we read Remember the fearful quarrel of Christ with Capernaum And thou Capernaum which art exalted to heaven Luk. 10.15 shalt be thrust downe to hell It is one of the works of the preaching of the Gospel I may call it one of the miracles of the power of our ministry Every mountain and hill shall be brought low Chrysost Elatos superbos nomine montis denunciat Luk. 3.5 he cals the proud by the name of a mountain the early and the later rain that falleth on them doth slip off and fall into the under vallies and the vallies as the Psalmist saith do abound with corne The power of the Word extendeth to the humiliation of many that are lifted up for it revealeth unto us Christ without whom we can do nothing without whom no man cometh to the Father And this leaves us nothing to lift us up I have spoken of this sin out of the former chapter where the Chaldeans proud of their victories do rejoyce and ascribe the glory thereof to themselves And from the mouth of an heathen man Artabanus the Uncle of King Xerxes I take it Herodit Polymnia gaudet Deus eminentissima quaeque deprimere his reason Quia Deus neminem alium quà m seipsum sinit magnifice de se sentire Yea sometimes we finde when God doth owe a man a shrewd turn he will lift him up himself that he may throw him downe as David complaineth Thou hast lifted me up and cast me downe But the lifting up here understood is the pride of heart which maketh men to esteem of themselves above all that is in them such are their own Parasites and the Wiseman saith there is more hope of a foole then one of these In this Argument I went so farre in the former chapter as to teach you two things 1. To decline this as a disease 2. To embrace the remedies against it 8. Reasons I gave against it to perswade declining of it 1. It trespasseth primum magnum mandatum legis the first and great Commandment of the Law c. 2. Connumerat nos filiis Sathanae patri fil superb 3. Exterminat charitatem voluntas Dominium exercet 4. Subjicit nos opposicioni divinae Deus resistit superbis 5. Tollit à nobis talentum dum nostra quaerimus 6. Male nos decet poore and proud 7. Nullum vitium Sathanae magis placet 8. Superbus ingratus and so omnia dixeris The remedies 1. Serious consideration of our selves 2. Studious searching in the word of God 3. Putting our selves often in the sight of God 4. Frequent casting up the favours of God to us 5. Earnest and devout prayer This is a slie and cunning insinuation of Satan to lift us up in our own opinion there is a tang of our hereditary corruption that runnes in the same channel with our blood we are all apt enough to value our selves above the lone price Few of the mind of Agur the son of Jakeh I am more brutish then any man Few of the mind of Saint Paul Of whom I am cheif It is a great victory that a man hath gotten of himself if he be once able to keep himself under for whether we do encrease in outward goods or spiritual graces we shall have much ado to avoid this sin 2. The censure Non est recta anima ejus This Physitian doth search the disease to the bottome he finds where the fault is the soule is naught the inward man is corrupt And if the light that is in us be darknesse how great is that darknesse It is the searcher of hearts and reines that findeth this fault who but he can examine and try the inward man We see what bodie what complexion what stature man hath we may see what honours he attaineth in the world how he encreaseth goods what delights a man useth for recreation we cannet see what souls men have rectas an obliquas But if we see and observe men proud and lifted up high in their own opinion we see there is cause of fear that they have not rectas animas right souls And though the judgment of our brethren belong not to us yet let us judge our selves by this for if we do finde in our selves an elevation above our pitch Doctr. that either the opinion of our wisdome and strength or riches or honours or friends do swell us it is a certain Symptome of a diseased soul 1. Because this lifting up doth dislodge God from the soul he will not dwell with a proud man he hath so declared himself Reas 1 For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the hight and holy place Isa 57.15 with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble to revive the spirit of the contrite ones Now as Augustine saith Vita corporis anima vita animae Deus If he say to our soul I have no delight in thee we may complain in pace mea amaritudo our soul is sick even to the death 2. Because this pride of life which lifteth us up Reas 2 is not able to keep us up for the elevation of our souls is like the violent casting up of an heavy body into the aire which will fall down againe with its own weight Jam. 1.14 it is a mans own lust that draweth and driveth and forceth him up And if Satan do put his help to it to lift us up he will be the first that will put hand to the casting of us down again When he had lifted up Christ to the pinnacle of the Temple the next temptation was Cast thy self down 3. Because this pride of life filleth the soul so full of it self that there is no roome for the spiritual graces of God to dwell there Reas 3 Christ lodged in a stable quia non erat locus in diversorio 4. Because as the eating of somethings doth put the mouth out of taste that it cannot relish wholesome food Reas 4 so the pleasing of the souls palate with the lushious sweetnesse of temporal vanities doth make the soul out of taste with the bread of life that wholesome dyet which should keep our souls in health Let us make profit of this Doctrine Vse 1. Let it be the main and cheif care and study and endevour of our whole life to get and keep animam rectam an upright soule To keep your accompts strait to keep your estate upright to keep your body in health by a regular observation thereof to keep your interest in the love of your freinds all those be lawful cares of life and this is an incumbent duty which obligeth and engageth all men but let not these cares swallow us up and devour our whole life These things perish in the very using of them The soul of every man that is the man if that be not kept upright What profit will it be to a man to winne all
exposition to shew to whom this judgment doth belong say Behold yee despisers and wonder and vanish away Acts 13.40 for behold yee amongst the heathen This is Gods own word He that despiseth me shall be dspised Yea as the Psalmist saith He poureth contempt upon Princes Two things that are most priviledged from contempt shall here suffer it 1. The Majesty of Kings 2. The strength of fortifications But when the supream Majesty of God is offended and despised these cannot escape both destruction and contempt This the generous nature of man doth more fear then any temporal evil let me ake and smart and lose all but let me not be despised When the Jews began after the captivity to build again the wals of the city they had strong opposition by their enemies Tobiah and Sanballat and others who laboured to hinder the building all they could But when they despised the Jews and scorned their work Nehemiah took it to heart and grew very earnest with God in complaint against them For Sanballat mocked the Jews and said before his brethren and the army of Samaria Nehem. 4.1 What do these weak Jews will they fortifie themselves will they sacrifice will they finish it in a day will they make the stones whole again out of the heaps of dust seeing they are burnt And Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and said although they build yet if a fox go up he shall even break down their strong wall This sends Nehemiah to God saying Hear O God we are despised and turn their shame upon their own head This heavy judgment shall God inflict upon the Jews The reason is Reason because this is the fittest punishment for their pride Now they shall see that so long as a People walketh humbly before God so long they live in glory and reputation but when God faileth them for their sinnes their enemies do prevail against them and cover them with disdain When God tryed Job with all kind of corporal and temporal calamities in the agony and smart of his passion he looketh back to the former mercies of God wherein I observe that he giveth the first place of his temporal happinesse to that respect that was given to him When I went out to the gate through the City Job 29.7 when I prepared my seat in the street The young men saw me Verse 8. and hid themselves and the aged arose and stood up The Princes refrained talking Verse 9. and laid their hand on their mouth The Nobles held their peace Vers 10. and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth When the eare heard me Vers 11. then it blessed me and when the eye saw me it gave witnesse to me But in the next chapter recounting the miseries which had come upon him he gives the first place to contempt But now they that are younger then I have me in derision Job 30.1 whose fathers I would have disdained to sit with the dogs of my flock They were children of fooles Verse 8. children of base men they were viler then the earth And now I am their song Verse 9. I am their by-word They abhor me Verse 10. and fly far from me and spare not to spit in my face Read on at leasure But thus did the Jewes abuse Christ Is not this the Carpenter And after they put on him a purple garment and put a Reed in his hand and crowned him with thornes and saluted him scornfully King of the Jews They spit on his face and even hanging on the Crosse of pain and shame they laughed him to scorn Some referre the non sicut to this especially Have ye no regard all ye that passe by the way consider and behold if ever there were sorrow like my sorrow which was done to me Lam. 1.12 For the grief of contempt must needs be the greatest humiliation because of the eminencie and excellencie of his person And for Christian Religion in the Primitive times of the Church the common evill opinion of it was that it was Heresie but the learned Grecians did call preaching foolishnesse ubi sapiens ubi scriba The way to avoid this contempt is humility Vse a vertue unknown to the moral wisemen of former ages it is the proper vertue of the Christian Discite à me quia mitis humilis This is the vertue and he the only teacher of it the best example of it the fullest reward of it You heard from Obadiah to Edom The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee Vers 3. The pride of life is the Queen of vices as you heard then it trespasseth the Majesty of God it turned Angels into devils and cast man out of Paradise Hugo Superbia mihi deum aufert Humility doth make us think reverently of God and charitably of our brethren and worst of our selves Saint Paul of whom I am chief Humility makes us think all the least favours of God too good for us and so joyneth contentednesse with godlinesse Contempt cannot smart upon the humble in respect of themselves but in respect of God who is despised in them study and pray to God for this grace this keeps peace in the Church and quietnesse in our common conversation for only of pride cometh contention Let me once say with Jacob I am not worthy of the least of thy mercies and we shall value the very crummes that fall from the childrens table the least of Gods favours will be sweet to us and God shall be praised for them And with such as be of a contrite and lowly spirit God will dwell God himselfe boweth the heavens and cometh down to such to visit them at que humiles habitare casas Behold I stand at the doore and knock Not at the door of the proud for their self-love keepeth him out The humble man is the Lords temple and he saith Here will I dwell for I have a delight therein I will satisfie their poore with bread the holy ones shall rejoyce and sing I tooke David from the sheepfolds there will I make the horne of David to flourish I have ordained a lanthorn for mine annointed Ver. 11. Then shall his mind change and he shall passe over and offend imputing this his power unto his god 3. WHat shall become of the Chaldaeans thus victorious 1. They shall change their mind 2. They shall passe over 3. They shall offend 4. Their fault 1. They shall change their mind The prosperous and victorious successe of the Chaldaean shall so infatuate the Chaldaean that he shall be transported with the pride thereof and God shall give end unto his violence God shall change his mind for their sakes whom he reserveth as his remnant amongst the Jews The rod of the wicked shall not rest on the lot of the righteous Doct. The wicked are the sword of the Lord he will not always chide nor strike but he will put up his sword in his sheath his arme in
soul hath no peace till it hath wrought a revenge upon it self and upon the body too in which it committed sin Davids Humiliavi animam meam and St. Pauls Castigo corpus meum Ps 35.13 1 Cor. 9.27 Isa 38.17 There must be afflictio and amaritudo animae we carry rods about us for the nonce even our own hearts will smite us as Davids did this brings God home to us again For I dwell with the humble and contrite and then salvation is come home to our house once again Isa 57.15 2. Impii autem non sic Not so with the wicked They sin against their souls because all the evils of their whole life are written in the book of Gods remembrance and foulded up in the rowle of their own conscience which shall be opened against them in the last day and they shall be judged according to all that is writen in those books and there shall be judgment without mercy to them that shewed no mercy Jam. 2.13 This doth not exclude temporall punishments for so shall they smart also they shall have no peace in this life for ever and anon as Job sa it their candle shall be put out and God shall distribute his sorrows amongst them They shall have many great shames many great fears many sad affronts of care and discontent though commedled with some faire weather good chear ease delights and such sweetnings as the flattery of the world and the favour of the times shall yeeld them Yet in the end all the evil that they have studyed and intended against others shall fall upon their own heads But still the worst is behind their souls and bodyes shall smart for it in the last day and the hand of God shall then pay home For them I take no care be it unto them as they have deserved and the Lord requite it at their hands and requite it upon them But for so many as follow righteonsnesse and fear God and would walk in his ways let us stirre up one another in the fear of God to seek the Lord whilst he may be found and to tender our souls The sins that we commit with such delight will cost us many an heart-breaking sigh many floods of salt water tears of bitternesse which are sanguis animae the blood of the soul hanging down of the head beating of the brest fasting from our full fare and stripping our bodies out of their soft raiment into sackcloth and changing our sweet powders into ashes There is no such disease incident to man as this Tremor cordis the trembling of the heart for sinne this Anima dolet the learning of the Physitian the art of the Apothecary have no receipt for it As Saint Paul saith of the law that is the strength of sinne so I may say that at first in the beginning of the cure the very remedy is the strength of the disease and makes the disease double the distresse thereof as in David 1. The Pophet came to heal him and he saith I said in my haste all men are lyars Prophets and all if they speak of any comfort to me Ps 116.21 2. God himself presented himself to his thought and that would not do I thought upon God and I was troubled my fear came and ceased not my soul refused comfort Yea there is such a sweetnesse in revenge that a penitent man doth take upon himself that he hath a kind of delight in his own self-punishment as in Jeremiahs example Look away from me Isa 22.4 I will weepe bitterly labour not to comfort me There is nothing that makes us sinne with so much appetite and so little feare as this we have banished Confession which bringeth shame upon us and penance which bringeth smart we have taken the matter into our own hands and no man hateth his own flesh Repentance is rather matter of discourse and contemplation then of practice and passion and so we sin and our souls are not much troubled at it But whosoever is toucht in conscience throughly with the remorse of sin will say there is no disease to a wounded Spirit and the costliest sacrifice that a man can offer to God is a contrite spirit and a broken heart 3. Punishment labour in vain Is it not of the Lord of Hosts that this People shall labour in the very fire and weary themselves with very vanity 1. Here is labour it is labor improbus that useth to carry all before it it is amplified For here is labour in the fire Multa tulit fecit que puer sudavit alsit labour even to wearines 2. Here is much ado about nothing For all this is for vanity very vanity 3. Who crosses them Is it not of the Lord of Hosts Annon ecce à Jehova exercituum Calv. Nonne ecce à cum Domino Interlin From the first here is labour This sinne is very painful Covetousnesse to gather wealth together Doct. and cruelty to destroy so many to strip them and ambition to purchase high place hereby we may truly say Hic labor hoc opus est Is it not strange the way to hell is all down the hill yet it is very uneasie and very weary travelling thither Christ calleth to him all that are weary and heavy laden Mat. 11.28 and promiseth to refresh them And God sheweth his People a rest saying This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest and this is the refreshing Isa 28.12 But this rest is not promised to them that weary themselves and work in the fire rising early and going late to bed to work shame for their own houses and to sin against their own souls such shall one day complain We have wearied our selves in the ways of wickednesse and destruction Wisdom 5 yea we have gone through deserts where there was no way but as for the way of the Lord we have not known it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a wicked man cometh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth labour for it is a great deal of labour that they take that live in pursuit of honour in the oppression and molestation of their brethren in the racking vexation of covetous congestions of wealth Cain vexeth himself Nimrod must be a mighty hunter before the Lord Lamech must kill a man the earth must be full of cruelty to have their own will this is labour in the very fire to do mischief The head of wickednesse must be always plotting and projecting they imagine wickednesse upon their bed it will not suffer them to sleep The hand of wickednesse must be always working The foot of Pride must be always climbing The eye of envy is ever waking Shall I give you a full description of the labour of the unrighteous Deut. 28.65 drawn to the life The Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee and thou shalt feare