the discharge of it in every point and particular every company thou hast come into and all thy behaviour there every Sermon thou hast heard every Sabbath thou hast spent every motion of the Spirit which hath been made unto thy soule c. Let us then while it is called To Day call our selves to account examine search and trie thorowly our hearts lives and callings our thoughts words and deeds let us arraigne accuse judge cast and condemne our selves and prostrated before GODS Mercy-Seat with broken and bleeding affections lowlinesse of spirit and humblest adoration of His free grace upon the same ground with the Aramites 1 Kings 20. 31. We have heard that the Kings of the House of Israel are mercifull Kings let us I pray thee put sack cloth on our loines and ropes on our heads and go out to the King of Israel peradventure he will save thy life Let us there give our mercifull GOD no rest untill we have sued out our pardon by the intercession of the LORD IESVS c. And then we shall find the reckoning made up to our hand and all matters fully answered before-hand And which is a Point of unconceiveable comfort He that was our Advocate upon earth and purchased the Pardon with His owne hearts bloud shall then be our Iudge 3. That all the beastly and impure abominatitions of thine heart all thy secret sinnes and closet-villanies that no eye ever looked upon but that which is ten thousand times brighter than the Sun shall all then be disclosed and laid open before Angels Men and Devils and thou shalt then and there be horribly universally and everlastingly ashamed Thou now acts perhaps securely some harefull and abhorred worke of darknesse and wickednesse not to be nam'd in thine owne heart or one way or other in secret which thou wouldst not for the whole world were knowne to the world or to any but thy selfe or one or two of thy cursed companions curbed by their obnoxiousnesse but be well assured in that Day at that great assize thou shalt in the face of heaven and earth be laid out in thy colours to thine eternall confusion Never therefore go about or encourage thy selfe to commit any sinne because it is mid-night or that the doores are lockt upon thee because thou art alone and no mortall eye seeth thee neither is it possible to be reveal'd And yet I must tell thee by the way secret villanies have and may be discovered 1. In sleepe 2. Out of horrour of conscience or in time of distraction For suppose it be concealed and lie hid in as great darknesse as it was committed untill that last and great Day yet then shall it out with a witnesse and be as legible in thy fore-head as if it were writ with the brightest starres or the most glittering Sun beame upon a wall of Crystall 4. In what a wofull case thy heavy heart will be and with what strange terrour trembling and desperate rage it must needs be possest and rent in peeces when thou shalt heare that dreadfull sentence of damnation to eternall torments and horrour pronounced over thine head Depart from me thou cursed wretch into everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his angels Every word breathes out nothing but fire and brimstone vengeance and woe bites deeper and terrifies more than ten thousand Scorpion stings To depart from that glorious presence were hell enough but thou must also go with a curse nor onely so but into fire and that must be everlasting fed continually with infinite rivers of brimstone and kept still in flame and fiercenesse by the unquenchable wrath of the most just GOD thorow all eternity And in that horrible dungeon and fiery lake thou shalt never have other company or comforters but wicked devils and they insulting over thee everlastingly with much hellish spite and stinging exprobrations for neglecting so great salvation all thy life long and losing heaven for some base lust and believing their lies If the drowning of the old world swallowing up of Korah and his complices burning up of Sodome with brimstone were attended with such terrours and hideous out cries How infinitely transcendent to all possibility of conceipt expression or beliefe will the confusions and tremblings of that Day be when so many millions of men shall be drag'd downe with all the Devils of hell to torments without end and past imagination There was horrible scryking when those five filthy cities first felt fire and brimstone drop downe upon their heads when those rebels saw the ground cleave asunder and themselves and all theirs go downe quicke into the pit when all the sonnes and daughters of Adam found the floud rising and ready to over-flow them all at once But the most horrid cry that ever was heard or ever shal be in heaven or earth in this world or the world to come will be then when all the forlorne condemned reprobates upon sentence given shal be violently and unresistably haled downe to hell and pulled presently from the presence not onely of the most glorious GOD the LORD IESVS Angels and all the blessed Ones but also of their Fathers Mothers Wives Husbands Children Sisters Brothers Lovers Friends Acquaintance who shall then justly and deservedly abandon them with all detestation and derision and forgetting all nearenesse and dearest obligations of nature neighbourhood alliance any thing rejoyce in the execution of divine justice in their everlasting condemnation So that no eye of GOD oâ—… man shall pitie them neither shall any teares prayers promises suits cries yellings calling upon rocks and mountains wishes never to have been or now to be made nothing c. be then heard or prevaâ—…e iâ—… their behalfe or any one in heaven or earth be found to mediate or speake for them to reverse or stay that fearefull doome of eternall woe but without mercy without stay without any farewell they shall be immediately and irrecoverably cast downe into the bottomlesse pit of easelesse endlesse and remedilesse torments which then shall finally shut her mouth upon them Oh! What then will be the guawings of the never dying worme what rage of guilty consciences what furious despaire what horrour of mind what distractions and feares what bitter looking backe upon their mis-spent time in this world what banning of their brethren in iniquity what cursing the day of their birth and even blaspheming of GOD Himselfe blessed for ever what tearing their haire and gnashing of teeth what wailing and wringing of hands what desperate roaring what hideous yellings filling heaven and earth and hell c. No tongue can tell no heart can thinke Be fore-warned then in a word To thirst long and labour infinitely more to have IESVS CHRIST in the meanetime say in the Ministry to thy truly humbled soule I am thy salvation than to be Possessour iâ—… it were possible of all the riches glory and pleasures of moe worlds than there are starres in
heavenly Father will ever correct thee 1. Never before there be need and alwayes in 2. Wisdome 3. Measure 4. Love and tendernesse 5. For a moment onely 6. To trie thee what drosse of corruption and what sound metall of grace is in thee 7 To purge out sinne 8. To refine thee and make the vertues of CHRIST in thee more shining and illustrious 9. To stirre up quicken and increase all saving graces in thy soule Of which see my Exposition upon the 26 Chapter of Isa. Amongst all the rest Faith ever becomes most famous by afflictions Witnesse that cloud of witnesses Heb. 11 10. To make thee blessed 11. To save thee 12. And He wil be ever with thee in trouble 13. He will deliver thee 14. Nay and never was Gold-Smith more curious and precise to watch the very first season when his gold is thorowly refined and fitted for use that he may take it out of the fornace than our gracious GOD waits in such cases with an holy longing that He may have mercy upon thee and deliver thee But how soever or whatsoever befall thee in this life thou must upon necessity ere it be long lie gasping for breath upon thy dying bed and there graple hand to hand with the utmost and concurrent rage of all the powers of darknesse and that king of feare attended with his terrours and therefore let the whole course of thy life be a conscionable preparative to die comfortably Suppose every Day thy last and thereupon so behave thy selfe both in thy generall and particular calling as though thou shouldest be called to an exact account at night for all things done in the flesh before that last and highest Tribunall In all thy thoughts words actions and undertakings in any kind say thus unto thy selfe would I do thus and thus if I certenly knew the next houre to be my last In a word so live that upon good ground thou maist bring Davids undaunted boldnesse to thy bed of death Though I walke through the valley of the shadow of death I will feare no evill Here upon this seasonable occasion give me leave to commend and tender unto you some speciall preparatives rules motives and meanes to furnish before hand and fortifie your spirits against all future evils and terrible things that are towards 1. Treasure up richly and abundantly before hand the precepts practice and experimentall sweetnesse of patience that most usefull and precious vertue which may serve when time serves as a soveraigne antidote to abate and abolish the sting and venime of all crosses afflictions and mortall miseries and as a comfortable cordiall to support and hold up thy heart in the bitternesse and extremity of the sorest Mighty and miraculous was the worke of this glorious grace in blessed Iob. By its heavenly and invincible influence upon his humble soule it did not onely utterly extinguish which was a very admirable and extraordinary thing all that desperate anguish and slavish griefe which such variety and extremity of greatest miseries that ever befell any mortall man would have naturally bred in the hopelesse hearts of impatient worldlings least of which is many times enough to drive them to despaire and selfe-destruction but also enabled him with the sweetest calmnesse of a well-composed and unshaken spirit even to blesse the LORD his GOD for taking from him these transitory things of which he was the true Proprietary and which in much undeserved mercy He had lent unto him so long The LORD gave said he and the LORD hath taken away blessed be the name of the LORD With what infinite implacable indignation and bloudy rage would Shemeis railing have rent in peeces the heart of many a gracelesse King And yet David by the helpe of this holy vertue passed on along patiently without wound or passion That heavy newes which was so horrible that it made both the eares of every one that heard it tingle brought by Samuel to Eli immediately from GODS owne mouth might have made many an earth-worme to have run mad with the very fore-thought of so much misery to come But good old patient Eli when he had heard it all sweetly ejaculates It is the LORD Let Him doe what seemeth him good The taking away of two sonnes at once by a sudden and violent death with visible vengeance from heaven and in the middest of a most horrible sinne is naturally matter of sorrow which cannot be exprest and extremest griefe yet Aaron in such a case having learned conformity of his owne will to the divine pleasure of the onely wise GOD when Moses told him that the LORD would be sanctified in them that come nigh Him and before all the people Hâ—… would be glorified He held his peace And Aaron held his peace So quieting his heart because GOD would have it so See further for this purpose 2 Sam. 3. 15. 26. Isa. 39 8. c. By these few precedents you may easily perceive what singular and soveraigne power patience hath to pull the sting and extract the poyson out of the most grievous calamities and greatest troubles But now on the contrary Impatiency and unpleasednesse with GODS providence in sending both good and ill yet ever in love and for our good For what sonne is he whom the Father chasteneth not doth more afflict us than all our afflictions The storme of GODS wrath breaks out sometimes upon the outward state of some greedy fretting mammonist and He justly sinites him for his wicked covetousnesse and dishonest gaine perhaps in the height and hot gleame of his prosperity and thriving by some sudden visible consumption or secret wasting curse He as such covetous wretches are wont takes on extremely farre beyond the rage of the maddest bedlam He stamps and stares as they say roares and raves gâ—…asneth his teeth teares his haire bites his nailes almost like a damned soule that hath new lost heaven untill at length the Devill lead him to lay violent hands upon himselfe Now are not these selfe-vexing tortures farre more rerrible than the taking away of his transitories Is not the cutting of his owne throat incomparably worse than the crosse A bird that is intangled amongst lime-twigs the more she stirres and struggles the more she is made sure and doubles her danger A repining reluctation and angry striving as it were to get out of GODS hands doth ever enveaime and exasperate the wound and makes us ten times worse and more miserable than if we fairely and patiently submitted to his omnipotent and most mercifull will Neither doth want of patience onely mightily enrage a crosse but it also embitters all our comforts The bare omission of a meere complement in Mordecai did not onely fill Hamans proud heart with many raging distempers of hatred malice revenge foolish indignation and much furious discontentment but also turned al the pleasure and kindly relish in his courtly pleasures riches
every action c. As though when that were done thou wert presently after to passe to judgement and to give up an exact account for it and whatsoever els done in the flesh 4. That the conceipt of the everlastingnesse of the torments when they are now already seiz'd upon the soule and hopelesnesse of ever coming out of hell wil be yet another hell If thou once come there and there most certainly must thou be this night if thou diest this day in thy naturall state and not new-borne I say then so terribly would the consideration of eternity torture thee that thou wouldest hold thy selfe a right happy man if thou mightest endure those horrible paines and extremest horrours no moe millions of yeares than there be sands on the sea-shore haires upon thine head starres in the firmament grasse piles upon the ground and creatures both in heaven and earth For thou wouldest still comfort thy selfe incredibly with this thought My misery will once have an end But alas This word Never will ever rent thine heart in peeces with much rage and hideous roaring and give still new life to those insufferable sorrowes which infinitely exceed all expression or imagination Let us suppose this great body of the earth upon which we tread to be turned into sand and mountaines of sand to be added still untill they reach unto the Empyrean Heaven so that this whole mighty creation were nothing but a sandy mountaine let us then further imagine a little wren to come but every hundred thousandth yeare and carie away but the tenth part of one graine of that immeasurable heape of sand what an innumerable number of yeares would be spent before that world of sand were all so fetcht away And yet woe and alas that ever thou wast borne When thou hast lien so many yeares in that fiery lake as all they would amount to thou art no nearer coming out than the very first houre thou enteredst in Now suppose thou shouldest lie but one night grievously afflicted with a raging fit of the stone collicke strangury tooth-ache pangs of travaile c. Though thou haddest to helpe and ease thee a soft bed to lie on friends about thee to comfort thee Physitians to cure thee all cordiall and comfortable things to asswage the paine yet how tedious and painfull how terrible and intolerable would that one night seeme unto thee How wouldest thou tosse and tumble and turne from one side to another counting the clock telling the houres esteeming every minute a moueth and thy present misery matchlesse and unsupportable What will it be then thinkest thou to lie in fire and brimstone kept in highest flame by the unquenchable wrath of GOD world without end Where thou shalt have nothing about thee but darknesse and horrour wailing and wringing of hands desperate yellings and gnashing of teeth thine old companions in vanity and sinne to ban and curse thee with much bitternesse and rage wicked Devils to insult over thee with hellish cruelty and scorne the never-dying worme to feed upon thy soule and flesh for ever and for ever O Eternity Eternity Eternity Sith it is thus then that upon the little ynch of time in this life depends the length and bredth the height and depth of immortality in the world to come even two eternities the one infinitely accursed the other infinitely comfortable losse of everlasting joyes and lying in eternall flames sith never ending pleasures or paines do unavoidably follow the well or mis-spending of this short moment upon earth with what unwearied care and watchfulnesse ought we to attend that One necâ—…ssary Thing all the dayes of our appointed time till our change shall come How ought we as strangers and pilgrims to abstaine from fleshly lusts What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse How thriftily and industriously to husband the poore remainder of our few and evill dayes for the making our Calling and Election sure In a word with what resolution and zeale to do or suffer any thing for IESVS CHRIST With what industry and dearenesse to ply this moment and prize that eternity Concerning the joyes of HEAVEN Let me tell you before hand that the excellency glory and sweetnesse thereof no mortall heart finite braine created understanding can possibly conceive and comprehend to the life For 1. Paul tâ—…ls us 1 Cor. 2. 9. That neither eye hath seene nor eare heard neither heart of man conceived the incomprehensible sublimity and glorious mysteries of that heavenly wisdome and inexplicable divine sweetnesse revealed in the Gospell For I take that to be his naturall immediate meaning How transcendently then unutterable and unconceiveable is the complement perfection the reall actuall and full fruition of all those Evangelicall mysterious revelations accomplished to the height in the highest heavens thorow all eternity Where we shall enjoy the face and beatificall presence of the most glorious and all susticient GOD as an object wherein all the powers of our soules wil be satisfied with everlasting delight The eye of man hath seene admirable things Coasts of Pearle Crystall mountaines rocks of Diamond Golden mines Spicy Ilands c. so Travailers talke and Geographers write Mausolus Tombe Dianaes Temple the Egyptian Paramides and all the wonders of the world The eare hath heard the most delicious exquisite and ravishing melody Such as made even Alexander the Great transported with an irresistable pang of a pleasing rage as it were and delightfull dancing of his spirits that I may so speake Exilire è convivio c. Mans heart can imagine miraculous admirabilities rarest peeces worlds of comforts and strange felicities In conceipt it can convert all the stones upon earth into pearles every grasse pile into an unvaluable jewell the dust into silver the sea into liquid gold the aire into crystall It can clothe the earth with farre more beauty and sweetnesse than ever the Sun saw it It can make every Starre a Sun and all those Suns ten thousand times bigger and brighter than it is c. And yet the height and happinesse of Evangelicall wisdome doth farre surpasse the utmost which the eare eye or heart of man hath heard seene or can possibly apprehend And this so excellent light upon earth discovering the inestimable treasures of hidden wisdome in CHRIST is but as a graine to the richest golden mine a drop to the Ocean a little glimpse to the glory of the Sun in respect of that fulnesse of joy hereafter and everlasting pleasures above with what a vast disproportion then doth the inimaginable excellency of heavenly blisse surpasse and transcend the most enlarged created capacity Infinitely infinitely 2. Our gracious GOD in his holy unsearchable wisdome doth reserve and detaine from the eye of our understandings a full comprehension of that most glorious state above to exercise in the meane time our faith love obedience
charge he gave at Lancaster in his last Circuit but one for I meddle not with the last of all for lawlearning earnestnesse and excellency against Popery prophanenesse non-residency and other corruptions of the times and for the extraordinary heartning and encouraging all good men and godly Ministers was such that I am perswaded it wil be remembred with dearenesse and love while any honest man that heard it or heard of it is alive in those Parts To go no further then and this I now say I speake of him as he was growne in his latter time and out of hope he would have continued and I speake it also in compassion of mine owne countrey which I know by too good experience how pitifully it lies bleeding under the insolency of Papists and multitude of Priests and then I say the redemption of the life of such a Iudge in such times as we live for the good of such a country if we go no further if that had consisted with GODS pleasure had beene worth a Kings ransome I lay these things thus together upon purpose to aggravate the losse that a compassionate consideration of the greatnesse thereof in those respects I have told you may be as powerfull in begetting a godly and profitable sorrow and taking it to heart in all truly religious and loyall hearts as I know rejoycing in his fall will create in the insolent spirits of the enemies to GOD and the King I meane the Papists barbarous insultations and triumph I am perswaded if we get as much humiliation out of the sense of a true losse as the Papists hardning and obduration by apprehension of their imaginary gaine we shall make a good use of his death I am a little more earnest because I perceive the Papists begin already to calumniate and slander Here is yet another Point of profitable consideration from the present occasion When any worthy man in a State especially who takes a faithfull discharge of his place and the publike good to heart is cut off by the hand of GOD it is in a Christian jealousie and out of spirituall wisdome to be holden as a presage of some more fearefull generall judgement to succeed I have my ground Isa. 3. 1 2 3 c. And therefore my counsell is and in the present case for one when any good Patriote which in some high place like a strong Pillar opposes the corruptions and Popery of the times or any faithfull Pastor which by his prayers like a Moses stands in the gap against the indignation of GOD is taken away that we take it to heart as a Mâ—…mento to make our selves ready against an evill day And to tell you my mind I am much afraid some heavy thing is preparing for us our sinnes are growne unto such a height I am no Prophet nor the sonne of a Prophet yet out of a comparative contemplation of GODS proceeding with His owne people in all former ages I cannot but concurre with the judgement of a great Doctor delivered in an high place The sinnes of this Land are come to that elevation that there is scarce left any roome for the mercy of GOD to helpe us They are even full ripe for His revenging Hand To his foure reasons I add two more his are taken 1. From the greatnesse and crying of the sinnes which are very horrible Atheisme whoredome Sodomy bloud-shed oppression sayes he I add pride drunkennesse usury c. 2. From the generality of them All sorts are wrapt in them 3. From their impudency with brazen browes and whorish foreheads they out-face the Sun 4. From their impatiency of admonition and reformation they grow so upon us that all the Pulpits in ENGLAND cannot beat them downe Adda 5t. from 2 Chron. 36. 16. And a 6t. from Isa. 3. 1 2 3. seq I meane the dropping away of many worthy men and few take it to heart or consider that they are taken away from the evill to come We have lost many a godly man within this few yeares The Princes Court was not many yeares since disrob'd and bereft of one of the noblest men that ever trod upon English mould besides other noble ornaments his eminency of grace made him so For Christian Nobility is best and truest where GOD Himselfe is top of the kin and Religion the root in regard whereof all the rest I meane that of riches birth learning or morality are but shadowes and shapes of noblenesse And the other yeare a very worthy Doctor and triumphant Champion against the Giants of Rome Against whom they have since sent out an illiterate libell cal'd White dy'd Black fit for the foule and black mouthes of such railing Rabshekaes And now of late to say no more of a Chancellour of rare and remarkable integrity in his Place I have not yet done and yet the time is done onely a word or two therefore and so I 'le make an end And yet let no man thinke that I am come hither 1. Either to smooth and mollifie any faults or frailties any falls or infirmities any personall sinnes or imperfections that might be in this great Man I dare not go about to cover them that 's not my office I leave that to the precious bloud of the Son of GOD and tender-hearted mercies of our gracious Father I would rather in this point advise great men to walke warily For their greatnesse makes their sinnes greater and their mightinesse will make them mightily tormented except they stand constantly on GODS side Height of Place ever adds two wings unto sinne Example and Scandall whereby it soares higher and flies much further If the Sun be ecclips'd and obscur'd a thousand eyes gaze upon it a lesser Starre may be darkned and no man take notice 2. Or to fasten upon him any false praises in a flattering funerall Panegyrick I dare not dawbe for a world of gold Himselfe abhor'd that And not long before his last sicknesse complain'd much against slattery as a grievous iniquity of the times 3. Or to make a solemne and formall narration of all his noble commendable parts When I undertooke this businesse first I studied onely and bethought my selfe how I might speake most profitably and make the best use of the present occasion to my living Auditors And had I not found pregnant matter for that purpose I had not beene here this day And therefore for conclusion and as the last and best service I can now do unto him to whom I owed as much as any man alive I will labour from the occasion to work some heavenly good if GOD so please upon the hearts presented here this day as a selected and choice number of his worthiest and dearest friends And to this end give me leave to single out and propose for imitation some worthy and noble parts of his and onely those which I conceive may be most seasonable and suitable to the exigency of my Auditory And I must also crave the aid of your loves
wherein such as these are ordinarily entangled and holden fast from which inferiours are for the most part free Let us come into a towne or countrey village and we shall find all the rest not so exorbitant but enter into the Noblemans Gentlemans or Knights house if there be any there there shall we find a nest of new-fangl'd fashionists naked breasts and naked armes like bedlams saith that excellent and learned Gentleman in his Oyle of Scorpions Bushes of vanity in the one sexe which they will not part with said Marbury untill the Devill put a candle into the bush and cut haire in the other stirs against the Ordinance of GOD and nature in both and many other such deformed lothsome and prodigious fashions censured by that stinging and flaming place against fashion-mongers Zeph. 1. 8. And these are the more pernicious because it were many times more easie for us of the Ministerie I speake out of some experience to undertake by GODS blessing caeteris paribus as they say the driving of an impure wretched drunkard from his beastly and swinish sin which would be a very hard taske than to draw such as delight in and dote upon these miserable fooleries from the abhorred vanity of strange fashions nay and though somtimes they would be thought to looke towards religion And thus I have done with the reasons peculiar to every severall sort of greatnesse I now come to those which are common to them all 1. All the great ones according to the flesh in any of these kinds I say ye are all as yet deadly enemies from the very heart-root to the profession and practice of the holy men without which holinesse we cannot see GOD you cannot endure to be called puritans much lesse to become such and yet without purity none shall ever see the face of GOD with comfort Mistake me not I meane CHRISTS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHRISTS puritans and no other Matth. 5. 8. Ioh. 13. 11. 15. 3. Secondly I meane onely such as Bellarmine intimates when he cals King IAMES puritan for he so cals him saith D. Harkwit against Carrier because in the first booke of his Basilicon Doron he affirmes that the religion professed in Scotland was grounded upon the plaine words of the Scripture And againe in his second Booke that the reformation of religion in Scotland was extraordinarily wrought by GOD. Gracious and holy speeches as you see with men of the world are puritanicall And if a man speake but holily and name but reformation Scripture conscience and such other words which sting their carnall hearts it is enough to make a man a puritan Thirdly I meane the very same of whom Bishop Downam one of the greatest schollers of either Kingdome speakes thus in his Sermon at Spittle called Abrahams Triall And even in these times saith he the godly live amongst such a generation of men as that if a man do but labour to keepe a good conscience in any measure although he meddle not with matters of State or Discipline or Ceremonies as for example if a Minister diligently preach or in his preaching seeke to profit rather than to please remembring the saying of the Apostle If I seeke to please men I am not the servant of CHRIST Gal. 1. 10. Or if a private Christian make conscience of swearing sanctifying the Sabbath frequenting Sermons or absteining from the common corruptions of the time he shall straightway be condemned for a Puritan and consequently be lesse favoured than either a carnall Gospeller or a close Papist c. Fourthly I meane none but those whom the Communion-Booke intends in that passage of the prayer after confession That the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy Now these come by their purity by preaching the Word Now saith CHRIST ye are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cleane by the Word which I have spoken unto you Ioh. 15. 3. The Word must first illighten convince and cast them downe so that out of sight of sinne and sense of divine wrath being weary sicke lost wounded bruised broken-hearted these are Scripture-phrases and thereupon casting their eyes upon the amiablenesse excellency and sweetnesse of the LORD IESVS and the All-sufficiency of His bloud to cure them resolve to sell all to confesse and forsake all their sinnes not to leave an hoofe behind and then taking him offered by the hand of GODS free grace as well for an Husband Lord and King to love serve and obey Him as for a Saviour to free them from hell They put on with the hand of faith the perfect purity of His imputed righteousnesse attended ever with some measure of inherent purity infused by the sanctifying Spirit and after entring the good way their lives are ever after pure and holy These are CHRISTS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Puritans I meane And these men of purity some never meane to be nay they heartily hate the very image of IESVS CHRIST in them they speake spitefully against them David was not onely the drunkards song but those also that sate in the gate spoke against him they are your musicke and matter of your mirth I am your musicke saith the Church in the person of Ieremie Lam. 3. They will many times call upon a roguish vagabond at your feasts to sing a song against them whom they should rather set in the stockes they are transported and inwardly boyle with farre more indignation and heart-rising against their holinesse purity precise walking and all meanes that lead thereunto though enjoyned upon paine of never seeing the face of GOD in glory than more simple poorer and meaner men and that 's a reason they sticke faster in the Devils clutches than they and that few of them are called converted and saved according to my Text. Secondly ye that are thus the worlds favourites are very loth to become fooles and therefore in the meane time he lockt full fast in the Devils bands and cannot escape except ye be such I speake a very displeasing thing to worldly-wise men but they are the very words and wisdome of the Spirit of GOD 1 Cor. 3. 18. Let no man deceive himselfe if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world let him become a foole that he may be wise Let no man deceive himselfe such caveats as this are wont to be premised when men out of their carnall conceipts are peremptory to the contrary and would venture their salvation as they say that it is not so See Ephes. 5. 6. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Mat. 5. 2. And did not most of your hearts rise against these words of mine you must become fooles or never be saved untill I brought Scripture Give me here leave I pray you to intimate in a few instances the meaning of the place and the truth of your false and selfe-couzening hearts in obnoxiousnesse to the point Suppose a messenger of GOD should deale faithfully
of folly And the very same attempt as to make two parallel lines to meet You thinke yee have a reach beyond the Moone To lie in some sweete sinne and yet to nourish in your selves some hope of salvation To have two heavens one in this world and another in the world to come which was never heard of to weare two crownes of joyes whereas IESVS CHRIST himselfe had the first of thornes But alas Beloved if you be saved in this condition you must have a new Scripture and there must bee found out another way to heaven then any of the Saints ever went since the Creation or shall doe to the end of the world And therefore we may say of you as Quintilian some where of some deluded with an overweening conceit of themselves That they might have prooved excellent Schollers if they had not beene so perswaded already So if you did not thinke falsly your selves safe already you might be saved But while you thus hugge the golden dreame of your mistaken states to GOD-ward like the Pharisees the very Publicans and Harlots shall goe into the Kingdome of heaven before you Matth. 21. 31. Fourthly you that are great in the world in the foure forenamed respects and meant in the Text cannot possibly downe with and digest downe-right dealing and the foolishnesse of preaching as it is called vers 21. And that vtterly undoes you You like well enough nay and much approve and applaud such Sermons as King IAMES censures in the reasons of his directions for preaching c. which he there cals a light affected and unprofitable kind of preaching which hath beene of late years saith he taken up in Court University City and Countrey whereby the people are filled onely with ayrie nourishment c. and I warrant you not especially hating to be reformed or disquieted for these are not wont to discover your consciences nor disturbe you in your present courses they never terrifie you with any fore-thought of the evill day neither torment you before the time but now let a man come with the foolishnesse of preaching by which it pleaseth GOD saith the Apostle to save them that believe with demonstration of the Spirit and of power and come home to the conscience if he suffer not Satan to revell in the bloud of your soules without resistance nor see you post furiously towards eternall fire but will tell you that the pit of hell is a little before you In a word if he take the right course to convert you and shew you therefore onely your spirituall misery that you may be fitted for mercy c. O such a fellow is a dangerous man a terrible and intolerable Teacher able to drive men to distraction despaire selfe-destruction he breaths out nothing but damnation and his searching Sermons are as scorching as the very flames of hel Fit phrases for the Devil himself railing in a drunkard or scoffing Ishmael against faithfulnesse in preaching and if you know where or when such men preach and it may be you entertaine some intelligence for that purpose to prevent the torture you will not you dare not heare them for your hearts except you cannot decline it for starke shame or for a time or two to satisfie your curiosities but as S. Paul saith you become their enemies because they tell you the truth to which truth not to have listened in this day of your visitation will herafter when it is too late torment you more than ten thousand fiery Scorpions stings and gnaw upon your consciences with unknowne and everlasting horrour Alas Beloved what meane you You will give your Physitian leave to tell you the distempers of your body the Lawyer to discover unto you any flaw in your deeds your horse-keeper to tell you the surfets of your horses nay your hunâ—…sman the surrances of your dogs and shall onely the Minister of GOD not tell you that your soules are bleeding to eternall death Preposterous and prodigious incongruity If it be thus then that of all the severall sorts of great men mentioned before by reason that they are beset with such variety of snares entangled in so many temptations so much taken up by the world and for other reasons rendred already very few are called converted and saved my counsell in a word unto all such is CHRISTS owne word Luke 13. 24. Strive to enter in at the strait gate lay violent hands upon flesh and blond strangle your lusts contend and wrastle as for the Garland in the Olympian Games to which the word seemes to allude become fooles in the worlds censure that you may be wise in the mystery of CHRIST be little and vile in your own esteeme that you may be great and gracious in the eyes of GOD. In a word submit your soules to the sword of the Spirit and foolishnesse of preaching as the Apostle cals it that you may be wrought upon savingly and brought into the good way and that by such works and waies as these Upon which before I enter give me leave to give you an account why at this time I labour rather to work upon your consciences for your personall conversion than as heretofore to tender unto you counsels and considerations for a more conscionable deportment in your severall publike places When I well weighed with my selfe the truth of that principle and position in Hooker That it is no peculiar conceipt but a matter of sound consequence that all duties are by so much the better performed by how much the men are more religious from whose abilities the same proceed And finding by experience of all ages and most of all in these worst and wofull times that men of publike imployment and in high places untill there be infused into their soules by the Spirit of grace an internall supernaturall principle and divine habit to worke by untill aliquid CHRISTI as they say be planted in them by the power of the Ministry they cannot possibly be universally thorow and unshaken Some strong affection feare favour or some thing will make them flie out and faile in some particular very fowly Upon extraordinary temptation they will serve the times and their owne turnes for alas as yet their spirits are not steeled with that heavenly edge and mighty vigour as to set to their shoulders against the torrent of the times and not to be overflowen with it I say upon this ground I have advisedly chosen to assay and follow this way at this time for if once you turne on the LORDS side in truth you are won for ever to an invincible constancy and conscionablenesse in an uniforme regular and religious discharge of your publike duties and will ever hold fast without partiality cowardlinesse or feare of mans face that brave and noble resolution Vt fiat justitia ruat coelum let heaven and earth be blundred together with horrible confusision before I make shipwracke of a good conscience or be any waies drawne to do basely Being
can never be wise unto salvation 1. If any of you then would come out of Satans clutches into the armes of CHRIST he must be illightened convinced and cast downe with sight sense and trouble for sinne as in my art of comforting afflicted consciences I have shewed 2. Secondly the point may teach us not to be greedy of greatnesse nor hunt ambitiously after high roomes 3. The point may serve as a soveraigne antidote against all discontent or fretting when we see men of the world carrie all before them c. We may entertain an holy indignation to see folly set in great excellency so many servants on horse-backe and Princes walking as servants upon the ground But I am prevented by the time from prosecuting these two latter Uses Let me briefly say two things more and I have done 1. The first concerning what I have said I have spoken much as you have heard my Text naturally and directly leading me thereunto of the true misery and spirituall madnesse of all great men in learning wealth nobility wisdome according to the flesh Least any be unjustly angry and mistake or caussesly grumble and gainsay let me take up the words of that ancient holy Father Salvianus about a thousand yeares ago in the like case He having impartially discovered the horrible impieties of the noble and rich men in those corrupt times tels them by the way and it is my just apologie at this time I do not saith he speake thus of any but onely such as know these things to be in themselves If their consciences be free nothing that I say tends to their disparagement and disgrace but if they know themselves to be guilty let them know also that they are not my words but their owne consciences which vexe them And in another place thus Sith I speake not these things of all but those who are such none of you ought to be angry at all which findeth not himselfe to be obnoxious least thereby he make himselfe seeme and be suspected to be of the number of those that are naught Rather let so many as being guiltlesse and truly noble abhorre such unworthy courses be angry with them who disgrace the name of Nobility by their base and wicked behaviour because although others be much worse and scandaliz'd by them yet especially they bring a great deale of shame and dishonour upon those who are of the same noble ranke Take notice by the way that by the Fathers words those men are much too blame who go about to dawbe over the disorders and smother up the scandalous exorbitancies of delinquents in their owne profession or to be concurrents for their deliverance from deserved shame and punishment To give instance in the highest calling A Minister which fals to drunkennesse and ale-house-haunting should rather be publikely sham'd and censured than a fellow of an inferiour calling We do not honour the Ministry by having our hands in helping out such but by disclaiming and not owning them well may we by so medling incurre suspicion of obnoxiousnesse but never bring credit to our so holy a calling I knew a Knight did penance at Pauls-Crosse but at the same time I heard that many of his ranke in the City labour'd to have him dis-knighted first before he so publikely disgraced their order Me thinks all well-minded should be so minded 2. The other is to my Lords the Iudges My reverend and noble Lords give me leave to cloth the thoughts of the Countrey in a word or two We much rejoyce in you and blesse GOD for you as men of singular and knowne integrity speciall friends to the Gospell of IESVS CHRIST and a great honour and happinesse to these parts and heartily pray that we may hold you still and therefore my intreaty unto your Lordships is that you would couragiously advance forward and do like your selves and nobly still Draw our your dreadfull swords against the torrents of Belial as David cals them which even threaten a deluge and be your selves as mighty torrents armed both with jâ—…st and holy lawes and the godly resolutions of your owne noble spirits to beare backe and beat downe the common crying and raigning sins of our Countrey In a word be unto the oppressed and innocent as a refuge from the storme but as a terrible tempest upon the face of every humane beast and sonne of Belial And O that you could helpe us that GODS people might not perish for want of bread Is it not a pitifull thing that in such a deare yeare specially it should be almost as hard a worke to get downe a wicked ale-house as to win Dunkerke That Maultsters should snatch as it were the graine from the mouthes of the poore in the market place to uphold these hell-houses these nurceries of the Devill that Magistrates should be so unmercifull as neither for GODS sake nor the Kings sake nor the poores sake nor their owne soules sake to take the utmost penalties for blasphemies ale house-hauntings drunkennesse and prophanations of the LORDS Day And were it not an honourable course and worthy to have an universall contribution over the Countrey to pull downe something the excessive prizes in market-townes for the poore thereabouts during this extremity But I leave it to your Lordships charitable wisdome to do the best you can possibly that the bloud of the poore this yeare be not added to the already crying sinnes of the Kingdome to hasten GODS judgements upon us and our long since deserved ruine And in the meane time you need not feare the face of the proudest Devill whether incarnate or in his owne shape For while you thus advance GODS glory and truly honour the King assure your selves the hearts and teares and prayers of all good men shal be for you and yours shal be the crowne and comfort when all prophanenesse and prophane opposites to the good way all the enemies of GOD and pestilent packings and complotments of the Devils agents against GODS people shal be buried in hell FINIS Io Payne Feâ—… 1032. * A quarian ague * Iustice Nicolls as grave and learned a Iudge aâ—… this Kingdome câ—…joyed in the age it held him 1 Sam. 2. 30. * Qui pecunia largitionibus honores sacerdotia magistratus ambiunt his poena deportationis est praestituta Lex Iul. de ambitu Iustice of Peace and Quorum Iustice of Oyer Oyer and Terminer Knight of the Shire High Sheriff of the County * Honor fugientem sequitur sequentem fugit Iâ—…y 40. 〈◊〉 Degeneres animos timor arguit Psal. 146. 3 4. Nec Christiani ultrà durare aut esse possumus si ad hoc ventum est ut perditorum minas atque insidias pertimescaâ—…us â—… Cypr. Lib. â—… â—…pist 3. ad Corn. Oportuit in divinis castris milites CHRISTI ut non minae terreant nec cruciatus tormenta devincant Cyp. lib. 2. Cap. 6. Exod. 18. * Or able men in the last â—…slation Iosh. 1. 6 7 9 1â—…