against These made Sin to be nothing else but phansy and opinion Regeneration a deposition and putting off all conscience a casting off all fear and scruple and a returning into Paradise where it was a sin to judge between good and evil If they saw a man appalled with checks of conscience they would cry out O Adam adhuc aliquid cernis Oh Adam dost thou yet see and discern any thing The old man is not yet crucified in thee If they saw any trembling or speaking sadly of the judgments of God they would reprove and pass this censure upon them That they had yet a tast and relish of the Apple That that morsel would choke them If they saw any man displeased with himself and cast down because of his sins they called it the abiding of sin in him and a captivity under the sense and motions of the flesh With them Sin the Old man the Flesh were nothing but in opinion and not to think of sin to put off this opinion was to put on the New man And amongst us there have been some men so bold or rather so frantick as to profess it and too many so live as it were true For there be more Libertines then those that go under that name Thus hath the Devil in all ages striven and made it his Master-piece to pluck up Fear by the very roots that no seed of it might remain to remove custodem innocentiae as Cyprian calleth it Epist. ad Damasum this keeper and preserver of Innocency and all other Virtues Like a subtill captain he first setteth upon the watch that he may with the more ease enter the Soul of man and so rob and spoil him of all those riches and endowments which are the onely price of bliss and eternity And in these latter dayes he hath used the same art hath set up Faith and Love against Fear the Gospel against Christ and the Spirit against himself that so faith might die and Love wax cold that the good tidings might make us forget our duty and the Spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 blot out the memory of that lesson which hath declared his power and taught us that he is a Lord. Indeed a weak errour it is and it is an open and easy observation that they who please and hug themselves in it are very weak even children in understanding Gerson the devout School-man telleth us it is most commonly in women quarum aviditas pertinacior in affectu Mulieres omnes propter infirmitatem consilii majores nostri in tutorum â—otestate esse voluerunt Cicero pro Muraena fragilior in cognitione whose affections commonly outrun their understanding who affect more then they know and are then most enflamed when they have least light And it is in men too too many of whom are as fond of their groundless phansies and ill-built opinions as the weakness of the other sex could possibly make them are as weak as the weakest of women and have more need of the bit and bridle then the beasts that perish What greater weakness can there be then to follow a blind guide to deliver our selves up to our phansie and affective Notions and to make them masters of our Reason and the onely Interpreters of that word which should be a lamp to our feet and a light to our paths Psal 119.105 If we check not our Phansy and Affections they will run madding after shadows and apparitions They will shew us nothing but Peace in the Gospel nothing but Love in Christianity nothing but Joy in the Holy Ghost They will set our Love and Joy on wheels and then we are straight carried up to heaven in these fiery chariots One is Elias another John Baptist another Christ himself If the Virgin Mary have an Exultat they have a Jubilee If S. Paul be in the Spirit they are above it and above right Reason too The Spirit is theirs if he put on that shape which best liketh them If he be a Spirit of Counsel we are Secretaries of his closet Isa 11.2 and can tell what he did before all times and number over his Decrees at our fingers ends If a Spirit of strength we bid defiance to Principalities and Powers If a Spirit of wisdome we are filled with him and are the Wise-men and Sages of the world though no man could ever say so but our selves If a Spirit of Joy we are in an ecstasy if of Love we are on fire But if he be a Spirit of fear there we leave him and are at ods with him we seem to know him not and cannot fear at all because we 〈…〉 to think that we have the Spirit It is true whilest we stand thus affected a Spirit we have but it is a Spirit of Illusion which troubleth and distorteth our intellectuals and maketh us look upon the Gospel ex adverso situ on the wrong side on that which may seem to flatter our infirmities not that which may cure them And as Tully told his friend that he did not know totum Caesarem all of Caesar so we know not totum Christum all of Christ We know and consider him as a Saviour but not as a LORD we know him in the riches of his promises but not in the terrour of his judgments we know him in that life he purchased for repentant sinners but not in that death he threatneth to unbelievers For to let pass the Law of Works we dare not come so near as to touch at that we cannot endure that which was commanded Hebr. 12.20 Let us well weigh and consider the Gospel it self which is the Law of Faith Was not that established and confirmed with promises of eternal life and upon penalty of eternal death Matth. 8.12 In the Gospel we are told of weeping and gnashing teeth of a condition worse then to have a mill-stone hanged about our necks Matth. 18.6 and to be thrown into the bottom of the sea and that by no other then by the Prince of Peace Christ himself who would never have put this fear in us if he had known that our Love had had strength enough to bring us to him Therefore he teacheth us how we shall fear rectâ methodo Matth. 10.28 Luke 12.4 5. to be perfect Methodists in Fear and that we misplace not our Fear upon any earthly Power he setteth up a NE TIMETE Fear not them that kill the body and when they have done that have done all and can do no more And having taken away one fear he establisheth another But fear him who can cast both body and soul into hell-fire And that we might not forget it for such troublesome guests lodge not long in our memory he driveth it home with an ETIAM DICO Yea I say unto you fear him Now Him denoteth a Person and no more and then our Fear may be Reverence and no more it may be Love it may be
telleth us that we have not received the spirit of bondage to fear again but the spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba Father And it is most true that we have not received that Spirit for we are not under the Law but under Grace we are not Jews Rom. 6.14 but Christians Nor do we fear again as the Jews feared whose eye was upon the Basket and the Sword who were curbed and restrained by the fear of present punishment and whose greatest motives to obedience were drawn from temporal respects and interests who did fear the Plague Captivity the Philistin the Caterpiller and Palmerworm and so did many times forbear that which their lusts and irregular appetites were ready to joyn with We have not received such a spirit For the Gospel directeth our look not to those things which are seen 2 Cor. 4.18 1 Cor. 12.31 but to those things which are not seen and sheweth us yet a more excellent way But we have received the Spirit of adoption we are received into that Family where little care is taken for the meat that perisheth where the World is made an enemy John 6.27 Matth. 6.34 Phil. 2.12 where we must leave the morrow to care for it self and work out oâ—â— salvation with fear and trembling Psal 56.11 where we must not fear what man but what God can do unto us observe his hand as that hand which can raise us up as high as heaven and throw us down to the lowest pit love him as a Father and fear to offend him Psal 2.12 Luke 1.74 love and kiss the Son lest he be angry serve him without fear of any evil that can befall us here in our way of any enemy that can hurt us and yet fear him as our Lord and King For in this his grant of liberty he did not let us loose against himself nor put off his Majesty that we should be so bold with him as not to serve but to disobey him without fear Nor doth this cut off our Filiation our relation to him for a good son may fear the wrath of God and yet cry Abba Father 1 John 4.18 But then again we are told by S. John that there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear All fear he excepteth none no not the fear of punishment L. de fugâ in persecutione I know Tertullian interpreting this Text maketh this fear to be nothing else but that lazy Fear which is begot by a vain and unnecessary contemplation of difficulties the fear of a man that will not set forward in his journey for fear of some Lion some perillous beast some horrible hardship in the way And this is true but not ad textum nor doth it reach S. John's meaning which may be gathered out of Chapt. 3. v. 16. where he maketh it the duty of Christians to lay down their lives for the brethren as Christ laid down his life for them And this we shall be ready to do if our Love be perfect cast off all fear and lay down our lives for them For true Love will suffer all things and is stronger then Death Cant. 8.6 But Love doth not cast out the Fear of Gods wrath for this doth no whit impair our love to him but is rather the means to improve it When we do our duty we have no reason to fear his anger but yet we must alwayes fear him that we may go on and persevere unto the end He will not punish us for our obedience and so we need not fear him but if we break it off he will punish us and this thought may strengthen and establish us in it Hebr. 4.1 Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of us should come short of it But we may draw an answer out of the words themselves as they lie in the Text. For it is true indeed Charity casteth out all fear but not simul semel not at once but by degrees As that waxeth our Fear waineth as that gathereth strength our Fear is in feebled Et perfecta forà s mittit When our Love is perfect it casteth Fear out quite If our Sanctification were as total as it is universal were our Obedience like that of Angels and could never fail we should not then need the sight of heaven to allure us or Gods thunder to affright us But Sanctification being onely in part though in every part the best of Christians in this state of imperfection may look up upon the Moriemini make use of a Deaths-head and use Gods Promises and Threatnings as subordinate means to concurre with the principal as buttresses to support the building that it do not swerve whilst the foundation of Love and Faith keep it that it do not sink A strange thing it may seem that when with great zeal we cry down that Perfection of Degrees and admit of none but that of Parts we should be so refined sublimate as not to admit of the least tincture admission of Fear Now in the next place as Fear may consist with Love so it may with Faith and with Hope it self which seemeth to stand in opposition with it First Faith apprehendeth all the attributes of God and eyeth his threatnings as well as his Promises God hath establisht and fenced in his Precepts with them both If he had not proposed them both as objects for our Faith why doth he yet complain why doth he yet threaten And if we will observe it we shall find some impressions of Fear not onely in the Decalogue but in our Creed To judge both the quick and the dead are words which sound with terrour and yet an article of our belief And we must not think it concerneth us to believe it and no more Agenda and credenda are not at such a distance but that we may learn our Practicks in our Creed God's Omnipotence both comforteth and affrighteth me His Mercy keepeth me from despair and his Justice from presumption But Christs coming to judge both the quick and the dead is my solicitude my anxiety my fear Nor must we imagine that because the Faith which giveth assent to these truths may be meerly historical this Article concerneth the justified person no more then a bare relation or history For the Fear of Judgment is so far from destroying Faith in the justified person that it may prove a soveraign means to preserve it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaketh to order and compose our Faith In Psal 32. which is ready enough to take an unkind heat if Fear did not cool and temper it In Prosperity David is at his NON MOVEBOR I shall never be moved Psal 30.6 Before the storm came Peter was so bold as to dare and challenge all the temptations that could assault him ETSI OMNES NON EGO Matth. 26. Although all men deny thee yet not I yet was he puzled and
that where the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there we are to understand the Person of the Holy Ghost yet we rather lay hold on the pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When He the Spirit of truth shall come He shall lead you which pointeth out to a distinct Person If as Sabellius saith our Saviour had onely meant some new motion in the Disciples hearts or some effect of the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been enough but ILLE He designeth a certain Person and I LLE He in Christ's mouth a distinct Person from himself Besides we are taught in the Schools Actiones sunt suppositorum Actions and operations are of Persons Now in this verse Christ sayth that he shall lead them into all truth and before he shall reprove the world v. 8. and in the precedent chapter he shall testifie of me v. 26. which are proper and peculiar operations of the blessed Spirit and bring him in a distinct Person from the Father and the Son And therefore S. Augustine resteth upon this dark and general expression Lib. 6. De Trinit Spiritus S. est commune aliquid Patris Filii quicquid illud est The Holy Ghost communicateth both of the Father and the Son is something of them both whatsoever we may call it whether we call him the Consubstantial and Coeternal communion and friendship of the Father and the Son or nexum amorosum with Gerson and others of the Schools the essential Love and Love-knot of the undivided Trinity But we will wave these more abstruse and deeper speculations in which if we speak not in the Spirit 's language we may sooner lose than profit our selves and speak more than we should whilest we are busie to raise our thoughts and words up to that which is but enough It will be safer to walk below amongst those observations which as they are more familiar and easy so are they more useful and to take what oar we can find with ease than to dig deeper in this dark mine where if we walk not warily we may meet with poysonous fogs and damps in stead of treasure We will therefore in the next place enquire why he is called the Spirit of Truth Divers attributes the Holy Ghost hath He is called the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 the Spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 the Spirit of Grace Hebr. 10.29 c. For where he worketh Grace is operative our Love is without dissimulation Rom. 12.9 our Joy is like the joy of heaven as true though not so great Gal. 5.6 Isa 6.6 Rom. 10 2. our Faith a working faith and our Zeal a coal from the altar kindled from his fire not mad and raging but according to knowledge He maketh no shadows but substances no pictures but realities no appearances Luke 1.28 but truths a Grace that maketh us highly favoured a precious and holy Faith 1 Pet. 1.7 8. full and unspeakable Joy Love ready to spend it self and Zeal to consume us Psâ—l 69.9 of a true existence being from the Spirit of that God who alone truly is But here he is stiled the Spirit of Truth yet is he the same Spirit that planteth grace and faith in our hearts that begetteth our Faith dilateth our Love worketh our Joy kindleth our Zeal and adopteth us in Regiam familiam into the Royal 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 somtimes when they should not asking questions of such a Teacher was a seal to the promise a good assurance that 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 All truth should be brought forth and unfolded to them and having the veyl taken from it be laid open and naked to their understanding Let us then look up upon and worship this Spirit of Truth as he thus presenteth and tendereth himself unto us 1. He standeth in opposition to two great enemies to Truth Dissimulation and Flattery By the former I hide my self from others by the later I blindfold another and hide him from himself The Spirit is an enemy to both he cannot away with them 2. 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 cometh 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 bringeth in the Devil in Samuel's mantle and an enemy in the smiles and smoothness of a friend It speaketh the language of the Priest at Delphos As to King Philip whom Pausanias slew playeth in ambiguities promiseth life when death is neerest and biddeth us beware of a chariot when it meaneth a sword No this Spirit is an enemy to this because a Spirit of truth and hateth these involucra dissimulationis this folding and involvedness 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 this Spirit speaketh are like him and speak the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 1.12 in the simplicity and godly sincerity of the spirit not in craftiness 2 Cor. 4.2 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 handling the Word of God deceitfully not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 4.14 not in the slight of men throwing a die and what cast you would have them not fitting their doctrine to men and the times that is not to men and the times but to their own ends telling them of heaven when their thoughts are in their purse Wisd 1.5 6. This holy Spirit of Truth flieth all such deceit and removeth himself far from the thoughts which are without understanding and will not acquit a dissembler of his words There is nothing of the Devil's method nothing of the Die or Hand no windings or turnings in what he teacheth He speaketh the truth and nothing but the 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 This is the inseparable mark and character of the evil Spirit qui arridet ut saeviat who smileth upon us that he may rage against us lifteth us up that he may cast us down whose exaltations are foils whose favours are deceits whose smiles and kisses are wounds Flattery is as a glass for a Fool to look upon and behold that shape which himself hath already drawn and please himself in it because it is returned upon him by reflection and so he becometh more fool than before It is the Fools
this world saith the Apostle passeth away And what is that that passeth away to that which is immortal The Heart of man is but a little member It will not saith S. Bernard give a Kite its break fast and yet it is too large a receptacle for the whole world In toto nihil singulis satìs est There is nothing in the whole Universe which is enough for one particular man in which the appetite of any one man can rest And therefore since Satisfaction cannot be had under the Sun here below we must seek for it above And herein consisteth the excellency the very life and essence of Christian Religion To exalt the Soul to draw it back from mixing with these things below and lift it up above the highest heavens To unite it to its proper object To make that which was the breath of God Gen. 2.7 breathe nothing but God think of nothing desire nothing seek for nothing but from above from whence it had its beginning The Soul is as the Matter the things above the Form The Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Plato calleth Matter the receptacle of things above as the Matter is of Forms And it is never rightly actuated or of a perfect being till it receiveth the heavenly graces The Soul is the Pot the Vial so Chrysostom calleth it not wherein is put Manna but the Son and the holy Ghost and those things which they send from above The Soul is as the Ground and these the Seed the Soul the Matrix the Womb to receive them Matth. 13. And there is a kind of sympathy betwixt the immortal Seed and the Heart and Mind of Man as there is between Seed and the Womb of the earth For the Soul no sooner seeth the things above unveiled and unclouded not disguised by the interveniencie of things below by disgrace poverty and the like but upon a full manifestation she is taken as the Bridegroom in the Canticles with their eye and beauty Heaven is a fair sight even in their eyes whose wayes tend to destruction For there is a kind of nearness and alliance between the things above and those notions and principles which God imprinted in us at the first Therefore Nature it self had a glimpse and glimmering light of these things and saw a further mark to aim at then the World in this span of time could set up Hence Tully calleth Man a mortal God born to two things to Vnderstand and Do. And Seneca telleth us that by that which is best in Man our Reason we go before other creatures but follow and seek after the first Good which is God himself Again as these things bear a correspondence with the Mind and Soul of man as the Seed doth with the Womb of the earth so hath the Soul of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a formative faculty to shape and fashion them and by the influence of God's Grace and the kindly aspect of the Spirit to bring forth something of the same nature some heavenly creature to live in the world and hate it to walk in it and tread it under its foot THE NEW MAN which is renewed after the image of God Vers 1◠made up in righteousness and holiness The beauty of Holiness may beget that Violence in us which may break open the gates of heaven the virtue of Christ's Cross may beget an army of Martyrs and the Glory above may raise us up even out of the dust out of all our faculties to lay hold on it that so we may be fitted as with planes and marked out as with the compass as the Prophet Esay speaketh in another sense that we may be fitted to glory and those things above as others are to destruction Rom. 9.22 2 Tim. 4.8 1 Cor. 2.9 John 14.3 And hence this glory is said to be laid up and to be prepared for them which love God And our Saviour now sitteth in heaven to prepare a place for them even for all those who by setting their affections on things above are fitted and prepared for them Thus you see it is the chief work and end of Christian Religion to abstract and draw the Soul from sensual and carnal objects and to level and confine it to that object which is fitted and proportioned to it even the things above This is the work of the Gospel by which if we walk we shall suspect and fear the things below the pleasures and glory of this world as full of danger and set our affections on those things which are above and so have our conversation in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Let us now see what use we can make of this and draw it near to us by application And certainly if Christian Religion doth draw the Soul from that which is pleasing to the Sensitive part then we ought to try and examine our selves and our Religion by this touch-stone by this rule and be jealous and suspicious and afraid of that Religion which most holdeth compliance with the Sense and with our worldly desires which flattereth and cherisheth that part at which the Soul goeth forth and too often bringeth back Death along with her which doth miscere Deum seculum joyn God and Mammon the Spirit and the Flesh Christ and the World together and maketh them friendly to communicate with each other and so maketh the Christian a monster crying Abba Father but honouring the world falling down and worshipping Christ not in a stable but in a palace taking him not with persecution and self-denial but with honours riches and pleasures which in true esteem are but as the Apostle termeth them dung I will not mention the Heathen For what Religion can they have who are without God in the world Nor yet Mahumetism although wee see with what ease it prevailed and got a side and overflowed the greater part of the world because it brought with it a carnal Paradise an eternity of lusts and such alluring promises as the sensual part could relish and digest well enough though they were never fo absurd If from these we pass over into Christendom we shall soon see Christian Religion falling from its primitive purity remitting much of its rigour and severity painted over with a smiling countenance made to favour that which formerly it looked upon as capital and which deserved no better wages then death For how hath the Church of Rome fitted and attempered it to the sensitive part and most corrupt imaginations pulled off her sackcloth put on embroidery and made her all glorious without Allaying it with Worshipping of Saints which is but a carnal thing and Worshipping of Images a carnal thing Turning Repentance into Penance Fasting into Difference of meats Devotion into Numbering of beads Shutting up all Religion in Obedience and Submission to that Church Drawing out Religion from the heart to the gross and outward act With what art doth she uphold her self in that state and
Echo by which he heareth himself at the rebound and thinketh the Wiseman spoke unto him Flattery is the ape of Charity It rejoyceth with them that rejoyce and weepeth with them that weep it frowneth with them that frown and smileth with them that smile It proceedeth from the Father of lies not from the Spirit of truth Hebr. 13.8 who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Who reproveth drunkenness though in a Noah adultery though in a David want of faith though in a Peter His precepts are plain his law is in thunder his threatnings earnest and vehement What he writeth is not in a dark character Thou mayest run and read it He presenteth Murder wallowing in the blood it spilt Blasphemie with its brains out Theft sub hasta under sale He calleth not great plagues Peace nor Oppression Law nor camels gnats nor great sins peccadillos but he setteth all our sins in order before us He calleth Adam from behind the bush striketh Ananias dead for his hypocrisie and for lying to the holy Spirit depriveth him of his own Thy excuse with him is a libel thy pretense fouler than thy sin Thy false worship of him is blasphemy and thy form of godliness open impiety And where he entereth the heart Sin which is the greatest errour the grossest lye removeth it self heaveth and panteth to go out knocketh at our breast runneth down at our eyes and we hear it speak in sighs and grones unspeakable and what was our delight becometh our torment In a word he is a Spirit of truth and neither dissembleth to deceive us nor flattereth that we may deceive our selves but verus vera dicit being Truth it self telleth 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 appeareth and is visible in those lessons and precepts which he giveth so agreeable to that Image after which we were made to fit and beautifie it when it is defaced and repair it when it is decayed that so it may become in some proportion and measure like unto him that made it and then so harmonious and consonant and agreeing with themselves that The whole Scripture and all the precepts it containeth may in esteem as Gerson saith go for own copulative proposition 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 Fear in Confidence nor shake our Confidence when he bids us fear doth not set up meekness to abate our Zeal nor kindleth Zeal to consume our Meekness doth not teach Christian Liberty to shake off Obedience to Government nor prescribeth Obedience to infringe and weaken our Christian Liberty This Spirit is a Spirit of truth and never different from himself He never contradicteth himself but is equal in all his wayes the same in that truth which pleaseth thee and in that which pincheth thee in that which thou consentest to and in that which thou runnest from in that which will raise thy spirit and in that which will wound thy spirit And the reason why men who talk so much of the Spirit do fall into gross and pernicious errours is from hence That they will not be like the Spirit in this equal and like unto themselves in all their wayes That they lay claim to him in that Text which seemeth to comply with their humour but discharge and leave him in that which should purge it That upon the beck as it were of some place of Scripture which upon the first face and appearance looketh favourably upon their present inclinations they run violently on this side animated and posted on by that which was not in the Text but in their lusts and phansie and never look back upon other testimonies of Divine Authority that army of evidences as Tertullian speaketh which are openly prest out and marshalled against them and might well put them to a halt and deliberation stay and drive back their intention and settle them at last in the truth which consisteth in a moderation betwixt two extremes For we may be zealous and not cruel devout and not superstitious we may hate Idolatry and not commit Sacrilege Gal. 5.1 1 Pet. 2.16 stand fast in our Christian liberty and not make it a cloak of maliciousness if we did follow the Spirit in all his wayes who in all his wayes is a Spirit of truth For he commandeth Zeal and forbiddeth Rage he commendeth Devotion and forbiddeth Superstition he condemneth Idolatry yea and condemneth Sacrilege he preacheth Liberty 1 Cor. 12.4.8 9 11. and preacheth Obedience to Superiours and in all is the same Spirit And this Spirit did come and Christ did send him And in the next place to this end he came to be our Leader to guide us in the wayes of truth to help our infirmities to be our conduct to carry us on to the end And this is his Office and Administration Which one would think were but a low office for the Spirit of God and yet these are magnalia spiritûs the wonderful things of the Spirit and do no less proclaim his Divinity then the Creation of the world We wonder the blind should see the lame go Matth. 11.5 the deaf hear the dead be raysed up but doth it now follow The poor receive the Gospel Weigh it well in the balance of the Sanctuary and this last will appear as a great miracle as the former And this Advent and Coming was free and voluntary For though the Spirit was sent from the Father and the Son yet sponte venit he came of his own accord And he not onely cometh but sendeth himself say the Schools as he daily worketh those changes and alterations in his creature These words Dicit Mittam ut propriam autoritatem ostendat Tum denique veniet quo verbo Spiritûs potestas indicatur Naz. Orat. 37. to be sent and to come and the like are not words of diminution or disparagement He came in no servile manner but as a Lord as a friend from a friend as in a letter the very mind of him that sent it Which sheweth an agreement and concord with him that sent him but implyeth no inferiority no degree of servility or subjection Yet some there have been who have stumbled at the shadow which this word hath cast or indeed at their own and for this made the holy Spirit no more then a Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a supernumerary God brought in to serve and minister and no distinct Person of the blessed Trinity But what a gross error what foul ingratitude is this to call his goodness servility his coming to us submission and obedience and count him not a God because by his gracious operation he is pleased to dwell in men and make them his tabernacle Why may we
not as warrantably conceive so of the other Persons For God wrought in the Creation and the Heavens are the work of his hands Nay with reverence to so high a Majesty we may say God serveth us more then we do him who are nothing but by his breath and power Dust and ashes can do him no service But he serveth us every day He lighteth us with his Sun he raineth upon us he watereth our plants Luke ◠53 Psal 47.9 he filleth our granaries He feedeth the hungry with good things nay he feedeth the young ravens that call upon him He knocketh at our doors he intreateth waiteth sufferreth commandeth us to serve one another commandeth his Angels to serve and minister unto us res rationésque nostras curat he keepeth our accounts numbreth our tears watcheth our prayers If we call he cometh if we fall he is at hand In our misery in the deepest dungeon he is with us And these are no disparagements but arguments of his excellency and infinite goodness and fair lessons to us not to be wanting to our selves and our brethren who have God himself thus carefully waiting upon us and to remember us That to serve our brethren is to exalt and advance and raise us up to be like unto him When we wash our brethrens feet bind up their wounds sit down in the dust with them visit them in prison and minister to them on their beds of sickness we may think we debase our selves and do decrease as it were but it is our honour our crown our conformity to him who was the Servant of God and our Servant and made himself like unto us that he might serve us in his flesh and doth so to the end of the world invisibly by his Spirit It is the Spirit 's honour to be sent to be a Leader a Conduct and though sent he be yet he is as free an Agent as the Son and the Son as the Father Tertullian calleth him Christ's Vicar here on earth to supply his place But that argueth no inequality for then the Son too must be unequal to the Father for his Angel his Messenger he was and went about his Father's business Luke 2.49 To conclude this In a farr remote and more qualified sense we are his Vicar's his Deputies his Steward 's here on earth and it is no servility it is our honour and glory to do his business to serve one another in love Gal. 5.13 to be Servants to be Angels I had almost said to be holy Ghosts one to another As my father sent me saith our Saviour to his Disciples John 20.21 so send I you And he sendeth us too who are haereditarii Christi discipuli Christ's Disciples by inheritance and succession that every one as he is endowed from above should serve him by serving one another And though our serving him cannot deserve that name Judg. 5.23 yet is he pleased to call it helping him that we should help him to feed the hungry to guide the blind and teach the ignorant and so be the Spirit 's Vicars as he is Christ's that Christ may fill us more and more with his Spirit which may guide and conduct us through the manifold errours of this life through darkness and confusion into that truth which may lead us to bliss For as he is the Spirit of truth so in the next place the Lesson which he teacheth is Truth even that Truth which is an Art S. Augustine calleth it so and a law to direct and confine all other arts quâ praeeunte seculi fluctus calcamus which goeth before us in our way and through the surges of this present world bringeth us to the presence of God who is Truth it self A Truth which leadeth us to our original to the Rock out of which we were hewen and bringeth us back to our God who made us not for the vanities of this world but for himself An Art to cast down all Babels all towring and lofty imaginations which present unto us falshoods for truths appearances for realities plagues for peace which scatter and divide our souls powr them out upon variety of unlawful objects and deceive us in the very nature and end of things For as this Spirit brought life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 for whatsoever the Prophets and great Rabbies had spoken of Immortality was but darkness 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 Nakedness and Poverty What a heaven is Honour to my Ambition and what an hell is Disgrace though it be for goodness it self How doth a Jewel glitter in my eyes and what a slur is there upon Virtue What a glory doth the pomp of the World present and what a sad and sullen aspect hath Righteousness How is God thrust out and every Idol every Vanity made a God But the Truth here which the Spirit teacheth discovereth all pulleth off the veyl sheweth us the true countenance and face of things that we may not be deceived sheweth us Vanity in Riches folly in Honour death and destruction in the pomp of this World maketh Poverty a blessing and Misery happiness and Death it self a passage to eternity placeth God in his Throne and Man where he should be at his footstool 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 that hath power to unite us to our God that bringeth with it the knowledge of Christ and the wisdome of God and presenteth those precepts and doctrines which lead to happiness a Truth that goeth along with us in all our wayes waiteth on us on our beds of sickness leaveth us not at our death but followeth us and will rise again with us unto judgment and there either acquit or condemn us either be our Judge or Advocate If we make it our friend here it will then look lovely on us and speak good things for us if we make it our Counsellor here it will then be our Advocate 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 learn shall be Tribulation and anguish Rom. 2.9 Acts 2.20 2 Thes 4.16 The Sun turned into darkness and the Moon into blood 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 them Rom 2.16 acquit the just condemn the impenitent according to this Truth which the Spirit teacheth
the times I should say these were they wherein men should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lovers of themselves that is blind to themselves ignorant of themselves And then what an Iliad what an army of evils follow whilst Self-love leadeth in the front First Lovers of their own selves and then Covetous Boasters Proud Blasphemers Disobedient to parents Vnthankful Vnholy Without natural affection Truce-breakers False-accusers Incontinent Fierce Despisers of those that are good Traitors Heady High-minded Lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God And take that which followeth Having a form of godliness but denying the power of it And indeed Self-love contenteth it self with a form but will never lead us on so far as to the expression of the power of Godliness Glorious shews fair pretences holy intentions probable excuses which all make up but the statue and image of Religion these Pygmalion-like she doteth upon and so runneth on in the course of sin as a blind horse doth with a mill from hypocrisie to deceit from deceit to oppression from worse to worse and at last soothly falleth in love with them as if they were vertues indeed which will crown us everlastingly hiding us from our own eyes and making that the best argument we have that God seeth us not For if the knowledge of God did enlighten us and were in us of a truth if we could beg but so much time from our Self-love as to look into our selves we should then quickly see the Devil in his own shape and likeness and every vice in its proper horrour and deformity And such an uncouth and ghastly sight would soon turn our melody into lamentations change our countenance loose our joynts and turn our love of our selves into hatred and detestation which is truly the Love of our selves or a fair step and rise unto it For Self-examination would drive out Self-love and by drawing us near unto our selves would draw us near unto God And were we once near unto God we who are those great ones in our own eyes would appear but as atomes as nothing In the night when the Stars are remote from the Sun we may then discern one star of this magnitude and another of that then as the Apostle speaketh one star differeth from another in glory but in the day when they are in the same hemisphere with the Sun then that which before was a bright and twinkling star is not seen and though one Star be greater then another yet we cannot by our eye discover whether there be any Star or no. So it falleth out in that dark night which Ignorance and Self-love make we shine as stars in the firmament and our very darkness is brighter to us then the light it self but when vve have chased away this mist and cast off this darkness by a sad and serious discussion of our selves when we draw near unto God and by reflexion of light from him see every nook and corner of our hearts when the Sun of righteousness thus appeareth in our hemisphere then that which was before a star is nothing that which was beauty in the dark in this day is rottenness and deformity these Stars are fallen from their firmament from their painted heaven made up of Pleasure and Profit and the Love of our selves De coelo descindit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This light discendeth from above from the Father of lights And till by this light we see our selves in our own shape and likeness and every sin in its proper magnitude and malignity we know neither God nor our selves but we love our selves and not God which is indeed if Wisdome may interpret it Prov. 8.36 to love Death it self Now in the third place as Ignorance begetteth Self-love so doth Self-love increase our Ignorance and both together ingender Pride 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil doth soon bring in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haughtiness of mind And haughtiness of mind setteth us in our altitudes at a strange 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above the Law above the Truth above wholsom Doctrine above those who are set over us in the Lord and above God himself A sin that threw down Lucifer from heaven and every day excommunicateth and divideth us from our selves that despiseth counsel hateth reproof is death to admonition maketh the Flesh tutor and counsellor to the Spirit and every man a parasite and a Devil to himself Therefore saith the same Father every sin is a kind of contumelious pride The injurious person lifteth up himself against Justice the incontinent man against Chastity and laugheth at that strictness which maketh a covenant with the eye the profane person smileth at reverence in a word the fool looketh big upon the wise For as the Physicians tell us of their succedanea and agnata certain distempers which commonly follow the disease and are the very dregs of it so where this pestilent contagion of Pride hath once infected the soul of man and the powers of it there must needs follow a strange kind of dyscrasie and distemper even all the sins we are obnoxious to which are nothing else but the consectaries as it were of this foul and venemous humour all of the same bloud and consanguineous with it All those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Paul calleth them those wandring notions and strong imaginations are the vapours of a heart corrupted with Pride So are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disputes and subtle reasonings against God and our own souls Syllogismi verè destructivi destructive Syllogismes where Pride and Disobedience make up the Premisses and both naturally meet with Death and Hell in the Conclusion Now these three Self-love Ignorance of our selves and Pride take us from our selves bury us alive and make us but the walking sepulchres of our selves For he that thus loveth himself flattereth himself and with his flatteries covereth and raketh up himself as under earth And he that knoweth not himself is in the house of darkness and the land of oblivion And he that is proud when he is at the highest is falling into the lowest pit nay he is fallen already and his own eye shall never see him any more or if he be above ground he is but like those dead carcases which they say the Devil taketh and walketh up and down with Certainly he that is possessed with these three is lost is dead is buried to himself and nothing can dispossess him or raise him from the dead but an impartial Examination of himself which will shake the powers of this grave and raise him from this pit of darkness and desolation For the Philosopher Seneca could tell us Non emendabis te nisi deprehenderis Thou shalt never be able to amend thy self till thou find thy self out and thou shalt never find out thy self unless thou seek and search with diligence This is a grave of thine own digging and thou must go down thy self into it and discover thine own rottenness and corruption before thou canst be
None of these will fit us but SICVT ACCEPIMVS as we have received from Christ and his Apostles which is the onely sufficient Rule to guide us in our Walk 1. Not SICVT VIDIMVS as we have seen others walk No though their praise be in the Gospel and they are numbred amongst the Saints of God For as S. Bernard calleth the examples of the Saints condimentum vitae the sawce of our life to season and make pleasant what else may prove bitter to us as Job's Dunghill may be a good sight for me to look upon in my low estate and his Patience may uphold me David's Groans and Complaints may tune my sorrow Saint Pauls Labours and Stripes and Imprisonment may give me an issue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a way 1 Cor. 10.13 a power to escape the like temptation by conquering it I may wash off all my grief with their tears wipe out all disgrace with their contumelies and bury the fear of Death in their Graves so they may prove if we be not wary venenum vitae as poyson to our life and walk For I know not how we are readier to stumble with the Saints then to walk with them readier to lie down with David in his bed of lust then in his couch of tears readier to deny Christ with Peter upon a pretense of frailty then to weep bitterly out of a deep sense of our sin In the errours and deviations of my life I am Noah and Abraham and David and Peter I am all the Patriarchs and all the Apostles but in that which made them Saints I have little skill and less mind to follow them It will concern us then to have one eye upon the Saint and another upon the Rule that the actions of good men may be as a prosperous gale to drive us forward in our course and the Rule the Compass to steer by For it will neither help nor comfort me to say I shipwrackt with a Saint James 2.1 My brethren saith S. James have not the faith of Christ in respect of persons It is too common a thing to take our eye from the Rule and settle it upon the Person whom we gaze upon till we have lost our sight and can see nothing of Man or Infirmity in him His Virtue and our Esteem shine and cast a colour and brightness upon the evil which he doth upon whatsoever he saith though false or doth though irregular that it is either less visible or if it be seen commendeth it self by the person that did it and so stealeth and winneth upon us unawares and hath power with us as a Law Could S. Augustine erre There have been too many in the Church who thought he could not and to free him from errour have made his errours greater then they were by large additions of their own and fathered upon him those mishapen births which were he now alive he would startle at and run from or stand up and use all his strength to destroy Could Calvine or Luther do or speak any thing that was not right They that follow them and are proud of their names willing to be distinguished from all others by them would be very angry and hate you perfectly if you should say they could And we cannot but be sensible what strange effects this admiration of their persons hath wrought upon the earth what a fire it hath kindled hotter then that of the Tyrant's fornace Dan. 3. For the flames have raged even to our very doors Thus the Examples of good men like two-edged swords cut both wayes both for good and for bad and Sin and Errour may be conveyed to us not onely in the cup of the Whore but in the vessels of the Sanctuary They are as the Plague and infect wheresoever they are but spread more contagion from a Saint then from a man of Belial In the one they are scarce seen in the other they are seen with horror In the one we hate not the sin so much as the person and in the other we are favourable to the sin for the person's sake and at last grow familiar with it as with our friend De Abrog priv Miss Nihil perniciosius gestis sanctorum said Luther himself There is nothing more dangerous then the actions of the Saints not strengthened by the testimony of Scripture and it is far safer to count that a sin in them which hath not its warrant from Scripture then to fix it up for an ensample for it is not good to follow a Saint into the ditch Let us take them not whom men for men may canonize themselves and others as they please but whom God himself as it were with his own hand hath registred for Saints Hebr. 11.32 Numb 25.7 8 Psal 106.30 Samson was a good man and hath his name in the catalogue of Believers Phinehas a zealous man who staid the plague by executing of judgement but I can neither make Samson an argument to kill my self nor Phinehas to shed the bloud of an adulterer Lib. 2. de Baptismo q. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 10.24 S. Basil observeth that amongst those many seeming contradictions in Scripture one is of a Fact or Work done to the Precept The Command is Thou shalt not kill Samson killed himself Phinehas with his spear nailed the adulterous couple to the earth but every man hath not Samson's spirit nor Phinehas's commission The Father's rule is the rule of Wisdome it self When we read in Scripture a Fact commended which falleth cross with the Precept we must leave the Fact and cleave to the Precept For Examples are not rules of life but provocations to good works SICVT VIDIMVS As we have seen then is not a right SICVT We must be like unto Elias but not consume men with fire like unto Peter but not cut off a mans ear like unto S. Paul 1 Cor. 11.1 but himself correcteth it with a SICVT EGO CHRISTI as I am unto Christ 2. In the next place if not SICVT VIDIMVS as we have seen others then not SICVT VISVM FVERIT as it shall seem good in our own eyes For Phansie is a wanton unruly froward faculty and in us as in Beasts for the most part supplieth the place of Reason Vulgus ex veritate pauca Pro Roscio Comaedo ex opinione multa aestimat saith Tully The Common people which is the greatest part of mankind for vulgus is of a larger signification then we usually take it in are led rather by Opinion then by the Truth because they are more subject and enslaved to those two turbulent Tribunes of the Soul the Irascible and the Concupiscible appetite and so more opinionative then those who are not so much under their command It is truly said Affectiones facilè faciunt opiniones Our affections will easily raise up opinions For who will not soon phansie that to be true which he would have so which may either fill his
hopes or satisfie his lusts or justifie his anger or answer his love or look friendly on that which his wild passions drive him to Opinion is as a wheel on which the greatest part of the world are turned and wheeled about till they fall of several waies into several evils and do scarce touch at Truth in the way Opinion buildeth our Church chuseth our Preacher formeth our Discipline frameth our Gesture measureth our Prayers methodizeth our Sermons Opinion doth exhort instruct correct teach and command If it say Go we go and if it say Do this we do 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 buildeth 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 Acts 26.9 12 14. saith S. Paul and what a whirlwind was that thought It drove him to Damascus with letters and made him kick against the pricks Psal 74.6 Shall I tell you that it was but Phansie that in Davids time beat down the carved works with axes and hammers that 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 Phansie and to deal with it as mothers do 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 Phansie sporteth and pleaseth it self with vain and aery speculations let us suspect and quarrel them and by degrees present unto it the very face of Truth as the Stoick speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epictet sift and winnow our imaginations bring them to the light and as the devout Schoolman speaketh Gerson resolve all our affectual notions by the Accepistis by the Rule and so demolish all those idoles which our Passions by the help of Phansie have set up For why should such a deceit pass unquestioned why should such an imposture scape without a mark 3. But now if we may not walk SICVT VISVM EST as it seemeth good unto us yet we may SICVT VISVM EST SPIRITVI SANCTO as it seemeth good to the holy Ghost Yes for that is to walk 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 learned a cursed art to set them at distance and when the Word turneth from us and will not be drawn up to our Phansie to carry on our pleasing but vain imaginations we then appeal to the Spirit we bring him in either to deny his own 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 witness a lie This we would do but cannot For make what noise we will and boast of his name we are still at Visum est nobis it is but Phansie still it is our own Spirit not the holy Ghost Matth. 24.24 1 John 4.1 For as there be many false Christs so there are many false spirits and we are commanded not to believe 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 layeth claim to it and the Enthusiast layeth 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 forged in that shop of vanities their Phansie Idem Accio Titióque Both are alike in this And if the Pope could perswade me that he never opened his mouth but the Spirit spake by him I would then pronounce him Infallible and place him in the Chair 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 Impostours 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 pretense of the Spirit If I be a Zelote what dare I not do And when I presume I have the Spirit what dare I not say What action so foul which these may not authorize what wickedness imaginable which these may not countenance What evil may not these seal for good and what good may they not call evil 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 transformed into Angels of light and burning Seraphim and have led men upon those Precipies into those works of darkness which no night is dark enough to cover I might here much enlarge my self for it is a subject fitter for a whole 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 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 Eternal happiness is a fair sight and spreadeth its beams and unvaileth its beauty to win our love to allure and draw us And if it draw us we must up and be stirring and walk on to meet it What that devout writer saith of his Monk Climacus is true of the Christian He is assidua naturae violentia His whole life is a constant continued violence against himself against his corrupt nature which as a weight hangeth upon him and cloggeth and fettereth him which having once shaken off he not onely walketh but runneth the wayes of Gods commandments Psal 119.32 Rom. 13.13 Again let us walk honestly as in the day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as becometh Christians in our several stations and conditions of life and not think Christ dishonoured if we mingle him with the common actions of our life We never dishonour him more then when we take him not in and use him not as our guide and rule even in those actions which for the grossness of the subject and matter they work on may seem to have no savour or relish of that which we call Religion Be not deceived He that thus taketh him in is a Priest and a King the most honourable person
in the world Behold the Profane Gallant who walketh and talketh away his life Malunt Remp. turbari quà m comam Sen. who divideth himself between the comb and the glass and had rather the Common-wealth should flie in pieces then one hair of his periwig should be out of its place whom we bow and cringe and fall down to as to a golden Calf I tell you the meanest Artizan that worketh with his hands even he that grindeth at the mill is more honourable then he Take the speculative phantastick Zelote the Christian Pharisee that shutteth himself up between the ear and the tongue between hearing much and speaking more and doing contrary the worst Anchorete in the world bring full of oppression deceit and bitterness I may be bold to say The vilest person he that sitteth with the dogs of your flock Job 30.1 Phil. 3.18 is more honourable more righteous then he and of such as these S. Paul spake often and he spake it weeping that they did walk but walk as enemies to the cross of Christ. Let then every man move in his own sphere orderly 1 Cor. 7.20 abide in the calling wherein he is called And in the last place that we may move with the first Mover Christ the Beginner and Authour of our Walk let us take him along with us in all our wayes Heb. 12.28 hearken what Christ Jesus the Lord will say that we may walk before him with reverence and godly fear Psal 85.8 Exod. 37.9 Not SICVT VIDIMVS as we have seen but look we upon one another as the two Cherubims touching and moving one another but with the Ark of the testimony in the midst betwixt us and by that either inciting or correcting one another in our walk Nor SICVT VISVM FVERIT as it shall seem good in our own eyes for nothing can be more deceitful then our own thoughts Nor SICVT VISVM SPIRITVI S. as every Spirit may move us which we call Holy for it may be a lying spirit and â—ead us out of our way into those evils which grieve that blessed Spirit whose name we have thus presumptuously taken in vain But SICVT ACCEPIMVS as we have received Christ Jesus Let us joyn example with the Word and it will be no more as a meteor to mislead us but a bright morning-star to direct us to Christ Correct our Phansie by the Rule and it will be sanctum cogitatorium an alembick an holy elaboratory of such thoughts as may fly as the doves to the windows of heaven And last of all try the Spirit by the Word for the Word is nothing else but the breathing and voice of the Spirit and then thou shalt be baptized with the Spirit and fire The Spirit shall enlighten thee Matth. 3.11 John 16.13 and the Spirit shall purge and cleanse thee and lead thee into all truth The Spirit shall breathe comfort and strength into thee in this thy walk and pilgrimage and thou shalt walk from strength to strength Psal 84.7 from virtue to virtue even till thou come to thy journeyes end to thy Father's house to that Sabbath and rest which remaineth to the people of God Hebr. 4.9 A SERMON Preached at the Funeral of THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL Sir George Whitmore Knight Sometime Lord Mayor of the City of LONDON Who departed this life Decemb. 12. 1654. at his house at Bawmes in MIDDLESEX PSAL. CXIX 19. I am a stranger in the earth hide not thy commandments from me THis Psalm is a Psalm of David So S. Augustine and Hilary and others or gathered by him or out of him And it is nothing else but a collection of Prayers and Praises a body of devout ejaculations which the Greek Fathers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lively sparkles breathed forth from a heart on fire and even sick with love And they fly so thick that observation can hardly take the order of them The method of Devotion followeth and keepeth time with the motion of the Heart which is as various and different as those imprâ—ssions which Joy or Grief Fear or Hope make in it Which either contract and bind it up and then it struggleth and laboureth within it self and conceiveth sighs and grones which cannot be expressed or breaketh forth into complaints and strong supplications v. 39. v. 77. Take away the rebuke that I fear Let thy tender mercies come unto me that I may live and the like or else dilate and open it and then it leapeth out of it self and breatheth it self forth with exultation and triumph in songs of praise and Hallelujahs v. 57. v. 97. v. 72. O Lord thou art my portion O how I love thy Law The Law of thy mouth is better unto me then thousands of gold and silver In this verse which I have read unto you and chosen as the fittest subject for this present occasion the Heart having looked abroad out of it self and reflected back into it self draweth out in it self the Picture of a Stranger or a Pilgrime and having well lookt upon it with the serious eye of Contemplation which is the heart of the Heart and the soul of the Soul having surveyed the place of its habitation how frail and ruinous it is as a tent subject to the winds beat upon by every storm and at last to be removed it goeth out of it self and seeketh for shelter under the shadow of Gods wing sendeth forth strong desires for supply and support in hoc inquilinatûs sui tempore as Tertullian speaketh in this time of its so journing and pilgrimage for that supply which is most answerable to the condition of a stranger upon earth and which may best conduct him to the place for which he was born and bound He asketh not for Riches they have wings Prov. 23 5. and will fly away and leave him in his walk or if they stay with him they will but mock and delude him Not for Honour that is but a breath but air and may breathe upon him at one stage and at the next leave him but never forward him in his way Not for Delightful vanities these are but ill companions and will lead him out of his way The best supply for a stranger here upon earth is from heaven from the place not where he sojourneth but to which he is going the best convoy the will and commandments of God the word of God the best lantern to his feet Psal 119.105 Whilest these are in his eye and heart he shall pass by slippery places and not fall he shall pass through fire and water he shall walk upon the Lion and the Asp Psal 66.12 91.13 he shall meet with with flattering objects and loath them with terrours and contemn them use the world as if he used it not be in poverty 1 Cor. 7.31 and yet not poor in affliction but not distrest in many a storm and pass through and rejoyce in it live in the world and
of a virtue and call it our Humility For that is true Humility with God quae caeteris cingitur virtutibus which is compassed about and guarded with the troop of all other virtues not which walketh securely in the midst of a multitude of transgressions When Christ biddeth us sin no more shall we be so humble as to sin more and more Pusillanimitas fingit quod sit Humilitas This is not Humility but base Pusillanimity and supine Negligence an Humility wrought in us by the love not of God but of the world not any one of the fruits of the good Spirit but of the Prince of darkness who careth not in what demure posture we fall so we fall into his snare Pure Humility before God and the Father is this Wholly to rely on him who is our strength and salvation and will never fail us unless we shrink and turn the back To adore him in his precepts and embrace him in his promises To lay hold on every good thought and inclination to foment and cherish it and not to make darkness our pavilion when he walketh in the midst of his seven golden candlesticks and speaketh unto us by his Spouse the Ministery of his Church To consider that as there be many temptations to sin so there be many fair allurements and provocations to obedience that as our Senses be the doors and portals by which Satan entereth so Reason is made to stand as a Sentinel and the Will by the assistance of God's Grace hath power to shut them up against him and not to shape a weakness in our Phansie which will make us weaker and carry it about with us as our Bona Dea or tutelary Saint to intercede for us and defend us from the guilt of sin Not to suppose that impotency which will quite disenable us Not so to acknowledge our sinful disposition as to make it either an occasion or apology for sin but as we have vowed and are bound by Covenant to strive and fight against it with all our heart and soul and with all the faculties we have To confess and bewail our weakness and look up to the God of all power and then advance and press forward as if we were strong Thus our obedience will stretch it self to the extent of the precept in that sense it is prescribed and we shall sin no more To this end thirdly let us not flatter our selves in a kind of ordinary course in a kind of fashion and formality of religion and bless and applaud our selves if we stand innocent from great transgressions from scandalous sins such as have shame written in their foreheads and such as the laws of men make dangerous or fatal As if to escape the prison were to be redeemed from hell and as if no disease were killing but the Plague when yet we see common diseases bring the heads of thousands into the grave If God could be held upon such easie and cheap terms if to abstain from great sins were not to sin at all then were the greatest Saints of God most miserable who made no end of cleansing their hearts and washing their hands in innocency Paul was a chosen vessel and Daniel greatly beloved these were the great favourites of God and likely of all others to find their Lord must indulgent yet they watched and prayed and were frequent in prayer which they needed not have done if their obedience might have been accepted at a cheaper rate Oh if this be the case of men so just so careful so high in the favour of God what then shall be the end of our partial imperfect and broken service If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appear Now the reason of this is plain It is obedience onely that commendeth us to God and that as exact and perfect as the equity of the Gospel requireth And then every degree of sin is rebellion and can we raise rebellion and yet not forfeit our obedience Sin no more and your obedience is perfect If you sin again you are but rebels Watch therefore and pray lest thou enter into temptation Strive and fight against that sin which hath the Dominion over thee Thou sayest thou dost But how long How many moneths how many weeks how many dayes how many hours hast thou set apart for this spiritual exercise for this agony and contention And if thou canst not name a moneth a week a day an hour in which thou hast bid defiance to thy sin thou hast no reason to wonder that that sin should prevail against thee which thou never yet hadst will or courage to fight against in any one the least part of thy span of time Lastly take the Father's counsel Nè sit tibi minimum non negligere minima Let it not seem a small thing to thee to watch and fight against the smallest and least sins even those which are as nothing in thy eyes For even these may make a breach to let in Death upon thee Therefore thou must take up the whole armour of God to resist and keep them out One evil humour unpurged may be the death of the body one cranny unstopt may be the drowning of the ship one little sin unrepented of may be the destruction of the soul Then take heed thou make not use of thy father's art of hiding thy sin of paring and filing it till what was great be nothing How soon will a sin vanish out of sight in a clear day What a force have Profit and Power and Prosperity to make the greatest sin invisible or set it out of sight Profit persuadeth Power commandeth Prosperity flattereth and at this musick Conscience falleth asleep A rich Oppressour is just a cunning Politician is honest and a prosperous gallant Villain is a Saint What need we fear to sin again when Sin it self is made a virtue These Profit Power Prosperity are the Devils carpets which he spreadeth in our way or his green pastures through which he leadeth us to the chambers of Death Let us then take heed of these as of Hell it self and not sin again though it may make me rich not sin again though it may make me great not sin again though it may raise me to the highest place from thence to look down upon our shame and count it glory But let us abstain from all appearance of sin from the face and representation of it and hate it in a picture Thus if we watch over our selves if we seriously strive and fight against sin we shall sin no more or if we do we shall sin as men not Angels fall of frailty not as Lucifer from heaven And then if after a strict watch and guard set upon our selves we sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous And he is the propitiation for our sins Now from the Extent of this Precept and the Possibility of observing it we come in the last place to discover the Danger of not observing
it self in his mouth will be heretical and whatsoever droppeth from his pen will be poyson Hence it hath come to pass that we have heard the innocent condemned and things laid to their charge which they never did that they have been branded with the name of murderers who abhorred murder of injurious who suffered wrong of persecutors who were oppressed of idolaters who hated idoles of hereticks who were the strongest pillars of the Truth We are wont to say Love is blind and tell me now Is not Hatred blind also In the next place let one Feaâ— chase away another Let the Fear of God whose wrath is everlasting expell the Fear of Man whose breath is in his nostrils whose anger and power like the wind breathe themselves out who whilest he destroyeth destroyeth nothing but that which is as mortal as himself The reason why we miss of Truth is because we are so foolish and ignorant that we Fear man more then God and the shaking of his whip then the scorpions of a Deity How hath this ill-placed Fear unmanned us how hath it shaken the powers of our soul and made us say what we do not believe and believe that to be true which we cannot but know is false There hath passed an ungracious speeâ—h amongst us and often rung in our ears and this base degenerate Fear did dictate it Men have been so bad and bold as to say They had rather trust God with their souls then Man with their estates and lives Had they not thought they had stated the question they would not have proclaimed it with such ostentation they would not have sung it out and rejoyced in it Certainly if a proverb as the Philosopher saith be a publick testimony and do discover the constitution of the place where it is taken up then our Jerusalem is not the city nor our Countrey the region of Truth Trust man with our estates When we persevere in the Truth and suffer for it we trust not our estates with Man but put them into his hands who gave them and who can make the greatest Leviathan that playeth in the sea of this world Job 41.31 and maketh it boil like a pot disgorge himself and cast out the prey We do not trust them with Man but offer them a sacrifice to the Lord. But we will trust God with our souls say they See how a lie multiplieth in our hands We will trust God with our souls and pollute them and when we have polluted them still trust in the Lord. It is good to trust in the Lord but it is good too to take heed what a soul we trust him with Wilt thou trust an unclean soul with the God of purity a soul guilty of bloud with the God of mercy a distracted soul with the God of peace an earthy soul with the God of heaven a perjured soul with that God who is Truth it self Let not thy love of the world and thy fear of losing it draw so false and foul conclusions from so radiant and excellent a truth And if thou art in earnest and wouldst buy the Truth Matth. 10.28 then fear not them which kill the body and after that have no more that they can do Luke 12.4 5. but fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell yea I say unto you fear him Now in the last place what is our Hope If it be in this life onely we are of all men the most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 For this world is not the region of Truth here is nothing to be found but vanity and lies Pergula pictoris veri nihil omnia falsa Here are false Riches painted Glories deceitful Honours I may say the world is a monument a painted sepulchre and within it lie Errour Delusions and Lies like rotten bones And wilt thou place thy Hope here upon that which is a lie Shall this be thy compass to steer by in thy travel and adventure for Truth Shall the lying Spirit the God of this world be thy holy or rather unholy Ghost to lead thee to it O spem fallacem This is a deceitful Hope and will lead thee into by-paths and dangerous precipices wheel and circle thee about from one lie to another Mark 9.22 cast thee like that evil spirit into fire and water waste and wash away thy intellectual and discerning faculties which should sever Falshood from Truth make thy religion as deceitful as thy hopes and when all thy hopes and thoughts perish deliver thee over to the Father of lies Be sure then to take of thy Hope from these things on eâ—rth why should it stoop so low And raise it up to enter into that within the veil Hebr. 6.19 that it may not flie after shadows and phantasms but lay hold on the Truth it self that the World and the Devil may find nothing in thee to lead thee from the light into that ignorance which is darker then darkness it self that thou mayest say to them What have I to do with you and so pass on with courage and chearfulness to the purchase of that Truth which abideth for ever The Eleventh SERMON PART II. PROV XXIII 23. Buy the truth and sell it not also wisdome and instruction and understanding YE have heard of part of the payment But the price of the Truth is yet higher and there is more to be given And indeed we shall find that the merchandise is unvaluable and that it will be cheap when we have given all for it What are the Vanities of the world yea what is the whole World it self nay what is our Understanding Will and Affections what is Man in comparison of that Truth without which he is worse then nothing What is it then that we must lay down more when we come to this mart We must part with that which cleaveth many times so close unto us that we cannot so much as offer any thing for the Truth First we must remove all Prejudice out of our minds that they may be still tanquam rasa tabula though they have something written in them yet that they receive not any opinion so deeply in as not to be capable of another which hath more reason to commend it that they cleave not so close to that which was first entertained upon weak peradventure carnal motives as to stand out against that which bringeth with it a cloud of witnesses and proofs yea light it self to make entrance for it Secondly we must remove all Malice all distast and loathing of the Truth we must take heed we do not wilfully reject it as if it concerned us not nor were worth the buying Till our mind be clear of both these Prejudice and Malice we may talk of the Truth but onely as a blind man doth of the light we may commend the Truth but as a man of Belial may honour a Saint we may cry out Magna est Veritas praevalebit 1 Esdr 4.41 and yet
we know he was but a man and we know he erred or else our Church doth in many things It were easie to name them But suppose he had broached as many lies as the Father of them could suggest yet those who in their opinions had raised him to such an height would with an open breast have received them all as oracles and have licked up poison if it had fallen from him For they had the same inducement to believe him when he erred which they had to believe him when he spake the Truth We do not derogate from so great a person we are willing to believe that he was sent from God as an useful instrument to promote the Truth But we do not believe that he sent him as he sent his Son into the world that all his words should be spirit and life John 6.63 that in every word he spake whosoever heard him heard the Father also Thus ye see how Prejudice may arise how it may be built upon a Church and upon a person and may so captivate and depress the Reason that she shall not be able to look up and see and judge of that Truth which we should buy I might instance in others and those too who have reformed the Reformation it self who have placed the Founder of their Sect as a star in a firmament and walk by the light which he casteth and by none other though it come from the Sun it self Who fixing their eye upon him alone follow as he led and in their zele and forward obsequiousness to his dictates many times outgo him and in his name and spirit work such wonders as we have shrunk and trembled at But manum de tabula we forbear lest whilest we strive to charm one serpent we awake an hundred and those such as can bite their brethren as Prejudice doth them I shall but instance in two or three prejudicial opinions which have been as a portcullis shut down against the Truth The first is That the Truth is not to be bought nor obtained by any venture or endeavour of ours but worketh it self into us by an irresistible force so as that when we shall have once got possession of it no principalities or powers no temptation no sin can deprive us of it but it will abide against all storms and assaults all subtilty and violence nay it will not remove though we do what in us lieth to thrust it out so that we may be at once possessours of it and yet enemies to it Now when this opinion hath once gained a kingdome in our heads and we count it a kind of treason or sacrilege to depose it why should we be smitten Isa 1.5 why should we be instructed any more Argument and reason will prove but paper-shot make some noise perhaps but no impression at all What is the tongue of the learned to him who will hearken to none but himself We talk of a preventing Grace to keep us from evil but this is a preventing ungracious perversness to withhold us from the Truth For when that which first speaketh in us which we first speak to our selves or others to us who can comply with that which is much dearer to us then our selves our corrupt humour and carnality when that is sealed and ratified for ever advice and counsel come too late When Prejudice is the onely musick we delight to hear what is the tongue of Men and Angels what are the instructions of the wise but harsh and unpleasant notes abhorred almost as much as the howlings of a damned spirit When we are thus rooted and built up in errour what can shake us It is impossible for us to learn or unlearn any thing For there is no reason we should be untaught that which we rest upon as certain and which we received as an everlasting truth written in our hearts by the finger of God himself and that as we think with an indeleble character Or why should we studie the knowledge of that which will be poured by an omnipotent and irrefragable hand into our minds Who would buy that which shall be forced upon him When the Jew is thus prepossessed when he putteth the Word of God from him Acts 13.46 and judgeth himself unworthy of everlasting life then there is no more to be said then that of the Apostles Lo we turn to the Gentiles Another Prejudice there is powerful in the world somewhat like the former namely a presumption that the Spirit of God teacheth us immediately and that a new light shineth in our hearts never seen before that the Spirit teacheth us not onely by his Word but against it That there is a twofold Word of God 1 Verbum praeparatorium a Word read and expounded to us by the ministery of men 2. Verâ—um consummatorium a Word which consummateth all and this is from the Spirit The one is as John Baptist to prepare the way the other as Christ to finish and perfect the work It pleaseth the Spirit of God say they by his inward operation to illuminate the mind of man with such knowledge as is not at all proposed in the outward Word and to instill that sense which the words do not bear Thus they do not onely lie to the holy Ghost but teach him to dissemble to dictate one thing and to mean another to tell you in your ear you must not do this and to tell you in your heart you may to tell you in his proclamation Matth. 5.21 you may not be angry with your brother and to tell you in secret you may murder him to tell you in the Church Matth. 21.13 you must not make his house a den of thieves and to tell you in your closet you may down with it even to the ground Juven Sat. 8. Inde Dolabella est atque hinc Antonius inde Sacrilegus Verres From hence are wars contentions heresies schismes from hence that implacable hatred of one another which is not in a Turk or a Jew to a Christian For tell me What may not they say or do who dare publish this when their Phansie is wanton It is the Spirit when their Humour is predominant It is the Spirit when their Lust and Ambition carry them on with violence to the most horrid attempts It is the Spirit when they help the Father of lies to fling his darts abroad It is the Spirit It is indeed the Spirit a Spirit of illusion a bold and impudent Spirit that cannot blush For when it is agreed on all sides that all necessary truths are plainly revealed in Scripture what Spirit must that be which is sent into the world to teach us more then all In a word it is a Spirit that teacheth us not that which is but that which our Lusts have already set up for truth A new light which is but a meteor to lead us to those precipices those works of darkness which no night is dark enough to cover Such a Spirit as proceedeth
the unfolding and displaying his essential proprieties by acts proper to them And here they all meet and are concentred his Justice Wisdom Power Mercy His Justice satisfied his Wisdom manifested his Power raiseth us from the dead and his Mercy saveth us and in all God is glorified For this 1. we glorifie him in our spirit in our inward man by transforming our selves into the likeness of his Son who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of his Father And we are too in a lower degree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is brightness but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more then brightness even such a bright thing which hath a lustre cast upon it from some other thing As in us all the light which is seen in these dark souls of ours is from the Father of lights His Justice his Mercy his Wisdom shine upon us and all those graces in us are but the reflexion of his light And this reflexion of his Graces is his Glory Commonly when we hear mention of the Glory of God we think of nothing but the calves of our lips But there is a louder language of our Conformity to his will There his glory appeareth as in his holy Temple No quire of Angels can improve no raging Devil can diminish his Glory He is the same in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphim and Cherubim in the midst of all the blasphemies of Men or Devils But as the Woman is the glory of the Man in being subject to him so are we the glory of God when we do his will For then it may be said that God is in us of a truth shining in the perfection of beauty in those graces and perfections which are but beams of his in our Meekness in our Justice in our Courage and Resolution in our Patienc◠which are the Christian's tongue and glory and do more fully set forth God's glory then the tongues of men and of Angels can these are the best Doxology of the Saints For how well pleased is God to see his creature Man to answer that pattern which he hath set up to be what he should be and what he intended For as every artificer is delighted and glorieth in his work when he seeth it finished according to the rule by which he did work and as we use to look upon the works of our hands or wits with favour and complacency as we do upon our Children when they are like us so doth God upon Man when he appeareth in that shape and form of obedience which he prescribed Thus should the Glory of God be carried on along in the continued stream and course of all our actions and break forth and be seen in every work of our hands it should be the echo of every word we speak the echo of every word nay the spring of every thought that begat that word It may seem indeed a hard thing to keep this intention alive and not to think or speak or act but when this is present before us not to do a good deed till we have told our selves we will do it for God's glory And it is so a hard thing Nor doth God require at our hands an actual and perpetual intention of his glory Thou mayest nay thou dost work to his glory when thy thoughts are busie and intent upon thy work though peradventure his glory doth not so fill thy heart as to fix it on it The Glory of God must be the primum mobile the first motive of our Obedience and the force and virtue of that must carry it about from vertue to vertue We see an arrow flieth to the mark by the force of that hand out of which it was sent He that travelleth on the way may go forward in his journey though his thoughts sometimes be carried and look upon some occurrences in the way and do not alwayes fix themselves upon the place to which he is going So when the Will and Affections are quickned and enlivened with the love of God's Glory every word and action will carry with it a savour and relish of that fountain from whence they spring An Architect doth not alwayes think of the end for which he buildeth his house but his intention on his work doth sometimes so fully take him that that is left out and as it were forgotten when it is not forgotten but alwayes supposed And though he make a thousand pieces yet he still retaineth his art saith Basil So though we cannot make this first intention of God's glory keep time with us in all the passages of our Christian conversation and send up every action thus incensed and perfumed yet the smell of our sacrifice shall ascend and come before God because it is breathed forth from that heart which is Gloriae ara an altar dedicated wholly to the Glory of God Onely thy care must be to keep it as thy heart with diligence to nourish and strengthen it that if it seem to sleep yet it may not die in thee to guard and barricado thy heart against all contrary and heterogeneous imaginations all earthy all wandring thoughts which may as Jacob take this first-born this first intention of God's Glory by the heel and supplant it and rob it of its birth-right For these extravagant and contradicting thoughts will borrow no life from thy first intention of God's glory but the intention of God's glory will be lost and die in these thoughts Remember then to beautifie thy inward man and fill it with the glory of God that it may be as a gallery hung round with the fairest pictures and representations of his Glory those vertues perfections which will make thee like him that thou mayest be nothing else but the praise and Glory of thy Maker that thou mayest sing a new song nunc Pietatis carmen nunc modulos Temperantiae as Ambrose speaketh now a song of Sion a Psalm of Piety and again the composed measures of Temperance and Chastity that thou mayest be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so make up a Gloria Deo in a complete and perfect harmony And thus we glorifie God in our spirit But in the next place a body hast thou prepared me and we must glarifie God in our bodies also God must have our Knee our Tongue our Eye our Countenance Philosophus auditur dum videtur The Philosopher and so the Christian is heard when he is seen Come saith the Psalmist Psal 95.6 let us worship and fall down .. Nunquam vericundiores esse debemus quà m cùm de Diis agitur saith Aristotle in Seneca Modesty and reverence never better become us then in those intercourses which are made between God and us We enter Temples saith he with a composed countenance Vultum submittimus togam adducimus We cast down our looks we gather our garments together and every gesture is an argument of our inward reverence Tam corpus est Homo quà m anima saith
either draw it dry which is a glorious conquest or keep it in the proper chanel which was ordained for it and where it may pass with honour that so the Man may either be an eunuch for the kingdom of heaven or soli uxori masculus a man to his wife alone and so glorifie God in his frail and mortal body I would not be a Pharisee to boast but yet I know nothing by my self but that I may fling a stone at the adulterer Nor am I so much a Pharisee as to point out to that Publican at whom I should fling it I know Jess by others then I do by my self For as I see not their actions so I cannot see their heart nor what fire it is that burneth upon that Altar But yet when I see Vanity every day advance her plumes and tread her wanton measures before the Sun and the people when I read a Law that makes Adultery death and then hear some of them that made it a Law make it a jest first set up a Mormo and then laugh at it when I see men talk with their eyes and speak with their feet and teach and invite with their fingers as the Wise-man describeth it when I see those affected gestures which are the forerunners and prologues to the foulest acts when I see both men and women drest up with that advantage as if they would set themselves to sale and provoke one another not to good works but to those of darkness when I hear those evil words which corrupt good manners a verse of a Poet but sanctified and made canonical by S. Paul or rather those evil words which are the marks of the plague in the heart the symptoms and indications of a corrupted and nasty soul when I see Obscenity as well as Oaths made an ornament of speech when I observe an art and method that some use in foming out their own shame when it is become the mode of the time and he is the best Wit that is thus wanton and he the best speaker that speaketh words clothed with death when I see and hear this as who seeth and heareth it not I cannot but fear that there are more fornicators then those who are marked in the hand more Adulterers then those who die on the tree When I see men thus walk upon hot coals I cannot but think that their feet will be burned When I see this thick and fuliginous smoke I cannot but look down towards the lowest pit and say Certainly that is the place from whence it came But this is not to glorifie God in our body but to glory in our shame Nor can any light be struck out of such a Chaos nor the Glory of God be resplendent in such a sink Let us then in the next place as Julian the Apostate speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wage war with this our flesh let us deny our appetite that our lust may not be importunate let us afflict our bodie by fasting and abstinence discipline and keep them under and bring them into subjection For talk what we will of Fasting till the body be afflicted and sensible of that affliction it is no fast The fast is not complete till the body be subdued Then by the power of God we have the conquest and his is the Glory But what glory is it to him to see his image shut up and buried in a full body as in a grave what honour to see an active and immortal soul as dull and earthy as that clod of clay which incloseth it to see the work of his hands set up against him to see the body wanton and the soul which he breathed in breathe nothing but filth to see the man whom he made for life nourished up for the day of slaughter What glory can it be to him to see that which should be his Temple become a kitchin a stews I will not prescribe you the rules of Abstinence The Pythagoreans abstained from living creatures because they phansied to themselves a Transmigration of Souls the Manichees from herbs and plants because they thought that Earth it self had life Montanus gave laws of Fasting and had three Lents What mention we these who were but Philosophers and Hereticks There be that cry down Heresie and anathematize it who abstain from Flesh and from Eggs because potentially flesh and from Milk too Take heed of that that is sanguis albus white bloud saith Bellarmine This is not to fast to forbear those ordinary meats and feed on dainties But they are far worse who to confute them will have no Fast at all who make it a matter rather of dispute then practice and instead of fasting ask whether a Fast may be enjoyned or no whether the Church have power to appoint a fast whether it be not a sin to fast as the Papists do And so from non Pontificium we are even fallen to nullum from no Popish fast to no fast at all or are driven to a fast as Balaam's ass was to the wall by the terrour of the sword It will not be much material now to determine although it is soon done who hath the power of proclaiming a Fast When God is to be glorified in our bodies every man is his own Magistrate and may enjoyn himself a fast when he please and without blowing a trumpet Though he cannot work a miracle yet he may fast with Christ and may use Fasting to that end our Saviour did As Christ made it an entrance into his calling and Prophetick office so may the Christian make it a praeludium to his warfare He may fast that he may repent he may fast that he may give almes fast that God may see the conquest of the Spirit over the Flesh and glory in it If Fasting hath its magistery and operation as the Fathers speak it may be a wing to our Prayers and a nurse of our Devotion It is not it self a virtue but it is instrumentum virtutum an instrument to work out perfection The end of Christian discipline consisteth not in it but by it we are brought with more ease unto our end It is virtus animi purgativa as the Pythagoreans speak a purgative virtue that clenseth and prepareth the soul for religious endeavours sweepeth and adorneth it as a place for God's Honour to dwell in And as it cometh from the heart for a broken heart will soon proclaim a fast so it reflecteth upon the heart again and confirmeth that affection which begat it It sharpeneth our Sorrow it swelleth our Anger it enflameth our Zele it raiseth our Indignation it keepeth fresh our tears it correcteth and prepareth the body by a kind of art the body which as the Historian speaketh of the common people aut humiliter servit aut superbè dominatur must either crouch under us as a servant or will soon insult over us as a Lord. Statim ubi par esse coeperit superius erit Let it be once your equal and it will
celestial dialect and not as some of late have been ready to make it the language of the Whore of Babylon as if Faith onely did make a Protestant and Good works were the mark of a Papist What mention we Papist or Protestant The Christian is the member of this Body and Common-wealth this is his language Zeph. 3.9 the pure language When Hand and Tongue Faith and Good works a full Persuasion and a sincere Obedience are joyned together then we shall speak this language plainly and men will understand us and glorifie God the Angels will understand and applaud us and the Lord will understand and crown us We shall speak it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faintly and feignedly ready upon any allurement or terrour to eat our words but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we shall make it plain by an Ocular demonstration And this is truly to say JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. This is the Lesson our first Part. And thus far we are gone And we see it is no easie matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak but these three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. For we must comprehend Eph. 3.18 saith the Apostle the breadth and length and depth and height of this Divine mystery the breadth saith S. Augustine in the expansion and dilatation of my Charity the length by my continued perseverance unto the end the height in the exaltation of my hope to reach at things above and the depth in the contemplation of the bottomless sea of God's mercies These are the dimensions And if we will learn these Mathematicks because we see the Lesson is difficult we must have a skilful Master And behold my next Part bringeth him forth bringeth us news of one who is higher then heaven broader then the sea and longer then the earth as Job speaketh It is the holy Ghost For no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost And indeed good reason that he should be our Teacher For as the Lesson is such should the Master be The Lesson is spiritual the Teacher a Spirit The Lecture is a lecture of piety and the Spirit is an holy Spirit The Lesson proposeth a method to joyn Heaven and Earth God and Man Mortality and Immortality Misery and Happiness in one to draw us near unto God and make us one with him and the holy Ghost is that consubstantial and coeternal Friendship of the Father and the Son nexus amorosus as the Schools speak the essential Love and Love-knot of the undivided Trinity Flesh and blood cannot reveal this great mystery it must be a Spirit And the Spirit of this world bringeth no news from Heaven we may be sure It must be SPIRITUS SANCTUS the holy Ghost SPIRITUS SANCTUS for JESUS DOMINUS the holy Ghost for Jesus the Lord that by the grace of the holy Spirit we may learn the Power of the Son and by the inspiration of his Holiness learn the mystery of Holiness For it is not sharpness of wit or quickness of apprehension or force of eloquence that can raise us to this Truth but the Spirit of God must lead us to this tree of Knowledge Therefore Tertullian calleth Christian Religion 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 but because the Spirit first found out the way to save us by so weak a means as Faith O qualis artifex Spiritus sanctus What a skilful Artificer what an excellent Master is the blessed Spirit who found out a way to lift up Dust it self as high as Heaven and clothe it with eternity whose least beam is more glorious then the Sun and maketh it day unto us whose every whisper is as thunder to awake us cujus tetigisse docuisse est whose every touch and breathing is an instruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene For this Spirit is wise and can he is loving and will teach us if we will learn He inspireth an Herdsman and he straight becometh a Prophet He calleth a Fisherman and maketh him an Apostle Et non opus est morâ Spiritui Sancto He standeth not in need of any help from delay Without him Miracles are sluggish and of no efficacy but upon his breathing our Saviour shall appear glorious in his ignominy and the Thief shall worship him on his cross as if he had been in his Kingdom in whom he wrought such an alteration that in S. Hierom's phrase mutavit homicidii poenam in martyrium he was so changed that he died not a thief or murtherer but a Martyr And such a powerful Teacher we stood in need of to raise our Nature and that corrupt unto so high a pitch as the participation of the Divine Nature For no act and so no act of holiness or spiritual knowledge can be produced by any power which is not connatural to it and as it were a principle of that act So that as there is a natural light by which we are brought to the apprehension of natural principles whether speculative or practick by which light many of the Heathen proceeded so far as to leave most of them behind them who have the Sun of righteousness ever shining upon them so there must be a supernatural light by which we may be guided to attain unto truths of a higher nature Which the Heathen wanting did run uncertainly as S. Paul speaketh and beat the air and all those glorious acts by which they did out shine many of us were but as the Rainbow before the Floud for shew but for no use at all The Power must ever be connatural to the Act. Nature may move in her own sphere and turn us about in that compass to do those things which Nature is capable of but Nature could not make a Saint or a member of Christ To spiritualize a man to make him Christi-formem to bring him to a conformity and uniformity with Christ is the work alone of the Spirit of Christ Which he doth sweetly and secretly powerfully characterizing our hearts and so taking possession of them The Apostle telleth us that Christ dwelleth in us by his Spirit by his power and efficacy Rom. 8.11 which worketh like fire enlightning warming and purging our hearts Matth. 3.11 which are the effects of Fire First by sanctifying our knowledge of him by shewing us the riches of his Gospel and the beauty and majesty of Christ's Dominion and Kingdom with that evidence that we are forced to fall down and worship by filling the soul with the glory of it as God filled the Tabernacle with his Exod. 30. that all the powers and faculties of our soul are ravished at the sight that we come willingly and fall down willingly before this Lord in a word by bringing on that Truth which our heart assenteth to with that clearness and fulness of demonstration that it passeth through all the
faculties of the soul and over-ruleth them that it moveth our soul as the soul doth our body For such a Knowledge and such a knowledge is onely meant in Scripture doth ever draw with it Affection and Practice that we may love the Lord and call him Lord and make it the crown of our rejoycing to be subject to his Dominion Secondly by quickening and enlivening and even actuating our Faith For this Spirit dwelleth in our hearts by faith Eph. 3.17 maketh us to be rooted and grounded in love enableth us to believe with efficacy For from whence proceed all the errours of our life From whence ariseth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaketh that irregularity those contradictions and consequences in the lives of men that to day they wash and to morrow wallow to day bow and to morrow exalt themselves now mourn like doves and anon rejoyce and vaunt as giants now sigh and anon curse now sin and by and by repent and then sin again like wanton lovers quarrel and embrace love and hate almost in the same moment from whence is this double-mindedness and wavering but from hence that we admit not the Spirit in his office nor suffer him to quicken and enliven our faith but vex and grieve him and drive him away by our vain and carnal imaginations as Bees are driven away with smoke If we did not inquietare Spiritum tenerum delicatum as Tertullian is bold to style him disturb and disquiet this tender and gentle Spirit if we did handle him with humility and peace and quietness and not with choler and anger and grief and other carnal passions which he will not come near if we made not our selves such vultures when this Dove is ready to descend he would certainly draw near unto us even into our hearts and do his office and fill us with all spiritual knowledge and seal us up to the day of redemption A Teacher then he is But great care is to be taken that we mistake him not or take some other Spirit for him For indeed the world is too Spirit-wise and there were never greater Pneumatomachi Fighters against the Spirit in the Church of God then in these our dayes The Eunomians the Sabellians they who questioned his Divinity they who made him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inferiour a servant yet never entitled him to Profaneness to Sacriledge to Murther Now whatsoever we say of Jesus whatsoever we do to Jesus the Spirit is the Teacher We say he is the Lord by the Spirit and we say this Lord looketh for neither knee nor hand nor any reverence by the same Spirit That he hath Dominion over us and must have our service we say it by the Spirit but we are bold upon it that we must serve him out of pure love but by no means out of fear by the same Spirit Each Dream must go current for an Inspiration and men think themselves enlightned with Illusions The fanatick Anabaptist though the Devil be in the vision thinketh he seeth a glorious Angel and boldly concludeth that the Spirit teacheth him And then quicquid dixerit legem Dei putat whatsoever Text he meeteth with he will commend his gloss and interpretation for the dictate of the holy Ghost Doth S. Paul preach Christian Liberty What then doth the Magistrate with the sword of Justice in his hand the Judge on the tribunal or the King on his throne Will you hear them in their own dialect An Hezekiah is no better then a Sennacherib a Constantine as insufferable as a Julian every King is a Tyrant and every Tyrant a Devil MEUM ET TUUM Mine and Thine are harsh words in the Church They are almost of the wind of the Carprocrations in Clemens who because the Air was common would have their Wives so too Mundus senex delirus said Gerson of the like The world is now grown aged and beginneth to dream dreams And if we prodigally lend our ears to every one that upon presumption of the Spirit will stand up and prophesie we may hear news as from Heaven indeed but such as the Devil was the father of Whatsoever the Text be the Interpretation is Jesus is the Lord thus to be feared that is such a Lord as we will make him a Lord that must countenance us to do our own wills and send his Spirit to truck and traffick for us to be our Minister to advance our lusts our Conduct to bring us to that end we have set up to be ready at hand when our Ambition or Covetousness will call for him that we may hold him up against himself and bring him in as an auxiliary for his enemy If we murther the Spirit moveth the hand if we pull down Churches it is with the breath of the Spirit if we would bring in a Parity the pretence is The Spirit cannot endure that any should be Supreme or Pope it but our selves Our Humour our Madness our Malice our Violence our implacable Bitterness our Railing and Reviling are all the Inspirations of the Blessed Spirit Simeon and Levi Absalom and Ahithophel Theudas and Judas the Pharisees and Ananias they that despite the spirit of grace they that grieve the Spirit they that resist him they that blaspheme him they that draw him down to their carnal ends and entitle him to their several purposes as the Popish Priests give the names of several Saints to one Image for their advantage and to multiply their oblations these Scarabees bred in the dung these Impostors these men of Belial must go no longer for a generation of vipers but the Scholars and Friends of the holy Ghost May we not now make a stand and put it to the question Whether there be any holy Ghost or not or if he be Whether he teacheth us Indeed these appropriations and violent ingrossings of the Spirit have I fear given growth to conceits almost as dangerous That the Spirit doth not spirare breatheth no grace into us That we need not call upon him That the Text that telleth us the holy Ghost teacheth us is that holy Ghost that teacheth us That the letter is the Spirit and the Spirit the letter An adulterate piece new-coined an old Heresie brought in a new dress and tire upon the stage again That he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unheard of Deity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ascriptious and supernumerary God I may say more dangerous then those that quite take him away For to confess the Spirit and abuse him to draw him on as an accessory and abettor nay a principal in those actions which Nature it self abhorreth and trembleth at is worse then to deny him What a Spirit what a Dove is that which breatheth nothing but gall and wormwood but fire and brimstone What a Spirit is that which is ever pleading and purveying for the Flesh Petrarch will tell us Nihil importunius erudito stulto That there is not a more troublesome creature in the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but some of them some of the rout or if of higher place none of the best For the last when we have more neerly lookt upon it and brought it to the touch and tryal we shall find it to be but a lye coyned out of the Devils mint bearing his image and superscription even the stamp and character of Malice Envy and Ignorance Of these in their order We are to speak first of a Miracle and that briefly In every Miracle as Aquinas saith there are two things Quod fit and Propter quod fit the thing done which must transcend the course of Nature and the End which is also supernatural Indeed in respect of the power of God there is no miracle at all it being as easie for him to make one man speak all languages on the sudden as by degrees to teach him one but in his Divine goodness he was pleased to work wonders not for shew but for our instruction And as he had born witness to his Son by power and great miracles so doth he here to the Holy ghost now visibly descending upon his Apostles to no other end but this to consecrate his Church to seal the Gospel and so to fulfil that as Christ had fulfilled the Law This was the end of this miraculous operation The holy Ghost comes in a mighty wind to rattle their hearts together he comes in fire to enflame their breasts and in cloven tongues to cleave their hearts asunder He teacheth one man to speak all kind of tongues that Christ might become the language of the whole world Now in the next place let us view the persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others What enterteinment finds the miracle what welcome hath the holy Ghost No other then what befalls all unusual and extraordinary events Every man lays hold of it and shapes it in such a form as he please To some you see it is a matter of wonder to others of mirth And this the Father calleth Judaicum opprobrium a reproch cleaving fast to the Jew So was it here to them and it may be laid to many among us this day as a just imputation not to consider mirabilia Dei the wonderful things of God Some render it separata Dei those works of his which are set apart to this very purpose to elevate our thoughts if not to beget yet to confirm our faith at least to work a disposition to it We should account it a strange stupidity in any one to be more affected at the sight of the Sun then of a small candle or taper and to esteem the great palace of Heaven but as a fornace But when God stretcheth forth his Hands to produce effects which follow not the force of secundary causes to make Nature excell her self to improve her operations beyond the sphere of her activity then not to put on wonder not to conclude that it is for some great end is not folly but infidelity the daughter of Malice and Envy and affected Ignorance Miracles are signs and if they signifie nothing it is evident that a stubborn heart and froward mind corrupt their dialect and will not understand the meaning of them And then what are miracles but trifles matter of scoff and derision Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God by miracles a jugler his sceptre a reed his crown of thorns a knee a mock a voice from heaven is but thunder to make the blind to see the lame to go and the deaf to hear a kind of witchcraft or sorcery To be baptized with the Spirit is to be full of drink and to speak divers languages to be drunken When Julian the Apostate had read a book presented unto him in defense of Christianity all the reply he made was this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have read understood and condemned it To which S. Basil most fitly and ingeniously replyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You have read it indeed but not understood it for had you understood it you would never have condemned it The same befalls men prepossessed and too far engaged in the world and with business no whit complyable with the operations of the Spirit They behold the great things of God and streight think they understand them and their censure is as sudden as their thought but the Fathers reply to that Apostate will reach home to them Did they timely understand them they could not possibly slight them They could not slight those doctrines of Universal Obedience Self-denial Necessity of good Works the Deadness nay the Danger of Faith without civil Honesty for the confirmation of which all miracles were wrought We need not now wonder to see wonders slighted For from this root spring all the errours of our life This doth what the Pope is said by some to do make Vertue vice and Vice vertue This makes fools prophets and Christ a deceiver This makes us neither see vertue in others nor the most visible and mountanious sin in our selves By this rule the innocent are murderers and murderers saints From hence it was that Christ appeared to some no more then the Carpenters son Some slighted his person as contemptible others his precepts as ridiculous his Gospel as foolishness his disciples as idiots To this day our behaviour is little better then mocking Our Lust which waits for the twilight mocks at his Omniscience Tush God seeth not Our Distrust argues against his Power The waters gushed out can he give bread also If the windows of Heaven should be opened can this be done Our Impatience questions his Truth That which he doth not yet we think he will never do He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most wise nay Wisdome it self yet how many think he will not make inquisition for bloud nor punish it with eternal fire and these frame their lives as if this were a very truth God is bountiful and hath nothing so proper to him as to be Good and Liberal to all yet some there be who have imputed all to Destiny and the Stars And those who acknowledge him to be the Giver of life have confined and impropriated his Goodness to a few His Mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 triumpheth over his Justice yet Novatian made every fall as low as Hell and what is Despair but a mocking of Gods Mercy The miracle of this Feast if you will admit S. Augustines conceit is still visible in the Church where every man speaks all the languages of the world in as much as he is a member of that Catholick Church where all languages are spoken and yet this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this scoffing and derision is the most usual figure in the Worlds Rhetorick and he that cannot answer an argument can break a jest The ground of all is infidelity the proper issue of obstinate and wilfull Ignorance which brought forth these men here not Isaacs you may be sure but yet children of laughter I will give you a reason of this from a heathen man Plato
disconsonant to the wayes of those who are deeply immerst and drencht in the world and which by them is in esteem as Madness or Drunkenness shall receive the reward of Soberness and Truth O how happy were it for these mockers if they were thus distempered thus superstitious if they took this cup of the Lord and did adde drunkenness to thirst and even fill and glut themselves with it They cannot be too reverent too spiritual too absurd and ridiculous to the world and worldly men He that seems wise to these must needs be neer of kin to a fool and he whom they admire must be ridiculous Aliud est judicium Christi aliud anguli susurronum Whom the world laughs at Christ will honour whom they make their slaves with Christ are Kings and whom they scorn he will crown And then these scoffers shall be had in derision and they who are filled with the Spirit shall for ever drink of the river of his pleasures and shall sit down with him at his table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and these Apostles here and drink that new wine with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that spiritual immortal joy in the kingdom of his Father in the presence of God where there are pleasures for evermore To which He bring us who sent his Spirit down upon us Jesus Christ the righteous The Three and Thirtieth SERMON PART I. LUKE XI 27 28. And it came to pass as he spake these things a certain woman of the company lift up her voice and said unto him Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps which thou hast sucked But he said Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it WE cannot say more of our Saviour in the dayes of his flesh then this He went about doing good Acts 10.38 Job 29.15 He was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and health to the sick And as he cured mens bodies of diseases so he purged their souls from sin As he went his steps dropped fatness Scarce proceeded there a word from his blessed lips that breathed not forth comfort In this chapter he cast out a devil which was dumb and the people wondred v. 14. But such is the rancour and venome of Envy and Malice that no vertue no miracle no demonstration of power can castigate or abate it What is Vertue to a Jew or what is a Miracle to a Pharisee When the devil was gone out saith the Text the dumb spake a work not to be wrought but by the finger of God But if a Pharisee look upon it it must change its name and be said to be done by the claw of the Devil For some of them said He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the prince of the devils Others tempting him sought from him a sign from heaven as if this were not such a one but rather proceeded from the pit of hell and from the power of darkness It is the character of an evil and envious eye to look outward extrà mittendo not to receive the true species and forms of things but to send out some noxious spirits from it self which discolour and deface the object Hence Envious men are thought as S. Basil saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to infect every thing they look upon and like the Basilisk to kill with a very look What do they cast their eye upon that they do not poison and corrupt Is it Temperance they call it Stupidity Is it Justice they call it Cruelty Is it Wisdome they call it Craft Is it Honesty they call it Folly and Want of foresight Is it a Miracle they call it Magick and Sorcery and a work of Beelzebub Wherefore saith the Father was our Saviour made a mark for every venemous dart wherefore was he so sorely laid at by the Jews by the Scribes and Pharisees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For nothing else but his wondrous works And what were they His curing of the sick feeding of the hungry restoring of the dead to life casting out of devils And therefore as he confirmed his doctrine by miracles so Malice putteth him to another task to make good his miracles by reason and argument And this he doth 1. argumento ducente ad absurdum by an argument which will either bind them to silence or drive them upon the face of an open absurdity For what an absurd thing were it for Satan to drive out himself and 2. argumento ducente ad impossibile For if Satan be divided against himself it is impossible his kingdome should stand Proficit semper contradictio stultorum ad stultitiae demonstrationem saith Hilary The contradiction of sinners and fools striveth and struggleth to gain ground and to over-run the Truth but the greatest proficiencie Folly maketh is but to make her self more open and manifest like Candaules's wife who was seen naked of all but her self But Truth is as unmovable as a rock which as the Father speaketh of the Church tunc vincit cùm laeditur tunc intelligitur cùm arguitur tunc obtinet cùm deseritur then conquereth when it receiveth a foil is then understood when it is opposed and is then safe when it is forsaken Let the Jews rage and the Pharisees imagin a vain thing let Envy cast a mist and let Malice smoke like a fornace yet Christ's miracles shall be as clear as the day wherein they were wrought and the mouth of Iniquity shall be stopped Out of his own mouth shall the Pharisee be convinced and Christ shall be as powerful in his words as in his works so powerfull in both that even è â—urba out of that multitude which did oppose him one witness or oâ—her shall rise to bear testimony to the truth to point out to the finger of God by which this miracle was wrought to magnifie and bless not onely our Saviour but even the very womb that bare him and the paps that he had sucked For it came to pass as he spake these things a certain woman of the company lift up her voice and said unto him Blessed c. My Text divideth it self between the Woman and Christ First the Woman taketh occasion from what she had heard and seen to magnifie Christ Then Christ taketh occasion from her speach to instruct her and let her at rights She calleth Christ's mother blessed He sheweth her a more excellent way by which she may come to be as blessed as his mother She talketh of Blessedness He telleth her what it is He condemneth not her affection but directeth and levelleth it to the right object and as the Pythagoreans method of teaching was he indulgeth something that he may gain the more Be it so Blessed is the womb that bare me and the paps that gave me suck QUINIMO But much rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it To be my Mother is but a temporal privilege but to hear and keep my word is eternal
speak of him before tyrants and not be ashamed then he hath cast out a spirit which was dumb But I rather keep me to the words of the Text As he spake these things Doth he not still speak the same things Hebr. 13.8 Jesus Christ is yesterday and to day and the same for ever Nec refert saith the Father per quem sed quid à quo It is not material whose tongue is made use of so it be Christ that speaketh these things And how often doth he speak these things But where is the FACTUM EST that which cometh to pass is scarcely discernable Auditis laudatis Ye hear him speak and perhaps ye commend him Deo gratias God be thanked for that yet But when this is done nothing cometh to pass Semen accipitis verba redditis Ye receive the seed of the Word and all the harvest vve see is but weeds We see it not in the extension of your hands in the largeness of your alms in the lifting up of your hands in your devotion at prayers we see it not in your reverence meekness and patience Well saith the Father Toleramus illae tremimus inter illa We suffer it and tremble at it Your words are but leaves it is fruit and encrease that we require Be not deceived Every good lesson should be unto you as a miracle to move you to give sentance for Christ against the Pharisees and all the enemies he hath against the Pride that despiseth him the Luxury that defileth him that Disobedience that trampleth him under foot Every good motion for therein Christ speaketh to us should beget a resolution every resolution a good work every good work a love of goodness and the love of goodness should root and stablish and build us in the faith In a word every DIXIT of Christ's should be answered with a FACTUM EST from us every work every word of his should be a sufficient motive and a fair occasion to us to magnifie the power of the Speaker in our souls and in our bodies and with this Woman here in the very face of the enemie in the midst of all the noise Detraction can make to lift up our voice and give testimony unto Christ who is so powerful both in word and deed And so I pass from the Motive and Occasion to the Person who from what she saw and heard gave this free attestation A certain woman of the company Here are two circumstances that may seem to weaken and infringe the testimony and take from the credit of the miracle 1. that she was a Woman and 2. that she was but one of the multitude S. Gregory will tell us MVLIER tam pro infirmitate ponitur quà m pro sexa That this word Woman in Scripture sometimes noteth the Sex and sometimes signifieth Infirmity And in the antient Comedians Mulier es is a term of reproch For as the Schoolman hath observed foeminarum aviditas pertinacior in affectu fragilior in cognitione The affections of Women commonly outrun their understanding and they are then most in flame when they have least light Again this circumstance That she was but one of the multitude might have been laid hold on by the Pharisees as an argument against Christ Might they not have reviled her as they did the man who was born blind and received his sight and said unto her Thou art but one Joh. 9.34 and dost thou teach us But such is the nature of Truth that it can receive no prejudice but will prevail against all contradiction though it have but one witness and find no better champion then a Woman Suis illa contenta est viribus nec spoliatur vi suâ etiamsi nullum habeat vindicem saith Arnobius She resteth upon her own basis and is content with her own strength which she cannot lose though she find no undertaker Truth doth not fail though a Pharisee oppose it but is of strength sufficient to make the weakest of its champions conquerer For the foolishness of God is wiser then men 1 Cor. 1.25 and the weakness of God is stronger then men Neither Number nor Sex hath so much power upon Truth as to alter its complexion Whether they be many or few weak or strong that profess it Truth is still the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one and the same hue and colour Gen. 49.19 As it was said of Gad A troop may overcome it may silence and suppress it for a while but it shall overcome at the last Yet a conceit hath possessed the world That there is a kind of virtue or magick in Number and the Truth breatheth onely in those quarters where there are most voices to proclaim it And many are so bewitched that they think it a gross absurdity for one man in the defense of Truth to stand up against a multitude and they will make this advocate because he is but one an argument against the Truth What would these men have thought of Christ had they seen him among the Pharisees or heard the shout of the people crying aloud John 18.40 Not this man but Barabbas Indeed neither the Paucity nor the Number of professours is an argument to demonstrate the Truth These pillars do not support her We have rather great reason to suspect the doctrine that is cryed up by the voice and humme of the multitude I have much wondred that they who talk so much of the Church have made this a note and mark whereby we may know it For experience hath sufficiently taught us that were it to put to the vote of the multitude we should scarce have any face of a Church at all It never went so well with the world that the most should be best Therefore S. Hierome is peremptory that multitude of associates demonstrate rather an Heretick then a Catholick We may be then well content to hear the Church of Rome boast and triumph that she hath enlarged her dwelling and spred her self from one end of the world unto the other and to lay it as an imputation upon us that our number is so small that we scarce are visible sed illos Defendit numerus junctaeque umbone phalanges The whole world is theirs praeter Italian Hispaniam totam All Italy and all Spain is theirs And besides these and many other Kingdomes which the Cardinal reckoneth up they may take-in the New world for advantage An happiness which we hereticks cannot hope for Non enim debet nunc incipere Ecclesia crescere cùm jam senuerit saith he For the Church cannot encrease now she is old and hide-bound and past growth Who would ever have thought that so sick and lothsome meditations should have dropped from so learned a pen Might not the antient Hereticks have taken-up the same plea when the whole world as S Hierome speaketh was become Arian And himself confesseth that if one province alone hold the true faith that one province may be
Christ strive to make every man he sees a disciple Abraham as he was called faithful Abraham so made himself the father of the faithful and did command his children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord which was to beget them in the Lord. Joshua and his houshold will serve the Lord. David having tasted how gracious the Lord was calls others to make trial and drink of the same cup. This is the good mans nay the Angels Jubilee to see others turn unto the Lord. The weeping Prophet wished his head a fountain of tears when men dishonoured God by their rebellion Moses wish was that all the people could prophesie One Prephet draws on a goodly fellowship of Prophets one Apostle a glorious company one Saint a noble army For when the spirit of Holiness whose operation is like that of Fire is hot within men it spreads it self violently like that element which hath voracitatem toto mundo avidissimam as Pliny speaks is a restless element and either spreads or dyes Grace being kindled from the Father of Lights from him who is Light it self takes in others and licks up every thing about it as the fire did which Elias called down from heaven S. Paul being inflamed with this heat what would not he do what would not he suffer He would spend and he spent he would offer up himself a sacrifice for the Philippians he would stay on earth when he desired to depart he would abide in the flesh an irksome thing to one so spiritualized and now ready to put on the crown which was laid up for him he would retire for a while even from Joy it self that the Philippians might become what he was truly stiled the Servants of Jesus Christ We may think it perhaps a strange sight to see so great an Apostle so filled with revelations one that had been in the third Heaven to be now in such a strait one that had received the Truth neither by men nor of men but by the revelation of Jesus Christ to doubt and to be ignorant what to do But thus to be at a stand and in doubt thus to consider both conditions of this and the next life and then to conclude against himself for the Glory of God and the Salvation of his brethren could not but proceed from a most heroick and divine Spirit a Spirit that had subdued the Flesh nay conquered it self and preferred the Glory of God before his own Will though regular and warrantable the same Spirit which was in Christ qui quod voluit effici id ipsum concedi sibi non voluit as Hilary speaketh who would not have that granted which he would have done I say none but those who have such a spirit are subject to such a doubt none but those who are thus free are brought to such a strait They who are fleshly and wordly-minded the children of this world are so wise indeed in their genaration that they are never thus perplext they never demur or doubt with S. Paul they are never shut up in his strait No as they have not tasted of the powers of the world to come so it is not in all their thoughts Nusquam aqua haeret they never stick or are in perplexity but are sudden and positive and soon conclude for themselves Here here let us build us a tabernacle Here amidst the fading pleasures and flying vanities of this world here amongst shadows and apparitions amongst those killing tentations which we love amongst those occasions of evil which we will run and meet and embrace in the midst of all the snares the Enemy can lay which we delight to be caught in and look upon our fetters as ornaments Here let us dwell for ever for we have a delight therein What is the Glory of God unto us who thus glory in our own shame What will we do to save our brothers Soul who so prodigally prostitute our own Not a spark of the fire in us which was in S. Paul no trouble no doubt in us not the least consideration of God our selves and our brethren And thus we pass on securely wantonly delicately not fearing the bitterness of death never in any strait till we are shut up in that prison out of which we shall never come out And this is the most pleasing and the most sad condition we can fall into This security is our danger This lifting our selves up is our ruine A diligent troubled perplexed Christian shall find light in darkness resolution in doubting and a way to escape in the greatest streit To conclude this If the same mind were in us which was in S. Paul if the same mind were in us which was in Christ Jesus we should then look upon our calling to be Christians as the most delightful and the most troublesome calling We should not hope to pass through it without rubs and difficulties without doubts and disputings in our selves We should compare one thing with another often put up questions and have fightings and struglings in our selves We should desire that which is best for our selves and conclude for that which is best in the sight of God For this we must do even sometimes curb and restrain our selves in our lawful desires and when we set forth forth for the Glory of God leave them behind us stay his leisure to do him service deny our selves in our own desires desire to put off the flesh and yet resolve to abide in the flesh lay down all our wills and desires and bow to the will and Glory of God With S. Paul here we may retein both a resolution to glorifie God in our mortal bodies and a desire to be loosed and to be with Christ cheerfully entertein the one and yet earnestly desire the other They were both here in the Apostle and the same Love was mother and nurse to them both I am in a great strait It was Love perplext him and the Love of Christ raised up this desire to be with him For I am in a great strait desiring to be loosed and to be with Christ. And so we pass from S. Pauls Doubt to his Desire And indeed had be not been in this strait he had not had this desire which nothing can raise up but the Love of God and his glory This Desire carries nothing in it that hath any opposition to the will of God It is not wrought in us by Impatience or Sense of injuries for the Christian hath learnt to forgive them Not by Contumelie and Disgrace for the Christian can bear contumeliam contumeliae facere and so fling disgrace upon Contumelie it self It is not the effect of any evil for the Christian can overcome evill with good The Stoicks indeed thought quaerendam potiùs mortem quà m servitutem ferendam That the best remedy for Slavery Contumely or a tedious Sickness was to force the Soul from the body which was now become a prison and place of torment to it And in
Pulpit-flatterers 506. Flattering Preachers are vvorse then Judas 510 511. The root of Flattery is Covetousness 507 c. How apt vve are to flatter our selves 442. 480. 742. 875. v. Assurance Presumtion Security Flesh v. Body Flesh and Spirit contrary 175. 562. 767. ever contending one vvith another 312. Florimundus Raimundus 556. Folly Whence all the Folly that so aboundeth in the vvorld 689 690. Fools and Mad-men vvhat to be thought of 96. None such Fools as they vvho think themselves vvise 500 501. Forgetfulness of the World reproved 1116. Forgiveness How short our Forgiveness cometh of God's 817. God's F. is free and voluntary and so must ours be 818. Whether we are bound to forgive an injury before acknowledgment made 818. God forgiveth fully and so must vve not onely forgive but forget 819. By this vve become like unto God 820. Though vve must forgive yet is not the office of the Judge or going to Law unlawful 821. God's F. is not the less free because it engageth us to forgive 824. What force our F. hath to obtain F. of God 824 825 830 c. What influence God's F. should have on us 826 c. How it cometh to pass that it doth not alwayes vvork in us the likeness of it self 827 828. That we may forgive our Brother vve must oft call to mind and meditate upon the Mercy of God 828 829. and apply it aright 829. What vve must do to get our sins forgiven 833. Grace to forgive one another is never single but accompanied vvith other graces 833. Form A Form of godliness nothing worth vvithout the power thereof 663. yet it deceiveth many 77. 79. and contenteth them 74 c. 303 304. 487. and vvorketh confidence and security in their hearts 74. 76. 1127 1128. and they conceit that God himself also is much taken vvith such pageantry 82. 108 109. Indeed the Form is accepted vvhen the power is not wanting 79 80. otherwise not 487 488. Why a bare Form vvithout substance is so hateful to God 75-79 It hath the same motive with our greatest sins 76. It is mere mockery 80. 877. It is as pleasing to the Devil as it is odious to God 77. v. Hearing Piety Worship Formality v. Outward Duties It is compared to motions by vvater-works 845. Formalities are easy essential duties difficult 1057. Formal repentance is the grossest hypocrisie 372. Fornication eloquently and excellently declaimed against 750 752. Excuses for it answered 750. It dishonoureth the body and defileth the soul 750. It maketh the members of Christ the members of an harlot 750. It is of all sins the most carnal 750. It effeminateth both mind and body 751. It is the Devil's net to catch two at once 751. How strictly Christ forbiddeth it 751. What presumtions there are of its abounding in this Age 751 752. That the very Heathen thought it foul appeareth from their custome of bathing after it 751. Frailty Of humane Frailty 535 c. Friendship obligeth to duty 105. No Friendship is lasting that is not built upon Virtue 371. A wise Friend will shun the least suspicion of offense 380. 612. Fundamentals of Protestants Religion 285 Fundamental and necessary points are plain and evident in Script 1084 1085. Funeral rites at the death of a Romane Emperour 423. Future events unknown to us 250. 1043. v. Time G. GAin v. Profit How greedily and basely pursued not onely by Heathens but by many Christians also 131 132. The gainfullest use of riches 143. Gal. ii 20. 521. ¶ v. 21. 375. ¶ vi 12. 501. Galene's helps in the pursuit of knowledge 66. Gallant The profane Gallant a despicable wretch 528. Gen. iii. 19. In the sweat of thy brows thou shalt eat thy bread a command as well as a curse 218. ¶ 22. 158. 630 631. ¶ vi 3. 795. ¶ xlii 21 22. 387. ¶ Gen. xlvi 27 28. handsomely applied 321. Gentleman No Gentleman hath a licence to be idle 222. GHOST The HOLY GHOST a distinct Person 53. Several titles of his and operations 54. Why called the Spirit of truth 54. 57. Though sent by the Father and the Son yet is his coming voluntary 56. The end of Christ's coming and of the H. Ghost's 52. 760. The H. Ghost though not so solemnly as of old yet still cometh effectually upon the faithful 52. 760. He is ever consonant to himself 55. He is our chief our sole Instructour 760. 772. Though the Church and the Word and Discipline be our Teachers yet the H. Ghost may be truly called our sole Teacher 778. How he is said to teach us all truth 58. How he teacheth us 773. Means must be used for the obteining the gifts of the H. Ghost 61. 67 68. Into what posture we must put our selves if we will receive him 779. We must be careful not to disquiet and grieve him 773 774. Many pretend to be led by the H. Ghost when their design is to oppose him 62. 64. Which is a sin perhaps more dangerous then flatly to deny him 63. 774. Whence it is that so few follow his guidance 65. He hath worse enemies nowadayes then the Eunomians and Sabellians 774. What horrible wickedness some in this Age entitle him to 774. But because some mistake and abuse the Spirit we must not thence conclude that none are taught by him 775. He not onely taught the Church in the Apostles times but teacheth it still in all ages 776. His operations indeed are not easily perceived 775. but that he hath wrought we may find 776. How we may prove the Spirit 780 781. and discern his instructions from the suggestions of Satan and the dreams of fanaticks 64. 66. 777. 780. Glorifying of God what 744 c. 748. 754. 1009. We must glorifie God in soul and in body 744 c. Whether an actual intention of God's glory perpetually in our mind be necessary 745. More is required of us then to glorifie God verbally 754. God's Glory must be the first mover of our obedience 1008. It is not so resplendent in a Starre nor in the Sun as in the New creature 1009. If we glorifie God here we shall glorifie him to eternity 747. Gnosticks 167. GOD cannot be spoken of with too much reverence 7. 409. He is a most simple Essence 78. incomprehensible 165. Bold and curious searching of him unlawful 164 165. He is to be seen by faith not curiously gazed upon 729. Though he be invisible yet we may see Him by the light that shineth in his Works in our Conscience and in his Word 784 c. ¶ God delighteth in his Wisdome more then in any other of his Attributes 326. 1029. Of his Omnipresence and Omniscience 164. Errours concerning God's Presence 165. Belief of God's Presence the greatest curb of sin 164. 167 c 258. God's Wisdome drew his Justice and Mercy together and reconciled them in Christ's Satisfaction and ours 327. Counsels which some men fasten upon God contrary to his Wisdome and Goodness 326. 407
not from the Father and the Son but from our fleshly Lusts 1 Pet 2.11 from the beast within us that fighteth against our Soul I am weary of this Spirit I am sure the world hath reason to be so and to cast it out There is a third which I am ashamed of and I have much wondred that ever any who with any diligence had searched the Scriptures or but tasted of the word of truth could have so ethnick a stomach as to digest it But we see some have taken it down with pleasure and it serveth as hot waters to ease them of a pang of that worm which gnaweth within them Shall I name it to you It is Tying of the Truth to the wheel of Fortune or to set it forth in its fairest dress to the Providence of God which moveth in a certain course but most uncertain to us and is then least visible when it is most seen A Prejudice raised out of prosperity and good success Which befalleth the bad as well as the good 2 Sam. 11.25 as the Sword devoureth one as well as another If Event could crown or condem an action Virtue and Vice were not at such a distance as God and Nature have set them That would be Virtue in this age which was Vice in the former that which is true to day might be false to morrow For the same lot befalleth them both That storm which now beateth upon the one may anon be as sharp and violent against the other And indeed Virtue is most fair and glorious in the foulest weather This action hath prospered in my hand Therefore God hath signified it as just is an argument which an Heathen would deny who had but seen the best intentions and goodliest resolutions either by subtilty or violence oft beaten down to the ground Certainly no true Israelite could thus conclude 2 Kings 22.2 who had seen Josiah walking in all the wayes of David his father 2 Kings 23.29 and yet at the last stricken down by the hand of Pharaoh Nechoh in the battel at Megiddo It was indeed the argument of the Epicure against the Providence of God Lucret. l. 2. Aedes saepe suas disturbat That Jupiter let fall his thunderbolts upon his own houses and temples But the Christian can draw no such inferences and conclusions who knoweth the wayes of God are past finding out Rom. 11 3◠Gal. 6.14 that the world must be crucified unto him and he unto the world that he must * Acts 14.22 make his way through many afflictions and troubles to his everlasting rest All that can be said is God permitteth it For for any command 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where is it to be found And how can we conclude of that which we do not cannot know Permit it he doth and so he doth all the evil in the world for if he did not permit it it could not be done Hence it is that the storm falleth upon the best as well as upon the worst But to the one though ye call it a Storm it is indeed a gracious rain to water and refresh them as for the other it sweepeth them away and swalloweth them up for ever God's Judgements are like his Spirit Joh. 3.8 a wind that bloweth where it lifteth and we hear the sound thereof but cannot tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth neither for what cause in particular they are sent nor what is their end Permission is no fit basis to build a Command upon Nor can Approbation be the consequent where Permission onely is the antecedent We can no more draw such a conclusion from such premisses then we can strike water out of a flint or fire out of a cake of ice The wicked prosper in their wayes Every Sorcerer is not struck blind Every sacrilegious Ananias is not stricken dead Every Sodom is not consumed with fire But this doth not justifie Sorcery and Sacrilege and Unnatural lust And The righteous are cast down and perish Every just man doth not flourish as a green bay-tree Nay rather as the Apostle saith Not many wise not many noble 1 Cor. 1.26 c. so not many just not many righteous do flourish But this doth not condemn Innocency nor on the sudden as it were transubstantiate and change Virtue into Vice I have the rather brought this Prejudice forth and exposed it to shame because it is common especially amongst the common sort who are as good Logicians as they are Divines whose very natural Logick their Reason is tainted and corrupted by the world in which they live and to which in a manner they grow It is vox populi the language of the Many and it is taken up too oft He hath taken a wrong course Ye see God doth not bless it This is not just For it doth not thrive A Prejudice this which quite putteth out their eyes that they cannot distinguish evil from good nor good from evil the Devil's snare and he hath scarce such another in which he taketh so many He was unfortunate Therefore he was not wise He prospered in his wayes Therefore his wayes were right It is plebiscitüm an Ordinance of the people And sometimes it is senatus consultum an Ordinance of those who count themselves wise And it hath been rescriptum Imperatoris the rescript and determination of the highest A Prejudice which may drive a man like Nebuchadnezzar amongst beasts and make him worse then they An opinion which first withereth a soul that it can bear no fruit and then leaveth it as fuel for hell fire for ever An opinion bellied like the Trojane horse in which lie lurking oppression Deceit Treason all the enemies of Truth and the Father of lies the Devil himself ready to break forth and destroy and devour a soul A foundation and basis large enough to raise a Babel upon all the evil we can do all the evil we can think even confusion it self The hope of good success may flatter me into the greatest sin and when success hath crowned that hope it will dress that sin in the grave mantle of Virtue and Piety and so shut out Repentance for ever Ye see the danger of Prejudice It lieth as a serpent in our way Gen. 49.17 as an adder in our path to bite our heels to hinder us that we cannot travel to the market where Truth is to be bought Let us therefore lay aside all Prejudice and as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Truth 1 Pet. 2.2 that we may grow thereby Let us not build our faith upon any particular Church or Sect For it is possible that a Church may erre and so deceive us Hear O Israel when the Church speaketh but not so as when God speaketh and publisheth his commands Hear the Church Matth. 18.17 but then when she speaketh the words of God Let not a name and glorious title dazle our eyes He will make but an ill