but only such as the unction teacheth He speaketh to the renewed eare and heart and the soft heart is only sensible of his working and giveth him the Echo of his voice When thou saidst Seek ye my face my heart answered Thy face Lord will I seek If he speak of sinne it groaneth under guiltinesse or praiseth him if it be free If hee speake of wrath it trembleth and prayeth for averting If hee command it prayeth for grace to obey And as clean paper taketh the stamp of everie type so the soft heart is stamped with all his word this is the writing of the Law in our heart The pen is his effectuall power the ink his unction the letters are Gods properties stamped on the powers of our soule the words are infused habits the lines are the lineaments of his image in righteousnesse and holinesse This is to heare to our happinesse when we heare in our heart and there remaineth no more doubting But oft times we know not what Christ speaketh because we feele not what he feeleth If any thinke this beauty to bee marred because therein possibly are Hypocrites and Atheists c. I answer that as there is a beautie of the universe which is not destroyed but decored by some naughtie things for ill vices argue a good nature wherin they are manifest good things to be better by their comparison By some things perfect and some things imperfect the universe is perfect God seeth them as blots in the Sanctuarie without prejudice of the godly who are his delight How Pastors are this beautie THe beautie of the sanctuarie in respect of Pastors is in their calling and work Their calling is to stand betwixt God and man They are Gods mouth to the people in doctrine and the peoples mouth to him in prayer and praise This is the onely calling that teacheth man true happinesse that openeth the heaven and leadeth him to it All the body of the heavens is pure yet the stars are most pure parts receiving light from the sunne and rendring it to the world So are Pastors among men the light of the world starres receiving light from God and rendring it to others They are as one of a thousand to declare to man the righteousnes of God and their very feet are beautifull because they bring good tidings to the world God sendeth them not of indigence but indulgence as a more fit way to teach man than either by himselfe or by Angels for man can peaceably receive instruction of man but the glorie of God or of Angels would overwhelme us It is likewise mans triall and the commendation of his Faith for if we were taught onely by God immediately and not of man there were no proofe of our obedience to Gods ordinance Pastors then are a part of this beautie when they stand between God who heareth the prayer and inhabiteth the praise of Israel and are remembrancers to both The beautie in respect of their work is as the mouth of God to the people and their mouth to him They are Gods mouth in preaching the beautie whereof standeth in the matter form the diversitie efficacie The matter that they preach Christ crucified and happines in him That it be sound without error or heresie and divine according to Scripture Mans minde enquireth a reason of all humane verities but when it heareth divine veritie it neither enquireth nor examineth but at the first resteth upon it with a divine faith Therefore the Ancients in their sermons were exceeding sparing of humane testimonies and contented them with Scripture because they knew to doe otherwise was to confound divine and humane faith in the hearer As now the Papists who have equalled traditions with Scriptures have brought their people that they know no difference betweene divine and humane truth or betwixt divine and humane faith respecting both When any thing is spoken beside Scripture the minde of the hearer will vage but when God speaketh all doubting ceaseth The second beautie of their doctrine is in the form that holy things be delivered holily As every science hath the owne proper matter so hath it the owne proper forme and Gods word which is holy hath the owne paterne of wholesome words wherein it should be delivered If therefore we propone it as Oratours in the schoole or Lawyers wee spill the native beautie of the word And this is it which the Apostle calleth the demonstration of spirit and power which is not so much to be expounded of an exact forme of reasoning as with a manifesting and kything of a spirituall power in doctrine Doctrine commeth of foure speciall grounds 1 Naturall quicknesse 2. Art and learning 3. Diligence in industrie hearing reading collecting and by grace in the inward teaching and inspiration of the Spirit Now publick doctrine is a kything how many of these or what of them are in us For a judicious hearer can well discerne from which of these one or moe or all it floweth And though we could rub the itching eare wonderfully with the first or the second or the third or all three of them together yet if the fourth be lacking it is not the Apostles demonstration of the spirit and power but of nature and industrie This commeth of the concurrence of the spirit who is first effectuall in them by sanctification and then effectuall by them in a heavenly doctrine in the hearts of people Then his Priests are clothed with salvation and his Saints shout for joy Thirdly the beautie of Pastors doctrine is in the diversitie of their gifts Gods house hath people of all complexions and his word hath a sufficiencie to every mans condition So wife Pastors propone it as milk for the weaker and as strong food for the perfect For they studie not to their owne vain honour and praise but to the profit of their hearers God is not like Isaac that hath but one blessing but out of his fulnesse to some hee giveth the gift of knowledge to some the gift of wisedome he hath given some to be Apostles some Pastors some Doctors c. and all to the edifying of the Church but these two are most eminent and ordinarie gifts Knowledge and Wisedome The first is doctrinall knowledge preserving the puritie of doctrine in the Church The other is pastorall wisedome dividing the bread of life aright and applying it to the hearts of people which Saint Austine preferreth to the other as farre as the Sunne is above the moone This commeth not only by ordinarie teaching of men and that measure of Instruction which the spirit giveth to every one but likewise by exercise of the crosse and experience For God schooleth some Pastors greatly in affliction and that not only for their personall sinnes which they have as great as any but also to make them fitter instruments to instruct and
the Sabbath calling it a loss of the seventh part of their time But it was their best spent time sanctified all their other daies Then their new man dealeth freely with God and all the gifts of the spirit poure themselves out on him Then they feele the beginnings of life eternall which maketh the time seeme shorter than it is indeed For the more wee enjoy a desired good the more time we crave for that enjoying so that a long time seemeth short And againe when an hatefull ill sticketh to us a short time seemeth long hours are as dayes dayes as moneths and moneths as years Hereof commeth the wearinesse of the profane for the shortest houre of worship tormenteth them Their fleshly passions are bound in stocks they know not God and the signes of his presence are terrible to them And yet these same men count whole daies but short for their drunkennesse in tavernes and in brothels they joyne nights to daies and daies to nights as though all time were too short to measure out their vanitie But this will bee the end of all when at death wee looke backe to our time wee shall have most comfort of these dayes wee have spent in the Sanctuarie in seeking happinesse and shall put these chiefly in our Almanack for one day in thy house is better than a thousand elsewhere SECT VII The marrow of true happinesse That I may see the beautie of the Lord. THis is the end why hee desireth to dwell in the Sanctuarie and that is two-fold in the fruition of Gods goodnesse and continuance in that fruition wherein consisteth the happinesse he desireth This fruition is to behold the beauty of the Lord wherein are two things the beautie it selfe and beholding For the knowledge of this beautie we shall first remove two false Glosses and then follow the truth The first is of some Papists who place this beautie in the stately and costly building of their Temple Herein they follow the Jewes devoted to the externall showes their religion is all for them and seeing they cannot fill the hearts of people with the power of doctrine they will fill their eyes with stately buildings and pompous ceremonies So their Cardinals advised Paul 3. that in the decay of their authoritie they would make the world admire them by building and busking stately temples The statelinesse of the temple of Jerusalem was extraordinary both because it was in the time of a carnall service and a type of the Church under Christ the beautie whereof was not in gold and silver as Malachie expresseth but in that the desire of all nations came therein But some faile on the other extreme and have no more care to the houses of God than to common houses yea it may be seene that many barns and stables are more stately in the Parish than Gods house This argueth a brutish mis-regard of God and of his worship which is justly fruitlesse in them Churches ought indeed to bee comely as houses set apart to God But that necessarie comelinesse is not this beautie of the Lord that wee require the beautie of houses is not in marble The second is worse and placeth this beautie in Images So the Fathers of the second Nicene Councell such a Councel such Fathers thought them the beautie of the Sanctuarie But the Scripture calleth images abominations and the shame of the Sanctuarie And when the Jewes brought the Idols of Israel and Thammuz or Osiris the God of Egypt in their temple God departed from them When the Pagans charged the Christians of the first ages that their Oratories had no images Origen and other Apologists tooke with the challenge and gave the reason that God whom they worshipped was invisible and infinite and therefore neither could nor would be represented by images From the Apostles time till images were brought in the Church there was a sufficient body of doctrine though with some declination but after that the Cleargy turned more blockish and ignorant than images Let them be called the bookes of the Laicks but such as turne the Laicks in stockes and stones because they are the teachers of lies and vanities for they leave their mindes in as base estimation of the thing they represent as of themselves The beautie of the Lord in the Sanctuarie is to be taken first of God himselfe and then of his worke with his people God is the beautie of beauties and all these things which we call beautifull excellent glorious perfect c. in the creatures are but names and shadowes of the truth of these things that are in him He alone is being without beginning and giveth being to all and sustaineth them in that being He is life it selfe without inliving and yet quickening and inliving all What ever wee consider to be excellent as wisedome puritie goodnesse power c. are all in him primely perfectly and unitely howsoever to our mindes and experience they be diverse He is great without quantitie good without qualitie Every where but included in no place without localitie and yet excluded no place A fountaine without a veine but running out in a continuall source communicating substance life induements of both to all creatures in such plenty as proveth his riches and in such diversitie to make up the beautie of the creature that hee the Authour thereof may be seene most bountifull How beautifull is that Unitie in Trinity and Trinity in Unity The Father begetting the Sonne begotten and the holy Spirit proceeding from both the Father the beginning working all in the Sonne and that by the holy Spirit a mysterie to be adored but not searched beleeved by faith but not discussed by reason Herein Christ Jesus the fairest among men is to be considered in whom the Church taketh boldnesse to seeke her happinesse with God he is that eternall Sonne of the eternall Father and came downe full of grace and truth to save us As God he is equall with the Father and the Spirit As man he is most beautifull of all creatures In him dwelleth all fulnesse even the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily and because of the personall union his humane nature exalted above all principalities and powers is adored by them He is most beautifull because of wisedome in preaching righteousnesse in remission of sinnes Sanctification in conversing with sinners Redemption in suffering for sinners And because through him only we take boldnesse to approch to God for who durst commit himselfe to so great a Majestie without his mediation But while we speake of him we faile and suffice not But most of all he is the beautie of beauties if wee consider him in his passion For though the world contemne him in that state yet he is our delight because he suffered these things for us This then is the first thing that we should doe when wee enter into the Sanctuarie to take up with the light
his life or state if his partie call him to a frindly Treatie and he be so senselesse that he knew neither if he met with his partie or know not how they began proceeded and closed their Treatie So are the most part of us wee come to the Sanctuarie the Lords trysting place and when wee come home if any would ask us Did you meet with God in his house Was your treatie in the termes of peace And was it closed with this Sonne bee of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee We would answer with the Disciples at Ephesus We know not if there be such things or no. Lastly Nations or Cities who have this beautie of the sanctuarie should keepe it carefully for it is their glorie And this is our advertisement that we keep this pretious thing that God hath committed to us For we may affirme that God hath blessed us with a bodie of as sound and wholesome divinitie as any age or nation since the Apostles time No Church is absolutely perfect yet in this point wee may contest with the best For in former times Sathan busied the Church with heresies as the Ebionites Marcionits Sabellians Arians Pelagians c. And when these were damned Antichrist amassed them all in one under other terms and making therof the body of his Apostasie obtruded them to the Church under the colours of his authoritie and infallibilitie And when God led his Church by his Worthies the Reformers hee blessed this Nation with a body of most refined Doctrine If we keepe this in puritie it shall be our happinesse But if libertie of private opinions turn in a libertie of publick venting these opinions and to turne us to Rome againe then altar against altar will deface this beautie of the sanctuarie Hold fast that thou hast till I come that no man take thy crown from thee Politicks like Gallio care not for these things but the safety of the common-wealth consisteth in happinesse and that same that maketh a particular man happie maketh a Citie happy also The last day wil prove this when the sheep on Christs right hand shal be gathered out of Nations and Cities who had the beautie of the sanctuarie in the doctrine of happines in the Gospel But all other shall be ranked with the goats SECTION VIII Of our partaking and enjoying of happinesse That I may see WEe have heard of the beautie of the Lord in the Sanctuarie wherein happinesse is offered to us followeth the application whereby wee apply it to our selves set down in this word to see which hath a generall and speciall consideration In the generall it signifies with the Hebrews all sensing because it is the most excellent sense So it is put for hearing I turned to see the voyce that is to heare the voyce God hath boared through our bodies with five senses that our soules might have intercourse with the qualities of his creatures in their colour juice smell c. And spiritually for our fuller joy offereth himselfe to be the object of our five spirituall senses So we see him in his works we heare him in his word wee taste him in his goodnesse Wee smell the fragrancie of the grace of the Gospel We touch him to draw vertue out of him with the diseased woman and with Thomas to call him our Lord and our God Therefore hearing is not here excluded but included as the fittest sense for spirituall things for faith comes by hearing and it is a preparation to the spirituall sight Hearken Daugter and behold As we have heard so have we seen It supplieth the weakenesse of our sight in Gods works In them we see his power his wisedome c. But in the Word wee heare of Christ his comming in the flesh our redemption and reconciliation in him It is also a more common way to learne for mo can heare than can read and the most fit way to receive heavenly things which are revealed in the audible word It is also surest to keep us from idolatrie for though spirituall things cannot bee represented yet some have attempted to do so in images but when they are explaned by words there is no such danger We only heare the voice but see nothing Lastly wee were lost by Eva's hearing of the Serpent therefore God will wound Sathan with his own rod and save us by that sense whereby wee were lost we are saved by faith and faith commeth by hearing The speciall consideration goeth in seeing and fruition This seeing is not bodily but spirituall For as the object is so must the sense bee There have been great disputes concerning the seeing of God with our eyes but let us stand to Scripture That God dwelleth in the light inaccessible whom none hath seene nor can see in their mortalitie yet afterward we shall see him face to face and shall know him as we are known But for this life though none have seene him yet his only begotten Sonne who came out of his bosome hath revealed him to us and that both in himself who is his eternall and substantial word and the ingraven forme of his petson and likewise by the word that hee gave to his Apostles In like manner our happinesse in the owne fulnesse the eye hath not seene nor hath the eare heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man to think upon yet God by his Spirit revealeth to his own in the first fruits and earnest God hath created the new man in his own and furnished him with spirituall senses His sight is the minde inlightned with heavenly light when God who commanded light to shine out of darknesse shineth in our soul by the Gospel of grace When he hath created this light in us then in his light we see light This illumination of the mind turneth in faith when the things wee simply see by light wee assent unto and apply them to us as our own and so go forward in the application of happinesse to our selves No light discovereth the Sunne but the light that commeth from it and no light discovereth God but the light that commeth from him and that so cleerly that it pulleth the heart to him and true happinesse in him Our happinesse is in union with God and the maine bands thereof are the spirit on his part and faith on our part Faith standeth not at sight but goeth on to apprehension our assent tyeth us to him by the mediation of his truth but our apprehension gripeth himselfe immediately as one who is truth it self and in whom all things are good truly and infinitely so that our trust in God may be called a thrusting of our soules on him The diseased woman was not content to look upon Christ but would likewise have vertue out of him by touching What is this said one which shineth within me and
smiteth my heart without hurt so that I both tremble and burne I tremble in so farre I am unlike him I burne in so farre I am like unto him This sight terrifieth not but comforteth It is the sight of a reconciled God by a reconciled man the matter of his presence here and of our heaven on earth There is no light clearer than this when truth shineth in the minde and the minde in truth seeth God and it selâ—e Herein appeareth the Prophets happinesse that seeking out happinesse and knowing what it is and where it is to be found he resteth not there till hee apply it to himselfe Happinesse may ever bee happinesse and wee remaine miserable if wee have no part in it God is happinesse in himselfe without us and wee are miserie in our selves without him therefore we must be in him that we may be happie And this is by application when as wee know hee is chiefe good so wee are perswaded that hee is our chiefe good and happinesse This is the proper worke of faith in her double perswasion The one direct and outgoing to the truth and things themselves The other reflecting and turning home to us by the work of our conscience in the assurance that wee beleeve and that these things are ours by faith Papists are here blame-worthie who cut the throate of the sweetest Christian consolation for what availeth it to hear that God is good that happinesse is in him if wee dare not and may not apply it to our selves And this is the end of Gods dispensation of the Gospel for he revealeth to us that we may know and the first end of knowledge is application It is also the end of the efficacie of the Spirit joyned with the word not to open our minds onely to know but also to apply to us And shall we think that the blessings of the Gospel are set before us only to looke to without application It is the food of our soule and must be eaten The cloathes of our soule and must be put on The physick of our soul and must be applied So is Christ to us The Apostle is not content to say that Christ came in the world to save sinners but subjoyneth of whom I am the chief And more clearly Henceforth I live not but Christ liveth in me and the life that I live I live by the faith of the Sonne of God who loved mee and gave himselfe for me Ancient Creeds content themselves more to expresse things to be beleeved because of the debates of hereticks in the matter of doctrine than to declare the way how to beleeve and yet this particular application may be found in them for as we beleeve the spirituall patrimonie of the Church in the remission of sinnes the glorious resurrection of the body and life eternall is it onely to know that there is such a treasure in the Church without application to our selves Or is an heire so simple as to content himself to know that his father hath an heritage and is not at all perswaded that it pertaineth to him Faith acteth a personall act and as the root of it is personall in the habit so the fruit of it must be personall in the application of consolation Gods work is particular to his own he chooseth them by name he calleth them by name as he called Come down Zacheus Hee casteth them down by the law personally why should not the application of the grace of the Gospel bee personall also The nature and work of conscience proveth the same for it is a withknowledge in our breast and all the actions of it are particular ending in our person And it contenteth not it self generally to say We are sinners but choppeth us in a particular branch of a particular Law and that in a particular kinde of sinne in a particular degree So it maketh us as particularly to apply the promise of the Gospel under conscience of repentance as it applieth wrath under conscience of sinne And Christ commendeth the wiseman not for finding of the pearle but for buying of it nor for knowing of the field where the treasure was but for the possession of the treasure Where this application is not there is nothing but doubting concerning the promise Probably they hold them as generall in the conscience of sinne as they are in the promises of grace and content themselves slenderly to thinke they are sinners without any feeling of particular sinnes Thus they delight to shuffâ—e themselves up in generall both in miserie and happinesse and not to come to particular application of either Gods children call him Abba Father for the divine nature in them the sense of their filiation and the testimonie of the Spirit of adoption maketh them to doe so but the want of these things make bastards and slaves to stand aloofe from him and not to thinke or speake warmely of him whom they know not to be their Father None hath this sight in the sanctuarie but the spirituall man For he only hath the heavenly light infused in him which is as necessary as the externall light in the eye for bodily things For the minde and not the eye is created to behold that greatest beautie of God And they live the better and more highly the more perfectly they behold him The naturall man percieveth it not but thinketh it a phantasie that is spoken of it They see not God but men and the actions they see are both base and a burthen to them The Philosophers called Paul a Babler because his doctrine was not in a Philosophick forme and Festus said that much learning made him mad so the naturall man conceiveth not the things of God because they are spiritually discerned None conceiveth these things but he that is wise spiritually for the world cannot receive the Spirit because it seeth him not But the spirituall man discerneth all he seeth the glorie of God in his sanctuarie discerneth the spiritualitie of doctrine feeleth the power of the spirit and so wisedome contemned of fooles is justified of her owne children Hee who feeleth not the sweet smell of the spouse and runneth not is either dead or rotten Let us then strive to see God This sight shall be our happinesse in heaven and the godly are desirous of it in this life for they will see nothing more desireable and can see nothing more dilectable Moses desired to see his glory but was refused and saw only his way Esay saw him symbolically or significatively And though he datted the Patriarchs by the familiaritie of his divine presence yet they saw not himselfe but some thing of him For these Fathers saw him not as he was And that because to see him as he is is to be as he is but wee have that much sight of him in Christ as to save us for he that seeth me seeth the