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
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
with his Grace if we will receive it which will make his commands which are now grievous easie his Promises which are rich profitable which may carry us on in a regular and peaceable course of piety and obedience which is our Angel which is our God and we call it Grace All these things we have with Christ and the Apostle doth not onely tell us that God doth give us them but to put it out of doubt puts up a quomodo non challenges as it were the whole world to shew how it should be otherwise How will he not with him give us all things And this question addes energy and weight and emphasis and makes the position more positive the affirmation more strong and the truth of it more perswasive and convincing shall he not give us all things It is impossible but he should more possible for a City upon a hill to be hid than for him to hide his favour from us more possible for Heaven to sink into Hell or Hell to raise it self up to his Mercy-seat than for him to with-hold any thing from them to whom he hath given his Son Impossible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most inconvenient as that which is against his Wisdome Naz. Or. 36. his Justice his Goodnesse and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as abhorrent to his will to deny us any thing In brief if the Earth be not as Iron the Heavens cannot be as Brasse God cannot but give when we are fit to receive and in Christ we are made capable and when he is given all things are given with him nay more than all things more than we can desire more than we can conceive when he descends Mercy descends with him in a ful shower of Blessings to make our Souls as the Paradise of God to quicken our Faith to rouze up our Hope and in this Light in this Assurance in this Heaven we are bold with S. Paul to put up the question against all Doubts all Feares all Temptations that may assault us He that sparede not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things The Conclusion And now we have passed up every step and degree of this scale and ladder of love and seen Christ delivered and nailed to the Crosse and from thence he looks down and speaks to us to the end of the world Crux patientis fuit Cathedra docentis the Crosse on which he suffered was the Chaire of his profession and from this Chair we are taught Humility constant Patience and perfect Obedience an exact art and method of living well drawn out in severall lines so that what was ambitiously said of Homer that if all Sciences were lost they may be found in him may most truly be said of his Crosse and Passion that if all the characters of Innocency Humility Obedience Love had been lost they might here be found in libro vitae agni in the Book of the Life nay of the Death of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World yet now nailed to the Crosse Let us then with Love and Reverence look upon him whothus looks upon us put on our Crucified Jesus that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrys every Vertue his Humility his Patience his Obedience and so bear about with us the dying of our Lord and draw the picture of a Crucified Saviour in our selves To this end was he delivered up for us to this end we must receive him that we may glorifie God as he hath glorified him on earth for Gods Glory and our Salvation are twisted together and wrought as it were in the same thred are linked together in the same bond of Peace I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Thus it runs and it runs on evenly in a stream of love Oh how must it needs delight him to see his Gift prosper in our hands to see us delivering up our selves to him who was thus delivered for us to see his purchase those who were bought with this price made his peculiar people Lift then up the gates of your souls that this King of Glory may come in If you seek Salvation you must seek the glory of God and if you seek the glory of God you shall find it in your Salvation Thou may'st cry loe here it is or loe there it is but here it is found The Jew may seek salvation in the Law the Superstitious in Ceremony and bodily exercise the Zelot in the Fire and in the Whirlwind the phantastick lazy Christian in a Thought in a Dream and the profane Libertine in Hell it self Then then alone we find it when we meet it in conjunction with the glory of God which shines most gloriously in a Crucified Christ and an Obedient Christian made conformable to him and so bearing about in him the markes of the LORD JESUS To conclude then Since God hath delivered up his Son for us all and with him given us all things let us open our hearts and receive him that is Believe in his name that is be faithfull to him that is love him and keep his Commandements which is our conformity to his Death and then he will give us what will he give us he will heap gift upon gift give us power to become the Sons of God Let us receive him take in Christ take him in his Shame in his Sorrow in his Agony take him hanging on the Crosse take him and take a pattern by him that as he was so we may be troubled for our sins that we may mingle our Teares with his Blood drag our Sin to the Bar accuse and condemn it revile and spit in its Face at the fairest presentment it can make and then naile it to the Crosse that it may languish and faint by degrees and give up the Ghost and die in us and then lye down in peace in his Grave and expect a glorious Resurrection to eternall life where we shall receive Christ not in Humility but in Glory and with him all his Riches and Abundance all his glorious Promises even Glory and Immortality and Eternall life HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE A SERMON Preached on Easter-Day REV. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of Death WE do not ask of whom speaketh S. John this or who is he that speaks it for we have his character drawn out in lively colours in the verses going before my Text. The Divine calls him a voyce ver 12. when he meanes the man who spake it I turned to see the voyce that spoke with me and in the next verse tells us he was like to the Son of man in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks governing his Church setting his Tabernacle amongst men not abhorring to walk amongst them and to be their God Leâ— 26.11,12 that they might be his people Will ye see his Robes
built up his assurance as strong as he can yet thinks himself not sure enough but seeks for further assurance and fortify's it with his Feare and assiduous diligence that it may stand fast for ever whereas we see too many draw out their owne Assurance and seale it up with unclean Hands with wicked hands with hands full of Blood We have read of some in the dayes of our Fore-fathers and have heard of others in our own and no doubt many there have been of whom we never heard whose Conversation was such as became the Gospel of Christ and yet have felt that hell within themselves which they could not discover to others but by gastly looks Out-cryes and deep Groanes and loud complaints to them who were neere them That Hell it self could not be worse nor had more Torments then they felt And these may seem to be breath'd forth not from a broken but a perishing heart to be the very Dialect of Despaire and indeed so they are for Despaire in the worst acception cannot sink us lower then hell But yet we cannot we may not be of their opinion and think what they say that they are cast out of Gods sight No God sees them looks upon them with an Eye full of compassion and most times sends an Angel to them in this their Agony as he did unto Christ a message of Comfort to rowse them up but if their tendernesse should yet raise doubts and draw the cloud still over them we have reason to think and who dares say the contrary that the hand of Mercy may even through this cloud receive them to that Sabbath and rest which remaines for the people of God I speak of men who have been severe to themselves and watchfull in this their Warfare full of good works and continued in them and who have many times when they were even at the gates of heaven and neere unto happinesse these Terrors and affrightments who are full of Charity and therefore cannot be destitute of hope although their owne sad apprehensions and the breathings of a Tender Conscience have made the operation of it lesse sensible and their hope be not like Aarons rod cut off dryed up and utterly dead but rather like a tree in Winter in which there is life and faculty yet the absence of the Sun or the cold benumming it suffers no force of life to worke but when that draws neere and yeelds its warmth and Influence it will bud and blossome and bring forth fruit and leafe together The Case then of every man that Despaires is not desperate but we must consider dispair in its Causes which produce and work it If it be exhal'd and drawn up out of our corrupt works and a polluted Conscience the streame of it is poysonous and deleteriall the very smoake of the bottomlesse pit but if it proceed from the distemper of the body which seises upon one as well as another or a weakness of Judgement which befalls many who may be weak and yet Pious or an excessive sollicitude and tendernesse of soul which is not so common we cannot think it can have that force and malignity as to pull him back who is now thus striving to enter in at the narrow gate or to cut him off from salvation who hath wrought it out with Feare and trembling At the Day of Judgement the Question will be not what was our Opinion and conceit of our selves but what our conversation was and what we thought of our Estate but what we did to raise it not of our fancied application of the Promises but whether we have performed the Condition For then the Promises will apply themselves God hath promised and he will make it good we shall not be askt what we thought but what we did for how many have thought themselves sure who never came to the knowledge of their Error till it was too late How many have called themselves Saints who have now their portion with Hypocrites How many have fancied themselves into Heaven whose wilfull disobedience carried them another way on the other side how many have beleeved and yet doubted how many have been synceere in the wayes of Righteousnesse and yet drooped How many have fainted even in their Savours Armes when his Mercies did compassed them in on every side how many have been in he greatest Agony when they were neerest to their Exaltation How many have condemned themselves to hell who now sit crowned in the highest Heavens I know nothing by my self 2 Cor. 4.4 saith Saint Paul yet am not thereby Justified Hoc dicit Dialogo adv Pelagium ne forte quid per ignorantiam deliquisset saith Saint Hierom though he knew nothing yet something he might have done amisse which he did not know and though our Conscience accuse us not of greater crimes yet our Conscience may tell us we may have committed many sins of which she could give us no Information and this may cast a mist about him who walketh as in the Day In a word a man may doubt and yet be saved and a man may assure himself and yer perish a man may have a groundless Hope and a man may have a groundlesse Feare and when we see two thus contrarily Elemented the one drooping the other cheerfull the one rejoycing in the Lord whom he offends the other trembling before him whom he loves we may be ready to pitty the one and blesse the Condition of the other cast away the Elect and chuse the Reprobate and therefore we must not be too rash to Judge but leave the Judgement to him who is Judge both of the quick and dead and will neither condemne the Innocent for his Feare or justifie the man that goes on in his sinne for his Assurance Take Comfort then thou disconsolate soule which art strucken down into the place of Draggons and art in this terror and anguish of heart This feare to thine is but a cloud and it will drop down and distill in Blessings upon thy head This Agony will bring down an Angel This sorrow will be turned into joy and this Doubt answered this despaire vanish that Hope may take its proper place againe the Heart of a poenitent Thy Feare is better then other mens confidence thy anxiety more Comsortable then their security Thy doubting more favoured then their assurance Timor tuus securitas tua thy feare of Death will end in the firme expectation of Eternall life Though thou art tost on a Tumultuous Sea thy Mast spent and thy Tackling torne yet thou shalt at last strike in to shore when these proud Saylors shall shipwrack in a Calme Misinterpret not this thy dejection of Spirit thy sad and pensive Thoughts nor seek too suddenly to remove them an afflicted Conscience in the time of health is the most hopefull and Soveraigne Physick that is thy feare of Death is a certaine Symptome and infallible signe of life there is no Horror of the Grave to him that lies
hugg themselves in it are very weak even Children in understanding Gerson the devour Schoolman tells us Mulieres omnes propter infirmitaetem consilii mâ—jores nostri in Tutorum potestate esse voluerunt Cicero pro Mutaena it is most commonly in Women quarum aviditas pertinacior in assectu fragilior in cognitione Whose affections commonly outrunne their understanding who affect more then they know and are then most enflamed when they have least light and it is in men too and too many who are as fond of their groundless Fancies and ill-built Opinions as the weaknesse of that sex could possibly make them are as weak as the weakest of women and have more need of the bitt and Bridle then the Beasts that perish what greater weaknesse can there be then to follow a blind guide and deliver our selves up to our Fancy and affective Notions and make them Masters of our Reason and the only Interpreters of that word which should be a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathes For if we check not our Fancy and Affections they will run madding after shadows and apparitions They will shew us nothing but Peace in the Gospel nothing but Love in Christianity Nothing but Joy in the Holy Ghost They will set our Love and Joy on Wheeles and then we are straight carried up to Heaven in these siery Chariots One is Elioas Another John Baptist Another Christ himself If the Virgin Mary have an Exultat they have a Iubilee If Saint Paul be in the Spirit They are above it and right Reason too and the Spirit is theirs if he put on that shape which best likes them If he be a Spirit of Counsel we are his Secretaries of his Closet and can tell what he did before all Times and Number over his Decrees at our Fingers ends If a Spirit of strength we bid defiance to Principalities and Powers If a Spirit of Wisedome we are filled with him the wise-men the sages of the World though no man could ever say so but our selves If a Spirit of Ioy we are in an Extasy if of Love we are on fire But if he be Spiritus Timoris a Spirit of Feare there we leave him and are at Ods with him we seem to know him not and we cannot Feare at all because we are bold to think that wee have the Spirit 'T is true whilst we stand thus affected a Spirit we have but 't is a Spirit of illusion which troubles and distorts our Intellectualls and makes us look upon the Gospel ex adverso situ on the wrong side on that which may seem to flatter our infirmities but not on that which may cure them and as Tully told his friend That he did not know Totum Caesarem all of Caesar so we know not totum Christum all of Christ wee know and consider him as a Saviour but not as a LORD wee know him in the Riches of his Promises but not in the Terror of his Judgements know him in that life he purchas'd for Repentant sinners but not in that death he threatens to Unbeleevers For to let passe the Law of works Heb. 12.20 we dare not come so neere as to touch at that for we cannot endure that which was commanded Let us well weigh and consider the Gospel it self which is the Law of Faith was not that establish'd and confirmed with promises of Eternal life and upon penalty of Eternall Death In the Gospel we are told of weeping and gnashing of Teeth of a condition worse them to the a Mill-stone hanged about our necks and to be throwne into the bottom of the Sea and by no other then by the Prince of Peace then by Christ himself who would never have put this feare in us if he had knowne that our Love had had strength enough to bring us to him And therefore in the Tenth of St. Matthews Gospel at 28. verse he teacheth us how we shall feare Rectâ methodo he teacheth us to be perfect methodists in Fear that we misplace not our Feare upon any Earthly Power he sets up a Ne Timete Feare not them that can kill the Body and when they have done that have done all and can do no more and having taken away one feare he establisheth another But feare him who can both cast Body and Soul into Hell fire and that we might not forget it for such troublesome guests lodge not long in our memory he drives it home with an Etiam Dico Yea I say unto you feare him Now Him denotes a Person and no more and then our feare may be Reverence and no more It may be Love it may be Fancy it may be nothing but qui potest is equivalent to quia potest and is the reason why we must feare him even because he can punish And this I hope may free us from the Imputation of sinne if our Love be blended with some Feare and if in our Obedience we have an eye to the hand that may strike us as well as to that which may fill us with good things and if Christ who is the Wisedome of the Father think it fit to make the Terror of Death an argument to move us we cannot have Folly laid to our charge if we be moved with the Argument Fac Fac saith Saint Austin vel timore poenae si non Potes adhuc amore justitiae Doe it man Doe it if thou canst not yet for Love of Justice yet for fear of punishment I know that of Saint Austin is true Brevis differentia legis Evangelii Amor Timor Love is proper to the Gospel and Feare to the Law but 't is Feare of Temporall punishment not of Eternall for that may sound to both but is loudest in the Gospel The Law had a whip to fright us and the Gospel hath a Worm to Gnaw us I know that the Beauty of Christ in that great Work of Love the work of our Redemption should transport us beyond our selves and make us as the Spouse in the Canticles is said to be even sick with love but we must consider not what is due to Christ but what we are able to pay him and what he is willing to Accept not what so great a Benefit might challenge at our hands but what our Frailty can lay downe for we are not in Heaven already but passing towards it with Feare and trembling And he that brings forth a Christian in these colours of Love without any mixture of Feare doth but as it was said of the Historian votum accomodare non historiam present us rather with a wish then an History and Character out the Christian as Xenophon did Cyrus Non qualis est sed qualis esse deberet not what he is but what he should be I confesse thus to fear Christ thus to be urged and chased to Happinesse is an Argument of Imperfection but we are Men not Angels We are not in heaven already we are not yet perfect and
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
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
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
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
delighted tradidit repletos non replendos Isid Pelus l. 4. ep 102 saith the father he gave them over not be filled but being filled already with all iniquity he delivered them over to a reprobate minde they retained not God in any part of their time and now that is run out is at an end and that time will be no more they would be evil and now they cannot be good The Jewish Doctors had a proverb that God did but in this his proceeding farinam jam molitam molere but do that which was done already to his hands grinde that corn that was ground already and leave them who would be left to themselves and their own hellish wickednesse which was their ruine For that of Basil is most true Bas Hom. 22. c. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judgement follows mercy at the heels to take revenge upon those who wantonly abuse her strikes them dead who would not live and seals them up to damnation who were condemned already You may now Turn and he will receive you that 's the dialect of mercy but you shall not if you thus put it off from time to time that 's the voice of an angry and despised God Oh that thou hadst known in this thy day see Mercy gave her a day and shined brightly in it by which light she might have seen the things that concerned her peace nunc autem but now now it is past are as the black lines of reprobation drawn out by the hand of Justice It was thy day but now it is shut up and now nox est perpetuo una dormienda thy Sun is set for ever all is night eternal night the light is hid from thine eyes and thou shalt never see it more You will say this was spoken to a People to a Nation 't is true but may it not also be so with every particular person may it not be so with one Pharisee with one viper as well as with a generation was it not so with Judas as well as with Jerusalem I have read that a Body or a Society that a Common-wealth may fall under a censure and be subject unto penalty yet bodies do not offend but in their parts 't is not Rome that commits the fault but Sempronius or Titius who are parts of that Common-wealth Not the Amorites alone Not the sect of the Pharisees not Jerusalem alone but every man may have Diem suam his allotted time in which he may turn from his evil wayes and this day may be a Feast-day or a day of trouble it may beget an eternal day or it may end in the shadow of death and everlasting darknesse Oh that men were wise but so wise as the creatures which have no reason so wise as to know their seasons to discover hanc diem suam this their day wherein they may yet turn that we could but behold that Decretory hour or but place it in our thoughts or make it our fear that such a one there may be in which Mercy shall forsake us and Justice cut off our hopes for ever Certainly we should not make so many Dayes in our year we should not resolve to day for to morrow and to morrow for the next and so drive it forward till the last sand till we can resolve no more For he that thinks so lightly of eternity to think it may be wrought out in a moment and yet will not allow it so much but when he please hath just cause to fear that his day is past already Now though there may be such a day such a moment yet this day this moment like the day of judgement is not known to any and it may seem on purpose to be removed out of our sight that we may be jealous of every moment of our life and when the devil tempts the World flatters the flesh rebells set up this thought against them that this may be our last moment and if we yeeld now we shall be slaves for ever For as the long suffering of God is Salvation the second of Pet. 3.15 so is every day every hour of our life such a day and such an hour which carries along with it eternity Sen. de benef 2.5 either of pain or Blisse That thou mayest therefore turn now think that a time may come when thou shalt not be able to turn tardè velle nolentis est not to be willing to turn to thy God now is to deny him delay is no better then defiance And why shouldest thou hope to be willing hereafter whoart not willing now and art not willing now upon this false deceitful hope that thou shalt be willing hereafter Wilful and present folly is no good presage of after-wisdom and it is more probable that a froward will will be more froward and perverse then that after it hat joyned with the vanities of this world and cleaved fast unto them it should bow and bend it self to that Law which makes it death to touch them He that leaps into the pit upon hope that he shall get out hath leapt into his Grave at least deserves to be covered over with darknesse and to buried there for ever Feare then lest the measure of thy Iniquity be almost full and perswade thy self thy next sin may fill it Think this is thy Day thy houre Thy moment and though peradventure it may not be yet think it may be thy last It is no error though it be an error For if it be not thy last yet in Justice God might make it so for why should Heaven be offer'd more then once and if it be an Error It is an happy Error and will redeeme us from all those Errors which delay brings in and multiplies even those Errors which make us worse then the Beasts that perish A happy error I may say an Angel that layes hold on us and snaches us out of the fire out of the common ruine and hastens us to our God A happy Error which frees us from all other errors of our life And yet though it may be an errour for it is no more Then it may be it is a truth for onely Now is true there may be many more Nows 't is true a now to morrow and a now hereafter and a now on our death-bed but these are but may-bees and these potentiall Truths concern us not for that which may bee may not bee that which concerns us is an Everlasting Truth To day if you will heare his voice harden not your hearts if you harden them to day and stand upon May-bees then they may be stand for ever And therefore if you expect I should point out to a certaine time The time is now Turne ye Turne ye even now now the Prophet speaks now the words sound in your eares Now if you will heare his voice harden not your hearts For why was it spoken but that we should hear it It is an earnest call after us and if we obey not it
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
many woes he pronounced against sinners perhaps he would not have fallen into that impious conceit of two Gods for though the dispensation have not the same aspect under the Law as under the Gospel yet God is the same God still 2 Cor. 5.11 as terrible to sinners that will not Turne as when he thundred from Mount Sinai and if we will not know and understand these Terrors of the Lord if we make not this use of them to drive us unto Christ and to root and build us up in him the Gospel it self will be to us as the Law was to the Jews a killing Letter For again as Humane Laws so Christs precepts have their force and life from reward and punishment and to this end we finde not onely scripta supplicia those woes and menaces which are written in the Gospel but God hath imprinted a fear of punishment in the very hearts of men Esse aliquos manes subterranea regna Juvenal That there remained punishments after life for sin was acknowledged by the very Heathen and we may easily be perswaded that had not this natural domestick fear come in between the World had been far more wicked then it is we see many are very inclinable to deny that there is either Heaven or Hell and would believe it because they would have it so many would be Atheists if they could but a secret whisper haunts and pursues them This may be so there is an appointed time to die and after that judgement may come There can be no danger in obedience there may be in sinne and this though it do not make them good yet it restraines them from being worse quibus incentivum impunitas timor taedium freedom from punishment makes sin pleasant and delightsome and so makes it more sinful but the fear of punishment makes it irksome brings those reluctancies nd gnawings those rebukes of Conscience for without it there could be none at all till the whip is held up there is honey on the Harlots lips and we would taste them often but that they bite like a Cockatrice 1 Pet. 5.6 non timemus peccare timemus ardere it is no sin we so much startle at but Hell fire is too hot for us And therefore Saint Peter when he would work repentance and Humility in us placeth us under Gods hand Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God which expresseth his power his commanding Attribute his Omniscience findes us out his Wisdom accuseth us his Justice condemns us potentia punit but 't is his hand his power that punisheth us Psal 78.34 Take away his hand and who feareth his Justice or regardeth his wisdome or tarrieth for the twi-light to shun his alseeing eye but cum occidat when we are told that he can kill and destroy us then if ever we return and seek God Early Again as the fear of death may be as Physick to purge and cleanse our souls from the contagion of sin so it may be an Antidote and preservative against it it may raise me when I am fallen and it may supply me with strength that I fall not again It is a hand to lift me up and it is an hand to lead me when I am risen inter vada freta through all the dangers that attend me in my way as it is an introduction to piety Tract 1. in Psalm c. 8. so is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gr. Nyssen a watch a guard upon me to keep me that no temptation no scandal no stone of offence make me turn back again into my evil waies For we must not think that when we are Turned from our evill wayes we have left feare behind us no she may goe along with us in the wayes of Righteousnesse and whisper us in the eare that God is the Lord most worthy to be feared she is our Companion and she leaves us not nor can we shake her off till we are brought to our Journeys end Our love such as it is may well consist with Feare Chrysost l. 1. de compunct c. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Feare of Judgement Look upon the blessed Saints David a man after Gods own heart yet he had saith Chrysost the memory of Gods Judgements written in his very heart his thoughts were busied with it his Meditations fixt here and it forced from him à Domine nè in furore Correct me not O Lord in thy angeer nor chastise me in thy wrath Hezekiah one of the best of the Kings of Judah yet walkt in the bitterness of his soul did mourne like a Dove Isa 38.14 and chatter like a Crane Saint Paul builds up a Tribunal and calls all men to behold it Rom. 14.10 Wee shall all stand before the Judgement seat of Christ Saint Hierom had the last Trump alwayes sounding in his eares and declaring to Posterity the strictnesse of his life his Teares his fasting his solitarinesse confesses of himself Hier. 1. Tom. ep 141. Ille ego qui ob Gehennae metum tali me carcere damnaveram Scorpiorum tantum socius ferarum I that condemned my self to so straight a prison as to have no better companions then Scorpions and wild Beasts for fear of Hell and Judgement did all this and was not ashamed to acknowledge that not so much the love unto it nor the Author of it as the dread of Hell and punishment confin'd and kept him constant in the practise of it And what should I say more for the time would faile me to tell you of other Saints of God who through feare wrought Righteousness obtained Promises out of weakness were made strong Behold love in its highest elevation in its very Zenith behold it when it was stronger then Death look upon the Glorious Army of Martyrs they had tryall of cruell mockings and scouragings yea moreover of Bonds and Imprisonment they were stoned and slaine with the sword And greater love then this hath no man saith our Saviour then this that a man lay downe his life for his friend and yet Saint Ambrose upon the 118. Psalme will tell us that this great love was upheld and kept in life by this gale of wind by Feare That the feare of one Death was swallowed up in the feare of another the feare of a temporall ion the feare of an Eternal The bloody Pagans to weaken their faith Pont. Diac. vit Cypr. urged the feare of present Death Consule tibi Noli animam tuam perdere favour your self cast not away your life Reverence your age and these they thought suggestions strong enough to shake their Constancy and Resolution but the consideration of the wrath of God and eternall separation from him did strengthen and establish them what is my breath to Eternity what is the fire of Persecution to the fury of Gods wrath what is the rack to hell sic animas posuerunt and with these Thoughts they laid down their lives and were
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
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
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
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
those rules and precepts hath raised such a fence and hedg about every common-wealth which if we did not pluck it up our selves might secure and carry them along in the course of things even to their end that is to the end of the world but this we talk of as we do of many other things and talk so long till we believe it and rest on our guesse and conjecture as on a demonstration but the truth is we are our own fate and destiny we draw out our thread and cut it we start out of our places and divide our selves from one another and then indeed and not till then Fate and Necessity lye heavy upon a kingdom and it cannot stand Christianity binds us to our own businesse and till we break loose till some one or other steps out of his place from it there is peace we are safe in our lesser vessels and the ship of the common-wealth rides on with that smoothnesse and evennesse which it hath from the consistencie of its parts in their own place for though all are one in Christ Jesus yet we cannot but see that there is a main difference between the inward qualification of his members and the outward administration and government of his Church In the kingdomes of the world and so in the Church visible every man is not fit for every place some must teach and some govern some must learne and obey some must put their hand to the plough some to this trade and some to that onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks those who are of more then ordinary wit and ability 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot l. 6 Polit. c. 5. must beare office in Church or Common-wealth One is noble another is ignoble one is learned another is ignorant one is for the spade and another for the sword one for the flaile and sheephook another for the scepter and such a disproportion is necessary amongst men for nihil aequalitate ipsa inaequalius Plin. Epist there is no greater inequality in the world then in a body politick where all the parts are equall for that equality which commends and upholds a Common-wealth ariseth from the difference of its parts moving in their severall measures and proportions as musick doth from discords when every part answers in its place and raiseth it self no higher then that will beare when the magistrate speaks by nothing but the Laws and the subject answers by nothing but his obedience when the greater shadow the lesse and the lesse help to fortifie the great when every part doth its part and every member its office then there is an equality and an harmony and we call it peace For if we move and move cheerfully in our own sphere and calling we shall not start forth to discompose or disorder the motion of others in theirs if we fill our own place we shall not leap over into anothers our desires will dwell at home our covetousnesse and ambition dye our malice cease our suspicion end out discontent vanish or else be soone changed and spiritualized our desires will be levelled on happinesse we shall covet the best things we shall be ambitious of heaven we shall malice nothing but malice and destroy it suspect nothing but our suspicion and be discontent with nothing but that we are so and so in this be like unto God himself and have our Center in our selves or rather make peace our Center that every motion may be drawn from it that in the compasse and Circumference of our behaviour with others all our Actions as so many lines may be drawn out and meet and be united in peace And this is not onely enjoyned by Religion and the Gospel but it is the Method of nature it self which hath so ordered it that every thing in its own place is at quiet and rest and no where else The earth moves not water is not ponderous in its proper place the fire burnes not in its sphere but out of it it hath voracitatem toto mundo avidissimam saith Pliny it spreads it self most violently and devours every thing it meets with nay poyson it self is not hurtfull to those tempers that breed it Senec. ep 81. Illud venenum quod serpentes in alienam perniciem proferunt sine suâ continent saith Seneca The venome of the Scorpion doth not kill the Scorpion and that poyson which serpents cast out with danger and hurt to others they keep without any to themselves And as it is in nature so is it in the society of men Our diligence in our own businesse is soveraign and connaturall to our estates and conditions but most times poysonous abroad and dangerous and fatall to our selves and others When Uzzah put forth his hand to hold up the Ark of God and keep it from falling though his intention were good yet God struck him for his error and rashnesse in moving out of his place and struck him dead 2 Sam. 6.7 because he did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe his own businesse when Uzziah invades the Priests office the 2. Chr. 26. and would burn Incense and Azariah the Prophet told him ad te non pertinet it pertaineth not to thee it is not thy businesse even while the censer was yet in his hand his sinne was writ in his forehead he was struck with a leprosie cut off from the city of the Lord v. 21. When Peter was busie to enquire concerning John What shall this man doe Our Saviour was ready with a sharp reply quid ad te what is that to thee thy businesse is to follow me When Christians out of a wanton and irregular zeale did throw down Images and were slaine by the Heathen in the very fact the Church censured them as disturbers of the peace rather then Martyrs and though they suffer'd death in the defiance of Idolatry yet allowed them no place in the Dypticks or in the Catalogue of those who laid down their life for the truth Corah riseth out of his place and the earth swallows him up Sheba is up and blowes a Trumpet and his head flyes over the wall Absalom would up into the Tribunall which was none of his place and was hang'd in the Oke which was fitter for him and if any have risen out of their place as we use to say on the right side and been fortunate villaines their purchase was not great honey mingled with gall Honour drugg'd with the hatred and curses of men with feares and cares with gnawings within and Terrors without all the content and pleasure they had by their great leape out of their place was but as Musick to one stretcht out on the Rack or as that little light which is let in through the crack or flaw of a wall into him that lyes fettered in a loathsome dungeon and at last their wages which was death eternall death and howling for ever Nay when we are out of our place and busie in that which