God upon us makes us current money and that his Father may know us and not cast us off for refuse silver shewes him his face Lastly it reacheth the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the assimilation it self and layes hold on that too made like he was and debuit he ought to be so to satisfie in the same nature which had offended carnem gestare propter meam carnem 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 his Godhead on his Person on his Assimilation God no Man or Angell The second person in Trinity not the Father or the holy Spirit made like unto his Brethren his bare naked Divinity though it might have saved us yet it was not so fit and at too great a distance for us Debuit slumbers every storm answers every doubt scatters our feares removes our jealousies and builds us up in our most holy faith Though he be God though he be the wisdome of God though he be the Son of God yet debuit he ought to be made like unto us to restore his Creature to exalt his Nature and in our own shape and likeness in our own flesh to pay down the price of our Redemption So then debuit fieri here is an aptnesse and conveniency but debet he ought vox ista importat necessitatem it behoved him implyes also a kind of necessity That God could be made like mortall man is a strange Contemplation but that he would is a rise and exaltation of that but debuit that he ought superexalteth that and sets it at a higher pitch but that he must be so that necessity in a manner brings him down were not his love as infinite as his power would stagger and amaze the strongest faith who would believe such a report But he speaks it himself and it was the fire of his love that kindled in him and then he spake it with his tongue oportet he must die and if die be born not onely is but would not would but ought not ought but of necessity must be made like unto his Brethren I say a strange contemplation it is for there need no such forcible tye no such chaine of necessity to hold him libere egit what he did he did freely nothing more free and voluntary more spontaneous then this his Assimilation for as if he had slacked his pace and delay'd his Fathers expectation and not come at the appointed period of time he suddenly cryes Lo I come in the volume of thy book it is written of me that I should doe thy will oh God Psal 40.7.8 vers he calls it his desire and he had it written in his heart T is true libere fecit this condescension this his assimilation was free and voluntary with more cheerfulnesse and earnestnesse undertaken by him then 't is received now by us it is our shame and sinne that we dare not compare them that he should be so willing to be like us and we should be 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 speaks it to his Blessed mother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 2.49 I must go about my Fathers businesse we may measure his love by the Decree that is we cannot measure it for the decree is eternall before the foundation of the world was laid was this foundation laid an everlasting foundation to lay Gold and Silver upon all the rich precious Promises of the Gospel to lay our obedience and conformity to him upon and upon them both upon his love and our obedience 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 eternall love that which the eye of Flesh may count a dishonour was his joy his perfection his love which 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 borne a Necessity of obedience a Necessity of dying Debuit taketh in all and presenteth them to our Admiration our joy our love our obedience and Gratitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every way and in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren The application We have now run the full compasse of the Text and we find our Saviour in every point of it similem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 ought to have our Assimilation our Nativity by the way of Analogy and by the rules of proportion answerable to his For to this end was he made like unto us you will say That he may save us nay but 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 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 I will that they whom thou hast given me and he gives him none but those who are like him may 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 requires at our hands all our Gratitude all our duty is drawn together and consists 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 his Glory in his Transfiguration on mount Tabor oh by all meanes build us here a Tabernacle but like him in the cratch like him in the wildernesse like him in his daily converse with men like him in the High priests Hall like him in the Garden like him on the Crosse here we start back and are afraid of his countenance In humility in hunger in sweat in colours of Bloud few there be that would be thus drawn But if we will be his Brethren this is the copy we must take out these be our postures these our Colours bathed in his Bloud t is true but withall bathed in the waters of Affliction bathed in our own teares and bathed in our own Bloud we meet and cope with the Devil in this our
us made like unto God exalted by his Humiliation raysed by his descent magnified by his minoration Candidati Angelorum lifted up on high to a sacred emulation of an Angelicall estate with songs of joy and Triumph we remember it and it is the joy of this Feast fratres Domini the Brethren of Christ Thus 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 lookes 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 They answer each other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 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 will 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 crosse and ours must lift us after him and be carried on by his to the End of the world And as we find it in Relatives they 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 saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. and Christ Gods And in the last place the modification the Debuit It behoved him carries our thoughts to those two common Heads or places the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Convenience and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Necessitie of it and these two in Civil Acts are one for what becomes us to doe we must doe and t is necessary we should doe it what should be done is done and it is impossible it should be otherwise say the Civilians because the law supposeth obedience Impossibilitas juris which is the Complement and perfection of the law and this Debuit looks equally on both both on Christ and 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 inferre Debemus that it behoveth us to be made like unto Christ which is the Duty My Text then is divided equally between these two Termes Christ and his Brethren That which our devotion must contemplate in Christ is First his Divine 2. his Humane Nature 3. the union of them both for 1. we cannot but make a stand and enquire quis ille who he was who ought to doe this and in the 2. place enquire of his Humane nature For we find him here flesh of our flesh and Bone of our Bone Assimilatum made like unto us what can we say more Our Apostle tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things and then will follow the union of them both exprest in this passive fieri in this his assimilation and the Assumption of our Nature which all fill us with admiration but the last rayseth it yet higher and should rayse our love to follow him in his Obedience quod debuit that it behoved him that the dispensation of so wonderfull and Catholique a benefit must be Translated tanquam ex officio as a matter of Duty The end of all is the end of all Our salvation the end of our Creation the end of our Redemption the end of this assimilation and the last end of all the glory of God which sets an oportet upon Man as well as upon Christ and then his Brethren and he will dwell together in unity Onely here is the difference our obligation is the easiest t is but this to be bound and obliged with Christ to set our hands to that bond which he hath sealed with his Bloud no heavy Debet to be like unto him and by his condescension so low to us to raise our selves neerer to him by a holy and diligent imitation of his obedience which will make up our last part and serve for application And in the first place we aske with the Prophet quis ille who is he that cometh who is he that must be made like unto us what is done and who did it of so neere a relation that we can hardly abstract the one from the other and if one eye be leveld on the fact the other commonly is fixed on the hand that did it Magnis negotiis ut magnis Comediis edecumati apponuntur actores Great Burdens require equall strength to beare 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 wonderfull things not within the sphere of common Activity We see here many sonnes there were to be brought unto Glory at the 10. v. but in the way there stood sinne to Intercept us the feare of Death to Enthrall us and the Divell ready to devour us and we what were we Rottennesse our mother and wormes our Brethren lay us in the ballance 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 Captaine 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 neither the Angels nor Moses returned The Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in no wise Glorious Creatures indeed they are Caelestiall spirits but yet Ministring spirits in all purity serving the God of purity saith Naz not fit to intercede but ready at his Beck o Nazianz. Orat. 43. with wings indeed but not with Healing under them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but second lights too weak to enlighten so great a Darknesse their light is their Obedience and their fairest Elogium Ye Angels that doe his will they were but finite Agents and so not able to make good an infinite losse they are in their own Nature mutable and so not fit agents to settle them who were more mutable more subject to change then they not able to change our vile bodies much lesse able to change our soules which are as immortall as they but are lodgd in a Tabernacle of Flesh which will fall of it self and cannot be raised againe but by his power whom the Angels worship In prison we were and Cui Angelorum written on the doore miserable Captives so deplorably lost that the whole Hierarchie of Angels could not help us And if not the Angels not Moses sure though he were neerest to God and saw as much of his Majesty as Mortality was able to bear
forsake him when he hung upon the Crosse did he not see the joy which was set before him Yes he did but not to comfort but rather torment him Altissimo Divinitatis consilio actum est ut gloria militaret in paenam saith Leo. By the counsell of the Godhead it was set down and determined that his Glory should adde to his Punishment that his Knowledge which was more clear than a Seraphins should increase his Grief his Glory his Shame his Happinesse his Misery that there should not onely be Vinegar in his Drink and Gall in his Honey and Mirrhe with his Spices but that his Drink should be Vinegar his Honey Gall and all his Spices as bitter as Mirrhe that his Flowers should be Thorns and his Triumph Shame This could sin do and can we love it This could the love and the wrath of God do his love to his Creature and his wrath against sin And what a delivery what a desertion is this which did not deprive him 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 equall to that which makes Strength a Tormenter Knowledge a Vexation and makes Joy Glory a Persecution There now hangs 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 Jewes who pierced him for whom he prayes Tantam patienteam nemo unquam perpetravit Tert. de Patientia when they mock him which did manifest his Divinity as much as his miracles 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 reproch 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 sorrowes not onely which he then felt but which any men which all men have felt or shall feel to the time the Trump shall found and he shall come again in Glory The last delivery was of his soul which was indeed traditio an yielding it up a voluntary emission or delivering it up into his Fathers hands praevento carnificis officio saith the Father he prevents the spear and the hand of the Executioner Tert. A pol. and gives 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 opens her mouth and the Grave hers and yields up her dead the veyl of the Temple rends asunder the Earth trembles 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 or Angels are able to express it The most powerfull Eloquence is the Threnody of a broken heart for there his death speaks it self and the vertue and power of it reflects 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 Tradidit pro nobis For us sinners passed through a field of Blood to the top of mount Calvarie where the Son of God the Saviour of the World was nailed to the Crosse and being thus lifted up upon his Crosse he looketh down upon us to draw us after him Look then back upon him who looks upon us whom our sins have pierced and behold his blood trickling down upon us which is one ascent more and brings in the persons for whom he was delivered First for us Secondly for us all Now this pro nobis that he should be delivered for us 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 our selves 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 immortall Spirits we as the Grasse withered before we grow yet he spared not his Son to spare us but the Angels that fell he cast into Hell and chained them up in everlasting darknesse 2 Pet. 2.4 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 meere compassion of our wants With them he deales in rigour and relents not with us in favour and mercy and seeks after us and layes hold on us when we were gone from him as far as sin and disobedience could carry us out of his reach It was his love it was his will to doe so and in this we might rest but Divines will tell us that man was a ritter object of mercy than they quia levius est alienâ mente peccare quam propriâ because the Angels sin was more spontaneous De Angelis quibusdam suâ sponte corruptis corruptio◠gens Daemonum evasit Tert. Apol. c. 22. wrought in them by themselves man had importunam arhorem that flattering and importuning Tree and that subtill and seducing Serpent to urge and sway him from his obedience Man had a Tempter the Angels were both the temptation and tempters to themselves Man took in Death by looking abroad but the Angels by reflecting upon themselves gazed so long upon their own Beauty till they saw it changed into horrour and deformity and the offence is more pardonable where the motive is ab extrinseco from some outward assoile than where it grows up of it self Besides the Angels did not all fall but the whole lump of mankind was leavend with the same leaven and pity it may seem that so noble a Creature made up after Gods own Image should be utterly lost These reasons with others we may admit though they may seem rather to be conjectures than reasons and we have not much light in Scripture to give them a fairer appearance but the Scripture is plain that he took not the Angels Heb. 2.16 he did not lay his hands upon them to redeem them to liberty and strike off their Bonds and we must goe out of the world to find out the reason and seek
and that there is no such pleasing variety of colours there as we see so the pomp and riches glory of this world are of themselves nothing but are the work of our opinion and the creations of our fancy have no worth nor price but what our lusts and desires set upon them luxuria his pretium fecit 't is our luxury which hath raised the market and made them valuable and in esteem which of themselves have nothing to commend them and set them off My covetousnesse makes that which is but earth a God my ambition makes that which is but aire as heaven and my wantonnesse walks in the midst of pleasures as in a Paradise there is no such thing as Riches and Poverty Honour and Peasantry Trouble and pleasure but we have made them and we make the distinction there are no such plants grow up in this world of themselves but we set them and water them and they spread themselves and cast a shadow and we walk in this shadow and delight or disquiet our selves in vain Diogenes was a King in his tub when great Alexander was but a Slave in the world which he conquered how many heroick persons lie in chains whilest folly and basenesse walk at large and no doubt there have been many who have looked through the paint of the pleasures of this life and beheld them as monsters and then made it their pleasure and triumph to contemn them And yet we will not quite exclude and shut out riches and the things of this world from the summe for with Christ they are something and they are then most valuable when for his sake we can fling them away for it is he alone that can make Riches a gift and Poverty a gift Honour a gift and Dishonour a gift Pleasure a gift and Trouble a gift Life a gift and Death a gift by his power they are reconciled and drawn together and are but one and the same thing for if wee look up into heaven there we shall see them in a neer conjunction even the poor Lazar in the rich mans bosom In the night there is no difference to the eye between a Pearl and a Pibble-stone between the choicest beauty and most abhorred deformity In the night the deceitfulnesse of riches and the glory of affliction lie hid and are not seen or in a contrary shape in the false shape of terrour where it is not or glory where it is not to be found but when the light of Christs countenance shines upon them then they are seen as they are and we behold so much deceitfulnesse in the one that we dare not trust them and so much hope and advantage in the other that we begin to rejoyce in them and so make them both conducible to that end for which he was delivered and our convoyes to happiness All things is of a large compasse large enough to take in the whole world but then it is the world transformed altered the world conquered by Faith the world in subjection to Christ All things are ours when we are Christs for there is a Civil Dominion and right to these things and this we have jure creationis by right of Creation for the earth is the Lords and he hath given it to the sons of men and there is an Evangelical Dominion not the power of having them but the power of using them to his glory that they may be a Gift and this we have jure adoptionis by right of Adoption as the sons of God begotten in Christ Christ came not into the world to purchase it for us or enstate us in it he did not suffer that we might be wanton nor was poor that we might be rich nor was brought to the dust of death that we might be set in high places such a Messias did the Jewes look for and such a Messias doe some Christians worse than the Jewes frame to themselves and in his name they beat their fellow-servants and strip them deceive and defraud them because they fancy themselves to be his in whom there was found no guile and they are in the world as the mad Athenian was on the shore every ship every house every Lordship is theirs and indeed they have as fair a title to their brothers estate as they have to the kingdome of Heaven for they have nothing to shew for either I remember in 2 Corinth 4.4 S. Paul calls the Divel the God of this world and these in effect make him the Saviour of the world for as if he had been lifted up and nailed to the Crosse for them to him every knee doth bow nor will they receive the true Messias but in this shape for thus they conceive him giving gifts unto men not spirituall but temporall not the Graces of the Spirit Humility Meeknesse and Contentednesse but Silver and Gold dividing Inheritances removing of Land-marks giving to Ziba Mephibosheths land making not Saints but Kings upon the earth and thus they of the Church of Rome have set it down for a positive truth that all civil Dominion is founded in Grace that is in Christ a Doctrine which brings with it a Pick-lock and a Sword and gives men power to defraud or spoyle whom they please and to take from them that which is theirs either by fraud or by violence and to do both in the name and power of Christ But let no man make his charter larger than it is and in the Gospel we finde none of such an extent which may reach to every man to every corner of the earth which may measure out the world and put into our hands any part of it that either our wit or our power can take in for Christ never drew any such conveyance the Gospel brought no such tidings but when labour and industry have brought them in sets a seal imprints a blessing on them sanctifies them unto us by the Word and by Prayer and so makes them ours our servants to minister unto and our friends to promote and lift us forward into 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 eternall 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 for that is the gift of God to apprehend and receive them and hope 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 and he hath given us his Spirit fills us
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 Corporiety of the soule by scripture flyes to private Revelation in his Book De anima non per aestimationem sed Revelationem what he could not uphold by reason and judgment Post Ioannem quoque prophetiam meruimus conscqui c. Tertull. de Anim c. ix montanizans he strives to make good by Revelation for we saith he have our Revelations as well as Saint John Our sister Priscilla hath plenty of them her traunces in the Church she converses with Angels and with God himself and can discerne the hearts and inward thoughts of men Saint Hierome mentions others and in the dayes of our fore-fathers Calvin many more Calvin contra Libert who applyed the name of the spirit to every thing that might facilitate and help on their designe as parish priests it is his resemblance would give the name of six or seven severall Saints to one image that their offerings might be the more I need not goe so farre back for instance Our present age harh shewen us many who have been ignorant yet wiser then their Teachers so spirituall that they despise the word of God which is the dictate of the spirit for this monster hath made a large stride from forreigne 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 madnesse our malice our violence our implacable bitternesse our railing and reviling must all go for inspirations of the spirit Simeon and Levi Absolon and Achitophel 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 goe He is their leader though it be to hell it felf 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 neer as dangerous that the spirit doth not spirare breaths no 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 leads 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ascriptitious and supernumerary God Nazianz Or. 37. Quis veterum vel recentium adoravit spiritum quis oravit c. sic Macedoniani Eunomiani Ibid. I might say that it is more dangerous than this for to confess the Spirit and abuse him to draw him to as an accessary and abettor nay as a principall in those actions which nature it self abhors and trembles at is worse than out of errour to deny him For what a Spirit what a Dove is that which breathes nothing but gall and wormwood but fire and brimstone what a Spirit is that which is ever pleading and purveying for the flesh what a Spirit is that which is made to bear witnesse to a lie for as Petrarch tells us Nihil importunius erudito stulto that there is not a more troublesome creature in the world than a learned foole so the Church of Christ and Religion never suffered more than by carnall 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 wickednesse not onely with greedinesse but cum privilegie with priviledge and authority which whilest others doubt of though it be not onely an Error but Blasphemy yet parciùs insaniunt they are not so outragiously made But yet we must not put the spirit from his office because dreams or rather the evaporations of mens lusts do passe 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 goes 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 appeare in a double shape and proportion Geminae Thehae gemini soles two cities and two suns for one but I cannot hence conclude that all sober men do 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 fundamentall truth 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 meanes to try and distinguish the Spirits instructions from the suggestions of Satan or those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those mishapen lumps and abortive births of a sick and loathsome brain or our private humour which is as great a Divel Beloved 1. Epist of St. John c. 4. v. 1 2. saith S. Joh. 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 chaire and dictate magisterially what they please in the name of the Spirit when themselves are carnall And he gives the rule by which we should try them in the next verse Every spirit that confesseth Jesus is the Lord is of God that is whosoever strives to advance the Kingdome of Christ and to set up the spirit against he flesh to magnifie the Gospel to promote men in the wayes of innocency perfect obedience which infallibly lead to happinesse 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 and so draw us to him that where he is 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 praise-worthy under feet to make way for
mens unruly lust to pace 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 By their fruits you shall know them For their hypocrisie as well and cunningly wrought as it is is but a poor cob-web-lawn and we may easily see through it even see these spirituall men sweating and toyling for the flesh these spirits digging in the mineralls and making haste to be rich for though Gloria Patri Glory be to God on High he the Prologue to the Play for what doth an hypocrite but play yet the whole drift the businesse of every Scene and Act is to draw and conclude all in this From hence we have our gain The Angel or the Spirit speaks 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 actors deserve a plaudite By their fruits you shall know them what spirit soever they have it is not of God for nothing more contrary to the flesh than this spirit and 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 than this fire may descend and 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 is one thing which God cannot do he cannot change himself nor can his spirit breath any doctrine forth which savours of the world of the flesh or corruption and 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 carnall ends and temporall respects 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 rowl his eys 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 heare him cry as loud for a reformation as the Idolatrous Priests did upon Baal I begin to think I see an Angel in his flight and mount going up into heaven but then after all this extaticall devotion after all this zeal and in the midst of all this noyse wherein I see him stoop like the vultur and flie like lightning to the prey I cannot but say within my self Oh Lucifer 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 looks upward moves upward directs 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 Spirits leading is not unavoidable it is not necessary though I mistake and take the Divel for an Angel of light 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 on the same gulph In the third of the first of Samuel Samuel runs to Eli when the voice was Gods but was taught at last to answer Speak Lord for thy servant heareth though there be many false Prophets yet Micaiah was a true one and though there be many false Teachers come into the world yet the spirit of God is a spirit of Truth ducet nos and he shall lead us into all truth And that we may follow as he leads we must observe the wayes in which he moves for as there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a way of peace Luk. 1.79 so there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wayes of truth and in those wayes the spirit will lead us I may be in viis iniquitatis in the wayes of wickednesse in the wayes of the Gentiles and prophane men in viis meis in my own wayes in those wayes which my fancy and lust hath chalked out on that pinacle and height where my ambition hath placed me in that mine and pit where my coverousnesse hath buried me alive and in these I walk with my face from Jerusalem from the truth and in these he leads us not How can he learn poverty of spirit who hath no God but Mammon and knows no sin but poverty How can he be brought down to obedience and humility who with diotrephes in S. John loves to have preheminence and thinks himself nothing till he is taller than his fellowes by the head and shoulders how can he hearken to the truth who studies lies and doe we now wonder why we are not taught the truth where the Spirit keeps open school there is no wonder at all the reason why we are not taught is because we will not learn Ambition soars to the highest seat and the Spirit directs us to the ground to the lowest place the love of the world doth fill our barns and the Spirit points to the bellies of the poore as the better and safer garners my private factious humour tramples under foot obedience to superiours because I my self would be the highest and challenge that as my peculiar which I deny to others but this spirit prescribes order Doth Montanus lead about silly women and prophesy doth he call his dreames revelations Eusebius tells us that the Spirit which led him about was nothing else but an inseparable desire of precedency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. c. 21. Tert. coat Valent c. 4. Doth Valentinus number up his Aeones and as many crimes as gods Tertullian informes us that he hoped for a Bishoprick but fell from those hopes and was disappointed by one who was raised to that dignity by the prerogative of Martyrdome and his many sufferings for the truth Doth Arrius deny the divinity of the Son read Theodoret and he will shew you Alexander in the chaire before him Theod. l. 1. c. 2. Doth Aerius deny there is any difference between a Bishop and Presbyter the reason was he was denied himself and could not be one so that he fell from a Bishoprick as Lucifer did from Heaven whose first wish was to be God and whose next was that there were no God at all From hence these stirres and tumults in the Church of Christ from hence these storms and tempests which blow and beat in her face from hence these distractions and uncertainties in Christian Religion that it is a matter of some danger but to mention it which made Nazianzen in some passion as it may seem cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Novatian de cib Judacicis and those Birds of prey ut Israelitae murdareatur pecora culpatasunt to sanctifie and cleanse his people he blames the Beasts as unclean which they could not be of themselves because he made them and laies a Blemish upon his other Creatures to keep them underfiled and for to keep our Idolatry he busied them in those many ceremonies 1 a. 1 ae which he ordeined for that end ne vacaret Idololatriae servire saith Aquin. that they might not have the least leisure to be Idolaters So that to draw up all they might learn from the Law they might learn from the Priest they might learn from the Sacrifice they might learn from each Ceremony they might learn from men and they might learn from beasts to Turn from their evil ways Isal 5.4 and God might well cry out Quid facerem quod non fecerim what could I have done that I have not done and speak to them in his grief and wrath and indignation Quare c. why will ye die Oh House O house of Israel But to passe from the Synagogue to the Church which excells merito fidei et majoris scientiae in respect of a clearer faith and larger knowledge to come to the time of Reformation Heb. 9.10 in which all things which pertain to the full happinesse of Gods people was to be raised to their last height and perfection to look into the Law of liberty which lets usnot loose in our own evil wayes but makes us most free by restraining and tying us up and withholding us from those sins which the Law of Moses did not punish and here Why will ye die if it were before an obtestation it is now a bitter Sarcasme as bitter as death it self It is here improved and drove home a minori ad majus by the Apostle himself for if that which should be abolisht was glorious 2 Cor. 3 11. much more shall that which remaines whose fruit is everlasling be glorious And again If they escaped not who resused him who spake on earth from mount Sinai by his Angel Acts. 7.38 how shall not we escape if we turn away from him who spake from Heaven by his Son For the Church is a house but far more glorious built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the head corner stone in whom all the building coupled together groweth into a Temple of the Lord. Colos 2.20.21 the whole world besides are but rubbage as bones scattered at the graves mouth The Church is compact knit and united into a house and in this house is the Armory of God ubi mille clipei armatura fortium where are a thousand Bucklers and all the weapons of the mighty to keep off death the helmet of Salvation the sword of the Spirit and the shield of Faith to quench all the Fiery Darts of Satan as they be delivered into our hands Eph. 6. And as it is a House Eph. 3.5 so is it a Familie of Christ of whom all the Family of heaven and earth is named who is M 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Master of the Houshold For as the Pythagorean fitting and shaping out a Familie by his Lute required 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the integrity of all the parts as it were the set number of the strings 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an apt composing and joyning them together as it were the Tuning of the instrument and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a skilful touch which makes the harmony So in the Church if we take it in its latitude there be Saints Angels and Archangels if we contract it to the Militant as we usually take it there be some Apostles some Pastors some Prophets some Teachers Eph. 4. there be some to be Taught and some to teach some to be governed and some to rule which makes up the integrity of the parts and then these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle coupled and and knit together by every joynt by the bond of charity which is the coupling and uniting vertue as Prosper calls it by the unity of faith by their agreement in holinesse having one faith one Baptisme one Lord and at last every string being toucht in its right place begets a harmony which is delightful both to heaven and earth For when I name the Church I doe not meane the stones and building some indeed would bring it downe 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 walke and the Tongue to heare and the Eare to speake not all Apostles not all Prophets not all Teachers but as the Apostle sayes it shall be at the Resurrection Every man in his own Order Naz. Or. 25. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Order is our security and safe-guard 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 draws and works advantage out of Inequality it self when every man keeps his station the common Souldier hath his Interest in the victory as well as the Commander and when wee walke orderly every man in his owne place wee walk hand in Hand to Heaven and Happinesse together For further yet In the Church of God there is not onely a union an Order but as it is in our Creed a Communion ef parts The glorious Angels as ministring Spirits are sent to guard us and no doubt doe 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 heare 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 prayes for himself and every man prayes for every man Quodest Omnium esi singulorum that which is all mens is every mans and that which is every mans belongs unto the whole For though we cannot speak in those high Termes of the Church as the Church of Rome doth of her self yet we cannot but blesse God and count it a great favour and priviledge that we are filii Ecclesiae as the Father speaks Children of the Church think of our selves as in a place of safety and advantage where we may find protection against Death it self Wee cannot speak loud with the Cardinal si Catholicus quisquam labitur in peccatum and Bellarm praefar ad Controv If a Catholique fall into a sinne 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
heard of the name of Christ nay but with those who call upon it every day and call themselves the knowing men the Gnosticks of this age and whilst men love darknesse more then light with some men there will scarce be any sins upon that account as sins till the day of Judgement Next bring not in thy conscience to plead for that sin which did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beat and wound thy conscience for the offie of thy conscience is before the fact to inform thee and after the fact if it be evil to accuse thee and what comfort can there be in this thought that thou didst not sollow her information that she called it a sin and thou didst it that she pointed out to it as to a rock and thou wouldest needs chuse it for thy Heaven no commonly this is the plea of those whose hearts are hard and yet will tell you they have a tender conscience and so they have Tender in respect of a ceremony or thing indifferent here they are struck in a manner dead quite besides themselves as if it were a Basilisk here they are true and constant to their conscience which may erre but not tender in respect of an eternal Law where it cannot mistake here they too often leave their conscience and then excuse themselves that they did so in the one they are as bold as a Lion in the other they call it the frailty of a Saint this they do with regret and some reluctancy that is by interpretation against their will Last of all do not think thy action is not evil because thy intention was good for it is as easie to fix a good intention upon an evil action as 't is to set a fair and promising title on a box of poison hay and stubble may be laid upon a good foundation but it will neither head well or bed well as they say in the work of the Lord we must look as well to what we build as the Basis we raise and set it on or else it will not stand and abide we see what a fire good intentions have kindled on the earth and we are told that many of them burn in Hell I may intend to beat down Idolatry and bury Religion in the ruins of that which I beat down I may intend the establishing of a Conmmon-wealth and shake the foundation of it I may intend the Reformation of a Church and fill it with Locusts and Caterpillars innumerable I may intend the Glory of God and do that for which his Name shall be evil spoken of and it will prove but a poor plea when we blasphemed him to say we did it for his Glory Let us then lay aside these Apologies for they are not Apologies but Accusations and detain us longer in our evil wayes then the false beauty and deceitful promises of a temptation could which we should not yeeld to so often did not these betray us nor be fools so long if we had not something to say for our selves And since we cannot answer the expostulation with these since these will be no plea in the Court of heaven before the tribunal of Christ let us change our plea and let us answer the last part of the Text with the first the moriemini with the convertimini answer him that we will Turn and then he will never ask any more Why will ye die but change his Language and assure us we shall not die at all And our answer is penn'd to our hands by the Prophet Jerem. Ecce accedimus Behold we come we turn unto thee for in our God is the Salvation of Israel and our Saviour hath registred his in his Gospel and left it as an invitation to turn Come unto me all ye that be weary of your evil wayes and are heavie laden feel the burden you did sweat under whilest you were in them and I will ease you that is I will deliver you from this body of sin fill you with my Grace enlighten your understandings sprinckle your Hearts from an evil Conscience direct your eye level your intentions lead you in the wayes of life and so fit and prepare you for my kingdom in Heaven To which he bring us c. THE THIRTEENTH SERMON GAL. 4.39 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so is it now IN which words the Apostle doth present to our eye the true face of the Church in an Allegory of Sarah and Hagar of Ismacl and Isaac of mount Sinat and mount Sion which things are an Allegory verse 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it speaks one thing and means another and carries wrapt up â—n it a more excellent sense then the words at first hearing do promise Take the full scheme and delineation in brief 1. Here is Sarah and Hagar that is Servitude and Freedom 2. Here are two Cities Jerusalem that now is the Synagogue of the Jews and that Jerusalem which is above the vision of peace and mother of all the faithful for by the New Covenant we are made children unto God 3. Here is the Law promulged and thundered out on mount Sinai and the Gospel the Covenant of Grace which God published not from the mount but from Heaven it self by the voice of his Son In all you see a faire correspondence and agreement between the Type and the thing but so that Jerusalem our mother is still the Highest the Gospel glorious with the liberty it brought and the Law putting on a yoke breathing nothing but servitude and fear Isaac an heire and Ismael thrust out the Christian more honorable then the Jew The curtain is now drawn and we may enter in even within the vail and take that sense which the Apostle himself hath drawn out so plainly to us And indeed it is a good and pleasing sight to see our priviledge and priority in any figure to finde out our inheritance in such an Heire our liberty and freedom though in a woman who would not lay claim to so much peace and so much liberty who would not challenge kindred of Isaac and a Burgesseship in Jerusalem 't is true every Christian may But that we mistake not and think all is peace and liberty that we boast not against the branches that are cut off he brings in a corrective to check and keep down all swelling and lifting up our selves the adversative particle sed but But as then so now we are indeed of Sarah the free-woman we are children of the promise we are from Jerusalem which is from above sed but if we will inherit with Isaac we must be persecuted with Isaac if we will be of the Covenant of grace we must take up the Crosse if we look for a City whose maker and founder is God we must walk to it in our blood in other things we rise above the Type but here we fall and our condition is the same But as then he that was born after
foule 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 lies upon me but his to watch and prepare my self for his coming when all that I can know or concerns me is drawn up within the compasse of this one word watch which should be as the center and all other truths drawn from it as so many lines to bear up the circumference of constant and a continued watch Christ tells us he will come Hoc satis est dixisse Deo and this is enough for him to tell us and for us to know he tells us that we cannot know it that the Angels cannot know it that the Son of man himself knows it not that it cannot be known that 't 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 spirit or a wanton fancy that spake within them For men are never more quick of belief then when they tell themselves a lie and yet the Apostle exhorts the Thessalonians that they would not be shaken in minde 2 Thes 2.2 nor troubled neither by spirit nor word nor by letter as from him as that the day of Christ is at hand others call in tradition others finde out a Mystery in the number of 7. and so have taken the full age of the world which is to end say they after 6. hundred yeers and this they finde not onely in the six moneths the Ark floated on the waters and its rest on the mountains of Ararat in the seventh in Moses coming out of the cloud and the walls of Jericho falling down the seventh day but in the seven vials and the seven Trumpets in the Revelation such time and leisure hear men found perscrutari interrogare latebras numerorum to Divine by numbers by their art and skill to digg the aire and finde pretious metal there where men of common apprehensions can finde no such treasure inter irrita exercere ingenia to catch at Attomes and shadows and spend their time to no purpose For curiosity is a hard task-master sets us to make brick but allows us no straw sets us to tread the water and to walk upon the wind put us to work but in the dark and we work as the spirits are said to do in Minerals they seem to digg and cleanse and sever Metals but when men come they finde nothing is done It is a good rule in husbandry and such rules old Cato called oracles imbecillior esse debet ager Columel quam Agricola the Farm must not be too great for the Husband-man but what he may be well able to manure and dresse and the reason is good quia si fundus praevaleat colliditur Dominus because if he prevail not if he cannot mannage it he must needs be at great losse and it is so in the speculations and works of the minde those inquiries are most fruitful and yeeld a more plentiful increase which we are able to bring unto the end which is truely to resolve our selves thus it is as a little plot of ground well tilled will yeeld a fairer crop and harvest then many Acres which we cannot husband for the understanding doth not more foully miscarry when it it is deceived with false appearances and sophismes then when it looks upon and would apprehend unnecessary and unprofitable objects and such as are set out of sight res frugi est sapientia spiritual wisdom is a frugal and thirsty thing sparing of her time which she doth not wantonly waste to purchase all knowledge whatsoever but that which may adorn and beautifie the minde which was made to receive vertue and wisdom and God himself to know that which profits not is next to ignorance but to be ambitious of impertinent speculations carries with it the reproach of folly Basil Hem. 29 ad vâ—calumn S. Trin. what is it then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaks to seek with such diligence for that which is past finding out And 1. the knowledg of the houre of his coming is most impertinent and concerns us not non est nosirum nosse tempora It is not for us to know the times as our dayes so the times are in his hands and he disposeth and dispenseth them as it pleaseth him fits a time to every thing which all the wisdom of the world cannot doe Thou wouldest know when he would take the yoke from off thy neck 't is not for thee to know that which concerns thee is to possesse thy soul with patience which will make thy yoke easie Thou wouldst know when he will break the teeth of the ungodly and wrest the sword out of the hand of them that delight in blood it is not for thee to know thy task is to learn to suffer and rejoyce and to make a blessing of Persecution Thou wouldst know when the world shall be dissolved why shouldst thou desire to know it thy labour must be to dissolve the body of sin and set an end and period to thy transgressions Thou wouldest know what hour this Lord will come It is not for thee to know but to work in this thy hour and be ready and prepared for hsi coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the present the present time that is thine and thou must fill it up with thy obedience that which is to come of what aspect so ever it be thou must onely look upon and consider as an help and advantage to thee in thy work Dominus venturus the Lord will come speaks no more to me then this to labour and sweat in his vineyard 'till he come All the daies of my appointed time will I wait saith Job Job 14.14 There is a time and an appointed time and appointed by a God of eternity and I do not study to calculate or finde out the last minute of it but expectabo I will wait which is but a syllable but of a large and spreading signification and takes in the whole duty of man For what is the life of a Christian but the expectation the waiting for the coming of the Lord David indeed desires to know his end and the measure of his dayes Psal 39.4 but he doth not mean so to calculate them as Arithmeticians do and to know a certain and determin'd number of them not so to number them as to tell them at his fingers ends and say This will be the last but himself interprets himself and hath well explained his own meaning in the last words Let me know the measure of my dayes that I may know how sraile I am know not exactly how many but how few they be let me so measure them
dead but for the living this I say is all but some have stretched this word beyond its proper and naturall signification others and that a multitude do rest under the shadow of the word content themselves in the outward action do do it and no more which indeed is not to do it For though this word to doe be not of so large a signification as the Church of Rome hath drawn it out in that they might build an Altar and offer up Christ again which they say is to remember him yet is it not so scant and narrow as ignorance and prophanenesse make it verba non sono sed sensu sapiunt saith Hilary Hilar. advers Const Aug. we must not tie our selves to the sound but lay hold on the sense of the words and this word to do though it be lesse than the little cloud in the book of the Kings nothing neer so big as a mans hand yet if it be interpreted it will spread and be as large as heaven it self and containes within its sphere and compasse all those starres those graces and virtues which will entitle us to blisse by fitting and qualifying of us to do it for indeed non fit quod non fit legitimè that is not done which is not done as it should be those duties in Scripture which are shut up in a word are of a large and diffusive interpretation when God bids us heare he bids us obey when he bids us believe he bids us love when he awakes our understanding he commands our hand when he bids us do this he bids us perfect our work for hearing is not hearing without obedience faith is dead if it work not by charity and knowledge is but a dream without practice and we do not that which we do not as we should To do this then is not barely to take the Bread and eat it this Judas himself might do this he doth that doth it to his own damnation and therefore though it be not now common Bread and common Wine but consecrated and set apart for this holy use yet we must be careful that we attribute no more unto them than Christ the author 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 transubstantiate the elements and bring the body and blood of Christ into them which nothing can do but faith and repentance this were to make the very action of receiving it opus privilegiatum as Gerson speaks to give it a greater prerogative than was ever granted out of the court of heaven This were to rest in the meanes as in the end and at once to magnifie and prophane 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 doe it besides the Authority and command and love of the Author we have all those Motives and inducements which use to stir us up and incite us unto action even then when our hands are folded and we are unwilling to move As 1. the fitnesse and applyablenesse of it to our present condition 2. the profit and advantage it may bring 3. the pleasure and delight it carryes 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 And 1. it fitteth and complyeth as it were with our present condition blanditur nostrae infirmitati and even flatters and comforts and rowzeth up our weaknesse and infirmity as our Saviour speaks upon another occasion This voyce this institution came for our sake we walk by faith 2 Cor. 5.7 saith the Apostle hoc est nostrae insirmitatis saith the Father and this is a signe and an Argument of humane Infirmity that we walk by faith that God can come no neerer to us nor we to him that we see him onely with that eye which when it is clearest sees him but as in a glasse darkly And therefore as God sent Adam into the world and gave him adjutorium simile sibi a help convenient and meet for him Gen. 2. so doth he place us in his Church and affords us many helps meet for us and attempered to our frailty and humaue Infirmity He speaks to our Eare and he speaks to our eye he speaks in Thunder and he speaks in a still voyce he passeth his promise and seals and confirmes it he preaches to us by his word and he preaches 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 omits nothing that is meet and convenient for us When God told the people of Israel that he would no longer goe before them himself he withall tells them he would send his Angel which should sead them and when we are not capable of a neerer approach he sends his Angels his words his Apostles his Sacraments which like those ministring spirits minister for them who are heires of Salvation and not content with the generall declaration of his mind he addes unto it certaine seals and externall signes that we may even see and handle and taste the word of life and as it was said by Laban and Jacob when they made a Covenant Gen. 31.48 this stone shall be witnesse between us so God doth say to thy soule by these outward Elements This Covenant have I made with thee and this that thou seest shall witnesse between thee and me Doe thou look upon it and bring a bleeding renewed heart with thee and then Doe this and I will look upon it as upon the Raine-bow and remember my Covenant which was made in the bloud of my Sonne I thus frame and apply my self to thee in things familiar to thy sight that thou mayst draw neerer and neerer to that light which now thy mortall eye thy frailty and infirmity cannot attaine to And shall we not meet and embrace that help which is so fitted and proportioned to us Secondly profit is a lure and calls all men after it and if you ask with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what profit is there 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 Cattell 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 spirituall addresses in our reverent accesse to this Table a great improvement in some thirty in some sixty in some an hundred fold a will intended a love exalted our hope increased our
it is planted it will shoot forth and grow up and raise it self far above the love of the world above covetousnesse and envy and malice and fraud which first disquiet and rack that breast in which they are and then breath forth that venom which blasts the world and troubles and provokes those which are neere us sometimes gnashing the teeth which eats and consumes us sometimes breathing forth hailestones and coales of fire which fly back in our faces and destroy us sometimes laying of snares in which our selves are caught for envy is the rottennesse of the bones saith Solomon and anger killeth the foolish and the Bread of deceit though it be sweet at first yet it shall fill the mouth with gravell nemo non in seipsum priùs peccat saith Austine no man disturbs the peace of another but he breaks his own first no man repines at his brothers good but he makes it his own evil and his vice is his executioner no man breaths forth malice but it ecchoes back upon him no man goes beyond his brother but hath outstript himself and the Psalmist tells us that evill shall bunt the violent man to destruction But when this plant this peace is deeply rooted in us it spreads its branches abroad over all over all crosse events over all injuries over all errors and miscarriages over envy malice deceit and violence and shadows them that they are not seen or not seen in that horror which may shake it spreads it self over the poore and relieves them over the malicious and melts him over the injurious man and forgives him over the violent man and overcomes him by standing the shock keeps it self to its roote is fixt and fastened there and when this wind blows when this raine falls when all these beat upon it when the tempest is loudest is ever the same is peace still And this is the work of the Gospel the summe of all the end of all that it teacheth to work this quietnesse and peace in us that we may raise it up in others that this peace may beget and propagate it self in those who are enemies to it that the kid may feed with the wolf and the Lamb with the Leopard so long as the moone endureth that there may be no deceit no envy no violence no invasion no going out no complaining in our streets This is the Evangelicall virtue this is 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 Tert. Apol. 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 weaknesse and unprofitablenesse of the law could not reach nor could the Jews bring any thing ex horreis suis out of his granary his store or basket or the philosopher è narthecio suo out of his box of oyntments out of his book of prescripts which could supple a soule to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this tranquillity and quietnesse which might purge and sublime and lift it up above the world and all the flattery and terror that is in it humane reason was too weake 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 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 Math. 6. 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 meeknesse more suffering a quietnesse more setled because those heavenly promises which the Philosopher never heard of were more and more cleerly proposed in the Gospel then under the Law for is not eternity of blisse a stronger motive then the basket or glory or temporall enjoyments is not heaven more attractive then the earth under the Law this peace and quietnesse was but a promise a blessing in expectation and in the Schooles of Philosophers it was but a fancy the peace and quietnesse they had was raised out of weak and failing principles de industria consultae aequanimitatis non de Fiducia compertae veritatis saith Tertullian Tertull. de Animax 1. out of an industrious affected endurance of every evill that it might not be worse out of a politick resolution to defeat the evill 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 remaine it self untoucht 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 businesse of the prince of peace who came into the world but not with drumme and colours but with a rattle rather not with noise Tertull. cont Judaeus but like rain into the mowen grasse 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 and with no sword but that of the spirit who made good that prophesie of the Prophet Micah that swords should be turned into plow-shares and speares into pruning hookes Micah 4.3 that all the bitternesse and malice of the 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 figtree and gather his own fruit and not reach out his hand into another mans vineyard not offer violence nor feare it nor disturb his brothers peace nor be jealous of his own not trouble others nor be afraid himself that the earth might be a temporall paradise a type representation of that which is eternall For this he came into the world and brought power enough with him to performe 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 prophesy
ever was came not to destroy but to perfect nature not to blot out those common notions which we brought into the world with us but to make them more legible to improve them and so make them his Law and if we look upon them as not belonging to us we our selves cannot belong to the covenant of grace for even these duties are weaved in and made a part of the covenant and if we break the one we break the other and not onely if we believe not but if we live not peaceably if we stretch beyond our line if we labour not in our calling we shall not enter into his rest For these also are his Laws and these doth our blessed Apostle teach and command And to conclude such a power hath Christ left in his Church conferred it first on his Apostles and those who were to succeed and supply their place who were to speak after them in the person and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we will not dispute now what power it is it is sufficient to say it is not an Earthly but a Heavenly Power derived from Christ himself the Fountain and originall of all power whatsoever As Christs kingdom is not of this world so is not this power of that nature as to stand in need of an Army of Souldiers to defend and hold it up but is like to the object and matter it works upon spirituall a power to command to remember every man of his duty in the Church or Common-wealth for the Church and Common-wealth are two distinct but not contrary things and both powers were ordained to uphold and defend each other the civill power to exalt Religion and Religion to guard and fence the civill power and both should concur in this that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godlinesse 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 sits heavy upon them who weare it we see it tortures them that delight in it eats up them that feed on 't eats up it self and driving all before it at last falls it self to the ground and falls 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 laught at despised by the men of this world yet is it a greater power than that which sometimes sets it up on high and sometimes makes it nothing and hath its end when it hath not its end for to publish our masters 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 faile and if men were what they professe themselves Christians if they had any taste 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 a whip of an excommunication then a sword of the wrath of God which is yet scarce visible then of that which comes in fire and tempest to devour us for his favour or his wrath ever accompanies this power which draws his love neerer to them that obey it and poures forth his vengeance on them that resist it To conclude then look upon the command and honor the Apostle that brings 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 ordeined for their good and so wast and exhale all their Religion till it be nothing if the name of power beare so harsh a sound we will give you leave to think it is not much materiall whether you call it so or no whether we speak in the imperative mood hoc fac do this upon your perill or onely positively point as with the finger this is to be done we will be any thing do any thing be as low as you please so we may raise you above the vanities of the world above that wantonnesse which stormes at that which was ordained for no other end but to lift you out of ruine into the highest heavens Our power and the command of Christ differ not so much but the one includes and upholds the other and if you did but once love the command you would never boggle at the name of power but blesse and honour him that brings it Oh that men were wise but so wise as not to be wiser then God as not to choose and fall in love with their own wayes as more certain and direct unto the end then Gods as not to preferre their own mazes and Labyrinths and uncertain gyrations drawn out by lust and fancy 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 leads us we should then receive an Apostle in the name of an Apostle and look upon the command though brought in an earthen vessell as upon heaven it self oh that we were once spirituall then those precepts which concern our conversation on earth would be laid hold on and embraced as from the 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 knows his office and moves in his own order and our assiduous labour in our calling would be a resemblance of the readynesse of those blessed spirits who at the beck of Majesty have wings and haste to their duty who are ever moving and then in their highest exaltation when they are in their ministery In aword then should we every one sit under his own vine and figtree and no evill 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 poore with the rich the weak with the strong the low with the high all blesse 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 One and Twentieth SERMON PART I. MICAH v. 6. Wherewith shall I come