can imagine there can be any man that can so hate himself as deliberately to cast himself into hell and run from happiness when it appeareth in so much glory He cannot say Amen to Life who killeth himself For that which leaveth a soul in the grave is not Faith but Phansie When we are told that Honour cometh towards us that some Golden shower is ready to fall into our laps that Content and Pleasure will ever be near and wait upon us how loud and hearty is our Amen how do we set up an Assurance-office to our selves and yet that which seemeth to make its approach towards us is as uncertain as Uncertainty it self and when we have it passeth from us and as the ruder people say of the Devil leaveth a noysome and unsavoury sent behind it and we look after it and can see it no more But when we are told that Christ liveth for evermore and is coming is certainly coming with reward and punishment vox faucibus haeret we can scarce say Amen So be it To the World and the pomp thereof we can say Amen but to Heaven and Eternity we cannot say Amen or if we do we do but say it For conclusion then The best way is to draw the Ecce and the Amen the Behold and our Assurance together so to study the Death and the Life the eternal Life and the Power of our Saviour that we may be such Proficients as to be able with S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3.11 to meet the Resurrection to look for and hasten the coming of the Lord when his Life and Eternity and Power shall shine gloriously to the terrour of those who persecute his Church and to the comfort of those who suffer for Righteousness sake when that Head which was a forge of mischief and cruelty and that Hand which touched the Lords anointed Psal 105.15 and did his Prophets harm shall burn in hell for ever when that Eye which would not look on vanity shall be filled with glory when that Ear which hearkned to his voice shall hear nothing but Hallelujahs and the musick of Angels when that Head which was ready to be laid down for this living everling powerful Lord shall be lifted up and crowned with glory and honour for evermore Which God grant unto us for Christ's sake A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday JOHN XVI 13. Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth WHen the Spirit of truth is come c. And behold he is come already and the Church of Christ in all ages hath set apart this day for a memorial of his Coming a memorial of that miraculous and unusual sound Acts 2.2 3. that rushing wind those cloven tongues of fire And there is good reason for it that it should be had in everlasting remembrance For as the holy Ghost came then in solemn state upon the Disciples in a manner seen and heard so he cometh though not so visibly yet effectually to us upon whom the ends of the world are come that we may remember it though not in a mighty wind yet he rattleth our hearts together though no house totter at his descent yet the foundations of our very souls are shaken no fire appeareth yet our breasts are inflamed no cloven tongues yet our hearts are cloven asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every day to a Christian is a day of Pentecost his whole life a continued holy-day wherein the holy Ghost descendeth both as an Instructer and as a Comforter secretly and sweetly by his word characterizing the soul and imprinting that saving knowledge which none of the Princes of this world had not forcing or drawing by violence but sweetly leading and guiding us into all truth In the words we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Epiphany or Apparition of the blessed Spirit as Nazianzene speaketh or rather the Promise of his coming and appearance And if we will weigh it there is great reason that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ his that he should say Lo I come Psal 40.7 For in the volume of the book it is written of him that the Spirit of the Lord should rest upon him Isa 11.2 and I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh Joel 2.28 Christus Legis Spiritus Sanctus Evangelii complementum Christ's Advent for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirit 's for the fulfilling and compleating of the Gospel Christ's Advent to redeem the Church and the Spirit 's to teach the Church Christ to shed his blood and the Spirit to wash and purge it in his blood Christ to pay down the ransome for us captives and the Spirit to work off our fetters Christ Isa 61.2 Luke 4.19 to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit to interpret it For we may soon see that the one will little avail without the other Christ's Birth Death and Passion and glorious Resurrection are but a story in Archivis good news sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it and teach us to know him and the virtue and power of his resurrection and make us conformable to his death Phil 3.10 This is the sum of these words And in this we shall pass by these steps or degrees First we will carry our thoughts to the promise of the Spirit 's Advent the miracle of this day Cùm venerit When he the Spirit of truth is come in a sound to awake the Apostles in wind to move them in fire to enlighten and warm them in tongues to make them speak Acts 2.2 3. Secondly we will consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work and employment of the Holy Ghost He shall lead you into all truth In the first we meet with 1. nomen Personae if we may so speak a word pointing out to his Person the demonstrative pronoun ILLE when He 2. nomen Naturae a name expressing his Nature He is the Spirit of truth and then we cannot be ignorant whose Spirit he is In the second we shall find nomen Officii a name of Office and Administration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a leader or conducter in the way For so the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to be the Apostles leader and conducter that they might not erre but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep on in a straight and even course in the way And in this great Office of the Holy Ghost we must first take notice of the Lesson he teacheth It is Truth Secondly of the large Extent of this Lesson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He leadeth into all truth Thirdly of the Method and Manner of his discipline It is a gentle and effectual leading He driveth us not he draweth us not by violence but he taketh us as it were by the hand and guideth and leadeth us into all truth Cùm venerit ille Spiritus veritatis First though we are told by some
to raise thee from thy grave this sepulchre of rotten bones and baneful imaginations that thou mayest walk before him in the land of the living to beget Repentance and to beget Hope Hebr. 2.18 to pity us in our tentations who was sensible of his own and to drive Despair from off the face of the earth For why should the name of a Saviour and Despair be heard of in the same coasts If it breathe within the curtains of the Church it is not Christ but the Devil and our Sensuality that bringeth it in The end of Christs coming was to destroy it For this he came into the world for this he died Ask Christ saith S. Basil what he carrieth on his shoulders It is the lost sheep Luke 15.5 7 10. Ask the Angels for whom they rejoyce It is for a sinner that repenteth Ask God for what he is so earnest as to call and call again It is for those who are now in their evil wayes Ask the Shepherd Matth 18 12. Luke 15.4 and he will tell you he left ninety and nine to find but one lost sheep His desire is on us and he had rather we would be guided by his shepherds-staff then be broken by his rod of iron If thou wilt return return His Wisdom hath pointed out to it as the fittest way His justice yeildeth and will look friendly on thee whilst thou art in this way and his Mercy will go along with thee and save thee at the end If thou wilt thou mayest turn and if thou wilt turn thou shalt not daspair or if a cloud overspread thee it shall vanish at the brightness of Mercy as a mist before the Sun Here then is balm of Gilead Turn ye turn ye a loving and compassionate call to turn even those who despair of turning a Doctrine of singular comfort But this Balm is not for every wound nor will it drop and distill upon him who goeth on in his sin Mercy is as strong drink and wine Prov. 31.6 to be given to them who are ready to perish and to such who have grief of heart Many times it falleth out by reason of our presumption and hardness of heart that there is more danger in pressing some truths then in maintaining some errours Care not for the morrow is as musick to the Sluggard Matth. 6.34 Prov. 6.10 and he heareth it with delight and foldeth his hands to sleep If we commend Labour the Covetous hath encouragement enough to drudge on to rise up early and lie down late to gain the meat that perisheth Psal 127.2 John 6.27 John 4.23.24 If we but mention a worship in spirit and truth the Sacrilegious person taketh up his hammer and down goeth Ceremony and Order and the Temple it self How many Solifidians hath Free grace occasioned How many Libertines hath the indiscreet pressing of the Freedom we have by Christ raised The Gospel it self we see hath been made the savour of death unto death and Mercy malevolent At what time soever c. hath scarce with many left any time to repent Therefore it will concern us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzene speaketh Epist 20 ad Basil Magn. 2 Tim. 2.15 Luke 12.42 with art and prudence to dispense the word of truth or as S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cut it out as they did their sacrifices by a certain method to give every one his proper food in due season Some dispositions are so corrupted that they may be poisoned with antidotes Therapeut Theodoret observeth that God himself did not fully and plainly teach the Jews that doctrine of the Trinity lest that wavering and fickle nation might have took it by the wrong handle and made it an occasion of relapse into that idolatrous conceit which they had learnt in Egypt of worshipping many Gods The Novatians errour who would not accept of Penance after Baptisme so much as once though no Physick for a sinner yet might have proved a good antidote against Sin For men had they believed it would some at least have been more shy of sin and more wary in ordering their steps and shunned that sin as a serpent which would excommunicate them and shut them for ever out of the Church And therefore the orthodox Fathers even there where they oppose that assumed and unwarranted severity of the Novatian deliver the doctrine of Repentance with great caution and circumspection and with a seeming reluctancy Invite loquor saith Tertullian Tert. De poeui◠Bas tom 1. hom 14. I am made unwilling to publish this free mercy of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Basil I speak the truth in fear For my desire is that after Baptisme you should sin no more and my fear is you will sin more and more upon presumption of repentance and mercy He would and he would not publish the free mercy of God in Christ He was bound to preach Repentance and yet he feared What meaneth that profuse yet sparing tender of Gods Mercy those large Panegyricks and as great jealousies Why did they so much extoll Repentance and yet malè ominari presage such an evil consequence out of that which they had presented to all the world in so desirable a shape Before the Father was so taken and delighted with the contemplation of it and discovered so much power in it that he thought the Devils themselves in the interim and time between their Fall and the Creation of Man might have repented and been Angels of light still but now he draweth in his hand and putteth it forth with fear and trembling Before he held out Repentance as a board or plank to every shipwrackt soul but now he he feareth lest Repentance it self should become a rock One would think the holy Father himself were turned Novatian And to speak truth that which was the Novatians pretense to deny Repentance after Baptism drew those expressions from him and was the true cause which made him publish it with so much fear nè nobis subsidia paenitentiae blandiantur That men might not be betrayed by the flattery and pleasing appearance of that which should advantage them and level their thoughts on that benefit which it might bring to them and boldly claim it as their own though they be willing to forget and leave unregarded that part of it which should make way to let it in That hearing of so precious an antidote they might not presume it will have the same virtue and operation at any time and so after many delayes make no use of it at all That the doctrine of Repentance might not make us stand in more need of repentance in a word That that which is a remedy might not by our ill handling and applying it be turned into a disease Look into the world and you will see there is great need of so much fear and of such a caution For more fall by presumption then by despair Non tam morbis quà m
in the world Behold the Profane Gallant who walketh and talketh away his life Malunt Remp. turbari quà m comam Sen. who divideth himself between the comb and the glass and had rather the Common-wealth should flie in pieces then one hair of his periwig should be out of its place whom we bow and cringe and fall down to as to a golden Calf I tell you the meanest Artizan that worketh with his hands even he that grindeth at the mill is more honourable then he Take the speculative phantastick Zelote the Christian Pharisee that shutteth himself up between the ear and the tongue between hearing much and speaking more and doing contrary the worst Anchorete in the world bring full of oppression deceit and bitterness I may be bold to say The vilest person he that sitteth with the dogs of your flock Job 30.1 Phil. 3.18 is more honourable more righteous then he and of such as these S. Paul spake often and he spake it weeping that they did walk but walk as enemies to the cross of Christ. Let then every man move in his own sphere orderly 1 Cor. 7.20 abide in the calling wherein he is called And in the last place that we may move with the first Mover Christ the Beginner and Authour of our Walk let us take him along with us in all our wayes Heb. 12.28 hearken what Christ Jesus the Lord will say that we may walk before him with reverence and godly fear Psal 85.8 Exod. 37.9 Not SICVT VIDIMVS as we have seen but look we upon one another as the two Cherubims touching and moving one another but with the Ark of the testimony in the midst betwixt us and by that either inciting or correcting one another in our walk Nor SICVT VISVM FVERIT as it shall seem good in our own eyes for nothing can be more deceitful then our own thoughts Nor SICVT VISVM SPIRITVI S. as every Spirit may move us which we call Holy for it may be a lying spirit and â—ead us out of our way into those evils which grieve that blessed Spirit whose name we have thus presumptuously taken in vain But SICVT ACCEPIMVS as we have received Christ Jesus Let us joyn example with the Word and it will be no more as a meteor to mislead us but a bright morning-star to direct us to Christ Correct our Phansie by the Rule and it will be sanctum cogitatorium an alembick an holy elaboratory of such thoughts as may fly as the doves to the windows of heaven And last of all try the Spirit by the Word for the Word is nothing else but the breathing and voice of the Spirit and then thou shalt be baptized with the Spirit and fire The Spirit shall enlighten thee Matth. 3.11 John 16.13 and the Spirit shall purge and cleanse thee and lead thee into all truth The Spirit shall breathe comfort and strength into thee in this thy walk and pilgrimage and thou shalt walk from strength to strength Psal 84.7 from virtue to virtue even till thou come to thy journeyes end to thy Father's house to that Sabbath and rest which remaineth to the people of God Hebr. 4.9 A SERMON Preached at the Funeral of THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL Sir George Whitmore Knight Sometime Lord Mayor of the City of LONDON Who departed this life Decemb. 12. 1654. at his house at Bawmes in MIDDLESEX PSAL. CXIX 19. I am a stranger in the earth hide not thy commandments from me THis Psalm is a Psalm of David So S. Augustine and Hilary and others or gathered by him or out of him And it is nothing else but a collection of Prayers and Praises a body of devout ejaculations which the Greek Fathers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lively sparkles breathed forth from a heart on fire and even sick with love And they fly so thick that observation can hardly take the order of them The method of Devotion followeth and keepeth time with the motion of the Heart which is as various and different as those imprâ—ssions which Joy or Grief Fear or Hope make in it Which either contract and bind it up and then it struggleth and laboureth within it self and conceiveth sighs and grones which cannot be expressed or breaketh forth into complaints and strong supplications v. 39. v. 77. Take away the rebuke that I fear Let thy tender mercies come unto me that I may live and the like or else dilate and open it and then it leapeth out of it self and breatheth it self forth with exultation and triumph in songs of praise and Hallelujahs v. 57. v. 97. v. 72. O Lord thou art my portion O how I love thy Law The Law of thy mouth is better unto me then thousands of gold and silver In this verse which I have read unto you and chosen as the fittest subject for this present occasion the Heart having looked abroad out of it self and reflected back into it self draweth out in it self the Picture of a Stranger or a Pilgrime and having well lookt upon it with the serious eye of Contemplation which is the heart of the Heart and the soul of the Soul having surveyed the place of its habitation how frail and ruinous it is as a tent subject to the winds beat upon by every storm and at last to be removed it goeth out of it self and seeketh for shelter under the shadow of Gods wing sendeth forth strong desires for supply and support in hoc inquilinatûs sui tempore as Tertullian speaketh in this time of its so journing and pilgrimage for that supply which is most answerable to the condition of a stranger upon earth and which may best conduct him to the place for which he was born and bound He asketh not for Riches they have wings Prov. 23 5. and will fly away and leave him in his walk or if they stay with him they will but mock and delude him Not for Honour that is but a breath but air and may breathe upon him at one stage and at the next leave him but never forward him in his way Not for Delightful vanities these are but ill companions and will lead him out of his way The best supply for a stranger here upon earth is from heaven from the place not where he sojourneth but to which he is going the best convoy the will and commandments of God the word of God the best lantern to his feet Psal 119.105 Whilest these are in his eye and heart he shall pass by slippery places and not fall he shall pass through fire and water he shall walk upon the Lion and the Asp Psal 66.12 91.13 he shall meet with with flattering objects and loath them with terrours and contemn them use the world as if he used it not be in poverty 1 Cor. 7.31 and yet not poor in affliction but not distrest in many a storm and pass through and rejoyce in it live in the world and
Ye Angels that do his will They are but finite agents and so not able to make good an infinite loss They are in their own nature mutable and so not fit to settle them who were more mutable more subject to change then themselves not able to change our vile bodies much less to change our souls which are as immortal as they yet lodged in tabernacles of flesh which will fall of themselves and cannot be raised again but by his power whom the Angels worship In prison we were and CVI ANGELORVM written on the door miserable captives so deplorably lost that the whole Hierarchie of Angels could not help us And if not the Angels not Moses sure though he were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nearest to God and saw as much of his Majesty as Mortality was able to bear Heb. 3.5 6. The Apostle tells us he was faithful in all his house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a servant but Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Son Smite he did the Aegyptians and led the people like sheep through the wilderness But he who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Captain of our salvation as he is stiled v. 10. was to cope with one more terrible then Pharaoh and all his host to put a hook into the nostrils of that great Leviathan to lead not the people alone but Moses also through darkness and death it self able to uphold and settle an Angel in his glorious estate and to rayse Moses from the dead Not Moses then but one greater then Moses Not the Angels but one whom the Angels worship who could command a whole Legion of them Not a Prophet Or if a Prophet the great Prophet which was to come If an Angel the Angel of the Covenant Certè hic Deus est even God himself Now Athanasius's Creed will teach us that there is but one God yet three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost We must then find out to which of the Persons this oeconomie belongeth Not to the Father That great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is his He bringeth his first begotten into the world ch 1.6 that he may declare his name unto his brethren ch 2. Not the Holy Ghost We hear him ch 3. as an Herald calling to us To day if yee will hear his voyce And he is Vicarius Christi Christs Vicar on earth supplyeth his place in his absence and comforteth his children It must needs then be media Persona the second and middle Person the Son of God Matth. 8.29 Luke 4.41 The office will best fit him to be a Mediatour Ask the Divels themselves when he lived they roared it out Ask the Centurion and them that watched him at his death they speak it with fear and trembling Matth. 27.54 Truly this was the Son of God Christ then our Captain is the Son of God But God hath divers Sons some by Adoption and they are made so some by Nuncupation and they are but called so and some by Creation and they are created so They who rob and devest Christ of his Essence yet yeild him his Title and though they deny him to be God yet call him God's Son We must follow then the Philosophers method in his description of moral Happiness proceed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of negation and to establish Christ in his right of Filiation tell you 1. he is not a Son not adoptivus filius God's adopted Son who by some great merit of his could so dignifie himself as to deserve that title This was the dream or rather invention of Photinus A very dream indeed For then this Similation were not of God to Man but of Man to God the Text inverted quite No Imitatur adoptio prolem Adoption is but a supply a grafting of a strange branch into another stock But he whose name is The Branch grows up of himself of the same stock and root God of God very God of very God made manifest in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 2. not Filius nuncupativus God's Son by nuncupation his nominal Son Such a one Sabellius and the Patro-passiani phansied as if the Father had been assimilated and so called the Son impiously making the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost not three Persons but three Names 3. Lastly not Filius creatus God's created Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mere Creature and of a distinct essence from his Father as the more rigid Arians nor the most excellent Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in substance like unto the Father but not consubstantial with him as the more moderate whom the Fathers called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 half-Arians conceived To these Hereticks we reply Non est Filius Dei He is not thus the Son of God And as Aristotle tells us that his Moral Happiness is the chief Good but not that Good which the Voluptuary phansieth the Epicures Good nor that which Ambition flyes to the Politicians Good nor that which the Contemplative man abstracteth an universal notion and Idea of Good So may the Christian by the same method consider his Saviour his chief bliss and happiness and by way of negation draw him out of those foggs and mists where the wanton and unsanctified wits of men have placed him and bring him into the bosome of his Father and fall down and worship God and man Christ Jesus Behold a voyce from heaven spake it Matth. 3.17 17.5 This is my beloved Son We may suspect that voice when Photinus is the Echo An Angel from heaven said He shall be called the Son of the most High Luke 1.32 Our Faith starts back and will not receive it if Sabellius make the Glosse Our Saviour himself speaks it I and my Father are one John 10.30 The Truth it self will be corrupted if Arius be the Commentator To these we say He is not thus the Son of God Naz. Orat. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To contract the Personality with Sabellius or to divide the Deity with Arius are blasphemies in themselves diametrally opposed but equally to the truth The Captain of our salvation is the true Son of God begotten not made the Brightness of his Father streaming from him as Light from Light his Image not according to his humane Nature as Osiander but according to his Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Image and Character not of any qualities in God but of his Person the true stamp of his substance begotten as Brightness from the Light as the Character from the Type as the Word from the Mind Which yet do not fully declare him Quis enarrabit saith the Prophet Who shall declare his generation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 53.8 Thy faith is thy honour a great favour it is that thou art taught to believe that he is the eternal begotten Son of God The manner is known only to the Father who begat and to the Son who is begotten If thy busy curiosity lead thee further 〈◊〉
urge and carry us on toward the Truth It is the first of all the passions and operations of the soul the first mover as it were being a strong propension to that we love And it is fitted and proportioned to the mind seeking out means and working forward with all heat of intention unto the end It is eminent among the affections calling up my Fear my Hope my Anger my Sorrow my Fear of not finding out what I seek yet in the midst of fear raising a Hope to attain to it my Sorrow that I find it not so soon as I would and my Anger at any thing that is averse or contrary at any cloud or difficulty placed between me and the Truth The love of Christ saith S. Paul 2 Cor. 5.14 constraineth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a resemblance taken from women in travel Love constraineth urgeth me worketh in me such a desire as the pain in travel doth in a woman to be delivered For do we not labour and travel with a conclusion which we would find out and what joy is there when we have like that of a woman in travel when a man-child is brought into the world If ye love me keep my commandments John 14.15 saith Christ If ye love me not ye cannot but if ye love me ye 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 offereth it self and is even importunate with us to receive it There can be no other reason given but this Our hearts are congealed our spirits frozen and we coldly affected to the Truth nay averse and turn from it This Truth crosseth our profit that our pleasure other Truths stand in our light and obstruct our passage to that we most desire S. Paul speaketh plainly 2 Cor. 4.3 4. If the truth be hid it is hid to them that perish In whom the God of this world hath so blinded their mind that the light of this truth should not shine upon them 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 Hebr. 10.38 but those that withdraw themselves doth his soul hate 2. In the next place the Love of Truth bringeth in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 1.2 a Love of Industry If we love it it will be alwayes in our thoughts and we shall meditate of it day and night Gen. 29.20 To Love seven years are but a few dayes great burdens are but small and labour is a pleasure when we walk in the region of Truth viewing it and delighting in it gathering what may be for our use we walk as in a paradise Truth is best bought when it costeth us most it must be wooed oft and seriously and with great devotion As Pithagoras said of the Gods Non est salutanda in transitu it is not to be spoken with in the By and passage it is not content with a glance and salutation and no more but we must behold it with care and anxiety make a kind of perigrination out of our selves run and sweat to meet it and then this Spirit leadeth us to it And this great encouragement we have In this our labour we never fail of the end we labour for But in our other endeavours and attempts we have nothing to uphold us under those burdens we lay upon our own shoulders but a deceitful hope which carrieth us along to see it self defeated and the frustration of that hope is a greater penalty and vexation than that pains we undertook for its sake How many rise up early to be rich and before their day shutteth up are beggers How many climb to the highest place and when they are near it and ready to sit down fall back into a prison But in this labour we never fail the Spirit working with us and blessing the work of our hands He maketh our busie and careful thoughts as his chariot and then filleth us with light Such is the privilege and prerogative of Industry such is the nature of Truth that it will be wrought out by it Never did any rise up early and in good earnest travel towards it but this Spirit brought him to his journeyes end Prov. 2.4 5. If thou seekest her as silver saith the wise man if thou search for her as for hid treasures which being hid we remove many things turn up much earth and labour hard that we may come to them then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God In this work our Industry and the Spirits help are as it were joyned and linked together You will say perhaps that the Spirit is an omnipotent Agent and can fall suddenly upon us as he did upon the Apostles this day that he can lead us in the way of Truth though we sit still though our feet be chained though we have no feet at all But the Proverb will answer you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If God will you may sail over the sea in a sieve But we must remember the Spirit leadeth us according to his own will and counsel not ours As he is an omnipotent so is he a free Agent also and worketh and dispenseth all things according to the good pleasure of his will Eph. 1.5 And certainly he will not lead thee if thou wilt not follow he will not teach thee if thou wilt not learn Nor can we think that the Truth which must make us happy is of so easie purchase that it will be sown in any ground and as the Devil's tares Matth. 13.25 grow up in us whilest we sleep 3. The third rule is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Method or an Orderly proceeding in the wayes of Truth As in all other Arts and Sciences so in spiritual Wisdome and in the School of Christ we may not hand over head huddle up matters as we please but we must keep an orderly and set course in our studies and proceedings Our Saviour Christ hath a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seek ye first the kingdome of God Mat. 6.33 and in that Kingdome every thing in its order There is something first and something next to be observed and every thing to be ranked in its proper place The Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews telleth us of principles of doctrine Hebr. 6.1 which must be learned before we can be led forward to perfection Heb. 5.13 14. of milk and of strong meat of plainer lessons before we reach at higher Mysteries Nor can we hope to make a good Christian veluti ex luto statuam as soon as we can make a statue out of clay Most Christians are perfect too soon which is the reason that they are never perfect They are spiritual in the twinkling of an eye they know not how nor no
it self and worketh on insensibly but most strongly and certainly to our ruine And then it appeareth more ugly and deformed to God's pure and all-seeing eye who never hateth an oppressour more then when he seeth him at the Altar and is most offended with that fraudulent man who is called Christian We read in the Historian when Nero had but set his foot into the temple of Vesta he fell into a fit of trembling facinorum recordatione saith Tacitus being shaken with the remembrance of his monstrous crimes For what should he do in the Temple of Vesta who had defiled his own mother And how shall we dare to enter Gods courts unless we leave our sins behind us How dare we speak to a God of truth who defraud so many Why should we fast from meat who make our brethren our meat and eat them up At that great day of separation of true and false worshippers when the Judge shall bespeak those on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdome prepared for you the form or reason is not For you have sacrificed often you have fasted often you have heard much you were frequent in the Temple and yet these are holy duties but they are ordinata ad aliud ordained for those that follow and therefore are not mentioned but in them implyed For I was hungry and you gave me meat I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was naked and you clothed me sick and in prison and you visited me Then outward Worship hath its glory and reward when it draweth the inward along with it Then the Sacrifice hath a sweet-smelling savour when a just and merciful man offereth it up when I sacrifice and obey hear and do pray and endeavour contemplate and practise fast and repent And thus we are made one fit to be lookt upon by him who is Oneness it self not divided betwixt Sacrifice and Oppression a Form of godliness and an habitual Course in sin Dissembling with God and Fighting against him betwixt an Hosanna and a Crucifige Professing Christ and Crucifying him In this unity and conjunction every duty and virtue as the stars in the firmament have their several glory and they make the Israelite the Christian a child of light But if we divide them or set up some few for all the easiest and those which are most attempered to the sense for those which fight against it and bring in them for the main which by themselves are nothing if all must be Sacrifice if all must be Ceremony and outward Formality if this be the conclusion and sum of the whole matter if this be the body of our worship and Religion then instead of a Blessing and an Euge we shall meet with a frown and a check and God will question us for appearing before him in strange apparel which he never put upon us Zeph. 1.8 question us for doing his command and tell us he never gave any such command because he gave it not to this end Will he be pleased with burnt-offerings with Ceremony and Formality He asketh the question with some indignation and therefore it is plain he will not but lotheth the Sacrifice as he doth the Oppressour and Unclean person that bringeth it We see then that we may yet draw it nearer to us that there was good reason why God should thus disclaim his own ordinance because he made it for their sakes and to an end quite contrary to that to which the Jew carried it We see the Prophet might well set so low an esteem upon so many thousand rams because Idolaters and Oppressours and cruel blood thirsty men offered them We see Sacrifice and all outward Ceremony and Formality are but as the garment or shadow of Religion which is turned into a disguise when she weareth it not and is nothing is a delusion when it doth not follow her For Oppression and Sacrilege may put on the same garment and the greatest evil that is may cast such a shadow He that hateth God may sacrifice to him he that blasphemeth him may praise him the hand that strippeth the poor may put fire to the incense and the feet that are so swift to shed blood may carry us into the Temple When all is Ceremony all is vain nay lighter then Vanity For in this we do not worship God but mock him give him the skin when he looketh for the heart we give shadows for substances shews for realities and leaves for fruit we mortifie our lusts and affections as Tragedians die upon the stage and are the same sinners we were as wicked as ever Our Religion putteth forth nothing but blossomes or if it knit and make some shew or hope of fruit it is but as we see it in some trees it shooteth forth at length and into a larger proportion and bigness then if it had had its natural concoction and had ripened kindly and then it hath no tast or relish but withereth and rotteth and falleth off And thus when we too much dote on Ceremony we neglect the main Work and when we neglect the Work we fly to Ceremony and Formality and lay hold on the Altar We deal with our God as Aristotle of Cyrene did with Lais Clem. Alexandr 3. Strom. who promised to bring her back again into her country if she would help him against his adversaries whom he was to contend with and when that was done to make good his oath drew her picture as like her as art could make it and carried that And we fight against the Devil as Darius did against Alexander with pomp and gayety and gilded armour as his prey rather then as his enemies And thus we walk in a vain shadow and trouble our selves in vain and in this region of Shews and Shadows dream of happiness and are miserable of heaven and fall a contrary way as Julius Caesar dreamed that he soared up and was carried above the clouds Suet. Vit. C. Caesar and took Jupiter by the right hand and the next day was slain in the Senate-house I will not accuse the foregoing Ages of the Church because as they were loud for the ceremonious part of Gods worship so were they as sincere in it and did worship him in spirit and in truth and were equally zealous in them both and though they raised the first to a great height yet never suffered it so to over-top the other as to put out its light but were what their outward expressions spake them as full of Piety as Ceremony And yet we see that high esteem which they had of the Sacraments of the Church led some of them upon those errours which they could not well quit themselves of but by falling into worse It is on all hands agreed that they are not absolutely necessary not so necessary as Mortifying of our lusts and denying of our selves not so necessary as actual Holiness It is not absolutely necessary to be baptized for many have not passed
looketh c. Serm. XLV James 1.25 But whoso looketh c. Serm. XLVI James 1.25 But whoso looketh c. Serm. XLVII James 1.25 But whoso looketh c. The First SERMON JOHN V. 35. He was a burning and a shining light and ye were willing for a season to rejoyce in his light IT is the high prerogative of Truth that it needeth no advocate or witness to set it off or commend it Suis illa contenta est viribus nec spoliatur vi suâ etiamsi nullum haheat vindicem She resteth upon her own basis and is content with her own strength and will at last prevail though she find no champion and undertaker She is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Basil of the same hue and complexion of the same beauty and glory the same when she is opposed and the same when she is embraced the same when she hath no witness and the same when she hath a thousand the same in the last age which she was in the first not lost in the broken and imperfect language of a babe or suckling nor yet improved by the mouth of a Prophet or by the tongue of men and of angels Our Saviour telleth us in the verse before my Text that he received no testimony from man that is that he needed it not The Truth had been the Truth though there had been no light to set up to shew it and Christ had been the Lamb of God and the Saviour of the world though John Baptist's voice had not been heard in the wilderness Thus it is with Truth in it self But in respect of men whose understandings are passive and receive nothing but by illumination nor can apprehend intellectual objects without light no more then the clearest eye of flesh can perceive sensible objects in the midst of darkness there is need of a Light to discover Truth in the midst of so many errours and mistakes and there is need of a Prophet and more then a Prophet of a John Baptist to point out as it were with the finger Behold the Lamb of God and plainly to shew and tell us This is Christ For though the Truth be proportioned to our Reason and beareth that sympathy with it that she is no sooner seen but it embraceth her and upon a full manifestation is taken as the Bridegroom in the Canticles with her eye and beauty yet because many times she standeth as it were at a distance and is discoloured and darkned by Passion and Prejudice because as there is but one true Christ so there may be many false ones as there is but one Truth so there are many errours and falshoods which go under that name and we are ready to say Lo here is Christ or There is Christ Lo this is the Truth or That is the Truth when we are not to be believed therefore it hath pleased the wisdom of God not onely to give us Understandings and proportion objects unto them but to afford us light to help and sustain our weakness in this possibility and probability of erring to clear our Reason which is but mentis aspectus as Augustine speaketh a look of the Mind or cast of her eye and to promote our reasoning and our judgment which is the force and vigour of Reason not onely to intreat but besiege it to speak to us by the tongue of men like unto our selves to speak to us by the power of their doctrine and command of their examples by their heat and by their light and that when he cometh unto his own he may be received to send a messenger before him to prepare his wayes To this end as in the former verse Christ seemeth to reject the testimony of John because he needed it not so here for the Jews sake he magnifieth it and as John bare witness unto him so doth he give his royal testimony of John as John bare witness of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is he so doth Christ of John in the words of my Text He was a burning and a shining light and ye were willing for a season to rejoyce in his light Which words contain 1. an Elogy or Commendation of John Baptist 2. a Censure of the Jews levity and inconstancy In the former we have John characterized and drawn out in his true colours 1. as a light 2. as a burning 3. as a shining light In the later we have the lively image and picture of a wavering and inconstant mind which looketh and liketh and presently distasteth delighteth in the light that shineth but delighteth but for a season The former draweth on and occasioneth the later For every John Baptist if he do not teach us doth upbraid us and Light doth not onely serve to direct us in our way but to discover our folly if we turn back and look from it when it shineth Christ's magnifying John's office is an accusation of the Jews inconstancy He was a burning and a shining light this expresseth his heat and lustre And ye were willing to rejoyce in his light that setteth forth and declareth the virtue and power of it But ad horam your delight was but for an hour but momentanie but a flash no sooner kindled but out this proclaimeth the Jews levity and inconstancy We might raise here divers useful observations but will confine our meditations and contain our selves within some few and shew you 1. What this Heat was with which the Baptist burned 2. What the Light was with which he shined that we may warm our selves by this holy fire and walk by this celestial light and that as S. Paul exhorteth we may shine as lights in the world And this we find in our first part in the Character of John The second which is a Censure past upon the Jews discovereth unto us 1. the Activity of this light the power and virtue of Truth and Holiness which work a complacency a joy a delight even in those who oppose them for they were willing to rejoyce in it 2. the flitting humour and inconstancy of the Jews they rejoyced in this light but for a season And here is a minus dicitur Less is said but more understood For that they delighted but for a season implieth thus much that their errour was wilful because they indeed delighted but would make no use of that light which might have led them to the knowledge of their Messias And with these we shall exercise your Christian devotion at this time and of these in their order He was a burning and a shining light We will not sport with this fire nor play with this Light as some have done till they have put it out or left but a snuff The word of God is eternal life is of power to beget it and this cannot but challenge our most serious consideration Therefore Metaphors in Scripture must be handled sanctè magìs quà m scitè drawn out and unfolded rather by our Devotion then our Wit We shall have absolved all if we shew
you what it was that made John a burning and what a shining light And here I need not tell you that he was a Prophet and more then a Prophet He was fibula Legis Evangelii as Tertullian calleth him the hasp which tied together the Law and the Gospel the middle Prophet which looked back upon the Truth obscurely shadowed in figures and types and looked forward on Christ that at the very voice of Christ's mother he sprang in his mother's womb prophetavit antequam natus erat and was a Prophet before he was a man Our Saviour here calleth him a burning light Supernatural illumination might have been enough to have made him a light to others but not to burn in himself Even Saul was amongst the Prophets and Caiaphas did prophesie and Baalam fell into a trance saw the vision of the Almighty took up his parable and breathed forth a prophesie a prophesie of as large a compass and extent as any we find in Scripture and yet he loved the wages of unrighteousness Even these were moved by the holy Ghost and spake as they were moved but were not holy men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil but the word of Prophesie came unto them by way of dispensation not for any purity or worth of theirs but for the present exigence and occasion and the instruction of others He that opened Balaams eyes opened also the Asses mouth to rebuke him All these may be called lights but we cannot say they burned or if they did not with any fire from heaven For Knowledge whether natural or supernatural whether gained by way of conclusion out of premisses or by the evidence of the things themselves or by Divine inspiration and extraordinary radiation is not alwaies accompanied with this heat and fire because the acts or reception of the Understanding are rather natural and necessary then arbitrary and the mind of man cannot but receive the species and forms of things as they are presented and imprinted either by the object it self or by a Divine supernatural hand In a word if the Truth open and display it self the Understanding cannot but receive it If the Spirit come upon Saul he must prophesie These radiations and flashes of light upon the Understanding do not alwayes make us burn within our selves but many times are darted on us when there is a frost at the heart when we are bound up and sealed as it were in our graves in a kind of Lethargy without heat or activity Every knowing man doth not love the truth which he knoweth nor is every Prophet a Saint Scire nihil aut parùm operatur ad virtutem saith the Philisopher Knowledge of it self bringeth no great store of fuel to this fire nor doth it conduce to the essence of Virtue For we do not define Virtue by Knowledge It may direct and illuminate but it doth not alwaies warm us it may help to fan this fire but it is not that heat with which we burn What is it then that made John Baptist and maketh every righteous man a burning light Not the Knowledge alone though it were supereminent but the Love of Truth For the Understanding is at best but a Counsellor to the Will It may call upon me to awake and I fold my arms to sleep It may speak as an oracle of God and I reject its counsel It may say This is the way when I run counter It may breathe upon my heart and no fire burn But when the Will is so truly affected with the Truth as to woo and imbrace it when I am willing to lay down my life for it then there is a fire in my bones and this fire doth melt me and this liquefaction transform me and this transformation unite and marry me to the Truth And this is that fire with which we burn which maketh this holy conflagration in us And indeed it hath the operation of Fire For first as Fire it is full of activity nor can any thing withstand its force It hath voracitatem toto mundo avidissimam as Pliny speaketh It is the most devouring thing in the world Nihil tam ferreum quod non amoris igne vincitur saith Augustine There is nothing so hard or difficult which it doth not overcome It esteemeth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood Be it Service it is a glorious liberty Be it seven years it is but a few dayes to Love Be it Disgrace it enobleth it Be it Poverty it enricheth it Be it Torment it sweetneth it Be it Death for the Truth 's sake it is made advantage and gain O beloved that the voice of power so soon shaketh us that the glittering of a sword the horrour of a prison a frown so soon loosneth our joynts abateth our courage that we either halt between God and Baal or plainly fall from the Truth is because we are but coldly affected to it If this fire were kindled in us it would make Persecution peace enlighten a prison and make Horrour it self an object of glory and joy That which is a tempest to others to them that love is a pleasant and prosperous gale Secondly as Fire it is very sensible and maketh us even to burn within us and to be restless and unquiet for the Truth 's sake Inquies animus ipso opere pascitur as Livy spake of himself It is fed with what it doeth and as that restless element it either spreadeth or dieth It is kindled from heaven and will lick up all the water all contrary matter 2 Cor. 5.13 as the fire did which Elijah called down Whether we be besides our selves or whether we be sober it is for the Truth 's sake Love urgeth and constraineth us driveth us upon the pricks upon any difficulty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gordius the Martyr in Basil What loss am I at that die but once for the Truth In labours more abundant in stripes above measure in prison more frequent saith S. Paul And could he do no more Yes he could Vbi historiam praestare non potuit votum attulit What he could not do to fill up an history he supplieth with a wish and maketh it his prayer for the good of the Church Rom. 9. to be cut off from the Church pro Christo non habere Christum for Christ's sake to be separate from Christ And to speak truth in this Love differeth from Fire Fire will die if it want fuel but Love will live in that breast where it was first kindled and where it meeteth not with matter to work upon it burneth the more for want of it When it cannot fight with the Philistine not encounter Satan with his fiery darts not slight him in the pomp of the world not contemn him in his terrours it striveth and strugleth with it self and supposeth and frameth difficulties Nihil imperiosius charitate Nothing is more powerful nor commanding then Love And yet when it hath done all supposed all it is content
neither with possibilities nor events sed plus vult posse quà m omnia it would do more then it is able more then all more then it doeth more then it can do And then tell me what a spark is our Love Christ indeed came to kindle it but it is scarce visible on the earth Last of all as Fire Love ascendeth and mounteth upwards even to the Holy place to the bosome of God himself It came from heaven and towreth towards it For he that abideth in love dwelleth in God and God in him saith S. John Here it is as out of its sphere and element and never at rest nor at home but in God In a word where this love is there is the good will of him who dwelt in the bush Where this love is there the lamp burneth and all is on fire Amor fons caput omnium affectionum saith Martin Luther Love is the source and original of all other affections It setteth our Anger on fire and putteth the spear into Phinehas his hand It setteth our Sorrow a bleeding and maketh rivers of water gush from our eyes It maketh our Fear watchful that we may work out our salvation with trembling It exalteth our Joy Oh how I rejoyced saith David when they said unto me We will go into the house of the Lord It raiseth our Hope even to hope above hope It mixeth and incorporateth it self with every passion Our Love with Anger is Zeal with Fear Jealousie with Hope Confidence with Sorrow Repentance and with Joy it is Heaven And thus by the Love of the Truth the man of God is made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom speaketh a man of fire conquering all difficulties and consumed by none He standeth in the midst of scoffs and derision and detraction and of all temptations as in the midst of a field of stubble or dry flax or straw and is not hurt at all They that come near him do but sindge and torment themselves as thorns crackle and make a noise and vanish into smoke and the man is safe Such a burning light such a man of fire was John the Baptist who bare witness to the Truth and for the love of the Truth lost both his liberty and his life who preached it in the womb and preached it in the wilderness who preached it by living and preached it by dying and preached being dead S. Chrysostom telleth us that he spake most when his head was off In a word the love of Truth did so enflame him that he may seem what the Rabbies phansie of Elijah in whose spirit he came to have sucked not-milk but flames of fire from his mothers breasts And so much for his Burning Now in the next place as he burned with the love of Truth so he shined also by the manifestation of it which was as the spreading and displaying of his beams As he was hot within so he was resplendent without As he had this fire within himself so there was a scintillation and corruscation on others And it was visible in his severity of life in his raiment in his fasting in his doctrine in his boldness in reprehending the Pharisees and Saduces in his laying the axe to the very root of the trees in fulfilling of all righteousness For we must not conceive of this fire as S. Basil phansieth of the elementary fire that God did divide and sunder the two qualities of Heat and Light of Burning and Shining and placed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the burning quality in hell where the fire burneth but shineth not and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shining quality in heaven which shineth but burneth not This was but a phansie though of a learned and judicious man No where this fire is there will be light nor can we sever them The Knowledge indeed of Truth many times breatheth in no other coasts then where it was conceived may dwell in a cloister or a wilderness in men qui non possunt pati solem multitudinem who cannot walk the common wayes Saints indeed in private but of no publick use but yet even here is some light in the wilderness in a cell or grott But when to the Knowledge of Truth we have added the Love of Truth our heart will wax hot within us and the fire will burn and we who before was possest with a dumb spirit do speak with the tongue yea cannot but speak the things which we have heard and seen then we cannot contain our selves within our selves but have those glorious eruptions then we shine upon others who burn in our selves As the heat is such is the light as the burning within such the shining without When we shine alone in mere out-ward performances in the pomp of devotion in the rolling of the eye in the lifting up of the ear in the motion of the tongue in the extermination of the countenance it is but a false and a momentary light but as the light of a glo-worm in the night which proceedeth from some other cause not from heat It may be a flash of Ambition or some scintillation of Vain-glory or the very sparkles of Faction and like lightning dum micat extinguitur it is extinguished in the very flâ—sh When we burn alone when we cast not forth beams but breathe forth hail-stones and coals of fire when we wax hot as an oven but cast forth no light at all when we lash the iniquities of the times and are our selves those fools on whose back the whip should be laid when we cry down sin and are men of Belial when all the heat is for Religion and all the light we see is Faction and Rapine it is too plain that we burn but we are set on fire by hell For if the heat be kindly the light will be glorious If it be from heaven it will not feed it self with earth and the things of this world If our light be manifest and permanent if our light so shine that men may see it and for it glorifie the Fountain of light it must needs proceed ab intimo pleno fervore devotionis from this inward burning from this true and full heat of Devotion Where there is heat there is light and where there is light there is heat And these two Heat and Light seem to contend for superiority Quo calidior radius lucidior The more hot the beams are the more light there is And this Light reflecteth upon the Heat to make it more intense and the Heat hath an operation upon the Light to make it more radiant and by a reciprocal influence on each other they are multiplyed every day My Love of the Truth spreadeth my Holiness and maketh it known unto all men and my holy Conversation dilateth and improveth my Love of the Truth My Love of the Truth maketh me increase and abound more and more and the nearer I draw to perfection I do the more and more love the Truth The more I burn the
more I shine and the more I shine the more I am on fire Thus was John Baptist and thus is every true Christian not onely a burning but a shining light And we may well compare the Profession of the Truth and Holiness of life to the Light that shineth The path of the just is as the shining light Prov. 4.18 saith Solomon For as Light serveth not onely to illustrate the medium and make it diaphanous but casteth also a delightful lustre on the object and is pleasant to the eye in a manner quickning and reviving us for they who are in darkness are as in a grave and they who are blind are as they who have been dead long ago so the Piety of the Saints and the beauty of holiness doth not onely shew and manifest it self as Light but like Light it hath a kind of influence and powerful operation upon others It worketh upon the phansie and imagination which is much taken with these real resemblances and representations and it worketh on the passions which must be as wings to carry us to those blessed Worthies to that pitch of holiness where they sit a spectacle to the world to men and to Angels For in our definitions and precepts and decrees and exhortations Piety many times to divers men appeareth in different shapes or ele slideth away and passeth by in silence but being charactered in the practice and actions of the Saints and written as it were with Light it gaineth more force and efficacy it presseth upon our phansie and busieth our understanding part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is more visible in actions then in words Would you see Humility drawn out to the life Behold our Saviour on the cross Had we seen S. Paul in the flesh we had had the best commentary on his Epistles What fairer picture of Charity then the Widow flinging in her two mites into the treasury of Severity and strictness of life then John Baptist in his leathern girdle and camels hair feeding on locusts and wild honey There is virtue gone from them that we may come near and touch and be familiar with it There is light that we may look upon it and walk by it Imaginatio provocat desiderium A strong imagination must needs provoke in us a desire of that which pleased it and raise up in us an holy emulation I say an holy Emulation which is a mixt passion made up of Sorrow and Anger and Love and Hope Sorrow for our defects Anger at our selves that we stay behind Love of that goodness which we see in others and find not in our selves and Hope to equal them And these poise and qualifie each other My Sorrow is not envious for Hope comforteth it my Anger is not malignant for Love tempereth it And they are all as so many winds to fill our sails to swell our thoughts and to drive on our desires to the mark We read of Donatus the Grammarian that as oft as he found any remarkable passage in the Ancients which might deserve applause he was wont to say Malè pereant antiqui qui nobis nostra praeripuerunt I beshrew the Ancients who have prevented us by their inventions and so robbed us of that renown which might have been ours A vain speech of a proud Grammarian Malè pereant Nay rather Blessed be the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and of John Baptist and of all the glorious Saints and Martyrs who hath set up these lights to direct us in our way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sublime Towers with continual light and fire to guide us in this our dangerous passage to the haven where we would be who hath fixt these Stars in the firmament of the Church to lighten them that are in darkness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed be God for this light For by this light in a manner we live and move and have our being By this light we are encouraged and provoked to walk on to perfection And such a power and force this light hath that if it do not bow the will yet it will command the understanding if it do not prevail with us to love it yet it will win our approbation if it do not beget a love yet it will force a delight and the worst men shall be willing to rejoyce in it though it be but for a season And so I pass from the Character and Commendation of John Baptist to the Censure passed upon the Jews Ye were willing for a season to rejoyce in his light God had not now for some hundreds of years spoken to the Jews by the mouth of a Prophet and therefore a Prophet after so long a vacancy could not but be welcome unto them Quod rarum est plùs appetitur Let Prophets run about our streets and we are ready to stone them but after a long silence let a John Baptist lift up his voice and we all leap for joy No sooner did John preach Luke 3.15 but the people were in suspence and expectation and all men mused in their hearts whether he were the Christ or no. And peradventure they thought that though his beginning was obscure as that of Moses yet the time might come when he would shew himself to be the Messias restore the Kingdom to Israel and be as Moses their Captain and fight their battels and make them lords of all the world This I say they might conceive of John But this was not the light with which he did shine And to root out this conceit he confessed John 1.10 and denied not but confessed I am not the Christ That which so gloriously shined in him was his Strictness of life and Holiness of conversation And such is the activity of this light such is the lustre and power of Holiness that it will work a complacency and delight even in them who oppose it And this is the glory and triumph of Truth and Goodness that it striketh a reverence into those that neglect it findeth a place in his breast whose hand is ready to suppress it and worketh delight where it cannot win assent We may embrace a truth and condemn it commend Chastity and be wantons and with the Jew not hearken to the voice of the Crier and yet rejoyce in his light And the reason is manifest For as there is a sensitive joy which is nothing else but the pleasing and titillation of the sense by the application of that which is convenient and agreeable to it as of a better white and red to the Eye a more pleasant voice to the Ear more savoury meat to the Tast so there is a rational and intellectual joy which is nothing else but the approbation of Reason in the apprehending of that which is proportioned to it an assent to a conclusion drawn out of the common principles of discourse or at most but a resultancy from it For Truth is fitted to the Understanding as Colours are to the Eye or Musick to the Ear. The remembrance
of Josiah saith the Wise-man is like a perfume as hony in all mens mouths and as musick at a banquet of wine For as these take and delight the Sense so doth Goodness the Reason If John Baptist burn and shine the light shall shine in glory and the eye which is ready to close it self against it yet shall for a while look up upon it with delight This is the activity of this Light and the power and energy of Truth and Goodness Now in the next place there is in the nature of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a flitting humour which cannot hold out long We may sooner number the atomes of the world then the motions and fluctuations of our heart now leaping anon dead now delighting in the light and by and by ready to put it out It is not onely as S. Paul saith What I do that I would not do but. What I would that I will not What I desire that I refuse and almost in one and the same moment At the first tast it is honey at the second gall and at a third honey again and then again as bitter as Death We never continue at one stay All the delight we take is but for a season Now we seal our determinations with an EXPEDIT approve them as very expedient and anon check them with a NON LICET renounce them as altogether unlawful Now the ground and cause of this change is either from imperfect information at the first and then it is not Inconstancy but the Alteration of our mind as Tully commendeth Antiochus that what he stiffly defended in his younger dayes he as sharply condemned in his age poenituit illum illa sensisse then it much repented him that he had ever been of that opinion Or it proceedeth as it did here in the Jewes from some inconvenience not foreseen but now fully apprehended not that they did not see the light but that it discovered something which they were unwilling to see The piety the severity the power of John Baptist both in word and deed were as evident as the Sun beams but his boldness in reprehending them his doctrine of Repentance his pointing out to Christ with the finger as to their Messias whom they accounted but a common man this swallowed up their delight in victory and wrought a distast in them of him whom they could not but commend And thus it fareth with us We rejoyce in Truth and Holiness so far as they will comply with our desires mount with our Ambition bow down with our Covetousness flatter our Lust where finding them sometimes going along with us a mile we compel them to go two even to the end of our desires that if we cannot beg applause from our thoughts we may at least procure their silence that if they will not say unto us Euge they may not say Anathema in a word that if we cannot keep joy it self we may at least retain its shadow For again secondly they delighted not in the Light and in the Truth for it self for then no question their delight would have been longer lived but for some by-respect as hoping that John was either that Messias that was to come or could tell them news of another But when he shewed them a Messias in the form of a servant whom they had shaped to themselves as a Captain and a Conquerour their content soon ended in dislike and their delight in displeasure Thus it often falleth out that one passion swalloweth up another the stronger the weaker that Anger which is high doth quench that Love which is not so intense In the course of our life it is so In sin we do but versuram facere borrow of our Covetousness to satisfie our Lust of our Ambition to supply our Revenge For one vice many times falleth cross with another Without spending my money I cannot enter the foolish woman's house nor without pawning my Honour wade to Revenge And it is so in virtue I cannot be temperate but I must curb my appetite I cannot be chast but I must bridle my lust I cannot sight on the Spirit 's side but I must beat down the Flesh And it is so here The love of one object abateth the love of another especially if it smile upon it If we are willing to be deceived we shall not long rejoyce in that light which sheweth the imposture If the Jews dote on a temporal Kingdom John Baptist's light cannot please them long because it discovereth a Kingdom of another form and polity a Kingdom which is not of this world We may suppose that the emphasis of the censure lieth in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they delighted but for a season but it reacheth to the light it self and their rejoycing in it For this made their errour wilful and their ignorance of Christ inexcusable The very means we have to avoid errour maketh it the fouler and the light sheweth us the mark which is set up and if we press not to it our shame To be ready harnessed and then turn our backs maketh our cowardise more notorious Righteousness like the morning dew is exhaled and drawn up by the wrath of God and powred down on our heads in vengeance Delight inviteth us to improve it and may be heightned into a Resolution and beginnings may bring us to the end Felix's trembling might have ended in the Fear of God Agrippa's Almost in a perfect man in Christ Jesus and the Jews rejoycing in the light of John Baptist might have led them to that true Light which lightneth every man that cometh into the world Thus I have opened unto you a large field full of delightful and profitable objects John Baptist burning and John Baptist shining and the Jews rejoycing a bright and burning lamp set up and the Jews delighting in it delighting in it though they were Jews and being Jews delighting in it but for a season We have but led you through it for the time would not permit to stay and build a tabernacle a more full or larger discourse We will detain you no longer but whilest we adde a word or two for application and so leave all to be enlarged by your private meditations Ye have now seen the glorious lustre of John the Baptist and we need adde no more for application For as Nazianzene speaketh of Cyprian the Deacon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to remember him is a fair invitation to the love of truth and to Holiness for being dead he yet speaketh to every one of us whether Preacher or Hearer Priest or People For in this there is no distinction though profane men are willing to make one and urge this as a good argument He is a Priest a Preacher therefore he must be a lamp a burning and shining light whilest themselves take the liberty to be stocks and stones Idols or as dry as the stump of a tree fit to make nothing but firebrands A strange conceit that Salvation should
be common to all and piety and strictness of life the business but of a few that severity should dwell in no breast but that which beareth the Urim and Thummim that none should be bound to discipline and obedience but they who are tied to the pulpit that I may be a cheater an oppressor a wanton an adulterer in a russet cloak but must be a Saint in an Ephod Such a distinction we may make if we please and delight in it But when the time of distinction and seperation shall come then tribulation and anguish will be on every soul that repenteth not on the Priest first and also on the people Then he that is not a lamp to burn and shine shall be cast into the fire And now brethren we see our calling that we are all to be bound to the same law who look to be bound up in the same bundle of life that we are all to be John Baptists forerunners of Christ to make a way for him in our hearts that we are all to be burning and shining lights that our love of the Truth may kindle the like flame in others our holiness may beget holiness in the profane our ardent devotion may warm the heart of the lukewarm our compassion may soften the heart of the cruel and our sincere piety convert the Atheist Behold the plague of Egypt is upon us even darkness which may be felt and yet darkness which we feel not Vbique discurrite ignes sancti ignes decori saith Augustine Ye holy ye beautiful fires run about the earth exalt your selves as high as heaven that you may lighten them which sit in darkness and let fall a kindly influence upon the dry and barren places of the earth that they may grow green and flourish And that your heat may be kindly and effectual first see what fire it is that warmeth you Let it not be ingendred in a cloud in a thick and wandring imagination nor in the bowels of the earth derived from worldly considerations nor yet in the lowest pit of hell in that gall and bitterness which maketh us devils one to another but let it be from heaven heavenly For that which kindleth from any other place like that vvhich Philosophy speaketh of simul fit cadit is and falleth and vanisheth at once or leaveth that heat behind vvhich vvill consume both our selves and others When our private phansie or some passion blovveth the coals it will prove no warming but a consuming fire Therefore that this fire may burn and consume nothing but our dross that it may not waste our vital spirits and best bloud our charity our meekness our discretion we must be sure that this heat be raised from the word of God alone which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignitum valdè able to refine and purge out all our dross our pride our self-love our carnality And to this end we must take heed of a dangerous evil self-conceit and a false pretended knowledge which may make a blaze perhaps but will never kindle this holy fire in our hearts For as we find that many men of poor and weak estate having by a kind of civil sophistry approved themselves for men of wealth and means have by this made good purchases bore up fairly in the world and wrought wonders so it fareth every day with many whose stock of knowledge hath not been very great they presently take the chair and dictate to others and by many are sought to as oracles They do not teach but trouble the world like fire indeed they consume all before them and call it Peace where they make a desolation For Man being a witty creature hath invented a kind of creation a wondrous art of raising much out of nothing It was said of Florimundus Raimundus a late French Advocate and Writer Scripsit sine scientia judicavit sine conscientia aedificavit sine pecunia that he wrote without knowledge judged without conscience and built without money and of one of the Dukes of Venice that he spoke much and knew nothing promised much and paid nothing spent much and had nothing And thus it hath fared with men who never digged deep for the Truth but sought it in summa terra lightly and superficially as counting that the Truth which they first light upon vent they must and lay open their store to the world as having no reason to suspect any part of it since they took no time to try and examine it And such persons we see with our eyes never want favourable hearers and hearts prepared to welcome them He that telleth the earth and the inhabitants thereof that they are ready to be dissolved will be soon looked upon as the onely pillar to underprop and establish it For as these are ready to commend their phansies and intellectual meteors so are others well near as wise as themselves apt to incline to a foolish credulity From hence have sprung all the heresies and many of the schisms which have troubled the peace of the Church And therefore that grave saying of Quintilian which is onely directed to School masters concerneth indeed most especially these lying Prophets these blind Seers these pretenders to knowledge these omniscient Ignaro's Optandum ut sint eruditi planè aut se non esse eruditos sciant It were to be wished that they were either learned indeed or knew that they were not so that they had less fire and more light or that their fire were like David's fire to burn inwards and that this heat did keep within them For this false fire and this pretended light and knowledge serveth them to no other use but to distract themselves and others and begetteh more Dippers then Baptists more franticks and mad men then Saints For S. Hierom will tell us Nihil tam facile quà m vilem plebeculam linguae volubilitate decipere quae quicquid non intelligit plùs miratur There is nothing easier in the world then to put a cheat upon the common sort of people who are never wiser in their own conceits then when they are deceived who count him an Angel who is but an impostor and him an interpreter one amongst a thousand who confuteth his Text and who rejoyce when they have a cheat put upon them as those who have found a great spoil But were either all men learned or did as many as it concerneth know themselves to be ignorant or at least would they be so modest as to suspect it we might then peradventure see those happy dayes which Fabius Pictor spoke of felices futuras artes cùm de iis artifices tantùm judicarent that the Arts would then be happy when none but Artists were made judges of them I need not tell you what manner of heat this pretence to knowledge and religion kindleth in mens breasts For if you please to look about you you may behold the world it self on fire which the bloud of many thousands have not as yet quenched â—â—u may
sport in the wayes which we have chosen as the little fishes do in the river Jordan till at last they fall into the Dead sea Our word is as vain and mortal as our selves but God's word standeth for evermore I will not press this further in this place and I hope there is no need I should For I hope better things of you that not Faction which the Devil raiseth here on earth but true Religion which God sent down from above shall now and at all times teach you how to make your choice I will conclude with that with which I should have begun the Coherence of my Text with the first verse For this is a consequent of that and we are therefore exhorted to set our affections upon things above because we are risen with Christ. For without this manifestation there is no Resurrection If we be still earthly-minded we are not risen with him In other things it is natural when we rise to shew our selves If we rise to honour you may see us in the streets like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts with great pomp If we rise in our estates you may see it in our next purchase If in knowledge which is a rising from the grave of Ignorance then Scire tuum nihil est we are sick till we vent And shall we manifest and publish our rising in the world and not our rising with Christ Shall Dives appear in purple and Herod in his royal apparel shall the rich fool be known by his barns and every scribler be in print and may we rise and yet lye in our Graves rise with Christ and yet lie buried alive in the earth rise with him and have no affection to the things above rise with him and yet be slaves and captives to that world which by rising he overcame This were to conceal nay to bury the Resurrection it self Nay rather since we are risen with him let the same mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus the Lord. Let us be seen in our march Walk before God in the land of the living Look upon the things above Converse with Cherubim and Seraphim Count the things on the earth but dung Let us look upon the World as an enemy and overcome it that the last enemy Death may be destroyed Let us begin to make our bodies what we believe they shall be spiritual bodies that the body being subdued to the Spirit it may appear we are risen with Christ here and when he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead we may have our second resurrection to that glory which is reserved above for us in the highest heavens for evermore The Tenth SERMON PART I. PROV XXIII 23. Buy the truth and sell it not also wisdome and instruction and understanding IT will not be worth the while to seek out the coherence of these words with the precedent sentences or proverbs For this would be a vain curiosity to seek what is not to be found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to plow the winds and which was imputed as folly to Caligula conari quod effici posse negatur to busie our selves in doing that which cannot be done The words are plain and they present you with a merchandise which far excelleth all other and hath one property which is not seen in any other merchandise It must be bought but not be sold It is an observation of Tullie's De offic l. 2. c. 42. That those tradesmen who buy of the merchant to sell again are commonly but a sordid and base kind of people nihil enim proficiunt saith he nisi admodum mentiantur They get nothing except they lie for advantage I am not experienced in the truth of this But we see here the wisest of men doth more then intimate that they who buy the Truth to sell it again are guilty of much baseness and profit nothing unless they lie strenuously For what but a Lie can be gained by parting with the Truth since whatsoever is not truth must needs be a lie And in this again appeareth another main difference betwixt our spiritual thrift and thriving in the world For old Cato an excellent husband for the world and one who writ of Husbandry giveth us a rule quite contrary to our Text Patremfamilias vendacem De Rè rusti◠cap. 2. non emacem oportet To buy is an argument of want to sell a sign of store Wherefore a good husband will endeavour so to abound that he may be ready to sell to supply the necessities of others rather then to buy to make up his own But ye see here Solomon a more excellent husband for the Truth then Cato was for the World giveth us a rule quite contrary to his Emaces esse oportet non vendaces Selling is no part of our spiritual husbandry there is nothing here but buying He that selleth the Truth or parteth with it upon any terms whatsoever giveth great cause to suspect that he is in danger to decoct and break Which that we may better perceive and understand let us enter upon the words of the Wise-man and see what instructions they will afford us First the merchandise presenteth it self and we must look upon it and consider what Truth it is that is here meant Secondly the nature and quality of the merchandise which will set a value and price upon it Thirdly we shall observe Neminem casu sapere That we cannot find Truth by chance neither will it fall upon us as a dream in the night but we must go towards it lay out something for it and purchase it Fourthly we shall find it necessary to enquire What it is to buy the Truth Fifthly and lastly we shall shew how the Truth may be sold These particulars without tort or violence naturally of their own accord arise from the Text Which in the general is divided as the Jews divided the Law into DOE and DOE NOT. The first part is affirmative Buy the Truth the second negative Sell it not Of these in their order First we must enquire What Truth is Aristotle defining Goodness telleth us it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod omnia appetunt that which the appetite and desire of all is carried to And if I defining Truth should tell you that Verum est quod omnes fugiunt Truth is that which all men are afraid of I think I should not speak much amiss For I find St. Augustine thus speaking to his auditours Quod non vultis audire verum est Do ye enquire what Truth is That which ye will not hear that which with all my pains and zeal I cannot perswade you to That is Truth In the Gospel we read that Pilate asked our Saviour John 18.38 What is Truth but when he had said this he went out saith the Text. He thought the answer would not be worth the staying for Many like Pilate are content to ask what Truth is and when they have done go their way
and casteth us on the ground and maketh us fome at our mouths fome out our own shame it casteth us into the fire and water burneth and drowneth us in our lusts And if it bid us Do this we do it We are perjured to save our goods beat down a Church to build us a banquetting-house take the vessels of the Sanctuary to quaff in fling away eternity to retain life and are greater devils that we may be the greater men Whilest Sin reigneth in our mortal bodies the curse of Canaan is upon us we are servi servorum the slaves of slaves And if we will judge aright there is no other slavery but this Now empti estis By the power of Christ these chains are struck off For he therefore bought us with a price that we should no longer be servants unto Sin but be a peculiar people unto himself full of good works which are the ensigns and flags of liberty which they carry about with them whose feet are enlarged to run the wayes of God's commandments Again there is a double Dominion of Sin a dominion to Death and a dominion to Difficulty a power to slay us and a power to hold us that we shall not easily escape And first if we touch the forbidden fruit we dye if we sin our sin lieth at the door ready to devour us For he saith our Saviour that committeth sin is the servant of sin obnoxious to all those penalties which are due to sin under the sentence of death His head is forfeited and he must lay it down Ye are dead saith S. Paul in trespasses and sins not onely dead as having no life no principle of spiritual motion not able to lift up an eye to heaven but dead as we say in Law having no right nor title but to death we may say heirs of damnation And then Sin may hold us and so enslave us that we shall love our chains and have no mind to sue for liberty that it will be very difficult which sometimes is called in Scripture Impossibility to shake off our fetters Sin gaining more power by its longer abode in us first binding us with it self and then with that delight and profit which it bringeth as golden chains to tye us faster to it self and then with its continuance with its long reign which is the strongest chain of all But yet empti estis Christ hath laid down the price and bought us and freed us from this dominion hath taken away the strength of Sin that it can neither kill us nor detain us as its slaves and prisoners There is a power proceedeth from him which if we make use of as we may neither Death nor Sin shall have any dominion over us a power by which we may break those chains of darkness asunder Look up upon him with that faith of which he was the authour and finisher and the victory is ours Bow to his Sceptre and the Kingdom of Sin and Death is at an end For though he hath bought us with a price yet he put it not into the hands of those fools who have no heart but laied it down for those who will with it sue out their freedom in this world For that which we call liberty is bondage and that which we call bondage is freedom Rom. 6.20 When we were the servants of sin we were free from righteousness and we thought it a glorious liberty But this Liberty did enslave us Prov. 10.24 For that which the wicked feared shall come upon him They that built the tower of Babel did it that they might not be scattered and they were scattered say the Rabbies in this world and in the world to come So whilest men pursue their unlawful desires that they may be free by pursuing them they are enslaved enslaved in this world and in the world to come But let us follow the Apostle But now being made free from sin Rom. 6.22 you are servants unto God See here a service which is liberty and liberty which is bondage the same word having divers significations as it is placed And let us sue out Liberty in its best sense in foro misericordiae in the Court of Mercy Behold here is the price the bloud of Christ And you have your Charter ready drawn If the Son make you free John 8.36 Acts 16. that is buy you with a price ye shall be free indeed Which words are like that great earthquake when Paul and Sylas prayed and sung Psalms At the very hearing of them the foundation of Hell shaketh and every mans chains are loosed For every man challengeth an interest in the Son and so layeth claim to this freedom Every man is a Christian and so every man free The price is laid down and we may walk at liberty It fareth with us as with men who like the Athenians hearken after news Whilest we make it better we make it worse and lose our Charter by enlarging it But if we will view the Text we may observe there is one word there which will much lessen this number and point out to them as in chains who talk and boast so much of freedom And it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye shall be free indeed not in shew or persuasion For Opinion and Phansie will never strike off these chains but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really substantially free and indeed not free 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in appearance or in a dream which they may be whose damnation sleepeth not Many persuade themselves into an opinion they call it an Assurance of freedom when they have sold themselves Many sleep as S. Peter did between the two souldiers bound with these chains Many thousands perish in a dream build up to themselves an assurance which they call their Rock and from this rock they are cast down into the bottomless pit and that which is proposed as the price of their liberty hath been made a great occasion to detain them in servitude and captivity which is the more heavy and dangerous because they call it Freedom Therefore we must once more look back upon that place of S. John and there we shall find that they shall be free whom the Son maketh free So that the reality and truth of our freedom dependeth wholly upon his making us free If he make us free if we come out of his hand formed by his Word and transformed by the virtue of the price he gave for us then we shall be free indeed If we have been turned upon his wheel we shall be vessels of honour And now it will concern us to know aright what the meaning of his buying is and the manner how he maketh us free 1 Cor. 7.23 By Purchase by buying us with a price and so it is here Col. 2.14 By Taking away the hand-writing which was against us and nailing it to his cross Eph. 5.2 By Satisfaction being made a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God for us But then also
presently be your master These bodies of ours are at the best but Gibeonites And if we come to terms of truce with them it must be but as Joshua did with the Gibeonites that they may be our bond slaves hewers of wood and drawers of water our Almoners to distribute our bounty our servants to bear our burthens to sweat to smart to pine away that the Soul may be in health For what was noted of Caligula is true of our Body It is the worst master and the best servant And as S. Paul at first was the greatest persecutor of the Gospel of Christ yet afterwards proved the greatest propagator and preacher of it so the Body that presseth down the soul may be disciplined and taught to lift it up to carry it along to act with it in the way of righteousness That Body which is a prison may be a theatre for the Mind to shew it self in all its proper operations That Body which is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sepulchre of a dead soul may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Temple wherein we may offer up sacrifices of a sweet-smelling savour unto the Lord. That Body in which we dishonoured God stood out against him and defied him may bow and fall down before him and glorifie him When the Body is subject to the Soul the Sense obedient to Reason and the Will of man guided by the supreme rule the Will of God not swerving either to the right hand or the left then every string is in its right place then every touch every action is harmonious then there is order which indeed is the glory of the God of Order In the third place as the Body is thus hewed and squared and made up a Temple of God so is it also made fit to be a sacrifice When it is purged and disciplined and subdued then is it best qualified for that lavacrum sanguinis to enter the laver of persecution and to be baptized with its own bloud and being now taken out of the mouth of the roaring Lion by the same power to tread him under foot nec solùm evadere sed devincere and not onely to escape his paws but to overcome him Let us phansie as we please an easie passage to the Tree of life we shall find there is a flaming sword still betwixt us and it Let us study to make our wayes smooth and plain to Happiness yet we are all designati martyres no sooner Christians then culled out and designed to Martyrdom And if there were no other prison yet the world it self is one and we are sometimes brought out to be spit upon sometimes as Samson to make men sport sometimes to be stripped and not pitied sometimes to the block or to the fire sometimes to fight with beasts with men more savage then they Our prison is not so much our custody as our punishment and we are in a manner thrown out of it whilest we are in it and whilest we are in it we suffer For to glorifie God is to speak the truth of him and to speak the truth of him many times costeth us our tongues and our lives John Baptist may speak many things to Herod and Herod may give him the hearing but if to the glory of God he tell Herod that truth which above all it concerneth him to know this at the first shall lose John his liberty and at the last his head Nay our Saviour Jesus Christ to discharge his message faithfully to bear witness to the Truth and glorifie his Father must be content to lay down his life The Truth of God by which he is most glorified like the Tyrant's fiery furnace scorcheth and burneth up those that profess it hominem martyrem excudit forgeth and fashioneth the man into a Martyr He that endureth to the end glorifieth God and is glorified himself Nec aliud est sustinere in finem quà m pati finem To endure to the end is nothing else but to endure the end We all speak it often Glory be to thee O Lord and the calves of our lips are a cheap and easie sacrifice For we speak it in the habitations of peace But should we hear the noise of the whip should Persecution rush in with a sword in her hand Deficient vires nec vox nec verba sequentur our heart would fail us and we should not have a word to speak for the Glory of God Would any take in Truth and Sword and all into his bowels Would we so glorifie God as to lay our Honour and Life in the dust We do not well consider what the Glory of God is and yet it is the language of the whole world and the worst of men speak it as well as the best the Hyeocrite loudest of all You may hear it from the mouth of the bloud-thirstty man and it is more heard then his Murther which maketh the greatest noise in the other world But it is not done in a word or a breath For then God might have a MAGNIFICAT from Hell Even the Devils may cry Jesus thou Son of the living God It is not to enter his house with praise and his courts with thanksgiving No not to comprehend with all Saints what is the length and heighth and depth and breadth of his Greatness to know that it is in breadth immense in height most sublime in length eternal in depth unfoordable No not to suck out ubera beata praeconii as Cassiodore calleth the Psalms those breasts which distill nothing but praise No A MAGNIFICAT an EXSULTATE a Triumph a Jubilee will not reach it Then we truly glorifie God in our body when we do it openly when Persecution rageth when the fire flameth in our face when the Sword is at our very breasts Then to speak his glory when for ought we know it may be the last word we shall speak to profess his name in the midst of a crooked and froward generation to defend his Truth before Tyrants and not be ashamed to be true Prophets amongst a thousand false ones to suffer for his name's sake this is to glorifie him in our body And these three Chastity Temperance Patience present our bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is our reasonable service For good reason it is that we should be chaste for he is pure that we should fast and afflict our bodies for it is a lesson which he taught us himself in our flesh that we should offer up our bodies for him whose body was nailed to the cross for us A chaste body a subdued body a body ready to be offered up is his Temple indeed the place where his glory dwelleth And now we pass to a fourth the Glorifying God by those outward Expressions which are commanded by the Spirit but performed by the Body alone glorifying of him by our Voice and Gesture and reverent Deportment by our outward Worship And indeed if the three first were made good we need not be
in spirit and truth But this they cannot do together but in some place and the Spirit which breatheth upon the Church will not blow it down nor the place where they meet who make up a Church We remember also that S. Paul enjoyneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that men pray every where 1 Tim. 2.8 But those words carry not any such tempest with them as to overthrow the houses of the Lord. S. Basil who had as clear an eye and as quick an apprehension as any that age or after-ages have afforded could spy no such meaning in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he doth not take-in those places which are deputed to humane and profane uses but extendeth and dilateth the worship of God beyond the narrow compass of Jerusalem to every place in the whole world It is written that all shall be Priests of God but yet it is not meant that all shall exercise the Priests office I am ashamed to exercise my self against rotten posts set up by wanton and malicious men which will fall to the dust to nothing of themselves and to spend my time and pains to beget a good opinion of the house of God in their minds who know not what to think or what they would have who fear their own shadow which their ignorance doth cast and run from a monster of their own begetting the creation of a troubled or rather a troublesome spirit and an idle brain God then hath an House and he calleth it his Nor can he be guilty of a Misnomer And if it be God's then it is holy not holy as he is holy but holy because it is his Why startle we It is no ill-boding word that we should be afraid of it Donatus the Grammarian observeth Si ferrum nominetur in comoedia transit in tragoediam that but to name a Sword in a Comedie is enough to turn it into a Tragedie I know not whether that word have such force or no sure I am there is nothing in this word Holy why so much noise and tumult should be raised about it as if Superstition had crept in and were installed and inthroned in our Church The house of God is holy What need we boggle at it or what reason is there of fear when the lowest degree of charity might help us to conclude that it is impossible that he who calleth it so should mean that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. I ask Hebr. 12.14 Is it possible that this should ever enter into the heart of any man who is not out of his wits I will be bold to say Matth. 3.9 that God who can raise up children unto Abraham out of stones cannot infuse holiness into stones till they be made children of Abraham I dare not shorten his hand or lessen his power yet I may say His Power waiteth in a manner upon his Wisedome and He cannot do what becometh him not He cannot do what he hath said he never will do But when Stones are piled together and set apart for his service he himself calleth it his holy place because of the relation it beareth to his service and to holiness and in respect of the end for which it was set up Holy that is set apart from common use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 10.14 common and profane signifie the same in holy Writ So the Gentiles were common and profane and the Jews were holy that is culled and taken out from the rest of the world sanctified and set apart to the Lord. For as holy a people as they were how many of them did embrace that holiness which beautifieth the inward man and might make them like to the Holy one of Israel Again SANCTUM est ab hominum injuria munitum That which is holy is fenced from the injuries of men and the hand of Sacrilege Things thus holy God looketh upon as his with an eye of jealousie And as he gave charge concerning his Anointed so he doth concerning his House Psal 105.15 Nolite tangere Touch it not And he that toucheth it with a profane and sacrilegious hand toucheth the apple of his eye and if he repent not of his wickedness God will one day put him to shame for that low esteem he had of the place where his honour dwelleth Psal 16 8. It is the end which maketh it holy and to hinder it of its end is to profane it though the pretense be never so specious What is it then to laugh and jest at this name that we may pull it down in earnest Oh trust not to a pretense And if we lean upon it whilest we deface the house of God it will fail and deceive us and our fall will be the greater for our support we shall fall and be bruised to pieces our punishment shall be doubled and our stripes multiplied first for doing that which is evil and then for taking in that which is good to make it an abettour and assistant to that which is evil which is to bring in God pleading for Baal and to suborn Religion to destroy it self Oh why do men boast in their shame What happiness can it be to devour holy things Prov. 20.25 and then be caught in that snare which will strangle them To dance in the ruines of the Church and then sink to hell Time was Beloved when this was counted an holy language and holy men of God and blessed Martyrs of Christ spake it Then it was not superstition but great devotion And no other language was heard almost till the dayes of our grandfathers But then Covetousness under the mask of false Zele which was rather burning then hot and carried with it more rage then charity swallowed up this Devotion in victory led it in triumph disgraced and vilified it and gave it an ill name Then the Devil shewed himself in the colours of light and did more mischief then if he had appeared as a roaring Lion Then the very name of holy was a good argument to beat down a Temple which must down for this because it was called so Before this There were Holy Means and they were called so the Word Prayer Sacraments Ecclesiastical Discipline and for the applying of these Means to the end for which they were ordained there were Holy Times when and Holy Persons by whom they were to be administred and there were Holy Places too or else the rest were to no purpose And holy things S. Paul calleth them 1 Cor. 9.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy things out of the holy place All these are so linked together as a chain that you cannot sever them For neither can there be Holiness without fit means nor Means administred without fit Persons nor Persons do their office but in a fit Place Holiness indeed is properly inherent in none but God Angels and Men in God essentially in the blessed Spirits and Men by participation as far as their
happiness He taketh not away the first but he doth establish the second Briefly then we may observe these two parts 1. the Womans attestation 2. Christ's reply the Womans dictor and Christ's In the first Wisdome is justified of one of her children against all the gainsayings of the Jews and contradiction of sinners to the second Wisdome her self pointeth out to true happiness openeth her treasuries to all who will receive her instructions and proclaimeth an everlasting jubilee to those who hear the word of God and keep it In the handling of the former part we shall pass by these steps First we will point out the Occasion of the speach As he spake these things it came to pass Next we will take notice of the Person who took hold of the occasion and made so good use both of Christ's miracles and doctrine We find no name at all but some upon no ground conjecture that it was Martha's maid The Text saith no more but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain woman of the company but one of a multitude and that an unknown obscure woman not those learned clerks the Scribes and Pharisees Thirdly we shall propose to your Christian imitation the vehemencie and heat of her Affection Her heart was hot within her and the fire burned and at last it brast forth into a pure flame and she spake with her tongue She did not conceal and suppress her thoughts nor whisper them into the ear of a stranger but lift up her voice that the deadliest enemies of Christ even the Pharisees might hear Lastly we will weigh and consider the speach it self Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps that thou hast sucked and tender it to you as near as we can in its full weight And all these particulars will amount to this sum That a poor silly woman saw more of the excellencie of Christ then did all the Doctors and Masters of Israel These materials our first part affordeth us to work upon Now as the Woman from what she had heard and seen took occasion to magnifie Christ so from her affection and free testimony Christ taketh occasion further to instruct her Blessed is the womb that bare thee saith the Woman Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it saith Christ Which maketh our second part Wherein we shall consider 1. the Form 2. the Matter and Substance of the words For the Form some would have the words adversative others meerly affirmative Some place them in opposition to the Womans affection Others too jealous of that honour which is given to the blessed Mother of Christ make them a plain and naked affirmation willing rather that Christ's words should want of their weight then that one jote or tittle of the Womans honour should fall to the ground I will not be too solicitous to take up the quarrel between them nor indeed is it worth the while The very first words Yea rather make it plain that the Womans Blessed was defective and wanted weight aad therefore Christ who is the Wisdome of the Father filleth it up He doth not which is the best kind of redargution with any bitterness deny what she saith but by a gentle corrective setteth her at rights She commendeth and magnifieth a corporal he preferreth a spiritual birth For as there is fructus ventris the fruit of the womb so is there partus mentis a conception and birth of the mind We conceive Christ by our hearing the word but when we keep it Christ is fully formed in us and we bring forth fruit meet for repentance The Woman then commendeth one birth and Christ enjoyneth another and as Socrates taught his scholars so our Saviour leadeth the Woman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from like to like from the admiration of a temporal to the knowledge of the spiritual birth from one Blessedness to another And thus the matter and substance of Christ's words affordeth us these three things 1. conceptum a kind of Conception by hearing of the word 2. partum a kind of Birth or Bringing-forth by keeping it 3. gaudium Joy after the delivery not temporal but spiritual even that Blessedness which every good Christian is as capable of as the Mother of Christ and which is laid up not onely for her who bare him in her womb but also for all those who keep him in their heart Yea rather saith Christ blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it These be the parts of my Text and of these in order Blessed is the womb that bare thee c. saith the Woman And that which occasioned and moved her thus to lift up her voice was the power of Christ's Works and Words When she saw him mighty in both when she saw the wonders that he wrought and how mightily he convinced the Scribes and Pharisees when he had confirmed his doctrine by miracles and his miracles by reason she plainly discovered the finger by which they were wrought and without any further deliberation she pronounceth him a most divine and excellent person To cure diseases with a word or with a touch to cast out devils to raise the dead could not proceed from any other power then his who doth whatsoever he will both in heaven and in earth And to this end it hath pleased God to give testimony to his truth as it were by a voice from heaven that we might believe and acknowledge that truth for the confirmation whereof such things were wrought before the sun and the people as none but God can do For what our Saviour speaketh of that voice from heaven which was as thunder John 12.28 29 30. is most true of this outward testimony This voice from heaven cometh not because of Him but for our sakes who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 24.25 slow of heart to believe and will not be induced to subscribe to the truth unless we see it written with the sun-beams unless it be made plain and manifest by signs and wonders Jo. 4.48 And such a plain and clear testimony the Jew had need of For all changes especially of Religion are with difficulty it being proper to men to be jealous of every breath as of an enemy if it blow in opposition to ought they have already received and though it be the truth to suspect it because it breatheth from a contrary coast And therefore he that will remove the mind from that which it hath once laid hold on and wherein it is already settled must bring with him more then ordinary motives and inducements even such as may work a kind of conquest upon the Understanding Now the end of Christ's coming was to make such a change to alter what long-before had been established by God himself to rent the veil of the Temple in twain to abolish the law of Ceremonies which God by the hand of Moses had given vetera concutere to sound the trumpet and with it to shake
speak of him before tyrants and not be ashamed then he hath cast out a spirit which was dumb But I rather keep me to the words of the Text As he spake these things Doth he not still speak the same things Hebr. 13.8 Jesus Christ is yesterday and to day and the same for ever Nec refert saith the Father per quem sed quid à quo It is not material whose tongue is made use of so it be Christ that speaketh these things And how often doth he speak these things But where is the FACTUM EST that which cometh to pass is scarcely discernable Auditis laudatis Ye hear him speak and perhaps ye commend him Deo gratias God be thanked for that yet But when this is done nothing cometh to pass Semen accipitis verba redditis Ye receive the seed of the Word and all the harvest vve see is but weeds We see it not in the extension of your hands in the largeness of your alms in the lifting up of your hands in your devotion at prayers we see it not in your reverence meekness and patience Well saith the Father Toleramus illae tremimus inter illa We suffer it and tremble at it Your words are but leaves it is fruit and encrease that we require Be not deceived Every good lesson should be unto you as a miracle to move you to give sentance for Christ against the Pharisees and all the enemies he hath against the Pride that despiseth him the Luxury that defileth him that Disobedience that trampleth him under foot Every good motion for therein Christ speaketh to us should beget a resolution every resolution a good work every good work a love of goodness and the love of goodness should root and stablish and build us in the faith In a word every DIXIT of Christ's should be answered with a FACTUM EST from us every work every word of his should be a sufficient motive and a fair occasion to us to magnifie the power of the Speaker in our souls and in our bodies and with this Woman here in the very face of the enemie in the midst of all the noise Detraction can make to lift up our voice and give testimony unto Christ who is so powerful both in word and deed And so I pass from the Motive and Occasion to the Person who from what she saw and heard gave this free attestation A certain woman of the company Here are two circumstances that may seem to weaken and infringe the testimony and take from the credit of the miracle 1. that she was a Woman and 2. that she was but one of the multitude S. Gregory will tell us MVLIER tam pro infirmitate ponitur quà m pro sexa That this word Woman in Scripture sometimes noteth the Sex and sometimes signifieth Infirmity And in the antient Comedians Mulier es is a term of reproch For as the Schoolman hath observed foeminarum aviditas pertinacior in affectu fragilior in cognitione The affections of Women commonly outrun their understanding and they are then most in flame when they have least light Again this circumstance That she was but one of the multitude might have been laid hold on by the Pharisees as an argument against Christ Might they not have reviled her as they did the man who was born blind and received his sight and said unto her Thou art but one Joh. 9.34 and dost thou teach us But such is the nature of Truth that it can receive no prejudice but will prevail against all contradiction though it have but one witness and find no better champion then a Woman Suis illa contenta est viribus nec spoliatur vi suâ etiamsi nullum habeat vindicem saith Arnobius She resteth upon her own basis and is content with her own strength which she cannot lose though she find no undertaker Truth doth not fail though a Pharisee oppose it but is of strength sufficient to make the weakest of its champions conquerer For the foolishness of God is wiser then men 1 Cor. 1.25 and the weakness of God is stronger then men Neither Number nor Sex hath so much power upon Truth as to alter its complexion Whether they be many or few weak or strong that profess it Truth is still the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one and the same hue and colour Gen. 49.19 As it was said of Gad A troop may overcome it may silence and suppress it for a while but it shall overcome at the last Yet a conceit hath possessed the world That there is a kind of virtue or magick in Number and the Truth breatheth onely in those quarters where there are most voices to proclaim it And many are so bewitched that they think it a gross absurdity for one man in the defense of Truth to stand up against a multitude and they will make this advocate because he is but one an argument against the Truth What would these men have thought of Christ had they seen him among the Pharisees or heard the shout of the people crying aloud John 18.40 Not this man but Barabbas Indeed neither the Paucity nor the Number of professours is an argument to demonstrate the Truth These pillars do not support her We have rather great reason to suspect the doctrine that is cryed up by the voice and humme of the multitude I have much wondred that they who talk so much of the Church have made this a note and mark whereby we may know it For experience hath sufficiently taught us that were it to put to the vote of the multitude we should scarce have any face of a Church at all It never went so well with the world that the most should be best Therefore S. Hierome is peremptory that multitude of associates demonstrate rather an Heretick then a Catholick We may be then well content to hear the Church of Rome boast and triumph that she hath enlarged her dwelling and spred her self from one end of the world unto the other and to lay it as an imputation upon us that our number is so small that we scarce are visible sed illos Defendit numerus junctaeque umbone phalanges The whole world is theirs praeter Italian Hispaniam totam All Italy and all Spain is theirs And besides these and many other Kingdomes which the Cardinal reckoneth up they may take-in the New world for advantage An happiness which we hereticks cannot hope for Non enim debet nunc incipere Ecclesia crescere cùm jam senuerit saith he For the Church cannot encrease now she is old and hide-bound and past growth Who would ever have thought that so sick and lothsome meditations should have dropped from so learned a pen Might not the antient Hereticks have taken-up the same plea when the whole world as S Hierome speaketh was become Arian And himself confesseth that if one province alone hold the true faith that one province may be
and when she saw it she lift up her voice and said unto him Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps that thou hast sucked And so we descend to that which we proposed in the third place the vehemency and heat of her Affection which could not contein it self in her heart but brake forth at her mouth And herein we shall consider 1. That she spake 2. What she spake She lifted up her voice c. Matth. 12.34 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh saith our Saviour When that is full it cannot contein it self sed emanat in habitum eructat à conscientia in superficiem ut forìs inspiciat quasi supellectilem suam It evaporateth it self into the outward habit breaks forth into voice opens her shop and wares that she may behold her own provision and riches abroad Hence the Fathers call the motion of the mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circular by which the soul of man is carried from the object into it self where after some pause or rather upon the first impression she calls all her faculties together and then takes-in the members of the body and by them conveyeth her self to the very eye and ear and in a manner is both heard and seen It is so in evil and it is so in good Habent suas voces affectus Every affection hath its proper language and dialect If we be afraid we lift up our voice and cry Whither shall we fly If we grieve we break forth into threnodies and lamentations If we hope we ask How long How long If we be angry we breathe forth hailstones and coals of fire Se cùm nolit cor prodit The heart when it is full cannot but open it self and though it would conceal it self yet it must vent The angry man speaks nothing but swords and challenges Gen. 4.8 the language of Cain For so the Septuagint to make the sense plain adde this clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us go into the field Where S. Peter giveth the character of profane and unclean persons amongst other marks he setteth this is as one that they have eyes full of adultery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full of the adulteress as if they carried her about in their very eyes and had alwayes her image before them and therefore must needs speak swelling words of vanity 2 Pet. 2.14.18 The covetous person converseth with Gold as with his God he speaks of it he dreams of it he commits idolatry with it dum tacet hoc loquitur when he is silent he talks of it within himself In every place of Scripture Wickedness is brought forth not onely with a hand but with a tongue 2 Sam. 13.11 Come lye with me my Sister saith Amnon Give Prov. 30.15 Prov. 1.14 Wisd 2.8 Give saith the Covetous Come let us cast in our lots together saith the wicked Let us crown our selves with rose-buds say they Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And so it is in the wayes of Goodness First it fills the heart then it makes the tongue as the pen of a ready writer First it speaks within us and then we preach it on the house-top My heart is prepared O God my heart is prepared saith David Psal 57.7 And then it follows I will sing and give praise First his heart is full and then he speaks to his glory his Tongue to awake And Psal 45.1 v. 8. My heart hath endited a good matter ERVCTAVIT or EBVLLIIT My heart hath fryed or boyled a good matter A similitude taken from the meat-offering or mincah in the Law which was dressed in the pan First it is but prepared in the Prophets heart Lev. 2.5 and then grace is powred out in his lips by which he presenteth it For we sacrifice our voice to God as we do our bodies saith Nazianzene When the Priests and the Sadduces did straitly threaten the Apostles Acts 4.17 18. v. 20. that they should speak thenceforth no more in the name of Christ Peter and John answered We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is impossible as the Law calls that impossible which ought not to be done Nay it cometh near to a physical impossibility it is almost impossible in nature to love the truth and not to publish it 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ constraineth us saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are in travel as it were with the Truth and long to be delivered It is a grievous thing for a man at liberty to be bound and one would think the same fetters would serve for the Feet and Hands and tongue and tye them up all at once yet saith S. Paul I suffer trouble as an evil doer 2 Tim. 2.9 even unto bonds but yet the word of God is not bound The mind is free and the tongue is free and I speak as boldly as if I were at liberty Such a symphony such a fair correspondence there is between the Heart and the Tongue that they send up the same hymne and song of praise unto God The love of the truth turneth the heart and the heart the tongue Inter cor linguam totum salutis humanae genitur sacramentum saith Chrysologus Between these two the business of our salvation moveth and is carried about For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness Rom. 10.10 and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation For what is faith in the heart if it have no tongue nor hand The Father calls it a sacrament or mystery for a divine power is the midst of them The Heart speaks unto God for he understands the language of our thoughts The Mouth and the Tongue satisfie men Or to speak truly they must joyn together both for the service of God and edification of men for on these two as on two golden hinges not onely Faith but Charity and all those other vertues which encircle and compass her about as with a crown hang and turn about in that order and glory which is delightful to God to Angels to men And this is the advantage that Love hath of Knowledge Knowledge may be idle and unactive but Love is a restless thing and will call up and imploy every part of the body and every faculty of the soul to compass its end Love is active and will pace it on where Knowledge doth but stand at gaze Knowledge doth not alwayes command our tongue nay many times we speak and act against our knowledge but who speaks against that which he doth love who will trample that under his feet Speculation may be but a look a cast of the eye of the Understanding and no more but Love hath already taken in the object and devoured it and made it one with the soul Knowledge many times begets but a purpose of mind a faint velleity a forced and involuntary approbation
but Love joynes the Will and the Tongue and the Hand together and indeed is nothing else but a vehement and well ordered will Knowledge may be but a dream but Love is ever awake up and doing 1 John 2.3 I may so know the truth that I may be said not to know it but I cannot so love the truth that I may be said to hate it For though the Scripture sometimes attributeth knowledge of the truth to them who so live as if they knew it not yet it never casts away the pretious name of Love on those who so live as if they loved it not A Pharisee an hypocrite may know the truth but it was never written that they loved it but that they loved the praise of men more then of God And this was the reason that they had eyes and saw not eares and heard not nor understood that they had tongues and spake not that they would not be perswaded when they were convinced and withstood the truth when they were overcome In a word Knowledge may leave us like unto the idoles of the heathen with hands that handle not and mouths that speak not Love onely emulateth the power of our Saviour and works a miracle casts out the spirit which is dumb For when he spake these things not the Pharisees but a woman of the company lift up her voice And thus her heart was truly affected and she lift up her voice As the Prophet speaks Jer. 20.9 The Love of Christ was in her heart as a burning fire shut up in her bones and she was weary of forbearing and she could not stay It was like that coal of the Seraphins which being laid on her mouth Isa 6.7 she spake with her tongue Now in the next place what was it that begat her love but the admiration of Christs person his power and his wisdome This was it which kindled that heat within her which broke out at her lips Plato calls Admiration the beginning of Philosophy We admire and dwell upon the object and view it well till we have wrought the Idea of it in our minds Whence Clemens citeth this saying out of the Gospel according to the Hebrew Qui admiratus fuerit regnabit qui regnabit requiescet He that at first admires that which to him is wonderful shall at last reign and he that reigns shall be at rest shall not waver or doubt or struggle formidine contrarii with fear that the contrary should be true and that that which he saw should be but a false apparition and a deception of the sight This woman here saw and wondred and loved she saw more then the Pharisees to whom a sign from heaven appeared in no fairer shape then the work of Beelzebub She saw Christs miracles were as his letters of credence that he came from God himself She had heard of Moses and his miracles but beholds a greater then Moses here For 1. Christs miracles breathed not forth horrour and amazement as those of Moses did in and about the mountain of Sinon Nor 2. were they noxious and fatal to any as those which Moses wrought in Pharaohs court and in Aegypt He did not bring in tempest and thunder but spake the word and men were healed He did not bury men alive but raised men out of their graves He brought upon men no fiery serpents but he cast out devils If he suffered the devils to destroy the hogs yet he tyed them up from hurting of men and what is a Hog to a Man In a word Moses's miracles were to strike a terrour into the people that he might lead them by fear but Christs were to beget that admiration which might work love in those whom he was to lead with the cords of men with the bonds of love All Christs miracles were benefits Acts 10.38 For he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed with the devil for God was with him Christs miracles were above the reach and power of Nature Nature had no hand in the production of any of them All that we vvonder at are not Miracles not an Eclipse of the Sun vvhich the common people stand amazed at because they know not the cause of it Nor is that a Miracle vvhich is besides the ordinary course of Nature For then every Monstre should be a Miracle Nor that vvhich is done against Nature for so every child that casteth a stone up into the air doth vvork a Miracle But that is a Miracle vvhich is impossible in Nature and vvhich cannot be vvrought but by a supernatural Hand 2. Christs miracles vvere done not in a corner but before the sun and the people This Woman here heard the dumb speak she savv the blind see the lame go and the lepers cleansed Miracles vvhen they are wrought are not the object of our faith but of our sense They are signs and tokens to confirm that which we must believe 3. Christs miracles were done as it were in an instant With a touch at a word he cured diseases which Nature cannot do though helpt by the art of the Physician All the works of Nature and of Art too are conceived and perfected in the womb of Time 4. Last of all Christs miracles were perfect and exact When he raised Jairus's daughter Luke 8.55 he presently commanded them to give her meat When he cured Peters wives mother forthwith she was so strong that she arose and ministred unto them Matth. 8 1â— He gave his gifts in full measure nor could more be desired then he gave And shall not these miracles and these benefits appear wonderful in our eyes Shall not his Power beget Admiration and Admiration Love and Love command our voice Shall a woman see his wonders and shall we be as blind as the Pharisees Shall she lift up her voice and shall we still keep in us the devil that is dumb It came to pass as he did and spake these things a certain woman of the company lift up her voice and said And now we should pass to what she said but I see the time passeth away Let us therefore make some use of what hath already been said and so conclude And first let us learn from this woman here to have Christs wonderful works in remembrance to look upon them with a stedfast and a fixed eye that they may appear unto us in their full glory and fill us with admiration For Admiration is a kind of voice of the soul Miracula obstupuisse dixisse est saith Gregory Thus Silence it self may become vocal and truly to wonder at his works is to profess them This motion of the heart stirred up with reverence to the ears of the uncircumscribed Spirit is as the lifting up of the voice which speaks within us by those divers and innumerable formes and shapes of admiration which are the inward expressions of the soul When the soul is in an ecstasie when it is transported and wrapt up above it self
proceeded to the attaining of it The Stork in the air knoweth her appointed times Jer. 8.7 and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their coming Pliny speaking of the Bees telleth us Quod maximè mirum est mores habent A wonderful thing it is to see that natural honesty and justice which is in them Onely Man the soveraign Lord of all the creatures whom it most principally concerned to be thus endowed was sent into the world utterly devoid of any such knowledge nisi alienâ misericordiâ sustinere se nequit as Ambrose speaketh and without forein and borrowed help never so much as getteth a sight of his own proper end Amongst natural men none there are in whom appetite is so extinct but that they see something which they propose unto themselves as a scope of their hopes and reward of their labours and in the obtaining of which they suppose all their happiness to reside Yet even in this which men principally incline to direction is so faulty particulars so infinite that most sit down in the midst of their way and come far short of that mark which their hopes set up And if our Wisdom be so feeble and deficient in those things which are sensible and open to our view what laws what light what direction have we need of to carry us on in the way to that happiness which no mortal eye can approch Hannibal in Livy being to pass the Alps a thing that time held impossible yet comforteth himself with this Nullas terras coelum contingere nec inexsuperabiles humano generi esse That how high soever they were they were not so high as heaven nor unpassable if men were industrious The pertinacy of Man's industry may find waies through desarts through rocks through the roughest seas But our attempt is far greater The way we must make is from earth to heaven a thing which no strength or wit of man could ever yet compass Therefore Christ our King who knoweth Man to be a wandring and erring creature would not leave it to his shallow discretion who no sooner thinketh but erreth nor setteth down his foot but treadeth amiss but he cometh himself into the world promulgeth his Laws which may be to him as Tiresias his staff in the Poet able to guide his feet were he never so blind and in his Gospel he giveth him sound directions no way subject unto errour guideth him as it were with a bridle putteth his Law into his heart chalketh out his way before him and like a skilful Pilot sheweth him what course to take what Syrtes what rocks to avoid lest he make an irrecoverable shipwreck of body and soul His Laws are the Compass by which if he steer his course he shall pass the gulf and be brought to that haven where he would be 1 Pet. 2.9 Rom. 2. 6. Therefore hath Christ called us out of darkness into his wonderful light And we are the called of Jesus Christ gathered together into a Church an House a Family a City a Republick Our Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 municipatus as Tertullian rendreth it our Burgership is in heaven And the Philosopher will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that will erect a Society a Commonwealth must also frame Laws and fit and shape them to that form of Commonwealth which he intendeth For Lavvs are numismata Reipublicae the coins as it were by vvhich vve come to knovv the true face and representation of a Commonvvealth the different complexions of States and Societies And Christ our King hath dravvn out Laws like unto his Kingdom vvhich are most fit and appliable to that end for vvhich he hath gathered us into one body His sceptre is a sceptre of righteousness and his Laws are just He came down from heaven and his Laws carry us back thither He received them from his Father John 10.18 as himself speaketh and these make us like unto his Father These govern our Understanding nè assentiat that it yield not assent to that errour which our lusts have painted over in the shape of Truth and these regulate our Will nè consentiat that it do not bow and chuse it and these order our Affections that they may be servants and not commanders of our Reason These make a heaven in our Understanding these place the image of God in our Will and make it like unto his these settle peace and harmony in the Affections that they become weapons of righteousness and fight the battels of our King and Law-giver My Anger may be a sword my Love a banner my Hope a staff and my Fear a buckler In a word Christ's Laws will fit us for his Kingdom here and prepare us for his Kingdom hereafter Therefore in the next place they are necessary for us as the onely means to draw us nigh unto himself and to that end for which he came into the world Every end hath its proper means fitted and proportioned to it Knowledge hath study Riches have labour and industry Honour hath policy Even he that setteth up an end which he is ashamed of and hideth from the Sun and the people draweth a method and plot in himself to bring him to it The Thief hath his night and darkness and the Wanton his twilight And his hope entitleth and joyneth him to the end though he never reach it In the Kingdom of Satan there are rules and laws observed A thought ushereth in a Sin and one Sin draweth on another and at last Destruction And this is the way of that wisdome which is but foolishness And shall men work iniquity as by a law and can we hope to be raised to an eternity of glory and be left to our selves or to attain it by those means which hold no proportion at all with it Will the Gospel the bare Tidings of peace do it Will a phansie a thought a wish an open profession have strength enough to lift us up to it Happiness in phansie is a picture and no more In a wish it is less for I wish that which I would not have And barely to profess the means and acknowledge the way unto it is to give my self the lie nay to call my self a fool for what greater folly can there be then to say This is the way and not to walk in it If we were thus left unto our selves all our happiness were but a dream and every thought a sin against the holy Ghost We should wish our King neither just nor wise nor holy we should call him our King and leave him no sceptre in his hand no power to make a Law look forward toward the mark and run backward from it give Christ a Hail and crucifie him call an innocent Christ our King and be men of Belial an humble Christ and swell above our measure a merciful Christ and be cruel a just Christ and be oppressours hope to attain the end without the means and against
a bare and inefficacious knowledge that is here meant For who knoweth not the Gospel To whom hath not this arm of the Lord been revealed They that blaspheme it look upon it They that deny the power of it look upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implieth more not a naked knowledge but a knowledge with the bending and incurvation of the Will If a man say he looketh into the Gospel and knoweth Christ and keepeth not his commandments he is a liar 1 John 2.4 He that looketh but slightly looketh not at all or to as little purpose as if he had been blind He that saith he knoweth the power of the Gospel and yet is obedient to the flesh and the lusts thereof is a liar and the truth is not in him For how can one at once look into the Gospel and see the glory of it and despise it What a Soloecism is the Gospel in his mouth who is yet in his sins It is not a looking but a looking into not speculative but practick knowledge that must bring on the end and crown us with blessedness It were better not to look on the Gospel then to look and not to like better to be blind then so to see for if we were blind we should have no sin that is none so great we should have some excuse for our sin Carelesly to look on the Law of liberty is not a window to let in Religion but a door and barricado to keep it out of the heart For what a poor habitation is a Look for the Gospel and Grace to dwell in The Gospel is a royal Law and a Law of Liberty Liberty from the guilt and from the dominion of sin We look upon it and are content well it should be so We know it and subscribe to it But if this would make us Gospellers what an assembly of Pharisees and Hypocrites what a congregation of men of Belial might be the true Disciples of Christ I had almost said What a Legion of Devils might go under that name We look into the Gospel and talk of nothing more In our misery and affliction in anguish and distress of conscience we confess the Gospel must charm the storm and give medicine to heal our sickness Thus we preach and thus have you believed But all this is nothing if you do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bow and bend and apply your selves to the Gospel If you acknowledge its all-sufficiency and trust in the arm of flesh If when the tempest of affliction beateth upon you you make a greater tempest in your souls If ye look and go away and forget by such neglectful looking upon it ye make the word of life a killing letter For what is it to see Sin condemned in Christ's flesh and to justifie it in our own to sing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that triumphant song over Death and wilfully to run upon that disobedience of which Death is the wages to see Satan trod under our feet and yet to make our selves his slaves to look upon Life and yet to chuse Death to look upon a Law and break it upon a Law of Liberty and be servants of Sin worse then bored slaves To look then into the Law of liberty is so to weigh and consider it as to write it in our hearts and make it a part of our selves For every Look will not make a Christian The Jews did look upon Christ but they did not look upon him as the Lamb of God for then they had not butchered him We may look upon the heavens the work of God's fingers upon the Moon and the stars which he hath ordained upon this wonderful frame Rom. 1 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which may be known of God but we do not alwayes as David speaketh so look upon it as to consider it And then it doth not raise us up to a due admiration of God's Majesty nor bring us down to a due acknowledgment of our Subjection We are no more affected with it then as if all were still without form and void a lump or Chaos At first it is a glorious sight and no more and at last when we have familiarly looked upon it it is nothing We look upon our selves mouldering and decaying and yet we do not look into our selves for who considereth himself a mortal Dives in purple never thought how he came into the world nor how he should go out of it We neither look backward to what we were made nor forward to what we shall be Can a rich man die He will say he shall but doth he believe himself Can Herod an Angel a God be struck with worms We die daily and yet think we shall not die at all In a word We are any thing but what we are because we do not look into nor consider our selves We look upon Sin and condemn it and sin again For we do not look into it and consider it as the work of the Devil as the deformity of the Soul as a breach of that Law of liberty which was made to free us as that which hath no better wages then death and eternal separation from the God of life If we did look into it and consider it we could not commit it For no man ever yet did considerately destroy himself What then is it to look into the Law of liberty and in what is our Consideration placed He that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them saith our Saviour is he that looketh into this Law and observeth it He hath an Evangelical eye I may say an Angelical eye for he boweth and inclineth himself to see And no man hath a clear eye but he that doeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth a firm purpose of Doing which is to look into We must distinguish between an active and a Contemplative look or assent Then we look into this Law then we actively assent when we have first considered what difficulties accompany this Law what fightings within and terrours without what a body of sin we carry about with us what pleasing what black temptations are ready to meet us at every turn what enemies we have abroad and what in our own bosom how not onely the way but our feet also are slippery Then we must consider that eternal weight of glory which Christ hath promised to those who are obedient to this Law And then exactly observe that certain and inseparable connexion which is between this Law and Blessedness that if the one be observed the other must naturally and necessarily follow that if we be true Gospellers here we shall be Saints hereafter If this be looked into and rightly considered as it should the Will must needs bow and be obedient to this Law which as it is compassed with difficulty so it leadeth to happiness which bringeth a span of trouble and an eternity of bliss From hence ariseth that Love of Christ and his Law which
treadeth under foot from fear of the Law when we should have no other law but Piety That which is born of the flesh is flesh saith our Saviour John 3.6 Nor can the flesh work in us a love to and chearfulness in the things of the Spirit The flesh perfecteth nothing contributeth nothing to a good work Nor doth any thing work kindly till it come to perfection Perfection and Sincerity work our joy In Scripture we find even inanimate and senseless things said to be glad when they attain unto and abide in their natural perfection a Ps 19.5 The Sun is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoyceth as a strong man to run a race b Ps 65.12 â—3 The little hills rejoyce on every side The valleys are covered over with corn they shout for joy they also sing Prata rident So Solomon c Prov. 13.9 The light of the righteous rejoyceth because it shineth clear and continually The blessed Angels are in a state of perfection and their motion from place to place the Schools say is instantaneous and in a moment as sudden and quick as their will by which they move Therefore they are drawn out with wings Isa 6. and said to go forth like lightning Which signifieth unto us their alacrity speed in executing all God's commands Their constant office is to be ready at his beck and they ever have the heavenly characters of his will before their eyes as a Father speaketh And such also will our activity and chearfulness be in devotion and the service of God if we be thus animated and informed as it were with the love thereof if our minds be shaped and configured to it as S. Basil saith If either the Word or the Sword either the power of the truth or calamity and persecution hath made it sweet unto us and stirred up in us an earnest expectation and longing after it then IBIMUS We will go go with chearfulness to the house of mourning and sit with those who are in the dust go to that Lazar and relieve him to that prisoner and visit him to our friends and counsel them to our enemies and reconcile them with the Jews here go to the Temple to the Church and pray for the Nation Joel 2.17 and say Spare thy people O Lord and give not thine heritage to reproch go and fall down and worship him yea go to the stake and dy for him Psal 39.3 When this fire burneth within us we shall speak with the tongue and that with a chearful accent IBIMUS We will go into the house of the Lord. And so we are fallen upon our last circumstance 5. The place of their devotion the house of the Lord. When a company go to serve the Lord they must needs go to some place For how can they serve him together but in a place Adam and his sons had a place Gen. 4.3 4. The Patriarchs had a place altars and mountains and groves In the wilderness the people of God had a movable Tabernacle And though Solomon said that a Acts 7.48 1 Kings 8.27 God dwelleth not in temples made with hands yet b Acts 7.47 Solomon that said so built him an house And the work was commended by God himself not onely when it was finished and brought to perfection but even while it was yet but in design and was raised no further then in thought The Lord said unto David 2 Chron. 6.8 Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for my name thou didst well in that it was in thine heart And when Christ came he blessed in this house prayed in it taught in it disputed in it he drove the profaners out of it he spake by his presence by his tongue by his gesture he giveth it its name and in a manner Christneth it Matth. 21.13 by calling it his house and the house of prayer For though he came to strike down the Law yet he came not to beat down right Reason Though he did disanull what was fitted but for a time as Sacrifices and all that busy and troublesome that ceremonious and typical Worship yet he never abolished what common reason will teach us is necessary for all ages How could he require that men should meet together and worship him if there were to be no place at all to meet in Or what needed an express command for that which the very nature of the duty enjoyneth and necessity it self will bring in He that enjoyneth publick worship doth in that command imply that there must be a certain publick place to meet in We hear indeed Christ saying to the Jews John 2.19 Destroy this Temple but it was to make a window in their breasts that they might see he knew their very hearts 21. He bid them do what they meant to do He spake of the Temple of his body saith the Text and they did destroy both his body and their own Temple For they who had nothing more in their mouthes then The Temple of the Lord Jer. 7.4 set fire on the Temple of the Lord with their own hands as Josephus relateth And so their Ceremonies had an end so their Temple was destroyed but not to the end that all Churches and places of publick meeting should be for ever buried in its ruines before they were built That house of the Lord was dissolved indeed but at the dissolution thereof there was no voice heard that did tell us vve should build no more in any other place The first Christians we may be sure heard no such voice For assoon as persecution suffered them to move their arms they were busy in erecting of Oratories in a plain manner indeed answerable to their present estate But when the favour of Princes shined upon them and their substance encreased they poured it out plentifully this way and founded Churches in every place Nor did they think they could lay too much cost upon them none counted that wast which was expended about so good a work They built sumptuous houses for God's worship and rejoyced and after-ages applauded it both by their words and practice they magnified it and did the like Such cost hath ever gone under the name of Piety and Devotion till these later times when almost all are ready with Judas to condemn Mary Magdelene for pouring forth her ointment John 12 3-6 Churches were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Houses of the Lord and so were esteemed and not Idole Synagogues not Styes till Swine entred into them and defiled them and holp to pull them down We know God dwelleth not in Temples made with hands Acts 7.48 17.24 nor can his infinite Majesty be circumscribed we remember and therefore need not to be told that Christ said to the woman of Samaria that the hour was coming when men should neither in that mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father John 4.21 23. but should worship him