intent to their study from medling at all with this science about the soul for he plainly tells them in his first de anima 't is too hard for any ordinary capacity and yet in the first of the Metaph. he defines the wise man to be one who besides his own accurate knowledg of hard things as the Causes of the soul c. is also able to teach any body else who hath such an habit of knowledg and such a command over it that he can make any Auditor understand the abstrusest mystery in it So then out of his own words he is convinced to have had no skill no wisdom in the business of the soul because he could not explain nor communicate this knowledg to any but choice Auditors The truth is these were but shifts of pride and ambitious pretences to cloak a palpable ignorance under the habit of mysterious deep speculation when alas poor man all that which he knew or wrote of the soul was scarce worth learning only enough to confute his fellow ignorant Philosophers to puzzle others to puff up himself but to profit instruct or edifie none In the third place concerning happiness he plainly bewrays himself to be a coward not daring to meddle with Divinity For 1 Eth. c. 9. being probably given to understand or rather indeed plainly convinced that if any thing in the world were then happiness must likely be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gift of God bestowed on men yet he there staggers at it speaks sceptically and not so magisterially as he is wont dares not be so bold as to define it and at last does not profess his ignorance but takes a more honourable course and puts it off to some other place to be discust Where Andronicus Rhodius his Greek Paraphrase tells us he meant his Tract 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about Providence but in all Laertius his Catalogue of the multitude of his writings we find no such title and I much suspect by his other carriages that the man was not so valiant as to deal with any so unwieldy a subject as the Providence would have proved Sure I am he might if he had had a mind to it have quitted himself of his engagements and seasonably enough have defined the fountain of happiness there in Ethicks but in the 10. c. it appears that it was no pretermission but ignorance not a care of deferring it to a fitter place but a necessary silence where he was not able to speak For there mentioning happiness and miserableness after death where he might have shewed his skill if he had had any he plainly betrays himself an arrant naturalist in defining all the felicity and misery to be the good or ill proof of their friends and children left behind them which are to them being dead happiness or miseries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which they are not any way sensible But of what hath been spoken it is plain that the heathen never looked after God of their own accord but as they were driven upon him by the necessity of their study which from the second causes necessarily lead them in a chain to some view of the first mover and then some of them either frighted with the light or despairing of their own abilities were terrified or discouraged from any farther search some few others sought after him but as Aristotle saith the Geometer doth after a right line only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a contemplator of truth but not as the knowledg of it is any way useful or conducible to the ordering or bettering of their lives they had an itching desire to know the Deity but neither to apply it as a rule to their actions nor to order their actions to his glory For generally whensoever any action drove them on any subject which intrenched on Divinity you shall find them more flat then ordinary not handling it according to any manner of accuracy or sharpness but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only as much use or as little as their study in the search of things constrained them to and then for most part they fly off abruptly as if they were glad to be quit of so cumbersom a subject Whence Aristotle observes that the whole Tract de causis was obscurely and inartificially handled by the ancients and if sometimes they spake to the purpose 't was as unskilful unexercised fencers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they lay on and sometimes strike a lucky blow or two but more by chance then skill sometimes letting fall from their pens those truths which never entred their understandings as Theophilus ad Aulo observes of Homer and Hesiod that being inspired by their Muses i. e. the devil spake according to that spirit lyes and fables and exact Atheism and yet sometimes would stumble upon a truth of Divinity as men possest with Devils did sometimes confess Christ and the evil spirits being adjured by his name came out and confest themselves to be devils Thus it is plain out of the Philosophers and Heathen discourses 1. Of God 2. The soul 3. Happiness that they were also ignorant as ignorance is opposed to piety or spiritual wisdom which was to be proved by way of premise in the 2. place Now in the third place for the guilt of their ignorance that it was a perverse gross malicious and unexcusable ignorance you shall briefly judge Aristotle 1 Met. 2. being elevated above ordinary in his discourse about wisdom confesses the Knowledg of God to be the best Knowledg and most honourable of all but of no manner of use or necessity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. No knowledg is better then this yet none more unnecessary as if the Evidence of truth made him confess the nobility of this wisdom but his own supine stupid perverse resolutions made him contemn it as unnecessary But that I may not charge the accusation too hard upon Aristotle above others and take as much pains to damn him as the Colen Divines did to save him we will deal more at large as Aristotle prescribes his wise men 1 Met. and rip up to you the unexcusableness of the heathen ignorance in general 1. by the authority of Clemens who is guest to be one of their kindest patrons in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where having cited many testimonies out of them concerning the unity he concludes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Seeing that the Heathen had some sparks of the divine truth some gleanings out of the written word and yet make so little use of it as they do they do saith he shew the power of Gods word to have been revealed to them and accuse their own weakness that they did not improve it to the end for which it was sent that they encreased it not into a saving knowledg where by the way the word weakness is used by Clement by way of softning or mercy as here the Apostle useth ignorance when he
and junctures to keep all together into one proposition Secondly the Pronoun They in each place is in the letter the Jews in application present Christians and being indefinite might seem to be of the same extent in both places did not the matter alter it and make it universal in the former and particular in the latter For Artists say that an indefinite sign where the matter is necessary is equivalent to an Universal where but contingent to a particular Now to say the Lord liveth was and is necessary though not by any Logical yet by a Political necessity the Government and humane Laws under which then the Jews and now we Christians live require this profession necessarily at our hands But to swear falsly not to perform what before they profest is materia contingens a matter of no necessity but free will and choice that no humane Law can see into and therefore we must not interpret by the rules of Art or Charity that all were perjur'd but some only though 't is probable a major part and as we may guess by the first verse of this Chapter well nigh all of them Thirdly to say is openly to make profession and that very resolutely and boldly that none may dare to distrust it nay with an Oath to confirm it to jealous opinions as appears by the latter words They swear falsly while they do but say and Jer. 14. 2. Thou shalt swear The Lord liveth c. Fourthly the Lord i. e. both in Christianity and Orthodox Judaism the whole Trinity Fifthly Liveth i. e. by way of Excellency hath a life of his own independent and eternal and in respect of us is the Fountain of all Life and Being that we have and not only of Life but Motion and Perfection and Happiness and Salvation and all that belongs to it In brief to say The Lord liveth is to acknowledg him in his Essence and all his Attributes conteined together under that one Principle on that of life to believe whatever Moses and the Prophets then or now our Christian Faith hath made known to us of him Sixthly to falsifie and swerve from Truth becomes a farther aggravation especially in the present instance though they make mention of that God who is Yea and Amen and loves a plain veracious speech yet they swear though by loud and dreadful imprecations they bespeak him a Witness and a Judge unto the Criminal pray as devoutly for destruction for their Sin as the most sober Penitent can do for its Pardon yet are they perjur'd they swear falsly More than all this they openly renounce the Deity when they call upon him their hearts go not along with their words and professions though it be the surest truth in the World that they swear when they assert that the Lord liveth yet they are perjur'd in speaking of it though they make a fair shew of believing in the brain and from the teeth outward they never lay the truth that they are so violent for at all to their hearts or as the Original hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vanum to no purpose 't is that they swear no man that sees how they live will give any heed to their words will imagine that they believe any such matter So now having paced over and as it were spell'd every word single there will be no difficulty for the rawest understanding to put it together and read it currently enough in this proposition Amongst the multitude of Professors of Christianity there is very little real piety very little true belief In the verse next before my Text there is an O Yes made a Proclamation nay a Hew and Cry and a hurrying about the streets if it were possible to find out but a man that were a sincere Believer and here in my Text is brought in a Non est inventus Though they say the Lord liveth a multitude of Professors indeed every where yet surely they swear falsly there is no credit to be given to their words infidelity and hypocrisie is in their hearts for all their fair believing professions they had an unfaithful rebellious heart V. 23. and the event manifested it they are departed and gone arrant Apostates in their lives by which they were to be tryed Neither say they in their hearts Let us fear the Lord V. 24. whatsoever they flourished with their tongues Now for a more distinct survey of this horrible wretched Truth this Heathenism of Christians and Infidelity of Believers the true ground of all false swearing and indeed of every other sin we will first examine wherein it consists secondly whence it springs The first will give you a view of its nature the second its root and growth that you may prevent it The first will serve for an ocular or Mathematical demonstration called by Artists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is so the second a rational or Physical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how it comes about The first to convince of the truth of it the second to instruct you in its causes And first of the first wherein this Infidelity and to speak more plainly Perjury of formal Believers consists Though they say c. Since that rather phancy than Divinity of the Romanists Schoolmen and Casuists generally defining Faith to be a bare assent to the truth of God Word seated only in the understanding was by the Protestant Divines banished out of the Schools as a faith for a Chamaelion to be nourished with which can feed on air as a direct piece of Sorcery and Conjuring which will help you to remove Mountains only by thinking you are able briefly as a Chimaera or phantastical nothing fit to be sent to Limbo for a present Since I say this Magical Divinity which still possesses the Romanist and also a sort of men who would be thought most distant from them hath been exercised and silenced and cast out of our Schools would I could say out of our hearts by the Reformation the nature of Faith hath been most admirably explained yet the seat or subject of it never clearly set down some confining it to the Understanding others to the Will till at last it pitched upon the whole Soul the intellective nature For the Soul of Man should it be partitioned into faculties as the grounds of our ordinary Philosophy would perswade us it would not be stately enough for so royal a guest either room would be too pent and narrow to entertain at once so many graces as attend it Faith therefore that it may be received in state that it may have more freedom to exercise its Soveraignty hath required all partitions to be taken down that sitting in the whole Soul it may command and order the whole Man is not in the brain sometimes as its gallery to recreate and contemplate at another in the heart as its parlour to feed or a closet to dispatch business but if it be truly that royal Personage which we take it for
it is repletive in the whole house at once as in one room and that a stately Palace which would be much disgraced and lose of its splendor by being cut into offices and accordingly this royal Grace is an entire absolute Prince of a whole Nation not as a Tetrarch of Galilee a sharer of a Saxon Heptarchy and described to us as one single act though of great command and defined to be an assent and adherence to the goodness of the object which object is the whole word of God and specially the promises of the Gospel So then to believe is not to acknowledge the truth of Scripture and Articles of the Creed as vulgarly we use knowledg but to be affected with the goodness and Excellency of them as the most precious objects which the whole world could present to our choice to embrace them as the only desireable thing upon the earth and to be resolutely and uniformly inclined to express this affection of ours in our practice whensoever there shall be any competition betwixt them and our dearest delights For the object of our Faith is not meerly speculative somewhat to be understood only and assented to as true but chiefly moral a truth to be prosecuted with my desires through my whole Conversation to be valued above my life and set up in my heart as the only Shrines I worship So that he that is never so resolutely sworn to the Scriptures believes all the Commands Prohibitions and Promises never so firmly if he doth not adhere to them in his practice and by particular application of them as a rule to guide him in all his actions express that he sets a true value on them if he do not this he is yet an Infidel all his Religion is but like the Beads-mans who whines over his Creed and Commandments over a threshold so many times a Week only as his task to deserve his Quarterage or to keep correspondence with his Patron Unless I see his belief exprest by uniform obedience I shall never imagine that he minded what he said The sincerity of his faith is always proportionable to the integrity of his life and so far is he to be accounted a Christian as he performs the obligation of it the promise of his Baptism Will any man say that Eve believed God's inhibition when she ate the forbidden fruit If she did she was of a strange intrepid resolution to run into the jaws of Hell and never boggle 'T is plain by the story that she heard God but believed the Serpent as may appear by her obedience the only evidence and measure of her Faith Yet can it not be thought that she that was so lately a Work of God's Omnipotence should now so soon distrust it and believe that he could not make good his threatnings The truth is this she saw clearly enough in her brain but had not sunk it down into her heart or perhaps she assented to it in the general but not as appliable to her present case This assent was like a Bird fluttering in the Chamber not yet confined to a Cage ready to escape at the first opening of the door or window As soon as she opens either ears or eyes to hearken to the Serpent or behold the Apple her former assent to God is vanish'd all her faith bestowed upon the Devil It will not be Pelagianism to proceed and observe how the condition of every sin since this time hath been an imitation of that The same method in sin hath ever since been taken first to revolt from God and then to disobey first to become Infidels and then Sinners Every murmuring of the Israelites was a defection from the Faith of Israel and turning back to Egypt in their hearts Infidelity as it is the fountain from whence all Rebellion springs Faith being an adherence and every departure from the living God arising from an evil heart of unbelief Heb. iii. 12. so it is also the channel where it runs Not any beginning or progress in sin without a concomitant degree of either weakness or want of Faith So that Heathens or Hereticks are not the main enemies of Christ as the question de oppositis fidei is stated by the Romanists but the Hypocrite and Libertine he is the Heathen in grain an Heretick of Lucifer's own sect one that the Devil is better pleased with than all the Catalogue in Epiphanius or the Romish Calendar For this is it that Satan drives at an engine by which he hath framed us most like himself not when we doubt of the Doctrine of Christ for himself believes it fully no man can be more firmly resolved of it but when we heed it not in our lives when we cleave not to it in our hearts when instead of living by Faith Heb. 10. 38. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we draw back and cowardly subduce our selves and forsake our Colours refusing to be martialled in his ranks or fight under his Banner Arian the Stoick Philosopher hath an excellent discourse concerning the double Infidelity of the brain and heart very appliable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. There are two sorts of this senselessness and stupidity whereby Men are hardned into stones the first of the Understanding part the second of the Practical He that will not assent to things manifest his brain is frozen into a stone or mineral there is no more reasoning with him than with a pillar The Academicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never to believe or comprehend any thing was a stupid Philosophy like to have no Disciples but Posts or Statues and therefore long ago laught out of the Schools as an art of being Brutes or Metamorphosis not to instruct but transform them he could not remain a Man that was thus incredulous But the second Stupidity that of the Practical Not to abstain from things that are hurtful to embrace that which would be their death the vice though not doctrine of the Epicures though this were an argument both in his and Scripture-phrase of a stony heart yet was it such an one as the lustiest sprightfullest men in the World carried about with them Nay 't was an evidence saith he of their strength and valour of a heart of metal and proof to have all modesty and fear of ill cold as a stone frozen and dead within it And thus holds it in Christianity as it did then in reason Not to believe the truth of Scripture to deny that the Lord liveth would argue a brain as impenetrable as Marble and eyes as Crystal We sooner suspect that he is not a man that he is out of his senses then such an Infidel Some affected Atheists I have heard of that hope to be admired for eminent wits by it But I doubt whether any ever thought of it in earnest and if I may so say conscientiously denied a Deity But to deny him in our lives to have a heart of Marble or Adamant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Arrian A
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to magnifie a vow then is the vow or resolution truly great that will stand us in stead when it is performed As for all others they remain as brands and monuments of reproach to us upbraiding us of our inconstancy first then of disobedience and withal as signs to warn that Gods strength is departed from us I doubt not but this strength being thus lost may return again before our death giving a plunge as it did in Samson when he pluckt the house about their ears at last Jude xvi But this must be by the growing out of the hair again verse 22. the renewing of his repentance and sanctity with his vow and by prayer unto God verse 28. Lord God or as the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remember me I pray thee and strengthen me but for all this it was said before in the 19. verse his strength and in the 20. verse the Lord was departed from him And so now doubt it may from us if we have no better security for our selves than the present possession and a dream of perpetuity For though no man can excommunicate himself by one rule yet he may by another in the Canon Law that there be some faults excommunicate a man ipso facto one who hath committed them the law excommunicates though the Judge do not you need not the application there be perhaps some sins and Devils like the Carian Scorpions which Apollonius and Antigonus mention out of Aristotle which when they strike strangers do them no great hurt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 presently kill their own countrey-men some Devils perhaps that have power to hurt only their own subjects as sins of weakness and ignorance though they are enough to condemn an unregenerate man yet we hope through the merits of Christ into whom he is ingrafted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall do little hurt to the regenerate unless it be only to keep him humble to cost him more sighs and prayers But then saith the same Apollonius there your Labylonian snakes that are quite contrary do no great hurt to their own countrey-men but are present death to strangers and of this number it is to be feared may presumption prove and spiritual pride sins that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Devils natives ordinary habitual sinners need not much to fear but to the stranger and him that is come from far thinking himself as S. Paul was dropt out of the third Heaven and therefore far enough from the infernal countrey 't is to be feared I say they may do much mischief to them And therefore as Porphyry sayes of Plotinus in his life and that for his commendation that he was not ashamed to suck when he was eight years old but as he went to the Schools frequently diverted to his nurse so will it concern us for the getting of a consistent firm habit of soul not to give over the nurse when we are come to age and years in the spirit to account our selves babes in our virility and be perpetually a calling for the dug the sincere milk of the word of the Sacraments of the Spirit and that without any coyness or shame be we in our own conceits nay in the truth never so perfect full grown men in Christ Jesus And so much be spoken of the first point proposed the Pharisees flattering misconceit of his own estate and therein implicitely of the Christians premature deceivable perswasions of himself 1. thinking well of ones self on what grounds soever 2. overprizing of his own worth and graces 3. his opinion of the consistency and immutability of his condition without either thought of what 's past or fear of what 's to come Many other misconceits may be observed if not in the Pharisee yet in his parallel the ordinary confident Christian as 1. that Gods decree of election is terminated in their particular and individual entities without any respect to their qualifications and demeanors 2. That all Christian faith is nothing but assurance a thing which I toucht 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the preface and can scarce forbear now I meet with it again 3. That the Gospel consists all of promises of what Christ will work in us no whit of precepts or prohibitions 4. That it is a state of ease altogether and liberty no whit of labour and subjection but the Pharisee would take it ill if we should digress thus far and make him wait for us again at our return We hasten therefore to the second part the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or natural importance of the words and there we shall find him standing apart and thanking God only perhaps in complement his posture and language give notice of his pride the next thing to be toucht upon Pride is a vice either 1. in our natures 2. in our educations or 3. taken upon us for some ends the first is a disease of the soul which we are inclined to by nature but actuated by a full diet and inflation of the soul through taking in of knowledge virtue or the like which is intended indeed for nourishment for the soul but through some vice in the digestive faculty turns all into air and vapours and windiness whereby the soul is not fed but distended and not fill'd but troubled and even tortured out of it self To this first kind of pride may be accommodate many of the old fancies of the Poets and Philosophers the Gyants fighting with God i. e. the ambitious daring approaches of the soul toward the unapproachable light which cost the Angels so dear and all mankind in Eve when she ventured to taste of the tree of knowledge Then the fancy of the heathens mentioned by Athenagoras that the souls of those gyants were Devils that 't is the Devil indeed that old serpent that did in Adams time and doth since animate and actuate this proud soul and set it a moving And Philoponus saith that winds and tumours i. e. lusts and passions those troublesom impressions in the soul of man are the acceptablest sacrifices the highest feeding to the Devils nay to the very damned in Hell who rejoyce as heartily to hear of the conversion of one vertuous or learned man to the Devil of such a brave proselyte I had almost said as the Angels in Heaven at the repentance and conversion of a sinner This is enough I hope to make you keep down this boyling and tumultuousness of the soul lest it make you either a prey or else companions for Devils and that 's but a hard choice nay a man had far better be their food than their associates for then there might be some end hoped for by being devoured but that they have a villanous quality in their feeding they bite perpetually but never swallow all jaws and teeth but neither throats nor stomachs which is noted perhaps by that phrase in the Psalmist Death gnaweth upon the wicked is perpetually a gnawing but never devours
Gentiles is here meant by Gods commanding them we are to rank the commands of God into two sorts 1. common Catholick commands and these extend as far as the visible Church 2. peculiar commands inward operations of the spirit these are both priviledges and characters and properties of the invisible Church i. e the Elect and in both these respects doth he vouchsafe his commands to the Gentiles In the first respect God hath his louder trumpets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. xxiv 31. Mat. XXIV 31 which all acknowledge who are in the noise of it and that is the sound of the Gospel the hearing of which constitutes a visible Church And thus at the preaching of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Heathens had knowledge of his Laws Acts l. 25. and so were offered the Covenant if they would accept the condition For however that place Acts i. 25. be by one of our writers of the Church wrested by changing that I say not by falsifying the punctuation to witness this truth I think we need not such shifts to prove that God took some course by the means of the Ministery and Apostleship to make known to all nations under Heaven i. e. to some of all nations both his Gospel and commands Rom. X. 18. the sound of it went through all the earth Rom. x. 18. Psal XIX 4. cited out the xix Psal verse 4. though with some change of a word their sound in the Romans for their line in the Psalmist caused by the Greek Translators who either read and rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or else laid hold of the Arabick notion of the word the loud noise and clamor which hunters make in their pursuit and chase Mar. XIV 9. So Mark xiv 9. This Gospel shall be preached througthout the world Mar. XVI 15. So Mark xvi 15. To every creature Matth. xxiv 14. in all the world Mat. XXIV 14 and many the like as belongs to our last particular to demonstrate Besides this God had in the second respect his vocem pedissequam which the Prophet mentions a voice attending us to tell us of our duty to shew us the way and accompany us therein And this I say sounds in the heart not in the Ear and they only hear and understand the voice who are partakers as well of the effect as of the news of the covenant Thus in these two respects doth he command by his word in the Ears of the Gentiles by giving every man every where knowledge of his laws Just l. 24. and so in some Latin Authors mandare signifies to give notice to express ones will to declare or proclaim And thus secondly doth he command by his spirit in the spirits of the elect Gentiles by giving them the benefit of adoption and in both these respects he enters a covenant with the Gentiles which was the thing to be demonstrated with the whole name of them at large with some choice vessels of them more nearly and peculiarly and this was the thing which by way of doctrine we collected out of these words but now commands Now that we may not let such a precious truth pass by unrespected that such an important speculation may not float only in our brains we must by way of Application press it down to the heart and fill our spirits with the comfort of that doctrine which hath matter for our practice as well as our contemplation For if we do but lay to our thoughts 1. the miracle of the Gentiles calling as hath been heretofore and now insisted on and 2. mark how nearly the receiving of them into covenant concerns us their successors we shall find real motives to provoke us to a strain and key above ordinary thanksgiving For as Peter spake of Gods promise so it is in the like nature of Gods command which is also virtually a promise it belonged not to them only but it is to you and your children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Acts II. 39. Acts ii 39. From the first the miracle of their calling our gratitude may take occasion much to enlarge it self Pag. 158. 'T is storied of Brasidas in the fourth of Thucidides that imputing the victory which was somewhat miraculous to some more then ordinary humane cause he went presently to the Temple loaded with offerings and would not suffer the gods to bestow such an unexpected favour on him unrewarded and can we pass by such a mercy of our God without a spiritual sacrifice without a daily Anthem of Magnificats and Hallelujah's Herodotus observes it is as a Proverb of Greece 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 59 that if God would not send them rain they were to famish for they had said he no natural fountains or any other help of waters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but what God from above sent Pag. 130. So faith Thucidides in the fourth of his History there was but one fountain within a great compass and that none of the biggest So also was Aegypt another part of the Heathen world to be watered only by Nilus Herod p. 62 and that being drawn by the Sua did often succour them and fatten the Land for which all the neighbours fared the worse for when Nilus flowed Pag. 61 the neighbouring Rivers were left dry saith Herodotus You need not the mythology the Philosophers as well as soyl of Greece had not moisture enough to sustain them from nature if God had not sent them water from Heaven they and all we Gentiles had for ever suffered a spiritual thirst Aegypt and all the Nations had for ever gasped for drought if the sun-shine of the Gospel had not by its beams call'd out of the Well which had no bucket 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living or enlivening water John 4. 6. But by this attraction of the Sun these living waters did so break out upon the Gentiles that all the waters of Jury were left dry as once the dew was on Gideons fleece and drought on all the earth besides Judg. vi 37. Judg. VI 37. And is it reasonable for us to observe this miracle of mercy and not return even a miracle of thanksgiving Can we think upon it without some rapture of our souls Can we insist on it and not feel a holy tempest within us a fsorm and disquiet till we have some way disburthened and eased our selves with a powring out of thanksgiving That spirit is too calm that I say not stupid which can bear and be loaded with mercies of this kind and not take notice of its burthen for besides those peculiar favours bestowed on us in particular we are as faith Chrysostome Tom. 4. P. 824. in our audit of thanksgiving to reckon up all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all those common benefactions of which others partake with us
and nourishment from the spirit is rather opprest then improved by such an overflow The Christian is thereby much hindred in his progress of good works and cannot serve the Lord with alacrity that so perpetually hangs down his head like a Bulrush Wherefore the Country rule is that that ground is best which is mellow which being crusht will break but not crumble dissolve but not excessively Hence I say the habituate believer need not suspect his estate if he find not in himself such an extremity of violent grief and humiliation as he observes in others knowing that in him such a measure of tears would both soil the face of his devotion and clog the exercise of it His best mediocrity will be to be habitually humbled but actually lively and alacrious in the wayes of godliness not to be too rigid and severe a tyrant over his soul but to keep it in a temper of Christian softness tender under the hand of God and yet man-like and able both in the performance of Gods worship and his own calling And whensoever we shall find our selves in either extreme either too much hardned or too much melted too much elevated or too much dejected then to pray to that Holy Spirit so to fashion the temper of our souls that we neither fail in humbling our selves in some measure for our sins nor yet too cowardly deject and cast down our selves below the courage and comfort and spiritual rejoycing which he hath prescribed us O Holy Lord we are the greatest of sinners and therefore we humble our selves before thee but thou hast sent thy Christ into the world to save sinners and therefore we raise up our spirits again and praise and magnifie thy name And thus much of this point and in brief of the first consideration of these words to wit as they are absolutely a profession of Paul himself to which end we beheld him in his double estate converted and unconverted In his unconverted state we found though a very great sinner yet not absolutely greater then those times brought forth and therefore we were to think of him relatively to his future estate and so we found him the greatest sinner that ever was called in the New Testament into so glorious a Saint Whence we observe the rarity of such conversions that though Saul were yet every blasphemous sinner could not expect to be called from the depth of sin to regeneracy and salvation and this we proved both against the ancient Romans and modern Censors of morality and applied it to the care which we ought to have of keeping our unregeneracy spotless from any reigning sin Afterward we came to Paul converted where we balk't the discourse of the condition of sin in the regenerate and rather observed the effect of it and in it that the greatness of his sin made as Paul so every regenerate man more eagerly to fasten on Christ Which being proved by a double ground we applied first by way of caution how that proposition was to be understood 2. by way of character how a great sinner may judge of his sincere certain conversion 3. by way of comfort to others who find not the effects of humiliation and the like in themselves in such measure as they see in others and so we have past through the first consideration of these words being conceived absolutely as St. Pauls profession of himself we should come to the other consideration as they are set down to us as a pattern or form of confessing the estate and applying the salvation of sinners to our selves which business requiring the pains and being worthy the expence of an entire hour we must defer to a second exercise Now the God which hath created us hath elected redeemed called justified us will sanctifie us in his time will prosper this his ordinance will direct us by his grace to his glory To him be ascribed due the honour the praise the glory the dominion which through all ages of the world have been given to him that sitteth on the Throne to the Holy Spirit and Lamb for evermore The XIX Sermon 1 Tim. I. 15. Of whom I am the chief IN all Humane writings and Learning there is a kind of poverty and emptiness which makes them when they are beheld by a judicious reader look starved and crest-faln their speeches are rather puft up then fill'd they have a kind of boasting and ostentation in them and promise more substance and matter to the ear then they are able to perform really to the understanding whence it falls out that we are more affected with them at the first hearing and if the Orator be clear in his expression we understand as much at the first recital as we are able to do at the hundredth repetition But there is a kind of Excellency in the Scripture a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sublimity above all other writings in the world The reading of every section of it leaves a sting in the mind and a perpetual conceit of a still imperfect understanding of it An intelligent man at every view finds in it a fresh mystery and still perceives that there is somewhat beyond not yet attain'd to like men digging in mines the deeper he dives he finds the greatest treasure and meets with that under ground which looking on the outward turf or surfice he never imagined to have been there This I observe unto you to shew you the riches both of all and especially of this Scripture whereinto the deeper I dig the more oar I find and having already bestowed one hour in the discussing of it without any violence or wresting or wire-drawing find plenty of new materials We have already handled the Words at large in one consideration as they are a profession of Paul himself I will not repeat you the particular occurrents We now without any more delay of preface come to the second consideration of them as they are spoken by Paul respectively to us i. e. as they are prescribed us for a form of confessing the estate and applying the salvation of sinners unto ourselves teaching each of us for a close of our Faith and Devotion to confess Of all c. Where first the cadence or manner how Paul falls into these words is worthy to be both observed and imitated the chief and whole business of this verse being the truth the acceptable truth of Christs Incarnation with the end of it the saving of sinners He can no sooner name this word sinners but his exceeding melting tenderness abruptly falls off and subsumes Of all sinners c. If there be any thing that concerns sinners I am sure I have my part in that for of that number I am the chief The note by the way briefly is That a tender conscience never hears of the name of sinner but straight applies it to it self It is noted by Aristotle the master of Human Learning that that Rhetorick was very thin and unprofitable very poor and like