eyes for our advantage that by the doubtful and pendulous expectation of the hour our faith might be put to the trial whether it be a languishing dead faith or fides armata a faith in armes Tert. de Anima c. 33. and upon its watch ut semper diem observemus dum semper ignoramus that whil'st we know not when 't will be it may present it self unto us every moment to affront and awe us in every motion and be as our task-master to over-see us and binde us to our duty that we may fulfill our work and work out our salvation with fear and trembling that our whole life may be as the vigils and Eve and the houre of his coming the first houre of an everlasting Holy-day Lastly there is no reason why it should be known neither in respect of the good nor of the evil for the good satis est illis credere it is enough for them that they beleeve they walk by faith saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.7 and in their way behold the promises and comminations of the he Lord and in them as in a glasse behold heaven and hell the horrour of the one and the glory of the other and this sight of the object which they have by the eye of faith is as powerful to work in them obedience as if Heaven it self should fly open and discover all unto them to the true beleever Christus venturus Christ to come and Christ now coming in the clouds are in effect but one object for Faith sees plainly the one in the other the last hour in the first the World at an end in the prediction But to Evil and wicked men to men who harden themselves in sin Jud. Ep. v. 10. no evidence is cleer enough and light it self is darknesse what they naturally know and what they can preach unto themselves in that thy corrupt themselves and give their senses leave to lead them to all uncleannesse whilst reason which should command is put behinde and never hearkned to are as bruit Beasts in spite of all they have of man within them and if they beleeve his coming and will not turn back and bow and obey their Reason they would remain the same beasts or worse though they knew the very hour of his coming After all those judgements Pharaoh was still the same after the rivers turned into blood after frogs and lice after the plague on man and beast after every plague which came thick as line upon line precept upon precept after all these the effect and conclusion was Exod. 10.27 Pharaoh hardned his heart was Pharaoh still the same Tyrant till he was drowned in the Red-sea Balaam though the Asse forbad his folly and the Angel forbad it though the sword was drawn against him and brandisht in his very face that he bowed on the ground and fell flat on his face yet he rose again and took courage to betray the Israelites to that sin with the Midianitish women which brought a curse vpon them and death upon himself for he was slain for it with the sword Exod. 31.8 what evidence can prevail with what terrour can move a wicked man hardned in his sin who knows well enough and can draw the picture of Christ coming and look upon it and study to forget it and then put on an ignorance of his own knowledge and though he know he will yet perswade himself he will not come and he that can thus stand out against his own knowledge in the one may be as daring and resolute in the other and venture on though Hell it self should open her mouth against him and breath vengeance in his face for howsoever we pretend ignorance yet the most of the sins which we commit we commit against our knowledge Tell the foolish man that the lips of the Harlot will bit like a Cockatrice he knows it well enough and yet will kisse them tell the intemperate that wine is a mocker he will taste though he know he shall be deceived the cruel oppressor will say and sigh it out that the Lord is his God and yet eat up his people as he eats bread who knows not that we must do to others as we would have others do to us and yet how many are there I may ask the question that make it good in practice who knows not what his duty is and that the wages of sin is death and yet how many seek it out and are willing to to travail with it though they die in the birth cannot the thought of judgement move us and will the knowledge of a certain houre awake us will the hardned sinner cleave to his sin though he know the Lord is coming and will he let it go and fling it from him if the set determined houre were upon record No 2 Tim. 3.13 they wax worse and worse saith the Apostle earth is a fairer place to them then Heaven it self nor will they part with one vanity nor bid the devil avoid though they knew the very houre I might say though they now saw him coming in the clouds For wilt not thou beleeve God when he comes as neer thee as in wisdom he can and his pure Essence and Infinite Majesty will suffer and art thou assured thou shalt believe him if he would please to come so neere as thy sick Fancy would draw him Indeed this is but aegri somnium the dreame of a sick and ill affected mind that complaines of want of Light when it shines in thy face for that Information which we so long for we cannot have or if we could it would work no more Miracles then that doth which we already have but leave us the same Lethargiques which we were in a word if his doctrine will not move us the Knowledge which hee will not Teach will have little force and though it were written in Capitall Letters at such a time and such a day and in such an Houre the Lord will come we should sleep on as securely as before and never awake from this Death in sinne till the last Trump To look once more upon the Non nostis horam Conclus and so conclude and we may learn even from our Ignorance of the Hour thus much That as his coming is uncertaine so it will be sudden as we cannot know when he will come so he will come when we doe not think on 't Tert. Apol. c. 33. cum Totius mundi motu cum horrore orbis cum planctu omnium si non Christianorum saith Tert. with the shaking of the whole world with the Horror and amazement of the Universe every man howling and lamenting but those few that little flock which did waite for his coming It is presented to us in three resemblances 1. Of Travell coming upon a Woman with Child 1 Thess 5.2,3 Luk. 21.35 2. Of a Thief in the night and 3ly Of a snare Now the Woman talks and is cheerfull now she layeth
if he be angry we have provoked him if he come in a Tempest we have rais'd it if he be a consuming fire we have kindled it we force him to be what he would not be we make him Thunder who is all Light Tert. advers Marc. l. 2. c. 11. Bonitas ingenita severitas Accidens Alteram sibi alteram rei Deus praestitit saith the Father his goodnesse is Naturall his severity in respect of its Act Accidentall for God may be severe and yet not punish for he strikes not till we provoke him his Justice and severity are the same as everlasting as himself though he never speak in his wrath nor draw his sword If there were no Hell yet were he just and if there were no Abrahams Bosome yet were he Good if there were neither Angel nor men he were still the Lord blessed for evermore in a word he had been just though he had never been Angry he had been mercifull though man had not been miscrable he had been the same God just and good and mercifull though sin had not entred in by Adam nor Death by sinne God is active in Good and not in Evill he cannot doe what he doth detest and hate he cannot Decree Ordaine or further that which is most contrary to him he doth not kill me before all time and then in time aske me why I will die He doth not Condemne me first and then make a Law that I may break it He doth not blow out my Candle and then punish me for being in the dark That the conviction of a sinner should be the onely end of his Exhortations and Expostulations cannot consist with that Goodness which God is who when he comes to punish Isai 28.21 sacit opus non suum saith the Prophet doth not his owne worke doth a strange work a strange Act an Act that is forced from him a worke which he would not doe And as he doth not will our Death so doth he not desire to manifest his Glory in it which as our Death proceeds from his secondary and occasion'd will For God saith Aquinas seeks not the manifestation of his Glory Aquin. 2.2 q. 132. art 1. for his own but for our sakes His glory as his Wisdome and Justice and Power is with him alwayes as eternall as himself no Quire of Angels can improve no raging Devil can diminish his Glory which in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphin and Cherubin in the midst of all the Blasphemies of men and Devills is still the same and his first will is to see it in his Image in the conformity of our wills to his where it strives in the perfection of Beauty rather then when it is decay'd and defaced rather then in a Damned Spirit rather in that Saint he would have made then in that Reprobate and cursed soul which he was forced to throw into the lowest pit and so to receive his Glory is that which he would not have which he was willing to begin on Earth and then have made it perfect and compleat in the highest Heavens Tert. ibid. Exinde admortem sed ante ad vitam The sentence of Death was pronounced against man almost as soon as he was man but he was first created to life we are punished for being evill but we were first commanded to be good his first will is That we glorify him in our Bodies and in our soules but if we frustrate his loving expectation here then he rowseth himself up as a mighty man and will be avenged of us and work his Glory out of that which dishonor'd him and write it with our blood In the multitude of the People Prov. 14.28 is the Glory of a King saith the wisest of Kings and more Glory if they be obedient to his laws then if they rebell and rise up against him That Common-wealth is more glorious where every man fills his place then where the Prisons are filled with Theeves and Traytors and men of Belial and though the Justice and wisedome of the King may be seen in these yet 't is more resplendent in those on whom the Law hath more Power then the sword In Heaven is the glory of God best seen and his delight is in it to see it in the Church of the First-borne and in the soules of just men made perfect it is now indeed his will which primarily was not his will to see it in the Divel and his Angels For God is best pleased to see his Creature man to answer to that patteâ—e which he hath set up to be what he should be and what he intended And as every Artificer glories in his work when he sees it finish't according to the rule and that Idea which he had drawne in his minde and as we use to look upon the work of our hands or witts with that favour and complacency we doe upon our Children when they are like us so doth God upon man when he appeares in that shape and forme of Obedience which he prescrib'd for then the Glory of God is carried along in the continued streame and course of all our Actions breaks forth and is seen in every worke of our Hands is the Eccho of every word we speak the result of every Thought that begat that word and it is Musick in his eares which he had rather heare then the weeping and howling of the Damned which he will now heare though the time was when he us'd all fitting meanes to prevent it even the same meanes by which he raised those who now glorify him in the Highest Heaven God then is no way willing we should die not by his Naturall will which is his prime and antecedent will for Death cannot issue from the Fountaine of Life and by this will was the Creature made in the beginning and by this preserved ever since by this are administred all the meanes to bring it to that perfection and happiness for which it was first made for the goodness of God it was which first gave a being to man and then adopted him in speâ—… regâ—…i design'd him for immortality and gave him a Law by the fulfilling of which he might have a Tast of that Joy and Happinesse which he from all Eternity possest And therefore secondly not voluntate praecepti not by his will exprest in his command in his precepts and Laws For under Christ this will of his is the onely destroyer of Death and being kept and observ'd swallows it up in victory for how can Death touch him who is made like unto the living Lord or how should Hell receive him whose conversation is in heaven Ezek. 16. â—1 13.21 If we do them we shall even live in them saith the Prophet and he repeats it often as if Life were as inseparable from them as it is from the living God himself by which as he is life in himself so to man whom he had made he brought life and immortality to light
hairy scalp of wilful offenders who loath the means despise prophecy quench the spirit and so hinder it in its operation of men who are as stubborn against Grace as they are loud in its commendations as active to resist as to extol it For this is to cast it away and nullifie it this is to make it nothing by making it greater nay to turn it into wantonnesse But it may be said that when we are fallen from God we are not able to rise again of our selves we willingly grant it that we have therefore need of new strength and new power to be given us which may raise us up we denie it not and then Thirdly that not onely the power but the very act of our recovery is from God ingratitude it self cannot denie it and then that man can no more withstand the power of that grace which God is ready to supply us with then an infant can his birth or the dead their Resurrection that we are turned whether we will or no is a conclusion which these premises will not yeeld This flint will yeeld no such fire though you strike never so oft we are indeed sometimes said to sleep and sometimes to be Dead in sin but it is ill building conclusions upon no better Basis then a figure or because we are said to be dead in sin infer a necessity of rising when we are called nor is our obedience to Gods inward call of the same nature with the obedience of the Creature to the voice and command of the Creator for the Creature hath neither reason nor will as man hath nor doth his power work after the same manner in the one as in the other How many Fiats of God have been frustrate in this kinde how often he hath he smote our stony and rocky hearts and no water flowed out how often hath he said Fiat lux let there be light when we remained in darknesse for we are free agents and he made us so when he made us men and our actions when his power is mighty in us are not necessary but voluntary not doth his power work according to the working of our Fancy nor lies within the level of our carnal Imaginations to do what they appoint but is accompanied and directed by that wisdom which he is and he doth nothing can do nothing but what is agreeable to it As it was said of Caesar in Lucan though in another sense Velle putant quodcunque potest We think that God can do whatsoever he can but we must know that as he is powerful and can do all things so he is wise and sweetly disposeth all things as he will and he will not save us against our will for to necessitate us to goodnesse were not to try our obedience but to force it quod necessitas praestat depretiat ipsa Necessity takes of the price and value of that it works and makes it of no worth at all And then God doth not voluntarily take his grace from any but if the power of it defend us not from sin and death it is because we abuse and neglect it and will not work with it which is ready to work with us For Grace is not blinde as Fortune nec cultores praeterit nec haeret contemptoribus she will neither passe by them who will receive her nor dwell with those persons which contemn her nor save those who will destroy themselves To conclude this He is most unworthy to receive Grace who in the least degree detracts from the power of it and he is as unworthy who magnifies and rejects it and makes his lise an argument against his Doctrine sayes he cannot be resisted and resists it every day he that denies the power of it is a scarse a Christian and he is the worst of Christians who will not gird up his loins and work out his salvation but loiters and stands idle all the day long shadows and pleaseth himself under the expectation of what he will do and so Turns it into wantonnesse Let us not abuse the Grace of God and then we cannot magnifie it enough but he that will not set his hand to work upon a fancy that he wants Grace he that will not hearken after Grace though she knock and knock again as Fortune was said to have done at Galbas gate till she be weary hath already despised the Grace of God and cannot plead the want of that for any excuse which he might have had but put it off nay which he had but so used it as if it had been no grace at all They that have grace offered and repell it they that have Antidotes against death and will not use them can never answer the expostlation Why will ye die The third pretence And certainly he that is so liberal of his grace hath given us knowledge enough to see the danger of those wayes which lead to death and therefore in the next place ignorance of our wayes doth not minuere voluntarium doth not make our sin lesse wilfull but rather aggrandize it For first we may know if we will know every duty that tends to life and every sin that bringeth forth death we may know the Devils enterprises saith saint Paul 2 Cor. 2.11 and the ignorance of this findes no excuse when we have power and faculty light and understanding when the Gospel shines brightly upon us to dispel those mists which may be placed between the truth and us Sub silentiae faâ—ultate nesâ—ire repudiatae magis quà m non com pertae veritatis est reatus Hil. in Psal 1.8 then if we walk in darknesse and in the shadow of death we shall be found guilty and not so much of not finding out the truth as of refusing it as Hilary speaks of a strange contempt in not attaining that which is so easily atchieved and which is so necessary for our preservation I know every man hath not the same quicknesse of apprehension nor can every man make a Divine and it were to be wisht every man would know it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not for him that thresheth out the corn to resolve controversies or State-questions but Saint Peter requires that every man should be able to give an answer 1 Pet. 3.15 a reason of his faith and if he can do that he that knows the will of God is well armed and prepared against death and may cope with him and destroy him if he will And this is no perplext nor intricate study but fitted and proportioned to the meanest capacity he that cannot be a Seraphical Divine may be a Christian he that cannot be a Rabbi may be an honest man and if men were as diligent in the pursuit of the truth as they are in managing their own temporal affaires if men would try as many conclusions for knowledge as they do for wealth and were as ambitious to be good as they are to be rich and great if they were as much
that I may know and consider they are but few that in this little time I may strive forward and make a way to eternity This was the Arithmetick which he desired to have skill in For 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 vapors 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 dispargement because we speak to men of the same mould who will say the same of themselves and lay to heart as little as we for should we passe over Methusalems 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 compasse again and though we die every day yet we are not so fully confirmed in this that we shall ever die Ep. 26. Egregia res est condiscere mortem saith Sen. 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 't is a most usefull thing to have learn't 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 come For the hour of his coming that 's lockt up in the treasuries of his wisdom and he hath left us no key to open it that we might not so much as hope to finde it and so mispend our thoughts in that which they cannot lay hold on which should be fastened on the other to advance and promote our duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fix that well which is present here layout all thy store all the powers of thy soul whil'st it is time whil'st it is day whil'st it is thy day make ready for his coming 2. 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 looks upon us and hath force enough in it self to work that fear and caution in us which the knowledge of the very houre peradventure might not do we say we beleeve it and that is enough and some have given faith the preheminence 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 spring and beginner of all motion to wards it Lord what Rhetorick what commanding eloquence is there in that which is but probable nay many times in that which is most improbable if it carry any shew of probability with it nay if it do not our ardent affections supply all deficiencies in the object and hurry us along to do that which when the heat is over we could easily see could not be done how doth love carry us as it were on the wing to lay hold of that which we must needs know is out of our reach it is but probable that industry will make us rich how do we toyle and sweat It is probable that flattery will lift us up on high to make our selves little will make us great Lord how do we strive to mishape and disguise and contract our selves what dwarfs what minims will we appear how do we call contumeli's favours and feed on injuries onely because we are old that Potentates will make them Lords that make themselves their slaves probability is the hand that turns every wheel the intelligence which moves every sphere and every man in it Hearken to the busie noise of all the world Behold the hollow eye the pale and careful countenance the speaking and negotiating eye and the active hand see men digging sweating travelling shouldring and treading one another under foot and if you would know what works all this Behold it is nothing but that which hangs in Futurition that which is but probable and uncertain And if probability have such power and force in other things why should it not in this especially the evidence being so faire and cleer that it is impossible to finde out or set up any better against it which might raise any doubting in us and make us disbeleeve it to a true Beleever Dominus veniet the Lord will come is enough nor need he seek any further a further inquirie to be assured of the time is but inquieta inertia a troublesom sloth and busie negligence like Ixions wheel to turn us about where we shall never fasten and rest but be circled about in a giddie and uneffective motion 3. Thirdly the knowledge of the very hour can be of no use at all to forward and carry on that which we are now to do non prodest scire sed metuere futura saith Tull. to know that which is to come is of no use but to fear it for if I know it and not fear it I do but look upon it as to come and that doth but leave us setled in our lees leaves the covetous in the mine the revenger in his wrath the wanton in the strumpets armes if we confesse he will come and are not startled what a poor squib would that be if we should be told he would come and come at such an hour But then what a long hour should we make it how should we extend and thrust it back to all eternity yet a little sleep a little stumber Pro. 6.10 for poverty is in arms and coming but not yet come yet let me grinde the poor saith the oppressor yet let me crown my self with roses saith the luxurious yet a little more dalliance saith the wanton yet let me boast in mischief saith the man of power for whil'st we consider things in the future fit ut illud futurum semper sit futurum imo fortassis nunquam futurum saith the Father that which is to come will be alwayes to come nay peradventure we shall think at last that it will never come All futures are contingents with us and at last are nothing The time flies away and will not stay its course neither for the delaier nor the uncautelous and therefore our Lord who knows what is sufficient and best for us would not let us know any more quod à Christo discitur totum est that which he hath taught us is all that we can learn if it would add but one cubit to our stature and growth in grace he would have left it behind written in the fairest character but it is hid from our
lyar and nulls the sentence of death You shall dye the death vvhen this is the Interpreter is Your eyes shall be opened and to deceive our selves is to be as Gods knovving good and evill And it may vvell be called a Serpent for the biting of it is like that of the Tarantula the working of its venome makes us dance and laugh our selves to death for a settled prejudicate though false opinion may build up as strong resolutions as a true Saul was as zealous for the Law as Paul was for the Gospel a heretick will be as loud for a fiction as the Orthodox for the truth the Turk as violent for his Mahomet as a Christian for his Saviour Habet Diabolus suos Martyres for the devil hath his Martyrs as well as God and it is prejudice which is that evil spirit that casts them into the fire and the water that consumes or drownes them that leads them forth like Agag delicately to their death And this is most visible in those of the Church of Rome we may see even the marks upon them obstinacy insolency scorn and contempt a proud and high disdain of any thing that appeares like reason or of any man that shall speak it to teach and recover them which are certainly the signes of the biting of this serpent prejudice or as some will call it the marks of the beast Quam gravis incubat how heavy doth prejudice lye upon them who are taught to renounce their very sence and to mistrust nay to deny their reason who see with other mens eyes and heare with other mens eares Apuleius de mundo qui non animo sed auribus cogitant who do not judge with their mind but with their eares the first prejudice is that theirs is the Catholick Church and cannot erre and then all other search and enquiry is vain as a learned writer observes for what need they go further to find the truth then to the high priests chaire to which it is bound and this they back and strengthen with many others of Antiquity making that most true which is most ancient and yet omnia vetera nova fuere Quintil. that which is now old was at first new and by this argument truth was not truth when it first began nor the light light when it first sprung from on high and visited us And besides truth though it had found professors but in this latter age yet it was first born because errour is nothing else but a deviation from the truth and cometh forth last and lays hold on the heel of truth to supplant it Besides these Councills which may erre and the truth many times is voted down when 't is put to most voices Nazianzen was bold to censure them as having seen no good effect of any of them and we our selves have seen and our eyes have dropped for it what a meer Name Nunquam tam benè cum ebus humanis agâ—batuâ— ut plures essent meliores Sen. de Clement 1. what prejudice can do with the many and what it can countenance and many others they have of Miracles which were but lyes of Glory which is but vanity of Universality which is bounded and confined to a certain place with these and the like that first prejudice that the Church cannot erre is underpropt and upheld and yet again these depend upon that such a mutuall complication there is of errours as in a bed of snakes If the first be not true then these were nothing and if these pillars be once shaken and they are but mud that Church would soon sink in its reputation and not fit so high as magisterially to dictate to all the Churches of the world And as we have set up this Queen of Churches as an ensample of the effects of prejudice so may we hold it up as a glasse to see our own She sayes we are a Schismaticall we please and assure our selves that we are a reformed Church and so we are and yet prejudice may find a place even in the Reformation it self Rome is not onely guilty of this but even some members of the Reformation who think themselves neerest to Christ when they run farthest from that Church though it be from the truth it self And this is nothing else but prejudice to judge our selves pure because our Church is purged to be lesse reformed because that is reformed or to think that heaven happinesse will be raised and rest upon a Word or Name and that we are Saints as soon as we are Protestants Almost every Sect and every Faction labours under this prejudice and feels it not but runs away with its burden and too many there be who predestinate themselves to heaven when they have made a surrendry of themselves to such a Church to such a company or collection nay sometimes but to such a man I accuse not Luther or Calvin of errour but honour them rather though I know they were but men and I know they have erred or else our Church doth in many things and it were easie to name them But suppose they had broacht as many lyes as the Father of them could suggest yet they who have raised them in their esteem to such an height must needs have too open a breast to have received them as oracles and to have lickt up poyson it self if it had fallen from their pens since they have the same motive and inducement to believe them when they erre which they have to believe them when they speak the truth and that is no more then their name Orat. pro Muraena Tolle Catonem de causa said Tully Cato was a name of virtue and carried authority with it and therefore he thought him not a fit witnesse in that cause against Muraena for his very name might overbeare and sink it Tolle Augustinum de causa take away the name of Austin of Luther and Calvin and Arminius for they are but names not arguments There is but one name by which we may be saved and his name alone must have authority and prevaile with us who was the Author and finisher of our faith We may honour others and give unto them that which is theirs but we must not deâ—fie them nor pull Christ out of his Throne to place them in his roome Of this we may be sure there is not there cannot be any influence in a name to make a conclusion true or false and if we fix it in our mind as in its firmament it will sooner dazle then enlighten us Nor is it of so great use as men may imagine for they who read or heare can either judge or are weak of understanding To them who are able to judge and to discern errour from truth a name is but a name and no more and is no more esteemed for they look upon the truth as it is and receive it for it self but for those who are of a narrow capacity and faile in their intellectualls
are seated in the sensitive part and without which misery and paine have no tooth at all to bite us for our passions are the sting of misery nor could Christ have suffered at all if he had been free from them if misery be a whip 't is our passion and fancy that make it a Scorpion what could malice hurt me if I did not help the blow what edge had an injury if I could not be angry what terror had death if I did not feare It is opinion and passion that makes us miserable take away these and misery is but a name Tunde Anaxarchum enim non tundis you touch not the Stoick though you bray him in a morter Deliverd then he was to these passions to feare and to grief which strein'd his body which rackt his joynts which stretched his sinews which trickled down in clods of bloud exhaled themselves through the pores of his flesh in a bloudy sweat the fire that melted him was his feare and his grief Da si quid ultra est is there yet any more or can he be delivered further not to despaire for it was impossible not to the torments of Hell which could never seize on his innocent soule but Irae Dei to the wrath of God which wither'd his heart like Grasse and burnt up his bones like a Hearth and brought him even to the dust of death Look now upon his countenance it is pale and wan upon his heart it is melted like wax look upon his Tongue it cleaves to the roof of his mouth what talk we of Death the wrath of God is truely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fearfullest and terriblest thing in the world the sting of sin which is the sting of Death Look into your own soules That weake apprehension of it which we sometimes have what a night and darknesse doth it draw over us what a night nay what a Hell doth it kindle in us what torments do we feele the Types and sad representations of those in the bottomlesse pit how do our delights distast us our desires strangle themselves what a Tophet is the world and what Furies are our Thoughts what do we see which we do not turne from what do we know which we would not forget what do we think which we do not startle at or do we know what to think now what rock can hide us what mountaine can cover us we are wearie of our selves and could wish rather not to be then to be under Gods wrath were it not for this there would be no Law no Conscience no Divell but with this the Law is a killing letter the Conscience a Fury and the Divell a Tormentor But yet there is still a difference between our apprehension and his for alas to us his wrath doth not appeare in its full Horror for if it did we should sooner dye then offend him Some do but think of it few think of it as they should and they that are most apprehensive look upon it as at distance as that which may be turned away and so not fearing his wrath treasure up wrath against the day of wrath To us when we take it at the nearest and have the fullest sight of it it appears but as the cloud did to Elias servant like a mans hand but to Christ the Heavens were black with clouds and winds and it showred down upon him as in a tempest of fire and brimstone we have not his eyes and therefore not his apprehension we see not so much deformity in sin as he did and so not so much terrour in the wrath of God It were Impiety and Blasphemy to think that the blessed Martyrs were more patient than Christ Cujus natura patientia Tert. de patient saith Tert. whos 's very nature was patience yet who of all that noble Army ever breathed forth such disconsolate speeches God indeed delivered them up to the saw to the wrack to the teeth of Lions to all the engines of cruelty and shapes of death but numquid deseruit they never cryed out they were forsaken he snatched them not from the rage of the perescutor by a miracle but behold a greater miracle Rident superantque dolores Spectanti similes Sil. It 〈◊〉 1. In all their Torments they had more life joy in their countenance than they who looked on who were more troubled with the sight-than they were with the punishment their Torture was their Triumph their Afflictions were their Melody of Weak they were made Strong Tormenta carcer ungulae Prudent Eubal Atque ipsa poenarum ultima Mors Christianis ludus est Torments Racks and Strapadoes and the last Enemy Death it self were but a recreation and refreshment to the Christians who suffered all these with the patience of a stander by But what speak we of Martyrs Divers sinners whose ambition never reacht at such a Crown but rather trembled at it have been delivered up to afflictions and crosses nay to the anger of God but never yet any nay not those who have despaired were so delivered as Christ we may say that the Traitor Judas felt not so much when he went and hanged himself For though Christ could not despaire yet the wrath of God was more visible to him than to those that doe who beare but their owne burden when he lay pressed under the sinnes of the whole world God in his approches of Justice when he comes toward the sinner to correct him may seem to go like the Consuls of Rome with his Rod and his Axes carried before him many sinners have felt his rod and his Rod is Comfort in his Frown Favour and in his Anger Love and his Blow may be a Benefit but Christ was struck as it were with his Axe others have trembled under his wrath but Christ was even consumed with the stroke of his hand For being delivered to his wrath his wrath delivers him to these Throwes and Agonies delivers him to Judas who delivers nay betrayes him to the Jewes who deliver him to Pilate who delivered him to the Cross where the Saviour of the world must be murthered where Innocency and Truth it self hangs betweene two Thieves I mention not the Shame the Torment of the Cross for the Thieves endured the same But his soul was crucified more than his body and his heart had sharper nailes to pierce it than his hands or his feet Tradidit non pepercit he delivered him and spared him not But to rise one step more Tradidit deseruit he delivered and in a manner forsook him restrained his influence denied relief withdrew his comfort stood as it were a far off and let him fight it out unto death he looked about and there was none to help even to the Lord he called but he heard him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 27.46 he roared out for the very grief of his heart and cryed with a loud voyce My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And could God
flesh a withering dying arm avail us shadow us to day and leave us to morrow raise us up now and within a while let us fall into the dust and at last fall down and perish with us Man is weak and dieth man given up the ghost and where is he where is I will not say Alexander or Caesar but where is Moses that led his people through the red sea where are his lawes where is David S. Peter speaks it freely that he was both dead and buried and that his Sepulchre was with them unto that day but the son of David is ascended into Heaven is our Priest for ever and lives for evermore And this title of eternity is wrought in his Girdle and Garment may be seen in his Head and Eyes of fire adorns his burning feet is engraven on his sword may be read in his countenance and platted in his crown and doth well become his power his wisdome his justice his goodnesse for that which is not eternall is next to nothing what power it that which sinks what wisdome is that which failes what riches are they that erish what mercy is that which is as the morning dew which soon falls and is as soon exhaled and dryed up again Vertue were nothing Religion were nothing Faith it self were nothing but in reference to eternity Heaven were nothing if it were not eternall Eternity is that which makes every thing something which makes every thing better than it is and addes lustre to light it self I live evermore gives life unto all things Eternity is a fathomlesse ocean and it carries with it powâ—r and wisdome and goodnesse and an efficacious activity a gracious and benevolent power a wise and provident goodness for if he live for evermore then is he independent if he be independent then is he most powerfull and if he be most powerfull then is he blessed and if be blessed then is good He is powerfull but good good but wise and these Goodnesse and Care and Wisdome and a diligent care for us meet in him who lives for evermore and works on us for our eternall salvation And first as he lives for evermore so he intercedes for us for evermore and he can no more leave to intercede for us than he can to be Christ for his Priesthood must faile before his Intercession because this power of helping us is everlastingly and inseparably inherent in him St. Paul joyns them together his sitting at the right hand of God and his interceding of us Rom. 8.34 so that to leave interceding were to leave the right hand of God where he looks down upon us is present with us and prepares a place for us his Wounds are still open his Merits are still vocall his Sufferings are still importunate his everlasting presenting of himself before his Father is an everlasting prayer Jesus at the right hand of the father more powerfull than the full vials the incense the prayers the grones the sighs the roarings of all the Saints that have been or shall be to the end of the world and if he sate not there if he interceded not they were but noise nay they were sins but his intercession sanctifies them and offers them up and by him they are powerfull and by this power the sighs the breathing the desires of mortall fading men ascend the highest heavens and draw down eternity And this is a part of his Priestly office which he began here on earth and continues for us makes it compleat holds it up to the end of the world Again this title of eternity is annexed to his Regality and is a flower of his Crown not set in any but his Thou art a King for ever cannot be said to any mortall Did he not live for evermore he could not threaten eternall death nor promise everlasting life for no mortall power can rage for ever but passeth as lands do from one Lord to another lyes heavy on them and at last sinks to the ground with them all nor can the hand that must wither and fall off reach forth a never-failing reward Infinitude cannot be the issue and product of that which is finite and bounded within a determined period And this might open a wide and effectuall door unto sin and but leave a sad and disconsolate entrance for Vertue and Piety which is so unsatisfying to flesh and blood that the perseverance in it requires no lesse a power than that which Eternity brings along with it to draw it on How bold and daring would men be before the Sun and the People what joy and delight would fill them did not the thought of a future and endless estate pierce sometimes through them and so make some vent to let it out when the evill that hangs over them is but a cloud which will soon vanish few men are so serious as to look about and seek for shelter Post mortem nihil est Ipsaque mors nihil there is nothing after death and death it self is nothing sets up a chair for the Atheist to sit at ease in from whence he looks down upon those who are such fools as to be vertuous and smiles to see them toil and sweat in such rugged and unpleasing wayes carried on with a fear on the one side and a hope on the other of that which will never be And indeed how weary and how soon weary would men be of doing good if there were not a lasting recompence if they were not half perswaded for a ful perswasion is but rare that there were something laid up in everlasting habitations Honour Repute and Advantage these may bring forth a Hypocrite these may bind on the phylacteries on a Pharisee but nothing can raise up a Saint but eternity nor can that which fleeteth and passeth away build us up in a holy faith and then there would be no such ship as Faith which might feare a wreck 2 Tim. 1.19 no such anchor as Hope our faith were vain our hope were also vain and we were left to be tossed up and down on the waves of uncertainty having no haven to thrust into but that which is as turbulent uncertain as the sea it self and with it ebbs and flowes and at last will ebb into nothing But vivo in aeternum I live for evermore derives an eternity to that which in it self is fading makes our actions which end in the doing of them and are gone and past eternall our words which are but wind eternall and our thoughts which perish with us eternall for we shall meet them again and feel the effect of them to all eternity It makes Hell eternall that we may flie from it and Heaven eternall that we may presse towards it and take it by violence Christs living for ever eternizeth his threatnings and makes them terrible his promises and makes them perswasive and eloquent eternizeth our faith and hope eternizeth all that is praise-worthy that they may be as a passe or letters commendatory to
prevaile and procure us admittance into his presence who onely hath immortality and can give eternall life This is the vertue and operation of this vivo in aeternum I live for evermore for though a time will come when he shall not govern and a time when he shall not intercede yet the power of his Scepter the vertue of his Intercession is carried on along with the joy and happiness of the Saints as the cause with the effect even to all eternity and shall have its operation in the midst of all our glorious ravishments and shall tune our Halellujahs our songs of Thanksgiving to this our Priest and King that lives for evermore We pass now from the duration and continuance of his life to his power He hath the keyes of Hell and of Death Habeo claves I have the keyes is a metaphoricall speech Et metaphorae feracissimae controversiarum saith Martin Luther Metaphors are a soyl wherein controversies will grow up thick and twine and plat themselves one within the other whilest every man manures them and sowes upon them what seed he please even that which may bring forth such fruit which may be most agreeable to his taste and humour Lord what a noyse have these keyes made in the world you would think they were not keyes but bells sounding terrour to some and making others more bold and merry than they should be Some have gilded them over others have even worn and filed them quite away put them into so many hands that they have left none at all For though they know not well what they are yet every man takes courage enough to handle them and let in and let out whom they please one faction turns them against another the Lutheran against the Calvinist and diabolifies him and the Calvinist against the Lutheran and superdiabolifies him The Church of Rome made it a piece of wisdome to shut us out and all that will not bow unto her as subordinate and dependent on that Church which was but idle physick which did neither hurt nor good but was as a dart sent after those who wee gone out of reach a curse denounced against those who heard it and blest themselves in it indeed a point of ridiculously affected gravity such as that Church hath many for what prejudice could come to us by her shutting us out who had already put our selves out of her Communion unlesse you will think the valour of that Souldier fit for Chronicle who cut off the head of a man who was dead before I have the keyes saith Christ and it is most necessary he should keep them in his hands for we see how dangerous it may prove to put them into the hand of a mortall man subject to passions and too often guided and commanded by them and we know what Tragedies the mistaking of the keyes have raised in the world And yet he that hath these keyes this power hath delegated also a power to his Apostles not onely to preach the Gospel but to correct those who disobey it I would not attribute too much to the Pastors of the Church in this dull and iron or rather in this wanton age where any thing where nothing is thought too much for them where all hath been preaching till all are Preachers yet I cannot but think they have more than to speak in publick which 't is thought every Christian may do They are the Ambassadours of Christ set apart on purpose in Christs stead to minister to his Church nay but to rule and govern his Church it is S. Pauls phrase and they carry about with them his commission a power delegated from him to sever the Goats from the Sheep even in this life that they may become sheep to segregate them Abstinâ—râ— Cyp. Segregare exauctorare virgâ Pastorali serire Hier. c. to abstein or withhold them to exauctorate them to throw them out to strike them with the pastorall rod to anathematize them c. this was the language of the first and purest times which by degrees fell in its esteem by some abuse of it by being drawn down from that most profitable and necessary end for which it was given which at last brought all Religion into disgrace nor indeed could it be otherwise for if upon the abuse of a thing we must straight call for the beesome to sweep it away what can stand long in its place the Temple is prophaned that must down to the ground Liberalty is abused shut up your purse and your bowels together Prayer is abused and turned into babling tack up your tongues to the roof of your mouth nay every thing in the world is abused if this argument be good the world it self should long since have had its end But such a power Christ did leave unto his Church and the neglect of it on the one side and the contempt of it on the other hath brought in that lukewarmness that indifferency amongst the professors of Christianity which if God prevent not will at last shake and throw down the profession it self and fill the world with Atheists which will learn by no Masters but such as instruct fools nor acknowledge any keyes but those which may break their head But indeed we have had these keyes too long in our hands for though they concern us yet are they not the keyes in the Text nor had we lookt upon them but that those of the Romishparty wheresoever they find the keyes mentioned take them up and hang them on their Church But we must observe a difference betwixt the keyes of the kingdome of Heaven which were given to Peter and the keyes of Hell and of Death although with them when the keyes are seen Heaven and Hell are all one For the keyes of David which opens and no man shuts and shuts and no man opens were not given to the Apostles but are a regality and prerogative of Christ who onely hath power of life and death over Hell and the Grave who therefore calls himself the first and the last because although when he first publisht his Gospel he died and was buried yet he rose again to live for ever so to perfect the great work of our salvation and by his power to bind those in everlasting chains who stood out against him and to bring those that bow to his Scepter out of prison into liberty and everlasting life The power is his alone and he made it his by his sufferings He was obedient to death therefore God did highly exalt him became a Lord by putting on the form of a servant but he hath delegated a power to his Apostles and those that succeed them to make us capable sit subjects for his power to work upon which neverthelesse will have its operation and effect either let us out ot shut us up for ever under the power of Hell and of Death were not he alive and to live for evermore we had been shut up in darknesse and oblivion for
ever but Christ living infuseth life into us that the bonds of Hell and of Death can no more hold us than they can him There is such a place as Hell but to the living members of Christ there is no such place for it is impossible it should hold them and you may as well place Lucifer at the right hand of God as a true Christian in Hell for how can light dewll in darknesse how can purity mix with stench how can beauty stay with horrour If Nature could forget her course and suffer contradictories to be drawn together and to be both true yet this is such a contradiction which unless Christ could die again which is impossible can never be reconciled Heaven and earth may passe away but Christ lives for evermore and the power and vertue of his life is as everlasting as everlastingnesse it self And againe There was a pale Horse Rev. 6.8 and his name that sate on him was death and he had power to kill with the sword with hunger and with the beasts of the Earth but now he doth not kill us he doth but stagger and sling us down to rise again and tread him under our feet and by the power of an everliving Saviour to be the Death of death it self Death was a king of terrors and the Feare of death made us slaves Heb. 2.15 brought us into servility and bondage all our life long made our pleasures lesse delightfull and our virtues more tedious then they are made us tremble and shrink from those Heroique undertakings for the truth of God but now they in whom Christ lives and moves and hath his Being as in his own dare look upon him in all his horror expeditum morti genus saith Tertull and are ready to meet him in his most dreadfull march with all his Army of Diseases racks and Tortures and as man before he sinned knew not what Death meant and Eve familiarly conversed with the Serpent so doe they with death and having that Image restored in them are secure and feare it not for what can this Tyrant take from them Their life that is hid with Christ in God It cannot cut them off from pleasure for their delight is in the Lord It cannot rob them of their treasure for that is laid up in heaven It can take nothing from them but what themselves have already crucified their Flesh It cannot cut off one hope one thought one purpose for all their thoughts purposes and hopes were leveld not on this but on another life And now Christ hath his keys in his hand Death is but a name it is nothing or if it be something it is such a thing that troubled S. Austin to define what it is we call it a punishment but indeed it is a benefit a favour even such a favour that Christ who is as Omnipotent as he is everlasting who can work all in all though he abolished the Law of Moses the law of Ceremonies yet would not abrogate this law by which we are bound over unto death because it is soprofitable and advantageous to us it was threatned it is now a promise or the way unto it for death it is that lets us in that which was promis'd it was an end of all it is now the beginning of all it was that which cut off life it is now that through which as through a gate we enter into it we may say it is the first point and moment of our After-eternity for t is so neer unto it that we can hardly sever them for we live or rather labour and fight and strive with the world and with life it self which is it self a temptation and whilst by the power of our everliving Christ we hold up and make good this glorious contention and fight and conquer and presse forward towards the mark either nature faileth or is prest down with violence and we dye that is our language but the spirit speaketh after another manner we sleep we are dissolved we fall in pieces our bodies from our soules and we from our miseries and Tempâ—…tions and this living everliving Christ gathers us together again breaths life and eternity unto us that we may live and reign with him for evermore And so I have viewed all the parts of the Text being the maine Articles of our faith 1. Christs death 2. his life 3. his eternall life and last of all his power of the keys his Dominion over hell and death we will but in a word fit the Ecce the behold in the Text to every part of it and set the seale to it Amen and so conclude And first we place the Ecce the behold on his death he suffer'd and dyed that he might learne to have compassion on thy miseries and on thy dust and rayse thee from both and wilt thou learne nothing from his compassion wilt thou not by him and by thy own sinnes and miseries which drew from him teares of Bloud learne to pitty thy self wilt thou still rejoyce in that iniquity which troubled his spirit which shed his bloud which he was willing should gush out of his heart so it might melt thine and work but this in thee to pitty thy self we talk of a first Conversion and a second and I know not what Cycles and Epicycles we have found out to salve our irregular motion in our wayes to blisse if we could once have compassion on our selves the work were done and when were you converted or how were you converted were no such hard questions to be answer'd for I may be sure I am converted if I be sure that I truly pitty my self shall Christ onely have compassion on thy soule But then again shall he shed his bloud for his Church that it may be one with him and at unity in it self and canst thou not drop a teare when thou seest this his body thus rent in pieces as it is at this day when thou seest the world the love of the world break in and make such havock in the Church oh 't is a sad contemplation will none but Christ weep over Jerusalem Secondly let us look upon him living and not take our eye from off him to fill and feed and delight it with the vanities of this world with that which hath neither life nor spirit with that which is so neer to nothing with that which is but an Idol Behold he liveth that which thou so dotest on hath no life nor can it prolong thy life a moment who would not cease from man whose breath is in his nostrills and then what madnesse is it to trust in that which hath no breath at all shall Christ present himself alive to us and for us and shall we lay hold of corruption rottennesse and when heaven opens it self to receive us run from it into a charnell-house and so into hell it self But then in the third place Behold he lives for evermore and let not us bound and imprison our thoughts
within a span and when immortality is offer'd affect no other life but that which is a vapour Let us not rayse that swarme of thoughts which must perish Colos 3.3 but build up those works upon our everliving Saviour which may follow us follow us through the huge and unconceivable tract of eternity Doth our Saviour live for evermore and shall we have no spirit in us but that which delights to walk about the earth and is content to vanish with it Eternity is a powerfull motive to those who never have such pensive thoughts as when they remember their frailty and are sick even of health it self and in a manner dead with life when they consider it as that blessing which shall have an end Eternity is in our desire though it be beyond our apprehension what he said of time is truer of eternity if you doe not ask what it is we know but if you ask we are not able to answer and resolve you or tell you what it is when we call it an infinite duration we doe but give it another name two words for one a short Paraphrase but we doe not define what it is And indeed our first conceptions of it are the fairest for when they are doubled and redoubled they are lost in themselves and the further they extend themselves the more weary they are and at greater losse in every proffer and must end and rest at last in this poore unsatisfying thought that we cannot think what it is Yet there is in us a wild presage an unhandsome acknowledgment of it for we fancy it in those objects which vanish out of sight whilst we look upon them we set it up in every desire for our desires never have an end Every purpose of ours every action we doe is Aeternitati sacrum and we doe it to eternity we look upon riches as if they had no wings and think our habitations shall endure for ever we look upon honour as if it were not Aire but some Angel confirm'd a thing bound up in eternity we look upon beauty and it is our heaven and we are fixt and dwell on it as if it would never shrivel nor be gathered together as a scroule and so in a manner make mortality it self eternall And therefore since our desires doe so far enlarge themselves and our thoughts doe so multiply that they never have an end since we look after that which we cannot see and reach after that which we cannot graspe God hath set up that for an object to look on which is eternall indeed in the highest Heavens and as he hath made us in his own image so in Christ who came to renew it in us he hath shewed us a more excellent way unto it taught us to work out eternity even in this world in this common shop of change to work it out of that in which it is not which is neer to nothing which shall be nothing to work it out of riches by not trusting them out of honour by contemning it out of the pleasures of this world by loathing them out of the flesh by crucifying it out of the world by overcoming it and out of the Divell himself by treading him under our feet For this is to be in Christ and to be in Christ is to be for evermore Christ is the eternall Sonne of God and he was dead and lives and lives for evermore that we may dye and live for evermore and not onely attaine to the Resurrection of the dead but to eternity Last of all let us look upon the keys in his hand and knock hard that he may open to us and deliver our soule from hell and make our grave not a prison but a Bed to rise from to eternall life or if we be still shut in we our selves have turn'd the key against our selves for Christ is ready with his keyes to open to us and we have our keys too our key of knowledge to discerne between Life and Death and our key of Repentance and when we use these Christ is ready to put his even into our hands and will derive a power unto us mortalls unto us sinners over hell and death And then in the last place we shall be able to set on the Seal the Amen be confirmed in the certainty of his Resurrection and power by which we may raise those thoughts and promote those actions which may look beyond our threescore yeares and ten through all successive generations to immortality and that glory which shall never have an end This is to shew and publish our faith by our works as S. James speaks this is from the heart to believe it as S. Paul for he that thus believes it from the heart cannot but be obedient to the Gospel unless we can imagine there could be any man that should so hate himself as thus deliberately to cast himself into and to run from happinesse when it appeares in so much glory He cannot say Amen to life who kills himself for that which leaves as soul in the grave is not faith but fancy when we are told that honour cometh towards us that some golden shower is ready to fall into our laps that content and pleasure will ever be neer and wait upon us how loud and hearty is our Amen how do we set up an Assurance-office to our selves and yet that which seemes to make its approch towards us is as uncertain as uncertainty it self and when we have it passeth from us and as the ruder people say of the Devil leaves a noysome and unsavoury scent behind it and we look after it and can see it no more but when we are told that Christ liveth for evermore and is coming is certainly coming with reward and punishment vox fancibus haeret we can scarce say Amen so be it To the world and pomp thereof we can say Amen but to Heaven and Hell to eternity we cannot say Amen or if we do we do but say it For conclusion then The best way is to draw the Ecce and the Amen the Behold and our assurance together so to study the death and life the eternall life and the power of our Saviour that we may be such proficients as to be able with S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to meet the Resurrection Phil. 3.11 to look for and hasten the coming of the Lord when his Life and Eternity and Power shall shine gloriously to the terrour of those who persecute his Church and to the comfort of those who suffer for Righteousnesse sake when that Head which was a forge of mischief and cruelty that Hand which touched the Lords Anointed and did his Prophets harm shall burn in hell for ever when that Eye which would not look on vanity shall be filled with glory that Eare which hearkned to his voice shall heare nothing but Hallebujahs and the musick of Angels and that Head which was ready to be laid down for this living everliving
so instead of a Church have set upoan Idol as great an Idol as they have made the Virgin Mary For the one as well as the other must go for a mother of mercy And do we not with grief behold it so in other factions though as distant from this as the East is from the West do they not meet in this to count all goats that are not within their fold to leave no way to happinesse but in their company do not they look upon their condition as most deplorable who do not cast in their lots with them who are not of the same collection and discipline of their fraternity which they call the Church of Christ why should men thus flatter themselves t is not our joyning to this particular Church or that new fancied and new gathered Congregation but our dwelling in Christ our eating his flesh and drinking his blood our feeding on and digesting his Doctrine and Growing thereby can make us Christians and as an unnecessary separating my self from so an uncharitable and supercilious uniting my self with this or that Congregation may endanger my estate and title in Christ and my dwelling in the one if I take not heed may dispossesse me of the other For I conceive there is no policy no discipline so essential to the Church as piety as our obedience to Christ Suppose I were in a wildernesse did my soul lie as David speaks amongst Lions yet might I dwell in Christ be the government and outward policy what it will nay be there but a slender appearance of any yet might I dwell in Christ nay did persecution seal up the Church doors and leave no power to censure inordinate livers were there no more left then a dic fratri tell it to thy brother between thee and him yet could I dwell in Christ else why was their faith commended who wandered up and down in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins in Deserts and Mountains in Dens and Caves of the earth but then Heb. 11. if we dwell not in Christ if we do not love him and keep his Commandements I cannot see what Church what Congregation can be a Sanctuary to shelter us and our crying the Church the Church will be but as the Jews crying the Temple the Temple of the Lord but as the sound of brasse or tinkling of a Cymbal a sad knell and fearful signe and indication of men departed from Christ and cast out of doors being dead in their sins Oh then let us take heed as the Apostle exhorts that no root of bitternesse spring up to trouble us and thereby to trouble corrupt Heb. 12.15 and defile many that we blesse not our selves in our hearts and say we shall have peace when we walk in these unpeaceable imaginations call that Religion which is indeed sensuality for when one sayes I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos 1 Cor. 2.4 when one sayes I am of this Congregation and another I am of that are yet not carnal and we may observe he doth not say when one is or when one thinketh he is but when he sayes that he is when he is so pleased and delighted in it so rests upon it that he must vent and preach and publish it to the prejudice and censure of others then when they thus say it are they not carnal Do they not please themselves and commit folly in their own souls where Pride mixeth and ingendereth with covetousnesse and worldly respects and begets malice debate envy backbiting persecution let us then take heed of this of this root of bitternesse that beareth gall and worm-wood and let us watch over our selves that we embrace not a name for a thing a Company for a Church our humour and fancy for Christ and that we do not so joyn our selves with others that we lose our hold and place in Christ And therefore in the last place let us make a strickt survey let us impartially commune with our own hearts and see how we have held up the relation between Christ and us whether we can truely say we are his people and he is our God this added to the rest makes up a number an account without this our joyning with such a body such a company nay our appearing in his Courts our naming him and calling upon his name are but cyphers and signifie nothing t is not the Church but the spirit of Christ and our own consciences which can witnesse to us that we are inhabitants of the new Jerusalem and dwell in Christ we read in the 45. of Gen. that when Jacob had news that his son Joseph lived his heart fainted for he beleeved them not but at the sight of the chariots which Joseph sent to carry him his spirit revived so it is here when we shall be told or tell our selves for our selves are the likeliest to bring the news that we have been of such a Church of such a Congregation and applaud our selves for such a poor and unsignificant information blesse our selves that the lines are fallen unto us in so goodly a place when we shall have well looked upon and examined all the priviledges and benefits we can gain by being parts of such a body all this will not assure us nor fix our anchor deep enough but will leave us to be tossed up and down upon the waves of uncertainty will leave us fainting and panting under doubt and unbelief For to recollect all in a word Our admiring his Majesty our loving his command our relying on his protection and resting under the shadow of his wing Again our ense and feeling of the operation of the spirit of Christ by the practick efficacy of our knowledge the actuation and quickning of our faith and the power of it working a universal constant sincere obedience these are the chariots which Christ sends to carry us out of Egypt unto our celestial Canaan and when we feel these and by a sweet and well gained experience feel the power of them in our souls then we draw neer in full assurance then we shall joy fully cry out with Jacob it is enough then we shall know that our Joseph is alive and that Christ doth dwell and live in us of a truth And now to conclude Concl. and by way of conclusion to enforce all these to imprint and fasten them in your hearts what other motive need I use then the thing it self Christ in man and man in Christ for if honour or delight or riches will move us here they are all not as the world giveth them but as truth it self giveth them a sight into which the Angels themselves did stoop and desire to look into To be in Christ to dwell in Christ if a man did perfectly beleeve it of himself that he were the man non diusuperstes maneret said Luther he would even be swallowed up and die of immoderate joy Here now is life and death set before us Heaven and Hell opened to our very eye
if we do not dwell in him if we be not united with him we shall joyn our selves with somthing else with flesh and blood with the glory and vanity of the world which will but wait upon us to carry us to our grave feed us up and prepare us for the day of slaughter Oh who would dwel in a Land darker then darknesse it self who would be united with death But then if we dwell in him and he in us if he call us my little children and we cry Abba Father then what then who can utter it the tongue of men and Angels cannot expresse it then as he said to the Father all thine are mine and mine thine so all his is ours and all that is ours is his our miseries are his and when we suffer we do but fill up that which was behinde of the affliction of Christ Col. 2.24 He is in bonds in disgrace in prison with us and we bear them joyfully for we bear them with him who beareth all things our miseries nay our sins are his he took them upon his shoulder upon his account he sweat he groaned he died under them and by dying took away their strength nay our good deeds are his and if they were not his they were not good for by him we offer them unto God by his hand in his name he is the Priest that prepares and consecrates them our prayers our preaching our hearing Heb. 13.15 our alms our fasting if they were not his were but as the Father calls the Heathen mans virtues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a faire name a title of health upon a box of poison Nazianz. the letter Tan written in the forehead of a reprobate Again to make up the reciprocation as all ours are his so all his are ours what shall I say his poverty his dishonour his sufferings his Crosse are ours yes they are ours because they are his if they had not been his they could not be ours none being able to make satisfaction but he none that could transfer any thing upon man but he that was the Son of man and Son of God and his Miracles were orus For for us men and for our Salvation were they wrought His Innocency his purity his Obedience are ours For God so deales with us for his sake as if we were as if we our selves had satisfyed Let St. Paul conclude for me in that divine and heavenly close of his third Chap. of the 1. Ep. to the Cor. whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the word or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods and if we be Christs then be we heires joynt heires with Jesus Christ as he is heire so have we in him right and title to be heires and so we receive eternal happinesse not onely as a gift but as an inheritance in a word we live with him we suffer with him we are buryed with him we rise with him and when he shall come again in glory we who dwell in him now shall be ever with him even dwell and reign with him for evermore THE FIFTH SERMON EZEKIEL 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked Turne ye Turne ye from your evill wayes For why will you die oh House of Israel WEE have here a sudden and vehement out-cry Turne yee Turne yee and those events which are sudden and vehement the Philosopher tells us doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe leave some notable mark and improssion behind them an Earthquake shakes and dislocates the Earth a Whirlwinde rends the Mountaines and breakes in pieces the Rocks what is sudden at once strikes us with feare and admiration Certainly reverenter pensandum est saith the Father Greg in leâ— This call of the Prophet requires a serious and reverend Consideration For if this vehement ingemination be not sharpe and keene enough to enter our Soules and divide asunder the joynts and the marrow here is a quare moriemini a Reason to set an edge on them if his Gracious and Earnest call his Turne and his Turne will not Turn us hee hath placed Death in the way that King of Terrours to affright us If we be not willing to dye wee must be willing to Turne If wee will heare Reason wee must hearken to his Voice and if hee thus sends his Prophets after us sends forth his voice from Heaven after us if he make his Justice and mercy his joynt Commissioners to force us back If hee invite us to Turne and threaten us if wee doe not Turne either Love or Feare must prevaile with us to Turne with all our Hearts And in this is set forth the singular Mercy of our most Gracious God parcendo admonet ut corrigamur poenitendo before he strikes hee speakes When he bends his Bow when his deadly arrowes are on the string yet his warning flyes before his shaft his word is sent out before the judgement the lightâ—ing is before his Thunder Ecce saith Origen antequam Vulneramur monemur when we as the Israelites here are running on into the very Jawes of Death when we are sporting with our Destruction in articulo mortis when Death is ready to selfe on us and the pitt opens her mouth to take us in he calls and calls againe Turne yee Turne ye from your evill Wayes and if all this be too little if wee still venture on and drive forward in forbidden and dangerous wayes he drawes a Sword against us sets before us the horror of Death it self Quare moriemini Why will you die still it is his word before his blow his Convertimini before his moriemini his praelusoria arma before his Decretoria his blunt before his sharp his Exhortations before the Sentence non parcit ut parcat non miseretur ut misereatur he is full in his Expressions that he may be sparing in his wrath he speakes words clothed with Death That we may not die and is so severe as to threaten Death that hee may make roome for his Mercy and not inflict it Why will you die there is Virtue and Power in it to quicken and rowse us up to drive us out of our Evill wayes that wee may live for ever This is the summe of these words The parts are Two 1. An Exhortation and Secondly an Obtestation or Expostulation or a Duty and a Reason urging and inforcing that Duty The Exhortation or Duty is plaine Turne yee Turne ye from your Evill wayes The Obtestation or Reason as plaine Quarè moriemini Why will yee Dye oh House of Israel I call the Obtestation or Expostulation a Reason and good Reason I should doe so for the Moriemini is a good Reason That wee may not Dye a good Reason why we should Turne but tendered to us by way of expostulation is another reason and makes the reason operative and full of efficacy makes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Crucified his death for sinne with our Death to it his Resurrection with our Justification For he bore our sins that he might cast them away He shed his blood to melt our Hearts and he dyed that we might live and turn unto the Lord and he rose againe for our Justification and to gaine Authority to the doctrine of Repentance Our convertimini our Turne is the best Commentary on the consummatum est it is Finished for that his last Breath breathed it into the world we may say It is wrapt up in the Inscription Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jewes for in him even when he hung upon the Crosse were all the Treasuries of Wisdome and Knowledge hid 2 Coloss 3. In him Justice and Mercy are at Peace for to reconcile us unto God he reconciled them one to another The hand of Mercy was lifted up ready to seale our Pardon we were in our Blood and her voice was Live we were miserable and she was ready to relieve us our heart was sick and her bowells yearn'd but then Justice held up the Sword ready to latch in our sides God loves his Creature whom he made but hates the sinner whom he could not make and he must and yet is unwilling to strike If Justice had prevail'd Mercy had been but as the morning Dew and soon vaâ—…sh'd before this raging heat and if Mercy had swallowed up Justice in victory his hatred of sinne and fearfull menaces against it had been but bruta fulmina and had portended nothing Deus purgari homines à peccato maxime cupit ideoque agere poenitentiam jubet Lact. l. 6. c. 24. had been void and of no effect If he had been extreme to marke what is done amisse men had sinned more and more because there could be no hope of Pardon and if his Mercy had seal'd an absolute Pardon men would have walked delicately and sported in their Evill wayes because there could be no feare of punishment And therefore his wisedome drew them together and reconciled them both in Christs propitiatory Sacrifice and our Duty of Repentance the one freeing us from the Guilt the other from the Dominion of sinne and so both are satisfy'd Justice layes downe the sword and Mercy shines in perfection of Beauty God hates sinne but he sees it condemned in the flesh of his Sonne and fought against by every member he hath sees it punisht in him and sees it every day punisht in every repentant sinner that Turnes from his evill wayes beholds the Sacrifice on the Cross and beholds the Sacrifice of a broken Heart and for the sweet savour of the one accepts the other and is at rest his death for sinne procures our Pardon and our death to sinne sues it out Christ suffers for sinne we turne from it his satisfaction at once wipes out the guilt and penalty our Repentance by degrees Tert. de anima c. 1. destroyes sinne it self Haec est sapientia de scholâ caeli This is the method of Heaven this is that Wisedome which is from above Thus it takes away the sinnes of the world And now wisedome is compleat Justice is satisfyed and Mercy triumphs God is glorified man is saved and the Angels rejoyce Tert de poenit c. 8. Heus tu peccator bono animo sis vides ubi de tuo reditu gaudeatur saith Tert. Take comfort sinnner thou seest what joy there is in heaven for thy returne what musick there is in a Turne which begins on earth but reaches up and fills the highest Heavens A repentant sinner is as a glass or rather Gods own renewed Image on which God delights to look for there he beholds his wisedome his Justice his mercy and what wonders they have wrought Behold the shepherd of our souls see what lies upon his shoulders you would think a poor Sheep that was lost nay but he leads sinne and Death and the Devill in Triumph and thou mayst see the very brightnesse of his Glory the fairest and most expresse Image of these Three his most glorious Attributes which are not onely visible but speake unto us to follow this heavenly Method His wisedome instructs us his Iustice calls upon us and Mercy Eloquent mercy bespeaks us a whole Trinity of Attributes are instant and urgent with us To Turne à viis malis from our evill wayes And this is the Authority I may say the Majesty of Repentance for it hath these Three Gods Wisedome and Iustice and Mercy to seale and ratify it to make it Authentique The 2. part Turn ye Turn ye We come now to the dictum it self and it being Gods and it being Gods we must well weigh and ponder it and we shall find it comprehends the Duty of Repentance in its full latitude For as sin is nothing else but aversio à Creatore and conversio ad creaturam and aversion and Turning from God and an inordinate conversion and application of the soul to the Creature so by our Repentance we doe referre pedem start back and alter our course worke and withdraw our selves a viis malis from evill waies and Turne to the Lord by cleaving to his Lawes which are the minde of the Lord and having our feet enlarged run the way of his Commandements We see a streight line drawne out at length is of all lines the weakest and the further and further you draw it the weaker and weaker it is nor can it be strengthened but by being redoubled and bow'd and brought back againe towards its first point Eccles 7.20 The Wise man will tell us That God at first made man upright that is simple and single and syncere bound him as it were to one point but he sought out many Inventions mingled himself and Ingendered with Divers extravagant Conceits and so ran out not in one but many lines now drawne out to that object now to another still running further and further sometimes on the flesh and sometimes on the world now on Idolatry and anon on Oppression and so at a sad Distance from him in whom he should have dwelt and rested as in his Center and therefore God seeing him gone so farr seeing him weak and feeble wound and Turned about by the Activity of the Devill and sway of the Flesh and not willing to loose him ordained Repentance as a remedy as the Instrument to bend and bow him back again that he might recover and gain strength and subsistencie in his former and proper place to draw him back from those Objects in which he was lost and so carry him on forward to the Rock out of which he was hewed whilst he is yet in viis malis in his evill wayes all is out of Tune and Order for the Devil who doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Hom. de poenitent invert the order of things placeth shame upon repentance and boldness and senlessness upon sinne but Repentance is a perfect Methodist upon our Turne we see the danger we plaid
and leave the Heart as wanton as before what 's our desire if it have but the strength of a Thought what 's our endeavour if it strike and contract it self and is lost at the sight of the next Temptation But our Turne supposeth all These and takes in all the Dimensions of Repentance the Body and full Compasse of it and though it be but a word yet is as expressive and significant as any other in Scripture and conteins them all It includes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Regeneration for if we Turne we Turne à termino ad terminum Titus 3.5 from one Terme to another and as in Generation and our naturall Birth there is Non ens Tale and ens Tale a progresse or mutation from that which it was not to that which it now is so is it in our Turne It was Nehushtan a rude peece of Brasse it is now a polisht Statue of Piety It was a Child of Wrath Luk. 15.32 Rom. 12.2 Gal. 3.27 it is now a Child of Blessings It was dead and is alive and it takes in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Renovation or Renewing Behold old Things are passed away all things are become New The sinner that Turnes leaves his strange Apparell Gal. 3.27 his Filthy Raggs behind him and upon his Turne comes forth Glorious in the Robes of Righteousnesse and it comprehends our Cleansing Tit. 2.14 or purification He that turnes from his evill wayes hath purged out his old Leaven and is made a new Lump 1 Cor 5,7 Repentance is as Physick to the Soule but not to be given ad pondus et mensuram so many graines and so many Drammes by measure and proportion non est periculum ne sit nimium quod ei maximum debet we may take too little there is no feare at all that we should take too much of it Repentance for our sinnes is the businesse of our whole life for inded what is Perseverance but an entire and continued Repentance a constant turning away from our evill wayes when sinne hath corrupted our faculties we purge it out by Repentance and when 't is dead we bury it by Repentance and it is quite lost and forgotten in the wayes of Righteousnesse and being Turn'd we never look back never cast a Thought after it but with sorrow and Anger and detestation and when it appeares before us it appeares in a fouler shape in greater horror then we beheld it in when we first fell upon our Knees for Pardon For the more Confirm'd wee are in Goodnesse the more abhorrent we are of Evill and defy it most when we stand at the greatest Distance wee never loath our Disease more then when wee are purged and Healthy There is another word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath a good sense put upon it which yet the word doth not naturally yeeld and rather signifies a Trouble of minde then a Turne Matth. 21.32 and it is spoken of Judas himself Matth. 27.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he repented himself and what a Repentance was that which he should have repented of what a Turne was that that choked him Had his Turne been right hee might have dyed a Martyr who dyed a Traytor and a Murderer of his Master and himself For this deep Melancholly L. 27. c. 2. De Aconito Ea est natura ut hominem occidat nisi invenerit quod in homine perimat and Trouble of minde is like that poysonous Plant which Pliny speaks of which if it doe not take away the Disease kills the man Judas indeed was called the son of perdition but it was because he destroyed himself But there is another word which is more proper and more used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Turne and change of the Mind what of the understanding There may be such a change and yet no Turne no Repentance for how many have been brought to a knowledge of their sinnes who could never be induced to leave them nay but of the will for this sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 2.6 the primitive and those compounds of it doe beare who hath knowne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Minde the Will the Decree of the Lord and God delivered up those that retein'd him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.28 to a reprobate mind id est a will to doe those things which are not convenient 1 Tit. 15.16 not to knowledge of evill but to the practise of it and to those who are defiled saith Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even their mind that is their will is corrupted as appeares by their Evill Workes in the next verse and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth not signify a Good understanding or a good Mind or opinion These will beget but a Complement but good words Depart in peace Jam. 2.16 be ye warmed and filled not a good wish but a good Will which gives those things which are needfull for the body in like manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies not onely prescience and fore-sight but Government Care and direction which are the free Actions of the Will wee might instance in more but to our present purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 primarily and properly signifies an Act of the Will not as it necessarily follows the Act of the understanding but as it ought to follow by the command of God although we see it doth not alwayes follow Despisest thou the riches of his Goodnesse Rom. 2.4 not knowing that is not willing to know that it leadeth thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to repentance and he speakes to those who did judge such things yet did the same vers 3. and did know the will of God vers 18. So Repent and doe the first Workes Revel 2.5 and in most places it is thus taken you may call it a Transmentation but it is a subduing and Turning of the Will and Affections that the whole man may bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz not the same but another man before hurryed away by his passion but now walking by the right rule before spreading and diffusing himself on variety of unlawfull Objects now recollected into himself and looking forward on God alone Why vvill ye die The maine Turne is of the will For we see the face of it here in the Text is set upon Death it self and therefore to be Turned away 'T is not our Naturall Concupiscence 'T is not the dulnesse of our understandings 'T is not the violence of our Passion 'T is not our weaknesse that we Dye it is our Will destroyes us If the will be Turn'd the Understanding is also chang'd not to know what it cannot be ignorant of but to be subservient and Instrumentall to the Will in drawing it neerer and neerer to that end for which it hath determined its Act in finding and squaring out materialls to the building up of this Temple of the Holy Ghost For Heaven is Heaven
is an Argument against us That wee deserve to heare it no more We are willing that what we speake should stand not a word not a syllable not one tittle must fall to the ground If wee speak to our servant and say Goe he must goe and if we say doe this he must doe it nunc Now dicto citiùs as soon as it is spoke A deliberative pausing Obedience Obedience in the Future Tense to say he will doe it when he pleases strips him of his Livery and Thrusts him out of doores And shall man who is Dust and Ashes feek a convenient time to Turne from his Evill wayes shall our now be when we please shall one morrow Thrust on another and that a Third shall we demurr and delay till we are ready to be thrust into our graves or which will follow into Hell if the Lord saies Turne ye Turne ye there can be no other time no other now but now All other nows and opportunities as our dayes are in his hands and he may close and shut them up if he please and not open them to give thee another Domini non servi negotium agitur the business is the Lords and not the servants and yet the businesse is ours too but the Time is in his Hands and not in ours Now then Turne ye now the word sounds and Eccho's in your eares Againe now now thou hast any good Thought any Thought that hath any relish of Salvation For that thought if it be not the voice Deus ad homines imoquod proprius est in homines venit Sen. Ep. 73. Job 33.16 is the whisper of the Lord but it speaks as plain as his Thunder If it be a good thought it is from him who is the fountain of all good and he speaks to thee by it as he did to the Prophets by Visions and Dreames In a Dreame in a Vision of the Night I may say In a Thought he openeth the eares of men and sealeth their Instruction And why should he speake once and twice and we perceive it not why should the Devil who seeeks to devour us prevail with us more then our God that would save us why should an evill thought arise in our hearts and swell and grow and be powerfull to roule the Eye to lift up the head to stretch out the Hand to make our feet like Hinds feet in the wayes of Death and a holy Thought a good intention which is as it were the breath of the Lord be stopped and checked and slighted and at last be chased away into the land of Oblivion why should a good thought arise and vanish and leave no impression behind it and an evill thought increase and multiply shake the powers of the Soul command the will and every faculty of the mind every part of the body and at last bring forth a Cain and Esau a Herod a Pharisee a profane Person an Adulterer a Murderer why should we so soon devest our selves of the one and morari stay and dwell and fool it in the other sport our selves as in a place of pleasure a Seraglio a Paradise For let us but give the same friendly Entertainment to the Good as we do to the bad let us but as joyfully imbrace the one as we doe the other let us be as speculative men in the wayes of God as we are in our own and then we shall make Hast and not delay to Turne unto him We talke much of the Grace of God and we do but talke of it It is in all mouthes in some it is but a sound in others it is scarse sense in most it is but a loud but faint acknowledgement of its power when it hath no power at all to move us an acknowledgement of what God can doe when we are resolv'd he shall work nothing in us we commend it and resist it pray for it and refuse it Behold the Grace of God hath appeared to all men appeared in the Doctrine of the Gospel and appeares in those good Thoughts which are the proper Issue of t hat doctrine and are begot by this word of Truth and when the heart sends them forth she sends them as Messengers of Grace to invite us and draw us out of our evill wayes and if the Devil can raise such a Babel upon an evill Thought why may not God raise up a Temple unto himself upon a Good I appeal to your selves and shall desire you to ask your selves the question How often have you enjoyed such Gracious ravishing thoughts How often have you felt the good motions of the Spirit How oft have you heard a voice behind you say Doe this how many checques how many inward Rebukes have you had in your Evill wayes how oft have these thoughts followed and pursued you in the wayes of Evill and made them lesse pleasing what a dampe have they cast upon your delight what a Thorne have they been in your flesh even when it was wanton How oft are you so composed and by assed by these Heavenly Insinuations that heart and hand are ready to joyne together as partners in the Turne How oft would you and yet will not Turne How oft are you the Preachers and tell your selves Vanity of Vanity all is Vanity and that there is no true rest but in God I speak to those who have any feeling and presage of a future Estate any Tast of the Powers of the world to come for too many we see have not I speake this to our shame Now is the Time Now is the Now. nunc nunc properandus acri Fingendus sine fine rotâ Now thou must turne the wheel about and frame and fashion thy self into a vessel of Honor consecrate unto the Lord makeup a Child of God the new Creature Now nourish and make much of these good Motions good inclinations wrought in us either by the Word of God or the rod of God They are fallen upon us and entred into us but how long they will stay how long we shall enjoy them we cannot tell a smile from the World a Dart from Satan if we take not heed if we be not tender of them may chase them away This is the time this is the Now for at another time being fallen from this Heaven our Cogitations may be from the earth earthly such grosse and durty thoughts which will not melt but harden in the Sun Our Faculties may be corrupt our Understandings dull and heavy our wills froward and perverse that we shall neither will that which is Good or so will it that we shall not have strength to bring forth not be able to draw it into Act If we approve or look towards it we shall soon start back as from an Enemy as from that which suits not with our present disposition but is distastfull to it tanquam fas non sit as if it were some unlawfull thing as we read of the Sybarite who was growne so extreamly dainty that he would
is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one and the same God in all his commands not forbidding one sin and permitting another as his wayes are equal so must our turn be equal not from the right hand to the left not from superstition to prophanesse not from despising of prophesie to Sermonhypocrisy not from uncleannesse to faction not from Riot to Rebellion but a turn from all Extreams from all evil a collection and levelling the soul which before lookt divers wayes and turning her face upon the way of truth upon God alone If we turn as we should if we will answer this earnest and vehement call we must turn from all our evil wayes we use to say that there is as great a miracle wrought in our conversion as in the Creation of the world but this is not true in every respect for man though he be a sinner yet is something hath an understanding will affections to be wrought upon yet as it is one condition required in a true miracle that it be perfect so that there be not onely a change but such a change which is absolute and exact that it may seem to be as it were a new Creation that water which is changed into wine may be no more water but wine tht the blind man do truly see the lame man truly walk and the dead man truly live so is it in our turn and conversion there is a total and perfect change the Adulterer is made an Eunuch for the kingdom of Heaven the intemperate comes forth with a knife at his throat the revenger kisseth the hand that strikes him when we Turn sinne vanisheth the Old man is dead and in its place there stands up a new Creature In the 15. to Galatians Saint Paul speaking of the works of the flesh which are nothing but sins and having given us a catalogue reckoned up many of them by which we might know the rest at last concludes Of which I tell you before as I have told you often that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God where the Apostles meaning is not that they who do all these or most of these or many of these or more then one of these but they who die possest of any one of these shall have no place in the kingdom of God and of Christ for what profit is there to turn from one sin and not all when one sin is enough to make us breakers of the whole Law and so liable to eternal death It is a conclusion in the Schools that whosoever is in the state of any one mortal sin and turns not from it whatsoever he doth do he pray or give almes bow the knee before God or open his hand to his brother be it what it will in it self never so fair and commendable it is forth with blasted and defaced and is so far from deserving commendations that it hath no other wages due to it but death I cannot say this is true for so far as it is agreeable with reason so far it must needs be pleasing to the God of reason so far as it answers the rule so far is it accepted of him that made it nor can we think that Regulus Fabricius Cato and the rest who do convitium facere Christianis upbraid and shame many of us Christians were damned for their justice their integrity their honesty Hell is no receptacle for men so qualified were there nothing else to prepare and fit them for that place but yet most true it is that if we be indued and beautified with many vertues yet the habit of one sin is enough to deface them to draw that night and darknesse about them that they shall not be seen to put them to silence that they shall have no power to speak or plead for us in the day of trial though they be not sins not bright and shining sins for I cannot see how darknesse it self should shine yet they shall become utterly unprofitable they may peradventure lessen the number of the stripes but yet the unrepentant sinner shall be beaten For what ease can a myriad of vertues do him who is under Arrest nay what performance can acquit him who is condemned already Reason it self stands up against it and forbids it for what obedience is that which answers but in part which follows one precept and runs away from another and then what imperfect monsters should the kingdome of Heaven receive a liberall man but not chast a Temperate man but not honest a Zealous man but not Charitable a great Faster and a great Impostor a Beadsman and a Theese an Apostle a great Preacher and a Traytor such a Monsterous mishapen Christian cannot stand before him who is a pure uncompounded Essence the same in every Thing and Every Where One and the same even Unity it self For againe every man is not equally inclin'd to every sinne This man loves that which another loathes and he who made the Devil fly at the first Encounter may entertaine him at a second he that resisted him in lust may yeeld to him in Anger He who will none of his delicates may fayle at his Terrors and he that feared not the roaring of the Lyon may be ensnared by the flattery of the Serpent For the force of Temptations is many times quickned or Dull'd according to the Naturall Constitutions and severall complexions of men and other outward Circumstances by which they may work more coldly or more vehemently upon the will and Affections A man of a dull and Torpid disposition is seldom Ambitious a man of a quick and active Spirit seldome Idle the Cholerick man not obnoxious to those evills which melancholly doth hatch nor the Melancholick to those which Choler is apt to produce As hard a matter it may be for some men to commit some one sinne as it is for others to avoid it as hard a matter for the Foole in the Gospel to have scattered his Goods as it was for the other Foole the Prodigall to have kept them as hard a matter for some to let loose their Anger as it is for others to curbe and bridle it some by their very temper and Constitution with ease withstand lust but must struggle and take paines to keep down their Anger Some can stand upright in Poverty but are overthrown by wealth some can resist this Temptation by slighting it but must beat and macerate themselves must use a kind of violence before they can overcome another which is more sutable and more flatters their Constitution And this we may find by those darts which we cast at one another those uncharitable Censures we passe For how do the Covetous condemne and pity the Prodigal and how doth the Prodigal loath and scorne the Covetous How doth the Luke-warme Christian abominate the Schismaticque and the Schismaticque call every man so if he be not as mad as himself How doth this man bless himself and wonder that any should fall into such or
with love and when it turns its worst face towards us we are weary of it and have an inclination a velleity a weak and feeble desire to shake it off our soul loveth it and loatheth it we would not and we will sin and all upon presumption of that mercy which first gave us ease upon hope of forgiveness quis enim timebit prodigere quod habebit posteà recuperare Tertul. de pudicitia c. 9. for who will be tender and sparing of that which he hopes to recover though lost never so oft or be careful of preserving that which he thinks cannot be irrecoverably lost so that Repentance which should be the death of sin is made the security of the Sinner and that which should reconcile us to God is made a reproach to his mercy and contumelious to his goodness in brief that which should make us his friends makes us his enemies we turn and return we fall and rise and rise and fall till at last we fall never to rise again And this is an ill signe a signe our Repentance was not true and serious but as in an intermitting fever the disease was still the same onely the fit was over Gravedinosos quosdam quosdam tor ninosor 〈◊〉 mus non quia semper sed quia saepesunt Tul. Tusc q. l. 4 Galen de fanitat Tuendâ or as in an Epilepsie or the falling sickness it is still the same is stil in the body though it do not cast it on the ground and such a Repentance is not a Repentance but to be repented of by turning once for all never to turn again or if it be true we may say of it what Galen said of his art to those that abuse it who carry it not and continue it to the end perindè est ac si omnino non esset it is as if it were not at all nay it is fatal and deleterial It was Repentance it is now an accusation a witness against us that we would be contrà experimenta pertinaces even against our own experience taste that cup again which we found bitter to us and run into that snare out of which we had escaped and turn back into those evil wayes where we saw death ready to seise upon us and so run the hazard of being lost for ever And these four are the necessary requisities Concl. and properties of Repentance it must be early and sudden upon the first all For why should any thing in this world stop and stay us one moment in our journey to a better is not a span of time little enough to pay down for Eternity it must be true and sincere for can we hope to binde the God of Truth unto us with a lie or can a false Turn bring us to that happinesse which is real it must be perfect and exact in every part for why should we give him lesse then we should who will give us more then we can desire or how can that which is but in part make us shine in perfection of Glory Last of all it must be constant and permanent for the crown of life is promised unto him alone who is faithful unto death Turn ye Turn ye now suddenly in reality and not in appearance Turn ye from all your evil wayes Turn never to look back again and this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint render it to turn for ever and so to presse forward in the wayes of righteousnesse till we are brought to that place of rest where there is no evil to Turn from but all shall turn to our Salvation Thu much of the exhortation Turn ye Turn ye the next is the Reason or Expostulation For why will you die O House of Israel THE NINTH SERMON PART V. EZEKIEL 33.11 Turne ye Turne ye from your evill wayes For why will you die Oh House of Israel WHY will you die is an Obtestation or Expostulation I called it a reason and good reason I should do so for the moriemini is a good reason that we may not die a good reason to make us turn but tendered to us by way of expostulation is another reason and puts life and efficacy into it makes it a reason invincible unanswerable The Israelite though now in his evil wayes dares not say He will die and therefore must lay his hand upon his mouth and Turn For God who is truely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free from all passion being to deal with man subject to passion seems to put it on exprimit in we have here a large field to walk over but we must bound our discourse within the compass of those observations which first offer themselves and without any force or violence may naturally be deduced from these words and we shall first take notice of the course and method God takes to turn us he draws a sword against us he threatens death and so awakes our fear that our fear might carry us out of evil our wayes Secondly that God is not willing we should die Thirdly that he is not any way defective in the administration of the means of life Last of all that if we die the fault is onely in our selves and our own will ruines us Why will ye die O house of Israel We begin with the first the course that God takes to turn us he asks us why will ye die in which we shall passe by these steps or degrees First shew you what fear is Secondly how usefull it may be in our conversion Thirdly shew it not onely useful but good and lawful and enjoyned both to those who are yet to turn and those who are converted already The fear of death the fear of Gods wrath may be a motive to turn me from sin and it may be a motive to strengthen and uphold me in the wayes of righteousnesse God commends it to us timor iste timendus non est and we need not be afraid of this Fear Quare moriemini Why will ye Die And death is the King of terrours to command our fear that seeing death in our evil wayes ready to destroy us Job 18.16 we might look about and consider in what wayes we were and for feare of death turn from sin which leads unto it for thus God doth Amorem timore pellere subdue one passion with another drive out love with fear the love of the world with the fear of death present himself unto us in divers manners according to the different operations of our affections sometimes with his rich promises to make us Hope and sometimes with fearful menaces to strike us with fear sometimes in glory to encourage us and sometimes in a tempest Clem. Alexand. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whirle-winde to affright us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 various and manifold in the dispensation of his goodnesse that if hope drive us not to the promises yet fear might carry us from death and death from sin and so at last beget a Hope
therefore have need of this kind of remedy as much need certainly as our first Parents had in Paradise who before they took the forbidden fruit might have seen Death written and engraved on the Tree and had they observ'd it as they ought to have done had not forfeited the Garden for one Apple had this Feare walked along with them before the coole of the Day before the rushing wind they had not heard it nor hid themselves from God in a word had they Feared they had not fell for they fell with this Thought that they should not fall that they should not die at all Imperfection though it be to Feare yet 't is such an Imperfection that leads to perfection Imperfection though it be to Feare yet I am sure it is a greater Imperfection to sin and not to feare It might be wished perhapps that we were tyed and knit unto our God quibusdam internis commerciis as the devout School-man speaks with those inward ligaments of Love and Joy and Admiration that we had a kind of familiar acquaintance and intercourse with him That as our Almes and Prayers and fasting came up before him to shew him what we do on earth so there were no imper fection in us but that God might approach so nigh unto us with the fulness of Joy to tell us what he is preparing for us that neither the Feare of Hell nor the Hope of Heaven and our Salvation but the Love of God and Goodnesse were the only cause of our cleaving to him That we might love God because he is God and hate sinne because it is sinne and for no other reason that we might with Saint Paul wish the increase of Gods Glory though with that heavy condition of our own Reprobation But this is such an Heroick spirit to which every man cannot rise though he may at last rise as high as Heaven this is such a condition which we can hardly hope for whilst we are in the flesh we are in the body not out of the body we struggle with doubts and difficulties Ignorance and Infirmity are our Companions in our way and in this our state of Imperfection contenti simus hoc Catone Dictum Augusti cum hortaretur ferenda esse praesentia qualiacunque sunt Suet. Octav. August c. 87. we must be content to use such means and Helpes as the Law-giver himself will allow of and not cast off fear upon a Fancy that our Love is perfect for this savours more of an Imaginary Metaphysicall subtility of a kind of extaticall affectation of Piety then the plaine and solid knowledge of Christian Religion but continue our Obedience and carry on our perseverance with the Remembrance of our last end with this consideration That as under the Law there was a curse pronounced to them that fulfill it not so under the Gospel there is a flaming fire to take vengeance of them that obey it not 2. Thess 1.8 It was a good censure of Tully which he gave of Cato in one of his Epistles Thou canst not saith he to his friend love and Honor Cato more then I doe but yet this I observe in him optimo animo utens summâ fide nocet interdum Reip. he doth endammage the Common-wealth but with an Honest mind and great Fidelity l. 2. ad Attic. ep 1. for he gives sentence as if he lived in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Platonis non in faece Romuli in Plato's Common-wealth and not in the dreggs and Rascaltry of Romulus And we may passe the same censure on these seraphical Perfectionists who will have all done out of pure Love nothing out of Feare They remember not that they are in fraece Adami the off-spring of an Arch-Rebell that their father was an Amorite and their mother an Hittite and that the want of this Feare threw them from that state of Integrity in which they were created and by that out of Paradise and so with great ostentation of love hinder the Progresse of Piety and setting up to themselves an Idaea of Perfection take off our Feare which should be as the hand to wind up the Plummet which should continue the motion of our Obedience the best we can say of them is summâ fide pio animo nocent Ecclesiae If their mind be pious and answer the great shew they make then with a Pious mind they wrong and trouble the Church of Christ For suppose I were a Paul and did love Christ as Cato did Virtue because I could no otherwise Nunquam recte fecit ut faces videretur sed quià aliter facere non poterat Vell. ratere l. 2. Hist suppose I did feare sinne more then Hell and had rather be damned then commit it suppose that every thought word and worke were Amoris foetus the issues of my Love yet I must not upon a speciall favour build a general Doctrine and because love is best make Feare unlawfull make it sinne to feare that punishment the Feare of which might keep me from sinne for this were in Saint Pauls phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to put a stumbling-block in our Brothers way with my love to overthrow his feare that so at last both Feare and Love may fall to the ground for is there any that will fear sinne for punishment if it be a sinne to Feare What 's the language of the world now we heare of nothing but filiall feare and it were a good hearing if they would understand themselves for this doth not exclude the other but is upheld by it we are as sure of happinesse as we are of Death but are more perswaded of the Truth of the one then of the other more sure to goe to heaven then to die and yet Death is the gate which must let us in we are already partakers of an Angelicall Estate we prolong our life in our own Thoughts to a kind of Eternity and yet can feare nothing we challenge a kind of familiarity with God and yet are willing to stay yet a while longer from him we sport with his Thunder and play with his Hayl-stones and Coales of fire we entertain him as the Roman Gentleman did the Emperor Augustus Macrobius in Saturnal coenâ parcâ quasi quotidianâ with course and Ordinary fare as Saul in the 15. of the first of Sam. with the vile and refuse not with the fatlings and best of the sheep and Oxen Did we dread his Majesty or think he were Jupiter vindex a God of Revenge with a Thunder-bolt in his hand we should not be thus bold with him but feare that in wrath and Indignation he should reply as Augustus did Non putaram me tibi fuisse tam familiarem I did not think I had made my self so familiar with my Creature I know the Schools distinguish between a servile and Initial and a Filial feare there is a Feare by which we feare not the fault but the punishment and a feare which feareth the punishment
holy Ghost then Si non in timore Domini tenueris te instanter if thou keep not thy self diligently in the Fear of the Lord in the Fear of his displeasure his wrath and in the fear of the last account this house this Temple will soon be overthrown For as the Temple in the first of Ezra the Scribe Ecclus. 27.3 was said to be built in great joy and great mourning that they could not discerne the shout of joy for the noise of weeping So our spiritual building is rais'd Inter Apocr cap. 5. ver 64 65. and supported with great hope and great feare and it may be sometimes we shall not discerne which is greatest our feare or our hope but when we are strong then are we weak when we are rich then are we poore when we hope then we feare and our weakness upholds our strength our poverty preserves our wealth and our Feare tempers our hope that our strength overthrow us not that our riches beggar us not that our hope overwhelme us not quantò magis crescimus tanto magis timemus the more we increase in Virtue the more we Feare Thus manente Timore stat aedificium whilst this Butteresse this Foundation of Feare lasts the house stands Thus we work out our Salvation with Feare and Trembling To conclude then I speak not this to dead in any soule any of those Comforts which faith or Love or Hope have begotten in them or to choke and stifle any fruit or effect of the Spirit of love No I pray with S. Paul that your love may abound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 1.9 yet more and more but as it follows there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Knowledge and in all Judgement that you may discerne things that differ one from another a Phansy from a Reality a flash of Love from the pure flame of love a notion of Faith from a true Faith and hope from presumption For how many sin how few think of punishment how many offend God and yet call themselves his 〈◊〉 how many are willfull in their disobedience and yet perâ—…â—…ory in their hope how many runne on in their evill wayes 〈◊〉 leave seare behinde them which never overtakes them but is furthest off when they are neerest to their journeys end and within a step of the Tribunal For that which made them sinfull makes them senseless and they easily subborn false comforts the â—…knes of the flesh which they never resisted and the Mercy of God which they ever abused to chace away all fear and so they depart we say in peace but are lost for ever Curtius de Alexand. For as the Historian observes of men in place and Authority Cum se fortunae permittunt etiam naturam dediscunt when they rely wholly upon their greatness and Authority they lose their very Nature and turne Savage and quite forget that they are men in like manner it befalls these spiritualized men who build up to themselves a pillar of assurance and leane and rest themselves upon it they lose their nature and reason and forget to feare or be disconsolate and become like those whom the Philosopher calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because their boast was they did not feare a Thunder-bolt Feare not them that can kill the body saith our Saviour whom doe they feare else who hath beleeved our report or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed That arme which breaketh the Cedars of Libanus in peeces That Arme which onely doth wondrous works is ever lifted up and we sport and walk delicately under it when we tremble and Couch under that which is as ready to wither as to strike Behold Dust and Ashes invested with Power Behold man who is of as neere kin to the worme and Corruption as our selves and see how he aws us and bounds us and keeps us in on every side If he say Do this we doe it Subscribe to that as a Truth which we know to be false make our yea nay and our nay yea renounce our understandings and enslave our wills change our Religion as we do our clothes and fit them to the Times and Fashion pull down resolutions cancell Oathes be votaries to day and breake to morrow surrender up our soules and bodies Deliver up our Conscience in the midst of all its Cryings and Gain-sayings and lay it down at the foot of a fading transitory Power which breathes it self forth as the wind whilst it seeks to destroy which threatens strikes and then is no more When this Lion roares every man is afraid is transelemented unnaturalized unman'd is made wax to receive any impression from a mighty but mortall hand and shall not the God of heaven and earth who can dash all this Power to nothing deserve our feare shall we be so familiar with him as to contemne him so love him as to hate him shall a shadow a vapor awe us and shall we stand out against Omnipotency and Eternity it self shall sense brutish sense prevaile with us more then our Reason or Faith and shall we crosse the method of God make it our Wisedome to feare man and count it a sin to feare God who is only to be feared this were to be wiser then Wisedom it self which is the greatest folly in the World I have brought you therefore to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this School of feare set up the Moriemini shewd you a Deaths-Head to discipline and Catechise you that you may not die but live and Turne from your evill wayes and Turne unto him who hath the keyes of hell and of Death who as he is a Saviour so is he also a Judge and hath made Feare one Ingredient in his Physick not onely to purge us but to keep us in a healthfull Temper and Constitution And to this Promptuor Moral if not the danger of our soules yet the noise of those who love us not may awake us Stapleton a Learned man but a malitious Fugitive layes it as a charge against the Preachers of the Reformed Churches that they are copious and large in setting forth the Mercies of God but they passe over Graviora Evangelit the harsher but most necessary passages of the Gospel suspenso pede lightly and as it were on their Tiptoes and goe softly as if they were afraid to awake their hearers That we are mere solifidians and rely upon a reed a hollow and an empty faith Bellarmine is loud that we doe per contemplationem volare hover as it were on the wings of Contemplation and hope to goe to heaven in a Dreame Pamelius in his notes upon Tertullian is bold upon it That the Primitive Church did Anathematize us in the Marcionists and Gnostiques and if they were Hereticks then we are so And what shall we now say Recrimination is rather an objection then an Answer and it will be against all rules of Logick to conclude our selves Good because they are worse or that we have no
Errors because they have so many and that none can Erre but he that sayes he cannot and for which we call him Antichrist This bandying of Censures and Curses hath been held up too long with some loss and injury to Religion on both sides Our best way certainly to confute them is by our practice so to live that all men say The Feare of God is in us of a Truth to weave Love and Feare into one Peece to serve the Lord in feare and rejoyce in Trembling Hilar. in Fs 2. ut sit timor exultans exultatio tremens that there may be Trembling in our Joy and Joy in our Feare not to Divorce Jesus from the LORD nor the Lord from Jesus not to Feare the Lord the lesse for Jesus nor love Jesus the less for the Lord but to joyne them both together and place Christ in the midst and then there will be a pax vobis peace unto us his Oyntment shall drop upon our Love that it be not too bold and distill upon our Feare that it faint not and end in despaire that our Love may not consume our Feare nor our Fear chill our love but we shall so Love him that we do not Despaire so Fear him that we do not presume That we may Feare him as a Lord and love him as Jesus and then when he shall come in Glory to Judge both the quick and the dead we shall find him a Lord but not to affright us and a Jesus to save us our Love shall be made perfect All doubting taken from our Faith nay Faith it self shall be done away and the feare of Death shall be swallowed up in Victory and we who have made such use of Death in its representation shall never dye but live for evermore And this we have learnt from the Moriemini Why will you Die THE TENTH SERMON PART VI. EZEKIEL 33.11 why will you die Oh House of Israel WEE have lead you through the Chambers of Death through the school of Discipline The School of feare For why will ye Die Look upon Death and feare it and you shall not Dye at all Thus farre are we gone We come now ad domum Israelis to the House of Israel Why will ye die oh house of Israel For to name Israel is an Argument Take them as Israel or take them as the House of Israel Take the House for a Building or take it for a family and it may seem strange and full of Admiration that Israel which should prevaile with God should embrace Death That the House of Israel compact in it self should ruine it self In Edom 't is no strange sight to see men run on in their evill wayes In Mesheck or the Tents of Kedar there might be at least some colour for a Reply but to Israel it is Gravis expostulatio a heavy and full Expostulation Let the Amorites and Hittites let the Edomites let Gods enemies perish but let not Israel the People of God Dye Why should they die The Devil may be an Edomite but God forbid he should be an Israelite The Quarè moriemini why will ye Die we see is levell'd to the marke is here in its right and proper place and being directed to Israel is a sharp and vehement exprobration Oh Israel why will ye die I would not have you die I have made you gentem selectam a chosen people that you may not Die I have set before you Life and Death Life that you may chuse it and Death that you may run from it and why will you die My sword is drawne to affright and not to kill you and I hold it up That I may not strike I have placed death in the way that you may stop and retreat and not go on I have set my Angel my Prophet with a sword drawne in his Hand That at least you may be as wise as the Beast was under Baalam and sink and fall down under your Burden I have imprinted the very Image of Death in every sinne will ye yet goe on will ye love sinne that hath such a foule face such a terrible countenance that is thus clothed and apparrell'd with Death Quis furor oh Cives what a madnesse is this oh ye Israelites As Herod once upbraiding Cassius for his seditious behaviour in the East 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wrot no more but this Herod to Cassius Thou art mad Philostrat in vit Herodis so God may seem to send to his People God by his Prophet to the Israelites you are mad Therefore doe my people run on in their evill wayes Isa 5.13 because they have no understanding For now look upon Death and that affrights us Look upon God and he exhorts us Reflect upon our selves and we are an Israel a Church of God There is no cause of dying but not Turning no cause of destruction but Impenitency If we will not die we shall not die and if we will Turne we cannot die at all for that if we die God passeth sentence upon us and condemnes us but kills us not but perditio tua ex te Israel our destruction comes from our selves It is not God it is not death it self that kills us but we die because we will Now by this Touch and short descant on the words so much Truth is conveyed unto us as may acquit and discharge God as no way accessary to our death and to make our Passage cleer and plain we will proceed by these steps or degrees draw out these three Conclusions 1. That God is not willing we should die 2. That he is so far from willing our death that he hath plenteously afforded sufficient meanes of life and salvation which will bring in the Third and last That if we die our death is voluntary That no other reason can be given of our death but our own will And the due consideration of these three may serve to awake our shame Naz. Or. 20. as death did our feare which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen speaks another Help and furtherance to worke out our Salvation Why will ye die oh House of Israel And first That God is not willing we should die is plaine enough First from the Obtestation or Expostulation it self Secondly from the Nature of God who thus expostulates For 1. why will ye die is the voice of a friend not of an enemy He that askes me why I will die by his very Question assures me he intends not to destroy me God is not as man that he should lie what he works he workes in the cleer and open day His fire is kindled to enflame us his water flows to purge and cleanse us his oyle is powred forth to supple us his commands are not snares nor his Precepts Accusations He stamps not the Devill 's face upon his Coyne He willeth not what he made not and he made not Death saith the Wiseman He wisheth he desireth we should live he is angry Wisd 1.12 and
sorry if we die He looks down upon us calls after us he exhorts and rebukes and even weepes over us as our Saviour did over Jerusalem and if we die we cannot think that he that is life it self should kill us If we must die why doth he yet complaine why doth he expostulate for if the Decree be come forth if we be lost already why doth he yet call after us how can a desire or command breath in those coasts which the power of an absolute will hath laid waste already if he hath decreed we should die he cannot desire we should live but rather the Contrary that his Decree be not void and of no effect otherwise to passe sentence an irrevocable sentence of Death and then bid us live is to look for liberty and freedome in Necessity for a sufficient effect from an unsufficient cause to command and desire that which himself had made impossible to ask a Dead man why he doth not live and to speak to a carcasse and bid it walk Indeed by some this why will you die is made but sancta simulatio but a kind of holy dissimulation so that God with them sets up man as a marke and then sticks his deadly arrows in his sides and after askes him why he will die And why may he not saith one with the same liberty Damne a soul as a Hunter kills a Deere a bloody instance as if an immortall soul which Christ set at a greater rate then the World it self nay then his own most pretious Blood were in his sight of no more valew then a Beast and God were a mighty Nimrod and did destroy mens souls for delight and pleasure Thus though they dare not call God the Author of sinne for who is so sinfull that could hear and not Anathematize it yet others and those no children in understanding think it a Conclusion that will naturally and necessarily follow upon such bloody premises and they are more encouraged by those ill-boding words which have dropt from their quills For say some vocat ut induret He calls them to no other end but that he may harden them he hardens them that he may destroy them He exhorts them to turn that they may not Turn◠He asks them why they will die that they may run on in their evill wayes even upon Death it self when they break his command they fulfill his will and 't is his pleasure they should sinne 't is his pleasure they should die and when he calls upon them not to sinne when he asks them why they will die he doth but Dissemble for they are dead already Horribili decreto by that horrible antecedaneous Decree of Reprobation And now tell me If we admit of this What 's become of the expostulation what use is there of the obtestation why doth he yet ask why will ye Die I called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reason unanswerable but if this Fancy this Interpretation take place it is no reason at all why will ye die the Answer is ready and what other answer can a poore praecondemned soul make Domine Deus tu nosti Lord God thou knowest Thou condemnest us before thou mad'st us Thou didst Destroy us before we were and if we die Even so Good Lord For it is thy good pleasure Fato volvimur it is our Destiny or rather Est deus in nobis not a stoicall fate but thy right hand and thy strong irresistible Arme hath destroyed us and so the expostulation is answered and the Quare mortemini is nothing else but mortui estis why will ye die that 's the Text the Glosse is you are dead already But in the Second place That this expostulation is true and Hearty may be seen in the very Nature of God who is Truth it self who hath but one property and Quality saith Trismegistus and that is Goodness and therefore cannot bid us live when he intends to kill us For consider God before man had fallen from him by sin and disobedience and we shall see nothing but the works of his Goodnesse and Love The heavens were the workes of his Fingers Basil Hem. in Famem sicci◠he created Angels and men he spake the word and all was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil what necessity was there that he should thus break forth into Action who compell'd him who perswaded him who was his Counsellor He was All-sufficient and stood in need of nothing l. 4. c. 28. non quasi Indigens plasmavit Adam saith Irenaeus it was not out of any indigencie or Defect in himself that he made Adam after his Image He was all to himself before he made any thing nor could millions of Worlds have added to him What was it to him that there were Angels made or Seraphin or Cherubin he gain'd not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athena Legatio pro Christianis said Aristotle for there could be no Accession nothing to heighten his perfection Did he make the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athenagor as calls it as an Instrument to make him Musick Did he cloth the Lilies and dresse up Nature in various colours to delight himself or could he not reigne without man saith Mirandula God hath a most free and powerfull and immutable will and therefore it was not necessary for him to work or to begin to work but when he would for he might both will and not will the Creation of all Things without any change of his will but it pleased him out of his goodness thus to break forth into Action will you know the cause saith the Sceptique why he made world Sext. Emperic adv Mathemat pag. 327. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was good Nihil ineptius saith one quam cogitare Deum nihil agentem There is nothing more vaine then to conceive that God could be idle or doing of nothing and were it not for his Goodnesse we could hardly conceive him ad extrà agentem working any thing out of himself who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All-sufficient 1 Tim. 1.11 and Blessed for evermore infinitely happy though he had never created the Heaven and the Earth though there had neither been Angel or man to worship him but he did all these things because he was good Bonitas saith Tertul. otium sui non patitur hinc censetur Tert. adv Marcion l. 2. si agatur Goodness is an Active and restlesse quality and it is not when it is Idle it cannot containe it self in it self and by his Goodness he made man made him for his Glory and so to be partaker of his happiness placed him here on earth to raise him up to Heaven made him a living soul ut in vitâ hac compararet vitam that in this short and Transitory life he might fit himself for an Abiding City and in this moment work out Aeternity Thus of Himself God is good nor can any evill proceed from him if he frowne we first move him
Novatian de cib Judacicis and those Birds of prey ut Israelitae murdareatur pecora culpatasunt to sanctifie and cleanse his people he blames the Beasts as unclean which they could not be of themselves because he made them and laies a Blemish upon his other Creatures to keep them underfiled and for to keep our Idolatry he busied them in those many ceremonies 1 a. 1 ae which he ordeined for that end ne vacaret Idololatriae servire saith Aquin. that they might not have the least leisure to be Idolaters So that to draw up all they might learn from the Law they might learn from the Priest they might learn from the Sacrifice they might learn from each Ceremony they might learn from men and they might learn from beasts to Turn from their evil ways Isal 5.4 and God might well cry out Quid facerem quod non fecerim what could I have done that I have not done and speak to them in his grief and wrath and indignation Quare c. why will ye die Oh House O house of Israel But to passe from the Synagogue to the Church which excells merito fidei et majoris scientiae in respect of a clearer faith and larger knowledge to come to the time of Reformation Heb. 9.10 in which all things which pertain to the full happinesse of Gods people was to be raised to their last height and perfection to look into the Law of liberty which lets usnot loose in our own evil wayes but makes us most free by restraining and tying us up and withholding us from those sins which the Law of Moses did not punish and here Why will ye die if it were before an obtestation it is now a bitter Sarcasme as bitter as death it self It is here improved and drove home a minori ad majus by the Apostle himself for if that which should be abolisht was glorious 2 Cor. 3 11. much more shall that which remaines whose fruit is everlasling be glorious And again If they escaped not who resused him who spake on earth from mount Sinai by his Angel Acts. 7.38 how shall not we escape if we turn away from him who spake from Heaven by his Son For the Church is a house but far more glorious built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the head corner stone in whom all the building coupled together groweth into a Temple of the Lord. Colos 2.20.21 the whole world besides are but rubbage as bones scattered at the graves mouth The Church is compact knit and united into a house and in this house is the Armory of God ubi mille clipei armatura fortium where are a thousand Bucklers and all the weapons of the mighty to keep off death the helmet of Salvation the sword of the Spirit and the shield of Faith to quench all the Fiery Darts of Satan as they be delivered into our hands Eph. 6. And as it is a House Eph. 3.5 so is it a Familie of Christ of whom all the Family of heaven and earth is named who is M 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Master of the Houshold For as the Pythagorean fitting and shaping out a Familie by his Lute required 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the integrity of all the parts as it were the set number of the strings 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an apt composing and joyning them together as it were the Tuning of the instrument and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a skilful touch which makes the harmony So in the Church if we take it in its latitude there be Saints Angels and Archangels if we contract it to the Militant as we usually take it there be some Apostles some Pastors some Prophets some Teachers Eph. 4. there be some to be Taught and some to teach some to be governed and some to rule which makes up the integrity of the parts and then these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle coupled and and knit together by every joynt by the bond of charity which is the coupling and uniting vertue as Prosper calls it by the unity of faith by their agreement in holinesse having one faith one Baptisme one Lord and at last every string being toucht in its right place begets a harmony which is delightful both to heaven and earth For when I name the Church I doe not meane the stones and building some indeed would bring it downe to this to stand for nothing but the walls but I suppose a subordination of parts which was never yet questioned in the Church but by those who would make it as invisible as their Charity Not the foot to see and the eye to walke and the Tongue to heare and the Eare to speake not all Apostles not all Prophets not all Teachers but as the Apostle sayes it shall be at the Resurrection Every man in his own Order Naz. Or. 25. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Order is our security and safe-guard in a rout every man is a Child of Death every throat open to the Knife but when an Army is drawn out by Art and skill all hands are active for the Victory Inequality indeed of persons is the ground of disunion and discord but Order draws and works advantage out of Inequality it self when every man keeps his station the common Souldier hath his Interest in the victory as well as the Commander and when wee walke orderly every man in his owne place wee walk hand in Hand to Heaven and Happinesse together For further yet In the Church of God there is not onely a union an Order but as it is in our Creed a Communion ef parts The glorious Angels as ministring Spirits are sent to guard us and no doubt doe many and great services for us though we perceive it not The blessed Saints departed though we may not pray for them yet may pray for us though we heare it not and though the Church be scattered in its Members through all the parts of the world yet their hearts meet in the same God Every man prayes for himself and every man prayes for every man Quodest Omnium esi singulorum that which is all mens is every mans and that which is every mans belongs unto the whole For though we cannot speak in those high Termes of the Church as the Church of Rome doth of her self yet we cannot but blesse God and count it a great favour and priviledge that we are filii Ecclesiae as the Father speaks Children of the Church think of our selves as in a place of safety and advantage where we may find protection against Death it self Wee cannot speak loud with the Cardinal si Catholicus quisquam labitur in peccatum and Bellarm praefar ad Controv If a Catholique fall into a sinne suppose it Theft or Adultery yet in that Church he walketh not in Darkness but may see many helps to salvation by which he may soon quit
himself out of the snare of the Devill maternus ei non deest assectus she is still a Mother even to such Children her shops of spirituall comfort lie open there you may buy Wine and Milk Indulgences and Absolution but not without money or money-worth be you as sick as you will and as oft as you will There is Physick there are Cordialls to refresh and restore you I dare not promise so much in the House of Israel in the Church of Christ for I had rather make the Church a Schoole of Virtue then a Sanctuary for Offenders and wanton sinners We dare not give it that strength to carry up our Prayers to the Saints in heaven or to conveigh their Merits to us on Earth wee cannot work and temper it to that heat to draw up the blood of Martyrs or the works of supererogating Christians who have been such profitable servants that they did more in the service of God then they should into a common Treasury and then showre them downe in Pardons and Indulgences but yet though we cannot finde this power the re which is a Power to doe nothing yet we may find strength enough in the Church to keep us from the Moriemini to save us from Death Though I cannot suffer for my Brother yet I may beare for him Gal. 6.2 even portare onus fratris beare my brothers burden Though I cannot merit for him yet I may work for him though I cannot die for him I may pray for him Though there be no good in my Death nor profit in my Dust yet there may be in my memory of my good Counsel my Advice my Example which are verae sanctorum reliquiae Consult Cass c. de Relig. 5. saith Cassander the best and truest reliques of the Saints and though my Death cannot satisfy for him yet it may Catechize him and teach him how to die nay teach him how to overcome Death that he shall not die for ever and by this Communion it is that we work Miracles that in Turning the Covetous turning his bowels in him we recover a dry Hand and a narrow Heart in teaching the Ignorant we give sight to the blind in setling the inconstant wavering mind we cure the palsie for we can well allow of such Miracles as these in the Church but not of Lyes For as there is an Invisible union of the Saints with God so is there of Christians amongst themselves which union though the Eye of flesh cannot behold it yet it must appeare and shine and be resplendent in those duties and offices which doe attend this union which are as so many Hands by which we lift up one another to happiness As the Head infuseth life and vigor into the whole body so must the members also annoynt each other with this Oyle of Gladnesse Each member must be Active and Industrious to expresse that Virtue without which it cannot be one Let no man seek his owne but every man anothers Wealth saith the Apostle not seek his own 1 Cor. 10.24 what more naturall to man or who is neerer to him then he himself but yet he must not seek his owne but as it may bring advantage and promote the Good of others not presse forward to the mark but with his hand stretcht forth to carry on others along with him not goe to Heaven but saving some with feare and pulling others out of the fire Ep. Iud. 23. and gathering up as many as his Wisedome and care and zeal towards God and man can take up with him in the way And this is necessary even in humane Societies and those Politick Bodies which men build up to themselves for their Peace and security Turpis est pars quae toti suo non Convenit that is a most unnecessary superfluous part or Member for which the whole is not the better ut in sermone literae saith Austin as letters in a word or Sentence so men are Elementa Civitatis the principles and parts which make up the Syntaxis of a Republique and he that endeavours not the advancement of the whole is a Letter too much fitt to be expung'd and blotted out but in the Church whose maker and Builder is God it 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 happinesse of the one and the happinesse 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 Diocesse so the care and Piety of every particular Christian in respect of its diffusive Operation is as Catholick as the Church every soul he meets with is under his charge and he is the care of every soul in saving a soul from Death every man is a Priest and a Bishop although he may neither invade the Pulpit or ascend the Chaire I may be eyes unto him Numb 10.31 as it was said of Hobab I may take him from his Error and put him into the way of truth if he feare I may scatter it If he grieve I may wipe off his Teares If he presume I may teach him to feare and if he despaire I may lift him up to a lively Hope that neither feare nor grief neither Presumption nor despaire swallow him up thus may I raise a dead man from the grave a sinner from his sinne and by that example many may rise with him who are as dead as he and so by his friendly communication transfuse our selves into others and receive others into our selves and so runne hand in hand from the Chambers of Death And thus farr 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 Priviledges 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 severall Gifts that we may guard and secure each other and so settle it in thoe Offices and Duties which Christianity makes common and God hath registred in his Church which is the Pillar of Truth where all mens Joyes and Sorrows and Feares and Hopes should be one and the same And then to die surrounded with all these Helpes 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 recerve us then to die 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
appearance but the Heart and may account us dead for all these glories this Pageantry for all this noise which to him is but noise as the sound of their Trumpet who will not fight his battels but fall off and runne to the Enemy but as a song of Sion in a strange Land even in the midst of Babylon We read in our Books that it was a custome amongst the Romans when the Emperor was dead in honor of him to frame his image of wax and to perform to it all Ceremonies of state as if the image were the living Emperour The Senate and Ladies attended the Physitians resorted to him to feel his pulse and Doctorally resolved that he grew worse and worse and could not escape A guard watcht him Nobles saluted him his Dinner and Supper at accustomed hours was served in with water with sewing and carving and taking away His Nobles and Gentlemen waited as if he had been alive there was no Ceremony forgot which state might require Thus hath been done to a dead carcase and if we take not heed our case may be the same All our outward shewes of Churches of Sermons of Sacraments our noyse and ostentation which should be arguments of life and Antidotes against death may be no more then as funeral rites performed to a carcase to a Christian to a City whose iniquities are loathsome of an ill smelling savour to God the great company of preachers whereof every one chuseth one according to his lusts may stand about it and do their duty but as to an image of wax or a dead carcase the bread of life may be served in and divided to it by art and skill as every man fancies it may be fitted and prepared for every palate when they have no tast nor relish of it and receive no more nourishment then they that have been dead long ago Be not deceived benefits and burdens thou hast laden me daily with thy benefits saith David and burdens which if we bare not well and as we should do will grinde us to pieces All prerogatives are with conditions if the condition be not kept they turn to scorpions they either heal or kill us they either lift us up to Blisse or throw us down to destruction there is Heaven in a priviledge and there is Hell in a priviledge and we make it either to us We may starve whilest we hang on the brests of the Church we may be poisoned with Antidotes those mouthes that taught us may be opened to accuse us the many Sermons we heard may be so many Bills against us the Sacraments may condemn us the blood of Christ cry loud against us and our profession our holy profession put us to shame Hast thou been so long with me and knowest thou not me Philip saith our Saviour John 14.9 Hadst thou so good a Master and art yet to learn hast thou been so long with me and deniest thou me Peter hast thou been so long with me and yet betrayest me Judas hath Christ wrought so many works amongs us and do we go about to kill and crucifie him hath he planted Religion true Religion amongst us and do we go about to digg it up by the roots hath the Gospel sounded so long in our Eares and begot nothing but words words that are deceitful upon the Ballance words which are lies so many Sermons and so many Atheists so much Preaching and so much defrauding so many breathings and Demonstrations of love and so much malice in the house of Israel so many Courts of Justice and so much oppression so many Churches and so few Temples of the Holy Ghost what professe Religion and shame it cry it up and smother it in the noise and for a member of Christ make thy self the head of a Faction what presse on to make thy self better and make thy self worse Go up to the Temple to pray and prophane it what go to Church and there learn to pull it down why Oh Why will ye thus die O house of Israel Oh then let us look about us with a thousand eyes Let us be wise and consider what we are and where we are That we are a house and so ought every man to fill and make good his place and murually support each other that we are a Family and must be active in those offices which are proper to us and so with united forces keep death from entring in That we are the Israel of God his chosen people chosen therefore that we may not cast away our selves That we are his Church which is the pillar 1 Tim. 3.15 and ground of truth a pillar to lean on that we fall not and holding out and urging the truth which is able to save us that we may not die We have his word to quicken us his Sacraments to strengthen and confirm us his Grace to prevent and follow us we have many helps and Huge advantages and if we look up upon them and lay hold of them If we harken to his word not resist his grace if we neither Idolize not prophane his Sacraments but receive them with Reverence as they were instituted in Love If we hear the Church if we hear one another if we confirm one another if we watch over our selves and one another Death shall have can nave no more Dominion over us we shall not we cannot die at all but as many as thus walk in the common light of the house of Israel Peace shall be upon them and mercy and upon the Israel of God The introductîon to the last part And now we must draw towards a conclusion and we must conclude and shut up all in nobis ipsis in our selves for if we die it is quia volumus because we will die For Look above us and there is God the living God the God of life saying to us Live Look before us and there is death breathing terrour to drive us from it shewing us his Dart that we may hold up our buckler Look about us there are armories of weapons treasuries of wisdom shops of Physick Balm and Ointments helps and advantages pillars and supporters to uphold us that we may stand and not fall into the pit which opens its mouth but will shut it again if we flie from it which is not cannot be is nothing if we do not digg it our selves The Church exhorts instructs corrects God calls invites expostulates death it self threatens us that we may not come neer Thus are we compast about auxiliorum nube with a Cloud of helps and Advantages the Church is loud death is terrible Gods Nolo is loud I will not the death of a sinner and confirmd with an Oath As he lives he would not have us die and it is plain enough in his Lightning and in his Thunder in his expostulations and wishes in his anger in his grief in his spreading out his hands in his administration of all means sufficient to protect and guard us from it and
excludes all stoicall fate all necessity of sinning or dying there is nothing above us nothing before us nothing about us which can necessitate or binde us over to death so that if we die it is in our volo in our will we die for no other reason but that which is not reason quia volumus because we will die We have now brought you to the very Cell and Den of death where this monster was framed and fashioned where 't was first conceived brought forth and nurst up I have discovered to you the Original and beginnings of sin whose natural issue is death and shut it up in one word the will that which hath so troubled and amuzed men in all the ages of the Church to finde out That which some have sought in Heaven in the bosom of God as if his Providence had a hand in it and others have raked Hell and made the devil the Author of it who is but a perswader a soliciter to promote it that which others have tied to the chain of Destiny whose links are filed by the fancy alone and made up of air and so not strong enough to binde men much lesse the Gods themselves as 't is said what many have busied themselves in a painful and unnecessary search to finde out opening the windows of Heaven to finde it there running to and fro about the universe to finde it there and searching Hell it self to discover it we may discover in our own Breasts in our own heart the will the womb that conceives this Monster this Viper which eats through it and Destroyes the Mother in the Birth For that which is the beginning of Action is the beginning of sinne and that which is the beginning of sinne is the cause of Death In homine quicquid est sibi proficit Hilar. in Ps 118. saith Hilary there is nothing in man Nothing in the world which he may not make use of to avoid and prevent Death and In homine quic-quid est sibi nocet there is nothing in man nothing in the world which he may not make an occasion and Instrument of sinne That which hurts him may help him That which Circumspection and Diligence may make an Antidote neglect and Carelesness may Turn into Poyson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil as goodness so sinne is the work of our will not of Necessity If they were wrought in us against our will there could be neither Good nor Evill I call Heaven and Earth to witnesse saith GOD by his Servant Moses I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and cursing Deut. 30.19 and what is it to set it before them but to put it to themselves to put it into their own Hands to put it to their choice Chuse then which you will The Devil may tempt the Law occasion sinne Rom. 7.11 the Flesh may be weake Temptations may shew themselves but not any of these not all of these can bring in a necessity of Dying For the Qeustion or Expostulation doth not run thus Why are you under a Law why are you weake or why are you Dead for Reasons may be given for all these and the Justice and Wisedome of God will stand up to defend them but the Question is Why Will ye die for which there can bee no other Reason given but our Will And here we must make a stand and take our rise from this one word this one syllable our Will for upon no larger foundation then this we either build our selves up into a Temple of the Lord or into that Tower of Babel and Confusion which God will Destroy We see here all is laid upon the Will But such is our Folly and madness so full of Contradictions is a wilfull sinner that though he call Death unto him both with words and works though he be found guilty and sentence of Death past upon him yet he cannot be wrought into such a perswasion Tert. Apol. c. 1. That he was ever willing to Die nolumus nostrum quia malum Agnoscimus we will not call sinne ours because we know it Evill and so are bold to exonerate and unload our selves upon God himself 'T is true there is light but we are blind and cannot see it There is Comfort sounds every where but we are deafe and cannot heare it There is supply at hand but we are bound and fetter'd and can make no use of it There is Balm in Gilead but we are lame and have no hand to apply it We complain of our naturall weakness of our want of Grace and Assistance when we might know the Danger we are in we plead Ignorance when we willingly yeeld our Members servants to sinne we have learnt to say we did not doe it plenâ voluntate with a full Consent and will and what God hath clothed with Death we cloath with the faire Glosse of a good Intention and meaning we complaine of our Bodies and of our Souls as if the Wisedome of God had fail'd in our Creation we would be made after another fashion that we might be good and yet when we might be good we will be evill And these Webbs a sick and unsanctify'd Fancy will soon spin out These are Receipts and Antidotes of our own Tempering devis'd and made use of against the Gnawings of Conscience These we study and are ready and expert in and when Conscience begins to open and chide these are at hand to quiet it and to put it to silence wee carry them about for ease and comfort but to as little purpose as the women in Chrysostoms time bound the coines of Alexander the Great or some part of Saint Johns Gospel to ease them of the Headach for by these Receits and spells we more envenom our souls and draw neerer to Death by Thinking to fly from it and are ten-fold more the Servants of Satan because we are willing to doe him service but not willing to weare his Livery and thus excusando exprobramus our Apologies defame us our false Comforts destroy us and wee condemn our selves with an Excuse To draw then the lines by which we are to passe we will take off the Moriemini the cause of our Death from these First from our Naturall weakness Secondly from the Deficiency of Grace for neither can our Naturall weakness Betray nor can there be such a want of Grace as to enfeeble nor hath Satan so much Power as to force the will and so there will be no Necessity of Dying either in respect of our Naturall weakness or in regard of Gods strengthning hand and withholding his Grace and then in the second place that neither Ignorance of our duty nor regret or reluctancie of Conscience nor any pretence or good Intention can make sin lesse sinfull or our Death lesse voluntary and so bring Death to their Doores who have sought it out who have called it to them who are Confederate with it and are worthy to bee partakers thereof And Why Will you
makes it gravell in our mouths and strips us of our rayment and drives us amongst Swine For Friendship It may tie a knot but it will fly in pieces of it self for the friendship of evill men is as false and deceitfull as themselves For our Families It raises a Tempest even in these Basons Fluctus in Simpulo Proverb Tull. 3. de leg these little bodies these petty resemblances of a Republick It sets Father against Sonne and sonne against Father makes a servant a Traytor and raises enemies within doores and draws out a Battalio in a Cottage For Common-wealths the least sinne may sooner overthrow them then the greatest set them up and of all their Glories they cannot shew any one of them that was brought in by either It may raise them for a time perhaps to some height butthen it gets up above them lies heavy upon them and presseth them downe breaks them to pieces and Buries them in their Rubbish this it doth and shall that which can doe nothing but worke desolation be a fit prop for Religion to leane on when shee seems to sink or to bring her back when the voice is that she is gone out of our Coasts Can evill be fitt for any Thing but that which is like it But we are told Tale critopus tuum qualis Intentio Bernard de modo bene vivendi c. 15. that our work doth follow the Nature and quality of our Intention True if the Intention be Evill If I build a Church to set up Idolls If I build a colledge to perpetuate my name If I be very holy on the sudden and pay my vow to usury a Crown if I do a good act in it self for some evil end for then the intention alters and changes the Nature of it and makes it like unto it self and the reason is plain because any one bad Circumstance is enough to make an Action evil but bonum ex causâ intergrâ the concurrence of all is required to denominate it good Greg. Past Cur Part. c. 4. multa non illcitavitiat animus the minde and intention doth bring in a guilt upon those Actions which are otherwise lawful but cannot make that just which is forbidden cannot answer for the breach of a Law Briefly a good intention and a good action may be joyned together and be one nor can they be good but in this conjunction but to joyn a good intention to a bad action is with Mezentius in the Poet to tie a living Body to a Carcase it may colour indeed and hide a bad Action but it cannot consecrate it it may disguise a man of Belial but it cannot make him a Saint it may be as a Ticket or a passe to carry a wicked man to the end which he sets up and there leave him more secure it may be but without doubt more wicked then before For Murder now hath no voice Faction is Devotion Sacriledge is zeal all is well because we mean well we fix up a good intention in our fancy and that is our pole-star and having that in our eye we may steer our course as we please and buldge but swell our sayles and bear forward boldly till at last we are carried upon that rock which sinks us for ever and therefore to conclude this a good intention cannot pull out the sting from death nor the guilt from sin but if we sin though it be with an honest minde we sin voluntarily in brief though we know it not to be a sin though from the Tribunal of conscience we check our selves before we commit it though we do evil but intend good though we see it not though we approve it not though we intend it not as evil yet evil it is and a voluntary evil and without repentance hath no better wages then death and this expostulation may be put up to us Quare moriemini Why will ye die for we cannot say but they are willing to die who make such hast to the pit of ruine and in their swift and eager pursuit of death do but cast back a faint look toward the land of the living We must now draw towards a conclusion and we must conclude and shut up all even death it self in the will of man we cannot lay it upon any natural weaknesse nor upon the want of grace and Asistance we cannot plead ignorance nor the distaste and reluctancy of our minde nor can a good intention name that will good which is fixt on evil nor the means which we use commend and secure that end which is the work of sin and hath death waiting upon it if we die we can finde no other answer to this question Why will ye die but that which is not worth the putting up 't is quiavolumus because we will die Take all the weaknesse or corruption of our nature look upon that inexhaustible sountain of Grace but as we think dryed up take the darknesse of our understanding the cloud is from the will Nolumus intelligere we will not understand take all those sad symptomes and prognosticks of death a wandring unruly fancy 't is the will whiffs it about turbulent passions the tempest is from the will etiam quod invitus facere videor si facio voluntate facio even that which I do with some reluctancy if I do it I do it willingly all provocations and incitements imaginable being supposed no love no fear no anger not the devil himself can determine the will or force us into action and if we die it is quia volumus because we will die If death be the conclusion that which infers it is the will of man which brought sin and death into the world And this may seem strange that any should be willing to die Ask the prophanest person living that hath sold himself to wickednesse and so is even bound over to death and he will tell you he is willing to be saved heaven is his wish and eternal happines his desire as for death the Remembrance of it is bitter unto him death if you do but name it he trembles The Glutton is greedy after meat but loathes a disease the wanton seeks out pleasures but not those evils they carry with them under their wing the Revenger would wash his feet in the blood of his enemy but not be drownd in 't the Thief would steal but would not grinde in the prison but the Philosopher will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot. Ath. 2.1 the beginning of all these is in the will and he that will be intemperate will surfet he that will be wanton will be weak he that taketh the sword will perish by the sword he that will spoil will be spoiled and he that will sin will die Clem. Alex. strom 2. every mans death is a voluntary act not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of any natural appetite to perish but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his own choice who did chuse it though not in se
not in itself which is so terrible but in causis as the Schools speak in its causes in those sins in which it is bound up and from which it cannot be fevered for sin carries it in its womb and if we sin we are condemned and dead already we may see it smile upon us in some alluring pleasure we may see it glitter in a piece of Gold or wooe us in the rayes of Beauty but every smile every resplendency every raie is a dart and strikes us through Why will ye die why the holy Ghost is high and full in the expressing it Amamus mortem we love death Prov. 8. and the last v. and love saith the Father is vehemens voluntas a vehement and an Active will it is said to have wings and to flie to its object but it needs them not for it is ever with it the covetous is kneaded in with the world they are but one lump It is his God one in him and he in it The wanton calls his strumpet his soul and when she departeth from him he is dead the ambitious feeds on honour as 't is said Camelions do on air a disgrace kill him amamus mortem we love death which implies a kind of union and connaturality and complacency in death Again exultamus rebus pessimis Prov. 2.14 we rejoyce and delight in evil Ecstasim patimur so some render it we are transported beyond our selves we talk of it we dream of it we sweat for it we fight for it we travel for it we triumph in it we have a kind of traunce and transformation we have a Jubile in sin and we are carried delicately and with triumph to our death Nay further yet 1 Kings 22.4 we are said to make a covenant with Death Isai 29.15 we joyn with it and help it to destroy our selves as Iehoshaphat said to Ahab I am as thou art and my people as thy people we have the same friends and the same enemies we love that that upholds its dominion and we fight against that that would destroy it we strengthen and harden our selves against the light of Nature and the light of grace against Gods whispers and against his loud calls against his exhortations and obtestations and expostulations which are strength enough to discern death and pull him from his pale horse and all these will make it a volumus at least not a velleity as to good but an absolute vehement will after we have weighed the circumstances pondered the danger considered and consulted we give sentence on deaths side and though we are unwilling to think so yet we are willing to die to love death to rejoyce in death to make a Covenant with death will make the volumus full to the question why will ye die no other answer can be given but we will For if we should ask further yea but why will ye here we are at a stand horror and amazement and confusion shuts up our mouth in silence as in the 22 of Matth. when the Guest was questioned quomodo huc how he came thither the Text saies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capistratus est he was muzled he was silent he could not speak a word For conclusion then Let us as the Wise-man counsels keep our heart Prov. 4.23 our will with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life and out of it are the issues of death let us take it from death and consine and binde it to its proper object binde it with those bonds which were made to binde Kings and Nobles the most stout and stubborn and imperious heart binde it with the fear of death with the fear of that God which here doth ask the question and not seek to ease our selves by an indiscreet and ill applied consideration of our natural weaknesse For how many make themselves wicked because they were made weak how many never make any assay to go upon this thought that they were born lame Original weaknesse is an Article of our Creed and it is our Apologie but 't is the Apologie of the worst of the covetous of the ambitious of the wanton when 't is the lust of the eyes that buries the covetous in the earth the lusts of the flesh that sets the wanton on fire the pride of life that makes the Ambitious climb so high prima haec elementa these are the first Elements these are their Alphabet they learn from their Parents they learn from their friends they learn from servants to raise a bank to enoble their name to delight themselves in the things of this world these they are taught and they have their method drawn to their hands by these evil words which are the proper Language and Dialect of the world their manners are corrupted and for this our father Adam is brought to the bar when 't is Mammon Venus and the world that have bruised us more then his fall could do And secondly pretend not the want of Grace for a Christian cannot commit a greater soloecisme then to pretend the want of that which hath been so often offered which he might have had if he would or to conceive that God should be unwilling he should do his will unwilling he should repent and turn unto him This is a charge as well as a pretense even a charge against God for bidding us rise up and walk when we were lame and not affording us a staff or working a miracle Grace is of that nature that we may want it though it be not denied we may want it when we have it and indeed we want Grace as the covetous man wants money we want it because we will not use it and so we are starved to death with bread in our hands for if we will not eat our daily bread we must die And in the next place let us not shut up our selves in our own darknesse nor plead ignorance of that which we were bound to know which we do know and will not which is written with the Sun-beams which we cannot say we see not when we may run and read it For what mountainous evils do men run upon what grosse what visible what palpable sins do they foster quae se suâ corpulentiâ produnt sins which betray themselves to be so by their bulk and corpulency Sacriledge is no sin and I cannot see how it now should for there is scarce any thing left for its gripe Lying is no sin it is our Language and we speak as many lies almost as words perjury is no sin for how many be there that reverence an oath jura perjura it is an Axiome in our morality Iusjurandum rei servandae non perdendae conditum est Plaut Rud. Act 5 sc 3. mantile quo quotidianae noxae extergentur Laber. and policie and secures our estates and intailes them on our posterity Deceit is no sin for it is our trade nay Adultery is no sin you would think with the Heathen with those who never
Church which was shut up within the narrow confines of Judea now under the Gospel is as large as the world it self The Invitation is to all and all may come They may come who are yet without and they might have come who are bound hand and foot and cannot come The Gate was once open to them but now 't is shut Persa Gothus Judus Philosophantur saith Saint Hierom the Persian and the Goth and the Indian and Egyptian are subjects under this Lord Barbarisme it self bows before him and hath chang'd her Harsh notes into the sweet melody of the Cross There was dew onely upon the Fleece the people of the Jews but now that fleece is dry and there is dew upon all the earth The Gospel saith our Saviour must be Preached to all Nations and when the Holy Ghost descended to seale and confirme the Laws of this Lord Act. 2,6 there were present at this great sealing or Confirmation some saith the Text of all Nations under Heaven that did heare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wonderfull things of God every one in his owne language so that the Gospel might seem to have been Preached throughout the world before the Apostles did stirr a foot from Jerusalem But here we may observe that Christ who hath jus ad omnem terram hath not in strictnesse of speech jus in omni Terrâ The right and propriety is his for ever but he doth not take possession of it all at once but successively and by parts It is as easy for him to illuminate all the world at once as the least nook and corner of it but this Sonne of Righteousness spreads his beames gloriously Joh. 11.1 but is not seen of all because of the Interposition of mens sinnes who exclude themselves from the Beames thereof This true light came into the world but the world received him not but yet what our sensuality will not suffer him to doe at once he doth by degrees and passeth on and gaineth ground That so successively he may bee seen and known of all the world But suppose men shook off their Allegiance as too many the greatest part of the world the greatest part of Christendome doe suppose there were none found that will bow before him which will never be suppose they Crucify him againe yet is he still our King and our Lord the King and Lord of all the world such an universall falling a way and forsaking him would not take away from him his Dominion nor remove him from the right hand of God and strip him of his Power If all the world were Infidells yet he were a Lord still and his Power as large and irresistible as ever For his Royalty depends not on the Duty and fidelity of his subjects if it did his Dominion would be indeed but of a very narrow Compasse the sheep not so many as the Goates his flock but little Indeed he could have no right at all if it could be taken from him Neither deceit nor violence can take away a right no man can lose his right till he forfeit it which was impossible for this supreame Lord to doe All the Contradictions of all the men in the world cannot weaken his Title or contract his Power If all should forsake him if all should send this Message to him Nolumus hunc regnare Luk. 19.14 we will not have thee Reign over us yet in all this scorn and contempt in this open Rebellion and Contradiction of sinners he is still the Lord and as he favours those subjects who come in willingly whom he guides with his staffe so he hath a rod of Iron to bruise his Enemies and this Lord shall command and at his command his servants and Executioners shall take those his Enemies who would not have him reign over them and slay them before his face He will not use his Power to force and dragg them by violence to his service but if they refuse his help abuse the means which he offers them and turn his grace into wantonness then will he shew himself a King and his anger will be more terrible then the roaring of a Lion They shall feele him to be a Lord when 't will be too late to call him so when they shall weep and curse and gnash with their teeth and Howle under that Power which might have saved them for the same Power opens the gates of heaven and of Hell In his hand is a Cup saith the Psalmist Psal 75.8 and in his hand is a reward and when he comes to Judge he brings them both along with him the same Power brings Life and Death as Fabius did Peace or Warre to the Carthagenians in the lap of his Garment and which he will he powres out upon us and in both is still our Lord when faith failes and Charity waxeth cold and the world is set on wickedness when there be more Antichrists then Christians he is our Lord yesterday and to day and the same for ever Heb. 13.8 4 And in the last place as the Dominion of our Lord is the largest that ever was so is most lasting and shall never be destroyed and shall break to pieces and destroy all the Kingdomes of the Earth but it self shall stand fast for ever no violence shall shake it Dan. 2.44 no craft shall undermine it no Time wast it but Christ shall remaine our Lord for ever The Apostle indeed speaks of an end of delivering up his Kingdome and of Subjection 'T is true there shall be an end 1 Cor. 15.24 but 't is when hee hath delivered up his Kingdome and hee shall deliver up his Kingdome but not till he hath put down all Authority Finis hic defectio non est nec Traditio Amissio nec subjectio infirmitas saith Hilary This end is no fayling This delivery no losse this Subjection is no weakness nor Infirmity Regnum Regnans tradet He shall deliver up his Power and yet be still a Lord. Take Nazianzens Interpretation and then this subjection is nothing else but the fulfilling of his Fathers will Orat. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he in his 36. Oration which he made against the Arrians Take others and by Christ is meant his Church which in Computation is but one Person vvith Christ and when His Church is perfected then doth he deliver up his Power and Dominion But let us but observe the manner of the ending of this Kingdome and the Fayling and Period of others and we shall gaine light enough to guide us in the midst of all these doubts and difficulties For other Kingdoms are undermined by craft and shaken by the madness of the People who shun the whip and are beaten with Scorpions cast off one yoak and put on a heavier as the young men in Livy complain'd either Kingdoms are chang'd and alter'd as it pleaseth those who are victorious whose right hand is their God but the Power of this Lord is then and
Fancy in its work repress them here in causis in their beginnings Take these Babylonish brats and dash them against the stones for he that doth not meet and withstand an evill in the approach hath fairely invited it to come forward qui morbo non occurrit sibi manus infert he that doth not use speedy means to keep back a disease is as he that kills himself A A thought begets Delight delight begets consent consent is seen in Action Action begets Custome Custome necessity necessity Death it was but an object but an apparition but a Thought at first and now 't is Death and he that was willing a Thought should lead in the Front was willing also that Death should come in the reare It is not safe thus to Dally with a Temptation to resolve not to act it and yet to act in the mind which will soon make the Basis and ground-work of a resolution to be afraid of the Action and yet commit the sinne to nourish that sinne in my bosome which I am ashamed to be seen with abroad which will yet at last break forth before the Sunne and the people to harbour that in my closet which within a while will be on the House top That of Bernard is most true though it be in ryme non nocet sensus ubi non est consensus the sense hurteth not where there is no consent It is no sinne for the eye to see or the care to heare or for the Fancy to set up objects within her in that shape in which they appear but it is a hard matter as Saint Hierome speaks integritate mentis abutivoluptatibus to abuse those pleasures which daily present themselves to a good end to have them as Aristippus had his Lais and not to have them to live in pleasure without that delight which makes Tentation a sinne we may say of Temptations as he did of Fortune ana est ad illam securitas non toties illam experirt The best security we have against Fortunes fickle inconstancy is not to make tryall of her too often not to want her so of Tentations It is not good to look too often upon them when they flatter not to see too often not to heare too often not to open our eyes or our eares to vanity For as they who busy themselves in worldly affaires when all things succeed prosperously doe begin at last to doate on Riches and love them for themselves which they sought for at first but for their necessity so what we look upon at first as a common object by degrees insinuates and is made familiar to us and winnes our affection to it delights and overcomes us and what did at first stand at doore and begge an entrance at last enters in and takes full possession of us and commands in chief Last of all let us Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession CHRIST JESVS even this Lord who is to come who hath openâ—d the Treasuries of Heaven broughâ— own Life and Immortality display'd his rich and precious promises of Heaven and Everlasting Happinesse all which he will make ours if we make good but this one word but this one syllable Watch This is the price of Heaven This he dyed for that we should be a peculiar People unto him Even his Watch-men That as he for the joy which was set before him endured the Crosse despised shame suffered the Contradictions of sinners and yet was yesterday and to Day Heb. 12. and the same for ever So wee by his Power and the efficacy of his Spirit by the vertue of his Precepts and the Glory of his Promises may establish our selves watch over our selves secure our selves in the midst of snares and so be in the World as out of the world walk in the midst of Temptations and be untoucht walk in the midst of all these Fiery Tryalls as the Three Children did in the Furnace and have no hurt Heare the Musick of the world but not hearken to it behold its allurements and not be moved be one and the same in all the Changes and variety of Temptations the same when they flatter and the same when they Threaten which is truely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be like unto our Lord. And because the watch man watcheth in vain unlesse the Lord keepeth the house we must call upon this Lord to watch with us and to watch over us who is not gratiae angustus as Saint Ambrose speaks no niggard of his Grace but as he hath given us a command to watch so he hath given us another to depend upon him Greg Hom. 36. for assistance et scimus quià petentes libenter exaudit quando hoc petitur largiri quod jubet and we know it is impossible he should denie us our requests when we desire him to grant us that which he desires we should have his help and assistance to do that which he commands do we desire it he wisheth it do we begg it of him he beseeches us to accept it we begg his assistance against the lusts of the flesh 1 Thes 4.3 he commands us to crucifie them against the pollutions of the world his will is our sanctification against the Devil if we will he will tread him under our feet he commands us who is Xistarcus the master of the race and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the over-seer and Captain of the watch by whose power and wisdom we may keep back all our enemies If the Devil suggests evil thoughts he inspires good if the enemy lay hard at us that we may fall his mercy is ready to hold us up if we be subtle our Lord is wisdom it self in all our trials in all time of our tribulation in all time of our wealth in the hour of death and in the day of judgement he is our Lord and his Grace is sufficient for us If we fail and miscarry 't is because we will not joyn him with us because we begghis assistance and will not have it call upon him for help and weary him with our refusals be seech him to do that which we will not suffer him to do bespeak him to watch over us Is 21.11 If you will enquire enquire and fll fast asleep If you will repent repent saith the watch-man Iaf you would watch why do ye not How many yeers have you worn out in this spiritual exercise nay Vide Castalionis perutilem Tract de quinque impedimentis bonae mentis Job 8.9 to fall lower have we devoted two or three moneths nay lower yet how many weeks have we spent a week is not long but how many dayes our dayes on earth are but a shadow but how many hours and houres we say have wings and fly away I am ashamed to ask again How many minutes hath it cost us our life is but a span how much of this span how little of this little what a nothing of this nothing hath this great businesse took
the world he that flatters when he bids him rebuke and pleaseth others when they displease Christ is not his servant but his enemy but one of those many Antichrists or if his Servant such a servant as Peter was when he denyed him as Judas when he betrayed him and he will take it for more disservice to betray him in his Members then in his Person and is troubled more at the sight of those wounds which are made in his Mysticall Body then he was at those which were made in his flesh for he willingly suffered the paines of Death that they might not die Himself was lead to Death as a sleep to the flaughter and opened not his mouth but when he saw havock made of his Church he cryed out Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and in this every false Teacher is worse then Peter when he was at the worst every flatterer is worse then Judas every Seducer is worse then the Jewes when they nayl'd him to the Crosse For lastly Servus pro nullo est A servant is nothing is no person in Law hath no power of his owne servitus morti aequiparatur say the Civilians a servant is as a Dead man and cannot Act nor move of himself but is Actuated as it were by the Power and command of his Lord and Master and never goes but when he sayes goe never Doth but what he bids him doe and doth not interpret but execute his Will Non oportet villicum plus sapere quam Dominum saith Columella It is a most unfit and disadvantageous thing for the Farmer or Husbandman to be wiser then his Lord For when the Lord commandeth one thing and the servant thinks it fitter to do another the crop and harvest will be but Thin and it is so in our spiritual Husbandry It savours of too much boldness and presumption for the servant to be wiser then his Master and there will be but small increase when the Master calls for the whip and the servant brings the merry Harp and the Lute when he calls for a Talent to reckon but a mite and when he writes a Hundred to take the Bill and set down Fifty It is the greatest folly in the World to be thus wise when wisedome it self prescribes when he condemnes the love of the World to put in Immoderate and yet keep no moderation in our Love when he forbids us to be Angry to lay hold of that without a cause and yet suffer every breath to raise a Tempest in us when he sayes sweare not all to perswade men to sweare and sweare againe though it be against a former Oath when he bids us pray for our Enemies to be so bold as to curse our Friends and our Brethren It is a great and dangerous folly thus to trifle with our Master and delude his Precepts and what doe we with these Distinctions and limitations and mittigations but shake Christs Livery off from our backs and Thrust our selves out of his service and then Tell me whose servants are we Quot nascuntur Domini For this one Master whose service wee have cast off how many Masters and Tyrants doe we serve servants to the Flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof servants to Covetousnesse which sets us with the Gibeonites to be hewers of wood and diggers of water condemnes us to the Mines and Brick-kiln servants to Ambition which will carry thee from step to step from degree to degree till thou break thy neck servants to pleasure which like the Egyptian Thieves will Embrace and strangle thee and Servants to other men would that were all nay but to other mens wills and Lusts which change as the winde now embracing anon loathing now ready to joyne with that which in the twinkling of an eye they fly from et quot rascuntur Domini How many Masters must thou serve in one man servants to their Lusts which are as unsatiable as the Grave servants unto Error which is blind and to sinne which is Darkness it self even mancipia Satanae the bondslaves of Satan with Canaans curse upon us Gen. 9. A servant of servants shall he be Non sum servus Christi I am not the servant of Christ is Anathema Maran-atha the bitterest Curse that is For Conclusion then Let them who are set apart to lead others in the wayes of Truth and Righteousness take heed they lead them not in the wayes of Cain and take from them their spirituall as he did from his Brother his Temporall life Let them who subscribe themselves Your servants in Christ In every Epistle thus they write be carefull to make it good That their Epistle prove not a Complement and their subscription a lye Let them who doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fitt their conversation and Doctrine to the Times and so make them worse who force the word of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak in favour of Philip or any great Potentate Athen. Deipn l. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scire uti Forc as he was let them who make it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a buskin to be pull'd on and fit any designe any enterprize let them remember what they are call'd and they call themselves the servants of Christ of that Christ who will one day call them to an Account and require the blood of those who are under their charge at their Hands who shall call upon them as Augustus Caesar did upon Quinctilius Varus Quinctili Vare redde legiones Give an account of your stewardship where are the Legions those souls which I committed to your hands The souls of them you betrayed to the world and left them Mammonists the souls of them you betray'd to Pride made them Factious The souls of them you betray'd to discontent and made them seditious the souls of them you betray'd to cruelty and made them Murderers Their blood will be upon you and verily it shall be required of this Generation And let them who are Taught remember They are hought with a price and are the servants of Christ and cleave fast to him and not to be drove from him with every wind of Doctrine not to Judge of the Doctrine by the person but to judge of the person by his Doctrine for in Christianity saith Saint Hierom Non multum differt decipere decipi there is no great difference between these two To take a cheat or to offer one for both are deceived and both perish The one comes with a vaile the other is willing to draw it over his face The one puts out his eyes and the other is willing to be blind and both rejoyce at the work both cry so so Thus we would have it When we see so many so diffident in all things but that which should fitt them for happinesse taking nothing upon Trust but the Doctrines of men when we shall see them have mens persons in Admiration and their eyes dazle at every Mushrome in Divinity that grows up in a Night when we shall
be that seale it up and seare it as Saint Paul speaks as with a hot Iron If it speake to us we are deafe if it renew its clamours we are more averse and if it check us we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Paul beat and wound it more and more multi famam pauci conscientiam verentur saith Pliny the loudest noise our conscience can make is not heard but the censure of men which is not most times worth our thought is a thunder-clap we heare it and we tremble we are led like fooles with melody to the stocks what others say is our motion and turnes us about to any point but when we speak to our selves we heare it but believe it not fling it by and forget it The voice of conscience is defraud not your brother nay but we will over-reach him the voice of conscience is Love thy neighbour as thy self nay but we will oppresse him the voice of conscience is Love Mercy nay but we will love our selves what we speak to our selves our selves soon make hereticall How Ambitious are we to be accounted Just and how unwilling to be so How loud are we against sin in the presence of others and then make our selves as invisible as we can that we may commit it what a sin is uncleannesse in the Temple and what a blessing is it in the closet with what gravity and severity will a corrupt Judge threaten iniquity What a pilferer Let him be whipt What a murderer He shall dye the death he whips the theef and hangs the murderer and indeed whips and hangs himself by a Proxie So that we see neither the power of the Laws nor the respect and obedience we owe to our selves are of any great force to prevaile with us to order our steps aright walk with men or as before men That may have some force but it reacheth no further then the outward man Walk with our selves give eare to our selves This might do much more but we see the practice of it is very rare and unusuall That there is little hope that it will compleat and perfect our walk and make us Just and Mercifull men which is here required It will be easie then to infer that our safest conduct will be to walk with God and to secure both the Laws of men and that Law within us that they may have their full power and effect in us we must first raise and build up in our selves this firm perswasion that whatsoever we do or think is open to the eye of that God who is above us and yet with us That that discovery which he makes is infinitely and incomparably more cleare and certain then that which we make by our sences that we do not see our friend so plain as he seeth our hearts that thou seest not the birds fly in the ayre so distinctly as he sees thy thoughts fly about the world to those severall objects which we have set up for our delight that he sees and observes that irregularity and deformity in our actions which is hid from our eyes when our intention is serious and our search most accurate Yet neverthelesse though being as we are in the flesh and so led by sence were this belief rooted and confirmed in us That he did but see us as man sees us or were this as evident to our faith as that is to our sence we should be more watchfull over our selves more wary of the divels snares and baits then we commonly are magna necessitas indicta pietatis c. saith Hilary Hil. in Psal 178. for there is a necessity laid upon us of feare and reverence and circumspection when we know and believe That he now stands by as a witnesse who will come again and be our Judge What a Paradise would the world be what a heaven would there be upon earth if this were generally and stedfastly beleived Glorious things are spoken of faith we call it a full assent we call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full and certain perswasion It is the evidence of things not seen I ask is ours so would to God it were nay would for many of us we did but believe that he is present with us and sees what we do or think as firmly as we do a story out of our own Chronicles nay as many times we do believe a lye would our faith were but as a grain of mustard-seed even such a faith if it did not remove mountains yet would chide down many a swelling thought would silence many a proud word would restrain us from those actions which now we glory in but would run from as from serpents as from the divel himself if we could fully perswade our selves that a God of wisdome and Power were so neer And now in the last place Let us cast a look upon those who for want of this perswasion doe walk on in the haughtinesse of their hearts and neither bowe to the Laws of God or men nor hearken to the Law within them which notwithstanding could not be in them were not this bright Eye and powerfull Hand over them And this may serve for Use and Application Many walk saith Saint Paul to the Philippians of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping that they are enemies to God And first the presumptuous sinner walks not with God who hath first hardened his heart and then his face as Adamant whose very countenance doth witnesse against him who declares his sins as Sodome and hides them not and they who first contemn themselves and then scornfully reject what common Reason and Nature suggest to them and then at last trusting either to their wit or wealth conceive a proud disdain of all that are about them and not a negative but a positive contempt of God himself first lose their reason in their lusts and then their modesty which is the onely good thing that can find a place in evil who doe that upon the open stage which they did at first but behind the curtain who first make shipwrack of a good conscience and then with the swelling salies of Impudence hasten to that point and haven which their boundlesse lusts have made choice of as we should doe to eternall happinesse per calcatum patrem as Saint Jerome speaks over Father and Mother over all Relations and Religion it self forsake all these not for Christs sake and the Gospel but for Mammon and the world What foule pollutions that grinding and cruell oppressions what open profanenesse have there been in the world and we may ask wit the Prophet Ieremiah cap. 8.12 Confusi sunt Were they ashamed when they committed abomination Nay they were not ashamed neither could they have any shame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 4.18 for the hardnesse and blindnesse of their heart For in sin and by sin they at last grow familiar in sin clothe themselves with it as with a robe of Honour bring it forth into open view
love For he that looks upon the commandments and keeps them hath the will of God and he that hath his will hath all that wisdome can find out or power bring to passe hath Gods providence and almightinesse his companions his guides his protection in his way and the world the pomp and vanity of it can no more prevaile against him then it can against God himself but where God is there shall this stranger be also when passing through all these he shall come to his journeys end For first that we may make some use of this and so conclude this our conformity to the will of God in keeping his commandments will make us observe a Decorum and being strangers in the earth to behave our selves as strangers in it for necessities sake give a perfunctory and slight salute not look upon it as a friend not to trust it not to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God as Saint Paul exhorteth 1 Tim. 17. but to suspect and be jealous of every thing in it Theophr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we use to be of every man we meet in a strange place and as plain country-men who are ignorant of coines suspect and try every piece they see and though it be current yet feare it may be counterfeit So to say within our selves this beauty which smiles may bite as a cockatrice this wine which looks red may be a mocker these riches may be my last receit this strength may ruine me this wit may befool me that which makes me great in my own eyes that for which I flatter and worship my self and tread all others with scorn under my feet may make me the least in the Kingdom of heaven nay quite shut me out this beauty may bring deformity into my soul this wine may be as the Manichees called Fel principis tenebrarum the gall of the Prince of darknesse and these riches may begger me and my Perfections undoe me Far better is it for a stranger to be cautelous and wary then too venturous and fool-hardy better for him to feare where no feare is then to be ready to meet and embrace every toy and trifle that smiles and kils Now by this we arme our selves against all casualties and misfortunes which is more then all the conveyances and devises of the Law more then the providence of the wisest can do For what can fall out by chance to him who is ever under the wing of the almighty or what can be lose who hath denied all unto himself and himself too in every aspect and relation to the world This is our provision and this is our security he that will be secure must learn to be a stranger he that will lose nothing must learn to have nothing and then as our obedience to Gods will doth keep us in a decorum so it teacheth us by looking on the world with an eye of jealousie to make it our friend a friend of Mammon and a friend of a temptation for so we make that which was dangerous beneficiall unto us and rise up as high as heaven upon that which might have been our ruine by looking upon it with the suspicious and jealous eye of a stranger Secondly It supplies us with armes and strengthens us against all afflictions which may beat upon us all miseries which befall us all contumelies which may affront us in our way for what are all these poor sprinklings these weak breathings of wind and aire to us when we remember we are but strangers in the world The world knows us not because it knows not God as Saint John tells us 1 Ep. 3.1 peregrini deorsùm cives sursùm strangers here below but Citizens above What can they who are so unlike to the world who contemn the world expect lesse here there will be Shimeis to revile us Zedekiahs to smite us on the cheek oppressors to grind us and Tyrants to rob and spoile us when they please and if we will have them our friends we must make our selves like them and go to hell along with them but the commandments of God are an Antidote against all these For these evils cannot trouble us if we make use of the right remedy which is no where to be found but in Christ in whom all the treasuries of wisdome are hid But one errour of our lives it is and a great one to mistake the remedy of evils nec tam morbis laboramus quà m remediis nor doth our disease and malady so much molest us as the remedies themselves The poor man thinks there is no other remedy for poverty but riches the revenger cannot purge his gall and bitternesse but with the blood of his enemy the sick is quieted with nothing but with health but indeed these are not remedies answerable to the nature and operation of these severall diseases for the poor man may become rich and be poorer then before the revenger may draw blood and be more enraged then before the sick man may be restored to health and be worse then before the will of God is the truest and most soveraign physick and his will is that we estrange our selves from the world that our hearts be fixed on him and on those pleasures which are at his right hand for evermore And then there will be no such things as Poverty or Injuries or Sicknesse or at least they will not appeare so to us which is all one nay which is more for now they are not what they are unto us nor do we see that horrour in them which they that dwell in the world do but as Saint Paul speaks when we are poor then we are rich when we are weak then we are strong when we are in disgrace then we are honourable when we are persecuted then we are happy when we are sick then we are best in health and even see our journeys end Nihil imperitius impatientia Impatience which ever accompanies the neglect of Gods commands is the most ignorant unskilfull inexperienced the most ungodly thing in the world For these complaints in poverty this impatience of injuries this murmuring in our sicknesse are ill signes that we love the pleasures of the world more then the will of God that we see more glory in a piece of earth then virtue that we are more afraid of a disgrace then of sin that we bowe with more devotion and affection to the world then to God and so cannot make this glorious confession with our Kingly Prophet that we are Accolae and peregrini strangers and pilgrims upon the earth Thirdly our conformity to the will of God is a precious Antidote against the feare of death the feare of death why we were delivered from that when Christ took part with us of flesh and blood Heb. 2.14 and through death destroyed him who had the power of death the devil why should any mortall now feare to dye It is most true Christ dyed and by his death shook the powers of
the grave Consummatum est all is finished and he is returned victoriously with the spoils of his enemies and of this last enemy death But for all this his triumph death may be still the King of terrours and as dreadfull as before All is finisht on his part but a covenant consists of two 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 implies a condition He delivers those that are willing to be delivered who do not feed death and supply this enemy with such weapons as make him terrible All the terrour death hath is from our selves our sin our disobedience to the commands of God that 's his sting And our part of the covenant is by the power virtue of Christs death every day to be plucking it from him and 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 Scepter out of his hand and spoile 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 Saint Paul speaks 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 feare death Then we shall look upon it not 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 pilgrims as a message sent from Heaven to tell us our walk is at an end and now we are to lay down our staffe and scrip and rest in that Jerusalem which is above for which we vowed this pilgrimage Et quis non ad meliora festinat Tert. de patientia 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 fears God can feare 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 because they have not tasted of the powers of the world to come who wish immortality to this mortall 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 goe hence Last of all It 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 knows the condition of a stranger how many dangers how many cares how many stormes and tempests he was obnoxious to hang down the head and complain that he had now passed through them all and was set down at his journeys end why should he who looks for a City to come be troubled that his fellow pilgrime came 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 unlesse it be because we have not made it our meat and drink to keep Gods commandments which might give us a taste of a better estate to come unlesse 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 and yet unwilling to draw neer 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 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 and 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 neerest 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 aire when indeed there is no more then this one pilgrime is gone before his fellows one gone and left others in their way in trouble and more troubled that he is gone to rest Migrantem migrantes praemisimus saith Saint Hierom we are passing forward apace and have sent one before us to his journeys end his everlasting sabbath With this contemplation doth religion comfort and uphold us in our way and keeps us in that temper which the Philosopher commends as best in which we do sentire desiderium opprimere she gives nature leave to draw teares but then she brings in faith and hope to wipe them off Sen. ad Marciam she suffers us to mourn for our friends but not as men without hope Nature will vent and love is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Orator ever querulous and full of complaints when the object is removed out of sight and God remembers whereof we are made is not angry with our love and will suffer us to be men but then we must silence one love with another our naturall 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 journeys end and here we must raise our note and speak it more heartily Blessed are such strangers blessed are they that dye in the Lord even so saith the spirit that they rest from their labours For conclusion let us feare God and keep his commandments this is the whole duty of a stranger to observe those Lawes which came from that place to which he is going let these his Lawes 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 world through which we are to passe It shall be as a rock firm and solid against every wave and temptation that shall beat against it and a shop of precious receipts and proper remedies against every evil It shall be spoliarium mortis a place where death shall be stript and spoiled of its sting and of its terrour In a word It