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
is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Micah 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good c. Micah 6.8 What doth the Lord require of thee c. Micah 6.8 But to do justly c. Micah 6.8 To love Mercy c. Micah 6.8 And to walk humbly with thy God Gal. 4.29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so is it now 1 Thes 4.11 And that yee study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you 1 Thes 4 11. And to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you Matth. 24.42 Watch therefore for yee know not what hour your Lord doth come Matth. 24.42 Yee know not what hour your Lord doth come Matth. 24.42 Watch therefore c. Jam. 1.27 Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the World 1 Sam. 3.18 And Samuel told him every whit and hid nothing from him And he said It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good John 6.56 He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him Ezek. 33.11 As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked Turn yee turn ye from your evil wayes For why will ye dye O house of Israel Ezek. 33.11 Turn ye turn ye c. Ezek. 33.11 From your evil wayes c. Ezek. 33.11 From your evil wayes c. Ezek. 33.11 Why will ye dye c. Ezek. 33.11 Why will ye dye O house of Israel Ezek. 33.11 Why will ye dye O house of Israel Ezek. 33.11 Why will ye dye c. A Preparation to the holy Communion 1 Cor. 11.25 This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me 1 Cor. 11.26 For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew or shew ye the Lord's death till he come 1 Cor. 11.28 But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Gal. 1.10 the last part of the ver For do I now perswade men or God or do I seek to please men For if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ Coloss 2.6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him A Sermon preached at the Funeral of Sir George Whitmore Knight Psal 119.19 I am a stranger in the earth hide not thy commandments from me A SERMON Preached on Christmas-Day HEBR. II. 17. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren THis high Feast of the Nativity of our blessed Saviour is called by S. Chysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Metropolitane Feast For as to the chief City the whole Countrey resorts Thither the Tribes go up saith David even the tribes of the Lord Psal 122. so all the Feast-dayes of the whole year all the passages and periods of the blessed oeconomy of that great work of our Redemption all the solemn commemorations of the Saints and Martyrs meet and are concentred in the joy of this Feast If we will draw them into a perfect circle we must set the foot of the compass upon this Deus homini similis factus God was made like unto Man But if we remove the compass and deny this Assimilation the Incarnation of Christ there will be no room then for the glorious company of the Apostles for the goodly fellowship of the Prophets for the noble army of Martyrs the Circumcision is cut off the Epiphany disappears our Easter is buried and the Feast of the holy Ghosts Advent is past and gone from us as that mighty wind which brought it in Blot out these two words PVER NATVS A Child is born The Son of God is made like unto us and you have wip'd the Saints all out of the Kalendar at once We will not now urge the solemn celebration of the Day That hath been done already by many who have thought it a duty not only of the closet but the Church and a fit subject for publick devotion And upon this account Antiquity lookt upon it with joy and gratitude as upon a day which the Lord had made And S. Augustine commends this anniversary Solemnity as either delivered to after-ages by the Apostles themselves Vel ab ipsis Apostolis vel plenariis Conciliis instituta c. Aug. p. 118. or decreed by Councels and devoutly retained in all the Churches of the world But we do not now urge it For when Power speaks every mouth must be stopped Logick hath no sinews an Argument no strength Antiquity no authority Councels may erre the Fathers were but children all Churches must yeild to one and the first age be taught by the last Job 12.20 Speech is taken away from the trusty and understanding from the aged But yesterday that monstre was discovered which the Churches for so many centuries of years heard not of and so made much of it and embraced it but they must have run from it or abolisht it if their eye had been as clear and quick as theirs of after-times I do not stand up against Power I say I should then forget him whose memory we so much desire to celebrate who was the best teacher and greatest example of obedience What cannot be done cannot oblige And where the Church is shut up every mans chamber every mans breast may be a Temple and every day a Holy-day and we may offer up in it the sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving to the blessed Son of God who came and dwelt amongst us and was made like unto us which is the only end of the celebration of this Feast Christ is made like unto us is as true when every man tells himself so and makes melody in his heart as when it is preached in the great congregation But it is heard further and soundeth better and is the sweeter Musick when all the people say Amen when with one heart and soul and in one place they give glory to their Saviour who that he might be so factus est similis was made like unto them My Text is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a principle in Divinity and is laid down unto us in the form of a Modell proposition Which as we are taught in Logick consists of two parts the Dictum and the Modus Here is 1. the Proposition CHRISTVS FACTVS SIMILIS Christ is made like us 2. the Modification or Qualification of it with an OPORTVIT or DEBVIT It dehoved him so to be In the Proposition our meditations are directed to Christ and to his Brethren And we consider Quid Christus Quid nos What Christ is and What we we were God he was
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
of Sarah the free woman we are children of the promise we are from Jerusalem which is from above But if we will inherit with Isaac we must be pers cuted with Isaac if we will be of the covenant of Grace we must take up the Cross Matth 16.24 Hebr. 11 10. 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 the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now The veil is drawn and you may behold presented to your view and consideration a double parallel 1. Of the times But as then so now 2. Of the occurrences the Acts and Monuments of these times divided between two the Agent and the Patient those that are born after the flesh persecuting and those that are born after the spirit suffering persecution The Then was not long it began and ended in a scoff For Sarah saw Ishmael mocking of Isaac Gen. 21.9 and yet this Scoff began those four hundred years of persecution foretold by God Gen. 15.13 and is drawn down by our Apostle to the times of grace But the Now is of larger extent and reacheth even to the end of the world from the Angels Antheme to the last Trump when Christ shall resign all power into his Fathers hand But because we cannot well take a full view of them both and the Church of Christ is one and the same from the first just man Abel to the last man that shall stand upon the earth though different in outward administration De pallio as Tertullian speaketh upon another occasion Nunquam ipsa semper alia etsi semper ipsa quando alia because receiving degrees of perfection yet alwayes one and the same when in some respects it appeared not the same we will therefore draw both times together both the Then and the Now the time under the Law and the time under the Gospel within the compass of this one position and doctrine That though the priviledge and prerogative I may say Royalties of the Church be many yet was she never exempted from persecution but rather had it intailed on her as an inheritance And when we shall have made this good 1. from the consideration of the Quality of the persons here upon the stage the one persecuting the other suffering the one born after the flesh the other after the spirit 2. from the Nature and Constitution of the Church which in this world is ever Militant 3. From the Providence and Wisdom of God who put this enmity between these two seeds between those that are born after the flesh and those that are born after the spirit When I say we have passed over these we will in the last place draw it down to our selves look back upon Persecution brandishing its terrors upon them both and so learn to take up and manage the weapons of our warfare and prepare our selves against the day of trial That no priviledge of the Church can exempt her from persecution we may read first in the Persons themselves the one born after the flesh the other born after the spirit The reason is hid but visible enough in their very attributes For as flesh lusteth against the Spirit Gal. 5 17. and these two are contrary that is are carried by the sway of their very natures to contrary things so the children of the one and of the other are contrary Of the first our Apostle will tell us that they killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and persecuted Christians And the reason followeth 1 Thes 2.15 which indeed is against all reason but was the best motive they had for as they hated God so were they contrary to all men looking with an evil eye upon the graces of God in others and whatsoever savoured of the Spirit Like Hannibal in the story they can part with any thing but War and Contention they can be without their native Country but not without an enemy And the reason is plain John 3.6 For that which is born of the flesh is flesh that is hath all the qualities and malignity of flesh is full of the works of the flesh which are the very principles of contention and persecution From whence are wars and tumults Jam. 4.1 saith S. James Are they not from those lusts which fight in the members From Envy and Malice from Covetousness and Ambition These are the works of the Flesh and are raised from the Flesh as one creature is from another of the same kind or rather as a Serpent is out of carrion or a Scarabee out of dung These if they cannot find occasion of doing evil will work and force it out of Good it self So Cain the first disciple of the Devil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Invidia 1 John 3.12 as S Basile calleth him slew his brother for no other reason but this because his works were evil and his brothers good For he was saith the Text of that wicked one for to be born of the flesh and to be born of the Devil are one and the same thing from the father of Envy though not as the Rabbines phansied born of the very filth and seed which the Serpent conveyed into Eve If there were no evil men there could be no persecution For I cannot see how it is possible for good men to persecute one another It is more probable that Satan should rise up against Satan and one devil cast out another Evil men may rage against evil men A covetous man may rob and spoil a covetous man and a proud man may swell against a proud man and an ambitious man lay hold on him that is climbing and pull him back into the dust For that which made them brethren in evil may make them enemies Herode and Pilate may fall out and then be reconciled and joyn their forces as one man against Christ and then fall asunder and be at distance again The wicked may gather together and with one heart and with one soul pursue the innocent and hold out their swords together and joyn their forces to rob and spoil them and then when they are to divide the spoil turn the points of their swords at one anothers breasts For they cannot make way to the end of their hopes but by striking down them that seem to stand in their way They cannot be rich but by making others poor they cannot be at liberty but by binding others they cannot soar to their desires height but by laying others on the ground they cannot live at ease unless they see others in their grave which are the several kinds of Persecution as it it were the stings of that Scorpion These are the onely Incendiaries in Church or Common-wealth the great troublers of the peace of Israel These destroy the walls and break down
the towers of a City these rend the Veil nay dig up the very foundation of the Temple The Spirit is named but from the Flesh is the persecution Matth 21.38 For what did the Husbandmen set upon the Lord of the vineyard but to gain the inheritance What set the whole city of Ephesus in an uproar but Demetrius his Rhetorick Acts 19.25 the brutish but strong perswasions of the flesh From this craft have we this gain Though the Truth and Religion be held up and shewed openly for a pretense yet envy and Malice Covetousness and Ambition envenom the heart and strengthen the hands of all the enemies of the Church these whet the sword these make the furnace of Persecution seven times hotter then it would be The flesh is the treasury from whence these winds blow that rage and beat down all before them Thus it is with every one that is born of the flesh he is ever in labour with mischief ever teeming and travelling with persecution and wanteth nothing but Occasion as a Midwife to bring it forth Now as we have beheld one person in this Tragedy and the chiefest actour so let us look upon the other the Patient born after the spirit And behold a Lamb for the Spirit who came down like a Dove begetteth no Tigers or Lions Behold a Man a Worm and no Man virum perpissitium Epist. 104. as Seneca calleth Socrates a man of sufferance deaf or if not yet dumb to all reproches and when injuries are loudest as silent as the Grave kissing the hand that striketh him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritualized in matter as Nazianzene candidatum crucis as Tertullian saith one that is so fitted and prepared for the Cross that he looketh upon it as upon a preferment Poor Lamb he cannot bite and devour he cannot scatter the counsels of the crafty he cannot bind the hands of the mighty Ignorant and foolish Psal 73.22 as David speaketh as a beast in this world a man in nothing but in Christ Jesus being elemented and made up of Love Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Meekness the principles of the Spirit Gal 5.22 having no security no policy no eloquence no strength but that which lieth in his innocency and truth which he carrieth about as a cure but it is lookt upon as a persecution by those who will not be healed Why hast thou set me up as a mark saith Job Why every one that is born of the spirit is set up as a mark S. Paul calleth it a spectacle 1 Cor. 4.0 He that is born of the spirit is no sooner thus born but he cometh forth a contentious man Jerem 15.10 that striveth with the whole earth The Spirit cannot breathe and work in him but it shaketh every corner of the earth every thing that is from the earth earthy It striveth to pull the Wanton from the harlots lips and to level the Ambitious with those who are of low degree it beateth the Covetous from his Mammon it wresteth the sword out of the hand of the Revenger it striketh out the teeth of the Oppressour Rom. 16.17 it marketh the Schismatick and avoideth him it anathematizeth the Heretick Numb 22 22. It is that Angel which standeth in our way when we are running greedily for a reward It is that Prophet that forewarneth us Jude 11. Dan. 5.5 that Hand on the wall that writeth against us that Cock that calleth us to repentance Matth. 26.74 that Trump that summoneth us to judgement Well said Martine Luther Nihil scandalosius veritate There is not a more offensive thing in the world then that spirit of Truth which begetteth and constituteth a Christian It much resembleth the Load stone qui trahit simul avertit is at once both attractive and averse at one part draweth the Iron at the other loatheth it The Truth knitteth all good men all that 〈◊〉 born of the spirit in a bond of peace but withdraweth it self and will not joyn with the evil with those who are born after the flesh and so maketh them enemies And therefore I may add to Luther Nihil periculosius veritate There is not a more dangerous thing in the world in respect of the world then the Truth For as the Truth as it was said of Noah Heb. 11.7 condemneth the world that is convinceth it of infidelity and so leaveth it open to the sentence of condemnation so doth the world also condemn the Truth 1. By reproching it Ecquis Christus cum sua fabula said the Heathen What ado here is with Christ and his Legend And so saith every Atheist in his heart every one that is born after the flesh 2. By selling it as the Wanton doth for a smile the Covetous for bread Isa 55.2 for that which is not bread the Ambitious for a breath a sound a thought the Superstitious for a picture an idole which is nothing 3. 1 Cor. 8.4 By violence against the friends and lovers of Truth that they may drive it out of the world by commanding and charging them to speak no more in that name Acts ◠17 5.28 by persecuting them as Ishmael did Isaac with ascoff For this is all we read Sarah saw Ishmael mocking And this scoff this derision Gen. 21.9 whatsoever it was S. Paul calleth persecution And this is the Devils Method to make a scoff the prologue to a Tragedy to usher in Persecution with a Jeer first put Christians in the skins of beasts and then bait them to death with dogs first disgrace them and then ad Leones Away with them to the Lions first call the orthodox Bishops traditores and then beat them down at the very Altar first make them vile and then nothing The Psalmist fully expresseth it Swords are in their lips Psal 59.7 For every word these scoffers speak eateth flesh It is a mock now it will be a blow it will be a wound It beginneth in a libell it endeth in Rise kill and eat The first letter the Alpha is a mock the last the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is desolation Thus the son of the free woman he that is born after the spirit is ever the patient and the son of the bond-woman he that is born after the flesh layeth on sure strokes Vnus venter sed non unus animus saith Augustine As the twins strove in the womb of Rebekah so these two the Good and the Evil strive in the World the one by silence the other by noise the one by being what he is the other by being angry that he is so the one by his life the other by his sword Art thou born of the Spirit Eccl. 2.1 a true member of Christ Then prepare thy self for temptation as the son of Sirach speaketh For when thou hast put on these graces that make thee one thou hast with them put on also a crown of thornes If thou be an Isaac thou shalt find an
it self and vvill meet and cope vvith him though he cometh towards us on his pale horse vvith all his pomp and terrour Love saith a devout Writer is a Philosopher and can discover the nature and qualities the malignity and weakness of those evils which are set up to shake our constancy and strike us from that rock on which we are founded Who is a God like unto our God saith David What can be like to that we love what can be equal to it If our hearts be set on the Truth to it the whole World is not worth a thought Nullum spectac lum â—incâ—â—cussione spiritus Tert. de Spect. c. 15. nor can that shop of vanities shew forth any thing that can shake a soul or make the passions turbulent and unruly that can draw a tear or force a smile that can deject the soul with sorrow or make it mad with joy that can raise an Anger or strike a Fear or set a Desire on the wing Every object is dull and dead and hath nothing of temptation in it For to love the Truth is all in all and it bespeaketh the World as S. Paul did the Grave Where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15.55 Rom. 8 35-39 Nor height nor depth can separate us from that we love Love is a Sophister able to answer every argument wave every subtilty and defeat the Devils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his wiles and crafty enterprizes Nay Love is a Magician and can conjure down all the terrours and noyse of Persecution which are those evil Spirits that amaze and cow us Love can rowse and quicken our drooping and fainting spirits Heb. 12.12 and strengthen the most feeble knees and the hands that hang down If we love the Truth if Truth be the antecedent the consequent is most natural and necessary and it cannot but follow That therefore we will when there is reason lay down our lives for it For again what is said of Faith is true of Love It purifieth the conscience and when that is clean and pure the soul is in perfect health chearful and active full of courage either to do or suffer ready for that disgrace which bringeth honour for that smart which begetteth joy for that wound which shall heal for that death which is a gate opened to eternity ready to go out and joyn with that peace which a good conscience which is her Angelus custos her Angel to keep her in all her wayes hath sealed and assured unto her A good conscience is the foundation of that bliss which the noble army of Martyrs now enjoy But if in our whole course we have not hearkened to her voice when she bid us do this but have done the contrary if in our ruff and jollity we have thus slghted and baffled her it is not probable that we shall suffer for her sake but we shall willingly nay hastily throw her off and renounce her when to part with her is to escape the evil that we most fear and avoid the blow that is coming towards us We shall soon let go that which we hold but for fashions sake which we fight against while we defend it and which we tread under foot even then when we exalt it which hath no more credit with us then what our parents our education the voice of the people and the multitude of professours have even forced upon us If the Truth have no more power over us if we have no more love for the Truth but this which hath nothing but the name of Love and is indeed the contrary if we bless it with our tongue and fight against it with our lusts if at once we embrace and stifle it then we are Ishmaels and not Isaacs And can an Ishmael in the twinkling of an eye be made an Isaac I will not say it is impossible but it carrieth but little shew of probability and if it be ever done it is not to be brought in censum ordinariorum it falleth not out in the ordinary course that is set but is to be looked upon as a miracle which is not wrought every day but at certain times and upon some important occasion and to some especial end For it is very rare and unusual that Conscience should be quiet and silent so long and then on the sudden be as the mighty voice of God that it should lie hid so long and then come forth and work a miracle Keep faith saith S. Paul and a good conscience 1 Tim. 1.19 which some having put away concerning faith have made ship-wrack Faith will be lost in the wayes and floods of this present world if a good Conscience be not kept If then thou wilt stand up against Ishmael be sure to be an Isaac a child of promise and an heir to the faith of Abraham If thou wilt be secure from the flesh be renewed in the spirit If thou wilt be fit to take up the cross first crucifie thy self thy lusts and affections This is all the preparation that is required which every one that is born after the spirit doth make And there needeeh no more For he that is thus fitted to follow Christ in the regeneration against the Ishmaelites of this world is well qualified and will not be afraid to meet him in the clouds and in the air when he shall come in terrour to judge both the quick and the dead And now to conclude What saith the Scripture Cast out the bond woman and her son Gen 21.14 for the son of the bond woman shall not inherit with the son of the free-woman It is true Ishmael was cast out into the wilderness of Beersheba Advers Judaeos c. 13. Apolog 21. And the Jew is cast out ejectus saith Tertullian coeli soli extorris cast out of Jerusalem scattered and dispersed over the face of the earth and made a proverb of obstinate Impietiy so that when we call a man a Jew putamus sufficere convitium we think we have railed loud enough But now how shall the Church cast out those of her own bowels of her house and family And such enemies she may have which hang upon her breasts called by the same Word sealed with the same Sacraments and challenging a part in the same common salvation To cast out is an act of violence and the true Church evermore hath the suffering part But yet she may cast them out and that with violence but then it is with the same violence we take the kingdome of heaven Matth. 11.12 a violence upon our selves 1. By laying our selves prostrate by the vehemency of our devotion by our frequent prayers that God would either melt their hearts or shorten their hands either bring them into the right way Matth. 17 21. or strike off their chariot wheels For this kind of spirit these malignant spirits cannot be cast out but by prayer and fasting which is energetical and prevalent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Eusebius a most
to the tentation which will not suffer it to come so near as to shake our constancy or drive us from our resolution It may lay hard at us to make us leave our hold and to repress and keep it back to strengthen and lift up our selves that we do not fall is the effect of our Watchfulness and Christian Fortitude Rom. 8.37 by which we are more then Conquerours To conclude this Though the Sense and Phansie receive the object which is a tentation though our natural temper incline to it and raise in us a kind of desire to it which is but a resultancy from the flesh yet if we stand upon our guard and watch we shall be so far from sinning that we shall raise that obedience upon it which maketh a way to happiness and the Soul shall be sospes Hieron Apronio fidei calore fervens inter tentamenta diaboli as S. Hierome speaketh safe and sound vigorous and lively in the midst of all these tentations shall be undefiled of that object which is fair and unshaken of that which is terrible to the sense Put on then the whole armour of God stand upon your guard Eph. 6.11 set up the Spirit against the Flesh your Reason against your Sense watch one eye with another your carnal eye with a spiritual eye your carnal ear with a spiritual ear check your phansy bound your inclination If the Flesh be weak let the Spirit be ready if one raise a liking or desire let the other work the miracle and cast it out And this is to work light out of darkness good out of that which might have been evil life out of that which might have been death This is indeed to watch And to the end that we may thus watch let us out of that which hath been said gather such rules and directions as may settle and confirm us in our Watch and carry on our care and solicitude unto the end that we may watch and so not enter into temptation And first we must study the temptations themselves so study them as to wipe off their paint strike off their illecebrae and beauty behold them in their proper and native colours and representations Optimus imperator qui habet cognitas res hostium Veget. He is the best Commander the best Watchman who knoweth his enemy and can see through his disguise and visour through his counterfeit terrours and lying boasts and knoweth what he is Indeed nothing can make tentations of any force but the opinion we have of them It is not Poverty that afflicteth me but the opinion that Poverty is evil It is not the evil it self but my own thoughts which deserve this ill at my hands I am afraid of it because I think it horrid and whilst I think I make it so It is not the blow of the tongue that can hurt me for it is but a word it is not a thunderbolt and if it were Sen. Nat. Quast yet the Stoick will tell us inhonestius est dejectione animi perire quà m fulmine It is not so great an evil nor so dishonourable to be struck with a thunderbolt as to be killed with fear far worse that my phansie should wound me then the tongue of an enemy For what secret force can there be in a calumniating tongue to pierce through our very hearts and to shake and disturb our minds We can hear it thunder and not be cast down but so improvident and cruel we are to our selves that a breath from Malice or Envy will lay us on the ground Non ex eo quod est fallimur sed ex eo quod non est We are not deceived with the realities but with the disguises and appearances of things with those shapes which we have given them We first make them idoles and then fall down and worship them We carelesly take in the object and let our phansie loose to work and hammer and polish it as Poets do make Gods of men and seas of little rivers And in this fair outside in which we have drest them things do deceive us If we would look nearer into them if we would define them res involutas evolvere unfold and lay them open take them out of that gaudiness in which they are wrapt they could not have this operation nor thus work upon us Sapiens est cui res sapiunt ut sunt He is a prudent man to whom things savour and relish as they are And our Vigilancy and spiritual Wisdome consisteth in distinguishing one thing from another in abstracting that evil that may be from that good that appeareth in discovering a Sophism from a Demonstration in being able to sever the colour and appearance of a thing from the thing it self Glory from Riches Misery from Poverty For truly these are not in them but are to be lookt for and feared in something else Did we contemplate onely that which is properly theirs which is onely theirs and not that which they have not but ex dono by our gift we should not so often stoop and submit to vile offices nor forsake our Reason to joyn with our Sense We should then look through the flatteries of the world and behold the inward horrour they conceal We should look through the terrours of the world and consider that inward sweetness and light which many times breaketh through them like lightning through a dark and sullen cloud We should not thus honour them with our fear nor would our hearts so often fail at the very sight of them We should not forfeit our souls to save our estates wound our conscience to secure our purse be perjured rather then imprisoned and so run into hell from the face and frown of a tyrant But as Gregory observeth Anima rebus praesentibus dedita abscondit sibi mala sequentia Hom. 39. in Isa when the Soul mixeth with the world and cleaveth to these temporary things when it is buried as it were in the flesh and carnall pleasures it draweth the veil before its face and obscureth and hideth from it self those evils which are sure to follow which could she truly discern she would watch and take courage against that temptation which she now not onely yieldeth to but embraceth And that we may throughly discern them which is the office of our Christian Vigilancy it will be necessary for us to compare them M. Seneca Cont. 164. For the Oratour will tell us Faciliùs latent quae non comparantur Those things which we look upon with a single eye but once do commonly lye hid and we see them as if we saw them not but when we look them over again and compare them with something better then they then we see them nearer and have a more direct and full view of them We see they are nothing or nothing what they seemed as when the Sun is up the lesser lights are obscured and the glory of the stars is not seen Beauty is
separate our selves from our selves from our wilfulness and stubbornness and animosities and so place Christ in his throne Eph. 3.15 reinstate our selves into his house his family his kingdom that Christ may be all in all And thus it is Whilst this fighting and contention lasteth in us which will be as long as we last in our mortal bodies something or other will lay hold on us and have command over us There is no aequilibrium in a Christian man's life no time when the scales are even when he hangeth as Solomon is pictured between heaven and hell but one side or other still prevaileth Either we walk after the Flesh Rom. 8.1 when that is most potent or after the Spirit when that carrieth us along in our way against the solicitations and allurements of the Flesh One of them is alwayes uppermost It will therefore concern us to take a strict account of our selves and impartially to consider to which part our Will inclineth most whether it be hurried away by the Flesh or led sweetly and powerfully on by the Spirit which of these beareth most sway in our hearts whether we had rather be led by the Spirit Rom. 13.14 or obey the Flesh in the lusts thereof whether we had rather dwell in the world vvith all its pomp and pageantry in a Mahometical Paradise of all sensual delights or dwell with Christ though it be with persecutions Suppose the Devil should make an overture to thee as he did once to our Saviour of all the kingdoms of the world Matth. 4.8 and the Flesh should plead for her self as she will be putting in for her share and shew thee Honour and Power all that a heart of flesh would leap at in those Kingdoms and on the other side the Spirit thy Conscience enlightned should check thee and pull thee back and tell thee that all this is but a false shew that Death and Destruction are in these kingdoms veiled and drest up with titles of honour in purple and state that in this terrestrial Paradise thou shalt meet with a fiery sword the wrath of God and from this imaginary painted heaven be thrown into hell it self Here now is thy tryal here thou art put to thy choice If thy heart can say I will have none of these If thou canst say to thy Flesh What hast thou to do with me who gave thee authority who made thee a ruler over me If thou canst say to the Spirit Thou art in stead of God to me If thou canst say with thy Saviour Avoid Satan I know no power in heaven or in earth no dominion but Christ's then thou art in his house in his service which is no service Rom. 8.21 but the glorious liberty of the sons of God then thou art in him thou mayest assure thy self thy residence thy abode thy dwelling is in Christ 3. If we dwell in Christ we shall rely and depend on him as on our tutelary God and Protectour And so we may be said to dwell in him indeed as in a house which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saiâ—h the Civilian our fort and sanctuary commune perfugium saith Tullie our common place of refuge And what is our hope whither should we fly but to him I am thine Psal 119.94 Psal 73.25 save me saith David because I am thine because I have none in heaven but thee and on earth desire none besides thee Thou art my house my castle my fortress and defense thou art my hope to the end of the world thou art my Christ And this is a principal mark of a true Christian of a man dwelling in Christ that he wholly flingeth himself into his protection that he here fixeth his hope and doth not busie himself to find any shelter but here For as the full perswasion of the almighty power of God was the first rise to Religion the fountain from which all worship whether true or false did flow for without this perswasion there could be none at all and we find this relying on God's power not onely rewarded but magnified in Scripture so the acknowledgment of God's wonderful power in Christ by which he is able to make good his rich and glorious promises to subdue his and our enemies to do abundantly above all that we can conceive to work joy out of sorrow peace out of trouble order out of confusion life out of death is the foundation the pillar the life of all Christianity And if we build not upon this if we abide not if we dwell not here we shall not find a hole to hide our heads For man such is our condition even when he maketh his nest on high when he thinketh he can never be moved when he exalteth himself as God is a weak indigent insufficient creature subject to every blast and breath subject to misery as well as to passion subject to his own and subject to other mens passions when he is at his highest pitch shaken with his own fear and pursued with other mens malice rising and soaring up aloft and then failing sinking and ready to fall and when he falleth looking about for help and succour When he is diminished and brought low by evil and sorrows he seeketh for some refuge some hole some Sanctuary to fly to as the Wise-man speaks of the Conies They are a generation not strong and therefore have their burrows to hide themselves in Prov. 30.26 Now by this you may know you dwell in Christ If when the tempest cometh you are ready to run under his wing and think of no house no shelter no protection but his Talk what we will of Faith if we do not trust and rely on him we do not believe in him For what is Faith but as our Amen to all his promises our subscription to his Wisdome and Power and Goodness And here we fix our tabernacle and will abide till the storm be overpast Believe in him and not trust in him You may say as well the Jews did love him when they nayled him to the cross Matth. 8.26 Why are ye fearful O ye of little faith said Christ to his Disciples That Faith was little indeed which would let in fear when Christ the Wisdome of the Father and the mighty Power of God was in the ship little less then a grain of mustard-seed which is the least of seeds so little that what Christ calleth there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 little faith he plainly calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unbelief Matth. 17.20 The faith of this world the weak and cowardly faith of this world speaketh of principalities and powers great swelling words yet at the sight of a cloud not so big as a mans hand striketh in and is not seen but leaveth us groaning under every burden for to such a faith every light affliction is a burden leaveth us to complaints and despair or to those inventions which vvill plunge us in greater evils then those we either suffer or fear
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
treadeth under foot from fear of the Law when we should have no other law but Piety That which is born of the flesh is flesh saith our Saviour John 3.6 Nor can the flesh work in us a love to and chearfulness in the things of the Spirit The flesh perfecteth nothing contributeth nothing to a good work Nor doth any thing work kindly till it come to perfection Perfection and Sincerity work our joy In Scripture we find even inanimate and senseless things said to be glad when they attain unto and abide in their natural perfection a Ps 19.5 The Sun is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoyceth as a strong man to run a race b Ps 65.12 â—3 The little hills rejoyce on every side The valleys are covered over with corn they shout for joy they also sing Prata rident So Solomon c Prov. 13.9 The light of the righteous rejoyceth because it shineth clear and continually The blessed Angels are in a state of perfection and their motion from place to place the Schools say is instantaneous and in a moment as sudden and quick as their will by which they move Therefore they are drawn out with wings Isa 6. and said to go forth like lightning Which signifieth unto us their alacrity speed in executing all God's commands Their constant office is to be ready at his beck and they ever have the heavenly characters of his will before their eyes as a Father speaketh And such also will our activity and chearfulness be in devotion and the service of God if we be thus animated and informed as it were with the love thereof if our minds be shaped and configured to it as S. Basil saith If either the Word or the Sword either the power of the truth or calamity and persecution hath made it sweet unto us and stirred up in us an earnest expectation and longing after it then IBIMUS We will go go with chearfulness to the house of mourning and sit with those who are in the dust go to that Lazar and relieve him to that prisoner and visit him to our friends and counsel them to our enemies and reconcile them with the Jews here go to the Temple to the Church and pray for the Nation Joel 2.17 and say Spare thy people O Lord and give not thine heritage to reproch go and fall down and worship him yea go to the stake and dy for him Psal 39.3 When this fire burneth within us we shall speak with the tongue and that with a chearful accent IBIMUS We will go into the house of the Lord. And so we are fallen upon our last circumstance 5. The place of their devotion the house of the Lord. When a company go to serve the Lord they must needs go to some place For how can they serve him together but in a place Adam and his sons had a place Gen. 4.3 4. The Patriarchs had a place altars and mountains and groves In the wilderness the people of God had a movable Tabernacle And though Solomon said that a Acts 7.48 1 Kings 8.27 God dwelleth not in temples made with hands yet b Acts 7.47 Solomon that said so built him an house And the work was commended by God himself not onely when it was finished and brought to perfection but even while it was yet but in design and was raised no further then in thought The Lord said unto David 2 Chron. 6.8 Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for my name thou didst well in that it was in thine heart And when Christ came he blessed in this house prayed in it taught in it disputed in it he drove the profaners out of it he spake by his presence by his tongue by his gesture he giveth it its name and in a manner Christneth it Matth. 21.13 by calling it his house and the house of prayer For though he came to strike down the Law yet he came not to beat down right Reason Though he did disanull what was fitted but for a time as Sacrifices and all that busy and troublesome that ceremonious and typical Worship yet he never abolished what common reason will teach us is necessary for all ages How could he require that men should meet together and worship him if there were to be no place at all to meet in Or what needed an express command for that which the very nature of the duty enjoyneth and necessity it self will bring in He that enjoyneth publick worship doth in that command imply that there must be a certain publick place to meet in We hear indeed Christ saying to the Jews John 2.19 Destroy this Temple but it was to make a window in their breasts that they might see he knew their very hearts 21. He bid them do what they meant to do He spake of the Temple of his body saith the Text and they did destroy both his body and their own Temple For they who had nothing more in their mouthes then The Temple of the Lord Jer. 7.4 set fire on the Temple of the Lord with their own hands as Josephus relateth And so their Ceremonies had an end so their Temple was destroyed but not to the end that all Churches and places of publick meeting should be for ever buried in its ruines before they were built That house of the Lord was dissolved indeed but at the dissolution thereof there was no voice heard that did tell us vve should build no more in any other place The first Christians we may be sure heard no such voice For assoon as persecution suffered them to move their arms they were busy in erecting of Oratories in a plain manner indeed answerable to their present estate But when the favour of Princes shined upon them and their substance encreased they poured it out plentifully this way and founded Churches in every place Nor did they think they could lay too much cost upon them none counted that wast which was expended about so good a work They built sumptuous houses for God's worship and rejoyced and after-ages applauded it both by their words and practice they magnified it and did the like Such cost hath ever gone under the name of Piety and Devotion till these later times when almost all are ready with Judas to condemn Mary Magdelene for pouring forth her ointment John 12 3-6 Churches were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Houses of the Lord and so were esteemed and not Idole Synagogues not Styes till Swine entred into them and defiled them and holp to pull them down We know God dwelleth not in Temples made with hands Acts 7.48 17.24 nor can his infinite Majesty be circumscribed we remember and therefore need not to be told that Christ said to the woman of Samaria that the hour was coming when men should neither in that mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father John 4.21 23. but should worship him
such comfort to be lookt for This affords us no other strength and supply then that of Grace nor arms us against any enemies but those of our soul It makes us valiant not against our enemies according to the flesh but against Impatience and Distrust and Murmuring which fight against our peace By this we are exalted and even triumph over those enemies which tread us under their feet This is all our strength all our artillery and this is enough For though God help us not but leave us under the harrow and to the will of our enemies yet he is still a God of consolation He is thy Physician why then shouldest thou be turned after thy own way and method who art never better pleased then with that which will hurt thee Behold he hath shewn thee a more excellent way a way to find comfort not by the removal of the thorn but by keeping it in thy flesh not by taking away the cup of bitterness but by sweetning it by helping thee when thou hast no help and delivering thee when he doth not deliver thee He hath broke open the Treasury of comfort he hath opened the fountains above he will comfort thee with his Truth his word is Truth This is his way This is his method and it will be our greatest wisdome to observe it Wherefore comfort you one another with these words In General with the Word of God For the Scripture is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a common shop of comfort and here thou maist buy it without money or money worth Here thou maist buy it and if not here thou wilt never find it That comfort which thou gainest out of other shops out of that shop of vanity the World or that shop shadows thy own Phansie or that shop of lyes the mouth of the Parasite is but vain but vanishing but false wares Bestia pharmacopolae that Julian the Pelagian upbraids St. Augustine with like that beast the Apothecary promised his patient of wonderful virtue which before the morning came had eaten up her self All these comforts dye in themselves and out of them when they perish nothing is begot but wo and bitter lamentation A man in trouble which stands in need of this physick is as a bowed wall and tottering fence and nothing can comfort him but that which can settle him When we have wearied our selves in vain wrackt our imaginations busied our thoughts studied remedies we still remain in our shaking and trembling condition Call in all the glories of the world invent instruments of musick like David bring the merry harp and the lute these may refresh us for a while but the evil spirit will come again upon us as it did upon Saul These are but weak props to uphold and settle a tottering fence Let us call in the arm of flesh make use of our own strength That may ruine us But Wisdom is better then Strength Eccles 9.16 call in that This is but sensual and earthly and will soon moulder away All our turning of devices will be but as the potters clay which will break and crumble between our fingers We shall kindle a fire and be compassed about with the sparks Isa 50.11 and walk in the light of our own fire and then what shall we have We shall lye down saith the Prophet in sorrow Upon these we walk as on the Ice magis tremimus quà m imus and do rather tremble then go Now we lift up our selves upon them and anon we fall and are bruised upon them they glide away from us and they can neither settle us nor we fix and be settled upon them That on which we must settle as in our place of rest must be it self immoveable And no such thing is to be found in the world in this shop of change where every thing is in a continual flux whose very being is hastning to its end toties mutata quoties mota changed almost in every motion the same and not the same fitting to day and contrary to morrow comfort to day and bitterness to morrow now an Oracle and anon a lye a displeasing killing lye now the joy and anon the anguish of the heart now makeing it leap and next morning turning it into a stone Why should we seek for the living amongst the dead Why should we cheapen certainty in this shop of change Why should we seek for Constancy in a decaying world Why should we seek for ease in that which is and whilest I say so is no more Why should we seek for true and substantial Comfort in a region of shadows This is to disquiet our selves in vain to make us Gods of clay to go before us which will moulder and fall to nothing in our hands to loose all comfort in the seeking it Quaerite quod quaeritis sed non ubi quaeritis as Augustine Seek that you seek for Consolation but not where you seek it in the world in the inventions of men which are more mental then themselves But we may hear of it in Ephrata or we may find it in the fields of the wood in the City of woods where the Ark was and the Testimony we may find it in the Word of God which is as mount Sion and will stand fast for evermore For again as our Saviour tells Nicodemus John 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh is of the same nature fading and mortal and that which is born of the spirit is spirit is heavenly and divine So whatsoever is of God all those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those emanations and defluxions from him savour of him of his Wisdom of his Goodness of his Immortality His Word is an Incorruptible word which liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1.23 It is from an immortal God and leads to immortality His Hope is a lively Hope quickning us to Eternity his Joy such as no man can take away John 16.22 his Peace a lasting Peace lasting as long as the Moon endureth Psal 72.7 his Promises and so his Comforts Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 All other comforts are of the earth earthy of a fading and perishing condition As our Thoughts they perish with us nay they perish before us as shadows falling with those bodies that cast them as Bubbles raised out of our flesh blown up and lost as very Nothings as our selves But the Comforts of God have their rise from eternity and so have a solid constant being subject neither to wind nor tempest to the injuries neither of Times nor Men but in the pit and in the gulph of sorrows they boy us up and lift us above them that we can walk upon the surging waves and not sink for fear As they spring from immortality so they grow up and are ever green they begin in time and never end but are carried on along in the infinite and immense gyre and circle of Eternity That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is
Our Sins were they that crucified Christ 29. The Gospel is the sharpest curb of Sin 1065. Of Speculative Sins and Sinners 172. Sincerity necessary in all our actions 369. Slavery None comparable to that under Satan and Sin 740 741. v. Redemtion Sluggards awakened 220. Sobriety to be observed in our diet and Modestie in our attire 639. 1101 1102. Socrates how jeered by Aristophanes 372. Solitary Whether the solitary Retiredness of Monks be as they count it Perfection 1089. Solomon how painted 1069. Of his ECCLESIASTES 534. SON The Son of all the three Persons fittest to be our Mediatour 4. 13. God hath four sorts of Sons 4. Sophocles reproched Euripides 372. He thanked his Old age for freeing him from Lust 593. Sorrow good and bad 338. Worldly S. worketh death 564. Sometimes it ushereth-in Repentance and Comfort 564. Soul v. Body The Soul should be set on heavenly not earthly things 646 c. The Scripture commandeth so 646. The Soul is too noble to mind the earth 647. Nothing below proportionable to it nothing satisfactory 648 c. Every man ought to take care of his brother's Soul 576. The Soul is far more excellent then the Body and therefore chiefly to be cared for 886. Its riches and ornament what 78 79. It s original hard to know 94. Souldiers What S. should do what not 920 Speach The manner of ouâ— Speach varieth with our mind 385. Out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh 976. Many speak fair and mean foul 764 c. It is a shame to pretend Religion and to be ashamed to speak out 981 982. v. Confess Spirit That the SPIRIT worketh is evident but the manner of his working cannot be discerned 315. Some presume the Sp. teacheth them immediately without yea against the Word 683 684. What it is to Glorifie God in the Sp. 744. 748. A pretense of the Sp. and a pretended Zele the two grand impostures of the world 528. Many laying claim to the S. we are to try them by the Scripture 527 529. v. H. Ghost Spirits cannot be defiled by intermingling with bodies 166. The fight between the Spirit and the Flesh described 159. 312. 632. 707. Spiritual things far transcend temporal 884 c. 887 895. Stimula a Goddess among the Romans 341. Stoicks condemned for choosing Death rather then Miserie 1011. Strangers We all are but Strangers on earth 530 c. The Word of God is our best supply in this condition 531. That we are S. here proved by Scripture 536. and by reason drawn from the Insufficiency of all things here to satisfie Man's mind 537. Yet few believe the point 538 539. Our Enemies in this our Pilgrimage 539. Our provision and our defense 540. How we should behave our selves as S. 540. We ought to look on all things in the world with the suspicious and jealous ey of a Stranger 541. Strength Attempt nothing above thy Strength 249. 250. Student The Student's calling not so easy as other men think 223. SUB the Preposition much descanted upon 637 c. Subjection we like not but must yield it 637 c. Subordination necessary in Bodies natural Civile Ecclesiastical 640. Success many make an argument to prove themselves and their wayes good 684. But good or ill Success is not an argument of God's love or dislike 712. Sudden surprisalls what effect they have upon us 254. Sufferings for Christ's sake most comfortable 568. Suffering for Righteousness is the highest pitch of a Christian 695. One may suffer for one virtue neglect the rest 704 c. One may suffer for Pleasure for Profit for Humour for Fear for Honour and yet be no Martyr 705 706. v. Martyrdom What shall he do who having not yet repented of his grievous sins must either suffer present death or deny the Truth he believeth 707 c. Superiours v. Obedience Superstition what 462. We must not cry it down in others and cherish it in our selves 462. Many for fear of S. shipwreck on Profaneness 982. But we must shun them both 758. Supper the LORD's Supper not absolutely necessary 81. not to be given to Infants nor to the Dead 81. How slight a preparation serveth many mens turn 81. It is ridiculously abused by the Papists and very grosly by others 449. 462. In this Sacrament we must look I. on the Authour Christ 450. and not be offended at the meanness either of the Minister or of the Elements 451. II. on the Command of Christ 451. which must be so observed as not to rest in the outward action 452. Motives to invite us to the Lord's S. 452. This holy Sacrament fitteth our present condition 452. The manifold and great benefits we receive by it 453. 473. 490. 493. 495. The heavenly joy it putteth into our hearts 453 It is necessary for us to come and that often to the Lord's Table 454. How oft the primitive Christians did receive how oft we should now 454 455. Excuses for not communicating removed 456. He that loveth his sin and will live in it sinneth if he come and sinneth if he come not 456. Every Penitent is a fit Communicant 456. and so is every true Believer 456. Not onely great Proficients but even Beginners in Christ's School whatever some say to the contrary may yea ought to come to the holy Table 458. A conceit of our own Infirmity should not keep us away 456-459 463. Neither should a conceit of the high Dignity of the Sacrament do it 459 c. 476. They who abstein out of reverence seem to condemn them that are more forward 461. and their refraining may keep others away 462. How we ought to remember Christ at his Table 463 c. 473 c. Then especially is our Faith to be actuated 465. 475 489. Then we must examin and renew our Repentance 465. 476. 489. This Sacrament if received to a wrong end is not food nor physick but poison 467. Christ's Body and Bloud are not received corporally but spiritually 468. To receive Christ's flesh corporally would profit us nothing 468. Three manners of eating Christ's Body Sacramental Spiritual Sacramental Spiritual 473. We must come with Faith Hope Love Repentance Reverence 475 c. 489 Preparation necessary 478. 487. How negligently and inconsiderately many come to this Sacrament 479. 487. v. Examination What our Preparation should be 485 c. 834. This Sacrament is a feast of Love â—92 and none but they that are in Charity should come to it 490 c. 834. whether some should be set apart to examin others before admission to the Lord's Supper 494. With what reverence the antient Christians received 768. Wretched we if feeding so oft on Christ in the Sacram. we continue in our sins 813. Coming to the Lord's Table is a protestation of Faith and Repentance 769. 814. What kind of Protestants then are they who neither repent nor believe 814. We should at the H. Table be like unto men on their death-beds 814. Suspicion We
according saith S. Paul to my Gospel This is the Lesson the Spirit teacheth Truth Let us now see the Extent of it It is large and universal The Spirit doth not teach us by halves teach some truths and conceal others but he teacheth all truth maketh his disciples and followers free from all errors that are dangerous and full of saving knowledge Saving knowledge is all indeed That truth which bringeth me to my end is all and there is nothing more to be known I determined to know nothing but Christ and him crucified saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 2.2 Here his desire hath a Non ultrá This truth is all this joyneth heaven and earth together God and Man mortality and immortality misery and happiness in one draweth us near unto God and maketh us one with him This is the Spirit 's Lesson Commentum Divinitatis the invention of the Divine Spirit Faith is called the gift of God Ephes 2.8 not onely because it is given to every believer and too many are too willing to stay till it be given but because this Spirit first found out the way to save us by so weak a means as Faith And as he first found it out so he teacheth it and leaveth out noâ—hing not a tittle not an Iota which may serve to compleat and perfect this divine Science Psal 139.16 In the book of God are all our members written All the members yea and all the faculties of our soul And in his Gospel his Spirit hath framed rules and precepts to order and regulate them all in every act in every motion and inclination which if the Eye offend pluck it out if the Hand cut it off Rules which limit the understanding to the knowledge of God bind the will to obedience moderate and confine our affections level our hope fix our joy stint our sorrow frame our speech compose our gesture fashion our apparel set and methodize our outward behaviour Instances in Scripture in every particular are many and obvious The time would fail me to mention them all In a word then this Truth which the Spirit teacheth is fitted to the whole man to every member of the body to every faculty of the soul fitted to us in every condition in every relation It will reign with thee it will serve with thee it will manage thy riches it will comfort thy poverty ascend the throne with thee and sit down with thee on the dunghill It will pray with thee it will fast with thee it will labour with thee it will rest and keep a Sabbath with thee it will govern a Church it will order thy Family it will raise a kingdome within thee it will be thy Angel to carry thee into Abraham's bosome and set a crown of glory upon thy head And is there yet any more Or what need more than that which is necessary There can be but one God one Heaven one Religion one way to blessedness and there is but one Truth and that is it which the Spirit teacheth And this runneth the whole compass of it directeth us not onely ad ultimum sed usque ad ultimum not onely to that which is the end but to the means to every step and passage and approach to every help and advantage towards it and so uniteth us to that one God giveth us right to that one Heaven and bringeth us home to that one end for which we were made And is there yet any more Yes particular cases may be so many and various that they cannot all come within the compass of this Truth which the Spirit hath plainly taught It is true but then for the most part they are cases of our own making cases which we need not make cases somtimes raised by weakness somtimes by wilfulness somtimes even by sin it self which reigneth in our mortal bodies and to such this Lesson of the Spirit is as an Ax to cut them off But be their original what it will if this Truth reach them not or if they bear no analogy or affinity with that which the Spirit hath taught nor depend upon it by any evident and necessary consequence they are not to be reckoned in the number of those which concern us because we are assured that he hath led us into all truth that is necessary Some things indeed there are which are indifferent in themselves quae lex nec vetat nec jubet which this Spirit neither commandeth nor forbiddeth but they are made necessary by reason of some circumstance of time or place or quality or persons for that which is necessary in it self is alwaies necessary and yet are in their own nature indifferent still Veritas ad omnia occurrit this Truth which is the Spirit 's Lesson reacheth even these and containeth a rule certain and infallible to guide us in them if we become not laws unto our selves and fling it by to wit the rules of Charity and Christian Prudence to which if we give heed it is impossible we should miscarry It is Love of our selves and Love of the world not Charity or spiritual Wisdome which make this noyse abroad rend the Church in pieces and work desolation on the earth It is want of conscience and neglect of conscience in the common and known wayes of our duty which have raised so many needless Cases of conscience which if men had not hearkened to their lusts had never shewn their head but had been what indeed they are nothing The acts of charity are manifest 1 Cor. 13. Charity suffereth long even injuries and errours but doth not rise up against that which was set up to enlarge and improve her Charity is not rash to beat down every thing that had its first rise and beginning from Charity Charity is not puffed up swelleth not against a harmless yea and an useful constitution though it be of man Charity doth not behave it self unseemly layeth not a necessity upon us of not doing that which lawful Authority even then styleth an indifferent thing when it commandeth it to be done Charity seeketh not her own treadeth not the publick peace under foot to procure her own Charity is not easily provoked checketh not at every feather nor startleth at that monster which is a creation of our own Charity thinketh no evil doth not see a serpent under every leaf nor Idolatry in every bow of Devotion If we were charitable we could not but be peaceable If that which is the main of the Spirit 's lesson did govern mens actions Psal 72.7 there would be abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth Multa facienda sunt non jubente lege sed liberâ charitate saith Augustine Charity is free to do and suffer many things which the Spirit doth not expresly command and yet it doth command them in general when it commandeth obedience to Authority Which hath no larger circuit to walk and shew it self in than in things in themselves indifferent which it may enjoyn for orders sake
and for the advantage of those things which are necessary that are already under a higher and more binding law than any Potentate or Monarch of the earth can make The acts I say of Charity are manifest But those of Christian Prudence are not particularly designed Prudentia respicit ad singularia because that eye is given us to view and consider particular occurrences and circumstances and it dependeth upon those things which are without us whereas Charity is an act of the will And here if we would be our selves or rather if we would not be our selves but be free from by-respects and unwarrantable ends if we would devest our selves of all hopes or fears of those things which may either shake or raise our estates we could not be to seek For how easy is it to a disingaged and willing mind to apply a general precept to particular actions especially if Charity fill our hearts which is the bond of perfection Col. 3.14 Rom. 13.10 and the end and complement of the Law and indeed our spiritual wisdome In a word in these cases when we go to consult with our Reason we cannot erre if we leave not Charity behind us Or if we should erre our Charity would have such an influence upon our errour that it should trouble none but our selves 1 Cor. 13.7 For Charity beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things This is the extent of the Spirit 's Lesson And if in other truths more subtil than necessary we are to seek it mattereth not for we need not seek them It is no sin not to know that which I cannot know to be no wiser than God hath made me And what need our curiosity rove abroad when that which is all and alone concerneth us lieth in so narrow a compass In absoluto facili aeternitas saith Hilary The way to heaven may seem rough and troublesome but it is an easy way easy to find out though not so easy at our first onset to walk in and yet to those that tread and trace it often as delightful as Paradise it self See God hath shut up Eternity within the compass of two words Believe and Repent which is a full and just commentary on the Spirit 's Lesson the sum of all that he taught Lay your foundation right and then build upon it Because God loved you in Christ do you love him in Christ Love him and keep his commandments than which no other way could have been found out to draw you neer unto God Believe and Repent this is all Oh wicked abomination whence art thou come to cover the earth with deceit What malice what defiance what contention what gall and bitterness amongst Christians yet this is all Believe and Repent the Pen the Tongue the Sword these are the weapons of our warfare What ink what blood hath been spilt in the cause of Religion How many innocents defamed how many Saints anathematized how many millions cut down with the sword yet this is all Believe and Repent We hear the noyse of the whip and the ratling of the wheels and the prancing of the horses The horseman lifteth up his bright sword and his glittering spear Nah. 3.2 3. Every part of Christendome almost is a stage of war and the pretense is written in their banners you may see it waving in the air FOR GOD AND RELIGION yet this is all Believe and Repent Who would once think the Pillars of the earth should be thus shaken that the world should be turned into a worse chaos than that out of which it was made that there should be such wars and fightings amongst Christians for that which is shut up and brought unto us in these two words Believe and Repent For all the truth which is necessary and will be sufficient to lift us to our end and raise us to happiness can make no larger a circumferance than this This is the Law and the Prophets or rather this is the Gospel of Christ this is the whole will of God In this is knowledge justification redemption and holiness This is the Spirit 's Lesson and all other lessons are no lessons not worth the learning further than they help and improve us in this In a word this is all in all and within this narrow compass we may walk out our span of time and by the conduct of the same Spirit in the end of it attain to that perfection and glory which shall never have an end And so from the Lesson and Extent of it we pass to the Manner and Method of the Spirit 's Teaching It is not Raptus a forcible and violent drawing but Ductus a gentle Leading and Guiding The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall lead Which implyeth a preparedness and willingness to be led And the Spirit that leadeth us teacheth us also to follow him not to resist him that he may lead us Acts 7.51 Eph. 4.30 1 Thes 5.19 2 Tim. 1.6 not to grieve him by our backwardness that he may fill us with joy not to quench him that he may enlighten us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stir up his gifts that they dye not in us Now this promise was directly and primarily made to the Apostles whose Commission being extraordinary and their Diocess as large as the whole world they needed the Spirits guidance in a more high and eminent manner gifts of Tongues and diversities of graces which might fit them for so great a work that as their care so their power might be as universal as the world And yet to them was the Spirit given in measure and where measure is there are degrees and they were led by degrees not straight to all truth but by steps and approaches S. Peter himself was not wrapt up as his pretended Successor into the chair of Truth to determine all at once For when Pentecost was now past he goeth to Caesarea Acts 10.11 34. and there learneth more then he had done at Jerusalem seeth that in the Sheet which was let down to the earth which he heard not from the Tongues and of a truth now perceived what he did not before that God was no accepter of persons that now the partition-wall was broken down that Jew and Gentile were both alike and the Church which was formerly shut up in Judea was now become Catholick a Body which every one that would might be a member of Besides though the Apostles were extraordinarily and miraculously inspired yet we cannot say that they used no means at all to bring down the blessed Spirit For it is plain they did wait for his coming they prayed for the truth and laboured for the truth they conferred one with another met together in counsel deliberated before they did determin Nor could they imagin they had the Spirit in a string and could command him as they please and make him follow them whithersoever they would And then between us and the Apostles there
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
invincible and irresistible thing placing us under the wing of God far above all principalities and powers above all the flatteries and terrours of the world there with Stephen pleading for Saul the persecutour till he become Paul the Apostle which is in effect to cast out the Persecution it self 2. By our patience and long-suffering Patience worketh more miracles then Power It giveth us those goods which our enemies take from us it maketh Dishonour glorious it dulleth the edge of the sword it cooleth the flames of fire it wearieth cruelty shameth the Devil and like a wise Captain turneth the ordnance upon the facc of the enemy Rom. 5.3 It is the proper effect of Faith for if we believe him who hath told us our condition what will we not suffer for his sake And it is omnipotent by the virtue of this S. Paul professeth he could do and suffer all things Philip. 4.13 It may seem strange indeed that a mortal and frail man should be omnipotent and do all things yet it is most evidently true so true that we cannot deny it unless we deny the faith To sit still and do nothing to possess our souls with patience and to suffer all things is to cast out the bond woman and her son 3. We cast them out by our innocency of life and sincerity of conversation Thus we shall not onely cast them out but persecute them as righteous Lot did the men of Sodom This is to keep our selves to mount Sion to that Jerusalem which is above to defend our priority our primogeniture our inheritance this is to be born after the spirit There is saith Augustine Hom. 8.10 justa persecutio a just and praiseworthy persecution For Isaac to be heir was a persecution to Ishmael For the Church to be built upon the foundation of the Apostles Christ being the head corner-stone was a persecution to the Jews Acts 22.21 22 23. for no sooner had Paul mentioned his sending to the Gentiles but they fling off their clothes and fling dust into the air and cry Away with such a fellow from the earth And nothing more odious to a Jew at this day then a Christian Judaeorum Synagogae fontes persecutionum Tertul. Scorp c. 10. Wisd 2.12 The holy and strict conversation of the just is a persecution to the wicked Castigat qui dissentit He that walketh not by our rule but draweth out his religion by another is as a thorn in our eyes and a whip in our sides and doth not instruct but control and punish us Do they not speak it in plain words He is contrary to our doings it grieveth and vexeth us to look upon him He will not dig with us in the mine for wealth he will not wallow with us in pleasure nor climb with us to honour He will not cast in his Lot with us to help to advance our purposes to their end And let us thus persecute them with our silence with our patience with our innocency even persecute those Ishmaelites no other way but this by being Isaacs 4. Lastly we may cast them out by casting our burden on the Lord Psal 55.22 by putting our cause into his hands who best can plead it by citing our Persecutours before his tribunal who is the righteous Judge If we thus cast it upon him we need no other umpire no other revenger If it be a loss he can restore it if an injury he can return it if grief he can heal it if disgrace he can wipe it off And he will certainly do it if we so cast it upon him as to trust in him alone The full perswasion of God's Power being that which awaketh him as one out of sleep putteth him to clothe himself with his Majesty setteth this power a working to bring mighty things to pass and make himself glorious by the delivery of his people To shut up all and conclude Thus if we cast our burden upon him Luk. 21.28 thus if we look up to the Hills from whence cometh our Salvation we shall also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 look up and lift up our heads behave our selves as if all things did go as we would have them look up and lift up our heads as herbs peep out of the earth when the Sun cometh near them and birds sing when the Spring is near so look up as if our redemption our Spring were near Thus if we importune God by our prayers wait on him by our patience walk before him when the tempest is loudest in the sincerity and uprightness of our hearts and put our cause into his hands if there be any Ishmael to persecute us any enemies to trouble us he will cast them out either so melt and transform them that they shall not trouble us or if they do they shall rather advantage then hurt us rather improve our devotion then cool and abate it rather increase our patience then weaken it raise our sincerity rather then sink it rather settle and confirm our confidence then shake it in a word he will so cast them out as to teach us to do it that we may so use them as we are taught to use the unrighteous Mammon Luk. 16.9 to cast them out by making them friends even such friends as may receive us into everlasting habitations Which God grant for his Son JESUS CHRISTS sake c. The Eighth SERMON PART I. 1 THESS IV. 11. And that ye study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you THe sum of Religion and Christianity is to do the will of God v. 3. And this is the will of God even our sanctification Eccles 12.13 This is the whole duty of man And we may say of it as the Father doth of the Lords Prayer Tertul. De orat Quantum substringitur verbis tantum diffunditur sensibus Though it be contracted and comprised in a word yet it poureth forth it self in a sea of matter and sense For this Holiness unto which God hath called us is but one virtue but of a large extent and compass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is but one virtue but is divided into many and standeth as Queen in the midst of the circle and crown of all the Graces and claimeth an interest in them all hath Patience to wait on her Compassion to reach out her hand Longanimity to sustain and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Placability of mind and Contentation in our own portion and lot to uphold her and keep her in an equal poyse and temper ever like unto her self that we may be holy in our Faith and holy in our Conversation with men without which though our Faith could remove mountains yet we were not holy Tot ramos porrigit tot venas diffundit So rich is the substance of Holiness so many branches doth she reach forth so many veins doth she spread into And indeed all those virtues
we be over-reacht how discontent and crest-fallen are we as those who have been beaten in battel and have lost the day but in that which most concerneth us we seek out many inventions we hearken to every false Prophet to our selves the worst counsellours that are we study to be deceived and count it a punishment to be taught And thus we see some flattering Christ with their lips some breathing forth blasphemy against him and yet all Christians Some oppressours grinding his face some revengers Errantis paena est doceri Plat. piercing his sides the sacrilegious robbing him most treading him under foot and yet all Christians Some free from gross and open yet full of speculative and secret sins of envy malice and rancour and yet all Christians Be not deceived Christ may dwell in us with our infirmities so they be but infirmities but not with our wilfulness and hypocrisie He that taketh courage to venture on a sin because it is a little one maketh it a great one and it is not infirmity but presumption Christ saith S. Bernard was born indeed in a stable but not in a stie and will bear with something that favoureth of the man of the brutish part of the man but not with foul pollutions and wilful abominations not with those sins which lay waste the conscience and devour all the better part all that is Spirit within us He is indeed a house a sanctuary for every troubled soul but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a common receptacle for all offenders as Celsus bitterly urged against Christ in Origen not a companion for thieves and harlots but a Physician to heal them not a house for every theif to lurk in nor a temple for Satyrs and profane persons to dance in If we dwell in Christ we dwell in a Lamb which we cannot do with so much of the Lion and Viper so much rage and malice and venom within us Last of all some there be and that not a few who think they dwell in Christ when they joyn themselves to such a Church such a company such a congregation think themselves in the habitations of peace when they are in the tents of Kedar of blackness and darkness And this is the great errour of those of the Church of Rome which draweth with it all the rest beareth a train like the red Dragons tail in the Revelation which swept down a third part of the stars Rev. 12.4 and cast them to the earth For doth she not in a manner tell us that within her territories we are safe upon what terms soever we stand with Christ and though we dwell in Christ that is perform all Christian duties yet if we dwell not in her be not incorporated with her our faith our hope all our endeavours are in vain and so instead of a Church we have set up an idole as great an idole as they have made the Virgin Mary For the one as well as the other must go for a Mother of mercy And do we not with grief behold it so in other factions though as distant from this as the East is from the West Do they not meet in this to count all goats that are not within their fold to leave no way to happiness but in their company Do not they look upon their condition as most deplorable who do not cast in their lots with them who are not of the same collection and discipline of their fraternity which they call the Church of Christ Why should men thus flatter themselves It is not our joyning to this particular Church or that new-phancied and new-gathered Congregation but our dwelling in Christ our eating his flesh and drinking his blood our feeding on and digesting his Doctrine growing thereby can make us Christians And as an unnecessary separating my self from so an uncharitable and supercilious uniting my self with this or that Congregation may endanger my estate and title in Christ and my dwelling in the one if I take not heed may dispossess me of the other For I conceive there is no policy no discipline so essential to the Church as piety as our obedience to Christ Suppose I were in a wilderness did my soul lie as David speaketh Psal 57.4 amongst lions yet might I dwell in Christ Be the government and outward policy what it will nay be there but a slender appearance of any yet might I dwell in Christ Nay did Persecution seal up the Churth-doors and leave no power to censure inordinate livers were there no more left then a DIC FRATRI Tell it to thy brother between thee and him Matth. 18.15 yet might I dwell in Christ Heb. 11.37 38. Else why was their faith commended who wandred up and down in sheep-skins and goat-skins in deserts and mountains in dens and caves of the earth But then if we dwell not in Christ if we do not love him and keep his Commandements I cannot see what Church what Congregation can be a sanctuary to shelter us Our crying The Church The Church will be but as the Jews crying The Temple Jer. 7.4 1 Cor. 13.1 The Temple of the Lord but as the sound of brass or or tinkling of a cymbal a sad knell a fearful sign and indication of men departed from Christ and cast out of doors being dead in their sins Oh then let us take heed as the Apostle exhorteth that no root of bitterness spring up to trouble us Heb. 12.15 and thereby to trouble corrupt and defile many that we bless not our selves in our hearts and say Deut. 29.19 We shall have peace when we walk in these unpeaceable imaginations call that Religion which is indeed sensuality For when one saith 1 Cor. 3.4 I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos when one saith I am of this Congregation and another I am of that are ye not carnal And we may observe the Apostle doth not say when one is or when one thinketh he is but when he saith that he is when he is so pleased and delighted in it so resteth upon it that he must vent and preach and publish it to the prejudice and censure of oothers then when they thus say it are they not carnal Do they not please themselves and commit folly in their own souls Where Pride mixeth and ingendreth with Covetousness and Worldly respects and begetteth Malice Debate Envy Backbiting Persecution let us then take heed of this root of bitterness that beareth gall and worm-wood and let us watch over our selves that we embrace not a name for a thing a company for a Church our humour and phansie for Christ and thaâ—â—e do not so joyn our selves with others that we lose our hold and place in Christ Therefore in the last place let us make a strict survey and impartially commune with our own hearts and see how we have held up the relation between Christ and us whether we can truely say we are his people and he is our
remedio laboramus By our own folly and the Devils craft our disease doth not hurt us so much as our remedy Repentance which was ordained as the best Physick to purge the soul is turned into that poyson that corrupteth and killeth it What wandring thought what idle word what profane action is there which is not laid upon this fair foundation Hope of pardon which yet will not bear up such hay and stubble We call Sin a disease and so it is a mortal one But Presumption is the greatest the very corruption of the blood and spirits of the best parts of the soul We are sick of Sin it is true but that we feel not But we are sick very sick of Mercy sick of the Gospel sick of Repentance sick of Christ himself and of this we make our boast And our bold relyance on this doth so infatuate us that we take little care to purge out the plague of our heart which we nourish and look upon as upon Health it self We are sick of the Gospel for we receive it and take it down and it doth not purge out but enrage those evil humours which discompose the soul John 13.27 We receive it as Judas did the sop we receive it and with it a devil For this bold and groundless Presumption of pardon maketh us like unto him hardeneth our heart first and then our face and carrieth us with the swelling sails of impudence and remorselessness to an extremity of daring to that height of impiety from which we cannot so easily descend but must fall and break and bruise our selves to pieces Praesumptio invericundiae portio saith Tertullian Presumption is a part and portion and the upholder of Immodesty It falleth and careth not whither it ruineth us and we know not how it abuseth and dishonoureth that Mercy which it maketh a wing to shadow it It hath been the best purveiour for Sin and the kingdome of Darkness We read but of one in the Gospel that despaired Matth. 27.5 Acts 1.25 and hanged himself and so went to his place but how many thousands have gone a contrary way with less anguish and reluctancy with fair but false hopes with strong but feigned assurances and met him there Oh it is one of the Devils subtilest stratagemes to make Sin and Hope of heaven to dwell under the same roof to teach him who is his vassal to walk delicately in his evil wayes to rejoyce alwaies in the Lord even then when he fights against him to assure himself of life in the chambers of death And thus every man is sure The Schismatick is sure and the Libertine is sure the Adulterer is sure and the Murderer is sure the Traitour is sure they are sure who have no savour no relish of salvation The Schismatick hath made his peace though he have no charity The Libertine looketh for his reward though he do not onely deny good works but contemn them The Adulterer absolveth himself without Penance The Murderer knoweth David is entred heaven and hopeth to follow him The prosperous Traitour is in heaven already His present success is a fair earnest of another inheritance That God that favoureth him here will crown him hereafter Every man can do what he list and be what he list do what good men tremble to think of and yet fear not at all but expect the salvation of the Lord first damne and then canonize himself For the greatest part of the Saints of this world have been of their own Creation made up in the midst of the land of darkness with noise with thunder and earthquakes We may be bold to say If Despair hath killed her thousands Presumption hath slain her ten thousands Foolish men that we are who hath bewitched us that we lay hold on Christ when we thrust him from us make him our own and appropriate him when we crucifie and persecute him every day that we had rather phansie and imagine then make our election sure that we will have health and yet care not how we feed or what poison we let down that we make salvation an arbitrary thing to be met with when we please and can as easily be Saints as we can eat and drink as we can kill and slay Good God! what mist and darkness is this which maketh men possessed with Sin that is an enemy ready to devour them to be thus quiet and secure Could we or would we but a little awake and consult with the light of our Faith and Reason we should soon let go our confidence and plainly see the danger we are in whilst we are in our evil wayes and find Fear tied fast unto them So saith S. Paul But if you sin Rom. 13.4 fear Christian Security and Hope of life is the proper and alone issue of a good Conscience through faith in Christ purged from dead and evil works If we will leave our Fear Hebr. 9.14 we must leave our Evil works behind us Assurance is too choice a piece to be beat out by the phansie and to be made up when we please at a higher price then to be purchased with a thought It is a work that will take up an age to finish it the engagement of our whole life to be wrought out with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 not to be taken as a thing granted as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so set up as a pillar of hope when there is no better basis and foundation for it then a forced and fading thought which is next to air and will perish sooner The young man in the Gospel had yet no knowledge of any such Assurance-office and therefore he putteth up his question to our Saviour thus Good Master Matth. 19.16 Mark 10.17 what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life He saw no hope of entring in at that narrow gate with such prodigious sins And our Saviour's answer is Keep the commandments that is Turn from thy evil wayes Be not Envious Malitious Covetous Cruel False Deceitful Despair is the daughter of Sin and Darkness but Confidence is the emanation of a good Conscience What Flesh and Blood maketh up is but a phantasme which appeareth and disappeareth is seen and vanisheth so soon gone that we scarce know whether we saw it or no. There can be no firm hope raised but upon that which is as mount Sion Psal 125.1 and standeth fast for ever which is our best guard in our way nay which is our way in this life and when we are dead will follow us Eras Adag Nothing can bear and afford it but this Vnum arbustum non alit duos erithacos Sin and Assurance are birds too quarrelsome to dwell in the same bush Therefore if you sin fear or rather turn from your evil wayes 1 John 3 21. and then you shall have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boldness and confidence towards God We must therefore sink and fall low and mitigate our voice
fear we never serve him worse never Walk less then when we walk so far Certainly if the End be better and more noble then the means then our even and upright motion in our several conditions must needs have the preeminence For here in the Church we are called but there we work in the Vineyard here we take out our lesson there we con it here we receive rules to guide us there we practice them here Christ is formed in us Gal. 4.19 1 Tim. 3.16 there he is manifested as it were in our flesh in our outward actions in a word here we are taught to go there we walk in Christ. Oh then let us not so perversly honour Christ as to dishonour him or think that he who passed through the contumelies of our nature as Tertullian speaketh and was made like unto his brethren should disdain to be with us and to walk with us in our calling be it never so mean That Christ is disgraced when we call him into our counting-houses or our shops that we do not walk in Christ when we sweat in our calling Luke 3.12 14 You know what S. John Baptist said to the Souldier and to the Publicane And certainly if the Publicane in his Custome-house if the Souldier with his sword in his hand may walk in Christ I know no calling so mean no trade so low as to be excluded It was a witless and groundless Etymon which he gave who said they were called Mechanick arts quia intellectus in iis quodammodo moechatur because the Understanding in these manual trades seemeth to adulterate and pollute it self For nothing can pollute a Soul but Sin and Dishonesty And the Soul is then most pure when passing as it were through these earthy and carnal affairs she ordereth them aright and receiveth nothing that is earthy or carnal from them retaining still in the midst of these imployments her native and proper spirituality Gen. 3. Adam himself is set to till the ground Gen. 6. Noah is a Ship-wright Gen. 24. you shall see Rebeccah with bracelets indeed on her arms but with a pitcher on her shoulder Judg. 6. Gideon receiveth his Commission to be Captain of Israel whilst the flayl was in his hand And when did our Saviour call the Disciples but as they were mending their nets And quite to take off this imputation Luke 2. â—1 Coll. cum Tryph. Judaeo himself descended to a trade and was obedient to his parents Justine Martyr saith he made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ploughs and yokes Be our calling what it will we then walk truly in Christ when we walk honestly in it Not only our attention our sighs our groans our often mentioning Christ's name but our silence our honesty our industry may make us Christian Peripateticks Let us then in the name of Christ and Religion abide in our particular calling Whatsoever Providence hath placed us in high or low rich or poor let us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abide in it against all temptations whatsoever 1 Cor. 7.20 bear them bear up against them by his power keep a good conscience against the flatteries of the world and the lowring and bitter menaces of Poverty In his name rise up early and lie down late In his name cast out those evil Spirits those false suggestions which may hinder us in our Walk and so press forward in a constant and uninterrupted motion never shaken nor changed with the manifold changes chances of this fading world and then we shall be not onely Christs Servants but his Companions and Friends he will call us so And then when Christ thus goeth along with us in all our wayes when we walk on earth but by this light from heaven we may assure our selves by thus walking we walk in Christ. We pass now from the Duty To walk in Christ to the Manner How we must walk in him or the Rule by which we must regulate our motion SICVT ACCEPISTIS We must so walk as we have received him As you have received Christ so walk in him that is Since you have received him walk in him And in this sense we may take it Rest not in the outward Profession Think not that you are onely vessels to receive him ye must be also chanels or conduits through which he must be conveyed He must pass through every vein through every faculty of your souls and every member of your bodies and so be made visible in the actions of your life To receive him and not to walk in him will but swell and enlarge the burden of our accounts as to receive any good from him and not to use it to that end for which it is was given is the worst evill that can befal us Many receive him because he cometh with so much beauty that they cannot refuse him Psal 45.2 because they are convinced that he is fairer then the children of men and most worthy to be received Psal 8 2. For not onely out of the mouthes of babes and sucklings but out of the mouthes of wicked men hath God ordained strength and Wisedom is justified Mâ—tth 11.19 not onely of her friends but of her enemies Many receive Christ as it were in a throng they applaud Christianity and dare not refuse it lest the multitude of those they live with should confute and silence them Greg Hom. 32. in Evang. Si nomen Christi in tanta gloria non esset tot professores Christi sancta Ecclesia non haberet saith Gregorie If the name of Christ were not so high and glorious in the world the Church would fall short in her number of Professours whereof many make but a profer at Christianity for companies sake This the Apostle may seem either to have seen or been afraid of either to have had it in his eye or in his jealousie and therefore he striveth to remove or to prevent it It is far the lesser evil not to know Christ's name then thus to receive him an unhappy ignorance finding some mercy even in judgement of which a fruitless and ungrateful knowledge is not capable And in this sense we may take it But if we look forward and consider the many cautions the Apostle putteth up against Philosophy Traditions of men and the law of Ceremonies Nihil peregrinum audite Oecum in loc I see not but thar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here may be an adverb of Similitude and Likeness And then the sense will run thus Walk in him in that manner you have received him as he was presented delivered to you by me or as S. Jude interpreteth it as he was delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once for all unto the Saints Jude 3. Sicut edocti estis v. 7. Otherwise we receive him not or receive something else for Christ or something more or something less then Christ And as the danger is great if we receive him not so is it no less if we receive him not
into the Memory where it is as operative to destroy as it was in the Affection to increase it self For but to remember sin and to contemplate the horrour of it and the Hell it deserveth is enough to bow our wills and break our hearts and lay them open that they may be fit receptacles of comfort He were a bold sinner that durst look his sin full in the face Now affliction and mourning bring us to this sight wipe off the paint of Sin strip her of her scutcheons and pendants of her glory and beauty and shew her openly in all her deformity not with Pleasure and Honour and Riches but with the Wrath of God Death and Hell waiting upon her that we may defie and mortifie Sin and then triumph over it And then we are brought back from the valley of the shadow of death into green pastures and led beside the still waters the waters of rest and refreshing for God is with us and his rod and his staff with which he guideth us comfort us as it is Psal 23. And now in the last place you see the rock out of which you must hew your Comfort even out of Sorrow it self Or you may see Joy and Comfort shoot forth from Mourning as lightning from a thick and dark cloud Or rather this Consolation ariseth not so much from Affliction and Mourning it self as from the cause of it Sometimes we mourn in prison and in torments for righteousness sake And there cannot be a greater argument out of which we may conclude in comfort then this that at once we are made witnesses and examples of righteousness at once glorifie God and purchase a crown of Glory for our selves And thus comfort is conveyed to us through our own bloud Sometimes we suffer disgrace and loss of goods because we had rather be poor then be as rich and evil as they that make us poor and sit in the lowest form then be higher and worse This troubleth us and this comforteth us For thus to be poor is to be in the Rich mans bosome thus to be in the dust is to be in Heaven Sometimes we mourn as under the rod and are brought to Affliction as to a School of discipline And if we can read and understand the mystery of Affliction as Nazianzene calleth it if we can see mercy in anger a Father in a Lord if we can behold him with a rod in his hand and healing under his wings and so learn the lesson which he would teach us learn by poverty to enrich our selves with grace by disgrace to honour our selves by imprisonment to seek liberty in Christ if we can learn by those evils which can but touch us to chase away those which will destroy us if we can be such proficients in this School this also may trouble us and this will comfort us If we hearken not to the rod it may prove a Scorpion But if we thus bow and kiss it it will not onely bud and blossome as Aaron's did but bring forth the sweet fruit of Consolation And thus this miracle of Consolation is wrought in us first by the power of God's Grace which maketh his smitings healings and his wounds kisses and then by a strong actuating and upholding our Reason in the contemplation of God's most fatherly power and wisdome which will check and give lawes to the inferiour powers and faculties of the soul and draw them in obedience unto it self that all melancholick fancies may vanish all sensual grief may be swallowed up in victory in this in the content and rest we find in the end which we obtain or for which we suffer and mourn So the blessed Virgin had comfort even when she stood by the Cross vveeping and her soul was filled with it even then when it was pierced through as with a sword In a word mourning is a remedy and all remedies bring comfort And this is of the number of those remedies quae potentiae suae qualitate consumptâ desinunt cùm profuerint which having consumed and spent its virtue vanisheth away and leaveth to be when it hath wrought its just effect For he that is comforted feeleth not what he feeleth but his contemplation carrieth his mind to heaven when his senses peradventure labour under those displeasing objects which are contrary to them At the same time Moses may be in the Mount and the common people rebell and commit idolatry below At the same time the Martyr may roar on the rack and yet in his heart sing an hymn of praise to the King of Glory Reason may so far subdue the Flesh as to make it suffer but it cannot make it senseless for then it could not suffer then it were not flesh Affliction will be heard and felt and seen in its violent operation seen in its terrour heard in contumelies and reproaches and felt in its smart but in all these the Spirit is more then conquerour and delighteth it self with terrour feedeth and feasteth on reproaches and findeth a complacency in smart and pain it self And then when we are under the rod and suffer for sin and not for piety as sensual grief may occasion spiritual so spiritual sorrow and displacency hath alwaies comfort attending it For sorrow and comfort in course affect the soul and with such dispatch and celerity that we rather feel then discern it The devout School-man giveth the instance in the quavering and trembling motion of a Bell after the stroke or of a Lute string after the touch and observeth such an Harmony in the heart by the mutual touch of Sorrow and Comfort And David hath joyned them together in the second Psalm Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling When Affliction striketh the heart the sound will end in Joy and Comfort will be the resultance Mourning is a dark and melancholick thing and maketh a kind of night about us but when the Spirit saith Let there be light there will be light light in the Understanding rectitude in the Will order and peace in the Passions serenity in the Soul sin not in the Affection but in the Memory where it is kept to be whipt and crucified health in the Soul strength in our spiritual Pulse chearfulness to run the wayes of God's commandments the best and onely comforts in the world true symptomes of a spiritual health and fair pledges and types of that everlasting comfort which the God of all consolation will give to those who thus mourn in Sion For conclusion to apply all to our selves in a word I need not exhort you to hang down the head and mourn and walk humbly before your God Behold God himself hath spoken to us in the whirlwind He hath spoken in thunder and shaken our Joyes beat down all before our eyes in which our eyes took pleasure and of which we could say we had a delight therein He hath shaken the pillars of the earth He hath shaken the pillar of Truth the Church He hath shaken
this world saith the Apostle passeth away And what is that that passeth away to that which is immortal The Heart of man is but a little member It will not saith S. Bernard give a Kite its break fast and yet it is too large a receptacle for the whole world In toto nihil singulis satìs est There is nothing in the whole Universe which is enough for one particular man in which the appetite of any one man can rest And therefore since Satisfaction cannot be had under the Sun here below we must seek for it above And herein consisteth the excellency the very life and essence of Christian Religion To exalt the Soul to draw it back from mixing with these things below and lift it up above the highest heavens To unite it to its proper object To make that which was the breath of God Gen. 2.7 breathe nothing but God think of nothing desire nothing seek for nothing but from above from whence it had its beginning The Soul is as the Matter the things above the Form The Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Plato calleth Matter the receptacle of things above as the Matter is of Forms And it is never rightly actuated or of a perfect being till it receiveth the heavenly graces The Soul is the Pot the Vial so Chrysostom calleth it not wherein is put Manna but the Son and the holy Ghost and those things which they send from above The Soul is as the Ground and these the Seed the Soul the Matrix the Womb to receive them Matth. 13. And there is a kind of sympathy betwixt the immortal Seed and the Heart and Mind of Man as there is between Seed and the Womb of the earth For the Soul no sooner seeth the things above unveiled and unclouded not disguised by the interveniencie of things below by disgrace poverty and the like but upon a full manifestation she is taken as the Bridegroom in the Canticles with their eye and beauty Heaven is a fair sight even in their eyes whose wayes tend to destruction For there is a kind of nearness and alliance between the things above and those notions and principles which God imprinted in us at the first Therefore Nature it self had a glimpse and glimmering light of these things and saw a further mark to aim at then the World in this span of time could set up Hence Tully calleth Man a mortal God born to two things to Vnderstand and Do. And Seneca telleth us that by that which is best in Man our Reason we go before other creatures but follow and seek after the first Good which is God himself Again as these things bear a correspondence with the Mind and Soul of man as the Seed doth with the Womb of the earth so hath the Soul of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a formative faculty to shape and fashion them and by the influence of God's Grace and the kindly aspect of the Spirit to bring forth something of the same nature some heavenly creature to live in the world and hate it to walk in it and tread it under its foot THE NEW MAN which is renewed after the image of God Vers 1◠made up in righteousness and holiness The beauty of Holiness may beget that Violence in us which may break open the gates of heaven the virtue of Christ's Cross may beget an army of Martyrs and the Glory above may raise us up even out of the dust out of all our faculties to lay hold on it that so we may be fitted as with planes and marked out as with the compass as the Prophet Esay speaketh in another sense that we may be fitted to glory and those things above as others are to destruction Rom. 9.22 2 Tim. 4.8 1 Cor. 2.9 John 14.3 And hence this glory is said to be laid up and to be prepared for them which love God And our Saviour now sitteth in heaven to prepare a place for them even for all those who by setting their affections on things above are fitted and prepared for them Thus you see it is the chief work and end of Christian Religion to abstract and draw the Soul from sensual and carnal objects and to level and confine it to that object which is fitted and proportioned to it even the things above This is the work of the Gospel by which if we walk we shall suspect and fear the things below the pleasures and glory of this world as full of danger and set our affections on those things which are above and so have our conversation in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Let us now see what use we can make of this and draw it near to us by application And certainly if Christian Religion doth draw the Soul from that which is pleasing to the Sensitive part then we ought to try and examine our selves and our Religion by this touch-stone by this rule and be jealous and suspicious and afraid of that Religion which most holdeth compliance with the Sense and with our worldly desires which flattereth and cherisheth that part at which the Soul goeth forth and too often bringeth back Death along with her which doth miscere Deum seculum joyn God and Mammon the Spirit and the Flesh Christ and the World together and maketh them friendly to communicate with each other and so maketh the Christian a monster crying Abba Father but honouring the world falling down and worshipping Christ not in a stable but in a palace taking him not with persecution and self-denial but with honours riches and pleasures which in true esteem are but as the Apostle termeth them dung I will not mention the Heathen For what Religion can they have who are without God in the world Nor yet Mahumetism although wee see with what ease it prevailed and got a side and overflowed the greater part of the world because it brought with it a carnal Paradise an eternity of lusts and such alluring promises as the sensual part could relish and digest well enough though they were never fo absurd If from these we pass over into Christendom we shall soon see Christian Religion falling from its primitive purity remitting much of its rigour and severity painted over with a smiling countenance made to favour that which formerly it looked upon as capital and which deserved no better wages then death For how hath the Church of Rome fitted and attempered it to the sensitive part and most corrupt imaginations pulled off her sackcloth put on embroidery and made her all glorious without Allaying it with Worshipping of Saints which is but a carnal thing and Worshipping of Images a carnal thing Turning Repentance into Penance Fasting into Difference of meats Devotion into Numbering of beads Shutting up all Religion in Obedience and Submission to that Church Drawing out Religion from the heart to the gross and outward act With what art doth she uphold her self in that state and
crop and harvest of our Devotion This is truly cum parvo peccato ad ecclesiam venire cum peccatis multis ab ecclesia recedere to bring some sins with us to Church but carry away more for fear of the smoke to leap into the fire for fear of coming too near to Superstition to shipwreck on Profaneness for fear of Will-worship not to worship at all like Haggards to check at every feather to be troubled at every shew and appearance to startle at every shadow and where GLORY TO THE LORD is engraven in capital letters to blot it out and write down SUPERSTITION I see I must conclude Beloved fly Idolatry fly Superstition you cannot fly far enough But withal fly Profaneness and Irreverence and run not so far from the one as to meet and embrace the other Be not Papists God forbid you should But be not Atheists that sure talk what we will of Popery is far the worse Do not give God more then he would have but be sure you do not give him less Why should you bate him any part who giveth you all Behold he breathed into you your Souls and stampt his Image upon them Give it him back again not clipt not defaced but representing his own graces unto him in all holiness and purity And his hands did form and fashion your Bodies and in his book are all your members written Let THE GLORY OF GOD be set forth and wtitten as it were upon every one of them and he shall exalt those members higher yet and make thy vile Body like to his most glorious body In a word Let us glorifie God here in soul and body and he shall glorifie both soul and body in the day of the Lord Jesus The Seventeenth SERMON PART I. 1 COR. XII 3. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost THat Jesus is the Lord was seen in his triumph at Easter made manifest by the power of his Resurrection The earth trembled the foundations of the hills moved and shook the graves opened at the presence of this Lord. Not the Disciples onely had this fire kindled in their hearts that they could not but say The Lord is risen but the earth opened her mouth and the Grave hers And now it is become the language of the whole world Jesus is the Lord. All this is true But we ask with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What profit is it What profit is it if the Earth speak and the Grave speak and the whole World speak if we be dumb Let Jesus be the Lord but if we cannot say so he may and will be our Lord indeed but not our Jesus we may fall under his power but not rise by his help If we cannot say so we shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fall cross with him nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speak the quite contrary If we cannot call him Lord then with the accursed Jew we do indeed call him Anathema we call the Saviour of the world an accursed thing Si confiteamur exsecramur If we confess him not we curse him And he that curseth Jesus needeth no greater curse We must then before we can be good Christians go to school and learn to speak not onely Abba Father but Jesus the Lord. And where now shall we learn it Shall we knock at our own breasts and awake our Reason to lead us to this saving truth Shall we be content with that light which the Laws and Customs of our Country have set up and so cry him up for Lord as the Ephesians did their Diana for company and sit down and rest our selves in this resolution because we see the Jew hated the Turk abhorred and Hereticks burned who deny it Shall we alienis oculis videre make use of other mens eyes and so take our Religion upon trust These are the common motives and inducements to believe it With this clay we open our eyes thus we drive out the dumb Spirit And when we hear this noise round about us that Jesus is the Lord our mouth openeth and we speak it with our tongue These are lights indeed and our lights but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deceitful My Reason is too dim a light and cannot shew me this great conjunction of Jesus and the Lord. Education is a false light and misleadeth the greatest part of Christians even when it leadeth them right For he that falleth upon the Truth by chance by this blind felicity erreth when he doth not erre having no better assurance of the Truth then the common vogue He walketh indeed in the right way but blindfold He embraceth the Truth but so as for ought he knoweth it may be a lye And last of all the greatest Authority on earth is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a faint uncertain and failing proof a windy testimony if it blow from no other treasury then this below No we must have a surer word then this or else we shall not be what we so easily persuade our selves we are We must look higher then these Cathedram habet in coelo Our Master is in heaven And JESUS IS THE LORD is a voice from heaven taught us saith the Apostle by the holy Ghost who is vicarius Christi as Tertullian calleth him Christ's Vicar here on earth and supplieth his place to help and elevate our Reason to assure and confirm our Education and to establish and ratifie Authority Would you have this dumb spirit dispossessed The Spirit who as on this day came down in a showre of tongues must do it Would you be able to fetch breath to speak The holy Ghost must spirare breathe into us the breath of spiritual life inable us by inspiration Would we say it we must teach it If we be ignorant of this the Apostle here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would have us to understand that No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost And now we have fitted our Text to the Time the Feast of Pentecost which was the Feast of the Law For then the old Law was given then written in tables of stone And whensoever the Spirit of the living God writeth this Law of Christ THAT HE IS THE LORD in the fleshly tables of our hearts then is our Pentecost the Feast of the holy Ghost then he descendeth in a sound to awake us in wind to move and shake us in fiery tongues to warm us and make us speak The difference is This ministration of the Spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaketh far more glorious And as he came in solemn state upon the Disciples this day 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 Though not in a mighty wind yet he rattleth our hearts together Though no house totter
shall be forgiven must be interpreted by other places For the whole Scripture is as it were but one copulative proposition saith the devout Schoolman knitting and uniting all parts together and confirming and expounding one by another And therefore vve must not take every proposition as it lieth and in that sense it first representeth but compare one part with another He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved saith our Saviour Hence saith S. Augustine some vvere ready to collect that Faith in Baptism was abundantly sufficient to remission of sins although it vvere naked and alone and destitute of all other vertues Others upon this Forgive and ye shall be forgiven inferred that to forgive others vvas enough Others upon that of our Saviour Luke 11.41 Give alms of such things as ye have and behold all things are clean unto you concluded that to open our hands was to vvash them that alms vvere enough But this is to be vâ—ise against the Scriptures vvhich is the greatest folly in the vvorld This is to be too familiar and bold vvith the Scripture vvhose language vve knovv not This is to vvalk in darkness vvith a light in our hands and make that a stone of offence vvhich should be our foundation to build on For this manner of expression is common in Scripture simply to attribute the effect to that thing which cannot produce it alone but is very prevalent to help it forward So If ye shall forgive your Father will forgive you doth not shew what is sufficient but what is necessarily required to the expiation of sin And when Christ telleth the Pharisees that if they give alms all shall be clean unto them we cannot conceive that Alms is a sufficient cause in it self to make them clean who give them since it is very possible that a man may give alms even all he hath which peradventure Christ meaneth by Alms in that place and yet notwithstanding be dead in those trespasses and sins which make him unclean and consequently make all things unclean unto him Tit. 1.15 Dan. 4.27 as the Apostle speaketh For as our Saviour bespeaketh the Pharisees so doth Daniel the great King Nebuchadnezzar that he should redimere peccata eleemosynis or as it is rendred out of the Fountain abrumpere abscindere redeem that is break and cut off his sins by shewing mercy to the poor Not that these acts of mercy taken by themselves can break off sins although they have some force and power to forward the work But our Saviour speaketh to the hypocritical Pharisees who have this mark set upon them in Scripture to be Covetous and Cruel and the Prophet to an oppressing Tyrant And what could Christ more properly oppose to their outward washings then Alms or the Prophet to his cruelty then Mercy Give alms was a precept shot home to the mark and rightly directed to them both to strike the Corban out of the Pharisees mouth and as fitly to the Assyrian Tyrant who did eat up God's people as he did eat bread For a general receipt will never work a particular cure Non curamuâ— hominem sed Socratem saith the Philosopher All cures are done upon particulars and the Physician tempereth his potion to the constitution of his patient If we will do a cure upon the Pharisee we must bespeak him to break off his sins by alms If we will purge his soul we must teach him to empty his purse because his disease is Covetousness If we will reclaim the wanton we must forbid him to look upon a woman If we will quiet the revenger we must tell him that Forgiveness is the price with which he may purchase heaven And we attribute to every one the act of all because it standeth in opposition and fighteth against that sin which hath the largest power and kingdom in him What profit then hath Mercy and Compassion and what doth it avail I may answer with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Much every manner of way For it is that vertue in respect of which we come nearest to God and most resemble him who is a God that blotteth out transgressions and therefore it worketh a kind of complacency in him When we are angry and discontented when our countenance falleth and we push as it were with the horn I know not what we are We are not Men we are driven on as it were by a Fury and are Furies our selves and blast every one that cometh near us We are the children of that father who was a murtherer from the beginning We have eyes and see not ears and hear not understandings and will not understand but Malice is as our form or soul and actuateth us biddeth us go and we go do this and we do it Or rather it is that dumb spirit that teareth us and maketh us wallow fome and gnash with the teeth The mildest censure can be past upon us is that we are like to the beasts that perish But when we condescend to our brother's infirmity and lift him up when our Mercy is alwaies awake and cannot be so surprized with injury as to keep it back when we are more troubled at the sin our brother committeth then at the wrong he doth and so at once forgive and pray for him we are as God unto him For Majesty sheweth it self more gloriously in love then in power yea it is most powerful in love There peradventure it layeth an enemy at our feet here it maketh an enemy a friend There it destroyeth a body here it conquereth a soul There it beateth down a man here a strong imagination There it is managed by a mad passion here it followeth the wisdom of God There it beateth back a few injuries here it covereth a multitude of sins That maketh men as beasts this maketh them Gods one to another Last of all this Christian-like disposition by which we forgive one another is seldom I may say never alone For we must pass through more tentations then Mithras Priests did torments before we can attain to this heavenly perfection We pass through the glory of the world and slight it the persuasions of the flesh and deny them the grudgings of the mind and silence them we must learn to be poor to be contemned to be diminshed a lesson which we can never take out till the flesh be subdued to the spirit till the world be conquered and all those our spiritual enemies trode under foot For can he that thinketh he hath never enough suffer himself to be spoiled can he that doteth on honour put up a disgrace can he who is immersed in pleasure bear with any thing that sowreth it Will covetousness lose a penny can Ambition spare a leg can Pride receive a check can Luxury endure a restraint Castigat qui dissentit Not onely he that standeth in my way to honour or wealth or that crosseth me in my pleasure but also he that casteth not his lot in with me troubleth me
and he reflecteth a blessing upon me Quod est omnium est singulorum That which is all mens is every mans and that which is every mans belongeth unto the whole Proprietas excommunicatio est saith Parisiensis Propriety is an excommunication When I appropriate my devotion to my self I do in a manner thrust my brother out of the Church nay I shut my self out of heaven I at once depose and exauctorate both my self and him Nay I cannot appropriate it for where it is it will spread It is my sorrow and thy sorrow my fear and thy fear my joy and thy joy Ye see here the Tribes go up to the house of the Lord with joy and this joy raiseth another or rather the same a joy of the same nature in David At the very apprehension of it he taketh down his harp from the wall and setteth his joy to a tune and committeth it to a song I was glad when they said c. And thus I am fallen upon 2. The second thing observable in the Psalmists joy the Publication thereof He setteth it to Musick he conveyeth it into a song and as the Chaldee Pharaphrast saith Adam did assoon as his sin was forgiven him he expresseth sabbatum suum his Sabbath his content and gladness in a Psalm that it might pass from generation to generation and never be forgotten but that this sacrifice of thanksgiving which himself here offereth might still upon the like occasion be offered by others unto the worlds end and that the people which should in after-ages be created might thus praise the Lord. Thus David hath passed over and entailed his joy to all posterity This is thanks and praise indeed when it floweth from an heart thus affected when it breaketh forth like light from the Sun and spreadeth it self like the heavens and declareth the glory of God Gratè ad nos beneficium pervenisse indicamus effusis affectibus saith Seneca Then a benefit meeteth with a greateful heart when it is ready to pour forth it self in joy and the affections not being able to contain themselves are seen and heard shine bright in the countenance and sound aloud in a song Certainly Gratitude is neither sullen nor silent Saul's evil melancholick Spirit cannot enter the heart of a David nor any heart in which the love of God's glory reigneth At the sight of any thing that may set it forth the pious soul is awaked and the melancholick and dumb spirit is cast out Psal 47.1 4. nor can it return whilest that love is in us When God hath chosen our inheritance for us then O clap your hands all ye people shout unto God with the voice of triumph To draw towards a conclusion By this rejoycing spirit of David's we may examine and judge of the temper of our own If we be of the same disposition with him no sight no object will delight us but that in which God is and in which his glory is seen We shall not make songs of other mens miseries nor keep holiday when they mourn We shall not like any thing either in our selves or others which dishonoureth God's name Prov. 2.14 In a word we shall not rejoyce to do evil nor take pleasure in the frowardness of the wicked But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our whole life will be one holiday one continued Sabbath and rest in good Of what spirit then are they who rejoyce not in their own miseries but in their sins who take great delight and complacency not onely in the calamities but also in the falls and miscarriages of others especially if they cast not in their lot and make one purse with them Prov. 1.14 who as Judas did carry their religion and their purse in the same hand whose religion is in their purse and openeth and shutteth with it who that they may triumph in the miseries rejoyce first in the defects whether seeming or real of their dissenting brethren Every man that looketh towards Jerusalem Luke 9.53 and will not stay with them at their Samaria must be cast out of doors Criminibus debent hortos praetoria campos They owe their wealth and possessions shall I say to other mens crimes no they owe them to their own For a great sin it is to delight in sin but to make that a crime which is not a sin is a greater What is it then to turn piety it self into sin To call an asseveration an oath is a fault at least And then what is it to call devotion superstition the house of God a sty and reverence idolatry Yet if these were sins why should my brothers ruine be my joy Why should I wish his fall delight in his fall follow him in his fall as the Romanes did their sword-players in the theatre with acclamation So so thus I would have it We cannot say this proceedeth from piety or is an effect of charity 1 Cor. 13.6 For Charity rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth Charity bindeth up wounds doth not make them wider And when people sin Charity maketh the head a fountain of tears but doth not fill the mouth with laughter Charity is no detractour no jester no Satyrist it thinketh no evil 1 Cor. 13.5 it is not suspicious It cannot behold a Synagogue of Satan in the Temple of the Lord nor Superstition in a wall nor Idolatry in reverence This evil humour indeed proceedeth from Love but it is the love of the world which defameth every thing for advantage laugheth at Churches that it may pull them down maketh men odious that it may make them poor and dealeth with them as the Heathen did with the first Christians putteth them into bears skins that it may bait them to death This certainly is not from David's but from an evil spirit Nor can it be truly termed Joy unless we should look for joy in hell and content in a place of torment Rejoycings and jubilees of this sort are like unto the howlings of devils In the Devil there cannot be joy My drunkenness cannot quench the flames he burneth in my evil conscience cannot kill that worm which gnaweth him my ignorance cannot lighten his darkness my loss of heaven cannot bring him back thither Should he conquer the whole world he would still be a slave But yet in the Devil though properly there be no joy there is quasi gaudium that which is like our joy in evil which we call Joy though it be not so And it is in him saith Aquinas not as a passion but as an act of his will When we do well that is done which he would not and that is his grief and when we sin we are led captive according to his will and that is his joy 2 Tim. 2.26 And such is the joy of malicious wicked men for whom it is not expedient nor profitable that those who are not of the same mind with them should be good and therefore against their will And to this
born of the spirit is spirit And herein is the excellency of those Comforts which we gather in this Paradise the Word of God above those we rake up in the wilderness the vain and vast inventions of the world First they are more general As the light they shine from one end of the world to the other upon the whole Microcosm the whole little world of Man upon the whole mass of Evil and body of sin Nothing no evil is hid or removed from the light and influence of them They reach David in his flight and they reach him in his bed of tears They refresh the Lazar at the Gate and they refresh the Sinner at the mouth of Hell They raise us from the dunghill and when sin hath taken hold of us they lift up our head Some faint and shallow comforts even the Heathen found out and that but for some miseries but here is an amulet against all These comforts do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ruine round the whole army of miseries and defeat them all A wounded spirit who can bear And a wounded spirit what Philosopher could ever cure What Gilead what balm had they to heal it Being without this Word they were without God in the world They hung as it were upon a cross tormented as it were between these two Fear of punishment and a miserable Ignorance how to avoid it between some light and utter darkness The medicine which must cure a wounded spirit is to be found not in schola Platonis in Plato's School but in portica Solomonis in the Porch of Solomon in the Temple in the Word of God where he is manifested in whom all the treasuries of Comfort and Peace are hid the Mediatour Christ Jesus Rom. 5.10 who died to reconcile us to God Secondly comforts drawn from Scripture are solid and true being built upon a surer foundation upon the unchangeable and everlasting will of God who as he hath made us fit for such impressions obnoxious and liable to all those evils which either he sends or permits to fall upon us so he hath also fitted and proportioned a salve for every sore a remedy for every evil and hath made our selves the elaboratories and assemblies to extract and distill them He hath made us both the patients and physicians and hath directed us to this Garden of Eden this fruitful seed-plot the Scripture even to this Tree of Life whose leaves are to heal the Nations The Philosophers Comforts were like their Virtues faint and void of life but paper-comforts begotten either by meditation or by a continual habit of sufferings by abandoning all natural affections by comparing a less evil with a greater They had lost something but retained something still by comparing of Times the present with the future It is now evil it will be better and so leaping over their misery and carryed beyond it on the wings of Hope 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a word by Example by the End by fatal Necessity by Continency and Chance which are but idols and so Nothing in this World These were their Topicks a thin and bare shelter for a man to repose himself in when the Storms of misery beat upon him But the Word of God which is his Will and Mind evermore attended with his Omnipoteny chafeth them all away as the Sun doth a mist pulls out the sting of Death and the sense of every evil makes Afflictions the messengers and angels of God sent and commanded and directed by him swayed and governed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his hand of Providence 1 Cor. 10.13 which first tempers them to our strength and then maketh them as the weapons of righteousness to destroy Sin and such evils as prevent a greater evil for we are therefore chastned that we may not be condemned 1 Cor. 11.32 and lastly makes them in this span of time this moment work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory These are the Divine Topicks or rather Demonstrations The Goodness the Wisdom the Providence of God are Premisses aeternae veritatis eternally and unchangeably true And out of them if we depend upon them we can draw no other Conclusion but Comfort Other comforts are but phantasmes and apparitions these are Angels Others are but as lightning dammicant exstinguuntur they are exstinguisht in the very flash These are those Everlasting Burnings which never go out Others are as deceitful as the Serpent which suggests them like the forbidden fruit We take them that we may not dye and we dye by taking them But these are as God himself True as he is true and lasting as he is lasting Other waters soone are turned into bloud but this reteins both its colour and nature and springs up into everlasting life And thus you see what a store-house of Comfort what a paradise the Scripture is But yet we must be very careful how we gather Comforts from thence and how we apply them And we must fit and prepare our selves to receive them The Wisdom of God is the best guide but it will not sustein him who delights to walk in slippery places The Providence of God reacheth unto all but it will not protect him who loveth danger His Mercy is over all his works but it will not cover a stubborn unrepentant sinner As Jehu said to Jorams Horsman What hast thou to do with peace So what comfort can the foolish man find in the Wisdom the careless in the Providence or he that is cruel to himself in the Mercy of God yet God remains still the same the wise the provident the merciful God the Holy One of Israel When we need Comfort here it is to be found but it will not fit every one that needs it It is the property of men in any perplexity to seek for ease and comfort si non inveniant facient if they find none they will frame some to themselves and cull out that part of Scripture which will not fit them as men in distress will lay hold on that which will not help them There be very few Rachels in the world that will not be comforted the most either seek out false Comforts or apply true ones falsly and so make that their poyson which well and rightly applyed would have been an antidote Judas would not make use of rich and pretious balm of Mercy yet how many misapply it and so break their necks and forfeit their souls and fall into the same place into which he did Many will not say what St. James says they ought to say If the Lord will we will do this or that and yet will do what the Lord hateth upon this presumption that he wills it How many walk safely under the Canopy of Gods Providence and how many doth their Presumption tumble down when they think they are under it How many will not be wise nor provident how many are ungracious upon no other motive then this that Gods Wisdom and
Gospel And the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is a two-peny Feast Our comfort it is that it is not so it is but like it at the most And it is not like it neither This likeness is not in truth but opus intellectûs a resemblance made up in the brain of those whom all the world knows are none of the wisest unless it be in their generation Sure every gesture that will bear a resemblance is not Popery It is not so because we have so drawn it in our phansie because we make it so and because we will have it so for our own ends For thus every man may be an Idolater whom we mean to strip John 7.24 our Saviours counsel is Judge not according to the appearance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the face and countenance of things For how easie is it to paint and present them as we please Many times an evil eye makes an evil face puts horrour upon Religion it self and where Devotion shines out in the full beauty of holiness draws a Pope or a Devil As Charity covers a multitude of sins so doth Malice cover a multitude of vertues with the black mantle of Vice she covers Devotion with Phrensie Honesty with Folly and Reverence with Superstition and that onely is seen which may at once offend and delight the mocker O what a scandal is a College or a Church what an abomination are holy things when they are sought for as a prey But commonly Scoffers have ill luck for though they would hide themselves in noyse and formality yet are they seen well enough in their furious march to the Honors and Wealth of this world and can bring but slender evidence to confirm what they say Though they lift up their voice and speak never so loud They are drunk This is superstition These are Idolaters When this is spoken they have no more to say and they need not say more For if they be backt with Power though Reason and Argument forsake them you shall be forced to take them at their word Quà m sapiens argumentatrix videtur sibi ignorantia humana Good God! what subtile disputers do Ignorance and Malice account themselves for these are disputers of this world where Phansie goes for Reason Humour for the Spirit and a Scoff for an impregnable argument where we see ridicula potiùs quà m firma tela weapons to be laught at rather then to be feared rather bulrushes then spears syllogismes truly destructive which may ruine us indeed but can never convince us may shake our estates and lives but not our faith These are drunk This is Superstition What should we say even lay our hand upon our mouth with Job and proceed no further We see here S. Peter takes no great pains to avoid these scoffers he useth no convincing demonstrative argument but onely a probabili He tells them it was not probable they should be drunk so soon at such a feast at the third houre of the day The Philosopher will tell us Non est disputandum cum quovis every man is not to be disputed with For that which should free some from err our confirms them in it Nothing will be restrained not any thing will be cut off from them which they imagine to do When you undertake Pertinacy you do but beat the air Nazianzene observes that Christ himself did not give an answer to every question We will then answer the scoffers of these times as S. Peter did these here with a non probabile It is not probable that a reverent gesture or some few ceremonies should reconcile him to Rome whose doctrine is orthodox that a knee make him superstitious who is devout in his heart It is more probable that it is Reverence rather then Superstition Devotion rather then Idolatry Or if it were not apparently probable yet where no evidence is brought to the contrary there true Christian Charity which is no scoffer we may be sure is very active to make and frame such probabilities Sperat omnia credit omnia saith the Apostle if she be not certain for the best she will not be certain and positive for the worst if she be not certain yet she will hope and believe that all things are well Nor will she cry Superstition at the sight of reverence nor Idolatry at the mention of an Altar Charity that never fails will never fall at the bowing of a knee nor will ever conclude so absurdly These men fall down and worship therefore they are idolatrous no more then thus These men are full of new wine when at that time there was none to fill them To conclude then These scoffers are dead and Lucian is dead and Julian is dead and are gone to their place yet the Spirit breathes still and the Church of Christ stands firm upon the same foundation The blessed Spirit though he be grieved yet cannot be destroyed though he be quenched yet it is but in scoffers Magna vis veri impelli potest exstingui non potest Great is the Truth and at last it prevaileth you may oppress it you cannot exstinguish it All the power and rage and malice of bloudy hypocrites can never so chase it away but it will find some humble and devout hearts to dwell and rest in As Fire cast into the Water is streightway put out saith Tully so scoffs and detraction and wilfull and malicious misinterpretations soon vanish into nothing Crepitant solvuntur These hailstones rattle for a while on the house-top and make a noise and are then dissolved into air Suppose a man of fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is S. Chrysostoms resemblance should fall into a field of stubble of flax or straw he can receive no hurt but must needs shew his force and activity and consume whatsoever is combustible before him Shall Flax or Straw stand up against Fire This man of fire cannot suffer by such thin materials which are as fewel to nourish and uphold him What can they do If they venture they destroy themselves Beloved every Apostle of Christ every true Christian is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of fire Scoffs are but straw Detraction but as flax which coming too near him can consume themselves or as Thorns crackle a while and make a noise in this fire and no more And when the day of lustration shall come when that day shall come which is spectaculum as Tertullian calls it the great spectacle of the world when all things shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 naked and anatomized as a beast cut down the back then all thoughts shall be discovered all veils removed all visours pluckt off Then spiritual Joy shall not be madness the Breathings of the Spirit shall not be the ebullitions of men distempered with wine nor true Honesty folly nor Reverence superstition Then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato calls it or rather this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This unusual behaviour of wise and spiritual men which is so
disconsonant to the wayes of those who are deeply immerst and drencht in the world and which by them is in esteem as Madness or Drunkenness shall receive the reward of Soberness and Truth O how happy were it for these mockers if they were thus distempered thus superstitious if they took this cup of the Lord and did adde drunkenness to thirst and even fill and glut themselves with it They cannot be too reverent too spiritual too absurd and ridiculous to the world and worldly men He that seems wise to these must needs be neer of kin to a fool and he whom they admire must be ridiculous Aliud est judicium Christi aliud anguli susurronum Whom the world laughs at Christ will honour whom they make their slaves with Christ are Kings and whom they scorn he will crown And then these scoffers shall be had in derision and they who are filled with the Spirit shall for ever drink of the river of his pleasures and shall sit down with him at his table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and these Apostles here and drink that new wine with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that spiritual immortal joy in the kingdom of his Father in the presence of God where there are pleasures for evermore To which He bring us who sent his Spirit down upon us Jesus Christ the righteous The Three and Thirtieth SERMON PART I. LUKE XI 27 28. And it came to pass as he spake these things a certain woman of the company lift up her voice and said unto him Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps which thou hast sucked But he said Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it WE cannot say more of our Saviour in the dayes of his flesh then this He went about doing good Acts 10.38 Job 29.15 He was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and health to the sick And as he cured mens bodies of diseases so he purged their souls from sin As he went his steps dropped fatness Scarce proceeded there a word from his blessed lips that breathed not forth comfort In this chapter he cast out a devil which was dumb and the people wondred v. 14. But such is the rancour and venome of Envy and Malice that no vertue no miracle no demonstration of power can castigate or abate it What is Vertue to a Jew or what is a Miracle to a Pharisee When the devil was gone out saith the Text the dumb spake a work not to be wrought but by the finger of God But if a Pharisee look upon it it must change its name and be said to be done by the claw of the Devil For some of them said He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the prince of the devils Others tempting him sought from him a sign from heaven as if this were not such a one but rather proceeded from the pit of hell and from the power of darkness It is the character of an evil and envious eye to look outward extrà mittendo not to receive the true species and forms of things but to send out some noxious spirits from it self which discolour and deface the object Hence Envious men are thought as S. Basil saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to infect every thing they look upon and like the Basilisk to kill with a very look What do they cast their eye upon that they do not poison and corrupt Is it Temperance they call it Stupidity Is it Justice they call it Cruelty Is it Wisdome they call it Craft Is it Honesty they call it Folly and Want of foresight Is it a Miracle they call it Magick and Sorcery and a work of Beelzebub Wherefore saith the Father was our Saviour made a mark for every venemous dart wherefore was he so sorely laid at by the Jews by the Scribes and Pharisees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For nothing else but his wondrous works And what were they His curing of the sick feeding of the hungry restoring of the dead to life casting out of devils And therefore as he confirmed his doctrine by miracles so Malice putteth him to another task to make good his miracles by reason and argument And this he doth 1. argumento ducente ad absurdum by an argument which will either bind them to silence or drive them upon the face of an open absurdity For what an absurd thing were it for Satan to drive out himself and 2. argumento ducente ad impossibile For if Satan be divided against himself it is impossible his kingdome should stand Proficit semper contradictio stultorum ad stultitiae demonstrationem saith Hilary The contradiction of sinners and fools striveth and struggleth to gain ground and to over-run the Truth but the greatest proficiencie Folly maketh is but to make her self more open and manifest like Candaules's wife who was seen naked of all but her self But Truth is as unmovable as a rock which as the Father speaketh of the Church tunc vincit cùm laeditur tunc intelligitur cùm arguitur tunc obtinet cùm deseritur then conquereth when it receiveth a foil is then understood when it is opposed and is then safe when it is forsaken Let the Jews rage and the Pharisees imagin a vain thing let Envy cast a mist and let Malice smoke like a fornace yet Christ's miracles shall be as clear as the day wherein they were wrought and the mouth of Iniquity shall be stopped Out of his own mouth shall the Pharisee be convinced and Christ shall be as powerful in his words as in his works so powerfull in both that even è â—urba out of that multitude which did oppose him one witness or oâ—her shall rise to bear testimony to the truth to point out to the finger of God by which this miracle was wrought to magnifie and bless not onely our Saviour but even the very womb that bare him and the paps that he had sucked For it came to pass as he spake these things a certain woman of the company lift up her voice and said unto him Blessed c. My Text divideth it self between the Woman and Christ First the Woman taketh occasion from what she had heard and seen to magnifie Christ Then Christ taketh occasion from her speach to instruct her and let her at rights She calleth Christ's mother blessed He sheweth her a more excellent way by which she may come to be as blessed as his mother She talketh of Blessedness He telleth her what it is He condemneth not her affection but directeth and levelleth it to the right object and as the Pythagoreans method of teaching was he indulgeth something that he may gain the more Be it so Blessed is the womb that bare me and the paps that gave me suck QUINIMO But much rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it To be my Mother is but a temporal privilege but to hear and keep my word is eternal