be subject to the higher powers But however this Spiritual power be not collateral simply but subordinate unto the Royal yet is it in regard of its original and derivation clearly independent as being not derivable into the Priesthood from any Prince or Potentate upon earth but immediately from him who hath it written on his Garment and on his Thigh The Lord of Lords and King of Kings And being thus distinct without derivation it is not possible the censures of the one should come forth in the name of the other but only indeed in Christs name and in their own persons who in this are the Ministers not of the King but of Christ as exercising no part of the power belonging to the Sword but only of those Keys that properly are their own and underivable too from any upon earth but those of their own Order However therefore these powers are subordinate yet two distinct powers they are and both as was said immediately from God and both therefore to be feared of men And sure this latter though the lesser yet not a little to be feared neither for though the Kings Laws bind the Conscience yet his revenge for the breaches of them cannot reach home unto the Soul His Sword is material and can but lash the Body though so lash it as sometimes to divide it from the Soul but St. Pauls Sword is spiritual and reacheth directly to the spirit dividing the Soul not indeed from its own Body but from the Church the Body of Christ and so from Christ too the head of the Body a power therefore in it self no way contemptible it is Christs own and he the more careful to vindicate it from contempt yea not it only but the power and person too of the meanest Priest amongst us for that of his concerns all He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me But yet all this were not that other Royal Power propitious upon earth I think would be of little force in these days to preserve them from contempt or confusion crushing confusion For did not the Sword of the Prince defend the Keys of the Priest they might well put them under their girdle if not under the door and be gone But blessed be God he that is the defender of the Faith and Doctrine of the Church in his Piety and Princely Goodness is pleased to be the Defender also of her Jurisdiction and Discipline Et defensoribus istis tempus eget for otherwise the Antihierarchical of these times and indeed Antimonarchical too as not well affecting any either Power or Prerogative but their own were it not for this would soon level all by their own Rule that is level with the ground lay all Power Ecclesiastick and Honour too like Davids in the dust if not rubbish even Monasterial But then they may do well to think of another dust too the dust of our heels which if but justly shaken there is one that assures us the sorrows of such Contemners will prove more insufferable than those of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of Judgment It is but right therefore and well too that the Regal Power is the Superior that so as it is the Moderator and Governour of the temporal it might be also the Protector of the spiritual causing that fear and reverence which is due unto both to be paid also respectively unto either Neither in requiring this unto them do we divert from the right object of fear in my Text for it is but fear God still For God himself hath in a sort Deified Authority He hath given them of his own power and imparted his very Name unto their Persons I have said ye are Gods and ye are all sons of the most high And Gods indeed not only by appellation but in effect also for the great and universal benefit which they bring unto mankind For were not Man thus made a God unto Man Men would soon become Wolves unto themselves and devour one another And therefore to fear such Men is not to fear Men but God since the fear is not so much exhibited unto their naked persons as unto those beams and participations of the Divinity wherewith they are clothed And in this sort it is not amiss to say that God and not any thing else is to be feared And indeed he that thus fears God he only fears nothing else though the waves of the Sea rage horribly and though the Hills of the Earth be carried into the midst of the Sea nay as the Poet Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinae though the whole world should disjoint and fall he would be buried in the ruines of it without fear for he fears none but God and the offending of that God whom he fears That indeed he doth as desirous to obey him too as well as fear him and so we must all it is our Duty also for so it follows Fear God and keep his Commandments the second Part of our Conclusion keep his Commandments These two are inseparable ever and it is but just that they are not here only but so often joined together in Scripture The fear of the Lord saith David is the beginning of Wisdom and he subjoins but a good understanding have all they that do thereafter So God himself as Job testifies And unto man he said as if it were the product and total of all that is or may be said unto him the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil that is understanding The self same in substance with Solomon here Fear God and keep his Commandments Neither may it possibly be otherwise Nature hath linked them as close as Scripture for no man departs or can depart from the one the Law of God that doth not first depart from the other the Fear of God The soul and body of man have not a stricter union than these two the one the body the other the very soul of the new and interiour man And therefore the original hath it col ha adam for this is not the whole duty but the whole man the whole spiritual man indeed The outward works of the Law are wrought by the body and such righteousness of the body is but the body of righteousness but the fear of the Lord sanctifies the soul and the righteousness of the soul is the very soul of righteousness And the spiritual man created in holiness and true righteousness must have both these parts as well as the animal a soul and a body too Some mens righteousness indeed is all body do many things good and commanded but for ends upon by and vitious respects here is a Carcase of holiness but no soul to inform it only hypocrisy inhabits and gives it motion as the Devil sometimes they say doth the body of a dead man Others will be altogether Soul Fear God as much as you will every man likes it well and thinks he doth it
memorable and exemplary couple I may well join them in my speech they were so many ways joined in themselves They were joined in affinity and alliance they were joined in affection and love they were joined in the quality and nature of their Disease and would not be severed till death did it in the time of their sickness they were joined in the comforts of death and now they are joined in the glory of an everlasting life But the formers rites are passed yet they might not be now passed over I cannot but give her a touch she desired it from me and I am sure she deserved it For the latter here now in your sight I shall not speak much because I can hardly speak enough with her former times I have had no acquaintance and therefore can make no relation of it only I assure my self that she who was so patient and penitent in her sickness so devout and cheerful in her death could not but be well and religiously disposed in the course of her life But for the latter part of her days them I have known and in them been an eye-witness of the expression of more goodness than I have often seen or from a Woman of her quality could have expected The things of note which I especially observed in her and shall commend unto you are principally these her willingness to entertain death and her deadness unto the world and worldly affairs her joy in spiritual discourses and her frequency and fervency in devout prayer For the first if we consider the impediments it was much she should do it so cheerfully she was but young and entring upon the prime of her years She had small and tender Infants of her own that went near her she was well bestowed where she found both youth and love and means too wanted nothing nor was likely to want haec sunt quae faciunt homines invitos mori and these are the things that make Men unwilling to die could the Philosopher say Yet notwithstanding all these she gently submitted her self unto it she resolutely went forth to meet it and lest he should miss her she call'd it unto her Come gentle death and even held forth her arms to receive and embrace it For the second I was with her often yet never heard a word of worldly matter or secular affair so much as fall from her tongue Her heart was bent on Heaven which made it delight so much in heavenly contemplations they came down upon her as the Scripture speaks like rain into a fleece of wooll and as a shower upon a thirsty land With what an open and greedy ear did she suck in celestial comforts which she shortly after vented out again in devout supplications wherein the mercy of the Lord did not forsake her even to the last gasp And then at last when her hands forsook her tongue and her tongue had almost forsaken her heart yet her heart did still adhere unto God in uncessant prayer and therefore she intreated others to hold her fainting hands that her tongue failing they at least might testify that her Soul did commune with her Maker It calls to mind the story of Moses having Aaron and Hur to support his arms for whilst he prayed Amalek fled and Joshua conquered Sure I am whilst she did in like manner the true Joshua conquered all the spiritual Amalekites and enemies of her Soul who only could batter down the prison of her body that her spirit being loose and at liberty might freely clear the air and mount up to the desired place of everlasting rest where she now is and where may she still in peace remain till another day shall invest both Body and Soul with unspeakable glory Who can now mourn who can weep for such a Soul if ye do they must be tears of joy not of sorrow at least they must be for your selves not for her You may bewail your own loss you cannot grieve at her death unless you envy her happiness foelix iss a anima imitationem desiderat non planctum that happy Soul is no subject of sorrow but a pattern of imitation And therefore I now leave the dead and conclude to the living that their Spirits may live in death as hers hath shown them the example For this should be the chief endeavour this should be the principal care of a Christian in his whole life that when his life shall end yet the life of his Soul may not end with the death of his body It little matters how it fares with us in the rest of our time so it go well with us here when if wrath overtake us it shall eleave unto us for ever but if peace end our days our days afterwards of peace shall never end For as the tree falleth there it shall lie Wretched Men that can willingly think of any thing save this that infinitely concerns them above all things else that can wish with Balaam let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his but never endeavour themselves in the works of righteousness whereby they may procure it as if they might be like them in their death whom they refused to imitate in their actions But they may wish like Solomons fool till their tongue cleave to their gums for so long as they live the life of Balaam loving the wages of iniquity they shall never die the death of the righteous nor have their last end like his whom they are nothing like in conversation No if the Soul then live it must be as my Text hath it for righteousness sake Set thy self therefore to it seriously and speedily Wise Princes make many days preparation for a field that must be fought in one Beloved let us be wise too and lay up something every day for the last when we shall wrestle with death If we win that skirmish we have enough but where or when or how soon we shall be called to the conflict who can tell be not secure therefore and presume not on the last hour it may come suddenly upon thee flatter not thy self and thy sins and frame not delay unto thine own Soul Send not Religion before thee unto thine old age whither peradventure thou shalt never come or else come hardned through the deceitfulness of sin Give not thy youth and strength unto Satan and then when thou art low drawn and upon the lees think to present God with the dregs of thy life What a folly were it for thee to adventure thy surest thy everlasting weal or wo making or marring on so sandy and sinking a foundation how much better were it for thee to remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth before the evil day come and thou say I have no delight herein that thy Creator may not forget thee in thine old age when strength faileth and Man returneth to his long home Sure in these great water-floods we shall hardly come nigh him and therefore let
he seeks to infer the necessity of the Gospel doth apply it to shew that all men are naturally evil and deprived of the glory of God and therefore stand in need of the Grace of Christ that they might attain unto it In like manner it is said in another place Omne Animal in Arca Noae that every Creature was in Noahs Ark which notwithstanding cannot be verified of every Creature but of one of all sorts and kinds of Creatures and not of those absolutely neither but of all kinds that could not live in the waters for there were no Fishes there It were easy to give you instance in many more but these may suffice Now that in this place this Inhibition here is of the like nature though absolute in terms yet not in sence restraining Oaths but yet not all without limitation or distinction is manifest both by the letter of the Scripture and the example of St. Paul that writ it and the perpetual practice of all Churches since The Text of Scripture is that before cited in the 6. to the Hebrews where St. Paul doth not only approve and allow of an Oath now under the Gospel but sets it down as a principal remedy for the establishing of peace and dissolving of quarrels and discords amongst men if so be that St. Paul were the Author of that Epistle as is most commonly held though it be not greatly material whether he were or no for it skills not much whoâ— was the Pen where it is confest by all that the Holy Ghost was the Writer And if he were not the Author of the Doctrine yet he doth elsewhere frequently maintain it by his own practice and example often confirming his speeches even in his holy writings sometimes with a bare and simple Oath as Rom. i. 9. God is my witness whom I serve in the Spirit c. Sometimes even with an execratory mixed with imprecations as Testem invoco Deum in Animam meam I call God for a record upon my Soul 2 Cor. i 23. and in divers other places Now who can imagine that blessed Apostle either so ignorant or so evil as not to understand the precepts of Christ or else so often to disobey them especially in those holy pages and sacred instructions of the whole Church wherein he was but the quill or at most the Scribe unto the blessed Spirit that did dictate and indite them Whereunto if we add the consent of all famous Churches from that Apostles time unto this very day not only approving but in divers cases even requiring of an Oath it will be more than abundantly manifest that that speech of our Saviour is not so absolutely Universal as to be received without all limitation and restraint only the difficulty is unto what kind of Oaths it ought to be restrained For even they that consent unto a limitation as the most of the Fathers do yet they do not consent in the specialty whereunto it is to be limited Some conceive that our Saviour doth here prohibit not those Oaths that are made in the Name of God but such only as are sworn by some of his creatures for which cause after the inhibition Swear not at all he immediately infers neither by heaven for it is his Throne neither by the Earth for it is his Footstool of this opinion was St. Hilary yea and St. Hierom Consider saith he upon this place that our Saviour doth not here forbid men to swear by the Lord but by the Heaven the Earth Jerusalem and his head But this Commentary seems to fail because the assuming of a Creatures Name in an Oath is not utterly unlawful as you shall hear when we come to it as also for that the words of our Saviour tying up our speech unto yea yea nay nay and afterwards that whatsoever is more proceeth from evill doth clearly exclude all forms of Oaths promiscuously as well those in the name of the Creator as those by the name of a Creature Others are of opinion that the words are to be restrained unto all false Oaths taking jurare for pejerare swearing for forswearing To whom if you object that according unto this exposition nothing is added by our Saviour about that which was said unto them of old if swear not at all be no more than thou shalt not forswear thy self They answer yes that there is because the Lord in the latter part doth forbid all kind of forswearing even that by the Creatures specified in heaven earth Jerusalem and the head which the Jews did not conceive to be forbidden of all for they had a Tradition which they sucked from the Pharisees that there were certain Creatures by whom if they made their Oath they did not stand bound to perform it It is true indeed that such a Tradition they had which made a distinction of Creatures in this kind as of the Temple and the gold of the Temple the Altar and the gift on the Altar affirming that to swear by the one was nothing but he that sware by the other was a debtor which our Saviour in the 23 of this Evangelist doth both mention and refel and not without indignation But it seems not to be his intent here both because yea and yea and nay and nay doth debar all swearing as well as forswearing as also for that our Saviour doth purposely alter the first word forswearing into swearing to shew and signify that he understands an Oath as it differs from Perjury And yet St. Austin himself lib. de Sermon Domini Cap. 17. did sometimes give this Interpretation Others again as St. Bernard and Christianus Duthmanus that lived long before him upon this place desire to have it esteemed rather for a Counsel than a Mandate a Counsel of extraordinary perfection rather than a Mandate of necessary duty wherein he that fails doth not sin though he that observes it doth the better But neither may this satisfy for it is clear that our Saviour doth prohibit something which the Scribes and Pharisees thought to be lawful Neither is it likely that St. Paul whom we find often swearing in his Epistles would neglect the Counsel of Christ when he ought to give example of perfection unto others But St. James puts it out of all question who repeating those very words of our Saviour he so repeats them as a Mandate and Commandment as he makes damnation a punishment of the breach for where Christ says let your speech be yea yea and nay nay for whatsoever is more cometh of evil he to shew that this evil is sin and a sin that deserveth death doth paraphrase it thus let your speech be yea yea and nay nay lest you fall into Condemnation No counsel therefore James v. But not to hold you any longer with several and erroneous opinions They seem to make the best interpretation that restrain this prohibition unto the idle trivial and customary Oaths of common speech which the Lord did forbid as well as unjust and false
sensum Apostolo defuisse non miretur Who can chuse but wonder the Apostle should not see this subtilty saith St. Austin For had he known it to have been so eodem modo solveret istam quaestionem he would soon have answered the question immo nullam quam solvi opus esset faceret quaestionem Nay he had then never made any such question that should need an answer For there had not remained so much as any shew of injustice where Love or Hatred doth proceed according to good or evil deserts But now that there should be a different judgment where there is no difference in merit there cannot but seem a just occasion of making the demand Nunquid iniquitas Whereunto leaving this vain gloss as directly contrary unto his purpose he reduceth all unto the meer will of God I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion An answer sounding to this effect That since both were equally conceived in original sin deserved his Justice his Love unto one was an act of Mercy and in Mercy there is no cause of his will but his will nor of his Mercy but his Mercy I will have mercy c. And then quis nisi insipiens Deum iniquum putet sive judicium poenale ingerat digno sive misericordiam praestet indigno Because as before was noted though the one obtain free favour yet the other receives no injury By which answer he doth at once free God from all injustice towards the Reprobate and withal withdraws all merit from the Elect who have that Name and Grace for no other cause but only because he had a will to shew Mercy special Mercy unto them which he did not unto others to whom notwithstanding they were of themselves in all things equal and with whom they were in like sort obnoxious unto the revenge and power of Justice False therefore and vain and very derogatory unto the goodness of that God in whom is our help are their conceipts that build Election upon a foreseen good or evil use of a general and sufficient Grace to the prejudice of that which is special and particular For however we deny not but rather piously believe that his Providence doth sufficiently help all those whom his mercy doth vouchsase to call yet withal we acknowledge it to be such an help as whereâ— withal God when he looked down from Heaven saw there was none did good no not one A help therefore which in effect doth not give Salvation but takes away excuse and seems not so much to justify them as to make their Condemnation more just who notwithstanding that they might not all perish and that he might yet shew his Mercy of his infinite goodness freely elected some to such special Grace whereby they should not perish a Grace effectual receiving the rest unto endless punishment for abusing that which was sufficient So that God doth not only give such Grace whereby we may be able to do and then elect us for doing what we were able but contrarily foreseeing that we would not do what we were able with that sufficient Grace to do of his absolute Mercy did decree to give us such powerful and efficacious Grace whereby we certainly should do what otherwise without this special help he knew we should not For had not he by this means as the Scripture testifies reserved unto himself a Remnant notwithstanding the former Grace we had been all as Sodom and perished as Gomorrha And therefore Reliqui mihi saith God unto Elias It is not there are or there remains unto me but I have reserved unto my self seven thousand which never bowed the knee unto Baal And from this Reliqui they are termed Reliquiae secundùm electionem gratiae salvae factae sunt A Remnant only are saved according to the Election of Grace And if of Grace surely not of foreseen works yea so far is God from respecting the will or work of Man in the dispensation of his Grace as he sometimes denies that help unto those that would use it well which notwithstanding he offers and exhibits unto others that he knew before would reject it Had those great works saith our Saviour upbraiding the Jews been done in Tyre and Sidon they had repented in Sackcloth and Ashes Lo how God ploughs the Sand and scatters his good seed upon the dry and barren hearts of the Jews fitter for salt and in the mean time withholds it from another soil that would have fructified and brought forth the fruit of Repentance unto eternal life What shall we say unto this Two things occur which I only am willing to answer saith St. Austin in the like case and are very fit for this nunquid iniquitas apud Deum And O alâ—itudo divitiaerum An Interrogation and an exclamation the one out of the ninth and the other out of the eleventh to the Râ—m And both joined tend unto this That being assured there is no injustice with God we should not search the cause but admire the depth of his Wisdom whose judgments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out For he often treads on water that leaves no path or impression behind He walks upon the great deep saith Daâ—id and his footsteps are not known And whom this will not satisfy I must advise with the same Father Quaerat doctiorer seâ—b caveat nè inoeniat praesumptiores Let him seek those that are more learned but take heed he doth not meet with those that are too presumptuous Such surely as these conditional Electioners are who as if they were fore runners of the second coming of Christ endued with the Spirit of Elias have cast down every Hill and filled up every Valley made whatsoever seemed crooked streight and whatsoever was rough smooth and plain and by this means they though but lambs can easily wade where those Elephants the Fathers of the Primitive Church found such Pits and Pools as they were glad to swim For what is there in their Doctrine not easie and even obvious and open if God hath diversly determined of none but such as are of divers and different merits what room then is there left for O altitudo For they that give a cause of Election take away all cause of the Apostles exclamation because none do admire an effect but they that are ignorant of the cause as here all must needs be when of those that have one and same cause there is not one and the same regard but the one is justly exposed unto hatred the other vouchsafed love without all cause at least that we can search out and inquire The head of Nilus may be sooner found than the Spring and Fountain of Election the eye of the Eagle that looks on the Sun cannot discover it because it remains in his bosom that dwells in inaccessible light And yet notwithstanding we do not make the will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 irrational For
with it drawn from the day of Gods Retribution For there is a day approaching wherein he will make a severe enquiry into this Duty censure the Breakers Terribly and honour the Observers Eternally For God will bring every work into Judgment c. So that you see he doth not beg the Conclusion if he beg any thing it is Audience and Attention which indeed he doth in a Solemn Preface for the purpose Let us hear c. And this too he seeks to win with reasons of weight as well as beg For it is a Conclusion and that no trivial no narrow one neither but material and universally material worth the hearing These down-right points grate something close upon the Soul and men it seems do not much 〈◊〉 the hearing of them and therefore he is driven to Pray and Preface for Audience before he delivers them and to back them strongly too when they are delivered for Acceptance That so his distasteful Conclusion lying between both between the Preface and Proof might be fortifyed behind and before in the Van and in the Reare be led in and carryed out with Reasons and Arguments that might procure and gain it entertainment So then we have these Three the Preface the Conclusion and the Proof The Conclusion that is well seated in the midst hath Two Branches The Proof that follows Two Reasons and the Preface in the front Two Insinuations Of these in their order so far as the Text shall lead us And first a word only or two of the Preface for Audience Audiamus Let us hear c. For the truth is every Man hath not an Ear apt in itself for such Conclusions nor can have so long as it is farced and stopt up with the filthy brood of their own Corruptions Indeed every Man hath an Ear but not an Ear to hear at least not to hear all things and therefore when he utters such Points as these He that hath Ears to hear let him hear saith not Solomon but our Saviour himself They are sad and sullen Duties Fear God and keep his Commandments and of an harsh sound as seeking to beat us from those delights which peradventure we are not resolved as yet to forsake And then that which is distasteful to the mind will never prove over-pleasant to the Ear. Let us indeed seek out delightful words such as may comply with Mens desires set our invention to hunt like Esau after Venison make Men savory meat such as their Soul loveth with what Appetite doth the Ear presently fall to and how ready themselves though couzened with a Goat instead of Venison like blind Isaac even to bles◠〈◊〉 us for it There needs no Audiamus no Exhortations or Prefaces for attention here it 's Musick to their itching Ears and they suck it as the Ox doth water but precepts of Duty and daies of Doom or the like are bitter Pills and will not down without gilding though Solomon himself be the Physician and Administer His very Person yea but his Name a Man would think might be enough to prevail Solomon the Wise Solomon the King Solomon the Preacher and all by way of Supereminence the Wisest of Men the Royallist of Kings the most Excellent of Preachers who shall not attend unto him and even hang narrantis ab ore if he but open his lips And yet in such cases as these though he well knew his own Wisdom and Power yet he is not so confident of his Authority and Person but thinks it well if he may gain hearing though he pray and exhort for it himself and give himself too for an Example in it become both Preacher and Auditor not refusing to include himself in that Duty which he doth urge upon others for so it lyes Let us hear c. It is the next way for our words to take when we require nothing of our hearers but what we our selves are as ready to do and perform an easy matter it is to bind heavy burthens for other mens shoulders but it is not so easy to perswade the people to take them up to bear them so long as the binders like those Pharisees in the Gospel refuse to touch them with the least of their Fingers If we think to awaken the World out of their dead sleeps it will not be enough to Crow unto others unless withal we shall beat our Wings too on our own sides It will make a double noise and the likelier to pierce the Ear when it comes not with an Audite vos or Audiant illi do you hear or let them hear but like Solomon in this place with an Audiamus nos Let us be hearers as well as speakers especially in such Conclusions as this Let us hear the Conclusion c. And sure it is something the likelier to be heard and regarded too for that were it nothing else that yet it is a Conclusion a truth orderly drawn and deduced from its undoubted principles a discourse that flutters not up and down at random like a seeled Dove but flyes on to its period like and Eagle to her stand cutting its way through the vanity and vexation too of all things else and not staying until it come to pitch and rest it self on a Conclusion firm and stable even the Fear and Service of God which as it is our whole duty here so will prove our happiness eternal hereafter in that day when God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil And this shews it to be something more than a bare conclusion a material one of and to the matter indeed to that matter which of all other is most material Let us hear the Conclusion of the whole matter c. And that certainly is one degree higher and would require too an higher degree of regard that it is not only an orderly Conclusion but a material and important No curious idle frivolous dispute de lana caprina no thin empty hungry speculation of the Schools though these be the only conclusions the delicate ears of most Men desire to be tickled withal such as may exercise the wit but no way affect the Conscience And indeed it is a principal Stratagem of the Arch-enemy of Mankind by curious impertinences to divert the mind from those real and necessary points that concern their Souls and the welfare of them for ever An unhappiness whereof these latter times have sufficiently tasted the Children of the Church for these many years imploying their wits in nothing so willingly as in wrangling with their Mother and that about trifles every light Ceremony and almost Circumstance that concerns but the outward forms of the external worship of God neglecting in the mean time that which is indeed material the internal truth and substance of his service But to such wayward contentious spirits I shall now only say it were much better for them to leave such unprofitable disputes and betake themselves to
obedience and if they fear not God yet at least that they would honour the King reverence the Church and keep the Commandments of both for this is their duty too and this indeed would be to some purpose that so they might be at leisure to set their working heads about some more pertinent questions not about a Cap or a Surplice or the like but rather about such as are solid such as that in the Gospel Quid faciendum What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life and pursue it home not leaving until they have brought it to Solomons Conclusion here Fear God and keep his Commandments For this is the Conclusion of every material question not only of the matter but the matter too of all Conclusions that are material For it is the Conclusion totius materiae which is our last degree and the highest as universal as material of the whole matter But of what whole matter of the matter of this whole book Yes of this and of all Books else all Divine Books else whatsoever and so much we have here expresly in the inference of it of making many Books there is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh the verse immediately precedent And therefore that we might have all in little he infers this as briefly including the whole matter not only of this and those books that were already written but of all such also as should be ever written hereafter And sure all our discourses are but vain and empty if not impious at least they will conclude nothing to the purpose unless they draw all at length unto this Conclusion which is every way total whether we regard knowledge or action For when we have imbroiled and wearied our selves in the pursuit of the things of this world it will be to no purpose no though they succeed according to our desires For what shall it profit a Man to gain the whole World and enjoy it too for a season if when he hath done he lose his own Soul afterwards for ever After all his vain labour spent he will find this is the only business and profitable imployment he must set himself down unto in the end When we have entangled our selves in all those fine and delicate webs of the Seraphical Doctors which when once we come within Ken of the Port of Death whither all winds serve to drive us will be swept away in an instant like those of the Spider when I say all these aerial disputes are ended this will be found the only solid Conclusion whereunto our meditations must betake themselves at the last as being the last and utmost issue end and upshot of all Conclusions speculative or practick to be done or to be studied Fear God and keep his Commandments It is the whole duty of Man rightly therefore the Conclusion of the whole matter So much doth Solomon magnify his plain and despised text that if it may not be received upon his authority request and example it might yet be entertained for its own worth as being rightly drawn material and universal that so the plainness of it might be recompenced with the importance This then for the urging of attention is but right and just and therefore Audiamus Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter We can do no less and that we may do so hear it indeed we will now pass from the Preface to the Conclusion it self from the Conclusion of the matter to the matter of the Conclusion Fear God and keep his Commandments but we must begin with the first Deum time fear God and then keep his Commandments And well do we begin here at which all Religion Piety and true Wisdom doth begin So saith our own Solomon and so David his Father before him The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom But the Son of Syrach goes farther and makes it to begin and finish it too unto the full for the fear of the Lord saith he is the fulness of wisdom yea not only begins and fulfils but crowns it also The fear of the Lord is the crown of wisdom Indeed I scarce know any thing whereof more contrarieties seem to be delivered than of this fear of the Lord Fear hath pain in it and he that feareth is not perfect in love saith St. John But what saith Siracides The fear of the Lord maketh a merry heart and giveth joy and gladness Perfect love casteth out fear saith the same St. John in that place Nay not so The fear of the Lord is clean and endureth for ever saith David Again Work out your salvation with fear and trembling saith St. Paul unto the Philippians Tou have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear saith the same Apostle unto the Romans what is this but fear and fear not yea what else saith our Saviour Fear not little Flock for it is your Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdom And yet fear him that can cast body and Soul into Hell fire saith our Saviour again unto the same Flock If assured of the Kingdom what need they fear the fire of Hell and if they may fear that how assured of the Kingdom Of necessity therefore to reconcile these seeming contradictions Divines have been driven to distinguish of fears and persons too unto whom they are appliable For indeed all fear is not of one sort but is divers according to the diversity of objects which it respecteth if it look upon secular and worldly evils for generally Timor est expectatio mali and through too much apprehension run into excess it then takes the name of Timor mundanus a worldly and secular fear when men fear men more than God temporary and corporal evils more than ghostly and eternal And this fear is always evil and so are they ever in whom it hath dominion and when it hath not dominion yet because it hath undoubtedly in all that are not perfect in love some greater hold than it should have that of our Saviour is but just and for the most part seasonable unto all Fear not those that can kill the body but fear him that can cast both body and soul into Hell fire Again if it look upon God and that Hell which in his justice he hath prepared for sinners as our Saviour here commands the fear indeed is then good because as you see commanded and besides is an act of faith and restrains from evil And therefore they that simply condemn it do but cut the banks and pluck up hatches the better to make way for a deluge of wickedness But yet if it rest there and look no farther if our obedience have no better motive than this though the fear be good it is not yet so good as it should be for the man is still evil and his fear therefore so long but slavish and so it is termed Timor servilis an illiberal and servile fear And this is that fear