thy self to God might recover you to Heaven O then what power and energy what force and strong efficacy would there be in this voice from God Why will you die I am resolved that heart that were truly sensible of it that were prepared seasonably by all these circumstances to receive it would find such inward vigor and spirit from it that it would strike death dead in that one minute this ultimus conatus this last spring and plunge would do more than a thousand heartless heaves in a lingring sickness and perhaps overcome and quit the danger And therefore let me beseech you to represent this condition to your selves and not any longer be flattered or couzened in a slow security To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts If you let it alone till this day come in earnest you may then perhaps heave in vain labour and struggle and not have breath enough to send up one sigh toward Heaven The hour of our death we are wont to call Tempus improbabilitatis a very improbable inch of time to build our Heaven in as after death is impossibilitatis a time wherein it is impossible to recover us from Hell If nothing were required to make us Saints but outward performances if true repentance were but to groan and Faith but to cry Lord Lord we could not promise our selves that at our last hour we should be sufficient for that perhaps a Lethargy may be our fate and then what life or spirits even for that perhaps a Fever may send us away raving in no case to name God but only in oaths and curses and then it were hideous to tell you what a Bethlehem we should be carried to But when that which must save us must be a work of the Soul and a gift of God how can we promise our selves that God will be so merciful whom we have till then contemned or our souls then capable of any holy impression having been so long frozen in sin and petrified even into Adamant Beloved as a man may come to such an estate of grace here that he may be most sure he shall not fall as St. Paul in likelihood was when he resolved that nothing could separate him So may a man be engaged so far in sin that there is no rescuing from the Devil There is an irreversible estate in evil as well as good and perhaps I may have arrived to that before my hour of death for I believe Pharaoh was come to it Exod. ix 34 after the seventh Plague hardning his heart and then I say it is possible that thou that hitherto hast gone on in habituate stupid customary rebellions mayst be now at this minute arrived to this pitch That if thou run on one pace farther thou art engaged for ever past recovery And therefore at this minute in the strength of your age and lusts this speech may be as seasonable as if death were seizing on you Why will you die At what time soever thou repentest God will have mercy but this may be the last instant wherein thou canst repent the next sin may benumb or fear thy heart that even the pangs of death shall come on thee insensibly that the rest of thy life shall be a sleep or lethargy and thou lie stupid in it till thou findest thy self awake in flames Oh if thou shouldst pass away in such a sleep Again I cannot tell you whether a death-bed repentance shall save you or no. The Spouse sought Christ on her bed but found him not Cant. iii. 1 The last of Ecclesiastes would make a man suspect that remembring God when our feeble impotent age comes on us would stand us in little stead Read it for it is a most learned powerful Chapter This I am sure of God hath chosen to himself a people zealous of good works Tit. ii 14 And they that find not some of this holy fire alive within them till their Souls are going out have little cause to think themselves of God's election So that perhaps there is something in it that Matth. iii. 8 the Exhortation Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance is exprest by a sense that ordinarily signifies time past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have brought forth fruits It will not be enough upon an exigence when there is no way but one with me to be inclinable to any good works to resolve to live well when I expect to die I must have done this and more too in my life if I expect any true comfort at my death There is not any point we err more familiarly in and easily than our spiritual condition what is likely to become of us after death Any slight phansie that Christ died for us in particular we take for a Faith that will be sure to save us Now there is no way to preserve our selves from this Error but to measure our Faith and Hopes by our Obedience that if we sincerely obey God then are we true believers And this cannot well be done by any that begins not till he is on his Death-bed be his inclinations to good then never so strong his faith in Christ never so lusty yet how knows he whether it is only fear of death and a conviction that in spight of his teeth he must now sin no longer that hath wrought these inclinations produced this faith in him Many a sick man resolves strongly to take the Physicians dose in hope that it will cure him yet when he comes to taste its bitterness will rather die than take it If he that on his Death-bed hath made his solemnest severest Vows should but recover to a possibility of enjoying those delights which now have given him over I much fear his fiercest resolutions would be soon out-dated Such inclinations that either hover in the Brain only or float on the Surface of the Heart are but like those wavering temporary thoughts Jam. i. 6 Like a wave of the Sea driven by the wind and tost they have no firmness or stable consistence in the Soul it will be hard to build Heaven on so slight a foundation All this I have said not to discourage any tender languishing Soul but by representing the horrors of death to you now in health to instruct you in the doctrine of Mortality betimes so to speed and hasten your Repentance Now as if to morrow would be too late as if there were but a small Isthmus or inch of ground between your present mirth and jollity and your everlasting earnest To gather up all on the Clue Christ is now offered to you as a Jesus The times and sins of your Heathenism and unbelief God winked at Acts xvii 30 The Spirit proclaims all this by the Word to your hearts and now God knows if ever again commands all men every where to repent Oh that there were such a Spirit in our hearts such a zeal to our eternal bliss and indignation at Hell that we would give one heave and
make up the Gospel-spirit Bonum ex essentiâ integra And what these branches are I cannot better direct you than by putting you in mind of these few severals First Christ's badg or cognizance By this shall all men know that you are my Disciples if you love one another Not if one opinion but of love Add Nunquam laeti sitis c. as Jews rend Garments at Blasphemy so we at Vncharitableness Secondly Christ's legacy Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you Thirdly Christ's copy Learn of me what 's beyond all his other perfections I am meek Fourthly The Nature of that Wisdom which cometh from above Jam. iii. First pure then peaceable Fifthly The quality of the fruits of the Spirit in St. Paul Gal. v. Love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness c. Sixthly The gallantry of meekness in St. Peter Ornament of a meek and quiet spirit Seventhly Titus's charge that all Christians are to be put in mind of Tit. iii. 1 To be subject to Principalities to obey Magistrates to be ready to every good work to speak evil of no man to be no brawlers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no fighters but gentle shewing all meekness to all men Things that it seems nothing but Christianity could infuse For we our selves were sometimes fools disobedient c. But after the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared then room for this Spirit I cannot give you a readier Landskip to present them all to your view together than that excellent Sermon of Christ upon the Mount that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom calls it That top-pitch of Divine Philosophy worthy to be imprinted in every mans heart and of which he that hath not been a pondering student and resolved to regulate his practice by it as much as his Faith by the Apostles Creed yea and to lay down his life a Martyr of that Doctrine though he hath all Faith I cannot promise my self much of his Christianity If you will have the Brachygraphy of that the Manual picture that may be sure either in words or sense never to depart from your bosom but remain your constant Phylactery or Preservative from the danger of all ungospel spirits then take the Beatitudes in the front of it And among them that I may if it be possible bring the whole Iliads into a Nutshel those that import immediately our duty towards men for in that the Gospel-spirit especially consists encreasing our love to Brethren whose flesh Christ now assumed and in whose interests he hath a most immediate concern And if you mark in the Chapter following all the improvements mentioned except only that of swearing belong to the commands of the Second Table And then the integral parts of this Gospel-spirit will be these four constantly Humility meekness mercifulness peaceableness and if need be suffering too Every of these four brought in to us with a checker or lay of duty towards God of mourning betwixt humility and meekness hungring and thirsting after Righteousness betwixt meekness and mercifulness purity of heart betwixt mercifulness and peaceableness and persecution and reproaches and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every Rabshakeh Topick of railing Rhetorick vomited out upon us Blessed persecution blessed reproaches when our holding to Christ is that which brings them all upon us the consummation and crown of all Having but named you these severals Humility meekness mercifulness peaceableness and if need be patience of all stripes both of hand and tongue the sparkling gems in this Jewel blessed ingredients in this Gospel-spirit you will certainly resolve it full time for me to descend to my second particular at first proposed That some Disciples there were some prime Professors do not know the kind of that spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You know not what kind of spirit you are of James and John it appears were such Disciples and that after they had been for some competent time followers and auditors of his Sermons so far an easier thing it is to leave their worldly condition and follow Christ than to leave their carnal prejudices and ignorances and obey him especially those that had such hold in their passions as revenge they say is the pleasingest piece of carnality in the heap cheaper to hear his Gospel-Sermons than to practise them And you will less wonder at these two when you see that St. Peter himself after a longer space of proficiency in that school even at the time of Christs attachment had not yet put off that ignorance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Fathers Peter was of an hot Constitution and Christs Doctrine had not yet got down deep enough into his heart to allay or cool him Nondum concipiens in se Evangelicam patientiam illam traditam sibi à Christo c. saith Origen that Gospel-patience and peaceableness that Christ had commended to him he had not it seems yet received into an honest heart so he makes no scruple to cut off Malchus's ear when he was provoked to it I have heard of a Fryar that could confess that Malchus signified a King and yet after made no scruple to acknowledg him in that notion to be the High-Priests Servant And secondly to justifie St. Peters act and avoid Christs reprehension by saying that he was chid not for doing so much but for doing no more not for cutting off his Ear but for not directing the blow better to the cutting off his Head And how far this Fryar's barbarous Divinity hath been justified of late by the Writings of some who will yet perswade us that Christ did not reprehend St. Peter for that act and by the actions of others I have little joy to represent unto you God knows I love not to widen breaches only I am sure the Fathers are clear that though formerly St. Peter were ignorant and from that ignorance and zeal together ran into that fury yet Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desirous to tune him to that sweet harmoniacal Gospel temper tells him he must not use the sword he having no Commission especially against those that have it though they use it never so ill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though it were to avenge even God himself And having given you these proofs of this ignorance in three Disciples I think 't is possible I might extend it to the rest of them that they were in this particular ignorant too as it seems they were in many other things till the Holy Ghost came according to promise to teach them all things and to bring to their remembrance to thaw their memories that the words of Christs like the voice in Plutarch that had been frozen might at length become audible or as Plato's Precepts were learned by his Scholars when they were young but never understood till they were Men of full age and tamer passions I say to bring to their remembrance whatsoever Christ had in Person said unto them And I wish to God it were
uncharitable to charge this ignorance still upon Disciples after so many solemn Embassies of the Holy Ghost unto us to teach us and remember us of this Duty Nay I wish that now after he hath varied the way of appearing after he hath sat upon us in somewhat a more direful shape not of a Dove but Vultur tearing even the flesh from us on purpose that when we have less of that carnal Principle left there might be some heed taken to this gospel-Gospel-Spirit there were yet some proficiency observable among us some heavings of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hath so long been a working in the World I am confident there were no such way of designing a prosperous flourishing durable Kingdom as to found its policy upon Gospel-Principles and maintain it by the Gospel-Spirit I have authority to think that was the meaning of that Prophecy of Christs turning swords into plough-shares not that he should actually bring peace he tells you that it would prove quite contrary but because the fabrick of the Gospel is such that would all men live by it all wars and disquiets would be banished out of the World It was a madness in Machiavel to think otherwise and yet the unhappiness of the World that Sir Thomas Moor's Book that designed it thus should be then called Vtopia and that title to this hour remain perfect Prophecy no place to be found where this Dove may rest her foot where this Gospel-Spirit can find reception No not among Disciples themselves those that profess to adventure their lives to set up Christs Kingdom in its purity none so void of this knowledg as they Whether we mean a speculative or practical knowledg of it few arrived to that height or vacancy of considering whether there be such a Spirit or no. Some so in love with nature that old Pelagian Idol resolve that sufficient to bring them to Heaven if they but allow their brethren what they can claim by that grand Character love of Friends those of the same perswasion those that have obliged them they have Natures leave and so are resolved to have Christs to hate pursue to death whom they can phansie their Enemies And I wish some were but thus of Agrippa's Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so near being Christians as nature it self would advance them that gratitude honour to Parents natural affection were not become malignant qualities disclaim'd as conscientiously as obedience and justice and honouring of betters Others again so devouted to Moses's Law the Old Testament Spirit that whatever they find practised there they have sufficient authority to transcribe And 't is observable that they which think themselves little concerned in Old Testament Duties which have a long time past for unregenerate morality that faith hath perfectly out-dated are yet zealous Assertors of the Old Testament Spirit all their pleas for the present resistance fetch'd from them yea and confest by some that this liberty was hidden by God in the first ages of the Christian Church but now revealed we cannot hear where yet but in the Old Testament and from thence a whole CIX Psalm full of Curses against God's Enemies and theirs and generally those pass for synonymous terms the special devotion they are exercised in and if ever they come within their reach no more mercy for them than for so many of the seven nations in rooting out of which a great part of their Religion consists I wish there were not another Prodigy also abroad under the name of the Old Testament Spirit the opinion of the necessity of Sacrifice real bloody Sacrifice even such as was but seldom heard of among Indians and Scythians themselves such Sacrifices of which the Canibal Cyclops Feasts may seem to have been but attendants furnished with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that come from such savage Altars sacrificing of Men of Christians of Protestants as good as any in the World to expiate for the blood shed by Papists in Queen Mary's days and some Prophets ready to avow that without such Sacrifice there is no remission no averting of judgments from the Land What is this but like the Pharisees To build and garnish the Sepulchres of the Prophets and say That if they had lived in their Fathers days they would never have partaken of the blood of the Prophets and yet go on to fill up the measure of their Fathers the very men to whom Christ directs thee O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest in the present tense a happy turn if but the Progeny of those Murtherers and what can then remain but the Behold your house is left unto you desolate irreversible destruction upon the Land A third sort there is again that have so confined the Gospel to Promises and a fourth so perswaded that the Vnum necessarium is to be of right perswasions in Religion i. e. of those that every such man is of for he that did not think his own the truest would sure be of them no longer that betwixt those two popular deceits that of the Fiduciary and this of the Solisidian the Gospel-spirit is not conceived to consist in doing any thing and so still those practical Graces Humility Meekness Mercifulness Peaceableness and Christian Patience are very handsomly superseded that one Moses's Rod called Faith is turned Serpent and hath devoured all these for rods of the Magicians and so still you see men sufficiently armed and fortified against the gospel-Gospel-spirit All that is now left us is not to exhort but weep in secret not to dispute but pray for it that God will at last give us eyes to discern this treasure put into our hands by Christ which would yet like a whole Navy and Fleet of Plate be able to recover the fortune and reputation of this bankrupt Island fix this floating Delos to restore this broken shipwrakt Vessel to harbour and safety this whole Kingdom to peace again Peace seasonable instant peace the only remedy on earth to keep this whole Land from being perfect Vastation perfect Africk of nothing but wild and Monster and the Gospel-spirit that Christ came to preach and exemplifie and plant among men the only way imaginable to restore that peace Lord that it might at length break forth among us the want of it is certainly the Authour of all the miseries we suffer under and that brings me to the third and last particular That this ignorance of the Gospel-spirit is apt to betray Christians to unsafe unjustifiable enterprizes You that would have fire from Heaven do it upon this one ignorance You know not c. It were too sad and too long a task to trace every of our evils home to the original every of the fiends amongst us to the mansion in the place of darkness peculiar to it If I should it would be found too true what Du Plesse is affirmed to have said to Languet as the reason why he would not write the story of the Civil
pray God to encrease his graces In matters of spiritual joy and sorrow I will if I can be counselled by an heart which once was broken that I may see how he recovered and repair my breaches by a pattern and yet even these things may be learnt from him which never had them but in his speculation as the Physician may cure a Disease though himself was never sick of it But for the ordinary Theories of Religion I will have patience to receive instructions from any one and not examine his practices but in modesty and in submission and humility receive the Law at his mouth But all this with caution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to a guide not a Monarch of my Faith rule he shall my belief but not tyrannize over it I will assent to my teacher till I can disprove him but adhere and anchor and fix my self on the Scripture 7. In matters of superstruction where Scripture lays the foundation but interpreters i. e. private spirits build upon it some gold some stubble c. and I cannot judge or discern which is firmliest rooted on the foundation I will take the Philosophers Counsel in the first of his Rhetor. and observe either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be guided either by the ancientest if they have shewed themselves in the cause or else men alive which be best reputed of for integrity and judgment I shall scarce trust the honestest man you can commend to me unless I have some knowledge of his parts nor the learned'st you can cry up unless I can believe somewhat in his sincerity 8. All the contradictions and new ways of my own brain opposite or wide from the current of the learned I must suspect for a work of my own phansie not entitle them to Gods spirit in me Verebar omnia opera mea saith Job whatever a man can call his own he must be very cautious and jealous over it For 't is no less than atheism which the scorners of the last age are to fall upon by walking after their own lusts 2 Pet. iii. 3 And thus was the Pharisees practice here who makes use of his own authority to deny Christ 't was the Pharisees that said Have any of the Pharisees believed on him There is not a more dangerous Mother of Heresies in the midst of Piety than this one that our phansy first assures us that we have the spirit and then that every phansie of ours is Theopneust the work of the spirit There are a multitude of deceits got altogether here 1. We make every idle perswasion of our own the evidence of Gods Spirit then we join infallibility to the person being confident of the gift then we make every breath of our Nostrils and flame that can break out of our hearts an immediate effect of the spirit and fire which hath spiritually enlivened us and then we are sure it is authentical and all this while we never examine either the ground or deductions from it but take all upon trust from that everlasting deceiver our own heart which we ought to sit upon and judge of by proofs and witnesses by comparing it with other mens dictates probably as godly perhaps more learned but certainly more impartial Judges of thee than thou canst be of thy self Lastly If the word of God speak distinctly and clearly enforce as here by miracles done before all men to their astonishment and redargution then will I not stay my belief to wait on or follow the learnedst man in the world when Christ himself speaks to my Eyes the proudest eminentest Pharisee in Earth or Hell nay if any of their Sect have crowded into Heaven shall not be able to charm my Ear or lay any clog upon my understanding So that you see the Pharisees argument in that case was sophistical the matter being so plain to them that they needed no advice His works bore witness of him John v. 36 yet in the general it holds probable and learning remains a good guide still though an ill Master in matters of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first thing we undertook to demonstrate And this we should draw down yet lower to our practice and that variously but that almost every Proposition insisted on hath in part spoken to your affections and so prevented store of uses This only must not be omitted For Scholars to learn to set a value on their precious blessing which God hath vouchsafed them above all the World beside to bless God infinitely that they understand and conceive what they are commanded to believe this I am sure of there is not a greater and more blessed priviledge besides Gods spirit which our humane condition is capable of than this of learning and specially divine knowledge of which Aristotle himself witnesseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 none i◠better than it As long as we have no evidence or demonstration from that which yet it most nearly concerns us to rely upon we cannot enjoy without an immediate supernatural irradiation a tranquillity and consistency of spirit we cannot peremptorily have resolved our selves that we have built upon the rock every temptation proves a discouragement to us many horrours take hold of us and sometimes we must needs fall to that low ebb not far from despair which the Apostles were in Luke xxiv 22 We had trusted but now we know not what to think of it that this was he that should have redeemed Israel But to see all the Articles of my Faith ratified and confirmed to my understanding to see the greatest treasure and inheritance in the World sealed and delivered to me in my hand written in a Character and Language that I am perfectly skilled in O what a comfort is this to a Christian Soul O what a fulness of joy to have all the mysteries of my Salvation transcribed out of the Book of the Lord and written in my heart where I can turn and survey and make use of them as much and as often as I will Nay where I have them without Book though there were neither Father nor Bible in the World able out of my own stock to give an account nay a reason of my faith before the perversest Papist Heathen or Devil This serves me instead of having lived and conversed and been acquainted with Christ By this I have my fingers put into the print of the nails and my hands thrust into his side and am as sure as ever Thomas was I see him as palpably as he that handled him that he is my Lord and my God 'T was observed by the Philosopher as an act generally practised among Tyrants to prohibit all Schools and means of learning and education in the Commonwealth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to suffer neither learning nor Schools nor common meetings that men being kept blind might be sure to obey and tyrannical commands through ignorance be mistaken for fair Government And thus did Julian interdict the Christians all manner
it self which never stays till it be united Thus do you see from whence this principle comes to me and in what manner from Gods spirit by this means uniting me to himself To the second question where it lodges my answer is in the heart of man in the whole soul not in the understanding not in the will a distinction of faculties invented by Philosophers to puzzle and perplex Divines and put them to needless shifts but I say in the whole Soul ruling and guiding it in all its actions enabling it to understand and will spiritually conceived I say and born in the Soul but nursed and fed and encreased into a perfect stature by the outward Organs and actions of the body for by them it begins to express and shew it self in the World by them the habit is exerted and made perfect the Seed shot up into an Ear the Spring improved to Autumn when the tongue discourses the hands act the feet run the way of Gods commandments So I say the Soul is the Mother and the operations of Soul and Body the Nurse of this Spirit in us and then who can hold in his spirit without stifling from breaking out into that joyful acclamation Blessed is the womb that bears this incarnate spirit and the paps that give him suck Now this inward principle this grace of regeneration though it be seated in the whole Soul as it is an habit yet as it is an operative habit producing or rather enabling the man to produce several gracious works so it is peculiarly in every part and accordingly receives divers names according to several exercises of its power in those several parts As the Soul of man sees in the Eye hears in the Ear understands in the Brain chooses and desires in the heart and being but one Soul yet works in every room every shop of the Body in a several trade as it were and is accordingly called a seeing a hearing a willing or understanding Soul thus doth the habit of grace seated in the whole express and evidence it self peculiarly in every act of it and is called by as several names as the reasonable Soul hath distinct acts or objects In the understanding 't is first spiritual wisdom and discretion in holy things opposite to which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. i. 28 an unapproving as well as unapproved or reprobate mind and frequently in Scripture spiritual blindness Then as a branch of this it is belief or assent to the truth of the promises and the like In the practical judgment 't is spiritual prudence in ordering all our holy knowledge to holy practice In the will 't is a regular choice of whatsoever may prove available to Salvation a holy love of the end and embracing of the means with courage and zeal Lastly in the outward man 't is an ordering of all our actions to a blessed conformity with a sanctified Soul In brief 't is one principle within us doth every thing that is holy believes repents hopes loves obeys and what not And consequently is effectually in every part of Body and Soul sanctifying it to work spiritually as an holy instrument of a divine invisible cause that is the Holy Ghost that is in us and throughout us For the third question when this new principle enters first you are to know that comes into the heart in a threefold condition first as an harbinger secondly as a private secret guest thirdly as an inhabitant or Housekeeper As 't is an harbinger so it comes to fit and prepare us for it self trims up and sweeps and sweetens the Soul that it may be readier to entertain him when he comes to reside and that he doth as the ancient gladiators had their arma praelusoria by skirmishing with our corruptions before he comes to give them a Pitch-Battel he brandishes a flaming Sword about our Ears and as by a flash of lightning gives us a sense of a dismal hideous state and so somewhat restrains us from excess and fury first by a momentany remorse then by a more lasting yet not purifying flame the Spirit of bondage In summ every check of Conscience every sigh for sin every fear of judgment every desire of grace every motion or inclination toward spiritual good be it never so short-winded is praeludium spiritus a kind of John Baptist to Christ something that God sent before to prepare the wayes of the Lord. And thus the spirit comes very often in every affliction every disease which is part of Gods Discipline to keep us in some order in brief at every Sermon that works upon us at the hearing then I say the lightning flashes in our Eyes we have a glimpse of his spirit but cannot come to a full sight of it and thus he appears to many whom he will never dwell with Unhappy men that they cannot lay hold on him when he comes so near them and yet somewhat more happy than they that never came within ken of him stopt their Ears when he spake to them even at this distance Every man in the Christian Church hath frequently in his life a power to partake of Gods ordinary preparing graces and 't is some degree of obedience though no work of regeneration to make good use of them and if he without the Inhabitance of the spirit cannot make such use as he should yet to make the best he can and thus I say the spirit appears to the unregenerate almost every day of our lives 2. When this spirit comes a guest to lodge with us then is he said to enter but till by actions and frequent obliging works he makes himself known to his Neighbours as long as he keeps his Chamber till he declare himself to be there so long he remains a private secret guest and that 's called the introduction of the form that makes a man to be truly regenerate when the Seed is sown in his heart when the habit is infused and that is done sometimes discernibly sometimes not discernibly but seldom as when Saul was called in the midst of his madness Acts ix he was certainly able to tell a man the very minute of his Change of his being made a new Creature Thus they which have long lived in an enormous Antichristian course do many times find themselves strucken on a sudden and are able to date their regeneration and tell you punctually how old they are in the spirit Yet because there be many preparations to this spirit which are not this spirit many presumptions in our hearts false-grounded many tremblings and jealousies in those that have it great affinity between Faith natural and spiritual seeing 't is a spirit that thus enters and not as it did light on the Disciples in a bodily shape 't is not an easy matter for any one to define the time of his conversion Some may guess somewhat nearer than others as remembring a sensible change in themselves but in a word the surest discerning of it
is in its working not at its entring I may know that now I have the spirit better than at what time I came to it Vndiscernibly Gods supernatural agency interposes sometimes in the Mothers Womb as in John Baptist springing in Elizabeth at Maryes salutation Luke i. 41 and perhaps in Jeremy Jer. i. 5 Before thou camest out of the womb I sanctifyed thee and in Isaiah Isa xlix 5 The Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant But this divine address attends most ordinarily till the time of our Baptism when the spirit accompanying the outward sign infuses it self into their hearts and there seats and plants it self and grows up with the reasonable Soul keeping even their most luxuriant years within bounds and as they come to an use of their reason to a more and more multiplying this habit of grace into holy spiritual acts of Faith and Obedience from which 't is ordinarily said that Infants baptized have habitual Faith as they may be also said to have habitual repentance and the habits of all other graces because they have the root and seed of those beauteous healthful Flowers which will actually flourish then when they come to years And this I say is so frequent to be performed at Baptism that ordinarily 't is not wrought without that means and in those means we may expect it as our Church doth in our Liturgy where she presumes at every Baptism that it hath pleased God to regenerate the infant by his holy Spirit And this may prove a solemn piece of comfort to some who suspect their state more than they need and think 't is impossible that they should be in a regenerate condition because they have not as yet found any such notable change in themselves as they see and observe in others These men may as well be jealous they are not men because they cannot remember when their Soul came to them if they can find the effects of spiritual life in themselves let them call it what they will a religious Education or a custom of well doing or an unacquaintedness with sin let them comfort themselves in their estate and be thankful to God who visited them thus betimes let it never trouble them that they were not once as bad as other men but rather acknowledge Gods mercy who hath prevented such a change and by uniting them to him in the Cradle hath educated and nursed them up in familiarity with the Spirit Lastly The spirit sometimes enters into our hearts upon occasional emergencies the sense of Gods judgments on our selves or others the reflexion on his mercies the reading good books falling into virtuous acquaintance but most eminently at and with the preaching of the Word and this by degrees as it seems to us but indeed at some one especial season or other which yet perhaps we are not able to discern and here indeed are we ordinarily to expect this guest if we have not yet found him here doth it love to be cherished and refreshed and warm'd within us if we have it for even it is the power of God unto salvation Rom. i. 16 The third condition in which this spirit comes into our hearts is as an inhabitant or House-Keeper The spirit saith Austin first is in us then dwells in us before it dwells it helps us to believe when it dwells it helps and perfects and improves our faith and accomplishes it with all other concomitant graces So I say here the Spirit is then said to inhabit and keep House in us not as soon as it is entertained and received but when it breaks forth into acts and declares it self before all men When men see our good works and glorify our Father Matth. v. 16 Before we were said to live in the spirit now to walk as you shall see the phrases used distinctly Gal. v. 25 To walk that is to go about conspicuously in the sight of all men breaking forth into works as the Sun after the dispersions of a mist or Cloud whereby all men see and acknowledge his Faith and Obedience and find their own evil ways reprehended and made manifest by his good as is noted in 13. verse All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light Semblable to which is that of the Atheists repining at the godly man Wisd ii 14 He is made to reprove our thoughts Thus is the third Quaere resolved also when this inward principle enters 1. It comes as an Harbenger in every outward restraint by which God keeps us from sinning 2. It enters as a guest in some season or other once for all In the Womb at Baptism at some Sermon sometimes at a notable tempest shaking and stirring us violently ordinarily and for the most part not to be discerned by us and lastly it comes and dwells with us and shews it self in its works yet that not at any set time after his Entrance not constantly without ever covering his Face but when and as often as it pleases and the flesh resisteth not To the last Quaere What works it performs the answer shall be brief every thing that may be called spiritual Faith Repentance Charity Hope Self-denial and the rest but these not promiscuously or in an heap altogether but by a wise dispensation in time and by degrees The Soul being enabled by this inward principle is equally disposed to the producing of all these and as occasions do occur doth actually perform and produce them so that in my conceit that question concerning the priority of Repentance or Faith is not either of such moment or difficulty as is by some Disputers pretended The Seeds of them both are at one time planted in the Soul and then there is no Faith in any Subject but there is Repentance also nor Repentance without Faith So that where it is said Without Faith 't is impossible to please God in any thing else 't is true but argues no necessary precedence of it before other graces for the habits of them all are of the same age in us and then also will it be as true that without Repentance or without Love Faith it self cannot please God for if it be truly acceptable â—aith there is both Repentance and Love in the same Womb to keep it Company Thus are we wont to say that only Faith justifieth but not Faith alone and the reason these promises in Scripture are made sometimes to one grace precisely sometimes to another is because they are all at once rooted in the man and in their habits chain'd together inseparably Faith saves every man that hath it and yet the believing'st man under Heaven shall not be saved without Charity Charity hides a multitude of sins and yet the charitablest man in the World shall never have his score cross't without Repentance A Catalogue of these fruits of the spirit you may at your leisure make up to your selves for your tryal out of the fifth to the Gal.
do what the words signify Cassian hath said over the same thing more largely and earnestly That we injoy this treasure it is necessary that we say the Psalms with the same spirit with which they were composed and accommodate them unto our selves in the same manner as if every one of us had composed them or as if the Psalmist had directed them purposely for our uses not satisfying our selves that they had their whole completion in or by the Prophet but discerning every of us our own parts still to be performed and acted over in the Psalmists words by exciting in our selves the same affections which we discern to have been in David or in others at that time loving when he loves fearing when he fears hoping when he hopes praising God when he praises weeping for our own or others sins when he weeps begging what we want with the like spirit wherein his petitions are framed loving our enemies when he shews love to his praying for ours when he prays for his having zeal for the glory of God when the Psalmist professes it humbling our selves when he is humbled lifting up our spirit to heaven when he lifts up his giving thanks for Gods Mercies when he doth delighting and rejoycing in the beauty of the Messias and of the Church his Spouse when he is delighted and rejoyceth when he relates the wonderful works of God in the Creation of the World bringing his People out of Aegypt c. admiring and glorifying God as he stands amazed and glorifies him and when he mentions the Punishments inflicted on rebellious sinners and Rewards and Favours bestowed on the obedient we likewise are to tremble when he trembles and exult when he exults and walk in the Court of Heaven the Sanctuary as he walks and wish to dwell in it as he wishes Finally where he as a Master teacheth exhorts reprehends and directs the just man each of us must suppose him speaking to him and answer him in such due manner as the instruction of such a Master exacts And that we may in some measure performe this vital substantial part of our task Let us saith he at the beginning of the Psalm beg of God that light and affection and gust and savour with which David was affected when he made it and that with the affection and desire of obteining what he felt 31. And if it be here objected First that there be many things in these Psalms which are not agreeable to every mans condition and so cannot at all times be attended with the spirit of the reciter as the Eucharistical Psalms are not proper for him that is in distress c. Secondly that there are many which have no propriety to the spirit of any Christian as those which are spent in calling down vengeance on Gods and the Psalmists enemies Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul Psal 35.4 Let them be as chaffe before the wind and let the Angel of the Lord chase them v. 5. Let destruction come upon them at unawares v. 8. and especially Psal 109. allmost throughout the answer will not be difficult To the first 1. that the very objection is a grant that the Psalms contein devotions proper to the most distant conditions of all men and then that which is no way agreeable to my present circumstances being yet most agreeable and accommodate to several other men this is but a summons to my charity to swell above its own banks and diffuse it self to the refreshing and supplying of others wants and so this not any defect but an advantage in the Psalms which will never be complained of by those which begin their Forms as our Saviour directed addressing them to the common Father and Redeemer of all men and desire not to inclose benedictions but take all others into a principal part of their care and so can pray most zealously for any thing that any other Christian stand in needs of And yet 2. it will be hard to mention any thing which was ever fit for the Psalmist to say which will not have some propriety to every of us in whatsoever condition 'T is certain as to the particular instance that he that is in the greatest distress hath yet various matter for and obligations to Thanksgivings when his very distress which seems to set him at the greatest distance from it is the most peculiar ingagement to it God's taking all away bringing to the boiles and dunghill from the ease and splendor of the Palace is Job's summons to blessing the name of the Lord as well as the memory of his greatest donatives and the Psalmist oft assures us of the goodness and most valuable benefits of afflictions and consequently teaches us the duty of blessing and magnifying our benefactor for the mercy of those wholsome be they never so bitter ingredients And the same will be found appliable to all other affections of the Psalmist which will seldome miss to meet seasonable matter to work on in any mans breast which wants not devotion to discern and bring it home to him 32. To the second Objection I shall not need accommodate any other answer than the Reader will find allready given in the Margin and Paraphrase and Annotation on Psal 35.4 and other the like that the Hebrew is as capable of the Future as the Imperatiue mood and sense and so the Translation in all reason to be changed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not let them be confounded and put to shame but they shall blush and be ashamed they shall be turned back 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall be as chaffe before the wind and the Angel of the Lord shall chase them Their way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be dark and slippery and the Angel of the Lord shall persecute them Destruction shall come upon him unawares and his net that he hath hid shall catch himself into that very destruction shall he fall That David who was a Prophet inspired by God with knowledge of future events should thus rather predict and denounce Gods just judgments on obstinate sinners and that out of designs purely charitative by denouncing to work repentance that repentance might frustrate and cancel the denunciation is much more reasonable for us to resolve than that in the spirit when possibly without the power of Elias he should so frequently call for thunder from heaven either upon his own or Gods enemies And in many places particularly that of Psal 109. 't is reasonable to resolve that it is Christ himself that speaketh in the Prophet as being the person there principally concerned and the completion most signal in many circumstances there mentioned the succession especially of Matthias in his Apostolical and Episcopal office And then there remains no more question or difficulty how these and the like passages are to be accommodated to the Christians affection and spirit than how the plain denunciations of the Gospel are to be entertained by it
those that are in the greatest distresses be thou gratiously pleased to look upon me to be atoned and reconciled toward me 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin Paraphrase 2. O let not any the least of these crimes that I have been guilty of in this matter be permitted to appear in thy sight or rise up in judgment against me but seal me thy perfect pardon for every one of them 3. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me Paraphrase 3. For I do most willingly confess that I have committed in the compassing of one carnal pleasure many horrid and odious sins These are a perpetual terror to my conscience an amazing prospect continually outfacing and tormenting me 4. Against thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest Paraphrase 4. And though the dignity and office wherein thou hast placed me over thy people leave me not liable to any humane process or judicature among men yet am I most sadly culpable and liable to vengeance from thee the pure God of heaven the transcendent Ruler over all the Kings of the earth Thou mayest most justly proceed against me as against the most criminous rebel indite me and arraign me of adultery drunkenness and murther also and whatever suit thou wagest against me thou art sure to cast me whatsoever vengeance thou exactest to be inflicted on me I must most deservedly and inevitably fall under it 5. Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me 6. Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom Paraphrase 5 6. Lord I am a most polluted creature the corruption of my nature the bare inclinations of my will to any unlawful object ought in any reason to be strictly watched and industriously rejected by me and thy grace continually sollicited to inable me to overcome them and not in the least degree favoured or indulged or yielded to when I so well know that thou requirest purity of the heart and affections and forbiddest the very first thoughts of any unlawful injoyment and beside this revelation of thy will that I should thus keep my self pure art pleased to grant me thy grace to make me inwardly sensible of this part of my duty and this is a great inhauncing of my sin committed against all these obligations 7. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow Paraphrase 7. Lord be thou pleased to absolve me and solemnly to declare and seal to me thy reconciliation after the same manner as the priest is wont to do when upon the unclean thing he sprinkles water mixed with the ashes of an heifer and of cedar wood and of hyssop and of scarlet Lev. 14.6 7. Num. 19.6 the solemn ceremony for the purification of sin v. 9. and whereby the blood of the lamb of God the death of the Messias was praefigured and then I shall again be restored to that blessed state from which I have so sadly fallen by my outragious miscarriages 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Paraphrase 8. I am in a most sad and wretched condition thy just displeasure and wrath for my sins as long as it continues over me is the setting my soul upon the torture my own conscience being the executioner under thee O be thou pacified and reconciled toward me and it shall be the joyfullest news that ever came to any poor tortured suppliants ears when he is taken off from the rack and all his bones set and restored to ease again 9. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities Paraphrase 9. Lord pardon my sins and return to thy wonted favour toward me 10. Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me Paraphrase 10. I have sadly fallen from my wonted purity and sincerity Lord by the good work of thy grace upon my heart restore me to it again and renew me inwardly and throughly my very thoughts as well as my actions that I never fall into the least beginning of any such pollution again 11. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me Paraphrase 11. Lord it is just with thee to reject me from all spiritual commerce and communication with thee who have resisted thy spirit and wasted my soul by so many wilful commissions against thee just that thou shouldest withdraw thy grace to which I have done such despite O do not thou thus severely punish me by withdrawing that which now more than ever I stand in need of 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit Paraphrase 12. Without thy help and aids I am utterly unable to get out of this broken condition the free and voluntary assistances of thy spirit are so perfectly necessary to me that I can never think a good thought make the least attempt toward recovering the purity from whence I am fallen without them O be thou pleased to restore them to me and thereby to support and establish me 13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee Paraphrase 13. And this thy exceeding mercy to a sinner so sadly laps'd may be a means to bring wicked livers home to repentance I shall be able to incourage them to return by proclaiming mine own success who have fallen as sadly as any of them can have done And being thus incouraged by my example and experience many I doubt not by the assistance of thy grace shall be brought home to thy service and the practice of the duties of new life 14. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness O God thou God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness Paraphrase 14. Oh that sin of murther is an horrid and crying sin of a black and deep dy and though mine own hands have not been polluted with it yet my conscience assures me the guilt of the murther of Uriah lies on me who projected and contrived it by others O thou blessed Lord from whom all my deliverance must come be thou pleased to deliver me from this one as from those other foul Commissions and it will be most joyful news to me and with the greatest exultation of heart shall I proclaim thy abundant mercies to me 15. O Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Paraphrase 15. This work of grace from thee shall set my lips wide open in praising and magnifying thee 16. For thou desirest not sacrifice else would I give it thou delightest not in burnt-offerings Paraphrase 16. 'T is not any the richest hecatombe or most chargable oblation for my sin that thou expectest
that humane nature wherein he thus served his Father to be administred for ever Annotations on Psal CX V. 1. My Lord That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to my Lord here denotes the Messiah will appear not only by our Saviour and his Apostles who insist on this Psalm above any Text in the Old Testament as the late Jews and some others who are willing to be lookt on as very good Christians are most industrious to evade it but even by the testimonies of the ancient Jews themselves the evidence of truth breaking forth in despite of the most partial and resolved interest Moses Haddarsan on Gen. 37.12 saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Redeemer whom I will raise up from among you shall not have a father according to that of Zach. 6.12 behold the man whose name is the branch and Isa 53. he shall come up c. So also David saith of him Psal 110.3 out of the womb c. lastly the Scripture saith of him This day have I begotten thee Psal 2. So on Gen. 18. Hereafter God holy and blessed shall set the King Messias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on his right hand as 't is written Psal 110. The Lord said c. And to the same purpose again on Gen. 14.18 So Midrash Tehillim on occasion of these words I will declare the Law c. Psal 2. saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the affairs of the Messiah are set forth in the scripture of the Law of the Prophets and of the Hagiographa In the Law Exod. 4.22 In the Prophets Isa 52.13 and 42.1 In the Hagiographa Psal 110. The Lord said and the dew of thy birth c. So again Midr. Tehil on Psal 18.35 thy right hand shall uphold me saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. R. Joden said that in the age of the Messiah the blessed God will set the King Messiah at his right hand as it is written The Lord said to my Lord. R. Saad Gaon on Dan. 7.13 he came with the clouds of heaven saith And this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Messiah our righteousness as 't is written The Lord said c. So thâ— â—erusalem Talmud tract Berachoth c. 5. saith this verse the dew of thy birth c. is to be explained by Mich. 5.7 V. 3. Thy power For the explicating this very obscure verse the first thing to be taken notice of is the importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power or strength as that signifies an army or military forces as we call them The Messias in the former verses is set upon his throne for the exercise of his regal power with a sword or scepter in his hand and as such he is supposed to rule in the world to go out to conquer and subdue all before him The army which he makes use of to this end is the college of Apostles sent out to preach to all nations and the time of their thus preaching is here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the day of his power or forces or army 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the day that he shall wage war or joyn battel saith the Chaldee In which day saith the Psalmist the people that belong to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy people those that are at all affected to piety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit for the Kingdom of God Luk. 9.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disposed arrayed ordered on file for the kingdom of heaven Act. 13. 48. all that are any way listed among God's souldiers all these shall become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. repeating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 again a people of voluntary oblations so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies liberal voluntary spontaneous oblation or contribution to the service of God such as shall willingly offer up and consecrate themselves and all that they have to God's service forsake all and follow Christ bring their estates and lay them at the Apostles feet as we know the believers did Act. 2. an essay of the great charity and liberality which the faith of Christ brought into the world This they shall do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the beauties of holiness or of the Sanctuary i. e. I suppose mystically in the Christian Church beautified with all those graces which the spirit of Christ works in the hearts of believers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 King 7.18 signifies the Ark of the Covenant or Sanctuary and from thence the place in the Temple where the Ark was placed was called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy of holies and so I suppose the LXXII understood it here when they rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of thy holies for so the plural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every where signifies the Sanctuary and the beauties of the Sanctuary are literally the ornaments of the Priests and Levites their Urim and Thummim which they have on when they carry the Ark see note on Psal 29. b. But mystically these are the graces of Christ the inward beauty or glory which shines in the Christian Sanctuary or Church which is as it were the arena or place where these forces of God are mustered Or perhaps in the beauties of holiness as that signifies no more than God's sacred Majesty in whose service they are listed and on whose expedition ingaged according to Castellio's reading quo die expeditionem sacrâ oâ—m majestate facies in the day when thou shalt with thy sacred majesty make thine expedition Another sense the words may be capable of which the comparing the mention of Sion v. 2. and beauty of holiness here suggesteth by taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power or host or army in the sense that frequently belongs to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies an host in scripture viz. the attendance on the Sanctuary the Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 warring his warfare i. e. officiating And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will simply import free-will offerings and the sense run thus Thy people will be a free-will offering in the day of thy Assemblies in the Sanctuary shall offer in stead of any thing else themselves lively sacrifices holy and acceptable And this if accepted need not be deemed to exclude the other rendring but the priestly and kingly offices of Christ being both here set down in this Psalm the words as is frequent in these compositions may have been purposely contrived to fit both Then follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may perhaps be thus most literally rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy children or progeny so the Chaldee must understand it when they joyn it with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to thee i. e. shall be to thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the womb of the morning i. e. according to the proportion of the dew which the morning brings forth as it were out of its womb in such plenty as to cover the face of the
us for ever for it 28. My soul melteth away for heaviness strengthen thou me according to thy word Paraphrase 28. My sorrow and vehement contrition exprest by the tears of my very soul qualifies me for that comfort and raising up which thou hast promised to all truly humbled sinners 29. Remove from me the way of lying and grant me thy law graciously Paraphrase 29. And then I may be a meet suiter for thy grace to mortifie every wicked desire in me every false apostatizing or hypocritical affection and to inliven me to a pious vertuous life exactly regulated by thy will and word the richest donative that can be bestowed upon me 30. I have chosen the way of truth thy judgments have I laid before me Paraphrase 30. This of obedience and fidelity and sincere adherence to thee is to me far more eligible and desirable than the contrary v. 29. I have therefore proposed to my self thy Law as the rule of my life and stedfastly resolved to direct all my actions by it 31. I have stuck unto thy testimonies O Lord put me not to shame Paraphrase 31. And having done so if I adhere and constantly cleave unto them persevere as I have resolved I am sure I shall never be disappointed of my expectations I shall never miss of the comforts of this life or the joys of a better 32. I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt inlarge my heart Paraphrase 32. This is matter of infinite delight and pleasure to me and a special act of thy gracious dealing with us men to bind up our present joys in our practice of vertue to make us at once pious and happy This shall certainly ingage me to all the speed and diligence of a most alacrious obedience HE. 33. Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes and I shall keep it unto the end Paraphrase 33. O blessed Lord God let thy holy spirit direct and guide me in performing an acceptable obedience to thee and I shall by all laws of justice and gratitude be ingaged to continue the course with all possible care and diligence 34. Give me understanding and I shall keep thy Law yea I shall observe it with my whole heart Paraphrase 34. Be thou pleased to illuminate my mind to remove from me that darkness of spirit that my corruptions and sins have brought upon me and give me that practical pliableness and docileness and humility that may be assistant to the work by the continuance of thy grace to work in me to doe as well as to will to perform a most carefull watchfull diligent and withall a most impartial uniform obedience to thee 35. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments for therein is my delight Paraphrase 35. Lord let me never fail of thy direction and guidance in all the obedience which by thy grace I shall indeavour to perform to thee There is nothing so pleasurable to me as to be thus exercised and imployed O do thou conduct and assist and direct me in it 36. Incline mine heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness Paraphrase 36. It is much more desirable to me to be imployed in thy laws than in any matter of the greatest secular advantage O let thy grace so prevent and bend my heart that this pleasure may still possess me and never give place to any secular pursuance or carnality 37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou me in thy way Paraphrase 37. Lord grant me a strict guard over mine eyes those inlets of many sins withdraw me from all delight or complacency in wealth or worldly grandeur on which the lust of the eye is wont to be placed in frail false deceitfull beauty which is apt to accend foul flames within the breast in any other vain transporting object and on the contrary inliven and inflame in me all pious and vertuous designs and pursuits 38. Stablish thy word unto thy servant who is devoted to thy fear Paraphrase 38. There are in thy word the revelation of thy will to us the greatest arguments imaginable to ingage us to fear and reverence of and uniform obedience to thee promises of the divinest and terrors of the most formidable sort To this are the oracles of God all designed to bring us to the practice of true piety O grant me that grace that I may never permit these to depart out of my mind but make use of them constantly to this end to which thou hast designed them persevere firmly in thy obedience 39. Turn away my reproach which I fear for thy judgments are good Paraphrase 39. O what a shame and reproach would it be to me who acknowledge thy yoke to be so easie and pleasurable the obedience to thy commands so sweet and desirable ever to fall off from it into any unprofitable work of darkness This the sight of my own frailty bids me to fear beyond all things and to be for ever jealous of my self in this behalf O let thy word and thy grace give me that stability v. 38. and constancy that I never thus shamefully miscarry 40. Behold I have longed after thy precepts quicken me in thy righteousness Paraphrase 40. All that I can say of my self is that I have an ardent desire to obey thee O let thy grace which in mercy thou wilt not fail to give to all such that in humility address to thee excite and inliven me from time to time in all works of obedience to thee that so I may daily improve in all righteousness VAV. 41. Let thy mercies come unto me O Lord even thy salvation according to thy word Paraphrase 41. Lord be thou graciously pleased to compassionate me to espouse my cause to rescue me out of mine enemies hands according to the promise thou hast made unto me 42. So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me for I trust in thy word Paraphrase 42. And then I shall be able to make a solid reply to all my despitefull enemies which are ready to insult over me in any distress and upbraid my trust and reliance on thee 43. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth for I have hoped in thy judgments Paraphrase 43. It is thy promise of eternal immutable truth that thou wilt never forsake them that trust in thee and adhere to thee O let me never be forsaken by thee in any such eminent degree that I may doubt of applying this promise to my self and assuming on the strength thereof this assurance that thou wilt infallibly rescue me 44. So shall I keep thy Law continually for ever and ever Paraphrase 44. This shall ingage and oblige the constancy of my obedience to thee from this time to the end of my life 45. And I will walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts Paraphrase 45. And being delivered by thee I will most chearfully and alacriously set to the ways
none that requireth or avengeth for my soul none that defends or vindicates it V. 7. That I may praise The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad laudandum to praising may indifferently be rendred either in the first person that I or in the third plural that they may praise i. e. the just in the next words And to that latter sense the following words seem to incline it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in me shall the righteous come about in me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for my cause saith the Chaldee shall they come about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the just shall make thee a crown of praise say they not come about me or as the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they watch for me in the notion wherein they render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expect wait for Job 36.11 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that signifies for me or for my cause on occasion of me come about incompass God believe in him praise his name when so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be rendred they see how graciously God hath dealt with me The Jewish Arab reads And the righteous shall take me for a crown to them The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies so to incompass or come about as when a multitude of people assemble on any occasion so Prov. 14.18 the simple inherit folly but the prudent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall incompass knowledge i. e. seek it and follow it with all diligence and so to incompass God is to frequent his sanctuary devoutly and diligently to make addresses to him The word also in Arabick dialect signifies â—o be multiplied and so it will commodiously be rendred on occasion of me the righteous shall be multiplied when they see thy mercifull returns or dealings toward me The Hundred and Forty Third PSALM A Psalm of David The hundred forty third is a mournfull supplication for deliverance from powerfull enemies and was composed by David as some think at the time of Absalom's rebellion as others more probably and in harmony with the two former at the time of his being pursued by Saul in the Cave of Engedi 1. HEar my prayer O Lord give ear to my supplications in thy faithfulness answer me and in thy righteousness Paraphrase 1. O Lord I beseech thee to hear and answer my requests which my present distresses force me to present to thee and thy abundant grace and promises of never-failing mercy give me confidence that thou wilt favourably receive and perform unto me 2. And enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Paraphrase 2. I know my sins have justly provoked and brought down these pressures on me but thou art graciously pleased to be reconciled with humbled penitent sinners thou hast promised by a covenant of mercy not to charge on such with severity all the sins of which they have been guilty and were it not for that covenant 't were impossible for any frail imperfect sinfull creature such as every meer man is to appear with hope or comfort before thine exact tribunal To this thy promised mercy mine onely appeal lies and having sincerely vow'd to perform unto thee all faithfull be it never so mean and imperfect obedience I can put in my claim founded on thy faithfull promise v. 1. and hope and beg for this seasonable mercy and deliverance from thee 3. For the enemy hath persecuted my soul he hath smitten my life down to the ground he hath made me to dwell in darkness as those that have been long dead Paraphrase 3. For my malicious enemies have calumniated first then persecuted me and now at length brought me to a very sad and dejected estate forced me to hide my self under ground to fly from one cave to another from the cave of Adullam 1 Sam. 22. to the cave of Engedi ch 24. 4. Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me my heart within me is desolate 5. I remember the days of old I meditate on all thy works I muse on the work of thy hands Paraphrase 4 5. This hath cast me into great perplexity see Psal 142.3 filled me with a most anxious horrour wherein yet I have been able to support my self by reflecting on thy former mercies and deliverances which thy acts of power have been signally interposed to work for me 6. I stretch forth my hands unto thee my soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land Selah Paraphrase 6. To thee therefore I address my prayers with all the earnestness which my distresses can infuse into me The ground that is parcht with heat and drought and gaspes for some showre from the clouds to refresh it is an emblem of me at this time who pant and gasp and call importunately for some refreshment and relief from thee having no other means in the world to which I can apply my self 7. Hear me speedily O Lord my spirit faileth hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit Paraphrase 7. O Lord I beseech thee hasten to my relief my present exigences challenge and importune it from thee If thou do not interpose in my behalf I shall suddenly be overwhelmed by mine enemies and destroyed 8. Cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning for in thee do I trust cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soul unto thee Paraphrase 8. O be thou graciously pleased to shew forth thy pity and thy bounty timely and speedily to me who have no other refuge to resort to but that of thine overruling sovereign aid in this is my confidence for this I offer up the humblest devotions of my soul O be thou my guide to direct me to that course whatever it is which thou shalt chuse and wilt prosper to me 9. Deliver me O Lord from mine enemies I flee unto thee to hide me Paraphrase 9. Lord to thee do I betake my self as to mine onely refuge under the safeguard of thy protection I desire to secure my self O be thou graciously pleased to afford me that mercy and thereby to rescue me out of mine enemies hands 10. Teach me to doe thy will for thou art my God thy spirit is good lead me into the land of uprightness Paraphrase 10. Above all by thy paternal goodness I beseech thee be thou pleased so to conduct me in all my ways that I may doe nothing but what is perfectly good and acceptable in thy fight To which end Lord let thy gracious and sanctifying spirit the onely fountain and author of all goodness and holiness direct and assist me in every turn and motion of my life and bring me into a steady constant course of all strict and righteous living that antepast or first part of heaven on earth which thou wilt be sure to crown with a state of â—â—â—fect purity and impeccability
Mahomet to be a talking with God whil'st he lies foaming in an Epileptick fit but is content to be judged and discerned by the old plain Doctrines of the Gospel a regular authorized ordinary sober Spirit 3. The Zelotick Spirit was a thing peculiar among the Jews introduced and settled by the example of Phineas and Elias by way of precedent and standing Law to that Nation whereby 't was lawful when a man was taken in some notorious facts specifi'd by their Law Idolatry c. to run him through to kill him in the place without expecting any Legal process against him This was expresly commanded by Moses Numb 25.5 Slay ye every one the men that are joyned to Baal-peor and accordingly practised by Phineas upon incitation from God and when 't was done so by a Jew in the cases provided by the Jewish Law and by divine impulsion and the person assured that it was so there was then no harm in it but when that incitation from God was but pretended only not true when in any case but that prescribed by the Law then 't was perfect butchery and villany even among those Jews and unless in those few precedents of Phineas and Elias and the Maccabees i. e. Zelots for so the word Maccabee signifies in the Syriack 't will be hard to find either in Scripture or Josephus where there were whole multitudes of such men any one example of this practice justifiable even in a Jew And in opposition to and not compliance with that is the Gospel-spirit quite contrary to the heights of the Jewish practice never sheds bloud upon any but regular commissions an obedient orderly temperate cool Spirit 4. The Cursing spirit that may be of two sorts either in passing judgments on mens future spiritual estates a censorious damning spirit such as hath been usual in all kind of Hereticks almost that ever came into the Church nos spirituales we the spiritual and in the King of China's style filii coeli sons of heaven and all others animales psychici animal carnal men or 2. in wishing praying calling for curses either on God's or our enemies And you may know the Gospel-spirit by the opposition to these a hoping charitable merciful deprecating blessing Spirit Lastly the Fiery spirit is a vehement violent untractable unreconcileable spirit sets all where ever it comes into a flame and combustion and will never have peace with any thing which it can possibly consume nay farther it infuseth warmths and distempers and turbulencies into all that come within any reach of it communicates and diffuses its violencies to all others And the Gospel-spirit is direct antipodes to that an allaying quenching quieting cooling Spirit And so you see this new Spirit the Spirit of the Gospel of what a temper it is in all these respects a Spirit more fit than Lightning to melt the swords in our scabbards to new forge these hostile weapons into those that are more civil and profitable and that was the second course by which Christianity was to work this metamorphosis to beat these swords c. 3. And lastly our Saviour hath contributed toward this great work by the exemplariness of his own practice in this kind Not only in the first place in refusing to have the fire from heaven that the Boanerges would have help'd him to against the Samaritans profest enemies of Christ and of all that had any kind looks toward Jerusalem and besides notorious Hereticks and Schismaticks and yet pretenders to the only purity and antiquity against all sense and reason and so most arrogant Hypocrites also and yet all this not enough to inflame Christ's Spirit into that of Elias's or to change his temper into any thing of zeal or anger against these Nor only in the second place in reprehending and trashing of St. Peter's zeal when it drew the sword in his Master's defence against the high Priest's servants and indeed against the very Crucifiers of Christ Nor only in the third place in refusing the aid even of Angels from Heaven when they were ready upon his summons against the Heathens that attach'd him But fourthly and above all by that answer of his to Pilate John 18.36 If my Kingdom were of this world then should my servants fight c. which was certainly part of that good confession before Pilate mentioned with such honour 1 Tim. 6.13 inferring that because his Kingdom was not of this world because he was not a worldly or an earthly King therefore his servants were not to fight for him against a legal power of Heathens though 't were but to save him from Crucifying 'T is clear 't was one of his Accusers main hopes to find him in Judas Gaulonita's Doctrine That 't was unlawful for God's people and so for him that undertook to be God's Son to be subject to Idolaters making advantage of Piety as the Gnosticks after did toward their secular ends the freeing themselves from subjection in this world But our Saviour every where disclaims that Doctrine both Matth. 22.21 vindicating Caesar's Prerogative by his Coin and in that good confession to Pilate From which 't is demonstrable that what was not to be done in defence of Christ when he was in that danger and under that persecution is no more to be attempted in that case for Religion for Christianity it self I shall shut up this by leaving in your hands that most glorious lively Image of his whole Soul and Life delivered to us in one Medal that Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your Souls To which if you add the sealing and the practising of this in the giving up his Soul laying down his Life an Offering of Charity even for enemies and yet farther for those enemies Souls this one Amulet hung about your necks one would think were sufficient to charm all the weapons of our warfare that are so unmercifully carnal to exorcize and conjure all the swords and spears out of the world to work new transfigurations and metamorphoses among us to return the Bears and Vultures into their old humane shapes again and proclaim an universal truce to all the military affections we carry about us to our wraths our covetings our aspirings a Sabbath a Jubilee of rest and peace like that which Jamblichus talks of in the Sphears a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a catholick constant harmony and accord a present pacification of all our intestine broils and so a quiet and rest unto our souls and till this be done till this Advent Prophecy be fulfilled in your ears you must know there is little of Christianity among us little of Evangelical graces or Evangelical Spirit nothing but Legal at the best That in God's good time there may be more not in the brain or tongue to elevate the one or adorn the other but in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the depth and sincerity of the heart more of the work and power the spirit and
beloved wallowing again 2. Our daily minutely recourse to that digitus Dei finger of God which alone say the Jews can cleanse Lepers with a Lord if thou wilt thou canst make us clean thou canst prepare new Jordans of Grace beyond all our Rivers of Damascus new banks new treasures of Purity And then 3. taking the seasonable advice of the Syrian servants going down and washing in that Jordan acting upon our selves by the power of this grace thus fitly co-operating with God to the utmost of our derivative strength not lying like Creeples on the bank when we have a Bethesda before us which yet will cleanse none but those that go into it And that brings me to the former of the two circumstances belonging to this duty denoted by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cleanse our selves That it is the Christian's task upon himself this of purifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us cleanse our selves 'T is the prerogative of the grace of Christ that he that is vouchsafed his portion of that is thereby thus enabled to mortifie sin and advance toward purity and it is the duty of all that are thus vouchsafed and dignified to make use of that strength to that end to purifie themselves For as Aquinas observes out of Aristotle that those things are possible for us which are possible by our friends so what we are enabled to do by the grace of Christ we are able to do He that is born of God is born an Athleta and Victor the whole world is but a Pygmy before him this is the privilege of that high descent that be he the impotentest creature in the world considered in his natural carnal or moral principles either as born of bloud or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man he hath yet an acquisition of a kind of omnipotence from the derived communicated strength of Christ as he is born of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he can do all things through Christ that strengthens him God by his preventing and subsequent grace works in the Christian to will and to do merely of his good pleasure of bounty and then the exhortation belongs to that Christian to work and work out his own Salvation And were but the care and pains employed in the using and improving those Talents which God hath given us and calling to Heaven for supplies which is mis-spent and paultred away in pleading our impotencies and disabilities and wants of grace that is in acusing in the old Heathen style God's illiberal dealing with his children charging Heaven with all our failings we might certainly reap better fruit of our time be fairer proficients in this art of purging and in the mean may spend our spirits most profitably in calling and hastening one another to this so possible and withal so necessary task and that is the last particular That it ought to be the united design of all Christians the Apostle and people together to aid and assist one another in this work of purifying by entreaties by exhortations by all the engagements of love and duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us cleanse our selves The work 't is acknowledg'd though possible to be gone through with in such a measure as shall be sure of acceptance is yet of some more than ordinary difficulty How long hath this poor Nation been about it so many years in the Refiners fire in God's fornace for purifying worn out and rent to pieces under the Fuller's sope and yet God knows as full of dross and spots as ever the poor Leper-kingdom thrust out of the camp the Temple banish'd from the old priviledges of the Israelite the Oracle and the service of God God spitting in the face of it in Moses's style a kind of excommunicate state all on that charitable purpose that it might be ashamed and apply it self to the Priest to God for his purgatives I shall add look'd upon pray'd over by that Priest so many years together and that cure still as far from being perfected as ever the leprosie spreading in the skin the sins multiplying under the Priests inspection under God's rod at the end of a seven years rinsing not with sope but nitre a thousand times more odious spots more provoking sins more hellish impurities than before I remember what poor Porphyry was fain to do in pursuit of purgatives the same that Saul after the commission of his sin that rent the Kingdom from him betake himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to magick and conjuring make friends to the Devil to help purifie him O that we having met with luckier prescriptions recipe's from Heaven that would be sure to prove successful would not betray all for want of applying them that while it is called to day while a poor spotted Kingdom lies a gasping the benefit of the last plunge the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might not be quite let slip that this of purifying the only true expedient yet untried whilst all others are experimented to be but mere Empirical state-mountebankery might at length be thought on prosecuted with some vigour every man entring into the retirement of his own breast there to search and view the spotted patient the plague the leprosie of his own heart and again every man making his arts of cure as communicative and diffusive as charitable and Catholick as he can that as David was ravish'd with joy when they said unto him Let us go into the house of the Lord that pleasant news and spectacle a conspiration for Piety so we for that only errand that sends us all to that house the beginning and advancing of Purity every man like an Israelite in his flight from Aegypt not only going out in haste a passeover toward purity but also despoiling his Aegyptian neighbours robbing one of his lusts another of his detractions one of his Atheistical oaths another of his swinish excesses one of his Infidel tremblings and basenesses another of his covetings and ambitions his jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiments his most valued precious sins the curses with which he hath cloathed himself as with a garment and which would one day if they were not snatch'd from him come like scalding water into his bowels and oyl into his bones and so yet if it be possible come out a troop a legion of naked Wrastlers a whole shole of candidates toward Purity Till somewhat be done this way more than hitherto hath been done Peace may hover over our heads express its willingness to light upon us but ad candida tecta columbae that dove will not enter or dwell where Purity hath not prepared for her or if she should so unlearn her own humour 't were danger she would turn Vultur that most desirable blessing prove our fatal'st curse leave us in and to a state of all impurities to deprecate and curse those mercies that had betrayed us to such irreversible miseries Lord purge Lord cleanse us do thou break those vessels of ours
strength Only thus much then It would be somewhat for your edification to try what you could do Certainly there is much more in a Christians power if he be not engaged in a habit of sin than we imagine though not for the performing of good yet for the inhibiting of evil And therefore bethinking our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Arrian That we are the sons of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us not have too low and degenerous an opinion of our selves Do but endeavour resolutely and couragiously to repel temptations as often as they sollicite thee make use of all thy ordinary restraints improve thy natural fear and shamefac'dness thy Christian education tender disposition to the highest pitch do but hold sincerely as long as thou art able and though I will not say that all thy sins shall be confin'd to those two heads of original a branch of which are evil motions and of omission yet I will undertake that thou shalt have an easier burthen of actual commissions upon thy soul and that will prove a good ease for thee those are they that weigh it down into the deep that sink it desperateliest into that double Tophet of obduration and despair Final obduration being a just judgment of God on one that hath fill'd up the measure of his iniquities that hath told over all the hairs of his head and sands of the Sea in actual sins and a necessary consummation of that despair the first part the Prologue and Harbinger to that worm in Hell 'T were easie to shew how faith might afford a Christian sufficient guard and defence against the keenest weapon in the Devils armory and retort every stroke upon himself But because this is the Faith only of a Wife not as we now consider as a Woman at large but in a nearer obligation as a Spouse We shall more opportunely handle that in the next Part where we shall consider Indulgence in sin as the work of a whorish Woman where whoredom noting adultery presupposes wedlock and consists in unfaithfulness to the Husband the thing in the next place to be discovered The Work c. That Christ is offered by his Father to all the Church for an Husband that he waits and begs and sends presents to us all to accept of the proposal the whole Book of Canticles that Song of spiritual love that affectionate wooing Sonnet will demonstrate that every Christian accepts of this Match and is Sacramentally espoused to Christ at his Baptism his being call'd by the Husbands Name imports for that is the meaning of the phrase Isai iv 1 Let us be called by thy Name i. e. marry us That Faith is the only thing that makes up the Match and entitles us to his Name and Estate is observable both from many places of Scripture and by the opposition which is set betwixt a Christian and all others Jews and Infidels betwixt the Spouse and either the destitute Widow or barren Virgin the ground of which is only Faith So then every Christian at his Baptism being supposed a Believer and thereby espoused Sacramentally to Christ and so obliged to all the observances as partaker of all the priviledges of a Wife doth at every unchaste thought or adulterous motion offend against the fidelity promised in marriage by every actual breach of this faith is for the present guilty of Adultery but by indulgence in it is downright a whore i. e. either one that came to Christ with an unchaste adulterous love to gain somewhat not for any sincere affection to his person but insidious to his estate and having got that is soon weary of his person or else one that came to him with pure virgin thoughts resolving her self a perpetual captive to his love and never to be tyred with those beloved fetters of his embraces but in time meets with a more flattering amiable piece of beauty and is soon hurried after that and so forgetteth both her vows and love Thus shall you see an handsome modest maidenly Christian espoused to Christ at the Font and fully wedded by his Ring at Confirmation Nay come nearer yet to him and upon many solemn expressions of fidelity and obedience vouchsafed the seal of his very heart in the Sacrament of his Blood another that hath liv'd with him a long while in uniform constant loyalty noted by all the neighbourhood for an absolute Wife a grave solemn matronly Christian yet either upon the allurements of some fresh sprightful sin or the sollicitations of an old-acquaintance lust the insinuations of some wily intruder or a specious shew of a glorious glittering temptation or when these are all wanting upon the breaking out of an evil heart of unbelief which some outward restraints formerly kept in departing from the living God profess open neglect and despight against the Husband which before they so wooed and flattered and made love to 'T were long to number out to you and give you by tale a Catalogue of those defections and adulterous practices which Christians are ordinarily observed to be guilty of which whether they go so far as to make a divorce betwixt the soul and Christ or whether only to provoke him to jealousie whether by an intercision of Grace and Faith or by an interruption and suspension of the acts I will not now examine I will go no farther than the Text which censures it here as a piece of spiritual whoredom of treacherous unfaithful dealing to be light unconstant and false to Christ whose Spouse they are esteemed whose Name they bear and Estate they pretend title to And so indeed it is for what greater degree of unfaithfulness can be imagined What fouler breach of Matrimonial Covenan◠than to value every ordinary prostitute sin before the precious chastest embraces of an Husband and a Saviour to be caught and captivate with the meanest vanity upon earth when it appears in competition with all the treasures in Heaven Besides that spiritual Armor which Faith bestows on a Christian Eph. vi 16 sufficient to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked or as the Greek hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that wicked one the Devil methinks there is a kind of moral influence from Faith on any wise and prudent heart enough to enliven and animate and give it spirit against the force or threatnings of any the strongest temptation and to encourage him in the most crabbed uncouth disconsolate undertakings of godly obedience For what sin didst thou ever look upon with the fullest delight of all thy senses in the enjoying of which thy most covetous troublesome importunate lusts would all rest satisfied but one minute of Heaven truly represented to thy heart would infinitely out-weigh A Turk is so affected with the expectation of his carnal Paradise those Catholick everlasting Stews which he fancies to himself for heaven that he will scarce taste any wine all his life-time for fear of disabling and depriving him of his lust he will be very
the Devils works but from his attachments only as a protection to secure our misdemeanors not to defend our innocence for a man thus appointed to venture on a Precipice as the Turks saith Busbequius are wont to try the goodness of an horse by riding him post down the steepest hill to outdare the Devil in his own territories as Christ is said to descend thither to triumph over him to besiege and set upon Hell presuming of our interest in Heaven as of a Magical Charm and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep us safe from death or maims in the midst of enemies nay of friends this is a piece of spiritual pride of Lucifer's own inscribing an imperious majestick garb of impiety a triumphant or processionary pomp an affected stately gate in sin that nothing but a violent rending power of the Spirit or a boisterous tempestuous judgment can force us out of Such a prophane Fiduciary as this which hath even defiled Heaven by possessing it such an Hellish Saint is like to be torn out of the third Heaven into which his speculation hath wrapt him and after a long dream of Paradise find himself awake in Hell And from this degree of religious prophaneness this confidence in sinning on presumption that we are under grace from this premature resolution that no sin no Devil can endanger us from this imperious whoredom as from the danger of Hell Good Lord deliver us 3. Imperious signifies more distinctly a tyrannical Lording behaviour usurping and exercising authority over all And this the Apostate Jew and Christian Libertine doth 1. By tyrannizing over himself i. e. his faculties and estate 2. Over all that come near him Over himself by urging and driving on in a carnal course not patient of any regrets and resistances that a tender disposition motions of Gods Spirit or gripes of Conscience can make against it goading and spurring on any of his faculties as being too dull and unactive and slothful in the ways of death even forcing them if they be any time foreslowed and trashed by either outward or inward restraints to sin even in sight of them and hastening them to a kind of unvoluntary disobedience Thus will a stone when 't is kept violently from the ground being held in a mans hand or the like press and weigh towards the Earth incessantly as if it were naturally resolved to be revenged on any one to tire him out that thus detained it from its place nay when it is let down you may see it yet press lower make its print in the Earth as if it would never be satisfied till it could rest in Hell The sinner is never at quiet with himself Instat imperat He is urgent and importunate upon himself to satisfie every craving lust Not the beggarliest affection or laziest unworthiest desire of the flesh but shall have its alms and dole rather than starve though it be an atome of his very soul to the utter undoing and bankrupting of him that gives it And for his tyranny over his estate whether Temporal or Spiritual his goods of Fortune or gifts of Grace they must all do homage to this carnal Idol All his treasures on Earth are richly sold if they can but yield him the fruition of one beloved sin And for Spiritual Illuminations or any Seeds of Grace he will lose them all and even shut himself for ever into the darkness of Hell rather than ever be directed by their light out of those pleasing paths of death A restraining grace was but a burthensome needless incumbrance and a gleam of the Spirit but a means to set Conscience a working to actuate her malice and execution on sin and it were an happy exchange to get but one loving delight or companion for them both Let but a sin be coy and stanch not to he gain'd at the first wooing and all these together like Jacob's Present out of all his goods shall be all little enough for a sacrifice or bribe to sollicite or hire it And this the Prophet notes here distinctly Vers 33. and 34. Thou art contrary to all the Whores in the World In other places Men give gifts to all Whores but thou givest gifts to all thy lovers None follow or bribe thee to commit whoredoms Thou givest a reward and no reward is given to thee therefore thou art contrary The sinner in my Text scorns to set so low a value on sin as that profit or advantage should ingratiate it to him it is so amiable in his eyes of it self he will prize it so high that any other treasure shall not be considerable in respect of it It is part of his loyalty and expression of his special service to the Devil to become a bankrupt in his cause to sell all that he hath both God and fortunes to follow him It is the art and Cunning of common Whores to raise mens desires of them by being coy Difficultate augere libidinis pretium to hold off that they may be followed Vers 34. But this sin is not so artificial her affections are boysterous and impatient of delay she is not at so much leisure as to windlace or use craft to satisfie them she goes downright a wooing and if there be any difficulty in compassing all that she hath is ready for a dowry and prostitute before her Idol Lust Lastly Imperious over all that come near him either men or sins every man must serve him either as his pander or companion to further or associate him I told you he sinned in Cathedra Psal 1.1 that is also doctorally and magisterially every spectator must learn of him it is his profession he sets up school for it his practices are so commandingly exemplary that they do even force and ravish the most maidenly tender conscience And then for all inferiors they are required to provide him means and opportunities of sinning to find him out some game and no such injury can be done as to rouze or spring a sin that would otherwise have lodged in his walk It was part of the Heathenish Romans quarrel against the Primitive Christians saith Tertullian that they drove away their Devils These Exorcist-Christians had banished all their old familiars out of the Kingdom which they were impatient to be deprived of And thus careful and chary are men of their helps of opportunities to sin it is all the joy they have in the world sometimes to have a temptation and to be able to make use of it to have the Devil continue strong with them in an old Courtier 's phrase It is their very life and he that deprives them of it is a murtherer And for the sins themselves Lord how they tyrannize over them how they will rack and torture and stretch every limb of a sin that they may multiply it into infinites and sin as often at once as is possible Adam in the bare eating of an Apple committed a multitude of sins Leo in his 86 Epist
a logical possibility but a moral necessity of the performing of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or else no possibility of Salvation And then that reason of disanulling the old and establishing the new Covenant because there was no justification to be had by the old rendred Gal. iii. 21 would easily be retorted upon the Apostle thus why neither is any life or justification to be had by this second the absurdity of which sequel being considered may serve for one proof of the Proposition The second thing to be premised of this Condition is that it is an immutable unalterable undispensable Condition The 2 d. Covenant standing this must also stand that hath been proved already because a condition adequate and of the same latitude with the Covenant But now secondly this second both Covenant and Condition must needs stand an Everlasting Covenant Ezek. xvi 60 No possibility of a change unless upon an impossible supposition there should remain some other fourth Person of the Deity to come into the world The Tragick Poets saith Tully when they had over shot themselves in a desperate Plot that would never come about ad Deum confugiunt they were fain to flie to a God to lay that unruly spirit that their phansie had raised Upon Adam's sin and breach of the Condition of the First Covenant there was no possibility in the wit of man in the sphere of the most Poetical phansie Fabulae exitum explicare to come off with a fair conclusion had not the Second Person of the Trinity that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come down in his tire and personation of flesh not in the stage Cloaths or Livery but substantial form of a servant upon the stage And he again having brought things into some possibility of an happy conclusion though it cost him his life in the negotiation leaves it at his departure in the trust of his vicegerent the Spirit of his power to go thorow with his beginnings to see that performed which only he left unperfected as being our task not his the Condition of the Second Covenant The Spirit then enters upon the work dispatches Officers Ambassadors to all Nations in the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to every creature Mark xvi 15 And himself to the end of the World goes along to back them in their Ministry And then the next thing the Scripture tells us of is the coming to Harvest after this Seeds time and he that believeth not shall be damned and so that Sacred Canon is shut up The Issue of this second Praecognitum is this That if there still remain any difficulties any impossibilities to be overcome so they are like to remain for ever unless there be some other Person in the Godhead to be sent to make up Pythagoras his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no new way imaginable to be found out and that perhaps is the reason of those peremptory denuntiations of Christ against them that sin against the Holy Ghost against that administration of grace entrusted to him that there shall be never any remission for them in this world or in another i. e. Either by way of Justification here or Glorification at that grand Manumission hereafter And that may serve for a second proof of the Proposition that if for all the duty of a Christian is not feasible it must remain so for ever an adumbration thereof you may see set down Heb. x. comparing the 16. with the 26. verse In the 16. you have the Second Covenant described and the condition of it in the Verses following and then Vers 26. if after this we sin wilfully then our estate becomes desperate There remains no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation and he that takes not then quarter accounted an adversary for ever the Apostate whether he renounce his faith in fact or profession must be a Cast away The third thing to be premised is Wherein this condition of the second Covenant consists and that is not in any rigor of legal performance that was the bloody purport of that old obligation that soon concluded us all under death irreversibly not in any Egyptian Pharaoh's task a full tale of Bricks without Straw without any materials to make them no Pharisaical burthen laid on heavy and no finger to help to bear it but an easie yoke a light burthen Mat. xi 30 and not only light but alleviating he that was laden before is the lighter for this yoke Vers 29. Take my yoke and you shall find rest And therefore Christ thinks reasonable not to lay the yoke upon them as an injunction as the worldly fashion is but to commend it to them as a thing that any prudent man would be glad to take up in the beginning of the Verse Take my yoke upon you In a word it consists in the embracing of Christ in all his Offices the whole Person of Christ but especially as he is typically described in Zachary a crowned Jesus a Priest upon a Throne his Scepter joyned to his Ephod to rule and receive tribute as well as sacrifice and satisfie and reconcile Consilium pacis inter ambo ea those two Offices of his reconciled in the same our Priest become our King That being delivered we may serve him in the other Zacharie's phrase Delivered without fear serve him in holiness and righteousness the performance of that duty that Christ enables to perform the sincerity of the honest heart the doing what our Christian strength will reach to and humbly setting the rest on Christs score And then when that which can be done is sure to be accepted there is no room left for pretended impossibilities Nay because those things which there is a Logical possibility for us to do and strength sufficient suppeditated it is not yet morally possible to do all our lives long without any default because as Parisiensis saith even the habit of Grace in the regenerate heart is as long as a man carries flesh about him as an armed man positus in lubrico set to fight in a slippery place all his armor and valor will not secure him from a fall or again as the General of a Factious or false-hearted Army a party of insidious flesh at home which will betray to the weaker enemy that comes unanimous or as a Warriour on a tender mouthed horse impatient of Discipline or check is fetcht over sometimes for all his strength and armor because I say there is none but offend sometimes even against his power there is therefore bound up in this new Volume of Ordinances an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a New Testament a Codicil of Repentance added to the Testament that Plank for Shripwrackt souls that City of Refuge that Sanctuary for the Man-slayer after sin committed And then if sincere obedience be all that is required and that exclude no Christian living be he never so weak but the false faithless Hypocrite
them upon condition of performance of moral precepts for all things being indifferently moved to the obtaining of their summum bonum all I say not only rational agents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Andronicus saith on the Ethicks which have nothing but nature to incite them to it the natural man may upon a sight and liking of an happiness proposed on severe conditions call himself into some degrees of moral temper as best suiting to the performance of the means and obtaining of the end he looks for and by this temper be said to be morally better than another who hath not taken this course to subdue his passions And this was evident enough among the Philosophers who were as far beyond the ordinary sort in severity of conversation as depth of learning and read them as profitable precepts in the example of their lives as ever the Schools breathed forth in their Lectures Their profession was incompatible with many vices and would not suffer them to be so rich in variety of sins as the vulgar and then whatsoever they thus did an unregenerate Christian may surely perform in a far higher measure as having more choice of ordinary restrainment from sin than ever had any heathen for it will be much to our purpose to take notice of those ordinary restraints by which unregenerate men may be and are curbed and kept back from sinning and these saith Austin God affords to the very reprobates Non continens in ira suas misericordias Much to this same purpose hath holy Maximus in those admirable Sections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where most of the restraints he speaks of are competible to the unregenerate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 1. Fear of men 2. Denunciation of judgments from Heaven 3. Temperance and moral vertues nay sometimes other moral vices as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vain glory or ostentation of integrity 4. Natural impressions to do to others as we would be done to 5. Clearness of judgment in discerning good from evil 6. An expectation of a reward for any thing well done Lastly some gripes and twinges of the conscience to all add a tender disposition a good Christian education common custom of the Country where one lives where some vices are out of fashion nay at last the word of God daily preached not a love but servile fear of it These I say and the like may outwardly restrain unregenerate men from riots may curb and keep them in and consequently preserve the soul from that weight of the multitude of sins which press down other men to a desperation of mercy Thus is one unregenerate man less ingaged in sin than another and consequently his soul less polluted and so in all likelihood more capable of the ordinary means of salvation than the more stubborn habituate sinner when every aversion every commission of every sin doth more harden against grace more alien and set at a greater distance from Heaven and this briefly we call a moral preparation of the soul and a purging of it though not absolutely from sin yet from some measure of reigning sin and disposing of it to a spiritual estate and this is no more than I learn from Bradwardine in his 16. de causa Dei. ch 37. A servile fear a sight of some inconvenience and moral habit of vertue and the like Multum retrahunt à peccato inclinant ad opera bona sic ad charitatem gratiam opera verè grata praeparant disponunt And so I come to my last part to shew of what use this preparation of the soul is in order to Christs birth in us the ways of the Lord. I take no great joy in presenting controversies to your ears out of this place yet seeing I am already fallen upon a piece of one I must now go through it and to quit it as soon as I can present the whole business unto you in some few propositions of which some I shall only recite as conceiving them evident enough by their own light the rest I shall a little insist on and then apply and drive home the profit of all to your affections And in this pardon me for certainly I should never have medled with it had not I resolved it a Theory that most nearly concerned your practice and a speculation that would instruct your wills as well as your understandings The propositions which contain the summ of the business are these 1. No preparation in the world can deserve or challenge Gods sanctifying grace the spirit bloweth where it listeth and cannot by any thing in us be predetermin'd to its object or its work 2. The Spirit is of power to work the conversation of any the greatest sinner at one minute to strike the most obdurate heart and soften it and out of the unnatural womb of stones infinitely more unfruitful than barrenness and age had made the womb of Sarah to raise up children unto Abraham According to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diseases are sometimes cur'd when the patient is at the extremity or height of danger in an ecstasie and almost quite gone 3. 'T is an ill Consequence that because God can and sometimes doth call unprepared sinners therefore 't is probable he will deal so with thee in particular or with unprepared men in general God doth not work in conversion as a physical agent to the extent of his power but according to the sweet disposition and counsel of his Will 4. In unprepared hearts there be many profest enemies to grace ill dispositions ambition Atheism pride of spirit and in chief an habit in a voluptuous setled course of sinning an indefatigable resolute walking after their own lusts And therefore there is very little hope that Christ will ever vouchsafe to be born in such polluted hardned souls For 't is Basil's observation that that speech of the fools heart there is no God was the cause that the Gentiles were given over to a reprobate sense and fell headlong 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into all manner of abominations Hence it is that Jobius in Photius observes that in Scripture some are called Dogs Mat. xv 26 some unworthy to receive the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. xiii 11 that some hated the light and came not to it John iii. 20 as if all those had taken a course to make themselves uncapable of mercy and by a perfect hostility frighted Christ out of their coasts In the liberal dispensation of miracles in the Gospel you would wonder to see Christ a niggard in his own Country yet so in respect of other places he was and did not many miracles there because of their unbelief Mat. xiii 58 not that their incredulity had manacled him had shortned his hand or straitned his power but that miracles which when they met with a passive willingness a contentedness in the patient to receive and believe them were then the ordinary instruments of faith
and conversion would have been but cast away upon obdurate hearts so that for Christ to have numbred miracles among his unbelieving Country men no way prepared to receive them had been an injurious liberality and added only to their unexcusableness which contradicts not the Axiom of St. Paul 1 Cor. xiv 22 That some signs are only for unbelievers for even those unbelievers must have within them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a proneness or readiness to receive them with belief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in Jobius to open to the spirit knocking by those miracles and improve them to their best profit 5. Though God needs not yet he requires moral preparation of us as an ordinary means to make us more capable of grace for although according to Saint Austin Ne ipsâ quidem justitiâ nostrâ indiget Deus yet according to Salvian's limitation Eget juxta praceptionem suam licet non juxta potentiam eget secundum legem suam non eget secundum Majestatem We are to think that God hath use of any thing which he commands and therefore must perform whatever he requires and not dare to be confident of the end without the observation of the means prescribed 'T is too much boldness if not presumption to leave all to his omnipotent working when he hath prescribed us means to do somewhat our selves 6. Integrity and Honesty of heart a sober moral life and chiefly humility and tenderness of spirit in summ whatever degree of Innocence either study or fear or love or natural disposition can work in us some or all of which may in some measure be found in some men not yet regenerate are good preparations for Christs birth in us so saith Clement of Philosophy that it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. make ready and prepare the way against Christs coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cooperate with other helps that God hath given us all with this caution that it doth only prepare not perfect facilitate the pursuit of wisdom to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which God may bestow on us without this means To this purpose hath Basil a notable Homily to exhort Scholars to the study of Foreign humane especially Graecian Learning and to this end saith he that we prepare our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Heavenly spiritual Philosophy In the like kind the Fathers prescribe good works of Charity observing out of the xix of St. Matthew that the distribution of all their substance to the poor was a praeludium in the Primitive believers to the following of Christ Prius vendant omnia quà m sequantur from whence he calls Alms-deeds exordia quasi incunabula conversionis nostrae The like may be said though not in the same degree of all other courses quibus carnalium sarcinarum impedimenta projicimus for if these forementioned preparations be meer works of nature in us as some would have them then do they naturally incline the subject for the receiving of grace when it comes and by sitting as it were and organizing the subject facilitate its entrance or if they be works of Gods restraining preventing grace as 't is most orthodoxly agreed on then are they good harbingers for the sanctifying spirit good comfortable symptoms that God will perfect and crown the work which he hath begun in us 7. Gods ordinary course as far as by events we can judge of it is to call and save such as are thus prepared Thus to instance in a few of the first and chiefest 'T was appointed by God that she only should be vouchsafed the blessed office of dignity of being the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ's Mother who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he in Photius fuller of vertues than any else of her sex could brag off In like manner that the rest of the family Christs Father and Brethren in account on earth should be such whose vertues had bestowed a more eminent opinion though not place upon them amongst men so was Joseph and his Sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 famous for very just men James the brother of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy from the womb as Eusebius cites it called by the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he out of Hegesippus which he interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the stay of the people and justice it self In brief if a Cornelius be to be called from Gentilism to Christianity ye shall find him in the beginning of his character Acts x. 1 to be a devout man and one that feared God with all his house gave much Alms to the people and prayed to God alway one cut out as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the first-fruit of the Gentiles Now though none of these vertues can be imputed to nature in the substance of them but acknowledge a more supernatural spiritual agent in them yet are they to be reckoned as preparations to Christs birth in them because they did precede it for so in respect of his real Incarnation in the world the type of his spiritual in the soul Mary was a vertuous pure virgin before the Holy Ghost over shadowed her Joseph a just man before the Holy Ghost appeared to him Mat. i. 19 James holy from the womb and Cornelius capable of all that commendation for Devotion and Alms-deeds Acts x. 1 before either Christ was preach't to him in the 37. or the Holy Ghost fell on him in the 44. verse 8. The Conversion of unprepared hardned blasphemous sinners is to be accounted as a most rare and extraordinary work of Gods power and mercy not an every days work like to be beâ—towed on every habituate sinner and therefore 't is commonly accompanied with some evident note of difference to point it out for a miracle Thus was Paul called from the chief of sinners 1 Tim. i. 15 to the chief of Saints but with this mark that Christ Jesus might shew forth all long-suffering c. which was in him first and perhaps last in that degree that others in his pitch of blasphemies might not presume of the like miracle of mercy And indeed he that is thus called must expect what Paul found a mighty tempest throughout him three days at least without sight oâ— nourishment if not a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a swoon a kind of ecstacy of the whole man at this tumultuary driving out of this high rank insolent habituate body of sin 'T is observed that when the news of Christs birth was brought by the wise men the City was straight in an uproar Herod was much troubled and all Jerusalem with him Mat. ii 3 for it seems they expected no such matter and therefore so strange and sudden news produced nothing but astonishment and tumult whilst Simeon who waited for the consolation of Israel makes no such strange business of it takes him presently into his embraces and familiarly hugs him in his arms having been before acquainted with him by
his Faith Thus will it at Christs spiritual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be in an unprepared heart his reigning Herod-sins and all the Jerusalem and Democracy of affections a strange tumult of repining old habituate passions will struggle fiercely and shake the whole house before they leave it If a strong man be to be dispossessed of house or abode without warning a hundred to one he will do some mischief at his departure and draw at least some Pillar after him when as a prepared Simeon's soul lays hold as soon as he hears of him is already organiz'd as it were for the purpose holds out the arms and bosom of faith and at the first minute of his appearance takes him into his spiritual embraces This very preparation either had denied the strong man entrance or else binds his hands manacles that blind Sampson and turns him out in peace and then the spirit enters into that soul which it self or its harbingers have prepared in a soft still wind in a still voice and the soul shall feel its gale shall hear its whispering and shall scarce discern perhaps not at all observe the moment of its entrance Lastly by way of Corollary to all that hath been said though God can and sometimes doth call blasphemous sinners though nothing in us can facilitate Gods action to him though none of our performances or his lower works in us can merit or challenge his sanctifying grace though in brief all that we can do is in some respect enmity to grace yet certainly there is far more hope of the just careful moral man which hath used all those restraints which are given him that he shall be called and saved of such a one we are to judge far more comfortably and expect more confidently than of another more habituate sinner negligent of the commands of either God or nature And this I conceive I have in some measure proved through each part of the former discourse and so I should dismiss it and come to application but that I am stayed and thwarted by a contrary proposition maintained by a sort of our popular Preachers with more violence than discretion which I conceive to be of dangerous consequence and therefore worth opening to you In setting down the pitch that an unregenerate man may attain to and yet be damned some of our preaching writers are wont duly to conclude with this peremptory Doctrine That of a meer moral man though never so severe a censor of his own ways never so rigid an exactor of all the precepts of nature and morality in himself yet of this man there is less hope either that he shall be converted or saved than the most debauched ruffian under Heaven The charity and purity of this Doctrine you shall judge of if you will accompany me a while and first observe that they go so far with the meer moral man and drive him so high that at his depression again many a regenerate man falls with him under that title and in issue I fear all will prove meer moralists in their doom which do fall short of that degree of zeal which their either faction or violent heats pretend to and so as Tertullian objects to the Heathen expostulating with them why they did not deifie Themistocles and Cato as well as Jove and Hercules Quot potiores viros apud inferos reliquistis they leave many an honester man in Hell than some of those whom their favour or Faction hath befainted Secondly observe to what end or use this Doctrine may serve but as an allay to civil honesty in a Commonwealth and fair just dealing which forsooth of late is grown so luxuriant the world is like to languish and sink 't is so overburthened with it and on the other side an incouragement to the sinner in his course an ingagement in the pursuit of vice to the height and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the pitch and cue which God expects and waits for as they conclude on these grounds because he lookt upon Peter not till the third denial and then called Paul when he was most mad against the Christians as if the nearest way to Heaven were by Hell-gates and Devils most likely to become Saints as if there were merit in abominations and none in the right way to Christianity but whom Atheism would be ashamed of as if because the natural man understands not c. all reliques of natural purity were solemnly and pro formâ to be abandoned to make us capable of spiritual 'T is confessed that some have been and are thus Converted and by an ecstasie of the spirit snatched and caught like firebrands out of the fire and though some must needs find their spiritual joys infinitely increased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by that gall of bitterness from which they were delivered and are therefore more abundantly ingaged to God as being not the objects only but the miracle of his mercy but yet for all this shall one or two variations from the ordinary course from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be turned into a ruled case shall the rarer examples of Mary Magdalen or a Saul prescribe and set up shall we sin to the purpose as if we meant to threaten God that 't were his best and safest course to call us shall we abound in rebellions that grace may superabound God pardon and forbid Thirdly consider the reason of their proposition and you shall judge of the truth of it and beside their own phancies and resolution to maintain them they have none but this The meer moral man trusts in his own righteousness and this confidence in the arm of flesh is the greatest enemy to sanctifying grace which works by spiritual humility To which we answer distinctly that the foresaid pride trust or confidence is neither effect nor necessary adjunct of morality but an absolute defection from the rules thereof and therefore whatsoever proceeds either as an effect or consequent from pride or confidence cannot yet be imputed to morality at all or to the moral men per se no more than the Thundring or Lightning is to be imputed to my walking because it thunders whilst I walk or preaching to my standing still because whilst I stand still I preach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle in the first Post c. 4. It doth not lighten because I walk but that is an accident proceeding from some other cause To strive against the motions of the spirit and so to render Conversion more difficult is an effect perhaps of pride or trust but yet is not to be imputed to morality though the moral man be proud or self-trusting because this pride or self-trusting is not an effect but an accident of morality and therefore their judgment should be able to distinguish and direct their zeal against the accidental vice not the essential innocent vertue against pride not morality Besides this pride is also as incident to him who is morally evil nay either supposes or makes its subject
so being formerly a breach of morality For that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belonging to the understanding which is not to think more highly on ones own worth than he ought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. xii 3 Do we not find it commended and dilated on by Aristotle 4. Eth. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not to overprize his own worth or to expect an higher reward than it in proportion deserves So that he that trusts in his morality for Heaven doth eo nomine offend against morality according to that of Salvian Hoc ipsum genus maximae injustitiae est si quis se justum praesumat and indeed Aristotle and Seneca could say as much and so then the accusation is unjust and contumelious for to a moral man if he be truly so this pride or confidence is incompatible for do we not find that treble humility 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the actions Ephes iv 2 handled also and prescribed by the Philosophers In summ that which in all moral precepts comes nearest pride or high-mindedness is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. 4.3 part of which is setting value on ones self But if you observe this goes no farther than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honour or worldly pomp as for the immortal blessedness of the soul 't was a thing infinitely above the pitch of their hope or confidence the most perfect among them never pretended any jus meriti to it and if they did they had by so much the less hopes to attain to it Now if it be supposed as I fear is too true that our moral men fall far short of the antient Philosophers if they be now adays confident and trust in their works for salvation then they do not make good their name they are only so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abusively and notionally And yet even these equivocal moral men seem to me in as good if not better case than the other term of comparison the careless negligent debauch't men For upon their grounds is it not as easie for the Converting spirit to enter and subdue one Lucifer one proud Devil in the heart otherwise pretty well qualified as to deal with a whole Legion of blasphemous violent riotous railing ignorant Devils I have done all with the confutation of this loose groundless opinion which if 't were true would yet prove of dangerous consequence to be Preached in abating and turning our edge which is of it self blunt and dull enough toward goodness nay certainly it hath proved scandalous to those without as may appear by that boast and exultancy of Campian in his Eighth Reason where he upbraids us English-men of our abominable Lutheran licentious Doctrine as he calls it Quanto sceleratior es tanto vicinior gratiae and therefore I do not repent that I have been somewhat large in the refuting of it as also because it doth much import to the clearing of my discourse for if the meer moral men be farthest from Heaven then have I all this while busied my self and tormented you with an unprofitable nay injurious preparation whereas I should have prescribed you a shorter easier call by being extreamly sinful according to these two Aphorisms of Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the strongest bodies are in greatest danger and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and height of a disease is the fittest opportunity for a miraculous cure But beloved let us more considerately bethink our selves let us study and learn and walk a more secure probable way to Heaven and for those of us which are yet unregenerate though we obtained no grace of God but that of nature and reason and our Christianity to govern us yet let us not contemn those ordinary restraints which these will afford us let us attend in patience sobriety and humility and prayers the good time and leisures of the spirit let us not make our reasonable soul our profession of men of Christians ashamed of us let not the heathen and beasts have cause to blush at us let us remain men till it may please him to call us into Saints lest being plunged in habitual confident sinning that Hell and Tophet on Earth the very omnipotent mercy of God be in a manner foiled to hale us out again let us improve rack and stretch our natural abilities to the highest that although according to our thirteenth Article we cannnot please God yet we may not mightily provoke him Let every man be in some proportion to his gifts Christs Baptist and forerunner and harbinger in himself that whensoever he shall appear or knock he may enter lodge and dwell without resistance Lastly after all thy preparations be not secure if the Bridegroom will not vouchsafe to rest with you all your provision is in vain all the morality and learning and gifts and common graces unless Christ at last be born in us are but embryo's nay abortives rude imperfect horrid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Philosopher dies in his nonage in whom Christ was never born the highest reach of years and learning is but infancy without the virility and manhood of the spirit by which we are made perfect men in Christ Jesus Wherefore above all things in the world let us labour for this perfection let us melt and dissolve every faculty and spirit about us in pursuit of it and at last seal and bless and crown our endeavours with our Prayers and with all the Rhetorick and means and humility and violence of our souls importune and lay hold on the sanctifying spirit and never leave till he hath blessed and breathed on us O thou mighty controuling holy hallowing Ghost be pleased with thine effectual working to suppress in us all resistance of the pride of nature and prepare us for thy Kingdom of Grace here and Glory hereafter Now to him which hath elected us hath Created and Redeemed us c. SERMON X. JOHN VII 48 Have any of the Pharisees believed on him IT is observable from History with what difficulty Religion attempts to propagate and establish it self with the many what Countenance and encouragement it hath required from those things which are most specious and pompous in the World how it hath been fain to keep its dependencies and correspondencies and submit to the poor condition of sustaining it self by those beggarly helps which the World and the flesh will afford it Two main Pillars which it relies on are Power and Learning the Camp and the Schools or in a word authority of great ones and countenance of Scholars the one to force and extort obedience the other to insinuate belief and assent the first to ravish the second to perswade One instance for all if we would plant Christianity in Turky we must first invade and conquer them and then convince them of their follies which about an hundred years ago
most insolent tyrannizing passions which domineer over us which keep us in awe and never suffer us to stir or move or walk or do any thing that is good will yet give us leave to understand as much as we would wish they have only fettered our hands and feet have not blinded our Eyes as one shut up in the Tower from the conversation of men may be yet the greatest proficient in speculation The affections being more gross and corporeous from thence called the heels of the Soul and so easily chained and fettered but the understanding most pure and spiritual and therefore uncapable of shackles nay is many times most free and active when the will is most dead and sluggish And this may be the natural reason that even Aristotle may teach us why the greatest Scholars are not always the best Christians the Pharisees well read in the Prophets yet backwardest to believe because faith which constitutes a Christian is a spiritual prudence as 't is best defined and therefore is not appropriate to the understanding but if they be several faculties is rather seated in the Will the objects of Faith being not meerly speculative but always apprehended and assented to sub ratione boni as being the most unvaluable blessings which ever we desired of the Lord or can require The speculative part of divine wisdom may make us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intelligent spirits nay possibly do it in the worst notion render us Devils Real practical knowledge only prudence will make Angels ministring spirits unto God teach us to live and be better than we did So then in the first place learning doth neither make nor suppose men Christians Nay secondly it doth per accidens many times hinder put a rub in our way and keep us from being Christians Philoponus and Synesius Miracles of learning were therefore hardest to be converted they were so possest and engaged in Peripatetical Philosophy that however they might be perswaded to the Trinity they will not believe the Resurrection 'T was too plain a contradiction to philosophical reason ever to enter theirs Thus in the 1 Cor. i. 21 the World by wisdom knew not God they so relyed on their reason and trusted in it for all truths that they concluded every thing impossible that would not concur with their old Principles But this resistance which reason makes is not so strong but that it may easily be supprest and therefore Synesius was made a Bishop before he explicitly believed the resurrection because they were confident that he which had forsaken all other errors would not long continue perverse in this and so good a Christian in other things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could not choose but be illuminated in time in so necessary a point of Faith and indeed so it happened in them both But there are other more dangerous engins more insidious courses which learning uses to supplant or undermine belief other stratagems to keep us out of the way to anticipate all our desires or inclinations or thoughts that way-ward and these are spiritual pride and self-content Men are so elevated in height of contemplation so well pleased so fully satisfied in the pleasures and delights of it that the first sort scorn to submit or humble themselves to the poverty and disparagement of believing in Christ the second are never at leasure to think of it For the first spiritual pride 't is set down as a reason that the natural man receives not the things of the spirit 1 Cor. ii 14 receives them not i. e. will not take them will not accept of them though they are freely given him for they are foolishness unto him i. e. so his proud brain reputes them The pride of Worldly wisdom extremely scorns the foolishness of Christ and consequently is infinitely opposite to Faith which is wrought by special humility Secondly for self-content 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Heraclitus in Hesych Wise men need no friends they are able to subsist by themselves without any help they will have an happiness of their own making and scorn to be beholding to Christ for a new Inheritance they are already so fully possest of all manner of contents Let any man whisper them of the joys of the new Jerusalem of the Intercessor that hath saved of the way thither and made it passable of all the priviledges and promises of our adoption they will hear them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as old wives fables they have the fortunate Islands too their exactest tranquillity and serenity of mind in a perpetual contemplation and all the golden Apples in Paradise shall not tempt or allarm them out of it 'T is strange to see when such a man is called what a do there is to get him out of his Dream to hale him out of his study to the Church how sleepy and drowsy and lethargical he is in matters of Religion how soon a little devotion hath tired him out that could have pored over a Book incessantly all his life long and never thought thus to have been interdicted the delights of humane learning thus to have been pluckt and torn from the embraces of his Athenian Idol His conversion is much unlike another mans that which calls others into compass seems to let him loose thrust him abroad into the World teaches him to look more like a man than ever he meant makes him a member of the Common-wealth that was formerly but an Anchoret and forces him to walk and run the way of Gods commandments that had once decreed himself to a Chair for ever In brief there is as little hopes of one that indulges himself and gives himself up to the pride and contents of any kind of learning of him that terminates knowledge either in it self or else in the ostentation of it as of any other that is captiv'd to any one single worldly or fleshly kind of voluptuousness This of the brain in spight of the Philosopher is an intemperance as well as that of the throat and palate and more dangerous because less suspected and seldomer declaimed against and from this Epicurism especially of the Soul good Lord deliver us Not to heap up reasons of this too manifest a truth would God it were not so undeniable take but this one more of the unsufficiency of learning never so well used to make a man a Christian Let all the knowledge in the World prophane and sacred all the force and reason that all Ages ever bragg'd of let it concur in one brain and swell the head as big as his was in the Poem that travell'd of Minerva let all Scriptures and Fathers join their power and efficacy and they shall never by their simple activity produce a saving faith in any one all the miracles they can work are only on the understanding the will distinctly taken is above their sphear or compass or if their faculties are not distinguisht and to will is present with me Rom. vii 18 as well as to
understand yet they can produce only an absolute simple general will that is an assent and approbation of the absolute goodness of the thing proposed not a resolute will to abandon all other Worldly purposes to perform that which I will Knowledge and right apprehension of things may convince me first of the History that all that is spoken of or by Christ is true and then of the expedience to apply all his merits to my Soul but when I see all this cannot be done without paying a price without undoing my self without pawning all that I have my learning my wealth my delights my whole worldly being without self-denial then the general assent that absolute will is grown chill and dead we are still whatever we believe but Infidels all the Articles of the Creed thus assented to are not enough to make us â—hristians So that the issue of all is all knowledge in the World cannot make us deny our selves and therefore all knowledge in the World is not able to produce belief only the spirit must breath this power into us of breathing out our selves he must press our Breasts and stifle and strangle us we must give up the natural ghost he must force out our Earthly Breath out of our Earthly Bodies or else we shall not be enlivened by his spiritual Thus have you reasons of the common divorce betwixt knowledge and faith i. e. the no manner of dependence betwixt them in nature Secondly the open resistence in some points betwixt reason and Scripture Thirdly the more secret reluctancies betwixt the pride and contents of learning and the spirit And lastly the insufficiency of all natural knowledge and transcendency of spiritual so that he cannot know them because they are spiritually discernâ—d I should now in very charity release you but that there is one word behind of most important necessity to a Sermon and that is of Application That laying to our hearts the important documents of the Text our righteousness and faith may exceed that oâ— the Pharisees Mat. v. 20 our preaching and walking may be like that of Christs in power and as having authority and not as the Scribes Mat. vii 29 and we not content with a floating knowledge in the Brain do press and sink it down into our inferiour faculties our senses and affections till it arise in a full Harvest of fruitful diligently working Faith It was Zenophanes his phansy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that God was all Eyes and all Ears but breathed not there was no use of that in him and so is it with us who are always exercising our knowledge powers to see and hear what e're is possible but for any breath of life in us any motion of the spirit we have no use of it it is not worth valuing or taking notice of nothing so vulgar and contemptible in them that have it nothing of which we examine our selves so slightly of which we are so easily mistaken so willingly deceived and nothing that we will be content to have so small a measure of A little of it soon tires as out 't is too thin aery diet for us to live upon we cannot hold out long on it like the Israelites soon satiated with their bread from Heaven nothing comparable to their old food that Nilus yielded them Numb xi 5 We remember the fish that we did eat in Egypt but now our Soul is dryed away there is nothing but this Manna before our Eyes as if that were not worth the gathering Pythagoras could say that if any one were to be chosen to pray for the people to be made a Priest he must be a vertuous man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Iamblichus because the Gods would take more heed to his words and again that many things might be permitted the people which should be interdicted preachers It was thâ— confirmation of his precepts by his life and practice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that made Italy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Country his School and all that ever heard him his Disciples Nothing will give such authority to our Doctrine or set such a value on our calling as a religious Conversation He that takes such a Journey as that into Holy Orders must go on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to his 15 Symâ—olum must not return to his former sins as well as trade saith Iamblichus the falling into one of our youthful Vices is truly a disordering of our selves and a kind of plucking our hands from the Plow A Physician saith Hippocrates must have colour and be in flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a good promising healthy complexion and then men will guess him a man of skill otherwise the patient will bid the Physician heal himself and having by his ill look a prejudice against his Physick his phansy will much hinder its working You need no application He again will tell you that the profession suffers not so much by any thing as by rash censures and unworthy Professors In brief our very knowledge will be set at nought and our gifts scoffed at if our lives do not demonstrate that we are Christians as well as Scholars No man will be much more godly for hearing Seneca talk of Providence nor be affected with bare words unless he see them armed and backt with power of him that utters them Consider but this one thing and withal that my Doctrine is become a Proverb and he is a proud man that can first draw it upon a Scholar his learning and his clergy make him never the more religious O let our whole care and carriage and the dearest of our endeavours strive and prevail to cross the Proverb and stop the mouth of the rashest declamer That Comedy of Aristophanes took best which was all spent in laughing at Socrates and in him involved and abused the whole condition of learning though through Alcibiades his Faction it miscarried and mist its applause once or twice yet when men were left to their humour 't was admired and cried up extremely Learning hath still some honourable Favourers which keep others in awe with their Countenance but otherwise nothing more agreeable to the people than Comedies or Satyrs or Sarcasms dealt out against the Vniversities let us be sure that we act no parts in them our selves nor perform them before they are acted Let us endeavour that theirs may be only pronunciations a story of our faults as presented in a Scene but never truly grounded in any of our actions One wo we are secure and safe from Wo be to you when all men shall speak well of you we have many good Friends that will not let this Curse light on us O let us deliver our selves from that Catalogue of woes which were all denounced against the Pharisees for many Vices all contained in this accomplisht piece 〈◊〉 say but do not Mat. xxiii 4 And seeing all our intellectual excellencies cannot assure or bribe or woo Gods spirit to overshadow
finding him in the state of damnation it sets him going suffers him not to lay hold on any thing that may stay him in his Precipice and in the midst of his Shipwrack when there be planks and refuges enough about him hath numm'd his hands depriv'd him of any power of taking hold of them In the second place in respect of Christ and his sufferings the objects of our Faith so Faith is in a manner the Soul of them giving them life and efficacy making things which are excellent in themselves prove so in effect to others Thus the whole splendor and beauty of the World the most accurate proportions and images of nature are beholding to the Eye though not for their absolute excellency yet for both the account and use that is made of them for if all men were blind the proudest workmanship of nature would not be worth the valuing Thus is a learned piece cast away upon the ignorant and the understanding of the Auditor is the best commendation of a Speech or Sermon In like manner those infinite unvaluable sufferings of Christ if they be not believed in are but as Aristotle saith of divine knowledge a most honourable thing but of no manner of use if they be not apprehended they are lost Christ's Blood if not caught up in our hearts by Faith but suffered to be poured out upon the Earth will prove no better than that of Abel Gen. iv 10. crying for judgment from the ground that which is spilt is clamorous and its Voice is toward Heaven for Vengeance only that which is gathered up as it falls from his side by Faith will prove a medicine to heal the Nations So that infidelity makes the death of Christ no more than the death of an ordinary man in which there is no remedy Wisd ii 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no cure no physick in it or as the same word is rendred Eccles xxviii 3 no pardon no remission wrought by it a bare going down into the Grave that no man is better for It doth even frustrate the sufferings of Christ and make him have paid a ransom to no purpose and purchased an Inheritance at an infinite rate and no man the better for it Again Christ is not only contemn'd but injur'd not only slighted but robb'd he loses not only his price and his thanks but his servant which he hath bought and purchased with his blood For redemption is not an absolute setting free but the buying out of an Usurpers hands that he may return to his proper Lord changing him from the condition of a Captive to a Subject He which is ransomed from the Gallies is not presently a King but only recovered to a free and tolerable service nay generally if he be redeemed he is eo nomine a servant by right and equity his Creature that redeemed him according to the express words Luke i. 74 That we being delivered might serve him Now a Servant is a Possession part of ones Estate as truly to be reckoned his as any part of his Inheritance So that every Vnbeliever is a Thief robs Christ not only of the honour of saving him but of one of the Members of his Family of part of his goods his Servant nay 't is not a bare theft but of the highest size a Sacriledge stealing an holy instrument a Vessel out of Gods Temple which he bought and delivered out of the common calamity to serve him in holiness Luke i. 74 to be put to holy special services In the third place Faith may be considered in reference to God the Father and that 1. as the Author or Fountain of this Theological grace 2. as the commander of this duty of believing and either of these will aggravate the Unbelievers guilt and adde more Articles to his indictment As God is the Author of Faith so the Infidel resists and abandons and flies from all those methods all those means by which God ordinarily produces Faith all the power of his Scriptures all the blessings of a Christian Education all the benefits of sacred knowledge in summ the Prayers the sweat the Lungs the Bowels of his Ministers in Christs stead beseeching you to be reconciled 1 Cor. v. 20 spending their dearest spirits and even praying and preaching out their Souls for you that you would be Friends with God through Christ All these I say the Infidel takes no notice of and by his contempt of these inferiour graces shews how he would carry himself even towards Gods very spirit if it should come in power to convert him he would hold out and bid defiance and repel the Omnipotent God with his omnipotent charms of mercy he that contemns Gods ordinary means would be likely to resist his extraordinary were there not more force in the means than forwardness in the man and thanks be to that controuling convincing constraining spirit if ever he be brought to be content to be saved He that will not now believe in Christ when he is preached would have gone very near if he had lived then to have given his consent and join'd his suffrage in Crucifying him A man may guess of his inclination by his present practices and if he will not now be his Disciple 't was not his innocence but his good fortune that he did not then betray him 'T was well he was born amongst Christians or else he might have been as sowre a profest Enemy of Christ as Pilate or the Pharisees an Unbelieving Christian is for all his livery and profession but a Jew or Heathen and the Lord make him sensible of his condition Lastly Consider this duty of Faith in respect of God the Father commanding it and then you shall find it the main precept of the Bible 'T were long to shew you the ground of it in the law of nature the obscure yet discernable mention of it in the moral law both transcendently in the main end of all and distinctly though not clearly in the first Commandment he that hath a mind to see may find it in Pet. Baro. de praest dignit div legis 'T were as toilsom to muster up all the commands of the Old Testament which exactly and determinately drive at belief in Christ as generally in those places where the Chaldee Paraphrase reads instead of God Gods Word as Fear not Abraham for I am thy shield say they my word is thy shield which speaks a plain command of Faith for not to fear is to trust not to fear on that ground because Gods Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word Joh. i. 1 i. e. Christ is ones shield is nothing in the World but to believe and rely and fasten and depend on Christ Many the like commands of Faith in Christ will the Old Testament afford and the new is nothing else but a perpetual inculcating of it upon us a driving and calling entreating and enforcing wooing and hastning us to believe In which respect the Schools call
of the Anvil which by many strokes is somewhat smoothed but no whit softned all they got by one days preaching was to inable them the better to resist the second Every Sermon of a Paul or Peter was but an alarum to set them on their guard of defence to warn them to cast up some more Trenches and Bulwarks to fortify themselves stronger against any possible invasion of Gods spirit according to that of the Aegyptian Hermes speaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in a Christian phrase the power of the Scripture they have saith he this property in them that when they meet with evil men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they do more sharpen and egg them on to evil Thus was the preaching of the word to all men every where attended with some effects or other according to the materials it met with never returned unprofitably but either was the power of God to salvation unto all that believed or the witness of God to condemnation to those which were hardned Now if this precious receipt administred to all find not in all the like effect of recovering yet from hence is neither the Physick to be under-prized nor the Prescriber the matter is to be imputed sometimes to the weakness and peevishness of the Patient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he cannot or will not perform the prescriptions sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fault is to be laid on the stubbornness and stoutness of the disease which turns every Medicine into its nourishment and so is not abated but elevated by that which was intended to asswage it as Hippocrates defines it medicinally in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So then by way of use If we desire that these commands this Covenant offered to all men every where may evidence it self to our particular Souls in its spiritual efficacy we must with all the industry of our spirits endeavour to remove those hindrances which may any way perturb or disorder or weaken it in its working in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Hippocrates you must furnish your self before-hand with a Shop of several softning Plasters and take some one of them as a preparative before every Sermon you come to that coming to Church with a tender mollified waxy heart you may be sure to receive every holy character and impression which that days exercise hath provided for thee lest otherwise if thou should'st come to Church with an heart of Ice that Ice be congealed into Crystal and by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the warmth of Gods word not abate but increase the coldness of a chill frozen spirit and finding it hard and stubborn return it obdurate O what a horrid thing is it that the greatest mercy under Heaven should by our unpreparedness be turned into the most exquisite curse that Hell or malice hath in store for us That the most precious Balm of Gilead should by the malignity of some tempers be turned into poyson that the leaves which are appointed for the healing of the Nations should meet with some such sores which prove worse by any remedy that the most soveraign 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or lenitive in the World should only work to our obduration and the preaching of the word of mercy adde to the measure of our condemnation This is enough to perswade you by an horror into some kind of sollicitude to prepare your Souls to a capability of this Cure to keep your selves in a Christian temper that it may be possible for a Sermon to work upon you that that breath which never returns in vain may be truly Gospel happy in its Message may convert not harden you to which purpose you must have such tools in store which the Physician speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instruments of spiritual surgery to cut and prune off all luxuriant cumbersom excrescences all rankness and dead flesh which so oppress the Soul that the vertue of Medicine cannot search to it And for this purpose there is no one more necessary of more continual use for every man every where than that which here closeth my Text Repentance And so I come to the second respect the universality of the persons as it refers to the matter of the command repentance every man every where to repent And here I should shew you that repentance both generally taken for a sorrow for sin containing in it virtually faith also so the Baptism of repentance is interpreted Acts xix 4 John baptized with the Baptism of Repentance saying unto the people that they should believe c. and more specially in this place taken for the directing of our knowledge to practice and both to Gods glory as hath been shewn is and always was necessary to every man that will be saved For according to Aristotles rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noting both an universality of subject and circumstance is a degree of necessity and therefore repentance being here commanded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be judged a condition necessary to every man who answers at the command i. e. who expects his part in the Covenant of Salvation this I say I might prove at large and to that purpose vindicate the Writings of some of the Fathers especially of Clemens who I am almost confident is groundlesly cited for bestowing Salvation on the Heathen without exacting the condition of Faith and Repentance which now 't were superfluous to insist on 2. Urge it both to your brains and hearts and by the necessity of the duty rouse and enforce and pursue you to the practice of it But seeing this Catholick duty is more the inspiration of the Holy Ghost than the acquisition of our labours seeing this fundamental Cardinal Gift comes from the supreme Donor seeing nature is no more able spiritually to re-inliven a Soul than to animate a Carcass our best endeavour will be our humiliation our most profitable directions will prove our Prayers and what our frailty cannot reach to our devotions shall obtain And let us labour and pray and be confident that God which hath honoured us with his commands will inable us to a performance of them and having made his Covenant with us will fulfil in us the condition of it that the thundering of his word being accompanied with the still voice of his Spirit may suffer neither repulse nor resistance that our hearts being first softned then stamped with the Spirit may be the Images of that God that made them that all of us every where endeavouring to glorify God in our knowledge in our lives in our faith in our repentance may for ever be glorified by him and through him and with him hereafter Now to him that hath elected us hath created redeemed c. SERMON XIV ROM I. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections IN this most accurate Epistle that ever the Pen of man could lay title to in which all the counsels and proceedings and methods
Mistress of their actions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a creature sent on purpose to preserve them and these saith he deserve not to be chid but pitied for nature at first appointed them this condition of life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is their birthright and inheritance and therefore no body will be angry with them for living on it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But for them who were made Creatures of light and had it not been for their wilfulness had still continued light in the Lord who are altogether encompast and environed with light light of nature light of reason light of religion nay the most glorious asterism or conjunction of lights in the World the light of the Gospel to walk in for these men meerly out of perverseness of wilful hearts to hate and abjure and defy this light to run out of the World almost for fear of it to be for ever a solliciting and worshipping of darkness as Socrates was said to adore the Clouds this is such a sottishness that the stupidst Element under Heaven would naturally scorn to be guilty of for never was the earth so peevish as to forbid the Sun when it would shine on it or to sâ—ink away or subduce it self from its rayes And yet this is our case beloved who do more amorously and flatteringly court and woo and sollicite darkness than ever the Heathens adored the Sun Not to wander out of the sphere my Text hath placed me in to shew how the light of the Gospel and Christianity is neglected by us our guilt will ly heavy enough on us if we keep us to the light only of natural reason within us How many sins do we daily commit which both nature and reason abhor and loath How many times do we not only unman but even uncreature our selves Aristotle observes that that by which any thing is known first that which doth distinguish one thing from another à priore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be called the beginning or cause of that thing and that the light of reason distinguishing one action from another being the first thing that teaches me that this is good that otherwise may from thence be termed the beginning of every reasonable action in us and then where ever this cause or beginning is left out and wanting there the thing produced is not so called a positive act or proper effect but a defect an abortion or still-born frustrate issue and of this condition indeed is every sin in us Every action where this Law within us is neglected is not truly an action but a passion a suffering or a torment of the Creature Thus do we not so much live and walk which note some action as ly entranced asleep nay dead in sin by this perverseness 't is perpetual night with us nay we even dy daily our whole life is but a multiplyed swoon or lethargy in which we remain stupid breathless senseless till the day of Death or Judgment with a hideous Voice affrights and rouses us and we find our selves awake in Hell and so our dark Souls having a long while groped wilfully in the Sun are at last lead to an Everlasting inevitable darkness whither the mercy or rays of the Sun can never pierce where it will be no small accession to our torment to remember and tremble at that light which before we scorn'd Thus I say do we in a manner uncreature our selves and by the contempt of this Law of our Creation even frustrate and bring to nothing our Creation it self and this is chiefly by sins of sloth and stupid sluggish unactive Vices which as I said make our whole life a continued passion never daring or venturing or attempting to act or do any thing in Church or Commonwealth either toward God or our Neighbour and of such a condition'd man no body will be so charitable as to guess he hath any Soul or light of reason in him because he is so far from making use of it unless it be such a Soul as Tully saith a Swine hath which serves it only instead of Salt to keep it from stinking For 't is Aristotles observation that every one of the Elements besides the Earth was by some Philosopher or other defin'd to be the Soul Some said the Soul was fire some that 't was air some water but never any man was so mad as to maintain the earth to be it because 't was so heavy and unweildy So then this heavy motionless unactive Christian this clod of Earth hath as I said uncreatured himself and by contemning this active reason within him even deprived himself of his Soul Again how ordinary a thing is it to unman our selves by this contempt of the directions of reason by doing things that no man in his right mind would ever have patience to think of Beloved to pass by those which we call unnatural sins i. e. so in the highest degree as too horrid for our nature set down in the latter end of this Chapter for all Christian Ears to glow and tingle at and I had hoped for all English spirits to abhor and loath To pass these I say our whole life almost affords minutely sins which would not argue us men but some other Creatures There be few things we do in our age which are proper peculiar acts of men one man gives himself to eating and drinking and bestows his whole care on that one faculty which they call the vegetative growing faculty and then what difference is there betwixt him and a Tree whose whole nature it is to feed and grow Certainly unless he hath some better imployment he is at best but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a plant-animal whose shape would perhaps perswade you that it hath some sense or Soul in it but its actions betray it to be a mere plant little better than an Artichoak or Cabbage another goes a little higher yet not far doth all that his sense presents to him suffers all that his sensitive faculties lust and rage to exercise at freedom is as fierce as the Tyger as lustful as the Goat as ravenous as the Wolf and the like and all the Beasts of the Field and Fowls of the air be but several Emblemes and Hieroglyphicks concurring to make up his character carries a Wilderness about him as many sins as the nature of a sensitive Creature is capable of and then who will stick to compare this man to the beasts that perish For 't is Theophilus his note that the Cattle and Beasts of the Field were created the same day with man Gen. i. 25 to note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brutish condition of some men and that therefore the blessing was not bestowed on them but reserved for the man which should have the dominion over them Verse 26 28. In summ every action which reason or Scripture or Gods spirit guides not in us is to be called the work of some other Creature
Soul bestows all life and motion on it and enables it to perform any work of nature Again the Body and Soul together considered in relation to somewhat above their power and activity are as impotent and motionless as before the Body without the Soul Set a man to remove a Mountain and he will heave perhaps to obey your command but in event will do no more towards the displacing of it than a stone in the street could do but now let an Omnipotent Power be annext to this man let a supernatural spirit be joined to this Soul and then will it be able to overcome the proudest stoutest difficulty in nature You have heard in the Primitive Church of a grain of Faith removing Mountains and believe me all Miracles are not yet out-dated The work of Regeneration the bestowing of a spiritual Life on one dead in trespasses and sins the making of a Carcass walk the natural old man to spring again and move spiritually is as great a miracle as that Now the Soul in that it produces life and motion the exercise of life in the body is called a principle that is a Spring or Fountain of Life because all comes from it in like manner that which moves this Soul and enables it to do that which naturally it could not that which gives it a new life which before it lived not furnisheth it with spiritual powers to quell and subdue all carnal affections which were before too hard for it this I say is called properly an inward principle and an inward because it is inwardly and secretly infused doth not only outwardly assist us as an auxiliary at a dead lift but is sown and planted in our hearts as a Soul to the Soul to elevate and enable it above it self hath its seat and palace in the regenerate heart and there exercises dominion executes judgment and that is commonly either by Prison or Banishment it either fetters or else expels all insolent rebellious lusts Now the new principle by which not the man but the new man the Christian lives is in a word the spirit of God which unites it self to the regenerate heart so that now he is said to be a godly man a spiritual man from the God from the Spirit as before a living reasonable man from the Soul from the reason that inform'd and ruled in him which is noted by that distinction in Scripture betwixt the regenerate and unregenerate exprest by a natural or animal and a spiritual man Those Creatures that have no Soul in them are called naturals having nothing but nature within to move them others which have a Soul animals or living Creatures by both which the unregenerate is signified indifferently because the Soul which he hath stands him in little stead his flesh rules all and then he is also called a carnal man for all his Soul he is but a lump of flesh and therefore whether you say he hath a Soul and so call him an animal or hath not a Soul and so call him a mere natural there is no great difference in it But now the regenerate man which hath more than a Soul Gods spirit to enliven him he is of another rank 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual man nay only he properly a Christian because he lives by Christ He lives yet not he but Christ liveth 〈◊〉 him Gal. ii 20 This being premised that now you know what this new Creature is he that lives and moves by a new principle all that is behind will be clearliest presented to you by resolving these four questions first whence it comes secondly where it lodges thirdly when it enters fourthly what works it performs there To the first whence it comes the answer is clear and punctual John iii. 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from above from whence comes every good and especially every perfect gift James i. 17 but this most peculiarly by a several and more excellent way than any thing else Since Christs Ascension the Holy Ghost of all the persons in the Trinity is most frequently employed in the work of descending from Heaven and that by way of mission from the Father and the Son according to the promise of Christ John xv 26 The comforter whom I will send from the Father Now this spirit being present every where in its essence is said to come to us by communication of his gifts and so to be peculiarly resident in us as God is in the Church from which Analogy our Bodies are called the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is in us 1 Cor. vi 19 God sends then his spirit into our hearts and this I said by a peculiar manner not by way of emission as an Arrow sent out of a Bow which loses its union which it had with the Bow and is now fastned in the Butt or White nor properly by way of infusion as the Soul is in the Body infus'd from God yet so also that it is in a manner put into our hands and is so in the man's possession that hath it that it is neither in any mans else nor yet by any extraordinary tye annext to God from whom it came but by way of irradiation as a beam sent from the Sun that is in the air indeed and that substantially yet so as it is not separated from the Sun nay consists only in this that it is united to the Sun so that if it were possible for it to be cut off from the Sun it would desist to be it would illuminate no longer So that you must conceive these beams of Gods spirit at the same time in the Christians heart and in the spirit and so uniting that spirit to the heart as you may conceive by this proportion I have a Javelin or Spear in my hand if I would mischief any thing or drive it from me I dart it out of my hand at it from which Gods judgments are compared to shooting and lightning He hath bent his bow he hath sent forth his arrows he cast forth lightnings Psalm xviii 14 But if I like any thing that I meet with if I would have it to me I reach out my Spear and fasten in it but still hold the Spear in my hand and having pierc't it draw it to me Thus doth God reach forth his graces to us and as I may so say by keeping one end in his hand and fastning the other in us plucks and unites us to himself from which regeneration is ordinarily called an union with Christ and this union by a strong able band 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Euseb his phrase which no man can cut asunder 'T is impossible to divide or cut a spirit and this Bond is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual one and that made St. Paul so confident That no creature should ever separate him Rom. viii 39 And this God does by way of emanation as a Loadstone sending out its effluvia or magnetick atomes draws the Iron to
from the 22. verse and 1 Peter i. 5 All these graces together though some belonging to one some to another faculty of the Soul are yet all at once conceived in it at once begin their life in the heart though one be perhaps sooner ready to walk abroad and shew it self in the World than another As in the 2 of Kings iv 34 Elisha went up on the bed and lay on the child and put his mouth on his mouth and eyes upon his eyes and hands upon his hands and stretched himself upon the child and the flesh of the child waxed warm and verse 35. the Child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes Thus I say doth the spirit apply it self unto the Soul and measure it self out to every part of it and then the spiritual life comes at once into the Soul as motion beginning in the centre diffuses it self equally through the whole sphere and affecteth every part of the Circumference and the flesh of the child waxed warm where the flesh indefinitely signifieth every part of it together and in the spiritual sense the whole Soul and this is when the inward principle when the habit enters Then for acts of life one perhaps shews it self before another as the Child first sneezed seven times a violent disburthening it self of some troublesome humours that tickle in the head to which may be answerable our spiritual clearing and purging our selves by Self-denyal the laying aside every weight Heb. xii 1 then opened his eyes which in our spiritual Creature is spiritual illumination or the eye of Faith these I say may first shew themselves as acts and yet sometimes others before them yet all alike in the habit all of one standing one Conception one plantation in the heart though indeed ordinarily like Esau and Jacob the rougher come out first We begin our spiritual life in Repentance and contrition and with many harsh twinges of the spirit and then comes Faith like Jacob at the Heels smooth and soft applying all the cordial promises to our penitent Souls In brief if any judgment be to be made which of these graces is first in the regenerate man and which rules in chief I conceive Self-denial and Faith to be there first and most eminent according to that notable place Matth. xvi 24 where Christ seems to set down the order of graces in true Disciples Let him deny himself and take up his Cross that is forgo all his carnal delights and embrace all manner of punishments and miseries prepare himself even to go and be Crucified and then follow me that is by a lively Faith believe in Christ and prize him before all the World besides and indeed in effect these two are but one though they appear to us in several shapes for Faith is nothing without Self-denial it cannot work till our carnal affections be subjected to it Believe a man may and have flesh and fleshly lust in him but unless Faith have the pre-eminence Faith is no Faith The man may be divided betwixt the law of his members and the law of his mind so many degrees of flesh so many of spirit but if there be constantly but an even balance or more of flesh than spirit if three degrees of spirit and five of flesh then can there not be said to be any true Self-denyal and consequently any Faith no more than that can be said to be hot which hath more degrees of cold than heat in it In brief 't is a good measure of Self-denyal that sets his Faith in his Throne and when by it Faith hath conquered though not without continual resistance when it hath once got the upper hand then is the man said to be regenerate whereupon it is that the regenerate state is called the life of Faith Faith is become a principle of the greatest power and activity in the Soul And so much for these four Queries from which I conceive every thing that is material and directly pertinent to instruct you and open the estate of a new Creature may be resolved And for other niceties how far we may prepare our selves how cooperate and join issue with the spirit whether it work irresistibly by way of physical influence or moral perswasion whether being once had it may totally or finally be lost again and the like these I say if they are fit for any I am resolved are not necessary for a Countrey Auditory to be instructed in 'T will be more for your profit to have your hearts raised than your brains puft up to have your spirits and souls inwardly affected to an earnest desire and longing after it which will perhaps be somewhat performed if we proceed to shew you the necessity of it and unavailableness of all things else and that by way of use and application And for the necessity of renewedness of heart to demonstrate that I will only crave of you to grant me that the performance of any one duty towards God is necessary and then it will prove it self for it is certain no duty to God can be performed without it For 't is not a fair outside a slight performance a bare work done that is accepted by God if it were Cain would deserve as much thanks for his Sacrifice as his Brother Abel for in the outside of them there was no difference unless perhaps on Cain's side that he was forwardest in the duty and offered first Gen. iv 3 But it is the inside of the action the marrow and bowels of it that God judges by If a summ in gross or a bag sealed up would pass for payment in Gods audit every man would come and make his accounts duly enough with him and what he wanted in gold for his payment should be made up in Counters But God goes more exactly to work when he comes to call thee to an account of thy Stewardship he is a God of thoughts and a searcher of the hearts and reins and 't will then be a harder business to be found just when he examines or clear when he will judge The least spot and blemish in the Face of it the least maim or imperfection in the Offering the least negligence or coldness in the performance nay the least corruption in the heart of him that doth it hath utterly spoiled the Sacrifice Be the bulk and skin of the work never so large and beautiful to the Eye if it come not from a sanctified renewed gracious heart it will find no acceptance but that in the Prophet Who hath required it at your hands This is not it that God is taken with or such as he commanded it may pass for a complement or a work of course but never be valued as a duty or real service Resolve thy self to dwell no where but in the Church and there like Simeon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Euseb plant thy self continually in a Pillar with thy Eyes and words fixt and shot up perpetually towards
where else they dwell there So wallowing in the mire being a condition natural to the swine can never be extorted from them wash them rinse them purge them with Hyssop as soon as ever they meet with mire again they will into it Their Swinish nature hath such an influence on them that all care or art cannot forbid or hinder this effect of it So that a customary Sinner who hath as it were made lust a part of his nature hath incorporated prophaneness and grafted it into his affections can as hardly be rid of it as a subject of his property 't is possible for fear or want of opportunity sometime to keep him in and make him abstain the load-stone mayâ—ly quiet whilst no iron is within ken or it may be held by force in its presence but give it materials and leave to work and it draws incontinently So for all his temporary forbearance upon some either policy or necessity the habituate sinner hath not yet given over his habit Leave him to himself give him room and opportunity and he will hold no longer If he be once advanced to this pitch of sin to be walking after his own lusts he may possibly be driven back with a storm or thunder but he will hardly give over his walk hee 'l forward again as soon as ever the tempest is over Nay farther even when he wants objects and opportunities he will yet shew his condition he will betray the desire and good affection he bears to his old lusts his discourse or fashions argue him incontinently bent even when he is at the stanchest As Aristotle observes of the fearful man that even when no formidable object is near he falls into many frights so the voluptuous mans phancy is perpetually possest with the meditation of his own wayes when some disease or necessity will not let him walk In brief unless this second nature be quite taken out of him and another holy spiritual nature created in its room unless a stronger come and bind this Devil and dispossess him of it he hath small hopes of getting himself out of his Dominion and Tyranny there is a great deal more stir in the converting of one customary Sinner than of a thousand others 't is not to be accomplished without a kind of Death and Resurrection without a new Creation of another nature So that if we should judge of Gods actions by our own the spirit should seem to be put to more pains and trouble with this one habituate than in the ordinary business of converting many a tamer Sinner This is enough by the desperateness of the cure to move you to study some art some physick of prevention lest when it is grown upon you it be too late to enquire for remedies How should we dare to entertain and naturalize such an evil spirit within us which if ever he be ravisht out of us again cannot without tearing and torturing and rending even our whole nature in pieces If we must needs be sinful yet let us keep within a moderation let us not so follow the Devils works as to transubstantiate our selves into his nature let us not put off our manhood with our integrity and though we cannot be Saints let us keep our selves men 'T is a degree of innocence not to be extremely wicked and a piece of godliness not to be Atheists Our lust is an infinite thing said a Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jambl. and he that walks after it hath an endless journey there is no hope that he that hath so far to go will ever have leisure to sit still And therefore I say if we must needs sin yet let us not engage our selves to sin for ever if our being men lays a necessity of sinning on us let our care to stay whilst it is possible for us prove that we do not sin like â—evils whose sin is their glory and their resolution peremptory never to give over sinning and so may ours seem and in all likelihood prove to be if we give our selves liberty to walk after our own lusts Secondly If our lusts be such dangerous paths to walk in and this in that very respect as they are our own in opposition to Gods commands if they are the straight direct way to Atheism nay Atheism it self then what care and circumspection is required at every setting down of our feet at every entrance on any action lest there be a Serpent in the way some piece of prophaneness in every enterprize we enter on of our selves How ought we to fear to suspect and balk any way that is our own For where it is Atheism to walk there surely 't is a sin to tread and where we have once ventured to tread we shall be shrewdly tempted to walk every step we have safely taken being an encouragement to a second Verebar omnia opera mea saith Job I feared all my works whatever action I could entitle my self to methought there was some danger in it I was afraid it was not right as it should be I should never be able to justify it This is an excellent tryal of all our serious deliberate actions to mark whether they are our own or no whether we went about them on our own heads without our warrant or directions from God if we did 't is much to be doubted there is some poyson some guilt in them some thing that deserves to be feared and fled from This very suspecting of our own wayes will aliene us from our own lusts will bend us nearer to God and never suffer us to dare to venture where he hath not secured us will join us as it were in an Engine to God himself where the lower Wheels never begin to move without the example and government of the higher If you can but perswade your self to fear your own wayes 't will be a good stop of your progress to Atheism I am confident the Devil will never get you to walk in your own lusts Thirdly If walking in our own lusts be direct Atheism what shall we think of them who make it a piece of Religion and holy policy to do so Beloved there be some learned Catechised Atheists who upon confidence of an absolute eternal predestination of every man in the World that shall ever possibly be saved set up their rest there and expect what God will do with them 'T is to no purpose to hope God will alter the decree they are resolved to leave all to God and if they perish they perish Mark with me is not this a Religious Atheism to attribute so much to God as to become careless of him so to depend as never to think on him and by granting his Decree in our understanding to deny his Godhead in our conversation He that lives negligently on confidence that his care may be spared that if there be any salvation for him God will work it out without his fear or trembling he that believes Gods election so absolute that himself
is esteemed unnecessary and burthensom You need not the application Again the husbandman can mend a dry stubborn wayward fruitless earth by overflowing of it and on such indeed is his ordinary requisite discipline to punish it for its amendment But there is a ground otherwise well tempered which they call a weeping ground whence continually water soaks out and this proves seldom fruitful if our learned Husbandmen observe aright wherefore there is sometime need of draining as well as watering The application is that your Soul which either hath been naturally dry and barren or else over-wrought in the business of the World needs a flood of tears to soften and purge it But the well temper'd Soul which hath never been out of heart but hath always had some inward life some fatness of and nourishment from the spirit is rather opprest than improved by such an overslow The Christian is thereby much hindred in his progress of good works and cannot serve the Lord with alacrity that so perpetually hangs down his head like a Bulrush Wherefore the Country rule is that that ground is best which is mellow which being crusht will break but not crumble dissolve but not excessively Hence I say the habituate believer need not suspect his estate if he find not in himself such an extremity of violent grief and humiliation as he observes in others knowing that in him such a measure of tears would both soil the face of his devotion and clog the exercise of it His best mediocrity will be to be habitually humbled but actually lively and alacrious in the ways of godliness not to be too rigid and severe a Tyrant over his Soul but to keep it in a temper of Christian softness tender under the hand of God and yet man-like and able both in the performance of Gods worship and his own calling And whensoever we shall find our selves in either extreme either too much hardned or too much melted too much elevated or too much dejected then to pray to that Holy Spirit so to fashion the temper of our Souls that we neither fail in humbling our selves in some measure for our sins nor yet too cowardly deject and cast down our selves below the courage and comfort and spiritual rejoycing which he hath prescribed us O Holy Lord we are the greatest of Sinners and therefore we humble our selves before thee but thou hast sent thy Christ into the World to save Sinners and therefore we raise up our spirits again and praise and magnifie thy name And thus much of this point and in brief of the first consideration of these words to wit as they are absolutely a profession of Paul himself to which end we beheld him in his double estate converted and unconverted In his unconverted state we found though a very great Sinner yet not absolutely greater than those times brought forth and therefore we were to think of him relatively to his future estate and so we found him the greatest Sinner that ever was called in the New Testament into so glorious a Saint Whence we observe the rarity of such conversions that though Saul were yet every blasphemous Sinner could not expect to be called from the depth of sin to regeneracy and salvation and this we proved both against the ancient Romans and modern Censors of morality and applied it to the care which we ought to have of keeping our unregeneracy spotless from any reigning sin Afterward we came to Paul converted where we balk't the Discourse of the condition of sin in the regenerate and rather observed the effect of it and in it that the greatness of his sin made as Paul so every regenerate man more eagerly to fasten on Christ Which being proved by a double ground we applied first by way of caution how that proposition was to be understood 2. By way of character how a great Sinner may judge of his sincere certain Conversion 3. By way of comfort to others who find not the effects of humiliation and the like in themselves in such measure as they see in others and so we have past through the first consideration of these words being conceived absolutely as St. Pauls profession of himself we should come to the other consideration as they are set down to us as a pattern or form of confessing the estate and applying the Salvation of Sinners to our selves which business requiring the pains and being worthy the expence of an entire hour we must defer to a second exercise Now the God which hath created us hath elected redeemed called justified us will sanctifie us in his time will prosper this his ordinance will direct us by his grace to his glory To him be ascribed due the honour the praise the glory the dominion which through all ages of the world have been given to him that sitteth on the Throne to the Holy Spirit and Lamb for evermore Pars Secunda SERMON XIX 1 TIM I. 15 Of whom I am the chief IN all Humane Writings and Learning there is a kind of poverty and emptiness which makes them when they are beheld by a Judicious Reader look starved and Crest-faln their Speeches are rather puft up than fill'd they have a kind of boasting and ostentation in them and promise more substance and matter to the Ear than they are able to perform really to the understanding whence it falls out that we are more affected with them at the first hearing and if the Orator be clear in his expression we understand as much at the first recital as we are able to do at the hundredth repetition But there is a kind of Excellency in the Scripture a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sublimity above all other Writings in the World The reading of every Section of it leaves a sting in the mind and a perpetual conceit of a still imperfect understanding of it An intelligent man at every view finds in it a fresh mystery and still perceives that there is somewhat beyond not yet attain'd to like men digging in Mines the deeper he dives he finds the greatest treasure and meets with that under ground which looking on the outward turf or surface he never imagined to have been there This I observe unto you to shew you the riches both of all and especially of this Scripture whereinto the deeper I dig the more Ore I find and having already bestowed one hour in the discussing of it without any violence or wresting or wire-drawing find plenty of new materials We have already handled the Words at large in one consideration as they are a profession of Paul himself I will not repeat you the particular occurrents We now without any more delay of Preface come to the second consideration of them as they are spoken by Paul respectively to us i. e. as they are prescribed us for a form of confessing the estate and applying the Salvation of Sinners unto our selves teaching each of us for a close of our Faith and Devotion to confess