but not to cut off a mans eare and like unto Saint Paul but himself corrects it with another sicut 1 Cor. 11.1 sicut ego Christi as I am unto Christ Secondly But in the next place if not sicut vidimus as we have seene others then not sicut visumfuerit as it shall seem good in our own eyes for fancy is a wanton unruly froward faculty and in us as in Beasts for the most part supplies the place of reason vulgus ex veritate pauca Pro Rose Comaedo ex opinone multa aestimat saith Tull. the Common people which is the greatest part of mankinde are lead rather by Opinion then by the truth for vulgus is of a larger signification then we usually take it in because they are more subject and enslaved to those two turbulent Tribunes of the soul The Irascible and Concupiscible Appetite and so more opinionative then then those who are not so much under their command It is truly said Affectiones sacilè faciunt opiniones our affections will easily raise up opinions for who will not soon fancy that to be true which he would have so which may either fill his hopes or satisfy his lusts or justifie his anger or answer his love or look friendly on that which our wild Passions drive us to Opinion is as a wheele on which the greatest part of the world are turned and wheeled about till they fall off severall waies into severall evills and doe scarce touch at Truth in the way Opinion builds our Church chuseth our Preacher formeth our Discipline frameth our gesture measureth our Prayers Methodizeth our Sermons Opinion doth exhort instruct correct Teaches and commands If it say Goe we goe and if it say Doe this we doe it we call it our conscience and it is our God and hath more worshippers then Truth For though Opinion have a weaker Ground-work then Truth yet she builds higher but it is but Hay and stubble fit for the fire Good God what a Babel may be erected upon a Thought I verily thought saith Saint Paul and what a whirlwind was that thought Act. 26.9 which drove him to Damascus with Letters and to kick against the pricks Shall I tell you it was but Fancy that in Davids time beat downe the carved works with Axes and Hammers It was but a Thought that destroyed the Temple it self that killed the Prophets and persecuted the Apostles and crucified the Lord of life Himself And therefore it will concern us to watch our Fancy and to deal with it as Mothers doe with their children who when they desire that which may hurt them deny them that but to still and quiet them give them some other thing they may delight in take away a Knife and give them an Apple so when our Fancy sports and pleaseth it self with vaine and aery speculations let us suspect and quarrell them and by degrees present unto it the very face of Truth as the Stoick speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. fist and winnow our imaginations bring them to the light and as the devout Schoolman speaks resolve all our effectuall notious by the Accepistis Gers by the Rule and so demolish all those Idolls which our Passions by the help of Fancy have set up for why should such a deceit pass unquestioned why should such an Imposture scape without a marke Thirdly But now if we may not walke sicut visum est as it seemeth good unto us yet we may sicut visum est Spiritui sancto as it seemeth good to the Holy Ghost Yes for that is to walke according to the rule for he speaketh in the word and to walk after the Spirit and to walk by this Rule are one and the same thing but yet the World hath learn'd a cursed Art to set them at distance and when the Word turnes from us and will not be drawn up to our Fancy to carry on our pleasing but vaine imaginations we then appeal to the Spirit wee bring him in either to deny his owne word or which in effect is the same to interpret it against his own meaning and so with Reverence be it spoken make him no better then a Knight of the post to witnesse to a lie This we would doe but cannot for make what noise we will and boast of his Name we are still at visum est nobis it is but Fancy still 't is our own spirit not the Holy Ghost For as there be many false Christs so there are many false spirits and we are commanded not to beleeve 1 Joh. 4.1 but to try them and what can we try them by but by the Rule and as they will say lo here is Christ or there is Christ so they will say Lo here is the spirit and there is the spirit The Pope laies claime to it and the Enthusiast laies claim to it and whoso will may lay claim to it on the same grounds when neither hath any better Argument to prove it by then their bare words no Evidence but what is forg'd in that shop of vanities their Fancy idem Actio Titioque both are alike in this And if the Pope could perswade mee that â—e never open'd his mouth but the spirit spake by him I would then pronounce him Infallible and place him in the chaire and if the Enthusiast could build me up in the same faith and belief of him I would be bold to proclaim the same of him and set him by his side and seek the Law at his mouth would you know the two Grand Impostors of the World which have been in every age and made that desolation which we see on the Earth They are these two A pretended zeal and a pretence of the spirit If I be a Zealot what dare I not doe and when I presume I have the Spirit what dare I not say what Action so foule which these may not authorize what wickedness imaginable which these may not countenance what evill may not these seale for good and what good may they not call evill oh take heed of a false light and too much fire these two have walkt these many Ages about the Earth not with the blessed Spirit which is a light to illuminate and as Fire to purge us but with their father the Devil transform'd into Angels of light and burning Seraphins but have led men upon those Precipices into those works of Darknesse which no night is dark enough to cover Conclus 1. I might here much enlarge my selfe for it is a subject fitter for a Sermon then a part of one and for a Volume then a Sermon but I must conclude And for conclusion let us whilst the light shineth in the world walk on guided by the rule which which will bring us at last to the holy Mount For objects will not come to us but have onely force to move us to come to them Aeternall Happiness is a faire sight and spreads its beames and unvailes its beauty
heard of the name of Christ nay but with those who call upon it every day and call themselves the knowing men the Gnosticks of this age and whilst men love darknesse more then light with some men there will scarce be any sins upon that account as sins till the day of Judgement Next bring not in thy conscience to plead for that sin which did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beat and wound thy conscience for the offie of thy conscience is before the fact to inform thee and after the fact if it be evil to accuse thee and what comfort can there be in this thought that thou didst not sollow her information that she called it a sin and thou didst it that she pointed out to it as to a rock and thou wouldest needs chuse it for thy Heaven no commonly this is the plea of those whose hearts are hard and yet will tell you they have a tender conscience and so they have Tender in respect of a ceremony or thing indifferent here they are struck in a manner dead quite besides themselves as if it were a Basilisk here they are true and constant to their conscience which may erre but not tender in respect of an eternal Law where it cannot mistake here they too often leave their conscience and then excuse themselves that they did so in the one they are as bold as a Lion in the other they call it the frailty of a Saint this they do with regret and some reluctancy that is by interpretation against their will Last of all do not think thy action is not evil because thy intention was good for it is as easie to fix a good intention upon an evil action as 't is to set a fair and promising title on a box of poison hay and stubble may be laid upon a good foundation but it will neither head well or bed well as they say in the work of the Lord we must look as well to what we build as the Basis we raise and set it on or else it will not stand and abide we see what a fire good intentions have kindled on the earth and we are told that many of them burn in Hell I may intend to beat down Idolatry and bury Religion in the ruins of that which I beat down I may intend the establishing of a Conmmon-wealth and shake the foundation of it I may intend the Reformation of a Church and fill it with Locusts and Caterpillars innumerable I may intend the Glory of God and do that for which his Name shall be evil spoken of and it will prove but a poor plea when we blasphemed him to say we did it for his Glory Let us then lay aside these Apologies for they are not Apologies but Accusations and detain us longer in our evil wayes then the false beauty and deceitful promises of a temptation could which we should not yeeld to so often did not these betray us nor be fools so long if we had not something to say for our selves And since we cannot answer the expostulation with these since these will be no plea in the Court of heaven before the tribunal of Christ let us change our plea and let us answer the last part of the Text with the first the moriemini with the convertimini answer him that we will Turn and then he will never ask any more Why will ye die but change his Language and assure us we shall not die at all And our answer is penn'd to our hands by the Prophet Jerem. Ecce accedimus Behold we come we turn unto thee for in our God is the Salvation of Israel and our Saviour hath registred his in his Gospel and left it as an invitation to turn Come unto me all ye that be weary of your evil wayes and are heavie laden feel the burden you did sweat under whilest you were in them and I will ease you that is I will deliver you from this body of sin fill you with my Grace enlighten your understandings sprinckle your Hearts from an evil Conscience direct your eye level your intentions lead you in the wayes of life and so fit and prepare you for my kingdom in Heaven To which he bring us c. THE THIRTEENTH SERMON GAL. 4.39 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so is it now IN which words the Apostle doth present to our eye the true face of the Church in an Allegory of Sarah and Hagar of Ismacl and Isaac of mount Sinat and mount Sion which things are an Allegory verse 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it speaks one thing and means another and carries wrapt up â—n it a more excellent sense then the words at first hearing do promise Take the full scheme and delineation in brief 1. Here is Sarah and Hagar that is Servitude and Freedom 2. Here are two Cities Jerusalem that now is the Synagogue of the Jews and that Jerusalem which is above the vision of peace and mother of all the faithful for by the New Covenant we are made children unto God 3. Here is the Law promulged and thundered out on mount Sinai and the Gospel the Covenant of Grace which God published not from the mount but from Heaven it self by the voice of his Son In all you see a faire correspondence and agreement between the Type and the thing but so that Jerusalem our mother is still the Highest the Gospel glorious with the liberty it brought and the Law putting on a yoke breathing nothing but servitude and fear Isaac an heire and Ismael thrust out the Christian more honorable then the Jew The curtain is now drawn and we may enter in even within the vail and take that sense which the Apostle himself hath drawn out so plainly to us And indeed it is a good and pleasing sight to see our priviledge and priority in any figure to finde out our inheritance in such an Heire our liberty and freedom though in a woman who would not lay claim to so much peace and so much liberty who would not challenge kindred of Isaac and a Burgesseship in Jerusalem 't is true every Christian may But that we mistake not and think all is peace and liberty that we boast not against the branches that are cut off he brings in a corrective to check and keep down all swelling and lifting up our selves the adversative particle sed but But as then so now we are indeed of Sarah the free-woman we are children of the promise we are from Jerusalem which is from above sed but if we will inherit with Isaac we must be persecuted with Isaac if we will be of the Covenant of grace we must take up the Crosse if we look for a City whose maker and founder is God we must walk to it in our blood in other things we rise above the Type but here we fall and our condition is the same But as then he that was born after
attributes he hath he is called the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 the Spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 the Spirit of Grace of Love of Joy of Zeale for where he worketh Grace is operative our Love is without dissimulation our Joy is like the joy of heaven as true though not so great our Faith a working faith and our Zeal a coale from the Altar kindled from his fire not mad and raging but according to knowledge he makes no shadowes but substances no pictures but realities no appearances but truths a Grace that makes us highly favoured a precious and holy Faith full and unspeakable Love ready to spend it self and zeal to consume us of a true existence being from the spirit of God who alone truly is but here the spirit of Truth yet the same spirit that planteth grace and faith in our hearts that begets our Faith cilates our Love works our Joy kindles our Zeal and adopts us in Regiam familiam into the Royall Family of the first-born in Heaven but now the spirit of Truth was more proper for to tell men perplext with doubts that were ever and anon and sometimes when they should not asking questions of such a Teacher was a seal to the promise a good assurance they should be well taught that no difficulty should be too hard no knowledge too high no mystery too dark and obscure for them but Omnis veritas all truth should be brought forth and unfolded to them and have the vayle taken from it and be laid open and naked to their understanding Let us then look up upon and worship this spirit of Truth as he thus presents and tenders himself unto us as he stands in opposition to two great enemies to Truth as 1. Dissimulation 2. Flattery and then as he is true in the lessons which he teacheth that we may pray for his Advent long for his coming and so receive him when he comes And first dissemble he doth not he cannot for dissimulation is a kind of cheat or jugling by which we cast a mist before mens eyes that they cannot see us it brings in the Divel in Samuel's mantle and an enemy in the smiles and smoothness of a friend it speakes the language of the Priest at Delphos playes in ambiguities promises life As to King 〈◊〉 who a 〈…〉 slew when death is neerest and bids us beware of a chariot when it means a sword No this spirit is an enemy to this because a spirit of truth and hates these in volucra dissimulationis this folding and involvednesse these clokes and coverts these crafty conveyances of our own desires to their end under the specious shew of intending good to others and they by whom he speaks are like him and speak the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 3.12 in the simplicity and godly sincerity of the spirit not in craftinesse not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 handling the Word of God deceitfully 2 Cor. 4.2 Eph. 4.14 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in the slight of men throwing a Die what cast you would have them noting their Doctrine to men and the times that is not to men and the times but to their own ends telling them of Heaven Wisdom 1.5 when their thoughts are in their purse This holy spirit of Truth flies all such deceit and removes himself far from the thoughts which are without understanding and will not acquit a dissembler of his words there is nothing of the Divels method nothing of the Die or hand no windings nor turnings in what he teacheth but verus vera dicit being a spirit of truth he speaks the truth and nothing but he truth and for our behoof and advantage that we may believe it and build upon it and by his discipline raise our selves up to that end for which he is pleased to come and be our teacher And as he cannot dissemble so in the next place flatter us he cannot the inseparable mark and character of the evill spirit qui arridet ut saeviat who smiles upon us that he may rage against us lifts us up that he may cast us down whose exaltations are foiles whose favours are deceits whose smiles and kisses are wounds for flattery is as a glasse for a fool to look upon and so become more fool than before it is the fools eccho by which he hears himself at the rebound and thinks the wiseman spoke unto him and it proceeds from the father of lies not from the spirit of truth who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever who reproves drunkennesse though in a Noah adultery though in a David want of faith though in a Peter and layes our sins in order before us his precepts are plain his law is in thunder his threatnings earnest and vehement he calls Adam from behind the bush strikes Ananias dead for his hypocrisie and for lying to the holy Spirit deprives him of his own Thy excuse to him is a libell thy pretence fouler than thy sin thy false worship of him is blasphemy and thy form of godlinesse open impiety and where he enters the heart Sin which is the greatest errour the grossest lye removes it self heaves and pants to go out knocks at our breast and runs down at our eyes and we hear it speak in sighs and grones unspeakable and what was our delight becomes our torment In a word he is a spirit of truth and neither dissembles to decieve us nor flatters that we may deceive our selves but verus vera dicit being truth it self tells us what we shall find to be most true to keep us from the dangerous by-paths of errour and misprision in which we may lose our selves and be lost for ever And this appears is visible in those lessons and precepts which he gives which are so harmonious so consonant so agreeing with themselves and so consonant and agreeable to that Image after which we were made to fit and beautifie it when it is defaced and repaire it when it is decayed that so it may become in some proportion measure like unto him that made it for this spirit doth not set up one precept against another nor one text against another doth not disanul his promises in his threats nor check his threats with his promises doth not forbid all Feare in confidence nor shake our confidence when he bids us feare doth not set up meeknesse to abate our zeale nor kindles zeale to consume our meeknesse doth not teach Christian liberty to shake off obedience to Government nor prescribes obedience to infringe and weaken our Christian liberty This spirit is a spirit of truth and never different from himself never contradicts himself but is equall in all his wayes the same in that truth which pleaseth thee and that which pincheth thee in that which thou consentest to and that which thou runnâ—st from in that which will rayse thy spirit and that which will wound thy spirit And the reason why men who
way and through all the surges of this present world brings us to the presence of God who is truth is self a truth which leads us to our Originall to the Rock out of which we were hewen and brings us back to our God who made us not for the vanities of this world but for himself an Art to cast down all Babells all towring and lofty imaginations which present unto us falshoods for truths appearances for realities plagues for peace which scatter and divide our soules powre them out upon variety of unlawfull objects which deceive us in the very nature and end of things For as this spirit brought life and immortality to light 2 Time 1.10 for whatsoever the prophets and great Rabbies had spoken of immortality was but darknesse in comparison of this great light so it also discovered the errors and horror of those follies which we lookt upon with love and admiration as upon heaven it self What a price doth luxury place on wealth and riches what horror on nakednesse and poverty How doth a jewell glitter in my eyes and what a slurr is there upon virtue what Glory doth the pomp of the world present and what a sad and sullen aspect hath righteousnesse How is God thrust out and every Idol every vanity made a God but the truth here which the spirit teacheth discovers all pulls off the vayle shewes us the true countenance and face of things that we may not be deceived shewes us vanity in riches folly in honour death and destruction in the pomp of this world makes poverty a blessing and misery happinesse and death it self a passage to eternity placeth God in his Throne and man where he should be at his footstoole bowing before him which is the readiest way to be lifted up unto him and to be with him for evermore In a word a truth of power to unite us to our God that brings with it the knowledge of Christ the wisdome of God which presents those precepts and doctrines which lead to happinesse a truth that goes along with us in all our wayes waits on us on our bed of sicknesse leaves us not at our death but followes us and will rise again with us unto judgement and there either acquit or condemn us either be our Judge or Advocate For if we make it our friend here it shall then look lovely on us and speak good things for us but if we despise it and put it under our basest desires and vile affections it will then fight against us and triumph over us and tread us down into the lowest pit Christ is not more gracious then this truth to them that love it but to those who will not learne shall be Tribulation and anguish the Sun turn'd into Bloud the world on fire the voyce of the Archangel the Trump of God the severe countenance of the Judge will not be more terrible then this truth to them that have despised it For Christ Jesus shall judge the secrets of the heart acquit the just condemn the impenitent according to this truth which the spirit teacheth according saith Saint Paul to my Gospel Rom. 2.16 The large extent of this lesson This is the lesson The spirit teacheth truth let us now see the extent of it which is large and universall for the spirit doth not teach us by halves doth not teach some truths and conceal others but teacheth all truth makes his disciples and followers free from all errors that are dangerous and full of saving knowledge For saving knowledge is all indeed that truth which brings me to my end is all and there is nothing more to be known I desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 2.2 here his desire hath a Non ultra this truth is all this joyns heaven and earth together God and man mortality and immortality misery and happiness in one drawes us neer unto God and makes us one with him This is the Spirits lesson Commentum Divinitatis the invention of the divine Spirit as faith is called the gift of God not onely because it is given to every believer and too many are too willing to stay till it be given but because this spirit first found out the way to save us by so weak a means as Faith And as he first found it out so he teacheth it and leaves out nothing not a tittle not an Iota which may serve to compleat perfect this Divine Science In the book of God are all our members written All the members yea and all the faculties of our soul and in his Gospel his Spirit hath framed rules and precepts to order and regulate them all in every act in every motion and inclination which if the Eye offend pluck it out if the Hand cut it off which limit the understanding to the knowledg of God which bind the will to obedience and moderate confine our Affections level our hope fix our joy stint our sorrow which frame our speech compose our gesture fashion our Apparel set and methodize our outward behaviour Instances in Scripture in every particular are many and obvious and what should I more say for the time would faile me to mention them all In a word then this truth which the spirit teacheth is fitted to the whole man fitted to every member of the body to every faculty of the soule fitted to us in every condition in every relation it will reign with thee it will serve with thee it will manage thy riches it will comfort thy poverty ascend the throne with thee and sit down with thee on the dunghill it will pray with thee it will fast with thee it will labour with thee it will rest and keep a Sabbath with thee it will govern a Church it will order thy Family it will raise a kingdome within thee it will be thy Angel to carry thee into Abrahams bosome and set a crown of glory upon thy head And is there yet any more or what need more than that which is necessary There can be but one God one Heaven one Religion one way to blessednesse and there is but one Truth and that is it which the Spirit teacheth and this runs the whole compass of it directs us not onely ad ultimum sed usque ad ultimum not onely to that which is the end but to the means to every step and passage and approch to every help and advantage towards it and so unites us to this one God gives us right to this one Heaven and brings us home to that one end for which we were made And is there yet any more Yes particular cases may be so many and various that they cannot all come within the compass of this truth which the spirit hath plainly taught 't is true but then for the most part they are cases of our own making cases which we need not make cases sometimes raised by weakness sometimes by wilfulness sometimes even by sin it self which
eyes and with our hands handle the word of truth In a word we manifest the truth and make it visible in our actions and the Spirit is with us and ready in his office to lead us further even to the inner house and secret closet of truth displayes his beames of light as we press forward and mend our pace every day shining upon us with more brightnesse as we every day strive to increase teaching us not so much by words as by actions and practice by the practice of those vertues which are his lessons and our duties we learn that we may practice and by practice we become as David speaks Psal 119.99 wiser then our teachers to conclude day unto day teacheth knowledge and every act of piety is apt to promote and produce a second to beget more light which may yet lead into more which may at last strengthen establish us in the truth and so lead us from truth to truth to that happy estate which hath no shadow of falshood but like the Spirit of Truth endureth for evermore THE FIRST SERMON JAMES I. Vers ult Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is This to visite the fatherlesse and widdows in their affliction and to keep himselfe unspotted from the World NOthing more talkt of in the world then Religion nothing lesse understood nothing more neglected there being nothing more common with men then to be willing to mistake their way to withdraw themselves from that which is indeed Religion because it stands in opposition to some pleasing errour which they are not willing to shake off and by the help of an unsanctified complying fancy Multi fibi fidem ipsi potiut constitunut quam accipiunt dum quae velunt sapiunt nolunt sapepere quae vera sunt cum sapientiae haecveritas sit ea interdum sapere quae nolis Hilar. 8. de Trin. V. 22. to frame one of their own and call it by that name That which flatters their corrupt hearts That which is moulded and attempered to their bruitish desigus That which smiles upon them in all their purposes which favours them in their unwarrantable undertakings That which bids them Go on and prosper in the wayes which lead unto death That with them is True Religion In this Chapter and indeed in every Chapter of this Epistle our Apostle hath made this discovery to our hands Some there were as he observes that placed it in the ear did hear and not do and rested in that some did place it in a formall devotion did pray but pray amisse and therefore did not receive some that placed it in a shadow and appearance Verse 25. seemed to be very religious but could not bridle their tongue and were safe they thought under this shadow others there were that were partiall to themselves despisers of the poor that had faith and no works in the second Chapter and did boast of this others that had hell fire in their Tongue and carried about with them a world of iniquity which did set the wheel the whole course of Nature on fire in the third Chapter and last of all some he observed warring and fighting killing that they might take the prey and divide the spoil in the fourth Chapter And yet all religious Every one seeking out death in the errour of his life and yet every one seeming to presse forward towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus To these as to men ready to dash upon the rock and shipwrack doth our Apostle cry out as from the shore to turn their compasse and steer their course the right way and seeing them as it were run severall wayes all to meet at last in the common gulph of eternall destruction He calls and calls aloud after them To the superstitious and the prophane To the disputer and the scribe to them that do but hear and to them that do but babble To them that do but professe and to them that do but beleeve the word is Be not deceived This is not it but Haec est This is pure Religion is vox à Tergo as the Prophet speaks Esay 30. a voice behinde them saying This is the way walk in it This is as a light held forth to shew them where they are to walk as a royal Standard set up to bring them to their colours This doth Infinitatem rei ejicere as the Civilians speak Take them from the Devils latitudes and expatiations from frequent and fruitlesse hearing from loud but heartless prayer from their beloved but dead faith from undisciplined and malitious zeal From noise and blood from fighting and warring which could not but defile them and make them fit to receive nothing but the spots of the world from the infinite mazes and by-paths of Errour and brings them into the way where they should be where they may move with joy and safety looking stedfastly towards the End Let us now hear the conclusion of the whole matter whatsoever Divines have taught whatsoever Councels have determined or the schoolmen defined whatsoever God spake in the old times whatsoever he spake in these last dayes That which hath filled so many volumes and brought upon us Fatigationem Carnis that weariness of the flesh Ecclesia 1 2.12 which Solomon complains of in reading that multitude of Books with which the world doth now swarm with That which we study for which we contend for which we fight for as if it were in Democritus his Well or rather as the Apostle speaks in Hell it self quite out of our reach or if there be any truth that is necessary or any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying even in this of Saint James Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit c. I way call it the picture of Religion in little in a small compasse and yet presenting all the lines and dimensions the whole signature of Religion fit to be hung up in the Church of Christ and to be lookt upon by all that the people which are and shall be born may truly serve the Lord May it please you therefore a while to cast your eyes upon it and with me to view First The full proportion and severall lineaments of it as it were the essentiall parts which constitute and make it what it is and we may distinguish them as the Jew doth the Law by Do and Do not The first is Affirmative To do Good to visit the fatherlesse and widdows in their affliction The second not to do evil to keep our selves unspotted from the world And then secondly to look upon as it were the colours and beauty of it and to look upon it with delight as it consists First in its purity having no mixture Secondly in its undefilednesse having no pollution And then thirdly the Epigraph or title of it the Ratification or seal which is set to it to make it Authentick
and power from him from his promises and from his precepts from his life and from his passion and death from what he did and from what he suffered as there did to the woman which touched the hem of his garment that healed her bloody issue a power by which he sweetly and secretly and powerfully characterizeth our hearts and writes his minde in our minds and so takes possession of them and draws them into him self in the eighth to the Rom. 11. v. the Apostle tells us he dwelleth in us by his spirit and that we are led by the spirit in the whole course of our life in the second to the Ephes the last v. we are said to be the habitation of God through the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his tabernacle his temple which he consecrates and sets apart to his own use and service there is no doubt a power comes from him but I am almost afraid to say it there having been such ill use made of it For though it become already for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation yet is it still expected expected indeed rather then hoped for for when it doth come we shut the door and set up our will against it and then look faintly after it and perswade our selves it will come at last once for all There is power in his preceâ—ts for our reason subscribes and signes them for true there is power in his promises they shine in glory Rom. 1.16 these are the power of Christ to every one that beleeveth and how can we be Christians if we beleeve not but this is his ordinary power which like the Sun in commune profertur is shewn on all at once There yet goes a more immediate power and virtue from him John 3. â— we denie it not which like the winde works wonderful effects but we see not whence it cometh nor whither it goes neither the beginning nor the end of it which is in another World For the operations of the spirit by reason they are of another condition then any other thought or working in us whatsoever are very difficult and obscure as Scotus observes upon the prologue to the sentences for the manner not to be perceived no not by that soul wherein they are wrought profuisse deprehendas quomodo prefuerunt non deprehendes as Seneca in another case that they have wrought you shall find but the secret and retired passages by which they wrought are impossible to be brought to demonstration But though we cannot discerne the maner of his working yet we may observe that in his actions and operations on the soul of man he holds the course even of natural agents in this respect that they strive to bring in their similitude and likenesse into those things on which they work by a kinde of force driving out one contrary with another to make way for their own form so Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac Jacob and every creature according to its own kinde as Plato said of Sacrates wise sayings that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the children of his minde so resembling him that you might see all Socrates in them So it is with Christ where he dwells he worketh by his spirit something like unto himself he alters the whole frame of the heart 2 Cor. 10. drives out all that is contrary to him all imaginations which axalt themselves against him never leaves purging and fashioning us Cal. 4. till a new creature like himself till Christ be fully formed in us So it is with every one in whom Christ dwelleth And this he doth by the power of his spirit 1. By quickning our knowledge by shewing us the riches of his Gospel his Beauty and Majesty the glory and order of his house and that with that convincing evidence that we are forced to fall down and worship by filling our soul with the glory of it as God filled the tabernacle with his Exod. 40. that all the powers and saculties of the soul are ravisnt with the sight and come willingly as the Psalmist speaks fall down willingly before him by moving our soul as our soul doth our body that when he sayes go we go and when he sayes do this we do it and so it is in every one in whom Christ dwelleth Secondly he dwells in us by quickning and enlivening our faith so dwells in our hearts by faith Eph. 3.17 that we are rooted and grounded in love for we read of a dead faith Jâ—m 2.20 which moves no more in the wayes of righteousnesse then a dead man sealed up in his grave and if the Son of man should come he would finde enough of this faith in the World For from hence from this that our faith is not enlivened that the Gospel is not throughly beleeved but faintly received cam formidine contrarit with fear or rather a hope that the contrary is true from hence proceed all the errours of our lives from hence ariseth that irregularity those contradictions those inconsequences in the lives of men even from hence that we have faith but so as we should have the World we have it as if we had it not and so use it as if we used it not or which is worse abuse it not beleeve and be saved but beleeve and be damned and we are vain men saith Saint James if we think otherwise if we think that a dead faith can work any thing or any thing but death but when it is quickned and made a working faith when Christ dwells in our hearts by faith then it works wonders Heb. 11.33 2 Cor. 2,11 for we read of its valour that it subdues kingdoms and stoppeth the mouthes of Lions we read of its policy that it discovers the devils enterprises or devices of its medicinal vertue that it purifieth the heart and we read too furta fidei the thefts and pious depredations of faith stealing virtue from Christ and taking Heaven by violence and such a wonderful power it hath in that soul in which Christ dwelleth it worketh out our corruption and stampeth his image upon us it worketh obedience in us which is called the obedience of faith that is that obedience Rom. 1.5 which is due to faith and to which faith naturally tendeth and would bring us to it if we did not dull and dead and hinder it And 1. he worketh in us a universal and equal obedience for if he dwell in us every room is his For there are saith Parisiensis particulares voluntates particular wills or rather particular inclinations and dispositions to this virtue and not to another to be liberal and not temperate sober but not chasT to fast and hear and pray but not to do acts of mercy which are virtues but in appearance and proceed from rotten unsound principles from a false spring but not from Christ and so make up a spiritual Hermaphrodite a good speaker and a bad live a Jew and a Christian Deus in
is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one and the same God in all his commands not forbidding one sin and permitting another as his wayes are equal so must our turn be equal not from the right hand to the left not from superstition to prophanesse not from despising of prophesie to Sermonhypocrisy not from uncleannesse to faction not from Riot to Rebellion but a turn from all Extreams from all evil a collection and levelling the soul which before lookt divers wayes and turning her face upon the way of truth upon God alone If we turn as we should if we will answer this earnest and vehement call we must turn from all our evil wayes we use to say that there is as great a miracle wrought in our conversion as in the Creation of the world but this is not true in every respect for man though he be a sinner yet is something hath an understanding will affections to be wrought upon yet as it is one condition required in a true miracle that it be perfect so that there be not onely a change but such a change which is absolute and exact that it may seem to be as it were a new Creation that water which is changed into wine may be no more water but wine tht the blind man do truly see the lame man truly walk and the dead man truly live so is it in our turn and conversion there is a total and perfect change the Adulterer is made an Eunuch for the kingdom of Heaven the intemperate comes forth with a knife at his throat the revenger kisseth the hand that strikes him when we Turn sinne vanisheth the Old man is dead and in its place there stands up a new Creature In the 15. to Galatians Saint Paul speaking of the works of the flesh which are nothing but sins and having given us a catalogue reckoned up many of them by which we might know the rest at last concludes Of which I tell you before as I have told you often that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God where the Apostles meaning is not that they who do all these or most of these or many of these or more then one of these but they who die possest of any one of these shall have no place in the kingdom of God and of Christ for what profit is there to turn from one sin and not all when one sin is enough to make us breakers of the whole Law and so liable to eternal death It is a conclusion in the Schools that whosoever is in the state of any one mortal sin and turns not from it whatsoever he doth do he pray or give almes bow the knee before God or open his hand to his brother be it what it will in it self never so fair and commendable it is forth with blasted and defaced and is so far from deserving commendations that it hath no other wages due to it but death I cannot say this is true for so far as it is agreeable with reason so far it must needs be pleasing to the God of reason so far as it answers the rule so far is it accepted of him that made it nor can we think that Regulus Fabricius Cato and the rest who do convitium facere Christianis upbraid and shame many of us Christians were damned for their justice their integrity their honesty Hell is no receptacle for men so qualified were there nothing else to prepare and fit them for that place but yet most true it is that if we be indued and beautified with many vertues yet the habit of one sin is enough to deface them to draw that night and darknesse about them that they shall not be seen to put them to silence that they shall have no power to speak or plead for us in the day of trial though they be not sins not bright and shining sins for I cannot see how darknesse it self should shine yet they shall become utterly unprofitable they may peradventure lessen the number of the stripes but yet the unrepentant sinner shall be beaten For what ease can a myriad of vertues do him who is under Arrest nay what performance can acquit him who is condemned already Reason it self stands up against it and forbids it for what obedience is that which answers but in part which follows one precept and runs away from another and then what imperfect monsters should the kingdome of Heaven receive a liberall man but not chast a Temperate man but not honest a Zealous man but not Charitable a great Faster and a great Impostor a Beadsman and a Theese an Apostle a great Preacher and a Traytor such a Monsterous mishapen Christian cannot stand before him who is a pure uncompounded Essence the same in every Thing and Every Where One and the same even Unity it self For againe every man is not equally inclin'd to every sinne This man loves that which another loathes and he who made the Devil fly at the first Encounter may entertaine him at a second he that resisted him in lust may yeeld to him in Anger He who will none of his delicates may fayle at his Terrors and he that feared not the roaring of the Lyon may be ensnared by the flattery of the Serpent For the force of Temptations is many times quickned or Dull'd according to the Naturall Constitutions and severall complexions of men and other outward Circumstances by which they may work more coldly or more vehemently upon the will and Affections A man of a dull and Torpid disposition is seldom Ambitious a man of a quick and active Spirit seldome Idle the Cholerick man not obnoxious to those evills which melancholly doth hatch nor the Melancholick to those which Choler is apt to produce As hard a matter it may be for some men to commit some one sinne as it is for others to avoid it as hard a matter for the Foole in the Gospel to have scattered his Goods as it was for the other Foole the Prodigall to have kept them as hard a matter for some to let loose their Anger as it is for others to curbe and bridle it some by their very temper and Constitution with ease withstand lust but must struggle and take paines to keep down their Anger Some can stand upright in Poverty but are overthrown by wealth some can resist this Temptation by slighting it but must beat and macerate themselves must use a kind of violence before they can overcome another which is more sutable and more flatters their Constitution And this we may find by those darts which we cast at one another those uncharitable Censures we passe For how do the Covetous condemne and pity the Prodigal and how doth the Prodigal loath and scorne the Covetous How doth the Luke-warme Christian abominate the Schismaticque and the Schismaticque call every man so if he be not as mad as himself How doth this man bless himself and wonder that any should fall into such or
is a greater penalty and vexation than that which we undertook for its sake How many rise up early to be rich and before their day shuts up are beggers how many climb to the highest place and when they are neer it and ready to fit down fall back into a prison But in this we never faile the Spirit working with us and blessing the work of our hands making our busie and carefull thoughts as his chariot and then filling us with light such is the priviledge and prerogative of Industry such is the nature of Truth that it will be wrought out by it nor did ever any rise up early and in good earnest travell towards it but this spirit took him by the hand and brought him to his journeys end If thou seekest her as silver Prov. 2.4,5 if thou search for her as for had treasure which because it is hid we remove many things turn up much earth and labour hard that we may come to it then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God in which work our industry and the Spirits help are as it were joyned and linked together You will say perhaps that the Spirit is an omnipotent Agent and can fall suddenly upon us as he did upon the Apostles this day that he can lead us in the way of truth though we sit still though our feet be chained though we have no feet at all but the Proverb will answer you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If God will you may sail over the sea in a sieve but we must remember the Spirit leads us according to his own will nad counsel not ours that as he is an Omnipotent so he is a free Agent also and worketh and dispenceth all things according to the pleasure of his will and certainly he will not lead thee if thou wilt not follow he will not teach thee if thou wilt not learn nor can we think that the truth which must make us happy is of so easie purchase that it will be sown in any ground and as the Divels tares grow up in us Nobis dormientibus whilest we sleep The third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 method or an orderly proceeding in the wayes of truth for as in all other Arts and Sciences so in our spirituall wisdome and in the school of Christ we may not hand over head huddle up matters as we please but must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep an order and set course in our studies and proceedings our Saviour Christ hath a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 6.33 seek first the kingdome of God and in that kingdome every thing in its order there is something first and something next to be observed and every thing is to be ranked in its proper place the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us of principles of Doctrine which must be learned before we can be led forward to perfection Heb. 5.13,14 of milk and of strong meat of plainer Lessons before we reach at higher Mysteries nor can we hope to make a good Christian veluti ex luto statuam as soon as we can make a picture or a statue out of clay Most Christians are perfect too soon which is the reason that they are never perfect they are spirituall in the twinkling of an eye they know not how nor no man else they leap over all their alphabet and are at their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their end before they begin are at the top of the ladder before they have set a foot to the first step or rown they study heaven but not the way to it they study faith but not good works repentance without a change or restitution Religion without order they are as high as Gods closet in heaven when they should be busie at his foot-stool study predestination but not sanctity of life study assurance but not that piety which should work it study heaven and not grace and grace but not their duty and now no marvel if they meet not with that saving truth in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this so great disorder and confusion no marvel when we have broke the rules and order not observed the method of the Spirit if the Spirit lead us not who is a Spirit that loveth order and in a right method and orderly course leads us into the truth The last is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exercitation and practice of the truths we learn which is so proper and necessary for a Christian that Christian Religion goes under that name and is called an exercise by Clem. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strom. l. 4. Al. Nyssen Cyril of Ilierusalem and others and though they who lead a Monasticall life have laid claim to it as their own they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet it may well belong to every one that is the Spirits Scholar who is as a Monk in the world shut up out of it even while he is in it exercising himself in those lessons which the Spirit teacheth and following as he leads which is to make the world it self his monastery A good Chritian is the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epictet Arrian l. 3. c. 5. and by this daily exercise in the doctrines of the Spirit he doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Stoicks speak drive the truth home and make it enter into the soul and spirit for as Auaxagoras said well manus causa sapientiae 't is not the brain but the hand that causeth knowledge Talis quisque est qualibue delectater inter artisicem artificium mira cognatio est and worketh wisdome for true wisdome that which the Spirit teacheth consists not in being a good Critick or in rightly judging of the sense of the words or being a good Logician in drawing out a true and perfect definition of Faith and Charity or discoursing aptly and methodically of the Lessons of the Spirit or in being a good Oratour in setting out the beauty and lustre of Religion to the very eye No saith the son of Syrach He that hath no experience knoweth little Ecclus. 34.10 Ex mandato mandatum cernimus by practising the command we gain a kind of familiarity a more inward and certain knowledge of it If any man will do the will of God he shall know the Doctrine Joh. 7.17 in Divinity and indeed in all knowledge whose end is practice that of Aristotle is true Those things we learn to do we learn by doing them we learn devotion by prayer charity by giving of alms meeknesse by forgiving injuries humility and patience by suffering temperance by every day fighting against our lusts as we know meat by the taste so do we the things of God by practice and experience and at last discover heaven it self in piety and this is that which S. Paul calls knowledge according to godlinesse 1 Tim. 6.3 we taste and see how gracious the Lord is we do as it were see with our