we cannot be as absolutely holy as they must we use no endeavours to be holy at all must the Scholar throw away his Book because he cannot arrive at the knowledge of his teacher or the Apprentice his tools because he cannot equalize the Master Workman Si ad portum pervehi vis mavum remis admoveas oportet vela expandas non ut otiosus captes expectes ab alm ventum Lips de Constant lib. 1. cap. 22. Let us strive and bestir our selves and beg of God the assistance of his enlivening Spirit that we may walk and not be weary and run and not faint Let us do in this case as Phaltiel the son of Laish who went weeping behind his wise to Bahurim so seeing in the paths of righteousness we cannot hold an Angels pace let us follow behind lamenting the defects of our duty and the blemishes of our Conversation and what is wanting in our obedience as to its perfection let it be supplied in the sincerity Use 2 But in the second place if we are to imitate the holy Angels how may it reprove many who having taken upon them the profession of Christianity have nothing of an Heavenly resemblance in their Conversations Come to Purity their souls are sinks of sin and cages of uncleanness their tables are full of vomit their mouthes full of cursings and execrations their hands besmeared with bloud and by their custom in sinning they have contracted the spots of the Leopard and the blackness of the Ethiopian Come to Unity they spurn at it together with brotherly love like Salamanders they live in the fire of contention set open the temple of Janus and sacrifice unto fury They are for the torrid Zone of quarrels and disputations as if the temperate climate of moderation were inhabitable and with Nero strive to make a conflagration hoping to warm their hands at these destructive flames Come to Order many regard not this they would turn Monarchy into Democracy and make the nobles of Israel servile Chams they would have the spade and scepter of equal value and upon all magisterial Supremacy would pronounce the Edomites language down with it down with it even to the ground How disorderly are many as to the Church they would have Aaron to lay aside his breast-plate Qui contemptis Episcopis Dei sacerdotibus constituere audent aliud altare Cypr. de unit Eccles and think that any as well as the lawful Priest may offer the Divine incense setting a temple upon mount Gerizin in opposition to that of Jerusalem placing men over Congregations without the Divine disposition make Ministers without Ordination the plague and bane of Religion sitting not in the Pastoral but in the Pestilential Chair Cypr. Ibid. as Cyprian complains Come to Obedience how many neglect the Duties of the first and second Table they are for an easie Religion can be content to be perswaded that the Antinomian Doctrines are the greatest verities Come to Abstractedness from the world how many are strangers to it Eccemundus in seipso aruit tamen in cordibus nostris floret fugientem sequimur labenti inhaeremus Gregor Homil. super Evang. Johan the world and their souls cleave one to another as Jonathans did to David the mammon of unrighteousness is their adored Deity they labour for the bread that perishes and heap up gold as dust as if they made an agreement with Hell and a Covenant with the grave and as if their bodies were like the scales of Leviathan which could not be pierced with the Spear of death And lastly come to praise how many have a taking hand but no praise-speaking mouth they take no notice of the Divine Goodness but applaud onely their own industry and rest upon second causes like the Egyptian Husbandmen that worshipped Nilus but never looked up to him that made it overflow its banks This is the case of too many who name the Name of Christ and such untoward Conversations many of us lead that 't is to be feared God will yet send destroying Angels against us that seeing we will not regard them as examples we shall feel them as executioners Use 3 It we are to imitate the holy Angels let it be matter of Caution to us that we do not follow Satan and his Apostate Legions those gross revolters from God who for their Crimes were thrown out of the third Heaven into the lower regions and are kept in chains of darkness till the judgement of the Great Day What a Conversation the Devil leads I shall shew in a few Particulars 1. He is a sworn enemy to Christ and the Gospel No sooner came the holy Jesus into the world but Satan devised his overthrow First he set Herod his proxie awork who by a desparate stratagem thought to have involved him in the massacre of the martyred Innocents that failing the Devil comes and personally holds a contest with him in the wilderness thinking to foil him as he did our first parents in the Garden of Eden No sooner was the Gospel propagated but he stirred up Jews and Gentiles Epicureans and Stoicks and all the kingdoms of the Earth least it should run and be glorified When Saint Paul would have come to Thessalonica Satan hindred him and afterwards when Christianity got some footing how did he stir up the Roman Emperours who battered it with ten successive persecutions more especially he got Julian to use policy as well as power Julianus vetuit nè Christianorum liberi poetas alios seriptores Gentiles perdiscerent nève horum doctores audirent Sozom lib. 5. cap. 17. who strove to raze the name of Christ from under heaven commanding that the children of Christians should not be trained up in Arts and Sciences that the vail of darkness and ignorance might cover their faces and so Christ and Gospel mysteries might be riddles to them But let us have a care of such a carriage as this Who ever magnified himself against Christ and prospered who can brag of his triumphs over the Son of God the fatal Exit of Antiochus Julian Maxentius and such like Vide Hieron ad Heliodor lib. 2. Epist 22. may discourage us from such attempts What are we to stand it out against Divinity A head of glass to a head of brass There is as great a disproportion betwixt a victorious Messiah and a frail mortal Exquisitior crudelitas vestra magìsest illecebra sectae plures efficimur quoties metimur metimur semen est sanguis Christianorum Tertul. in Apol. in fine as betwixt the thistle and the Cedar in Lebanon the small Ant and the great Behemoth whose bones are as pieces of Brass and barrs of Iron Neither let us lay blocks in the way of the Gospel it is the truth and shall prevail it hath the seal of Heaven upon it and the malice of Earth and Hell shall never foil it therefore let this be our passionate wish that in all things the
Angeli agâ—nt in Coelis our Conversation is suited and squared according to the carriage and demeanour of the Angels in Heaven and Piscator tells us that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate to have a Conversation generali sensâ— accipitur de moribus actionibus externis in its general notion hath relation to manners and external actions and so the signification of the Text in a good sense may be this We lead a heavenly life we have an eye to the glorious and unspotted Angels and with them do spend our time in the serving obeying and praising of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ we do as the Angels do therefore make us your patterns and examples Now because these words are usually spoken of and treated upon according to some of the other interpretations I shall not make any other enlargement upon the former glosses but shall handle them in this last acceptation and so from hence insist upon this proposition or Doctrine That it is the duty of Christians upon earth to be suitable and conformable in their carriages and conversations to the Angels in Heaven And here I shall examine the Angelical Conversation and shew how ours ought to be similar and proportionable thereunto 1. And first the Angels in Heaven lead a Conversation full of purity there is no filthiness or uncleanness amongst these Spiritual essences holiness is there drawn to the life and purity is in its flower there is no filthy Sodomite no prophane Esau or defiled Reuben no pitch of iniquity stains their white robes all pure Ermins none wallowing in the mire of any sinful abomination 'T is true indeed Job 4.18 the Heavens are not pure in Gods sight and his Angels he chargeth with folly not as if there were any reall pollution in the Angelical nature but 't is spoken in a comparative way as if Eliphaz should say All the holiness of Angels is impurity and all their wisdom darkness and folly if it be laid in the ballance with the wisdom and holiness of the ever-glorious God according to that in the 1 Corinth 1 Chap. 25. ver the foolishness of God is wiser then men and the weakness of God is stronger then men but as to the Angels this we know that as they are mighty in respect of their power 2 Thes 1.7 so they may be termed holy in respect of their unspotted purity So Christians should evidence an Heavenly Conversation by their purity they name the name of Christ should depart from iniquity for indeed Christianity is nothing else but an imitation of the divine nature and a reducing of a mans self to the image of God which consists in righteousness and holiness That Christians should be pure was shadowed out in the first Centuries of the Church when as those who were baptized for certain days together wore their white Stoles Niceph. betokening the holiness of the state into which they were translated which made the Deacon bring out the white garment to one Elpidophorus that had revolted from the faith telling him that he would keep it as a monument and memorial of his Apostacy Sic Plinius secun ad TrajaÌ„ So the Primitive Christians made a strict Covenant that they would not run into the noted crimes of theft robbery or adultery or into the more private evils of breaking trust Euseb lib. 3. cap. 30. or denying to restore the committed pledge thus it becometh us And 1. Let purity go along with our meditations God hath implanted in man a pondering The moralist calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he defines to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot consulting faculty whereby he can exercise a reflex act and hold a conference with his own soul sometimes we retire and sequester our selves as is our duty from the clamours of our worldly transactions then should our thoughts be holy then should we meditate of Gods works of wonder of his acts of creation and providence of his power in forming and care in preserving sublunary things thus David considered the Heavens Psal 8.3 the Moon and the Stars which God had ordained We should think of our primitive purity our wilful apostacy our gracious recovery by Jesus Christ of our present estate and condition our future decay and dissolution the joyes of Heaven and the misery of those that shall suffer a separation from God Two Cardinals riding to the Councel of Trent found a poor man mourning over a Toad being asked the reason he told them he was in contemplation of Gods goodness who had not made him like that sorry and contemptible creature which made one of them cry out with Saint August Indocti coelum rapiunt the illiterate take Heaven by violence We should have a care that in our meditations we entertain not a thought derogatory to the Divine Grandeur or an imagination which opposes it self against the interest of Christ that our thoughts be not as the filthy steamings of the bottomless pit that we devise not iniquity upon our beds Micah 2.1 and in the morning practise it when it is in the power of our hands that we be not as the fool who said in his heart there is no God let us rather be as David whose meditation of God was sweet and as the blessed man whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates in it day and night 2. Let purity also accompany our expressions The tongue is a member ever in use let us accustom it to speak the language of Canaan and words savoury and gracious and tending to the edification of the hearers Evil communication and filthy speaking let it be far from us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Colos 3.8 let us not use our tongues to daub over a specious sin a notorious crime lest we prove the Devils Oratours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in 4. Ephe. Hom. 14. that our words be not as poisonous arrows let fly against holiness and piety wounding Christ through the sides of religion let us beware that our tongues be not set on fire from Hell venting nothing but wrath and passion and so we be incendiaries and disturbers of those communities and societies in which we are placed Above all let us take heed of vain swearing Atheistical expressions profane and frothy jests the Dialect of the ungodly and the mode of our licentious times remembring that blasphemy is a sin which directly strikes at the Divine Majesty Non minùs peccant qui Christum blasphemant regnantem in Coelis quam qui crucifixeâ—unt ambulantem in terris Augustin and they are as inexcusable who abuse Christs Name now he is reigning in Heaven as those Jews who managed his Crucifixion here upon earth Let us therefore imitate the kingly Prophet who kept his mouth with a bit and a bridle lest he should offend and as those pious ones Mal. 3.17 who spake often one to another and encouraged each
and not dote on those that are transitory and temporal Let us not content our selves with the prodigals husks when as we may eat of the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God Let us not adore the broken Cisterns and despise the water of the heavenly Bethlehem Let us with Moses have an eye to the recompence of reward to the Crown of Righteousness and to the exceeding eternal weight of glory and though we must use these worldly things yet let them be onely as a necessary viaticum in our journey towards our desired home Lastly the Angels in heaven lead a Conversation eminent for praise and thankfulness This is the Saints everlasting work they make up a heavenly quire and are ever ecchoing out their melodious notes There the sons of the morning shout with joy David tunes his harp and Moses and Deborah sing their songs of deliverance Were we but a while rapt with Saint Paul into the third Heaven what praises should we hear them give to the Father of Spirits who hath settled them in eternal bliss ransomed them from the flames of the infernal Tophet and hath made them Kings and Priests unto himself The Scriptures record some of their Anthems how they say Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty Thou art worthy to receive honour and glory and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Revel 4.11 So we let our Conversation be Heavenly in respect of our continued praises Vid. praeconia Constant mag in ejus vita reforent Euseb cap. 56 57 58. lib. 2. they are a special sacrifice we owe to God he ought to have the Calves of our lips and most rightly doth inherit the praises of Israel hence the Jews had this godly usage that in their writings when they named God they did insert this abbreviature the holy or the blessed one and when they celebrated the passover at the end thereof they had the great Halelujah consisting of several Eucharistical Psalms Let us in like manner speak good of his name with Jacob Quisquis es mortalium hoc mihi extremum calamitatis genus accidit ut pro tanto beneficio dignas tibi grates referre nequeam at referat Alexander Alexandro verò dii pro ejus summaá in meos humanitate clementiá Justin lib. 2. Gen. 32.10 and with Abraham ever and anon erect an altar to the Lord the everlasting God Plato thanked God he was a man not a bruit a Grecian not a Barbarian How highly did Darius resent the kindness of Polystratus who brought him a little water before his departure Let not the heathens out-vie us who have a nobler and diviner light to guide us and more rich and glorious priviledges Let us praise our God for the formation of our bodies which are fearfully and wonderfully made which are animated with rational and immortal souls when as we might have been as the horse and the mule in whom there is no understanding as also for the redemption of us that he hath kept us from sinking in that sad abyss of sin and misery whereinto we were plunged that when by our prevarication we had made our selves children of wrath that he gave his Son to make an atonement for us and to reconcile us to himself through the Bloud of the everlasting Covenant Let us bless him for our preservation that we are secured from sad mischances and direful casualties that we escape the snare of the fowler and the net of the hunter that he protects us from the rage of bruits the fury of Elements the rod of the oppressour and the hand of the enemy Bless we him likewise for the conservatives of life that we have bread to eat and raiment to put on that the gates are not black with famine nor the wells dry without water but that we have the dew of heaven the fat of the Earth the kidneys of wheat and the pure bloud of the grape that the clouds drop fatness affording us the former and later rain in their seasons that he makes peace within our borders that our swords are turned into plowshares and our instruments of war into pruning hooks so that we sit peaceably under our vines and fig-trees having none to make us afraid Let not the stains of a base ingratitude cleave to us that we lightly esteem the Rock of our salvation Let us not be as the Athenians who banished most of their noble Philosophers after they had done such worthy atchievements for them or as the Romans who exiled Scipio Africanus after he had made their City the mistress of the World this is not handsom carriage towards so good a Benefactour But let us say Dens nobis haec otia fecit the Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad and therefore bless the Lord O our souls and all that is within us magnifie His holy Name Bless the Lord O house of Israel bless the Lord O house of Aaron blessed be the Lord out of Sion who dwelleth in Jerusalem Psal 135.19 These gratulations will be acceptable to the Almighty and speedily enter the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost a foretast of Heaven and a sweet preludium to our everlasting duty Use 1 All which by way of improvement and Application may teach us to learn this great lesson of imitating the holy Angels and to follow their divine example Conformity to the Church Militant is the scruple of many and is yet the dispute of our times but none I hope will be so bold as to quarrel with the Church Triumphant they above can pretend to the doctrine of Infallibility in a higher measure then the Papal chair and so we may safely be their imitatours Therefore as the Israelites in their passage to the earthly Canaan had an eye to the Cloud and Pillar of fire thus we in our journey to the heavenly ought well to heed those glorious Seraphims those burning lights for so their name imports the Septuagint rendring them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comburentes vel incendentes because they were inflamed with the fire of the Divine love Seneca used to say wheresoever I go I carry Demetrius along with me and writing to his friend Lucilius Elige Catonem vel remissioris animi virum Laelium illum semper tibi ostende vel custodem vel exemplum Senec. Epist 11. he bids him set before him Cato or Lelius or some person that walked most exactly according to the Canon of Morality So let us set before us these Angelical Beings tread in their steps that our Conversations may be regular and we may take the right road to Eternal Glory Neither let us object and say alas how can we imitate them they are spotless and perfect Creatures not composed of contrary qualities but we are kept down with the poize of the body the tyes of sense and the solicitations of a carnal appetite Well if
Lord Jesus may have the preheminence that all the kingdoms of the earth may be the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and that the House of the Lord may be established upon the tops of the mountains and all nations may flow thither Isa 2.2 2. The Devil spends his time in enticing men to sin he hath his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his depths and devices as the Scripture speaks Rev. 2.24 Quos non detinere potest in viae veteris coecitate circumscribit decipit novi itineris errore Cypr. de unit Eccles he can suit himself to all humours and dish up meat for every palate he hath an Apple for Eve a Grape for Noah a Bag for Judas and changes of Raiment for Gehezi Rather then men shall keep the even way he will draw them to some extream or other either make them lean to an old superstition or cheat them with a new light or revelation or cause them to be given up to a ranting licentiousness but let us not be the Devils journey-men in alluring men to sin we have transgressions enough of our own and had not need to have the bloud of others to answer for therefore let us not put the bottle to our neighbour nor say Come cast in thy lot amongst us or lay a stumbling block as Balaam did Si taâ—ta mercedis est à morte eripere carnem quamvis morituram quanti est meriti à morte animam liberare Gregor but let us rather induce men to holiness by our savoury counsels and pious examples Let us see if we can stop the furious Jehues in their march towards Hell and eternal Damnation See if we can make the Shunammite return and hast the Prodigal home to his fathers house knowing that he who converts a sinner from the errour of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins as it is Fames 5.20 3. The Devil is a slanderer an accuser Scias hoc tempore esse opus Diaboli ut servos Dei mendacio laceret gloriosum nomen falsis opinionibus infamet us qui conscientiae sua luce clarescunt alienis rumoribus sordidentur Cyprian Epist 52. for so his name imports hence he is stiled Rev. 12.10 the accuser of the brethren who accuses them before God day and night he spoke evil of Job to God and told him if he touched his flesh he would curse him to the face Thus he calumniated Joshua the high Priest and the Church of Israel till the Lord rebuked him and to our shame be it spoken many come too nigh Satan in this particular they strive continually to defame their brethren and to make their names which should be as a pretious ointment like the snuff of a candle altogether offensive and unsavoury All their Arithmetick is to reckon their neighbours crimes all their business to observe the Errataes of mens Conversation and are Chymists onely in this to extract the sweetness out of their associates reputations Thus the Primitive Christians were abused with nick-names and words of reproach by men of Belial all their holy actions mis-interpreted Sic pontificii accusahant protestantes Sander Stapleton Fevarden vide R. P. Morton in Antidot contra merita cap. 20. sect 2. which made Tertullian Justin Martyr and others write their defensive Apologies and as it was then so now none can go without a censure If a man be of a quiet and sedate temper he passes for a Lukewarm Laodicean if he be active and stirring then he is a fiery Zelot if he seem to stand up for the doctrine of Justification by Faith he is accounted a Solifidian and if he be inclined to good works and alms-deeds Detractores sunt canes Diaboli gregem ejus custodientes c. Paral. de vitio ling. lib. 2. Tractar 9. then he is for Papistical merit But let us beware of this and exercise Christian Charity which thinketh no evil but beareth all things and hopeth all things Let us not make blots where there be none magnifie Peccadillo's as if they were gross impieties and if our brother should offend let us not trumpet out his sin and shame it behoves us rather with Sem and Japheth to cover his nakedness and if we can restore him with the spirit of meekness considering as the Apostle says that we our selves may also be tempted Gal. 6.1 4. The Devil is full of pride So far as we can see that was his Primitive sin and so much seems to be intimated in the 1 Tim. 3.6 Cornel. à Lapide Piscat in locum Ait Augustinus Diabolum elatione inflatum voluisse nominari Deum in quaest vet nov Test where it is commanded that a Bishop should not be a novice that is one newly come to the faith lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil and this he retained after his Apostacy Surely it was his haughty humour led him to contest with our blessed Saviour and to dispute with Michael about the body of Moses though it may be other ends too were proposed in these altercations And thus he remains a defier of God an opposite to Jesus Christ and a sworn enemy to the sons of Adam But let us avoid this sin And first let us take heed of an Atheistical pride Some live as if they were Independents and were not obliged to the glorious God with Pherycides they laugh at a Deity esteem the exercises of Religion as a piece of the Kingdom as if they were delusive Doctrines and the most Romantick fooleries But this pride will be humbled ere long God sometimes takes them to task here and makes them fired Beacons of his indignation that others may hear and fear and do no more so wickedly and if such be not met with presently yet He whom it may be with Julian they call the Carpenters Son will provide a Coffin and a worse thing too for them as the holy man predicted Sozom. lib. 6. cap. 2. 2. Others have a spiritual conceitedness they look upon themselves as the Grandees of Religion the great Monopolizers of Grace and Piety the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof they look on others as punies and underlings and vaunt it with the Pharisee God I thank thee I am not as other men are If a man have been brought up at the feet of Gamaliel or with Moses be skilled in the learning of the Egyptians they shake their heads at him as an Epicurean or a Stoick As if spiritual graces and natural acquirements could not reside in one and the same subject If there be another that strives to be an active Christian rather then a talking one they hoot at him as a ceremonious Legalist and pass their rash censures upon the soberest Saints as if they were acquainted with the counsels of Heaven and knew who were Apostles and who Apostates but know God hath not