else but the Flattery of our Sense because when I breake the Law my will stoops downe to please my sense and betray my reason but yet when I please my sense I doe not alwayes sinne for I may please my sense and be Temperate I may please my eye and make a Covenant with it I may please my Tast and yet set a knife to my Throat I may please my sense and it may be my Health and Virtue as well as my sinne so in like manner to please men against God is the basest slattery and Saint Paul flings his Dart at it but to please men in reference to God is our Duty and takes in the greatest part of Christianity for thus to please men may be my Allegiance my Reverence my meekness my Longanimity my charitable care of my Brother I may please my superior obey him I may please my obliged Brother and forgive him I may please the poore Lazar and relieve him I may please an erring Brother and convert him and in thus doing I doe that which is pleasing both to God and man What then is that which here St. Paul condemnes Look into the Text and you shall see Christ and men as it were two opposite Termes If the man be in Error I must not please him in his Error for Christ is Truth If the man be in sinne I must not please him for Christ is Righteousness And in this case we must deale with men as Saint Austin did with his Auditory when he observed them negligent in their Duties we must tell them that which they are most unwilling to heare Quod non vult is facere Bonum est saith he That which you will not doe That which you are afraid of and run from That which with all my Breath and Labor I cannot procure you to love That is it which we call to doe good That which you deride That which you Turne away the care from with scorne That which you loath as poyson That which you persecute us for Quod non vultis audire verum est That which you distast when you heare as gall and Wormwood That which you will not Heare That which you call strange Doctrine That is Truth As Petrarch told his friend Si prodessevis scribe quod Doleam Petrarch l 7. de Re. F c. ult If you will profit and Improve me in the wayes of Goodnesse let your Pen drop Gall write something to me which may trouble and grieve me to read so when men stand in opposition to Christ when men will neither heare his voice nor follow him in his wayes but delight themselves in their owne and rest and please themselves in Error as in Truth to awake them out of this pleasant Dreame we must trouble them we must thunder to them we must disquiet and displease them for who would give an Opiate Pill to these Lethargiques 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 in stead of purging out the noxious Humour to nourish and increase it to smooth and strew the wayes of Error with Roses that men may walk with case and Delight and even Dance to their Destruction to find out their palate and to fittit to envenom that more which they affect as Agrippina gave Claudius the Emperor 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 observes and learnes the Temper and Constitution of the place he lives in and so frames his speech and Behaviour that he may seem to settle and establish that which he studies to overthrow to be a Patriot of 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 shee hath but either substract from it or adde 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 Error of the Galatiams here To magnisy Faith and shut out Good Works is a Dash That we can doe nothing without Grace is a Truth but when we will doe nothing to impute it to the want of Grace is a bold and unjust addition To worship God in Spirit and Truth our Saviour commands it but from hence to conclude against outward worship is an injurious Defalcation of a great part of our Duty The Truth is corrupted saith Nyssen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 1. Cont. Ennom To stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free The Apostle commands it but to stand so as to rise up in the Face of the Magistrate is a Gloss of Flesh and Blood and corrupts the Text Letevery soul be subject to the higher Powers That 's the text but to be subject no longer then the Power is manag'd to our will is a chain to bind Kings with or a Hammer to bear all Power down that we may tread it under our Feet and when we cannot relish the text these mixtures and Additions and Substractions will please us These hang as Jewells in our Eares these please and kill us beget nothing but a dead Faith a graceless life not Liberty but Licentiousnesse not Devotion but Hypocrisy not Religion but Rebellion not Saints but Hypocrites Libertines and Traytors And these we must avoid the rather because they goe hand in hand as it were with the truth and carry it along with them in their Company Tert. de Proscript as Lewd persons doe sometimes a Grave and Sober man to countenance them in their sportiveness and Debauchery De nostro sunt sed non nostrae saith Tertul. 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 St. Ambrose adviseth Gratian the Emperor of all Errors in Doctrine we must beware of those which come neerest and border as it were upon the truth and so draw it in to help to defeat it self Because an open and manifest Error carries in its very forehead an Argument against it self and cannot gain admittance but with a vaile whereas these Glorious but painted Falshoods find an easy entrance and begge entertainment in the Name of truth it self This is the Cryptick method and subtill 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 that they may the more securely raise
lyar and nulls the sentence of death You shall dye the death vvhen this is the Interpreter is Your eyes shall be opened and to deceive our selves is to be as Gods knovving good and evill And it may vvell be called a Serpent for the biting of it is like that of the Tarantula the working of its venome makes us dance and laugh our selves to death for a settled 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 casts them into the fire and the water that consumes or drownes them that leads 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 appeares 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 Quam gravis incubat how heavy doth prejudice lye upon them who are taught to renounce their very sence and to mistrust nay to deny their reason who see with other mens eyes and heare with other mens eares Apuleius de mundo qui non animo sed auribus cogitant who do not judge with their mind but with their eares the first prejudice is that theirs is the Catholick Church and cannot erre and then all other search and enquiry is vain as a learned writer observes for what need they go further to find the truth then to the high priests chaire to which it is bound and this they back and strengthen with many others of Antiquity making that most true which is most ancient and yet omnia vetera nova fuere Quintil. 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 professors but in this latter age yet it was first born because errour is nothing else but a deviation from the truth and cometh forth last and lays hold on the heel of truth to supplant it Besides these Councills which may erre and the truth many times is voted down when 't is put to most 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 meer Name Nunquam tam benè cum ebus humanis agâ—batuâ— ut plures essent meliores Sen. de Clement 1. what prejudice can do with the many and what it can countenance and many others they have of Miracles which were but lyes 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 underpropt and upheld and yet again these depend upon that such a mutuall 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 would 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 glasse to see our own She sayes we are a Schismaticall 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 onely guilty of this but even some members of the Reformation who think themselves neerest 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 lesse reformed because that is reformed or to think that heaven happinesse 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 labours under this prejudice and feels it not but runs 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 Calvin of errour but honour them rather though 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 erre 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 witnesse in that cause against Muraena for his very name might overbeare and sink it Tolle Augustinum de causa take away the name of Austin of Luther and Calvin and Arminius for they are but names not arguments There is but one name by which we may be saved and his name alone must have authority and prevaile with us who was the Author and finisher of our faith We may honour others and give unto them that which is theirs but we must not deâ—fie them nor pull Christ out of his Throne to place them in his roome Of this we may be sure there is not there cannot be any influence in a name to make a conclusion true or false and if we fix it in our mind as in its firmament it will sooner dazle then enlighten us Nor is it of so great use as men may imagine for they who read or heare can either judge or are weak of understanding To them who are able to judge and to discern errour from truth a name is but a name and no more and is no more esteemed for they look upon the truth as it is and receive it for it self but for those who are of a narrow capacity and faile in their intellectualls
reacht it forth and not burden it with our own fancies 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 poyseth 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 sinnes or the imputation of universall obedience or by the active and passive obedience of Christ when 't 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 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 consists in an obsequious assent or in appropriating to our selves the grace and mercy of God or in the meer fiduciall apprehension and application of the merits of Christ whether it be an instrument or a condition whether a living faith justifies or whether it justifies as a living faith what will this add to me what haire 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 demonstrates her to be alive My sheep heare my voice saith Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil they heare and obey and never dispute or ask questions they taste and not trouble and mud that cleare 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 ourselves 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 unrighteousnesse of Christs active obedience and be to every good work reprobate 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 justify 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 lesse then they are and remove them well-neer out of sight by our additions and defalkations and few there are who can be content with the truth and settle and rest in it as it appeares in that nakednesse and simplicity in which it was first brought forth but are ever drawing out conclusions of their own spinning out and weaving speculations thin unsuitable unfit to be 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 additionall art For these are creatures of our own shaped out in our fancy and drest up by us with all the accuratenesse and curiosity of diligence that we fall at last in love with them and apply our selves to them with that closenesse and adherency which dulls and takes off the edge of our affection to that which is most necessary and so leaves that neglected and last in our thoughts which is the main as we read of Euphranor the painter Val. Max. 8.12 who having strecht his fancy 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 for when we are so lively and overactive in that which is either impertinent or not so considerable nor much materiall to that which is indeed most materiall 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 watchfull over them to keep them in a pliablenesse and subserviencie to that which is plain and received of all but may prove dangerous and fatall 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 blisse 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 crucify our flesh with the Affections and lusts Hic labor hoc opus est then to be drawing out of Schemes and measuring out the actions and operations of God safer far to make our selves fit to be justified then too curiously to study the manner how it is wrought in which study we are many times more subtle then wise in a word to make our selves capable of favour and mercy for then the work is done and the Application made for all Gods promises are yea and Amen and fall close with the performance of the duty and as to apply them to our selves is our comfort and joy our heaven upon earth so to be able and fit to apply them is the work and labour of our faith and love whilest we abide in the flesh But besides these points of doctrine vvhich are but inferences and deductions made by men whereof some are easie and naturall and hold correspondence and affinity with
it up in knots The Postillers play'd with it and made it well-neer ridiculous and we have seen some such unseemly Jiggs in our dayes and there have been too many Theoricall Divines who have stretched beyond their line beyond the understanding of their hearers and beyond their own wrought darknesse out of light made that obscure which was plain that perplexed which was easie have handled Metaphors as Chymists doe metalls and extracted that out of them which Christ never put into them made them lesse intelligible by pressing them so far and by beating them out have made them nothing more obscure then the thing which it should shew and yields us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sea of words but not a word of sense and to be regenerate is something more then to be made good who were evil and 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 onely aime and end of their studies then philosophy was it self in its prime and naturall glory being drawn up unto its proper end but when they applied themselves to it onely to fill up their time or satisfie their ambition or to delight their wits then she lost her native complexion and strength and degenerated into folly then Epicurus raised a swarm of atomes and Diogenes made him a tub the Stoicks brought in their decrees and paradoxes then there were Mille familiarum nomina so many Sects that it is not easie to draw them into a catalogue and 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 a matter of wit and ambition and policy and faction became moderators 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 darknesse 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 news out of a far country and conceived of it either more or lesse then it was received it in parcells and fragments which hung like meteors in their fancy 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 who did distinguish themselves by the motion and gesture and some which is strange by the nakednesse of their bodies and thus mischief grew up and multiplied through the blindnesse or deceitfulnesse of reachers and the folly and madnesse of the people which evil had not certainly so far over-run the Church if men would have kept themselves within their own limits and not took upon them to be wiser then God if the truth had been as plainly taught as it was first delivered and not held out by mens ignorance or ambition and set forth with words 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 And this I markt and avoided and in the course of my ministery run from as far as a good will with my weaknesse 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 plainnesse and evidence and as neer 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 attain 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 it exalted and Falshood led in triumph gloriously by those whom God and their industry hath more fitted to the work and I have but offered my self up to it as some succours which come when the day and heat is over who though they doe 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 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 Foure Festivall Sermons On Christmas-Day HEB. 2.17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren page 1. 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 give us all things 23 On Easter-Day REV. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of death 45 On Whitsunday JOHN 16.13 Howbeit when He the spirit of truth is come he will lead you into all truth 67 Twenty six Sermons more Serm. 1. JAM 1. Ver. ult Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherlesse and widowes in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the World 1. Serm. 2. 1 SAM 3.18 And Samuel told Eli every whit and kept nothing from him And He said It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 21 Serm. 3. COLOSS. 2.6 As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him 45 Serm. 4. JOHN 6.56 He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him 67 Serm. 5. EZEK 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked Turne ye Turne ye from your evil wayes For why will ye dye oh House of Israel 87 Serm. 6. EZEK 33.11 Turne ye Turne ye c. 111 Serm. 7. EZEK 33.11 From your evill wayes c. 133 Serm. 8. EZEK 33.11 From your evill wayes c. 155 Serm. 9. EZEK 33.11 Why will ye die c. 177 Serm. 10. EZEK
and that there is no such pleasing variety of colours there as we see so the pomp and riches glory of this world are of themselves nothing but are the work of our opinion and the creations of our fancy have no worth nor price but what our lusts and desires set upon them luxuria his pretium fecit 't 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 covetousnesse makes that which is but earth a God my ambition makes that which is but aire as heaven and my wantonnesse walks 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 conquered how many heroick persons lie in chains whilest folly and basenesse 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 summe for with Christ they are something and they are then most valuable when for his sake we can fling them away for 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 his power they are reconciled and drawn together and are but one and the same thing for if wee look up into heaven there we shall see them in a neer conjunction even the poor Lazar in the rich mans bosom In the night there is no difference to the eye between a Pearl and a Pibble-stone between the choicest beauty and most abhorred deformity In the night the deceitfulnesse 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 glory where it is not to be found but when the light of Christs countenance shines upon them then they are seen as they are and we behold so much deceitfulnesse 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 compasse large enough to take in the whole world but then it is the world transformed altered the world conquered by Faith the world in subjection to Christ All things are ours when we are Christs for there is a Civil Dominion and right to these things and this we have jure creationis by right of Creation for the earth is the Lords 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 his 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 Jewes look for and such a Messias doe some Christians worse than the Jewes frame to themselves and in his name they beat their fellow-servants and strip them deceive and defraud them because they fancy themselves to be his in whom there was found no guile and 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 in 2 Corinth 4.4 S. Paul calls the Divel the God of this world and these in effect make him the Saviour of the world for as if he had been lifted up and nailed to the Crosse for them to him every knee doth bow nor will they receive the true Messias but in this shape for thus they conceive him giving gifts unto men not spirituall but temporall not the Graces of the Spirit Humility Meeknesse and Contentednesse but Silver and Gold dividing Inheritances removing of Land-marks giving to Ziba Mephibosheths land making not Saints but Kings upon the earth and 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 brings with it a Pick-lock and a Sword and gives men power to defraud or spoyle whom they please and 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 and in the Gospel we finde none of such an extent which may reach to every man to every corner of the earth which may measure out the world and put into our hands any part of it that either our wit or our power can take in for Christ never drew any such conveyance the Gospel brought no such tidings but when labour and industry have brought them in sets a seal imprints a blessing on them sanctifies them unto us by the Word and by Prayer and so makes them ours our servants to minister unto and our friends to promote and lift us forward into everlasting habitations Our Charter is large enough and we need not interline it with those Glosses which the Flesh and the love of the World will soon suggest with Christ we have all things which work to that end for which he was delivered we have his commands which are the pledges of his love for he gave us them that he might give us more that he might give us a Crown we have his promises of immortality and eternall life Faciet hoc nam qui promisit est potens he shall do it for he is able to perform it with him every word shall stand he hath given us faith for that is the gift of God to apprehend and receive them and hope to lift us up unto them He hath given us his Pastors to teach us that is scarce looked upon as a gift but then he hath given us his Angels to minister unto us and he hath given us his Spirit fills us
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I would saith he Naz. Or. 20. there were no precedency no priority no dignities in the Church but that mens estimation did onely rise from vertue 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 mudds 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 and it fares 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 for now no smell is sweet but that of lucre no sight delightfull but of the wedge of gold and so by a strange kind of Chymistry they 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 fancy which the love of the world will soon build up because it helps to nourish it and how can we think that the spirit did lead them in those wayes in which self love and desire of gaine did drive on so furiously for sure the spirit of truth cannot work in that building where such Sanballats laugh him to scorne Now all these are the very cords of vanity by which we are drawn from the truth and must be broken asunder before the spirit will lead us to it for he leads us not over the Mountaines nor through the bowells of the Earth nor through the numerous Atomes of our vaine and uncertaine and perplext imaginations but as the wisdome which he teacheth so is the method of his Discipline pure peaceable Jam. 3.17 and gentle without partiality without hypocrisie and hath no savour or relish of the Earth for he leads the pure he leads the peaceable he leads the humble In a word he leads those who are lovers of peace and truth Conclus And now to draw towards aconclusion will you know the wayes in which the Spirit walks and by which he leads us will you know the rules we must observe if we will be the Spirits Schollars I will be bold to give them you from one who was a great lover of truth even Galen the Physician I can but name them for the time will not suffer me to insist 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 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an orderly and methodicall proceeding in the pursuit of Truth the last is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exercitation and our conformity to the truth in our conversation And this gold though it be brought from Ophir yet may it be usefull to adorn and beautifie those who are the living temples of the holy Ghost And first Love is a passion imprinted in us to this end to urge and carry us forward to the truth and it is the first of all the passions the first of all the operations of the soul the first mover as it were being a strong propension to that we love and which is fitted and proportioned to the mind seeking out the meanes and working forward with all the heat of intention unto the end eminent among the affections calling up my fear my hope my anger my sorrow my fear of not finding out yet in the midst of fear raising a hope to attain to it my sorrow that I find not so soon as I would and my anger at any thing that is averse or contrary at any cloud or difficulty that is placed between me and the truth The love of Christ saith S. Paul constraineth me 2 Cor. 5.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a resemblance taken from women in travell constraineth urgeth me worketh in me such a desire as the pain in travell doth in a woman to be dlivered for do we not labour and travell with a conclusion which we would find out and what joy is there when we have like that of a woman in travell when a man-child is brought into the world If you love me keep my commandement John 14.15 saith Christ if you love me not you cannot but if you love me you will certainly keep them Will you know the reason why the wayes of truth are so desolate why so little truth is known when all offers it self and is even importunate with us to receive it there can be no other reason given but this that our hearts are congealed our spirits frozen and we are coldly affected to the truth nay are averse and turn from it this truth crosseth our profit that our pleasure other truths stand in our light obstruct our passage to that we most desire S. Paul speaks plainly If the truth be hid it is hid to them that perish 2 Cor. 4.3,4 in whom the God of this world hath fo blinded their mind that the light of this truth should not shane upon them for if we have eyes to see her she is a fair object as visible as the Sun if we do but love the truth the spirit of truth is ready to take us by the hand and lead us to it but those that withdraw themselves doth his soul hate Now in the next place this love of truth brings in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a love of Industry for if we love it it will be alwayes in our thoughts and we shall meditate of it day and night for to love seven yeares are but a few dayes and great burdens are but small and labour is but pleasure and we walk in the region of truth viewing it and delighting in it gathering what may be for our use we walk in it as in a Paradise Truth is best bought when it costs us most and must be wooed oft and seriously and with great devotion as Pythagoras said of the gods Non est salutanda in transitu is not to be spoken with in the By and passage is not content with a glance and slutation and no more but we must behold it with care and anxiety we must make a kind of peregrination out of our selves and must run and sweat to meet it and then this spirit leads us to it And this great encouragement we have that in this our labour we never faile of the end we labour for which we cannot find in our other endeavours and attempts in which we have nothing to uphold us under those burdens which we lay upon our own shoulders but a deceitful hope which carries us along to see it self defeated the frustration whereof
is made from Heaven to those who enter our Olympicks who enter Religion and give up their names to Christ that they may sight for mastery and be crowned our Saviour tells them they must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sit down and consider what it is in which they have ingaged themselves how full of trouble how full of danger how many thorns and lets there be in their way how many Adversaries not to think it is enough to name Christ but when they name him let them depart from all Iniquity and carefully provide that the Integrity of their life should rather commend their Religion then that their Religion should be suborned and brought in to countenance the irregularity of their manners For we cannot but observe that from the corruption of mens lives have all those corruptions and mixtures crept into Religion which carry with them a neer 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 marke and characters in the doctrines of men which are framed and fashioned to favour and advance that evil humor which doth 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 grouth Nam ut in vitâ l. 12. c. prim sic in causis spes improbas habent saith Quintil. for 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 doe in the Schoole 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 mony 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 for 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 say the World we have seen enough to raise such a Thought That the Church hath been governed 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 Herefies From hence so many Religions and none at all for Faction cannot be Religion for it cuts off the fairest part and member she haâ—… which is Charity And thus if Religion lose one of these colours she loses 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 sire of Purgatory to the blood of Christ the indulgence of man to the free pardon of God Irreverence and prophaneness 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 The Ratification 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 its beauty in its Graceful and Glorious Colours of Purity and Undefiledness Dignum Deo speciaculum a picture to be hung up in the Church nay before God himself for thus it appears Coram Deo Pare before God and the Father and hath its ratification from Him He was the first that set it up to be lookt upon He hath reveal'd his will by his Son who is the wisdome of his Father who gave unto us the words which his Father gave him which give us a full John 17.8 and 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 needs no other method no other way no other Rule nor a Basil or 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 fancy the unsetled whirling fancy 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 he 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 as S. Paul speaks 1 Cor. 8.5 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 author could have no author but God himself Take that which seems to carry a fairer shew and comes abroad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like Agrippa and Bernice with great pompe and ceremony with voluntary Humility Blinde obedience with Sackcloth and fasting with a pilgrims staff with penance and satisfaction and we know from what hands it came ab Hominibus per Homines of men and by men who for many of them drew Religion out of the soule 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 enters 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 pompe they should count it meritorious to be buried in the Hood of a Capuchin or what satisfaction is this Coram Deo Paâ—re 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 as different from it as a picture from a man Take all our mimick gestures our forced and studied deportment the Pharisaical extermination of the Countenance our libelling the Times which we help to make evil our zeal our revenge our indignation against sin in all but our selves all these are but puppets of our own making a creation of a sick and distempered fancy and do but justifie us Coram Hominibus before men Luke 16.15 saith our Saviour and those too no wiser then our selves but that which follows 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 consumes 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 Author of our Religion who is our Father That tongue which is full of Bitterness and reviling was never toucht by a Cherubin but set on fire of Hell These are not Religions Coram Deo Patre before God and the Father but this Religion to do good and abstain from evil ex alto origine ducit acknowledgeth no author but the God of Heaven hath God and the Father to bear witness to it was foreshewed by the Prophets chundered out by the Apostles and Christ himself who was the Author and Finisher of our Faith and Religion And this may serve The Application first to make us in love with this Religion because it hath such a founder as God the Father who is wisdom it self and can neither be deceived nor deceive us Ye men and Brethren and whosoever among you feareth God to you is this word of salvation sent Acts 13.26 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 error when Heaven bows and opens it self to receive us and 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 points with his finger to the rule Haec est this is it that we should frame a Religion to our selves that every mans fancy 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 and therefore as Seneca counsels Polybius when thou wouldst forget all other things Cogita Caesarem entertain Caesar in thy thoughts so that we may forget all other sublimary worldly I may say Hellish Religions let us think of this Religion whose Author and Founder is God whose wisdom is infinite whose power uncontrolable 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 only God is Rex mentium the King of our mindes and no authority in Heaven or in Earth can binde or loose a Soule 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 our Religion Again in the second place if Saint 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 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 her Idols or discover her shame Do they aske what truths are Fundamental Faith supposed as it is here they are charity to our selves and others nihil ultra scire est omnia scire to know this is to know all we need to know for it is not sufficient to know that which is sufficient to make us happy but Tert. de praescript if nothing will satisfie them but a Catalogue of particulars Habent Mosen Prophetas they have Moses and the Prophets they have the Apostles and if they finde them 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 them 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 Scripture 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 carries with it then the power and majesty of the Author 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 profest where it was profest if it were not protest in any place yet was it true Religion for the truth depends not on the profession of it nor is it less truth if none receive it but profest it was even amongst them in the midst of them round about them but wheresoever it were Haec erat 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 of the World To conclude then Conclus 3. Men and Brethren are these things so and is this only true Religion to doe good and abstain from evil what a busie noise then doth the world make for Religion when it offers it self and falls so low offers it self to the meanest understanding the narrowest capacity and throws it self into the embraces of any that will love it Littus Hyla Hyla Omne sonabat Religion is the talke of the whole world it is preach't on the house tops and it is cryed up in the streets we are loud for it and smother it in that noise we write for it and leave it dead
where the text is dark and obscure suspend thy judgement and where it is plain and easy expresse and manifest it in thy conversation which is the best descant on a plain song Thou readest there are vessels made to dishonour whether God made them so as some will have it or they made themselves so as Basil and Chrysostome interpret it it concerns not thee That which concerns thee is plain thou mayest run and readit that thou must possesse thy vessel in honour and build up thy self in this 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 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 meanes of life brought thee to the gates of paradise to the wayes of life and the wells of salvation The lines are fallen to thee in a faire 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 ELEVENTH SERMON PART VII EZEKIEL 33.11 For why will you die Oh House of Israel GOD is not willing we should die for he is goodnesse it self and no evil can proceed from him Or. quod Deus nonsit Autor mali no not the evil of punishment for it is his strange work and rather ours then his saith Basil for if our sins did not call and cry out for it he would not do it as delighting rather to see his glory in that Image which is like him then in that which is defaced and toru and mangled and now burning in hell Ipse te subdidisti poenae that 's 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 he strikes and we die and are lost for ever It was his goodnesse that made us and it was his goodness which made a Law and made it possible to be kept and in the same streame of goodnesse were conveighed 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 him a neerer union with him a taste of the powers of the world to come a share and part in that fulnesse of joy which is at his right hand for evermore And why then will you die Oh 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 calls it and a strange thing it is and as full of shame as wonder that any one should die in domo Israelis in the house of Israle or perish in the Church Si honoratior est persona major est peccantis invidia Salvian l. 1. de Gub. M. the malice of sin is proportion'd to the person that commits it 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 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 cries not so loud in the dark as in the light and is most fatal and destructive where is most means to avoid it is most mortal there where there is most light to discover its deformity A wicked Israelite is worse then an Edomite and a bad Christian worse then a Turk or a Jew In domo Israelis to be in the house 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 finde 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 Gravius peccat fidelis Aquin. 2.2 q. 10 art 3. quam 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 makes the deeper tincture and impression leaves a stain not onely on his person but his profession Flings contumely on the very Sacraments of his faith and casts 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 borrows some excuse from Infidelity it self For first to speak a word of the house of Israel in the letter and so to passe from the Synagogue to the Church the Jews were Domestica Dei gens as Tertullian calls them Tert. Apolt c. 18. the Domestick and peculiar people of God like Gideons fleece full of the dew of Divine Benediction when all the world was dry besides to them were the Oracles given those Oracles which did foretel the Messias Rom. 2.3 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 and the service of God they had their sacrifices but especially the Paschal Lamb and that their memory might not let slip his statutes and Ordinances he doth even Catechize their eyes and makes the least Ceremony a busie remembrancer Behold a Tabernacle erected Aaron and his sons appointed the Sacrifices slain the Altars smoking all so many Ocular Sermons They may behold Aaron and his sons ascending the Temple laying all their sins upon the head of a sacred Goat and so carrying them out of the City they might behold him entring the vail with Reverence His garments Hier. ad Fabiol de vestit sacerd his motion his Gesture all were vocal quicquid agebat quiequid loquebatur doctrina erat populi saith Saint Jerom his Actions were Didacticall as well as his Doctrine and the priest himself was a Sermon and these were as so many antidotes against death The 23. and 26. v. of this Chapter the 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 Sâ—arrow Levit. 11. murder in the Vulture and Raven
himself out of the snare of the Devill maternus ei non deest assectus she is still a Mother even to such Children her shops of spirituall comfort lie open there you may buy Wine and Milk Indulgences and Absolution but not without money or money-worth be you as sick as you will and as oft as you will There is Physick there are Cordialls to refresh and restore you I dare not promise so much in the House of Israel in the Church of Christ for I had rather make the Church a Schoole of Virtue then a Sanctuary for Offenders and wanton sinners We dare not give it that strength to carry up our Prayers to the Saints in heaven or to conveigh their Merits to us on Earth wee cannot work and temper it to that heat to draw up the blood of Martyrs or the works of supererogating Christians who have been such profitable servants that they did more in the service of God then they should into a common Treasury and then showre them downe in Pardons and Indulgences but yet though we cannot finde this power the re which is a Power to doe nothing yet we may find strength enough in the Church to keep us from the Moriemini to save us from Death Though I cannot suffer for my Brother yet I may beare for him Gal. 6.2 even portare onus fratris beare my brothers burden Though I cannot merit for him yet I may work for him though I cannot die for him I may pray for him Though there be no good in my Death nor profit in my Dust yet there may be in my memory of my good Counsel my Advice my Example which are verae sanctorum reliquiae Consult Cass c. de Relig. 5. saith Cassander the best and truest reliques of the Saints and though my Death cannot satisfy for him yet it may Catechize him and teach him how to die nay teach him how to overcome Death that he shall not die for ever and by this Communion it is that we work Miracles that in Turning the Covetous turning his bowels in him we recover a dry Hand and a narrow Heart in teaching the Ignorant we give sight to the blind in setling the inconstant wavering mind we cure the palsie for we can well allow of such Miracles as these in the Church but not of Lyes For as there is an Invisible union of the Saints with God so is there of Christians amongst themselves which union though the Eye of flesh cannot behold it yet it must appeare and shine and be resplendent in those duties and offices which doe attend this union which are as so many Hands by which we lift up one another to happiness As the Head infuseth life and vigor into the whole body so must the members also annoynt each other with this Oyle of Gladnesse Each member must be Active and Industrious to expresse that Virtue without which it cannot be one Let no man seek his owne but every man anothers Wealth saith the Apostle not seek his own 1 Cor. 10.24 what more naturall to man or who is neerer to him then he himself but yet he must not seek his owne but as it may bring advantage and promote the Good of others not presse forward to the mark but with his hand stretcht forth to carry on others along with him not goe to Heaven but saving some with feare and pulling others out of the fire Ep. Iud. 23. and gathering up as many as his Wisedome and care and zeal towards God and man can take up with him in the way And this is necessary even in humane Societies and those Politick Bodies which men build up to themselves for their Peace and security Turpis est pars quae toti suo non Convenit that is a most unnecessary superfluous part or Member for which the whole is not the better ut in sermone literae saith Austin as letters in a word or Sentence so men are Elementa Civitatis the principles and parts which make up the Syntaxis of a Republique and he that endeavours not the advancement of the whole is a Letter too much fitt to be expung'd and blotted out but in the Church whose maker and Builder is God it 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 happinesse of the one and the happinesse 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 Diocesse so the care and Piety of every particular Christian in respect of its diffusive Operation is as Catholick as the Church every soul he meets with is under his charge and he is the care of every soul in saving a soul from Death every man is a Priest and a Bishop although he may neither invade the Pulpit or ascend the Chaire I may be eyes unto him Numb 10.31 as it was said of Hobab I may take him from his Error and put him into the way of truth if he feare I may scatter it If he grieve I may wipe off his Teares If he presume I may teach him to feare and if he despaire I may lift him up to a lively Hope that neither feare nor grief neither Presumption nor despaire swallow him up thus may I raise a dead man from the grave a sinner from his sinne and by that example many may rise with him who are as dead as he and so by his friendly communication transfuse our selves into others and receive others into our selves and so runne hand in hand from the Chambers of Death And thus farr 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 Priviledges 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 severall Gifts that we may guard and secure each other and so settle it in thoe Offices and Duties which Christianity makes common and God hath registred in his Church which is the Pillar of Truth where all mens Joyes and Sorrows and Feares and Hopes should be one and the same And then to die surrounded with all these Helpes 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 recerve us then to die 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
appearance but the Heart and may account us dead for all these glories this Pageantry for all this noise which to him is but noise as the sound of their Trumpet who will not fight his battels but fall off and runne to the Enemy but as a song of Sion in a strange Land even in the midst of Babylon We read in our Books that it was a custome amongst the Romans when the Emperor was dead in honor of him to frame his image of wax and to perform to it all Ceremonies of state as if the image were the living Emperour The Senate and Ladies attended the Physitians resorted to him to feel his pulse and Doctorally resolved that he grew worse and worse and could not escape A guard watcht him Nobles saluted him his Dinner and Supper at accustomed hours was served in with water with sewing and carving and taking away His Nobles and Gentlemen waited as if he had been alive there was no Ceremony forgot which state might require Thus hath been done to a dead carcase and if we take not heed our case may be the same All our outward shewes of Churches of Sermons of Sacraments our noyse and ostentation which should be arguments of life and Antidotes against death may be no more then as funeral rites performed to a carcase to a Christian to a City whose iniquities are loathsome of an ill smelling savour to God the great company of preachers whereof every one chuseth one according to his lusts may stand about it and do their duty but as to an image of wax or a dead carcase the bread of life may be served in and divided to it by art and skill as every man fancies it may be fitted and prepared for every palate when they have no tast nor relish of it and receive no more nourishment then they that have been dead long ago Be not deceived benefits and burdens thou hast laden me daily with thy benefits saith David and burdens which if we bare not well and as we should do will grinde us to pieces All prerogatives are with conditions if the condition be not kept they turn to scorpions they either heal or kill us they either lift us up to Blisse or throw us down to destruction there is Heaven in a priviledge and there is Hell in a priviledge and we make it either to us We may starve whilest we hang on the brests of the Church we may be poisoned with Antidotes those mouthes that taught us may be opened to accuse us the many Sermons we heard may be so many Bills against us the Sacraments may condemn us the blood of Christ cry loud against us and our profession our holy profession put us to shame Hast thou been so long with me and knowest thou not me Philip saith our Saviour John 14.9 Hadst thou so good a Master and art yet to learn hast thou been so long with me and deniest thou me Peter hast thou been so long with me and yet betrayest me Judas hath Christ wrought so many works amongs us and do we go about to kill and crucifie him hath he planted Religion true Religion amongst us and do we go about to digg it up by the roots hath the Gospel sounded so long in our Eares and begot nothing but words words that are deceitful upon the Ballance words which are lies so many Sermons and so many Atheists so much Preaching and so much defrauding so many breathings and Demonstrations of love and so much malice in the house of Israel so many Courts of Justice and so much oppression so many Churches and so few Temples of the Holy Ghost what professe Religion and shame it cry it up and smother it in the noise and for a member of Christ make thy self the head of a Faction what presse on to make thy self better and make thy self worse Go up to the Temple to pray and prophane 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 murually 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 That we are his Church which is the pillar 1 Tim. 3.15 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 his 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 of them If we harken to his word not resist his grace if we neither Idolize not prophane 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 if we watch over our selves and one another Death shall have can nave 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 The introductîon to the last part And now we must draw towards a conclusion and we must conclude and shut up all in nobis ipsis in our selves for 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 there are armories of weapons treasuries of wisdom 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 opens its mouth but will shut it again if we flie from it which is not cannot be is nothing if we do not digg it our selves The Church exhorts instructs corrects God calls invites expostulates death it self threatens us that we may not come neer Thus are we compast about auxiliorum nube with a Cloud of helps and Advantages the Church is loud death is terrible Gods Nolo is loud I will not the death of a sinner and confirmd with an Oath As he lives 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
Matt. 21. but to gain the inheritance what set the whole City of Ephesus in an uprore but Demetrius his Rhetorick the brutish but strong perswasions of the flesh from this craft have we this gain Acts 19. Look back upon every age of the Church was there ever rent or Schism which these made not was there ever Heresie which these coined not was there ever fire which they kindled not was there ever torment which these invented not was there ever evil in the City which these have not done And though the truth and Religion were held up and shewed openly for a pretense yet these envenom'd the heart and strengthned the hand of all the enemies of the Church those whet the sword and made the furnace of Persecution seven times hotter then it would have been the flesh is the treasury from whence these windes blow that rage and beat down all before them And thus it is with every one that is born of the flesh he is ever in labour with mischief is ever teeming and travelling with persecution and wants nothing but occasion as a Midwife to bring it forth And now as we have beheld one person in this Tragedy and the chiefest actor so let us look upon the other the patient born after the spirit and behold a Lamb for the spirit who came down like a dove begets no tigers or Lions Behold a man a worm and no man virumperpissicium as Seneca calls Socrates Sen. ep 104. a man of sufferance deaf or if not yet dumb to all reproaches and when injuries are loudest as silent as the Grave kissing the hand that strikes him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Naz. candidatum crucis as Tertul. on that is so sitted and prepared for the crosse that he looks upon is spiritualiz'd in matter as upon a preferment poor Lamb he cannot bite and devour he cannot scatter the Counsels of the crafty he cannot binde the hands of the mighty ignorant and foolish as David speaks as a beast in this world a man in nothing but in Christ Jesus being elemented and made up of love and peace and long-suffering gentlenesse meeknesse Gal. 5.22 the rinciples of the spirit having no security no policy no eloquence no strength but that which lies in his innocency and truth which he carries about as a cure but is lookt upon as a persecution by those who will not be healed Why hast thou set me up as a mark saith Job Job 7. why every one that is born of the spirit is set up as a mark Saint Paul calls it a spectacle 1 Cor. 4.6 as a man appointed to die or as Tertul. renders that place elegit veluti Bestiarios cull'd out and set apart to fight with beasts a mark for envy to shoot out her eye at for malice to strike and spit at for every Shimei to fling a stone at and a curse together every Ziba to cozen every Judas to betray a mark for all the Devils Artillery for all the fiery darts that malice and subtlety can draw out of Hell for he must appear saith Seneca out of Plato as a fool that he may be wise as weak that he may be strong as base and vile that he may be more honorable and if you ask a reason of his Jerem. 15.10 we can give no other but this because he is born of the spirit for he is no sooner thus born but he comes forth a contentious man that striveth with the whole earth nor can the spirit breath and work in him but he shakes every corner of the earth every thing that is from the earth earthy It strives to pull the wanton from the harlots lips to level the ambitious with those who are of low degree it beats the Covetous from his Mammon it wrests the sword out of the hand of the revenger it strikes out the teeth of the oppressor it markes the Schismatick and avoids him it Anathematizeth the Heritick It is that Angel which stands in our way when we are running greedily for a reward it is that Prophet that forewarns us that hand on the wall that writes against us the Cock that calls us to repentance that Trump that summons us to Judgement well said Martin Luther Nihil scandalosius veritate there is not a more scandalous a more offensive thing in the world then that spirit of truth which begets and constitutes a Christian which much resembles the Load-stone quae trahit simul avertit which is at once both attractive and averse at one part draws the Iron at the other loaths it as the truth knits al good men all that are born of the spirit in a bond of peace but withdraws it self will not joyn with the evil with those who are born after the flesh and so makes them enemies and therefore I may add to Luther Nihil periculosius veritate there is not a more dangerous thing in the world in respect of the world then the truth for as the truth as it was said of Noah Heb. 11. Condemns the world that is convinceth it of infidelity and so leaves it open to the sentence of condemnation so doth the world also condemn the truth 1. By reproaching it and bringing up an evil report of it as an unnecessary thriftlesse troublesome seditious thing Ecquis Chrislus cum suâ fabulâ said the Heathen what ado here is with Christ and his Legend and so saith every Athiest in his heart every one that is born after the flesh 2. By selling it as the wanton doth for a smile the covetous for bread for that which is not bread the ambitious for a breath a sound a thought the Superstitious for a Picture for an Idol which is nothing and then 3. By violence against the friends and lovers of truth that they may drive it out of the world by commanding and charging them to speak no more in that name by persecuting them Gen. 22.6 as Ismael did Isaac with a scoff for this is all we read vidit ludentem Sarah saw Ismael mocking him and this scoff this derision whatsoever it was Saint Paul calls a persecution this is the Devils Method to make a scoff the prologue to a Tragedy to usher in persecution with a jeer first put the Christians in the skins of beasts and then bait them to death with dogs first disgrace them and then ad Leones away with them to the Lions first cal the orthodox Bishops traditores and then beat them down at the very Altar first make them vile and then nothing the Psalmist fully expresseth it Psal 55.20 swords are in their lips for every word these scoffers speak eats flesh it is a mock now it will be a blow it wil be a wound it begins in a Libel it ends in rise kill and eat the first letter the Alpha is a mock the last the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is desolation Thus the son of the free-woman he that is born after the spirit is
those rules and precepts hath raised such a fence and hedg about every common-wealth which if we did not pluck it up our selves might secure and carry them along in the course of things even to their end that is to the end of the world but this we talk of as we do of many other things and talk so long till we believe it and rest on our guesse and conjecture as on a demonstration but the truth is we are our own fate and destiny we draw out our thread and cut it we start out of our places and divide our selves from one another and then indeed and not till then Fate and Necessity lye heavy upon a kingdom and it cannot stand Christianity binds us to our own businesse and till we break loose till some one or other steps out of his place from it there is peace we are safe in our lesser vessels and the ship of the common-wealth rides on with that smoothnesse and evennesse which it hath from the consistencie of its parts in their own place for though all are one in Christ Jesus yet we cannot but see that there is a main difference between the inward qualification of his members and the outward administration and government of his Church In the kingdomes of the world and so in the Church visible every man is not fit for every place some must teach and some govern some must learne and obey some must put their hand to the plough some to this trade and some to that onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks those who are of more then ordinary wit and ability 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot l. 6 Polit. c. 5. must beare office in Church or Common-wealth One is noble another is ignoble one is learned another is ignorant one is for the spade and another for the sword one for the flaile and sheephook another for the scepter and such a disproportion is necessary amongst men for nihil aequalitate ipsa inaequalius Plin. Epist there is no greater inequality in the world then in a body politick where all the parts are equall for that equality which commends and upholds a Common-wealth ariseth from the difference of its parts moving in their severall measures and proportions as musick doth from discords when every part answers in its place and raiseth it self no higher then that will beare when the magistrate speaks by nothing but the Laws and the subject answers by nothing but his obedience when the greater shadow the lesse and the lesse help to fortifie the great 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 cheerfully in our own sphere and calling we shall not start forth to discompose or disorder the motion of others in theirs if we fill our own place we shall not leap over into anothers our desires will dwell at home our covetousnesse and ambition dye our malice cease our suspicion end out discontent vanish or else be soone changed and spiritualized our desires will be levelled on happinesse we shall covet the best things we shall be ambitious of heaven we shall malice nothing but malice and destroy it suspect nothing but our suspicion and be discontent with nothing but that we are so and so in this be like unto God himself and have our Center in our selves or rather make peace our Center that every motion may be drawn from it that in the compasse 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 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 water is not ponderous in its proper place the fire burnes not in its sphere but out of it it hath voracitatem toto mundo avidissimam saith Pliny it spreads it self most violently and devours every thing it meets with nay poyson it self is not hurtfull to those tempers that breed it Senec. ep 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 businesse is soveraign and connaturall to our estates and conditions but most times poysonous abroad and dangerous and fatall to our selves and others When Uzzah 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 error and rashnesse in moving out of his place and struck him dead 2 Sam. 6.7 because he did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe his own businesse when Uzziah invades the Priests office the 2. Chr. 26. and would burn Incense and Azariah the Prophet told him ad te non pertinet it pertaineth not to thee it is not thy businesse even while the censer was yet in his hand his sinne was writ in his forehead he was struck with a leprosie cut off from the city of the Lord v. 21. When Peter was busie to enquire concerning John What shall this man doe Our Saviour was ready with a sharp reply quid ad te what is that to thee thy businesse is to follow me When Christians out of a wanton and irregular zeale did throw down Images and were slaine by the Heathen in the very fact the Church censured them as disturbers of the peace rather then Martyrs and though they suffer'd death in the defiance of Idolatry yet allowed them no place in the Dypticks or in the Catalogue of those who laid down their life for the truth Corah riseth out of his place and the earth swallows him up Sheba is up and blowes a Trumpet and his head flyes over the wall Absalom would up into the Tribunall which was none of his place and was hang'd in the Oke 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 villaines their purchase was not great honey mingled with gall Honour drugg'd with the hatred and curses of men with feares and cares with gnawings within and Terrors without all the content and pleasure they had by their great leape 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 lyes fettered in a loathsome dungeon and at last their wages which was death eternall death and howling for ever Nay when we are out of our place and busie in that which
same sinners we were as wicked as ever Our Religion puts forth no thing but blossomes or if it knit and make some shew or hope of fruit it is but as we see it in some Trees it shoots forth at length and into a larger proportion and bigness then if it had had its natural concoction and ripened kindly and then it hath no tast or rellish but withers and rots and falls off And thus when we too much dote on Ceremomy we neglect the maine work and when we neglect the work we fly to Ceremony and formality and lay hold on the Altar we deale with our God Clem. Alexande 3. strom as Aristotle of Cyrene did with Lais who promised to bring her back again into her country if she would help him against his Adversaries whom he was to contend with and when that was done to make good his oath drew her picture as like her as art could make it and carried that and we fight against the devil as Darius did against Alexander with pomp and gayetry and gilded armor as his prey rather then his enemies and thus we walk in a vain shadow and trouble our selves in vain and in this Region of shews and shadows dreame of happinesse and are miserable of heaven and fall a contrary way as Julius Caesar dream'd that he soared up Suet. Vit. C. Caesar and was carryed above the clouds and took Jupiter by the right hand and the next day was slain in the Senate-house I will not accuse the foregoing Ages of the Church because as they were loud for the Ceremonious part of Gods worship so were they as sincere in it and did worship him in spirit and truth and were equally zealous in them both and though they raised the first to a great height yet never suffered it so to over-top the other as to put out its light but were what their outward expressions spake them as full of Piety as Ceremony and yet we see that high esteem which they had of the Sacraments of the Church led some of them upon those errors which they could not well quit themselves of but by falling into worse It is on all hands agreed that they are not absolutely necessary not so necessary as the mortifying and denying of our selves not so necessary as Actuall holinesse It is not absolutely necessary to be baptized for many have not passed that Jordan yet have been saved but it is necessary to have the Laver of Regeneration and to clense our selves from sin It is not absolutely necessary to eat the Bread and drink the Wine in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper for some crosse accident may intervene and put me by but it is necessary to feed on the Bread of Life as necessary as my meat to doe Gods will True Piety is absolutely necessary because none can hinder me from that but my selfe but it is not alwayes in every mans power to bring himselfe to the Font or approach the Lords Table All that can be said is That when they may be had they are absolutely necessary but they are therefore not absolutely necessary because they cannot alwaies be had and when they stretcht beyond this they stretcht beyond their line and lost themselves in an ungrounded and unwarranted admiration of these Ordinances which whilst we look upon them in their proper Orbe and Compasse can never have honour and esteem enough They put the Communion into the mouthes of Infants who had but now their Being and into the mouthes of the Dead who had indeed a BEing but not such a Being as to be fit Communicants and Saint Austin thought Baptisme of Infants so absolutely necessary that Not to be baptized was to be Damned and therefore was forced also to create a new Hell that was never before heard of and to find out mitem damnationem a more mild and easie damnation more fit as he thought for the tendernesse and innocency of Infants Now this was but an error in speculation the error of devout and pious men who in honour to the Author of the Sacraments made them more binding and necessAry then they were and we may learn thus much by this over-great esteem the first and best Christians and the most learned amongst them had of them that there is more certainly due then hath been given in these latter times by men who have learnt to despise all Learning and whose great devotion it is to quarrell and cry down all Devotion who can find no way to gain the reputation of Wisdome but by the fierce and loud impugning of that which hath been practiced and commended to succeeding Ages by the wisest in their Generation by men who first cry down the Determinations of the Church and then in a scornfull and profane pride and animosity deny there is any such Collection or Body as a Church at all But our Errors in Practice are more dangerous more spreading more universall For what is our esteem of the Sacraments more a great deale then theirs and yet lessE because 't is such which we should not give them even such which they whom they are so bold to Censure would have Anathematized We Think or Act as if we did that the Water of Baptisme doth clense us though we make our selves more Leopards fuller of spots then before That the Bread in the Eucharist will nourish us up to eternall life though we feed on husks in all the remainder of our dayes We baptize our children and promise and voew for them and then instill those thriving and worldly principles into them which null and cancell the vow we made at the Font hither we bring them to renounce the world and at home teach them to love it And for the Lords Supper what is commonly our preparation A Sermon a few houres of meditation a seeming farewell to our common affaires a faint heaving at the heart that will not be lifted up a sad and demure countenance at the time and the next day nay before the next day this mist is shaken off and we are ready to give Mammon a salute and a cheerfull countenance the world our service to drudge and toyle as that shall lead us to rayle as loud to revenge as maliciously to wanton it as sportfully to cheat as kindly as ever we did long before when we never so much as thought of a Sacrament And shall we now place all Religion nay any Religion in this or call that good that absolutely good and necessary for which we are the worse absolutely the worse every day Well may God ask the question Will he be pleased with this Well may he by one Prophet ask who hath required it and by another instruct us and shew us yet a more excellent way It was not the error of the Jew alone to forget true and inward sanctity and to trust upon outward worship and formality but sad experience hath taught us that the same error which misled the Jew under his weak and