unto death There is lex Factorum the Law of Works For they are not all Credenda in the Gospel all articles of Faith there be Agenda some things to be done Nor is the Decalogue shut out of the Gospel Nay the very articles of our Creed include a Law and in a manner bind us to some duty and though they run not in that imperial strain Do this and live yet they look towards it as towards their end Otherwise to believe them in our own vain and carnal sense vvere enough and the same faith vvould save us vvith vvhich the Devils are tormented No thy Faith to vvhich thou art also bound as by a Law is dead that is is not faith if it do not vvork by a Law Thou believest there is a God Thou art then bound to vvorship him Thou believest that Christ is thy Lord Thou art then obliged to do what he commandeth His Word must be thy Law and thou must fulfill it His Death is a Law and bindeth thee to mortification His Cross should be thy obedience his Resurrection thy righteousness and his Coming to judge the quick and the dead thy care and solicitude In a word in a Testament in a Covenant in the Angel's message in the Promises of the Gospel in every Article of thy Creed thou mayest find a Law Christ's Legacy his Will is a Law the Covenant bindeth thee the Good news obligeth thee the Promises engage thee and every Article of thy Creed hath a kind of commanding and legislative power over thee Either they bind to some duty or concern thee not at all For they are not proposed for speculation but for practice and that consequence vvhich thou mayest easily draw from every one must be to thee as a Law What though honey and milk be under his tongue and he sendeth embassadours to thee and they intreat and beseech thee in his stead and in his name Yet is all this in reference to his command and it proceedeth from the same Love which made his Law And even these beseechings are binding and aggravate our guilt if we melt not and bow to his Law Principum preces mandata sunt the very intreaties of Kings and Princes are as binding as Laws preces armatae intreaties that carry force and power with them that are sent to us as it were in arms to invade and conquer us And if we neither yield to the voice of Christ in his royal Law nor fall down and worship at his condescensions and loving parlies and earnest beseechings we increase our guilt and make sin sinful in the highest degree Nor need we thus boggle at the word or be afraid to see a Law in the Gospel if either we consider the Gospel it self or Christ our King and Lord or our selves who are his redeemed captives and owe him all service and allegeance For first the Gospel is not a dispensation to sin nor was a Saviour born to us that he should do and suffer all and we do what we list No the Gospel is the greatest and sharpest curb that was ever yet put into the mouth of Sin The grace of God saith S. Paul hath appeared unto all men teaching us that is commanding us Tit. 2.11 to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Libertas in Christo non fecit innocentiae injuriam saith the Father Our liberty in Christ was not brought in to beat down innocency before it but to uphold it rather and defend it against all those assaults which flesh and bloud our lusts and concupiscence are ready to make against it Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world He taketh away those sins that are past by remission and pardon but he setteth up a Law as a rampire and bulwork against Sin that it break not in and reign again in our mortal bodies There Christ is said to take away not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sins but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sin of the world that is the whole nature of Sin that it may have no subsistence or being in the world If the Gospel had nothing of Law in it there could be no sin under the Gospel For Sin is a transgression of a Law But flatter our selves as we please those are the greatest sins which we commit against the Gospel And it shall be easier in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah then for those Christians who turn the grace of God into wantonness who sport and revel it under the very wings of Mercy who think Mercy cannot make a Law but is busie onely to bestow Donatives and Indulgences who are then most licencious when they are most restrained For what greater curb can there be then when Justice and Wisdom and Love and Mercy all concur and joyn together to make a Law Secondly Christ is not onely our Redeemer but our King and Law-giver As he is the wonderful Counsellour Isa 9 6. Psal 2.6 so he came out of the loyns of Judah and is a Law-giver too Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion The government shall be upon his shoulder He crept not to this honour Isa 9.6 but this honour returned to him as to the true and lawful Lord With glory and honour did God crown him and set him over the works of his hands Heb. 2.7 As he crowned the first Adam with Understanding and freedom of Will so he crowned the second Adam with the full Knowledge of all things with a perfect Will and with a wonderful Power And as he gave to Adam Dominion over the beasts of the field so he gave to Christ Power over things in heaven and things on earth And he glorified not himself Heb. 5.5 but he who said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee he it was that laid the government upon his shoulder Not upon his shoulders For he was well able to bear it on one of them For in him the Godhead dwelleth bodily And with this power he was able to put down all other rule autority and power 1 Cor. â—5 24 to spoil principalities and powers and to shew them openly in triumph to spoil them by his death and to spoil them by his Laws due obedience to which shaketh the power of Hell it self For this as it pulleth out the sting of Death so also beateth down Satan under our feet This if it were universal would be the best exorcism that is and even chase the Devil out of the world which he maketh his Kingdom For to run the way of Christ's commandments is to overthrow him and bind him in chains is another hell in hell unto him Thirdly if we look upon our selves we shall find there is a necessity of Laws to guide and regulate us and to bring us to the End All other creatures are sent into the world with a sense and understanding of the end for which they come and so without particular direction and yet unerringly
esse debet ager quà m agricola The farm must not be too great for the husbandman but what he may be well able to manure and dress And the reason is good Quia si fundus praevaleat colliditur dominus Because if he prevail not if he cannot manage it he must needs be at great loss And it is so in the speculations and works of the mind Those inquiries are most fruitful and yield a more plentiful increase which we are able to bring unto the end which is truly to resolve our selves Thus it is as a little plot of ground well tilled will yield a fairer crop and harvest then many acres which we cannot husband for the Understanding doth not more foully miscarry when it is deceived with false appearances and sophismes then when it looketh upon and would apprehend unnecessary and unprofitable objects and such as are set out of sight Res frugi est sapientia Spiritual Wisdome is a frugal and thrifty thing sparing of her time which she doth not wantonly wast to purchase all knowledge whatsoever but that which may adorn and beautifie the mind which was made to receive Virtue and Wisdome and God himself To know that which profiteth not is next to ignorance But to be ambitious of impertinent speculations carrieth with it the reproch of folly Hom. 29. adv calumn 8. Trin. What is it then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaketh to seek with such diligence for that which is past finding out And first the knowledge of the hour of Christ's coming is most impertinent Acts 1.7 Psal 31.15 and concerneth us not It is not for us to know the times As our dayes so the times are in God's hand and he disposeth and dispenseth them as it pleaseth him fitteth a time to every thing which all the wisdome of the world cannot do Thou wouldst know when he would take the yoke from off thy neck It is not for thee to know That which concerneth thee is to possess thy soul with patience which will make thy yoke easie Thou wouldst know when he will break the teeth of the ungodly and wrest the sword out of the hand of them that delight in blood It is not for thee to know Thy task is to learn to suffer and rejoyce and to make a blessing of persecution Thou wouldst know when the world shall be dissolved Why shouldst thou desire to know it Thy labour must be to dissolve the body of sin and set an end and period to thy transgressions Thou wouldst know what hour this Lord will come It is not for thee to know but to work in this thy hour and be ready and prepared for his coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The present the present time that is thine and thou must fill it up with thy obedience That which is to come of what aspect so ever it be thou must onely look upon and consider as an help and advantage to thee in thy work The Lord will come speaketh no more to me then this To labour and sweat in his vineyard till he come All the daies of my appointed time will I wait Job 14.14 saith Job There is a time and an appointed time and appointed by a God of eternity and I do not study to calculate or find out the last minute of it but I will wait which is but a syllable but of a large and spreading signification and taketh in the whole duty of man For what is the life of a Christian but expectation of and waiting for the coming of the Lord David indeed desireth to know his end and the measure of his dayes Psal 39.4 but he doth not mean so to calculate them as Arithmeticians do to know a certain and determined number of them so to number them as to tell them at his fingers ends and say This will be the last but himself interpreteth himself and hath well explained his own meaning in the last words Let me know the measure of my dayes that I may know how frail I am know not exactly how many but how few they be let me so measure them that I may know and consider that they are but few that in this little time I may strive forward and make a way to eternity This was the Arithmetick he desired to have skill in It may seem a paradox but there is much truth in it few men are so fully resolved of their mortality as to know their dayes are few We can say indeed that we are but shadows but the dreams of shadows but bubbles but vapours that we began to die before we were born and in the womb did move and strive forward towards the gates of Death and we think it no disparagement because we speak to men of the same mold who will say the same of themselves and lay to heart as little as we But should we pass over Methusalem's age a thousand times yet when we were drawing even towards our end we should be ready to conceive a possibility of a longer race and hope like the Sun to run the same compass again And though we die every day yet we are not so fully confirmed in this that we shall ever die Egregia res est condiscere mortem saith Seneca The best art is the knowledge of our frailty and he must needs live well who hath well learnt to die And egregia res est condiscere adventum Domini Ep. 26. It is a most useful thing to have learnt and well digested the coming of the Lord. For we cannot take out this as we should but we must be also perfect in those lessons which may make us fit to meet him when he cometh The hour of his coming is lockt up in the treasury of his Wisdome and he hath left us no key to open it that we might not so much as hope to find it and so mispend our thoughts in that which they cannot lay hold on and which should be fastened on the other to advance and promote our duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fix that well which is present here lay out all thy store all the powers of thy soul Whilest it is time whilest it is day whilest it is thy day make ready for his coming For secondly though it be in the future tense VENIET he will come though it lie hid as it were in the womb of Time and we know not when it will be brought to birth yet at this distance it looketh upon us and hath force enough in it self to work that fear and caution in us which the knowledge of the very hour peradventure might not do We say we believe it and that is enough And some have given Faith the preeminence above Knowledge and count the evidence we have by Faith clearer and more convincing then that we have by Demonstration But if it were not yet even that which is but probable in other things doth prevail with us and is as it were principium motus the
we now speak of a thousand a million a world of men are with him but as one man When the Lord Chief Justice of Heaven and Earth shall sit to do judgement upon sinners what Caligula once wantonly wished to the people of Rome all the world before him have but as it were one neck and if it please him by that jus pleni dominii by that full power and dominion he hath over his creature he may as he welnear did in the Deluge strike it off at a blow His judgements are past finding out and therefore not to be questioned A Platone dicitur Deus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Plutarch Quaest. convival l. 8. q. c. He is the great Geometrician of the World which made all things in number weight and measure and doth infinitely surpass all humane inventions whatsoever and therefore we cannot do him less honour then Hiero King of Sicily did to Archimedes the great Mathematician When he saw the engines he made and the marvellous effects they did produce he caused it to be proclaimed that whatsoever Archimedes did after affirm how improbable soever it might seem yet should not once be called into question but be received and entertained as a truth Let the course of things be carried on as it will let Death pass over the door of the Egyptian and smite the Israelite let God's Thunder miss the house of Dagon and shiver his own Tabernacle yet God is just and true and every man a liar that dareth but ask the question Why doth God this Look over the book of Job and you shall see how Job and his Friends are tost up and down on this great deep For it being put to the question why Job was so fearfully handled his Friends ground themselves upon this conclusion That all affliction is for sin and so lay folly and hypocrisie to his charge and tell him roundly that the judgments of God had now found him out though he had been a close irregular and with some art and cunning hid himself from the eye of the World But Job on the contrary as stoutly pleadeth and defendeth his innocency his justice his liberality and could not attain to the sight of the cause for which Gods hand was so heavy on him Why should his Friends urge him any more Job 19.22 or persecute him as God They dispute in vain Job 21.34 for in their answers he seeth nothing but lies At last when the controversie could have no issue Deus è machina God himself cometh down from heaven and by asking one question putteth an end to the rest Job 38.2 Who is this that darkneth counsel by words without knowledge He condemneth Job and his Friends of ignorance and weakness in that they made so bold and dangerous an attempt as to seek out a cause or call God's judgments into question 2. Because this is a point which may seem worthy to be insisted upon for it hath well-nigh troubled the whole world to see the righteous and wicked tyed together in the same chain and speeding alike in general and oecumenical plagues that Mans reason may not take offense and be scandalized we will give you some reasons why God should hold so unrespective a hand First good reason it is that they who partake in the sin should partake also in the punishment Now though in great and crying sins the righteous partake not with the wicked yet in smaller they evermore concur For who is he amongst the sons of men that can presume himself free from these kind of sins And then if the wages of the smallest sin can be no less then death and eternal torment we have no cause to complain if God use his rod who might strike with the sword if he chastise us on earth who might thrust us into hell This is enough to clear God from all injustice For who can complain of temporal who doth justly deserve eternal pains Or why should they be severed in the penalty who are joyned together in the cause But further yet what though the fault of the one be much the less yet it will not therefore follow if we rightly examine it that the punishment should be the less For though it may seem a paradox which I shall speak unto you yet it will stand with very good reason that great cause many times there may be why the smaller sin should be amerced and fined with the greater punishment In the Penitential Canons he that killeth his mother is enjoynd ten years penance but he that killeth his wife is enjoynd far more And the reason is immediately given not because this is the greater sin but because men are commonly more apt to fall into the sin of murdering their wives then their mothers It is true the reason is larger then the instance and it teacheth us thus much That in appointing the mulct for sin men ought not onely to consider the greatness of it but the aptness of men to fall into it For that of St. Augustine is most true Tantò crebriora quantò minora Because they are the less men presume the oftner to commit them And therefore it may seem good wisdome when ordinary punishment will not serve to redress sins to enhance and improve their penalty We read in our books that there was a Law in Rome that he who gave a man a box on the ear was to pay the sum of twelve pence of our money And Aulus Gellius doth tell us that there was a loose but a rich man who being disposed to abuse the Law was wont to walk the streets with a purse of money and still as he met any man he would give him a box on the ear and then twelve pence Now to repress the insolence of such a fellow there was no way but to encrease the value of the mulct Which course the God of heaven and earth may seem to take with us when his ordinary and moderate punishments will not serve to restrain us from falling into smaller sins He sharpneth the penalty that at last we may learn to account no sin little which is committed against an infinite Majesty and not make the gentleness of the Law an occasion of sin And to this end he coupleth both good and bad in those general plagues which by his providence do befall the world He speaketh evil he doth evil to whole Nations amongst whom notwithstanding some righteous persons are Ah sinful nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers Isa 1.4 10. princes of Sodom people of Gomorrah these are the names by which he stileth the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem amongst whom we cannot doubt but there were many good though no other yet certainly Isaiah the Prophet who spake these words And as he giveth them all one name without regard of difference so he maketh them all good and bad to drink alike of one cup of captivity though no doubt many of great uprightness though
was to put all to the sword and the event was he spared one too many 2 Sam. 1. for one of them was his executioner God biddeth us destroy the whole body of sin Rom. 6.6 12. to leave no sin reigning in our mortal bodies and if we favour and spare but one that one if we turn not from it will be strong enough to turn us to destruction Again it is Obedience onely that commendeth us to God and that as exact and perfect as the equity of the Gospel requireth and so every degree of sin is rebellion God requireth totam voluntatem the whole will for indeed where it is not whole it is not at all it is not a will and integram poenitentiam a solid entire universal conversion True obedience saith Luther non transit in genus deliberativum doth not demur and deliberate I may add non transit in genus judiciale It doth not take upon it self to determine which commandment is to be kept and which may be omitted what is to be done and what to be left undone For as our Faith is imperfect if it be not equal to the truth revealed so is our Obedience imperfect when it is not equal to the command and both are unavailable because in the one we stick at some part of the truth revealed and in the other come short of the command and so in the one we distrust God in the other we oppose him What is a Sigh if my Murmuring drown it What is my Devotion if my Impatience chill it What is my Liberality if my Uncleanness defile it What are my Prayers if my partial Obedience turn them into sin What is a morsel of bread to one poor man when my Oppression hath eaten up a thousand What is my Faith if my Malice make me worse then an Infidel The voice of Scripture the language of Obedience is to keep all the commandments the language of Repentance to depart from all iniquity All the Virtues in the world cannot wash off the guilt of one unrepented sin Mic. 6.7 Shall I give my first born for my transgression saith the Prophet the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul Shall I bring the merits of one Saint the supererogations of another and add to these the treasury of the Church Shall I bring my Almes my Devotion my Tears All these will vanish at the guilt of one sin and melt before it as wax before the Sun For every sin is as Seneca speaketh of Alexander's in killing Callisthenes De Benef. crimen aeternum an everlasting sin which no virtue of our own but a full complete Repentance can redeem As oft as it shall be said that Alexander slew so many thousand Persians it will be replyed he did so but withal he slew Callisthenes He slew Darius it is true and Callisthenes too He wan all as far as the very Ocean it is true but he killed Callisthenes And as oft as we shall fill our minds and flatter our selves with the forbearance of these or those sins our Conscience will check and take us up and tell us But we have continued in this or that beloved sin And none of all our performances shall make so much to our comfort as one unrepented sin shall to our reproch And now because in common esteem One is no number and we scarce count him guilty of sin who hath but one fault let us well weigh the danger of any one sin be it Fornication Theft Covetousness or whatsoever is called sin and though perhaps we may dread it the less because it is but one yet we shall find good reason to turn from it because it is sin And 1. Every particular sin is of a monstrous aspect being committed not onely against the Law written but against the Law of Nature which did then characterize the soul when the soul did first inform the body For though we call those horrid sins unnatural which S. Paul speaketh against Rom. 1. yet in true estimation every sin is so being against our very Reason which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very first law written in our hearts Or. 34. saith Nazianzene Sin is an unreasonable thing nor can it defend it self by discourse or argument If heaven were to be bought with sin it were no purchase for by every evil work I forfeit not onely my Christianity but my Manhood I am robbed of my chiefest jewel and I my self am the thief Who would buy eternity with sin who would buy immortality upon such loathsome terms If Christ should have promised heaven upon condition of a wicked life who would have believed there had been either Christ or heaven And therefore it is laid as an imputation upon Man Solum hoc animal naturae fines transgreditur No Creature breaketh the bounds and limits which Nature hath set but Man And there is much of truth in it Man when he sinneth is more unbounded and irregular then a Beast For a Beast followeth the conduct of his natural appetite but Man leaveth his Reason behind which should be more powerful and is as natural to him as his Sense Man Psal 49.20 saith the Prophet David that understandeth not is like to the beasts that perish And Man that is like to a beast is worse then a Beast No Fox to Herode Luke 13.32 no Goat to the Wanton no Tiger to the Murderer No Wolf to the Oppressour no Horseleach to the Covetous For Beasts follow that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instinct of nature by which they are carried to the object but Man maketh Reason which should come in to rescue him from sin an instrument of evil so that his Reason which was made as a help as his God on earth serveth onely to make him more unreasonable Consider then though it be but one sin yet so far it maketh thee like unto a Beast nay worse then any though it be but one yet it hath a monstrous aspect and then turn from it 2. Though it be but one yet it is very fruitful and may beget another nay multiply it self into a numerous issue into as many sins as there be hairs of thy head It is truly said Omne verum omni vero consonat There is a kind of agreement and harmony in truths And the devout Schoolman telleth us that the whole Scripture is but one copulative proposition because the precepts therein contained are many and yet but one many in regard of the diversity of those works that perfect them yet but one in respect of that root of charity which beginneth them So peccatum est multiplex unum There is a kind of dependency between sins and a growth in wickedness one drawing and deriving poyson from another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius speaketh of Heresies Haeres Basilid as the Asp doth from the Viper which being set in opposition to any particular virtue creepeth on and multiplieth and gathereth strength to the endangering of
God 1. by the Knowledge not onely of natural and transitory things but also of those which pertain to everlasting life Col. 3.10 Being renewed in knowledge after the image of him who created him 2. in the Rectitude and Sanctity of his Will Put on the new man Eph. 4.24 which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness 3. in the ready Obedience of the outward parts and inward faculties to the beck and command of Reason which being as a spark from the Divine nature a breathing from God should look forward and upward upon its Original and present our bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God I say Rom. 12.1 God hath imprinted his image on Man And what communion hath God with Belial or the image of God with the fashion of this world What relation hath an immortal substance with that which passeth away 1 Cor. 7.31 Take Man for that Miracle of the world as Trismegistus calleth him for that other that Lesser world the very tye and bond of all the other parts for whose sake they were made and in whose Nature the nature of the Universe is in a manner seen which order and harmony being disturbed was renewed and restored again by Christ who is the perfect Image of God the express character of his Person and brightness of his glory Rom. 8. And what conversation should we have but in heaven And if the whole nature of created things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the creature it self groneth to be delivered from the bondage of corruption certainly Man the compendium and tie of all the Little world which by his default made the other parts subject to vanity must needs grone in himself waiting for the adoption and redemption of his body not onely from corruption but from temptation when his eye shall behold no vanity his ear hear nothing but Hallelujahs and his very body become in a manner spiritual Or take man as made after God's Image by which he hath that property which no other creature hath to Understand and Will and Reason and Determine by which he sendeth his thoughts whither he pleaseth now beyond the seas by and by back again and then to heaven it self as Hilary speaketh by which he is capable of God and may be partaker of him And we cannot think we had an Understanding given us onely to forge deceit to contrive plots to find out the twilight an opportunity to do mischief to invent instruments of musick new delights to frame an art a method a craft of enjoying the pleasures which are but for a season we cannot think our Will was given us to catch at shadows and apparitions to wait upon the Flesh which fighteth against the Spirit and this Image within us we cannot think God gave us Reason to distinguish us from the other creatures that it should subject us to the creature that it should make us worse then the beasts that perish And therefore Christ the end of whose coming was to renew God's Image decayed and defaced in Man did lay the ax to the root of the tree did level all spreading and overtopping imaginations all thoughts which bowed themselves and inclined to the world 2 Cor. 10.5 bringing them into captivity unto the obedience of the Gospel put out our eyes and cut off our hands so far as they might be occasional to evil and nailed not onely our sins but our flesh to his cross For as we are risen with him so are we crucified with him who being lift up himself did draw us after him to heavenly things to heavenly places brought back the Lost sheep Psal 23. the soul into green and fat pastures out of the way of the world the way that leadeth to Death to the paths of righteousness bringeth back the Soul to its original to that for which it was made James 1.25 Hence the Gospel is called a perfect Law of Liberty Whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty A perfect Law because it barreth up every passage and rivulet shutteth up every crany that may let the soul out to wander after the things of this world tieth us up closer then humane Reason could and improveth and exalteth our Reason to busie it self on its proper object those things which are above And it is called a Law of liberty because they who will be subject to this Law who will be Gospellers indeed must free themselves from those defects and sins which no humane Law nor yet the Law of Moses did punish So that Christian Religion doth in a manner destroy the world before its dissolution maketh that which men so run after so wooe so lay hold on a thing of nothing or worse then nothing maketh that which we made our staff to lean on a serpent to run from or maketh the world but a prison which we must struggle to get out of but a Sodom out of which we must haste to escape to the holy hill to the mountain lest we be consumed or at best but as a stage to act our parts on where when we have disgraced reviled and trode it under our feet we must take our Exit and go out And indeed secondly there is no proportion at all between sensible things and a Soul which is a Spirit and immortal And in this also it resembleth that God who breatheth it into us As Lactantius saith God is not hungry that you need give him meat he is not thirsty that you need pour out drink to him nor is he in the dark that you need light up tapers The world is the Lord's and all that therein is So it is with the Soul What is a banquet of wine what is musick what is a feast what is beauty what is a wedge of gold to a Soul The world is the Soul 's and all that therein is And to behold the creature and in the world as in a book to study and find out the Creator to contemplate his Majesty his Goodness his Wisdom to discover that happiness which is prepared for it to find out conclusions to behold the heavens the work of God's fingers and to purchase a place there to converse with Seraphim and Cherubim elevated thoughts towring imaginations holy desires these are fit food for the Soul and proportioned to it And again as the things above are proportioned to the Soul so they alone can satisfie it The things below are too narrow too transitory Beauty like the Rainbow is oculi opus the work of the eye of the imagination Specta paulisper non erit Do but look a little longer and it will not be seen Riches bring care and torment as well as delight and when they have for a while mocked us they take the wing and flee away Honour I cannot well tell you what it is it is so near to Nothing But whatsoever it be it commonly falleth to the dust and findeth no better sepulchre then disgrace The fashion of
speak in Faith speak in the bitterness of your souls speak in Hope and speak in the heavenly dialect which is Love ye then truly say JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. And this Jesus shall be your Jesus shall plead and intercede for you fill you with all the comforts and ravishments of his Gospel And this Lord shall descend to meet you here and welcome you to his Table And when he shall descend with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God he will enable and encourage you to meet him in the air and take you up with him into heaven that ye may be and rejoyce with Jesus the Lord for evermore Which the Lord grant for his infinite mercy's sake The Eighteenth SERMON PART II. 1 COR. XII 3. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost WE have hitherto detained you in the Lesson Which is indeed a short one but in it is comprised the whole Gospel For when we have let loose our phansie and sought out many inventions when we have even wearied our selves in the uncertain gyres and Meanders which our imaginations cut out when we have laid out that time in following that we cannot overtake which we should have imployed in that work which is visible and put into our hands when our Curiosity hath even spent it self this is all Jesus is the Lord. And to profess him to be the Lord whom we must obey in all things who hath power in heaven and in earth a power to command our Understandings to bow to the Truth and our Wills to imbrace it is compendium Evangelii the sum of Religion the whole intent and scope of the Gospel of Christ This is the Lesson And I told you in the next place we must learn to say it that is first to Profess it But that is not enough All Nations have said it and the Devils have said it And what Religion is that in which the sons of perdition and the Devils themselves may joyn with us What a Profession is that which may be heard in Hell What a poor progress do we make towards happiness if the cursed Spirits go along with us and reach as far as we There is then secondly verbum mentis a word conceived in the mind a perswasion of the Truth And this also may come too short For many times there is not so much Rhetorick and power in this to move us to our duty as there is in a piece of money or a painted face to carry us from it but it lieth useless and of no efficacy at all suffering our members to rebel our flesh to riot it our passions to break loose and hurry us into by-wayes and dangerous precipices speaking to us for the Lord whilst we despise and tread him under foot For if we consider that intimacy and familiarity that many men have with those sins which cannot but present to the mind so much monstrosity as might fright them from them if we behold with what eagerness and delight men pursue that which is as loathsome as Hell it self how they labour and dig for it as for treasure how they devote both body and mind to its service how every trifle is in esteem above Grace and every Barabbas preferred before Jesus the Lord we might easily be induced to conclude that they do not believe that there is a God or that Jesus is the Lord but as the Heathen in scorn did ask Ecquis Christus cum suâ fabulâ count the Gospel and Christianity as a fable For it is not easie to conceive how a man that is verily persuaded in his heart that Jesus is the Lord and that to break Christ's command is to forfeit his soul that for every wilful sin he loseth Paradise and for a moments brutish pleasure he shall find no better purchase then an irreversible state in hell should dare to do that which he doeth every day in a kind of triumph and Jubilee or dip but the tip of his finger in the water of bitterness which he drinketh down greedily as an oxe But upon a review and more mature consideration we may observe that Sin is not alwaies the effect of Infidelity but sometimes of Incogitancy and because we do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stoop and look intentively upon this truth that we have indeed learned this lesson but when we should make use of it to restrain us are willing to forget that Jesus is the Lord. We believe that we shall die but so live as if we were eternal We believe there is hell-fire but stoln waters are sweet and quench those flames We believe that there is a heaven but every trifle is a better sight We believe that Jesus is the Lord but the object that next smileth upon us becometh our Master We believe but are willing to forget what we believe Heaven and Hell the Law and the Gospel and the Lord himself In a word we believe that Death is the wages of sin but the pleasures and vanities of the world come towards us in a gaudy and triumphant march and swallow up this faith and this persuasion in victory detain it and put it in chains that it is not able to do its office not to move and work by Charity For if Heaven did display all its glory and Hell breathe forth all its terrour yet if we do but look upon it and then turn away our eye our persuasion will soon shrink back and withdraw it self and leave us naked and open to every temptation weak and impotent not able to struggle and resist it and we shall laetari in rebus pessimis rejoyce in evil sport and delight our selves at the very gates of hell as an intoxicated thief may laugh and jest at the ridge of the gallows Be not then too well persuaded of every persuasion For if it be but the word and the language of the mind it may soon be silenced And therefore we must nourish and soment it stir it up and enliven it that in the last place it may be of force to move the Tongue and the Hand that as the Heart doth speak to the Lord by a sincere belief Lord I belive so we may speak it with our Hands and Eyes and Feet and sound it out with every member that we have and together make that glorious report which may enter the highest heavens Lord we are ready to do whatsoever thou commandest that we may pray in his ears and weep in his ears Numb 11.18 that our Alms may speak louder then our Trumpet and our Fasting and Humility may houl unto him and not our exterminated face that he may hearken to our thoughts as well as to our words and that an universal Obedience may declare our Faith as the heavens do his glory This is the language of Canaan the
tell their auditors that they were impoverisht with plenty streitned with abundance dull'd and cloy'd with too much matter and cry out with them Where should I begin or how should I end For we may behold the World as a theatre or stage and most men walking and treading their paces as in a shadow all in shew and visor nothing in substance maskt and hidden from others and masked and hidden from themselves fond of themselves and yet enemies to themselves loving and yet hating flattering and yet wounding raising and yet destroying themselves in their forehead Holiness to the Lord in their heart a legion of Devils breathing forth Hosanna's when they are a nayling their Saviour to the cross canonizing themselves saints when the Devil hath them in his snare hugging their errour proud of their errour glorying in their shame wiser then the Law wiser then the Gospel above command nauseating and loathing all advice and counsel whatsoever Reason or Revelation breaths against them as the smoke of the bottomless pit We may behold the Covetous grasping of wealth smiling at them that love not the world and counting them fools because they will not be so but this man is sick and dyeth this man perisheth and where is he We may behold the Ambitious in his ascent and mount and in his height looking down with scorn upon those dull and heavy spirits who will not follow after and yet every step he rises is a foul descent and he is never nearer to the lowest pit then when he is at his height This man falls and is dasht to pieces and where is he Behold the Seditious who moves and walks and beats up his march in the name of the Lord of hosts and thinks God beholding to him when he breaks his Law this man dyeth and perisheth and where is he Where is the Saint when the Covetous the Ambitious the Seditious man are in hell Oh beloved would we could see this and beware of it betimes before the Son of man comes who will pluck off our masks and disguises and make us a wofull spectacle to the world to men and to Angels Oh what a grief is it that we should never hear nor know our selves till we hear that voice Depart from me I know you not that we should deceive our selves so long till Mercy it self cannot redeem us from our errour That we should never see our selves but in Hell never feel our pain till it be eternal Oh what a sad thing is it that we should seal up our eyes in our own bloud and filth that we should delight in darkness and call it light that we should adore our errours and worship our own vain imaginations and in this state and pomp and triumph strut on to our destruction To day if you will hear his voyce harden not your hearts Hic meus est dixere dies This is our day to look into our selves to examine our selves to mistrust our selves to be jealous of our selves vereri omnia opera as Job speaks to be afraid of every work we do of every enterprise we take in hand to hearken to God when he speaks to us by our selves for Reason is his voice as well as Scripture By the one he speaks in us by the other to us to consult with our Reason and the rule to hear them speak in their own dialect not glossed and corrupted by our sensual affections to strive with our selves to fight against our selves to deny our selves and in this blessed agony and holy contention to lift up our hearts to the God of light to take up that of the Prophet David and make it our prayer Lord deliver us from the deceitful man that is from our selves I need not stand any longer upon this For even they that deceive themselves will willingly subscribe to all that I have said and commonly none defie Errour louder then they who call it unto them both with hands and words We will therefore rather as we proposed discover the Danger which men incurre by joyning with it that we may learn by degrees to shake it off to detest and avoid it In the first place this wilfull deceiving of our selves this deciding for our selves against our selves for our Sense against our Reason this easie falling upon any opinion or persuasion which may bring along with it pleasure or profit or honour all things but the truth is that which layes us open to every dart of Satan which wounds us the deeper because we receive it as an arrow out of Gods quiver as a message from Heaven For we see a false persuasion will build up in us as strong resolutions as a true one Saul was as zealous for the Law as Paul was for the Gospel hereticks are as ready for the fiery tryal as the orthodox the Turk as loud for his Mahomet as the Christian for his Christ In a word Errour produceth as strange effects as Truth Habet Diabolus suos martyres for the Devil hath his martyrs as well as Christ That which is a sin now and so appears a crying mortal sin and we stand at distance and will not come near it anon Profit or Pleasure those two parasites which bewitch the soul plead for it commend it and at last change the shape of it and it hath no voice to speak against us but bids us Go on and prosper It was a monster but now it is clothed and dressed up with the beauty of Holiness and we grow familiar with it It was as menstruous raggs but now we put it on and cloth our selves with it as with the robes of righteousness A false persuasion hath the same power which the Canonists give the Pope to make Evil good and Vice vertue It is a sin but if I do it not I shall loose all that I have and then I do it and then it is no sin It was Oppression it is now Law It was Covetousness it is now Thrift It was Sacrilege it is now Zeal It was Perjury it is now Wisdom Persuasion is a wheel on which the greatest part of the world are turned and circled about till they fall several wayes into several evils and do but touch at the Truth by the way Persuasion builds a Church and Persuasion pulls it down Persuasion formeth a Discipline and Persuasion cancels it Persuasion maketh Saints and Persuasion thrusts them out the Calendar Persuasion makes laws and Persuasion abollisheth them The Stoicks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of preoccupation of the minds the sourse and original of all the actions of our life as powerful when we erre as when the Truth is on our side and commonly carrying us with a greater swinge to that which is forbidden then to that to which we are bound to by a law This is the first mover in all those irregular motions of a wanton and untamed will This is the first wheel in the Devils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his devises and enterprises From this
weighs the simplicity and severity of Christian religion from whence it should come to pass that many Christians surpass even Turks and Jews in fraud deceit and cruelty And the resolution is almost as strange For by the policy of Satan our very Religion is suborn'd to destroy it self which freely offering mercy to all offenders many hence take courage to offend more and more pardon being so near at hand They dare be worse then Turks upon this bare encouragement that they are Christians So that to that of S. Paul Rom. 7. Sin took an occasion by the Law we may adde Sin takes an occasion by the Gospel and so deceiveth us It is possible for an Atheist to walk by that light which he brought with him into the world Even Diagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might have been an honest man For that Wisdom vvhich guides us in our common actions of morality is nothing else saith Tully but ratio adulta perfecta Reason improved and perfected But the Christian hath the advantage of another light another lavv a light which came down from heaven and a royal Law to vvhich if he take heed he cannot go astray Miserable errour shall I call it It is too good a name It is Folly and Madness thus to be bankrupt with our riches to be weaker for our helps to be blinded with light in montes impingere as S. Augustine speaks having so much light to run upon such visible palpable and mountanous evils to enter the gates of our enemies as friends and think our selves in Dothan when we are in the midst of Samaria Let us not deceive our selves which were bought with a price and redeemed from errour Let us not flatter our selves to destruction It is not the name of Christian that will save us no more then Epictetus his lamp could make a Philosopher Nay it is not the name of Christ that can save us if we dishonour it and make it stink amongst the Canaanites and Perizzites among Turks and Jews and Infidels Behold thou art called a Christian and restest in the Gospel and makest thy boast of Christ If thou art a Christian then know also thou art the Temple of Christ not onely in which he dwells but out of which he utters his oracles to instruct others in the wayes of truth If thou art a Christian thou art a member of Christ a member not a sword to wound thy sick brother unto death The folly of thy wayes thy confidence in errour doth make the Turk smile and the Jew pluck the veil yet closer to his face It is a sad truth but a truth it is This stamping Religion with our own mark and setting upon it what image and superscription we please hath done more hurt to Christianity then all the persecutions for Christ to this day These by diminishing the number of Christians have increased it and by the blessing of God have added to the Church from day to day such as should be saved The Sword and the Flame have devoured the Christian but this is a gulff to swallow up Christianity it self What Seneca spake of Philosophy is true of Religion Fuit aliquando simplicior inter minora peccantes When men did frame and square their lives by the simplicity and plainness of the rule it was not so hard and busie a thing and there were fewer errours when the greatest errour was Impiety But after by degrees it began to spend and wast it self in hot and endless disputations one faction prescribing to another and promulging their dictates as Laws which many times were nothing else but the trophies of a prevailing side waxing worse and worse deceiving and being deceived And now all is heat and words and our Religion for the most part if I may so speak is a negative religion hath no positive reality in it at all Not to be a Papist is to be a Christian not to love the picture is to be a Saint not to love a Bishop is to be a Royal Priesthood not to be a Brownist or Anabaptist is to be Orthodox Should a Pagan stand by and behold our conversation he might well say Where is now their God Where is their Religion Thus hath the Church of Christ suffer'd from her own children from those who suck her breasts She had stretched her curtains further to receive in those who were without had they not been frighted back by the disconsonancy and horrour of their lives whom they saw in her bosome and she had had many mo children had not they who called her Mother been so ill-shapen and full of deformity and that is verified in her which was said of Julius Caesar Plures illum amici confoderunt quà m inimici She hath received more wounds from her friends then from her enemies Last of all This Errour in life and conversation this wilfull mistake of the rule we should walk by is an errour of the foulest aspect of greater allay then any other For in some things licet nescire quae nescimus it is lawfull to erre Errour in it self having no moral culpable deformity In some things oportet nescire quae nescimus we must not be too bold to seek lest we loose our way Some things are beside us some things are above us some things are not to be known and some things are impertinent In some things we erre and sin not for errantis nulla est voluntas saith the Law He that hath no knowledge hath no will But Self deceit in the plain and easie duties of our life is so far from making up an excuse that it aggravates our sin and makes it yet more sinfull For we blind our selves that we may fall into the ditch we will erre that we may sin with the less regret we place our Reason under the inferiour part of our soul that it may not check us when we are reaching at the forbidden fruit we say unto Reason as the Legion of Devils said to our Saviour What have we to do with thee art thou come to torment us before our time Art thou come to blast our delights to take the crown of roses from off our heads to retard and shackle us when we are making forward towards the mark to remove that which our eye longeth after to forbid that which vve desire and to command us to hate that vvhich vve best love We persuade down Reason vve chide down Reason vve reason down Reason and vvill be unreasonable that vve may be vvorse then the beasts that perish First vve vvash our hands vvith Pilate and then deliver up Jesus to be crucified Therefore thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that thus deceivest thy self Yea so far is this Self-deceit from making up an excuse that it deserveth no pity For vvho vvill pity him vvho is vvilling to be deceived vvho makes haste to be deceived vvho makes it his crown and glory to be deceived Had it been an enemy that deceived me or had it been a friend
it self the most disorderly thing in the world into order and maketh that which stands us against his law to meet with his Justice and that which runs from the order that his Mercy hath set up to be driven to the order of Equity For Sin is an offense against the Creation a breach and invertion of that order which the Wisdome of God did at first establish in the world My Adultery defileth my body my Oppression grindeth the poor my Anger rageth against my brother my particular sins have their particular objects but they all strike at the Universe and at that order which was at first set up Luke 15. Father I have sinned against thee and against heaven saith the Prodigal against thee and against thy Power and that Order which thou hast establisht in the highest heavens And therefore his Providence ruleth over all to reduce this inequality to an equality and this confusion into order to shew what harmony it can work in the greatest disorder what beauty he can raise out of the deformed and unnatural body of Sin striking them down by his hand who would not bow to his will Sin and Punishment are nothing of themselves but in us or rather in the wayes of Gods Providence they are something The one is voluntary that is Sin the other penal that is Smart That which is voluntary Sin is a foul deformity in nature and in that course which God hath set up and therefore the penal is added to order and place it there where it may be forced to serve for the grace and beauty of the whole that the punishment of Sin may wipe out the dishonour of Sin that he who against the will of God would tast the pleasure of Sin may against his own will drink deep of the cup of Bitterness Interest mundo Therefore it concerns the world and all that therein is that Sin be punished and that every thing be set in its own place This the whole creation seems to grone for this it earnestly expects this is the Creatures Jubilee Rom. 8. it is deliverance from the bondage of corruption Turpis est pars quae suo toti non convenit It is an ill member for which the whole body is the worse Vt in sermone litterae As Letters in a Word or Sentence so Men are the principles and parts which concur to make up a Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Men are the World and Men are the City and Men are the Church Now every impertinent and unpunished Sinner is a letter too much or rather a blur in that sentence Let the hand of Providence therefore blot it out Let the whip be on the fools back and the sword in the murderers bowels Let Dives be in Hell let every seed have its own body and every work its proper wages and then every thing is in its own order and place and then the World is the work of Gods Hands the Church is the body of Christ and the composition is entire So this is an everlasting truth Gods Justice requires it his Providence works it the very Creature groans for it And deceive we our selves if we will and mock God if we dare If we do not well sin lyeth at the door Gen. 4.7 ready to break in with a whip and vengeance upon us For whatsoever a man sows that also shall he reap For in the next place God doth not onely punish sin but fits and proportions the punishment to the sin both in this life and in that which is to come He observes a kind of Arithmetical proportion and draws both parts together that the one may not crack of his purchase nor the other complain of his loss that the Sinner may not boast of his sin nor God lose any part of his glory The Prophet David hath fully exprest it He made a way to his anger LIBRAVlT ITER Psal 78 50. he weighed it as by the scales As they increased they sinned against me Hos 4.7 Therefore I will change their glory into shame Rom. 1.25 As they changed the truth of God into a lye so God delivered them up An Arithmetical and just proportion They took away Gods glory and they pay him with shame with the shame of a sinner which is Gods glory God under the Law did appoint particular punishments for particular sins as Famine by drought for Deteining of Tithes Pestilence for Injustice to destroy those that would not destroy the wicked nor plead the cause of the oppressed fierce and devouring Beasts for Perjury and Blasphemy and Captivity for Idolatry Lev. 10. Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire and were consumed by fire from Heaven Adonibezek had his thumbs cut off and his great toes Judg. 1.6 and in the next verse he confesseth Threescore and ten kings having their thumbs and great toes cut off gathered their meat under my table As I have done so God hath requited me Absalom's hearts desire was to get his Fathers crown and you may behold him with three darts thrust through his heart 2 Sam. 18 So in all ages it hath been observeable that men have been taken in their own net and been buried in the pit which they dig'd For this saith S. Basil is not onely a punishment but the very nature of Sin to make a net and to dig a pit for it self The Thief twists the halter that hangs him the Envious eateth out his own heart the Angry man slayeth himself the Wanton beast is burnt up with his own heat the Ambitious breaketh his own neck the Covetous pierceth his own soul and is choked as Crassus was with his own gold the Proud man breaks with his own swelling the Seditious is burnt with the fire he made So near doth Punishment follow Sin at the heels that in Scripture often one name and word serveth to signifie both and Sin is taken both for the guilt and the Punishment And this in this world But in the next Tophet is ordeined and prepared of old fitted and proportioned to every one that goes on in his sin as fit for an unrepentant sinner as a Throne is for a King or Heaven for an Angel For as there is some analogy between the joyes a good conscience yields on earth and thoss which we shall have at the right hand of God â—â—br 6.4 The Apostle calls it a tast of the heavenly gift and the Schoolmen tell us that Glory is the consummation of Grace which looked towards it and tended to it So is Sin an embleme of Hell carrying with it nothing but disorder confusion and torment Anselme thought it the uglier Hell of the two and more to be abhorred In Hell there is stench what more unsavory then Sin in Hell there is pain what more tormenting then Sin in Hell there is weeping what more lamentable then Sin in Hell there is a worm what more gnawing then Sin Sin entred in and then Hell was created Had
and Monarch of the Church who hath full and absolute power to determine of those things which concern our peace and to judge the Law it self to discover its defects and to supply and perfect it And here upon this foundation what a Babel of confusion may be built Upon these grounds what errour what foul sin may not shew its head and advance it self before the Sun and the people and outface the world With the one Scripture is no Scripture but a dead letter And with the other it hath no life but what they put into it With the one it is nothing and with the other it is imperfect which in effect is nothing For what difference in matters of this nature and in respect of a Law between being nothing and not being what it is For to take away the force of a Law is in a manner to annihilate it With them as Calvin speaketh of those in his time St. Paul was but a broken vessel John a foolish young man Peter a denier of his Master and Matthew a Publican And the language of ours at this day is little better And with the other they are little less For when they speak plainest they teach them how to speak And now that which was a sin yesterday is a vertue to day vertue is vice and vice vertue as the one is taught within and the other is bold to interpret it The Text is Defraud not thy brother The inward Word biddeth thee spoil him The Text is Touch not mine anointed By the autority of the Church thou mayest touch and kill him And let me tell you the inward Word will do as much Deceit Injustice Sacrilege Rebellion Murther all may ride in in triumph at this gate for it is wide enough to let them in and the Devil together with all his wiles and enterprises withall his most horrid machinations He did but mangle and corrupt the Scripture to make a breach into our Saviour These take it away or make it void and of no effect to overthrow his Church Must the Church of Rome be brought in like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts with great pomp and state with Supremacy and Infallibility Then Peter is brought out and his Rock nay his Shadow to set out the Mask and the Autority of the Church leadeth him on And they open their vvardrope and shew us their Traditions such deceitful ware that we no sooner look upon it but it vanisheth out of sight Again must some new phansie be set up which will not bear the light of Scripture but flieth and is scattered before it as the mist before the Sun Must some horrid fact be put in execution which Nature it self trembleth at and shrinketh from and which this perfect Law damneth to the lowest hell Then an inward Word is pretended and God is brought in to witness against himself to disanul his own Law and ratifie the contrary to speak from heaven against that which he declared by his Son on earth to speak within and make that a duty which he openly threatned to punish with everlasting fire What is become now of our perfect Law It is no Law at all but as the Son came down to preach it so there is a new holy Ghost come into the world to destroy it Which is to do worse then the Jews did For they only nailed Christ's body to the cross these crucifie his very mind and will Which yet will rise again and triumph over them when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to his Gospel For what man of Belial may not take up this pretence and leave Nature and Grace Reason and Religion behind them and walk forward with it to the most unwarrantable and unchristian designs that a heart full of gall and bitterness can set up Ahithophel might have taken it up and Judas might have taken it up even parricides have taken it up And if every inward persuasion the off-spring of an idle phansie and a heart bespotted with the world be the voice of God then Covetousness may be a God and Ambition may be a God and the Devil himself may be a God For these speak in them these speak the word which they hear which because they are ashamed to name they make use of that Name which is above every name to usher in these evil spirits in which Name they should cast them out In the name of Piety what is this inward Word this New light It may be the echo of my lust and concupiscence the resultance of an irregular appetite the reflexion of my self upon my self It is the greatest parasite in the world For it moveth as I move and sayeth what I say and denieth what I deny As inward as it is its original is from without The Object speaketh to the Eye and the Eye to the Heart and the Heart hot with desire speaketh to it self A rent and divided Church will make up my breaches A shaken Commonwealth will build me up a fortune A dissolved College will settle me in an estate And I hear it for I speak it my self And it is the voice of God and not of man Of this they have had sad experience in forein parts in both the Germanies and in other places And we have some reason to think that this monster hath made a large stride and set his foot in our coasts But if it be not this it is Madness Nay if this Word within may not be made an outward word it is Nothing For this Word within as they call it bringeth with it either an intelligible sense or not intelligible If it bring a sense unintelligible and which may not be uttered and expressed then it is no Word or the Word of a fool that uttereth more then his mind and speaketh of things which he knoweth not For what Word is that which can neither be understood nor uttered But if it bear a sense intelligible then it may be received of the understanding and uttered with the tongue and written in a book and then the same imputation will lye upon it which they lay upon the outward Word that it is but an ink-horn phrase And written with ink it may be For with amazed eyes we have seen it written with bloud I am even weary of this argument But men have not been ashamed openly to profess what we blush within our selves to confute And this Word within this loathsom phansie this Nothing hath had power to invenom the Word of life it self and make it the savour of death unto death For conclusion then Let us not say Lo here is Christ or Lo there is Christ Let us not frame and fashion a Christ of our own For if he be of our making he is not the Son of God but a phantasm And such a Christ may speak what we will have him speak to our hearts our lusts our vices Such a Christ will flatter us deceive us damn us But let us behold him in
not as warrantably conceive so of the other Persons For God wrought in the Creation and the Heavens are the work of his hands Nay with reverence to so high a Majesty we may say God serveth us more then we do him who are nothing but by his breath and power Dust and ashes can do him no service But he serveth us every day He lighteth us with his Sun he raineth upon us he watereth our plants Luke ◠53 Psal 47.9 he filleth our granaries He feedeth the hungry with good things nay he feedeth the young ravens that call upon him He knocketh at our doors he intreateth waiteth sufferreth commandeth us to serve one another commandeth his Angels to serve and minister unto us res rationésque nostras curat he keepeth our accounts numbreth our tears watcheth our prayers If we call he cometh if we fall he is at hand In our misery in the deepest dungeon he is with us And these are no disparagements but arguments of his excellency and infinite goodness and fair lessons to us not to be wanting to our selves and our brethren who have God himself thus carefully waiting upon us and to remember us That to serve our brethren is to exalt and advance and raise us up to be like unto him When we wash our brethrens feet bind up their wounds sit down in the dust with them visit them in prison and minister to them on their beds of sickness we may think we debase our selves and do decrease as it were but it is our honour our crown our conformity to him who was the Servant of God and our Servant and made himself like unto us that he might serve us in his flesh and doth so to the end of the world invisibly by his Spirit It is the Spirit 's honour to be sent to be a Leader a Conduct and though sent he be yet he is as free an Agent as the Son and the Son as the Father Tertullian calleth him Christ's Vicar here on earth to supply his place But that argueth no inequality for then the Son too must be unequal to the Father for his Angel his Messenger he was and went about his Father's business Luke 2.49 To conclude this In a farr remote and more qualified sense we are his Vicar's his Deputies his Steward 's here on earth and it is no servility it is our honour and glory to do his business to serve one another in love Gal. 5.13 to be Servants to be Angels I had almost said to be holy Ghosts one to another As my father sent me saith our Saviour to his Disciples John 20.21 so send I you And he sendeth us too who are haereditarii Christi discipuli Christ's Disciples by inheritance and succession that every one as he is endowed from above should serve him by serving one another And though our serving him cannot deserve that name Judg. 5.23 yet is he pleased to call it helping him that we should help him to feed the hungry to guide the blind and teach the ignorant and so be the Spirit 's Vicars as he is Christ's that Christ may fill us more and more with his Spirit which may guide and conduct us through the manifold errours of this life through darkness and confusion into that truth which may lead us to bliss For as he is the Spirit of truth so in the next place the Lesson which he teacheth is Truth even that Truth which is an Art S. Augustine calleth it so and a law to direct and confine all other arts quâ praeeunte seculi fluctus calcamus which goeth before us in our way and through the surges of this present world bringeth us to the presence of God who is Truth it self A Truth which leadeth us to our original to the Rock out of which we were hewen and bringeth us back to our God who made us not for the vanities of this world but for himself An Art to cast down all Babels all towring and lofty imaginations which present unto us falshoods for truths appearances for realities plagues for peace which scatter and divide our souls powr them out upon variety of unlawful objects and deceive us in the very nature and end of things For as this Spirit brought life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 for whatsoever the Prophets and great Rabbies had spoken of Immortality was but darkness in comparison of this great light so it also discovered the errors and horror of those follies which we lookt upon with love and admiration as upon heaven it self What a price doth Luxury place on Wealth and Riches What horror on Nakedness and Poverty What a heaven is Honour to my Ambition and what an hell is Disgrace though it be for goodness it self How doth a Jewel glitter in my eyes and what a slur is there upon Virtue What a glory doth the pomp of the World present and what a sad and sullen aspect hath Righteousness How is God thrust out and every Idol every Vanity made a God But the Truth here which the Spirit teacheth discovereth all pulleth off the veyl sheweth us the true countenance and face of things that we may not be deceived sheweth us Vanity in Riches folly in Honour death and destruction in the pomp of this World maketh Poverty a blessing and Misery happiness and Death it self a passage to eternity placeth God in his Throne and Man where he should be at his footstool bowing before him Which is the readiest way to be lifted up unto him and to be with him for evermore In a word a Truth that hath power to unite us to our God that bringeth with it the knowledge of Christ and the wisdome of God and presenteth those precepts and doctrines which lead to happiness a Truth that goeth along with us in all our wayes waiteth on us on our beds of sickness leaveth us not at our death but followeth us and will rise again with us unto judgment and there either acquit or condemn us either be our Judge or Advocate If we make it our friend here it will then look lovely on us and speak good things for us if we make it our Counsellor here it will then be our Advocate but if we despise it and put it under our basest desires and vile affections it will then fight against us and triumph over us and tread us down into the lowest pit Christ is not more gracious then this Truth to them that love it But to those who will not learn shall be Tribulation and anguish Rom. 2.9 Acts 2.20 2 Thes 4.16 The Sun turned into darkness and the Moon into blood the world on fire the voyce of the Archangel the trump of God the severe countenance of the Judge will not be more terrible then this Truth to them that have despised it For Christ Jesus shall judge the secrets of them Rom 2.16 acquit the just condemn the impenitent according to this Truth which the Spirit teacheth
according saith S. Paul to my Gospel This is the Lesson the Spirit teacheth Truth Let us now see the Extent of it It is large and universal The Spirit doth not teach us by halves teach some truths and conceal others but he teacheth all truth maketh his disciples and followers free from all errors that are dangerous and full of saving knowledge Saving knowledge is all indeed That truth which bringeth me to my end is all and there is nothing more to be known I determined to know nothing but Christ and him crucified saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 2.2 Here his desire hath a Non ultrá This truth is all this joyneth heaven and earth together God and Man mortality and immortality misery and happiness in one draweth us near unto God and maketh us one with him This is the Spirit 's Lesson Commentum Divinitatis the invention of the Divine Spirit Faith is called the gift of God Ephes 2.8 not onely because it is given to every believer and too many are too willing to stay till it be given but because this Spirit first found out the way to save us by so weak a means as Faith And as he first found it out so he teacheth it and leaveth out noâ—hing not a tittle not an Iota which may serve to compleat and perfect this divine Science Psal 139.16 In the book of God are all our members written All the members yea and all the faculties of our soul And in his Gospel his Spirit hath framed rules and precepts to order and regulate them all in every act in every motion and inclination which if the Eye offend pluck it out if the Hand cut it off Rules which limit the understanding to the knowledge of God bind the will to obedience moderate and confine our affections level our hope fix our joy stint our sorrow frame our speech compose our gesture fashion our apparel set and methodize our outward behaviour Instances in Scripture in every particular are many and obvious The time would fail me to mention them all In a word then this Truth which the Spirit teacheth is fitted to the whole man to every member of the body to every faculty of the soul fitted to us in every condition in every relation It will reign with thee it will serve with thee it will manage thy riches it will comfort thy poverty ascend the throne with thee and sit down with thee on the dunghill It will pray with thee it will fast with thee it will labour with thee it will rest and keep a Sabbath with thee it will govern a Church it will order thy Family it will raise a kingdome within thee it will be thy Angel to carry thee into Abraham's bosome and set a crown of glory upon thy head And is there yet any more Or what need more than that which is necessary There can be but one God one Heaven one Religion one way to blessedness and there is but one Truth and that is it which the Spirit teacheth And this runneth the whole compass of it directeth us not onely ad ultimum sed usque ad ultimum not onely to that which is the end but to the means to every step and passage and approach to every help and advantage towards it and so uniteth us to that one God giveth us right to that one Heaven and bringeth us home to that one end for which we were made And is there yet any more Yes particular cases may be so many and various that they cannot all come within the compass of this Truth which the Spirit hath plainly taught It is true but then for the most part they are cases of our own making cases which we need not make cases somtimes raised by weakness somtimes by wilfulness somtimes even by sin it self which reigneth in our mortal bodies and to such this Lesson of the Spirit is as an Ax to cut them off But be their original what it will if this Truth reach them not or if they bear no analogy or affinity with that which the Spirit hath taught nor depend upon it by any evident and necessary consequence they are not to be reckoned in the number of those which concern us because we are assured that he hath led us into all truth that is necessary Some things indeed there are which are indifferent in themselves quae lex nec vetat nec jubet which this Spirit neither commandeth nor forbiddeth but they are made necessary by reason of some circumstance of time or place or quality or persons for that which is necessary in it self is alwaies necessary and yet are in their own nature indifferent still Veritas ad omnia occurrit this Truth which is the Spirit 's Lesson reacheth even these and containeth a rule certain and infallible to guide us in them if we become not laws unto our selves and fling it by to wit the rules of Charity and Christian Prudence to which if we give heed it is impossible we should miscarry It is Love of our selves and Love of the world not Charity or spiritual Wisdome which make this noyse abroad rend the Church in pieces and work desolation on the earth It is want of conscience and neglect of conscience in the common and known wayes of our duty which have raised so many needless Cases of conscience which if men had not hearkened to their lusts had never shewn their head but had been what indeed they are nothing The acts of charity are manifest 1 Cor. 13. Charity suffereth long even injuries and errours but doth not rise up against that which was set up to enlarge and improve her Charity is not rash to beat down every thing that had its first rise and beginning from Charity Charity is not puffed up swelleth not against a harmless yea and an useful constitution though it be of man Charity doth not behave it self unseemly layeth not a necessity upon us of not doing that which lawful Authority even then styleth an indifferent thing when it commandeth it to be done Charity seeketh not her own treadeth not the publick peace under foot to procure her own Charity is not easily provoked checketh not at every feather nor startleth at that monster which is a creation of our own Charity thinketh no evil doth not see a serpent under every leaf nor Idolatry in every bow of Devotion If we were charitable we could not but be peaceable If that which is the main of the Spirit 's lesson did govern mens actions Psal 72.7 there would be abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth Multa facienda sunt non jubente lege sed liberâ charitate saith Augustine Charity is free to do and suffer many things which the Spirit doth not expresly command and yet it doth command them in general when it commandeth obedience to Authority Which hath no larger circuit to walk and shew it self in than in things in themselves indifferent which it may enjoyn for orders sake
is not seen but laid up for us in the treasuries of heaven These are the good mans Sacrifice and they naturally flow from the Good which is here shewn in the Text and are the parts of it These were from the beginning and shall never be abolisht And if we offer up these we shall never be questioned or asked Will God be pleased with these For he is pleased only with these and for these with whatsoever we offer And he will love us for these and accept us in him who Eph. 5.2 to sanctifie and present these offered himself an offering and a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour Hebr. 6.20 even Jesus Christ the righteous who is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek Thus have we taken a view of the Good in the Text as it standeth in opposition with the Sacrifices of the Law and outward Formality And now the veil is drawn we shall present it in its full beauty and perfection in our next The Second SERMON PART II. MICAH VI. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God WE have shewed you that Piety is termed good in it self in opposition to Sacrifice and the Ceremonies of the Law which were but ex instituto for some reasons instituted and ordained but in themselves were neither good nor evil We might now take a view of this Good as it standeth in opposition to the things of this world which either our Luxury or Pride or Covetousness have raised in their esteem and above their worth and called good as the Heathens consecrated their Affections their Diseases their very Vices and placed them in the number of their Gods For Good is that which all desire which all bowe and stoop to but yet it hath as several shapes as there be opinions and constitutions of men And all the mistake is in our choice that we set up something to look upon which is not worth a glance of our eye that we call evil good and that good which is neither evil nor good but may make us so good if we use it well and evil if we abuse it Epist 20. Non est bonum quo uti malè possis That cannot be truly and in it self good which we may use to an evil end saith Seneca that we propose to our selves objects which are attended with danger and very often with horrour and give to them this glorious title paint out to our selves some deformed strumpâ—â— and call her a Goddess and kiss the lips of that which will bite like a cockatrice Good we desire and when our desires have run to that which we set up for good we meet with nothing but evil which sheweth not it self till it be felt We hoyse up our sails and make towards it and are swallowed up in that Sea as Augustine calleth it of the good things of this world which we thought might carry us to the end of our hope We take it for bread and in our mouth it is gravel We take it for pleasure and when we tast it it is gall We hunt after Riches as good and they begger us climb to Honour and that breaketh our neck And though we swallow down these good things as the Ox doth water yet we are never full S. Hilary in his Comments on the first Psalm having observed that some there were who drew down all their interpretations of that Book respectively to spiritual things and God himself because they thought it some disparagement to that Book that terrene and secular matter should so often interline it self yet passeth on them no heavier censure then this Haec eorum opinio argui non potest c. We need not be so severe as to condemn this opinion of theirs because it proceedeth from a mind piously and religiously affected and it is a thing which deserveth rather commendation then blame by a favourable endeavour to strive to apply all things to him by whom all things were made For these things are not good but only go under this deputative and borrowed title The world hath cryed them up but the Scripture hath no such name for them It is good to praise the Lord nay it is good to be afflicted this we read but where do we read It is good to be rich it is good to be honourable it is good to go in purple and fare deliciously every day We find many curses and woes sent after them but we never find them graced with the title of good Luke 16.25 Thou hast received thy good things saith Abraham to Dives Good things but thine such as thy lusts esteemed so thy good things and such good things as have helpt to hurry thee to this place of torment Good they are not for they are so far from making a man good that they make him not rich Look upon Dives at his feast and Lazarus at his gates and which was the rich man If I should say Lazarus it were no paradox for Dives had nothing of a rich man but his name Good then they are not in themselves nor can they be but by being subservient to this Good in the Text. And therefore we must make another defalcation of these Temporal goods as we did of those Sacrifices which were but temporary Down must Sacrifice and down must Mammom Down must his temple and his groves and no picture no representation must be left of them in our minds But let us look upon Sacrifice and Formality as shadows and upon the things of this world as less then shadows and then upon the ruines of Hypocrisie and Covetousness and Ambition to build up a temple to true Piety and Religion and that which is called Good here in the Text which God by his Prophet hath laid open before our eyes For he hath shewed thee O man not Sacrifice not the glory of the world that is the Devils shew but he hath shewed thee what is good Matth. 4.8 And now having drawn the veil we may enter the Sanctum Sanctorum the Holy of holies and behold Piety and that which is Good that Good which is so in it self Augustin Serm. 12. in Matth. real and eternal quod nec invitus accipis nec invitus amittis which thou neither receivest nor losest but when thou wilt as thou mayest thy possessions thy honours nay thy body and life it self which all may be taken from thee against thy will that Good which is a defluxion and emanation from God himself derived and flowing from tâ—at Wisdome which dwelt with him from all eternity that Good which will make us good here and raise us up to be eternal with him in the highest heavens that Good which will give us an heavenly understanding a divine will angelical affections and in a manner incorporate us with God himself And if you please to look upon it in
beneficia compedes all benefits are as fetters are obligations He that doth me good obligeth me placeth himself as it were in authority over me giveth me Laws and looketh upon me as his Creature which must do whatsoever he requireth in a just and equal proportion to what he hath done Accepi benificium protinus perdidi libertatem I receive a good turn and forthwith lose my liberty My hand is filled and bound at once bound to his service that filleth it If he say Do this I do it I plead for him I commend him I excuse him I run for him I dye for him because he is my friend If my friend bid me Cic. de Amicit. I will set fire on the Capitol saith Blosius in Tully Not onely a Father a Master a Lord but a Friend every one that obligeth me is a kind of Lawgiver boundeth and keepeth me in on every side tendereth me his edicts and laws by doing something for me gaineth a power over me In the Civil law it is styled Patris Majestas the Majesty of a Father Neque id magis facimus quà m nos monet pietas Plaut Stich. act 1. sc 1. And there is the Majesty of a Master and the Majesty of a Friend or Benefactour For nostrum officium nos facere aequum est There is a kind of equity and justice that he that buyeth me with a price should claim some interest in me These are those cords of men to tye us to them And if we break them asunder and cast these bands from us if we will not answer the diligent love of a Friend by doing something which may be required at our hands we are guilty of a foul ingratitude which is a kind of civil or moral Rebellion And therefore God taketh up this as an argument against the rebellious Jews and draweth it from that relation which was founded on his Power and that Love which he had shewed to them A Son honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master If then I be a Father Mal. 1.6 where is my Honour and if I be a Master where is my fear saith the Lord of hosts who am not onely your Lord by right of creation but your Father for my daily care and preservation of you and those many benefits I have laden you withal And Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you saith Christ If ye do not ye are not my friends but you have broke that relation which might have been eternal So that we see one Power followeth another as in a chain the Power and Right of dominion the Power by which we were made and are preserved the Power of giving Laws the Power that made us capable of a Law He that did these great things for us may require what he please First God createth Man and then giveth him a Law and putteth him to the trial of his Obedience By the same act of Power by creating as he acquired to himself the full right of Dominion so he brought also upon Man the necessity of Subjection Lord what wilt thou have me to do saith S. Paul Acts 9.6 when he was struck to the ground Verbum breve sed vivum sed efficax De convers Pauli Ser. 7. saith Bernard a short speach but full and lively and operative even an acknowledgment of that Power of God which is mighty in operation by which he hath authority to command and require what he will Gods Will then thus attended with his Power must be the rule of all our actions and is the matrix from which all Laws must issue But in the next place as his absolute Will is attended with Power uncontrollable so is it also with Wisdome unquestionable For as he is the only powerful Rom. 16.27 1 Tim. 1.17 so he is the only wise God And from the inexhaust fountain of his Wisdome flow those rivers of Laws which make glad the city of God which are made as all things in the world are in number weight and measure numbred weighed measured fitted out unto us that we may live and move thereby even move upwards towards the house of our Lord where there are many mansions prepared for us So that all the Laws of men which look towards Innocency and Perfection are borrowed Apol. c. 45. saith Tertullian from the Divine Law and all Law-givers are called by Galen and called themselves the Disciples of God Minos of Jupiter Numa of Aegeria Solon of Minerva Lycurgus of Apollo Trismegistus of Mercury none ever having been thought fit to make a Law but God Nulla lex satis commoda omnibus est c. Liv. Dec. 4. l. 4. Nulla tanta esse potuit prudentia majorum ut ad omne genus nequitiae occurrat Quint. Decl. 350. whose Power hath no bounds but his Will and whose Wisdome reacheth over all tempers and constitutions all casualities and contingences all circumstances of Time or Place all cross intercurrent accidents which the narrowness of Mans Understanding and humane Frailty cannot foresee nor prevent Lex erit omne quod ratione consistet saith Tertullian That which bindeth a reasonable creature must it self be reasonable and whatsoever is reasonable is a Law and Reason is a beam of the Divine Light by which all Laws which deserve the name of Laws were drawn The Power of God yea and his Wisdome ruleth over all and his Laws are like himself Qui dat rationem dat legem Tert. de Coron mil. c. 4. just and holy pure and undefiled unchangeable immutable and everlasting fitted to the first age of the world and fitted to the last fitted to the wisest and fitted to the simplest fitted to times of peace and fitted to times of tumult establisht and mighty against all occurrences all alterations all mutations whatsoever There is no time wherein a man may not be just and honest wherein he may not be merciful and compassionate wherein he may not be humble and sincere A Tyrant may strip me of my possessions but he cannot take from me my honesty he may leave me nothing to give but he cannot sequester my Compassion he may lay me in my grave but my Humility will raise me up as high as heaven The great Prince of the air and all his legions of Devils or Men cannot pull us back or stop us in the course of our obedience to the Will and Law of God but we may continue it and carry it along through honour and dishonour through good report and evil report through all the terrours and affrightments which Men or Devils can place in our way What he requireth he required and it may be done yesterday and to day and to the end of the world And as his Wisdome is seen in giving Laws so it is in fitting the means to the end in giving them virtue and force to draw us to a nearer vision and sight of God Wisd 8.1 whose Wisdome reacheth from one end to
another mightily and doth sweetly order all things For which way can frail Man come to see his God but by being like him What can draw him near to his pure Essence but Simplicity and Purity of spirit What can carry us to the God of Love but Charity What can lead us into the courts of Righteousness but Justice What can move a God of tender mercies but Compassion Certainly God will never look down from his Mercy-seat on them that have no bowels In a word what can make us wise but that which is good those virtues Temperance Justice and Liberality which are called the labours of Wisdome Wisd 8.7 Hebr. 6.5 What can bring us into Heaven but this full tast of the powers of the world to come So that there is some truth in that of Gerson Gloria est gratia consummata Glory is nothing else but Grace made perfect and consummate For though we cannot thus draw Grace and Glory together as to make them one and the same thing but must put a difference between the Means and the End yet Wisdome it self hath written it down in an indeleble character and in the leaves of Eternity That there is no other key but this Good in the Text to open the gates of the kingdom of Heaven and he that bringeth this along with him shall certainly enter Heaven and Glory is a thing of another world but yet it beginneth here in this and Grace is made perfect in Glory And therefore in the last place God's absolute Will is not only attended with Power and Wisdome but also with Love And these are the glories of his Will He can do what he will and he will do it by the most proper and fittest means and whatsoever he requireth is the dictate of his Love When he sent his Son the best Master and Wisest Lawgiver that ever was on whose shoulders the government was laid Isa 9.6 he was ushered in with a SIC DILEXIT So God loved the world John 3.16 God's Love seemeth to have the preeminence and to do more then his Power This can but annihilate us but his Love if we embrace it will change our souls and angelifie them change our bodies and spiritualize them endow us with the will and so with the power of God make us differ as much from our selves as if we were not annihilated which his Power can do but which is more made something else something better something nearer to God This is that mighty thing which his Love bringeth to pass We may imagin that a Law is a mere indication of Power that it proceedeth from Rigour and Severity that there is nothing commanded nothing required but there is smoke and thunder and lightning but indeed every Law of God is the natural and proper effect and issue of his Love from his Power it is true but his Power managed and shewn in Wisdome and Love For he made us to this end and to this end he requireth something of us not out of any indigency as if he wanted our company and service for he was as happy before the creation as after but to have some object for his Love and Goodness to work upon to have an exceptory and vessel for the dew of Heaven to fall into As the Jews were wont to say propter Messiam mundum fuisse conditum that the world and all mankind were made for the Messias Psal 2.7 whose business was to preach the Law which his Father said unto him and to declare his will And in this consisteth the perfection and beauty of Man For the perfection of every thing is its drawing near to its first principle and original The nearer and liker a thing is to the first cause that produced it the more perfect it is as that Heat is most perfect which is most intense and hath most of the Fire in it So Man the more he partaketh of that which is truly Good of the Divine nature of which his Soul is as it were a sparkle the more perfect he is because this was the only end for which God made him This was the end of all Gods Laws That he might find just cause to do Man good That Man might draw near to him here by obedience and conformity to his Will and in the world to come reign with him for ever in glory And as this is the perfection so is it the beauty of Man For as there is the beauty of the Lord Psal 27.4 so is there the beauty of the Subject The beauty of the Lord is to have Will and Power and Jurisdiction to have Power and Wisdome to command and to command in Love So is it the beauty of Man to bow and submit and conform to the will of the Lord for what a deformed spectacle is a Man without God in this world Eph. 2.12 which hath Power and Wisdome and Love to beautifie Beauty is nothing else but a result from Perfection The beauty of the Body proceedeth from the symmetrie and due proportion of parts and the beauty of the Soul from the consonancy of the will and affections to the will and law of God Oh how beautiful are those feet which walk in the wayes of life How beautiful and glorious shall he be who walketh in love as God loved him Eph. 5.2 who resteth on his Power walketh by his Wisdome and placeth himself under the shadow of his Love And thus much the substance of these words affords us What doth the Lord require Let us now cast an eye upon them in the form and habit in which they are presented and consider the manner of proposing them Now the Prophet proposeth them by way of interrogation And as he asked the question Wherewith shall I come before the Lord so doth he here ask what doth the Lord require He doth not speak in positive terms as the Prophet Jeremiah doth Ask for the old paths Jer 6.16 where is the good way and walk therein Isa 30.21 or as the Prophet Isaiah This is the way walk in it but shapeth and formeth his speach to the temper and disposition of the people who sought out many wayes but missed of the right And so we find Interrogations to be fitted and sharpned like darts and then sent towards them who could not be awaked with less noyse nor less smart And we find them of diverse shapes and fashions Sometimes they come as Complaints Psal 2.1 Why do the heathen rage sometimes as Upbraidings How camest thou in hither Matth. 22.12 2 Sam. 2 22. Matth. 22.18 sometimes as Admonitions Why should I now kill thee sometimes as Reproofs Why tempt ye me you Hypocrites And whithersoever they fly they are feathered and pointed with Reason For there is no reason why that should be done of which Christ asketh a reason why it is done The question here hath divers aspects It looketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forward and backward It looketh back upon the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For this Law was not of yesterday but eternal and I ought not for fear of any man to break the Law of God and Nature And what better answer can a Christian make to all unlawful commands either of those we love or of those we fear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God hath not enacted these I see more of the claw of the Devil then finger of God in them These are Novellae institutionis but of yesterday the breathings and dictates it may be of Lust and Covetousness of Pride and Ambition and I must not consider what Man what this Man this Lord or this Potentate but what the Lord of Lords and King of Kings requireth at my hands When his Laws are publisht all others must be silent or as little hearkened to as if they were as when the Sun appeareth the Stars are not seen nor seen at any time-but with that light which they borrow from it For again as he is Lord paramount and hath an absolute Will so his Will is attended with Power with that Power which made thee And he did not make thee a Man that thou shouldest make thy self a beast of burden to couch under every load which the hand of a Pharisee will be ready to lay upon thee He did not make thee capable of a Law that thou shouldst keep the Laws of the Flesh or of Men. He did not publish his will that upon this or that pretense thou shouldest resist it that the fear of a frown or the love of the world should be stronger and prevail with thee more then his Will For if thou wilt not do what he requireth he will not do what thou expectest but leave thee to thy choice to those new Lords and Masters under the same wrath and curse to walk delicately along with them to that vengeance which will fall upon the heads of those who will not hearken to this Lord. For thirdly by the same Power he preserveth and protecteth thee which all Power that is over us doth not For then the Thief may be said to protect him he robbeth the Strong man may be said to protect him he bindeth the Oppressour him whom he hath eaten up and Cain to have protected Abel when he knockt out his brains But the power of God is a saving and preserving Power and under the shadow of his wings we shall be safe And to this end he spreadeth his wing over us he guideth and holdeth us up that we may walk before him in all obedience in the land of the living bowing to his will against our Lust against our Ambition against all those machinations and temptations which press upon us to break his will even whilst we are under his wing What should a Wanton an Oppressour a man of Belial do under God's wing And yet we see many times they play and revel it in the shadow when they that do his will are beaten with the tempest and yet are safer there then the others are in their Paradise are the miracles of God's Providence to be manifested at last to all the world It is true the wicked are in some sort under God's wing for he upholdeth and continueth them and prolongeth their daies And if an eye of flesh may judge they are the greatest favourites of this Lord and if the world were heaven they were the onely Saints 1 Cor. 2.15 But the spiritual man judgeth all things and to his eye they are but a sad and ruful spectacle as condemned men led with musick to execution For God preserveth and protecteth them no otherwise then he doth Serpents and Vipers and Beasts of prey He upholdeth them no otherwise then he doth the Earth and the Devils and Hell it self which he preserveth for them as he reserveth them for it as S. Jude speaketh in his Epistle And then Jude 6. as Abraham said to the Rich man Son remember Luke 16.25 thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things so shall this Lord say to those to a Cain to a Nimrod an Ahab a Pharisee a Hypocrite Remember you were under my wing under my protection and remember what you did there how you beat your fellow-servants how you stripped one dispossessed another killed a third how even then when you were under my wing when I upheld and preserved you you said in your hearts there was no God Psal 14.1 This is a fearful and hideous change like the fall of Lucifer Onely he fell from heaven indeed these from an imaginary one a heaven built up with a thought but both fall into the same place Oh then since he made us since in him we live Acts 17.28 and move and have our being let us live unto this Lord let our motion be regular and let us be what he would have us to be Let it be our wisdome to follow him in those waies which his infinite Wisdome hath drawn out for us Let our Love be the echo of his Love This Wisdome is from above and this Love is kindled from the coal of a Cherubin is a fire from heaven kindled in our hearts and it will lick up all fluid and unbounded desires in us Let us remember that God hath endowed us with faculty and ability to do what he requireth that he hath committed and entrusted this unto us for this end that he doth now as it were manu suâ tenere debitores that he hath us in his power obliged and bound fast unto him by this his gift as by an instrument or bond 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Apostle's word Rom. 3.2 and it is the very word which the Civilians use He hath committed and entrusted his commandments and requireth something of us And as he that entrusteth his money doth not lose the propriety of it no more doth God of that substance of our intellectual and practick faculties which he hath put into our hands He hath not passed them over to us as a free and absolute gift Luke 19.13 but left them onely to traffick with and improve till he come For in receiving the Law and will and faculty to observe it Arist. Eth. 5. we make a kind of contract with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle For the Law it self is a kind of contract or covenant because he that cometh under a Law hath bound himself to keep it Let us remember then that we come under many obligations I cannot name the several waies we stand obliged to this Lord. We may comprehend all in that axiome of the Civilians Tot obligationes praesumuntur quot sunt scripturae We have as many engagements and obligations as there be instruments and writings betwixt us and there are as many as there be precepts and commands which are the best helps to promote us to perfection Let us then provide against the day of trial For not to keep covenant with this Lord but when he cometh to make inquisition whither
promote us in the performance of our duty As S. Paul speaketh I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me Phil. 4.13 Who if we call upon him with that sincere fervour and humility which our Weakness and his Majesty require is ready at hand ready by his power and assistance to preserve the Rich safe from the contagion of wealth and the snare of the devil and to purge the Unclean person and to keep him from the foolish woman Prov. 9.13 14. and the door of her house Why why shouldst thou lay so unjust an imputation upon so just and merciful a Lord Numb 23.19 God is not as Man that he should lye God is not as Man that he should bid us do what we cannot do Such indeed is our miserable condition under the sons of men under those who are built up of the same mould and earth which we are Many times our Superiours grow wanton and as they can be angry for no other reason but because they will be angry so they will command to shew their power Exod. 5.17 tell us we are Idle when we are impotent give us such commands as the Devil 's was to the men of Delos Prodigiosum oraculum hoc fuit liberatum iri Delios malis praesentibus si aram Deli duplicassent Plut. de urb Theb. Socratis Daemon Rom. 3.4 to double his Altar to double a cube or square Which hath troubled the wits of all ages to find out And shall we phansie such a God unto our selves This were at once to divest him of his Majesty and Goodness and take him from his throne first to slander and blaspheme him and then break his Law and comfort our selves in our rebellion Nay rather let God be true and all men be liars For he requireth of us no more then we can do And to conclude when we cannot do it he requireth but the Will And as it is a great sin nolâ—e cùm possis not to be willing when thou canst do it so is it a great vertue velle cùm non possis to be willing when thou canst not do it Praestat operibus voluntas Hilar. in Psal 128. Saepe honorata virtus est ubi eam impellit exitus Sen. Controv. c. 4. 7. Psal 26.8 57.7 1 Cor. 14.15 And thus I may be poor when I am rich I may be liberal when I do not give and I may be humble in a triumph I may do what I do not For with God to will is to do because when our hands are bound that is left free nor hath Man or Devil any power over it Persecution may seal up the Church doors yet I may love the place where God's honour dwelleth Power may seal up my lips yet I may say with David My heart my heart is prepared and my prayers are loud when they are not heard and I am heard though I cannot speak I may pray with the tongue and I may pray with the spirit and I may pant forth those prayers which I must not say I may do what God requireth when I have neither mouth nor tongue nor hand For what doth he require 2 Cor. 8.12 That which a man hath and not that which he hath not That which thou canst do and that which thou mayest do with ease and that which thou mayest do with delight Here are these three first it is possible secondly easie thirdly delightful And these are those Wings Ezek. 1.9 joyned one to another and carrying us streight forward towards the mark These are as the Wheels v. 16 and on these our Obedience may move on in an even and constant course till we are brought to our journeys end even to that place of rest which is prepared for all those who are ready to hearken and do what the Lord requireth We pass now to the particulars The Fourth SERMON PART IIII. MICAH VI. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly c. WE have seen what this Good is for it is shewn unto us And we have beheld it in the commanding form and power of a Law for God requireth it who as he made the whole world for Man so made Man for himself and bound him to that which might make him free to walk at liberty in those paths which lead unto that happiness which is with him for evermore We compared it to the Tree of Life And the Heart of Man is the Paradise the soyl wherein it must grow And it is so a celestial Paradise a Paradise of the purest and sincerest delights when this Good is planted and well rooted in it We have taken a survey of it in its generality as it were in the bulk and body and substance of it We descend now to particulars to gather some fruit from the parts and branches of it Which are three first Justice or Honesty secondly the Love of Mercy thirdly an Humble and reverent deportment and walking with our God The first is Justice or Honesty Which is a smooth and streight and even branch and we reap the fruit thereof in peace To do justly is but one but it spreadeth it self and in its full latitude taketh in all the duties of our life For we are no sooner Men but we are debtours under obligations to God to Men and to Our selves The Apostle comprehendeth all in three words 1 Thes 2.10 Ye are witnesses how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved our selves amongst you First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how holily in relation to God For we are bound to him as Sons to honour him as Subjects to obey him as Servants to do his will in brief to be holy as he is holy Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how justly in respect of men For we are not left at large but as there is a relation of Man to God so there is of one man to another All men are bound to every man and every man is bound to all There is an instrument and obligation drawn between them a kind of counterbond to secure one from the other and it is written and sealed up in every heart and by the hand of God himself To do to others as we would have others do to us If men would be but men Matth. 7.12 this would be what it was made for the Security of the whole world Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how unblamably in respect of himself and his personal conversation For though we scarce believe it or consider it as little as if it were not true we our selves are bound unto our selves and in all the assaults we make either against God or our Neighbour the first injury we do is to our selves We are bound to our Bodies not to make them the instruments and weapons of unrighteousness and we are bound to our Souls not to pawn or sell them to our lusts we are bound to our Flesh as a migistrate
Honesty is but of a narrow compass which measureth it self out by that rule and reacheth no further then to that point which the Laws of men have set up and maketh that its Non ultra Fest. verb. Pietas Piety constraineth us to do many things where the Law leaveth us free What Law did force that pious Daughter to suckle her old Father in prison and nourish him with the milk from her own breasts Spartianus or Antonine the Emperour to lead his aged Father-in-law and ease and support him with his hand Again Humanity bindeth us where the Law is silent Humanitatis est quaedam nescire velle For where was it enacted that we should not open the letters no not of our enemies yet Julius Caesar burnt those which he found in their Tents whom he had conquered and the Athenians and Pompey did the like Liberality hath no Law and yet it is a debt No Law enjoyneth me to keep my promise and make good my faith and yet my promise bindeth me as firmly Beati divites quia caeteris prodesse possunt debent Alciat de verb. Significat and should be as sacred as my oath All these are extra publicas tabulas not to be found in our Statute-books that confineth his studies and endeavours to these that hath no other compass to steer by in the course of his life then that which he there findeth written Fides juramentum aequiparantur ut hoc servari debet ita illa Menoch cap. 367. cannot take this honour to himself this honourable title of a Just and Honest man For how many inventions and wiles have men found out to work iniquity as by a Law to drive the proprietary out of his possessions before the Sun and the people and then wipe their mouths and proclaim it as just to all the world How many eat no other bread but that which is kneaded by craft and oppression and sometimes with blood and yet count it as Manna sent down from Heaven How short is the hand of the Law to reach these Nay how doth the Law it self many times enable them to invade the territories of others and to riot it at pleasure How is it made their musick Consensere jura peccatis c. Cypr. ad Donat by which they dance in other mens blood Justice or common Honesty is but one word but of a larger compass then Ambition and Covetousness are willing to walk in In a word A thing may not be just and honest and yet there may be no Law to punish it no man that dare reprehend it Cicer. 2. de Finib â—3 Lex Stagiritarum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aelian Var. Hist l. 3. c. 46. Clem. Alex. 2. Strom. 398. Dolus quidam in contractu est non indicare errorem Hermias apud Damas in Phot. Bibl. saith Tully Take not up that which thou laid'st not down count that which thou findest in the way but as a pledge to be returned upon demand said the Stagirites If thou sell a thing declare the fault of it If thou under-buy a thing upon the discovery pay the full price These no humane Law but Justice and Honesty and the Law of Nature requireth To collect and draw out a catalogue of all those irregularities in behaviour which will not consist with Justice and Honesty as it is a thing not necessary to be done so is it impossible to do it For as day unto day teacheth the knowledge of that which is good so day unto day and hour unto hour teach the knowledge of that which is evil and it is not easie to open those Mysteries of iniquity The mind of Man when it is corrupted is restless in finding out new and untrodden paths which may lead to its desired end and is wheeled about from one falshood to another begetteth a second lye to defend the first and draweth in cheat upon cheat that it may have at least the shadow of Justice and Honesty to veil and obscure it And so long he is an Honest man that is not a detected knave as he is counted a good Lawyer who can find out something in fraudem legis some hansome colour or fetch to delude the Law He that hath the sentence on his side is Just and he that is fallen from his cause is fallen from the truth and so honesty is bound up in the verdict of the Jury and twelve perjured men may make an oppressour honest when they please We will not therefore go in Hue and Cry after every thief nor follow the deceitful person in those rounds and windings and turnings which he maketh And I can truly say Non multùm incola fuit anima mea I have been but a stranger and sojourner in these tents of Mesech I have not so much conversed in these waies of thrift and arts of living as to read a lecture upon them and discover the Method and course of them It may so fall out and doth too often that they who are the best artists in these are the worst of men For the wisdome of this world is not like that in Aristotle which resisteth in it self and never seeketh another end For in this the theory and the practice go hand in hand and advance one another Nor do we make use of it onely to preserve and defend our selves but we let it out to disquiet and diminish others And they that tread these hidden and indirect wayes though they hide themselves from others yet seldome do so far deceive themselves as not to know they walk deceitfully They check and comfort themselves at once they know they do not justly and yet this thought setteth them forward in their course even this poor and unworthy thought That it is good to be rich and so the light which they see is somewhat offensive but the Love of gain is both a provocative and a cordial Isa 28.17 We will therefore bring Justice to the line and Righteousnes to the plummet and have recourse to the Law and the Prophets not stand gazing upon the practice of the world and actions of men but look upon the rule by which a diligent eye may easily discover all particulars swervings and deviations though they be as many as the atomes before the Sun For as Seneca well difficile est animam suam effugere it is a hard matter for a man to fly from himself or to divest himself of those principles with which he was born or so to fling them from him as that they shall never return to restrain and curb him or at least to molest him when his flesh and lusts are wanton and unruly and violent to break their bounds And now what doth the Lord require but to do justly that is but to do that which first the Law of Nature requireth secondly that which he at sundry times by holy men and his Prophets hath taught Hebr. 1.1 and in the last daies hath urged and improved
by his Son Christ Jesus the Prince of Peace and Righteousness So that Justice doth raise it self upon these two pillars Nature and Religion which are like the two pillars in the porch of the Temple Jachin and Boaz 1 Kings 7.21 and do strengthen and establish Justice as that doth the pillars of the earth Cant. 5 15. or as the Legs of the Bridegroom in the Canticles which were as pillars of marble set upon sockets of pure gold For the wisdome and strength of Christ and Christianity consist in adorning and improving of Nature and setling a true and perfect Religion and the sockets the bases are of pure gold Basis aurea timor plenus disciplinae saith Ambrose The golden Basis which upholdeth all is a well-disciplined Fear by which we walk with circumspection and carefully observe the Law of Nature and the Law of Christ and by the Law of Nature and the brighter and clearer light of Scripture so steer our course that we dash not against those dangerous rocks of Deceit and Violence of Oppression and Wrong that we may not spem nostram alienis miseriis inaugurare increase our selves by diminishing others not rise by another mans ruin not be enriched by another mans loss not begin and inaugurate and crown our hopes and desires with other mens miseries nor bath our selves with delight in the tears of the widow and the fatherless but rather suffer wrong then do it rather lose our coat then take away our brothers vitâmque impendere vero rather lose that we have yea life it self then our Honesty and so by being Men and by being Christians fulfil all Righteousness And first Nature it self hath hewn and squared all Mankind as it were out of the same quarry and rock hath built them up out of the same Materials into a Body and Society into a City compact within it self For the whole World is but as one City and all the Men therein in respect of mutual offices of love are but of one Corporation Isa 51.1 Look unto the rock out of which you were hewn and the hole of the pit whence you were digged Look unto the common seed plot out of which you were all extracted and there you shall discover that near relation and fraternity that maketh every man a Neighbor a Brother to every man how they are not onely together children of Corruption and kin to the Worm and Rottenness but the workmanship of the same immortal Hand and illimitted Power Sons of one Father Gen. 1 26. who hath built them up in his image and according to his likeness which though it may be more resplendent and more improved in one then in another yet is that impression which is made and stampt on all From the same Rock are hewed out the weak and feeble man and Ish the man of strength Job 21.24 who hath milk in his breasts and marrow in his bones From the same Hand is that face we turn away from and that face we so much gaze on the Scribe and the active Idiote the narrow understanding that receiveth little and the active and piercing wit which runneth to and fro the earth the plain simple man that hath no ends and the subtile Politician who multiplieth his every day and can compass them all Of the same extraction are the purple Gallant and the russet pilgrime And he that made all casteth an equal eye on all bindeth every hand from violence and every heart from forging deceit maketh every man a guard and protection to every man giveth every man a guard and conduct for himself and others And to every man the word is given Psal 105.15 Touch not another and Do him no harm Thus hath God fensed us in and taken care that the strong man bind not the weak that the Scribe over-reach not the idiote that the Politician supplant not the innocent that the experienced man defraud not the ignorant but that every mans strength and wit and experience and wisdome should be advantageous and not hurtful to others that so the weak man may be strong with another mans strength and the ignorant man wise with anothers experience and the idiote be secured by the wisdome of the Scribe For who hath made all these have not I the Lord And then if he made them and linkt them together in one common tye of nature 1 Cor. 4.7 quis discernet as the Apostle speaketh who shall divide and separate them who shall divide the rich from the poor that he should set him at his footstool and despise him the strong from the weak that he should beat him to the ground the wise from the ignorant that he should baffle and deceive him Indeed some distance some difference some precedency of one before the other may shew it self to an eye of flesh but yet even an eye of flesh may see how to reunite and gather them together as one and the same in their original RESPICITE ZVR Look unto the rock the vein out of which you were taken and then what Moses spake to the Israelites when they strove together may be spoken to all the men in the world Acts 7.26 Sirs you are brethren why do you defraud or use violence why do you wrong one to another But in the next place besides this our common Extraction the God of Nature who hath built us all out of the same materials hath also imprinted those Principles those Notions those Inclinations in the heart of every man which may be as so many buttresses and supporters to uphold this frame and to make us dwell together in all simplicity and innocency of conversation not in envy and malice in fraud and deceit but with courtesie and affability helping and supporting one another which is that Justice which God requireth at our hands Nulla anima sine crimine quia nulla sine boni semine saith Tertullian No soul can plead Not guilty here because no soul is destitute of this seed of Goodness And thus we see in Rom. 1. where S. Paul maketh up that catalogue of foul irregularities Rom. 1.29 c. he draggeth the unrighteous the covetous the malicious the deceitful the inventors of evil things the covenant-breakers to no other tribunal then that of Nature and condemneth them by no other Law then that which we brought with us into the world Quaedam jura non scripta Senec. contr Solonis leges ligneis axibus incisae Gell. l. 2. c. 12. sed omnibus scriptis certiora saith the Oratour This Law is not written and therefore is written to all and being connatural to us is more sure and infallible then those which are written in wood or engraven in brass or marble And one would think that it were as superfluous and needless to make any other Law to bind us to Justice and upright dealing one towards another as to command children to love their parents or parents to be indulgent to their children
brought forth a Regulus a Cato a Fabricius and many other Worthies who shewed to posterity the possibility of keeping this Law so far as to be Just and do as yet teach and upbraid us Christians By this Law and by no other then this were the Aediles or Clarks of the market in Rome directed to lay it down as a Law That whosoever sold any commodity was to disclose to the buyer what fault what defect what imperfection it had If he sold an house in which the plague had been he was to proclaim it by the common cryer Pestilentem domum vendo I sell an infectious house If he sold a horse he was to make known the diseases if a piece of cloth the falshood of it For if he did not this there lay an action against him actio redhibitoria by which he was constrained to take back his wares again or make good the damage to the buyer Solebant Aediles malas merces in flumen jactare Plin. Nat. Hist p. 638. By this they flung all false and deceitful wares into the river This hath been done in Gath and Ashkelon what a strange sight would it be in Jerusalem This hath been done amongst Heathens aliens from the grace of God and is it not pity it should appear as ridiculous amongst us Christians who make our boast of Gods grace all the day along Should we put it in practice what objects of scorn and laughter should we be made to the men of this world who would call us fools or set us down for none of the wisest or which is the easiest censure place us in the number of those who may be wise perhaps but will not be wise for themselves Hier. ad Eustoch Amittit meritò proprium qui alienum appetit Vide Auson Epiced in patrem vet Interp. in Sat. Juvenal Deut. 27.17 Qui terminum exarasset ipse boves sacri Fest in verbo Terminus But S. Hierome goeth further and addeth Aliena appetentes publicae leges puniunt The publick Laws did punish even those who did but seek after or desire another mans possessions perhaps alluding to that custome of the Antients who straitly forbad that any man should add to or diminish that which he possest Lastly this was it that made them sacrifice Deo Termino to the God of bounds And as God laid a curse upon him that removed the land-mark so did Numa by the light of Nature even upon him who though by chance had plowed it up Such is the tye of Nature so great an obligation doth it carry with it For whatsoever is done against Nature all men saith Tertullian esteem as monstrous but Christians sacrilegious against God who is the Lord and Authour of Nature And further we press not this consideration For in the second place Justice and Honesty have yet a fairer pillar more polished and beautiful more radiant and manifest to the eye Besides the Law of Nature or Humane Laws which are but the extracts and resultations from it we have a Law written the Law of God who is the God of truth Deut. 32.4 Hab. 1.13 and of pure eyes that cannot behold deceit and violence and the Law of that great Law-giver the Prince of Righteousness in whose mouth there was found no guile 1 Pet. 1.22 And this maketh our obligation to do justly the stronger De relig c. 6. Lex prohibens omnia delicta congeminat saith Augustine The superaddition of a Law to the Law written in our hearts aggravateth and multiplieth a sin because after the open promulgation of a Law we do not onely that which is unlawful in it self but also that which is by supreme authority forbidden Now when we speak of a Law we do not mean the Law of Moses although that commandeth to make our Hin right and our Ephah right Levit. 19.36 Leges 12 Tabul Nè Agrum defraudanto Nè frugem aratro quaesitam noctu furtâ—m depascunto Puberes si secanto Cereri eos suspendunto Impuberes arbâ—trio Praetoris verberanto Ac noxae tal onem decernunto Plin. Nat Hist l. 28. c 3. That that should be restored which was either violently or deceitfully taken away Levit. 6.4 That that which goeth astray or is lost should be restored Deut. 22.1 2 3. That the hired servant be not oppressed Deut. 24.14 15. That he that killeth a beast shall restore it Levit. 24.21 That he that smiteth a man so that he keepeth his bed shall pay for the loss of his time and cause him to be throughly healed Exod. 21.18 19. That if a man feed his beast in another mans field he shall make restitution out of his own field Exod. 22.5 That in buying and selling they should not oppress one another Levit. 25.14 but legem Evangelicam the Law which was preached and promulged by Righteousness it self the best Master Christ Jesus And by this Christians are obliged above all the men in the world because they are Disciples of a better Testament For Christ came not to destroy the Law of Nature but to establish and improve it And though Christs Law propose some duties to which peradventure by clear evidence we are not obliged by the Law of Nature yet they who have most improved and perfected their Reason even by the light of Reason will subscribe to them that they are just and good and as they concern our conversation with men most fit to be done and most worthy of observation Innocentiam perfectè nôrant Christiani perfecto Magistro revelatam Apolog. saith Tertullian That Innocency of life which beateth down all violence checketh and confuteth all Sophistry and deceit in dealing is most exactly learnt by Christians from the best and perfectest Master that ever was Who that we may not kill hath taught us not to be angry that we may shut out uncleanness hath shut up our eyes that we may not do evil hath prohibited us to speak or think it and is so far from permitting his disciples to do any injury that he hath expresly and straitly commanded them with patience to bear any that is offered Quis illic sicarius quis manticularius quis sacrilegus What Christian saith he is a murderer or a theif or a sacrilegious person Or will he steal thy coat who by his profession is bound to give thee his and his cloak also It was a common saying amongst them Bonus vir Caius Seius Caius Seius was a just good man certainly and there was but one fault in him and that was that he was a Christian When the Souldiers askt John the Baptist What shall we do Luk. 3.13 14. he returned an answer which did not disarm them but bound their hands from violence and wrong Do no violence accuse no man falsly and be content with your wages The Publicanes were odious even to a proverb yet he vouchsafeth them an answer Exact no more then is appointed you Will you hear our Saviour from the mount You cannot but
end for it it will be eternal Thus have we seen Justice or Honesty in its full shape and beauty fastned upon its proper pillars the Law of Nature and the Law of the God of Nature Let us now see by way of application with what eye and favour the world of Men and the world of Christians have lookt upon it whether they have not relied more on those pillars of smoke and air their private Phansie and private Interest then upon these pillars of marble that God himself hath set up which are firm and strong and might bear them up to build upon them that Justice which would raise them up above the dying and killing glories of this world to that which is everlasting in the highest heavens First the complaint is old that Justice or honesty hath long since left the earth or rather is driven out of it To speak truth when her territories were largest when she stretcht the curtains of her habitation furthest she did but angustè habitare took up but little room and her retinue was but small She never yet could tithe the children of men and it had been well if she had taken in one of an hundred It were even a labour to shew the divers arts and inventions of men which they make use of to work out their way to honour and the riches of this world Ad haec simplicem hactenus vivendi rationem excogitatis mensuris ponderibus immutavit pristinámque sinceritatem generositatem ignaram talium artium in novam quandam versutiam depravavit Joseph Antiq. Judaic l. 1. c. 3. Sen de Benef. l. 7. c. 10. Cain is blamed by Josephus for first finding out Weights and Measures which was a tacite and silent accusation that that age was corrupt in which so much caution was necessary Quid foenus kalendarium faith Seneca What are Interest and the Kalendar and your Count-Books but names extra naturam posita found out quite besides and beyond the intention of Nature What are your Bills and Obligations and Indentures but as so many libels wherein you profess to the world that you dare not trust one another and that you believe men cannot be honest unless they be bound Plus annulis quà m animis creditis Your Seal-rings are a better assurance then your Faiths And how do too many sell themselves but not for bread How in all sorts and conditions of men have some used their Power others their Wit pro lege publica instead of a publick Law and have entitled themselves the just possessours of that estate into which they have wrought themselves with hands of Oppression Robbery and Deceit It hath been an old reproach laid upon Common-wealths That they did set common honesty to sale The Athenians had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a tribute out of the stews and we are told that Christians have so if Rome may yet be thought to be in Christendome Look into the Civil Law Codice de Spect. Scen. Lenonibus of Theatrical Shews Stage-playes and Bawds and you shall find that even from hence from these loathsome and nasty dunghills of corruption Emperours and Common-wealths have sucked gain Mathematicians Juglers Fortune-tellers Thieves and which the Father could not tell whether he should grieve or blush at inter hos Christiani vectigales Tert. Apolog. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. Arist 2. Rhet. Fest Verb. uxor Tacitus amongst this rabble Christians also were brought in as tributary This was exacted from Poor men from Statues from Dead-men from very Urine and this to the Emperour was a sweet-smelling savour In one age they did Vxorium pendere pay a sum of money for not being married in another etiam Matrimonia obnoxia they who were married were liable to this exaction Quocunque modo rem Gain was welcome at what gate or postern soever it came in So soon did they forget they were Men so little did they regard the Law of Nature And it were to be wished that this evil had stayed here that this art of unjust and unlawful acquisition had been onely known in the tents of Kedar But by degrees it stole in and found enterteinment in the Church of God and Christians forgetting their profession quae nil nisi justum suadet which should be known by Justice and Equity and Contempt of the world began to think stolen waters sweet and to feed greedily on the bread of Deceit and Violence For as the Pharisees did teach their children to say to their Father and Mother Mark 7.11 Corban which is not a curse as some have imagined for the Pharisees were too wise to be so openly wicked as to teach men to curse their parents to have done this had been to forfeit their phylacteries but it was their craft and policy an art to fill their Treasurie to teach children who were offended with their parents to consecrate their wealth to the Treasury that so they might defeat that other Law which bound them to supply their parents in want and distress So even within the pale of the Church there have been found men whose Phylacteries were as broad as theirs who by holy fraud did take into their hands the possessions of the earth and at last laid claim unto the whole world and that upon the score of Religion taught men to redeem their ill-spent time with a piece of silver What were else the Prayers for the dead as they were used in the Church of Rome but the price of mens souls For the very thought of the power and efficacy of them drove men to a more supine and negligent conversation to weary themselves in the wayes of wickedness having such a pillow to sleep on For what need they be diligent to make their election sure whilest they live who are fully perswaded that this may be done by proxy for them when they are dead This is truly the Pharisees Corban to teach men to rob their parents to endanger their souls by religion that so their treasuries may be full This is to make that monumentum sceleris a lasting monument of craft and policy which should have been specimen pietatis an example and expression of piety This is to cheat men into charity and liberality which should be free and voluntary with false hopes It was the saying of Martine Luther Papatus est robusta venatio Romani Episcopi that Popery was nothing else but a close senting and following of gain and hunting after the riches and pomp of the world For if men will not give or yield up their estates either Policy shall betray or Power like a whirlwind snatch them away When Peter's Keyes are too weak Julius the Second flingeth them into the River Tiber with this Christian resolution to try what Paul's Sword could do We may say with the Wise man that this is an evil disease under the Sun a disease which did not onely envenome that politick Estate which is nothing else but a Disease but did also
peculiar and proper to the Gospel and Christian religion proper in the highest and strictest degree of Propriety Every good Christian is a peaceable man and every peaceable man is a good Christian Look into your prisons saith Tertullian to persecuting Heathens Apolog. and you shall find no Christians there and if you do it is not for murder or theft or cozenage or breach of the peace the cause for which they are bound and confined there is onely this That they are Christians This is that height of Perfection which the vanity of Philosophy and the weakness and unprofitableness of the Law could not reach Hebr. 7.18 19. Neither could the Jew bring any thing ex horreis suis out of his granary his store or basket nor the Philosopher è narthecio suo out of his box of oyntments out of his book of prescripts which could supple a soul to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this tranquility and quietness which might purge and sublime and lift it up above the world and all the flattery and terrour that is in it Humane Reason was too weak to discover the benefit the pleasure the glory of it Nor was it seen in its full beauty till that Light came into the world which did improve and exalt and perfect our Reason The Philosophers cryed down Anger yet gave way to Revenge laid an imputation upon the one yet gave line and liberty to the other Both Tully and Aristotle approve it as an act of Justice Exod. 21.24 Matth. 5.38 42 c. The language of the Law was An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth It was said to them of old You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy but the return of the Gospel is a blessing for a curse love for hatred a prayer for persecution Whatsoever the Law required that doth the Gospel require and much more an Humility more bending a Patience more constant a Meekness more suffering a Quietness more setled because those heavenly promises which the Philosopher never heard of were more and more clearly proposed in the Gospel then under the Law For is not Eternity of bliss a stronger motive then the Basket or Glory or Temporal enjoyments Is not Heaven more attractive then the Earth Under the Law this Peace and Quietness was but a promise a blessing in expectation and in the Schools of Philosophers it was but a phansie The Peace and Quietness they had was raised out of weak and failing principles de industria consultae aequanimitatis De Anima c. 1. non de fiducia compertae veritatis saith Tertullian out of an industrious affected endurance of every evil that it might not be worse out of a politick resolution to defeat the evil of its smart but not out of conscience or assurance of that truth which brought light and immortality to settle the mind to collect and gather it within it self in the midst of all those provocations and allurements which might shew themselves to divide and distract it but remain it self untoucht and unmoved looking forward through all these vanishing shadows and apparitions which either smile or threaten to that glory which cannot be done away This Christianity only can effect This was the business of the Prince of Peace who came into the world but not with drum and colours Tertull. cont Iudaeos Psal 72.6 but with a rattle rather not with noise but like rain on the mowen grass not destroying his enemies but making them his friends not as a Caesar or Alexander but as an Angel and Embassadour of peace not denouncing war but proclaiming a Jubilee with no sword but that of the Spirit Who made good that prophesie of the Prophet that swords should be turned into plow shares Micah 4.3 4. and spears into pruning books that all Bitterness and Malice of heart should be turned into the love and study of Modesty and Peace that every man should sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree gather his own fruit and not reach out his hand into another mans vineyard not offer violence nor fear it not disturb his brothers peace nor be jealous of his own not trouble others nor be afraid himself that the Earth might be a temporal paradise a type and representation of that which is eternal For this Christ came into the world and brought power enough with him to perform it and put this power into our hands that we may make it good And when he hath drawn out the method of it when he hath taught us the art to do it when there is nothing wanting but our will the Prophesie is fulfilled For it was never yet foretold by any Prophet that they should be quiet who made it their delight and study and the business of their whole life to trouble themselves and others What could Christ in wisdome have done more then he hath done He hath digged up Dissension at the very root Malè velle malè dicere malè cogitare ex aequo vetamur saith Tertullian To wish evil to speak evil to think evil are alike forbidden in the Gospel which restaineth the Will bindeth the Hand bridleth the Tongue fettereth the very Thoughts commandeth us to love an enemy to surrender our coat to him who hath stript us of our cloak to return a blessing for a reproch and to anoint his head with oyl who hath struck us to the ground which punisheth not the ends only but even the beginnings of dissension which bringeth every part to its own place the Flesh under the Spirit the Will under the law of Charity which is the Peace of the Soul the obedience of Faith under the eternal Law which is our Peace with God the Servant under the Master the Child under the Parent the Subject under the Magistrate which is the Peace of an House of a Commonwealth of the World which maketh every part dwell together in unity begetteth a parity in disparity raiseth equality out of inequality keepeth every wheel in its due motion every man in his right place is that Intelligence which moveth the lesser sphere of a Family and the greater orb of a Commonwealth composedly and orderly which is its Peace For Peace and Quiet is the order and harmony of things The Father calleth it a Harp and it is never well set or tuned but by an Evangelical hand which slacketh and letteth down the string of our Self love to an Hatred of our selves and windeth up the string of our Love to our brother in an equal proportion to the Love of our selves We must hate our life in this world Joh. 12.25 and we must love our brother as our selves Nay it letteth it lower yet Matth. 22.39 even to our enemies and the sound of it must reach unto them Talk what we will of Peace if it be not tuned and touched by Charity if it take not its rise and spring from this Peace here from the Peace of the Gospel it
which we offer him a place and seat for honours sake who hath done some notable and meritorions service And so Christ having spoiled the adversary by his death having led captivity captive and put the Prince of darkness in chains at his return with these spoils heareth from his Father Sit now down at my right hand Nor doth God's right hand point out to any fixt or determined place where he sitteth For Christ himself telleth the high Priest that they shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of God and coming in the clouds of heaven Mark 14.62 which if literally 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 Christ 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 principality and power 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 Atha Nas Cr. Not that the Son hath any thing more then the Father for they are equal 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 But we may say with Tertullian Malo in scripturis fortè minùs sapere quà m contrá De Pudicit c. 9 We had rather understand less in Scripture then amiss 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 S. Paul hath interpreted it to our hands For whereas the Prophet David telleth us The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand the Apostle speaketh more expresly 1 Cor. 15.25 He must reign till he hath put down all enemies under his feet and in the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 8.1 We have such an high Priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens that is We have such an high Priest who 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 bodies 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 cross yet now his dominion and Kingly power was most manifest and he commandeth his Disciples to publish the Gospel of peace and those precepts of Christian conversation to all the world and speaketh not as a Prophet but as a Prince in his own name enjoyneth repentance and amendment of life to all the nations of the earth which were now all under his dominion Thus saith Christ himself Luke 24.46 47. it is writen and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his name among all nations And his Dominion is not subordinate Matth. 8.9 but absolute He commandeth not as the Centurion in the Gospel who had divers under him yet himself was under authority but Prov. 30.31 as Solomon's King he is Rex ALKVM 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 sitteth to rule and govern us to behold and observe us in every motion and in every thought and will nay must come again with a reward for those who bow to his sceptre and with vengeance to be poured forth upon their heads who contemn his laws and think neither of him nor the right hand of God and will not have him reign over them though they call him their King let us a little further consider the nature and quality of his Dominion that our fear and reverence our care and caution may draw him yet a little nearer to us and we may not onely conceive of him as sitting at the right hand of God but so live as if he were now coming in the clouds Tell ye the daughter of Sion Matth. 2.51 Behold thy King cometh to thee meek and sitting on an ass and a colt the foal of an ass This was his first coming in great humility Philip. 2.8 9. And this and his retinue shew that his Kigdom was not of this world He humbled himself saith S. Paul wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name given him power dignity and honour and made him our Lord and King For his Prophetical office which he exercised in the land of Judea was in a manner an act and effect of his Kingly office by which he sitteth as Lord in the throne of Mejesty For by it he declared his Fathers will and promulged his Laws throughout the world As a King and Lord he maketh his Laws and as a Prophet he publisheth them a Prophet and a Priest and a Lord for ever For he teacheth his Church he mediateth and intercedeth for his Church and governeth his Church to the end of the world Take then the Laws by which he governeth us the virtue and power the compass and duration of his Dominion and we shall find it to be of a higher and more excellent nature then that which the eye of flesh so dazleth at Rev. 19.16 that he is The LORD of Lords and KING of Kings And first the difference between his Dominion and the Kingdomes of the world is seen not onely in the Authours but the Laws themselves The Laws of men are enacted many times nec quid nec quare and no reason can be given why they are enacted good reason there is why there should be Laws made against them and they abolished Some written in blood too rigid and cruel some in water ready to vanish many of them but the results and dictates of mens lusts and wild affections made not so safeguard any State but their own But Christs are pure and undefiled exact and perfect such as tend to perfection to the good of his Subjects and will make them like unto this Lord heirs together with him of eternity of bliss And as the reward is eternal so are they unchangeable the same to day and to the end of the world not like the Laws of the Heathen which were raised with one breath and pulled down by another which were fixed by one hand and torn down by a
second Apol c. 4. Lycurgi leges emendatae saith Tertullian Lycurgus his Laws were so imperfect so ill fitting the Commonwealth that they were brought under the hammer and the file to be beat out and fashioned in another form more proportionable to that body for which they were made were corrected by the Lacedemonians Which undervaluing of his wisdom did so unman him that he would be a man no longer but starved himself to death Vetus squalens sylva legum edictorum securibus truncatae the whole wood of the old Laws now sullied and weakned with age was cut down by the edicts and escripts of after-Emperours at the very root as with an ax All of them are in the body of time and worn out with it either fail of themselves or else are cast aside humane Laws being but as shadows cast from men in power and when they fall to the ground are lost with them and are no more to be seen Gel. Noct. Att. l. 20. c. 1. nec uno statu consistunt sed ut coeli facies maris ità rerum atque fortunae tempestatibus variantur nor do they remain in one state but alter as the face of the Heavens and the Sea now smile anon frown now a calm and by and by a tempest Now the strong man saith Do this anon a stronger then he cometh and I forfeit my head if I do it Laws are too oft written with the point of the sword and then the character followeth the hand that beareth it Thus it is with the Laws of men But the Laws of this our Law-giver can no more change then he that made them No bribe can buy out their power no dispensations wound them no power can disannul them but they are the same Dispensationes vulnera legum and of the same countenance They moult not a feather they alter not in one circumstance but direct the obedient and stare the offender in the face and by the power of this Lord kindle a hell in him in this life and will appear at the great day to accuse him For we either stand or fall in judgment according to these Laws In a word humane Laws are made for certain climates and fitted to the complexion and temper of certain Commonwealths but these for the whole world Rome and Brittany and Jerusalem all places are bound alike and as his Dominion so his Laws reach from one end of the earth to another And these which he publisht at the first are not onely Laws but promises and pledges of his second coming For he made them not for nought but hath left them with us till he come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead according to his Gospel Besides the Laws of men are too narrow and cannot reach the whole body of Sin cannot comprehend all not the inward man the thoughts and surmises of the heart no not every visible act Leges non omnia comprehendunt non omnia vetant nec absolvunt Sen. they forbid not all they absolve not all Some irregularities there be which these Laws look not upon nor have they any other punishment then the common hatred of men who can pass no other sentence upon them then this That they dislike them and we are forced to leave them to the censure and anger of the Highest saith Seneca Quoties licet non oportet Every thing that is lawful for me to do is not fit to be done And his integrity is but lame that walketh on at pleasure and knoweth no bounds but those which the Laws of men have set up and never questioneth any thing he doth till he meeteth with a check is honest no further then this that he feareth not a prison nor the gibbet is honest because he deserveth not to be hanged How many are there who are called Christians who yet have not made good their title to that honour which we give to a just man How many count themselves just men yet do those things which themselves if they would be themselves would condemn as most unjust and do so when others do them and how many have carried so much honesty with them into hell The Laws of men cannot reach home to carry us to that height of innocency to which no other Law but that within us might lift us up But the Laws of this Lord like his Power and Providence reach and comprehend all the very looks and profers and thoughts of the mind which no man seeth which we see not our selves which though they break not the peace nor shake any pillar of the Commonwealth for a thought troubleth no heart but that which conceiveth it yet stand in opposition to that policy which this our Lord hath drawn out and to that end for which he is our Lord and are louder in his ears then an evil word in ours and therefore he looketh not onely on our outward guilt but also on the conscience it self and pierceth to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit and regulateth the very thoughts and intents of the heart which he looketh upon not as fading and vanishing characters in the soul but as killing letters imprinted and engraven there as S. Basil speaketh De virgin as full and complete actions wrought out in the inward man S. Bernard calleth them passivas actiones passive actions which he will judge secundum evangelium according to these Laws which he hath published in his Gospel Secondly that he is a Lord appeareth by the virtue and power of his Dominion For whereas all the power on earth which so often dazleth us can but afflict the body this woundeth the soul rippeth up the very heart and bowels and when those Lords which we so tremble at till we fall from him Matth. 10.28 can but kill the body this Lord can cast both soul and body into hell nay can make us a hell unto our selves make us punish and torment our selves and being greater then our Conscience can multiply those strokes Humane Laws have been brought into disgrace because they had not power enough to attend and hold them up and even the common people who fear them most have by their own observation gathered the boldness to call them cobwebs for they see he that hath a full purse or a good sword will soon break through them or find a besome to sweap them away What speak you of the Laws I can have them and bind them up in sudariolo saith Petrus Damianus in the corner of my handkerchief Nay many times for want of power victae leges the Laws must submit as in conquest and though they have a tongue to speak yet they have not a hand to strike And as it is in punishment so it is sometimes in point of reward Men may raise their merit and deserts so high that the Exchequer it self shall not find a reward to equal them We have a story in our own Chronicles of a Noble-man who
affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world NOthing more talkt of in the world then Religion nothing less understood nothing more neglected there being nothing more common with men then to be willing to mistake their way to withdraw themselves from that which is indeed Religion because it standeth in opposition to some pleasing errour which they are not willing to shake off Multi sibi sidem ipsi totuis consttiuunt quà m accipiunt dum quae volunt sapiunt nolunt sapere quae verá sunt cùm sapientiae haec veritas sit ea interdum sapere quae nolis Hilar l. 8. De Trin. Jam. 1.22 23. Ch. 4.3 Ch 1 26. and by the help of an unsatisfied and complying phansie to frame one of their own and call it by that name That which flattereth their corrupt hearts that which is moulded and attempered to their brutish designs that which smileth upon them in all their purposes and favoureth them in their unwarrantable undertakings that which biddeth them Go on and prosper in the wayes that leadeth unto death that with them is true Religion In this Chapter and indeed in every Chapter of this Epistle our Apostle hath made this discovery to our hands Some there were as he observeth that placed Religion in the ear did hear and not do and rested in that Some placed it in a formal devotion did pray but pray amiss and therefore did not receive Some placed it in a shadow and appearance seemed to be very religious but could not bridle their tongue and were safe they thought under this shadow Others there were that were partial in themselves despisers of the poor Ch. 2.4.6 17 c. Ch. 3.6 that had faith but no works and did boast of this Others had hell fire in their Tongue and carried about with them a world of iniquity which did set the wheel the whole course of Nature on fire Last of all some he observed warring and fighting and killing that they might take the prey Ch. 4.1 2. and divide the spoil Yet all these were religious Wisd 1.12 Every one sought out death in the errour of his life Phil. 3.14 and yet every one seemed to press forward towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus To these as to men ready to dash upon the rock shipwrack doth our Apostle cry out as from the shore to turn their compass and steer their course the right way Seeing them as it were run several wayes all to meet at last in the common gulf of eternal destruction he calleth and calleth aloud after them To the superstitious to the profane to the disputer the scribe to them that do but hear and to them that do but babble to them that do but profess and to them that do but believe the word is Be not deceived That is not it but this is pure Religion This is as the Prophet speaketh a voice behind them Isa 30.21 saying This is the way walk in it This is as a light held forth to shew them where they are to walk as a royal Standard set up to bring them to their colours This doth infinitatem rei ejicere as the Civilians speak taketh them from the Devils latitudes and exspatiations from frequent but fruitless Hearing from loud but heartless Prayer from their beloved but dead Faith from undisciplined and malitious Zeal from noise and blood from fighting and warring which could not but defile them and make them fit to receive nothing but the spots of the world from the infinite mazes and by-paths of errour and bringeth them into the way where they should be where they may move with joy and safety Eccl. 12.13 looking stedfastly towards the end Let us now hear the conclusion of the whole matter Whatsoever Divines have taught whatsoever Councels have determined whatsoever Schoolmen have defined whatsoever God spake in the old times whatsoever he spake in these last dayes that which hath filled so many volumes and brought upon us that weariness of the flesh which Solomon complaineth of Eccl. 12.12 in reading that multitude of books which the world doth now swarm with that which we study and contend and fight for as if it were in Democritus his well Rom. 13.9 or rather in Hell it self quite out of our reach or if there be any truth that is necessary any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying even in this of S. James Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the fatherless and widows c. I may call it the Picture of Religion in little in a small compass yet presenting all its lines and dimensions the whole Signature of Religion fit to be hung up in the Church of Christ and to be lookt upon by all that the people which are and shall be born may truly serve the Lord. May it please you therefore a while to cast your eyes upon it and with me to view I. The full Proportion and several Lineaments of it as it were its essential Parts which constitute and make it what it is We may distinguish them as the Jew doth the Law by Do and Do not The first is affirmative To do good To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction The second is negative Not to do evil To keep our selves unspotted from the world II. The colours and Beauty of it first in its Purity having no mixture secondly its Vndefiledness having no pollution III. The Epigraphe or Title of it the Ratification or Seal which is set to it to make it authentick and that not of men or by men but by the hand of God himself Matth. 3.17 17.5 which drew the first copy and pattern This is pure Religion before God and the Father As he gave witness to his Son from heaven This is my beloved Son so doth he also to Christian Religion Hebr. 12.2 of which he is the Authour and Finisher HAEC EST This is it and in this I am well pleased Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this Let us now in order view these And these two To do Good and To abstain from Evil our Charity to others in the one and our Charity to our selves in the other in being as those Dii benefici those Tutelar Gods to the Widows and Fatherless and as those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keeping all evil from our selves I call the essential parts of Religion without which it can no more subsist then a man can without a soul Jam. 2.26 For as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also Not that we exclude Faith or Prayer or Hearing of the Word For without Faith Religion is but an empty name and it cometh by Hearing and is increased by Devotion Amb. in Psal 118. Faith is a foundation upon a foundation for as Truth is the foundation of
done or may do then do what they should are so much in heaven and to so little purpose that they lose it But the Apostle's method is sure 2 Pet. 1.10 to use diligence to make our election sure and so read the Decree in our Obedience and sincere Conversation and if we can perswade our selves that our names are written in the book of Life yet so to behave our selves Phil. 2.12 so to work on with fear and trembling as if it were yet to be done As it was told the Philosopher that he might have seen the figure of the stars in the water but could not see the water in the stars All the knowledge we can gain of the Decree is from our selves It is written in heaven and the characters we read it by on earth are Faith and Repentance If we believe and repent then God speaketh to us from heaven and telleth us we shall not die If we be dead to sin and alive to righteousness we are enrolled and our names are written in the book of Life Here here alone is the Decree legible and if our eye fail not in the one it cannot be deceived in the other If we love Christ and keep his commandments we are in the number of the elect and were chosen from all eternity Be not then cast down and dejected in thy self with what God hath done or may do by his absolute Power For thou maist build upon it He never saved an impenitent nor will ever cast away a repentant sinner Behold he calleth to thee now by his Prophet QVARE MORIERIS Why wilt thou die Didst thou ever hear from him or from any Prophet a MORIERIS that thou shalt die or a MORTVVS ES that thou art dead already Thou hast his Prayers his Entreaties and Beseechings He spreadeth forth his hands all the day long Isa 65.2 Rom. 10.21 Deut. 32.29 Luke 1.55 73. Thou hast his Wishes Oh that thou wert wise so wise as to look upon the MORIEMINI to consider thy last end Thou hast his Covenant which he sware to our fore-fathers Abraham and his seed for ever His Comminations his Obtestations his Expostulations thou mayest read but didst thou ever read the Book of life Look on the MORIEMINI look on the Deaths head in the Text look not into the Book of life Thou hast other care that lieth upon thee thou hast other business to do Thou hast an Understanding to adorn a Will to watch over Affections to bridle the Flesh to crucifie Temptations to struggle with the Devil to encounter Think then of thy Duty not of the Decree and the sincere performance of the duty will seal the Decree Eph. 4.30 and seal thee up to the day of redemption It is a good rule which Martine Luther giveth us Dimitte Scripturam ubi obscura est tene ubi certa Where the Text is dark and obscure suspend thy judgement and where it is plain and easy express and manifest it in thy conversation which is the best descant on a plain song Thou readest there are vessels made to dishonour Rom. 9.21 2 Tim. 2.20 Whether God made them so as some will have it or they made themselves so as Basil and Chrysostom interpret it it concerneth not thee That which concerneth thee is plain thou mayest run and read it 1 Thes 4.4 Jude 20. that thou must possess thy vessel in honour and build up thy self in thy holy faith The Quare moriemini is plain It is plain that God is not willing thou shouldest die but hath shewed thee a plain passage unto life He hath not indeed supplied thee with means to interpret riddles and untie knots and explain and resolve hard texts of Scripture but he hath supplied thee with means of life hath brought thee to the gates of paradise Psal 16.6 to the wayes of life to the vvells of salvation The lines are fallen to thee in a fair place Behold he hath placed thee in domo Israelis in the house of Israel in domo salutis in the house of salvation Which is next to be considered The Two and Twentieth SERMON PART VII EZEKIEL XXXIII 11. For why will ye die O house of Israel GOD is not vvilling vve should die He is Goodness it self and no evil can proceed from him no not the evil of punishment For it is his strange work Orat. Quid Deus non sic autor mali and rather ours then his saith Basil If our sins did not call and cry out for it he vvould not do it as delighting rather to see his glory in that image vvhich is like him then in that vvhich is defaced and torn and mangled and novv burning in hell Ipse te subdidisti poenae that is the stile of the Imperial Law His wrath could not kindle nor Hell burn till we did blow the coals We bring our selves under punishment and then God striketh and we die and are lost for ever It was his Goodness that made us and it was his Goodness which made a Law and made it possible to be kept And in the same stream of Goodness were conveyed unto us sufficient and abundant means by the right use of which we might be carried on in an even and constant course of obedience to that Law and so have a clearer knowledge of God a nearer union with him a taste of the powers of the world to come Hebr. 6.5 Psal 16.12 a share and part in that fulness of joy which is at his right hand for evermore And why then will ye die O house of Israel And indeed why should Israel why should any of the house of Israel die For take it in the letter for the Jews take it in the application for us Christians take it for the Synagogue which is the type Rom. 9.6 or take it for the Church which is Israel indeed as the Apostle calleth it and a strange thing it is and as full of shame as wonder that any one should die in the house of Israel or perish in the Church Si honoratior est persona Salvian l. 1 de Gub. M. major est peccantis invidia The malice of sin is proportioned to the person that commits it It is not so strange a thing to die in the streets of Askelon as in the house of Israel nor for a Turk or Infidel to be lost as for a Christian For though the condition of the person cannot change the species of the sin for Sin is the same in whomsoever it is yet it hath not so foul an aspect in one as in another it crieth not so loud in the dark as in the light It is most fatal and destructive where there are most means to avoid it and most mortal where there is most light to discover its deformity A wicked Israelite is worse then an Edomite and a bad Christian worsâ— then a Turk or a Jew To be in the house of Israel to be a member of the Church
Will that profane person ever stoop to an Angel who is thus familiar with God himself And for the Law it goeth for a letter a title and no more For Ceremonies they were but shadows but are now monsters Christ in appearance left us two and but two and some have dealt with them as they use to do with monsters exposed them to scorn and flung them out Prov. 25.11 So that this counsel now in respect of us will not appear as an apple of gold with pictures of silver but may seem to be quite out of its place and season But yet let us view it once again and we shall find that it is a general prescript looking forward and applyable to every age of the Church an antidote against all errours and deviations And if we take it as we should it will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 look round upon all and either prevent or purge out all errour whatsoever For though our errours be not the same with the Colossians yet they may proceed from the same ground and be as dangerous or worse Peradventure we may be in no danger of Philosophy but we may be in danger of our selves and our Self-love may more ensnare us then Philosophical subtilties can do We may be too stiff to bow to an Angel but our eyes may dazle at the power and excellency of Men Eph. 4.14 and we may be carried about from doctrine to doctrine from errour to errour with every breath of theirs as with a mighty wind And though we stand out against the glory of an Angel yet we may fall down and miscarry by the example of a mortal man In a word we may defie all Ceremonies and yet worship our own imaginations which may be less significant then they Let us then as the Apostle elsewhere speaketh Hebr. 13.22 suffer this word of exhortation Let us view and handle this word of life and it will present us with these two things 1. A Christian mans Duty in these words AMBVLATE IN CHRISTO Walk in Christ. 2. The Rule by which we must regulate our motion and be directed in our Walk SICVT ACCEPISTIS We must so walk in him as we have received him Which two stand in flat opposition to two main errours of our life For either we receive Christ and not walk in him or walk in him but not with a SICVT not as we have received him Of these in their order In the handling of the first we shall point and level our discourse at two particulars and shew you 1. That Christianity is not a lazy and idle profession a sitting still or a standing or a speculation but a Walk 2. Wherein this Walk or motion principally consisteth First we find no word so expressive no word more commonly used in holy Writ then this To walk with God Gen. 5.22 24. to walk before God Gen. 17.1 and 24.40 to walk by faith 2 Cor. 5.7 to walk in good works Ephes 2.10 and in divers other places For indeed in this one word in this one syllable is contained the whole matter the end and sum of all all that can be brought in to make up the perfect man in Christ Jesus For first this bringeth forth a Christian like a pilgrime or traveller Phil. 3.13 forgetting what is behind and weary of the place he standeth in counting those few approches he hath made as nothing ever panting and striving gaining ground and pressing forward to a higher degree to a better place As there is motus ad perfectionem a motion to perfection so there is motus in perfectione a motion and progress even in perfection it self the good Christian being ever perfect and never perfect till he come to his journeyes end Secondly it taketh within its compass all those essential requisites to action It supposeth 1. Faculty to discover the way 2. a Power to act and move in it 3. Will which is nothing else but principium actionis as Tertullian saith the beginning of all motion the imperial power which as Queen commandeth and giveth act to the Understanding Senses Affections and those faculties which are subject to it And besides this to Walk implieth those outward and adventitious helps Knowledge in the Understanding and Love in the Will which are as the Pilgrimes staff to guide and uphold him in his way Rom. 13.13 2 Cor. 5.1 His Knowledge is as the day to him to walk as in the day And his Love maketh his journey shorter though it be through the wilderness of this world to a City not made with hands Hebr. 9.11 nor seen Faculty without Knowledge is like Polyphemus a body with power to move but without eye sight to direct and therefore cannot chuse but offend and move amiss And Faculty and Knowledge without Love and Desire are but like a body which wanting nourishment hath no sense of hunger to make it call for it and therefore cannot but bring leanness into the soul For be our natural faculty and ability what it will yet if we know not our way we shall no more walk in it then the traveller sound of body and limb can go the way aright of which he is utterly ignorant Again be our Abilities perfect and our Knowledge absolute yet if we want a Mind and have no Love if we suffer our selves to be overswayed by a more potent affection to something else we shall never do what we knovv vvell enough and are otherwise enabled to Novv To walk in Christ taketh in all these Faculty Povver Will Knovvledge Love Then you see a Christian in his Walk Psal 19.5 rejoycing as a mighty man to run his race when the Understanding is the counsellour and pointeth out This is the way walk in it Isa 30.21 and the Will hath an eye to the hand and direction of the Understanding boweth it self and as a Queen draweth with it those inferiour faculties the Senses and Affections when it openeth my Eye to the wonders of Gods Law Psal 119.18 Job 31.1 and shutteth it up by covenant to the vanity of the World when it boundeth my Touch and Tast with Touch not Tast not any forbidden thing Col. 2.21 when it maketh the Senses as windows to let in life not Death Jer. 9.21 and as gates shut fast to the World and the Devil and lifting up their heads to let the King of glory in Psal 24.7.9 when it composeth and tuneth our Affections to such a peace and harmony setting our Love to piety our Anger to sin our Fear to Gods wrath our Hope to things not seen our Sorrow to what is done amiss and so frameth in us nunc modulos temperantiae nunc carmen pietatis as S. Ambrose speaketh now the even measures of Temperance now a psalm of Piety now the threnody of a Broken heart even those songs of Sion which the Angels in heaven God himself delight in All these are virtually included in this one duty to
hopes or satisfie his lusts or justifie his anger or answer his love or look friendly on that which his wild passions drive him to Opinion is as a wheel on which the greatest part of the world are turned and wheeled about till they fall of several waies into several evils and do scarce touch at Truth in the way Opinion buildeth our Church chuseth our Preacher formeth our Discipline frameth our Gesture measureth our Prayers methodizeth our Sermons Opinion doth exhort instruct correct teach and command If it say Go we go and if it say Do this we do it We call it our Conscience and it is our God and hath more worshippers then Truth For though Opinion have a weaker ground-work then Truth yet she buildeth higher but it is but hay and stubble fit for the fire Good God! what a Babel may be erected upon a thought I verily thought Acts 26.9 12 14. saith S. Paul and what a whirlwind was that thought It drove him to Damascus with letters and made him kick against the pricks Psal 74.6 Shall I tell you that it was but Phansie that in Davids time beat down the carved works with axes and hammers that it was but a thought that destroyed the Temple it self that killed the Prophets and persecuted the Apostles and crucified the Lord of life himself And therefore it will concern us to watch our Phansie and to deal with it as mothers do with their children who when they desire that which may hurt them deny them that but to still and quiet them give them some other thing they may delight in take away a knife and give them an apple So when our Phansie sporteth and pleaseth it self with vain and aery speculations let us suspect and quarrel them and by degrees present unto it the very face of Truth as the Stoick speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epictet sift and winnow our imaginations bring them to the light and as the devout Schoolman speaketh Gerson resolve all our affectual notions by the Accepistis by the Rule and so demolish all those idoles which our Passions by the help of Phansie have set up For why should such a deceit pass unquestioned why should such an imposture scape without a mark 3. But now if we may not walk SICVT VISVM EST as it seemeth good unto us yet we may SICVT VISVM EST SPIRITVI SANCTO as it seemeth good to the holy Ghost Yes for that is to walk according to the Rule for he speaketh in the Word And to walk after the Spirit and to walk by this Rule are one and the same thing But yet the World hath learned a cursed art to set them at distance and when the Word turneth from us and will not be drawn up to our Phansie to carry on our pleasing but vain imaginations we then appeal to the Spirit we bring him in either to deny his own word or which in effect is the same to interpret it against his own meaning and so with reverence be it spoken make him no better then a Knight of the post to witness a lie This we would do but cannot For make what noise we will and boast of his name we are still at Visum est nobis it is but Phansie still it is our own Spirit not the holy Ghost Matth. 24.24 1 John 4.1 For as there be many false Christs so there are many false spirits and we are commanded not to believe but to try them and what can we try them by but by the Rule And as they will say Lo here is Christ or there is Christ so they will say Lo here is the Spirit and there is the Spirit The Pope layeth claim to it and the Enthusiast layeth claim to it and whoso will may lay claim to it on the same grounds when neither hath any better argument to prove it by then their bare words no evidence but what is forged in that shop of vanities their Phansie Idem Accio Titióque Both are alike in this And if the Pope could perswade me that he never opened his mouth but the Spirit spake by him I would then pronounce him Infallible and place him in the Chair and if the Enthusiast could build me up in the same faith and belief of him I would be bold to proclaim the same of him and set him by his side and seek the Law at his mouth Would you know the two grand Impostours of the world which have been in every age and made that desolation which we see on the earth They are these two a pretended Zeal and a pretense of the Spirit If I be a Zelote what dare I not do And when I presume I have the Spirit what dare I not say What action so foul which these may not authorize what wickedness imaginable which these may not countenance What evil may not these seal for good and what good may they not call evil Oh take heed of a false light and too much fire These two have walkt these many ages about the earth not with the blessed Spirit which is a light to illuminate and as fire to purge us but with their Father the Devil transformed into Angels of light and burning Seraphim and have led men upon those Precipies into those works of darkness which no night is dark enough to cover I might here much enlarge my self for it is a subject fitter for a whole Sermon then a part of one and for a Volume then a Sermon but I must conclude And for conclusion let us whilst the light shineth in the world walk on guided by the Rule which will bring us at last to the holy mount For objects will not come to us but have onely force to move us to come to them Eternal happiness is a fair sight and spreadeth its beams and unvaileth its beauty to win our love to allure and draw us And if it draw us we must up and be stirring and walk on to meet it What that devout writer saith of his Monk Climacus is true of the Christian He is assidua naturae violentia His whole life is a constant continued violence against himself against his corrupt nature which as a weight hangeth upon him and cloggeth and fettereth him which having once shaken off he not onely walketh but runneth the wayes of Gods commandments Psal 119.32 Rom. 13.13 Again let us walk honestly as in the day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as becometh Christians in our several stations and conditions of life and not think Christ dishonoured if we mingle him with the common actions of our life We never dishonour him more then when we take him not in and use him not as our guide and rule even in those actions which for the grossness of the subject and matter they work on may seem to have no savour or relish of that which we call Religion Be not deceived He that thus taketh him in is a Priest and a King the most honourable person
come nearer and nearer to the end of our Faith the end of our Hope and the end of our Love For he that looketh upon the commandments and keepeth them hath the will of God and he that hath his will hath all that Wisdome can find out or Power bring to pass hath Gods Providence and Almightiness his companions his guides his protection in his way and the World the Pomp and Vanity of it can no more prevail against him then 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 trust in uncertain riches but in the living God 1 Tim. 6.17 as S. Paul exhorteth suspect and be jealous of every thing in it as we use to be of every man we meet in a strange place and as plain country-men Theoph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who are ignorant of coins suspect and try every piece they see and though it be current yet fear it may be counterfeit So to say within our selves This Beauty which smileth may bite as cockatrice This Wine which looketh red may be a mocker These Riches may be my last receit This Strength may ruine me This Wit may befool me That which maketh 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 it Fel principis tenebrarum the gall of the Prince of darkness These Riches may beggar me and my Perfections undo me Far better is it for a stranger to be cautelous and wary then venturous and fool-hardy better for him to fear where no fear is then to be ready to meet and embrace every toy and trifle that smileth and killeth Now by this we arm 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 he lose who hath denied all unto himself and himself too in every aspect and relation to the world This is our Provision 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 teatheth 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 beneficial 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 supplieth us with arms and strengthneth us against all afflictions which may beat upon us all miseries which befal us all contumilies which may affront us in our way For what are all these poor sprinklings these weak breathings of wind and air to us when we remember we are but strangers in the world The world knoweth us not 1 Joh. 3.1 because it knoweth not God as S. John telleth us We are peregrini deorsum cives sursum strangers here below but citizens above What can they who are so unlike to the world who contemn the world expect less Here there will be Shimeis to revile us Zedekiahs to smite us on the cheek Oppressours to grind us and Tyrants to rob and spoil 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 Col. 2.3 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 thinketh there is no other remedy for poverty but riches the Revenger cannot purg his gall and bitterness but with the bloud 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 several diseases for the Poor man may become rich and be poorer then before the Revenger may draw bloud 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 Ps 16.11 And then there will be no such things as Poverty or Injuries or Sickness or at least they will not appear so to us which is all one Nay which is more now they are not what they are unto us nor do we see that horour in them which they that dwell in the world do but as S. Paul speaketh when we are poor â— Cor. 6 â—0 12.10 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 accompanieth the neglect of Gods commands is the most ignorant unskilful unexperienced ungodly thing in the world For these complaints in poverty this impatience of injuries this murmuring in our sickness are ill signs 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 in virtue that we are more afraid of a disgrace then of sin that we bow 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 pilgrimes upon the earth Thirdly our Conformity to the will of God is a pretious antidote against the Fear of Death Hebr. 2.14 15. The Fear of Death why we were delivered from that when Christ took part with us of flesh and bloud and through death destroyed him who had the power of death
the Devil Why should any mortal now fear to dye It is most true Christ dyed and by his death shook the powers of the Grave Consummatum est all is finished and he is returned victoriously with the spoils of his enemies and of this last enemy Death Job 18.14 But for all this his triumph Death may be still the King of terrours and as dreadful as before All is finisht on his part but a Covenant consisteth of two parts and something is required on ours He doth not turn Conditions into Promises as some have been willing to perswade themselves and others It must be done is not Thou shalt do it If thou wilt believe is not Thou shalt believe But every Promise every Act of grace of his implieth a Condition He delivereth those that are willing to be delivered who do not feed Death and supply this enemy with such weapons as make him terrible 1 Cor. 15.56 All the terrour Death hath is from our selves our Sin our Disobedience to the commands of God that is his sting And our part of the Covenant is by the power and virtue of Christs death every day to be plucking it off from him at last to take it quite away We we our selves must rise up against this King of terrours and in the Name and Power of Christ take the sceptre out of his hand and spoil him of his strength and terrour And this we may do by parts and degrees now cut from him this sin now that now this desire and anon another and so dye daily as S. Paul speaketh dye to Profit dye to Pleasure dye to Honour be as dead to every temptation which may beget sin in us and a sting in him and so leave him nothing to take from us not a desire not a hope not a thought nothing that can make us fear Death Then we shall not look upon it as a divorcement from those delights which we have cast off already or a passage into a worse condition from that we loved too well to that we never feared enough but we shall consider it as a Sleep as it is to all wearied pilgrimes as a Message sent from heaven to tell us our walk is at an end now we are to lay down our staff and scrip and rest in that Jerusalem which is above Tert. De patientia for which we vowed this pilgrimage Et quis non ad meliora festinat What stranger will be afraid to return to his Fathers house or lose that life quam sibi jam supervacuam fecit which by dying daily to the world he hath already made superfluous and unnecessary To conclude this He that truly feareth God can fear nothing else nor is Death terrible to any but to those who would build their tabernacle here who love to feed with swine on husks Luk. 15.16 Heb. 6.5 because they have not tasted of the powers of the world to come who wish immortality to this mortal before they put it on who are willing to converse and trade with Vanity for ever who desire not with David to be spared a little but would never go hence Psal 39.13 Last of all this will moderate our sorrow for those our friends who are dead or rather fallen asleep or rather at their journeys end For why should any man who knoweth the condition of a stranger how many dangers and how many cares and how many storms and tempests he is obnoxious to hang down the head and complain that his friend hath now passed through them all and is set down at his journeys end Why should he who looketh for a City to come Hebr. 13.14 be troubled that his fellow-pilgrime is come thither and entred before him It might be a matter of holy emulation perhaps but why it should afflict us with grief I cannot see unless it be because we have not made it our meat and drink to keep Gods commandements which might give us a tast of a better estate to come unless it be because we have not well learnt to act the part of a stranger Miserable men that we are that we will be that know not our own quality and condition that are strangers yet unwilling to draw near our selves or to see others come to their home but think them lost where they are made perfect We stand by the bed of our sick and dying friend as if he were now to be removed to a place of torment and not of rest and to be either nothing or more miserable then he was in a region of misery We send out shreeks and outcries to keep time with his gasps to call him back if it were possible from heaven and to keep him still under the yoke harrow when as the fainting of his spirits the failing of his eyes the trembling of his joynts are but as the motion of bodies to their center most violent when they are nearest to their end And then we close up his eyes and with them our hopes as if with his last gasp he had breathed out his soul into air when indeed there is no more then this One pilgrime is gone before his fellows one is gone hath left others in their way in trouble and more troubled that he is gone to rest Migrantem migrantes praemisimus saith S. Hierome We are passing forward apace and have sent one before us to his journeyes end his everlasting sabbath With this contemplation doth Religion comfort and uphold us in our way and keepeth us in that temper which the Philosopher commendeth as best in which we do sentine desiderium Sen. ad Marciam op primere She giveth Nature leave to draw tears but then she bringeth in Faith and Hope to wipe them off She suffereth us to mourn for our friends but not as men without hope Nature will vent and Love is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thess 4.13 saith the Oratour ever querulous and full of complaints when the object is removed out of sight and God remembreth whereof we are made Ps 103.14 is not angry with our Love and will suffer us to be Men But then we must silence one Love with another our natural Affection with the Love of God at least divide our language thus Alas my Father Alas my Husband Alas my Friend but then He was a stranger and now at his journeyes end And here we must raise our note and speak it more heartily Rev. 14 13. Blessed are such strangers Blessed are they that dye in the Lord even so saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours For conclusion Let us fear God and keep his commandments Eccl. 12.13 This is the whole duty of a stranger to observe those Laws which came from that place to which he is going Let these Laws be in our heart and our heart will be an Elaboratory a Limbeck to work the water of life out of the vanities and very dregs of the world
Key still a golden Key but to open no gates but those of Death Power is a gift of God for there is no power but of him to shadow the innocent to take the prey from the oppressour to stand between two opposite parties till it draw them together and make them one to work equality out of inequality to give Mephibosheth his own lands to be the peace of the Church the wall of the Common-wealth and the life of the Laws This is the end why power is given And what may it be made Of a Sword it may be made a Rasor to cut deceitfully to cut a purse nay to cut a throat to kill and take possession as Ahab did to make Virtue vice and Vice virtue to condemn the innocent bloud and make him a Saint who hath no other father then him who was a murtherer from the beginning to make the Law a nose of wax and the Scripture as pliable as that to make that Religion not which is best but which is fittest for it self to make Men beasts and God nothing in this world to make the Common-wealth an asylum and Sanctuary for Libertines a nest of Atheists a Synagogue of hypocrites in a word a map and representation of Hell it self This I say Power may be And so may every blessing of God be drawn from that end for which it was given Wit may make us fools Riches may beget pride Power confusion and Peace it self war Health may breed wantonness and that which was made to be the womb of good may be the mother of evil as we read in Aelian that Nicippus's Sheep did yean a Lion God oft complaineth of this in holy Scripture And indeed this abuse of God's gifts is the seed-plot and cause of all the evil in the world Were it not for this we should not hear such complaints from such a place of peace as Heaven is I have brought thee out of the land of Egypt and thou breakest my statutes I took thee from the sheepcoat 2 Sam. 12. and anointed thee King and gave thee thy masters house and thou hast despised my command I washed thee with water I decked thee with ornaments Ezek. 16. I gave thee beauty and thou playedst the harlot I have chosen you twelve John 6. chosen you all to the same end Judas as well as Peter and yet one of you is a Devil It is indeed a complaint but if we slight and neglect it it will end in judgment God will confound our Wisdom blow upon our Riches and shake our Power and our Wit shall ruine us our Riches undo us our Power crush us to pieces and our Greatness make us nothing And if this were all yet it might well deserve an Ecce and be an object to be looked upon even by Atheists themselves But there is another end an end without end a fire ready kindled to devoure these adversaries a worm that shall gnaw their hearts who received the gifts of God and corrupted them torment for Health poverty for Riches and everlasting slavery for Power abused And then how happy had it been for Ahitophel if he had not been wise for Dives if he had not been rich for Hereticks if they had not been witty for Ahab and Nero if they had not been Kings how happy for the swaggerer and wanton if he had been a Clinick or a Recluse confined to his bed or shut up between two walls all the dayes of his life And now I think you will say we may well fix an Ecce to remember us of that we have received whether Health or Wit or Riches or Power that what was meant for our good turn not to our destruction So from the object considerable we pass to the Act What it is to behold and consider it ECCE Behold is as an asterisk or a finger pointing out to something remarkable some object that calleth for our eye and observation and that is already held up and we behold it That is soon done you will say for what is more sudden then the cast and twinckling of an eye If a thing be set up and placed before us we cannot but behold it But we shall find that this Ecce is of a large extent and latitude and very operative to awake all the powers and faculties of our souls to excite our faith and to enflame our love that it requireth the sedulous endeavour the contention the labour the travel of the mind Many times we do not know what we know and what we behold we do not behold because we do not rightly consider it Tantum valet unum vocabulum Of such force and energy is this finger this star this one word Behold John 1. Behold the Lamb of God saith the Baptist He points out to Christ as with a finger Why they could not but behold him But they are called upon with an ecce to behold him better The Pharisees beheld Christ the Jews beheld him but they did not behold and consider him as the Lamb of God For had they thus beheld him they had not blasphemed him 1 Cor. 2.8 they had not butchered him as they did Had they known him they had not crucified the Lord of glory We behold the heavens the work of God's fingers the Moon and the Stars which he hath ordained Rom. 1.19 We behold this wonderful frame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which may be known of God God hath shewed us But we do not as David speaketh consider it It doth not raise us up to the admiration of God's Majesty nor bring us down to a due acknowledgment of our subjection We are no more affected with it then as if it were still without form and void a lump a Chaos We behold our selves and we behold our selves mouldring away and decaying and yet we do not behold our selves For who considereth himself a mortal We carry our tombs upon our heads like those aves sepulcrales those sepulcral birds which Galen speaketh of we bear about with us our own funerals Every place we stand in is our grave for in every place we draw nearer to corruption Yet who considereth he is a living-dying man Dives in his purple never thought how he came into the world or how he should go out of it We neither look backward to what we were made nor forward to what we shall be Can Herod an Angel a God be struck with worms We dye daily and yet think we shall not dye at all The Certainty of death may stand for an article of our faith and as hard a one almost as the Resurrection In a word we are in our consideration any thing but what we are We sin and behold it and sin again but never look upon Sin as the work of the Devil as the deformity of the soul as that which hath no better wages then death Our Paralytick did rise and walk and could not but behold it yet Christ here in the Temple calleth upon
and dare not abide the answer Audire nusquam veritatem regium est We think it a goodly thing to live as we list without check or reproof and never be told the truth For Truth is sharp and piquant and our ears are tender Some Truths peradventure are musick to the ear but strike not the heart Others are harsh and ill-sounding and when we hear them we entreat they may not be spoken to us any more as the Israelites did when the Law was promulged with thunder and lightning and the mountain smoked we remove our selves and stand afar off But that we may not seem to do as Pilate did ask what Truth is and then go our way let us a little recount what kinds of Truths there be in the world that so amongst them all we may at last single out that which here by Wisdome it self we are instructed to buy And indeed Truths there are many kinds First there are Truths proper to the studies of great Scholars and learned men truths in Nature in the Mathematicks the knowledge of natural causes and events of the course of the Sun and of the Moon and the like These we confess are excellent truths and they deserve to be bought though we pay dear for them With these truths God was pleased supernaturally and by miracle to endow King Solomon 1 Kings 4.33 when he gave him the knowledge of Beasts Birds Creeping things and Fishes of Stones and of Plants from the Cedar in Lebanon to the Moss that groweth upon the wall Yet this is not that Truth which we are here commanded to buy Again there are many excellent Truths concerning the preservation of our Bodiess which are also well worthy to be bought Health is the chief of outward blessings without which all the rest lose their name For present all the glory and riches and pleasures of the world to a sick person Eccl. 30.18 and what are they but as the Wise-man speaketh like messes of meat set upon a grave for he can no more tast and relish them then a dead man sealed up in his monument Therefore as the same son of Sirach saith Eccl. 38.1 honour the Physician with the honour due unto him for the uses which ye may have of him for the Lord hath created him The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth and he that is wise will not abhorre them 4. Yet the skill of the Physician is not that Truth that Solomon here biddeth us buy Further yet there are many necessary Truths which concern the making and executing of Laws and the government of Commonwealths and Kingdoms By these the world is ordered peaceably and every wheel made to move in its proper place Without these Commonwealths would become as the hills of robbers Innocency alone would prove but a thin and weak defense in the midst of so many several tempers and dispositions as we daily encounter These Truths therefore are worth the buying also With skill in these did God honour his Priests under the Law Mal. 2.7 The Priests lips were to preserve such knowledge and the people were to seek the Law at his mouth and he was ordained to judge betwixt cause and cause betwixt man and man But neither yet is this the Truth here recommended to us We may descend lower yet even to the very Plough and find many useful conclusions and truths in Husbandry and Tillage whereby food and rayment and other necessaries for the body are provided without which we could not subsist Of these truths God professeth himself the Authour For the Prophet speaking of the art of the plough-man telleth us that his God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him Isa 28.26 c. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing-instrument neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cumin but the fitches are beaten out with a staff and the cumin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised c. This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working Yet neither is this nor any other of these truths that Truth which is here meant For first all these Truths concern onely those particular persons whose breeding and vocation calleth them to them All are not to buy them but ii tantùm quibus est necesse such whose education and occasions lead them to them If all were one member saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 12.19 where were the body If all men were subtile Philosophers or skilful Physicians or learned Lawyers and Politicians or painful Husbandmen the world could not well subsist Again all are not fitted for every truth for every calling All if they had a heart thereunto Prov. 17.16 yet have not a price in their hand Every Philosopher is not fit to hold the plough nor every one that handleth an ox-goad to be a Physician nor every Physician to plead at the bar These arts seem to be of a somewhat unsociable disposition and a very hard thing it is for a man to learn and practise perfectly more then one of them for the mind being distracted amongst many things must needs entertain them but brokenly and imperfectly Sic opus est mundo and thus Divine Providence hath ordered it But the Truth here is of a more pliable nature and therefore the commandment is given to all All must buy it It is put to sale and proferred to the whole world to him that sitteth on the throne and to her that grindeth at the mill to the Husbandman in the field to the Philosopher in the Schools to the Physician in his study and to the Trades-man in his shop No man of what calling or estate soever is unfit for this purchase The poorest that is may come to this markets and find about him money enough to purchase the commodity Yea let him go whither he will and live amongst what people and in what part of the world he please whether at Jerusalem or amidst the tents of Kedar in the city or in the wilderness he shall still find himself sufficiently furnished for this bargain And that he buyeth serveth both for this world and the next it will prove both a staff and a crown it will direct his feet in his pilgrimage and crown his head at his journeyes end All the other Truths I reckoned up to you as they may be bought so also they may be sold and forgone Yea there may come a time when they must all give place to the Truth in my Text and become the price for which it must be bought and be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loss and dung Phil. 3.7 3. that we may gain it as S. Paul speaketh of his skill and forwardness in the Jews religion in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus But though those Truths continue with us all our life yet at last they will forsake us Who will look for a Philosopher or a Physician or
of his Saviour and therefore cannot be denied Earnest Prayer for the Truth seasoneth the heart and maketh it as the Father speaketh exceptorium veritatis a fit receptacle of the Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Angel to the Centurion Acts 10.4 Thy prayers are come up for a memorial before God It is an illusion to the Incense under the Law Our Prayer first ascendeth as incense and cometh up unto God as a sweet-smelling savour and then down cometh an Angel the Truth to tell us so to assure us that our suit is granted Our Prayer ascendeth and in its ascent raiseth up the heart to heaven where it entreth the treasury of God and obtaineth this Pearl I will not say with some that Prayers do this ex opere operato by the very repetition by numbring them out by tale as they do their beads This hath too rank a savour Yet I know not how after the heat of devotion and fervency of Prayer there follow those holy fires and strange and glorious irradiations and illuminations which present and shew themselves to us in our search of Truth When by Prayer we have as it were reposed and lodged our souls in the bosome of our heavenly Father there are presently poured back upon us even in the midst of our common actions celestial and divine cogitations and the image and copy of our devotions is still obvious to our eye and followeth us whithersoever we go Our Prayers are as Musick in the ears of the most High and our improvement and encrease in knowledge is the resultance And as he that hath looked on the Sun with a steady eye hath the image of the Sun presented to him in every object which he beholdeth so he that fixeth his thoughts on God and is as it were lift up near near unto him by true devotion must needs find light in all his waies and feel the efficacy of his prayer in his daily conversation 3. Exercise and practice of those Truths we learn Without this Prayer doth not ascend as incense from the altar but as common smoke and hath no sweet savour at all Without this Meditation is but the motion and circulation of the Phansie the business or rather idleness of that sort of men who come into the market onely to look on and gaze the mind flieth aloft but like those birds of prey which first towre in the air and then stoop at carrion But the practice of the Truth we know doth fix it to us and make it as it were a part of us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Stoick speaketh driveth the doctrine home Eccl. 12.11 as a nail fastned by the Masters of the assemblies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher What we learn to do we learn by doing One act of Charity prompteth me to another One denial to my appetite draweth on another and that a third and at last I put on resolution and am rigid and obstinate to its solicitations One conquest over a temptation strengthneth me for a second As it was said of Alexander Quaelibet victoria instrumentum sequentis Every victory he got made way to another so every step in the waies of Truth bringeth us not onely so far on our way but enableth us with more strength to go forward and the further we go the more active we are He that giveth a peny to the poor and inureth his hand to giving may in time sell all that he hath Matth. 19.21 and at last lay down his life for the Gospel Aude hospes contemnere opes Virg. Aen. 8. It is but putting on courage and attempting it which is the fairest bidding for the Truth and then we who see it but through a cloud darkly 1 Cor. 13.12 through a cloud of Affections through a cloud of Prejudice yea through darkness it self an inward detestation of it shall with open face 2 Cor. 3.18 as the Apostle speaketh behold the glory of it and be changed into the same image from virtue to virtue from profers to resolutions from beginnings to perfection even by the power of that Truth which we behold And this is truly to buy the Truth to buy it not for ostentation but for use to buy it not to be laid up in a napkin Luke 19.20 but to demonstrate its activity against all illusions that they deceive us not against all occasions that they withdraw us not and against all temptations that we be not led into them And thus as it is with the Angels Contemplation shall not hinder but promote our Obedience and our Obedience exalt our Contemplation and by working by the Truth we shall more nearly behold the copy by which we work and be more familiar with it To conclude These things we must lay down and these means we must make use of if we intend to purchase the Truth and make it our possession And now ye see what it is to buy the Truth I now pass to the negative part of my Text Sell it not And this may serve for my Conclusion For one contrary interpreteth another If to buy the Truth be to seek and draw it to us for our use then to sell it must needs be to put it from us to give it up to our Passions our Prejudice our Distast or Malice and so to alienate it that it shall be as a thing that concerneth us not of no use to us at all Venditio omnem contractum complectitur saith the Civile Law And in this sale there is a contract with our Affections and Lusts with the World with every Trifle and Vanity which is in effect a contract with the Devil himself By this we part with all our right and title and fling it from us Now as the buying of the Truth of all bargains is the best because whereas in all other bargains let them be driven how you can the gain of one party is loss to the other in this bargain there is onely gain and no loss at all the buyer gaineth and yet no seller loseth so the sale of the Truth of all bargains is the worst and the most foolish For in other sales however somebody ever loseth yet somebody getteth what the seller loseth the buyer getteth but when the Truth is sold there is nothing but mere loss no man is no man can be the better for the sale of the Truth Vendentem tantùm deserit minuit Onely the seller groweth the worse there is no buyer groweth the better When Ahab came to Naboth to procure from him his vineyard Give me 1 Kings 21.2 saith he thy vineyard and I will give thee for it a better vineyard then it or I will give thee the worth of it in money See here three mighty tempters the King Money and Commodity whereof which is the strongest it is hard to determine the weakest of them prevaileth with most men Notwithstanding Naboth holdeth out against them all v. 3. The Lord
so have our Desires theirs which is their end And here we have them both the Object of our Knowledge delivered first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a generality UT COGNOSCAM ILLUM That I may know him that is Christ secondly dilated and enlarged in two main particulars 1. Resurrection 2. his Passion In the one he beholdeth power in the other fellowship and communion which includeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conformity to his death Christ indeed is risen but he suffered first so must we be conformable to his death if we will feel the power of his resurrection So these three are most considerable 1. Christ 2. the power of his resurrection 3. the fellowship of his sufferings these are three rich Diamonds and if they be well set if we take the words in their true Syntaxis and joyn configuratus to cognoscam our conformity to his death to our knowledge of his sufferings and resurrection we shall place them right even so fix them in the Understanding part that they will reflect or cast a lustre on the Heart even such a lustre as will light us through the midst of rocks and difficulties unto the end here aimed at the Resurrection of the dead Of these then in their order Of the Object first then of the Nature of our Knowledge which will bring us to the End though beset with words of fear and difficulty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if by any means We begin I say with the Object in general That I may know him We begin with Christ who is Α and Ω the beginning and the ending From whom we have saith the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to live and to live well and to live for ever If we begin without him we run into endless mazes of errour and delusion every on-set is danger every step an overthrow And if we end not in him we end indeed but it is in misery without an end John 17.3 To know him is life eternal Then our Ignorance must needs be fatal and bring on a death as lasting For where can we be safe from the Deluge but in the Ark Where can we rest our feet but upon this Stone Where can we build but upon this Foundation For let Philosophie and the Law divide the world into Jew and Genâ—ile and then open those two great Books of God his Works and his Words and see the Philosopher hath so studied the Creature that he maketh his God one Rom. 1 23. and turneth his glory saith the Apostle into the similitude of corruptible Man nay into Birds and Beasts â—â—d Creeping things And the Jew's proficiency reached but so far as to know he was the worse for it On every letter he findeth gall and wormwood and the very bitterness of Death The Philosopher hath learned no more then this that he can be but happy here and the Jew that without a better guide he must be unhappy for ever Reason the best light the Heathen had could not shew them the unsteddy fluctuations of the mind the storms and tempests of the soul the weakness of nature and the dimness of her own light how faint her brightness is how she is eclipst with her own beams how Reason may behold indeed a supreme but not a saving Power because she will be Reason It is true the light of Reason is a light and from heaven too But every light doth not make it day nor is every star the Sun And though we are to follow this light which every man brought with him into the world yet if we look not on that greater Light the Sun of Righteousness which hath now spread his beams over the face of the earth we cannot but fall into the ditch even into the pit of destruction The light then of Reason will not guide us so far in the wayes of happiness as to let us know we stand in need of a surer guide and therefore the Gospel you know is called that wisdom which descended from above But now in the next place for the Jew Ye will say that the Law was the Law of God and so made to be a lantern to their feet and a light to their paths 'T is true it was so But the Apostle will tell us that by this light too we may miscarry as being not bright enough to direct us to our end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 7.18 because it giveth a weak and unprofitable light In the verse before my Text S. Paul seemeth to run away from it and utterly to renounce the Law not quoad substantiam not indeed in regard of the duties therein contained but quoad officium justificandi in that it could not justifie not make him perfect not lead him to his end It may threaten accuse contemn and kill and so in Scripture it is said to do And then what guilty person will sue for pardon from a dead letter which is inexorable We may say of the Law as S. Paul speaketh of the yearly sacrifice Heb. 10.1 that is did not make the comers thereto perfect but left behind it a conscience of sin not onely ex parte reatus a conscience that did testifie they sinned and affright them with the guilt but ex parte vindictae a conscience which questioned not onely their sin but their atonement and told them plainly that by the Law no man could be justified And therefore S. Chrysostom on that place will tell us In that the Jews did offer sacrifice it seemed they had conscience that accused them of sin but that they sacrificed continually argued that they had a conscience too which accused their sacrifice of imperfection Wherefore then served the Law The Apostle answereth well Gal. 3.19 It was added because of trangressions not to disannul the Covenant but as an attendant an additament as a glass to discover sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens The Law doth not beget sin for that it cannot do but manifest it Non est in speculo quod ostenditur I may shew you a Death's head in a glass but there is no such horrid substance there And the Law which is most perfect in it self may represent my wants unto me and make me flie to some richer Treasury for a supply Now to draw this home When both Lights fail when the Law of Nature is so dim that it cannot bring us to our journey's end and the Law written is as loud to tell us of our leasings as to direct us in our way what should we do but look up upon the Sun if righteousness Christ Jesus who came to improve and perfect Nature and who is the end of the Law and the end of our hopes and the end of our faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father calleth him that great Sabbath in which the Jew and the Gentile may rest in which the Father resteth as well pleased and the holy Ghost resteth in whom the Saints and Martyrs and the whole Church have
their eternal rest For such an high Priest became us saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate from sinners Heb. 7.26 separate from the Gentile's blindness and separate from the Jew's stubbornness and imperfection of a transient mortality and a permanent beatitude a God and a Man that he might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gather together into one both Jew and Gentile Law and Reason make the Law Natural useful and the Law written useful that so those fair whispers of Truth which mis-led the Gentile and that loud accusing Truth which affrighted the Jâ—w may be in subserviency and attendance on Christ himself that the light of Nature and the light of the Law which were but scattered beams from his eternal Brightness may be collected and united in Christ again who is Α and Ω the Beginning and the End in which Circle and Compass they are at home brought back again to their Original And do we not now begin to look upon our Reason as useful indeed but most insufficient to reach unto the End Do we not renounce the Law our selves all things Do we not melt in the same flame with our Apostle Is it not our ambition to be lost to all the world that we may be found in Christ Shall we not cast all things behind us that we may look forward upon him What would we not be ignorant of that we may know him That we may know him we will know nothing else Our understandings here are fixed and cannot be removed Nor shall our contemplation let him go till we have seen him rising from the dead and known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power of his resurrection Which is the next Object we are to look upon and our next Part. That Christ is risen from the dead is an article of our Faith fundatissimae fidei saith the Father a principle of the Doctrine of Christ a truth so clear and evident that the malice and envy of the Jew cannot avoid it For let them be at charge to bribe the watchmen and let the watchmen sleep so soundly that an earthquake cannot wake them and then say his Disciples stole him away this poor shift is so far from shaking that it confirmeth our faith For if they were asleep how could they tell his Disciples stole him away Or if they did steal him what could they take away more then a carcase He is risen he is not here If an Angel had not said it yet the Earthquake the Clothes the Grave it self did speak without an epitaph Or if these were silent yet where such strange impossibilities are brought in to colour and promote it a Lie doth confute it self and Malice helpeth to confirm the Truth For it we have a verdict given up by Cephas and the twelve 1 Cor. 15.5 we have a cloud of witnesses even five hundred brethren and more who saw him We have a cloud of bloud too the testimony of Martyrs who took their death on it so certain of this Truth that they sealed to it with their bloud and because they could not live to publish it proclaimed it by the loss of life And can we have better evidence Yes we have a surer word the word of God himself a surer verdict then of a Jury a better witness then five hundred a louder testimony then the bloud of Martyrs And we have our Faith too which will make all difficulties easie and conquereth all And therefore we cannot complain of distance or that we are so many ages removed from the time wherein it was done For now Christ risen is become a more obvious object then before The diversity of the Mediums have increased and multiplied him We see him through the bloud of Martyrs and we see him in his Word and we see him by the eye of Faith Christ is risen according to the Scriptures 1 Cor. 15. Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem saith S. Augustine When the Jews stumbled at him he presented but the bigness of a stone but our Infidelity can find no excuse if we see him not now he appeareth as visible as a mountain Christ then is risen from the dead And we have but touched upon it to give you one word of the day in the Day it self But that our Easter may be a feast indeed and our rejoycing not in vain let us as the Apostle speaketh go on to perfection and make a further search to find the reason of our joy in the power of his resurrection And what is the power of his resurrection The Apostle telleth us it was a mighty power Eph. 1.19 Indeed it rent the rocks and shook the earth and opened the graves and forced up the dead bodies of the Saints We may adde It made the Law give place and the Shadows vanish it abolished the Ceremonies broke down the Altars levelled the Temple with the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great wonders all Magnitudo virtutis ostenditur in effectu The greatness of power is most legible in the effects it worketh And here the volume is so great that the world cannot contain it Come see saith the Angel the place where the Lord lay A Lord he was though in his grave And by the same power he raised both himself and us By the same power he shook the earth and will shake the heaven also Heb. 13. disannulled the Law and established the Gospel broke down one alter and set up another abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 shall raise our vile bodies and shall raise our vile souls Shall raise them He hath done it already Conresuscitavit saith the Apostle Eph. 2.6 we are raised together with him both in soul and body and all by the power of his resurrection For 1. Christ's Resurrection is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at least an exemplary cause of our spiritual rising from the death of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene Christ is risen from the dead that we may follow after him we who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 planted together in the likeness of his death Rom. 6.5 dead to our lusts as he was to the functions and operations of life and planted with him in the likeness of his resurrection rising and exalting our selves and triumphing over Sin and Death so grafted in him that we may spring and grow green and blossom and bring forth fruit both alike and by the same power Now as Christ's Resurrection is a patern of our soul's resurrection so is it of our bodie 's also For we are not of Hymenaeus and Philetus mind to think the resurrection past already and make it but an Allegory No Christ hath cast the model of our bodie 's Resurrection also Plato's Idea and common Form by which he thought all other things had their exsistence was but a dream This is a real patern The Angel descended at his and shall at ours He is risen in our nature Isaac's figurative Resurrection
he hath put a pardon into our hands We must therefore seek out another Righteousness And we may well say we must seek it for it is well near lost in this Imputed Righteousness is that we hold by and Inherent righteousness is Popery or Pâ—lagianism We will not be what we ought because Christ will make us what we would be We will not be just that he may justifie us and we will rebell because he hath made our peace As men commonly never more forfeit their obedience then under a mild Prince But if the love of the world would suffer us to open our eyes we might then see a Law even in the Gospel and the Gospel more binding then ever the Law was Nor did Christ bring in that Righteousness by faith to thrust out this that we may do nothing that we may do any thing because Faith can work such a miracle No saith S. Paul he establisheth the Law He added to it he reformed it he enlarged it made it reach from the act to the look from the look to the thought Nor is it enough for the Christian to walk a turn with the Philosopher or to go a Sabbath-day's journey with the Jew or make such a progress in Righteousness as the Law of Moses measured out No Christ taught us a new kind of Righteousness and our burthen is not onely reserved but increased that this Righteousness may abound a Righteousness which striketh us dumb when the slanderer's mouth is open and loud against us which boundeth our desires when vanity wooeth us setteth a knife to our throat when the fruit is pleasant to the eye giveth laws to our understanding chaineth up our will when Kingdoms are laid at our feet shutteth up our eyes that we may not look upon a second woman which a Jew might have embraced calleth us out of the world whilest we are in the world and maketh us spiritual whilest we are in the flesh Justitia sincera a sincere Righteousness without mixture or sophistication and justitia integra an entire and perfect Righteousness Righteousness like to the love of our Saviour integros tradens integrum se danti a Righteousness delivering up the whole man both body and soul unto him who offered up himself a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world For conclusion of this point and to make some use of it Beloved this is the Object we must look on And we must use diligence and be very wary that we mistake it not that we take not that to be our Juno which is but a cloud that to be Righteousness which flesh and bloud our present occasions our present necessities our unruly lusts and desires may set up and call by that name This is the great and dangerous errour in which many Christians are swallowed up and perish not to take Righteousness in its full extent and compass in that form and shape in which it is tendered and so fulfil all righteousness but to contract and shrink it up to leave it in its fairest parts and offices and to vvork all unrighteousness and then make boast of its name And thus the number of the Righteous may be great the Goats more then the Sheep the gate vvide and open that leadeth unto the Kingdom of God Thus the Hypocrite vvho doth but act a part is righteous the Zelote vvho setteth all on fire is righteous the Schismatick vvho teareth the seamless coat of Christ is righteous he whose hands yet reek vvith the bloud of his brethren is righteous righteous Pharisees righteous Incendiaries righteous Schismaticks righteous Traitours and Murtherers not Abel but Cain the righteous All are righteous For this hath been the custom of vvicked men to bid defiance to Righteousness and then comfort themselves with her name We vvill not mention the Righteousness of the heathen For they being utterly devoid of the true knowledge of Christ it might perhaps diminish the number of their stripes but could not adde one hair to their stature or raise them nearer to the Kingdom of God Nor will we speak of the Righteousness of the Jew For they vvere in bondage under the Elements of the world nor could the Lavv make any of them perfect We Christians on vvhom the Sun of Righteousness hath clearly shined depend too much upon an Imputed Righteousness An imputed Righteousness why that is all It is so and will lift us up unto happiness if we adde our own not as a supplement but as a necessary requisite not to seal our pardon for that it cannot do but to further our admittance For we never read that the Spirit did seal an unrighteous person that continued in his sin to the day of his redemption No Imputed Righteousness must be the motive to work in us inherent Righteousness and God will pardon us in Christ is a strong argument to infer this conclusion Therefore we must do his will in Christ. For Pardon bringeth greater obligation then a law Christ dyed for us is enough to win Judas himself those that betray him and those that crucifie him to repentance The death of Christ is verbum visibile saith Clement a visible word For in the death of Christ are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Righteousness If you look upon his Cross and see the inscription JESUS OF NAZERETH KING OF THE JEWS you cannot miss of another HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS TO THE LORD There hung his sacred body and there hung all those bracelets and ornaments as Solomon calleth them those glorious examples of all vertues There hung the most true and most exact pictures of Patience and Obedience and unparallel'd Love And if we take them not out and draw them in our selves imputed Righteousness will not help us or rather it will not be imputed What Righteousness imputed to a man of Belial Christ's Love imputed to him that hateth him his Patience to a revenger his Truth to the fraudulent his Obedience to the traitour his Mercy to the cruel his Innocency to the murtherer his Purity to the unclean his Doing all things well to those who do all things ill God forbid No let us not deceive our selves Let us not sleep in sin and then please our selves with a pleasant dream of Righteousness which is but a suggestion of the enemy whose art it is to settle that in the phansie which should be rooted in the heart and to lead us to the pit of destruction full of those thoughts which lift us up as high as heaven Assumed names false pretences forced thoughts these are the pillars which uphold his kingdom and subvert all Righteousness Vera justitia hoc habet omnia in se vertit True Righteousness complieth with nothing that is contrary or diverse from it It will not comply with the Pharisee and make his seeming a reality it will not comply with the Schismatick and make his pride humility it will not comply with the prosperous Traitour and make him a Father of his
what greater do we not favour What art have we to fit Righteousness to our blackest designs to make it comply with faction sedition and sacrilege For have not these strutted abroad in state and Majesty under his name Hath not the Devil thus shewed himself as an Angel of light What a swindge have we given to Covetousness and Revenge which the Law of Christ hath tied up short to a Contempt of the world and Love of our Enemies How are we afraid of a ceremony and rejoyce in a sin How doth the Devil seem to roar in an Organ and what musick is there in a Drum How slow are we to lift them up who lie in the dust and how swift to shed bloud How unwilling is the Conscience to be touched and how ready to be seared How tender is the Conscience to be offended and how soon is it polluted A sign that we do but talk of Righteousness for our present advantage and not seek it for our eternal good Did we love and seek it indeed we should love the thing and not onely the name we should love it in every part we should embrace it all at once Desiderium est motus quidam saith the Philosopher Desire is a kind of motion of the soul by which it maketh its approches to the object or rather an instantaneous motion by which it flieth and joyneth with it in a moment But the soul of man doth often look towards Righteousness when we cannot say it moveth that way for meeting with some distaste and opposition some fear within or terrour without some misery some cross it standeth at gaze and turneth and maketh a most dishonourable retreat Many begin in the spirit but at the sight of some light tentation which to them is as a Lion in the way they slip aside and end in the flesh and all this because the desire was not strong enough which first led them on For to conclude when that is chearful and vehement and constant it marcheth on valiantly in the wayes of Truth and of Righteousness goeth forth in its power treadeth under foot that Pleasure which flattereth triumpheth over those evils which bring terrour maketh way through divers tentations and so buildeth and rooteth it self in Righteousness so seeketh it that it findeth it and never loseth it but by its guidance and conduct passeth by all flatteries and affrightments into the kingdom of heaven and everlasting glory The Six and Twentieth SERMON PART III. MATTH VI. 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you WE have already presented you with the Object and the Dignity or Beauty thereof and shewed you what this Righteousness is and what it is to seek it We come now to shew you the Excellency and Preeminency of the Object of Righteousness before all these other things And behold our Saviour here prescribeth and tieth us to a method in our search We must seek it first and these things shall be added Where our Saviour seemeth to speak with some kind of scorn and indignation that our infirmity should force him to name the things of this life as we commonly say the same day with the things of the life to come Wherefore having expresly named the kingdom of God and his righteousness he passeth slightly over the rest as disdaining to name them otherwise then by the general name of these things As Hezekiah pulling down the brazen Serpent calleth it no otherwise then by the scornful name of NEHUSHTAN brazen stuff so Christ willing to pull down in us the things of this life after which we have run a whoring more then ever the Jews did after the brazen Serpent telling us of Divine mattâ—â—s willeth us first to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then shall all these things this brass this Nehushtan this leaden pewter or at the best brazen stuff of the world be cast in upon us This is the method which is prescribed and this we must follow If the first stone in our building be Righteousness then will the things of this life come in otherwise no or if they do come they come not because of God's promise but from some other cause and it had been better they had never come As it is with those who build some things they provide for the main wall and foundation other things onely for ornament and furniture Now that building must needs prove weak where that is laid for the foundation which was onely provided for garnish These outward things are but a seeming kind of furniture for this life but the main wall is Righteousness Her foundations saith the Psalmist are in the holy hills Now S. Paul telling us of some builders who having laid a good foundation lay upon it hay and stubble sheweth what great damage they shall sustein for so doing And if this be the case of those builders whose foundation is supposed to be good what can we imagine shall be the loss of those whose very foundation is hay and stubble who have made the things of this world their prime and corner stone and bring it forth with shoutings crying Grace Grace unto it First then seek Righteousness And FIRST is a word of order And Order is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher a divine thing of wonderful force and efficacy For cost may be laid out matter provided labour bestowed and all to no purpose if there be not a set course and order observed in our proceedings Nihil negligentia operosius said Columella well There is nothing putteth us upon more business then Negligence and nothing doth more entangle and turmoil then Disorder For if we begin amiss we must begin again or else our work will fail and be lost between our hands will dye and perish as some infants do in the very womb The experience of the meanest Artist amongst you is able to tell you thus much Whosoever goeth to practise his trade cannot begin where he list Something there is to be done in the first place without which he cannot go unto the second something in the second place which will not be done except something be done before it Some order there is which prescribeth a law and manner to his action which being not observed nothing can be done As in all other businesses so in this great business of Christianity we must not think that we may hand over head huddle up matters as we please but we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep a method an order a course in our proceedings not first these things and then his Righteousness but first his Righteousness and then these things They who have commended to us the great use of Method and Order in our studies tell us that if a man could assure himself thirty years of study he might with more advantage spend twenty of them in finding out some course and order in study and the other ten in studying according
calleth it is very likely I shall fall fast asleep at the voice of Christ The reason is plain and evident For it is not with the Will and Affections as it is with the Understanding The Understanding can easily sever one thing from another and apprehend them both yea it hath power to abstract and separate things really the same and consider the one as different from the other but it is the property of the Will and Affections in unum ferri se in unitatem colligere to unite and collect themselves to make themselves one with the object so that our desires cannot be carried to two contrary objects at one and the same time We may apprehend Christ as just and holy and the world and the riches of it as vanity it self but we cannot at once love Christ as just and holy and adhere and cleave to the world and the vanities thereof Our Saviour hath fully expressed it where he telleth us we shall hate the one and love the other or else lean to the one and despise the other If it be a love to the one it will be at best but a liking of the other if a will to the one but a villeity and faint inclination to the other if a look on the one but a glance on the other And this glance this villeity this inclination are no better then hatred and contempt For these proceed from my Understanding but my love from my Will which is fixed not where I approve but where I chuse For what is it to say This is beauty and then spit upon it to say Righteousness is hominis optimum as Augustine calleth it the best thing that man can seek and yet chuse a clod of earth before it What is it to call Christ Lord and crucifie him For reason will tell us even when we most dote upon the world that Wisdom is better then rubies that Christ is to be preferred to Mammon that it is better cum Christo affligi quà m cum aliis deliciari to be afflicted with Christ then to enjoy the pleasures of this life and sport away our time with others but this will not make it Love which joyneth with the object which swalloweth it up is swallowed up by it What love is that to Righteousness which putteth it post principia in the second file behind the World and in this placeth all its hope of happiness seeing Righteousness if it be not sought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first place is lost for ever For last of all if we seek any thing before Righteousness that must needs be predominant and give laws to Righteousness square and fashion Religion as it pleaseth and so Religion being put behind will be put also to vile offices to swell our heaps to promote our lusts to feather our ambition to enrage our malice to countenance that which destroyeth her to follow that which driveth her out of the world And whereas Righteousness should be as the seal to be set upon all our intendments and upon all the actions of our life that they may go for warrantable being stamped and charactered as it were with the Image of the King of glory Christ Jesus Righteousness will be made as wax to receive the impression of the World and whatsoever may prove advantageous will go current for Righteousness and every thing will be Righteousness but that which is Whereas Righteousness should be fixed as a star in the firmament of the soul to cast its influence upon all we think or speak or do we shall draw up a meteor out of the foggy places of the earth a blazing and ill-boding comet and call it by that sacred name This this hath been the great corrupter of Religion in all the ages of the Church This was that falsary which did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adulterate the truth of the Gospel This hath made that desolation which we see upon the earth For if the eye be first fixed on the things of this world it will be so dazled as not to see Righteousness in her own shape nor discern her unless she be guilded over with vanity My Covetousness now looketh like Christian providence for my love of these things must Christen the Child My Ambition now is the Honour of God My malice cannot burn hot enough for I seek the Lord in the bowels of my brethren My Sacrilege is excessive piety for though it is true that I fill my coffers with the shekels of the Sanctuary yet I beat down Baal and Superstition But if we did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first seek Righteousness our Covetousness would not dig and drudge with such a fair gloss our ambition would flag and stoop to the ground our Malice would dye never to be raised again and our Sacrilege would find no hand to lay hold on the axe and the hammer the power of Righteousness and not her bare name would manifest it self in our actions and all excuses and pretences and false glosses would vanish as a mist before the Sun the World would be but a great dunghil Honour but air Malice a fury and the Houses of God would stand fast for ever But this misplacing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath put all out of order divided the Church shaken the Pillars of the earth ruined nations and left nothing of Righteousness but the name when that which indeed is Righteousness doth make and preserve a Church uphold the world and is the alone thing which can perpetuate a Government and continue a Commonwealth to last so long as the Moon endureth If this did prevail there could be no wars nor rumours of wars no violence in the form of a law no injury under pretence of conscience no beating of our fellow-servants no murthering of our brethren in the name of the Lord. I say the casting Religion behind and making it wait upon us in all our distempers is that which hath well-near cast all Religion out of the world This hath raised so many sects which swarm and buzze about us like flies in Summer This is the coyner of Heresies which are nothing else but the inventions of worldly-minded men working out of the elaboratory of their phansie some new Doctrine which may favour and keep pace with their humour and lift them up and make them great in the world This built a Throne for the Pope and a Consistory for the Disciplinarian This hath stated many Questions and been President at most Councils For be the man what he will private interest is commonly the Doctor and magisterially determineth and prescribeth all If a thing be advantageous it must also be orthodox and hath on the one side written RIGHTEOUSNESS UNTO THE LORD on the other FROM HENCE WE HAVE OUR GAIN We cannot be too charitable yet you know charity may mistake Peradventure weakness of apprehension may leave some naked to errour conscience may sway and bow others in some things from the truth but let me tell you in
that which is plain and evident in the open and bright way of Righteousness the conscience never did never can err Did ever any mans conscience persuade him against a manifest law Did reason ever tell any Thou mayest kill Thou mayest be perjured Thou mayest bear false witness No It is not conscience but the love of this world that maketh a negative precept affirmative That is the Tribune that setteth us at liberty and letteth us loose against the Law it self though it be written with the Sun-beams before which we draw a cloud of excuses or pretences and fight against Righteousness with its name From the corruptions of mens lives have corruptions crept into Religion which carry with them a near likeness and resemblance to those lusts and desires which are mighty and prevalent in us to carry us with a swindge into those enormities and irregularities which Righteousness forbiddeth Vt in vita sic in causis spes improbas habemus saith Quintilian Those unlawfal hopes and foul affections which sway us in our lives appear again and shew themselves as full of power to pervert and mislead us in point of doctrine and for a while to take all scruple from the conscience Conscience may err and persuade me that is Superstition which is indeed Devotion But when I raise my own house upon the ruines of God's house it is not Conscience but Covetousness that is the architect Conscience may incite me to redeem my brother from errour when he is as free as the truth can make him But it is the love of the world that is the persecutour which strippeth him of his possessions For if he were guilty yet a tender conscience would shrink at such an intrusion Conscience may check at the gold of the Temple but it is the love of these things which putteth it into the bag Conscience not well informed may startle at the one but it would run from the other did not the love of the world draw it back and lay it asleep with the musick it maketh But it will awake again if not with a pinch from a tedious disease or some other calamity yet most certainly at the sound of the last trump and be that worm which shall gnaw the dreamer for ever Let us not deceive our selves The Kingdom of God and his Righteousness were the alone desirable object and first to be sought after before that faction and schism did rend divide the Church before it mouldred into sects and crumbled into conventicles before the Pope King'd it and the Disciplinarian Pope'd it in the house of God beating their fellow-servants not for being unrighteous but for not being righteous after their form and prescript for not setting their Religion to their mode and fashion For when men did look and like and delight in the things of this world then was this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this First blotted out and Righteousness left behind and in the place thereof succeeded Ceremony Formality Superstition Faction then Godliness was gain and private interest conscience then that divided voice was heard Lo here is Christ and there is Christ here in this Congregation or there in that Conventicle here in this government or there in that or here in no government here in this secret chamber and there in that desart in that wilderness of beasts of Tygers and Bears which bite and devour each other Then did men lye down and sleep on those heaps which they had gathered in the name of Righteousness then did they batten in their wealth then did they bless and say an Ave an Hail to themselves as highly favoured then did they flatter themselves when this golden showr fell into their laps as if Righteousness had poured it down and God himself were in it Then injustice was counted Righteousness faction Zeal and humane policy Religion This mischief this ruine hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 want of method beginning where we should end wrought amongst Christians and made our very name to be lothed of those who are without the Turk and the Jew who can say no worse of us then this and think that this they may say truly That we follow Christ to gain the world and give Righteousness the fairest title but the lowest place Pudet hoec opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli And is it not a shame for us that this may be said and said truly that Christianity should be thus scorned and blasphemed for their sakes who profess it For conclusion then Let us not think our selves wiser then Wisdom it self let us not count our selves better Methodists then our Saviour but let us keep the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where it should be and where Christ hath placed it on Righteousness Let us observe exactly in our spiritual building what Vitruvius requireth in Architecture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 order and disposition that in our Religion there may be nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ill-placed Why should Righteousness come after these things and God after Mammon There is not there canâ—t be a greater absurdity a greater solecism then this an absurdity which maketh men and Angels and God himself ashamed of us a thriftless destructive absurdity which maketh us poorer by making us rich more vile by making us honourable and which â—hen we think it lifteth us up tumbleth us down into the lowest pit For as the School-man telleth us to follow too much the sway of our sensuality and to neglect the direction of Reason which is the best methodist tam sensualitatem quà m rationem extinguit doth not onely put out the eye of our reasonable part and leave that dark but at last extinguisheth the very power of sense it self so our devotion and desires if they waste and consume themselves where they should not shew themselves if vve place them on these things on temporal and not spiritual or on temporal before spiritual they never fly to the mark but miss of both they neither fill our hands with plenty nor our souls with that spiritual Manna which should nourish us to eternal life or if they do come home and reach these things they serve us to no other purpose then the Tyrant's daggers of silver and ropes of silk ut cariùs pereamus that we may fall and perish with more state and cost and pomp then other men But Christ's method is de schola coeli from heaven heavenly and will lead us thither through poverty and riches through honour and dishonour and never fail In a word Righteousness if it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first in our desires if it have the upper room and a throne in our heart bringeth with it both the promises of this life and that which is to come and will make us happy here in all time of our tribulation in all time of our wealth in the hour of death and in the day of judgment it will open the gates of heaven and let us in to that happiness
Father doth of Idolatry It is summus seculi reatus tota causa judicii It is a vocal crying sin which like the importunate Widow in the Gospel will not suffer the Judge to rest till he do justice This filleth the world with the evil of sin and of punishment not so much a firm opinion that God may be deceived and mocked as a bold presumption by which we make him such a God as we would have him a God that may be trifled with a God that like the Heathen Gods may be taken by the beard that those fierce astonishing speeches which we find in Scripture are but words of art 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoken to affright men rather then words of intended truth which will bring effect according to their natural meaning as indulgent fathers many times threaten their children with much hard language which they never intend to make good And this conceit of Gods facility and easiness that he so quickly admits of excuse is the principal ground and occasion of all the sins in the world To make it plainer yet and point out to some particulars in which we mock God when we imagine no such thing and so to conclude this point I cannot imagine when I consider that Majesty which no mortal can comprehend that Dust and Ashes the works of Gods hand should be able to put a trick upon him and mock him This were to set his creature in his Throne and place extreme Weakness and Folly above Wisdome it self Psal 50. Thou verily thoughtest I was like unto thee saith God to the Hypocrite It was but a thought a wavering imagination which enters and goes out and never remains at one stay God is not cannot be mocked For if he had believed there was a God Diagoras himself would not have mockt him nor ever thought it possible But the truth is as the relation stands betwixt God and his creature Man is said to do that which he doth not which he cannot do to fight with him who is omnipotent to dispute with him whom we cannot answer one of a thousand to contend to grieve him who cannot be moved to weary him to press him as a cart is with sheaves who by his word made and by his word beareth all things who is to himself an everlasting sabbath and rest Non ille minùs peccat cui sola deest facultas saith the Casuist We do not do it the less because we cannot do it because we vvould do it if we could Ipsa sibi imputatur voluntas saith the Father To vvill it is to do it To look upon a woman and lust after her is to commit adultery yet the vvoman as chast as before So God cannot be mockt yet vve may mock him As in the rape of Lucrece two are in the fact yet but one as Augustine speaks committed adultery For if Tully could truly say that to resist the Law of Nature and to vvalk contrary to that light which vve brought vvith us into the vvorld is nothing less then Gigantum more bellare cum Diis to vvage vvar vvith the Gods as the Giants did then may vve as truly affirm that to dissemble vvith God to flatter him vvith our lips vvhen our heart is far from him to fall down before him in a complement vvhen vve break his laws to act our part as upon a stage to vvish he had no eye to study to believe it is to mock him To be more particular yet For yet you may ask vvherein vve mock him For vve are very slow and unwilling to believe any evil of our selves and are hardly induced to think vve ever did that vvhich vve do every day Mock God! nay God forbid And that God forbid that prayer Mal. 3.7 is but a mock God calls to the Jews Return unto me and they reply Wherein shall we return as if they never had been averse from him but had been alwayes vvith him even in his bosome And vers 8. Ye have robbed me saith God and they say Wherein have we robbed thee as if they vvere utterly ignorant of any such matter but had been vvholly imployed in bringing tiths into his store-house and meat into his house They forsook him they robb'd him and yet are innocent They did and did not and God himself is made no better then a columniator So that this position is true in this sense also God is not mocked for no man thinks no man vvill acknovvledge no man dares profess that he mocks him But vve cannot thus shake off the guilt nor put it from us For vvhen vve do those things to God vvhich vve do to men vvhen vve mock them this is enough to put us into the seat of Mockers and enroll us amongst the Mockers of God When Laban gave Jacob blear-ey'd Leah for beautiful Rachel Gen. 29.25 it vvas a mock What hast thou done saith Jacob did not I serve thee for Rachel why hast thou mocked me When Micah laid an image in the bed for David and said he was sick it vvas a mock For Saul said unto Micah why hast thou deceived me When God requires justice and righteousness and we bring him vain oblations when he calls for the heart and we lift up our voice when he calls for a working fighting conquering faith and we give him a dead faith when God calls for Faith which is a stone a corner-stone to build that Obedience upon which shall reach to Heaven and we make Faith a pillow to sleep on and sin the more securely because we believe when God bids us strengthen our hands that hang down and we open our ears when God bids us Vp and be doing and we count all done in Hearing when God calls for a New creature and we return him circumcision and uncircumcision empty sacraments and lazy formalities Deut. 15. when God requires a sacrifice without blemish and we offer up that which is lame or blind when God requires perfection and we give him our weak blind halting endeavours when God seeks a Man and we give him a picture Psal 35.16 what are we but hypocritical mockers For what are Hypocrites but Players the Zanias of Religion whose art it is to deceive who are so long conversant in outward performances that they rest in them as in the end of the Law are content with shews and expressions and at last think there is no service no religion but in these As the poor Spartan travailing into another country and seeing the beams and posts of houses squared and carved which he had never seen before asked if trees did grow so in those countries So these mockers of God these formal professours having been long acquainted with a form of Godliness sqared and carved and set out with shew and advantage considering what eloquence there is in an attentive Ear a turned Eye an Angels Tongue a forced Sigh to win applause and make them glorious in the eyes of men fall at last upon this
are these false and deceitful comforts as those Christs are Antichrists so these comforts are curses greater then those we fly from In poverty we seek for wealth and that makes us poorer then we were In prison we seek for enlargement and enlargement fettereth us more binds us hand and foot with the cares of this world In the dust vve look up unto the highest place and we no sooner fill it but we are filled with care These are not fit remedies Wealth is no cure for poverty nor Enlargement for restraint nor Honour for discontent This is not the true method but we vvalk as in a vain shadow as in a dream We dream that vve eat and vvhen vve awake vve are hungry vve dream of abundance and still vve vvant vve dream of honour and are lower then he that is on the dunghill vve dream of liberty and are slaves of pleasure and comfort and are miserable Thus it is in temporal evils in those evils vvhich are not so until vve make them so And thus it is and much more in those evils which are truly so and vvhich make us evil When it thundreth vve hide our selves When God comes towards us in the cool in the wind of the day vve run into the thicket When our Conscience holds up the whip vve fly from it vvhen it is angry vve flatter it We comfort our selves against Gods jealousie till it burn like fire against the checks and bitings of Conscience till it be a vvorm that vvill gâ—aw us everlastingly When the tempest is loudest vve lull our selves asleep We are as willing to forget sin as to commit it And the Devil is not more subtle in his tentations then in suggesting those foeda peccandi solatia as S. Hierom calls them those foul and dangerous refreshments of a perishing soul Either he casts our sins behind us or if they be before us vve look upon them as Lot did upon Zoar Are they not little ones and our soul shall live Thus vve comfort our selves that either it is a first sin or that it is a small sin or that others have committed a greater sin We pollute our selves in every high way and under every green tree and every thing we see casts a shadow to comfort us We comfort our selves by our selves and by others by our own vveakness and by others vveakness And vve comfort our selves by Sin it self We find comfort not onely in heaven above but in the earth below and in the depth of hell it self We comfort our selves by the mercy of God by the vanity of the creature by the subtilty of Satan And thus vve find out antidotum adversus Caesarem an antidote against vengeance and the vvrath of God but this Antidote is poyson these remedies are vexations these comforts are as Devils to torment us more Tranquillitas ista tempestas est saith S. Hierome This calm is more dangerous then a tempest This haven vve flie to shipwracks and overwhelms a soul vvhich if vve took a right method and applyed that medicine vvhich the true Physician hath prescribed might though through a storm have seen that light by which it might escape and flie away and be at rest For the best comfort is that vvhich is vvrought out of the sense of sin as that joy is most ravishing vvhich vve gain out of sorrow cùm consoletur dolor when as S. Augustine speaketh Grief it self is made a comforter Aegra anima Deo proÌ„xima saith Nazianzene The sâ—ck soul and not that soul only which is sick but which grones and complains in its sickness God is best acquainted with He will descend and visit that soul and make it glad with the joy of his countenance It is good and safest to observe a method in this as we do exactly also in all things else The Tradesman hath his way to gather wealth and he calls it his craft or mystery And he will not fail in the least minim or punctilio for if he do he may prove a bankrupt The Souldier hath his art and discipline his military rules For there is a method observed even in killing of men And to mistake or fail in any one of them is to commit an errour that can never be recalled or remedied not to fight according to rule is to lose the victory Ars non virtus indocta praestat victoriam It is art and method not rude and boisterous valour which wins the day and crowns the conquerour The Philosopher hath his method Yea Philosophy it self is nothing else but method and an orderly carrying the mind of man from one thing to another from one conclusion to another As there is a time so there is a way for every thing under the Sun There is a certain means for every purpose a certain order in coming to every end we set up and so there is in this in comforting our selves or others which if we observe not the more waters we draw the more foul and bitter they will be the more physick we take the sicker we are the more we comfort our selves the more we stand in need of comfort and thus to keep off our Hell makes it burn more ragingly then before And how have we failed in the true method of Comfort how have we drawn this water out of every puddle and sink We go not to Jacobs well to the true fountain of comfort or if we do we have nothing to draw with Our vessels are broken not a sherd left that will hold this water no Understanding and less Will they being taken up with fallacious hopes and comforts of this world Can we draw this water out of the wells of Salvation We had rather draw bloud out of the hearts of our oppressors and wash our feet in their bloud and so be at rest a comfort it would be to see every Nebuchadnezzar every Tyrant turned into a beast and driven into the field to see them that trouble us cut off and made as dung for the earth to see the Sacrilegious person struck dead Let thine enemies perish O Lord let thine enemies perish that is our prayer and it was our Comfort to see it and till we see it we will not be comforted Thus we erre and such immethodical Chistians we are For Gods Providence is not to wait upon our wills and affections but our wills and affections must bow and submit to it and wait upon it as the eye of the servant looks upon the hand of his master not to guide it but to obey and kiss it as well when he withdraws it from us as when he stretcheth it out to help us The hope of enemies destruction might have been a comfort under the Law because then it was a promise that one should chase a thousand they shall come out one way and flee seven waies Then they could say Lo thine enemies shall perish thine enemies shall perish even in this world But there is no such promise under the Gospel and therefore no
the priest denieth him not Matth. 12.7 Hos 6.6 and our Saviour in the Gospel acquitteth him out of the Prophet I will have mercy and not sacrifice Better all Ceremony should fall to the ground then any one Hungry soul should starve for bread But the laws given to the sons of men as a rule of life are not ceremonial and temporary but reall and eternal nor can those sins vvhich break them receive any cover or palliation And to plead excuse or dispensation against these is to turn mercy into sacrifice to plead for Baal to cover and boulster up and justifie sin vvhich is the greatest sin of all When Sacrifices were omitted or the Sabbath for some reasons not observed vve do not find that God doth complain and Christ maketh it lawful nay necessary in some particulars a sin not to do that which otherwise would be a sin not to neglect the Sabbath to save the life of a man nay of an ass What Ceremony almost can we name vvhich hath not at some time upon just occasion been omitted But vvhen the Moral Law is broken when God's people fall into Idolatry or follow lies vvhen they are murderers or oppressors then he hath a controversie with them and pleadeth against them Here no cover vvill fit no paint nor pargetting vvill serve all the excuses in the vvorld vvill not keep off the sentence of death To imagine that God vvill admit of excuse for the breach of such a Law as is eternal and bindeth all men and at all times vvere as the Father saith to make God Circumscriptorem suae sententiae by a kind of fraud to avoid and defeat his own decree This vvere to make his goodness imaginary his severity a phansie his commands nothing but security for offenders This vvere to turn his justice into iniquity and his vvisdom into folly So to cover our sin is but to make it greater and increase the punishments He that covereth it shall not prosper To urge this reason taken from God further yet We find the two attributes of God his Wisdom and his Power the highest attributes which he hath As his Power is unlimited so he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wisdom above all wisdom whatsoever In his actions ad extrà these two alwayes concur As by his Power the creatures were created Psal 104.24 so in wisdom hath he made them all Psal 104.24 saith the Psalmist Yet his Power seemeth to be subordinate to and receive direction from his Wisdom And therefore though all the attributes of God be infinite and consequently equal yet his Wisdom seemeth to have the precedency the first and highest place It is so we see in his creature Man Ingenii damna majora sunt quà m pecuniae He that disparageth our Wisdom hath laid upon us the bitterest imputation he can We can hear with patience many times that others are richer or stronger then our selves No man is vexed within himself that he is not a Milo or an Hercules or a Croesus But he that detracteth from our Wisdom is an enemy indeed Nulla contumeliosiùs fit injuria He doth us the greatest injury in the world that calleth us fools Qui velit ingenio cedere rarus erit We cannot wonder then if we observe the same in God if we see and read him more jealous of his Wisdom then of his Power that his indignation should wax hotter against the Excuse then the Sin For he that committeth sin dallieth with his Power but he that covereth and palliateth sin playeth with his Wisdom trieth whether he can per fraudem obrepere fraudulently circumvent and abuse God He that sinneth would be stronger then God but he that covereth his sin striveth as it were to put out his all-seeing eye and to be wiser then he potior Jupiter quà m ipse Jupiter as he in the Comedy saith a wiser Jupiter then Jupiter Himself which no impiety can equal And therefore we may observe that God forgiveth the greatest sins when they are laid open and confessed but casteth an angry look and layeth an heavy hand upon those sins which would hide and cover themselves with excuses 1 Sam. 15. 2. Sam. 12. We have a notable instance of this in David and Saul Take but the pains to compare them both and you will at the first view be soon perswaded that the heavy sentence which Samuel denounced against Saul should have passed upon David that of the two David more deserved to have had the Kingdom rent from him the Sceptre torn out of his hands For bring their sins to the balance and compare them both Saul spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen And what errour was here but only that the commandment was broken For when he spared the oxen and the sheep who was the worse Quid meruistis oves what sin was it to be merciful to the dumb and innocent creature Besides his end and pretense was good He did it to sacrifice them to the Lord. But to the sin of David no oratory is equal Who can express the hainousness of it Saul offendeth against but one command and that a positive one and which was only for the present and with which God did often dispense but David against an eternal Law written in his Heart with which God never did never will dispense Again Saul's sin was but one but David's was peccatum complicatissimum a sin carrying a train with it of which the least in appearance was greater then that of Saul's first Adultery then an Attempt to make Uriah drunk then Murder not only of Uriah himself whose bed he had defiled but also of all those who fell with him And to this we may add his long continuance in sin even a whole year without any sense or feeling of it It will not be easie to find out a parallel hereunto either in Divine or Humane story either amongst the Israelites or amongst aliens from the commonwealth of Israel I would not rip up the bowels of this Saint or shew you the full horrour of his sinne but to this end to discover and shew you withall this most necessary truth the danger of covering a sin We see David easily reconciled to God but Saul cast off eternally without possibility of pardon Yet Saul confesseth his sin thought it were late I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and Samuel prayeth for Saul Vers 24. and yet nothing prevaileth Now the reason of this may be plainly gathered out of the Text. Nathan no sooner cometh to David and sheweth him his fault but he presently without any ambages or circumstance confesseth it and upon confession receiveth pardon which followed the confession as close as an Echo doth the sound 2 Sam. 12.13 I have sinned is answered with The Lord hath put away thy sin But with Saul it was otherwise For he denyeth and then wipeth his mouth and receiveth the Prophet with a complement Blessed be thou of
purged from all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness Vers 21. And in the third place to drive it home he urgeth them to the Practice and full Obedience of what they hear and believe His first reason is Because to hear and not to do is to put a cheat upon our selves to defraud our selves of the true end of Hearing which when we do we must necessarily fall upon a worse end If we hear and not do we shall do that which will destroy us His second reason is taken ab utili from the huge advantage we shall reap by it For Blessedness is entailed not upon the Hearers but the Doers of the Word as you find it in my Text But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein c. In which words you have I. the Character of a true Gospeller of a Christian indeed He looketh into the Gospel and he continueth in it by frequent meditation and by constant obedience by not forgetting and by doing the work which the Gospel enjoyneth This is his Character II. his Crown He shall be blessed in his deed So that here the Apostle taketh the Christian by the hand and pointeth out to him his end namely Blessedness And that he may press forward to it he chalketh out his way before him the Gospel or the doctrine of the Gospel of Christ Here if he walk and make progress here if he remain and persevere the end is Blessedness and it is laid up for him and even expecteth and waiteth to meet him Thus we see it and thus we set forward towards it Doing is the Duty and Blessedness is the Reward These are the Parts In the first the Character of a true Christian you have the Character of the Gospel it self and that one would think a strange one For who would look for Law in the Gospel or who would look for liberty in a Law The Gospel is good news but a Law is terrible we cannot endure to hear that which is commanded And one would think that the Law were vanished with the smoke at mount Sinai And Liberty is a Jubilee bringeth rest and intermission but a Law tieth and fettereth us to hard tasks to be up and doing to labour and pain And yet there is Law in the Gospel and there is Liberty in the Gospel and these two will friendly joyn and comply together and the truest way to liberty is by this Law The Gospel then or the Doctrine of the Gospel is 1. a Law and so requireth our obedience 2. a perfect Law and exacteth a perfect and complete obedience 3. a Law of liberty that our obedience may be free and voluntary And these if we continue to the end will draw on the reward which is the end of all the end of this Law the end of our obedience We shall be blessed in our work We begin with the Character of the Gospel or the doctrine of the Gospel And first we see the Apostle calleth it a Law And though it may seem an improper speech to say the Gospel is Law yet it will bear a good and profitable sense For there is a new Law as well as an old Et lex antiqua suppletur per novam saith Tertullian The old Law receiveth addition and perfection by the new Take it in what sense you please in the best and most pleasing signification it implieth a Law If you take it for a Testament as it is called that is the Will of the Testator Hebr. 7.22 and his will is a Law It is called so mandatum a command an injunction contestatio mentis saith Gellius a declaration of our mind John 17.14 I have given them thy word saith Christ I have delivered all thy mind and will which we are bound to observe as a Law Take it for a Covenant It is called so the new covenant And what is a Covenant but a Law It was a Law upon Christ to do what belonged to his office and it is a Law upon us to do our duties unless we can think that Christ onely was under the Law that we might be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lawless and do what we please Take it as the name importeth for Good news Even that pleasing sound the Angels Anthem the Musick of Heaven may conveigh a Law For what was the good news That we should be delivered from our enemies That is but an imperfect narration but a part of the news The Law is tied as fast to it as we are to the Law That we should serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of our life Take it in the Angels words To you is born a Saviour And though TO YOU may take all mankind within its compass and be as large as the whole world yet it is a Law that appropriateth and applieth these words and draweth them down to particulars For though they take in all yet they do not take in a Libertine or lawless person To you a Saviour is no good news to the impenitent sinner to him that will not be obedient to this Law to the Gospel of Christ Facit infidelitas multorum ut non omnibus nascatur qui omnibus natus est saith Ambrose To you a Saviour is born is universally true but Infidelity and Disobedience interpret it against themselves He is not your Saviour unless you receive him with his own conditions and his conditions make a Law and are obligatory For in the last place look upon his promises of Expiation and Pardon and Remission of Life and Eternity look upon them in all their brightness and radiancie and even from thence you may hear a Law as the Israelites did from the thick cloud and thunders For Love may have a Law bound up in it as vvell as Terrour Love hath its commands Indeed it is it self a Law especially the Love of the God of Love who is equal to himself in all his wayes vvhose promises are made as all things else vvhich are made by him in order number and weight vvhose Love and Promises are guided and directed by his Justice and Wisdom He doth not promise to purge those vvho vvill vvallow in the mire or to pardon those vvho vvill ever rebel or to give them life vvho love death or eternal pure spiritual joy to those vvho seek eternity onely in their lusts No his promises are alwayes attended with conditions fitted to that Wisdom that made them and to our condition that receive them He doth not ex conditionibus facere promissiones as some have been bold to say condition vvith us to do his vvill and then turn the condition into a promise but rather ex promissionibus facere conditiones make conditions out of promises For every promise in the Gospel is loaded vvith its condition Thou shalt be saved but it is if thou believe There is lex Fidei the Law of Faith I will give thee a crown of life but it is if thou be faithful
proceeded to the attaining of it The Stork in the air knoweth her appointed times Jer. 8.7 and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their coming Pliny speaking of the Bees telleth us Quod maximè mirum est mores habent A wonderful thing it is to see that natural honesty and justice which is in them Onely Man the soveraign Lord of all the creatures whom it most principally concerned to be thus endowed was sent into the world utterly devoid of any such knowledge nisi alienâ misericordiâ sustinere se nequit as Ambrose speaketh and without forein and borrowed help never so much as getteth a sight of his own proper end Amongst natural men none there are in whom appetite is so extinct but that they see something which they propose unto themselves as a scope of their hopes and reward of their labours and in the obtaining of which they suppose all their happiness to reside Yet even in this which men principally incline to direction is so faulty particulars so infinite that most sit down in the midst of their way and come far short of that mark which their hopes set up And if our Wisdom be so feeble and deficient in those things which are sensible and open to our view what laws what light what direction have we need of to carry us on in the way to that happiness which no mortal eye can approch Hannibal in Livy being to pass the Alps a thing that time held impossible yet comforteth himself with this Nullas terras coelum contingere nec inexsuperabiles humano generi esse That how high soever they were they were not so high as heaven nor unpassable if men were industrious The pertinacy of Man's industry may find waies through desarts through rocks through the roughest seas But our attempt is far greater The way we must make is from earth to heaven a thing which no strength or wit of man could ever yet compass Therefore Christ our King who knoweth Man to be a wandring and erring creature would not leave it to his shallow discretion who no sooner thinketh but erreth nor setteth down his foot but treadeth amiss but he cometh himself into the world promulgeth his Laws which may be to him as Tiresias his staff in the Poet able to guide his feet were he never so blind and in his Gospel he giveth him sound directions no way subject unto errour guideth him as it were with a bridle putteth his Law into his heart chalketh out his way before him and like a skilful Pilot sheweth him what course to take what Syrtes what rocks to avoid lest he make an irrecoverable shipwreck of body and soul His Laws are the Compass by which if he steer his course he shall pass the gulf and be brought to that haven where he would be 1 Pet. 2.9 Rom. 2. 6. Therefore hath Christ called us out of darkness into his wonderful light And we are the called of Jesus Christ gathered together into a Church an House a Family a City a Republick Our Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 municipatus as Tertullian rendreth it our Burgership is in heaven And the Philosopher will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that will erect a Society a Commonwealth must also frame Laws and fit and shape them to that form of Commonwealth which he intendeth For Lavvs are numismata Reipublicae the coins as it were by vvhich vve come to knovv the true face and representation of a Commonvvealth the different complexions of States and Societies And Christ our King hath dravvn out Laws like unto his Kingdom vvhich are most fit and appliable to that end for vvhich he hath gathered us into one body His sceptre is a sceptre of righteousness and his Laws are just He came down from heaven and his Laws carry us back thither He received them from his Father John 10.18 as himself speaketh and these make us like unto his Father These govern our Understanding nè assentiat that it yield not assent to that errour which our lusts have painted over in the shape of Truth and these regulate our Will nè consentiat that it do not bow and chuse it and these order our Affections that they may be servants and not commanders of our Reason These make a heaven in our Understanding these place the image of God in our Will and make it like unto his these settle peace and harmony in the Affections that they become weapons of righteousness and fight the battels of our King and Law-giver My Anger may be a sword my Love a banner my Hope a staff and my Fear a buckler In a word Christ's Laws will fit us for his Kingdom here and prepare us for his Kingdom hereafter Therefore in the next place they are necessary for us as the onely means to draw us nigh unto himself and to that end for which he came into the world Every end hath its proper means fitted and proportioned to it Knowledge hath study Riches have labour and industry Honour hath policy Even he that setteth up an end which he is ashamed of and hideth from the Sun and the people draweth a method and plot in himself to bring him to it The Thief hath his night and darkness and the Wanton his twilight And his hope entitleth and joyneth him to the end though he never reach it In the Kingdom of Satan there are rules and laws observed A thought ushereth in a Sin and one Sin draweth on another and at last Destruction And this is the way of that wisdome which is but foolishness And shall men work iniquity as by a law and can we hope to be raised to an eternity of glory and be left to our selves or to attain it by those means which hold no proportion at all with it Will the Gospel the bare Tidings of peace do it Will a phansie a thought a wish an open profession have strength enough to lift us up to it Happiness in phansie is a picture and no more In a wish it is less for I wish that which I would not have And barely to profess the means and acknowledge the way unto it is to give my self the lie nay to call my self a fool for what greater folly can there be then to say This is the way and not to walk in it If we were thus left unto our selves all our happiness were but a dream and every thought a sin against the holy Ghost We should wish our King neither just nor wise nor holy we should call him our King and leave him no sceptre in his hand no power to make a Law look forward toward the mark and run backward from it give Christ a Hail and crucifie him call an innocent Christ our King and be men of Belial an humble Christ and swell above our measure a merciful Christ and be cruel a just Christ and be oppressours hope to attain the end without the means and against
the means and so go to heaven with hell about us And indeed Wickedness could never so fill the hearts of men if they did not entertain this conceit that the Gospel and the Law are at as great a distance as Liberty and Captivity And by this the Gospel declineth and groweth weak and unprofitable not able to make a new creature which is made up in righteousness and holiness and obedience to those Laws which had not the Prince of this vvorld blinded us we might easily see and take notice of even in the Gospel it self For Christ did neither dissolve the Law of Nature nor abrogate the Moral Law of Moses but improved and perfected them both He left the Moral Law as a Rule but not as a Covenant pressed it further then formerly it had been understood and shewed us yet a more excellent way And as God gave to Adam a Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as matter for the freedom of his will to see which way it would bend and to try his obedience So did Christ in this new Creation even when he came to heal the broken-hearted and set at liberty those that were in prison publish his precepts which are not Counsels but Laws as matter of that obedience which will keep our heart from polluting again and strengthen our feet that we may standfast in that liberty wherewith he hath made us free For without obedience to these Laws the plague is still at our heart and our fetters cleave close to us He is come and hath finished all and for all this we are yet in our sins I will not say with Tertullian Quisquis rationem jubet legislator est Whosoever commandeth that which Reason suggesteth is a Law-giver For every man that can speak Reason hath not authority to make Laws But Christ was not onely the Wisdom of his Father but had Legislative power committed to him being the supreme Head over all men that by his Laws as well as his Bloud he might bind them to that obedience which may make them fit citizens of his new Jerusalem And as he is CHRIST anointed by his Father anointed to his office to teach and command so he distilleth his ointment on every member of his And the same anointing teacheth us of all things and is truth and is no lie and maketh us Christians that we may be obedient to the Christian Law Christ saith This new Commandment I give you and his Apostle calleth it a Law and we need not be afraid of the name We will but draw it down to our selves by way of use and application and so conclude And first we should not be afraid of the word Law if we were not afraid of our Duty nor look up upon God's decree which is hidden from us but fulfill the royal Law which is put into our mouth and into our hearts For his Decree and his Command are not at such opposition but the command may be a decree also And he decreed to save us by Faith and Obedience to his Evangelical Laws and he decreed to crown us but by those means which are fit to set the crown upon our heads Therefore we cannot but condemn that conceit which hath stained the papers of many who call themselves Gospellers and polluted the lives of more That Christ came into the world to do his Father's will that is to redeem us but not to do his Father's will that is to teach and command us Which is in effect to redeem us and yet leave us in chains That Christ is a Saviour and not a Law-giver That the Gospel consisteth rather in certain Articles to be believed then in certain Precepts to be observed That to speak properly there is no precept at all delivered in the Gospel That it belongeth to the Law to command That the breath of the Gospel is mild and gentle and smelleth of nothing but frankincense and myrrhe those precious promises which we gaze upon till our eyes dazle that we can see nothing we have to do no thought to stifle no word to silence no lust to beat down no temptation to struggle with but we let loose our phansie and our thoughts flie after and embrace every vanity we set no watch to the door of our lips we prove not our works but do whatsoever the flesh suggesteth because we have nothing to do we tempt even Temptation it self and will be captives because we have a Saviour for we are taught and are willing to believe it That the will of God is laid down in the form and manner of a Law but not so to be understood by the Elect which every man can make himself when he please but as a Promise which God will work in those his chosen ones but will not work in others who from all eternity are cast away That Faith it self which is the chief and primary precept of the Gospel is rather promised then left as a command Qui amant sibi somnia fingunt With such ease do men swallow the most gross and dangerous falshoods and then sit down and delight themselves in those phansies which could find no room but in the sick and distempered brain of a man sold under sin and bound up in carnality For if we would but look upon Christ or upon our selves and consider what is most proper to unite us to him if we would but hear him when he speaketh You cannot love me unless you keep my commandments we should not thus smooth and plain our way to run upon the pricks we should easily with one cast of our eye see what distance there is between a Promise and a Law and distinguish them by the very sound which flesh and bloud and our weariness in the paths of righteousness do so easily joyn together and make one Caelum mari unitur ubi visio absumitur quae quamdiu viget tam diu dividit saith Tertullian At some distance the heavens seem to close with the sea not so much by reason of the beams which are cast upon it but because the sight and visive power is weary and faint which whilest it remaineth quick and active is able to divide objects one from the other In like manner we may conceive that a Promise and a Precept which are in their own nature diverse and sâ—veral things for a Promise waiteth upon a Precept to urge and promote it and obedience to the Precept sealeth the Promise and maketh it good unto us yet may sometimes be taken for the very same For the Promises are glorious and cast a lustre upon the Precepts that they are less observable and so our duty is lost in the reward that looketh towards us Besides this it could not be that men should so mistake but that their eyes are dull and heavy by gazing too long upon the absolute decree of Predestination in which though they be never so far asunder the Precept and the Promise may well meet they think and be concentred Certainly a dangerous
errour of which many a soul may be guilty and know it not call the doctrine of the Gospel a Law and yet bury it in the Decree as in a land of oblivion And what is this but to make Christ's Sermon on the mount not a catalogue of holy duties but rather a collection of promises They will say perhaps that the Gospel is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good news And so it is the best that ever was brought from Heaven to Earth and yet nothing the worse because it containeth both Promises and Laws For they are as it were of the same bloud and kinred and in a manner connatural one with the other No promise without condition no precept without a promise annexed What need then these chymical or rather phantastical extractions to sever them one from the other For is it good news that we shall be saved and is it not good news that we must work out our Salvation Is the Promise good news and is not the Law good news Is Heaven a fair sight and is a Law so terrible Is it good news to the captive that his fetters shall be strook off and is it not good news that he must shake them from him Is he welcome that sheweth us the way to happiness and shall we turn away the face when he biddeth us walk in it Let us not deceive our selves He that truly desireth heaven desireth holiness He that looketh for the Promise loveth the Law He that will meet Christ at his second must fall down before him at his first coming He that longeth for the Euge the reward will take delight also in his Law He that taketh Christ for a Saviour will bow before him also as a Lord. We cannot possibly dimidiare Christum divide Christ and take him by halves Nor can we divide a Christian to hang as Solomon is painted between Heaven and Hell lifting himself up at the Promises and treading the Precepts under foot magnifying Grace and denying the power of it trusting in God and yet sacrificing to his own nets adoring his providence yet consulting with the witch the Devil at Endor seeking his inventions driving on his purposes and carrying on his ends with those winds which can blow out of no treasury but that of Hell For if these might consist and stand together the camel with his bunch the miser with his load the high-swoln Politician that is the Gallant knave the deceitful with all his nets the revenger with the sword in his hand all these giant-like sinners might enter in at the needle's eye at the narrow gate For the grace of God hath appeared unto all men and the promises are made unto all men and if there be no condition no Law in the Gospel then homini homo quid praestat then all are Sheep and there be no Goats then the Disciples might have spared their question Are there few that shall be saved for Judas might have entered in as well as John and Simon Magus as Simon Peter But Strive to enter in at the streight gate is indeed an exhortation and Christ's exhortations are laws for he exhorteth us to nothing but that which we are bound to by covenant and which the very nature and tenor of the Gospel requireth In a word To deny our selves To take up our cross To love our enemies are Precepts and no where else to be found but in the Gospel and are all beams and emanations from God's eternal Law by which his Love his Wisdom his Justice are manifested to all the world For none but these could so fitly draw us near unto him or raise our nature to a capacity of eternal glory Therefore to draw it yet homer Whilest we thus gaze upon the Mercy-seat and never look upon the Tables of the covenant whilest we take the sceptre out of Christ's hand and leave him nothing but a reed whilest we leave him to tread the wine-press alone leave him to the pain and drudgery of his office and take from him his Legislative power we take his place and are a Law unto our selves Our thoughts are our own our tongues are our own our hands are our own for who is Lord over us we are domini rerum temporúmque commanders of the times and of our actions Quae sylva legum What a wood of Laws what a world of Law-givers have we and Christ is left alone hanging on the cross Every sect every faction is straight a framing of Laws and making of Articles and publishing of Constitutions to uphold it self And as they fall or rise as the times favour or frown on them so they either give or are subject unto Laws which are as the trophees and triumphs of a prevailing party Now the Papist giveth laws to the Protestant and draggeth him to the stake Anon the wheel is turned and the face of the Commonwealth changed and the Protestant proscribeth him The Papist hateth the Lutheran and the Lutheran the Calvinist and they of the Reformed party hate one another as by a Law And no peace can be expected till they yield to one anothers Laws though the law of charity which is Christ's Law be lost and trode under foot in the quarrel Lord how ready are we to make Laws who will acknowledge none but those we make no not his who was called Wonderful Counsellour the mighty God of the increase of whose government there shall be no end Which so amuseth the Many who are but novices in the School of Christ that they talk much of Religion and are ever to chuse because they have not yet learned to bow to Christ and serve him but in a faction It was the reply of a Prince in Germany to the Lutherans when they would have persuaded and drawn him in to be one of their party If I joyn my self to you I am condemned by others and if I comply with others I fall under your sentence Quid fugiam video quid sequar haud video What to shun I see but what to follow in this diversity of Laws and shapes of Religion I cannot apprehend From hence have been raised those many needless controversies and unprofitable questions which have not taught but distracted the world and have made more noise then reformation to make men good they have made men worse and to stretch the curtains of a Church or rather a Faction for every Faction is a Church they have enlarged the Kingdom of Satan From hence are wars from hence are tumults from hence that fire in the world which would soon be quite put out if the Law of the Gospel might take place for if we could once bow to that there could be none at all What speake we of the Laws of men There is a Law in the members Rom. 7.23 and that swayeth and governeth the world when the Evangelical Law is laid a side It is a dream of Mercy and Liberty that giveth it strength and power that giveth it a full swindge to tread down
Powers and Principalities Laws and Precepts and all that is named of God Ambition maketh Laws Jura perjura Swear and forswear Arise kill and eat Covetousness maketh Laws condemneth us to the mines to dig and sweat Quocunque modo rem Gather and lay up Come not within the reach of Omri's statutes of humane Laws and you need not fear any Law of Christ. Private Interest maketh Laws and indeed is the Emperour of the world and maketh men slaves to crouch and bow under every burthen to submit to every Law of man though it enjoyn to day what it did forbid yesterday to raise up our heads and then duck at every shadow that cometh over us but we can see no such formidable power in the Royal Law of Christ because it breatheth not upon it to promote and uphold it but looketh as an enemy that would cast it down biddeth us deny our selves which we do every day for our lusts for our honour for our profit but cannot do it for Christ or for that crown which is laid up for those that do it Thus every thing hath power over us which may destroy us but Christ is not hearkned to nor those his Laws which may make us wise unto salvation For we are too ready to believe what some have been bold to teach that there are no such Laws at all in the Gospel Therefore in the last place let us cast this root of bitterness out of our hearts let us look upon it as a most dangerous and baneful errour an errour which hath brought that abomination of desolation into the world and into the lives and manners of Christians which have made them stink amongst the inhabitants of the earth amongst Jews and Pagans and Infidels which tremble to behold those works of darkness which they see every day not onely done but defended by those who call themselves the children of light Because in that name we bite and devour one another for this they despise the Gospel of Christ because we boast of it all the day long and make use of it as a Licence or Letters patent to be worse then they riot it in the light beat our fellow-servants defraud and oppress them which they do not in darkness and in the shadow of death The first Christians called the Gospel legem Christianam the Christian Law and so lived as under a Law so lived that nothing but the name was accused But the latter times have brought forth subtle Divines that have disputed away the Law and now there is scarce any thing left commendable but the name A Gospeller and worse then a Turk or Pagan a Gospeller and a Revenger a Gospeller and a Libertine a Gospeller and a Schismatick a Gospeller and a Deceiver a Gospeller and a Traitor a Gospeller that will be under no Law a Gospeller that is all for Love and Mercy and nothing for Fear I may say the Devil is a better Gospeller for he believeth and trembleth And indeed this is one of the Devils subtilest engines veritatem veritate concutere to shake and beat down one Truth with another to bury our Duty in the Good news to hide the Lord in the Saviour and the Law in the covering of Mercy to make the Gospel supplant it self that it may be of no effect to have no sound heard but that of Imputative righteousness From hence that irregularity and disobedience amongst Christians that liberty and peace in sin For when Mercy waiteth so close upon us and Judgment is far out of our sight we walk on pleasantly in forbidden paths and sin with the less regret sin and fear not pardon lying so near at hand To conclude then Let us not deceive our selves and think that there is nothing but Mercy and Pardon in the Gospel and so rely upon it till we commit those sins which shall be pardoned neither in this world nor in the world to come Nemo promittat sibi quod non promittit Evangelium saith Augustine Let no man make the promise larger then the Gospel hath made it nor so presume on the Grace of God as to turn it into wantonness so extol it as to depress it so trust to Mercy as to forfeit it but look into the Gospel and behold it in its own shape and face as pardoning sin and forbidding sin as a royal Release and a royal Law And look upon Christ the authour and finisher of our faith as a Jesus to save us Psal 2. and a Lord to command us as preaching peace and preaching a Law Rom. 8.3 condemning sin in his flesh dying that sin might dye and teaching us to destroy it in our selves In a word let us so look into the Gospel that it may be unto us the savour of life unto life and not the savour of death unto death so look upon Christ here that he may be our Lord to govern us and our Jesus to save us that we may be subject to his Laws and so be made capable of his mercy that we may acknowledge him to be our Lord and he acknowledge us before his Father that Death may lose its sting and Sin its strength and we may be saved in the last day through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Two and Fortieth SERMON PART II. JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed THat the Precepts of the Gospel do bind us as Laws ye have heard already and how the Doctrine of the Gospel is a Law We must in the next place see how it is a perfect Law And first That is perfect saith the Philosopher cui nihil adimi nec adjici potest from which nothing can be taken and to which nothing can be added Such is the Gospel You cannot adde to it you cannot take from it one lota or tittle If any shall adde unto these things Rev. 22.18 God shall adde to him the plagues that are written in this book And if any shall take away from them God shall take away his part out of the book of life There needeth no second hand to supply it and that hand deserveth to be cut off that shall corrupt or alter it For look upon the End which is Blessedness There you have it drawn out in the fairest lines that flesh and bloud can read in as large a representation as our humane nature is capable of Then view the Means to bring us to that end They are plainly exprest and set out there in such a character that we may run and read them open to our understanding exciting our faith raising our hope and even provoking us to action There is nothing which we ought to know nothing which we must believe nothing which we may hope for nothing which concerneth us to do nothing which may lift us up to happiness and carry us to the end but it is written
evident and necessary consequence they are not to be reckoned in the number of those which are necessary because we are assured from the Truth it self that all such are within the reach and verge of this Law Some things indeed there be which are indifferent in themselves quae Lex nec vetat nec jubet which the Law neither commandeth nor forbiddeth but become necessary by reason of some circumstance of Time or Place or Quality or Persons c. For quod per se necessarium est semper est necessarium that which is necessary in it self is alwayes necessary But some things are made necessary for some place some person some times and yet are in their own nature indifferent still Lex haec ad omnia occurrit This Law reacheth even these and containeth rules certain and infallible to guide us even in these if we become not Lawes unto our selves and fling them by to wit the rules of Charity and Prudence to which if we give heed it is not possible we should miscarry It is Love of our selves and Love of this world not Charity and spiritual Wisdom which make this noise abroad this desolation on the earth The acts of Charity are manifest 1 Cor. 13. She suffereth long even errours and injuries and doth not rise up against shadows and apparitions is not rash to beat down every thing that our own hand hath not set up is not puffed up swelleth not against an harmless and useful constitution though it be of man doth not behave it self unseemly layeth not a necessity upon us of not doing that which Autority even then styleth an Indifferent thing when it commandeth it to be done seeketh not her own treadeth not the publick peace under foot to procure our own which is to satisfie an ill-raised humour is not easily provoked checketh not at every feather nor startleth at that monster which is a creation of our own thinketh no evil doth not see a serpent under every leaf nor Idolatry in every bow of devotion If we were charitable we should be peaceable If Charity did govern mens actions there would be abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth Multa facienda sunt non jubente lege sed liberâ charitate saith Augustine Charity is free to suffer and do many things which the Law doth not expresly command and yet it doth command them in general when it enjoyneth Obedience to Autority The acts I say of Charity are manifest But those of Prudence are not particularly designed Prudentia respicit ad singularia That eye is given us to view and consider particular occurrences And it dependeth upon those things which are without us whereas Charity is an act of the will and here we cannot be to seek For how easie is it to a willing mind to apply a general precept to particular actions especially if Charity fill our hearts which is the bond of perfection and the end and complement of the Law which indeed is our spiritual wisdom In a word In these cases when we go to consult with Reason we cannot err if we leave not Charity behind us But the time will not permit to press this further All that I intended was to shew the Perfection of the Gospel how sufficient means it administreth to bring us to to the end for which it was promulged So then it is perfect in it self In the next place it is perfect in respect of the Law of Moses That indeed was the Law of God and so made to be a lantern to our feet and a light to our paths But the Apostle telleth us that this light is not sufficient for us Heb. 7.18 as being not bright enough to direct us to our end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was a weak and unprofitable light Besides as the Law was altogether unsufficient to justifie a sinner so was it defective in respect of light which is more abundantly poured forth in the Gospel In the Law it is written Thou shalt not commit adultery Under the Gospel an Eunuch may commit that sin and do it with his eye For he that looketh upon a woman to lust after her is guilty of that pollution saith our Law-giver The Law permitted many wives The Christian is soli uxori masculus a Man to his wife alone an Eunuch to all the Sex besides The language of the Law was An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth But now it is Good for evil and a blessing for a curse Et Lex plus quà m amisit invenit saith Ambrose The Law was no loser by this precept but a gainer For the more perfect it is the more it is a Law You have heard it spoken to them of old Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thy enemy But I say unto you Love your enemies Here it is plain that Christ did advance and increase the strictness of the Law by adding something to it In melius reformavit He reformed it and made it better then it was Heb. 9.10 The Gospel is called the time of reformation Christ did enlarge the Law he set his last hand to it and did perfect it The Gospel saith Nazianzene is far easier then the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of the hope that is set before us and that great reward which is promised Such a mark will draw us The sight of Heaven smootheth every path maketh the weak strong bringeth him in as a giant to run his race Otherwise it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 far more painful and laborious hath a streighter way and a narrower gate In a word Whatsoever Moses required that doth our Law-giver exact and more an Humility more bending a Patience more constant a Meekness more suffering a Chastity more pure a Flesh more subdued because the heavenly promises are more and more clearly proposed in the Gospel then under the Law For is not Eternity a stronger motive then the Basket and temporary enjoyments is not Heaven more attractive then the Earth or when should we more love God then when he displayeth himself in all his beauty Hence it is that the old Law in comparison of the Gospel is said to be imperfect Heb. 7.19 Rom. 10.4 Gal. 3.24 And Christ is called the end of the Law And the Law a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ We know there is a Righteousness most proper to the Gospel which the Jew saw through types and figures as through a glass darkly but we see face to face by open manifestation And this very righteousness of Faith is so far from excluding the righteousness of Works that the Gospel exacteth them more then the Law and justifieth none that are not full of them And in this respect as the Christian hath more helps and light then the Jew so he must as far exceed the perfection of a Jew as the grace of the Gospel doth the rigour of the Law Crescit onus cum beneficio The larger the privilege
the greater the burthen A greater tribute is due unto Love then to Fear And our Saviour hath proposed it as an everlasting Truth That to whom much is given of him much shall be required And therefore he hath left these precepts more heavy on the back of Christians then formerly upon the Jews Not that the Law of Moses was not perfect in its kind and in it self but that it was less perfect then the Gospel So that what Christ brought in non adversario sed adjutore praecepto not by an opposite or contrary but an helping precept destroyed not what God esteemed as best then to be done but took away that which he permitted to be done only for a time It was no sin for a Jew to hate his enemy or in some case to take revenge at least it was not imputed as a sin not but that it was far better and more acceptable to God to have done otherwise but because God was pleased so far to indulge to their present condition and the hardness of their hearts as not to propose it under the commanding terms of a Law But Christ as he is more indulgent to us in giving his graces so he is less indulgent to us in giving his graces so he is less indulgent to us in exacting his Laws And that Christ doth not permit so much unto us is plain by the EGO VERO But I say uuto you By which he did not only clear the Law from those false glosses with which the Scribes and Pharisees had corrupted it but added something to it not to contradict but perfect it For had he meant to have expunged the false glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees no doubt he would have mentioned them whom he so often taxed by name And had it been their leaven he would have done what he often did injoyned his Disciples to beware of it Besides the Scribes and Pharisees were not of so long standing as Josephus thinketh This Sect had not its beginning long before Christ And it is probable that when the gift of prophesie ceased then men who were ambitious of a name and reputation did seek to gain it by severe discipline and austerity of life which might lift them up as high in the opinion of the people as the foretelling of things to come did the Prophets before them But I say unto you implieth then an addition to the Law of Moses or to that sense in which the Jews understood it and to which they were bound Let the Apostle conclude for me The Law made nothing perfect Hob. 7.19 brought none to that true and inward sanctity But if any attained to it they owed it not to the Law but borrowed it as it were from the grace of the Gospel But the bringing in of a better hope did by which we draw nigh unto God The Jews were under tutors and governours in bondage under the elements of the world but at the appointed time our Lawgiver brought us Laws from heaven out of the bosom of his Father and shewed us yet a more perfect excellent way I might here inlarge my self but we will only draw down all to our selves by application so conclude And if the Doctrine of the Gospel be a perfect Law of abundant power and sufficiency to bring us to our end then we may pass a censure upon those who argue it of great imperfection and therefore are bold to add to it or call it a dead letter and so receive it not as a Law but make one of their own as those of the Church of Rome and the Libertines or as they call themselves Spiritual men And we may observe that though they look several wayes yet they both tread their measures alike and finding themselves at loss finding no satisfaction in the Gospel to their pride and ambition to their malice and lust and feeing they cannot draw it to their part will put up and suborn something of their own to supply that defect Both agree in this to make something besides and above the Scripture the rule of their faith and actions But some difference and dissimilitude there is between them The Libertine layeth a foundation for a loose inconstant and uncertain Religion the Church of Rome for an ingrossed impropriated and tyrannical Religion For what the inward Word is to the Libertines that to those of the Romish faction are Traditions and the Autority of the Church The inward Word is common or rather proper to every particular man hath no other word without it self to regulate it and therefore is free for every man And so we may have as many Religions as there be several senses and inward words as they call them spoken or conceived And so there be as many Religions as there be men Proveniunt oratores stulti novi adolescentuli Young men and maids old men and children I may say fools and mad-men may hear this word or rather speak this word to themselves and so set up a Religion Again the Autority of the Church and Traditions being carried on by themselves and looking on no outward Word as a common rule to try them by put out the eyes of every private man devest him of his reason and judgement and leave him in the dark that he may be subject unto that Church alone and seek light from her as from the greatest luminary altenis oculis videre alienis pedibus ambulare see with her eyes and observe her steps and follow her precisely though it be in those paths which lead to the pit of destruction The Libertine attributeth it sometimes to one man the Papists to the Church and when the accounts are cast up that is but one man Both agree in this that they challenge to themselves infallibility in judgement We have a Revelation saith the one We have Traditions saith the other and a Church that cannot err The inward word saith the Libertine The Church the Church the oecumenical Catholick Church saith the Papist These are their spels and charms with which they take the simple and unwary people who are carried about with every puff of doctrine and are alwayes ripe and fitted for a cheat qui quod vident non vident who will not see what they cannot see who receive every novelty as an oracle every new phansie as the dictate of the Spirit and never bless or applaud themselves more then when they are deceived In a word The Libertine maketh as many Popes as there be men who pretend a skill in this Pythonick art and ventriloquy who can hear their lusts and passions speak within them and say it is the voice of the Spirit who do not stay till the third call but at every motion of the Flesh at every whirl of their Phansie are ready to answer Speak Lord for thy servant heareth And thus every man be a Pope But the Papists erect but one and set him in his throne to whom all other men must bow as to the Head
accepted as if we had never been lost as if we had alwayes been free-denizons of the City of God and never wandred from thence as if we had never forfeited our right In a word Our sins are wiped out as if they had never been And thus we were made free 1. à reatu peccati from the Guilt of sin which whosoever feeleth bath his Tophet his Hell here and whosoever committeth it doth at some time or other feel it It made Hezekiah chatter like a crane and mourn like a dove It withered David's heart like grass and burned up his bones as an hearth It made Peter's tears flow in bitterness What should I say more It made Judas hang himself Quis enim potest sub tali conscientiâ vivere For who can live under the guilt and conscience of sin But there is Balm in Gilead for this 2. We are made free à dominio peccati from the Power and tyranny of Sin Which many times taketh the chair and setteth us hard and heavy tasks biddeth us make brick but alloweth us no straw biddeth us please and content our selves but affordeth us no means to work it out condemneth one to the mines to dig for that money which will perish with him fettereth another with a look or with a kiss driveth a third as Balaam did his beast on the point of the sword through all the checks of conscience the terrours of the Law every thing that standeth in its way to the pit of destruction This power Sin may have and too oft hath in us But the power of the Gospel is greater then the power of Sin then the power of any Act and can abolish it of any Habit and may weaken and scatter it and is able to pull Sin from its throne and put down all its authority and power 3. We are made free à rigore Legis from the rigour from the strict and exact observation of the Moral Law which God at first required From the Law I say as it was a killing letter For this yoke is cast away when we put on the yoke of Christ who indeed requireth as you have heard before more holiness more integrity and greater perfection then the Law did but yet is not so extreme to mark what is done amiss nor doth he under this gracious dispensation punish every infirmity inadvertency and imperfection which the Law did HOC FAC ET VIVES Do this and thou shalt live And not to do it exactly is to break it and die 4. We are made free à servitute legis Ceremonialis from the servitude of the Ceremonial Law a busie and toilsome and expensive servitude in quâ non vivebant sed puniebantur saith S. Hierom in which they did not live but were punished A burthen saith the Apostle which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear This deliverance may seem more proper to the Jew For how could the Gentiles be freed from that Law of Ceremonies to which they were never bound For where S. John telleth us that if the Son make us free we shall be free indeed he speaketh of the freedom from the guilt and condemnation of sin which S. Paul in no place that I remember calleth our Christian liberty although he speaketh of it in many places but not under that name 5. Last of all this Law of Liberty passeth over to us as by patent the free use of the Creature that we are not bound by any Religion to these or these meats but may indifferently use or not use them The earth is the Lord's and all that there in is and he hath given it to the children of men But yet he was pleased upon some reasons to grant some meats for use and to forbid others as unclean Not that any were in their own nature unclean For whatsoever he made was good Sed ut homines mundarentur pecora culpata sunt But to reform and purge the manners of men he seemed to lay an imputation of Uncleanness upon the creature which could not be unclean in it self because it was the work of his hands In the Camel saith the Father he condemneth a crooked and perverse life in the Sow that walloweth in the mire he forbiddeth all pollution of sin in the Lizard our inconstancy and uncertain variety of life in the Hare our lust in the Swan our pride in the Batt our delight in darkness and errour These and the like enormities the Law did exsecrate in these creatures And the Jews were subject to these ordinances TOUCH NOT TASTE NOT HANDLE NOT. Which indeed were not so much prohibitions as directions and remedies that what was taken from their lusts might be added to their manners And such a restraint was fit for them who preferred the onions and garlick of Egypt before Manna it self and would not have liberty that they might still stay by the flesh pots of their enemies who were Lords over them But now claves macelli Christus nobis tradidit saith Tertullian Christ hath put the keys of the shambles or market into our hands The great sheet is let down from heaven and we may rise and kill and eat Every creature of God is good 1 Tim. 4.4 and none to be refused but to be received with thanksgiving and requireth no more sanctification or cleansing but by the word of God and by prayer And Whatsoever is set before you eat asking no question for conscience sake 1 Cor. 10.25 27. And The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost And he that is scrupulous in this Rom 14.17 and is fearful to touch or taste hath his face set as if he were returning to Jerusalem calleth that common which God hath cleansed as weak and vain as that Philosopher who would not venture into a ship because he thought it a sin to spit into the Sea These are the particulars of that Liberty which this perfect Law bringeth with it All which I once intended severally and more fully to handle But it would require more time then the present Power that is over us hath been willing to allow us We will therefore more strictly keep our selves to the words of the Text and see how we may reconcile these two things in appearance so contrary a Law which hath a severe and rigorous aspect and Liberty which hath so pleasing and flattering a countenance the Law which tieth us up and Liberty which seemeth to let us loose to do what we please For in this sense the world seemeth to take it which is fuller of Libertines then of Christians Who when they are under a Law are in bonds and never think themselves free but when they are a Law unto themselves that is when they are the veriest slaves in the world Et libertas libertate perit Liberty is made a gulf to swallow up it self It was a grave complaint of S. Hierom Non reddimus unicuique rei suum vocabulum We
an Ear listening after lies are the faculties and passions and members or rather the marks and reproches of a stigmatized slave For can he be thought free who imployeth all the power he hath to make himself a prisoner No liberty then without subordination and subjection to this Law Behold I shew you a mystery which you may think rather a paradox A Christian a Gospeller is the freest and yet the most subject creature in the world the highest and yet the lowest delivered out of prison and yet confined set at liberty and yet kept under a Law S. Paul saith to the Galatians Brethren you have been called unto liberty Gal. 5.13 He meaneth Liberty in things indifferent neither good nor evil in their own nature There our fetters are broken off Onely use not your liberty as an occasion to the flesh There we are limited and confined So that Christian Liberty it self is under a Law which bindeth us ab illicitis semper quandoque à licitis from unlawful things alwayes and sometimes from that which is lawful Nay it is under many Laws 1. The Law of Sobriety and Temperance which must bound and limit the outward practice of it God hath given as I told you before every moving thing that liveth to be meat for us Gen. 9. â— All meats under the Gospel all drinks are lawful fish and flesh bread and herbs and the rest But there is a Law yet to bound us We are free but not so free as to surfeit and be drunken and to devour our souls with care for our bodies to make an art of eating and indulge so long to luxury till we can indulge no more Wine is from the vine In which saith S. Augustine God doth every year work a miracle and turn water into wine But if Sobriety be not the cup bearer if we look not on Temperance as a Law it may prove to us what the Manichees feigned it to be fel principis tenebrarum the gall of the Prince of darkness Again all apparel all stuff all cloth all colours are lawful Foâ— he that clotheth the grass of the field will doe much more for us But this Liberty doth not straight write us Gallants nor boulster out our excessive pride and vanity this doth not give us power to put the poor's and Christ's patrimony on our backs Modesty must be our Tire-woman to put on our dress and our garments and not Phansie and Pride Tertullian thought it not fit to supplicate God in silk or purple Cedò acum crinibus distinguendis Bring forth saith he your crisping-pins and your pomanders and wash your selves in costly baths and if any ask you why you do so Deliqui dicito in Deum say I have offended against God Itaque nunc maceror crucior ut reconciliam me Deo and therefore I thus macerate and afflict my self and am come in this gay and costly outside that I may reconcile my self to God Thus did he bitterly and sarcastically lâ—sh the luxury of his times What think you would he say if he saw what we see every day even when the dayes are gloomy and black Ecclesia in attonito when mens hearts even fail them for fear and Vengeance hovereth over us ready to fall upon our heads But if he were too streight-laced we ought to remember that Apparel was for covert and not for sight to warm the body that weareth it and not to take the eye of him that beholdeth it We have freedom to use but Modesty and Temperance must be as Tribunes and come in with their Veto and check and manage this Liberty that we abuse not the creature 2. Our Liberty is bounded with another Law even the Law of Charity Of Charity I say both to my self and to my brethren For our selves A right hand is to be cut off and a right eye plucked out if they offend us We must remove every thing out of the way which may prove a stone to stumble at though it be as useful as our Hand and as dear as our Eye at least make a covenant with our Eye and with our Hand to forbear those lawful things which may either endanger the body or occasion the ruine of the soul For what is an Eye a Hand to the whole And what a serpent is that occasion which If I touch it will sting me to death And as for our selves so also for others we must not use the creature with offence or scandal of our weaker brethren LICET It is lawful is the voice of Liberty but the Charity of the Gospel which is as a Law to a Christian bâ—â—ngeth in an EXPEDIT and maketh onely that lawful in this case which is expedient For as every thing which we please as Bernard speaketh is not lawful so every thing that is lawful is not expedient Nihil charitate imperiosius There is nothing more commanding then Charity and no command fuller of delight and profit then hers For how quickly doth she condescend to the weakness of others How willing is she to abridge her self rather then they should fall What delight doth she take to deny her self delight that she may please them She will not touch nor taste that they may not be offended And then thus in matters of this nature to restrain Liberty bringeth with it huge advantage For how will he flie with ease from that which â—e may not do who can for another's sake abstain from that which he may Liberty is a word of enlargement and giveth us line biddeth Rise and eat but a NON EXPEDIT It is not expedient which is the language of Charity putteth the knife to our throat cometh in case of scandal to pinion us that we reach not our hand to things otherwise lawful A NON EXPEDIT maketh a NON LICET It is not expedient in matters of this indifferencie is the same with It is not lawful The Gospel you see then is a Law of liberty but it is also a Law to moderate and restrain it Lastly as it is a Law of liberty so it limiteth and boundeth it in respect of those relations which are between man and man between Father and Son Master and Servant Superiour and Inferiour For Christ came not to shake these relations but to establish them He left the Servant the Son the Subject as he found them but taught them to bow yet a little lower before their Master their Father their Lord for the Gospel's sake to do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with fear and reverence as to the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as the heathen slaves in chains but in simplicity and truth as unto Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with good will not driven on with the goad and whip and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as servants not of men but of Christ He giveth them liberty yet tieth them up and confineth them in the Family in the Commonwealth in the Church A Christian is the most free and the most
is the root and foundation of all obedience Ephes 3 1◠upon which we build up as high as heaven For with such a Look we see the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God nay coming and having his reward with him It is the same method which our Saviour teacheth Luke 14.28 For you must do in Looking as you do in Building Which of you saith Christ intending to build a house sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it If you will look into this Law of liberty you must count what it may cost you It may cost you your goods It may cost you your credit even with those who profess the same thing with you who are ready to forsake you It may cost you your bloud But all these losses shall be made up and recompensed with eternity Canst thou see that smiling Beauty and turn away the eye Canst thou see that Honour ready to crown thee and defie it Canst thou behold Riches and esteem them as dung Canst thou meet the raging persecutor and pity and pray for him Canst thou meet Death it self with all its pomp and horrour and through all these undauntedly press forward towards Heaven Then thou hast stooped down inclined thy self and looked into this Law of liberty For if we have not this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and full persuasion if we have not laid this foundation and approved this Law of liberty both in our understanding and practice as the onely way to happiness we may look and look again upon it and be stark blind see nothing in it nothing of that heaven and bliss which is promised And then every breath is a storm every temptation will be an overthrow then every light affliction every evil that cometh towards us will remove the eye from this Law and place it on it self which we shall look on till we faint and fall down for fear and forfeit our obedience even study how to make that false which is so contrary to our lusts and affections Faith and a good Conscience make it a just and full look If we put that away 1 Tim. 1.19 presently concerning faith we make shipwreck For as in Scripture we are then said to know God when we love him so do we truly look into and consider this Law not when we make mention of it with our lips when we think of it remember it meditate of it which is but the extension of our thoughts but when we draw it fasten it to our soul make it as our form and principle of motion to promote those actions that obedience in us for which the Law was made This the Fathers call the circular motion of the mind which first settleth upon the object then is carried back into it self and there boweth and swayeth the powers of the soul and collecteth it self into it self from all forein and impertinent occurrences and then joyneth all its forces and faculties its Will and Affections to the accomplishing of that Good to which the Law of liberty inviteth us To look into the Law ye see is of larger extent then the words do import at first sight and is of singular use It poiseth and biasseth us in all our wayes that we may run evenly to that Blessedness which is set before us It is our Compass to steer our course amidst the waves the ebbings and flowings the changes and chances of this world It is our Angel to keep us in all our wayes It is as the opening of a window into the closet of our souls that that light may enter which may manifest every mote and atome where there was nothing before but vacuity It is our Spy to discover the forces of our Enemy and it is the best strength we have against him It is as the balance of the Sanctuary to weigh every blessing in the Gospel to a grain It is the best divider giving to God those things that are God's and to man those things which are man's It wipeth the paint off from sin and discovereth its horrour It taketh temptation from Beauty and sheweth us fading flesh dust and ashes It strippeth Riches of their glory and pointeth unto their wings It seeth a deceiver in the Devil in Christ a Lord and Saviour and in his royal Law it beholdeth Heaven and eternity of bliss All this virtue and power hath this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this looking into the Law and due considering of it Which by being looked into becometh the savour of life unto life but when we take off our eye is made the savour of death unto death A steddy and heedful look purchaseth and a careless glaunce forfeiteth our Liberty To look is to be free and not thus to look is to have Canaan's curse upon us to be servants of servants for ever And now tell me how many be there that thus look into the Gospel how many that thus weigh and consider it Many walk saith S. Paul Many look we may say of whom we may speak weeping that they are enemies to the Law of liberty The Papist looketh into it and there he findeth a Triple crown The Schismatick looketh into it and he findeth a sword to divide him from his brethren The Anti-papist Jesuite looketh into it and findeth the draught and model of a new Discipline The Enthusiast and Spiritual man looketh into it and findeth nothing but Ink and Words The Libertine looketh into it For the Law is in himself Quarunt quod nusquam est inveniunt tamen They look and seek that which cannot be found and yet they find it every man his humour and the corruption of his own heart There is much in the Eye For the Law of liberty is still the same It moulteth not a feather changeth not its shape and countenance But it may appear in as many shapes as there be tempers and constitutions of the eyes that looketh into it An Evil eye seeth nothing but faction and debate A lofty eye seeth nothing but priority and preeminence A Bloud-shot eye seeth nothing but cruelty which they call Justice All the errours of our life as the Philosophers speak of the colours of the Rainbow are oculi opus the work of the Eye For the Law it self can lend nothing towards them but stareth them in the face when the eye hath raised them to shake and demolish them It were good then to clear our eye before we look into the Law lest whilest we find what pleaseth us we find what will ruine us But oh that we should have such Eagles eyes in the things of this world and be such Batts in the Gospel of Christ The Covetous looketh into the world and that hath power to transform his soul into earth The wanton looketh upon beauty and that turneth his into flesh David beholdeth Bathsheba in her bath and is on fire Ahab looketh upon Naboth's vineyard and is sick The eye of flesh pierceth deep into
it requireth no more at our hands for the obtaining of eternity of bliss but this Faith this persuasion If so be we be holy and innocent and remain in this Law and by this faith overcome the world BLESSEDNES then is as the Sun and looketh and shineth on all putteth life in the Law raiseth our Perfection begetteth and upholdeth our Liberty maketh Conscience quick and lively either to affright or joy us either to seourge or feast us If in this life onely we had hope our faith were vain nay this Law the Gospel were vain And therefore in every storm and tempest under the shadow and wings of this Hope we find shelter We flie for refuge saith the Apostle to lay hold upon the hope which is sâ—t before us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We flie out of the world a shop of vanity and uncertainty the region of changes and chances to this Hope as to an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast which cannot deceive us if we lay hold on it for it entereth into that within the veil and so is firm and safe fastened on this Blessedness as an anchor that reacheth to the bottom and sticketh fast in the ground Blessedness upholdeth and setleth our Hope and on our Hope our Obedience is raised to reach that Blessedness on which our Hope is setled In a word Blessedness like Christ himself is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first and the last the end and yet the first mover of us in those wayes which lead unto it Christiano coelum antè patuit quà m via Heaven is opened to a Christian and then the way And he that walketh in it shall enter in he that doeth the work shall be blessed in it Now BEATUS ERIT He shall be blessed may either look upon this span or upon that immeasurable space of eternity And it is true in both both here where we converse with Men and Misery and there where we shall have the company of Seraphim and Cherubim and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth Here we have something in hand there the accomplishment some ears we have we shall have the whole sheaf Here we have one part of Blessedness peace of conscience there remaineth the greater the reversion in the highest heavens As Christ said of the two Commandements This is the great Blessedness and the other is like unto it that Joy which is the resultance of every good work which we call our Heaven upon earth That which is to come is a state of perfection an aggregation of all that is truly good without the least tincture and shew of evil as Boethius speaketh This cannot be found here on earth in the best Saint whose joy and peace is sometimes interrupted for a while by the gnawings of some sin or other which overtaketh him or by the sight of imperfection which will not suffer his joy to be full The best peace on earth may meet with disturbance Therefore Peace is found alone in the most perfect Good even God himself who is Perfection it self whose delight and paradise is in his own bosom Which he openeth and out of which he poureth a part of it on his creature and of which we do in a manner take possession when we look into and remain in the perfect Law of Liberty which is an emanation from him a beam of that Law which was with God from all eternity and by which as we are made after the image so are we transformed after the similitude of God which Plato himself calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assimilation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 union with God In whom alone those two powers of the soul those two Horseleaches which ever cry Give Give the Understanding which is ever drawing new conclusions and the Will which is ever pursuing new objects have their eternal sabbath and rest He that doeth the work shall be blessed in the work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this man and none but this shall be blessed So then this is the conclusion That Evangelical Obedience the constant observation of this Law of Liberty of the doctrine of Faith and Good works is the onely and immediate way to Blessedness For not the hearers of the word but the doers shall be justified saith S. Paul And indeed there is no way but this For First God hath fitted us to this Law and this Law to us He hath fitted us for this heavenly treasure For can we imagine that God did thus build us up and stamp his own Image upon us that we should be an habitation for owles and satyres Rom. 12 3. for wild and brutish imaginations that he did give us Understandings to forge deceit to contrive plots to find out an art of pleasure a method and craft of enjoying that which is but for a season that he did give us Wills to wait upon the Flesh which fighteth against the Spirit and his Image which is in us Was the Soul made immortal for that which passeth away as a shadow and is no more or hath he given us dominion over the beasts of the field that we should fall and perish with them No We are ad majora nati born mortal but to eternity And we carry an argument about us against our selves if we remain not in this Law For take it in credendis in those conclusions which it commendeth to our Faith though Faith indeed in respect of the remoteness of its object and its elevation be above Nature yet in the soul God hath left a capacity to receive it and if the other condition of persevering in it did not lie heavy upon the flesh the brutish part we should be readier scholars in our Creed then we are If we could hate the world we should soon be in heaven If we could embrace that which we cannot but approve our Infidelity and Doubtings would soon vanish as the mist before the Sun S. Augustine hath observed it in his book De Religione that multitudes of good moral men especially the Platonicks came in readily and gave up their names unto Christ The Moral man did then draw on the Christian But now I know not how the Christian is brought in to countenance those who deserve another name But then for the Agenda and precepts of practice They are as the seed and the Heart of man the earth the Matrix the womb to receive them And they are so proportioned to our Reason that they are no sooner seen but approved they bring as it were of near alliance and consanguinity with those notions and principles which we brought with us into the world Onely those are written in a book these in the heart indeed the one are but a commentary on the other What precept of Christ is there which is not agreeable and consonant to right Reason Doth he prescribe Purity The heart applaudeth it Doth he bless Meekness The mind of man soon sayeth Amen Doth he enjoyn Sobriety We soon subscribe
to it For what man would profess himself a beast And from hence it cometh to pass that we see aliquid optimi in pessimis something that is good in the worst that we hear a Panegyrick of Virtue from a man of Belial that Truth is cried up by that mouth which is full of deceit that when we do evil we would not have it go under that name but are ready to maintain it as good that when we do an injury we call it a benefit No man is so evil that he desireth not to enroll his name in the list of those who are Good Temperance the drunkard singeth her praises Justice every hand is ready to set a crown upon her head Wisdom is the desire of the whole earth So you see these precepts are fitted to the soul and the soul to these precepts But secondly as this Law of Liberty is proportioned to the Soul so being looked in and persevered in it filleth it with light and joy giveth it a taste of the world to come For as Christ's yoke is easie but not till it is put on so his precepts are not delightful till they are kept Aristotle's Happiness in his books is but an Idea and Heaven it self is no more to us till we enjoy it The Law of Liberty in the letter may please the Understanding part which is alwayes well-affected and inclinable to that which is apparently true but till the Will which is the commanding faculty have set the feet and hands at liberty even that which we approve we distaste and that which we call honey is to us as bitter as gall Contemplation may delight us for a time and bring some content but the perversness of the Will breedeth that worm which will soon eat it up For it is a poor happiness to speak and think well of Happiness to see it as in picture quae non ampliùs quà m videtur delectat which delighteth no longer then it is seen as from a mount to behold that Canaan which we cannot enjoy A Thought hath not wing and strength enough to carry us to Blessedness But when the Will is subdued and made obedient to this Law then this Law of Liberty which is from the heaven heavenly filleth the soul with a joy of the same nature with a spiritual joy of which the joy in heaven is the complement and perfection with a joy which is not onely the pledge but the earnest of that which is to come When the Will is thus subact and framed and fashioned according to this Law according to this pattern which God hath drawn then it clotheth it self as it were with the light of Heaven which is the original of this joy Then what a pearl is Wisdom What glory is in Poverty What a triumph is it to deny our selves What an ornament is the Cross What brightness reflecteth from a cup of cold water given to a Prophet What do you see and feel then when you intercede with your Bounty and withstand the evil dayes and take from them some of their blackness and darkness when you sweeten the cup of bitterness the onely cup that is left to many of the Prophets when you supply their wants and stretch forth your hand to keep them from sinking to the dust when you do this to the Prophets in the name of Prophets Tell me doth it not return upon you again and convey into your souls that which cannot be bought with money or money-worth Are you not made fat and watered again with the water you poured forth Are you not ravished in spirit and lifted up in a manner into the third heaven I cannot see how it should be otherwise For that God which put it into your hearts to do it when your hearts have eased and emptied themselves by your hands is with you still and filleth them up with joy Every act of Charity payeth and crowneth it self and this Blessedness alwayes followeth the giver But hath the receiver no joy but in that which he receiveth Yes he may and ought or else he is not a worthy receiver It is indeed a more blessed thing to give then to receive and therefore there is more joy But the receiver hath his and his joy is set to his songs of praises to God and acknowledgments to man There is musick in Thanks and when I bless the hand that helped me I feel it again My praises my prayers my thanks are returned with advantage into my bosom The giver hath his joy and the receiver hath his It is a blessed thing to give and it is a most becoming and joyful thing to be thankful In quibus operamur in illis gaudemus saith Tertullian As the work is such is the joy A Work that hath its rise and original from heaven drawn out according to the royal Law which is the will of God begun and wrought in an immortal soul and promoted by the Spirit of God and ministery of Angels and breathing it self forth as myrrh and frankincense amongst the children of men And a Joy like unto it a true and solid joy having no carnality no inconstancy in it a beam from heaven kindled and cherished by the same Spirit a joy which receiveth no taint or diminution from sensible evils which to those who remain not in this Law are as hell it self and the onely hell they think of but giving a relish and sweetness to that which were not evil if we did not think it so making Poverty Disgrace and Death it self as fuel to foment and increase it upholding us in misery strengthening us in weakness and in the hour of death and in the day of judgment streaming forth into the ocean of eternal happiness BEATUS ERIT IN OPERE He that doth the work shall be blessed here in this life in his works and when he is dead his works shall follow him and compass him about as a triumphant robe Thus Blessedness first inviteth then attendeth and waiteth upon Perseverance in obedience and yet obedience ushereth it in illex misericordiae first the work of God's Grace and Mercy and then drawing it so near unto us as to bless us And it maketh the blessing ours not ex rigore justitiae according to the rigour of justice as I call that Mine which I buy with my money For no obedience can equal the reward And what can the obedience of a guilty person merit All is from Grace saith S. Paul And when the will of God is thus made manifest he deserveth nothing but a rebuke that disputeth longer of Merit Nor can I see how a guilty and condemned person can so much as give it entrance into his thought It did go once but for a work good or evil and no more If it be more in its best sense it is then more then it can be and so is nothing but ex debito promissi according to God's promise by which he hath as it were entailed Blessedness on those who look into the Law
Israel and of England compared 422 423. J. JAmes St. James and St. Paul seem to contradict each other but do not 276. Jealousie vvhat in Man vvhat in God 381. 613. 643. Jer. xxv 18-29 299. JESUS how excellent a name 732 733. That JESUS is the Lord though Law and Custome and Education teach us yet vve cannot say it but by the holy Ghost 759 c. Many say so yet but few say it 763 764. He vvho saith it aright saith it vvith his Tongue 764. 770. with his Heart 765. 770. and vvith his Hand 766. 270 c. Oh vvhat pity and shame it is that Man should suffer the Flesh the World and the Devil to Lord it over him and not Jesus 768. Jews vvhy commanded to offer sacrifice 72. Why blamed sometimes for so doing 80. 82. They pleased themselves exceedingly in this and in other outward servics 108. v. Formality Their great privileges 418. Privileges of Christians greater then theirs 419. Many things vvere permitted to be done by the Jews vvhich are unlawful for a Christian 869. Their course of sinning 611. Jew a term of reproch 194. Job's case 292. 903. Joh. vi 63. 468. ¶ viii 36. 742. 1 Joh. ii 4. 723. ¶ 16. 280. ¶ iv 18. 398. ¶ v. 3. 112. St. John v. Charity St. John Baptist a burning and shining light 549 c. How the Jews at first admired him 553. but vvithin a vvhile disliked him 554. Joy good and bad 338. Sensitive and Rational 553. It is configured to the soul that receiveth it 860. God's Joy over us and our Joy in Him and in one another 861. Against them that rejoyce in the sins or calamities of others 862 863. Joy that ariseth from Contemplation of good is nothing to that which ariseth from Action 1125. True Joy floweth from Love 153. and from Obedience 113. 992. 1125 1126. Sorrow is vvont to go before Joy 560. Judas's repentance 336. his despair 343. Judge neither others sinners because afflicted nor thy self a Saint because prosperous 295 c. 616. We may disannul our former Judgment upon better evidence vvithout inconstancie 676 c. The Judgment of God and of the World how different 964. God's J. and Man's differ much 616. That of Men for the most part corrupt and partial 246 247. Judgment Few believe there shall be a day of Judgment 926. Though scoffers say Nay it will assuredly come 237 238. Why it is so long in coming 238. It cannot be the object of a wicked man's hope 242. 737. v. CHRIST Curious enquiry after the time of the last Judgment condemned 248 c. We ought to exspect and wait for it 250. Signes of the day of Judgment 1043 c. Judgments Of God's temporal Judgements 611. Judgments justly fall even on God's own people vvhen they sin 290. In general J. many times the good are involved vvith the evil vvithout any prejudice to God's Justice 291. Reasons to prove that point 292. A fearful thing to be under J. and not to be sensible of them 643. Judgments should fright us from sin and drive us to God 364. 800. If they vvork not that effect they are forerunners of hell-torments 365. 801. We should especially be afraid of those sins vvhich are vvont to bring general J. on a Nation 297. It is the greatest judgement not to fear J. till they come 502. 615. We must studie God's J. 615. v. Punishment Judge The Judge's calling necessary 821. His office 120. How his autority may be lawfully made use of 822. Julian the Apostate 957. His liberality 143. His malitious slander of the Christians 148. He wounded Religion more with his wit then with his sword 959. His death 959. Justice of how large extent 119. What it is 120. Private J. is far larger then publick 121. Our common Nature obligeth to live justly 123. and so doth the Law of Nature 124. 126. c. 134. and Fear of God's Vengeance 125. and the written Law of God 128. especially Christ's Gospel 129. How strict observers of Justice some Heathens have been 128. How small esteem Justice hath in the world 131. Motives to live justly 134 c. That which is not Just can neither be pleasant nor profitable 126. v. Mercy Justification what 811. The Church of Rome's doctrine confuted 812 813. Faith justifieth but none but penitents 872. The several opinions about Justification may all be true 1074 c. But many nice and needless disputes there be about it 1075. Wherein Justification consisteth 1075. K. KEyes Power of the Keyes neither to be neglected nor contemned 47. Kingdomes v. Fate Kings though mighty Lords on the earth are but strangers in the earth 532. 535. K. love not to be too much beholding to their subjects 232. It is not expedient for the world to have onely one King 233. Kneeling in the service of God proved by Calvine to be of Divine autority 756. Knowledge Want of Knowledge many alledge to excuse themselves but without cause 437. Pretended K. how mischievous 556 557. Three impediments of K. 96 c. Four wayes to get K. 66. Of which Practice is the chief 68 69. K. is the daughter of Time and Industrie 956. What kind of K. it is that we have in this life 678. God's wayes are not to be known by us his will and our duty easily may 93. We should not studie to know things not revealed 248. Though the K. of what is necessary be easy and obvious 93. 95. yet it is to be sought for with all diligence 96. K. even in the Apostles grew by degrees 61. K. of all future things if we had it would do us no good 789. K. of Sin v. Sin K. of Nature Medicine Laws Husbandry is very excellent 656 657. Saving K. is onely necessary 59 60. 248. K. of Christ surpasseth all other K. 715 c. but it must be not a bare speculative K. but practical 723 c. Many know the Truth but love it not 549. 690. Knowledge Will Affections all to be employed in the walk of a Christian 516 c. Speculative K. availeth nothing without Love 517. It is but a phantasm a dream 518 519. 724 725. It is worse then Ignorance 518. 520. 523. 690. 723. Adde therefore to K. Practice 519 725. As K. directeth Practice so Practice encreaseth K. 520. 693. Words of Knowledge in Scripture imply the Affections 463. Love excelleth Knowledge 977. How God is said not to know the wicked 173. L. LAbour is the price of God's gifts 219. It is not onely necessary but honourable 220. No grace gotten by us no good wrought in us without Labour and pains 667 c. v industrie Sin is a laborious thing 927. more laborious then Virtue 928. It is sad to consider that many will not labour so much to be saved as thousands do to be damned 928. Law Whether going to Law be lawfull 821. Good men have alwayes scrupled the point 822. Cautions and rules to be observed 822. 824. Lawfull
actions are sometimes to be forborn if they be not expedient 639. 1102. Laws necessary for Man 1066. Laws still are framed and given by the prevailing party 1070. Reasons why humane Laws must needs be defective 121. 131. If we will be just we must do many things that mens L. enjoyn not 121. Many wayes to pervert and elude the Laws 122. 132. The Law of Nature more firm and binding then any written Law 124. 127 128. How far it carried some Heathen 1083 1084. Laws of Men and Laws of God compared 168. 228. 230. The Law of God is perfect 1088. but not so perfect as the Gospel 1078. Christ came not to dissolve the Law either of Nature or of Moses 1068. What arguments some Gospellers use to shake off the yoke of the Law 1068. Some will not allow Christ to be a Law-giver nor his Gospel a Law 1068 c. What a world of Laws are they subject to that will not obey Christs 1070 1071. Christ hath reformed and enlarged the Law and exacteth far more of us then the Law did 1078 1079. 1098. The Law of Christ teacheth us to look higher then the natural man could sore 1084. Christ's Laws as well as Mans have their force and life from Rewards and Punishments 390. 1122. Their nature and excellent effects 1067. Whether God's Laws may be exactly and fully obeyed 109 c. v. Gospel Many think Law and Liberty contrary things and that they are never free but when lawless 1099. But there is no liberty but under some Law 1099. ¶ Lawgivers the Disciples of God 106. v. GOD. Lev. x. 10. 1033. ¶ xix 17. 293. Libellatici 1121. Libertines errours confuted 392 c. v. Papists Liberty Our Christian Liberty wherein it consisteth 1097 c. Many abuse it 640. 1103. It is restrained by Sobriety Charity Autority 638 c. 1101 c. Men love to hear of Christian L. but not to have it confined 691. Doctrines of Liberty though true yet are not to be pressed 618. How to stand fast in our Christian Liberty 1103. How Law and Liberty can both be said of the Gospel 1099. c. Obedience to Law is Liberty to Angels to Men to the inanimate Creatures 1100. Lie The Persians told their children they might lie to their enemies but not to their friends 134. Life of Man short and uncertain 356. It is too pretious a thing to be prodidally flung away for a trifle 705 706. but it must be willingly parted with for Righteousness sake 706. We live not indeed till our new birth 1003. London's privileges and London's sins 422 423. 920. D. Longinus 103. LORD This word expresseth the Majesty and Greatness of God 103. and remembreth us of our allegeance 114. If we will not own Christ for our Lord he will not be our Saviour 760 c. 1072. v. Christ Jesus Love v. Charity Christ God Love is the most eminent and potent among the Affections 66. 550 551. It s mighty force 23. 66. 75. 192 193. It setteth all the other Affections on work 550 551. It is like Fire 550 743. Love Worldly and Godly 338. Love of our Selves how dangerous 856 857. v. Self-love They who love the World have no Love to God or Man 890 891. v. World How strangely Love blindeth the Judgment 670. That which we love is either our joy or our grief 570. Love both in God and Man is accompanied with Jealousie 743. What it is to love God 1012. Its effects in the soul 1013. It is the noblest motive to duty 395. 743. It maketh a man earnest and chearfull in duty 843 c. Where Love is cold and defective there is an irregular and inconstant behaviour 845. It may stand with Fear 394. v. Fear If not tempered with Fear it may be too bold 396. 399. Love coupleth not onely Men but also Faith and Hope together 242. 736. Love hath the advantage of Knowledge 977. It is better to love good then to do it 149. Not to love that which is good is to hate it 689 690. What a strange strait St. Paul's Love of Christ brought him into 1006 c. 1010. Our Love should be fixed on the Truth 672. Love of the Truth will not onely burn within us but also shine forth to others 551 c. Our Love of God hath inseparably united to it the Love of our Brethren 1009. To love them that love us is but the rudiments of Charity Christians have an higher an harder lesson 1087. Love of our Brother how to be shewn 576 c. Luk. xi 41. 831. ¶ xii 4 5. 394. ¶ 32. 397. ¶ xiv 13 14. 690. ¶ xvi 25 617. ¶ xvii 10. 1092. ¶ xix 41 c. 359. 795 c. ¶ xxii 42. 266. Lust v. Ignorance Luther 526. 682. Lutheranes depend no less on Luther then the Papists do on the Pope or on their Church 682. The reply of a Prince to the Lutheranes 1070. Luxurie Unnecessary Arts at first the daughters now the nurses of Luxurie 219. Lycurgus 231. 301. M. MAd-men v. Fools Majesty what 311. Maldonate's spite against Calvine 922. He rejected an interpretation that he held best onely because Calvine's 671. Malice and Ign. misconstrue every thing 961 962. 965 966. But their mis-interpretations will not prevail against the Truth 963. Malice against the Truth is downright or interpretative and both must be cast away 688 c. Man created and preserved by God and vvhy 104 105. 107. 115 116. 647. 649. Why created so excellent a creature 87. 647. His beauty and perfection consisteth in obedience and conformity to God 107. Man is a most goodly creature if not transformed by sin 125 135. By sin he is become worse then any Beast 378. How degenerated from his original and how to be restored 782. How weak and indigent 313. 938. How uneven and changeable 383. 773. How subject to chance 936. Other creatures can attein their ends of themselves but Man cannot without a guide 1066. How Christ hath honoured Man and how he ought to honour himself 218. He is too excellent a creature to mind earthly things 647 c. 653. He is a voluntary agent in the work of his conversion 435 436. 584-587 Man is a fair mirrour to behold God in 125. He is a theatre where the Flesh and the Spirit are fighting continually 312. 767. Every Man is a glass for another to see himself in 936 937. All have one common extraction 938. In Nature's Heraldry all Men are equal 279. All by nature are brethren and therefore should help and not hurt one another 123. 938. Arguments to move us thereunto 938. What helps Nature hath supplied Man with 939. His Body and Soul opposit each to other 159. His Mind curious and restless 218. 248. It should not be overtasked 249. What it is that can satisfie him 90 91. 786. Impossible for Man to equal God 1087. He is not to be accounted a Man who wanteth reason 96. The fickleness of Man's
c. He who hath no part in the first R. shall have none in the second 996. Newness of life often called Rising 997. The woful state of a Soul not yet risen from the death of Sin 997. Our Conversion may be stiled Rising because this World may go for a grave 998. and because as in that of the Body so in this of the Soul there will be a change 999. and that universal of every part 1000. In both our corporal and spiritual R. God is all in all 1001. yet in that of the Soul we are bid to do something 1001. It behoveth us rather to enquire Whether we are willing to be raised then How we are raised 1001. Our spiritual R. should be early and without delay 1002. c. We must manifest our spiritual R. by our good Works 1004. and by our Affection to the things above 654. Revelation Of the Book of the Revelation and its Interpreters 244. Rev. i. 12-18 paraphrased 36. ¶ xiv 13. 709. ¶ xx 6. 244. Revenge though perhaps allowed by the Old T. is forbidden by the New 1079. It is allowed by Philosophers c. is forbidden by the Gospel 202. It is an act and argument of impotency 820. Reverence What 460. Some allege Reverence to excuse their neglect of Communicating 459 460. Reverence and Obedience must go together 462. Reverent gestures in God's service not to be blamed as Idolatrous Popish superstitious 963. R. though by some held superstitious is comely and necessary 162 163. 745. 755 c. and to be used in our service of God 634 635. v. Form Humility Worship Where there is Devotion there is also a Reverent deportment 755. 757 758. 981. It is due in God's house in respect of the Angels 857. and of Men both good and bad 858. Covetousness and Sacriledge drive Reverence out of the Church 755. Some questions for them to answer who scruple outward R. in the Church 757. Irreverent persons arguments answered 859. v. Irreverence The Papists say of us That having no Reverence we have no Church 757. The Reverence of the primitive times and that of this Age how different 757 758. 981. Rewards the most powerful Rhetorick 636. v. Laws Riches and Honours and Pleasures the creatures of our Phansie 32. v. World These even Reason teacheth us to contemn 126. 134. Why God giveth Riches 139 c. Neither do Riches invite Christ nor Poverty exclude him 974. Our Riches are then most ours when we part with them to the poor 142. For we are Stewards rather then Proprietaries 140. 142. The best use of Riches 143. R. how abused 594. 620. c. As Riches may be a snare so Poverty may be a gulf 1089. R. may be an instrument of Perfection as well as Poverty 1090. R. are not as the World accounteth them certain signs of God's love 619. They are held Necessaries and Ornaments of Virtue yet are not so 620. but rather an hindrance to it 620. and helps to evil 621. Yet they are not so in themselves but men make them so 621. 897 898. Rich men are admired and even adored in the world 616 617. but a Wo is denounced against them by God 616 c. Pelagius's opinion That no Rich man can be saved is a wholsome errour 618. What it is that draweth the Wo upon the Rich 622. That Rich men may escape the Wo they must cast away their Riches but how 622. 1090. Riches must be brought into subjection to Christianity 622. We must not set our hearts on them 623. 1090. We must contemn them 623. or else they will make us contemn our brethren 623. and draw contempt on us 624. We must be jealous of our selves that we love them too well 624. How R. should be looked upon and handled and used by us 625. 896 c. Right hand v. Christ Righteous The R. sometimes suffer with the wicked and why 291 c. They are often preserved in publick calamities 294. Though they tast of the same cup with others yet it hath not the same tast to both 294. v. God's people Righteousness Many call that Righteousness which is quite another thing 867. 883. 891 892. The R. of the Heathen though it could not save them yet shameth many among us 868. The R. of the Jews very weak and imperfect 869. The R. of the Scribes and Pharisees what 869. Legal and Evangelical R. how different 870. Christ's imputed R. vindicated from mis-interpretations 870 c. The R. of Faith what 872. What R. the Gospel requireth of us 873. Many challenge the name of R. who bid defiance to the thing 873. Imputed R. should be a motive to Inherent R. 872 c. 993. Many conceit they are Seekers of Righteousness vvhen they are not 875. To name R. yea to commend it is not enough 876. Neither is Hearing of R. as many think enough 877. No nor bare Praying for it 877 878. Seeking of R. is To have a Will ready to entertein it 878. and that a chearful quiet Angelical Will 879 880. and a Will that is constant and regular that will make us seek R. sincerely as God seeketh our happiness 880 881. If vve seek R. aright we shall still be sensible of our want of it 881 882. we shall love and affect it exceedingly 882 and shall be kept from it neither by flattery nor affrightments 883 884. R. is to be sought in the first place before the things of this life 884 c. If we seek it not first vve seek it not at all 890. What a world of wickedness proceedeth from seeking these things before Righteousness 891 c. But they who first seek R. cannot doubt of a sufficient portion of these things 900. Rom. i. 28. 3. 9. ¶ vii 19. 879. ¶ viii 15. 397. ¶ 28 29 30. 697. ¶ ix 3. 1007 1008. ¶ xi 20 21. 392. Romanes They having been at first all for handsome servants were afterwards as much for dwarfs applied 651. Romish The R. Church counteth all goats that are not within her fold 319. S. SAbellius 5. Sabinus Calvisius Sabinus a man strangely conceited 870. 993. Sacraments A Sacrament must be immediately instituted by Christ himself 451. Out of Christ's side came both the Sacraments 469. How quarrelled by many 582 583. They are highly to be honoured 303. v. Word They are too highly esteemed by some too little by others 81. Sacrifices no essential part of God's service 70 71. not really good in themselves but onely as commanded 72. Why the Jews vvere commanded to offer S. to God 72. v. Ceremonies Outward worship The Sacrifices of Christians 83 84. A broken heart the best S. 325. Chastity Temperance Patience present our bodies as a S. unto God 749 754. Sacrilege once was a sin now some count it a virtue 581 582. Against S. 848 849. 854. Saints as St. Hierome saith never called in Scripture inhabitants of the earth 536. How to be honoured by us 1021. Some forsooth will not allow the title
Every wilful sin is fruitful and seldom endeth in it self He that telleth a lie is in a disposition to betray a Kingdom He that slandereth his neighbour is in an aptitude to blaspheme God We may see Wantonness even budding out of Luxury Strife shooting forth out of Covetousness out of Strife Murther He that yieldeth up his Conscience for his flesh and State will be the more pliable to yield it up when they call for it upon the hardest terms Take heed of these yieldings and condescensions Saepè peccat qui semel One fall naturally draweth on another and that a third till we come in profundum to the very bottom Every little sin if we commit it because we think it little is a great one and carrieth as it were written in its forehead BEHOLD A TROOP COMETH Therefore to conclude this let us not trifle with our conscience but honour it And we honour our Conscience as we do our God for she is as our God upon earth We honour her when we observe her and bow to every beck hearken what she will say and do it and what she forbiddeth avoid not touch not taste not handle â—â—ye from it as from a serpent that doth now flatter but will hereafter sting us to death It is no honour to commend Conscience and wound her to call her a Temple of Solomon a Paradise of delights the Court of God and the Habitation of the Spirit as Bernard calleth a good Conscience Then we honour her when we make her so when we let her keep her throne when we bow to her sceptre when the image of her Dictates is visible in all the emanations of our Soul in our Thoughts when they are such as she would mould in our Words when we speak after her and in our Works when she doth begin and finish them When we subscribe to her first commands which we received when we were free from all interpellations of Fear or Hope and fall not off at their after-solicitations to the contrary and then build up a false persuasion in honour of it and call it Conscience offend and sin against her and then give up her name to an Idol When she commandeth silence and we blaspheme when she lifteth up our heart to heaven and our thoughts are full of adulteries when she prescribeth patience and we strike when she bindeth our hands and we break loose when she sealeth up our lips and we will open them to perjury when by-respects shall win us to that of which she hath said see you do it not when vve are not vvhat she would have us to be but fashion our selves to the world and yet bear her image and superscription are the worst of men with a Good conscience then we dishonour her place her under our lusts and most loathsome desires take her from her throne and lay her in a Golgotha They who look as she looketh and speak as she speaketh and do as she commandeth they vvho obey her these alone are they vvho honour her And then as she is our God on earth that is as she is in the place of God so vvhat God spake of himself will be verified of our Conscience also They that honour her she will honour She will be as our Angel to keep us in all our wayes that we hurt not our foot against any stone of offence She will root and build us up in the faith and in a constant obedience to this perfect law of liberty She vvill settle and establish us to remain in it and set the crown upon our heads even all the Blessedness this life is capable of and that Blessedness which remaineth for ever in the life to come And so we have brought you to the last and best of all the Reward set down in the last words This man shall be blessed in his deed This is the End of all and the End is the crown of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle The End is that which all look upon In this all our desires and endeavours and counsels meet and rest It is that which giveth force to a Law which maketh Perfection something and Liberty a gift And vvithout it a Law vvere void and no Law Perfection vvere nothing and Liberty but a name The end shineth and casteth an influence and lustre upon all upon the Law upon Perfection upon Liberty For we are obedient to the Law we strive forward to Perfection we stand fast in our Liberty for some end and that is Blessedness Reward and Punishment are the two adamantine pillars saith Plato of a Commonwealth And they are the two pillars vvhich uphold the Church Democritus called them Gods that bear and uphold all things These lead us under a Law guide us to Perfection and uphold us in Liberty If those were not these could not be but all Law Perfection and Liberty would fall to the ground If Heaven were not happiness it were not worth a thought much less our violence To enjoy something better then what we do is the basis and foundation on which every action is raised For who doeth any thing onely that he may do it That action is vain that endeth in it self Fruition is the ultimus terminus the last end of all Knowledge and Volition For To know onely to know is no better then Ignorance And in every act of the Will it is manifest For no man willeth onely that he may will no man loveth onely that he may love no man hateth onely that he may hate no man hopeth onely that he may hope but in every proffer inclination and determination of the Will we look further then the act in which it endeth When we desire any thing we do it with an intent to be united to it to meet and embrace it and from that union something else in which the desire may rest and be fully satisfied This made Moses meek Abraham obedient David devout Job patient This made Apostles and Martyrs this led them through honour and dishonour through good report and evil report and at last brought them to the cross and to the block the next stage unto Blessedness For that which moveth the Will to obedience of the Law is before the obedience it self as that which exciteth and worketh it If this be not set up there is no such thing as Conscience or Obedience at least our Conscience would lose its office and neither accuse nor excuse us neither be our comforter nor tormenter If there were no Hell there were no worm and if there were no Heaven in the next there were no joy in this life The Apostle is plain Without faith that is Heb. 11.6 without a full persuasion of a future estate it is impossible to please God And He that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him And in this appeareth the glory and excellency of the Gospel of Christ of this Law of Liberty that