be subject to the higher powers But however this Spiritual power be not collateral simply but subordinate unto the Royal yet is it in regard of its original and derivation clearly independent as being not derivable into the Priesthood from any Prince or Potentate upon earth but immediately from him who hath it written on his Garment and on his Thigh The Lord of Lords and King of Kings And being thus distinct without derivation it is not possible the censures of the one should come forth in the name of the other but only indeed in Christs name and in their own persons who in this are the Ministers not of the King but of Christ as exercising no part of the power belonging to the Sword but only of those Keys that properly are their own and underivable too from any upon earth but those of their own Order However therefore these powers are subordinate yet two distinct powers they are and both as was said immediately from God and both therefore to be feared of men And sure this latter though the lesser yet not a little to be feared neither for though the Kings Laws bind the Conscience yet his revenge for the breaches of them cannot reach home unto the Soul His Sword is material and can but lash the Body though so lash it as sometimes to divide it from the Soul but St. Pauls Sword is spiritual and reacheth directly to the spirit dividing the Soul not indeed from its own Body but from the Church the Body of Christ and so from Christ too the head of the Body a power therefore in it self no way contemptible it is Christs own and he the more careful to vindicate it from contempt yea not it only but the power and person too of the meanest Priest amongst us for that of his concerns all He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me But yet all this were not that other Royal Power propitious upon earth I think would be of little force in these days to preserve them from contempt or confusion crushing confusion For did not the Sword of the Prince defend the Keys of the Priest they might well put them under their girdle if not under the door and be gone But blessed be God he that is the defender of the Faith and Doctrine of the Church in his Piety and Princely Goodness is pleased to be the Defender also of her Jurisdiction and Discipline Et defensoribus istis tempus eget for otherwise the Antihierarchical of these times and indeed Antimonarchical too as not well affecting any either Power or Prerogative but their own were it not for this would soon level all by their own Rule that is level with the ground lay all Power Ecclesiastick and Honour too like Davids in the dust if not rubbish even Monasterial But then they may do well to think of another dust too the dust of our heels which if but justly shaken there is one that assures us the sorrows of such Contemners will prove more insufferable than those of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of Judgment It is but right therefore and well too that the Regal Power is the Superior that so as it is the Moderator and Governour of the temporal it might be also the Protector of the spiritual causing that fear and reverence which is due unto both to be paid also respectively unto either Neither in requiring this unto them do we divert from the right object of fear in my Text for it is but fear God still For God himself hath in a sort Deified Authority He hath given them of his own power and imparted his very Name unto their Persons I have said ye are Gods and ye are all sons of the most high And Gods indeed not only by appellation but in effect also for the great and universal benefit which they bring unto mankind For were not Man thus made a God unto Man Men would soon become Wolves unto themselves and devour one another And therefore to fear such Men is not to fear Men but God since the fear is not so much exhibited unto their naked persons as unto those beams and participations of the Divinity wherewith they are clothed And in this sort it is not amiss to say that God and not any thing else is to be feared And indeed he that thus fears God he only fears nothing else though the waves of the Sea rage horribly and though the Hills of the Earth be carried into the midst of the Sea nay as the Poet Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinae though the whole world should disjoint and fall he would be buried in the ruines of it without fear for he fears none but God and the offending of that God whom he fears That indeed he doth as desirous to obey him too as well as fear him and so we must all it is our Duty also for so it follows Fear God and keep his Commandments the second Part of our Conclusion keep his Commandments These two are inseparable ever and it is but just that they are not here only but so often joined together in Scripture The fear of the Lord saith David is the beginning of Wisdom and he subjoins but a good understanding have all they that do thereafter So God himself as Job testifies And unto man he said as if it were the product and total of all that is or may be said unto him the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil that is understanding The self same in substance with Solomon here Fear God and keep his Commandments Neither may it possibly be otherwise Nature hath linked them as close as Scripture for no man departs or can depart from the one the Law of God that doth not first depart from the other the Fear of God The soul and body of man have not a stricter union than these two the one the body the other the very soul of the new and interiour man And therefore the original hath it col ha adam for this is not the whole duty but the whole man the whole spiritual man indeed The outward works of the Law are wrought by the body and such righteousness of the body is but the body of righteousness but the fear of the Lord sanctifies the soul and the righteousness of the soul is the very soul of righteousness And the spiritual man created in holiness and true righteousness must have both these parts as well as the animal a soul and a body too Some mens righteousness indeed is all body do many things good and commanded but for ends upon by and vitious respects here is a Carcase of holiness but no soul to inform it only hypocrisy inhabits and gives it motion as the Devil sometimes they say doth the body of a dead man Others will be altogether Soul Fear God as much as you will every man likes it well and thinks he doth it
which as St. John saith hath pain in it as curbing men in their desires and we may add imperfection too as not able to sanctify their Persons yet is it as the Son of Syrach speaks the beginning of wisdom and leads unto that which is perfect for by constant forbearance of evil though out of terrour men may come at length to love and delight in goodness and then every degree of such love casteth out a degree of that fear till perfect love at last casteth out all fear all that is painful but withal induceth another fear of another both name and nature Timor castus filialis a chast and filial fear the fear of offence not of punishment a fear not only good in it self but such as makes the subject good too wherein it resides And this fear hath two Eyes with the one it beholds God as the supream and Soveraign good not only in himself but of all those that adhere unto him and then loving him as such they cannot but withal fear to offend or lose that God and goodness which above all things they love But the other Eye fastens it self on God as no less great than good and contemplating as well as it may or as far as it dares the Sanctity Power and Immensity the infinite Majesty and glory of the divine Essence or Deity is strucken with admiration and adoration too of so great and inconceivable Excellence from whence it takes another denomination and is stiled Timor reverentialis a devout and reverential fear It is true that the time will come when even this filial fear shall lose one of these lights and be no whit the less comely and beautiful for that neither for as the filial fear throws out that which is servile so fruition will cast out the first part of that which is filial For being confirmed in goodness there is no room for the fear when there is no danger of offending or losing that God which we enjoy But this reverential fear is never thrown out by any thing else but is that fear whereof David spake The fear of the Lord is clean and endureth for ever It attends not on this life only but runs it self into immortality the fear of blessed Angels now and shall be the fear of all holy Saints as here so in that blessedness for ever hereafter And then indeed it will be the fulness of wisom and the Crown both of it and that fulness also But as on these several fears so are we to look on men too and their several conditions otherwise our discourse will not be so real as rational But yet though these fears abstractedly considered have their several forms whereby they are differenced and are in supream degrees some of them incompatible yet in the concrete as they subsist in their subjects they are not usually in this life so intense and pure but that though one be predominant they are all three mixed for the most part and compounded together Whence it is that holy men even the greatest Saints and Servants of God whose fear therefore filial and founded in love yet because liable through this body of death unto frailties and sometimes unto falls are now and then found to be sensible also of his wrath Even David himself whose Confidence otherwhiles can carry him through the valley of death without fear yet at other seasons is driven to cry out A Judiciis tuis timui I was afraid of thy judgments yea from my youth up thy terrours have I suffered with a troubled mind Holy Job though a perfect and upright man by the mouth of God himself yet not so perfect in all his ways and upright but that we may sometimes read these sad complaints The Arrows of the Almighty stick fast within me the venont whereof drink up my Spirits and Quid faciam cum surrexerit ad judicandum Deus And if it thus befal the green Trees how shall it fare with the dry If such Worthies so complain and cry out under the terrour of divine judgment how shall we that are worse dare to reject it as servile Certainly he that doth so doth withal take himself for perfect in love since perfect love alone it is that can cast out all fear that is painful Presuâ—mption indeed can do the like cast it out too for a time but will undoubtedly bring great fears upon them in the end And therefore for such as grow high through the favours of God and more consident than their behaviour under them can warrant the Scriptures want not corrosives to beat down the proud flesh and abate the presumptuous Spirit Be not high minded but fear yea work out your Salvation with fear and trembling also But on the other side where this fear and trembling hath taken hold and the humbled Soul steeping it self in the sense and sorrow of her sins comes to labour under its own grief in this Case there wants not Balm in Gilead neither Lenitives nor Cordials for the wounded Spirit Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear but the Spirit of Adoption that cryes Abha Pater and what is your Fathers will why fear not little Flock it is your Fathers will to give such for their sorrow now a Kingdom of joy hereafter to wit in sensu composito if they run not back again into those sins for which they are so sorrowful Thus the Scriptures are not contradictory only they suit divers fears with different properties and contrary dispositions with as opposite exhortations as is but just and reasonable To scatter the proud in their imaginations but to bind up and strengthen the broken-hearted Now as these fears more or less at one time or other pertain unto all but to our gries if not shame of Christianity are scarce truly to be found in any so are they all here in my Text not all generally only and in gross under the name of fear but with special intimations of all and each of them in several For first here is the worldly fear but forbidden as negatives are ever under their affirmatives Fear God not the world or worldly evils which press only the body but that God which can cast both Body and Soul into everlasting fire Secondly the very mention of duty in the first reason implies a superiority and that ever requires Reverence another of the Fears And when duties are performed formally on that manner because duties and such as in the breach whereof we know the God whom we love is offended it is the fear then of offence not of punishment and both these make up the entire filial fear But yet the fear of punishment is not left out neither as good in it self though materially servile for that is a motive too and as the least so the last of all For God will bring every work into judgment c. as it is in the next verse So they are all joyned here in the text and when they are
they pleased Which in stead of mollifying the Committee towards him only sharpned their anger towards the Gaoler whom they chid for his remissness and threatned to turn out of his place if he took upon him any more to grant this licence to any Prisoner This rebuke stuck in the fellows stomach and the next morning entering into the Doctors Chamber when he was writing to his Wife to let her understand he could not procure leave to come and see her he clapt his hand upon the Paper and demanded a sight of it To which the Doctor fairly replyed that he should with all his heart if he had any authority from the Committee to require it otherwise he might be satisfied with his protestation that it was nothing else but a Letter to his Wife to acquaint her with the denial the Committee had given him as he knew well enough already Whereupon the Keeper began to endeavour to take it from him by force but the Doctor being too strong for him wrested it out of his hands Which being done the fellow stept back drew his Sword ran it immediately into the good Mans Belly and gave him an incurable Wound of which though after a few days he dyed his Murderer notwithstanding was suffered to live And as the Author of a Book called Ruina Angliae informes us the Committee were so little affected with the business that afterwards they turned the Doctors Wife and Children out of doors and forced his Son to fly the Country for that he would have prosecuted the Law against his Fathers Murderer Whether that be exactly true or no I am not able to say but this may be relied on coming from an undoubted hand that though his Wife Prosecuted him two Assizes together she could not get him brought to a Tryal But she falling sick before the third came and not able to attend it then the fellow appeared and was acquitted there being no body ready to make good the charge against him Thus fell this Excellent person in whose writings I beseech all the Authors and Abetters of the late Confusions who still survive to see what kind of men they persecuted in their blind rage that it may be a warning to them for ever and they may give their Posterity a charge to beware how they let loose the like furious passion in time to come By which as an unknown Writer speaks concerning another of those Sufferers Dr. Stuart they either robbed themselves of those holy men and means which God in his mercy had given them or else exchanged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gold for Counters the Cherubins of the Temple for the Calves of Bethel There was a monument I have been told designed if not promised for the preservation of his Memory But I think now this Book is all he is like to have and it is the best perhaps that can be made for him because made by himself Who was a Master-workman even in his Youth when several of these pieces it is evident were composed And had been a far greater if he had not faln as I said into a way wherein his Masterly wit was so much confined that at last he broke out of it As appears by his Discourse of Oaths which is strong and nervous clear and judicious as well as full of spirit and life and may be sufficient to show what he could have done if he had set himself to it in other Arguments and handled them in the same manner that the rest of his Friends before named did those wherein they were engaged To which Friends of his I should have added two other Eminent persons one of which is dead also the late Earl of Clarendon Lord High Chancellour of England the other yet living the Right Reverend Father in God the present Lord Bishop of Winchester Who was a great lover of this Doctor and still preserves I am confident so kind a remembrance of him that if he had not wholly sequestered himself to the thoughts of another world he might be easily perswaded to bestow such a Character of him as no man now alive but himself who in a great old Age retains a marvellous vivacity of spirit and sharpness of wit is able to give Instead of which I have thought good to conclude this Preface with the following Epitaph which an Admirer of his in the other University was pleased to make for him ELOGIUM Viri Desideratissimi RALEIGHEI Doctoris S. S. T. Decani Wellensis pro Causa Regis Ecclesiae à Custode suo miserè trucidati SI commune Regni bustum unam reliquit lachrymam Unius quaeso rore lachrymulae spargito hos Cineres Viator Tum memor Hospitis sui hoc Marmor extillabit alteram Non hic vilis harpago sectae neotericae Ritus inducens novos veteres ut liguriret reditus Sed Raleigheus jacet O nimis verecundus lapis Hîc jacet spreta Majestas Nobilitas Lex Humanitas Qui dum oppugnat dedecus hoc ultimum Mundi Et delirantis Naturae informem sobolem Sociavit suos cum patriae Cineribus Verùm quot Carceres honestavit priús Magnum Luminare Quoties sub modio conclusum est Tandem Nefas Extinctum à potestate tenebrarum Vastatâ Ecclesiâ nequiit stare diutiùs Hoc Templum Spiritûs Sancti Quin infremuit Carcerarius suspicatus Carcerem Tali Hospite nunc iri consecratum Ergò evaginavit gladium ferri clave Sacrilegâ Apperuit aut effregit fores Emisitque Captivum jam emeritum Pervagari per campos beatae lucis aeterna prata Uno ictu duplici liberavit custodiâ Esuo è corporis sui Ergastulo Sic nempe Noster hic A carceribus transiens ad optatam metam Cupiit dissolvi esse cum Christo. TITLES of the SERMONS with their ORDER NUMBER and TEXTS SERMON I. A Discourse of Oaths Folio 1. Jerem. iv 2. And thou shalt Swear The Lord liveth in Truth in Judgment and in Righteousness SERMON II. Of the Duty of Man fol. 47. Eccles xii 13. Let us hear the Conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments For this is the whole Duty of Man For God c. SERMON III. Of Christ's coming to Judgment fol. 83. Matt. xvi 27. For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his Angels And then he shall reward every Man according to his works SERMON IV. Of the Original of Wars fol. 120. James iv 1. From whence come Wars and Fightings among you Come they not hence even of the Lusts that war in your Members SERMON V VI. A Discourse of Election and Reprobation fol. 151 174. Hosea xiii 9. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thine help SERMON VII The way to Happiness fol. 206. Matt. vi 33. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you SERMON VIII A Preparation for the Holy Communion fol. 236.
with it drawn from the day of Gods Retribution For there is a day approaching wherein he will make a severe enquiry into this Duty censure the Breakers Terribly and honour the Observers Eternally For God will bring every work into Judgment c. So that you see he doth not beg the Conclusion if he beg any thing it is Audience and Attention which indeed he doth in a Solemn Preface for the purpose Let us hear c. And this too he seeks to win with reasons of weight as well as beg For it is a Conclusion and that no trivial no narrow one neither but material and universally material worth the hearing These down-right points grate something close upon the Soul and men it seems do not much 〈◊〉 the hearing of them and therefore he is driven to Pray and Preface for Audience before he delivers them and to back them strongly too when they are delivered for Acceptance That so his distasteful Conclusion lying between both between the Preface and Proof might be fortifyed behind and before in the Van and in the Reare be led in and carryed out with Reasons and Arguments that might procure and gain it entertainment So then we have these Three the Preface the Conclusion and the Proof The Conclusion that is well seated in the midst hath Two Branches The Proof that follows Two Reasons and the Preface in the front Two Insinuations Of these in their order so far as the Text shall lead us And first a word only or two of the Preface for Audience Audiamus Let us hear c. For the truth is every Man hath not an Ear apt in itself for such Conclusions nor can have so long as it is farced and stopt up with the filthy brood of their own Corruptions Indeed every Man hath an Ear but not an Ear to hear at least not to hear all things and therefore when he utters such Points as these He that hath Ears to hear let him hear saith not Solomon but our Saviour himself They are sad and sullen Duties Fear God and keep his Commandments and of an harsh sound as seeking to beat us from those delights which peradventure we are not resolved as yet to forsake And then that which is distasteful to the mind will never prove over-pleasant to the Ear. Let us indeed seek out delightful words such as may comply with Mens desires set our invention to hunt like Esau after Venison make Men savory meat such as their Soul loveth with what Appetite doth the Ear presently fall to and how ready themselves though couzened with a Goat instead of Venison like blind Isaac even to bles◠〈◊〉 us for it There needs no Audiamus no Exhortations or Prefaces for attention here it 's Musick to their itching Ears and they suck it as the Ox doth water but precepts of Duty and daies of Doom or the like are bitter Pills and will not down without gilding though Solomon himself be the Physician and Administer His very Person yea but his Name a Man would think might be enough to prevail Solomon the Wise Solomon the King Solomon the Preacher and all by way of Supereminence the Wisest of Men the Royallist of Kings the most Excellent of Preachers who shall not attend unto him and even hang narrantis ab ore if he but open his lips And yet in such cases as these though he well knew his own Wisdom and Power yet he is not so confident of his Authority and Person but thinks it well if he may gain hearing though he pray and exhort for it himself and give himself too for an Example in it become both Preacher and Auditor not refusing to include himself in that Duty which he doth urge upon others for so it lyes Let us hear c. It is the next way for our words to take when we require nothing of our hearers but what we our selves are as ready to do and perform an easy matter it is to bind heavy burthens for other mens shoulders but it is not so easy to perswade the people to take them up to bear them so long as the binders like those Pharisees in the Gospel refuse to touch them with the least of their Fingers If we think to awaken the World out of their dead sleeps it will not be enough to Crow unto others unless withal we shall beat our Wings too on our own sides It will make a double noise and the likelier to pierce the Ear when it comes not with an Audite vos or Audiant illi do you hear or let them hear but like Solomon in this place with an Audiamus nos Let us be hearers as well as speakers especially in such Conclusions as this Let us hear the Conclusion c. And sure it is something the likelier to be heard and regarded too for that were it nothing else that yet it is a Conclusion a truth orderly drawn and deduced from its undoubted principles a discourse that flutters not up and down at random like a seeled Dove but flyes on to its period like and Eagle to her stand cutting its way through the vanity and vexation too of all things else and not staying until it come to pitch and rest it self on a Conclusion firm and stable even the Fear and Service of God which as it is our whole duty here so will prove our happiness eternal hereafter in that day when God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil And this shews it to be something more than a bare conclusion a material one of and to the matter indeed to that matter which of all other is most material Let us hear the Conclusion of the whole matter c. And that certainly is one degree higher and would require too an higher degree of regard that it is not only an orderly Conclusion but a material and important No curious idle frivolous dispute de lana caprina no thin empty hungry speculation of the Schools though these be the only conclusions the delicate ears of most Men desire to be tickled withal such as may exercise the wit but no way affect the Conscience And indeed it is a principal Stratagem of the Arch-enemy of Mankind by curious impertinences to divert the mind from those real and necessary points that concern their Souls and the welfare of them for ever An unhappiness whereof these latter times have sufficiently tasted the Children of the Church for these many years imploying their wits in nothing so willingly as in wrangling with their Mother and that about trifles every light Ceremony and almost Circumstance that concerns but the outward forms of the external worship of God neglecting in the mean time that which is indeed material the internal truth and substance of his service But to such wayward contentious spirits I shall now only say it were much better for them to leave such unprofitable disputes and betake themselves to
too as well as any man but bring them to the Commandments to the corporal works either of Charity to the distressed or of bounty for the publick honour and worship of that God whom they pretend to fear and then they leave you This they begin to doubt whether it may be any part of their duty or no But however the soul of the old and outward man may be immortal though severed from the body yet is it not so with the new man Sever the fear of God from the observance of his Commandments and it will instantly cease to be fear As St. John of love so may we say of this fear that includes it He that saith he feareth God and keeps not his Commandments is a liar Again observe the Commandments but not in the true fear of God and it will be not observance but dissimulation A Liar this of all Liars whose hypocrisy can make the very spirit of wickedness to inform and actuate the comely limbs and members of true holiness A prodigious conjunction and therefore a Monster detestable both to God and man It is but right then and as it should be that these two here make but one whole conclusion one whole duty one whole matter one whole man They may be distinguished they may not be divided God hath joined them together and let no man seek to put them asunder but he that fears God let him keep his Commandments also Keep his Commandments durus est hic sermo this is an hard saying and the world sure will be hardly brought to this part of the conclusion yea it were something well if those that seem purest amongst us did not conclude clean contrary That the Commandments were not given to be kept yea that there is no possibility for any man though under the state of grace at any time or in any action to keep without violation even the least Commandment But two things there are that seem especially to deceive men in this point First an erroneous opinion that a spiritual action cannot be good so long as it may be bettered as having so much of sin as it wants of absolute perfection which they suppose the Law under the high terms of eternal death doth require at every mans hands But this is apparently mistaken for evident it is that the Law under the penalty enforceth only essential goodness not so that which is gradual otherwise the holy Angels may now sin in Heaven for they excel one another as in nature so in their zeal and operations yea he that is holier than the Angels Christ himself would be endangered of whom the Scriptures do plainly affirm that he prayed at one time more earnestly than at another And rightly for goodness is not seated in puncto in any precise nick or indivisible Center but hath its just latitude and is capable of degrees of comparison in the Concrete bonus melior optimus So Priscian will instruct them with this opinion not admitting it hath false Latin in it and false Divinity both at once This the first The Second thing is another supposal too and little less erroneous than the former That in every good and divine action the flesh lusting against the spirit doth by that malignant influence corrupt and vitiate even with sin the whole operation But what if the lusting flesh do not always move and in every action What if when it moves it doth not yet enter into composition with that act that subdues and quells it as indeed it doth not what if the vertue of such conquering acts be the greater by the opposition as indeed it is ever the more excellent by how much it breaks through stronger resistance according to that of our Saviour virtus mea in infirmitate perficitur Lastly what if every act of lust it self be not in true propriety a Sin As if it be meerly natural great Clerks conceive it is not because sin is ever voluntary and moral They take it for a true Rule â—Lex datur non appetitui sed voluntati and so they conceive our Saviour doth interpret it when he makes not every one whose flesh lusteth but him only that lusteth in his heart that is with his will to be an Adulterer St. Paul they suppose follows his Masters interpretation and though no man doth define lust more than he yet he doth it with caution as the sin not of the person a subject properly not capable of sin but of the flesh I know that in me but with correction that is in my flesh there is no good thing It is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me And that we take it not for such a sin as transgresseth the Law he is bold to say that the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in those that walk not after the flesh not that have no carnal motions but after the Spirit St. Austin therefore they conceive said well that when the appetite doth lust but the will doth not like it is as when Eve had eaten but not Adam And as we sinned at the first not in Eve but in Adam so is it still for unless Adam eat as well as Eve the will consent as well as the appetite water the fall is not finished The lusts therefore and appetites of Nature if they arise immediately out of the Body and be not raised by our unhappy fancy which the Will sets on work or by some act or custom of Sin which the Will hath already wrought they are not in their opinion sinful unless we will make God the Author of Sin who is the creator of nature and natural appetites yea and Christ too the subject of sin that was not without a natural inclination directly opposite to the known will of God otherwise he could never have said as he doth not my will but thy will be done No doubt but by the lustings of the flesh humane frailties and imperfections more than enough may and do too often cleave like moles and stains unto the divinest actions of the most spiritual men but a mole of frailty is one thing and the corruption of mortal-sin another One thing claudicare in via to go on though halting sometimes and interfering in the way to Heaven and another to cross out of it run counter directly towards Hell And therefore from such surreptitious and involuntary defects to conclude that no man can love God with all his heart clean contrary to the testimonies of the Scripture That the just man falleth seven times a day to wit into sin though that Scripture intend no such matter that all his righteousness is but a defiled rag and the divinest action in the eye of the Law but a mortal and deadly Sin is an exaggeration that doth but rack and tenter a truth until it burst into two errors and dangerous ones both in Gods regard and mans As if men were bound unto meer impossibilities and God that hard man in the Gospel reaping where
out of the hands of corruption into liberty which is glorious Justice because he hath offered up himself a Sacrifice for sin but Sanctification because he hath given us his Spirit Christ therefore unto us is all these but yet not all these by imputation for then his Wisdom should be imputed too yea and even the redemption of our bodies from the grave imputative also Indeed we can dream willingly of nothing but imputation All seems nothing worth unless Christ did so do all for us as we may not have any thing to do for our selves I doubt we may come in time to conceive that he did believe and repent for us too for these are his Commandments and so believe only this that neither Faith nor Repentance are in our persons necessary For if Christ as a surety hath absolutely undertaken any thing for us we like the scape-Goat must go free upon his performance The same debt may not with justice be required of the surety and principal too if so then do what we list all things are done to our hands already O this were to be a gracious Saviour to purpose if we might take our pleasure ryot in Intemperance and Luxury and withal have his Abstinence and Moderation imputed to us be beheld of God at the time as no less Temperate and Chaste than Christ himself Were it not glad tidings a Gospel indeed that we might be Feasting Carousing Swearing Drinking and yet under the eye of God at the same instant as if we were Watching Fasting Praying Weeping even with Christ himself in the Garden As though God beheld Men through Christ as Men do other things by a perspective which representeth them to the Eye not in their own colours but in the colour of the glass they pass through No God is not deceived with shadows neither doth Christ cast any such He takes not good for evil nor yet evil no not for Christs sake ever for good And let not us be deceived with vain shews neither The truth is it is well that upon our Repentance we are justified by imputation we shall be too putative if we conceipt an imputed sanctification too for two such imputations will not well agree together one of them will be needless ever or impossible for justification that is remission of sins is it self sufficient without imputation of farther sanctity because as St. Austin hath it Omnia ut fact a deputantur quando quod factum non est ignoscitur And perfect sanctification imputed on the other side will leave no room for remission or imputative justification so Christs death might have been spared since we should then be saved by his life for what use may there be of his blood for Remission so long as beheld in his righteousness that never sinned If no sinner he needs no pardon if he need a pardon he must of necessity be beheld as a sinner and therefore Remission of sins and perfect Righteousness are opposite forms that cannot at the same time possibly be imputed unto the same person for they expel and shut out one another Let it suffice then that our blessed Lord vouchsafed to shed his blood for our sins let us not therefore suppose that we are not bound to forsake them ourselves that were to shed his blood afresh and crucifie him again as the Apostle speaks But as he did that for us which if we neglect it not will prove our justification so we through his assistance must do this for our selves otherwise we shall want our sanctification and wanting it want the other also That indeed is the meer act of God but on those that are qualified for it This proceeds from God and his grace but is the true duty of man and which gives him his qualification and in man therefore it must inhere for the righteousness of justification is perfect but not inherent but the righteousness of sanctification now inherent but not perfect hereafter in that glory whither it leads us it will be both perfect and inherent yea inherent perfect and perpetual also Rightly therefore to conclude all this righteousness of the Commandments the duty of man still and since Faith is included in it as being now commanded as rightly the whole duty of man That duty which doth accomplish his election for if any man purge him self from these things he shall be a vessel unto honour fulfils the end of his Creation created unto good works that we might walk therein makes effectual the Divine Vocation for we are called unto holiness is it self our sanctification for the Commandment is holy and just and good procures our justification they wrought righteousness and gained the promises and lastly leads into Glory for they that have their fruit in holiness have their end everlasting life That fruit here this blessed end hereafter the God of Glory grant unto us all in his Kingdom even for Jesus Christ his sake the righteous To whom with the Father and the holy Spirit c. Amen A SERMON OF CHRIST'S Coming to JUDGMENT SERMON III. Upon MATT. XVi. 27. For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his Angels And then he shall reward every man according to his works I Left untouched in my former Text the second reason wherewith Solomon ends his Book and confirms his Conclusion of Fear God and keep his Commandments which is this For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil And now for variety sake I have chosen to prosecute the same subject not in Solomons words but in our Saviour's for these are infer'd unto the same end and much too after the same manner In the verses precedent What shall it profit a man saith Christ to gain the whole world and lose his own sâ—ulâ— or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul As if he had said Gain any man what he list or what he can be it never so much for the world indeed runs all after gain and never enough yet if by this means he come at last to lose his own Soul there is no profit in it He will still be a loser by his gain Or on the other side lose in this life whatsoever he hath or may lose Pleasures Profits Honours or any thing else even Life it self yet if in the loss of all other things he may preserve and gain his own Soul he will be a winner even in his losings To keep his Soul he can part with nothing that is too dear or if he would part with his Soul he can receive nothing that is dear enough for what can either way be of sufficient value to make a just exchange for the Soul But yet so it is small things are given in exchange for great and according to the momentany works and behaviour of men here so shall their Souls be gained or lost eternally hereafter For the son of man c. The words deliver
entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it For even those Jews had a promise of Canaan and in it of the eternal rest whose Carcasses notwithstanding for their disobedience fell short of it in the desert and God sware in his wrath they should not enter into his rest And therefore though the passion and death of Christ be absolute and in it self belonging to all yet there may be but a few to whom the good and benefit of it shall redound For remission of sins doth not immediately flow from his blood without intercedent obedience in us the next effect of it is not presently Salvation but a way and means whereby non obstante justitiâ without any impeachment to his justice we may now attain unto Salvation It doth not instantly convey us again into Paradise but only gives us the word whereby we may if we will safely and without impeachment pass the Angel and his flaming Sword that guards the entrance thither so that by it non solvitur omnibus captivitas sed solvitur omnibus captivitati necessitas though all be not actually loosed from Captivity yet all are loosed from the necessity of Captivity as the late and learned Writer of the Pelagian Story The gates of Brass and bars of Iron are smitten in sunder and so a way opened unto the Captives who notwithstanding if they be so far enamoured with their misery and captivity may for all that lie still in their Prison It is a potion for the good of all that are sick sed si non bibitur non medetur if it be not faithfully drank it shall never effectually cure saith◠Prosper And therefore we need not be anxious or doubtful on Gods behalf but only careful and solicitous for our selves what he hath promised in Baptism that he for his part will not be wanting sure he will never break in his Supper He will not fail to perform his promise if we but seriously bewail the breach of ours It is a Spiritual Banquet whereunto there never came any sorrowful and hungry Soul that ever departed empty And therefore let us draw near in full assurance of Faith no way wavering for he is faithful that hath promised saith St. Paul And as he is faithful that hath promised yet because he promiseth nothing here but to the faithful we must bring this with us though it be not of us a living Faith that only can work Repentance from dead works not to be repented of And this Faith only once thoroughly rooted begets that other confidence and fullness of Faith the Apostle speaks of which if it hath any other Parent is illegitimate ill born and falsly termed Faith when the true Father's name is Presumption And for this cause those that the Apostle exhorts to draw near with full assurance of Faith he thus qualifies having a true heart an heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience Then we go on rightly and orderly when we come not to the confident faith but by the penitent and as we go from faith to faith here so we shall appear before the God of Gods in Sion hereafter if therefore our heart within be true an upright within us if by a deep and entire Repentance it be sprinkled from an evil Conscience let us draw near in full assurance of faith as being most confident that our lips do not more truly drink the fruit of the Vine than our Souls do the blood of our Saviour the effect and merit of his blood whereby that which before was but sprinkled shall now be drenched and thoroughly cleansed from all the stains and impurities of Sin Our heart is ready O God our heart is ready only come thou and dwell in our hearts purge them and cleanse them wholly with thy blood and being cleansed keep and preserve them by thy Spirit spotless and blameless until the day of thy second coming in the Clouds with Glory That we who receive thee with fulness of faith now may stand before thee with the same confidence then and be received by thee and with thee into those eternal habitations at the right hand of God where is fulness of joy an pleasure for evermore To whom with thee and the Holy Ghost three Persons c. Amen Laus Deo in aeternum THE WAY TO HAPPINESS SERMON VII Upon MAT. vi 33. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you IT is a part of our Saviours Sermon in the Mount and the conclusion of a larger discourse in the precedent Verses whereto it refers And indeed it is or should be the Conclusion of all our discourses For all are little material and to no purpose unless they tend unto this issue The Kingdom of God and his righteousness Let us hear the Conclusion of all saith Solomon of all not only discourses but humane endeavours upon Earth Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man The second Solomon infinitely wiser than that first strikes here but on the same string though by his double touch it receives an air and relisheth more evangelical Unto the Righteousness of God adding the reward of it the Kingdom of God That so the works which the Law requires might be rightly wrought in the hope and faith of that immortality and glory which the Gospel proposeth However then we busy our selves about many things this is that unum necessarium the one thing that is necessary able to resolve Parmenides his Riddle Unum omnia one thing necessary wherein all necessaries are included whatsoever is necessary for the body or the soul whatsoever concerns either imployment here or felicity Eternal hereafter the whole perfection of man and the whole goodness of God If these things be all all these are enclosed in this one this one little exhortation Seek ye first c. The communication of divine goodness besides that of hypostatical union particular and supereminent hath generally but three degrees of participation Nature Grace and Glory And here they are all three either in their utmost extent or in their highest exaltations First all the necessaries of Nature pertaining to the body but slightly indeed inferred as deserving our least and slightest care These things shall be added unto you but though slightly yet fully All these things all that are requisite shall be added Secondly the utmost improvement of Grace that cannot farther adorn and beautify the Soul than with the righteousness of God His Righteousness And lastly the highest degree of glory nothing can be higher than participation with God in his own Kingdom The Kingdom of God The less marvel therefore that our search and travel for these these latter yea our utmost industry and endeavour be so carefully called led upon and inculcated with a Quaerite and a Primum quaerite seek and first seek Seek ye first the Kingdom of God c. Wherein the division is as plain as the
receive it we shall fall short for want of discerning the body of the Lord. And in this every Man ought to examine himself and many Men others too as well as themselves It is not the proper duty of the Minister of God only to Catechise every Father and Mother of a Family is or ought to be in this regard as a Minister within his own charge It is our part not to be still laying of the Foundations and Principles of the Doctrine of Christ but to lead you on towards perfection Heb. vi 1. As St. Peter the Apostle said of ministring at Tables nay as St. Paul of Baptism it self I was not sent to baptise but to preach So we may much more say of Catechizing We were not sent to Catechise but to preach the Gospel our office is to dispense the Word and Sacraments yours it is properly to prepare yours it is to teach and instruct your Children and Servants that they may be fit and capable to receive both though the sloth and ignorance of these times to your sin and shame hath cast this burden wholly upon our shoulders most Fathers for the want of willingness or knowledge deserving to be Catechised no less than the Children that are under them yea in my understanding much more having lost in their age that little which they learned in their youth The second qualification is Faith without it it is impossible to please God as in any other duties we can exhibite unto him so especially in this of the Sacrament It is the eye of the Soul by which we behold and look upon the hand by which we lay hold and apprehend the very mouth by which we eat and receive the Body and Blood of our Redeemer given and applied unto us in these mystical figures Non dentes sed fidem prepare not therefore thy teeth but thy Faith saith St. Aug. for crede manducasti believe and thou hast eaten And for this duty we suppose there needs little preparation or tryal every Man thinks he can readily assure and acquit himself in the performance but when we come to examination anon we shall find it a harder matter than we imagine to believe aright and as we ought The third of these preparatory qualifications is Repentance which though it be also generally required as precedaneous unto all sacrifices and services which we offer unto God according to that of the Apostle Let him depart front iniquity whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord yet the more holy and sacred the actions are the more especially ought we to cleanse our selves and purge our sins and corruptions before we go about them for I will be sanctified saith the Lord in those that draw near unto me And nearer well we cannot draw unto God or God unto us than in this Sacrament ordained of purpose to joyn and unite both in one But do we think his pure and precious body will vouchsafe to be received and dwell in an unclean and polluted Soul shall this bread panis de Coelo bread from Heaven the Childrens bread as it is in the Gospel and indeed the food of Angels shall it be given do we imagine unto whelps shall these precious Pearls of the Gospel shell'd up in Divine Mysteries be opened and cast unto Swine shall the cup of the Testament be given unto him that hath nothing to do with the Covenant surely no What hast thou to do saith God in the Psalms to take my Covenant in thy mouth so long as thou hatest to be reformed to take it in thy mouth so much as by naming of it how much less hast thou to do to take the blood of the Covenant in thy mouth by receiving it so long as thou refusest to reform thy self by true Repentance This therefore is the main and principal part of our qualification wherein we cannot be too diligent and careful and the other of Love is like unto it Of Love first unto God who hath shewn such marvellous Love unto us and from us should receive all Love and thankfulness again And then unto our brethren that as God hath loved us so should we also shew Love and Mercy unto one another In regard of the first this blessed Sacrament is well termed the Eucharist that is the Sacrament of thanksgiving wherein by the assistance of the blessed Spirit we do in all thankfulness and grateful return of our best affections solemnly commemorate the wonderful Love of the Son that suffered and the infinite goodness and mercy of the Father that gave him to death for the sins of the world In regard of the other the Love of our brethren it is as rightly stiled a Communion that is a common union for so it is doubly a common union of our selves amongst our selves and of all unto our Saviour But first we must be united unto one another before we be united unto him as we drink of one cup and eat of one bread so we must be knit into one body mystical by Love or we shall never be knit unto our head Christ Jesus by Faith What union canst thou expect with him so long as thou art at variance with those for whom he died His blood was shed for us all whilst we were yet enemies and shall we think we may drink it and in it remission of sins to our selves so long as we refuse to remit the sins of another can we hope or expect that mercy from God which we will not shew to our own flesh No no if without this thou thinkest to receive any favour from him or look he should receive or accept any sacrifice from thee thou deceivest thy self It is his rule in the Gospel If when thou comest to offer at his Altar thou remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave thy gift there go and first be reconciled to him then come and offer thine oblation Ecce honorem suum despicit dum in proximo charitatem requirit Behold saith Chrysost. how he preferreth thy Charity before his own honour who will not accept of any sacrifice to himself till thou hast shown love to thy neighbour And so here these four Knowledge Faith Repentance and Love are as you see the principal qualifications wherewith due preparation must of necessity adorn and beautifie the Soul they are the several parts whereof that Wedding-garment must be made up wherewith it is to be arrayed and wherein every one must appear that would be held and accepted of God for a worthy Receiver And thus much of the first points the preparation and the necessity of it drawn from the phrase and commanding force of the Text Let a man examine himself for this Let is not permissive let him do it if he will or if he will not let him chuse but mandatory and imperative let him see and be sure that he doth it and that under pain of damnation as it follows in the next verse Proceed we now in
he doth not sow and requiring a law at their hands to whom he gives no ability for performance In Gods name therefore and mans too let us be content to speak as the Scriptures do which in this here and more than a thousand places besides do seriously urge and necessarily require the observance of the Law and keeping of the Commandments which St. John tells us through the grace of Christ are not grievous neither Such as will needs speak otherwise that they may not be kept either for any time or in any action let them take heed lest they open gates unto impiety and like those Spies in the 13 of Numbers discourage the hearts and weaken the hands of the people of God yea let them beware lest they cast dishonour too as on God himself so especially on the blessed Spirit that inhabits and Christ Jesus our Lord that dwells in his Saints if all yet can produce in any not any thing but sins Much better therefore it were to leave disputing and give good ear to that of our Saviour He that breaketh the least of these Commandments and teacheth others so to do shall be least in the kingdom of heaven that is as some interpret shall least of all others enter into that Kingdom For what is this indeed but to withdraw men from their duty and teach them disobedience for even duties cease to be due whensoever they begin not to be possible But this is every mans constant duty and the whole duty of every man the invincible reason wherewith Solomon here backs his conclusion and withal confutes this opinion Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is c. The Reason is strong and full three degrees or ascents there are in it First a Duty and Secondly universally of all men the duty of man and mans universal duty and Thirdly the whole duty of man And though there be diverse inventions sought out many turns and wrenches made to slip this duty yet one of these three or other will meet with and refel all our devices For they that scruple at the conclusion as impossible evince that they will not stay there but be as apt to quarrel with the duty at least as not simply necessary a duty peradventure in the rigid exaction of the Law and of such as are under it as they were to whom Solomon spake this but we are under the Gospel dead unto the Law that we might be married unto one even to Christ our Lord and our life what then hath this legal duty of Commandments to do with us or we with it since we are mutually dead one to another Yet be we under what times we will or states either so long as we lose not our humanity so long as we cease not to be men under any as being not really dead but morally so long it will have to do with us for this is a duty not of some times and persons but universally of man Neither were they simply under the Law to whom this was spoken led indeed they were by the oeconomy of the Law but yet under the promise and promised seed and were saved by the Gospel as we now are though the Gospel not so distinctly believed then as now it is Neither indeed they nor any people else under Heaven since that promise The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head are so meerly under the Law either of Moses or Nature but that if they do their duty keep the Commandments which they have and glorify God according to their knowledge they may for ought I understand be saved too by the Gospel which they knew not for even the Gentiles so doing their incircumcision shall be counted for circumcision as the circumcision otherwise is esteemed but as incircumcision In that day when God shall judge the secrets of all hearts not simply by the Law but according to my Gospel saith the Apostle Rom. 2. And indeed this is the only reason why this duty continues still to bind because men are not under the Law simply but under the Gospel for that is the state only of Devils whose doom is sealed and though the law of their nature cannot be abrogated as being a branch of eternal equity yet they seem not to be lyable unto any mens punishment for the breaches of it now because not capable of any reward for the observance The Gospel therefore doth not evacuate as St. Paul speaks but establish the Law since every man is therefore bound in duty unto the Law because not absolutely excluded from all benefit of the Gospel But we who are under the fulness of this Gospel are in a fuller manner tied and in an higher degree unto the observance of the law than any people else before that fulness came as being bound now by the special coming of the Holy Ghost to keep the Commandments not in the oldness of the letter which as it seems was sufficient whilst the Heir was but a Child and in minority but in the newness of the Spirit for the Spirit it is which gives life and vigour unto the Commandments as being the very strength and power of all lively performance And therefore our Saviour though he came with Gospel in his mouth yea was the Gospel himself yet think not saith he that I came to dissolve the law I came not to dissolve but to fulfil it And that we may know the true fulfilling of it if we think to enter into life belongs to us as well as the entire and perpetual unto himself after he had vindicated the Text of the Law from the corrupt glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees and set it forth in the highest perfection if not added perfections above the Law and beyond that which was said unto them of old he closeth up all at last with this conclusion He that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him unto a wise man What then though being dead under the law we become through the favour of the Gospel to be dead also even unto the law yet it is but to the condemning power the killing letter of the law that so we might be married unto Christ our life since the end of this marriage is but to bring forth fruit unto God as St. Paul in that place and that in the newness of the spirit which is not sure to break but to keep with more exactness the Commandments of God This therefore a duty still the duty of Jew and Gentile and Christian too universally of all mankind For this is the whole duty of man c. But though a duty not only in Solomons time but even now under the Gospel yet for all that it may be but a voluntary duty a freewill offering indeed of thankfulness and gratitude or so but not a necessary duty necessary unto life Our life in this World is our justification in Christ and Christ and justification too we have them both by faith and by faith
alone without the works of the Law So St. Paul assures us But however a duty it is and a necessary duty necessary even to life unless no duty be necessary or Solomon here be deceived For this is the whole duty of man Justification indeed is that act of God which by remission of Sins through Christ puts men into the state of Life here and gives them right and title unto Life eternal hereafter And though therefore an estate attainable by the Gospel only not by the Law which all have transgressed yet is it most true that so long as any shall continue wittingly and deliberately to transgress the Law they are not capable of this or any other benefit of the Gospel The Gospel it self and whole Scriptures are clear in the point Now then saith even St. Paul on whom they rely speaking of the time of the Gospel now then there is no condemnation and no condemnation is full justification but to whom to them that are in Christ Jesus but who are they that follow which walk not after the flesh but after the spirit If any man walk otherwise he hath nothing to do with Christ If we say we have Communion with him and walk in darkness we lye saith St. John and do not the truth 1 John i. 6. He that loveth not his Brother that is one of those that according to him walks in darkness and as he wants light so life too he hath no life abiding in him yea manet in morte he remains in death 1 Joh. iii. 14. And what is said of one Sinner is true of all for be not deceived neither Fornicator Adulterer unclean person or covetous or any other the like hath any inheritance in the kingdom of God and of Christ. As little therefore in justification which is the estate of life and hath right to that inheritance no marvail therefore if St. James be bold to conclude in terms clean contrary Ye see then that by works a man is justified and not by faith only James ii 24. Indeed much stir hath been about the seeming differences between these Apostles He said not amiss Meum Tuum are the common Barrators of the world and Faith and Works seem no less to have broken the peace in the Church The points have been beaten so long as some think it time now they were beaten even out of all discourse But the truth is they are some of the noblest that our Faith doth yield and unto the Christian Religion of all other most essential though most abused as discovering the necessity of the Gospel and invalidity of the Law with the main differences and union too of both Law and Gospel And peradventure are not driven so home as they might be unless by very few unto their just and right issue even unto this day If any thing lead the way unto that it must be the perfect reconciliation of these two which by divers ways and distinctions hath been attempted on either side but not I suppose with so good success as may fully satisfy for in this I take it Iliacos intra muros peccalur extra To distinguish of the Law Ceremonial and Moral as some do supposing that St. Paul excludes the works of the Ceremonial Law and St. James requires those only of the Moral is to no purpose for clear it is as the Sun that St. Paul excludes both for he disputes against Jew and Gentile but especially the works of the Moral Law as that which is broken by all and therefore cannot justify any Neither will it be more available to distinguish with others of works preceeding faith works of Nature and such as follow and are effects of faith works of Renovation and grace for St. Paul utterly rejects from the ability of justifying all works whatsoever whether before faith or after it because the Law being once broken no after-observance can so satisfy for the breach but that it will still condemn all those that shall stand at that Tribunal The distinction then of works not prevailing others fall to distinguish of justification and indeed that is the right way if it be rightly done The Romanists according to the Council of Trent make it twofold a first and a second justification From the first St. Paul removes works and St. James they suppose requires them only to the second But they are frustrate in both distinction and application too for since their second Justification is but the increase and augmentation of that Righteousness which is infused in the first they cannot be two justifications since more or less will not afford a specifick difference or numerical either And were they two yet the works which St. James requires he requires for necessary unto the first justification as well as the second for he doth instance in Rabab not justified before by their own confession And the works which St. Paul removes he removes from the second justification as well as the first as first or last never to be found in any And therefore he makes his instance in Abraham that was justified long before even that time of his instance The distinction of justification in the obtaining and of justification already obtained is much after the same manner and is choked utterly with the self same answer Others on the other side distinguish Justus factus from Justus declaratus of justification before God and justification in the Eyes of men St. James's words they refer unto this and St. Paul's to the former but most erroneously also for nothing is plainer than that both of them speak of justification in the sight of God St. James as well as St Paul for he plainly denies salvation unto faith if not accompanied with works with an interrogation Can thy faith save thee and proves too that it cannot as being a dead faith and the faith of Devils and such sure can justify neither with God nor man sooner indeed with men than with God That way therefore which is most general and hath been thought the best peradventure because the subtlest is to distinguish between the act of justifying and the Subject or Person to be justified St. James as is supposed requiring only the presence of works in the Subject which St. Paul removes only from the Act and is but thus in other terms Fides sola justificat sed fides quae justificat non est sola This may have a promising look but will not satisfy neither but is out too and that on both sides for St. Paul clearly removes the works he speaks of from the Person to be justified as well as from the act that doth justifie non operanti to him that worketh not but believeth on him qui justificat impium that justifieth the ungodly And St. James requires the works he speaks of no less than faith unto the Act as well as in the Subject His words are express ex operibus by works a man is justified and not by faith only Why but how then