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
some but to withdraw it selfe from others as shut out and hid from the light and force of it or having any Title to it long before ever they saw the sunne And thus they shorten the hand of God when it is stretched out to all bound his love which is profferred to all stint the bloud of Christ which gusheth out upon all and circumcise his mercy which is a large cloak saith Bernard large enough to cover all and the reason is no better then the position quod vis esse charum effice ut sit rarum to make salvation more precious and estimable it must be rare Then 't is most glorious when t is a peculiar when t is entayld on a few why should the love of God be a common thing I answer why should it not be common since he is pleased to have it so why should he cast away so many to endeare a few and can there be any glory in that priviledge which is writ with the bloud of so many millions why should it not be common since he would have it not onely common but communicated to all and expresses himself as one grieved and troubled and angry because it is not so why should we feare Gods love should be cast away by being proferd to many His love of friendship and complacency to those whom he calls his Friends cannot be lost but is as eternall as himself it assists and upholds them and will crown them everlastingly Nor is his generall love of good will and affection lost though it be lost for it is ever with him even when the wicked are in hell Plus est bonitas Dei quam beneficentia Christs bloud is ever in the Flow though there be but few that take the Tide and are carried along with it Gods goodnesse is larger then his Beneficence he doth not doe what good he can or rather he doth not doe what good he would because we fall back and will not receive it we will not suffer him to be good we will not suffer him to be mercifull we will not suffer him to save us This is the condemnation of the world John 3 19. that light came into the world and men loved darknesse more then light Apâ—l Flor. 1. The Philosopher will tell us of the Indians ad nascentem solem siti sunt tamen in corpore color noctis est they live at the very rising of the sunne yet their Bodies are black and swarthy and resemble the night so many there be who live in the very Region of light where the Beames fall upon them hot and pure and are darted at their very eyes and yet remaine the Children of darknesse Facit infidelitas multorum ut Christus non pro omnibus moriatur qui pro omnibus mortuus est saith Saint Ambrose Christ was deliverd for all is a true proposition it is Infidelity alone that can make it Hereticall and yet t is true still though to him that believes not it is of no more use then if it were false he was delivered for thee but thou wilt not receive it his passion is absolute but thou art impenitent he dyed for Judas who betrayed him but will not save Judas that despaired and hang'd himself Infidelity and impenitency are the worst Restrictives which limit and draw down to particulars a proposition so profitably generall and bound so saving a universall that contract and sink all into a few To conclude this Christs hanging on the Crosse looks upon all but all doe dot cast an eye and look up in faith upon him he was deliver'd to deliver all but all will not be deliver'd Omnis natura nostra in Christi hypostasi invixit Our whole nature was united in Christs person not the persons of a few but our whole nature and our whole nature is of compasse large enough to take in all and in that common nature of man he offered up himself on the Crosse for the sinne of all that he might tollere peccatum mundi take away the sinne of the world destroy the very species and being of it which though it be not done cannot be imputed to any scantnesse or deficiency of virtue in his bloud which is of power to purge out sinne wheresoere it is if the heart that fosters it be ready and willing to receive and apply it And in this common nature of man not from Abraham or David but from the first man Adam himself as Saint Luke carryes up his Genealogy did Christ offer up himself upon the Crosse and in this common nature he presents himself before his Father and now God looks upon Christ and mankind as our eye doth upon light and colours which cannot be seen without light before this light came into the world we were covered over with darknesse and deformity and God could not look upon us but in anger but through this common light we may be seen and be beloved we may be seen with pleasure for as he was delighted in his Sonne so in him he is well pleasd in those sonnes which he shall bring with him to glory but it we will fully withdraw our selves from this light then doth his soule hate us Christ is the brightnesse of his Glory light enough for God to look through upon a thousand worlds multiplyed a thousand times and if we doe not hide our selves from it hide our selves in the cavernes of Earth in the world If we doe not drown our selves in the bottome of the Sea in the deluge of our lusts if we doe not bury our selves alive in stubborne impenitency if we doe not stop up all the passages of our soules if we doe not still love darknesse and make it a pavilion round about us he will look upon us through this light and look lovingly upon us with favour and Affection he will look upon us as his purchase and he that deliver'd him for us will with him give us all things which is the end of all the end of this his being delivered and offers it self to our consideration in the last place The end With him he gives all things He delivered he sent he gave him for all these expressions we find to make him a Gift He is the desire and he is the riches of all Nations so that as whatsoever we do we must do so whatsoever we have we receive in his name The name of Jesus saith S. Peter of the impotent man Actâ— 3. hath made this man strong by his name we are justified by his name we are sanctified and by his name we shall enter into glory with him we have all things for in him are all the treasuries of Riches and Wisdome we may think of all the Kingdomes of the earth and the glory of them but these come not within the compasse nor are to be reckoned amongst his Donations For as the Naturalists observe of the glory of the Rainbow that it is wrought in our eye and not in the cloud
of it in all ages as of the fittest Engine to undermine that truth which the spirit first taught Tertullian as wise a man as the Church then had being not able to prove the Corporiety of the soule by scripture flyes to private Revelation in his Book De anima non per aestimationem sed Revelationem what he could not uphold by reason and judgment Post Ioannem quoque prophetiam meruimus conscqui c. Tertull. de Anim c. ix montanizans he strives to make good by Revelation for we saith he have our Revelations as well as Saint John Our sister Priscilla hath plenty of them her traunces in the Church she converses with Angels and with God himself and can discerne the hearts and inward thoughts of men Saint Hierome mentions others and in the dayes of our fore-fathers Calvin many more Calvin contra Libert who applyed the name of the spirit to every thing that might facilitate and help on their designe as parish priests it is his resemblance would give the name of six or seven severall Saints to one image that their offerings might be the more I need not goe so farre back for instance Our present age harh shewen us many who have been ignorant yet wiser then their Teachers so spirituall that they despise the word of God which is the dictate of the spirit for this monster hath made a large stride from forreigne parts and set his foot in our coasts If they murder the spirit moved their hand and drew their sword if they throw down Churches it is with the breath of the Spirit if they would bring in parity the pretence is the Spirit cannot endure that any should be supreme or Pope it but themselves our humour our madnesse our malice our violence our implacable bitternesse our railing and reviling must all go for inspirations of the spirit Simeon and Levi Absolon and Achitophel Theudas and Judas the Pharisees and Ananias they that despise the holy Spirit of God these Scarabees bred in the dung of sensuality these Impostors these men of Belial must be taken no longer for a generation of vipers but for the scholars and friends of the holy Ghost whatsoever they do whithersoever they goe He is their leader though it be to hell it felf May we not make a stand now and put it to the question whether there be any holy Ghost or no and if there be whether his office be to lead us Indeed these appropriations these bold and violent ingrossings of the blessed Spirit have I fear given growth to conceits well neer as dangerous that the spirit doth not spirare breaths no grace into us that we need not call upon him that the text which telleth us the holy Ghost leadeth is the holy Ghost that leads us that the letter is the spirit and the spirit the letter an adulterate piece new coyned an old Heresie brought in a new dress and tire upon the stage again that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strange unheard of Deity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ascriptitious and supernumerary God Nazianz Or. 37. Quis veterum vel recentium adoravit spiritum quis oravit c. sic Macedoniani Eunomiani Ibid. I might say that it is more dangerous than this for to confess the Spirit and abuse him to draw him to as an accessary and abettor nay as a principall in those actions which nature it self abhors and trembles at is worse than out of errour to deny him For what a Spirit what a Dove is that which breathes nothing but gall and wormwood but fire and brimstone what a Spirit is that which is ever pleading and purveying for the flesh what a Spirit is that which is made to bear witnesse to a lie for as Petrarch tells us Nihil importunius erudito stulto that there is not a more troublesome creature in the world than a learned foole so the Church of Christ and Religion never suffered more than by carnall men who are thus spirit-wise for by acknowledging the Spirit and making use of his name they assume unto themselves a licence to do what they please and work wickednesse not onely with greedinesse but cum privilegie with priviledge and authority which whilest others doubt of though it be not onely an Error but Blasphemy yet parciùs insaniunt they are not so outragiously made But yet we must not put the spirit from his office because dreams or rather the evaporations of mens lusts do passe for revelations or say he is not a leader into truth because wicked or fanatick persons walk on in the wayes of Errour in the wayes of Cain or Corah and yet are bold to tell the world that this spirit goes before them The mad Athenian took every ship that came into the harbour to be his but it doth not follow hence that no wise and sober merchant knew his own To him that is drunk things appeare in a double shape and proportion Geminae Thehae gemini soles two cities and two suns for one but I cannot hence conclude that all sober men do so nor can I deny the Spirits conduct because some men wander as they please and run on in those dangerous by-paths where he will not lead them this were to deny an unquestionable and fundamentall truth for an inconvenience to dig up the foundation because men build hay and stubble upon it or because some men have sore eyes to pluck the Sun out of its sphere It were indeed dangerous to teach that the spirit did teach and lead us were there not meanes to try and distinguish the Spirits instructions from the suggestions of Satan or those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those mishapen lumps and abortive births of a sick and loathsome brain or our private humour which is as great a Divel Beloved 1. Epist of St. John c. 4. v. 1 2. saith S. Joh. believe not every spirit that is every inspiration but try the spirits whether they be of God for many false Prophets are gone out into the world that is have taken the chaire and dictate magisterially what they please in the name of the Spirit when themselves are carnall And he gives the rule by which we should try them in the next verse Every spirit that confesseth Jesus is the Lord is of God that is whosoever strives to advance the Kingdome of Christ and to set up the spirit against he flesh to magnifie the Gospel to promote men in the wayes of innocency perfect obedience which infallibly lead to happinesse is from God every such inspiration is from the spirit of God for therefore doth the spirit breath upon us that he may make us like unto God and so draw us to him that where he is we may be also But then those inspirations which bring in God to plead for Baal which cry up Religion to gain the world which tread down peace and charity and all that is praise-worthy under feet to make way for
30 makes as one with him makes us as Christ speaks his brother and sister and mother This is our affinity this is our honour this is in a manner our Divinity on earth For God and man saith Synesius have but this one onely thing common to them both and that is Heb. 13.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do good To do good and to distribute forget not for with such sacrifices God is pleased This then may well go for one part or limb of Religion And in the next place as in the visitation of the fatherlesse and widows all charity to our Brother is implyed so all charity to our selves is shut up in this other in keeping our selves unspotted of the world And this phrase in keeping our selves is very significant and that its weight for those spots which so defile us and make us such Leopards are not so much from the world as from our selves as a cheat is not onely from the cunning of the Impostor but from the want of wisdom and experience in him that is deceived 't is Ignorance that promotes the cheat that draws the power and faculty into Act makes him that hath a subtle wit injurious and t is an evil heart that makes the world contagious for wisdom prevents a cheat and watchfulnesse a spot This world in it self hath nothing in it that can defile us for God saw all that he made was good Tertul. despectaculis c. 2. and it was very good but Nihil non est Dei quod Deum offendit there is nothing by which we offend God but is from God that beauty which kindles lust is his gift that gold which hath made that desolation upon the earth was the work of his hands he gives us the bread we surfet on he filleth the cup that intoxicates us the world is the Lords and all that therein is but yet this world bespots us not because 't is his who cannot behold much lesse could make any unclean thing We must therefore search out another world and you need not travell far 1 ep 2.16 for you may stay at home and finde it in your selves S. John hath made the discovery for you in his first Epistle where he draws the map of it and divides it to our hands into three provinces or parts the first the lust of the flesh where unlawfull pleasures sport themselves secondly the lust of the eyes where covetousnesse builds her an house thirdly and the pride of life which whets a sword for the Revenger erects a throne for the Ambitious raiseth up a triumphant Arch for the vain-glorious this is the world saith S. John even a world of wickednesse this inverteth the whole course of Nature makes the wheel of the Creation move disorderly this world within us makes that world without us an enemy makes beauty deceitfull wine a mocker riches a snare works that into sinne out of which we might have made a key to open the gates of Heaven drops its poyson under every leaf upon every object and by its mixture with the world ingenders that serpent which spets the poyson back again upon us and not onely bespots James 1.15 and defiles but stings us to death for when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sinne and when sinne is finished it defiles a man and leave those spots behinde it which deface him and gives him a thousand severall shapes the Schools call it maculam peccati the blot and stain of sinne which is of no positive reality but a deprivation and defect of beauty in the soul and varies as shadows do according to the diversity of those bodies that cast it We see then that there is a world within us as well as without us and when these two are in conjunction when our lust joyns it self to the things of this world as the prodigall is said to do to a master in a farr countrey then follows pollution and deformity and as many spots as there be sins which are as many as the hairs of our head Beauty brings in deformity riches poverty plenty brings leanness into the soul and therefore to conclude this to keep our hearts with diligence and to keep our selves unspotted of the world is a main and principall part of our Religion and will keep us members of Christ and parts of the Church when prophanenesse and coverousnesse which is Idolatry shall have laid her discipline her honor in the dust A man of tender bowels and a pure heart is as the Church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against him By this we imitate that God we worship we draw neer unto him as neer as flesh and mortality will permit our escaping the spots and pollutions of this world makes us followers of that God who marks every spot we have and is not touched sees us in our blood and pollution and is not defiled beholds all the wickednesse in the world and yet remains the same for ever even goodnesse and purity it self this makes us partakers as Saint Peter speaks of the Divine nature in a word 2 Pet. 1.4 to be in the world and tread it under our feet to be in Sodom and to be a Lot on the hills of the robbers and do no wrong to be in the midst of snares and not be taken to be in Paradise Import and see the Apple pleasant to the sight to be compast about with glorious objects of delight and pleasures and not to Taste or Touch or Handle is the neerest assimilation that Dust and Ashes that mortall man can have to his Creator I may well then call these two the Essentiall parts of Religion Antigoni Imaginem â—…otegenes obliquam fecit ut quod corpore deerat picturae potius deesse videretur tantumque eam partem oslendit quam toram poterat ostendere Plin. Nat. Hist l. 35. c. 11. of which as you have taken a short severall view so be pleased to observe also their mutuall dependance and necessary connexion for if either be wanting you spoil the whole peece for neither will my charity to my brother entitle me to Religion if I be an enemy to my self nor my abstaining from evil Canonize me a saint if my goodnesse be not diffusive on others and if we draw out in our selves the picture of Religion but with one of these we do but like the painter who to flatter Antigonus because he had but one eye Drew but the half face For first to visit the Fatherlesse and widdows i. e. to be plenteous in good works ista sunt quasi incunabula pietatis saith Gregory Augustin these are the very beginings and nurcery of the love of God and there is no surer and readier step to the love of God whom we have not seen then by the love of our Brethren whom we see Gregor Tunc ad alta charitas mirabiliter surgit cum ad ima proximorum se misericorditer attrahit Then our charity begins to improve itself
is made from Heaven to those who enter our Olympicks who enter Religion and give up their names to Christ that they may sight for mastery and be crowned our Saviour tells them they must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sit down and consider what it is in which they have ingaged themselves how full of trouble how full of danger how many thorns and lets there be in their way how many Adversaries not to think it is enough to name Christ but when they name him let them depart from all Iniquity and carefully provide that the Integrity of their life should rather commend their Religion then that their Religion should be suborned and brought in to countenance the irregularity of their manners For we cannot but observe that from the corruption of mens lives have all those corruptions and mixtures crept into Religion which carry with them a neer likeness and resemblance to those spots which men have received from the world Ambition hath brought in her mixture and covetousness hers and pleasures have dropt their poison and left their very marke and characters in the doctrines of men which are framed and fashioned to favour and advance that evil humor which doth first set them up Covetousness and Ambition may set up a Chair or Consistory and from thence shall provision be made to feed and nourish them both to a monstrous grouth Nam ut in vitâ l. 12. c. prim sic in causis spes improbas habent saith Quintil. for those unlawful hopes and foul desires which sway us in our lives appear again and shew themselves as full of power to pervert and mislead us in point of Doctrine One would think that the world had nothing to doe in the Schoole of Christ that Mammon could not hold the pen of the scribe or conclude in the Schools or have a voice and suffrage in a Councel that mony and honour and pleasure could bring nothing to the stating of a Question but through the corruptness of mens mindes and manners it hath in all ages so fallen out that these have been the great deciders of Controversies have started Questions and resolved them have called Councels and decreed with them for we may be soon perswaded it was no other spirit then this which was sent from Rome in a Cloakbag to the Councel of Trent we say the World we have seen enough to raise such a Thought That the Church hath been governed that That which we call Religion hath been carried on by private Interest From hence are those corruptions of Truth and mixtures in Religion From hence those Generations of Questions those Catalogues of Herefies From hence so many Religions and none at all for Faction cannot be Religion for it cuts off the fairest part and member she haâ—… which is Charity And thus if Religion lose one of these colours she loses her beauty If she be not pure she cannot long be sincere and entire and if she be defiled she will receive Additions the worship of Saints to the worship of God the sire of Purgatory to the blood of Christ the indulgence of man to the free pardon of God Irreverence and prophaneness to our hatred of superstition and to our zeal oppression and murder In a word if it be not pure without mixture and undefiled without pollution it is not Religion And now I have shewed you the picture of Religion in little The Ratification represented it to you in these two Doing of Good and abstaining from Evil filling the hungry with good things and purging and emptying our selves of all uncleanness you have its beauty in its Graceful and Glorious Colours of Purity and Undefiledness Dignum Deo speciaculum a picture to be hung up in the Church nay before God himself for thus it appears Coram Deo Pare before God and the Father and hath its ratification from Him He was the first that set it up to be lookt upon He hath reveal'd his will by his Son who is the wisdome of his Father who gave unto us the words which his Father gave him which give us a full John 17.8 and exact rule of life a method of Obedience and Glory the way to be like him in this world and to see him in the next and there needs no other method no other way no other Rule nor a Basil or a Benedict to enlarge it nor is it of so easie and quick dispatch that it hath left to men leisure for further practice nor so imperfect that it should need supply from a second Hand why should the fancy the unsetled whirling fancy of a man who is ignorant as a beast before him take the boldness to prompt and instruct the wisdome of the Almighty quod à Deo discitur totum est all that we need learn all that we can learn he alone can teach us By this Christian Religion hath the prerogative above all other Religions in the world for though there be many that are called Gods as S. Paul speaks 1 Cor. 8.5 though there be many that are called religions yet unto us as there is but one God so there is but one Religion which is commentum divinitatis the invention or rather the Revelation of the Deity and had no author could have no author but God himself Take that which seems to carry a fairer shew and comes abroad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like Agrippa and Bernice with great pompe and ceremony with voluntary Humility Blinde obedience with Sackcloth and fasting with a pilgrims staff with penance and satisfaction and we know from what hands it came ab Hominibus per Homines of men and by men who for many of them drew Religion out of the soule into the outward man betook themselves to this bodily exercise as to a Sanctuary so to avoid the continual luctations and lasting Agonies of the minde enters Religion that is the phrase but carried little Charity and all those spots they received from the world along with them What voice from Heaven did Charles the fifth the Duke of Parma and others hear that having lived in all state and pompe they should count it meritorious to be buried in the Hood of a Capuchin or what satisfaction is this Coram Deo Paâ—re before God and the Father Again take that which indeed is called Religion and with that noise and vehemency as if there were none but that yet is as different from it as a picture from a man Take all our mimick gestures our forced and studied deportment the Pharisaical extermination of the Countenance our libelling the Times which we help to make evil our zeal our revenge our indignation against sin in all but our selves all these are but puppets of our own making a creation of a sick and distempered fancy and do but justifie us Coram Hominibus before men Luke 16.15 saith our Saviour and those too no wiser then our selves but that which follows defaceth all our pageantry Spectat nos
sicuts all other Rules whatsoever and bids us beware of men beware of our selves and try every spirit for it is not sicut vidimus as we see others walke nor sicut visum est as it may seem good in our own eyes for no man more ready to put a cheat upon us then our selves nor sicut visum est spiritui as it may seeme good to every spirit for we are too prone to take every lying spirit even our owne which is but our Humour or Lust for our Holy Ghost what Saint Iohn said of Antichrist may also be said of the spirit we have heard that the spirit shall come and behold now there are many spirits the world is full of them so that there are as many Rules almost as men by which they walk severall wayes but to the same end pressing forward to the delights and glory of this world nothing doubting of their right and title to the next thus joyning together God and the World as Iulian the Apostate did his own statues Naz. Orat. 3. Invect prior and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they may be worshipt both together None of these will fit us but sicut accepimus as we have received from Christ and his Apostles which is the onely sufficient Rule to guide us in our walke And first not sicut vidimus as we have seen others walke no though their praise be in the Gospel and they are numbred amongst the Saints of God For as St. Bern. calls the examples of the Saints condimentum vitae the sawce of our life to season and make pleasant what else may proue bitter to us as Iobs Dunghill may be a good sight for me to look upon in my low estate and his patience may uphold me Dauids Groanes and complaints may tune my sorrow Saint Pauls labours and stripes and Imprisonment may giue me an Issue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 10.13 a way a Power to escape the like Temptation by conquering it I may wash off all my Grief with their Teares wipe out all disgrace with their contumelies and bury the feare of Death in their graves so they may prove if we be not wary venenum vitae as poyson to our life and walke For I know not how we are readier to stumble with the Saints then to walke with them Readier to lie downe with David in his bed of lust then in his Couch of teares Readier to deny Crist with Peter upon a pretense of frailty then to weep bitterly out of a deep sense of our sinne In the errors and deviations of my life I am Noah and Abraham and David and Peter I am all the Patriarchs and all the Apostles but in that which made them Saints I have little skill and lesse minde to follow them It will concern us then to have one eye upon the Saint and another upon the rule that the Actions of good men may be as a prosperous Gale to drive us forward in our course and the rule the Compasse to steere by for it will neither help nor comfort me to say I shipwrackt with a Saint My Brethren saith Saint Iames have not the saith of Christ in respect of Persons Iam. 2.1 for it is too common a thing to take our eye from the rule and settle it upon the Person whom we gaze upon till we have lost our sight and can see nothing of man or infirmity in him His virtue and our esteeme shines and casts a colour and brightness upon the Evill which he doth upon whatsoever he saies though it be false or does though it be irregular that it is either lesse visible or if it be seene commends it self by the person that did it and so steales and wins upon us unawares and hath power with us as a Law Could St. Augustine erre There have been too many in the Church who thought he could not and to free him from error have made his errors greater then they were by large additions of their owne and fathered upon him those mishapen Births which were he now alive he would startle at and run from or stand up and use all his strength to destroy Could Calvin or Luther doe or speak any thing that was not right they that follow them and are proud of their Names willing to be distinguish'd from all others by them would be very Angry and hate you perfectly if you should say they could and we cannot but be sensible what strange effects this admiration of their Persons hath wrought upon the Earth what a fire it hath kindled hotter then that of the Tyrants Furnace Dan. 3. for the flames have raged even to our very doores Thus the Examples of good men like two-edged swords cut both wayes both for good and for bad and sinne and error may be conveighed to us not onely in the Cup of the Whore but in the Vessells of the Sanctuary They are as the Plague and infect wheresoever they are but spread more contagion from a Saint then from a man of Belial in the one they are scarce seene in the other they are seen with horror in the one we hate not the sinne so much as the person and in the other we are favourable to the sinne for the persons sake and at last grow familiar with it as with our freind Nihil perniciosius Gestis sanctorum Luther de Abrog priv Miss said Luther himself There is nothing more dangerous then the Actions of the Saints not strengthened by the Testimony of Scripture and it is farre safer to count that a sinne in them which hath not its warrant from Scripture then to fix it up for an ensample for it is not good to follow a Saint into the Ditch Let us take them not whom men for men may Canonize themselves and others as they please but whom God himself as it were with his owne hand hath registred for Saints Sampson was a good man and hath his name in the catalogue of beleevers Numb 25. Phinehas a zealous man who staid the Plague by executing of judgement but I can neither make Sampson an argument to kill my self nor Phinehas to shed the blood of an Adulerer Lib. 2. de Baptismo q 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10.24 Saint Basil observes that amongst those many seeming contradictions in Scripture one is of a fact or worke done to the Precept The command is Thou shalt not kill Sampson killed himself Phinehas with his speare nailes the adulterous couple to the earth but every man hath not Sampson's spirit nor Phinehas commission The Fathers rule is the rule of wisdome it self when we read in Scripture a fact commended which falls crosse with the Precept we must leave the Fact and cleave to the Precept for examples are not rules of life but provocations to good works sicut vidimus as we have seene is not a right sicut sicut Elias like as Elias but not to consume men with fire like unto Peter
and power from him from his promises and from his precepts from his life and from his passion and death from what he did and from what he suffered as there did to the woman which touched the hem of his garment that healed her bloody issue a power by which he sweetly and secretly and powerfully characterizeth our hearts and writes his minde in our minds and so takes possession of them and draws them into him self in the eighth to the Rom. 11. v. the Apostle tells us he dwelleth in us by his spirit and that we are led by the spirit in the whole course of our life in the second to the Ephes the last v. we are said to be the habitation of God through the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his tabernacle his temple which he consecrates and sets apart to his own use and service there is no doubt a power comes from him but I am almost afraid to say it there having been such ill use made of it For though it become already for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation yet is it still expected expected indeed rather then hoped for for when it doth come we shut the door and set up our will against it and then look faintly after it and perswade our selves it will come at last once for all There is power in his preceâ—ts for our reason subscribes and signes them for true there is power in his promises they shine in glory Rom. 1.16 these are the power of Christ to every one that beleeveth and how can we be Christians if we beleeve not but this is his ordinary power which like the Sun in commune profertur is shewn on all at once There yet goes a more immediate power and virtue from him John 3. â— we denie it not which like the winde works wonderful effects but we see not whence it cometh nor whither it goes neither the beginning nor the end of it which is in another World For the operations of the spirit by reason they are of another condition then any other thought or working in us whatsoever are very difficult and obscure as Scotus observes upon the prologue to the sentences for the manner not to be perceived no not by that soul wherein they are wrought profuisse deprehendas quomodo prefuerunt non deprehendes as Seneca in another case that they have wrought you shall find but the secret and retired passages by which they wrought are impossible to be brought to demonstration But though we cannot discerne the maner of his working yet we may observe that in his actions and operations on the soul of man he holds the course even of natural agents in this respect that they strive to bring in their similitude and likenesse into those things on which they work by a kinde of force driving out one contrary with another to make way for their own form so Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac Jacob and every creature according to its own kinde as Plato said of Sacrates wise sayings that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the children of his minde so resembling him that you might see all Socrates in them So it is with Christ where he dwells he worketh by his spirit something like unto himself he alters the whole frame of the heart 2 Cor. 10. drives out all that is contrary to him all imaginations which axalt themselves against him never leaves purging and fashioning us Cal. 4. till a new creature like himself till Christ be fully formed in us So it is with every one in whom Christ dwelleth And this he doth by the power of his spirit 1. By quickning our knowledge by shewing us the riches of his Gospel his Beauty and Majesty the glory and order of his house and that with that convincing evidence that we are forced to fall down and worship by filling our soul with the glory of it as God filled the tabernacle with his Exod. 40. that all the powers and saculties of the soul are ravisnt with the sight and come willingly as the Psalmist speaks fall down willingly before him by moving our soul as our soul doth our body that when he sayes go we go and when he sayes do this we do it and so it is in every one in whom Christ dwelleth Secondly he dwells in us by quickning and enlivening our faith so dwells in our hearts by faith Eph. 3.17 that we are rooted and grounded in love for we read of a dead faith Jâ—m 2.20 which moves no more in the wayes of righteousnesse then a dead man sealed up in his grave and if the Son of man should come he would finde enough of this faith in the World For from hence from this that our faith is not enlivened that the Gospel is not throughly beleeved but faintly received cam formidine contrarit with fear or rather a hope that the contrary is true from hence proceed all the errours of our lives from hence ariseth that irregularity those contradictions those inconsequences in the lives of men even from hence that we have faith but so as we should have the World we have it as if we had it not and so use it as if we used it not or which is worse abuse it not beleeve and be saved but beleeve and be damned and we are vain men saith Saint James if we think otherwise if we think that a dead faith can work any thing or any thing but death but when it is quickned and made a working faith when Christ dwells in our hearts by faith then it works wonders Heb. 11.33 2 Cor. 2,11 for we read of its valour that it subdues kingdoms and stoppeth the mouthes of Lions we read of its policy that it discovers the devils enterprises or devices of its medicinal vertue that it purifieth the heart and we read too furta fidei the thefts and pious depredations of faith stealing virtue from Christ and taking Heaven by violence and such a wonderful power it hath in that soul in which Christ dwelleth it worketh out our corruption and stampeth his image upon us it worketh obedience in us which is called the obedience of faith that is that obedience Rom. 1.5 which is due to faith and to which faith naturally tendeth and would bring us to it if we did not dull and dead and hinder it And 1. he worketh in us a universal and equal obedience for if he dwell in us every room is his For there are saith Parisiensis particulares voluntates particular wills or rather particular inclinations and dispositions to this virtue and not to another to be liberal and not temperate sober but not chasT to fast and hear and pray but not to do acts of mercy which are virtues but in appearance and proceed from rotten unsound principles from a false spring but not from Christ and so make up a spiritual Hermaphrodite a good speaker and a bad live a Jew and a Christian Deus in
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
eyes for our advantage that by the doubtful and pendulous expectation of the hour our faith might be put to the trial whether it be a languishing dead faith or fides armata a faith in armes Tert. de Anima c. 33. and upon its watch ut semper diem observemus dum semper ignoramus that whil'st we know not when 't will be it may present it self unto us every moment to affront and awe us in every motion and be as our task-master to over-see us and binde us to our duty that we may fulfill our work and work out our salvation with fear and trembling that our whole life may be as the vigils and Eve and the houre of his coming the first houre of an everlasting Holy-day Lastly there is no reason why it should be known neither in respect of the good nor of the evil for the good satis est illis credere it is enough for them that they beleeve they walk by faith saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.7 and in their way behold the promises and comminations of the he Lord and in them as in a glasse behold heaven and hell the horrour of the one and the glory of the other and this sight of the object which they have by the eye of faith is as powerful to work in them obedience as if Heaven it self should fly open and discover all unto them to the true beleever Christus venturus Christ to come and Christ now coming in the clouds are in effect but one object for Faith sees plainly the one in the other the last hour in the first the World at an end in the prediction But to Evil and wicked men to men who harden themselves in sin Jud. Ep. v. 10. no evidence is cleer enough and light it self is darknesse what they naturally know and what they can preach unto themselves in that thy corrupt themselves and give their senses leave to lead them to all uncleannesse whilst reason which should command is put behinde and never hearkned to are as bruit Beasts in spite of all they have of man within them and if they beleeve his coming and will not turn back and bow and obey their Reason they would remain the same beasts or worse though they knew the very hour of his coming After all those judgements Pharaoh was still the same after the rivers turned into blood after frogs and lice after the plague on man and beast after every plague which came thick as line upon line precept upon precept after all these the effect and conclusion was Exod. 10.27 Pharaoh hardned his heart was Pharaoh still the same Tyrant till he was drowned in the Red-sea Balaam though the Asse forbad his folly and the Angel forbad it though the sword was drawn against him and brandisht in his very face that he bowed on the ground and fell flat on his face yet he rose again and took courage to betray the Israelites to that sin with the Midianitish women which brought a curse vpon them and death upon himself for he was slain for it with the sword Exod. 31.8 what evidence can prevail with what terrour can move a wicked man hardned in his sin who knows well enough and can draw the picture of Christ coming and look upon it and study to forget it and then put on an ignorance of his own knowledge and though he know he will yet perswade himself he will not come and he that can thus stand out against his own knowledge in the one may be as daring and resolute in the other and venture on though Hell it self should open her mouth against him and breath vengeance in his face for howsoever we pretend ignorance yet the most of the sins which we commit we commit against our knowledge Tell the foolish man that the lips of the Harlot will bit like a Cockatrice he knows it well enough and yet will kisse them tell the intemperate that wine is a mocker he will taste though he know he shall be deceived the cruel oppressor will say and sigh it out that the Lord is his God and yet eat up his people as he eats bread who knows not that we must do to others as we would have others do to us and yet how many are there I may ask the question that make it good in practice who knows not what his duty is and that the wages of sin is death and yet how many seek it out and are willing to to travail with it though they die in the birth cannot the thought of judgement move us and will the knowledge of a certain houre awake us will the hardned sinner cleave to his sin though he know the Lord is coming and will he let it go and fling it from him if the set determined houre were upon record No 2 Tim. 3.13 they wax worse and worse saith the Apostle earth is a fairer place to them then Heaven it self nor will they part with one vanity nor bid the devil avoid though they knew the very houre I might say though they now saw him coming in the clouds For wilt not thou beleeve God when he comes as neer thee as in wisdom he can and his pure Essence and Infinite Majesty will suffer and art thou assured thou shalt believe him if he would please to come so neere as thy sick Fancy would draw him Indeed this is but aegri somnium the dreame of a sick and ill affected mind that complaines of want of Light when it shines in thy face for that Information which we so long for we cannot have or if we could it would work no more Miracles then that doth which we already have but leave us the same Lethargiques which we were in a word if his doctrine will not move us the Knowledge which hee will not Teach will have little force and though it were written in Capitall Letters at such a time and such a day and in such an Houre the Lord will come we should sleep on as securely as before and never awake from this Death in sinne till the last Trump To look once more upon the Non nostis horam Conclus and so conclude and we may learn even from our Ignorance of the Hour thus much That as his coming is uncertaine so it will be sudden as we cannot know when he will come so he will come when we doe not think on 't Tert. Apol. c. 33. cum Totius mundi motu cum horrore orbis cum planctu omnium si non Christianorum saith Tert. with the shaking of the whole world with the Horror and amazement of the Universe every man howling and lamenting but those few that little flock which did waite for his coming It is presented to us in three resemblances 1. Of Travell coming upon a Woman with Child 1 Thess 5.2,3 Luk. 21.35 2. Of a Thief in the night and 3ly Of a snare Now the Woman talks and is cheerfull now she layeth
consists as well in the negation or non-performance of that we are bound to as in the doing of some act which is contrary to it in which commonly it ends at last nor is it then onely when the will is directly carried to the omission it self when I will not do it because I will not do it which is high contempt but when the will settles and rests upon that by which I am hindred from doing that which I am bound to do and which I would willingly and might easily do but for this obstacle which I my self set up against my self but for that sin which is the issue of my lust and which I had rather cleave to then to the command of Christ so that now I do not abstain from the Lords table upon necessity but voluntarily nor can I say I would receive when I thus say within my self I will yet sin for he that will not prepare himself will not sit down at his table but we may heare sometimes large expressions of sorrow from those who are so backward in this duty and troubled they are that they are such but not fit for a Physician that they are hungry but have no stomack to that which should feed and nourish them that they love the feast but are not yet prepared to eat I am sorry is soone said even by them who yet take pleasure reap profit and advantage from that sin which they bewayle who condemne it by these mournfull and sad declarations of their mind and yet give it the highest place in their heart I am sorry is too often a lye but if it be not a lye it is and will be accepted as our preparation for godly sorrow brings forth repentance not to be repented of and every prenitent is a fit communicant He that hath mingled his teares with his Saviours blood is a welcome guest at this table What then is to be done in this case when the conscience of some habit of sin keepeth us from coming for certainly a great sin it must needs be to make one sin an apology for another to excuse a sin of omission by a sin of commission and when I will not do that whsch I should to put in that plea that I have done what I should not This knot then like the Gordian knot must be cut asunder with the sword with the sword of the spirit This habit of sinne must be shaken off and we must use a violence upon our selves strive and labour with earnestnesse and by practsing that which is contrary to it to be lesse and lesse fetter'd and entangled every day For to remaine in it cannot be infirmity or weaknesse for that name we give even to malice it self but obstinacy and a pleasing and wilfull perseverance in sinne Why wilt thou not come or rather why wilt thou still sinne for what wert thou made a Christian for what did the grace of God appeare for what did his most precious blood gush out of his sides but to purge and cleanse thee from thy sinne why doest thou love thy disease why doest thou favour thy flesh and corruption why doest thou envenom and fester thy sore why art thou such a Judas first to betray thy Saviour and then hang thy self why doest thou still stand out and wilt not be cured why doest thou preferr thy sin before the sacrament thy husks before the Bread of Life why art thou sick and wilt be sick dying and resolvest to dye thou wilt not come because thou hast sinned break of thy sin and come if thou condemnest thy self why doest thou not forsake thy self doest thou acknowledge what thou art and yet continue what thou art thou who wilt strike that man to the ground who stands in thy way to honor or wealth hast not heart enough to destroy that sin which thou sayst doth obstruct thy passage and keep thee from this feast from the table of the Lord which was spread on purpose that thou shouldst first demolish and remove thy sin and then come and eat This then is but a hindrance a block of offence of our own hewing an evil spirit which we invited to us and we must cast it out Tell me canst thou believe why then thou mayst come if this faith be strong enough to cast down those imaginations which set themselves up against Christ to work in thee holy cesires and holy resolutions and art thou now in an agonie in this blessed contention with thy self art thou serious in the resistance of this thy enemy and dost thou gain some conquest over him every day then thou maist come though thou art not yet made perfect For we must remember that the weaker Christian lye not down under his burden not able to move towards the cup of Blessings when it is reacht forth unto him we must remember I say that Faith and true sanctifying Grace have a wide latitude that they are not so quick and active in one man as in another and yet may save both There be who by continuall watching over themselves by continuall struggling with themselves by a vehement and incessant pressing forward are wel neer come unto the mark that have so confirmed themselves in the profession and exercise of Christian Religion that they run their race with ioy and are scarce sensible of a tentation who have made holinesse so familiar to them that no wile or enterprize of Satan can divorce them In a word who by that seed which is in them keep themselves that he wicked one toucheth them not as S. John speaks These have no Oxen nor Farmes 1 Joh. 3.7 and 5.18 These are not married to the world and therefore they will come Again there be some who are but as it were Incipients in the school of Christ and in their way but labouring and panting forward and are as it were in fieri in the making framing and composing themselves by that royall law which the Church of Christ holds forth unto them who though they have for some time suckt the breasts of the Church and received the sincere milk of the Word yet are not yet grown thereby into perfect men in Christ Jesus have not yet that strength to destroy the whole body of sin but fall sometimes into this sin sometimes into that but those they fall into are not so many nor so manifest not so offensive and hurtfull to others not of that number or bulk as to shut them out of the Church or to exclude them from the communion of Saints These have not yet attained but they follow after and though they have an eye toward the world yet they come to Christs Table with a firm resolution to pluck it out and though their right hand offends them yet they will cut it off and with all their strength and with all their soul shake off the yoke of sinne and take Christs upon them and even now are they hot and intentive on that work These men I say may nay
be incendiaries Religion did not enrage them if there be a fire in the Church the Christian did not kindle it but the Ambitious man the mammonist the Beast that calls himself by that name for Religion cannot do that which she forbids cannot do that on earth which damnes to hell cannot forward that design which is against her cannot set up that which will pull her down in brief Religion Christian Religion cannot but settle us and make us quiet and peaceable cannot but be it self for that which unsettles us and makes us grievous to our selves and others is not Christian Religion For Religion is the greatest preserver of peace that ever was or that Wisdome it self could find out and hath laid a fouler blemish on discord and dissention then Philosophy ever did when she was most rigid and severe she commands us to pray for peace 1 Tim. 2.2 she enjoyns us to follow peace with all men Heb. 12.14 she enjoynes us to lose our right for our peace Mat. 5. motus aliena naturae pace nostrâ cohibere as Hilary speaks to place a peaceable disposition as a bank or bulwark against the violence of anothers rage by doing nothing to conquer him who is in armes to charme the hissing Adder with silence it levels the hills and raiseth the valleys and casts an aspect upon all conditions of men all qualities all affections whatsoever that they may be settled compact and at unity with themselves and others This was Christs first gifts when he was born and it was conveyed unto us in an Hallelujah Luk. 2. peace on earth and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil calls it his last gift when he was to dye John 14.27 Peace I leave with you and so conclude this is it which Saint Paul here commends to us as a lesson to be learnt of us the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must labour and study to be quiet There is nothing in the world which deserves true commendation but must be wrought out with study and difficulty nor is the love of peace and quietnesse obvia illaborata virtus an obvious and easie virtue which will grow up of it self Indeed good inclinations and dispositions may seeme to grow up in some men as the grasse and the flowers of the field and to be as naturally in them as the evill for man that is born to action brought with him into the world those practick principles which may direct him in his course there is saith Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one part of piety which we never learnt but brought with us as an impression made in us by the hand of Nature it self And these naturall and in-bred dispositions do not alwaies grow up as we do in stature but shew themselves and soone disappeare like the embryon or child in the womb they live and dye and never see the sunne they bud and blossome in us and beare this glory with them for a while but when they should ripen and be that fruit which we hope to see and look on with delight either through our neglect or the malignant aspect of ill example they are nipt and withered and lost and there grow up worse in their place so unlike to their first shew and those hopes which we conceived that we upbraid the end with the beginning the harvest with the spring and wonder how that which in its putting forth was a flowre should in its growth and culmination become a thistle how that which was a Lamb in the morning should be a fox or Lion before its evening how these good dispositions like a faire temple which is in raising should sink and fall and be buried in the rubbish But these dispositions and good inclinations we look upon as upon promises which may be kept or broke nor can we commend them farther then by our hopes which are sometimes answered but too oft deluded nor can we call them virtues because they are not voluntary That which is truly praise-worthy and must fit us for Eternity will not shoot forth of it selfe Deorum virtus naturâ excellit hominum autem industriâ Cicer. Top. nor grow and flourish in its full beauty till the soule and mind of Man be well cultivated be drest manur'd and water'd is a work of time and must be wrought out in us by us even against our selves against the reluctancies of the flesh against all solicitations and provocations which will beround us and compasse us in on every side for else we shall not be long quiet but uncertain and desultorious leap out of one humour into another like those whom we must study and deprehend and so meet and apply our selves unto them in every mode and disposition or else they will vent and break forth and trouble us whom we cannot make our friends unlesse we make our selves their parasites We are not what we should be till we labour and study to be so when we shake off our mist and shine then our light is glorious when we are flesh and make our selves spirituall then we are active when we quit our selves of that leaden weight of our corrupt nature as Nazianzen calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 31. and are carried up by our reason above all that may disquiet us or work us out of our selves to the molestation of others then we are quiet then we are a fit spectacle for God for Angels and men to look upon and delight in we read indeed of infused habits and the Schooles have furnished us with many such conclusions but have not given us those premises which may inforce them which they could not do because neither reason nor revelation will afford them but if they be infused as they are infused into us so they are not infused without us they are poured not like water into a Cisterne but into living vessels fitted and prepared for them for if they were infused without us I cannot see how they should be lost if wisdome were thus infused into us we could never erre if righteousnesse were thus infused the will would ever look upon that wisdome and never swerve nor decline from it if Sanctity were thus settled on the Affections they could never rebell The understanding could never erre for this wisdome would ever enlighten it the will could not be irregular for this righteousnesse would ever bridle it the affections could not distract us for they would ever be under command for as they were given without us so bringing with them an irresistible and uncontroublable force they would work without us and we might sit still upon our bottomes and fill our selves with vanity in expectation of such an infusion of such a dew which would fall into us whether we will or no and so virtue would be an Ancile as a buckler sent down from heaven which we never set a hand to and we shall be worse and worse upon this account that we shall better and look upon grace as
and Scepters And therefore Dionysius Longinus falling upon the story of the Creation makes that expression of Moses Dionys Long. de sublimi genere orat Sect. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let there be light and there wus light Let there be earth and there was earth the highest and most sublime that the art or thought of man could reach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for thus the Majesty of God is best set forth He no sooner speaks but it is done Nor can it be otherwise for as he is a Lord and hath an absolute and uncontroulable will so this will is attended by his infinite power which is inseparable from it And you may find them both joyned together Acts 4.28 All things are done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever his hand and his counsel determined to do for because he can do all things therefore he brings to passe whatsoever he will and his hand and power hath here the first place because all counsel falls to the ground if power be not as a pillar and supporter to uphold it What is the strength of a strong man if there be a stronger then he to bind and disarm him what is it to conceive something in the womb of the mind to shape and form and fashion it to bring it even to the doore of life if there be no strength to bring it forth what is my will if it be defeated Libera volunt as in nullum habe imperium praeterquam in se Hlerocles apud Phor. Bibliot 394. Thus it falls out with dust and ashes with man whose will is free when his hands are bound who may propose miracles but can do nothing who may will the dissolution of the world when he hath not power to kill a fly or the least gnat that lights upon him But Gods power is infinite nor can any thing in heaven or earth limit it but his will which doth regulate and restrain it which otherwise must needs have a larger flow If he cut off or shut up or gather together who can hinder him Job 11.10 The voice of the Lord that is his power for his word is power is full of Majesty it breaketh the Cedars of Lebanon and maketh them skip like a calf It hath set a tabernacle for the Sun he bids it run its race and commands it to stand still he doth whatsoever he will in heaven or in earth I need not here enlarge my self Every work to his is a miracle every miracle is eloquent to declare his power Every thing that hath breath speaketh it and that which hath neither breath nor life speaketh it that which hath voice speaketh it and that which is dumb speaks it Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night shewes knowledge There is no speech nor language Apul. de muâ—lo where their voice is not heard Psal 19.23 The power of this Lord is the proper language of the whole world Non ut ait ille silere melius est sed vel parùm dicere It is not good to be silent nay we cannot be silent but yet 't is not good to speak too much of the power of this Lord because we cannot speak enough nor can any finite understanding comprehend it Now by this power 1. God created man and breathed into him a living soul made him as it were wax fit to receive the impressions of a deity made him a subject capable of a Law I am fearfully and wonderfully made saith David Psal 139. marvellously made excellently made set apart selected culled out as it is Psal 4.4 from all the other creatures of the earth to walk with God and be perfect My members were curiously wrought drawn as with a needle for so the word there signifies embroidered with all variety as with divers colours every part being made instrumentall either to the keeping or breaking of the Divine Law I am as it were built and set up on purpose to hearken what that power which thus set me up will require of me In a word It is he that made us not we our selves and made us to this end to his glory to be united to himself to bowe under his power to be conformed to his will and so to gain a title to that happinesse and which is ready to meet them that runne unto it by doing what he requires at their hands 2 ly By this power as he creates so he continues him and protects him doth not leave him as an artificer doth his work to the injuries of time to last or perish as the strength of the materialls is of which it consists but as by his power he made him so by the same power he upholds and preserves him that in this life he may move and presse forward to a better he moves in him and moves with him that in this span of time he may make a way to eternity He giveth to all Acts 17.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life and breath but in a more eminent manner to man to whom he hath communicated part of his power and given him dominion over himself and other creatures He is not far from every one of us v. 27. he is neere us with us within us He hath made the small and the great and careth for all alike Wisd 6.7 Sceleratis sol exoritur saith Seneca his Sun riseth upon the evil and the good saith our Saviour Math. 5.45 His power moves in the hand that smites his brother and in the hand that lifts him out of the dust moves in the Tyrant which walks in his palace and with that poore man who grinds at the mill By it Uzzahs hand was stretched out to uphold the Ark and by it he was smitten and dyed Dâ—us Salus est perseverantion earum quas effecerit rerum Apul. ibid. It moves in the eye that is open to vanity and in the eye that is shut up by covenant All the creatures all men all motions and actions of men are in manutentia Divina My times are in thy hand saith David Psal 31.15 and in this sense the Schooles tell us that the creation of man and his conservation are but one continued act that we may say of every creature so long as it is so long God creates it because creation respects the being of the creature as made out of nothing and conservation the being of the same creature as continually quickned and upheld that it fall not back again into that nothing out of which it was made for his power is the Being of the creature and the withdrawing of it is its annihilation The heavens and the earth are by the word of God are established by his power and when he will no longer uphold them all shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with heat It is no more but the withdrawing of his power and the world is at an end Now in the next place from this Ocean of his power naturally issues forth his power of
wealth that we may be rich takes us out the raies that we may have light takes us from our selves that we may possesse our selves bids us depart from God that we may enjoy him This is Janitrix scholae Christi faith Bernard for when we bow and lye prostrate we are let in This is as Saint John Baptist to prepare the way to make every mountain low and the rough places plaine to depresse a lofty head and sink a haughty eye and beat down a swelling heart In a word this is the best Leveller in the world and there need none but this Wee see then in what humility consists in placing us where we should be at the footstool of God admiring his majesty and abhorring themselves distrusting our selves and relying on his wisdome bowing to him when he helps us and bowing to him when he strikes us denying ourselves surrendring our selves being nothing in our selves and all things in him Which will more plainly appeare in the extent of this duty which reacheth the whole man both body and soul It was the speech of Saint Austin Domine duo creasti alterum propete alterum prope nihil Lord thou hast made two things in the world one neere unto thy self divine and celestiall the soul the other vile and sordid next to nothing the body These are the parts which constitute and make us men the subject of sinne and therefore of humility Let not sinne reign in your mortall bodies Rom. 6.12 but let humility depose and pluck it from its throne Ind delinquit homo unde constat saith Tertullian from thence sinne is from whence we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzen with our selves we fight against our selves we carry about with us those forces which beset us we are that Army which is in battell aray against us videas concurrere Bellum Atque virum Our enemies are domestick at home within us and a tumult must be laid where first 't was raised Between them both saith the same Father Naz. orat 8. there is a kind of warlike opposition and they doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were pitch their Tents one against the other when the body prevailes the soul is lost and when the body is at the lowest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then is the soul is high as heaven and when the soul is sick even bedrid with sinne then the body is most active as a wild Asse or wanton Heifer In both there is matter for humility to work on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesyc In both there are excrescences and extuberations to be lopt off and abated the body must he used as an enemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Paul I buffet it I beat it black and blew I handle it as a Rebell or profest enemy and it must be used as a servant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I hold it in subjection like a captive like a slave after conquest And the soul to be checked contracted and depressed in it self ne in multa diffluat that it spread not nor diffuse it self on variety of objects It must not be dimidiata humilitas an humility by halves but Holocaustum a whole burnt-offering both body and soul wasting and consuming all their drosse in this Holy Conflagration I know not how good duties are either shrunk up in the conveyance not drove home by the Masters of the Assembly or else taken into pieces in the performance Doth God proclaime a Fast See the head hangs down the look is changed you may read a Famine in the countenance and yet the Fast not kept Walk humbly with him So we will he shall have our knee our look he shall see us prostrate on the ground say some who are as proud on the ground as when they stood up He shall have the heart no knee of ours say others as proud as they If we can conceive an Humiliation and draw forth its picture but in our fancy nay if we can but say It is good to be humbled it is enough though it be a lye and we speak not what we think We are most humble when we least expresse it so full of contradictions is Hypocrisie and what a huge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and gulph is there between Hypocrisie and Humility so reaching at Impossibilities which may draw Pride and Humility together to be one and the same which yet are at greater distance one from the other then the Earth is from the Heaven And thus we divide Humility nay thus we divide our selves from our selves our soules from our bodies either our Humility is so spirituall that we cannot see it neither dropping at the eyes nor changing the countenance nor bowing the knees nor heare it in complaints and grones and roarings which were wont to be the language of humility or so corporeall that we see it all God hath his part and but a part and so hath none and then the conjecture is easie who hath it all But our selves include both neither is my Body my self nor my Soul my self but I am one made up of both the knot that tyes them both together and my Humility lasts no longer then whilst I am one of both Whilst then we are so let us give him both and first the Soule For there is no vice so dangerous or to which we are more subject then spirituall pride Other vices proceed from some defect in us or some sinfull imbecillity of nature but this many times ariseth out of our good parts Others fly from the presence of God this dares him to his face and makes even Ruine it self the Foundation of its Tabernacle Intestinum malum periculosius The more neere the evil cleaves to the soule the more dangerous it is the more inward the more fatall I may wean my self from the world and fling off vanity I may take off my soul from sensible objects I may deny my appetite I may shut up my eye I may bind my hands I may study pleasure so long till I truly understand it and know it is but madnesse and the world till I contemn it but Pride ultima exuitur is the last garment which we put off when we are naked we can keep her on and when we can be nothing we can be proud And therefore some have conceived humility to be placed in the soul as a Canopy covering and shadowing both the faculties binding and moderating the understanding and subduing the will and whilest they sit under humility they sit in state the understanding is crowned with raies and light and the will commands just things as from its Throne never imploys the eye or hand in any office for which the one should be pluckt out and the other cut off but are both in their highest exaltation being both now under the will of God Our understanding many times walks in things too high for it yet thinks she is above them and our will inclines and that too oft to things forbidden because they are so
love For he that looks upon the commandments and keeps them hath the will of God and he that hath his will hath all that wisdome can find out or power bring to passe hath Gods providence and almightinesse his companions his guides his protection in his way and the world the pomp and vanity of it can no more prevaile against him then it can against God himself but where God is there shall this stranger be also when passing through all these he shall come to his journeys end For first that we may make some use of this and so conclude this our conformity to the will of God in keeping his commandments will make us observe a Decorum and being strangers in the earth to behave our selves as strangers in it for necessities sake give a perfunctory and slight salute not look upon it as a friend not to trust it not to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God as Saint Paul exhorteth 1 Tim. 17. but to suspect and be jealous of every thing in it Theophr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we use to be of every man we meet in a strange place and as plain country-men who are ignorant of coines suspect and try every piece they see and though it be current yet feare it may be counterfeit So to say within our selves this beauty which smiles may bite as a cockatrice this wine which looks red may be a mocker these riches may be my last receit this strength may ruine me this wit may befool me that which makes me great in my own eyes that for which I flatter and worship my self and tread all others with scorn under my feet may make me the least in the Kingdom of heaven nay quite shut me out this beauty may bring deformity into my soul this wine may be as the Manichees called Fel principis tenebrarum the gall of the Prince of darknesse and these riches may begger me and my Perfections undoe me Far better is it for a stranger to be cautelous and wary then too venturous and fool-hardy better for him to feare where no feare is then to be ready to meet and embrace every toy and trifle that smiles and kils Now by this we arme our selves against all casualties and misfortunes which is more then all the conveyances and devises of the Law more then the providence of the wisest can do For what can fall out by chance to him who is ever under the wing of the almighty or what can be lose who hath denied all unto himself and himself too in every aspect and relation to the world This is our provision and this is our security he that will be secure must learn to be a stranger he that will lose nothing must learn to have nothing and then as our obedience to Gods will doth keep us in a decorum so it teacheth us by looking on the world with an eye of jealousie to make it our friend a friend of Mammon and a friend of a temptation for so we make that which was dangerous beneficiall unto us and rise up as high as heaven upon that which might have been our ruine by looking upon it with the suspicious and jealous eye of a stranger Secondly It supplies us with armes and strengthens us against all afflictions which may beat upon us all miseries which befall us all contumelies which may affront us in our way for what are all these poor sprinklings these weak breathings of wind and aire to us when we remember we are but strangers in the world The world knows us not because it knows not God as Saint John tells us 1 Ep. 3.1 peregrini deorsùm cives sursùm strangers here below but Citizens above What can they who are so unlike to the world who contemn the world expect lesse here there will be Shimeis to revile us Zedekiahs to smite us on the cheek oppressors to grind us and Tyrants to rob and spoile us when they please and if we will have them our friends we must make our selves like them and go to hell along with them but the commandments of God are an Antidote against all these For these evils cannot trouble us if we make use of the right remedy which is no where to be found but in Christ in whom all the treasuries of wisdome are hid But one errour of our lives it is and a great one to mistake the remedy of evils nec tam morbis laboramus quà m remediis nor doth our disease and malady so much molest us as the remedies themselves The poor man thinks there is no other remedy for poverty but riches the revenger cannot purge his gall and bitternesse but with the blood of his enemy the sick is quieted with nothing but with health but indeed these are not remedies answerable to the nature and operation of these severall diseases for the poor man may become rich and be poorer then before the revenger may draw blood and be more enraged then before the sick man may be restored to health and be worse then before the will of God is the truest and most soveraign physick and his will is that we estrange our selves from the world that our hearts be fixed on him and on those pleasures which are at his right hand for evermore And then there will be no such things as Poverty or Injuries or Sicknesse or at least they will not appeare so to us which is all one nay which is more for now they are not what they are unto us nor do we see that horrour in them which they that dwell in the world do but as Saint Paul speaks when we are poor then we are rich when we are weak then we are strong when we are in disgrace then we are honourable when we are persecuted then we are happy when we are sick then we are best in health and even see our journeys end Nihil imperitius impatientia Impatience which ever accompanies the neglect of Gods commands is the most ignorant unskilfull inexperienced the most ungodly thing in the world For these complaints in poverty this impatience of injuries this murmuring in our sicknesse are ill signes that we love the pleasures of the world more then the will of God that we see more glory in a piece of earth then virtue that we are more afraid of a disgrace then of sin that we bowe with more devotion and affection to the world then to God and so cannot make this glorious confession with our Kingly Prophet that we are Accolae and peregrini strangers and pilgrims upon the earth Thirdly our conformity to the will of God is a precious Antidote against the feare of death the feare of death why we were delivered from that when Christ took part with us of flesh and blood Heb. 2.14 and through death destroyed him who had the power of death the devil why should any mortall now feare to dye It is most true Christ dyed and by his death shook the powers of
thus if we look up to the Hills from whence commeth our Salvation Luk. 21.28 wee shall also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Look up and lift up our Heads behave our selves as if all Things did goe as wee would have them look up and lift up our Heads as herbs peep out of the Earth when the Sunne comes neere them and Birds sing when the Spring is neere so look up as if our Redemption our Spring were neere Thus if wee Importune Him by our Prayers wait on Him by our Patience walk before him when the Tempest is loudest in the syncerity and uprightnesse of our Hearts and put our Cause into his Hands if there bee any Ismael to persecute us any Enemies to trouble us hee will cast them out either so melt and transforme them that they shall not trouble us or if they doe they shall rather advantage them then Hurt us rather improve our Devotion then coole and abate it rather increase our Patience then weaken it raise our Syncerity rather then sink it rather settle and confirme our Confidence then shake it in a word shall so cast them out as to teach us to doe it that wee may so use them as wee are Taught to use the unrighteous Mammon to cast them out by making them Friends even such Friends as may receive us into Everlasting Habitations which God Grant for His Sonne JESUS CHRISTS sake c. THE FOURTEENTH SERMON MATTH 24.42 Watch therefore For you know not what hour your Lord doth come I. PART WHich words are the words of our Blessed Saviour and a part of that Answer which he return'd to that Question which was put up by his Disciples ver 3. Tell us When shall these things be and what shall be the signe of thy comming and of the end of the world Where we may observe that he doth not satisfy their Curiosity which was measuring of Time even to the last point and moment of it when it shall be no more but resolves them in that which was fit for them to know and passeth by in silence and untoucht the other as a thing laid up and reserved in the Bosome of his Father The Time he tells them not but foretells those Fearfull signes which should be the Fore runners of the Destruction of Jerusalem and the ends of the world which two are so interweaved in the Prediction that Interpreters scarce know how to distinguish them We need not take any paines to disentangle or put them asunder At the 30. v. he presents himself in the Clouds with Power and Glory the Angels sound the Trumper at the next the two men in the Field and the two women grinding at the Mill in the Verses immediately going before my Text the one taken the other lest are a faire Evidence and seem to point out to the end of the world which will be a time of discrimination of separating the Goats from the sheep And then these words will concerne us as much as the Apostles In which he who is our Lord and King to Rule and Govern us He that was and that is Revel 1.4 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is to come tells us of his comming opens his will and manifests his Power and as he hath given us Laws tells us he will come to require them at our bands He that is the Wisedome of his Father he that neither slumbers nor sleeps calls upon us makes this stirre and noise about us and the Alarum is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be watchfull Call it what we please an Admonition or an Exhortation it hath the necessitating and compulsive force of a Law and Christ is his own Herald and proclaims it as it were by the sound of the Trumpet for this vigilate ergo watch Therefore is tuba ante Tuham is as a Trumpet before the last and thus it sounds To you it is commanded to fling your selves off from the bed of security to set a Court of Guard upon your selves to rowze up your selves to stand as it were on a Watch-Tower looking for and expecting the comming of the Lord. I may call it a Law but it is not as the Laws of men which are many times the result of mens wills which are guided and determined by their Lusts and Affections and so Ambition makes Laws and Covetousnesse makes Lawes and private Interest makes Laws with this false Inscription Bono publico For the Publick Good but it is prefac'd and ushered in with Reason which concerns not so much the Head as the Members not the Lord as his Servants not the King as his Subjects for us men and for our salvation For him that is in the Field and him that is in the House For him that sitteth on the Throne and the woman that Grindes at the Mill for the whole Church is the warning given This Law promulg'd and every word is a Reason 1. That he is our Lord that is to come 2ly That he will come 3ly That the time of his comming is uncertaine A Lord to seal and ratify his Laws with our blood which we would not subscribe too nor make good by our Obedience and a Lord gone as it were into a farre Countrey and leaving us to Traffick till he come but after a while to come and reckon with us and last of all at an uncertain time at an Hour we know not That every hour may be unto us as the hour of his comming for he that prefixes no Hour may come the next every one of these is a Reason strong enough to enforce this Conclusion Vigilate ergo Watch therefore A Lord he is and shall we not fear him To come and shall we not expect him To come at an hour we know not and shall we not watch these are the premises and the conclusion is Logically and formally deduced primae necessitatis the most necessary conclusion that a servant or subject can draw so that in these words we have these things considerable First the person coming Dominus vester your Lord Secondly his Advent veniet he will come Thirdly the uncertainty of that hour we know not when it will be out of which will naturally follow this conclusion which may startle and awake us out of sleep vigilate ergo watch therefore Watch therefore for you know not the Hour c. We will follow that method which we have laid down and begin with the premises and first it will concern us to look upon the person for as the person is such is our expectation and could we take the Idea of him in our hearts and behold him in the full compasse and extent of his power we should unfold our armes and look about us veternum excutere shake off our sloth and drowsinesse and prepare for his coming for it is Christ our Lord. Ask of me and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance Psal 2. saith God to Christ and Christ sayes John 10.30 I and the Father are one
we beleeve that he shall Judge the world and we read that the Father hath committed this Judgement to the Son John 5.22 take him as God or take him as man he is our Lord Cum Dominus dicitur unus agnoscitur for there is but one faith and but one Lord so that Christ may well say you call me Lord and Master 1. Cor. 6.20 Colos 2.15 and so I am a Lord as in many other respects so jure Redemptionis by the redemption having bought us with a price and so jure belli by way of Conquest by treading our enemies under our feet and taking us out of slavery and bondage And that we may not think that Christ laid down his power with his life or that he is gone from us never to come again we will a little consider the nature of his Dominion and behold him there from whence he must come to judge the quick and the dead and the Prophet David hath pointed out to him sitting at the right hand of God where we should ever behold him Psal 110.1 and fix our thoughts our eye of faith upon him in this our watch The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand Psal 110. till I make thy enemies thy footstool which speech is Metaphorical and we cannot draw it to any other sense then that on which the intent of the speaker did levell it which reacht no further then this to shew that his own kingdom was nothing in comparison of Christs which was of another Non exparabolis materias comment mur sed exmaterijs parabolas interpretamur Tert. de puducir c. 8. and higher nature as Tertul. spake of parables we do not draw conclusions and Doctrines out of Metaphors but we expound the Metaphor by the Doctrine which is taught and the scope of the teacher nor must we admit of any interpretation which notwithstanding the Metaphor might yeeld which is not consonant and agreeable to the Doctrine and analogie of faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher we can neither bring a Metaphor into a definition nor can we build an argument upon it we may say of Metaphors as Christ spake of the voice from heaven they are used in Scripture for our sakes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist 5. Top. c 2. for likenesse and proportions sake and serve to present Intellectual objects to the eye and make that light which we have of things familiar to us a help and medium by which we may more clearly see those which are removed and stand at greater distance For he cannot be said to sit there at the right hand of God from the position and site of his body we cannot entertain so grosse an Imagination and Saint Stephen tells us Acts. 7. he saw him standing at the right hand of God but it may declare his victory his triumph and rest as it were from his labour secundum consuetudinem nostram illi consessus offertur qui victor adveniens Honoris gratia promeretur ut sedeat it is borrowed saith Saint Ambrose from our customary speech by which we offer him a place and seat for honours sake who hath done some notable and meritorious service and so Christ having spoiled the adversarie by his death having lead captivity captive and put the Prince of Darknesse in chaines at his return with these spoiles hears from his Father Sede ad dextram sit now down at my right hand Nor doth his right hand point out to any fixt or determined place where he sits For Christ himself tells the high Priest That they shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of God Mar◠14.12 and coming in the clouds of heaven which if it be litterally understood we must needs conceive him coming and sitting at the same time All agree it is a Metaphor and some interpret it of that supremacy he hath above the Creature for so he is described sitting at the right hand of God in Heavenly places Eph. 1.20,21 far above all principalities and powers and every name that is named not onely in this world but in the World to come Some have conceived that by this honour of sitting at the right hand of God not onely an equality with God is implyed but something more Equal to the Father as touching his God-head Ath. Cr. not that the Son hath any thing more then the Father for they are equall in all things but because in respect of the exercise and execution of his royal office he hath as it were this dignity to sit in his royal seat as Lord and Governour of his Church for the Father is said as I told you to commit all judgement to the Son Tertul de pudicit c. 9. But we may say with Tertul. malo in scripturis forte minus sapere quam contra we had rather understand lesse in Scripture then amisse rather be wary then venture too far and wade till we sink and that will prove the best interpretation of Scripture which we draw out of Scripture it self and then Saint Paul hath interpreted it to our hands for where as the Prophet David Tells us the Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand the Apostle speaks more expresly Oportet eum regnare 1 Cor. 15. he must reign till he hath put down all his enemies under his feet Heb. 8.1 and in the Epistle to the Hebrews we have such an high Priest that sits at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the Heavens that is we have such an high Priest which is also a Lord and king of Majesty and power to command and govern us who hath absolute authority over things in Heaven and things in earth over all the souls and bodyes of men and may prescribe them Laws reward the obedient and punish offenders either in this world or the next or in both for though he were a Lord and King even in his cratch and on his crosse yet now his Dominion and kingly power was most manifest and he commands his Disciples to publish the Gospel of peace and those precepts of Christian conversation to all the World and speaks not as a Prophet but as a Prince in his own name enjoyns Repentance and amendment of life to all the Nations of the earth which were now all under his Dominion Thus saith Christ himself it is written and thus it behoved him to suffer and to rise again that Repentance and remission of sin Luk. 24.47 might be preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his name among all Nations and his Dominion is not subordinate but absolute he commands not as the Centurion in the Gospel who had divers under him yet himself was under authority but as Solomons King he is Rex Alkum a King against whom there is no rising up And now that it may appear that he is not for ever thus to sit at the right hand of God but there sits