wayes but delight themselves in their own and rest and please themselves in Errour as in Truth to awake them out of this pleasant dream we must trouble them we must thunder to them we must disquiet and displease them For who would give an opiate pill to these Lethargicks To please men then is to tell a sick man that he is well a weak man that he is strong an erring man that he is orthodox instead of purging out the noxious humour to nourish and increase it to smooth and strew the wayes of Errour with roses that men may walk with ease and delight and even dance to their destruction to find out their palate and to fit it to envenom that more which they affect as Agrippina gave Claudius the Emperour poyson in a Mushrome What a seditious flatterer is in a Common-wealth that a false-Apostle is in the Church For as the seditious flatterer observeth and learneth the temper and constitution of the place he liveth in and so frameth his speach and behaviour that he may seem to settle and establish that which he studieth to overthrow to be a Patriot for the publick good when he is but a promoter of his private ends to be a servant to the Common-wealth when he is a Traytor so do all seducers and false-teachers They are as loud for the Truth as the best champions she hath but either subtract from it or add to it or pervert and corrupt it that so the Truth it self may help to usher in a lye When the Truth it self doth not please us any lye will please us but then it must carry with it something of the Truth For instance To acknowledge Christ but with the Law is a dangerous mixture It was the errour of the Galatians here To magnifie Faith and shut out Good works is a dash That we can do nothing without Grace is a truth but when we will do nothing to impute it to the want of Grace is a bold and unjust addition To worship God in spirit and truth Joh. 4.23 our Saviour commandeth it but from hence to conclude against outward Worship is an injurious defalcation of a great part of our duty Gal. 5.1 To stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free the Apostle commandeth it but to stand so as to rise up in the face of the Magistrate is a Gloss of Flesh and Bloud and corrupteth the Text. Rom. 13.1 Let every soul be subject to the higher powers that is the Text but to be subject no longer then the Power is mannaged to our will is a chain to bind Kings with or a hammer to beat all Power down that we may tread it under our feet And when we cannot relish the Text these mixtures and additions and subtractions will please us These hang as Jewels in our ears these please and kill us beget nothing but a dead Faith and a graceless life not Liberty but Licentiousness not Devotion but Hypocrisie not Religion but Rebellion not Saints but Hypocrites Libertines and Traytors The Truth is corrupted saith Nyssene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 1. contra Eunom by subtraction by alteration by addition And these we must avoid the rather because they go hand in hand as it were with the Truth and carry it along with them in their company as lewd persons do sometimes a grave and sober man to countenance them in their sportiveness and debauchery De nostro sunt sed non nostrae saith Tertullian De Proscript They invade that inheritance which Christ hath left his Church Some furniture some colour something they borrow from the Truth something they have of ours but ours they are not And therefore as S. Ambrose adviseth Gratian the Emperour of all errours in doctrine we must beware of those which come nearest and border as it were upon the Truth and so draw it in to help to defeat it self because an open and manifest errour carrieth in its very forehead an argument against it self and cannot gain admittance but with a veil whereas these glorious but painted falsehoods find an easie entrance and beg entertainment in the Name of Truth it self This is the cryptick method and subtil artifice of Men-pleasers that is Men-deceivers to grant something that they may win the more and that too in the end which they grant not rudely at first to demolish the Truth but to let it stand a while that they may the more securely raise up and fix that Errour with which it cannot stand long S. Paul saw it well enough though the Galatians did not Gal. 5.2 If you be circumcised Christ profiteth you nothing that is is to you as if there were no Christ at all If the false Apostles had flatly denied Christ the Galatians would have been as ready as S. Paul to have cut them off because they had received the Gospel but joyning and presenting the Law with Christ they did deceive and please them well who began in the Spirit and did acknowledge Christ but would not renounce the Law propter metum Judaeorum for fear of their brethren the Jews Now these Men-pleasers these Crows Dictam Diogenis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athen. Deipnos l. 6. c. 17. which devour not dead but living men are from an evil eg and beginning are bred and hatcht in the dung in the love of this world and are so proud and fond of their original that it is their labour their religion the main design of their life to bring the Truth Religion and Christ himself in subjection under it And to this end they are very fruitful to bring forth those mishapen issues which savour of the earth and corruption and have onely the name of Christ fastned to them as a badge to commend them and bring them to that end for which they had a being which is to gain the world in the name but in despite of Christ And these are they who as S. Peter speaketh make merchandise of mens souls nummularii sacerdotes 2 Pet. 2.3 as Cyprian calleth them Doctours of the Mint who love the Image of Caesar more then the image of God and had rather see the one in a piece of gold then the other renewed and stampt in a mortal man And this image they carry along with them whithersoever they go and it is as their Holy Ghost to inspire them For most of the doctrines they teach savour of that mint and the same stamp is on them both The same face of Mammon which is in their heart is visible also in their doctrine Thus Hosea complained of the false Prophets in his time Hos 4.8 They eat up the sin of my people that is by pleasing them they have consented to their sin and from hence reaped gain for flattery is a livelyhood Or they did not seriously reprehend the sins of the people that they might receive more sacrifices on which they might feed Some render it Levabant animum
linen as if his riches served to clothe onely his own back and he fared deliciously every day as if he had known no other treasury for his wealth save his own belly If we be rich therefore let us learn to be poor if we be gorgeously arrayed let us turn our purple into sackcloth and if we fare sumptuously let us as the Wise-man adviseth put a knife to our throat and as Julian spake of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us wage war with our own belly But What will ye haply demand is it then unlawful to be rich Pelagius indeed thought so and taught so grounding his doctrine upon this Text and that other Matth. 19.23 24 But he was justly censured for it by the Church as an heretick Yet this I say Though that opinion of his That no rich man can possibly be saved be an errour yet it is salutaris error a very wholsom mistake and if such as love the world could entertain it as a truth it might prevail with them to hate it it might persuade the covetous churl to become liberal the glutton to divide his meal between himself and the hungry the wanton to deny himself oftentimes even lawful recreations the swaggering gallant to lay aside his bravery and to clothe the loyns of his naked brother with the fleece of his sheep What harm could there be if these men were thus caught by craft and by this errour deceived into happiness It is the Physician 's method to cure diseases by something that is contrary to them so this point of Pelagianism might serve for a good remedy against the Love of the world and to think it a sin to be rich might be a wholsom prescription for him who maketh his Riches his God whereas on the contrary out of that which indeed is truth many a rich man draweth dangerous consequences and flattereth himself in his sin hoping that that gate which standeth open to Riches will not be shut to the love of them and since rich Abraham who loved Hospitality is in heaven he presumeth he shall follow him though by oppression he eateth up more then Abraham fed he dispenseth with himself in that which made Abraham happy and yet is conceited he shall be as happy as that great Father of the faithful It is not good therefore to press doctrines of liberty though they be true such as tell us that War and Swearing and Feasting and Recreations and the like are sometimes lawful lest if such seeds be often sown we find too rank an harvest lest men turn liberty into licentiousness recreation into riot and feasting into revelling and hearing that Swearing and War are not unlawful multiply as many oaths as words and make that a cause of war which is not worth a thought Ye see our Saviour here to the end he may chase away the love of Riches setting a mark of terrour upon them and crying Wo to rich men Which cannot be literally and generally true For all rich men are not not accursed But it is the safest way to remove men as far from danger as may be It is safest for some men to conceive Feasting unlawful that they may avoid gluttony or Sports unlawful that they may not be wantons to be afraid of an Oath that they may not be perjured not to flatter themselves too much in the lawfulness of War that they delight not in bloud but rather remember that lesson of Moses or indeed of God When thou goest out with the host against thine enemies Deut. 23.9 then keep thee from all wickedness In a word though it be not unlawful to be rich yet it is safest for most men according to the sound of our Saviour's words both here and elsewhere to believe that it is unlawful and to live as if they believed so that so though their belief be not altogether free from errour their conversation may be without covetousness But so far is the world from having that opinion of Riches that they have goodly and glorious titles bestowed upon them They commend themselves unto us under the honest names of Thrift and Frugality and Wisdom Yea they commend our very vices and which is more they are taken up as arguments of piety as symptoms and certain indications of the love and favour of God Is it not our usual phrase He is a frugal and a prudent man See how God hath blessed him When Jesus wept at Lazarus his tomb the Jews were ready to draw this conclusion John 11 35 36 See how he loved him And indeed it was a probable deduction For Love will force a tear when the beloved object departeth from us But the world's inference concerning Riches is not so natural God hath filled his basket and poured abundance into his bosom see how he loveth him A false deduction this But the world is full of such dangerous and unnatural inferences How many are there who conclude that men are good when they see them rich and prosperous Amongst a herd of Mammonists Dives had been a Saint On the contrary how many think themselves forsaken when they lye in the dust when even in that dust they may be as near to bliss as he that sitteth on his throne God is styled the Father of the poor and fatherless but no where doth he call himself the Father of the rich How many think they have prepared their souls for heaven when they have but set their house in order and think that to leave a fair inheritance to their children is to gain one to themselves in the kingdom of God as if there were no more then this to thrive well to make their Will to die and to be Saints Thus have we sanctified yea even glorified Riches we account them blessings and signs and rewards of righteousness But if these be the rewards we look for if we rest upon these we are of all men most miserable For you see Riches are accompanied with a wo because we have received them as a reward because we have received them as our consolation How many doth God so reward whom he will punish with the Devil and his angels Nabal was so rewarded and he died a fool The fool was so blest 1 Sam. 25. Luke 12.16.20 and his soul was sunddenly taken from him The Heathen were so rewarded for their justice was crowned with victory as Augustine observeth Nebuchadnezzar was never in the Calendar of Saints yet God rewardeth him with Egypt for his service against Tyre Ezek. 29 18.19 20. And what blessings and rewards are those which are common to us with Fools and Pagans and Tyrants Qualia sunt vota quae flentur what wishes are these which when we enjoy them draw tears from our eyes What rewards are those which are not lasting yet are the last we shall receive What blessings are those which have a wo to attend them Certainly we cannot but be jealous of them we cannot but suspect them Suspectam habe
world then a learned fool So the Church of Christ and Religion never suffered more then from carnal men who are thus Spirit-wise For by acknowledging the Spirit they gain a glorious pretence to work all wickedness and that with greediness which whilest others doubt of though their errour be dangerous and fatal yet parciùs insaniunt they cannot be so outragiously mad But yet it doth not follow because some men mistake the Spirit and abuse him that no man is taught by the holy Ghost The mad Athenian took every ship that came into the harbour to be his but it doth not follow hence that no wise and sober merchant knew his own To him that is drunk things appear in a double shape and proportion geminae Thebae gemini soles two cities for one and two Suns for one Can I hence conclude that all sober men are blind Because I will not learn doth not the Spirit therefore teach And if some men take Dreams for Revelations must the holy Ghost needs loose his office This were to run upon the fallacy non-causae pro causâ to deny an unquestionable and fundamental truth for an inconvenience to dig up the Foundation because men build hay and stubble upon it or because some men have sore eyes to pluck the Sun out of his sphere This were to dispossess us of one evil Spirit and leave us naked to be invaded by a Legion To make this yet a little plainer We confess the operations of the Spirit are in their own nature difficult and obscure and as Scotus observeth upon the Prologue to the Sentences because they are quite of another condition then any thought or working in us whatsoever imperceptibiles not to be suddenly perceived no not by that soul in which they are wrought In which speech of his doubtless if we weigh it with charity and moderation and not extremity of rigour there is much truth Seneca telleth us Quaedam animalia cùm mordent non sentiuntur adeò tenuis illis fallens in periculum vis est The deadly bitings of some creatures are not felt so secret and subtle a force they have to endanger a man So on the contrary the Spirit 's enlightning us and working life in our hearts can at first by no means be described so admirable and curious a force it hath in our illumination Non deprehendes quemadmodum aut quando tibi profuit profuisse deprehendes That it hath wrought you shall find but the secret and retired passages by which it wrought are impossible to be reduced to demonstration We read that Mark Antony when with his Oration he shewed unto the people the wounded coat wherein Caesar was slain populum Romanum egit in furorem he made the people almost mad So the power of the Spirit as it seemeth wrought the like affection in the people who when they had heard the Apostles set forth the passion of Christ Acts 2. and lay his wounds open before their eyes were wrapt as it were in a religious fury and in it suddenly cryed out Men and brethren what shall we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text They were stung and as it were nettled in their hearts Now this could not be a thing done by chance or by any artificial energy and force in the Apostles speech this I say could not be For if we observe it Christ was slain amongst them and what was that to them or why should this hazard them more then the death of many other Prophets and holy men who through the violence of their Rulers had lost their lives And what necessity what coactive reason was there to make them believe that He was to save and redeem them who not long since had cruelly crucified him Dic Quintiliane colorem What art was there what strong bewitching power that should drive the people into such an ecstasie Or what could this be else but the effect of the operation of the holy Spirit which evermore leaveth the like impressions on those hearts on which he pleaseth to fasten the words of the wise Eccl. 12.11 which are like unto goads quae cum ictu quodam sentimus saith Seneca we hear them with a kind of smart as Pericles the Oratour is reproved to have spoken so that he left a sting behind in the minds of his Auditory And this putteth a difference betwixt natural and supernatural and spiritual Truths We see in natural Truths either the evidence and strength of Truth or the wit and subtilty of conceit or the quaintness of method and art may sometimes force our Understanding and lead captive our Affections but in sacred and Divine Truths such as is the knowledge of the Dominion and Kingdom of Christ the light of Reason is too dimme nor could it ever demonstrate this conclusion Jesus is the Lord which the brightest eye that ever the world had could of it self never see Besides the art by which it was delivered was nothing else but plainness and by S. Paul himself the worthiest Preacher it ever had except the Son of God himself it is called the foolishness of preaching But as it is observed that God in his works of wonder and his miracles brought his effects to purpose by means almost contrary to them so many times in his persuasions of men he draweth from them their assent against all rule and prescript of art and that where he pleaseth so powerfully that they who receive the impressions seem to think deliberation which in other cases is wisdom in this to be impiety But you will say perhaps that the holy Ghost was a Teacher in the Apostles times when S. Paul delivered this Christian axiom this principle this sum of Christianity when the Church was in sulco semine when the seeds of this Religion were first sown that then he did wonderfully water this plant that it might grow and increase But doth he still keep open School doth he still descend to teach and instruct us on whom the ends of the world are come Yes certainly he doth For if he did not teach us we could not vex him if he did not work in us we could not resist him if he did not speak unto us we could not lie unto him He is the God of all spirits to this day And uncti Christians we are And an anointment we have saith S. John and whilest this abideth in us we need not that any man teach us for this unction this discipline this Divine grace is sufficient And though this oyntment flow not so plenteously now as of old yet we have it and it distilleth from the Head to the skirts of the garment to the meanest member of the Church Though we be no Apostles yet we are Christians and the same Spirit teacheth both And by his light we avoid all by-paths of errour that are dangerous and discern though not all Truth yet all that is necessary They had an Ephah we an Hin yet our Hin is a measure
so few instances of Retractation but a Augustine one among the Antients and of later dayes b Bellarm. one more but such a one as did but like some Plumbers make his business worse by mending it So harsh a thing it is to the nature of Men to seem to have mistaken and so powerful is Prejudice For to confess an Errour is to say we wanted Wit And therefore we should flye from Prejudice as from a Serpent Gen. 3. For it deceiveth us as the Serpent did Eve giveth a No to Gods Yea maketh Men true and God a lyar and nulleth the sentence of death You shall dye the death when this is the Interpreter is your Eyes shall be opened and to deceive our selves is to be as Gods knowing good and evil And it may well be called a Serpent for the biting of it is like that of the Tarantula the working of its venome maketh us dance and laugh our selves to death For a setled prejudicate though false opinion may build up as strong resolutions as a true Saul was as zealous for the Law as Paul was for the Gospel A Heretick will be as loud for a fiction as the Orthodox for the Truth the Turk as violent for his Mahomet as a Christian for his Saviour Habet diabolus suos Martyres For the Devil hath his Martyrs as well as God And it is Prejudice which is that evil spirit that casteth them into the fire and the water that consumeth or drowneth them 1 Sam. 15.32 that leadeth them forth like Agag delicately to their death And this is most visible in those of the Church of Rome We may see even the marks upon them Obstinacy Insolency Scorn and contempt a proud and high Disdain of any thing that appeareth like reason or of any man that shall speak it to teach and recover them Which are certainly the signes of the biting of this Serpent Prejudice or as some will call it the marks of the Beast Quà m gravis incubat How heavy doth Prejudice lye upon them who are taught to renounce their very Sense and to mistrust nay to deny their Reason who see with other mens eyes Apul. De mundo and hear with other mens ears qui non animosed auribus cogitant who do not judge with their mind but with their ears The first prejudice is That theirs is the Catholick Church and cannot err and then all other search and enquiry is vain as a learned writer observeth For what need they go further to find the truth then to the high Priests chair to which it is bound And this they back and strengthen with many others of Antiquity making that most true which is most antient Quintil. And yet omnia vetera nova fuere that which is now old was at first new And by this Argument Truth was not Truth when it first began nor the Light Light when it first sprung from on high and visited us And besides Truth though it had found professours but in this latter age yet was first born because Errour is nothing else but a deviation from the Truth and cometh forth last and layeth hold on the heel of Truth to supplant it Besides these Councils Which may err and the Truth many times is voted down when it is put to most voices Nazianzene was bold to censure them as having seen no good effect of any of them And we our selves have seen and our eyes have dropped for it what a meer Name what Prejudice can do with the Many Nunquam tam benè cum rebus humanis agebatur ut plures essent meliores Sen. de Clement 1. and what it can countenance And many others they have of Miracles which were but lies of Glory which is but vanity of Universality which is bounded and confined to a certain place With these and the like that first prejudice That the Church cannot err is underpropt and upheld And yet again these depend upon that Such a mutual complication there is of Errours as in a bed of Snakes If the first be not true then these were nothing and if these pillars be once shaken and they are but mud that Church will soon sink in its reputation and not fit so high as magisterially to dictate to all the Churches of the world And as we have set up this Queen of Churches as an ensample of the effects of Prejudice so may we hold it up as a glass to see our own She saith we are a Schismatical We please and assure our selves that we are a Reformed Church And so we are and yet Prejudice may find a place even in the Reformation it self Rome is not only guilty of this but even some members of the Reformation who think themselves nearest to Christ when they run farthest from that Church though it be from the Truth it self And this is nothing else but Prejudice to judge our selves pure because our Church is purged to be less reformed because that is Reformed or to think that Heaven and Happiness will be raised and rest upon a Word or Name and that we are Saints as soon as we are Protestants Almost every Sect and every Faction laboureth under this Prejudice and feeleth it not but runneth away with its burden And too many there be who predestinate themselves to Heaven when they have made a surrendry of themselves to such a Church to such a company or collection nay sometimes but to such a man I accuse not Luther or Calvine of errour but honour them rather though I I know they were but men and I know they have erred or else our Church doth in many things and it were easie to name them But suppose they had broacht as many lyes as the Father of them could suggest yet they who have raised them in their esteem to such an height must needs have too open a breast to have received them as oracles and to have lickt up poyson it self if it had fallen from their pens since they have the same motive and inducement to believe them when they err which they have to believe them when they speak the truth and that is no more then their Name Orat. pro Muraena Tolle Catonem de Causa said Tully Cato was a name of virtue and carried authority with it and therefore he thought him not a fit witness in that cause against Muraena for his very name might overbear and sink it Tolle Augustinum de causa Take away the name of Augustine of Luther and Calvine and Arminius for they are but names not arguments There is but one Name by which we may be saved Acts 4.12 And his Name alone must have authority Hebr. 12.2 and prevail with us who is the authour and finisher of our faith VVe may honour others and give unto them that which is theirs but we must not deifie them nor pull Christ out of his throne to place them in his room Of this we may be sure There is
can be the same numerical body with that which did walk upon the earth It is enough for me to know that it is sown in dishonour 1 Cor. 15.43 and shall be raised in glory and my business is to rise with Christ here and make good my part in this first Resurrection for then I am secure and need not to extend my thoughts to the end of the world to survey and comprehend the second To add one instance more in the point of Justification of a sinner in which after sixteen hundred years preaching of the Gospel and more we do not well agree and yet might well agree if we would take it as the Scripture hath reacht it forth and not burthen it with our own phansies and speculations with new conclusions forced out of the light to obscure and darken it For when this burden is upon it it must needs weigh according as the hand is that poiseth it And what necessity is there to ask Whether it consist in one or more acts so I do assure my self that it is the greatest blessing that God ever let fall upon the children of men or Whether it be perfected in the pardoning of our sins or the imputation of universal obedience or by the active and passive obedience of Christ when it is plain that the act of Justification is the act of the Judge and this cannot so much concern us as the benefit it self which is the greatest that can be given I am sure not so much as the duty which must fit us for the act It were to be wisht that men would speak of the acts of God in his own language and not seek out divers inventions which do not edifie but many times shake and rend the Church in pieces and lay the Truth it self open to reproch which had triumphed gloriously over Errour had men contended not for their own inferences and deductions Jude 3. but for that common faith which was once delivered to the Saints And as in Justification so in the point of Faith by which we are justified what Profit is it busily to enquire Whether the nature of Faith consisteth in an obsequious assent or in appropriating to our selves the grace and mercy of God or in the mere fiducial apprehension and application of the merits of Christ Whether it be an instrument or a condition Whether a living Faith justifieth or whether it justifieth as a living Faith What will this add to me what hair to my stature when I may settle and rest upon this which every eye must needs see That the Faith by which I am justified must not be a dead faith but a Faith working by Charity which is the language of Faith and demonstrateth her to be alive My sheep hear my voice saith Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 5.6 saith Basil They hear and obey and never dispute or ask questions Joh. 10.27 they taste and not trouble and mud that clear water of life It is enough for us to be justified it is enough for us to be saved which we may be by pressing forward in the way which is smooth and plain and not running out into the mazes and labyrinths of disputes where we too oft lose our selves in our search and dispute away our Faith talk of Faith and the power of it and be worse then infidels of Justification and please our selves in unrighteousness of Christs active Obedience and be to every good Work reprobate Tit. 1.16 of his passive Obedience and deny him when we should suffer for him of the inconsistency of Faith and Good works in our Justification and set them at as great a distance in our lives and conversations and because they do not help to justifie us think they have no concurrence at all in the work of our salvation For we are well assured of the one and contend for it and too many are too confident of the other There is indeed a kind of intemperance in most of us a wild and irregular desire to make things more or less then they are and remove them well near out of sight by our additions and defalcations and few there are who can be content with the Truth and settle and rest in it as it appeareth in that nakedness and simplicity in which it was first brought forth but men are ever drawing out conclusions of their own spinning out and weaving speculations thin unsuitable unfit to be worn which yet they glory in and defend with more heat and animosity then they do that Truth which is necessary and by it self sufficient without this additional art For these are creatures of our own shaped out in our phansie and so drest up by us with all accurateness and curiosity of diligence that we fall at last in love with them and apply our selves to them with that closeness and adherency which dulleth and taketh off the edge of our affection to that which is most necessary and so leaveth that neglected and last in our thoughts which is the main Val. Max. 8. 11. As we read of Euphranor the painter who having stretcht his phansie and spent the force of his imagination in drawing Neptune to the life could not raise his after and wearied thoughts to the setting forth the majesty of Jupiter So when we are so lively and overactive in that which is either impertinent or not so considerable not much material to that which is indeed most material we commonly dream or are rather dead to those performances which the wisdome of God hath bound us to as the fittest and most proportioned to that end for which we were made And these I conceive are most necessary which are necessary to the work we have to do and will infallibly bring us to the end of our faith and hopes Others which our wits have hammered and wrought out of them may be peradventure of some use to those who are watchful over them to keep them in a pliableness and subserviency to that which is plain and received of all but may prove dangerous and fatal to others who have not that skill to manage them but favour them so much as to give them line and sufferance to carry them beyond their limit and then shut them up in themselves where they are lost to that truth which should save them which they leave behind them out of their eye and remembrance whilest they are busie in the pursuit of that which they overtake with danger and without which the Apostles of Christ and many thousands before them have attained their end and are now in bliss Certainly it would be more safe for us and more worthy our calling to be diligent and sincere in that which is plainly revealed to believe and in the strength and power of that Faith to crucifie our flesh with the affections and lusts Hoc opus Gal. 5.24 hic labor est then to be drawing out of Schemes and measuring out the actions and operations of God
words and syllables so that at last it was shut up and lost in phrases and second notions and terms of art which brought little improvement to the better part and made men rather talkative then wise For we may observe that the same noysome and pestilent wind which so withered Philosophy till it was shrunk up into a name being nothing but a body of words hath blown also upon Divinity and blasted that which was ordained to be the very life of our souls Which was more pure and plain when mens lives were so but is now sullied with much handling and made much unlike it self daubed over with glosses as with untempered morter wrought out into Questions beat out into Distinctions and is made an Art which is the Wisdome of God to Salvation The Schoolmen did toze and draw it out and then made it up in knots The Postillers played with it and made it well-neer ridiculous And we have seen some such unseemly Jigs in our dayes And there have been too many Theorical Divines who have stretched beyond their line beyond the understanding of their hearers and beyond their own wrought darkness out of light made that obscure which was plain that perplexed which was easie have handled Metaphors as Chymists do metals and extracted that out of them which Christ never put into them made them less intelligible by pressing them so far and by beating them out have made them nothing made them more obscure then the thing which they should shew yield us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sea of words but not a word of sense To be regenerate is something more then to be made good who were evil To be a new creature is something more if we could tell what it were then to be a just and righteous man and we are born and made what we are against our will And what hath followed this bold obtruding of our own thin and forced conceits upon the Church under the high commanding form of necessary truths Even that which hath been observed of Philosophy When men made Wisdom the only aim and end of their studies then Philosophy was it self in its prime and natural glory being drawn up unto its proper end But when they applied themselves to it only to fill up their time or satisfie their ambition or delight their wits then she lost her native complexion or strength and degenerated into folly then Epicurus raised a swarm of Atomes Diogenes made him a Tub and the Stoicks brought in their Decrees and Paradoxes then were there Mille familiarum nomina so many sects that it is not easie to draw them into a catalogue some there were who declared their different opinions and disputed one against the other by outward signes alone as by Weeping and Laughing So we find it also in the Church of Christ that Divinity never suffered so much as when it was made matter of wit and ambition and Policy and Faction became moderatours and staters of questions Then every man became an interpreter of Scripture and every interpreter had need of another to interpret him Then men taught the Law as Moses received it out of a thick cloud and Darkness was drawn over the face of Life it self and men received it as it was taught and did understand them who did not understand themselves received it as newes out of a far country and conceived of it either more or less then it vvas received it in parcels and fragments which hung like meteors in their phansie or as indigested lumps in their minds which soon broke out into sores and ulcers and one was a Libertine another an Anabaptist another a Leveller and some there were vvho did distinguish themselves by the motion and gesture and some vvhich is strange by the nakedness of their bodies And thus mischief grew up and multiplied through the blindness or deceitfulness of teachers and the folly and madness of the people Which evil had not certainly so far over-run the Church if men vvould have kept themselves vvithin their own limits and not took upon them to be vviser then God if the Truth had been as plainly taught as it vvas first delivered and not held out by mens ignorance or ambition and set forth vvith vvords and phrases and affected notions of our own if all men would have contended for and rested in that Faith alone which was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. And this I markt and avoided and in the course of my Ministery run from as far as a good will with my weakness could carry me And as I strook at those errours which are most common and did strive to set up in their place those truths which are most necessary so I did indeavour to do it to the very eye with all plainness and evidence and as near as I could in the language of him who for us men and for our salvation did first publish them to the world To which end and to which alone next to the glory of God these my rude and ill-polished papers are consecrate And if they attein this in many or few or but one I have a most ample recompense for my labour and Praise and Dispraise shall be to me both alike for the one cannot make these Sermons better nor the other worse I know others before me have raised themselves up to a higher pitch and strook at Errour with more art and brought more strength to the building up of the Truth and I have seen Truth exalted and Falshood led in triumph gloriously by those whom God and their industry hath more fitted to the work I have therefore offered my self up to it but as some Succours which come when the day and heat is over who though they do not help yet shew their good will And we know that even they who bring on the baggage do some service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 20. The God of patience and consolation grant that we may be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus that we may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 15.5 6. A Table directing to the Texts of Scripture handled in the following Sermons Four Festival Sermons ON Christmass-day Hebr. 2.17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be like unto his brethren On Good Friday Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things On Easter-day Rev. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of Death On Whitsunday Joh. 16.13 Howbeit when He the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth Twenty eight Sermons more Micah 6.6 8. WHerewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt offerings c. v. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what
the sea in the deluge of our lusts if we do not bury our selves alive in stubborn impenitency if we do not stop up all the passages of our souls if we do not still love darkness and make it a pavilion round about us he will look upon us through this light and look lovingly upon us with favour and affection He will look upon us as his purchase and he that delivered his Son for us will with him also freely give us all things Which is the End of all the End of Christ's being delivered and offereth it self to our consideration in the last place IV. God delivered God sent God gave his Son All these expressions we find to make him a Gift He is the desire and he is the riches of all Nations As whatsoever we do we must do so whatsoever we have we receive in his name The name of Jesus saith S. Peter of the impotent man Acts 3.13 1 Cor. 6.11 Col. 2.3 hath made this man strong By his name we are justified by his name we are sanctified by his name we shall enter into glory With him we have all things for in him are all the treasures of riches and wisdome We may think of all the Kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them but these come not within the compass nor are to be reckoned amongst his Donations For as the Naturalists observe of the glory of the Rainbow that it is wrought in our eye and not in the cloud and that there is no such pleasing variety of colours there as we see so the pomp and riches and glory of this world are of themselves nothing but are the work of our opinion and the creations of our phansie and have no worth or price but what our lusts and desires set upon them Luxuria his pretium fecit It is our Luxury which hath raised the market and made them valuable and in esteem which of themselves have nothing to commend them and set them off My Covetousness maketh that which is but earth a God my Ambition maketh that which is but air an heaven and my Wantonness walketh in the midst of pleasures as in a paradise There is no such thing as Riches and Poverty Honour and Peasantry Trouble and Pleasure but we have made them and we make the distinction There are no such plants grow up in this world of themselves but we set them and water them and they spread themselves and cast a shadow and we walk in this shadow and delight or disquiet our selves in vain Diogenes was a king in his tub when Great Alexander was but a slave in the world which he had conquered How many Heroick persons lie in chains whilest Folly and Baseness walk at large And no doubt there have been many who have looked through the paint of the pleasures of this life and beheld them as monsters and then made it their pleasure and triumph to contemn them And yet we will not quite exclude and shut out Riches and the things of this world from the sum For with Christ they are somthing and they are then most valuable when for his sake we can fling them away It is he alone that can make Riches a gift and Poverty a gift Honour a gift and Dishonour a gift Pleasure a gift and Trouble a gift Life a gift and Death a gift By this power they are reconciled and drawn together and are but one and the same thing If we look up into heaven there we shall see them in a neer conjunction even the poor Lazar in the Rich mans bosome In the night there is no difference to the eye between a pearl and a pibble between the choicest beauty and most abhorred deformity In the night the deceitfulness of Riches and the glory of Affliction lie hid and are not seen or in a contrary shape in the false shape of terrour where it is not or of glory where it is not to be found But when the light of Christ's countenance shineth upon them then they are seen as they are and we behold so much deceitfulness in the one that we dare not trust them and so much hope and advantage in the other that we begin to rejoyce in them and so make them both conducible to that end for which he was delivered and our convoyes to happiness All things is of a large compass large enough to take in the whole world But then it is the world transformed and altered the world conquered by faith i Cor. 3.21 22 23. the world in subjection to Christ All things are ours when we are Christ's There is a Civil Dominion and right to these things and this we have jure creationis by right of Creation Psal 24.1 115.16 For the earth is the Lord's and he hath given it to the sons of men And there is an Evangelical Dominion not the power of having them but the power of using them to God's glory that they may be a Gift and this we have jure adoptionis by right of Adoption as the sons of God begotten in Christ Christ came not into the world to purchase it for us or enstate us in it He did not suffer that we might be wanton nor was poor that we might be rich nor was brought to the dust of death that we might be set in high places Such a Messias did the Jews look for and such a Messias do some Christians worse than the Jews frame to themselves and in his name they beat their fellow-servants and strip them deceive and defraud them because they phansie themselves to be his in whom there was found no guile They are in the world as the mad Athenian was on the shore Every ship every house every Lordship is theirs And indeed they have as fair a title to their brothers estate as they have to the kingdome of heaven for they have nothing to shew for either I remember S. Paul calleth the Devil the God of this world 2 Cor. 4.4 and these in effect make him the Saviour of the world For as if he had been lifted up and nailed to the cross for them to him every knee doth bow nor will they receive the true Messias but in this shape They conceive him giving gifts unto men not spiritual but temporal not the graces of the Spirit Humility Meekness and Contentedness but Silver and Gold dividing inheritances removing of land-marks giving to Ziba Mephibosheth's land making not Saints but Kings upon the earth Thus they of the Church of Rome have set it down for a positive truth That all civil Dominion is founded in Grace that is in Christ A Doctrine which bringeth with it a Pick-lock and a Sword and giveth men power to spoyl whom they please to take from them that which is theirs either by fraud or by violence and to do both in the name and power of Christ But let no man make his Charter larger than it is In the Gospel we find none of such an
silence Though Corah and his complices perish in their gainsayings Jude 11. yet God forbid that all Israel should be swallowed up in the same gulf Samuel ran to Eli 1 Sam. 3 5-10 when the voice was God's but was taught at last to answer Speak Lord for thy servant heareth Though Ahab had many false Prophets 1 Kings 22. yet Micaiah was a true one And though there be many false Teachers come into the world 1 Joh. 4.1 yet the Spirit of God is a Spirit of truth and he shall lead us into all truth And that we may follow as he leadeth we must observe the wayes in which he moveth For as there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a way of peace Luk. 1.79 so there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wayes of truth and in those wayes the Spirit will lead us 2 Pet. 2.2 I may be in the wayes of the wicked in the wayes of the Gentiles and profane men in my own wayes in those wayes which my Phansie and Lust have chalked out on that pinnacle and height where my Ambition hath placed me in that mine and pit where my Covetousness hath buried me alive and in these I walk with my face from Jerusalem from the Truth and in these wayes the Spirit leadeth me not How can he learn Poverty of spirit who hath no God but Mammon and knoweth no sin but Poverty How can he be brought down to obedience and humility who with Diotrephes loveth to have the preeminence 3 Joh. 9. and thinketh himself nothing till he is taller than his fellowes by the head and shoulders How can he hearken to the Truth who studieth lies And do we now wonder why we are not taught the truth where the Spirit keepeth open School There is no wonder at all The reason why we are not taught is Because we will not learn Ambition soareth to the highest seat and the Spirit directeth us to the ground to the lowest place Love of the world filleth our barns and the Spirit pointeth to the bellies of the poor as the better and safer granaries My private factious Humour trampleth under foot Obedience to superiours because I my self would be the highest and challenge that as my peculiar which I deny to others but the Spirit prescribeth Order Doth Montanus lead about silly women and prophesie doth he call his dreams Revelations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb l. 1. c. 21. Contr. Valent. c. 4. Eusebius telleth us that the spirit which led him about was nothing else but an unmeasurable Desire of precedency Doth Valentinus number up his Aeones and as many Crimes as God's Tertullian informeth us that he hoped for a Bishoprick but being disappointed of his hopes by one who was raised to that dignity by the prerogative of Martyrdome and his many sufferings for the Truth he turned Heretick Doth Arius deny the Divinity of the Son Read Theodoret Lib. 1◠c. 2. and he will shew you Alexander in the chair before him Doth Aerius deny there is any difference between a Bishop and Presbyter The reason was he was denied himself and could not be a Bishop so that he fell from a Bishoprick as Lucifer did from Heaven whose first wish was to be God and whose next was That there were no God at all From hence those stirs and tumults in the Church of Christ those storms and tempests which blew and beat in her face from hence those distractions and uncertainties in Christian Religion that it was a matter of some danger but to mention it This made Nazianzene in some passion as it may seem cry out Orat. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I would there were no precedency no priority no dignities in the Church but that mens estimation did only rise from virtue but now the right hand and the left the higher and the lower place these terms of difference have led men not into the truth but into that ditch where Errour muddeth it self Caeca avaritia saith Maximus Covetousness and Ambition are blind and cannot look upon the Truth though she be as manifest as the Sun at noon It fareth with men in the lust of their eyes in the love of the world as it did with the man in Artemidorus who dreamt he had eyes of gold and the next day lost them had them both put out Now no smell is sweat but that of lucre no sight delightful but of the wedge of gold By a strange kind of Chymistry men turn Religion into Gold and even by Scripture it self heap up riches and so they lose their sight and judgement and savour not the things of God but are stark blind to that Truth which should save them But now grant that they were indeed perswaded of the truth of that which they defend with so much noyse and tumult yet this may be but opinion and phansie which the Love of the world will soon build up because it helpeth to nourish it And how can we think that the Spirit led them in those wayes in which Self-love and Desire of gain drive on so furiously Sure the Spirit of truth cannot work in that building where such Sanballats laugh him to scorn Now all these are the very cords of vanity by which we are drawn from the Truth and they must all be broken asunder before the Spirit will lead us to it For he he leadeth us not over the Mountains nor through the bowels of the earth nor through the numerous atoms of our vain and uncertain and perplext imaginations but as the wisdome which he teacheth Jam. 3.17 so the method of his discipline is pure peaceable gentle without partiality without hypocrisie and hath no savour or relish of the earth For he leadeth the pure he leadeth the peaceable he leadeth humble In a word he leadeth those who are lovers of peace and truth And now to draw towards a conclusion You know the wayes in which the Spirit walketh and by which he leadeth us Will you also know the rules we must observe if we will be the Spirit 's Scholars I will be bold to give them you from one who was a great lover of truth even Galene the Physician Who though an heathen man yet by the very light of Nature found out those means and helps in the pursuit of humane knowledge which the Spirit hath set down in Scripture to further us in the search of Divine Truth They are but four The first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Love of Truth the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Love of Industry a frequent meditation of the truth the third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Orderly and methodical proceeding in the pursuit of Truth the last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exercitation our conformity to the Truth in our conversation This gold though brought from Ophir yet may be useful to adorn and beautifie those who are the living Temples of the holy Ghost 1. First Love is a passion imprinted in us to
it self and worketh on insensibly but most strongly and certainly to our ruine And then it appeareth more ugly and deformed to God's pure and all-seeing eye who never hateth an oppressour more then when he seeth him at the Altar and is most offended with that fraudulent man who is called Christian We read in the Historian when Nero had but set his foot into the temple of Vesta he fell into a fit of trembling facinorum recordatione saith Tacitus being shaken with the remembrance of his monstrous crimes For what should he do in the Temple of Vesta who had defiled his own mother And how shall we dare to enter Gods courts unless we leave our sins behind us How dare we speak to a God of truth who defraud so many Why should we fast from meat who make our brethren our meat and eat them up At that great day of separation of true and false worshippers when the Judge shall bespeak those on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdome prepared for you the form or reason is not For you have sacrificed often you have fasted often you have heard much you were frequent in the Temple and yet these are holy duties but they are ordinata ad aliud ordained for those that follow and therefore are not mentioned but in them implyed For I was hungry and you gave me meat I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was naked and you clothed me sick and in prison and you visited me Then outward Worship hath its glory and reward when it draweth the inward along with it Then the Sacrifice hath a sweet-smelling savour when a just and merciful man offereth it up when I sacrifice and obey hear and do pray and endeavour contemplate and practise fast and repent And thus we are made one fit to be lookt upon by him who is Oneness it self not divided betwixt Sacrifice and Oppression a Form of godliness and an habitual Course in sin Dissembling with God and Fighting against him betwixt an Hosanna and a Crucifige Professing Christ and Crucifying him In this unity and conjunction every duty and virtue as the stars in the firmament have their several glory and they make the Israelite the Christian a child of light But if we divide them or set up some few for all the easiest and those which are most attempered to the sense for those which fight against it and bring in them for the main which by themselves are nothing if all must be Sacrifice if all must be Ceremony and outward Formality if this be the conclusion and sum of the whole matter if this be the body of our worship and Religion then instead of a Blessing and an Euge we shall meet with a frown and a check and God will question us for appearing before him in strange apparel which he never put upon us Zeph. 1.8 question us for doing his command and tell us he never gave any such command because he gave it not to this end Will he be pleased with burnt-offerings with Ceremony and Formality He asketh the question with some indignation and therefore it is plain he will not but lotheth the Sacrifice as he doth the Oppressour and Unclean person that bringeth it We see then that we may yet draw it nearer to us that there was good reason why God should thus disclaim his own ordinance because he made it for their sakes and to an end quite contrary to that to which the Jew carried it We see the Prophet might well set so low an esteem upon so many thousand rams because Idolaters and Oppressours and cruel blood thirsty men offered them We see Sacrifice and all outward Ceremony and Formality are but as the garment or shadow of Religion which is turned into a disguise when she weareth it not and is nothing is a delusion when it doth not follow her For Oppression and Sacrilege may put on the same garment and the greatest evil that is may cast such a shadow He that hateth God may sacrifice to him he that blasphemeth him may praise him the hand that strippeth the poor may put fire to the incense and the feet that are so swift to shed blood may carry us into the Temple When all is Ceremony all is vain nay lighter then Vanity For in this we do not worship God but mock him give him the skin when he looketh for the heart we give shadows for substances shews for realities and leaves for fruit we mortifie our lusts and affections as Tragedians die upon the stage and are the same sinners we were as wicked as ever Our Religion putteth forth nothing but blossomes or if it knit and make some shew or hope of fruit it is but as we see it in some trees it shooteth forth at length and into a larger proportion and bigness then if it had had its natural concoction and had ripened kindly and then it hath no tast or relish but withereth and rotteth and falleth off And thus when we too much dote on Ceremony we neglect the main Work and when we neglect the Work we fly to Ceremony and Formality and lay hold on the Altar We deal with our God as Aristotle of Cyrene did with Lais Clem. Alexandr 3. Strom. who promised to bring her back again into her country if she would help him against his adversaries whom he was to contend with and when that was done to make good his oath drew her picture as like her as art could make it and carried that And we fight against the Devil as Darius did against Alexander with pomp and gayety and gilded armour as his prey rather then as his enemies And thus we walk in a vain shadow and trouble our selves in vain and in this region of Shews and Shadows dream of happiness and are miserable of heaven and fall a contrary way as Julius Caesar dreamed that he soared up and was carried above the clouds Suet. Vit. C. Caesar and took Jupiter by the right hand and the next day was slain in the Senate-house I will not accuse the foregoing Ages of the Church because as they were loud for the ceremonious part of Gods worship so were they as sincere in it and did worship him in spirit and in truth and were equally zealous in them both and though they raised the first to a great height yet never suffered it so to over-top the other as to put out its light but were what their outward expressions spake them as full of Piety as Ceremony And yet we see that high esteem which they had of the Sacraments of the Church led some of them upon those errours which they could not well quit themselves of but by falling into worse It is on all hands agreed that they are not absolutely necessary not so necessary as Mortifying of our lusts and denying of our selves not so necessary as actual Holiness It is not absolutely necessary to be baptized for many have not passed
For nihil aequalitate ipsâ inaequalius There is no greater inequality in the world then in a body politick where all the parts are equal That Equality which commendeth and upholdeth a Commonwealth ariseth from the difference of its parts moving in their several measures and proportions as Musick doth from discords When every part answereth in its place and raiseth it self no higher then that will bear when the Magistrate speaketh by nothing but the Laws and the Subject answereth by nothing but his obedience when the greater shadow the less and the less help to fortifie the greater when every part doth its part and every member its office then there is an equality and an harmony and we call it Peace For if we move and move chearfully in our own sphere and calling we shall not start forth to discompose and disorder the motion of others in theirs If we fill our own place we shall not leap over into anothers our Desires will dwel at home our Covetousness and Ambition die our Malice cease our Suspicion end our Discontent vanish or else be soon changed and spiritualized our Desires will be levelled on Happiness we shall covet the best things be ambitious of Heaven malice nothing but Malice and destroy it suspect nothing but our Suspicion and be discontent with nothing but that we are discontent and so in this be like unto God himself have our centre in our selves or rather make Peace our centre that every motion may be drawn from it that in the compass and circumference of our behaviour with others all our actions as so many lines may be drawn out and meet and be united in Peace And this is not onely enjoyned by Religion and the Gospel but it is also the method of Nature it self which hath so ordered it that every thing in its own place is at quiet and rest and no where else The Earth moves not in its place Water is not ponderous in its proper place The Fire burneth not in its sphere but out of it it hath voracitatem toto mundo avidissimam saith Pliny it spreadeth it self most violently and devoureth every thing it meeteth with Nay Poyson is not hurtful to those tempers that breed it Epist. 81. Illud venenum quod serpentes in alienam perniciem proferunt sine suâ continent saith Seneca The venome of the Scorpion doth not kill the Scorpion and that poyson which serpents cast out with danger and hurt to others they keep without any to themselves And as it is in Nature so is it in the Society of men Our diligence in our own business is soveraign and connatural to our estates and conditions but most times poysonous abroad and dangerous and fatal to our selves and others 2 Sam. 6.6 7. When Vzzah put forth his hand to hold up the Ark of God and keep it from falling though his intention were good yet God struck him for his errour and rashness in moving out of his place and struck him dead because he did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do his own business When Uzziah invaded the Priests office 2 Chron. 26 16-21 and would burn incense and Azariah the Priest told him It pertaineth not to thee It is not thy business even while the censer was yet in his hand his sin was writ in his forehead he was struck with a leprosie and cut off from the house of the Lord. When Peter was busie to enquire concerning John Joh 21.21 22. What shall this man do our Saviour was ready with a sharp reply What is that to thee thy business is to follow me When Christians out of a wanton and irregular zeal did throw down Images and were slain by the Heathen in the very fact the Church censured them as Disturbers of the peace rather then Martyrs and though they suffered death in defiance of Idolatry yet allowed them no place in the Diptychs in the Catalogue of those who laid down their lives for the Truth Dathan and Abiram rise out of their place Numb 16 1-30 2 Sam. 20.1 22. 2 Sam. 15. c. and the earth swalloweth them up Sheba is up and bloweth a Trumpet and his head flyeth over the wall Absalom would up into the tribunal which was none of his place and was hanged in the Oak which was fitter for him And if any have risen out of their place as we use to say on the right side and been fortunate villains their purchase was not great Honey mingled with Gall Honour drugged with the Hatred and Curses of men with Fears and Cares with Gnawings within and Terrours without All the content and pleasure they had by their great leap out of their place was but as musick to one stretcht out on the rack or as that little light which is let in through the crack or flaw of a wall into him that lyeth fettered in a loathsome dungeon And at last their wages was Death eternal Death and Howling for ever Nay when we are out of our place and busie in that which concerneth us not though what we do may be in it self lawful and most expedient to be done yet we make that act a sin in us which is another mans duty and so shipwrack at that point to which another was bound perish in the doing of that which he shall perish for not doing The best excuse that we can take up is That we did honestâ mente peccare That we did that which is evil as we say for the best That we did sin and offend God with a good intention and pious mind Which Gloss may be fitted to the greatest sin and is the fairest chariot the Devil hath to carry us to hell If we would be particular the instances in this kind would be but too many For such Agents the Enemy of the Truth hath alwayes had in all the ages of the Church who have unseasonably disturbed the publick peace and their own whose business it was and sure it could be none of their own to teach Pastours to govern and Divines how to preach every day to make a new coat for the Church to hammer and shape out a new form and discipline as if nothing could be done well because they stood not by and had a hand in the doing it and so make the Church not so fair but certainly as changeable as the Moon One Sect disliketh this and another that and a third quarrelleth at them both and every one of them if their own phansie had been set up and establisht by another hand would have kickt it down For this humour is restless and endless and for want of matter will at last feed on him that nourisheth it As it was in that experiment of the Egyptians in Epiphanius who filled a bag with serpents and when afterwards they opened it found that the greatest had eat up the rest and half of it self We may well say of them as Gregory the great doth Illos alienorum actuum sagax cogitatio
from heaven to those who enter our Olympicks who enter Religion and give up their names to Christ that they may fight for mastery and be crowned Our Saviour telleth them they must sit down Luke 14.31 and consider what that is wherein they have ingaged themselves how full of trouble and danger how many thorns and lets there be in their way how many adversaries It is not enough to name Christ 2 Tim. 2.19 but they that name him must depart from all iniquity and carefully provide that the Integrity of their life rather commend their Religion then Religion be suborned and brought in to countenance the Irregularity of their manners We cannot but observe that from the corruption of mens lives all those corruptions and mixtures have crept into Religion which carry with them a near likeness and resemblance to those spots which men have received from the world Ambition hath brought in her mixture and Covetousness hers and Pleasures have dropt their poison and left their very mark and characters in the doctrines of men which are framed and fashioned to favour and advance that evil humour which first set them up Covetousness and Ambition may set up a chair or Consistory and from thence shall provision be made to feed and nourish them both to a monstrous growth Nam ut in vita Lib. 12. c. prim sic in causis spes improbas habent saith Quintilian Those unlawful hopes and foul desires which sway us in our lives appear again and shew themselves as full of power to pervert and mislead us in point of doctrine One would think that the world had nothing to do in the School of Christ that Mammon could not hold the pen of the Scribe or conclude in the Schools or have a voice and suffrage in a Councel that Money and Honour and Pleasure could bring nothing to the stating of a Question but through the corruptness of mens mindes and manners it hath in all ages so fallen out that these have been the great deciders of controversies have started Questions and resolved them have called Councels and decreed with them We may be soon perswaded it was no other spirit then this which was sent from Rome in a cloakbag to the Councel of Trent We have seen enough to raise such a thought That the Church hath been governed by the world that that which we call Religion hath been carried on by private Interest From hence are those corruptions of Truth and mixtures in Religion from hence those generations of Questions those catalogues of Heresies from hence so many Religions and none at all For Faction cannot be Religion since it cutteth off the fairest part and member she hath Charity And thus if Religion lose one of these colours she loseth her beauty If she be not pure she cannot long be sincere and entire and if she be defiled she will receive additions the worship of Saints to the worship of God the fire of Purgatory to the blood of Christ the Indulgence of man to the free Pardon of God Irreverence and profaneness to our hatred of Superstition and to our Zeal Oppression and Murder In a word if it be not pure without mixture and undefiled without pollution it is not Religion And now I have shewed you the Picture of Religion in little represented it to you in these two Doing of good and Abstaining from evil filling the hungry with good things and purging and emptying our selves of all uncleanness You have seen its beauty in its graceful and glorious colours of Purity and Undefiledness Dignum Deo spectaculum a Picture to be hung up in the Church nay before God himself And thus it appeareth before God and the Father and hath its ratification from him God was the first that set it up to be looked upon He hath revealed his will by his Son who is the Wisdome of the Father who gave unto us the words which his Father gave him John 17.8 which give us a full an exact rule of life a method of obedience and glory the way to be like him in this world and to see him in the next And there needeth no other method no other way no other Rule neither a Basil nor a Benedict to enlarge it Nor is it of so easie and quick dispatch that it hath left to men leisure for further practice nor so imperfect that it should need supply from a second hand Why should the phansie the unsetled and whirling phansie of a Man who is ignorant as a beast before him take the boldness to prompt and instruct the wisdome of the Almighty Quod à Deo discitur totum est All that we need learn all that we can learn God alone can teach us By this Christian Religion hath the prerogative above all other Religions in the world For though there be many that are called Gods 1 Cor. 8.5 6. as S. Paul speaketh though there be many that are called Religions yet unto us as there is but one God so there is but one Religion which is commentum Divinitatis the invention or rather the Revelation of the Deity and had no authour could have no authour but God himself Take that which seemeth to carry a fairer shew then the rest and cometh abroad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like Agrippa and Bernice Acts 25.23 with great pomp and ceremony with voluntary Humility and blinde Obedience with Sackcloth and Fasting with a Pilgrims staff with Penance and Satisfaction and we know from what hands it came of men and by men who many of them drew Religion out of the soul into the outward man betook themselves to this bodily exercise as to a sanctuary so to avoid the continual luctations and lasting agonies of the minde entred Religion that is the phrase but carried little Charity and all those spots they received from the world along with them What voice from heaven did Charles the fifth the Duke of Parma and others hear that having lived in all state and pomp they should count it meritorious to be buried in the hood of a Capuchine or what satisfaction is this before God and the Father Again take that which indeed is called Religion and with that noise and vehemency as if there were none but that yet is it as different from Religion as a picture is from a man Take all our mimick Gestures our forced and studied Deportment our Pharisaical extermination of the countenance our Libelling the Times which we help to make evil our Zeal our Revenge and Indignation against Sin in all but our selves all these are but puppets of our own making a creation of a sick and distempered phansie Luke 16.15 and do but justifie us before men as our Saviour speaketh and those too no wiser then our selves but that which followeth defaceth all our pageantry Spectat nos ex alto Deus rerum arbiter Men see us who see but our face but God also is a spectator and He knoweth the
heart Take that Zeal which consumeth not our selves but others about us this fire is not from Heaven nor was it kindled by the Father of lights That hand which is so ready to take a brother by the throat was never guided by the Authour of our Religion who is our Father That tongue which is full of bitterness and reviling Isa 6.7 James 3.6 was never toucht by a Seraphin but set on fire of hell These are not Religions before God and the Father But this Religion TO DO GOOD and TO ABSTAIN FROM EVIL ex alto originem ducit acknowledgeth no Authour but the God of heaven hath God and the Father to bear witness to it was taught by the Prophets thundred out by the Apostles and by Christ himself who is the Authour and Finisher of our Faith and Religion Hebr. 12.2 This may serve first to make us in love with this Religion because it hath such a Founder as God the Father who is wisdome it self and can neither be deceived nor deceive us Men and brethren Acts 13.26 whosoever among you feareth God to you is this word of salvation sent sent to you from Heaven from God and the Father In other things you are very curious and ever desire to receive them from the best hands What a present is a picture of Apelles making or a statue of Lysippus Not the watch you wear but you would have it from the best artificer And shall our Curiosity spend it self on vanities and leave us careless and indifferent in the choice of that which must make our way to eternity of bliss Shall we make darkness our pavilion round about us and please our selves in errour when Heaven boweth and openeth it self to receive us Shall we worship our own imaginations and not hearken what God and the Father shall say What a shame is it when God from heaven pointeth with his finger to the rule HAEC EST This is it that we should frame a Religion to our selves that every mans phansie and humour or which is the height of impiety every mans sin should be his Lawgiver that when there can be but one there should be so many Religions arbitrary Religions such as we are pleased to have because they smile upon us and flatter and bolster up our irregular desires a hearing Religion and a talking Religion and a trading Religion a Religion that shall visit the widow and orphan but rather to devour then refresh them Behold and look no farther God the Father hath made a Religion which is pure and undefiled to our hands Therefore as Seneca counselleth Palybius when thou wouldst forget all other things cogita Caesarem entertain Caesar in thy thoughts so that we may forget all other sublunary and worldly I may say Hellish Religions let us think of this Religion whose Authour and Founder is God whose wisdome is infinite whose power uncontrollable whose authority unquestionable For talk what we will of authority the authority of Man is like himself and can but binde the man and that the frailest and earthliest part of him onely God is Rex mentium the King of our minds and no authority in heaven or on earth can binde or loose a Soul but his who first breathed it into man Come then let us worship and fall down before God the Father the Maker both of us and of our Religion Again if S. James be canonical and authentick if this be true Religion then it will make up an answer sufficient to stop the mouth of those of the Romish party who are very busie to demand at our hands a catalogue of Fundamentals and where our Church was before the dayes of Reformation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Proverb These and such like questions they put up unto us as Archytas did his rattles into childrens hands to keep them from doing mischief that being busie and taken up with these we may have less leisure to pull down the idoles of Rome or discover her shame Do they ask what truths are fundamental Faith supposed as it is Here they are Charity to our selves and others Nihil ultrà scire est omnia scire To know this Tert. De prascript is to know all we need to know For is it not sufficient to know that which is sufficient to make us happy But if nothing will satisfie them but a catalogue of particulars They have Moses and the Prophets they have the Apostles Luke 16.29 and if they find their Fundamentals not there in vain shall they seek for them at our hands They may if they please seek them there and then number them out as they do their Prayers by beads and present them by tale But if they will yet know what is fundamental in our conceit and what not they may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 draw out with both hands For first let them observe what points they are in which we agree with their Church and if they be in Scriptu e let them set them down if they please as fundamental in our account And on the other hand let them mark in what points we refuse Communion with them and they cannot but think that we esteem those points for no Fundamentals And again do they who measure Religion rather by the pomp and state it carrieth with it then the power and majesty of the Authour whose command alone made it Religion ask us where our Religion was in the dayes before there was a withdrawing from the Communion with that Church we may answer It was here in the Text. For HAEC EST this is it And if they further question us where it was professed we need give no other reply then this It was professed where it was professed If it were not professed in any place yet was it true Religion For the Truth dependeth not on the profession of it nor is it less truth if none receive it But professed it was even amongst them in the midst of them round about them But wheresoever it were this was it This was true Religion before God and the Father To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep our selves unspotted from the world To conclude then Men and Brethren are these things so Is this onely true Religion To do good and to abstain from evil What a busie noise then doth the world make for Religion when it offereth it self and falleth so low offereth it self to the meanest understanding the narrowest capacity and throweth it self into the embraces of any that will love it Littus Hyla Hyla omne sonabat Religion is the talk of the whole world it is preached on the house-tops and cryed up in the streets we are loud for it and smother it in that noise we write for it and leave it dead in that letter to be found no where but in our books we fight for it and it is drowned in the blood that is spilt and S. James's that is Christ's Religion is
parts which make up the Syntaxis of a Republick And he that endeavoureth not the advancement of the whole is a letter too much fit to be expunged and blotted out But in the Church whose maker and builder is God Heb. 11.10 this is required in the highest degree especially in those transactions which may enlarge the circuit and glory of it Here every man must be his own and under Christ his brothers Saviour For as between these two Cities so between the happiness of the one and the happiness of the other there is no comparison As therefore every Bishop in the former ages called himself Episcopum Catholicae Ecclesiae a Bishop of the Catholick Church although he had jurisdiction but over one Diocess so the care and piety of every particular Christian in respect of its diffusive operation is as Catholick as the Church Every soul he meeteth with is under his charge and he is the care of every soul Jam. 5.20 In saving a soul from death every man is a Priest and a Bishop although he may neither invade the Pulpit nor ascend the Chair I may be eyes unto him as it was said of Hobab Numb 10.31 I may take him from his errour and put him into the way of truth If he fear I may scatter his fear if he grieve I may wipe off his tears if he presume I may teach him to fear and if he despair I may lift him up to a lively hope that neither Fear nor Grief neither Presumption nor Despair swallow him up Thus may I raise a dead man from the grave a sinner from his sin and by that example many may rise with him who are as dead as he and so by this friendly communication we may transfuse our selves into others and receive others into our selves and so run hand in hand from the chambers of Death And thus far we dare extend the Communion of Saints place it in a House a Family a Society of men called and gathered together by Christ raise it to the participation of the privileges and Charters granted by Christ calling us to the same faith leading us by the same rule filling us with the same grace endowing us with several gifts that we may guard and secure each other and so settle it in those Offices and Duties which Christianity maketh common and God hath registred in his Church which is the pillar of truth 1 Tim. 3.15 where all mens Joyes and Sorrows and Fears and Hopes should be one and the same And then to die surrounded with all these helps and advantages of God above ready to help us of Men like unto our selves prest out as auxiliaries to succour and relieve us of Precepts to guide us of Promises to encourage us of Heaven even opening it self to receive us then to die 2 Sam 3.33 34. is to die as fools die to suffer their hands to be bound and their feet put in fetters and to open their breast to the sword For to die alone is not so grievous not so imputable as to die in such company to die where it is no more but to will it and I might live for ever Oh how were it to be wisht that we well understood this one Article of our Faith the Communion of Saints that we knew to be Vessels to receive the Water of life and Conduits to convey it that we would remember that by every sin we bring trouble to a million of Saints and by our obedience make as many Angels merry Luk. 15.13 30. that when we spend our portion amongst harlots we do not onely begger our selves but rob and spoil our brethren that when we yield our selves to the enemy we betray an Army Oh that we knew what it were to give counsel and what it were to receive it what it were to shine upon others and to walk by their light Oh that we knew the power and the necessity of a Precept the riches and glory of a Promise that we would consider our selves as men amongst men invited to happiness invited to the same royal feast If this were rightly considered we should then ask our selves the question Why should we die Why shâ—uld we die not in the wilderness amongst beasts upon our turf or stone where there is none to help but in domo Israelis in a house and in the house of Israel where Health and Safety appear in every room and corner Why should we fall like Samson with the house upon us and so endanger and bruise others with our fall If I be a string why should I jarre and spoil the harmony If I be a part why should I be made a schisme from the body If I be under command why should I beat my fellow-servants If a member why should I walk disorderly in the family Why should I why should any die in the house of Israel And now to reassume the Text Why will ye die O house of Israel What a fearful exprobration is it What can it work in us but shame and confusion of face Why will ye die ye that have Christ for your Physician the Angels for your Ministers the Saints for your example the Church a common shop of precious balm and antidotes ye who are in the House of Israel where you may learn from the Priest learn from the oracles of God learn from one another learn from Death it self not to die In this House in this Order in this Union in this Communion in the midst of all these auxiliary troops to fall and miscarry To have the Light but not to see it the bread of Life but not to tast it To die with our antidotes about us Quale est de Ecclesiâ Dei in Ecclesiam Diaboli tendere de coelo in coenum Tert. De spect c. 25. Aug. De Civ Dei l. 14. c. 15. to go per portâ—â— coeli in gehennam thorow the house of Israel into Tophet thorow the Church of Christ into hell may well put God to ask questions and expostulate and can argue no less then a stubborn and relentless heart and not onely a defect but a distast and hatred of that piety quae una est sapientia in hac domo which is the onely wisdome and most useful in the house of Israel which is our best strength against our enemy Death And here to apply this to our selves Let us compare the state of the house of Israel with the state of the people of this Nation and Jerusalem with this City Isa 5.4 and we may say What could God have done more for us which he hath not done Onely his blessings and privileges will rise and swell and exceed on our side and so make our ingratitude and guilt the greater They had their Priests and Levites we have our Pastours and Ministers They had their Temple and Synagogues we our Parochial Churches They had their Sacraments Circumcision and the Paschal Lamb Acts 15.21 we Baptism and the Lords
faction What press on to make thy self better and make thy self worse go up to the Temple to pray and profane it What go to Church and there learn to pull it down Why Oh why will ye thus die O house of Israel Oh then let us look about us with a thousand eyes let us be wise and consider what we are and where we are that we are a House and so ought every man to fill and make good his place and mutually support each other that we are a Family and must be active in those offices which are proper to us and so with united forces keep Death from entring in that we are the Israel of God his chosen people chosen therefore that we may not cast away our selves 1 Tim. 3.15 that we are his Church which is the pillar and ground of truth a pillar to lean on that we fall not and holding out and urging the truth which is able to save us that we may not die We have God's Word to quicken us his Sacraments to strengthen and confirm us his Grace to prevent and follow us We have many helps and huge advantages And if we look up upon them and lay hold on them if we hearken to his Word resist not his Grace neither idolize nor profane his Sacraments but receive them with reverence as they were instituted in love if we hear the Church if we hear one another if we confirm one another Rom. 6.9 Gal. 7.16 if we watch over our selves and one another Death shall have can have no more dominion over us we shall not we cannot die at all but as many as thus walk in the common light of the house of Israel peace shall be upon them and mercy and upon the Israel of God And now we must draw towards a conclusion and we must conclude and shut up all in nobis ipsis in our selves If we die it is quia volumus because we will die For look above us and there is God the living God the God of life saying to us Live Look before us and there is Death breathing terrour to drive us from it shewing us his dart that we may hold up our buckler Look about us and there are armouries of weapons treasuries of wisdome shops of physick balm and ointments helps and advantages pillars and supporters to uphold us that we may stand and not fall into the pit which openeth its mouth but will shut it again if we flie from it which is not cannot be is nothing if we do not dig it our selves The Church exhorteth instructeth correcteth God calleth inviteth expostulateth Death it self threatneth us that we may not come near Thus are we compassed about auxiliorum nube with a cloud of helps and advantages The Church is loud Death is terrible God's Nolo is loud I will not the death of a sinner Ezek. 33.11 and confirmed with an oath As he liveth He would not have us die And it is plain enough in his lightning and in his thunder in his expostulations and wishes in his anger in his grief in his spreading out his hands in his administration of all means sufficient to protect and guard us from it And it excludeth all Stoical Fate all necessity of sinning or dying There is nothing above us nothing before us nothing about us which can necessitate or bind us over to Death so that if we die it is in our volo in our Will we die for no other reason but that which is not reason Quia volumus Because we will die We have now brought you to the very cell and den of Death where this monster was framed and fashioned where it was first conceived brought forth and nursed up I have discovered to you the original and beginnings of Sin whose natural issue is Death and shut it up in one word the Will That which hath so troubled and amused men in all the ages of the Church to find out that which some have sought in heaven in the bosome of God as if his Providence had a hand in it and others have raked hell and made the Devil the authour of who is but a perswader and a soliciter to promote it that which others have tied to the chain of Destiny whose links are filed by the phansie alone and made up of air and so not strong enough to bind men much less the Gods themselves as it is said that which many have busied themselves in a painful and unnecessary search to find out openiâ—g the windows of Heaven to find it there running to and fro about the Universe to find it there and searching Hell it self to discover it we may discover in our own breasts in our own heart The Will is the womb that conceiveth this monster this viper which eateth through it and destroyeth the mother in the birth For that which is the beginning of action is the beginning of Sin and that which is the beginning of Sin is the cause of Death In homine quicquid est sibi proficit saith Hilary In Psal 118 There is nothing in Man nothing in the world which he may not make use of to avoid and prevent Death And in homine quicquid est sibi nocet There is nothing in Man nothing in the world which he may not make an occasion and instrument of sin That which hurteth him may help him That which circumspection and diligence may make an antidote neglect and carelesness may turn into poyson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil As Goodness so Sin is the work of our Will not of Necessity If they were wrought in us against our will there could be neither good nor evil I call heaven and earth to witness Deut. 30.19 said GOD by his servant Moses I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing And what is it to set it before them but to put it to themselves to put it into their own hands to put it to their choice Chuse then which you will The Devil may tempt the Law occasion sin Rom. 7.11 the Flesh may be weak Temptations may shew themselves but not any of these not all of these can bring in a necessity of dying For the Question or Expostulation doth not run thus Why are you under a Law Why are you weak or Why are you dead for reasons may be given for all these and the Justice and Wisdome of God will stand up to defend them But the Question is Why will ye die for which there can be no other reason given but our Will And here we must make a stand and take our rise from this one word this one syllable our Will For upon no larger foundation then this we either build our selves up into a temple of the Lord or into that tower of Babel and Confusion which God will destroy We see here all is laid upon the Will But such is our folly and madness so full of contradictions is a wilfull sinner Wisd 1.16 that
you what it was that made John a burning and what a shining light And here I need not tell you that he was a Prophet and more then a Prophet He was fibula Legis Evangelii as Tertullian calleth him the hasp which tied together the Law and the Gospel the middle Prophet which looked back upon the Truth obscurely shadowed in figures and types and looked forward on Christ that at the very voice of Christ's mother he sprang in his mother's womb prophetavit antequam natus erat and was a Prophet before he was a man Our Saviour here calleth him a burning light Supernatural illumination might have been enough to have made him a light to others but not to burn in himself Even Saul was amongst the Prophets and Caiaphas did prophesie and Baalam fell into a trance saw the vision of the Almighty took up his parable and breathed forth a prophesie a prophesie of as large a compass and extent as any we find in Scripture and yet he loved the wages of unrighteousness Even these were moved by the holy Ghost and spake as they were moved but were not holy men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil but the word of Prophesie came unto them by way of dispensation not for any purity or worth of theirs but for the present exigence and occasion and the instruction of others He that opened Balaams eyes opened also the Asses mouth to rebuke him All these may be called lights but we cannot say they burned or if they did not with any fire from heaven For Knowledge whether natural or supernatural whether gained by way of conclusion out of premisses or by the evidence of the things themselves or by Divine inspiration and extraordinary radiation is not alwaies accompanied with this heat and fire because the acts or reception of the Understanding are rather natural and necessary then arbitrary and the mind of man cannot but receive the species and forms of things as they are presented and imprinted either by the object it self or by a Divine supernatural hand In a word if the Truth open and display it self the Understanding cannot but receive it If the Spirit come upon Saul he must prophesie These radiations and flashes of light upon the Understanding do not alwayes make us burn within our selves but many times are darted on us when there is a frost at the heart when we are bound up and sealed as it were in our graves in a kind of Lethargy without heat or activity Every knowing man doth not love the truth which he knoweth nor is every Prophet a Saint Scire nihil aut parùm operatur ad virtutem saith the Philisopher Knowledge of it self bringeth no great store of fuel to this fire nor doth it conduce to the essence of Virtue For we do not define Virtue by Knowledge It may direct and illuminate but it doth not alwaies warm us it may help to fan this fire but it is not that heat with which we burn What is it then that made John Baptist and maketh every righteous man a burning light Not the Knowledge alone though it were supereminent but the Love of Truth For the Understanding is at best but a Counsellor to the Will It may call upon me to awake and I fold my arms to sleep It may speak as an oracle of God and I reject its counsel It may say This is the way when I run counter It may breathe upon my heart and no fire burn But when the Will is so truly affected with the Truth as to woo and imbrace it when I am willing to lay down my life for it then there is a fire in my bones and this fire doth melt me and this liquefaction transform me and this transformation unite and marry me to the Truth And this is that fire with which we burn which maketh this holy conflagration in us And indeed it hath the operation of Fire For first as Fire it is full of activity nor can any thing withstand its force It hath voracitatem toto mundo avidissimam as Pliny speaketh It is the most devouring thing in the world Nihil tam ferreum quod non amoris igne vincitur saith Augustine There is nothing so hard or difficult which it doth not overcome It esteemeth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood Be it Service it is a glorious liberty Be it seven years it is but a few dayes to Love Be it Disgrace it enobleth it Be it Poverty it enricheth it Be it Torment it sweetneth it Be it Death for the Truth 's sake it is made advantage and gain O beloved that the voice of power so soon shaketh us that the glittering of a sword the horrour of a prison a frown so soon loosneth our joynts abateth our courage that we either halt between God and Baal or plainly fall from the Truth is because we are but coldly affected to it If this fire were kindled in us it would make Persecution peace enlighten a prison and make Horrour it self an object of glory and joy That which is a tempest to others to them that love is a pleasant and prosperous gale Secondly as Fire it is very sensible and maketh us even to burn within us and to be restless and unquiet for the Truth 's sake Inquies animus ipso opere pascitur as Livy spake of himself It is fed with what it doeth and as that restless element it either spreadeth or dieth It is kindled from heaven and will lick up all the water all contrary matter 2 Cor. 5.13 as the fire did which Elijah called down Whether we be besides our selves or whether we be sober it is for the Truth 's sake Love urgeth and constraineth us driveth us upon the pricks upon any difficulty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gordius the Martyr in Basil What loss am I at that die but once for the Truth In labours more abundant in stripes above measure in prison more frequent saith S. Paul And could he do no more Yes he could Vbi historiam praestare non potuit votum attulit What he could not do to fill up an history he supplieth with a wish and maketh it his prayer for the good of the Church Rom. 9. to be cut off from the Church pro Christo non habere Christum for Christ's sake to be separate from Christ And to speak truth in this Love differeth from Fire Fire will die if it want fuel but Love will live in that breast where it was first kindled and where it meeteth not with matter to work upon it burneth the more for want of it When it cannot fight with the Philistine not encounter Satan with his fiery darts not slight him in the pomp of the world not contemn him in his terrours it striveth and strugleth with it self and supposeth and frameth difficulties Nihil imperiosius charitate Nothing is more powerful nor commanding then Love And yet when it hath done all supposed all it is content
wide gate to let Irreligion and Atheism in But from all Sedition and privy Conspiracy from all false Doctrine and Heresie from Hardness of heart and Contempt of Gods Word and Commandment Good Lord deliver us To conclude To the Temple the man went who was made whole and in the Temple Jesus found him In the Temple he praised God and in the Temple Christ instructed him Acts 3.1 To the Temple went Peter and John at the hour of prayer And into the Temple went up the Pharisee and the Publican the one a Sectary the other odious to a proverb yet no scruple no contention between them both went up together to the Temple to pray And as they had a Temple so have we the Church And if theirs was the Holy place as it is called so is ours being ordained to the same end I may say to a better Theirs to offer up the flesh of beasts ours to offer up our selves Theirs for corporal and carnal ours for spiritual sacrifices And why not ours then as Holy as theirs God himself cannot imprint Holiness in a stone All is from the end The Church is a house of prayer let it not be made a den of thieves to rob God of his glory It is Bethel the House of God let it not be made Bethaven a House of vanity Let our devotion and not our vanity here display it self Let the contention be not who shall be most vain most phantastick but who shall be most devout most humble most reverent It is a house of peace oh what pity what shame is it that we should from this place first hear the alarm to war It is a house where God's Honour should dwell let not Ziim and Ochim satyrs and screech-owles profane persons dance and revel here Last of all it is a place consecrate that is set apart for God's worship then if there be such a sin it it will be foul sacrilege to pull it down I will read to you some part of Psalm 83. Keep not thou silence O God hold not thy peace and be not still O God For lo thy enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have lift up the head They have taken crafty counsel against thy people and consulted against thy hidden ones They said let us take to our selves the houses of God in pessession O my God make them like a wheel as the stubble before the wind Fill their faces with shame that they may seek thy name O Lord. That men may know that thou whose name alone is JEHOVAH art the most High over all the earth Tell me now Is this a Psalm set to those times or a Prophecy of ours He that awaketh not he that trembleth not at this thunder is not asleep but dead Seneca speaketh of some who seem to be made as serpents and vipers for no other end but to hiss and trouble the world And such are they who disgrace and profane places set apart for publick devotion What is there in a Church that a religious mind can check at If we must meet together what scruple can arise concerning the place If any do arise it riseth like a fog and steameth from a foul and corrupt heart from Pride the mother of Pertinacy and Contradiction which will not be brought down to conform to the counsels of the wise no nor to the wisdom of God himself but calleth Truth Heresie because others speak it Bounty waste because others lay it out Reverence superstition because others bow and will pull down Churches because others build them kicketh at every thing that is received nihil verum-putans nisi quod diversum thinketh nothing true but that which is diverse and contrary nothing true but that which breatheth in opposition against the Truth as ridiculously but more maliciously scrupulous then Tyridates in Pliny who would not venture on ship-board nor could endure navigation because he thought it an unlawful thing to spit into the sea For see God hath rained down Manna upon us and we startle and ask What is this God hath given us his Word and we quarrel it He hath given us the Sacrament of Baptism and we ask By whom At what ages and How we must be washed It was a River then a Font now a Bason and can you tell can they tell who trouble these waters what it will be next If God prevent it not it will be Nothing Christ hath invited us to his Table and we know not whether we should sit or stand or kneel whether we must come as subjects or as his fellows and companions whether we receive him really or in a trope and figure whether we may not do it too often As Seneca speaketh of Philosophy so may we of Christianity Fuit simplicior aliquando inter minora peccantes When men were more sincere they were less scrupulous and had no leisure to find knots in every bulrush in that which was made smooth and even to their hands They did do their duty and not run about the world and ask How and When they must do it especially where the duty was open and easie to the understanding that they might run and read it They heard the Word and obeyed it They did submit to those who were supreme and not ask How they should be governed The great question of the world at this day and that which troubleth the world They honoured their Pastours and were not busie to teach them how to teach them They were baptized for remission of sins They received the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and fed on Christ They went into the Temple the Church to pray with and in the midst of the congregation but never consulted nor asked counsel how to pull it down In a word they were religious and did not seem so Christ found the man he had cured in the Temple and there taught and instructed him And if he find us there he will teach and instruct us also by them to whom he hath committed the Oracles of God Hitherto we have been in the Temple and yet we are but in the porch of our Text. It is high time now to proceed and to hear what the Oracle what Christ doth say Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worst thing come unto thee Here mercy having freed the man of his Palsie spreadeth her wings further to shadow and protect him from a worse disease even Sin Before she did but walk and seek now she speaketh and poureth her self forth as a precious oyl upon his soul to cleanse and heal it And this though we are not willing to think so is the greater mercy of the two There is far more mercy in the Remembrance Tit. 2.11 in the Precept then in a Miracle The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men A saving grace and appearing Who is not willing to behold such an apparition who doth not clap his hands and rejoyce as if Heaven it self did open to take
sold an infected house And indeed I might tell you that Truth is a virtue like unto the Plague which will not onely destroy us but make all that know us to shun us I might shew you that the retinue which usually wait upon her are Sequestration Nakedness Disgrace Persecution the Sword and Death it self Bona mens si esset venalis non haberet emtorem saith Seneca And we find it true that Truth is so dangerous and troublesome that if she were to be sold in the market she would hardly meet with a chapman But when I present the Truth as a dangerous displeasing costly thing I intend not like the Spies to bring up an evil report upon that good land Nâ—mb 13.32 as if it did eat up the inhabitants and so to dishearten any man from the pursuit of Truth No the land is pleasant and fruitful flowing with milk and honey go up and possess it But as Antigonus when he heard his soulders murmure because he had brought them into a place of disadvantage having by his wisdom freed them from that danger and brought them to a fairer place where they might hope for victory Now saith he I expect ye should not murmure but praise my art that have brought you forth into a place so convenient So if any under the conduct of Truth be at any time in great streights and difficulties let him but possess his soul with patience under the leading of the same Truth and he shall at last be brought forth into pleasant and delightful places even into the paradise of God For as our Master Aristotle speaketh of Pleasures that if they did but look upon us when they come to us as they do when they turn their backs and leave us we should never entertain them so may we on the contrary say of this Truth If we saw the end of it as we do the beginning we should run after it and lay hold on it with restless embraces For though at the first meeting we see nothing written in her countenance but Wo and Desolation yet if we spend our time with her we shall find her to be the fairest of ten thousand And it is the wisdom of God to place the greatest good in that which to flesh and bloud hath the appearance of the greatest evil And when the beauty and glory of Truth is once revealed unto us the horrour of it will scarce appear or if it do but as an atome before the Sun And now to shew you the fairer and better side of Truth I might tell you Prov. 3.18 14. Matth. 13.46 that She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her that The merchandise of her is better then the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof then fine gold that she is that rich Pearl in the Gospel that She is that Girdle Ephes 6.14 cingulum omnium virtutum as the Father speaketh It not onely girdeth and enricheth the man as Faithfulness shall be the girdle of his reins but also confineth Virtue it self Isa 11.4 and keepeth it within the bounds of moderation whereas Falshood is boundless and infinite and passeth over all limits I might tell you further that Truth is a Pillar and such a one as is both a Pillar and a Foundation too For though we read that the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth 1 Tim. 3.15 yet she is such a pillar as those were in the Temple of Diana which being tied to the roof were upheld by the Temple and not the Temple by them For indeed it is the Truth that upholdeth the Church and not the Church the Truth further then to present and publish it If you take truth away the Church will not be invisible onely but nothing We believe One Catholick and Apostolick Church but that which maketh her One and Catholick and Apostolical is the Truth alone For what Unity is that whose bond is not Truth And how is that Catholick which is not and that which is not true is not at all is but an Idole and so nothing in this world Or can we call that Apostolical where Truth it self is anathematized and shut out of doors No. It is this saving Truth which maketh the Church one Catholick and Apostolick without which they are but bare and empty names without which all that we hear of Antiquity Consent Succession Miracles is but noyse but the paintings of a Church but the trophees of a conquered party but as the vain hopes of dying men or indeed but as flattering Epitaphs on the graves of Tyrants which dishonour them rather then commend them As it was said of Pallas Epitaphium pro opprobrio fuit His glorious Epitaph did more defame him then a Satyre Yea yet further I might tell you how that in some sense that may be spoken of this Truth which was spoken of Christ himself John 1.3 That all things were made by it and that without it not any thing was made that was made not any thing that concerneth our everlasting peace It is it that sealed the promises signed the New Testament and made it Gospel finished our faith gathered the Church upheld it militant and will make it triumphant But all this is too general To make this Truth therefore appear to be a precious merchandise indeed let us consider that 1. It is fit and proportionable to the Soul of Man which is made capable of it and is but a naked yea which is worse a deformed thing till this Truth array and beautifie it is under want and indigence till this Truth enrich and supply it till it give wings unto it as Plato saith wherewith it may lift up it self aloft and flie from the land of darkness to the region of light Whilest our soul receiveth no impressions whilest it doth no more but onely inform the body whilest it is simplex as Tertullian speaketh qualem habent qui solam habent is but such a soul as those creatures have whose soul serveth onely to make them grow and be sensible so long in respect of outward operation we little differ from the Beasts of the field When instead of this Truth it receiveth the characters of darkness the spots and pollutions of the world when it is nothing else but as a table written with lies we are far worse then the brute Beasts When we savour of the things of God Matth. 16.23 our Saviour hath given us the name we are as Devils But when the soul is characterized with the Truth when the true light shineth in our hearts we are Men we are Saints and shall be like unto the Angels the soul is what she was made to be a receptacle and temple of God and destined to happiness Now in Christ Jesus that is in this Truth ye Eph. 2.13 who sometimes were far off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are made nigb by the bloud of Christ and behold those things which concern your happiness
were by the voice of the cryer and if thou wilt have it thou must buy it Ye see that Truth is a rich merchandise and that it must be bought Now in the next place we must know what it is to buy it As in all purchases so here something must be laid down And though we cannot set a price upon the Truth worthy of it it being in it self unvaluable and all the world not able to weigh down the least grain of it yet something there is which must be given for it The very heathen thought nothing to dear to purchase it amongst whom we read of some who flung away their goods and riches and bid defiance to pleasures ut nudam veritatem nudi expeditÃque sequerentur saith Lactantius that being stript of all they might meet with the naked Truth and embrace her So highly did they value the Truth that therein they placed their summum bonum their chief happiness If ye ask what the price is ye must give the answer is short Ye must give your selves Ye must lay down your selves at the altar of Truth and be offered up as a sacrifice for it Ye must offer up your Understandings fit and apply them to the Truth Ye must offer up your Wills and bow them to it Ye must strip and empty your selves of all your Affections at least be free from the power of them For the Affections raise a tempest in the soul and make it swell as stormy winds do the sea so that the Mind can no more receive the Truth then the troubled waves can receive and reflect the image of our face Not onely the seeds of moral conversation those practick notions with which we were born but also those seeds of saving Truth which we gather from the Scripture and improve by instruction and practice are then most obscured and darkned when pleasures and delights take possession of our affections As we often see in persons sore distempered with sickness the light of their reason dimmed and the mind disturbed by reason of vitious vapours arising from their corrupted humours so it is in the soul and understanding which could not but apprehend the Truth being so fitted and proportioned to it as ye have heard if it were not dazled and amazed with impertinent objects and phantasmes that intervene if the affections did not draw it to things heterogeneous and contrary to it Being blinded hereby it beholdeth all objects through the affections which as coloured glasses present all things much like unto themselves Thus Falshood getteth the face and beauty of Truth and that appeareth true which pleaseth though it hurt For the Affections do not onely hinder our judgment but prevent and preoccupate it Truth is plain and open to the eye but Love or Hatred Hope or Fear coming in between teach us first to turn from it and after to dispute against it The Love of our countrey maketh Truth and Religion national and confineth it within a province The Love of those whom our worldly affairs draw us to converse with shutteth it up yet closer and tieth it to a city to an house And to put off this Love we think is to wage war with Nature The Love of riches formeth a cheap and thriving Religion The Love of honour buildeth her a chair The Love of pleasure maketh her wanton and superstitious That which we Love still presenteth it self before our eyes and thence we take materials to build up that congregation which alone we think deserveth the name of a Church So that if we never beheld the face of the men yet by the form and draught of their Religion we may easily judge which way their affections sway them and to what coast they steer And as Love so Hatred transformeth not men alone but also the Truth it self and maketh it an heresy though in an Apostle yea though in our Saviour Luke 16.13 No man can serve two masters is as undeniable a principle as any in the Mathematicks yet because Christ spake it the Pharisees who were covetous derided him Luke 16.14 Micaiah was a true Prophet but Ahab believed him not because he hated him 1 Kings 22.8 How many Truths are condemned by the Reformed party onely because the Papists teach them And how many doth that Church anathematize because the Protestant holdeth them Maldonate in his Commentary on the Gospel is not ashamed to profess of an interpretation of one passage there that he would willingly subscribe and receive it as the truest had it not been Calvin's And have not we some who have condemned even that which is Truth and which is delivered in the language of Scripture and in the very same words upon no other reason but because it is still retained in the Mass-book As Tacitus speaketh of an hated Prince Inviso semel Principe seu bene seu malè facta premunt when a person is once grown odious in our eyes whatsoever he doth or saith whether good or evil whether true or false is as odious as he If an enemy do it the most warrantable act is a mortal sin and when he speaketh it the Truth it self is a lie All the argument we have against it is the person that speaketh it for we will not use his language As it is said of Marius that he so hated the Grecians that he would not walk the same way that a Greek had gone though it were the best Further we must lay down at the feet of Truth our Fears For Fear is the worst counsellor we can have Nunquam fidele consilium dat metus saith Seneca It never giveth us true and faithful counsel but flying from that which we fear it carrieth us away in its flight from the Truth it self Perjury is a monstrous sin of that bulk and corpulency that we cannot but see it yet Fear will lift up our hands and bind us to that which we know to be false and within a while teach us to plead for it Fear saith the Wise-man Wisd 17.12 is nothing else but the betrayer of those succours which Reason offereth When we are struck with Fear we are struck deaf and will neither hearken to our selves nor to seven wise men that can render a reason Prov. 26.16 This made (a) Gen. 3.8 10. Adam hide himself This sealed up the lips of (b) John 12.42 many chief rulers among the Jewes so that though they believed on Christ yet because of the Pharisees they did not confess him lest they should be put out of the synagogue And this opened the mouth of Peter to deny him He that is afraid of what evil may befall him is not a fit merchant to buy the Truth For though he have the price in his hand Prov. 17 16. he hath no heart to it A blast a puff of wind will drive him from this market And as Fear so Hope will soon betray and deceive us The Hope of honour of profit of favour of
and bring forth fruit Matth. 13 5-8 For that is good ground not onely where Truth groweth but which is fit to receive it All forestalled imaginations and prejudicate opinions are as thorns to choke it up or they make the heart as stony ground in which if the Truth spring up it is soon parched for lack of rooting and withereth away What can that heart bring forth or what can it receive which is full already Ye have heard what Prejudice is In the next place consider the danger of it how it obstructeth and shutteth up the wayes of Truth and leaveth them unoccupied or to allude to the words of my Text how it spoileth the market I have shewed you the Serpent I must now shew you its Sting And indeed as the Serpent deceived Eve Gen. 3 1-5 so Prejudice deceiveth us It giveth a No to God's Yea maketh Men true and God a liar nulleth the sentence of death and telleth us we shall not die at all Ye shall die if this be the interpreter is Your eyes shall be opened and to deceive our selves is to be as Gods knowing good and evil I do not much mistake in calling Prejudice a Serpent For the biting of it is like that of the Tarantula the working of its venome maketh men dance and laugh themselves to death How do we delight our selves in errour and pity those who are in the Truth How do we lift up our heads in the wayes that lead unto death and contemn yea persecute them that will not follow us What a paradise is our ditch and what an hell do we behold them in who are not fallen into it Our flint is a diamond and a diamond is a flint Virtue is vice and vice virtue Errour is truth and truth errour Heaven is covered with darkness and hell is the kingdome of light Nothing appeareth to us as it is in its own shape but Prejudice turneth day into night and the light it self into darkness A setled prejudicate though false opinion will build up as strong resolutions as a true one Saul was as zelous for the Law as Paul was for the Gospel Hereticks are as loud for a fiction as the Orthodox for the Truth the Turk as violent for his Mahomet as the Christian for Christ Habet Diabolus suos martyres Even the Devil hath his Martyrs as well as God Mark 9.22 And it is Prejudice that is that evil Spirit that casteth them into fire and into water that consumeth or drowneth them 1 Sam. 15.32 that leadeth them forth like Agag delicately to their death If this poison will not fright us if these bitings be insensible and we will yet play with this Serpent let us behold it as a fiery Serpent stinging men to death enraging them to wash their hands in one anothers bloud turning plow shares into swords and fithes into spears making that desolation which we see on the earth beating down Churches grinding the facc of the innocent smoking like the bottomless pit breathing forth Anathemaes proscriptions banishment death If there be war this beateth up the drum If there be persecution this raised it If a deluge of iniquity cover the face of the earth this brought it in Is there any evil in the City which this hath not done This poison hath spread it self through the greatest part of mankind yea even Christendome is tainted with it and the effects have been deadly Errour hath gained a kingdome and in the mean while Truth like Psyche in Apuleius is commended of all yet refused of most is counted a pearl and a rich merchandise yet few buy it Ye have seen it already in general and in gross We will make it yet more visible by pointing as it were with the finger and shewing you it in particulars And first its biting is most visible and eminent in those of the Church of Rome For ye may even see the marks upon them Obstinacy Perverseness Insolency Scorn and Contempt a proud and high Disdain of any thing that appeareth like reason or of any man that shall be so charitable as to teach them which are certainly the signs of the bitings of this Serpent Prejudice if not the marks of the Beast Quà m gravis incubat How heavy doth Prejudice lie upon them who have renounced their very Sense and are taught to mistrust yea deny their Reason Who see with other mens eyes and hear with other mens ears nec animo sed auribus cogitant do not judge with their mind but with their ears Not the Scripture but the Church is their oracle And whatsoever that speaketh though it were a congregation of hereticks is truth And so it may be for ought they can discover For that theirs is the true Catholick Church is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which must be granted and not further sought into Once to doubt of it is heresie This prejudice once taken in That that Church cannot erre and though not well digested yet in a manner consubstantiated and connaturalized with them frustrateth yet forbiddeth all future judgment yea inhibiteth all further search or enquiry which may uncloud the Reason and bring her into that region of light where she may see the very face of Truth and so regain her proper place her office and dignity and condemn that which she bowed and submitted to when she was made a servant and slave of men and taught to conclude with the Church though against her self to say what that saith to do what that biddeth to be but as the echo of her decrees and canons though it be but in one as in her Bishop in many as in the Consistory in more as in a general Councel though it be but a name For they that lie under this prejudice in a manner do profess to all the world that they have unmanned themselves Prov. 20.27 blown out that candle of the Lord which was kindled in them that they received eyes but not to see ears but not to hear and reason but not to understand and judge that they are ready to believe that that which is black is white and that snow it self is as black as ink as the Academick thought if the Pope shall think good so to determine it To dispute with these is operam ludere to lose our labour and mispend our time It is altogether vain to seek to perswade those who will not be perswaded though they be convinced nor yield when they are overcome Though seven yea seventy times seven wisemen bring reason and arguments against them they do but beat the air What speak we to him of colours who must not see or urge him with reason who hath renounced it There cannot be a more prevalent reason given then that which Sense and Experience bring yet we see Bread and it is flesh we see Wine and it is very Bloud because the Church saith it There cannot be a more reasonable thing then that Reason should be our judge yet Reason
is not Reason if the Church say it They that will not believe their Sense how can they believe their Reason And how can they believe their Reason who have debauched and prostituted it and bound it to the high Priests chair Do they give that honour unto the Saints which is due unto God alone and call upon them in the time of trouble Psal 50.15 It is very right and meet and our bounden duty so to do for the Church commandeth it Must there be a fire more then that of Hell The Church hath kindled it Must the Merits of the Saints be drawn up into a common treasury and thence showred down in Indulgences and supplies for them who are not so rich in Good works The Church is that treasury and her breath hath called them up Whatsoever is said or done must have a Bene dictum and a Bene factum subscribed under it is Truth and Righteousness if the Church say and do it So the Church is let down as the Tragedians used to do some God or Goddess when they were at a loss or stand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as by slight and engine to solve the difficulty and untie the knot and so make up the Catastrophe Or it serveth them as Anaxagoras his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Metaphysicks to answer and defeat all arguments whatsoever And this prejudice of theirs they back and strengthen with many others Of Antiquity making that most true which is most antient and the Truth it self a lie if it shewed it self in glory but yesterday And yet omnia vetera nova fuere that which is now old was at first new and by this argument Truth was not Truth when it was new nor the Light Light when it first sprung from on high and visited us Truth though it find Professours but in its later age yet is the first born because Errour is nothing else but a deviation from it Errour cometh forth last and layeth hold on the heel of Truth to supplant it They have another prejudice of Councels as if the most were alway the best and Truth went by voices Nazianzen was bold to censure them as having seen no good effect of any of them And we our selves have seen and our eyes have dropped for it what a mere name what prejudice can do with the Many and what it can countenance Besides these they have others Of Miracles which were but lies Of Glory which is but vanity Of Universality which is bounded and confined to a certain place With these and the like that first prejudice That the Church cannot erre is underpropped And yet these depend upon that Such a mutual implication there is of Errours as in a bed of Snakes If the first be not true these are nothing And if these pillars be once shaken that Church will soon sink in its reputation and not sit so high as to dictate to all other Churches in the world And these are soon shaken for they are but problemes and may justly be called into question and brought to trial For if they have any thing of Truth it is rather verisimile then verum rather the resemblance of Truth then Truth it self And this a foul errour may have And to fix my judgement upon a resemblance is most prejudicial For a thing may be like the Truth and appear in that likeness which is not true and therefore must needs be false A resemblance or likeness participateth of both and may be either true or false I have looked too long abroad upon this Queen of Churches but it was to set her up as a glass to see our own She saith we are a schismatical we are bold upon it that we are a Reformed Church and so we are But may not Prejudice find a place even in Reformation it self May we not dote upon it as Pygmalion did upon the statue and so please and flatter and laugh our selves to death Illiacos intra muros peccatur extra Hor. l. 1. Ep. 2. Rome alone is not guilty of Prejudice but even some members of the Reformation also who think themselves most nearly united to Christ when they run furthest from that Church though sometimes by so doing they run from the Truth For what is this else but prejudice to judge all is well with us because the lines are fallen to us in so pleasant a place as a purged Church to be less reformed because that is Reformed or to think that an heaven and happiness will be raised up and rest upon a word a name What is this but to run round in a circle and to meet the Church of Rome where we left her What is this but to speak her very language That to be in this Ark this Church is to be safe and when a floud of Sin and Errour hath overwhelmed us to think we are securely sailing to our Ararat our eternal rest Or what hope is there that he should grow and encrease in grace who if he be planted once in this Church or that Sect counteth himself a perfect man in Christ Jesus Almost every Sect and every Congregation laboureth under this prejudice and feeleth it not but runneth away with its burden Oh unhappy men they that are not fellow-members with us though it be of such a body as hath but little Charity to quicken it and no Faith to move it but a phansie Yet these cannot but do all things well these cannot erre and they who will not cast in their lot with them Prov. 1.14 and have the same purse are quite out of the way can speak nothing that is true nor do any thing that is good Matth. 23.5 Do ye not see the Pharisees spread their phylacteries do ye not hear them utter the same dialect Luk. 18.11 We are not as those Publicanes I might enlarge my self but I know ye understand me and can tell your selves what might be said further by that which hath been said already To be yet more particular The Lutherane Church doth grant indeed that every particular Church may erre and so doth not exempt it self But do not many of them attribute as much to Luther as the other do to their Church Are they not ready to subscribe to whatsoever he said upon no other reason or motive but because he said it Do they not look upon him as upon a man raised up by God to redeem the Truth and shew it to the world again after it had been detained in unrighteousness and lost in ceremony and superstition And is not this Prejudice equal to the former Do not they depend as much upon a person as the Papists do upon their Church so that to them whatsoever he said is as true as an article of faith and whatsoever is not found in him is heretical quasi fas non sit dicere Lutherum errâsse as if it were unjust and an injury to think that Luther could erre in any thing I accuse him not of errour yet
we know he was but a man and we know he erred or else our Church doth in many things It were easie to name them But suppose he had broached as many lies as the Father of them could suggest yet those who in their opinions had raised him to such an height would with an open breast have received them all as oracles and have licked up poison if it had fallen from him For they had the same inducement to believe him when he erred which they had to believe him when he spake the Truth We do not derogate from so great a person we are willing to believe that he was sent from God as an useful instrument to promote the Truth But we do not believe that he sent him as he sent his Son into the world that all his words should be spirit and life John 6.63 that in every word he spake whosoever heard him heard the Father also Thus ye see how Prejudice may arise how it may be built upon a Church and upon a person and may so captivate and depress the Reason that she shall not be able to look up and see and judge of that Truth which we should buy I might instance in others and those too who have reformed the Reformation it self who have placed the Founder of their Sect as a star in a firmament and walk by the light which he casteth and by none other though it come from the Sun it self Who fixing their eye upon him alone follow as he led and in their zele and forward obsequiousness to his dictates many times outgo him and in his name and spirit work such wonders as we have shrunk and trembled at But manum de tabula we forbear lest whilest we strive to charm one serpent we awake an hundred and those such as can bite their brethren as Prejudice doth them I shall but instance in two or three prejudicial opinions which have been as a portcullis shut down against the Truth The first is That the Truth is not to be bought nor obtained by any venture or endeavour of ours but worketh it self into us by an irresistible force so as that when we shall have once got possession of it no principalities or powers no temptation no sin can deprive us of it but it will abide against all storms and assaults all subtilty and violence nay it will not remove though we do what in us lieth to thrust it out so that we may be at once possessours of it and yet enemies to it Now when this opinion hath once gained a kingdome in our heads and we count it a kind of treason or sacrilege to depose it why should we be smitten Isa 1.5 why should we be instructed any more Argument and reason will prove but paper-shot make some noise perhaps but no impression at all What is the tongue of the learned to him who will hearken to none but himself We talk of a preventing Grace to keep us from evil but this is a preventing ungracious perversness to withhold us from the Truth For when that which first speaketh in us which we first speak to our selves or others to us who can comply with that which is much dearer to us then our selves our corrupt humour and carnality when that is sealed and ratified for ever advice and counsel come too late When Prejudice is the onely musick we delight to hear what is the tongue of Men and Angels what are the instructions of the wise but harsh and unpleasant notes abhorred almost as much as the howlings of a damned spirit When we are thus rooted and built up in errour what can shake us It is impossible for us to learn or unlearn any thing For there is no reason we should be untaught that which we rest upon as certain and which we received as an everlasting truth written in our hearts by the finger of God himself and that as we think with an indeleble character Or why should we studie the knowledge of that which will be poured by an omnipotent and irrefragable hand into our minds Who would buy that which shall be forced upon him When the Jew is thus prepossessed when he putteth the Word of God from him Acts 13.46 and judgeth himself unworthy of everlasting life then there is no more to be said then that of the Apostles Lo we turn to the Gentiles Another Prejudice there is powerful in the world somewhat like the former namely a presumption that the Spirit of God teacheth us immediately and that a new light shineth in our hearts never seen before that the Spirit teacheth us not onely by his Word but against it That there is a twofold Word of God 1 Verbum praeparatorium a Word read and expounded to us by the ministery of men 2. Verâ—um consummatorium a Word which consummateth all and this is from the Spirit The one is as John Baptist to prepare the way the other as Christ to finish and perfect the work It pleaseth the Spirit of God say they by his inward operation to illuminate the mind of man with such knowledge as is not at all proposed in the outward Word and to instill that sense which the words do not bear Thus they do not onely lie to the holy Ghost but teach him to dissemble to dictate one thing and to mean another to tell you in your ear you must not do this and to tell you in your heart you may to tell you in his proclamation Matth. 5.21 you may not be angry with your brother and to tell you in secret you may murder him to tell you in the Church Matth. 21.13 you must not make his house a den of thieves and to tell you in your closet you may down with it even to the ground Juven Sat. 8. Inde Dolabella est atque hinc Antonius inde Sacrilegus Verres From hence are wars contentions heresies schismes from hence that implacable hatred of one another which is not in a Turk or a Jew to a Christian For tell me What may not they say or do who dare publish this when their Phansie is wanton It is the Spirit when their Humour is predominant It is the Spirit when their Lust and Ambition carry them on with violence to the most horrid attempts It is the Spirit when they help the Father of lies to fling his darts abroad It is the Spirit It is indeed the Spirit a Spirit of illusion a bold and impudent Spirit that cannot blush For when it is agreed on all sides that all necessary truths are plainly revealed in Scripture what Spirit must that be which is sent into the world to teach us more then all In a word it is a Spirit that teacheth us not that which is but that which our Lusts have already set up for truth A new light which is but a meteor to lead us to those precipices those works of darkness which no night is dark enough to cover Such a Spirit as proceedeth
we sit down aâ—d dispute As he is a Saviour we will find him work enough but as he is a Lord we will do nothing When we hear he is a Stone we think onely that he is LAPIS FUNDAMENTALIS a sure stone to build on or LAPIS ANGULARIS a corner stone to draw together and unite things naturally incompatible as Man and God the guilty person and the Judge the Sinner and the Law-giver and quite forget that he may be LAPIS OFFENSIONIS a stone of offence to stumble at a stone on which we may be broken and which may fall upon us and dash us to pieces And so not looking on the Lord we shipwreck on the Saviour For this is the great mistake of the world To separate these two terms Jesus and the Lord and so handle the matter as if there were a contradiction in them and these two could not stand together Love and Obedience nay To take Christ's words out of his mouth and make them ours MISERICORDIAM VOLO NON SACRIFICIUM We will have mercy and no sacrifice We say he is the Lord it is our common language And though we are taught to forget our Liturgy yet we remember well enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Lord have mercy And here Mercy and Lord kiss each other We say the Father gave him power and we say he hath power of himself Psal 2. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance saith God to Christ And Christ saith I and the Father are one We believe that he shall judge the world John 5.22 and we read that the Father hath committed this judgment to the Son Dedit utique generando non largiendo God gave him this commission when he begat him and then he must have it by his eternal generation as the Son of God So Ambrose But S. Augustine is peremptory Whatsoever in Scripture is said to be committed to Christ belongeth to him as the Son of Man Here indeed may seem to be a distance but in this rule they meet and agree God gave his commission to Christ as Man but he had not been capable of it it he had not been God As he is the Son of God he hath the capacity as the Son of man the execution Take him as Man or take him as God this Jesus is the Lord. Cùm Dominus dicatur unus agnoscitur saith Ambrose There is but one Faith Vers 4 5 6. and but one Lord. In this chapter operations are from God gifts from the Spirit and administrations from the Lord. Christ might well say You call me Lord and Master and so I am a Lord as in many other respects so jure redemtionis by the right of Redemption and jure belli by way of conquest His right of Dominion by taking us out of slavery and bondage is an easie Speculation For who will not be willing to call him Lord who by a strong arm and mighty power hath brought him out of captivity Our Creation cost God the Father no more but a DIXIT He spake the word and it was done But our Redemption cost God the Son his most precious bloud and life onely that we might fall down and worship this our Lord A Lord that hath shaken the powers of the Grave and must shake the powers of thy soul A Lord to deliver us from Death and to deliver us from Sin to bring life and immortality to light and to order our steps and teach us to walk to it to purchase our pardon and to give us a Law to save us that he may rule us and to rule us that he may save us We must not hope to divide Jesus from the Lord for if we do we lose them both Save us he will not if he be not our Lord and if we obey him not Our Lord he is still and we are under his power but under that power which will bruise us to pieces And here appeareth that admirable mixture of his Mercy and Justice tempered and made up in the rich treasury of his Wisdom his Mercy in pardoning sin and his Justice in condemning sin in his flesh Rom 8.3 and in our flesh his Mercy in covering our sins and his Justice in taking them away his Mercy in forgetting sins past and his Justice in preventing sin that it come no more his Mercy in sealing our pardon and his Justice in making it our duty to sue it out For as he would not pardon us without his Son's obedience to the Cross no more will he pardon us without our obedience to his Gospel A crucified Saviour and a mortified sinner a bleeding Jesus and a broken heart a Saviour that died once unto sin and a sinner dead unto sin Rom. 6.10 these make that heavenly composition and reconcile Mercy and Justice and bring them so close together that they kiss each other For how can we be free and yet love our fetters how can we be redeemed from sin that are sold under sin how can we be justified that resolve to be unjust how can we go to heaven with hell about us No Love and Obedience Hope and Fear Mercy and Justice Jesus and the Lord are in themselves and must be considered by us as bound together in an everlasting and undivided knot If we love his Mercy we shall bow to his Power If we hope for favour we shall fear his wrath If we long for Jesus we shall reverence the Lord. Unhappy we if he had not been a Jesus and unhappy we if he had not been a Lord Had he not been the Lord the world had been a Chaos the Church a Body without a Head a Family without a Father an Army without a Captain a Ship without a Pilot and a Kingdom without a King But here Wisdom and Mercy and Justice Truth and Peace Reconcilement and Righteousness Misery and Happiness Earth and Heaven meet together and are concentred even in this everlasting Truth in these three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. And thus much of the Lesson which we are to learn We come now to our task and to enquire What it is to say it It is soon said It is but three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. The Indian saith it and the Goth saith it and the Persian saith it totius mundi una vox CHRISTUS est Christ Jesus is become the language of the whole world The Devils themselves did say it Matth. 8.29 Jesus thou Son of God And if the Heretick will not confess it dignus est clamore daemonum convinci saith Hilary What more fit to convince an Heretick then the cry of the Devils themselves Acts 19. The vagabond Jews thought to work miracles with these words And we know those virgins who cried Lord Lord open unto us were branded with the name of fools and shut out of doors Whilest we are silent we stand as it were behind the wall we lie
They had a full harvest we our sheaf yet our sheaf may make an offering Though our coyn be smaller yet the same image and stamp is on them both and the Spirit will own us though we weigh less All this is true But yet I must still remember you that whilest I build up the power of the Spirit I erect no asylum or sanctuary for illusions and wilful mistakes and when I have raised a fort and strong-hold for sober Christians I mean it not a shelter or refuge for mad-men and phantasticks God forbid that Truth should be banished out of the world because some men by false illations have made her factious or that Errour should straight be crowned with approbation because perhaps we read of some men who have been bettered with a lie The teaching of the Spirit it were dangerous to teach it were there not means to try and distinguish the Spirit 's instructions from the suggestions of Satan or the evaporations of a sick and loathsome brain or our own private Humour which is as great a Devil Beloved 1 John 4.1 saith the Apostle believe not every spirit that is every inspiration but try the spirits whether they be of God for many false prophets are gone out into the world that is have taken the chair and dictate magisterially what they please in the name of the Spirit when themselves are carnal And he giveth the rule by which we should try them Vers 2 Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God that is Whosoever striveth to advance the Kingdom of Christ and to set up the Spirit against the Flesh to magnifie the Gospel to promote and further men in the wayes of innocency and perfect obedience which infallibly lead to happiness is from God that is every such inspiration is from the Spirit of God For therefore doth the Spirit breathe upon us that he may make us like unto God and so draw us to him that where he is we may be also But those inspirations which bring in God to plead for Baal which cry up Religion to gain the world which call their own discipline Christ's Discipline which he never framed and spurn at his to maintain their own which tread down Peace and Charity and all that is indeed praise-worthy under their feet to make way for their unguided lust to pace it more delicately to its end which sigh out Faith and Grace and Christ like mourners about the streets which attend a funeral when the World and Satan hath filled their hearts and thus sow in tears that they may reap the profits and pleasures of this present world with joy which magnifie God's will that they may do their own these men these spirits cannot be from God By their fruits ye shall know them For their hypocrisie as well and cunningly wrought as it is is but a poor cobweb-lawn and we may easily see through it even see these spiritual men sweating and toiling for the Flesh these Saints digging in the minerals labouring for the bread that perisheth and making haste to be rich For though many times their wine be the poison of dragons and their milk not at all sincere yet they are not to be bought without money or money-worth Though GLORIA PATRI Glory to God on high be the Prologue to the Play for what doth a Hypocrite but play yet the whole drift and business of every Scene and Act is chearfully to draw altogether in this From hence we have our gain The Angel speaketh the Prologue and Mammon and the Flesh make the Epilogue Date manus Why should not every man give them his hands Surely such Roscii such cunning Actors deserve a Plaudite By their fruits ye shall know them For what though the voice be Jacobs Ye may know Esau by his hands What though the Devil turn Angel of light Ye may know him by his claws by his malice and rage For how can an Angel of light tear men in pieces By their fruits ye may know them So ye see this inconvenience and mischief which sometimes is occasioned by the Doctrine of the Spirit 's Teaching is not unavoidable It is not necessary though I mistake and take the Devil for an Angel that the holy Ghost should be put to silence Though Corah and his complices perish in their gainsayings yet God forbid that all Israel should be swallowed up in the same gulf Samuel runneth to Eli 1 Sam. 3. Vers 9. when the voice was God's but was taught at last to answer Speak Lord for thy servant heareth Though there were many false Prophets yet Micaiah was a true one Though there be many false Prophets come into the world yet the Spirit of God is a Spirit of truth and is not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our chief but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our sole Instructor Our last Part In which we shall be very brief We are told in the verse next after the Text There are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit And we may say There are diversities of teachers but the same Spirit because be the conveyances and conduits never so many through which the knowledge of our Lord Jesus is brought unto us if the Sririt move not along with it it may be water indeed but not of life Because all means are but instrumental but He the prime Agent we may well call him not onely the chief but the sole Instructor The Church of Christ is DOMUS DOCTRINAE the House of learning as it is called in the Chaldee Paraphrase and COLUMNA VERITATIS 1 Tim. 3.15 the Pillar of the truth because it presenteth the knowledge of Christ as a Pillar doth an Inscription and even offereth and urgeth it to every eye that it may not slip out of our memories and SCHOLA CHRISTI the School of Christ in respect of his Precepts and Discipline Such glorious things have been spoken of the Church But now methinks this House is ruinous this Pillar shaken this School broken up and dissolved and the Church which bore so great a name standeth for nothing but the walls A Jesuite telleth us that at the very name of the CHURCH hostis expalluit the Enemy that is such as he called Hereticks did look pale and tremble But what is it now amongst us Nothing or but a Name and in truth a Name is nothing And that too is vanishing for it is changed into another And yet it is the same for they both signifie one and the same thing So prevalent amongst us is that Phansie and Folly which is taken for the Spirit A Church no doubt there is and will be but we onely see it as we do the Church Triumphant through a glass darkly Or she may be fair as the Moon clear as the Sun but sure she is not terrible as an army with banners Secondly the Word is a Teacher And Christ by open proclamation hath commanded us to have recourse unto it
is somewhat without that hath either flattered our sense or complied with our reason The effect doth in some sort demonstrate the cause And the cause of Joy is the union and presence of some good And as the cause is such is the effect as the object is such is the joy If our joy spring from the earth it is of the same nature earthy muddy gross unclean Eccl The Wise-man calleth it madness But if it be from heaven and those things which are above it is bright serene and clear What is it then that maketh David so glad that he thus committeth his joy to a Song and publisheth it to the world The next words tell us Something that he heard the voice of a company earnest in expectation and loud in expression hasting and even flying to the service of God and to the place where his honour dwelleth They said unto me We will go into the house of the Lord. Now if ye look upon the object so divine and consider David a man after God's own heart ye cannot wonder to find him awakening his harp and viol and tuning his instrument of ten strings to hear him chanting his Laetatus sum and to see him even transported and ravished with joy So now you have the parts of the Text 1. David's Delight 2. the Object or Reason of it In the Object there are circumstances enough to raise his joy to the highest note First a Company either a Tribe or many of or all the people They said unto me So in another place he speaketh of walking to the house of God in company Psal 55.14 A glorious sight a representation of heaven it self of all the Angels crying aloud the Seraphim to the Cherubim and the Cherubim echoing back again to the Seraphim Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth Secondly their Resolution to serve the Lord dixerunt they said it And to say in Scripture is to Resolve We will go is either a Lie or Resolution Thirdly their Agreement and joynt Consent We This is as a Circle and taketh in all within its compass If there be any dissenting unwilling person he is not within this Circumference he is none of the We. A Turk a Jew and a Christian cannot say We will serve the Lord and the Schismatick or Separatist shutteth himself out of the house â—f the Lord. We is a bond of peace keepeth us at unity and maketh many as one Fourthly their Chearfulness and Alacrity They speak like men going out of a dungeon into the light as those who had been long absent from what they loved and were now approching unto it and in fair hope to enjoy what they most earnestly desired We will go We will make haste and delay no longer Ipsa festinatio tarda est Speed it self is but slow-paced We cannot be there soon enough Fifthly and lastly the Place where they will serve God not one of their own chusing not the Groves or Hills or High-places no Oratory which malice or pride or faction had erected but a place appointed and set apart by God himself Servient Domino in domo sua They will serve the Lord in his own house They said unto me We will go into the house of the Lord. Thus much the Object affordeth us enough to fill such an heart as David's with joy Now let us look upon the Psalmist in his garment of joy And we may observe First the nature of his Joy It was as refined as spiritual as heavenly as its object What they said was holy language and his Joy was true and solid the breathing and work of the Spirit of truth Secondly the Publication of it He could not contein himself Psal 39.3 but his heart being hot within him he spake with his tongue and not content with that he conveyed his speech into a song He said it he sung it he committed it to song that the people being met together at Jerusalem might sing it in the house Lord. I was glad when they said unto me We will go into the house of the Lord. These are the Parts and of these we shall speak in order We begin with the Object for in nature that is first We cannot tell what a mans Joy is till we see what raised it The Object therefore of David's joy must be first handled Therein the first circumstance is That there were many a Company that resolved to go into the house of the Lord. v. 4. The tribes go up saith the Psalmist even the tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel that is the people of Israel go up according to the covenant made with Israel Psal â—8 11 And The Lord gave the word great was the company of those that published it He speaketh as if there were some virtue in Number And so his son Solomon Two and if two Eccles 4.9 then certainly many are better then one Yet such an imputation lieth upon the Many that peradventure I might well have omitted this circumstance Non tam bene cum rebus humanis agitur ut plures sint meliores The world was never yet so happy that the most should be best 1 Cor. 1.26 Not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called saith St. Paul And Many are called saith Christ but few are chosen Matth. 20.16 It was the Many that resisted the holy Ghost that stoned the Prophets that persecuted the Apostles It is the Many that now divide the Church that disturbe and shake the common-wealth that work that desolation on the earth What security nay what religion can there be when our estates and our lives when Truth it self must be held by Votes must rise or fall by most voices Christus violentiâ suffragiorum in crucem datus saith Tertullian This is it which layeth the cross upon us which nailed the Son of God himself to the Cross I did not well to mention it For indeed it is the errour not of the Church of Rome alone but of all others also to judge of the Church by the multitude of Professours as the Turk doth of an army by its number nec aestimare sed numerare not to weigh and consider what the professours are but to number them And they have made Multitude a note of the true Church As if to shew you the Sun-rising I should point to the West or where there are but a few cry out Behold a troup cometh Matth 7 14. Luk. 13.23.24 Our Saviour saith there are few that shall be saved But say they if ye will know the true Church indeed behold the multitudes and nations behold the many that joyn with her that fall down and worship her Every faction striveth to improve it self Every Heretick would gain what proselytes he can Every Church would stretch forth the curtains of her habitation All would confirm themselves in their errour by the multitude of those who are taken in it Cùm error singulorum
fecerit publicum errorem singulorum facit publicus First the errour of some few spreadeth it self and is made publick and then being made publick and commended by the Many it soon taketh in and involveth the rest That there are many then is but a weak motive to work a good opinion in us of those we behold or to fulfil our joy I need not stand to confute this Tenent any further Your very eye will discover the falshood of it For take away the Wolves in Sheeps clothing take away Hereticks and Schismaticks take away those sons of Belial open profaners take away the proud the disobedient the traitour the lukewarm professour the formalist take away those who profess Religion onely for companies sake and so because there are many so and then tell me what is become of the Many or how many there be how many to raise a Prophets joy Certainly there is not there cannot be any force or efficacy in number nor hath it any influence at all to make evil good or an hypocrite a saint Devotion is the same in millions and in one single man Etiam tres Ecclesiam faciunt saith Tertullian Even three make up a Church Yea some have thought that at the passion of Christ the Church was in the Virgin Mary alone Thus it is in reality and in respect of the truth But in respect of us whose Charity must give sentence and not our Faith who have indeed a Tribunal within in us but from thence can judge none but our selves many professours a multitude of those who come to serve God is a glorious sight a representation of heaven it self The tribes come up v. 4. even the tribes of Lord saith David To him all Gods people were holy and every one that came up was a true professour Faith maketh up a Church as Gideon did his army taketh not up all she meeteth Judg 7. but out of many thousands selecteth a band of three hundred and no more But Charity seeth not any which may not fight and conquer To Faith Christs flock is a little flock Luke 12.32 but Charity seeth none that call upon the name of God which may not be gathered into his fold If they be the tribes of the Lord if they come up David will rejoyce and the encrease of the number will encrease his joy The more come up the gladder will he be Prov. 14.28 In the multitude of people is the honour of a King And in the multitude of professours is his joy And this God himself requireth not onely modestum fidei our modest and secret tetirements our private devotions in our chamber Yet even there the light of his countenance shineth upon us He whose providence reacheth over all findeth us out even in the wilderness in the closest grot or cave He that heareth all men heareth every man He went out with Isaac into a Gen. 24.63 the field when he prayed he heard Job from the dung-hill he was with David when he b Psal 6.6 washed his bed with his tears with Jonah in c Ion. 2.1 the whales belly with Daniel when d Dan. 6.10 he kneeled upon his knees in his chamber three times a day And though thou prayest in secret d Dan. 6.10 he that seeth in secret will reward thee openly e Matth. 6.6 f Deut. 6.4 1 Pet. 5.7 The Lord our God is one and he careth for every one And now from this the argument will hold well That if God careth for every one he careth for many and is better pleased to see many professours then one and to hear many call upon him then one alone That he is best pleased when many sons are brought unto glory Heb. 2.10 One is no number yet One may make a Church If in that great apostasie and decay of religion 1 Kings 9.10 1 Kings 19. there had been none but Elijah jealous for the Lord God of Hosts Elijah had been the Church Yet the single service of one is not so powerful and prevailing with God as the joynt service of many He is willing to seal as many thousands as will come in Rev. 7. And the more come in the more willing he is to seal them He heareth every man but where men meet together Matth. 18.20 he is in the midst of them Quasi manu factâ like an army they besiege him and in a most accepted way invade the Majesty of heaven Such violence is very welcome to God to this he boweth his ears and is most willing to yield For yield he must to his own glory and his glory shineth brighter in many then in one If his image in one single person delight him how greatly will it delight him to see it in many If he favourably look on one poor beads-man on one penitent upon his knees how brightly will he cause his face to shine upon a thousand Triumphus Dei passio martyris When one Martyr suffereth God triumpheth And if he hath a triumph in one Martyr what hath he in an army This made the holy Fathers oft times break out into expressions of joy and congratulation when they saw the people flocking and thronging into the Church S. Chrysostome falleth into a large commendation of Fear maketh a kind of panegyrick on Persecution it self because it had made the people leave the theatres and driven them in sholes to Gods house S. Hierome telleth us that in the primitive times the Hallelujah of the Congregations was like the noise of many waters and their Amen like a clap of Thunder To conclude this Though there be no virtue in number though the proverb Plures mali be very true that the most are the worst though Heraclitus said well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that One may be better then thirty thousand and an innumerable company be of no account though as Chrysostome saith one Elijah or one David put in the scales against a world of ungodly men would far outweigh them all yet as the Apostle exhorteth let not us forsake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the assembling of our selves together Hebr. 10.25 but let us make up a company make the Many as many as we can Evil beginneth haply in one and then spreadeth in many And as many may become evil so many may be made good We see here many the tribes the people resolve on that which was very good and so made David glad They said We will go into the house of the Lord. And so we are fallen upon 2. Their Resolution DIXERUNT They said To Say in Scripture is to Resolve I said I will take heed to my wayes that is Psal 39.1 I resolved to set a watch upon my self For there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word that floateth on the tongue and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word conceived and shaped in the inward man a word spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the very heart verbum operis a
resolve together To go alone is dangerous S. Cyprian and others of the Fathers will tell us that Schism is a sin not to be expiated no not with martyrdom and that to dy for the Head will little avail him who hath divided the Body But the truth is If we resolve to serve the Lord though we be millions we shall all agree and be one Religion pure Religion and undefiled cannot raise a schisme in the Church For if there be an errour she teacheth us to pardon it if an injury to forget it A religious man saith Nazianzene is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simple and sincere in himself ever like himself but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 various and manifold towards others He applieth himself as S. Paul did to all and is made all things to all men And when they do not gather together 1 Cor. 9.19 c there is nothing in him to hinder it Look upon all the contentions that ever were in the world observe the persons that raised them mark their original and ye shall see that the name of Religion was onely taken in to carry them on but it was something else that gave them life and continued them Private ends and love of the world first kindle the fire and then the name of Christ is taken up that it may rage the more the name of Christ who hath left unto us that water of life which would easily quench it For I cannot yet see how a truly-religious man should be a schismatick If he be he doth it oblitus professionis suae quite beside the meaning of his profession the chief end whereof is to gather all into one Eph. 4.3 and to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace 4. They went chearfully and with great alacrity A prompt and ready mind an active and vigorous will in God's service is all in all My son give me thy heart saith God Prov. 23.26 And when we have given him that then Awake viol and harp Awake all the powers of my soul Stir up your selves all the parts of my body then we do our duty and serve God with all our strength and might then our feet are as hinds feet and we run the wayes of God's commandments Hab. 3.18 Psal 119.32 Chrysostom saith the Church is the place of Angels and Archangels the presence-chamber of God yea heaven it self And shall not we go more chearfully towards heaven then others do to hell If we go to Church but for fashion for company or out of formality if Love drive us not forward it is plain that we are not willing to come into God's presence and had rather mingle ourselves with our worldly affairs then appear before God and his Angels in his house Shame or fear or compliance may serve as wings to bear us to Church but they will never carry us up so high as heaven He that mounteth thither ascendeth in a jubilee with melody and joy 5. The Church is the house of God Let us therefore enter his gates with joy Psal 100.4 and his courts with rejoycing and not raise needless questions which edifie not Here we receive the doctrine of truth the commands of God which are as Angels descending from above here we breathe out our souls and send up our holy desires which are as so many Angels of commerce between God and us Hoc opus hic labor est This is the business of the day this is the work of the place What gaze we upon the walls the fabrick the fashion the beauty of it Why perplex we our selves and others where there is no reason and blow up bubbles which swell and are straight nothing It is an observation of the Ancients That they who can once prevail with themselves to desire nothing more then piety and vertue and to have no other intent then to be good men will rest in that contentedness which Religion bringeth as on a holy hill and will never descend and stoop to low considerations True Devotion never questioneth what fashion what form what beauty the place hath where it must shew it self He that fighteth against his lust and so beateth down the beast within him he that presseth forward onely to that end for which he should go to the house of the Lord and maketh it his chief aim to serve him will never startle at that which cannot hinder but may facilitate and promote the end he aimeth at he will not fall out with colours nor tremble at the sight of a picture it may be of a leg or an arm much less will he question the fashion that he may pull down the fabrick No this humour springeth not from devotion or from a tender conscience neither indeed can it For a tender conscience is alway so it doth not stumble at a straw and leap over a mountain it doth not check at a feather at that which is nothing in it self but hath all its value and dignity from its end This humour hath its original from Pride and Covetousness as Hippocrates saith all the distempers of the body have their original from Choler and Phlegme from pride I say foolish pride which misliketh every thing and covetousness that would make every thing a prey 1 Cor. 11.16 But as S. Paul saith if any man seem to be thus contentious we have no such custome neither the Churches of God Neither was there any such contention till those latter times when Sacrilege lifted up the ax and the mattock to break down the carved works yea to dig up the very foundations of the houses of the Lord. 1 Pet. 2.1 Wherefore as S. Peter exhorteth let us lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrises and envies and all evil speakings and so go together to the house of God It is his house therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the ancient form was let us appear there with reverence What though he be no more present here then in any other place Yet I am sure thou oughtest to be as reverent as if he were It is his holy place What though it hath no inherent holiness we cannot say it hath Yet it is thy part to carry thy self as one that hath Raise not idle questions but be serious in thy duty Do not bring a groundless phansie along with thee and leave thy duty behind thee in the land of oblivion Sanctorum vel sola recordatio sanctitatem parit saith a Father The very remembrance of the Saints by a kind of influence and insinuation may vvork holiness in us And if vve could once chace avvay these empty and insignificant phansies these impertinent and heretogeneous thoughts which spring from the Flesh as serpents out of carrion or dung I see no reason but we might gain some advantage from the places of God's worship To conclude this point IBIMUS We will go or EAMUS Let us go into the houses of the Lord and bless his name for these blessed
opportunities of Time and Place to serve him in bless him for those who erected these fabricks and bless him for those who repair and adorn them and by the right use of these means build we up our selves on our most-holy fâ—ith Jude 20. and so deck and beautifie our souls that they may be fit temples of the holy Ghost And then whensoever we spread forth our arms in this place God will stretch forth his hand and help us when our prayers ascend as incense he will receive them as a sweet-smelling savour when we bow our knees to him he will bow down his ear to us when we speak he will hear and return our prayers back again into our bosom when we pour out our petitions he will pour down his blessings peace of conscience with all things necessary for this life which are a pawn and pledge and earnest of those everlasting blessings glory honour and immortality Thus we have led you into the house of the Lord the main circumstance in the Object of the Psalmists joy The place we are going to and the thing we are about may be of such a nature that Many may be worse then none Resolution may be pertinacie and madness Agreement and Union may be conspiracy and Hast may be precipitancie A man had better in some things be like Mephibosheth lame on both his feet then like Asahel light of foot as a wild roe 2 Sam 9.13 2.18 Ye have read how that pursuing after Abner he turned not to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner 19. and so ran straight to his own death Psal 1.1 There be too-too many who walk in the counsel of the ungodly and stand in the way of sinners and sit in the seat of the scornful There may be a Synod of Hereticks a Senate of rebells as ye know there is a Legion of Devils Pliny telleth us Mark 5.9 Major coelitum populus quà m terrae that there were more people in heaven then on earth and it might be true when they made God's for they might make as many as they pleased But the broad way hath most travellers Matth. 7.13 there they go in sholes in bodies in companies in Societies and some under the name of JESUS And our Saviour saith that many there be which go in at the wide gate Secondly resolve men may and oftentimes resolve they do and are resolute in that which they should abhor Their Dixit is a Factum est they say and do it no law no conscience no thunder from heaven can deter them from it Matth. 2 6. Give me money enough and I will betray my Master said Judas and he did do it betray him into the hands of his enemies Thirdly men may gather together and be united to do mischief thieves and murderers may cast in their lots together and have all one purse Prov. 1.14 Yea men of disagreeing and different principles may agree and combine in the same wicked design though they have severall judgements yet may they be brethren in iniquity Gen. 49.7 Judg. 15.4 5 they may be tied together as Samson's foxes were though their heads look divers wayes and one be an Anabaptist another a Brownist a third a Disciplinarian a fourth a Seeker a fifth a Quaker a sixth but there are so many Sects that I cannot tell you their names though their looks and language be never so opposit yet they may be linked together by the tails and carry those firebrands between them that may burn up the harvest As Paterculus said of Jugurtha and Marius In iisdem castris didicere quae postea in contrariis facerent They learnt their skill in arms both in the same camp which they afterwards practised in divers even one against the other So have the Jesuites and these Sectaries taken up some common principles and we know in whose camp they learnt them which they make use of to drive on their purposes and yet defie one another as much as Jugurtha and Marius ever did Many wicked men ye see may agree we see too many do and their agreement breaketh the peace and maketh the body of Christendome fly asunder into so many pieces and parts with that noise and confusion that we tremble to behold it ridente Turcâ nec dolente Judaeo whilest the Turk laugheth and a Jew pulleth the veil closer to his face and comforteth and applaudeth himself in his errour Last of all as men may resolve and agree so may they encourage themselves in evil Rom. 1.32 and not onely do the same thing but as S. Paul speaketh have pleasure in them that do it they may go together with a shout and with a merry noise sport in the miseries dance in the ruines and wash their feet in the bloud of the innocent and their word still be So Psal 35.25 so thus we would have it Thus I say the Many may resolve agree and delight in that which is forbidden they may have a firm heart they may have but one heart they may have a merry heart in that which is evil their hearts may be fixed their hands joyned and their feet swift to shed bloud Prov. 1.16 Isa 59.7 Rom. 3.15 Therefore we must look forward to the last circumstance the Place the house of the Lord the Service of God This shineth upon all the rest and beautifieth them Many here make a Church To Resolve here is obedience To Agree here is peace the peace of God which maketh us one of the same mind of the same will To be one in place and not in mind is poena saith a Father it is not a blessing but a punishment To be one in mind and not in place is bonitas goodness To be one in place and in mind both is felicitas greatest happiness Then in the last place to Go together chearfully to the house of the Lord is an expression of that joy which is a type and earnest of that which is in the highest heavens There is nothing here we told you which a religious mind can check at No just scruple can arise concerning the place seeing we have God's word for it under the Law and Christs word for it under the Gospel that it is God's house If any do arise it riseth like a fog it steameth from a foul and corrupt heart from Pride and Covetousness the mothers of Pertinacy and Contradiction Which cannot be brought to conform to the counsels of the wise no not to the wisdom of God himself but call Truth heresie because others speak it Bounty wast because others lay it out Reverence superstition because others bow would pull down Churches because others build them spurn at every thing nihil verum putant nisi quod contrarium think nothing true but what is diverse and contrary and breatheth opposition against the Truth This is a great evil under the Sun to quarrel even the blessings of God to be angry with
calleth it is very likely I shall fall fast asleep at the voice of Christ The reason is plain and evident For it is not with the Will and Affections as it is with the Understanding The Understanding can easily sever one thing from another and apprehend them both yea it hath power to abstract and separate things really the same and consider the one as different from the other but it is the property of the Will and Affections in unum ferri se in unitatem colligere to unite and collect themselves to make themselves one with the object so that our desires cannot be carried to two contrary objects at one and the same time We may apprehend Christ as just and holy and the world and the riches of it as vanity it self but we cannot at once love Christ as just and holy and adhere and cleave to the world and the vanities thereof Our Saviour hath fully expressed it where he telleth us we shall hate the one and love the other or else lean to the one and despise the other If it be a love to the one it will be at best but a liking of the other if a will to the one but a villeity and faint inclination to the other if a look on the one but a glance on the other And this glance this villeity this inclination are no better then hatred and contempt For these proceed from my Understanding but my love from my Will which is fixed not where I approve but where I chuse For what is it to say This is beauty and then spit upon it to say Righteousness is hominis optimum as Augustine calleth it the best thing that man can seek and yet chuse a clod of earth before it What is it to call Christ Lord and crucifie him For reason will tell us even when we most dote upon the world that Wisdom is better then rubies that Christ is to be preferred to Mammon that it is better cum Christo affligi quà m cum aliis deliciari to be afflicted with Christ then to enjoy the pleasures of this life and sport away our time with others but this will not make it Love which joyneth with the object which swalloweth it up is swallowed up by it What love is that to Righteousness which putteth it post principia in the second file behind the World and in this placeth all its hope of happiness seeing Righteousness if it be not sought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first place is lost for ever For last of all if we seek any thing before Righteousness that must needs be predominant and give laws to Righteousness square and fashion Religion as it pleaseth and so Religion being put behind will be put also to vile offices to swell our heaps to promote our lusts to feather our ambition to enrage our malice to countenance that which destroyeth her to follow that which driveth her out of the world And whereas Righteousness should be as the seal to be set upon all our intendments and upon all the actions of our life that they may go for warrantable being stamped and charactered as it were with the Image of the King of glory Christ Jesus Righteousness will be made as wax to receive the impression of the World and whatsoever may prove advantageous will go current for Righteousness and every thing will be Righteousness but that which is Whereas Righteousness should be fixed as a star in the firmament of the soul to cast its influence upon all we think or speak or do we shall draw up a meteor out of the foggy places of the earth a blazing and ill-boding comet and call it by that sacred name This this hath been the great corrupter of Religion in all the ages of the Church This was that falsary which did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adulterate the truth of the Gospel This hath made that desolation which we see upon the earth For if the eye be first fixed on the things of this world it will be so dazled as not to see Righteousness in her own shape nor discern her unless she be guilded over with vanity My Covetousness now looketh like Christian providence for my love of these things must Christen the Child My Ambition now is the Honour of God My malice cannot burn hot enough for I seek the Lord in the bowels of my brethren My Sacrilege is excessive piety for though it is true that I fill my coffers with the shekels of the Sanctuary yet I beat down Baal and Superstition But if we did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first seek Righteousness our Covetousness would not dig and drudge with such a fair gloss our ambition would flag and stoop to the ground our Malice would dye never to be raised again and our Sacrilege would find no hand to lay hold on the axe and the hammer the power of Righteousness and not her bare name would manifest it self in our actions and all excuses and pretences and false glosses would vanish as a mist before the Sun the World would be but a great dunghil Honour but air Malice a fury and the Houses of God would stand fast for ever But this misplacing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath put all out of order divided the Church shaken the Pillars of the earth ruined nations and left nothing of Righteousness but the name when that which indeed is Righteousness doth make and preserve a Church uphold the world and is the alone thing which can perpetuate a Government and continue a Commonwealth to last so long as the Moon endureth If this did prevail there could be no wars nor rumours of wars no violence in the form of a law no injury under pretence of conscience no beating of our fellow-servants no murthering of our brethren in the name of the Lord. I say the casting Religion behind and making it wait upon us in all our distempers is that which hath well-near cast all Religion out of the world This hath raised so many sects which swarm and buzze about us like flies in Summer This is the coyner of Heresies which are nothing else but the inventions of worldly-minded men working out of the elaboratory of their phansie some new Doctrine which may favour and keep pace with their humour and lift them up and make them great in the world This built a Throne for the Pope and a Consistory for the Disciplinarian This hath stated many Questions and been President at most Councils For be the man what he will private interest is commonly the Doctor and magisterially determineth and prescribeth all If a thing be advantageous it must also be orthodox and hath on the one side written RIGHTEOUSNESS UNTO THE LORD on the other FROM HENCE WE HAVE OUR GAIN We cannot be too charitable yet you know charity may mistake Peradventure weakness of apprehension may leave some naked to errour conscience may sway and bow others in some things from the truth but let me tell you in
it self the most disorderly thing in the world into order and maketh that which stands us against his law to meet with his Justice and that which runs from the order that his Mercy hath set up to be driven to the order of Equity For Sin is an offense against the Creation a breach and invertion of that order which the Wisdome of God did at first establish in the world My Adultery defileth my body my Oppression grindeth the poor my Anger rageth against my brother my particular sins have their particular objects but they all strike at the Universe and at that order which was at first set up Luke 15. Father I have sinned against thee and against heaven saith the Prodigal against thee and against thy Power and that Order which thou hast establisht in the highest heavens And therefore his Providence ruleth over all to reduce this inequality to an equality and this confusion into order to shew what harmony it can work in the greatest disorder what beauty he can raise out of the deformed and unnatural body of Sin striking them down by his hand who would not bow to his will Sin and Punishment are nothing of themselves but in us or rather in the wayes of Gods Providence they are something The one is voluntary that is Sin the other penal that is Smart That which is voluntary Sin is a foul deformity in nature and in that course which God hath set up and therefore the penal is added to order and place it there where it may be forced to serve for the grace and beauty of the whole that the punishment of Sin may wipe out the dishonour of Sin that he who against the will of God would tast the pleasure of Sin may against his own will drink deep of the cup of Bitterness Interest mundo Therefore it concerns the world and all that therein is that Sin be punished and that every thing be set in its own place This the whole creation seems to grone for this it earnestly expects this is the Creatures Jubilee Rom. 8. it is deliverance from the bondage of corruption Turpis est pars quae suo toti non convenit It is an ill member for which the whole body is the worse Vt in sermone litterae As Letters in a Word or Sentence so Men are the principles and parts which concur to make up a Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Men are the World and Men are the City and Men are the Church Now every impertinent and unpunished Sinner is a letter too much or rather a blur in that sentence Let the hand of Providence therefore blot it out Let the whip be on the fools back and the sword in the murderers bowels Let Dives be in Hell let every seed have its own body and every work its proper wages and then every thing is in its own order and place and then the World is the work of Gods Hands the Church is the body of Christ and the composition is entire So this is an everlasting truth Gods Justice requires it his Providence works it the very Creature groans for it And deceive we our selves if we will and mock God if we dare If we do not well sin lyeth at the door Gen. 4.7 ready to break in with a whip and vengeance upon us For whatsoever a man sows that also shall he reap For in the next place God doth not onely punish sin but fits and proportions the punishment to the sin both in this life and in that which is to come He observes a kind of Arithmetical proportion and draws both parts together that the one may not crack of his purchase nor the other complain of his loss that the Sinner may not boast of his sin nor God lose any part of his glory The Prophet David hath fully exprest it He made a way to his anger LIBRAVlT ITER Psal 78 50. he weighed it as by the scales As they increased they sinned against me Hos 4.7 Therefore I will change their glory into shame Rom. 1.25 As they changed the truth of God into a lye so God delivered them up An Arithmetical and just proportion They took away Gods glory and they pay him with shame with the shame of a sinner which is Gods glory God under the Law did appoint particular punishments for particular sins as Famine by drought for Deteining of Tithes Pestilence for Injustice to destroy those that would not destroy the wicked nor plead the cause of the oppressed fierce and devouring Beasts for Perjury and Blasphemy and Captivity for Idolatry Lev. 10. Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire and were consumed by fire from Heaven Adonibezek had his thumbs cut off and his great toes Judg. 1.6 and in the next verse he confesseth Threescore and ten kings having their thumbs and great toes cut off gathered their meat under my table As I have done so God hath requited me Absalom's hearts desire was to get his Fathers crown and you may behold him with three darts thrust through his heart 2 Sam. 18 So in all ages it hath been observeable that men have been taken in their own net and been buried in the pit which they dig'd For this saith S. Basil is not onely a punishment but the very nature of Sin to make a net and to dig a pit for it self The Thief twists the halter that hangs him the Envious eateth out his own heart the Angry man slayeth himself the Wanton beast is burnt up with his own heat the Ambitious breaketh his own neck the Covetous pierceth his own soul and is choked as Crassus was with his own gold the Proud man breaks with his own swelling the Seditious is burnt with the fire he made So near doth Punishment follow Sin at the heels that in Scripture often one name and word serveth to signifie both and Sin is taken both for the guilt and the Punishment And this in this world But in the next Tophet is ordeined and prepared of old fitted and proportioned to every one that goes on in his sin as fit for an unrepentant sinner as a Throne is for a King or Heaven for an Angel For as there is some analogy between the joyes a good conscience yields on earth and thoss which we shall have at the right hand of God â—â—br 6.4 The Apostle calls it a tast of the heavenly gift and the Schoolmen tell us that Glory is the consummation of Grace which looked towards it and tended to it So is Sin an embleme of Hell carrying with it nothing but disorder confusion and torment Anselme thought it the uglier Hell of the two and more to be abhorred In Hell there is stench what more unsavory then Sin in Hell there is pain what more tormenting then Sin in Hell there is weeping what more lamentable then Sin in Hell there is a worm what more gnawing then Sin Sin entred in and then Hell was created Had
Gospel And the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is a two-peny Feast Our comfort it is that it is not so it is but like it at the most And it is not like it neither This likeness is not in truth but opus intellectûs a resemblance made up in the brain of those whom all the world knows are none of the wisest unless it be in their generation Sure every gesture that will bear a resemblance is not Popery It is not so because we have so drawn it in our phansie because we make it so and because we will have it so for our own ends For thus every man may be an Idolater whom we mean to strip John 7.24 our Saviours counsel is Judge not according to the appearance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the face and countenance of things For how easie is it to paint and present them as we please Many times an evil eye makes an evil face puts horrour upon Religion it self and where Devotion shines out in the full beauty of holiness draws a Pope or a Devil As Charity covers a multitude of sins so doth Malice cover a multitude of vertues with the black mantle of Vice she covers Devotion with Phrensie Honesty with Folly and Reverence with Superstition and that onely is seen which may at once offend and delight the mocker O what a scandal is a College or a Church what an abomination are holy things when they are sought for as a prey But commonly Scoffers have ill luck for though they would hide themselves in noyse and formality yet are they seen well enough in their furious march to the Honors and Wealth of this world and can bring but slender evidence to confirm what they say Though they lift up their voice and speak never so loud They are drunk This is superstition These are Idolaters When this is spoken they have no more to say and they need not say more For if they be backt with Power though Reason and Argument forsake them you shall be forced to take them at their word Quà m sapiens argumentatrix videtur sibi ignorantia humana Good God! what subtile disputers do Ignorance and Malice account themselves for these are disputers of this world where Phansie goes for Reason Humour for the Spirit and a Scoff for an impregnable argument where we see ridicula potiùs quà m firma tela weapons to be laught at rather then to be feared rather bulrushes then spears syllogismes truly destructive which may ruine us indeed but can never convince us may shake our estates and lives but not our faith These are drunk This is Superstition What should we say even lay our hand upon our mouth with Job and proceed no further We see here S. Peter takes no great pains to avoid these scoffers he useth no convincing demonstrative argument but onely a probabili He tells them it was not probable they should be drunk so soon at such a feast at the third houre of the day The Philosopher will tell us Non est disputandum cum quovis every man is not to be disputed with For that which should free some from err our confirms them in it Nothing will be restrained not any thing will be cut off from them which they imagine to do When you undertake Pertinacy you do but beat the air Nazianzene observes that Christ himself did not give an answer to every question We will then answer the scoffers of these times as S. Peter did these here with a non probabile It is not probable that a reverent gesture or some few ceremonies should reconcile him to Rome whose doctrine is orthodox that a knee make him superstitious who is devout in his heart It is more probable that it is Reverence rather then Superstition Devotion rather then Idolatry Or if it were not apparently probable yet where no evidence is brought to the contrary there true Christian Charity which is no scoffer we may be sure is very active to make and frame such probabilities Sperat omnia credit omnia saith the Apostle if she be not certain for the best she will not be certain and positive for the worst if she be not certain yet she will hope and believe that all things are well Nor will she cry Superstition at the sight of reverence nor Idolatry at the mention of an Altar Charity that never fails will never fall at the bowing of a knee nor will ever conclude so absurdly These men fall down and worship therefore they are idolatrous no more then thus These men are full of new wine when at that time there was none to fill them To conclude then These scoffers are dead and Lucian is dead and Julian is dead and are gone to their place yet the Spirit breathes still and the Church of Christ stands firm upon the same foundation The blessed Spirit though he be grieved yet cannot be destroyed though he be quenched yet it is but in scoffers Magna vis veri impelli potest exstingui non potest Great is the Truth and at last it prevaileth you may oppress it you cannot exstinguish it All the power and rage and malice of bloudy hypocrites can never so chase it away but it will find some humble and devout hearts to dwell and rest in As Fire cast into the Water is streightway put out saith Tully so scoffs and detraction and wilfull and malicious misinterpretations soon vanish into nothing Crepitant solvuntur These hailstones rattle for a while on the house-top and make a noise and are then dissolved into air Suppose a man of fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is S. Chrysostoms resemblance should fall into a field of stubble of flax or straw he can receive no hurt but must needs shew his force and activity and consume whatsoever is combustible before him Shall Flax or Straw stand up against Fire This man of fire cannot suffer by such thin materials which are as fewel to nourish and uphold him What can they do If they venture they destroy themselves Beloved every Apostle of Christ every true Christian is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of fire Scoffs are but straw Detraction but as flax which coming too near him can consume themselves or as Thorns crackle a while and make a noise in this fire and no more And when the day of lustration shall come when that day shall come which is spectaculum as Tertullian calls it the great spectacle of the world when all things shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 naked and anatomized as a beast cut down the back then all thoughts shall be discovered all veils removed all visours pluckt off Then spiritual Joy shall not be madness the Breathings of the Spirit shall not be the ebullitions of men distempered with wine nor true Honesty folly nor Reverence superstition Then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato calls it or rather this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This unusual behaviour of wise and spiritual men which is so
the keeping of which they were wrought For to this end Christ manifested himself by signs and wonders that we might manifest our selves to be his by our obedience that where he is there we may be also which is blessedness indeed John 1.49 When our Saviour told Nathaniel he saw him under the figg-tree Nathaniel calls him the Son of God and King of Israel This was as it were the spring and beginning of his faith and our Saviour makes much of it and cherisheth it Doest thou believe because of this thou shalt see greater things then these This is as the watring of it the crowning of his first gift with a second He shall see the heaven opening and the Angels ministring unto him at his passion resurrection and ascension In my Text the Woman had discovered Christ's excellency and Christ discovers to her his will his Fathers will the doing of which will will unite her unto him whom she thus admired and make her one with him as He and his Father is one Blessed parents yea rather Blessed thou if thou hear my word and keep it This is a timely grace to lead her yet nearer to the kingdome of heaven The lifting up of her voyce was too weak to lift up those Everlasting gates This was a seasonable Reprehension shall I call it or Direction It hath something of both but so little of the rod that it is rather a staff to uphold the woman and to guide her in the wayes of Blessedness Blessed is the womb that bare thee it is a truth but a dangerous truth to dwell on Yea rather points out to another truth upon which we may look with more profit and advantage Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it That magnifieth my Mother but this will make him that observes it my brother and mother and sister Et major fraternitas fidei quà m sanguinis Faith and Obedience keep us in a neerer relation to Christ then Bloud And now we if we look into the Church we shall find that most men stand in need of a Yea rather who will magnifie Christ and his Mother too but not do his will will do what they ought to do but leave that undone for which that which they do was ordeined Lord how many Beatitudes have we found out and seldome touch upon the right FELIX SACRAMENTUM Blessed Sacrament of Baptisme The Father begins his book so de Baptismo It is true but there is an IMO POTIUS Yea rather blessed are they that have put on Christ. Blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper It is true but yea rather blessed are they that dwell in Christ Blessed Profession of Christianity yea rather blessed are they that are Christs Blessed Cross The Fathers call it so Yea rather blessed are they that have Crucified their flesh with the affections and lusts Blessed Church Yea rather blessed are they who are members of Christ Blessed Reformation Yea rather blessed are they that reform themselves The greatest debate is concerning these What degladiations what tragedies about these And if every phansie be not pleased the cry is as if Religion was breathing out its last when Religion consists not principally in these and these may seem to have been passed over as pledges of love as well as commands and were passed over to this end For we are baptized that we might put on Christ We come to his Table that we may feed on him by faith The Cross is magnified that we may take it up The Church was reformed that we should purge our selves not onely of superstition but also of prophaneness and sacrilege and those sins for which the name of Christ is blasphemed amongst the heathen The Philosopher indeed tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in respect of variety of circumstances it is a hard matter many times to make our choice or in our judgment to prefer one thing before another And in some cases this is true but in this particular we speak of all the difficulty rises not from the object or from the understanding but from the will For we will choose that which is easie rather then that which is best that which will fit our humour rather then that which will save our soul And therefore we have need not of gentle but corroding physick of an Imò potiùs to be pressed home upon us again and again in the sharpest accent For when a man hath followed his thoughts to those pleasing objects which they so readily fly to when he hath run his compass and fastned on that which flatters his sense and called it Blessedness he runs further and further from Blessedness and holds nothing of it but the name Thou maist wash at the Font and yet pollute thy self thou maist eat at Christs Table and not be fed thou maist be of the Church and yet be Anathema of the reformed Church and yet be worse then an Infidel Blessed are all these because they help to make us blessed and are appointed as means for that end But IMO POTIUS Yea rather must draw them home and settle us in this Fundamental Truth Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it Which is the Resolve and Conclusion of the whole matter and with it we shall conclude This Resolve of Wisdome it self as it doth cool and moderate our affections towards the outward and temporal favours and blessings of God towards those of his right Hand and those of his left so it doth intend and quicken them towards that which is Blessedness indeed James 1.25 It sets us up a glass that Royal Law that perfect Law of liberty which if we look into and continue in it being not forgetful hearers but doers of the work we shall be blessed in it We may seek for Blessedness in the field abroad in outward favours and privileges but loe here it is found Blessedness like Christ himself is a α ω the first and the last the end and yet the first mover of us in these wayes which lead unto it Christiano coelum antè patet quà m via Heaven is first opened to a Christian and then the way and he that walks in this shall enter into that Now what is Blessedness but a state of perfection and an aggregation of all that is truly good without the least tincture and shew of evil as Boethius speaketh This cannot be found but in the most perfect Good even God who is Perfection it self whose pleasure whose delight whose paradise is in his own bosome This he opens and pours a part on his creature of which we do in a manner take possession and tast of its pleasant fruits when we keep his word and law which is nothing else but a beam of that law which was with and in God from all eternity and by which as we are made after the image so are we transformed into the similitude of God Thus Plato himself calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our
and passive obedience of Christ The act of Justification is the act of a Judge and this cannot concern us so much as the benefit it self which is the greatest that can be given not so much as our duty to fit us for the act Oh that men would learn to speak of the acts of God in his own language and not seek out divers inventions which do not edifie but many times rend the Church in pieces and expose the truth it self to reproch which had triumphed gloriously over Errour had men contended only for that common faith which was once delivered to the Saints My sheep hear my voice saith Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil They hear and obey and do not dispute and ask questions They taste not trouble and mud that clear fountain of the water of life And as in Justification so in the point of Faith by which we are justified What profit is there so busily to enquire whether the nature of Faith consisteth in an obsequious assent or in the appropriation of the grace and mercy of God or in a meer fiducial apprehension and application of the merits of Christ What will this add to me what cubit what hair to my stature if so be I settle and rest upon this that the Faith by which I am justified must not be a dead faith but a faith working by charity Oh let me try and examine my Faith let me build my self up in it and upon it those actions of Obedience and Holiness which are the language of Faith and speak her to be alive and then I shall not trouble my self too much to determine utrùm fides quae viva or quà viva Whether a living Faith justifieth or whether it justifieth as a living Faith Whether Good works are necessary to Justification as Efficient or Concomitant For it is enough to know that a dead Faith is not sufficient for this work and that Faith void of good works is dead and therefore that must needs be a living Faith which worketh by charity Whether Charity concur with Faith to the act of Justification as some would have it Whether it have an equal efficacy or unequal or none at all Whether the power of justifying be attributed to Faith as the fountain and mother of all good works or as it bringeth these good works into act or it have this force by it self alone as it apprehendeth the merits of Christ although even in that act it is not alone In the midst of all this noise in the midst of all these doubts and disputations it is enongh for me to be justified And what is enough if it be not enough to be saved Which I may be by following in the way that is smooth and plain and not running out into the mazes and labyrinths of disputes It is the voice of the Gospel behind thee HAEC EST VIA This is the way FAITH WORKING BY CHARITY and thou mayest walk in it and never ask any more questions But if men will inquire let them inquire But let them take heed that they lose not themselves in their search and dispute away their Faith talk of Faith and be worse then Infidels of Justification and please themselves in unrighteousness of Christ's active obedience and be to every good work reprobate of his Passive obedience and deny him when they should suffer for him of the inconsistency of Faith and Good works in our justification and set them at as great a distance in their lives and conversation and because they do not help to justifie us think they have no concurrence at all in the work of our salvation For we are well assured of the one and fight for it and most men are too bold and confident in the other But the doctrine of the Cospel is a perfect Law and bindeth us to both both to believe and to do for it requireth a working and an active Faith In the book of God all our members were written All our members yea and all the faculties of our soul And in his Gospel he hath framed laws and precepts to order and regulate them all in every act in every motion and inclination which if the Eye offend pluck it out if the Hand cut it off limit the Understanding to the knowledge of God bind the Will to obedience moderate and confine those two Turbulent Tribunes of the soul the Concupiscible and Irascible appetites direct our Fear level our Hope fix our Joy restrain our Sorrow condescend to order our Speech frame our Gesture fashion our Apparel set and compose our outward Behaviour Instances in Scripture in every particular are many and obvious And the time would fail me to mention them all In a word then This Law is fitted to the whole man to every faculty of the soul to every member of the body fitted to us in every condition in every relation in every motion It will reign with thee it will serve with thee It will manage thy riches comfort thy poverty ascend the throne with thee sit down with thee on the dunghil It will pray with thee fast with thee labour with thee rest and keep a Sabbath with thee It will govern a Church it will order thy family It will raise a kingdom within thee not to be divided in it self free from mutinies and seditions and those tumults and disturbances which thy flesh with its lusts and affections may raise there It will live with thee stand by thee at thy death and be that Angel which shall carry thee into Abraham's bosom It will rise again with thee and set the crown of glory upon thy head And is there yet any more Or what need there more then that which is necessary There can be but one God one Heaven one Religion one way to Blessedness and there is but one Law And this runneth the whole compass directeth us not only ad ultimum sed usque ad ultimum not only to that which is the end but to the means to every passage and approch to every help and advantage towards it leadeth us through the manifold changes and chances of this world through fire and water through honour and dishonour through peace and persecution and uniteth us to that one God giveth us right and title to that one heaven and bringeth us home to that one end for which we were made And is there yet any more Yes Particular cases may be so many and various that they cannot all come within the compass of this Law It is true But then they are cases of our own making cases which we need not make sometimes raised by weakness sometimes by wilfulness sometimes even by that sin it self which reigneth in our mortal bodies And to such this Law is as an ax to cut them off But be their original what it will if this Law reach them not or if they bear no analogy or affinity with those cases which are contained in the Gospel nor depend upon them by any
be a sanctuary to such as dwell not in Christ 320. How much it concerneth us to try whether we dwell in Christ and Christ in us 321. By this mutual union all His become ours and all ours his 321 322. ¶ Christ must be looked upon and considered not in part but wholly 394. What it is to consider Him as our Priest Prophet King 492 493. What it is for a Christian to remember Christ aright 463 c. The mistake of the world in the manner of receiving Christs Person 523. as great in respect of his Doctrine 524. ¶ Christ was wont to draw his discourse from some present occasion 309. The Scope of his Sermon on the mount 560. He cured mens bodies and purged their souls 572. The end of his Miracles 572 c We must by no means defeat him of his end but cooperate with him 575. Many talk of Christ and profess to follow him but few walk as he did 518. 520. His Example is to be followed by us 510. v. Servant This is the principal standard Rule by which all are to be examined and according to which all are to be squared 1026 1027. Wherein Christ is not to be imitated by us 1026. wherein he is 1027. ¶ We ought to think of Christ's second coming 235. He shall though most put it out of their Creed certainly come to judge all 237. He knoweth mens hearts and all things 277 573. He was despised of old by most forgotten now 237. Why he delayeth his coming 238 239. Christ's second coming is an object for our Faith to look on 240. 735. for our Hope to reach at 242. 736. and for our charity to embrace 242. 736. It will be not for carnal but spiritual and heavenly ends 243. 954. It will be for the Advantage of Angels Men and other Creatures 245 246 His judgment will not be like ours but according to truth 247. The precise time of his coming not to be enquired after nor to be known 248 c. 737. What use we ought to make of the uncertainty thereof 250. 738. It is enough to know Christ will come it concerneth us not to know when 251 252. 737. It is better for us not to know it 252. No reason why either good or bad should know it 252. If the wicked knâ—w the very hour they would be never the better 253. Christ's coming will be sudden 254. When-ever he cometh let him not find us ill employed 254 255. What inferences Flesh and Bloud draw from the doctrine of Christ's coming 256. The belief of Christ's second coming affordeth unspeakable comfort to the godly but the contrary to the wicked 952. Why he foretold the signs of his second coming 1042. How the sight of such signs should work upon us 1045. v. Signs How to prepare our selves to meet our Lord at his second coming 1049. Though Christ deliver-up his Kingdome and be subject to the Father yet his Dominion is everlasting 235. 240. ¶ The doctrine of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness grosly mis-interpreted and misapplyed 870 c. 993 994. He came to make us happy which neither Nature nor the Law could do for us 716 717. He hath freed us from the guilt and power of Sin 1097 1098. from the rigour of the Moral and the servitude of the Ceremonial Law 1098. Many have a bare speculative knowledge of Christ which availeth nothing at all 723 c. What it is for us to be crucified with CHRIST and to rise again with him 725. Christendome v. View Christian and Christianity A good Christian who 68 69. 78. Every man may be a Christian 661. v. Truth Many would go for Christians that are nothing less 319. The end of Christianity is to draw our hearts from earth to heaven 645 c. 649. v. Religion Popery But alas how many Christians walk quite contrary 652. How Christian Religion is degenerated 915. 1071. The bare name of Christian will do us no good 291. v. Formality Hypocrisy Profession Sin in a Christian is far worse then in a Turk or a Jew 417 418. The sins of Christians cause Christianity to be evil spoken of 913 914. 1071. Christians who live unchristianly are guilty of the bloud of Jews and Pagans 914. 1071. It is not the name of Christian or of Christ that will save us if we dishonour it 915. How strangely most Christians mock God and contradict themselves 921. Christianity maketh a man not morose and sowre but sweet and tractable 504. It doth not discharge us from subjection to our Superiours 639 1102 1103. It is both the most delightsome and the most troublesome calling 1011. A Christian is both the freest and the most subject creature in the world 638. 1101. A true Christian is firm and constant 1111 1112. A strong Christian and a weak one described 458. Christmass-day the great metropolitane feast of the year 1. The antiquity of this anniversary solemnity 2. Church a word much abused 149. Many fruitless disputes about the Ch. 10â—8 Church magnified unreasonably by the Papists 680 601. Prosperity not a mark of the true Ch. 191. 295-298 It is always one and the same how 175. 696. never exempted from persecution 175 c. 709. subject to change 190. What alterations we have had in our Engl. Ch. 191. Of how different constitution Christ's C. is from the Kingdoms of the earth 188 710. It is not our joyning to this or that particular C. or faction rather but our dwelling in C. that can make us Christians 320 321. v. Congregation No discipline so essential to the Church as Piety 320. We must not make the World a platform of the Ch. 191. How the Ch. is to deal with her enemies 194. Of the povver God hath left in his Ch. 225. v. Common-wealth Church vvhy called Catholick 233. v. View How the Church is the pillar and ground of truth since the Truth is the pillar of the Church 600. Even Three make a Church 837. Yea One 836. Churches antiently used 847. how far necessary 581. 846 847. how holy 581 582. 847 c. They should not be abused but used to the right end 582. How vve ought to honour them 849 850. It is an horrible shame that our houses should be trim and Churches ruinous and sordid 850. How the Devotion of the antient Christians in building and adorning of Ch. shameth the neglect of our age 850. Though it be pious to build and beautifie Churches yet in case of necessity Churches may be stripped to relieve the poor 851. Against such as vvould have no Churches 847. Against them that vvill not come to Church 581 c. We must go to Church not for fashion or formality but out of love 853. How devout persons behave themselves in the Ch. 854 855. 857. 864. Reverence is due in the Ch. upon several accounts 857 858. None quarrel at Churches but the proud and Covetous 856. City v. View Col. i. 24. 638. iii. 12. 279. Comely Our first thought
Pulpit-flatterers 506. Flattering Preachers are vvorse then Judas 510 511. The root of Flattery is Covetousness 507 c. How apt vve are to flatter our selves 442. 480. 742. 875. v. Assurance Presumtion Security Flesh v. Body Flesh and Spirit contrary 175. 562. 767. ever contending one vvith another 312. Florimundus Raimundus 556. Folly Whence all the Folly that so aboundeth in the vvorld 689 690. Fools and Mad-men vvhat to be thought of 96. None such Fools as they vvho think themselves vvise 500 501. Forgetfulness of the World reproved 1116. Forgiveness How short our Forgiveness cometh of God's 817. God's F. is free and voluntary and so must ours be 818. Whether we are bound to forgive an injury before acknowledgment made 818. God forgiveth fully and so must vve not onely forgive but forget 819. By this vve become like unto God 820. Though vve must forgive yet is not the office of the Judge or going to Law unlawful 821. God's F. is not the less free because it engageth us to forgive 824. What force our F. hath to obtain F. of God 824 825 830 c. What influence God's F. should have on us 826 c. How it cometh to pass that it doth not alwayes vvork in us the likeness of it self 827 828. That we may forgive our Brother vve must oft call to mind and meditate upon the Mercy of God 828 829. and apply it aright 829. What vve must do to get our sins forgiven 833. Grace to forgive one another is never single but accompanied vvith other graces 833. Form A Form of godliness nothing worth vvithout the power thereof 663. yet it deceiveth many 77. 79. and contenteth them 74 c. 303 304. 487. and vvorketh confidence and security in their hearts 74. 76. 1127 1128. and they conceit that God himself also is much taken vvith such pageantry 82. 108 109. Indeed the Form is accepted vvhen the power is not wanting 79 80. otherwise not 487 488. Why a bare Form vvithout substance is so hateful to God 75-79 It hath the same motive with our greatest sins 76. It is mere mockery 80. 877. It is as pleasing to the Devil as it is odious to God 77. v. Hearing Piety Worship Formality v. Outward Duties It is compared to motions by vvater-works 845. Formalities are easy essential duties difficult 1057. Formal repentance is the grossest hypocrisie 372. Fornication eloquently and excellently declaimed against 750 752. Excuses for it answered 750. It dishonoureth the body and defileth the soul 750. It maketh the members of Christ the members of an harlot 750. It is of all sins the most carnal 750. It effeminateth both mind and body 751. It is the Devil's net to catch two at once 751. How strictly Christ forbiddeth it 751. What presumtions there are of its abounding in this Age 751 752. That the very Heathen thought it foul appeareth from their custome of bathing after it 751. Frailty Of humane Frailty 535 c. Friendship obligeth to duty 105. No Friendship is lasting that is not built upon Virtue 371. A wise Friend will shun the least suspicion of offense 380. 612. Fundamentals of Protestants Religion 285 Fundamental and necessary points are plain and evident in Script 1084 1085. Funeral rites at the death of a Romane Emperour 423. Future events unknown to us 250. 1043. v. Time G. GAin v. Profit How greedily and basely pursued not onely by Heathens but by many Christians also 131 132. The gainfullest use of riches 143. Gal. ii 20. 521. ¶ v. 21. 375. ¶ vi 12. 501. Galene's helps in the pursuit of knowledge 66. Gallant The profane Gallant a despicable wretch 528. Gen. iii. 19. In the sweat of thy brows thou shalt eat thy bread a command as well as a curse 218. ¶ 22. 158. 630 631. ¶ vi 3. 795. ¶ xlii 21 22. 387. ¶ Gen. xlvi 27 28. handsomely applied 321. Gentleman No Gentleman hath a licence to be idle 222. GHOST The HOLY GHOST a distinct Person 53. Several titles of his and operations 54. Why called the Spirit of truth 54. 57. Though sent by the Father and the Son yet is his coming voluntary 56. The end of Christ's coming and of the H. Ghost's 52. 760. The H. Ghost though not so solemnly as of old yet still cometh effectually upon the faithful 52. 760. He is ever consonant to himself 55. He is our chief our sole Instructour 760. 772. Though the Church and the Word and Discipline be our Teachers yet the H. Ghost may be truly called our sole Teacher 778. How he is said to teach us all truth 58. How he teacheth us 773. Means must be used for the obteining the gifts of the H. Ghost 61. 67 68. Into what posture we must put our selves if we will receive him 779. We must be careful not to disquiet and grieve him 773 774. Many pretend to be led by the H. Ghost when their design is to oppose him 62. 64. Which is a sin perhaps more dangerous then flatly to deny him 63. 774. Whence it is that so few follow his guidance 65. He hath worse enemies nowadayes then the Eunomians and Sabellians 774. What horrible wickedness some in this Age entitle him to 774. But because some mistake and abuse the Spirit we must not thence conclude that none are taught by him 775. He not onely taught the Church in the Apostles times but teacheth it still in all ages 776. His operations indeed are not easily perceived 775. but that he hath wrought we may find 776. How we may prove the Spirit 780 781. and discern his instructions from the suggestions of Satan and the dreams of fanaticks 64. 66. 777. 780. Glorifying of God what 744 c. 748. 754. 1009. We must glorifie God in soul and in body 744 c. Whether an actual intention of God's glory perpetually in our mind be necessary 745. More is required of us then to glorifie God verbally 754. God's Glory must be the first mover of our obedience 1008. It is not so resplendent in a Starre nor in the Sun as in the New creature 1009. If we glorifie God here we shall glorifie him to eternity 747. Gnosticks 167. GOD cannot be spoken of with too much reverence 7. 409. He is a most simple Essence 78. incomprehensible 165. Bold and curious searching of him unlawful 164 165. He is to be seen by faith not curiously gazed upon 729. Though he be invisible yet we may see Him by the light that shineth in his Works in our Conscience and in his Word 784 c. ¶ God delighteth in his Wisdome more then in any other of his Attributes 326. 1029. Of his Omnipresence and Omniscience 164. Errours concerning God's Presence 165. Belief of God's Presence the greatest curb of sin 164. 167 c 258. God's Wisdome drew his Justice and Mercy together and reconciled them in Christ's Satisfaction and ours 327. Counsels which some men fasten upon God contrary to his Wisdome and Goodness 326. 407
538. Moses how excellent a person 4. Mourning and Grief how they differ 560. How behooffull 563 c. How it worketh upon the Understanding 566. the Will 567. and the Memorie 567. It worketh comfort 568 569. How the primitive Christians gave themselves to it 567. Why and how we should mourn 570 571. The usuall expressions of Mourning 560. Mouth The M. must confess Christ 764. and the Heart must believe what the M. saith 765. Multitude of professours no sure note of the true Church 837. 855. 971 972. Yet a M. of professours is a glorious sight 837. The prayers and service of one single person are acceptable to God how much more then of a multitude 838. Our care should therefore be to provoke and gather Multitudes if we can to God's service 852. For foolish or wicked ends Multitudes are soon gathered 852. Multitude therefore is rather a bad sign then a good one 971 972. Murderers of Mothers gentlyer dealt withall then Murderers of Wives why 292. Murmuring v. Complaint Mysteries not to be sounded to the depth 5 11. 53. The knowledge of them can be no other but Faith 734. N. NAked Why God made Adam first naked 888. and clothed him with skins afterward 538. Nature one and the same in all 123. v. Law She runneth her course constantly and chearfully 844. She teacheth to forsake sin 325. v. Heathen Nazianzene A strange wish of his 66. His Mother Nonna's charity to the poor 144. Her reverent behaviour in God's house 758. Necessarie points easy to be known 95. 599. 664 665. 866. 1084 1085. Nothing necessarie but what is in our power 581. No man necessarily either good or evil 585 586. 666 667. Necessity and Convenience in civil acts one 3. Every thing hath its necessity from us not from it self except one 17. Of the Necessity and Contingencie of events 408. Others Necessities are a glass to behold our selves in 140. Nero 79. 621. 1055. v. Philosophie Nestorius 8. Newfangledness in Religion whence 98 99. Newness of life v. Resurrection Nonna v. Nazianzene Novations how far from that purity they boasted of 344. how harsh and unmercifull 344. Of their Errour about Penance after Baptism 349. Novatus 848. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometime signifieth the Will 336. NOW is the accepted time 363 c. 793 c. v. Opportunity Repentance Time Numbers some find mysteries in 249 971. No efficacie in Number to prove a cause or a man good 837. 971 972. O. OBedience Of the blind Obedience of the Papists 1091. Obedience to Superiours is not against Christian Liberty 639 c. 1102. It never faileth where Charity faileth not 59 60. What kind of Ob. God looketh for from us 111. 606 607. It must be universal 316. 373. 378. 831. 1000. even and constant 316. 380 c. 880. 1111 c. sincere and real 317. speedy without delay 361. 730 731. 879. ready without reasoning and disputing 451. exact 609 610. like that of the Angels 993. v. Angels Some take-up and content themselves with a parcell curtailed slight Ob. 373. 787 788. But that will not serve God's turn nor ours 374 c. 378. Many are wont to alledge want of power to excuse their want of Ob. 111. 117. But perfect Ob. is not absolutely impossible 109 c. 119. v. Impossibilities Obedience is easy to such as are not unwilling 112. and not onely easy but also pleasant 113. Though our Ob. cannot merit yet we must obey 993. 1126 1127. Motives to Ob. 116. Our Ob. is our Liberty 1100. 1118. God often mentioneth his favours to move us to Ob. 590. Evangelical Ob. is the onely way to blessedness 991 c. Christ's Death is a singular motive 471 472. Of all the motives to Ob. God's Glory is the first 1008. v. Omniscience Obligation There be several sorts of Obligations 816. Our Obligation to God 806 807. Occasions of sin not to be dallied with 261. Offenders v. Thieves Offense not to be given to weak brethren 638. Old mens Temperance and Repentance what to be thought of 592 593. Many Old men though vveak in body yet are strong and active in sin 593. How old sinners act their sins over again even when they are past acting 357. Omnipotence incongruous for a mortal 789. Omniscience Belief of God's Omniscience the strongest motive to obedience 164. 167 c. One We are all one 840 938 c. Nature maketh all one 938 939. Christianity and Charity make us more one 939. Every Christian duty tendeth to preserve Unity 841 c. Love especially knitteth the knot 843. Envy Covetousness Pride dissolve it 842 843. Saints are at one with God and one amongst themselves 939. Opinion onely setteth an esteem on outward matters 85. v. World Opinion prevaileth more vvith most then the Truth 526 527. We must not be wedded to our own Opinion so as to be averse when better is offered 677. Opportunity its etymologie 355. Opportunity of doing good by no means to be let slip 355. 363 c. 793 c. Nothing more advantageous 355 356. To neglect it the greatest folly 356 366. 793. v. Repentance Time Oppression and Deceit arguments not of Power and Wisdome but of the contrary 136. v. Injustice Order v. Method How beautifull and necessary in Nature in the Common-wealth in the Church in an Army in every thing 419. 640 641. in Arts in Studies in Christianity 885. Ordinances if abused by us may justly be taken from us 303 c. Original vveakness and corruption commonly alledged for an excuse of actual sins 427 428. 446. Few understand what it is 429. Several opinions about it 430. Be it what it will we are bound to crucifie it 430. Be it what it will we are now sanctified and washed from it 431. Origen's kindness reached to the very Devils 339. Outward worship v. Worship P. PApists They are wont to demand of us a catalogue of Fundamentalls 1084. How unreasonably they declaim against Marriage 1090. Of their vows of Monkery Poverty Virginity and blind Obedience 1089 c. Why the Antients gave these so large elogiums 1091. How they even idolize the B. Virgin 986. Upon what pretense they keep the Scripture from the Layety 1094. Vain boasting of the Popish Church 420. How the P. are blinded and enslaved by Prejudice 680 c. There are who condemn some truths because the P. teach them 671. We must not out of opposition to Popish errours run into worse 374. 1127. We must not so fly Popery as to become Libertines 993. 1127. The best way to confute the P. 401. Papists and Libertines compared 1079 1080. Both enemies to the Gospel 1079. both alike dangerous 1080. v. Popery Parables Why our Saviour spake so often in Parables 1017. Pardon of sin the greatest engagement to duty 612 c. 872 c. 1100. Begging of Pardon is a promise of repentance 614. v. Mercy Passions are good or bad as they are placed 387. Passions swallow up one another 554. v. Affections Paul
us 271. Preachers All may not preach and teach in publick 293. Who they are that commonly gain most respect 534 535. Precepts The antient Christians used to collect morall Precepts out of Ethnick Philosophers 129. God's Precepts though shut up sometimes in a word are of a large extent 452. 474. They are fitted to our Reason and so are no sooner seen but approved 991. And when embraced and kept by us they fill our hearts with heavenly joy 992. Precepts are a slower way of teaching then Examples 1016 c. Precepts oft are conteined in Examples 496 497. What to do when Examples cross Precepts 526. No Precept without a Promiss 1069. Some lift up themselves at the Promises but tread the Precepts under foot 1069. Prejudice what 675 c. The tyranny of Pr. is worse then the rage of the Affections 676. The great mischief it doth 679 c. 975. How heavy it lieth upon the Church of Rome 680. The Reformed Church is not quite clear 681. 974. It shutteth the door against the Truth 974. c. Preparation necessarie before Christian duties 478. Presumtion and Hope how different 354. Pr. is a main hinderance of Conversion 342. It is more dangerous then Despair 349 c. It maketh a man abuse the Mercy of God the Merits of Christ and the Means of salvation 350 c. 765 766. 793. How apt men are to presume 396. 400. 434. By what steps Presumtuous sinners rise to that height 170. Arguments against Presumtion 351. Pretenders to the Spirit dangerous persons 683 684. Pride is the Daughter of Self-love and Ignorance 483. It is even natural to Man 157. 630. Any thing nothing that which is worse then Nothing will make him proud 630. The mischief that Pride doth 483. 856. It maketh a man incorrigible 158. 631. No vice so dangerous as spiritual P. nor any that we are more prone to 160. 633. A large character of P. 1053. It s cure 483. Pride of Man to be expiated onely by Christ's Humilty 6. Priests are not as some profanely think the onely persons that are tied to live strictly 555. Priest and People have one and the same way to heaven 89. Primitive Christians Devotion we now are more apt to censure then follow 455. 566. 758. 981 c. What austerity and abstinence they exercised 565 566. How devout they were in building and adorning Churches 850. Privileges if abused undo us 424. Procrastination of Repentance v. Repentance Profaneness a more dangerous sin then Superstition 981. v. Superstition Profession of the Gospel is necessarie but not enough 764. Inward Perswasion must go along with it 765. and constant Practice 766. Many profess Christ for fashion for companie 's sake 759. 763 764. Profit is a lure that calleth the most after it 899. Young mens minds run less upon Profit then old mens 899. Nothing Profitable but what is also Honest 126. Promises and Threatnings motives to obedience 398. Pr. are conditionall 543. 1069. Some confound Promiss and Precept 1069. Let none promiss himself what the Gospell promiseth not 607. Why God promiseth earthly blessings 899. Such promises must not make the godly presume that they shall be exempted from common casualties 901. God oft performeth these promises to his children though they perceive it not 902. Prophesies a clear proof of Divine Prescience 166. Prophets speak as they were moved by the H. Ghost 324. Many evil men have had the spirit of Prophesie 549 Prosperity no sign either of a good man or of a bad 295. 620 c. 684. 712. It commonly doth us more hurt then Affliction 295. 671 672. 712. Prosperous villains what they get 215 217. Prosperity of sinners should not offend us 115. Prosperity of the wicked no good argument against God's Providence 298. 351 684. Prosperity a better time to turn to God in then Adversity 363. 799 800. Prov. xv 24. 646. ¶ xxi 25. 355. Providence of God past finding out 93. 189. 684. 703. Why man cannot judge of it 298. It shall be manifested at the last day 239. Psal v. 12 591. ¶ li. 5. 1040. ¶ lxxvii 9. opened 22. ¶ cxix 513. ¶ cxxxix 14. 104. Punishment Reward and Punishment are the two pillars of both Common-wealth and Church 1122 c. P. followeth Sin as Harvest the Seed-time as Wages the Work 929. And herein are manifested the Justice of the Providence of God 930. God hath appointed particular punishments for particular sins 931. He sometimes punisheth per legem talionis 931. Not to be punished at all is the greatest punishment of all 365. 612. v. Laws Fear of Punishment necessarie 387 c. v. Fear If less Punishments prevail not God will inflict greater 610 c. Q. QUestion 's The various use of Questions in Scripture 108. 385. 727. They add oftentimes great emphasis and force 70 71. 385. Needless Questions to be let alone 94. Many Questions in Divinity we may be ignorant of without danger 866. Quiet To be quiet what 198. 200. Many seem Quiet persons and are nothing less 198 199. 211. Some are Quiet perforce but assoon as the curb is out of their jaws most turbulent 199 200. Quietness is an Evangelical virtue 201. How much of this in the primitive times how little afterwards 203 204. But let whoso will be unquiet true Christians are not cannot be so 204. Quietness is to be laboured for 205. and made our meditation 206. and practiced 207. Self-love a great enemy to Qu. is to be cast out 207. and so must Covetousness and Ambition Evil-surmising 208. Three things cannot be disquieted 209. This virtue is truly religious Christian honourable 209. The best way to be Quiet is to abide every man in his own calling 212 Every thing is Quiet in its own place 214. The unquiet condition of Tyrants 215. 217. Quintinus 415. R. REad Ingenious wayes of teaching children to read 1016. Reason alone is not a sufficient guide to happiness 716 717. Yet it must not be thought useless in matters of Religion 686 687. It s office is to rule the Affections 206. v. Self-deceit It is a light but obnoxious to fogs and mists 959. 973. The Affections daily change but right Reason is still the same 687. Reason it is not but sensuality that leadeth us to sin 330. 337. 428. 973. v. Nature Affection swayeth most men more then Reason 534 535. Rebuke v. Reprehension Recreation 618. Redemtion Before we were redeemed we were slaves to Satan both by way of Sale and of Conquest 740. and slaves to Sin 741. How Christ redeemed us 741 742 It cost more to redeem us then to make us 763. Though Christ have fully redeemed us yet something must be done by us 739. 741 742. 763. 872 873. Universal Redemption how far allowable 29 c. Reformation Reformers of the Church though men of B. memory haply had done their work much better if they had been more moderate 133. Where our Church was before 286. Wherewith the Papists charge the
done or may do then do what they should are so much in heaven and to so little purpose that they lose it But the Apostle's method is sure 2 Pet. 1.10 to use diligence to make our election sure and so read the Decree in our Obedience and sincere Conversation and if we can perswade our selves that our names are written in the book of Life yet so to behave our selves Phil. 2.12 so to work on with fear and trembling as if it were yet to be done As it was told the Philosopher that he might have seen the figure of the stars in the water but could not see the water in the stars All the knowledge we can gain of the Decree is from our selves It is written in heaven and the characters we read it by on earth are Faith and Repentance If we believe and repent then God speaketh to us from heaven and telleth us we shall not die If we be dead to sin and alive to righteousness we are enrolled and our names are written in the book of Life Here here alone is the Decree legible and if our eye fail not in the one it cannot be deceived in the other If we love Christ and keep his commandments we are in the number of the elect and were chosen from all eternity Be not then cast down and dejected in thy self with what God hath done or may do by his absolute Power For thou maist build upon it He never saved an impenitent nor will ever cast away a repentant sinner Behold he calleth to thee now by his Prophet QVARE MORIERIS Why wilt thou die Didst thou ever hear from him or from any Prophet a MORIERIS that thou shalt die or a MORTVVS ES that thou art dead already Thou hast his Prayers his Entreaties and Beseechings He spreadeth forth his hands all the day long Isa 65.2 Rom. 10.21 Deut. 32.29 Luke 1.55 73. Thou hast his Wishes Oh that thou wert wise so wise as to look upon the MORIEMINI to consider thy last end Thou hast his Covenant which he sware to our fore-fathers Abraham and his seed for ever His Comminations his Obtestations his Expostulations thou mayest read but didst thou ever read the Book of life Look on the MORIEMINI look on the Deaths head in the Text look not into the Book of life Thou hast other care that lieth upon thee thou hast other business to do Thou hast an Understanding to adorn a Will to watch over Affections to bridle the Flesh to crucifie Temptations to struggle with the Devil to encounter Think then of thy Duty not of the Decree and the sincere performance of the duty will seal the Decree Eph. 4.30 and seal thee up to the day of redemption It is a good rule which Martine Luther giveth us Dimitte Scripturam ubi obscura est tene ubi certa Where the Text is dark and obscure suspend thy judgement and where it is plain and easy express and manifest it in thy conversation which is the best descant on a plain song Thou readest there are vessels made to dishonour Rom. 9.21 2 Tim. 2.20 Whether God made them so as some will have it or they made themselves so as Basil and Chrysostom interpret it it concerneth not thee That which concerneth thee is plain thou mayest run and read it 1 Thes 4.4 Jude 20. that thou must possess thy vessel in honour and build up thy self in thy holy faith The Quare moriemini is plain It is plain that God is not willing thou shouldest die but hath shewed thee a plain passage unto life He hath not indeed supplied thee with means to interpret riddles and untie knots and explain and resolve hard texts of Scripture but he hath supplied thee with means of life hath brought thee to the gates of paradise Psal 16.6 to the wayes of life to the vvells of salvation The lines are fallen to thee in a fair place Behold he hath placed thee in domo Israelis in the house of Israel in domo salutis in the house of salvation Which is next to be considered The Two and Twentieth SERMON PART VII EZEKIEL XXXIII 11. For why will ye die O house of Israel GOD is not vvilling vve should die He is Goodness it self and no evil can proceed from him no not the evil of punishment For it is his strange work Orat. Quid Deus non sic autor mali and rather ours then his saith Basil If our sins did not call and cry out for it he vvould not do it as delighting rather to see his glory in that image vvhich is like him then in that vvhich is defaced and torn and mangled and novv burning in hell Ipse te subdidisti poenae that is the stile of the Imperial Law His wrath could not kindle nor Hell burn till we did blow the coals We bring our selves under punishment and then God striketh and we die and are lost for ever It was his Goodness that made us and it was his Goodness which made a Law and made it possible to be kept And in the same stream of Goodness were conveyed unto us sufficient and abundant means by the right use of which we might be carried on in an even and constant course of obedience to that Law and so have a clearer knowledge of God a nearer union with him a taste of the powers of the world to come Hebr. 6.5 Psal 16.12 a share and part in that fulness of joy which is at his right hand for evermore And why then will ye die O house of Israel And indeed why should Israel why should any of the house of Israel die For take it in the letter for the Jews take it in the application for us Christians take it for the Synagogue which is the type Rom. 9.6 or take it for the Church which is Israel indeed as the Apostle calleth it and a strange thing it is and as full of shame as wonder that any one should die in the house of Israel or perish in the Church Si honoratior est persona Salvian l. 1 de Gub. M. major est peccantis invidia The malice of sin is proportioned to the person that commits it It is not so strange a thing to die in the streets of Askelon as in the house of Israel nor for a Turk or Infidel to be lost as for a Christian For though the condition of the person cannot change the species of the sin for Sin is the same in whomsoever it is yet it hath not so foul an aspect in one as in another it crieth not so loud in the dark as in the light It is most fatal and destructive where there are most means to avoid it and most mortal where there is most light to discover its deformity A wicked Israelite is worse then an Edomite and a bad Christian worsâ— then a Turk or a Jew To be in the house of Israel to be a member of the Church
is a great priviledge but if we honour not this priviledge so far as to make our deportment answerable even our priviledge it self being abused and forfeited will change its countenance and accuse and condemn us We find it as a positive truth laid down in the Schools and if it were not in our Books common Reason would have shewed it us in a character legible enough Aquia 2. 2. q. 10. art 3. Graviùs peccat fidelis quà m infidelis propter sacramenta fidei quibus contumeliam facit Of all Idolaters an Israelite is the worst and no swine to the unclean Christian no villain to him if he be one For here Sin maketh the deeper tincture and impression leaveth a stain not onely on his person but also on his profession flingeth contumely on the very Sacraments of his faith and casteth a blemish on his house and family whereas in an Infidel it hath not so deadly an effect but is vailed and shadowed by Ignorance and borroweth some excuse from Infidelity it self For first to speak a word of the house of Israel in the letter and so to pass from the Synagogue to the Church Apol. c. 18. The Jews were domestica Dei gens as Tertullian calleth them the domestick and peculiar people of God Judg. 6.37 38. like Gideon's fleece full of the dew of Divine benediction when all the world was dry besides Rom. 3.2 To them were the oracles given those oracles which did foretel the Messias and by which they might more easily know him then the Gentiles Rom 9.4 To them pertained the adoption for they were called the Children of God Deut. 14.1 They had the Covenant written in Tables of stone and the giving of the Law and constitutions which might link and unite them together into a body and society They had the service of God they had their sacrifices but especially the Paschal Lamb. For that their memory might not let slip his statutes and ordinances God did even catechize their eyes and make the least ceremony a busie remembrancer Behold a Tabernacle erected Aaron and his sons appointed Sacrifices slain Altars smoking all so many ocular Sermons They might behold Aaron and his sons ascending the Temple Levit. 16.21 22. laying all their sins upon the head of a sacred Goat that should carry them out of the City They might behold him entring the vail with reverence His garments his motion Ad Fabiol de vest sacerd his gesture all were vocal Quicquid agebat quicquid loquebatur doctrina erat populi saith S. Hierome His actions were didactical as well as his doctrine the Priest himself was a Sermon and these were as so many antidotes against Death v. 25.26 Our Prophet reproveth them for their capital and mortal sins adultery murder and idolatry and God had sufficiently instructed and fortified them against these He forbad Lust not onely in the Decalogue but in the Sparrow Murder in the Vulture and Raven and those birds of prey Novatian de cib Judaicis Vt Israelitae mundarentur pecora culpata sunt To sanctifie and cleanse his people he blameth the beasts as unclean which they could not be of themselves because he made them and layeth a blemish upon his other creatures to keep them undefiled And to keep out Idolatry he busied them in those many ceremonies which he ordained for that end 1 a. 1 ae nè vacaret idololatriae servire saith Aquinas that they might not have the least leisure to be Idolaters So that to draw up all they might learn from the Law they might learn from the Priest they might learn from the Sacrifice they might learn from each Ceremony they might learn from Men they might learn from Beasts Isai 5.4 to turn from their evil wayes and God might well cry out What could have been done more that I have not done and speak to them in his grief and wrath and indignation Why will ye die O house of Isreal But to pass from the Synagogue to the Church which excelleth merito fidei majoris scientiae in respect of a clearer faith and larger knowledge to come to the time of Reformation Heb. 9.10 in which all things which pertain to the full happiness of Gods people were to be raised to their last height and perfection to look into the Law of liberty Jam. 1.15 which letteth us not loose in our own evil wayes but maketh us most free by restraining and tying us up and withholding us from those sins which the Law of Moses did not punish And here Why will ye die If it were before an obtestation it is now a bitter sarcasme as bitter as Death it self It is improved and driven home à minori ad majus by the Apostle himself 2 Cor. 3.11 For if that which should be abolisht was glorious much more shall that which remaineth whose fruit is everlasting be glorious And again Hebr. 12.25 If they escaped not who refused him who speak on earth from mount Sinai by his Angel how shall we escape Acts 7.38 if we turn away from him who spake from heaven by his Son For the Church is a house but far more glorious Eph. 2.20 21. built upon the foundation of the Apostles Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the head corner-stone in whom all the building coupled together groweth into a Temple of the Lord. The whole world besides are but rubbage as bones scattered at the graves mouth The Church is compact knit and united into a house and in this house is the armoury of God Cant. 4.4 where are a thousand bucklers and all the weapons of the mighty to keep off Death the helmet of salvation the sword of the Spirit and the shield of faith to quench all the fiery darts of Satan as they be delivered into our hands Eph. 6.16 17. And as it is a House so is it a Familie of Christ Eph. 3.15 Of whom all the family of heaven and earth is named Who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Master of the houshold For as the Pythagorean fitting and shaping out a Family by his Lute required 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the integrity of all the parts as it were the set number of the strings 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an apt composing and joyning them together as it were the tuning of the instrument and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a skilful touch which maketh the harmony So in the Church if we take it in its latitude there be Saints Angels and Archangels if we contract it to the Militant as we usually take it there be some Apostles Eph. 4.11 some Prophets some Pastours and Teachers there be some to be taught and some to teach some to be governed and some to rule which maketh up the Integrity of the parts And then these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle coupled and knit together by every joynt by the bond