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
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
seemeth him good THese words are the words of old Eli the Priest and have reference to that message which young Samuel brought him from the Lord such a message as made both the ears of every one that heard it tingle Come see the work of Sin what desolation it maketh upon the earth Hophni and Phinehas the two profane and adulterous Sons must die old Eli their indulgent Father the High Priest must die Thirty four thousand Israelites must fall by the sword of the Philistines The Ark the glory of Israel must be taken and delivered up in triumph unto Dagon This was the word of the Lord which he spake by the mouth of the child Samuel v. 19. Rom. 4.17 and not a word of his did fall to the ground What God foretelleth is done already With him who calleth the things that are not as if they were as the Apostle speaketh there is no difference of times nothing past nothing to come all is present So that Eli saw this bloody Tragedy acted before it was done saw it done before the signal to battle was given saw his sons slain whilst the flesh hook was yet in their hands saw himself fall whilst he stood with Samuel saw the Israelites slain before they came into the field and the Ark taken whilst it was yet in the Tabernacle A sad and killing presentment whether we consider him as a Father or as a High Priest as a Father looking upon his Sons falling before the Ark which they stood up and fought for as a High Priest beholding the people slain and vanquished and the Ark the glory of God the glory of Israel in the hands of Philistines But the word of the Lord is gone out Isa 55.11 and will not return empty and void For what he saith shall be done and what he bindeth with an oath is irreversible and must come to pass And it is not much material whether it be accomplished to morrow or next day or now instantly and follow as an echo to the Prediction Nam una est scientia futurorum saith S. Hierome Ad Pammach adversus errores Joan. Hierosol The knowledge of things to come is one and the same And now it will be good to look upon these heavy judgments and by the terrour of them be perswaded to fly from the wrath to come as the Israelites were cured by looking on the Serpent in the wilderness For even the Justice of God though it speak in thunder maketh a kind of melody when it toucheth and striketh upon an humble submissive yielding heart Behold old Eli an High Priest to teach you who being now within the full march and shew of the enemy and of those judgements which came apace towards him like an armed man not to be resisted or avoided and hearing that from God which shook all the powers of his soul settleth and composeth his troubled minde with this consideration That it was the Lord and with this silenceth all murmur slumbreth all impatience burieth all disdain looketh upon the hand that striketh and boweth and kisseth it and being now ready to fall raiseth himself up upon this pious and heavenly resolution It is the Lord. Though the people of Israel fly and the Philistines triumph though Hophni and Phinehas fall though himself fall backward and break his neck though the Ark be taken yet DOMINVS EST It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Which words are a Rhetorical Enthymeme perswading to humility and a submissive acquiescence under the hand the mighty hand of God by his power his justice his wisdome which all meet and are concentred in this DOMINVS EST It is the Lord. He is omnipotent and who hath withstood his power He is just and will bring no evil without good cause He is wise and whatsoever evill he bringeth he can draw it to a good end And therefore FACIAT QVOD BONVM IN OCVLIS SVIS Let him do what seemeth him good Or you may observe first a judicious Discovery from whence all evils come It is the Lord. Secondly a well grounded Resolution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to behave himself decently and fittingly as under the Power and Justice and Wisdome of God Let him do what seemeth him good The first is a Theological Axiome It is the Lord There is no evil in a city which he doth not do Amos 3.6 The second a Conclusion as necessary as in any Demonstration most necessary I am sure for Weakness to bow to Omnipotency In a word the Doctrine most certain It is the Lord All these evils of punishment are from him And the Resolution which is as the Use and Application of the Doctrine most safe Let him do what seemeth him good Of these we shall speak in their order And in the prosecution of the first for we shall but touch upon and conclude with the last that you may follow me with more ease we will draw the lines by which we are to pass and confine our selves to these four particulars which are most eminent and remarkable in the story 1. That Gods people the true professours may be delivered up to punishment for sin 2. That in general judgments upon a people the good many times are involved with the evil and fall with them 3. That Gods people may be delivered up into the hands of Philistines and aliens men worse then themselves 4. That the Ark the glory of their profession may be taken away These four points I say we shall speak of and then we shall fix up this Inscription DOMINVS EST It is the Lord and when we have acquitted his Justice and Wisdome in all these particulars we shall cast an eye back upon the Inscription and see what beams of light it will cast forth for our direction In the first place of Hophni and Phinheas the Text telleth us that they hearkened not unto the voice of their Father 2 ch v. 25. because the Lord would destroy them Which word Quia is not causal but illative and implyeth not the cause of their sin but of their punishment They did not therefore sin because God would punish them but they hearkened not to the voice of their father therefore the Lord destroyed them As we use to say The Sun is risen because it is day for the day is not the cause of the Suns rising Chap. 2.12 but the Sun rising maketh it day They were sons of Belial vessels already fitted for wrath as we may see by their many fowl enormities and therefore were left to themselves and their sins and to wrath which at last devoured them God's decree whatsoever it be is immanent in himself and therefore cannot be the cause of disobedience and wickedness which is extraneous and contrary to him Nor can there be any action of God's either positive or negative joyned with his decree which may produce such an effect And what need of any such Decree or Action to make the sons of Eli disobedient
which he saw would be done if he gave way And to these two we cannot but yield unless we will deny him to be God For if we believe him just or wise we cannot but say FIAT Let him do what he will Let him be angry and let him carry on his anger in what wayes and by what means he please He is our Father and loveth us O felicem cui Deus dignatur irasci Tertull. and if we will be enemies to our selves he doth but an act of Justice and of Mercy if he use the rod. What though he give line to wicked men to do that which his soul hateth and suffer that to be done which he forbiddeth He permitteth all the evil that is done in the world If he did not permit it it could not be done And if he did not permit evil Obedience were but a name For what praise is it not to do that which I cannot do Whatsoever evil he suffereth his Wisdome is alwaies present with him for he is Wisdome it self and can draw that evil which he but suffereth to be done and make it serve to the advancement of that good which he will do He will make it as the hand of Justice to punish offenders and execute his will and as his Rod or Discipline to teach sinners in the way If we could once subdue our wills to that will of his which is visible in his precepts if we could answer love with love and love him and keep his commandments John 14.15 we should have no such aversness from the other two no such dislike if he do what he is forced to do or permit that to be done which he hath condemned already If we do whatsoever he commandeth us and be his friends what is it to us Job 38.31 Deut. 28.23 Job 38.38 though he binde the sweet influences of the Pleiades or loose the bonds of Orion though he make the heavens as brass and the earth as iron though the clods cleave fast together and the clouds distil not upon them What is it to us if he beat down his own Temples when the tower of Babel reacheth up to heaven if the black darkness be in Goshâ—n and the Egyptians have light if fools sport and triumph in their folly and the whip be laid on the back of the innocent What is it to us how or where he casteth about his hail-stones and coals of fire Si fractus illabatur orbis Horat. od 3. l. 3. Impavidos ferient ruinae In all these sad and dismal events in these judgments which fall cross with our judgment and as the eye of flesh looketh upon them to the mind of God himself in all these perplexities these riddles of Providence the friend of God is still his friend and favoureth nay applaudeth whatsoever he doth or is pleased to suffer to be done which he would not suffer did not his Justice and Wisdome require it which are able to make the most crooked paths straight to fill every valley and levell every mountain to work good out of evil and so make all those seeming extuberancies that which to us seemed disorder and confusion that which our ignorance wondered at smooth and plain and even at the last It is the Lord When that word is heard let every mouth be stopt or let it declare his glory amongst the nations and his wonders among the people Psal 96.3 Phil. 2.10 At that word let every knee bow both of things in heaven and things in earth let Men and Angels say Amen His will be done DOMINVS EST It is the Lord is the antecedent and the most natural consequent or conclusion that can be drawn from it is this of old Eli the High Priest FACIAT QVOD BONVM IN OCVLIS Let him do what seemeth him good To conclude then When we are thus wrought and fashioned to God's hand and will thus meek and yielding to his sceptre when we follow him in all his wayes and question not but obey his Providence which is the bridle of the world and fit for no hands but his when with old Eli here we joyn our Faciat with his Fecit and are willing he should do whatsoever is done when the Lord thunders from heaven and shooteth his arrows abroad and we can look upon them sticking in our own sides and say Thus thus it should be Psal 19.9 The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether then we have the spirit of God and we have the will of God And these arrows will be to us as Jonathan's were to David 1 Sam 20 20 c. signs and warnings to fly from some danger neer at hand that those evils we suffer may work that patience which may make us cooperarios Dei as Tertullian spake of Job De patient fellow-workers with God and joyn us with him in the conquest of those temptations which they bring along with them Rom. 5.4 5. that our Patience may beget Experience how weak and frail we are when we are moved and guided by our own will and this Experience Hope even that Hope which being founded on the promises of the God of truth can neither deceive us nor make us ashamed a Hope that our Ark will return and God will restore to us all those helps and advantages which he shall think necessary for us in this our warfare He that hath the will of God hath this hope built upon his Power and Wisdome which alwaies accompany his Will He that hath the will of God hath what he will hath power and wisdome In the strength of which we shall be able to lift up our heads in the midst of all the busie noyse the World shall make 1 Cor. 15.58 be stedfast and immovable when the tempest is loudest and when our sun shall be darkned Matth 24.29 and the stars fall from heaven when there shall be sects and divisions and great perplexity Luke 21.25 when our Ark shall be taken and the glory depart from Israel we shall be able to look upon all with an eye of Charity or as Erasmus speaketh with an Evangelical eye and walk on in a constant course of piety and contention with those infirmities which so easily beset us beating down sin in our selves though we cannot destroy errour in our brethren and so become as Nazianzene once spake of his people of Nazianzum like the Ark of Noah and by this our spiritual wisdome escape that deluge and inundation of Contention which hath neer overflowed and swallowed up the whole Christian world and so walk upon these floods and waves Christ himself going before till we rest upon our Ararat our holy Hill that new Jerusalem that City of peace where there will be no envy no debate no sects no divisions no contentions no wars no rumour of wars but love and peace and unity and joy and unconceivable bliss for evermore The Fifteenth SERMON JOHN VI. 56. He that eateth
meaning is His absolute will is that they should die And let them shift as they please and wind and turn themselves to slip out of reach after all defalcations and subtractions they can make it will arise near to this sum which I am almost afraid to give you That God is willing we should die For to this purpose they bring in also Gods Providence To this purpose I should have said to none at all For though God rule the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this law of Providence as Nazianzene calleth it though he disposeth and ordereth all things and all actions of men yet he layeth not any law of Necessity upon all things Some effects he hath fitted with necessary causes Prima part q. 22. art 4. that they may infallibly fall out saith Aquinas and to other effects which in their own nature are contingent he hath applyed contingent causes so that that shall fall out necessarily which his Providence hath so disposed of and that contingently which he hath left in a contingency And both these in the nature of things necessary and contingent are within the verge and rule of his Providence and he altereth them not but extra ordinem when he would do some extraordinary work Psal 104.19 when he would work a miracle The Sun knoweth his seasons and the Moon its going down and this in a constant and unchangeable course but yet he commanded the Sun to stand still in Gibeon and the Moon in the valley of Ajalon Josh 10.12 But then I think all events are not as necessary as the change of the Moon or the setting of the Sun for all have not so necessary causes Unless you will say to walk or stand to be rich or poor to fall in battel or to conquer are as necessary effects as Darkness when the Sun setteth or Light when it riseth in our Horizon And this indeed may bring in a new kind of Predestination to walk or to stand to Riches and Poverty to Victory and Captivity as well as to everlasting Life and everlasting Perdition But posito sed non concesso Let us suppose it though we grant it not that the Providence of God hath laid a necessity upon such events as these yet it doth not certainly upon those actions which concern our everlasting welfare which either raise us up to heaven or cast us down to destruction It were not much material at least a good Christian might think so whether we sit or walk whether God predetermin that we be rich or poor that we conquer or be overcome What is it to me though the Sun stand still if my feet be at liberty to run the wayes of Gods commandments What is it to me if the Moon should start out of her sphere if I lose not the sight of that brightness which should direct me in my way to bliss What were it to me if I were necessitated to beggery so I be not a predestinate bankrupt in the city of the Lord Let him do what he will in heaven and in earth let the Sun go back let the Stars lose their light let the wheel of Nature move in a contrary way let the pillars of the world be shaken Let him do what he will it concerneth us not further then that we say Amen so be it For we must give him leave who made the world to govern it If all other events and actions were necessary we might well sit down and lay our hands upon our mouth But here lis est de tota possessione We speak not of riches and poverty or fair weather and tempests but of everlasting life and everlasting damnation And to entitle God either directly or indirectly to the sins and death of wicked men so to lay the Scene that it shall appear though masked and vailed with limitations and distinctions and though they be not positive yet leave such premisses out of which this conclusion may easily be drawn is a high reproch to Gods infinite Goodness a blasphemy however men wipe their mouthes after it of the greatest magnitude Not to speak the worst it is to stand up and contradict God to his face and when he sweareth he would not have us die to proclaim it to all the world that there be thousands whom he hath killed already and destroyed before they were and so decreed to do that from all eternity which in time he swore he would not do I speak not this to rake the ashes of any of those who are dead that either maintained or favoured this opinion nor to stir the choler of any man living who may love this child for the fathers sake but for the honour of God and his everlasting Goodness which I conceive to be strangely violated by this doctrine of efficacious Permission or by that shift and evasion of a positive Efficiency joyned as it is said inseparably with this Permission of sin which is so far from colouring it over or giving any loveliness to it that it rendreth it more horrid and deformed and is the louder blasphemy of the two which clotheth as it were a Devil with Light who yet breaketh through it and rageth as much as if he had been in his own shape Permission is a fair word and bodeth no harm but yet it breatheth forth that poysonous exhalation which killeth us For but to be permitted to sin is to be a child appointed to death The antients especially the Athenians did account some words ominous and therefore they never used to speak them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Prison they called the House Helladius apud Photium the Hangman the Common Officer and the like And the Romanes would not once mention Death or say their friend was dead but Humanitus illi accidit We may render it in the Scripture-phrase He is gone the way of all the earth Josh 23.14 1 Kings 2.2 What their phansie led them to Religion should perswade us to think that some words there be which we should be afraid to mention when we speak of God Excitation to sin Inclination Induration Reprobration as they are used are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ill-boding words But yet we must not with the Heathen onely change the language and mean the same thing and call it Permission when our whole discourse driveth this way to bring it forward and set it up for a flat and absolute Compulsion For this is but to plough the wind to make a way which closeth of it self as soon as it is made This is not to teach men but to amaze them Sermo per deflexus anfractus veritatem potiùs quaerit quà m ostendit saith Hilary When men broach these contradictions to known and common principles when they make these Meanders these windings and turnings in their discourses they make it also apparent that they are still in their search and have not yet found out the
parts which make up the Syntaxis of a Republick And he that endeavoureth not the advancement of the whole is a letter too much fit to be expunged and blotted out But in the Church whose maker and builder is God Heb. 11.10 this is required in the highest degree especially in those transactions which may enlarge the circuit and glory of it Here every man must be his own and under Christ his brothers Saviour For as between these two Cities so between the happiness of the one and the happiness of the other there is no comparison As therefore every Bishop in the former ages called himself Episcopum Catholicae Ecclesiae a Bishop of the Catholick Church although he had jurisdiction but over one Diocess so the care and piety of every particular Christian in respect of its diffusive operation is as Catholick as the Church Every soul he meeteth with is under his charge and he is the care of every soul Jam. 5.20 In saving a soul from death every man is a Priest and a Bishop although he may neither invade the Pulpit nor ascend the Chair I may be eyes unto him as it was said of Hobab Numb 10.31 I may take him from his errour and put him into the way of truth If he fear I may scatter his fear if he grieve I may wipe off his tears if he presume I may teach him to fear and if he despair I may lift him up to a lively hope that neither Fear nor Grief neither Presumption nor Despair swallow him up Thus may I raise a dead man from the grave a sinner from his sin and by that example many may rise with him who are as dead as he and so by this friendly communication we may transfuse our selves into others and receive others into our selves and so run hand in hand from the chambers of Death And thus far we dare extend the Communion of Saints place it in a House a Family a Society of men called and gathered together by Christ raise it to the participation of the privileges and Charters granted by Christ calling us to the same faith leading us by the same rule filling us with the same grace endowing us with several gifts that we may guard and secure each other and so settle it in those Offices and Duties which Christianity maketh common and God hath registred in his Church which is the pillar of truth 1 Tim. 3.15 where all mens Joyes and Sorrows and Fears and Hopes should be one and the same And then to die surrounded with all these helps and advantages of God above ready to help us of Men like unto our selves prest out as auxiliaries to succour and relieve us of Precepts to guide us of Promises to encourage us of Heaven even opening it self to receive us then to die 2 Sam 3.33 34. is to die as fools die to suffer their hands to be bound and their feet put in fetters and to open their breast to the sword For to die alone is not so grievous not so imputable as to die in such company to die where it is no more but to will it and I might live for ever Oh how were it to be wisht that we well understood this one Article of our Faith the Communion of Saints that we knew to be Vessels to receive the Water of life and Conduits to convey it that we would remember that by every sin we bring trouble to a million of Saints and by our obedience make as many Angels merry Luk. 15.13 30. that when we spend our portion amongst harlots we do not onely begger our selves but rob and spoil our brethren that when we yield our selves to the enemy we betray an Army Oh that we knew what it were to give counsel and what it were to receive it what it were to shine upon others and to walk by their light Oh that we knew the power and the necessity of a Precept the riches and glory of a Promise that we would consider our selves as men amongst men invited to happiness invited to the same royal feast If this were rightly considered we should then ask our selves the question Why should we die Why shâ—uld we die not in the wilderness amongst beasts upon our turf or stone where there is none to help but in domo Israelis in a house and in the house of Israel where Health and Safety appear in every room and corner Why should we fall like Samson with the house upon us and so endanger and bruise others with our fall If I be a string why should I jarre and spoil the harmony If I be a part why should I be made a schisme from the body If I be under command why should I beat my fellow-servants If a member why should I walk disorderly in the family Why should I why should any die in the house of Israel And now to reassume the Text Why will ye die O house of Israel What a fearful exprobration is it What can it work in us but shame and confusion of face Why will ye die ye that have Christ for your Physician the Angels for your Ministers the Saints for your example the Church a common shop of precious balm and antidotes ye who are in the House of Israel where you may learn from the Priest learn from the oracles of God learn from one another learn from Death it self not to die In this House in this Order in this Union in this Communion in the midst of all these auxiliary troops to fall and miscarry To have the Light but not to see it the bread of Life but not to tast it To die with our antidotes about us Quale est de Ecclesiâ Dei in Ecclesiam Diaboli tendere de coelo in coenum Tert. De spect c. 25. Aug. De Civ Dei l. 14. c. 15. to go per portâ—â— coeli in gehennam thorow the house of Israel into Tophet thorow the Church of Christ into hell may well put God to ask questions and expostulate and can argue no less then a stubborn and relentless heart and not onely a defect but a distast and hatred of that piety quae una est sapientia in hac domo which is the onely wisdome and most useful in the house of Israel which is our best strength against our enemy Death And here to apply this to our selves Let us compare the state of the house of Israel with the state of the people of this Nation and Jerusalem with this City Isa 5.4 and we may say What could God have done more for us which he hath not done Onely his blessings and privileges will rise and swell and exceed on our side and so make our ingratitude and guilt the greater They had their Priests and Levites we have our Pastours and Ministers They had their Temple and Synagogues we our Parochial Churches They had their Sacraments Circumcision and the Paschal Lamb Acts 15.21 we Baptism and the Lords
through which we are to pass It shall be a Rock firm and solid against every wave and temptation that shall beat against it It shall be a Shop of pretious receipts proper remedies against every evil It shall be spoliarium Mortis a place where Death shall be stript and spoiled of its sting and its terrour It shall be the Temâ—le of God an House of feasting and joy where Sorrow may look in at the window at the sensitive part but be soon chased away It shall be even ashamed of its tabernacle of flesh 2 Cor. 5.4 and pant and beat to get out that it may be clothed upon and mortality be swallowed up of life In brief this will make us strangers and keep us strangers even such strangers as shall be made like unto the Angels and whom when they come to their journeys end the Angels shall meet and welcome and receive into their Fathers house where they shall rest and rejoyce for evermore I have done with my Text and now must turn your eyes and thoughts upon this Pilgrime here this Honoured and worthy Knight who hath now passed through the buisie noise and tumults of this world to his long home and rest In which passage of his as I have received it from men of place and worth and unquestioned integrity he hath so exactly performed the part and office of a stranger and Pilgrime that he is followed with the applause of them that knew him And as in his death he is become an argument to prove the doctrine which I have taught so in his life he made himself a great ensample for them to look upon who are now travelling and labouring in the same way Look upon him then in every capacity and relation either as a part of the Common-wealth or a member of the City or a Father of a Family and you shall discover the image and fair representation of a Stranger in every one of these relations For no man can take this honour to himself to be a good Common-wealths-man or a good Master of a family but he who is as David was a Stranger All the ataxie and disorder all the noise we hear and mischiefs we see in the world are from men who love it too well and would live and dwell and delight themselves in it for ever For the first I may truly say as Lampridius did of Alexander Severus He was vir bonus Reipublicae necessarius a good man and of necessary use in the Common-wealth He laid all the strength he had to uphold it and preferred the peace and welfare of it to his own as well knowing that a private house might sink and fall to the ground and yet the Common-wealth stand and flourish but that the ruine of the whole must necessarily draw with it the other parts and at last bury them in the same grave And here he found as rough a passage as Aufidienus Rufus in Tacitus did in that commotion and Rebellion of Percennius l. 1. Annal. who was pulled out of his chariot loaden first with scoffs and reproches and then with a fardel of stuff and made to march foremost of all the company and then asked in scorn whether he bore his burden willingly or whether so long a journey was not tedious and irksome to him So was this worthy Knight taken from his wife whom he entirely loved and from his children those pledges of his love and conveyed to ship and by ship to prison in a remote City where he found some friends and then was brought back from thence to a prison nearer home where if the Providence of God had not gone along with him and shadowed him he had met the plague So that in some measure that befell him which S. Paul speaketh of himself 2 Cor. 11.26 He was in journeying often in perils of waters in perils of his own country-men in perils in the city in perils on the sea in perils amongst false brethren But it may be said What praise is it to suffer all this 1 Pet. 4.15 2 19 20. if he suffer as an evil-doer and not for conscience towards God I come not hither to dispute that but am willing to refer it to the great Trial which shall open every eye to behold that truth which now being dâ—zled with fears and hopes and even blinded with the love of the world it cannot see But if it were an errour and not knowledge but mistake that drove him upon these pricks yet sure it was an errour of a fair descent begot in him by looking stedfastly on the truth and by having a steady eye on the oath of God Eccl. 8.2 And if here he fell he fell like a Christian who did exercise himself to keep a good conscience Acts 24.16 For he that followeth not his Conscience when it erreth will be as far from hearkning to it when it speaketh the truth For even Errour it self sheweth the face of Truth to him that erreth or else he could not erre at all And yet I need not fear to say it it is an errour of such a nature that it may rather deserve applause then censure even from those who call it by that name For we do not use to fall willingly into so dangerous vexatious and costly errours errours which will strip us and put a yoke upon us errours which will put us in prison No to fly from these we too oft fly from the Truth it self when it is as open as the day and commandeth our faith though not our tongue and forceth our assent when we renounce it Private Interest Love of our selves Fear of restraint Hope of advancement these are the mothers commonly of this monster which we call Errour when we do not erre and in these it is ingendred and bred as serpents are in carrion or dung He that erreth and loseth by it erreth most excusably and sheweth plainly that he would not erre For who would do that which will undo him Again take him in the City In this he bore the highest honour and filled the greatest place yet was rather an ornament to it then that unto him For he sate in it as a stranger and a pilgrime as a man going out of the world nor did so much consider his power as his duty which lookt forward and had respect to that which cannot be found in this but is the riches and glory of another world Therefore this world was never in his thoughts never came in to sowr Justice to turn Judgment into wormwood by corrupting it or into vinegar by delaying it There were no cries of orphans no tears of the widow no loud complaints of the oppressed to disquiet him in his passage which use to follow the oppressour even to the gates of hell and there deliver him up to those howlings which are everlasting How oft hath he been presented to me and that by prudent and judicious men as the honour and glory of
the City And thus he went on his way full of temptations and troubles and full of honours even of those honours which he refused For you may remember how he bore that great office and you may remember how he refused it and gained as much honour in the hearts of men by the last as by the first as much honour by withdrawing himself and staying below as he did formerly in sitting in the highest place with the sword in his hand For the state and face of things may be such as may warrant Demosthenes wish and choice and make it more commendable in exilium ire quà m tribunal to go into banishment then to ascend the tribunal And he best deserveth honour who can in wisdome withdraw himself and he can best manage power who knoweth when to lay it down Bring him now from the publick stage of Honour to his private house and there you might have seen him walking as David speaketh Psal 101.2 in the midst of his house in innocency and with a perfect heart as an Angel or Intelligence moving in his own sphere and carrying on every thing in it with that order and decorum which is the glory of a stranger whose moving in it is but a going out of it to render an account of every act and motion You might have beheld him looking with a setled and unmoveable eye of love on his Wife walking hand in hand with her for fourty four years and walking with her as his fellow-traveller with that love which might bring both at last to the same place of rest You might behold him looking on his Children with an eye of care as well as of affection initiating them into the same fellowship of pilgrimes and on his Servants not as on slaves Quid servus Amicus humilis but as his humble and inferiour friends as Seneca calleth them and as his fellow-pilgrimes too And thus he was a domestick Magistrate a lover and example of that truth which Socrates taught That they who are good Fathers of their family will make the best and wisest Magistrates they who can manage their own cock-boat well may be fit at last to sit at the stern of the Common-wealth For a private family is a type and representation of it Vit. Constant nay saith Eusebius of the Church it self I confess I knew him but in his evening when he was near his journeys end and then too but at some distance But even then I could discover in him that sweetness of disposition and that courteous affability which by S. Paul are commended as virtues but have lost that name with Hypocrites with proud and supercilious men who make it a great part of their Religion to pardon none but themselves and then think that they have put off the Old man when they have put off all Humanity In these homiletick virtues I could discern a fair proficiency in this reverend Knight And what my knowledge could not reach was abundantly supplied and brought unto me by the joynt testimony of those who knew him and by a testimony which commendeth him to Heaven and God himself the mouthes of the poor which he so often filled Thus did he walk on as a stranger comforting and supporting his fellow-pilgrimes and reaching forth his charity to them as a staff Thus he exprest himself living and thus he hath exprest himself in his last Will which is voluntas ultra mortem the Will the Mandate the Language of a Dead man Speculum morum saith Pliny the Glass wherein you may see the Charity that is the Face the Image of a Pilgrime by which he hath bequeathed a Legacy of Comfort and Supply a plain acknowledgement that he was but a stranger on the earth to every Prison Hebr. 13.3 and to many Parishes within this City He remembred them who are in bonds as one who himself was in the body and somtimes a prisoner as they I know in this world it is a hard thing justum esse sine infamia to be good and not to hear ill expedit enim malis neminem esse bonum for evil men make it their work to deface every fair image of virtue then think well of themselves when they have made all as evil as themselves But it was this our honoured Brothers happiness to find no accuser but himself I may truly say I never yet heard any Report hath given him an honorable pass The voice of the Poor was He was full of good works the voice of the City He was a good Magistrate the voice of his equals He was a true friend the voice of all that I have heard He was a just man and then our Charity will soon conclude He was a good Christian for he lived and died a Son of the Church Acts 24.14 of the Reformed and according to the way which some call Heresie some Superstition so worshipped he the God of his fathers Eccl. 12.5 And now he is gone to his long home and the mourners go about the streets He is gone to the grave in a full age when that was well near expired which is but labour and sorrow Psal 90.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Cyril speaketh grown in Wisdom and grace which is a fairer testimony of age then the Gray hairs or Fourscore years Eccl. 12.7 His body must return to the dust his soul is returned to God that gave it Hebr. 11.4 And being dead he yet speaketh speaketh by his Charity to the Poor speaketh by his fair example to his Brethren of the City to honour and reverence their Conscience more then their Purse vitámque impendere vero to be ready to resign all even life it self for the truth He speaketh to his Friends and he speaketh to his Relict his virtuous reverend Lady once partner of his cares and joyes his fellow-traveller and to his Children who are now on their way and following apace after him Weep not for me Why should you weep I have laid by my Staff my Scrip my provision and am at my journeys end at rest I have left you in a valley in a busie tumultuous world but the same hand the same provision the same obedience to Gods commands will guide you also and promote you to the same place where we shall rest and rejoyce together for ever more There let us leave him in his eternal rest with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob with all the Patriarchs and Prophets Apostles all his fellow Pilgrimes strangers in the Kingdom of Heaven The end of the First Volume Imprimatur Ut mortuus etiam loquatur qui tam piè eleganter loquutus est vivus M. FRANCK S. T. P. Ro. in X to Patri Do. Epo. Lond. à Sacr. Dom. XLVII SERMONS PREACHED At the Parish-CHURCH of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street LONDON The Second Volume By the late Eminent and Learned Divine ANTHONY FARINDON B. D. Divinity Reader of his MAJESTIES Chappel-Royal of Windsor The
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
be looked upon by others in his Church militant and to look upon himself in the Church triumphant a glorious spectacle a picture of great use a speaking image encouraging the good and perswading the evil to become good prevailing many times with those Tyrants and executioners whose hands God made use of in this his work and making them take up that cross and bear it which before they laid upon other mens shoulders teaching them to be martyrs who were the greatest murtherers Therefore in the second place this is the reason why God suffereth this mixture of good and evil why he suffereth Tyrants and bloud-thirsty men to go on and prosper in their wayes Ideo tolerantur mali ut probentur boni saith Augustine Therefore is there a toleration of evil men that good men might be manifested to the world The Disposer of all things suffered the Church to be rent and torn with Heresies and Schisms ut Basilius meus cognosceretur saith Nazianzene that Basil might be known that his piety and wisdom might be seen in making them up If there were not evil men there could be no persecution For I cannot see how good men should persecute one another It is more probable that Satan should rise up against Satan and one Devil cast out another then that one righâ—â—ous man should pursue another Evil men may rage against evil men because they are evil For that that made them brethren in evil may make them enemies Herod and Pilate may fall out and then be made friends Luke 23.12 and joyn their forces against Christ and then fall out again Many there may be that may pursue the innocent as one man and hold out their swords together and bend their forces to rob and spoil them and then when they are to divide the spoil turn the points of their swords at anothers breasts Evil changeth its countenance but Goodness is alwaies like it self and loveth it self and every man that loveth it A good man can no more do evil to him that is like him then one minister of light can to another or a Seraphin to a Cherubin Nor can he persecute an evil man for it is the greatest part of his goodness to bless him No Persecution is the first-born of the Prince of this world and he sendeth it into the world to be entertained and made much of by the children of this world For from whence cometh it but from Envy and Malice and Covetousness and Ambition which if they cannot find an occasion of doing evil will make one and force it out of Good it self As the Apostle every where joyneth Covetousness with Uncleanness so may we with Hatred and Persecution These are they that make that desolation on the earth these are those Phaethons which set the world on fire Look back upon every age of the Church and tell me was there ever rent or schism which these made not was there ever heresie which these coyned not was there ever fire which these kindled not was there ever torment which these invented not was there ever evil in a city which these have not done Howsoever we talk like Saints and walk like Angels though we oppress our brethren with more formality of devotion then ever the Pharisees devoured widows houses and pretend with Cillicon that we are going to sacrifice when we are about to set a city on fire these are but as the voice of Jacob when the blow falleth we shall feel that the hands were Esau's The righteous are led as sheep to the slaughter but Covetousness leadeth them on in the name of righteousness Persecution never rageth more then when a worldling a man of Belial striketh in the name of the Lord. Again as the men of this world cannot pass to the end of their hopes but by striking down those who seem to stand in their way cannot be rich but by making others poor not be mighty but by making others weak not be at liberty but by binding others not soar to their desired height but by laying others in the dust not live at ease unless they see others in their grave which are the several kinds of persecution as it were the stings of that Scorpion so the righteous are fitted and qualified for all are ready to be diminished and brought low to be poor to be weak to be bound to be disgraced to sit in the dust â—o lie in the grave suspecting riches afraid of liberty loving the lowest place and dying daily set forth as S. Paul speaketh as a spectacle 1 Cor. 4.9 as men appointed to die Tertullian rendereth it elegit veluti bestiarios culled out and set apart to fight with beasts a mark for Envy to shoot out her eye at for Malice to strike at spit at for every Shimei to fling a stone at and a curse together for every Zibah to couzen for every Judas to betray a mark for all the Devil's artillery for all the fiery darts the malice and subtilty of the Devil can draw out of hell They must appear saith Seneca as fools that they may be wise as weak that they may be strong as ignoble that they may be more honourable and this for no other reason but because they are righteous For they are made contentious men men that strive with the whole earth as Jeremiah speaketh of himself They shake every corner of the earth every thing that is earthy Their Liberality shameth the miser their Chastity stoneth the adulterer their Mercy accuseth the oppressor and their Honesty arraigneth the thief occasion enough to raise a persecution For nihil scandalosius justitiâ There is not a more scandalous thing in the world then Righteousness For as it knitteth all righteous men together in a bond of peace so it upbraideth and condemneth the wicked and so maketh them Enemies Heb. 11.7 By this Noah condemned the world And nihil periculosius justitiâ there is nothing in the world more dangerous then Righteousness For as it condemneth the world leaveth it open to the sentence of condemnation so doth the world also condemn it first by reproching it and bringing an evil report on it as an unnecessary thriftless troublesome seditious thing secondly by selling it as the Wanton doth for a smile the Covetous for that which is not bread the Ambitious for a breath a blast the Superstitious for a picture an Idol which is nothing and thirdly by seeking to drive it out of the world by violence against the friends and lovers of it Duo amores duas faciunt civitates Two several kind of Loves make up two Cities one of the World and another of the Lord and these two are ever up in arms one against the other Righteousness conquereth the World and the World persecuteth Righteousness The world saith S. John knoweth not the godly and therefore handleth them as spies and traitors Whilst the righteous are in the world which is one of their greatest enemies they must needs suffer persecution
things upon Righteousness as counting them but dung in respect of it in which alone we rest and look through Righteousness upon these things as that which seasoneth and sanctifieth every part of our life every action every thought of ours without which all our endeavours are but as so many approches to death and with which they are so many advantages and promotions to life And this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep a method an order a right course in our proceedings These outward things are but impedimenta the baggage of Righteousness which cannot as one speaketh well be spared or left behind but many times hinder the march and therefore great care must be taken that they lose not nor disturb the Victory We must then first make good the victory as Alexander once told Parmenio when his carriage was in danger we must by Righteousness overcome the world and then our baggage vvill be safe and these things vvill follovv us as captives do victors in their triumphs Let us first seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto us vvhich is the Promise annexed my last part and cometh novv in a vvord to be handled In this Promise God may seem to deal with us as indulgent fathers do with their children If we do what we should he will give us that which we desire By an argument drawn from gain and profit he laboureth to win our love to himself and as Rebecca dealt with old Isaac he provideth us such meat as our soul loveth Profit and commodity is a lure that calleth the greatest part of the world after it Most that we take in hand to do is copied out according to that pattern of Judas What will you give me What profit what commodity will accrue unto me is the preface and way to all our actions This is the price of good and evil Men are hardly induced to do either but by the way of bargain and sale It vvas the Devil's question unto God concerning Job Doth Job serve God for nought hast thou not hedged him in on every side Indeed in this the Devil mistook Job's mind for Job served not God for this but for another cause Yet there might be some reason to ask the question For vvho is there amongst the sons of men that can content himself to serve God for nothing Aristotle discoursing concerning the qualities and conditions of mans age telleth us that young men for the most part consider not so much profit as equity and duty as being led by their natural temper and simplicity vvhich teacheth them rather to do vvhat is good then vvhat is profitable And vve may observe natural conscience more strong and prevailing in youth then in age But old men have ends of their actions their minds run more upon profit and gain as being led by advice and consultation vvhose property it is to have an eye to conveniency and not so much to goodness vvhen it cometh tovvards them naked and bare I vvill not deny but there may be some found that are but young in the vvorld men that are children in evil to whom it may be said as one sometime told Amphiaraus that they have not tasted hovv svveet gold is nor knovv hovv pleasant a savour gain hath Yet no doubt most men even in their youngest dayes are old and expert enough in the vvorld For vve bring vvith us into the vvorld the Old man vvhose vvisdom and policy it is to have an ear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to enterprise any thing but for some further end then it self either pleasure or profit or honour These are thy Gods O Israel These are the Gods of the world These like God sit at the top of Jacob's ladder and all our actions are but steps and rounds to go up unto them God and Righteousness is not reward enough to draw men on Now God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens speaketh even studieth wayes to save us and is witty in inventing means to bring us unto him amongst other wayes of his hath made this weakness of ours a means to draw us home Matth. 13.29 And as the Husband man in the Gospel would not have the tares pulled up for fear the wheat should come up with them so God doth in a manner tolerate these tares in us lest the rooting out of our affections to the things of this life might draw a little too near the quick and quite choke up the love of God Or as a skilful artificer that vvorketh upon ill materials if he cannot make what he would yet he maketh that vvhich the stuff and matter vvill afford The New Testament indeed is not so frequent in mentioning earthly blessings and the reason that they are not there so fully taught may be because they are supposed to be learned and known as being sufficiently stood upon in the Old In the Old there is scarce any page which doth not entitle righteous men to the possession of some temporary good Yet even under the Gospel Righteousness hath its part of the blessings of this world whether of soul or body or goods And what the son of Sirach spake of those excellent men who lived before his time we have seen true in Christian Commonwealths The noble famous men reigned in their kingdoms they bare excellent rule in their wisdom wise sentences were found in their instructions They were rich also and could comfort They lived quietly at home Be it therefore Power or Wisdom or Riches or Peace or any other of those apples of Paradise which seem to the world so fair and lovely and so much to be desired God hath not rained them down upon the Cities of men so as that he hath left his own dry and barren and utterly unfâ—â—nished with them I will not dâ—spute unto whom of right these blessings belong whether to reprobate or the righteous They who have moved this question have stiled themselves Righteous and to gain these things have committed those sins which none but a reprobate could do For did ever any righteous person oppress or rob his brother But in this they do the same which the old Romans did who when two cities contending for a piece of ground did make them their Judge and Umpire wisely gave sentence on their own behalf took it from them both and adjudged it to themselves First they are righteous and a Saint is soon made up in their phansie and then every man is a wicked person whom they intend to spoil The thief is righteous and the oppressed innocent a reprobate But let the title to these things rest where it will Of this we may safely presume that God who is Lord of all the earth and in whom originally all the right to these things is doth so put forth his hand and dispose them as that they who first seek Righteousness cannot doubt of that portion of them which shall be sufficient for them Onely let
up one another and if you remove and take one away the rest will fall So it is here These two especial stones of our spiritual building our first Resurrection and our Seeking of things above do mutually hold up and mutually prove one another For take away but the stone of our first Resurrection and that of Seeking the things above will immediately fall and take away the Seeking of the things above and there is no first Resurrection Let us but grant that we are risen with Christ and certainly we shall seek the things above and if we find our minds fixed on the things above we may infallibly conclude unto our selves that we are risen with Christ But I must come to my Division These words as all other conditional speeches and propositions do naturally divide themselves into these two parts 1. the Antecedent or foregoing part If thou be risen with Christ 2. the Consequent or following part then seek those things which are above We shall limit and bound our discourse within these three considerations 1. That our conversion and newness of life is a Rising which we ground upon these words If you be risen 2. That this our conversion and rising must be early without delay for which we have warrant in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle speaks in the time past For he saith not If you do rise or If you will rise but If you are risen as supposing it to be already done 3. Lastly That the manifestation of our conversion of this our rising with Christ consists in our seeking of those things which are above as Christs was by appearing to his Disciples and shewing to them his hands and his feet If you be then risen with Christ seek those things which are above Of these in their order Though there be many words in Scripture by which our Newness of life is exprest yet our Apostle in divers places of his writings makes especial choice of this of rising as Ephes 2.1 You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins and v. 5. even when we were dead in sins he hath quickned us together in Christ and hath raised us up together with Christ And again chap. 5. he maketh use of that of the Prophet Isaiah Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Omnis causa eousque in Adam censetur donec in Christo râ—â—â—â—atur saith Tertullian Every soul is dead with the first Adam 〈◊〉 it be raised up to life with the second We may truly say of it that it is departed because God who is the life of the Soul is departed from it And it being destitute of the favour of God which should actuate and quicken it the stench of Sin seizeth upon it the worm of Conscience gnaws it the horrour of Infidility makes it like unto the fiends of Hell fit in sepulcro corporis vivo funus animae jam sepultum and a living body is made the sepulchre to a dead soul a soul that is dead and yet dies every moment multiplies as many deaths as sins and if that of the Schools be true Peccator peccat in suo infinito would be dead and dying to all eternity Son of man can these bones live as the Spirit of God says unto the Prophet Ezek. 37. Can these broken sinews of the Soul come together and be one again Can such a disordered Clock where every whele is broken be set again Can this dead Soul be made a Saint and walk before God in the land of the living We may answer with the Prophet Lord God thou knowest Thou knowest that this dissolved putrified carcass may see the light again that Mary Magdelene may rise from sin as well as her brother Lazarus from the grave that as we are fallen with Adam so we may rise again with Christ that these Stones being formed into the faith of Abraham may be made the children of Abraham and this generation of vipers having spit out their venome may bring forth fruits worthy amendment of life And this our conversion may well be stiled a Rising for many reasons for many waies it resembles it First the World may well go not onely for a Prison but a Grave All the pomp and glory of it are but as dust and ashes wherein we are raked up and buried All the desires all the pleasures of it are but as the grave-cloths wherewith we are bound And in the midst of these allurements in the midst of these glories and sensual objects the Soul rots and corrupts and even stinketh in the nostrils of God In the midst of all the greatness the world can cast upon us the Soul becomes worse then nothing The Love of the world is as unsatiable as the Grave and devours souls as that doth bodies But when through the operation of the Spirit we are taken out of the world we have our resurrection Then it may be said of us as Christ said of his disciples They are not of the world for I have chosen them out of the world John 17. I have set them apart and made them my peculiar people that they may escape the pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2.20 They are born in the world and in the world they are born again unto me In the world they are but not of the world In the world they are and in the world they traffick for another world passing by this as not worth the cheapning looking upon Beauty as upon a snare loathing Riches as dung and afraid of Pleasures as of Hell it self They have a being but not living in the world for their life is hid with Christ in God But as Christ when he was risen staid yet a while upon earth before he ascended so do Christians make a short abode and sojourn for a time in it as in a strange country looking for a city whose builder and maker is God In the world they have nothing for they have forsaken all surrendred all the things of the world to the world Matth. 16. Luke 14. earth to earth dust to dust ashes to ashes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are our Saviours own words by which not onely the act of forsaking is signified but such an affection of the mind as placeth all things under Christ is ready to fling them away if they cannot keep them with Christ having as if they had not possessing as if they possest not having stept into the world as mariners do sometimes out of their ship to the shore there gathering these cockles but ready upon the sign given to cast them away and return with hast into the ship So that in respect of the world it may be said of them as the Angel said of Christ Why seek you the living amongst the dead they are risen they are not here Secondly at our Resurrection there will be a great change For though we shall not all sleep we shall all be changed This corruptible