Herod might indeed truly rejoyce at the Preaching of Iohn but I shall detect his joy and shew it to have been meerly carnal and so wholly set upon the respects of this life that it had no dependency at all on that to come And to begin the discovery aright we must first observe his Faith which I take or rather find to be Temporary the fame that Saint Mark describes chap. 4th at the 17th verse They have no root in themselves and endure but for a time my Authority is Beza â—…adebat hic semen in saxosa loca saith he The sowers seed sell here upon stony ground The servant must not be above his Master and therefore as Christ sometimes Preached to hard and obdurate hearers that received not the word so kindly into their hearts as that it could take due root in them so must Iohn be content to do Now this Temporary Faith although we may well enough stile it true Faith as Truth is opposed to Hypocrisie because it was not feigned yet doth it as much differ from the nature and excellency of that which justifieth as Ismael did from Isaak he was no counterfeit child of Abraham but yet begotten upon a bond-woman So these Faiths the Temporary and Iustifying Faith do both proceed from the same Spirit as from the same Father or Author of them But you know that Sun the Holy Spirit I mean imparts his influences diversly unto men and after different measures viz. according as he stands affected to the subject which he works upon No man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost saith Saint Paul 1 Cor. 12. and yet the devils themselves constrained no doubt thereto by the evident power of Gods Spirit non dicunt tantum sed vociferantur as one saith they do not onely speak it but proclaim it I know who thou art saith the unclean spirit in Saint Mark chap. the 3. even the holy one of God Here are different works of the Spirit you see even upon reprobate and damned creatures But Spiritus Paracletus erit vobiscum saith Christ of the elect Iohn the 14th They shall receive the Spirit not of Illumination only but of Comfort The Scripture 't is confessed stiles them both by the name of Faith but the one is a bare assent only unto the Doctrine preached the other is a confident application of it wee saith that elect Apostle have confidence by Faith in him Ephes. 3. at the 12th verse Lastly they both produce a gladnesse this pure and Spiritual out of a sense of the forgivenesse of Sins being justified by Faith we have peace with God Rom. 5. at the 1. that other impure carnal and only stirr'd up by the force of some Worldly motives So were the Philosophers at Athens most gladly desirous to hear the Doctor of the Gentiles not because their Souls were joy'd with the soundnesse of his Doctrine but because their ears listened after Novelties 'T was a story to them that seem'd to deserve attention to hear of a Deity Incarnate of a God crucifyed and that to the Immortality of the Soul which they had learn'd from nature the Gospel now added the Resurrection of the Body The strangenesse of such Doctrine as this must needs delight and give satisfaction no lesse to a Curious than to a Godly Auditour How could the Doctrine of Christian liberty but be welcome to many irreligious and loose people in Hierusalem how could that news want ready entertainment that promised such absolute and present freedom both to themselves from the bondage of those annual ceremonies and to their children also from the pain and peril of Circumcision Iustification by Faith must needs joy them that are loath to be at the charge of good Works and free remission of Sins is so plausible a Theme that I fear it makes many think they are scarse put to the trouble of Beleeving How many joyful hearers do these times afford who yet never in their life desired much lesse laboured to attain a sense of the forgivenesse of Sins Their joy imployes it self about other matters The Preacher 's eloquent perhaps and then his pleasing periods command their attention Perhaps he 's bitter and then they are tickled with the display of their Neighbours vices and begin to take it for a kind of Innocency that other men are as bad as themselves Nay are they not those that presse with eagernesse into these Assemblies only that they may find wherewith to busie their detracting humours Here he wanted Art there diligence these lines were too carelesse that strain too affected Quibus plus Displices si ominem sine aspiratione dixeris saith St. Austin quam si hominem oderis men that had rather you should break a Commandement than offend a Grammar rule and think it a greater fault to mispronounce a mans name than to murther his reputation But let such Auditours know animis non auribus loquimur as Seneca hath it we speak to your consciences not to your ears and desire not so much to please as to save your Souls I much wonder therefore at our English Arminius I mean Thompson in the 5. chapter of his Diatriba that makes the difference according to Scripture as he pretends between the wavering or Temporary and Iustifying Faith to be only temporis tantum aut gradus non rei et essentiae that is that they differ not essentially and in nature one from another but gradually and in respect of time durance and perseverance only So that Temporary Faith with him so long as it continues is as true Faith as that which continues for ever And hence indeed it follows easily that a man though qualifyed only with that fading imperfection of a Temporary Faith yet for the time that such Faith continueth in him must needs be justified before God and when it fails that his Iustification also ceaseth and is broken off and so the Title of his Diatriba is made good de interscisione Gratiae c. But surely the Truth is farr otherwise Those things are distinguish'd essentially and in nature that differ as I have shewed these to do that is to say first in the cause The Temporary Faith proceeding only from some general and inferiour operation of the Holy Spirit commonly incident unto reprobates and wicked men who doubtlesse feel many times Impulses and as it were Knockings of the Spirit at the dore of their hearts which yet are never opened to any true Conversion whereas Iustifying Faith proceeds from that supreme and most special working of the Spirit which is proper to the Elect and alwayes effectual to Salvation Secondly they differ in the things themselves or in their Definition That viz. Temporary Faith being only a bare assent unto the Doctrine preached This a confident and lively application of it to ourselves and to our own Souls Thirdly in their effects This to wit Iustifying Faith being the Fountain and Source of true Spiritual joy and comfort
that he was a just man and an holy and observed him and when he heard him he did many things and heard him gladly EXamples give life to precepts for as they usually make us conceive with ease what otherwise we should hardly understand so do they cause us to practise with encouragement what without them perhaps we should scarse attempt Precepts indeed may command but it is their examples that perswade obedience with greatest facility the reason is because they both imply matter of Emulation which is as a spurre in many cases unto mens spirits and likewise exclude impossibility by shewing that the thing which is commanded us may be performed That we must in all things obey the voice of the Lord our God is a precept better known than observ'd and what can be more availeable to enforce our performance of this command than the consideration of Abrahams example For canst thou stick to abandon the company of thy vitious Associates when he to avoid occasion of sinne leaves both his kindred and his Fathers house Canst thou forbear strangling thine in ordinate affections and lusts when thou seest him in obedience to the command of that great Law giver turn Executioner to the Fruit of his own loynes and rather than not to be the child of God is content to be no longer the Father of his dearest Isaack But amongst all the several kinds of Inducements that are apt to work upon us and to move us to do this or that there is none that more effectually stirs our affections than the good examples of those who seem most exposed to ignominy and disgrace For we can hardly brook the worthy Atchievements of our Equals in any kind but we disdain and are vexed to see our selves out-stript by our inferiours And therefore that fabulous Philosopher Aesope I mean did very wisely who being desirous to incite and bring his Auditours to a more vertuous course of life chose rather to acquaint them with the Annals of Beasts than men to the end that they might be ashamed to see sense out go reason and to observe those silly creatures performing the offices which either sluggish negligence made them unable or their crooked and perverse dispositions unwilling to execute This one example which my Text proposeth affords variety of such inducements For if thou beest possessed with a generous Spirit and apt to emulate the Actions of great men Behold here is Herod a Prince to be imitated but if thy drowsie affections permit thee not to look up nor to be awaked with such Alarmes yet blush notwithstanding to see thy self outstript by Herod a man whom the Gospel hath noted out as notoriously infamous an incestuous person and a murtherer Is it not a shame then for thee to contemn the Ministers of God or to abuse his servants to whom in this place Herod himself doth reverence To be backward and slothfull in attending to his word which Herod here again and again receives with gladnesse lastly would it not argue great want of Grace in thee to be an idle hearer onely when we in this Text find Herod himself doing readily doing and performing many good deeds Consider I say and blush at these circumstances thou who ever thou art that hast not as yet attained to Herods perfection Think how farre short thou comest of those duties which that last and great day shall exact of thee Seeing that the charity of our best Divines cannot so farre o'rerule their judgments as to make them think this Galilaean Prince throughout all these Actions to have gone any whit beyond a reprobate For although considered in their own nature the many things which he is here said to have done were doubtlesse good and truly commendable before men yet being stain'd with infidelity and corrupted by the ill manner of the performance of them they were as farre from the perfection of a true good work in the sight of God as himself was in person from the privilege of a true-born Israelite to which yet as some say he was not unwilling to pretend The Actions here specified are Three First the respect which Herod shewed to the Ministers of the word and withall to the line of Aaron for Iohn was heir to the course of Abia being as the Gospel shews and calleth him filius Zachariae the Son of Zachariah the Priest He feared Iohn and observed him Secondly the entertainment the joyfull entertainment which Herod gave to the word it self which Iohn preached And when he heard him c. he heard him gladly Thirdly the Reformation or good effect which Iohns Sermons or preaching wrough upon Herod He did many things c. Each of these apart in their order together with a particular discovery of their several imperfections are to be the subject of my present discourse it being my desire and intent principally to acquaint you with the fair progress which a Reprobate may seem to make in godlinesse and yet how farr he comes short of true Grace and Salvation Part I. You may thence conjecture that our fore-Fathers did highly esteem the Priests office because it was so often in their time united unto the Kings Authority Majorum haec erat consuetudo ut Rex esset etiam Sacerdos pontifex 'T was a custom among the Antients that he that was King should be likewise Priest as Isidore Hispalensis observeth in the 7th of his Etymoligicks at the 12th chapter This was practised by the Patriarks themselves as we may read Heb. 7th There Melchisedech partakes of both Titâ—…es he received Tythâ—…s of Abraham as Priest of the most high God and questionlesse he took Tribute of his own people as being King of Salem Also the Scripture tells us of Eli and Samuel both Judges successively invested with the same Soveraignty and yet the first a Priest the second both a Priest and Prophet in Israel The Gentiles though as yet they had not attayned to the Faith of Israel that is unto the true knowledge of Almighty God and his Law yet in this particular they thought not amisse to imitate the custom of Israel among them there was Rexidem hominum Phaebique Sacerdos As Virgil speaks of Anius who was both King and Priest a King to Delos and a Priest to Apollo who was there worshipped And 't is not unworthy of observation that Moyses Gen. 41. Stiles Potipherah his Father in Law {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} On Cohen which you may render either Prince or Priest of On. Probably 't was to let us understand that Aegypt liked well of the old conjunction between the Sacerdotal and Princely dignity Thus did those elder times think Holiness the chiefest policy and therefore held him as most able to Reign whom they saw to be most fit to Sacrifice This Antient practice seems not a little to justifie a Maxime of our own times Rex lay we est persona mixta cum Sacerdote the King himself is partly a Clergy-man his office then
and yet not know it After this remedy followes our happy estate of health attended with the blessing of peace and quietness being in my last part shadowed out only under a negative description {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} no more conscience of sinne The happy Estate Part 3. I dare not undertake to describe this happinesse for I find it passeth all understanding much more all discourse of man To call it health or peace or joy in the Holy Ghost were to name it rather than to expresse it so mysteriously happy is this estate that its conceived onely by being enjoyed I shall therefore make use of my Apostles modesty and call it onely no conscience of sin yet doth this Brevity include a panegyrick of praises for you know all excellencies are defin'd by Negatives Nor do I hold it a weak argument of perfection that Sathan so much desires to counterfeit this Estate seeing things of mean condition are no objects for imposture men do not usually counterfeit Brasse or Copper but Gold and Silver And therefore Satan that grand Impostor and deceiver of souls that he may more securely cheat us of that which is true labours with all subtlety to work in us a false similitude of this blessednesse and in stead of leaving us no conscience of sinne many times leaves us no conscience at all Saint Paul chap. the 4th of his fiâ—…st Epistle to Timothy verse 2. fiâ—…ly describes such deluded ones {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} men of seared consciences as we say in English or rather as Beza somewhat more Emphatically seemes to render it such men as an hot Iron set on fire surâ—…ly by Hell hath not seared only but cut off their consciences quite Hâ—…u miseri servitutem qui intelligunt miseriores qui non intelligunt cryd the Orator and I may well in this case be his Eccho Miserable are those men that feel the burthen and bondage of daily transgressions but most of all unhappy are they that serve sin and do not perceive it Canst thou then being a Noah beget a Cham make laughter the sonne of drunkennesse canst thou after a beastly surfeit jest at it instead of weeping canst thou lye in wait to deceive chastitie and then impudently boast of those Actions of which nature her self is ashamed If you be such Beloved it behoves me then to turn this part of my Sermon which I intended for your consolation into some Funeral discourse and set my self rather to deplore than congratulate your estate your disease is not cur'd but chang'd in stead of the Fever the burning Fever of a tormenting guilty conscience you are fallen into a Lethargie or dead sleep of unsensibleness and stupidity of spirit in a word you are dead not living Yet seing the dead too shall hear the voice of the Gospel of Christ I must not forbear to call upon you Awake therefore thou that sleepest in the security and senselessenesse of sin awake and stand up from the dead that Christ may give thee life Take and consider well these few lessons I shall give thee they may possibly help to recover thee Leaâ—…n first to be diseas'd that thou maist be healthfull let the Terrours of the Law threatning sin with death affright thy soul let them enter and wound thy Conscience that so thou maist both hunger and thirst after this remedy by Teares and contrition labour to procure a sense of it and so by degrees at length attain the blessednesse of this happy estate wherein those accusing thoughts shall be silenced those distractions quieted and composed and instead of Terrours and amazement thy conscience shall speak nothing but peace unto thee Thus have I discoursd upon the words of my Text apart and shewed you hitherto what I was able to collect from each of them in particular by themselves It remains now that I declare according to my intended purpose and briefly the Truth of this whole proposition namely how far a justified person may be again perplexed with his former transgressions and in what sense mine Apostle speaks when he saith that Worshippers once purged have no more conscience of sin Give me a man then after Gods own heart one who condemns himself with as much severity as he sinnes with fear let his sorrow keep pace with his transgressions and because he must daily offend let his life be a perpetual repentance yet may even such a Iob such a just man and carefull walker with God be afflicted with his passed offences after a setled confidence of Absolution He may hold himself for their sakes unworthy of the blessings of this present life as Saint Paul thought he deserved not the high attribute and Title of an Apostle because the Christian Church had sometimes groaned under his persecution I am not meet saith he to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of Christ yet I was received to mercy because I did it ignorantly through unbelief I was received to mercy that argues his confidence of forgivenesse I am unworthy to be called an Apostle that shews there was a conscience remaining in him which some way accused his sin Nay in respect of Temporal punishments our consciences are of so large extent that they bid us fear sometimes when our conceit tells us that others offend For Deliâ—…ant reges plectuntur Achivi the pestilence may invade all Israel upon Davids offence and though it were the Son of Kish onely that unjustly flew the Gibeonites yet may the famine starve all Iudah in the reign of the son of Ishai for that offence Upon this conscience of sinne doth our English Letany not without good cause give entertainment to that petition Remember not Lord the offences of our Fore-Fathers although I confesse vehemently opposed by that sort of men who professe themselves enemies to our whole Liturgy and whose zeal in this as in diverse other cases of like nature is manifestly of great prejudice to their judgment But I have no occasion to speak more of them at present 'T is true Ieremy hath long ago censured that murmuring proverb of his people the Fathers have eaten the sour grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge and not without cause for it was as false as common For Iudah her self never eat more sour grapes than in the time of that weeping Prophet and whereas sometimes she tasted onely and set her teeth on edge now she eat and surfetted The sinne then of the Fathers was punished in their posterity but not without the childrens offence and when they also cease not to continue their Fathers sinne they may justly expect a severer punishment now which of us dare say I am innocent I have utterly declined my Fathers sinnes It we dare not or cannot say thus if our own consciences would fly in our faces and give us the lye in case we should what mervail is it yea what obstinate perversenesse were it if we should refuse to make our petition to