and rejoyce at the sound of the organ But for the righteous it is not so with them They are killed every day The drunkards make songs of them They hang down the head like a bulrush Their whole life is accounted madness This indeed was painful for David to know it was even his sickness But when he went into the Sanctuary of God and considered his wisdom and providence guiding every thing to its end and changing the face of things putting a lustre and glory on that which flesh and bloud looked upon with horrour and compassing that about with woes which it beheld with admiration then understood he their end the end of both Psal 73. The one placed in slippery places tumbled down into destruction the other lifted up their heads because salvation and comfort drew near For Pleasure and Grief as they have divers aspects so also have contrary effects Pleasure smileth and Grief weepeth but there is bitterness in those smiles and joy in those tears II. Now to shew how useful Mourning is it will not be amiss to compare them both both Delight and Mourning For certainly when our Saviour joyneth Blessedness and Mourning he layeth a kind of imputation upon Pleasure as it it were the very mother and nurse of all misery Naturally we seek it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle from our tender years And all our life long we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incline to pleasure as a stone doth to the center Xerxes proposed great rewards to those who did invent new delights The Roman Emperours set up offices à voluptatibus They had their Arbitri their Praepositi their Tribunes of pleasure and they accounted none more generous then those who were most sportful Homer bringeth in the Gods themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spending their time in mirth and jollity So hath Pleasure bewitched the world that without it nothing is received without it the world it self were nothing The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing And as if Nature had not afforded us variety enough we have made a kind of art of pleasure We have mingled it with our labour made that as easie as we could we have mingled it with our sorrow ready to receive it even into a broken heart and we have mingled it with our Religion attempered that to our sense made it gentle and plyable more answerable to our lusts and sinful desires For who doth not make his burthen sit as easie as he can Who would not have a Religion that should bow and condescend to his desires that should grant charters and indulgences to the flesh and so à deliciis transire in delicias pass from delight to delight from sensual delight to spiritual out of a Seraglio a stews a theatre into heaven And this hath brought in that deluge of sin and misery that when Religion threatneth us with scorpions with crosses with tribulations with mortifications we silence her or put our own words into her mouth teach her to speak placentia more pleasing things and so retain her name but make her depart out of our coasts S. Basil calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the devil's hook with which he haleth men to destruction by which he striveth mentem facere amentem to divide the mind from it self and distract it Dei templum in theatrum voluptatum vertere to change the temple of God into a theatre of luxury For indeed all the evil that befalleth us is from our selves from our bodies which we strive to pamper up Had we not eyes we should not be so blind and had we not ears we should not be so deaf Did we not too much favour our bodies our souls would flourish more be more active and vigorous in those duties which must make them perfect There is saith Gregory Nazianzene a kind of warlike opposition between the Body and the Soul and they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pitch their tents one against another When the Body prevaileth the Soul is down when that is most active even like a wanton heifer or a wild ass then is the Soul sick even bed-rid with sin Empedocles the Philosopher taught that Lis and Amicitia Enmity and Friendship were the two common principles of all things in the world But had he carefully observed the composition of Man he had found Enmity good store but Friendship none at all For from whence do all our turbulent affections spring Philo will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they are the natural issues of our flesh From whence those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inquinations and pollutions of the soul from whence those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tumults those thunders and earthquakes All these are from the earth earthly For that which is born of the flesh is flesh And the body is not onely an enemy but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a castle of defence for all the enemies the soul hath It was a wise wish of Archytas that he might rather be taken with madness then with pleasure And Simplicius accounted it a great benefit of Nature that no pleasure was of long continuance nè diu insani essemus that we might not be long mad For she leadeth the Senses in triumph and Reason captive at their heels to wait upon them and be ministerial to them What evil ever yet befell any almost but from Pleasure Shee befooleth the wise Look upon Solomon She perverteth the just Behold David She weakeneth the strong as we see in Samson Assyria drew its last breath at a feast Gluttony betrayed Babylon and riot Nineveh And we had been at this day a happy Nation had we not been lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God Every man seeketh his own private pleasure and within a while he seeth it snatched from him and buried in the ruines of the whole Death it self would have no such strength but that it borroweth aid and a subsidiary force from Sensuality and Pleasure Quae violas lasciva jacit foliisque rosarum Dimicat calathos inimica per agmina fundit Prudent which destroyeth us not with a sword and a spear or the weapons of the mighty but with violets and roses with smiles and flattery with colours and tasts with delights with nothing Which maketh the Father cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What should we do what would be our end if temporal pleasures had been firm and lasting which being but brittle and frail more mortal then Mortality it self do yet chain and fetter us unto themselves and when we cleave most unto them fly from us but leave such an impression and mark behind them that we prefer them before true Happiness and fall off from them as Lucifer did from heaven For when we lose them we are in hell Clemens Alexandrinus saith they make men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like wax that the devil may set what impression he pleaseth upon them now the bloudy face of Murther anon the wanton looks of Lust
Our Sins were they that crucified Christ 29. The Gospel is the sharpest curb of Sin 1065. Of Speculative Sins and Sinners 172. Sincerity necessary in all our actions 369. Slavery None comparable to that under Satan and Sin 740 741. v. Redemtion Sluggards awakened 220. Sobriety to be observed in our diet and Modestie in our attire 639. 1101 1102. Socrates how jeered by Aristophanes 372. Solitary Whether the solitary Retiredness of Monks be as they count it Perfection 1089. Solomon how painted 1069. Of his ECCLESIASTES 534. SON The Son of all the three Persons fittest to be our Mediatour 4. 13. God hath four sorts of Sons 4. Sophocles reproched Euripides 372. He thanked his Old age for freeing him from Lust 593. Sorrow good and bad 338. Worldly S. worketh death 564. Sometimes it ushereth-in Repentance and Comfort 564. Soul v. Body The Soul should be set on heavenly not earthly things 646 c. The Scripture commandeth so 646. The Soul is too noble to mind the earth 647. Nothing below proportionable to it nothing satisfactory 648 c. Every man ought to take care of his brother's Soul 576. The Soul is far more excellent then the Body and therefore chiefly to be cared for 886. Its riches and ornament what 78 79. It s original hard to know 94. Souldiers What S. should do what not 920 Speach The manner of ouâ— Speach varieth with our mind 385. Out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh 976. Many speak fair and mean foul 764 c. It is a shame to pretend Religion and to be ashamed to speak out 981 982. v. Confess Spirit That the SPIRIT worketh is evident but the manner of his working cannot be discerned 315. Some presume the Sp. teacheth them immediately without yea against the Word 683 684. What it is to Glorifie God in the Sp. 744. 748. A pretense of the Sp. and a pretended Zele the two grand impostures of the world 528. Many laying claim to the S. we are to try them by the Scripture 527 529. v. H. Ghost Spirits cannot be defiled by intermingling with bodies 166. The fight between the Spirit and the Flesh described 159. 312. 632. 707. Spiritual things far transcend temporal 884 c. 887 895. Stimula a Goddess among the Romans 341. Stoicks condemned for choosing Death rather then Miserie 1011. Strangers We all are but Strangers on earth 530 c. The Word of God is our best supply in this condition 531. That we are S. here proved by Scripture 536. and by reason drawn from the Insufficiency of all things here to satisfie Man's mind 537. Yet few believe the point 538 539. Our Enemies in this our Pilgrimage 539. Our provision and our defense 540. How we should behave our selves as S. 540. We ought to look on all things in the world with the suspicious and jealous ey of a Stranger 541. Strength Attempt nothing above thy Strength 249. 250. Student The Student's calling not so easy as other men think 223. SUB the Preposition much descanted upon 637 c. Subjection we like not but must yield it 637 c. Subordination necessary in Bodies natural Civile Ecclesiastical 640. Success many make an argument to prove themselves and their wayes good 684. But good or ill Success is not an argument of God's love or dislike 712. Sudden surprisalls what effect they have upon us 254. Sufferings for Christ's sake most comfortable 568. Suffering for Righteousness is the highest pitch of a Christian 695. One may suffer for one virtue neglect the rest 704 c. One may suffer for Pleasure for Profit for Humour for Fear for Honour and yet be no Martyr 705 706. v. Martyrdom What shall he do who having not yet repented of his grievous sins must either suffer present death or deny the Truth he believeth 707 c. Superiours v. Obedience Superstition what 462. We must not cry it down in others and cherish it in our selves 462. Many for fear of S. shipwreck on Profaneness 982. But we must shun them both 758. Supper the LORD's Supper not absolutely necessary 81. not to be given to Infants nor to the Dead 81. How slight a preparation serveth many mens turn 81. It is ridiculously abused by the Papists and very grosly by others 449. 462. In this Sacrament we must look I. on the Authour Christ 450. and not be offended at the meanness either of the Minister or of the Elements 451. II. on the Command of Christ 451. which must be so observed as not to rest in the outward action 452. Motives to invite us to the Lord's S. 452. This holy Sacrament fitteth our present condition 452. The manifold and great benefits we receive by it 453. 473. 490. 493. 495. The heavenly joy it putteth into our hearts 453 It is necessary for us to come and that often to the Lord's Table 454. How oft the primitive Christians did receive how oft we should now 454 455. Excuses for not communicating removed 456. He that loveth his sin and will live in it sinneth if he come and sinneth if he come not 456. Every Penitent is a fit Communicant 456. and so is every true Believer 456. Not onely great Proficients but even Beginners in Christ's School whatever some say to the contrary may yea ought to come to the holy Table 458. A conceit of our own Infirmity should not keep us away 456-459 463. Neither should a conceit of the high Dignity of the Sacrament do it 459 c. 476. They who abstein out of reverence seem to condemn them that are more forward 461. and their refraining may keep others away 462. How we ought to remember Christ at his Table 463 c. 473 c. Then especially is our Faith to be actuated 465. 475 489. Then we must examin and renew our Repentance 465. 476. 489. This Sacrament if received to a wrong end is not food nor physick but poison 467. Christ's Body and Bloud are not received corporally but spiritually 468. To receive Christ's flesh corporally would profit us nothing 468. Three manners of eating Christ's Body Sacramental Spiritual Sacramental Spiritual 473. We must come with Faith Hope Love Repentance Reverence 475 c. 489 Preparation necessary 478. 487. How negligently and inconsiderately many come to this Sacrament 479. 487. v. Examination What our Preparation should be 485 c. 834. This Sacrament is a feast of Love â—92 and none but they that are in Charity should come to it 490 c. 834. whether some should be set apart to examin others before admission to the Lord's Supper 494. With what reverence the antient Christians received 768. Wretched we if feeding so oft on Christ in the Sacram. we continue in our sins 813. Coming to the Lord's Table is a protestation of Faith and Repentance 769. 814. What kind of Protestants then are they who neither repent nor believe 814. We should at the H. Table be like unto men on their death-beds 814. Suspicion We
yet the wrath of God was more visible to him than those that do who bear but their own burthen whereas he lay pressed under the sins of the whole world God in his approaches of Justice when he cometh toward the sinner to correct him may seem to go like the Consuls of Rome with his Rods and his Axes carried before him Many sinners have felt his Rods And his Rod is comfort his Frown favour his Anger love and his Blow a benefit But Christ was struck as it were with his Ax. Others have trembled under his wrath Psal 39.10 but Christ was even consumed by the stroke of his hand Being delivered to God's Wrath that wrath deliverth him to these Throws and Agonies delivereth him to Judas who delivereth nay betrayeth him to the Jews 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 hangeth between thot Thieves I mention not the shame or the torment of the Cross for we Thieves endured the same But his Soul was crucified more than his Body and his Heart had sharper nails to pierce it than his Hands or Feet TRADIDIT ET NON PEPERCIT He delivered him and spared him not But to rise one step more TRADIDIT ET DESERVIT He delivered and in a manner forsook him restrained his influence denied relief withdrew comfort stood as it were afar off and let him fight it out unto death He looked about and there was none to help Isa 63.5 even to the Lord he called but he heard him not Psal 18 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He roared out for the very grief of his heart and cryed with a loud voyce My God my God Matth. 27.46 why hast thou forsaken me And could God forsake him Psal 38.8 When he hung upon the cross did he not see the joy which was set before him Yes he did Heb. 12.2 but not to comfort but rather torment him Altissimo Divinitatis consilio actum est ut gloria militaret in poenam saith Leo By the counsel of the Godhead it was set down and determined that his Glory should add to his Punishment that his knowledge which was more clear than a Seraphins should increase his Grief his Glory his Shame his Happiness his Misery that there should not only be Vinegar in his Drink and Gall in his Honey and Myrrhe with his Spices but that his Drink should be Vinegar his Honey Gall and all his Spices as bitter as Myrrhe that his Flowers should be Thorns and his Triumph Shame This could Sin do And can we love it This could the Love and tht Wrath of God do his Love to his Creature and his Wrath against Sin And what a Delivery what a Desertion was this which did not deprive Christ of strength but enfeeble him with strength which did not leave him in the dark but punish him with light What a strange Delivery was that which delivered him up without comfort nay which betrayed and delivered up his comforts themselves What misery equal to that which maketh Strength a tormenter Knowledge a vexation and Joy and Glory a persecution There now hangeth his sacred Body on the cross not so much afflicted with his passion as his Soul was wounded with compassion with compassion on his Mother with compassion on his Disciples with compassion on the Jews who pierced him for whom he prayeth when they mock him which did manifest his Divinity as much as his miracles Tantam patientiam nemo unquam perpetravit Tert. de Patientia with compassion on the Temple which was shortly to be levelled with the ground with compassion on all Mankind bearing the burden of all dropping his pity and his blood together upon them feeling in himself the torments of the blessed Martyrs the reproach of his Saints the wounds of every broken heart the poverty diseases afflictions of all his Brethren to the end of the world delivered to a sense of their sins who feel them not and to a sense of theirs who grone under them delivered up to all the miseries and sorrows not only which himself then felt but which any men which all men have felt or shall feel to the time the Trump shall sound and he shall come again in glory The last Delivery was of his Soul which was indeed traditio a yielding it up a voluntary emission or delivering it up into his Fathers hands praevento carnificis officio saith the Father He preventeth the spear and the hand of the executioner and giveth up the ghost What should I say or where should I end Who can fathome this depth The Angels stand amazed the Heavens are hung with black the Earth openeth her mouth and the Grave hers and yieldeth up her dead the veyl of the Temple rendeth asunder the Earth trembleth and the Rocks are cleft But neither Art nor Nature can reach the depth of this Wisdom and Love no tongue neither of the living nor of the dead neither of Men nor Angels is able to express it The most powerful eloquence is the threnody of a broken heart For there Christ's death speaketh it self and the virtue and power of it reflecteth back again upon him and reacheth him at the right hand of God where his wounds are open his merits vocal interceding for us to the end of the world We have now past two steps and degrees of this scale of Love with wonder and astonishment and I hope with grief and love we have passed through a field of Blood to the top of mount Calverie where the Son of God the Saviour of the World is nailed to the cross and being lifted up upon his cross looketh down upon us to draw us after him Look then back upon him who looketh upon us whom our sins have pierced and behold his blood trickling down upon us Which is one ascent more and bringeth in the Persons for whom he was delivered First for us Secondly for us all III. Now that he should be delivered FOR VS is a contemplation full of delight and comfort but not so easie to digest For if we reflect upon our selves and there see nothing but confusion and horrour we shall soon ask the question Why for us Why not for the lapsed Angels who fell from their estate as we did They glorious Spirits we vile Bodies they heavenly Spirits we of the earth earthly ready to sink to the earth from whence we came they immortal Spirits we as the grass withered before we grow Yet he spared not his Son to spare us but the Angels that fell he cast into Hell 2 Pet. 2.4 and chained them up in everlasting darkness We may think that this was munus honorarium that Christ was delivered for us for some worth or excellency in us No it was munus eleemosynarium a gift bestowed upon us in meer compassion of our wants With the Angels God dealeth in rigor and relenteth
its perfection of beauty you may consider it 1. as fitted and proportioned to our very nature 2. as fitted to all sorts and conditions of men 3. as lovely and amiable in the eyes of all 4. as filling and satisfying us 5. as giving a relish and sweet tast to the worst of evils which may befall us whilest with love and admiration we look upon it and making those things of the world which are not good in themselves useful and good and advantageous to us This is the object which is here set up and it is a fair one and Man is called to be the spectatour He hath shewed thee O man And if he look upon it with a stedfast and single eye with affection and love it will make him dignum Deo spectaculum an object fit for the Angels and God himself to look upon For 1. it is fitted to him 2. it is opened and made manifest placed before his eye He hath shewed thee it 3. Last of all it is required of him for what else doth he require It is proper for him It is displayed and laid open before him It is a Law to bind him He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require And first we cannot doubt but God built up Man for this end alone for this Good to communicate his Goodness to him to make him partaker of a Divine nature to make him a kind of God upon the earth to imprint his image upon him by which according to his measure and capacity he might express and represent God 1. By the Knowledge not only of natural and transitory things but also of those which pertain to everlasting life as it is Col. 3.10 being renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him 2. By the rectitude and sanctity of his Will Ephes 4.24 putting on that new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness and 3. By the free and ready Obedience of the outward parts and inward faculties to the beck and command of God which being Divine a breathing from God himself cannot but look forward and look upward upon its original and so teach us to be just as God is righteous in all his wayes to be merciful as he is merciful and to walk humbly before him who hath thus built us up out of the dust but to eternity I say God hath imprinted this image on Man And what communion can God have with evil 1 Cor. 7.31 What relation hath an immortal Essence to that which passeth away changeth every day and at last is not Take Man for the miracle of the world as Trismegistus calleth him that other that lesser world the tye and bond of all the other parts which were made for his sake and what conversation should he have but in heaven what should he look upon but that which is good Or take him as made after Gods image as having that property which no other creature hath to understand to will to reason and determin by which he was made capable of good and made to be partaker of it and we cannot think he had an Understanding given him only to forge deceit and contrive plots Job 24.15 to find out a twilight and an opportunity to do mischief to invent new delights to make an art of pleasure and draw out a method and law of wickedness that that which was given him as his counseller in relation to this good should be his purveiour in the works of the flesh and no better then a pander to his lust We cannot think that he had a Will given him to embrace shadows and apparitions which play with our Phansie and deceive us to wait upon the Flesh which fighteth against the Spirit and this Image within us We cannot think he had Reason given to distinguish him from the other creatures to make him worse then they This cannot be the thought of a Man whilest he remaineth so a Man Illud mirum malos esse tam multos nam ut aqua piscibus circumfusus nobis spiritus volucribus convâ—nit Ita certè facilius esse oportebat secundum naturam quà m contra eam vivere Quint. l. 12. Instit orat c. 11. 1 Cor. 15 45. who is formed and fitted and fashioned only for that which is good This consideration made Quintilian himself a heathen to pronounce That it was as natural for Man to be good as for Birds to fly or Fishes to swim because Man was made for the one as the Birds and Fishes were for the other Secondly there is no proportion at all between any corporeal or sensual thing and the soul of man which is a spirit and immortal and so resembleth that God which breathed it into us For as Lactantius said God is not hungry that you need set him meat nor thirsty that you should pour out drink unto him nor in the dark that you need light up candles And what is Beauty what is the Wedge of gold to the Soul The one is from the earth earthly the other is from the Lord of heaven The World is the Lords and the World is the Souls and all that therein is Psal 24.1 And to behold the Creature and in the World as in a book to study and find out the Creatour to contemplate his Majesty his Goodness his Wisdome and to discover that happiness which is prepared for it to behold the heavens the works of Gods hand and purchase a place there to converse with Seraphim and Cherubim this is the proper act of the Soul for which it was made this this alone was proportioned to it And herein consisteth the excellency and very essence of Religion and the Good which is here shewed us in exalting the Soul in drawing it back from mixing with the Creature in bringing it into subjection under God the first and only Good in uniting it to its proper object in making that which was the breath of God breathe nothing but God The Soul being as the matter and this Good here that is Piety and Religion the form the Soul being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so Plato calleth Matter the receptacle of this Good as the Matter is of the Form and never right and of a perfect being till it receive it this Good being as the seed and the Soul the ground the matrix and the womb And there is a kind of sympathy between this Good this immortal seed and the heart and mind of Man as there is between Seed and the womb of the Earth For the Soul no sooner seeth it unclouded unvailed not disguised and made terrible by the intervention of things not truly good but upon a full manifestation she is taken as the Bridegroom in the Canticles with its eye and beauty Heaven is a fair sight even in their eyes who tend to destruction so that there is a kind of nearness and alliance between this Good and those notions and principles which God
greater preferment then to be a Saint Indeed these things are nothing Nihil habent solidi nihil firmi There is no solidity no hold-fast in them When vve see them vve do not see them vvhen vve feed on them vve are not satisfied vvhen they are they are not Vanae spes hominum The hopes of men are vain vvhen they seek these things that are not as if they vvere Vanae rerum species the species and shew of these things are vain They appear to us as in a dream they come and are gone and stand by us and vanish and behold when vve awake all is but a dream No glory on Honour no brightness on Gold no lustre on Beauty but that vvhich in my dream vvas all vvhen my eyes are open is nothing but vanity of vanities all is vanity Eccles 1.2 Excude aliquid quod sit perpetuò tuum said Pliny to his friend If thou wilt spend thy time upon any thing spend it upon that which shall be alwayes thine Now temporal things are neither ours nor are they lasting Apud te sunt sed tua non sunt They are vvith thee but they are not thine Dum placent transeunt When they most please thee they pass away In thy youth they please thee and that dyeth into age In thy age they please thee more For covetousness as it increaseth vvith our heaps so it doth with our age and we then love riches most when they are even upon the vving ready to flie away And then Death unladeth the Ass taketh thee from thy vvealth vvhen thy soul is even bound vvith it cutteth off a thousand hopes defeateth a thousand purposes and when thou art joyning land to land leaveth thee no more then will serve to bury thee and then Earth to earth All thy huggings of thy self all thy pride all thy busie and fore-casting thoughts all thy delights perish Our lands and possessions are but the way in which we set our foot but keep footing we cannot others come apace after us and take them up Nunc ager Vmbreni sub nomine nuper Ofelli Dictus erit nulli proprius sed cedit in usum Nunc huic nunc alii He that hath a Lordship or a Mannour hath but his footing there possession he hath not Another cometh after and after him another whilest that remaineth like the way and delivereth up all alike to their last home Onely Righteousness is that jewel which none can rob us of nec unquam definit esse nostra postquam coeperit nor will it ever leave us when we have once made it ours There are little stones we are told lying in some fields which Philosophers call lapides speculares which at some distance sparkle and send forth light but when we come near them have no appearance at all nor can they be found Like to those are these things our Saviour would not name them Riches and Honour when we stand at distance and do not enjoy them present themselves in glory and in a shape of allurement but when we come near them when we are possessed of them they have not the same countenance nor are so glorious A Crown hath cares Honour hath burthen and Riches anxiety and danger Envy and malice wait close upon them ready to sweep them away Taedet adeptos quod adepturos torfit That which set my desires on fire bringeth smoke enough with it to smother them That which I bowed to as to a God I am now ready to run from I looked upon them as upon a staff but when I had taken them up into my hand they proved a Serpent But in the third place there is great danger in seeking them at all and though we seek them as we think in the second place we may seek them too soon For our advancement in temporal things may prove a hinderance to our improvement in spiritual But if the last be first the first will be none at all In illis opera luditur We lose time in getting them and when we have got them we lose them or if we do retain them non sunt subsidia sed onera they are rather burthens then helps and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the instruments of sin S. Basil asking the question why God made Adam naked in Paradise and withall gave him no sense of his nakedness telleth us the reason was that he might not be distracted nor called away from meditating upon God For these arts saith he which provide for the flesh have been occasion of care and business then which nothing could have been more noxious to that state in which then Adam was Had it so pleas'd God saith he it had been much better that the soul had been left naked in the day of her creation and never been clothed with this garment of flesh For from hence hath proceeded that swarm of cares and business with which our life is overrun which draweth us from Divine speculation and meditation upon the things of God which is the proper work of the soul For consider the Soul in it self and what relation or reference hath it to any earthly thing Care for meats and drinks and apparel for posterity to heap up riches to be ambitious of honours all these rigid Publicanes which demand and exact so much of our time and labour befell the Soul upon the putting on of this clothing of the body At what time the earth received the Curse that it should bring forth briars and thorns at the same time sprang there up this abundance of Arts and Trades this variety of callings and occupations with which the world is overrun as with briars and thorns For had we stood in our original integrity we had had but one care but one art one common trade and calling the worship and service of God Cain aedificavit civitatem pessimorum more stabile hujus seculi domicilium putantium saith Gregory Cain was the first that built a city upon a groundless conceit which possesseth the hearts of many that the houses they build are not of clay but to stand and last for ever Josephus telleth us he was the first that ever found out weights and measures and he passeth this severe censure upon it That by this he did pristinam sinceritatem ignaram talium artium in novam quandam versutiam depravare corrupt the former innocency and sincerity by bringing in a new kind of providence and craft which before as it stood in no need so was it altogether ignorant of any such art The Philosopher will tell us that the use of these common things is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an hinderance to contemplation and S. Basil that we cannot well pray for spiritual graces unless the mind be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unclouded of the mist and fog of the cares of this world Haec sunt vincula hae catenae saith S. Cyprian These be the bonds and chains with which the soul is still clogged that she cannot mount and seek those things
which will make me wise unto salvation For in the next place they are not only given in usum vitae to support the outward man but they may also be instrumental to the soul in her proper acts in her endeavours and approches to the first Good They may be made the weapons of righteousness Non enim auri vitium est avaritia Covetousness is not the fault of gold nor Gluttony of meat nor Intemperance of wine but they are the faults of men who abuse these blessings which God hath not shut us out from nor placed any Cherubin or flaming sword to keep us from them Deficitur non ad mala sed malè saith Augustine These things are not evil in their own nature but our defect is in this that even against the order of Nature we abuse these things to evil which are naturally good All the riches in the world cannot raise a cloud saith Basil but yet we see the widowes two mites did purchase heaven All the dainties in the world cannot bring us back into Paradise yet a cup of cold water shall not lose its reward To this end saith Tertullian God hath opened the windows of heaven and rained upon us his temporal blessings ut per licentiam utendi continentiae experientia procederet that having free liberty to use the creature we may manifest our temperance and continency and chastity and all those virtues which make mortal men like unto their Creatour Necessity was that which first did clothe us but afterwards Ambition and Vanity succeeded and brought in ingenia vestificinae those many unnecessary arts of making garments of several fashions and most of them for shew onely and of no use at all God hath made us whole ears saith Cyprian but Vanity hath bored them he hath made us bare necks but Luxury hath chained them he hath given us white sheep but Ambition hath died them he hath created us free bodies but the Devil hath bound them he hath made us natural faces but Wantonness hath painted them he hath made us men and women and we have made our selves walking pictures Did we bate but the tenth part of superfluities in this kind we might have enough for our selves and our brethren we might feed and clothe our selves and Christ too wheresoever we see him naked and hungry When we seek these we leave Righteousness behind which should turn them into blessings and pursue those excesses which are of no use at all For who is the stronger for a peruke Whose face is the fairer for painting unless I will call that beauty which I may lay upon a post or a rotten stick Whose head aketh the less for a feather What gallant is so warm in his silks as a shepherd is in his â—â—ize Or are my feet the nimbler for my jingling spurs Nec tegunt ista corpus sed detegunt animam These vanities do not cover the body but discover the mind and disclose the inward man a naked soul in a trick'd up body a vessel of more sail and slag then bulk and burthen Be not so proud of it For it is an argument more then probable that the inside is but course even a torn and ragged and ill-shapen soul We may say of our superfluities in this kind as Pliny speaketh of those famous Pyramids in Egypt They are nothing else but otiosa stulta pecuniae ostentatio the vaunting proclamations of wealth and abundance of so much that we know not how to use it We may well say what Judas spake out of covetousness Ad quid perditio haec To what end is this loss These superfluities had better been sold and given to the poor To that end we may desire them and yet leave Righteousness in its place For to seek any thing in reference to Righteousness is to seek Righteousness first Christ is poor in the begger but the rich man supplieth him he is stripped with the naked but the rich man clotheth him he lyeth wounded by the way-side but the râ—ch man hath oyl and wine and a piece of money for his cure This is the onely end and why Christ hath permitted us to seek these things that they may wait upon Righteousness and when she saith Go be ready to go to that poor cottage that house of mourning that prison and at her command to strengthen the weak knees and the hands that hang down Not that we should quaerere summa in infimis place our heaven on earth our happiness in vanity but per corporalia ad incorporalia venire as Augustine speaketh by these corporal things ascend higher and nearer to eternal and by a religious Chymistry extract Manna out of meat the water of life out of drink grace out of riches and perfection out of plenty Therefore Augustine recanted what he once said Sensibilia penitus esse fugienda That temporal things were utterly to be avoided because they may be to us as the Gibeonites were to the Israelites drawn to the service of Virtue and Righteousness they may be as the ground where we may sow plenteously and reap plenteously For the Soul of man is placed in medietate quadam as it were in a middle region having below it the corporeal and sensible Creature and above it the Creatour both of body and soul And it may make use of temporal blessings if it do not make an idol of them if it do not yield up it self to the Creature so as to forget the Creatour and so handle that which is from the earth earthy as to lothe that which is from heaven heavenly For as all is good which God hath made from the Soul to the Atomes in the air so the soul cannot miscarry amongst these if she can distinguish and weigh and chuse them give to every thing it s own place place lesser things under greater corporal under spiritual and so ordering her love aright make use of the body to safeguard her self and with temporal things purchase eternal Deus largiendo terrena suadet ad coelestia When God openeth his hand to give us earthly blessings he openeth his mouth too and bespeaketh us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make the body a work-house for the good of the soul and by these houses of clay gain a title to that lasting city whose builder and founder is God For sensible things are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil a kind of types and representations of spiritual Paradise may put us in mind of heaven my money may put me in mind that I am God's coyn and must bear no image nor superscription but his my treasure on earth which a thief may steal may mind me of that treasure which no moth nor rust can corrupt which no craft or power can take from me I may see Grace in riches Piety in health Holiness in a garment and Eternity in earth This we may do this we must do look first upon Righteousness and there meet these things and then look through all these
the object and the object pierceth as deep into the soul But we look and look again into the Law of liberty but so faintly that we draw no power from it to renew us in the inward man It is a Law of liberty and we look upon it and yet are slaves We speak much of Faith which is the eye of the soul and what wonders it worketh And indeed it would do so if it were right and clear It is the substance of things not seen And if it draw Heaven and Glory so near us as to make them as certain to us as those things we see it were impossible we should turn the back to Eternity to follow a flying and transitory vanity to pursue that which is as mortal as our selves and must perish with us and doth most times perish before us For Faith and a full persuasion of the means to the end which we propose is the hinge on which all the actions of men move and are turned The Worldling seeth this is the way to wealth and he laboureth and sweateth in it The Ambitious looketh upon this as his way to the highest seat and he treadeth it in pain moveth forward in it though he meet with many rubs and difficulties many a disgrace many a curse as he moveth If we believe and are fully persuaded that this will bring us to our end we lay hold of it and follow its conduct though it lead us against the pricks Well said Tertullian Nemo non in causa Dei facere potest quod in sua potest Every man may do that for his soul which he doeth for his body for his place in heaven which he doeth for his estate on earth And if our persuasion were as full for the one as for the other if our eye of faith were as clear and our intention as strong we should see more glory in the Gospel then in all that pomp which swayeth and boweth and inclineth us to it and should flie from the one and cleave to the other see Heaven in this Law of liberty and then take it by violence For why should not our Faith be as powerful in the things of God as our Sense is in the things of this present life To conclude then The light of the body is the eye if the eye be single Matth. 6.22 the whole body will be light The Judgment the Persuasion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eye of the soul saith Hierocles And the body in this place is the Mind For what the Sight is in the Eye that is the Judgment in the Mind And if that be single and clear it will look and look into an object and fully consider it It will see the Gospel and in it see wonders see lepers clensed blind men receiving their sight and the dead raised to life again It will see it is a Law and bow to it as a perfect Law and make us perfect to every good work as a Law of liberty and enlarge our feet that we may run the way of God's commandments It will see it and in it that glory and riches which will ravish the eye see it as a ladder reaching up to heaven and ascend up upon it see it and with open face behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord and Law-giver and be changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord and the power of this Law of liberty see it and so be brought at last to the beatifical Vision a nearer and clearer sight of God Which is the end of all the Blessedness here promised to them that do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus earnestly look into the perfect Law of liberty The Six and Fortieth SERMON PART VI. JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed WE have presented before your eyes the first part of the Character and Description of the true Gospeller 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He bendeth and inclineth and boweth all the faculties of his soul to look into the perfect Law of Liberty to weigh and consider it But this is not enough It followeth therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and continueth therein To look into it and not remain in it is to fall away to fall as a star as Lucifer from heaven If we see the riches and glories of the Gospel and approve and delight therein and then exchange them for that vanity which it teacheth us to tread under foot give up all to our lusts and unruly affections you know our doom Our last end is worse then our beginning Though we have known Christ yet he will not know us though we have embraced the Gospel yet it shall not save us but we shall be judged according to that Gospel which we have looked into and approved and then cast behind us that we might follow our own inventions and the dictates of the flesh which will lead us to destruction This latter part doth establish the former and maketh our look a fixed and stedfast look a look which entereth in within the veil even to the holy of holies and endeth not but in the blessed vision of God himself See here they are linked and joyned together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continueth therein wreathed as it were one with the other We cannot continue in it unless we look into it and if we continue not our look is nothing nay it is worse then nothing For we look and see that which might save and will condemn us Therefore to keep them thus united the Apostle draweth an exact method and prescribeth the means 1. He must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a forgetful hearer he must meditate in it 2. He must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a doer of the work the Singular for the Plural a doer of those works which the Evangelical Law requireth And these two as Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses when they were heavy will hold up ours on the one side and on the other that they may be steddy unto our evening until the going down of our Sun that we may persevere to the end and be saved And with these we shall exercise your Devotion at this time The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like to that which our Saviour useth Matth. 24.13 Mark 13.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But he that shall endure to the end the same shall be saved From thence cometh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Patience so much commended in the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have need of patience Heb. 10.36 that after ye have done the will of God that is done it to the end ye may receive the promise a Patience which standeth strong against all incursions belli molem quae sustinet
can be the same numerical body with that which did walk upon the earth It is enough for me to know that it is sown in dishonour 1 Cor. 15.43 and shall be raised in glory and my business is to rise with Christ here and make good my part in this first Resurrection for then I am secure and need not to extend my thoughts to the end of the world to survey and comprehend the second To add one instance more in the point of Justification of a sinner in which after sixteen hundred years preaching of the Gospel and more we do not well agree and yet might well agree if we would take it as the Scripture hath reacht it forth and not burthen it with our own phansies and speculations with new conclusions forced out of the light to obscure and darken it For when this burden is upon it it must needs weigh according as the hand is that poiseth it And what necessity is there to ask Whether it consist in one or more acts so I do assure my self that it is the greatest blessing that God ever let fall upon the children of men or Whether it be perfected in the pardoning of our sins or the imputation of universal obedience or by the active and passive obedience of Christ when it is plain that the act of Justification is the act of the Judge and this cannot so much concern us as the benefit it self which is the greatest that can be given I am sure not so much as the duty which must fit us for the act It were to be wisht that men would speak of the acts of God in his own language and not seek out divers inventions which do not edifie but many times shake and rend the Church in pieces and lay the Truth it self open to reproch which had triumphed gloriously over Errour had men contended not for their own inferences and deductions Jude 3. but for that common faith which was once delivered to the Saints And as in Justification so in the point of Faith by which we are justified what Profit is it busily to enquire Whether the nature of Faith consisteth in an obsequious assent or in appropriating to our selves the grace and mercy of God or in the mere fiducial apprehension and application of the merits of Christ Whether it be an instrument or a condition Whether a living Faith justifieth or whether it justifieth as a living Faith What will this add to me what hair to my stature when I may settle and rest upon this which every eye must needs see That the Faith by which I am justified must not be a dead faith but a Faith working by Charity which is the language of Faith and demonstrateth her to be alive My sheep hear my voice saith Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 5.6 saith Basil They hear and obey and never dispute or ask questions Joh. 10.27 they taste and not trouble and mud that clear water of life It is enough for us to be justified it is enough for us to be saved which we may be by pressing forward in the way which is smooth and plain and not running out into the mazes and labyrinths of disputes where we too oft lose our selves in our search and dispute away our Faith talk of Faith and the power of it and be worse then infidels of Justification and please our selves in unrighteousness of Christs active Obedience and be to every good Work reprobate Tit. 1.16 of his passive Obedience and deny him when we should suffer for him of the inconsistency of Faith and Good works in our Justification and set them at as great a distance in our lives and conversations and because they do not help to justifie us think they have no concurrence at all in the work of our salvation For we are well assured of the one and contend for it and too many are too confident of the other There is indeed a kind of intemperance in most of us a wild and irregular desire to make things more or less then they are and remove them well near out of sight by our additions and defalcations and few there are who can be content with the Truth and settle and rest in it as it appeareth in that nakedness and simplicity in which it was first brought forth but men are ever drawing out conclusions of their own spinning out and weaving speculations thin unsuitable unfit to be worn which yet they glory in and defend with more heat and animosity then they do that Truth which is necessary and by it self sufficient without this additional art For these are creatures of our own shaped out in our phansie and so drest up by us with all accurateness and curiosity of diligence that we fall at last in love with them and apply our selves to them with that closeness and adherency which dulleth and taketh off the edge of our affection to that which is most necessary and so leaveth that neglected and last in our thoughts which is the main Val. Max. 8. 11. As we read of Euphranor the painter who having stretcht his phansie and spent the force of his imagination in drawing Neptune to the life could not raise his after and wearied thoughts to the setting forth the majesty of Jupiter So when we are so lively and overactive in that which is either impertinent or not so considerable not much material to that which is indeed most material we commonly dream or are rather dead to those performances which the wisdome of God hath bound us to as the fittest and most proportioned to that end for which we were made And these I conceive are most necessary which are necessary to the work we have to do and will infallibly bring us to the end of our faith and hopes Others which our wits have hammered and wrought out of them may be peradventure of some use to those who are watchful over them to keep them in a pliableness and subserviency to that which is plain and received of all but may prove dangerous and fatal to others who have not that skill to manage them but favour them so much as to give them line and sufferance to carry them beyond their limit and then shut them up in themselves where they are lost to that truth which should save them which they leave behind them out of their eye and remembrance whilest they are busie in the pursuit of that which they overtake with danger and without which the Apostles of Christ and many thousands before them have attained their end and are now in bliss Certainly it would be more safe for us and more worthy our calling to be diligent and sincere in that which is plainly revealed to believe and in the strength and power of that Faith to crucifie our flesh with the affections and lusts Hoc opus Gal. 5.24 hic labor est then to be drawing out of Schemes and measuring out the actions and operations of God
arguitur then conquereth when it cannot prevail is then understood when it is opposed and then gaineth honour when it cannot win assent Oh what a victory and triumph had Christs Innocency over the heart and tongue of Pilate even then when he gave sentence of death against him Luke 23.24 v. 4 14. Be it as you require this his Ambition and Fears forced from him but I find no fault in this man this was the victory of Christs Innocency which made his Judge his Advocate who at once pleadeth for him and condemneth him How glorious were the blessed Martyrs in their thoughts who dragged them to execution How do the wicked Saint them in their heart whom they gnash at with their teeth How do their Passions rage against them when their Reason acquitteth them How do good men beat down and dismay their enemies in their very fall and how do their enemies secretly wish that being such they would not be such but cast in their lots with them Ecclus. 49.1 and be as wicked as they The remembrance of Josiah saith the Wiseman is like a perfume as sweet as honey in all mens mouthes For as the one taketh the Sense so doth the other surprise the Reason and is as proper and natural to the Understanding as Honey and Musick are to the Sense And this is taken from the common stock of Nature and we never lose it but with our selves nor can we lay it by till we are unmanned and like Nebuchadnezzar driven into the field and turned into beasts For who was ever so intemperate as to condemn Temperance for a vice Who was ever such a traitour as to write a panegyrick on Rebellion Who was ever such a devil as not to wish himself a Saint We deny not but that continuance in sin advantage and prosperity in sin the pleasures of sin the long-suffering of God which may be lookt upon as an applause from heaven the cringes and idolatry of Parasites the profit of sin the honour of sin may swell and puff up a man of Belial and build him up into a most unholy faith That thus thus it should be That there is no virtue but a thriving vice no holiness but powerful and glorious hypocrisie That Vice bowed to is virtue and Virtue whipt and disgraced is vice But then many a sad interval he hath many a twinge and gnawing at his heart that he dare not look upon his Sin but in this dress and state and maugre all these many a bitter remembrance which disquieteth and buffeteth him that in this height and glory he shaketh and wavereth and is unstedfast in this his faith that he cannot give a full and constant assent to that which he is so willing to believe cannot be perswaded of what he is perswaded nor believe what he doth believe but is sick and well is resolved and trembleth condemneth and absolveth himself every day and cannot live in peace in that sin in which nevertheless he may be resolved to dye To conclude this Even they who weary themselves in the wayes of wickedness know there is no rest but in this Good and those fools who count Piety as madness when they make a truce with their Passions and consult with Reason are so wise as to see and admire and acknowledge the beauty of this Good Fourthly as this Good in the Text is lovely and amiable so is it filling and satisfying so fitted to the Soul that it filleth it when nothing else can For that which filleth a thing must be proportioned to it The Heart of man is a little member It will not saith S. Bernard give a Kite its breakfast and yet it is too large a receptacle of too great a compass for the whole world to fill In hoc toto nihil singulis satis est There is nothing in the whole Universe which is taken for enough by any one particular man nothing in which the appetite of a single man can rest Only this Good here in the Text can fit it because it is fitted to it Honour is but air and is lost in the grasping Riches are but earth and sink from us in the digging Pleasures are but shadows and slip through our embraces but this Good is a solid permanent lasting thing changeth the Soul into it self filleth it in every part and bringeth delight where it filleth I have seen an end of all perfection but thy law is exceeding large Psal 119.96 saith David So large as to fill the soul as with marrow and fatness Nieremb De art vol. We are told by those who have written of the Indians that there are certain birds there which seem to call passengers to them making a kind of articulate noise Lo here it is and when passengers deceived with this note draw near to that place from whence the sound came the birds fly away and at some distance renew their note and still as the passengers approach fly away and then take up the same note till they have quite led them out of their way Penes historicos fides esto Let the truth of this be what it will What these birds are said to do that which we so much dote on and follow after the things of the world which are the Good that is most sought after do truly act Some song they sing some pleasure they present to draw us near unto them For that which is pleasant and fair to the sense hath not only a voice but is eloquent to perswade and it seemeth to bespeak us Lo here it is Here is Happiness and when we send out our Desires to overtake it they miss and come short and are frustrate Our Covetousness followeth it but it flyeth away Still we pursue it and that still withdraweth and so we lose our way wander and erre open to the rage of every beast of every temptation that assaulteth us and at last fall into the pit of destruction And here is the difference between that which is truly good and that which but coloureth for it and appeareth so In the one our Appetite pleaseth us but experience is distastful it is honey in the desire but gall in the taste In the other in that which is truly good our Appetite many times is dull and queazy but when we have tasted and chewed upon it it is sweeter then the honey or the honey-comb It may be gall in the appetite but in the taste it is manna If you put them into the scales to weigh them there is no comparison You may as well measure Time with Eternity or weigh one sand of the shore with the whole Ocean For he that feedeth on Lyes must needs be empty when it is truth alone that filleth us Last of all as this Good filleth and satisfieth us so it giveth a sweet relish and tast even to Misery it self and those evils which we so fear as if there were none but those It maketh those things which are not good in themselves
not They are not what they are and they do not what they do And why they are so and what shall be their end is casus reservatus is lockt up and reserved in the bosome of God alone And he that shall ask how it cometh to pass that they are thus and thus may well claim kindred of them both To these this Good is not shewn who are as far removed from being Men as they are from the use of Reason How should he see a star in the firmament Lib. 1. De doct Christ saith S. Augustine who cannot see so far as to my finger which pointeth up to it And how should they see this Good who are destitute of Reason which is the only eye with which we can behold it The Second hindrance is Sloth and Neglect that we do not search it out not fix our eyes upon it but walk on towards our journeys end sport our selves in the way and only salute it in the by and then as travellers do many objects and occurrences they meet with behold it pass by and forget it James 1.23 or as S. James speaketh look on it as on a glass not as Women with curiosity and diligence but as Men perfunctorily and slightly and never once think more of what we have seen We first slight and at last loath it For a negative contempt is the immediate way and next step to a positive Plaut Mostell Venit ignavia ea mihi tempestas fuit saith he in the Comedy Sloth cometh upon us bindeth our faculties and that is the tempest which spoileth us of our crop of that fruit which we might have gathered from this tree of life For though this Good be most fully and perspicuously set forth in Scripture shewn in all its beams and glory yet this giveth no encouragement to neglect those means which God hath reached forth unto us to guide and direct us in our search There is light enough and it is plain is no argument that we should shut our eyes For as we do not with the Church of Rome pretend extreme difficulty and with this pretense quite strike the Scripture out of the hands of the Laity and busie their zeal with other matters bind them as a horse is bound to the mill and lead them on in the motion of a blind obedience so do we require the greatest diligence both in reading Scripture and also in asking counsel of the gray hairs and multitude of years of the learned of those whom God hath placed over them in the Church And if the great Physician Hippocrates thought it necessary in his art for those who had taken any cure in hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to ask advice of all Hippocrat in praecept Naz. ep 120. even of Ideots and those who knew but little in that art much rather ought we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ask counsel of God by prayer and be ready to be instructed by any who is a Man For though the lesson be plain yet we see it so falleth out that Negligence doth not pass a line when Industry and Meditation have run over the whole book that Diligence hath a full sight of this Good when Sloth and Neglect have but heard of its name S. Hierome speaketh of some in his time qui solam rusticitatem pro sanctitate habebant who accounted Rusticity and Ignorance the only true Holiness and called themselves the scholars and disciples of the Disciples of Christ who we are told were simple and unlearned fishermen Idcirco sancti quòd nihil scirent as if Ignorance were the best argument to demonstrate their piety and they were therefore holy because they knew not what it was to be so I will not say Such we have in these our dayes no they are not such as profess ignorance but who are as ignorant as they could be who did profess it Like the Lillies of the field they labour not they study not Matth. 6.28 29. and yet Solomon with all his wisdome was not so wise as one of these Some crums fall from their Masters table some passage they catch and lay hold on from some Prophet which they call theirs and this so filleth them that they must vent that it runneth over and defileth and corrupteth that which they will not understand For bring them to a trial and you shall find them as well skilled in Scripture as he was in Virgil who having studied it long at last asked whether Aeneas was a man or a woman Faith is their dayly bread their common language Religion they speak of as oft almost as they do speak Piety dwelleth with them Purity is their proper passion or essence rather but then this Good in the Text Justice and Mercy and Honesty in conversation if we may judge of the tree by his fruits is not as the Psalmist speaketh in all their thoughts Psal 10.4 for it is scarce in any of their wayes and we have that reason which we would not have to fear that they do but talk of it Now to cast a careless look upon this Good is not to see it to talk of it is not to understand it to name it is not to embrace it For all these may be in a man who hath the price in his hand but hath no heart to buy it Prov. 17.16 As the Philosopher said of those who were punisht after death in their carcasses Relicto cadavere abiit reus The body was left behind but the guilty person the parricide was departed and gone So here is a lump of flesh but the Man is gone nay dead and buried covered over with outward formalities with words and phansie This is not the Man in the Text and then no marvel if he cannot see this great sight The third impediment is Improbity of manners a mind immerst and drowned in all the filth and pollution of the world evil-affected Acts 14.2 Corrupt 2 Tim. 3.8 For wickedness is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Eth. b. 5. Maguis sceleribus jura naturae intereunt Sen. Cont. Prov. 20.27 saith the Philosopher doth corrupt the very principles of nature and make that Candle as Solomon calleth it which God hath lighted up in our hearts burn but dimly As we read that when the earth was without form and void darkness was upon the face of the deep Matth. 6.23 so when the Perturbations of our mind interpose themselves as the Earth there is straight a darkness over the Soul An Evil eye cannot behold that which is Good 2 Pet. 2.14 An eye full of adulteries cannot discover the beauty of Chastity 1 Joh. 2.16 A lustful eye cannot see Justice A Lofty eye can neither look upon Mercy nor Humility Ps 131.1 The Love of Honour maketh the judgement follow it to that pitch and height which it hath set and markt out The Love of money will gloss that Blessing which our Saviour hath annext to Poverty of spirit Matth. 5
end for it it will be eternal Thus have we seen Justice or Honesty in its full shape and beauty fastned upon its proper pillars the Law of Nature and the Law of the God of Nature Let us now see by way of application with what eye and favour the world of Men and the world of Christians have lookt upon it whether they have not relied more on those pillars of smoke and air their private Phansie and private Interest then upon these pillars of marble that God himself hath set up which are firm and strong and might bear them up to build upon them that Justice which would raise them up above the dying and killing glories of this world to that which is everlasting in the highest heavens First the complaint is old that Justice or honesty hath long since left the earth or rather is driven out of it To speak truth when her territories were largest when she stretcht the curtains of her habitation furthest she did but angustè habitare took up but little room and her retinue was but small She never yet could tithe the children of men and it had been well if she had taken in one of an hundred It were even a labour to shew the divers arts and inventions of men which they make use of to work out their way to honour and the riches of this world Ad haec simplicem hactenus vivendi rationem excogitatis mensuris ponderibus immutavit pristinámque sinceritatem generositatem ignaram talium artium in novam quandam versutiam depravavit Joseph Antiq. Judaic l. 1. c. 3. Sen de Benef. l. 7. c. 10. Cain is blamed by Josephus for first finding out Weights and Measures which was a tacite and silent accusation that that age was corrupt in which so much caution was necessary Quid foenus kalendarium faith Seneca What are Interest and the Kalendar and your Count-Books but names extra naturam posita found out quite besides and beyond the intention of Nature What are your Bills and Obligations and Indentures but as so many libels wherein you profess to the world that you dare not trust one another and that you believe men cannot be honest unless they be bound Plus annulis quà m animis creditis Your Seal-rings are a better assurance then your Faiths And how do too many sell themselves but not for bread How in all sorts and conditions of men have some used their Power others their Wit pro lege publica instead of a publick Law and have entitled themselves the just possessours of that estate into which they have wrought themselves with hands of Oppression Robbery and Deceit It hath been an old reproach laid upon Common-wealths That they did set common honesty to sale The Athenians had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a tribute out of the stews and we are told that Christians have so if Rome may yet be thought to be in Christendome Look into the Civil Law Codice de Spect. Scen. Lenonibus of Theatrical Shews Stage-playes and Bawds and you shall find that even from hence from these loathsome and nasty dunghills of corruption Emperours and Common-wealths have sucked gain Mathematicians Juglers Fortune-tellers Thieves and which the Father could not tell whether he should grieve or blush at inter hos Christiani vectigales Tert. Apolog. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. Arist 2. Rhet. Fest Verb. uxor Tacitus amongst this rabble Christians also were brought in as tributary This was exacted from Poor men from Statues from Dead-men from very Urine and this to the Emperour was a sweet-smelling savour In one age they did Vxorium pendere pay a sum of money for not being married in another etiam Matrimonia obnoxia they who were married were liable to this exaction Quocunque modo rem Gain was welcome at what gate or postern soever it came in So soon did they forget they were Men so little did they regard the Law of Nature And it were to be wished that this evil had stayed here that this art of unjust and unlawful acquisition had been onely known in the tents of Kedar But by degrees it stole in and found enterteinment in the Church of God and Christians forgetting their profession quae nil nisi justum suadet which should be known by Justice and Equity and Contempt of the world began to think stolen waters sweet and to feed greedily on the bread of Deceit and Violence For as the Pharisees did teach their children to say to their Father and Mother Mark 7.11 Corban which is not a curse as some have imagined for the Pharisees were too wise to be so openly wicked as to teach men to curse their parents to have done this had been to forfeit their phylacteries but it was their craft and policy an art to fill their Treasurie to teach children who were offended with their parents to consecrate their wealth to the Treasury that so they might defeat that other Law which bound them to supply their parents in want and distress So even within the pale of the Church there have been found men whose Phylacteries were as broad as theirs who by holy fraud did take into their hands the possessions of the earth and at last laid claim unto the whole world and that upon the score of Religion taught men to redeem their ill-spent time with a piece of silver What were else the Prayers for the dead as they were used in the Church of Rome but the price of mens souls For the very thought of the power and efficacy of them drove men to a more supine and negligent conversation to weary themselves in the wayes of wickedness having such a pillow to sleep on For what need they be diligent to make their election sure whilest they live who are fully perswaded that this may be done by proxy for them when they are dead This is truly the Pharisees Corban to teach men to rob their parents to endanger their souls by religion that so their treasuries may be full This is to make that monumentum sceleris a lasting monument of craft and policy which should have been specimen pietatis an example and expression of piety This is to cheat men into charity and liberality which should be free and voluntary with false hopes It was the saying of Martine Luther Papatus est robusta venatio Romani Episcopi that Popery was nothing else but a close senting and following of gain and hunting after the riches and pomp of the world For if men will not give or yield up their estates either Policy shall betray or Power like a whirlwind snatch them away When Peter's Keyes are too weak Julius the Second flingeth them into the River Tiber with this Christian resolution to try what Paul's Sword could do We may say with the Wise man that this is an evil disease under the Sun a disease which did not onely envenome that politick Estate which is nothing else but a Disease but did also
We cover the naked with our cloth and God clotheth us with joy We convert a sinner and shine as stars We part with a few shekels of silver and the hand of Mercy worketh and turneth them into a crown We sow temporal and transitory things and the harvest is Eternity Whilest we make them ours they are weak and impotent but when we part with them they work miracles and remove mountains all that is between us and blessedness Matth. 6.27 All the riches in the world will not add one cubit to our stature but if we thus tread them under our feet they will lift us up as high as heaven Nulla sunt potiora quà m de misericordia compendia The best gains are those we purchase with our loss and the best way to find our bread is to cast it upon the waters Eccl. 11.1 Will you see the practice of the primitive Christians I do the rather mention it because methinketh I see the face of Christendome much changed and altered and Christians whose plea is Mercy whose glory is Mercy who but for Mercy were of all men most miserable who have no other business in the world then to save and help themselves and others using all means to dry up the fountain of Mercy shaping to themselves virtutem duram ferream bringing forth Mercy in a coat of a mail and like Goliath with an helmet of brass standing as Centinel as a Guard about our wealth with this loud prohibition to all that stand in need Col. 2.21 Touch not Tast not Handle not Let us therefore look back and see what they were in former times and we shall find them so unlike to those of succeeding generations that they will rather be brought under censure then set up as a pattern for imitation For we are as far removed from their Piety as we are from the times wherein they lived They I am sure thought Mercy a virtue and the chief virtue of the Gospel a virtue in which they thought it impossible to exceed They made it their daily bread to feed others Melior est racematio c. Their gleaning-grapes were much better then our Vintage Justine Martyr in his Apology for the Christians telleth us that that which they possessed they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apolog. bring it into a common treasury Tertullian calleth it arcam communem a common chest Nor was this Benevolence exacted as a tribute from those who desired to be joyned with them in communion as the Heathen did calumniate but every man did sponte conferre saith Tertullian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Justine Martyr voluntarily and what he would And that which was gathered was committed to the hands or trust of the Bishop and after when he was taken up with other matters more proper for his calling to the Deacons which by them was laid out for the clothing of the naked the maintenance of the poor of orphans and of old men to redeem captives to succour men who had been shipwrackt by sea and those who were in prison for their profession and the Gospel of Christ Plus nostra misericordia insumit vicatim quà m vestra superstitio templatim saith Tertullian Our Mercy layeth out more in the streets on the poor then your Superstition doth on your Gods in your Temples our Religion hath a more open hand then your Idolatry And to this end they had matriculas egenorum certain Catalogues of the names of their poor brethren personarum miserabilium persons as thy termed them miserable How many of them were there who Eth. l. 10. as Aristotle speaketh did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greatly exceed in their liberality and did seem to be more merciful then the Lord requireth Orat. 10. Nazianzene telleth us of his Mother Nonna that she was possest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an immoderate and unmeasurabâ—e desire of bestowing her goods that she was willing not onely to sell all that she had but even her very children for the use and relief of the poor Gorgonia her daughter suckt this pious and melting disposition though not from her breasts yet from her good example Who stript her self of all committed her body to the earth and left no other legacy to her children but her great example and the imitation of her virtues which she thought was enough to enrich them though they had nothing else S. Hierome telleth us of his Paula that though she were eminent in many virtues yet her Liberality did exceed and like a swelling river could not be kept within the banks Hoc habebat voti ut mendica moreretur She wisht for that which most men do fear as much as Death it self and her great ambition it was that she might dye a begger We might instance in more And these examples have shined in the Church as stars of the fairest magnitude But after-ages have thought them but comets looked upon them and feared them And though they know not well how to condemn this exceeding piety yet they soon perswade themselves and conclude that they are not bound to follow it and so are bound up as in a frost in the coldness and hardness of their hearts because some did seem to overflow and pass their limit These indeed are strange examples but yet S. Basil delivereth a doctrine as strange Orat. in famem siccitat for he would not give it as his counsel if it had not truth to commend and confirm it If thou hast but one loaf left in thy house saith he yet if a poor man stand at thy doors and ask for bread bring it forth and give it him with thy hands lifted up to heaven whilest thou doest that which God requireth and for thy own supply reliest on the Providence of thy Father which is in heaven Do it in his name and in his name thou shalt be fed assuredly Thou hast parted with thy one loaf here but his Power to whom thou givest it can and will multiply it For they that thus give are as wells which are soon drawn dry but fill the faster and the more they are exhausted the fuller they are I know not whether it may be safe to deliver such a doctrine in these daies and therefore we will not insist upon it and these examples which I have held up to you may be transcendent that we may not bind every man to reach them These pious Women may seem perhaps to have stretcht beyond the line and exceeded the bounds of moderation but yet we cannot but think that this was truly to go out of the world whilest they were in it And we may observe that this excess is incident to great and heroick spirits who as it is said of Homer and Sophocles sometimes swelling above that proper and ruled sublimity of speach wherein they did excell do generosè labi erre and fall more nobly and with-greater commendation then others who spin an even but course thread and are so far
it be not too wise or too full that it may behold it self of more value then the whole world and then shut it self up that it wander not abroad after those vanities which will soon fill it with air and swell it This is the method and this the work of Humility It pulleth out our eyes that we may see spoileth us of our wealth that we may be rich taketh us out of the raies that we may have light taketh us from our selves that we may possess our selves biddeth us depart from God that we may enjoy him This is Janitrix scholae Christi saith Bernard for when we bow and lye prostrate we are let in This is as S. John Baptist to prepare the way to make every mountain low and the rough places plain to depress a lofty head sink a haughty eye beat down a swelling heart In a word this is the best Leveller in the world and there need none but this Wee see then in what Humility consisteth in placing us where we should be at the footstool of God admiring his Majesty and abhorring themselves distrusting our selves and relying on his Wisdome bowing to him when he helpeth us and bowing to him when he striketh us denying our selves surrendring our selves being nothing in our selves and all things in him This will more plainly appear in the extent of this duty which reacheth the whole man both body and soul It was the speech of S. Augustine Domine duo creasti alterum prope té alterum prope nihil Lord thou hast made two things in the world one near unto thy self divine and celestial the Soul the other vile and sordid next to nothing the Body These are the parts which constitute and make us men the subject of Sin and therefore of Humility Rom. 6.12 Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies but let Humility depose and pluck it from its throne Inde delinquit homo unde constat saith Tertullian From thence sin is from whence we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene With our selves we fight against our selves We carry about with us those forces which beset us we are that army which is in battel aray against us videas concurrere bellum Atque virum Our enemies are domestick and at home within us And a tumult must be laid where first it was raised Between them both saith the same Father Naz. orat 8. there is a kind of warlike opposition and they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were pitch their tents one against the other When the Body prevaileth the Soul is lost and when the Body is at the lowest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then is the Soul as high as heaven and when the Soul is sick and even bedrid with sin then the Body is most active as a wild Ass or wanton Heifer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesych In both there is matter for Humility to work on In both there are excrescences and extuberations to be lopt off and abated The Body must be used as an enemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul I buffet it I beat it black and blew I handle it as a rebel or profest enemy and it must be used as a servant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I hold it in subjection like a captive like a slave after conquest And the Soul must be checked contracted depressed in it self nè in multa diffluat that it spread not not diffuse it self on variety of objects It must not be dimidiata humilitas an Humility by halves but holocaustum a whole-burnt-offering both Body and Soul wasting and consuming all their dros◠in this holy conflagration I know not how good duties are either shrunk up in the conveyance Eccl. 12.11 not driven home by the Masters of assemblies or else taken into pieces in the performance Doth God Proclaim a Fast See the head hangeth down the looks is changed you may read a famine in the countenance and yet the Fast not kept Walk humbly with him So we will He shall have our knee our look he shall see us prostrate on the ground say some who are as proud on the ground as when they stood up He shall have the heart no knee of ours say others as proud as they If we can conceive an Humiliation and draw forth its picture but in our phansie nay if we can but say It is good to be humbled it is enough though it be a lye and we speak not what we think We are most humble when we least express it So full of contradictions is Hypocrisie and what a huge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and gulf is there between Hypocrifie and Humility so reaching at impossibilities which may draw Pride and Humlity together to be one and same which yet are at greater distance one from the other then the earth is from the Heaven And thus we divide Humility nay thus we divide our selves from our selves our Souls from our Bodies Either our Humility is so spiritual that we cannot see it neither dropping at the eyes nor changing the countenance nor bowing the knees nor hear it in complaints and grones and rorings which were wont to be the language of Humility or it is so coporeal that we see it all God hath his part and but a part and so hath none and then the conjecture is easie who hath it all But Our selves include both Neither is my Body my self nor my Soul my self but I am one made up of both the knot that tyeth them both together and my Humility lasteth no longer then whilst I am one of both Whilst then we are so let us give God both and first the Soul For there is no vice more dangerous or to which we are more subject then spiritual Pride Other vices proceed from some defect in us or some sinful imbecillity of nature but this many times ariseth out of our good parts Others fly from the presence of God this dareth him to his face and maketh even Ruine it self the foundation of its tabernacle Intestinum malum periculosius The more near the evil cleaveth to the soul the more dangerous it is the more inward the more fatal I may wean my self from the World fling off Vanity and take off my soul from sensible objects I may deny my Appetite shut up my Eye bind my Hands I may study Pleasure so long till I truly understand it and know it is but madness and the World till I contemn it But Pride ultima exuitur is the last garment we put off When we are naked we can keep her on and when we can be nothing we can be proud And therefore some have conceived humility to be placed in the Soul as a Canopy covering and shadowing both the faculties binding and moderating the Understanding and subduing the Will And whilest they sit under Humility they sit in state the Understanding is crowned with raies and light and the Will commandeth just things as from its throne never employing the Eye or Hand
Ishmael Thus by looking on the Persons in the Text you may plainly see the face and condition of the Church and that no priviledge she hath can exempt her from persecution This will yet more plainly appear from the very Nature and Constitution of the Church which is best seen in her blood when she is Militant Which is more full and expressive then any other representation or title that she hath The Church of Christ and the Kingdomes of the earth are not of the same making and constitution have not the same soul and spirit to animate them These may seem to be built upon Air they are so soon thrown down That is raised upon a holy Hill These have a weak and frail hand to set them up and as weak a hand may cast them down That is the work of Omnipotency which fenceth it about and secureth it from Death and Hell These depend upon the Opinions upon the Affections upon the Lusts of men which change oftner then the wind upon the breath of that monster the Multitude which is any thing and which is nothing which is it knoweth not what and never agreeth with it self is never one but in a tempest in tumult and sedition That is founded upon the eternal Decree and Will of God and upon Immutability it self and shall stand fast for ever These when they are in their height and glory are under uncertainty and chance The Church under the wing and shadow of that Providence which can neither erre nor miscarry but worketh mightily and irresistibly to its end His evertendis una dies hora momentum sufficit These are long a raysing and are blown down in a moment But the Church is as everlasting as his love that built it In a word these are worn out by Time The Church is but melted and purged in it and shall then be most glorious when Time shall be no more I know well Persecution appeareth to us as a Fury sent from hell and every hair every threat is a snake that hisseth at us but it is our Sensuality and Cowardise that whippeth us Yet the common consent of all men hath given her a fairer shape and they that run from her do prefer the suffering part And as our Saviour said Acts 20.35 It is more blessed to give then to receive so is it vox populi the voice of the People though they practice it not It is better to suffer then to oppress Even they who have the sword in their hand and breath nothing but terrour and death will rage yet more if you say they persecute you and either magnifie their cruelty with the name of Justice or else seek to perswade the world that they and they alone suffer persecution Every man flieth persecution and every man is willing to own it The Arians complained of the cruelty of the Orthodox and the Orthodox of the fury of the Arians Epist 48 68. Vos dicitis pati persecutionem saith Augustine to the Manichees You say you suffer but our houses are laid wast by you You say you suffer but your armed men put out our eyes You say you suffer but we fall by the sword What you do to us you will not impute to your selves but what you do to your selves you impute to us Thus it was then And how do we look back upon the Marian daies as if the bottomless pit did never smoke but then And are not they of the Romish party as loud in their complaints as if the Devil were never let loose till now We bring forth our Martyrs with a faggot on their shoulder and they theirs with a Tiburn-tippet as Father Latimer calleth it and both glory in Persecution We see then every party claimeth a title to Persecution and counteth it honour to be placed in the number of those that suffer And indeed Persecution is the honour the prosperity the flourishing condition of the Church for it maketh hâ—r indeed visible Nazianzene I remember calleth it the Sacrament and mystery of blood a visible sign of invisible grace where one thing is seen and another thing done where the Christian suffereth and rejoyceth is cast down and promoted falleth by the sword to rise to eternity where Glory lieth hid in Disgrace Advantage in Loss and Life in Death a Church shining in the midst of all the blackness and darkness and terrours of the world Epist 20. â—â— Floridi Martyres they are called by S. Cyprian But this you may say is true if we take the Church as Invisible made up of Sheep onely as Collection of Saints To speak truly Charity buildeth up no other Church For all she beholdeth are either so or in a possibility of having that honour though the eye of Faith can see but a small number to make up that body But take the Church under what notion you please yet it will be easie to observe that Persecution may enlarge her territories increase her number and make her more visible then she was when the weather was fair and no cloud or darkness hung over her that when her branches were lopt off she spread the more that when her members were dispersed there were more gathered to her that when they were driven about the world they carried that sweet-smelling savour about them which dtew in multitudes to follow them that in their flight they begat many children unto Christ Apolog. Crudelitas vestra illecebra est sectae saith Tertullian In the last place As it was then so it is now S. Paul doth not say It may be so or It is by chance but so it is by the Providence of God Provedentia ratio ordinis rerum ad finem Aquin. which is seen in the well ordering and bringing of every motion and action of man to a right end which commonly runneth in a contrary course to that which Flesh and Blood humane Infirmity would find out Eternity and Mortality Majesty and Dust and Ashes Wisdome and Ignorance steer not the same course nor are they bound to the same point My wayes are not your wayes nor my thoughts yours Isa 55.8 saith God by his Prophet to a foolish Nation who in extremity of folly would be wiser then God Mine are not as yours not such uncertain such vain such contradictory and deceitful thoughts but as far removed from yours as heaven is from the earth God hideth himself under a veil Deus tum maximè magnus eum homini pusillus tum maximè optimus cum ho â—ini non bonus Tert l. 2. adv Marcion c. 2. and is merciful when he seemeth angry and just when in outward appearance he favoureth oppression he shadoweth us under his wings when we think he thundreth against us and raiseth his Church as high as heaven when we tremble and imagin he hath opened the gates of hell to devour her Were Flesh and Blood to build a Church we should draw our lines out in a pleasant place It should
Goods which are of no value whilst they are in our hands and never estimable but in his whose they truly are all ill materials to make a pillow to rest on In a word in this our irregular motion we look tovvard the rising Sun and travel tovvards the West vve run from the shade into a tempest vve seek for ease and rest and have thrust our selves into the region of Noise and Thunder and Darkness Ask those boysterous and contentious spirits which delight in war ask the Tyrants of the earth those publick and priviledged Thieves ask those who wade to their unwarranted desires through the fortunes and bloud of others and see how they are filled with horrour and anxiety how the riches which they so greedily desired have eaten them up Behold them afraid of their fortunes of their friends of themselves even fainting and panting on the pinnacle of State ready to be blown down with every puff of wind as busie to secure their estate as they were to raise it and yet forced to that unhappy prudence which must needs endanger it Behold one slain by his friends another by his sons a third by his servants and some by their very souldiers who helpt to raise them to this formidable height Look over all the Tragedies which have been written scarce any but of these Ad generum Cereris sine caede vulnere pauci Descendunt Juven sat 10. Few of them have brought their gray hairs unbloudy to their grave And if this be to be quiet we may in time be induced to believe that Rest and Peace may be found even in Hell it self This then is not the way If we will reach home to the end we must choose that path which leadeth unto it This is not the Apostle's method No saith S. Paul Rom. 12.4 We have many members in one body and all members have not the same office Having therefore different callings and different gifts and different places to move in let every man wait upon and move in his own for there he may be quiet and no where else Let the Lawyer plead and the Divine preach let the Husbandman plough the earth and the Merchant the sea let the Tradesman follow his trade let the Magistrate governe and let all the people say Amen Let all men make good their place and every man do his own business and so rejoyce together in the publick order and peace And as Cuiacius that famous Lawyer in France Papyrius Massonâ—us in Elog. illust Viror in vita Cuiacii when he was askt his opinion in points of Divinity was wont to give no other answer but this Nihil hoc ad edictum Praetoris This which you ask me hath no relation to the edict of the Praetor so when any temptation shall take us and invite and flatter us ire in opus alienum to put our hands to another mans work let us drive it back and vanquish it with this considerate resolution That it is not amongst the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is none of our business no more pertaining to our calling then Divinity doth to the Edict of the Praetor And then as we confine our selves to our own calling so let us be active and constant in our motion in it and as it followeth in the Apostles method let us shake off Sloth and work with our hands Which is next to be considered For indeed Idleness is the mother and nurse of this pragmatical Curiosity Mostell Haec mihi verecundiam virtutis modum deturbavit saith he in Plautus This taketh off our blush and maketh us bold adventurers to engage our selves in other mens actions When the mind of man is loose not taken up and busied in adorning of it self then Dinah-like it must gadd abroad to see the daughters of the countrey Gen. 34.1 and mingle it self with those contemplations which are as it were of another tribe and nation meer strangers unto her It is the character of the strange woman That she is garrula vaga Prov 7.11 loud and ever stragling devium scortum as Horace calleth her her feet abide not in her house Lib. 2. od 11. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Polit. 7. c. 3. saith Aristotle He that will be idle will be evil and he that will do nothing will do that he should not And the reason is given by the Stoick Mobilis inquieta mens homini data est The mind of man is full of activity ever in motion and restless now carried to this object and anon to that It walketh through the world and out of the world and is not at rest when the body sleepeth And if it do not follow that which is good it will soon fasten to that which is evil For it is not as a wedge of Lead but of the nature of an Angel which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 8. Polit. c. 6. cannot sleep As Aristotle spake of Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it cannot rest and be quiet And therefore the same Philosopher much commendeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Archytas his rattle as a profitable invention for being put into the hands of children it keepeth them from breaking vessels of use So this restless humour is made less hurtful by diversion And such a course God and Nature may seem to have taken with us not to dull this activity in us but to limit and confine it As God hath distributed to every man a gift so he hath allotted to every man a calling answerable to that gift that every man being bound to one may have the less scope and liberty to rove and make an incursion upon another mans calling This is a primordial Law of as great antiquity as the first man Adam That we must work with our hands For God will not every day work miracles for us and send us as he did the Israelites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaketh food without the labour of plowing and sowing Every Dew will not bring us Manna nor every Rock yield us water No In the sweat of thy brows thou shalt eat thy bread was a command as well as a curse and God hath so ordained it that by fulfilling the command we may turn the curse into a blessing We are not now in Paradise but as our first Father after he had forfeited it mundo dati quasi metallo De pallio Psal 24.1 115.16 as Tertullian speaketh condemned to the World as to the mines to labour and dig and so find that treasure we seek for As Heaven so the Earth is the Lords and he hath given them both to the sons of men The food of our souls and the food of our bodies are his gift and he giveth them when he revealeth and prescribeth the means how we shall procure them For the one he hath given us Faculty and Will for the other Strength and Appetite Neither will the Heavens bow themselves down to take
which we offer him a place and seat for honours sake who hath done some notable and meritorions service And so Christ having spoiled the adversary by his death having led captivity captive and put the Prince of darkness in chains at his return with these spoils heareth from his Father Sit now down at my right hand Nor doth God's right hand point out to any fixt or determined place where he sitteth For Christ himself telleth the high Priest that they shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of God and coming in the clouds of heaven Mark 14.62 which if literally understood we must needs conceive him coming and sitting at the same time All agree it is a Metaphor and some interpret it of that Supremacy Christ hath above the Creature For so he is described sitting at the right hand of God in heavenly places Eph. 1.20 21. far above all principality and power and every name that is named not onely in this world but in the world to come Some have conceived that by this honour of sitting at the right hand of God not onely an Equality with God is implyed but something more Equal to the Father as touching his God head Atha Nas Cr. Not that the Son hath any thing more then the Father for they are equal in all things but because in respect of the exercise and execution of his Royal office he hath as it were this dignity to sit in his Royal seat as Lord and Governour of his Church For the Father is said as I told you to commit all judgement to the Son But we may say with Tertullian Malo in scripturis fortè minùs sapere quà m contrá De Pudicit c. 9 We had rather understand less in Scripture then amiss rather be wary then venture too far and wade till we sink And that will prove the best interpretation of Scripture which we draw out of Scripture it self And then S. Paul hath interpreted it to our hands For whereas the Prophet David telleth us The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand the Apostle speaketh more expresly 1 Cor. 15.25 He must reign till he hath put down all enemies under his feet and in the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 8.1 We have such an high Priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens that is We have such an high Priest who is also a Lord and King of majesty and power to command and govern us who hath absolute authority over things in heaven and things in earth over all the souls and bodies of men and may prescribe them Laws reward the obedient and punish offenders either in this world or the next or in both For though he were a Lord and King even in his cratch and on his cross yet now his dominion and Kingly power was most manifest and he commandeth his Disciples to publish the Gospel of peace and those precepts of Christian conversation to all the world and speaketh not as a Prophet but as a Prince in his own name enjoyneth repentance and amendment of life to all the nations of the earth which were now all under his dominion Thus saith Christ himself Luke 24.46 47. it is writen and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his name among all nations And his Dominion is not subordinate Matth. 8.9 but absolute He commandeth not as the Centurion in the Gospel who had divers under him yet himself was under authority but Prov. 30.31 as Solomon's King he is Rex ALKVM a King against whom there is no rising up And now that it may appear that he is not for ever thus to sit at the right hand of God but there sitteth to rule and govern us to behold and observe us in every motion and in every thought and will nay must come again with a reward for those who bow to his sceptre and with vengeance to be poured forth upon their heads who contemn his laws and think neither of him nor the right hand of God and will not have him reign over them though they call him their King let us a little further consider the nature and quality of his Dominion that our fear and reverence our care and caution may draw him yet a little nearer to us and we may not onely conceive of him as sitting at the right hand of God but so live as if he were now coming in the clouds Tell ye the daughter of Sion Matth. 2.51 Behold thy King cometh to thee meek and sitting on an ass and a colt the foal of an ass This was his first coming in great humility Philip. 2.8 9. And this and his retinue shew that his Kigdom was not of this world He humbled himself saith S. Paul wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name given him power dignity and honour and made him our Lord and King For his Prophetical office which he exercised in the land of Judea was in a manner an act and effect of his Kingly office by which he sitteth as Lord in the throne of Mejesty For by it he declared his Fathers will and promulged his Laws throughout the world As a King and Lord he maketh his Laws and as a Prophet he publisheth them a Prophet and a Priest and a Lord for ever For he teacheth his Church he mediateth and intercedeth for his Church and governeth his Church to the end of the world Take then the Laws by which he governeth us the virtue and power the compass and duration of his Dominion and we shall find it to be of a higher and more excellent nature then that which the eye of flesh so dazleth at Rev. 19.16 that he is The LORD of Lords and KING of Kings And first the difference between his Dominion and the Kingdomes of the world is seen not onely in the Authours but the Laws themselves The Laws of men are enacted many times nec quid nec quare and no reason can be given why they are enacted good reason there is why there should be Laws made against them and they abolished Some written in blood too rigid and cruel some in water ready to vanish many of them but the results and dictates of mens lusts and wild affections made not so safeguard any State but their own But Christs are pure and undefiled exact and perfect such as tend to perfection to the good of his Subjects and will make them like unto this Lord heirs together with him of eternity of bliss And as the reward is eternal so are they unchangeable the same to day and to the end of the world not like the Laws of the Heathen which were raised with one breath and pulled down by another which were fixed by one hand and torn down by a
second Apol c. 4. Lycurgi leges emendatae saith Tertullian Lycurgus his Laws were so imperfect so ill fitting the Commonwealth that they were brought under the hammer and the file to be beat out and fashioned in another form more proportionable to that body for which they were made were corrected by the Lacedemonians Which undervaluing of his wisdom did so unman him that he would be a man no longer but starved himself to death Vetus squalens sylva legum edictorum securibus truncatae the whole wood of the old Laws now sullied and weakned with age was cut down by the edicts and escripts of after-Emperours at the very root as with an ax All of them are in the body of time and worn out with it either fail of themselves or else are cast aside humane Laws being but as shadows cast from men in power and when they fall to the ground are lost with them and are no more to be seen Gel. Noct. Att. l. 20. c. 1. nec uno statu consistunt sed ut coeli facies maris ità rerum atque fortunae tempestatibus variantur nor do they remain in one state but alter as the face of the Heavens and the Sea now smile anon frown now a calm and by and by a tempest Now the strong man saith Do this anon a stronger then he cometh and I forfeit my head if I do it Laws are too oft written with the point of the sword and then the character followeth the hand that beareth it Thus it is with the Laws of men But the Laws of this our Law-giver can no more change then he that made them No bribe can buy out their power no dispensations wound them no power can disannul them but they are the same Dispensationes vulnera legum and of the same countenance They moult not a feather they alter not in one circumstance but direct the obedient and stare the offender in the face and by the power of this Lord kindle a hell in him in this life and will appear at the great day to accuse him For we either stand or fall in judgment according to these Laws In a word humane Laws are made for certain climates and fitted to the complexion and temper of certain Commonwealths but these for the whole world Rome and Brittany and Jerusalem all places are bound alike and as his Dominion so his Laws reach from one end of the earth to another And these which he publisht at the first are not onely Laws but promises and pledges of his second coming For he made them not for nought but hath left them with us till he come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead according to his Gospel Besides the Laws of men are too narrow and cannot reach the whole body of Sin cannot comprehend all not the inward man the thoughts and surmises of the heart no not every visible act Leges non omnia comprehendunt non omnia vetant nec absolvunt Sen. they forbid not all they absolve not all Some irregularities there be which these Laws look not upon nor have they any other punishment then the common hatred of men who can pass no other sentence upon them then this That they dislike them and we are forced to leave them to the censure and anger of the Highest saith Seneca Quoties licet non oportet Every thing that is lawful for me to do is not fit to be done And his integrity is but lame that walketh on at pleasure and knoweth no bounds but those which the Laws of men have set up and never questioneth any thing he doth till he meeteth with a check is honest no further then this that he feareth not a prison nor the gibbet is honest because he deserveth not to be hanged How many are there who are called Christians who yet have not made good their title to that honour which we give to a just man How many count themselves just men yet do those things which themselves if they would be themselves would condemn as most unjust and do so when others do them and how many have carried so much honesty with them into hell The Laws of men cannot reach home to carry us to that height of innocency to which no other Law but that within us might lift us up But the Laws of this Lord like his Power and Providence reach and comprehend all the very looks and profers and thoughts of the mind which no man seeth which we see not our selves which though they break not the peace nor shake any pillar of the Commonwealth for a thought troubleth no heart but that which conceiveth it yet stand in opposition to that policy which this our Lord hath drawn out and to that end for which he is our Lord and are louder in his ears then an evil word in ours and therefore he looketh not onely on our outward guilt but also on the conscience it self and pierceth to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit and regulateth the very thoughts and intents of the heart which he looketh upon not as fading and vanishing characters in the soul but as killing letters imprinted and engraven there as S. Basil speaketh De virgin as full and complete actions wrought out in the inward man S. Bernard calleth them passivas actiones passive actions which he will judge secundum evangelium according to these Laws which he hath published in his Gospel Secondly that he is a Lord appeareth by the virtue and power of his Dominion For whereas all the power on earth which so often dazleth us can but afflict the body this woundeth the soul rippeth up the very heart and bowels and when those Lords which we so tremble at till we fall from him Matth. 10.28 can but kill the body this Lord can cast both soul and body into hell nay can make us a hell unto our selves make us punish and torment our selves and being greater then our Conscience can multiply those strokes Humane Laws have been brought into disgrace because they had not power enough to attend and hold them up and even the common people who fear them most have by their own observation gathered the boldness to call them cobwebs for they see he that hath a full purse or a good sword will soon break through them or find a besome to sweap them away What speak you of the Laws I can have them and bind them up in sudariolo saith Petrus Damianus in the corner of my handkerchief Nay many times for want of power victae leges the Laws must submit as in conquest and though they have a tongue to speak yet they have not a hand to strike And as it is in punishment so it is sometimes in point of reward Men may raise their merit and deserts so high that the Exchequer it self shall not find a reward to equal them We have a story in our own Chronicles of a Noble-man who
heart Take that Zeal which consumeth not our selves but others about us this fire is not from Heaven nor was it kindled by the Father of lights That hand which is so ready to take a brother by the throat was never guided by the Authour of our Religion who is our Father That tongue which is full of bitterness and reviling Isa 6.7 James 3.6 was never toucht by a Seraphin but set on fire of hell These are not Religions before God and the Father But this Religion TO DO GOOD and TO ABSTAIN FROM EVIL ex alto originem ducit acknowledgeth no Authour but the God of heaven hath God and the Father to bear witness to it was taught by the Prophets thundred out by the Apostles and by Christ himself who is the Authour and Finisher of our Faith and Religion Hebr. 12.2 This may serve first to make us in love with this Religion because it hath such a Founder as God the Father who is wisdome it self and can neither be deceived nor deceive us Men and brethren Acts 13.26 whosoever among you feareth God to you is this word of salvation sent sent to you from Heaven from God and the Father In other things you are very curious and ever desire to receive them from the best hands What a present is a picture of Apelles making or a statue of Lysippus Not the watch you wear but you would have it from the best artificer And shall our Curiosity spend it self on vanities and leave us careless and indifferent in the choice of that which must make our way to eternity of bliss Shall we make darkness our pavilion round about us and please our selves in errour when Heaven boweth and openeth it self to receive us Shall we worship our own imaginations and not hearken what God and the Father shall say What a shame is it when God from heaven pointeth with his finger to the rule HAEC EST This is it that we should frame a Religion to our selves that every mans phansie and humour or which is the height of impiety every mans sin should be his Lawgiver that when there can be but one there should be so many Religions arbitrary Religions such as we are pleased to have because they smile upon us and flatter and bolster up our irregular desires a hearing Religion and a talking Religion and a trading Religion a Religion that shall visit the widow and orphan but rather to devour then refresh them Behold and look no farther God the Father hath made a Religion which is pure and undefiled to our hands Therefore as Seneca counselleth Palybius when thou wouldst forget all other things cogita Caesarem entertain Caesar in thy thoughts so that we may forget all other sublunary and worldly I may say Hellish Religions let us think of this Religion whose Authour and Founder is God whose wisdome is infinite whose power uncontrollable whose authority unquestionable For talk what we will of authority the authority of Man is like himself and can but binde the man and that the frailest and earthliest part of him onely God is Rex mentium the King of our minds and no authority in heaven or on earth can binde or loose a Soul but his who first breathed it into man Come then let us worship and fall down before God the Father the Maker both of us and of our Religion Again if S. James be canonical and authentick if this be true Religion then it will make up an answer sufficient to stop the mouth of those of the Romish party who are very busie to demand at our hands a catalogue of Fundamentals and where our Church was before the dayes of Reformation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Proverb These and such like questions they put up unto us as Archytas did his rattles into childrens hands to keep them from doing mischief that being busie and taken up with these we may have less leisure to pull down the idoles of Rome or discover her shame Do they ask what truths are fundamental Faith supposed as it is Here they are Charity to our selves and others Nihil ultrà scire est omnia scire To know this Tert. De prascript is to know all we need to know For is it not sufficient to know that which is sufficient to make us happy But if nothing will satisfie them but a catalogue of particulars They have Moses and the Prophets they have the Apostles Luke 16.29 and if they find their Fundamentals not there in vain shall they seek for them at our hands They may if they please seek them there and then number them out as they do their Prayers by beads and present them by tale But if they will yet know what is fundamental in our conceit and what not they may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 draw out with both hands For first let them observe what points they are in which we agree with their Church and if they be in Scriptu e let them set them down if they please as fundamental in our account And on the other hand let them mark in what points we refuse Communion with them and they cannot but think that we esteem those points for no Fundamentals And again do they who measure Religion rather by the pomp and state it carrieth with it then the power and majesty of the Authour whose command alone made it Religion ask us where our Religion was in the dayes before there was a withdrawing from the Communion with that Church we may answer It was here in the Text. For HAEC EST this is it And if they further question us where it was professed we need give no other reply then this It was professed where it was professed If it were not professed in any place yet was it true Religion For the Truth dependeth not on the profession of it nor is it less truth if none receive it But professed it was even amongst them in the midst of them round about them But wheresoever it were this was it This was true Religion before God and the Father To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep our selves unspotted from the world To conclude then Men and Brethren are these things so Is this onely true Religion To do good and to abstain from evil What a busie noise then doth the world make for Religion when it offereth it self and falleth so low offereth it self to the meanest understanding the narrowest capacity and throweth it self into the embraces of any that will love it Littus Hyla Hyla omne sonabat Religion is the talk of the whole world it is preached on the house-tops and cryed up in the streets we are loud for it and smother it in that noise we write for it and leave it dead in that letter to be found no where but in our books we fight for it and it is drowned in the blood that is spilt and S. James's that is Christ's Religion is
and opposite to his Wisdome and Goodness and which his soul hateth as That he did decree to make some men miserable to the end he might make his Mercy glorious in making them happy that he did of purpose wound them that he might heal them That he did threaten them with death whose names he had written in the book of life That he was willing Man should sin that he might forgive him That he doth exact that Repentance as our duty which himself will work in us by an irresistable force That he commandeth intreateth beseecheth others to turn and repent whom himself hath bound and fettered by an absolute decree that they shall never turn That he calleth them to repentance and salvation whom he hath damned from all eternity If any certainly such beasts as these deserve to be struck through with a dart No it is not boldness Exod. 19.12 Hebr. 12.20 but humility and obedience to God's will to say He doth nothing but what becometh him and what his Wisdome doth justifie Eph. 1.8 He hath abounded towards us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul in all wisdome and prudence His Wisedome findeth out the means of salvation and his Prudence ordereth and disposeth them His Wisdome sheweth the way to life and his Prudence leadeth us through it to the end Wisdome was from everlasting Prov. 8.23 And as she was in initio viarum in the beginning of God's wayes so she was in initio Evangelii in the beginning of the Gospel which is called the wisedome of God And she fitted and proportioned means to that end means most agreeable and connatural to it She found out a way to conquer Death and him that hath the power of Death the Devil Hebr. 2.14 with the weapons of Righteousness to dig up Sin by the very roots that no work oâ— the flesh might shoot forth out of the heart any more to destroy it in its effects that though it be done yet it shall have no more force then if it were annihilated then if it had never been done and to destroy it in its causes that it may be never done again Immutabile quod factum est Quint. l. 7 to draw together Justice and Mercy which seemed to stand at distance and hinder the work and to make them meet and kiss each other in Christ's Satisfaction and ours for our Turn is our satisfaction all that we can make Condigna estsatisfactio mala facta corrigere correcta non reiterare Bern. de â—ust Dom. c. 1. Satisfactio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antioch â—â—neil can 2. These she hath joyned together never to be severed Christ's Sufferings with our Repentance his agony with our sorrow his blood with our tears his flesh nailed to the cross with our lusts crucified his death for sin 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 he dyed that we might live and turn unto the Lord and he rose again for our justification and to gain authority to the doctrine of Repentance Our CONVERTIMINI our Turn is the best Commentary on his CONSVMMATVM EST It is finished for that his last breath breathed it into the world We may say it is wrapt up in the Inscription John 19.19 JESVS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS For in him even when he hung upon the cross were all the treasures of Wisdome and Knowledge hid Col. 2.3 In him his 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 seal our pardon we were in our blood and her voice was Live we were miserable Ezek. 16.6 and she was ready to relieve us our heart was sick and her bowels yerned But then Justice held up the sword ready to latch in our sides God loveth his Creature whom he made but hateth the Sinner whom he could not make And he must strike and yet is unwilling to strike If Justice had prevailed Mercy had been but as the morning dew Hos 6.4 13.3 and soon vanished before this raging heat And if Mercy had swallowed up Justice in victory God's hatred of sin and his fearful menaces against it had been but bruta fulmina and portended nothing but been void and of none effect Psal 130.3 Deus purgari homines à peccato maxime cupit ideoque agere poenitentiam jubet Lact. l. 6. c. 24. If God had been extreme to mark what is done amiss men would have sinned more and more because there would have been no hope of pardon And if his Mercy had sealed an absolute pardon men would have walked delicately and sported in their evil wayes because there would have been no fear of punishment And therefore his Wisdome drew his Justice and Mercy together and reconciled them both in Christ's propitiatory Sacrifice and our duty of Repentance the one freeing us from the guilt the other from the dominion of sin And so both are satisfyed Justice layeth down the sword and Mercy shineth in perfection of beauty Rom. 3.3 God hateth Sin but he seeth it condemned in the flesh of his Son and fought against by every member he hath He seeth it punisht in Christ and punisht also in every repentant sinner that turneth from his evil wayes He beholdeth the Sacrifice on the Cross and the Sacrifice also of a broken heart and for the sweet savour of the one he accepteth the other and is at rest Christ's death for sin procureth our pardon and our death to sin sueth it out Christ suffereth for sin we turn from it His satisfaction at once wipeth out the guilt and penalty our Repentance by degrees destroyeth Sin it self Tert. De anima c. 1. Haec est sapientia de schola caeli This is the method of Heaven This is that Wisdome which is from above Thus it taketh away the sins of the world And now Wisdome is compleat Justice is satisfied and Mercy triumpheth God is glorified Man is saved and the Angels rejoyce Heus tu peccator De poenit c. 8. bono animo sis vides ubi de tuo reditu gaudeatur saith Tertullian Take comfort sinner thou seest what joy there is in heaven for thy return What musick there is in a Turn which beiginneth on earth but reacheth up and filleth the highest heavens A repentant sinner is as a glass or rather Gods own renewed image on which God delighteth to look for there he beholdeth his Wisdome his Justice his Mercy and what wonders they all have wrought Behold the Shepherd of our souls see what lieth upon his shoulders Luke 15.5 6. You would think a poor Sheep that was lost Nay but he leadeth Sin and death and the Devil in triumph And thou mayest see the very brightness of his glory and the express image of his three most glorious
all And Sin may propagate it self 1. as an Efficient cause Removens prohibens weakening the power of Grace dimming the light of the Gospel setting us at a greater distance from the brightness of it making us more venturous taking off the blush of modestie which should restrain us One evil act may dispose us to commit the like and that may bring on a thousand 2. As a Material cause One sin may prepare matter for another thy Covetousness beget Debate Debate enrage thee more and that not end but in Murder 3. Last of all as the Final cause Thou mayest commit Theft for Fornication and Fornication for Theft that thou mayest continue a Tyrant be more a Tyrant that thou mayest uphold thy oppression oppress more that thou mayest walk on in safety walk on in the blood of the innocent that thou mayest be what thou art be worse then thou art be worse and worse till thou art no more Ambition led Absalom to Conspiracy Conspiracy to open Rebellion Rebellion to his Fathers Concubines at last to the oak where he hung with three darts in his side Sin saith Basil like unto a stone cast into the water multiplieth by infinite gyres and circles The sins of our youth hasten us to the sins of our age and the sins of our age look back upon the follies of our youth Pride feathereth my Ambition and Ambition swelleth my Pride Gluttony is a pander to my Lust and my Lust a steward to my Gluttony Sins seldom end where they begin but run on till they be infinite and innumerable And now this unhappy fruitfulness of Sin may be a strong motive to make me run away from every sin and fear any one evil spirit as that which may bring in a Legion Could I think that when I tell a lie I am in a disposition to betray a kingdom could I imagin that when I slander my neighbour I am in an aptitude to blaspheme God could I see Luxury in Gluttony and Incest in Luxury Strife in Covetousness and in Strife Murder in Idleness Theft and in Theft Sacriledge I should then turn from every evil way and at the sight of any one sin with fear and trembling cry out Behold a troop cometh 3. But if neither the Monstrosity of Sin nor the Fruitfulness of Sin moveth us yet the guilt it bringeth along with it and the obligation to punishment may deter us Sin must needs then be terrible when she cometh with a whip in her hand Indeed she is never without one if we could see it All those heavy judgments which have fallen upon us and prest us well-neer to nothing we may impute to what we please to the madness of the people to the craft and covetousness of some and the improvidence of others but it was Sin that called them down for ought we know but one For one sin as of Achan all Israel may be punished For one Sin as of David Josh 7. 2 Sam. 24. threescore ten thousand may fall by the plague For Jonah's disobedience a tempest may be raised upon all the Mariners in the ship And what stronger wind can there blow then this to drive us every one out of every evil way How should this consideration leave a sting behind it and affect an startle us It may be my Sacriledge may the Church-robber say It may be my Luxury may the Wanton say It may be my bold Irreverence in the house of God may the profane man say whatsoever sin it is it may be mine which hath wrought this desolation on the earth And then what an Achan what a Jonah what a murderer am I I will confess with Achan build an altar with David throw Jonah over-board cast Sin out of my soul that God may turn from his fierce wrath and shine once again both upon my Tabernacle and upon the Nation 4. But in the last place if God's anger be not hot enough in his temporal punishments it will hereafter boyl and reak in a caldron of unquenchable fire He will punish thee eternally for any one sin habituated in thee which thou hast not turned from by Repentance S. Basil maketh the punishment in hell not onely infinite in duration but in degrees and increase and is of opinion that the pains of the damned are every moment intended and augmented according as even one sin may spread it self from man to man from one generation to another even to the worlds end by its venemous contagion and ensample Think we as meanly and slightly of sin as we will swallow it without fear live in it without sense yet thus it may for ought we can say to the contrary multiply and increase both it self and our punishment and this of S. Basil may be true My Love of the world may kindle my Anger my Anger may end in Murder my Murder may beget a Cain and Cain a Lamech and from Cain by a kind of propagation of Sin may proceed a bloudy race throughout all generations and I shall be punished for Cain and punished for Lamech and for as many as the contagion of my sin shall reach and I shall be punished for my own sins and I shall be punished for my other mens sins as Father Latimer speaketh and my punishment shall be every moment infinitely and infinitely multiplyed and increased A heavy and sad consideration it is and very answerable and proportionable to this loud and vehement Ingemination CONVERTIMINI CONVERTIMINI Turn ye turn ye able to turn us and so to turn us that we may turn from every evil way Our Turn as ye have heard must be true and sincere and it must be universal We must turn with all our heart and we must turn from all our sins There is yet one property more required that it be final that we hold on unto the end And without this the other three are lost the Speediness the Sincerity the Universality of our Repentance are of no force Though it were true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of its essential parts and in respect of its latitude and extent yet it is not true in respect of its latitude and extent yet it is not true in respect of its duration unless we turn once for all and never fall back unto those paths out of which horrour and grief and disdain did drive us It may work our peace and reconcile us for a time but if we fail and fall back even our Turn our former Repentance forsaketh us and Mercy it self withdraweth and leaveth us under that wrath which we were fled from Therefore in our Turn this must go along with us and continue the motion the consideration of the great hazard we run when we turn from our evil wayes and after turn back again For first as a pardon doth nullifie former sins so it maketh the sins we commit afterwards more grievous and fatall It is observed that it is the part of a wise friend etiam leves suspiciones fugere
him who perswaded him who was his counsellour He was all-sufficient and stood in need of nothing l. 4. c. 28. Non quasi indigens plasmavit Adam saith Irenaeus It was not out of any indigencie or defect in himself that he made Adam after his image He was all to himself before he made any thing nor could million of worlds have added to him What was it to him that there were Angels made Athenag Legat pro Christianis or Seraphim or Cherubim He gained not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle For there could be no accession nothing to heighten his perfection Did he make the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athenagoras calleth it as an instrument to make him musick Did he clothe the lilies and dress up Nature in various colours to delight himself Or could he not reign without Man saith Mirandula God hath a most free and powerful and immutable will and therefore it was not necessary for him to work or to begin to work but when he would For he might both will and not will the creation of all things without any change of his will But it pleased him out of his goodness thus to break forth into action Sext. Emperic adv Mathemat pag. 327. Will you know the cause saith the Sceptick why he made world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was good Nihil ineptius saith one quà m cogitare Deum nihil agentem There is nothing more vain then to conceive that God could be idle or doing of nothing And were it not for his Goodness we could hardly conceive him ad extrà agentem working any thing out of himself who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all-sufficient and blessed for evermore infinitely happy though he had never created the heaven and the earth though there had neither been Angel nor Man to worship him But he did all these things because he was good Bonitas saith Tertullian Adv. Marcion l. 2. otium sui non patitur hinc censetur si agatur Goodness is an active and restless quality and it is not when it is idle It cannot contain it self in it self And by his Goodness God made Man made him for his glory and so to be partaker of his happiness placed him here on earth to raise him up to heaven made him a living soul ut in vita hac compararet vitam that in this short and transitory life he might fit himself for an abiding City Heb. 13.14 and in this moment work out Aeternity Thus of himself God is good nor can any evil proceed from him If he frown we first move him if he be angry we have provoked him if he come in a tempest we have raised it if he be a consuming fire we have kindled it Heb. 12.29 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 God's Goodness is natural his Severity in respect of its act accidental For God may be severe and yet not punish For he striketh 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 Luk. 16. If there were neither Angel nor Man he were still the Lord blessed for evermore In a word he had been just though he had never been angry he had been merciful though Man had not been miserable he had been the same God just and good and merciful Rom. 5.12 though Sin had not entred in by Adam and Death by Sin God is active in good and not in evil He cannot do what he doth detest and hate he cannot decree ordain or further that which is most contrary to him He doth not kill me before all time and then in time ask me why I will die He doth not condemn 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 cometh to punish facit opus non suum saith the Prophet Isa 28.21 doth not his own work doth a strange work a strange act an act that is forced from him a work which he would not do And as God doth not will our Death so doth he not desire to mani-his glory in it which as our Death proceedeth from his secondary and occasioned will For God saith Aquinas Aqui 1. 2 2. q 132. art 1. ◠seeketh not the manifestation of his glory for his own but for our sakes His glory as his Wisdome and Justice and Power is with him alwayes as eternal as himself No quire of Angels can improve no raging Devil can diminish his glory which in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphim and Cherubim in the midst of all the blasphemies of Men and Devils 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 shineth in the perfection of beauty rather then where it is decayed and defaced 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 ad mortem sed antè 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 evil but we were first commanded to be good God's first will is that we glorifie him in our bodies and in our souls 1 Cor. 6.20 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 dishonoured him Prov. 14.28 and write it with our blood In the multitude of the people is the glory of a king saith the wisest of Kings and more glory if they be obedient to his laws then if they rebel and rise up against him That Common-wealth is more glorious where every man filleth his place then where the prisons are filled with thieves and traytours and men of Belial And though the justice and wisdome of the King may be seen in these yet it 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 to see it in the Church of the first
Moses turn his back who will not be afraid to come near to the mount If men of more reserved conversation who keep themselves unspotted of the world tremble and dare not come nigh how many weak Christians who hope here to receive their additional strength be struck with terrour and so refuse to come and think of these mysteries as the Germanes in Tacitus did of those offices which they performed to their Goddess Hertha De morib Germanor the Earth The Goddess was washed and they who ministred unto her were swallowed up in the same lake Arcanus hinc terror sanctáque ignorantia saith the Historian quid sit illud quod tantùm perituri vident Hence a secret terrour and holy ignorance possest them who wondred what that Divine power should be which none could see but they who were to perish in the sight For to minister to it was to dye I know we cannot give too much reverence unto the Sacrament we cannot give enough But that servant doth but little honour his master who will bow and cringe and kiss his hand and keep at distance and yet sleep in his service Obedience and Reverence are twins they are born and grow up and dye together I am not truly reverent till my Obedience speaketh and publisheth it If I obey not my Reverence is but a name and profiteth nothing as S. Paul spake in another case If I be a breaker of the law Rom. 2.25 my circumcision is made uncircumcision If I do not come as Christ commandeth I may call it Reverence but he will count it a great dishonour to his love We complain much of the Superstition of the Romish party we are angry with their Altars their vestments their bowings and cringes and count it a kind of theatrical Idolatry and I think without breach of charity we may for as they make it it is one of the greatest Idoles in the world But we must take heed how we cry down Superstition in others whilst we suffer it to lye at our own doors how we condemn it for a monster as it walketh abroad when we hug and cherish it in our own breasts Superstitio error insanus est amandos timet quos colit violat Quid enim interest utrum Deos neges an infames Sen. ep 123. For what is Superstition but a groundless fear what is it but a fear where no fear is or if there be a fear which we are bound to abolish A fear to do our duty is something worse then superstition If we do not make the Sacrament an Idole yet by this kind of lazy reverence we make it nothing in this world and as much as in us lyeth frustrate the Grace of God which in these outward Elements is presented in a manner to the eye I have dwelt the longer on this subject because I see this duty so much neglected Some not fit to come others not so much unfit as unwilling Some so spiritual or rather so carnal and profane that they contemn it some so careless that they seldome think of it but suffer their soul to run to ruine not to be raised and repaired till it be taken from them Some pleading their own infirmity others the high dignity of these mysteries The best of which pretenses is a sin which one would think were but a hard and uneasie pillow for a sick conscience to rest on Not come because I care not not come because I will not not come because I dare not Not come That utterly is a fault and Neglect doth aggrandize it Contempt doth make it yet greater and Infirmity and Conceit of our unworthiness is another fault and our high Esteem of the ceremony cannot wipe it out but it sheweth it self even through this Reverence and sheweth us guilty of the Body and Bloud of Christ though we eat not this Bread nor drink this Cup. We pretend indeed we cannot but the truth is we will not come Let us not then bring in our Unworthiness as an excuse For such an Apology is our doom which we pass against our selves which removeth and setteth us far off from any relief of that mercy which should seal our pardon because we say we need it not We ought not to do what we ought to do and We are unworthy to do our duty is brought in as an excuse but it is our condemnation Let us then do it and let us do it often And in the last place let us do it to that end for which Christ did first institute and ordain it Let us do it in remembrance of him And now we may imagin that this is a thing soon done a matter of quick dispatch For as the Jews had Moses Acts 15.21 so have we Christ read in our Churches every Sabbath-day He is the story and the discourse of the times We name him almost as often as we speak too often name him because not with that reverence which we should But thus to remember him may be a greater injury then forgetfulness Better we never knew him then thus to remember him And therefore we must remember that this Remembrance consisteth not in a bare calling back into our mind every passage of his glorious oeconomy by bringing him from his cratch to his cross and from his cross to his grave For words of Knowledge in Scripture evermore imply the Affections When Joseph desired Pharaohs Butler to remember him his meaning was he should procure his liberty Gen 40.14 Neh. 13.22 When Nehemiah prayeth to God to remember him he interpreteth himself and pardon me according to the multitude of thy mercies When the Thief on the cross bespeaketh Christ to remember him when he came into his kingdome he then begged a kingdome Luke 23.42 Indeed such a benefit deserveth to be had in everlasting remembrance For what is a jewel of a rich price in the hands of a fool who hath no heart to receive and keep it Prov. 17.16 What were all the glory of the Stars and of the Sun and of the Moon which God hath ordained if there were no eye to behold them How can seed be quickned if the womb of the Earth receive it not What a pearl is the Gospel if the Heart be not the cabinet and what is Christ if he be not remembred We must then and upon this occasion especially open the register of our soul and enroll Christ there in deep and living characters For the Memory is a preserver of that which she receiveth But it is not enough for us to behold these glorious phantasmes and carry them about with us as pretious antidotes Cont. Faust. Manic l. 6. c. 7. unless we bring them ab intestino memoriae ad os cogitationis as S. Augustine speaketh from the inward part of the Memory to the mouth and stomach of the Cogitative faculty which is our spiritual rumination and chewing of the cud unless we do colloqui cum fide hold a colloquie within us
a word where there is no true Charity there can be no true Church and where there is the least Charity there it is least Reformed Talk not of Reformation Purity and Discipline They may be but names and make up a proud malicious faction but it is Charity and Charity alone that can build up a Church into a body compact within it self Malice and Pride and Contention do build indeed but it is in gehennam downwards to hell and present men on earth as so many damned Spirits And there is no greater difference between them then this that the one may the other can never repent An imbittered faction is a type and representation of Hell it self Let then Faith and Charity meet in our Trial and Preparation Faith is a foundation but if we raise not Charity upon it to grow up and spread and dilate it self in all its acts and operations it is nothing it is in vain and we are yet in our sins Let not Anger or Rancour or Malice keep you from this Table and bring you within that sad Dilemma That you must and may not come That to come and not to come is damnation And do not forfeit so great mercy to satisfie so vile and brutish affections Lose not the hope of being Saints by pleasing your selves in being beasts Why should LOVE be wrote so thick on your walls and scarce any character any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any title of it in your hearts The Heart is the best table to receive it There engrave it with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond and then it will be legible also in your actions Remember it was Love that brought down Christ from heaven that nailed him to his cross that drew his heart-bloud from him and all to beget Love in us Love of God and Love of our Brethren And let this Love rule in our hearts and put down all our Malice Bitterness and Evil speaking all these our enemies under our feet Sacrifice and offer them up before we come to the Altar then shall we be fit to sit down at this Table Thus we must put our Charity to trial For this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a feast of Love Examine therefore whether thy Charity be firm and strong such a Charity as is stronger then Death a Charity that in Christ's cause will stand out against Poverty Imprisonment and Death it self a Charity which in respect of thy brethren will bear all things bear injuries kiss the hand that striketh thee bow to them that are in the dust condescend to the lowest a Charity which will die for the brethren For that Charity which speaketh big and doeth nothing scattereth words but casteth no bread on the waters defieth a tempest and runneth away at a blast can embrace a brother and yet persecute him forgive and yet wound him that is love and yet hate him will never fit and qualifie us for this feast of Love Let us then examine our selves And let us consider also him that inviteth us the Apostle and high Priest of our profession Christ Jesus Consider him as our high Priest and that we shall soon do For what captive would not be set at liberty Who that hath a debt to pay would not have a Surety that should pay it down for him Who that hath a request to put up would not have an Intercessour All this we may desire and yet not consider him as our high Priest And we must not think that he was such an high Priest for such as would not consider him and that he came to free those who did love their fetters to satisfie for wilful bankrupts to deliver them who all their life time delight in bondage to offer up those prayers which malice or oppression or deceit or hypocrisie have turned into sin Therefore let us also consider him as our Prophet putting into our hands those weapons of righteousness that spiritual armour those helps and advantages which are necessary and sufficient to work our liberty to strike off our fetters and demolish in us the Kingdom of Sin And here put it to the trial and ask thy self the question Art thou willing to hearken to this Prophet Art thou willing he should teach thee Wouldst thou not make the way to heaven wider and his yoke easier then he hath made it Hast thou not looked on these helps and advantages as superstitious and unnecessary As he is thy Prophet so art not thou his interpreter and hast taught him to speak friendly to thy lusts and sensual appetite Hast thou not given a large swinge to Revenge let out a longer line to Christian Liberty and given a broader space for the Love of the world to trade in then ever this Prophet did This is not to consider him but effoeminare disciplinam to corrupt his discipline and to make Christianity it self which is a severe Religion wanton and effeminate by the interpretations And therefore thou must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 examine thy self yet more and more Bring it to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a judgment till thou hast censured and condemned those thy glosses and presented in thy conversation an Expurgatory Index of them all till thou canst digest his precepts with all the aloes and gall with all the hardness and bitterness that is in them and then thy stomach also and thy heart will be prepared for this Bread of life for this celestial Manna Last of all canst thou consider him as thy King and Lord Is his fear to thee as the roaring of a Lion and his wrath as messengers of death And art thou willing to kiss to bow and worship him that he be not angry Canst thou discover Majesty in him now Majesty in his discipline wisdom in his Laws power in weakness now in this life when he is whipped and scourged and crucified again when his precepts are made subject to flesh and bloud and dragged in triumph after the wills of men when for one Hosanna he hath a thousand Crucifiges for one formal and hypocritical acknowledgment a thousand spears in his sides Who hath most command over thee the Prince of this world or this King Will not a smile from beauty move thee more then the glory of his promises Art thou not more afraid of the frown of a man of power then of his wrath Will not the love of the world drive thee against more pricks and difficulties then the love of a Saviour Will not that carry thee from east to west when the command of this King shall not draw thee a Sabbath dayes journey to visit the fatherless and widows Art thou of the same mind with him Are thy will and affections bound up in his will Is his will thy Law and his Law thy delight Then he is thy Priest and hath sacrificed himself to make thee a Feast He is thy Prophet to invite and fit thee and thy King to welcome thee and he shall gird himself and make thee sit
earth And so we pass from the Person I King David and come to take a nearer view of his Condition and Quality I am a stranger in the earth We pass now from the King to the Stranger and Pilgrime And yet we cannot pass from the one to the other for they are ever together There is so near a conjunction between them that though the one appear in glory and the other in dishonour the one sit on a Throne and the other lye in the dust yet they can never be put asunder nor separated one from the other He that is a King is but a Pilgrime and he that is a Stranger was born and designed unto a Kingdome and a greater Kingdome then Davids was Thou hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign upon the earth Rev. 5.10 This is the song of Pilgrimes and they sing it to the Lamb. The Kingdome of heaven is taken by violence and the violent take it by force And these violent men are such as are pilgrimes and strangers Matth. 11.12 To that place they travel endure many a storm many a fall and bruise in their way So that the immediate way to be a King is first to be a stranger in the earth Now that Man is naturally a stranger on the earth we have the Word of God written and the Word of God within us both the holy Scripture and right Reason to instruct us Both these are as the voice of God and by these he speaketh unto us calleth us by our name when he calleth us Strangers And first in the Old Testament the life of Man is every where almost termed a pilgrimage So Jacob when Pharaoh asked him how long he had lived Gen. 47.8 9. in his answer doth as it were correct his language The dayes saith he not of my life but of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years So that in the language of Jacob Life and Pilgrimage are all one The same is the language of the New Testament Whilst we are in the flesh PEREGRINAMVR A DOMINO 2 Cor. 5.6 saith S. Paul we are absent we are travellers we are wanderers from God But we are returning to him on our way pressing forward to our home And though we make hast out of the world yet as S. Bernard observeth some savour some tast something that is from the earth earthly we shall carry about with us till we come to our journeyes end Not onely they are strangers who with the Prodigal take their journey into a far countrey and cleave to every vanity there but they who are shaking them off every day yet look more then they should and like more then they should and are not yet made perfect Not onely they are strangers from God who are aliens from the house of Israel Eph. 2.12 Hebr. 11.10 13. but they who with the Patriarchs confess themselves strangers in the land which is allotted them and look for a City whose foundation and builder is God It is the observation of S. Hierome in his Epistle to Dardanus That the Saints in Scripture are no where called inhabitatores terrae the inhabitants of the earth There is a Wo saith he denounced against sinners in the eighth of the Revelation and under that name VAE HABITATORIBVS TERRAE Wo to the inhabitants of the earth And S. Augustine almost speaketh the same where he putteth this difference and distinction between them That the righteous can onely be said esse in tabernaculo carnis to be in this tabernacle of flesh to be there as the Angels are said by the Schoolmen to be in uno loco quòd non sint in alio to be in one place because they are not in another but to be circumscribed no where And they are onely said to be on the earth because they are not yet in heaven but nevertheless have their conversation there But the wicked do habitare in tabernaculo carnis dwell on earth and have their residence in it and may pass into a worse but never into a better place And these though they will not be strangers to it yet are strangers on the earth and pass away from that to which their soul was knit on which they fixed their hope with which they glutted their desires raised their joy yea which was their heaven they pass away and fall from it and shall see it no more This then is the voice and language of Scripture In the second place this even common Reason may teach us which is the voice of God and is our God upon earth and should be in his stead and place to command and regulate us here And if we were not first lost in our selves if we were not strangers to our selves we should not seek for a place of rest in that world whose fashion every day changeth and which must at last with its work be burnt with fire For do we not see by this common light that the Mind of Man is a thing of infinite capacity and utterly insatiable and here on earth never receiveth full content Content is that which all men have desired but never yet any did attain but still as one desire is satisfied another riseth and when we have all that we desired we will have more Now we would have but this and when we have it it is nothing for our measures are enlarged by being filled Are you learned enough Nay but there be yet more conclusions to be tried Are you ever wise enough If but once you be deceived you will complain that a thousand things which might have been observed have past your sight But are you ever rich enough The Fool in the Gospel was not till his soul was fetched away nor Dives Luke 12.20 16.23 till he was in hell Nay are you not most miserably poor when you are most abundantly rich Do you not want most when you have most or was ever your heart so much set on riches as when they did increase Hath the Ambitious any highest place any vertical point One world was not enough for Alexander nay had there been as many as those Atomes of which Democritus made it up he would have wished after more Our appetite cometh by eating and our desires are made keen and earnest by enjoying Majora cupere ex his discimus The obtaining of something doth but prompt us to desire more And now to draw this to our present purpose If the things of this world be not able to satisfie us if never man yet found full content if nothing on earth can allay this infinite hunger of the soul which certainly was not imprinted in us in vain if we cannot find it here though we should double and treble Methusalehs age if we cannot find it in the world though we should live to the end of it we cannot think that the Earth should be our country but that the things which we so highly esteem more then our
himself or cast his eye upon one limb but he must needs remember the miracle and who it was that wrought it Yet it was not so in his heart as to work it and draw it to its end And this is rather a Thought then Memory Therefore Christ seeketh him out and findeth him and then doth lacessere memoriam rub and revive his memory with an ECCE Behold thou art made whole Where we have two things present themselves unto our view as most remarkable 1. What it is Christ calleth him to behold 2. What it is to behold it So you have the Object and the Act the Object Thou art made whole the Act commended or enjoyned to behold and consider it For the first No eye is fitter to behold a benefit then his that received it none fitter to consider a miracle then he on whom it was wrought Therefore God though he giveth and upbraideth not yet every where almost in Scripture draweth large catalogues of the favours he hath done for his people He maketh the Creation the Choice the Deliverance of them so many arguments and motives to win them to obedience Isa 43.7 I have made thee Isa 42.6 Ezek. 16.6 9. Hos 11.3 I have created thee I have called thee in righteousness I said unto thee when thou wert in thy bloud Live I washed thee with water and anointed thee with oyle I taught Ephraim to go taking them by their arms Who hath wrought and done it Isa 41.4 calling the generations from the beginning I the Lord the first and with the last I am He. The whole Scripture is a register of God's noble acts and of his goodness which he hath shewed to the sons of men And all this to what end that we should praise him Yes But with the breath of a mortal Qualis laus quae è macelto peti potest What praise is that which we may hear in a shambles which may be sent forth from a rotten sepulchre from the hollow heart of an hypocrite Nay what are all the Anthems and Hosannas and Hallelujahs of all the men on earth and of all the Angels in heaven What is it to him whose glory is in himself and with himself everlastingly and which is above all the earth No He remembreth us of them that we may remember them He setteth them up as representations of his love that we may look upon them and delight in them and draw them out in our souls and place them there not onely as pictures of his Love but also as intimations and expressions of his Will For in every benefit there is some will of his signified Every benefit carrieth with it a command to use it to the right end for which it was given Seneca saith well Multum interest inter materiam beneficii beneficium There is great difference between the matter or outside of a benefit and the benefit it self That may be heard and seen and handled this is seen onely with the eye of the mind which beholding it and judging aright of it and discovering the end for which it was given maketh it a benefit indeed It is here as they speak in the Law Do ut des and Facio ut facias I give thee something that thou maist return something back again I do this for thee and this that I do doth even bespeak thee to do something that is answerable and proportioned to it So Health doth even bespeak us to be up and doing and to run with chearfulness the race that is set before us Riches do even call upon us to be liberal and make friends of them Power doth in a manner command them that have it to break the jaw-bone of the wicked and to be a shadow to the oppressed And Wit and Wisdom do even persuade us to be wise unto salvation For to this end they were given and we must behold them so that they may have this end Benefits are cords of love which tye us to those who give them Therefore as they seem to please and flatter so they also instruct and oblige us Beneficia onera Benefits are burthens Psal 6◠19 He loadeth us daily with his benefits saith the Psalmist Burthens they are which we must bear and not run wildly away with and lay them where a wanton phansie or our lusts shall direct For what was said of our Saviour may be said of his Mercies If we fall upon them that is neglect them we shall be broken but if they fall upon us if we draw the neglect on to the abuse of them they will grind us to powder Christ every where setteth an Ecce as a finger pointing out to his benefits that we may behold and consider them For he raineth not Manna down upon us but that we should gather it He shineth not upon us but that we should walk in his light He doth us good that first his benefits may have their end and make us good and secondly that they be not driven to a contrary end and so prove fatal to us And now the Ecce is a Cave the Indication a Caution Behold and take heed First a benefit is a fair object set up on purpose to be looked upon to be read and studied and interpreted Bonum nihil est quà m interpretatio mali saith Lactantius That good which we receive is a kind of interpretation and comment on that evil which we have escaped We best see the horrour of Poverty in Wealth of Weakness in Power of Ignorance in Wisdom of Sickness in Health And by comparing them together the brightness of the one with the sadness and disconsolateness of the other we may gain this lesson or conclusion That our former poverty should ballast our present abundance that we be not high-minded our former low condition poise our power that we be not insolent our former ignorance temper and qualifie our knowledge that we be not puffed up and our former infirmity check and manage our health that we be not wanton That the providence of God was in them both that both may have their true and proper end Thou shalt compass saith David Psal 5.12 the righteous with thy favour as with a shield Now a Shield is not for shew but use And God putteth his benefits into our hands and reacheth them to us as the Lacedaemonian woman did shields unto their sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either to bring them back with conquest or to be brought home dead upon them To cast shields away or not to use them as shields should be used is a foul disgrace Some render that place Thou hast compassed them as with a crown And a Crown sitteth not upon the head onely as an ornament or indication of power but hath this Inscription EITHER MANAGE IT WELL OR LAY IT DOWN it hath Duty as well as Glory engraven in the circle of it I may say God's benefits compass us about as the heavens do the earth and have their operation
and influence upon us to bring forth something answerable and proportioned to them For if these heavens be brass it is because our earth our souls are iron What is all the beauty of the firmament if we be blind What can the Sun and Stars what can the sweat influences of the Pleiades work upon a dead tree or a rotten stick The Philosopher will tell us that that which is not driven to its right end is frustrate and vain For every thing hath its use from its end and if it attain not that it is altogether unprofitable Vnumquodque est propter suam operationem Every thing is and hath its being for that which it hath to do All things even the best things beyond or beside their end are unuseful Seneca telleth his friend that the Arts were then Liberal cùm liberos facerent when they made men free and ingenuous and taxing the vices of the times that Arithmetick and Geometry were of no use at all if they onely taught men metiri latifundia digitos accommodare avaritiae to measure Lordships and tell money What is Health A great blessing without which we move as upon a wheel or rack without which we live as in a prison without which we have a being but in misery Health the peace of the body the lustre of beauty the glory of power the delight of riches the honour of the Physician without which Beauty and Riches and Power aut nihil sunt aut nihil prosunt are either nothing or nothing worth And yet Health it self is nothing if not made use of to that end for which it was given nay worse then nothing worse then a disease It is then worth an ECCE a Behold worth the considering And it was given our Paralytick to this end to work peace and harmony in his soul to draw on a NOLI PECCARE Sin no more that he might take heed of Sin which raiseth a sedition a mutiny a war and maketh a confusion and a chaos in the soul Behold thou art made whole putteth him in remembrance he had been lame and impotent For the present time hath relation to that which is past what we are to what we have been And thus day unto day sheweth knowledge the Present looketh back to the Past and the Past uttereth speech to the Present At the pool's side the impotent man was at school now he is to repeat his lesson and shew his proficiency His disease was his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Preparation the day of his health his great Feast-day Noli peccare ampliùs Sin no more that is the Celebration First Diseases are documents they are sermons better and more powerful saith the Father then those which we preach They were the discipline of the primitive Church the hands of God with which he formeth and fashioneth us to that figure and proportion in which he would see us repaireth a greater loss by a lesser the ruines of the soul with the shakings and vexations of the body 1 Cor. 5. S. Paul in the name of Jesus Christ delivereth the incestuous person unto Satan Which was nothing else but to deliver him as God did holy Job to be afflicted with diseases So that we may well account Sickness a part of Apostolical Discipline onely to the mortifying of the flesh that that part might smart which had offended and the soul be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus In time of health when the bloud danceth in our veins we easily suffer our selves to be abused with false shews Quis sibi verum dicera audet Who then dare tell himself the truth and impartially censure his own actions But when sickness hath corrupted our bloud then the scales fall off from our eyes and we read in an Ague our inconstancy in a Fever our lust in a Dropsie our intemperance In health things appear as upon a stage in disguises and strange apparel but in the time of sickness we see them as in the tiring-house every thing in its own face and shape So that the very Heathen could say Optimi sumus dum infirmi sumus We are never better then when we are sick This is God's method to make a diseased body physick for a sick soul And this effect it should have and sometimes it hath But many times we forget our lesson and therefore have need of an Ecce a Remembrance when we have taken up our bed and walk at large But indeed health is the most fit and proper time to serve God when God shineth upon our tabernacle then not to sin when every part and limb we have may be made an instrument and weapon of righteousness when not onely the will but the body is free then to do good when we have liberty to do either good or evil Now he is a subject capable of advice Remember thou art made whole THOU The consideration of the person importeth much For all advice and counsel are lost if the person to whom they are given be uncapable There were that put the Communion-bread into the mouth of the dead And we read that old Beda by the lewdness of his servant was brought to preach to a heap of stones But when our Saviour delivered this great lesson he did not preach unto a stone but to one that was made whole to one unto whom having been long sick even thirty eight years he had restored his health Nor had he given him the gift of Health in any other measure then such as became the giver even full measure pressed down not penurious scant and with an evil eye We cannot think otherwise but that the man was now become strong and whole perfectly healthy that is by interpretation for it will best bear this sense Christ had made him a fit hearer of this lesson Sin no more and therefore he fixeth an Ecce upon it Behold thou art made whole Whilest he lay sick by the pool of Bethesda our Saviour gave him no such lesson because he was not then capable of it but by making him strong and healthy he made him capable An Ecce upon our Health is an Ecce fixed in its proper place Then is the best time to hear of our duty when we are best able to perform it Who would speak to the Grass to grow or to a stone to lye still and not move 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin no more Sin not again He that is capable of this precept must have an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an again some power and faculty to sin again But when either by sickness or age men have not this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this again when Appetite and Desire fail when the flesh being beat down can scarce raise up a will in them to sin again then they do not forsake sin but sin forsaketh them Sophocles the Poet was wont to say that he was much indebted to his old age and held it as a great benefit that he was freed thereby from the tyranny
he chideth without revenge he reproveth without anger when he is strong then is he weak and when he is rich then is he poor These are not such contradictions but we may compose and reconcile them by the mind which useth the body and outward things but as a disguise We see the eyes a fountain of tears but we see not the mind bathing it self with joy in those tears We see the forehead of Heraclitus but we see not the heart of Democritus We see a man crowned with Honour and Riches but we see not the mind which esteemeth all these as dung 2. That the mind may be rightly affected we must root out of it all love of Riches For if we set our hearts upon them the love of them will estrange us from Christ and make us Idolaters The Poet will tell us Deos qui colit ille facit Not he that nameth the name of God but he that adoreth and worshipeth him is he that maketh him a God And what is our worshiping of Riches but our confidence and trust in them Col. 3.5 Therefore S. Paul calleth Covetousness Idolatry because there is nothing that stealeth away our heart from God more then the love of Riches Think not that he onely is an Idolater that boweth his knees to an image He is an Idolater who hath secretly set up the World in his heart An putas tunc te primùm intrare meritorium cum domum meretricis intraveris saith Ambrose to the libidinous person Dost thou think that thou didst then first enter the stews when thou camest in at the harlot's doors Tunc intrasti cum cogitationes tuas meretrix intravit Then thou first entredst when the harlot first entred thy thoughts So dost thou think that Riches were then first thy Idol when thou didst travel and labour for them when thou offeredst up thy body thy soul thine ease thy credit thy religion to them Nay then thou wert an Idolater when first this Idol found a way into thy heart I must bring you yet further from not loving not desiring Riches to contemning of them For though I have emptied my store and cast it before the wind yet till I have made Riches the object of my fear till I can say within my self This Lordship may undo me These riches may begger me This money may destroy me till in this respect I make it the object of my contempt and look upon it as a bait of Satan I am not so far removed but that still the Wo hangeth over me The Philosopher will tell us that it was the custom of superstitious persons when they saw or met any ominous and ill-boding creature presently to destroy it If they saw a Raven they would kill him with stones if they met with a Cat they would cut off his head thinking by this to turn all the evil upon the creatures themselves which did portend evils Beloved Riches and Treasures are prodigies Prout accepta sunt ita valent They presage evil to our souls and we have no way to elude them but by contemning them If we do not slight them and fling disgrace on them they will have that force upon us which they threaten Whilest we neglect to place contempt upon Riches where we should Riches cause us to cast contempt upon our brethren where we should not We look big on them we will not change language with them we think we honour them when we bid them sit down at our footstool or under our table to pick up the câ—ums Nay further yet they draw contempt upon our selves and make us vile and base they make us bow and condescend to low offices even lower then his that sitteth with the dogs of our flock We lacquay it after them we toil and drudge we flatter and lie that we may obtain them we watch them and guard them and if they be divided from us by the same violence and fraud by which we first gathered them we fling our selves upon our beds and are sick for them we weep like Rachel for her children and will not be comforted because they are not Cyprian saith Multos patrimonia sua depresserunt in terram Great patrimonies and large revenues with their weight have pressed many men down to the earth and all by having them in too great esteem For as when a man taketh a wedge of lead upon his shoulders it presseth and boweth his body to the earth but if he put it under his feet it will lift and keep him from the ground So when we place Riches above us and look upon them as upon our heaven when we prefer them before salvation and make Gain our Godliness it must needs be that they will press us down to hell but if we keep them below as slaves and tread them under our feet and contemn them as dung in comparison of Christ they will then lift us up as high as heaven Aut humiliter servient aut superbè dominabuntur If we slight them they will be good servants to us and profitable for many uses but if we give them our respect they will command as Tyrants Let them not then take the throne in thy heart but draw them down under thy foot-stool under the lowest thought thou hast For how can thy thoughts fall so low as Riches when thy conversation is in heaven Therefore in the last place let me commend unto you a godly jealousie of your selves Suspicion in such a case as this is very useful where the least degree of love to them in respect of God is extremity and many times our providence and care for our selves and our families in which we please our selves and for which others praise us signifie the same thing and we embrace the world too close when we say we do not love it The lust of the eyes many times breaketh forth with rapine and deceit and oppression at its side yea and mingleth it self with the common businesses of our calling For we may love the World and yet do no man injury Nor have we quit our selves of the World when we have persuaded our selves that we are honest men How many millions love the World and Riches and neither know it nor will know it It is the Devil's Sophistry to deceive us into a belief that we are not what we are It is good wisdome therefore in a Christian etiam tutissima timere not onely to fear shipwreck in a storm and a tempest but even in a calm to fear sometimes though there be no cause of fear It is a safe conclusion of the Canonists In foro interiori praestat praesumere delictum ubi non est In Courts of penal justice we may not without breach of charity suspect more evil then we need but in the inward Court of Conscience we cannot be too jealous We must censure the secret passages and inclinations of our hearts and it will be safe for us at least to suspect our selves though there be no reason
tell us There is a season to every thing and a time to every purpose A time to break down That is our time a time of hammering and breaking our hearts and levelling our selves with the ground And a time to build up a time to heal those broken hearts to raise up those ruines and out of that rubbish to erect a Temple That is God's time A time there is a certain time Tempus humilitatis tempus vitae Our life must measure out our Humility Indeed a short time Thou hast made my dayes a hand breadth And then God's Exaltation cometh in time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a due time Nay our Exaltation beginneth here before we can tell over our fingers And when the number is out for our Sub we shall have a Super God will exalt us above our selves above the condition of Men unto an Angelical estate For our Humility not a span long we shall gain an excessive mass and weight of everlasting glory In brief we have here 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a form of Discipline or spiritual Exercise Humble your selves 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Overseer or Master of that exercise who hath not onely an eye but a hand a mighty hand over us 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Garland or Reward which when we have gone through and performed that hand which is over us will put on He shall exalt us in due season These are the main Parts Other particulars we shall meet with and touch upon in our way And 1. we shall shew you that this Humbling our selves is a Christian's exercise 2. Wherein it consisteth 3. the Extent of it Then we shall come to a more particular delineation of the manner or degrees of our Humiliation and so conclude with the Motives the mighty hand of God over us and the same hand holding forth a reward He shall exalt us in due time With these we shall exercise your Christian Devotion When the Apostle exhorteth us to humble our selves he may seem to set us our task and like those Egyptian Masters command us to our work a work more hard to flesh and bloud then making of Brick He that biddeth us make our selves less and lower then our selves doth no less disparage and torment us then he that setteth us to the brick-kill S. Paul mentioneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bodily exercise 1 Tim. 4.8 as Abstinence from Dainty meats Wine and Women And you may find him at this exercise beating down his body and bringing it into subjection 1 Cor. 9.27 beating it black and blew as the phrase signifieth And here S. Peter prescribeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual exercise to purge and cleanse the soul and empty it of all those bad humours which puff and swell it to examine and sift to afflict and rack it This is a far harder task then to beat down the body it is harder to subdue the inferiour part of the soul to the superiour then to waste and macerate the body Therefore the Prophet expresseth it by the drudgery of the body Hos 10.12 Plow up your fallow ground Where he seemeth to paint out the Humble man with seed in his bosom a sickle in his right hand and a plow in his left plowing up his soul with the contemplation of his own vileness and the admiration of God's Majesty This labouring and plowing and mortifying of fleshly lusts is that in which alone true Christianity consisteth 2 Cor. 10.4 The Apostle bringeth the Christian in as a Souldier making a battery upon himself like Joshua beating down the walls of Jericho pulling down strong holds casting down imaginations and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ And what hard exercise can it be to beat down an imagination What trouble is it to check a thought Yes A thought may rise with that strength and towre so high and so strengthen it self with the content and pleasure it carrieth along with it that it may be an harder matter to force and suppress it then to break down the tower of David It is far easier to plow the ground then the heart Humility then will not grow up of it self we must plow for it The Civilians divide the fruits of the earth into naturales and industriales into those which naturally spring up of themselves as Grass and Plants and divers Herbs which Nature sendeth for plentifully out of the womb of the earth without the help of man and those which she doth not bring forth without the midwifry of our labour as Corn and that which is sowed in the earth And such a diversity we may observe in our souls Many inclinations and dispositions grow up in us as the Grass or the Flowers of the field Many vain and extravagant thoughts soon shoot up even out of disciples hearts Our Saviour who saw them before they peeped out asketh them Why do thoughts arise in your hearts Luke 24.38 But those Virtues which must make us happy are fructus industriales fruits which will not grow up of themselves nor shoot forth and flourish in their full beauty till the soul and mind of man be drest and manured and then watered with the dew of heaven the grace of God till we have wrought them out with fear and trembling God doth give the increase but every Christian must plant and water Humility is the gift of God but yet we must give all diligence to humble our selves We will apply this and so proceed It is too common an errour in our spiritual husbandry and the business of our salvation Because we have heard of some who have been suddenly changed and endued with all virtues from above as S. Paul who in the morning was a ravening Wolf and before night as tame and meek as a Lamb to conceive presently that it may be so with us That though we lie weltring in our own bloud though we stand still in our old wayes yet a time will come when a hand shall suddenly be reached out of heaven to pluck us thither whether we will or no That when God shall please to sow Humility in our hearts it will soon grow up and though it be less then a grain of mustard-seed grow up as high as heaven That we may soon have Humility enough to draw on the Exaltation And this conceit hath brought that poverty and leanness into our souls this hath kept us in our altitudes that nothing can pull us down no not the hand of God can make us to descend into our selves and take a survey of the nakedness and devastation of our souls We are like the lilies of the field Matth 6.28 we neither toil nor spin and yet we grow and Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of us We labour not we strive not we fight not with our selves We let any thought arise and grow and sport under the shadow of it and if Humility will be gained with
with immortality and eternal glory The Ninth SERMON COL III. 2. Set your affections on things above not on things on the earth THe whole scope and drift of this Epistle is That all the hope of man's happiness is placed in Christ alone and that therefore we must rest in the faith of Christ and live according to the prescript of the Gospel Now the voice of Christ and the Gospel is Seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof that is the things above and Love not the world nor the things of the world that is the things on the earth The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifieth To Esteem or Judge rightly of So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 16.23 Thou savourest not the things of God Thou judgest not aright of them Sometimes To Care for or Desire So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.6 the desire of the flesh To savour Rightly to Judge of To affect and desire the things above that is it which Christian Religion enjoyneth And it implieth both an act of the Understanding Conceiving aright of these things and an act of the Will and Affections Approving and embracing them Fastened to the things above but averse and flying the things on the earth And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things above are either the End or the Means either the Kingdom of heaven and the beatifical Vision of God or those things which lead unto it the graces of the Spirit Faith Charity Holiness Contempt of the world which are those seeds which grow up into a tree of life and the way by which we press unto the mark And our affections must be set on both For he that loveth not Obedience loveth not Pardon he that loveth not the Cross loveth not the Crown he cannot long for heaven whose conversation is not there already Now these are the things above For the things on the earth they are not worth a gloss or descant and we understand them but too well These are the words And they divide themselves as the Law is divided into Do and Do not an Affirmation and Negation calling and inviting our affections to the things above and taking them off from the things on the earth We will draw them both together in this general and useful Observation or Doctrine which naturally without tort or violence issueth from them both That the chief end and work of Christian Religion is To abstract and draw the soul of man from sensual objects and level and confine it to that object which is most fitted and proportioned to it even the things above A Doctrine which cannot be gainsayed but yet is not received of men with that firm and reverent persuasion of mind it should For who hath believed this report We must therefore make it good both by Scripture and Reason And first we hear David the father professing that God's word was a lamp unto his feet Psal 119.105 and a light unto his paths a light to burn by night 2 Pet. 1.19 a light that shineth in a dark place leading us from Egypt to the Promised land through the darkness of this world to that light which no eye of flesh can attain guiding us from that which is pleasant to that which is honest from that which is fair to that which is good from that which flattereth the sense to that which perfecteth the reason taking our thoughts from this world and fixing them on that new world wherein dwelleth righteousness And we may hear Solomon the son as it were paraphrasing it Prov. 15.24 and rendring it into other words The way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath Above to him that is wise who looketh upon no light but that from heaven which discovereth the deceit and inconstancy and danger of those objects which may display to the sense a beauty like that of heaven but to us are made as hell beneath and tend thither For he that followeth his eye to the next vanity his ear to every pleasant sound his taste to every dainty his senses to every fair object that offereth it self is not wise And therefore we may hear the Son of David indeed but wiser then Solomon tell his Disciples John 15.19 John 17.6 Ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world And I have manifestd thy name to the men which thou gavest me out of the world And indeed what is the whole Gospel of Christ but Spoliarium sensuum a confinement a punishment a kind of execution of the sensitive part teaching us to beat down and tame to crucifie and mortifie the flesh to deny our selves and our sensual inclinations in which we are most our selves and least our selves most tractable and least what we should be Men where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beast the brutish part swalloweth up the Man the Reason in a word to be dead to the world This is the constant language of the Gospel of that wisdom which descended from above For the time past 1 Pet. 4.3 saith S. Peter may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles to have lived in the flesh in the lusts of men But now Christ hath suffered in the flesh we also must be of the same mind and cease from sin and not defeat him of his end which was to set an end to our lusts and destroy the works of the flesh The time past may suffice nay it is too much But now light is come into the world we must walk as children of the light and by that light discover horrour in Beauty poverty in Wealth dishonour in Glory a hell kindling in those delights which are our Heaven upon earth The ear that hearkened to every Siren's song must be stopped the eye that was open to vanity must be shut by covenant the phansie checked the appetite dulled the affections bridled and we must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritualized substances though immured in matter in the gross and carnal part in the flesh yet out of the flesh having eyes yet see not ears yet hear not hands but touch not in a word chosen culled abstracted from the world I will give you one reason from the Nature and excellency of the soul another from that huge Disproportion which sensual objects hold with that diviner part We may ask with the Psalmist Psal 89.47 Hast thou made all men in vain Or rather we cannot ask the question For without question God made not such an excellent creature but for an excellent end I created him for my glory I have formed him yea I have made him Isa 43.7 God made Man to communicate his goodness and wisdom to him to make him partaker of the Divine nature and a kind of God upon earth to imprint his image on him by which according to his measure and capacity he might represent
this world saith the Apostle passeth away And what is that that passeth away to that which is immortal The Heart of man is but a little member It will not saith S. Bernard give a Kite its break fast and yet it is too large a receptacle for the whole world In toto nihil singulis satìs est There is nothing in the whole Universe which is enough for one particular man in which the appetite of any one man can rest And therefore since Satisfaction cannot be had under the Sun here below we must seek for it above And herein consisteth the excellency the very life and essence of Christian Religion To exalt the Soul to draw it back from mixing with these things below and lift it up above the highest heavens To unite it to its proper object To make that which was the breath of God Gen. 2.7 breathe nothing but God think of nothing desire nothing seek for nothing but from above from whence it had its beginning The Soul is as the Matter the things above the Form The Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Plato calleth Matter the receptacle of things above as the Matter is of Forms And it is never rightly actuated or of a perfect being till it receiveth the heavenly graces The Soul is the Pot the Vial so Chrysostom calleth it not wherein is put Manna but the Son and the holy Ghost and those things which they send from above The Soul is as the Ground and these the Seed the Soul the Matrix the Womb to receive them Matth. 13. And there is a kind of sympathy betwixt the immortal Seed and the Heart and Mind of Man as there is between Seed and the Womb of the earth For the Soul no sooner seeth the things above unveiled and unclouded not disguised by the interveniencie of things below by disgrace poverty and the like but upon a full manifestation she is taken as the Bridegroom in the Canticles with their eye and beauty Heaven is a fair sight even in their eyes whose wayes tend to destruction For there is a kind of nearness and alliance between the things above and those notions and principles which God imprinted in us at the first Therefore Nature it self had a glimpse and glimmering light of these things and saw a further mark to aim at then the World in this span of time could set up Hence Tully calleth Man a mortal God born to two things to Vnderstand and Do. And Seneca telleth us that by that which is best in Man our Reason we go before other creatures but follow and seek after the first Good which is God himself Again as these things bear a correspondence with the Mind and Soul of man as the Seed doth with the Womb of the earth so hath the Soul of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a formative faculty to shape and fashion them and by the influence of God's Grace and the kindly aspect of the Spirit to bring forth something of the same nature some heavenly creature to live in the world and hate it to walk in it and tread it under its foot THE NEW MAN which is renewed after the image of God Vers 1◠made up in righteousness and holiness The beauty of Holiness may beget that Violence in us which may break open the gates of heaven the virtue of Christ's Cross may beget an army of Martyrs and the Glory above may raise us up even out of the dust out of all our faculties to lay hold on it that so we may be fitted as with planes and marked out as with the compass as the Prophet Esay speaketh in another sense that we may be fitted to glory and those things above as others are to destruction Rom. 9.22 2 Tim. 4.8 1 Cor. 2.9 John 14.3 And hence this glory is said to be laid up and to be prepared for them which love God And our Saviour now sitteth in heaven to prepare a place for them even for all those who by setting their affections on things above are fitted and prepared for them Thus you see it is the chief work and end of Christian Religion to abstract and draw the Soul from sensual and carnal objects and to level and confine it to that object which is fitted and proportioned to it even the things above This is the work of the Gospel by which if we walk we shall suspect and fear the things below the pleasures and glory of this world as full of danger and set our affections on those things which are above and so have our conversation in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Let us now see what use we can make of this and draw it near to us by application And certainly if Christian Religion doth draw the Soul from that which is pleasing to the Sensitive part then we ought to try and examine our selves and our Religion by this touch-stone by this rule and be jealous and suspicious and afraid of that Religion which most holdeth compliance with the Sense and with our worldly desires which flattereth and cherisheth that part at which the Soul goeth forth and too often bringeth back Death along with her which doth miscere Deum seculum joyn God and Mammon the Spirit and the Flesh Christ and the World together and maketh them friendly to communicate with each other and so maketh the Christian a monster crying Abba Father but honouring the world falling down and worshipping Christ not in a stable but in a palace taking him not with persecution and self-denial but with honours riches and pleasures which in true esteem are but as the Apostle termeth them dung I will not mention the Heathen For what Religion can they have who are without God in the world Nor yet Mahumetism although wee see with what ease it prevailed and got a side and overflowed the greater part of the world because it brought with it a carnal Paradise an eternity of lusts and such alluring promises as the sensual part could relish and digest well enough though they were never fo absurd If from these we pass over into Christendom we shall soon see Christian Religion falling from its primitive purity remitting much of its rigour and severity painted over with a smiling countenance made to favour that which formerly it looked upon as capital and which deserved no better wages then death For how hath the Church of Rome fitted and attempered it to the sensitive part and most corrupt imaginations pulled off her sackcloth put on embroidery and made her all glorious without Allaying it with Worshipping of Saints which is but a carnal thing and Worshipping of Images a carnal thing Turning Repentance into Penance Fasting into Difference of meats Devotion into Numbering of beads Shutting up all Religion in Obedience and Submission to that Church Drawing out Religion from the heart to the gross and outward act With what art doth she uphold her self in that state and
sin with that freedom and indifferency as if it were so are we not carnal When we hate a supposed evil in others more then we do a real one in our selves and then bid them depart from us and are pleased and tickled with this bold defiance and make it a sign and evidence of a good conscience to censure and condemn others for a bad and count it our heaven upon earth to make every place a hell which we go out of S. Paul himself will ask the question Are you not carnal I will but adde Do we settle our affections on things above when we count it a heresie to affirm that ever Saint lived who did not oftner offend then do his duty and think that God doth accept our faint and weak endeavours the dawnings and small beginnings of obedience our profers to go out of the world though we make it our Seraglio and place of pleasure When we first upon false grounds and premisses conclude that we are from the heaven heavenly even the beloved children of God chosen out of the world and then as boldly conclude that we are like Thetis's son invulnerable that no sin how foul soever no dart of Satan can hurt us though it stick in our sides when we make these pillows of security and lie down and sleep upon them do we then truly set our affections on things above Let us not deceive our selves These phansies and imaginations descend not from above but are earthy sensual and devilish or at best but as the sparks in a chimney which flie upwards as if they would reach the firmament and fix themselves amongst the stars but upon a sudden fail and fall and vanish into nothing and Christian Religion chaseth them out of the soul as the Devil's emissaries and spies sent to allure and corrupt it to draw it from the object which is fitted to it things above and bow and incline and fasten it to vanity and to things below which are nothing or nothing worth and being from the earth earthy hold no proportion with the Soul which is an immaterial substance breathed into us by our Father which in heaven The time is spent and we must conclude And we cannot conclude more appositely then with that of the Prophet Isa 51.1 Look unto the rock whence ye are hewen and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged Look upon your own frame and original and look unto the rock even the Rock Christ Jesus out of which ye were hewen again to be lively stones 1 Pet 2.5 to be built up a spiritual house Remember you are Men and remember you are Christians Remember you are Men and then you cannot but observe for Tully an heathen observeth it something Divine in you something aspiring and lifting you up above all lying vanities above the vanity of vanities of this world Remember the sublimity and the excellency of your Nature and fall not down below that which is so far below you And then remember you are Christians of a more noble extraction begot again unto a lively hope a hope that layeth hold of and in a manner taketh possession of the things above and a lively faith which is the victory that overcometh the world And these will discover the falshood of things on the earth and display the beauty of things above will be able to number them and call them by all their names Faith will tell thee This beauty is deceitful This wine a mocker This strumpet a deep ditch These riches have wings and will fly away and that thou thy self art but a shadow and will fly from them And it will lift up thy eyes to the hills from whence cometh thy help to see no riches but in Grace no health but in Piety no beauty but in Holiness no treasure but in Heaven no delight but in the things above And as thou lookest upon thy self in these two capacities as a Man and as a Christian so look upon thy right hand and upon thy left Look upon the things above and the things upon the earth and thou shalt find that between these as between heaven and hell there is a great gulf that thou canst not set thy affections on both thou canst not love God and Mammon And therefore let those things which are above be above and have the preeminence and draw them not down to give attendance and lacquay it after the things on earth For when the name of Religion and a deceitful earthy mind meet they ingender and bring forth those monsters which do blast the world and work that desolation which hath been seen upon the earth When the Love of the world cometh as the Devil did to Christ with Scripture in its mouth and worldly-minded men have HOLINESS written in their foreheads what can we expect but the abomination of desolation what can we look for but that men should be twofold the children of hell more then before For no Impiety is more raging then that which cometh towards us in the name of the Lord. That Sword is sharp and will eat flesh which Religion doth furbish Let then I say the things above have the first place be as our Pole-star to guide and move us whilest we walk amongst the things on earth that they do not bespot and pollute us Let Religion chuse our Servant our Friend our Magistrate For we see when private Interest maketh the choice we many times are undone by having our desire We purchase no more of a Servant but his eye of a Friend but a fair countenance of a Magistrate but one whose purse is his magistrate and governeth him Our Servant may prove a Judas our Friend a winter-brook of no use in a drought when we want him and the Magistrate as Briareus with a hundred hands to lay hold on bribes scarce so good as Caligula's Horse which he made Consul onely in this like him that ye may bridle and ride him Private Interest and the Love of the world put no difference at all between the Vine and the Bramble most commonly cleaveth to that which it thinketh will best shadow it though it be a Bramble But God's wayes are the safest if we would chuse them For when we leave them then to Endor we go to the witch to the Devil himself who may delude but cannot secure us When the children of Israel called upon Aaron Vp make us Gods which shall go before us you see the leader they made themselves was but a molten calf Tertullian thus expresseth it Praecessit illis bubulum caput That which went before them was but a Calf's head The Love of the world walketh but in a vain shadow and bringeth little with it but sorrow and private Interest doth not settle but shake the pillars of the earth For howsoever it may please us now and bring our ends about yet our eye is not clear enough to see what bitterness will be at the end And we do but play and
for the covetous as for the liberal and filleth his garments as conclusive for the malicious as for the meek and filleth his hands with bloud findeth out as many waies to destruction as it can to life This in Scripture is termed Folly and Errour Isa 5.13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity because they have no understanding saith God by his Prophet not that they had no understanding but that they used their understanding amiss making it a conduct to them in their evil waies which should have been their guide in the waies of Truth Where is the wise 1 Cor. 1.20 where is the disputer of this world We may look upon them with admiration and bow before them as the grand Sophies of the world But in the book of God where Wisdome it self speaketh they have their true name and are set down for Fools Now as there is a direct positive and wilful Hatred of the Truth so there is also Malitia interpretativa as the Schools speak a Malice which doth not shew its face so openly as the other is not so soon understood by our selves or others but may easily be discovered and found out if we take the pains to interpret it a Malice which we carry about with us when we think it is not near us And this is it When we use no more diligence to know the Truth then if we did directly affect Ignorance when we have so low an opinion of it that we think it not worth the saluting nisi in transitu but onely by the By. This if ye open and interpret it is no better then Malice For not to love the Truth is to hate it not to draw it near to us and embrace it is to thrust it far from us Lataâ—culpa nimia negligentia saith the Civile Law A careless negligence is a great fault Malitiae soror saith the Poet the sister of Malice and goeth hand in hand with her For what is the reason that Folly is with us The Heathen could tell us Quia illam fortiter non repellimus Because we like its company well enough and do not rouse up our selves to drive it away Quia citò nobis placemus Because we are soon at peace and well pleased with our selves because we do not open our breasts to the Truth but to our own and others flatteries and touch but lightly upon so great a thing Thus at once we love the Truth and hate it will not be better because we think our selves the best are soon wise and ever foolish I may call this a Pharisaical hypocritical Malice which hideth and sheweth it self all at once We cannot give a more favourable interpretation but must needs look upon it as a malicious distast of the Truth It is neither a willing nor a nilling to refuse the Truth properly so called for we neither chuse it nor absolutely refuse it we neither seek it nor plainly shun it but stand still when we should make hast towards it hold the price in our hand and never profer it but what Antony imputed to Augustus as an argument of his cowardise lie supinely on our backs and look up to heaven when we should fight when we should be up and doing This is properly I say neither a chusing nor a refusing But because it should be one of them and is not it is therefore in esteem the contrary Because we do not love the Truth to which our Love is due we may be truly said to hate it Because we do not lay down the price for such a jewel it is argument of force enough to make it good that it is not in all our hearts This interpretative Malice hath taken hold of the greatest part of mankind and so entangled and puzzled them in the mazes and labyrinths of Errour that they wander from vanity to vanity and can never find the way out Many are hurried away by their Affections more swallowed up by Prejudice and buried therein as in a grave Few there be that are professed enemies to the Truth but this indirect Hatred of it even covereth the face of the earth like a deluge and there remain but a few souls within the Ark. Every man almost commendeth Truth yet most proscribe her and give her a bill of divorce Every man professeth himself a Scholar of the Truth but few learn it Every man cometh to the market but few buy The Bloud thirsty will detest cruelty in others and yet wash his feet in the bloud of the innocent The Oppressour will plead for mercy to the poor and yet grind their face will cry down persecution and yet raise one The wanton will fling a stone at an adulterer and defile himself The Intemperate will make a panegyrick on Temperance and be a beast Virtue I say is as the Sun and we see it but when we should receive its rayes and influence into our selves and grow thereby we turn away our face and understand not what we do understand and see not when we see we see it at distance but when we should draw it near unto us and apply it we are stark blind Then Cruelty is Mercy Oppression justice Intemperance temperance an Evil is any thing but what it is Jer. 4.22 Thus the Prophet saith of the Jews My people is foolish they have not known me they are sottish children and they have no understanding they are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Justine Martyr This ignorance sometimes is called Ignorance and sometimes hath the name of knowledge in the Scripture Such knowledge is ignorance nay it is worse then ignorance because we draw it not forward to its end but run to the contrary and so fall more dangerously then if we saw nothing at all but were blind indeed Again how many precepts of Truth are there which though delivered in plain terms we will not understand Luke 14.13 14. When thou makest a feast call the poor the maimed the lame the blind And a reason is annexed And thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompense thee for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just Yet what rich mans table is furnished with such guests Do we not look upon this Evangelical precept as the Priest and the Levite did upon the wounded man Luke 10.31 32 and pass by on the other side We are so far from counting it a duty that it appeareth to us a mere solecisme and gross absurdity in behaviour And we doubt not to receive the reward promised though we make not our selves ridiculous by performing the duty Again Luke 6.35 Lend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking for nothing again The words are plain and they are the words of Wisdom and yet what can be more heretical to the covetous In udo est veritas All the truth we have floteth upon our tongues Why else should any Truth distast us why should we be displeased at any
Therefore in the third place if we consider the Church which is at her best nothing else but a collection and a body of righteous men we shall find that whilest she is on the earth she is Militant And no other title doth so fully express her For do we say she is Visible The best and truest parts of her are not so 2 Tim. 2.19 For the Lord onely knoweth who are his Do we call her Catholick and Vniversal She is so when her number is but small she was so when Christ first built her as an house upon a rock open to all though not many rich not many noble entred Shall we give her the high and proud Title of Infallible Although she be so in many things without which she cannot be a Church yet in many things we erre all But when we draw her in her own bloud when we call her Militant when we bring her in fighting not onely against Flesh and Bloud against Men but against all the Powers of Darkness then we shew and describe her as she is To say she is the body of Christ filled with him who filleth all things is to set her up as a mark for the World and the Devil to shoot at and thus to set her up is to build her up into a Church So that though Persecution come forth with more or less horrour yet to say the Church is ever free from all persecution is as full of absurdity as to say a man may live without a Soul But now take it with all its terrour accompanied with whips and scorpions with fire and sword with banishment and with death it self yet is it so far from destroying this body of the righteous which we call the Church that it rather establisheth enlargeth and adorneth it For this is the Kingdom of Christ And Christ's Kingdom is not of this world but culled and chosen out of the world John 18.35 And in this the Kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of Christ differ That which doth ruine the one doth build up the other The sword and fire and persecution demolish the Kingdomes of this world but these evermore enlarge the Church and stretch forth the curtains of her habitation Those may perish and have their fatal period but this is everlasting as his love is that built it and shall stand fast for ever Those are worn out by time but this is but melted and purged in it and shall then be most glorious when Time shall be no more Therefore I may be bold to present you with a speculation which may seem a paradox but being well examined will be found a truth and it is this That persecution is so far from ruining the righteous that it is to them as peace For if Peace signifie the integrity and whole perfection of ones good estate as it doth in Scripture often then may Persecution well deserve that name which bringeth the righteous out of the shadow into the sun setteth them on the stage there to act their parts spectantibus Angelis Archangelis before God and Angels and men maketh them more glorious putteth them to their whole armoury their whole strength the whole substance of their faith as Tertullian calleth it that they may suffer and conquer which is indeed to build them up into a Church And therefore Nazianzene calleth it the mystery of persecution where one thing is seen and another done where glory lieth hid in disgrace increase in diminution and life in death it self ecclesiae in attonito the righteous stirring and moving in their place in the midst of all these amazements and terrours of the world And thus some analogy and resemblance there is between the persecution of the righteous and the peace of the world For as in times of peace we every one sit under his own vine and fig-tree every one walketh in his own calling the merchant trafficketh the trades-man selleth the husbandman tilleth and ploweth the ground and the scholar studieth so the time of persecution though it breatheth nothing but terrour is by God's grace made the accepted time to the godly and the day of salvation a day for them to work in their calling when they sit under the shadow of God's wings when they study patience and Christian resolution when they plough up their fallow ground and sowe the seeds of righteousness when they traffick for the rich pearl and buy it with their bloud when every one in his place acteth by the virtue and to the honour and glory of the Head who himself was consecrate and made perfect by sufferings We may demonstrate this to the very eye For never did the branches of the true Vine more flourish then when they were lopped and pruned never did they more multiply then when they were diminished Constantine we are told brought in the outword peace of the Church but it is plain and evident that Christianity did spread it self in Asia Africk and Europe in far greater proportion in three hundred years before that Emperour then it did many hundred years after For Persecution occasioneth dispersion and dispersion spreadeth the Gospel It is S. Hierom's observation in the life of Malchus That the Church of Christ was sub tyrannis aurea that under tyrants it was as gold tried in the fire giving forth the lustre of pure doctrine and faith Sed postquam coepit habere Christianos Imperatores but when the Emperours themselves were Christians she grew up in favour and outward state but fell short in piety and righteousness and as Cassander professeth of the Church of Rome Crescentibus divitiis decrevit pietas what she got in wealth and pomp she lost in devotion and at last grew rich in all things but good works In time of persecution and dispersion how many children were begot unto the Church When persecution was loudest then the righteous did grow up and flourish When tyrants forbad men to speak in the name of Christ then totius mundi vox una Christus then was Christ as the same Father speaketh become the voice and language of the whole world Plures efficimur quoties metimur saith Tertullian When the righteous are drove about the world and when they are drove out of the world then they multiply To conclude this So far as righteousness or the Graces of the Spirit from bringing any privilege to exempt men from persecution that through the malice of Satan and the corruption of men they are rather provocations to raise one and make Persecution it self a privilege For in the last place it cometh not by chance that the righteous are persecuted What hath Chance to do in the school of Providence No Persecution is brought towards the righteous by the providence and wisdome of a loving Father Tam pater nemo tam sapiens nemo No such Father and none so provident I say by the providence and wisdome of God which consisteth in well ordering and bringing every thing to its right end by
their eternal rest For such an high Priest became us saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate from sinners Heb. 7.26 separate from the Gentile's blindness and separate from the Jew's stubbornness and imperfection of a transient mortality and a permanent beatitude a God and a Man that he might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gather together into one both Jew and Gentile Law and Reason make the Law Natural useful and the Law written useful that so those fair whispers of Truth which mis-led the Gentile and that loud accusing Truth which affrighted the Jâ—w may be in subserviency and attendance on Christ himself that the light of Nature and the light of the Law which were but scattered beams from his eternal Brightness may be collected and united in Christ again who is Α and Ω the Beginning and the End in which Circle and Compass they are at home brought back again to their Original And do we not now begin to look upon our Reason as useful indeed but most insufficient to reach unto the End Do we not renounce the Law our selves all things Do we not melt in the same flame with our Apostle Is it not our ambition to be lost to all the world that we may be found in Christ Shall we not cast all things behind us that we may look forward upon him What would we not be ignorant of that we may know him That we may know him we will know nothing else Our understandings here are fixed and cannot be removed Nor shall our contemplation let him go till we have seen him rising from the dead and known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power of his resurrection Which is the next Object we are to look upon and our next Part. That Christ is risen from the dead is an article of our Faith fundatissimae fidei saith the Father a principle of the Doctrine of Christ a truth so clear and evident that the malice and envy of the Jew cannot avoid it For let them be at charge to bribe the watchmen and let the watchmen sleep so soundly that an earthquake cannot wake them and then say his Disciples stole him away this poor shift is so far from shaking that it confirmeth our faith For if they were asleep how could they tell his Disciples stole him away Or if they did steal him what could they take away more then a carcase He is risen he is not here If an Angel had not said it yet the Earthquake the Clothes the Grave it self did speak without an epitaph Or if these were silent yet where such strange impossibilities are brought in to colour and promote it a Lie doth confute it self and Malice helpeth to confirm the Truth For it we have a verdict given up by Cephas and the twelve 1 Cor. 15.5 we have a cloud of witnesses even five hundred brethren and more who saw him We have a cloud of bloud too the testimony of Martyrs who took their death on it so certain of this Truth that they sealed to it with their bloud and because they could not live to publish it proclaimed it by the loss of life And can we have better evidence Yes we have a surer word the word of God himself a surer verdict then of a Jury a better witness then five hundred a louder testimony then the bloud of Martyrs And we have our Faith too which will make all difficulties easie and conquereth all And therefore we cannot complain of distance or that we are so many ages removed from the time wherein it was done For now Christ risen is become a more obvious object then before The diversity of the Mediums have increased and multiplied him We see him through the bloud of Martyrs and we see him in his Word and we see him by the eye of Faith Christ is risen according to the Scriptures 1 Cor. 15. Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem saith S. Augustine When the Jews stumbled at him he presented but the bigness of a stone but our Infidelity can find no excuse if we see him not now he appeareth as visible as a mountain Christ then is risen from the dead And we have but touched upon it to give you one word of the day in the Day it self But that our Easter may be a feast indeed and our rejoycing not in vain let us as the Apostle speaketh go on to perfection and make a further search to find the reason of our joy in the power of his resurrection And what is the power of his resurrection The Apostle telleth us it was a mighty power Eph. 1.19 Indeed it rent the rocks and shook the earth and opened the graves and forced up the dead bodies of the Saints We may adde It made the Law give place and the Shadows vanish it abolished the Ceremonies broke down the Altars levelled the Temple with the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great wonders all Magnitudo virtutis ostenditur in effectu The greatness of power is most legible in the effects it worketh And here the volume is so great that the world cannot contain it Come see saith the Angel the place where the Lord lay A Lord he was though in his grave And by the same power he raised both himself and us By the same power he shook the earth and will shake the heaven also Heb. 13. disannulled the Law and established the Gospel broke down one alter and set up another abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 shall raise our vile bodies and shall raise our vile souls Shall raise them He hath done it already Conresuscitavit saith the Apostle Eph. 2.6 we are raised together with him both in soul and body and all by the power of his resurrection For 1. Christ's Resurrection is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at least an exemplary cause of our spiritual rising from the death of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene Christ is risen from the dead that we may follow after him we who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 planted together in the likeness of his death Rom. 6.5 dead to our lusts as he was to the functions and operations of life and planted with him in the likeness of his resurrection rising and exalting our selves and triumphing over Sin and Death so grafted in him that we may spring and grow green and blossom and bring forth fruit both alike and by the same power Now as Christ's Resurrection is a patern of our soul's resurrection so is it of our bodie 's also For we are not of Hymenaeus and Philetus mind to think the resurrection past already and make it but an Allegory No Christ hath cast the model of our bodie 's Resurrection also Plato's Idea and common Form by which he thought all other things had their exsistence was but a dream This is a real patern The Angel descended at his and shall at ours He is risen in our nature Isaac's figurative Resurrection
but Imbecillity and Weakness of faith Which further sheweth it self in the Disciples admiration and amazement For it was a stedfast look fastned on the object as if they were troubled wondring at what they had seen and not satisfied with seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gazing still and ready to let out their souls at their eyes And now Why gaze ye into heaven is no more then needs For though the ascension of a body into heaven be indeed wonderful yet if the body be Christ's the Lord of heaven and earth why should they put on wonder or stand gazing Magni est ingenii saith Tully revocare mentem à sensibus It is a great part of wisdom to take the mind from the burthen of the senses to call and free her from the toil and pressure of admiration to consider every thing in it self to abstract it from all those outward appearances and accidentals which are but the creatures of our phansie And it is the strength nay the victory of Faith to consider Religion the same in times of persecution and in times of peace to see Christ's glory as well on the cross and in the grave as in his taking up into heaven A true Disciple should be like the Philosopher's Magnanimous person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not given to wonder like Cyrus his Souldier in Xenophon wondring at nothing but intent upon the General 's command not looking after shews For Admiration is a kind of apoplexie of the soul it maketh us like them that dream nay like unto the dead So we lose Christ by looking after him For when we wonder we can do nothing else but are lost and swallowed up in this gulf And why should they wonder at Christ's Ascension They should have wondred rather saith the Father that he came down from heaven then that he returned thither that he was born that he did descend into the earth nay into the lowest parts even hell it self This was the far greater miracle But such is our frailty and so much addicted we are to our sense that what is least familiar to it affecteth it most and the greatest things decrease and are even lost by being seen too often Not the greatest but the rarest things are matter of our admiration Sol spectatorem nisi cùm deficit non habet The Sun is not looked upon nor the Moon observed but when they are in the Eclipse Si quid turbatum est If any thing cross the order of Nature then presently we look up Doth a man rise from the dead we are amazed and besides our selves Tot quotidie nascuntur nemo miratur Every day so many are born before our eyes and we wonder not Doth Christ turn water into wine we are straight astonished See saith Augustine quod semel fecit in hydriis unoquoque anno facit in vitibus what he did once in the water-pots he doeth every year in the Vines Thus we wonder and admire and it is a wonder we should so We stand amazed and troubled at that which is not worth our thought We are deeply affected and even transported beyond our selves with that from which we should wean our affection We wonder that Christ will not do that for us which will undo us that he will not stay and walk with us when we are not fitted for his company We wonder what is become of him when he is but gone to send us a Comforter We wonder he should withdraw himself when his absence is for our sakes 2 Cor. 5.16 Though the Apostles had known Christ in the flesh yet now henceforth they were to know him so no more but to have considered him as the King of Heaven and Judge of all mankind and according to his command not to have spent or misplaced a look which might stay them from their duty and their return to Jerusalem We need not further enlarge this But yet further to enforce the Angels Question the Text telleth us that a cloud received him out of their sight a cloud as if it had on purpose not onely been prepared as the chariot for Christ but drawn too as a veil before the Disciples eyes to turn them away from seeking any longer after him For why should any gaze up into heaven when Christ was in the cloud We may see Christ but not look after him then We may see him on mount Olivet we may see him ascending when one foot is as it were in the cloud but when the cloud hath received him out of our sight we must make a covenant with our eyes and gaze no more We believe that he is the eternal Son of God and Faith is all our vision here But if we still gaze to know how the Father begot the Son being of the same essence with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Father there is a cloud cast a veil drawn and we must look no further We believe the Divine Nature is united to the Manhood But if we look for the manner of this union 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may gaze our eyes out and receive no answer We see he lifteth up one on high and layeth another in the dust He shineth upon the tabernacle of the wicked and beateth down his own Temple He crowneth a man of Belial and bindeth his own servants to the mill or brick-kiln Sequere Deum Do thou follow God in those wayes he hath appointed for thee and not gaze after him in those of his which are past finding out The reasons of God's operations and proceedings are unfoordable and in many things he will be a God afar off out of thy ken and eye seen and yet invisible felt but not touched near at hands and yet at an infinite distance from his creature And here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene is better then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is better to shut our eyes then to gaze better to do nothing then to be busie and curious For what shall we gain by our intentive look by our gaze by our curious search No satisfaction not the sight of Christ but coelum pro Christo as the Disciples here gaze upon the heaven but see not Christ or rather nubem pro Christo see a cloud and darkness and distraction but Christ we shall not see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Father Gaze not after Christ for thou canst not see him And now you see Why gaze ye up into heaven is a good question But we must take in and urge the other Why stand ye gazing For indeed had they not stood they had not gazed Had they remembred our Saviour's command which but now sounded in their ears that they were to go and remain at Jerusalem and expect the coming of the holy Ghost they had not now been at Bethany nor had been seen by the Angels in this posture of standing We may now think perhaps that Curiosity is res operosa a busie and toilsome thing And so it is It treadeth mazes and
labyrinths seeketh out hidden and unknown paths walketh without light looketh but seeth not knocketh but openeth not moveth but goeth not and the onely issue it bringeth forth is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loss of time in which we might have sought and found knocked and opened moved and pressed forward to the mark to our journey's end It stayeth us at Bethany pleasing our own phansie gazing after that which cannot be seen or were of no use if we did overtake it with our eye when we should be at Jerusalem doing the will of our Master It maketh us gaze after Christ when we should look for the holy Ghost To stand gazing on the mount was not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work which was enjoyned the Disciples but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing to the purpose a needless work opus quo nihil opus a work better a great deal left undone Calvin saith well They did not what every wise-man should reputare finem propose to themselves an end but looked up and gazed and all to no end And it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a work which did not concern them It concerned them not to have been in monte on the mount but in coenaculo in their chamber at Jerusalem Terrullian saith well Vbi quod oportet negligitur quod non oportet adhibetur When we run and are active in needless offices we are lame and impotent and cannot stir a foot towards necessary performances When we neglect our duty you may be sure to find us with our eyes open gazing up into heaven It is an epidemical errour to look after Christ when he is out of sight to have our eyes on heaven when our business is below to look after Christ's glorified body to contemplate his Session at the right hand of God and his Intercession for us and to delight our thoughts with them and make them ours make them what we please but that Christ which is still on earth that Christ which we should put on I mean that Vertue that Innocency that Meekness that Patience that Obedience which he left behind him for us to take and wear till his coming again we scarce once cast an eye upon and yet without these though we gaze our eyes out we shall never see him To apply this Those curious searches after Truth which many times discover her beauty and yet have her trampled under feet that eager desire of Knowledge which endeth in it self those Hosanna's and Gloria Patri's those often blessings and magnifyings of God and Christ those revilings of Sin which we love and Panegyricks of Vertue which we neglect those complaints without sorrow and sorrow without repentance our running and flocking to Sermons where we find lettice for our lips nay further those wishes those desires those resolutions but faint resolutions to be good what are they but as so many looks cast after Christ what are they but complements and complements are but gazings And what have we seen all this while Heaven perhaps or some apparition of our own making a Christ of our own shaping a flattering conceit that we are greatly beloved of God but have not gained so much as a glimpse of that Jesus which ascended We chuse that part of Religion which is easiest and most attempered to our sensual part and private humour Mint and cumin we will tithe to a seed but the weightier matters of the Law we will not touch with one of our fingers For it is easier to gaze after Christ then to stay at Jerusalem easier to commend Vertue then to embrace it easier to hear the Word then to do it easier to hang down the head for sin then to fling it away easier to mourn or fast a day then to amend for ever easier to libel Vice then to hate it easier to disgrace Sin then to conquer it Be not deceived It is not our standing and gazing thus but our walking in our calling our honest conversation with all men our denial of our selves and our holiness towards God that must bring us to the sight of our Saviour And if we will hear good news from him any message of peace and comfort we must leave the Mount and go straight back to Jerusalem For if obedience be better then sacrifice then certainly it is better then gazing It is the rule of our Saviour He that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad he that gazeth Matth. 12.30 standeth still and worketh not But the Devil's rule runneth thus He that scattereth not gathereth with him To sit still and gaze and do nothing though we bind up no sheaves maketh us fit harvest-men for him Operosè nihil agere to be busie to no purpose to have a quick ear and a withered hand to defie sin but not destroy it to hear and not do is a great part of his service Why stand ye still It is high time ye were at Jerusalem say the Angels And they say so still Vp and be doing Let not phansie which maketh you Gods make you worse then the beasts that perish Bury not your selves alive in a grave of your own hewing out a vain and flattering imagination Christianus non habet ferias A Christian hath no holy-days no times of leisure to stand and gaze Why stand ye gazing here Come down from the mount make haste and bestir your selves Ipsa festinatio tarda est Assoon as Christ's command is out of his mouth Haste it self is but slow-paced nor is it possible we should come soon enough to Jerusalem Curiosity is a gazer but festina Fides saith S. Ambrose Faith and true Obedience like Christ at his Ascension are on the wing She hath indeed an eye to see but her hand is as quick as her eye She doth not gaze after Christ but seeketh him with her whole heart When the cloud hath received our Saviour she looketh no more but returneth from the mount to Jerusalem Where you may see her clothing the naked feeding the hungry strengthning the weak chearful and active like that blessed Spirit of love which begat her Here let us stay here let us be fixed and move for ever move in that sphere and compass in which Christ hath placed us here let us imploy all the faculties of our souls and all the members and senses of our bodies not let our hand reach to touch that which may seem better to us not let loose our eyes to wander after vanity after strange and unprofitable objects not open our understandings to unnecessary speculations not let our phansies gad and fly after those things which delight now and torment anon and are never of any use at all Now Christ is ascended let us no more gaze after him nor ask the question whether he rent the spheres or passed through them whilest they yielded and gave way to his glorified body as the air doth to ours Nor need we go on pilgrimage to Bethany to see the prints and marks of Christ's footsteps which some
the Father The Body is Man as well as the Soul And he consisteth of one as well as the other When the Body and Soul are parted the Man is gone This Flesh of ours though it hear ill and seem as an adversary to rise up against the Spirit yet it may prove a singular instrument to advance God's glory and so lift up Man to happiness Adeò Caro est salutis cardo saith Tertullian Our flesh is the very hinge on which the work of our salvation turneth it self For tell me What Christian duty is there which is not performed by the bodie 's ministery Caro alluitur ut anima emaculetur It is washed to purifie the soul It taketh down bread to feed it From it we borrow a Hand to give our alms an Ear to let in faith a Tongue to be a trumpet of God's praise Fastings Persecution Imprisonment nay Martyrdom it self de bonis carnis Deo adolentur are the fruits of the flesh subdued and conquered by us So that Angels themselves may seem in this respect to come short of us mortals They cannot suffer they cannot dye for God because they have no bodies You cannot scourge you cannot imprison you cannot sequester an Angel you cannot behead him but all this you may do unto a mortal man and so make him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like unto and even equal to the Angels I do not read that men are made equal to the Angels till they are dead till their earthly tabernacles be dissolved and built up a again till their natural body be raised a spiritual body Till then we must glorifie God as Men and let the Angels have their Hallelujahs and worship by themselves Let all the Angels worship him and let the Sons of men fall down and kneel before him And let us think the better of our external worship because we see that which is spiritual and angelical is represented unto us in Scripture by this of ours To thee all Angels cry aloud and yet who ever heard an Angel's voice And the Angels stood round about the Throne and fell before the Throne on their faces that is they glorified God Angels are said to have Voice and Hands and Feet that we who have them indeed may use them to his glory S. Hilary upon Psal 143. well expresseth it Homo ipse decem quibusdam chordis manibus pedibus extentus Man in his body his Hands and his Feet is set as an instrument with ten strings and in every gesture and motion toucheth them skilfully to make a harmony to sing a new song to the God of heaven a song composed of divers parts of Spirit and Flesh of Soul and Body Every faculty of the soul every member of the body must bear a part What is the elavation of the Soul Certainly a sweet and high note But then the prostration of the Body tempereth it and maketh it far more pleasant What the ejaculations of the Soul Yes and the incurvation of the Body the lifting up of the Heart yea and of the Hands and Eyes also A holy Thought yea and a reverent Deportment These make him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaketh perfect and complete Otherwise he is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a half-strung a half-tuned Instrument We are yet in the flesh Men not Angels and we have Knees to bend and Hands to lift up and Heads to uncover Why should we be Angels so soon Angels here on earth Why should our glorifying be as theirs is invisible The surest way to happiness is to keep our condition to make good our worship in our flesh to bow and prostrate our selves here that when time shall be no more we may be as the Angels in heaven Glorifying too spiritual is the same with too carnal For that men will not glorifie God but in their spirit is but a vapour raised out of the dung an exhalation from the flesh That men are such enemies to outward expressions and bodily reverence proceedeth from a spirit but it is a spirit of slumber a dreaming spirit a dumb spirit a lazy spirit a stubborn spirit that will not bow a spirit of contradiction I had almost said from the spirit of Antichrist For he doth not confess and glorifie Jesus so far and fully as he should And not to confess Christ is from the spirit of Antichrist 1 John 4.3 For conclusion Let us look up upon the price with which we were bought and let God's exceeding love in redeeming us raise up in us a love of God's glory which may be so intensive and hot within us ut emanet in habitum that it may not be able to contain it self within the compass of the heart but evaporate and work it self out into the outward gesture and break forth out of the conscience into the voice which may open her shop and spiritual wares and behold her own riches and furniture abroad her Liberality in an open hand her Sorrow trickling down the cheeks her Humility in a dejected countenance and her Reverance in a bare head and a bended knee that the body may be the interpreter of the soul and its many different postures and motions be a plain commentary to explain and discover that more retired and indiscernible devotion within This should be our constant and continued practice here on earth to stand as candidates for an Angel's place by glorifying God here in our earthly members which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a prologue and preface to that which we shall be and act hereafter It was a phansie which possessed many of the Heathen that men after death should much desire and often handle those things which did most take and affect them when they lived So Lucian bringeth in Priam's young son calling for milk and cheese and such country cates which he most delighted in on earth Even now saith Maximus Tyrius doth Aesculapius minister physick Hercules try the strength of his arm Castor and Pollux are under sail Minos is on the bench and Achilles in armes This was but a phansie but a fiction But it is a fair resemblance of a Christian in this respect whose span is but a prologue to eternity a short and imperfect declaration of that which he shall act more perfectly hereafter whose life is Grace and whose eternity shall be in Glory which is nothing else saith the devout School-man but gratia consummata nullatenus impedita Grace made perfect and consummate finding no opposition no temptation to struggle and fight with For though there will be no place for Almes where there is no poverty no use of Prayers where there is no want nor need of Patience where there can be no injury yet to Praise and Glorifie God are everlasting offices tribute due to God's Power and Goodness and Wisdom which are as everlasting as Himself to be rendred him here on earth in our spirits and in our bodies and to be continued by us with Angels and Archangels in
we sit down aâ—d dispute As he is a Saviour we will find him work enough but as he is a Lord we will do nothing When we hear he is a Stone we think onely that he is LAPIS FUNDAMENTALIS a sure stone to build on or LAPIS ANGULARIS a corner stone to draw together and unite things naturally incompatible as Man and God the guilty person and the Judge the Sinner and the Law-giver and quite forget that he may be LAPIS OFFENSIONIS a stone of offence to stumble at a stone on which we may be broken and which may fall upon us and dash us to pieces And so not looking on the Lord we shipwreck on the Saviour For this is the great mistake of the world To separate these two terms Jesus and the Lord and so handle the matter as if there were a contradiction in them and these two could not stand together Love and Obedience nay To take Christ's words out of his mouth and make them ours MISERICORDIAM VOLO NON SACRIFICIUM We will have mercy and no sacrifice We say he is the Lord it is our common language And though we are taught to forget our Liturgy yet we remember well enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Lord have mercy And here Mercy and Lord kiss each other We say the Father gave him power and we say he hath power of himself Psal 2. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance saith God to Christ And Christ saith I and the Father are one We believe that he shall judge the world John 5.22 and we read that the Father hath committed this judgment to the Son Dedit utique generando non largiendo God gave him this commission when he begat him and then he must have it by his eternal generation as the Son of God So Ambrose But S. Augustine is peremptory Whatsoever in Scripture is said to be committed to Christ belongeth to him as the Son of Man Here indeed may seem to be a distance but in this rule they meet and agree God gave his commission to Christ as Man but he had not been capable of it it he had not been God As he is the Son of God he hath the capacity as the Son of man the execution Take him as Man or take him as God this Jesus is the Lord. Cùm Dominus dicatur unus agnoscitur saith Ambrose There is but one Faith Vers 4 5 6. and but one Lord. In this chapter operations are from God gifts from the Spirit and administrations from the Lord. Christ might well say You call me Lord and Master and so I am a Lord as in many other respects so jure redemtionis by the right of Redemption and jure belli by way of conquest His right of Dominion by taking us out of slavery and bondage is an easie Speculation For who will not be willing to call him Lord who by a strong arm and mighty power hath brought him out of captivity Our Creation cost God the Father no more but a DIXIT He spake the word and it was done But our Redemption cost God the Son his most precious bloud and life onely that we might fall down and worship this our Lord A Lord that hath shaken the powers of the Grave and must shake the powers of thy soul A Lord to deliver us from Death and to deliver us from Sin to bring life and immortality to light and to order our steps and teach us to walk to it to purchase our pardon and to give us a Law to save us that he may rule us and to rule us that he may save us We must not hope to divide Jesus from the Lord for if we do we lose them both Save us he will not if he be not our Lord and if we obey him not Our Lord he is still and we are under his power but under that power which will bruise us to pieces And here appeareth that admirable mixture of his Mercy and Justice tempered and made up in the rich treasury of his Wisdom his Mercy in pardoning sin and his Justice in condemning sin in his flesh Rom 8.3 and in our flesh his Mercy in covering our sins and his Justice in taking them away his Mercy in forgetting sins past and his Justice in preventing sin that it come no more his Mercy in sealing our pardon and his Justice in making it our duty to sue it out For as he would not pardon us without his Son's obedience to the Cross no more will he pardon us without our obedience to his Gospel A crucified Saviour and a mortified sinner a bleeding Jesus and a broken heart a Saviour that died once unto sin and a sinner dead unto sin Rom. 6.10 these make that heavenly composition and reconcile Mercy and Justice and bring them so close together that they kiss each other For how can we be free and yet love our fetters how can we be redeemed from sin that are sold under sin how can we be justified that resolve to be unjust how can we go to heaven with hell about us No Love and Obedience Hope and Fear Mercy and Justice Jesus and the Lord are in themselves and must be considered by us as bound together in an everlasting and undivided knot If we love his Mercy we shall bow to his Power If we hope for favour we shall fear his wrath If we long for Jesus we shall reverence the Lord. Unhappy we if he had not been a Jesus and unhappy we if he had not been a Lord Had he not been the Lord the world had been a Chaos the Church a Body without a Head a Family without a Father an Army without a Captain a Ship without a Pilot and a Kingdom without a King But here Wisdom and Mercy and Justice Truth and Peace Reconcilement and Righteousness Misery and Happiness Earth and Heaven meet together and are concentred even in this everlasting Truth in these three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. And thus much of the Lesson which we are to learn We come now to our task and to enquire What it is to say it It is soon said It is but three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. The Indian saith it and the Goth saith it and the Persian saith it totius mundi una vox CHRISTUS est Christ Jesus is become the language of the whole world The Devils themselves did say it Matth. 8.29 Jesus thou Son of God And if the Heretick will not confess it dignus est clamore daemonum convinci saith Hilary What more fit to convince an Heretick then the cry of the Devils themselves Acts 19. The vagabond Jews thought to work miracles with these words And we know those virgins who cried Lord Lord open unto us were branded with the name of fools and shut out of doors Whilest we are silent we stand as it were behind the wall we lie
The treasures thereof are infinite the minerals thereof are rich assiduè pleniùs responsura fodienti The more they are digged the more plentifully do they offer themselves that all the wit of men and Angels can never be able to draw them dry But even this Word many times is but a word and no more Sometimes it is a killing letter Such vain and unskilful pioneers we are that for the most part we meet with poisonous damps and vapours instead of treasure I might adde a third Teacher Christ's Discipline which when we think of nothing but of Jesus by his rod and afflictions putteth us in remembrance that he is the Lord. This Teacher hath a kind of Divine authority and by this the Spirit breatheth many times with more efficacy and power then by the Church or the Word then by the Prophets and Apostles and holy Scriptures For when we are disobedient to his Church deaf to his Word at the noise of these many waters we are afraid and yield our necks unto his yoke All these are Teachers But their authority and power and efficacy they have from the Spirit The Church if not directed by the Spirit were but a rout or Conventicle the Word if not quickned by the Spirit a dead letter and his Discipline a rod of iron first to harden us and then break us to pieces But AFFLAT SPIRITUS the Spirit bloweth upon his Garden the Church and the spices thereof flow And then to disobey the Church is to resist the Spirit INCUBAT SPIRITUS The holy Ghost sitteth upon the seed of the Word and hatcheth a new creature a subject to this Lord. MOVET SPIRITUS The Spirit moveth upon these waters of bitterness and then they make us fruitful to every good work In a word The Church is a Teacher and the Word is a Teacher and Afflictions are Teachers but the Spirit of God the holy Ghost is all in all I might here enter a large field full of delightful variety But I forbear and withdraw my self and will onely remember you that this Spirit is a spirit that teacheth Obedience and Meekness that if we will have him light upon us we must receive him as Christ did in the shape of a Dove in all innocency and simplicity He telleth us himself that with a froward heart he will not dwell and then sure he will not enlighten it For as Chrysostom well observeth that the Prophets of God and Satan did in this notoriously differ that they who gave Oracles from God gave them with all mildness and temper without any fanatick alteration but they who gave Oracles by motion from the Devil did it with much distraction and confusion with a kind of fury and madness so we shall easily find that those motions which descend not from above are earthly sensual and devilish that in them there is strife and envying and confusion and every evil work but the wisdom which is from above from the holy Ghost is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated James 3. full of mercy and good fruits Be not deceived When thy Anger rageth the Spirit is not in that storm When thy Disobedience to Government is loud he speaketh not in that thunder When thy Zele is mad and unruly he dwelleth not in that fiery hush When the faculties of thy soul are shaken and dislocated by thy stubborn and perverse passions that thou canst neither look nor speak nor move aright he will not be in that earthquake But in the still voice and the cool of the day in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the calm and tranquility and peace of thy soul he cometh when that storm is slumbred that earthquake setled that thunder stilled that fire quenched And he cometh as a light to shew thee the beauty and love of thy Saviour and the glory and power of thy Lord. And though he be sole Instructor yet he descendeth to make use of means and if thou wilfully withdraw thy self from these thou art none of his celestial Auditory To conclude Wilt thou know how to speak this language truly that Jesus is the Lord and assure thy self that the Spirit teacheth thee so to speak Mark well then those symptoms and indications of his presence those marks and signs which he hath left us in his word to know when the voice is his For though as the Kingdom of heaven so the Spirit of God cometh not with observation yet we may observe whether he be come or no. Remember then first that he is a Spirit and the Spirit of God and so is contrary to the Flesh and teacheth nothing that may flatter or countenance it or let it loose to insult over the Spirit For this is against the very nature of the Spirit as much as it is for light bodies to descend or heavy to move upwards Nay Fire may descend and the Earth may be moved out of its place the Sun may stand still or go back Nature may change its course at the word and beck of the God of Nature but this is one thing which God cannot do he cannot change himself nor can his Spirit breathe any doctrine forth that savoureth of the World or the Flesh or Corruption Therefore we may nay we must suspect all those doctrines and actions which are said to be effects and products of the blessed Spirit when we observe them drawn out and levelled to carnal ends and temporal respects For sure the Spirit can never beat a bargain for the world and the Truth of God is the most unproportioned price that can be laid out on such a purchace When I see a man move his eyes compose his countenance order and methodize his gesture and behaviour as if he were now on his death-bed to take his leave of the world and to seal that Renouncement which he made at the Font when I hear him loud in prayer and as loud in reviling the iniquities of the times wishing his eyes a fountain of tears to bewail them day and night when I see him startle at a mis-placed word as if it were a thunderbolt when I hear him cry as loud for a Reformation as the idolatrous Priests did upon their Baal I begin to think I see an Angel in his flight and mount going up into heaven But after all this devotion this zele this noise when I see him stoop like the Vultur and fly like lightning to the prey I cannot but say within my self O Lucifer son of the morning how art thou fallen from heaven how art thou brought down to the ground nay to hell it self Sure I am the holy Ghost looketh upward moveth upward directeth us upward and if we follow him neither our doctrine nor our actions will ever savour of this dung Remember again that he is SPIRITUS RECTUS a right Spirit as David calleth him Psal 51. not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 winding and turning several wayes now to God and anon nay at once to Mammon now glancing
him we that are many are but one It is a good observation of S. Basil That the Love of God is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exclusive of our Love to others but calleth it in that it may not be I and Thou but WE and one I say it calleth it in to fill up the measure thereof but so that it hath dependencie thereon The Love of God knitteth all Loves to it self and it self to all We may call it with the Philosopher conglobatum amorem so many loves heaped together 1 Joh. 4 21. but beginning from one even the Love of God For this commandment we have from him that he who loveth God love his brother also Tota vita sanctorum negotiatio saith St. Augustine The whole life of the Saints is a kind of traffick and Merchandise We all venture together Every man ventureth for himself and for his brethren singuli pro omnibus omnes pro singulis every man for all and all for every man We all go together For Religion maketh all one and the most excellent parts of it are not mine nor thine but ours our common Faith our Self-denial our Fear our Joy our Riches our Peace Whatsoever conquereth winneth me the garland whosoever prayeth is my advocate He prayeth and I pray he against my ambition and I against his distrust he against my presumption and I against his diffidence We go up to the house of the Lord together and we hope to go to heaven together Such is the virtue of this Communion that though I live in a society where more scatter then gather more are bankrupt then thrive yet by my charity and compassion I may gain by their loss and have interest in the good of every man and by my prayers and ready assistance improve my spiritual estate by every mans loss They that are ignorant of this cannot pray nor go to Church together For he loveth not any no not himself who loveth not all We say Love beginneth at home but it spreadeth its garment over all otherwise it is not begun My heart must be hortus deliciarum a garden of delights a paradise wherein are set and deeply rooted these choice plants the Love of God the Love of my self and the Love of my brethren He that rooteth up one destroyeth all He that taketh my brother from me divideth me from my self And when I take my love but from one my heart is no longer a paradise but a wilderness Deo non singularitas accepta est sed unitas saith the Father God liketh not singularity where every one is for himself but unity where all are one We all go together Nor do I lose by keeping my self within this circle or compass For my scattering is my possession my losing is my gain my bounty is my thrift He that giveth not his love hath it not but when he giveth he hath in more abundance And is it not now pity that we should be more then one Is it not a shame that we should be divided and so go up together and not go up together be a press a throng a confused multitude and not a body or fly asunder and be many Wees We of Paul 1 Cor. 1.12 We of Apollos We of Cephas We of this congregation and We of that Ye will soon say so when ye see what it is that keepeth this WE this body compact within it self and what it is that divideth and scattereth it First God is a God of peace and hateth division For although Christ said he came to send a sword upon earth he declareth not his purpose Matth. 10.30 but prophesieth the event and sheweth not what he would bring but how men would abuse his doctrine as if indeed he had come on purpose to set the world on fire He could not come with a sword for he breathed nothing but peace All his precepts and counsels naturally tend to make all men of one mind and one heart Charity will bear any burden Liberality buyeth and purchaseth peace Temperance keepeth Reason in her chair undisturbed that she may command peace Patience is a reconciler melteth an enemy and transformeth him into a friend Humility stoopeth and falleth down at every foot-stool and boweth it self to woo and beg and beseech us to be at unity A Christian will be any thing that is not evil do any thing that is not sin suffer any thing to preserve unity Further those duties which we do as superiours and which are wont to give distast to others as Reprehension good Counsel Discipline even these have no other end but unity these are enjoyned us as preservatives that we may be one 1. Reprehension seemeth indeed to be a sword and to cut deep For we fly from the face of him that bringeth it Every word is a wound and the greatest Prophet our greatest enemy But if Reproof be a sword it is a Delphian sword or like his that did both wound and cure at once Its end is peace and unity It is like to the shepherds whistle calling us back when we are gone astray and near to danger John 10.16 and reducing us to that one fold and one shepherd 2. Counsel also bringeth an imputation along with it and a silent charge against him to whom it is given but it is the charge not of a severe judge but of a kind friend of a tender brother It is presented as physick not as poyson It is the diet of a sick mind saith Clemens and its end is to cure the diseased party that neither his leprosie break out nor himself be shut out of the congregation It is to him as Moses said to his father-in-law Numb 10.31 instead of eyes to discover to him his danger and to shew him the way he should go In a word it is like careful dressing of a part which is ready to fester that it may not be cut off but be healed 3. Discipline is indeed the Pastoral rod and machaera spiritualis a spiritual sword And this cutteth off a part from the whole and leaveth the body WE less in number then it was Yet he whom it cutteth off may say WE still For it doth not cut him off from the inward communion but from the outward onely and that to the end he may be brought in again Vulnus non hominem secat secat ut sanet The Apostle rendreth it ◠Cor. 5.5 The flesh is destroyed that the spirit may be saved This weapon non nocet nisi pertinacibus The blow hurteth not if it meet not with a stiff neck It severeth offenders that it may gather them it driveth them out that it may draw them in it anathematizeth them that it may canonize them it restraineth them that it may free them it putteth them to shame that they may be ashamed to stay out And the Church when they return unto her laeto sinu excipit with joy receiveth them into her bosome and then We are one again
end where they cannot find a fault they will make one And this fiction of theirs must be as a sheet let down from heaven Acts 11.01 13 with a command to arise and kill and eat And at the sight of a prodigy of their own begetting they rejoyce and divide the spoil For conclusion then Let us mark these men and avoid them And let us mourn and be sorry for their joy the issue not of Christian Love but of Pride and Covetousness and which hath not God's glory for its object but their own Let them murmure let us rejoyce let them reproch us let us pray let them break witless jests let us break our stony hearts let them detract let us sing praises let them cry Down with it Down with it even to the ground let us reverence God's Sanctuary let us remember the end for which it was built and draw all our thoughts words and gestures to that end let us so behave our selves in the Church that we may be Temples of the living God and worship God in the beauty of holiness Why should we not rejoyce with David and tune our harps by his our devotion by his songs of thanksgiving The same God reigneth still the same end is set up and the same means appointed for that end Let us press hard to the end and then no scruple can arise Let not our sins and evil conscience trouble us and nothing will trouble us Come let us worship and fall down that is one end and our everlasting happiness is another And these are so linked together that ye cannot sever them The end cannot be had without the means and the means rightly used never miss of their end And then God's glory and our happiness will meet and run on together in a continued course to all eternity Oh then let us so use the means ut profectum pariant non judicium as S. Augustine speaketh that they may have their end and not end in judgement Why should any benefit opportunity occasion that looketh this way be lost and so ly dead and buried why should it loose the effect it should have Why when God soweth his grace and favour should nothing grow up but wormwood and bitterness Why should Heaven bow it self and Earth withdraw Why should God honour us and we dishonour his gift Let us therefore put on David's spirit and enter God's courts with joy and his house with rejoycing let us come to Church with one heart and one soul Prov. 8.31 And as God's delight is to be with the children of men so let our delight be to converse with him in all humility And Humility is an helper of our Joy let us bow our knees and lift up our hearts and upon those altars burn the incense of our prayers and offer up the sacrifice of our praise and let our obedience keep time with our devotion Thus if we present our selves before God in his house he will rejoyce over us and his Angels will rejoyce with us and for us and we shall joy in one anothers joy and when all Temples shall be destroyed and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll Isa 34.34 we shall meet together in our Masters joy and there with Angels and Archangels and all the company of heaven sing praises to him for evermore To which joy he bring us who can hear from heaven and grant our requests and fill us with all joy even the God of love the Father of mercy and the Lord of heaven and earth Soli Deo Gloria The Four and Twentieth SERMON PART I. MATTH VI. 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you THE Decalogue is an abridgment of Morality and of those precepts which direct us in the government of our selves and in our converse with others And this Sermon of our Saviour is an improvement of the Decalogue Herein you may discover Honesty of conversation Trust in God and the Love of his kingdom and his righteousness mutually depending on each other and linked together in one golden chain which reacheth from earth to heaven from the footstool to the throne of God Our conversation will be honest if we trust in God and we shall trust in God if we seek his kingdom and his righteousness For why is not our Yea Yea and our Nay Nay Why are not we so ready to resist evil Why do we not love our neighbour Why do we not love our enemy Why do we arm our selves with craft and violence Why do we first deceive our selves and then deceive others The reason is Because we love the world Why do we love the world Because we are unwilling to depend on the providence of God Why do we not trust in God Because we love not his kingdom and his righteousness He that loveth and seeketh this needeth no lie to make him rich feareth no enemy that can obstruct his way knoweth no man that is not his neighbour nor no neighbour that is not his friend layeth up no treasure for the moth or rust serveth not Mammon nor needeth to be sent to school to learn the providence of God from the fouls of the aire or the lilies of the field This is the summe and conclusion of the whole matter The kindgdom of God and his righteousness is all comprehendeth all is the sole and adequate object of our desires And therefore our Saviour calleth back our thoughts from wandring after false riches taketh off our care and solicitude from that vanity which is not worth a thought and levelleth them on that which hath not this deputative and borrowed title of Riches even that kingdom and righteousness which is riches and honour and pleasure and whatsoever is desirable For even these are of her retinue and train and she bringeth them along with her as a supplement or overplus Do you fear injury This shall protect you Do you fear disgrace This shall exalt you Do you fear nakedness and poverty This shall cloth and enrich you Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you In these words our Saviour setteth up an Object for his Disciples and all Christians to look on first the kingdom of God the price and prize of our high calling Which we need not speak of we cannot conceive it the tongue of men and Angels cannot express the glory of it Secondly his righteousness this is the way to God's Kingdom Next you have the Dignity of the Object it must be sought then the Preeminence of it it must be sought first and last of all the Motive or Promise or Encouragement to make us seek it which answereth all objections which the flesh or the world can put in All these other things shall be added to you These be the parts of the Text and of these in order The Kingdom of God is the end and we must look on
to this order then spend the whole though in very diligent study if with misorder and confusion Howsoever it may be with Method and Order in our Academical studies certainly in our study which concerneth the practice of Righteousness it cannot chuse but be with great loss of labour and industry if we do not observe that order and method which here our Saviour prescribeth Simplicius in his Comments upon Aristotle maketh a question whether youths in the reading of Aristotle's books should begin with his Logicks where he teacheth men to dispute and reason or with his Ethicks where he teacheth Civility and Honesty For if they begin saith he from his Logicks without Morals they are in danger to prove but wrangling Sophisters and if from his Morals without Logick they will prove but confused Thus indeed it fareth in the knowledge of Nature where all things are uncertain thus with those Students who have Aristotle for their God scarcely will all their Logick shew them where they should begin or where they should end But in Christianity all things are certain the end certain and the way certain and our best Master Christ hath written us a spiritual Logick hath shewed us a method and order what first to do 〈◊〉 â—ext and how to range every thing in its proper place And he that shall follow this method may be secure of his end nor is it possible he should lose his pains Never was any true Student in Righteousness an unproficient Now the excellency of this method will appear by comparing the one with the other the Soul with the Body and the temporal things of this life with spiritual First what is this Body of ours but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nyssene calleth it a prison an ill savoured sink a lump of flesh which mouldereth away and draweth near to corruption whilst we speak of it But the Soul is Divinae particula aurae a beam as it were of the Divinity which in this dark body of ours is as the Sun to the Earth enlivening quickning and chearing it up Phiala in qua non includitur Manna sed Pater Filius Spiritus Sanctus as Ambros A golden vessel to receive not Manna which if you lay it up till the morning will stink and breed worms but the Father and the Son and the graces of the Spirit which are eternal It was a speech of S. Augustines Domine duo creasti alterum prope te alterum prope nihil Lord thou hast created two things the one Divine celestial of infinite worth the other base and sordid the Soul and the Body the one near unto thy self the other next unto nothing Now our care should carry a proportion to the things we care for We are not so diligent to keep a counter as a diamond Alexander when amongst the spoiles of Darius he found a rich and precious box thought nothing to be good enough to be laid up in it but Homer's Works And the Sacred Writings were decked and adorned with jewels and gold and precious gemms saith Zonaras by which the Christians exprest their reverence and love to those Sacred Volumes But what cabinet can we find for the Soul Where should that be laid up but in the bosome of God Shall we leave that poor and naked when our selves abound in wealth Shall our bodies rest in a house of cedar and our soul in a nasty stie How many Heathen Philosophers have flung away their wealth to enrich their nobler part How have they been ashamed to think their souls were in their bodies as Eunapius speaketh of Jamblicus One flingeth his gold into the sea another strippeth himself a third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did macerate his body and keep it down that he seemed to have made it his labour to have turned it into soul And shall Christians make it their study and delight to immerse the soul in the body and to turn it into flesh to take such care of their flesh as if they were nothing but flesh and had no soul at all No As the soul is more excellent then the body so it must first be in our care first in our devotion Look upon all the commendable actions which purchase us praise with God and what are they but acts of open war and hostility against the body Temperance and Continence what are they but the subduing of our fleshly lusts which fight against the spirit Care and Diligence what are they but a petpetual war with Sloth and Idleness upon which this dull and earthy mass of our bodies is prone to relapse Piety and Devotion what are they but a neglect or rather an open defiance unto all things which seem to savour of love and care for the body so that here Love were treason and Agreement nothing but conspiracy and Peace pactio servitutis For if we entertein any covenant of peace with our flesh it can be but such a one as Nahash the Ammonite offered to make with the men of Jabesh Gilead upon condition we will pull out our eyes The flesh 1 Sam. 11. the more vve suppress it the more we love it the more vve beat it down the more vve exalt it and vvhen vve mortifie it vve do even spiritualize it and in a manner upon this corruptible put on incorruption Our first care must be to subdue the body and keep it under vvhich is indeed to honour it If our affections be levelled aright if vve keep a true and exact method in our search we shall not talk so much of Riches as of Righteousness vve shall be enquiring what news from heaven vvhat the state of that Court is vvhat place vvhat degree vve shall have there of Faith and Holiness and Obedience without which no man shall see God For in the next place vvhat comparison can vve make between spiritual and temporal blessings the one of inestimable price the other not worth the naming S. Hilary commenting upon the first Psalm speaketh of some vvho interpreting the book of Psalms thought it some discredit to that book that terrene and secular matter should so often interline it self and therefore all their interpretations they made respectively to spiritual things and God himself Which conceit though an apparent errour yet that Father condemneth not but mildly pronounceth of it Haec eorum opinio argui non potest This opinion of theirs cannot be condemned for it is the sense of a mind piously and religiously affected and it is a thing unblameable by favourable endeavour to strive to fit all things to him by whom all things were made For vvhat if vve vvere not told of a Land flowing with milk and hony vvhat if vve saw not riches and plenty in God's left hand and length of dayes in his right What if vve vvere not told of riches and honour and prosperity could vve think there vvere nothing to be sought for All the gold in Ophir is not to be compared vvith one religious thought nor can there be any
which is everlasting in the Kingdom of God The Seven and Twentieth SERMON PART IV. MATTH VI. 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you YE have already heard what the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness is what it is to seek it and that it must be first sought And indeed it is first It hath the priority of Nature Christianis coelum patuit antequam via saith the Father Happiness is first and then the way to it the end before the means Righteousness before these things the condition to be made good before the promise seek first and then these things shall be added And it hath priority of Dignity not that which Caesar aimed at to have no superiour but that of Pompey to have no equal For what is all the gold of Ophir to one good thought what is this clod of earth to an immortal soul what are pearls and diamonds and all the glory of the world to the Kingdom of heaven And being thus exalted in it self it should have the same elevation in our desires or rather our desires and endeavours should raise themselves to that height where alone they are at rest Eleganter Divina sapientia ordinem instruxit ut post coelestia terrenis locum faceret saith Tertullian Christ hath drawn out an elegant and exact order that after heavenly things he might make room for those which we stand in need of here upon the earth First let us seek the kingdom of God and his Righteousness and then we may securely expect these things We may expect them ad sustentationem corporis to uphold this mouldering and ruinous tabernacle of ours Therefore it is called the staff of bread Lev. 26.26 a chief staff such a one as is set in the midst to bear up all the tent Or else we may expect them ut instrumenta virtutis as instrumental to the soul that she may accomplish those vertues in her self which are the means and way to happiness and the Kingdom of heaven And first Doth God take care for oxen saith the Apostle Doth God take care for this beast of ours the Body which so often groweth wanton and kicketh up the heel and throweth the rider Yes he made the body as well as the soul and his providence watcheth over both We are not such Manichees as to think the Devil made the Body Certè domus animae caro est saith the Father inquilinus carnis anima The flesh is the house of the soul and the soul is the inmate of the body Desiderabit igitur inquilinus ex causa necessitate hujus nominis profutura domui Whilest the soul is dwelling in the body she naturally desireth and procureth those things which may uphold the building Not that the soul is thus supported but only conteined and it is impossible she should be conteined unless the house wherein she dwelleth be upheld from ruine The Body indeed is of another substance and condition from the Soul but it was added ut supellex instrumentum in officina vitae saith the Father as an implement and instrument in the shop of life If we clothe it not if we feed it not if we prop it not up with meats and drinks with cordials and physick within a few hours it will throw out the Tenant and fall to the ground And therefore that God who placed all things before us and yet bounded and confined our desires who hath given us more then enough yet biddeth us take heed of surfeiting hath taught us also non contemnere carnem not to neglect and despise our flesh not to give it too many stripes for fear it become despicable in our eyes He hath a hand which filleth all things and he is ready to open it when we open our hearts and desires unto him Creatorem non in coelo tantùm miramur He is not therefore a Creatour only because he made the world and the heavens are the works of his fingers but his Deity and providence is seen in feeding the young Ravens which call upon him much more is it then seen in feeding those creatures which are food for the use of man which are good and not to be refused but received with thanksgiving For he it is who when the heavens are as brass and the earth as iron sendeth a gracious rain upon his inheritance and refresheth it when it is dry that watereth abundantly the furrows thereof There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon Psal 72.16 and they of the City shall flourish like the grass of the earth It is true Meats for the belly and the belly for meats and God shall destroy both it and them 1 Cor. 6 13. And other creatures are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil in his Hexameron from feeding but Man was never termed so who must learn with the Father to use meat not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a thing which he doth take but so as if he had rather not take it and to receive it as Augustine said he did non ut nutrimentum sed ut medicamentum not as food and nourishment but as physick But yet we must consider that every thing is useful in its place and for that end for which it was ordained The knowledge of one conclusion in Philosophy is of it self of more worth then all the viands of the earth yet Philosophy will not do that which a morsel or two of bread will do preserve me from famishing I had rather saith Tully be authour of that Defence which Crassus made for Curius then ride in triumph for the taking-in of any fort or castle in the world yet it had been far better that Curius should fall from his cause and lose the day then that the Commonwealth of Rome should not have taken-in the Castle of the Ligurians I had rather be a Phidias then a carpenter yet when the Ivory statue of Minerva will but at most delight my eye a house raised by a carpenter will keep me warm and healthful And when we speak of meats and drinks and temporal goods we do not weigh what they are but what is their use Prov 8.19 The fruit of Wisdom is better then gold and her revenue then choice silver What are all the pearls and diamonds and riches of the world to one good thought And yet that thought which lifteth me up to heaven that Wisdom which crowneth me will not feed me or preserve me from falling Every thing is useful for that end for which it was made The staff of bread was made to uphold me the temporal blessings of this world to comfort and sustein me that I may move in my sphere and place walk before the Lord in the land of the living and with chearfulness and alacrity study that wisdom
foretold for the Tares as well as for the Wheat Poena sequitur culpam Punishment follows close upon Sin And this is Gods mocking of us which consists in giving every seed it s own body If we sow to the Flesh he clothes it with Death And herein consists his Justice and his Providence 1. in punishing of sin 2. in fitting and proportioning the punishment to it First Sowing implyes labour and industry This Phrase is often used They have sowen the wind and shall reap the whirle-wind Hos 8.7 They have laboured much to little purpose And Job 4.8 They that plow wickedness and sow iniquity reap the same As they that expect the year and a good Harvest first manure and plow the ground then scatter their seed upon it so do wicked men first turn their thoughts as the Husbandman doth the earth lutosas cogitationes saith Bernard earthly dirty thoughts busily tending the Flesh as if it were a field to be tilled racking their memory calling up their Understanding debauching their Reason fitting their instruments watching opportunities putting all things in readiness to bring their purposes about which is as it were their Plowing and then they break forth into action which is their Sowing and then springs up either Adultery or Murder or Oppression Behold he travaileth with iniquity he hath conceived mischief He is in as great pain as a woman with travail And all this trouble is to bring forth a Lye Psal 7.14 Scarce any sin but costs us dear For first as there is lucta a kind of contention in doing a good work an holding back of the Flesh when the Spirit is ready for when the Spirit is ready the Flesh is weak saith our Saviour So in the proceedings of wicked men there is also lucta some secret strugling and complaining of the Spirit when the Flesh is ready When the Hand is held up to strike the Eye open to gaze and the Mouth to blaspheme there be fightings within and terrours without there is a Law staring in our face like a Tribune with his Veto to forbid us a Conscience chiding a Judge frowning a Hell opening its mouth to devoure them all which must be removed as Amasa's body or else they will stand still 2 Sam. 20 1◠and not pass and venture on to that which they intended These Fightings must cease these Terrours be abated their Conscience slumber'd the Law nulled the Judge forgot Hell fire put out or sow they cannot For if these did appear in their full force and vigour did they look upon these as truths and not rather as our mormos and illusions how could they put such seed into the ground Again secondly though their Will have determined its act yet there may be many hinderances and retardancies many cross accidents intervene to hinder the work The child may be brought to the birth and there may be no strength to bring forth The Seed may be ready to be sown and the hand too weak to scatter it For the Will is not alwayes accompanied with Power God forbid it should It was but a weak argument which Luther brought against the Freedom of the Will from the Weakness and inability of performance Ostendant saith he magni illi Liberi arbitrii ostentatores Let them saith he who boast of Freewill shew any power they have to kill so much as a fly For a limited Power is no argument of a limited Will He that cannot get his bread may wish for a Kingdom and he that cannot kill a fly may will the destruction of the whole vvorld Novv this limitation of their Povver this weakning their strength in the way makes them go forth vvith sorrovv carrying their seed of iniquity and not able to scatter it This makes them mourn and cover the Head as Haman flings them on the bed with Ahab makes them hang themselves as Ahithophel did This many times puts them on the rack strikes them with care and anxiety fills them with distracted thoughts which choke one another The Covetous man would be rich but he must rise up early and lye down late and eat the bread of sorrow The Ambitious would climb but he must first lick the dust The Seditious would trouble the waters but is afraid they may drown him Nemo non priùs peccat in seipsum There is no man sins but first he offends and troubles himself before he conveys the poyson of his sin on others He that hurts his brother felt the blow first in his own bosome We read of the work of Faith and labour of Charity And it is true it is not so easie a matter to believe nor so easie a matter to be charitable as many suppose who cannot be brought to study either but must have them on gift Virtus duritiâ exstruitur A Christian is a Temple of the holy Ghost but it is Hardness and Industry that must help to build him up But yet we cannot but observe that there is as much care taken I am unwilling to say more in the sweeping and garnishing a habitation for Satan What Gibeonites are we in the Devils service and what lazy dreamers in the family and house of God More cost is bestowed in sowing to the Flesh then in sowing to the Spirit It is the service of Christ but Drudgery of Satan both are sowing but we make that of the Flesh the more laborious of the two To apply this in a word We read in our books of a devout Abbot who beholding what cost and art a woman had bestowed in attiring her self fell a weeping and Oh said he what a misery is this that a woman should bestow more labour upon the dressing of her body then we have done in the adorning of our souls that she should put more ornaments on her head then we have been careful to put into our hearts What a misery is it that we should wish for heaven and contend for earth that Mary's part should be the better but Martha's the greater Oh what a sad contemplation is it that many men will not be perswaded to take so much pains to go to heaven and eternal rest as many thousands do to go to hell and everlasting Torments that we should sweat for the bread that perisheth and but coldly and faintly ask for the bread of life that we should heap up riches James 5 3. which will eat our flesh as it were fire and be ever afraid of that Grace which will raise us from the dead that we should watch for the twilight an opportunity to do evil and let so many opportunities of doing good fly by us not marked nor regarded lay hold on any opportunity to destroy our brother and let pass any that prompts us to help him that we should labour and travel and spend our selves in the one and be so weary and faint and dead in the other that we should take more delight to feed with swine then to eat at Christs Table that the way
assimilation to and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our union with God in whom alone those two powers of the soul those two horsleaches which ever cry Give give the Understanding which is ever drawing new conclusions and the Will which is ever pursuing new objects have their eternal Sabbath and rest Hic Rhodus hic saltus This is the end and this is the way Our Saviour here seems to make two Hearing and Doing but indeed they are but one and cannot be severed for the one leads into the other as the Porch into the Temple It is the great errour of the times conjuncta dividere to divide those duties which God hath joyned together to have quick ears and withered hands to hear and not to do to let in and let out nay to let in and to loath And in this reciprocal intercourse of hearing and neglecting many spin out the thread of their lives and at the end thereof look for Blessedness And certainly if Blessedness would dwell in the ear there would be more blessed on earth then in heaven And if an open ear were the mark of a Saint what great multitudes how many millions are there sealed to be kept unto salvation But to hear is not enough and yet it may be too much and may set us at a fadder distance from Blessedness then we had been at if we had been deaf Our Ear may turn into a Tongue and be a witness against us For that plea which the hypocrites make Lvke 3.26 We have eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets is a libel and an accusation and draws down a heavier sentence upon them For he bids them depart from him who would work iniquity after they had heard him in their streets Blessed are they that hear the word of God reacheth not home and therefore there is a conjunction copulative to draw it closer and link with Obedience Blessed are they that hear the word of God AND keep it So this conclusion will necessarily follow That Evangelical Obedience and the strict observation of the doctrin of Faith and Good works is the onely and immediate way to Blessedness For not the hearers of the word but the doers shall be justified Rom. 2.13 saith S. Paul And indeed there is no way but this For first God hath fitted us hereunto For can we imagine that he should thus build us up and stamp his own image upon us that we should be an habitation for owls and Satyrs for wild and brutish imaginations that he did give us Understandings to find out an art of pleasure a method and craft of injoying that which is but for a season Was the Soul made immortal for that which passeth away as a shadow and is no more or have we dominion over the beasts of the field that we should fall and perish with them No we are ad majora nati born to eternity and in our selves we carry an argument against our selves if we keep not Gods word Indeed Faith in respect of the remoteness of the object and its elevation above the ken of Nature may seem a hard lesson yet in the Soul there is a capacity to receive it and if the other condition of Obedience and Doing Gods will did not lye heavy upon the Flesh the more brutish part we should be readier scholars in our Creed then we are If we could hate the world we should be soon in heaven If we would imbrace that which we cannot but approve our infidelity and doubtings would soon vanish as a mist before the Sun Augustine hath observed in his book De Religione that multitudes of good moral men especially the Platonites came in readily and gave up their names unto Christ But the Agenda the precepts of practice are as the seed and the heart of man as the earth the matrix the womb to receive it They are so proportioned to our Reason that they are no sooner seen but approved being as it were of neer alliance and consanguinity with those notions and principles which we brought with us into the world Onely those are written in a book these in the heart At the most the one is but a Commentary on the other What precept of Christ is there which is not agreeable and consonant to right Reason Doth he prescribe purity The heart applauds it Doth he bless Meekness The mind of man soon says Amen Doth he command us to do to others as we would others should do to us We entertain it as our familiar and contemporary Doth he prescribe Sobriety We soon subscribe to it for what man would profess himself a beast And hence it comes to pass that we see something that is good in the worst that we hear a panegyrick of Virtue from a man of Belial that when we do evil we are ready to maintein it as good and when we do an injury we call it a benefit For no man is so evil that he desires not to seem good There is saith Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the the Soul of man a natural distast of that which is evil But Virtue though it have few followers yet hath the votes of all Temperance the drunkard will sing her praises Justice every hand is ready to set a Crown upon her Head Valour is admired of all and Wisdome is the desire of the whole earth So you see Gods precepts are proportioned to the Soul and the Soul to God's precepts which hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a formative quality a power to shape and fashion and to bring forth something of the same nature a creature made up in obedience in holiness and righteousness Christs exhortation to Prayer begets that devotion which opens the gates of heaven his command to take up the cross begets an army of martyrs his command to deny our selves lifts us up above our selves to that Blessedness which is everlasting Secondly as the precepts of Christ are proportioned to the Soul so being embraced they fill it with light and joy and give it a tast of the world to come For as Christs yoke is easie but not till it is put on so his precepts are not delightful till they are kept Aristotle's Happiness in his books is but an Idea and Heaven it self is no more to us till we enjoy it The precepts of Christ in the letter may please the understanding part which is alwaies well affected and inclinable to that which is apparently true but till the Will have set the Feet and Hands at liberty even that which we approve we distast and that which we call honey is to us as bitter as gall Contemplation may delight us for a time and bring some content but the perversness of our Will breeds that worm which will soon eat it up It is but a poor happiness to think and speak well of Happiness as from a mount to behold that Canaan which we cannot enjoy A thought hath not strength and wing enough to carry
What can be better for him then heaven and what can be better for his brethren then by his ministery to be fitted and prepared for heaven It is much better saith he for me there he laies hold on Abrahams bosome v. 24. But it is more needful for you and I know I shall abide with you all v. 25. there he doth as it were pull his hand back again as willing to loose so much time out of paradise to serve his brethren on earth a valley of tears and misery There be poor to be fed poor souls to be delivered out of the snare of the Devil and snatcht out of the fire the Church to be increased God to be honoured in his Saints and now though pressing forward to the prize and price of his high calling he stayes and demurs he checks his desires he desires and he desires not he is in a great streight he feels a double motion in himself and in appearance a contrary motion a desire to live and a desire to be dissolved a desire to be with Christ and a desire to remain with his brethren both springing from the same principle the Love of God He would lay down his earthly tabernacle because he loves him and he would abide in the flesh because he loves him Mortem habet in desiderio vitam in patientiâ saith S. Hierome He desires to dye and yet is willing to live and to both the love of Christ constraineth him For saith he I am in a great strait desiring to depart or to be loosed and to be with Christ which is far better In this speach S. Paul presents unto us his Doubt and his Desire his Doubt which to chuse Life or Death and his Desire fixt on the last his Departure and Dissolution a desire so reasonable that it leaves no room for doubt For 1. he doth not simply and absolutely desire it but upon reason and his reason is most warrantable most undeniable he would depart to be with Christ 2. That reason is backt with another with a MVLTO MAGIS MELIVS It is far better These carry strength enough one would think to deliver S. Paul out of his strait to redeem him from all perplexed doubtings For it is an easie matter to chuse when we know what is best When the object appears unto us with a multò magis melius it is a foundation sure and firm enough and we may soon build a resolution on it What doubt when the object appears in such beauty and excellency When heaven gates stand open who can doubt to go in When Christ is so near a man as but to be dissolved and loosed is to meet him shall he draw back and doubt and yet S. Paul doubts and is in a great strait and professeth he knows not what to choose We will therefore in the first place behold him in his Srait and consider his Doubt and then in the second commend to you his Desire And the topicks or reasons to commend it by are wrapt up in the object even in Death it self For 1. it is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dissolution a resolving of the whole into its parts 2. It brings us to Christ and then we cannot but conclude that that is much the best and the fittest object for our desire to fasten it self upon These are the particulars and with these we shall exercise your devotion at this time First let us behold S. Paul in his strait and there see him ignorant and yet knowing what to chuse doubting and yet resolving what is best What to chuse I wot not and to be with Christ is best in the Text v. 21. and in the next verse to abide in the flesh is more needful for you And we may say with Bernard Affectus locutus est non intellectus that it was the language of his Love and Affection not of his Understanding Yet he spake with the spirit and he spake with his understanding also His Understanding did dictate what was best for himself and he well understood what was best for them but his Love to Christ and them put upon him these golden fetters bound him within this strait and swallowed up his Love to himself nay to his Will and Understanding in victory And now he will not have what he desires he knows not what he knows and cannot chuse that which he cannot but chuse Such riddles doth Love make and yet unfolds them such perplexities doth it bring us to and yet resolves them such seeming contradictions doth it put us upon and yet makes them plain The Apostle would be with Christ and yet remain with the Philippians he would be dissolved and yet live he would be in paradise and yet stay on earth he would have what is best for himself and yet will have what is best for the Philippians furtherance and joy of faith and his Love of Gods glory and the Churches good reconciles all This hath the praeeminence in all this bows and swayes his will from that which was best for himself to that which was best for others this answers all objections this is able to justifie the greatest soloecisme this hath a priviledge that it cannot be defamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plato By a kind of law Love hath the prerogative of Honour makes slavery free and disgrace honourable makes earth a fitter place for a Saint then heaven makes service more necessary then reward and made this Apostle willing to retire even when he was entring into his Masters joy The Glory of God and the Good of his Church being put in the scales outweigh our Will and earnest Desire and make us willing prisoners for a while longer in these tabernacles of flesh S. Paul here was willing to prolong his trouble to defer his joy and to stay some time from Christ that he might carry more company along with him From this heroick spirit and height of love was that strange wish of his to be accursed from Christ for his brethrens sake Pro amore Christi noluit habere Christum Rom. 9.3 saith Hierom his Love of Christ did seem so far to transport him that no honour him he would even loose him And so some of latter time have interpreted those words That he was willing to purchase the salvation of his brethren with the loss of his own and to redeem them from destruction to fall into it himself But this had been such a love cujus non audeo dicere nomen a love which was never yet heard of in the world This had been a wish inconsistent with Love For how can one mans soul be the price of another Nor can it be lawful for any Christian to wish the loss of that which he is bound to work out with fear and trembling Or if it were it would far exceed the love of Jesus Christ himself who was Love it self The Apostles love was great unto his brethren but not irregular It laid aside all
respect of himself but not of the precepts of Christ It trod down the Man but not the Christian under its feet It devoted the Honour and Repute and Esteem which he had in Christs Church to his brethren but not his Soul I could wish to be accursed to be Anathema i. e. to be in esteem as a sacrilegious person who for devouring holy things is Anathema cut off and separated from the society of men to suffer for them the most ignominious death for so the word doth often signifie to be separate from Christ from the body and Church of Christ and of his Apostle and Embassadour to be made the off-scouring of the world the most contemptible person on earth a spectacle to God and to men and to Angels And this could not but proceed from an high degree and excess of Love Love may break forth and pass over all privileges honours profits yea and life it self but it never leaves the Law of God behind it For the breach of Gods law is his dishonour and love if it be spiritual and heavenly is a better methodist then to seek to gain glory to God by that which takes it away at the same time to cry Haile to Christ and crucifie him It was indeed a high degree of the Love of Gods Glory and his brethrens salvation which exprest this wish here from the Apostle and which brought him into this strait but his wish was not irregular and his Doubt was not of that nature but he could make himself away to escape and did resolve at last against himself for the Glory of God and for the good of his brethren For the Glory of God first That that must be the first the first mover of our Christian obedience For though there be other motives and we do well to be moved by them the Perfecting of our reason the Beautifying of the Soul and the Reward it self yet this is first to be looked upon with that eye of our faith wherewith we look upon God Heaven is a great motive but the Glory of God is above the highest Heavens and for his Glories sake we have our conversation there We do not exclude other motives as unfit to be lookt upon For it is lawful saith Gregory for a Christian remunerationis linteo sudores laboris sui tergere to make the sight of the reward as a napkin to wipe off the sweat of his brows and comfort the labour of his obedience with hope But the chief and principal matter must be the Glory of God The other ends are involved in this sicut rota in rota as a wheel within a wheel a sphere within a sphere but the Glory of God is the first compassing wheel which must set all the rest a working We must neither live nor dye but to God's glory The Glory of God and our Happiness run round in the same cord or gyre but the Glory of God is primum mobile still on the top And then our Love to God comes nearest and hath the fairest resemblance to the Love God hath to us whose actions are right in themselves though they end in themselves whose glory is the good of his creature In a word he that loveth God perfectly cannot but deny himself neglect himself perish and be lost to himself but then he riseth again and is found in God whilst he thinks nothing but of him whilst he thinks he is loved of him and thus lives in him whilst he is thus lost Amor testamentum amantis Our Love to God should be as our last will and testament wherein we deliver up all to him our whole life on earth and some few years which we might have in heaven to him we thus love To this high pitch and unusual degree of love our Apostle had attained What is his desire but to be with Christ Oh for the wings of a Dove for he cannot be with him soon enough But then the desire of Gods Glory stays him in his flight and deteins him yet longer among the sons of men to make them the sons of God and so to glorifie God on earth And this inclination to glorifie God is in a manner natural to those who are made partakers of the Divine nature and the neerer we come to the nature of God the more do we devote and surrender our selves for his glory We will do any thing suffer any thing for the glory of God In the next place This Love of Gods Glory hath inseparably united to it the Love of our brethrens Good For wherein is Gods Glory more manifested then in the renewing of his image in men who are filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the glory and praise of God It is true Phil. 1.11 the Heavens declare the Glory of God But the glory of God is not so resplendent in the brightest Star in the Sun when he runneth his race as in the New creature in Man transformed by the renewing of his mind There is Gods image nay saith Tertullian his similitude and likeness There he appears in glory There is Wisdome his Justice his Mercy are displayed and made manifest There his glory appears as in his holy Temple For as the Woman is the glory of the Man in being subject to him so are we the glory of God when we are Deiformes when our Will is subject and conformed to him when our Will is bound up in his Will For then it may be said that God is in us of a truth shining in the perfection of beauty in those graces and perfections which are the beams of his in our Meekness and Liberality and Justice and Patience and Long-suffering which are the Christians Tongue and Glory and do more fully set forth Gods praise then the tongues of Men and Angels can do Thus Gods Glory is carried along in the continued stream and course of all our actions Thus doth it break forth and is seen in every work of our hand and is the eccho and resultance of every word we speak The eccho of every word nay the spring of every thought which begat that word and work Now to improve the Glory of God in his brethren to build them up in their most holy faith and upon that foundation to raise that Holiness and Righteousness which are the fairest representations of it did S. Paul after that contention and luctation in himself after he had lookt upon that place which was prepared for him in heaven and that place of trouble and anxiety to which he was called on earth determine for that which was not best for himself but most fit and necessary to promote Gods glory by the furtherance of the Philippians faith And thus as every creature doth by the sway of Nature strive to get something of the like kind something like unto it self as Fire by burning kindles and begets it self in every matter that is combustible so doth every true Disciple of
the foolish Virgins and our wisdom in the Wise And this is the very reason which the Fathers give why our Saviour spake so often in Parables Because we stand in need of the help of ensamples our Saviour himself whose life was ensample enough to have instructed the whole world proposeth others The cruel Miser may read his destiny in Dives's burning tongue Non guttam qui non micam He that would not give a crum of bread could not beg a drop of water The Samaritane shall instruct the Lawyer and if the Lawyer approve the mercy of the Samaritane our Saviour is ready to drive the example home and apply it Go and do thou likewise If the Disciples grow ambitious and ask who shall be greatest he will bring a child in the midst If they be contentious to wipe out that stain he will wash their feet If I your Master have washed your feet you who are but fellow-servants ought to wash one anothers feet in all humility descend to the lowest office which the necessity of your bretheren may require and call for If the Master hath done it it is no service but an honour to be like the Master The Schools will teach us Naturalia signa magis significant quà m positiva Those signs which by their very nature and a kind of secret imitation signifie things are far more expressive then those which art and humane invention have framed to this purpose and most times we are better taught by things then by words as we know a man better by his picture then by his name Therefore some have been of opinion that the best and surest way to knowledge is that which the Aegyptians of old used and the men of China use to this day to learn by Hierogliphicks Words may admit of glosses and interpretations and therefore we are forced as Tertullian speaketh vindicare proprietatem vocabuli sorti suae in our doctrines and disputes to vindicate and preserve the propriety of words entire otherwise we teach not that which we intend to teach and two may dispute to the worlds end and yet be two and at odds Fides nominum salus est proprietatum Unless you retain their proper signification there is no trust in words at all To be justified by faith the word is plain enough and yet after 1600. years we are not agreed what it is to be justified And the difference is but verbal for some take the word in this sense and some in that and so dispute Andabatarum more as blind men fight blindfold and in the dark The duties which concern our peace are written with the Sun-beams and yet we cannot well read and understand them but when we should be up and doing doubt and ask the question what it is we are to do Nec vitae discimus sed scholae We mis-spend that time in fruitless questions which was measured out unto us that in it we might be fruitful in good works If I am to give I stay my hand because I will not know to whom I am to give or how much If I am to fast I would first be resolved of the manner and the time and at last conclude and rest in that which is least terrible to the flesh To change my dyet or to miss a meal is to fast If I am to pray I am troubled whether I may use a form or do it as the spirit that is my own phansie shall on the sudden give me utterance O what a strange darkness hath over-spread the world that men cannot yet see what it is to Fast to Pray to Give an Alms What needless controversies and disputes hath it been filled with concerning the Church and Heresie and Free-will and the like Quot palaestrae opinionum quot propagines quaestionum What wrestling in opinions what multiplying of questions which had all been stated settled and composed had not each party made advantage of the words which are capable of that sense and signification which either side will lay upon them Therefore Martin Luther saith well Omnes abutuntur his vocabulis These words have been fouly abused Non enim fidei sed suis studiis ea aptant For men have so handled the matter in their disputes that they have shaped and formed them to their own purpose not to the building up of each others faith but of that politie in the Church which they affect The CHURCH sometimes is a Congregation of Saints and sometimes like Noah's Ark it taketh in both clean and unclean beasts Sometimes it is a Body whose Head is in heaven and sometimes it is a Body whose Head is also visible on earth FAITH sometimes is an Assent and a full Persuasion of the truth of what is delivered in the Gospel and sometimes it is an Application of the promises With some it is an Instrument and with some a Condition And FREE-WILL is confined to evil alone which is not the freedom but the slavery of the Will For can there be a greater slavery then to be free that is to be bound with the chains of darkness Thus you see it is with words But that representation which one thing giveth of another is more lively and constant is not capable of so much ambiguity and dispute but carrieth about with it the same face and countenance It is true the Rule in all things must have the preeminence but we are too ready to make the Rule what we please and many times it passeth by unregarded But being written out in the practice of the Saints it is of great force and efficacy St. Paul in the flesh was the best commentary on his own Epistles Would you define Humility to the life behold Christ on the Cross What better character of Zele then Phinehas with his spear nailing the adulterous couple to the ground What fairer picture of Charity then the poor widow casting in her two mites into the Treasury Would you know the true nature of Contrition and Repentance You need not pass per spineta Scholasticorum through the briars and intricate disputes of the Schools but may learn it more perfectly in the practice of the primitive Saints Behold them kissing the chains of imprisoned Martyrs washing the feet of Lazars wallowing at the Temple doors adgeniculatos charis on their knees begging the prayers of the Saints with their hair neglected their eyes hollow their bodies withered their feet bare and their knees of horn as Nazianzene poureth it out to us in a sloud of eloquence and draweth the picture for us These were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Isidore speaketh the living statues of all Christian Philosophy for us to look upon more lively figures of true Christian Piety then all the dogmata all the positions and definitions of the Schools And this I take to be the reason why God himself hath given us a fair catalogue of all the virtues of men and women famous in their generations and hath been pleased to put it into the hearts of
his blessed spirit seal us up to the day of our Redemption In a word we shall find mercy here to quicken and refresh our sick and weary souls and the same mercy shall crown us for evermore The Nine and Thirtieth SERMON MATTH XXVIV 25. Behold I have told you before IT is the observation of Chrysostom That there was never any notable thing done in the world which was not foretold and of which there was not some prediction to usher it in and make way for it These things have I told you Joh. 16.4 saith our Saviour to his Disciples That when the time shall come you may remember that I told you of them And in my Text Behold I have told you before of the fearful signs which shall be the forerunners of Jerusalem and of the end of the world Which two are so interwoven in the prediction that Interpreters scarce know how to distinguish them Behold I have told you before that you may be ready with the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day that it come not upon you unawares but find you ready as those who have overcome it when it was yet afar off in its approch and pulled out its sting and poison before it strook its terrour into you Our blessed Saviour here layeth open to his Disciples and in them to all succeeding generations those evils which should be the forerunners of his second coming and of the end of the world as Famine and Pestilence and Earthquakes and Wars and Fearful sights treacherous Parents false Brethren deceiful Kinsfolk and Friends worse then enemies that when these things come to pass they might the less trouble us as darts which pierce not so deep when they are foreseen Did I say that they might the less trouble us Nay this prediction must have a stronger operation on us then so These fearful apparitions must not trouble us but that is not enough we must make right use of them and by them be admonished to prepare and fit our selves for Christ's second coming They must be received as Messengers and servants to invite us to the great Supper of the Lamb. In the words may it please you to observe with me three things 1. the Persons to whom this prediction is made I have told you 2. The things foretold mentioned in this Chapter 3. the End of the prediction or the Reason why they are foretold That we may behold and consider them These three the Persons the Things and the End shall exercise your devotion at this time First for the Persons Though these words were spoken to the Apostles yet if we look nearer upon them they will seem especially to concern us and if we reflect upon our selves we shall find that we indeed are the men to whom they are spoken The Apostles who received them from the mouth of our Saviour were but as cisterns or water-pipes to convey them to us but we are the earth which must drink them in The Apostles who were the hearers of them have many hundred years since resigned up their souls to their almighty Creatour and were never earum affines rerum quas fert senecta mundi never had the knowledge of those things which are to accompany the declining age of the world Not they therefore certainly but we on whom the ends of the world are come are the natural hearers if not of this whole Sermon yet of a great part of it namely of that which concerneth Christ's coming to judgment Nor can we think of it as of some strange thing that our Saviour should direct his speech unto us who stand at so great a distance from him even sixteen hundred years and more removed from the time he spake There is no reason we should For our Saviour was God as well as Man And it is not with God as it is with Man With Man who measureth his actions by Time or whose action are the measure of Time for Time is nothing but duration something is past something present something to come But with God who calleth the things that are not as if they were as the Apostle speaketh Rom. 4.17 there is no difference of times nothing past nothing to come all is present no such thing with him as First and Last who is Alpha and Omega both First and Last He that foretelleth things to come it mattereth not whether they come to pass ten or an hundred or a thousand years after quia una est scientia futurorum because the knowledge of things to come is one and the same saith S Hierom. Adam the first man who was created and whosoever he shall be that shall stand last upon the earth are to God both alike They that walk in valleys and low places see no more ground then what is near them and they that are in deep wells see onely that part of the heaven which is over their heads but he that is on the top of some exceeding high mountain seeth the whole countrey which is about him So it standeth between us mortals and our incomprehensible God We that live in this world are confined as it were to a valley or to a pit we see no more then the bounds which are set us will give us leave and that which our wisdom or providence foreseeth when the eye thereof is clearest is full of uncertainty as depending many times upon causes which may not work or if they do by the intervening of some cross accident may fail But God who by reason of his wonderful nature is very high exalted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as from some exceeding high mountain as Nazianzene speaketh seeth at once all men all actions all causualties present and to come and with one cast as it were of his eye measureth them all Now that vve may dravv this home Our Saviour Christ vvhen he spake these vvords did an act of his God-head and spake to the things that vvere not as if they vvere and to him vvhen he gave this vvarning vvere vve as present as his Disciples vvere vvho then heard him speak or as vve our selves novv are And therefore in good congruity he might speak unto us hovv far soever removed vve may think our selves to be But that we may plainly see that we are the men whom these words most properly concern let us in the next place consider the things foretold And when we find out those things we shall see that tanquam exserto digito every one of them as it were with a finger pointeth out unto us And find them we shall if we look upon passages precedent and subsequent to the Text. For take the predictions literally or take them morally with that interpretation which is put upon them by the learned and we need not make any further enquiry after the Persons because they so nearly concern us Look over this Chapter and you shall find mention of Deceivers and false Prophets of Nation rising against Nation
to it For what man would profess himself a beast And from hence it cometh to pass that we see aliquid optimi in pessimis something that is good in the worst that we hear a Panegyrick of Virtue from a man of Belial that Truth is cried up by that mouth which is full of deceit that when we do evil we would not have it go under that name but are ready to maintain it as good that when we do an injury we call it a benefit No man is so evil that he desireth not to enroll his name in the list of those who are Good Temperance the drunkard singeth her praises Justice every hand is ready to set a crown upon her head Wisdom is the desire of the whole earth So you see these precepts are fitted to the soul and the soul to these precepts But secondly as this Law of Liberty is proportioned to the Soul so being looked in and persevered in it filleth it with light and joy giveth it a taste of the world to come For as Christ's yoke is easie but not till it is put on so his precepts are not delightful till they are kept Aristotle's Happiness in his books is but an Idea and Heaven it self is no more to us till we enjoy it The Law of Liberty in the letter may please the Understanding part which is alwayes well-affected and inclinable to that which is apparently true but till the Will which is the commanding faculty have set the feet and hands at liberty even that which we approve we distaste and that which we call honey is to us as bitter as gall Contemplation may delight us for a time and bring some content but the perversness of the Will breedeth that worm which will soon eat it up For it is a poor happiness to speak and think well of Happiness to see it as in picture quae non ampliùs quà m videtur delectat which delighteth no longer then it is seen as from a mount to behold that Canaan which we cannot enjoy A Thought hath not wing and strength enough to carry us to Blessedness But when the Will is subdued and made obedient to this Law then this Law of Liberty which is from the heaven heavenly filleth the soul with a joy of the same nature with a spiritual joy of which the joy in heaven is the complement and perfection with a joy which is not onely the pledge but the earnest of that which is to come When the Will is thus subact and framed and fashioned according to this Law according to this pattern which God hath drawn then it clotheth it self as it were with the light of Heaven which is the original of this joy Then what a pearl is Wisdom What glory is in Poverty What a triumph is it to deny our selves What an ornament is the Cross What brightness reflecteth from a cup of cold water given to a Prophet What do you see and feel then when you intercede with your Bounty and withstand the evil dayes and take from them some of their blackness and darkness when you sweeten the cup of bitterness the onely cup that is left to many of the Prophets when you supply their wants and stretch forth your hand to keep them from sinking to the dust when you do this to the Prophets in the name of Prophets Tell me doth it not return upon you again and convey into your souls that which cannot be bought with money or money-worth Are you not made fat and watered again with the water you poured forth Are you not ravished in spirit and lifted up in a manner into the third heaven I cannot see how it should be otherwise For that God which put it into your hearts to do it when your hearts have eased and emptied themselves by your hands is with you still and filleth them up with joy Every act of Charity payeth and crowneth it self and this Blessedness alwayes followeth the giver But hath the receiver no joy but in that which he receiveth Yes he may and ought or else he is not a worthy receiver It is indeed a more blessed thing to give then to receive and therefore there is more joy But the receiver hath his and his joy is set to his songs of praises to God and acknowledgments to man There is musick in Thanks and when I bless the hand that helped me I feel it again My praises my prayers my thanks are returned with advantage into my bosom The giver hath his joy and the receiver hath his It is a blessed thing to give and it is a most becoming and joyful thing to be thankful In quibus operamur in illis gaudemus saith Tertullian As the work is such is the joy A Work that hath its rise and original from heaven drawn out according to the royal Law which is the will of God begun and wrought in an immortal soul and promoted by the Spirit of God and ministery of Angels and breathing it self forth as myrrh and frankincense amongst the children of men And a Joy like unto it a true and solid joy having no carnality no inconstancy in it a beam from heaven kindled and cherished by the same Spirit a joy which receiveth no taint or diminution from sensible evils which to those who remain not in this Law are as hell it self and the onely hell they think of but giving a relish and sweetness to that which were not evil if we did not think it so making Poverty Disgrace and Death it self as fuel to foment and increase it upholding us in misery strengthening us in weakness and in the hour of death and in the day of judgment streaming forth into the ocean of eternal happiness BEATUS ERIT IN OPERE He that doth the work shall be blessed here in this life in his works and when he is dead his works shall follow him and compass him about as a triumphant robe Thus Blessedness first inviteth then attendeth and waiteth upon Perseverance in obedience and yet obedience ushereth it in illex misericordiae first the work of God's Grace and Mercy and then drawing it so near unto us as to bless us And it maketh the blessing ours not ex rigore justitiae according to the rigour of justice as I call that Mine which I buy with my money For no obedience can equal the reward And what can the obedience of a guilty person merit All is from Grace saith S. Paul And when the will of God is thus made manifest he deserveth nothing but a rebuke that disputeth longer of Merit Nor can I see how a guilty and condemned person can so much as give it entrance into his thought It did go once but for a work good or evil and no more If it be more in its best sense it is then more then it can be and so is nothing but ex debito promissi according to God's promise by which he hath as it were entailed Blessedness on those who look into the Law
c. He who hath no part in the first R. shall have none in the second 996. Newness of life often called Rising 997. The woful state of a Soul not yet risen from the death of Sin 997. Our Conversion may be stiled Rising because this World may go for a grave 998. and because as in that of the Body so in this of the Soul there will be a change 999. and that universal of every part 1000. In both our corporal and spiritual R. God is all in all 1001. yet in that of the Soul we are bid to do something 1001. It behoveth us rather to enquire Whether we are willing to be raised then How we are raised 1001. Our spiritual R. should be early and without delay 1002. c. We must manifest our spiritual R. by our good Works 1004. and by our Affection to the things above 654. Revelation Of the Book of the Revelation and its Interpreters 244. Rev. i. 12-18 paraphrased 36. ¶ xiv 13. 709. ¶ xx 6. 244. Revenge though perhaps allowed by the Old T. is forbidden by the New 1079. It is allowed by Philosophers c. is forbidden by the Gospel 202. It is an act and argument of impotency 820. Reverence What 460. Some allege Reverence to excuse their neglect of Communicating 459 460. Reverence and Obedience must go together 462. Reverent gestures in God's service not to be blamed as Idolatrous Popish superstitious 963. R. though by some held superstitious is comely and necessary 162 163. 745. 755 c. and to be used in our service of God 634 635. v. Form Humility Worship Where there is Devotion there is also a Reverent deportment 755. 757 758. 981. It is due in God's house in respect of the Angels 857. and of Men both good and bad 858. Covetousness and Sacriledge drive Reverence out of the Church 755. Some questions for them to answer who scruple outward R. in the Church 757. Irreverent persons arguments answered 859. v. Irreverence The Papists say of us That having no Reverence we have no Church 757. The Reverence of the primitive times and that of this Age how different 757 758. 981. Rewards the most powerful Rhetorick 636. v. Laws Riches and Honours and Pleasures the creatures of our Phansie 32. v. World These even Reason teacheth us to contemn 126. 134. Why God giveth Riches 139 c. Neither do Riches invite Christ nor Poverty exclude him 974. Our Riches are then most ours when we part with them to the poor 142. For we are Stewards rather then Proprietaries 140. 142. The best use of Riches 143. R. how abused 594. 620. c. As Riches may be a snare so Poverty may be a gulf 1089. R. may be an instrument of Perfection as well as Poverty 1090. R. are not as the World accounteth them certain signs of God's love 619. They are held Necessaries and Ornaments of Virtue yet are not so 620. but rather an hindrance to it 620. and helps to evil 621. Yet they are not so in themselves but men make them so 621. 897 898. Rich men are admired and even adored in the world 616 617. but a Wo is denounced against them by God 616 c. Pelagius's opinion That no Rich man can be saved is a wholsome errour 618. What it is that draweth the Wo upon the Rich 622. That Rich men may escape the Wo they must cast away their Riches but how 622. 1090. Riches must be brought into subjection to Christianity 622. We must not set our hearts on them 623. 1090. We must contemn them 623. or else they will make us contemn our brethren 623. and draw contempt on us 624. We must be jealous of our selves that we love them too well 624. How R. should be looked upon and handled and used by us 625. 896 c. Right hand v. Christ Righteous The R. sometimes suffer with the wicked and why 291 c. They are often preserved in publick calamities 294. Though they tast of the same cup with others yet it hath not the same tast to both 294. v. God's people Righteousness Many call that Righteousness which is quite another thing 867. 883. 891 892. The R. of the Heathen though it could not save them yet shameth many among us 868. The R. of the Jews very weak and imperfect 869. The R. of the Scribes and Pharisees what 869. Legal and Evangelical R. how different 870. Christ's imputed R. vindicated from mis-interpretations 870 c. The R. of Faith what 872. What R. the Gospel requireth of us 873. Many challenge the name of R. who bid defiance to the thing 873. Imputed R. should be a motive to Inherent R. 872 c. 993. Many conceit they are Seekers of Righteousness vvhen they are not 875. To name R. yea to commend it is not enough 876. Neither is Hearing of R. as many think enough 877. No nor bare Praying for it 877 878. Seeking of R. is To have a Will ready to entertein it 878. and that a chearful quiet Angelical Will 879 880. and a Will that is constant and regular that will make us seek R. sincerely as God seeketh our happiness 880 881. If vve seek R. aright we shall still be sensible of our want of it 881 882. we shall love and affect it exceedingly 882 and shall be kept from it neither by flattery nor affrightments 883 884. R. is to be sought in the first place before the things of this life 884 c. If we seek it not first vve seek it not at all 890. What a world of wickedness proceedeth from seeking these things before Righteousness 891 c. But they who first seek R. cannot doubt of a sufficient portion of these things 900. Rom. i. 28. 3. 9. ¶ vii 19. 879. ¶ viii 15. 397. ¶ 28 29 30. 697. ¶ ix 3. 1007 1008. ¶ xi 20 21. 392. Romanes They having been at first all for handsome servants were afterwards as much for dwarfs applied 651. Romish The R. Church counteth all goats that are not within her fold 319. S. SAbellius 5. Sabinus Calvisius Sabinus a man strangely conceited 870. 993. Sacraments A Sacrament must be immediately instituted by Christ himself 451. Out of Christ's side came both the Sacraments 469. How quarrelled by many 582 583. They are highly to be honoured 303. v. Word They are too highly esteemed by some too little by others 81. Sacrifices no essential part of God's service 70 71. not really good in themselves but onely as commanded 72. Why the Jews vvere commanded to offer S. to God 72. v. Ceremonies Outward worship The Sacrifices of Christians 83 84. A broken heart the best S. 325. Chastity Temperance Patience present our bodies as a S. unto God 749 754. Sacrilege once was a sin now some count it a virtue 581 582. Against S. 848 849. 854. Saints as St. Hierome saith never called in Scripture inhabitants of the earth 536. How to be honoured by us 1021. Some forsooth will not allow the title
enter but in that name and resemblance And when Truth appeareth in its rayes and glory and that light which doth most throughly and best discover it it runneth from Errour as from a monster and boweth to the Sceptre and command of Truth It is never so wedded to any conclusion though never so specious as not to be ready to put it by and forsake it when another presenteth it self which hath better evidence to speak for it and commend it to its choice and practice Thus S. Paul was a champion of the Law and after that a Martyr of the Gospel Thus he persecuted Christians and thus he dyed one Acts 10. Thus S. Peter would not converse and eat with the heathen as polluted and unclean yet when the sheet was let down and in it the will of Christ he preached unto them and baptized them This is the mother of all Repentance For what is Repentance but the changing of our mind upon better information This if it were well practised would fill the world which is now full of Errour with Recognitions and Recantations which are not only confessions but triumphs over a conquered Errour as the rejoycings and Jubilees of men who did fit in darkness but have now found the light This would be an amulet and sure preservative against Prejudice and those common and prevailing errours to which it giveth life and strength and which spread themselves as the Plague and infect whole families cities and nations In brief this would make our errours more venial and men more peaceable For he that seeketh the Truth with this impartial diligence is rather unfortunate then faulty if he miss it and men would never advance their opinion with that heat and malice against dissenters if they could once entertein this thought That it is possible that they themselves may erre and that that opinion in which they now say they will dye may be false if they did not rest in the first evidence as best and so suffer it to pass unquestioned 2 Pet. 1.19 and never seek for a sure word of prophesie or a well grounded assurance that this is one For if this were done as it should either Errour would not overtake or if it did it could not hurt us But this is an argument of a large compass a subject full and yielding much matter and I was but to declare my mind and intention which may better thrive and be more seen under the manage of more nimble and ready wits and the activity of a better penne Secondly as I thought it worth my pains and endeavour to strike at those common errours at which so many stumble and into which they willingly fall and with great complacency so did I set up in the course of my office and ministery this desire and I could not bring much more then desire to present in as fair an appearance as I could those more necessary and essential truths by the embracing of which we lay hold on happiness and come nearest to it and to set them up as a mark at which all mens actions should especially aim For if this be once obtained the other will follow of it self because these truths are not so obnoxious and open to prejudice and men would not run into so many obliquities if they did principally and earnestly intend that to which they are everlastingly and indispensably bound nor could they so often erre if they were willing to be good It was as wise counsel as could have been given to those who sat to solve knotty doubts and to determin controversies in Religion in the Council at Dort and it was given by a King and it would have made good his Motto and styled him a Peacemaker BEATI PACIFICI King James his Motto or Dicton though there had been nothing else to contribute to that title Paucissima definienda quia paucissima necessaria That they should not be too busie and earnest in defining and determining many things because so few were necessary Which counsel if men had thought it worth their ear and favour and willingly bowed to it had made the Church as Jerusalem a City compact within it self and there would have been abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth Psal 122 3. Psal 72.7 For Questions in Divinity are like Meats in this The more delicate and subtile they are the sooner they putrifie and by too much agitation and sifting annoy and corrupt the rule whilest men are more swift and eager in the pursuit and advance of that humour that raised them then in following those truths which are but few and easie Jude 19. and with which they might build themselves up in their holy faith Lex nos innocentes esse jubet non curiosos Senec. Controv Innocency and not Curiosity is the fulfilling of the Law as it is not Luxury which raiseth an healthful constitution but Temperance and those meats which are as wholesome as common The sum of all Christianity is made up in this To level and place all our hope where it should be on God through Jesus Christ our Lord to love him and keep his commandments which are both open and easie when we are willing In other more nice then useful disquisitions I am well pleased to be puzzled and to be at loss and yet am not at loss because I cannot lose that which I would not which I cannot have and resolve for God and not my self or indeed for my self because for God And my answer is most satisfactory That I believe the thing and God only knoweth the manner how it is and doth not therefore reveal it because it is not fit for me to know When I am to appear before God in his House and at his Table I recollect my thoughts and turn them upon my self I severely enquire in what terms I stand with God and my Neighbour whether there be nothing in me no imagination which standeth in opposition with Christ and so is not suitable with the feast nor with him that maketh it And when this is done my business is at an end for to attempt more is to do nothing or rather that which I should not do But I do not ask with the Schools How the ten Predicaments are in the Eucharist How the Bread is con-or transubstantiated or How the body of Christ is there For they who speak at distance most modestly and tell us it is not corporally but yet really there do not so define as to ascertain the manner but leave it in a cloud and out of sight Job 19.25 I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he will raise me up at the last day 1 Cor. 15.19 for he hath promised who raised himself and is the first fruits of them that slept But I do not enquire What manner of Trumpet it shall be that shall then sound nor of the Solemnity and manner of the proceeding at that day or How the body which shall rise
and leave the rod of the stubborn Impenitent to fall upon him The death of Christ is not applyed to all say some It is not for all say others The virtue of Christ's meritorious passion is not made use of by all say some It was never intended that it should say others And the event is the same for if it be not made use of and applyed it is as if it were not as if it had never been obtained Only the unbeliever is left under the greater condemnation who turned away from Christ who spake unto him not only from heaven but from his cross and refused that grace which was offered him Which could not befall him if there had never been any such overture made For how can one refuse that which never concerned him how can he forfeit that pardon which was never sealed how can he despise that Spirit of grace which never breathed towards him They who are so tender and jealous of Christ's blood that no drop must fall but where they direct it do but veritatem veritate concutere undermine and shake one truth with another set up the particular love of God to Believers to overthrow his general love to Mankind confound the virtue of Christs passion with its effect and draw them together within the same narrow compass bring it under a Decree that it can save no more then it doth because it hath its bounds set Hitherto it shall go and no further and was ordained to quicken some but to withdraw it self from others as shut out and hid from the light and force of it from having any title to it long before ever they saw the sun Thus they shorten the hand of God when it is stretched out to all bound his love which is profered to all stint the blood of Christ which gusheth out upon all and circumcise his mercy which is a large cloak saith Bernard large enough to cover all And the reason is no better then the position Quod vis esse charum effice ut sit rarum To make salvation more precious and estimable it must be rare Then it is most glorious when it is a peculiar and entailed on a few Why should the Love of God be a common thing I answer Why should it not be common since he is pleased to have it so Why should he cast away so many to endear a few Can there be any glory in that Priviledge which is writ with the blood of so many millions Why should not Gods Love be common since he would have it not only common but communicated to all and expresseth himself as one grieved and troubled and angry because it is not so Why should we fear God's love should be cast away by being profered to many His love of Friendship and Complacency to those whom he calleth his Friends cannot be lost but is as eternal as himself it assisteth and upholdeth them and will crown them everlastingly Nor is his general love of Good will and Affection lost though it be lost for it is ever with him even when the wicked are in hell Plus est bonitas Dei quà m beneficentia Christs blood is ever in the flow though there be but few that take the tide and are carried along with it Gods Goodness is larger then his Beneficence He doth not do what good he can or rather he doth not do what good he would because we fall back and will not receive it We will not suffer him to be good we will not suffer him to be merciful we will not suffer him to save us John 3.19 This is the condemnation of the world that light came into the world and men loved darkness more then light Apul. Flor. 1. The Philosopher will tell us that the Indians ad nascentem solem siti sunt tamen in corpore color noctis est they live at the very rising of the sun yet their bodies are black and swarthy and resemble the night So many there be who live in the very region of light where the beams fall upon them hot and pure and are darted at their very eyes and yet they remain the children of darkness Facit infidelitas multorum ut Christus non pro omnibus moriatur qui pro omnibus mortuus est saith S. Ambrose Christ was delivered for all is a true proposition it is Infidelity alone that can make it Heretical And yet it is true still though to him that believeth not it is of no more use then if it were false He was delivered for thee but thou wilt not receive him His passion is absolute but thou art impenitent He dyed for Judas who betrayed him but will not save Judas that despaired and hanged himself Infidelity and Impenitency are the worst Restrictives that limit and draw down to particulars a proposition so profitably general and bound so saving an Universal that contract and sink all into a few To conclude this Christ hanging on the cross looketh upon all but all do not cast an eye and look up in faith upon him He was delivered to deliver all but all will not be delivered Omnis natura nostra in Christi hypostasi Our whole nature is united in Christ's person not the persons of a few but our whole nature And our whole nature is of compass large enough to take in all And in that common nature of man he offered up himself on the cross for the sin of all John 1.29 that he might take away the sin of the world destroy the very species and being of it Which though it be not done cannot be imputed to any scantness or deficiency of virtue in his bloud which is of power to purge out sin wheresoere it is if the heart that fostereth sin be ready and willing to receive and apply it And in this common nature of Man not from Abraham or David onely as S. Matthew but even from the first man Adam himself as S. Luke carryeth up his Genealogy did Christ offer up himself upon the cross And in this common nature he presenteth himself before his Father And now God looketh upon Christ and Mankind as our eye doth upon Light and Colours which cannot be seen without light Before this Light came into the world we were covered over with darkness and deformity and God could not look upon us but in anger but through this common Light we may be seen and be beloved we may be seen with pleasure For as God is delighted in his Son so in him he is well pleased in those Sons which he shall bring with him to glory But if we will fully withdraw our selves from this Light then doth his soul hate us Hebr. 1.3 Christ is the brightness of his glory light enough for God to look through upon a thousand worlds multiplyed a thousand times And if we do not hide our selves from it hide our selves in the caverns of the earth in the world if we do not drown our selves in the bottome of
the sea in the deluge of our lusts if we do not bury our selves alive in stubborn impenitency if we do not stop up all the passages of our souls if we do not still love darkness and make it a pavilion round about us he will look upon us through this light and look lovingly upon us with favour and affection He will look upon us as his purchase and he that delivered his Son for us will with him also freely give us all things Which is the End of all the End of Christ's being delivered and offereth it self to our consideration in the last place IV. God delivered God sent God gave his Son All these expressions we find to make him a Gift He is the desire and he is the riches of all Nations As whatsoever we do we must do so whatsoever we have we receive in his name The name of Jesus saith S. Peter of the impotent man Acts 3.13 1 Cor. 6.11 Col. 2.3 hath made this man strong By his name we are justified by his name we are sanctified by his name we shall enter into glory With him we have all things for in him are all the treasures of riches and wisdome We may think of all the Kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them but these come not within the compass nor are to be reckoned amongst his Donations For as the Naturalists observe of the glory of the Rainbow that it is wrought in our eye and not in the cloud and that there is no such pleasing variety of colours there as we see so the pomp and riches and glory of this world are of themselves nothing but are the work of our opinion and the creations of our phansie and have no worth or price but what our lusts and desires set upon them Luxuria his pretium fecit It is our Luxury which hath raised the market and made them valuable and in esteem which of themselves have nothing to commend them and set them off My Covetousness maketh that which is but earth a God my Ambition maketh that which is but air an heaven and my Wantonness walketh in the midst of pleasures as in a paradise There is no such thing as Riches and Poverty Honour and Peasantry Trouble and Pleasure but we have made them and we make the distinction There are no such plants grow up in this world of themselves but we set them and water them and they spread themselves and cast a shadow and we walk in this shadow and delight or disquiet our selves in vain Diogenes was a king in his tub when Great Alexander was but a slave in the world which he had conquered How many Heroick persons lie in chains whilest Folly and Baseness walk at large And no doubt there have been many who have looked through the paint of the pleasures of this life and beheld them as monsters and then made it their pleasure and triumph to contemn them And yet we will not quite exclude and shut out Riches and the things of this world from the sum For with Christ they are somthing and they are then most valuable when for his sake we can fling them away It is he alone that can make Riches a gift and Poverty a gift Honour a gift and Dishonour a gift Pleasure a gift and Trouble a gift Life a gift and Death a gift By this power they are reconciled and drawn together and are but one and the same thing If we look up into heaven there we shall see them in a neer conjunction even the poor Lazar in the Rich mans bosome In the night there is no difference to the eye between a pearl and a pibble between the choicest beauty and most abhorred deformity In the night the deceitfulness of Riches and the glory of Affliction lie hid and are not seen or in a contrary shape in the false shape of terrour where it is not or of glory where it is not to be found But when the light of Christ's countenance shineth upon them then they are seen as they are and we behold so much deceitfulness in the one that we dare not trust them and so much hope and advantage in the other that we begin to rejoyce in them and so make them both conducible to that end for which he was delivered and our convoyes to happiness All things is of a large compass large enough to take in the whole world But then it is the world transformed and altered the world conquered by faith i Cor. 3.21 22 23. the world in subjection to Christ All things are ours when we are Christ's There is a Civil Dominion and right to these things and this we have jure creationis by right of Creation Psal 24.1 115.16 For the earth is the Lord's and he hath given it to the sons of men And there is an Evangelical Dominion not the power of having them but the power of using them to God's glory that they may be a Gift and this we have jure adoptionis by right of Adoption as the sons of God begotten in Christ Christ came not into the world to purchase it for us or enstate us in it He did not suffer that we might be wanton nor was poor that we might be rich nor was brought to the dust of death that we might be set in high places Such a Messias did the Jews look for and such a Messias do some Christians worse than the Jews frame to themselves and in his name they beat their fellow-servants and strip them deceive and defraud them because they phansie themselves to be his in whom there was found no guile They are in the world as the mad Athenian was on the shore Every ship every house every Lordship is theirs And indeed they have as fair a title to their brothers estate as they have to the kingdome of heaven for they have nothing to shew for either I remember S. Paul calleth the Devil the God of this world 2 Cor. 4.4 and these in effect make him the Saviour of the world For as if he had been lifted up and nailed to the cross for them to him every knee doth bow nor will they receive the true Messias but in this shape They conceive him giving gifts unto men not spiritual but temporal not the graces of the Spirit Humility Meekness and Contentedness but Silver and Gold dividing inheritances removing of land-marks giving to Ziba Mephibosheth's land making not Saints but Kings upon the earth Thus they of the Church of Rome have set it down for a positive truth That all civil Dominion is founded in Grace that is in Christ A Doctrine which bringeth with it a Pick-lock and a Sword and giveth men power to spoyl whom they please to take from them that which is theirs either by fraud or by violence and to do both in the name and power of Christ But let no man make his Charter larger than it is In the Gospel we find none of such an
life more then our soul are unnatural and strangers to us and we unto them and we must turn our selves about and look towards something else which may meet and fill our desires which here find nothing to stay but every thing to enlarge them Here are Delights that vanish and then shew their foulest side here are Riches that make us poor and Honour that maketh us slaves here are nothing but phantasms and apparitions which will never fill us but feed the very hunger of our souls and increase it There in our country at our journeyes end there is fulness of joy which alone can satisfie this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and infinite appetite Psal 16.11 Therefore the Earth is but our stage to walk through Heaven is our proper place and country and to this we are bound Here we are but strangers Si velimus accolae si nolimus accolae If we will we may be strangers and if we will not but love to dwell and stay here yet we shall be strangers whether we will or no. And as we are so our abode here is that of strangers in another country as of those who are ever in their way and moving forwards never standing still but striving to go out of it whose whole motion and progress is a leaving it behind them When Adam was Lord of all the world he was but a stranger in it For God made him naked in Paradise and withall gave him no sense of his nakedness And the reason is given by S. Basil That Man might not be distracted and called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from meditation upon God that the care of his flesh might not steal away his mind from him that made him So that Adam was made a stranger when he was made the sole Emperour of the world But when he was fallen God clotheth him with skins ut illum veluti morte quadam indueret saith Proclus in Epiphanius that he might clothe him as it were with Death it self which was represented unto him in the skins of dead beasts that he might alwaies carry about with him the remembrance of it the most suitable garment that a stranger or pilgrime can wear A stranger cometh not to stay long in a place he is here as we say to day and gone to morrow so is Man Psal 9.25 4.2 Psal 90.9 He flyeth as a Post or rather as a shadow and continueth not at an end as soon as a tale that is told and not so long remembred There may be many errours in his way but there is none in his end Which way soever he travelleth wheresoever he pitcheth his tent his journeyes end is the Grave De Anim◠c. 50. Hoc stipulata est Dei vox hoc spopondit omne quod nascitur saith Tertullian This is the stipulation and bargain which God hath made with every soul By being born we made a promise and obliged our selves to dye We are bound in a sure obligation and received our souls upon condition to resign them pure and unspotted of the world James 1.27 Would you know when we pay this debt We begin with our first breath and are paying it till we breathe out our last Hoc quod loquor indè est Whilest I speak and you hear we are paying part of the sum and whether this be our last payment we cannot tell I am dying whilest I am speaking Every breath I fetch to preserve life is a part taken from my life I am in a manner entombed already and every place I breathe in is a grave for in every place I moulder and consume away in every place I draw nearer and nearer to putrefaction Suet. vit Claud Cas We may say as those mariners who were to fight and dye did as they said by Claudius the Emporour Morituri te salutant O Emperour dying men salute thee So we pass by and salute one another not so much as living but as dying men Whilest I say Good morrow I am nearer to my end and he to whom I wisht it is nearer to his One dying man blesseth and one dying man persecuteth another that is one Pilgrime robbeth another In what relation soever we stand either as Kings or Subjects Masters or Servants Fathers or Children we are all Morituri but dying men all but strangers and pilgrimes Comfort thou thy self then thou oppressed innocent It was a dying man that put the yoke about thy neck And why dost thou boast in mischief Psal 52.1 thou man of power In the midst of all thy triumphs and glories thou art but a dying man He that kisseth thy lips is but a dying man and he that striketh thee on the face is but a dying man The whole world is but a Colony every age new planted with dying men with pilgrimes and strangers This you will say is a common theme and argument and indeed so it is for what more common then Death And yet as common as it is I know no lessen so much forgotten as this For who almost considereth how he came into the world or how he shall go out of it Ask the wanton the Mammonist the Ambitious of their minute and they will call it Eternity Sol iste dies nos decipit c. The present the present time that deceiveth us and we draw that out to a lasting perpetuity which is past whilst we think on it Such a bewitching power hath the Love of the world to make our minute eternity and eternity nothing and the day of our death as hard and difficult to our faith as our resurrection For though day unto day uttereth knowledge though the Preacher open his mouth Psal 19.2 and the Grave open hers and we every day see so many pilgrimes falling in though they who have been dead long ago and they who now dye speak unto us yet we can hardly be induced to believe that we are strangers but embrace the world and rivet our selves into it as if we should never part we deny that which we cannot deny resolve on that which we cannot think will not be perswaded of that which we do believe or believe not that which we confess but place Immortality upon our mortal and so live as if we should never dye And can we who thus every day enlarge our thoughts and hopes Psal 90.10 and let them out at length beyond our threescore years and ten measuring out Lordships building of palaces anticipating pleasures and honours creating that which will never have a being and yet delighting in it as if we now had it in possession can vve vvho love the world as that friend from which we would never part but lose all others for it can we who would have this to be the world without end and have scarce one thought left to reach at that which is so and to come can we who love and admire and pride our selves in nothing more in nothing else say or think we are pilgrimes and
is the root and foundation of all obedience Ephes 3 1◠upon which we build up as high as heaven For with such a Look we see the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God nay coming and having his reward with him It is the same method which our Saviour teacheth Luke 14.28 For you must do in Looking as you do in Building Which of you saith Christ intending to build a house sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it If you will look into this Law of liberty you must count what it may cost you It may cost you your goods It may cost you your credit even with those who profess the same thing with you who are ready to forsake you It may cost you your bloud But all these losses shall be made up and recompensed with eternity Canst thou see that smiling Beauty and turn away the eye Canst thou see that Honour ready to crown thee and defie it Canst thou behold Riches and esteem them as dung Canst thou meet the raging persecutor and pity and pray for him Canst thou meet Death it self with all its pomp and horrour and through all these undauntedly press forward towards Heaven Then thou hast stooped down inclined thy self and looked into this Law of liberty For if we have not this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and full persuasion if we have not laid this foundation and approved this Law of liberty both in our understanding and practice as the onely way to happiness we may look and look again upon it and be stark blind see nothing in it nothing of that heaven and bliss which is promised And then every breath is a storm every temptation will be an overthrow then every light affliction every evil that cometh towards us will remove the eye from this Law and place it on it self which we shall look on till we faint and fall down for fear and forfeit our obedience even study how to make that false which is so contrary to our lusts and affections Faith and a good Conscience make it a just and full look If we put that away 1 Tim. 1.19 presently concerning faith we make shipwreck For as in Scripture we are then said to know God when we love him so do we truly look into and consider this Law not when we make mention of it with our lips when we think of it remember it meditate of it which is but the extension of our thoughts but when we draw it fasten it to our soul make it as our form and principle of motion to promote those actions that obedience in us for which the Law was made This the Fathers call the circular motion of the mind which first settleth upon the object then is carried back into it self and there boweth and swayeth the powers of the soul and collecteth it self into it self from all forein and impertinent occurrences and then joyneth all its forces and faculties its Will and Affections to the accomplishing of that Good to which the Law of liberty inviteth us To look into the Law ye see is of larger extent then the words do import at first sight and is of singular use It poiseth and biasseth us in all our wayes that we may run evenly to that Blessedness which is set before us It is our Compass to steer our course amidst the waves the ebbings and flowings the changes and chances of this world It is our Angel to keep us in all our wayes It is as the opening of a window into the closet of our souls that that light may enter which may manifest every mote and atome where there was nothing before but vacuity It is our Spy to discover the forces of our Enemy and it is the best strength we have against him It is as the balance of the Sanctuary to weigh every blessing in the Gospel to a grain It is the best divider giving to God those things that are God's and to man those things which are man's It wipeth the paint off from sin and discovereth its horrour It taketh temptation from Beauty and sheweth us fading flesh dust and ashes It strippeth Riches of their glory and pointeth unto their wings It seeth a deceiver in the Devil in Christ a Lord and Saviour and in his royal Law it beholdeth Heaven and eternity of bliss All this virtue and power hath this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this looking into the Law and due considering of it Which by being looked into becometh the savour of life unto life but when we take off our eye is made the savour of death unto death A steddy and heedful look purchaseth and a careless glaunce forfeiteth our Liberty To look is to be free and not thus to look is to have Canaan's curse upon us to be servants of servants for ever And now tell me how many be there that thus look into the Gospel how many that thus weigh and consider it Many walk saith S. Paul Many look we may say of whom we may speak weeping that they are enemies to the Law of liberty The Papist looketh into it and there he findeth a Triple crown The Schismatick looketh into it and he findeth a sword to divide him from his brethren The Anti-papist Jesuite looketh into it and findeth the draught and model of a new Discipline The Enthusiast and Spiritual man looketh into it and findeth nothing but Ink and Words The Libertine looketh into it For the Law is in himself Quarunt quod nusquam est inveniunt tamen They look and seek that which cannot be found and yet they find it every man his humour and the corruption of his own heart There is much in the Eye For the Law of liberty is still the same It moulteth not a feather changeth not its shape and countenance But it may appear in as many shapes as there be tempers and constitutions of the eyes that looketh into it An Evil eye seeth nothing but faction and debate A lofty eye seeth nothing but priority and preeminence A Bloud-shot eye seeth nothing but cruelty which they call Justice All the errours of our life as the Philosophers speak of the colours of the Rainbow are oculi opus the work of the Eye For the Law it self can lend nothing towards them but stareth them in the face when the eye hath raised them to shake and demolish them It were good then to clear our eye before we look into the Law lest whilest we find what pleaseth us we find what will ruine us But oh that we should have such Eagles eyes in the things of this world and be such Batts in the Gospel of Christ The Covetous looketh into the world and that hath power to transform his soul into earth The wanton looketh upon beauty and that turneth his into flesh David beholdeth Bathsheba in her bath and is on fire Ahab looketh upon Naboth's vineyard and is sick The eye of flesh pierceth deep into