attributes he hath he is called the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 the Spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 the Spirit of Grace of Love of Joy of Zeale for where he worketh Grace is operative our Love is without dissimulation our Joy is like the joy of heaven as true though not so great our Faith a working faith and our Zeal a coale from the Altar kindled from his fire not mad and raging but according to knowledge he makes no shadowes but substances no pictures but realities no appearances but truths a Grace that makes us highly favoured a precious and holy Faith full and unspeakable Love ready to spend it self and zeal to consume us of a true existence being from the spirit of God who alone truly is but here the spirit of Truth yet the same spirit that planteth grace and faith in our hearts that begets our Faith cilates our Love works our Joy kindles our Zeal and adopts us in Regiam familiam into the Royall Family of the first-born in Heaven but now the spirit of Truth was more proper for to tell men perplext with doubts that were ever and anon and sometimes when they should not asking questions of such a Teacher was a seal to the promise a good assurance they should be well taught that no difficulty should be too hard no knowledge too high no mystery too dark and obscure for them but Omnis veritas all truth should be brought forth and unfolded to them and have the vayle taken from it and be laid open and naked to their understanding Let us then look up upon and worship this spirit of Truth as he thus presents and tenders himself unto us as he stands in opposition to two great enemies to Truth as 1. Dissimulation 2. Flattery and then as he is true in the lessons which he teacheth that we may pray for his Advent long for his coming and so receive him when he comes And first dissemble he doth not he cannot for dissimulation is a kind of cheat or jugling by which we cast a mist before mens eyes that they cannot see us it brings in the Divel in Samuel's mantle and an enemy in the smiles and smoothness of a friend it speakes the language of the Priest at Delphos playes in ambiguities promises life As to King 〈◊〉 who a 〈…〉 slew when death is neerest and bids us beware of a chariot when it means a sword No this spirit is an enemy to this because a spirit of truth and hates these in volucra dissimulationis this folding and involvednesse these clokes and coverts these crafty conveyances of our own desires to their end under the specious shew of intending good to others and they by whom he speaks are like him and speak the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 3.12 in the simplicity and godly sincerity of the spirit not in craftinesse not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 handling the Word of God deceitfully 2 Cor. 4.2 Eph. 4.14 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in the slight of men throwing a Die what cast you would have them noting their Doctrine to men and the times that is not to men and the times but to their own ends telling them of Heaven Wisdom 1.5 when their thoughts are in their purse This holy spirit of Truth flies all such deceit and removes himself far from the thoughts which are without understanding and will not acquit a dissembler of his words there is nothing of the Divels method nothing of the Die or hand no windings nor turnings in what he teacheth but verus vera dicit being a spirit of truth he speaks the truth and nothing but he truth and for our behoof and advantage that we may believe it and build upon it and by his discipline raise our selves up to that end for which he is pleased to come and be our teacher And as he cannot dissemble so in the next place flatter us he cannot the inseparable mark and character of the evill spirit qui arridet ut saeviat who smiles upon us that he may rage against us lifts us up that he may cast us down whose exaltations are foiles whose favours are deceits whose smiles and kisses are wounds for flattery is as a glasse for a fool to look upon and so become more fool than before it is the fools eccho by which he hears himself at the rebound and thinks the wiseman spoke unto him and it proceeds from the father of lies not from the spirit of truth who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever who reproves drunkennesse though in a Noah adultery though in a David want of faith though in a Peter and layes our sins in order before us his precepts are plain his law is in thunder his threatnings earnest and vehement he calls Adam from behind the bush strikes Ananias dead for his hypocrisie and for lying to the holy Spirit deprives him of his own Thy excuse to him is a libell thy pretence fouler than thy sin thy false worship of him is blasphemy and thy form of godlinesse open impiety and where he enters the heart Sin which is the greatest errour the grossest lye removes it self heaves and pants to go out knocks at our breast and runs down at our eyes and we hear it speak in sighs and grones unspeakable and what was our delight becomes our torment In a word he is a spirit of truth and neither dissembles to decieve us nor flatters that we may deceive our selves but verus vera dicit being truth it self tells us what we shall find to be most true to keep us from the dangerous by-paths of errour and misprision in which we may lose our selves and be lost for ever And this appears is visible in those lessons and precepts which he gives which are so harmonious so consonant so agreeing with themselves and so consonant and agreeable to that Image after which we were made to fit and beautifie it when it is defaced and repaire it when it is decayed that so it may become in some proportion measure like unto him that made it for this spirit doth not set up one precept against another nor one text against another doth not disanul his promises in his threats nor check his threats with his promises doth not forbid all Feare in confidence nor shake our confidence when he bids us feare doth not set up meeknesse to abate our zeale nor kindles zeale to consume our meeknesse doth not teach Christian liberty to shake off obedience to Government nor prescribes obedience to infringe and weaken our Christian liberty This spirit is a spirit of truth and never different from himself never contradicts himself but is equall in all his wayes the same in that truth which pleaseth thee and that which pincheth thee in that which thou consentest to and that which thou runnâ—st from in that which will rayse thy spirit and that which will wound thy spirit And the reason why men who
forsake him when he hung upon the Crosse did he not see the joy which was set before him Yes he did but not to comfort but rather torment him Altissimo Divinitatis consilio actum est ut gloria militaret in paenam saith Leo. By the counsell of the Godhead it was set down and determined that his Glory should adde to his Punishment that his Knowledge which was more clear than a Seraphins should increase his Grief his Glory his Shame his Happinesse his Misery that there should not onely be Vinegar in his Drink and Gall in his Honey and Mirrhe with his Spices but that his Drink should be Vinegar his Honey Gall and all his Spices as bitter as Mirrhe that his Flowers should be Thorns and his Triumph Shame This could sin do and can we love it This could the love and the wrath of God do his love to his Creature and his wrath against sin And what a delivery what a desertion is this which did not deprive him of strength but enfeeble him with strength which did not leave him in the dark but punish him with light what a strange delivery was that which delivered him up without comfort nay which betrayed and delivered up his comforts themselves what misery equall to that which makes Strength a Tormenter Knowledge a Vexation and makes Joy Glory a Persecution There now hangs his sacred Body on the Cross not so much afflicted with his passion as his Soul was wounded with compassion with compassion on his Mother with compassion on his Disciples with compassion on the Jewes who pierced him for whom he prayes Tantam patienteam nemo unquam perpetravit Tert. de Patientia when they mock him which did manifest his Divinity as much as his miracles with compassion on the Temple which was shortly to be levelled with the ground with compassion on all Mankind bearing the burden of all dropping his pity and his blood together upon them feeling in himself the torments of the blessed Martyrs the reproch of his Saints the wounds of every broken heart the poverty diseases afflictions of all his Brethren to the end of the world delivered to a sense of their sins who feel them not and to a sense of theirs who grone under them delivered up to all the miseries and sorrowes not onely which he then felt but which any men which all men have felt or shall feel to the time the Trump shall found and he shall come again in Glory The last delivery was of his soul which was indeed traditio an yielding it up a voluntary emission or delivering it up into his Fathers hands praevento carnificis officio saith the Father he prevents the spear and the hand of the Executioner Tert. A pol. and gives up the Ghost What should I say or where should I end who can fathome this depth The Angels stand amazed the Heavens are hung with black the Earth opens her mouth and the Grave hers and yields up her dead the veyl of the Temple rends asunder the Earth trembles and the rocks are cleft but neither Art nor Nature can reach the depth of this wisdom and love no tongue neither of the living nor of the dead neither of men or Angels are able to express it The most powerfull Eloquence is the Threnody of a broken heart for there his death speaks it self and the vertue and power of it reflects back again upon him and reacheth him at the right hand of God where his wounds are open his merits vocal interceding for us to the end of the world We have now past two steps and degrees of this scale of love with wonder and astonishment and I hope with grief and love Tradidit pro nobis For us sinners passed through a field of Blood to the top of mount Calvarie where the Son of God the Saviour of the World was nailed to the Crosse and being thus lifted up upon his Crosse he looketh down upon us to draw us after him Look then back upon him who looks upon us whom our sins have pierced and behold his blood trickling down upon us which is one ascent more and brings in the persons for whom he was delivered First for us Secondly for us all Now this pro nobis that he should be delivered for us is a contemplation full of delight and comfort but not so easie to digest for if we reflect upon our selves and there see nothing but confusion and horrour we shall soon ask our selves the question why for us why not for the lapsed Angels who fell from their estate as we did They glorious Spirits we vile Bodies they heavenly Spirits we of the earth earthly ready to sink to the earth from whence we came they immortall Spirits we as the Grasse withered before we grow yet he spared not his Son to spare us but the Angels that fell he cast into Hell and chained them up in everlasting darknesse 2 Pet. 2.4 We may think that this was munus honorarium that Christ was delivered for us for some worth or excellency in us no it was munus eleemosynarium a gift bestowed upon us in meere compassion of our wants With them he deales in rigour and relents not with us in favour and mercy and seeks after us and layes hold on us when we were gone from him as far as sin and disobedience could carry us out of his reach It was his love it was his will to doe so and in this we might rest but Divines will tell us that man was a ritter object of mercy than they quia levius est alienâ mente peccare quam propriâ because the Angels sin was more spontaneous De Angelis quibusdam suâ sponte corruptis corruptio◠gens Daemonum evasit Tert. Apol. c. 22. wrought in them by themselves man had importunam arhorem that flattering and importuning Tree and that subtill and seducing Serpent to urge and sway him from his obedience Man had a Tempter the Angels were both the temptation and tempters to themselves Man took in Death by looking abroad but the Angels by reflecting upon themselves gazed so long upon their own Beauty till they saw it changed into horrour and deformity and the offence is more pardonable where the motive is ab extrinseco from some outward assoile than where it grows up of it self Besides the Angels did not all fall but the whole lump of mankind was leavend with the same leaven and pity it may seem that so noble a Creature made up after Gods own Image should be utterly lost These reasons with others we may admit though they may seem rather to be conjectures than reasons and we have not much light in Scripture to give them a fairer appearance but the Scripture is plain that he took not the Angels Heb. 2.16 he did not lay his hands upon them to redeem them to liberty and strike off their Bonds and we must goe out of the world to find out the reason and seek
reignes in our mortall bodies and to such this lesson of the Spirit is as an Ax to cut them off But be their Originall what it will if this truth reach them not or if they bear no Analogy or affinity with that which the Spirit hath taught nor depend upon it by any evident and necessary consequence they are not to be reckoned in the number of those which concern us because we are assured that he hath led us into all truth that is necessary Some things indeed there are which are indifferent in themselves quae lex nec vetat nec jubet which this Spirit neither commands not forbids but are made necessary by reason of some circumstance of time or place or quality or persons for that which is necessary in it self is alwayes necessary and yet are in their own nature indifferent still veritas ad omnia occurrit this truth which is the spirits lesson reacheth even these and containes a rule certain and infallible to guide us in them if we become not lawes unto our selves and fling it by to wit the rules of Charity and Christian prudence to which if we give heed it is impossible we should miscarry It is the love of our selves the love of the world not charity or spirituall wisdome which make this noyse abroad which rend the Church in pieces and work this desolation on the earth it is the want of conscience the neglect of conscience in the common and known wayes of our duty which have raised so many needless cases of conscience which if men had not hearkened to their lusts had never shewn their head had been what indeed they are nothing the acts of charity are manifest 1 Cor. 13. She suffereth long even injuries and errours but doth not rise up against that which was set up to enlarge and improve her Charity is not rash to beat down every thing that had its first rise and beginning from Charity is not puffed up swells not against a harmless yea and an usefull constitution though it be of man Doth not behave it self unseemly layes not a necessity upon us of not doing that which lawful authority even then styles an indifferent thing when it commands it to be done Charity seeketh not her own treads not the publique peace under foot to procure her own Charity is not provoked checks not at every feather nor startles at that monster which is a creation of our own Charity thinketh no evil doth not see a Serpent under every leaf nor Idolatry in every bow of Devotion if we were charitable we could not but be peaceable if that which is the main of the Spirits lesson did govern mens actions there would be abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth Multa facienda sunt non jubente lege sed liberâ charitate saith Austin Charity is free to do suffer many things which the Spirit doth not expresly command and yet doth command in generall when it commands and enjoyns obedience to Authority which hath no larger circuit to walk and shew it self in than in things in themselves indifferent which it may enioyn for orders sake and the advantage of those things which are necessary which are already under a higher and more binding law than any Potentate or Monarch of the earth can make The acts I say of Charity are manifest but those of Christian prudence are not particularly designed Prudentia respicit ad siagularia because that eye is given us to view and consider particular occurrences and circumstances and it depends upon those things which are without us whereas Charity is an act of the will and here if we would be our selves or rather if we would not be our selves but be free from by-respects and unwarrantable ends if we would divest our selves of all hopes or feares of those things which may either shake or raise our estates we cannot be to seek For how easy is it to a disengaged and willing mind to apply a generall precept to particular actions especially if Charity fill our hearts which is the bond of perfection and the end and complement of the Law which indeed is our spirituall wisdome In a word in these cases when we goe to consult with our reason we cannot erre if we leave not Charity behind us or if we should erre our charity would have such an influence upon our errour that it should trouble none but our selves for Charity beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things And this is the extent of the Spirits lesson and if in other truths more subtill than necessary we are to seek it matters not for we need not seek them for it is no sin not to know that which I cannot know it is no sin to be no wiser than God hath made me or what need our curiosity rove abroad when that which is all and alone concerns us lies in so narrow a compasse In absoluto facili aeternitas Hil. de Trin. saith Hilary the way to heaven may seem rough and troublesome but it is an easy way easy to find out though not so easy at our first onset to walk in and yet to those that tread and trace it often as delightfull as Paradise it self See God hath shut up Eternity within the compasse of two words Believe and Repent which is a full and just commentary on the Spirits lesson the summe of all that he taught lay your foundation right and then build upon it because God loved you in Christ do you love him in Christ love him and keep his commandements than which no other way could have been found out to draw you neer unto God Believe and Repent this is all Oh wicked abomination whence art thou come to cover the earth with deceit with malice what defyance what contentention what gall and bitternesse amongst Christians and yet this is all Believe and Repent The pen the tongue the sword these are the weapons of our warfare What ink what blood hath been spilt in the cause of Religion how many Innocents defamed how many Saints anathematized how many millions cut down with the sword yet this is all Believe and Repent We hear the noyse of the whip and the ratling of the wheeles and the prancing of the horses the horseman lifteth up his bright speare and his glittering sword Nah. 3.2,3 Every part of Christendome almost is a stage of war and the pretence is written in their banners you may see it waving in the aire for God and Religion and this is all Believe and Repent Who would once think the pillars of the earth should be thus shaken that the world should be turned into a worse Chaos than that out of which it was made that there should be such wars and fightings amongst Christians for that which is shut up and brought unto us in these two words Believe and Repent for all the truth which is necessary which will be sufficient to lift us to our
take that for a Turne which he hath not declared to be so and doe that which he hath threatned he will not doe but 't is ill depending upon what God may doe for for ought that is revealed he will never doe it never doe it to him who presumes he will because he may and so puts off his Turne his Repentance to the last leaves the ordinary way and trusts to what God may doe out of Course never doe it to a man of Belial who runs on in his sinnes yet looks for such a Charriot to carry him into Heaven We have no such Doctrine nor the Church of Christ Her voice is Turne ye now at Last will be too late This is the Doctrine of the Gospel but yet the Judgement is the Lords And all this we have heard and we cannot gaine-say or confute it and shall we yet delay Certainly if we know these Terrors of the Lord and not Turne now we shall hardly ever Turne If we heare and beleeve this and doe not repent we are worse then Infidells our Faith shall helpe the Devill to accuse us and it shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrha then for us If we heare this and still fold our hands to sleep still Delay if this noise will not stirr and move us if this doe not startle us in our evill wayes we have good reason to feare we shall never awake till the last Trump till that day till the last Day which is a Day of Judgement as this our day is of Repentance We say we beleeve it that now heaven is offered and now we must strive to enter in we say we pray for it we hope for it we long for it if we do Then Now is the Time Festina fides Alacris Devotio spes impigra Amb. Epist c. 10. Ep. 82. saith Saint Ambrose Faith is on the wing and carries us along with the speed of a Thought through all difficulties through all distasts and affrightments and will not let us stay one moment in the house of vanity in any slippery place where we may fall and perish Devotion is full of Heat and Activity and Hope that is deferr'd is an Affliction If we are lead by the Spirit of God Devotio est actualis voluntas prompte faciendi quae ad Dei cultum spectant Aquin. 22. q. 82. Art 1. we are lead apace drawne suddenly out of those wayes which lead unto death we are called upon to escape for our lives and not to look behind us and as it was said of Cyprian we are at our journeys end as soon as we fet out God speakes and we heare he begins good thoughts in us and we nourish them to that strength that they break forth into Action he poures forth his Grace Praeproperâ velocitate pietatis paene ante coepit persectus esse quam disceret Pontius Draconus de Cypriani vitâ and we receive it he makes his benefits his lure and we come to his hand he thunders from heaven and we fall down before him In brief Repentance is as our Passeover and by it we sacrifice our heart and we doe it in the Bitternesse of our Soul and we do it in hast and so passe from Death to Life from darknesse to Light from our evill wayes to the Obedince of Faith and God passeth over us sees the blood our wounded Spirits our Teares our Contrition and will not now destroy us but feeing us so soon so farre removed from our Evill wayes will favour us and shine upon us and in the light of his Countenance we shall walke on from strength to strength through all the hardship and Troubles of a continued Race to that Rest and Peace which is Everlasting Thus much of the first property of Repentance it must be matura Conversio a speedy and a present Turne Festina haerentis in Salo naviculae funem magis praecide quam solve Hier. Paulino THE EIGHTH SERMON PART IIII. EZEKIEL 33.11 Turne ye Turne ye from your evill ways For why c. TO stand out with God and contend with him all our life long to try the utmost of his patience and then in our Evening in the shutting up of our Dayes to bow before him is not to Turne nor have we any reason to conceive any Hope that a faint Confession or sigh should deliver him up to Eternity of Bliss whom the swinge of his lusts and a multiplyed continued disobedience have carryed along without checque or controul to his chamber and Bed and the very mouth of the Grave who have delighted themselves in evill till they can do no good Delay if it ben ot fatall to all for we dare not give Lawes to Gods Mercy yet we have just reason to feare it is so to those that trust to it and runne on in their Evill wayes till the hand of justice is ready to cut their Thread of life and to set a period to that and their sinnes together Turn ye Turn ye that is now that it be not too late The second property or the Sincerity of our Turn This ingemination hath more heat in it not onely to hasten our motion and turn but to make it true and real and sincere For when God bids us turn he considers us not as upon a stage but in his Church where every thing must be done not acted where all is real not in shadow and representation where we must be Holy as he is Holy perfect as he is perfect true as he is true where we must behave our selves as in the House of God which is not pergula pidoris a Painters shop where all is in shew nothing in truth where not the Garments but the heart must be rent that as Christ our head was crucified indeed not in shew or in phantasme as Marcion would have it so we might present him a wounded soul a bleeding Repentance a flesth crucified and so joyn as it were with Christ in a real and sincere putting away and abolishing of sin God is truth it self True and faithfull in his promises if he speak he doth it if he command it shal stand fast and therefore hateth a feined forced wavering imaginary Repentance to come in a vizor or disguise before him is an abomination nor will he give true joy for feigned sorrow Heaven for a shadow nor everlasting happinesse for a counterfeit momentary turn Eternity for that which is not for that which is nothing For Repentance if it be not sincere is nothing The holy Father will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. or 19 that which is feigned is not lasting that which is forced failes and ends with that artificiall spring that turns it about as we see the wheels of a clock move not when the Plummet is on the ground because the beginning of that motion is ab extrà not from its internal Form but from some outward violence or Art without simplex recti cura multiplex pravi there is
same sinners we were as wicked as ever Our Religion puts forth no thing but blossomes or if it knit and make some shew or hope of fruit it is but as we see it in some Trees it shoots forth at length and into a larger proportion and bigness then if it had had its natural concoction and ripened kindly and then it hath no tast or rellish but withers and rots and falls off And thus when we too much dote on Ceremomy we neglect the maine work and when we neglect the work we fly to Ceremony and formality and lay hold on the Altar we deale with our God Clem. Alexande 3. strom as Aristotle of Cyrene did with Lais who promised to bring her back again into her country if she would help him against his Adversaries whom he was to contend with and when that was done to make good his oath drew her picture as like her as art could make it and carried that and we fight against the devil as Darius did against Alexander with pomp and gayetry and gilded armor as his prey rather then his enemies and thus we walk in a vain shadow and trouble our selves in vain and in this Region of shews and shadows dreame of happinesse and are miserable of heaven and fall a contrary way as Julius Caesar dream'd that he soared up Suet. Vit. C. Caesar and was carryed above the clouds and took Jupiter by the right hand and the next day was slain in the Senate-house I will not accuse the foregoing Ages of the Church because as they were loud for the Ceremonious part of Gods worship so were they as sincere in it and did worship him in spirit and truth and were equally zealous in them both and though they raised the first to a great height yet never suffered it so to over-top the other as to put out its light but were what their outward expressions spake them as full of Piety as Ceremony and yet we see that high esteem which they had of the Sacraments of the Church led some of them upon those errors which they could not well quit themselves of but by falling into worse It is on all hands agreed that they are not absolutely necessary not so necessary as the mortifying and denying of our selves not so necessary as Actuall holinesse It is not absolutely necessary to be baptized for many have not passed that Jordan yet have been saved but it is necessary to have the Laver of Regeneration and to clense our selves from sin It is not absolutely necessary to eat the Bread and drink the Wine in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper for some crosse accident may intervene and put me by but it is necessary to feed on the Bread of Life as necessary as my meat to doe Gods will True Piety is absolutely necessary because none can hinder me from that but my selfe but it is not alwayes in every mans power to bring himselfe to the Font or approach the Lords Table All that can be said is That when they may be had they are absolutely necessary but they are therefore not absolutely necessary because they cannot alwaies be had and when they stretcht beyond this they stretcht beyond their line and lost themselves in an ungrounded and unwarranted admiration of these Ordinances which whilst we look upon them in their proper Orbe and Compasse can never have honour and esteem enough They put the Communion into the mouthes of Infants who had but now their Being and into the mouthes of the Dead who had indeed a BEing but not such a Being as to be fit Communicants and Saint Austin thought Baptisme of Infants so absolutely necessary that Not to be baptized was to be Damned and therefore was forced also to create a new Hell that was never before heard of and to find out mitem damnationem a more mild and easie damnation more fit as he thought for the tendernesse and innocency of Infants Now this was but an error in speculation the error of devout and pious men who in honour to the Author of the Sacraments made them more binding and necessAry then they were and we may learn thus much by this over-great esteem the first and best Christians and the most learned amongst them had of them that there is more certainly due then hath been given in these latter times by men who have learnt to despise all Learning and whose great devotion it is to quarrell and cry down all Devotion who can find no way to gain the reputation of Wisdome but by the fierce and loud impugning of that which hath been practiced and commended to succeeding Ages by the wisest in their Generation by men who first cry down the Determinations of the Church and then in a scornfull and profane pride and animosity deny there is any such Collection or Body as a Church at all But our Errors in Practice are more dangerous more spreading more universall For what is our esteem of the Sacraments more a great deale then theirs and yet lessE because 't is such which we should not give them even such which they whom they are so bold to Censure would have Anathematized We Think or Act as if we did that the Water of Baptisme doth clense us though we make our selves more Leopards fuller of spots then before That the Bread in the Eucharist will nourish us up to eternall life though we feed on husks in all the remainder of our dayes We baptize our children and promise and voew for them and then instill those thriving and worldly principles into them which null and cancell the vow we made at the Font hither we bring them to renounce the world and at home teach them to love it And for the Lords Supper what is commonly our preparation A Sermon a few houres of meditation a seeming farewell to our common affaires a faint heaving at the heart that will not be lifted up a sad and demure countenance at the time and the next day nay before the next day this mist is shaken off and we are ready to give Mammon a salute and a cheerfull countenance the world our service to drudge and toyle as that shall lead us to rayle as loud to revenge as maliciously to wanton it as sportfully to cheat as kindly as ever we did long before when we never so much as thought of a Sacrament And shall we now place all Religion nay any Religion in this or call that good that absolutely good and necessary for which we are the worse absolutely the worse every day Well may God ask the question Will he be pleased with this Well may he by one Prophet ask who hath required it and by another instruct us and shew us yet a more excellent way It was not the error of the Jew alone to forget true and inward sanctity and to trust upon outward worship and formality but sad experience hath taught us that the same error which misled the Jew under his weak and
an eye of mercy There is an eye that looks right on Proverb 4.25 and there is a bountifull eye Prov. 22.9 and if you shut but one of them you are in darknesse he that hath an evil eye to strip his brother can never see to clothe him he whose feet are swift to shed blood will be but a cripple when he is called to the house of mourning and if his bowels be shut up his hand will be soon stretcht out to beat his fellow-servants Ps 147.1 It becometh the just to be thankfull In their mouth praise is comely it is a song 't is musick and it becometh the Just to be mercifull and liberall out of their heart mercy flows kindly streames forth like the River out of Eden to water the dry places of the earth there you shall find gold and good gold Bdellium and the Oynx stone all that is precious in the sight of God and man But the heart of an unjust man is as a rock on which you may strike and strike again but no water will flow out but instead thereof gall and worm-wood blood and fire and the vapour of smoke Ioel 2.30 Prov. 12.10 The tender mercies the bowels of the wicked are cruel their kisses are wounds their favours reproches their Indulgences Anathema's their bread is full of gravell and their water tainted with blood If their craft or power take all and their seeming mercy their hypocrisie put back a part that part is nothing or but trouble and vexation of spirit Thus do these two branches grow and flourish and bring forth fruit and thus do they wither and dye together And here we have a faire and a full vintage for indeed mercy is as the vine which yeeldeth wine to cheere the hearts of men hath nothing of the Bramble nothing of the fire nothing that can devour it yeeldeth much fruit but we cannot stand to gather all I might spread before you the rich mantle of mercy and display each particular beauty and glory of it but it will suffice to set it up as the object of our Love for as Misery is the object of our Mercy so is Mercy the object of our Love And we may observe it is not here to doe mercifully as before to doe justly and yet if we love not Justice we cannot doe it but in expresse termes the Lord requires that we love mercy that is that we put it on weare it as a robe of Glory delight in it make it as God doth make it his our chiefest attribute to exalt and superexaltate to make it triumph over Justice it self For Justice and Honesty gives every man his owne but Mercy opens those Treasuries which Justice might lock up and takes from us that which is legally ours makes others gatherers with us partakers of our basket and brings them under our own vine and fig-tree Et haec est victoria this is the victory and triumph of Mercy Let us then draw the lines by which we are to passe and we shall first shew you Mercy in the fruit it yeelds secondly in its root First in its proper act or motion casting bread upon the waters and raising the poore out of the dust Secondly in the forme which produceth this act or the principle of this motion which is the habit the affection the love of mercy for so we are commanded not onely to shew forth our mercy but to love it for what doth the Lord require but to love mercy c. We begin with the first and the proper act of mercy is to flow to spend it self and yet not be spent to relieve our brethren in misery and in all the degrees that lead to it necessities impotencies distresses dangers defects This is it which the Lord requires And howsoever flesh and blood may be ready to perswade us that we are left at large to our own wills and may do what we will with our own yet if we consult with the Oracle of God we shall find that these reciprocall offices of mercy which passe between man and man are a debt That we are bound as much to do good to others as not to injure them to supply their wants as not to rob them to reach forth a hand to help them as not to smite them with the fist of wickednesse and though my hundred measures of wheat be my own and I may demand them yet there is a voice from heaven and from the mercy-seat which bids me take the bill and sit down quickly and write fifty Do we shut up our bowels and our hands together Behold Habemus legem we have a Law and the first and greatest Law the Law of Charity to open them 'T is true what we gain by the sweat of our brows what Honesty and Industry or the Law hath sealed unto us is ours ex asse wholly and entirely ours nor can any Hand but that of Violence divide it from us but yet Habemus legem we have a Law another Law which doth not take from us the propriety of our Goods but yet binds us to dispense and distribute them In the same Court-roll of Heaven we are made both Proprietaries Stewards The Law of God as well as of Man is Evidence for us that our possessions are ours but it is Evidence against us if we use them not to that end for which God made them ours They are ours to have and to hold nor can any Law of man divorce them from us or question us For what Action can be drawn against want of mercy who was ever yet impleaded for not giving an Almes at his doore what bar can you bring the Miser to who ever was arraigned for doing no good but yet in the Law of God and in the Gospel of Christ which is a Law of Grace we find an action drawn de non vestiendis nudis for not clothing the Naked not feeding the Hungry not visiting the Sick I saith Nazianzen could peradventure be willing That Mercy and Bounty were not Necessary but arbitrary not under a Law but presented by way of Counsel and advice for the flesh is weak and would go to Heaven with as little cost and trouble as may be but then the mention of the Left hand and the right of the Goates of the torments they shall be thrown into not who have invaded other mens goods but who have not given theirs not who have beat down but who have not supported these Temples of the Holy Ghost this is that which strikes a terrour through me and makes me think and resolve That I am as much bound to do acts of mercy as I am not to do an injury as much bound to feed the poore man as I am not to oppresse and murder him To shew mercy to others is not an Evangelicall Counsel it is a Law And therefore as Homer tells us when he speaks of rivers or birds That men did not call them by their proper names for the Gods had