in the old law was to make an atonement for the Holy offerings of the People that they might be accepted Exod. 28.38 never may the best of our Services without some Atonement and Expiation hope to be sped of Acceptance at his Hands in whose Eyes the Stars are not clear Iob 25.5 but is of Purer Eyes then to behold any Iniquity Hab. 1.13 And then if in our best Dresses we may not hope to appear Acceptable in our worst how Abominable must we needs appear in his sight And therefore St. Aug. word to the Lord cannot but be concluded to be very pregnant Vae etiam laudabili vitae Hominum si remota Misericordia discutias eam Woe to our most laudable course of Life saith he if thou O Lord without the Spectacle of Mercy shall be pleased to look upon it Nay this way of work-trial the whole Stream of the Divine Pen-men seemeth every where to cross setting up Grace and Faith not in competition only with but in a direct opposition unto works in the work of our Salvation and so in this Day of Trial we conclude saith St. Paul Dogmatically that a Man is justified by Faith without the works of the Law Rom. 2.28 There is a Remnant according to the Election of Grace saith the same Apostle in the 11. of the same Epistle 5. and 6. and if by Grace then is it no more of works otherwise Grace is no more Grace And if by Grace and Faith we are to look for Justification then how is it that according to our works we shall be Judged It will not be so difficult a Task perhaps upon a full discussion of the whole matter to reconcile this so much seemingly jarring Triumvirate as at first sight may appear Grace is the first yea Principal Impulsive cause of our Justification Being Iustified freely by his Grace saith the same Apostle Rom. 3.24 faith the instrumental for the laying hold of this grace in Christ The righteousnes of God saith the same Apostle in the 22. of the same Chapter by the Faith of Jesus is upon all them that Believe Good works are for the present to every one of us as at this last Day they shall be in the Presence of the whole world Sole but sufficient Evidence that we by Faith apprehend this unspeakable Grace and Mercy in Christ And therefore the same Apostle may you observe to be so far from opposing of either of these to other that Ephes. 2.8 you may see him Coupling Grace and Faith By Grace saith he are you saved through Faith Nay 1 Tim. 1.14 both Grace and Faith and good works together The Grace of our Lord was exceeding Abundant with Faith and Love the sourse of all Good works in Christ Jesus The lively Emblem and Representation of all three may you clearly discover in the Eye of a Man The Light we know is the only Object this Eye contemplateth And the Eye the sole Organ for the Contemplation of this Light And yet little comfort shall there be found by any Man in this object of Light nor will this Organ of the Eye be of any use if by any means it shall be divorced from the other Members of the Body To the Eye Light cannot be more welcome then is the Grace and Mercy of God that bringeth Salvation to the soul You are kept saith St. Peter by the Power of God unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Salvation the clearest Evidence as of the Mercy so Power of God And Faith the only means for the sealing up unto us this Evidence And yet shall Faith though of this Intuitive and Obsignative Efficacy as the Eye from the other Members be divided and separated from all other Gifts and Graces of the soul as Humility Meekness Temperance Patience it shall appear no better then Dead For Faith without works is Dead alone Iam. 2.17 Briefly by the Grace of God I am what I am you know is our Apostles word of himself 1 Cor. 15.10 whatever we may have in us whether of the Seeds of Faith or the Fruits of good works may in no wise be Pimarily ascribed to any cause but the Grace of God So that then for that both for the best Plerophory of our Faith we shall have too just reason to cry out as that Father of the Daemoniaque Mark 9.24 Lord I Believe help mine unbelief and for our choisest works for that they are so far from holding any the least conformity unto the Rule of Gods Law sadly to bemoan our selves before him as doth the Royal Prophet Psal. 130.3 If thou Lord wilt be extream to mark what is done amiss who may abide it Nay for that we cannot conceive the least hope of Salvation by our best works without borrowing much out of the inexhaustible Treasury not of Gods gracious Interpretation only but his Imputation of his Son Merits unto us Christ was made sin for us saith our Apostle that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 who seeth not how more then suffient ground there will be for our saying one to another what Zorobabel sometimes of the stone of the great Mountain Zach. 4.7 Grace unto it Grace unto it And for those two Faith and good-Good-works thus genuinely and equally springing from the same Root the grace of God far be it from us from becomming such Boutifeaus and Incendiaries as to blow and kindle the Coals of any Division between them which without the least prejudice or disgust nay without the extream prejudice of the destruction of our souls cannot be set or kept at the least distance Indeed without Faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 And yet never shall Faith be able to please God without the Observation of his Commandements It is Faith that apprehendeth the Merits of Christ Being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through Iesus Christ our Lord Rom. 5.1 And yet Opera mea testantur de me as our Saviour sometimes of himself Iohn 5.36 They are good works that must justifie our Faith for true and sincere Faith as the Kings Daughter Psal. 45.14 cannot but appear gratious and amiable in her Heavenly Fathers Eyes yet may she not be brought into his Presence until she appear in her Raiment of Needle-work and the Virgins of all other spiritual Graces for the keeping her Company V. 15. and 16. Faith like one part of a pair of Compasses must still center in the free grace of God through Christ But then must Love like the other be moving about the Circumference of the relief of our distressed Brethrens necessities So that then for our Faith however possibly we may conceive of it as our Apostle sometimes of his Faith of Miracles Heb. 11.33 34. that it is of force to subdue Kingdoms stop the Mouths of Lions quench the violence of Fire yet may we not fancy that it shall be able to open the Gates of the Kingdome of Heaven as long as we are so far destitute of
such good-works which may become Newness of Life as that we have any thing of Abomination or defilement about us for the keeping us out the last v. of the last Chap. of this Book And therefore however for the work of our Justification God may say unto us as to the two Blind-men Matth. 9.29 According to your Faith be it unto you yet if now upon this foundation of our whatever Faith we shall be so far from building up the Gold or Silver Superstruction of Pious and Religious works as that we shall lay on nothing but the Hay and Stubble of all manner of vanities yea Impieties and Enormities so far shall such a Faith be from saving us that most woful must our condition needs appear when we shall all come to stand up before God to receive our sentence either of Acquital or condemnation according to our works Every Mans works shall be made manifest saith Saint Paul for the Fire shall try every mans works of what sort it is 1 Cor. 3.13 where by Fire will we hear St. Augustin and diverse others of the Antients We are to understand either the Fire of all manner of Temptations and Tribulations and Persecutions which as Fire are to try and prove sound Doctrin and reduce to nothing the Hay and Stubble of Humane Invention When the Lord shall wash away the filth of the Daughter of Sion by the Spirit of judgement and Fire saith the Prophet Isa. 4.4 or the Fire of the Holy Ghost He shall Baptize saith the Baptist with the Holy Ghost and with Fire Matth. 3.11 or our Saviours appearance at this Day of Judgement either for the brightness of his Presence Who is the true Light that lightneth every one that commeth into the world Iohn 1.9 or for his consumptive quality that as is the same Psalmists Prediction Mat. 3. â—2 is to burn up the Chaffe with unquenchable Fire So that then finde we in our selves some ability for the bearing of Tribulations and Persecutions Some eminent graces of Gods Spirit Some Light of Illumination of our understandings for the discerning of those things that are Excellent Some consumption of the Hay and Stubble of all manner of Corruptions within us Upon these and no other Terms just reason shall we have to conclude that we are truly justified by Faith in the free Grace of Christ and so shall be counted worthy to stand before this Son of Man as himself speaketh Luke 21.36 Let then the Light of our Faith so shine before Men that they seeing our goods works may thereby be induced yea enforced to glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Let not our Lean Profession of Faith devour and swallow up the Fat of all manner of good works amongst us But let the Pomegranats of all manner of Fruits of Gods Spirit every where appear in the Coat of our Christianity as well as the Bels of our loud Profession of Faith Let Faith which commeth by hearing be as Mary conversant about one thing the Hearing of the word whilst the other as Martha is careful for many things the entertaining of Christ in all his needy Members Let Faith sing the Plain-song and good-Good-works the descant for the making up of a Melodious Harmony in the Ears of the Highest Let Faith and good works in every of us prove as Rachel and Leah fruitful for the building up of the House of our Christian Profession That so being Justified by Faith and having good works for the Justifying of this Faith of ours in the End of our Days we may receive the End of our Hopes the Salvation of our Souls when this great God of Heaven and Earth shall judge the Dead Small and Great out of those things that are written in the Books according to their works And thus far shall it serve to have examined the equal Proceedings of the Court which clearly appeareth in that the Dead Small and Great shall without any further distinction or discrimination be thus as you see Judged I shall only give you a short glimpse of the infallible certainty of all that which is irrefragably evident in that our Divine Evangelist professeth himself to have been {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an Eye-witness of all I saw the Dead Small and Great stand up before God The Poets word it is Segnius irritant Animos The objects of Hearing make not so sudden an impression upon the Ear as those of seeing do upon the Eye And the reason hereof given by the Phylosopher cannot but be concluded to be very pregnant for that those things we see saith he come to the Eye {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in a direct Line but the things we Hear to the Ear {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} oblickly and as we say on every side Had our Apostle by Hear-say only by Tradition from others acquainted us with the Dead Small and Great standing up in this wise before God and yet this same Evangelist of our Ears conceiveth but even such a Relation to be Edged with Authority sufficient what we have heard saith he declare we to you in the 1. of his 1. Epistle and 5. the less strange might it seem did we appear to distrust the Relation not only for that our Age to palpably aboundeth with Lies much more then Truth but for that much more the greatest part of us that have led the Lives of Infidels would gladly cry down this Christian Truth rather for a Fabled Romancee then a Divine Oracle Sed cum certissimus Index Eplicuit presens oculus quem Fabula nescit But now what the greatest Sceptick can in the least measure question the Truth of this Report which so Authentick an Author as this our Evangelist reporteth himself to have seen and this by so unquestioned away as this of Revelation I saw and that with mine own Eyes and that by so unerring Evidence as Revelation the Dead Small and Great stand up before God Indeed I am not Ignorant that there are Revelations that may to justly be stooped to draw in the same Yoak with Dreams Hearken not to your Prophets is the Lords own word to the King of Sidon of Tyre of Moab and Ammon nor to your Diviners nor Dreamers Ier. 27.9 Every even the meanest of us hath for a long time as the Corinthians of old in the 1. of those Epistles 14. and 26. hath a Revelation an Interpretation of his own Of every of which therefore far greater reason shall we have to Quaere then those Philosophers sometimes of our Apostle Acts 17.18 what will this Babbler say But when we meet with a Testificemur quod vidimus as from this our Evangelist Iohn 3.11 we Testifie that which we have seen and that no Prophesie of Scripture is of Private Interpretation but Holy Men of God spake still as they were moved by God 2 Pet. 1.20 that Sceptick must needs be concluded to be above measure Sceptical that shall distrust the Credit of such a Relation I saw the Dead Small and Great stand up before God Let it then be the careful Provision and Circumspection of every one of us that his dreadful sight of the Dead Small and Great standing up before a most impartial Judge and of the Books made up of three volumns in the first whereof is written the Law of Nature in the second the Law from Sinai in the third the Law from Sion the second â—is Day-book of two whereof the first is that of our own Conscience the second of his Remembrance the third his Book of Records and this of a twofold Nature the one wherein the Church Registreth those for his Sons that by an outward Profession of their Faith are received into her Bosome notwithstanding that many of them afterwards prove gross Impostours and Hypocrites the other that immutable Fore-knowledge whereby from Eternity he hath and beyond all Tract of Time will acknowledge those for his whom he hath Predestinated to the Adoption of Sons and ordained to be Heirs of Everlasting Life let this spectacle I say what the Lord sometimes to his People of the Book of the Law Ioshua 1.8 depart never out of our Mouths but meditate we therein Day and Night And let it be the Hing of the same Care of ours to consider that we shall be saved or condemned not by the Leaves or Blossoms of faire Shews or Semblances but by the Fruits of Good-works And then having laboured as much as in us lieth to conform us to his Example that is the Resurrection and the Life when he which is this Life of ours shall appear just reason shall we have to become confident that we shall also appear with him in Glory with the Lustre of which Appearance in thy good time O Lord irradiate every one us for thy Mercies sake c. FINIS
Bello acies saith St Chrysost. as we use to set an Army in Battle-aray against an enemy before us what things we have done I have sometimes heard of an harsh answer that an hard-hearted chuffe made a poor man when he begged an Alms of him that if the day of judgement were at hand he would not give him a Penny To whom the poor man maketh no other reply but this that did he but believe that that day were at hand he would give him a Penny Doubtless the most flinty-hearted amongst us would be far from shutting up the Bowels of his compassion against his distressed Brother much less would he what is the worlds present guise for the general trample upon him and tirannize over him nor would any of us ruffle in Pride revel in excess dally in wantonness roar in Blasphemie mask under the visour of Hypocrisie as more then a good many of us familiarly do did we but duly contemplate with our selves that this great day of Judgement may be at hand nay did we but entertain a certain perswasion that there will be a day of Judgement And therefore those Arms wherewith Gideon furnished his Souldiers for their encounter with the Midianites Every one an empty Pitcher a burning Lamp and a Trumpet in his hand Iud. 7.16 will be proper for us still to have in a readiness in our thoughts for our encounter with the Hellish Midianites an emptie Pitcher even the apprehension of the brittle Pitchers of our bodies empty of strength and life of a burning Lamp a Lamp still lighted by a stream of Fire and Brimstone in the Infernal Tophet and a Trumpet which we know not how soon shall rouze us out of our Graves to try our strength Integrity before this Judgement seat Without all peradventure it is that the Midians or Jerichoes term them which you please shall never be able to stand or hold out shall they at all essays be surrounded with the due recognition of this Trumpets sound as a Signal for the opening of the Books Which might fitly bring me to the view of the third particular I commended to your observations the evidence to be given in which we see here is recorded in Books But I fear that I have already exceeded the limits both of my time and your patience Leaving therefore what remaineth for some other Days Essay beseech we the Almighty to grant that the words we have this day heard with our outward Ears may through his grace be so inwardly graffed in our hearts that they may bring forth in us c. The Second SERMON Apoc. 20.12 I saw the dead small and great c. Mat 24.44 Be ye also ready for in such an Hour as you think not the son of man commeth Abbas Elias Ego tres stimeo una est quando egressura est Anima de Corpore aliam quando occursurus sum Deo tertiam quando adversum me proferenda est sententia Apoc. 20.12 and the latter part of the Verse ANd the Books were opened and then another Book was opened which was the Book of life and the Dead were judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works The whole Verse when I first undertook it I termed and that perhaps not unfitly a lively Effigies and Representation of the Great and General and Unspotted High-Court of Justice that at the last day shall be erected in the Heaven of Heavens Wherein having given you a summary view as of the Prisoners to be arraigned the Dead Small and Great and the Judge to pass sentence God we are now according to our proposed Method to heed the Evidence to be given in the equal proceedings of the Court and the Infallible certainty of all And first the Evidence to be given in offereth it self to our considerations which we see is Recorded in Books And the Books were opened What cannot be denyed of any what ever Judge of this supream Judge of Heaven and Earth must needs Ex abundanti be granted and confessed that he is Lex loquens a speaking Law yea Quicquid libet licet as that gross Parasite sometimes to the King of Persia so exact a Rule of Law is his will that to question the equity of what ever he willeth were Crimen laesae Majestatis no other then an height of Rebellion And then Books for the information of the understanding and so guidance of the will of this Judge may justly seem superfluous But he that is the Fountain of Justice and would therefore by his own Exemplary practise prescribe a course of unerring Justice unto all that under him will needs lay claim to any Judiciary Power as in the first piece of justice he did upon our first Parents though taking them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the very Act he doth not presently without further enquiry pass sentence upon them but first calleth man to the Bar Adam where art thou Where man appearing he apposeth him with a question which yet hath the nature of a smart charge Hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat Yea and then what Nicodemus now boldly alledgeth in the behalf of his Mr. Iohn 7.51 whom in the preceding verse for fear he sought In tenebris by Night with patience he heareth what this guilty Person can say for himself before he giveth him his Doom so here for the making up the exact complement of his Justice in the last Judgement that the most clamorous Delinquent may have no just cause of exception against his just way of proceeding he passeth sentence not as many a Brain-sick Enthusiast preacheth without Book but out of Books and these known Books of Law and those opened And the Books were opened For the number of these Books I know no Penman of holy Writ so proper and present to acquaint you as this our signally Divine Evangelist and Apostle St Iohn who here giveth us an intimation of three at least which he here professeth and that by Revelation to have seen And I saw the Books opened and then another Book was opened which was the Book of life For their Titles if you please to take them amassed into one great volume you may stile them all collectively by the name of Gods Doom-day Book If in several pieces you may not unfitly stile the first Secundum quem the second Ex quo the third In quo the first his Statute-Book the second his Day-Book the third his Book of Records And every of these Books shall we see opened when we come all both Small Great to stand up before this Righteous judge of the whole Earth I saw the Dead Small and Great stand up before God The first of these his Statute-Book is made of three Tomes in the first whereof is written the Law of Nature in the second the Law from Sinai in the third the Law from Sion For the first of these the Law of
grace of Christ shall be of Energy and Efficacy sufficient to save us St. Augustins Caution in the mean time for the Law of Nature cannot but seem very Poinante Adolet non abolet Naturam Gratia this Law from Sion this Law of Faith doth not disanul but Corroborate and confirm and actuate Natures Law And for the Law from Sinai however Christ by being made a Curse for us hath taken away the Curse thereof Gal. 3.13 yet as that was our School-Master to bring us unto him Gal. 3.24 so is he our Exemplary Guide to lead us to the fulfilling thereof I came not to destroy but to fulfil the Law Mat. 5.17 And this may you see to be the Apostles clear Determination after his most Solicitous Debate of the Point Rom. 3.31 Do we then make void the Law of God through Faith God forbid rather we establish the Law The drift of this Law is far from broaching or countenancing any Doctrin of such a Liberty of conscience as with the Saints of the new Calendar is no better then Licentiousness that Sanctification and Obedience is no less the scope of this then either of the former Lawes And therefore St. Peters Caveat in the 2. of his 1. Epistle to his scattered strangers you may see to be that they use not their Liberty for a Cloak of Malitiousness or wickedness for the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the Original equally importeth both but that by well-doing they put to silence the Ignorance of Foolish Men And St. Iames his peremptory conclusion it is in the 1. of his Epistle and 25. whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty this Law of Faith is a Law of Liberty indeed but such an one as is far from taking off the Yoak of Obedience from our Necks and therefore immediately may you see to follow and continueth therein being not a forgetful Hearer but a Doer of the work that Man only shall be Blessed in his Deed Indeed it cannot be denied but that Christ beareth a great part of this Yoak for us that which may justly cause him to minde us that that part of the Yoak he hath left for us to bear Is easie Mat. 11.30 Howbeit {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} there are as the Apostle seasonably Itemeth his Colossians in the first of that Epistle 24. as after-sufferings so After-doings of his likewise to go thorough with in the weak Endeavours and Evidences of which poor Patience and Performance shall we at last notwithstanding all this our Book-learning prove defective or faulty so that if either our chearfulness in suffering after his example or promptness in Acting according to his commands shall not prove such as shall become this our Prime Book his glorious Gospel too just reason shall we at last finde for our Concluding and complaining as the Preacher Eccles. 12.12 There is no end of making and setting before us many Books and with Nero when he was sometimes to Signe a sentence of Death the mildest Speech that ever fell from so Bloody a Monster in extream Anguish of Spirit wish utinam nescirem Literas O! that I had never known Letter in a Book I can but turn over the Books in haste The second that shall be opened is Gods Day-book which yet hath two Tomes that serve to the making it up whereof the one is that of our own Conscience the other of Gods Remembrance For the first of these Annals and Diaries I finde thus distinguished by Tacitus that the former is a Register of the greater the latter of the less matters of State In this Diary or Day-book you shall be sure to meet with a Rhapsody of all sorts of matters both greater and less together not the works of your Hands only and the words of your Mouths but even of the most secret and recluse thoughts of your Hearts No sooner is there any Evil acted or Spoken or but conceived by us but that Inimici viri Domestici ejus our conscience which is our House-hold Enemy is ready accordingly as Iob sometimes wished in the 31. of his Book and 35. to write a Book So that for whatever sin of ours whether Manual or Vocal or but Mental our Conscience will still be present to put in Execution what the Lord sometimes gave in charge to his Prophet Esay 30.8 to note it in a Book And however a Malefactor here may have just reason to interpret his being put to his Book for a special Act of Mercy whence the old word amongst us of a mans being saved by his Book this Book-trial of all we shall in conclusion finde to be the most Severe for that this Great Judge himself shall at the time of our Arraignment without any just censure of Entrenchment or Usurpation assume the Ordinaries Place and will then without the least Extention of any favour to be looked for clearly and candidly publish and proclaim in the Audience of the whole Earth whatsoever he shall finde written In Libro Aperto in this Book when it commeth to be opened The first way of writing I ever read of was in Stone and the first Writer God himself who writeth the Law in two Stony Tables with his own Hand Exod 30.18 Conscience is not Ignorant of this way of writing but after the example of God himself whose vicegerent she is writeth as is Iudahs sin written Ier. 17.1 with a Pen of Iron with the Point of a Diamond the Characters of our several misdeeds in the Stony Tables of our Hearts Whose Thoughts therefore as the Apostle Rom. 2.5 shall at the last Day either Accuse or Excuse us After this another way of writing in Barks of Trees was found out whence our Books amongst the Latins still retain their Names Libri Barks or Books Nor is Conscience unacquainted with this way of writing neither A Book a Register-Book she keepeth of all our Enormities and Impieties whereof every Page shall appear filled with the sad Items of our Blasphemies our Perjuries our Debaucheries our Dalliances our Oppressions our Extortions our Murthers So that every one of us by way of an heavy Position shall have too just reason to bespeak our Consciences for all these as doth David the Lord by way of an anxious question for his Members Psal. 139.15 In thy Book are all these things written The Egyptians after this found out another way of writing by Hieroglyphicks strange and uncouth Characters and these impressed in Paper then made of Reeds as now amongst us of Rags And the Destruction of these Reeds the Prophet Isaiah seemeth to bewail as a dreadful part of Gods doom upon Egypt in the 19. of his Prophesie and 7. The Paper-reeds saith he by the Brooks shall wither and be no more And at this time of the standing up of the Dead Small and Great before this Righteous Judge of the whole Earth as we shall see the sign of the Son of Man Mat. 24.30 which even by the