Gospel And the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is a two-peny Feast Our comfort it is that it is not so it is but like it at the most And it is not like it neither This likeness is not in truth but opus intellectûs a resemblance made up in the brain of those whom all the world knows are none of the wisest unless it be in their generation Sure every gesture that will bear a resemblance is not Popery It is not so because we have so drawn it in our phansie because we make it so and because we will have it so for our own ends For thus every man may be an Idolater whom we mean to strip John 7.24 our Saviours counsel is Judge not according to the appearance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the face and countenance of things For how easie is it to paint and present them as we please Many times an evil eye makes an evil face puts horrour upon Religion it self and where Devotion shines out in the full beauty of holiness draws a Pope or a Devil As Charity covers a multitude of sins so doth Malice cover a multitude of vertues with the black mantle of Vice she covers Devotion with Phrensie Honesty with Folly and Reverence with Superstition and that onely is seen which may at once offend and delight the mocker O what a scandal is a College or a Church what an abomination are holy things when they are sought for as a prey But commonly Scoffers have ill luck for though they would hide themselves in noyse and formality yet are they seen well enough in their furious march to the Honors and Wealth of this world and can bring but slender evidence to confirm what they say Though they lift up their voice and speak never so loud They are drunk This is superstition These are Idolaters When this is spoken they have no more to say and they need not say more For if they be backt with Power though Reason and Argument forsake them you shall be forced to take them at their word Quà m sapiens argumentatrix videtur sibi ignorantia humana Good God! what subtile disputers do Ignorance and Malice account themselves for these are disputers of this world where Phansie goes for Reason Humour for the Spirit and a Scoff for an impregnable argument where we see ridicula potiùs quà m firma tela weapons to be laught at rather then to be feared rather bulrushes then spears syllogismes truly destructive which may ruine us indeed but can never convince us may shake our estates and lives but not our faith These are drunk This is Superstition What should we say even lay our hand upon our mouth with Job and proceed no further We see here S. Peter takes no great pains to avoid these scoffers he useth no convincing demonstrative argument but onely a probabili He tells them it was not probable they should be drunk so soon at such a feast at the third houre of the day The Philosopher will tell us Non est disputandum cum quovis every man is not to be disputed with For that which should free some from err our confirms them in it Nothing will be restrained not any thing will be cut off from them which they imagine to do When you undertake Pertinacy you do but beat the air Nazianzene observes that Christ himself did not give an answer to every question We will then answer the scoffers of these times as S. Peter did these here with a non probabile It is not probable that a reverent gesture or some few ceremonies should reconcile him to Rome whose doctrine is orthodox that a knee make him superstitious who is devout in his heart It is more probable that it is Reverence rather then Superstition Devotion rather then Idolatry Or if it were not apparently probable yet where no evidence is brought to the contrary there true Christian Charity which is no scoffer we may be sure is very active to make and frame such probabilities Sperat omnia credit omnia saith the Apostle if she be not certain for the best she will not be certain and positive for the worst if she be not certain yet she will hope and believe that all things are well Nor will she cry Superstition at the sight of reverence nor Idolatry at the mention of an Altar Charity that never fails will never fall at the bowing of a knee nor will ever conclude so absurdly These men fall down and worship therefore they are idolatrous no more then thus These men are full of new wine when at that time there was none to fill them To conclude then These scoffers are dead and Lucian is dead and Julian is dead and are gone to their place yet the Spirit breathes still and the Church of Christ stands firm upon the same foundation The blessed Spirit though he be grieved yet cannot be destroyed though he be quenched yet it is but in scoffers Magna vis veri impelli potest exstingui non potest Great is the Truth and at last it prevaileth you may oppress it you cannot exstinguish it All the power and rage and malice of bloudy hypocrites can never so chase it away but it will find some humble and devout hearts to dwell and rest in As Fire cast into the Water is streightway put out saith Tully so scoffs and detraction and wilfull and malicious misinterpretations soon vanish into nothing Crepitant solvuntur These hailstones rattle for a while on the house-top and make a noise and are then dissolved into air Suppose a man of fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is S. Chrysostoms resemblance should fall into a field of stubble of flax or straw he can receive no hurt but must needs shew his force and activity and consume whatsoever is combustible before him Shall Flax or Straw stand up against Fire This man of fire cannot suffer by such thin materials which are as fewel to nourish and uphold him What can they do If they venture they destroy themselves Beloved every Apostle of Christ every true Christian is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of fire Scoffs are but straw Detraction but as flax which coming too near him can consume themselves or as Thorns crackle a while and make a noise in this fire and no more And when the day of lustration shall come when that day shall come which is spectaculum as Tertullian calls it the great spectacle of the world when all things shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 naked and anatomized as a beast cut down the back then all thoughts shall be discovered all veils removed all visours pluckt off Then spiritual Joy shall not be madness the Breathings of the Spirit shall not be the ebullitions of men distempered with wine nor true Honesty folly nor Reverence superstition Then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato calls it or rather this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This unusual behaviour of wise and spiritual men which is so
abettor nay as a principal in those actions which Nature it self abhorreth and trembleth at is worse than out of errour to deny him For what a Spirit what a Dove is that which breatheth nothing but gall and wormwood but fire and brimstone What a Spirit is that which is ever pleading and purveying for the Flesh which is made to bear witness to a ly Petrarch telleth us Nihil importunius erudito stulto that there is not a more troublesome creature in the world than a learned fool So the Church of Christ and Religion never suffered more than by carnal men who are thus Spirit wise For by acknowledging the Spirit and making use of his name they assume unto themselves a licence to do what they please and work wickedness not only with greediness but cum privilegio with priviledge and authority which whilest others doubt of though it be not only an errour but blasphemy yet parciùs insaniunt they are not so outragiously mad Yet we must not put the Spirit from his office because dreams or rather the evaporations of mens lusts do pass for revelations or say he is not a Leader into truth because wicked or fanatick persons walk on in the wayes of errour in the wayes of Cain or Corah and yet are bold to tell the world that this Spirit goeth before them The mad Athenian took every ship that came into the harbour to be his but it doth not follow hence that no wise and sober Merchant knew his own To him that is drunk things appear in a double shape and proportion geminae Thebae gemini soles two Cities and two Suns for one but I cannot hence conclude that all sober men find it so Nor can I deny the Spirits conduct because some men wander as they please and run on in those dangerous by-paths where he will not lead them This were to deny an unquestionable and fundamental truth this were for an inconvenience to dig up the foundation because men build hay and stubble upon it or because some men have sore eyes to pluck the Sun out of its sphere It were indeed dangerous to teach That the Spirit did teach and lead us were there not means to try and distinguish the Spirits instructions from the suggestions of Satan or from those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those mishapen lumps and abortive births of a sick and loathsome brain or from our private humour which is as great a Devil John 14.1 Beloved saith S. John believe not every spirit that is every inspiration but try the spirits whether they be of God for many false prophets are gone out into the world that is have taken the chairs and dictate magisterially what they please in the name of the Spirit when themselves are carnal And he giveth a rule by which we should try them v. 2. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God that is Whosoever striveth to advance the Kingdome of Christ and to set up the Spirit against the Flesh to magnifie the Gospel to promote men in the wayes of innocency and perfect obedience which infallibly lead to happiness is from God Every such inspiration is from the Spirit of God For therefore doth the Spirit breath upon us that he may make us like unto God Joh 14.3 and so draw us to him that where he is there we may be also But then those inspirations which bring in God to plead for Baal which cry up Religion to gain the world which tread down Peace and Charity and all that is praiseworthy under feet to make way for mens unruly Lust to place it more delicately to its end they that magnifie Gods will that they may do their own these men these spirits cannot be from God Matth. 7.20 By their fruits you shall know them Their hypocrisie as well and cunningly wrought as it is is but poor cob-web-lawn and we may easily see through it We may see these spiritual men sweating and toyling for the flesh these spirits digging in the minerals and making haste to be rich Though GLORIA PATRI Glory be to God on high be to the Prologue to the Play and what doth an Hypocrite but play yet the whole drift and business of every Scene and Act is to draw and conclude all in this Acts 19.25 From hence we have our gain The Angel or the Spirit speaketh first and is the Prologue and Mammon and the Flesh make up the Epilogue Date manus Why should not every man clap his hands Surely such Roscii such nimble cunning Actours deserve a Plaudite By their fruits you shall know them What Spirit soever they have it is not of God Nothing more contrary to the flesh than Gods Spirit therefore he cannot lead this way nor can he teach any thing that may flatter or countenance it There is nothing more against his nature Fire may descend the Earth may be removed out of its place Nature may change her course at the word and beck of the God of nature but this one thing God cannot do He cannot change himself nor can his Spirit breath any doctrine forth which savoureth of the World of the Flesh of Corruption Therefore we may nay we must suspect all those doctrines and actions which are said to be the effects and products of the blessed Spirit when we observe them drawn out and levelled to carnal ends and temporal respect For sure the Spirit can never beat a bargain for the World and the Truth of God is the most unproportioned price that can be laid out on such a purchase When I see a man roll his eyes compose his countenance order and methodize his gesture as if he were now on his death-bed to take his leave of the world when I hear him loud in Prayer and as loud in reviling the iniquity of the times when I see him startle at a misplaced word as if it were a thunder-bolt when I hear him cry as loud for a reformation as the Idolatrous Priests did upon Baal I begin to think I see an Angel in his flght and mount going up into heaven But then after all this exstatical devotion after all this zeal and in the midst of all this noyse when I see him stoop like the vulture and fly like lightning to the prey I cannot but say within my self Oh Lucifer Isa 14.12 15. Son of the morning how art thou fallen from heaven how art thou brought down to the ground nay to hell it self Sure I am the Spirit of truth looketh upward moveth upward directeth upward to those things which are above and if we follow him neither our doctrine nor our actions will ever savour of this dung So then we see this inconvenience and mischief which sometimes is occasioned by this doctrine of the Spirit 's Leading is not unavoidable It is not necessary though I mistake and take the Devil for an Angel of light that the holy Ghost should be put to
imitateth natural motion It is weak in the beginning stronger in the progress but most strong and violent towards the end Transit in violentiam voluntas antiqua That which we will often we will with eagernerness and violence Our first onset in sin is with fear and reluctation we then venture further and proceed with les regret we move forwards with delight Delight continueth the motion and maketh it customary and Custome at last driveth and bindeth us to it as to our centre Vitia insolentiora renascuntur saith Seneca Sin groweth more insolent by degrees first it flattereth then commandeth after enslaveth and then betrayeth us First it gaineth consent afterwards it worketh delight Jer. 6.15 at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shamelesness in sin Were they ashamed Nihil magis in natura sua laudare se dicebat quam ut ipsius verbo Vtar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suet. Caligula They were not at all ashamed nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a senslesness and stupidity and Caligula's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stubbornness and perversness of disposition which will not let us turn from sin For by neglecting a timely remedy vitia mores fiunt our evil wayes become our manners and common deportment and we look upon them as upon that which becomes us upon an unlawful act as upon that which we ought to do Nay peccatum lex Sin which is the transgression of the Law 1 John 3. â— is made a Law it self S. Augustine in his Confessions calleth it so Lex peccati est violentia consuetudinis That Law of Sin which carrieth us with that violence is nothing else but the force of long custome and continuance in sin For sin by custome gaineth a kingdome in our souls and having taken her seat and throne there she promulgeth Laws Lex alia in membris meis repugnavit legi mentis mea Rom. 7. Lex 〈◊〉 peccati est violentia consuetudinis qua trahâ—tur tenetur etiam invitus animus eo merito quo in eam volens illabitur Aug. l. 8. Confess c 5. Psal 127.2 If she say Go we go and if she say Do this we do it Surge in quit Avaritia She commandeth the Miser to rise up early and lie down late and eat the bread of sorrow She setteth the Adulterer on fire and maketh him vile and base in his own eyes whilst he counteth it his greatest honour and preferment to be a slave to his strumpet She draweth the Revengers sword She feedeth the Intemperate with poyson And she commaundeth not as a Tyrant but having gained dominion over us she findeth us willing subjects She holdeth us captive and we call our captivity our liberty Her poyson is as the poyson of the Aspick She biteth us and we smile we die and feel it not Again it is dangerous in respect of God himself whose call we regard not whose counsels we reject whose patience we dally with whose judgements we sl ght to whom we wantonly turn the back when he calleth after us to seek his face Psal 27.8 and so tread that Mercy under foot which should save us We will not turn yet upon a bold and strange presumption That though we grieve his Spirit though we resist and blaspheme his Spirit yet after all these scorns and contempts after all these injuries and contumelies he will yet look after us and sue unto us and offer himself and meet and receive us at any time we shall point as most convenient to turn in It is most true God hath declared himself and as it were become his own Herald and proclaimed it to all the world The Lord Exod. 34.6 7. merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most lovingly affected to Man the chief and prince of his creatures He longeth after him he wooeth him he waiteth on him His Glory and Mans Salvation meet and kiss each other for it is his glory to crown Man Nor doth he at any time turn from us himself till we doat on the World and Sensuality and divorce him from us till we have made our heaven below chosen other Gods which we make our selves and think him not worth the turning to Jer. 23.23 He he is alwayes a God at hand and never goeth from us till we force him away by violence How many murmurings and rebellions how many contradictions of sinners hath he stood out and yet looked towards them Amos 2.13 How hath he been pressed as a cart under sheaves and yet looked towards them How hath he been shaken off and defied and yet looked towards them He receiveth David after his adultery and murder after that complication of sins the least of which was of force enough to have cast him out of Gods presence for ever He receiveth Peter after his denial and would have received Judas had he repented after his treason He received Manasses when he could not live long and he received the Thief on the Cross when he could live no longer Psal 100.5 Heb. 13.8 All this is true His Mercy is infinite and his Mercy is everlasting and is the same yesterday and to day and for ever But as Tertullian saith well De pudicit c. 10. non potest non irasci contumeliis misericordiae suae God must needs wax angry at the contumelies and reproches which by our dalliance and delay we fling upon his Mercy which is so ready to cover our sins For how can he suffer this Queen of his Attributes to be thus prostituted by our lusts How can he endure to to see men bring Sin into the world under the shadow of that Mercy which should take it away and advance the kingdome of darkness and fight under the Devils banner with this inscription and motto lifted up The Lord is merciful What hopes of that souldier that flingeth away his buckler or of that condemned person thar teareth his pardon or of that sick man that loveth his disease and counteth his Physick poyson The Prophet here in my Text where he calleth upon us with that earnestness Turn ye turn ye giveth us a fair intimation that if we thus delay and delay and never begin a time may come when we shall not be able to turn It may seem indeed a harsh and hard saying a doctrine not sutable with the lenity and gentleness of the Gospel which breatheth nothing but mercy to conclude that such a time may come that any part of time that the last moment of our time may not make a Now to turn in that whilest we breathe our condition should be as desperate as if we were dead that whilest we are men our estate should be as irrevocable as that of the damned spirits with this difference onely that we are not yet in the place of torment which nevertheless is prepared for us and will as certainly receive us as it doth now the Devil
faculties of the soul and over-ruleth them that it moveth our soul as the soul doth our body For such a Knowledge and such a knowledge is onely meant in Scripture doth ever draw with it Affection and Practice that we may love the Lord and call him Lord and make it the crown of our rejoycing to be subject to his Dominion Secondly by quickening and enlivening and even actuating our Faith For this Spirit dwelleth in our hearts by faith Eph. 3.17 maketh us to be rooted and grounded in love enableth us to believe with efficacy For from whence proceed all the errours of our life From whence ariseth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaketh that irregularity those contradictions and consequences in the lives of men that to day they wash and to morrow wallow to day bow and to morrow exalt themselves now mourn like doves and anon rejoyce and vaunt as giants now sigh and anon curse now sin and by and by repent and then sin again like wanton lovers quarrel and embrace love and hate almost in the same moment from whence is this double-mindedness and wavering but from hence that we admit not the Spirit in his office nor suffer him to quicken and enliven our faith but vex and grieve him and drive him away by our vain and carnal imaginations as Bees are driven away with smoke If we did not inquietare Spiritum tenerum delicatum as Tertullian is bold to style him disturb and disquiet this tender and gentle Spirit if we did handle him with humility and peace and quietness and not with choler and anger and grief and other carnal passions which he will not come near if we made not our selves such vultures when this Dove is ready to descend he would certainly draw near unto us even into our hearts and do his office and fill us with all spiritual knowledge and seal us up to the day of redemption A Teacher then he is But great care is to be taken that we mistake him not or take some other Spirit for him For indeed the world is too Spirit-wise and there were never greater Pneumatomachi Fighters against the Spirit in the Church of God then in these our dayes The Eunomians the Sabellians they who questioned his Divinity they who made him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inferiour a servant yet never entitled him to Profaneness to Sacriledge to Murther Now whatsoever we say of Jesus whatsoever we do to Jesus the Spirit is the Teacher We say he is the Lord by the Spirit and we say this Lord looketh for neither knee nor hand nor any reverence by the same Spirit That he hath Dominion over us and must have our service we say it by the Spirit but we are bold upon it that we must serve him out of pure love but by no means out of fear by the same Spirit Each Dream must go current for an Inspiration and men think themselves enlightned with Illusions The fanatick Anabaptist though the Devil be in the vision thinketh he seeth a glorious Angel and boldly concludeth that the Spirit teacheth him And then quicquid dixerit legem Dei putat whatsoever Text he meeteth with he will commend his gloss and interpretation for the dictate of the holy Ghost Doth S. Paul preach Christian Liberty What then doth the Magistrate with the sword of Justice in his hand the Judge on the tribunal or the King on his throne Will you hear them in their own dialect An Hezekiah is no better then a Sennacherib a Constantine as insufferable as a Julian every King is a Tyrant and every Tyrant a Devil MEUM ET TUUM Mine and Thine are harsh words in the Church They are almost of the wind of the Carprocrations in Clemens who because the Air was common would have their Wives so too Mundus senex delirus said Gerson of the like The world is now grown aged and beginneth to dream dreams And if we prodigally lend our ears to every one that upon presumption of the Spirit will stand up and prophesie we may hear news as from Heaven indeed but such as the Devil was the father of Whatsoever the Text be the Interpretation is Jesus is the Lord thus to be feared that is such a Lord as we will make him a Lord that must countenance us to do our own wills and send his Spirit to truck and traffick for us to be our Minister to advance our lusts our Conduct to bring us to that end we have set up to be ready at hand when our Ambition or Covetousness will call for him that we may hold him up against himself and bring him in as an auxiliary for his enemy If we murther the Spirit moveth the hand if we pull down Churches it is with the breath of the Spirit if we would bring in a Parity the pretence is The Spirit cannot endure that any should be Supreme or Pope it but our selves Our Humour our Madness our Malice our Violence our implacable Bitterness our Railing and Reviling are all the Inspirations of the Blessed Spirit Simeon and Levi Absalom and Ahithophel Theudas and Judas the Pharisees and Ananias they that despite the spirit of grace they that grieve the Spirit they that resist him they that blaspheme him they that draw him down to their carnal ends and entitle him to their several purposes as the Popish Priests give the names of several Saints to one Image for their advantage and to multiply their oblations these Scarabees bred in the dung these Impostors these men of Belial must go no longer for a generation of vipers but the Scholars and Friends of the holy Ghost May we not now make a stand and put it to the question Whether there be any holy Ghost or not or if he be Whether he teacheth us Indeed these appropriations and violent ingrossings of the Spirit have I fear given growth to conceits almost as dangerous That the Spirit doth not spirare breatheth no grace into us That we need not call upon him That the Text that telleth us the holy Ghost teacheth us is that holy Ghost that teacheth us That the letter is the Spirit and the Spirit the letter An adulterate piece new-coined an old Heresie brought in a new dress and tire upon the stage again That he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unheard of Deity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ascriptious and supernumerary God I may say more dangerous then those that quite take him away For to confess the Spirit and abuse him to draw him on as an accessory and abettor nay a principal in those actions which Nature it self abhorreth and trembleth at is worse then to deny him What a Spirit what a Dove is that which breatheth nothing but gall and wormwood but fire and brimstone What a Spirit is that which is ever pleading and purveying for the Flesh Petrarch will tell us Nihil importunius erudito stulto That there is not a more troublesome creature in the
that as S. Bernard saith Nihil ardet in inferno praeter propriam voluntatem Nothing suffereth in hell but our own will because nothing but our own will can cast us into that place of torment for our will alone it is that damneth us so nothing more endangereth us then Self-love which either blindeth us that we cannot see these signs or causeth that when we behold them we tremble and our hearts wither and fail for fear These two are of such consanguinity and nearness that we know not well how to distinguish them Fo he that thus loveth himself is alwaies rigidus in suam perniciem obstinate and wilful to his own destruction Sic se diligat homo ut sibi prosit saith Augustine Let a man so love himself that he may profit and advantage himself his better self his Soul Nam animus cujusque est quisque A mans mind is himself and if he adorn and beautifie that if he prepare that for happiness then his love and all his actions rest upon a right and proper centre But if he pollute his soul if he fight against his soul if he make his Reason a servant to his Lust which should be a mistriss to controul and check it if he thus transform himself into a beast he will be a most unfit spectatour of these signs if he thus deform himself he will undo himself If this be love it is such a love that bewitcheth me that blindeth me that deceiveth and cheateth me that first putteth out my eyes and then setteth me to grind at the mill that depriveth me of my judgment and maketh me worse then the beasts that perish The Covetous man loveth wealth and that pierceth his soul The Ambitious loveth honour and that is a snare The Wanton loveth beauty and that biteth like a cockatrice The Angry man loveth revenge and that keepeth his wound green which otherwise patience would heal Our first parents loved themselves and tasted the pleasant fruit and were thrust out of Paradise for it Achan loved himself and would finger the wedge of gold and was stoned for it Ahab loved himself and would have Naboth's vineyard and dogs licked his bloud for it Judas loved himself and received the thirty pieces and he burst asunder for it What could an enemy do more then Self-love hath done to them in whose bosom she hath found a place It stoneth it hangeth it killeth it distracteth it tormenteth and destroyeth and what can an oppressour or a tyrant what can the Devil do more But this is not all For as the Historian speaketh of Covetousness which is but a branch of it Animum corpus effoeminat It corrupteth both body and mind and maketh them soft and tender and effeminate First it corrupteth the mind and then weakeneth and enervateth the body it maketh us either insensible as stocks and stones or else too sensible of every blast of every breath that cometh but towards us it filleth our hearts with impatience and our mouths with complaints If it be a drop it is a storm if it be a breath it is a tempest if it be good counsel it is a reproch if it be an easie burthen we dare not touch it with one of our fingers If it be an object of a terrible aspect we study to forget it we would not believe it when we do believe it we would not see it when it is in our eye In prosperity self-love advanceth our plumes but when the weather changeth our spirits fail The Philosopher telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Self-love is a pusillanimity or weakness of mind afraid of every shadow lothing every thing flying every thing groaning at the very sight of any thing that breatheth in opposition to us And if Self-love doth so shorten our strength weaken our eyes and dead our spirits that we cannot look as we should upon those evils of common quotidian incursion and which we meet with every day it is not probable we should behold these spectacles of terrour the forerunners of the last Judgement with that profit and advantage and comfort which we should the Sun darkened and the Moon turned into bloud and the world for ought we know falling about our ears will be no signs to prevail with us to make ready and prepare for another world If we cannot meet the Son of Man at his first coming how shall we meet him at his second If we cannot meet him when he cometh and speaketh peace to us peace in times of peace and peace in times of tribulation how shall we be able to meet him when he cometh in terrour to judge both the quick and the dead If we cannot behold the signs of his coming as we should how shall we be able to stand up at his appearance This is one reason why we do not behold what is here foretold with that profit we should even our Self-love our inordinate and perverse love of our selves A second reason hereof is Want of faith And this Behold here is sounded forth to awake and quicken our faith For if we know whom we have believed and believe what we have read then may we look upon these signs even all the calamities of the world with comfort But if this be a reason then reason may seem to be on our side and to make us such Eagles as to look upon these bright but fearful apparitions For certainly there is no want of faith There is nothing more talked of Ebrius ad phialam mendicus ad januam Every man filleth his mouth with it the upright man for honesty the perjured for deceit the drunkard at his cup and the beggar at the gate Faith is become the language of good and bad of the pure in spirit and the hypocrite of the Saint and that Devil that taketh his name of the whole world Faith is to be found in every corner of Christendom but such a Faith as that Peace was the name of which onely was written on the walls of a Monastery when the whole Convent were together by the eares in hot debate and contention Multi sibi potiùs fidem constituunt quà m accipiunt saith Hilarie and it is true in this sense also It is a generall fault in the world not to entertain that faith which should strengthen and establish us to behold these things but to frame and fancy one of our own to spin out one as the spider doth his web and such a thin web it is that the blast of any temptation sweepeth it away And on this we lay all our sins even that weight which presseth down as if we should set up a great Colossus on a reed which will not bear one finger of it There is no want of this Faith nec nobis opus est fide ista nor is there any need or use of it But the Faith which must make us fit spectatours of these things which are here foretold and which indeed we have seen or something like unto
Augustine though the Head phansieth the Finger toucheth sonum sola chorda excutit there must be a string before there be musick So the Father and the holy Ghost did work in this mystery but incarnationis terminus Christus the Incarnation rested on the Son alone The Son is the Instrument by which was conveyed that melos salutare that heavenly Antheme which the Types did set and prefigure the Prophets descant upon and the Angels chant forth in a full Quire that Musick which hath filled heaven and earth with its sound It behoved his Power to restore us his Wisdome to reform us his Mercy to relieve us DEBVIT taketh them all in It ought it was convenient so to be Lastly DEBVIT reacheth the Assimilation it self and layeth hold on that too Made like he was and he ought to be so to satisfie in the same nature which had offended carnem gestare propter meam carnem Gregor to take flesh for my flesh and a soul for my soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to purge and refine me in my own to wash and cleanse the corruption of my flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the immense Ocean of his Divinity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things to be made like unto his brethren Debuit looks on all on his Godhead on his Person on his Assimilation God no Man or Angel The second Person in Trinity not the Father or the holy Spirit Made like unto his Brethren 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his naked Divinity though it might have saved us yet it was not so fit being at too great a distance from us Debuit slumbreth every storm answereth every doubt scattreth our fears removeth our jealousies and buildeth us up in our most holy faith Though he be God the Wisdome of God the Son of God yet he ought to be made like unto us to restore his Creature to exalt our Nature and in our shape and likeness in our flesh to pay down the price of our Redemption So then here is an Aptness and Conveniency But the words it behoved him imply also a kind of Necessity That God could be made like morâ—â—l man is a strange contemplation that he would is a rise and exaltatâ—on of that that he ought superexalteth and sets it at a higher pitch but that he must be so that Necessity in a manner should bring him down were not his Love infinite as well as his Power would stagger and amaze the strongest faith Who would believe such a report But he speaketh it himself Matth. 26.54 Mark 8.31 and it was the fire of his Love that kindled in him and then he spake it with his tongue He must die and if die be born He not onely is but would not onely would but ought not onely ought but of necessity must be made like unto his brethren I say a strange contemplation it is For there needed no such forcible tye no such chain of necessity to hold him Liberè egit what he did he did freely Nothing more free and voluntary more spontaneous then this his Assimilation For at his birth as if he had slacked his pace and delayed his Fathers expectation and not come at the appointed period of time he suddenly cryeth Lo I come in the volume of thy book it is written of me that I should do thy will O God Psal 40.7 8. He calleth it his desire and he had it written in his heart His Passion he calleth a baptisme as if he had been to be the better for it And in this Chapter as if there had been some defect some thing wanting to him before God is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 10. to make him perfect bâ— sufferings He was not whole and consummate before not what he should be Now he is T is true This condescension of his this assimilation was free and voluntary with more chearfulness and earnestness undertaken by him then received now by us It is our shame and sin that we dare not compare them that he should be so willing to be like us and we so unwilling to be like him but if we look back upon the precontract which past between his Father and him we shall then see a Debuit a kind of Necessity laid upon him Our Saviour himself speaketh it to his blessed mother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I must go about my Fathers business Luke 2.49 We may measure his love by the decree that is we cannot measure it for the decree is eternal Before the foundation of the world was laid was this foundation laid an everlasting foundation to lay gold and silver upon all the rich and precious promises of the Gospel to lay our obedience and conformity to him upon and upon them both upon his love and our obedience to raise our selves up to that eternity which he hath purchased and promised to all his Brethren that are made like unto him Infinite love eternal love That which the eye of Flesh may count a dishonour was his joy his perfection His Love put a Debuit upon him a Necessity and brought him after a manner under the strict and peremptory terms of an Obligation under a Necessity of being born a Necessity of obedience a Necessity of dying Debuit taketh in all presenteth them to our admiration our joy our love our obedience gratitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every way and in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren We have run the full compass of the Text and find our Saviour in every point of it like in all things And now to apply it If Christ be like unto us then we also ought to be like unto him and to have our Assimilation our Nativity by analogy and rules of proportion answerable unto his He was made like unto us you will say that he might save us Yea that he may present us to his Father by the virtue of his assimilation made like unto him for without this he cannot save us Behold here am I Hebr. 2.13 and the children which thou hast given me holy as I am holy just as I am just humble as I was humble A man conformable to Christ is the glory of this Feast Father John 17.24 I will that they whom thou hast given me and he gives him none but those who are like him be where I am Heaven hath received him And it will receive none but those who are like him Not those that name him Not those who set his name to their fraud to their malice to their perjury to their oppression Not those many Antichrists whose whole life is a contradiction to him All that he requireth at our hands all our gratitude all our duty is drawn together and consisteth in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be like unto him To be like unto him Why who would not be like unto him who would not be drawn after his similitude Like him we all would be in
can imagine there can be any man that can so hate himself as deliberately to cast himself into hell and run from happiness when it appeareth in so much glory He cannot say Amen to Life who killeth himself For that which leaveth a soul in the grave is not Faith but Phansie When we are told that Honour cometh towards us that some Golden shower is ready to fall into our laps that Content and Pleasure will ever be near and wait upon us how loud and hearty is our Amen how do we set up an Assurance-office to our selves and yet that which seemeth to make its approach towards us is as uncertain as Uncertainty it self and when we have it passeth from us and as the ruder people say of the Devil leaveth a noysome and unsavoury sent behind it and we look after it and can see it no more But when we are told that Christ liveth for evermore and is coming is certainly coming with reward and punishment vox faucibus haeret we can scarce say Amen So be it To the World and the pomp thereof we can say Amen but to Heaven and Eternity we cannot say Amen or if we do we do but say it For conclusion then The best way is to draw the Ecce and the Amen the Behold and our Assurance together so to study the Death and the Life the eternal Life and the Power of our Saviour that we may be such Proficients as to be able with S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3.11 to meet the Resurrection to look for and hasten the coming of the Lord when his Life and Eternity and Power shall shine gloriously to the terrour of those who persecute his Church and to the comfort of those who suffer for Righteousness sake when that Head which was a forge of mischief and cruelty and that Hand which touched the Lords anointed Psal 105.15 and did his Prophets harm shall burn in hell for ever when that Eye which would not look on vanity shall be filled with glory when that Ear which hearkned to his voice shall hear nothing but Hallelujahs and the musick of Angels when that Head which was ready to be laid down for this living everling powerful Lord shall be lifted up and crowned with glory and honour for evermore Which God grant unto us for Christ's sake A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday JOHN XVI 13. Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth WHen the Spirit of truth is come c. And behold he is come already and the Church of Christ in all ages hath set apart this day for a memorial of his Coming a memorial of that miraculous and unusual sound Acts 2.2 3. that rushing wind those cloven tongues of fire And there is good reason for it that it should be had in everlasting remembrance For as the holy Ghost came then in solemn state upon the Disciples in a manner seen and heard so he cometh though not so visibly yet effectually to us upon whom the ends of the world are come that we may remember it though not in a mighty wind yet he rattleth our hearts together though no house totter at his descent yet the foundations of our very souls are shaken no fire appeareth yet our breasts are inflamed no cloven tongues yet our hearts are cloven asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every day to a Christian is a day of Pentecost his whole life a continued holy-day wherein the holy Ghost descendeth both as an Instructer and as a Comforter secretly and sweetly by his word characterizing the soul and imprinting that saving knowledge which none of the Princes of this world had not forcing or drawing by violence but sweetly leading and guiding us into all truth In the words we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Epiphany or Apparition of the blessed Spirit as Nazianzene speaketh or rather the Promise of his coming and appearance And if we will weigh it there is great reason that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ his that he should say Lo I come Psal 40.7 For in the volume of the book it is written of him that the Spirit of the Lord should rest upon him Isa 11.2 and I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh Joel 2.28 Christus Legis Spiritus Sanctus Evangelii complementum Christ's Advent for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirit 's for the fulfilling and compleating of the Gospel Christ's Advent to redeem the Church and the Spirit 's to teach the Church Christ to shed his blood and the Spirit to wash and purge it in his blood Christ to pay down the ransome for us captives and the Spirit to work off our fetters Christ Isa 61.2 Luke 4.19 to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit to interpret it For we may soon see that the one will little avail without the other Christ's Birth Death and Passion and glorious Resurrection are but a story in Archivis good news sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it and teach us to know him and the virtue and power of his resurrection and make us conformable to his death Phil 3.10 This is the sum of these words And in this we shall pass by these steps or degrees First we will carry our thoughts to the promise of the Spirit 's Advent the miracle of this day Cùm venerit When he the Spirit of truth is come in a sound to awake the Apostles in wind to move them in fire to enlighten and warm them in tongues to make them speak Acts 2.2 3. Secondly we will consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work and employment of the Holy Ghost He shall lead you into all truth In the first we meet with 1. nomen Personae if we may so speak a word pointing out to his Person the demonstrative pronoun ILLE when He 2. nomen Naturae a name expressing his Nature He is the Spirit of truth and then we cannot be ignorant whose Spirit he is In the second we shall find nomen Officii a name of Office and Administration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a leader or conducter in the way For so the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to be the Apostles leader and conducter that they might not erre but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep on in a straight and even course in the way And in this great Office of the Holy Ghost we must first take notice of the Lesson he teacheth It is Truth Secondly of the large Extent of this Lesson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He leadeth into all truth Thirdly of the Method and Manner of his discipline It is a gentle and effectual leading He driveth us not he draweth us not by violence but he taketh us as it were by the hand and guideth and leadeth us into all truth Cùm venerit ille Spiritus veritatis First though we are told by some
that where the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there we are to understand the Person of the Holy Ghost yet we rather lay hold on the pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When He the Spirit of truth shall come He shall lead you which pointeth out to a distinct Person If as Sabellius saith our Saviour had onely meant some new motion in the Disciples hearts or some effect of the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been enough but ILLE He designeth a certain Person and I LLE He in Christ's mouth a distinct Person from himself Besides we are taught in the Schools Actiones sunt suppositorum Actions and operations are of Persons Now in this verse Christ sayth that he shall lead them into all truth and before he shall reprove the world v. 8. and in the precedent chapter he shall testifie of me v. 26. which are proper and peculiar operations of the blessed Spirit and bring him in a distinct Person from the Father and the Son And therefore S. Augustine resteth upon this dark and general expression Lib. 6. De Trinit Spiritus S. est commune aliquid Patris Filii quicquid illud est The Holy Ghost communicateth both of the Father and the Son is something of them both whatsoever we may call it whether we call him the Consubstantial and Coeternal communion and friendship of the Father and the Son or nexum amorosum with Gerson and others of the Schools the essential Love and Love-knot of the undivided Trinity But we will wave these more abstruse and deeper speculations in which if we speak not in the Spirit 's language we may sooner lose than profit our selves and speak more than we should whilest we are busie to raise our thoughts and words up to that which is but enough It will be safer to walk below amongst those observations which as they are more familiar and easy so are they more useful and to take what oar we can find with ease than to dig deeper in this dark mine where if we walk not warily we may meet with poysonous fogs and damps in stead of treasure We will therefore in the next place enquire why he is called the Spirit of Truth Divers attributes the Holy Ghost hath He is called the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 the Spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 the Spirit of Grace Hebr. 10.29 c. For where he worketh Grace is operative our Love is without dissimulation Rom. 12.9 our Joy is like the joy of heaven as true though not so great Gal. 5.6 Isa 6.6 Rom. 10 2. our Faith a working faith and our Zeal a coal from the altar kindled from his fire not mad and raging but according to knowledge He maketh no shadows but substances no pictures but realities no appearances Luke 1.28 but truths a Grace that maketh us highly favoured a precious and holy Faith 1 Pet. 1.7 8. full and unspeakable Joy Love ready to spend it self and Zeal to consume us Psâ—l 69.9 of a true existence being from the Spirit of that God who alone truly is But here he is stiled the Spirit of Truth yet is he the same Spirit that planteth grace and faith in our hearts that begetteth our Faith dilateth our Love worketh our Joy kindleth our Zeal and adopteth us in Regiam familiam into the Royal family of the first-born in heaven But now the Spirit of Truth was more proper For to tell men perplext with doubts that were ever and anon and somtimes when they should not asking questions of such a Teacher was a seal to the promise a good assurance that they should be well taught that no difficulty should be too hard no knowledge too high no mystery too dark and obscure for them but All truth should be brought forth and unfolded to them and having the veyl taken from it be laid open and naked to their understanding Let us then look up upon and worship this Spirit of Truth as he thus presenteth and tendereth himself unto us 1. He standeth in opposition to two great enemies to Truth Dissimulation and Flattery By the former I hide my self from others by the later I blindfold another and hide him from himself The Spirit is an enemy to both he cannot away with them 2. He is true in the Lessons which he teacheth that we may pray for his Advent long for his coming and so receive him when he cometh First dissemble he doth not he cannot For Dissimulation is a kind of cheat or jugling by which we cast a mist before mens eyes that they cannot see us It bringeth in the Devil in Samuel's mantle and an enemy in the smiles and smoothness of a friend It speaketh the language of the Priest at Delphos As to King Philip whom Pausanias slew playeth in ambiguities promiseth life when death is neerest and biddeth us beware of a chariot when it meaneth a sword No this Spirit is an enemy to this because a Spirit of truth and hateth these involucra dissimulationis this folding and involvedness these clokes and coverts these crafty conveyances of our own desires to their end under the specious shew of intending good to others And they by whom this Spirit speaketh are like him and speak the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 1.12 in the simplicity and godly sincerity of the spirit not in craftiness 2 Cor. 4.2 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 handling the Word of God deceitfully not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 4.14 not in the slight of men throwing a die and what cast you would have them not fitting their doctrine to men and the times that is not to men and the times but to their own ends telling them of heaven when their thoughts are in their purse Wisd 1.5 6. This holy Spirit of Truth flieth all such deceit and removeth himself far from the thoughts which are without understanding and will not acquit a dissembler of his words There is nothing of the Devil's method nothing of the Die or Hand no windings or turnings in what he teacheth He speaketh the truth and nothing but the truth and for our behoof and advantage that we may believe it and build upon it and by his discipline raise our selves up to that end for which he is pleased to come and be our Teacher And as he cannot dissemble so in the next place flatter us he cannot This is the inseparable mark and character of the evil Spirit qui arridet ut saeviat who smileth upon us that he may rage against us lifteth us up that he may cast us down whose exaltations are foils whose favours are deceits whose smiles and kisses are wounds Flattery is as a glass for a Fool to look upon and behold that shape which himself hath already drawn and please himself in it because it is returned upon him by reflection and so he becometh more fool than before It is the Fools
Echo by which he heareth himself at the rebound and thinketh the Wiseman spoke unto him Flattery is the ape of Charity It rejoyceth with them that rejoyce and weepeth with them that weep it frowneth with them that frown and smileth with them that smile It proceedeth from the Father of lies not from the Spirit of truth Hebr. 13.8 who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Who reproveth drunkenness though in a Noah adultery though in a David want of faith though in a Peter His precepts are plain his law is in thunder his threatnings earnest and vehement What he writeth is not in a dark character Thou mayest run and read it He presenteth Murder wallowing in the blood it spilt Blasphemie with its brains out Theft sub hasta under sale He calleth not great plagues Peace nor Oppression Law nor camels gnats nor great sins peccadillos but he setteth all our sins in order before us He calleth Adam from behind the bush striketh Ananias dead for his hypocrisie and for lying to the holy Spirit depriveth him of his own Thy excuse with him is a libel thy pretense fouler than thy sin Thy false worship of him is blasphemy and thy form of godliness open impiety And where he entereth the heart Sin which is the greatest errour the grossest lye removeth it self heaveth and panteth to go out knocketh at our breast runneth down at our eyes and we hear it speak in sighs and grones unspeakable and what was our delight becometh our torment In a word he is a Spirit of truth and neither dissembleth to deceive us nor flattereth that we may deceive our selves but verus vera dicit being Truth it self telleth us what we shall find to be most true to keep us from the dangerous by paths of Errour and Misprision in which we may lose our selves and be lost for ever And this appeareth and is visible in those lessons and precepts which he giveth so agreeable to that Image after which we were made to fit and beautifie it when it is defaced and repair it when it is decayed that so it may become in some proportion and measure like unto him that made it and then so harmonious and consonant and agreeing with themselves that The whole Scripture and all the precepts it containeth may in esteem as Gerson saith go for own copulative proposition This Spirit doth not set up one precept against another nor one Text against another doth not disanul his promises in his threats nor check his threats with his promises doth not forbid all Fear in Confidence nor shake our Confidence when he bids us fear doth not set up meekness to abate our Zeal nor kindleth Zeal to consume our Meekness doth not teach Christian Liberty to shake off Obedience to Government nor prescribeth Obedience to infringe and weaken our Christian Liberty This Spirit is a Spirit of truth and never different from himself He never contradicteth himself but is equal in all his wayes the same in that truth which pleaseth thee and in that which pincheth thee in that which thou consentest to and in that which thou runnest from in that which will raise thy spirit and in that which will wound thy spirit And the reason why men who talk so much of the Spirit do fall into gross and pernicious errours is from hence That they will not be like the Spirit in this equal and like unto themselves in all their wayes That they lay claim to him in that Text which seemeth to comply with their humour but discharge and leave him in that which should purge it That upon the beck as it were of some place of Scripture which upon the first face and appearance looketh favourably upon their present inclinations they run violently on this side animated and posted on by that which was not in the Text but in their lusts and phansie and never look back upon other testimonies of Divine Authority that army of evidences as Tertullian speaketh which are openly prest out and marshalled against them and might well put them to a halt and deliberation stay and drive back their intention and settle them at last in the truth which consisteth in a moderation betwixt two extremes For we may be zealous and not cruel devout and not superstitious we may hate Idolatry and not commit Sacrilege Gal. 5.1 1 Pet. 2.16 stand fast in our Christian liberty and not make it a cloak of maliciousness if we did follow the Spirit in all his wayes who in all his wayes is a Spirit of truth For he commandeth Zeal and forbiddeth Rage he commendeth Devotion and forbiddeth Superstition he condemneth Idolatry yea and condemneth Sacrilege he preacheth Liberty 1 Cor. 12.4.8 9 11. and preacheth Obedience to Superiours and in all is the same Spirit And this Spirit did come and Christ did send him And in the next place to this end he came to be our Leader to guide us in the wayes of truth to help our infirmities to be our conduct to carry us on to the end And this is his Office and Administration Which one would think were but a low office for the Spirit of God and yet these are magnalia spiritûs the wonderful things of the Spirit and do no less proclaim his Divinity then the Creation of the world We wonder the blind should see the lame go Matth. 11.5 the deaf hear the dead be raysed up but doth it now follow The poor receive the Gospel Weigh it well in the balance of the Sanctuary and this last will appear as a great miracle as the former And this Advent and Coming was free and voluntary For though the Spirit was sent from the Father and the Son yet sponte venit he came of his own accord And he not onely cometh but sendeth himself say the Schools as he daily worketh those changes and alterations in his creature These words Dicit Mittam ut propriam autoritatem ostendat Tum denique veniet quo verbo Spiritûs potestas indicatur Naz. Orat. 37. to be sent and to come and the like are not words of diminution or disparagement He came in no servile manner but as a Lord as a friend from a friend as in a letter the very mind of him that sent it Which sheweth an agreement and concord with him that sent him but implyeth no inferiority no degree of servility or subjection Yet some there have been who have stumbled at the shadow which this word hath cast or indeed at their own and for this made the holy Spirit no more then a Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a supernumerary God brought in to serve and minister and no distinct Person of the blessed Trinity But what a gross error what foul ingratitude is this to call his goodness servility his coming to us submission and obedience and count him not a God because by his gracious operation he is pleased to dwell in men and make them his tabernacle Why may we
not as warrantably conceive so of the other Persons For God wrought in the Creation and the Heavens are the work of his hands Nay with reverence to so high a Majesty we may say God serveth us more then we do him who are nothing but by his breath and power Dust and ashes can do him no service But he serveth us every day He lighteth us with his Sun he raineth upon us he watereth our plants Luke ◠53 Psal 47.9 he filleth our granaries He feedeth the hungry with good things nay he feedeth the young ravens that call upon him He knocketh at our doors he intreateth waiteth sufferreth commandeth us to serve one another commandeth his Angels to serve and minister unto us res rationésque nostras curat he keepeth our accounts numbreth our tears watcheth our prayers If we call he cometh if we fall he is at hand In our misery in the deepest dungeon he is with us And these are no disparagements but arguments of his excellency and infinite goodness and fair lessons to us not to be wanting to our selves and our brethren who have God himself thus carefully waiting upon us and to remember us That to serve our brethren is to exalt and advance and raise us up to be like unto him When we wash our brethrens feet bind up their wounds sit down in the dust with them visit them in prison and minister to them on their beds of sickness we may think we debase our selves and do decrease as it were but it is our honour our crown our conformity to him who was the Servant of God and our Servant and made himself like unto us that he might serve us in his flesh and doth so to the end of the world invisibly by his Spirit It is the Spirit 's honour to be sent to be a Leader a Conduct and though sent he be yet he is as free an Agent as the Son and the Son as the Father Tertullian calleth him Christ's Vicar here on earth to supply his place But that argueth no inequality for then the Son too must be unequal to the Father for his Angel his Messenger he was and went about his Father's business Luke 2.49 To conclude this In a farr remote and more qualified sense we are his Vicar's his Deputies his Steward 's here on earth and it is no servility it is our honour and glory to do his business to serve one another in love Gal. 5.13 to be Servants to be Angels I had almost said to be holy Ghosts one to another As my father sent me saith our Saviour to his Disciples John 20.21 so send I you And he sendeth us too who are haereditarii Christi discipuli Christ's Disciples by inheritance and succession that every one as he is endowed from above should serve him by serving one another And though our serving him cannot deserve that name Judg. 5.23 yet is he pleased to call it helping him that we should help him to feed the hungry to guide the blind and teach the ignorant and so be the Spirit 's Vicars as he is Christ's that Christ may fill us more and more with his Spirit which may guide and conduct us through the manifold errours of this life through darkness and confusion into that truth which may lead us to bliss For as he is the Spirit of truth so in the next place the Lesson which he teacheth is Truth even that Truth which is an Art S. Augustine calleth it so and a law to direct and confine all other arts quâ praeeunte seculi fluctus calcamus which goeth before us in our way and through the surges of this present world bringeth us to the presence of God who is Truth it self A Truth which leadeth us to our original to the Rock out of which we were hewen and bringeth us back to our God who made us not for the vanities of this world but for himself An Art to cast down all Babels all towring and lofty imaginations which present unto us falshoods for truths appearances for realities plagues for peace which scatter and divide our souls powr them out upon variety of unlawful objects and deceive us in the very nature and end of things For as this Spirit brought life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 for whatsoever the Prophets and great Rabbies had spoken of Immortality was but darkness in comparison of this great light so it also discovered the errors and horror of those follies which we lookt upon with love and admiration as upon heaven it self What a price doth Luxury place on Wealth and Riches What horror on Nakedness and Poverty What a heaven is Honour to my Ambition and what an hell is Disgrace though it be for goodness it self How doth a Jewel glitter in my eyes and what a slur is there upon Virtue What a glory doth the pomp of the World present and what a sad and sullen aspect hath Righteousness How is God thrust out and every Idol every Vanity made a God But the Truth here which the Spirit teacheth discovereth all pulleth off the veyl sheweth us the true countenance and face of things that we may not be deceived sheweth us Vanity in Riches folly in Honour death and destruction in the pomp of this World maketh Poverty a blessing and Misery happiness and Death it self a passage to eternity placeth God in his Throne and Man where he should be at his footstool bowing before him Which is the readiest way to be lifted up unto him and to be with him for evermore In a word a Truth that hath power to unite us to our God that bringeth with it the knowledge of Christ and the wisdome of God and presenteth those precepts and doctrines which lead to happiness a Truth that goeth along with us in all our wayes waiteth on us on our beds of sickness leaveth us not at our death but followeth us and will rise again with us unto judgment and there either acquit or condemn us either be our Judge or Advocate If we make it our friend here it will then look lovely on us and speak good things for us if we make it our Counsellor here it will then be our Advocate but if we despise it and put it under our basest desires and vile affections it will then fight against us and triumph over us and tread us down into the lowest pit Christ is not more gracious then this Truth to them that love it But to those who will not learn shall be Tribulation and anguish Rom. 2.9 Acts 2.20 2 Thes 4.16 The Sun turned into darkness and the Moon into blood the world on fire the voyce of the Archangel the trump of God the severe countenance of the Judge will not be more terrible then this Truth to them that have despised it For Christ Jesus shall judge the secrets of them Rom 2.16 acquit the just condemn the impenitent according to this Truth which the Spirit teacheth
and for the advantage of those things which are necessary that are already under a higher and more binding law than any Potentate or Monarch of the earth can make The acts I say of Charity are manifest But those of Christian Prudence are not particularly designed Prudentia respicit ad singularia because that eye is given us to view and consider particular occurrences and circumstances and it dependeth upon those things which are without us whereas Charity is an act of the will And here if we would be our selves or rather if we would not be our selves but be free from by-respects and unwarrantable ends if we would devest our selves of all hopes or fears of those things which may either shake or raise our estates we could not be to seek For how easy is it to a disingaged and willing mind to apply a general precept to particular actions especially if Charity fill our hearts which is the bond of perfection Col. 3.14 Rom. 13.10 and the end and complement of the Law and indeed our spiritual wisdome In a word in these cases when we go to consult with our Reason we cannot erre if we leave not Charity behind us Or if we should erre our Charity would have such an influence upon our errour that it should trouble none but our selves 1 Cor. 13.7 For Charity beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things This is the extent of the Spirit 's Lesson And if in other truths more subtil than necessary we are to seek it mattereth not for we need not seek them It is no sin not to know that which I cannot know to be no wiser than God hath made me And what need our curiosity rove abroad when that which is all and alone concerneth us lieth in so narrow a compass In absoluto facili aeternitas saith Hilary The way to heaven may seem rough and troublesome but it is an easy way easy to find out though not so easy at our first onset to walk in and yet to those that tread and trace it often as delightful as Paradise it self See God hath shut up Eternity within the compass of two words Believe and Repent which is a full and just commentary on the Spirit 's Lesson the sum of all that he taught Lay your foundation right and then build upon it Because God loved you in Christ do you love him in Christ Love him and keep his commandments than which no other way could have been found out to draw you neer unto God Believe and Repent this is all Oh wicked abomination whence art thou come to cover the earth with deceit What malice what defiance what contention what gall and bitterness amongst Christians yet this is all Believe and Repent the Pen the Tongue the Sword these are the weapons of our warfare What ink what blood hath been spilt in the cause of Religion How many innocents defamed how many Saints anathematized how many millions cut down with the sword yet this is all Believe and Repent We hear the noyse of the whip and the ratling of the wheels and the prancing of the horses The horseman lifteth up his bright sword and his glittering spear Nah. 3.2 3. Every part of Christendome almost is a stage of war and the pretense is written in their banners you may see it waving in the air FOR GOD AND RELIGION yet this is all Believe and Repent Who would once think the Pillars of the earth should be thus shaken that the world should be turned into a worse chaos than that out of which it was made that there should be such wars and fightings amongst Christians for that which is shut up and brought unto us in these two words Believe and Repent For all the truth which is necessary and will be sufficient to lift us to our end and raise us to happiness can make no larger a circumferance than this This is the Law and the Prophets or rather this is the Gospel of Christ this is the whole will of God In this is knowledge justification redemption and holiness This is the Spirit 's Lesson and all other lessons are no lessons not worth the learning further than they help and improve us in this In a word this is all in all and within this narrow compass we may walk out our span of time and by the conduct of the same Spirit in the end of it attain to that perfection and glory which shall never have an end And so from the Lesson and Extent of it we pass to the Manner and Method of the Spirit 's Teaching It is not Raptus a forcible and violent drawing but Ductus a gentle Leading and Guiding The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall lead Which implyeth a preparedness and willingness to be led And the Spirit that leadeth us teacheth us also to follow him not to resist him that he may lead us Acts 7.51 Eph. 4.30 1 Thes 5.19 2 Tim. 1.6 not to grieve him by our backwardness that he may fill us with joy not to quench him that he may enlighten us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stir up his gifts that they dye not in us Now this promise was directly and primarily made to the Apostles whose Commission being extraordinary and their Diocess as large as the whole world they needed the Spirits guidance in a more high and eminent manner gifts of Tongues and diversities of graces which might fit them for so great a work that as their care so their power might be as universal as the world And yet to them was the Spirit given in measure and where measure is there are degrees and they were led by degrees not straight to all truth but by steps and approaches S. Peter himself was not wrapt up as his pretended Successor into the chair of Truth to determine all at once For when Pentecost was now past he goeth to Caesarea Acts 10.11 34. and there learneth more then he had done at Jerusalem seeth that in the Sheet which was let down to the earth which he heard not from the Tongues and of a truth now perceived what he did not before that God was no accepter of persons that now the partition-wall was broken down that Jew and Gentile were both alike and the Church which was formerly shut up in Judea was now become Catholick a Body which every one that would might be a member of Besides though the Apostles were extraordinarily and miraculously inspired yet we cannot say that they used no means at all to bring down the blessed Spirit For it is plain they did wait for his coming they prayed for the truth and laboured for the truth they conferred one with another met together in counsel deliberated before they did determin Nor could they imagin they had the Spirit in a string and could command him as they please and make him follow them whithersoever they would And then between us and the Apostles there
is a main difference nor can we expect an ocular and visible descent Therefore if we will be taught by the Spirit we must use the means which the same Spirit hath prescribed in those lessons which he first and extraordinarily taught the Apostles and not make use of his name to misinterpret those lessons or bring in new of our own and as new so contrary to them For what is new must needs be contrary because he then taught all truth and what is more then all is nothing what is more then all truth must needs by a lye Nor did he lead them into all truth for themselves alone but for those who should come after them for all generations to the end of the world He made them Apostles and sent them to make us Christians to make that which he taught them a rule of life and to fix it on the Church as on a pillar that all might read it that none should adde to it or take away from it Eph. 2.20 And for this they are called a Foundation and we are said to be built upon them Jesus Christ being the head corner-stone But this we could not be if their testimony were so scant and defective that there were left a kind of necessity upon us to hew and square out what stones we please and lay new ones of our own to cast down theirs withal and to bear up whatsoever our insolent and boundless lusts will lay upon them And now what is become of my Text For if this be admitted we cannot say the Spirit led them For what leading is that which leaveth us so far behind at such a distance from the end thâ—â— in every age the Spirit must come again and take us by the hand and draw us some other way even contrary to that which he first made known And what an all is that to which every man may adde what he please even to the end of the world For every mans claim and title to the Spirit is the same as just and warrantable in any as in one And when they speak contrary things the evidence is the same that is none at all unless this be a good Argument He hath the Spirit because he saith so which is as strong on his side that denyeth it upon the same pretense Amongst the sons of men there are not greater fools then they who have nothing to say for what they say but That they say it and yet think this Nothing enough and that all Israel are bound to hearken to them as if God himself did speak This is an evil a folly a madness which breatheth no where but in Christendome was never heard of in any other body or society but that of Christians Though many Governours of Common-wealths did pretend to a kind of commerce and familiarity with some God or Goddess when they were to make a law yet we do not read of any as far as I remember that did put up the same pretense that they might break a law but when the law was once promulged there was nothing thought of but either obedience or punishment But Christians who have the best Religion have most abused it have played the wantons in that light in which they should have walkt with fear and trembling finding themselves at a loss and meeting with no satisfaction to their pride and ambition to their malice to their lusts from any lesson the Spirit hath yet taught have learnt an art to suborn something of their own to supply that defect and call it a dictate of the Spirit Nor is this evil of yesterday nor doth it befall the weakest onely But the Devil hath made use of it in all ages as of the fittest engine to undermine that truth which the Spirit first taught Tertullian as wise a man as the Church then had being not able to prove the Corporeity of the Soul by Scripture Post Ioannem quoque prophetiam meruimus consequi c. Tertull. de Anim. montanizans flyeth to private Revelation in his Book De anima Non per aestimationem sed revelationem What he could not uphold by reason and judgment he striveth to make good by Revelation For we saith he have our Revelations as well as S. John Our sister Priscilla hath plenty of them and trances in the Church She converseth with Angels and with God himself and can discern the hearts and inward thoughts of men S. Hierome mentioneth others Contra Libertin and in the dayes of our forefathers Calvine many more who applyed the name of the Spirit to every thing that might facilitate and help on their design as Parish-priests it is his resemblance would give the name of six or seven several Saints to one image that their offerings might be the more I need not go so far back for instance Our present age hath shewn us many who though very ignorant yet are wiser then their teachers so spiritual that they despise the word of God which is the dictate of the Spirit This monster hath made a large stride from foreign parts and set his foot in our coasts If they murder the Spirit moved their hand and drew their sword If they throw down Churches it is with the breath of the Spirit If they would bring in Parity the pretence is The Spirit cannot endure that any should be supreme or Pope it but themselves Our Humour our Madness our Malice our Violence our implacable Bitterness our Railing and Reviling must all go for Inspirations of the Spirit Simeon and Levi Absalom and Ahithophel Theudas and Judas the Pharisees and Ananias they that despise the holy Spirit of God these Scarabees bred in the dung of sensuality these Impostors these men of Belial must be taken no longer for a generation of vipers but for the scholars and friends of the holy Ghost Whatsoever they do whithersoever they go he is their leader though it be to hell it self May we not make a stand now and put it to the question Whether there be any holy Ghost or no and if there be Whether his office be to lead us Indeed these appropriations these bold and violent ingrossings of the blessed Spirit have I fear given growth to conceits well near as dangerous That the Spirit doth not spirare breath grace into us That we need not call upon him That the Text which telleth us the holy Ghost leadeth is the holy Ghost that leadeth us That the Letter is the Spirit and the Spirit the Letter an adulterate piece new coyned an old heresie brought in a new dress and tire upon the stage again That he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strange unheard of Deity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. Orat 37. Quis vetâ—rum vel recentium adoravit Spiritum quis or avit c. Sic Macedoniani Eunomiani Ibid. an ascriptitious and supernumerary God I might say more dangerous For to confess the Spirit and abuse him to draw him on as an accessory and
silence Though Corah and his complices perish in their gainsayings Jude 11. yet God forbid that all Israel should be swallowed up in the same gulf Samuel ran to Eli 1 Sam. 3 5-10 when the voice was God's but was taught at last to answer Speak Lord for thy servant heareth Though Ahab had many false Prophets 1 Kings 22. yet Micaiah was a true one And though there be many false Teachers come into the world 1 Joh. 4.1 yet the Spirit of God is a Spirit of truth and he shall lead us into all truth And that we may follow as he leadeth we must observe the wayes in which he moveth For as there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a way of peace Luk. 1.79 so there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wayes of truth and in those wayes the Spirit will lead us 2 Pet. 2.2 I may be in the wayes of the wicked in the wayes of the Gentiles and profane men in my own wayes in those wayes which my Phansie and Lust have chalked out on that pinnacle and height where my Ambition hath placed me in that mine and pit where my Covetousness hath buried me alive and in these I walk with my face from Jerusalem from the Truth and in these wayes the Spirit leadeth me not How can he learn Poverty of spirit who hath no God but Mammon and knoweth no sin but Poverty How can he be brought down to obedience and humility who with Diotrephes loveth to have the preeminence 3 Joh. 9. and thinketh himself nothing till he is taller than his fellowes by the head and shoulders How can he hearken to the Truth who studieth lies And do we now wonder why we are not taught the truth where the Spirit keepeth open School There is no wonder at all The reason why we are not taught is Because we will not learn Ambition soareth to the highest seat and the Spirit directeth us to the ground to the lowest place Love of the world filleth our barns and the Spirit pointeth to the bellies of the poor as the better and safer granaries My private factious Humour trampleth under foot Obedience to superiours because I my self would be the highest and challenge that as my peculiar which I deny to others but the Spirit prescribeth Order Doth Montanus lead about silly women and prophesie doth he call his dreams Revelations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb l. 1. c. 21. Contr. Valent. c. 4. Eusebius telleth us that the spirit which led him about was nothing else but an unmeasurable Desire of precedency Doth Valentinus number up his Aeones and as many Crimes as God's Tertullian informeth us that he hoped for a Bishoprick but being disappointed of his hopes by one who was raised to that dignity by the prerogative of Martyrdome and his many sufferings for the Truth he turned Heretick Doth Arius deny the Divinity of the Son Read Theodoret Lib. 1◠c. 2. and he will shew you Alexander in the chair before him Doth Aerius deny there is any difference between a Bishop and Presbyter The reason was he was denied himself and could not be a Bishop so that he fell from a Bishoprick as Lucifer did from Heaven whose first wish was to be God and whose next was That there were no God at all From hence those stirs and tumults in the Church of Christ those storms and tempests which blew and beat in her face from hence those distractions and uncertainties in Christian Religion that it was a matter of some danger but to mention it This made Nazianzene in some passion as it may seem cry out Orat. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I would there were no precedency no priority no dignities in the Church but that mens estimation did only rise from virtue but now the right hand and the left the higher and the lower place these terms of difference have led men not into the truth but into that ditch where Errour muddeth it self Caeca avaritia saith Maximus Covetousness and Ambition are blind and cannot look upon the Truth though she be as manifest as the Sun at noon It fareth with men in the lust of their eyes in the love of the world as it did with the man in Artemidorus who dreamt he had eyes of gold and the next day lost them had them both put out Now no smell is sweat but that of lucre no sight delightful but of the wedge of gold By a strange kind of Chymistry men turn Religion into Gold and even by Scripture it self heap up riches and so they lose their sight and judgement and savour not the things of God but are stark blind to that Truth which should save them But now grant that they were indeed perswaded of the truth of that which they defend with so much noyse and tumult yet this may be but opinion and phansie which the Love of the world will soon build up because it helpeth to nourish it And how can we think that the Spirit led them in those wayes in which Self-love and Desire of gain drive on so furiously Sure the Spirit of truth cannot work in that building where such Sanballats laugh him to scorn Now all these are the very cords of vanity by which we are drawn from the Truth and they must all be broken asunder before the Spirit will lead us to it For he he leadeth us not over the Mountains nor through the bowels of the earth nor through the numerous atoms of our vain and uncertain and perplext imaginations but as the wisdome which he teacheth Jam. 3.17 so the method of his discipline is pure peaceable gentle without partiality without hypocrisie and hath no savour or relish of the earth For he leadeth the pure he leadeth the peaceable he leadeth humble In a word he leadeth those who are lovers of peace and truth And now to draw towards a conclusion You know the wayes in which the Spirit walketh and by which he leadeth us Will you also know the rules we must observe if we will be the Spirit 's Scholars I will be bold to give them you from one who was a great lover of truth even Galene the Physician Who though an heathen man yet by the very light of Nature found out those means and helps in the pursuit of humane knowledge which the Spirit hath set down in Scripture to further us in the search of Divine Truth They are but four The first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Love of Truth the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Love of Industry a frequent meditation of the truth the third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Orderly and methodical proceeding in the pursuit of Truth the last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exercitation our conformity to the Truth in our conversation This gold though brought from Ophir yet may be useful to adorn and beautifie those who are the living Temples of the holy Ghost 1. First Love is a passion imprinted in us to
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
it self and worketh on insensibly but most strongly and certainly to our ruine And then it appeareth more ugly and deformed to God's pure and all-seeing eye who never hateth an oppressour more then when he seeth him at the Altar and is most offended with that fraudulent man who is called Christian We read in the Historian when Nero had but set his foot into the temple of Vesta he fell into a fit of trembling facinorum recordatione saith Tacitus being shaken with the remembrance of his monstrous crimes For what should he do in the Temple of Vesta who had defiled his own mother And how shall we dare to enter Gods courts unless we leave our sins behind us How dare we speak to a God of truth who defraud so many Why should we fast from meat who make our brethren our meat and eat them up At that great day of separation of true and false worshippers when the Judge shall bespeak those on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdome prepared for you the form or reason is not For you have sacrificed often you have fasted often you have heard much you were frequent in the Temple and yet these are holy duties but they are ordinata ad aliud ordained for those that follow and therefore are not mentioned but in them implyed For I was hungry and you gave me meat I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was naked and you clothed me sick and in prison and you visited me Then outward Worship hath its glory and reward when it draweth the inward along with it Then the Sacrifice hath a sweet-smelling savour when a just and merciful man offereth it up when I sacrifice and obey hear and do pray and endeavour contemplate and practise fast and repent And thus we are made one fit to be lookt upon by him who is Oneness it self not divided betwixt Sacrifice and Oppression a Form of godliness and an habitual Course in sin Dissembling with God and Fighting against him betwixt an Hosanna and a Crucifige Professing Christ and Crucifying him In this unity and conjunction every duty and virtue as the stars in the firmament have their several glory and they make the Israelite the Christian a child of light But if we divide them or set up some few for all the easiest and those which are most attempered to the sense for those which fight against it and bring in them for the main which by themselves are nothing if all must be Sacrifice if all must be Ceremony and outward Formality if this be the conclusion and sum of the whole matter if this be the body of our worship and Religion then instead of a Blessing and an Euge we shall meet with a frown and a check and God will question us for appearing before him in strange apparel which he never put upon us Zeph. 1.8 question us for doing his command and tell us he never gave any such command because he gave it not to this end Will he be pleased with burnt-offerings with Ceremony and Formality He asketh the question with some indignation and therefore it is plain he will not but lotheth the Sacrifice as he doth the Oppressour and Unclean person that bringeth it We see then that we may yet draw it nearer to us that there was good reason why God should thus disclaim his own ordinance because he made it for their sakes and to an end quite contrary to that to which the Jew carried it We see the Prophet might well set so low an esteem upon so many thousand rams because Idolaters and Oppressours and cruel blood thirsty men offered them We see Sacrifice and all outward Ceremony and Formality are but as the garment or shadow of Religion which is turned into a disguise when she weareth it not and is nothing is a delusion when it doth not follow her For Oppression and Sacrilege may put on the same garment and the greatest evil that is may cast such a shadow He that hateth God may sacrifice to him he that blasphemeth him may praise him the hand that strippeth the poor may put fire to the incense and the feet that are so swift to shed blood may carry us into the Temple When all is Ceremony all is vain nay lighter then Vanity For in this we do not worship God but mock him give him the skin when he looketh for the heart we give shadows for substances shews for realities and leaves for fruit we mortifie our lusts and affections as Tragedians die upon the stage and are the same sinners we were as wicked as ever Our Religion putteth forth nothing but blossomes or if it knit and make some shew or hope of fruit it is but as we see it in some trees it shooteth forth at length and into a larger proportion and bigness then if it had had its natural concoction and had ripened kindly and then it hath no tast or relish but withereth and rotteth and falleth off And thus when we too much dote on Ceremony we neglect the main Work and when we neglect the Work we fly to Ceremony and Formality and lay hold on the Altar We deal with our God as Aristotle of Cyrene did with Lais Clem. Alexandr 3. Strom. who promised to bring her back again into her country if she would help him against his adversaries whom he was to contend with and when that was done to make good his oath drew her picture as like her as art could make it and carried that And we fight against the Devil as Darius did against Alexander with pomp and gayety and gilded armour as his prey rather then as his enemies And thus we walk in a vain shadow and trouble our selves in vain and in this region of Shews and Shadows dream of happiness and are miserable of heaven and fall a contrary way as Julius Caesar dreamed that he soared up and was carried above the clouds Suet. Vit. C. Caesar and took Jupiter by the right hand and the next day was slain in the Senate-house I will not accuse the foregoing Ages of the Church because as they were loud for the ceremonious part of Gods worship so were they as sincere in it and did worship him in spirit and in truth and were equally zealous in them both and though they raised the first to a great height yet never suffered it so to over-top the other as to put out its light but were what their outward expressions spake them as full of Piety as Ceremony And yet we see that high esteem which they had of the Sacraments of the Church led some of them upon those errours which they could not well quit themselves of but by falling into worse It is on all hands agreed that they are not absolutely necessary not so necessary as Mortifying of our lusts and denying of our selves not so necessary as actual Holiness It is not absolutely necessary to be baptized for many have not passed
Jew busie at his Sacrifice and it looketh forward to the beauty of holiness and is levelled at the very heart of those errours which led the people from the city of God into the wilderness from that which is truly Good to that which is so but in appearance which did shew well and speak well but such words as were clothed with death First it checketh them in their old course and then sheweth them a more excellent way The Jew as we have told you formerly pleased himself in that piece of service which was most attempered to the Sense and might be passed over and performed with least vexation of the Spirit and labour of the Mind For what an easie matter was it to approch the courts of God to appear before the Altar Psal 118.27 What great trouble was it to bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of it Nay this was their delight this they doted on this they thought none could cry down but a false Prophet Did they not thus speak and murmur within themselves If this be not what is then Religion If to appear in his courts to offer sacrifice be not to serve God how should we bow before him and serve him As many say in their hearts now adayes If to go to Church to be zealous in a faction to cry down Superstition be not true Religion what Religion can there be Who can speak against it but an uncircumcised Philistin or he that hath drunk deep of the cup of the Whore He that preacheth any other Law or any other Gospel let him be Anathema And therefore the Prophet to silence this asketh another question Do you ask If this be not what is true Religion I ask also What doth the Lord require Not this in which you please your selves but something else to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God And this But as it is an Exclusive and shutteth out all other services whatsoever which look not this way or are not conducible to uphold and support and promote it so it doth colour as it were and place a kind of amiableness a philtrum upon that which may invite and win us to embrace it For commonly those duties which require the luctation of the Mind the strivings and victories of the Spirit are more formidable and so more avoided then those which imploy only the outward man the Eye the Tongue the Ear and the Hand Here every man is ready and officious and thrusteth himself into the service every man almost rejoyceth to run his race and there is a kind of emulation and contention who shall be the forwardest But those commands which set us at variance within our selves which busie the Spirit against the Flesh which sound the alarm and call us into the lists to fight the good fight of Faith against our selves against our Imaginations even those which lye unto us and tell us All is well these are that Medusa's head which turneth us into stones And we who were so active and diligent in other duties less necessary when these call upon us to move are lame and impotent we who before had the feet of hinds can move no more then he did who lay so long by the pool-side John 5. The Prophet Elisha biddeth Naaman the leper Go wash in Jordan seven times and thou shalt be clean 2 Kings 5.10 But Naaman was wroth and thought that may be done with the stroke or touch of the Prophets hand Are not Abanah and Pharpar 12. rivers of Damascus saith he better then all the rivers of Israel But the Servants were wiser then the Master and truly told him that what the Prophet enjoyned was no great thing for it was but this Wash and be clean 13. So it was with the Jew and so it is with us That which will cure and heal us we most distast Nauseat ad antidotum qui hiat ad venenum Tertul. Scorp c. v. The stomach turneth at the antidote that is greedy of poyson What bid us be Just and Merciful and Humble Will not Sacrifice suffice Are not our Sabbath-dayes exercise our Psalms and Hymns of force enough to shake the powers of heaven and draw down blessings upon us Why may he not speak the word and heal us Why may he not save us by miracle To be just and honest will shrink the curtains of our tabernacles To be merciful and liberal will empty our chests To be humble will lay us in the dust These are harsh and rugged hard and unpleasing commands beyond our power impossible to be done Nay rather these are the ebullitions and murmurs of the flesh the imaginations of corrupt hearts And therefore the Prophet Micah setteth up his But against them to throw them down and demolish them Quare formidatis compedes sapientiae Why are you afraid of the fetters of Wisdome They are golden fetters and we are never free but when we wear them Why do you startle at God's Law It is a Law that giveth life Why do you murmur and boggle at that which he requireth Behold he requireth nothing but that which is first Possible secondly Easie thirdly Pleasant and full of delight He requireth but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And first the Prophet here doth not bid us do any great things He doth not bid us work miracles remove mountains do that which is beyond our strength Do that which you cannot do Do justly for you cannot do so Be merciful for you cannot be so Walk humbly before me though it be impossible you should God never yet spake so by any Prophet This were to make God's commands such as S. Augustine telleth us those of the Manichees were not only nugatoria light and vain De Morib Manich but pugnatoria opposit and destructive to themselves For nothing is more destructive and contrary to a Law then to place it under an impossibility of being kept For the Keeping of a Law is the virtue and force and end of a Law the end for which it is enacted It is true Gal. 3.22 God hath now concluded all under sin And the reason is given For all have sinned Rom. 3.23 But the Apostle there delivereth it as an instance and matter of fact nor as a conclusion drawn out of necessary principles He doth not say All must sin but All have sinned For both the Gentiles might have kept the Law of Nature and were punisht because they did not as it is plain Rom. 1. and the Jews might have kept that Law which was given to them as far as God required it for so we see many of them did and God himself bore witness from heaven and hath registred the names of those in his Book who did walk before him with a perfect heart 2 Chr. 15.17 1 Kings 11.33 34 38. 2 Kings 22.2 as of Asa of David that he kept Gods Laws of Josias that he turned
We cover the naked with our cloth and God clotheth us with joy We convert a sinner and shine as stars We part with a few shekels of silver and the hand of Mercy worketh and turneth them into a crown We sow temporal and transitory things and the harvest is Eternity Whilest we make them ours they are weak and impotent but when we part with them they work miracles and remove mountains all that is between us and blessedness Matth. 6.27 All the riches in the world will not add one cubit to our stature but if we thus tread them under our feet they will lift us up as high as heaven Nulla sunt potiora quà m de misericordia compendia The best gains are those we purchase with our loss and the best way to find our bread is to cast it upon the waters Eccl. 11.1 Will you see the practice of the primitive Christians I do the rather mention it because methinketh I see the face of Christendome much changed and altered and Christians whose plea is Mercy whose glory is Mercy who but for Mercy were of all men most miserable who have no other business in the world then to save and help themselves and others using all means to dry up the fountain of Mercy shaping to themselves virtutem duram ferream bringing forth Mercy in a coat of a mail and like Goliath with an helmet of brass standing as Centinel as a Guard about our wealth with this loud prohibition to all that stand in need Col. 2.21 Touch not Tast not Handle not Let us therefore look back and see what they were in former times and we shall find them so unlike to those of succeeding generations that they will rather be brought under censure then set up as a pattern for imitation For we are as far removed from their Piety as we are from the times wherein they lived They I am sure thought Mercy a virtue and the chief virtue of the Gospel a virtue in which they thought it impossible to exceed They made it their daily bread to feed others Melior est racematio c. Their gleaning-grapes were much better then our Vintage Justine Martyr in his Apology for the Christians telleth us that that which they possessed they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apolog. bring it into a common treasury Tertullian calleth it arcam communem a common chest Nor was this Benevolence exacted as a tribute from those who desired to be joyned with them in communion as the Heathen did calumniate but every man did sponte conferre saith Tertullian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Justine Martyr voluntarily and what he would And that which was gathered was committed to the hands or trust of the Bishop and after when he was taken up with other matters more proper for his calling to the Deacons which by them was laid out for the clothing of the naked the maintenance of the poor of orphans and of old men to redeem captives to succour men who had been shipwrackt by sea and those who were in prison for their profession and the Gospel of Christ Plus nostra misericordia insumit vicatim quà m vestra superstitio templatim saith Tertullian Our Mercy layeth out more in the streets on the poor then your Superstition doth on your Gods in your Temples our Religion hath a more open hand then your Idolatry And to this end they had matriculas egenorum certain Catalogues of the names of their poor brethren personarum miserabilium persons as thy termed them miserable How many of them were there who Eth. l. 10. as Aristotle speaketh did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greatly exceed in their liberality and did seem to be more merciful then the Lord requireth Orat. 10. Nazianzene telleth us of his Mother Nonna that she was possest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an immoderate and unmeasurabâ—e desire of bestowing her goods that she was willing not onely to sell all that she had but even her very children for the use and relief of the poor Gorgonia her daughter suckt this pious and melting disposition though not from her breasts yet from her good example Who stript her self of all committed her body to the earth and left no other legacy to her children but her great example and the imitation of her virtues which she thought was enough to enrich them though they had nothing else S. Hierome telleth us of his Paula that though she were eminent in many virtues yet her Liberality did exceed and like a swelling river could not be kept within the banks Hoc habebat voti ut mendica moreretur She wisht for that which most men do fear as much as Death it self and her great ambition it was that she might dye a begger We might instance in more And these examples have shined in the Church as stars of the fairest magnitude But after-ages have thought them but comets looked upon them and feared them And though they know not well how to condemn this exceeding piety yet they soon perswade themselves and conclude that they are not bound to follow it and so are bound up as in a frost in the coldness and hardness of their hearts because some did seem to overflow and pass their limit These indeed are strange examples but yet S. Basil delivereth a doctrine as strange Orat. in famem siccitat for he would not give it as his counsel if it had not truth to commend and confirm it If thou hast but one loaf left in thy house saith he yet if a poor man stand at thy doors and ask for bread bring it forth and give it him with thy hands lifted up to heaven whilest thou doest that which God requireth and for thy own supply reliest on the Providence of thy Father which is in heaven Do it in his name and in his name thou shalt be fed assuredly Thou hast parted with thy one loaf here but his Power to whom thou givest it can and will multiply it For they that thus give are as wells which are soon drawn dry but fill the faster and the more they are exhausted the fuller they are I know not whether it may be safe to deliver such a doctrine in these daies and therefore we will not insist upon it and these examples which I have held up to you may be transcendent that we may not bind every man to reach them These pious Women may seem perhaps to have stretcht beyond the line and exceeded the bounds of moderation but yet we cannot but think that this was truly to go out of the world whilest they were in it And we may observe that this excess is incident to great and heroick spirits who as it is said of Homer and Sophocles sometimes swelling above that proper and ruled sublimity of speach wherein they did excell do generosè labi erre and fall more nobly and with-with-greater commendation then others who spin an even but course thread and are so far
us in nor the things of this world fall into our bosome when we sit still and lay no more out for them then a wish Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it The opening of our mouth is our Prayer Psal 81.10 our Endeavour our Working with our hands and then Gods blessings fall down and fill it Labour and Industry is a thing so pleasing to God that he hath even bound a blessing to it which never leaveth it but is carried along with it wheresoever it is even in the mere natural and heathen man Be the man what he will it is almost impossible that Diligence should not thrive for a blessing goeth along with it as the light doth with the Sun which may be shadowed or eclipsed by the cloudiness of the times or by some cross accident but can never be quite put out In a word Labour is the price of God's gifts and when we pay it down by a kind of commutative justice he bringeth them in and putteth them into our hands VT OPEREMINI MANIBVS That ye labour with your hands These words take in all manual trades and handycrafts which are for use and necessity all lawful trades For even Thieves and Robbers and Jugglers and Cheaters and Forgers of writings do work not with their feet saith Tertullian but with their hands De Idelol c. 5. And he bringeth in his exception against Painters and Statuaries and Engravers but no further then he doth against Schoolmasters and Merchants who bring in frankincense in that respect onely as they sacrifice their sweat and their labour and are subservient and ministerial either to Lust or Idolatry For The diligence Diligentia tua numen il lorum est c. 6. saith he of the Statuary is the Divinity of the Idole And we may say Those many unnecessary Arts and Trades which are now held up with credit and repute in the world because it will still be world were at first the daughers and are now become the nurses of our Luxury and Lust Luxury begat them and they send our Luxury in triumph through the streets Were Tertullian whose zeal waxt so hot even against a Purpleseller to pass now through our great City with power and authority how many shops would be shut up Tot suntartium venae quot hominum concupiscentia Idem ib c. 8. 1 Tim. 6.8 or rather how many would there be left open For it is not easie to number those Arts and Crafts which had they never been professed we might have had food and raiment with which we Christians above all the generations of men should be content But it is not for me to determin which are necessary and which are not but to leave it to the Magistrate There be Arts and Trades enough besides these to exercise our wit our strength our hands and such as Lycurgus might have admitted into his Commonwealth Vide Plutarch vit Lycurgi whose prudence and care it was to shut out all that was unnecessary The first that required the labour of the hands was Tillage and Husbandry For antiquis temporibus nemo rusticari nescivit Lib. 11. c. 1. saith Ischomachus in Columella In the first age no man was ignorant of this art And the learned have observed that the original of humane Laws which were the preservers of peace the boundaries to keep every man in his own place was from Tillage and the first division of grounds Whence Ceres who is first said to have devised and taught the sowing of Corn as she is called frugifera the Goddess of Plenty so is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the maker of Laws And in honour of her the Athenians celebrated those feasts which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mactant lectas de more bibentes Legiferae Cereri Virgil. Aen. 4. They did sacrifice to Ceres the Law-maker These men never heard of the curse in Paradise yet by the very light of Nature they saw the necessity of labour The necessity did I say nay the dignity and honour of it For Man was made and built up to this end saith Aristotle ad intelligendum agendum to understand and to work And what more unworthy a Man who is made an active creature then to bury himself alive in sloth and idleness to be like S. Paul's wanton widow dead whilest he liveth to be a more unprofitable lump then the Earth to live and shew so little sign of life whereas the ground receiveth rain and sendeth back its leaf and grass What can be more beseeming then to have feet and not to go to have hands and not to use them Therefore that of the Apostle 2 Thess 3.10 Let not him that laboureth not eat is not onely true because S. Paul spake it but S. Paul spake it because it is true a dictate not onely of the Spirit Job 5.7 but even of Nature it self Man is born unto labour saith Eliphaz it is natural to him as natural as for the sparks to fly upwards And if we rightly weigh it it is as great a prodigie as monstrous a sight to see an idle person that can do nothing but feed and clothe himself and breathe as to see Stone fly or Fire descend to the centre of the earth I may add as to see the Sun stand still Far as the Sun Psal 19.5 so Man naturally should rejoyce to run his course Shall I now awake the Sluggard if any thunder will awake him and tell him he is a thief that he drinketh not water out of his own cistern that he eateth stolne bread 2 Thess 3.11 12. If I should I have S. Paul and Reason to justifie me who telleth him plainly that he who worketh not at all walketh inordinately and eateth not his own bread as if it were not his own if his own hands brought it not in And Ephes 4.28 Let him that stole steal no more but rather let him labour and work with his hands If he will not steal let him labour if he do not labour he doth but steal even that which in common esteem is his own For we must not think that they onely are thieves who do vitam vivere vecticulariam Festus in Vecticularia vita dig down walls by night or who lye in wait upon the hills of the robbers Fur est qui rem contrectat alienam He is a Thief which maketh use of that which is not his And then we may arraign the Idle slothful person at this bar as guilty of this crime Prov. 12.27 For he rosteth that which he never took in hunting he useth the creature to which he hath no right He hath interdicted and shut himself out from the benefit of fire and water and all humane commerce He hath outlawed and banisht himself from the world He hath robbed himself For though he have plenty of all things yet Idleness will blow upon it and blast it He robbeth the Commonwealth For interest
telleth us that we have not received the spirit of bondage to fear again but the spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba Father And it is most true that we have not received that Spirit for we are not under the Law but under Grace we are not Jews Rom. 6.14 but Christians Nor do we fear again as the Jews feared whose eye was upon the Basket and the Sword who were curbed and restrained by the fear of present punishment and whose greatest motives to obedience were drawn from temporal respects and interests who did fear the Plague Captivity the Philistin the Caterpiller and Palmerworm and so did many times forbear that which their lusts and irregular appetites were ready to joyn with We have not received such a spirit For the Gospel directeth our look not to those things which are seen 2 Cor. 4.18 1 Cor. 12.31 but to those things which are not seen and sheweth us yet a more excellent way But we have received the Spirit of adoption we are received into that Family where little care is taken for the meat that perisheth where the World is made an enemy John 6.27 Matth. 6.34 Phil. 2.12 where we must leave the morrow to care for it self and work out oâ—â— salvation with fear and trembling Psal 56.11 where we must not fear what man but what God can do unto us observe his hand as that hand which can raise us up as high as heaven and throw us down to the lowest pit love him as a Father and fear to offend him Psal 2.12 Luke 1.74 love and kiss the Son lest he be angry serve him without fear of any evil that can befall us here in our way of any enemy that can hurt us and yet fear him as our Lord and King For in this his grant of liberty he did not let us loose against himself nor put off his Majesty that we should be so bold with him as not to serve but to disobey him without fear Nor doth this cut off our Filiation our relation to him for a good son may fear the wrath of God and yet cry Abba Father 1 John 4.18 But then again we are told by S. John that there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear All fear he excepteth none no not the fear of punishment L. de fugâ in persecutione I know Tertullian interpreting this Text maketh this fear to be nothing else but that lazy Fear which is begot by a vain and unnecessary contemplation of difficulties the fear of a man that will not set forward in his journey for fear of some Lion some perillous beast some horrible hardship in the way And this is true but not ad textum nor doth it reach S. John's meaning which may be gathered out of Chapt. 3. v. 16. where he maketh it the duty of Christians to lay down their lives for the brethren as Christ laid down his life for them And this we shall be ready to do if our Love be perfect cast off all fear and lay down our lives for them For true Love will suffer all things and is stronger then Death Cant. 8.6 But Love doth not cast out the Fear of Gods wrath for this doth no whit impair our love to him but is rather the means to improve it When we do our duty we have no reason to fear his anger but yet we must alwayes fear him that we may go on and persevere unto the end He will not punish us for our obedience and so we need not fear him but if we break it off he will punish us and this thought may strengthen and establish us in it Hebr. 4.1 Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of us should come short of it But we may draw an answer out of the words themselves as they lie in the Text. For it is true indeed Charity casteth out all fear but not simul semel not at once but by degrees As that waxeth our Fear waineth as that gathereth strength our Fear is in feebled Et perfecta forà s mittit When our Love is perfect it casteth Fear out quite If our Sanctification were as total as it is universal were our Obedience like that of Angels and could never fail we should not then need the sight of heaven to allure us or Gods thunder to affright us But Sanctification being onely in part though in every part the best of Christians in this state of imperfection may look up upon the Moriemini make use of a Deaths-head and use Gods Promises and Threatnings as subordinate means to concurre with the principal as buttresses to support the building that it do not swerve whilst the foundation of Love and Faith keep it that it do not sink A strange thing it may seem that when with great zeal we cry down that Perfection of Degrees and admit of none but that of Parts we should be so refined sublimate as not to admit of the least tincture admission of Fear Now in the next place as Fear may consist with Love so it may with Faith and with Hope it self which seemeth to stand in opposition with it First Faith apprehendeth all the attributes of God and eyeth his threatnings as well as his Promises God hath establisht and fenced in his Precepts with them both If he had not proposed them both as objects for our Faith why doth he yet complain why doth he yet threaten And if we will observe it we shall find some impressions of Fear not onely in the Decalogue but in our Creed To judge both the quick and the dead are words which sound with terrour and yet an article of our belief And we must not think it concerneth us to believe it and no more Agenda and credenda are not at such a distance but that we may learn our Practicks in our Creed God's Omnipotence both comforteth and affrighteth me His Mercy keepeth me from despair and his Justice from presumption But Christs coming to judge both the quick and the dead is my solicitude my anxiety my fear Nor must we imagine that because the Faith which giveth assent to these truths may be meerly historical this Article concerneth the justified person no more then a bare relation or history For the Fear of Judgment is so far from destroying Faith in the justified person that it may prove a soveraign means to preserve it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaketh to order and compose our Faith In Psal 32. which is ready enough to take an unkind heat if Fear did not cool and temper it In Prosperity David is at his NON MOVEBOR I shall never be moved Psal 30.6 Before the storm came Peter was so bold as to dare and challenge all the temptations that could assault him ETSI OMNES NON EGO Matth. 26. Although all men deny thee yet not I yet was he puzled and
of Charity Eph. 4.16 which is the coupling and uniting virtue as Prosper calleth it Eph. 4.5 13. by the unity of faith by their agreement in holiness having one faith one baptisme one Lord. And at last every string being toucht in its right place begetteth Harmony which is delightful both to heaven and earth For when I name the Church I do not mean the stones and building some indeed would bring it down to this to stand for nothing but the walls but I suppose a subordination of parts which was never yet questioned in the Church but by those who would make it as invisible as their Charity not the Foot to see and the Eye to walk and the Tongue to hear and the Ear to speak not all Apostles not all Prophets not all Teachers but 1 Cor. 12.29 1 Cor. 15.23 Naz. Or. 26. as the Apostle saith it shall be at the resurrection every man in his own order For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Order is our security and safeguard In a rout every man is a child of death every throat open to the knife but when an army is drawn out by art and skill all hands are active for the victory Inequality indeed of persons is the ground of disunion and discord but Order draweth and worketh advantage out of Inequality it self When every man keepeth his station the common Souldier hath hi◠interest in the victory as the well as the Commander And when we walk orderly every man in his own place we walk hand in hand to heaven and happiness together For further yet in the Church of God there is not onely a Union and an Order but also as it is in our Creed a Communion of parts The glorious Angels as ministring Spirits are sent to guard us and no doubt do many and great services for us though we perceive it not The blessed Saints departed though we may not pray for them yet may pray for us though we hear it not And though the Church be scattered in its members through all the parts of the world yet their hearts meet in the same God Every man prayeth for himself and every man prayeth for every man Quod est omnium est singulorum That which is all mens is every mans and that which is every mans belongeth unto the whole For though we cannot speak in those high terms of the Church as the Church of Rome doth of her self yet we cannot but bless God and count it a great favour and privilege that we are filii Ecclesiae as the Father speaketh children of the Church and think our selves in a place of safety and advantage where we may find protection against Death it self We cannot speak loud with the Cardinal Bellarm. praefat ad Controv. Si Catholicus quisquam labitur in peccatum If a Catholick fall into a sin suppose it Theft or Adultery yet in that Church he walketh not in darkness but may see many helps to salvation by which he may soon quit himself out of the snare of the Devil Maternus ei non deest affectus She is still a Mother even to such Children Her shops of spiritual comfort lie open Isa 55.1 there you may buy wine and milk Indulgences and absolution but not without money or money-worth Be you as sick as you will and as oft as you will there is Physick there are cordials to refresh and restore you I dare not promise so much in the House of Israel in the Church of Christ for I had rather make the Church a school of Virtue then a sanctuary for offenders and wanton sinners We dare not give it that strength to carry up our Prayers to the Saints in heaven or to convey their Merits to us on earth We cannot work and temper it to that heat to draw up the blood of Martyrs or the works of supererogating Christians who have been such profitable servants that they did more in the service of God then they should into a common Treasury and then showre them down in Pardons and Indulgences But yet though we cannot find this power there which is a power to do nothing yet we may find strength enough in the Church to keep us from the Moriemini to save us from Death Though I cannot suffer for my brother Gal. 6.2 yet I may bear for him even bear my brothers burden Though I cannot merit for him yet I may work for him Though I cannot die for him I may pray for him Though there be no good in my death nor profit in my dust Psal 30.9 yet there may be in the memory of my good counsel my advise Consult c. de Relig. 5. my example which are verae sanctorum reliquiae saith Cassander the best and truest reliques of the Saints And though my death cannot satisfie for him yet it may catechize him and teach him how to die nay teach him how to overcome Death that he shall not die for ever And by this Communion it is that we work Miracles that in turning the Covetous turning his bowels in him we recover a dry hand and a narrow heart in teaching the Ignorant we give sight to the blind in setling the inconstant and wavering mind we cure the palsie We can well allow of such Miracles as these in the Church but not of lies For as there is an invisible union of the Saints with God so is there of Christians amongst themselves Which union though the eye of flesh cannot behold it yet it must appear and shine and be resplendent in those duties and offices which do attend this union which are so many hands by which we lift up one another to happiness As the Head infuseth life and vigour into the whole body so must the members also anoynt each other with this oyl of gladness Each member must be active and industrious to express that virtue without which it cannot be one Let no man seek his own but every man anothers wealth saith the Apostle Not seek his own 1 Cor. 10.24 what more natural to man or who is nearer to him then he himself but yet he must not seek his own but as it may bring advantage to and promote the good of others not press forward to the mark but with his hand stretcht forth to carry on others along with him not go to heaven but saving some with fear and pulling others out of the fire Jud. 23. and gathering up as many as his wisdome and care and zeal toward God and man can take up with him in the way And this is necessary even in humane societies and those politick bodies which men build up to themselves for their peace and security Turpis est pars quae toti suo non convenit That is a most unnecessary superfluous part or member for which the whole is not the better Vt in sermone literae saith Augustine as letters in a word or sentence so Men are elementa civitatis the principles and
by the neglect of their duty which is quite lost and forgot in an unseasonable acknowledgement of what God can and a lazy expectation of what he will work in them and so make God Omnipotent to do what his Wisdom forbiddeth and themselves weak and impotent to do what by the same Wisdom he commandeth and then when they commune with their heart and find not there those longings and pantings after piety that true desire and endeavour to mortifie their earthly members which God requireth when in this Dialogue between one and himself their hearts cannot tell them they have watched one hour with Christ flatter and comfort themselves that this emptiness and nakedness shall never be imputed to them by God who if he had pleased might have wrought all in them in a moment by that force which flesh and blood could never withstand And thus they sin and pray and pray and sin and their Impiety and Devotion like the Sun and the Moon have their interchangeable courses it is now night with them and anon it is day and then night again and it is not easie to discern which is their day or which is their night for there is darkness over them both They hear and commend Virtue and Piety and since they cannot but think that Virtue is more then a breath and that it is not enough to commend it they pray and are frequent in prayer pray continually but do nothing pray but do not watch pray but do not strive against a temptation but leave that to a mightier hand to do for them and without them whilst they pray and sin call upon God for help when they fight against him as if it were God's will to have it so If he would have had it otherwise he would have heard their prayers and wrought it in them And therefore he will be content with his Talent though hid in a napkin which if he had pleased might have been made ten and with his seed again which if he had spoke the word had brought forth fruit a hundred-fold Hence it cometh to pass that though they be very evil yet they are very secure 1 Joh. 5.4 this being the triumph of their Faith not to conquer the world but to leave that work for the Lord of hosts himself and in all humility to stay till he do it For they can do nothing of themselves and they have done what they can which is nothing And now this heartless and feeble and if I may so speak this do-nothing devotion which may be as hot on the tongue of a Pharisee and tied to his phylactery must be made a sign of their election before all times Gal. 5.21 Phil. 3.18 who in time do those things of which we have been told often that they that do them shall not inherit the kingdome of heaven I do not derogate from the power of Gods Grace They that do are not worthy to feel it but shall feel that power which shall crush them to pieces They rather derogate from its power who bring it in to raise that obedience which coming with that tempest and violence it must needs destroy and take away quite For what obedience is there where nothing is done where he that is under command doth nothing Vis ergò ista non gratia saith Arnobius This were not Grace or Royal favour but a strange kind of emulation to gain the upper hand We cannot magnifie the Grace of God enough which doth even expect and wait upon us woo and serve us It is that unction that precious ointment 1 John 2.27 1 Thess 5.19 20. S. John speaketh of but we must not pour it forth upon the hairy scalp of wilful offenders who loath the means despise prophecy quench the spirit and so hinder it in its operation of men who are as stubborn against Grace as they are loud in its commendations as active to resist as to extoll it For this is to cast it away and nullifie it this is to make it nothing by making it greater nay to turn it into wantonness But it may be said That when we are fallen from God we are not able to rise again of our selves We willingly grant it That we have therefore need of new strength and new power to be given us which may raise us up We deny it not And thirdly That not onely the power but the very act of our recovery is from God Ingratitude it self cannot deny it But then That man can no more withstand the power of that grace which God is ready to supply us with then an infant can his birth or the dead their resurrection That we are turned whether we will or no is a conclusion which those premisses will not yield This flint vvill yield no such fire though you strike never so oft We are indeed sometimes said to sleep and sometimes to be dead in sin but it is ill building conclusions upon no better Basis then a figure and because we are said to be dead in sin infer a necessity of rising when we are called Nor is our obedience to Gods inward call of the same nature with the obedience of the Creature to the voice and command of the Creatour for the Creature hath neither reason nor will as Man hath nor doth Gods power work after the same manner in the one as in the other How many Fiats of God have been frustrate in this kind How often hath he smote our stony and rocky hearts and no water flowed out How often hath he said Fiat Lux let there be light and we remained still in darkness We are free agents and God made us so when he made us men and our actions when his power is mighty in us are not necessary but voluntary nor doth his Power work according to the working of our phansie nor lie within the level of our carnal imaginations to do what they appoint but it is accompanied and directed by that Wisdom which he is and he doth nothing can do nothing but what is agreeable to it As it was said of Caesar in Lucane though in another sense Velle putant quodcunque potest we think that God will do whatsoever he can But we must know that as he is powerful and can do all things so he is wise and sweetly disposeth all things as he will and he will not save us against our will For to necessitate us to goodness were not to try our obedience but to force it Et quod necessitas praestat depretiat ipsa Necessity taketh off the price and value of that it worketh and maketh it of no worth at all And then God doth not voluntarily take his Grace from any but if the power of it defend us not from Sin and Death it is because we abuse and neglect it and will not work with it which is ready to work with us For Grace is not blind as Fortune nec cultores praeterit nec haeret contemtoribus She will neither pass
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 examine thy self yet more and more Bring it to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
turn her back and worse side when the false Prophets are dumb when the Flesh hath a thorn in it she will awake as a giant out of wine and be more active and clamourous then before Call in thy Power and thy Honour suborn the Pleasures of the world to make thy peace seek out some cunning Artist who can teach what a Philosopher once professed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the art of indolency a way to be free from pain and grief when thy Conscience urgeth one place of Scripture do thou answer it with another when the letter killeth do thou put life into it with a gloss and when it putteth thee to trouble do thou strive to put it to silence yet Conscience will be Conscience still and keep her sting and bite and wound the deeper yet For to seek remedy against the gnawings of Conscience from these outward formalities and flatteries is to strive to take away grief with that which is the cause of it to destroy it vvith that vvhich begetteth it to diminish it with that which increaseth it and to cure a wound with poyson What though we have some pause and ease we can have no holy-day but what we make our selves and that will make our other dayes more black and dismal For that ease which I forced and gave my self doth but multiply my pain and leave it to return upon me again with violence and advantage Nay our Conscience doth not stay so long but many times layeth hold on us in a triumph in all our state and glory and in our clearest day will break through all those bulworks which we have set up against her and seaze upon us when we shall say We shall never be moved will shake us when we say Tush God doth not see will strike through our loins and when we plead will tell us we lie when we breathe nothing but spirit will pronounce us most carnal hypocrites will be as the finger on the wall when we are quaffing in the vessels of the Sanctuary You will say But who seeth it Why Dan. 5. the King the sacrilegious King saw it who was guilty For who can feel the sting of another mans conscience And it is no good argument to say We do not see it and therefore it is not done For what close offender will publish the sorrow of his heart Who will tell you what stripes he feeleth Who is resolved to cleave fast to that for which he is beaten He whose wayes tend to death when he maketh most hast and even feeleth himself falling in yet will not tell you he is going into hell And this is the sad condition of all those who will who must be pleased who will hear nothing that is contrary to them that is nothing that may help them who are devils to themselves and help the Tempter to overthrow them who never acknowledge a disease till it be incurable never see themselves but in hell never feel any pain till it be eternal We proceed now to lay open the other evil humour of Pleasing men which is more visible and eminent in the Text. And indeed to desire to be pleased and to be ready to please 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Isidore Pelusiot to flatter and to be flattered bear that near relation the one to the other that we never meet them asunder It is the Devils net in which he catcheth two at once If there be an itching ear you cannot miss but you shall find a flattering tongue If the King of Sicily delight in Geometry the whole Court shall swarm with Mathematicians If Nero be lascivious his Palace shall be turned into a stew or brothel-house or worse Lib. 8. Non deerit Alexandro talia concupiscenti perniciosa adulatio saith Curtius Alexander that loved to be flattered had Parasites enough If the Donatists be factious there will be a Primianus and a Maximinianus to lead them Accedit dignum patellâ operculum as S. Hierom applieth this proverb to this very purpose These dishes that will receive nothing but juncats shall find covers to fit them And if we look into the world and see how men every day change with the fashion of the world alter their notes and turn them to the times what Echo's they are when Power speaketh if we turn over those multitude of Pamphlets which for the most part are nothing else but the monuments of mens flattery and base condescendency for what errour yet hath shewn so foul a face as not to find a patrone if we consider what Mountebanks we have in Divinity as well as in Physick who seek not men but theirs not to cure others souls but their own poverty we shall find reason enough to be jealous that there hath been a kind of conspiracy made to meet and satisfie this so inordinate and pernicious desire and to betray the truth of Christ to this foul and loathsome humour We must enquire then What it is to please men and from whence it proceedeth that men who naturally love to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be eminent above their brethren can work themselves to such baseness as to fall down and lick the dust of their feet and help them to destroy themselves to the ruine of both For both he that maketh the Musick and he that heareth it fall together into the same hell to howl for ever And first we must not imagin that S. Paul doth bring in here a Cynical morosity or a Nabal-like churlishness that none may speak to us and we speak nothing but swords â—â—â—l 59.6 14. that we should make a noise like a dog and so go round about the City that we should be as thorns in our brethrens sides ever pricking and gauling them that we should as Appius in Livy accusatoriam vitam ducere breathe nothing but railing accusations nothing but what may strike others with fear or cast them down with sorrow or raise their anger and indignation No S. Paul was now no such rigid and morose Disciplinarian for now he is an Apostle and not a Persecutour Hieron ad Heliodor Epitah Nepotiani Manè lupus rapax Benjamin à d vesperam dividit escam Ananiae ovi submittens caput He was as Benjamin of whose tribe he was a ravening Wolf but now he boweth down his head to Ananias who was a sheep and of the flock of Christ and breatheth nothing but meekness There is not a more pleasing more tractable more plyable creature in the world then a Christian If his brother persecute him he is his Beadsman and prayeth for him if he injure him he is his Priest and absolveth him if he erre he is his Angel to keep him in all his wayes and bring him back if he mourn he putteth on sackcloth and if he rejoyce he is one at the feast He appeareth not to him in any shape that may disquiet or trouble him Gen. 33.10 1 Cor. 10.33 but as Esau did to Jacob that he may see
wayes but delight themselves in their own and rest and please themselves in Errour as in Truth to awake them out of this pleasant dream we must trouble them we must thunder to them we must disquiet and displease them For who would give an opiate pill to these Lethargicks To please men then is to tell a sick man that he is well a weak man that he is strong an erring man that he is orthodox instead of purging out the noxious humour to nourish and increase it to smooth and strew the wayes of Errour with roses that men may walk with ease and delight and even dance to their destruction to find out their palate and to fit it to envenom that more which they affect as Agrippina gave Claudius the Emperour poyson in a Mushrome What a seditious flatterer is in a Common-wealth that a false-Apostle is in the Church For as the seditious flatterer observeth and learneth the temper and constitution of the place he liveth in and so frameth his speach and behaviour that he may seem to settle and establish that which he studieth to overthrow to be a Patriot for the publick good when he is but a promoter of his private ends to be a servant to the Common-wealth when he is a Traytor so do all seducers and false-teachers They are as loud for the Truth as the best champions she hath but either subtract from it or add to it or pervert and corrupt it that so the Truth it self may help to usher in a lye When the Truth it self doth not please us any lye will please us but then it must carry with it something of the Truth For instance To acknowledge Christ but with the Law is a dangerous mixture It was the errour of the Galatians here To magnifie Faith and shut out Good works is a dash That we can do nothing without Grace is a truth but when we will do nothing to impute it to the want of Grace is a bold and unjust addition To worship God in spirit and truth Joh. 4.23 our Saviour commandeth it but from hence to conclude against outward Worship is an injurious defalcation of a great part of our duty Gal. 5.1 To stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free the Apostle commandeth it but to stand so as to rise up in the face of the Magistrate is a Gloss of Flesh and Bloud and corrupteth the Text. Rom. 13.1 Let every soul be subject to the higher powers that is the Text but to be subject no longer then the Power is mannaged to our will is a chain to bind Kings with or a hammer to beat all Power down that we may tread it under our feet And when we cannot relish the Text these mixtures and additions and subtractions will please us These hang as Jewels in our ears these please and kill us beget nothing but a dead Faith and a graceless life not Liberty but Licentiousness not Devotion but Hypocrisie not Religion but Rebellion not Saints but Hypocrites Libertines and Traytors The Truth is corrupted saith Nyssene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 1. contra Eunom by subtraction by alteration by addition And these we must avoid the rather because they go hand in hand as it were with the Truth and carry it along with them in their company as lewd persons do sometimes a grave and sober man to countenance them in their sportiveness and debauchery De nostro sunt sed non nostrae saith Tertullian De Proscript They invade that inheritance which Christ hath left his Church Some furniture some colour something they borrow from the Truth something they have of ours but ours they are not And therefore as S. Ambrose adviseth Gratian the Emperour of all errours in doctrine we must beware of those which come nearest and border as it were upon the Truth and so draw it in to help to defeat it self because an open and manifest errour carrieth in its very forehead an argument against it self and cannot gain admittance but with a veil whereas these glorious but painted falsehoods find an easie entrance and beg entertainment in the Name of Truth it self This is the cryptick method and subtil artifice of Men-pleasers that is Men-deceivers to grant something that they may win the more and that too in the end which they grant not rudely at first to demolish the Truth but to let it stand a while that they may the more securely raise up and fix that Errour with which it cannot stand long S. Paul saw it well enough though the Galatians did not Gal. 5.2 If you be circumcised Christ profiteth you nothing that is is to you as if there were no Christ at all If the false Apostles had flatly denied Christ the Galatians would have been as ready as S. Paul to have cut them off because they had received the Gospel but joyning and presenting the Law with Christ they did deceive and please them well who began in the Spirit and did acknowledge Christ but would not renounce the Law propter metum Judaeorum for fear of their brethren the Jews Now these Men-pleasers these Crows Dictam Diogenis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athen. Deipnos l. 6. c. 17. which devour not dead but living men are from an evil eg and beginning are bred and hatcht in the dung in the love of this world and are so proud and fond of their original that it is their labour their religion the main design of their life to bring the Truth Religion and Christ himself in subjection under it And to this end they are very fruitful to bring forth those mishapen issues which savour of the earth and corruption and have onely the name of Christ fastned to them as a badge to commend them and bring them to that end for which they had a being which is to gain the world in the name but in despite of Christ And these are they who as S. Peter speaketh make merchandise of mens souls nummularii sacerdotes 2 Pet. 2.3 as Cyprian calleth them Doctours of the Mint who love the Image of Caesar more then the image of God and had rather see the one in a piece of gold then the other renewed and stampt in a mortal man And this image they carry along with them whithersoever they go and it is as their Holy Ghost to inspire them For most of the doctrines they teach savour of that mint and the same stamp is on them both The same face of Mammon which is in their heart is visible also in their doctrine Thus Hosea complained of the false Prophets in his time Hos 4.8 They eat up the sin of my people that is by pleasing them they have consented to their sin and from hence reaped gain for flattery is a livelyhood Or they did not seriously reprehend the sins of the people that they might receive more sacrifices on which they might feed Some render it Levabant animum
the grim visage of Anger and the horrour of Cruelty Pleasure boweth the Covetous for he loveth to look upon his wealth It lifteth up the head of the Proud for he is his own paradise and walketh in the contemplation of himself as in the palace which he hath made It whetteth the sword of the Revenger for his delight is in bloud It grindeth the teeth of the Oppressour for the poor are his bread It is the first mover I may say the form of every sin From hence arise those motions contrary to Reason which dâ—stroy all sanctified thoughts which do as the Philosopher speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rob us of consultation oppress and put out the light of the soul and leave us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were fighting in the dark in the midst of Ignorance and Confusion Like those Egyptian thieves they first embrace and then strangle us The Sun now affordeth no light the heaven is not spangled with stars but filled and veiled with clouds And as Diomedes could not see the Goddess in the cloud no more can we see the face of Truth and beauty of Virtue in this darkness and confusion And can we now expect comfort from those whose very comforts are mortal which please with hurting and hurt with pleasing and their end is desolation and mourning Occidua res est omnis voluptas All sensual delight even when it riseth is in its setting and going down and then casteth a long shadow which is nothing but grief And as when the Sun setteth the shadows increase and the shadow of an infant presenteth a giant-like shape so the least pleasure when it declineth portendeth a sorrow far greater and larger then it self Besides this sorrow not onely followeth at the heels of pleasure but keepeth pace with her For every pleasure resisteth it self is impatient of it self and when it increaseth it self it destroyeth it self becometh offensive and maketh men weak and impotent in their embraces and so turneth enemy unto it self We read in Epiphanius that the Egyptians having put into one vessel many serpents together and shut them up close to try the event in time one stronger then his fellows having consumed all the rest when now no more remained began to eat up himself So Pleasure is a serpent to deceive us and a serpent to destroy it self For when we have spent our time and spirits in luxury and riot to please our sensual and brutish part at last Pleasure reflecteth upon it self and wasteth it self For it is not onely true that Tully saith Liberalitas liberalitatem exhaurit that Liberality indiscreetly used destroyeth and exhausteth it self but we find it as true Voluptas voluptatem exhaurit Pleasures immoderately taken consume themselves and return upon us nothing but pain and misery and voluptas voluptate perit by Pleasure Pleasure dieth We will now leave this theatre of Pleasure whereon whosoever acteth faileth and is thrown off and for a while walk amongst the tombs I called it Pleasure but it deserveth not that name which being lost leaveth an eternal loss behind it For who would so affect a feast as to forfeit his health and appetite but to tast it and for one dram for go all gust and delicacy Let us then enter the house of Mourning and see what glorious effects it doth produce And we shall find it a friend to virtue the guard of our life and a kind of Angel to guide us in all our wayes And in this respect God may seem to have preferred us before the Angels in that he hath built us up of flesh and bloud in that he hath given us so many senses and so many powers of our souls as so many crosses For an Angel cannot mourn cannot fast cannot suffer persecution but the soul of man being united to the body is carried up by those to an Angelical estate I know S. Paul brandeth worldly sorrow and maketh the effect of it no better then death 2 Cor. 7.10 And a better effect it cannot have whilst it is worldly and sensual Grief for a disgrace received may make me dishonour my self more to speak and do those things which are not seemly Sorrow for the loss of my goods may distract me leave me miserable but scarce a man The loss of a friend may draw on the loss of my life For when we find nothing but misery in misery we are willing to run from it though we run out of this life and this whilst our sorrow is fixed upon that evil that raised it But the devout School man will tell us Luctus sensualis trahit perâ—ccidens in luctum bonum that this grief may draw on also repentance unto salvation not to be repented of that is a repentance that will comfort us For comfort may be brought to us in a stream of bitterness The rod of God is a rod of iron to bruise us to pieces till we hearken to it and obey it But when I understand its language and discipline when I see the plague of my heart in the distemper of my body my lust in a fever and my intemperance in a dropsie when I discover greater evils then those I mourn for then I devert my grief upon these where it may be laid out with more advantage then this rod is no more a rod but a staff to comfort me Thus we may be drowned and we may be washed and refreshed in our tears and the house of Mourning may be our prison and it may be our school and by the help of that Spirit who is the Comforter we may work comfort out of that grief which was ready to swallow us up Our own experience will teach us that one of the greatest provocations to sin is not to feel the wrath of God in those outward calamities which produce this mourning The Pythagoreans where they speak of the Affections call them virtues and do thus distinguish them Some they say are virtutes animi purgati signs and indications of a mind clensed and renewed already Hope and Joy cannot be but in a virtuous soul For as where health is there is chearfulness where youth is there is comliness where Musick is there is an exsultancy so where goodness is there is joy Others are virtutes animi purgatrices virtues which purge and clense the soul as Fear and Grief For like Physick by degrees these purge out ill humours raise the soul to a kind of health and make it at length a mansion for Joy and Comfort As we see clothes deeply stained will not let go their spots without the loss of some part of their substance so when those maculae peccati as the Schools call them the spots and pollutions of sin have sunk down far and deeply stained and fullied us they will hardly be washed out without some loss and impairing of our selves without these purgatives of Grief and Mourning which bring leanness into our souls Haud levioribus remediis restinguendus est animus quà m
crop and harvest of our Devotion This is truly cum parvo peccato ad ecclesiam venire cum peccatis multis ab ecclesia recedere to bring some sins with us to Church but carry away more for fear of the smoke to leap into the fire for fear of coming too near to Superstition to shipwreck on Profaneness for fear of Will-worship not to worship at all like Haggards to check at every feather to be troubled at every shew and appearance to startle at every shadow and where GLORY TO THE LORD is engraven in capital letters to blot it out and write down SUPERSTITION I see I must conclude Beloved fly Idolatry fly Superstition you cannot fly far enough But withal fly Profaneness and Irreverence and run not so far from the one as to meet and embrace the other Be not Papists God forbid you should But be not Atheists that sure talk what we will of Popery is far the worse Do not give God more then he would have but be sure you do not give him less Why should you bate him any part who giveth you all Behold he breathed into you your Souls and stampt his Image upon them Give it him back again not clipt not defaced but representing his own graces unto him in all holiness and purity And his hands did form and fashion your Bodies and in his book are all your members written Let THE GLORY OF GOD be set forth and wtitten as it were upon every one of them and he shall exalt those members higher yet and make thy vile Body like to his most glorious body In a word Let us glorifie God here in soul and body and he shall glorifie both soul and body in the day of the Lord Jesus The Seventeenth SERMON PART I. 1 COR. XII 3. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost THat Jesus is the Lord was seen in his triumph at Easter made manifest by the power of his Resurrection The earth trembled the foundations of the hills moved and shook the graves opened at the presence of this Lord. Not the Disciples onely had this fire kindled in their hearts that they could not but say The Lord is risen but the earth opened her mouth and the Grave hers And now it is become the language of the whole world Jesus is the Lord. All this is true But we ask with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What profit is it What profit is it if the Earth speak and the Grave speak and the whole World speak if we be dumb Let Jesus be the Lord but if we cannot say so he may and will be our Lord indeed but not our Jesus we may fall under his power but not rise by his help If we cannot say so we shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fall cross with him nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speak the quite contrary If we cannot call him Lord then with the accursed Jew we do indeed call him Anathema we call the Saviour of the world an accursed thing Si confiteamur exsecramur If we confess him not we curse him And he that curseth Jesus needeth no greater curse We must then before we can be good Christians go to school and learn to speak not onely Abba Father but Jesus the Lord. And where now shall we learn it Shall we knock at our own breasts and awake our Reason to lead us to this saving truth Shall we be content with that light which the Laws and Customs of our Country have set up and so cry him up for Lord as the Ephesians did their Diana for company and sit down and rest our selves in this resolution because we see the Jew hated the Turk abhorred and Hereticks burned who deny it Shall we alienis oculis videre make use of other mens eyes and so take our Religion upon trust These are the common motives and inducements to believe it With this clay we open our eyes thus we drive out the dumb Spirit And when we hear this noise round about us that Jesus is the Lord our mouth openeth and we speak it with our tongue These are lights indeed and our lights but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deceitful My Reason is too dim a light and cannot shew me this great conjunction of Jesus and the Lord. Education is a false light and misleadeth the greatest part of Christians even when it leadeth them right For he that falleth upon the Truth by chance by this blind felicity erreth when he doth not erre having no better assurance of the Truth then the common vogue He walketh indeed in the right way but blindfold He embraceth the Truth but so as for ought he knoweth it may be a lye And last of all the greatest Authority on earth is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a faint uncertain and failing proof a windy testimony if it blow from no other treasury then this below No we must have a surer word then this or else we shall not be what we so easily persuade our selves we are We must look higher then these Cathedram habet in coelo Our Master is in heaven And JESUS IS THE LORD is a voice from heaven taught us saith the Apostle by the holy Ghost who is vicarius Christi as Tertullian calleth him Christ's Vicar here on earth and supplieth his place to help and elevate our Reason to assure and confirm our Education and to establish and ratifie Authority Would you have this dumb spirit dispossessed The Spirit who as on this day came down in a showre of tongues must do it Would you be able to fetch breath to speak The holy Ghost must spirare breathe into us the breath of spiritual life inable us by inspiration Would we say it we must teach it If we be ignorant of this the Apostle here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would have us to understand that No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost And now we have fitted our Text to the Time the Feast of Pentecost which was the Feast of the Law For then the old Law was given then written in tables of stone And whensoever the Spirit of the living God writeth this Law of Christ THAT HE IS THE LORD in the fleshly tables of our hearts then is our Pentecost the Feast of the holy Ghost then he descendeth in a sound to awake us in wind to move and shake us in fiery tongues to warm us and make us speak The difference is This ministration of the Spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaketh far more glorious And as he came in solemn state upon the Disciples this day in a manner seen and heard so he cometh though not so visibly yet effectually to us upon whom the ends of the world are come Though not in a mighty wind yet he rattleth our hearts together Though no house totter
They had a full harvest we our sheaf yet our sheaf may make an offering Though our coyn be smaller yet the same image and stamp is on them both and the Spirit will own us though we weigh less All this is true But yet I must still remember you that whilest I build up the power of the Spirit I erect no asylum or sanctuary for illusions and wilful mistakes and when I have raised a fort and strong-hold for sober Christians I mean it not a shelter or refuge for mad-men and phantasticks God forbid that Truth should be banished out of the world because some men by false illations have made her factious or that Errour should straight be crowned with approbation because perhaps we read of some men who have been bettered with a lie The teaching of the Spirit it were dangerous to teach it were there not means to try and distinguish the Spirit 's instructions from the suggestions of Satan or the evaporations of a sick and loathsome brain or our own private Humour which is as great a Devil Beloved 1 John 4.1 saith the Apostle believe not every spirit that is every inspiration but try the spirits whether they be of God for many false prophets are gone out into the world that is have taken the chair and dictate magisterially what they please in the name of the Spirit when themselves are carnal And he giveth the rule by which we should try them Vers 2 Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God that is Whosoever striveth to advance the Kingdom of Christ and to set up the Spirit against the Flesh to magnifie the Gospel to promote and further men in the wayes of innocency and perfect obedience which infallibly lead to happiness is from God that is every such inspiration is from the Spirit of God For therefore doth the Spirit breathe upon us that he may make us like unto God and so draw us to him that where he is we may be also But those inspirations which bring in God to plead for Baal which cry up Religion to gain the world which call their own discipline Christ's Discipline which he never framed and spurn at his to maintain their own which tread down Peace and Charity and all that is indeed praise-worthy under their feet to make way for their unguided lust to pace it more delicately to its end which sigh out Faith and Grace and Christ like mourners about the streets which attend a funeral when the World and Satan hath filled their hearts and thus sow in tears that they may reap the profits and pleasures of this present world with joy which magnifie God's will that they may do their own these men these spirits cannot be from God By their fruits ye shall know them For their hypocrisie as well and cunningly wrought as it is is but a poor cobweb-lawn and we may easily see through it even see these spiritual men sweating and toiling for the Flesh these Saints digging in the minerals labouring for the bread that perisheth and making haste to be rich For though many times their wine be the poison of dragons and their milk not at all sincere yet they are not to be bought without money or money-worth Though GLORIA PATRI Glory to God on high be the Prologue to the Play for what doth a Hypocrite but play yet the whole drift and business of every Scene and Act is chearfully to draw altogether in this From hence we have our gain The Angel speaketh the Prologue and Mammon and the Flesh make the Epilogue Date manus Why should not every man give them his hands Surely such Roscii such cunning Actors deserve a Plaudite By their fruits ye shall know them For what though the voice be Jacobs Ye may know Esau by his hands What though the Devil turn Angel of light Ye may know him by his claws by his malice and rage For how can an Angel of light tear men in pieces By their fruits ye may know them So ye see this inconvenience and mischief which sometimes is occasioned by the Doctrine of the Spirit 's Teaching is not unavoidable It is not necessary though I mistake and take the Devil for an Angel that the holy Ghost should be put to silence Though Corah and his complices perish in their gainsayings yet God forbid that all Israel should be swallowed up in the same gulf Samuel runneth to Eli 1 Sam. 3. Vers 9. when the voice was God's but was taught at last to answer Speak Lord for thy servant heareth Though there were many false Prophets yet Micaiah was a true one Though there be many false Prophets come into the world yet the Spirit of God is a Spirit of truth and is not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our chief but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our sole Instructor Our last Part In which we shall be very brief We are told in the verse next after the Text There are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit And we may say There are diversities of teachers but the same Spirit because be the conveyances and conduits never so many through which the knowledge of our Lord Jesus is brought unto us if the Sririt move not along with it it may be water indeed but not of life Because all means are but instrumental but He the prime Agent we may well call him not onely the chief but the sole Instructor The Church of Christ is DOMUS DOCTRINAE the House of learning as it is called in the Chaldee Paraphrase and COLUMNA VERITATIS 1 Tim. 3.15 the Pillar of the truth because it presenteth the knowledge of Christ as a Pillar doth an Inscription and even offereth and urgeth it to every eye that it may not slip out of our memories and SCHOLA CHRISTI the School of Christ in respect of his Precepts and Discipline Such glorious things have been spoken of the Church But now methinks this House is ruinous this Pillar shaken this School broken up and dissolved and the Church which bore so great a name standeth for nothing but the walls A Jesuite telleth us that at the very name of the CHURCH hostis expalluit the Enemy that is such as he called Hereticks did look pale and tremble But what is it now amongst us Nothing or but a Name and in truth a Name is nothing And that too is vanishing for it is changed into another And yet it is the same for they both signifie one and the same thing So prevalent amongst us is that Phansie and Folly which is taken for the Spirit A Church no doubt there is and will be but we onely see it as we do the Church Triumphant through a glass darkly Or she may be fair as the Moon clear as the Sun but sure she is not terrible as an army with banners Secondly the Word is a Teacher And Christ by open proclamation hath commanded us to have recourse unto it
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
resolve together To go alone is dangerous S. Cyprian and others of the Fathers will tell us that Schism is a sin not to be expiated no not with martyrdom and that to dy for the Head will little avail him who hath divided the Body But the truth is If we resolve to serve the Lord though we be millions we shall all agree and be one Religion pure Religion and undefiled cannot raise a schisme in the Church For if there be an errour she teacheth us to pardon it if an injury to forget it A religious man saith Nazianzene is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simple and sincere in himself ever like himself but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 various and manifold towards others He applieth himself as S. Paul did to all and is made all things to all men And when they do not gather together 1 Cor. 9.19 c there is nothing in him to hinder it Look upon all the contentions that ever were in the world observe the persons that raised them mark their original and ye shall see that the name of Religion was onely taken in to carry them on but it was something else that gave them life and continued them Private ends and love of the world first kindle the fire and then the name of Christ is taken up that it may rage the more the name of Christ who hath left unto us that water of life which would easily quench it For I cannot yet see how a truly-religious man should be a schismatick If he be he doth it oblitus professionis suae quite beside the meaning of his profession the chief end whereof is to gather all into one Eph. 4.3 and to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace 4. They went chearfully and with great alacrity A prompt and ready mind an active and vigorous will in God's service is all in all My son give me thy heart saith God Prov. 23.26 And when we have given him that then Awake viol and harp Awake all the powers of my soul Stir up your selves all the parts of my body then we do our duty and serve God with all our strength and might then our feet are as hinds feet and we run the wayes of God's commandments Hab. 3.18 Psal 119.32 Chrysostom saith the Church is the place of Angels and Archangels the presence-chamber of God yea heaven it self And shall not we go more chearfully towards heaven then others do to hell If we go to Church but for fashion for company or out of formality if Love drive us not forward it is plain that we are not willing to come into God's presence and had rather mingle ourselves with our worldly affairs then appear before God and his Angels in his house Shame or fear or compliance may serve as wings to bear us to Church but they will never carry us up so high as heaven He that mounteth thither ascendeth in a jubilee with melody and joy 5. The Church is the house of God Let us therefore enter his gates with joy Psal 100.4 and his courts with rejoycing and not raise needless questions which edifie not Here we receive the doctrine of truth the commands of God which are as Angels descending from above here we breathe out our souls and send up our holy desires which are as so many Angels of commerce between God and us Hoc opus hic labor est This is the business of the day this is the work of the place What gaze we upon the walls the fabrick the fashion the beauty of it Why perplex we our selves and others where there is no reason and blow up bubbles which swell and are straight nothing It is an observation of the Ancients That they who can once prevail with themselves to desire nothing more then piety and vertue and to have no other intent then to be good men will rest in that contentedness which Religion bringeth as on a holy hill and will never descend and stoop to low considerations True Devotion never questioneth what fashion what form what beauty the place hath where it must shew it self He that fighteth against his lust and so beateth down the beast within him he that presseth forward onely to that end for which he should go to the house of the Lord and maketh it his chief aim to serve him will never startle at that which cannot hinder but may facilitate and promote the end he aimeth at he will not fall out with colours nor tremble at the sight of a picture it may be of a leg or an arm much less will he question the fashion that he may pull down the fabrick No this humour springeth not from devotion or from a tender conscience neither indeed can it For a tender conscience is alway so it doth not stumble at a straw and leap over a mountain it doth not check at a feather at that which is nothing in it self but hath all its value and dignity from its end This humour hath its original from Pride and Covetousness as Hippocrates saith all the distempers of the body have their original from Choler and Phlegme from pride I say foolish pride which misliketh every thing and covetousness that would make every thing a prey 1 Cor. 11.16 But as S. Paul saith if any man seem to be thus contentious we have no such custome neither the Churches of God Neither was there any such contention till those latter times when Sacrilege lifted up the ax and the mattock to break down the carved works yea to dig up the very foundations of the houses of the Lord. 1 Pet. 2.1 Wherefore as S. Peter exhorteth let us lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrises and envies and all evil speakings and so go together to the house of God It is his house therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the ancient form was let us appear there with reverence What though he be no more present here then in any other place Yet I am sure thou oughtest to be as reverent as if he were It is his holy place What though it hath no inherent holiness we cannot say it hath Yet it is thy part to carry thy self as one that hath Raise not idle questions but be serious in thy duty Do not bring a groundless phansie along with thee and leave thy duty behind thee in the land of oblivion Sanctorum vel sola recordatio sanctitatem parit saith a Father The very remembrance of the Saints by a kind of influence and insinuation may vvork holiness in us And if vve could once chace avvay these empty and insignificant phansies these impertinent and heretogeneous thoughts which spring from the Flesh as serpents out of carrion or dung I see no reason but we might gain some advantage from the places of God's worship To conclude this point IBIMUS We will go or EAMUS Let us go into the houses of the Lord and bless his name for these blessed
and he reflecteth a blessing upon me Quod est omnium est singulorum That which is all mens is every mans and that which is every mans belongeth unto the whole Proprietas excommunicatio est saith Parisiensis Propriety is an excommunication When I appropriate my devotion to my self I do in a manner thrust my brother out of the Church nay I shut my self out of heaven I at once depose and exauctorate both my self and him Nay I cannot appropriate it for where it is it will spread It is my sorrow and thy sorrow my fear and thy fear my joy and thy joy Ye see here the Tribes go up to the house of the Lord with joy and this joy raiseth another or rather the same a joy of the same nature in David At the very apprehension of it he taketh down his harp from the wall and setteth his joy to a tune and committeth it to a song I was glad when they said c. And thus I am fallen upon 2. The second thing observable in the Psalmists joy the Publication thereof He setteth it to Musick he conveyeth it into a song and as the Chaldee Pharaphrast saith Adam did assoon as his sin was forgiven him he expresseth sabbatum suum his Sabbath his content and gladness in a Psalm that it might pass from generation to generation and never be forgotten but that this sacrifice of thanksgiving which himself here offereth might still upon the like occasion be offered by others unto the worlds end and that the people which should in after-ages be created might thus praise the Lord. Thus David hath passed over and entailed his joy to all posterity This is thanks and praise indeed when it floweth from an heart thus affected when it breaketh forth like light from the Sun and spreadeth it self like the heavens and declareth the glory of God Gratè ad nos beneficium pervenisse indicamus effusis affectibus saith Seneca Then a benefit meeteth with a greateful heart when it is ready to pour forth it self in joy and the affections not being able to contain themselves are seen and heard shine bright in the countenance and sound aloud in a song Certainly Gratitude is neither sullen nor silent Saul's evil melancholick Spirit cannot enter the heart of a David nor any heart in which the love of God's glory reigneth At the sight of any thing that may set it forth the pious soul is awaked and the melancholick and dumb spirit is cast out Psal 47.1 4. nor can it return whilest that love is in us When God hath chosen our inheritance for us then O clap your hands all ye people shout unto God with the voice of triumph To draw towards a conclusion By this rejoycing spirit of David's we may examine and judge of the temper of our own If we be of the same disposition with him no sight no object will delight us but that in which God is and in which his glory is seen We shall not make songs of other mens miseries nor keep holiday when they mourn We shall not like any thing either in our selves or others which dishonoureth God's name Prov. 2.14 In a word we shall not rejoyce to do evil nor take pleasure in the frowardness of the wicked But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our whole life will be one holiday one continued Sabbath and rest in good Of what spirit then are they who rejoyce not in their own miseries but in their sins who take great delight and complacency not onely in the calamities but also in the falls and miscarriages of others especially if they cast not in their lot and make one purse with them Prov. 1.14 who as Judas did carry their religion and their purse in the same hand whose religion is in their purse and openeth and shutteth with it who that they may triumph in the miseries rejoyce first in the defects whether seeming or real of their dissenting brethren Every man that looketh towards Jerusalem Luke 9.53 and will not stay with them at their Samaria must be cast out of doors Criminibus debent hortos praetoria campos They owe their wealth and possessions shall I say to other mens crimes no they owe them to their own For a great sin it is to delight in sin but to make that a crime which is not a sin is a greater What is it then to turn piety it self into sin To call an asseveration an oath is a fault at least And then what is it to call devotion superstition the house of God a sty and reverence idolatry Yet if these were sins why should my brothers ruine be my joy Why should I wish his fall delight in his fall follow him in his fall as the Romanes did their sword-players in the theatre with acclamation So so thus I would have it We cannot say this proceedeth from piety or is an effect of charity 1 Cor. 13.6 For Charity rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth Charity bindeth up wounds doth not make them wider And when people sin Charity maketh the head a fountain of tears but doth not fill the mouth with laughter Charity is no detractour no jester no Satyrist it thinketh no evil 1 Cor. 13.5 it is not suspicious It cannot behold a Synagogue of Satan in the Temple of the Lord nor Superstition in a wall nor Idolatry in reverence This evil humour indeed proceedeth from Love but it is the love of the world which defameth every thing for advantage laugheth at Churches that it may pull them down maketh men odious that it may make them poor and dealeth with them as the Heathen did with the first Christians putteth them into bears skins that it may bait them to death This certainly is not from David's but from an evil spirit Nor can it be truly termed Joy unless we should look for joy in hell and content in a place of torment Rejoycings and jubilees of this sort are like unto the howlings of devils In the Devil there cannot be joy My drunkenness cannot quench the flames he burneth in my evil conscience cannot kill that worm which gnaweth him my ignorance cannot lighten his darkness my loss of heaven cannot bring him back thither Should he conquer the whole world he would still be a slave But yet in the Devil though properly there be no joy there is quasi gaudium that which is like our joy in evil which we call Joy though it be not so And it is in him saith Aquinas not as a passion but as an act of his will When we do well that is done which he would not and that is his grief and when we sin we are led captive according to his will and that is his joy 2 Tim. 2.26 And such is the joy of malicious wicked men for whom it is not expedient nor profitable that those who are not of the same mind with them should be good and therefore against their will And to this
cruelty can there be then to have a box of oyntment in our hand and not to pour it forth on him that languisheth but leave him dying and say we wish him well No to Comfort is to restore and set one another at rights again the Erring by counsel the Weak by assistance the Poor by supply the Sorrowful by sweet and seasoanble argument and perswasion Otherwise it is not comfort For what comfort is that which leaves us comfortless which leaves the Ignorant in his darkness the Poor in want the Weak on the ground and the Sorrowful man in his gulf LOQUIMINI AD COR Speak to the Heart If we speak not to the heart to lift up that our words are wind Comfort by Counsel is very useful for those who mourn in Sion Rei infinitatem ejicere optima medicina To bound the cause of mens grief to remove those many circumstances which increase and multiply it and so to bring it in as it is and shew what little cause men have to grieve is the best Physick in this particular Our present and future condition our Mortality and our Resurrection are of force enough to wipe all tears from our eyes and to make our Grave appear as a house of rest rather then as a pit of destruction But this is but one particular in which we are obliged to this duty Comforting one another Charity hath more hands then Briareus and more eyes then Argus She hath an eye on every one that is as the Canonist speaketh persona miserabilis a miserable and wretched person She hath a hand on every sore and malady And yet she hath but one hand and one eye but reached forth and rowling on every corner of the earth where storms arise ready to slumber and becalm them Now to Comfort is a work of Charity and Charity hath a double act actum elicitum and actum imperatum an inward act and outward and the latter is the perfecting and consummation of the former For what a poor empty Thing is a Thought or a Word without a Hand and what an uncharitable Thing is Comfort without Compassion then I truly comfort my brother when my Hand is active as well as my Heart And yet if they be true they are never severed For if the Bowels yearn the Hand will stretch it self forth and those comforts which are sincere and real are nothing else but the largess and donatives of the Heart It was a speech of a churl in Plautus familiam alere non possum misericordiâ Compassion and Charity will not feed a family But the Christian is the better husband Qui spargit ecclesiae colligit sibi He that scattereth his comforts to the distressed gathereth for himself and in a religious policy by emptying his store filleth his garners This was the practice and the policy of the first and purest times verba in opera vertere to turn words into works that they might be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words of comfort but quickned and enlivened with action Frequent visitation of the sick sustentation of the needy gratulations and benedictions speak plainly the sickness and the heat of their Charity and upbraid the verbal Religion of these latter times which breaths forth ayre instead of comfort and talks of the way to heaven but never treads in it That was Comfort indeed which clothed the naked and fed the hungry made the dry stick blossome and revived the drooping spirits as Jacobs were revived when he saw the chariots which his son Joseph had sent To draw towards a conclusion We must well consider from what principle this Act is wrought from what spring it moves For we may think we do it when we do not so much as think to do it We may give scorn and contempt for comfort or comfort with scorn and contempt which is panis lapidosus bread made up with gravel that will trouble us in taking it down Our comfort may proceed from a hollow heart and then it is but a sound and the mercy of a bloudy Pharisee It may be ministred through a trumpet and then it is lost in that noyse Nay it may be an act of cruelty to make Cruelty more cruel as we read of an Emperour that did never pronounce sentence of death sine perfectione clementiae but with a preface of Clemency a well-worded mild prologue before a Tragedy Lastly Comfort may be the product of Fear We may be free in our comforts for fear of offence and help one that we displease not another And what pitty is it that so free and noble a virtue as Charity should be enslaved But indeed Charity is not bound nor is that Charity which is beat out with the hammer and wrought out of us by force All these are false principles Pride Hypocrisie Vain-glory Fear and Charity issues from these as water through mud and is defiled in the passage Therefore it is best raised on the Law of Nature and on the royal Law of Grace These are pillars that will sustein it Remember them that be in adversity as being your selves also in the body Hebr. 13.3 in a body mortal and corruptible a body of the same mould 1 Cor. 15.53 like to that which you cherish and uphold And then we are to love and comfort one another even as Christ loved us saith the Apostle Christ is our pattern our motive the true principle of Charity and what is done it should be though it be but the gift of a cup of cold water which is done in his name Then the waters of comfort flow kindly and sweetly when they relish of a bleeding heart and the bloud of a merciful Redeemer Then this act is mightily performed when we do it as the sons of Adam and as the members of Christ Acts 17.26 when we do it as men of one bloud and of one common faith Tit. 2.4 And now to conclude Let us do it yea let us be ambitious to do it For as we have great motives so we have many occasions sad occasions to draw it forth Day unto day uttereth knowledge Every day presents us with some object or other And Occasion they say will make a thief why should it not make a Comforter If it can work out evil out of a corrupt I see no reason why it should not work out this good out of a compassionate heart why it should not work that compassion in us which will stream forth in rivers of comfort Shall Occasion be no where powerful but in evil I remember Chrysologus speaking of the Rich man in the Gospel tells us that God did on purpose cast Lazarus down at his gate that he might be pietatis conflatorium as a forge to melt his iron bowels Tot erant pauperis ora quot vulnera he had so many mouths to bespeak and admonish the rich man as he had sores and wounds His whole body and his ulcerated flesh was as a stage prepared and fitted for Compassion and
have more then he can desire the blind may comfort the deaf that he shall hear the trump and the deaf the blind that he shall see his Saviour come again in glory The Church that is now militant may comfort her self that she shall be triumphant Here we converse with dust and ashes with the shapes of Men and malice of Devils or if with saints with saints full of imperfection Here are Nimrods and Nero's and worse then Nero's men who do but what mischief they can and the Devil himself can do no more Illic Apostolorum chorus martyrum populus there are the Apostles and martyrs This is but the valley of tears there all tears shall be wiped from our eyes and we shall need no comfort because we shall feel no sorrow but serve God day and night and with the glorious company of the Apostles and the noble army of Martyrs with the whole Church sing praises to the God of consolation for evermore To which place of everlasting consolation he bring us who purchased our peace with his bloud Jesus Christ the righteous The Two and Thirtieth SERMON ACTS II. 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 OF all the expressions of our distast a Scoff is the worst Admonition may be physick a Reproof may be balm a Blow may be ointment but Derision is as poyson as a sword as a sharp arrow It was the height of Jobs complaint that contemptible persons made jests on him And it was the depth of Samsons calamity that when the Philistins hearts were merry they called for Samson to make them sport That which raises our anger presents some magnitude to our eyes but that which we entertein with scorn is of no appearance not worth our thought less then nothing But now every thing is not alwayes as it appears especially to the eye of the scoffer For we see things of excellency and such as are carried about in a higher sphere may be depressed and submitted to jests We cannot cull out a better instance then that which we have here the miracle of this feast of Pentecost not done in a corner but in a full assembly and the face of the world In a general congregation of men out of every nation under heaven a Wind rusheth in Flatus qui non inflavit sed vegetavit saith S. Augustine a blast which did not blow them up but quicken and make them lusty and strong Tongues as of fire which sate upon them Ignis qui non cremavit sed suscitavit a fire which did not burn and consume but enliven and refresh them The Wind was violent and the Spirit was in the wind The Tongues were as of fire and the Spirit was in that fire they were cloven and the Spirit was in the cleft Christ was as good as his word This sound was the echo of his promise this REPLETI SVNT they were filled with the holy Ghost a commentary on EGO MITTAM and the filling of their Hope Christ's ASCENDIT endeth in DONA DEDIT and his promise in a miracle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How high a mystery is this saith Nazianzene how venerable Christ had finished his work his Birth his Circumcision his Tentation his Passion his Resurrection his Ascension which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the corporeal things of Christ These being all past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now the Spirit begins to move but not as it did on the face of the waters and as the nature of a Spirit is invisible but in state in things sensible in a rushing wind to the Ear in tongues of fire to the Eye both heard and seen Certainly a great mystery a great miracle it was And Miracles should not be the subject of scorn but admiration they should check and suppress our mirth in silence and astonishment But to press this further yet This miracle is most seen in the gift of Tongues For whether they spoke but one language and God worded it in the ear so that it was heard of every man as his own proper dialect or whether they spake in the several language of every nation to the Persians in theirs to the Medes in theirs and to the Elamites in theirs as is very probably gathered out of the text by Nazianzene and others a miracle it was and could not be wrought by any other hand then that of Omnipotency Commonly Knowledge whether of things or languages is the daughter of Time and Industry Quis unquam de noviter plantatis arbusculis matura poma quaesivit Who ever lookt for fruit from a branch scarcely yet ingrafted in the stock Est etiam studiis sua infantia saith the Oratour As the bodies of the strongest men so even studies have their infancy and their growth and slowly after long time and much care and attendance they ripen and improve by degrees to perfection But here the course and natural order of things was strangely altered For men not learned Galilaeans not of the best capacity began to speak with other tongues on a sudden Greek Persian Arabick Parthian and not common and vulgar things but MAGNALIA DEI the wonderful works of God Their skill and knowledge was as sudden as the wind or fire Put now these together and you will wonder as much to see any countenance framed to laughter as to see the tongues and the fire and be amazed at the scoff and mock as much as at the miracle But the observation is old and common That where the finger of God is most visible there the Devil will put in his claw to deface the beauty of Gods work to alter the face and complexion of the greatest miracles that they may appear as trifles and meriments If God send his fiery Tongues upon his Apostles the Devil will also set the tongues of men on fire If God send a mighty wind there shall another blow out of the Devils treasury to blast and scatter all the marks and characters of Gods power If the Apostles speak with tongues there shall be tongues as active as the pen of a ready writer to scoff and disgrace them and to pour contempt on that which God hath made wonderful in our eyes tongues that shall call the breathing of the Spirit a frensie and the speaking of languages the evaporation and prating of drunkards and that shall make the greatest miracle mere mockery You may hear them speak in my Text Others mocking said These men are full of new wine In which words briefly we observe these particulars 1. the Object of their derision and what it was they mocked at 2. the Persons not all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others some of them 3. the Scoff it self These men are full of new wine Out of the first we may learn thus much That even Miracles may be scoffed at Next we may observe what manner of persons Scoffers are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but some of them some of the rout or if of higher place none of the best For the last when we have more neerly lookt upon it and brought it to the touch and tryal we shall find it to be but a lye coyned out of the Devils mint bearing his image and superscription even the stamp and character of Malice Envy and Ignorance Of these in their order We are to speak first of a Miracle and that briefly In every Miracle as Aquinas saith there are two things Quod fit and Propter quod fit the thing done which must transcend the course of Nature and the End which is also supernatural Indeed in respect of the power of God there is no miracle at all it being as easie for him to make one man speak all languages on the sudden as by degrees to teach him one but in his Divine goodness he was pleased to work wonders not for shew but for our instruction And as he had born witness to his Son by power and great miracles so doth he here to the Holy ghost now visibly descending upon his Apostles to no other end but this to consecrate his Church to seal the Gospel and so to fulfil that as Christ had fulfilled the Law This was the end of this miraculous operation The holy Ghost comes in a mighty wind to rattle their hearts together he comes in fire to enflame their breasts and in cloven tongues to cleave their hearts asunder He teacheth one man to speak all kind of tongues that Christ might become the language of the whole world Now in the next place let us view the persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others What enterteinment finds the miracle what welcome hath the holy Ghost No other then what befalls all unusual and extraordinary events Every man lays hold of it and shapes it in such a form as he please To some you see it is a matter of wonder to others of mirth And this the Father calleth Judaicum opprobrium a reproch cleaving fast to the Jew So was it here to them and it may be laid to many among us this day as a just imputation not to consider mirabilia Dei the wonderful things of God Some render it separata Dei those works of his which are set apart to this very purpose to elevate our thoughts if not to beget yet to confirm our faith at least to work a disposition to it We should account it a strange stupidity in any one to be more affected at the sight of the Sun then of a small candle or taper and to esteem the great palace of Heaven but as a fornace But when God stretcheth forth his Hands to produce effects which follow not the force of secundary causes to make Nature excell her self to improve her operations beyond the sphere of her activity then not to put on wonder not to conclude that it is for some great end is not folly but infidelity the daughter of Malice and Envy and affected Ignorance Miracles are signs and if they signifie nothing it is evident that a stubborn heart and froward mind corrupt their dialect and will not understand the meaning of them And then what are miracles but trifles matter of scoff and derision Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God by miracles a jugler his sceptre a reed his crown of thorns a knee a mock a voice from heaven is but thunder to make the blind to see the lame to go and the deaf to hear a kind of witchcraft or sorcery To be baptized with the Spirit is to be full of drink and to speak divers languages to be drunken When Julian the Apostate had read a book presented unto him in defense of Christianity all the reply he made was this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have read understood and condemned it To which S. Basil most fitly and ingeniously replyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You have read it indeed but not understood it for had you understood it you would never have condemned it The same befalls men prepossessed and too far engaged in the world and with business no whit complyable with the operations of the Spirit They behold the great things of God and streight think they understand them and their censure is as sudden as their thought but the Fathers reply to that Apostate will reach home to them Did they timely understand them they could not possibly slight them They could not slight those doctrines of Universal Obedience Self-denial Necessity of good Works the Deadness nay the Danger of Faith without civil Honesty for the confirmation of which all miracles were wrought We need not now wonder to see wonders slighted For from this root spring all the errours of our life This doth what the Pope is said by some to do make Vertue vice and Vice vertue This makes fools prophets and Christ a deceiver This makes us neither see vertue in others nor the most visible and mountanious sin in our selves By this rule the innocent are murderers and murderers saints From hence it was that Christ appeared to some no more then the Carpenters son Some slighted his person as contemptible others his precepts as ridiculous his Gospel as foolishness his disciples as idiots To this day our behaviour is little better then mocking Our Lust which waits for the twilight mocks at his Omniscience Tush God seeth not Our Distrust argues against his Power The waters gushed out can he give bread also If the windows of Heaven should be opened can this be done Our Impatience questions his Truth That which he doth not yet we think he will never do He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most wise nay Wisdome it self yet how many think he will not make inquisition for bloud nor punish it with eternal fire and these frame their lives as if this were a very truth God is bountiful and hath nothing so proper to him as to be Good and Liberal to all yet some there be who have imputed all to Destiny and the Stars And those who acknowledge him to be the Giver of life have confined and impropriated his Goodness to a few His Mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 triumpheth over his Justice yet Novatian made every fall as low as Hell and what is Despair but a mocking of Gods Mercy The miracle of this Feast if you will admit S. Augustines conceit is still visible in the Church where every man speaks all the languages of the world in as much as he is a member of that Catholick Church where all languages are spoken and yet this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this scoffing and derision is the most usual figure in the Worlds Rhetorick and he that cannot answer an argument can break a jest The ground of all is infidelity the proper issue of obstinate and wilfull Ignorance which brought forth these men here not Isaacs you may be sure but yet children of laughter I will give you a reason of this from a heathen man Plato
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
fear of God They spake it and they did it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us stand wisely and soberly and with great care and vigilant observation they spake it and they did it And S. Chrysostome giveth the reason Because God is present with us invisibly and marks every motion of the body as well as every inclination of the mind But I know not how the face of Christendome is much altered and what was Religion and Devotion then hath now changed its name and in this latter age must needs go under that much loathed name of Superstition and Idolatry For tell me are we not ashamed almost to say our prayers are we not afraid to say Amen Is it not become a disgrace to bear a part in the publick service of God A Te Deum or an Hallelujah would be indeed as a clap of thunder to fright us from the Church for we lift up our hearts so high that we have no voice at all Superstition I confess is a dangerous sin but yet not so dangerous as profaneness which will talk with God in private and dare him to his face in his Temple which with the Gnostick will give him the Heart but not vouchsafe the Tongue which will leave the Priest alone to make a noise and sometimes God knoweth it is but a noise in the pulpit And this is but to run out of the smoke into the fire for fear of coming too near to Superstition to shipwrack on Profaneness for fear of will-worship not to worship at all to imprison Devotion in the soul and lend her neither voice nor gesture though Christ be miraculous in all his wayes and doth wonders in the midst of us to seal up our lips and onely commune with our own corrupt hearts and be still No lifting up of the voice or hands no bowing of the knee in our coasts But I do but beat the ayr and labour in vain For now it is religion not to express it and he is most devout who doth least shew it O when will this dumb devil be cast out A strange thing it is that every thing else even our Vices should be loud and vocal and Religion should be the onely thing that should want a tongue that Devotion should lye hid and lurk and withdraw it self into the inward man For this is not to honour God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with might and main with soul and body with heart and knee and tongue this is not to render to God that which is Gods Which how to do without these outward expressions is as hard for the eye of Reason to see as it is for the eye of Sense to discern that Devotion which is so abstract and spiritual Certainly this poor Woman in the Text will rise up in judgment against this generation who no sooner saw the excellency of Christs person but she lifted up her voice and blessed the womb that bare him and the paps which he had sucked Last of all this Womans voice is yet lifted up and calls upon us to lift up ours even before the Pharisees And such we shall find in every street and in every Synagogue who devoure more then widows houses with long prayers draw bloud with the sword of the Spirit and serve the prince of this world in the name of the Lord. If our fear were not greater then our love amongst these we should lift up our voice like a trumpet and put these monsters to shame strike off their visour with noyse and bring in Truth to tear off the veil of their Hypocrisie For what shall we not lift up our voice for Truth but when she hath most voices on her side Must Truth be never publisht but in the times of peace or must a song of praise be never chaunted out but in a quÃre of Angels Shall we onely walk towards our Saviour as Peter did whilest the face of the sea is smooth then be undaunted and fear nothing but when a wave comes towards us presently sink Whilest all Things go with us smoothly without any rub or wave of difficulty how shall our Faith and Love be discovered who shall distinguish between a true and superficial professour For the Love of man to Christ is no otherwise discovered then the Love of man to man The love of a Christian cannot be known but by a great and strong tentation A Pharisee before us is a tentation Difficulty and danger are nothing else but a tentation which is therefore laid in our way to try if any thing can sever us from the love of Christ and his Truth If we start back in silence we have betraied the Truth to our fears and left it to be trod under foot by a Pharisee We may call it Discretion and Wisdome to start aside at such a sight and to lay our hands upon our mouths but discretio ista tollit omnem discretionem as Bernard speaketh this discretion takes away all discretion this wisdome is but folly For from this cowardise in our profession we first fall into an indifferency and at last into open hostility to the Truth We follow Truth as Peter did Christ afar of and then deny it and at last forswear it and joyn with the Pharisees and help them to persecute those that profess it So the Libellatici of old first bought a dispensation from the judge to profess the name of Christ and at last gave it under their hands that they never were Christians He that can dispense with a sin will soon look friendly upon it and at last count it a duty He that will take an oath in his own sense which indeed is non-sense wlll easily be induced to take it in any sense you shall give it him He that can trifle with his God will at last blaspheme him to his face Beloved you may judge of the Heart by the Voice which falls and rises according to those heats and colds the Heart receives When this is coldly affected we know not how to speak we venture but speak not out we profess and recant we say and unsay and know not what to say quasi super aristas ambulamus we tread as tenderly as if we were walking upon ears of corn and as men that go upon the ice magis tremimus quà m imus we rather tremble then go But when our Heart is hot within us the next occasion sets our Tongue at liberty We read in our Poets that Achilles for a time lurkt in womans apparel but was discovered by Ulysses bringing him a sword which he no sooner saw but he brandisht it So the souldier of Christ is not known till some difficulty like the sword of Ulysses be brought before him then he will bestir and move himself to cope with it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If we be Christians dangers and difficulties will sharpen and draw us on and our voice will be loudest when a Pharisee is near To conclude When vve hear men speak between their teeth or
us to bliss But when the Will is subdued and made obedient to the Truth then Gods precepts which are from heaven heavenly fill the soul with a joy of the same nature not gross and earthy but refined and spiritual a joy that is the pledge and the earnest as the Apostle calls it of that which is to come When the Will is thus subject and framed and fashioned according to the rule and pattern which God hath drawn it cloths it self as it were with the light of heaven which is the original of this chast delight Then what a pearl is Wisdome what glory is in poverty what honour in persecution what a heaven in obedience Then how sweet are thy words unto my tast Psal 119.103 yea sweeter then honey unto my mouth saith David In quibus operamur in illis gaudemus for such as the work is such is the joy A work that hath its rise and original from heaven a work drawn out according to the law which is the will of God begun in an immortal soul and wrought in the soul promoted by the Spirit of God and the ministery of Angels and breathing it self forth as myrrh or frankincense amongst the children of men will cause a joy like unto it self a true and solid joy having no deceit no carnality no inconstancy in it a beam from heaven kindled and cherisht by the same Spirit a joy which receives no taint nor diminution from those sensible evils which to those that keep not Gods word are as Hell it self and the onely Hell they think of but giving a relish and sweetness to that which were not evil if we did think it so making Poverty Disgrace and Death it self as fewel to foment and increase it upholding us in misery strengthning us in weakness and at the hour of death and in the day of judgment streaming forth into the ocean of eternal Happiness Blessedness invites attends and waits upon Obedience and yet Obedience ushereth it in being illix misericordiae it inviteth Gods Mercy and draws it so near as to bless us and it makes the blessing ours not ex rigore justitiae according to the rigour of justice as I call that mine which I buy with my money For no obedience can equal the reward And what can the obedience of a guilty person merit but ex debito promissi according to Gods promise by which he hath as it were entailed Blessedness on those who hear his word and keep it Hebr. 6.10 and God is not unrighteous to forget our work and labour of love Oh let neither our obedience swell and puff us up as if God were our debtor nor let us be so afraid of merit as not to keep Gods word Let not our anger against Papists transform us into Libertines and let us not so far abominate an errour in judgment as to fall into a worse in practice let us not cry down Merit and carry a Pope nay Hell it self along with us whithersoever we go Let us not be Papists God forbid And God forbid too that we should not be Christians Let us rather move like the Seraphims which having six wings covered their face with the uppermost Isa 6.2 and not daring to look on the majesty of God and covered their feet with the lowest as acknowledging their imperfection in respect of him but flew with those in the midst ready to do his will Let our obedience be like unto theirs Let us tremble before God and abhor our selves but between these two let the middle wings move which are next to the Heart and let our hearty Obedience work out its way to the end For conclusion Let us not look for Blessedness in the land of darkness amongst shades and dreams and wandring unsetled phantasmes Phansie is but a poor petard to open the gates of heaven with Let us not deceive our selves To call our selves Saints will not make us Saints to feign an assurance will not seal us up to the day of redemption Presumption doth but look towards Blessedness whilst Disobedience works a curse and carries us irrecoverably into the lowest pit What talk we of the imputed righteousness of Christ when we have none of our own what boast we of Gods grace when we turn it into wantonness The imputed righteousness of Christ is that we stand to when we are full of all iniquity and this we call appearing in our elder brothers robes and apparel that as Jacob did we may steal away the blessing Thus the Adulterer may say I am chast with Christs chastity the Drunkard I am sober with Christs temperance the Covetous I am poor with Christs poverty the Revenger I am quiet with Christs meekness he that doth not keep his word may keep his favour and if he please every wicked person may say that with Christ he is crucified dead and buried As Calvisius Sabinus in Seneca thought he did do himself what any of his Servants did if his servant were a good Poet he was so if his servant were well-limb'd he could wrestle if his servant were a good Grammarian he could play the Critick And so if Christ fasted fourty dayes and fourty nights we fast as long though we never abstain from a meal If Christ conquered the devil when he tempted him we also are victorious though we never resist him If Christ opened not his mouth when he was haled to the slaughter we also are as sheep though we open our mouth as a sepulchre And therefore as Seneca speaks of that rich man Nunquam vidi hominem indecentius I never saw a man whose Happiness did less become him so most true it is This obedience is but an unbeseeming garment because it had no other artificer but the Phantasie to spin and work and make it up Beloved if we keep God's word he will keep his and impute righteousness to us though we have sinned and come short of the Glory of God! What talk we of applying the promises which he may do who is an enemy to the cross of Christ If we keep his word the promises will apply themselves And indeed applying of the promises is not a speculative but a practick thing an act rather of the Will then of the Understanding When the Will of man is subject to the will of God this dew from heaven will fall of it self Vpon them that walk according to the rule shall be mercy and peace and upon the Israel of God To conclude If we put on the Lord Jesus if we put him on all his Righteousness his Obedience his Love his Patience that is if we keep his word he will find his Seal upon us by which he will know us to be his and in this his likeness he will look upon us with an eye of favour bless us here with joy and content and so fit and prepare us for everlasting blessedness at the end of the world when he shall pronounce to all that have kept his word that blessed
and Monarch of the Church who hath full and absolute power to determine of those things which concern our peace and to judge the Law it self to discover its defects and to supply and perfect it And here upon this foundation what a Babel of confusion may be built Upon these grounds what errour what foul sin may not shew its head and advance it self before the Sun and the people and outface the world With the one Scripture is no Scripture but a dead letter And with the other it hath no life but what they put into it With the one it is nothing and with the other it is imperfect which in effect is nothing For what difference in matters of this nature and in respect of a Law between being nothing and not being what it is For to take away the force of a Law is in a manner to annihilate it With them as Calvin speaketh of those in his time St. Paul was but a broken vessel John a foolish young man Peter a denier of his Master and Matthew a Publican And the language of ours at this day is little better And with the other they are little less For when they speak plainest they teach them how to speak And now that which was a sin yesterday is a vertue to day vertue is vice and vice vertue as the one is taught within and the other is bold to interpret it The Text is Defraud not thy brother The inward Word biddeth thee spoil him The Text is Touch not mine anointed By the autority of the Church thou mayest touch and kill him And let me tell you the inward Word will do as much Deceit Injustice Sacrilege Rebellion Murther all may ride in in triumph at this gate for it is wide enough to let them in and the Devil together with all his wiles and enterprises withall his most horrid machinations He did but mangle and corrupt the Scripture to make a breach into our Saviour These take it away or make it void and of no effect to overthrow his Church Must the Church of Rome be brought in like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts with great pomp and state with Supremacy and Infallibility Then Peter is brought out and his Rock nay his Shadow to set out the Mask and the Autority of the Church leadeth him on And they open their vvardrope and shew us their Traditions such deceitful ware that we no sooner look upon it but it vanisheth out of sight Again must some new phansie be set up which will not bear the light of Scripture but flieth and is scattered before it as the mist before the Sun Must some horrid fact be put in execution which Nature it self trembleth at and shrinketh from and which this perfect Law damneth to the lowest hell Then an inward Word is pretended and God is brought in to witness against himself to disanul his own Law and ratifie the contrary to speak from heaven against that which he declared by his Son on earth to speak within and make that a duty which he openly threatned to punish with everlasting fire What is become now of our perfect Law It is no Law at all but as the Son came down to preach it so there is a new holy Ghost come into the world to destroy it Which is to do worse then the Jews did For they only nailed Christ's body to the cross these crucifie his very mind and will Which yet will rise again and triumph over them when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to his Gospel For what man of Belial may not take up this pretence and leave Nature and Grace Reason and Religion behind them and walk forward with it to the most unwarrantable and unchristian designs that a heart full of gall and bitterness can set up Ahithophel might have taken it up and Judas might have taken it up even parricides have taken it up And if every inward persuasion the off-spring of an idle phansie and a heart bespotted with the world be the voice of God then Covetousness may be a God and Ambition may be a God and the Devil himself may be a God For these speak in them these speak the word which they hear which because they are ashamed to name they make use of that Name which is above every name to usher in these evil spirits in which Name they should cast them out In the name of Piety what is this inward Word this New light It may be the echo of my lust and concupiscence the resultance of an irregular appetite the reflexion of my self upon my self It is the greatest parasite in the world For it moveth as I move and sayeth what I say and denieth what I deny As inward as it is its original is from without The Object speaketh to the Eye and the Eye to the Heart and the Heart hot with desire speaketh to it self A rent and divided Church will make up my breaches A shaken Commonwealth will build me up a fortune A dissolved College will settle me in an estate And I hear it for I speak it my self And it is the voice of God and not of man Of this they have had sad experience in forein parts in both the Germanies and in other places And we have some reason to think that this monster hath made a large stride and set his foot in our coasts But if it be not this it is Madness Nay if this Word within may not be made an outward word it is Nothing For this Word within as they call it bringeth with it either an intelligible sense or not intelligible If it bring a sense unintelligible and which may not be uttered and expressed then it is no Word or the Word of a fool that uttereth more then his mind and speaketh of things which he knoweth not For what Word is that which can neither be understood nor uttered But if it bear a sense intelligible then it may be received of the understanding and uttered with the tongue and written in a book and then the same imputation will lye upon it which they lay upon the outward Word that it is but an ink-horn phrase And written with ink it may be For with amazed eyes we have seen it written with bloud I am even weary of this argument But men have not been ashamed openly to profess what we blush within our selves to confute And this Word within this loathsom phansie this Nothing hath had power to invenom the Word of life it self and make it the savour of death unto death For conclusion then Let us not say Lo here is Christ or Lo there is Christ Let us not frame and fashion a Christ of our own For if he be of our making he is not the Son of God but a phantasm And such a Christ may speak what we will have him speak to our hearts our lusts our vices Such a Christ will flatter us deceive us damn us But let us behold him in
omnem which undergoeth the shock of the whole war observeth the enemy in all his stratagems wiles and enterprises meeteth and encountereth him in all his assaults meeteth him as a Serpent and is not taken with with his flattery meeteth him as Lion and is not dismayed at his roarring but keepeth and guideth us in an even and constant course in the midst of all his noise and allurements and so bringeth us though shaken and weather-beaten unto our end to the haven of rest where we would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have need of patience Quid enim malum nisi impatientia boni saith Tertullian For what is Evil but an impatience of that which is good What is Vice but an impatience of vertue Pride will not suffer us to be brought low Covetousness will not suffer us to open our hand Intemperance will not suffer us to put our knife to our throat The Love of the world is impatient of God himself His Word is a sword and his commands thunderbolts At the sound of them we are afraid and go away sorrowful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have need of patience For we must run our race in a constant and uninterrupted course in an awful reverence to our Law-giver living and dying under the shadow of his wings that whether we live or die we may be the Lord's Non habitat nisi qui verè habitat say the Civilians He is not said to dwell in a place who continueth not in it And he doth not remain in the Gospel who is ready upon every change of weather upon every blast and breathing of discontent to change his seat He doth not remain in it who if the rain descend and the flouds come and the winds blow will leave and forsake it though it be a rock which will easily defend him against all these For what evil can there be against which it hath not provided an antidote what tempest will it not shroud us against Bring Principalites and Powers the Devil and all his artillery unus sufficit Christus the Gospel alone is sufficient for us And in this we see the difference between the World and the Church The world passeth away 1 Cor. 7.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fashion of the world the scene is every day changed and presenteth things in another shape But the Church is built upon a Rock Matth. 16. upon CHRIST that is upon that Faith in Christ which worketh by charity And he who is built upon this Rock who is fully persuaded that Christ is the best Master and that those duties which he teacheth are from heaven heavenly and will bring us thither is sufficiently armed against the flattery of Pleasure the lowring countenance of Disgrace the terrours of Poverty and Death it self against all wind and weather whatsoever that might move him from his place Look into the world There all things are as mutable as it self Omnia in impia fluctuant All things ebbe and flow in wicked men flie as a shadow and continue not Their Righteousness is like the morning dew Hos 13.3 dried up with the first Sun their Charity like a rock which must be strook by some Moses some Prophet and then upon a fit or pang no gushings forth but some droppings peradventure and then a dry rock again their Vows and Promises like their shadows at noon behind them their Friendship like Job's winter-brooks overflowing with words and then in summer when it is hottest in time of need quite dried up consumed out of its place their Temperance scarce holding out to the next feast nor their Chastity to the next twilight The world and the fashion of it passeth away but on the contrary the Gospel is the eternal word of God And as the gifts and calling of God are without repentance Rom. 11.29 Prov. 8.18 so his graces are durable riches opes densae firm and well compacted such as may be held against all assaults like him from whom they descend yesterday and to day and the same for ever Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfeigned Love abiding Hope an anchor He that is a true Gospeller doth remain and continue and not wander from that which is good to that which is evil is not this day a Confessor and to morrow an Apostate doth not believe to day and to morrow renounce his Creed doth not love to day and loath to morrow doth not hope to day and droop to morrow but unum hominem agit he is the same man and doth the same things assiduè aequaliter constantly and equally He remaineth not in the Gospel in a calm onely and leaveth it when the winds rise but here he will remain fixed to those principles and acting by them vvhen the Sun shineth and vvhen the storm is loudest By the Gospel he fixeth and strengthneth all his decrees and resolutions and determinations that they are ever the same and about the same now beating down one sin anon another now raising and exalting this vertue anon that If you ask him a question saith Aristides the Sophister of Numbers or Measures he vvill give you the same answer to day vvhich he vvill give you to morrow and the next day and at the last breath that he draweth In the next place if we do not remain in the Law of liberty vve do not obey it as we should For to remain in the Gospel and to be in Christ are words of stability and durance and perpetuity For vvhat being is that vvhich anon is not What stability hath that vvhich changeth every moment What durance and perpetuity hath that vvhich is but a vapour or exhalation drawn up on high to fall and stink To remain in the Gospel and to remain for ever may seem two different things but in respect of the race vve are to run in respect of our salvation they are the very same We vvill not here dispute Whether Perseverance be a vertue distinct from other graces Whether as the Angels according as some Divines teach vvhich stood after the fall of the rest had a confirming grace given them from God which now maketh them utterly uncapable of any rebellious conceit so also the saving graces of God's Spirit bring vvith them into the soul a necessary and certain preservation from final relapse For there be vvho violently maintain it and there be vvho vvith as great zele and more reason deny it To ask Whether we may totally and finally fall from the grace and favour of God is not so pertinent as it is necessary to hearken to the counsel of the Apostle and to take heed lest we fall to take heed lest we be cut off and to beware of those sins vvhich if vve commit vve cannot inherit the kingdom of God For vvhat vvill it avail if vve be to every good work reprobate to comfort our selves that vve are of the number of the elect What vvill it help us if by adultery and murther and pride
heaven We will therefore proceed to the next point the Meanes we must use to remain in this Law of liberty And 1. we must not forget what we hear 2. we must do the work We shall but lightly touch and paraphrase them and so draw towards a conclusion I. That vve may remain we must not be forgetful hearers For as it is true qui obscurè loquitur tacet he that speaketh darkly or as S. Paul speaketh in an unknown tongue is as if he were â—umb and silent so he that heareth and forgetteth is as if he were deaf Both fall short of that end for which Speech and Hearing were ordained This is to take up water in a sieve to let in and out nay to let in and loath and in this reciprocal intercourse of Hearing and Forgetting to spin out the thred of our life and at the end thereof to look for Blessedness which is due onely to the doing of the work This is to give the Law of Liberty no more space to breathe in then from the pulpit to our pew from the Preacher's mouth to our ear No If we vvill remain in it we must hear and not forget that is we must remember it bind it as a sign upon our hand and as frontlets between our eyes which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unmoveable write it on the posts of our doors Deut. 6.8 nay write it in our hearts and by continual meditation make it more visible more clear more appliable then before make that which written iâ— but a dead letter or spoken is but a sound of power and energy to quicken and enliven us make this Law as powerful as the voice of God when he teareth the rocks and breaketh the cedars of Libanus mighty through God to cast down imaginations and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of it self And this is to look upon it as the Priest did upon his Breast-plate upon the Urim and Thummim to direct vvhat to do and vvhat not to do when to go out against the enemy and vvhen to shun him when to encounter a temptation vvhen to flye from it Thus vve set it up in defence of it self set it up against that alluring Vanity which may steal away our Love against that Doubt that Suggestion vvhich may enfeeble our Hope against that Temptation vvhich may shake our Faith and so keep us in it keep us in all our vvayes that we forsake not our station This is to hear indeed Audire est aedificare saith Augustine To hear is to build up and settle our selves in this Law of Liberty Mens videt mens audit as Epicharmus said It is the Mind that seeth and the Mind that heareth Without it the Eye it self is blind and the Ear deaf of no use at all when they end in themselves II. We must not onely hear the Word and remember it but do the work by a religious Alchymy verba in opera vâ—rtere turn Words into Works that they may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words quickned and enlivened with action And this will make our soul like unto the Law signe and characterize it with it this will drive it home as a nail fastened by the Masters of the assemblies make it enter the soul and the spirit the joints and the marrow This is as the Philosopher speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to try and exercise the mind by frequent actions or as St. Paul to exercise our selves unto all godliness 1 Tim. 4.7 Et quantum valet exercitatio as Aeschylus cried out at a sword-â—â—ght O the force and power of practice and exercise The people are troubled and the wounded man is silent As Experience is a multiplication of particular remembrances so is a Habit which is a second Nature a body as it were made up of many actions Piety and Religion is increased and confirmed by use And as the painful Bee in opere nascitur is bred in the honey it maketh so is Goodness raised and exalted in the work that it doth Every good act is a degree to another Every portion of Grace is generative nourisheth it self and if it be not hindred begetteth a numerous issue Patience begetteth experience experience hope hope Rom. 5.4 confidence As it was said of Alexander Unaquaeque victoria instrumentum sequentis Every conquest he gained made way to a new one so every step we make in the way to happiness bringeth us not only so far in our way but enableth us with strength to go forward The further we go the more active we are He that denieth his Hunger will not hearken to his Lust He that is harsh to his appetite in one request will more easily put it off in a second He that strugleth with a temptation now will anon chase it away He that is liberal to the poor may in time sell all that he hath and at last lay down his life for the Gospel Some we see there be who for want of exercise and experience are shaken with every wind with every breath with shews and apparitions and are overthrown with a look either of allurement or terrour who know not what temptations mean and so suffer them to work and steal nearer upon them till they enter into their souls nay they are ready to tempt Temptation it self and greedily invite that to them which will destroy them Others there are who by frequent exercise and assiduous luctation and striving with themselves have gained such an habit of Piety and so subdued the Flesh to the Spirit that they find no such great difficulty in the combat but rejoyce as mighty men to run the race To them Musick is a sound and no more Gold but a clod of earth Beauty bur a vanishing colour They look upon shining temptations and are not taken upon the blackest temptations and are not dismayed but stand and remain in that Law of Liberty to which they were called free from the guilt of sin and so free from the dominion of sin that they slight its terrours and deny its flatteries defie and keep it out not only when it threatneth but when it fawneth and beggeth an entrance Such is the power of this spiritual Exercise such advantage we have by our continued obedience and doing the work The Hebrew Doctours have found out a double Crown Auditionis and Operis one for Hearing another for the Work I would not the Ear should lose its ornament yet sure Obedience and the Doing of the work have the especial promise of the crown It is S. Paul's doctrine Not the hearers of the Law are just before God Rom. 2.13 but the doers of the Law shall be justified For conclusion then Beloved let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and let us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 patiently remain in it Let us not give it a lodging in the hollow of the Ear for so it will not long stay with us but the next
to it For what man would profess himself a beast And from hence it cometh to pass that we see aliquid optimi in pessimis something that is good in the worst that we hear a Panegyrick of Virtue from a man of Belial that Truth is cried up by that mouth which is full of deceit that when we do evil we would not have it go under that name but are ready to maintain it as good that when we do an injury we call it a benefit No man is so evil that he desireth not to enroll his name in the list of those who are Good Temperance the drunkard singeth her praises Justice every hand is ready to set a crown upon her head Wisdom is the desire of the whole earth So you see these precepts are fitted to the soul and the soul to these precepts But secondly as this Law of Liberty is proportioned to the Soul so being looked in and persevered in it filleth it with light and joy giveth it a taste of the world to come For as Christ's yoke is easie but not till it is put on so his precepts are not delightful till they are kept Aristotle's Happiness in his books is but an Idea and Heaven it self is no more to us till we enjoy it The Law of Liberty in the letter may please the Understanding part which is alwayes well-affected and inclinable to that which is apparently true but till the Will which is the commanding faculty have set the feet and hands at liberty even that which we approve we distaste and that which we call honey is to us as bitter as gall Contemplation may delight us for a time and bring some content but the perversness of the Will breedeth that worm which will soon eat it up For it is a poor happiness to speak and think well of Happiness to see it as in picture quae non ampliùs quà m videtur delectat which delighteth no longer then it is seen as from a mount to behold that Canaan which we cannot enjoy A Thought hath not wing and strength enough to carry us to Blessedness But when the Will is subdued and made obedient to this Law then this Law of Liberty which is from the heaven heavenly filleth the soul with a joy of the same nature with a spiritual joy of which the joy in heaven is the complement and perfection with a joy which is not onely the pledge but the earnest of that which is to come When the Will is thus subact and framed and fashioned according to this Law according to this pattern which God hath drawn then it clotheth it self as it were with the light of Heaven which is the original of this joy Then what a pearl is Wisdom What glory is in Poverty What a triumph is it to deny our selves What an ornament is the Cross What brightness reflecteth from a cup of cold water given to a Prophet What do you see and feel then when you intercede with your Bounty and withstand the evil dayes and take from them some of their blackness and darkness when you sweeten the cup of bitterness the onely cup that is left to many of the Prophets when you supply their wants and stretch forth your hand to keep them from sinking to the dust when you do this to the Prophets in the name of Prophets Tell me doth it not return upon you again and convey into your souls that which cannot be bought with money or money-worth Are you not made fat and watered again with the water you poured forth Are you not ravished in spirit and lifted up in a manner into the third heaven I cannot see how it should be otherwise For that God which put it into your hearts to do it when your hearts have eased and emptied themselves by your hands is with you still and filleth them up with joy Every act of Charity payeth and crowneth it self and this Blessedness alwayes followeth the giver But hath the receiver no joy but in that which he receiveth Yes he may and ought or else he is not a worthy receiver It is indeed a more blessed thing to give then to receive and therefore there is more joy But the receiver hath his and his joy is set to his songs of praises to God and acknowledgments to man There is musick in Thanks and when I bless the hand that helped me I feel it again My praises my prayers my thanks are returned with advantage into my bosom The giver hath his joy and the receiver hath his It is a blessed thing to give and it is a most becoming and joyful thing to be thankful In quibus operamur in illis gaudemus saith Tertullian As the work is such is the joy A Work that hath its rise and original from heaven drawn out according to the royal Law which is the will of God begun and wrought in an immortal soul and promoted by the Spirit of God and ministery of Angels and breathing it self forth as myrrh and frankincense amongst the children of men And a Joy like unto it a true and solid joy having no carnality no inconstancy in it a beam from heaven kindled and cherished by the same Spirit a joy which receiveth no taint or diminution from sensible evils which to those who remain not in this Law are as hell it self and the onely hell they think of but giving a relish and sweetness to that which were not evil if we did not think it so making Poverty Disgrace and Death it self as fuel to foment and increase it upholding us in misery strengthening us in weakness and in the hour of death and in the day of judgment streaming forth into the ocean of eternal happiness BEATUS ERIT IN OPERE He that doth the work shall be blessed here in this life in his works and when he is dead his works shall follow him and compass him about as a triumphant robe Thus Blessedness first inviteth then attendeth and waiteth upon Perseverance in obedience and yet obedience ushereth it in illex misericordiae first the work of God's Grace and Mercy and then drawing it so near unto us as to bless us And it maketh the blessing ours not ex rigore justitiae according to the rigour of justice as I call that Mine which I buy with my money For no obedience can equal the reward And what can the obedience of a guilty person merit All is from Grace saith S. Paul And when the will of God is thus made manifest he deserveth nothing but a rebuke that disputeth longer of Merit Nor can I see how a guilty and condemned person can so much as give it entrance into his thought It did go once but for a work good or evil and no more If it be more in its best sense it is then more then it can be and so is nothing but ex debito promissi according to God's promise by which he hath as it were entailed Blessedness on those who look into the Law