powerfull Lord shall be lifted up and crowned with glory and honour for evermore Which God grant c. HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday JOHN 16.13 Howbeit when He the spirit of truth is come he will lead you into all truth WHen the spirit of truth is come c. and behold he is come already and the Church of Christ in all ages hath set apart this day for a memoriall of his coming a memoriall of that miraculous and unusuall sound that rushing wind those cloven tongues of fire And there is good reason for it that it should be had in everlasting remembrance For as he came then in solemn state upon the Disciples in a manner seen heard so he comes though not so visibly yet effectually to us upon whom the ends of the world are come that we may remember it though not it a mighty wind yet he rattles our hearts together though no house totter at his descent yet the foundations of our souls are shaken no fire appears yet our breasts are inflamed no cloven tongues yet our hearts are cloven asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every day to a Christian is a day of Pentecost his whole life a continued holy-day wherein the Holy Ghost descends both as an Instructer and a Comforter secretly and sweetly by his word characterizing the soul imprinting that saving knowledge which none of the Princes of this world had not forcing not drawing by violence but sweetly leading and guiding us into all truth When He the spirit of truth is come c. In which words we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Epiphany or Apparition of the blessed Spirit as Nazianzen speaks or rather the promise of his coming and appearance and if we well weigh it there is great reason that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ his that he should say Lo I come Psal 40. For in the volume of the book it is written of him that the spirit of the Lord should rest upon him Es 11.2 and I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh Joel 2.28 Christus legis Spiritus Sanctus Evangelii complementum Christs Advent for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirits for the fulfilling and compleating of the Gospel Christs Advent to redeem the Church and the Spirits Advent to teach the Church Christ to shed his blood and the Spirit to wash and purge it in his blood Christ to pay down the ransome for us Captives and the Spirit to work off our fetters Christ to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit to interpret it for we may soon see that the one will little availe without the other Christs Birth his Death and Passion Chists glorious Resurrection but a story in Archivis good newes sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it and teach us to know him Phil. 3.10 and the vertue and power of his Resurrection and make us conformable to his death This is the summe of these words and in this we shall passe by these steps or degrees First carry our thoughts to the promise of the Spirits Advent the miracle of this day cùm venerit when the spirit of truth comes in a sound to awake them in wind to move them in fire to enlighten and warm them in tongues to make them speak Secondly consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work and employment of the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall lead you into all truth In the first we meet with 1. nomen personae if we may so speak a word pointing out to his person the demonstrative pronoune ille when he shall come 2. Nomen naturae a name expressing his nature he is a spirit of truth and then we cannot be ignorant whose spirit it is In the second we shall find Nomen officii a name of office and administration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word from whence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a leader or conducter in the way for so the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to be their leader and conducter that they might not erre but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep on in a strait and even course in the way And in this great office of the Holy Ghost we must first take notice of the lesson he teacheth it is Truth Secondly the large extent of this lesson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he leads into all truth Thirdly The method and manner of his discipline which will neerly concern us to take notice of it is ductus a gentle and effectuall leading he drives us not he drawes us not by violence but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word here he takes as it were by the hand and guides and leads us into all truth Cùm venerit ille spiritus veritatis When He the spirit of truth c. And first though we are told by some that where the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added to fo there we are to understand the person of the Holy Ghost yet we rather lay hold on the pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ille when he the spirit of truth shall come he shall lead you which points out to a distinct person For if with Sabellius he had onely meant some new motion in the Disciples hearts or some effect of the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been enough but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He designes a certain person and ille he in Christs mouth a distinct person from himself Besides we are taught in the Schools Actiones sunt suppositorum actions and operations are of persons now in this verse Christ sayes that he shall lead them and before he shall reprove the world and in the precedent chapter he shall testifie of me which are proper and peculiar operations of the blessed Spirit and bring him in a distinct person from the Father and the Son And therefore S. Augustine rests upon this dark and generall expression The Holy Ghost communicates both of the Father and the Son is something of them both whatsoever we may call it whether we call him the Consubstantiall and Coeternall communion and friendship of the Father and the Son or with Gerson and others of the Schools Nexum Amorosum the Essentiall Love and Love-knot of the undivided Trinity But we will wave these more abstruse and deeper speculations in which if we speak not in the Spirits language we may sooner lose than profit our selves and speak more than we should whilest we are busie to raise our thoughts and words up to that which is but enough It will be safer walking below amongst those observations which as they are more familiar and easy so are they more usefull and take what oare we can find with ease than to dig deeper in this dark mine where if we walk not warily we may meet with poysonous fogs and damps instead of treasure We will therefore in the next place enquire why he is called the Spirit of Truth for divers
forsake him when he hung upon the Crosse did he not see the joy which was set before him Yes he did but not to comfort but rather torment him Altissimo Divinitatis consilio actum est ut gloria militaret in paenam saith Leo. By the counsell of the Godhead it was set down and determined that his Glory should adde to his Punishment that his Knowledge which was more clear than a Seraphins should increase his Grief his Glory his Shame his Happinesse his Misery that there should not onely be Vinegar in his Drink and Gall in his Honey and Mirrhe with his Spices but that his Drink should be Vinegar his Honey Gall and all his Spices as bitter as Mirrhe that his Flowers should be Thorns and his Triumph Shame This could sin do and can we love it This could the love and the wrath of God do his love to his Creature and his wrath against sin And what a delivery what a desertion is this which did not deprive him of strength but enfeeble him with strength which did not leave him in the dark but punish him with light what a strange delivery was that which delivered him up without comfort nay which betrayed and delivered up his comforts themselves what misery equall to that which makes Strength a Tormenter Knowledge a Vexation and makes Joy Glory a Persecution There now hangs his sacred Body on the Cross not so much afflicted with his passion as his Soul was wounded with compassion with compassion on his Mother with compassion on his Disciples with compassion on the Jewes who pierced him for whom he prayes Tantam patienteam nemo unquam perpetravit Tert. de Patientia when they mock him which did manifest his Divinity as much as his miracles with compassion on the Temple which was shortly to be levelled with the ground with compassion on all Mankind bearing the burden of all dropping his pity and his blood together upon them feeling in himself the torments of the blessed Martyrs the reproch of his Saints the wounds of every broken heart the poverty diseases afflictions of all his Brethren to the end of the world delivered to a sense of their sins who feel them not and to a sense of theirs who grone under them delivered up to all the miseries and sorrowes not onely which he then felt but which any men which all men have felt or shall feel to the time the Trump shall found and he shall come again in Glory The last delivery was of his soul which was indeed traditio an yielding it up a voluntary emission or delivering it up into his Fathers hands praevento carnificis officio saith the Father he prevents the spear and the hand of the Executioner Tert. A pol. and gives up the Ghost What should I say or where should I end who can fathome this depth The Angels stand amazed the Heavens are hung with black the Earth opens her mouth and the Grave hers and yields up her dead the veyl of the Temple rends asunder the Earth trembles and the rocks are cleft but neither Art nor Nature can reach the depth of this wisdom and love no tongue neither of the living nor of the dead neither of men or Angels are able to express it The most powerfull Eloquence is the Threnody of a broken heart for there his death speaks it self and the vertue and power of it reflects back again upon him and reacheth him at the right hand of God where his wounds are open his merits vocal interceding for us to the end of the world We have now past two steps and degrees of this scale of love with wonder and astonishment and I hope with grief and love Tradidit pro nobis For us sinners passed through a field of Blood to the top of mount Calvarie where the Son of God the Saviour of the World was nailed to the Crosse and being thus lifted up upon his Crosse he looketh down upon us to draw us after him Look then back upon him who looks upon us whom our sins have pierced and behold his blood trickling down upon us which is one ascent more and brings in the persons for whom he was delivered First for us Secondly for us all Now this pro nobis that he should be delivered for us is a contemplation full of delight and comfort but not so easie to digest for if we reflect upon our selves and there see nothing but confusion and horrour we shall soon ask our selves the question why for us why not for the lapsed Angels who fell from their estate as we did They glorious Spirits we vile Bodies they heavenly Spirits we of the earth earthly ready to sink to the earth from whence we came they immortall Spirits we as the Grasse withered before we grow yet he spared not his Son to spare us but the Angels that fell he cast into Hell and chained them up in everlasting darknesse 2 Pet. 2.4 We may think that this was munus honorarium that Christ was delivered for us for some worth or excellency in us no it was munus eleemosynarium a gift bestowed upon us in meere compassion of our wants With them he deales in rigour and relents not with us in favour and mercy and seeks after us and layes hold on us when we were gone from him as far as sin and disobedience could carry us out of his reach It was his love it was his will to doe so and in this we might rest but Divines will tell us that man was a ritter object of mercy than they quia levius est alienâ mente peccare quam propriâ because the Angels sin was more spontaneous De Angelis quibusdam suâ sponte corruptis corruptio◠gens Daemonum evasit Tert. Apol. c. 22. wrought in them by themselves man had importunam arhorem that flattering and importuning Tree and that subtill and seducing Serpent to urge and sway him from his obedience Man had a Tempter the Angels were both the temptation and tempters to themselves Man took in Death by looking abroad but the Angels by reflecting upon themselves gazed so long upon their own Beauty till they saw it changed into horrour and deformity and the offence is more pardonable where the motive is ab extrinseco from some outward assoile than where it grows up of it self Besides the Angels did not all fall but the whole lump of mankind was leavend with the same leaven and pity it may seem that so noble a Creature made up after Gods own Image should be utterly lost These reasons with others we may admit though they may seem rather to be conjectures than reasons and we have not much light in Scripture to give them a fairer appearance but the Scripture is plain that he took not the Angels Heb. 2.16 he did not lay his hands upon them to redeem them to liberty and strike off their Bonds and we must goe out of the world to find out the reason and seek
the true cause in the bosome of the Father nay in the bowels of his Son and there see the cause why he was delivered for us written in his Heart it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 3.4 the love of God to mankind and what was in mankind but enmity and hostility sinne and deformity which are no proper motives to draw on his love and yet he loved us and hated sinne and made haste to deliver us from it Dilexisti me domine plusquam te quando mori voluisti pro me saith Aust Lord when thou dyedst for me thou madest it manifest that my soule was dearer to thee then thy self such a high esteeme did he set upon a Soule which we scarce honour with a thought but so live as if we had none For us men then and For us Sinners was he delivered the Prophet Esay speaks it and he could not speake it so properly of any but him He was wounded for our transgressions and broken for our Iniquities So that he was delivered up not onely to the crosse E◠53. and shame but to our sinnes which nayled him to the crosse which crucified him not onely in his Humility but in his glory now he sits at the right hand of God and puts him to shame to the end of the world Falsò de Judaeis querimur why complain we of the Jewes malice or Judas's treason of Pilates injustice we we alone are they who crucifyed the Lord of life Our Treachery was the Judas which betrayed him Our malice the Jew which accused him our perjury the false witnesse against him our Injustice the Pilate that condemned him our pride scorned him our envy grinned at him our luxury spet upon him our covetousnesse sold him our corrupt bloud was drawn out of his wounds our swellings prickt with his Thornes our sores launced with his speare and the whole Body of sinne stretched out and crucified with the Lord of life Tradidit pro nobis he delivered him up for us sinners no sinne there is which his bloud will not wash away but finall impenitency which is not so much a sinne as the sealing up of the body of sinne when the measure is full pro nobis for us sinners for us for us the progeny of an arch-traytor and as great traytors as he take us at our worst if we repent he was delivered for us and if we do not repent yet he may be said to be delivered for us for he was delivered for us to that end that we might repent Pro nobis Pro nobis omnibus so us all for us men and for us sinners he was deliver'd pro infirmis for us when we were without strength pro impiis for us when we were ungodly pro peccatoribus for sinners Rom. 5.6,7 for so we were consider'd in this great work of our Redemption and thus high are we gone on this scale and ladder of love There is one step more pro nobis omnibus he was deliver'd for us all all not consider'd as elect or reprobate but as men as smners for that name will take in all for all have sinned And here we are taught to make a stand and not to touch too hastily and yet the way is plaine and easie pro omnibus for all this some will not touch and yet they doe touch and presse it with that violence that they presse it almost into nothing make the world not the world and whosoever not whosoever but some certaine men and turne all into a few deduct whom they please out of all people Nations and Languages and out of Christendome it self and leave some few with Christ upon the Crosse whose persons he beares whom they call the elect and meane themselves sic Deus dilexit mundum so God loved the world that is the Elect say they John 3.16 they are the world where t is hard to find them for they are called out of it and the best light we have which is of Scripture discovers them not unto us in that place and if the Elect be this world which God so loved then they are such Elect which may not believe and such elect as may perish and whom God will have perish if they doe not believe T is true none have benefit of Christs death but the Elect but from hence it doth not follow that no other might have had theirs is the kingdome of heaven but are not they shut out now who might have made it theirs God saith Saint Peter would not that any should perish 2 Pet. 3.8 and God is the Saviour of all men saith Saint Paul but especially of those that believe 1 Tim. 4.10 all if they believe and repent and those who are obedient to the Gospel because they doe the bloud of Christ is powred forth on the Believer and with it he sprinkles his heart and is saved the wicked trample it under their foot and perish That the bloud of Christ is sufficient to wash away the sinnes of the world nay of a thousand worlds that Christ paid down a ransome of so infinite a value that it might redeeme all that are or possibly might be under that Captivity that none are actually redeemed but they who make him their Captaine and doe as he commands that is believe and repent or to speak in their own language none are saved but the elect In this all agree in this they are Brethren and why should they fall out when both hold up the priviledge of the believer and leave the rod of the stubborne Impenitent to fall upon him The death of Christ is not applyed to all say some It is not for all say others the virtue of Christs meritorious passion is not made use of by all say some it was never intended that it should say others and the event is the same for if it be not made use of and applyed it is as if it were not as if it had never been obtain'd onely the unbeliever is left under the greater condemnation who turned away from Christ who spake unto him not onely from heaven but from his crosse and refused that grace which was offer'd him which could not befall him if there had never been any such overture made for how can he refuse that which never concern'd him how can he forfeit that pardon which was never seal'd how can he despise that spirit of grace which never breathed towards him They who are so tender and jealous of Christs bloud that no drop must fall but where they direct it doe but veritatem veritate concutere undermine and shake one truth with another set up the particular love of God to believers to overthrow his generall love to Mankind confound the virtue of Christs passion with the effect and draw them together within the same narrow compasse bring it under a Decree that it can save no more then it doth because it hath its bounds set hitherto it shall go and no further and was ordained to quicken
with his Grace if we will receive it which will make his commands which are now grievous easie his Promises which are rich profitable which may carry us on in a regular and peaceable course of piety and obedience which is our Angel which is our God and we call it Grace All these things we have with Christ and the Apostle doth not onely tell us that God doth give us them but to put it out of doubt puts up a quomodo non challenges as it were the whole world to shew how it should be otherwise How will he not with him give us all things And this question addes energy and weight and emphasis and makes the position more positive the affirmation more strong and the truth of it more perswasive and convincing shall he not give us all things It is impossible but he should more possible for a City upon a hill to be hid than for him to hide his favour from us more possible for Heaven to sink into Hell or Hell to raise it self up to his Mercy-seat than for him to with-hold any thing from them to whom he hath given his Son Impossible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most inconvenient as that which is against his Wisdome Naz. Or. 36. his Justice his Goodnesse and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as abhorrent to his will to deny us any thing In brief if the Earth be not as Iron the Heavens cannot be as Brasse God cannot but give when we are fit to receive and in Christ we are made capable and when he is given all things are given with him nay more than all things more than we can desire more than we can conceive when he descends Mercy descends with him in a ful shower of Blessings to make our Souls as the Paradise of God to quicken our Faith to rouze up our Hope and in this Light in this Assurance in this Heaven we are bold with S. Paul to put up the question against all Doubts all Feares all Temptations that may assault us He that sparede not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things The Conclusion And now we have passed up every step and degree of this scale and ladder of love and seen Christ delivered and nailed to the Crosse and from thence he looks down and speaks to us to the end of the world Crux patientis fuit Cathedra docentis the Crosse on which he suffered was the Chaire of his profession and from this Chair we are taught Humility constant Patience and perfect Obedience an exact art and method of living well drawn out in severall lines so that what was ambitiously said of Homer that if all Sciences were lost they may be found in him may most truly be said of his Crosse and Passion that if all the characters of Innocency Humility Obedience Love had been lost they might here be found in libro vitae agni in the Book of the Life nay of the Death of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World yet now nailed to the Crosse Let us then with Love and Reverence look upon him whothus looks upon us put on our Crucified Jesus that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrys every Vertue his Humility his Patience his Obedience and so bear about with us the dying of our Lord and draw the picture of a Crucified Saviour in our selves To this end was he delivered up for us to this end we must receive him that we may glorifie God as he hath glorified him on earth for Gods Glory and our Salvation are twisted together and wrought as it were in the same thred are linked together in the same bond of Peace I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Thus it runs and it runs on evenly in a stream of love Oh how must it needs delight him to see his Gift prosper in our hands to see us delivering up our selves to him who was thus delivered for us to see his purchase those who were bought with this price made his peculiar people Lift then up the gates of your souls that this King of Glory may come in If you seek Salvation you must seek the glory of God and if you seek the glory of God you shall find it in your Salvation Thou may'st cry loe here it is or loe there it is but here it is found The Jew may seek salvation in the Law the Superstitious in Ceremony and bodily exercise the Zelot in the Fire and in the Whirlwind the phantastick lazy Christian in a Thought in a Dream and the profane Libertine in Hell it self Then then alone we find it when we meet it in conjunction with the glory of God which shines most gloriously in a Crucified Christ and an Obedient Christian made conformable to him and so bearing about in him the markes of the LORD JESUS To conclude then Since God hath delivered up his Son for us all and with him given us all things let us open our hearts and receive him that is Believe in his name that is be faithfull to him that is love him and keep his Commandements which is our conformity to his Death and then he will give us what will he give us he will heap gift upon gift give us power to become the Sons of God Let us receive him take in Christ take him in his Shame in his Sorrow in his Agony take him hanging on the Crosse take him and take a pattern by him that as he was so we may be troubled for our sins that we may mingle our Teares with his Blood drag our Sin to the Bar accuse and condemn it revile and spit in its Face at the fairest presentment it can make and then naile it to the Crosse that it may languish and faint by degrees and give up the Ghost and die in us and then lye down in peace in his Grave and expect a glorious Resurrection to eternall life where we shall receive Christ not in Humility but in Glory and with him all his Riches and Abundance all his glorious Promises even Glory and Immortality and Eternall life HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE A SERMON Preached on Easter-Day REV. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of Death WE do not ask of whom speaketh S. John this or who is he that speaks it for we have his character drawn out in lively colours in the verses going before my Text. The Divine calls him a voyce ver 12. when he meanes the man who spake it I turned to see the voyce that spoke with me and in the next verse tells us he was like to the Son of man in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks governing his Church setting his Tabernacle amongst men not abhorring to walk amongst them and to be their God Leâ— 26.11,12 that they might be his people Will ye see his Robes
of the Pharisees believe in him we might ask Did any of his Disciples believe in him Christ himself calls them Fools and slow of heart to believe what the Prophets had foretold their Feare had sullied the evidence that they could not see it the Text sayes they forsook him and fled And the reason of this is plain For though faith be an act of the understanding yet it depends upon the will and men are incredulous not for want of those meanes which may raise a faith but for want of will to follow that light which leads unto it do not believe because they will not and so bear themselves strongly upon opinion preconceived beyond the strength of all evidence whatsoever when our affections and lusts are high and stand out against it the evidence is put by and forgot and the object which calls for our eye and faith begins to disappear and vanish and at last is nothing quot voluntates tot fides so many wills Hilary so many Creeds for there is no man that believes more than he will To make this good we may appeale to men of the slendrest observation least experience we may appeale to our very eye which cannot but see those uncertain and uneven motions in which men are carried on in the course of their life For what else is that that turnes us about like the hand of a Diall from one point to another from one perswasion to a contrary How comes it to pass that I now embrace what anon I tremble at what is the reason that our Belief shifts so many Scenes and presents it self in so many severall shapes now in the indifferency of a Laodicaean anon in the violence of a Zelot now in the gaudiness of Superstition anon in the proud scornful slovenry of factious Profaneness that they make so painfull a peregrination through so many modes and forms of Religion and at last end in Atheist what reason is there there can be none but this the prevalency and victory of our sensitive part over our reason and the mutability yea and stubbornesse of our will which cleaves to that which it will soon forsake but is strongly set against the truth which brings with it the fairest evidence but not so pleasing to the sense This is it which makes so many impressions in the mind Self-love and the love of the world these frame our Creeds these plant and build these root and pull down build up a Faith and then beat it to the ground and then set up another in its place A double-minded man saith S. James is unstable in all his wayes Remember 2 Tim. 2.8 saith S. Paul that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised up from the dead according to my Gospel that is a sure foundation for our faith to build on and there we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fair and certain pledges of it which are as a Commentary upon ego vivo I live or as so many beams of light to make it open and manifest to every eye which give up so fair an evidence that the malice of the Jew cannot avoid it Let them say his Disciples stole him away whilest their stout watchmen slept what stole him away and whilest they slept it is a dream and yet it is not a dream it is a studied lye and doth so little shake that it confirmes our faith so transparent that through it we may behold more clearly the face of truth which never shines brighter than when a lye is drawn before it to vaile and shadow it He is not here he is risen if an Angel had not spoken it yet the Earthquake the Clothes the clothes so diligently wrapt up the Grave it self did speak it and where such strange impossibilities are brought in to colour and promote a lye they help to confute it id negant quod ostendunt they deny what they affirm and malice it self is made an argument for the truth For it we have a better verdict given by Cephas and the twelve 1 Cor. 12.15 We have a cloud of witnesses five hundred brethren at once who would not make themselves the Fathers of a lye to propagate that Gospel which either makes our yea yea and nay nay or damnes us nor did they publish it to raise themselves in wealth and honour for that teacheth them to contemn them and makes poverty a beatitude and shewes them a sword and persecution which they were sure to meet with and did afterwards in the prosecution of their office and publication of that faith nor could they take any delight in such a lye which would gather so many clouds over their heads and would at last dissolve in that bitternesse which would make life it self a punishment and at last take it away and how could they hope that men would ever believe that which themselves knew to be a lie These witnesses then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are many and beyond exception We have the blood too the testimony of the Martyrs who took their death on 't and when they could not live to publish it laid down their life and sealed it with their blood And therefore we on whom the ends of the world are come have no reason to complain of distance or that we are removed so many ages from the time wherein it was done for now Christ risen is become a more obvious object than before the diversity of mediums have increased multiplied it we see him in his word we see him through the blood of Martyrs we see him with the eye of faith Christ is risen alive secundum scripturas saith S. Paul and he repeats it twice in the same chapter Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem it is S. Austins let it passe for his sake when the Jew stumbled at him he presented but the bignesse of a stone but our infidelity will find no excuse if we see him not now when he appears as visible as a mountain Vivo Vivo that is vivifico I give life saith Christ I am alive there is more in this vivo than a bare rising to life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he liveth is as much as he giveth life there is virtue and power in his Resurrection a power to abolish Death 2 Tim. 1.10 and to bring life and immortality to light a power to raise our vile bodies and a power to raise our viler souls shall raise them nay he hath done it already conresuscitati we are risen together with him and we live with him for we cannot think that he that made such haste out of his own Grave can be willing to see us rotting in ours From this vivo it is that though we dye yet we shall live again Christs living breathes life into us and in his Resurrection he cast the modell of ours Idea est eorum quae fiunt exemplar aeternum saith Seneca and this is such a one an eternall pattern for ours Plato's Idea or common
ever but Christ living infuseth life into us that the bonds of Hell and of Death can no more hold us than they can him There is such a place as Hell but to the living members of Christ there is no such place for it is impossible it should hold them and you may as well place Lucifer at the right hand of God as a true Christian in Hell for how can light dewll in darknesse how can purity mix with stench how can beauty stay with horrour If Nature could forget her course and suffer contradictories to be drawn together and to be both true yet this is such a contradiction which unless Christ could die again which is impossible can never be reconciled Heaven and earth may passe away but Christ lives for evermore and the power and vertue of his life is as everlasting as everlastingnesse it self And againe There was a pale Horse Rev. 6.8 and his name that sate on him was death and he had power to kill with the sword with hunger and with the beasts of the Earth but now he doth not kill us he doth but stagger and sling us down to rise again and tread him under our feet and by the power of an everliving Saviour to be the Death of death it self Death was a king of terrors and the Feare of death made us slaves Heb. 2.15 brought us into servility and bondage all our life long made our pleasures lesse delightfull and our virtues more tedious then they are made us tremble and shrink from those Heroique undertakings for the truth of God but now they in whom Christ lives and moves and hath his Being as in his own dare look upon him in all his horror expeditum morti genus saith Tertull and are ready to meet him in his most dreadfull march with all his Army of Diseases racks and Tortures and as man before he sinned knew not what Death meant and Eve familiarly conversed with the Serpent so doe they with death and having that Image restored in them are secure and feare it not for what can this Tyrant take from them Their life that is hid with Christ in God It cannot cut them off from pleasure for their delight is in the Lord It cannot rob them of their treasure for that is laid up in heaven It can take nothing from them but what themselves have already crucified their Flesh It cannot cut off one hope one thought one purpose for all their thoughts purposes and hopes were leveld not on this but on another life And now Christ hath his keys in his hand Death is but a name it is nothing or if it be something it is such a thing that troubled S. Austin to define what it is we call it a punishment but indeed it is a benefit a favour even such a favour that Christ who is as Omnipotent as he is everlasting who can work all in all though he abolished the Law of Moses the law of Ceremonies yet would not abrogate this law by which we are bound over unto death because it is soprofitable and advantageous to us it was threatned it is now a promise or the way unto it for death it is that lets us in that which was promis'd it was an end of all it is now the beginning of all it was that which cut off life it is now that through which as through a gate we enter into it we may say it is the first point and moment of our After-eternity for t is so neer unto it that we can hardly sever them for we live or rather labour and fight and strive with the world and with life it self which is it self a temptation and whilst by the power of our everliving Christ we hold up and make good this glorious contention and fight and conquer and presse forward towards the mark either nature faileth or is prest down with violence and we dye that is our language but the spirit speaketh after another manner we sleep we are dissolved we fall in pieces our bodies from our soules and we from our miseries and Tempâ—…tions and this living everliving Christ gathers us together again breaths life and eternity unto us that we may live and reign with him for evermore And so I have viewed all the parts of the Text being the maine Articles of our faith 1. Christs death 2. his life 3. his eternall life and last of all his power of the keys his Dominion over hell and death we will but in a word fit the Ecce the behold in the Text to every part of it and set the seale to it Amen and so conclude And first we place the Ecce the behold on his death he suffer'd and dyed that he might learne to have compassion on thy miseries and on thy dust and rayse thee from both and wilt thou learne nothing from his compassion wilt thou not by him and by thy own sinnes and miseries which drew from him teares of Bloud learne to pitty thy self wilt thou still rejoyce in that iniquity which troubled his spirit which shed his bloud which he was willing should gush out of his heart so it might melt thine and work but this in thee to pitty thy self we talk of a first Conversion and a second and I know not what Cycles and Epicycles we have found out to salve our irregular motion in our wayes to blisse if we could once have compassion on our selves the work were done and when were you converted or how were you converted were no such hard questions to be answer'd for I may be sure I am converted if I be sure that I truly pitty my self shall Christ onely have compassion on thy soule But then again shall he shed his bloud for his Church that it may be one with him and at unity in it self and canst thou not drop a teare when thou seest this his body thus rent in pieces as it is at this day when thou seest the world the love of the world break in and make such havock in the Church oh 't is a sad contemplation will none but Christ weep over Jerusalem Secondly let us look upon him living and not take our eye from off him to fill and feed and delight it with the vanities of this world with that which hath neither life nor spirit with that which is so neer to nothing with that which is but an Idol Behold he liveth that which thou so dotest on hath no life nor can it prolong thy life a moment who would not cease from man whose breath is in his nostrills and then what madnesse is it to trust in that which hath no breath at all shall Christ present himself alive to us and for us and shall we lay hold of corruption rottennesse and when heaven opens it self to receive us run from it into a charnell-house and so into hell it self But then in the third place Behold he lives for evermore and let not us bound and imprison our thoughts
if we do not dwell in him if we be not united with him we shall joyn our selves with somthing else with flesh and blood with the glory and vanity of the world which will but wait upon us to carry us to our grave feed us up and prepare us for the day of slaughter Oh who would dwel in a Land darker then darknesse it self who would be united with death But then if we dwell in him and he in us if he call us my little children and we cry Abba Father then what then who can utter it the tongue of men and Angels cannot expresse it then as he said to the Father all thine are mine and mine thine so all his is ours and all that is ours is his our miseries are his and when we suffer we do but fill up that which was behinde of the affliction of Christ Col. 2.24 He is in bonds in disgrace in prison with us and we bear them joyfully for we bear them with him who beareth all things our miseries nay our sins are his he took them upon his shoulder upon his account he sweat he groaned he died under them and by dying took away their strength nay our good deeds are his and if they were not his they were not good for by him we offer them unto God by his hand in his name he is the Priest that prepares and consecrates them our prayers our preaching our hearing Heb. 13.15 our alms our fasting if they were not his were but as the Father calls the Heathen mans virtues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a faire name a title of health upon a box of poison Nazianz. the letter Tan written in the forehead of a reprobate Again to make up the reciprocation as all ours are his so all his are ours what shall I say his poverty his dishonour his sufferings his Crosse are ours yes they are ours because they are his if they had not been his they could not be ours none being able to make satisfaction but he none that could transfer any thing upon man but he that was the Son of man and Son of God and his Miracles were orus For for us men and for our Salvation were they wrought His Innocency his purity his Obedience are ours For God so deales with us for his sake as if we were as if we our selves had satisfyed Let St. Paul conclude for me in that divine and heavenly close of his third Chap. of the 1. Ep. to the Cor. whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the word or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods and if we be Christs then be we heires joynt heires with Jesus Christ as he is heire so have we in him right and title to be heires and so we receive eternal happinesse not onely as a gift but as an inheritance in a word we live with him we suffer with him we are buryed with him we rise with him and when he shall come again in glory we who dwell in him now shall be ever with him even dwell and reign with him for evermore THE FIFTH SERMON EZEKIEL 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked Turne ye Turne ye from your evill wayes For why will you die oh House of Israel WEE have here a sudden and vehement out-cry Turne yee Turne yee and those events which are sudden and vehement the Philosopher tells us doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe leave some notable mark and improssion behind them an Earthquake shakes and dislocates the Earth a Whirlwinde rends the Mountaines and breakes in pieces the Rocks what is sudden at once strikes us with feare and admiration Certainly reverenter pensandum est saith the Father Greg in leâ— This call of the Prophet requires a serious and reverend Consideration For if this vehement ingemination be not sharpe and keene enough to enter our Soules and divide asunder the joynts and the marrow here is a quare moriemini a Reason to set an edge on them if his Gracious and Earnest call his Turne and his Turne will not Turn us hee hath placed Death in the way that King of Terrours to affright us If we be not willing to dye wee must be willing to Turne If wee will heare Reason wee must hearken to his Voice and if hee thus sends his Prophets after us sends forth his voice from Heaven after us if he make his Justice and mercy his joynt Commissioners to force us back If hee invite us to Turne and threaten us if wee doe not Turne either Love or Feare must prevaile with us to Turne with all our Hearts And in this is set forth the singular Mercy of our most Gracious God parcendo admonet ut corrigamur poenitendo before he strikes hee speakes When he bends his Bow when his deadly arrowes are on the string yet his warning flyes before his shaft his word is sent out before the judgement the lightâ—ing is before his Thunder Ecce saith Origen antequam Vulneramur monemur when we as the Israelites here are running on into the very Jawes of Death when we are sporting with our Destruction in articulo mortis when Death is ready to selfe on us and the pitt opens her mouth to take us in he calls and calls againe Turne yee Turne ye from your evill Wayes and if all this be too little if wee still venture on and drive forward in forbidden and dangerous wayes he drawes a Sword against us sets before us the horror of Death it self Quare moriemini Why will you die still it is his word before his blow his Convertimini before his moriemini his praelusoria arma before his Decretoria his blunt before his sharp his Exhortations before the Sentence non parcit ut parcat non miseretur ut misereatur he is full in his Expressions that he may be sparing in his wrath he speakes words clothed with Death That we may not die and is so severe as to threaten Death that hee may make roome for his Mercy and not inflict it Why will you die there is Virtue and Power in it to quicken and rowse us up to drive us out of our Evill wayes that wee may live for ever This is the summe of these words The parts are Two 1. An Exhortation and Secondly an Obtestation or Expostulation or a Duty and a Reason urging and inforcing that Duty The Exhortation or Duty is plaine Turne yee Turne ye from your Evill wayes The Obtestation or Reason as plaine Quarè moriemini Why will yee Dye oh House of Israel I call the Obtestation or Expostulation a Reason and good Reason I should doe so for the Moriemini is a good Reason That wee may not Dye a good Reason why we should Turne but tendered to us by way of expostulation is another reason and makes the reason operative and full of efficacy makes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Lact. l. 6 de ver cult c. 24. A thing indeed it is which may seem strange to flesh and blood and Lactantius tells us that Tully thought it impossible but a strange thing it may seem that the sigh of a broken heart should slumber a Tempest That our sorrow should bind the hands of Majesty that our Repentance should make God himself repent and our Turne Turne him from his wrath and a change in us alter his Decree and therefore to Iulian that cursed Apostate it appear'd in a worse shape not onely as strange but as ridiculous and where he bitterly derides Constantine for the profession of Christianity he makes up his scoffe with the contempt and derision of Repentance Julian Caesar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whosoever is a corrupter or defiler of Women whosoever is a man-slayer whosoever is an uncleane Person may be secure 't is but dipping himself in a little water and he is forthwith clean yea though he wallow again and againe in the same mire pollute himself with the same monstrous sinnes let him but say he hath sinned and at the very word the sinne vanisheth let him but Smite his breast or strike his forehead and he shall presently without more adoe become as white as snow And 't is no marvaile to hear an Apostate blaspheme for his Apostacie it self was blasphemy no more then 't is to heare a Devill Curse both are fallen from their first estate and both hate that estate from whence they are fallen and they both howle together for that which they might have kept and would not upon Repentance there is Dictum Domini thus saith the Lord and this is enough to shame all the witt and confute all the Blasphemy of the world As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of a sinner but that he Turne and in this consists the Priviledge and power of our Turn this makes Repentance a Virtue and by this word this Institution and the Grace of God annexed to it A Turne shall free us from Death a Teare shall shake the powers of Heaven a repentant Sigh shall put the Angels into Passion and our Turning from our Sinne shall Turne God himself even Turne him from his fierce wrath and strike the Sword out of his hand Turne ye Turne ye then is Dictum Domini a voice from Heaven a command from God himself And it is the voice and dictate of his Wisdom an Attribute which he much delights in more then in any of the rest saith Naz. Orat. 1. for it directs his power for whatsoever he doth is done in wisedome in Order Number and Measure whatsoever he doth is best his raine falls not his Arrowes fly not but where they should to the marke which his Wisedome hath set up It accompanies his Justice and make his wayes equall in all the disproportion and dissimilitude which can shew it self to an eye of flesh It made all his Judgements and Statutes It breathed forth his Promises and Menaces and will make them good in Wisedome he made the Heavens and in Wisedome he kindled the fire of Hell nothing can be done in this world or the next which should not be done Againe it orders his Mercy for though he will have Mercy on whom he will have Mercy yet he will not let it fall but where he should not into any Vessell but that which is fit to receive it for his Wisedome is over all his works as well as his Mercy he would save us but he will not save us without Repentance he could force us to a Turne and yet I may truly say hee could not because he is wise he would not have us die and yet he will desTroy us if we will not Turne he doth nothing either good or evill to us which is not convenient for him and agreeable to his wisedome Nor can this bring us under the Imputation of too much boldnesse to say The Lord doth nothing but what is convenient for him for 't is not boldnesse to magnifie his wisedom They rather come too neer and are bold with Maiesty who fasten upon him those Counsells and determinations which are repugnant and opposite to his wisedome and goodnesse and which his soul hates as That hedid Decree to make some men miserable to that end that he might make his Mercy glorious in making them happy that he did of purpose wound them that he might heale them That he did threaten them with Death whose names he had written in the book of Life That he was willing man should sinne that he might forgive him That he doth exact that Repentance as our Duty which himselfe will worke in us by an irresistible force That he commands intreats beseeches others to Turne and Repent whom himselfe hath bound and fetter'd by an absolute Decree that they shall never Turne That he calls them to Repentance and Salvation whom he hath damn'd from al eternity and if any certainly such Beasts as these deserve to be struck through with a Dart. No 't is not boldness but Humility and Obedience to his will to say He doth nothing but what becommeth him what his wisedome doth justify and he hath abounded towards us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint tPaul Ephe. 1.8 in all Wiedome and Prudence His wisedome findes out the meanes of Salvation and his Prudence orders and disposeth them his wisedome shewes the way to life and his Prudence leads us through it to the end I Wisedome was from everlasting Proverb 8. and as she was in initio viarum in the beginning of Gods wayes so she was in initio Evangelii in the beginning of the Gospel which is called the wisedome of God unto salvation and she fitted and proportioned meanes to that end means which were most agreeable and connaturall to it It found out a way to conquer Death Heb. 2.14 and him that hath the power of Death the Devill with the weapons of Righteousness to digge up sinne by the very Roots that no work of the flesh might shoot forth out of the Heart any more to destroy it in its effects that though it be done yet it shall have no more force then if it were annihilated then if it had never been done and to destroy it in its causes that it may be never done againe Immutabile quod factum est Quint l. 7. to draw together Justice and Mercy which seemed to stand at distance and hinder the work and to make them meet and kisse each other in Christs Satisfaction and ours for our Turne is our satisfaction all that we can make which she hath joyned together Condigna est satisfatio mald facta corrigere est correcta non reiterare Ber. de Just. Dom. c. 1. Satisfactio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antiochens conc can 2. never to be severed his Sufferings with our Repentance his Agony with our sorrow his Blood with our Teares his Flesh nailed to the Crosse with our lusts
like Rivers receives every day encrease and every day diminution and is not the same to Day which it was yesterday yet is it corpus aggregatum a collected Body which is not made up at once in every part but receives its parts successively She is Terrible as an Army with Banners as it is said of the Spouse in the Canticles and in an Army you know the Van may lodge there to night where the Rere commeth not till the Morning So it is with the Church it hath alwayes its parts yet hath alwayes parts to be added so we read Acts 2. and the last verse That the Lord added daily that is successively such as should be saved Quantum iniquitatis grassatur tantum abest regnum Dei quod secum affert plenam re â—itudinem saith the Father Christ is come and yet is still a coming whilst there are Heresies and Schismes in the Church whilst the one undermineth the Bulwarks without and the other raises a Mutiny within whilst the Divell rageth and men sinne there be yet some to be gathered to his Sheep-fold and though in respect of his Power he be already come yet for his Elects sake he will not execute it yet And this is the very reason which Justine Martyr gives of the proroguing and delay of his comming and why the Consummation and end of all things is not yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for mankinds sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the seed of Christians which is yet to be propagated for by his eternall Wisdome he fore-sees That many there be who will beleeve and turne to him by Repentance and some that bee not even many who are yet unborn in his second Apologie for the Christians For the promise is made to you and to your children saith Saint Peter natis natorum qui nascentur ab illis and to all that are afar off Acts 2.39 even as many as the Lord God shall call for how many thousands are not yet who shall be Saints for their sakes it is that the Lord doth not consume the world with fire that he doth not come to judge the world that wicked men are permitted to revell on the earth and the devil to rage that he suffers that which he abhors suffers injustice to move its armes at large and spread it self like a green bay tree and leaves innocency bound in chaines that he suffers men to break his commands to question his providence to doubt of his being and essence that we see this disorder and confusion the world in a manner dissolved before its end but when that number is full a number which we know not or if we did cannot know when he will fill it up when that is compleat then time shall be no more then Lo he comes and will purge the world of Heresie and Schisme will appear in that Majesty that the Athiests shall confesse he is God and see all those crooked wayes in which his providence seemed to walk made even and strait then the Epicure shall see that it was not below him to sit in heaven and look upon the children of men no dishonur to his Majesty to mannage and guide all those things which are done under the Moon that he may ride upon the Cherubin and yet number every haire of our head and observe the Sparrow that falls from the house top then we shall see him and we shall see all things put under his feet even Heresy and Schisme prophanesse and Atheisme sin and death Hell and the Devil himself This he hath in effect done already by the virtue and power of his Crosse and therefore may be said to be come But because we resist and hinder that will not suffer him to make his conquest full and when we cannot reach him at the right hand of God pursue and fight against him in his members he will come again and then cometh the end another consummatum est all shall be finisht his victory and triumph compleat and he shall lift up the heads of his despised servants and tread down all his enemies under his feet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most proper sense Coloss 2.15 Triumph and make a shew of them openly And this is a fit object for a Christian to look upon Of this more THE FIFTEENTH SERMON MATTH 24.42 Dominus venturus The Lord will come Nescitis quâ horâ You know not what hour PART II. WEE have already beheld the person our Lord and we have placed him on his Tribunal as a judge for the Father hath committed the judgement to the Son you have seen his Dominion in his Laws which were fitted and proportioned to it as his Scepter is a Scepter of Righteousnesse so his Laws are just no man no Devil can question them we approve them as soon as we hear them and we approve them when we break them for that check which our conscience gives us is an approbation You have seen the vertue and power of his dominion for what is regal right without regal power what is a Lord without a sword or what is a sword if he cannot manage it what is a wise-man if a wiser then he what is a strong man if a stronger then he comes upon him but our Lord Es 9.6 as he is called wonderful Counsellour so is he the Mighty God who can stand before him when he is angry We have shewed you the large compasse and circuit of his Dominion no place so distant or remote to which it doth not reach It is over them that love him and over them that crucifie him It is over them that honour him Luk. 1.33 and over them that put him to open shame and last of all the durability or rather the eternity of it for of his Dominion there shall be no end saith the Angel to Mary and take the words going before he shall reign over the house of Jacob and the sense will be plain for as long as there is a house of Jacob a people and Church on earth so long shall he reign as his Priesthood so his Dominion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shall never passe away We must now fix our eyes upon him as ready to descend in puncto reversus settled in his place but upon his return Dominus venturus the Lord will come it is a word of the future tense as all predictions are of things to come and it is verbum operativum a word full of eshcacie and vertue First to awake and stir up our faith Secondly to raise our hope and Thirdly to inflame our charity It is an object for our faith to look on for our hope to reach at and for our Charity to embrace And first it offers it self to our faith for ideo Deus alscessit ut fides nostra corroboretur therefore doth our Saviour stay and not bow the heavens and come down that our faith which may reach him there may be built up here upon
Ottoman Empire some beginning it at the yeer 73. and drawing it on to conclude in the yeer 1073. when Hildebrand began to Tyrannize in the Church To let passe these since no man is able to reconcile them we can not but wonder that so grosse an errour should spread so far in the first and best times of the Church as to finde entertainment with so many but lesse wonder that it is reviv'd and foster'd by so many in ours who have lesse learning but more art to misinterpret and wrest the Scriptures â—o their own Damnation For what can they finde in this text to make them kings no more then many of them can finde in themselves to make them Saints And here is no mention of all the Saints but of Martyrs alone who were beheaded for the witnesse of Jesus v. 4. But we may say of this book of the Revelation as Aristotle spake of his books of Physick that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is publisht and not publisht publisht but not for every man to fasten what sense he please upon it though we cannot deny but some few of latter times and so few as but enough to make up a number have by their multiplicity of reading and subtil diligence of observation and by a dextrous comparing those particulars which are registred in story with those things which are but darkly revealed or plainly revealed to Saint John but not so plain to us have raised us such probabilities that we may look up them with favour and satisfaction 'till we see some fairer evidence appear some more happy conjectures brought forth which may impair and lessen hat credit which as yet for ought that hath been seen they well deserve But this is not every mans work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every mans eye is not so quick and piercing to see at such distance and we see since so many men have taken the courage and been bold to play the interpreters of their dark Prophesies they have shaped out what fancies they please and instead of unfolding Revelations have presented vs with nothing but dreams as so many divers moralls to one fable and fo for two witnesses we have a cloud for one Beast almost as many as be in the Forrest and for one Antichrist every man that displeaseth us But let men interpret the thousand yeers how they please Our Saviour calls it an errour an errour that strikes at the very heart of Christianity which promiseth no riches nor power nor pleasure but that which is proportioned to those vertues and spiritual duties of which it consists For in the Resurrection neither do they marry Wives nor are married we may adde neither are there high nor love neither rich nor poor but all are one in Christ Jesus and his words are plain enough Quaedam sic digna revinci ne gravitate adorentur Tert. adv Valentin John 18. my Kingdom is not of this World I should scarce have vouchsafed to mention an errour so grosse and which carries absurdity in the very face of it but that we have seen this monster drest up and brought abroad and magnified in this latter age and in our own times which as they abound with iniquity so they do with errors which to study to confute were to honor them too much who make their â—…ual appetite a key to open Revelations and to please and satisfie that are well content here to build their Tabernacle and stay on earth a thousand yeers amongst those pleasing objects which our Religion bids us to contemn and to be so long absent from that joy and peace which is past understanding Their Heaven is as their vertues are ful of drosse earth and but a poor and imperfect resemblance of that which is so indeed and their conceit as carnal as themselves which Christianity and even common reason abhors For look upon them and you shall behold them full of debate envy malice covetousnesse ambition minding earthly things and so fancy a reward like unto themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like embraceth like as mire is more pleasing to swine then the waters of Jordan and it is no wonder to hear them so loud and earnest for riches and pleasure and a temporal Kingdom who have so weak a title to and so little hope of any other But God forbid that our Lord should come and flesh and blood prescribe the manner for then in how many several shapes must he appear in he must come to the covetous and fill his cofers to the wanton and build him a Seraglio to the ambitious and crown him no his advent shal be like himself he shal come in power majesty in a form answerable to his Laws Government and as al things were gatherd together in him Eph. 1.10,22 which are in Heaven and which are in earth and God hath put all things under his feet so he shall come unto all to Angels to the Creature to men And 1. he may well be said to come unto the Angels For he is the head of all Principalitie and Power colos 2.10 as at his first coming he confirmed them in their happy estate of obedience which we beleeve as probable though we have no plain evidence of Scripture for it so at his second he shall more fully shew that to them that which they desired to look into 1 Pet. 1.17 as Saint Peter speaks give them a clearer vision of God and increase the joy of the good as he shall the torments of evil Angels For if they sang for joy at his Birth what Hosannas and Hallelujahs will they sound forth when they attend him with a shout if they were so taken with his humility how will they be ravisht with his Glory and if there by joy in Heaven for one sinner that repents how will that joy be exalted when those repentant sinners shall be made like unto the Angels when they shall be of the same Quire and sing the same song glory and honour to him that sitteth upon the Throne and to this Lord for Evermore Secondly he comes unto the Creatures to redeem them from bondage for the desire of the Creature is for this day of his coming Rom. 8.19,22 for even the whole Creation groaneth with us also but when he comes they shall be reformed into a better estate 2 Pet. 3.13 there shall be new Heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse Now the Creature is subjecta vanitati subject to vanity not onely to change and mutability but to be instrumental to evil purposes to rush into the battle with us to run upon the Angels sword to be our drudges and our Parasites to be the hire of a whore and the price of blood They groan as it were and travaile in pain under these abuses and therefore desire to be deliverd not out of any rational desire but a natural inclination which is in every thing to preserve it self in its best
see them Debauch their reason and deliver up their understandings and wills to a Face to a voice to the Gesture and Behaviour and sleight of men when every empty cloud that comes towards them shall be taken for heaven and he that speaks not so much reason as Balaams Asse shall be received for a Prophet when men are so enclined so ready so ambitious to be deceived we need not wonder to see so many Blind Bartimeus's in our streets that Grope at noone-day and stumble at every straw That blindness is happened to Israel That Truth is become a Monster and error a Saint we need not wonder that the Pharisees have more Disciples then Christ Men and Brethren what should I say why should you desire to be pleased if we thus please you we damne you why should we study to please you if we study to please you we damne our selves 'T is not your Favour your Applause which we affect we know well enough out of what Treasury those windes come and how uncertainly they blow one applause of Conscience is worth all the Triumphs in the World Bring then the Ballance of the Sanctuary The Touch-stone of the Scripture If our Doctrine be not minus Habens be not light but full weight If it be not Refuse Silver but current Coine and beare no other Image but of the King of Kings even for the Truths sake for our common Masters sake whose servants we are lay aside all malice and guile and Hypocrisy and receive it That you may grow thereby but if nothing yet be Truth which doth not please you then what shall we say but even tell you another Truth vero verius most true it is you will not heare the Truth And therefore in the last place Heb. 10 14. Ephes 4. Let us all both Teachers and Hearers purge out this evill Humour of pleasing and being pleas'd and let us as the Apostle exhorts Consider one another to provoke unto love and Good works Let us speak Truth every one to his Neighbour For we are members one of another This is the true and surest Method of pleasing one another for Flattery like the Bee carries Honey in its mouth but hath a sting in its Tayle but Truth is sharp and bitter at first but at last more pleasant then Manna He that would seale up thy lips for the Truth which thou speakst will at last kisse those lips and Blesse God in the Day of his Visitation And this if we doe we shall please one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Edification and not unto ruine And thus all shall be pleased the Physitian that he hath his Intent and the Patient in his Health The strong shall be pleas'd in the weak and the weak in the strong The wise in the Ignorant and the Ignorant in the wise and Christ shall be well pleas'd to see Brethren thus walk together in Unity strengthning and inciting one another in the wayes of Righteousnesse and when we have thus walkt hand in hand together to our journeys End shall admit us into his presence where there is fulnesse of joy and pleasures for evermore HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE THE EIGHTEENTH SERMON BEING A PREPARATION TO THE HOLY COMMUNION 1 COR. 11.25 This doe ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me THat which is made to degenerate from its first institution is so much the worse by how much the better it would have been if it had been levell'd and carried on to that end for which it was ordained the truth of which is plain and visible as in many others so in this great businesse of the Administration of the Lords Supper which in its right and proper use might have been as physick to purge and as manna to feed the soul to eternall life but being either raised higher or brought lower than it self either made more than it is or lesse than it is either made miraculous or nothing hath become fatall and destructive and hath left most men guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. For some we see have quite changed and perverted the Ordinance of Christ scarce left any shadow or sign of its first institution have made of a Supper for the living a Sacrifice for the dead turned the Minister into a sacrificing Priest Bread and Wine into very Flesh and Blood and Bones the remembrance of Christs Death into the adoration of the outward Elements have written books filled many volumes in setting out the miraculous vertue it hath of which we may say as Pliny did of the writings of those magicall Physicians that they have been published non sine contemptu irrisu generis humani not without a kind of contempt and in derision of all the world as if there breathed not in it any but such who were either so bruitish as not to know or such fools as to believe whatsoever fell from the pen of such idle dreamers Others have fell short have been more coldly affected and have lost themselves in a strange indifferency as not fully resolved whether it be an institution that binds or no and look upon it rather as an invention of man than the word and command of Christ Others run far enough from Superstition as they think and are great enemies to Popery and yet unawares carry a Pope with them in their belly lean too much to the opus operatum to the bare outward action think what they will not say that if they come to the Feast it is not much materiall what garment they come in that the outward elements are of vertue to sanctifie the Profaner himself that though they have been haters of God yet they may come to his Table though they have crucified Christ yet here they may taste and see how gracious he is These extreams have men run upon whilest they did neglect the plain and easie rule by which they were to walk the one upon the rock of Superstition the other as it falls out most commonly not onely from the errour which they were afraid of but from the truth it self which should be set up in its place we see at the first institution almost and when this blessed Table was as it were first spread that many abuses crept in to poyson the feast some by factiousnesse others by partiality and some by drunkennesse v. 21. prophaned it did come and sit down and eat and drink but to their punishment and damnation saith S. Paul and therefore having laid open their grosse errours and prophanations having set their irregularities in order before them he prescribes the remedy and calls them back to the first institution and the example of Christ himself v. 23 24. First he shewes the manner of Christs institution He took the bread and gave thanks brake it and gave it them Secondly The mystery signified thereby The breaking of the Bread and pouring out of the Wine representing the brusing of his Body and shedding of his Blood for
be fit every day A great shame it is that any man should be dragg'd to a feast for what a strange law would that seem which should bind a hungry man to eat or a sick man to take physick or a dying man to taste of the water of life look upon the Primitive Christians whose practice hath bin accounted the best interpreter of Scripture and if thou canst not with them do it every day yet let every faire opportunity set thy day Christs dead yet all quickning carkase is the same still and we should be Eagles as well as they to fly to it The Blood of Christ is the same his death as full of vertue and efficacy he is still a fountain of life to them who will taste him nor was his most precious blood shed for the first Christians and in tract and continuance of time dryed up at last At this fountain we may draw as well and as oft as they if our pitcher be as fit and if we loved the cup of blessings we should not fear how oft it came into our hands But to speak truth we have degenerated from that devotion that love that zeale which inflamed their breasts and retain nothing but the memory of their exceeding piety which we look upon rather as a pious error then a just and regular devotion and because we are unfit and therefore unwilling to do it perswade our selves that superstition had an early birth and did follow religion at the heels to supplant it that by this their busy and too frequent remembrance of Christ they did rather flatter then worship him or at best that they did that which with more Christian prudence they might have left undone For if it were devotion then it could not be lost in the body and flux of time which could have no such influence upon it as to change it so that it should become a sin in the last age which was thought a duty in the first since devotion is like Christ himself yesterday and to day and the same for ever Devotion is still the same but we are not the same but have been bold with her name and in that name have conjured up those evill spirits which blast the world and breathe nothing but profanenesse have started questions raised scruples made new cases of conscience which they walking in the simplicity and integrity of their hearts never heard nor thought of and so did do it and do it often with lesse art and noise but with more piety and with a zeale of a purer flame and a heat more innocent their devotion was to do it often ours is to talk and magnifie it and to do it when we please The duty it self of celebration how oft hath it been neglected and set at derision in this latter age what tragedyes raised about a name what comedies what scoffs and jests upon the holy action what grosse and impious partiality in admitting men unto it how have we distinguisht and made a strange difference of one from another and counted none fit but of such a part or such a faction when were we not too far engaged in the world and did not the world too far engage and bind us to such a side or faction we could not but see that the very being of a side or faction the dividing our selves from our brethren for things no whit essentiall to Christianity hath force enough not onely to drive us from this table but to shut us out of heaven For what should such uncharitable men do at a feast of love what should such carnall men the Apostle calls them so feed on this spirituall food I will not stand to confute these groundlesse and ridiculous but dangerous and destructive fancies for these men have more need of our teares and prayers then our confutation I had rather remove those hindrances and retardances those pretences and excuses which men not well exercised in piety use to frame and lay in their own way and so fearing a fall and bruise at that which no hand could set up against them but their own make not their approches so oft as they should to this holy table For when we are to do a thing one thing or other intervenes and startles and troubles us that we omit and do it not And the first and great pretense is our own weaknesse and unworthinesse which is the issue of our own will begot in us by the sense of some habit of sin which we have discovered reigning still in our mortall bodies at the sight of which we start back even from that which might help us and cannot compose and qualify our selves for the celebration Before the action they are afraid even afraid of the feast afraid of life at the table they have a sad and cast down countenance drawn out more by a disquieted troubled mind then that reverentiall joy which it shewes forth in the outward man when it is at rest and we go away from it with the same burden we brought to it which we would and would not lay down are weary but seek not ease but from those aversions which make it heavier then it was and then we feel it again and so are ever preparing and never prepared to come to this feast For our preparation is our mortifying of our sinfull lusts which is not done whilest any one sin hath this power and dominion in us For how can he come to this fountain of life who is unwilling to live how can he partake of Christs blood who yet loves that sin for the washing away of which Christ shed it so that he sinnes if he come and he sinnes if he come not a miserable dilemma that sinne drives him upon that like the servant in the comedy si faxit perit si non faxit vapulat if he do it he eats his own damnation and shall neverthelesse be punisht if he do it not For not onely acts but omissions are evil It is a sinne to kill my father and it is a sin not to help him it is a sin to oppresse and it is a sin not to give an almes It is a sin to resist a superiour and 't is a sin not to honor him It is a sin to contemn the sacrament and 't is a sin not to receive it and the one leads to the other neglect or indifferency to open profanenesse the sinnes of omission to sinnes of commission he that doth not what he should hath made a bridge for his lusts which will soon carry him over to do what he should not He that will not help his parents will be drawn on by the least temptation to dishonor them he that will not feed the poore will be soon induced to grind their face he that will not honor the king when opportunity favours him will pull him from his throne he that neglects the sacrament or is indifferent within a while may be ready to take it away as a thing of no use at all sin
the grave Consummatum est all is finished and he is returned victoriously with the spoils of his enemies and of this last enemy death But for all this his triumph death may be still the King of terrours and as dreadfull as before All is finisht on his part but a covenant consists of two and something is required on ours He doth not turn Conditions into Promises as some have been willing to perswade themselves and others It must be done is not thou shalt do it If thou wilt believe is not thou shalt believe But every promise every act of grace of his implies a condition He delivers those that are willing to be delivered who do not feed death and supply this enemy with such weapons as make him terrible All the terrour death hath is from our selves our sin our disobedience to the commands of God that 's his sting And our part of the covenant is by the power virtue of Christs death every day to be plucking it from him and at last to take it quite away We we our selves must rise up against this King of terrours and in the Name and Power of Christ take the Scepter out of his hand and spoile him of his strength and terrour And this we may do by parts and degrees now cut from him this sin now that now this desire and anon another and so dye daily as Saint Paul speaks dye to profit dye to pleasure dye to Honour be as dead to every temptation which may beget sin in us and a sting in him and so leave him nothing to take from us not a desire not a hope not a thought nothing that can make us feare death Then we shall look upon it not as a divorcement from those delights which we have cast off already or a passage into a worse condition from that we loved too well to that we never feared enough but we shall consider it as a sleep as it is to all wearied pilgrims as a message sent from Heaven to tell us our walk is at an end and now we are to lay down our staffe and scrip and rest in that Jerusalem which is above for which we vowed this pilgrimage Et quis non ad meliora festinat Tert. de patientia What stranger will be afraid to return to his Fathers house or lose that life quam sibi jam supervacuam fecit which by dying daily to the world he hath already made superfluous and unnecessary To conclude this He that truly fears God can feare nothing else nor is Death terrible to any but to those who would build their tabernacle here who love to feed with swine on husks because they have not tasted of the powers of the world to come who wish immortality to this mortall before they put it on who are willing to converse and trade with vanity for ever who desire not with David to be spared a little but would never goe hence Last of all It will moderate our sorrow for those our friends who are dead or rather fallen asleep or rather at their journeys end For why should any man who knows the condition of a stranger how many dangers how many cares how many stormes and tempests he was obnoxious to hang down the head and complain that he had now passed through them all and was set down at his journeys end why should he who looks for a City to come be troubled that his fellow pilgrime came thither and entred before him It might be a matter of holy Emulation perhaps but why it should afflict us with grief I cannot see unlesse it be because we have not made it our meat and drink to keep Gods commandments which might give us a taste of a better estate to come unlesse it be because we have not well learnt to act the part of a stranger Miserable men that we are that we will be that know not our own quality and condition that are strangers and yet unwilling to draw neer our selves or to see others come to their home but think them lost where they are made perfect We stand by the bed of our sick and dying friend as if he were now removed to a place of torment and not of rest and to be either nothing or more miserable then he was in a region of misery we send out shreeks and outcries to keep time with his gasps to call him back if it were possible from heaven and to keep him still under the yoke and harrow when as the fainting of his spirits the failing of his eyes the trembling of his joynts are but as the motion of bodies to their center most violent when they are neerest to their end And then we close up his eyes and with them our hopes as if with his last gasp he had breathed out his soul into aire when indeed there is no more then this one pilgrime is gone before his fellows one gone and left others in their way in trouble and more troubled that he is gone to rest Migrantem migrantes praemisimus saith Saint Hierom we are passing forward apace and have sent one before us to his journeys end his everlasting sabbath With this contemplation doth religion comfort and uphold us in our way and keeps us in that temper which the Philosopher commends as best in which we do sentire desiderium opprimere she gives nature leave to draw teares but then she brings in faith and hope to wipe them off Sen. ad Marciam she suffers us to mourn for our friends but not as men without hope Nature will vent and love is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Orator ever querulous and full of complaints when the object is removed out of sight and God remembers whereof we are made is not angry with our love and will suffer us to be men but then we must silence one love with another our naturall affection with the love of God at least divide our language thus Alas my Father Alas my Husband Alas my Friend but then he was a stranger and now at his journeys end and here we must raise our note and speak it more heartily Blessed are such strangers blessed are they that dye in the Lord even so saith the spirit that they rest from their labours For conclusion let us feare God and keep his commandments this is the whole duty of a stranger to observe those Lawes which came from that place to which he is going let these his Lawes be in our heart and our heart will be an elaboratory a limbeck to work the water of life out of the vanities and very dregs of world through which we are to passe It shall be as a rock firm and solid against every wave and temptation that shall beat against it and a shop of precious receipts and proper remedies against every evil It shall be spoliarium mortis a place where death shall be stript and spoiled of its sting and of its terrour In a word It