that can be compared to it That 's love and therefore it deserves to be insisted upon now when in our order proposed at first from the thing it self that is required pureness and the seat and center of that pureness the heart and the way of this fixation of this pureness in the heart detestation of former habits of sins and prevention of future sins in a watchful consideration of all our actions before we do them We are come to that affection