on the Mothers side man and no God and yet both God and Man For Eternity had begotten man but once because begotten from Eternity his Father begot him equall to God his Mother bare him like to Man he was man besides God and therefore Man and no God and yet God and Man for when he was made man he ceased not to be God which he was before like as the Sun loseth not its brightnesse though shadowed in the clouds so not Christ his glory though obscuted in flesh he was not so conceived in his Mother as to be separated from his Father Christ was not lesse equal to his Fathet by being like his Mother the Word was made flesh St. John 1.14 and not lesse Word then Flesh by an assumption of the flesh not consumption of the Word the Word that God by flesh did present to our sight was real Flesh and was not lesse God still for he is no lesse God now that he is clad in humane clay then when onely clothed with deified Glory he remaines God and Man in one person very God and very Man in one singular subsistence he took the person of Man and the substance by converting the person to his proper being and that this may not altogether seeme strange to your understandings please to turn your eyes inward and an example thereof will be presented for if man hath the life of Plants and the sense of Beasts and both in conjunction with the reasonable soul in an individual being why may not Christ take the Soul of man into union with himself and yet consist in his Divinity making a Trinity in the union of his Person For as he was God and Man in the humane nature he consisted of a Deity a soul and a body there a Trinity in unity here unity in Trinity he was one person not divided a person of the Trinity distinguished not divided for every person in the Sacred Trinity is perfect God distinguished into persons but not divided in substance for all take propriety each with the other the Father God the Son God and the holy Ghost God and yet not three but one God as we are taught by the holy Catholick Faith to beleeve yet that God might redeeme us from our iniquities he that was perfect God equal with the Father took upon him our flesh and therefore it is that God was said to suffer what man himself should have borne onely here is the admired union of natures but not natural of persons But what were the reasons why he whose name is I am should be borne so as to say of himself To this end was I borne and for this cause came I into the world to bear witnesse to the truth 1. To make God and Man one by atonement and therefore it was necessary he should be of both natures whose office is to reconcile both persons 2. He was to doe that for us which was impossible for man to doe and to suffer what was unmeet for God to undergoe and that he might both doe and suffer for us he took the blessed Virgin Mary for his mother that from her he might receive a body capable of suffering but it was his Divinity which enabled his Humanity to suffer what our Souls deserved 3. He was to undergoe for an infinite offence for man had sinned and none but God could satisfie for an infinite offence it being reasonable that the same nature that broke the Law should pay the Debt and therefore it was necessary for him to be God as well as Man that did undertake to make God and Man to be reconciled and made one 4. Had he been God and not Man man could not have been redeemed had he been onely man and not God the Devils would have boasted but he was both God and man that our redemption might be finished and the Devils malice silenced whence wisely was our redemption shared between God and man because the arbitrement was such that a mere man could not undertake to appease a God offended neither one nor the other nature would have or could have relieved us single because he must be God that will be mediator from God to man and he must be man that he may be an intercessor to God for man and this mystery though our reason cannot fathom yet our belief must reach it our faith must believe what our hearts and tongues cannot expresse our faith is then proficient when it hath attained so high and not before for we can say more by silence then by words when we find him in our souls by Hallelujahs and praise we shall then know thee O Saviour not for thy self but our selves and it is our faith to believe that as thou art so shall we be though not so fully therefore let every one make it his request O that thou wouldst come down from heaven and dwell in our hearts by faith and love who out of love to mankind came in flesh when faith and truth were banished out of the earth and that thou shouldst so come as to say To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world c. And so much may suffice for that part of his incarnation the end of his coming I now come to that of his Nativity his coming into the world and here three things are to be considered 1. The Dignity of his person 2. The Humility of his condescention 3. The Place of his entertaintainment 1. The Dignity of his person in that he was the Sonne of God 2. The Humility of his condescention in that he would clothe himself with the rags of our mortality 3. The Place unworthy of his enterment being the world Of these in their order 1. The Dignity of his person and that as he is the Sonne of God by nature and as in his Birth the most noble person that ever was on the Fathers side he is God very God the very God of one substance with the Father as you have heard and which to deny is no lesse then blasphemy for when he calls God Father the Iewes knew that thereby he made himself equall with God St. John 10.33 He as Gods Sonne was alwayes with the Father and so everlastingly great as he was God and not onely so but he was full of dignity on his Mothers side as he was descended from the Patriarchs and Royal Kings of Iudah so he was a Prince renowned 1. For his authority because he doth what he will both in heaven and in earth Psal 13.5 6. in the sea and in all deep places 2. For his power St. Mar. 4.41 he commands the wind and the waves and they obey him 3. For the largeness of his dominions heaven and earth is his Psal 72.8 and the fulness thereof his dominion is from one part of heaven and earth unto the other 4. For multitude of Subjects Angels Saints and Kings yea and those that depose Kings are his Subjects either voluntarily
our wants are great yet in regard of spiritualls they are much greater we by our fall were cast out of the Paradise of Gods favour into the field of danger where was nothing to move compassion but pollution in our own blood but when we were so he passed by and said Live he washt us in the laver of regeneration and made us comely by his imputative righteousness and clothed us with sanctifying grace and shall we now play the harlot and bestow any thing upon another which belongs to him it is no other then dividing the living child with Christ he will have none of our divided hope or distrusting faith where grace is feeble the soul often hangs in suspence between hope fear for had it but once convinst the soul of the object he would not any longer trust to himself which breeds distraction which is but as a broken reed but he that trusts in me saith the Lord shal possess the land inherit my holy mountain Isa 57.13 so that now we have found the rock of salvation on whom we may build without fearing to be removed though the winds blow and the tempests rise we shall but slight and scorne all their foaming rage the hope of future good will out-ballance all the present misery this sustaining hope will either lessen the burthen of our miseries or add to our strength to bear them so that although all helps may seem gone no remedy but the ready miserable destruction of despairing though we cannot see when any good shall come Ier. 17.6 Yet all these evills laid in the ballance of the Sanctuary are too light to stand in competition with the hope in Christ nay every true hope is then most strong when most opposed every affliction is advantageous making their hope more quick the fire proves more intense when it s laboured to be extinguished by cold elements such is the nature of this grace of hope every affliction recovers her life and heat which before were raked in the ashes she gives wings to the souls flight every blustring wind helps her in soaring upward here we have her got to the hill from whence she expects salvation here we have her like Sampson carrying the gates of Gaza not onely helping a Christian to bear crosses with patience and resolution so as she can sing in prison but with the Angel to St. Peter it opens the gates of the city and makes all work together for good to them that love God so that the misery of a Christian is taken away by the hope which he hath in Christ which hope brings me to the fourth conclusion That a good Christian hath not onely hope in this life but in a better which hope is twofold 1. The lower in this life 2. The upper not in this life only For if in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable 1. A Christian hath hope in Christ in this life though Heaven be the chief place of hope yet earth is for the exercise of that hope in this life is the proper time of getting it as being necessary for the whole there it hopes for the manifestation of all the promises and here nature gives leave in the journey to prepare for the land of safety nor could a Christian bear up against the storms and billows that arise and molest him in his passage through this world but for the hope of coming home to that place in Heaven which is prepared for him and no other comfort in the danger of the way but in coming to our countrey where we shall be absent from the body but present with the Lord doth support them the Saints are Strangers and Pilgrims and have here no abiding city thus did the Patriarchs cheerefully cast of all earthly comforts for the obtaining of the holy rest and glorious promises which by faith they saw afar off and by hope enjoyed them this hope served them in the valley of teares to revive their strength or like the hony on Ionathans rod to open our eyes to behold our comfort in the object of true delights which is Christ Jesus our Lord for it is ordinary for every thing to desire its own content as the rule in nature teaches for the very plants will not be wanting to the creatures in things necessary to their being so it is the rule of the God of nature to be wanting to his creatures in any thing that tends to their well being witness the free Ordinary which the foules of the aire dayly feed on at Gods table if his goodness be extended to meaner creatures shal it be straightned to you or rather he that hath given you all things for this present will he be wanting to you for the things that pertain to a future life he hath given extraordinary deliverance in peril rescued you from the power of thousands by despicable hands it is true we cannot conclude the love of God from outward prosperity they are not essential to make up happiness but because of the promise of this life we may waite for the manifestation of his goodness in these outward things suppose God deny the lesser and give us the greater that he stop the springs below that the springs above may run the faster he makes them that are his children often to possess the sins of their youth and the wicked that are prepared for destruction to take the wall while the heart of the godly are sunk down what shal we say with holy David verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency Ps 83.13 verse nothing less for the best of our hope survives the worst of our sufferings though when ye look on a Christian in the outside you may see him miserable but look upon him in the hope that he hath in Christ and you see him secure he is happy though that hope may be crost for here is the comfort that a good Christian hath hope in Christ not in this life onely and that in two things 1. The lesse proper place for the exercise of the act of Hope 2. The more principle Object of it 1. The lesse proper place for the exercise of the act of Hope for when the Soul departing from the Body shall come to her country and be possessed of the fruition of God which she panted after she in her self doth not hope because the things hoped for are present and because of the special union of the Soul with Christ yet still there is hope in Heaven for the full manifestation of the promises For the Souls under the Altar cry how long Lord holy and true c. Rev. 6.9 10. But that which the Souls in Heaven have simply and in regard of the happiness they enjoy is not hope for hope that is seen is not hope for there it is not faith but vision and not hope but fruition yet in some sense they wait for the accomplishment of all the Divine
NINE SELECT SERMONS Preached upon special occasions in the Parish Church of St. Gregories by St. Pauls By the late Reverend JOHN HEWYTT D. D. Together With his publick Prayers before and after SERMON LONDON Printed for Henry Eversden at the Greyhound in St. Pauls Church-yard and Tho. Rooks at the Holy Lamb at the East end of St. Pauls near the School TO The Right Honourable LADY THE Lady Mary Hewyt Relict of the late Reverend JOHN HEWYT D. D. Madam THe principal intent of our publishing these ensuing Sermons is no other then Edification and for the avoiding all suspition of being accounted spurious and illegitimate we have assumed the boldnesse to dedicate them to your Ladiship with a confident hope of your Honourable Protection and that whereas heretofore they have been beneficiall to his Auditory they may now prove no lesse successful to the intelligent Reader it being pity the Works of so Famous and Eminent a Divine should be raked up in the embers of Oblivion And though they have no other Originall then the Pen of a ready Writer yet such diligent care hath been imployed in emitting them to the World that we doubt not but you will conclude we have endeavoured the perpetuating the memory of your Pious Consort For here lurks no Snake under these Verdant Herbs nor Poysonous Serpent under these Fragrant Flowers in this inclosed Garden growes no Root of Schisme no slip of Error no fruit of Disobedience but within this pleasant Grove are such variety of refreshing contentments to be found as may delight your Ladiship amidst your more Solitary Cogitations and yet these are but parts of that Image which ere long we hope to erect and in a larger Volume We shall crave leave to as we doe at present subscribe our selves Madam Your Ladiships humbly devoted Servants H. E. T. R. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Courteous Reader IT was not popular applause nor private interest that induced us to expose these ensuing Discourses to publick view but only an ardent desire to draw a Landskip of the reverend Authors abilities and though but in Transitu to give a dark representation of that glorious light which continually with unwearied beams did radiate the Souls of his faithful Auditory They are but the shadows of a faithful life therefore be not displeased to find them fall short of the living Voice such curious pieces cannot be drawn without the concurrence of sable lines so that if thou find them halt and only with a crooked finger to point at the Authors stile be not discouraged thereat nor with a prejudicate opinion deem this naked Babe illegitimate because destitute of a Patron for thou wilt find assuredly they are the true off-spring of that worthy Parent and want only the Fathers hand to lead them into and preserve them from a captious world Lay aside all partiall interests and we are bold to presume that thou canst not but with unspeakable profit give them perusal we are sensible of the many calumnies that will be cast upon our persons for this innocent work having already in part undergone the reproach of some malicious tongues who have indeavoured to render the Sermons abortive and our selves contemptible in the eyes of a deceived multitude nor are we able to divine what acceptance they will gain at the hands of any But we question not ingenious Reader whoever thou art but that thou wilt love the picture for the persons sake and wilt impute whatever defect shall be found therein to the want of the Authors pen and not the ignorant or willing mistake of the Perusers thereof for they are notes taken by the pen of a ready VVriter the swiftness of whose motion is able to overtake the most voluble tongue yet thou canst not but know that sometimes the smallest hair interposing it self will make a breach in the fullest sentence thereby interrupting the perfect sense therefore our care hath been extended to the utmost that no remarkable fault might appear obvious to the most critical Reader still indeavouring that those sacred truths which formerly have been beneficial to the intelligent Hearers when preached by the reverend Author may now prove advantageous to the eternal welfare of every Soul that shall peruse them which is the earnest desire of Reader Thy unfeigned Friends and Servants H. E. T. R. A Table of the Titles and Texts of the Sermons contained in this Book MErcy and Iudgement 2 Sermons Page 1. 28. Psal 130. v. 3. If thou Lord wilt be extreme c. A Nativity Sermon page 62. Saint Luke 2. v. 7. And she brought forth her first-born son c. A Funeral Sermon p. 81. 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this life onely we have hope in Christ Testis Fidelis or the faithful witness Five Sermons upon 18. St. Iohn v. 37. To this end was I born c. whereof 1. Upon St. Thomas day p. 106. whereof 1. Upon Christmas day p. 126. Three more upon the same Text on several occasions Dr. Hewit's publique Prayer before Sermon O thou that hearest Prayers unto thee shall all flesh come for our help standeth in thy name O Lord which hast made heaven and earth we beseech thee therefore let the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be now and evermore acceptable in thy sight O Lord our strength and our Redeemer O Most glorious and most powerfull Lord God whose dwelling is so far above the highest heavens that thou humblest thy self but to look upon the things that are in heaven and that are in earth thou art omnipotent and omnipresent dost whatsoever thou wilt both in heaven in earth in the sea and in all deep places thou art about our beds and about our paths thou spyest out all our wayes understandest all our thoughts long before we thought O Lord when we look up unto thee and consider thee to be a God of so pure eyes as that thou canst not behold iniquity without indignation and wrath and when we look within our selves and see that world of corruption that lyeth hidden in our breasts and those innumerable acts of transgressions that have stained both our persons and our lives we cannot but be confounded and ashamed before thy face and are not able to open our mouths for our sins witnesse against us and our iniquities are as sore burdens too heavy for us to bear they cry up to heaven for vengeance against us and it is of thy infinite patience and longsuffering towards us that thou hast not long since powred upon us the Vials of thy wrathfull indignation nor sentenced us to the pit of eternall destruction Lord who can tell how oft he offendeth The sinfulnesse of our natures the sins of our lives the sins of our souls and the sins of our bodies our secret and whispering sins our crying and open sins our idle and wanton sins our presumptuous and deliberate sins the sins we have committed to please our selves and the sins we have committed to
Esay from the sole of the foot even unto the Head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores c. Esay the 1 c. 6. v. so total a defection hath seized upon our nature that not now the pool of Bethesda or the waters of Iordan must be washt in to heal our Leprosie but the fountain of life set open by a crucified Saviour to wash and bath our sinful souls for sin and for uncleanness yea so foul is our Crime that it hath made man out of order both in Soul and Body His very spirituals are much carnalized look upon him in his soul and that you 'l find is amiss and very much disordered 1 In the understanding which is the eye of the soul is there not much dimness contracted if the light that is in us be darknes how great must our decay in sight needs be What St. Paul saith of the Gentiles is true of every one of us by nature in Eph. 4.18 having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts and untill he the power of whose death tore in pieces the Temples vail rent the vail of ignorance from off our rocky hearts we did abide benighted with the black clouds of sin and rebellion it being just with the Almighty either totally to Eclipse or finally to withdraw that spiritual light our wills voluntarily cast away as being puft up with an overweening conceit of being made like Omnipotency it self in the knowledge of good and evil Such towring thoughts being likely to lead to no other place but that of darkness yea and that irremediless too without the assistance of that true light graciously promised to enlighten every soul that cometh into the world for our nature hath not onely led us from the way of truth but the best discerning our souls have is onely to find our selves involved in misery and a total deprivation of good So that you see our understanding can onely let us know our selves miserable but can no way relieve us 2 The will is perverse and utterly unconformable to the law of God the relish of Eves forbidden fruit is still fresh on the palate of every son of Adam delighting to go astray rather then follow the straight rules of Gods command so that he puts his people to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and since he cannot affright us with our dangerous estate nature hath left us in by its unskilful choice he would faine convince all men of their extreme madness putting the question with a quare moriemini Why will ye dye O house of Israel Ezek. 18.31 and the more folly you will finde lodges in the heart of every man who wilfully turns off from the truth of Gods law if you but seriously consider that his inducement thereunto arises from no experienced comforts he ever found in those gilded vanities which most account the worlds pleasures or fleeting trifles which are reckoned for profit for we have all good reason to believe Solomons knowledge who distilled all the quintessence of sublunary beings into his own cup of delight and what 's the summe total at the foot of this account you may take it in his own language I have seen all the works that are done under the Sun and behold all is vanity and vexation of Spirit Eccles 1. ch 14. vanity in their being and vexation of spirit in their operation for they are no other but pricking goads and stinging thornes in the sides and hands of him that enjoyes them so that by this time you may well sit down and take up a lamentation both on the behalf of your selves and others that so great folly should be entailed upon your actions as voluntarily to run from the straight path that leads to eternal life and wilfully to follow the perverse guidance of your own unbounded appetite seeing therefore there is so much evil in vice and so great glory in virtue that even wicked men would appear godly Sejanus incipiente adhuc potentia bonis consiliis notescere volebat Tacit. Annal. l. 4. p. 116. that Sejanus himself whilest a young courtier took care for nothing but to grow famous by his integrity let us al learn this pious prudence to run with speed to heavens merciful throne and with uncessant cries beg that our crooked mans will may be made straight by the guidance of Gods commands 3 Our affections are placed upon wrong objects for its the object and the end together with the manner of performance which makes every action either good or evil we covet our own pleasure and are unsatisfied without it though the purchasing thereof cost us no less then the loss of Gods heavenly countenance such fools have we made our selves that our chief delight is folded up in the enjoyment of a few transitory beings forgetting the onely Jewel which the worlds treasure is of too mean a value to make purchase of for as one saith Well no glory that 's woven in the finest tapestry of this world but will lose colour decay and perish whereas saving grace and the knowledge of Iesus Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a possession for eternity and we are so wedded to our carnal interests that we cannot endure to have mention made of their removal and are so besotted with their imaginary beauty that we seek to cover all their deformities dealing with our affectionate lusts as the painter did with Antigonus who had but one eye he drew his picture imagine lusca half faced and so buried the deformity out of the beholders sight We usually present our seeming contents with the fair face of outward joy while in the mean time we draw a curtain before their cloven foot and stinging tail such is the unhappiness our first parents folly hath reduced us to that we naturally choose the evil and let pass the good court the shadow and let the substance flee away Greedy affection was the inlet of our sinne and misery and still the same porter keeps open the doors for our unruly appetites With how much eagerness therefore should we endeavour to get our desires and affections placed upon their proper object that so they may attain the truest end by the rightest means and not rest contented with a few lifeless wishes and cold desires which at the best as one saith well can gain but this mean character bene cogitare est bene somniare a good thinker is but a good dreamer whose awakened sight serves onely to let him see he hath but the cloud instead of Iuno therefore above all things it teaches us the truth of this lesson that needs must men do evil whose very affections are wrong placed Our souls being amiss we must needs do amiss for man is borne to evil as naturally as the sparks flye upward saith holy Iob for the best of men without renewing grace are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
world whose impatient billows serve but to force them so much the nearer dangers brink therefore let no man please himself in any sensual enjoyments for they are the wicked mans portion and as we are unwilling to undergo thei smart so let us refuse their seeming pleasure lest we find such gilded pills to be but the forerunner of a bitter potion 4 Tasting comes in also for its share in the unprofitable merchandise sinne hath brought poor man as the return of all his unlawful actions indeed it s holy Davids Exhortation that we should tast and see how good the Lord is but happy is the man that hath so much wisdome for we are so vitiated with the practice of evil that we have no palate at all to relish heavenly food minding rather to patch up our decaying carcases which are daily veterascent and mouldring away then the taking hold of any opportunity that may lead us to partake and tast of those immortal joyes whose duration runs parallel with eternity Temptations to evil alwaies appearing big with a promising fruition of pleasantness so that with Eves deceived eye we are often prevailed with to trie and taste their goodness fleeing from all holy consultation till with her we pay no less then the smart of a troubled mind for the satisfying of an unbridled lust I question not but your own experience can sadly witness the truth of this assertion that impatient and immoderate desires after carnal pleasures alwayes return laden with the intolerable burden of grief and sorrow 5 Touching which is the fifth sense that suffers with us and for our transgression evil appetites being borne do also grow up with us the consideration whereof induced me the rather to stretch the line of your patience to a particular enumeration thereof that so beholding our vileness we might be brought to consider that the sins of our bodies and senses such as are lusts will wither in time and decay of themselves but sinful habits and spiritual wickedness which vitiate and corrupt the mind except in this life they be put off by grace will continue to infect and oppress our souls to eternity of how much concernment then is it for us all to lay hold on those things that will stand by and witness for us in a day of trouble We see the drowning man will catch at a straw rather then let pass any thing that with safety may bring him to the shore and our selves are curious and careful to lay hold on those means that will either purchase or preserve temporal safety oh why then should we not be as wise for our spiritual estate to lay up treasure where neither moth nor rust can come to decay or lessen it In a word by all that hath been said it plainly appears that the subject of sinne is the soul and the body is the instrument that subject works by therefore sinne is said to reign in our mortal bodies so then the proposition is true not onely of them that with Ahab sell themselves for sinne making merchandise of that invaluable gemme which a righteous man would purchase with the loss of life it self could any thing but the blood of God make redemption thereof or them that make a league with sinne and death but even the saints of God also make too true a proof of this assertion Holy David a man after Gods own heart is sometimes found following the devises of his own though his freedome therefrom cost him no less then a bedewed couch or broken bones such fruit must all the sowers of sin expect to gather Nay holy Iob gives the same testimony against himself in 9. Iob 20. If I justifie my self my own mouth shall condemne me If I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse And if the task would not procure wearisomness to your patience I might in tracing holy ground present you with variety of examples out of sacred Writ Lot was no sooner delivered from devouring fire but himself presently burnes in unnatural lust Noah hath not long escaped the floods of waters but himself is drowned in a deluge of wine and he that was to be the rock upon which Christ will build his Church he himself falls from the spiritual rock Christ Jesus and if this be done in the green tree what will come of the drie that are no sooner tempted but yield assaulted but embrace it like the willing bulrush continually sink into its nourishment the filth and mire of a roaring sea so that the Pelagians impeccant purity and the Donatists unspotted sanctity are but Apochryphal and will never be inserted into the Christians Creed for we must say with holy David in the words of my Text If thou Lord wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss Lord who can abide it And the reasons of it are cleare 1 Because not onely our nature alone is found active in evil but it hath drawn in the will and affections also to be its companions in sin a truth which but now I have preacht to your ears my whole time for the most part hitherto being spent in the narration of our corruption both in soul and body of the rebellion of each against other and both against God so that if we eye our selves as the objects of Gods anger nothing but everlasting destruction can be expected the soul sins and the sin is conveyed thereunto by the organs of the body which by a free consent are joyned in rebellion against the Father of lights whose vengeance if severe in reckoning must be expected to destroy us 2 Because its easier in it self for man to do amiss than to walk uprightly for there must be the concurrence of all circumstances to denominate an action good whereas the defection and want but of one will make it become evil Our very conception is in sin therefore needs must there be facility for us to do amiss we need run no further then little infants who are but our selves multiplied for example in this kind how much difficulty and industry is required to work in them one moral action that may beare the name of goodness when on the contrary great restraints and much severity can scarce withhold them from multiplied acts of evil Nay that you may as soon bind a wolf with the guts of a tender kid as seek to bridle an impenitent wretch with the cords of love for by nature we are all King Solomons fools who make it our pastime to do evil but to do good have no understanding 3 That perfect symmetry of righteousness that obtaineth life if there be found therein but the obliquity of one act the demerit thereof will be eternal wrath so saith St. Iames 2. chap. 10. For whosoever shall keep the whole law and offend in one point is guilty of all Good reason then have we to stand in awe and sin not to watch over our wayes and be circumspect a little leven will leven the whole lump the smallest
to passe on in a way of sin casting all fear of danger behind us as if we were able to encounter devouring fire or dwell with everlasting burning especially when we consider but our own frame we cannot but know we are but dust and that which is our mould will soon decay and withal remembring our time is but short and the word redde rationem backt with a Thou fool may this night be given suddenly and then assuredly as the tree falls so it lies and in the same condition must we appear at Gods Tribunal Oh then with what circumspection should our actions be performed lest any evil or vicious habits should square themselves to joyn with us in our holiest Oblations because we pretend service to him whose power in a few words can write great Monarchs into trembling and can make a hair Adrian 4. or the kernel of a raisin as mortal as a Goliahs spear and can with ease blow down our bubling lives into nothing for the time is coming when not astuta verba but pura corda as Saint Bernard saith not fair words but honest hearts will prevail and commend us to him who judgeth all things for he will infatuate all fallacious wisdom and self-destroying wit For thou art the God that hast no pleasure in wickedness nor shall any evil dwell with thee saith holy David Psal 5.4 So that Holiness is now the onely path that leads weary and wandring souls to the Paradise of Celestial Blisse all other wayes being severely kept against us by the flaming sword of Gods irreconcileable anger and hatred against sin and sinners for no unholy thing shall enter much lesse remain in the Holy City all such shall be cast out Rev. 21.27 A good nature like a shallow brook may empty it self into the narrow river of Humane love but perfect Holiness and real Sanctity is only that noble stream which carries the soul to Heaven and loses it in the Ocean of infinite Blisse You may for a time sport your selves with the fire of lustful pleasures but ere you are aware the flame thereof will not onely sindge your gilded wings of ambitious desires which so long bore you up with the breath of popular applause but also consume your soul and body in endless woe and misery for when God shall come in flaming fire he will render vengeance to all that are ungodly not enduring longer to have the cry of our sins to come up before him and therefore holy David well considered this Meditation when he broke forth with the words of my Text If thou Lord will be extreme to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it In which words we have already considered two general parts 1 An Antecedent 2 A consequent Or if you will here is 1 The Thesis 2 The Hypothesis In the first you have Gods extremity in punishing In the second you have mans misery in suffering for he saith If thou Lord be extreme to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it From which sacred concession we have enedavoured to wind up the sum and substance of holy Davids intention into these four bottoms or doctrinal conclusions viz. 1 It is the corruption of mans nature to do amiss 2 God is not alwayes extreme to punish man when he hath done amiss 3 God can when he pleases be extreme in punishing man when he hath done amiss 4 If God be extreme in punishing man must needs be extreme in suffering Thus far our general division hath had its equal course and our progress in the dispatch of these truths hath but quitted the first and made entrance upon the second which together with the two latter acompanied with your patience shall at this time terminate my hours discourse And that I may with the more benefit to your understanding proceed therein I shall onely lead your memories back to the second conclusion namely Doct. 2 The mercy of God is such he will not alwaies be extreme to mark what 's done amiss Examples of Gods patience and long forbearance have no where such lively representations as in our selves whose unconsumed lives are nothing else but a series of continued mercy nor is there any rational account to be rendred for the same save onely that it is the good will of him that dwelleth in the bush whose glory is not to be given to another and that he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy c. Which he doth 1 For his name sake Exodus 34.6 2 For his natures sake which is alwaies prone to shew mercy 3 For his glories sake and that 1 In general 2 In particular 1 In general it is the constant language of holy Scripture as you have already heard 2 In particular he is not extreme for his Glory sake which is great in many respects I In respect of his judgements for they are his strange work and never had he felicity in executing the same but with an unwilling willingness is alwayes constrained to visit for the sins whether of nations cities or particular persons witness his sending the Gospel to the lost sheep of the house of Israel his low condescention to Abraham when he became Advocate for Sodom and his own tears over Ierusalems approching ruine yea and witness the repentings that were kindled in his bowels for revolting Ephraim but mercy is his delight because he waits to be gracious 2 Great in respect of time for the mercy of God endures for ever in Ps 136. As his power is unlimited so neither can bounds be set to his mercy sun and moon heaven and earth these all have their periods but the rich treasure of Gods mercy shall have no end I have seen an end of all perfection but thy commandement is exceeding broad saith holy David Ps 119.96 All the attributes of God like himself are from everlasting to everlasting 3 Great in extent of place for his mercy reaches unto the clouds Psal 36.6 7. Thy mercy O Lord is in the heavens and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds Thy righteousness is like the great mountains thy judgements are as a great deep Lord c. Gods extended grace makes its full appearance not onely in delivering from danger but in supplying our wants not onely in saving our bodies from temporal evils but in redeeming our souls from eternal damnation for with him is great deliverance 4 Great in extent of plenty for God is rich in mercy Eph. 2.4 But God saith the Apostle who is rich in mercy for the great love wherewith he loved us c. as if St. Paul had spoke his mind in larger phrases thus You are poor and needy you want blessings temporal and spiritual and know not whither to flee for succour and supply so that the narrowness of your hearts imagines Gods free hand is straitned but let no such scruple bear rule in your minds for with God is so great a treasure of grace as never can be exhausted
Gods mercy that he alwayes punishes not according to our sinnes and is not alwayes extreme in observing when we have sinned mercy it was that the Almighty at first did make man who stood in no need of the best of Creatures and their most pious services but greater mercy that the Holy One should not utterly destroy man when he had sinned and that his patience should forbear destroying sinful flesh a God of so pure a nature that he cannot behold sinne without hatred and yet a God of so rich mercy that he saves the soul when it hath sinned proclaiming himself to be the Lord gracious and merciful passing by iniquity trangression and sinne the consideration whereof made S. Chrysostome cry out Lord what am I to thee that thou shouldest command me to love thee and when I love the not thou art angry seeing its misery enough not to love thee and when I sinne and run from thee yet thou waitest still to be gracious to me and leavest no means unattempted that may make me love thee And Saint Austin I remember hath this expression God saith he is weary of our sinnes and is pressed with them as a cart heavy laden with sheaves and why doth he not rid himself of us who sinne wilfully in contempt of him but casts our sinnes behind his back as if no dishonour were done to his Holy Name by them Why doth he thus saith that holy Father expostulating with himself but meerly because he will not be extreme with us O therefore admire the riches of Gods mercy who gives you space to repent and by no means wils your death Oh I beseech you then if you expect that God should make your souls incessantly happy in his eternity be you holy in tua aeternitate as Saint Bernard saith in thy limited and short eternity that so you may come to see not his footsteps or back parts but his glorious face by an immediate intuition of his Majesty O think with your selves how your souls shall then be filled with glory and happiness O praeclarum invidendum spectaculum Oh what a sea and inundation of unspeakable Joy must needs flow in upon the Soul and will you not stand and admire the riches of that grace which gives you space and means for the obtaining of so great a blessing 2 This may move every one to begin and if begun to increase their repentance the Lord is ready to forgive and with thee is mercy saith the verse following my Text therefore shalt thou be feared Our sacrifice and propitiation can be nothing as from our selves its onely Jesus Christ the righteous that can satisfie Gods offended justice for our sinnes For if any man sinne we have an advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous 1 John 2.1 This is that pearl of great price which hath redeemed us from our Sins this is the Propitiation with which God is well pleased and is now become not our angry Judge but reconciled Father for were he a Judge and not our Farher he would be extreme to mark our actions and were he severe and not mercifull we could not stand before him But with thee is mercy that thou maist be feared Psal 130.4 And in his Beloved he is now made one with us the partition-wall which sin had erected by his suffering is now destroyed and broken down that so we may now come with boldness to the throne of Grace having an High Priest pleading continually for us and one who knows what it is to bear our sinnes and endure our sorrows Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the whole armour of light that so we may be able to stand in the evil day But withall let us take heed of taking occasion to live in sinne because God is merciful and because he is gracious to turn that grace which should save us into wantonness this is to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and to lay upon our selves a mark of reprobation for though it be true of our God what Benhadads servants said of the Kings of Israel we have heard that they are merciful Kings so you may say if we sin yet our God is merciful to forgive and so sinne that grace may abound do not thus deceive your souls for the same God that is a merciful Father to true Penitents is also a jealous Lord over wretched sinners and will like Iehu drive on his Judgments furiously against rebellious sinners and will wound the hairy scalp of all Impenitents Behold therefore the goodness and the severity of God severity to them that go on in sinne impenitently but goodness to them which truly repent Rom. 11.22 Oh therefore let me perswade you whose souls as yet sit in darkness and in a state of sinne to awaken your selves out of this woful security consider if thou turn to the Lord with all thy heart and truly art sorry for thy sinnes consider I say he is ready to forgive and waits that he may be gracious to thy immortal Soul for which Christ dyed but on the other hand if thou continue in sinne know assuredly thou vile impenitent he will come in flames of fire to revenge himself upon thy implacable and immalleable heart Oh therefore while it s called to day harden not your selves against his fear but get your peace made with him ere it be too late and you that have already begun do you persevere unto the end that so you may receive that crown of Life which shall never be taken from you for he will not alwayes be extreme with you and yet severe with those that continue in sinne because when he pleases he can be extreme to mark what is done amiss and that brings me to the third Observation Third Observation That God can when he pleases be extreme in punishing man when he hath done amiss The will and the power of God in themselves are the same though to our corrupt understandings they seem distinct because our irregular wills are confined by a limited power and though God may do what he will with his Creatures because he is Omnipotent yet when they have sinned he doth not alwayes will their destruction because he is merciful his Omnipotent and executing power being alwayes limited by the will of mercy when he comes to deal with sinners for their transgressions though God when he list can be extreme to punish See the proof of this 1. A priori 2. A posteriori 1. A priori The power of God is infinite and that infinity of his is omnipotent as he can make a Genesis to give being so also an Exodus to destroy that being as there is in him a power to create so an infinite justice to destroy that creation when made though he create light out of darkness because he is the parent of Infiniteness so also is he Omnipotent and can when he pleases will the new light into its ancient state of darkness the same