yet the wrath of God was more visible to him than those that do who bear but their own burthen whereas he lay pressed under the sins of the whole world God in his approaches of Justice when he cometh toward the sinner to correct him may seem to go like the Consuls of Rome with his Rods and his Axes carried before him Many sinners have felt his Rods And his Rod is comfort his Frown favour his Anger love and his Blow a benefit But Christ was struck as it were with his Ax. Others have trembled under his wrath Psal 39.10 but Christ was even consumed by the stroke of his hand Being delivered to God's Wrath that wrath deliverth him to these Throws and Agonies delivereth him to Judas who delivereth nay betrayeth him to the Jews who deliver him to Pilate who delivered him to the Cross where the Saviour of the world must be murthered where Innocency and Truth it self hangeth between thot Thieves I mention not the shame or the torment of the Cross for we Thieves endured the same But his Soul was crucified more than his Body and his Heart had sharper nails to pierce it than his Hands or Feet TRADIDIT ET NON PEPERCIT He delivered him and spared him not But to rise one step more TRADIDIT ET DESERVIT He delivered and in a manner forsook him restrained his influence denied relief withdrew comfort stood as it were afar off and let him fight it out unto death He looked about and there was none to help Isa 63.5 even to the Lord he called but he heard him not Psal 18 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He roared out for the very grief of his heart and cryed with a loud voyce My God my God Matth. 27.46 why hast thou forsaken me And could God forsake him Psal 38.8 When he hung upon the cross did he not see the joy which was set before him Yes he did Heb. 12.2 but not to comfort but rather torment him Altissimo Divinitatis consilio actum est ut gloria militaret in poenam saith Leo By the counsel of the Godhead it was set down and determined that his Glory should add to his Punishment that his knowledge which was more clear than a Seraphins should increase his Grief his Glory his Shame his Happiness his Misery that there should not only be Vinegar in his Drink and Gall in his Honey and Myrrhe with his Spices but that his Drink should be Vinegar his Honey Gall and all his Spices as bitter as Myrrhe that his Flowers should be Thorns and his Triumph Shame This could Sin do And can we love it This could the Love and tht Wrath of God do his Love to his Creature and his Wrath against Sin And what a Delivery what a Desertion was this which did not deprive Christ of strength but enfeeble him with strength which did not leave him in the dark but punish him with light What a strange Delivery was that which delivered him up without comfort nay which betrayed and delivered up his comforts themselves What misery equal to that which maketh Strength a tormenter Knowledge a vexation and Joy and Glory a persecution There now hangeth his sacred Body on the cross not so much afflicted with his passion as his Soul was wounded with compassion with compassion on his Mother with compassion on his Disciples with compassion on the Jews who pierced him for whom he prayeth when they mock him which did manifest his Divinity as much as his miracles Tantam patientiam nemo unquam perpetravit Tert. de Patientia with compassion on the Temple which was shortly to be levelled with the ground with compassion on all Mankind bearing the burden of all dropping his pity and his blood together upon them feeling in himself the torments of the blessed Martyrs the reproach of his Saints the wounds of every broken heart the poverty diseases afflictions of all his Brethren to the end of the world delivered to a sense of their sins who feel them not and to a sense of theirs who grone under them delivered up to all the miseries and sorrows not only which himself then felt but which any men which all men have felt or shall feel to the time the Trump shall sound and he shall come again in glory The last Delivery was of his Soul which was indeed traditio a yielding it up a voluntary emission or delivering it up into his Fathers hands praevento carnificis officio saith the Father He preventeth the spear and the hand of the executioner and giveth up the ghost What should I say or where should I end Who can fathome this depth The Angels stand amazed the Heavens are hung with black the Earth openeth her mouth and the Grave hers and yieldeth up her dead the veyl of the Temple rendeth asunder the Earth trembleth and the Rocks are cleft But neither Art nor Nature can reach the depth of this Wisdom and Love no tongue neither of the living nor of the dead neither of Men nor Angels is able to express it The most powerful eloquence is the threnody of a broken heart For there Christ's death speaketh it self and the virtue and power of it reflecteth back again upon him and reacheth him at the right hand of God where his wounds are open his merits vocal interceding for us to the end of the world We have now past two steps and degrees of this scale of Love with wonder and astonishment and I hope with grief and love we have passed through a field of Blood to the top of mount Calverie where the Son of God the Saviour of the World is nailed to the cross and being lifted up upon his cross looketh down upon us to draw us after him Look then back upon him who looketh upon us whom our sins have pierced and behold his blood trickling down upon us Which is one ascent more and bringeth in the Persons for whom he was delivered First for us Secondly for us all III. Now that he should be delivered FOR VS is a contemplation full of delight and comfort but not so easie to digest For if we reflect upon our selves and there see nothing but confusion and horrour we shall soon ask the question Why for us Why not for the lapsed Angels who fell from their estate as we did They glorious Spirits we vile Bodies they heavenly Spirits we of the earth earthly ready to sink to the earth from whence we came they immortal Spirits we as the grass withered before we grow Yet he spared not his Son to spare us but the Angels that fell he cast into Hell 2 Pet. 2.4 and chained them up in everlasting darkness We may think that this was munus honorarium that Christ was delivered for us for some worth or excellency in us No it was munus eleemosynarium a gift bestowed upon us in meer compassion of our wants With the Angels God dealeth in rigor and relenteth
the Father The Body is Man as well as the Soul And he consisteth of one as well as the other When the Body and Soul are parted the Man is gone This Flesh of ours though it hear ill and seem as an adversary to rise up against the Spirit yet it may prove a singular instrument to advance God's glory and so lift up Man to happiness Adeò Caro est salutis cardo saith Tertullian Our flesh is the very hinge on which the work of our salvation turneth it self For tell me What Christian duty is there which is not performed by the bodie 's ministery Caro alluitur ut anima emaculetur It is washed to purifie the soul It taketh down bread to feed it From it we borrow a Hand to give our alms an Ear to let in faith a Tongue to be a trumpet of God's praise Fastings Persecution Imprisonment nay Martyrdom it self de bonis carnis Deo adolentur are the fruits of the flesh subdued and conquered by us So that Angels themselves may seem in this respect to come short of us mortals They cannot suffer they cannot dye for God because they have no bodies You cannot scourge you cannot imprison you cannot sequester an Angel you cannot behead him but all this you may do unto a mortal man and so make him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like unto and even equal to the Angels I do not read that men are made equal to the Angels till they are dead till their earthly tabernacles be dissolved and built up a again till their natural body be raised a spiritual body Till then we must glorifie God as Men and let the Angels have their Hallelujahs and worship by themselves Let all the Angels worship him and let the Sons of men fall down and kneel before him And let us think the better of our external worship because we see that which is spiritual and angelical is represented unto us in Scripture by this of ours To thee all Angels cry aloud and yet who ever heard an Angel's voice And the Angels stood round about the Throne and fell before the Throne on their faces that is they glorified God Angels are said to have Voice and Hands and Feet that we who have them indeed may use them to his glory S. Hilary upon Psal 143. well expresseth it Homo ipse decem quibusdam chordis manibus pedibus extentus Man in his body his Hands and his Feet is set as an instrument with ten strings and in every gesture and motion toucheth them skilfully to make a harmony to sing a new song to the God of heaven a song composed of divers parts of Spirit and Flesh of Soul and Body Every faculty of the soul every member of the body must bear a part What is the elavation of the Soul Certainly a sweet and high note But then the prostration of the Body tempereth it and maketh it far more pleasant What the ejaculations of the Soul Yes and the incurvation of the Body the lifting up of the Heart yea and of the Hands and Eyes also A holy Thought yea and a reverent Deportment These make him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaketh perfect and complete Otherwise he is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a half-strung a half-tuned Instrument We are yet in the flesh Men not Angels and we have Knees to bend and Hands to lift up and Heads to uncover Why should we be Angels so soon Angels here on earth Why should our glorifying be as theirs is invisible The surest way to happiness is to keep our condition to make good our worship in our flesh to bow and prostrate our selves here that when time shall be no more we may be as the Angels in heaven Glorifying too spiritual is the same with too carnal For that men will not glorifie God but in their spirit is but a vapour raised out of the dung an exhalation from the flesh That men are such enemies to outward expressions and bodily reverence proceedeth from a spirit but it is a spirit of slumber a dreaming spirit a dumb spirit a lazy spirit a stubborn spirit that will not bow a spirit of contradiction I had almost said from the spirit of Antichrist For he doth not confess and glorifie Jesus so far and fully as he should And not to confess Christ is from the spirit of Antichrist 1 John 4.3 For conclusion Let us look up upon the price with which we were bought and let God's exceeding love in redeeming us raise up in us a love of God's glory which may be so intensive and hot within us ut emanet in habitum that it may not be able to contain it self within the compass of the heart but evaporate and work it self out into the outward gesture and break forth out of the conscience into the voice which may open her shop and spiritual wares and behold her own riches and furniture abroad her Liberality in an open hand her Sorrow trickling down the cheeks her Humility in a dejected countenance and her Reverance in a bare head and a bended knee that the body may be the interpreter of the soul and its many different postures and motions be a plain commentary to explain and discover that more retired and indiscernible devotion within This should be our constant and continued practice here on earth to stand as candidates for an Angel's place by glorifying God here in our earthly members which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a prologue and preface to that which we shall be and act hereafter It was a phansie which possessed many of the Heathen that men after death should much desire and often handle those things which did most take and affect them when they lived So Lucian bringeth in Priam's young son calling for milk and cheese and such country cates which he most delighted in on earth Even now saith Maximus Tyrius doth Aesculapius minister physick Hercules try the strength of his arm Castor and Pollux are under sail Minos is on the bench and Achilles in armes This was but a phansie but a fiction But it is a fair resemblance of a Christian in this respect whose span is but a prologue to eternity a short and imperfect declaration of that which he shall act more perfectly hereafter whose life is Grace and whose eternity shall be in Glory which is nothing else saith the devout School-man but gratia consummata nullatenus impedita Grace made perfect and consummate finding no opposition no temptation to struggle and fight with For though there will be no place for Almes where there is no poverty no use of Prayers where there is no want nor need of Patience where there can be no injury yet to Praise and Glorifie God are everlasting offices tribute due to God's Power and Goodness and Wisdom which are as everlasting as Himself to be rendred him here on earth in our spirits and in our bodies and to be continued by us with Angels and Archangels in
from all eternity but in the fulness of time made like unto us But we viles pulli nati infelicibus ovis were miserable naked sinners enemies to God at such a distance from him and so far from the least participation of the Divine nature that we were fallen from our own integrity and first honor and facti similes made like indeed but if a Prophet and a King if David draw our picture similes jumentis quae pereunt Psal 49.20 Let our sorrow and shame interpret it like to the beast that perish But now by Christs assimilation to us we are made like unto God we are exalted by his humiliation raised by his descent magnified by his minoration we are become candidati Angelorum lifted up on high to a sacred emulation of the Angelical estate Yea with songs of triumph we remember it and it is the joy of this Feast we are fratres Domini the brethren of Christ With a mutual aspect Christs Humility looks upon the Exaltation of our nature and our Exaltation looks back again upon Christ and as a well-made picture looks upon him that looks upon it so Christ drawn forth in the similitude of our flesh looks upon us whilst we with joy and gratitude have our eyes set upon him Each answereth other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are parallels Christ made like unto Men and again Men made like unto him so like that they are his Brethren Christ made like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things which fill up the office of a Redeemer and Men made like unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things which may be required at the hands of those who are redeemed His obedience lifted him up to the cross and ours must lift us after him and be carried on by his to the end of the world And as we find that Relatives are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a kind of convertency in these terms Christ and his Brethren Christ like unto his Brethren and these Brethren like unto Christ Christ is ours and we are Christs 1 Cor. 3.23 saith the Apostle and Christ is God's In the next place the Modification It behoved him carries our thoughts to those two common heads or places the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Convenience and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Necessity of it And these two in civil acts are one For what becomes us to do we must do and it is necessary we should do it What should be done is done Impossibilitas juris and it is impossible it should be otherwise say the Civilians because the Law supposeth obedience which is the complement and perfection of the law Now this Debuit again looks equally on both on Christ and on his Brethren If in all things it behoved Christ to be like unto his brethren which is the Benefit Heaven and Earth will conclude Men and Angels will infer That it behoveth us to be made like unto Christ which is the Duty My Text ye see is divided equally between these two terms Christ and his Brethren That which our devotion must contemplate in Christ is 1. his Divine 2. his Humane nature 3. the Union of them both First his Divine nature For we cannot but make a stand and enquire Who he was who ought to do this Secondly his Humane nature For we find him here flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones made like unto us in our flesh in our souls Da siquid ultrà est What can we say more Our Apostle tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things And then thirdly will follow the Vnion exprest in the passive fieri in his assimilation and the assumption of our nature All these fill us with admiration but the last raiseth it yet higher and should raise our love to follow him in his obedience that it behoved him that the dispensation of so wonderful and catholick a benefit must be thus transacted tanquam ex officio as a matter of duty The end of all is the end of all our Salvation the end of our Creation of our Redemption of this Assimilation and the last end of all the Glory of God This sets an oportet upon Man as well as upon Christ and then his Brethren and He will dwell together in unity Only here is the difference Our obligation is the easier It is but this to be bound and obliged with Christ to set our hands to that bond which he hath sealed with his blood it is no heavy Debet to be like unto him and for his condescension so low to us to raise our selves neerer to him by a holy and diligent imitation of his obedience This will make up our last part and serve for application In the first place in an holy extasie we cry out with the Prophet Isa 63.1 Quis ille qui venit Who is he that cometh Quis ille qui similis Who is he that must be made like unto us Quis fecit is but a resultance from Quid factum est What is done and Who did it are of so neer relation that we can hardly abstract one from the other If one eye be leveld on the fact the other commonly is fixed on the hand that did it Magnis negotiis ut magnis Comoediis edecumati apponuntur actores saith the Orator Great burthens require great strength to bear them Matters of moment are not for men of weak abilities and slight performance nor every Actor for all parts To lead captivity captive to bring prisoners to glory to destroy Death to shut up the gates and mouth of Hell these are Magnalia wonderful things not within the sphere of common activity We see here many sons there were to be brought unto Glory v. 10. but in the way there stood Sin to intercept us the fear of Death to enthral us and the Devil ready to devour us And we what were we Rottenness our mother and worms our brethren lay us in the balance Psal 62.9 lighter then vanity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men fallen below the condition of Men lame and impotent not able to move one step in these wayes of glory living dead men Quis novus Hercules Who will now stand up for us who will be our Captain We may well demand Quis ille who he is Some Angel we may think sent from heaven or some great Prophet No. Inquest is made in this Epistle and neither the Angels nor Moses returned The Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in no wise Glorious creatures indeed they are celestial spirits but yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministring spirits o Nazianz. Orat 43 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 103.21 in all purity serving the God of purity saith Nazianzene not fit to intercede but ready at his beck with wings indeed but not with healing under them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but second lights too weak to enlighten so great a darkness Their light is their obedience and their fairest elogigium
Augustine though the Head phansieth the Finger toucheth sonum sola chorda excutit there must be a string before there be musick So the Father and the holy Ghost did work in this mystery but incarnationis terminus Christus the Incarnation rested on the Son alone The Son is the Instrument by which was conveyed that melos salutare that heavenly Antheme which the Types did set and prefigure the Prophets descant upon and the Angels chant forth in a full Quire that Musick which hath filled heaven and earth with its sound It behoved his Power to restore us his Wisdome to reform us his Mercy to relieve us DEBVIT taketh them all in It ought it was convenient so to be Lastly DEBVIT reacheth the Assimilation it self and layeth hold on that too Made like he was and he ought to be so to satisfie in the same nature which had offended carnem gestare propter meam carnem Gregor to take flesh for my flesh and a soul for my soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to purge and refine me in my own to wash and cleanse the corruption of my flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the immense Ocean of his Divinity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things to be made like unto his brethren Debuit looks on all on his Godhead on his Person on his Assimilation God no Man or Angel The second Person in Trinity not the Father or the holy Spirit Made like unto his Brethren 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his naked Divinity though it might have saved us yet it was not so fit being at too great a distance from us Debuit slumbreth every storm answereth every doubt scattreth our fears removeth our jealousies and buildeth us up in our most holy faith Though he be God the Wisdome of God the Son of God yet he ought to be made like unto us to restore his Creature to exalt our Nature and in our shape and likeness in our flesh to pay down the price of our Redemption So then here is an Aptness and Conveniency But the words it behoved him imply also a kind of Necessity That God could be made like morâ—â—l man is a strange contemplation that he would is a rise and exaltatâ—on of that that he ought superexalteth and sets it at a higher pitch but that he must be so that Necessity in a manner should bring him down were not his Love infinite as well as his Power would stagger and amaze the strongest faith Who would believe such a report But he speaketh it himself Matth. 26.54 Mark 8.31 and it was the fire of his Love that kindled in him and then he spake it with his tongue He must die and if die be born He not onely is but would not onely would but ought not onely ought but of necessity must be made like unto his brethren I say a strange contemplation it is For there needed no such forcible tye no such chain of necessity to hold him Liberè egit what he did he did freely Nothing more free and voluntary more spontaneous then this his Assimilation For at his birth as if he had slacked his pace and delayed his Fathers expectation and not come at the appointed period of time he suddenly cryeth Lo I come in the volume of thy book it is written of me that I should do thy will O God Psal 40.7 8. He calleth it his desire and he had it written in his heart His Passion he calleth a baptisme as if he had been to be the better for it And in this Chapter as if there had been some defect some thing wanting to him before God is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 10. to make him perfect bâ— sufferings He was not whole and consummate before not what he should be Now he is T is true This condescension of his this assimilation was free and voluntary with more chearfulness and earnestness undertaken by him then received now by us It is our shame and sin that we dare not compare them that he should be so willing to be like us and we so unwilling to be like him but if we look back upon the precontract which past between his Father and him we shall then see a Debuit a kind of Necessity laid upon him Our Saviour himself speaketh it to his blessed mother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I must go about my Fathers business Luke 2.49 We may measure his love by the decree that is we cannot measure it for the decree is eternal Before the foundation of the world was laid was this foundation laid an everlasting foundation to lay gold and silver upon all the rich and precious promises of the Gospel to lay our obedience and conformity to him upon and upon them both upon his love and our obedience to raise our selves up to that eternity which he hath purchased and promised to all his Brethren that are made like unto him Infinite love eternal love That which the eye of Flesh may count a dishonour was his joy his perfection His Love put a Debuit upon him a Necessity and brought him after a manner under the strict and peremptory terms of an Obligation under a Necessity of being born a Necessity of obedience a Necessity of dying Debuit taketh in all presenteth them to our admiration our joy our love our obedience gratitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every way and in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren We have run the full compass of the Text and find our Saviour in every point of it like in all things And now to apply it If Christ be like unto us then we also ought to be like unto him and to have our Assimilation our Nativity by analogy and rules of proportion answerable unto his He was made like unto us you will say that he might save us Yea that he may present us to his Father by the virtue of his assimilation made like unto him for without this he cannot save us Behold here am I Hebr. 2.13 and the children which thou hast given me holy as I am holy just as I am just humble as I was humble A man conformable to Christ is the glory of this Feast Father John 17.24 I will that they whom thou hast given me and he gives him none but those who are like him be where I am Heaven hath received him And it will receive none but those who are like him Not those that name him Not those who set his name to their fraud to their malice to their perjury to their oppression Not those many Antichrists whose whole life is a contradiction to him All that he requireth at our hands all our gratitude all our duty is drawn together and consisteth in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be like unto him To be like unto him Why who would not be like unto him who would not be drawn after his similitude Like him we all would be in
extent as may reach to every man to every corner of the earth as may measure out the world and put into our hands any part of it that either our wit or our power can take in Christ never drew any such Conveyance the Gospel brought no such tidings But when honest labour and industry have brought riches in Christ setteth a seal imprinteth a blessing on them sanctifieth them unto us by the Word and Prayer and so maketh them ours our servants to minister unto us and our friends to promote us unto everlasting habitations Our Charter is large enough and we need not interline it with those Glosses which the Flesh and the Love of the World will soon suggest With Christ we have all things which work to that end for which he was delivered We have his Commands which are the pledges of his love for he gave us them that he might give us more that he might give us a Crown We have his Promises of immortality and eternal life Faciet hoc nam qui promisit est potens He shall do it for he is able to perform it With him every word shall stand He hath given us Faith that is the gift of God to apprehend and receive the promises and Hope Eph. 2.8 to lift us up unto them He hath given us his Pastors to teach us that is scarce looked upon as a gift but then he hath given us his Angels to minister unto us He hath given us his Spirit and filleth us with his Grace if we will receive it which will make his Commands which are now grievous easie his Promises which are rich profitable which may carry us on in a regular and peaceable course of piety and obedience which is our Angel which is our God and we call it Grace All these things vve have with Christ And the Apostle doth not only tell us that God doth give us them but to put it out of doubt putteth up a QVOMODO NON challengeth as it were the whole world to shew how it should be otherwise How will he not with him also freely give us all things This Question addeth energy and weight and emphasis and maketh the Position more positive the Affirmation more strong and the truth of it more perswasive and convincing Shall he not give us all things It is impossible but he should It is more possible for a city upon a hill to be hid than for him to hide his favour from us more possible for Heaven to sink into Hell or for Hell to raise it self up to God's Mercy-seat than for him to withhold any thing from them to whom he hath given his Son Impossible it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most inconvenient as that which is against his Wisdome and his Justice and his Goodness Naz. Or. 36. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as abhorrent to his Will to deny us any thing In brief If the Earth be not as iron the Heavens cannot be as brass God cannot but give when we are fit to receive and in Christ we are made capable When he is given all things are given with him nay more than all things more than we can desire more than we can conceive When he descendeth Mercy descendeth with him in a full shower of blessings to make our souls as the paradise of God to quicken our Faith to rouse up our Hope And in this light in this assurance in this heaven we are bold with S. Paul to put up the Question against all doubts all fears all temptations that may assault us He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things And now we have passed up every step and degree of this scale and ladder of Love and seen Christ delivered and nailed to the cross And from thence he looketh down and speaketh to us to the end of the world Crux patientis fuit cathedra docentis The Cross on which he suffered was the Chair of his Profession And from this Chair we are taught Humility constant Patience perfect Obedience an exact Art and Method of living well drawn out in several lines What was ambitiously said of Homer That if all sciences were lost they might be found in him may most truly be said of Christ's Cross and Passion That if all the characters of Innocency Humility Obedience Love had been lost they might here be found in libro vitae Agni in the Book of the Life nay of the Death of the Lamb Rev. 13.8 slain from the foundation of the world yet now nailed to the Cross Let us then with love and reverence look upon him who thus looketh upon us Let us put on our crucified Jesus that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostome every virtue his Humility his Patience his Obedience and so bear about with us the dying of our Lord 2 Cor. 4.10 and draw the picture of a crucified Saviour in our selves To this end was he delivered up for us to this end we must receive him that we may glorifie God as he hath glorified him on earth For God's glory and our salvation are twisted together and wrought as it were in the same thread and linked together in the same bond of peace Psal 50.15 I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Thus it runneth and it runneth on evenly in a stream of Love Oh how must it needs delight him to see his Gift prosper in our hands to see us delivering up our selves to him who was thus delivered for us to see his purchase those who were bought with this price made his peculiar people Psal 24.7 9. Lift then up the gates of your souls that this King of glory may come in If you seek salvation you must seek the glory of God and if you seek the glory of God you shall find it in your salvation Thou mayest cry Lo here it is or Lo there it is but here it is found The Jew may seek salvation in the Law the Superstitious in Ceremony and bodily Exercise the Zelote in the Fire and the Whirlwind the phantastick lazy Christian in a Thought in a Dream and the prophane Libertine in Hell it self But then then alone we find it when we meet it in conjunction with the Glory of God which shineth most gloriously in a crucified Christ and in an obedient Christian made conformable to him and so bearing about in him the marks of the LORD JESVS Gal. 6.17 To conclude then Since God hath delivered up his own Son for us all and with him given us all things let us open our hearts and receive him John 1.12 that is believe in his name that is be faithful to him that is love him and keep his Commandments which is our conformity to his Death And then he will give us What will he give us He will heap gift upon gift give us power to become the Sons of God Let us receive
can imagine there can be any man that can so hate himself as deliberately to cast himself into hell and run from happiness when it appeareth in so much glory He cannot say Amen to Life who killeth himself For that which leaveth a soul in the grave is not Faith but Phansie When we are told that Honour cometh towards us that some Golden shower is ready to fall into our laps that Content and Pleasure will ever be near and wait upon us how loud and hearty is our Amen how do we set up an Assurance-office to our selves and yet that which seemeth to make its approach towards us is as uncertain as Uncertainty it self and when we have it passeth from us and as the ruder people say of the Devil leaveth a noysome and unsavoury sent behind it and we look after it and can see it no more But when we are told that Christ liveth for evermore and is coming is certainly coming with reward and punishment vox faucibus haeret we can scarce say Amen So be it To the World and the pomp thereof we can say Amen but to Heaven and Eternity we cannot say Amen or if we do we do but say it For conclusion then The best way is to draw the Ecce and the Amen the Behold and our Assurance together so to study the Death and the Life the eternal Life and the Power of our Saviour that we may be such Proficients as to be able with S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3.11 to meet the Resurrection to look for and hasten the coming of the Lord when his Life and Eternity and Power shall shine gloriously to the terrour of those who persecute his Church and to the comfort of those who suffer for Righteousness sake when that Head which was a forge of mischief and cruelty and that Hand which touched the Lords anointed Psal 105.15 and did his Prophets harm shall burn in hell for ever when that Eye which would not look on vanity shall be filled with glory when that Ear which hearkned to his voice shall hear nothing but Hallelujahs and the musick of Angels when that Head which was ready to be laid down for this living everling powerful Lord shall be lifted up and crowned with glory and honour for evermore Which God grant unto us for Christ's sake A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday JOHN XVI 13. Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth WHen the Spirit of truth is come c. And behold he is come already and the Church of Christ in all ages hath set apart this day for a memorial of his Coming a memorial of that miraculous and unusual sound Acts 2.2 3. that rushing wind those cloven tongues of fire And there is good reason for it that it should be had in everlasting remembrance For as the holy Ghost came then in solemn state upon the Disciples in a manner seen and heard so he cometh though not so visibly yet effectually to us upon whom the ends of the world are come that we may remember it though not in a mighty wind yet he rattleth our hearts together though no house totter at his descent yet the foundations of our very souls are shaken no fire appeareth yet our breasts are inflamed no cloven tongues yet our hearts are cloven asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every day to a Christian is a day of Pentecost his whole life a continued holy-day wherein the holy Ghost descendeth both as an Instructer and as a Comforter secretly and sweetly by his word characterizing the soul and imprinting that saving knowledge which none of the Princes of this world had not forcing or drawing by violence but sweetly leading and guiding us into all truth In the words we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Epiphany or Apparition of the blessed Spirit as Nazianzene speaketh or rather the Promise of his coming and appearance And if we will weigh it there is great reason that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ his that he should say Lo I come Psal 40.7 For in the volume of the book it is written of him that the Spirit of the Lord should rest upon him Isa 11.2 and I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh Joel 2.28 Christus Legis Spiritus Sanctus Evangelii complementum Christ's Advent for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirit 's for the fulfilling and compleating of the Gospel Christ's Advent to redeem the Church and the Spirit 's to teach the Church Christ to shed his blood and the Spirit to wash and purge it in his blood Christ to pay down the ransome for us captives and the Spirit to work off our fetters Christ Isa 61.2 Luke 4.19 to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit to interpret it For we may soon see that the one will little avail without the other Christ's Birth Death and Passion and glorious Resurrection are but a story in Archivis good news sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it and teach us to know him and the virtue and power of his resurrection and make us conformable to his death Phil 3.10 This is the sum of these words And in this we shall pass by these steps or degrees First we will carry our thoughts to the promise of the Spirit 's Advent the miracle of this day Cùm venerit When he the Spirit of truth is come in a sound to awake the Apostles in wind to move them in fire to enlighten and warm them in tongues to make them speak Acts 2.2 3. Secondly we will consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work and employment of the Holy Ghost He shall lead you into all truth In the first we meet with 1. nomen Personae if we may so speak a word pointing out to his Person the demonstrative pronoun ILLE when He 2. nomen Naturae a name expressing his Nature He is the Spirit of truth and then we cannot be ignorant whose Spirit he is In the second we shall find nomen Officii a name of Office and Administration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a leader or conducter in the way For so the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to be the Apostles leader and conducter that they might not erre but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep on in a straight and even course in the way And in this great Office of the Holy Ghost we must first take notice of the Lesson he teacheth It is Truth Secondly of the large Extent of this Lesson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He leadeth into all truth Thirdly of the Method and Manner of his discipline It is a gentle and effectual leading He driveth us not he draweth us not by violence but he taketh us as it were by the hand and guideth and leadeth us into all truth Cùm venerit ille Spiritus veritatis First though we are told by some
is a main difference nor can we expect an ocular and visible descent Therefore if we will be taught by the Spirit we must use the means which the same Spirit hath prescribed in those lessons which he first and extraordinarily taught the Apostles and not make use of his name to misinterpret those lessons or bring in new of our own and as new so contrary to them For what is new must needs be contrary because he then taught all truth and what is more then all is nothing what is more then all truth must needs by a lye Nor did he lead them into all truth for themselves alone but for those who should come after them for all generations to the end of the world He made them Apostles and sent them to make us Christians to make that which he taught them a rule of life and to fix it on the Church as on a pillar that all might read it that none should adde to it or take away from it Eph. 2.20 And for this they are called a Foundation and we are said to be built upon them Jesus Christ being the head corner-stone But this we could not be if their testimony were so scant and defective that there were left a kind of necessity upon us to hew and square out what stones we please and lay new ones of our own to cast down theirs withal and to bear up whatsoever our insolent and boundless lusts will lay upon them And now what is become of my Text For if this be admitted we cannot say the Spirit led them For what leading is that which leaveth us so far behind at such a distance from the end thâ—â— in every age the Spirit must come again and take us by the hand and draw us some other way even contrary to that which he first made known And what an all is that to which every man may adde what he please even to the end of the world For every mans claim and title to the Spirit is the same as just and warrantable in any as in one And when they speak contrary things the evidence is the same that is none at all unless this be a good Argument He hath the Spirit because he saith so which is as strong on his side that denyeth it upon the same pretense Amongst the sons of men there are not greater fools then they who have nothing to say for what they say but That they say it and yet think this Nothing enough and that all Israel are bound to hearken to them as if God himself did speak This is an evil a folly a madness which breatheth no where but in Christendome was never heard of in any other body or society but that of Christians Though many Governours of Common-wealths did pretend to a kind of commerce and familiarity with some God or Goddess when they were to make a law yet we do not read of any as far as I remember that did put up the same pretense that they might break a law but when the law was once promulged there was nothing thought of but either obedience or punishment But Christians who have the best Religion have most abused it have played the wantons in that light in which they should have walkt with fear and trembling finding themselves at a loss and meeting with no satisfaction to their pride and ambition to their malice to their lusts from any lesson the Spirit hath yet taught have learnt an art to suborn something of their own to supply that defect and call it a dictate of the Spirit Nor is this evil of yesterday nor doth it befall the weakest onely But the Devil hath made use of it in all ages as of the fittest engine to undermine that truth which the Spirit first taught Tertullian as wise a man as the Church then had being not able to prove the Corporeity of the Soul by Scripture Post Ioannem quoque prophetiam meruimus consequi c. Tertull. de Anim. montanizans flyeth to private Revelation in his Book De anima Non per aestimationem sed revelationem What he could not uphold by reason and judgment he striveth to make good by Revelation For we saith he have our Revelations as well as S. John Our sister Priscilla hath plenty of them and trances in the Church She converseth with Angels and with God himself and can discern the hearts and inward thoughts of men S. Hierome mentioneth others Contra Libertin and in the dayes of our forefathers Calvine many more who applyed the name of the Spirit to every thing that might facilitate and help on their design as Parish-priests it is his resemblance would give the name of six or seven several Saints to one image that their offerings might be the more I need not go so far back for instance Our present age hath shewn us many who though very ignorant yet are wiser then their teachers so spiritual that they despise the word of God which is the dictate of the Spirit This monster hath made a large stride from foreign parts and set his foot in our coasts If they murder the Spirit moved their hand and drew their sword If they throw down Churches it is with the breath of the Spirit If they would bring in Parity the pretence is The Spirit cannot endure that any should be supreme or Pope it but themselves Our Humour our Madness our Malice our Violence our implacable Bitterness our Railing and Reviling must all go for Inspirations of the Spirit Simeon and Levi Absalom and Ahithophel Theudas and Judas the Pharisees and Ananias they that despise the holy Spirit of God these Scarabees bred in the dung of sensuality these Impostors these men of Belial must be taken no longer for a generation of vipers but for the scholars and friends of the holy Ghost Whatsoever they do whithersoever they go he is their leader though it be to hell it self May we not make a stand now and put it to the question Whether there be any holy Ghost or no and if there be Whether his office be to lead us Indeed these appropriations these bold and violent ingrossings of the blessed Spirit have I fear given growth to conceits well near as dangerous That the Spirit doth not spirare breath grace into us That we need not call upon him That the Text which telleth us the holy Ghost leadeth is the holy Ghost that leadeth us That the Letter is the Spirit and the Spirit the Letter an adulterate piece new coyned an old heresie brought in a new dress and tire upon the stage again That he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strange unheard of Deity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. Orat 37. Quis vetâ—rum vel recentium adoravit Spiritum quis or avit c. Sic Macedoniani Eunomiani Ibid. an ascriptitious and supernumerary God I might say more dangerous For to confess the Spirit and abuse him to draw him on as an accessory and
abettor nay as a principal in those actions which Nature it self abhorreth and trembleth at is worse than out of errour to deny him For 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 which is made to bear witness to a ly Petrarch telleth us Nihil importunius erudito stulto that there is not a more troublesome creature in the world than a learned fool So the Church of Christ and Religion never suffered more than by carnal men who are thus Spirit wise For by acknowledging the Spirit and making use of his name they assume unto themselves a licence to do what they please and work wickedness not only with greediness but cum privilegio with priviledge and authority which whilest others doubt of though it be not only an errour but blasphemy yet parciùs insaniunt they are not so outragiously mad Yet we must not put the Spirit from his office because dreams or rather the evaporations of mens lusts do pass for revelations or say he is not a Leader into truth because wicked or fanatick persons walk on in the wayes of errour in the wayes of Cain or Corah and yet are bold to tell the world that this Spirit goeth before them The mad Athenian took every ship that came into the harbour to be his but it doth not follow hence that no wise and sober Merchant knew his own To him that is drunk things appear in a double shape and proportion geminae Thebae gemini soles two Cities and two Suns for one but I cannot hence conclude that all sober men find it so Nor can I deny the Spirits conduct because some men wander as they please and run on in those dangerous by-paths where he will not lead them This were to deny an unquestionable and fundamental truth this were for an inconvenience to dig up the foundation because men build hay and stubble upon it or because some men have sore eyes to pluck the Sun out of its sphere It were indeed dangerous to teach That the Spirit did teach and lead us were there not means to try and distinguish the Spirits instructions from the suggestions of Satan or from those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those mishapen lumps and abortive births of a sick and loathsome brain or from our private humour which is as great a Devil John 14.1 Beloved saith S. John believe not every spirit that is every inspiration but try the spirits whether they be of God for many false prophets are gone out into the world that is have taken the chairs and dictate magisterially what they please in the name of the Spirit when themselves are carnal And he giveth a rule by which we should try them v. 2. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God that is Whosoever striveth to advance the Kingdome of Christ and to set up the Spirit against the Flesh to magnifie the Gospel to promote men in the wayes of innocency and perfect obedience which infallibly lead to happiness is from God Every such inspiration is from the Spirit of God For therefore doth the Spirit breath upon us that he may make us like unto God Joh 14.3 and so draw us to him that where he is there we may be also But then those inspirations which bring in God to plead for Baal which cry up Religion to gain the world which tread down Peace and Charity and all that is praiseworthy under feet to make way for mens unruly Lust to place it more delicately to its end they that magnifie Gods will that they may do their own these men these spirits cannot be from God Matth. 7.20 By their fruits you shall know them Their hypocrisie as well and cunningly wrought as it is is but poor cob-web-lawn and we may easily see through it We may see these spiritual men sweating and toyling for the flesh these spirits digging in the minerals and making haste to be rich Though GLORIA PATRI Glory be to God on high be to the Prologue to the Play and what doth an Hypocrite but play yet the whole drift and business of every Scene and Act is to draw and conclude all in this Acts 19.25 From hence we have our gain The Angel or the Spirit speaketh first and is the Prologue and Mammon and the Flesh make up the Epilogue Date manus Why should not every man clap his hands Surely such Roscii such nimble cunning Actours deserve a Plaudite By their fruits you shall know them What Spirit soever they have it is not of God Nothing more contrary to the flesh than Gods Spirit therefore he cannot lead this way nor can he teach any thing that may flatter or countenance it There is nothing more against his nature Fire may descend the Earth may be removed out of its place Nature may change her course at the word and beck of the God of nature but this one thing God cannot do He cannot change himself nor can his Spirit breath any doctrine forth which savoureth of the World of the Flesh of Corruption Therefore we may nay we must suspect all those doctrines and actions which are said to be the effects and products of the blessed Spirit when we observe them drawn out and levelled to carnal ends and temporal respect For sure the Spirit can never beat a bargain for the World and the Truth of God is the most unproportioned price that can be laid out on such a purchase When I see a man roll his eyes compose his countenance order and methodize his gesture as if he were now on his death-bed to take his leave of the world when I hear him loud in Prayer and as loud in reviling the iniquity of the times when I see him startle at a misplaced word as if it were a thunder-bolt when I hear him cry as loud for a reformation as the Idolatrous Priests did upon Baal I begin to think I see an Angel in his flght and mount going up into heaven But then after all this exstatical devotion after all this zeal and in the midst of all this noyse when I see him stoop like the vulture and fly like lightning to the prey I cannot but say within my self Oh Lucifer Isa 14.12 15. Son of the morning how art thou fallen from heaven how art thou brought down to the ground nay to hell it self Sure I am the Spirit of truth looketh upward moveth upward directeth upward to those things which are above and if we follow him neither our doctrine nor our actions will ever savour of this dung So then we see this inconvenience and mischief which sometimes is occasioned by this doctrine of the Spirit 's Leading is not unavoidable It is not necessary though I mistake and take the Devil for an Angel of light that the holy Ghost should be put to
but once and shall never see again acteth over those sins which he shall never bring into act delighteth in that which he shall never enjoy robbeth and slayeth and rideth in triumph on a thought and so leaveth his God who gave him this power and faculty to a better end then to wallow in this mire and to be enslaved to the drudgery of so vile an imployment Yet too many are willing to perswade themselves that God neither seeth this nor regardeth it that a Thought is such Gozamour of so thin an appearance that it escapeth the eye and so they set up a whole family of thoughts in their mind and dally and delight themselves with them as with their children And yet this is the ground of all evil and evil it self wrought in the Soul which worketh by its faculties as the Body doth by its members the Eye and the Hand And thus it may beat down Temples murder men lay Kingdoms level with the ground And it groweth and multiplieth reflecteth upon it self with joy and content omnia habet peccatoris praeter manus and hath all that maketh a sinner but Hands But though Men see not our thoughts for this is a Royal prerogative yet they are visible to his eye who is a Spirit And they that look upon them as bare and naked thoughts and not as complete works finisht in the soul know not themselves nor the nature of God and therefore cannot be said to walk with him Rom. 16.17 To conclude then These walk not with God let us therefore mark and avoid them The Presumptuous daring sinner walketh not with him but hideth himself in his Atheistical conceit That because Man cannot punish God doth not see The Hypocrite cometh forth in a disguise and acteth his part and because Men applaud him thinketh God is of their mind as the Pantomine in Seneca who observing the people well pleased with his dancing did every day go up into the Capitol and dance before Jupiter and was perswaded that he was also delighted in him The Apologizer runneth into the holes and burrows of excuses and there he is safe for who shall see him The Speculative sinner hideth himself and all his thoughts in a thought in this thought That Thoughts are so near to nothing that they are invisible That Sin is not sinful till it speak with the tongue or act with the hand But the eye of God is brighter then the Sun and his eye lids will try the children of men Psal 11 4 as the Goldsmith trieth his gold in the fire and will find out the dross which we do not see And if we will not walk with him but walk contrary unto him Lev 26 21 23 c. he will also walk contrary unto us He will see us and not see us know us and not know us Habemus nescientem Deum quod tamen non nescit l. 9. de Trin. saith Hilary God will seem not to know that which he doth know and his ignorance is not ignorance but a mystery For to them who walk not with him humbly now the Word will be at the last day Matth. 25.12 I know you not then God will keep state and not know and acknowledge them This pure God will not know the Unclean this God of truth will not know the Dissembler this strong and mighty God will bring down the Imperious offender this Light will examine thoughts and excuses will fly before it as the mist before the Sun But then Psal 1.6 The Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous saith the Psalmist and those that do justly and love Mercy and walk as under his all seeing eye with humility and reverence he will lead by the hand go along with them uphold and strengthen them in their walk shadow them under his wing and when their walk is ended know them as he did Moses Exod 33. Numb 12. Mal. 3 17 above all men And seeing his own marks upon them beholding though a weak yet the image of his Justice and his Mercy upon them he will spare them as a father spareth his son that serveth him He will know them and love them know them and receive them with an EVGE Well done good and faithful servants Matth. 25.21 23. You have embraced the Good which I shewed you done the thing which I required of you you have dealt justly with your brethren and I will be just in my promises you have shewed Mercy and Mercy shall crown you you have walked humbly with me I will now lift up your heads and you shall inherit the Kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world Matth. 29.34 The Seventh SERMON GAL. IV. 29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so is it now IN these words the Apostle doth present to our eye the true face of the Church in an Allegory of Sarah and Hagar of Ismael and Isaac of mount Sinai and mount Sion Gal. 4.24 Which things are an allegory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It speaketh one thing and meaneth another and carrieth wrapt up in it a more excellent sense then the words at first hearing do promise Take the full scheme and delineation in brief 1. Here is Sarah and Hagar that is Servitude and Freedom 2. Here are two Cities Jerusalem that now is the Synagogue of the Jews and that Jerusalem which is above the Vision of peace and mother of all the faithful For by the new Covenant we are made children unto God 3. Here is the Law promulged and thundred out on mount Sinai and the Gospel the Covenant of Grace which God published not from the mount but from heaven it self by the voice of his Son In all you see a fair correspondence and agreement between the type and the thing but so that Jerusalem our Mother is still the highest the Gospel glorious with the liberty it brought and the Law putting on a yoke breathing nothing but servitude and fear Isaac an heir and Ismael thrust out the Christian more honorable then the Jew The curtain is now drawn and we may enter in even within the veil and take that sense which the Apostle himself hath drawn out so plainly to us And indeed it is a good and pleasing sight to see our priviledge and priority in any figure to find out our inheritance in such an Heir our liberty and freedom though in a Woman Who would not lay claim to so much peace and so much liberty Who would not challenge kindred of Isaac and a Burgessship in Jerusalem It is true every Christian may But that we mistake not and think all is peace and liberty that we boast not against the branches that are cut off Rom. 11.18 Paul bringeth in a corrective to check and keep down all swelling and lifting up of our selves the adversative particle S E D But as then so now We are indeed
peculiar and proper to the Gospel and Christian religion proper in the highest and strictest degree of Propriety Every good Christian is a peaceable man and every peaceable man is a good Christian Look into your prisons saith Tertullian to persecuting Heathens Apolog. and you shall find no Christians there and if you do it is not for murder or theft or cozenage or breach of the peace the cause for which they are bound and confined there is onely this That they are Christians This is that height of Perfection which the vanity of Philosophy and the weakness and unprofitableness of the Law could not reach Hebr. 7.18 19. Neither could the Jew bring any thing ex horreis suis out of his granary his store or basket nor the Philosopher è narthecio suo out of his box of oyntments out of his book of prescripts which could supple a soul to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this tranquility and quietness which might purge and sublime and lift it up above the world and all the flattery and terrour that is in it Humane Reason was too weak to discover the benefit the pleasure the glory of it Nor was it seen in its full beauty till that Light came into the world which did improve and exalt and perfect our Reason The Philosophers cryed down Anger yet gave way to Revenge laid an imputation upon the one yet gave line and liberty to the other Both Tully and Aristotle approve it as an act of Justice Exod. 21.24 Matth. 5.38 42 c. The language of the Law was An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth It was said to them of old You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy but the return of the Gospel is a blessing for a curse love for hatred a prayer for persecution Whatsoever the Law required that doth the Gospel require and much more an Humility more bending a Patience more constant a Meekness more suffering a Quietness more setled because those heavenly promises which the Philosopher never heard of were more and more clearly proposed in the Gospel then under the Law For is not Eternity of bliss a stronger motive then the Basket or Glory or Temporal enjoyments Is not Heaven more attractive then the Earth Under the Law this Peace and Quietness was but a promise a blessing in expectation and in the Schools of Philosophers it was but a phansie The Peace and Quietness they had was raised out of weak and failing principles de industria consultae aequanimitatis De Anima c. 1. non de fiducia compertae veritatis saith Tertullian out of an industrious affected endurance of every evil that it might not be worse out of a politick resolution to defeat the evil of its smart but not out of conscience or assurance of that truth which brought light and immortality to settle the mind to collect and gather it within it self in the midst of all those provocations and allurements which might shew themselves to divide and distract it but remain it self untoucht and unmoved looking forward through all these vanishing shadows and apparitions which either smile or threaten to that glory which cannot be done away This Christianity only can effect This was the business of the Prince of Peace who came into the world but not with drum and colours Tertull. cont Iudaeos Psal 72.6 but with a rattle rather not with noise but like rain on the mowen grass not destroying his enemies but making them his friends not as a Caesar or Alexander but as an Angel and Embassadour of peace not denouncing war but proclaiming a Jubilee with no sword but that of the Spirit Who made good that prophesie of the Prophet that swords should be turned into plow shares Micah 4.3 4. and spears into pruning books that all Bitterness and Malice of heart should be turned into the love and study of Modesty and Peace that every man should sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree gather his own fruit and not reach out his hand into another mans vineyard not offer violence nor fear it not disturb his brothers peace nor be jealous of his own not trouble others nor be afraid himself that the Earth might be a temporal paradise a type and representation of that which is eternal For this Christ came into the world and brought power enough with him to perform it and put this power into our hands that we may make it good And when he hath drawn out the method of it when he hath taught us the art to do it when there is nothing wanting but our will the Prophesie is fulfilled For it was never yet foretold by any Prophet that they should be quiet who made it their delight and study and the business of their whole life to trouble themselves and others What could Christ in wisdome have done more then he hath done He hath digged up Dissension at the very root Malè velle malè dicere malè cogitare ex aequo vetamur saith Tertullian To wish evil to speak evil to think evil are alike forbidden in the Gospel which restaineth the Will bindeth the Hand bridleth the Tongue fettereth the very Thoughts commandeth us to love an enemy to surrender our coat to him who hath stript us of our cloak to return a blessing for a reproch and to anoint his head with oyl who hath struck us to the ground which punisheth not the ends only but even the beginnings of dissension which bringeth every part to its own place the Flesh under the Spirit the Will under the law of Charity which is the Peace of the Soul the obedience of Faith under the eternal Law which is our Peace with God the Servant under the Master the Child under the Parent the Subject under the Magistrate which is the Peace of an House of a Commonwealth of the World which maketh every part dwell together in unity begetteth a parity in disparity raiseth equality out of inequality keepeth every wheel in its due motion every man in his right place is that Intelligence which moveth the lesser sphere of a Family and the greater orb of a Commonwealth composedly and orderly which is its Peace For Peace and Quiet is the order and harmony of things The Father calleth it a Harp and it is never well set or tuned but by an Evangelical hand which slacketh and letteth down the string of our Self love to an Hatred of our selves and windeth up the string of our Love to our brother in an equal proportion to the Love of our selves We must hate our life in this world Joh. 12.25 and we must love our brother as our selves Nay it letteth it lower yet Matth. 22.39 even to our enemies and the sound of it must reach unto them Talk what we will of Peace if it be not tuned and touched by Charity if it take not its rise and spring from this Peace here from the Peace of the Gospel it
each other the civil Power to exalt Religion and Religion to guard and fence the civil Power and both should concur in this 1 Tim. 2.2 that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Our commission is from Heaven and we need no other power then his that sealed it And the virtue and divinity of it shall then be made manifest when all earthly Power shall cease and even Kings and they who did what they list shall tremble before it We see that Power which is exercised here on earth though the glory of it dazle an eye of flesh yet sitteth heavy upon them who wear it we see it tortureth them that delight in it eateth up them that feed on it eateth up it self driving all before it at last falleth it self to the ground and falleth as a milstone upon him that hath it and bruiseth him to pieces It is not such a power But I may be bold to say though it be lookt upon and laught at and despised by the men of this world yet is it a greater power than that which sometimes setteth it upon high and sometimes maketh it nothing and hath its end when it hath not its end For to publish our Master's will to command in his name is all And though the command prove to some the savour of death unto death yet the Power is still the same and doth never fail And if men were what they profess themselves Christians Heb. 6.5 if they had any tast of the powers of the world to come they would more tremble at this then at the other be more afraid of a just Reproof then of a Whip of an Excommunication then of a Sword of the wrath of God which is yet scarce visible then of that which cometh in fire and tempest to devour us For Gods favour or his wrath ever accompanieth this power which draweth his love nearer to them that obey it and poureth forth his vengeance on them that resist it To conclude then Look upon the command and honour the Apostle that bringeth it for the commands sake for his sake whose power and command it is A Power there is proper and peculiar to them who are called to it And if the name of Power may move envy for we see men fret at that which was ordained for their good and so wast and exhale all their Religion till it be nothing if the name of Power bear so harsh a sound we will give you leave to think it is not much material whether you call it so or no vvhether vve speak in the Imparative mood HOC FAC Do this upon your peril or onely positively point as vvith the finger This is to be done We vvill be any thing do any thing be as lovv as you please so vve may raise you above the Vanities of the vvorld above that Wantonness vvhich stormeth at that vvhich vvas ordained for no other end but to lift you out of ruine into the highest heavens Our Povver and the Command of Christ differ not so much but the one includeth and upholdeth the other And if you did but once love the command you vvould never boggle at the name of Power but bless and honour him that bringeth it Oh that men vvere vvise but so vvise as not to be vviser then God as not to choose and fall in love vvith their own wayes as more certain and direct unto the end then Gods as not to prefer their own mazes and labyrinths and uncertain gyrations drawn out by Lust and Phansie before those even and unerring paths found out by an infinite Wisdome and discovered to us by a Mercy as infinite Oh that we could once work out and conquer the hardship of a command and then see the beauty of it and to what glory it leadeth us We should then receive an Apostle in the name of an Apostle Matth. 10.40 look upon the command though brought in an earthen vessel as upon Heaven it self Oh that we were once spiritual Then those precepts which concern our conversation on earth would be laid hold on and embraced as from Heaven heavenly then should we be as quiet as the Heavens which are ever moving and ever at rest because ever in their own place then should we be as the Angels of heaven who envy not one another malice not one another trouble not one another but every Angel knoweth his office and moveth in his own order and our assiduous labour in our calling would be a resemblance of the readiness of those blessed Spirits who at the beck of Majesty have wings and hast to their duty who are ever moving and then in their highest exaltation when they are in their ministery in a word then should we every one sit under his own vine and figtree and no evil eye should look towards him no malice blast him no injury assault him no bold intrusion unsettle him but we should all rejoyce together the poor with the rich the weak with the strong the low with the high all bless one another help one another guard one another and so in the name of the Prince of Peace walk peaceably together every one moving in his own place till we reach that Peace which yet we do not understand but shall then fully enjoy to all eternity The Tenth SERMON PART I. MATTH XXIV 42. Watch therefere For yee know not what hour your Lord doth come THese are the words of our blessed Saviour and a part of the answer he returned to that question which was put up by his Disciples vers 3. Tell us When shall these things be and what shall be the signe of thy coming and of the end of the world Where we may observe that he doth not satisfy their curiosity which was measuring of Time even to the last point and moment of it when it shall be no more but he resolveth them in that which was fit for them to know and passeth by in silence and untoucht the other as a thing laid up and reserved in the bosome of his Father The time he telleth them not but foretelleth those fearful signes which should be the forerunners of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the end of the world Which two are so interwoven in the prediction that Interpreters scarce know how to distinguish them We need not take any pains to disintangle or put them asunder At the thirtieth verse our Saviour presents himself in the clouds with power and great glory The Angels sound the Trumpet at the next The two men in the Field and the two women grinding at the mill in the verses immediately going before my Text the one taken the other left are a fair evidence and seem to point out to the end of the world which will be a time of discrimination of separating the Goats from the Sheep And then these words will concern us as much as the Apostles In which He who is our Lord and King to rule
come VENIET Come he will Et hoc satìs est aut nescio quid satìs sit as P. Varus spake upon another occasion This is enough or we cannot see what is enough But nothing is enough to those who have no mind nor heart to make use of that which is enough To them enough is too much for they look upon it as if it were nothing Therefore Christ doth not feed and nourish this thriftless and unprofitable humour but brideleth and checketh it putteth in his Prohibition not to search after more then is enough NON NOSTIS HORAM You know not the hour is all the answer which he who best knoweth what is fit for us to know will afford our Curiosity For what is it that we do not desire to know Sen. de vit Etat c. 32. Curiosum nobis Natura dedit ingenium saith the Philosopher Nature it self may seem to have imprinted this itch of Curiosity in our very minds and wits made them inquisitive given them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an eye which never sleepeth never resteth upon one object but passeth by that and gazeth after another That he will come is not enough for our busie but idle Curiosity to know we seek further yet to know that which cannot be known the Time and very Hour of his coming The mind of man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enormi otiosae curiositati tantum decrit discere quantum libuerit inquirere Tert. de Anima c. ult restless in perpetual motion It walketh through the earth sometimes looketh upon that which delighteth it sometimes upon that which grieveth it stayeth and dwelleth too long upon both and misinterpreteth them to its own impoverishing and disadvantage Perrumpit coeli munimenta saith Seneca It breaketh through the very gates of heaven and there busily pryeth after the nature of Angels and of God himself but seeth it not entreth the Holy of holies and there is venturing into the closet of his secrets and there is lost lost in the search of those things of times and seasons which are past finding out and are therefore set at such a distance that we may not send so much as a thought after them which if they could be known yet could not advantage us It was a good commendation which Tacitus giveth of Agricola In vitae Agricola Retinuit quod est difficilimum in sapientia modum He did what is difficult for man to do bound and moderate himself in the pursuit of knowledge and desired to know no more then that which might be of use and profitable to him Which wisdome of his had it gained so much credit as to prevail with the sons of men which would be thought the Children of Wisdome they had then laid out the precious treasure of their time on that alone which did concern them and not prodigally mispent it on that which is impertinent in seeking that which did fly from them when they were most intentive and eager in their search If this moderation had been observed there be thousand questions which had never been raised thousand opinions which had never been broacht thousands of errours which had never shewn their heads to disturb the peace of the Church to obstruct and hinder us in those wayes of obedience which alone without this impertinent turning our eye and looking aside will carry us in a straight and even course unto our end Why should I pride my self in the finding out a new conclusion when it is my greatest and my onely glory to be a New creature Why should I take such pains to reconcile opinions which are contrary My business is to still the contradictions of my mind those counsels and desires which every day thwart and oppose one another What profit is it to refute other mens errours whilst I approve and love and hug my own What purchase were it to find out the very Antichrist and to be able to say This is the man All that is required of me is to be a Christian What if I were assured the Pope was the Beast I sought for He appeared in as foul a shape to me before that title was written in his forehead For I consider more what he is then what he is called And thousands are now with Christ in heaven who yet never knew this his great Adversary on earth And why should I desire to know the time when Christ will come when no other command lieth upon me but this to watch and prepare my self for his coming when all that I can know or concerneth me is drawn up within the compass of this one word Watch which should be as the centre and all other truths drawn from it as so many lines to bear up the circumference of a constant and a continued watch Christ telleth us he will come Hoc satìs est dixisse Deo and this is enough for him to tell us and for us to know he telleth us that we cannot know it that the Angels cannot know it that the Son of man himself knoweth it not that it cannot be known that it is not fit to be known and yet we would know it Some there have been who pretended they knew it by the secret revelation of the spirit though it were a lying a spirit or a wanton phansie that spake within them For men are never more quick of belief then when they tell themselves a lye and yet the Apostle exhorteth the Thessalonians that they be not shaken in mind 2 Thes 2.2 nor troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from him as that the day of Christ is at hand Others call in tradition Others find out a mystery in the number of Seven and so have taken the full age of the world which is to end say they after six thousand years And this they find not onely in the six moneths the Ark floted on the waters Gen. 8.4 and its rest on the mountains of Ararat in the seventh in Moses going into the cloud and the walls of Jericho falling down the seventh day Exod. 24.16 18. but in the seven Vials and the seven Trumpets in the Revelation Josh 6. Such time and leasure have men found perscrutari interrogare latebras numerorum to divine by Numbers by their art and skill to dig the air and find pretious metal there where men of common apprehensions can find no such treasure inter irrita exercere ingenia to catch at atomes and shadows and spend their time to no purpose For Curiosity is a hard task master setteth us to make brick but alloweth us no straw setteth us to tread the water and to walk upon the wind putteth us to work but in the dark And we work as the Spirits are said to do in minerals They seem to dig and cleanse and sever metals but when men come they find nothing is done It is a good rule in Husbandry Columel and such rules old Cato called oracles Imbecillior
of Charity Eph. 4.16 which is the coupling and uniting virtue as Prosper calleth it Eph. 4.5 13. by the unity of faith by their agreement in holiness having one faith one baptisme one Lord. And at last every string being toucht in its right place begetteth Harmony which is delightful both to heaven and earth For when I name the Church I do not mean the stones and building some indeed would bring it down to this to stand for nothing but the walls but I suppose a subordination of parts which was never yet questioned in the Church but by those who would make it as invisible as their Charity not the Foot to see and the Eye to walk and the Tongue to hear and the Ear to speak not all Apostles not all Prophets not all Teachers but 1 Cor. 12.29 1 Cor. 15.23 Naz. Or. 26. as the Apostle saith it shall be at the resurrection every man in his own order For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Order is our security and safeguard In a rout every man is a child of death every throat open to the knife but when an army is drawn out by art and skill all hands are active for the victory Inequality indeed of persons is the ground of disunion and discord but Order draweth and worketh advantage out of Inequality it self When every man keepeth his station the common Souldier hath hi◠interest in the victory as the well as the Commander And when we walk orderly every man in his own place we walk hand in hand to heaven and happiness together For further yet in the Church of God there is not onely a Union and an Order but also as it is in our Creed a Communion of parts The glorious Angels as ministring Spirits are sent to guard us and no doubt do many and great services for us though we perceive it not The blessed Saints departed though we may not pray for them yet may pray for us though we hear it not And though the Church be scattered in its members through all the parts of the world yet their hearts meet in the same God Every man prayeth for himself and every man prayeth for every man Quod est omnium est singulorum That which is all mens is every mans and that which is every mans belongeth unto the whole For though we cannot speak in those high terms of the Church as the Church of Rome doth of her self yet we cannot but bless God and count it a great favour and privilege that we are filii Ecclesiae as the Father speaketh children of the Church and think our selves in a place of safety and advantage where we may find protection against Death it self We cannot speak loud with the Cardinal Bellarm. praefat ad Controv. Si Catholicus quisquam labitur in peccatum If a Catholick fall into a sin suppose it Theft or Adultery yet in that Church he walketh not in darkness but may see many helps to salvation by which he may soon quit himself out of the snare of the Devil Maternus ei non deest affectus She is still a Mother even to such Children Her shops of spiritual comfort lie open Isa 55.1 there you may buy wine and milk Indulgences and absolution but not without money or money-worth Be you as sick as you will and as oft as you will there is Physick there are cordials to refresh and restore you I dare not promise so much in the House of Israel in the Church of Christ for I had rather make the Church a school of Virtue then a sanctuary for offenders and wanton sinners We dare not give it that strength to carry up our Prayers to the Saints in heaven or to convey their Merits to us on earth We cannot work and temper it to that heat to draw up the blood of Martyrs or the works of supererogating Christians who have been such profitable servants that they did more in the service of God then they should into a common Treasury and then showre them down in Pardons and Indulgences But yet though we cannot find this power there which is a power to do nothing yet we may find strength enough in the Church to keep us from the Moriemini to save us from Death Though I cannot suffer for my brother Gal. 6.2 yet I may bear for him even bear my brothers burden Though I cannot merit for him yet I may work for him Though I cannot die for him I may pray for him Though there be no good in my death nor profit in my dust Psal 30.9 yet there may be in the memory of my good counsel my advise Consult c. de Relig. 5. my example which are verae sanctorum reliquiae saith Cassander the best and truest reliques of the Saints And though my death cannot satisfie for him yet it may catechize him and teach him how to die nay teach him how to overcome Death that he shall not die for ever And by this Communion it is that we work Miracles that in turning the Covetous turning his bowels in him we recover a dry hand and a narrow heart in teaching the Ignorant we give sight to the blind in setling the inconstant and wavering mind we cure the palsie We can well allow of such Miracles as these in the Church but not of lies For as there is an invisible union of the Saints with God so is there of Christians amongst themselves Which union though the eye of flesh cannot behold it yet it must appear and shine and be resplendent in those duties and offices which do attend this union which are so many hands by which we lift up one another to happiness As the Head infuseth life and vigour into the whole body so must the members also anoynt each other with this oyl of gladness Each member must be active and industrious to express that virtue without which it cannot be one Let no man seek his own but every man anothers wealth saith the Apostle Not seek his own 1 Cor. 10.24 what more natural to man or who is nearer to him then he himself but yet he must not seek his own but as it may bring advantage to and promote the good of others not press forward to the mark but with his hand stretcht forth to carry on others along with him not go to heaven but saving some with fear and pulling others out of the fire Jud. 23. and gathering up as many as his wisdome and care and zeal toward God and man can take up with him in the way And this is necessary even in humane societies and those politick bodies which men build up to themselves for their peace and security Turpis est pars quae toti suo non convenit That is a most unnecessary superfluous part or member for which the whole is not the better Vt in sermone literae saith Augustine as letters in a word or sentence so Men are elementa civitatis the principles and
apart for this holy use yet we must be careful that we attribute no more unto them than Christ the Authour doth We must not suffer our eyes to dazle at the outward Elements nor must we rest in the outward Action For this were in a manner to transsubstantiate the Elements and bring the Body and Bloud of Christ into them which nothing can do but Faith and Repentance This were to make the very action of Receiving opus privilegiatum as Gerson speaketh to give it a greater prerogative than was ever granted out of the court of Heaven This were to rest in the means as in the end and at once to magnifie and profane it This were to take it as our first parents did the Apple that our eyes may be opened and then to see nothing but our own shame This were to eat and to be damned But this we shall not need to insist upon For it is sufficient to point out to it as to a thing to be done And that we may do it besides the Authority and Command and Love of the Authour we have all those motives and inducements which use to stir up and incite us unto action even then when our hands are folded and we unwilling to move as 1. the Fitness and Applyableness of it to our present condition 2. the Profit and Advantage it may bring 3. the Pleasure and Delight it carrieth along with it 4. the Necessity of it which are as so many allurements and invitations as so many winds to drive us on and make us fly to it as the Doves to their windows Isa 60.8 And first it fitteth and complyeth as it were with our present condition blanditur nostrae infirmitati and even flattereth and comforteth and rowzeth up our weakness and infirmity As our Saviour speaketh upon another occaâ—â—on John 12.30 2 Cor. 5.7 This voyce this institution came for our sake We walk by faith saith the Apostle Et hoc est nostrae infirmitatis saith the Father and this is a sign and an argument of humane infirmity that we walk by faith that God can come no nearer to us nor we to him that we see him onely with that eye which 1 Cor. 13.12 Gen. 2.18 c. when it is clearest seeth him but as in a glass darkly And therefore as God sent Adam into the world and gave him adjutorium simile sibi a help convenient and meet for him so doth he place us in his Church and affordeth us many helps meet for us and attempered to our frailty and humane infirmity He speaketh to our Ear and he speaketh to our Eye he speaketh in thunder and he speaketh in a still voyce He passeth his promise and sealeth and confirmeth it He preacheth to us by his word and he preacheth to us by these ocular Sermons by visible Elements by Water to purge us and by Bread and Wine to strengthen us in his grace and omitteth nothing that is meet and convenient for us When God told the people of Israel that he would no longer go before them himself he withall telleth them he would send his Angel which should lead them and when we are not capable of a nearer approach he sendeth his Angels his Word his Apostles his Sacraments which like those ministring Spirits Hebr. 1.14 minister for them who are heirs of salvation And not content with the general declaration of his mind he addeth unto it certain seals and external signs that we may even see and handle and tast the word of life 1 Joh. 1.1 And as it was said by Laban and Jacob when they made a covenant Gen. 31.48 c. This stone shall be witness between us so God doth say to thy soul by these outward Elements This covenant have I made with thee and this that thou seest shall witness between thee and me Do thou look upon it and bring a bleeding renewed heart with thee and then do this and I will look upon it Gen. 9.16 as upon the Rain-bow and remember my covenant which was made in the blood of my Son I thus frame and apply my self to thee in things familiar to thy sight that thou mayest draw nearer and nearer to that light which now thy mortal eye thy frailty and infirmity cannot attain to And shall we not meet and embrace that help which is so fitted and proportioned to us Secondly Profit is a lure and calleth all men after it And if you ask with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What profit is there Rom 3 1â—2 we may answer with him Much every manner of way For what is profit but the improvement of our estate the bettering of our condition As in the increase of Jacobs cattel the doubling of Jobs sheep as when Davids sheep-hook was changed into a scepter here was improvement and advantage And this we find in our spiritual addresses in our reverent access to this Table a great improvement in some thirty in some sixty in some an hundred fold Mark 4.20 a Will intended a Love exalted our Hope increased our Faith quickened more earnestly looking on God more compassionately on our Brethren more Light in our Understanding more Heat in our Affections more Constancy in our Patience every vitious Inclination weakned every Virtue rooted and established What is but brass it refineth into gold raiseth the man the earthy man to the participation of a Divine nature And shall we not be covetous of that which is so profitable and advantageous Thirdly Pleasure is attractive is eloquent and pleadeth for admittance Who will not do that which bringeth much delight and pleasure when it is done And here in this action of worthy Receiving is not that short transitory Meteor the flattery and titillation of the outward man but that new heaven which Reason and Religion create in the mind Isa 9.3 the joy of the harvest as the Prophet speaketh Psal 126.5 for here we reap in joy what we sowed in tears the joy and triumph of a Conquerour for here we tread down our enemy under our feet the joy of a prisoner set at liberty for this is our Jubilee And such a joy the blood of Christ if it be tasted and well digested must necessarily bring forth a pure refined spiritual heavenly joy Pretious blood saith S. Peter 1 Pet. 1.19 not to be shed for a trifle for that joy which is no better then madness and the blood of an immaculate Lamb not to be poured forth for a stained wavering fugitive joy for a joy as full of pollution as the World and the Flesh from whence it springeth Bring but a true tast with thee a soul purged from those vitious humours which vitiate and corrupt it and here is not onely Bread and Wine Psal 4.7 but living Bread Bread that putteth gladness into the heart more then Corn and Wine can Here is Christ here is Joy here is Heaven it self And shall we not do that which filleth
every house for what house what estate tottereth not He hath shaken our Confidence We dare not trust others we dare not trust in our selves because we do not trust in him He hath shaken our Resolution We know not what to determine we know not what to think He hath shaken our very Hopes Not a door as the Prophet speaketh non ostiolum spei not a wicket of hope can we see to enter at And need I now use any other art or eloquence or any other Topick to move you to sorrow What need the tongue of men and Angels when the very stones do speak When all about us is thus shaken can we settle and rest upon our lees When Jerusalem is so low on the ground it is time to hang up our harps and sit down and weep Behold the land mourneth Jer. 14. and the gates thereof languish The Church mourneth her very face is disfigured Religion mourneth being trod under foot and onely her name held up to keep her down All that we should delight in mourneth and shall we chant to the tune of the viol Shall the Covetous still hug himself at the sight of his heaps shall the Ambitious deifie himself in his Honour shall the Wanton still crown himself with roses shall every man sport and play in his own cock-boat whilst the ship of the Church is tempest beaten and driven upon the rocks Have ye no regard all ye that pass by the way to see a troubled State a disordered Church mouldred into Sects and crumbled into Conventicles Religion enslaved and dragged to vile offices true Devotion spit at and Hypocrisie crowned common Honesty almost become a reproach and the upright moral man condemned to hell Can you behold this which the Angels desire not to look on but turn away their face which God himself is grieved at and pressed under as a cart is with sheaves When the bleeding wounds of the Church and Religion it self open themselves wide when our Miseries bespeak us when our Sins bespeak us when every evil is so powerful an oratour when our Miseries cry aloud and our Sins cry louder can the apple of our eye cease and rest in this valley of Hadad rimmon in this Aceldama in this confusion Or why go we not mourning all the day long If this sight grieve us not it is an argument and it is the Philosopher's that we never delighted in the contrary that we loved our selves and not the publick that we cryed up the Church as the Jews did the Temple but cared not for it that Religion was onely written in our banners whilst we fought for our selves that we spake for Order but rejoyced not in it that we prayed for Peace but delighted in War And this Consequence is natural and will necessarily follow For that which we love is either our joy or our grief Whilst it is present it filleth us with joy and then when it is taken from us it must needs leave us in sorrow I might here inlarge my self but I must not be too bold with your patience I shall say as our Saviour said Lift up your eyes and look upon the fields Look every where about you send your eyes far and near and you shall see horrour and amazement and distraction motives enough to melt you and your selves the most miserable objects of all if you do not mourn and weep over them Look then upon them and do not doubt of God's providence He that suffereth is malus interpres Divinae providentiae the worst interpreter of a thousand and his Providence is like it self in those effects which seem to us most disproportionable Tunc optimus cùm tibi non bonus Then he is most good when his goodness seemeth not to be extended unto thee most just when sinners flourish and good men are opprest then caring for his vineyard when he letteth in the wild bores to spoil it Again do not murmure nor repine For in these calamities and miseries of the world we hang indeed as it were upon a cross but our Saviour hangeth by us If we bespeak him churlishly as one of the Thieves did our Saviour will give us no answer but if we mourn before him and humbly intreat him then shall we hear that comfortable reply Now you are on the cross but you shall be with me in paradise Let us not tempt God as the Jews did in the wilderness nor murmure as some of them murmured For then those evils which appear as Serpents to us will devour us But let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the Altar let the people take up a Lamentation let us all bawail our sins and that desolation which nothing but our sins could make upon the earth and in this our humility in this day of our mourning rouse up our drooping spirits with this Christian resolution even with this Here in this house of mourning will we build up a Temple for the Holy Ghost here in this dungeon purchase our liberty here in this Golgotha crucifie our lusts and overcome the world here in this disorder compose our affections in this confusion make our peace here even in this Common-wealth make our selves Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem here in the ruines of a Church marry our selves unto Christ here amongst scorpions and draggons fit our selves for the company of Angels be miserable and mourn to rejoyce for ever Thus Blessedness and Consolation shall compass in the man of sorrow on every side who is troubled on every side but not distressed perplexed but not in despair cast down but not destroyed And thus blessed are they that thus mourn The Angels are their servants to convey their tears God is their Treasurer to keep them in his bottle and the holy Ghost is their Comforter Their sighs are the breath of heaven their tears the wine of Angels their groans the Echo of the Spirit of Grace Who will lead them to the living fountains of the waters of comfort and will wipe all tears from their eyes and bring them to the presence of the God of consolation where there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore The Third SERMON PART I. JOHN V. 14. Afterward Jesus findeth him in the Temple and said unto him Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee GLorious things are spoken of our Saviour Jesus Christ yet all come short of his glory S. Peter in his Sermon to Cornelius comprehendeth all in this that God anointed him with the Holy Ghost Acts 10.38 and with power and that he went about doing good As he cured mens bodies of diseases so he purged their souls of sin and he was miraculous in both The one he did by his word and in an instant the other by his word too but by degrees making use of one miracle to further another beginning the cure of the soul by giving health to the body in
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 highest heavens for evermore The Sixteenth SERMON PART II. 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's THese words are a Logical Enthymeme consisting of two parts an Antecedent Ye are bought with a price and a Consequent naturally following Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's God's by Creation and God's by Redemption the Body bought and redeemed from the dust to which it must have fallen for ever and the Soul from a worse death the death of sin from those impurities which bound it over to an eternity of punishment and therefore both to be consecrated to him who bought them How God is to be glorified in our spirit we have already shewn to wit by a kind of assimilation by framing and fashioning our selves to the will and mind of God He that is of the same mind with God glorifieth him by bowing to him in his still voice and by bowing to him in his thunder by hearkening to him when he speaketh as a Father and by hearkening to him when he threatneth as a Lord by hearkening to his mercy and by hearkening to his rod. For the Glory of a King is most resplendent in the obedience of his subjects In a word we glorifie God by Justice and Mercy and those other vertues which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defluxions and emanations from his infinite goodness and light In a just and perfect man God shineth in glory and all that behold him will say that God is in him of a truth The Glory of God is that immense ocean into which all streams must run Our Creation our Redemption are to his glory Nay the Damnation of the wicked at last emptieth it self and endeth here This his wisdom worketh out of his dishonour and forceth it out of blasphemy it self But God's chief glory and in which he most delighteth is from our submissive yielding to his natural and primitive intent which is that we should follow and be like him in all purity and holiness In this he is well pleased that we should do that which is pleasing in his sight Then he looketh with an eye of favour and complacency upon Man his creature when he appeareth in that shape and form which he prescribed when he seeth his own image in him when he is what he would have him be when he doth not change the glory of God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things when he doth not prostitute that Understanding to folly which should know him and that Will to vanity which should seek him nor fasten those Affections to the earth which should wait upon him alone when he falleth not from his state and condition but is holy as God is holy merciful as God is merciful perfect as God is perfect Then is he glorified then doth he glory in him Deut. 30.9 and rejoyce over him as Moses speaketh as over the work of his hands as over his image and likeness not corrupted not defaced Then is Man taught Canticum laudis nothing else but the Glory and Praise of his Maker Thus do we glorifie God in our spirit Now to pass to that which we formerly did but touch upon Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made up of both of Body and Spirit and therefore must glorifie God not onely in the spirit but in the body also For such a near conjunction there is between the Body and the Soul that nothing but Death can divorce them and that too but for a while a sleeping-time after which they shall be made up into one again either to howl out their blasphemie or to sing a song of praise to their Maker for evermore If we will not glorifie God in our body by chastity by abstinence by patience here we shall be forced to do it by weeping and gnashing of teeth hereafter It is true the body is but flesh 2 Cor. 4.11 yet the life of Jesus may be made manifest in this our flesh It is but dust and ashes but this dust and ashes may be raised up and made a Temple of the holy Ghost a Temple in which we offer up ch 6.19 not beasts our raging lusts and unruly affections nor the foul stench and exhalations of our corrupted hearts but the sweet incense of our devotion not whole drink offerings but our tears and strong supplications such a Temple which it self may be a sacrifice a holy and acceptable sacrifice Rom. 12.1 post Dei templum sepulcrum Christi saith Tertullian and being a Temple of God be made a sepulchre of Christ by bearing about in it the dying of our Lord Jesus For when we beat it down and bring it in subjection when we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep it chast and pure quench those unholy fires which are even ready to kindle and flame up in it bind and tye it up from joyning with that forbidden object to which its bent and natural inclination carrieth it when we have set a watch at every sense at every door which may be an in-let to the Enemy when we have learned so far to love it as to despise it to esteem of it as not ours but his that made it to be macerated and diminished to be spit upon and whipt to be stretched out on the rack to be ploughed up with the scourge to be consumed in the fire when his honour calleth for it when with S. Paul we are ready to offer it up then is the power of Christ's death visible in it and the beauty of that sight is the glory of God First we glorifie God in our bodies when we use them for that end to which he built them up when we make them not the weapons of sin but the weapons of righteousness when we do not suffer them to make our Spirit and Reason their servants to usher in those delights which may flatter and please them but bring them under the law and command of Reason Touch not Taste not Handle not which by its power may check the weakness of the Flesh and so uphold and defend it from those allurements and illusions from that deep ditch that hell into which it was ready to fall and willing to be swallowed up Now saith S. Paul vers 13◠the body is not for fornication It was not created for that end For how can God who is Purity it self create a body for uncleanness Not then for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body Who made it as an instrument which the mind might use to the improvement and beautifying of it self as a vessel to be possest by us in holiness and honour 1 Thes 4.4 his Temple and thy vessel his Temple that thou mayest not profane it and thy vessel that thou mayest not defile and pollute it nor defile thy soul in it For this kind of
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
They had a full harvest we our sheaf yet our sheaf may make an offering Though our coyn be smaller yet the same image and stamp is on them both and the Spirit will own us though we weigh less All this is true But yet I must still remember you that whilest I build up the power of the Spirit I erect no asylum or sanctuary for illusions and wilful mistakes and when I have raised a fort and strong-hold for sober Christians I mean it not a shelter or refuge for mad-men and phantasticks God forbid that Truth should be banished out of the world because some men by false illations have made her factious or that Errour should straight be crowned with approbation because perhaps we read of some men who have been bettered with a lie The teaching of the Spirit it were dangerous to teach it were there not means to try and distinguish the Spirit 's instructions from the suggestions of Satan or the evaporations of a sick and loathsome brain or our own private Humour which is as great a Devil Beloved 1 John 4.1 saith the Apostle believe not every spirit that is every inspiration but try the spirits whether they be of God for many false prophets are gone out into the world that is have taken the chair and dictate magisterially what they please in the name of the Spirit when themselves are carnal And he giveth the rule by which we should try them Vers 2 Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God that is Whosoever striveth to advance the Kingdom of Christ and to set up the Spirit against the Flesh to magnifie the Gospel to promote and further men in the wayes of innocency and perfect obedience which infallibly lead to happiness is from God that is every such inspiration is from the Spirit of God For therefore doth the Spirit breathe upon us that he may make us like unto God and so draw us to him that where he is we may be also But those inspirations which bring in God to plead for Baal which cry up Religion to gain the world which call their own discipline Christ's Discipline which he never framed and spurn at his to maintain their own which tread down Peace and Charity and all that is indeed praise-worthy under their feet to make way for their unguided lust to pace it more delicately to its end which sigh out Faith and Grace and Christ like mourners about the streets which attend a funeral when the World and Satan hath filled their hearts and thus sow in tears that they may reap the profits and pleasures of this present world with joy which magnifie God's will that they may do their own these men these spirits cannot be from God By their fruits ye shall know them For their hypocrisie as well and cunningly wrought as it is is but a poor cobweb-lawn and we may easily see through it even see these spiritual men sweating and toiling for the Flesh these Saints digging in the minerals labouring for the bread that perisheth and making haste to be rich For though many times their wine be the poison of dragons and their milk not at all sincere yet they are not to be bought without money or money-worth Though GLORIA PATRI Glory to God on high be the Prologue to the Play for what doth a Hypocrite but play yet the whole drift and business of every Scene and Act is chearfully to draw altogether in this From hence we have our gain The Angel speaketh the Prologue and Mammon and the Flesh make the Epilogue Date manus Why should not every man give them his hands Surely such Roscii such cunning Actors deserve a Plaudite By their fruits ye shall know them For what though the voice be Jacobs Ye may know Esau by his hands What though the Devil turn Angel of light Ye may know him by his claws by his malice and rage For how can an Angel of light tear men in pieces By their fruits ye may know them So ye see this inconvenience and mischief which sometimes is occasioned by the Doctrine of the Spirit 's Teaching is not unavoidable It is not necessary though I mistake and take the Devil for an Angel that the holy Ghost should be put to silence Though Corah and his complices perish in their gainsayings yet God forbid that all Israel should be swallowed up in the same gulf Samuel runneth to Eli 1 Sam. 3. Vers 9. when the voice was God's but was taught at last to answer Speak Lord for thy servant heareth Though there were many false Prophets yet Micaiah was a true one Though there be many false Prophets come into the world yet the Spirit of God is a Spirit of truth and is not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our chief but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our sole Instructor Our last Part In which we shall be very brief We are told in the verse next after the Text There are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit And we may say There are diversities of teachers but the same Spirit because be the conveyances and conduits never so many through which the knowledge of our Lord Jesus is brought unto us if the Sririt move not along with it it may be water indeed but not of life Because all means are but instrumental but He the prime Agent we may well call him not onely the chief but the sole Instructor The Church of Christ is DOMUS DOCTRINAE the House of learning as it is called in the Chaldee Paraphrase and COLUMNA VERITATIS 1 Tim. 3.15 the Pillar of the truth because it presenteth the knowledge of Christ as a Pillar doth an Inscription and even offereth and urgeth it to every eye that it may not slip out of our memories and SCHOLA CHRISTI the School of Christ in respect of his Precepts and Discipline Such glorious things have been spoken of the Church But now methinks this House is ruinous this Pillar shaken this School broken up and dissolved and the Church which bore so great a name standeth for nothing but the walls A Jesuite telleth us that at the very name of the CHURCH hostis expalluit the Enemy that is such as he called Hereticks did look pale and tremble But what is it now amongst us Nothing or but a Name and in truth a Name is nothing And that too is vanishing for it is changed into another And yet it is the same for they both signifie one and the same thing So prevalent amongst us is that Phansie and Folly which is taken for the Spirit A Church no doubt there is and will be but we onely see it as we do the Church Triumphant through a glass darkly Or she may be fair as the Moon clear as the Sun but sure she is not terrible as an army with banners Secondly the Word is a Teacher And Christ by open proclamation hath commanded us to have recourse unto it
in spirit and truth But this they cannot do together but in some place and the Spirit which breatheth upon the Church will not blow it down nor the place where they meet who make up a Church We remember also that S. Paul enjoyneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that men pray every where 1 Tim. 2.8 But those words carry not any such tempest with them as to overthrow the houses of the Lord. S. Basil who had as clear an eye and as quick an apprehension as any that age or after-ages have afforded could spy no such meaning in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he doth not take-in those places which are deputed to humane and profane uses but extendeth and dilateth the worship of God beyond the narrow compass of Jerusalem to every place in the whole world It is written that all shall be Priests of God but yet it is not meant that all shall exercise the Priests office I am ashamed to exercise my self against rotten posts set up by wanton and malicious men which will fall to the dust to nothing of themselves and to spend my time and pains to beget a good opinion of the house of God in their minds who know not what to think or what they would have who fear their own shadow which their ignorance doth cast and run from a monster of their own begetting the creation of a troubled or rather a troublesome spirit and an idle brain God then hath an House and he calleth it his Nor can he be guilty of a Misnomer And if it be God's then it is holy not holy as he is holy but holy because it is his Why startle we It is no ill-boding word that we should be afraid of it Donatus the Grammarian observeth Si ferrum nominetur in comoedia transit in tragoediam that but to name a Sword in a Comedie is enough to turn it into a Tragedie I know not whether that word have such force or no sure I am there is nothing in this word Holy why so much noise and tumult should be raised about it as if Superstition had crept in and were installed and inthroned in our Church The house of God is holy What need we boggle at it or what reason is there of fear when the lowest degree of charity might help us to conclude that it is impossible that he who calleth it so should mean that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. I ask Hebr. 12.14 Is it possible that this should ever enter into the heart of any man who is not out of his wits I will be bold to say Matth. 3.9 that God who can raise up children unto Abraham out of stones cannot infuse holiness into stones till they be made children of Abraham I dare not shorten his hand or lessen his power yet I may say His Power waiteth in a manner upon his Wisedome and He cannot do what becometh him not He cannot do what he hath said he never will do But when Stones are piled together and set apart for his service he himself calleth it his holy place because of the relation it beareth to his service and to holiness and in respect of the end for which it was set up Holy that is set apart from common use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 10.14 common and profane signifie the same in holy Writ So the Gentiles were common and profane and the Jews were holy that is culled and taken out from the rest of the world sanctified and set apart to the Lord. For as holy a people as they were how many of them did embrace that holiness which beautifieth the inward man and might make them like to the Holy one of Israel Again SANCTUM est ab hominum injuria munitum That which is holy is fenced from the injuries of men and the hand of Sacrilege Things thus holy God looketh upon as his with an eye of jealousie And as he gave charge concerning his Anointed so he doth concerning his House Psal 105.15 Nolite tangere Touch it not And he that toucheth it with a profane and sacrilegious hand toucheth the apple of his eye and if he repent not of his wickedness God will one day put him to shame for that low esteem he had of the place where his honour dwelleth Psal 16 8. It is the end which maketh it holy and to hinder it of its end is to profane it though the pretense be never so specious What is it then to laugh and jest at this name that we may pull it down in earnest Oh trust not to a pretense And if we lean upon it whilest we deface the house of God it will fail and deceive us and our fall will be the greater for our support we shall fall and be bruised to pieces our punishment shall be doubled and our stripes multiplied first for doing that which is evil and then for taking in that which is good to make it an abettour and assistant to that which is evil which is to bring in God pleading for Baal and to suborn Religion to destroy it self Oh why do men boast in their shame What happiness can it be to devour holy things Prov. 20.25 and then be caught in that snare which will strangle them To dance in the ruines of the Church and then sink to hell Time was Beloved when this was counted an holy language and holy men of God and blessed Martyrs of Christ spake it Then it was not superstition but great devotion And no other language was heard almost till the dayes of our grandfathers But then Covetousness under the mask of false Zele which was rather burning then hot and carried with it more rage then charity swallowed up this Devotion in victory led it in triumph disgraced and vilified it and gave it an ill name Then the Devil shewed himself in the colours of light and did more mischief then if he had appeared as a roaring Lion Then the very name of holy was a good argument to beat down a Temple which must down for this because it was called so Before this There were Holy Means and they were called so the Word Prayer Sacraments Ecclesiastical Discipline and for the applying of these Means to the end for which they were ordained there were Holy Times when and Holy Persons by whom they were to be administred and there were Holy Places too or else the rest were to no purpose And holy things S. Paul calleth them 1 Cor. 9.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy things out of the holy place All these are so linked together as a chain that you cannot sever them For neither can there be Holiness without fit means nor Means administred without fit Persons nor Persons do their office but in a fit Place Holiness indeed is properly inherent in none but God Angels and Men in God essentially in the blessed Spirits and Men by participation as far as their
light to stand up against our helps and to disgrace that for which the Saints of God have offered up the calves of their lips Hebr. 13.15 the sacrifice of praise from generation to generation But when we have no peace within we trouble all that is about us When the love of our selves and of the world hath gained a throne and power within us it presently raiseth a tempest distracteth and maddeth our passions and sendeth them abroad our Anger on that we should love our Fear on that we should embrace our Sorrow on that which should make us glad our Anger on the Temple whilest our Love is carried with a swinge to the gold of the Temple And then what an unruly thing is Phansie in men who talk much and know little in men of narrow minds and heavy understandings in men who have bound their reason to the things of this world and not improved it by the knowledge of the truth What Comedies and Tragedies will it make what ridiculous but withall sad effects will it produce If this humour were general as it is in too-too many within a while we should not know where or when or what to pray we shall not know how to move our selves how to stand or go or kneel we should make some scruple and be troubled to take up a straw we should fall out with others and disagree with our selves we should to day build a Church and within a while pull it down and shortly after set it up again we should kneel to day and stand to morrow and every day change our postures and appear in as many shapes as Proteus we should do and undo and every day do what we should not do be Antipodes to all the world and which is strange to our selves also and so having been every thing at last turn Apostates first oppose the private spirit to Scripture and then as some have done of late deny it to be the word of God first wrest and abuse it and then take it quite away These are the common operations of a sick and distempered brain the evaporations of a corrupt heart Nor can we look for grapes from thorns nor for figs from thistles Matth. 7.16 It cannot be expected that things sacred should escape the hands of Violence and Profaneness till men begin to love Religion for it self and cease to think every thing unlawful that may be spoken against till they have learnt that totum Christiani that which maketh a Christian indeed learnt to subdue their affections to the truth and not to draw down the truth to be subject to their unquiet and turbulent passions When true devotion hath once purified and warmed our hearts we shall not trouble our selves or others with low and groundless questions concerning God's house Though he be indeed every where yet we shall think him more present here then in any other place more ready to shine upon us to distill his blessings as dew upon us in his own house then in our closet or shop more ready to favour the devotion of many assembled together then of one single person and yet hearing and favouring both Or if we do not think the Lord more present here then elsewhere yet we shall demean our selves as if we did think so we shall use all reverence as in the sight of God before vvhom vve present our selves vve shall use all reverence as being before the holy Angels What you will say do Angels come to Church Yes They did in St. Paul's time And certainly they do still unless we chase them away with our irreverence One argument that the Apostle useth why women should be veiled and covered in the Church and men uncovered is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the Angels 1 Cor. 11.10 Nor need we strain and study for an interpretation and say he meant the Pastours of the Church because in Scripture sometime they are called Angels Hagg. 1.13 Mal. 2.7 For this is too much forced and maketh the reason less valid and putteth the Veil upon the Man as well as the Woman Nor can we understand the evil Spirits Psal 78.49 Matth. 25.41 Rev. 12.7 9. Hebr 1.14 which are no where called Angels but with addition Nor can I see any reason why we may not understand the holy Angels to be there meant For they are ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation then doubtless they minister to us in the Church assoon as in any other place They rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner Luke 15. ◠10 then doubtless they rejoyce also at our prayers and praises in the house of the Lord. But say some the Apostle in that place exhorteth women to imitate the reverent and modest behaviour of the Angels Isa 6.2 who are said to cover their faces before the throne of God But then this again would concern Men as well as Women All will be plain if we consider that at that time it was a received custome for women to be veiled and men uncovered in the Church 1 Cor. 11.7 13. The words are plain A man indeed ought not to cover his head and Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered If the women therefore will not be covered because of men 11. let them do it because of the Angels who are sent by Christ into the congregations of Christians to take care of them to help them in every occasion and withall to observe whether they behave themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 14.40 decently and in order Here they are present in the name of their Lord here they stand as witnesses of what is done To them as to their Lord that sent them modest and reverent behaviour is pleasing boldness profaness and disorder hateful As they do their duty in ministring to us so they rejoyce to see us doe ours in serving God Why should they be grieved who are so ready to attend on us Therefore it will concern Women not to neglect or alter the custome of the Church lest by so doing they give offense to the blessed Angels who are great lovers of decency and order and make them who would minister to them to become witnesses against them upon the beck of Majesty executioners of judgement upon their heads This I take to be the meaning of the Apostle in that place Reverence is due to the house of God not onely because God is present there Ye shall reverence my sanctuarie Levit. 19.30 I am the Lord but because the Angels are present there also who are the ministers of the God of order and rejoyce in our order and are offended at the contrary Further yet a reverent deportment in the Church is necessary in respect of men Some men by their severity and eminency in virtue have obtained to themselves this privilege and prerogative that no man dareth do any evil or undecent thing in their presence Seneca saith
us to bliss But when the Will is subdued and made obedient to the Truth then Gods precepts which are from heaven heavenly fill the soul with a joy of the same nature not gross and earthy but refined and spiritual a joy that is the pledge and the earnest as the Apostle calls it of that which is to come When the Will is thus subject and framed and fashioned according to the rule and pattern which God hath drawn it cloths it self as it were with the light of heaven which is the original of this chast delight Then what a pearl is Wisdome what glory is in poverty what honour in persecution what a heaven in obedience Then how sweet are thy words unto my tast Psal 119.103 yea sweeter then honey unto my mouth saith David In quibus operamur in illis gaudemus for such as the work is such is the joy A work that hath its rise and original from heaven a work drawn out according to the law which is the will of God begun in an immortal soul and wrought in the soul promoted by the Spirit of God and the ministery of Angels and breathing it self forth as myrrh or frankincense amongst the children of men will cause a joy like unto it self a true and solid joy having no deceit no carnality no inconstancy in it a beam from heaven kindled and cherisht by the same Spirit a joy which receives no taint nor diminution from those sensible evils which to those that keep not Gods word are as Hell it self and the onely Hell they think of but giving a relish and sweetness to that which were not evil if we did think it so making Poverty Disgrace and Death it self as fewel to foment and increase it upholding us in misery strengthning us in weakness and at the hour of death and in the day of judgment streaming forth into the ocean of eternal Happiness Blessedness invites attends and waits upon Obedience and yet Obedience ushereth it in being illix misericordiae it inviteth Gods Mercy and draws it so near as to bless us and it makes the blessing ours not ex rigore justitiae according to the rigour of justice as I call that mine which I buy with my money For no obedience can equal the reward And what can the obedience of a guilty person merit but ex debito promissi according to Gods promise by which he hath as it were entailed Blessedness on those who hear his word and keep it Hebr. 6.10 and God is not unrighteous to forget our work and labour of love Oh let neither our obedience swell and puff us up as if God were our debtor nor let us be so afraid of merit as not to keep Gods word Let not our anger against Papists transform us into Libertines and let us not so far abominate an errour in judgment as to fall into a worse in practice let us not cry down Merit and carry a Pope nay Hell it self along with us whithersoever we go Let us not be Papists God forbid And God forbid too that we should not be Christians Let us rather move like the Seraphims which having six wings covered their face with the uppermost Isa 6.2 and not daring to look on the majesty of God and covered their feet with the lowest as acknowledging their imperfection in respect of him but flew with those in the midst ready to do his will Let our obedience be like unto theirs Let us tremble before God and abhor our selves but between these two let the middle wings move which are next to the Heart and let our hearty Obedience work out its way to the end For conclusion Let us not look for Blessedness in the land of darkness amongst shades and dreams and wandring unsetled phantasmes Phansie is but a poor petard to open the gates of heaven with Let us not deceive our selves To call our selves Saints will not make us Saints to feign an assurance will not seal us up to the day of redemption Presumption doth but look towards Blessedness whilst Disobedience works a curse and carries us irrecoverably into the lowest pit What talk we of the imputed righteousness of Christ when we have none of our own what boast we of Gods grace when we turn it into wantonness The imputed righteousness of Christ is that we stand to when we are full of all iniquity and this we call appearing in our elder brothers robes and apparel that as Jacob did we may steal away the blessing Thus the Adulterer may say I am chast with Christs chastity the Drunkard I am sober with Christs temperance the Covetous I am poor with Christs poverty the Revenger I am quiet with Christs meekness he that doth not keep his word may keep his favour and if he please every wicked person may say that with Christ he is crucified dead and buried As Calvisius Sabinus in Seneca thought he did do himself what any of his Servants did if his servant were a good Poet he was so if his servant were well-limb'd he could wrestle if his servant were a good Grammarian he could play the Critick And so if Christ fasted fourty dayes and fourty nights we fast as long though we never abstain from a meal If Christ conquered the devil when he tempted him we also are victorious though we never resist him If Christ opened not his mouth when he was haled to the slaughter we also are as sheep though we open our mouth as a sepulchre And therefore as Seneca speaks of that rich man Nunquam vidi hominem indecentius I never saw a man whose Happiness did less become him so most true it is This obedience is but an unbeseeming garment because it had no other artificer but the Phantasie to spin and work and make it up Beloved if we keep God's word he will keep his and impute righteousness to us though we have sinned and come short of the Glory of God! What talk we of applying the promises which he may do who is an enemy to the cross of Christ If we keep his word the promises will apply themselves And indeed applying of the promises is not a speculative but a practick thing an act rather of the Will then of the Understanding When the Will of man is subject to the will of God this dew from heaven will fall of it self Vpon them that walk according to the rule shall be mercy and peace and upon the Israel of God To conclude If we put on the Lord Jesus if we put him on all his Righteousness his Obedience his Love his Patience that is if we keep his word he will find his Seal upon us by which he will know us to be his and in this his likeness he will look upon us with an eye of favour bless us here with joy and content and so fit and prepare us for everlasting blessedness at the end of the world when he shall pronounce to all that have kept his word that blessed
conditions of life to all sexes to all actions whatsoever It may be fitted to Riches as well as to Poverty it will live with Married men as well as with Votaries it will abide in Cities as well as in a Cell or Monastery Why should I prescribe Poverty I may make Riches my way Why do I enjoyn Single life I may make Marriage my way Why should I not think my self safe but when I am alone I may be perfect amidst a multitude Whether in riches or poverty in marriage or single life in retiredness or in the city Religion is still one and the same And in what estate soever I am I must be perfect as perfect as the Evangelical Law requireth In every estate I must deny my self and take up the cross and follow Christ I fear this tying Perfection to particular states and conditions of men hath made men less careful to press toward it as a thing which concerneth them not For why should a Lay-man be so severe to himself as he that weareth a gown Why should a Knight be so reserved as a Bishop It is a language which we have heard But I conclude this with that which the Wise-man spake on another occasion Say not thou Why is this thing better then that For every thing in its time is seasonable Poverty or Riches Marriage or Single life Solitude or Business And in any of these we may be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect For conclusion then Let this perfect Law of Christ be alwayes before our eyes till Christ be fully formed in us till we be the new creature which is made up in holiness and righteousness Let us press forward in whatsoever state we are placed with all our strength to perfection from degree to degree from holiness to holiness till we come ad culmen Sionis to the top of all Art thou called a Servant Be obedient to thy Master with fear and with singleness of heart as unto Christ Art thou called a Master Know that thy Master also is in heaven Let every man abide in that calling wherein he was called to be a Christian and in that calling work out Perfection Place it not on the Tongue in an outward profession For the Perfect man is not made up of words and air and sounds If he be raised up out of the dust out of filth and corruption it must be in the name that is in the power of Christ. There be many good intentions saith Bernard and it is as true There be many good professions in hell Place it not in the Ear. For we may read of a perfect Heart but we have not heard of a perfect Ear. If there be such an attribute given to it it is when it is in conjunction with the Heart Faith cometh by hearing It is true it cometh The perfect man may pass by through this gate but he doth not dwell there Neither place it in thy Phansie The Perfection which is wrought there is but a thought but the image of Perfection the picture of a Saint And such Images too oft are made and set up there and they that made them fall down and worship them Neither let us place it in a faint and feeble Wish For if it were serious it were a Will but being supine and negligent it is but a Declaration of our mind a Sentence against our selves that we approve that which is best and chuse the contrary turn the back to heaven and wish we were there It was Balaam's wish but it was not his alone Oh let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his And let us not interpret Scripture for and against our selves and when we read BE YE PERFECT make it our marginal note Be ye perfect as far as you are able as far as your lusts and desires and the business of this world will permit That is Be ye imperfect I will not say If one of our Angels and such Angels there be amongst us but If an Angel from heaven bring such a Gloss let him be Anathema Neither let us because we are taught to say when we have done all that is commanded us that we are unprofitable servants resolve to be so unprofitable For we are taught to say so that we may be more and more profitable For it is not the scope of that place to shew us the unprofitableness of our Obedience but rather the contrary Beacuse when we have made ready and girded our selves and served it shall be said to us also Luk 17.8 that we shall afterward eat and drink Much less doth it discover our weakness and impotency to that which is good and our propensity to evil For the Text is plain We must say this when we have done all that is commanded us And if we have done it we can doe more Nor is it set up against Vain-glory and Boasting but against Idleness and careless neglect in preforming that which remaineth of our duty Because that which remaineth is of the same nature with that which is done already as due to the Lord that commandeth it as our first obedience when you have gone thus far you have done nothing unless you go further When you have laboured in the heat of the day it is nothing unless you continue till the evening Something you have done which is commanded behold God commandeth more and you must do it Continue to the end and then he will bid you sit down and eat He that beginneth and leaveth off and bringeth not his work to an end he that doeth not all hath done nothing Thus let us make forward to Perfection and not faint in the way Let us not be weary of well-doing as if we were lame and imperfect but let us press forward to the end stand it out against tentations fight against the principalities and powers of this world and resist unto bloud Let us make up our breaches and strengthen our selves every day take in some strong hold from the adversary beat down the flesh and keep it in subjection that it may be a ready servant to the Spirit weaken the lust of the eyes humble our pride of life and abate the lust of the flesh be more severe and rigid to our fleshly appetite and never leave off whilest we carry this body of sin about us And then as S. Peter exhorteth let us give diligence to adde to our faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and let these abound in us more and more that we be not barren and unfruitful And when we have thus begun and prest forward though with many slips and failings which yet do not cut us from the covenant of grace nor interrupt our perseverance and at last finished our course we shall come unto mount Sion and to the City of the living God and to an innumerable company of Angels and to the spirits of just men
omnem which undergoeth the shock of the whole war observeth the enemy in all his stratagems wiles and enterprises meeteth and encountereth him in all his assaults meeteth him as a Serpent and is not taken with with his flattery meeteth him as Lion and is not dismayed at his roarring but keepeth and guideth us in an even and constant course in the midst of all his noise and allurements and so bringeth us though shaken and weather-beaten unto our end to the haven of rest where we would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have need of patience Quid enim malum nisi impatientia boni saith Tertullian For what is Evil but an impatience of that which is good What is Vice but an impatience of vertue Pride will not suffer us to be brought low Covetousness will not suffer us to open our hand Intemperance will not suffer us to put our knife to our throat The Love of the world is impatient of God himself His Word is a sword and his commands thunderbolts At the sound of them we are afraid and go away sorrowful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have need of patience For we must run our race in a constant and uninterrupted course in an awful reverence to our Law-giver living and dying under the shadow of his wings that whether we live or die we may be the Lord's Non habitat nisi qui verè habitat say the Civilians He is not said to dwell in a place who continueth not in it And he doth not remain in the Gospel who is ready upon every change of weather upon every blast and breathing of discontent to change his seat He doth not remain in it who if the rain descend and the flouds come and the winds blow will leave and forsake it though it be a rock which will easily defend him against all these For what evil can there be against which it hath not provided an antidote what tempest will it not shroud us against Bring Principalites and Powers the Devil and all his artillery unus sufficit Christus the Gospel alone is sufficient for us And in this we see the difference between the World and the Church The world passeth away 1 Cor. 7.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fashion of the world the scene is every day changed and presenteth things in another shape But the Church is built upon a Rock Matth. 16. upon CHRIST that is upon that Faith in Christ which worketh by charity And he who is built upon this Rock who is fully persuaded that Christ is the best Master and that those duties which he teacheth are from heaven heavenly and will bring us thither is sufficiently armed against the flattery of Pleasure the lowring countenance of Disgrace the terrours of Poverty and Death it self against all wind and weather whatsoever that might move him from his place Look into the world There all things are as mutable as it self Omnia in impia fluctuant All things ebbe and flow in wicked men flie as a shadow and continue not Their Righteousness is like the morning dew Hos 13.3 dried up with the first Sun their Charity like a rock which must be strook by some Moses some Prophet and then upon a fit or pang no gushings forth but some droppings peradventure and then a dry rock again their Vows and Promises like their shadows at noon behind them their Friendship like Job's winter-brooks overflowing with words and then in summer when it is hottest in time of need quite dried up consumed out of its place their Temperance scarce holding out to the next feast nor their Chastity to the next twilight The world and the fashion of it passeth away but on the contrary the Gospel is the eternal word of God And as the gifts and calling of God are without repentance Rom. 11.29 Prov. 8.18 so his graces are durable riches opes densae firm and well compacted such as may be held against all assaults like him from whom they descend yesterday and to day and the same for ever Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfeigned Love abiding Hope an anchor He that is a true Gospeller doth remain and continue and not wander from that which is good to that which is evil is not this day a Confessor and to morrow an Apostate doth not believe to day and to morrow renounce his Creed doth not love to day and loath to morrow doth not hope to day and droop to morrow but unum hominem agit he is the same man and doth the same things assiduè aequaliter constantly and equally He remaineth not in the Gospel in a calm onely and leaveth it when the winds rise but here he will remain fixed to those principles and acting by them vvhen the Sun shineth and vvhen the storm is loudest By the Gospel he fixeth and strengthneth all his decrees and resolutions and determinations that they are ever the same and about the same now beating down one sin anon another now raising and exalting this vertue anon that If you ask him a question saith Aristides the Sophister of Numbers or Measures he vvill give you the same answer to day vvhich he vvill give you to morrow and the next day and at the last breath that he draweth In the next place if we do not remain in the Law of liberty vve do not obey it as we should For to remain in the Gospel and to be in Christ are words of stability and durance and perpetuity For vvhat being is that vvhich anon is not What stability hath that vvhich changeth every moment What durance and perpetuity hath that vvhich is but a vapour or exhalation drawn up on high to fall and stink To remain in the Gospel and to remain for ever may seem two different things but in respect of the race vve are to run in respect of our salvation they are the very same We vvill not here dispute Whether Perseverance be a vertue distinct from other graces Whether as the Angels according as some Divines teach vvhich stood after the fall of the rest had a confirming grace given them from God which now maketh them utterly uncapable of any rebellious conceit so also the saving graces of God's Spirit bring vvith them into the soul a necessary and certain preservation from final relapse For there be vvho violently maintain it and there be vvho vvith as great zele and more reason deny it To ask Whether we may totally and finally fall from the grace and favour of God is not so pertinent as it is necessary to hearken to the counsel of the Apostle and to take heed lest we fall to take heed lest we be cut off and to beware of those sins vvhich if vve commit vve cannot inherit the kingdom of God For vvhat vvill it avail if vve be to every good work reprobate to comfort our selves that vve are of the number of the elect What vvill it help us if by adultery and murther and pride
to it For what man would profess himself a beast And from hence it cometh to pass that we see aliquid optimi in pessimis something that is good in the worst that we hear a Panegyrick of Virtue from a man of Belial that Truth is cried up by that mouth which is full of deceit that when we do evil we would not have it go under that name but are ready to maintain it as good that when we do an injury we call it a benefit No man is so evil that he desireth not to enroll his name in the list of those who are Good Temperance the drunkard singeth her praises Justice every hand is ready to set a crown upon her head Wisdom is the desire of the whole earth So you see these precepts are fitted to the soul and the soul to these precepts But secondly as this Law of Liberty is proportioned to the Soul so being looked in and persevered in it filleth it with light and joy giveth it a taste of the world to come For as Christ's yoke is easie but not till it is put on so his precepts are not delightful till they are kept Aristotle's Happiness in his books is but an Idea and Heaven it self is no more to us till we enjoy it The Law of Liberty in the letter may please the Understanding part which is alwayes well-affected and inclinable to that which is apparently true but till the Will which is the commanding faculty have set the feet and hands at liberty even that which we approve we distaste and that which we call honey is to us as bitter as gall Contemplation may delight us for a time and bring some content but the perversness of the Will breedeth that worm which will soon eat it up For it is a poor happiness to speak and think well of Happiness to see it as in picture quae non ampliùs quà m videtur delectat which delighteth no longer then it is seen as from a mount to behold that Canaan which we cannot enjoy A Thought hath not wing and strength enough to carry us to Blessedness But when the Will is subdued and made obedient to this Law then this Law of Liberty which is from the heaven heavenly filleth the soul with a joy of the same nature with a spiritual joy of which the joy in heaven is the complement and perfection with a joy which is not onely the pledge but the earnest of that which is to come When the Will is thus subact and framed and fashioned according to this Law according to this pattern which God hath drawn then it clotheth it self as it were with the light of Heaven which is the original of this joy Then what a pearl is Wisdom What glory is in Poverty What a triumph is it to deny our selves What an ornament is the Cross What brightness reflecteth from a cup of cold water given to a Prophet What do you see and feel then when you intercede with your Bounty and withstand the evil dayes and take from them some of their blackness and darkness when you sweeten the cup of bitterness the onely cup that is left to many of the Prophets when you supply their wants and stretch forth your hand to keep them from sinking to the dust when you do this to the Prophets in the name of Prophets Tell me doth it not return upon you again and convey into your souls that which cannot be bought with money or money-worth Are you not made fat and watered again with the water you poured forth Are you not ravished in spirit and lifted up in a manner into the third heaven I cannot see how it should be otherwise For that God which put it into your hearts to do it when your hearts have eased and emptied themselves by your hands is with you still and filleth them up with joy Every act of Charity payeth and crowneth it self and this Blessedness alwayes followeth the giver But hath the receiver no joy but in that which he receiveth Yes he may and ought or else he is not a worthy receiver It is indeed a more blessed thing to give then to receive and therefore there is more joy But the receiver hath his and his joy is set to his songs of praises to God and acknowledgments to man There is musick in Thanks and when I bless the hand that helped me I feel it again My praises my prayers my thanks are returned with advantage into my bosom The giver hath his joy and the receiver hath his It is a blessed thing to give and it is a most becoming and joyful thing to be thankful In quibus operamur in illis gaudemus saith Tertullian As the work is such is the joy A Work that hath its rise and original from heaven drawn out according to the royal Law which is the will of God begun and wrought in an immortal soul and promoted by the Spirit of God and ministery of Angels and breathing it self forth as myrrh and frankincense amongst the children of men And a Joy like unto it a true and solid joy having no carnality no inconstancy in it a beam from heaven kindled and cherished by the same Spirit a joy which receiveth no taint or diminution from sensible evils which to those who remain not in this Law are as hell it self and the onely hell they think of but giving a relish and sweetness to that which were not evil if we did not think it so making Poverty Disgrace and Death it self as fuel to foment and increase it upholding us in misery strengthening us in weakness and in the hour of death and in the day of judgment streaming forth into the ocean of eternal happiness BEATUS ERIT IN OPERE He that doth the work shall be blessed here in this life in his works and when he is dead his works shall follow him and compass him about as a triumphant robe Thus Blessedness first inviteth then attendeth and waiteth upon Perseverance in obedience and yet obedience ushereth it in illex misericordiae first the work of God's Grace and Mercy and then drawing it so near unto us as to bless us And it maketh the blessing ours not ex rigore justitiae according to the rigour of justice as I call that Mine which I buy with my money For no obedience can equal the reward And what can the obedience of a guilty person merit All is from Grace saith S. Paul And when the will of God is thus made manifest he deserveth nothing but a rebuke that disputeth longer of Merit Nor can I see how a guilty and condemned person can so much as give it entrance into his thought It did go once but for a work good or evil and no more If it be more in its best sense it is then more then it can be and so is nothing but ex debito promissi according to God's promise by which he hath as it were entailed Blessedness on those who look into the Law