the Devil Why should any mortal now fear to dye It is most true Christ dyed and by his death shook the powers of the Grave Consummatum est all is finished and he is returned victoriously with the spoils of his enemies and of this last enemy Death Job 18.14 But for all this his triumph Death may be still the King of terrours and as dreadful as before All is finisht on his part but a Covenant consisteth of two parts and something is required on ours He doth not turn Conditions into Promises as some have been willing to perswade themselves and others It must be done is not Thou shalt do it If thou wilt believe is not Thou shalt believe But every Promise every Act of grace of his implieth a Condition He delivereth those that are willing to be delivered who do not feed Death and supply this enemy with such weapons as make him terrible 1 Cor. 15.56 All the terrour Death hath is from our selves our Sin our Disobedience to the commands of God that is his sting And our part of the Covenant is by the power and virtue of Christs death every day to be plucking it off from him at last to take it quite away We we our selves must rise up against this King of terrours and in the Name and Power of Christ take the sceptre out of his hand and spoil him of his strength and terrour And this we may do by parts and degrees now cut from him this sin now that now this desire and anon another and so dye daily as S. Paul speaketh dye to Profit dye to Pleasure dye to Honour be as dead to every temptation which may beget sin in us and a sting in him and so leave him nothing to take from us not a desire not a hope not a thought nothing that can make us fear Death Then we shall not look upon it as a divorcement from those delights which we have cast off already or a passage into a worse condition from that we loved too well to that we never feared enough but we shall consider it as a Sleep as it is to all wearied pilgrimes as a Message sent from heaven to tell us our walk is at an end now we are to lay down our staff and scrip and rest in that Jerusalem which is above Tert. De patientia for which we vowed this pilgrimage Et quis non ad meliora festinat What stranger will be afraid to return to his Fathers house or lose that life quam sibi jam supervacuam fecit which by dying daily to the world he hath already made superfluous and unnecessary To conclude this He that truly feareth God can fear nothing else nor is Death terrible to any but to those who would build their tabernacle here who love to feed with swine on husks Luk. 15.16 Heb. 6.5 because they have not tasted of the powers of the world to come who wish immortality to this mortal before they put it on who are willing to converse and trade with Vanity for ever who desire not with David to be spared a little but would never go hence Psal 39.13 Last of all this will moderate our sorrow for those our friends who are dead or rather fallen asleep or rather at their journeys end For why should any man who knoweth the condition of a stranger how many dangers and how many cares and how many storms and tempests he is obnoxious to hang down the head and complain that his friend hath now passed through them all and is set down at his journeys end Why should he who looketh for a City to come Hebr. 13.14 be troubled that his fellow-pilgrime is come thither and entred before him It might be a matter of holy emulation perhaps but why it should afflict us with grief I cannot see unless it be because we have not made it our meat and drink to keep Gods commandements which might give us a tast of a better estate to come unless it be because we have not well learnt to act the part of a stranger Miserable men that we are that we will be that know not our own quality and condition that are strangers yet unwilling to draw near our selves or to see others come to their home but think them lost where they are made perfect We stand by the bed of our sick and dying friend as if he were now to be removed to a place of torment and not of rest and to be either nothing or more miserable then he was in a region of misery We send out shreeks and outcries to keep time with his gasps to call him back if it were possible from heaven and to keep him still under the yoke harrow when as the fainting of his spirits the failing of his eyes the trembling of his joynts are but as the motion of bodies to their center most violent when they are nearest to their end And then we close up his eyes and with them our hopes as if with his last gasp he had breathed out his soul into air when indeed there is no more then this One pilgrime is gone before his fellows one is gone hath left others in their way in trouble and more troubled that he is gone to rest Migrantem migrantes praemisimus saith S. Hierome We are passing forward apace and have sent one before us to his journeyes end his everlasting sabbath With this contemplation doth Religion comfort and uphold us in our way and keepeth us in that temper which the Philosopher commendeth as best in which we do sentine desiderium Sen. ad Marciam op primere She giveth Nature leave to draw tears but then she bringeth in Faith and Hope to wipe them off She suffereth us to mourn for our friends but not as men without hope Nature will vent and Love is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1 Thess 4.13 saith the Oratour ever querulous and full of complaints when the object is removed out of sight and God remembreth whereof we are made Ps 103.14 is not angry with our Love and will suffer us to be Men But then we must silence one Love with another our natural Affection with the Love of God at least divide our language thus Alas my Father Alas my Husband Alas my Friend but then He was a stranger and now at his journeyes end And here we must raise our note and speak it more heartily Rev. 14 13. Blessed are such strangers Blessed are they that dye in the Lord even so saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours For conclusion Let us fear God and keep his commandments Eccl. 12.13 This is the whole duty of a stranger to observe those Laws which came from that place to which he is going Let these Laws be in our heart and our heart will be an Elaboratory a Limbeck to work the water of life out of the vanities and very dregs of the world
the Father The Body is Man as well as the Soul And he consisteth of one as well as the other When the Body and Soul are parted the Man is gone This Flesh of ours though it hear ill and seem as an adversary to rise up against the Spirit yet it may prove a singular instrument to advance God's glory and so lift up Man to happiness Adeò Caro est salutis cardo saith Tertullian Our flesh is the very hinge on which the work of our salvation turneth it self For tell me What Christian duty is there which is not performed by the bodie 's ministery Caro alluitur ut anima emaculetur It is washed to purifie the soul It taketh down bread to feed it From it we borrow a Hand to give our alms an Ear to let in faith a Tongue to be a trumpet of God's praise Fastings Persecution Imprisonment nay Martyrdom it self de bonis carnis Deo adolentur are the fruits of the flesh subdued and conquered by us So that Angels themselves may seem in this respect to come short of us mortals They cannot suffer they cannot dye for God because they have no bodies You cannot scourge you cannot imprison you cannot sequester an Angel you cannot behead him but all this you may do unto a mortal man and so make him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã like unto and even equal to the Angels I do not read that men are made equal to the Angels till they are dead till their earthly tabernacles be dissolved and built up a again till their natural body be raised a spiritual body Till then we must glorifie God as Men and let the Angels have their Hallelujahs and worship by themselves Let all the Angels worship him and let the Sons of men fall down and kneel before him And let us think the better of our external worship because we see that which is spiritual and angelical is represented unto us in Scripture by this of ours To thee all Angels cry aloud and yet who ever heard an Angel's voice And the Angels stood round about the Throne and fell before the Throne on their faces that is they glorified God Angels are said to have Voice and Hands and Feet that we who have them indeed may use them to his glory S. Hilary upon Psal 143. well expresseth it Homo ipse decem quibusdam chordis manibus pedibus extentus Man in his body his Hands and his Feet is set as an instrument with ten strings and in every gesture and motion toucheth them skilfully to make a harmony to sing a new song to the God of heaven a song composed of divers parts of Spirit and Flesh of Soul and Body Every faculty of the soul every member of the body must bear a part What is the elavation of the Soul Certainly a sweet and high note But then the prostration of the Body tempereth it and maketh it far more pleasant What the ejaculations of the Soul Yes and the incurvation of the Body the lifting up of the Heart yea and of the Hands and Eyes also A holy Thought yea and a reverent Deportment These make him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as the Apostle speaketh perfect and complete Otherwise he is but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a half-strung a half-tuned Instrument We are yet in the flesh Men not Angels and we have Knees to bend and Hands to lift up and Heads to uncover Why should we be Angels so soon Angels here on earth Why should our glorifying be as theirs is invisible The surest way to happiness is to keep our condition to make good our worship in our flesh to bow and prostrate our selves here that when time shall be no more we may be as the Angels in heaven Glorifying too spiritual is the same with too carnal For that men will not glorifie God but in their spirit is but a vapour raised out of the dung an exhalation from the flesh That men are such enemies to outward expressions and bodily reverence proceedeth from a spirit but it is a spirit of slumber a dreaming spirit a dumb spirit a lazy spirit a stubborn spirit that will not bow a spirit of contradiction I had almost said from the spirit of Antichrist For he doth not confess and glorifie Jesus so far and fully as he should And not to confess Christ is from the spirit of Antichrist 1 John 4.3 For conclusion Let us look up upon the price with which we were bought and let God's exceeding love in redeeming us raise up in us a love of God's glory which may be so intensive and hot within us ut emanet in habitum that it may not be able to contain it self within the compass of the heart but evaporate and work it self out into the outward gesture and break forth out of the conscience into the voice which may open her shop and spiritual wares and behold her own riches and furniture abroad her Liberality in an open hand her Sorrow trickling down the cheeks her Humility in a dejected countenance and her Reverance in a bare head and a bended knee that the body may be the interpreter of the soul and its many different postures and motions be a plain commentary to explain and discover that more retired and indiscernible devotion within This should be our constant and continued practice here on earth to stand as candidates for an Angel's place by glorifying God here in our earthly members which is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a prologue and preface to that which we shall be and act hereafter It was a phansie which possessed many of the Heathen that men after death should much desire and often handle those things which did most take and affect them when they lived So Lucian bringeth in Priam's young son calling for milk and cheese and such country cates which he most delighted in on earth Even now saith Maximus Tyrius doth Aesculapius minister physick Hercules try the strength of his arm Castor and Pollux are under sail Minos is on the bench and Achilles in armes This was but a phansie but a fiction But it is a fair resemblance of a Christian in this respect whose span is but a prologue to eternity a short and imperfect declaration of that which he shall act more perfectly hereafter whose life is Grace and whose eternity shall be in Glory which is nothing else saith the devout School-man but gratia consummata nullatenus impedita Grace made perfect and consummate finding no opposition no temptation to struggle and fight with For though there will be no place for Almes where there is no poverty no use of Prayers where there is no want nor need of Patience where there can be no injury yet to Praise and Glorifie God are everlasting offices tribute due to God's Power and Goodness and Wisdom which are as everlasting as Himself to be rendred him here on earth in our spirits and in our bodies and to be continued by us with Angels and Archangels in
with admiration then it speaketh nay it cryeth unto the Lord. When S. Paul was caught up into paradise and heard those unspeakable words which he could not utter his admiration supplyed that defect and was as the lifting up of his voice unto God For what is a Miracle if it be not wondered at Or is it fit a Miracle should pass by us as a shadow unregarded Is it fit that that which was done for us men and for our salvation should not move us so much as those common things which are done before our eyes every day that we should be little affected with that Gospel which was thus confirmed by signs and wonders that nothing should be wonderful in our eyes but that which is not worth a thought For what is that we wonder at Even that from which we should wean our affection we wonder at those things in the pursuit of which we our selves become monsters We wonder at Wealth and are as greedy as the Horseleach We wonder at Beauty and become worse then the beasts that perish We wonder at Honour and are those Chamelions that live on air We have mens persons in admiration Jude 16. and make our selves their Horse or Mule which they may ride at pleasure We wonder at Power and become stocks or stones and have no more motion of our own then they These appear to us in glory these dart their beams upon us and we are struck with admiration But mirabilia legis the wonderful things of the Law the wonderful things of the Gospel we scarce open our eyes to behold them and but faintly desire God to do it for us His wonderful counsel in sending his Son we do but talk of The mystery of our Redemption is hidden still God's eternal will that is our sanctification we scarce spare an hour to think on his precepts are not in so much esteem as the statutes of Omâi What a glorious spectacle is a clod of earth and what a Nothing is Heaven Behold these are the wonderful things of Christ To unite God and Man to tye them together by a new covenant to raise dust and ashes to heaven this is a great miracle indeed To draw so many nations and people to the obedience of faith to convert rich men by poor learned men by illiterate and by those whom they persecuted and put to death so that they brought in their riches and honours and usual delights and laid them down as it were at the feet of those poor instructers whom they counted as the off-scouring of the world To make not onely his Precepts but the Meekness the Patience the Silence the very Death of his Professors as so many Apostles and Messengers to win them to the faith this if we did truly consider and weigh as we should would busie and intend our thoughts and raise and improve them into that amazement and admiration which would joyn us to that innumerable company of just men and make us of the number of those who shall be saved Many things saith Hillary Christ hath done for the sons of men the blessed effect of which is open as the day though the cause be bid and where Nature comes short Faith steps forward and reacheth home In his quoque quae ignoro non nescio Even in those which my understanding is too narrow to receive I am not utterly ignorant but walk by faith and admire that vvhich my good Master doth and yet vvill not let me know It is no miracle no mystery at all vvhich deserveth not admiration Secondly by her lifting up her voice and blessing the womb that bare Christ vvhich vvas a kind of adoration for Admiration had not so shut up her devotion and love but that it vvas vocal and reverent vve are taught to magnifie our Saviour vvith the Tongue and Hand and Knee and every member vve have as David speaketh For these also have their voice and vve may confess Christ not onely vvith the tongue but vvith our adorations and genuflexions and those outward expressions vvhich are equivalent to it Auditur philosophus dum videtur Though he hold his peace yet the Philosophers very gesture is a lecture of morality Therefore where we read that Man was made a living soul Gen. 2.7 the Chaldee renders it factus est in spiritum loquentem He was made a speaking soul to speak the praises of his Maker with every faculty and part he hath For as God made both Body and Soul so he requires both the inward devotion of the one and the outward expressions of the other a Soul saith Isidore which may ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by its operative devotion call down God from heaven and in her self frame the resemblance of his presence and a Body which may make that devotion and love visible to the very eye It is S. Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians 1 Thes 5. â3 that God would sanctifie them wholly that the soul and body may be blameless in the day of the Lord that Holiness might be as an impression which from the soul might work upon the body and give force and motion to the whole man This is to sanctifie them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not in part but all of them not to sprinkle but to baptize them with holiness Profanus and non integer are the same in Tertullian and it is profaneness not to give God all Athanasius makes the Soul as a Musician and the Body which consists of the Tongue and other members as a Harp or Lute which she may tune and touch till it yield a celestial harmony a song composed of divers parts of Spirit and Flesh of Soul and Body of every faculty of the soul and every part of the body must accord with the elevation of the soul Certainly a sweet note But then the lifting up of the voice mends it and makes it far more pleasant An ejaculation from the Soul yea and the sound thereof from the Tongue and Hands and Knees a holy Thought yea and a zealous and reverent depottment these make a man ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as the Apostle speaks perfect and complete Otherwise as the Poet spake of the beggar half wrotten and consumed he is but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an half-strung and half-tuned instrument Look back unto former and purer times and you shall see Devotion visible in every gesture in their Walking in their sitting in their Bowing in their Standing up you shall hear it in their Hymns and Psalms in their Hallelujahs and Amens which were saith Hierome as the voice of many waters or as a clap of thunder You shall hear the Priest blessing the people and the people echoing it back again unto the Priest the Priests praying and the people answering the Priests which they called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã their Antiphones or Responsals ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Let us stand decently They did spake it and they did it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Let us stand with the
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 noâhing 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
straiten our bowels or seal up our lips or wither our hands when we look upon the World but as our stage where we must act our parts and display the glories of Mercy where we must wast our selves drop our tears run in to succour those who are roughly handled in it and thus tread it under our feet and then take our Exit and go out When we can forget our Honour and remember the poor forsake all rather then our brethren and desire not to be rich but in good works when we have so incorporated our brethren into our selves that we stand and fall are happy and miserable together when we consider them as ingrafted into the same Christ and in him to be preferred before the whole world and to be lookt upon as those for whom we must dye then we love Mercy Luke 6.36 then we are merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful Thus if we be qualified we shall become the temples and habitations of Mercy and as our bodies shall after their resurrection so our souls shall here have novas dotes be endowed with activity chearfulness and purity And first our Mercy will be in a manner Natural unto us secondly it will be Constant thirdly it will be Sincere fourthly it will be Delightful to us It will be natural not forced it will be constant not flitting it will be sincere not feigned and it will be delightful that we shall long to bring it into act And first we then love it when it is in a manner made natural to us For we never fully see the beauty of it till we are made new creatures and have new eyes 1 John 3.9 Then as the New creature cannot sin as S. John speaketh that is can do nothing that is contrary and destructive to that form which constituteth a new creature no more can a Merciful man do any thing which will not savour of Mercy but doth as naturally exercise himself in it as the Sun doth send forth its beams or the Heavens their influence For the Spirit of God hath made his heart a fountain of Mercy as he made the Sun a fountain of light And if he break not forth into action it is from defect of means or occasion or some cross accident which cometh over him which do but cloud and eclipse his Mercy as the interposition of a gross body doth eclipse the Sun but not put out its light At the very sight of Misery Mercy is awake up and either doing or suffering Who is weak and I am not weak 2 Cor. 11.29 saith S. Paul who is offended and I burn not If I but see one weak I faint and if I see him vexed I am on fire Nature is active and will work to its end Heavy bodies will descend and light bodies will mount upwards and Mercy will give and lend and forgive it cannot be idle Inquies opere suo pascitur It is restless and is made more restless by its work which is indeed its pleasure It is then most truly Mercy when it sheweth it self If occasion presenteth it self it soon layeth hold on it If an object appear it is carried to it with the speed of a Thought and reacheth it as soon If there be no object it createth one if there be no occasion it studyeth one Is there yet any left of the house of Saul 2 Sam. 9.1 that I may shew kindness to for Jonathans sake And Is there no Lazar to feed no Widow to visit no Wounds to bind up no weak Brother to be restored none that be in darkness and errour to be brought into the light These are the Quaeres and the true dialect this is the ambition of Mercy It longeth more for an occasion to vent it self then the Adulterer doth for the twilight layeth hold on the least as on a great one thinketh nothing too high nothing too low which it can reach is still in motion because it moveth not like artificial bodies by art or outward force but by a principle of life the Spirit of Love it moveth not as a Clock which will stand still when the plummet is on the ground but its motion is natural as that of the Spheres which are wheeled about without cessation and return by those points by which they past and indeed may be said rather to rest then to move because they move continually and in the same place Misery is the point and the object of Mercy and at that it toucheth everlastingly Mercy and Misery still go together and eye each other The eye of Misery looketh up upon Mercy and the eye of Mercy looketh down upon Misery Like the two Cherubins they have ever their faces one towards another Their eyes are both full and ready to drop and run down The eye of Misery is ever open and Mercy hideth not her eye Prov. 28.27 By this you may judge of your acts of Liberality You may look upon them as those sacrifices with which God is pleased when you find something within you that enlargeth you that openeth your mouth and hand Hebr. 13.16 35. that you cannot but speak and do When you find a heat within you that thaweth and melteth you that you pour out your selves on your brethren then your works of Mercy are of a sweet-smelling favour when Love setteth them on fire Secondly Mercy being made natural unto us will be also constant It will be fixt in the firmament of the Soul and shine and derive its influence uncessantly and equally doing good unto all men while it hath time Gal. 6.10 that is at all times When the Heart dissenteth from it self and Love onely uniteth and maketh it one when it is a divided heart divided between God and the World hath inconstant motions and changeable counsels joyneth with the object and leapeth from the object is willing to day and loathing to morrow this day cleaving to the object and even sick for love as Amnon was for Tamar 2 Sam. 13 4. and the next day thrusting it out of doors chusing without judgement and then altering upon experience In such a heart Mercy cannot dwell And from hence it is that we see men every day so unlike themselves now giving anon oppressing now reaching out an almes and by and by threatning with the sword now giving their brother the right hand of fellowship and within a while with that hand plucking him by the throat now pitying him that lyeth in the dust anon crying out So so thus we would have it For indeed their Pity and their Rage their Mercy and their Cruelty have the same original and are raised upon the same ground Love of themselves and not of Mercy And thus they do some acts of Mercy magno impetu sed semel with much earnestness and zeal but not often like some birds whose notes or rather noise we hear one part of the year and then they leave us vanish out of sight and hearing and as
eye without deliberation or demur in a word not to do what thou wouldst but to obey in what thou wouldst not in that which the Flesh shrinketh from This is the crown and perfection of Obedience put on by the hand of Humility And this is the Humility of the Soul Hebr. 10.5 But is this enough No. A body hast thou prepared me God seeth thy Body as well as thy Soul and will have the Knee the Tongue the Eye Tertull. de Fallio the Countenance Auditur Philosophus dum videtur The Philosopher and so the Christian is heard when he is seen Thou art to walk with him Ps 95.6 or before him Come saith David let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Then you may best take Humilitie's picture when the Body is on the ground You may mark her how she boweth it down watch her in a tear take hold of her in a look follow her in all her postures till she faint and droop and lye down in dust and ashes Oh beloved the time was when men did so walk as if God had been visible and before them The time was when Humility was thought a virtue when Humility came forth in this dress multo deformata pulvere with ashes sprinkled on her head with her garments rent like a Penitentiary You might have beheld her kissing the chains of imprisoned Martyrs washing the feet of Lazars wallowing at the Temple-doors begging the prayers of the Saints You might have seen her rent and torn stript and naked the hair neglected the eye hollow the body withered the feet bare Orat. 12. and the knees of horn as Nazianzene describeth it Then was Humility not sunk into the Soul but written and engraven in the Body in capital letters that you might have run and read it But I know not how the face of Christendome is much altered and humility grown stately She hath bracelets on her arms and rich diamonds on her head We have fed her daintily and set her upon her feet Walk humbly That we can without hat or knee with a merry and lofty countenance with a face set by our Ambition and even speaking our Pride and Scorn and we appear in the service of God as in a thing below us and which we honour with our presence Humility with an humble look a bowed knee a bare head a composed countenance Away with it It is Idolatry and Superstition But let us not deceive our selves God hateth the visour of Humility but not her face If she borrow from art and the pencil she is deformed but appearing in her own likeness in that dress which God himself hath put her in she is lovely and shineth upon those duties in which we are imployed and maketh them most delightful to behold It is true the Thought may knock at heaven when the Body is on the ground and when that is shut up between two walls may measure out a Kingdome and the whole world may be too narrow for an Anchorete But it is as true that Humility never seized on the Mind but it drew the Body after it If I lose my friend my look will tell you he is gone If a rober spoil all that I have there is a kind of devastation of the countenance Prov. 8.14 Ps 31.9 10. 6.7 102.3.4 38.6 But a wounded spirit who can bear If thy Soul be truly humble thy bones will consume and thy marrow wast as David speaketh thy eye wax old and thou will forget to eat thy bread thou wilt go heavily all the day long Think what we will pretend what we can flatter our selves as we please I shall assoon believe him chast whose eyes are full of adulteries 2 Pet. 2.14 or who will sell a copyhold to buy Aretines pictures I shall as soon think him modest whose mouth is an open sepulchre Ps â 9 Rom. 3.13 him charitable who will sooner eat up twenty poor men then feed one as that man devote and humble in his heart who is so bold and irreverent in his outward gesture I cannot but look upon it as upon an impossibility to draw these two together a Neglectful deportment and Humility For I cannot imagin nor can any man give me a reason why every passion nay why every vice should shew it self in the outward man totâ corpulentiâ as the Father speaketh in its full proportion and dimensions that Anger should shake the lips and set the teeth and dye the face sometimes with white sometimes with red that Sorrow should make men put on sackcloth rend their garments beat their heads against the walls as Augustus did for the defeat and loss of Varus that even dissimulation it self should betray it self by the winking of the eye Prov. 10.10 that every vice and virtue should one way or other open it self and even speak to the eye onely Devotion and Humility should sinck in and withdraw it self lurk and lye hid in the inward man as if it were ashamed to shew its head that we should be afraid to kneel afraid to be reverent that it should be a sin to kneel a sin to be humble that to come and fall down or bow though it be in the house of God is to worship Dagon Reason and Religion help us and destroy every Altar and break down every Image and burn it with fire and chase and banish all Superstition from the face of the earth Deut. 27. And let all the people say Amen But God forbid that Reverence and those motions and expressions of Humility which are the works and language of the heart should be swept out together with the rubbish that the wind which driveth out Superstition should leave an open way for Profaneness and Atheism to enter in And let all the people say Amen to that too For if we do not present our bodies as well as our souls a living sacrifice Rom. 12.1 glorifying God in every motion of our Body as we do in every conception of our Mind our service cannot be a reasonable service of him and the same tempest may drive down before it Religion and Reason both S. Paul hath joyned them both together as in the purchase so also in the obligation Yea are bought with a price This is the Antecedent 1 Cor. 6.20 and then it followeth necessarily Therefore glorifie God in your bodies and your spirits which are Gods But this may seem too general Yet if we know what Humility is we shall the better see how to walk humbly with our God But we will draw it nearer Gen. 17.1 Psal 119.1 3. Isa 2.5 and be more particular And indeed to walk humbly with our God and to walk before him and to walk in his statutes and to walk in the light of the Lord to walk in his sight differ not in signification nor present unto our understandings diverse things For all speak but this To walk as in his presence To
didicit perfectè obedire l. 4. de instit Caeâob he hath no judgement non habet suum velle he hath no will of his own when our understandings wills and affections are Christ's as if we were but one flesh and one bloud and one soul that we will neither know nor serve nor hearken to any but Christ that we will have no King no Priest no Prophet but him then we dwell in him More particularly thus If we dwell in Christ we shall 1. discover and admire his majesty 2. acknowledge his power and love his command 3. rely and depend upon him alone as our sure castle and protection We shall dwell as it were within the beauty of his rayes within his jurisdiction and under the shadow of his wing 1. If we dwell in Christ we shall discover and admire his Majesty We may observe that every thing that is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in any eminency sendeth a kind of majesty from it as the Sun doth its beams which maketh a welcome and pleasing glide into the minds of men and at once striketh them with admiration and with love Sometimes this appeareth in the persons sometimes in the manners and behaviour of men sometimes in the order and polity of a well-governed Common-wealth So we read the skin of Moses's face after he had talked with God Exod. 34.29 30. did shine so bright that Aaron and the people were afraid to come neer him So when holy Job went out to the gate the young men saw him and hid themselves Job 29.7 8. and the aged arose and stood up It sheweth it self also in a well-ordered Common-wealth It was called majestas pop Romani Majestas est in imperio atque in omni Pop. Rom. dignitate Quint. l. 7. Iustit c. 3. Matth. 17.2 6 the Majesty of the people of Rome Now if Christ be considered by thee as one in eminency and supreme thou wilt behold him not onely fair and lovely but clothed with Majesty I do not mean his Majesty in his transfiguration when his face did shine as the Sun and his Disciples fell on theirs nor his Majesty when he shall come to judge the quick and the dead and yet these are fit objects for the eye of Faith to look on but his Majesty in his cratch his Majesty in his humility his Majesty on the cross even here the thief discovered it and it was imputed to him for righteousness and made the Cross it self a gate and passage into Paradise But these are too remote and for the many we look upon them as at distance have so small regard of them as if they concerned us not We can see Majesty in a lump of flesh in those that cannot save themselves sooner then in him we call our Saviour But then canst thou discover Majesty in him now Majesty in his discipline Wisdome in the foolishness of Preaching Power in weakness now in this life when he is whipt and spit upon and crucified again when he liveth covered over with disgraces and contumelies when his Precepts are dragged in triumph after flesh and blood and whatsoever it dictateth when for one Hosanna he hath a thousand Crucifige's for one formal hypocritical acknowledgment a thousand spears in his sides when the Truth is what we will make it the Gospel esteemed no more then a fable and Christ himself if we look into mens lives the most disesteemed thing in the world When thou seest him in this cloud in this disfiguration in this Golgotha where is thy faith what eyes hast thou Doth he not still appear a worm Psal 22.6 and no man a man of sorrows When thou seest him thus Isa 53.2 3. is there any form that thou shouldest desire him Or dost thou even now see his glory as the glory of the onely-begotten Son of God 1 John 1.14 Doth he now appear to thee as the Head of all principality and power Col. 2.10 Canst thou see him in that naked Lazar that persecuted forlorn imprisoned Saint Doth his Majesty shine through the vanities of this World and make them loathsome through thy labour of charity and make it easie through persecution Hebr. 6.10 and make it joyful In the midst of rage and derision of fury and contumely is he still to thee the King of glory Psal 24.8 10. Then thou dwellest in him even in the beauty of holiness 2. If we dwell in Christ we shall be under his Command For they who command us do in a manner take us into themselves they possess and compass bound and keep us in on every side And if we dwell in Christ we shall be within his reach and power we shall not have our excursions and run from him into the streets and high wayes again into Bethâaven the house of vanity I say we shall be under Christs command we shall be his possession his propriety For Man is a little world I may say he is a little Common-wealth De Resurrect carn c. 40. Tertullian calleth him fibulam utriusque substantiae the clasp or button which tieth together divers substances and natures the Soul and the Body the Flesh and the Spirit And these two are contrary one to the other Gal. 5.17 saith S. Paul are carried divers wayes the Flesh to that which pleaseth it and the Spirit to that which is proportioned to it looking on things neither as delightful nor irksome but as they may be drawn in to contribute to the beauty and perfection of the soul These lust and struggle one against the other and Man is the field the theatre where this battle is fought and one part or other still prevaileth Many times nay most times God help us the Flesh with her sophistry prevaileth with the Will to joyn with her against the Spirit and then Sin taketh the chair the place of Christ himself and setteth us hard and heavy tasks setteth us to make brick but alloweth us no straw biddeth us please and content our selves but affordeth us no means to work it out See how Mammon condemneth one to the mines to dig for metalls and treasure for that money which will perish with him See how Lust fettereth another with a look with the glance of an eye bindeth him with a kiss a kiss that will at last bite like a Cockatrice See how Self-love driveth us on as Balaam did his beast on the point of the sword Thus Sin doth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã exercise its force and power Rom. 6.12 Lord it and King it reign in our mortal bodies Again sometimes and why but sometimes but sometimes the Will sanctified and upheld and encouraged by the Spirit of Christ taketh the Spirit 's part determineth for it against the Flesh chuseth any thing which the Spirit commendeth though it be compassed about with terrours and fearful apparitions though it be irksome and contrary to the Flesh And when we depose Mammon Matth. 16.24 crucifie the flesh deny our selves
Arts themselves are not liberal but when they make men so free and ingenuous Arithmetick and Geometry are but a kind of Legerdemain if they teach men onely metiri latifundia accommodare digitos avaritiae to measure Lordships and to tell money What need we instance in these The Word of God which bringeth salvation may bring death if it be not received with the meekness of a babe that we may grow thereby The Sacrament the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which hath been magnified too much and yet cannot be magnified enough was ordained as Physick to renew and revive and quicken our souls but if it be not received to that end for which it was first instituted it is not Physick but damnation Non QUID sed QUEMADMODUM vers 29. It is not the bare Doing of a thing but the Manner of doing it the driving it on to its right end which giveth it its full beauty and perfection A sincere Heart and the Glory of God set the true image of Liberality on the gift of a mite Attention and Obedience make the Word the savour of life Humility and Repentance sanctifie a fast and Shewing of the death of the Lord maketh us truly partakers of his body and bloud Our Saviour Christ hath fully decided this controversie in a word and with one breath as it were hath said enough to still the tumults of the disputers which have been as the raging of the sea and to settle all the vain and needless controversies of this age John 6.63 even in this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The flesh profiteth nothing it is the Spirit that quickeneth For to say his flesh profiteth nothing is a plain declaration that he meant not to give it us to eat That which is nourishment to the body is not proportioned to the soul nor will that which reneweth a soul restore the body to a healthful temper Who would go about to recover a sick man with an Oration of Tully's or set a joynt with an axiom of Philosophy Who can restore a sick soul with bread and wine with flesh or bloud Although these two parts the Soul and the Body are knit and united rogether and do sympathize so as that which refresheth the body doth affect and please the mind and that which cheareth the mind doth strengthen the body yet both the parts receive that which is proper to them the body that which is of a corporeal nature and the soul that which is spiritual and both mutually communicate to each other the fruit and benefit of both without the least confusion of their operations and proprieties Although we see the actions of the body as Hunger and Thirst many times attributed to the soul and the functions of the soul as to Will and the like to the body Therefore we must distinguish between the Meritorious cause and the Efficiency and Application of it which are both joyntly necessary but their manner of operation is diverse It was necessary that the flesh and bloud of Christ should be separated from each other in his violent death on the cross that his most precious bloud should be poured out for remission of sins but to make it a physical potion to make it nourishment to our souls it was not necessary that his bodily substance should be taken into ours For if it should our Saviout telleth us it would profit nothing And the reason is plain Because the merit and virtue of his death which is without us is made ours not by any fleshly conjunction or union with him who merited for us by offering himself but 1. by his Will by which he in a manner maketh it over unto us and 2. by our due receiving of it which is made complete by our Consent and Faith and Giving of thanks which is the work alone of that Spirit which quickeneth and giveth life The blessed Virgin did no doubt partake of the merit of Christ but not because she conceived and bore him nine moneths in her womb but in that she conceived him by faith in her heart Luke 11.27 28. The womb was blessed that bare him and the paps that gave him suck but they rather were blessed who heard his word and kept it The Flesh and Bloud of Christ doth truly quicken us as it was offered up for us a sacrifice on the cross as a meritorious cause and as he gave it for the salvation of the world But it doth not quicken by being received into our bodies but by being received into our souls His merit was enough to save the whole world and yet his merit were nothing if not applied and that application is not wrought without but within us not by the Spirit of life but by the force and power of his death and passion the meritorious cause Rom. 8.2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death What need we hear stir this Water of life and turn it into gall and bitterness Why should this Bread be gravel between our teeth Why should Christ's love be made the matter of war and contention It is called the Body and Bloud of Christ and it is called Bread and Cup in my Text And it is a miserable servitude saith Augustine signa pro rebus accipere to take the signs of things for the things themselves and not to be able to lift up the eye of our mind a-above the corporeal creature to take in eternal light That we may lift up ours let us fix it upon the end for which Christ offered his body and bloud and upon the end for which we are to receive the Sacrament and signs of it And let one end be the measure and rule of the other Let Christ lifted upon the cross draw us after him to follow as he leadeth His body was bruised and his bloud shed to purge us from all iniquity and to make us a peculiar people unto himself That was Christ's end And our end must be proportioned to it So to receive the Sacrament of his body and bloud that it may be instrumental to that end Which cannot be by eating his flesh and bloud that flesh which was crucified and that bloud which was shed One would think it impossible that any should think our Saviour should command us that which is impossible or shew us a way which cannot lead to the end Flesh and Bloud taken down into the stomach can no more feed and quicken a Soul then it can enter into the Kingdom of heaven But his Obedience his Humility his Cross and Passion his meritorious Suffering and Satisfaction these have power and influence on the Soul These are here presented to us as Manna and better then Manna and if we take them down and digest them they will turn into good bloud and feed us to eternal life His Body and Bloud were thus given and thus we must receive them Our Saviour calleth it his
twinkling of an eye not to do what thou wilt but to obey in that thou wouldest not which is the crown of thy Obedience put on by the hand of Humility And this is the Soul's Humility But is this enough No A body hast thou prepared me It is not inward Humility will fill the precept God must have the Knee the Tongue the Eye the Countenance Philosophus auditur dum videtur The Philosopher and so the Christian is heard when he is seen Come saith the Psalmist let us worship and fall down You may best take Humility's picture when the body is on the ground You may mark her how she boweth the body watch her in a tear take hold of her in a look follow her in all her postures till she faint and droop and lie down in dust and ashes Oh beloved the time was when heaven was thought a purchace when Humility came forth in this dress multo deformata pulvere with ashes sprinkled on her head and her garments rent like a Penitentiary You might have beheld her kissing the chains of imprisoned Martyrs washing the feet of Lazars wallowing at the Temple-doors adgeniculatam charis begging the prayers of the Saints You might have seen her rent and torn stript and naked the hair neglected the eye hollow the body withered the feet bare and the knees of horn as Nazianzene speaketh in his 12. Oration Then was Humility not sunk into the soul but written and engraven in the body in capital letters that you might run and read it But I know not how the face of Christendom is now much altered and Humility grown stately She hath bracelets on her arms and diamonds on her head She is fed daintily and set on her feet BE HUMBLE That we can without hat or knee with a chearful countenance nay with a brazen face with the same behaviour in the house of God with which we swagger in a theatre Humility with an humble look a bowed knee a bare head a composed countenance away with it that is Pharasaical I will not mention what I too often see and lament For now it is accounted Religion to be irreverent But let us not deceive our selves God hateth the visour of Humility but not her face If she borrow of the pencil she is deformed but appearing in her own likeness lovely It is true the Thought may knock at heaven when the body is in the dust and when that is shut up between two walls may measure out a Kingdom and the whole world be too narrow for an Anchorete But it is as true that Humility never seizeth on the mind but draweth the body after If I lose my friend my look will tell you he is gone If a robber spoil all that I have there is a devastation of the countenance But a wounded spirit who can bear If thy soul be truly humbled thy bones will consume as David speaketh the eye will wax old thou wilt forget to eat thy bread Think what we will pretend what we can flatter our selves as we please I shall as soon believe him chaste whose eyes are full of adulteries him modest whose mouth is an open sepulchre him charitable who grindeth the face of the poor as that man devout and humble in his heart who is irreverent in his gesture For I cannot imagine nor can any man give a reason why every passion nay every vice should shew it self in the outward man totâ corpulentiâ as the Father speaketh in its full bulk and dimensions that Anger should shake the lips and set the teeth and die the face sometimes pale sometimes red that Sorrow should make men put on sackcloth rent their garments beat their heads against the wall as Augustus did for the loss of Varius that even Dissimulation should bewray it self by winking with the eye Prov. 10.10 that every Vice and every Virtue should some way or other discover it self to the eye onely Devotion and Humility should shrink in and withdraw it self lurk and lie hid in the inward man as if it were ashamed to shew its head that we should be afraid to sit bare afraid to kneel afraid to be reverent that it should be made a sin to sit bare a sin to kneel a sin to be reverent that to come and fall down though it be in the house of God is to worship Dagon Reason and Religion help us and destroy every altar and break down every image and burn it with fire and chase all Superstition from the face of the earth And let all the people say Amen But God forbid that Reverence and humble expressions should be swept out with the rubbish that the wind which drove out Superstition should leave an open way for Profaneness and Atheism to enter in And let all the people say Amen to that too For if we do not present our bodies as well as our souls a living sacrifice glorifying God in every motion our service will scarce be reasonable Rom. 12.1 And the same tempest will drive down before it Religion and Reason both I must conclude Fly Idolatry Fly Superstition but fly Profaneness and Irreverence also and run not so fast from the one as to meet with the other ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Extremities are equalities They are both equal in this that they are extremes And it is hard to judge which is the worse Consider your selves behold your frame and how you are built up ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of both Body and Soul Empty and humble your Souls bow your Understandings subdue your Wills be lower and lower viler and viler yet in your own eyes But let this Humility have so much power as to draw the Body after it to bow and bend it to lay it on the ground at his footstool whose hands did make and fashion it If it be true Humility this power it will have And this Humility God will behold and favour He will dwell in an humble Soul and delight in a prostrate body and at the restauration of all things he will re-unite the body and the soul and exalt them in the highest heavens there to fall down before the Lamb and praise him for evermore The Eighth SERMON PART II. 1 PET. V. 6. Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time IN these words we have 1. a Duty Humble your selves 2. Reasons enforcing it one pointing to the hand of God his mighty hand another implied in the note of Illation Therefore which reflecteth upon the verse before my Text Where Pride meeteth with check God resisteth the proud If we will not humble our selves under his hand his hand will humble us So that Humble your selves therefore is the conclusion and the Power and the Will of God are the Premisses both aeternae veritatis of necessary and eternal truth and all make up a perfect Demonstration But such is our weakness and ignorance nay such is our perversness that we thwart principles
the highest heavens for evermore The Sixteenth SERMON PART II. 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's THese words are a Logical Enthymeme consisting of two parts an Antecedent Ye are bought with a price and a Consequent naturally following Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's God's by Creation and God's by Redemption the Body bought and redeemed from the dust to which it must have fallen for ever and the Soul from a worse death the death of sin from those impurities which bound it over to an eternity of punishment and therefore both to be consecrated to him who bought them How God is to be glorified in our spirit we have already shewn to wit by a kind of assimilation by framing and fashioning our selves to the will and mind of God He that is of the same mind with God glorifieth him by bowing to him in his still voice and by bowing to him in his thunder by hearkening to him when he speaketh as a Father and by hearkening to him when he threatneth as a Lord by hearkening to his mercy and by hearkening to his rod. For the Glory of a King is most resplendent in the obedience of his subjects In a word we glorifie God by Justice and Mercy and those other vertues which are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã defluxions and emanations from his infinite goodness and light In a just and perfect man God shineth in glory and all that behold him will say that God is in him of a truth The Glory of God is that immense ocean into which all streams must run Our Creation our Redemption are to his glory Nay the Damnation of the wicked at last emptieth it self and endeth here This his wisdom worketh out of his dishonour and forceth it out of blasphemy it self But God's chief glory and in which he most delighteth is from our submissive yielding to his natural and primitive intent which is that we should follow and be like him in all purity and holiness In this he is well pleased that we should do that which is pleasing in his sight Then he looketh with an eye of favour and complacency upon Man his creature when he appeareth in that shape and form which he prescribed when he seeth his own image in him when he is what he would have him be when he doth not change the glory of God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things when he doth not prostitute that Understanding to folly which should know him and that Will to vanity which should seek him nor fasten those Affections to the earth which should wait upon him alone when he falleth not from his state and condition but is holy as God is holy merciful as God is merciful perfect as God is perfect Then is he glorified then doth he glory in him Deut. 30.9 and rejoyce over him as Moses speaketh as over the work of his hands as over his image and likeness not corrupted not defaced Then is Man taught Canticum laudis nothing else but the Glory and Praise of his Maker Thus do we glorifie God in our spirit Now to pass to that which we formerly did but touch upon Man is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã made up of both of Body and Spirit and therefore must glorifie God not onely in the spirit but in the body also For such a near conjunction there is between the Body and the Soul that nothing but Death can divorce them and that too but for a while a sleeping-time after which they shall be made up into one again either to howl out their blasphemie or to sing a song of praise to their Maker for evermore If we will not glorifie God in our body by chastity by abstinence by patience here we shall be forced to do it by weeping and gnashing of teeth hereafter It is true the body is but flesh 2 Cor. 4.11 yet the life of Jesus may be made manifest in this our flesh It is but dust and ashes but this dust and ashes may be raised up and made a Temple of the holy Ghost a Temple in which we offer up ch 6.19 not beasts our raging lusts and unruly affections nor the foul stench and exhalations of our corrupted hearts but the sweet incense of our devotion not whole drink offerings but our tears and strong supplications such a Temple which it self may be a sacrifice a holy and acceptable sacrifice Rom. 12.1 post Dei templum sepulcrum Christi saith Tertullian and being a Temple of God be made a sepulchre of Christ by bearing about in it the dying of our Lord Jesus For when we beat it down and bring it in subjection when we do ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã keep it chast and pure quench those unholy fires which are even ready to kindle and flame up in it bind and tye it up from joyning with that forbidden object to which its bent and natural inclination carrieth it when we have set a watch at every sense at every door which may be an in-let to the Enemy when we have learned so far to love it as to despise it to esteem of it as not ours but his that made it to be macerated and diminished to be spit upon and whipt to be stretched out on the rack to be ploughed up with the scourge to be consumed in the fire when his honour calleth for it when with S. Paul we are ready to offer it up then is the power of Christ's death visible in it and the beauty of that sight is the glory of God First we glorifie God in our bodies when we use them for that end to which he built them up when we make them not the weapons of sin but the weapons of righteousness when we do not suffer them to make our Spirit and Reason their servants to usher in those delights which may flatter and please them but bring them under the law and command of Reason Touch not Taste not Handle not which by its power may check the weakness of the Flesh and so uphold and defend it from those allurements and illusions from that deep ditch that hell into which it was ready to fall and willing to be swallowed up Now saith S. Paul vers 13â the body is not for fornication It was not created for that end For how can God who is Purity it self create a body for uncleanness Not then for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body Who made it as an instrument which the mind might use to the improvement and beautifying of it self as a vessel to be possest by us in holiness and honour 1 Thes 4.4 his Temple and thy vessel his Temple that thou mayest not profane it and thy vessel that thou mayest not defile and pollute it nor defile thy soul in it For this kind of
furta fidei the thefts and pious depredations of Faith But that Faith should be idle or speechless or dead is contrary to its nature and proceedeth from our depraved dispositions from Love of the world and Love of our selves which can silence it or lull it asleep or bury it in oblivion Thus we may have Faith as if we had it not and use it as we should use the world as if we used it not or worse abuse it not believe and say it but believe and deny it not believe and be saved but believe and be damned For the Devil can haereticare propositiones make propositions which are absolutely true heretical Believe and be saved is as true as Gospel nay it is the Gospel it self but by his art and deceit many believe and are by so much the bolder in the wayes which lead unto Death believe Jesus to be the Lord and contemn him believe him to be a Saviour and upon presumption of mercy make themselves uncapable of mercy and because he saveth sinners will be such sinners as he cannot save because they believe he taketh away the sins of the world will harden themselves in those sins which he will not take away Many there be who do veritatem sed non per vera tenere maintain the Truth but by those wayes which are contrary to the Truth make that which should confirm Religion destroy Religion and their whole life a false gloss upon a good Text having a form of godliness but denying the power of it crying Jesus is the Lord but scourging him with their blasphemies as if he were a slave and fighting against him with their lusts and affections as if he were an enemy sealing him up in his grave as if he were not that Jesus that Saviour that Lord but in the Jews language that deceiver that blasphemer But this is a most broken and imperfect language And though we are said to believe it when we cannot believe it to have the habit of Faith when we have not the use of Reason and so cannot bring it forth into act as some Divines conceive though it be spoke for us at the Font when we cannot speak and though when we can speak it we speak it again and again as often almost at we speak Lord Lord though we gasp it forth with our last breath and make it the last word we speak yet all this will not make up the Dicere all this will not rise to thus much as to say JESUS IS THE LORD Therefore In the third place that we may truly say it we must speak it to God as God speaketh to us whose word is his deed who cannot lie who Numb 23.19 if he saith it will doe it if he speak it will make it good And as he speaketh to us by his Benefits which are not words but blessings the language of Heaven by his Rain to water the earth by his Wool to clothe us and by his Bread to feed us so must we speak to him by our Obedience by Hearts not hollow by Tongues not deceitful by Hands pure and innocent Our heart conceiveth and our obedience is the report made abroad And this is indeed LO QUI to speak out ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to make our works vocal and our words operative to have lightning in our words and thunder in our deeds as Nazianzene spake of Basil that not onely Men and Angels may hear and see and applaud us but this Lord himself may understand our dialect and by that know us to be his children and accept and reward us In our Lord and Saviour's Alphabet these are the Letters in his Grammar these are the Words Meekness and Patience Compassion and Readiness to forgive Self-denial and Taking up our cross This must be our Dialect We cannot better express our Jesus and our Lord then idiomate operum by the language of our works by the language of the Angels whose Elogium is They doe his will the Tongue of Angels is not so proper as their Ministery for indeed their Ministery is their Tongue by the language of the Innocents who confessed him to be the Lord not by speaking but by dying by the language of the blessed Martyrs who in their tumultuary executions when they could not be heard for noise were not suffered to confess him said no more but took their death on it And this is truly to say Jesus is the Lord. For if he be indeed our Lord then shall we be under his command and beck Not a thought must rise which he would controll not a word be uttered which he would silence not an action break forth which he forbideth not a motion be seen which he would stop The very name of Lord must awe us must possess and rule us must inclose and bound us and keep us in on every side Till this be done nothing is done nothing is said We are his purchase and must fall willingly under his Dominion For as God made Man a little World so hath he made him a little Commonwealth Tertullian calleth him Fibulam utriusque substantiae the Clasp or Button which tieth together two diverse substances the Soul and the Body the Flesh and the Spirit And these two are contrary one to the other saith S. Paul are carried diverse wayes the Flesh to that which is pleasing to it and the Spirit to that which is proportioned to it looking on things neither as pleasing nor irksom but as they may be drawn in to contribute to the perfection and beauty of the soul Gal. 5.17 They lust and struggle one against the other and Man is the field the theatre where this battel is fought and one part or other still prevaileth Many times nay most times the Flesh with her sophistry prevaileth with the Will to joyn with her against the Spirit against those inclinations and motions which the Word and the Spirit beget in us And then Sin taketh the chair the place and throne of Christ and is Lord over us reigneth as S. Paul speaketh in our mortal bodies If it say Go we go and if it say Come we come and if it say Doe this we doe it It maketh us lay down that price for dung with which we might purchase heaven See how Mammon condemneth one to the mines to dig for metalls and treasure for that money which will perish with him See how Lust fettereth another with a look and the glance of an eye and bindeth him with a kiss which will at last bite like a serpent See how Self-love driveth on thousands as Balaam did his beast on the point of the sword And thus doth Sin ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Rom. 6.12 Lord it and King it over us And in this bondage and slavery can we truly say Jesus is the Lord when he is disgraced deposed and even crucified again Beloved whilest this fighting and contention lasteth in us something or other will lay hold on us and draw us within its
to this order then spend the whole though in very diligent study if with misorder and confusion Howsoever it may be with Method and Order in our Academical studies certainly in our study which concerneth the practice of Righteousness it cannot chuse but be with great loss of labour and industry if we do not observe that order and method which here our Saviour prescribeth Simplicius in his Comments upon Aristotle maketh a question whether youths in the reading of Aristotle's books should begin with his Logicks where he teacheth men to dispute and reason or with his Ethicks where he teacheth Civility and Honesty For if they begin saith he from his Logicks without Morals they are in danger to prove but wrangling Sophisters and if from his Morals without Logick they will prove but confused Thus indeed it fareth in the knowledge of Nature where all things are uncertain thus with those Students who have Aristotle for their God scarcely will all their Logick shew them where they should begin or where they should end But in Christianity all things are certain the end certain and the way certain and our best Master Christ hath written us a spiritual Logick hath shewed us a method and order what first to do ãâã âext and how to range every thing in its proper place And he that shall follow this method may be secure of his end nor is it possible he should lose his pains Never was any true Student in Righteousness an unproficient Now the excellency of this method will appear by comparing the one with the other the Soul with the Body and the temporal things of this life with spiritual First what is this Body of ours but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Nyssene calleth it a prison an ill savoured sink a lump of flesh which mouldereth away and draweth near to corruption whilst we speak of it But the Soul is Divinae particula aurae a beam as it were of the Divinity which in this dark body of ours is as the Sun to the Earth enlivening quickning and chearing it up Phiala in qua non includitur Manna sed Pater Filius Spiritus Sanctus as Ambros A golden vessel to receive not Manna which if you lay it up till the morning will stink and breed worms but the Father and the Son and the graces of the Spirit which are eternal It was a speech of S. Augustines Domine duo creasti alterum prope te alterum prope nihil Lord thou hast created two things the one Divine celestial of infinite worth the other base and sordid the Soul and the Body the one near unto thy self the other next unto nothing Now our care should carry a proportion to the things we care for We are not so diligent to keep a counter as a diamond Alexander when amongst the spoiles of Darius he found a rich and precious box thought nothing to be good enough to be laid up in it but Homer's Works And the Sacred Writings were decked and adorned with jewels and gold and precious gemms saith Zonaras by which the Christians exprest their reverence and love to those Sacred Volumes But what cabinet can we find for the Soul Where should that be laid up but in the bosome of God Shall we leave that poor and naked when our selves abound in wealth Shall our bodies rest in a house of cedar and our soul in a nasty stie How many Heathen Philosophers have flung away their wealth to enrich their nobler part How have they been ashamed to think their souls were in their bodies as Eunapius speaketh of Jamblicus One flingeth his gold into the sea another strippeth himself a third ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã did macerate his body and keep it down that he seemed to have made it his labour to have turned it into soul And shall Christians make it their study and delight to immerse the soul in the body and to turn it into flesh to take such care of their flesh as if they were nothing but flesh and had no soul at all No As the soul is more excellent then the body so it must first be in our care first in our devotion Look upon all the commendable actions which purchase us praise with God and what are they but acts of open war and hostility against the body Temperance and Continence what are they but the subduing of our fleshly lusts which fight against the spirit Care and Diligence what are they but a petpetual war with Sloth and Idleness upon which this dull and earthy mass of our bodies is prone to relapse Piety and Devotion what are they but a neglect or rather an open defiance unto all things which seem to savour of love and care for the body so that here Love were treason and Agreement nothing but conspiracy and Peace pactio servitutis For if we entertein any covenant of peace with our flesh it can be but such a one as Nahash the Ammonite offered to make with the men of Jabesh Gilead upon condition we will pull out our eyes The flesh 1 Sam. 11. the more vve suppress it the more we love it the more vve beat it down the more vve exalt it and vvhen vve mortifie it vve do even spiritualize it and in a manner upon this corruptible put on incorruption Our first care must be to subdue the body and keep it under vvhich is indeed to honour it If our affections be levelled aright if vve keep a true and exact method in our search we shall not talk so much of Riches as of Righteousness vve shall be enquiring what news from heaven vvhat the state of that Court is vvhat place vvhat degree vve shall have there of Faith and Holiness and Obedience without which no man shall see God For in the next place vvhat comparison can vve make between spiritual and temporal blessings the one of inestimable price the other not worth the naming S. Hilary commenting upon the first Psalm speaketh of some vvho interpreting the book of Psalms thought it some discredit to that book that terrene and secular matter should so often interline it self and therefore all their interpretations they made respectively to spiritual things and God himself Which conceit though an apparent errour yet that Father condemneth not but mildly pronounceth of it Haec eorum opinio argui non potest This opinion of theirs cannot be condemned for it is the sense of a mind piously and religiously affected and it is a thing unblameable by favourable endeavour to strive to fit all things to him by whom all things were made For vvhat if vve vvere not told of a Land flowing with milk and hony vvhat if vve saw not riches and plenty in God's left hand and length of dayes in his right What if vve vvere not told of riches and honour and prosperity could vve think there vvere nothing to be sought for All the gold in Ophir is not to be compared vvith one religious thought nor can there be any
up one another and if you remove and take one away the rest will fall So it is here These two especial stones of our spiritual building our first Resurrection and our Seeking of things above do mutually hold up and mutually prove one another For take away but the stone of our first Resurrection and that of Seeking the things above will immediately fall and take away the Seeking of the things above and there is no first Resurrection Let us but grant that we are risen with Christ and certainly we shall seek the things above and if we find our minds fixed on the things above we may infallibly conclude unto our selves that we are risen with Christ But I must come to my Division These words as all other conditional speeches and propositions do naturally divide themselves into these two parts 1. the Antecedent or foregoing part If thou be risen with Christ 2. the Consequent or following part then seek those things which are above We shall limit and bound our discourse within these three considerations 1. That our conversion and newness of life is a Rising which we ground upon these words If you be risen 2. That this our conversion and rising must be early without delay for which we have warrant in the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Apostle speaks in the time past For he saith not If you do rise or If you will rise but If you are risen as supposing it to be already done 3. Lastly That the manifestation of our conversion of this our rising with Christ consists in our seeking of those things which are above as Christs was by appearing to his Disciples and shewing to them his hands and his feet If you be then risen with Christ seek those things which are above Of these in their order Though there be many words in Scripture by which our Newness of life is exprest yet our Apostle in divers places of his writings makes especial choice of this of rising as Ephes 2.1 You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins and v. 5. even when we were dead in sins he hath quickned us together in Christ and hath raised us up together with Christ And again chap. 5. he maketh use of that of the Prophet Isaiah Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Omnis causa eousque in Adam censetur donec in Christo rââââatur saith Tertullian Every soul is dead with the first Adam ãâã it be raised up to life with the second We may truly say of it that it is departed because God who is the life of the Soul is departed from it And it being destitute of the favour of God which should actuate and quicken it the stench of Sin seizeth upon it the worm of Conscience gnaws it the horrour of Infidility makes it like unto the fiends of Hell fit in sepulcro corporis vivo funus animae jam sepultum and a living body is made the sepulchre to a dead soul a soul that is dead and yet dies every moment multiplies as many deaths as sins and if that of the Schools be true Peccator peccat in suo infinito would be dead and dying to all eternity Son of man can these bones live as the Spirit of God says unto the Prophet Ezek. 37. Can these broken sinews of the Soul come together and be one again Can such a disordered Clock where every whele is broken be set again Can this dead Soul be made a Saint and walk before God in the land of the living We may answer with the Prophet Lord God thou knowest Thou knowest that this dissolved putrified carcass may see the light again that Mary Magdelene may rise from sin as well as her brother Lazarus from the grave that as we are fallen with Adam so we may rise again with Christ that these Stones being formed into the faith of Abraham may be made the children of Abraham and this generation of vipers having spit out their venome may bring forth fruits worthy amendment of life And this our conversion may well be stiled a Rising for many reasons for many waies it resembles it First the World may well go not onely for a Prison but a Grave All the pomp and glory of it are but as dust and ashes wherein we are raked up and buried All the desires all the pleasures of it are but as the grave-cloths wherewith we are bound And in the midst of these allurements in the midst of these glories and sensual objects the Soul rots and corrupts and even stinketh in the nostrils of God In the midst of all the greatness the world can cast upon us the Soul becomes worse then nothing The Love of the world is as unsatiable as the Grave and devours souls as that doth bodies But when through the operation of the Spirit we are taken out of the world we have our resurrection Then it may be said of us as Christ said of his disciples They are not of the world for I have chosen them out of the world John 17. I have set them apart and made them my peculiar people that they may escape the pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2.20 They are born in the world and in the world they are born again unto me In the world they are but not of the world In the world they are and in the world they traffick for another world passing by this as not worth the cheapning looking upon Beauty as upon a snare loathing Riches as dung and afraid of Pleasures as of Hell it self They have a being but not living in the world for their life is hid with Christ in God But as Christ when he was risen staid yet a while upon earth before he ascended so do Christians make a short abode and sojourn for a time in it as in a strange country looking for a city whose builder and maker is God In the world they have nothing for they have forsaken all surrendred all the things of the world to the world Matth. 16. Luke 14. earth to earth dust to dust ashes to ashes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they are our Saviours own words by which not onely the act of forsaking is signified but such an affection of the mind as placeth all things under Christ is ready to fling them away if they cannot keep them with Christ having as if they had not possessing as if they possest not having stept into the world as mariners do sometimes out of their ship to the shore there gathering these cockles but ready upon the sign given to cast them away and return with hast into the ship So that in respect of the world it may be said of them as the Angel said of Christ Why seek you the living amongst the dead they are risen they are not here Secondly at our Resurrection there will be a great change For though we shall not all sleep we shall all be changed This corruptible
Pulpit-flatterers 506. Flattering Preachers are vvorse then Judas 510 511. The root of Flattery is Covetousness 507 c. How apt vve are to flatter our selves 442. 480. 742. 875. v. Assurance Presumtion Security Flesh v. Body Flesh and Spirit contrary 175. 562. 767. ever contending one vvith another 312. Florimundus Raimundus 556. Folly Whence all the Folly that so aboundeth in the vvorld 689 690. Fools and Mad-men vvhat to be thought of 96. None such Fools as they vvho think themselves vvise 500 501. Forgetfulness of the World reproved 1116. Forgiveness How short our Forgiveness cometh of God's 817. God's F. is free and voluntary and so must ours be 818. Whether we are bound to forgive an injury before acknowledgment made 818. God forgiveth fully and so must vve not onely forgive but forget 819. By this vve become like unto God 820. Though vve must forgive yet is not the office of the Judge or going to Law unlawful 821. God's F. is not the less free because it engageth us to forgive 824. What force our F. hath to obtain F. of God 824 825 830 c. What influence God's F. should have on us 826 c. How it cometh to pass that it doth not alwayes vvork in us the likeness of it self 827 828. That we may forgive our Brother vve must oft call to mind and meditate upon the Mercy of God 828 829. and apply it aright 829. What vve must do to get our sins forgiven 833. Grace to forgive one another is never single but accompanied vvith other graces 833. Form A Form of godliness nothing worth vvithout the power thereof 663. yet it deceiveth many 77. 79. and contenteth them 74 c. 303 304. 487. and vvorketh confidence and security in their hearts 74. 76. 1127 1128. and they conceit that God himself also is much taken vvith such pageantry 82. 108 109. Indeed the Form is accepted vvhen the power is not wanting 79 80. otherwise not 487 488. Why a bare Form vvithout substance is so hateful to God 75-79 It hath the same motive with our greatest sins 76. It is mere mockery 80. 877. It is as pleasing to the Devil as it is odious to God 77. v. Hearing Piety Worship Formality v. Outward Duties It is compared to motions by vvater-works 845. Formalities are easy essential duties difficult 1057. Formal repentance is the grossest hypocrisie 372. Fornication eloquently and excellently declaimed against 750 752. Excuses for it answered 750. It dishonoureth the body and defileth the soul 750. It maketh the members of Christ the members of an harlot 750. It is of all sins the most carnal 750. It effeminateth both mind and body 751. It is the Devil's net to catch two at once 751. How strictly Christ forbiddeth it 751. What presumtions there are of its abounding in this Age 751 752. That the very Heathen thought it foul appeareth from their custome of bathing after it 751. Frailty Of humane Frailty 535 c. Friendship obligeth to duty 105. No Friendship is lasting that is not built upon Virtue 371. A wise Friend will shun the least suspicion of offense 380. 612. Fundamentals of Protestants Religion 285 Fundamental and necessary points are plain and evident in Script 1084 1085. Funeral rites at the death of a Romane Emperour 423. Future events unknown to us 250. 1043. v. Time G. GAin v. Profit How greedily and basely pursued not onely by Heathens but by many Christians also 131 132. The gainfullest use of riches 143. Gal. ii 20. 521. ¶ v. 21. 375. ¶ vi 12. 501. Galene's helps in the pursuit of knowledge 66. Gallant The profane Gallant a despicable wretch 528. Gen. iii. 19. In the sweat of thy brows thou shalt eat thy bread a command as well as a curse 218. ¶ 22. 158. 630 631. ¶ vi 3. 795. ¶ xlii 21 22. 387. ¶ Gen. xlvi 27 28. handsomely applied 321. Gentleman No Gentleman hath a licence to be idle 222. GHOST The HOLY GHOST a distinct Person 53. Several titles of his and operations 54. Why called the Spirit of truth 54. 57. Though sent by the Father and the Son yet is his coming voluntary 56. The end of Christ's coming and of the H. Ghost's 52. 760. The H. Ghost though not so solemnly as of old yet still cometh effectually upon the faithful 52. 760. He is ever consonant to himself 55. He is our chief our sole Instructour 760. 772. Though the Church and the Word and Discipline be our Teachers yet the H. Ghost may be truly called our sole Teacher 778. How he is said to teach us all truth 58. How he teacheth us 773. Means must be used for the obteining the gifts of the H. Ghost 61. 67 68. Into what posture we must put our selves if we will receive him 779. We must be careful not to disquiet and grieve him 773 774. Many pretend to be led by the H. Ghost when their design is to oppose him 62. 64. Which is a sin perhaps more dangerous then flatly to deny him 63. 774. Whence it is that so few follow his guidance 65. He hath worse enemies nowadayes then the Eunomians and Sabellians 774. What horrible wickedness some in this Age entitle him to 774. But because some mistake and abuse the Spirit we must not thence conclude that none are taught by him 775. He not onely taught the Church in the Apostles times but teacheth it still in all ages 776. His operations indeed are not easily perceived 775. but that he hath wrought we may find 776. How we may prove the Spirit 780 781. and discern his instructions from the suggestions of Satan and the dreams of fanaticks 64. 66. 777. 780. Glorifying of God what 744 c. 748. 754. 1009. We must glorifie God in soul and in body 744 c. Whether an actual intention of God's glory perpetually in our mind be necessary 745. More is required of us then to glorifie God verbally 754. God's Glory must be the first mover of our obedience 1008. It is not so resplendent in a Starre nor in the Sun as in the New creature 1009. If we glorifie God here we shall glorifie him to eternity 747. Gnosticks 167. GOD cannot be spoken of with too much reverence 7. 409. He is a most simple Essence 78. incomprehensible 165. Bold and curious searching of him unlawful 164 165. He is to be seen by faith not curiously gazed upon 729. Though he be invisible yet we may see Him by the light that shineth in his Works in our Conscience and in his Word 784 c. ¶ God delighteth in his Wisdome more then in any other of his Attributes 326. 1029. Of his Omnipresence and Omniscience 164. Errours concerning God's Presence 165. Belief of God's Presence the greatest curb of sin 164. 167 c 258. God's Wisdome drew his Justice and Mercy together and reconciled them in Christ's Satisfaction and ours 327. Counsels which some men fasten upon God contrary to his Wisdome and Goodness 326. 407
yet the wrath of God was more visible to him than those that do who bear but their own burthen whereas he lay pressed under the sins of the whole world God in his approaches of Justice when he cometh toward the sinner to correct him may seem to go like the Consuls of Rome with his Rods and his Axes carried before him Many sinners have felt his Rods And his Rod is comfort his Frown favour his Anger love and his Blow a benefit But Christ was struck as it were with his Ax. Others have trembled under his wrath Psal 39.10 but Christ was even consumed by the stroke of his hand Being delivered to God's Wrath that wrath deliverth him to these Throws and Agonies delivereth him to Judas who delivereth nay betrayeth him to the Jews who deliver him to Pilate who delivered him to the Cross where the Saviour of the world must be murthered where Innocency and Truth it self hangeth between thot Thieves I mention not the shame or the torment of the Cross for we Thieves endured the same But his Soul was crucified more than his Body and his Heart had sharper nails to pierce it than his Hands or Feet TRADIDIT ET NON PEPERCIT He delivered him and spared him not But to rise one step more TRADIDIT ET DESERVIT He delivered and in a manner forsook him restrained his influence denied relief withdrew comfort stood as it were afar off and let him fight it out unto death He looked about and there was none to help Isa 63.5 even to the Lord he called but he heard him not Psal 18 41. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He roared out for the very grief of his heart and cryed with a loud voyce My God my God Matth. 27.46 why hast thou forsaken me And could God forsake him Psal 38.8 When he hung upon the cross did he not see the joy which was set before him Yes he did Heb. 12.2 but not to comfort but rather torment him Altissimo Divinitatis consilio actum est ut gloria militaret in poenam saith Leo By the counsel of the Godhead it was set down and determined that his Glory should add to his Punishment that his knowledge which was more clear than a Seraphins should increase his Grief his Glory his Shame his Happiness his Misery that there should not only be Vinegar in his Drink and Gall in his Honey and Myrrhe with his Spices but that his Drink should be Vinegar his Honey Gall and all his Spices as bitter as Myrrhe that his Flowers should be Thorns and his Triumph Shame This could Sin do And can we love it This could the Love and tht Wrath of God do his Love to his Creature and his Wrath against Sin And what a Delivery what a Desertion was this which did not deprive Christ of strength but enfeeble him with strength which did not leave him in the dark but punish him with light What a strange Delivery was that which delivered him up without comfort nay which betrayed and delivered up his comforts themselves What misery equal to that which maketh Strength a tormenter Knowledge a vexation and Joy and Glory a persecution There now hangeth his sacred Body on the cross not so much afflicted with his passion as his Soul was wounded with compassion with compassion on his Mother with compassion on his Disciples with compassion on the Jews who pierced him for whom he prayeth when they mock him which did manifest his Divinity as much as his miracles Tantam patientiam nemo unquam perpetravit Tert. de Patientia with compassion on the Temple which was shortly to be levelled with the ground with compassion on all Mankind bearing the burden of all dropping his pity and his blood together upon them feeling in himself the torments of the blessed Martyrs the reproach of his Saints the wounds of every broken heart the poverty diseases afflictions of all his Brethren to the end of the world delivered to a sense of their sins who feel them not and to a sense of theirs who grone under them delivered up to all the miseries and sorrows not only which himself then felt but which any men which all men have felt or shall feel to the time the Trump shall sound and he shall come again in glory The last Delivery was of his Soul which was indeed traditio a yielding it up a voluntary emission or delivering it up into his Fathers hands praevento carnificis officio saith the Father He preventeth the spear and the hand of the executioner and giveth up the ghost What should I say or where should I end Who can fathome this depth The Angels stand amazed the Heavens are hung with black the Earth openeth her mouth and the Grave hers and yieldeth up her dead the veyl of the Temple rendeth asunder the Earth trembleth and the Rocks are cleft But neither Art nor Nature can reach the depth of this Wisdom and Love no tongue neither of the living nor of the dead neither of Men nor Angels is able to express it The most powerful eloquence is the threnody of a broken heart For there Christ's death speaketh it self and the virtue and power of it reflecteth back again upon him and reacheth him at the right hand of God where his wounds are open his merits vocal interceding for us to the end of the world We have now past two steps and degrees of this scale of Love with wonder and astonishment and I hope with grief and love we have passed through a field of Blood to the top of mount Calverie where the Son of God the Saviour of the World is nailed to the cross and being lifted up upon his cross looketh down upon us to draw us after him Look then back upon him who looketh upon us whom our sins have pierced and behold his blood trickling down upon us Which is one ascent more and bringeth in the Persons for whom he was delivered First for us Secondly for us all III. Now that he should be delivered FOR VS is a contemplation full of delight and comfort but not so easie to digest For if we reflect upon our selves and there see nothing but confusion and horrour we shall soon ask the question Why for us Why not for the lapsed Angels who fell from their estate as we did They glorious Spirits we vile Bodies they heavenly Spirits we of the earth earthly ready to sink to the earth from whence we came they immortal Spirits we as the grass withered before we grow Yet he spared not his Son to spare us but the Angels that fell he cast into Hell 2 Pet. 2.4 and chained them up in everlasting darkness We may think that this was munus honorarium that Christ was delivered for us for some worth or excellency in us No it was munus eleemosynarium a gift bestowed upon us in meer compassion of our wants With the Angels God dealeth in rigor and relenteth
it self and fill the world with Atheists which will learn by no Masters but such as instruct fools nor acknowledge any Keyes but those which may break their head But indeed we have had these Keyes too long in our hands For though they concern us yet are they not the keyes in the Text nor had we lookt upon them but that those of the Romish party wheresoever they find keys mentioned take them up and hang them on their Church But we must observe a difference betwixt the keyes of the kingdome of heaven Matth. 16.19 which were given to Peter and the keyes of Hell and of Death although with them when the Keyes are seen Heaven and Hell are all one For the key of David Rev. 3.7 which openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth was not given to the Apostles but is a regality and prerogative of Christ who only hath power of Life and Death over Hell and the Grave who therefore calleth himself the first and the last because although when he first publisht his Gospel he died and was buried yet he rose again to live for ever so to perfect the great work of our salvation and by his power to bind those in everlasting chains who stood out against him and to bring those that bow to his sceptre out of prison into liberty and everlasting life The power is his alone and he made it his by his sufferings Phil. 2.8 9. He was obedient to death therefore God did highly exalt him Phil. 2.7 11. He became a Lord by putting on the form of a servant But he hath delegated his power to his Apostles and those that succeed them to make us capable and fit subjects for his power to work upon which nevertheless will have its operation and effect either let us out or shut us up for ever under the power of Hell and of Death Were not he alive and to live for evermore we had been shut up in darkness and oblivion for ever But Christ living infuseth life into us that the bands of Hell and of Death can no more hold us than they can him There is such a place as Hell but to the living members of Christ there is no such place For it is impossible it should hold them You may as well place Lucifer at the right hand of God as a true Christian in Hell For how can Light dwell in Darkness How can Purity mix with stench How can Beauty stay with Horrour If Nature could forget her course and suffer contradictories to be drawn together and be both true yet this is such a contradiction as unless Christ could die again which is impossible can never be reconciled Matth. 5.18 Heaven and earth may pass away but Christ liveth for evermore and the power and virtue of his Life is as everlasting as Everlastingness it self Rev. 6.8 And again There was a pale horse and his name that sat on him was Death and he had power to kill with the sword and with hunger and with death and with the beasts of the earth But now he doth not kill us he doth but stagger us and fling us down that we may rise again and tread him under our feet and by the power of an everliving Saviour be the death of Death it self Job 18.14 Death was the King of terrors and the fear of Death made us slaves Heb. 2.15 and kept us in servility and bondage all our life long made our pleasures less delightful and our virtues more tedious made us tremble and shrink from those Heroick undertakings for the truth of God But now they in whom Christ liveth and moveth and hath his being as in his own dare look upon Death in all his horror expeditum morti genus saith Tertullian and are ready to meet him in his most dreadful march with all his army of Diseases Racks and Tortures Man before he sinned knew not what Death meant then Eve familiarly conversed with the Serpent so do Christians with Death Having that Divine Image restored in them they are secure and fear it not For what can that Tyrant take from them Col. 3.3 Their life That is hid with Christ in God Psal 37.4 It cannot cut them off from pleasure for their delight is in the Lord. Matth. 6.20 It cannot rob them of their treasure for that is laid up in heaven It can take nothing from them but what themselves have already crucified Gal. 5.24 their Flesh It cannot cut off one hope one thought one purpose for all their thoughts purposes and hopes were leveld not on this but on another life And now Christ hath his keyes in his hand Death is but a name it is nothing or if it be something it is such a thing as troubled S Augustine to define what it is We call it a punishment but indeed it is a benefit a favour even such a favour that Christ who is as omnipotent as he is everlasting who can work all in all though he abolished the Law of Moses and of Ceremonies yet would not abrogate the law by which we are bound over unto death because it is so profitable and advantageous to us It was indeed threatned but it is now a promise or the way unto it for Death it is that letteth us into that which was promised It was an end of all it is now the beginning of all It was that which cut off life it is now that through which as through a gate we enter into it We may say it is the first point and moment of our after-eternity for it is so neer unto it that we can hardly sever them We live or rather labour and fight and strive with the World and with Life it self which is it self a temptation and whilst by the power of our everliving Christ we hold up and make good this glorious contention and fight and conquer and press forward towards the mark either nature faileth or is prest down with violence and we dye that is our language but the Spirit speaketh after another manner we sleep we are dissolved we fall in pieces our bodies from our souls and we from our miseries and temptations and this living everliving Christ gathereth us together again breatheth life and eternity into us that we may live and reign with him for evermore And so I have viewed all the parts of the Text being the main articles of our Faith 1 Christs Death 2. his Life 3. his eternal Life and last of all his Power of the Keyes his Dominion over Hell and Death We will but in a word fit the ECCE the Behold in the Text to every part of it and set the Seal Amen to it and so conclude And first we place the ECCE the Behold on his Death He suffered and dyed that he might learn to have compassion on thy miseries and on thy dust and raise thee from both and wilt thou learn nothing from his compassion
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 thââ 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a strange unheard of Deity and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Nazianz. Orat 37. Quis vetârum 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
urge and carry us on toward the Truth It is the first of all the passions and operations of the soul the first mover as it were being a strong propension to that we love And it is fitted and proportioned to the mind seeking out means and working forward with all heat of intention unto the end It is eminent among the affections calling up my Fear my Hope my Anger my Sorrow my Fear of not finding out what I seek yet in the midst of fear raising a Hope to attain to it my Sorrow that I find it not so soon as I would and my Anger at any thing that is averse or contrary at any cloud or difficulty placed between me and the Truth The love of Christ saith S. Paul 2 Cor. 5.14 constraineth us ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it is a resemblance taken from women in travel Love constraineth urgeth me worketh in me such a desire as the pain in travel doth in a woman to be delivered For do we not labour and travel with a conclusion which we would find out and what joy is there when we have like that of a woman in travel when a man-child is brought into the world If ye love me keep my commandments John 14.15 saith Christ If ye love me not ye cannot but if ye love me ye will certainly keep them Will you know the reason why the wayes of Truth are so desolate why so little Truth is known when all offereth it self and is even importunate with us to receive it There can be no other reason given but this Our hearts are congealed our spirits frozen and we coldly affected to the Truth nay averse and turn from it This Truth crosseth our profit that our pleasure other Truths stand in our light and obstruct our passage to that we most desire S. Paul speaketh plainly 2 Cor. 4.3 4. If the truth be hid it is hid to them that perish In whom the God of this world hath so blinded their mind that the light of this truth should not shine upon them If we have eyes to see her she is a fair object as visible as the Sun If we do but love the Truth the Spirit of Truth is ready to take us by the hand and lead us to it Hebr. 10.38 but those that withdraw themselves doth his soul hate 2. In the next place the Love of Truth bringeth in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Psal 1.2 a Love of Industry If we love it it will be alwayes in our thoughts and we shall meditate of it day and night Gen. 29.20 To Love seven years are but a few dayes great burdens are but small and labour is a pleasure when we walk in the region of Truth viewing it and delighting in it gathering what may be for our use we walk as in a paradise Truth is best bought when it costeth us most it must be wooed oft and seriously and with great devotion As Pithagoras said of the Gods Non est salutanda in transitu it is not to be spoken with in the By and passage it is not content with a glance and salutation and no more but we must behold it with care and anxiety make a kind of perigrination out of our selves run and sweat to meet it and then this Spirit leadeth us to it And this great encouragement we have In this our labour we never fail of the end we labour for But in our other endeavours and attempts we have nothing to uphold us under those burdens we lay upon our own shoulders but a deceitful hope which carrieth us along to see it self defeated and the frustration of that hope is a greater penalty and vexation than that pains we undertook for its sake How many rise up early to be rich and before their day shutteth up are beggers How many climb to the highest place and when they are near it and ready to sit down fall back into a prison But in this labour we never fail the Spirit working with us and blessing the work of our hands He maketh our busie and careful thoughts as his chariot and then filleth us with light Such is the privilege and prerogative of Industry such is the nature of Truth that it will be wrought out by it Never did any rise up early and in good earnest travel towards it but this Spirit brought him to his journeyes end Prov. 2.4 5. If thou seekest her as silver saith the wise man if thou search for her as for hid treasures which being hid we remove many things turn up much earth and labour hard that we may come to them then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God In this work our Industry and the Spirits help are as it were joyned and linked together You will say perhaps that the Spirit is an omnipotent Agent and can fall suddenly upon us as he did upon the Apostles this day that he can lead us in the way of Truth though we sit still though our feet be chained though we have no feet at all But the Proverb will answer you ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If God will you may sail over the sea in a sieve But we must remember the Spirit leadeth us according to his own will and counsel not ours As he is an omnipotent so is he a free Agent also and worketh and dispenseth all things according to the good pleasure of his will Eph. 1.5 And certainly he will not lead thee if thou wilt not follow he will not teach thee if thou wilt not learn Nor can we think that the Truth which must make us happy is of so easie purchase that it will be sown in any ground and as the Devil's tares Matth. 13.25 grow up in us whilest we sleep 3. The third rule is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Method or an Orderly proceeding in the wayes of Truth As in all other Arts and Sciences so in spiritual Wisdome and in the School of Christ we may not hand over head huddle up matters as we please but we must keep an orderly and set course in our studies and proceedings Our Saviour Christ hath a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Seek ye first the kingdome of God Mat. 6.33 and in that Kingdome every thing in its order There is something first and something next to be observed and every thing to be ranked in its proper place The Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews telleth us of principles of doctrine Hebr. 6.1 which must be learned before we can be led forward to perfection Heb. 5.13 14. of milk and of strong meat of plainer lessons before we reach at higher Mysteries Nor can we hope to make a good Christian veluti ex luto statuam as soon as we can make a statue out of clay Most Christians are perfect too soon which is the reason that they are never perfect They are spiritual in the twinkling of an eye they know not how nor no
man else They leap over all their Alphabet and are at their ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã their end before they begin They are at the top of the ladder before they have set a foot to the first step or round They study heaven but not the way to it Faith but not Good works Repentance without a Change or Restitution Religion without Order They are as high as Gods closet in heaven when they should be busie at his foot-stool They study Predestination but not Sanctity of life Assurance but not that Piety which should work it Heaven and not Grace and Grace but not their Duty And now no marvel if they meet not with saving Truth in this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã this so great disorder and confusion No marvel when we have broke all rules and order and not observed the method of the Spirit if the Spirit lead us not who is a Spirit that loveth order and in a right method and orderly course leadeth us into the truth 4. The last is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Exercitation and Practice of the truths we learn This is so proper and necessary for a Christian that Christian Religion goeth under that name ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Clem. Al. Strom. l. 4. and is called an exercise by Clemens Alexandrinus Nyssene Cyrill of Hierusalem and others And though they who lead a Monastical life have laid claim to it as their own they were called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã yet it may well belong to every one that is the Spirit 's Scholar who is as a Monk in the world shut up out of it even while he is in it exercising himself in those lessons which the Spirit teacheth and following as he leadeth Which is to make the World it self a Monastery A good Christian is the true ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and by this dayly exercise in the doctrines of the Spirit doth drive the Truth home and make it enter into the soul and spirit Talis quisque est qualibus delectatur Inter artificem artificium mira cognatio est Anaxagoras said well Manus causa sapientiae It is not the brain but the hand that causeth knowledge and worketh wisdome And true wisdome that which the Spirit teacheth consisteth not in being a good Critick and rightly judging of the sense of words or in being a good Logician drawing out a true and perfect definition of Faith and Charity or discoursing aptly and methodically of the Lessons of the Spirit or in being a good Oratour setting out the beauty and lustre of Religion to the very eye No saith the Son of Sirach Ecclus. 34.10 He that hath no experience knoweth little Ex mandato mandatum cernimus By practising the command we gain a kind of familiarity a more inward and certain knowledge of it If any man will do the will of God Joh 7.17 he shall know the Doctrine In Divinity and indeed in all knowledge whose end is practice that of Aristotle is true Those things we learn to do we learn by doing them We learn Devotion by prayer Charity by giving of alms Meekness by forgiving injuries Humility and Patience by suffering Temperance by every-day-fighting against our lusts As we know meat by the tast so do we the things of God by practice and experience and at last discover Heaven it self in piety And this is that which S. Paul calleth doctrine according to godliness We taste and see how gracious the Lord is 1 Tim. 6.3 Psal 34.8 1 Joh. 1.1 we do as it were see with our eyes and with our hands handle the word of truth In a word when we manifest the Truth and make it visible in our actions the Spirit is with us and ready in his office to lead us further even to the inner house and closet of Truth He displayeth his beams of light as we press forward and mend our pace He every day shineth upon us with more brightness as we every day strive to increase He teacheth us not so much by words as by actions and practice by the practice of those virtues which are his lessons and our duties We learn that we may practice and by practice we become as David speaketh Psal 119 99. Psal 19.2 wiser then our teachers To conclude Day unto day teacheth knowledge and every act of piety is apt to promote and produce a second to beget more light which may yet lead us further from truth to truth till at last we be strengthned and established in the Truth and brought to that happy estate which hath no shadow of falshood but like the Spirit of Truth endureth for evermore The First SERMON PART I. MICAH VI. 6 8. v. 6. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt offerings c. v. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Psal 4.6 THere be many who say Who will shew us any good saith the Prophet David For Good is that which men naturally desire And here the Prophet Micah hath fitted an answer to this question He hath shewed thee O man what is good And in the discovery of this Good he useth the same method which the Philosopher doth in the description of his moral Happiness First he sheweth us what it is not and then what it is And as the Philosopher shutteth out Honour and Riches and Pleasure as being so little necessary that we may be happy without them so doth the Prophet in the verses going before my Text in a manner reject and cast by Burnt-offerings and all the cerimonial and typical part of Moses Law all that outward busie expensive and sacrificing Religion as no whit esseâtial to that Good which he here fixeth up as upon a pillar for all eyes to look upon as being of no great alliance or nearness nor fit to incorporate it self with that Piety which must commend us to God And as a true Prophet he doth not only discover to the Jews the common errour of their lives but sheweth them yet a more excellent way first asking the question Non satis est reprehendisse peccantem si non doceas recti viam Colum. de Re Rust l. 11. c 1. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams Whether Sacrifice be that part of Religion with which we may appear and bow before our God and be accepted and then in his answer in the words of my Text quite excluding it as not absolutely necessary and essential to that which is indeed Religion And here the Question Will the Lord be pleased with sacrifice addeth emphasis and energy and maketh the Denyal more strong and the Conclusion in the Text more positive and binding then if it had been in plain terms and formally denyed Then this Good had been shewed naked and alone and not brought in with
drop a penny We wast away and sicken and make our will and seal it and doubt not but the Spirit will do his office and seal our redemption At last the rich man dyeth and is buried and some hireling will tell you The Angels have carried his soul into heaven A strange conceit Luke 16. and if true of force to pluck Lazarus out of Abrahams bosome and to bring back Dives through the gulf and place him in his room But if this be not true may it never be true Onely let us not deceive our selves but search and try our hearts and root out all such vain and groundless and pernicious imaginations which may be raised up in time of prosperity and multiply like flyes in the Sun Let us not seek our peace in those false fictitious spurious deceitful Goods but in the true and full and filling Good the Good here in the Text. And because God hath fitted and proportioned it to us let us fit and apply our selves unto it And since he hath built us up after his own Image let us adorn and beautifie it with Justice and Mercy and Humility and not blur and deface it with the craft of a Fox the lust of a Goat and the rage of a Lion For what should the mark of the Beast do upon the Image of God Again being fitted to us and to all sorts and conditions of men Let young men and maids Psal 148.12 13. old men and children Scribes and Ideots noble and ignoble Priest and people cleave and adhear to it and so praise and magnifie the name of the Lord Sic laudant Angeli for so the Angels and Arch-angels praise him And thirdly being lovely and amiable let us make it our choice and espouse our wills to it love and embrace it not kiss and wound it approve and condemn it worship it in our hearts and persecute it in our brethren And since it is a filling and satisfying good here let us let down our pitchers Isa 12.3 and draw waters out of this well of salvatien even those waters which will sweeten our miseries and give a pleasant tast to Bitterness it self To conclude Behold here is the object that which is Good fair and beautiful to the eye Jer. 5.1 Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see if you can find a MAN and he is the spectatour and cannot but see it But what went you out into the wilderness to see Matth. 11 7-9 saith our Saviour Why the eye is never satisfied Pro. 27.20 and all would go out to see Some would see soft Raiment Eccl. 1.8 4.8 and that you may see on every back Some gaze upon Beauty and that is a burning-glass to set the Soul on fire Others love to see the redness of the Wine Prov. 23.31 20.1 Look not on it saith Solomon It is a mocker Some would behold a shew of Pomp and Glory and we see though Justice can never fail but hath the best even when she is worsted yet Injustice hath had more triumphs then she When Julius Caesar triumphed over his countrey and when Pompey rid in with the spoils of Asia the ceremony and the pomp and the glory was the same But the eye with which we behold these spectacles is not fit for this object We have another eye a spiritual eye we call it the eye of our Reason and we call it the eye of our Faith This many times is but as an eye of glass for shew but no use at all and serveth to hide a deformity but not to see with But if it be a quick and living eye then here is a fit object for it worth the looking on in which we may see all other things in a fairer dress in a celestial form in the beauty of Holiness being made useful and subservient to it like that Speculum Trinitatis that feigned Glass in which they tell us he that looketh seeth all things If wee see not this object then are we blind 2 Pet. 1.9 or if not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã yet ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã purblind not seeing afar off those things which are laid up in heaven for those who look upon this Good and love it and then I am unwilling to say what we are but certainly we are but infidels And indeed there is something of Infidelity in all our aversions and turning away from this Good For what is the reason that covetous men make Riches an idol and sacrifice to their own net but want of faith and their distrust in God For when God doth not answer their desires 1 Sam. 28. Adv. Judaeos c. 1. Praeesset eis bubulum caput c. they run with Saul to the Devil at Endor or with the Israelites in a pet chuse to themselves bubulum caput as Tertullian expresseth it a Calves head to be their leader I say there is a degree of Infidelity in all these aversions from this Good All that can be said is but what many say within themselves after they have consulted with flesh and blood that this Good is not shewn so clearly nor made so plain as it is said to be which is indeed to remove theiâ own prop and pillar to demollish their own Idol and to drive Faith quite out of the world Believe they do in God yet will not trust him And they are perswaded of the truth of things not seen yet will leave the pursuit of them to follow vanity because they are not seen He hath shewed thee O man what is good and wilt thou not believe him Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance of things not seen and though they be not seen yet they are evident the Means evident and the End as evident as the Means in our sad and sober thoughts when we talk like speculative men as evident as what is open to the eye But such an evidence we have which a Covetous man would soon lay hold on for a title to a fair inheritance and the Ambitious for an assignment of some great place For if such a record had been transmitted to posterity if the Scripture which conveyeth this Good had entailed some rich Manour or Lordship upon them it should have then found an easie belief and been Gospel a sure word of prophecy unquestionable undoubtable like the decrees of the Medes and Persians which must stand fast for ever and cannot be altered For too many there be who had rather have their names in a good leaf then in the book of life And this is the reason why we are so ignorant of that which is Good indeed and so great Clerks in that which is called good but by the worst why we are so dull and indocil in apprehending that wisdome which is from above and so wise and witty to our own damnation why we do but darkly see this Good which is so plainly shewn unto us What shall we say then Nay what saith the
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
be removed out of one it may be removed out of any place Nor is that Church which calleth her self the Mother and Queen of the rest secure from violence but may be driven from her seat and pomp though she be bold to tell the world that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her Religion it is true is as mount Sion which cannot be moved Psal 125.1 but standeth fast for ever No sword no power can divide me from it nor force it out of my embraces It hath its protection its salvam gardiam from Omnipotency But the outward profession of it the form and manner in which we profess it in a word that face of the Church which is visible is as subject to change as all those things are which are under the Moon All I shall say is Wonder not at it for the Church of Christ is still the same the same in her nakedness and poverty that she was in her cloth of wrought gold and all her embroyderie Marvel not then for such Admiration is the child of Ignorance an exhalation from the Flesh and hath more in it of Ishmael then of Isaac And that we may not marvel let us in the next place have a right judgement in all things and not set up the Church in our phansy and shape her out by the state and pomp of this world Rom. 12.2 but be transformed by the renewing of our minds We must not make the world the Idea and platform of a Church Monarchy is the best form of government saith the Philosopher and therefore say they at Rome the fittest for the Church Judges are set up to determin controversies in the Common-wealth and by this pattern they erect a Tribunal for a Judge in matters of faith Temporall Felicity and Peace is the desire of the whole earth hence they have made it a note and mark of the Church of Christ like the wanton Painter in Pliny who drew the Picture of a Goddess in the shape and likeness of his Paramour and thought that was best and fittest which he best liked From hence it is from our too much familiarity with the World from our daily parleys with Vanity from our wanton Hospitality and free reception of it into our thoughts and the delight we take in such a guest that we are deceived and lose all the strength of our judgment and are not able to distinguish between Heaven and Earth and discern that one differeth from the other in glory And being thus blinded having this veil drawn before our face we are very apt to take the Church and the World to be alike miscere Deum seculum to mingle God and the World together and place our selves betwixt them and so make Vanity it self our companion in our way to happiness Therefore let us cast down these bubbles of air blown up by the Flesh and in time of peace prepare for war behold the glittering of the Sword and all its terrour and then by the wisdom which the Spirit teacheth arm our selves against it every man saying within himself This can but kill the body which is every day in killing it self living and dying building up it self which is next to ruine but if I faint I lose my soul which God breathed into me and then made as immortal as himself and whilest I fly from the edge of the sword my backsliding carrieth me into the pit of destruction In pace labore incommodis bellum pati discunt in armis deambulando campum decurrendo fossam metiendo c. Tert. ad Mart. c. 3. In militaris disciplinae sinu tuââla serenus beatae pacis status acquiescit Val. Max. l. 7. c. 3. Thus by familiar conversing with the blow before it fall by setting Life against Death and Eternity against a Moment we may blunt its edge and so conquer before we fight This is our military Discipline this is our Spiritual exercise our Martyrdome before Martyrdome This bindeth the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar and maketh it ready to be offered up This prepareth us for war that we may have peace peace before we fight whilest we rest on the authority and command of our Emperour and on his strength for we may do all things in Christ that strengthneth us and then peace everlasting peace the reward and crown of victory Every day to a Christian Souldier is dies praeliaris a day of battell in vvhich he maketh some assault or other and gaineth advantage on the adversary For however the day may be fair and no cloud appear yet the sentence is gone out 2 Tim. 3.12 All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution What shall all be torn on the rack or bruised on the wheel Shall all be sacrificed shall all be Martyrs Yes all shall be Martyrs though many of them lose not a drop of bloud Habet pax suos Martyres There is a kind of Martyrdome in peace For he that thus prepareth and fitteth himself he that by an assiduous mortifying of himself vvhich indeed is in some degree to deify himself buildeth up in himself this firm resolution to leave all to suffer all for the name of Christ and the Gospel he suffereth before he suffereth he suffereth though he never suffereth there wanting nothing to complete it but an Ishmael but the Tyrant and the Executioner He cannot but be willing to leave the world who is gone out of it already Mat. 24.44 Be ye therefore ready for in an hour when you think not the Son of man the Captain of your salvation may come Bellum statâs est nomen qui potest etiam esse câm operationes ejus non exserit Grot. De Jure be li pacis and put you into the lists Though the trumpet sound not to battell yet is it not peace And if you ask me how you shall make ready and address your selves what preparation is required I may say It is no more then this To love the truth which you profess to make it your guide your counsellour your oracle whilest the light shineth upon your head when that saith Go to go and when it saith Do this to do it 1 Tim. 4 7. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to exercise your souls unto godliness and so incorporate it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Basil de Humil Rev 6 8. Mâeremb De Arte volunt as it were and make it consubstantiall vvith them and leave imprinted therein an indeleble character thereof For if you thus display and manifest it in every action of your life if you thus fasten it to your soul and make it a part of it in time of peace you vvill not then part with it at a blast at the mock of an Ishmael or the breath of a Tyrant vvhich is but in his nostrills you vvill not forsake it in time of temptation Love if it be true is mighty in operation stronger then Death
peculiar and proper to the Gospel and Christian religion proper in the highest and strictest degree of Propriety Every good Christian is a peaceable man and every peaceable man is a good Christian Look into your prisons saith Tertullian to persecuting Heathens Apolog. and you shall find no Christians there and if you do it is not for murder or theft or cozenage or breach of the peace the cause for which they are bound and confined there is onely this That they are Christians This is that height of Perfection which the vanity of Philosophy and the weakness and unprofitableness of the Law could not reach Hebr. 7.18 19. Neither could the Jew bring any thing ex horreis suis out of his granary his store or basket nor the Philosopher è narthecio suo out of his box of oyntments out of his book of prescripts which could supple a soul to this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã this tranquility and quietness which might purge and sublime and lift it up above the world and all the flattery and terrour that is in it Humane Reason was too weak to discover the benefit the pleasure the glory of it Nor was it seen in its full beauty till that Light came into the world which did improve and exalt and perfect our Reason The Philosophers cryed down Anger yet gave way to Revenge laid an imputation upon the one yet gave line and liberty to the other Both Tully and Aristotle approve it as an act of Justice Exod. 21.24 Matth. 5.38 42 c. The language of the Law was An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth It was said to them of old You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy but the return of the Gospel is a blessing for a curse love for hatred a prayer for persecution Whatsoever the Law required that doth the Gospel require and much more an Humility more bending a Patience more constant a Meekness more suffering a Quietness more setled because those heavenly promises which the Philosopher never heard of were more and more clearly proposed in the Gospel then under the Law For is not Eternity of bliss a stronger motive then the Basket or Glory or Temporal enjoyments Is not Heaven more attractive then the Earth Under the Law this Peace and Quietness was but a promise a blessing in expectation and in the Schools of Philosophers it was but a phansie The Peace and Quietness they had was raised out of weak and failing principles de industria consultae aequanimitatis De Anima c. 1. non de fiducia compertae veritatis saith Tertullian out of an industrious affected endurance of every evil that it might not be worse out of a politick resolution to defeat the evil of its smart but not out of conscience or assurance of that truth which brought light and immortality to settle the mind to collect and gather it within it self in the midst of all those provocations and allurements which might shew themselves to divide and distract it but remain it self untoucht and unmoved looking forward through all these vanishing shadows and apparitions which either smile or threaten to that glory which cannot be done away This Christianity only can effect This was the business of the Prince of Peace who came into the world but not with drum and colours Tertull. cont Iudaeos Psal 72.6 but with a rattle rather not with noise but like rain on the mowen grass not destroying his enemies but making them his friends not as a Caesar or Alexander but as an Angel and Embassadour of peace not denouncing war but proclaiming a Jubilee with no sword but that of the Spirit Who made good that prophesie of the Prophet that swords should be turned into plow shares Micah 4.3 4. and spears into pruning books that all Bitterness and Malice of heart should be turned into the love and study of Modesty and Peace that every man should sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree gather his own fruit and not reach out his hand into another mans vineyard not offer violence nor fear it not disturb his brothers peace nor be jealous of his own not trouble others nor be afraid himself that the Earth might be a temporal paradise a type and representation of that which is eternal For this Christ came into the world and brought power enough with him to perform it and put this power into our hands that we may make it good And when he hath drawn out the method of it when he hath taught us the art to do it when there is nothing wanting but our will the Prophesie is fulfilled For it was never yet foretold by any Prophet that they should be quiet who made it their delight and study and the business of their whole life to trouble themselves and others What could Christ in wisdome have done more then he hath done He hath digged up Dissension at the very root Malè velle malè dicere malè cogitare ex aequo vetamur saith Tertullian To wish evil to speak evil to think evil are alike forbidden in the Gospel which restaineth the Will bindeth the Hand bridleth the Tongue fettereth the very Thoughts commandeth us to love an enemy to surrender our coat to him who hath stript us of our cloak to return a blessing for a reproch and to anoint his head with oyl who hath struck us to the ground which punisheth not the ends only but even the beginnings of dissension which bringeth every part to its own place the Flesh under the Spirit the Will under the law of Charity which is the Peace of the Soul the obedience of Faith under the eternal Law which is our Peace with God the Servant under the Master the Child under the Parent the Subject under the Magistrate which is the Peace of an House of a Commonwealth of the World which maketh every part dwell together in unity begetteth a parity in disparity raiseth equality out of inequality keepeth every wheel in its due motion every man in his right place is that Intelligence which moveth the lesser sphere of a Family and the greater orb of a Commonwealth composedly and orderly which is its Peace For Peace and Quiet is the order and harmony of things The Father calleth it a Harp and it is never well set or tuned but by an Evangelical hand which slacketh and letteth down the string of our Self love to an Hatred of our selves and windeth up the string of our Love to our brother in an equal proportion to the Love of our selves We must hate our life in this world Joh. 12.25 and we must love our brother as our selves Nay it letteth it lower yet Matth. 22.39 even to our enemies and the sound of it must reach unto them Talk what we will of Peace if it be not tuned and touched by Charity if it take not its rise and spring from this Peace here from the Peace of the Gospel it
second Apol c. 4. Lycurgi leges emendatae saith Tertullian Lycurgus his Laws were so imperfect so ill fitting the Commonwealth that they were brought under the hammer and the file to be beat out and fashioned in another form more proportionable to that body for which they were made were corrected by the Lacedemonians Which undervaluing of his wisdom did so unman him that he would be a man no longer but starved himself to death Vetus squalens sylva legum edictorum securibus truncatae the whole wood of the old Laws now sullied and weakned with age was cut down by the edicts and escripts of after-Emperours at the very root as with an ax All of them are in the body of time and worn out with it either fail of themselves or else are cast aside humane Laws being but as shadows cast from men in power and when they fall to the ground are lost with them and are no more to be seen Gel. Noct. Att. l. 20. c. 1. nec uno statu consistunt sed ut coeli facies maris ità rerum atque fortunae tempestatibus variantur nor do they remain in one state but alter as the face of the Heavens and the Sea now smile anon frown now a calm and by and by a tempest Now the strong man saith Do this anon a stronger then he cometh and I forfeit my head if I do it Laws are too oft written with the point of the sword and then the character followeth the hand that beareth it Thus it is with the Laws of men But the Laws of this our Law-giver can no more change then he that made them No bribe can buy out their power no dispensations wound them no power can disannul them but they are the same Dispensationes vulnera legum and of the same countenance They moult not a feather they alter not in one circumstance but direct the obedient and stare the offender in the face and by the power of this Lord kindle a hell in him in this life and will appear at the great day to accuse him For we either stand or fall in judgment according to these Laws In a word humane Laws are made for certain climates and fitted to the complexion and temper of certain Commonwealths but these for the whole world Rome and Brittany and Jerusalem all places are bound alike and as his Dominion so his Laws reach from one end of the earth to another And these which he publisht at the first are not onely Laws but promises and pledges of his second coming For he made them not for nought but hath left them with us till he come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead according to his Gospel Besides the Laws of men are too narrow and cannot reach the whole body of Sin cannot comprehend all not the inward man the thoughts and surmises of the heart no not every visible act Leges non omnia comprehendunt non omnia vetant nec absolvunt Sen. they forbid not all they absolve not all Some irregularities there be which these Laws look not upon nor have they any other punishment then the common hatred of men who can pass no other sentence upon them then this That they dislike them and we are forced to leave them to the censure and anger of the Highest saith Seneca Quoties licet non oportet Every thing that is lawful for me to do is not fit to be done And his integrity is but lame that walketh on at pleasure and knoweth no bounds but those which the Laws of men have set up and never questioneth any thing he doth till he meeteth with a check is honest no further then this that he feareth not a prison nor the gibbet is honest because he deserveth not to be hanged How many are there who are called Christians who yet have not made good their title to that honour which we give to a just man How many count themselves just men yet do those things which themselves if they would be themselves would condemn as most unjust and do so when others do them and how many have carried so much honesty with them into hell The Laws of men cannot reach home to carry us to that height of innocency to which no other Law but that within us might lift us up But the Laws of this Lord like his Power and Providence reach and comprehend all the very looks and profers and thoughts of the mind which no man seeth which we see not our selves which though they break not the peace nor shake any pillar of the Commonwealth for a thought troubleth no heart but that which conceiveth it yet stand in opposition to that policy which this our Lord hath drawn out and to that end for which he is our Lord and are louder in his ears then an evil word in ours and therefore he looketh not onely on our outward guilt but also on the conscience it self and pierceth to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit and regulateth the very thoughts and intents of the heart which he looketh upon not as fading and vanishing characters in the soul but as killing letters imprinted and engraven there as S. Basil speaketh De virgin as full and complete actions wrought out in the inward man S. Bernard calleth them passivas actiones passive actions which he will judge secundum evangelium according to these Laws which he hath published in his Gospel Secondly that he is a Lord appeareth by the virtue and power of his Dominion For whereas all the power on earth which so often dazleth us can but afflict the body this woundeth the soul rippeth up the very heart and bowels and when those Lords which we so tremble at till we fall from him Matth. 10.28 can but kill the body this Lord can cast both soul and body into hell nay can make us a hell unto our selves make us punish and torment our selves and being greater then our Conscience can multiply those strokes Humane Laws have been brought into disgrace because they had not power enough to attend and hold them up and even the common people who fear them most have by their own observation gathered the boldness to call them cobwebs for they see he that hath a full purse or a good sword will soon break through them or find a besome to sweap them away What speak you of the Laws I can have them and bind them up in sudariolo saith Petrus Damianus in the corner of my handkerchief Nay many times for want of power victae leges the Laws must submit as in conquest and though they have a tongue to speak yet they have not a hand to strike And as it is in punishment so it is sometimes in point of reward Men may raise their merit and deserts so high that the Exchequer it self shall not find a reward to equal them We have a story in our own Chronicles of a Noble-man who
It will concern us to take heed how he findeth us when be cometh Oh let him not find us digging of pits and spreading of nets to catch our brethren spinning the spiders web wearying and wasting our selves in vanity Let him not find us in strange apparel in spotted garments in garments stained with blood Let not this Lord find thee in rebellion against him this Saviour find thee a destroyer this Christ who should anoint thee find thee bespotted of the world Let not an humble Lord find thee swelling a meek Lord find thee raging a merciful Lord find the cruel an innocent Lord find thee boasting in mischief the Son of man find thee a beast But to day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts This is your Day and this day you may work out Eternity Psal 95.7 8. This is your hour to look into your selves to be jealous of your selves Hebr. 3.7 8. vereri omnia opera to be afraid of every word work and thought every enterprise you take in hand For whatsoever you are saying whatsoever you are doing whatsoever you are imagining whilst you act whilst you speak before you speak whilst you think and that thought is a promise or prophecy of riches and delights and honours which are in the approch and ready to meet you or a seal and confirmation of those glories which are already with you whilst you think as the Prophet David speaketh that your houses shall continue for ever Psal 49.11 even then he may come upon you and then this inward thought all your thoughts perish or return again upon you like Furies to lash and torment you for ever And therefore to conclude since the Premisses are plain the Evidence fair Since he is a Lord and will come to judge us Since he will certainly come Since the time of his coming is uncertain and since it is sudden he is no Christian he is no Man but hath prostituted that which maketh him so his Reason to his Sense and Brutish part who cannot draw this Conclusion to himself That he must therefore watch Which is in the next place to be considered The Twelfth SERMON PART III. MATTH XXIV 42. Watch therefore c. WE have seen Christ our Lord at the right hand of God considered him 1. as our Lord 2. as coming 3. as keeping from our eye and knowledge the time of his coming And now what inference can we make He is a Lord and shall we not fear him To come and shall we not expect him To come at an hour we know not and shall we not watch This every one of them naturally and necessarily affordeth and no other conclusion can be drawn from them But when we consult with Flesh and Blood we force false conclusions even from the Truth it self and to please and flatter our sensual part conclude against Nature to destroy our selves Sensuality is the greatest Sophister that is worketh Darkness out of Light Poyson out of Physick Sin out of Truth See what paralogismes she maketh God is merciful Therefore presume He is patient Therefore provoke him He delayeth his coming We may now beat our fellow-servants and eat and drink with the drunken It is uncertain when he will come Therefore he will never come This is the reasoning of Flesh and Blood this is the Devils Logick And therefore that we be not deceived nor deceive our selves with these Fallacies behold here Wisdome it self hath shewn us a more excellent way and drawn the Conclusion to our hands VIGILATE ERGO He is a Lord and to come and at an hour ye know not of Watch therefore And this word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Vigilate is verbum vigilans as Augustine speaketh a waking busy stirring word and implieth as the Scholiast telleth us ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã all manner of care and circumspection And what are all the Exhortations in Scripture but a commentary and exposition of this Duty There we find it rendred by Awaking Working Running Striving Fasting Praying We shall find it to be Repentance Faith spiritual Wisdome that golden chain wherein all Virtues and Graces that Vniversitas donorum as Tertullian speaketh that Academy that World of spiritual Gifts meet and are united When we awake we watch to look about and see what danger is near When we work we watch till our work be brought to perfection that no trumpet scatter our Alms no hypocrisie corrupt our Fast no unrepented sin deny our Prayers no wandring thought defile our Chastity no false fire kindle our Zeal no lukewarmness dead our Devotion When we strive we watch that lust which is must predominant And Faith if it be not dead hath a restless eye an eye that never sleepeth which maketh us even here on earth like unto the Angels For so Anastasius defining an Angel calleth him a reasonable creature but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã such a one as never sleepeth Corde vigila fide vigila spe vigila charitate vigila saith S. Augustine An active Faith a waking Heart a lively Hope a spreading Charity Assiduity and perseverance in the work of this Lord these make up the VIGILATE the Watching here These are the seals Faith Hope and Charity set them on and the Watch is sure But this is too general To give you yet a more particular account we must consider first That God hath made man a Judge and Lord of all his actions and given him that freedom and power which is libripens emancipati à Deo boni Tert. l. 2. cont Marcion doth hold as it were the ballance and weigh and poyse both good and evil and may touch or strike which scale it please that either Good shall out weigh Evil or Evil Good For Man is not evil by necessity or chance but by his will alone See Dent. 30.15.19 I have set before thee this day Life and Good Death and Evil Therefore chuse Life Secondly God hath placed an apparancy of some good on that which is evil by which Man may be wooed and enticed to it and an apparency of smart and evil on that which is good Difficulty Calamity Persecution by which he may be frighted from it But then thirdly he hath given him an Understanding by which he may discover the horrour of Evil though coloured over and drest with the best advantage to deceive and behold the beauty and glory of that which is good though it be discouloured and defaced with the blackness and darkness of this world He hath given him a Spirt Prov. 20.27 which the Wiseman calleth the Candle of the Lord searching the inward parts of the belly his Reason that should sway and govern all the parts of the body and faculties of the soul by which he may see to eschew evil and chuse that which is good adhere to the good though it distaste the sense and fly from evil though it flatter it By this we discover the enemy and by this we conquer him By this we
affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world NOthing more talkt of in the world then Religion nothing less understood nothing more neglected there being nothing more common with men then to be willing to mistake their way to withdraw themselves from that which is indeed Religion because it standeth in opposition to some pleasing errour which they are not willing to shake off Multi sibi sidem ipsi totuis consttiuunt quà m accipiunt dum quae volunt sapiunt nolunt sapere quae verá sunt cùm sapientiae haec veritas sit ea interdum sapere quae nolis Hilar l. 8. De Trin. Jam. 1.22 23. Ch. 4.3 Ch 1 26. and by the help of an unsatisfied and complying phansie to frame one of their own and call it by that name That which flattereth their corrupt hearts that which is moulded and attempered to their brutish designs that which smileth upon them in all their purposes and favoureth them in their unwarrantable undertakings that which biddeth them Go on and prosper in the wayes that leadeth unto death that with them is true Religion In this Chapter and indeed in every Chapter of this Epistle our Apostle hath made this discovery to our hands Some there were as he observeth that placed Religion in the ear did hear and not do and rested in that Some placed it in a formal devotion did pray but pray amiss and therefore did not receive Some placed it in a shadow and appearance seemed to be very religious but could not bridle their tongue and were safe they thought under this shadow Others there were that were partial in themselves despisers of the poor Ch. 2.4.6 17 c. Ch. 3.6 that had faith but no works and did boast of this Others had hell fire in their Tongue and carried about with them a world of iniquity which did set the wheel the whole course of Nature on fire Last of all some he observed warring and fighting and killing that they might take the prey Ch. 4.1 2. and divide the spoil Yet all these were religious Wisd 1.12 Every one sought out death in the errour of his life Phil. 3.14 and yet every one seemed to press forward towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus To these as to men ready to dash upon the rock shipwrack doth our Apostle cry out as from the shore to turn their compass and steer their course the right way Seeing them as it were run several wayes all to meet at last in the common gulf of eternal destruction he calleth and calleth aloud after them To the superstitious to the profane to the disputer the scribe to them that do but hear and to them that do but babble to them that do but profess and to them that do but believe the word is Be not deceived That is not it but this is pure Religion This is as the Prophet speaketh a voice behind them Isa 30.21 saying This is the way walk in it This is as a light held forth to shew them where they are to walk as a royal Standard set up to bring them to their colours This doth infinitatem rei ejicere as the Civilians speak taketh them from the Devils latitudes and exspatiations from frequent but fruitless Hearing from loud but heartless Prayer from their beloved but dead Faith from undisciplined and malitious Zeal from noise and blood from fighting and warring which could not but defile them and make them fit to receive nothing but the spots of the world from the infinite mazes and by-paths of errour and bringeth them into the way where they should be where they may move with joy and safety Eccl. 12.13 looking stedfastly towards the end Let us now hear the conclusion of the whole matter Whatsoever Divines have taught whatsoever Councels have determined whatsoever Schoolmen have defined whatsoever God spake in the old times whatsoever he spake in these last dayes that which hath filled so many volumes and brought upon us that weariness of the flesh which Solomon complaineth of Eccl. 12.12 in reading that multitude of books which the world doth now swarm with that which we study and contend and fight for as if it were in Democritus his well Rom. 13.9 or rather in Hell it self quite out of our reach or if there be any truth that is necessary any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying even in this of S. James Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the fatherless and widows c. I may call it the Picture of Religion in little in a small compass yet presenting all its lines and dimensions the whole Signature of Religion fit to be hung up in the Church of Christ and to be lookt upon by all that the people which are and shall be born may truly serve the Lord. May it please you therefore a while to cast your eyes upon it and with me to view I. The full Proportion and several Lineaments of it as it were its essential Parts which constitute and make it what it is We may distinguish them as the Jew doth the Law by Do and Do not The first is affirmative To do good To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction The second is negative Not to do evil To keep our selves unspotted from the world II. The colours and Beauty of it first in its Purity having no mixture secondly its Vndefiledness having no pollution III. The Epigraphe or Title of it the Ratification or Seal which is set to it to make it authentick and that not of men or by men but by the hand of God himself Matth. 3.17 17.5 which drew the first copy and pattern This is pure Religion before God and the Father As he gave witness to his Son from heaven This is my beloved Son so doth he also to Christian Religion Hebr. 12.2 of which he is the Authour and Finisher HAEC EST This is it and in this I am well pleased Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this Let us now in order view these And these two To do Good and To abstain from Evil our Charity to others in the one and our Charity to our selves in the other in being as those Dii benefici those Tutelar Gods to the Widows and Fatherless and as those ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã keeping all evil from our selves I call the essential parts of Religion without which it can no more subsist then a man can without a soul Jam. 2.26 For as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also Not that we exclude Faith or Prayer or Hearing of the Word For without Faith Religion is but an empty name and it cometh by Hearing and is increased by Devotion Amb. in Psal 118. Faith is a foundation upon a foundation for as Truth is the foundation of
The unbelieving man that dwelleth not in Christ hath either no place to fly to or else that he flyeth to is as full of molestation and torment as that he did fly from He flieth to himself from himself He flieth to his wit and that befooleth him he flieth to his strength and that overthroweth him he flieth to his friend and he faileth him He asketh himself counsel and mistrusteth it He asketh his friend counsel and is afraid of it He flieth to a Reed for a staff to Impotency and Folly and hath not what he looked for when he hath what he looked for He is ever seeking ease and never at rest And vvhen these evils vvithout him stir up a worse evil within him a conscience which calleth his sins to remembrance vvhat a perplexed and distracting thing is he what shifts and evasions doth he catch at He runneth from room to room from excuse to excuse from comfort to comfort He fluttreth and flieth to and fro as the Raven and would rest though it vvere on the outside of the Ark. This is the condition of those vvho are not in Christ But he that dwelleth in him that abideth in him knoweth not vvhat Fear is Col. 2.3 because he is in him in whom all the treasures of wisdome and power are hid and so hath ever his protection about him He knoweth not vvhat danger is for Wisdome it self conducteth him He knoweth not what an enemy is for power guardeth him He knoweth not vvhat misery is for he liveth in the region of happiness He that dwelleth in him cannot fear what Man vvhat Devil vvhat Sin can do unto him because he is in his armory abideth safely as in a Sanctuary 2 Tim. 1.12 under his wing I know whom I have trusted saith S. Paul not the World not my friends not my Riches not my Self Not onely the World and Riches and Friends are a thin shelter to keep off a storm but I know nothing in my self to uphold my self but I know whom I have trusted my Christ my King my Governour and Counsellor who hath taken me under his roof who cannot deny himself but in these evil dayes in that great day will be my patrone my defence my protection Thus doth the true Christian dwell abide in Christ 1. admiring his majesty 2. loving his command 3. depending vvholly upon his protection These three fill up our first part our first proposition That some act is required on our parts here expressed by dwelling in him We pass now to our second That something is also done by Christ in us some virtue proceedeth from him vvhich is here called dwelling in us There goeth forth virtue and power from him from his promises from his precepts from his life from his passion and death from vvhat he did from vvhat he suffered as there did to the vvoman who touching the hem of his garment was healed of her bloody issue Mark 5. Luke 8. a power by which he sweetly and secretly and powerfully characterizeth our hearts and writeth his mind in our minds and so taketh possession of them and draweth them into himself The Apostle telleth us he dwelleth in us by his spirit Rom. 8 11 14 and that we are led by the spirit in the whole course of our life Eph. 2.22 and that we are the habitation of God through the spirit ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã his tabernacle his temple which he consecrateth and setteth apart to his own use and service There is no doubt but a power cometh from him but I am almost afraid to say it there having been such ill use made of it For though it be come already Rom. 1.16 for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation yet is it still expected expected indeed rather then hoped for For when it doth come we shut the door and set up our will against it and then look faintly after it and perswade our selves it will come at last once for all There is power in his Precepts for our Reason subscribeth and signeth them for true There is power in his Promises they shine in glory These are the power of Christ to every one that believeth And how can we be Christians if we believe not But this is his ordinary power which like the Sun in commune profertur is shewn on all at once There yet goeth a more immediate power and virtue from him we deny it not which like the wind worketh wonderful effects but we see not whence it cometh John 3.8 nor whither it goeth neither the beginning nor the end of it which is in another world The operations of the Spirit by reason they are of another condition then any other thought or working in us whatsoever are very difficult and obscure as Scotus observeth upon the Prologue to the Sentences for the manner not to be perceived no not by that soul wherein they are wrought Profuisse deprehendas quomodo profuerunt non deprehendes as Seneca in another case That they have wrought you shall find but the secret and retired passages by which they wrought are impossible to be brought to demonstration But though we cannot discern the manner of his working yet we may observe that in his actions and operations on the soul of man he holdeth the course even of natural agents in this respect that they strive to bring in their similitude and likeness into those things on which they work by a kind of force driving out one contrary with another to make way for their own form So Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac Jacob and every creature begetteth according to its own kind Plato said of Socrates's wise sayings that they were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the children of his mind so resembling him that you might see all Socrates in them So it is with Christ Where he dwelleth he worketh by his spirit something like unto himself He altereth the whole frame of the heart driveth out all that is contrary to him 2 Cor. 10.5 all imaginations which exalt themselves against him and never leaveth purging and fashioning us till a new creature like himself be wrought till Christ be fully formed in us Gal. 4.19 So it is with every one in vvhom Christ dwelleth And this he doth by the power of his Spirit 1. by quickning our Knowledge by shewing us the riches of his Gospel his beauty and majesty the glory and order of his house and that vvith that convincing evidence that vve are forced to fall dovvn and vvorship by filling our soul vvith the glory of it as God filled the tabernacle vvith his Exod. 40. that all the powers and faculties of the soul are ravisht vvith the sight and come vvillingly as the Psalmist speaketh fall down vvillingly before him by moving our soul as our Soul doth our Body that when he saith Go vve go and vvhen he saith Do this vve do it So it is in every one in vvhom Christ dwelleth 2. He dwelleth in us
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 thaââe 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
God This added to the rest maketh up a number an account Without this our joyning with such a body or company nay our appearing in his Courts our naming him and calling upon his name are but cyphers and signifie nothing It is not the Church but the Spirit of Christ and our own consciences which can witness to us that we are inhabitants of the new Jerusalem and dwell in Christ We read Gen. 45. that when Jacob had news that his son Joseph lived his heart fainted for he believed them not but at the sight of the chariots which Joseph sent to carry him his spirit revived So it is here When we shall be told or tell our selves for our selves are the likeliest to bring the news that we have been of such a Church of such a Congregation and applaud our selves for such a poor and unsignificant information bless our selves that the lines are fallen unto us in so goodly a place Psal 16.6 when we shall have well looked upon and examined all the priviledges and benefits we can gain by being parts of such a body all this will not assure us nor fix our anchor deep enough but will leave us to be tossed up and down upon the waves of uncertainty fainting and panting under doubt and unbelief For to recollect all in a word our admiring the Majesty of Christ our loving his command our relying on his protection and resting under the shadow of his wing again our sense and feeling of the operation of the Spirit of Christ by the practick efficacy of our knowledge the actuation and quickning of our faith and the power of it working an universal constant sincere obedience these are the chariots which Christ sendeth to carry us out of Egypt unto our celestial Canaan And when we see these and by a sweet and well-gained experience feel the power of them in our souls then we draw neer in full assurance then we joyfully cry out with Jacob It is enough then we know that our Joseph is alive and that Christ doth dwell and live in us of a truth And now to conclude and by way of conclusion to enforce all these to imprint and fasten them in your hearts what other motive need I use then the thing it self Christ in Man and Man in Christ For if honour or delight or riches will move us here they are all not as the world giveth them but as Truth it self giveth them A sight into which the Angels themselves stoop and desire to look into 1 Pet. 1.12 To be in Christ to dwell in Christ if a man did perfectly believe it of himself that he were the man non diu superstes maneret said Luther he would even be swallowed up and die of immoderate joy Here now is Life and Death set before us Heaven and Hell opened to our very eye If we do not dwell in Christ if we be not united to him we shall joyn our selves with something else with flesh and blood with the glory and vanity of the world which will but wait upon us to carry us to our grave feed us up and prepare us for the day of slaughter Oh who would dwell in a land darker then darkness it self who would be united with Death But if we dwell in Christ and he in us if he call us My little children and we cry Abba Father then what then Who can utter it The tongue of Men and Angels cannot express it Then as he said to the Father All mine are thine and thine are mine so all his is ours John 17.10 Col. 1.24 and all ours is his Our miseries are his and when we suffer we do but fill up that which was behind of the afflictions of Christ He is in bonds in disgrace in prison with us and we bear them joyfully for we bear them with him who beareth all things Our miseries nay our sins are his He took them upon his shoulder upon his account He sweat he groned he died under them and by dying took away their strength Nay our good deeds are his and if they were not his they were not good Hebr. 13.15 for by him we offer them unto God by his hand in his name He is the Priest that prepareth and consecrateth them Our Prayers our Preaching our Hearing our Alms our Fasting if they were not his Nazianz. were but as the Father calleth the Heathen mans virtues ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a fair name a title of health upon a box of poison the letter Tau written in the forehead of a reprobate Again to make up the reciprocation as all ours are his so all his are ours What shall I say His Poverty his Dishonour his Sufferings his Cross are ours Yes they are ours because they are his If they had not been his they could not be ours none being able to make satisfaction but he none that could transfer any thing upon man but he that was the Son of man and Son of God His Miracles are ours for for us men and for our salvation were they wrought His Innocency his Purity his Obedience are ours For God so dealeth with us for his sake as if we were innocent and pure as if we our selves had satisfied Let S. Paul conclude for me in that divine and heavenly close of the third chapter of his former Epistle to the Corinthians Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods And if we be Christs Rom. 8.17 then we be heirs joynt-heirs with Jesus Christ As he is heir so have we in him right and title to be heirs and so we receive eternal happiness not onely as a gift but as an inheritance In a word we live with him we suffer with him we are buried with him we rise with him and when he shall come again in glory we who dwell in him now shall be ever with him even dwell and reign with him for evermore The Sixteenth SERMON PART I. EZEKIEL XXXIII 11. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes For why will ye die O house of Israel WE have here a sudden and vehement out-cry Turn ye turn ye And those events which are sudden and vehement the Philosopher telleth us do ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã leave some notable mark and impression behind them An earthquake shaketh and dislocateth the earth a whirlwind rendeth the mountains and breaketh in pieces the rocks What is sudden at once striketh us with fear and admiration Greg. in loc Certainly reverenter pensandum est saith the Father This call of the Prophet requireth a serious and reverent consideration For if this vehement ingemination be not sharp and keen enough to enter our Souls and divide asunder the joynts and the marrow here is a Quare moriemini a Reason to set an edge
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã boldness and confidence towards God We must therefore sink and fall low and mitigate our voice
him who perswaded him who was his counsellour He was all-sufficient and stood in need of nothing l. 4. c. 28. Non quasi indigens plasmavit Adam saith Irenaeus It was not out of any indigencie or defect in himself that he made Adam after his image He was all to himself before he made any thing nor could million of worlds have added to him What was it to him that there were Angels made Athenag Legat pro Christianis or Seraphim or Cherubim He gained not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã said Aristotle For there could be no accession nothing to heighten his perfection Did he make the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Athenagoras calleth it as an instrument to make him musick Did he clothe the lilies and dress up Nature in various colours to delight himself Or could he not reign without Man saith Mirandula God hath a most free and powerful and immutable will and therefore it was not necessary for him to work or to begin to work but when he would For he might both will and not will the creation of all things without any change of his will But it pleased him out of his goodness thus to break forth into action Sext. Emperic adv Mathemat pag. 327. Will you know the cause saith the Sceptick why he made world ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He was good Nihil ineptius saith one quà m cogitare Deum nihil agentem There is nothing more vain then to conceive that God could be idle or doing of nothing And were it not for his Goodness we could hardly conceive him ad extrà agentem working any thing out of himself who was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã all-sufficient and blessed for evermore infinitely happy though he had never created the heaven and the earth though there had neither been Angel nor Man to worship him But he did all these things because he was good Bonitas saith Tertullian Adv. Marcion l. 2. otium sui non patitur hinc censetur si agatur Goodness is an active and restless quality and it is not when it is idle It cannot contain it self in it self And by his Goodness God made Man made him for his glory and so to be partaker of his happiness placed him here on earth to raise him up to heaven made him a living soul ut in vita hac compararet vitam that in this short and transitory life he might fit himself for an abiding City Heb. 13.14 and in this moment work out Aeternity Thus of himself God is good nor can any evil proceed from him If he frown we first move him if he be angry we have provoked him if he come in a tempest we have raised it if he be a consuming fire we have kindled it Heb. 12.29 We force him to be what he would not be we make him Thunder who is all Light Tert. advers Marc. l. 2. c. 11. Bonitas ingenita severitas accidens Alteram sibi alteram rei Deus praestitit saith the Father God's Goodness is natural his Severity in respect of its act accidental For God may be severe and yet not punish For he striketh not till we provoke him His Justice and Severity are the same as everlasting as Himself though he never speak in his wrath nor draw his sword If there were no Hell yet were he just and if there were no Abrahams bosome yet were he good Luk. 16. If there were neither Angel nor Man he were still the Lord blessed for evermore In a word he had been just though he had never been angry he had been merciful though Man had not been miserable he had been the same God just and good and merciful Rom. 5.12 though Sin had not entred in by Adam and Death by Sin God is active in good and not in evil He cannot do what he doth detest and hate he cannot decree ordain or further that which is most contrary to him He doth not kill me before all time and then in time ask me why I will die He doth not condemn me first and then make a Law that I may break it He doth not blow out my candle and then punish me for being in the dark That the conviction of a sinner should be the onely end of his exhortations and expostulations cannot consist with that Goodness which God is who when he cometh to punish facit opus non suum saith the Prophet Isa 28.21 doth not his own work doth a strange work a strange act an act that is forced from him a work which he would not do And as God doth not will our Death so doth he not desire to mani-his glory in it which as our Death proceedeth from his secondary and occasioned will For God saith Aquinas Aqui 1. 2 2. q 132. art 1. â seeketh not the manifestation of his glory for his own but for our sakes His glory as his Wisdome and Justice and Power is with him alwayes as eternal as himself No quire of Angels can improve no raging Devil can diminish his glory which in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphim and Cherubim in the midst of all the blasphemies of Men and Devils is still the same And his first will is to see it in his Image in the conformity of our wills to his where it shineth in the perfection of beauty rather then where it is decayed and defaced in a damned Spirit rather in that Saint he would have made then in that Reprobate and cursed soul which he was forced to throw into the lowest pit And so to receive his glory is that which he would not have which he was willing to begin on earth and then have made it perfect and compleat in the highest heavens Tert. ibid. Exinde ad mortem sed antè ad vitam The sentence of death was pronounced against Man almost as soon as he was Man but he was first created to life We are punished for being evil but we were first commanded to be good God's first will is that we glorifie him in our bodies and in our souls 1 Cor. 6.20 But if we frustrate his loving expectation here then he rowseth himself up as a mighty man and will be avenged of us and work his glory out of that which dishonoured him Prov. 14.28 and write it with our blood In the multitude of the people is the glory of a king saith the wisest of Kings and more glory if they be obedient to his laws then if they rebel and rise up against him That Common-wealth is more glorious where every man filleth his place then where the prisons are filled with thieves and traytours and men of Belial And though the justice and wisdome of the King may be seen in these yet it is more resplendent in those on whom the Law hath more power then the Sword In heaven is the glory of God best seen and his delight is to see it in the Church of the first
l. 1. de Morib Eccl. c. 2. saith S. Augustine ut rationem praecedat autoritas that Authority should go before and have the preeminence of Reason that where Reason is weak Authority may come in as a supply to strengthen and settle it For what can Reason see in Bread and Wine to quicken or raise a Soul What is Bread to a wounded spirit 1 Cor. 8.8 or Wine to a sick soul For neither if we eat are we the better the more accepted nor if we eat not are we the worse saith S. Paul It is true the outward Elements are indifferent in themselves but Authority changeth and even transelementeth them giveth them virtue and efficacy a commanding power even the force of a Law He that put virtue into the Clay and Spittle to cure a bodily eye may do the same to Bread and Wine to heal our spiritual blindness He that made these a staff to our bodies may make them also a prop to our souls when they droop and sink And then if he say This do ye though our Reason should be at a stand and boggle at it as at a thing which holdeth no proportion with a Soul yet we must do it because he saith it It may be said Jam. 1.21 Is not his Word sufficient which is able to save our souls Is it not enough for me to beat down my body to pour forth my prayers to crucifie my flesh No Nothing is sufficient but what the authority of Christ hath made so Nescit judicare quisquis didicit perfectè obedire is true in matters of this nature We have no judgement of our own our wisdome is to obey and let him alone to judge what is fit who alone hath power to command Authority must not be disputed with nor can it hear Why should I do this For such a question denieth it to be Authority If it were possible that God to try our obedience should bid us sow the rocks or water a dry stick or teach a language we do not know as the Jesuites do their Novices a necessity would lie upon us and wo unto us if we did it not How much rather then should we obey when he commandeth for our advantage giveth us a law that he may give us more grace bindeth us to that which will raise us nearer to him when he spreadeth his table prepared his viands biddeth us eat and drink and then saith grace biddeth a blessing himself unto it that we may grow up in his favour and be placed amongst those great examples of eternal happiness Look not then on the Minister howsoever qualified For a brass-seal maketh the same impression which a ring of gold doth and it is not material whether the seal be of baser or purer metal so the image and character be authentick saith Nazianzene Look not on the outward Elements for of themselves they have no power at all no more than the water of Jordan had to cure a leper but their power and virtue is from above The force and virtue of a Sacrament lieth in the institution all the power it hath is from the Authour Before it was Bread but common Bread now it is Manna the Bread of strength the Bread of Angels And this truth thou maist build upon nor doth the Church of Rome deny it And though they have added five Sacraments and may add as many more as they please Quicquid arant homines navigant aedificant any thing we do may be made a Sacrament When the Phansie is working she may spin out what she please Yet they cannot deny that every Sacrament must have immediate institution from Christ himself from his own mouth or else it is of no validity and therefore they are forced to pretend it though they cannot prove it in those which themselves have added for their own advantage Think then when thou hearest these words Take eat This is my body which was broken thou hearest thy Saviour himself speaking from heaven Think not of the Minister or the meanness of the Elements but think of him who took thee out of thy blood and sanctified thee with his and by the same power is able to sanctifie these outward Elements 1 Cor. 10.16 by the virtue of whose institution the cup of blessing which we bless which he blessed first shall be to every one that cometh worthily the comunion of the bloud and the Bread which we break which he first brake the communion of the body of Christ And thus much of the Authour Let us now consider what he enjoyneth us to do The Command is to do this that is to do as he did though to another end to take Bread and to give thanks and eat it and so of the Cup to take and drink it And if this be done with an eye to the Authour and a lively faith in him this is all For this Table was spread not for the dead but for the living This I say is all But some have stretched this word beyond its proper and natural signification Others and that a multitude do rest under the shadow of the word content themselves in the outward action do do it and no more which indeed is not to do it For though this word to do be not of so large a significatton as the Church of Rome hath drawn it out in that they might build an Altar and offer up Christ again which they say is to remember him yet is it not so scant and narrow as Ignorance and Prophaneness make it Advers Const. Aug. Verba non sono sed sensu sapiunt saith Hilary We must not tie our selves to the sound but lay hold on the sense of the words And this word to do though it be less than the little cloud in the book of the Kings 1 Kings 18.44 nothing near so big as a mans hand yet if it be interpreted it will spread and be as large as Heaven it self and containeth within its sphere and compass all those stars those graces and virtues which will entitle us to bliss by fitting and qualifying of us to do it For indeed non fit quod non fit legitimè that is not done which is not done as it should be Those duties in Scripture which are shut up in a word are of a large and diffusive interpretation When God biddeth us hear he biddeth us obey When he biddeth us believe he biddeth us love When he awaketh our understanding he commandeth our Hand When he biddeth us do this he biddeth us perfect our work For Hearing is not Hearing without Obedience Faith is dead if it work not by Charity and Knowledge is but a dream without Practice and we do not that which we do not as we should To do this then is not barely to take the Bread and eat it This Judas himself might do this he doth that doth it to his own damnation And therefore though it be not now common Bread and common Wine but consecrated and set
There is danger in giving Alms danger in a Fast danger in Prayer And as there is danger in forbearing so there is danger also in coming to the Lord's Table And the reason why vve do not perfect every good vvork is because vve do not reverence it as vve should not gird up our loins and lift up our hearts vvith that devotion and preperation vvhich is due unto it We think to Give an alms is but to fling a mite into the treasury to Fast but to abstain for a day to Pray but to say Lord hear me and to shew Christ's death till he come but to sit down at his Table and eat of his bread and drink of his cup. But this is to dishonour and undervalue those duties which duly performed would honour and glorifie us This is to be officiperdae in this sense also to destroy our work before we begin it For what place can a strict obedience have amongst those thoughts which choke and stifle it Or what welcome is he like to find at such a Feast that cometh as the Corinthians did drunk to the Table Where the birth is so sudden so immature how can it chuse but prove abortive No He that will offer up his prayers must offer up more then the calves of his lips He that will have an open hand must first have a melting heart He that will fast must first feed on himself eat and work out all the corruption of his heart Behold here God hath spred his Table and invited you to a Feast to a feast of the Body and Bloud of his Son And the Spirit and the Bride say Come And let him that is athirst come and take of this Bread of life and Water of life freely But what Vers 18 19. shall we come as Schismaticks or Hereticks Shall we come with pride and malice with contempt of the Church and bringing shame to our brethren Shall we come drunken This is not to discern the Lord's body not to discern the Bread which in the Sacrament is to him the Lord's body from common bread He that thus cometh and eateth and drinketh is guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord as guilty as those Jews that crucified him For this is to put him to open shame Hebr. 6.6 to count of him no more then as if he had been an Impostor and so to tread him under foot Here certainly no caution can be enough though we look about us as he speaketh with a thousand eyes This consideration should work and imprint in us such a care and solicitude as should severely and impartially weigh what on either side either fear of danger or hope of advantage love of a Saviour or terrour of a Judge may suggest how better then Manna this spiritual refreshment may be and how it may be turned into poison This the Corinthians laid not to heart And on the same pillow of supine negligence and inconsideration do too many Christians at this day lie and sleep And as men in passion or some sudden amaze cannot have leisure to believe what they feel and suffer so do they not believe what they cannot but know or not consider what they believe which is far worse then to be ignorant They discern not the Lord's body mistake the shadow for the substance rest in the outward act of eating and drinking look upon nothing but that which is visible in the ceremony think not on the end to which it tendeth and so use it not with that spiritual sense and feeling which is answerable to the institution Therefore against this wilfull blindness and ignorance this supine and profane negligence doth our Apostle here draw up his whole force and strength to demolish it He blameth them and he directeth them he useth his rod and he bespeaketh them in the spirit of meekness and like a skilful artist he first openeth and searcheth the wound and then with a gentle hand a hand of love he applieth this soveraign plaister in my Text To avoid this evil Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup. The words are plain and we need not descant upon them nor labour in dividing of them Here are two things presented to us 1. Our Qualification for and 2. our Admission to the Feast 1. a Duty To examine our selves 2. a Grant or Privilege To eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Or 1. our Preparation and 2. our Welcome Or 1. our Initiation and 2. our Consignation First we must examine ourselves and then we are received and admitted in Sanctum Sanctorum into the Holy of Holies unto the participation of these Mysteries to eat of this Bread and to drink of this Cup. Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup. Examination is in order first and therefore first to be handled And this we shall find to be a duty of no quick dispatch but which requireth care and a curious and diligent observation whether we look upon it in the generality or in its particular application and reference to the blessed Sacrament Examine our selves Why that is assoon done almost as said We can do it in the twinkling of an eye some few dayes before the eve before the hour before the time We think we do it though we never do it But if we look nearer on it we shall find it business enough for our whole life For to examine our selves is to take a true and strict survey of all the passages of our life to follow our Thoughts which have wings and flie in and flie out bring in and drive out one another to call to remembrance our Words which have wings too ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã flie from us but leave an impression and guilt in the soul and to number our Actions and weigh them all in the balance of the Sanctuary to gain a distinct knowledge of our spiritual estate to read an Anatomy-lecture on our selves to anatomize and dissect our Hearts which are deceitful above all things to follow Sin in all the Meanders and Labyrinths it maketh to pluck off its dress to wash off its paint to drive it out of the thicket of excuses and by the light of Scripture to take a full view of our selves Psal 119.59 in a word to consider our wayes to consider not to glance upon them but to look upon them again and again to look through them to look stedfastly and with an impartial eye so to fix our thoughts on them that we may turn our feet unto God's testimonies And by this course we shall find in what Grace we are defective with what Sin we are most stained what is to be mortified and destroyed and what is to be exalted and improved in us And to the right performance of this duty there is I say great care and diligence required because we are to deal with our selves who are commonly the greatest
a word where there is no true Charity there can be no true Church and where there is the least Charity there it is least Reformed Talk not of Reformation Purity and Discipline They may be but names and make up a proud malicious faction but it is Charity and Charity alone that can build up a Church into a body compact within it self Malice and Pride and Contention do build indeed but it is in gehennam downwards to hell and present men on earth as so many damned Spirits And there is no greater difference between them then this that the one may the other can never repent An imbittered faction is a type and representation of Hell it self Let then Faith and Charity meet in our Trial and Preparation Faith is a foundation but if we raise not Charity upon it to grow up and spread and dilate it self in all its acts and operations it is nothing it is in vain and we are yet in our sins Let not Anger or Rancour or Malice keep you from this Table and bring you within that sad Dilemma That you must and may not come That to come and not to come is damnation And do not forfeit so great mercy to satisfie so vile and brutish affections Lose not the hope of being Saints by pleasing your selves in being beasts Why should LOVE be wrote so thick on your walls and scarce any character any ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã any title of it in your hearts The Heart is the best table to receive it There engrave it with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond and then it will be legible also in your actions Remember it was Love that brought down Christ from heaven that nailed him to his cross that drew his heart-bloud from him and all to beget Love in us Love of God and Love of our Brethren And let this Love rule in our hearts and put down all our Malice Bitterness and Evil speaking all these our enemies under our feet Sacrifice and offer them up before we come to the Altar then shall we be fit to sit down at this Table Thus we must put our Charity to trial For this is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a feast of Love Examine therefore whether thy Charity be firm and strong such a Charity as is stronger then Death a Charity that in Christ's cause will stand out against Poverty Imprisonment and Death it self a Charity which in respect of thy brethren will bear all things bear injuries kiss the hand that striketh thee bow to them that are in the dust condescend to the lowest a Charity which will die for the brethren For that Charity which speaketh big and doeth nothing scattereth words but casteth no bread on the waters defieth a tempest and runneth away at a blast can embrace a brother and yet persecute him forgive and yet wound him that is love and yet hate him will never fit and qualifie us for this feast of Love Let us then examine our selves And let us consider also him that inviteth us the Apostle and high Priest of our profession Christ Jesus Consider him as our high Priest and that we shall soon do For what captive would not be set at liberty Who that hath a debt to pay would not have a Surety that should pay it down for him Who that hath a request to put up would not have an Intercessour All this we may desire and yet not consider him as our high Priest And we must not think that he was such an high Priest for such as would not consider him and that he came to free those who did love their fetters to satisfie for wilful bankrupts to deliver them who all their life time delight in bondage to offer up those prayers which malice or oppression or deceit or hypocrisie have turned into sin Therefore let us also consider him as our Prophet putting into our hands those weapons of righteousness that spiritual armour those helps and advantages which are necessary and sufficient to work our liberty to strike off our fetters and demolish in us the Kingdom of Sin And here put it to the trial and ask thy self the question Art thou willing to hearken to this Prophet Art thou willing he should teach thee Wouldst thou not make the way to heaven wider and his yoke easier then he hath made it Hast thou not looked on these helps and advantages as superstitious and unnecessary As he is thy Prophet so art not thou his interpreter and hast taught him to speak friendly to thy lusts and sensual appetite Hast thou not given a large swinge to Revenge let out a longer line to Christian Liberty and given a broader space for the Love of the world to trade in then ever this Prophet did This is not to consider him but effoeminare disciplinam to corrupt his discipline and to make Christianity it self which is a severe Religion wanton and effeminate by the interpretations And therefore thou must ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã examine thy self yet more and more Bring it to a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to a judgment till thou hast censured and condemned those thy glosses and presented in thy conversation an Expurgatory Index of them all till thou canst digest his precepts with all the aloes and gall with all the hardness and bitterness that is in them and then thy stomach also and thy heart will be prepared for this Bread of life for this celestial Manna Last of all canst thou consider him as thy King and Lord Is his fear to thee as the roaring of a Lion and his wrath as messengers of death And art thou willing to kiss to bow and worship him that he be not angry Canst thou discover Majesty in him now Majesty in his discipline wisdom in his Laws power in weakness now in this life when he is whipped and scourged and crucified again when his precepts are made subject to flesh and bloud and dragged in triumph after the wills of men when for one Hosanna he hath a thousand Crucifiges for one formal and hypocritical acknowledgment a thousand spears in his sides Who hath most command over thee the Prince of this world or this King Will not a smile from beauty move thee more then the glory of his promises Art thou not more afraid of the frown of a man of power then of his wrath Will not the love of the world drive thee against more pricks and difficulties then the love of a Saviour Will not that carry thee from east to west when the command of this King shall not draw thee a Sabbath dayes journey to visit the fatherless and widows Art thou of the same mind with him Are thy will and affections bound up in his will Is his will thy Law and his Law thy delight Then he is thy Priest and hath sacrificed himself to make thee a Feast He is thy Prophet to invite and fit thee and thy King to welcome thee and he shall gird himself and make thee sit
sojourners and strangers in the earth It is true strangers we are for all are so and passing forward apace to our journeys end but not to that end for which we were made Therefore that we may reach and attain to it we must make our selves so Eph. 4.22 put off the old man which loveth to dwell here take off our hopes and desires from the world look upon all its glories as dung look upon it as a strange place Phil. 3.8 upon our selves as strangers in it and look upon the place to which we are going fling off every weight shake off every vanity Hebr. 12.1 every thing that is of the earth earthy make haste delay not but leave it behind us even while we are in it for a Christian mans life is nothing else but a going out of it And to this end in the last place you must take along with you your viaticum your Provision the Commandments of Gods Hide not thy commandments from me saith David And he spake as a stranger and as in a strange place as in a place of danger as in a dark place where he could not walk with safety if this light did not shine upon him Here we meet with variety of objects Here are Serpents to flatter us and Serpents to bite us here are Pleasures and Terrours all to deceive and detein us Here we meet with that Archenemy to all strangers and pilgrimes in several shapes now as a roaring Lion 1 Pet. 5.8 and sometimes as an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11.14 And though we try it not out at fists with him as those foolish Monks boasted they had often tried this kind of hardiment though we meet him not as a Hippocentaur Hic on de vita Pauli Eremitae Malchi Hilarionis as the story telleth us Paul the Hermite did or as a Satyre or she-Wolf as Hilarion did to whom were presented many fearful things the roaring of Lions the noise of an Army Chariots of fire coming upon him Wolves Foxes Sword-plaiers and I cannot tell what though we do not feel him as a Satyre yet we feel him as voluptuous though we do not see him as a Wolf yet we apprehend him thirsting after bloud though we meet him not in the shape of a Fox yet non ignoramus versutias 2 Cor. 2.11 we are not ignorant of his wiles and enterprises though we do not see him in the Tempest we may in our fear and though his hand be invisible yet we may feel him in our impatience and falling from the truth We cannot say in our affliction This is his blow but we may hear him roar in our murmuring Or we may see him in that mongrel Christian made up of Ignorance and Fury of a Man and a Beast which is more monstrous then any Centaure We may see him in that Hypocrite that deceitful man who is a Fox and the worst of the cub We may meet him in that Oppressour who is a Wolf in that Tyrant and Persecutour who is a roaring Lion In some of these shapes we meet him every day in this our Pilgrimage And here in the world we can find nothing to secure us against the World Adversity may swallow up Pleasure in victory but not the Love of it Impotency and Inability may bridle and stay my Anger but not quench it Providence may defend me from evil but not from Fear of it Nor can the World yield us any weapon against it self Therefore God hath opened his Armoury of heaven and given us his Commandments to be our light our provision our defense in our way to be as our Pilgrimes staff our Scrip our Letters commendatory Ps 91.11 to be our Angels to keep us in all our waies And there is no safe walking for a stranger without them And as when the children of Israel were in the wilderness God rained down Manna upon them and led them as it were by the hand till he brought them to the land of promise so he dealeth still with all that call upon his name whilest they are in via in this their peregrination ever and anon beset with temptations which may detein and hinder them He raineth down abundance of his grace Wisd 16.20 which like that Manna will serve the appetite of him that taketh it is like to that which every man wanteth and applieth it self to every tast to all callings and conditions to all the necessities of a stranger Thus we walk by faith 2 Cor. 5.7 Festina fides Faith is on the wing and leaveth the world behind us Heb. 11.1 is the substance and evidence of things not seen It looketh not on those things which are seen 2 Cor. 4.18 and please a carnal eye or if it do it looketh upon them as Joshua did upon Ai Josh 8.5 c. first turneth the back and then all its strength against them maketh us fly from them that we may overcome them 1 Joh. 5.4 For this is the victory which overcometh the world even our faith Hebr. 6.19 20 And Festina spes Hope too is in her flight and followeth our Forerunner Jesus to enter with him that which is within the veil even the Holy of holies Heaven it self Spe jam sumus in coelo We are already there by hope And to him that hath seen the beauty of Holiness the World is but a loathsome spectacle to him that truly trusteth in God it is lighter then Vanity and he passeth from it And then our Love of God is our going forth our peregrination It is a perishing a death of the soul to the world If it be truly fixt no pleasure no terrour nothing in the world can concern us but they are to us as those things which the traveller in his way seeth and leaveth every day and we think no more of the glory of them then they who have been dead long ago Col. 3.3 For we are dead saith the Apostle and our life is hid hid from the world with Christ in God Our Temperance tasteth not our Chastity toucheth not our Poverty in spirit handleth not those things which lye in our way but we pass by them as impertinencies as dangers as things which may pollute a soul more then a dead body could under the Law The stranger the pilgrime passeth by all His Meekness maketh injuries and his Patience afflictions light and his Christian Fortitude casteth down every strong hold every imagination which may hinder him in his course Every act of Piety is a kind of sequestration and driveth us if not from the right yet from the use of the world Every Virtue is to us as the Angel was to Lot Gân 19.14 17. and biddeth Arise and go out of it taketh us by the hands and biddeth us haste and escape for our life and not look behind us And with this Provision as it were with the two Tables in our hands we
Second Edition LONDON Printed by Tho. Roycroft for Richard Marriott MDCLXXII TO THE Right Honourable Sir ORLANDO BRIDGEMAN Knight and Baronet Lord Chief Justice of His Majestie 's Court of Common Pleas. RIGHT HONOURABLE THis Book cannot fail of Noble Patronage when Your Lordship is but given to understand that it is an Orphan of Mr. Farindon's whose fatherless Children have had so comfortable experience of Your Goodness And we hope this Address will meet with favourable acceptance since we can assure Your Lordship that it is in pursuance of the Reverend Author's intention Who hath been often heard to say that if he lived to publish any thing more in print he would inscribe it to You as an expression and testimony of that high veneration and gratitude which he ow'd to that charitable Hand which in the late bad times had been a succourer of many of his persecuted Brethren and of himself also Go on Sir to be truly Honourable by being truly Religious and still deserve the blessing of the Clergy and the prayers of the Fatherless Then as God hath graciously heard them for your advancement upon earth He will hear them also for your eternal advantage Which is Sir the hearty prayer of Your Lordships most humble Servants John Millington the Authors Executor John Powney the Authors Executor To the Reader READER THese Sermons of that Eminent and Learned Preacher Mr. Farindon had been in thy hands long before this if the Reverend and worthy Person who first undertook the publication had not been forced to lay the Work aside that he might the better attend some publick and weighty occasions Now thou hast them carefully and faithfully set forth And if our pains herein as we hope give thee content we shall be encouraged to take the like in perusing the rest of the Author's papers and publishing such as we shall conceive worthy of his name and thy reading Farewel and pray for Thy servant in Christ Jesus Anth. Scattergood D. D. A TABLE directing to the TEXTS of Scripture handled in the following SERMONS SErmon I. John 5.35 He was a burning and a shining light and ye were willing for a season to rejoyce in his light Serm. II. Matth. 5.4 Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Serm. III. John 5.14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the Temple and sayd unto him Behold thou art made whole sin no more least a worse thing come unto thee Serm. IV. John 5.14 Behold thou art made whole Serm. V. John 5.14 Sin no more least a worse thing come unto thee Serm. VI. Luke 6.24 But woe unto you that are rich for yee have received your consolation Serm. VII 1 Pet. 5.6 Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time Serm. VIII 1 Pet. 5.6 Humble your selves c. Serm. IX Col. 3.2 Set your affections on things above not on things on the earth Serm. X. Prov. 23.23 Buy the truth and sell it not also wisdom and instruction and understanding Serm. XI Prov. 23.23 Buy the truth c. Serm. XII Matth. 5.10 Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Serm. XIII Philipp 3.10 11. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead Serm. XIV Acts 1.10 11. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them in white apparel which also said ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing into heaven this same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven Serm. XV. 1 Cor. 6.20 For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods Serm. XVI 1 Cor. 6.20 For ye are bought c. Serm. XVII 1 Cor. 12.3 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 Serm. XVIII 1 Cor. 12.3 Wherefore I give you c. Serm. XIX Isa 55.6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near Serm. XX. Matth. 6.12 And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors Serm. XXI Matth. 6.12 As we forgive our debtors Serm. XXII Psalm 122.1 I was glad when they sayed unto me let us or we will go into the House of the Lord. Serm. XXIII Psalm 122.1 I was glad c. Serm. XXIV Matth. 6.33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Serm. XXV Matth. 6.33 But seek ye first c. Serm. XXVI Matth. 6.33 But seek ye first c. Serm. XXVII Matth. 6.33 But seek ye first c. Serm. XXVIII Galat. 6.7 Be not deceived God is not mocked For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Serm. XXIX Galat. 6.7 Be not deceived c. Serm. XXX Thess 4.18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words Serm. XXXI Thess 4.18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words Serm. XXXII Acts 11.13 14. And they were all amazed and were in doubt saying one to another what meaneth this others mocking said These men are full of new wine Serm. XXXIII Luke 11.27 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 Serm. XXXIV Luke 11.27 28. And it came to pass as he spake these things c. Serm. XXXV Colos 3.1 If then you be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Serm. XXXVI Philipp 1.23 For I am in a streight betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Or For I am greatly in doubt on both sides desiring to be loosed and to be with Christ which is best of all Serm. XXXVII 1 Cor. 11.1 Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ Serm. XXXVIII Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Serm. XXXIX Matth. 24.25 Behold I have told you before Serm. XL. Luke 18.12 I fast twice in the week I give tythes of all that I possess Serm. XLI James 1.25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed Serm. XLII James 1.25 But whoso looketh c. Serm. XLIII James 1.25 But whoso looketh c. Serm. XLIV James 1.25 But whoso
libidinibus exarsit The Physick must be proportioned to the disease if that be violent the Physick must needs be strong that purgeth it Dei sancti infirmiores sunt quia si fortes sint vix sancti esse possunt saith Salvian The Saints of God do many times lose their joy and strength because it is a very hard matter to be in prosperity and to be Saints It is observed that in Common-wealths dissensions seditions and luxury are longae pacis mala the issues of a long-continued peace And many times States are rent in pieces through civil dissentions if outward wars hinder not S. Augustine telleth us Plùs nocuit eversa Carthago Romanis quà m adversa that Carthage in her rubbish brought more disadvantage to Rome then when she stood out in defiance as an enemy And were it not for this outward jarre in our bodies by sickness and in our souls by disgrace and other calamities we should find no peace within for the soul hath no such practising enemy as the body wherein she liveth And as Cato thought it good husbandry to maintain some light quarrels and jarres amongst his houshold-servants lest their agreement amongst themselves might prejudice their master so it may seem spiritual wisdom for the Soul that the body and inferiour faculties be kept in perpetual jarre that there be a thorn in the flesh something set up in opposition against it lest it prove wanton and hold out too stubbornly against the Spirit Febris te vocare potest ad poenitentiam saith Ambrose It may so fall out that the sight of a Physician may more promote thy conversion then the voice of a Preacher a Fever then a Sermon The heathen Oratour could tell us Optimi sumus dum infirmi sumus that we are never well but when we are sick never better then when we are worst In this case saith he who sendeth his hopes afar off who waiteth upon his ambitious and covetous desiresâ who thinketh of his pleasure and wantonness who shutteth not up his ears against detraction and malicious speech how do we betake our selves to our beads and prayers so that if you would look out the perfect pattern of a true Christian you shall find it no where so soon as on the ground and on the bed of sickness The heathen shutteth up all in this conclusion Look saith he what the Philosophers with many words and large volumes do endeavour to teach that can I most compendiously teach both my self and you Tales esse sani perseveremus quales nos futuros profitemur infirmi Let us be indeed such when we be well as we promise we will be when we are sick A lesson almost equivalent to that great commandment and contains in it all the Law and the Prophets We mourn I am sure in our sickness For what is sickness but the very drooping and languishing of our spirits And it may seem to be a part of that discipline by which the Apostles did govern the primitive Church For when S. Paul had delivered over the incestuous person to Satan for the mortifying of the flesh that the spirit might be saved S. Chrysostom and S. Ambrose do joyntly interpret it that S. Paul did with him as God did with Job deliver him to Satan to be afflicted with diseases and sickness under which he might mourn And this is the reason why our Saviour thus joyneth Blessedness and Mourning together because this is the end for which we are delivered up to sorrow and grief ad interitum carnis for the mortifying of the flesh and the refreshing of the spirit ut in ipsa sit censura supplicii in qua fuit causa peccati that that part may smart with sorrow which hath offended with pleasure and riot Look back upon the ancient Worthies of the Church and you would think they made Sorrow a science and studied the art of mourning For as if the Devil had not been the Devil still ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as S. Chrysostom calleth him a spiritual executioner to afflict them as if the World had left off to be the World an enemy and had not misery enough to fling on them as if there had not been an Ismael left to persecute Isaac nor a Dragon to pursue the Woman in the wilderness they did sit down and deliberate and condemn themselves to sorrow and mourning Ingrediatur utique putredo in ossibus meis saith Bernard Let infirmity seise upon my body let rottenness enter and fill up my bones let it abound in me onely let me find peace of conscience in the day of my tribulation The Heathen conceived they did it not for the exercise of virtue but as Philosophers did abstain from pleasures that death might be less dreadful nè desiderent vitam quam sibi jam supervacuam fecerant that they might not nourish too much hope of life which they had now made superfluous and unnecessary to them by a voluntary abdication of all delights Indeed this might be one reason And Tertullian replieth Si ita esset tam alto consilio tantae obstinatio disciplinae debebat obsequium If it were so yet this was the power of Christian discipline to learn to contemn death by the contempt of pleasure Jejuniis aridi in sacco cinere volutantes saith the same Father We are dried up with fasting and debarred of all the comforts of this life we roll in sackcloth and ashes What should I mention their ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã their ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã their minds dejected their bodies macerated their ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sufferings in secret which was saith the Father ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã full of pain and grief You might behold them kissing the chains of imprisoned Martyrs washing the feet of Lazars wallowing at the Temple-doors on their knees begging the prayers of the Saints You might see them stript and naked their heir neglected their bodies withered and their knees of horn as Nazianzene speaketh Orat. 12. But what do I mention these This would go for superstition in these dayes as every thing else doth that hath but any savour of dejectedness and humility Religion then hung down the head and went in blacks it is now grown lofty and bold walketh in purple and fareth deliciously every day The way to comfort was streit and narrow then it is made broader now even the same broad way which leadeth to destruction There were some of old who so far exceeded in fasting and austerity ut indigerent Hippocratis fomentis that they stood more in need of the counsel of a Physician then of a Divine but few now-a-dayes are like to offend this way we stand in need rather of the spur then of the bridle Their austerity may at least commend unto us Sadness and Mourning as a thing much be fitting a Christian and very conduceable to happiness The Philosopher will tell us Melancholici sunt ingeniosi that melancholick men are most commonly witty and ingenious because their thoughts are
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
sport in the wayes which we have chosen as the little fishes do in the river Jordan till at last they fall into the Dead sea Our word is as vain and mortal as our selves but God's word standeth for evermore I will not press this further in this place and I hope there is no need I should For I hope better things of you that not Faction which the Devil raiseth here on earth but true Religion which God sent down from above shall now and at all times teach you how to make your choice I will conclude with that with which I should have begun the Coherence of my Text with the first verse For this is a consequent of that and we are therefore exhorted to set our affections upon things above because we are risen with Christ. For without this manifestation there is no Resurrection If we be still earthly-minded we are not risen with him In other things it is natural when we rise to shew our selves If we rise to honour you may see us in the streets like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts with great pomp If we rise in our estates you may see it in our next purchase If in knowledge which is a rising from the grave of Ignorance then Scire tuum nihil est we are sick till we vent And shall we manifest and publish our rising in the world and not our rising with Christ Shall Dives appear in purple and Herod in his royal apparel shall the rich fool be known by his barns and every scribler be in print and may we rise and yet lye in our Graves rise with Christ and yet lie buried alive in the earth rise with him and have no affection to the things above rise with him and yet be slaves and captives to that world which by rising he overcame This were to conceal nay to bury the Resurrection it self Nay rather since we are risen with him let the same mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus the Lord. Let us be seen in our march Walk before God in the land of the living Look upon the things above Converse with Cherubim and Seraphim Count the things on the earth but dung Let us look upon the World as an enemy and overcome it that the last enemy Death may be destroyed Let us begin to make our bodies what we believe they shall be spiritual bodies that the body being subdued to the Spirit it may appear we are risen with Christ here and when he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead we may have our second resurrection to that glory which is reserved above for us in the highest heavens for evermore The Tenth SERMON PART I. PROV XXIII 23. Buy the truth and sell it not also wisdome and instruction and understanding IT will not be worth the while to seek out the coherence of these words with the precedent sentences or proverbs For this would be a vain curiosity to seek what is not to be found ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to plow the winds and which was imputed as folly to Caligula conari quod effici posse negatur to busie our selves in doing that which cannot be done The words are plain and they present you with a merchandise which far excelleth all other and hath one property which is not seen in any other merchandise It must be bought but not be sold It is an observation of Tullie's De offic l. 2. c. 42. That those tradesmen who buy of the merchant to sell again are commonly but a sordid and base kind of people nihil enim proficiunt saith he nisi admodum mentiantur They get nothing except they lie for advantage I am not experienced in the truth of this But we see here the wisest of men doth more then intimate that they who buy the Truth to sell it again are guilty of much baseness and profit nothing unless they lie strenuously For what but a Lie can be gained by parting with the Truth since whatsoever is not truth must needs be a lie And in this again appeareth another main difference betwixt our spiritual thrift and thriving in the world For old Cato an excellent husband for the world and one who writ of Husbandry giveth us a rule quite contrary to our Text Patremfamilias vendacem De Rè rustiâ cap. 2. non emacem oportet To buy is an argument of want to sell a sign of store Wherefore a good husband will endeavour so to abound that he may be ready to sell to supply the necessities of others rather then to buy to make up his own But ye see here Solomon a more excellent husband for the Truth then Cato was for the World giveth us a rule quite contrary to his Emaces esse oportet non vendaces Selling is no part of our spiritual husbandry there is nothing here but buying He that selleth the Truth or parteth with it upon any terms whatsoever giveth great cause to suspect that he is in danger to decoct and break Which that we may better perceive and understand let us enter upon the words of the Wise-man and see what instructions they will afford us First the merchandise presenteth it self and we must look upon it and consider what Truth it is that is here meant Secondly the nature and quality of the merchandise which will set a value and price upon it Thirdly we shall observe Neminem casu sapere That we cannot find Truth by chance neither will it fall upon us as a dream in the night but we must go towards it lay out something for it and purchase it Fourthly we shall find it necessary to enquire What it is to buy the Truth Fifthly and lastly we shall shew how the Truth may be sold These particulars without tort or violence naturally of their own accord arise from the Text Which in the general is divided as the Jews divided the Law into DOE and DOE NOT. The first part is affirmative Buy the Truth the second negative Sell it not Of these in their order First we must enquire What Truth is Aristotle defining Goodness telleth us it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quod omnia appetunt that which the appetite and desire of all is carried to And if I defining Truth should tell you that Verum est quod omnes fugiunt Truth is that which all men are afraid of I think I should not speak much amiss For I find St. Augustine thus speaking to his auditours Quod non vultis audire verum est Do ye enquire what Truth is That which ye will not hear that which with all my pains and zeal I cannot perswade you to That is Truth In the Gospel we read that Pilate asked our Saviour John 18.38 What is Truth but when he had said this he went out saith the Text. He thought the answer would not be worth the staying for Many like Pilate are content to ask what Truth is and when they have done go their way
a Lawyer or an Husbandman in the grave But the Truth here as it must be bought so it must never be sold by us It will not leave us at our death but lie down with us in the grave and rise up with us to judgment At the last day it will be our Advocate or our Judge and either acquit or condemn us If now in this our day we lay out our money our substance that is our selves upon it then in that terrible day of the Lord it will look lovelily upon us and as the bloud of Christ doth speak good things for us But if we place it under our brutish desires and lowest affections it will help the Devil to roar against us and he who now hindereth our market will then accuse us for not buying Christ himself is not more gracious then this Truth will be to them that buy it But such as esteem it trash and not worth the looking on to them shall it procure tribulation and anguish to them the Sun turned into darkness and the Moon into bloud the whole world on fire the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God shall not be so terrible as this Truth And now before I was aware I have told you what the Truth here is that we are to buy Shall I say with the Poet cujus non audeo dicere nomen that I dare not utter its name It hath no name Men it seemeth have been afraid to speak of it and therefore have given it no name The Wise-man here in the Text bestoweth on it certain titles calling it Wisdom and Instruction and Vnderstanding but all these do not fully express it being words of a large signification and comprehending a multitude of other Truths beside it Will ye know indeed what this Truth is It containeth all those Precepts and conclusions that concern the knowledge and service of God that conduce to virtue and integrity and uprightness of life and that are carefully observed by all quos Deus in aeternae felicitatis exemplis posuit whom God meaneth to bring to endless felicity and to place among the ensamples of his love If this Truth doth not manage and guide the Will then our passions those pages of opinion and errour will distract and disorder us Lust will inflame us Anger swell us Ambition lift us up to that formidable height from whence we must needs fall into the pit But the Truth casteth down all Babels and casteth out all false imaginations which present unto us appearances for realities yea plagues for peace which make us pour out our souls on variety of unlawful objects and pitifully deceive us about the nature and end of things What a price doth Luxury set on wealth and how doth it abhor poverty and nakedness What an heaven is the highest place to Ambition and what an hell disgrace though it be for goodness it self How doth a jewel glitter in the eye and what a slur is there on virtue What brightness hath the glory of the world and how sad and sullen an aspect have Religion and Piety And all this is till the purchase be made which our Text commendeth No sooner have we bought the Truth but it discovereth all pulleth off every masque and suffereth us no longer to be blinded and beguiled but sheweth us the true face and countenance of things It letteth us see vanity in riches folly in honour death and destruction in the pomp of this world It maketh poverty a blessing misery a mercy a cottage as good as the Seragglio and death it self a passage to an happy eternity It taketh all things by the right end Exod. 4.4 and teacheth us how to handle and deal with them as Moses taking the serpent by the tail had it restored to its own shape In a word the Truth here meant is that which S. Augustine calleth legem omnium artium artem omnipotentis artificis a Law to direct all arts an Art taught by Wisdom it self by the Maker of all things It teacheth us to love God with all our hearts to believe in him and to lead upright lives It killeth in us the root of sin it extinguisheth all lusts it maketh us tread under foot pleasure and honour and wealth it rendreth us deaf to the noyse of this busie world and blind to that glaring pomp which dazleth the eyes of others Hâc praeeunte seculi fluctus calcamus It goeth before us in our way and through all the surges of this present world it bringeth us to the vision and fruition of him who is Truth it self Therefore this concerneth us above all other Truths yea others are of no use at all further then by being subservient to this they help us to our chief end our union to God who is the first Truth and our communion with him If I know mine own infirmities what need I trouble my self about the decay of the world If the word of God be powerful in me what need I search the secret operations of the stars Am I desirous to know new things The best novelty is the New creature What folly it is to study the state and condition of the Saints and in the mean time to take no pains to be one to be curiously inquisitive how my soul was conveyed into me and wretchedly careless how it goeth out to dispute who is Antichrist when I my self am not a Christian to spend that time in needless controversies in which I might make my peace with God to be more careful to resolve a doubt then to cure a wounded spirit to to maintain my opinion then to save my soul to be ambitious to reconcile opinions which stand in a seeming opposition and be dull and heavy in composing my own thoughts and ordering my counsels ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Aescl yl Not he that knoweth much but he that knoweth that which is useful is wise Why gaze we on a bugle or piece of glass when we are to bargain for a pearl for that Truth which doth alone adorn that mind which was made not to joyn with shadows and phantasmes but to receive wisdom and virtue and God himself Thus I have given you some kind of view of the merchandise and shewed you in general what the Truth here meant is Now that it may appear unto you the more desirable and more worth the buying in the next place I will discover the nature and quality of it Neither will I do as those are wont who expose their wares to sale over praise the commodity so to kindle the buyer and make him more easily part with his money or else shew it by an half-light but I will deal plainly with you according to that Law of the Aediles or Clerks of the market in Rome by which he who sold any thing was to disclose to the buyer what fault or imperfection it had If he were selling an house wherein the plague was he was to proclaim Pestilentem domum vendo that he
world of our name or credit above the truth of Christ which calleth us out of the world Again this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã this full persuasion of mind is prevalent on both sides both in good and evil both for truth and errour A thief may go as chearfully to his death as a martyr The Egyptians saith Tully would endure any torture rather then violate their Ibis or an Aspe or a Dog or a Crocodile The Priests of Mithras passed the sword the fire and famine even fourscore several torments and that with ostentation of alacrity onely that they might be his Priests We have read of Hereticks who have sung in the midst of the flames Nay of Atheists as Scipio Tettus who now burning for setting up a school of Atheism clapped his hands in the midst of his torments Such strength hath persuasion on both sides In illis pietas in istis cordis duritia operatur The love of the truth prevaileth in the righteous and the love of errour in the other Such a power hath the Devil over those hearts which by God's permission he possesseth He can perswade Judas to deny his Master and he can perswade him to hang himself He can drive men into errour and lead them along in triumph rejoycing to their death He can teach men first to kill others then themselves He can first make the grossest errour delightful and then death it self Habet Diabolus suos martyres For the Devil hath his martyrs as well as God The Manichees were Martyrs for they boasted that they suffered persecution and yet did those outrages which none but persecutours could do The Donatists were Martyrs and yet did ravish virgins break open prisons fling the Communion-bread to dogs Garnet was a Martyr and Faux a Martyr when they would have blown up a Kingdom which may be done without gunpowder The Massalians in Epiphanius buried their bodies who were killed for despising and denying the Law and for worshipping of Idols and sung hymns and made panegyricks on them and called them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a sect of Martyrs So that you see every man is ready to say he is persecuted every man suffereth for righteousness sake every man is a Martyr In every nation and in every people in every sect and in every conventicle we may find Martyrs But this is not the noble army of Martyrs where none are listed but those who suffer for righteousness sake It is not pretense but Truth that must set this crown upon our heads This is praise worthy saith St. Peter 1 Pet. 2.19.20 if a man for conscience toward God endure grief and that not an erring conscience it is very strange we should erre in any of those things for which we must suffer For what glory is it if when you are buffetted for your faults you take it patiently but if when you do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God St. Bernard determineth all in brief proposing to us two things which make death precious and persecution a blessing vitam causam sed ampliùs causam quà m vitam the life of them that suffer and the cause for which they are persecuted but the cause more then the life For seldom will an evil man suffer in a good cause and he is not good who suffereth in a bad for that for which he suffereth maketh him evil If he suffer as a malefactour he is one But when both commend our sufferings then are they praise-worthy That sacrifice is of a sweet-smelling savour which both a good cause and a good life offer up And first the Cause it must be the love of Righteousness For we see as I told you men will suffer for their lusts suffer for their profit suffer for fear suffer for disdain as Cato is blamed by Augustine for killing himself because the haughtiness of his mind could not stoop to be beholden to Caesar and therefore cùm non potuit pedibus fugit manibus whom he could not fly from with his feet he did with his hands and killed himself Which argued a lower spirit and was an act of more dejection and baseness then it would have been to have kissed the foot of Caesar Some we see will venture themselves for their name and hazard their souls for reputation which is but another man's thought But neither are these our pleasure our profit our honour causes why we should suffer death or venture our lives To be willing rather to lose my goods then my humour and my life then my reputation is not to set a right estimate upon them For my goods are God's blessings and I must not exchange them but for better My life is that moment on which eternity dependeth and we should not look back upon that opinion of honour which remaineth behind us but rather look forward upon that infinite space that eternity of bliss or pain which befalleth us immediately after our last breath Be sure your cause be good or else to venture goods or life upon it is the worst kind of prodigality in the world For he that knoweth what life is and the true use of it had he many lives to spare yet would be loth to part with any one of them but upon the best terms We must deal with our life as we do with our money We must not be covetous of it desire life for no other use but to live as covetous persons desire money onely to have it Neither ought we to be prodigal of life and trifle it away upon every occasion To know when and in what cases to offer our selves to suffer and die is a great part of our spiritual wisdom Nam impetu quodam instinctu currere ad mortem cum multis commune Brutishly to run upon and hasten our death is a thing that many men may do as we see brute beasts many times run upon the spears of such as pursue them Sed deliberare causas expendere utque suaserit ratio vitae mortisque consilium suscipere vel ponere ingentis est animi Wisely to look into and weigh every occasion and as judgment and true discretion shall direct so to entertain a resolution either of life or death this is indeed true fortitude and magnanimity Every low and light consideration is not to hold esteem and keep equipage with that Truth which must save us There is nothing but Righteousness which hath this prerogative to call for our lives and it will pay them back with eternity Righteousness which is nothing else but our obedience to the Gospel of Christ and those precepts which he hath left behind to draw us after him We must rather renounce our lives and goods then these rather not be men then not be good Christians Matth. 10.39 Here that is true He that findeth his life for they who to escape danger deny the truth count that escape a thing found and gained look upon it as a new purchase
labyrinths seeketh out hidden and unknown paths walketh without light looketh but seeth not knocketh but openeth not moveth but goeth not and the onely issue it bringeth forth is but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã loss of time in which we might have sought and found knocked and opened moved and pressed forward to the mark to our journey's end It stayeth us at Bethany pleasing our own phansie gazing after that which cannot be seen or were of no use if we did overtake it with our eye when we should be at Jerusalem doing the will of our Master It maketh us gaze after Christ when we should look for the holy Ghost To stand gazing on the mount was not the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the work which was enjoyned the Disciples but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã nothing to the purpose a needless work opus quo nihil opus a work better a great deal left undone Calvin saith well They did not what every wise-man should reputare finem propose to themselves an end but looked up and gazed and all to no end And it was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a work which did not concern them It concerned them not to have been in monte on the mount but in coenaculo in their chamber at Jerusalem Terrullian saith well Vbi quod oportet negligitur quod non oportet adhibetur When we run and are active in needless offices we are lame and impotent and cannot stir a foot towards necessary performances When we neglect our duty you may be sure to find us with our eyes open gazing up into heaven It is an epidemical errour to look after Christ when he is out of sight to have our eyes on heaven when our business is below to look after Christ's glorified body to contemplate his Session at the right hand of God and his Intercession for us and to delight our thoughts with them and make them ours make them what we please but that Christ which is still on earth that Christ which we should put on I mean that Vertue that Innocency that Meekness that Patience that Obedience which he left behind him for us to take and wear till his coming again we scarce once cast an eye upon and yet without these though we gaze our eyes out we shall never see him To apply this Those curious searches after Truth which many times discover her beauty and yet have her trampled under feet that eager desire of Knowledge which endeth in it self those Hosanna's and Gloria Patri's those often blessings and magnifyings of God and Christ those revilings of Sin which we love and Panegyricks of Vertue which we neglect those complaints without sorrow and sorrow without repentance our running and flocking to Sermons where we find lettice for our lips nay further those wishes those desires those resolutions but faint resolutions to be good what are they but as so many looks cast after Christ what are they but complements and complements are but gazings And what have we seen all this while Heaven perhaps or some apparition of our own making a Christ of our own shaping a flattering conceit that we are greatly beloved of God but have not gained so much as a glimpse of that Jesus which ascended We chuse that part of Religion which is easiest and most attempered to our sensual part and private humour Mint and cumin we will tithe to a seed but the weightier matters of the Law we will not touch with one of our fingers For it is easier to gaze after Christ then to stay at Jerusalem easier to commend Vertue then to embrace it easier to hear the Word then to do it easier to hang down the head for sin then to fling it away easier to mourn or fast a day then to amend for ever easier to libel Vice then to hate it easier to disgrace Sin then to conquer it Be not deceived It is not our standing and gazing thus but our walking in our calling our honest conversation with all men our denial of our selves and our holiness towards God that must bring us to the sight of our Saviour And if we will hear good news from him any message of peace and comfort we must leave the Mount and go straight back to Jerusalem For if obedience be better then sacrifice then certainly it is better then gazing It is the rule of our Saviour He that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad he that gazeth Matth. 12.30 standeth still and worketh not But the Devil's rule runneth thus He that scattereth not gathereth with him To sit still and gaze and do nothing though we bind up no sheaves maketh us fit harvest-men for him Operosè nihil agere to be busie to no purpose to have a quick ear and a withered hand to defie sin but not destroy it to hear and not do is a great part of his service Why stand ye still It is high time ye were at Jerusalem say the Angels And they say so still Vp and be doing Let not phansie which maketh you Gods make you worse then the beasts that perish Bury not your selves alive in a grave of your own hewing out a vain and flattering imagination Christianus non habet ferias A Christian hath no holy-days no times of leisure to stand and gaze Why stand ye gazing here Come down from the mount make haste and bestir your selves Ipsa festinatio tarda est Assoon as Christ's command is out of his mouth Haste it self is but slow-paced nor is it possible we should come soon enough to Jerusalem Curiosity is a gazer but festina Fides saith S. Ambrose Faith and true Obedience like Christ at his Ascension are on the wing She hath indeed an eye to see but her hand is as quick as her eye She doth not gaze after Christ but seeketh him with her whole heart When the cloud hath received our Saviour she looketh no more but returneth from the mount to Jerusalem Where you may see her clothing the naked feeding the hungry strengthning the weak chearful and active like that blessed Spirit of love which begat her Here let us stay here let us be fixed and move for ever move in that sphere and compass in which Christ hath placed us here let us imploy all the faculties of our souls and all the members and senses of our bodies not let our hand reach to touch that which may seem better to us not let loose our eyes to wander after vanity after strange and unprofitable objects not open our understandings to unnecessary speculations not let our phansies gad and fly after those things which delight now and torment anon and are never of any use at all Now Christ is ascended let us no more gaze after him nor ask the question whether he rent the spheres or passed through them whilest they yielded and gave way to his glorified body as the air doth to ours Nor need we go on pilgrimage to Bethany to see the prints and marks of Christ's footsteps which some
we love him then we love also his appearance and his coming 2 Tim. 4.8 And our Love is a subscription to his promise by which we truly testifie our consent and sympathize with him and say Amen to the Angels promise Amen Even so come Lord Jesus That of Faith may be forced that of Hope may be groundless but this of Love is a free and voluntary subscription Though I know he will come yet I shall be unwilling he should come to me as an enemy that he should come to me when I sit in the chair of the scornful or lie in the bed of lust that he should come to me and find me with a strumpet in my arms or a sword in my hand fighting against that Power which is his ordinance For doth any condemned person hope for a day of execution But when I love him and bow before him when I have improved his Talent and brought my self to that temper and constitution that I can idem velle idem nolle will and nill the same things and be of the same mind with that Jesus who is to come when I have made my self the friend of the Judge then Spes festina then Hope is on the wing then substantia mea apud Christum as the Vulgar readeth it my expectation my substance my being is with Christ Nec pareo Deo sed assentior And I do not onely subscribe to the VENIET to his coming because he hath decreed and resolved it but because I can make an hearty acknowledgment that the will of Christ is just and good and I assent not of necessity but of a willing mind And as he who testifieth these things confirmeth the Angels promise with this last word Surely I come quickly so shall I be able truly to answer Even so come Lord Jesus In the last place this VENIET this foretelling of Christ's second coming hath another operation and is powerful to work in us Fear and Circumspection the very prop and foundation of those three Theological vertues ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the preservative of all the good we have It tempereth our Love that it be not too bold our Faith that it be not too forward and our Hope that it be not too confident It is as a watch and guard upon us to keep us in all our wayes VENIET is of the future tense and though it be most certain that Christ will come yet the time is not determined that we may so love Christ as that we may be fit to believe and hope and long for his coming The VENIET may end this moment and the promise be made good as well this day or the next as a thousand years hence The When God hath kept as a secret in his own breast ut pendulâ expectatione solicitudo fidei probetur saith Tertullian that by suspending our expectation and leaving us uncertain of the time he may make trial of the watchfulness of their faith whom he meaneth to place among the few but great examples of eternal happiness Semper diem observant qui semper ignorant semper timent qui quotidie sperant Whilest men are ignorant of the day they observe every day and fear that Christ may come this minute who they know will come at last Veniet fratres veniet sed vide quomodo te inveniet saith Augustine Brethren he will come he will come assuredly and we must be careful how he findeth us when he cometh He will come not as at the first in the form of a servant but as a King not as a sheep that openeth not his mouth but with a mighty voice shaking the heaven and earth with Angels and with Archangels by the power of his Trump raising the dead out of their graves and bringing them all to his seat of judgment He shall come in great majesty and glory So come say the Angels as ye have seen him go into heaven Which pointeth to the manner of Christ's coming and should now come to be handled But the time will not permit Onely for conclusion let us remember that he shall come and shall not keep silence that a fire shall devour before him and a tempest round about him that he shall come cum totius mundi motu cum horrore orbis cum planctu omnium si non Christianorum with an earthquake and the horrour of the world and with the lamentation of all except Christians Et qui nunc ventilat gentes per fidem tunc ventilabit per judicium And he that now winnoweth the nations and separateth them one from the other by faith will then search and divide the whole world by his last and decretory sentence And let this noise startle the Adulterer in his twilight strike the sword out of the hand of the Rebellious and awake the Atheist out of his deep sleep and lethargy For this Jesus this same Jesus shall so come who placed Adultery in the eye and Murther in the thought and commanded to give unto Caesar the things which are Caesar'â and he shall judge the Adulterer and the seditious Rebel according to that Gospel which he preached in great humility and which many Christians Atheistical Christians trample under their feet with as great pride 2 Cor. 5.11 And let this terrour of the Lord as S. Paul calleth it persuade men to lay aside every weight and those sins which do so easily beset us our Covetous desires which fasten us to the dust our Pride which though it lift up our heads on high yet at last will have a fall our Ambibition which though it reach the pinnacle yet cannot build its nest in heaven our Seditious and Atheistical imaginations which can never enter that place where Obedience and Humility sit crowned for neither Covetousness nor Pride nor Rebellion can ascend with Christ who was humble and yet the Prince of peace But SURSUM CORDA Let us lift up our hearts even lift them up unto the Lord. Let our conversation be in heaven Imitemur quod futuri sumus Let our life be a type of the Ascension and our present holiness an imitation of our future bliss Let us mortifie our earthly members now that then they may be glorified Let us ascend in heart and with all the powers of our soul now in this life that when this Jesus shall come again in glory and great Majesty we may be caught up in the clouds and meet the Lord in the air and be with him for evermore The Fifteenth SERMON PART I. 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's WE have in our last presented before your eyes the bloudy and victorious Passion and glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ The later our Apostle mentioneth ver 14. And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power raise us not onely out of the grave but out of that deep prison and dungeon
wherein Sin and Satan have laid us For this is the end of both For this end Christ suffered and for this end he rose again For this end he payed down a price even his bloud to strike off those chains and bring us back into the glorious liberty of the sons of God to gain a title in us to have a right to our souls to guide them and a right to our bodies to command them as he pleaseth But though the price be payed yet we may be prisoners still if we love our fetters and will not shake them off if we count our prison a paradise and had rather sport out our span here in the wayes of darkness then dwell for ever in the light Christ hath done whatsoever belongeth to a Redeemer but there is something required at their hands who are redeemed namely when he knocketh at our graves and biddeth us come forth to fling off our grave-clothes and follow him not to stay in our enemy's hands and love our captivity but to present our selves before our Captain and shew him his own purchase a soul that is his and a body that is his a soul purged and renewed and a body obedient and instrumental to the soul both chearful and active in setting forth his glory This is the conclusion of the whole matter this is the end of all not onely of our Creation which the Apostle doth not mention here although even by that God hath the right of dominion over us but also of our Redemption which is later and more special and more glorious as one star differeth from another in glory Take all the Articles of the Creed take Christ's Birth his Death his Resurrection his Glory is the Amen to all Take all God's Precepts all his Promises and let them stand as they are for the Premisses and no other Conclusion can be so properly drawn from them as this That we should glorifie God The Premisses are drawn together within the compass of the first words of my Text EMPTI ESTIS PRETIO Ye are bought with a price and the Conclusâân in the last ERGO GLORIFICATE Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's So the Parts you see are as the Persons are the Redeemer and the Redeemed two 1. a Benefit declared Ye are bought with a price 2. a Duty enjoyned Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's The first remembreth us what God hath done for us the second calleth upon us to remember what we are to do for him to give unto God those things which are God's to glorifie him in our body and in our spirit which are God's These are the parts and of these we shall speak in their order First of the Benefit Ye are bought with a price This Purchase this Redeeming us supposeth we were alienated from Christ and in our enemy's hand and power 2 Tim 2.26 in the snare of the Devil and taken captive by him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã taken by him as it were in war And indeed till Christ bought us his we were even made servants to him as servants use to be venditione by sale and jure belli by right of war We had sold our selves as S. Paul speaketh unto him sold our birth-right for a mess of pottage sold our selves for that which is not bread for that Pleasure which is but a shadow for those Riches which are but dung for that Honour which is but air Every toy was the price of our bloud He opened his false wares and we pawned and prostituted our souls and gave up our hope of eternity for his pianted vanities and a glittering death His was but a profer and we might have refused it But we believed that Father of lies and so gave up our selves into his power and his we were by bargain and sale And as we were his by sale so we were his in a manner by right of war For he set upon us and overcame us not so much by valour as by stratagem by his wiles and devices as S. Paul calleth them For not onely the Sword but those ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Polybius speaketh deceits and thefts of war work out a way to victory And he that faileth in the battel is as truly a captive when art and cunning as when force and violence maketh him bow the knee and yield This our enemy setteth upon a soul as a soul with forces proportioned to a soul which cannot be taken by force no though he were ten times more a Lion more roaring then he is He hath indeed rectas manus some blows he giveth directly striking at our very face And he hath aversas tectásque others he giveth cunningly and in secret But when we see the wounds and ulcers which he maketh we cannot be ignorant whose hand it is that smote us He is that great invisible Sophister of the world saith Basil He mingleth himself with our humour and inclination and so casteth a mist before us and cloudeth our understanding that we may be willing to lay hold of Falshood for Truth of Evil for Good and by a kind of legerdemain he maketh Vertue it self promote sin and Truth errour And as there so in his wiles and enterprises ipsa fallacia delectat we are willing to be deceived and taken because the sleights themselves are delightful to us The Devil's Temptations are in this like his Oracles full of ambiguities And as Demosthenes said of Apollo's Oracle that it did ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã speak too much to the desire and mind of Philip so do these flatter each humour and inclination in us and at last persuade us that that which we would have true is true indeed And thus do we give up all into the Enemies hands and are taken captive and brought under the yoke sub reatu peccati under the guilt of sin which as a poisoned dart sticketh in our sides and galleth and troubleth us wheresoever we go I canâot better call a bad conscience then flagellum Diaboli the Devil's whip with which he tormenteth his captives and maketh large furrows in their soul As the Roman lords did over their slaves in terga cervices saevire imprint marks and characters and as the Comedian speaketh letters on their backs so doth this laniatus ictus wounds and swellings and ulcers He is not so much a slave that is chained to an oar as he that liveth under a bad conscience Now empti estis From this slavery we are redeemed by Christ For being justified by faith we have peace with God and the noise of the whip is heard no more Next we were sub dominio peccati we were under the power and dominion of Sin so that it was a Tyrant and reigned in us If it did say Go we did go even in slippery places and dangerous precipices upon the point of the sword and death it self Like that evil spirit in the Gospel it rendeth and teareth us
which must not be left out unless we will dimidiare Christum 1 John 1.7 take Christ by halfs by Purging and clensing us from all our sins And all by the virtue of this price For he did not buy us that we should sell our selves He did not pay our debts that we should run on in arrears He did not buy us out of the power of Satan to leave us there He did not satisfie for sins to make us greater sinners And what Purgation is that which leaveth us more unclean beasts then before Christ doth both or he will do neither He freeth us from the condemnation of sin and he freeth us from the tyranny and dominion of sin His bloud speaketh better things then that of Abel It speaketh for pardon but speaketh for repentance it distilleth sweetly to wash out the guilt of sin and to wash out the pollution of sin In a word Christ did not pay down a price for our liberty to leave us still in bonds he did not come down from heaven to carry us thither with all our sins that is with Hell about us But when he buyeth us out of prison he looketh and waiteth to see with what chearfulness we will come forth When he calleth us to liberty he calleth to us as the Angel did to S. Peter Gird your selves cast your sins from you and follow me FACIO UT FACIAS as it is in the Law Ye are bought with a price that is Christ's act But our act also is required which may bear a fair correspondence and analogy with his Ye are redeemed that is the Benefit and a great one and Therefore glorifie God our Duty is the inference And our Duty should as naturally issue from a Benefit as Light doth from the Sun or a Conclusion from its Principles If Christ begin and pay down the price we must and right reason will have us conclude Therefore glorifie God in our body and in our spirit which are God's This I say is our Duty and commendeth it self in the next place to your consideration It is the nature of a Benefit to bind us to the performance of that which shall make it a benefit to establish a Law which shall establish that and make it beneficial Love will empty it self but it will not lose it self but deriveth its influence upon the heart it shineth on to work something in it which may bear some similitude and likeness to its self which indeed is Glory When God speaketh to us in love he expecteth that it should echo back again upon him in glory For why should so great love be lost And lost it is and even dead in us if it work no life nor spirit in us to magnifie his name if we look upon it as that which will deliver us whether we will or no and save us though we slight it God loveth us that we may love him and so love our selves And all his commands all our duties and obligations are founded on his love Therefore as he hath a bright and piercing so he hath a jealous eye His name is Jealous Exod. 34.14 And if we will see his likeness and representation we may behold it in the Prophet's vision where he presenteth God like unto a man made of amber Ezek. 8.2 whose upper part did shine and his lower was of fire Which representeth God unto us as a Lover and a Jealous Lover The appearance of brightness did express the purity and vehemencie of his Love And it never shined brighter then in our Redemption And the fire downward his Jealousie and Anger which will smoke against those that dishonour him after such a favour Of all the attributes of God this of Love seemeth to have the dominion and preeminence and sheweth and declareth it self by most manifest signs and notorious effects And this Love in God as in Man is alwayes accompanied with Jealousie which cannot endure a rival or an enemy or that that which he bought with a price should be snatched out of his hands Nec adversarium patitur nec comparem He can neither endure an adversary nor a sharer A sharer is no better to him then an adversary His Love carrieth the resemblance of the love of a husband to his wife And so he speaketh to Jerusalem as to his espoused wife Thy beauty was perfect which I put upon thee But thou playedst the harlot Ezek. 16. and hast poured forth thy fornications on every one that passed by Where we may conceive God to be as it were in trouble and in rage in such a passion as a man is when he taketh his wife in the act of adultery And his anger is the greater because his love was so great For Jealousie which is nothing at first but the vehemencie of Love when it hath an image of jealousie set up to provoke it groweth hotter and hotter and at last burneth like fire God's Love is jealous and would not be cast away and here in this his buying us it shineth most brightly wherefore if it work nothing in us by its beams it will become a fire to consume us For shall Christ call us to glory and we dishonour him Shall his Love make up the Premisses and shall we against nature deny the Conclusion Shall the benefit come towards us and we run from our duty Shall he redeem our souls from hell and our bodies from the grave and shall we prostitute and pawn and sell them to the Destroyer No The Glory of God is like Himself ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Beginning and the End the first wheel and the last Take the whole subsistence of a Christian in the state of Grace and in the state of Glory and it is nothing else but one continued and constant motion of glorifying God For why hath God done these great things for us why did he buy us with a price but ad laudem gloriae suae as S. Paul repeateth it again and again Ephes 1. to the praise of his glory and S. Peter that we shew forth his praise 1 Pet. 2.9 Herein is my Father glorified saith Christ that you bear much fruit Joân 15.8 So you see our Redemption principally dependeth upon the glory of God Eph. 3.10 In that it beginneth For it was his manifold wisdom that made way for it For that it is furthered and promoted For we are strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man according to the riches of his glory Eph. 3.16 Then it is completed to his Glory The same word in Scripture includeth both Revel 19.1 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Salvation and the Glory of our salvation It is the voice of the people in Heaven Hallelujah salvation and glory and honour and power to the Lord our God The choicest and last end which God proposeth to himself in the work of our salvation is the manifestation of his perfection that is his Glory Which consisteth in
pleasure is alwayes clouded with impurity and carrieth its filth along with it When it passeth those bounds which that God who knoweth whereof we are made hath set up with this Inscription Hitherto thou shalt go and no further NOT BURN BUT MARRY when it breaketh out beyond this brutish men may in their ruff and jollity count it what they please call it their Pleasure their Paradise but it breaketh forth like a plague and infection and is as loathsome as Hell it self The Apostle Rom. 1.26 calleth ungoverned lusts ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã vile and dishonourable he might have said brutish affections But indeed Beasts in this are not unconfined as Men they do not kick at and revolt from that law and order of Nature in which they were made so oft as Men do who should have dominion over them and themselves nor have they that curb of Reason which Man hath to check and bound them And therefore that wandring lust of theirs which carrieth them with a swindge and violence to the next object doth not dishonour them for it leaveth them what they were but Beasts still But Man who hath a power within him to controll his flesh and temper and regulate every inclination who hath a spirit given him to spiritualize his flesh and not his flesh to effeminate his spirit when he letteth the weaker prevail against the stronger the worse part against the better the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as the Philosophers call the body the beast against the Man doth not onely pollute his soul but leaveth a peculiar and proper blemish upon his body and may be compared to the beasts that perish Nay he is worse then they For when Man is compared to the Beasts he is the worst of all the herd It is against the very nature of the body thus to be used against that order which God hath constituted and established amongst men The body is not for fornication It was not made to bow to every smile to be ravished with every sound to worship every painted Jezebel but for the Lord and in the power of his strength to be killed and crucified and when it looketh forward beyond its bounds to feel the curb to be so subdued as if it were not as if it were soul or at least in a perpetual subserviencie and obedience to it Indeed if you read ver 15. you will think if it be not as the soul yet it hath near affinity with it and is copartner of the same honour Know ye not saith S. Paul that your bodies are the members of Christ What this vile body of ours to be a member of Christ Yes he bought it and united it to his mystical body as well as the soul and will at last raise it up and make it like unto his most glorious body And what doth the Apostle infer Even that which may make the wanton blush which may make him an Eunuch for the kingdom of heaven Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot It is an argument ab absurdo which will either drive us from uncleanness or upon a most fatal and hellish absurdity Even the young man in the Proverbs who was destitute of understanding would soon agree that it were the greatest folly in the world to think the soul can be united to Christ though it bring the member of an harlot along with it or to excuse our selves by nature and the inclination of our temper or because there is a fire within us to think it is better to let it burn and consume us then to quench it or that God may be glorified as he was by the Three children in this fiery furnace that God may be glorified vvhen that body vvhich is the vvork of his hands is dishonoured Fly fornication saith the Apostle vers 18. Other sins that a man committeth are without the body but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body Malice and Theft abuse the hand Pride lifteth up the head Curiosity rowleth the eye Anger changeth the countenance and dyeth the face Sloth foldeth the arms Envy gnaweth the heart but Lust and Uncleanness is a noisome steam exhaled from the flesh which when it hath conceived and brought forth blasteth and polluteth it Even Nature it self hath declared thus much in that it brought in that custom amongst the Heathen for what else could bring it in after unlawful pleasures to wash and bath themselves by which they did at once acknowledge and strive to purge away that pollution Other sins are from the flesh but this is more carnal then any of them it leaveth more spots and loathsome impressions on the flesh yea many times it bringeth its Hell its fire into it it-maketh it self so visible in the very face and body of man that you may run and read it or rather run from the man for fear of the fornicator now branded and disguised with his sin I remember Salust speaking of Covetousness disgraceth it in these words that it doth corpus animumque virilem effoeminare effeminate and corrupt not onely the mind but also the body of man And Phavorinus in Gellius giveth the reason Because they who make haste to be rich are many of them sedentary men versed onely in the easie and delicate wayes of gain as the Usurer whose plough as they say goeth on the Sabbath and whose work is done while he sleepeth and many others who we see grow rich without sweat of brow or trouble of body And in such no marvel if the vigour and generosity of their minds and bodies do languish and be lost Or rather this is the reason Because the covetous person hath his mind like a bow alwayes bent set continually upon his gain and having all his thoughts gathered together and sent that way he letteth them loose but seldom to imploy them for the behoof either of his body or his soul Now one would think that of Salust were a more proper expression of the effects of Uncleanness For certainly that doth effeminate both the mind and the body Indeed it doth more It not onely weakeneth but polluteth both Nay it is the Devil's net with which he catcheth two at once and dishonoureth them both For what difference between an harlot and the member nay the body of a harlot For he that joyneth himself with a harlot is one body For two saith he shall be one flesh vers 16. Therefore Christ who came to purge both body and soul doth guard and sense it against the very appearance of this sin doth omnium sylvam libidinum caedere as the Father speaketh cut down the whole wood and lop off every branch and sprig of Lust He tieth up the Tongue from filthy communication shutteth up the Eye from looking upon that beauty which may raise a desire stoppeth the Ear that it open not to flattery cutteth off the very beginnings and first offers and risings of lust that we may
presently be your master These bodies of ours are at the best but Gibeonites And if we come to terms of truce with them it must be but as Joshua did with the Gibeonites that they may be our bond slaves hewers of wood and drawers of water our Almoners to distribute our bounty our servants to bear our burthens to sweat to smart to pine away that the Soul may be in health For what was noted of Caligula is true of our Body It is the worst master and the best servant And as S. Paul at first was the greatest persecutor of the Gospel of Christ yet afterwards proved the greatest propagator and preacher of it so the Body that presseth down the soul may be disciplined and taught to lift it up to carry it along to act with it in the way of righteousness That Body which is a prison may be a theatre for the Mind to shew it self in all its proper operations That Body which is but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a sepulchre of a dead soul may be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Temple wherein we may offer up sacrifices of a sweet-smelling savour unto the Lord. That Body in which we dishonoured God stood out against him and defied him may bow and fall down before him and glorifie him When the Body is subject to the Soul the Sense obedient to Reason and the Will of man guided by the supreme rule the Will of God not swerving either to the right hand or the left then every string is in its right place then every touch every action is harmonious then there is order which indeed is the glory of the God of Order In the third place as the Body is thus hewed and squared and made up a Temple of God so is it also made fit to be a sacrifice When it is purged and disciplined and subdued then is it best qualified for that lavacrum sanguinis to enter the laver of persecution and to be baptized with its own bloud and being now taken out of the mouth of the roaring Lion by the same power to tread him under foot nec solùm evadere sed devincere and not onely to escape his paws but to overcome him Let us phansie as we please an easie passage to the Tree of life we shall find there is a flaming sword still betwixt us and it Let us study to make our wayes smooth and plain to Happiness yet we are all designati martyres no sooner Christians then culled out and designed to Martyrdom And if there were no other prison yet the world it self is one and we are sometimes brought out to be spit upon sometimes as Samson to make men sport sometimes to be stripped and not pitied sometimes to the block or to the fire sometimes to fight with beasts with men more savage then they Our prison is not so much our custody as our punishment and we are in a manner thrown out of it whilest we are in it and whilest we are in it we suffer For to glorifie God is to speak the truth of him and to speak the truth of him many times costeth us our tongues and our lives John Baptist may speak many things to Herod and Herod may give him the hearing but if to the glory of God he tell Herod that truth which above all it concerneth him to know this at the first shall lose John his liberty and at the last his head Nay our Saviour Jesus Christ to discharge his message faithfully to bear witness to the Truth and glorifie his Father must be content to lay down his life The Truth of God by which he is most glorified like the Tyrant's fiery furnace scorcheth and burneth up those that profess it hominem martyrem excudit forgeth and fashioneth the man into a Martyr He that endureth to the end glorifieth God and is glorified himself Nec aliud est sustinere in finem quà m pati finem To endure to the end is nothing else but to endure the end We all speak it often Glory be to thee O Lord and the calves of our lips are a cheap and easie sacrifice For we speak it in the habitations of peace But should we hear the noise of the whip should Persecution rush in with a sword in her hand Deficient vires nec vox nec verba sequentur our heart would fail us and we should not have a word to speak for the Glory of God Would any take in Truth and Sword and all into his bowels Would we so glorifie God as to lay our Honour and Life in the dust We do not well consider what the Glory of God is and yet it is the language of the whole world and the worst of men speak it as well as the best the Hyeocrite loudest of all You may hear it from the mouth of the bloud-thirstty man and it is more heard then his Murther which maketh the greatest noise in the other world But it is not done in a word or a breath For then God might have a MAGNIFICAT from Hell Even the Devils may cry Jesus thou Son of the living God It is not to enter his house with praise and his courts with thanksgiving No not to comprehend with all Saints what is the length and heighth and depth and breadth of his Greatness to know that it is in breadth immense in height most sublime in length eternal in depth unfoordable No not to suck out ubera beata praeconii as Cassiodore calleth the Psalms those breasts which distill nothing but praise No A MAGNIFICAT an EXSULTATE a Triumph a Jubilee will not reach it Then we truly glorifie God in our body when we do it openly when Persecution rageth when the fire flameth in our face when the Sword is at our very breasts Then to speak his glory when for ought we know it may be the last word we shall speak to profess his name in the midst of a crooked and froward generation to defend his Truth before Tyrants and not be ashamed to be true Prophets amongst a thousand false ones to suffer for his name's sake this is to glorifie him in our body And these three Chastity Temperance Patience present our bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is our reasonable service For good reason it is that we should be chaste for he is pure that we should fast and afflict our bodies for it is a lesson which he taught us himself in our flesh that we should offer up our bodies for him whose body was nailed to the cross for us A chaste body a subdued body a body ready to be offered up is his Temple indeed the place where his glory dwelleth And now we pass to a fourth the Glorifying God by those outward Expressions which are commanded by the Spirit but performed by the Body alone glorifying of him by our Voice and Gesture and reverent Deportment by our outward Worship And indeed if the three first were made good we need not be
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã fall cross with him nay ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
world then a learned fool So the Church of Christ and Religion never suffered more then from carnal men who are thus Spirit-wise For by acknowledging the Spirit they gain a glorious pretence to work all wickedness and that with greediness which whilest others doubt of though their errour be dangerous and fatal yet parciùs insaniunt they cannot be so outragiously mad But yet it doth not follow because some men mistake the Spirit and abuse him that no man is taught by the holy Ghost 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 for one and two Suns for one Can I hence conclude that all sober men are blind Because I will not learn doth not the Spirit therefore teach And if some men take Dreams for Revelations must the holy Ghost needs loose his office This were to run upon the fallacy non-causae pro causâ to deny an unquestionable and fundamental truth for an inconvenience to dig up the Foundation because men build hay and stubble upon it or because some men have sore eyes to pluck the Sun out of his sphere This were to dispossess us of one evil Spirit and leave us naked to be invaded by a Legion To make this yet a little plainer We confess the operations of the Spirit are in their own nature difficult and obscure and as Scotus observeth upon the Prologue to the Sentences because they are quite of another condition then any thought or working in us whatsoever imperceptibiles not to be suddenly perceived no not by that soul in which they are wrought In which speech of his doubtless if we weigh it with charity and moderation and not extremity of rigour there is much truth Seneca telleth us Quaedam animalia cùm mordent non sentiuntur adeò tenuis illis fallens in periculum vis est The deadly bitings of some creatures are not felt so secret and subtle a force they have to endanger a man So on the contrary the Spirit 's enlightning us and working life in our hearts can at first by no means be described so admirable and curious a force it hath in our illumination Non deprehendes quemadmodum aut quando tibi profuit profuisse deprehendes That it hath wrought you shall find but the secret and retired passages by which it wrought are impossible to be reduced to demonstration We read that Mark Antony when with his Oration he shewed unto the people the wounded coat wherein Caesar was slain populum Romanum egit in furorem he made the people almost mad So the power of the Spirit as it seemeth wrought the like affection in the people who when they had heard the Apostles set forth the passion of Christ Acts 2. and lay his wounds open before their eyes were wrapt as it were in a religious fury and in it suddenly cryed out Men and brethren what shall we do ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith the Text They were stung and as it were nettled in their hearts Now this could not be a thing done by chance or by any artificial energy and force in the Apostles speech this I say could not be For if we observe it Christ was slain amongst them and what was that to them or why should this hazard them more then the death of many other Prophets and holy men who through the violence of their Rulers had lost their lives And what necessity what coactive reason was there to make them believe that He was to save and redeem them who not long since had cruelly crucified him Dic Quintiliane colorem What art was there what strong bewitching power that should drive the people into such an ecstasie Or what could this be else but the effect of the operation of the holy Spirit which evermore leaveth the like impressions on those hearts on which he pleaseth to fasten the words of the wise Eccl. 12.11 which are like unto goads quae cum ictu quodam sentimus saith Seneca we hear them with a kind of smart as Pericles the Oratour is reproved to have spoken so that he left a sting behind in the minds of his Auditory And this putteth a difference betwixt natural and supernatural and spiritual Truths We see in natural Truths either the evidence and strength of Truth or the wit and subtilty of conceit or the quaintness of method and art may sometimes force our Understanding and lead captive our Affections but in sacred and Divine Truths such as is the knowledge of the Dominion and Kingdom of Christ the light of Reason is too dimme nor could it ever demonstrate this conclusion Jesus is the Lord which the brightest eye that ever the world had could of it self never see Besides the art by which it was delivered was nothing else but plainness and by S. Paul himself the worthiest Preacher it ever had except the Son of God himself it is called the foolishness of preaching But as it is observed that God in his works of wonder and his miracles brought his effects to purpose by means almost contrary to them so many times in his persuasions of men he draweth from them their assent against all rule and prescript of art and that where he pleaseth so powerfully that they who receive the impressions seem to think deliberation which in other cases is wisdom in this to be impiety But you will say perhaps that the holy Ghost was a Teacher in the Apostles times when S. Paul delivered this Christian axiom this principle this sum of Christianity when the Church was in sulco semine when the seeds of this Religion were first sown that then he did wonderfully water this plant that it might grow and increase But doth he still keep open School doth he still descend to teach and instruct us on whom the ends of the world are come Yes certainly he doth For if he did not teach us we could not vex him if he did not work in us we could not resist him if he did not speak unto us we could not lie unto him He is the God of all spirits to this day And uncti Christians we are And an anointment we have saith S. John and whilest this abideth in us we need not that any man teach us for this unction this discipline this Divine grace is sufficient And though this oyntment flow not so plenteously now as of old yet we have it and it distilleth from the Head to the skirts of the garment to the meanest member of the Church Though we be no Apostles yet we are Christians and the same Spirit teacheth both And by his light we avoid all by-paths of errour that are dangerous and discern though not all Truth yet all that is necessary They had an Ephah we an Hin yet our Hin is a measure
The treasures thereof are infinite the minerals thereof are rich assiduè pleniùs responsura fodienti The more they are digged the more plentifully do they offer themselves that all the wit of men and Angels can never be able to draw them dry But even this Word many times is but a word and no more Sometimes it is a killing letter Such vain and unskilful pioneers we are that for the most part we meet with poisonous damps and vapours instead of treasure I might adde a third Teacher Christ's Discipline which when we think of nothing but of Jesus by his rod and afflictions putteth us in remembrance that he is the Lord. This Teacher hath a kind of Divine authority and by this the Spirit breatheth many times with more efficacy and power then by the Church or the Word then by the Prophets and Apostles and holy Scriptures For when we are disobedient to his Church deaf to his Word at the noise of these many waters we are afraid and yield our necks unto his yoke All these are Teachers But their authority and power and efficacy they have from the Spirit The Church if not directed by the Spirit were but a rout or Conventicle the Word if not quickned by the Spirit a dead letter and his Discipline a rod of iron first to harden us and then break us to pieces But AFFLAT SPIRITUS the Spirit bloweth upon his Garden the Church and the spices thereof flow And then to disobey the Church is to resist the Spirit INCUBAT SPIRITUS The holy Ghost sitteth upon the seed of the Word and hatcheth a new creature a subject to this Lord. MOVET SPIRITUS The Spirit moveth upon these waters of bitterness and then they make us fruitful to every good work In a word The Church is a Teacher and the Word is a Teacher and Afflictions are Teachers but the Spirit of God the holy Ghost is all in all I might here enter a large field full of delightful variety But I forbear and withdraw my self and will onely remember you that this Spirit is a spirit that teacheth Obedience and Meekness that if we will have him light upon us we must receive him as Christ did in the shape of a Dove in all innocency and simplicity He telleth us himself that with a froward heart he will not dwell and then sure he will not enlighten it For as Chrysostom well observeth that the Prophets of God and Satan did in this notoriously differ that they who gave Oracles from God gave them with all mildness and temper without any fanatick alteration but they who gave Oracles by motion from the Devil did it with much distraction and confusion with a kind of fury and madness so we shall easily find that those motions which descend not from above are earthly sensual and devilish that in them there is strife and envying and confusion and every evil work but the wisdom which is from above from the holy Ghost is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated James 3. full of mercy and good fruits Be not deceived When thy Anger rageth the Spirit is not in that storm When thy Disobedience to Government is loud he speaketh not in that thunder When thy Zele is mad and unruly he dwelleth not in that fiery hush When the faculties of thy soul are shaken and dislocated by thy stubborn and perverse passions that thou canst neither look nor speak nor move aright he will not be in that earthquake But in the still voice and the cool of the day in the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the calm and tranquility and peace of thy soul he cometh when that storm is slumbred that earthquake setled that thunder stilled that fire quenched And he cometh as a light to shew thee the beauty and love of thy Saviour and the glory and power of thy Lord. And though he be sole Instructor yet he descendeth to make use of means and if thou wilfully withdraw thy self from these thou art none of his celestial Auditory To conclude Wilt thou know how to speak this language truly that Jesus is the Lord and assure thy self that the Spirit teacheth thee so to speak Mark well then those symptoms and indications of his presence those marks and signs which he hath left us in his word to know when the voice is his For though as the Kingdom of heaven so the Spirit of God cometh not with observation yet we may observe whether he be come or no. Remember then first that he is a Spirit and the Spirit of God and so is contrary to the Flesh and teacheth nothing that may flatter or countenance it or let it loose to insult over the Spirit For this is against the very nature of the Spirit as much as it is for light bodies to descend or heavy to move upwards Nay Fire may descend and the Earth may be moved out of its place the Sun may stand still or go back Nature may change its course at the word and beck of the God of Nature but this is one thing which God cannot do he cannot change himself nor can his Spirit breathe any doctrine forth that savoureth of the World or the Flesh or Corruption Therefore we may nay we must suspect all those doctrines and actions which are said to be effects and products of the blessed Spirit when we observe them drawn out and levelled to carnal ends and temporal respects For sure the Spirit can never beat a bargain for the world and the Truth of God is the most unproportioned price that can be laid out on such a purchace When I see a man move his eyes compose his countenance order and methodize his gesture and behaviour as if he were now on his death-bed to take his leave of the world and to seal that Renouncement which he made at the Font when I hear him loud in prayer and as loud in reviling the iniquities of the times wishing his eyes a fountain of tears to bewail them day and night when I see him startle at a mis-placed word as if it were a thunderbolt when I hear him cry as loud for a Reformation as the idolatrous Priests did upon their Baal I begin to think I see an Angel in his flight and mount going up into heaven But after all this devotion this zele this noise when I see him stoop like the Vultur and fly like lightning to the prey I cannot but say within my self O Lucifer son of the morning how art thou fallen from heaven how art thou brought down to the ground nay to hell it self Sure I am the holy Ghost looketh upward moveth upward directeth us upward and if we follow him neither our doctrine nor our actions will ever savour of this dung Remember again that he is SPIRITUS RECTUS a right Spirit as David calleth him Psal 51. not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã winding and turning several wayes now to God and anon nay at once to Mammon now glancing
on heaven and having an eye fixed and buried in the earth And that he is a Spirit of truth And it is the property of Truth to be alwayes like unto it self to change neither shape nor voice but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to speak the same things He doth not set up one Text against another doth not disannul his Promises in his Threats nor recall his Threats in his Promises doth not forbid Fear in Hope nor shake our Hope when he biddeth us fear doth not command Meekness to abate my Zele nor kindle my Zele to consume my Meekness doth not preach Christian Liberty to take off Obedience to Government nor prescribe Obedience to infringe and weaken my Chiristian Liberty Spiritus nusquam est aliud The holy Spirit is never different from it self never contradicteth it self And the reason why men who talk so much of the Spirit do fall into so gross and pernicious errours is from hence that they will not be like the Spirit in this but upon the beck of some place of Scripture which at the first blush and appearance looketh favourably on their present inclinations run violently on this side animated and posted on by those shews appearances which were the creatures of their Lust Phansie never looking back to other testimonies of Divine authority that army of evidences as Tertull. speaketh which are openly prest out marshalled against them which might well put them to an halt deliberation which might stay and drive back their intention and settle them at last in the truth which consisteth in a moderation O that men were wise but so wise as to know the Spirit before they engage him to look severely impartially upon their own designs as seriously consider the nature of the blessed Spirit before they voice him out for their abettor or make use of his name to bring their ends about Not to do this I will not say is the sin though perhaps I might but sure I am it is a great sin even Blasphemy against the holy Ghost But I must conclude Let us then as the Apostle speaketh examine our selves and bring our selves and our actions to trial Prove your selves and prove the Spirit Are your steps right and your wayes straight Do your actions answer the rule and still bear the same image and superscription Are you obedient to the Church and do you not think your selves wiser then your Teachers Are you reverent to God's word and receive it with all meekness without respect or distinction of those persons that convey it To come close to the Text Do you not divorce Jesus from the Lord riot it upon his mercy and then bow to him in a qualm and pinch of conscience Do you not fear the Lord the less for Jesus nor love Jesus the less for the Lord Are you as willing to be commanded as to be saved and to be his subjects as his children Are you thus qualified And are you still the same not making in your profession those ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã crooked and unsteddy bendings those staggerings of a drunken man now meek as Lambs and anon raging like Lions now hanging down the head and anon lifting up your horn on high at the altar forgiveness and in your closet revenge courting your brother to day and to morrow taking him by the throat Are you as ready to bow the knee in Devotion and stretch forth the hand in Charity as you are to incline your ear to a Sermon Are you in all things in subjection unto this Lord Is this proposition true and dare ye subscribe it with your bloud JESUS IS THE LORD Then have ye learnt this language well and are perfect Linguists in the Spirit 's dialect Then let the rainfall and the flouds come let the winds and waters of affliction beat thick upon us and the waves of persecution go over our soul let the windy sophisms of subtil disputants blow with violence to shake our resolution in the midst of all temptations assaults and encounters in the midst of all the busie noise the world can make we shall be at rest upon the rock even upon this fundamental truth That the Spirit is the best teacher and That Jesus is the Lord. In which truth the Spirit of truth confirm us all for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake The Nineteenth SERMON ISA. LV. 6. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near THE withdrawing of every thing from its original from that which it was made to be is like the drawing of a straight line which the further you draw it the weaker it is nor can it be strengthned but by being redoubled and brought back again towards its first point Now the Wiseman will tell us Eccles 7.29 That God hath made man upright that is simple and single and sincere bound him as it were to one point but he hath sought out many inventions mingled himself and ingendered with divers extravagant conceits and so run out not in one but many lines now drawn out to that object now to another still running further and further from the right and from that which he should have staid in and been united to as it were in puncto in a point and so degenerated much from that natural simplicity in which he was first made This our Prophet observeth in the people of Israel that they did their own wayes Chap. 58.13 Chap. 63.17 and erred from God's wayes run out as so many ill-drawn lines one on the flesh another on the world one on idolatry another on oppression every man at a sad distance from him whom he shoud have dwelt and rested in as in his Centre Therefore in every breath almost and passage of this Prophesie he seemeth to bend and bow them as it were a line back again to draw them from those objects in which they were lost and to carry them forward to the rock out of which they were hewen to strengthen and settle and establish them in the Lord. All this you have here abridged and epitomized Seek ye the Lord while he may be found The words are plain and need not the gloss of any learned interpreter If we look stedfastly upon the opening of them we shall behold the heavens open and God himself displaying his rayes and manifesting his beauty to draw men near unto himself to allure and provoke them to seek him teaching dust and ashes how to raise it self to the region of happiness mortality to put on immortality and our sinful nature to make its approches to Purity it self that where he is we may be also The parts are two 1. A Duty enjoyned Seek ye the Lord. 2. The Time prescribed when we must seek him while he may be found But because the Object is in nature before the Act and so to be considered we must know what to seek before we can seek it and because we are ready to mistake and to think that we
the same Apostle telleth the Athenians Act. 17.14 c. that God made the world and all things therein and made of one bloud all nations that they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us not far from us if we will seek him The Schools call it vehiculum creaturae the chariot of the creature by which we may be carried up as Elijah was to Heaven by which Man who amongst all the creatures was made for a supernatural end is lifted up nearer to that end For as the Angels have the knowledge of the Creature in the Creator himself saith Bernard for what a poor sight is the Creature to an Angel that seeth the face of him that made it so Man by degrees gaineth a view of God by looking on the works of his hands Secondly As God manifesteth himself in his creature so he appeareth as a light in our very souls Prov. 20.27 He hath set up a candle there Solomon calleth it so The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly a light to all the faculties of the soul and to all the parts of the body to guide and direct them in the seeking after God By this light it is that thou lookest upon thy self and art afraid of thy self By this light they that are in darkness they that are darkness it self the profanest Atheists in the world at one time or other behold themselves as stubble and God as a consuming fire behold that horror in themselves which striketh them into a trembling fit This candle may burn dim being compassed about with the damp of our corruptions but it can no more be put out then the light of the Sun In my prosperity I said I shall never be moved I am a Saint of God a man of blessings guided assisted applauded by God himself Here the candle burneth dim But when Fortune or rather Providence shall turn the wheel and throw me on the ground then it will blaze and by that light I shall behold God my enemy whom I called my friend and fellow-worker Whilest we are men we have reason or we are not men and whilest the spirit remaineth it is a candle though we use it not as we should but are guided rather by the prince of darkness Thirdly to quicken and revive this light God hath sent another Light into the world God was made manifest in the flesh 1 Tim. 3 16. John 1.14 saith S. Paul The Word was made flesh not onely to dwell amongst us but to teach us to improve the light of nature and all those principles of the knowledge of good and evil with which we were born John 17.26 He declared his father's name he made him visible to the eye and set him up as an ensample of purity and justice of mercy and love His Flesh being the window through which Immortality and Eternity and God himself was discovered to mortal men that so he might joyn finem principio the end to the beginning Man to God that so we might seek him in the light of his face God being made thus conspicuous in his Gospel Psal 89.15 shining in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face and person of Jesus Christ who is the brightness of his glory 2 Cor. 4.6 Hebr. 1.3 and the express image of his person And indeed to seek God is not to seek his essence which is past finding out but his will which Chirst hath fully manifested in his Gospel This true light hath made God an object indeed hath given us a more distinct knowledge of him then the light of Nature could do hath declared his attributes revealed his will rent every veil cleared all obscurity scattered every mist and cloud made him of an unknown a known God hath revealed his arm his power to punish us if we seek him not hath opened his bowels proclaimed a jubilee a re-instating of all those who will forsake their old wayes and seek him with their whole heart For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Ephes 2.10 2 Cor. 5.17 which God hath ordained before that we should walk in them that so we might be new creatures that as he created the world out of a rude heap or mass without form to bring forth fruits so he might make us of disobedient and disorderly men composed and plyable to his will that he might draw us out of the chaos of our own confused imaginations and redeem us from bondage into the glorious liberty of the sons of God which liberty consisteth alone in seeking and serving him Thus then you see though God be invisible and incomprehensible yet he hath discovered himself so far as to draw us after him we may see so much of him as to seek him so much as to make us happy and unite us to him And is not this enough Is it not enough for us to be happy Unhappy we if we neglect this delight by desiring more Unhappy we if we do not seek him because he is not as visible as our selves This were indeed to make him like unto our selves to confine and limit him that is to deny him to be God this were to be the worst Anthropomorphites in the world to give God hands and eyes and voice and not believe he is unless he object and offer himself to our very senses And yet see he doth in a manner present himself to thy very sense For why shouldst thou not hear him in his thunder see him in his miracles feel him in every work of his hands Or rather why canst thou not hear him in his Word for that is his voice see him in thy self for thou art built up after his image and no hand but that which is Almighty could have raised such a structure Why canst thou not feel him in his sweet and secret insinuations in the inward checks he giveth thee when thou art doing evil and in his incitements to piety When we feel these we may truly say Est Deus in nobis that God is in us of a truth Hold up then the buckler against this temptation against this fiery dart of Satan which is of force if thou repellest it not to consume and wast thy soul this temptation I say That God and Divine things appear not in so visible a shape as thou wouldst have them What folly is it to aim at impossibilities and to desire to see that which cannot be seen It is plain they are the worst and meanest things that are open to the eye Who ever saw Vertue saith Ambrose who ever handled Justice And wouldst thou dust and ashes have thy God appear in such a shape as thou mayst behold him Walk then by faith For that is the eye thou hast to see him with whilest thou art in this mortal body
behold God's precious promises but when we are urged with this undeniable Consequence That we must therefore forgive we start back and will not yield to the Conclusion nor be convinced by that evidence which is as clear as the day So prevalent is the flattery of this world above the Mercy of God! so powerful is a gilded vanity above the glory of the Mercy-seat It is argument of great force à majori ad minus If Christ forgave us who were his enemies then ought they that take his name upon them to forgive them who are their Brethren And he that is Christ's and truly religious must needs see the force of this argument and confirm and make it good by practice To this end in the next place we must make use of those helps which will draw this consequence out of these premisses which will so fit and prepare us that the Mercy of God may work kindly in us to bring its power into act that as God's Mercy is a convincing argument that we must be merciful so our Compassion to our brother may be as a strong confirmation and full assurance to us that God hath forgiven us First then as the Psalmist speaketh let us have God's Mercy in everlasting remembrance to curb our appetite to check our lusts to bridle our tongue to stay our hand to beat down all our animosity and to make our anger set before the Sun For the Memory saith S. Bernard is stomachus animi the stomach of the soul to make all God's benefits become food and nourishment to turn them into good bloud that we may be strong in the Lord and in the power of the Spirit strong to the casting down of all imaginations which may stand in opposition to the Mercy of God when it is begetting something in us like unto it self to turn them into the very bloud and substance of our soul that she shall not breath nor think nor speak nor actuate the hand but in a way of mercy And in this respect that of Plato may be true ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We learn and are instructed by those notions which were formerly imprinted in our memory This is as it were parturire misericordiam to conceive and be in travel with Mercy till it be fully formed in us to work it out first in the elaboratory of our heart to have this article of our faith Remission of sins before our eyes that may check us at every turn that may break the bow and snap the spear asunder and burn every instrument revenge that may scatter those thoughts which warm our bloud and raise our spirits and make our glory and triumph to tread down our enemies under our feet The frequent meditation of this begat a love in many which was stronger then death This was the chain which bound the Martyrs to the stake this sealed up their lips when they were laughed to scorn Sic posuerunt animas suas With the remembrance of God's mercy in Christ they laid down their lives praying for their enemies with their last breath as Christ did for his commending their souls to the mercy of God whose bloudy cruelty had devoted their bodies to the fire By frequent contemplation of God's love we draw our soul from out of those incumbrances which many times involve and fetter her we recollect our mind into it self and do not let it out to our passions to be torn and distracted but fasten it upon the Goodness of God where it resteth as upon a holy hill from whence looking down it beholdeth every object in its proper shape It looketh upon the World as upon a a shop of vanity upon Riches as that which may be lost and we never the worse upon Beauty as that which is lost whilest we look on it upon Honour as on a falling star which shineth and falleth and is turned into dung upon Injury as a benefit upon Persecution as a blessing upon Contempt as upon that sword which will slay none but the scornful upon Oppression as that which shall undoe none but the covetous Yea it seeth Life in the face and countenance of Death Oh it is a sad speculation that our Memory should keep its retentive faculty to preserve that which is poisonous and deleterial but that we should ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã leak and let out the water of life which should quicken and refresh the soul and make it grow in grace that at the impression of a wedge of gold our Memory should conceive theft or fraud or rapine at the sight of a face bring forth lust at the shew of an injury set the soul on fire but be as marble to receive the signature of God's goodness that it should be a well-lockt treasury to every fading vanity but a through-fare for those lasting and powerful objects which should work and fashion the soul to a mild and heavenly constitution Oh that we should never call our Memory good but in evil Therefore in the second place it is not enough to behold these glorious phantasms and for a while to carry them about with us as precious antidotes unless we mould and fashion and rightly apply them For many times nitimur infirmamur saith Hilary Contemplation bringeth us forward but then letteth us fall to the ground we profer and look back we put on resolutions and fling them off again before they are well on we remember God's mercy and when our bloud is a little chafed study to forget it The good which we would which we approve that do we not and soon learn not to think it good Et mentis judicium rectitudinem conspicit sed ad hoc operis fortitudo succumbit We fall short of that rectitude which the eye hath discovered and which we have but weakly framed and set up in our mind and so leave the truth behind us and go on undauntedly to that which our Anger or Lust doth hurry us to We do not so place God's Mercy before our eyes as to conceive something like unto it as Jacob's sheep did amongst the rods This hindereth the powerful operation of Mercy that we see it as the Jews did their Manna and know not what it meaneth But if we will put on the bowels of mercy we must contemplate Mercy in its own sphere in that site and aspect in which it looketh upon us deliberare causas expendere deliberate and question with our selves for what cause it was thus set up and draw it down to the right end and use of it Now to what end was the hand of Mercy reached out unto us Questionless to work in us peace of conscience and save us But if we look again and view it more nearly and considerately we shall find another use namely to make us fruitful in every good work O thou wicked servant saith the Lord in the Gospel Matth. 18. I forgave thee all thy debt shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant even as
and the service of God but even after the means which may bring us unto it with what joy do we embrace all opportunities how do we bless and magnifie every Ordinance how doth every occasion appear unto us as the cloud that covered the Tabernacle what a light is every glimmering what a Sun is every star how doth the least help raise us up and the smallest advantage fill us with joy Psal 119.60 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We no sooner say We will go but we are at our journeys end We make haste and delay not to keep God's commandments Alacrity is a sign that devotion is sincere and as it were natural Nature runneth her course chearfully without interruption and displayeth her self with a kind of triumph in every creature The Moon knoweth her appointed seasons Psal 104.19 and the Sun his going down And the Sphears are constantly wheeled about with a perpetual motion Iterum redeunt per quod ibant They still hast from the same point and back to it again Naturae animalium à nullo doctae sunt saith Hipprocrates The natures and qualities of living creatures are not conveyed into them by long instruction but what they do they do by nature and that with ease and alacrity Who taught Fire to burn or Trees to grow Who taught heavy bodies to descend or light ones to mount aloft We may say they were all taught by God by that Power which Philosophers call Nature And thus it is with those who being ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã taught of God are well-affected unto and love his service they have as it were a second nature put into them Rom. 12.2 2 Cor. 5.17 The Apostle calleth it a renewing of the mind and a new creature They are carried with facility and chearfulness to their end and strive forward to the things which are above with as great propensity and readiness as light bodies move upwards Psal 42.1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God saith the Psamist As Nature is operative and forcible in the one so is the Spirit in the other And as Nature doth her work with ease so doth Grace All difficulty and slowness is from the earth earthy from the flesh from corruption An unclean heart maketh virtue an heavy task but a right spirit maketh it a delight Nihil difficile amanti There is nothing of difficulty in that which a man loveth The fool goeth to his duty as to the correction of the stocks Prov. 7.22 But he that is wise and loveth goodness is delighted with the very thought and contemplation thereof even when it is beset with terrour and difficulty A good man hath more reluctancy to evil then an evil man to good He falleth not from his duty but by some strong temptation which surprizeth him unawares but the other nè rectè quidem facere sine scelere potest as Tullie speaketh of Vatinius committeth an offence even when he doth that which is right and defileth a good deed in the doing The one loveth the work it felf the other is dragged to it as an ox to the slaughter Prov. 7.22 It was well said of Hilarie Minus est facere quam diligere To do a virtuous act is not so considerable as to love it For it may be done grudgingly and with an evil mind which is indeed not to do it but to turn bread into stones hony into gall and bitterness that which should feed and cherish into an offence But when Love hath wrought in us an alacrity to our duty then it is in a manner become natural to us We call it an Habit And it is a fair note of a virtuous habit if the acts of virtue be performed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with oblectation of mind For if the soul be well disposed and qualified if it be fitted and shaped to that which is good joy maketh an effusion and flux there and letteth out the heart IBIMUS We will go into the house of the Lord We long to be there We will hasten our pace We will break through all difficulties in the way No chains shall keep us back but those of Necessity And though these lay hold on us yet if our will be free and have determined its act the duty is dispatched If we look toward the Temple with a longing eye we serve God there though we enter not into it For plus est diligere quà m facere If I love and will I have done my work before I begin Again chearfulness is a sign of perfection in our devotion Till a thing be perfect it is in a manner streightned and contracted in it self there is in it a kind of striving towards its ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as in a journey though it is some pleasure to look back upon that part of the way which we have left behind us yet it troubleth us to look forward upon that which is yet before us and we are never merry indeed till we sit down at our journeys end Semivirtues dispositions faint inclinations to duty may warm perhaps but cannot enflame us they make us neither active nor chearful nor constant in our wayes Non facimus assiduè non aequaliter saith the Stoick We do our duty neither constantly nor equally We do it to day and leave it undone to morrow We do this thing to day and to morrow the quite contrary One day as St. Hierome saith in the Church another in the theatre one day devout another profane to day hang down the head like a bulrush to morrow lift up our heads on high and exalt our selves without measure This ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã this irregularity and inconstancy of behaviour as St. Basil calleth it is visible in the lives of those men whom the love of God hath not built up and rooted in that which is good For the seeming goodness of such is not natural but forced and artificial like the motions in water-works which while the water runneth in the trough present us with some delightful sight it may be some history of the Bible as the Faith of Abraham the Devotion of David the Humility of the Publicane but when the water is once run out all is done and there is no more to be seen Thus outward respects love of a good name profit and advantage may carry us about a while and present us to the view as men washed and cleansed as Prophets and holy persons but when those fail we suddenly fall to the mire where we first wallowed and are three times more polluted then before For that form of godliness did not proceed from a right principle from the love of that we did but from the love of something else which is contrary to it from the love of the Flesh which Religion crucifieth from the love of Profit which Piety casteth behind her from the love of Glory which Devotion blusheth at from the love of the World which Faith
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
end where they cannot find a fault they will make one And this fiction of theirs must be as a sheet let down from heaven Acts 11.01 13 with a command to arise and kill and eat And at the sight of a prodigy of their own begetting they rejoyce and divide the spoil For conclusion then Let us mark these men and avoid them And let us mourn and be sorry for their joy the issue not of Christian Love but of Pride and Covetousness and which hath not God's glory for its object but their own Let them murmure let us rejoyce let them reproch us let us pray let them break witless jests let us break our stony hearts let them detract let us sing praises let them cry Down with it Down with it even to the ground let us reverence God's Sanctuary let us remember the end for which it was built and draw all our thoughts words and gestures to that end let us so behave our selves in the Church that we may be Temples of the living God and worship God in the beauty of holiness Why should we not rejoyce with David and tune our harps by his our devotion by his songs of thanksgiving The same God reigneth still the same end is set up and the same means appointed for that end Let us press hard to the end and then no scruple can arise Let not our sins and evil conscience trouble us and nothing will trouble us Come let us worship and fall down that is one end and our everlasting happiness is another And these are so linked together that ye cannot sever them The end cannot be had without the means and the means rightly used never miss of their end And then God's glory and our happiness will meet and run on together in a continued course to all eternity Oh then let us so use the means ut profectum pariant non judicium as S. Augustine speaketh that they may have their end and not end in judgement Why should any benefit opportunity occasion that looketh this way be lost and so ly dead and buried why should it loose the effect it should have Why when God soweth his grace and favour should nothing grow up but wormwood and bitterness Why should Heaven bow it self and Earth withdraw Why should God honour us and we dishonour his gift Let us therefore put on David's spirit and enter God's courts with joy and his house with rejoycing let us come to Church with one heart and one soul Prov. 8.31 And as God's delight is to be with the children of men so let our delight be to converse with him in all humility And Humility is an helper of our Joy let us bow our knees and lift up our hearts and upon those altars burn the incense of our prayers and offer up the sacrifice of our praise and let our obedience keep time with our devotion Thus if we present our selves before God in his house he will rejoyce over us and his Angels will rejoyce with us and for us and we shall joy in one anothers joy and when all Temples shall be destroyed and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll Isa 34.34 we shall meet together in our Masters joy and there with Angels and Archangels and all the company of heaven sing praises to him for evermore To which joy he bring us who can hear from heaven and grant our requests and fill us with all joy even the God of love the Father of mercy and the Lord of heaven and earth Soli Deo Gloria The Four and Twentieth SERMON PART I. MATTH VI. 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you THE Decalogue is an abridgment of Morality and of those precepts which direct us in the government of our selves and in our converse with others And this Sermon of our Saviour is an improvement of the Decalogue Herein you may discover Honesty of conversation Trust in God and the Love of his kingdom and his righteousness mutually depending on each other and linked together in one golden chain which reacheth from earth to heaven from the footstool to the throne of God Our conversation will be honest if we trust in God and we shall trust in God if we seek his kingdom and his righteousness For why is not our Yea Yea and our Nay Nay Why are not we so ready to resist evil Why do we not love our neighbour Why do we not love our enemy Why do we arm our selves with craft and violence Why do we first deceive our selves and then deceive others The reason is Because we love the world Why do we love the world Because we are unwilling to depend on the providence of God Why do we not trust in God Because we love not his kingdom and his righteousness He that loveth and seeketh this needeth no lie to make him rich feareth no enemy that can obstruct his way knoweth no man that is not his neighbour nor no neighbour that is not his friend layeth up no treasure for the moth or rust serveth not Mammon nor needeth to be sent to school to learn the providence of God from the fouls of the aire or the lilies of the field This is the summe and conclusion of the whole matter The kindgdom of God and his righteousness is all comprehendeth all is the sole and adequate object of our desires And therefore our Saviour calleth back our thoughts from wandring after false riches taketh off our care and solicitude from that vanity which is not worth a thought and levelleth them on that which hath not this deputative and borrowed title of Riches even that kingdom and righteousness which is riches and honour and pleasure and whatsoever is desirable For even these are of her retinue and train and she bringeth them along with her as a supplement or overplus Do you fear injury This shall protect you Do you fear disgrace This shall exalt you Do you fear nakedness and poverty This shall cloth and enrich you Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you In these words our Saviour setteth up an Object for his Disciples and all Christians to look on first the kingdom of God the price and prize of our high calling Which we need not speak of we cannot conceive it the tongue of men and Angels cannot express the glory of it Secondly his righteousness this is the way to God's Kingdom Next you have the Dignity of the Object it must be sought then the Preeminence of it it must be sought first and last of all the Motive or Promise or Encouragement to make us seek it which answereth all objections which the flesh or the world can put in All these other things shall be added to you These be the parts of the Text and of these in order The Kingdom of God is the end and we must look on
well observeth that none can tast and judge of that sweetness which Truth affords but the Philosopher because they want that organ or instrument of judgment which he useth And that organ which he useth cannot be applyed by Covetousness Ambition and Lust which are the onely Jacobs staves the Many use to take the altitude of Truth by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Philosophers instrument is Reason So in Divine mysteries and miracles we cannot reach the sense and meaning of them we cannot raise our selves to them without an humble pure free and unengaged spirit which is the best instrument of a Christian When our tast faileth us and we cannot distinguish that which is sweet from that which is sowre nor relish meats as they are it is a sure symptome and indication of some a crasie and distemper in the body and when Gods blessings and graces are not relisht when his Manna is Gall when we cannot digest his Miracles we may be sure the Soul wants that temper and disposition which is salus nay anima animae not onely the health but the very soul of the soul Indeed Reason might have taught these men that this was a miracle For rude and illeterate men to speak on a sudden all languages was more then all the Linguists in the world could teach And I persuade my self that from no other principle arose that question of those amazed doubters vers 12. What meaneth this But to read the riddle we must plow with another heifer then Reason To dive into the sense of the miracle can proceed from no other Spirit then that whose miracle it was even him who enlightens them that sit in darkness and who makes the humble and docile soul the seat of his habitation both his School and his Scholar Reason is a light but obnoxious to damps and fogs and mists till this great Light dispell and scatter them Julian was a man as well furnisht with natural endowments as any Emperour of them all yet we see he used it as a weapon against the Truth and wounded Religion more with his scoffs then with his sword His Comical part saith the Father wss far worse then his Tragical When he had received his deaths wound as some have thought by a dart from Heaven he confest that wound came from the hand and power of Christ and he did it in a phrase of scorn VICISTI GALILAEE The day is thine O Galilean Indeed the greatest scoffers at Religion have been men for the most part eminent in natural abilities whose Reason notwithstanding could not shew them their own fluctuations the storms and tempests of their souls she being eclipsed with her own beams Passions and private concernments make her not a servant but an enemy to the Truth not to give sentence for but to plead against it nay to make it ridiculous Some think these mockers here were Pharisees the great Doctours and interpreters of the Law And of them the question was asked Do any of the Pharisees believe in Christ And the reason is most pregnant for though the acts of the Understanding be natural and not arbitrary and though it apprehend things necessarily in those shapes in which they are represented yet when a perverse Will rejects those means which are offered when by-respects call loud upon us to be heard then the mist falls and Darkness is as a pavilion round about us then the object is removed out of sight or appears in that false shape which must needs deceive us by pleasing us because it is that shape which we our selves have given it From hence it is that as it is in the deformity of the body so it is also in that of the soul Nothing is so deformed in the one but some man loves and dotes upon it as we read of one that did love and imitate the distortion of his friends countenance so nothing is so false in the other but some man hath put it into his Creed as it was noted of the Philosophers the great Wisards and Clerks of the world that there was no opinion so absurd and dissonant from reason that found not amongst them some to defend it who would ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã keep the conclusion and maintein it against all evidence whatsoever The miracle here was done before the sun and the people yet Malice could find nothing but matter of mirth in it They did not onely deny but slight it against evidence as clear as the Day it self Now that men bear themselves so stiff upon their opinion beyond the strength of evidence is from the Will over-laid with Passions Hence proceeds the strength of Faction in all decisions the continuance and growth of Errour this is it which enlarges the courtains of its habitation every man supplying by his Will what is wanting in his evidence Hence it is that the most plain truths meet with contradiction that great plagues are called Peace that absurdities are reverenced that miracles are ridiculous that most things are unlike themselves and appear in new shapes every day and seldome in their own Hence is all errour all misprision all derision all blasphemy Hence Evil is good and Good evil Truth falshood and Falshood truth that which is not worth a thought is deified and that which is Divine is contemned With this fire from hell were these scoffers enflamed and whilst this fire burned they spake with their tongues ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Others mocking said These men are full of new wine And so we come to our last part to examine the Mock it self This was not onely a Scoff but an Accusation And the Oratour will tell us that there be divers reasons which make men take upon them the person of an Accuser Sometimes Ambition draws the libell sometimes Hatred sometimes Hope of reward And if we enquire what moved the Scoffers here to lay this foul imputation on the Apostles Oecumenius will tell us that it was nothing else but Perversness and Aversness of disposition which commonly takes non causam pro causâ and indifferently passeth censure upon any cause or do cause at all And this is bred by Opinion and not by Truth If they understood not when the Apostles spake how could they say they were drunk and if they did understand why did they scoff They were men setled in the very dregs of Error and Malice and having taken up an opinion they would not let it go no not at the sight of a miracle Could that Fire be from heaven which must consume the Law Can that Wind blow out of Gods treasury which scatters their Ceremonies Can those Tongues be toucht with a coal from the altar which prophesie against the Altar Do you wonder At what do you wonder It is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but the gibbrish of men cupshot When the fit is over and their heads composed they will be silent enough and speak neither Greek nor Persian but be as very idiots as before Perniciosissimum humano generi
but Love joynes the Will and the Tongue and the Hand together and indeed is nothing else but a vehement and well ordered will Knowledge may be but a dream but Love is ever awake up and doing 1 John 2.3 I may so know the truth that I may be said not to know it but I cannot so love the truth that I may be said to hate it For though the Scripture sometimes attributeth knowledge of the truth to them who so live as if they knew it not yet it never casts away the pretious name of Love on those who so live as if they loved it not A Pharisee an hypocrite may know the truth but it was never written that they loved it but that they loved the praise of men more then of God And this was the reason that they had eyes and saw not eares and heard not nor understood that they had tongues and spake not that they would not be perswaded when they were convinced and withstood the truth when they were overcome In a word Knowledge may leave us like unto the idoles of the heathen with hands that handle not and mouths that speak not Love onely emulateth the power of our Saviour and works a miracle casts out the spirit which is dumb For when he spake these things not the Pharisees but a woman of the company lift up her voice And thus her heart was truly affected and she lift up her voice As the Prophet speaks Jer. 20.9 The Love of Christ was in her heart as a burning fire shut up in her bones and she was weary of forbearing and she could not stay It was like that coal of the Seraphins which being laid on her mouth Isa 6.7 she spake with her tongue Now in the next place what was it that begat her love but the admiration of Christs person his power and his wisdome This was it which kindled that heat within her which broke out at her lips Plato calls Admiration the beginning of Philosophy We admire and dwell upon the object and view it well till we have wrought the Idea of it in our minds Whence Clemens citeth this saying out of the Gospel according to the Hebrew Qui admiratus fuerit regnabit qui regnabit requiescet He that at first admires that which to him is wonderful shall at last reign and he that reigns shall be at rest shall not waver or doubt or struggle formidine contrarii with fear that the contrary should be true and that that which he saw should be but a false apparition and a deception of the sight This woman here saw and wondred and loved she saw more then the Pharisees to whom a sign from heaven appeared in no fairer shape then the work of Beelzebub She saw Christs miracles were as his letters of credence that he came from God himself She had heard of Moses and his miracles but beholds a greater then Moses here For 1. Christs miracles breathed not forth horrour and amazement as those of Moses did in and about the mountain of Sinon Nor 2. were they noxious and fatal to any as those which Moses wrought in Pharaohs court and in Aegypt He did not bring in tempest and thunder but spake the word and men were healed He did not bury men alive but raised men out of their graves He brought upon men no fiery serpents but he cast out devils If he suffered the devils to destroy the hogs yet he tyed them up from hurting of men and what is a Hog to a Man In a word Moses's miracles were to strike a terrour into the people that he might lead them by fear but Christs were to beget that admiration which might work love in those whom he was to lead with the cords of men with the bonds of love All Christs miracles were benefits Acts 10.38 For he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed with the devil for God was with him Christs miracles were above the reach and power of Nature Nature had no hand in the production of any of them All that we vvonder at are not Miracles not an Eclipse of the Sun vvhich the common people stand amazed at because they know not the cause of it Nor is that a Miracle vvhich is besides the ordinary course of Nature For then every Monstre should be a Miracle Nor that vvhich is done against Nature for so every child that casteth a stone up into the air doth vvork a Miracle But that is a Miracle vvhich is impossible in Nature and vvhich cannot be vvrought but by a supernatural Hand 2. Christs miracles vvere done not in a corner but before the sun and the people This Woman here heard the dumb speak she savv the blind see the lame go and the lepers cleansed Miracles vvhen they are wrought are not the object of our faith but of our sense They are signs and tokens to confirm that which we must believe 3. Christs miracles were done as it were in an instant With a touch at a word he cured diseases which Nature cannot do though helpt by the art of the Physician All the works of Nature and of Art too are conceived and perfected in the womb of Time 4. Last of all Christs miracles were perfect and exact When he raised Jairus's daughter Luke 8.55 he presently commanded them to give her meat When he cured Peters wives mother forthwith she was so strong that she arose and ministred unto them Matth. 8 1â He gave his gifts in full measure nor could more be desired then he gave And shall not these miracles and these benefits appear wonderful in our eyes Shall not his Power beget Admiration and Admiration Love and Love command our voice Shall a woman see his wonders and shall we be as blind as the Pharisees Shall she lift up her voice and shall we still keep in us the devil that is dumb It came to pass as he did and spake these things a certain woman of the company lift up her voice and said And now we should pass to what she said but I see the time passeth away Let us therefore make some use of what hath already been said and so conclude And first let us learn from this woman here to have Christs wonderful works in remembrance to look upon them with a stedfast and a fixed eye that they may appear unto us in their full glory and fill us with admiration For Admiration is a kind of voice of the soul Miracula obstupuisse dixisse est saith Gregory Thus Silence it self may become vocal and truly to wonder at his works is to profess them This motion of the heart stirred up with reverence to the ears of the uncircumscribed Spirit is as the lifting up of the voice which speaks within us by those divers and innumerable formes and shapes of admiration which are the inward expressions of the soul When the soul is in an ecstasie when it is transported and wrapt up above it self
time of age it was best for men to marry it was answered That for old men it was too late and for young men too soon This was but a merry reply But the truth is many of our civil businesses whensoever they are done are either done too soon or too late for they are seldome done without some inconvenience But this our Rising may peradventure be too late for old men but it can never be too timely for the young It is a lesson in Husbandry Serere nè metuas Be not afraid to sow your seed when the time comes delay it not And it is a good lesson in Divinity Vivere nè metuas Be not afraid to live You cannot be alive too soon Vult non vult He wills and he wills not is the character of a Sluggard which would rise and yet loves his grave would see the light and yet loveth darkness better then light like the twin Gen. 38. puts forth his hand and then draws it back again doth make a shew of lifting up himself and sinks back again into his sepulchre Awake then from this sleep early and stand up from the dead at the first sound of the trump at the first call of grace But if any have let pass the first opportunity let him bewail his great unhappiness that he hath stayed longer in this place of horrour in these borders of hell then he should and as travellers which set out late moram celeritate compensare recompense and redeem his negligence by making greater speed And now we should pass to our last consideration That the manifestation of this our Conversion and Rising consists in the seeking of those things which are above But the time is welnear spent and the present occasion calls upon me to shorten my Discourse For conclusion Let me but remember you that this our Rising must have its manifestation and as S. James calls upon us to shew our faith by our works so must we shew and manifest our Resurrection by our seeking those things which are above It is not enough with S. Paul to rise into the third heaven but we must rise and ascend with Christ above all heavens Nor can we conceal our Resurrection and steal out of our graves but as Christ arose and was seen 1 Cor. 15. as S. Paul speaks of above five hundred brethren at once and as S. Luke having told us of Christ The Lord is risen presently adds and hath appeared unto Simon so there must be after our Resurrection an Apparuit we must appear unto our brethren appear in our Charity forgiving them in our Patience forbearing in our Holiness of life instructing them in our Hatred of the world and our Love of those things which are above Indeed some mens rising is but an apparition a phantasme a shadow a visour and no more But this hinders not us when we are risen but we may make our appearance nor must the Pharisee fright away the Christian Quaedam videntur non sunt Many things appear to be that which indeed they are not But this action cannot be if it do not appear If there be no apparition there is no Resurrection It is natural to us when we rise to shâw our selves If we rise to honour Acts 25. you may see us in the streets like Agrippa and Bernice ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with great pomp If we rise in our Estates for that is the Worldlings Resurrection and not to rise thus with him is indeed to be dead you may see it in the next purchase If we rise and increase in knowledge which is a rising from the grave of Ignorance then scire meum nihil est we are even sick till we vent knowledge is nothing it the world cry us not up for men of knowledge And shall we be so ready to publish that which the world looks upon with an evil eye and conceal that from mens eyes which onely is worth the sight and by beholding of which even evil-doers may glorifie God in the day of visitation Shall Dives appear in his purple and Herod in his royal apparel and every scribler be in print and do we think that rising from sin is an action so low that it may be done in a corner that we may rise up and never go abroad to be seen in albis in our Easter-day-apparel in the white garment of Innocency and Newness of life never make any shew of the riches and glory of the Gospel have all our Goodness locked up in archivis in secret nothing set forth and publisht to the world What is this but to conceal nay to bury our Resurrection it self Nay rather since we are risen with Christ let us be seen in our march accoutred with the whole armour of God Ephes 2. â0 Let us be full of those good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them for by these we appear to be risen and they make us shine as stars in the firmament We may pretend perhaps that God is the searcher and seer of the heart Well he is so sed tamen luceat opera saith the Father yet let thy light shine forth make thy apparition For as God looketh down into thy heart so will thy good works ascend and come before him and he hath pleasure in them Lift up your hearts They are the words we use before the Administration and you answer We lift them up unto the Lord. Let it appear that you do And therefore as you lift up your hearts so lift up your hands also Lift up pure and clean hands such hands as may be known for the hands of men risen from the dead Let us now begin to be that which we hope to be spiritual bodies that the Body being subdued to the Spirit we may rise with Christ here to newness of life which is our first Resurrection and when he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead we may have our second Resurrection to glory in that place of bliss where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God To which he bring us who is our Resurrection and Life even Jesus Christ the righteous who died for our sins and rose again for our justification To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all honour and glory for evermore The Six and Thirtieth SERMON PHILIPP I. 23. For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Or For I am greatly in doubt on both sides desiring to be loosed and to be with Christ which is best of all WE may here behold our blessed Apostle S. Paul as it were between heaven and earth doubtfully contemplating the happiness which his Death and the profit which his Life may bring perplexed and labouring between both and yet concluding for neither side To be with Christ is best for him to remain on earth is best for the Philippians
his blessed spirit seal us up to the day of our Redemption In a word we shall find mercy here to quicken and refresh our sick and weary souls and the same mercy shall crown us for evermore The Nine and Thirtieth SERMON MATTH XXVIV 25. Behold I have told you before IT is the observation of Chrysostom That there was never any notable thing done in the world which was not foretold and of which there was not some prediction to usher it in and make way for it These things have I told you Joh. 16.4 saith our Saviour to his Disciples That when the time shall come you may remember that I told you of them And in my Text Behold I have told you before of the fearful signs which shall be the forerunners of Jerusalem and of the end of the world Which two are so interwoven in the prediction that Interpreters scarce know how to distinguish them Behold I have told you before that you may be ready with the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day that it come not upon you unawares but find you ready as those who have overcome it when it was yet afar off in its approch and pulled out its sting and poison before it strook its terrour into you Our blessed Saviour here layeth open to his Disciples and in them to all succeeding generations those evils which should be the forerunners of his second coming and of the end of the world as Famine and Pestilence and Earthquakes and Wars and Fearful sights treacherous Parents false Brethren deceiful Kinsfolk and Friends worse then enemies that when these things come to pass they might the less trouble us as darts which pierce not so deep when they are foreseen Did I say that they might the less trouble us Nay this prediction must have a stronger operation on us then so These fearful apparitions must not trouble us but that is not enough we must make right use of them and by them be admonished to prepare and fit our selves for Christ's second coming They must be received as Messengers and servants to invite us to the great Supper of the Lamb. In the words may it please you to observe with me three things 1. the Persons to whom this prediction is made I have told you 2. The things foretold mentioned in this Chapter 3. the End of the prediction or the Reason why they are foretold That we may behold and consider them These three the Persons the Things and the End shall exercise your devotion at this time First for the Persons Though these words were spoken to the Apostles yet if we look nearer upon them they will seem especially to concern us and if we reflect upon our selves we shall find that we indeed are the men to whom they are spoken The Apostles who received them from the mouth of our Saviour were but as cisterns or water-pipes to convey them to us but we are the earth which must drink them in The Apostles who were the hearers of them have many hundred years since resigned up their souls to their almighty Creatour and were never earum affines rerum quas fert senecta mundi never had the knowledge of those things which are to accompany the declining age of the world Not they therefore certainly but we on whom the ends of the world are come are the natural hearers if not of this whole Sermon yet of a great part of it namely of that which concerneth Christ's coming to judgment Nor can we think of it as of some strange thing that our Saviour should direct his speech unto us who stand at so great a distance from him even sixteen hundred years and more removed from the time he spake There is no reason we should For our Saviour was God as well as Man And it is not with God as it is with Man With Man who measureth his actions by Time or whose action are the measure of Time for Time is nothing but duration something is past something present something to come But with God who calleth the things that are not as if they were as the Apostle speaketh Rom. 4.17 there is no difference of times nothing past nothing to come all is present no such thing with him as First and Last who is Alpha and Omega both First and Last He that foretelleth things to come it mattereth not whether they come to pass ten or an hundred or a thousand years after quia una est scientia futurorum because the knowledge of things to come is one and the same saith S Hierom. Adam the first man who was created and whosoever he shall be that shall stand last upon the earth are to God both alike They that walk in valleys and low places see no more ground then what is near them and they that are in deep wells see onely that part of the heaven which is over their heads but he that is on the top of some exceeding high mountain seeth the whole countrey which is about him So it standeth between us mortals and our incomprehensible God We that live in this world are confined as it were to a valley or to a pit we see no more then the bounds which are set us will give us leave and that which our wisdom or providence foreseeth when the eye thereof is clearest is full of uncertainty as depending many times upon causes which may not work or if they do by the intervening of some cross accident may fail But God who by reason of his wonderful nature is very high exalted ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as from some exceeding high mountain as Nazianzene speaketh seeth at once all men all actions all causualties present and to come and with one cast as it were of his eye measureth them all Now that vve may dravv this home Our Saviour Christ vvhen he spake these vvords did an act of his God-head and spake to the things that vvere not as if they vvere and to him vvhen he gave this vvarning vvere vve as present as his Disciples vvere vvho then heard him speak or as vve our selves novv are And therefore in good congruity he might speak unto us hovv far soever removed vve may think our selves to be But that we may plainly see that we are the men whom these words most properly concern let us in the next place consider the things foretold And when we find out those things we shall see that tanquam exserto digito every one of them as it were with a finger pointeth out unto us And find them we shall if we look upon passages precedent and subsequent to the Text. For take the predictions literally or take them morally with that interpretation which is put upon them by the learned and we need not make any further enquiry after the Persons because they so nearly concern us Look over this Chapter and you shall find mention of Deceivers and false Prophets of Nation rising against Nation
omnem which undergoeth the shock of the whole war observeth the enemy in all his stratagems wiles and enterprises meeteth and encountereth him in all his assaults meeteth him as a Serpent and is not taken with with his flattery meeteth him as Lion and is not dismayed at his roarring but keepeth and guideth us in an even and constant course in the midst of all his noise and allurements and so bringeth us though shaken and weather-beaten unto our end to the haven of rest where we would be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We have need of patience Quid enim malum nisi impatientia boni saith Tertullian For what is Evil but an impatience of that which is good What is Vice but an impatience of vertue Pride will not suffer us to be brought low Covetousness will not suffer us to open our hand Intemperance will not suffer us to put our knife to our throat The Love of the world is impatient of God himself His Word is a sword and his commands thunderbolts At the sound of them we are afraid and go away sorrowful ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We have need of patience For we must run our race in a constant and uninterrupted course in an awful reverence to our Law-giver living and dying under the shadow of his wings that whether we live or die we may be the Lord's Non habitat nisi qui verè habitat say the Civilians He is not said to dwell in a place who continueth not in it And he doth not remain in the Gospel who is ready upon every change of weather upon every blast and breathing of discontent to change his seat He doth not remain in it who if the rain descend and the flouds come and the winds blow will leave and forsake it though it be a rock which will easily defend him against all these For what evil can there be against which it hath not provided an antidote what tempest will it not shroud us against Bring Principalites and Powers the Devil and all his artillery unus sufficit Christus the Gospel alone is sufficient for us And in this we see the difference between the World and the Church The world passeth away 1 Cor. 7.31 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The fashion of the world the scene is every day changed and presenteth things in another shape But the Church is built upon a Rock Matth. 16. upon CHRIST that is upon that Faith in Christ which worketh by charity And he who is built upon this Rock who is fully persuaded that Christ is the best Master and that those duties which he teacheth are from heaven heavenly and will bring us thither is sufficiently armed against the flattery of Pleasure the lowring countenance of Disgrace the terrours of Poverty and Death it self against all wind and weather whatsoever that might move him from his place Look into the world There all things are as mutable as it self Omnia in impia fluctuant All things ebbe and flow in wicked men flie as a shadow and continue not Their Righteousness is like the morning dew Hos 13.3 dried up with the first Sun their Charity like a rock which must be strook by some Moses some Prophet and then upon a fit or pang no gushings forth but some droppings peradventure and then a dry rock again their Vows and Promises like their shadows at noon behind them their Friendship like Job's winter-brooks overflowing with words and then in summer when it is hottest in time of need quite dried up consumed out of its place their Temperance scarce holding out to the next feast nor their Chastity to the next twilight The world and the fashion of it passeth away but on the contrary the Gospel is the eternal word of God And as the gifts and calling of God are without repentance Rom. 11.29 Prov. 8.18 so his graces are durable riches opes densae firm and well compacted such as may be held against all assaults like him from whom they descend yesterday and to day and the same for ever Faith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã unfeigned Love abiding Hope an anchor He that is a true Gospeller doth remain and continue and not wander from that which is good to that which is evil is not this day a Confessor and to morrow an Apostate doth not believe to day and to morrow renounce his Creed doth not love to day and loath to morrow doth not hope to day and droop to morrow but unum hominem agit he is the same man and doth the same things assiduè aequaliter constantly and equally He remaineth not in the Gospel in a calm onely and leaveth it when the winds rise but here he will remain fixed to those principles and acting by them vvhen the Sun shineth and vvhen the storm is loudest By the Gospel he fixeth and strengthneth all his decrees and resolutions and determinations that they are ever the same and about the same now beating down one sin anon another now raising and exalting this vertue anon that If you ask him a question saith Aristides the Sophister of Numbers or Measures he vvill give you the same answer to day vvhich he vvill give you to morrow and the next day and at the last breath that he draweth In the next place if we do not remain in the Law of liberty vve do not obey it as we should For to remain in the Gospel and to be in Christ are words of stability and durance and perpetuity For vvhat being is that vvhich anon is not What stability hath that vvhich changeth every moment What durance and perpetuity hath that vvhich is but a vapour or exhalation drawn up on high to fall and stink To remain in the Gospel and to remain for ever may seem two different things but in respect of the race vve are to run in respect of our salvation they are the very same We vvill not here dispute Whether Perseverance be a vertue distinct from other graces Whether as the Angels according as some Divines teach vvhich stood after the fall of the rest had a confirming grace given them from God which now maketh them utterly uncapable of any rebellious conceit so also the saving graces of God's Spirit bring vvith them into the soul a necessary and certain preservation from final relapse For there be vvho violently maintain it and there be vvho vvith as great zele and more reason deny it To ask Whether we may totally and finally fall from the grace and favour of God is not so pertinent as it is necessary to hearken to the counsel of the Apostle and to take heed lest we fall to take heed lest we be cut off and to beware of those sins vvhich if vve commit vve cannot inherit the kingdom of God For vvhat vvill it avail if vve be to every good work reprobate to comfort our selves that vve are of the number of the elect What vvill it help us if by adultery and murther and pride
Every wilful sin is fruitful and seldom endeth in it self He that telleth a lie is in a disposition to betray a Kingdom He that slandereth his neighbour is in an aptitude to blaspheme God We may see Wantonness even budding out of Luxury Strife shooting forth out of Covetousness out of Strife Murther He that yieldeth up his Conscience for his flesh and State will be the more pliable to yield it up when they call for it upon the hardest terms Take heed of these yieldings and condescensions Saepè peccat qui semel One fall naturally draweth on another and that a third till we come in profundum to the very bottom Every little sin if we commit it because we think it little is a great one and carrieth as it were written in its forehead BEHOLD A TROOP COMETH Therefore to conclude this let us not trifle with our conscience but honour it And we honour our Conscience as we do our God for she is as our God upon earth We honour her when we observe her and bow to every beck hearken what she will say and do it and what she forbiddeth avoid not touch not taste not handle ââye from it as from a serpent that doth now flatter but will hereafter sting us to death It is no honour to commend Conscience and wound her to call her a Temple of Solomon a Paradise of delights the Court of God and the Habitation of the Spirit as Bernard calleth a good Conscience Then we honour her when we make her so when we let her keep her throne when we bow to her sceptre when the image of her Dictates is visible in all the emanations of our Soul in our Thoughts when they are such as she would mould in our Words when we speak after her and in our Works when she doth begin and finish them When we subscribe to her first commands which we received when we were free from all interpellations of Fear or Hope and fall not off at their after-solicitations to the contrary and then build up a false persuasion in honour of it and call it Conscience offend and sin against her and then give up her name to an Idol When she commandeth silence and we blaspheme when she lifteth up our heart to heaven and our thoughts are full of adulteries when she prescribeth patience and we strike when she bindeth our hands and we break loose when she sealeth up our lips and we will open them to perjury when by-respects shall win us to that of which she hath said see you do it not when vve are not vvhat she would have us to be but fashion our selves to the world and yet bear her image and superscription are the worst of men with a Good conscience then we dishonour her place her under our lusts and most loathsome desires take her from her throne and lay her in a Golgotha They who look as she looketh and speak as she speaketh and do as she commandeth they vvho obey her these alone are they vvho honour her And then as she is our God on earth that is as she is in the place of God so vvhat God spake of himself will be verified of our Conscience also They that honour her she will honour She will be as our Angel to keep us in all our wayes that we hurt not our foot against any stone of offence She will root and build us up in the faith and in a constant obedience to this perfect law of liberty She vvill settle and establish us to remain in it and set the crown upon our heads even all the Blessedness this life is capable of and that Blessedness which remaineth for ever in the life to come And so we have brought you to the last and best of all the Reward set down in the last words This man shall be blessed in his deed This is the End of all and the End is the crown of all ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith Aristotle The End is that which all look upon In this all our desires and endeavours and counsels meet and rest It is that which giveth force to a Law which maketh Perfection something and Liberty a gift And vvithout it a Law vvere void and no Law Perfection vvere nothing and Liberty but a name The end shineth and casteth an influence and lustre upon all upon the Law upon Perfection upon Liberty For we are obedient to the Law we strive forward to Perfection we stand fast in our Liberty for some end and that is Blessedness Reward and Punishment are the two adamantine pillars saith Plato of a Commonwealth And they are the two pillars vvhich uphold the Church Democritus called them Gods that bear and uphold all things These lead us under a Law guide us to Perfection and uphold us in Liberty If those were not these could not be but all Law Perfection and Liberty would fall to the ground If Heaven were not happiness it were not worth a thought much less our violence To enjoy something better then what we do is the basis and foundation on which every action is raised For who doeth any thing onely that he may do it That action is vain that endeth in it self Fruition is the ultimus terminus the last end of all Knowledge and Volition For To know onely to know is no better then Ignorance And in every act of the Will it is manifest For no man willeth onely that he may will no man loveth onely that he may love no man hateth onely that he may hate no man hopeth onely that he may hope but in every proffer inclination and determination of the Will we look further then the act in which it endeth When we desire any thing we do it with an intent to be united to it to meet and embrace it and from that union something else in which the desire may rest and be fully satisfied This made Moses meek Abraham obedient David devout Job patient This made Apostles and Martyrs this led them through honour and dishonour through good report and evil report and at last brought them to the cross and to the block the next stage unto Blessedness For that which moveth the Will to obedience of the Law is before the obedience it self as that which exciteth and worketh it If this be not set up there is no such thing as Conscience or Obedience at least our Conscience would lose its office and neither accuse nor excuse us neither be our comforter nor tormenter If there were no Hell there were no worm and if there were no Heaven in the next there were no joy in this life The Apostle is plain Without faith that is Heb. 11.6 without a full persuasion of a future estate it is impossible to please God And He that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him And in this appeareth the glory and excellency of the Gospel of Christ of this Law of Liberty that
it requireth no more at our hands for the obtaining of eternity of bliss but this Faith this persuasion If so be we be holy and innocent and remain in this Law and by this faith overcome the world BLESSEDNES then is as the Sun and looketh and shineth on all putteth life in the Law raiseth our Perfection begetteth and upholdeth our Liberty maketh Conscience quick and lively either to affright or joy us either to seourge or feast us If in this life onely we had hope our faith were vain nay this Law the Gospel were vain And therefore in every storm and tempest under the shadow and wings of this Hope we find shelter We flie for refuge saith the Apostle to lay hold upon the hope which is sât before us ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We flie out of the world a shop of vanity and uncertainty the region of changes and chances to this Hope as to an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast which cannot deceive us if we lay hold on it for it entereth into that within the veil and so is firm and safe fastened on this Blessedness as an anchor that reacheth to the bottom and sticketh fast in the ground Blessedness upholdeth and setleth our Hope and on our Hope our Obedience is raised to reach that Blessedness on which our Hope is setled In a word Blessedness like Christ himself is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the first and the last the end and yet the first mover of us in those wayes which lead unto it Christiano coelum antè patuit quà m via Heaven is opened to a Christian and then the way And he that walketh in it shall enter in he that doeth the work shall be blessed in it Now BEATUS ERIT He shall be blessed may either look upon this span or upon that immeasurable space of eternity And it is true in both both here where we converse with Men and Misery and there where we shall have the company of Seraphim and Cherubim and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth Here we have something in hand there the accomplishment some ears we have we shall have the whole sheaf Here we have one part of Blessedness peace of conscience there remaineth the greater the reversion in the highest heavens As Christ said of the two Commandements This is the great Blessedness and the other is like unto it that Joy which is the resultance of every good work which we call our Heaven upon earth That which is to come is a state of perfection an aggregation of all that is truly good without the least tincture and shew of evil as Boethius speaketh This cannot be found here on earth in the best Saint whose joy and peace is sometimes interrupted for a while by the gnawings of some sin or other which overtaketh him or by the sight of imperfection which will not suffer his joy to be full The best peace on earth may meet with disturbance Therefore Peace is found alone in the most perfect Good even God himself who is Perfection it self whose delight and paradise is in his own bosom Which he openeth and out of which he poureth a part of it on his creature and of which we do in a manner take possession when we look into and remain in the perfect Law of Liberty which is an emanation from him a beam of that Law which was with God from all eternity and by which as we are made after the image so are we transformed after the similitude of God which Plato himself calleth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã assimilation and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã union with God In whom alone those two powers of the soul those two Horseleaches which ever cry Give Give the Understanding which is ever drawing new conclusions and the Will which is ever pursuing new objects have their eternal sabbath and rest He that doeth the work shall be blessed in the work ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã this man and none but this shall be blessed So then this is the conclusion That Evangelical Obedience the constant observation of this Law of Liberty of the doctrine of Faith and Good works is the onely and immediate way to Blessedness For not the hearers of the word but the doers shall be justified saith S. Paul And indeed there is no way but this For First God hath fitted us to this Law and this Law to us He hath fitted us for this heavenly treasure For can we imagine that God did thus build us up and stamp his own Image upon us that we should be an habitation for owles and satyres Rom. 12 3. for wild and brutish imaginations that he did give us Understandings to forge deceit to contrive plots to find out an art of pleasure a method and craft of enjoying that which is but for a season that he did give us Wills to wait upon the Flesh which fighteth against the Spirit and his Image which is in us Was the Soul made immortal for that which passeth away as a shadow and is no more or hath he given us dominion over the beasts of the field that we should fall and perish with them No We are ad majora nati born mortal but to eternity And we carry an argument about us against our selves if we remain not in this Law For take it in credendis in those conclusions which it commendeth to our Faith though Faith indeed in respect of the remoteness of its object and its elevation be above Nature yet in the soul God hath left a capacity to receive it and if the other condition of persevering in it did not lie heavy upon the flesh the brutish part we should be readier scholars in our Creed then we are If we could hate the world we should soon be in heaven If we could embrace that which we cannot but approve our Infidelity and Doubtings would soon vanish as the mist before the Sun S. Augustine hath observed it in his book De Religione that multitudes of good moral men especially the Platonicks came in readily and gave up their names unto Christ The Moral man did then draw on the Christian But now I know not how the Christian is brought in to countenance those who deserve another name But then for the Agenda and precepts of practice They are as the seed and the Heart of man the earth the Matrix the womb to receive them And they are so proportioned to our Reason that they are no sooner seen but approved they bring as it were of near alliance and consanguinity with those notions and principles which we brought with us into the world Onely those are written in a book these in the heart indeed the one are but a commentary on the other What precept of Christ is there which is not agreeable and consonant to right Reason Doth he prescribe Purity The heart applaudeth it Doth he bless Meekness The mind of man soon sayeth Amen Doth he enjoyn Sobriety We soon subscribe
Apolinarius 12. Apostles The Spirit was given them but in measure and by degrees and not without using of means 61. Apparel vain and superfluous an argument of a ragged and ill-shapen soul better sold given to the poor 897. Modestie must be our tire-woman not Pride 1101 1102. Appearances deceive and draw us into sin 261 c. 268. The way not to be deceived by them is to compare them with things that are real 269. Appetite v. Inclination Aquinas's answer to his sister 89. Archimedes how honoured for his great skill 292. Arians their opinion of Christ 5. 8. Their errour occasioned by their love 762. Aristippus 508. Aristotle 496. What Alexander would have him teach him 497. Arius 12. 65. Ark. The Ark in a manner idolized by the Israelites taken by the Philistines 300 c. Arts and trades whence 889. Ascension v. Christ. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the antient Fathers what and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã who 68. Assurance of some ill-grounded 578 579 608. 691. 742. 975. 993. A child of God may want Assurance and a wicked man may have it 344 c. 396. 400. Sin and Assurance will not dwell together 351 352. 494. How Assurance is to be gotten 351. 608. v. Despair Athanasius 12. He is commended for his diligent imitation of worthy men 1021. Atheists 41 42. 46. None becometh an Atheist on a sudden 922. Augustine 526. How far he granted Possibility of perfection 110. His errour about Baptism 81. Authority of Superiours to be obeyed 639 c. The AUTHOUR forbidden to exercise his function 1127. His Benediction and Farewel to his Auditours 1128 1129. B BAlaam 253. 549. Baptism not absolutely necessary 81. Barrenness why accounted a curse in Israel 987. Basil 1025. His counsel about Alms 145. and to duty 743. Beasts far better then sinful Man 378. Beauty Honour Riches mean objects for the Soul of man 648. Beauty of Man wherein 107. Begardi 392. Beginnings of grace and goodness should be carried on to the end 555. 578. Believe and Repent the summe of the Gospel and of our duty 60. 61. Benefits bind us to our benefactours 105. 578 579. 590. Birds in India of a strange nature 91. Bishop An Universal B. not expedient 233. Blessedness what and whence to be had 985. 990. 1127 1128. Where B. will not be found 1127 1128. B. is promised to several Virtues but not to be obteined but by all 831 832. Blessedness it is that exciteth us to obedience 1123. B. is entailed on the godly not ex rigore justitiae but ex debito promissi 993. 1126. Our B. beginneth here and is compleated in heaven 1123 1124. Blessings What use we ought to make of God's B 590 591. 598. v. Benefits A good child is a blessing 987. Boasting is not the language of true Saints 882. Body God made our Bodies food and rayment for them which his will is that we make use of 896. A tricked-up B. is a probable argument of a naked soul 897. A speech of an Abbot upon the sight of a woman who had curiously attired her B. 928. He that pampereth his B. destroyeth his soul 562. To beat down the B. is indeed to honour it 886 887. It is not for fornication 750. v. Fornication The B. is the worst master the best servant 753. It is to be kept under by fasting 752 c. We must serve God with our B. as well as with the soul 634 635. 745 c. 749. 980 981. v. Reverence Worsh Our service is not complete if it be not of the whole man 746. 981. What it is to glorifie God in our B. 749 c. We glorifie God in our B. by Voice Gesture reverent Deportment 755. c. Christian duties are performed by the ministery of the B. 746. 756. In which respects Angels themselves may seem to come short of us 746. We glorifie God in our B. when we suffer for his sake 553 554. Brother Every man ought to do his endeavour to save his brother's soul 576 c. Busie-bodies how dangerous in Church and State 212-215 v. Meddling Though they hap to do what is good yet it is not good from them 215. They who are most busie in other mens matters are most negligent at home 216. Fortunate Busie-bodies v. Prosperous Villains C CAin 175 176. the first founder of Cities and the first finder-out of Weights and Measures 889. Callings Diversity of gifts infer a difference of C. 214. 657. God hath assigned every man his Calling 213. Christianity imposeth no particular C. on any but directeth and sanctifieth all 521. No man how great soever ought to live without a C. 223. The meanest C. is honourable 213. 216. Every one ought to keep within the bounds of his own C. 211. 216. 640. This is a lesson of Christianity 213. 224. 521. and also a dictate of Nature 214. This is comely 216. advantageous 216. necessary 217. Devotion may mingle it self with the actions of our Callings 221. Industry in our C. is a special fense against the Devil 223. When we walk honestly in our Callings Christ walketh with us and we walk in him 522. 528. v. Trades Calvine taxed 25. v. Maldonate He and Luther too much admired by their followers 526. 682. v. Kneeling Camp v View Care for children some alledge to excuse their Covetousness and Fraud 127. Cases of conscience how to be decided 1077. Catholick v. Church Cato 868. His politie in his family 564. Tullie's censure of him 295. He is blamed for killing himself 705. Ceremonies Religion brought forth Ceremonies but the Daughter oft devoureth the Mother 1057. Ceremonies are arbitrary and may be dispensed with Moral laws not so 1024. Ceremonial religion is not the true service of God 70 c. The most Ceremonious persons commonly the greatest sinners and why 74 c. v. Formality Many are afraid of a Ceremony and rejoyce in a sin 883. Ceres both frugifera and legifera 219. Cerinthus 11. Chance and Fortune unfit words for a Christian's mouth 573. Changes especially of Religion are still with difficulty 968. Charity hard to be found either in Commonwealth or Church 491. How little Charity some content themselves withal 822 823. 862 863. Charity is a coupling virtue 242. Faith and Hope if without Charity are false 242. 275 276. It is a necessary qualification of a Communicant 490 c. It maketh a man avoid giving offense to others 639. 1102. and to be peaceable and obedient in the Church 59 60. 1077. Charity and Prudence are to be our guides in things indifferent 639. 1077. 1102. Works of Charity fill the heart with great joy 1125. 1126. Charity maketh a man resemble God 279. Deeds of Ch. 278. Our Charity to others must be joyned with Purity in our selves 281. Acts of Ch. how to be performed 942 943. Occasions and objects of Ch. ever frequent 943. Arguments to move us to be charitable one to another 938 c. St. John in a whole Sermon
There onely is blessedness to be found 986. Heaven-gate not so easie to be entred as some men dream 1070. 1078. Heaven will not be atteined by a phansie a thought a wish a bare profession 1067. The way to Heaven though rough haply at first smooth and pleasant afterwards 60. Hebr. xiii 21. 588. Hell no place for a true Christian 48. Sin an embleme of Hell 932. St. Basil's opinion of Hell-torments 380. Heresies Their original 263. Hertha 462. Hieroglyphicks of great use in Egypt of old and still in China 1017. St. Hierome 391. Hilarion 539. Holy Ghost v. Ghost Holiness It s large extent 196. Many mistakes about it 196. It pleaseth even them that oppose it 553. How Churches Dayes Means c. are holy 847. c. v. Churches Honest v Profitable It is a good way to make one an honest man to pretend we take him to be so 1002. Honours v. Riches That which the world counteth Honourable is quite contrary with God 210. Why and how we ought to honour our selves and how not 318. Honour a vain thing to satisfie the soul 648. Hope is a necessary companion of Faith 242. 736. It is best allayed with Fear 399. How a firm Hope is gained 669. Bad men oft hope too much and good men in a manner despair 344 c. 351. v. Assurance Presumtion We must hope well of every man endeavour his salvation 576 577. How Hope of Wealth or Honour enslaveth and deceiveth us 671. Nothing in this world worthy to place our Hope on 674. Humility Christ's H. the onely remedy for Man's Pride 6. Man's heart naturally averse from it 157 630. It is the door-keeper in Christ's School 159. 631. It appeareth in every action of a Christian 156. 638. VVherein it consisteth 159. 631. Many practice it by halves 160. 632. Humility of the Soul the cheif H. 160 c. 633. But that of the Body must not be wanting 162. 634. Many praise H. few practice it 630. It s proper vvork 631. Many look to have this grace vvrought in them vvithout striving for it but this is a dangerous errour 628 629. Humility twofold Forced and Voluntary 629. God's Power should move us to H. 642. but his Mercy is the most powerful motive 643. H. is the next step to Honour 644. Exceeding great advantages vve receive by it 644 645. Humbling our selves is a most Christian exercise 627. A blameworthy Humility 428. 459. That is bad H. that keepeth us from doing our duty 459 c. 609. Husband A Christian H. is soli uxori masculus 1078. Hypocrisy not dead vvith the Pharisees but alive at this day 1059. How to be discovered 64. v. Formality H. set-forth in its colours 1055. The Hypocrite set-forth 171. 777. 780. A character of the Hypocrites of this Age 1060. Hypocrites like the vvheels of a Clock or motions by Water-works 370. They deceive others and themselves 919. Let them not think to hide themselves from God's all-seeing ey 1059. Their portion in hell the saddest 372. What instruction may be received even from Hypocrites 373. H. is most odious 369 372. It is often witty and laborious but quickly at an end 370. It is most hateful to God as being most opposit to his Justice 1058. and to his Wisdome 1059. Hypocritical Fasting Hearing Praying v. Fasting c. I. IDleness is contrary to the dictate not onely of the Spirit but even of Nature 220. It is the mother and nurse of pragmatical Curiosity 218. It maketh more Monks then Religion 220. Idle Gallants reproved 222. Idle and unactive souls deserve not to be accounted peaceable 199. The Idle Sluggard is a thief robbing both the Common-wealth and himself 220. The Idle man's Texts vindicated 222. Ignorance v. Malice Nature hath annexed a shame to Lust and Ignorance 500. Ignorance by some accounted holiness 97. There were of old some who professed Ignorance 1095. We have some now that are Ignorant but would not be held so 1095. Many mens Ignorance is a wilfull and proud Ignorance 437 438. Some pretend knowledge but are grosly ignorant 97. Ignorance a slight excuse 437. 447. No Ign. is an excuse but what is irresistible 439. Ignorance in a Physician is a cheat 439. Ign. of our selves the worst Ign. 481. Ignorance of some things better then skill in them 131. Affected Ignorance is most fearful 688 689. Image of God defaced in Man renewed by Christ 13. Wherein it consisteth 647. Imitation of the Saints must be with caution and limitation 1025 c. v. Examples How foolishly some imitated Basil 1025. Impatience a sign of a worldly man 542. Impenitence after deliverances will pull down greater judgments 610 c. Impenitence and Infidelity the onely unpardonable sins 29 c. Impossibilities are not required of us by God 109 c. 602 c. If exact Obedience were indeed impossible whether it be fit the people should be told so 111. 605. Imputation v. Righteousness Many lay claim to Christ's Imputed Righteousness vvho have none of their own 993. Incarnation v. CHRIST Inclination v. Affections Thoughts No natural Inclination or Appetite is evil in it self 265. Good Inclinations are from God 361 362. Inconstancie in mens actions whence 317. To âlter ones opinion upon clearer evidence is not Inconstancie 678. Indifferent things become necessary when commanded by lawful Autority 59. 1077. These are the onely sphere that Autority moveth in 60. In things Indifferent vve must follow the rules of Charity and Prudence 1077. We must abstein from things otherwise lawful if not expedient 639. 1102. Induration v. Hardning Industrie It s efficacie 1066. Industrie and Pains-taking often frustrate in temporal matters alwayes speed in search of the Truth 67. It is the way to Knowledge 96 97. v. Calling Labour Infidelity is in every sin 100. This sin onely maketh Christ's bloud ineffectual 29 c. The cause of it 41 42. Ingratitude a most odious vice 363. 799. Injustice Many talk of Honesty and Religion and live unjustly 134. Injustice is far worse then Poverty Grief Death 126. It can have no good pretense to excuse it 127. It is a most unmanly quality 135. It floweth from Distrust of God and Love of the World 136. v. Oppression The dismal doom of Injustice 136 137. Intention As is the Intention so is the action how to be understood 444. v. Meaning Sin Interest Private Interest of how great sway in the vvorld 1071. Irreverence in the house of God springeth from Covetousness 755. and from Pride 859. It offendeth God Angels and good Men and encourageth the Profane 858. Many are so Irreverent in the Church as if they thought God vvere not there 920. Their pretense vvho place Religion in Irreverence 757 v. Reverence Arguments of profane Irreverent men answered 859. Isa v. 3 4. 486. ¶ vi 9 10. 411. ¶ lv 8. 189. 703. ISRAEL The very name is a great motive to obedience and a sore aggravation of sin 402. 417. v. Jews The state of
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 â92 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
we know he was but a man and we know he erred or else our Church doth in many things It were easie to name them But suppose he had broached as many lies as the Father of them could suggest yet those who in their opinions had raised him to such an height would with an open breast have received them all as oracles and have licked up poison if it had fallen from him For they had the same inducement to believe him when he erred which they had to believe him when he spake the Truth We do not derogate from so great a person we are willing to believe that he was sent from God as an useful instrument to promote the Truth But we do not believe that he sent him as he sent his Son into the world that all his words should be spirit and life John 6.63 that in every word he spake whosoever heard him heard the Father also Thus ye see how Prejudice may arise how it may be built upon a Church and upon a person and may so captivate and depress the Reason that she shall not be able to look up and see and judge of that Truth which we should buy I might instance in others and those too who have reformed the Reformation it self who have placed the Founder of their Sect as a star in a firmament and walk by the light which he casteth and by none other though it come from the Sun it self Who fixing their eye upon him alone follow as he led and in their zele and forward obsequiousness to his dictates many times outgo him and in his name and spirit work such wonders as we have shrunk and trembled at But manum de tabula we forbear lest whilest we strive to charm one serpent we awake an hundred and those such as can bite their brethren as Prejudice doth them I shall but instance in two or three prejudicial opinions which have been as a portcullis shut down against the Truth The first is That the Truth is not to be bought nor obtained by any venture or endeavour of ours but worketh it self into us by an irresistible force so as that when we shall have once got possession of it no principalities or powers no temptation no sin can deprive us of it but it will abide against all storms and assaults all subtilty and violence nay it will not remove though we do what in us lieth to thrust it out so that we may be at once possessours of it and yet enemies to it Now when this opinion hath once gained a kingdome in our heads and we count it a kind of treason or sacrilege to depose it why should we be smitten Isa 1.5 why should we be instructed any more Argument and reason will prove but paper-shot make some noise perhaps but no impression at all What is the tongue of the learned to him who will hearken to none but himself We talk of a preventing Grace to keep us from evil but this is a preventing ungracious perversness to withhold us from the Truth For when that which first speaketh in us which we first speak to our selves or others to us who can comply with that which is much dearer to us then our selves our corrupt humour and carnality when that is sealed and ratified for ever advice and counsel come too late When Prejudice is the onely musick we delight to hear what is the tongue of Men and Angels what are the instructions of the wise but harsh and unpleasant notes abhorred almost as much as the howlings of a damned spirit When we are thus rooted and built up in errour what can shake us It is impossible for us to learn or unlearn any thing For there is no reason we should be untaught that which we rest upon as certain and which we received as an everlasting truth written in our hearts by the finger of God himself and that as we think with an indeleble character Or why should we studie the knowledge of that which will be poured by an omnipotent and irrefragable hand into our minds Who would buy that which shall be forced upon him When the Jew is thus prepossessed when he putteth the Word of God from him Acts 13.46 and judgeth himself unworthy of everlasting life then there is no more to be said then that of the Apostles Lo we turn to the Gentiles Another Prejudice there is powerful in the world somewhat like the former namely a presumption that the Spirit of God teacheth us immediately and that a new light shineth in our hearts never seen before that the Spirit teacheth us not onely by his Word but against it That there is a twofold Word of God 1 Verbum praeparatorium a Word read and expounded to us by the ministery of men 2. Verâum consummatorium a Word which consummateth all and this is from the Spirit The one is as John Baptist to prepare the way the other as Christ to finish and perfect the work It pleaseth the Spirit of God say they by his inward operation to illuminate the mind of man with such knowledge as is not at all proposed in the outward Word and to instill that sense which the words do not bear Thus they do not onely lie to the holy Ghost but teach him to dissemble to dictate one thing and to mean another to tell you in your ear you must not do this and to tell you in your heart you may to tell you in his proclamation Matth. 5.21 you may not be angry with your brother and to tell you in secret you may murder him to tell you in the Church Matth. 21.13 you must not make his house a den of thieves and to tell you in your closet you may down with it even to the ground Juven Sat. 8. Inde Dolabella est atque hinc Antonius inde Sacrilegus Verres From hence are wars contentions heresies schismes from hence that implacable hatred of one another which is not in a Turk or a Jew to a Christian For tell me What may not they say or do who dare publish this when their Phansie is wanton It is the Spirit when their Humour is predominant It is the Spirit when their Lust and Ambition carry them on with violence to the most horrid attempts It is the Spirit when they help the Father of lies to fling his darts abroad It is the Spirit It is indeed the Spirit a Spirit of illusion a bold and impudent Spirit that cannot blush For when it is agreed on all sides that all necessary truths are plainly revealed in Scripture what Spirit must that be which is sent into the world to teach us more then all In a word it is a Spirit that teacheth us not that which is but that which our Lusts have already set up for truth A new light which is but a meteor to lead us to those precipices those works of darkness which no night is dark enough to cover Such a Spirit as proceedeth
not from the Father and the Son but from our fleshly Lusts 1 Pet 2.11 from the beast within us that fighteth against our Soul I am weary of this Spirit I am sure the world hath reason to be so and to cast it out There is a third which I am ashamed of and I have much wondred that ever any who with any diligence had searched the Scriptures or but tasted of the word of truth could have so ethnick a stomach as to digest it But we see some have taken it down with pleasure and it serveth as hot waters to ease them of a pang of that worm which gnaweth within them Shall I name it to you It is Tying of the Truth to the wheel of Fortune or to set it forth in its fairest dress to the Providence of God which moveth in a certain course but most uncertain to us and is then least visible when it is most seen A Prejudice raised out of prosperity and good success Which befalleth the bad as well as the good 2 Sam. 11.25 as the Sword devoureth one as well as another If Event could crown or condem an action Virtue and Vice were not at such a distance as God and Nature have set them That would be Virtue in this age which was Vice in the former that which is true to day might be false to morrow For the same lot befalleth them both That storm which now beateth upon the one may anon be as sharp and violent against the other And indeed Virtue is most fair and glorious in the foulest weather This action hath prospered in my hand Therefore God hath signified it as just is an argument which an Heathen would deny who had but seen the best intentions and goodliest resolutions either by subtilty or violence oft beaten down to the ground Certainly no true Israelite could thus conclude 2 Kings 22.2 who had seen Josiah walking in all the wayes of David his father 2 Kings 23.29 and yet at the last stricken down by the hand of Pharaoh Nechoh in the battel at Megiddo It was indeed the argument of the Epicure against the Providence of God Lucret. l. 2. Aedes saepe suas disturbat That Jupiter let fall his thunderbolts upon his own houses and temples But the Christian can draw no such inferences and conclusions who knoweth the wayes of God are past finding out Rom. 11 3â Gal. 6.14 that the world must be crucified unto him and he unto the world that he must * Acts 14.22 make his way through many afflictions and troubles to his everlasting rest All that can be said is God permitteth it For for any command ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã where is it to be found And how can we conclude of that which we do not cannot know Permit it he doth and so he doth all the evil in the world for if he did not permit it it could not be done Hence it is that the storm falleth upon the best as well as upon the worst But to the one though ye call it a Storm it is indeed a gracious rain to water and refresh them as for the other it sweepeth them away and swalloweth them up for ever God's Judgements are like his Spirit Joh. 3.8 a wind that bloweth where it lifteth and we hear the sound thereof but cannot tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth neither for what cause in particular they are sent nor what is their end Permission is no fit basis to build a Command upon Nor can Approbation be the consequent where Permission onely is the antecedent We can no more draw such a conclusion from such premisses then we can strike water out of a flint or fire out of a cake of ice The wicked prosper in their wayes Every Sorcerer is not struck blind Every sacrilegious Ananias is not stricken dead Every Sodom is not consumed with fire But this doth not justifie Sorcery and Sacrilege and Unnatural lust And The righteous are cast down and perish Every just man doth not flourish as a green bay-tree Nay rather as the Apostle saith Not many wise not many noble 1 Cor. 1.26 c. so not many just not many righteous do flourish But this doth not condemn Innocency nor on the sudden as it were transubstantiate and change Virtue into Vice I have the rather brought this Prejudice forth and exposed it to shame because it is common especially amongst the common sort who are as good Logicians as they are Divines whose very natural Logick their Reason is tainted and corrupted by the world in which they live and to which in a manner they grow It is vox populi the language of the Many and it is taken up too oft He hath taken a wrong course Ye see God doth not bless it This is not just For it doth not thrive A Prejudice this which quite putteth out their eyes that they cannot distinguish evil from good nor good from evil the Devil's snare and he hath scarce such another in which he taketh so many He was unfortunate Therefore he was not wise He prospered in his wayes Therefore his wayes were right It is plebiscitüm an Ordinance of the people And sometimes it is senatus consultum an Ordinance of those who count themselves wise And it hath been rescriptum Imperatoris the rescript and determination of the highest A Prejudice which may drive a man like Nebuchadnezzar amongst beasts and make him worse then they An opinion which first withereth a soul that it can bear no fruit and then leaveth it as fuel for hell fire for ever An opinion bellied like the Trojane horse in which lie lurking oppression Deceit Treason all the enemies of Truth and the Father of lies the Devil himself ready to break forth and destroy and devour a soul A foundation and basis large enough to raise a Babel upon all the evil we can do all the evil we can think even confusion it self The hope of good success may flatter me into the greatest sin and when success hath crowned that hope it will dress that sin in the grave mantle of Virtue and Piety and so shut out Repentance for ever Ye see the danger of Prejudice It lieth as a serpent in our way Gen. 49.17 as an adder in our path to bite our heels to hinder us that we cannot travel to the market where Truth is to be bought Let us therefore lay aside all Prejudice and as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Truth 1 Pet. 2.2 that we may grow thereby Let us not build our faith upon any particular Church or Sect For it is possible that a Church may erre and so deceive us Hear O Israel when the Church speaketh but not so as when God speaketh and publisheth his commands Hear the Church Matth. 18.17 but then when she speaketh the words of God Let not a name and glorious title dazle our eyes He will make but an ill