can no longer continue powerful than God is pleas'd to be patient of him The roaring Lyon can no more hurt us without God's leave than the hungry Lyons could hurt Daniel or than hunger it self could hurt Elias or than the burning fiery Furnace could hurt the Three Loyal Iews who were cast into it Nay upon such as serve God the second Death has no power which yet is known to be so strong as to have power over the Devil For the time will one day come when God will tye him up close in his Chains of Darkness and will not suffer him any longer to dispose of any thing in the World much less of the Kingdoms and Glories of it But will sink him into the Depth for I cannot say the Bottom of the Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone Nay though the Devil was so impudent as to tempt our blessed Lord to the committing of Idolatry yet in saying All things are delivered to me he was seemingly so modest or else so weak as to confess that he has nothing which he has not received And that as great as he is he has one above him one to whom he is a Pris'ner one who as he can freely give so he can easily take away too one who does suffer but for a time what he will certainly revenge unto all Eternity In a word he does confess that all he has to dispose of is but derivative and precarious 'T is at the most but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if his own word were to be taken deliver'd to him by his Iudge the proper Owner of all the World to whom at last he is to render a sad and terrible Accompt § 13. Thus we see the Devil's words Luke 4. 6. have but a little Truth mixt with a world of Falshood Nothing is True in them but This That God does suffer or permit him to be many times liberal to such as serve him But now with This little Truth which is but sufficiently imply'd we have Three or Four Falshoods which are sufficiently express'd For first 't is false what he saith if it be literally taken That the Things of this World are Deliver'd to him For not to hinder or to permit or to suffer him to take and dispose of Things is very much less than to deliver or put them to him to dispose of even as much as to be passive must needs be less than to be active in whatsoever thing it is which is brought to pass 'T is true the Devil was permitted to take our Saviour not only once but again and to carry him whither he pleas'd too as first into The City and after That unto The Mountain But 't is false to say our Saviour was deliver'd up to Satan by God the Father Next 't is but figuratively true and therefore literally false That he gives the World's Kingdoms to such as serve him For being no more than an Usurper and therefore void of all right he is not properly said to Give but rather to procure them to all Usurpers Thirdly 't is false that he procures them to whomsoever he pleaseth which yet he confidently adds for he procures them no farther than God sees good to permit or suffer Last of all he saith falsly That ALL the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them are so much as permitted to his Disposal if he means all at once For God disposeth of many Kingdoms wherein he suffers not the Devil to have the least thing to do 'T was God alone who gave his People the Land of Canaan although the Devil took it from Them and helpt to procure it for the Assyrians 'T was God alone who gave Iob his store of Cattle although the Devil prompted his Labourers the Chaldaeans and Sabaeans to take them from him 'T was God alone who gave Naboth a pleasant Vineyard although the Devil by God's permission helpt Ahab to it 'T was God alone who gave a Kingdom or rather Three Kingdoms which made a World together with all the Glory of it to our late Martyr'd Soveraign of Glorious Memory although the Devil was permitted by the help of his Tools to bereave him of it In a word if it is true what is proverbially asserted and upon very good Grounds That half the World at the least does live by cheating all the rest and by imposing on one another Then is it easy to discern and to state the Difference betwixt the Right and the Possession of things on Earth betwixt the Blessings and the Curses convey'd to men by their Prosperities betwixt the Instruments or Bounties of God and Satan § 14. Having hitherto shew'd the Truth of my Proposition and withal clear'd it from the Objection I am next to give the Reasons at least as many as I can think of or can fairly conjecture at why God is pleas'd in this World to indure with so much patience so great a confusion upon the Earth and leaves to the Devil so great a power in the perverting and debauching the ways of men For whilst we look at nothing else but what is present and before us we seem to see nothing but Disorder in most Events under the Sun If none but good men did prosper and none but evil men miscarry A method then would be acknowledg'd and men would probably be better than now they are Of if all that are good were in Affliction and all that are evil in Prosperity still there would be some method however men in probability would be very much the worse for the knowledge of it But as now the world goes There seems to be no method at all Things fall out in such a blended promiscuous manner For though the wicked are found to prosper a great deal more than the righteous as has been shew'd yet 't is as clear that many righteous do also prosper with the wicked and many wicked ones even here are as much afflicted as the righteous In which respect it was said by the Royal Preacher That all things come alike to all There is one event to the wicked and to the righteous to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and him that sacrificeth not As is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an Oath The Race is not to the swift nor the Battle to the strong neither Bread to the Wise nor Riches to men of Understanding nor yet Favour to men of Skill but Time and Chance happeneth to them all In so much that some are tempted by the seeming Confusion of Events the Prosperities of the worst men and the Calamities of the Best to distrust the very Providence yea to suspect the very Iustice yea to deny the very Being of God Himself They think they are born at all adventure and that they shall dye as they are born That their spirits shall vanish into the Air and be as if they had never been § 15. Now
the Grace of God Almighty at our Disposal Can we confer it upon our selves that it should hear be said to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us have grace we cannot have grace till we receive it nor can we possibly receive it till God most freely bestows it on us What is this that he saith then let us have grace To answer this it must be known that in many places of Scripture Grace doth signifie the Gospel Whether as being the chief Instrument or Means of Grace or as containing and exhibiting the Covenant of Grace which does often stand oppos'd unto the Covenant of Works or else as being the great Message of Grace and Favour from Heaven to Earth Whether for these or for other Reasons so it is that the word Grace doth often signifie the Gospel especially then when 't is oppos'd unto the Law A clear Example of which we have Iohn 1. 17. The Law came by Moses but Grace and Truth from Iesus Christ that is The Gospel of Grace and Truth For there was truth in the Law as well as in the Gospel and grace was given unto the Iews as well as to the Gentiles of whom we are And therefore the meaning of it must be That as the Law came by Moses so the Gospel of grace came down from Heaven by Iesus Christ and so it is called by St. Paul Acts 20. 24. Another Instance of it we have Rom. 6. 14. We are not under the Law but under Grace that is the Gospel of Christ which is the Word of his Grace and so St. Paul calls it again Acts 20. 32. For it cannot be meant concerning the grace of Sanctification because even They were under that who were under the Law that was given by Moses else would Caleb and Ioshua and Moses himself have been void of Grace Which being eminently Impossible 't is plain the Gospel must be the thing which is there opposed unto the Law And as in other places of Scripture so particularly in This which now is under consideration the Grace of God is so set as to signifie nothing but the Gospel And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very often being put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Have it in this place is nothing else but to hold it fast So that the Scope of the Exhortation is that we hold fast the Gospel or Law of Christ described to be the Instrument whereby we may perform a Service acceptable to God But acceptable Service it cannot be unless attended with Fear and Reverence To wit with a reverence of his Mercy in the beginning of the Text and with a fear of his Wrath in the later end The Duty therefore is here inforced both before and behind and that with such Reasons as 't is not easy to resist For first the Reason going before is drawn from the richness of our Reward in case we serve God as he here requires And then the Reason coming behind is from the Grievousness of the Punishment in case we serve him not at all or not at all with due Reverence and godly Fear Our reward if we do is no less than a Kingdom and a Kingdom not to be moved But our punishment if we do not is to perish by the hand that should make us whole to feel the God of our life a consuming fire The one affords us an Allective whereby to draw us to the Duty the other an Impellent to drive us on It is the Wisdom and the Care of the holy Penman to place our Duty in the midst of a double motive that if the one cannot engage us the other may He begins with a Promise to feed our Hope and concludes with a Threat to excite our Fear The first as a Spur does provoke to Vertue the second as a Bridle withholds from Vice And he is sure a dull Beast whom such a Spur cannot excite or at least a very wild one whom such a Bridle cannot restrain The whole circuit of the Text being thus explain'd there are five things especially to be inferr'd First that the Liberty of a Christian doth carry its Yoke along with it It being a liberty from Moses but not from Christ the Condition of whose Gospel is our obedience unto the Law I do not mean the Mosaical whether Iudicial or Ceremonial which were but positive Laws at best but the Natural or Moral which is withal the Aeternal Law The Law of which our Saviour saith that he came not to abrogate but to fulfil it Not to evacuate but fill it up Rather to strengthen than to destroy it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us have Grace that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us hold fast the Gospel or Law of Christ. And let us hold it as an Instrument whereby to serve him And let us serve him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as our Persons and our Service may be accepted But yet Secondly we cannot Serve him so as to be accepted we cannot do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as to satisfy and please him in what we do unless we serve him with Reverence and godly Fear With a reverence of his Mercy whereby we are capable of a Kingdom and with a fear of his Wrath whereby he becomes a consuming fire So that the Reverence has a Retrospect on the beginning of the Text and the fear has a Prospect upon the End And therefore Thirdly here is a reason for each of these Qualifications by which our Service is to be such as to be accepted A reason why it must be with reverence and a reason why it must be with fear Let us serve God with reverence because thereby we receive a Kingdom a Kingdom of Grace and Glory too the first being as 't were an Inchoation of the second and Both as I conceive alluded to in this Text Again let us Serve him with godly fear Because he is else a consuming fire And then Fourthly it is obvious to infer even from hence that the Fear of God as a Destroyer may nevertheless be a godly fear because it is coupled here with Reverence and by consequence with love For Reverence is a Compound which hath love as well as fear for a chief Ingredient And the Fear here expressed by godly Fear is not only a fear of God's Power and Majesty in respect of which he is a Severaign who hath an absolute Do minion over the work of his hands nor only a fear of his love and mercy in respect of which he is a Father who by his Children must be revered but especially a Fear of his Wrath and Iustice in respect of which he is a Iudge and so an Executor of Vengeance It is a fear indeed of God but under the notion of a Consumer A fear enforced with a Reason all arm'd with terrour for nothing strikes terror so much as Fire Lastly a fear whereof the Terror is ushered in with the Causal For which shew's the Tendency of the Terror towards the
or Outsides were contiguous to the Earth yet their Commerce and Conversation was still in Heaven They were at once such a Free and such a Dreadful sort of Pris'ners as by their Liberty to pray and to sing praises unto God v. 25. may be said to have taken their Prison Captive For their Midnight Devotions were suddainly follow'd with an Earthquake in so much that the Foundations of the Prison were shaken the Doors flew open of themselves and the Bands of the Pris'ners were all unloos'd v. 26. Nor indeed is it a wonder that such a Miracle should be seen in so blind a Dungeon whilst the Pris'ners that were in it were Paul and Silas For These were two of that little number by whom the world had been turned upside down Acts 17. 6. not in that malitious sense in which the words were there us'd by the certain leud fellows of the baser sort who had assaulted the House of Jason and set the City in an uproar v. 5. They having turn'd it upside down not for the worse but for the better The Confusion which they made did tend to Harmony and Order They made men Antipodes to themselves by their contrary walking to what they hitherto had done And so in effect They turn'd a Chaos upside down more properly than a World Or if it must needs be call'd a world it was the world lying in wickedness 1 Joh. 5. 19. The world compos'd of three Ingredients which made it fit to be cleans'd by another Deluge For all that is in the world as the same St. Iohn saith is the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life And this alone was That world which by Precept and Example by Life and Doctrin these first Preachers of Christ were to turn upside down And this accordingly they did in a great many respects As in opening the Eyes of the Ignorant Gentiles and in mollifying the Hearts of the stubborn Iews and in breaking down the Partition-wall which God himself had built up betwixt the Iew and the Gentile They turn'd the world upside down by beating Swords into Plough-shares and warlike Spears into peaceful Pruning-hooks By making the Lamb to lye down with the Wolf and the Kid with the Hyaena By making Friendship and Peace between the Greek and the Iew as between the Iew and the Samaritan By turning Infidels into Believers Idolaters into Christians and the rebellious Sons of Darkness into Children of the Light Thus without Archimedes his Postulatum or Hypothesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as it is in the Dorick Dialect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an easy way was found out to turn the world upside down Sure I am that in my Text there was somewhat like it For Paul and Silas who were yesterday as the off-scowring of the Earth are now on a suddain entertain'd as two Inhabitants of Heaven They who yesterday had been drag'd both in their Persons and in their Names through the publick Market-place of Philippi v. 19. who had had their Cloaths rent and been beaten with Rods v. 22. who had been thrown into a Dungeon as a Couple of pernicious and insufferable men v. 24. are now revered and sought unto as the very Oracles of God That very Iailour who was yesterday putting their Feet into the Stocks and thrusting them into the inner Prison v. 24. is now awak'd by their Musick and stands affrighted at their Liberty and is ready to kill himself with his Sword for fear of dying by their Escape when being hinder'd by his Pris'ners from offering violence to Himself he even springs into their Presence with fear and trembling and by Faith coupl'd with Fear falls down prostrate at their Feet with this short Inquiry an Inquiry very plain but yet sufficiently mysterious and as copious in the sense as it is short in the letter What must I do that I may be saved Which is as if he should have said that I may paraphrase his words Seeing I cannot but acknowledge that the Doctrin you Teach is the Truth of God and the Truth of That God who now hath testified it by Miracle in shaking my Prison by its Foundations in compelling its Doors to do you Reverence and in making your Fetters afraid to hold you And seeing I cannot but acknowledge That such a God is to be served by every one who will be sav'd I beseech you Sirs inform me wherein his Service is to consist and how I may attain to so great Salvation It is not Silver or Gold or Security for your Persons that I demand I do not earnestly intreat you to confine your Heads within the Dungeon or to return your Feet into the Stocks though That is as much as my Life is worth But if there is any Thing in the World which you will do for my sake Tell me what I must do that I may be saved And here I am sorry that I must say what yet I must if I deal uprightly That we who pass for very prudent and sober Christians may very well be sent to School to this frighted Heathen We may learn from this Iailour in his time of exigence and distress how our Souls should be employ'd at our Times of leisure Not in progging for Riches or worldly Greatness asking what we must do to get a fortune when we have none or to increase it when it is gotten or to keep it when 't is increas't or to recover it when it is lost or to secure it if recover'd from running the risque of a Relapse Nor yet in progging with Eudoxus for Ease and Pleasure without either End or Interruption asking what we shall eat or what we shall drink or wherewithal we shall be cloath'd We must not be carefully contriving with the unjust Steward Luke 16. 3. in his What shall I do to put a cheat upon my Lord and to oblige his Debtors to me that when I am put out of my Stewardship they may receive me into their Houses Nor may we ask with the wealthy Miser Luke 12. 17. What shall I do for sufficient Treasuries and Barns wherein to bestow all my Fruit and my Goods as if his Life had consisted in the Abundance of the Things which he possessed v. 15. But our Inquiry must be rather like that of the Multitude to our Saviour What shall we do that we may work the work of God that is to say in plainer Terms what course shall we take that we may do what thou bidst us that we may labour for the meat which will never perish but indure unto Life everlasting or as the Publicans and Souldiers and other Proselytes to the Baptist who had warn'd them to flee from the wrath to come Luke 3. 7 10. What shall we do whereby to anticipate our Destruction and to avert the sad effects of the fatal Axe which now is laid to the Root of the Tree what shall we do as to the bearing good fruit to prevent hewing down and
must follow after Both afford us matter of Caution and Comfort too The former serving to humble and the latter to support us That defends us from Praesumption and This secures us from Despair Thus have I done with the Division and in the ordering of That with the Explication of the Text. Wherein if I have trespass't by too much length it will in justice be imputed to my Desire of Perspicuity and of making it one Arrest unto the Plausible Objection that lyes against it § 6. In the ensuing Tractation of it I must begin with the Act which is here express'd and consider it as relating to the first and chief Object And this I must do in such a manner as to make it a farther Antidote against the venom of the Objection Which to the end that I may do with the more success I must explore by such ways as are not able to mislead us what of necessity must be meant by such an Act of Believing as does arise from an Habit of saving Faith For as every one that paints is not presently a Painter nor every Painter an Apelles so 't is not every Belief which can denominate a Believer nor is it every Believer who can be sav'd It will not therefore be sufficient to preach up the Faith of Christ in general which yet too many are wont to do because 't is easiest to be done nor to depredicate in particular the several rare Fruits and Effects of Faith without distinguishing all along betwixt the Roots and the Causes from whence they grow But we must first have the Patience to learn our selves and then the Care as well as Skill to make it visible unto others how much The Habit of salvifick or saving Faith is meant to grasp and comprehend in its whole Importance and so by a consequence unavoidable how much short of Salvation every Faith without This will be sure to land us Now in the bringing of this about wherein 't is certainly as needful as it is difficult to be Orthodox and yet wherein Learned men have seldom hitherto agreed we are all apt to err with the greater ease the less we are able to determin how many Acceptions of the word Faith may be found in Scripture For not to speak of its Import in human Authors we may observe it in holy Writ to have been used in so Many and Different senses that School-Divines have strangely varied touching its various significations For first Medina will acknowledge but two Acceptions of the word Faith Albertus Magnus allows of five Alphonsus à Castro admits of seven Vega goes higher as far as Nine Bonaventure and Valentia arise to ten Alexander Hallensis will have eleven Nay Sotus tells us of some who are for fifteen significations whereas Himself with Medina will own but two I will not presume to be an Umpire between so many and subtil School-men though I confess I am not able to give an absolute Assent unto either of them I can evince that the word Faith hath very various significations and easily instance in the chief whereof 't is dangerous to be ignorant or which at least it will be useful very particularly to know But when I shall have given pregnant Instances of Many and those the Most that at present I can discern I shall not be so Dogmatical as to deny that there are more First 't is clear that the word Faith does signify Faithfulness and Truth As Rom. 3. 3 4. What if some did not believe shall their Unbelief make the Faith of God of none effect no let God be true and every man a lyar Next it signify's The Promise which is in faithfulness and Truth to be performed And of this we have an instance 1 Tim. 5. 12. where the wanton young Widows are said to be lyable to Damnation because they have cast off their first Faith That is their Promise of constant widowhood which they had made unto the Church whose single Interest and Service they had thereby wedded and espous'd Thence it signify's a Confidence as that is opposed to Distrust A full Dependance on the Power and a firm adhaerence unto the Promises of our Lord. Thus it was used by our Saviour when Peter cryed as he was sinking Lord save me O thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt Matth. 14. 31. In the same sense he said to the two blind men Do ye believe that I can do this according to your Faith be it unto you Matth. 9. 29. And thus 't is used by St. Iames by whom we are exhorted to ask in Faith nothing wavering James 1. 6. Again we find the word Faith set to signifie Conscience or knowledge compar'd with the Rule of Action as 't is observ'd by Theophylact and the Interlineary Gloss upon Rom. 14. 23. whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin Nay Faith by a Synecdoche is made to signifie the Gospel Whereof we meet with an Example Gal. 3. 25. where when 't is said After Faith is come we are no longer under a School-Master The plain meaning of it is only This That after the coming of the Gospel we are no longer under the Law It is sometimes us'd to signifie a bare Assent And such is that Faith which is call'd historical and is common to men with believing Devils James 2. 19. But as sometimes an Assent so at other times the Object assented to And of this we have an Instance in the Epistle of St. Iude where to contend for the Faith which was once deliver'd unto the Saints is nothing else but to contend for the Creed it self the Christian Doctrin which is the Ground and the Rule of Faith § 7. Thus we find the word Faith in seven distinct significations But none of These will amount to a saving Faith however some of These are Ingredients in it For saving Faith is not only an Habit or Faculty of the Intellect whereby we firmly and without fear but yet withal without evidence assent to all things propos'd to be believed in the Church as reveal'd by God which is the Schoolmen's Definition of a justifying Faith or as they rather love to speak of the Faith which is infused in Iustification For This is but part of that Description which the same men afford to the Faith of Miracles whereby a man may move Mountains and yet be damn'd may cast out Devils and be himself possess'd with them as is evident from the preaching both of our Saviour and St. Paul Matth. 7. 22 23. 1 Cor. 13. 2. Nor is it only such a Relyance on the mercy of God and the merits of a Saviour as carrys with it a full Persuasion of the Remission of our Sins as some who are Enemies to the Schoolmen are wont to teach for This may possibly be alone unattended with Repentance and change of Life And being not the Mother of such an off-spring it must by
well to the Will as the Understanding It gives us as I may say a kind of Livery and Seisin of all we hope and pray for and even long to be united to though by the Help of a Dissolution In so much that the Plenitude of this One Grace in the sense I mention'd which Plenitude is expressed by a threefold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and boldly rendred a full Assurance I say the Plenitude or fulness of this one Grace which is attainable by Christians whilst here below is worthily reckon'd by St. Paul The Inchoation of our Glory This very Grace is once affirm'd to be a kind of beatifick although an antedated Vision of the Glory of God And for a man to leave This for a better world with such a cordial Believing in the Lord Iesus Christ as was here recommended by Paul and Silas which I have hitherto explain'd by several passages of Scripture is nothing else but to pass from a Paradise to a Heaven or to use St. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from one Glory to another For we all with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. § 10. But some may tacitly now object against Paul and Silas in the Text or at least against St. Luke the Relator of it That if by Faith we must be justified and also sanctified in part before we can expect it should ever save us they should have told the Jailour of it in Terms at large and have shew'd in the Retail how many Duties of a Christian are succinctly comprehended in that expression not have told him only in Gross as Dutchmen make their dishonest Reckonings He must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ. For how knew the Jailour he was to do any thing but to Believe or to believe in any other than the second Person in the Trinity God manifest in the Flesh for they seem to have made no mention to him of his being to believe in God the Father or in God the Holy Ghost much less did they add the other Articles of the Creed which are Ingredients in the object of Saving Faith § 11. To which I answer by two Degrees And first of all by a concession That if indeed Paul and Silas had said no more to their Catechumenist than that He must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ not explaining what was meant by that Habit of Faith from which the Act of his Believing was to proceed nor yet explaining what was meant by the Lord Iesus Christ who is often put by a Synecdoche for the whole object of our Belief Faith in Christ being the Pandect of Christian Duties which are all shut up in Faith as Homer's Iliads in a Nutshell Then indeed they might have made him a Solifidian or a Fiduciary which had not been the way to his being sav'd But secondly I answer That the objection is made of a false Hypothesis For Paul and Silas dealt honestly and discreetly with the Jailour when having told him he must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ for his being sav'd it presently follows after the Text they spake unto him the Word of God that is they expounded the Scriptures to him And in the doing of That they prov'd the object of his Faith to be the Trinity in Unity not solely and exclusively the Lord Jesus Christ but in conjunction with God the Father and with God the Holy Ghost too Again in expounding the Scriptures to him they could not but tell him what was meant by an effectual Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ importing such a kind of Faith as is ever working and such a kind of working as is by Love and by such a kind of Love as is the fulfilling of the Law and of such a Law too as does consist of somewhat higher and more illustrious Injunctions than those of Moses and of such an obedience to those Injunctions as is attended and waited on by Perseverance unto the End There is no doubt but they acquainted him in their expounding of the Scriptures and speaking to him the Word of God how very highly it did concern him not only to escape the Corruption that is in the world through lust and also to believe in the Lord Iesus Christ but besides This as St. Peter speaks to give all diligence for the adding to his Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness to Godliness Brotherly kindness to Brotherly kindness Charity For that these were all needful and no redundant superadditions is very clear from St. Peter in the next verse but one He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see a far off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins But if these Things be in you and abound Then indeed as St. Peter adds ye shall not be barren in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ. If ye do these things ye shall never fall 2 Pet. 1. 10. Now can we think that St. Peter did not teach the same Doctrin with Paul and Silas or can we think that Paul and Silas would withhold from the Jailour that Train of Duties for want of which he had been Blind and not in Case to see God no whatever might have been wanting in their succinct and pithy Answer whereby to give him a right Understanding of it was abundantly supply'd by their following Sermon And though the Heads of their Sermon are not put upon Record but only the Text upon which they made it yet St. Luke records This That such a Sermon there was preach'd in that he saith They spake to him the Word of God § 12. And truly This is such a Method as I could wish were well observ'd by all that are of their Function I mean the Stewards of the Mysteries of the Living God Unto whom is committed the Word of Reconciliation whose lips are made to be the Treasuries and Conservatories of Knowledge and which the People are appointed to seek at their Mouths For the Text we have in hand is often turned to advance either Truth or Falshood even according to the handle by which 't is held forth to the giddy People And is made to be eventually either venomous or wholsom just in proportion to the sense in which 't is taken and digested by them that hear it If to Believe is only taken for an Assent unto the Truth or a Relyance on the Merits of Jesus Christ or a confident Application of all his Promises to our selves And this in a kind of opposition to the Necessity of Good works which ought to be in conjunction with it Then 't is apt to cause a wreck in the waters of Life and through the Malignity of a Digestion a man may be kill'd by the Bread of Heaven But if 't is taken for obedience to the Commandments of Christ
For when he was transfigur'd upon Mount Tabor a bright Cloud overshadow'd him and behold a voice out of the Cloud This is my beloved Son Hunc Audite Hear Him Matth. 17. 15. It is the Top of that Wisdom which we are capable of on Earth to sit with Mary at his Feet and to hear his Word Luke 10. 39 42. Fifthly if we inquire for the only true way which leadeth unto life and to life Eternal He alone is the Way the Truth and the Life John 14. 6. Are we affrighted at the Law He alone hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Gal. 3. 13. In a word He is the true Noah's Ark whereby to escape the Inundations of Sin and Hell He hath broken the Ice and made way for us that we may enter into the Gate Micah 2. 13. He is our Ionathan after the Spirit who first hath scaled in his Person the heavenly Mountain that we the Bearers of his Armour may follow after 1 Sam. 14. 1. The Ministration of his Word is the Spiritual Chariot by which he carries us with himself into the outward Court of the Temple and thence at last within the Veil into the Sanctum Sanctorum He alone is the Gate both of Grace and Salvation None can go unto the Father unless by Him John 14. 6. He alone is the Iacob's Ladder whose Top reacheth into the Heavens that is to say the True 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which as by a Bridge or Isthmus Heaven and Earth are tyed together Angels and Men pass to and fro Angels to Men and Men to Angels By Him hath the Father reconciled all things unto Himself Coloss. 1. 20. He it is that invites us when we are weary and heavy laden to come unto him for a Refreshment Matth. 11 28. From Him the Spirit and the Bride say Come And let him that heareth say Come And let him that is athirst Come And whosoever will let him come and take freely of the water of life Rev. 22. 17. All which being consider'd we thus may Argue within our selves If the great Queen of Shebah did choose to take so long a Iourney as from Shebah to Ierusalem and all to hear a wise man speak Matth. 12. 42. Or if Socrates though an Heathen was such a Lover of Wisdom as to travel for his Improvement through several Countries and put himself to learn of every great Master that he could hear of with how much a greater force of reason should we travel far and near to find out the Wisdom of the Father to learn of that Good as well as Great Master who alone hath the words of Eternal Life But some perhaps may here object That the Man in the Text met with Christ in the way whilst here on Earth How shall we find him out since his Ascension into Heaven The Psalmist tells us He is in Heaven and in Hell too If we go up into Heaven he is there And if we go down into Hell he is there also But to Heaven we cannot and to Hell we dare not go To which the Answer is very obvious That if Christ is in Hell because he is every where by the necessity of his Godhead he is by consequence here on Earth too for the very same reason And that we may not say with Seneca Qui ubique nusquam that he who is every where is no where for that he is every where invisible and so as difficultly found as if he were not The Righteousness which is of Faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into Heaven that is to bring Christ down from above Or who shall descend into the Deep that is to bring up Christ again from the Dead For Christ in his word is very nigh thee even in thy Mouth and in thine Heart that is the word of Faith which we preach We need not go to Compostella or travel in Pilgrimage to other places where they pretend at least to shew us his Seamless Coat and his Cross and his Crown of Thorns We need go no farther than to his Word and his Sacraments his Ministers and his Members And having thus found him out we must not content our selves with Herod to gaze upon him in Curiosity but with Zachaeus out of Devotion Nor must we grow old in our setting out but rather hasten to him betimes and as fast as we can run too And as humbly as it is possible we must go kneeling to him and ask him Good Master what shall we do or with the Disciples upon the Sea Master Master we perish That is we perish of our selves without thy stretched out Hand to support and save us And therefore lift we up our voices with those Ten Lepers in the way Iesus Master have Mercy on us For indeed he will never have Mercy on us unless we have mercy upon our selves that is to say unless we take him upon his own most righteous Terms not only as a Iesus who came to save us but withal as a Master who does expect to be served by us And this does lead me to consider the Compellation of our Inquirer concerning which I shall discourse upon the next Opportunity Now to the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only wise God be Honour and Glory for ever and ever THE Goodness of Christ AS A LEGISLATOR MARK X. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Good Master what shall I do that I may Inherit Aeternal Life § 1. HAving done with the Person who here inquires and with the excellent Nature of his Inquiry and with the only true Oracle inquired of It now remains that I proceed to the significant Compellation wherewith the Person who here inquires praepares the way to his Inquiry The Compellation as hath been said does consist of two Parts first the Subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Master next the Adjunct or Qualification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good § 2. From the first being compared with the matter of the Question that is to say with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is very obvious to draw forth this Doctrinal Proposition That the Son of God Incarnate who at present is our Advocate and will hereafter be our Iudge and who purposely came to save us from the Tyranny of our Sins is not only a Saviour to offer Promises to our Faith but also a Master to exact Obedience to his Commands We must not only believe him which is but to have him in our Brains nor must we only confess him which is but to have him in our Mouths no nor must we only love him which were it possible to be done were only to have him in our hearts But farther yet we must Obey him and do him Service which is to have him in our Hands and our Actions too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Master what shall I do § 3. A Proposition of such Importance to all that are Candidates for
next Verses before my Text who were not Elected without a Praescience as well of their Faithfulness as of their Faith How can it be that when He comes He shall not find Faith upon the Earth But if we attentively consider the Text before us as it stands in relation to all the Verses going before and more especially to the first This Objection will quickly vanish and we shall find a good Connexion between the praecedent and praesent words For our Lord having exhorted The Neophyte-Disciples to whom he spake Not to faint in their Prayers but to pray-on with Perseverance v. 1. excites them to it with an Assurance that their Prayers shall not be fruitless And that their Prayers shall not be fruitless He convinceth them by an Argument à minori ad majus This appears by his whole Parable touching the Widows Importunity praevailing over the Heart of an hardned Iudge From whence the Argument is as natural as it is logical and convincing For if the Prayer of the distressed and importunate Widow returned at last into her Bosom with good Success thô from a most corrupt Iudge who had no fear of God nor regard of Man v. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with how much a greater force of reason shall all the Prayers of The Faithful receive an acceptable Return from the Father of Mercies and God of all Consolation who is not only no unjust or obdurate Judge but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rewarder by way of Eminence of them that diligently seek him either sooner or later as he sees fit Yes the time is now coming when They shall be freed from their Afflictions and when the Vengeance due from God shall speedily fall on the Authors of them To which He adds by way of complaint and by a Compassionate Erotésis or Expostulation cohaering with what he said before by a Conjunction Adversative that when He shall come in the later Days to be an Avenger of his Elect The Apostasie will be so general He will find but Few of them Of the many who are Called He will find but few Chosen Amongst a Multitude of Flatterers he will find but few Friends In a world of Praetenders He will find but Few Faithful and with very much Profession very little True Faith They alone being Elect who persevere unto the End in The Faith of Christ and whose Faith is efficacious as well as sufficient to make them Faithful § 2. We see The Cohaerence of the Text which will help us not to err in the Meaning of it For in that our Lord asks When the Son of Man cometh shall He find Faith upon the Earth It is as if he should have said in plain and peremptory Terms That at his second Coming from Heaven to judge the Inhabitants of the Earth He shall not find Many Christians who will pray with that Faith which alone can inable them to pray without ceasing and not to faint When He shall come to save Believers He will find but few such in the Gospel-sense Not none simpliciter but none secundum quid Comparatively none or none to speak of The greatest part of men will perish even for want of That Faith whereby men's Prayers become effectual 'T is not through any defect of Goodness and longanimity in God that so few will be safe in the Day of Judgment But through a miserable defect of Christian Faithfulness and Faith The great Condition of the Covenant which God in Christ the only true Shechinah was pleas'd to make with the Sons of Men. Historical Faith there is in many such as is common to men with Devils who are said by St. Iames to believe and tremble A sturdy Praesumption there is in Many which they mistake for the perfection and strength of Faith A Carnal Security is in Many which they take to be the Product and Fruit of Faith There is in many such a Carnal and Human Faith concerning the Being of Heaven and Hell a Life after Death and a Day of Judgment as that there is such a Place as Constantinople or Eutopia whereof thô This is as fictitious as That is real yet by Ignaroes in Geography they are believed Both alike Thus in one sense or other Faith is as common as Infidelity a Weed which grows in most mens Gardens But very few have That Faith of which our Lord does here speak to wit a Faith which is attended with Hope and Charity a Faith coupl'd with Fear to offend our Maker a Faith productive of obedience unto That which is called The Law of Faith a Faith importing all faithfulness in the discharge of that Service we owe our Master a Faith expressed by a submission first to God rather than Man and then to Man for God's sake lastly a Faith joyned with Patience and Perseverance unto the End in the work of Prayer to which our Saviour had exhorted in the first Verse of This Chapter and which indeed is the Scope of this whole Paragraph § 3. Thus we have clearly a Praediction that the last Times will be the worst or that the World towards its End will be most dissolute and debauch't that 't will not be only an Iron-age but that the Iron will be corrupted with Rust and Canker This is the Doctrine of the Text and this must be divided into two distinct Branches as the word Faith may here be taken in two distinct Considerations For in which sense soever we understand the word Faith in the Text before us whether for a firm Adhaerence unto the Truth of Christ's Gospel in all its Doctrines or for a faithful punctuality in All Commerce and Transaction 'twixt Man and Man whether in That as the Cause of This or in This as the Fruit of That for 't is not pertinent now to mention all the other acceptions of Faith in Scripture we shall have reason to suspect The World is drawing towards its End in that the Praediction of our Saviour is drawing so near its Completion Before I come to prove or apply the Doctrine it will perhaps be worth while to take a view of the Description of the last and worst Days as St. Peter and St. Paul have drawn it up for us in their Epistles the one in Gross and the other in the Retail First St. Peter tells us in general There shall come in the last days Scoffers walking after their own own Lusts. St. Paul acquaints us in particular what the several Lusts are This know also saith he to Timothy that in the last days perilous times shall come For men shall be Lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers make-bates otherwise called false Accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good Traitors heady high-minded Lovers of Pleasures more than Lovers of God having a form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof From These saith He turn away And presently after he gives
Oaths have so taught them by That Example to dispense easily with their own that if the Iews are ask't the Reason why the Mahomedans are permitted by God Almighty to prevail against Christendom for more than a Thousand years together without Controul and to boast of their Prosperity as a notable mark of the True Religion an Argument ad homines I mean to the Romanists and the Fanaticks not easily to be Answer'd They will ascribe it to the Blasphemies Execrations and Violations of Oaths Those of Allegiance more especially which have abounded and do abound more amongst Christians than amongst Them For the End of Temporal Blessings are Spiritual If God gave the Lands of the Heathen to the Israelites to this end he gave them that they might observe his Statutes Psal. 105. 44. And therefore when we forfeit our Spiritual Blessings we cannot rationally expect to injoy our Temporal Should we pass through all Orders and Ranks of men which might be done with ease enough but that the Time will not permit it Lord for how little Christian Faith how much faithlesness and falsness and praevarication should we discover Excepting only These Nations wherein we live Soveraigns mind nothing more than the exhausting of their Subjects and not excepting These Nations wherein we live Subjects mind little less than the enfeebling of their Soveraigns If the People here in England would either All travel a broad or at least take the pains to be taught at home how like Princes rather than Subjects in point of Liberty and Propriety they live at home being compared with other Subjects throughout the habitable World They would be certainly more contented than now they are with their Condition They would be certainly so far from being given to change and such passionate Abhorrers of All Sedition as not to suffer themselves for ever to be undone by their Foelicities Men of all Ranks and Qualities would acquiesce in their great happiness and learn to know when they are well Men of Trade would be contented to part with the paring of their Nails to secure their Fingers Men of Land would be contented to pay little Taxes and Men of Mony would not grumble to pay None at all Dissenting Clergymen would not study to please the People for their own profit more than to profit them for their own pleasure Nor would the People on the other side be so addicted as they are commonly both to envy and defraud and defame the Clergy Men of Law would be contented to raise up great Fortunes to Them and Theirs out of the Ruins of other mens and to injoy in full Peace All the Profits and Effects of Dire Contention Physicians would be contented to dispose of mens Lives not only at a safe but at a profitable rate and with Tentimes greater Fees than were ever yet heard of in Foreign Parts All sorts of People in a word would most thankfully acquiesce in their several Stations Whereas for want of due knowledge or of an ingenuous Consideration how much better even Artificers and common Mechanicks do live in England than men of the noblest blood and breeding under All foreign Governments without Exception I say for want of due Reflection on This great Truth All the Foundations of our Earth do seem to be utterly out of Course Men are so drunk with their Prosperities so tired out with Tranquillity grown so restive with sitting still in the Scorner's Chair In contradiction to The Apostle and His Advice They do so study to be unquiet and not to do their own business but the business of other men they are so sharp and quick-sighted in ordering other mens Affairs though most commonly blind as Beetles in all the Managements of their own are so perplext and dissatisfied with they-cannot-tell-what are so restless in their Indeavours to prevent things unavoidable to bring about things impossible and to provide against things which never are likely to ensue they do so mutiny and repine at the good Providences of God and are so unwilling to permit him to rule the World his own way being bewitch't with an Opinion that They are able to do it better by quaint Contrivances of their own are so unwilling that their Governours may be enabled to Protect for fear they should be tempted by such an Ability to oppress them I say by All these Infelicities which too much Felicity hath occasion'd The World is now grown to so ill a pass that we may take up the words of the Prophet Ieremy and apply them to the Places and Times we live in Run to and fro through the Streets and seek into all the broad Places thereof if ye can find a man if there be any that executeth Iudgment that seeketh the Truth and I will pardon it § 8. I know it may easily be objected against the Argument I have us'd That no wants of Faith in the second Notion of the word can prove 't is wanted in the first For let the Practice of men amongst us be what it will yet their Principles they will say may be as Orthodox as their Professions and they have still a firm Assent unto the Truth of Christ's Gospel in All its Doctrines But to This Objection it may as easily be Answer'd that as a Practical Infidel or Atheist is a worse Monster than a Speculative so there is no better way to prove the first than by the second Men may believe the Word of God with an Human Faith when yet 't is easy to demonstrate They do not believe it with a Divine one Nor is there any greater Instance of the Deceitfulness of a man's Heart than is his Treacherous Belief that he does Believe and that with a truly-Christian Faith when yet he proves by All his Practice that he is either no Believer or such a Believer of the Gospel as he is of Iulius Caesar's or Cicero's Works and no whit better For why should men be more forcibly and more effectually restrain'd as we see they are from committing a lesser Evil which is forbidden under the Poenalty of a meerly human Law and where the Poenalty is no greater than the loss of a man's Ears or the forfeiture of his Estate than from committing a greater Evil which is forbidden by God himself under the Poenalty of their missing the Ioys of Heaven and also of abiding the Pains of Hell but that they do more believe the one than they do the other It cannot be for This reason that men do think it a greater Misery to suffer a little for a short Time than all imaginable Torments to all Eternity It cannot be that they had rather fry in Hell without ceasing than indure the short loss of Life and Fortune But the true Reason must needs be This that men are as Confident of the one as they are Diffident of the other They have a manifold Experience of Temporal Punishments But the Tempter makes them hope there are none Eternal They are strong in
Angels of Heaven Again says he be ye ready for in such an hour as ye think not The Son of Man cometh All which that it is meant of the Day of Judgment and the Consummation of all things not only or chiefly of the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Destruction of Ierusalem seems to be evident from the Conclusion of That whole Prophecy of our Saviour For if That Evil Servant That Man of Sin by way of Eminence whether without Christendom or within it whether in Asia or in Italy in Germany or in Spain in France or England shall say in his heart My Lord delayeth his Coming whereupon He shall praesume to smite his fellow Servants and to riot it with the Drunken The Lord of that Servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his Portion with the Hypocrites There shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth § 14. What now is to be done by us who live in These Times wherein I have shewn there is so Common so Universal so Epidemical a state of Depravation but that every one in his station do labour hard to mend one That we all watch and pray lest we enter into Temptation or that if we cannot escape the Temptations of the World yet by the powerful Grace of God well cooperated with we may be able to overcome them In order whereunto we must not only watch and pray for a Time and examin our selves duly whether we be in the Faith of Christ But we must not faint in it We must quit our selves like Men. We must be strong in the Faith We must stand fast in it Our watching must be constant our praying always So expresly saith our Saviour in the first Verse of That Paragraph whereof my Text is the Conclusion For The Parable which he spake was says St. Luke to This End that men ought always to pray and not to faint We ought to pray without ceasing as St. Paul bids his Thessalonians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the second we must be a kind of Euchites be it spoken cum grano Salis we must pray without End or Intermission And that for This reason as well as for This end and purpose that our Lord at his Coming may find us praying A work of so very great importance and so conducible to Salvation that even Then when Simon Magus was in the Gall of Bitterness and in the Bond of Iniquity St. Peter bid him Pray to God if perhaps the Thought of his heart might be forgiven him Pray therefore we must that we may not fall And if at any time we are fallen still we must pray that we may rise And still for fear of relapsing we must watch unto Prayer and we must watch thereunto with all perseverance That so at what time soever The Master of the House shall come whether at Evening or at Midnight or in the Morning we may be found like wise Virgins with Oyl in our Lamps or in the Number of the few Faithful and blessed Servants whom our Lord when he comes shall find so Doing and that finding us so doing He may receive us with an Euge Well done good and faithful Servants Enter ye into the Ioy of your Lord. Which God The Father of his Mercy prepare and qualifie us for even for the Merits of God The Son and by the powerful operation of God The Holy Ghost To whom be Glory for ever and ever AN ANTIDOTE OR PRAESERVATIVE Against the Prurigo of Ambition Satan's Masterpiece AS A TEMPTER TO WORLDLY GREATNESS MATTH IV. 9. All these Things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Or as St. Luke sets down the words LUKE IV. 6 7. All this Power will I give thee and the Glory of them for That is delivered unto me And to whomsoever I will I give it If thou therefore wilt worship me All shall be Thine § 1. THere is a Time when in Scripture God is said to tempt Man And again there is a Time when Man is said to tempt God Last of all there is a Time when the Devil is said to tempt Both and Both at once in this Text in which are met the two Natures of God and Man Now though to Tempt in each Case is still a phrase of one sound yet is it often found to be of very different significations Indeed so different that they may seem to contradict For Moses saith God tempted Abraham And yet St. Paul saith God tempteth no man It is implyed by our Saviour that God is tempted at least by some And yet 't is said by St. Iames He is not tempted of any Now the way to reconcile them is briefly This. When God is said to tempt Man it signifies nothing but a Trial a kind of Search which God makes in the Heart of man Not that God can be in doubt or stand in need of an Inquiry how any man's heart is affected towards him But 't is to admonish him of his weakness or to convince him of his hypocrisie or else to evidence his Faith or to exercise his Patience or to make his Integrity the more conspicuous and rewardable that God is pleased to explore and to search his Heart Thus in Genesis and Exodus and in the Thirteenth of Deuteronomy our Father Abraham and the Israelites are said to have been tempted by God himself § 2. Man in the second place is said to tempt God when without any Necessity or Assurance of Success he rashly goes out of his Calling to meet with Danger Or when without any Warrant whether from the Spirit or Word of God he gladly falls into Distress like Eldavid the false Messias of whom we read in learned Buxtorf supposing God by some Miracle will help him out For what is this but to explore or to make a Trial both of the Power and Goodness and Truth of God not at all out of Faith in his Word and Promise but out of a wanton Curiosity or bold Praesumption § 3. But now the Devil is said to tempt either God or Man and Both together in the Text when not only without but against the Word he does solicite and intice to something or other which is Evil. And thus our Lord is said in Scripture to have been tempted even as We. Not by Hunger only and Thirst by Cold and Nakedness by Slander and Disgrace by Pangs and Torments and all Degrees of Affliction to which the Name of Temptations is justly fixt But to the worst of Afflictions that is to Sin and to the worst even of Sins to wit Idolatry And to the worst of Idolatries even the worshipping of the Devil Who being permitted to take him up to an exceeding high Mountain did shew him from thence as in a Landskip All the Kingdoms of the
whilst we are told that as our Iourney is long so our Time is little and yet Eternity depends on the usage of it Must we needs be still coveting another's House another's Land another's Servant another's Wife or somewhat else which is anothers and that at the Instant of our abounding in two whole worlds which are our own No let us rather bespeak our Tempter as Ioseph did his kind Mistress How can we do so great a wickedness which way shall we be able to set about it Had Potiphar been a jealous man or a cruel Master Ioseph might have done much at the frequent Intreaties of a Mistress But He considering how his Master had withheld nothing from him besides his Wife and intrusted him too with Her as well as with his whole Substance could not in Gratitude to his Master accept the Favour of his Mistress He could not sin against so manifold and great a Trust. So if God had been a Wilderness to any of us tyed us up from All Comforts or left but few things lawful for us we might then have sin'd against him with more excuse But considering his Bounty and Goodness towards us his leaving it in our power to pick and choose our Contentments in great Variety and his withholding nothing from us but what will hurt us in the Possession we ought to stir up his Grace as well as our own good Nature in us to an effectual Resistance of the most powerful Temptations which shall at any time indeavour to debauch us into Rebellion and say with Ioseph How can we do so great a wickedness against a Deity so obliging How can we possibly be so ingrateful § 19. Having therefore briefly weigh'd the Rival-objects of our choice and seen the very vast Difference between the Things of this praesent and future world yea between the same Things of this present world as they are differently offer'd by God and Satan by God on the one side as they are sanctified into Blessings and on the other side by Satan as they are turn'd into a Curse by God as of Right and by Satan as of Sufferance by God in such a Measure as has a Tendency to our Good and by Satan in such an extravagance as is in order to our undoing by God to satisfie our Appetites and by Satan to inlarge them by God as obligations to Love and Gratitude and by Satan as excitements to Pride and Luxury By God as Directives to the great End of our Creation and by Satan as Amusements to keep us from it we cannot take a better course when Satan tempts us as he did Christ with the Greatness of the World and the Glory of it than to reflect upon our Solemn Baptismal Vow and by consequence to fight against the Prince of this World and utterly to forsake its Pomps and Vanities Not to walk according to the Course of this world to fear its Friendship to hate its Wisdom to suspect its Power and to scorn its Glory to crucifie the world unto our selves and our selves unto the world to keep our selves unspotted and undefiled from the world And whilst our vile Bodies are here on Earth to have our Conversations at least in Heaven § 20. These are the Lessons we are to learn from the First observable in the Text and such as prompt me to proceed to the consideration of the Second For of the many and cogent Arguments whereby to make our selves think meanly of the Things which we admire This is none of the least That they are not only in God's Gift by a natural Right But many times by His leave in the Devil 's also For thus rnn the words of The next Particular in the Division That all the Goods of This world however lovely they may appear to the misty Eye of Carnality are yet by God's Patience and wise Permission at least successively though not at once in the Devil's Proffer and Disposal First I must evidence that so it Is. Next I must guess at the Reasons why And last of all I must proceed to shew the manifold Advantage and Use of Both. § 1. That so it is may be evinced more ways than one From Scripture from Reason and from Experience It is so evident from Scripture wherein our Saviour calls Satan The Prince of this World St. Paul the Ruler and the God too that the Devil in one sense said not amiss unto our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power of this world is deliver'd to me as That does signifie by an Hebraism that God does suffer or permit him to rob the Innocent and to heap Riches upon the Guilty and so to dispose of whole Kingdoms to the Sons of Violence and Oppression who call their strength the Law of Iustice. 'T is true the words of the Devil as St. Luke sets them down are clearly spoken as by a Sophister who according to his Custom being aequivocal or homonymous in what he says does cunningly mix a little Truth with the greatest falshood to be imagin'd For if he means that God Almighty has put the world into his hands and intrusted him as a Deputy to pass a Right of Possession on whom He pleaseth there is nothing more false than his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which will be made to appear in its proper place But if his meaning is only This That God is pleas'd to let him alone in his Course of wickedness for a Time and permits him to be mischievous as far as his Fetters and Chain will reach nothing is truer than That Assertion from the Father of Lyes And nothing can shew its Truth better than such a Scriptural Example as That of Iob. § 2. He we know was a perfect and upright man A man fearing God and eschewing Evil. As to the purity of his Life he had not his Equal in all the Earth In so much that God upbraided and vexed Satan with his Integrity Yet even All that Iob had and we know he had a world was left by God in the Devil's Power For no sooner had Satan said Put forth thine Hand now and touch all he hath And he will curse thee to thy face but God return'd him this Answer All that he hath is in thy Power only upon Himself do not put thine Hand forth 'T is plain the Devil is God's Pris'ner for there we have the length of the Chain that holds him It did not reach to Iob's Person but only to his Possessions And to Them so universally that the Devil dispos'd of All to his prime Instruments upon Earth The Sabaeans the Chaldaeans the Fire and the Whirlwind He sent his Journey-men the Sabaeans to plunder Iob of his Oxen to take his Asses into Possession and slay his Servants with the edge of the Sword Employed the Fire to kill his Sheep and his Shepherds To the Chaldaeans he bequeathed Iob's stock of Camels together with the Lives of those that
the Righteous and thou wilt find Them the wisest who worship Me. This does seem to be the Scope of the Devil 's reasoning to our Saviour And my Discourse added to His may serve to evince the Proposition which lyes before us That all the Goods of this World at least successively though not at once are by the Sufferance of the Almighty in the Devil's Proffer and Disposal § 10. I have but one Topick left from whence to make it yet clearer or past Dispute And that must needs be by way of Answer to an Objection For if These Things are so some may say within Themselves Men will be in great danger of becoming Epicuraeans looking on God as without regard of what is done upon the Earth and as consining his Providence to things transacted within the Heavens And if they once come to That they will Sin securely and tumble down with great merriment into the Bottomless Asphaltites which gapes to have them So far from Scruple or Regret in their words or actions that they will rather use the language of those Contemners in the Psalmist Tush how shall God see Is there knowledge in the most high Or say with Eliphaz unjustly accusing Iob How doth God know can he judge through the dark Cloud Or else with the Braves in the Book of Wisdom Let us lye in wait for the righteous man If he is the Son of God He will help him and deliver him from the hand of his Enemies Besides the Doctrine we have in hand does seem to clash with those Scriptures wherein God is said to Rule in the Kingdoms of men He giveth it saith Daniel to whomsoever he pleaseth and setteth up over it the basest of men And Christ is said to be the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Rev. 1. 5. How then comes the Devil to have the very same Titles bestowed upon him § 11. To this Objection I answer and to the later part first as being That that admitteth of most Dispatch What God and Christ are call'd properly in regard of their Natural and Soveraign Right The Devil is tropically Intitl'd and by an usual Catachresis in regard of That Possession which God permitteth him to usurp The Vineyard which was Ahab's was Naboth's too de facto That and de jure This. That is the one was possess 't of what the other had a right to So when we speak of Laban's Teraphims we mean the Teraphims belonging of right to Laban But when we call them Rebecca's Teraphims we mean the Teraphims which she hid and had stoln from Laban The Kings of Spain are call'd by Thousands Kings of Portugal The Kings of France of Navarr◠the Kings of England of France All pretending to have a Right where others have gotten the whole Possession But now with a greater force of reason may the Devil be call'd the Ruler and the God of this world not only because the world does for the greatest part adore him and do him service but because they do it too by His forbearance and permission whose Creatures they are and whose right It is and who in respect of his Omnipotence cannot possibly be resisted For that I may pass from the later to the former part of the Objection § 12. So far is God from forsaking or slighting the Government of the World that as I said once before but did not so prove it as now I must Satan himself is but his Pris'ner however his Prison is somewhat wide Not at all his Vicegerent to rule the World in his stead or with any degree of his Approbation In the Twentieth Chapter of the Apocalypse we find the Devil laid hold on and bound in a Chain and cast into a Pit shut up and seal'd for a thousand years and again let loose for a little season And what is all This but the Hypotyposis of a Pris'ner And though his Chain for a time is left by God very long as I said before yet all the while 't is but a Chain yea and such a Chain too as is not loose any more than endless We know the Sea is God's Pris'ner though not a very close Pris'ner as others are The Wind it self is not at Liberty however we cannot discern its Bounds It seems indeed to be the freest of all God's Pris'ners And therefore God is said to ride upon the wings of the Wind by the high flown Wit of the Royal Poet. Yet as He said unto the Sea Thus far and no farther shall thy proud Waves go so he checks the very Wind too as with a Bridle and saith unto it Peace be still Now we find that when our Saviour was but pleas'd to say the word not the Wind and Sea only but the Devils also obey'd him When he bid them come out of the poor Daemoniack They durst not stay or they could not one minute longer Yea they were forced to petition him and ask his leave before they could enter an Herd of Swine It was indeed a great power which Satan had over Iob as I shew'd before but I shew'd too how it was limited First to his Goods with an exemption of his Body and then at last to his Body with an exemption of his Soul It was indeed a great power which Satan had over the Christians in the purest Ages of Christianity for no less than Three hundred and thirty years inflicting Ten Persecutions from Christ to Constantine the Great And another great power during the Arian Persecution under the Tyranny of Constantius Another great power although a short one in Iulian's Time Another in the Time of the Emperour Valens Another more universal in the fifth Century after Christ when at the very same Instant Anastasius the Emperour was an Eutychian the Kings of Italy Spain and Africa Arians The Kings of England France and Germany Heathens A greater power than all these the Devil seemeth to have had in the Tenth Century after Christ when Hell is said to have broken loose and the Prosperity of the Church did much more threaten her utter Ruin than all her Persecutions when put together Yet all this while it was a limited and stinted power Christianity thriv'd under its Sufferings and had a Being though a poor one in the Excesses of its Injoyments The Gates of Hell did not Then so fully prevail against the Church as not to confess it to be a Truth That she was founded upon a Rock What our Lord said to Pilate Thou couldst have no power against me were it not given thee from above we with a little alteration may say as properly to the Devil and religiously defy him to do his worst Or we may say in some sense upon this occasion as St. Paul to the Romans upon another There is no power but of God God ordaining it if it is right or God permitting it if it is wrong Here then lyes our Comfort as Men and Christians that the Devil
calls Great and are in one word expressed by Worldly Greatness in their genuine or native and proper Colours strip't of that Vizard and Disguise which the Phantasies of People by a too vulgar Errour have put upon them For hence will arise as many Reasons why in every State or Station it is every mans Advantage as well as Duty to study and con St. Paul's Lesson How to want and to abound How to want without Envy and how to abound without Arrogance how to want without Stealth and how to abound without Oppression how to want with Submission and how to abound with Self-denial how to want with real Comfort and how to abound with Moderation how to want with Thanksgiving as it is an Act of Sacrifice and how to abound with Liberality as it is a Work of Mercy In a word how 't is his Interest to rest contented with his Condition of either sort and not to disquiet himself in vain by solicitously seeking Greater Things for himself than his God allows him A point of Doctrin so momentous of such Necessity to be taught and as well of such Publick as Private Consequence to be learn't that 't is not easy to be imagin'd how such a monstrous Sin as Schism Contempt of Government and Order and the Voluptuousness of heading or leading Parties should continue one day in the Christian World if every man were convinced of This Great Truth a Truth as legible and as bright as if 't were written with a Sun-beam that God allows not of his Ambition but disapproves of his Avarice strictly prohibits and forbids the Carnality of his seeking Great Things for himself has made Obedience to Authority to be of the Essence of Christianity one of the Two special Vitals of all Religion The Blood and Life of the Second Table clearly running in a Great Vein throughout the Body of the Gospel Nor only so But that in reference to the present as well as to the future and better life it is every man's Interest and special Advantage not to be Great that He is the happiest Man on Earth whom Horace has seated in the middle betwixt his Maenius and Nomentanus that 't is easier to be satisfied with what is but competent and enough than with any thing beyond it whether inherited or acquir'd and that 't is better to have a little with God's Allowance and Approbation than the Greatest Things on Earth by his bare Permission The World is now at such a pass and 't is a Duty not to forget it on This Occasion that we do sometimes stand in need to make Apologies for God to assert and justifie his Methods to alledge sufficient Reasons for some of his Precepts and Prohibitions especially for such as now we have under Consideration Nor can we expect to be believ'd in such a Paradox as This That ' t is a man's Interest not to be Great in this loathsom World any farther than our Reasons shall force Assent I shall but urge four or five whereof the one will rise in order above the other That if the former cannot affect us the later may § 5. The first of the Reasons I pretend to for the Dissuasive I am upon from any man's seeking Great Things for Himself and for God's Prohibition Seek them not may be derived from the Fickleness of all Great Things on This side Heaven Their having nothing in them of Permanence nothing of Certainty or Firmness which a man of any Prudence knows how to trust From whence it follows ex abundanti that they have nothing in them of lovely for which they should be coveted or courted by us And This is a Reason suggested to me from the very next words before my Text. Behold says God to Baruch by the Mouth of Ieremiah That which I have built will I break down and that which I have planted I will pluck up even This whole Land He does not Thus argue There is a Flaw in the Building which I will Therefore break down or a Barrenness in the Plant which I will Therefore pluck up But I will do it pro Imperio because I will For I have built and I have planted The whole Land is mine and I will order it as I please He needs not argue from its Inhabitants whereby to justifie its Destruction because He is not only the Owner but the Author of it His having once built is reason enough for his breaking down And his having once planted is reason enough for his plucking up Nor may the Clay say to the Potter Why hast Thou made or unmade me why hast Thou used me Thus or Thus 'T is true in God's distribution of endless Punishments and Rewards to the Sons of Men He declares Himself to act as a Righteous Iudge a Judge with whom there is not Respect of Persons a Judge who renders unto every man according to his Deeds and according to the Law He is bound to live by But the Case is quite Another and stands upon quite another Ground in his dealing out the Things of This dying life the Things which perish in the using the Things whose Fashion passeth away such as All the things are which the World calls Great In things of Temporary Concernment such as those I now speak of it pleaseth God to act and argue as an Absolute Soveraign to make his peremptory Will his sufficient Reason to prove the Rectitude of his Actions from his right of Dominion and his Omnipotence Not only Mary in her Magnificat observes and celebrates God's Pleasure in his putting down the Mighty and in his raising up the Meek But even Hesiod does the same as an Heathen Poet. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We may English it out of our Bibles from Daniel's words to Nebuchadnezzar 'T is the most High alone that ruleth in the Kingdom of Men 'T is he that giveth it at his pleasure to whomsoever he will and that setteth up over It either the Best or the Basest of Men. There can be nothing more pleasant to a man of low Station or more profitable and useful to men of Grandeur than to contemplate as well as read the wise oeconomy of God in the words of David and the Truth of those words in their own Experience To wit that Promotion cometh neither from the East nor from the West not from the North nor from the South But God is the Iudge who putteth down one and setteth up Another or permits the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Prince of This World The Devil to do it For so we needs must distinguish if we intend to speak Sense touching the Providence of God in the present Case The taking away what he has given the breaking in pieces what he has built the rooting up what he has planted is That which happens many times by his blessed Order but many times too by his bare Permission To mention Ioseph and Iob the good King Iofiah the glorious Emperour Mauritius and the more