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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40889	Fifty sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London, and elsewhere whereof twenty on the Lords Prayer / by ... Anthony Farindon ... ; the third and last volume, not till now printed ; to which is adjoyned two sermons preached by a friend of the authors, upon his being silenced.; Sermons. Selections	Farindon, Anthony, 1598-1658.	1674 (1674)	Wing F432; ESTC R306	820,003	604

him This is to be like unto God and to be partaker of his spirit And to be Christs Disciple is to be one with him and to be ingrafted into him Here is the Christians highest pitch his Ascension his Zenith his Third heaven And therefore it is said to be a speech of Christ which the Nazarene Gospel hath recorded though our Bibles have not Nunquam loeti sitis nisi cum fratres in charitate videritis No spectacle of delight nothing that a Christian can take pleasure in nothing of virtue and power hath enough to raise a Disciples joy but to see his fellow-disciples his Brethren embracing one another in love For if the ground of all Pleasure be agreement and proportionableness to the temper and constitution of any thing then certainly nothing so agreeing so harmonical so consonant to our reasonable nature and to the ingenuity of our kind and consequently so universally delightful to all who have not put off the bowels and the nature of Man and are by the love of the world swayed and bended to a brutish condition as that which may as well go for a Reward as for a Duty the Loving of the Brethren that language of Love which we must practice here that we may chant it in heaven with the congregation of the first-born and the spirits of men made perfect by love eternally And indeed Charity is the prime ingredient of the glorified Saints Of whose state we understand no more but that they are in bliss and love one another and that they are for ever blessed because they for ever love one another Their Charity never faileth saith St. Paul and then their bliss is everlasting What is Paradise saith the Father but to love God and serve him And the best love we can shew him the best service we can do him is to love and serve the Brethren The end of the Gospel is love 1 Tim. 1. 5. that is other doctrine tendeth to strife and contention but the whole doctrine of the Gospel tendeth to love and unity So that no doctrine that naturally and of it self worketh wrath and uncharitableness can be Evangelical For the wisdome that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without judging James 3. 17. and without Hypocrisie Beloved Envy malice debate contention strife are the delight and joy of them who have tasted of the powers of no other world then of this which shall be consumed or rather they are the delight of the infernal spirits as it is a torment to them to be restrained from doing mischief Art thou come to destroy us to torment us before our time saith the unclean Spirit Art thou come to curb and hinder us from vexing and destroying those we hate for this is torturing this is sending them again into the deep confining them to their Luke 8. 31. Hell As the lower pit is said to be opened in the Revelation when they have liberty to vex and torment mankind so it is as much Hell to them not to punish others as it is to be punished And none but evil spirits and Men of their constitution and temper can make a Heaven in Hell it self by doing mischief And indeed Delight it is not properly but it is called so because it is proportionable and satisfactory to their malice and pernicious nature and disposition No if we hear LAETENTUR COELI Let the Heavens rejoyce it is because Peace is here on earth If we hear LAETENTUR ANGELI Let the Angels rejoyce it is for the tears and repentance of some sinner here below If we hear LAETENTUR SANCTI Let the Saints rejoyce it is in their union and communion in those mutual offices of bearing and supporting one another and as so many Angels by prayers and exhortations and by the reciprocal activity of their love lifting and conveighing one another into Abrahams bosome Thus we see that that love which makes and keeps us Brethren is the pleasantest thing in the world and that all other joy is no better joy then the Damned have in hell A Joy I must not call it A Complacency we may call it But that is too good a name It is the feeding the filling the satisfying the Malice of an ugly and malicious Fiend But in the next place we shall the sooner fall in love with this Love if Profit also be brought-in to commend and enhance the price and value of this Pleasure And here if we ask with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What profit is there we may answer Much every manner of way For from this we have all those helps those huge advantages which are as so many heaves and promotions and thrustings forward into Happiness By my brother I may see that which before I could not discover He may clear up my Affections from storm and tempest and my Understanding from darkness and confusion of thoughts He may cast out infinitatem rei as the Civilians speak that variety that kind of infinity of appearances in which every thing useth to shew and present it self He may be as Moses said to Hobab to me instead of eyes to guide and direct Numb 10. 31. me by his counsel and providence By him I may hear as Samuel did for Ely what the Lord God will say By him I may feel and taste how gracious the Lord God is He may do those offices for me which the Angels of God those ministring Spirits cannot do because they have no body He may be my Servant and I may wait upon him He may be my Supporter and I may uphold him He may be my Priest and I may teach him He may be my Guard and I may protect him He may be my Angel and I may go with him and be his conduct He may be made all things to me and I may be made all things to him Thus we may grow up together in Grace for in this Nursery in this Eden in this Fraternity the nearer and closer we grow together the more we spread and flourish COMPLANTATI grafted together in the similitude of Christs Death and Rom. 6. 5. CONSEPULTI Buried together with him in Baptism and CONRESUSCITATI v. 4. risen together with Christ No Grafting no Burying Col. 3. 1. no Rising but together No profit no advantage no encrease but in love Speaking the truth in love we grow up into him in all things Eph. 4. 15 16. which is the Head even Christ By which the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted as a House by that which every joynt supplyes by that spirit and juyce which every part conveighs according to the effectual working in the measure of every part according as it wants sustentation and increase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the body which is the Brotherhood may be edified that is more and more instructed and improved by mutual love and the duty and offices of Charity which

and Preferments in the Kingdome of Christ Let us not fit Religion to our carnal desires but lay them down at the foot of Religion Make not Christianity to lacquey it after the World but let Christianity swallow up the World in victory Let us clip the wing of our Ambition and the more beware of it because it carries with it the shape and shew of Virtue For as we are told in Philosophy In habentibus symbolum facilior transmutatio amongst the Elements those two which have a quality common to both are easiliest changed one into the other so above all Vices we are most apt to fall into those which have some symbolizing quality some face and countenance of Goodness which are better drest and better clothed and bespeak us in the name of Virtue it self like a strumpet in a matrons stool Let us shun this as a most dangerous rock against which many a vessel of burden after a prosperous voyage hath dasht and sunk By Desire of honor and vain glory it comes to pass that many goodly and specious monuments which were dedicated rather to Honor then to God have destroyed and ruined their Founders who like unfortunate mothers have brought forth beautiful issues but themselves have dyed in the birth of them They have proved but like the ropes of silk and daggers of gold which Heliogabalus prepared to stab and strangle himself withall adding pretiosiorem mortem suam esse debere that his death ought to be more costly then other mens and they have served to no other end but this ut cariùs pereant that the workers of them might dye with greater state then other men and might fall to the lowest pit as the sword-players did in the Theater with noyse and applause I have spoken of the Occasion of the Question and of the Persons who put it Come we now in the last place to the Question it self Who is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven The Disciples here were mistaken in terminis in the very terms of their Question For neither is Greatness that which they supposed nor the Kingdome of heaven of that nature as to admit of that Greatness which their phansie had set up For by the Kingdome of heaven is meant in Scripture not the Kingdome of Glory but the Kingdome of Grace by which Christ sits and rules in the hearts of his Saints When John the Baptist preacht Repentance he told the Jews that the Kingdome of heaven is at hand When our Saviour tells us that it is like seed sowen in good ground like a net cast into the sea like a pearl like a treasure hid in the field what else can he mean but his Kingdome of Grace on earth not his Kingdome of Glory in heaven So that for the Disciples to ask Who is greatest in this kingdome was to shape out the Church of God by the World Much like to that which we read in Lucian of Priams young son who being taken up into heaven is brought-in calling for milk and cheese and such country cates as were his wonted food on earth For in the Kingdome of Grace that is in the Congregation of Gods Saints and the elect Members of Christ there is no such difference of degrees as Ambition taught the Disciples to imagine Not that we deny Order and Government in the Church of God No without these his Church could not subsist but would be like Aristotles army without discipline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unprofitable rout To this end Christ gave Apostles and Teachers and Pastors for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ His Teachers call us his Governors direct us to this Kingdome But the Disciples being brought up in the world thought of that Greatness which they saw did bear the sway amongst men Much like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who thought that God bare the shape of a Man because they read in Scripture of his Feet and Hands and Eyes and the like But that it was not so in Christs Kingdome may appear by our Saviour's Answer to the Question For he takes a Child and tells them that if they will be of his Kingdome they must be like unto it By which he choaks and kills in them all conceit of Ambition and Greatness For as Plato most truly said that those that dye do find a state of things beyond all expectation diverse from that which they left behind so when we are dead to the World and true Citizens of the Kingdome of Christ we shall find there is neither Jew nor Greek neither bond nor free neither male nor female but all are one in Christ Gal. 3. 28. Jesus God looks not what bloud runs in thy veins he observes not thy Heraldry If Greatness could have purchased heaven Lazarus had been in hell and Dives in Abrahams bosome Earl and Knight and Peasant are tearms of distinction on earth in the Kingdome of heaven there is no such distinction Faith makes us all one in Christ and the Crown of glory shall be set upon the head of him that grindeth at the mill as well as upon his that sitteth on the throne Christ requires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the nobility of the Soul and he is the greatest in his Kingdome who hath the true and inward worth of Honesty and Sanctity of life though in this world he lye buried in obscurity and silence Here Lazarus may be richer then Dives the beggar higher then the King and a Child the least is greatest in this Kingdome A main difference we may see between this Kingdome and the Kingdomes of the world if we compare them First the Subjects of this Kingdome are unknown to any but to God himself The foundation of the Lord standeth sure saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 2. 19. having this seal The Lord knowes who are his And if they be unknown who then can range them into orders and degrees Secondly of this Kingdome there is no end Thirdly the seat of this Kingdome is the hearts of the faithful Cathedram habet in Coelo qui domat corda His chair is in heaven that rules the hearts of the sons of men here on earth This earth that is this body of clay hath God given to the sons of men to the Princes of the earth under whose government we live But our Heaven our better part our inward and spiritual man he reserves to himself Kings and Princes can restrain the outward man and moderate our outward actions by their laws and edicts Illa se jactat in aulâ Aeolus Thus far can they go They can tye our Hands and Tongues and they can go no further For to set up an imperial throne in our Understandings and our Wills belongs to Christ alone He teacheth the lame to go and the blind to see and recovers the dry hand He makes us active in this Kingdome of Grace Lastly as their Subjects and Seat are different so are

but dust He knows our frame he remembreth we are built up of flesh as he was And he knoweth what impressions Sorrow can make in flesh He remembers that Man in the best estate is but vanity that when he is strongest he is ready to fall And then if he falls as a Man out of frailty and not as an Angel as Lucifer 's presumtuously his Compassion is ready to lift him out of the dust And this is a part of Christ's Priestly office which he begun on earth and in heaven performs for us even to the end of the world This lasts even after the Consummatum est when all was finished Christ Jesus is an Intercessor yesterday to day and for ever Behold saith Saint Stephen Acts 7. 56. I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God And every Christian by the eye of faith may see him there also even at the right hand of God interceding for us Father behold here I am and for my sake behold the children which thou hast given me It is true they have sinned for even I was tempted They have fallen but by my help are risen again They have received many spots from the world but they have been willing to wash them off with their tears that I might wash them with my bloud They have profaned thy name but they have called on thy name Oh give ear unto their cry hold not thy peace at their tears Or if thou wilt not hearken to the tears of a sinner yet behold the sighs the tears the bloudy wounds of a man that did never sin And now Father forgive them as men forgive them as my brethren To these sinners I have given the glory which thou gavest me that they may be one even as we are one And the Father of Mercy receives us and embraceth us in his arms puts upon us the best robe puts immortality upon our mortality impeccability upon our peccancie and all at the intercession of his Son who being himself tempted learnt to succour them who are tempted The Four and Twentieth SERMON PART II. MATTH IV. 1. Then was Jesus led-up of the Spirit into the wilderness c. HEre we have the Field where our Saviour coped with our adversary the Devil and the Manner how he was brought thither He was led-up of the Spirit Which motion excludeth both all violence in the person leading and all rashness and inconsiderateness in the person lead The Spirit leads gently and the quiet and gentle leading of the Spirit is as a document to us not to follow unadvisedly or indeed rather not to out-run the Spirit For when we run thus in haste we commonly run our selves out of breath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene Every man is commonly very hot in the beginning but the nearer and nearer he comes to the object the fainter and fainter he grows and when he meets it he falls down for want of spirit now a zelote anon a Laodicean now consumed with zeal anon chill and cold now a Seraphim but by and by a stone The reason hereof is from the Will of man which may easily be inclined and carried to any object though never so terrible whilst there is nothing to move the Sense and by the Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the irrational part of the soul because there the Reason doth but fight with a shadow and representation of evil but here with the evil it self full of horror and affrightment naked as it is Which now hath a double force both upon the Sense and Apprehension and by its operation on the one multiplies its terror on the other and the more it is felt the more it is understood far more terrible in its approach then in our books or contemplation And therefore it will not be safe for us to challenge and provoke a temptation but to arm and prepare our selves against it to stand upon our guard and neither to offer battel nor yet refuse it Sapiens feret ista non eliget It is the part of a wise man not to seek for evil but to endure it And to this end it concerneth every man to exercise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his spiritual wisdome that he may discover Spiritûs ductiones diaboli seductiones the Spirit 's leadings and the Devil's seducements lest he do not only seek tentations but create them and make that a provocation to evil which bespeaketh only his obedience or patience lest I conceive that the Spirit sendeth me when I resist him when I do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fall cross with him and run violently against him And this we have gained by the Spirit 's Leading We descend now in campum certaminis into the place of tryal the Wilderness For thither Jesus was led amongst the wild beasts saith St. Mark into the most forsaken and solitary desart as some have made the discovery a mountainous place between Jerusalem and Jericho not far from Galgala the place where he that fell amongst thieves was wounded where Luke 10. 20. John Baptist was before he baptized And their conjecture is probable because that desart is neer unto Jordan So that the journey was not long from Jordan where Christ was baptized to this desart where he was tempted We will not stand much upon the place or curiously search whether it were this or any other but rather modestly inquire the reasons why our Saviour would withdraw himself into a solitary place there to be tempted And here as we cannot be so unreasonable as to think that Christ had no reason to induce him to withdraw himself for a while for this were to conceive that he was led thither by chance and not by the Spirit so we must not coin reasons of our own and then set his image and superscription upon them not frame conclusions and then make his actions which are nothing like them the premisses out of which they are naturally drawn For this hath been the mother of all Error and Superstition And as Martin Luther says Nihil periculosius Sanctorum gestis Nothing is more dangerous then the actions of the Saints when they are mistaken so may we of Christs For whilst we dote upon our own phansies and then gaze and look to find them in the action of this Saint or that or of Christ himself by a kind of justice it falls out that we lose our sight and walk in the dark and think when we have buried our selves alive in idleness and a fruitless solitude that even then we are with John Baptist or with our Saviour in the Wilderness The resolution of Tertullian is most safe malo minùs sapere quàm contra It is better a great deal to know less then amiss And not to know every reason which moved our Saviour to this retiredness then for some ends of our own peremptorily to conclude this or that was the reason which is none at all Divers conjectures are given by the

Filiation Riches and the things of this world are not to be found in that Charter but an incorruptible Crown and eternal Life These later indeed are demised unto us by our new birth but the things of this world we hold by another tenure jure Creationis by the right of Creation as we are Men from him who hath made the earth and given it in possession to the children of men Therefore in the second place by this light of Nature we may condemn our selves when any bitterness towards our brother riseth in our hearts and allay or rather root it out with this consideration That it is inhumane and most unnatural That we cannot nourish it in our breasts and not fall from our creation and leave off to be Men. How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer saith the Prophet and cut down to the Isa 14. 12. ground How art thou fallen from being a minister of light to be a Prince of darkness from being so filled with the Grace of the Divinity to be a foul receptacle of malice from waiting on God in all his Majesty to be thrust down into the foulest pit there to be his executioner And how art thou faln O Man whosoever thou be that hatest thy brother from heaven for in earth there is no other heaven then what Love makes to hell it self to be a place for those foul spirits Malice and Envy to reign and riot in How art thou fall'n from thy conversing with Angels to wallow in bloud from the glory of thy creation to burning fire and to blackness and darkness and tempest from being a Man to be worse then the beasts that perish Oh what a shame is it to our royal and high discent Oh what a shame is it that Man who was formed and fashioned by the hand of Love by the God of Love by Love it self for it is Divine Love that laid the foundation of the World that breathed a soul into Man and stamped that image of God upon him that Man I say so elemented so composed so compassed about with Love should delight in war in variance and contentions that this creature of Love should be as a hot fiery furnace sending forth nothing but sulphur and stench but malice and the gall of bitterness that he who is candidatus Angelorum made to be a competitor with the Angels and in time to be equal to them made to be conformed with Christ and to be transformed into his image as the Apostle speaks should make himself a companion with Devils and for a malicious man though he be not possessed yet may be sure he carries a Devil about with him whithersoever he goes that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this honorable creature as Synesius calls Man should turn Savage should be a Beast nay a Devil to accuse deceive and destroy We use indeed to stand much upon our honor and repute But none can dishonour us more then our selves do even then when we are in our altitudes when we glory in our shame when one man hath trodden down another as the clay in the streets when we think our selves great men by making our brethren little when we contemn and despise hate and persecute them then in this height in this glory in this triumph we are the most despicable creatures on the earth in his sight who being the God of Love and having made us Men and linkt us together as Brethren cannot but look upon us as the basest and vilest creatures in the world when being grown savage we hate one another And further we carry not this consideration but pass now to view the Galatians as Brethren in that other capacity as they were Christians professing the same Faith Which our Apostle in this place might more particularly and especially mean For as they were Brethren by Nature so were they also by Grace and their coelestial Calling having one spirit one hope one faith one baptisme one calling being all brought out of the same womb of common Ignorance heirs of the same common salvation partakers of a like precious faith sealed with the same Sacraments fed with the same Manna ransomed with the same price comforted with the same glorious promises Et major fraternitas Christi quàm sanguinis saith the Father The Brotherhood we have by Christ is a greater and nearer tie then that we have by bloud or nature Hereupon Justine Martyr and Optatus have been so far charitable as to call Judaizing Christians and Donatists by the name of Brethren And we may observe that our Apostle who in all other his Epistles calleth them he writes to Saints To the Saints at Corinth To the Saints at Ephesus To the Saints at Coloss To the Saints at Philippi Grace be with you c. yet in this whole Epistle he never calls the Galatians Saints because from being Christs Disciples they had well-neer degenerated to be Moses 's Scholars and had joyned the Law with the Gospel Yet nevertheless though he will not honour them with the name of Saints yet he is very willing to call them Brethren as professing the same Christ though with an unsavory mixture and dangerous addition This may soon be gathered by any who will but take so much pains as to read this short Epistle And upon so plain an Observation as upon a foundation we shall build this Doctrine That there is such a relation such a Brotherhood betwixt all those who profess the same Faith that neither Error nor Sence nor Injury can break and dissolve it For if any or all of these had been of force enough to do it then certainly our Apostle would never have been so free as to have called the Galatians Brethren And first to Error though it have a foul aspect and bear a distastful and loathed name yet it carrieth no such monstrosity no such terror with it as to fright Brethren so far asunder as not to behold one another in that relation not to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace For if there were any such power about it the name of Brethren must needs be quite wiped out from amongst the children of men there being almost as many several opinions in the world as men and most of them erroneous For Man being subject to passion cannot improve his wisdom so far as to preserve it safe and untoucht of all errour So that no reason can be given but such as Uncharitableness or Ambition or Pride or Self-conceit use to frame and throw as fire-balls about the world to consume and devour all Brotherhood and these are no reasons but carnal pretenses why men may not be divided in opinion and yet united in charity why they may not draw opposite conclusions and yet conclude in peace why they may not have different conceptions and yet be of the same mind one towards another why they may not erre and yet be brethren For first Error may be the object of my Dislike but not of my

Piety and that then they reign as Saints when they wash their feet in the bloud of their brethren that call every opinion that is not theirs Blasphemy and that are not so hot against a foul pollution in the heart as against an error in the understanding nor so angry with a crying sin as with a supposed mistake If these be Saints then certainly our Saviour is not so meek as he hath told us or we must believe what is past understanding that our meek Saviour as he once had Judas so may now have these men of Belial for his Disciples If these men be Saints why may not Lucifer recover his place What a Saint with fire and sword with axes and hammers with fire devouring before him and a tempest round about him like the bottomless Pit sending forth smoke as out of a fornace smoke out of which come Locusts to devoure the earth a covetous malicious deceitful treacherous adulterous murderous Saint Such Saints peradventure may walk on earth or under that name but sure they will never follow the Lamb nor appear in those new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Let us I say not be like these For they say and do not they say and do the contrary What profit what honour will it be to be such an Angel as appears here in light and is reserv'd to be kept in chains of darkness for ever such a Saint as shall be turned into a Feind Let us rather take upon us the yoke of Christ who was meek and bear the burdens of these contentious men as St. Paul exhorts Let us not assault one another with lyes in the defense of Truth nor break the bonds of Charity in the behalf of Faith nor fly asunder in defense of the Corner-stone nor be shaken in pieces to secure the Rock If they separate themselves let not us withdraw our affection from them Si velint fratres si nolint fratres If they will let them be our brethren and if they will not yet let them be our brethren And in these times of hurry and noise in the midst of so many divisions and sects let us look upon every man with an eye of Charity and Meekness or as Erasmus speaks with an Evangelical eye and leaving all bitterness and rancor behind us let us walk on in a constant course of piety and holy contention with our selves not answering reviling with reviling but beating down every imagination which is contrary to Meekness doing that upon Sin in our selves which we cannot do upon Errour in others When they spurn at our Meekness and defie our silence and rebuke our innocence let us be meek and silent and innocent still When they will kill us be as silent as they who have been dead long ago that so we may possess our souls when they are ready to take them from us and be like the people of Nazianzum who by their peaceable behaviour in times of great dissention gained a name and title and were called The Ark of Noah because by this part of spiritual Wisdom they escaped that deluge and inundation of fury which had wel-near overflowed and swallowed up all the Christian world In the last place let us level our Wrath and Indignation against Sin but spare the Sinner since our selves so often do call upon God to spare us And if he did not spare us where should the righteous where should the best Saints appear It is one mark of Antichrist that he sits as God in the 2 Thess 3. 4. Temple of God shewing himself that he is God thundring out his excommunications canonizing damning absolving condemning whom he please Thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to overlook our brother thus to look down upon our brethren and dart a heavy censure at them for that which we should shed a tear is so far to follow Antichrist as to take the seat and place of God nay to put him out of his seat and to do his office nay to do that which he will not do to sentence him to death whom God for ought we know hath chosen to eternal life Nay though it doth not make a man the Antichrist yet it makes him so much Antichrist as to place him in a flat opposition to Christ himself For he is not such an angry Bishop such a proud High Priest as cannot be touched with the feeling of our sins but one who being meek and tempted himself is able and willing to compassionate those that are tempted Did we feel the burden of our brethrens sins as he did Did we apprehend the wrath of God as he did we should rather offer up prayers and supplications with Psal 69. 26. strong cryings and tears for them then tell of the misery of these wounded ones that is speak vauntingly and preach thereof as the word signifieth then let our Anger loose against them and beat upon them with all our storms I confess prudent and discreet Reprehension is as a gracious and seasonable rain but rash and inconsiderate Anger as a tempest a hurricane to waste a soul and carry all before it and dig up Piety by the root As it is truly said that most men speak against Riches not out of hatred but love unto them so do many against Sin not out of hatred to sin but love of themselves which may be as great a sin as that which they are so loud against Signum putant bonae conscientiae aliis maledicere They count it a sign of a good conscience in themselves to be angry with and speak evil of others They think themselves good if they can say others are evil Whereas true Righteousness speaks alwaies in meekness and compassion but that which is false and counterfeit breaths forth nothing but wrath reviling and indignation O beloved what soloecismes what contradictions may we observe in the School and Church of Christ men raging against Sin and yet raising a Kingdom from it in themselves loathing it as poyson and yet drinking it down as water angry with it and loving it whipping it with scorpions and yet binding it about them as a garment Jacob's sons declaiming against Uncleanness with the instruments of cruelty in their hands Absalom bewailing the Injustice of the times when himself was a Traytor Judas angry with Mary's ointment when he would have it sold and put into his bag What a pageant is it to see Sacriledge beating down Idolatry Covetousness whipping of Idleness Prophaneness pleading for the Sabbath Gluttony belching out its fumes against Drunkenness Perjury loud against Swearing and Hypocrisie riding in triumph and casting out its fire and brimstone on all And what is a groan or a sigh from a Murderer What is a Satyre from a Sodomite or a Libel from a man of Belial If Hell hath any musick this is it and the Devil danceth after it after the groans and sighs and prayers and zeal of a Pharisee And do they then well to be angry Yes they say

Isa 11. 6. the Kid and the Calf with the young Lyon but it is when they are so cicurated and tame that a little Child shall lead them It is true the visible Church is made up of both For not only without as St. John speaketh but within are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murtherers and idolaters Rev. 22. 15. as there were in the Ark of Noah both clean and unclean beasts In this Church is Cain as well as Abel Esau as well as Jacob Judas as well as Peter but they are no parts of that general Assembly no parts of the Church of the first-born which are written in heaven nor to be numbred amongst the spirits of just men made perfect That part of the Church which is thus militant in Earth shall never be triumphant in heaven Cruel Dives shall never be seen in Abraham's bosom nor the bloud-thirstie man in his armes who shed no bloud but his own and that for the sins of the world The Church which shall be saved was not planted in bloud or if it were it was in the bloud of a Lamb. It was built upon the Faith of Peter not upon his Sword When he used his sword he was commanded to put it up but his Faith was to be published to the whole World And if he had any grant or title to be the Head of the Church it was not for cutting off Malchas's ear but for laying down his own life for the Faith Many Notes have been given of the true Church by those who acknowledge none but their own notes which shew her not Multitude of true believers Why the number is but small Infallibility It is an error to think so Antiquity The Church that is now ancient was once new and by this note when it was so it was no Church Continuance to the end of the world We believe it but it is no note for we cannot see it Temporal felicity This is oftner seen in the Tents of Kedar than at Jerusalem in a band of Souldiers than in the Church which winneth more conquests in adversity than in prosperity and worketh out her way to glory in her own bloud These are Notes quae nihil indicant which shew nothing Trumpets that give an uncertain sound But if I should name Meekness as a note of the true Church I should have a fairer probability to speak for me than they For meek men if they be not of the Church yet are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven But a meek Christian is entitled not only to the earth but to heaven also The Church is a Church though her Professours be but of yesterday and though they fall into error And though it be in tribulation yet still it is a Church yea it is never more glorious then in persecution But without meekness it cannot be a Christian Church no more then a man can be a man without a soul For Meekness if it be not the essence of the Church yet is a property which floweth from its very essence For that Faith is vain which leaveth malice or rancour in the heart A Christian and a Revenger if they meet together in the same person the one is a Box of poyson the other but a title Again in the second place our Reason will tell us that Meekness is most proper to Christianity and the Church because humane Reason was too weak to discover the benefit the pleasure the glory of it Nor was it seen in its full beauty till that Light came into the world which did improve and sublime and perfect our Reason To humane Reason nothing can seem more unreasonable more unjust then To love an enemy To surrender our coat to him that hath stript us of our cloak To return a blessing for a reproach and anoint his head with oyl who hath stricken us to the ground This is a new Philosophy not heard of on earth till she was sent down from heaven On earth it was A blow for a blow and a curse for a curse Dixerit insanum qui me totidem audiet If injuries be meted out unto us we mete them back again in full measure pressed down and running over Revenge is counted an act of Justice the Pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reciprocation of injuries And what need any other law then our Grief or our Anger or where should Justice dwell but on the point of our Sword 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was the law of Rhadamanthus It is equity that he that doth should suffer what he doth and he that suffereth should return it in the same kind When those brethren in evil having slain Hamor and Shechem and spoiled their City were rebuked by their Father Jacob they were ready with this plea Should he deal with our Sister as with a Harlot No sooner is the blow given Gen. 34. 31. but the first thought is to second and return it and Nature looks upon it as upon an act of Justice In the world it goeth thus All Power and Dominion and Justice is tyed to the hilts of our Sword which if we can wield and manage dextrously with skill and success that which otherwise had been an injury is made a law The Turk to settle and establish his Religion as he first built it in bloud so giveth way to every thing that best sorteth with humane corruption to make it easie that men may not start back for fear of difficulties and as he wrought it out with his Sword so his best argument for it as it is most times in a bad cause is his Sword The Philosophers cryed down Revenge yet gave way to it chid their Anger yet gave it line thus far And both Tully and Aristotle approve it But Munit nos Christus adversus Diaboli latitudines saith Tertullian Christian discipline is a fense to keep us from these latitudes and exspatiations and pointeth out to the danger of those sins which the Heathen commended for virtues Many indeed have dealt with these precepts of our Saviour as skilful cooks do by some kind of meats which of themselves are but harsh and unpleasant cooked and sawced them to make them savoury dishes For when we see our journey long and full of rubs and difficulties we phansie something that may both shorten and level it and make it more plain and easie then indeed it is Christ our Master is so great an enemy to Murder and would have us so far detest it that he hath not suffered us to be angry Now the interpretation is We must not be angry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a cause And this emboldneth us to plead for our Wrath as Jacob's sons did when it is cruel and upon this very colour that there is good reason we should be angry For be the storm never so high be our anger never so raging yet we can pretend a cause and that cause we pretend as just otherwise we would not pretend it For who would pretend

Earth to Fortune that she would love us to the World that it would favour us and never thought of Gods Love 2. It is a Purging Love It washes away our corruption and filth and sets us upon our leggs that we may walk in love 3. It is an Overflowing Love nimia charitas as the Apostle speaks exceeding great too much Love larger then our Thoughts or our Desires passing our Understanding Sermo non valet exprimere experimento opus est Speech cannot reach it Experience must express it Feel it we may discourse of it we cannot 4. Lastly it is a Bountiful Love and it is Perpetual With an everlasting love have I loved thee saith God and He hath loved us and Jer. 31. 3. given us everlasting consolation and He hath prepared for his children a crown ● Thess 2. 16 and they are heads destinated to a diadem saith Tertullian His common gifts his earthly goods quae nec sola sunt nec summa sunt which are neither the greatest goods nor yet alone but have alwaies a mixture and taste of evil he gives unto his bastard children as Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his Gen. 25. Concubines but the heritage to Isaac the Kingdom and the Crown to the children of promise Nay further yet His Love is there greatest where it appears least In our misery and affliction in the anguish of our soul when we think he frowns upon us and is angry his love attends and waits upon us his wings are over us we alwaies carry his protection about us Suppose it be an Asp or a Basilisk we shall walk upon it a Lion or a Dragon we shall tread it under foot a Red-sea it shall divide it self a hot fiery furnace we shall be bathed in it a Lions den thou shalt be as safe in it as in thy private Chamber Suppose it poyson it shall not hurt thee a Viper thou shalt fling it off the wittiest and most exquisite torment thou shalt not feel it For martyres non eripuit sed nunquam deseruit he took not the Martyrs from the stake but did he forsake them No his love was with them at the stake and in the fire And this heat of Love did so enflame them that the fire burnt not the rack tormented not because the pain was swallowed up in Love Nay all shall work for the best to the children of God Be they Afflictions We miscall them they are but tryals but lessons and sermons Be they tears he puts them in his bottel Be they enemies and that a mighty host Behold they that 2 Kings 6. be with us are mo then they that be with them The mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha Or if not our Patience is revenge and our Sufferance heaps coals of fire upon the head of our adversaries Be it the World We so use it that we may enjoy God saith St. Augustine Be it the Flesh by Gods power we beat it down Be it the Devil himself In striving to take away he encreases our glory Be it Death It is but a passage What though we be here in disgrace the very off-scouring of the world the by-word and song of the people accounted the cause of all evils as the Christians were in the primitive times no hail no great thunder no inundation but the Christians were accused for it what though we be never so vile never so contemptible in this world we are here strangers the world knows us not because it knows not God No marvel if a 1 John 31. King unknown in another Country be coursly or injuriously used because he is unknown and in another Country Let then the world esteem of Gods children as it please They are here in an unknown place peregrini deorsum cives sursum like mountains or high hills as Seneca speaks of his Philosopher Their growth and tallness appears not to men afar off but to those who come nigh At the Day of Judgment there will another account be made When God appears we shall be like unto him Then the note will be changed and the cry alter'd We fools thought their life madness and their end without honour but now they are counted amongst the children of Wisd 5. God and their portion amongst his dear Saints And are God's children dear unto him Sure this benefit hath a tye and this encrease of God's love calls for an increase of gratitude He expects that he should be dear to us For though God's love be not as Man's love negotiatio as Seneca speaketh a kind of a market-love with which we traffick and from it expect gain yet he expects that we should love him again Not that our Love can profit him but for our own sakes He will not love at randome he will not cast away his Love nor his Mite but he will have it repayed But if his ten Talents be laid up in a Napkin laid aside as not worth the using then his anger riseth and his indignation is high and he will not only take away his Talents but will bind thee hand and foot and cast thee into Prison and punish thee as an unprofitable servant It is so even with us Men. No wound greater to us then that which Ingratitude giveth If it bad been my enemy I could have borne it saith David but it was my familiar friend with whom I took sweet counsel that did me this wrong When Cassius and the rest set upon Caesar with their Poniards in the Senate-house he defended himself with silence but when Brutus struck he covered his face with his robe with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What thou my son Brutus That Brutus stab'd him this was the Steletto at his heart It is so with God We cannot offend him more then by unthankfulness Ingratum si dixeris omnia dixeris For in it are all sins Infidelity begets it and we cannot name a greater sinner then an Infidel A sin this is so hateful and detestable to God that we find him complaining to the Heavens and to the Earth of the Jews ingratitude Hear O Heavens and hearken O Earth Isa 1. for I have nourished rebellious children And he might well complain The Jews were his peculiar people culled out of the whole world graced with the Title of Populus meus They were his people his dear people like Gideons fleece full of the dew of heavenly benediction when all the earth was dry besides a Signet on God's right hand a Seal on his heart and as the Apple of his eye his Vineyard which he hedged about planted with the best plants built a Tower in the midst of it and spared no diligence to better it a Nation which he raised and increased and defended with wonders How can he then now bear with their ingratitude How can he be pleased with these wild grapes of Disobedience and Stubborness and Rebellion Surely as he hath threatned he will pluck off

their Laws In the Common-wealth of Rome the Laws were the works of many hands Some of them were Plebiscita the acts of the people others Senatus Consulta the decrees of the Senate others edicta Praetorum the verdicts of their Judges others Responsa prudentum the opinions of Wise men in cases of doubt others rescripta Imperatorum the rescripts and answers of their Emperors when they were consulted with Christiani habent regulam saith Tertullian Christians have one certain immoveable rule the Word of God to guide and rule them in their life and actions Besides the Laws of the Kingdome of Christ are eternal substantial indispensable But the laws made by humane autority are many of them light and superficial all of them temporary and mutable For all the humane autority in the world can never enact one eternal or fundamental law Read the Laws that men have made and lay them together and we shall observe that they were made upon occasion and circumstance either of Time or Place or Persons and therefore either by discontinuance have fallen of themselves or by reason of some urgent occasion have been necessarily revoked But the Laws of our Great King are like himself everlasting never to be revoked or cancelled but every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and tittle of them to stand fast though heaven and earth pass away Thus you see the Kingdome of Christ and the Kingdomes of this world have not the same face and countenance the Subjects of the one being discernable of the other unknown their seat and place and lawes are different So that our Saviour as he answered the sons of Zebedee Yee know not what yee ask so he might have replied to his Disciples here Yee know not what yee speak My kingdome is not of this world The kingdome of heaven is within you Why ask you then Who is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven That you commit no more such soloecisms behold here a little child let him teach you how to speak and become like him and you shall be great in the kingdome of heaven We see then that the Disciples of Christ were much mistaken in this question of greatness And a common error it is amongst men to judge of spiritual things by carnal of eternal by temporary When our Saviour preached to Nicodemus the Doctrine of Regeneration and New life what a gross conceit did he harp upon of a Re-entry to be made into his mothers womb When he told the Samaritane of the water of life her thoughts ran on her pitcher and on Jacob's well When Simon Magus saw that by laying on of hands the Apostles gave the holy Ghost he hopes by money to purchase the like power For seeing what a kingdome Money had amongst men he streight conceived Coelum venale Deumque that God and Heaven might be bought with a price Thus wheresoever we walk our own shadow goes before us and we use the language and dialect of the World in the School of Christ we talk of Superiority and Power and Dominion in that Kingdome wherein we must be Priests and Kings too but by being good not great The sense which the Disciples through error meant was this Who should be greatest Who should have most outward pomp and glory Who should have precedency above others But the sense which as appears by our Saviours answer they should have meant was Who is the greatest that is Who is of the truest and reallest worth in the kingdome of heaven This had shewed them Disciples indeed whose eyes should be the rather on the Duty then on the Reward and who can have no greater honor then this that they deserve it Though there be places of outward government of praeeminence and dignity in the Church yet it ill becomes the mouth of a Disciple to ask such a Question For though they all joyntly ask Who is the greatest yet it appears by the very question that every one of them did wish himself the man An evil of old very dangerous in the Church of Christ but not purged out in after ages Per quot pericula sath St. Augustine pervenitur ad grandius periculum Through how many dangers and difficulties do we strive forward to Honor which is the greatest danger of all Ut dominemur aliis priùs servimus saith St. Ambrose To gain Dominion over others we become the greatest slaves in the world What an inundation had this desire of Greatness made in the Church how was it ready to overwhelm all Religion and Piety had there not been banks set up against it to confute it and Decrees made to restrain it The Deacon would have the honor of the Priest the Priest the Consistory of the Bishop The Bishops seat was not high enough but he would be a Metropolitane and to that end procured Letters from the Emperors which the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which they obteined that where there was formerly but one there might now be two Metropolitanes And all these no doubt were Disciples of Christ if for no other reason yet for this QUIS EST MAXIMUS for their affectation of Greatness And now what followed As one well observes Ex religione ars facta Religion was made a trade and an art to live by Till at last it was cried down in divers Councels at Chalcedon at Trullum in Constantinople and others And in the Councel of Sandis a Bishop is forbidden to leave the government of a small City for a greater Of all men Ambition least becomes a Disciple of Christ And therefore Christian Emperors did after count him unworthy of any great place in the Church who did affect it Quaeratur cogendus rogatus recedat invitatus effugiat Being sought for let him be compelled being askt let him withdraw himself being invited let him refuse Sola illi suffragetur necessitas recusandi Let this be the only suffrage to enthrone him that he refus'd it Maximè ambiendus qui non est ambitiosus For it is fit that he that doth not seek for should be sought for by preferment And to this purpose it was that our Saviour answers the Disciples not to what they meant but to what they should have meant to divert them from all thought of dominion And withal he implyes that that is not Greatness which they imagined but that Humility and Integrity of life was the truest Greatness and greatest Honor in his Kingdome And to speak the truth this only deserves the name of Greatness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Goodness is not placed in Greatness but Greatness in Goodness To go in costly apparel to fare deliciously to have a troup to follow us perhaps wiser then our selves this we may call what we please but Greatness it cannot be We read in Seneca the Orator of one Senecio an Orator who affected much grandia dicere to speak in a lofty stile and great words Which affectation in his art after turn'd to a disease so that he would have

we look towards the mercy-seat and if God extreamly mark what is done amiss whose joynts of his loins are not loosed whose knees smite not one against another who is there able to abide it God is our Judge and he alone must quit us He is offended and he must forgive us Come and let us return unto him for he hath suffered us to be spoiled and he will heal us to be wounded and he will bind us up After two dayes he will revive us and the third he will raise us up He is our Creditour and hath taught us to pray unto him to forgive us our debts Every sin properly is against him either immediately when we sin against the first Table or mediately when we sin against the second when we strike God through our neighbour's side and so by breaking the Law wrong the Law-giver And therefore he only can forgive our sins against whom our sins are most properly committed Nathan indeed pronounced Davids pardon Deus transtulit peccatum and so may be said to remit his sin ministerialiter by way of office and ministery but God did it autoritativè by way of power right and autority Nathan had his commission from God and if comfort had not shined from thence David had still lain in sorrow and as yet remained in the dust of Death Ten moneths were now passed since his sin was committed and yet we read of no compunction He lay stupefied in sin and was like a man sleeping in the midst of his enemies Oh then whose heart can conceive those thoughts which possessed him when he awaked His river of tears could not now express his grief He saw God who was wont to guide him in his paths and direct him in his wayes now withdrawing himself hiding his face from him and leaving him under the burden of his sin And high time it was to call him back again to seek him by importunity of prayer to send after him sighs and groans to sow in tears that he might reap in joy Look now upon David whosoever thou art that carriest Man and Frailty about thee Behold him lying on the ground see him pressed down with the burden of his sin and then think his case thine Think the time may come when thou mayest have no feeling of Christ at all and thy poor soul may be as a man desolate in the night without comfort that it may be beaten down to the dust and thy belly cleave unto the earth Tell me whom then wilt thou fly unto for succour what balme wilt thou search out to refresh thee The Pope may be liberal and open his treasuries and let fly an Indulgence But it is not a Pardon from him can help thee Alass miserable comfort is this A merry tale well told is far better Yet it may be thou hopest to make the law of Unrighteousness thy strength to drown thy sorrows in a cup of wine to leave them behind thee and lose them amongst merry company In this thou dost but like the Dog break the chain and draw a great part of it after thee O then if thou fall with David with David trust in the Lord. What if his Jealousie burn like fire let thy tears quench it Let thy prayers like pillars of smoke mount upwards and pierce the clouds and offer an holy violence to God Then when Hope is almost changed into Despair thou shalt find Christ and feel him coming again then Faith shall revive and lay faster hold on him then shall the joy of thy salvation be restored And when thy soul is heavy and thy heart is disquieted and thy bowels vexed within thee then will he look upon thy misery and cause his face to shine and the peace of conscience like a sweet sleep shall fall upon thee I come now in the third place to speak of the Person King David Restore to me And who can look upon him but thorough tears Who can behold him and not look down unto his own steps Whose pride can lift him up so high as to make him think the Devil cannot reach him and pull him down Or is not David sent to us as Nathan was to him to tell us by his example that unless God put under his hand he that stands surest may take a fall and that he who thinks himself like mount Sion may be moved Surely if there be such Perfectionists such proud Pharisees that dare fling a stone at an adultress and proclaim themselves without sin if there be any whose Purity dare stand out with God and answer him more then for one of a thousand they might well take leave to demand that priviledge which that cursed Sect in Saxony bragged of of whom Sleidan reporteth Who boasted that they had private conference with God and a command from him to kill all the wicked of the earth and so to make a new world whose purity should plead for it self and not need the help of a Mediatour But these men were possessed with more then a Novation spirit and in their adventure to hell out-bid the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which the manners of many turbulent spirits in our Church have long since Englished Whose Religion as Nazianzene speaketh was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose piety was boasting whose purity was impure We craftily made as he after observes the elegancy of the name a bait to catch the ignorant and unwary multitude Cursed and cruel men who have not so much pity in them as the Levite in the Gospel He saw the man wounded vouchsafed him a look and then passed by These by a witty and new kind of cruelty as Cyprian calls it till him that is already wounded take away even the hope of recovery and oppose the thunder of an excommunication even to the least noise of sin refusing the penitency and contrition of their brother and denying the mercy of their Father which is in heaven justly deserving a hell because they threaten it and the surest heirs of damnation because they make all others so But what is this the state of Mankind that we must either be viler then the worms of the earth only fuel for hell-fire or else stand out with God and contend for purity with the Most High No foolish Sectary we have better learned Christ Each Christian if he look upon David will quickly see upon what ground he stands and that if every fall after Baptism were as far as hell Gods promise would be suspected and Repentance which is offered to the greatest sinner would be proposed to mock not to comfort us like a staff held out to look on not to help us or like a mess of meat upon a dead mans grave for which we should be never awhit the better We behold the Saints throwing down their crowns before the Throne and can we either with the Anabaptist think we can attain to a perfect Rev. 4. degree of regeneration or with the supererogating Papist rob God of his honor pull heaven

unto us and make it not Gods gift but our own conquest What suckling in Religion knows not to distinguish between perfection of Parts and perfection of Degrees We know our Sanctification is universal not total in every part but in part Our Understanding is enlightned yet there remains some darkness our Will rectified yet some perversness our Affections ordered and subdued yet prone to disobedience our whole man sanctified but not wholly We propose to our selves not this or that but every commandment to observe We compose and order our life to the rule and shun whatsoever is repugnant to it but we do but begin not finish We make Perfection our prayer not our boast and expect it not here but in heaven One while we have need of the cords of love to lead us another while of the thunderbolts of Gods judgments to terrifie us One while the thought of hell must beat us from sin another while the love of heaven must lead us in the paths of righteousness Now his promises now his threatnings must excite us Let Fulgentius conclude this point Perfecti sumus spe futurae glorificationis imperfectionere corruptionis It is in his Book ad Monimum We are perfect in respect of the hope of future Glory imperfect if we consider this body of death this burden of corruption perfect in expectation of the reward the crown of glory imperfect as we are in the battel in the race fighting and running to obtain this Crown And this was St. Pauls Perfection Let as many as be perfect that is in some degree and Phil. 3. 15. in respect of others For v. 12. he accounts not himself to have obtained or to be already perfect And v. 13. he professeth Brethren I account not my self that I have attained one thing I do I forget that which is behind and endeavour my self to that which is before Now then let not Frailty and Infirmity dispute with its Creator He that once was taken up into the third heaven had so much earth about him as to feel the combat between the Flesh and the Spirit He that was a chosen vessel had some cracks in him and had fallen to pieces and lost that heavenly treasure had not God preserved it Job's answer best fits a Christian's mouth Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee Job 40. 4. I will lay my hand upon my mouth Yet look up too Let not Desperation keep thee down but let the power of godly Sorrow lift thee up again Know that to confess thy sin and to repent is as it were to make the Angels a banquet and to send more joy to heaven Let Repentance reconcile thee with God then though the Devil strive to cover thee over in the grave of sin yet thou shalt come forth though thy bones be broken yet they shall rejoyce and to thee now as to David then the joy of thy salvation shall be restored The last part the Object Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation Davids request is for Peace of conscience the joy of Gods salvation that which St. Paul calls joy in the holy Ghost The Septuagint render it by the Rom. 14. 17. Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies more then joy even exultation and rejoycing and triumphing for joy like that of the Church Psal 126. When the Lord brought again the captivity of Sion we were like them that dream Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with joy It is the highest degree almost excess and surfet of Joy God may let me feel it but express it I never can Tell me Christian or indeed canst thou tell me what joy thou conceivest at this spiritual banquet Doth doubt arise within thee because Christ is not present See here he hath left a pledge and pawn behind him his blessed Sacrament Take eat this is his body Thou shalt never hunger Take drink this is his bloud Thou shalt never thirst Dost thou believe Believe then he is nearer to thee in these outward elements then the Papists would make him beyond the fiction of Transubstantiation When the Priest delivers to thee the sanctified Bread let thy meditation lead thy Saviour from his Cradle to his Cross His whole life was to lead thy captivity captive And now with the eyes of faith behold him stretcht out upon the Cross and think thy self unburdened and that heavy weight laid upon thy Saviours shoulders and then thou canst not chuse but suppose thou heardst him groan It was a heavy burden that fetcht that groan from him A strange thing thy sins which were not yet committed pierced him Yet let not despair take thee Anon thou shalt hear that triumphant and victorious noise It is finished A voice which rent the vail of the Temple in twain clove the stones made the earth to quake and was able to have changed not that place alone to what once it was if we may believe some Geographers but the whole world into a Paradise When the Priest offers thee the Cup think then thou seest Christ bleeding and pouring out non guttam sed undam sanguinis not drops but streams of bloud Think thou seest per vulnera viscera through his wounded side the bowels of Compassion And then think thou art partaker of his promise already and that now thou drinkest with him in his Fathers kingdome Tell me now Where art thou Is not this to be rapt into the third heaven Now thou canst call God Father now thou art sure of thy perseverance now thou canst think of hell without fear and horror Thou canst make thy bed of sickness look sorrowful only to thy friends and whilst they stand weeping and howling by thy bed side thou shalt have no other cause of lamentation but that they lament thee And then in the midst of shreeks and outcryes when with trembling hands they close up thy eyes as if they close up their hopes thy soul shall pass away and settle it self in Abrahams bosome If this be not joy indeed and exultation and triumphing for joy if this be not above an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tell me What Paradise shall we search for it where shall we find it When my cogitations settle upon this blessed object methinks I see a Christian in his white and triumphant robes walking upon the pavement of heaven laughing at and scorning the vanities of the world looking upon them as an aged man would on childrens toyes beginning with Nazianzene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a fellow-citizen with the Angels and with Cyprian miserere saeculi to look down upon the world with pity and compassion being even now a type of a glorified Saint and the resemblance of an Angel I could loose my self in this Paradise I could build a Tabernacle upon this Mount Tabor for even but to speak of it is delight My Conclusion shall be in Prayer O thou who art the Father of this joy and God of all consolation whose

never forsake his creature whilst there is any hope of return O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee O Judah what shall I do Hos 6. 4. unto thee Canst thou find out any thing Alass what canst thou find out who art as a silly dove without heart But whatsoever my Wisdome my infinite Hos 7. 11. Wisdome can find out whatsoever may forward thy conversion whatsoever may be done I will do it And therefore as Sin and Iniquity have increased so have the Means to reclaim it As Wickedness hath broken in as a floud so hath Judgment been poured forth and doth swell wave upon wave line upon line judgment upon judgment to meet it and purge it and carry it away with it self and so run out both together into the boundless ocean of Gods Mercy This is Gods method who knows whereof we are made and therefore must needs know what is fittest to cure us For as when our bodies having been long acquainted with some gentle kind of Physick and the disease at last grows too strong for it it commends the art of the good Physician to add strength to his potion that so at last he may conquer the malady So Mans sinful disease in the last age of the World being much increased it pleaseth God to use stronger means to cure it If his little army of Caterpillars if common calamities will not purge us he brings in Sword and Famine and Pestilence to make the potion stronger If the enemies Sword cannot launce our ulcers he will make us do it with our own If fightings without cannot move us he will raise terrors within He will pour down hailstones and coals of fire that we may thirst for his dew and gentle rain He will set us at variance with one another that we may long to be reconciled to him and by the troubles of one Kingdome learn to pray and pray heartily for that other which is to come That so if possible he may save some and pull them as brands out of the fire singed and scorcht but not consumed That if men will repent them of their evil wayes he may repent him of the evil he imagined against them as he sometimes told his people by the mouth of his Prophet Ezekiel Our third general part was the consideration of the Behaviour which our Saviour commends unto us in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Look up and lift up your heads words borrowed from the behaviour which men use when all things go as they would have them When we have what we desire when success hath fill'd our hopes and crowned our expectation then we look up and lift up our heads As Herbs when the Sun comes near them peep out of the earth or as Summer-Birds begin to sing when the Spring is entred so ought it to be with us when these things come to pass This Winter should make us a Spring this noise and tumult should make us sing Wars Famines Plagues Inundations Tumults Confusion of the world these bring in the Spring of all true Christians and by these as by the coming of Summer-Birds we are forewarned that our Sun of Righteousness draws near Indeed unto Nature and the eye of the World such are sad and uncouth spectacles sights far from yielding comfort or being taken for authors of welcome news and therefore our Saviour pointing out to the behaviour which in this case the world doth use tells us in the words foregoing my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men should be ready to sound for fear ARESCENTIBUS HOMINIBUS saith the Vulgar men should dry and wither away for fear as Leaves smitten with mildew or blasting or fading away with unreasonable heat Lest therefore our hearts should fail us upon the sight of these signs our Saviour forewarns us that all these ostenta these apparitions bode us no harm nor can bring any evil with them but what we our selves will put upon them that for all these signs in the heaven for all this tumult and confusion upon earth even then when the foundations are shaken and the world is ready to sink we may lift up our heads When you see these things come to pass look up lift up your heads Let us a little weigh these words For they are full and expressive talent-weight They are a prediction and they are an admonition which is saith Clemens as the diet of the soul to keep it in an equal temper and a setled constitution against those evils and distempers of the mind which as Tully speaks do tumultuantem de gradu dejicere cast it down with some kind of disorder and confusion from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that quietness and silence which is the best state and condition of the soul as Fear and Sorrow the unhappy parents of Murmuring and Repining which press down the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the gross and bruitish part which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fall of the Soul the symptomes and indications whereof are a cast-down Look and a Head bowed down like a bull-rush For 1. Fear is a burden that maketh us not able to look upwards towards that which might rid and ease us of it but towards something that may hide and cover us When Adam had sinned God comes toward him in the cool of the day in a wind as it is rendred by some and as the word signifies in such a sound as he never heard before and he presently runs into the thicket hides himself amongst the trees of the garden If the King of Jericho pursues Joshua's spies they run under the stalks of flax and if Saul pursues David he betakes himself to some cave Fear may make us look distractedly about with a wandring inconstant unsetled eye but not to look up it may make us hide our heads but not lift them up If an Evil bite Fear is the tooth and if it press down Fear is the weight Behold here this tooth is broken and this weight is taken away by Wisdome it self in these words Look up lift up your heads 2. Grief is another weight that presseth down Why art thou cast down O my Soul saith David And Psal 42. Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop saith Solomon Sorrow Prov. 12. 2● kept Aaron from eating the sin-offring cast Job on the ground and David on the ground and Ahab on his bed An evil disease it is under the Sun but here you have a medicine for it a medicine to make a merry heart Look up lift up your heads 3. These two Fear and Sorrow are the mother and the nurse the beginners and fomenters of all Murmuring and Repining For as Fear so Sorrow is nothing else but a kind of distaste and grudge of the mind Imperari dolori silentium non potest The Murmurer cannot be silent He will complain to any man to any thing to the Night to the Day to the Sun to the Moon as he in the Comedy

He will reproach his Head his Belly his Stomach any part that causes grief as Tragaedians use to chide their Eyes as if they heard as the Poet brings in Ulysses in a dialogue and contention with his own Heart When he is fed with Manna he will ask for Garlick and Onyons When he is in the way to a land flowing with milk and honey he will return to sit by flesh-pots he will chide with Moses and chide with God and prefer a Calf to them both He will have this to day and will not have it to morrow He will have night when it is day and day when it is night He will have miracles and slight them signs and run from them He doth palos terminales Deo figere as Tertullian speaks bound and circumscribe God limitate the Holy one of Israel set up a stake and land-mark to which God must come and yet not know where to place it He loaths the meat should feed him and the physick which should work his health In a word Murmuring and Repining is a monster that as the Proverb is is never well neither full nor fasting I call it a Monster For it is the issue of divers passions Fear and Sorrow which meeting in the heart ingender and bring it forth to quarrel with the Wisdome and question the Providence of God to censure his counsels and to condemn his proceedings to approve of that which he complains of and complain of that which he dispenseth for our Good Why was I not made impeccable saith one why was not I so made up that I might not sin Why do I feel this fight and contention between the Spirit and the Flesh Why was I made weak and commanded to be strong Why was I born in these times of hurry and noise saith another and not in these halcyon-dayes of peace and plenty Why was I reserved to these last dayes to hear of wars and rumors of wars of earthquakes and famine and plague to see the Church broken into Sects and crumbling away into Conventicles to see the world return into a worse Chaos and confusion then that out of which it was made that is Why am I a man The language of the Murmurer is Why hast thou made me thus The Power of God the Wisdome of God the Goodness and Mercy of God cannot quiet and silence him who wavering and double-minded resting only on his own fickle flitting abortive thoughts is never at rest For he that doth do nothing but what he list will do nothing what he should He that will be nothing but what he please is his own idol and so is Nothing in this world Now these words here of our Saviour are like that pitch and fat and hair which Daniel did seeth together and if we can put them into this Monsters mouth it will soon burst asunder If we can take them down and digest them they will remove our Fear dry up our Sorrow and stop the mouth of the Murmurer for ever For when Christ bids us look up and lift up our heads his meaning is that we should so fit and prepare our selves that we may look up and lift them up He would not bid the Covetous man who is buried alive in the earth look up He would not bid the Wanton who is drowned in lust look up He would not bid him who is dead in sin look up Or if he did his meaning would be First learn to hate the world to fight against thy lusts to arise from the dead and then Christ shall give thee light and strength that thou mayest look up and lift up thy head Then thou art his Servant and when he says Go thou must go though it be upon the point of the sword or else thou art not his servant Then thou art his Merchant and when he holds forth his rich pearl thou must buy it though it be with thy bloud or else thou art not his Merchant then thou art his Souldier and thou must fight when and where he placeth thee against all terrors whatsoever or else thou art not his Souldier Lo I have told you before saith our Saviour see that you be not troubled If you be not wanting to your Captain your Captain will not be wanting unto us he will neither leave us nor forsake us In this one Look there is more then a look there is Charity labouring Faith quickning Hope reaching forth her hand These three will lift up our heads above these terrors into the highest heavens We read in the book of Judges that when Gideon set upon the Midianites his army had nothing but empty pitchers and trumpets and lamps in their hands yet was this enough to put to rout the whole army of the Midianites Even thus doth our Captain Jesus Christ For this army of Signs in heaven in the sea in the earth Famine Plague Persecution and the like what are they but trumpets and empty pitchers to them that know them And if we fear them and disorder and rout our selves and run away we are not of the army of God and of Gideon we are but Midianites I know these things may seem somewhat hard nay peradventure utterly impossible with men who are but dust and ashes And I may be thought to speak tanquam in republica Platonis non tanquam in face Romuli as if I were in a congregation of Saints and not in an assembly of men subject to passions and so to sin ready to fear where no fear is to grieve for that which is pleasant and behoofful to murmure where there is no cause to hang down their heads like a bullrush when they should lift them up Is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh of brass Illi ferrum aes triplex Job 6. 12. circa pectus Is it possible we should see the world fall down about our ears and not fear And in Famine to hear our children calling for bread when there is none to give them and not be disconsolate In time of Plague to see our selves forsaken of all and constrained perhaps to breathe out our last upon no better pillow then a stone or a turf under no better canopy then the cold air and be content Can we hear the noise of the whip and the jumping of the chariots and the prancing of the horses nay the noyse and groans of dying men who would but cannot dye and be unmoved Can we see the tears of widows drilling down their cheeks behold little orphans made miserable before they know what misery is and deprived of their fathers before they could call them so can we see rivers of bloud and have dry eyes Shall a whole Nation totter and we stand fast Shall we have no safe place for our heads and yet lift them up I know Compassion is a virtue and to weep with them that weep is a virtue but then even when we weep we must also rejoyce in tribulation Nature may draw tears but Grace

not shine Son of man saith God to his Prophet if thou warn the wicked and he turn not from his wicked Ezek. 3. 19. way he shall die in his iniquity but thou hast delivered thine own Soul There is the Return of his Prophecy Whether the Salutation rest or not it doth not vanish Numquid consecrata perdimus For can we think that lost which we consecrate to God Still the Apostles incense smells even when it is out We are unto God saith St. Paul a sweet 2 Cor. 2. 15. savour in them that are saved That we doubt not of But it follows and in them that perish For neither Death nor Hell can take away the sweet and fragrant smell of this incense Though many that heard St. Paul did wax wanton against Christ though many had their consciences 1 Tim. 5. 11. seared with an hot Iron though many made shipwrack of their Faith 1 Tim. 4. 2. yet St. Paul is bold to proclaim it to the whole world I have fought 1 Tim. 1. 19. a good fight I have finisht my course All that is required at our hands is that we speak the Word though we be not heard For though we speak and be not heard yet no other thing befalls us than what befalls our Lord and Master who knows and sees that his Sunshine and Rain is every day abused and yet the Sun becomes not as a Sack nor the earth as brass Who calls and calls aloud and again and again to those deaf Adders which will not hear Whose providence many times watcheth over those who deny his Providence and in a manner cast him out of the World And therefore as he saith Demus etiamsi multa in irritum demus Let us give though we give many things in vain so let us speak the word let us preach the doctrine of Peace though the event prove not answerable to our hopes For in the third and last place in vain it cannot be though it be in vain and lost it cannot be though it be buried Though it find not the effect to which it was principally ordeined yet an effect it will have Aut fiet in illis aut de illis It shall be accomplisht either in those to whom it is spoken or upon them For it is not the Disciples word but the Masters and when it is gone forth out of his mouth it shall not return unto him voyd it shall not fall to Isa 55. 11. 1 Sam. ● 4. 1● the ground Quicquid condidit virtus coelum est sayth the Poet Whatsoever is done by the hand of Virtue is as lasting as the Heavens But that which we do at the command of our Master in the name and person of Christ is more lasting than the Heavens Heaven and Earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away Luk. 21. ●● The Heavens shall be gathered together as a scrowle but one iota or title shall in no wise pass from Gods word That Word which we contemn and tread under our feet shall rise up again and rise up against us That Word which we laught at is still in being and shall appear again to make us cry and howl That Word for which we stoned the Prophets and killed those that brought it shall be quick and active and vocal to condemn us That Word for which Micah was smitten on the face shall make that face as the face of an Angel That Word which brought St. Paul unto the block shall return and bring him into Heaven and put a crown upon his head Whether it meet with honour or dishonour with stripes with imprisonment with persecution with death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will certainly return again Cast thy Eccl. 11. 1. bread upon the waters sayth Solomon for thou shalt find it after many dayes even find it there where it might be thought to perish and be lost The wiseman seems to allude to the nature and property of some Rivers which when they have run on sweetly and watered some few Provinces hide themselves under the earth and at last break forth again and rise and appear in other coasts Cast thy bread venture all thy dutys upon these waters which though they seem to run out of thy sight and to bury themselves in the bowels of the earth though they be covered over with calumnies and disgraces with misery and affliction yet will break forth and have their course again and bear thee before the Sun and the People to the land of the living To shut up all in a word Publish Peace and whether thy Salutation meet with a son of Peace or an enemy of Peace whether it be entertained with reverence or rejected with scorn whether it meet with a prepared heart or a heart of stone whatsoever the event be thy labour is not in vain in the Lord. For though it seem to be lost yet it will return again It will return to thee in this life with an olive-branch with peace of Conscience and joy in the holy Ghost Nor will it leave thee so but when thou art dead it will follow thee to those new heavens and that new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness and peace and joy unspeakable for evermore The Eighteenth SERMON Rom. XI 20. Well because of unbelief they were broken off and thou standest by faith Be not high minded but fear MAN being a reasonable Creature one would think he should need no other conduct to lead him in his way to bliss than the light of those precepts which are most reasonable Be not high-minded Why should we but fear Why should we not the one posting us one till we bulg on the rocks the other warily steering our course till we are brought unto the Haven What need there any more incitements to the fulfilling of a Law then Knowledg of it that it is just and faculty and ability to perform it Indeed good reason it is that our Reason and Will should incline to that which is reasonable but Man as he is endued with Reason so is he also with Passion by which he becoms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 various and manifold and mutable in his wayes Nullum morosius animal nullum majori arte tractandum could the Philosopher say No creature more froward and headstrong none more intractable than Man And therefore God also condescends in mercy and is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 various and manifold in his instruction teaching us to avoid those evils which bring desolation on our Souls not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his written word but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the examples of other men so visible that we may run and read them He hath painted out every Sin with the very bloud of the offendor He hath beat out the teeth of oppression in one whipt Idleness in another Stricken Pride in a third So that Sins are not better known than the Punishment of Sins nor Gods Precepts more remarkable than his Judgments Now

made easier every day by the word of the Spirit by the Gospel of Christ by the power of which the Eye that was open to vanity is pluckt out the Hand that was reaching at forbidden things is cut off the Ear which was open to Every Sirens song is stopped the Phansie checked the Appetite dulled the Affections bridled and the whole man sequestred and abstracted out of the world And now in the second place if we consider the nature of the Spirit what should he inspire Man with but with that which fits him and his condition Whither can he who made him lead him but to himself to his original To all that are in the world the voice of the Spirit is Come out of it escape for your lives Look not behind you neither stay in it Fly into the wilderness Rest your selves in the contemplation of the Goodness and Mercy of God This is the dialect of the Spirit nor can he speak otherwise For Heaven and Earth are not so opposite as the Prince of this world and the Spirit of God Who hates Mammon till we make it our friend reviles the things of this world till they help to promote us to things above forbids those things which are without till we make them useful to those things which are within Who convinceth reproveth condemneth and will judge the world If you are so greedy of the things of this world that you would have stones made bread if you go into the City and climb the pinacle of the Temple if from the mountain you take a survey of the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them you may know who hath you by the hand The Text doth intimate that the Devil doth then take us up The Spirit of God leads us in the wayes of Gods Providence unknown to the world he takes us into the wilderness far from the noyse and business of this world he leads us not to the mountain to view kingdoms but draws us down into the valley there by an humble dependance on God to learn to contemn the world The Flesh fighteth against the Spirit and so doth the world and these are contrary And as many as are led by the Spirit are the sons of God saith St. Paul Which they cannot be till they renounce the World For what is our Filiation our Adoption but a receiving us out of the world into his family We must leave the world behind us before we can say Abba Father In a word the Spirit of God doth in a manner destroy the World before its dissolution makes that which men so run after so wooe so fight for as dung or at best it makes the world but a Prison which we must struggle to get out of but a Sodom out of the which we must haste to escape to the holy Hill to the mountain lest we be consumed or but a Stage to act our parts on where when we have reviled disgraced and trod it under foot we must take our Exit and go out Let us now draw down all this to our selves by use and application Here we may easily see what it is to which the Spirit leads us It leads us out of the world into the wilderness from the busie noyse and tumults there to the quiet and sweet repose we may find in the contemplation and working of a future estate He leads the carnal man to make him spiritual For what Ezek. 2. 6. is a Christian mans life but a going out of a world full of Scorpions a leaving it behind him by the Conduct of the Spirit The Spirit leads us not cannot lead us to the Flesh nor to the World which spreads a bed of roses for the Flesh to lye down and sport in For this is against the very nature of the Spirit as much as it is for light bodies to descend or heavy ones to move upwards Fire may descend the Earth may be removed out of its place the Sun may stand still or go back the sweet influences of the Pleiades may be bound and the bonds of Orion may be loosed 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 The Spirit of God is a lover of Man a hater of the World and from the World he leads Man to himself He led not Cain into the field it was a field of bloud He led not Dinah to see the daughters of the land she went out and was defiled He led not David to the roof of his house it was a fatal prospect it was but a look and it let in the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life even all that is in the world at once into his heart But he leads thee to thy chamber there to commune with thy own heart He leads thee to the house of mourning to learn the end of all men He leads thee to the Temple to behold the beauty of the Lord. He leads thee from Bethaven to Bethel from the world to the place where his honor dwelleth These are the Spirits leadings His Dictons are Blessed are the poor Blessed are the meek Blessed are they that mourn This is no part of the musick of this World We find in our books of that Semiramis that famous Queen of Babylon caused this inscription to be written on her Tomb THAT HE THAT OPENED IT SHOULD FIND IN IT GREAT TREASURE which when Darius had read allured by this fair and promising inscription he brake it up but within found no treasure but a writing that told him that if he had not been a notorius wicked person he would not have broken-up the sepulchres of the dead to look for treasure We may indeed when we read of Riches and Pleasure and Glory in the Word of great Riches lasting Pleasures infinite Joy feed our selves with false hopes here but these are but as a fair inscription upon a Tomb when we have broken them up read them uncovered in their proper sense we shall find nothing but Poverty and Sorrow and Dishonor within and withal a sharp reproof for those who search the Gospel to find the World there or walk to Ophir to the hills of the robbers to a Mahumetical Paradise a Kingdome of Saints upon earth a Thousand years pleasure and perswade themselves the Spirit hath them by the hand and leads them to it Beloved Sensuality and Ambition are two the greatest enemies the Spirit hath and the Spirit fights against them If Diotrephes will have the highest seat the Spirit leads him not If the ground of our Religion be From hence have we our gain it is the Prince of this world and not the Spirit who leads us If we make Religion to Lackey it after us and accomplish our lusts we have left the Spirit behind us Mammon is our guide If the Bishop of Rome dream of Kingdoms of Universal power and Infallibile judgment

venture so often at the needless eye A strange thing it is that men should be so bold to attempt that which before they attempt they know impossible We will struggle no longer with these practises The Stoick said well Non debet excusationes vitio philosophia suggerere It is never worse with Philosophy then when she is made in suggest excuses for Sin And it hath been alwayes the bane of Divinity to make Reverence and Respect a pretense for Blasphemy Those Arians did less hurt saith St. Ambrose who denyed the Divinity of the Son because they would not believe it than those who in civility denyed it because they would not make him subject to concupiscence as Man For these men colendo Deum violant violate the honor of God which they pretend they tender and never wrong him more than with reverence and a complement Impossible it is that God should withdraw his presence from any thing because the very substance of God is infinite He filleth heaven and earth and yet he takes up no room in either His Substance is immaterial pure and so incomprehensible in this world that although no part of us be ever absent from him who is present to every particular thing yet his presence we discern no further than only that he is present which partly by reason but most perfectly by faith we know to be most certain He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 open to our sight that we may see him and yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lyeth hid in darkness as in a Pavilion that we may believe more than we see He doth not fill the world as Water or Ayr or the very Light that he should fill the lesser part of the world with the lesser part of himself and the greater part with a greater proportion Novit ubique totus esse nullo contineri loco He is every where yet included in no place He comes to us but not recedes from where he is nor when he with-draws doth he forsake the place to which he came saith St. Augustine Deus est intra omnia non tamen inclusus extrà omnia sed non exclusus infra omnia sed non depressus supra omnia sed non elevatus God is within all things yet not shut-up he is without all things yet not excluded he is above all things yet not exalted and he is below all things yet not depressed From the Infinity of his Substance follows necessarily the Immensity I fill heaven and earth saith God St. Augustine in his Confessions considered the World as a Sponge which the Jer. 23. 24 infinite sea of Gods Essence did compass and fill Trismegistus conceived that God was a Sphere or Circle cujus centrum est ubique circumferentia nusquam whose Center is every where and Circumference no where which doth most fitly express it For there is not the least particle of this sphaerical world but it is supported by the unity of Gods Essence as by an internal Center and yet neither the circumference of this world nor any circumference which we can conceive can circumscribe his essential Presence so as we may say Thus far it reacheth and no further And this is it which the Schools do mean when they say that as Gods Essence susteins and upholds all things so it doth also contein and compass all things which either are or may be not corporally but spiritually as Eternity doth all times There is no part of the Heaven there is no part of the Earth in which God is not according to his Essence and out of which he is not according to his essence in qua non est totus extra quam non est totus as they speak Cùm dicitur totus esse in mundo denotatur non aggregatio partium sed privatio diminutionis saith Parisientis When God is said to be all in every place we understand not any aggregation of parts but privation of diminution so that his Essence without any diminution or division is in every place The Angels are not circumscribed yet being finite treasures they are said to be in uno loco quod non sint in alio saith Aquinas no otherwise in one place but in that they are not in another and cannot be every where Homo cum alicubi est tum alibi non erit saith Hilary lib. 8. De Trin. When a man is in this place he cannot be in that Infirma ad id natura ejus ut ubique sit qui insistens alicubi sit For his nature is uncapable of being every where who is conteined any where Deus autem immensae virtutis vivens potestas quae nusquam non adsit nec desit usquam But God who is a living Power of immense virtue is so present to every place that he is absent from no place Who insinuates himself by those things which he hath made ut ubi sua insint ipse esse intelligatur that where the works of his hands are he may be understood to be there also Therefore as he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Infinity exceeding all essence so he hath also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Essence present every where and yet in no place As he is eternal so he is omni-present As Seneca saith excellently Nulla immortalitas cum exceptione est nec quicquam noxium aeterno Immortality is not with exception nor can any thing destroy that which is eternal so may we Nulla infinitas cum exceptione No Infinity admits of exception For that which is infinite must needs be immense nor is it so in one place that any other place is excepted but it is so within all things that it conteins them and so without that it concludeth and compasseth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athanasius speaks within all things yet not included in any thing God then is in heaven but not so that his Majesty is confined to that place For the heaven even the 1 Kings 8. 27. heaven of heavens cannot contain him The subject is of a high nature and the way rough and rugged but we have paced it over with what smoothness and plainness we could You may perhaps bespeak me as Alexander did his Master Aristotle Doce nos facilia teach us those things which are easie Multa inutilia inefficacia sola subtilitas facit The subtilty of the matter and the obscurity of the delivery make many things want their efficacy It is so in Divinity as well as Philosophy I confess it But yet our discourse cannot be plainer than the subject will permit And I am sure no auditory should be unfit for such a lesson because I know this lesson is not unfit for any auditory Aristotle was wont to divide his lectures into Acroamatical and Exoterical Some of them conteined choice matter which he privately read to a select auditory others of them but ordinary stuff and were promiscuously exposed to the hearing of all that would come But it is not so in

as their argument It is plain we must not understand here Moses 's Heaven the Ayr for the Firmament but St. Pauls third Heaven This is the City of the great King the City of the living God the Psal 48. 2. Hebr. 12. 22. Hebr 1 10. 1 Tim. 6 16. Psal 103. 19. heavenly Jerusalem a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God Here our Father dwelleth in light inaccessible unconceivable Here he keepeth his glorious residence and here he hath prepared his throne Here he keepeth his glorious residence and here he hath prepared his throne Here thousand thousands minister unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stand Dan. 7. 9. before him Here he still sheweth the brightness of his countenance and to all eternity communicateth himself to all his blessed Angels and Saints Beloved the consideration of this stately Palace of the King of Kings should fill our hearts with humility and devotion and make us put-up our petitions at the throne of Grace with all reverence and adoration Is our Father Psal 104. 1. Gen. 18. 27. in heaven clothed with honor and majesty Then let us who are but dust and ashes vile earth and miserable sinners when we make our approaches to this great and dreadful God not be rude and rash and inconsiderate vainly multiplying Dan. 9 4. words before him without knowledge and using empty and heartless repetitions but let us first recollect our thoughts compose our affections bring our minds into a heavenly frame take to our selves words fit to Hos 14. 2. express the desires of our souls and then let us worship and bow down and Psal 95. 6. kneel before the Lord our Maker and let us pour forth our prayers into the bosome of our heavenly Father our Tongue all the whi●e speaking nothing but what the Heart enditeth This counsel the Preacher giveth us Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before Eccl. 5. 2. God For God is in heaven and thou upon earth therefore let thy words be few Again is our Father in heaven Then our heart may be glad and our Psal 16. 9 10. glory rejoyce and our flesh also rest in hope God will not leave us in the grave nor suffer us to live for ever under corruption but in due time we shall be brought out of that bonaage into a glorious liberty and be admitted into those Rom. 8. 21 happy mansions in our Fathers house He will have his children like unto John 14. 2 3. himself Therefore we may be assured that as now he guideth us with his counsel Psal 73. 25. so he will afterwards receive us into glory Our elder Brother who is gone before and hath by his ascension opened the gate of Heaven and prepared a place for us will come again at the end of the world and awake us John 14. 3. Psal 17. 15. Mat. 25. 21 23. 1 John 3. 2. 1 Cor. 15. 49. out of our beds of d●st and receive us unto himself that we may enter into the joy of our Lord for ever behold his face see him as he is be satisfied with his likeness and as we have born the image of the earthy so bear the image of the heavenly And now Beloved having this hope in us let us purifie our 1 John 3. 3. selves even as our Father which is in heaven is pure While we remain here below and pass through this valley of Tears let us ever and anon lift up our Psal 84. 6. Psal 121. 1. Isa 57. 15. eyes unto the hills even to that high and holy place wherein dwelleth that high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity yet not boldly to gaze and busily to pry within the veil For Heaven is too high and bright an object for our Eye to discern and discover for our Tongue to discourse and dispute of But SURSUM CORDA Let us look up to heaven that we may learn not to mind earthly things but to set our affections on those things which are above to Col. 3. 2. have our conversation in heaven and our heart there where our everlasting Phil. 3. 20. Matth. 6. 21. treasure is Let us still wish and long and breathe and pant to mount that holy hill and often with the Spirit and the Bride say Come Come Lord Rev. 22. 17 20 Jesus come quickly and sigh devoutly with the Psalmist When shall we come Psal 42. 2. and appear before God And in the mean time let us sweeten and lighten those many tribulations we must pass through with the sober and holy contemplation Acts 14. 22. of that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory of the fulness of joy 2 Cor. 4. 17. that is in Gods presence and of those pleasures for evermore that are at the Psal 16. 11. right hand of OUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN To whom with the Son and the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory now and ever Amen The Two and Thirtieth SERMON PART IV. MATTH VI. 9. Hallowed be thy Name WE have past the Preface or Frontis-piece and must now take a view of the Building the Petitions themselves We find a needless difference raised concerning the number of them Some have made seven Petitions and have compared them to the seven Stars in heaven to the seven golden Candlesticks to the seven Planets to the river Nilus which as Seneca tells us per septena ostia in mare effunditur ex his quodcunque elegeris mare est is divided into seven streams and every stream is an Ocean Others have fitted them to the seven Gifts of the Spirit Those we will not call with A. Gellius nugalia or with Seneca ineptias toyes and trifles but we may truly say Aliquid habent ingenii nihil cordis Some shew of wit we may perhaps descry in them but not any great savor or relish of sense and judgment What perfection there can be in one number more than in another or what mystery in the number of seven I leave it to their inquiry who have time and leasure perscrutari interrogare latebras numerorum as the Father speaks to search and dive into the secrets of Numbers who by their art and skill can digg the ayr and find precious metal there where we of duller apprehension can find no such treasure I confess men of great wits have thus delighted themselves numeros ad unquem excutere to sift and winnow Numbers but all the memorial of their labor was but chaff The number of Fourty for Christ after his Resurrection staid so long upon earth they have divided into four Denaries and those four they have paralleld with the four parts of the World into which the sound of the Gospel should go The number of Ten they have consecrated in the Law and the number of Seven in the holy Ghost Perfecta lex in Denario numero

knock as Fortune is said to have done at Galba's gates till he be weary Wilt thou not move unless with the hand of violence he drive thee before him Wilt thou still be evil and pretend he will not make thee good What a dishonor is this to thy King to entitle him to thy disobedience and make him guilty of that treason which is committed against himself Beloved this is to be ignorant of the nature of this Kingdome and injurious to the King himself and the highest pitch of rebellion to make him if not the author yet the occasioner of it No he helps us he doth not force us He leads not drives us He works in us but not without us For these two Grace and Free-will are not co-ordinate but subordinate Non partim gratia partim liberum arbitrium saith St. Bernard Grace and Free-will do not share our obedience between them sed totum singula peragunt but each of them doth perform the whole work Grace doth it wholly and Free-will doth it wholly sed ut totum in illo sic totum ex illa as it is wholly wrought by the Free-will of man so is the Free-will of man wholly enabled thereunto by the Grace of God which helps to determine the Will Attribute what you will to Gods Grace every good work and word and thought You cannot attribute too much you cannot attribute enough But when you have set God at this height in that proper Zenith where his natural Goodness hath placed him oh then draw him not down again to the mire where you ly wallowing to be partaker with your filth Do not weaken him by giving him an attribute of Power Say not when he doth not reign in your hearts that it is because he will not The voice of his Psal 77. 18. thunder is in the heaven The Vulgar renders it VOX TONITRUI IN ROTA The voice of his thunder is in the wheel It is heard of men who are willing to walk in the wheel and circle of Discipline and Virtue which have their thoughts collected and raised from the sensual vanities of this word And then by the power of this voice by the Power of Gods Grace like a wheel they are rowled about and are lifted up and do touch the earth but in puncto as it were but in a point having not the least relish of the world And this is the power and virtue of the Kingdome of Grace We pass now to the third head of difference which consists in the Compass and Circuit of this Kingdome which is as large as all the world In this respect all Kingdomes come short of it every one having its bounds which it cannot pass without violence A foolish title it is which some give the Emperor of Rome as if he had power over the most remote and unknown people of the world Bartolus counts him no less than an he etick who denies it But his arguments are no better than the Emperors Title which is but nominal They tell us that he calls himself MUNDI DOMINUM The Lord of all the world and that Rome hath the appellation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the whole world given it by Writers of latter times So the Poet Orbem jam totum victor Romanus habebat But these are but hyperboles spoken by way of excess and excellency So Jewry is also called in Scripture For Jerusalem is said to be placed in the midst of the earth that is in the midst of Judaea as the City Delphi is called orbis umbilicus the Navel of the world because it is scituate in the midst of Greece But without hyperbole Christ is the Catholick and universal Monarch of the whole world He seeth and ruleth all places All places are to him alike We need not vow a pilgrimage to Rome or to Jerusalem we need not take our scrip and staff to go thither De Britannia de Hierosolymis aequaliter patet aura coelestis The way to this Kingdome is as near out of Britanny as out of Hierusalem saith St. Hierome to Paulinus Totius mundi vox una CHRISTUS Christ is become the language of the whole world The Prophets are plain the Psalms full of testimonies In thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed saith God to Abraham Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance Psal 2. 8. and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession saith God to Christ The Gospel must be preached to all nations saith our Saviour But as the Sun hath its race through all the world but yet doth not shine in every part at once but beginneth in the East and passeth to the South and so to the West and as it passeth forward it bringeth light to one place and withdraweth it from another so is it with the Sun of righteousness he spreads his beams on those who were in darkness and the shadow of death and makes it night to them who had the clearest noon Not that his race is confined as is the Suns but because of the interposition of mens sins who exclude themselves from his beams And now to proceed to our fourth head of difference As this is the largest of all Kingdomes so it is the most lasting Other Kingdomes last not Quibus evertendis una dies hora momentum sufficit Though they have been many years a raising to their height yet a day an hour a moment is enough to blow them down and lay them level with the ground And while they last they continue not uniform but have their climacterical years and fatal periods Though they grow up like the tree and be Dan. 4. strong and their height reach unto heaven yet there may come an Angel some messenger from heaven and hew down the tree and cut off his branches and scatter his fruit and not leave so much as the stump of its root in the earth Justine hath calculated the three first Monarchies and Sleidan all four and we have seen their beginning and their end But the God of heaven hath set up a Kingdome which shall never be destroyed and it shall break to pieces and consume all those Kingdoms but it self shall stand fast Dan. 2. 44. for ever We will conclude with the Riches of this Kingdome If Money were virtue and earthly Honor salvation if the Jasper were holiness and the Sapphire obedience if those Pearls in the Revelation were virtues then that of our Saviour would be true in this sense also The Kingdome of heaven would be taken by violence The Covetous the Ambitious the Publicanes and Sinners would all be candidati angelorum joynt-suiters and competitors for an angels place Behold then in this Kingdome are Riches which never fail not Money but Virtue not Honor but Salvation not the Jasper and the Sapphire but that Pearl which is better than all our estate For God and the Saints when they speak of Profit and Gain take it not in that

Divinitatis as Tertullian calls it the very work and invention of the Deity though it breathe nothing but peace and joy though it have not only authority but reason to plead for it yet the sound of it was no sooner heard but the world was in a tumult The heathen did rage and the people imagine a vain thing The Kings of the earth did set themselves against the Lord and against his Anointed Do the Angels proclaim it Men oppose it Doth Psalm 2. Christ preach it and confirm it by wonders Let him be crucified say the Jews Ecquis Christus cum sua fabula say the Gentiles after Away with Christ and his Legend Whilst it was yet in its swathing-bands it was brought to the barr the professors of it are punished and tortured non ut dicant quae faciunt sed ut negent quod sunt not to reveal what they do but to deny what they are For this the most chast wife is devorced from her husband the most obedient son disinherited by his father the most trusty and faithful servant shut out of doors by his master even for the Religion of the Gospel which made the Wife chast the Son obedient and Servant faithful Ex aemulatione Judaei ex natura domestici nostri The Jew is spurred on by his envy nay she finds enemies in her own house the Church of God and even Christians oppose her because of the truth it self whose nature it is to offend It is a just complaint that our Saviour came into the world and the world received him not would not receive him as a King but groaned under him as a cruel Tyrant His edicts his commands his proclamations his precepts were hard and harsh sayings none could bear them So it stands with Christian Religion Cum odio sui caepit It was hated as soon as it was Nor indeed can it be otherwise For it offends the whole world It stands between the Wanton and his lust the Ambitious and his pomp the Covetous and his mammon Christ is truth and his Kingdome is a Kingdome of righteousness and truth no● is there any thing in the world more scandalous and offensive than the Truth Old Simeon tells Mary of Christ This child is set for the falling and rising again Luke 2. 34. of many in Israel Not that Christ saith St. 〈◊〉 is contrary ●● himself a Saviour and a Destroyer a Friend and an Enemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for the divers opinions and affections of men which abusing his love make him an enemy and the Saviour of the world a Destroyer I might name here many hinderances of the growth of ●he Gospel as Heresie which is a most poysonous viper biting not the heel but the very heart of it Infidelity which robs Christ of his subjects contracts his Kingdome into a narrow room and into a small number Disorder which rents it which works confusion there All these are impedimenta lets and hinderances to the propagation of the Gospel not like those impedimenta militiae the luggage and carriage of an army without which it cannot subsist but obicem ponentia fences and bulwarks and barricadoes against the King of Heaven if it were possible to stay him in his victorious march and to damm up that light which must shine from one end of the earth unto the other But this perhaps might fill up our discourse and make it swell beyond its bounds The greatest hinderance which we must pray against is an evil thought which flyes about the world That there is no Hinderance but these no opposition to the truth but Heresie no sin but Infidelity no breaking of order but in a Schism This it is to be feared not only hinders the propagation of the Gospel in credendis in respect of outward profession but blasts and shrinks it up in agendis in respect of outward practice and of that obedience without which we are meer aliens and strangers from this Kingdome This doth veritatem defendendo concutere this shakes that truth which should make us fruitful to every good work by being so loud in the defense of it It is a truth I think confest by all That the errors of our Understanding for the most part are not of so great alloy as those of the Will That it is not so dangerous to be ignorant of some truth as it is to be guilty of any evil yet all the heat of contention is spent here all our quarrels and digladiations are about these nay all our Religion is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earnestly to contend not who shall be the truest subjects in Christs Kingdome but who shall be most loud to cry down Heresie and Schism And this phansie I take to be as great a viper as Heresie as poysonous as Infidelity and the first ground and original of all Schisms in the world Whose zeal is so hot against an Oath as against an Error Who says Anathema to the Wanton What curse upon the Oppressor but of the Orphan and the Widow And from whence come wars from whence come fightings amongst us but from this corrupt imagination That we do better service in the Church of Christ which is the Kingdome of God by the loud defence than by the serious practice of the truth And all this while we mistake this Kingdome and the Religion which we profess which is absoluta simplex a Religion of great perfection and simplicity non quaerens strophas verborum and needs not the help of wit and sophistry God leads us not unto his Kingdome by knotty and intricate Disputes In absoluto nobis facili aeternitas saith Hilary Our journey to it is most easie It will come unto us sine pompa apparatu without pomp or observation It was Erasmus his complaint in the dayes of our Fore-fathers Ecclesiam sustineri syllogismis That this Kingdome was upheld not by piety and obedience but by syllogistical disputes as the surest props I could be infinite in this argument but I am unwilling to loose my way whilst I pursue a thief The sum of all is That this ADVENIAT is not only an invitation to draw this Kingdome nearer but an antidote against Heresie Infidelity and Schism and also against this corrupt conceit That Religion doth in labris natare is most powerful when it floats upon the tongue And we must raise it up as an engine to bruise the head of these vipers to cast down imaginations and every thing that exalteth it self against the Kingdome of Christ Again as this ADVENIAT fits all ages of the Church and was the language which Christ taught his Disciples when the Church was yet an Embrio in semine principiis not yet brought forth in perfect shape so is it a most proper and significant word verbum rei accommodatum a word fitted to the matter in hand the Kingdome here mentioned which must come to us before we can come to it Nothing more free and voluntary more

in manu consilii sui in his own hands and disposing yet in his goodness and mercy to his chosen ones he would set bounds to wicked persons that he would shackle though not their wills yet their hands that he would cut off the designs infatuate the counsels scatter the imaginations of all those who like serpents were only born to do mischief and to sin against heaven and earth So much of this point Now that we may say something of that which we call voluntatem praecepti of God's Law and Precept and Command which every where in Scripture is called his Will and indeed doth most of all concern us we will draw and wind up all in this main conclusion That every Christian who will truly say this Petition Thy will be done must bring with him a heart prepared to yield ready obedience to do whatsoever God commands and a chearful patience to suffer what his hand shall lay upon him THY WILL BE DONE is the thing we pray for And that we may do his will God hath opened and revealed his will and made it as manifest as the day Jam autem praecipitur quià non rectè curritur si quò currendum sit nescitur saith St. Augustine He hath taught us before-hand because he runs not well that knows neither his way nor journeys end Therefore God did as it were evaporate and open his will writ his eternal law in our hearts engraved it in tables of stone publisht it by the voice of Angels by the sound of that trumpet which the Evangelists and Apostles did blow declared it fully and plainly that we may run and read it and not turn aside to seek any other rule but conform our selves unto it by a voluntary Obedience which like an hand-maid may wait upon his Will and by an humble and obedient Patience which alwayes hath an eye not upon the blow but the hand that gives it and bows under it when he speaks or when he strikes returns no answer but this FIAT VOLUNTAS TUA Thy will be done This is the sum of this Petition and indeed of all Religion For if we level our actions by that rule which is naturally right we can do no evil and whatsoever befalls us judicio bonitatis ejus accidit saith Hilary befalls us not by chance but by the judicious Providence of Gods goodness and therefore we can suffer no evil And this one would think were enough What can God teach us more than to pray that we may do his will We might now well pass to the next Petition and not once glance upon these words In earth as it is in heaven But the word of God as it is no way defective so hath nothing redundant and superfluous not a versicle not a clause which doth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostome which carries not its weight with it and presents us with plenty and riches of wisdome If we do Gods will we can do no more the Angels can do no more Yet if we look upon our selves and reflect a while upon our own tempers and dispositions we shall find that what is in it self enough and sufficient is not enough and sufficient for us and that this clause In earth as it is in heaven was a necessary addition put in by our Saviour by way of caution and prevention It is not enough for us to be taught to pray that we may do God's will we shall fall short in our obedience if we be not taught also the manner how this must be accomplished For we are naturally prone jussa magìs interpretari quàm exsequi to boggle at every duty that is enjoyned and if we be left at loose instead of executing what is commanded to sit down and seek out shifts and evasions and inventions of our own and so to do it by halves to do it as St. Basil saith either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unseasonably or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disorderly or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scantly and not in that measure which is required to content our selves with Agrippa's modicum When indeed we are subjects to every duty we become Justitiaries and set it bounds and limit and restrain it Do his will As Men made up and composed of weakness and infirmities as Men bruised and maimed with the fall of our first parents as Men in terris dust and ashes But sicut in coelis to do the will of God as it is done in heaven our contemplation would never have set it at this altitude Nullum morosius animal est nec majore arte tractandum quam homo saith Seneca There is not a more waiward and curious creature than Man nor to be handled with more art He must be taught not only what to do but how and how far to do it He must be instructed in each circumstance he must have a pattern as well as a duty otherwise he will start and slip aside he will neither do it constantly nor equally he will do it and omit it Were he not taught to do it as it is done in heaven he would not do it at all Were he not commanded to be like the Angels in heaven he would degenerate from himself and become worse than the beasts that perish You see then this clause was not added in vain but is operatoria as the Civilians speak carries with it great force and efficacy And whether we interpret it of the material Spheres quae iterum eunt per quae venerant as Seneca speaks which are alwayes in motion yet never alter their course or of those super-coelestial Powers the Angels those mystical wheels as Dionysius calls them turning themselves about in an everlasting gyre of obedience it must needs lift up our thoughts to this consideration That the performance of Gods will by us must be most exact and perfect heavenly and angelical That we must make it our endeavour to be like them as Angels here on earth who make it our ambition to be equal to them in heaven I will not take those several interpretations I find although I censure none of them especially since none of them swerve from the analogy of faith nor from that doctrine which was delivered to the Saints and all of them are profitable to instruction You may take earth and heaven for the Flesh and the Spirit with St. Cyprian or for Men which are of the earth earthy and those coelestial Orbs for the Just and Wicked with others and thence extract this Christian duty To pray for your enemies All these may be useful and with St. Augustine I condemn no sense upon which any good duty may be raised and built But I rather understand with the same Father by heaven the Angels and by earth Men because the words do best bear it and we cannot take a better pattern than the Angels And in this sense we pray ut sint homines similes Angelis That Men may be as obedient to Gods will here in earth as those

office The Angel intrudes not into the office of an Archangel nor doth an Archangel usurp the place of a Cherubin or Throne but every one is perpetually constant in his office and never fails We cannot say our Pater noster but we must needs conceive that these blessed Spirits do their duties orderly For there can be no confusion in heaven Nor indeed should there be any disorder in the Church of Christ whose government by Bishops Priests and Deacons St. Maximus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an imitation and fair resemblance of the coelestial Hierarchy As it is in the Church triumphant in heaven so should it be in the Church militant here on earth Order doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preserve and keep together both heaven and earth saith Nazianzene And therefore we may observe that all duties do not concern all men Some duties there are which are as oecumenical as the whole world others more personal Some which if Corah attempt to do he shall be buried alive if Uzzah he shall be struck dead Why should Sheba blow a trumpet or Absalom pull at his Fathers crown Why should every artisan meddle in matters of Divinity every Mechanick teach Bishops how to govern and Divines how to preach Why should he that handles the awl or the shuttle stand up and controul the Miter Private persons who converse within a narrow sphere must needs be unskilfull in things which fall not within the compass of their experience Men that meddle but with few things must needs be ignorant of much and therefore can never frame canons and rules Paucorum est ut literati sint omnium ut boni Few men are fit for government but there is scarce any of so shallow conceit but he may be an honest man Doth any man go to a Physician to ask advise in a point of Law or to a Lawyer when he is sick Episcopus episcopum non conculcet That one Bishop should not usurp or meddle in another Bishops Diocess was one of the ancient Canon of the Church and ought never to be antiquated Than Peace will crown the Church and Plenty the Commonwealth when every man understands what is his place and station and is not ready to leap over it and start into anothers function when every Star knows his own magnitude and sphere This indeed were sicut in coelo a heaven upon earth For the least place in the Church of Christ is a high preferment Nor is there any so low who may not be an Angel in his place to do Gods will an Angel though not for power and dominion yet an Angel for obedience And it is not much material if I do the will of God whether I do it as a Lay-man or as a Clergy-man as poor Lazarus or as rich Abraham as a Peasant or as a Prince at the Mill or in the Throne Only here is the difference That duty which concerns the Clergy-man the Lay-man must not tamper with nor must the Peasant teach the King to reign and govern Remember what I told you out of St. Augustine Angelus non invidet Archangelo The Angel doth not envy to see another Angel more glorious nor doth he desire a higher place No Superné omnia serena sunt in inferioribus fulminatur All is serene and quiet above Thunders and disorders are in the lower region here in terrâ on the earth And we have too much reason in the last and worst dayes to pray and pray again Fiat volunt as tua sicut in coelis That God's will may be done on earth in that peaceable order and quietness as it is in heaven Will you know the reason of these tumults and disorders The reason is evident and plain No man is content with an Angels place but would be an Archangel a Throne a Cherubim and yet neither Angel nor Throne nor Cherubim for their obedience but only for their power Men desire saith Austine to imitate those deeds of Angels which beget wonder but not that piety which gains eternal rest Malunt enim superbè hoc posse quod Angelus quàm devotè hoc esse quod Angelus Lib. 8. De Trinit c. 7. Their Pride affects to do that which Angels do but their Devotion hath not strength enough to beget any desire in them to be what the Angels are humble reverent obedient Such Angels they would be as may be Devils but not such Angels as stand about Gods throne to praise him for evermore We conclude and contract all in one word If we bring weak desires of doing Gods will and think he will be well content with them we have as good reason to think that all the reward which we shall have from God will be only a desire to do us good If we be not active and speedy in the performance of his will why should he make haste to help us Our Inconstancie is his repentance and when we fall from him he is forced to break his word If we do it by halves we have no reason to look for a full reward If our obedience be disorderly we cannot hope to be companions of those Angels who do hate confusion But if we be chearful and constant and perfect in our obedience if we abide in our own callings and do the will of God orderly in that place where he hath ranked us the Lord will come and make no long tarrying he hath sworn nor will he go from it and he will bring his reward with him MERCEDEM NIMIS MAGNAM an exceeding great reward and at last translate us from earth to heaven where we shall be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels in equality of grace though not of nature I might have drawn-in many more particulars concerning the Angels by which to direct our Obedience But I never loved to lease out a discourse malens totum dicere quam omnia desiring rather to speak that which is most fit and pertinent than to take in all that might be said I shall now pass to the next Petition Give us this day our daily bread The Six and Thirtieth SERMON PART I. MATTH VI. 11. Give us this day our daily Bread WE pass now from the three first Petitions which looked up directly into heaven upon the face of God unto the three last which look up indeed to heaven also upon the Giver of all things but withal reflect upon our selves and on our present necessities The first whereof is that I have read unto you GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD Before we come to handle which words be pleased to take notice of the method here laid down by our Saviour for us to regulate our Devotion by Order and Method as it makes the way easie and plain to every design we take in hand so it poises our Devotion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Historian There is nothing so fair nothing so commodious for use as Order This is it which hath given praeeminence to Aristotle above all

Pleasure promises the rest and quiet of the body which cannot be but there where there is no want no corruption Non ex eo quod est fallimur sed ex eo quod non est we are not deceived with that which is and hath a reality and being but with that which is not but only in shew and appearance And the curiosity of fools which catch after shades and apparitions may put me in mind of that knowledge which will make me wise to salvation Their affectation of power may provoke in me a desire of an everlasting kingdom and their love of pleasure a love of that joy which is spiritual and heavenly I may learn skill ab adversario artifice from my adversary observe and watch him and blow him up in his own mine And this is not only to resist him but to lead him in triumph and shew him openly to shew how we have taken his weapons out of his hands and made them instruments of righteousness how his provocation to lust hath holpen to beget a greater hunger and thirst after righteousness his tentations to covetousness have expelled all covetous desires but those of eternity and his pleasing tentations whet and encrease our appetite to those pleasures which are at the right hand of God for evermore This is not to fight with him in his visible shape to try it out at blows with him as some foolish Monks in St. Hieromes time would boast they had done to make themselves a wonder to the people but to fight against him invisible hid and obscured in all his wiles and cunning enterprises to discover what is not seen his craft and malice and make use of what is seen his paint and colours his glorious shews and presentments to kindle our love to that which is really and substantially good This is truly to resist and conquer and tread him under foot This is our glory and this is our duty For indeed our Duty is our glory and that which we call service is the glorious liberty of the sons of God And we shall be the more ready and active to perform it if we duly and exactly enter into consideration of Our selves who are to fight of the temptations which assault us and of God who is a pure and simple Essence and therefore cannot but be sore displeased to see Man so noble a creature thus mingle himself every day with the vanities and trash of this world and sell himself for that which is not bread And first the Knowledge of Our selves is of great force to redeem us from the vanities of the World NOSCE TE IPSUM Hujus praecepti tanta vis tanta sententia est ut ea non cuiquam homini sed Delphico Deo tribueretur saith Tully KNOW THY SELF is a praecept in which is conteined so much virtue and high wisdome that men dare not entitle any man to it but the Delphick God Apollo and make him the author of it For he that knows himself shall soon perceive that he hath something in himself Divine that his Will and Understanding are as an image dedicated and consecrated in him and he will alwaies be doing or thinking something which may be worthy of so great a gift of the Gods And when he hath well viewed and surveyed himself in every part he will quickly observe how richly furnisht Nature hath sent him into the world with what helps and instruments to procure that wisdom which must stile and denominate him a Man which may help him deligere bona reijcere contraria to know and choose that which is good and to reject the contrary though it borrow the same shape and countenance Quam pro nihilo putabit ea quae vulgo ducuntur amplissima How will he slight and look down upon those things which the vulgar admire and have in high estimation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Simplicius KNOW THY SELF it is the command of God that wherein all Philosophy and Goodness begins and ends And so it is the beginning of all Divinity saith Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ask your self the question Who and What you are and search and know your nature and composition Know that thou art 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soul and Understanding that thou art made after the image of God that thou art not the Body but the Body is thine and Money and Arts and all that provision for life are not in thee but about thee that thy body is mortal thy soul immortal that there is a double life proposed this life which is a dying life and ends sooner than a tale and that life which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of some affinity to thy soul immortal and not confined and circumscribed by time And if thou attain to this knowledge thou wilt not fix thy mind upon these transitory things as if they were eternal nor despise those everlasting blessings as if they were fading and transitory but give unto thy Flesh that which is due unto thy Flesh dust to dust and ashes to ashes meat to thy belly and cloth to thy back both which shall be destroyed by God but to thy Soul and immortal part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the precepts of piety the exercise of virtue the moderation of thy unruly affections Nor be so over-careful to cloth thy body that the while thou letst thy soul go naked and bare nor provide for the one to destroy the other Advertamus qui simus ipsi ut nos quales oportet esse servemus It concerns us to remember what we are that we may still keep our selves the same which we ought to be If thou beest never so learned never so wise yet thou still wantest something nay the greatest point of wisdome if thou be not wise for thy self For what commendation is it to know all things which are in heaven and earth to be well seen abroad and yet be a meer stranger at home to have an insight in all things but himself Certainly nothing lays us more open and naked to tentations and the vanities of the world than the low esteem we have of our selves For we live as if these vanities were made for us and we for these vanities as if our Eye were made to no other end but to behold vanity our Ear to hearken after it and all our Senses were ordained as so many inlets of Sin as if we were made for nothing else but Sin and were all Flesh and had no Soul at all And what a dishonour is this to the dignity of our nature How doth this irreverence to our selves make us like unto the Beasts that perish nay far worse then they For proprietas ei nominis ubi de innocentia exciderit aufertur saith Hilary Man looseth the propriety of his name when he divides himself from innocency Aut Serpens aut Equus aut Mulus ei nomen est and you may call him Serpent or Horse or Mule Quot peccata tot personarum similitudines saith Hierom As many sins

heaven c. Serm. 31. Matth. VI. 9. Our Father which art in heaven Serm. 32. Matth. VI. 9. Hallowed be thy Name Serm. 33. Matth. VI. 10. Thy Kingdom come Serm. 34. Matth. VI. 10. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Serm. 35. Matth. VI. 10. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Serm. 36. Matth. VI. 11. Give us this day our daily bread Serm. 37. Matth. VI. 11. Give us this day our daily bread Serm. 38. Matth. VI. 11. Give us this day our daily bread Serm. 39. Matth. VI. 12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors Or as Luke XI 4. And forgive us our sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us Serm. 40. Matth. VI. 12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors Or as Luke XI 4. And forgive us our sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us Serm. 41. Matth. VI. 13. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil Serm. 42. Matth. VI. 13. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil Serm. 43. Matth. VI. 13. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil Serm. 44. Matth. VI. 13. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil Serm. 45. Matth. VI. 13. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil Serm. 46. Matth. VI. 13. But deliver us from evil Serm. 47. Matth. VI. 13. But deliver us from evil Serm. 48. Matth. VI. 13. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever Amen TWO SERMONS Preached at the Parish-Church OF St. MARY MAGDALENE Milk-street LONDON By a Friend of the AUTHORS Upon his being in the late Troubles Silenced LONDON Printed by Tho. Roycroft for Richard Marriott MDCLXXIV The First SERMON JEREM. XII 1. Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk or reason the case with thee of thy Judgments Wherefore does the way of the wicked prosper Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously THE most general Question which hath troubled the world almost ever since it began is that great Dispute concerning the just and equal distribution of temporal blessings how to reconcile the prosperity of the wicked and the miseries of the righteous with those common Attributes which we assign unto God how it can consist with the Divine Wisdom and Justice to promote the designs of the ungodly whom he abhors at the very Soul and to crush and bear down those whom he calls by his own Name stiles his peculiar people and whom he esteems as the Apple of his Eye For this objection hath gone through all degrees and qualities of men high and low rich and poor miserable and happy good and bad the glorious flourishing and lofty sinner whom God smiles upon as Job speaks he proves there is no Providence from his own success because he goes smoothly on in his wickedness without the least check or interruption Therefore pride compasses him therefore he sets his mouth against heaven and Psal 73. 9. his tongue walks through the earth scorning both God and Man And not only they but the very people of God too seeing this unequal dispensation even they say How does God know and is there knowledge in the most v. 11. high v. 11. Nay David himself professes the thought of this came so cross him as it had almost beat him down My feet were almost gone my v. 2. steps had well-nigh slipt v. 2. of the same Psalm and he very hardly recovered himself but breaks out into this amazement Behold these are the ungodly Psal 73. 12. who prosper they encrease in riches as if he had said I lookt to see the righteous upon thrones and the vertuous gay and flourishing but contrary to all expectation Behold these are the ungodly who prosper they increase in riches which makes him cry out in the next verse Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain in vain have I washed my hands in innocency a most desperate speech and means thus Let who will stand upon forms and niceties hereafter let who will betray his being and livelyhood to a timorous conscience I will be scrupulous no longer no longer shall the formality of Laws and Religion tye me to be undone if wickedness only thrives I can be wicked too Thus David thus Habakkuk and thus the Prophet Jeremy in this Chapter complains who seeing the falsness and treachery both of his friends and enemies still prevail against him and seeing the conspiracies of those Priests of Anathoth where he was born too never fail though God had told him in the first Chapter He had made him a defenced City an iron Pillar a brazen Wall and that he would enable him by his Divine assistance to oppose the whole Nation whilest he alas found himself but a Reed shaken with the wind blown into a prison with every breath of a base Informer Seeing and considering this cross-dealing and debating within himself what this should mean falls out into this Exclamation Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee c. Where you have a Proposition or Doctrine laid down as certain and then an Objection rais'd against this Doctrine The Proposition Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee The Objection which seems to oppose it in these words Yet let me talk with thee of thy Judgments Wherefore does the way of the wicked prosper Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously I begin with the Proposition it self Righteous art thou O Lord when I Proposition plead with thee Where you may observe the most singular piety and resolution of the Prophet though Gods design look't never so strange unto him and seem'd as it were a meer contradiction yet still he held fast to his Principle That God was just whatsoever became of him or his Cause That whensoever he did plead and argue with God concerning his Dispensations He assured himself thus much before hand that God would overcome when he was judg'd and that his Righteousness like a glorious Sun would break through all the clouds of opposition cast about it Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee The Prophet did not preposterously conclude God just from the justice of his action but arguing backwards inferred his proceeding to be just because he himself is righteous He does not first examine Gods wayes and then pronounce him just because he finds him so but first takes this as granted that God is true be the action what it will and then afterwards inquires into the Reason of it And whosoever in reasoning about Gods actions shall argue otherwise or use any other method will run himself upon many rocks and perplexities and at last find blasphemy in the conclusion For we read of many actions commended in Scripture so horrid in themselves as no Orator can invent a colour to excuse them

ignorant that he knows not whether the ground he treads upon stands still or moves God whose Thoughts do as far exceed our Thoughts as the Heavens do the Earth nay more for the distance between us and the highest Star is known and calculated but the distance between us and God passes all Arithmetick It is infinite Why then should we sawcily pry into the hidden Councels of God If he hath let down a Veil before his Holy of Holies how should we dare to tear it asunder and prophanely break into his Mysteries What must we know before we will believe have a Demonstration for all God does to give us satisfaction Why perhaps we shall never answer Zeno's argument against Motion and shall we therefore sit still all the days of our life and say we cannot stir perhaps it is impossible to solve Pyrrho's objections against Reality shall we therefore fondly conceit that every thing we see is but an appearance only that it is but your fancy that I seem now to speak and nothing but your imagination that you think you hear me a●●f our whole life were but one continued Dream And is it not as much madness to mistrust the truth and faithfulness of God confirmed by so many Clouds of Witnesses evinced by so many Ages of Instances because we cannot answer this one objection against It because we cannot see through this one single particular of Providence Why then should we think it any indiscretion with Abraham to believe against Hope or to be sure though we have least reason to expect it That the only way for a man to become a great Nation is to kill his only Child and the means to overcome Canaan was to go alone and a stranger into it Pray why should we not believe our Saviour that to save is to loose and to preserve is to destroy Why should we imagine our selves any wiser then St. Paul who committed his body to God until the last day and perswaded himself that God was able to keep it until that day 2 Tim. 1. 12. though it past through so many transmutations and changes into beasts fowl and fish nay though it became part of another Man which is to rise together with him in the same Body Yet this seeming contradiction did not startle the Apostle He was sure of the thing though he knew not how it could come to pass I know whom I have believed says the Apostle in the same place Yet though Almighty God might challenge our Obedience without giving us account of his matters though we ought to conclude the Lord righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works when to our eye of flesh he appears neither holy nor righteous but rather the contrary though our understandings be shallow and Gods Judgments profound though the Well be deep and we have nothing to draw yet God like a most gracious Prince when he might absolutely command vouchsafes a reason why we should obey submitting himself to our slender capacities he appears at our Barrs and to settle our wandring thoughts to leave us quite without excuse exposes himself to be impleaded by us to be judg'd by us to be examined by us Which leads me to the Objection which seems to overthrow the Righteousness of God Wherefore does the way of the wicked prosper Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously The occasion of this Question I told you was because the Prophets adversaries did continually prosper and had power to do him hurt not simply because the wicked prosper'd but that by this their prosperity they had means and opportunity to mischief him to smite him with their tongue by secret whisperings and smite him with their fists to hurry him from one prison to another and at last clap him up in the Dungeon sealing him up there unto unevitable destruction Now the Prophet demands of God in this Question why he did not disappoint the plots and contrivances of all those who had designed his ruine being God had sent him as an especial Ambassador to his people So as we may resolve the Question into this Why does God suffer the wicked to have any Power to oppress the righteous A Question if we consider the time in which the Prophet lived not altogether idle or impertinent for he lived under the Law a Covenant of Works unto which God had annexed Blessings and Cursings in outward appearance altogether temporal Deut. 28. But on the contrary this Prophet found by sad experience that he fled from his Enemies and not they from him that not they but he groped at noon days being cast into a Dungeon which was only a larger Sepulchre and that the Iron yoke was put upon his not their necks all which was contrary to the express words of the promise as you may read at large in that Chapter Which made him think God had forgotten to be gracious and to ask wherefore does the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously Nevertheless had the Prophet consider'd with himself rightly he would not have thought this so strange a thing even under the Law where God seems to set bounds and terms even to his Almighty power and to confine his absolute Dominion and Royalty over the Creature by making Promises Oaths and Contracts with his People Yet he never pass'd away the Land of Canaan or any thing in it so absolutely but that still he reserv'd the title and propriety of it to himself All souls are mine saith the Lord And the Land shall not be sold for ever for the Land is mine and ye are sojourners and strangers with me Levit. 25. 23. God granted the use of it to them yet kept still the Right and full disposal of it to himself for the Lord calls them for all this Grant but sojourners and strangers who held what they possest under God and continued in it no longer then he gave them leave from whom he might take it away and bestow it on whom he pleased And truly if we allow God the power but of a temporal Prince and grant him to be King of Israel only we must allow him the liberty of changing altering and dispensing with his own Laws For we read how Nebuchadnezzar might slay whom he would and whom he would he might keep alive within his own Realms set up whom he would and whom he would he might put down Dan. 5. 3. And least you might imagine such an unlimited power over the Subject unlawful God is said to give him this power in the same verse and can we think for all his promises the Lord of the whole Earth may not challenge as much Soveraignty as a Prince but of a single Shire enjoyes As then he in whom the Supream power of a State resides when he grants out property of life liberty and estate to his Subjects does not by this Charter debar himself the liberty of taking them away again if the use of

the Publick so require in like manner God in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo calls the Common-wealth of the Jews Gods own peculiar Kingdom where he reigned temporally as the very Civil Magistrate of that Nation never ty'd himself up so strictly by his promises as that he might not lawfully for his own glory and the good of his people upon some extraordinary cases as to purge to correct to punish or for tryal of them recal those good things he promised to the Righteous and confer them upon the wicked A most clear instance of this absolute Dominion in God we see in that under the Law he punishes frequently one man for another nay a whole Common-wealth for the sin of one man and stranger yet whole Ages of posterity for the offence only of one single person Which proves most evidently God might even under the Law where the Holy One seem'd most to be limited afflict without any consideration of guilt or demerit or else the punishment could not have justly past the offenders person And this consideration meerly might have still'd the Prophet from asking this question But then that there should be some perhaps in this very Congregation who when they suffer as they think unworthily some who call themselves Christians who demand of God why he gives them up into the hands of a Tyrant to suffer what they deserve not That such ask it is a wonder to me far greater then the Question it self Have you so learn'd Christ Pienty Peace and Victory over Enemies these indeed were the blessings under the Law when God did not think fit as yet to discover fully the Joyes of a better life he tempted Israel with the bliss of this and instead of Heaven shewed them Canaan But when it pleased him by Christ to reveal unto us a new Heaven and a New Earth a Resurrection and an eternal weight of glory ready to crown all such as do believe and practise then he proposes loss of estate and loss of friends poverty scorn shame nakedness imprisonment and death it self to his Disciples for these I these are the blessings of the Gospel and by his example he proved them to be so For what Crown had he but of Thorns what Scepter but of Reeds or where was he ever lifted up but upon the Cross Prosperity Why were I to study for an Argument to render a Church suspected for a false One I would object the outward splendor of it not that God does not bestow sometimes temporal blessings upon his chosen people even under the Gospel to refresh and recover their wearied Spirits after a difficult tryal But this I say is quite besides the promise of the Gospel a thing extraordinary in respect of it Prosperity If this proves the goodness of a Cause how many Arguments can the Turk alledge to assert his Mahomet Every battel he wins is a new Objection against us and every Town he takes in Christendome he gets ground of us in our Religion also What would become of the glorious Martyrs if it should be a blemish to suffer Why did St. Paul call his scars the marks of the Lord Jesus which were this true they were the stigmata and brands of guilt and when the Apostle gloried in his infirmities and troubles then he did but cry up his own sins Nay upon this account we cannot possibly quit the eternal Son of God whose whole life was but one continued Passion We we Christians should wonder that wicked men do not alwayes prosper We should admire how it comes to pass that they do ever miss of their designs that a Traytor does not ever escape Justice and the Oppressor does not alwayes hold his prey Which made some pious Christians to reverence and esteem Affliction so much to think it so proper and peculiar to a Christian as many times they have doubted of their Calling and Election upon no other ground but this because they did not find themselves miserable enough therefore for want of others to do it for them they persecuted their own selves and gave away their Estates when no body else would take them from them Like noble Souldiers they grew weary of peace and ease and like the Fencer in Rome who was sick when he could venture his life but once a day And this is so certain and evident that if you examine this Question strictly it will appear an Objection rais'd not out of any desire to clear Gods Justice or that true Holiness might be promoted upon the Earth or out of any consideration that concerns the glory of God but meerly out of Calamity and a By-respect of our own which I shall shew you plainly and then the Objection will fall to the ground of it self As first Men ask this Question Why do the wicked prosper because we do not see the usefulness of Affliction nor sufficiently apprehend what rare and admirable effects it doth produce which amongst the rest is Patience 't is something indeed when a sinner suffers the punishment he hath deserved meekly and humbly yet he that dares sin durst likewise if he could resist the punishment due to that sin and when he doth suffer who doth the sinner oblige in suffering Not God for it troubles him to punish He swears as he lives he would not do it What praise is it what glory is it if when you be buffeted for your faults you endure it patiently says the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 20. No this only is true Patience Patience indeed when we suffer for doing well And pray tell me How can men bear injuries if there be no wicked men to do them or how could a man loose his own were there no violence to wrest it out of his hands If you suppose a robbery you must suppose a Thief too where there is a Rebellion there must be a Rebel and a Traytour where there is a Treason for he that is born of God cannot sin 1 John 3. 9. He such an one cannot be the Instrument of any wrong for when he does unrighteously he ceases to be righteous Abel would never have killed Cain nor would the Israelites have oppressed Pharaoh Paul would never have imprisoned the Romans nor the Martyrs have kill'd their Persecutors and so we should have lost all these glorious examples of Constancy and Zeal if God had not given leave to such wicked acts lost the very priviledge of a Christian which he injoyes above the Saints in Heaven which is to suffer Nay had there been no Priests and Elders to take away his life Christ had not dyed and then as St. Paul argues You had been yet in your Sins When we suffer for sin we do as the Latin's best of all tongues express it dare poenas give in exchange for some unlawful gain or pleasure either our body to the Executioner or our estates to the Exchequer this is a due debt which we stand obliged to see satisfied But when we suffer for doing well and

mischief to the height till God cannot in Honour and Justice spare us nor Mercy it self save us How long O Lord O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and revenge our bloud upon them that dwell on the earth 't is the loud cry of the martyred Saints Rev 6. 11. who receive this answer in the next verse That they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled as long as there remained one Saint to destroy they should live and govern That as our Saviour tells the Pharisees upon them might come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth even since the beginning of the world Did men consider this would they believe wicked men happy because they laugh and sing because they have as many Clyents pressing upon them here as they shall have worms crowding to them in the Graue Alas we should rather pity and pray for them as much as if we saw them like the Lunaticks in the Gospel cutting and tearing their own flesh For the Lord is not slack he is but fitting up and preparing all this while whetting his Sword bending his Bow making ready his Arrows putting on his Armour and then the Lord will go out with a shout as the Psalmist says and all the world shall say Verily there is a reward for the Righteous verily there is a God that judges the earth Why then art thou troubled O my soul or why art thou disquieted within me trust in the Lord who will yet deliver thee For the Devil himself cannot so much as stir without Gods leave as appears by many Examples in Job and the Gospel too and wicked men are but Gods Instruments his Hammer and his Hatchet as the Prophet Isaiah calls them with which he cuts carves polishes and works our hearts which otherwise would remain rude stone for ever Think of this and it will still the murmuring Spirit when it is within thee and when ever this Tempter doth assault thee to ask this Question Wherefore does the way of the wicked prosper do as the Prophet does in this Text Enquire of God talk and discourse with God for it is not the wit of Seneca the gravity of Plutarch nor the distinctions of Epictetus which can solve this Objection but the Gospel only which tells us of a Judgment to come and a Resurrection without which we of all men would be most miserable as the Apostle himself acknowledges to let others run away with the profit and pleasure of this world whilst we brutishly look on and pine for hunger Nor which is worse let us in our desperate humors go into the house of mirth to drown the cry of our wants with the noise of a riotous jollity What would you forget your miseries I thought you had with St. Paul gloried in your Tribulations if ye know ye are innocent then are you miserable indeed when by your murmuring and repining you go from one Hell to another from poverty here to eternal torments hereafter Oh rather let me entreat you all to wait wait I say upon God do not through your impatience loose your affliction and the benefit of that hour wherein every one of you shall say It is good for me that I was afflicted tarry the Lords leisure stand still and see the salvation of the Lord For all this will have a good issue at least in the other world if not in this Where God shall wipe every tear from our eyes turn our howling into singing Phil. 1. 12. 13. when he shall bring forth the eternal weight of Glory which is laid up for all that shall endure unto the end and so Lord Jesus come quickly The Second SERMON PHIL. IV. 17. Not because I desire a Gift but I desire Fruit that may abound unto your account AS that great Philosopher wrote over his School-door That none should presume to enter there unless he had learn'd some Mathematicks So our Lord and Master Jesus Christ requires one Principle of his Disciples likewise as a necessary qualification before their admittance into his Church namely To resolve before hand thus much never to regard any thing hereafter besides him to strip our selves of all earthly considerations whatsoever to go continually with our lives and fortunes in our hands ready in an instant to lay them down as soon as ever the Lord hath need of them So as none must dare to follow Christ without his Cross Few amongst us but grant all this we are ready enough to acknowledge all this till God comes to prove us For how pleasant does it seem to discourse of a storm at Sea under a warmer roof of banishment at home in our own houses of imprisonment as we ride abroad to magnifie extoll and as it were paint the Cross of Christ with our fine speeches in our success but when tribulation begins to appear we withdraw our shoulders quite from under it then we stand upon our guard with our poor slender distinctions putting by danger and most dishonourably shift our selves out of the way till at last we grow to the height of impudence as to make it a Case of Conscience to renounce the command of God that we may preserve our selves though it be by forswearing Christ a piece of the same valour as if a man should describe a battel well with his finger in wine upon a Table or read some valiant Story with life and vigour but in the field start at the report of a Gun Wherefore St. Paul in this Epistle did very providentially being now a prisoner of Jesus Christ in Rome exposed to the fury of merciless Nero who did ryot it in nothing more then in the bloud and ruin of innocent people I say St. Paul did very wisely encourage the Philippians here to stand fast to fear no opposition but to go on boldly forwards in every work of a Christian notwithstanding the terrible persecution was now begun For do you not conceive this advice seasonable to his absent friends when all his present acquaintance had forsaken him as he complains to the Corinthians For affliction did make the Prophets themselves question Providence and almost turn'd them Atheists affliction hath had power enough to remove rocks as we find by St. Peter and to stir that very foundation upon which Christ built his Church it 's so great a temptation as Almighty God try'd Abraham with it ten times before he would say he was Faithful Now that his sufferings might not more prevail upon them then they did upon himself by putting them into a fright least they might suffer the like to fix their constancy he uses these Arguments First As for himself they should not bemoan him because though he was laid in Irons yet the Word of God was not bound the Gospel that had freer passage by this his confinement for though his person could never have been admitted into Nero's Palace yet his

and there discourse with none but God and Angels Thus we may shame a Tyrant and puff at his Terrors For what I beseech you can the most subtle in curses invent against such who call Banishment a going to travel Imprisonment a getting out of a throng who say to dye is to lye down to sleep It is as impossible to torment these as to confine a Spirit or to lay shackles upon that thing which has no Body to bear them For you must not esteem these kind of expressions the heat only of a luxuriant wit because whatever happens in this life is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one most excellently calls it whose whole being consists meerly in Relation seems good to such as like it and evil to such as think the contrary just like meat which though it nourish one may kill another His Brethren thought they had sold Joseph into a strange Country to destroy him but he says God sent him before to provide for their whole Family So this Apostle collects with himself that if he dy'd he should go to his Saviour and if he liv'd he should serve his Brethren If he were at liberty his tongue should preach but being in prison his sufferings did further the Gospel much more If he met with all friends they would receive the Truth chearfully and if he found enemies they would preach Christ for him though out of strife and envy With him to dye was gain and to live was gain He took every thing by the right ear and found some benefit in every condition whatsoever whether by good report or by disgrace whether by the left hand or by the right whether by hatred 2 Cor. 6. or out of good will whether by life or death if Christ were preached he lookt no farther he had his end that unum necessarium the advancement of the Gospel and whatsoever happened besides this he esteemed as an additional complement which he might very well spare and yet remain an Apostle still But now on the other side what a continued torment is a mans life without this spiritual carelesness this holy neglect of our earthly Being Then are we born to misery indeed if a moth rust or canker can make us wretched If the trouble which as our Saviour says belongs to every single day can sully our mirth and cast us down If every wind and breath of an insulting Tyrant can twirl us about to all points of the Compass If we make our selves the shadow of the times and take both form and figure only as men do Rise and Set like some flowers if we shut and open just as they shine or not upon us 't were better a Mill-stone were tyed about our neck and we were cast into the midst of the Sea for that would keep us steddy Thus to halt to be divided as the word imports between Heaven and Earth Light and Darkness God and Mammon It breeds the same deformity in the Soul as would appear in the Body If you fancied a man lookt with one ey directly up to the skie and at the same time pitched the other ey streight down upon the ground how ugly would such a one seem unto you This this is the carefulness or rather this denying of Gods Providence which makes so many desire a gift desire it Nay most impudently make it their whole design and business of their lives to get it mounting the Pulpit as they would do a Bank and there sell of their Drugs for Medicines when in truth they poyson the very Soul Whence is it else that they preach their dreams calling that the word of God which hits in their heads when they cannot sleep Who bite with their teeth as Micha says eat on and talk as the company will have it and as it follows in the same verse who puts not into their mouths and gives not what they expect they even prepare a war against him Micha 3. 5. nay blot him out of their book of life Doggs 't is St. Pauls word to them or else I durst not use it Phil. 3. 2. that divine for money who will be rich whose greatest triumph is to lead captive silly women Men that will help up a sin into your bosome which otherwise perhaps a tender Conscience would keep down and set a whole City a fire and then like Nero stand by and play to it Men without whom no mischief ever had a beginning nor by whom shall ever any have an end Give me leave I beseech you to bend this crooked bough as much the other way and call such to St. Pauls example who when he was to preach a new Law preach'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gospel without charge 1 Cor. 9. who put his hands to work night and day that they might not receive any thing but from himself And I heartily wish what the Apostle did here of choice the Civil Magistrate would whip them to for they are a scandal to their beautiful Profession to preach Providence and at the same time scrape together as if God who provides for all things would have more care of a crow or the grass of the field then of man whom he created after his own Image as if he who sent forth his Disciples without scrip or penny did it only to destroy them and how shall the people credit those who preach the contempt of the world to their Congregations when they see these Foxes would only have their Auditors leave the world that they may enjoy it wholly to themselves calling that the Kingdom of Christ when they themselves raign or rather when Lust raigns in them Whereas St. Paul often urg'd this as an Argument to confirm his Doctrine that he took nothing for it Thirdly St. Paul did not desire a Gift because their Benevolence kept him still alive heartned his body up and prolong'd his days which considering St. Pauls condition was cruel mercy the greatest injury they could possibly do him to hold him thus from his Saviour with whom he long'd to be For the Apostle had fully weigh'd the poizes both of life and death concluded the most beneficial thing to him if he lookt only after his own advantage was Death having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is the better Phil. 1. 23. For pray resolve me what kindness is it to fetch a wretch devoted and given up to affliction necessity and distresses to stripes imprisonment tumults to fasting watching and all kind of labours 2 Cor. 6. to make much of a man only that he may last out to torment to set his joynts that he may go on upon the rack again to strengthen and enable him that he may suffer yet more to bind up his wounds as they did the Slaves in Rome meerly that he might fight with more beasts This is the same pity simply so considered as if you should give strong Cordials to one irrecoverably sick to lengthen and draw out his pain least he

should not feel what he endured to wake a condemned man and tell him he must dye Evasit says the Tyrant of one who had prevented his fury by a timely death Evasit in dying quickly he has made an escape he got away and has out-run me now for there in the Grave the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary are at rest Job 3. 13. The prisoner and the oppressor there lye quiet both together and there every one is free in the next verse and therefore if we consider Death only as a Rest from labour the Apostle had no reason to be solicitous with what to preserve his life any longer For we mistake exceedingly if we think life as life is desirable for there are some that dig to find a Grave as much as they would do to discover a Mine as Job speaks and God when he would reward some memorable act of piety Job 3. 21. in a man takes him out of the way before his Judgments come which made the Prophet when he could not turn away Gods wrath utterly pray'd the women might have miscarrying wombs and the Apostles seeing the persecution begin to rage advises the Christians not to marry lest they should 1 Cor. 3. only bring forth to the Sword and Faggot Now not to be born and death are in effect all one they are both equally alike not to be here Again Imagine the world had treated and dealt kindly with the Apostle yet then he needed not much care for means to keep up his life any longer for he calls himself now Paul the aged a time when we might choose death Philem. 9. meerly out of satietie because it is tedious to do the same things over and over again so often to eat and be a hungry and then eat again to sleep and then wake and then sleep again to see things still go about in the same circle to behold peace breeding luxury luxury war and war smooth into peace again for is there any thing whereof it might be said this is new Solomon Eccl. 1. 10. asks the Question who had proved all things and at last concludes by a particular Induction the surest Demonstration of any whatsoever That as the Sun goes round as the rivers hasten to the Sea from whence they came as the wind goes round the points of heaven and whirls about continually so the actions of men have their circuits too and whatever you wonder at in this or that Age you may find the same in another for there is no new thing under the Sun The Apostles years therefore he being now grown old might induce him not to be much concern'd how he should live being now full of days as the Scripture most elegantly expresses it having taken a perfect view now of whatever this world can afford which requires no long time to look over for Christ saw it all in a moment Luke 4. 14. and then I know not what a man has to do but to despise it and leave it with no more regret then he would walk out of garden where he found nothing that liked him But there is a far higher Contemplation not only to render living inconsiderable to a Christian but likewise to ravish our thoughts up from hence and that is the the promises of the Gospel where we behold Heaven open and those eternal Joyes revealed there which have lain hid ever since the foundations of the Earth If there were one that killed himself at reading Plato's immortality of the Soul If it be true that there are yet some Heathens who usually make away themselves upon no other account but because they would be in heaven If natural Reason can cast meer Gentiles into such admiration of that Bliss What will you say to St. Paul who was wrapt up alive into the Third Heavens and saw what the Saints enjoyed above though he could not express it when he came back with what scorn do you think he trod upon the ground afterwards when the Angel set him down again here Who was fain to have a thorn run into 2 Cor. 3. his flesh before he could find himself to be a Man can you imagine he would petition for liberty whose very body seemed a prison to him till he returned to Christ again Or would he sue for a supply to detain him from that which became his wish his dissolution how would you fret at him who should lengthen the race when you had almost won it or stake the prize yet farther off when you had almost caught it Just such a courtesie is it to relieve him who would dye any way that he might quickly enjoy his Saviour 't is but deferring and putting off his happiness the longer as if an unexpected supply should renew the fight then when we thought we had now gotten the day Take no thought for your life what you shall eat or what you shall drink says Christ surely this precept is needless to the Matth. 6. 25. Disciples of Christ Me-thinks he should rather allay our desire then fear of death who do expect such great things after it Me-thinks he should rather advise us that we should not out of hasty longing to be in Heaven neglect the means of continuing our being in this life But O you of little faith to talk of the blessedness the Saints of God enjoy above and yet use the most base abject and sordid means to live here and to keep your selves from it If then we cannot apprehend the Apostles here as a necessitous person nor any way concern'd to prolong his days by shifting about for maintenance but rather obliged to leave this world as soon as he could that he might enjoy a better We must think of some other Reason why St. Paul entertain'd their Benevolence with such joy Which leads me to the Consideration under which he accepted their Liberality viz. for their sakes not his own But I desire fruit that may abound to your account c. Fruit as fruit of their Patience that they durst own one whom the world had not only laid by as useless but tyed up as dangerous and fruit of their Love that they would acknowledge him and fruit of their Constancie that they persevered still to admire the glory of the Gospel though clouded with so much opposition as the whole world had now set it up as a mark to shoot at and as the fruit of their Zeal for in sending part of their substance to supply him they gave testimony that they would part with the whole and lives and all to advance the Kingdom of Christ and lastly as fruit of his Ministery wherein he saw he had not run in vain suffered in vain or scattered his seed amongst stones or thorns for in this he perceived that neither the fears nor love of the world had choaked it because as he tells the Galatians they neither despised nor spued him up again Gal. 4. 14. as the word imports

and Gospel too What do you talk of Sermons and of hanging Religion at the Ear when we are bound to break the Sabbath to save but an Ox or Ass what Ordinance may not we then trample under foot to relieve a Man or do you think lying down and believing will serve the turn When the Harlot Rahab for her Charity unto the Spies you find recorded Hebr. 11. among Abel Enoch Noah and Abraham the father of the faithful When Cornelius his alms came up to Heaven and lay continually before God as a memorial before ever he heard of a Saviour No my Brethren Christ will not ask you at the last day whom you have followed what Church you frequented but whom you have fed whom you have clothed whom you have relieved this will be your Question upon which you will be examined at the last Day of Judgment as you may read in St. Matthew not how often you have heard your Minister but how often you have fed him Do you think a Prophet will go to Heaven Why he that relieves a Prophet becomes thus a Prophet himself and shall receive a Prophets reward Mat. 10. 41. Or an Apostle why St. Paul calls Epaphroditus here an Apostle because he had administred to his wants nay only because he did collect the contribution for the poor Phil. 2. 25. Or don't you doubt but Martyrs wear their Crowns then be ye secure of yours Charitie cannot fail For by relieving the Apostle the Philippians became his fellow-sufferers Martyrs too though at a cheaper rate You do but lay up secure and traffick with that you bestow on your Brethrens wants A Thief may break into your house or a Robber spoil you of your money but what you give away is safe and your own for ever as being lockt up in the Treasury of Heaven where no wicked person ever shall appear And now having done with my Text sure I need not make any Application or tell you how by St. Paul I meant your Minister all this while and you your selves by these liberal Philippians I know to whom I preach and besides spoke it plainly that so necessary a subject might sink into the meanest capacitie And because it hath pleased God to make me the happy Instrument first to strike this Rock at which your Charitie gush't out in streams I am obliged to tell you what I have heard him say that is concerned in it How that now he glories more then ever in his sufferings and afflictions because they have yielded you so fair an opportunity to express your faith how he rejoyces not so much in your Gift as in your Christianity and more in your love to God then in your affection to himself For now says he I see I have not spent my self in vain I dare trust them now amidst a perverse and crooked Generation and if in this dispersion I shall hear they stand fast and steddy in the Doctrine of Christ I shall live for what else befalls me is impertinent and drops quite besides me But for this says he I will pray night and day make Supplications without ceasing to him who is the author and finisher of every good work that he will strengthen them against all Temptations that they may run on till they have won the prize fight on till they have gotten the day and then receive the reward of those who shall endure unto the end Thus much are his own words But it is fit that I should conclude with something of mine own Seeing then this golden Candlestick is to be removed from you seeing that Light which hath made such a blaze about this City is now to return again into its corner methinks I could acquaint you whom you loose that you may be more satisfied if possible how well you have placed your Charitie but I spare him for I could ask when he desired a Gift who received this not without some violence I could ask you whose houses hath he crept into like those that come with a tale coloured over with Scripture mis-applyed and grow at last to be Masters of your Family I could say that if I would have a School Question unridled I would name him or a Text soberly interpreted I would choose him and if I desired to see a sin rivited as it were with thunder into Hell you your selves would then direct me unto him I could speak more and thus and thus and thus and so begin another Sermon And if St. Paul did boast himself sure I might commend another or if he lay here before you in a Coffin then you would never think I had said enough at parting give me leave to praise you at least to commend the Congregation if I may not the Preacher Then I tell you I have seen such persons when they were in Town frequent this place as were able to create a Temple wheresoever they went men each of whom single Dr. H. H. Dr. R. S. and alone made up a full Congregation nay a Synod So as some have not unfitly named this Church the Scholars Church But I shall wave this and pass to what shall more profit you Which is to desire you in the bowels of Jesus Christ to consider and lay it to heart that the last Judgment which God spent on the obstinate Jews was the destruction of the Temple and the turning out of his Priests I say be think your selves what it should be which makes Gods vengeance so implacable against you that he threatens you not with cleanness of teeth but the famine of the Word examine your Consciences and if you find your crying sins have put these Ministers to silence you ought in conscience to maintain them to give them as the Philippians here did once and again to seek them out and relieve them as Onesimus did St. Paul Owe no man any thing says the Apostle but to love one another Rom. 13. 8. A most excellent speech and means thus as if he said you may pay your Bills at a Shop and be out of the Trades-mans debt you may lay down your money and take up your Bonds you may really satisfie all other engagements but this debt of Charity never This you must alwayes be paying yet never think it satisfied Break then off your sins by Prayer and Alms-deeds for who knows whether God will yet have mercy upon you and set these Candlesticks again in their right places again But you especially are bound to do thus who resolve to partake of this blessed Communion For here we celebrate the death of Christ who left Heaven to suffer for us and shall not we part with one crum of earth to enjoy him For in feeding the poor we feed him in receiving a Disciple we take Christ home to our houses set Christ down at our Tables and make him Incarnate again make every day a Christmass-day and every meal a Sacrament and at last he will receive us into his eternal Mansions where we shall

from God and that evil affection he hath from himself between that which is from heaven heavenly and that which is from the earth nay from the lowest pit of hell If we would consider him in his rational nature the image of God and in that other capacity as he is one for whom Christ dyed and so capable of eternal life and that though he seem dead yet his life may nevertheless Col. 3. 3. be hidden with Christ in God For why judgest thou thy brother Judgment is the Lords who seeth things that are not as if they were What though he be fallen upon the stone and be bruised Yet he may be built upon that foundation which is sure and which hath this Seal THE LORD KNOWETH WHO ARE HIS This open profaner may become a true professor this false witness may be a true martyr this persecutor of the Church may at length prove the most glorious member and bold defender of it and he that led the Saints bound to Jerusalem may himself afterwards rejoyce in his bonds for the same cause Paul of the tribe of Benjamin may as it is said of Benjamin in the morning raven as a wolf and at night divide the spoil and after bow his head to such a Sheep as Ananias And therefore the Apostle where he erects a kind of discipline amongst the Thessalonians thus draws it forth If any man obey not our word that is be refractory to the Gospel 2 Thess 3. 14. of Christ have no company with that man that he may be ashamed that seeing others avoid him he may be forced to have recourse unto himself to hold colloquy with his own soul to find out that plague of his heart which makes him thus like a Pelican in the wilderness or an Owl in the desert like the leper under the Law which no man must come near Have no company with him that is By thy company give him no encouragement in his sin And yet for all this have company with him for count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a brother which we cannot do if we avoid his company And in this sense also we must take that of the Apostle where he forbids us to eat with publick and 1 Cor. 5. 10. notorious offenders For the Apostles mind was not that such men were to be given over for gone or that we should acquaint our selves only with the good and not with the bad as Physicians do in time of Pestilence look only to the found and shun the diseased For our Saviour Christ familiarly conversed ate and drank with publicans and sinners and gives the reason of it Because he came to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance And we cannot think that St. Paul is contrary to Christ Beloved the rule of Charity commands us to think every man an heir with Christ or at least if he be not that he may be so What though believers be very few and there be many so like them that we cannot distinguish them This is I confess an errour of our Charity but it is a very necessary error And he that errs not thus he that thinks not and hopes not the best he can of all he sees wants something of being a good Christian And this error of our Charity is not without reason For we see not where nor how the Grace of God may work How sinful soever a man be yet if he be baptized if he make profession of the name of Christ if he do but come behind and touch the hemm of Christs Garment the Grace of God may cure him Nay were he dead in sin who knows what the Grace of God may do Peradventure God may call unto him lying and stinking in his sins as in a Grave Lazarus come forth Charity therefore because she may erre nay because she must erre looks upon every Christian as a Brother If he erre she is a guide to him if he sin she is Physician if he wander she recalls him if he fall she strives to lift him up being a light to the blind and a staff to the weak if he fall into sin she is ready to restore him in the spirit of meekness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the phrase to be Gal. 6. 1. his Chirurgeon to handle him with a gentle or as we use to say with a Ladies hand not roughly but with all tenderness and compassion to set every broken joynt but so as if she toucht it not to settle all that is dislocated that all his parts and joynts may be entire and aptly knit together that nothing may be wanting to him of those things which are required to the compleating and constituting of a brother and a Christian Look upon these Galatians unto whom Paul writes and then cast your eye upon chap. 5. 19 20 21. where he draweth out that black catalogue of the works of the flesh Adultery Fornication Uncleanness and the like and you will think it more then probable that these sins even reigned amongst them that they had abused their Christian liberty as an occasion to the flesh v. 13. that besides the contagion of a foul Error they were also polluted with Sins yet St. Paul doth rather intimate then impute them He shews them in their full horror and deformity that the Galatians may run from them and leaves them to accuse and condemn themselves and though he strike at their Error and Sin both yet he makes a fair close with themselves and calls them Brethren And now briefly to make some use of this it may seem to correct an angry and malignant humor which lurks in the hearts of many men undiscerned undiscovered and often breatheth and exhaleth it self forth not to the saving of the souls but to the blasting of the good name of their brethren not as physick but as poyson fatal and deleterial It is one mark of Antichrist That he sits as God in the temple of God 2 Thess 2. 4. shewing himself that he is God thundring out his excommunications canonizing damning absolving condemning whom he pleaseth Beloved thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to over-look our brother thus to look down upon our Brethren and dart a heavy censure on them for that for which we should shed a tear is so far to follow Antichrist as to take the seat and place of God nay to put him out of his seat and do his office nay to do that which he will not do to sentence him to death when he for ought we know hath chosen unto life Nay though it doth not make any man Antichrist yet it makes him so much Antichrist as to place him in a flat opposition to Christ himself For we have not such a high Priest as cannot be touched with the feeling of our sins but being tempted himself is able and willing to compassionate those who are tempted Did we feel the burden of our Brothers sins as he did did we apprehend the wrath of

God and our own souls so flatter and smile our selves to death as to think there is no such Necessity at all but that we may love God and yet hate and persecute our Brother nay love God the more the more we hate our Brother For I ask Is it necessary to love God is it necessary to love our selves is it necessary to be the children of God is it necessary to love Gods image in others and to repair it in our selves is it necessary to be ingrafted into Christ is it necessary to believe in a word is it necessary to be saved Then is it also necessary to love the Brethren sincerely cordially with a single heart To love our selves or as we are commanded to love our common Father which is in Heaven and who is the God of Love Profit and Pleasure may draw and allure us But Necessity forces and chains and links us to the Brethren Now the God of Love work true Brotherly Love in us all A SERMON Preached on Christmass-Day PSALM LXXII 6 7. He shall come down like rain upon the mowen Grass or into a fleece of wooll as showers that water the Earth In his dayes shall the righteous flourish and abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth THis Psalm conteins a Prayer and a Prophesie A Prayer for King Solomon who laid down his Scepter with his Life and slept with his Fathers and a Prophesie of Christ whose Throne is for ever and ever and of whose Kingdom there is no end Take it as a Prayer and it was heard For God gave Solomon Wisdom and Understanding 1 Kings 4. 29. and largeness of heart to judge his people with Righteousness and the poor with judgment Take it as a Prophesie and it was fulfilled For God sent his Son who is Wisdom it self to be the Shepherd and great Bishop of our Souls and to be our King to lead us in the waies of Righteousness Apply it to the Type and the expressions are hyperbolical Righteousness in the Text is not compleat nor abundance full Peace not as lasting as the Moon but as the Moon waxing and waning and at last eclipsed and turned into bloud That Dominion from the River unto the ends of the Earth takes in no larger compass 1 Kings 4. 24. than Judaea or at most the Region from Tiphsah unto Azzah so narrow a compass of ground that St. Hierom was ashamed to bewray its dimensions In a word interpret it by the inscription as a Psalm for King Solomon and all generations make but forty years all Kings are but Pharaoh and Hiram some few other that were on this side the River Euphrates All Nations are not many Nations and Solomons For ever we know well had an end And as we find it in hyperbolical Speeches ad verum mendacio pervenitur That we come not too short of the truth the phrase is made to look beyond it That we may conceive aright of the glory of Solomons Kingdom David extends it from the River unto the ends of the Earth That we may conceive some Peace he tells us of abundance He multiplies and dilates the bounds of his Empire makes Judaea as large as the whole world an Age eternity and that Scepter which did depart everlasting Literally this cannot be true of King Solomon Hic Psalmus Solomoni canere dicitur quae tamen soli competant Christo saith Cyril This Psalm is sung to King Solomon but the ditty is of Christ and of him alone Behold a greater then Solomon is here He shall have Dominion from sea to sea This Vers 8. belongs to Christ alone All Kings shall worship him Before whom do all Vers 11. Kings fall down but Christ And all Nations shall serve him Whom shall all Nations serve but Christ His name shall endure for ever Whose name but Christs All Nations shall be blessed in Christ in Solomon none at all And here in my Text He shall descend like the rain cannot be true of Solomon For he descended indeed but not like rain because he came not down from Heaven Many things are spoken of the Type which more properly belong to the Antitype Many things in this Psalm are spoken of Solomon which stretch beyond the line of truth and for no other reason but this because they belong to Christ whose Type he bore and in whom they were truly to be made good and without any Hyperbole at all Solomon did judge the people with righteousness but Christ shall judge the whole world and Solomon himself Solomon was a King but Christ is the King of Kings Solomon passed all the Kings of the Earth in Wisdom but Christ is Wisdom it self Solomon did break in pieces the Oppressor but Christ broke the jawes of the Destroyer of mankind and took the prey out of his mouth To him give all the Prophets witness To him do all the Fathers apply the words of my Text The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge him in her Hymns and Service for this great Feast of Christs Nativity singing praises to the Lord our Strength who came down like the rain into a fleece of wooll or the mowen grass as showers that water the earth And we have seen it with our eyes and fell it in our hearts and it is the joy and glory of this high Feast that in his dayes the righteous flourish and abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth And now I may say of this Prophesie as our Saviour himself did of another This day was this Scripture fulfilled in Christ who is signaculum omnium Luke 4. 21. Prophetarum who was the great Prophet who was to come and the seal of all the rest in whom all Prophesies were at an end And therefore we will but change the Tense and not read it DESCENDET he shall come down for the Jew himself will yield us thus much but DESCENDIT The fulness of time is come and he is come down already In quo quicquid retro fuit demutatum est saith Yertullian In whom whatsoever was in times past is either changed as Circumcision or supplied as the Law or fulfilled as the Prophesies or made perfect as Faith it self The Subject of the Song is the same Eaedem voces sonant eaedem literae notant idem Spiritus pulsat The words that sound the same the letters that character him out the same the same Spirit which inspires the Prophets and now speaks to us Only for the Feasts sake we will but change the time the Future for the Present and so express our thanks and joy Which should as far exceed the joy of the Prophets as Fruition doth Hope and the present enjoying of the benefit a sad and earnest expectation of it And then there will naturally arise the handling of these points 1. We shall consider the Incarnation of the Son of God as a Descent or Comming down 2. The Manner of this Descent It was placidus

conceive and bring him forth without any pain of travel without any breach of nature without any alteration and retained gaudium matris cum honore virginitatis the joy of a Mother and yet the integrity and honour of a Virgin We may say Peperit non parturivit She brought Christ forth but did not travel And Tertullian where he conjures down that spectrum and Phantasm of Marcion borrows his very words and urgeth this for a truth Peperit non peperit virgo non virgo She brought forth and did not bring forth a Virgin and not a Virgin She brought forth saith he because Christ did take of her flesh and she did not bring forth because she took nothing from man A Virgin in respect of her Husband and not a Virgin in respect of her Child And so being busie in the confutation of one error he seems to run unadvisedly upon another But his meaning is more then this That she was both a Mother and yet a Virgin and that Christ was born communi lege as other men are and not utero clauso the Womb being shut Which whether it be true or false I leave to those learned Chirurgions and masculine Midwifes the Schoolmen to determine I will say no more but with the Father Enormi otiosae curiositati tantum deerit discere quantum libuerit inquirere Vain and irregular Curiosity gains no ground in the search of those things which are too hard for it and of which we have no evidence of Scripture and all the profit she reaps is but this to run forward apace and to be struck blind in the way to make great speed and be further off It is enough for us to believe and acknowledge that she was a pure and immaculate Virgin that the Holy Ghost overshadowed her that she was that Fleece into which this gracious Rain fell sine soni verbere without any noise or sound that as a Fleece she was made both solid and soft softned and made fine by the power of the Most High to receive this heavenly Shower to conceive that and solid to conceive him without the division of parts to receive him into her womb as sheep do the Rain into their Fleece sine inquietudine saith Ambrose without any motion or stirring parerc nec compunè to bring him forth without any compunction or conquassation of parts to be soft and prepared and become a Mother ●nd yet solid and entire still and remain a Virgin And further we need not carry the resemblance And therefore in the next place we will bring Christ from the Womb into the World And here though I cannot say the World was all mowen grass or as a fleece or as earth but rather as brass or as the barren rocks yet Christ came down into the World And he came not jaciens fulmina saith Chrysostom in Thunder and Lightning with a Fire to devoure before him or a Tempest round about him but in great humility in silence and as his Kingdom so his coming was not with observation In a word though he were the Lion of the tribe of Judah yet he enters the world as a Lamb. For first nasci se patitur he condescends and suffers himself to be born and is content to lye hid in the womb nine months who might have taken the shape of a man in a moment He grows up by degrees and being grown up he is not ambitious to be known He is baptized by his servant and being tempted by the Devil nihil ultra verba conatur he useth no other weapon then his Words Was the Reed bruised he broke it not Did the Flax smoke he quencht it not Were Men ingrateful he cured them His hand that betray'd him was in the dish with him So that as his Flesh was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vail of his Divinity so what he did and what he suffer'd were as so many curtains or rather as a thick cloud to obscure and darken his Majesty You will tell me of the new Star But whether did it lead the Wise men To see a poor Infant in a Manger And though the sign of the Star were glorious yet the sign of the Cratch did obscure it Of the Angels Anthem But they were but a few Shepherds that heard it Of the men of the East who came to worship him But at the same time Herode the King did seek the Child to destroy him Of his retinue But they were Fishermen Of the Angel that comforted him But it was in his agony Of the Earth shaking and the Vail of the Temple rent But it was at his Death Certò latuit in infirmitate Majestas his Majesty lay hid and was obscured in his Infirmity And thus he temper'd and qualified his oeconomy amongst us cast forth these radiations of Majesty and yet appeared as but under a cloud had these tinctures and rayes of Greatness and yet dulled and almost lost in Poverty and Ignominy and Scorn and in respect of the Many quencht in the bloud which he shed But now we need not wonder that he thus came in silence and great humility For the whole world was an Hospital of diseased men or rather a Prison of Slaves and Captives fetter'd in the chains and bonds of Iniquity And should Christ have bow'd the Heavens and come down in glory should he have shone in his Majesty Should he have come in thunder and blackness of darkness Certainly the sight would have been so terrible that Moses himself even the best men living would have trembled and shaken Had all been glory all with us had been misery Had Christ come as God alone we had been worse then the Beasts that perish even companions of Devils Nisi iram misericordia finivisset saith the Father If his Mercy had not stept in between his Majesty and us and quencht that fire which was ready to burn the Prisoners nay the Prison it self had long since been consumed and brought to nothing Therefore Christ came not as a Judge but as a Physician For sick men are not cured with noise and ostentation The Fleece was dry and the gentle drops of Rain will wash and cleanse it but a cataract a deluge will drown the Sheep it self The Earth was dry and the Grass mowen desecta detonsa cut down nay carrosa à locustis so the Chaldee bitten and gnawn of Locusts And no Locusts comparable to Sins which devour not leaves only but the very root Now when Locusts swarm commonly it is a drought Therefore Rain and Showers are most seasonable to make the Grass grow afresh But Fire would consume all It is impossible saith the Father that our shackles should be knocked off and we set at liberty nisi in nostris fieret humilis qui omnipotens permanebat in suis unless he were made humble in our nature who was Omnipotent in his own Impossible that the mowen grass should grow up without Rain or those who are dead in sins be received

Rain upon the grass Nescio quomodo tangimur tangi nos sentimus We are water'd with this rain and we know not how We feel the drops are fallen but how they fell we could not discern And we are too ready to ask with the Virgin Mary How cometh this to pass But the Angel nay God himself telleth us The Holy Ghost doth come upon us and the power of the Most High overshadows us and that Holy thing which is born in us shall be called the Son of God Non deprehendes quemadmodum aut quando tibi prosit profuisse deprehendes That the power of Gods Grace hath wrought we shall find but the retired passages by which it hath wrought are impossible to be reduced to demonstration Res illic geritur nec videtur The Rain is fall'n and we know not how We saw not Christ when he came down but it is plain that he is come down And he comes down not into the Phansie alone That commonly is too washy and fluid of it self and brings forth no better a Christ then Marcions a Shadow or Phantasme Nor into the Understanding alone For thither he descends rather like Light then Water and he may be there and the grass not grow He may be there only as an absent Friend in his picture But he commeth down in totum vellus into the whole fleece into the Heart of man into the whole man that so he may at once conceive Christ and yet be presented a pure and undefiled Virgin unto Christ and be the purer by this new conception And he cometh down in totam terram upon all the ground upon the whole Little World of Man that so he may be like a well-water'd Garden even a Paradise of God A strange Jer. 31. 12. complaint the world hath taken up yea rather not a complaint but a pretense a very cloak of maliciousness to hide our sins from our eyes That Christ doth thus come down but at pleasure only sometimes and but upon some men some who like Mary are highly favour'd by God and call'd out of all the world nay chosen before the world was made And if the earth be barren it is because this Rain doth not fall As if the Grace of God were not like Rain but very Rainie indeed and came down by seasons and fits and as if the Souls of men were not like the Grass but were Grass indeed not voluntary but natural and necessary Agents Thus we deceive our selves but we cannot mock God His Grace comes not down as a Tempest of Hayl or as a destroying Storm or as a Floud of many Waters overflowing but as Rain or Drops He poureth it forth every day and renews it every morning And he would never question our barrenness and sterility if he did not come down nor punish our unfruitfulness if he did not send Rains If before he came into the world this Rain might fall as it were by coasts in Judaea alone yet now by the virtue of his comming down it drops in all places of his Dominion Omnibus aequalis omnibus Rex omnibus Judex omnibus Deus Dominus As he came to all so he is equal and indifferent to all a King to all a Judge to all and a God and a Lord to all And his Grace manat jugiter exuberat affluenter flows continually and falls down abundantly Nostrum tantùm sitiat pectus pateat Let our hearts lye alwaies open and the windows of Heaven are alwaies open let us continually thirst after righteousness and this Dew will fall continually Let us prepare our hearts let us make them soft as the Fleece let us be as Grass not Stubble as Earth not Brass and the Son of God will come down into our hearts like rain into the fleece of wooll or mowen grass and like showers that water the earth And now we have shewed you this threefold Descent We should in the next place contemplate the effect which this great Humility wrought the Fruit which sprung upon the fall of this gracious Rain upon Gods Inheritance the Spring of Righteousness and the Plenty of Peace and the Aeternity of them both But I see the time will not permit For conclusion therefore and as the present occasion bespeaks me I will acquaint you with another Descent of Christ into the blessed Sacrament I mean into the outward Elements of Bread and Wine Into these also he comes down insensibly spiritually ineffably yet really like Rain into a fleece of wooll Ask me not how he is there but there he is Eia fratres ubi voluit Dominus agnosci In fractione panis saith St. Augustine O my brethren where would our Saviour discover himself but in the breaking of bread In his Word he seems to keep a distance and to speak to us saith the Father by way of Letter or Epistle but in the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud he communicates himself that we who could not see him in his flesh may yet eat that flesh we cannot see and be in some kind familiar with him I need not busie my self in making the resemblance Theodoret in one of his Dialogues hath made up the parallel between the Incarnation of Christ and the Holy Sacrament In Christ there are two Natures the Divine and the Humane and in the Sacrament there are two Substances the heavenly and the earthly 2. After the union the two Natures are but one Person and after the consecration the two Substances make but one Sacrament 3. Lastly as the two Natures are united without confusion or coalition of either in Christ so in the Sacrament are the Substances heavenly and earthly knit so together that each continueth what it was The Bread is bread still and the Body of Christ is the body of Christ and yet Christ is the Bread of Life and the Bread is the body and the Wine the bloud of Christ It is panis Domini the Bread of the Lord and panis Dominus the Lord himself who is that living Bread which came down from Heaven And to a believing John 6. 51. Virgin soul Christ comes nearer in these outward Elements then Superstition can bring him beyond the fiction of Transubstantiation For as he by assuming our Nature was made one with us made flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones so we by worthily receiving his flesh and his bloud in the Sacrament are made one with him even partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. Per hunc panem ad Dei consortium preparamur saith Hilary By this Bread we are united to him here and made fit to be with him for ever And to drink this Cup the Bloud of Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens to be made partakers of the incorruptibility of God And now to conclude This quiet and peaceable committing of Christ to us should teach us the like behaviour one to another For shall he come down like rain and shall we fall like

Thunder upon our Brethren Shall he consider us as a Fleece of woll or as Grass and shall we make one another a mark and an anvil for injuries to beat on Shall Butter and Honey be his meat and shall we feed on Gall and Wormwood Shall he not break a bruised reed and shall we make it our glory to break in pieces the Cedars of Libanus Shall he come to save and shall we destroy one another Shall he come without noise and shall we make it our study to fill the world with tumult and confusion Shall he give eyes to the blind and we put them out Cloths to the naked and we strip them Leggs to the lame and we cripple them Shall he raise men from the dead and we kill them And if we do it can we be so bold as to say we are Christians or that Christ dwelleth in us of a truth Will he abide in this region of blackness and darkness in this place of noise and thunder and distraction No the humble and contrite the meek and merciful is the place of his rest He that came down in humility will not stay with the proud heart he that came down in silence will not dwell in a Chaos in confusion Therefore put you on the Lord Jesus Christ put on his Meekness his Humility As children of Christ put on tender bowels and compassion And let your bowels yearn over the poor to relieve him over the weak to strengthen him over the injurious to forgive him And let us be as Rain to soften and quicken not as Fire to consume one another And then He who thus came down into the Womb thus into the World thus into our Souls thus into the Sacrament in silence without noise or tumult like Rain or Dew having thus watered us and distilled his graces upon us by virtue of this his first Advent at his second Advent when he shall descend with a shout and with the voice of the Archangel though he come with more terrour yet shall he let fall his dew as the dew of herbs and drop upon our rottenness and corruption And they that dwell in the dust shall awake and sing And in those his dayes shall the righteous flourish and abundance of Peace not only so long as the Moon endureth but in new Heavens and new Earth shall dwell Righteousness and Peace for evermore The First SERMON PART I. MATTH V. 5. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth BLessedness is that which all men desire the Sun which every eye looks upon And in this Sermon of our Saviour it streams down upon us in several beams and strictures in Poverty of Spirit in Mourning in Meekness which seem to us as dark and thick clouds but are beams by which we have light to see the way to the Kingdom of Heaven to comfort and the inheritance of the Earth Now the two first Virtues or Beatitudes call them what you please and if they be Virtues they are Beatitudes though not formally yet by communication and if Blessedness be the garland to crown them they must be Virtues The two first I say Poverty of Spirit and Mourning are set in opposition to our Concupiscible appetite Which if not checkt and held back by these stoops at every prey is ensnar'd with wealth and crown'd in pleasure and like those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those artificial Engines or Clocks the Philosopher speaketh of are turned about disorderly parvâ motione factâ at the least touch and representation of unlawful and forbidden objects whether it be a wedge of Gold or the lips of the Harlot whither wealth or pleasure And therefore our best Master hath placed these two as assistant Angels to order the motion of that power in the desire of earthly blessings and continue her motion in the search of those things which are above even Poverty of Spirit and a voluntary Abdication of those pleasures which smile upon us as friends at their entrance but at their Exit when they turn their backs upon us are as terrible as Hell it self He that hath his mind so spiritually steer'd that it declines not to the wealth and pomp of the world nor to the delights which it affords howsoever his way be rugged and uneven and his passage cloudy and tempestuous shall notwithstanding at the end thereof find a Kingdom and Consolation And now to these two in its due place and by a kind of nearer method is added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meekness and Sweetness of Disposition to restrain the Irascible faculty or appetite as those did the Concupiscible Thus they stand in the original and Greek Copy and the Latine Fathers read them so Nor could the Jesuite find any reason why they should not be so placed in the vulgar Translation and he thinks they were misplaced by the error of the Scribe and put between Poverty and Mourning Sure I am there is good reason why Meekness should stand in the place it doth For from whence come wars and fightings amongst us saith St. James come they not from hence even from our lusts that war in our members And the Schools teach us that Anger proceeds from the concourse of many passions We lust and have not We hope for wealth and are poor and destitute we would sport away our time in pleasure but some intervening cross accident casts us down and for this we are angry Jacob hath Esau's birth-right and Esau will kill him Naboth denies his Vineyard and Ahab is on his bed Jonathan loves David and Saul is ready to nail him to the wall with his Javelin The Samaritanes deny entertainment the Disciples would presently call down fire from Heaven to consume them Irascibilis propugnatrix concupiscibilis saith Gerson These two seditious Tribunes of the Soul the Irascible and the Concupiscible faculty mutually uphold each other My Desire my Hope my Grief are the fewel of my Anger He that stands in my way to wealth or pleasure is my enemy and setteth me on fire which nothing can quench but Poverty of Spirit and Contempt of pleasure When we are weaned from the world and the vanities thereof when we are crucified to the world and the world unto us we are then aptinati fitted for this third Beatitude and gain strength against Anger and against all Thirst and Desire of revenge If I know how to abound and how to want if I can sit down in the House of Mourning and judge those miserable whom the world calls happy and pity them whom most men bow to I am then idoneus auditor a fit man to hear our Saviour preaching from the Mount and proclaiming to all the world Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth And thus much of the dependence this third Beatitude hath on the former two Meekness then you see stands in its right place after Poverty of Spirit and Mourning which make its way plain and usher it in I will not here compare them For

vent it not in language to imagine I may vent so I do not strike and when I strike to comfort my self because anothers little finger is greater than my Loyns to commend the Rod because it is not a Scorpion to say of those sins which surprise me because I do not fear them as Lot did of Zoar Are they not little ones may I not commit them and yet my soul live to make my Not doing of evil an apology for my Not doing of good my Not thrusting my Neighbour out of his own doors a sufficient warrant for my Not receiving him into mind to think that any degree of Meekness is enough is to forfeit all and loose my title to the inheritance of the earth It is I confess a sad observation but too manifestly true that if Meekness be a virtue so proper so essential to the Church then the Church is not so visible as we pretend but we must seek for the Church in the Church it self For if Meekness have yet a place it must be which is very strange in the hearts of men in the inward man For to the eye every hand is lifted up every mouth open and they who call themselves the Members of the Church are very active to bite and devour one another And it is not probable that their hearts should melt within them and their bowels yearn whose mouths are as open Sepulchres and whose feet are swift to shed bloud Is Meekness a note of the Church Certainly we may distinguish Christians from the World by nothing surer then by Malice in which they surpass both the Turk and the Jew And where most is required least is found ODIUM THE OLOGORUM The Malice of Divines was in Luther's time a Proverb but now the Proverb is enlarged and will take in the greatest part of Christendome The Papist breatheth nothing but curses and Anathema's and maketh his way with sire and sword where Reason and Religion shut him out Others who are no Papists yet are as malicious and bloudy as they and persecute their Brethren under that name call them Papists and spoil them as the Heathen did of old who put Christians into the skins of Beasts and with Dogs baited them to death If you think not if you act not if you look not if you move not as they do you are a child of perdition devoted to ruine and death If you preach any other Doctrine then that which they receive then you are accursed though you were an Angel from Heaven Forgive you that were a sin not to be forgiven Heaven and Earth shall pass away rather then one tittle and jot of what they have set up shall fail I have much wondred with my self how men could so assure themselves of Heaven and yet kindle such a Hell in their breasts how they could appropriate a meek Saviour to themselves and even claim him as their peculiar as the Heathen did their Deities and yet breathe nothing but hailstones and coles of fire how they should call themselves Evangelicos the only Gospellers and yet be such strangers such enemies to that virtue which is most commended in the Gospel how they should forgive none on earth and yet so boldly conclude that their pardon is sealed in Heaven that they should expect so much mercy from that God whom they proclaim so cruel as to damn men as they destroy their Brethren for no other reason but because he will I cannot here but wonder and lament and pray that this malice of their heart may be forgiven them for we cannot but perceive that they in the very gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity And I bespeak you as our Saviour did his Disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees For if a little leaven will leaven the whole lump what will such a lump of malice do Even infect the whole body of your Religion Your Hearing your Prayers your Fasts will taste of bloud Let us then mark and avoid them Let us devest our selves not of all power but of all will to hurt Let that alway sound in our ear which is as good Gospel as That Christ died for the World That if we forgive not we are in the number of Unbelievers and are condemned already Let us reserve nothing to our selves but that which is ours Meekness and Patience and leave to God that which is his Judgment and Retribution Commit all Jovi Vindici to the God of Revenge For he is the best Umpire for our patience If we put our injury into his hands he is our revenger if our loss he can restore it if our grief he is our Physician if our death he can raise us up again Quantum mansuetudini licet ut Deum habeat debitorem Lord what a power hath Meekness which maketh God our debtour for our losses for our contumelies for our reproaches for our death for all who hath bound himself to repay us with honour with riches with advantage with usury with the inheritance of the earth and with everlasting life The Fourth SERMON PART IV. MATTH V. 5. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth I Have bestowed many words upon this Virtue of Meekness But I have not yet said enough neither indeed can I licèt toto modio dimensum darem as he speaketh though I should give it you out by the bushel full measure pressed down and running over Nunquam nimis dicitur quod nunquam satìs discitur We cannot repeat that Lesson too often which we can never be so perfect in as we should And he certainly is no friend to Meekness who is impatient at her name though it sound never so often in his ear For can he love Meekness that is afraid of her picture and description Or can he stand out the shock of those evils which wait upon and follow every motion of his life who cannot bring a few hours patience to hear of that virtue which is the only buckler to quench those darts I would I could give you her in a full and compleat piece the whole Signature every line all her Dimensions I would I could present her naked before your eyes in all her rayes with all her beauty and glory her power in conquering her wisdom in defeating those injuries which press hard upon yea overthrow and triumph over all the power and policy of the world that so you might fall in love with her and fasten her to your souls and make her a part of them For then indeed we should see concurrere bellum atque virum every man strong against a battaglia every man chasing his ten thousand we should see a meek soul in contention with the world and by doing nothing treading it under foot And this we have attempted formerly to do but we have not done it in so full and fair a draugh as we desired Yet though you have not had the one half told you you have heard enough to move you with the Queen

of Sheba to draw near unto it and prove it in your selves And when you shall have practiced it in your selves you will say it was true indeed that you heard but you will feel more then you have heard or could hear by report We will therefore yet awhile longer detain you You have beheld the face of Meekness in her proper Subject which is every private man and in her proper Object which is as large as the whole world and takes in not only the Israel of God but the Amorite the Hittite the Amalekite not only the Christian but the Turk the Jew and the Pagan any man that is subject to the same passions any man that can suffer any man that can do an injury For Meekness runs round the whole circle and compass of mankind and binds every evil spirit conjures down every Devil she meets with Lastly we presented unto your view the Fitness and the Applicableness of this virtue to the Gospel and Church of Christ and told you that it is as it were the very breath of the Gospel the echo of that good news the best gloss and comment on a silent weeping crucified Saviour the best explanation of his last Prayer Father forgive them For the notes and characters of a Christian as they are described in the Gospel are Patience are easie putting up and digesting of injuries Humility a preferring of all before our selves And St. James tells us that the wisdom which is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated where he giveth the first place unto Purity It would be a sin almost to compare Christian virtues together and make them strive for precedency and place yet he that shall mark how every where the Scripture strives to commend unto us Gentleness and Meekness and that Peace is it quam nobis Apostoli totis viribus Spiritûs Sancti commendant as Tertullian speaks which the Apostles endeavour with all the strength and force of the Holy Ghost to plant amongst us might be bold a little to invert the words of St. James and read them thus The wisdom which is from above is first peaceable gentle easie to be intreated then pure For the Son of God who is the Wisdom of the Father and who for us men came down from above first and above all other virtues commended this unto the world At his birth the Song of the Angels was Peace on earth and Good-will towards men All his Doctrine was Peace his whole life was Peace and no man heard his voice in the streets And as Christ so Christians For as in the building of Solomons Temple there was no noise of any hammer or other instrument of iron so in the spiritual building and frame of a Christian there is no sound of any iron no noise of weapons nothing but Peace and Gentleness and Meekness Ex praecepto fidei non minùs rea est Ira sine ratione suscepta quàm in operibus legis Homicidium saith Augustine Unadvised Anger by the law of Faith and the Gospel is as great a sin as Murder was in the Law of Moses Thus you have seen how proper Meekness is to the Gospel and Church of Christ Now in the last place we shall draw this Virtue forth to you as most necessary to the well-being not only of a Church but of every particular member of it necessary to lift us up to the Reward the inheritance of the earth Which whither you take for that Earth which is but earth or that Earth which by interpretation is Heaven ad omnia occurrit mansuetudo Meekness reacheth both both the Footstool and the Throne of God it gives us title to the things below and it makes us heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven Without this we can have no mansion in Heaven nor any quiet and peaceable possession of the earth And thus with our last hand we shall set you up that copy which you may draw out in your selves For Meekness in character in leaves of paper in our books is rather a shadow than a picture and soon vanisheth away but being drawn out in the soul and practice of a Christian it is a fair and lasting piece even the image of Christ himself which the Angels and God himself desire to look upon And with these we shall exercise your Christian Devotion at this time And first Meekness may seem most necessary to Christians if we consider the nature of Christianity it self which stands in opposition to all other Professions in the world confutes the Philosopher silenceth the Scribe strikes Oracles dumb cryes to every man in the world to go out of it Behold saith our Saviour to his Disciples I send you forth as sheep in the Matth. 10 16. midst of wolves which will tear you to pieces for no other reason but because you are sheep It is a disease very incident to men to be jealous of every breath which blows in opposition to that which they have already received to swell against that which is contrary to them and though it be true to suspect it to wonder what it should mean to be troubled and affraid of it as Herode and all Jerusalem were when the new Star appear'd and though it be as visible to any wise man as the Star was in the East yet to seek to put it out or if they cannot to destroy those over whom it stands And therefore Tertullian tells us Cum odio sui coepit that Christianity was hated as soon as known and did no sooner shew it self in the world but it found enemies who were ready to suppress and cast it out men that could hate it for no other reason but because it taught to love that could be angry with the Christian because he was meek and destroy him because he made it his profession to forgive men who counted Revenge no sin as the ancient Grecians did sometimes Theevery because it was so commonly practis'd amongst them Again as it was planted in rerum colluvie in the corruption of men and manners so it doth in a manner bid defiance to the whole world It tells the Jew his Ceremonies are beggerly the wise man of this world that his Philosophy is but deceit and his wisdom madness It plucks the Wanton from the harlots lips tumbles down the Ambitious from his pinacle disarms the Revenger strips the Rich. It writes over the Rich mans Gates Blessed are the poor over the Doctor 's Chair Where is the disputer of this world over the Temple NON LAPIS SUPER LAPIDEM That not a stone shall be left upon a stone which shall not be thrown down For a NON OCCIDES it brought down a NE IRASCARIS and made Anger Murder for a NON MAECHABERIS a NON CONCUPISCES and made Desire adultery It brought down sin to a look to a thought and therefore no marvell if there arose against Christians tot hostes quot extranei as many enemies as there were Heathen or Jews

will our heavenly Father forgive us ours Et qui ad tam magnum tonitruum non expergiscitur non dormit sed mortuus est saith St. Augustine He that awakes not out of his pleasant dream of Revenge at this thunder is not asleep but dead For He will not forgive you is the same with this He will damn you with those malicious Spirits the Devil and his Angels and He will forgive you is equivalent to this He will receive you into his Kingdom to his seat of mercy and glory We may say then that Meekness is necessary as a cause to this effect as a virtue destined to this end at least causa sine qua non a cause so far as that without it there is no remission of sins For though I have faith to remove mountains and have all Knowledge yet if I have not Meekness there is no hope of heaven Or it is causa removens prohibens a cause in as much as it removes those hindrances which stand between us and the Mercy of God For how can I appear before the Father of compassion with a heart spotted and stained with the gall of bitterness How can I stand before the Mercy-seat with my hands full of blood And thus Meekness is a cause of Forgiveness and may be said to produce this effect because though it have no positive causality yet without it mercy will not be obteined Blessedness is joyned to Meekness as in a chain which hath more links and If you shall forgive your enemies my Father will forgive you doth not shew what is sufficient but what is necessarily required to the expiation of sin and the inheritance of heaven Again by Meekness we resemble him who is a God that blotteth out transgressions When we are angry we are like unto the beasts that perish yea we are as the raging waves of the Sea foming out our own shame But when we yield to our brother's infirmity and forgive him we are as Gods Thirdly This virtue is seldom I may say never alone but it supposeth Faith which is sigillum bonorum operum the seal to every good work to make it current and authentick yea and all that fair retinue of Virtues which as Handmaids wait upon Faith and make her known to the world For he whose mind is so subact as to bear another mans burthen and to lift himself up upon the ruins of himself and create virtue out of injury and contempt cannot be far from the Kingdom of heaven nor destitute of those sacrifices wherewith God is well pleased And this I say though it be not necessary yet is very probable For these to be Covetous to be Luxurious to be Wanton and to be Meek cannot lodge in the same breast For we see Prodigality as well as Covetousness is a whetstone to our Anger and makes it keen and sharp And the Wanton will as soon quarrel for his Whore as the Miser for his Purse But Meekness believeth all things hopeth all things beareth all things and doth nothing unseemly For the mind of the Meek is like the Heavens above Semper illîc serenum est there is continual serenity and a perpetual day there It is as Wax fit to receive any impression or character of goodness and retein it a fit object for Gods benefits to work upon ready to melt at the light of his countenance and to yield at the lifting up of his hammer And therefore In the last place this Meekness and Readiness to forgive maketh us more capable of the Gospel of Christ and those other Precepts which it doth contain and so fits and prepareth and qualifieth us for this Blessedness for this great benefit of Remission of sins For he that is ready to forgive all injuries will be as ready to be poor very forward to go to the house of mourning merciful a peace-maker one that may be reviled and persecuted and so rightly qualified for those Beatitudes And he who can suffer an injury will hardly do one whereas they commonly are most impatient of wrongs who make least conscience of offering them qui irascuntur quia irascuntur who play the wantons and are angry with their brother for no other reason but because they are pleased to be angry Now the Oratour will tell us that Nullus rationi magìs obstat affectus there is no affection which is so great an enemy to Reason as Anger For Sorrow and Fear and Hope and the rest make an assault and lay hard at us but anger as a whirlwind overwhelms us at once I may be stricken with Fear and yet hearken to that counsel which will dispel it I may hang down my head with Sorrow and yet be capable of those comforts which may lift it up again for every one is not as Rahel that would not be comforted but we deal with Angry men as we do with men overcome with drink never give them counsel till the fit be over For fairly to be speak a man thus transported is to as much purpose as to bid the Sea go back or to chide the Winds And as the Reason and Judgment are dimmed and obscured with that mist which sudden Anger casts so are they also by that which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lasting or abiding Anger which is the forge or alembick of Revenge and works it by degrees And till this be dispelled and scattered there is no room for the Doctrine of the Gospel which breaths nothing but meekness and forgiveness Disce sed ira cadat naso To be angry and To learn are at as great a distance as To be in motion and To stand still He that fills his thoughts with Revenge can leave no room for the Precepts of that Master who was led to the slaughter as a sheep But the Meek man is like him is a Sheep his Sheep and will soon hear his voice draw nearer and nearer unto him and by Meekness learn Purity and those other virtues which will bring him into the arms of his Saviour and the Kingdom of Heaven And thus you see how necessary a virtue Meekness is for the Church and for every part of it for every Christian to entitle him to the inheritance of the earth as the earth is taken for that new earth Rev. 21. 1. the Earth not of living dying men but that Earth where we shall live for ever that state of happiness which like the Earth shall stand fast for ever For what is Meekness but a pregustation and fore-taste of that quiet and peaceable estate which is no where to be found but at the right hand and in the presence of God That as God who is slow to anger and full of goodness and mercy is properly and naturally in a constant and immoveable state of bliss so Christians who by divine grace and assistance raise themselves up to this height and pitch as to look down from a quiet mind as from heaven upon all the injuries and reproaches which shall

be thrown against them so communicate as it were with God and are assimilated to him may also by the grace and favour of God participate with him of the same lasting and unchangeable glory And now we should descend to shew the title the Meek have to the Earth as it is in the letter and signifies temporal happiness and the quiet possession of the things of this world but the time is well-near spent now therefore we will add but a word or two by way of Application of what hath been already spoken and so conclude And did I say that Meekness was a necessary virtue to the Church of Christ and that without it we cannot receive the Gospel nor be our selves received into the Kingdom of Heaven Certainly I mistook at least the greatest part of Christendom will rise up against me and arraign me as guilty of a dangerous heresie For in their practice they confute it every day It was indeed a necessary virtue for the infant baby Church when she could not move her arms nor her tongue but in prayers and blessings when Christians were ready to suffer but knew not what it was to strike when they were expeditum morti genus readier to breath forth their souls in the fire then to kindle one readier to receive the sword into their bowels then to draw it But now the Church is aged and forgetful and men have learnt to dispute and distinguish themselves out of their duty have found out a new light by the guidance of which they may walk on securely and follow their brutish passions and covetous desires to the mark they have set up and by this light wade on and wash their feet in the bloud of their brethren It was a virtue it is now the mark of a lukewarm Reprobate It was the beauty and glory of the Church but later times have looked upon it as a fowl dishonour It was the only buckler the former Christian had but those of after-times have thrown it away and for it took up the sword which they brandish with terror as that weapon which Christ himself hath put into their hands It was the proper virtue of Christians and most necessary for them it is now an Anathema Now not to curse deserves a curse The Church was a flock a little flock of sheep it is now become as terrible as an army with banners and Christ is already brought into the world in that posture in which the Jews expect their Messias with Drum and Colours Shall I tell you what is counted necessary now It is necessary to contend for the Faith to stand up against Error to be zealous for the glory of God And what man of Belial dare be so bold as to stand up and say this is not necessary God forbid that Faith should fail that Error should take the chair that the Glory of God should be trod under foot It is true but then though this be necessary it is necessary to do it in that way and order which Christ himself hath prescribed and not in that which our Malice and Covetousness and Ambition draws out in bloud And the Sword of the Lord the Word of God managed with the Spirit of Meekness is more apt and fit to enter the soul and the spirit then the Sword of Gideon Religionis non est cogere religionem saith Tertullian Religion cannot be forced which if it be not voluntary is not at all For there cannot be a grosser soloecism in Divinity then to say a man is good against his will And sad experience hath taught us that they who thus contend for the Faith with noyse and fury do name Christ indeed but mean themselves We may instance in the Church of Rome They who defend the Truth non syllogismis sed fustibus as St. Hierome speaks not with Reason and Scripture but with clubs and swords do but glance upon the Truth but press forward to some other mark And THE GLORY OF GOD is but written in their foreheads that whilst men look stedfastly upon that they may with more ease and less discerned lay hold on the prey and so be Villains with applause Yee suffer fools gladly 2 Cor. 11. 19 20. saith St. Paul such as boast and count themselves the Sages of the Age because you your selves are wise in your own conceit though as very fools as they Yee suffer if a man bring you into bondage what do not the Romish Proselites endure if a man devour you if a man take of you if a man exalt himself if a man smite you on the face For how willing have men been to be deceived and to canonize them for Saints who wrought the cheat to think them the best Pastors who devour them and them the humblest men who exalt themselves and them the most gentle friends who smite them on the face Such a Deity such an Idole such a Nothing is Religion and Christianity made in this world cried up with noyse and beat down with violence pretended in every thing and denied in every thing magnified in those actions which destroy her forced to draw that sword which she commanded her disciples to put up made a sanguinary and shedder of bloud of which could she prevail and have that power which God hath given her there would not one drop fall to the ground But the World is the World still and would make the Church like unto it And though it be Ambition or Covetousness or Malice yet we call it Religion and when that word is once spoken then down goes all Morality all Humanity all Meekness and Religion it self Is it not for her cruelty that we make the Church of Rome the seat of Antichrist and call her the BEAST And let it be the mark and character of the Beast still Let not that which a Turk or Jew would run from with disdain be fastned as an ornament of glory on the Christian who is better drawn and expressed in chains and fetters then with his feet on the neck of his enemies For where should a Christian be seen but under the Cross When he flings it upon others he may call himself by what name he please but he is not a Christian Do we not make this our plea against the Church of Rome That sentence of death was never past upon any of them for Religion and therefore let not our words anathematize and our actions justifie them Let us not do that which in a Papist we call an abomination Let us not name the Lord Jesus and then fall down and worship the Prince of this world when he lures us to him with the glory of it and those things which he will give us A strumpet is not a whit the less a strumpet because she calls her neighbour so and the name of Antichrist will belong to us as well as to that Church if we partake with her in those sins for which we call her so And it will little avail us to call

her Antichrist whilst our selves are drunk with the bloud of our brethren But Dii talem terris avertite pestem God banish from the earth this kind of Popery And let us be able to make that glorious profession which the Christians did to the Heathens in the times of Nazianzene QUAM LIBERTATEM VOBIS ERIPUIMUS When our Emperour was a Christian and the Church had peace and flourish'd what one part of your liberty did we deprive you of Did we spoil you of your wealth or cast you into prison Did we raise up the people to rage against you Did we call for the sword of the Magistrate and invite the secular Power to destroy you Did we degrade you from your honours or remove you from your offices Did we displace your Praetors They are the Fathers own words What did you hear from us but hearty wishes earnest exhortations and vehement prayers for your salvation So far were we from shedding your bloud that we were ready to powre out our own for your souls This was all our violence and indeed you esteem'd it so You imputed to us even our very meekness as a crime and counted our patience to be violence This we can but this you cannot say for your selves You by most exquisite torments would force us to a false Religion who by our very Religion are forbid to use any violence to draw you to a true one It is true the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be taken but by violence but it is by violence upon our selves upon our Anger to bridle it upon our fleshly Lusts to controll them upon our unruly Affections to moderate them upon the Old man to crucifie him We make our addresses unto you in the spirit of meekness we beseech you to be reconciled unto Christ but we were never taught to present our Religion to you on the point of the sword O that we could make this glorious profession This is the Gospel-way the only way to open the Gates of Heaven to our selves and others For we wrestle not saith St. Paul against flesh and bloud against the Neros and Nabals of the earth against the Jews who solemnly curse us three times a day saith St. Hierome against the Turk who delights in our bloud against the Papists who make it a sport to anathematize us nor against those who hate them with a perfect hatred and are worse then they not against the Slanderer whose tongue is a rasour nor against the Oppressour who hath the teeth of a Lion nor against the Detractour whose whisper is as the sting of a Scorpion and hurts unseen but we fight against Principalities and Powers and the Rulers of the darkness of this world These are a Christian mans enemies and with these he solemnly wageth war And his weapons are answerable the Breastplate of Righteousness the Shield of Faith the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit which though they are mighty to pull down strong holds yet will they not touch an enemy that appears in the shape of a man The Breast-plate of Righteousness will not defend me from them that shoot their arrows in private The Shield of Faith though it quench the fiery darts of Satan yet will not quench that fire destroy that Tongue which is a world of iniquities And the Sword of the Spirit cannot beat back the malice of an inraged enemy or smite down those that hate us But if we believe and trust to this part of providence which the Wisdom of the Father hath taught us we shall see greater things then these We shall find our selves disarm'd with never a hand to strike with a tongue that cannot curse with weapons which may resist a Devil but cannot hurt a man which will cast down a sin but not an enemy not able to move when the heathen rage and when the enemy drives towards us like Jehu furiously making the greatest preparation against our own Impatience fighting against our Anger when we will not hold up a hand against those that hate us for the Truths sake Rom. 8. 36 37 killed all the day long and appointed as sheep for the slaughter yet in all these things more then conquerors These are the riches of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria These are the victories and trophees of a Christian a ploughed back a face spit upon hands bound and feet in fetters and a heart melting and bleeding for them that do it and powring forth supplications and prayers for them the only coals he heapeth upon their heads And thus the Christian doth seculi fluctus calcare praeeunte Christo he treads upon the proud waves of this world Christ going before him he walks in Christ's steps he wadeth not in the bloud of his enemies but in his own to that inheritance which is laid up for him He learneth of Christ who is meek and lowly and so heals every malidy binds up every wound wipeth off all disgrace triumphs over all the evil in the world and so finds that rest unto his soul which our Pride our Animosities our Rage can never purchase us To conclude Though Meekness do not open the Gates of Heaven yet it makes our admittance more easie Though it be not sufficient to save us yet it is a fair means to make us wise unto salvation Though it do not merit remission of sins yet it makes us like to our Father which is in Heaven And at the great day of retribution this also which we have done shall be mentioned and our Father shall say unto us Well done true and faithful servants You have bowed down your backs to the smiter you have loved your enemies and prayed for your persecutors behold I have loosed you and forgiven you all your debt enter into your Masters joy To which He bring us who hath dearly bought us with his bloud JESUS CHRIST the Righteous The Fifth SERMON PART I. EPHES. V. 1. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children THE words are plain and need not the gloss of any learned Interpreter That God is our Father and we his children That as children we must be followers of him in those wayes which lead us to him There is no man so much a child in understanding but will understand this without a Philip without any man to help or guide him But yet Beloved many times the plainest places of Scripture require our pains and labour as much as the obscurest and are far more useful and necessary then high and deep speculations as we find a stone out of the Quarry more fit to build a house with then a Diamond These words which I have read as plain as they are are as a rich Mine which being well searcht into will yield abundance of ore even the rich treasury of that wisdom which will make us wise unto salvation If we desire Wealth the earth is the Lords and all that therein is if Strength he is the Lord of hosts if Wisdom He created her and

otherwise Virtues then as they are exemplary because these Divine virtues which are essential to him must be exemplary to us We must make him the rule of Goodness in all our actions we must be just to observe the Law valiant to keep down our passions temperate to conform our wills to the rule of Reason and wise to our salvation But there is no virtue that makes us more resemble God then this the Apostle here exhorts the Ephesians to and that is Mercy For although all virtues are in the highest degree nay above all degrees most perfect in him yet in respect of his creatures none is so resplendent as Mercy If thou callst him Health I understand thee saith St. Augustine because he gives it thee If thou call'st him thy Refuge it is true because thou fliest unto him If thou saist he is thy Strength it is because he makes thee strong But if thou namest his Mercy thou hast named all for whatsoever thou art thou art by his mercy His Goodness is infinite and looks over all even his Justice hath a relish of it It is extended unto the very damned for their torments are not so great as God could inflict or as they deserve And in respect of us it exceeds his Justice For his Justice hath a proportional object to work upon we being children of wrath and worthy of punishment but his Mercy hath none at all we deserve not to fly to its sanctuary to be covered under its wings When we lay weltring in our bloud there could no reason be given why God should take any of us out He did it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. James because he would There were none then that could have interceded and pleaded for us as the Elders did for the Centurion They are worthy that thou Luke 7. shouldst do this for them Mercy is the Queen and Empress of Gods Virtues It is the bond and knot which unites Heaven and Earth that by which we hold all our titles our title to be Men our title to the name of Christian our title to the profession of Christianity our title to Earth our title to Heaven I could loose my self in this Paradise I could build a Tabernacle upon this Mount Tabor I could still look upon this Mercy-seat Even to speak of it is great light But from the contemplation of God's Mercy I must descend lower and lead you to the imitation of it and with the Apostle here exhort you to be followers of God to forgive one another to walk in love even as Christ loved us and when God reacheth out his hand of mercy to you not to draw in yours to your brother And here I see three paths as it were to follow God in three things required to this Imitation 1. the Act of Imitation it self 2. That this Act be performed ex studio imitandi out of a love of God's Mercy and a desire to imitate him 3. A Conformity of the act of imitation to the patern followed In the first place then as God forgiveth us so we must forgive our enemies It will not be enough to have Gods Mercies on our tongues or to speak of them with admiration with joy to go over the bridge and then pull it up to our brother We account him not a good Painter who can only commend a Picture and not use the Pencil himself to draw a line Neither is he fit to be governour of a ship that having past a tempest doth only praise the Pilate but scarce knows the Rudder himself Good God! what a soloecisme in Christianity is it to have a cruel heart and a tongue speaking nothing but Mercies to be in the gall of bitterness and most devilishly malicious and yet to cry out Taste and see how gracious the Lord is Hierome censureth Virgil for his Foelix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas for calling him happy that knew the cause of things Apparet ipsum ignorâsse quod laudat He was ignorant and knew not that happiness which he commended So these merciless Patrons of Mercy ignorant quod laudant they praise they know not what They talk of Forgiveness and cloth themselves with malice Their tongue is smooth and their heart is rugged They speak in a still voice but in their breast is thunder Their words are more soft then butter but they think of swords In the second place as we must forgive so Gods Mercy must be the motive we must do it ex studio imitandi out of a desire to imitate God Not out of propension of nature out of meekness of disposition For we cannot say the child doth imitate his father in eating because eating is natural Not out of a Stoical affectation contumeliam contumeliae facere to think it revenge enough to beat off an injury with a witty jest Not out of love of peace and fear of trouble Nor lastly out of necessity therefore to forgive because thou canst not revenge Quod necessitas facit depretiat ipsa For as he told the Emperour that wearied Cruelty is not Clemency so an inability or an impossibility of revenge is not Mercy A Lion though within the grates is a Lion still as fierce as wild as ravinous as before and a Bear is a Bear still still greedy of blood though without a tooth without a paw Thou sayst thou doest forgive thy enemy with all thy heart But O quàm cuperes tibi ungues esse thou wantest but fangs thou wantest but ability to revenge If the lines were loosed and thy teeth sharp thou wouldst grinde thine enemy to powder thou wouldst triumph in thy revenge thou wouldst shew what thy Forgiveness was Though a wall be placed between thee and thy enemy that thy Artillery cannot reach him and thou canst not be revenged yet voto jugulasti as St. Hierome speaketh thou hast performed it in thy wish And thus to forgive Beloved is so far from following God that we run away from him God forgives not because he is not able to destroy thee No as Caesar once spake and nobly too Facilius est facere quàm dicere It was easier for him to be revenged than to talk of it So did not Gods Mercy restrain him he could with a word destroy the whole World He hath a Sword and Fire and a Quiver a glittering Sword a Sword that shall eat flesh and a Fire kindled in his wrath that shall burn unto the bottom of hell and a Quiver full of arrowes of arrowes that shall drink bloud yet he will in mercy sheath Deut. 31. his Sword he will quench his fire he will hide his arrowes in his Quiver that when we feel the operation of the sweet influence of his Mercy within our selves we may also with an upright and sincere heart derive it to our brother Lastly we must conform our Imitation to the Patern He with one act of mercy wipes out all scores so must we When he forgives our sins he is said to

plainly named The Disciples came unto Jesus saying 3. The Question it self Who is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven Where we shall take some pains to discover the true nature of this Kingdome that so we may plainly see the Disciples error and mistake and carefully avoid it These are the parts we shall speak of and out of these draw such inferences as may be useful for our instruction that as if by the Disciples doctrine when they were inspired by the holy Ghost so by their error when they were yet novices in the School of Christ we may learn to guide our steps and walk more circumspectly in the wayes of truth that by their ill putting up the Question We may learn to state it right Of these in their order We are first to speak of the Occasion of this Question And to discover this we must look back upon the passage immediately going before Chapt. 17. and as it were ushering in my Text. There the Occasion privily lurks as the Devil did in the Occasion And there we find how our Saviour in a wonderful manner both paid and received tribute received it of the Sea and paid it unto Caesar in the one professing himself to be Caesars Subject in the other proving himself to be Caesars Lord. You see Caesar commands him to pay tribute and Christ readily obeys but withal he commands the Sea and behold the Fishes hasten to him with tribute in their mouths Chapt. 17. 27. Now why our Saviour did so strangely mix together his Humility and his Power in part the reason is given by himself Lest we should offend them For having proved himself free and therefore not subject to tribute for if the Sons of Kings be free then the Son of the King of Heaven must needs be so yet saith he unto Peter That we give no offence cast thy angle into the Sea He is content to do himself wrong and to loose his profit to gain his peace And as he did express his Humility that be might not offend Caesar so we may be easily perswaded that he did manifest his Glory that he might not offend his Disciples For lest his Disciples peradventure should begin to doubt whether he was as he pretended Lord of heaven and earth who did so willingly acknowledge a superior look how much he seem'd to impair his credit by so humbly paying of tribute so much and more he repaired it by so gloriously receiving it Now saith the Text At the same time when this wonderful thing was acting then was this Question proposed But now in all this action let us see what occasion was here given to this Question what spark to kindle such a thought in the Disciples hearts what one circumstance which might raise such an ambitious conceit They might indeed have learnt from hence Humility and Obedience to Princes though Tyrants and as Tyrants exacting that which is not due and a Willingness to part with their right rather then to offend That Christ is not offended when thus parting with our goods we offend our selves to please our Superiours But a corrupt Heart poysons the most wholsome the most didactical the most exemplary actions and then sucks from them that venome which it self first cast A sick ill-affected stomach makes food it self the cause of a disease and makes an Antidote poyson Prejudice and a prepossessed mind by a strong kind of Alchymie turns every thing into it self makes Christs Humility an occasion of pride his Submission a foot-stool to rise up upon and upon Subjection it self lays the foundation of a Kingdome Some of the Fathers as Chrysostome and Hierome and others were of opinion that the Disciples when they saw Peter joyned with Christ in this action and from those words of our Saviours Take and give them for me and thee did nourish a conceit that Peter in this was preferred before the rest and that there was some peculiar honor done to him above his fellows and that this raised in them a disdain against Peter and that their disdain moved them to propose this Question not particularly Whether Peter should be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in general terms Who should be the greatest And this the Church of Rome lays hold on and founding her pretended Supremacy on Peter wheresoever she finds but the name of Peter nay but the shadow of Peter she seeks a mystery and if she cannot find one she will make one The Cardinal is fond of this interpretation and brings it in as a strong proof of that claim the Bishop of Rome makes of being Prince of all the world But what is this but interpretationibus ludere de scripturis when the Text turns countenance to put a face and a fair gloss upon it and make it smile upon that monstrous Error which nothing but their Ambition could give birth and life unto For to speak truth what honor could this be to Peter To pay tribute is a sign of subjection not of honor And if we will judge righteous judgment nay if we will judge but according to the appearance the greatest honor which could here have accrewed to Peter had been to have been exempted when all the rest had paid To speak truth then or at least that which is most probably true not any honor done to Peter but the dishonor which was done to Christ himself may seem to be the true Occasion of this Question I shall give you my reason for it We see it a common thing in the world that men who dream of Honors as the Disciples here did grow more ambitious by the sense of some disgrace As in Winter we see the fountains and hollow caverns of the earth are hottest and as the Philosophers will tell us that a quality grows stronger and more intense by reason of its contrary Humility may sometimes blow the bladder of Pride Disgrace may be as a wind to whet up our ambitious thoughts to a higher pitch Or it may be as Water some drops of it by a kind of moral Antiperistasis may kindle this fire within us and enrage it and that which was applyed as a remedy to allay the tumour may by our indisposition and infirmity be made an occasion to encrease it We trusted that this had been he who should have redeemed Israel say they Luke 24. 21. Is this he who should come with the Sword and with Power and with Abundance unto them that should root up the Nations before them and re-instate them in the Land of Canaan Is this that Messias which after many years victoriously past on earth should at last resign up his life and establish his Kingdome upon his Successors for ever A conceit not newly crept in but which they may seem to have had by a kind of tradition as appeareth by that of our Saviour Luke 14. 15. Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdome of God and by the mother of Zebedee's children who requested that her two sons might sit one

at Christs Matth. 20. 21 right hand the other at his left in his kingdome And can Christ do this and thus submit himself Can he be a King that thus pays tribute Some fit and pang of this distemper did no doubt trouble the Disciples minds at this time They had been often troubled with it and had sundry times discust amongst themselves as we have observed who should be the greatest And now upon this occasion seeing Christ bowing to Autority and submitting to them whom they thought he came to destroy the fire burned and they spake with their tongue Seeing the Lord of heaven and earth thus challeng'd for tribute and thus gently yielding to pay it they lost the sight of his Power in his Humility they forgot the miracle of the Money in the fishes mouth because it was tribute And being struck with Admiration they began to enquire what Honors and what degrees of Greatness were in his Kingdome which is his Church and observing the King of Heaven himself thus subject to command instead of learning Humility they foment their Pride they awake their Ambition and rowse it up to seek the glory of this world they are bold to ask him who was the Master and patern of Humility Who is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven This I take to be the Occasion of this Question And so I pass from it to the Persons who moved it The Disciples came unto Jesus And the Disciples we doubt not had been well and often instructed that the Kingdome of Christ was not of this world but spiritual yet the prejudicate conceit they had of the Messias did shut up their understanding against this truth the shape they had drawn in their minds of Christ made Christ less visible in his own shape So hard it is homini hominem exuere for a man to put off himself for a man that looks for a Pearl to interpret it Grace for a man that is ambitious of Honor on earth to look for it in heaven Such a damp and darkness doth Prejudice cast upon the minds and understandings even of the best men even of Disciples of Christ For the Devil fits himself to the nature and disposition of every man What he said of the Jesuite JESUITA EST OMNIS HOMO a Jesuite is every man to every man can apply himself to all humors all dispositions is most true of our common enemy Satan He is in a manner made all things to all men If he cannot cast us down into the mire of carnal and bruitish sin he is very active and cunning to lift us up on the wings of the wind and to whiff us about with the desire of honor and priority Etiam in sin● discipulorum ambitio dormit saith Cyprian Ambition finds a pillow to sleep on even in the bosome of Disciples themselves There she lyes as in a shade lurks as in a bed-chamber and at last she comes forth and you may behold her raising of palaces and measuring out kingdomes and you may hear her asking of questions Who shall be the greatest Multimoda Satanae ingenia saith Hierome the craft of Satan is various and his wiles and devises manifold He knows in what breast to kindle Lust into which to breathe Ambition He knows whom to cast down with Sorrow whom to deceive with Joy whom to shake with Fear and whom to mislead with Admiration He searcheth our affections he fans and winnows our hearts and makes that a bait to catch us withal which we most love and most look upon He fights as the Father speaks with our selves against our selves he makes snares of our own desires and binds and fetters us up with our own love If he overcome us with his more gross tentations he insults but if he fail there he then comes towards us with those tentations which are better clothed and better spoken He maketh curious nets entangles our phansie and we strait dream of Kingdomes If our weakness overthrow us not tropheis triumphisque succumbemus saith the Father our own tropheys and triumphs shall destroy us Like a wise Captain he plants all his force and artillery at that place which is weakest and most attemptable We see the Disciples hearts were here weakest and here lay most open hither therefore the Devil directs his darts here he placeth his engines to make a breach So dangerous a vice is Ambition and so hard a thing it is even for good men for mortified persons for the Disciples of Christ to avoid it Who shall be the greatest they are not alwaies the worst men that put up that question Tully observes of the Philosophers that though they wrote books of the Contempt of Glory yet they would set their names to those books and so seek for Glory by oppugning it and even woo it in the way of a bold defiance And Plutarch speaking of the Philosopher whose Dictor it was LATENTER VIVENDUM That a concealed life was best yet adds withal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he would not have it concealed that this Dictor or speech was his What speak we of the Heathen Philosophers The Philosophers of God the Prophets of God have been much infested herewith Look upon Baruch When he thrived not in the King of Judah's Court he fell into discontent and repining so that the Prophet Jeremy is sent unto him with express message Seekest thou great things for thy self seek them not For I will bring evil upon the whole earth saith the Lord. Behold Jonah under his gourd What Jer. 45. 5. a pett and chafe is he in How irreverent to his God How doth he tell God even to his face that he did well to be angry even unto death And all this Anger from what fire was it kindled Certainly from no other then an overweaning conceit of his own reputation lest the sparing of Niniveh against which he had denounced ruin and destruction should disparage him with the people and lose him the name of a true Prophet And this we need not much marvail at if we consider the nature of this vice For first of all it is a choice vice preserved on purpose by the Divel to abuse the best nor will it grow in every soil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great and Noble natures the best capacities the most able wits these are the fat soil in which this weed grows Base and sordid natures seldom bear it What cares the Covetous person for Honor who will bow to durt What cares he for rising in repute who hath buried himself alive in the earth What cares he for a name that had rather see other mens names in his parchments then his own in the Book of Life What cares the Wanton for renown who had rather be crowned with roses then with a Diademe or will he desire to rise higher whose highest step is up to the bed of Lust and the embraces of a Strumpet These Swine love not such water as this nor such an oyntment as

nothing in his house but what was great great Servants and great Vessels of Silver calceos etiam majores Shoes also too great for him And from this fantastick humor he took his name and was called SENECIO GRANDIO Senecio the Great Yet for all this he added not one hairs breadth unto his stature Beloved if we would measure our selves aright we should find that that is not Greatness which the World calls by that name outward state and pomp and stateliness to cast men on their knees with a frown or to raise an army with a stamp of the foot We are the less for these and to think our selves greater for these is to run upon the same error which Senecio Grandio did Again it is but a phansie and a vain one to think there is most ease and most content in worldly greatness or that we sleep best when our pillow is highest Alass when our affrighted thoughts shall awake each other and our conscience put forth her sting when those sins shall rise up against us by which we have climb'd to this pitch all the honor of the World will not give us ease Will a legg or a cap think you still this noyse Will the obsequious cringe and loud applause of the multitude drown the clamour of our Conscience which like an awaked Lion will roar loud against us No Beloved not all the pomp not all the pleasure of the world not the merry Harp and the Lute and the Timbrel no not a triumph will be able to slumber the tempest within us no more then the distressed weather-beaten Mariner can becalm a boysterous Sea with his whistle or a wish We read of a Souldier who being to sleep upon a hollow piece of steel complained his pillow was hard but stuffing it with chaff he thought it much the lighter Just so it fares with ambitious men When they have run on in the wayes of Honor when they have attained their ends they shall find that their pillow is steel still only they filled it with more chaff then other men Besides Honor doth not make him greater that hath it but him that gives it For if it proceed from virtue bonum nostrum non est sed alienum it is not our virtue but his that honors us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sign saith the Philosopher of another mans good esteem and opinion which opinion is raised not from the person but his virtue And therefore the Apostles counsel is In giving honor go one before another as if he were truly honorable not who receives honor but who gives it and all precedency were in this And indeed Honor is if not a virtue yet a strong argument of it in him who bowes himself in a just veneration of Goodness Scias ipsum abundare virtutibus qui alienas sic amat saith Pliny You may be sure he is full of virtue himself who loves to see the splendor of it in other men Lastly Greatness and Honor adds nothing to Virtue Nothing accrews to a Good man when he rises and comes on in the world nothing is defaulked from him when he falls and decayes The Steed is not the better for his strappings nor doth the Instrument yield sweeter musick for its carved head or for the ribbon which is tyed unto it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Virtue in the open ayre naked destitute and afflicted is of as fair a presence as when she sits under a canopy of state David in the wilderness as honorable as on his throne Job on the dunghil as in all his wealth and Joseph in the stocks as when he was a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house When God speaks by his Prophet he tells us that his wayes are not our wayes nor our wayes his and here where Christ speaketh to his Disciples by his answer it appears that his judgment and theirs were not the same When God sent Samuel to anoint David Jesse brought forth Elias and Samuel said Surely this is the Lords annointed But God corrected his error and bade him not look upon his countenance nor the height of his stature for God seeth not as man seeth Beloved if with the Disciples here we have a thought that Christs Kingdome is a temporal Kingdome God hath not chosen that thought If we look upon the countenance of men and think them the greatest who are of highest stature and in honor and dignities are taller then their fellows by the head and shoulders we are deceived and the God of this world hath blinded our eyes that this Pygmay in Christs Kingdome appears to us as big as a Colossus But there is a little one a child behind an humble and low Convert And whosoever shall humble himself as this little child the same shall be the greatest in the kingdome of heaven To conclude all Let us seek for Honor but seek for it in its own coasts On earth it is nothing or it signifieth nothing and most commonly it is given to them who signifie as little Therefore let us look up to the highest Heavens where the seat of Honor is Let him who put us into the Vineyard give us our wages and let the King of glory bestow honor upon us Let us make him alone our Spectator him alone our Judge and He will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing Rom. 2. 6 7. seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal life Which God grant us all through Christ our Saviour The Eighth SERMON 1 COR. XIII 7. hopeth all things AT the very reading of this Chapter the true Christian cannot but think himself in a kind of Paradise and conceive he sees Charity growing up like a tree of Life spreading its branches full and hanging down the head inviting him to gather such fruit from every one of them as may be pleasant to his taste and abound to his account At this time I have laid hold but on one of them but such an one as will give you a taste of all the rest For in true Hope there is Long-suffering and Kindness there is Patience and Meekness there is no Envy no Malice no Pride no Suspition And if we take down this and digest it the rest will be sweet unto our taste and pleasant as honey to our mouth The tree is a tree of Life and every branch of it is beautiful and glorious and the fruit thereof excellent and comely to them that Isa 4. 2. are escaped of Israel It is truly said that Charity doth virtually contein within her self all other Graces St. Paul calls it the greatest virtue and the complement and fulfilling of the Law If there be Liberality Charity in largeth the heart if Temperance she binds the appetite if Chastity she makes the Eunuch for the kingdome of heaven if Patience she works it if Resolution she makes us valiant Charity saith one is as the Philosophers stone that turns all into Gold It

Peter Satan into an Angel of light and Hell it self into Paradise But I mistake the Father For the Cardinal will tell us he meant not Hell but Purgatory where there is perfect Charity as intentively hot as the fire there What Charity there and perfect We inferr then No Hope there For perfect Love as it casteth out Fear so it casteth out Hope too Which ebbs and flows increaseth and decreaseth waxeth and waneth with Charity and when it either fails or hath its perfection it endeth We sow in hope but when the harvest the time of gathering and separation comes Hope vanisheth For my Charity raises my Hope by the same degrees she receives But in culmine virtutis she swalloweth it up in victory On the hills there is salvation but in the bottome in the valley of death there is omnimoda desolatio a strange kind of desolation not only of the Soul but of all her comforts even that last comfort Hope She is dead say they in the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why troublest thou the master any further We find you see this Hope neither in heaven nor in hell Neither in Abrahams bosom there Lazarus is so sure that he may not carry a drop of water to cool a flaming tongue nor in the place of torments Dives's care we read is not for himself but his brethren In Hell there is no fire but that sulfureous tormenting fire and in Heaven the fire of Charity is in intensis gradibus clear and bright and resined like the elementary fire pure and invisible wheeling and rowling about in an eternal gyre and circle We must then descend unto earth where Charity is visible where this fire like to the fire there is of a grosser and more sensible temper and with that too flameth upward till it be refined and exalted to a caelestial heat till its motion be heightned into perfection and with it our Hope turned into possession By this fire we must sit down nay we must carry these coals in our bosome if we will spem accendere kindle Hope If this fire be extinguisht if this heat perish my Hope will either freeze and congeal and petrifie into a stubborn Despair or else by a kind of Antiperistasis being encompassed by excess of cold beaten upon by the violence of a contrary quality it will break forth into an unruly flame and raise it self to a sawcy Presumption But here it is and here we find it even spem in charitate Hope in Charity For in amore haec insunt omnia In Love are all these things which with the eye of Hope we look upon or with the hand of Hope we lay hold on First the Object is the same For Love is an affection joyning and uniting us to God Love could not walk in that circle of blessings both spiritual and temporal if God were not in the midst Draw what lines you please propose either Competencie of means or Quiet of Conscience or the Joys of Heaven Hope will faint and languish if God be not the center wherein these lines meet Secondly the character and mark whereby we may know them both is the same Love is bold We commonly say We will build upon a friend Put what objections and what scruples you please of Inopportunity Inconveniency Improbability that he cannot now that he wants leasure and a convenient time to do me good Love answers all And so doth Hope Place Tribulation Persecution Death it self in the way yet she presseth forward Though he kill me yet will I trust in him saith Job Thirdly Love is jealous it carrieth and conveyeth the soul to the object not enjoyed Ubi amor ibi animus Where my love is there is my mind Where my treasure is there is my soul Ubi sum ibi non sum saith the old Lover in Plautus where I am not there I am and where I am there I am not I am sure ubi spes ibi est animus Where my Hope is there my Soul is my Understanding to apprehend it my Care to procure it Spe jam sumus in caelo We aim at heaven and Hope puts us there already And this earnest inclination to the object begets a Jealousie To Love a glance is a frown and a frown anger and anger death and yet it is Love still And Hope hath these abatements and fits and shiverings and yet it is Hope still Lastly Love is querulous and full of complaints Why doth he pursue me saith Job Why dost thou set me as a mark And Why art thou angry with thine inheritance saith David How long Lord how long Hope 's own dialect For there is a kind of thirst in Hope more then that of a chased Hart. Festina Charitas and festina spes Love is on the wing and in haste and so is Hope Spes quae differtur affligit Hope knows no affliction but delay While she is she is in trouble in pangs like a man fastened to a cross who desires nothing more then to expire The life of Hope is exspectation answer that and Hope is not And in this Relation stand Hope and Charity Like Hippocrates's Twins they are born and grow up together Their operations their postures their gestures are not unlike Sic oculos sic ille manus As a well made and well placed picture looks upon him that looks upon it so doth my Charity eye my Hope and my Hope looks back upon my Charity Nay my Hope is the picture of my Charity and my Charity is the lively representation of my Hope Would you see the pourtraiture and lively view of my Hope then behold my Charity Would you take the lineaments and proportion of my Charity look upon my Hope Charity is a commentary upon my Hope and my Hope is an interpretation of my Charity To love God and to hope in God are terms reciprocal He that loves him hopes in him and he that hopes in him loves him So that take charitatem in via Charity upon earth and charitas sperat is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a universal proposition and the terms are aequalis ambitûs of equal latitude Where Hope is there is Charity and where Charity is there is Hope Thus the terms naturally stand and yet a strange paradox is maintained in the world That Hope may thrive well enough without the warmth and fomentation of Charity We deny Hope to men already damned in hell but candidatis diaboli to men who are confederate with Hell who call it unto them both with works and words to men who are judged already and Wisd 1. 16. whose damnation sleepeth not but is awake and in agitation we deny it not They who treasure up wrath against the day of wrath who know nothing of Faith Hope and Charity but their naked names a faithless generation without Love in this world and quite destitute of Hope desperate sinners yet notwithstanding hope After their rebellion for a reward after their

heart is stone enough to beat it back no soul so stubborn as to resist it neither height nor depth nor the Devil nor Sin it self can evacuate it The Recipiatis is unavoidable and the in vanum impossible And every man is a St. Paul a priviledged person not sweetly water'd with abundance but violently driven on with a torrent and inundation of Grace We must therefore find out another sense of the word Although for ought that can be said the Exhortation may concern us in this sense also and teach us to hear when God speaks to open when he knocks not to be deaf to his thunder nor to hide our selves from his lightning nor to quench the spirit nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to resist and fall cross with Acts 7. 51. the holy Ghost But in the Scripture two words we find by which the Graces of God are expressed There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here in the Text and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual gifts Plainly there are more common and necessary Graces which 1 Cor. 12. concur to sanctification of life to uprightness and common honesty And there are peculiar graces as Quickness of Will Depth of Understanding Skill in languages or supernatural as gifts of Tongues gifts of Healing of Miracles of Prophesie and the like These are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather gifts then graces and are distributed but to certain persons in such measure as seems best to Gods Wisdome Why men are not as strong as Samson or as learned as Solomon why they prophesie not as Jeremy and work not miracles as Paul all this is from God But why men are not righteous as Noah devout as David zealous as Elias we must find the cause in our selves and not lay the defect on God Now the Grace in the Text is none of all these but is that gratia Evangelii the Grace of reconciliation by Christ the Doctrine of the Gospel which Christ commanded to be preached to all Nations And in this sense it is most frequently used in holy Scripture in the Epistles of St. Paul where we so often find it placed in opposition to the Works of the Law This is it which he so oft commends unto us This is it which he here exhorts us to receive This is it for the propagation of which he was in afflictions necessities distresses in stripes in prisons in labors in tumults which are a part of the catalogue of his sufferings in this Chapter And this is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a grace and a gift too without which all other gifts and graces aut nihil sunt aut nihil prosunt deserve not that name Strength is but weakness Learning is but folly Prophesies are but dreams Miracles are sluggish all are not worth the receiving or are received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vain Shall I say it is a greater gift then that robe of Righteousness with which God clothed Adam in Paradise It so far exceeds it that we dare not compare them There is a MULTO MAGIS set upon it by St. Paul Rom. 5. 15. and a NON SIC Not as the offense so is the free gift The Loss not so great as the Recovery Nay cui Angelorum What speak we of Adam To whom of the Angels did God give such a gift What a glory would we count it out of Nothing to be made an Angel a Seraphim By this gift by the Grace of Christ we are raised from Sin above the perfection and beauty of any created substance whatsoever above the Hierarchy of Angels and Archangels A Christian as he is united to Christ is above the Seraphims For take the substance of a Seraphim by it self and compare it to a Man reconciled to God by this Grace and the difference will be as great as between a Picture and a Man An Artificer may draw his own Picture but he can only express his likeness his color his lineaments he cannot represent his better part his Soul which constitutes and makes him what he is Take all the creatures of the Universe and they are but weak and faint shadows and adumbrations of Divine perfection God is not so exprest by an Angel as by a Christian who is his lively image as the Son is the image of his Father by a kind of fellowship and communication of nature The Creature represents God as a Statue doth the Emperor but a Christian as the Son his Father between whom there is not only likeness but identity and a participation of the same nature For by this gift by these promises we are made partakers of the Divine nature saith St. Peter ● Pet. 1. 4. And as a Father takes more delight to look upon his Son then upon his Picture and Figure so God looks more graciously upon a Christian then upon any created essence then upon the nature of Angels He that gave the Gift he that was the Gift pray for us John 17. 21 22. that we may be all one and as his Father is in him and he in his Father so we may be one in them as they are one This is the Gift by which God did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle gather together and re-establish the decay'd nature of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysostome knit and joyn together Heaven and Earth And as Christ spake of John Baptist Matth. 11. 14. Hic est Elias si vultis recipere He shall be Elias to you if you will receive him so Haec est gratia Dei The Gospel the Reconciliation made by Christ is the Grace of God if we will receive it Which is my next part And what is a Gift if it be not received Like a mess of pottage on a dead mans grave like Light to the blind like musick to the deaf The dead man feeds not the blind man sees not the deaf man hears not What were all the beauty of the Firmament if there were no eye to descry it What is the Grace of God without Faith The Receiving of it is it which makes it a Grace indeed which makes it Gospel If it be not received it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vain An unbelieving heart turneth this bread into gravel this honey into gall and as much as in him lyes doth not only crucifie but annihilate the Lord of Life We usually compare Faith to a Hand which is reached forth to receive this Gift Without a Hand a Jewel is a trifle and the treasure of both the Indies is nothing and without Faith the Gospel is but Christus cum suâ fabulâ as the Heathen spake in reproach but a fable or relation And therefore an absolute necessity there is that we receive it For without this receipt all other receipts are not worth the casting up Our Understanding receives light to mislead her our Will power to overthrow her our Afflictions which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉

apparitions that shall go before his second coming to the end that when they come we may not be dismayed and affrighted at the sight but may entertain them as Angels which bring us good tidings of good things that we may look upon them as Objects of joy rather then of amazement that they may not dead our spirits or change our countenances or trouble our joynts or make us hold down our heads like a bullrush but rowse up our hearts and fill us with joy and make us to say This is the day which the Lord hath made a day of exaltation and redemption a day of jubilee and triumph and so look up and lift up our heads And here methinks I see in my Text a strange conjunction of Night and Day of Brightness and Darkness of Terror and Joy or a chain made up as it were of these three links Terror Exultation and Redemption Yet they will well hang together if Redemption be the middle link For in this they meet and are friends Redemption being that which turns the Night into Day maketh affliction joyful and puts a bright and lovely colour upon Horror it self When these things come to pass Why these things are terrible It is true yet lift up your heads But how can we lift up our heads in this day of terror in this day of vengeance in this day of gloominess and darkness Can we behold this sight and live Yes we may The next words are quick and operative of power to lift up our heads and to exalt our horn and strength as the horn of an Unicorne and make us stand strong against all these terrors Look up lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh Not to detein you longer by way of Preface Four things there are which in these words that I have read are most remarkable 1. The Persons unto whom these words are uttered in the particle Your Lift up your heads 2. What things they are of which our Saviour here speaks in the first words of the Text Now when these things begin to come to pass 3. The Behaviour which our Saviour commends unto us in these words Look up lift up your heads 4. Last of all the Reason or Encouragement words of life and power to raise us from all faintness of heart and dullness of spirit For your redemption draweth nigh I have formerly upon another Text spoken of the two first points the Persons to whom and the Things whereof our Saviour here speaketh Before I come to the third point the Behaviour prescribed to be observed by them who see the signs foretold in this Chapter come to pass it will not be amiss a little to consider whence it comes to pass that in the late declining age of the world so great disorder distemper and confusion have their place And it shall yield us some lessons for our instruction And first of all it may seem to be Natural and that it cannot be otherwise For our common experience tells us that all things are apt to breed somewhat by which themselves are ruin'd How many Plants do we see which breed that worm which eats out their very heart We see the body of Man let it be never so carefully so precisely ordered yet at length it grows foul and every day gathers matter of weakness and disease which at first occasioning a general disproportion in the parts must at the last of necessity draw after it the ruin and dissolution of the whole It may then seem to fall out in this great body of the World as it doth in this lesser body of ours By its own distemper it is the cause of its own ruin For the things here mentioned by our Saviour are nothing else but the diseases of the old decaying World The failing of light in the Sun and Moon what is it but the blindness of the World an imperfection very incident to Age. Tumults in the Sea and Waters what are they but the distemper of superfluous humors which abound in Age Wars and rumors of wars are but the falling out of the prime qualities in the union and harmony of which the very being of the creature did consist It is observed by the Wise Libidinosa intemperans adolescentia effoetum corpus tradit senectuti Youth riotously and luxuriously and lewdly spent delivers up to old age an exhaust and juyceless and diseased body Do we not every day see many strong and able young men fade away upon the sudden even in the flower of their age and soon become subject to impotency and diseases and untimely death These commonly are the issues of riot luxury and intemperance Nor can it be otherwise Therefore we cannot but expect that the World should be exceedingly diseased in its old decaying age whose youthful dayes and not only those but all other parts of its age have been spent in so much intemperance and disorder Scarcely had the World come to any growth and ripeness but that it grew to that height of distemper that there was no way to purge it but by a general Floud purgati baptisma mundi as St. Hierome calls it in which as it were in the Baptism its former sins were done away And after that scarcely had three hundred years past but a general disease of Idolatry over-spread and seized on all well-near Abraham and his Family excepted Yet after this once more it pleased God to take the cure into his hands by sending his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ the great Physician and Bishop of our souls But what of all this After all this was done tantorum impensis operum by so much cost and so much care his Physick did not work as it should and little in comparison was gained upon the World For the Many of us we are still the sons of our fathers Therefore we have just cause of fear that God will not make many more tryals upon us or bestow his pains so oft in vain Christ is the last Priest and the last Physician that did stand upon the earth and if we will not hear him what remains there or what can remain but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the world Ephraim is turned unto Idols let him alone I will spend no more labor in Hos 4. vain upon him Thus as Physicians when they find the disease incurable let the diseased go on unto his end so God having now as it were tryed his skill in vain having invited all and seeing so few come having spoken to all and so few hear having poured out his Sons bloud to purge the World and seeing so few cleansed for ought we know and it is very probable hath now resolv'd the World shall go unto its end which in so great a body cannot be without the disorder and confusion our blessed Saviour here speaketh of But you may peradventure take this for a speculation and no more and I have urged it no further then as a

must dry them And can we do all this If we be truly Christians we can yea in all these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be more then conquerers not only be undaunted but even joy in them as if now and never till now the world went as we would have it What manner of men think you must they be who do thus Do not put on wonder let not your hearts be troubled For Truth it self will tell you that if you be the men whose name you bear if your eyes your ends your hopes be fixed upon Christ alone then are you all such persons as I have now described Tantum distat a Christiano Look how much every man is defective and wants in this kind of constancy and resolution and so much he comes short and wants of his Christianity What are all the pleasures what are all the terrors of the world to him that is made one with Christ who conquered also That therefore this doctrine may pass the better which at first sight is but harsh and rugged we will shew you 1. That it is possible to arm our selves with such courage and resolution in common calamities 2. That it is great folly not to do so 3. What impediments and hindrances they be which overthrow our courage and take our hearts from us when such things as these come to pass And first of the Possibility of this doctrine And if we look a little upon the manners of men we shall find them very apt and ready to plead impossibilities and difficulties where their own practice confutes them One saith he hath bought five yoke of Oxen and Luke 14. must go to try them another saith he hath married a wife and therefore he cannot that is he will not come Haec omnia dura invitis saith Hierome All things seem hard and difficult to them who have no heart which easily perswade themselves that cannot be done which they will not do Go to a Rich man and require him to lay down his wealth at the feet of the poor or otherwise to sacrifice it to the service of Christ how hard a lesson is it how ill sounding how ridiculous and absurd a proposal What a fool will he soon conclude you be and how prodigal of your good counsel when you advise him to be wise But yet let some flattering Pleasure come in the way or some spleen against his neighbour or some suit of Law or the like or something that may forfeit his soul and how easily shall all go to the final hazard and undoing of him and his posterity I see he can do that for his spleen his humor his strumpet which when he is to do for his God he startles at as a thing impossible In the one is his desire in the other death To gain the earth with him is to enter Paradise but to knock and strive to enter into heaven is as terrible as hell it self Go to one of our painted Gallants and require him to do but what an ethnick man can do by no better help then the light of Nature even rather to lay down his life then to do any thing that common Reason checketh at and which a good man thinks a shame to speak of rather to leave off to be a man then in that shape and likeness to become a beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how great a request do you move Yet how prodigal will he be of his life when his lust or some drunken quarrel shall call for it To fetch home a phansie a fashion a toy we will go as far as France or to the Indies for a clod of earth or a piece of glass but to visit the fatherless and widows a Sabbath-days journey is too far Every thing that may make us happy is hard but we never boggle at that which leadeth to destruction Heaven with all its allurements with all its beauty and glory with all its everlastingness cannot win us to that which the glistering of a diamond which the shadow of a trifle which the dream of a shadow will do God with all his beseeching and entreaties and rich promises shall not move us when the cringe of a flatterer the only tongue of a parasite the smile of a courtesan shall carry us about the world Nor is Glory so eloquent to prevail with us for it self as Shame and Dishonour is to our confusion Nemo non in causa sua potest quod in causam Dei dubitat Every man can do that in his own cause which he cannot in Christs can do that for the Devil which he cannot for himself So that the reason why many suppose this behaviour here required by our Saviour to be a matter so hard and difficult is from the same error Now to manifest the possibility of this I think I cannot do it better then by an ensample and I will give you one and that too of an Ethnick man that knew not Christ nor his rich promises nor ever heard of the Glory of the Gospel There is a Hill in Italy Vesuvius they call it which is wont sometimes to break out in flames of fire to the terror and amazement of all that dwell nigh unto it The first time that in the memory of man it fired was in the dayes of Vespasian the Emperor at which time it break forth with that horrible noise and cry with that concussion and shaking of the earth near about it with that darkness and stench that all within the compass thought of nothing now but aeternam illam novissimam mundo noctem that Time was ended and the World drawing to its dissolution Pliny the great Philosopher and the Author of the famous History of Nature lay then at Misenum not far off and out of a desire he had to inform himself he drew near to the place where he thought the fire begun And in the midst of that horror and confusion so undaunted and fearless was he that he studied and wrote and eat and slept and omitted nothing of his usual Course His Nephew a great man afterwards with Trajane the Emperor out of whom I take this history reports of himself that being there at that time notwithstanding all the terrors and affrightments yet he called for his books he read he noted as if he had not been near the Mountain Vesuvius but in his study and closet and yet was at that time but eighteen years of age I have been somewhat the more large besides my custome in opening the particulars of this story because it is the very embleme the very picture of the Worlds dissolution and of the behaviour which is here enjoyned Christians when that time shall come All these fearful signs which here our Saviour reckons up if we but follow the ensamples which I have now proposed ought not so much prevail with us as once to make us break our sleep much less to torment and amaze us much less to take off our chariot-wheels to retard and cripple

us in the ways of righteousness and in that course which leads to bliss much less to drive us out of the way What though there be signs in the Sun and Moon and Stars must my light therefore be turned into darkness must my Sun set at noon and my Stars those virtues which should shine in my soul fall out of their sphere and firmament What though the Seas roar and make a noise shall my impatience be as loud And if they break their bounds must I forget mine What though there be a Famine in the land must I make my Soul like unto the season lean and miserable What though there be wars and rumors of wars must I be at variance with my self and bid defiance to the Lord of hosts What though my friends betray me must I deceive my self And if the World be ready to sink must I fall into Hell Nay rather when we see these things come to pass when these signs come to pass let it be that we do as occasion serves us for God is with us in these signs Let 1 Sam. 10. 7. them be as Signs to us perswading signs Let them have the commanding eloquence of Signs Let them not be as Shadows which pass by us and we regard them not but let them be signa significantia signs that signifie something signs to represent something to our Understanding and so make an impression on our Wills Let them be as the Voice of God calling us out of Egypt into a land flowing with milk and honey Let them be as the Finger of God and let us follow in that way the line is drawn Let them be as a Hand of God and let us humble our selves under his mighty hand Let them be the great Power of God and let us fall down and worship that so we may in his signis signari with these signs be signed and sealed up to the day of our redemption When the Sun is darkned think it is to upbraid thy ignorance and learn to learn to abound more in knowledge and all Phil. 1. 9. judgment When the Moon shall be turned into bloud think it is to chide thy Cruelty and put on the bowels of mercy and loving kindness When the Col. 3. 12. Stars fall from heaven the professors of truth speak lyes do thou stand fast in the faith When the powers of heaven are shaken when there be many sects and divisions do thou keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Ephes 4. 3. every mans brother if he will and if he will not every mans brother If the Plague break in do thou purge the plague of thine own heart and keep thy self unspotted of the world If there be a Famine in the land do thou fill thy self with the bread of life as with marrow and fatness If Banners be displaid as signs as the Psalmist speaks let them be as signs to thee to fight against thy lusts When Parents and Brethren and Kinsfolk are false do thou look up to thy Father in heaven who is truth it self When the World is ready to sink do thou raise thy self with expectation of eternal glory This constancy this resolution this behaviour Christ requires at our hands and it will be in vain to plead impossibilities For could these men under Nature go so far and cannot we who are under Grace do so much Could they think that nothing without them could hurt them and shall fear nothing more then that which is without Good God! how comes it to pass that Nature should bear more sway in a Pagan then the Grace of the Gospel in a Christian Or have we disputed and trifled Grace out of its power or hath our abuse of Grace swallowed even Nature and Reason it self up in victory Tanti vitrum quanti margaritum Were these men so rich that they could bestow so much upon a trifle upon a toy of glass and cannot we who are under Grace give the same price for a rich Jewel When Themistocles was leading forth his army by chance he past by where Cocks were fighting and shewing them to his Souldiers Lo saith he these have neither altars nor temples nor children to fight for and you see how stoutly they fight for no other end but who shall be the conqueror And to this end have I shewn unto you the examples of these Heathen men as Themistocles did the Cocks to his Army For these men nec aras habebant neque focos They were without Christ in the world received not the promises neither saw they them so much as afar off saw not so much as a glimering of that Light which lightneth every man that commeth into the world Of immortality and eternal life they knew little What was their hopes what was their end As for Heaven and Hell their knowledge of them was small Yet their stomach and courage was such that we who are Christians hear it only as a tale and can scarcely believe it Beloved I speak this to our shame For a great shame it is that Nature defamed Nature should more prevail with them then God and Grace with us that they by the power of their Reason should stand the strongest assault and shock of misery and we run away affrighted from the very phansie and shadow of it For to whom more is given of them more shall be required And if we Christians cannot look undauntedly when we see these things come to pass how shall we behold the Heavens gathered together as a Scrowl the Elements melted and the Earth burnt up how shall we be able to hear the trump and the voice of the Arch-angel If we cannot look up and lift up our heads when we see these things with what face shall we meet our Saviour in the clouds Therefore as our Saviour in this Chapter exhorts v. 19. let us possess our souls with patience Let us withdraw our souls from our bodies our minds from our sensual parts that what is terrible to the eye may have no such aspect on the mind and what is dreadful to the ear may be as musick to the spirit and what wounds and torments the body may not touch the soul that so we may be what we should be our selves our own Lords in our own possession that Christ at his coming may find us not let out to Pleasure not sold to this Vanity nor in fetters under that fear nor swallowed up in that Calamity nor buried in the apprehension of those evils which shall come upon this generation but free in Christ alive in Christ active making these our adversaries friends these terrors blessings these signs miracles by Christs power working light out of darkness plenty out of famine peace out of these wars that at his second coming he may find us looking up upon him and lifting up our heads waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body that so we may be caught up together in the clouds and be for

cause Let Wisdom direct your hand and courage strengthen it With the one pierce thorough to the Truth even through those black mists of Trade and Overture and false accusations and crafty Undermining and those mists which either the Lawyer or Witness or Informer shall cast and those fogs which the corrupt heart of man may send up of Ambition Covetousness Pride Uxoriousness and then like good archers having found your mark be men and draw up your arrow to the head End not where you began with a fair intent and good resolution but crown it with performance March forward to the end go on in that strength O thou man of Power Let not a gift out of the bosom stay thee nor a letter divert thee nor a frown from Greatness tyre thee till thou come ad terminum till thou hast taken Justice and drawn her out of these mists and dispersed these fogs and led her thorough those retardations and incumbrances till thou hast cloath'd thy self with her and canst say thou hast finish'd thy course And to this end give me leave Right Honourable by way of conclusion to be to you à memoria not à consiliis for this time to be your Register and to reach into your hands the book of Records And I find therein a Curse enrol'd for the sowering of Justice for turning Judgment into wormwood by corrupting and into vinegar by delaying it and I find a Day of Visitation for not executing the judgment of the fatherless But then in this book too I find as many Blessings in a fair and legible character for executing of judgment and destroying the wicked Take read them to your Comfort For the Non Frustrà of bearing the Sword many Jer. 5. Non Frustra's a Non Frustrà upon the Church peace within her walls and prosperity within her palaces a Non Frustrà upon the Common-wealth gold there as silver and silver as brass a Non frustrà upon the Laws they shall now be seen and heard they shall lighten and they shall thunder and a Non frustrà upon your selves To you that thus bear the Sword it shall not be in vain but in life it shall be your crown and garland and in death when the Sword falls out of your hand no crys of orphans no tears of the widdow no groans of the oppressed will disquiet your peace but having resigned your Power delivered up your Sword Jovi vindici to the the God of Revenge having Curtius like given your selves for your Country sacrificed your selves all your selves your Covetousness your Ambition your Self-love he will receive his own his Deputy his representation and the Non frustrà shall be seated with an Euge not only Not in vain but Well done And for a tribunal on earth you shall have a mansion in heaven Your circuit shall be enlarg'd you shall judge not some Shire or County but the world and be arrayed in whole robes of Innocence even of that Innocency which you have protected And for Mortality you shall receive Eternity for Power Glory for a Sword a Crown Which God grant us all for his Son Christ Jesus sake The Thirteenth SERMON 1 Pet. II. 13 14 15 16. Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whither it be to the King as Supreme Or unto Governours as unto them who are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers and for the praise of them that do well For so is the will of God that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God LET every soul be subject to the higher Powers saith St. Paul the Doctor of the Gentiles Submit your selves Rom. 13. 1. to every ordinance of man saith St. Peter here the Apostle of the Circumcision So this precept of Obedience to Governours reacheth home unto all There is neither Jew nor Gentile neither bond nor free but cometh under this Law We have two Apostles one whereof in another case withstood the other to the face Gal. 2. 11. both joyntly standing up for the higher Powers even for that Authority which struck off the head of the one and nayl'd the other to the cross Both deliver what they received from Christ For what they lay down concerning Authority is but an exposition and Commentary upon Christs Give unto Caesar those things which are Caesars Obedience Submission and Subjection take in all all even to a penny Above all we cannot but observe how wisely and fully both the Apostles press this doctrine how they fight with the same weapons to defend the King on his throne how they bring the same Arguments Arguments as irresistable as that Power which they defend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Peter to the higher Powers saith the one to Kings and to Governours sent by them saith the other And they both walk by the same rule ground their precepts upon the same reason All power as from God saith St. Paul and Submit for the Lords sake saith S. Peter They both hold up the same Sword terrible to evil doers and which shall win praise to them that do well Again not for wrath but for conscience sake saith the one for so is the will of God saith the other And the Will of God is in a manner the essence of every Duty It brings it home to the inward man and to the very conscience and leaves it not as matter meerly arbitrary but which must be performed upon pain of Death and Damnation Hitherto both these glorious Apostles as they minded the same thing so speak almost the same words scarce any difference between them But St. Peter seems to be more particular and at large to unfold what is more briefly wrapped up by St. Paul First he strives to take off a foul imputation which was laid upon Christianity That it made men disobedient and refractorie to Government in these words That by well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men Secondly he taketh away all pretence from the Christian which might shake his Loyalty or make him cast a favourable eye on that Disobedience which might open the mouth of an Infidel not onely against the Christian but even against Christianity it self in these words as free and not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness Take the conclusion of the whole matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We must needs be subject The King is placed in his throne his Governours set abroad by him and we must submit 1. propter Dominum because the Lord hath so commanded it 2. propter nos ipsos for our own sakes that we may live a Godly and peaceable life whilst the wicked are punisht and the good praised 3. Propter imprudentes for those fools sake qui hominum vitam rebus assignant who are very ready to draw an Argument from the

dispositions and tempers which are very apt to take it No sooner is the word gone out of the mouth but it enters the heart of the standers by who saith Mr. Hooker are very attentive and favourable hearers to suck in any poyson which is breathed forth against the King or the Governour which are sent forth and anon it multiplies and every valley and obscure corner is ready to echo it back again Lastly as we must submit the Tongue and the Hand so the Thought also Else the Tongue will be a sharp sword still and the Hand ready to reach at every weapon and instrument of cruelty it finds Bene subactum cor a Heart well subdued and conquer'd will nayle the Tongue to the roof of the mouth and make the Hands hang down as not able to strike But if the Heart be not hammer'd and softned and kept under then the Tongue will be loose and run through the earth and the Hand will be lifted up to pull the King and his Governours on the ground and lay their honour in the dust That Disobedience which at last is talkative and proves as violent as a tempest was at first but a whisper in the heart and an army drawn out in the field was at first muster'd up in cogitatorio as Tertullian speaks in the Phansy which is the shop and elaboratory of the Thoughts and sets up a whole family of them in the Soul Kingdoms have been ruin'd Magistrates have been slain States have been distracted seditions raised and all these had no more solid foundation at the first than a Thought That we may therefore truly submit to the King and his Governours we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom speaketh Slumber all vain and absurd imaginations lest that pleasure which we do not repress in the Phansy do at last break forth and domineer in action lest that which is now but a discontented thought may gather strength by degrees and at last break forth into open impatience and disobedience And if our own Safety and Security if the Peace of the Common-wealth if Plenty and Prosperity be not of force enough to shackle our Hands to shut up our Lips and to keep down our Thoughts from rising in our hearts if these be weak motives let him that shakes the heaven and the earth move us and let us submit to at least Governours for the Lords sake Which is the first Motive drawn from the Authority of God himself and comes now to be handled And this is a Motive indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest and most winning Motive For the Will of God is the rule of all our actions Man who is a reasonable creature made after Gods own image must hearken to Gods voice bow down to his Authority and amongst all his attributes especially look upon his Will If he had no Eye to see us no Hand to strike us no thunder to destroy us yet what he willeth we must do because we are his creatures and the work of his hands Hath Discontent drawn thy Sword Let the will of God sheath it Do thoughts arise in thy heart Let the remembrance of this slumber them Art thou now ready to sinite the Magistrate and those who are in authority with the tongue Seal up thy lips for the Lords sake not for fear of the whip or the keen edge of Authority which commonly cuts through the heart of those who rise up not because the Magistrates hand is too heavy for thee and keeps thee under but submit for the Lords sake Now we may be sure it is to be done for the Lords sake For all power is from God saith the Apostle all Authority is his Ille regna dispensat cujus est orbis qui regnatur homo qui regnat He disposeth of Kingdoms who made the world which is govern'd and the men that govern Indè Imperator unde homo antequam Imperator The King receives his power from that Hand which made him and his Commission from that mouth which first breath'd into him the breath of life For the Emperor to say mihi hoc Imperiumpeperi This Sword hath gained me the Crown is foul ingratitude And for the Pope to say Mihi data est potestas All power is given to me to root up and plant as I please is high treason against the Majesty of Heaven and Earth Indeed St. Peter calls the King the ordinance or creature of man and so he may be and yet the creature of God also For though this power be communicated by the consent of men yet notwithstanding it is also from God as water is from the fountain in what channel soever it is carried along Behold then It is Gods power and if thou look'st upon the Man who is thy fellow dust and ashes if thou look'st upon his Weakness and infirmities which peradventure thou mayst discover in the midst of all his Glory and Majesty and thereupon art unwilling to submit for the Mans sake who is of like frailty and passions with thee or for the Kings sake who is but a man or for Authorities sake which hath no pleasing aspect yet do it for the Lords sake and because the Authority is his For his sake do it though it be to a Man though it be to a Man of infirmities though it be to Authority which sometimes speaks better things It may peradventure be a sin for thee to obey but it shall never be laid to thy charge if thou submit This I say is a strong motive And indeed that is true Submission which draws à Jove principium its beginning from God which is from heaven heavenly which is brought about by Religion and Conscience That Obedience is a Sacrifice which I offer up for the Lords sake That Obedience more resembles God and his Eternity because it is constant and lasting but that Submission which like Pharaoh's is driven on with an East-wind passeth away with that wind or moves like the wheels in a Clock no longer then the plummets are on no longer than Fear or Hope or other humane considerations stirr it about When these are taken off or fall to the ground PROPTER DOMINUM for the Lords sake will little avail though God speak once and again yet we lift up our heads and stand stiff against Authority And therefore though this be a Motive one of a thousand one that may stand alone by it self our Apostle here backs it with another not so powerfull in it self indeed but to flesh and bloud more perswasive which he draws ab utili from the Good and Benefit we receive from Kings and Governours in the punishment of evil doers and praise of them that do well With which we will conclude These two Reward and Punishment are as two pillars to uphold the body politique For though we ought as the Orator speaks virtutes propter seipsas gratis deligere to love every Virtue for it self and for that native beauty which the eye of reason doth

tabret out of their hand infatnates their counsels makes them see that they are the poorer for their riches the weaker for their power the baser for their honour and leaves them to their captain the Devil who alwayes leads in the forefront of a rebellion and then how fearfully and horribly are they consum'd and brought to utter desolation Yet a little while and the wicked Psal 37 10. shall not be Nor is this unjust with God For he doth not tell the wicked that this little while is theirs and that they may do what they please without fear of punishment But the wicked abuse this his long-suffering and indulgence sport in this little while though the end be death Which should have been looked upon as an invitation to repentance Therefore this stay yet a little while before God arise this his Patience hath its effect answerable to the disposition and temper of those on whom it is shewed a bad on the repentant and a good on the penitent sinner For as God is said in Scripture to laugh at the destruction of those who run on in their evil wayes so he may seem in a manner to mock their security with his proceedings and to use the same method in punishing which they do in offending They defer their repentance and he defers his punishment He hath them in a line and when they are run on to the end of it he pulls them on their backs It is the nature of Delay in other things to keep back and hinder proceedings which fail many times and sink to the ground in the very pause For not to do a thing seasonably is to rob our selves of the faculty and power of doing it at all But in Gods punishing of the wicked it is otherwise Gravitate supplicii moram pensat He supplies and makes up the delay in punishing with the smart of the blow when it lights His wrath like wind shut up long in the caverns of the earth at last breaks forth in a tempest His Patience makes way for his Justice Though he seem to be asleep and not to see what is done by his enemies yet at the appointed time he will not fail an inch Plures idcirco Domino non credunt quia saeculo iratum tamdiu nesciunt Many men think that God observes not what they do because he presently thunders not from heaven nor sends into the world what the Tyrant wished for in his days some strange and unheard of calamity Many men run on in their sin because God sends not a fire into their bones to make them sensible of his displeasure But de artifice non nisi artifex Ignorance of God is the cause why we judge so corruptly of his Providence and Justice Sometimes he displays it before the sun and the people in the open destruction of the wicked sometimes it works invisibly and we can no more find it out then the way of an arrow in the air or of a ship in the sea And this peradventure we may esteem a sleep but whether secretly or openly he doth at last make it evident that he hath set banks and prefixed a time which his enemies shall not pass Though they work never so secretly though they make Religion a veil to cover and mantle their designs yet he will find them out and strike them to the ground even in those Meanders and Labyrinths which they made to hide themselves in And when they are risen and think they stand strong and can never be moved in an hour when they think not on him nay in an hour when they think he hath been with them in their armies and fought their battels and been their Lord of Hosts he will arise as a man out of sleep and make his sword drunk in the bloud of his enemies We may pray for it we may prophesy it EXSURGAT DEUS c. Let God arise and his enemies shall be scatter'd they also that hate him shall flee before him And so I pass to the effect or end of Gods Arising DISSIPABUNTUR INIMICI His enemies shall be scatter'd c. And we need not doubt of event For when God ariseth there ariseth Power and Wisdom in respect of which all the strength in the world is but weakness and all the wisdom in the world but foolishness A look of his is able to disperse all the Nations of the earth What then is his Rising In St. Hieromes time the Sun was darkned by a Tempest and men presently thought the world was at an end and so it is with the wicked When God begins to look up they dive under water like ducks at every pibble that is thrown What then will they do when he shall speak in thunders and rain down hailstones and coals of fire upon them Look forward and you shall see their end They shall be scatter'd They shall flee They shall vanish They shall melt away What did Sennacherib get by advancing his banner against the City of the Lord Even this to preach by his statue Let him that looketh upon me learn to fear God What did Acts 12. 23. Herod get by casting Peter into prison He was smitten by an Angel and eaten up of worms What did Pharaoh gain by flinging the children of Israel into the river He brought him into his Court who deprived him of his crown and life The wicked are insnared in the work of their own Psal 9. 16. hands saith David For this saith Basil is not onely inflicted as a punishment but it is the very nature of Sin to make a net and dig a pit for it self What gained those hellish Traytors in the time of the Virgin Queen and in the time of that King of peace King James I am almost ashamed in this place to tell you Nothing but an halter and everlasting ignominy and shame Let the wicked be never so wise yet there is a wiser than they and let them be never so strong yet there is a stronger than they Do you yet doubt whether God's Rising be visible in the execution of his wrath upon his enemies Behold then his creature up in arms with him There is a spiritual writ of outlawry gone out against them and every man they meet every stone in the streets every beast of the field is ready to become their executioners When God riseth up every creature is a souldier an Angel overcomes the Assyrians an army of Frogs and Lice over-run Aegypt Haylstones from Heaven destroy the Canaanites The pouder flasheth in the faces of the traiterous pioners Infelix exitus Haereticorum The unhappy end of Heretiques is not so good a note of the Church as the Cardinal would make it but sure it is an evident mark that God is risen up and shews the EXSURGAT in Capital letters Many glorious examples we have of God's Rising of old in Humane and Divine Histories As the Apostle speaks the time would fail me to speak of his leading his people out of Aegypt

poison of the excuse But Adam's last words Gen. 41. 4. are lost in the former as the lean and ill-favoured Kine in Pharaoh's dream ate up the fat ones Deny indeed the fact he could not For as God had built him up in his own image and likeness so he had raised up within him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a natural tribunal his Conscience and made him thus far a God unto himself as not only to discern evil from good but also to search the very inwards of his own heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith St. Chrysostome all men of what rank soever though they sit not in the throne of justice though they be not Judges and Magistrates though they have no executioners nor prisoners nor gives nor bolts yet they judge and condemn Sin in themselves and others and that by the common principles of Discourse and Reason and by that secret verdict and sentence which every man carrieth in his own breast The first man that condemneth a Sinner is a Sinner himself Se judice nemo nocens absolvitur in himself he beareth about him a Court and Seat of justice from which no appeal lieth His reason is his judge his Conscience is his accuser himself his own prisoner The terrours of an afflicted Conscience hang him up and crucifie him every day though no forreign autority arrest him For as the shadow followeth the body saith Basil so doth Sin the Soul and whithersoever we go it presenteth it self before us No sooner do we reach out our hand to the Apple no sooner is our eye full of the adulteress 2 Pet. 2. 14. Jam. 1. 15. no sooner hath Lust conceived and brought forth Sin but presently verberamur tacito cogitationis nostrae opprobrio as St Ambrose speaketh our own thoughts are as whips and scorpions to scourge us our conscience striketh us with amazement and horrour when no man pursueth us she plougheth up our soul and maketh deep furrows there laniatus ictus as the Historian speaketh stripes and wounds when no other hand is lift up against us But as Judges would see more clearly and judge more uprightly if they were not blinded with a bribe so would the Conscience speak more plainly if we did not teach her broken and imperfect language to pronounce Sibboleth for Shibboleth to leave out some letter some aspiration Judg. 12. 6. some cicumstance in sin But to speak truth the Conscience cannot but speak out to the offender and tell him roundly that he hath broken God's law But as we will not hearken to Reason when she would restrain us from sin so we slight her when she checketh us for committing it we neither give ear to her counsel before we eat nor to her reproof after we have eaten we observe her neither as a friend nor as an enemy Adam's conscience told him he had broken the command had eaten of the forbidden fruit and must die but the shame of what he had done and the fear of what would follow made him as deaf to his conscience after his fall as he was before as unwilling to acknowledg his sin as to prevent it and therefore he seeketh to palliate and colour over what he could not deny he faltreth in his language and instead of a confession rendreth nothing but an excuse an excuse which indeed is nothing Now to dissect and examine the Excuse We shall find that Adam dealeth like an unskilful Phisitian qui pro morbo extinguit hominem He removeth not the disease but destroyeth himself and by applying a remedy worse than the disease maketh the disease incurable His Apologie upbraideth him and he condemneth himself with his excuse For first MULIER DEDIT The woman gave it me weigh it as we please is an aggravation of his sin We may measure Sin by the tentation It is alway the greatest when the tentation is least A great sin it would have been to have eaten of the forbidden fruit though an Angel had given it what is it then when it is the Woman that giveth it Why should the Woman prevail over the Man the weaker over the stronger vessel He was made her head and was to rule over her His Duty saith St. Chrysostome was not only to have refused the woman's offer but also to have shewed her the greatness of the sin and to have kept her from eating not only to have saved himself but to have plucked her also out of the fire But for Strength to yield to Weakness for the Head to be directed by the Body for him to put himself in subjection who ought to command for him to follow to evil who should lead to good was to invert the order which God had constituted What a shame do we count it for a man of perfect limbs to be beaten by a criple for a son of Anak to be chased by a grashopper for Xerxes 's army which drank up the sea to be beaten out of Greece by three hundred Spartains Certainly he deserveth not power who betrayeth it to Weakness The VVoman gave it me then was a deep aggravation of the Man's transgression Again it is but The VVoman gave it And a gift as we commonly say may be either taken or refused and so it is in our power whether it shall be a gift or no. Had the man been unwilling to have received the Woman could have given him nothing Nunquid obsecravit num disseruit num decepit saith the Father Did she besiege him with her intreaties did she use the battery of discourse did she cunningly undermine him with a fallacie No it is but dedit she only gave it him The Orator will tell us Necessitas est magnum humanae infirmitatis patrocinium that Necessity is the best Plea that humane weakness hath for the misery that befalleth us But it is too common a thing as Tertulian saith licentiam usurpare praetextu necessitatis to make Necessity a pretense for our liberty and licentiousness in sinning At this door enter-in Covetousness Intemperance Revenge Pride which we might easily keep out even with one of our fingers Nusquam est necessitas nusquam violentia sed electio voluntas Here was no necessity no violence It is but DEDIT she gave it him and he was willing to receive it Oh how are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battel how is Adam fallen in the midst of his strength He who had the Graces of God encompassing him about as a ring who had his Understanding richly adorn'd and his Will obedient to his Understanding who had an harmonie in his Affections and an Heaven in his Soul who had the Angels for his guardians and God for his strength who was himself a kind of God upon earth and had dominion over all the creatures surrendreth up all at the sight of a gift a gift which he might have refused and which he was bound to refuse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Plato de Log. proverb

the Cratch for this he Hung on the Cross This he breathed for this he laboured for this he wrought out of his very bowels And after his resurrection he comes and stands in the midst of the Disciples and saith unto them Peace be unto you And when he had so said he shewed unto them his hands and his side As if he had wisht them to Joh. 20. 19 20. consider at how dear a price he had bought that Peace which we hate which we betray to our lust which we are ready to fell away for a Trifle That which we desire and will not have or if we have it are soon weary of it that Peace with others and which we ourselves break every day that Peace within our selves which we do but talk of that Peace with God which we do but phansie cost our Saviour those marks in his Hands and feet and side and drew from him his very Hearts bloud I know it was a common Salutation amongst the Jews Go in Peace or Peace be with you And under this they comprised all prosperity whatsoever But we may say of them as Jehu did to Joram's Horsman What had they to do with Peace and turn them behind But our Saviour takes it up and doth as it were infranchize it He sets it as a Jewel in its proper place he makes it a Gospel and puts it into their mouths who were the Embassadours of Peace Who came not with blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a Trumpet but with an Olive-branch with Tidings of all good Things whatsoever A Salutation proper to the Gospel Which the Church of Christ hath retain'd in all ages in their Liturgies and forms of publique Service Peace be with you was pronounced by the Bishop or Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the highest ascent of his seat or chair It was signaculum orationis as a seal with which they closed up After the Lords prayer followeth saith St. Augustine this Benediction from the Priest to the People Peace be with you and the People echo back again And with thy Spirit And as they began so they ended with The Peace of God which passeth all Understanding PEACE BE TO THIS HOUSE was a fit Salutation then for the Disciples of Christ But we must not here imagine that it was a bare complement a Salutation and no more like that in St. James Depart in peace a wish and no more No it was a Prayer as well as a Salutation The Disciples spake it not from the lips outward but from the very heart they taught men the ways of Peace and told them of a Kingdom of Peace which was at hand ready to offer it self if they would receive it to wish Peace when we think of war to say Peace be unto you when our Sword is as nimble as our tongue to speak peaceably to our brother and smite him under the fifth rib is not Apostolical nor the language of the Seventy but it is the dialect of many Christians in these later and worst times who lay down all Ceremony in Religion when all the world sees that all their religion and the piety they have is but a Complement Will you then know the meaning of this Salutation the words are plain It is Peace the Disciples are to wish And who knows not what Peace is Pacem te poscimus omnes We all desire Peace We all talk of Peace In time of trouble we howle For her as Rachel for her Children and will not be comforted because she is not for her sake they say wise men wage war With her we ly down and sleep and awake again because she susteins us And when she is absent we see a Sword hanging but as upon a hair which will not let us sleep though our head be circled with a Crown It is our daily bread and our daily speech We speak of it and forget it we love it and neglect it we extoll and break it Peace may seem to be like Psyche in Apuleius a fair damsel whom all commended all admired yet none would take her to wife I think I may truly say for the Many they know not what Peace is Some will not behold her unless she come with Plenty in her hand but are at war with themselves and others if they feel the smart of want Some saith St. Hierom call Tyranny Peace and nothing else think all the world is out of order if all hands subscribe not to their unwarranted demands Some call Disobedience Peace and cannot be at peace but with their Quod volumus sanctum est when they are let loose to do what they please Omri is not at peace unless his Statutes be kept Zimri is not at peace till he kill his master Hamon is not at peace for want of a leg Absolom is not at peace for want of a crown Every man desires peace and every man breaks it Every man calls for it and every man chaseth it away Every man would bring her in and every man proscribeth her As St. Augustine spake of the Donatists They were the greatest peace-breakers in the world yet talk'd of nothing more than Peace So that in this noyse and hurry for Peace Peace is lost and men seem to deal with her as the African parents did with their children whom when they sacrificed to Saturn they stopped their crying with kisses and smothered their noyse in embraces and so did at once kiss and kill their infants It was a grave complaint of St. Hierome non reddimus unicuique rei suum vocabulum We are guilty of a strang Misnomer we do not give every thing its due name but call that Peace which is Tyranny which is Disobedience which is Faction which is Senseleseness and Stupidity because we know not the true nature and property of Peace I may have Peace when other men are at war amongst themselves yea when other men are at war with me even the Peace of Conscience the Peace of a reconciled sinner which makes all quiet and still within me and will stay with me in the strongest wind in the Earthquaks the fire and will live and dwell within the midst of persecution In tumultu secretum invenit It builds us a chappel of ease draws out a place of retirement and a paradise when the earth is disquieted and in the midst of all the busy noyse the world can make Nor do I here exclude our Peace with men for that comes within the compass of this Salutation because it is a fair branch of the Disciples doctrine and must be taken in if it be possible and as much as in us lyes If we Rom. 12. 18. be worthy of this Salutation we may have peace with all the world though peradventure our opinions be as distant as one end of the world is from the other Neither do I exclude the external Peace of the Church No Blessed are the peace-makers and blessed times they are when the Church

by that which every joynt every part supplies every member having its place and subordination and dependance which to start from is to loose itself the rich supplying the poor and the poor blessing the rich the mighty protecting the weak and the weak observing the mighty the wise teaching the ignorant and the ignorant hearking to the wise every man being as an Angel-keeper and a ministring spirit to every other man ut quod est omnium sit singulorum that that which is all mens may be every mans and that which is every mans belongs unto the whole And this order this Peace will be if the Disciples Salutation take place if the Peace of the Gospel rest upon us And thus much be spoken of the Salutation Peace be unto this house We pass now from the Message to the Order of delivering it It must be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first First say Here we may observe the method of our Saviour He coming to fight against the Pomp the Covetousness the Luxury of the world first offers terms of Peace and instructs his Disciples as God did Moses When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it then proclame Peace unto it As we read of Tamerlaine he first hangs out his white flag Deut. 20. 10. of Peace not his black nor his bloudy colours He fights not against us to destroy us till we have wearied his Mercy and stood out too long 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first he tenders Peace but it is the wickedness of the wicked the obstinacy of the Enemy that draws his Sword For God doth not as Nimrod destroy men for pleasure he doth not set them up as a mark and then shoot deadly arrows at them or as some are pleased to give a bloudy instance strike them dead with the same liberty that an Huntsman doth his Deer as if an immortal Soul which Christ sets at a higher rate than the whole world were of no more value then a beast A foul injurie to be layd to His charge who is Goodness it self and nothing else but Goodness a Blasphemy as loud as that which denies him to be God He seems rather to carry Peace and War in sinu in his bosom as Fabius did in the skirt of his Gown and leaves it to our choice which we will have First Peace shews it self in his love in his precepts nay in his threatnings and fearful menaces For ideo denunciat bellum ne inferat He therefore denounceth war that we may chuse peace He bends his bow and sets his arrow in the string as the Psalmist speaks that he may not shoot He opened the mouth of his servant Noah a preacher of righteousness before he opened the windows of Heaven and broke up the fountains of the great deep He Gen. 7. opened the mouth of his Servant Moses before the earth opened her mouth to swallow up Dathan and Abiram and their complices He doth not undermine Numb 16. us with double voices and double counsels and a holy dissimulation as some call it crying Peace when he girds himself with strength and prepares himself to battel saying Peace to that House which he meaneth to level with the ground But he sends his Embassadours and Peace is the first clause in their Commission First they must salute us before he will strike us first wish Peace before he will furbish his sword This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Job 40. 9. first place But then if we will have an arm like God and think to thunder like him if we harden our faces against his profer of Peace then ob certas causas and ob eam rem as the form runneth for these causes and for this thing for our ingratitude and impenitency and rebellion he speaks unto us by his Disciples and Ambassadours as the Roman Heralds and Officers at arms did to the enemies of that State when they denounced war Quòd populus meus nolit auscultare bellum indico facioque See it translated Psal 81. 1● 1● Because my people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me Therefore I gave them up to their own Hearts-lusts and they walked in their own counsels But still Peace is first First God speaks by his Prophets before he speak by his judgments First as it were he breaths Peace upon us before it return and leave us And the reason of this is undeniable For Severity in God seems to be a quality not natural but casual and occasioned It is in a manner constrained and besides his Nature For he hath but one only property or quality saith Trismegistus and that is Goodness Prior Bonitas secundum naturam posterior Severitas secundum causam saith Tertullian against Marcion The prime quality in him is Goodness Severity is later as being occasioned That is eternal this is adventitious that is proper unto him this is but borrowed that inwardly flows from him this is forced from him First he created Man but left him not as the Ostrich doth her eggs upon the shore but he took him to himself and placed him in a place of pleasure Which was an Argument of his Goodness Then he gave him a Law by which to order his steps by the observance of which as the Angels by Jacobs Ladder he might ascend to supernatural and heavenly bliss Hitherto Gods countenance is fair as the Sun in its strength But when Mans folly by breach of the law had wrought him against his Nature into another mould then his Severity shewed it self And then as Naomi speaks of herself in the book of Ruth Call him no more Naomi that is pleasant but call hin Marah that is bitter For he will deal bitterly with us Fecimus non accepimus severum He is no more the God that made us but he is that God which we have made not a calm and gentle but a fierce and severe and angry God God is a Fountain of Peace and nothing issueth from him naturally but Peace Nor doth his Jealousy burn like fire till our refusal of peace do kindle it He speaks to the Husbandmen by his Servants and he speaks to them by his Son and till they killed him till they utterly renounce Peace he doth not come to destroy First Peace comes out of his mouth before his two edged sword Still the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First say Peace be unto this House I might here enlarge my self But I perceive the time is past Let us then apply this Salutation to our selves And the best use we can make of it is to look both upon the Peace and the Order of delivering it and to look upon them on the right side I told you that Peace implyeth Order and Harmony that it is as a Harp or Lute which you must be careful to touch with a skilful hand even with the hand of Charity Otherwise this Peace may by our neglect raise a war in our members We may

and Enemies to Peace of Willing and Obstinate hearers of this Message 2 That this Peace will rest on none but those who are fit to receive it 3 That though it do not rest yet it is not lost but will return to those who publish it And with these we shall exercise your Devotion at this time In the first place that a difference there will alwaies be of Good and Evil not only in the world but also in the Church not only amongst those who have not heard of the name of Christ but among those also who have heard the Salutation of Peace sound in their ears our Saviour himself hath shewed us in the parable of the Good seed and the Tares and of the Draw-net which being cast into the Sea draweth of every kind Puto me non timere dicere sayth St. Augustine alios sic esse in domo Dei ut sint domus Dei Mat. 13 47. alios sic esse in domo Dei ut non pertineant ad compaginem domus It is no rashness to say that some are so in Gods Church that they are Gods Church and others are so in the Church that they are not so much as a part of the building Some are sons of peace and some there are on whom Peace cannot rest Some there are to be amended and brought to repentance as Peter some to be suffered and born with as Judas and some who lye hid and unknown to the world till that great day of manifestation till the day of gathering the Corn from the Tares till that day of separation of severing the Goats from the Sheep Boni nusquam soli sunt nisi in coelo mali nusquam soli sunt nisi in inferno saith Gregorie the good are never alone but in Heaven and the bad are never alone but in that place where they are tormented together The Earth as it is placed in the midst between Heaven and Hell so is it a common receptacle both of those who are citizens of Heaven and of those who are to have their portion with the Devil and his Angels Nor doth this proceed from any decree of God but that of Permission For nothing is more contrary to the Will of God than Sin Yet the Permission of sin is a positive act of his Will For God decreeth to permit it For as he made Man upright so he made him also mutable so that he might incline to either side either embrace evil or resist it And though we cannot say that by the Providence of God it comes to pass that some men are evil for he speaks peace to every man yet the providence of God orders and directs the actions of the wicked He circumscribes them in their time and duration that they last no longer than his Wisdom shall think fit He bounds them in their encrease and greatness Hitherto they shall go and no further He directs and limits them from that object to which they are carried to something else and makes them serve not to that end which the Sinner proposes but to that which he himself hath set up Out of that Sin which the Sinner commits to satisfie his lust will God manifest his glory Upon his Unrighteousness he will build up the glory of his Justice By that sin which was a Tempest to beat down and overthrow will God establish his Church and by those evil men whom the Devil placeth as thorns and pricks in the eyes of the righteous will God try and purge his chosen ones In a word God makes not Sin but he makes it useful and advantageous And to this end he suffereth and permitteth this mixture and composition of Good and Evil he suffers the Tares and the Corn to grow together till the time of the Harvest Qui semel aeternum judicium destinavit non praecipitat discretionem saith Tertullian He who hath appointed and ordained a day of separation doth not make that separation until that day And this he doth not only to magnifie his Justice and Wisdom which out of so great darkness can draw wondrous light and can ex malis faecundare bona make use of Sin as the Husbandman doth of Dung to manure and fatten his ground that it may bring forth a more plentiful harvest but for other reasons also which Christ hath laid open in his Gospel I. To shew his patience and longanimity towards sinners who fight against him towards those who are offended with his Salutation that they may yield at last and become sons of Peace For the long suffering of God is Salvation sayth the Apostle He doth not say it worketh or 2 Pet. 3. 1● brinketh forth but positively it is Salvation It is for this end and if it be not hindred it will produce this effect That we prolong our dayes on earth that we number more sins than days nay then hours than minutes is not from any want of knowledg in God that he sees us not or from want of strength that he cannot put the hook into our nostrils but from his patience and longanimity who gives us many times the longer life that we may at last recal ourselves and turn back unto him Non ille perdidit potentiam sed malos reservat ad paenitentiam He hath not lost his power but he keeps evil men to the day of repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He first exhorts then promises then threatens then chides then prepares his deadly weapons then puts them up again and then again he threatens but he never strikes till he hath opened an effectual door and made a way for us to safety As he is Lord of hosts in regard of his strength so he is in this respect also that as an Host or Army he comes on but slowly by degrees in his march and makes a shew before he strikes nec accedit ad decretorium stilum nisi plus sit quod timet quàm quod damnat He doth not bid battel till there is no hope of reconcilement Nor doth he punish till that be more which he fears than that which he blames He makes no end of his suffering till he sees there will be no end of Sinning II. Gods suffers this mixture of Evil with Good that the evil may be reformed by the Good For as he is able out of stones to raise up children unto Abraham so by the sons of peace he gains more children unto peace there proceeding a kind of virtue from their good example as there did from Christs garment to cure those who were diseas'd Aristotle in his Problemes makes a question Why Health doth not infect as well as Sickness Why men grow sick many times by unwary conversing with the diseases but no man grows well by accompanying the healthy And indeed it is so with the healthiness of the Body It hath no transient force on others But the strength and healthiness of the Mind carries with it a gracious kind of infection and common experience teacheth us that

of peace who is docile and not averse from it who is willing to hear of it For as Pothinus the Bishop of Lions being ask'd by the President of the place Who was the God of the Christians made no other reply but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You shall know if you be worthy so may we say of this Peace They who are worthy who are fitted and prepared shall receive it And if you ask on whom it will rest I answer It will rest on them that love it Where is the place of my rest saith God The Isa 66. 1. Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool All these things hath my hand made But to this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word He that created all things and made the Heaven and the earth will not chuse out of these his seat but leaves them all and will rest no where but in a contrite and broken heart which divides and opens it self and makes a way to receive him And certainly as we see in Nature we cannot put any thing into that which is full already no more will peace enter that heart which is filled with Satan with malice and with the very gall of bitterness The Gospel will find no place in that Soul which is already filled and praepossessed with prejudice against the Gospel Into a malicious Soul Wisdom shall not enter saith Wisd 1. 4. the Wiseman Or if it do enter it shall not dwell there not dwell there as a Lord to command the Will and Affections no not as a friend to find a welcome for a time but be thrust out as a stranger as an enemy What is the place for peace to rest in Not in a Nabals heart which is as stone Not in the Wantons heart which is as a troubled Sea not on the Fool who hath no heart whose conscience is defiled and judgment corrupted by many evil and vitious habits ubi turpia non solum delectant sed placent who doth not only delight in that which is opposite to this Peace but approves it as that without which he cannot be at Peace No the spirit of Peace and the unclean spirit may seem in this to agree They will not enter the House before it be swept and garnished Ill weeds must be rooted out before you can sow good corn Every valley must be filled and every mountain and hill must be brought low all that inequality and repugnancy of our life must be taken away and all made smooth and even For as the Prince of peace so Peace hath a way to be prepared before it will enter What is the reason that all the seed which the Sower sowed brought not forth fruit Because some fell in stony places where there was not much Mat. 13. earth where the Soul did not sympathize and bear a friendly correspondence with the Word as good ground doth with the seed and some fell by the way-side which was never plowed nor manured and the fouls of the air those sly imaginations which formerly prepossessed the Soul devoured it up Nothing can be well done when the mind is already taken up with something else What room for the Gospel in the Jew who maketh his boast of the Law What room for Religion where it is accounted the greatest piety to be prophane What room for Righteousness when we rejoyce in impiety When the Prince of this world hath blinded our eyes with covetousness ambition and lust what room is there for Peace Non magìs quàm frugibus terrâ sentibus rubis occupatâ as the Orator speaks and they are the very words of our Saviour No more than there is for good corn in the ground which is full of bryars and thornes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whither dost thou cast thy seed thy good precepts saith the Philosopher to one that read a lecture of Philosophy to a scornful person Thou flingest it into a foul and stinking vessel which corrupts every thing it receives and takes no savour from it but makes it relish of it self Lord what a rock is a prepossessed mind What an adamant is a Stubborn and perverse heart How harsh and unpleasant is this Salutation of Peace to those who are hardned against it How Stoical and rigid and peremptory are they against their own Salvation Obstrepunt intercedunt nè audiant They are so far from receiving the Salutation that they are troubled and unquiet at the very name of Peace and desire they may not hear that word any more The complaint in Scripture is They will not understand and The waies of Peace they will not know Experience will teach us that it is too common in the world to stand stiff upon opinion against all evidence whatsoever though it be as clear as the Day And it is the reason which Arnobius gives of the Heathens obstinacy to whom this Salutation of Peace was but as a fable Quid facere possumus considerare nolentibus secumque loqui What can we do or say or how can we convince them who will not be induced once to deliberate and consider nor can descend to speak and confer with themselves and their own reason A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump and so doth a prejudicate opinion the whole mind of man All our actions and resolutions have a kind of taste and relish of it Whatsoever comes in to strengthen an anticipated conceit whatsoever walks within the compass of our desires or lustful affections we readily embrace and believe it to be true because we wish it so But if it thwart our inclination if it run counter to our intendments though it be Reason though it be Peace though it be a manifest truth though it be written with the Sun-beams we will not once look upon it It is an easy matter saith Augustine to answer a fool but it is not so easy to satisfie him It is easy to confute but not to reform him For his Folly barreth him from seeking the meanes of understanding and when light is offered it shuts up his eyes that he cannot receive it We have many domestick examples of this obstinacy and I wish they were not so near us of men who may be overcome but cannot be perswaded who will not yield to any strength of reason nec cùm sciant id quod faciunt non licere no not though they cannot be ignorant that the course of their life runs with more violence and noyse than is answerable to the Peace of the Gospel who know what they are and yet will be what they are And these we meet with quocunque sub axe in every place in every corner of the earth These multiply and increase every day For it cannot be but the greatest part of men will be the weakest We have troops and armies of these and the regiment consists of boys and girls and women led away captive by their ignorance and

all these things happen'd unto them for ensamples and are written for our admonition on whom the ends of the world are come And as Clemens speaks of the pillar of salt into which Lots 1 Cor. 10. 11. wife was turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was not a meer heavy and lumpish Statue but had life and activity enough to season and preserve us from recidivation so may we say of all the fearful and terrible examples of Gods wrath in Scripture they are not only the marks of his Justice but the characters of his Love silent Sermons but of more efficacy many times than those that we preach Our blessed Apostle here presents us 1 Pet. 3. 1. with one and that the most remarkable we find not the cutting off of some wicked person from the city of the Lord but the casting away of a whole nation even the Israel of God The Israelites were Gods peculiar nation cul●'d out of the whole world like Gedeon's fleece full of the dew of heavenly benediction when all the world was dry beside To them were committed the oracles of God They had the Law and the Prophets Rom. 4. 1. Illis apud Deum gratia saith Tertullian they were in great favour with God that God taught them by word of mouth God taught them by his Wonders and by his Prophets and by those many Ceremonies which were as pictures saith Melanchthon and ocular Sermons praenunciativae observationes saith St. Augustine so many prophecies of Christ By these they might have been prepared and qualified for the receiving of the Messias But these high Prerogatives which should have level'd their minds and carried them on in an even course to the fulness of time when their Redeemer should come wrought a contrary effect and swelled and lifted them up to the admiration of themselves that they could not stoop to entertain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Messias so poor and naked and inglorious as Christ Fiduciâ patrum inflati sayth Tertullian they were puft up with the conceit that Abraham was their Father that God had raised up many famous men amongst them Quasi naturalem jactabant se habere justitiam sayth Augustine They thought righteousness came to them by kind and was derived unto them from the loins of their glorious predecessors Well saith the Apostle for all this for all they were branches of the good Olive-tree and did partake of the root and juice and fatness thereof by which they might have grown up and been transplanted into the Paradise of eternity yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were broken off and scattered and dispersed coeli soli extorres driven about the earth banished from their own country as well as from Heaven made the scorn of the world and the contempt of nations not suffered to stay so much as in the borders of their own land 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man must dwell with them under the same roof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in the greatest sickness or extremity take Physick of them None must wash in the same bath not talk with them It is a Canon of a Council in Trull They are shut out sayth Crusius from the City in a place called Pera by an arm of the Sea nor are permitted to come to Constantinople to traffick but by ship In a word they are become a Proverb of obstinate impiety so that when we call a man a Jew we think we have rayled loud enough Our Apostle comprehends all in this one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were broken off or if this will not serve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will They were not only branches lopt off but cast away A sad exsample and now fresh and bleeding in the eyes of V. 15. those primitive Christians in quos gratiam transtulit Deus pleniorem on whom God had powred forth more plentiful and abundant Grace who had been cut out off the wild olive and grafted contrary to nature into the good V. 24. olive-tree And the most fit and opposite example it was they could look upon What better spectacle for the Church than the Synagogue in whose ruines and desolation she may read the dangerous effects of spiritual Pride and Haughtiness of mind and thence learn not to insult but tremble Therefore our Apostle hath drawn the picture of her ruine with this Impress or Motto NOLI ALTUM SAPERE Be not high minded but fear In which words you see we have a negative precept Be not high-minded and a positive and affirmative but fear The first is a Caution the second a Prescript The first gives us notice of a dangerous disease Haughtiness of mind the second presents us an antidote Fear For as spiritual Pride may cut us off with the Jew from the favour of God so Fear is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a preservative Be not high-minded It cut off the Jew But Fear that being grafted into the good Olive thou mayst grow and blossom and bring forth fruit and flourish for ever Of these in their order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Noli altum sapere is good counsel and I find it often given in the writings of the learned to men of lofty eyes who exercise themselves in great matters and in things too high for them men of curious speculation Psal 131. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nyssine speaks who being busy in the pursuit of things out of reach unhappily pass by and oversee those more necessary things which are at hand qui omittunt quod possunt videre dum quod non possunt intuentur as Hilary who loose the sight of those truths which are visible and easy whilst they make too steddy a gaze on those which are past finding out with the children of Ben●amin learning to fling stones at a hairs breadth and yet not able to see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wide and open and effectual Door of Faith A Judg. 20. 16. disease indeed very dangerous and which strikes and hinders us in our spiritual growth But this is rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not so opposite to our present purpose and the intent of the Apostle The Malady here aimed at is an overweening conceit of our own worth whether in respect of the knowledg of divine truths or the practise of those virtues which are commended to us as the marks and characters of men in the favour and love of God A disease mortal and fatal to the Jew and to which the Christian was most obnoxious He was newly come out of the valley and shadow of Death into the land of the living and by the others fall and loss was entitled to great riches as our Apostle speaks V. 12. and therefore he was more subject to this Disease of Haughtiness of mind For the Orator will tell us Nihil insolentius novitio divite Men suddenly graced with favours and prerogatives are most insolent and proud And the

Philosopher in his Rhetoriques saith that men raised from the Dunghill to great fortunes and riches have commonly all the vices of rich men and more And now that we may open this malady we will search and inquire the cause of it and see what it is that lifts up the mind to this dangerous pitch what it is that swells and puffs us up and makes us grossos grossi cordis as Parisiensis most properly though barbarously speaketh that makes the heart of man grosser and greater than it self as in Italy they have long time had an art to feed up a foul 'till they make the Liver bigger than the body What is there in Christianity that naturally can have this operation We confess it is from heaven heavenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Synesius speaks deriving its pedegree from God We read of rich glorious promises of royal prerogatives of truth and peace and mercy which came by Jesus Christ But all these are like the Physitians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to purge and cleanse us from the gross and corrupt humours rather than full diet to feed us up to that bulk that we are not able to weild and move ourselves in any order The Gospel is from heaven but we are of the earth earthy These Prerogatives are grants not rewards And Truth and Mercy are not the work of our hands but the purchase of our Saviour Quantò magìs lumen gratiae respicimus the more stedfastly we look upon the throne of grace Tantò magìs nos ipsos reprehèndimus sayth the devout Schoolman The more light we have the more we see our own wants and impotency and so become the more vile in our own eyes Let 2 Pet. 1. 5 6. us joyn Virtue with Faith and with Virtue Knowledg and with Knowledg Temperance and with Temperance Patience yet none of these not all these of their own nature can produce any such effect as to make us be in love with our selves or to raise us to that height as to overlook not only our selves but our brethren Were these virtues truly ours or being ours did they appear to us in their own native shapes they would discover unto us that the way to happiness is as the eye of a needle through which it is impossible for men of gross and overgrown conceits to enter The cause then of this disease is not in the Gospel or in the Riches of the Gospel but in our selves who are willing to be deceived and in the Devil who is totius erroris artifex as Tertullian calls him the forges of all error and deceit For as God whose very essenee is Goodness doth in mercy manifest that Goodness out of Sin it self So the Devil who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Wicked one abuseth Good unto evil and when he cannot drive us to dispair by reason of our sin he takes another course and makes us presume upon conceit of our righteousness Take Virtue in its own shape and it seems to call for fear and trembling and to bespeak us to be careful and watchful that we forfeit not so fair an estate for false riches But take it as from the Devils forge and then contrary to its own nature it helps to blind and hoodwink us that we see not the danger we are in how that not only the way but our feet are slippery It unfortunately occasions its own ruine whilst we with Nero in Tacitus spend riotously upon presumption of treasure The Schools teach us that Evil could not subsist if it were not founded in Good How true this is in general I discuss not but experience makes it plain that not only that Good which but appears so which smiles upon us in an alluring pleasure or glitters in a piece of Gold or cringeth to us in his knee that honours us but also verum plenum bonum as St. Augustine calleth it that which is fully and truly Good not only pretious Promises and high Prerogatives which of themselves cannot make us good but Piety and Patience and Holiness do swell and puff us up That Good which makes us good which names us good is that by which we are made evil And all this proceeds from our own wilful error and mistake for Pride is the daughter of Ignorance sayth Theodoret. Were we not deceived with false visions and apparitions it were impossible that either our eye should be haughty or our neck stiff The Philosopher will tell us that objects present themselves unto us like those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mathematical bodies which have many sides and they who see one side think all are like it or the very same We see the Gospel ex uno situ but on one side or as Seneca speaks ex adverso on the wrong side We see it pictured in glory but not in vengeance It appears to us in a shape of mercy not as it carries fire before it to consume us We behold Christ as a Saviour not as a Lords We entertain Prerogatives as prerogatives and no more and never look on the other side where the obligation is drawn We comtemplate Virtues as the work of our own hands but are blind to those imperfections which they bear in their very forehead Nay our Sins present themselves before us but colour'd and painted over with the prerogatives of mercy and forgiveness We consider our selves as Branches grafted in but cannot see the Tu excidêris that we may be cut off We consider our strength not our weakness But could we totum rerum conceptum exhaurire take-in the whole conceipt of our wayes and apprehend our actions in their full being and essence without those unnatural shadows and glosses our minds would be as even as the Sea when no wind troubles it and not raise those bubbles which are lost in the making nor those raging waves which foam out nothing but our shame But being thus lightned of our burden by error every puff of wind lifts us up above our sins above the mutability of our nature above ourselves and above God himself A Prerogative which is but a breath an appearance of Virtue which is but a shadow our own conceits which are vainty set us in our altitude where the hand of Mercy cannot reach us but a hand of Vengeance hovers over us which when it strikes tumbles us headlong into an amazing pit of horror and leaves us strugling with our distracted thoughts under the terrors of the Law of Death and of Desperation Will you see then spiritual Pride in its full shape and likeness You must then conceive it blind yet of perfect sight deaf but of a quick ear deceiving and being deceived happy and most miserable quick to see the least appearance of goodness but blind to the horror of sin a continual listning to the promises and prerogatives of the Gospel but deaf to the Thunder of the Law it s own parasite happy in conceit but indeed most miserable entitling us to heaven when

to help them Upon this little while depends eternity of punishment to the one and eternity of peace to the other Nor can we complain of the delay of that which will surely come to pass Beloved God hath these pauses and intervals and halts in all his proceedings in his punishments and in his deliverances He seems to study and meditate and use a kind of deliberation He works as it were by rule and line When God would build up Jerusalem he promiseth that a line should be stretched out upon her And when he would destroy Zech. 1. 16. the Idumaeans he threatens that he would stretch out upon them the line of Esa 34. 11. confusion So that when he will destroy and when he will build he stretcheth forth a line It is a Metaphor taken from Building which is a work of time and deliberation God is not sudden to lift up his hand to strike nor is he sudden to stretch forth his hand to help but as Builders do he first fits down and thinks he takes time as it were he fits and prepares his instruments he sets every thing in order and as wise artificers do he works by line and measure that he may make good his justice on the Wicked and magnify his mercy on the Meek How long did the Lord endure the old world even a hundred and twenty years while the Ark was a preparing And then there was a new Aera the Deluge brake in How long did he bear with the Amorites Even till their Wickedness was full and ripe for judgment as corn in harvest is for the sickle How long did he forbear his own people first the ten Tribes and then the other two Even till there was no remedie no hope of amendment till the Prophets cryed out HOASH It is desperate There is no hope All is lost Nor need we wonder at this his delay since the reason of it is plain and evident For God to manifest to the world that this wayes are not as our wayes but that he walks in a higher sphere beyond the reach of a carnal eye presenteth himself sometimes in a shape contrary to our expectation nay more doth those things which bear a resemblance of some opposition and repugnancy to his known and declared will And this he doth as it were on purpose to put our Faith and Constancy to a tryal to ask us the question and his afflictions are but questions Whether we will take him to be our God though he change his shape and worship him as well in his thunder as in his still voyce and call him Father in as loud an accent when he strikes us as we do when he favours us Or else on the other side he doth it to besiege and compass in obstinate offendors to shut the wicked up in their own net to bury them in their own pit and to strike them thorough with their own sword and as they have sported and trifled with his judgments so to mock and delude them that they shall not easily know when or how they are led to destruction or not know it till it be too late but run on in a merry dance to their ruine and into Hell at once God promises to love his Meek ones and to defend them as with a shield yet sometimes he so handles them as if he loved them not or had left off to love them or would not hear and help them stands as it were at a distance from them but even at this distance he is nigh to them that fear him Again though he have threatned to rain fire and brimstone upon the wicked yet many times he stays his Pasal 11. 6. hand and doth not strike he makes as if he would not punish them so that they walk delicately like Agag and say Surely the bitterness of 1 Sam. 15. 32. Death is past Nay often seems to cast an eye of favour upon them not to delay the blow it may fall yet heavier but which flesh and bloud too oft kindles at and frets it self to give them those rewards which are promised to Godliness He fills their Granaries he makes them mighty in power and to reign as Kings and would to God they did reign as Kings and not as Tyrants he crowneth them with happiness he seems to plead their cause as if it were just even against his own cause he makes them stronger than those whom he commands to oppose them and as bold and familiar with him as if they had him in a string But in this pleasant dream in this great security upon the sudden when their prosperity hath befooled them when they are ready to conclude they are good because they are temporally happy and that they have as good a title to Heaven as they have to the Earth and I fear indeed they have but as good a claim to the one as they have to the other in the midst of these big and triumphant thoughts God falls upon them and makes that which was their triumph their ruine He striks them at once for all he strikes the timbrel out of their hands and in the place thereof he leaves the cup of trembling He makes them see that they were the poorer for their riches the baser for their honour the weaker for their power and most wretched for their happiness that their successful proceedings which they boasted of were but as a beam darted from the Sun before a Tempest And now how fearfully and horribly are they consumed and brought to utter desolation Nor is this unjust with God For he comes not in this tempest till their obstinate impiety force him out of the cloud where he lay as hidden He doth not tell the Wicked that this PAULULUM this little while is theirs and that they may do what they will in it even beat their fellow-servant without fear of punishment that like Behemoth in the book of Job they may drink up a river and make it their sport to draw up Jordan even a whole Kingdom into their mouth I dare say there was never any PAULULUM never any so little little while in which God granted such a Commission But the Wicked abuse his long suffering and Divine indulgence They sport in this little while they send forth their edicts and make Orders against Law and Declarations against the Truth they teach God himself how to speak in Scripture and account that as an applause of their designs which was but an invitation to repentance And this is a bold Remonstrance against the King of Heaven himself And therefore this yet a little while this Divine Patience hath an effect answerable to the disposition and temper of those on whom it is shewed To them that make this PAULULUM God's PAULULUM that make use of this little while as of a little while and therefore make haste to be reconciled it is redemption and deliverance But to those who will be Domini rerum temporum will be Lords and

before our eyes that we cannot see the truth of this promise the meek shall inherit the earth And first we must not look for certainty in moralibus in matters of this nature as we do in natural Philosophy and in the Mathematicks This and the like propositions may be true although that which they affirm fall not out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at all times and in every place It is a Topick proposition and shews what if we consider the nature of the terms and of the things themselves is likely to be we have the very same almost Prov. 2. 21. The just shall live in the land and the righteous shall remain in it And yet no doubt there have been just men who have been driven up and down in the world and not had a hole to hide their heads in And again Mercy doth establish the Throne And yet we have read of Kings who have lost their crowns and that by being too merciful And in another place He that is diligent in his wayes shall stand before Kings Yet we cannot think but that there have been many industrious men who never saw the inside of a Court. There is a fair applicability and correspondency between these Mercy in a King and a long Reign Industry and Honour Meekness and the quiet possession of the earth but there is not so necessary a connexion as there is between these a Man and a living Creature If the world were dissolved yet this proposition is everlastingly true Man is a living Creature But many cross accidents may intervene to make Mercy malevolent which of its own nature is a preservative to keep industry in a corner which of it self doth raise the dilligent out of the dust and to drive the Meek out of possession who carry about with them the strongest title to an Inheritance A second error there is and it is this We are too prone to mistake the nature and quality of God's Promises and when we read that God will preserve and continue the Meek in their estates we presently conceive that God is oblig'd by this promise to exempt us from common casualties and to alter the course of things for our sakes When common calamities like an inundation break in and overflow the world we expect that God who fits in Heaven and looks upon the children of men should bow the Heavens and come down and work a miracle for us even do by us as he did by Noah at the Floud build us an Ark to float in till the waters abate Which is no less then to dictate to the Wisdome of God and to teach him who made the world how to govern it Beloved God never promised to exempt the Meek from the common casualties of the world but he hath promised to uphold them in all and to take care for them in such a sort as the world never useth to do Will you take a line and measure out the circuit of the promise and St. Hierome is ashamed to do it in his Epistle to Dardanus Pudet dicere latitudinem terrae promissionis He was ashamed to draw the map lest he should give occasion to the Heathen to blaspheme For from joppa to Bethlehem are but six and forty miles and yet God made his people there a mighty nation multiplied them as the stars of Heaven and made them a fear and terror to the nations round about them Folow them into captivity and the Psalmist tells us that he gave them favour in the eyes of their enemies and made all those who led them away captive to pitty them And Psal 1●6 46. it is more to find favour from an enemy than to have no enemy at all more to be pittied of our enemies than to tread them under our feet for this is to gain a conquest even in our chains Whether in captivity or liberty whether in riches or poverty the Meek person is still in manutenentia Divina in the hands of a powerful God who makes good his promise even then when it seems to be broken For in the third place many times God's promise is made good unto us when we believe it not for as the Jews would not receive Christ himself because he came not in that pomp and state in which they lookt for their Messias So if God come short of our desires we are ready to except against and question the truth of his promises We are at a stand and begin to think that Meekness is not so thriving a virtue as the Scripture hath made it Whereas we rather ought to consider that be it much or little that falls unto us it is sufficient to make good Gods promises For that a Meek man thrives at all is meerly from God For consider the malice and craft of the Wicked how his eyes are privily against the Meek with what humility and crouching he waits for the prey and what a Lion he is when he hath caught it how he pretendeth that God himself is his Second and a-better and though the Devil be his leader yet he falls on in the name of the Lord of Hosts consider this and you cannot but cry out Digitus Dei est hic That what part soever the Meek man hath in the earth it is measured to him by the finger of God himself who is miraculous in his preservation Again in the last place this promise is cum conditione not absolute but made over to us upon condition The Inheritance of the earth is given to us as an handmaid to wait on us to a better Inheritance even to an abiding city whose builder and maker is God This is the full extent of the promise And therefore if God see that earthly possessions will be as mountains in our way to the heavenly Jerusalem we have no reason to complain if he romove them His mercies are renewed every morning and he remembreth us in our low estate because his mercy endureth for ever But if the case so stand that my portion shall be in this life only then Nolo Domine hanc miserecordiam saith St. Bernard Lord I will have none of this kind of mercy If this be the case I had rather God should frown than smile on me I had rather he should wound than kiss me and break me on a wheel than lay me in a bed of roses I had rather have no place on earth than loose my mansion in Heaven If we ask God bread should he give us a stone if we ask him fish should he give us a Serpent This bread we ask may be a stone this Fish a Serpent liberalis est Deus dum negat God is very liberal if he deny us what we expect as a promise for the promise is fulfilled though he deny us Still it is true The meek shall inherit the earth To look back and sum up all and so conclude We have first seen the Wicked in his rise followed him with our eye to his very Zenith where like a

Comet we saw him blaze a little while and after fall We have taken the extent of the promise made to the Meek and the full compass of his inheritance And we may now walk about and tell the towers and every part of it That commonly he is full that God is his supply when he is empty that he supplies him by miracle that if he do not supply him it is for his greater gain that God is to him both in poverty and riches both in life and death advantage And all this God doth in a very little while both pull down the mighty from their seat and exalt the humble and meek But what shall God who is the Antient of dayes only move in this little while and shall we whose breath is in our nostrils sit down and sleep and hope to purchase this inheritance in a dream to think thus of God is to loose both the while and the inheritance For God doth not sow Wheat as the Devil doth Tares dormientibus hominibus while men sleep The time will come saith our Saviour of his Disciples that the bridegroom shall be taken from them and then shall they fast Now this PAULULUM this little while may seem to be that time and the Bridegroom to be taken from us For his bodily presence his presence by temporal blessings of peace and Health and Plenty we enjoy not and therefore we fast and pray to subdue the Flesh to the Spirit that the Soul may be more free and active in operation The while is well spent if we do this But if we will avoyd the bitter curse of Meroz there is something else to be done in this while We must come to help the Lord help him by helping his Anointed help him by opposing the Wicked man help him by promoting the endeavours of loyal Subjects help him by following peace if so be we can overtake it help him by destroying those Sins which hinder him in his work For as many times he cannot punish by reason of the importunity of our prayers so also many times he cannot deliver because of the importunity of our Sins And he may say to us let me alone in the one as well as in the other And if we let him but alone and hinder him not by the noyse of our Sins of Sacriledg for why should we help them that rob him of Oppression for why should he help them that grind his face of Uncleanness for why should he help them that make his members the members of an Harlot of Revenge for why should he help them that wound him of Hypocrisy for why should he help them that mock him if we silence these then will he move and work forward and within a while perfect his work And though the people imagine a vain thing though Jesuites and worse than Jesuites would drive us out of the land for the bottomless pit never sent out worse Locusts than those that will eat up their own country yet wait yet a little while and keep his way and he shall exalt us to inherit the land Our Silence shall drown their Noyse our Patience shall dull the edg of their Malice our Simplicity shall be wiser than their Policy our Weakness stronger than their Power and our Meekness shall be unto us all in all even Strength and Policy and Deliverance and all this after a little while And then where there is no while when Time shall be no more he shall lead us into those new heavens and into that new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness where there are no war nor rumors of wars but joy and peace and immortality and eternal life Into which he bring us who is that Prince of Peace even Jesus Christ the Righteous To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all honour and glorie now and for ever The One and Twentieth SERMON MATTH XV. 28. O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt THis woman came from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon saith our Evangelist v. 21 22. was a Greek a Syrophoenician by nation saith St. Mark 7. 26. and so a Gentile by birth Which when we remember saith St. Chrysostom we cannot but consider the virtue of Christs coming and the power of his most glorious dispensation which reached from one end of the world unto the other and took in those who had not only forgot God but had also overturn'd the laws of Nature and darkned that light which was kindled in their hearts which called sinners to repentance even gross idolaters and admitted doggs to eat of the childrens bread A Greek she was and in this she bespeaks us Gentiles exire è finibus Tyri Sidonis to come out from those coasts which whilst we remain in we are indeed no better then doggs to leave our sins and the occasions of sin to leave the coasts where Sin breaths and to come to Christ to be dispossessed of those evil spirits which vex our souls and will destroy them The Story of this Cananaean concerns us you see But wherefore comes she out of her own coasts You shall hear that in her loud cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text v. 22. she speaks it in a still voice Her daughter was grievously vexed with a devil No wind so powerful to drive us from Tyre and Sidon to Christ from the coasts of Sin to the land of the living as Calamity When we are vexed eximus when this wind blows we presently bethink our selves and depart out of those coasts But better stay at home then not be heard when we cry She cryes but Christ answers her not a word Yet she cryes still His Disciples come and beseech him and then he answers but his answer is rather a reason of his silence then a grant He answers that to help her was beside his errand that he was not sent to that purpose but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Non ostiolum spei not the least wicket of hope is set open to her not any beam of comfort shines Lost indeed she was but not a lost sheep a dogg rather and of Canaan she not of the house of Israel Here is a linguarium one would think a muzzel to shut up her mouth in silence for ever a hedge of thorns to stop up her way but Faith and the Love of her daughter drive her on even against these pricks and pull her on her knees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text Like a Dogg she croucheth before him she falls down and worships him saying Lord help me And now he who seemed to be deaf to her cry makes answer to her silence and he who regarded not her noyse makes a reply to her reverence and adoration Not a word from Christ till he sees us upon our knees Our noyse is not alwayes heard but he speaks when we worship But yet his answer carries less fire with it to kindle any hope of comfort then did his

was that represented to our Saviour though a dark yet a picture of his own Hinc vel maximè Pharisaei Dominum agnoscere debuistis Patientiam hujusmodi nemo hominum perpetraret saith Tertullian to the Pharisees If there had been no other argument to prove Christ God yet his wonderful Patience had been sufficient So we may truly say Were there no other argument to prove that this womans Faith was great yet this great measure of Patience were enough to make it good For so great a Patience could scarce have subsisted if Christ had not been in her of a truth Next follows her Humility a companion of Patience Quis humilis nisi patiens saith Tertullian There cannot be Humility without Patience nor Patience without Humility But here we have even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father speaks an extreme humility Humility on the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she worshipt him Not a humility which stayes at home but which comes out of her coasts after Christ She cryes after him he answers not She falls on the ground he calls her dogg A humility that is not silent but helps Christ to accuse her A Humility not at the lower end but under the table content with the crums which fall to the doggs Thus doth the Soul by true Humility go out from God to meet him and beholding his immense Goodness looks back unto her self and dwells in the contemplation of her own poverty and being conscious of her own emptiness and nihiliety she stands at gaze and trembles at that unmeasurable Goodness which filleth all things Ecce saith St. Augustine factus sum mihi regio egestatis This consideration hath laid me waste I am become to my self a wilderness where I can discover nothing but unruly passions and noysome lusts ready to take my soul and devoure it Foelix anima quae taliter exit à Deo Happy soul that so departs from God! It is a good flight from him which Humility makes For thus to go away from God into the valley of our own imperfections is to meet him We are then most near him when we place our selves at such a distance As the best way to enjoy the Sun is not to live in his sphere We must therefore learn by this Woman here to take heed how we grace our selves When Perseus the Macedonian King had rebelled against the Romans and was now overthrown by Aemilius he wrote unto them letters of submission but dated them with the name of Perseus the King and therefore the Consul would not answer them Sensit Perseus cujus nominis esse obliviscendum saith Livy Perseus quickly perceived what name he was to forget and therefore leaving out the title of King he writes the letters again and so received an answer What Perseus there did by constraint this woman here performs in true humility forgets the name of child nay of woman and to gain but a crum stiles herself a dogg A pattern for us to learn to think our selves but Doggs that we may be Children For nothing can make the heavens as brass unto us to deny their influence but a high conceit of our own worth If no beam of the Sun touch the in the midst of a field at noon day thou canst not but think some thick cloud is cast between thee and the light and if amongst that myriad of blessings which flow from the Fountain of light none reach home to thee it is because thou art too full already and hast shut out God by the conceit of thy own bulk and greatness Certainly nothing can conquer Majesty but Humility which layeth her foundation low but raiseth her building to heaven This Canaanitess is a Dogg Christ calls her woman She deserves not a crum he grants her the whole loaf and seals his Grant with a FIAT TIBI It shall be to Humility even as she will And now in the third place her Humility Ushers in her Heat and Perseverance in prayer Pride is as glass Vitream reddit mentem saith Damianus It makes the mind brittle and frail Glitter she doth and make a fair shew but upon a touch or fall is broken asunder Not only a Reproach which is ictus a blow but Silence which can be but tactus a touch dasheth her to pieces Reproach Pride and she swells into anger infermento est she is ready to return the Dogg upon Christ But Humility is murus aheneus a wall of brass and endureth all the batteries of opposition Is Christ silent she cryes still she follows after she falls on her knees Calls her Dogg she confesseth it She will endure any thing hear any thing bear any thing do any thing and all this to gain but a crum From Humility springs this her Fervor and Perseverance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the depth of an humble and low conceit of her self A common error it is reigning amongst us and our Pride begets it when we frame unto our selves a facil and easie God a God who will be commanded of us and led as it were in a string a God that will welcome us whensoever we come and be content with whatsoever little we bring This is nothing else but to set up a God of our own making an idole For what else is Idolatry but the mistake of that God whom we chuse to serve But if we knew our selves if we knew the distance between heaven and earth the difference between God and a Worm we should find God to be a God of state and magnificence qui solet difficilem habere januam whose gates open not so easily as we suppose a God who expects that our addresses unto him should be accurate and joyn'd with long attendance and expectancy Did we rightly dread his Majesty and weigh our own baseness we should think then with Pythagoras Deum non esse salutandum in transitu that God will not be spoken to in the By and passage we should fear that by our slight and trivial prayers we were too bold with him and that in wrath and indignation he should reply as Augustus did to his friend who entertained him coena percâ quotidianâ with course and ordinary fare Non putâramme tibi tam familiarem fuisse I did not think I had made my self so familiar with my creature Christ here no doubt knew the Womans faith before he heard it in her cry but he is silent but he denyes but he calls her Dogg and all this to make her importunate ut exploret affectum recurrentem to see whether her desire would recoyl upon the repulse He withdraws himself that she may follow closer after He puts her back that she may press forward in pursuit and invade him with violence ut excitet affectum languentem to fet an edge upon her affection to inflame her love and to raise her importunity with delay For the prayer of Faith res est seria gravis improba a serious a daring an imperious thing which will

is sick yet every man is well Every man is empty yet every man is full We tread the paths that lead to destruction and yet we are in the way to happiness Where is the shaking and the trembling spirit where is the broken heart where are those prickings at the heart or who puts up the question What shall I do to be Acts. 2. 37. saved Every man is satisfied and if it were true we might conclude every man is good For whatsoever the promises be most men are bold to make this the conclusion and though they have raised a tempest conclude in peace And it is a great deal more common to infer what pleaseth us and what may serve for satisfaction though it be upon a gross mistake and oftener then upon a truth And thus we assure our selves of happiness upon no better evidence then that which flesh and bloud and the love of our selves are ready to bring in and satisfie our selves with false hope of life when we are full of malice envy and uncleanness of which we are told that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdome of heaven Gal. 5 21. And what satisfaction is this a Satisfaction without a warrant a Satisfaction which we our selves only have subscribed to with hands full of bloud a Satisfaction which is but a cheat but a delusion presenting us nothing but a reward when we are condemned already filling us with hopes of bliss when we are in the mouth of destruction That which is Satisfaction indeed hath no other basis to stand on then Piety and conformity of our works words and thoughts to the will of God And then it is as mount Sion which cannot be removed it stands firm for it is built upon God himself If thou raise it upon Phansie thou buildest in the ayr If thou lay it upon Gods eternal Decree in thy election that will slide from thee and let the fall into hell for that concerns thee not unless thou be good but another decree contrary to that which thy neglect of piety hath drawn thee under belongs unto thee because thou wouldst not know what belongs to thy peace and what might bring Satisfaction Wilt thou lay it on the infinite Mercy of God that will cover a multitude of sins but not those sins which are thy only satisfaction that will distill as dew but not on the hairy scalp of him that goeth on in his sins And though she triumph over Justice yet here she yields and calls it in to double vengeance upon thee because thou wert an enemy to Mercy which first shewed thee the way to be satisfied and now turns from thee and will not hear when thou callest to her to satisfie thee being out of the way If thou wilt have Mercy crown thee thou must be merciful to thy self If thou wilt make thy election sure thou must do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is supplyed in some copies by piety that is by faith and good works For Goodness is that and that alone which satisfies us which fills us with joy and peace in the holy Ghost and for which God will satisfie us with his likeness and fill us with glory in the life to come And so we pass to that which we proposed in the second place and it was this 2. It is the prerogative of Goodness and Piety to be alone in this work Nothing can satisfie us but Piety and our transforming our selves by the Rom. 12. 2. renewing of our mind and shaping our thoughts words and actions to the will of God For first Satisfaction is but a name on earth as St. Paul speaks of Idols we know it is nothing in the world The earth and all that therein is cannot yield it the round world and they that dwell therein could never find it And as God spake to Moses Thou heardst a voice but sawest no shape so Satisfaction which flows from God alone in this resembles him The voice of it hath sounded in our ears but as for the shape and substance of the thing it self we have seen none But as the world having heard of God but not knowing him aright sought him in stocks and stones in birds and creeping things so men having heard of Satisfaction which can be found no where but in God by a kind of Idolatry against God have sought it in the creature in Beauty which fades whilst we look upon it in Riches which have wings and fly away in Honour which is but a blast and not in me but in him that gives it In these it can no more be found then the very nature of God himself These conceits and notions of Satisfaction do universally pass amongst men Now as that general consent and voice of all nations That there was a God though they erre not knowing where to seek him yet is a fair proof that there is a God and as the same general consent of men that God is to be worshipt though they mistook the manner of it yet proves certainly that there is some form of worship acceptable to Him so this oecumenical conceit of satisfaction to be had which hath thus overspread and possest the heads of all men cannot be in vain but is an evidence that there is some good that will satisfie that hath a contenting quality and in which we may set up our rest Only vain men who have their mind in their eyes and not in their hearts as Augustine speaketh have been willing to mistake to tread the waters and to walk upon the wind to trust to that and to make that their mount Sion which slides away from them and gives no rest to their souls Rest to our souls we never find till with the Dove we return to the Ark to the Church of Christ where our tongues are made God's glory and our hands the instruments of righteousness wherein that Piety and Goodness dwelleth which alone can satisfie For secondly such is the nature and quality of the soul that it is not fashioned nor proportioned to the things of this world What is a wedge of gold what is beauty what is a Crown to a soul This being an immortal and spiritual substance can be satisfied with nothing but what is wrought in it by the Spirit of God with Holiness and Piety which being as immortal and spiritual as the soul is most apt to assimilate and fill and satisfie it Will I eat saith God of himself the flesh of bulls or drink the bloud of goats Can God take any delight therein It is not the sacrifice but the heart which being offered up brings a sweet savor unto him without this sacrifice is an abomination And so what is a feast a banquet of wine the sound of a viol the whole world to a soul which must needs check it self when in condescention to the flesh it takes part in that delight they bring Will ye spend these upon it as the Babylonians did their sheep

night there were those that came and took his soul from him Again if we seek it in Knowledge there indeed one would think it might be found Knowledge being so proportioned to the Soul but alass there it is not For what satisfaction is it to attain unto this to know that I am ignorant or what comfort doth that light bring which shews my defects The more we know the more we see we are ignorant and the more light we have the more we discover our wants We may think at every small distance the heavens close with the earth but when we make our approach nearer a larger space opens then that we have left behind us Ad immortalium cognitionem nimis mortales sumus saith Seneca We are too mortal to fathom the Ocean of Immortality Much reading is a weariness of the flesh and Knowledge as it Eccl. 12. 12. brings content so it brings also vexation to the spirit But then when the times of refreshing the time of satisfaction shall come that Beauty I doted on will become a fury to whip me the rust of my silver and gold will James 5. 8. witness against me and eat up my flesh as it were fire and my Knowledge if it wait not on Piety will procure me many stripes What is Alexander now the greater for his power what is Caesar the higher for his honor what is Aristotle the wiser for his knowledge what delight hath Jezebel in her paint or Ahab in his vineyard what is a delicious banquet to Dives in Hell or what satisfaction can the remembrance of these transitory delights bring All the beauty honor riches knowledge in the world will not purchase one moment of ease All the rivers of pleasures which are now run out and dry and only flow in our remembrance will not cool a tongue The gate is shut against all these and we find torment endless torment instead of satisfaction Let us therefore seek for satisfaction but not there where it cannot be found not in the world whose very figure and fashion passeth away but in that faith 1 Cor. 7. 31. which overcomes the world in that faith which worketh by charity which 1 John 5. 4. doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostome speaketh slumber Gal. 5. 6. all vain and absurd imaginations that we now hugg and anon are afraid of and all vain words that now are musick unto us and anon return upon us as swords which doth guide our hands that they may be reacht out to no forbidden thing Let us seek satisfaction in the fruit of our lipps and the work of our hands in Piety and true Obedience Lo there it is found Where this is in truth and reality there it hold its prerogative it shapeth our thoughts formeth our words and mingles it self with all the works of our hands Then Peace of conscience that heaven upon earth and Satisfaction that pillow on which we rest in all the storms that beat upon us shall meet and compass us about on every side not a fading false satisfaction but true as our Obedience is true and solid and weighty as ●●at is sincere a fair pledge and earnest of that fulness of light joy peace and glory of that infinite satisfaction which we shall receive in the highest heavens wherein dwelleth righteousness where He that filleth all in all shall satisfie us that is crown us with Happiness for evermore The Three and Twentieth SERMON PART I. MATTH IV. 1. Then was Jesus led-up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil CHrist is the Captain of our salvation as the Apostle stiles him Hebr. 2. 10. And no sooner is he baptized no sooner is he come out of the river but he enters the field against the enemy of mankind omnia salutis nostrae sacramenta veluti juratus absolvit as Hilary speaks He performs all the Offices of a Saviour as fully and exactly as if he had taken a military oath to glorifie Gods name and to finish the work which he gave him to do of our Redemption His Care of our welfare did not omit any tittle any Iota He lookt not only ad ultimum to the end but usque ad ultimum to all those means and to all those particular acts which led him to it that so he might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bring his work to perfection and himself be made perfect by sufferings It was not enough for him to be born but he will condescend to be baptized by his servant It was not enough for him to fulfill the Law but he suffers himself to be tempted to break it It was not enough to suffer for sin but he will suffer himself to be tempted to sin He was content not only to be sent into the world but to be led into the wilderness and that the Devil may assault him to present himself in the shape of a weak hungry man to follow him to the pinacle to the mountain to any place from whence the Devil may hope to tumble him down He would be any thing but a Sinner that he might save sinners We will not so much as doubt whether this were a real Combat or only performed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in imagination and in a vision as some of the Ancients thought For this were to question his Baptism also and the Descending of the holy Ghost like a Dove Which was so really done that Tertullian peremptorily concludes that when the Spirit took this shape there was as truly a Dove there as there was the Spirit although St. Augustine and Chrysostome are of the contrary opinion The Text here is plain he was led 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Spirit which is as much as by the hand of the Spirit And that of the Father is most true Nimis disputando fidei autoritas elevatur We derogate from that autority and power which our Faith should have over us by raising controversies where we need not And whilst we start up doubts and questions and then run after to catch them we commonly lose the Truth It is part of a continued History of the Acts of our Saviour and there is no shew of reason which may perswade us that when all is said to be done by Christ one part of it should be done really and the other but in a vision especially here being so many reasons to evince the contrary For neither was it any honor for the Devil to cope with our Saviour who for Man in the nature of man fought against him and overcame him nor any greater dishonour to Christ to be tempted then to be a Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzene spake of his being born so may I of his being tempted Why should we fear where no fear is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shall we honor him the less because he hath humbled himself so far as to enter the lists with our enemy No His Circumcision his Tentation his Fasting his

neither did the Thief nor any other enter into paradise but through tentations and though there were a new and unusual power which wrought upon him as it did upon others in the first ages of the Church yet he had the same tentations to revile Christ which the other had who hung with him and one great tentation he overcame when he askt help of him who in all appearance could not help himself And certain it is that as the Devil fought against Christ so he fights against all mankind and some he overcomes with more ease others with more difficulty But it never fares worse with us then when we look so long on priviledges till we make them rules till what was but for term of life for some time for some men we draw down an entail upon all posterity What if some men have their peny who are called into the vineyard in the evening and cool of the day what is this to thee who art called at noon and in the heat of the day What if some have breathed forth their souls from their bed what is it to thee who art called to the stake It is true Christian virtues are Gifts but yet they are seldome obtained but by labour and sweat Seldome any temperate who set not a knife to their throat seldome any chast who make not a covenant with their eyes In a word nisi vim inferas regnum coelorum non intrabis unless you labor and sweat unless you first subdue and subjugate your selves you can never conquer the Devil Christ indeed conquered him but it is for those who will fight To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life Rev. 2. 7. Now the reason of this is most plain For though our Saviour when he coped with Satan could have beat him as small as the dust before the wind have put him in fetters and chained him up for ever yet was this neither expedient for Us nor agreeable with the infinite Wisdom of our Saviour Not for Us For si defit hostis pugna nulla est victoria If there be no enemy if there be no striving there can be no victory Tolle certamen nè virtus quidem quicquam Take away this combate with our spiritual enemy and Virtue is but a bare naked name is nothing If there were no possibility of being evil we could not be good What were my Faith if there were no doubt to assault it What were my Hope if there were no scruple to stagger it What were my Charity if there were no injuries to dull it Laetius est quoties magno sibi constat honestum Then Goodness is fairest when it shines through a cloud and it is difficulty which sets the crown upon Virtues head Our Saviour was made glorious by his tentations and sufferings So must we by ours And therefore God hath placed us in the midst of tentations that we may in vitâ vitam acquirere in this painful and short time in this course of tentations purchase everlasting life Nor can it consist with the Wisdome of Christ to overcome the Devil for those who will readily yield to him to foil him in his proud tentation for those who will not be humble and to beat off his sullen tentation for those who will distrust and murmure nay for such as make this his victory commeatum delinquendi a licence and charter for all generations to fling away their weapons and not strike a stroke but stand still as if they were a praedestinate mark set up on purpose for the Devil to shoot at If he should have done thus we could not take him for our Captain and if we do thus he will not take us for his souldiers Non novimus Christum si non credimus We do not know Christ if we believe him not to be such a one as he is Therefore as God dealt with the Israelites so doth Christ with us God rooted out the inhabitants of Canaan Judg. 3. and made room for his people yet he left some of them to prove Israel even as many of them as had not known the wars of Canaan namely the Caananites and Sidonians c. And this for two reasons 1. to teach them war 2. to prove Israel whether they would hearken to the commandments of the Lord. Even thus hath our Saviour disposed of our great Enemy He hath abated his strength in the way but hath not utterly rooted him out though he hath spoiled his principality yet he hath left him a Devil an enemy to mankind still for a purpose of his own to prove us whether we will be his souldiers or no and to teach us war which we could not learn without an enemy Nor needs this be grievous unto us For as he hath caught us both by his Word and Ensample to prepare our selves to the battle and bestir our selves like those who fight under his colours so in the next place there is a kind of influence and virtue derived from his Combate which falls as oyl upon us to supple our joynts and strengthen our sinews and make each faculty of our souls active and chearful in this exercise Multum nobis dedisset si nihil nobis dedisset praeter exemplum Certainly he had given us much if he had afforded us no more then his ensample But to this he hath added his Precept and set before us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the garland And we could never fail Si tanta in terris moraretur fides quanta merces ejus exspectatur in coelis if we could draw up our faith and make it proportionable to the reward But to this as there is gratia jubens a commanding grace so there is gratia juvans a helping grace to help us in our melancholy that we do not despair to help us in loathsome tentations that we be not swallowed up Per Christum in Christo by Christ and in the power of Christ we shall beat down all our enemies This Man whose will is mutable shall vanquish that Devil whose malice is obdurate This poor Beggar shall beat that Prince This worm this dust and ashes shall disarm that Goliah that Leviathan For as Christ tells us that he will be with us so doth he also fight with us to the end of the world setting us on by his precepts urging us forward by his ensample quickning us by his spirit And if we fail having the stronger on our side it is manifest that we have prefer'd Satan our enemy before Christ the Captain of our salvation Our life is hid with Christ Col. 3. 3. in God and whilst we there leave it by continual meditation of his meritorious sufferings by working and forming Christ in our souls no dart of Satan can reach us But when we hide it in the minerals of the earth in the riches of this world the Devil is there he is there to seize on it When we hide it in malicious and wanton thoughts they are

thy self what thou meanst when thou art to thy self a barbarian How can thy soul parley with thy God in such a Fayre and concourse of evil thoughts How canst thou ask a blessing from the Father which is now in heaven when thou hast so many companions about thee from the earth earthly Thou askest for bread but thou desirest a stone Thou askest for grace but thy mind is on riches Thou askest fish but thy hand is reached out to that Serpent which will sting thee to death It might be said unto thee as St. Hierome once said to his Friend when he found him in ill company What make you in such a troop What dost thou on thy knees when so many loose thoughts round thee about What should a beadsman do in such a throng But this miserable men that we are many times befalls us because we do not retire and call our thoughts out of the world It is true that Devotion may mingle it self with the common actions of our life Arator ad stivam HALLELUIAH cantat The plowman may sing an Halleluiah at the plow-tail He may collect some sacred colloquie SERERE NE METUAS If I miss this season I shall have no harvest If I remember not God in my youth he will forsake me in my age And God hears from heaven that prayer of his which he makes with his bow or hammer in his hand But yet many times in the affairs of our life there is a kind of dust gathered which soyls and darkens the brightness of our Devotion Which when we have brushed off by sequestring our thoughts from the world it will be more cleer Sometimes we must as St. Hierome speaks Intrinsecùs esse cum Deo be within in our hearts with God alone so busie in our colloquie with him so amazed at his Majesty so trembling at his Justice so ravisht at his Mercy so swallowed up in the contemplation of him that we even forget our selves that we lose our selves that we annihilate our selves that we have eyes and see not ears and hear not that when a covetous thought would steal in at the windows of our eyes we may be blind and if musick be loud we may not hear it Some have so wrought upon themselves that they have forgot to eat to taste to speak The Legend tells us of St. Agnes as I remember that in her devotion she was lifted three foot above the ground And he that wrote the life of St. Bernard reports it of him that he was so given to prayer and meditation that living a whole year in his cell or chamber in a Monastery when he came forth he knew not whether it were cieled or no and when there were several windows in it obvious to the eye he thought there had been but one In these whether fables or truths this truth is pointed to That when we tender our prayers to God we should abstract our selves from our selves and from the things of the world That we should not come to him till we have cast our cares our thoughts behind us The Beads-mans Motto is NON ALIUD NUNC CURO QUAM NE CUREM I have but one care in this world and that is that I may never have more When I call upon God God doth as it were put forth his hand and beckon to me to escape from the world not to be multiplex varium animal not to divide and distract my self and part my self out to variety of objects but be one in my self that I may be one with him The Psalmist prays unto God Psal 86. 11. Unite my heart to fear thy name The Vulgar rendereth it LAETETUR COR MEUM Let my heart rejoyce Hierome out of the Hebrew UNICUM FAC COR MEUM Make my heart one and alone And so Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same Aquila SIT COR MEUM 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let my heart be alone Let it be more retired and secluded from the world then any Monk that it may be free from the thought of things below that it may behold nothing but thee that it may be all thine that in respect of the world it may be like unto those who have been dead long ago Thus when the Mind is taken from the Sensual part it begins to reflect upon it self and then beholds its own wants its want of piety its want of sincerity then it beholds ictus laniatus those gashes and wounds which Sin hath made in it then it sees clearly to behold that receptacle which should have been a temple of the holy Ghost turned into a stews a place for Ohini and Ziim to dance in for the Devil to sport in And after this sad survey of it self it is restless and unquiet it strives to empty it self of sin to vent it self out in sighs and groans unspeakable to send it self gushing out of the eyes in rivers of tears and to breath it self forth at the mouth by an humble confession And now whether in the body or out of the body we cannot well tell but it makes haste to be at rest it presseth forward towards the Mercy-seat and is as restless in her importunity as she was in her sin never gives over till those wounds and gashes be cured by the bloud of her Saviour till his sighs and groans speak for ours never rests till the hand of Mercy wipe all tears from our eyes and treasure them up in a bottle This is the work of a devout soul And he that will be such a Beads-man must make his Senses follow his Mind and not his Mind his Senses which may be brought saith Pliny to have no other object then that which the Mind hath when they are taken from their own And thus I learn to be blind though I have light to be deaf though I have my hearing with our Saviour to go out of the world into the wilderness or by my Christian art make the world it self a desart And here to shut up what hath been said with a short application to our selves We of this Nation in the first place have great reason to be jealous over our selves with a godly jealousie and just cause to fear that we have not come so prepared to duty as we ought For what hath been the fruit and effect of these our many Fasts of these our many Prayers Certainly the cloud which hung over our heads is more thick and dark then before And as the Prophet speaks The Syrians before and the Philistines behind Isa 9. 12. and they both devour Israel with open mouth For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still What shall we say Hath God forgotten to be merciful or is that inexhausted fountain of Goodness drawn dry Or can the God of peace delight in those civil or uncivil broyls Can he that shed his bloud for us delight to see ours spilt as water on the ground No We must seek for the

reason at home in our own breasts and St. James hath shewn us how we should find it chap. 4. 2 3. Ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain ye fight and war yet ye have not because ye ask not Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss We pray for Peace and lift up hands full of bloud and oppression We pray to God to settle the pillars of the Kingdome when our study is to shake them to be favourable to Sion when we fight against it And therefore saith God When you spread your hands I will hide mine eyes from you and when you make many prayers I will not hear for your hearts are full Isa 1. 15. of bloud Will we have our prayers effectual We must take the Prophets counsel in the next verse Wash you make you clean from oppression cruelty and deceit This is the best preparation to Prayer If we will hearken unto God he will incline his ear to us and if we love Peace and pursue it the God of peace will give it Thus if we we call upon him he will hear and thus if we cry unto him he will answer here I am Here I am as ready to crown you with blessings as you are to ask them as ready to send peace within your walls as you are to desire it ready to crown you with external peace here and with eternal hereafter Again when we pray we must follow our Saviours example and withdraw our selves and retire When he had sent the multitude away he went Matth. 14. 23. up into a mountain apart to pray And he went forward a little and fell Mark 14. 35. on the ground and prayed In Gethsemane he withdrew himself from his Disciples that he might more freely pour forth his soul unto God Retiredness is most fit for passionate and affectionate prayers Then our passions may best vent themselves Then our Indignation our Fear our vehement Desire our Zeal our Revenge may work freely upon the whole man 2 Cor. 7. 11. may force tears from our eyes and sobs from our tongues may beat our breasts and cast our bodies on the ground Then Ingeminations and Reiterations and Expostulations are more seasonable That which peradventure Modesty would stifle in company in our secret retirements is the true eloquence of a wounded soul There God will hear us when we speak and he will hear us when we do not speak He will understand us when we express our selves and he will understand us when our sorrows and tears are so great that we cannot express our selves There every sigh is a prayer every groan a loud cry and though our language be imperfect and come short of our wants yet is it easie and plain to him because it comes from a broken heart And therefore what here by ensample Christ teacheth us he giveth us a rule To pray in private To pray in our closet and he promiseth Matth. 6. 5 6. that our Father that seeth that heareth in secret wil● reward us openly He will lead us through the wilderness of this world into a paradise of pleasure where all tears shall be wiped from our eyes where there shall be no more sorrow no more travel no more fighting but peace and rest and joy and glory for evermore We have done now with the two first reasons or conjectures rather why our blessed Lord and Master went into the wilderness We come now to the third which was That by this his Retirement he might draw out to us the resemblance of a Christian mans life which is nothing else but a Secession and holy Pilgrimage out of the world For as the Wilderness is indeed a part of the world and yet in a manner out of the world so is Christ in the wilderness a fair representation of a Christian who lives in the world yet is not of the world who is a part of the world yet separate from it who is no sooner born into the world but is taught to renounce it As Joseph is called a Nazarite in the Latin Translation not that he was of Gen. 49. 26. that order or observed their Law which was made many ages after but that by his strictness and severity of life by his piety and innocency he was severed and removed from others whose lives were irregular and therefore he is said to be separate from his brethren Or as Macarius calls a virtuous man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stranger a barbarian to the World in St. Pauls sense because he understands not the World nor the World him The 1 Cor. 14. 11. Apostle repeats it again and again that the Patriarchs were but strangers Heb. 11. in the land which was given them in their own land yet strangers Howsoever God had promised them an inheritance in Canaan yet they took his word in another and higher sense of the spiritual Canaan They abode in the land of promise as in a strange country looking for a city having a foundation whose builder and maker is God Which was to make a wilderness in Canaan nay to make the land of Promise it self a Wilderness Hence St. Hierome is positive and peremptory That the Saints in Scripture are no where called inhabitatores terrae the Inhabitants of the Earth or of the World but that it is a name alwayes given to sinners and wicked persons to those of whom it is written Wo to the inhabitants of the earth St. Augustine Rev. 8. 13. saith the wicked do only habitare in mundo dwell and have their residence in this world and may pass into a worse but never into a better place but the righteous can only be said esse to be there to have a being and existence there to be there as the Angels are said by the Schoolmen to be in uno loco quod non sint in alio to be in one place not circumscriptively but because they are not in another to be in the world but not of the world to be in this world because they are not yet in the other to be on earth because they are not yet in heaven It is a hard saying this and an unwelcome doctrine to flesh and bloud to the children of this world That we should be sent into the world ideo ut exeamus to this end that we should go out of it be placed in Jerusalem and then bid to go out into the wilderness be seated in such a paradise and then driven out of it even whilst we are in it be set to till the ground from whence we are taken to digg and labor as in a mine and then be taught to be afraid and run from the works of our own hands to see Beauty which we must not touch Fruit which we must not taste Riches and Treasure which we must tread under foot It is indeed a hard saying but even Scripture and Reason have made it good and seal'd and ratifi●d it

for a truth They are not of the world even as I am not of the world saith Christ John 17. 16. of his Disciples A Christian is no more of the world then Christ himself I have chosen you out of the world which is in a manner a drawing them John 15. 19. out into the Wilderness I have chosen you out of the world to hate and contemn it to renew and reform it to fight against the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that is in the world 1 John 2. 16. St. John the beloved Disciple who leaned on Christs breast was nearest to him and learned this doctrine from him exhorts us not to love the 1 John 2. 15. world nor the things of this world And not to love it here is to hate it and Hatred is as a wing to carry us away in haste into some wilderness from that thing we hate If we hate the world we shall not endure to look upon it much less to stay and dwell in it or build a tabernacle here Love not the world Fly afar off and retire not only from those sins and vices which all men know and confess to be so which are branded with a mark and carry their shame in their forhead but even from those deviations and enormities which by the profit and advantage they bring have gained some credit and repute amongst men have not only scaped the stroke of reprehension but are crowned with praise and because they thwart not the statutes of Omri and may consist with the laws of men are new Christians as it were and have the names of those virtues given them which are perfect and consummate in that obedience alone which is due to the Gospel of Christ and to the Law of God Love not the world is a sequestring a kind of deportation a banishment of us not only out of the world but out of the confines and borders of it even from that which weak Christians and not yet perfect men in Christ judge to be no part of the World Love it not look down upon it crucifie it as St. Paul did By the virtue of Christs cross I am crucified to the world The World looks Gal. 6. 14. down upon me with scorn and contempt and indignation And the world is crucified unto me I look down upon it with the like scorn and contempt I pass by it and revile it and wag my head I look upon it as upon a dead corpse which I must not touch as upon a crucified thief who is expos'd to shame To conclude this As Christ withdrew himself from the City and multitude into the Wilderness so doth the Christian withdraw himself from the World He is not of the World he is chosen out of it he loves it not but looks upon it as upon a dead carrion and crucified carkase a loathed object an abomination which threatens not only the ruin of the Temple but even of Christianity it self And this will be more evident if we consider the nature either of Man that is led or of the Spirit that leadeth us Man being elemented and made up in this world to look towards another and the Spirit of God being a lover of Man a lover of the image of God and ready to lead him out For first as Man when he builds a house first sits down and consults what use he shall put it to so God the Creator of the world who made the world for mans sake made up Man also to be made an ensample of his Wisdome and Goodness made him to worship him chalked out his way beckon'd and called lowd after him to follow him in that way that so at last as it were by so many steps and degrees by the example of his Son and the conduct of his Spirit he might bring him out of the world unto himself I have made thee I have created thee I have formed thee for my Isa 43. 7. glory saith God by his Prophet to communicate my goodness and wisdome to make thee partaker of the Divine nature to make thee a kind of God upon earth by which according to thy measure and capacity thou mayest represent and express God In homine quicquid est sibi proficit There is nothing in Man which is not advantageous to him which may not help to carry him through this world to the region of Happiness We cannot doubt of his better part his Soul for that being heavenly and a spark as it were of the Divine nature cannot but look upward and look forward too upon its original must needs be ashamed and weary of its house of clay and be very jealous of the World which is but a prison and hath greater darkness and heavier chains to bind and fetter the Soul it self And therefore when it looks on the World and reflects and takes a full view of it self and considers that huge disproportion that is between the World and an immortal Soul you may find it panting to get out As the hart panteth after the rivers of water so panteth my soul after thee O God saith David and When shall I appear before the living Lord Now was David recollected and retired into himself now was he in his wilderness communing with his own heart We cannot doubt of the Soul whilst it is a soul and not made fleshy immersed and drowned in sensuality If it be not led by the Flesh but lead it self out of the world it will and return to its rest to its retirement But then even the body being thus animated with such a soul may help forward the work Glorifie God in your 1 Cor. 6. ●0 body saith St. Paul Not only withdraw your Souls but your Bodies also out of the world For as God breathed in the Soul so his hands have made and fashioned the Body and in his book are all our members written He made Psal 139. 16. the whole man both Soul and Body and built it up as a Temple of his blessed Spirit And if the Soul be the Sanctuary the Body is the Porch and his hand moves from the inward parts to the outward from the Sanctum sanctorum to the very door and entrance What is there almost in this our retirement from the World which is not done by the ministry of the body Our Fasting our Prayers our Alms haec de carnis substantia immolantur Deo these are all sacrificed to God of the substance of the flesh What is Martyrdome That certainly is a going out of the world And this advantage we have above the Angels themselves We can dye for Christ which the Angels cannot do because they have no bodies So that you see the end for which Man was made and sent into the world was to be ever going out of it His natural motion and that which becomes him as Man is to move forwards Which motion is

it can be no other Spirit that guideth him but such a one as was sent from Rome in a cloak-bag If we cry down Idolatry and commit Sacriledge we mistake the Spirit Nor can he lead us to both for he that pulls down Idols will not also beat down his own Temple to the ground If we receive the Sacrament and make it a seal to shut-up Treason we have prophaned the Spirits seal and made as St. Augustine speaks that which was a sacrament of piety a bond of iniquity If we look and fix our eyes upon the earth and like that bad Actor cry Oh Heavens if we run to Honor and Riches and whatsoever our boundless lusts have set up with a GLORIA PATRI Glory to God in our mouth it is not the Spirit but a Legion of Devils that speaks in us for both acknowledge Jesus but withal ask What have we to do with thee If the World be the hinge we move upon the Spirit is not in our company If the Wheel be not lift up from the earth you may be sure no Cherubin moveth with it Therefore to conclude let us as Job speaks be afraid of all our works and actions and if we find the impress of the World or Flesh upon them cast them from us as refuse silver and adulterate coyn Never think that when our walk is toward the Tents of Kedar the Spirit will bring us within the Curtains of Solomon Never think that a pretense will make him our Companion when in our walk we grieve resist and quench him or when we are the Devils Captives that the Spirit of God leads us He loaths Uncleanness but he did not lead those brethren in evil to the murther of the Shechemites He looks for the performance of a Vow but he did not lead Absalom to Hebron He will take a gift in his Temple but not to enrich a Pharisee He accepts what is given to the poor but not that Judas should put it in his purse O what an easie matter is it for flesh and bloud to call-in the Spirit to countenance it and when it follows its own natural swinge to draw it along with it to carry it with more ease and applause to its end How soon can we perswade our selves that is lawful which we would have done Let us not deceive our selves Let not Honor or Riches or Pleasure or Power deceive us For be the pretense what it will if our eye be on the World the Spirit leads us not for he leads us out of the World even into the wilderness to be sequestred from the World to be alone from the World by abstinence and meditation and denyal of our selves to fight against it And this is the victory which overcometh the world even our Faith Which is the substance the expectation not of Riches or Honor or Pleasure but of things hoped for the evidence of things which are not seen nor can be seen in this world but shall be seen and enjoyed in the world to come The Five and Twentieth SERMON PART III. MATTH IV. 1. Then was Jesus led-up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil WE pass from the circumstance of Place to that of Time Then was Jesus led to be tempted Then when Jesus was baptized Then when the heavens were opened unto him and when the Spirit had descended like a Dove and lighted upon him Then when his Commission was sealed as it were by a voice from heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Then when he enters upon his office he enters upon temptation Then when he was washed did the Devil attempt to soyl him Then when the heavens were opened unto him was hell opened against him when the good Spirit descended was the evil spirit at hand and in whom God was well pleased in him was the Devil ill pleased and so made forward against him By this we may learn that as God hath his time so hath the Devil his As God hath his NUNC his Now of showring down graces from above so hath the Devil his TUNC his Then of drying them up NUNC TEMPUS ACCEPTABILE Now is the acceptable time Now is the day of salvation saith God and NUNC TEMPUS DESTRUCTIONIS Now is the expected time Now is the day of destruction saith the Devil Time in it self is nothing Per se non intelligitur nisi per actus humanos All the knowledge we have of it is by those acts which are done in it When we say This was now done this then this will be done we have exprest as much as we can of Time God works in time and the Devil hath his time Then when God hath wrought upon his creature the Devil who is a great observer of Time takes that TUNC that Then to destroy his work You see our Saviour comes no sooner out of the river but the Devil sets upon him And as he used the Lord so will he the Servant Christus speculum Christiani Christ is as a Looking-glass in which every Christian may view himself behold himself in his altitudes and in his depressions in the favour of God and in the danger of the enemy take notice how God opens heaven upon him and how the Devil even then opens his mouth to destroy him consider that when God is most loving the enemy is most raging that he is never more in danger then when he is most safe that he shall find his adversary most fierce when God is his strength Nunc animis opus est Now we have most need of courage and resolution of care and circumspection when the Devil comes and finds nothing in us but all that was his washed off by Repentance and Baptism When we wallow in our own bloud when we are taken in the Devils snare circumspection is too late for we cannot properly be said to be in danger of the enemy when we are taken but when we have openly renounced him and bid defiance to him by the profession of a new life then we stand as it were upon the top and brink of the pit a mark for the Devil to shoot at that so our spirits may fail us and we fall back again into the bottom of it When the danger is past then is it nearest and when we are out of the pit then are we most ready to fall back again No wise Captain is ever so confident of peace so emboldened with the flight of his enemy as not to prepare for war which is at his doors when it makes no noyse Here we may discover the enemies policy Primordia boni pulsat tentat rudimenta virtutum sancta in ipso ortu festinat exstinguere He beats upon the very beginning of Goodness he assayes the very rudiments and principles of Piety and makes it his master-piece then to extinguish the light of Grace when it is first kindled in our hearts This he practised upon Christ And in the same manner he

which is streight doth manifest not it self only but that also which is irregular After this manner pray ye denyes and forbids any other manner which is opposite to it Here by the way give me leave to tell you that Christ gives no direction for our Gesture He teacheth us not in what posture we should pray but what the subject of our prayer must be Religion and Reason both teach us that Prayer is an act of adoration and must be done with reverence Where these fail Profaneness and Self-will soon rise up against Religion and Reason quarrel with those things which no Wiseman would ever call into dispute The manner of gesture hath been various in all ages yet all ages have acknowledged Reverence an inseparable companion of Prayer When the Christians prayed toward the East the Heathens said that they worshipped the Sun But the Fathers reasons were these which are not indeed reasons of a necessitating force but only motives and inducements In honour to our Saviour they look that way because when He was on the Cross his face was turned toward the West saith Justin Martyr Divinis rebus operantes in eam coeli plagam convertimus à qua lucis exordium saith Ambrose In our Devotions we turn our eyes to that part of the heavens from whence we have the beginning of light Lastly they prayed that way not to adore the Eucharist but Christ himself These reasons although not convincing to demonstrate that it must be thus yet to quiet and devout minds are sufficient motives to perswade that God will rather approve than dislike it if it be thus We may use any lawful means to express our affection to God and to our blessed Saviour and these things can trouble none but those qui erubescunt Deum revereri who are ashamed and afraid to do too much reverence to God I need not mention the Elevation of their eyes to heaven which the Heathen derided also and said they did but number the clouds nor the Expansion and Spreading abroad of their hands for which they give no other reason but this They did it that by this gesture they might confess the passion of Christ who was stretched upon the Cross a reason of no more force than the former which yet prevailed with the blessed Saints and Martyrs and the wisest of the Church The Ethnicks prayed with their heads covered as Plutarch observes The Christians uncovered theirs because they were not ashamed to pray unto God The most common gesture amongst Christians was projici in genua to fall upon their knees And this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the very Apostles times saith Justine and memoris ecclesiastici saith Hierome the perpetual practice of the Church To this they added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cast themselves upon their face and this was used in rebus attonitis saith Tertullian when the Church was astonisht with the rage of persecutions and to shew how unworthy they were to appear before the great Majesty of heaven and earth These and what other gestures soever which Reason or Reverence commend we may safely use and it will prove but a weak Apology for our neglect to say they are superstitious Suppose the very Pagans used the same yet this will be no good argument to make us abhor them For if they thought that by these they did best express their reverence why may not we civitate nay ecclesià donare admit them into the Church and exhibit as great reverence to the true God as they did to the false If our Saviour when he bids us not be like the Gentiles had meant Matth. 6. 8. we should not be like them in any thing he had also excluded Prayer it self I will insist no longer upon this but conclude with him in Plantus qui nihil facit nisi quod sibi placet nugas agit He is a very trifler which will do nothing but what pleaseth himself at the very first sight or rather with St. Paul If any man mind to be contentious we have no such custome neither 1 Cor. 11. 16. the Churches of God After this manner pray ye was not spoken to teach us what gesture we should use For he that knows what Prayer is unless he mind to be perverse and obstinate cannot be in this to seek But it is opposed to the vain babling and multiplicity of words which the Heathen used as if God could not hear them nisi centies idem sit dictum unless they spake the same thing an hundred times Which Cyprian most properly says is not to pray but ventilare preces tumultuosâ loquacitate jactare to toss up and down our prayers and cast them as those that winnow use to do from one hand into another and Cyril 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing but to make a noyse and babble The word in the Text is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken as it may seem from Battus the herdsman in the Poet who took delight in such vain repetitions Sub illis Montibus inquit erant erant sub montibus illis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as Prodicus in Aristotles Topicks divided Pleasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which three signifie one and the same thing This the Greek hath a proper word for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from one Dates a Persian who being in Greece and affecting the Greek tongue was wont to heap up Synonymas as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words are all one Two Interpretations we find of Christs words one That by this he forbids all vain repetition of the same words another That he cuts off all multiplying of words Which both may be well confest if we rightly consider our Saviours words where he gives the reason why we should not in this be like the Heathen For they think they shall be heard for v. 7. their much babling Now to have affected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theophylact speaketh long and inconsiderate expressions of their mind or vain iterations of the same words as if God were taken with such babling had been to be like the Heathen indeed For this Elijah mocked Baals Priests Cry aloud for he is a God Either he is talking or he is pursuing 1 Kings 18. 27 or he is in his journey or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked To this doth our Saviour oppose the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and commands us not to pray so but after this manner And this exposition is grounded upon the cause which our Saviour gives why we should not use such repetitions For your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask And if our heavenly Father can prevent our desires what need we speak so often when he can hear us before we speak This precept then non consistit in puncto is not to be strictly urged as opposed to all repetitions of the same words but we must weigh and rightly ponder our Saviours intent For

men of what rank and condition soever are bound to perform it all are bound to pray This Form of prayer therefore was prescribed both to the Disciples and to the Multitude None so wise who must not none so ignorant who may not learn this Form Blanditur nostrae infirmitati It is fitted to the capacity of the weak Being a short form it is no burden to the Memory and being a plain form it brings no trouble to the Understanding He that cannot walk upon the pavement of heaven amongst the mysteries of his Faith may yet walk upon this earth this plain model of Devotion He that knows but little of the Trinity may yet cry Abba Father He that cannot dispute of God may yet sanctifie his Name He who is no Politician may have his Kingdom within him And he who cannot find out his wayes may yet do his Will Fastidiosior est scientia quàm virtus Paucorum est ut literati sint omnium ut pii Knowledge is more coy and hardly to be wooed than Devotion it makes its mansion but in a few But Piety forsakes no soul that will entertain her Every man cannot be a Scholar but every man may be devout Every man cannot preach but every man may pray Nemo ob imperitiam literarum à perfectione cordis excluditur saith John Cassian Antiquity confined Perfection to a Contemplative life to men of some eminence in the Church but a vain thing it is to imagine that none can reach perfection but the Learned Surgunt indocti rapiunt regnum coelorum saith Augustine Devout Ignorance many times taketh heaven by violence when our sluggish and unprofitable knowledge cannot lift up our hands by Devotion so much as to knock at the door Take then the Disciples and the Multitude together men of knowledge and men of no great reach and the Sic orate concerns them all and to them it is our Saviour gives this Command After this manner pray yee But now in the last place what shall we say to Sinners May they use this Form or can they pray without offense whose very prayer is an offense I should hardly have proposed so vain a question but that I find it made a question in the Schools and amongst the Casuists a Case of Conscience Indeed who can pray but Sinners Our very Pater Noster is a strong argument that every man is a sinner But yet some sins do not exclude the grace and favor of God as those of daily incursion Others of a higher nature may and so make us uncapable of this holy Duty This Doctrine like the Popes Interdict shuts-up the Church-doors and shutteth up our lips for ever that we may not open them no not to shew forth the praises of the Lord. A doctrine as full of danger as that from whence it sprung For do we not read it in terminis That the best actions of the unregenerate are sins We know who tells that opera bona optimè facta sunt venialia peccata That the best works of Saints are so also in some degree Which opinions though they have some truth if rightly understood yet so crudely proposed as many times they are are full of danger Who would not tremble to hear what I am sure hath been preached That the wicked are damned for eating and damned for drinking damned for labouring in their calling and damned for going to Church and damned for praying whereas all things work for the best to the godly even Sin it self But it is worth our observing that men of this opinion have a trick to shift themselves out of the tempest and to make themselves of the Elect. They deal as the Romans did who when two Cities contending for a piece of ground had taken them for their judge wisely gave sentence on their own behalf and took it from them both unto themselves But the truth is to say that the Alms and Prayers of wicked men are sin is a harsh saying and we must as Chrysostom speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mollifie it Shall I call the Temperance and Patience and Chastity of the Heathen sins That is too foul a reproach I will rather say that they were as the Rain-bow was before the Floud the same virtues with those which commend Christians but of no use because they were not seasoned with Faith which commends all virtues whatsoever and without which they cannot appear before the presence of the Lord. But to give instance to our purpose Cornelius was a Gentile and knew not Christ yet we read that his prayers came up for a memorial before God Simon Magus was in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity yea primogenitus Satanae as Ignatius calls him the first-born of Satan yet even in this bitterness even in this bond of sin St. Peters counsel is to pray God if perhaps the thoughts of his heart may be forgiven him Acts 8. 22. which after the thunder of his curse cleareth the air that he may see some hope of escaping destruction To make it a sin to pray in the state of sin is to deny physick to the sick and to destroy my Brother for whom Christ dyed I know the Schools determine the point thus That both these are false either that a sinner is alwayes heard of God or that he is never heard That God loves his nature but hates his fault That out of his exceeding mercy he will grant his request if his prayer be pious To those who walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by that light they have God is ready to send an Angel or an Apostle or to come himself When the Prodigal was yet a great way off his Father saw him and ran and fell on his Luke 15. 20. neck and kissed him The Return of the sinner is expressed by the word Going but God's Coming to the sinner by Running God maketh greater haste to the sinner then the sinner doth to God God maketh much of our first inclination and would not have it fall to the ground We need say no more to clear this point then what Gregory hath taught Fac boni quicquid potes In what state soever thou art whether in Gods favour or under his frown yet do all the good thou canst In puncto reversionis in the very point of thy turning to God God runneth to meet thee he watches each sigh and hearkens to each groan and thy Prayer is so far from being a sin that it shall wipe-out thy sin for ever And therefore Christ hath put this Form in thy mouth Which he hath prescribed to the learned and to the ignorant to Disciples and to the Multitude to perfect men and to sinners laying this command upon them all After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father c. This Form of Prayer is prescribed to all yet all will not receive it but many look upon it with scorn as if they thought themselves too wise to be taught by our Saviour What Seneca

will call us superstitious for doing what Christ commanded us Let us not be ashamed of the name of this Form of Christ because by some it hath been evil spoken of but let us pray and after this manner and pray that this their sin may be forgiven them Let us not affect long prayers but pray so that we may be heard Let our Prayers be the effects and results not of Vain-glory but of Devotion Let us know both what and to whom we speak and then let us speak and God will answer He will look down upon us whilst we thus look up upon him And for his sake who taught us thus to pray he will pour down blessings upon our heads he will give us our daily bread in this life and in the life to come feed us with the blessed vision of Himself and with those pleasures which are at his right hand for evermore The One and Thirtieth SERMON PART III. MATTH VI. 9. Our Father which art in Heaven NOT to mis-spend our time by way of Preface we may briefly divide this whole Prayer into three parts a Preface or Exordium OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN the Prayer it self consisting of six Petitions as some or seven as others the Conclusion FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOME THE POWER AND THE GLORY FOR EVER AMEN In which are contained a kind of method of Prayer For God who is a God of order and hath placed in all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of harmony and elegant composition and hath his Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens speaks from the ordering and disposing of all things hath also observed a kind of art and method in that form of prayer which he hath prescribed unto us Statua non fit quanquam fusi omnibus membris nisi collocetur Though you have melted and fashioned every point and member of a statue yet the statue is not finisht and compleat until you have orderly placed each part thereof Nor do we pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after that manner which Christ hath taught unless our Devotion begin and press forward and conclude ex praescripto in that order which is prescribed Method commends all things even Prayer it self which without it were indeed Battologie and nothing but noise But being turned as it were and well set by that rule which we have learned à magistro symphoniae from the chief Master of this heavenly melody Christ himself it is the best musick we can make in the ears of the Almighty and doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even joyn us to the quire of Angels We cannot better begin continue and end our prayers then with Christ These words Our Father which art in heaven are the Preface and Proem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and make way to bring-in the Petitions themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fair frontis-piece set over the whole work as Pindarus speaks No art can reach it no oratory can equal it It is not long nor doth it in caput excrescere grow up into a bulk But three words PATER NOSTER COELESTIS Our heavenly Father But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These three are all and in this narrow compass comprise a world of matter For first they are fitted and proportioned to the Petitions and bear a resemblance to every part as Light doth to the colour of that glass through which it shines Whose Name should be more holy to us than our Fathers Non est cui magìs velle me melius aequum siet saith he in the Poet. Nature and Equity consecrate his Name Who should be my King and reign within me but he whom I know tam pro me esse quàm suprà me to be as much for me as he is above me Whom should I obey more than my Father Let his Wisdome whose Will is my salvation Whom should I ask my bread of of whom should I ask forgiveness of whom should I crave succour when evil assaults me but of my Father who being our Father will and being in heaven can give us whatsoever we want So these words are not only a Preface but also a ground-work and foundation on which every Petition is built-up and stands firm like mount Sion which cannot be moved Secondly These words are a grateful acknowledgment of his Power and Goodness and Providence to whom we commence our suit and hereby we do captare benevolentiam we begg nay we obtain Gods favour For that Preface must needs be powerful which Gratitude pens Oratores hanc habent disciplinam ut incipiant à laudibus saith St. Ambrose It is the art of the best Orators to begin with the praises of them to whom they speak and then exprimere quod petant fully to expres what they do desire Tully begins his Oration for Milo with the commendations of Pompey St. Paul his Defense with the praise of Agrippa Aristotle commends that custome Acts 26. Ethec 5. of building 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a temple of Gratitude in the midst of the City that men might learn to acknowledge benefits as well as begg them or rather first to acknowledge and then begg them In feudis si feudatarius abscondit neque recogniscit à domino feudi totum feudum jure illud amittit saith the Civil Law In Fee-farms if the Farmer conceal any part of the fee and do not homage for it and make acknowledgment to the Lord he forfeiteth all It is so between the Lord of heaven and earth and us his poor vassals We hold all we have and all we are from him alone And if his blessings make us wanton if Ingratitude seal up our lips that we do not shew forth his praise we lose all and are not sit to pray for more If we will not call him Father why should we ask his blessing Every moment is a monument of his Goodness nor do we more draw-in the air then his Goodness In him we live and move and have our being Therefore Whatsoever good thou doest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could the very Heathen say confess it to be from God And Plato gives the reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From one Good are all Goods and more divinely St. James Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights Ingratitude when she cryes loudest is not heard but Thankfulness and Singing of praises are the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the best flourish and preface to our Prayers Lastly this Preface presents us in the true posture of Supplicants It pulls us on our knees It lifts up our hands and eyes to him that dwelleth in the heavens which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the true habit of a beades-man as Eusebius speaks in the Life of Constantine It makes a glorious mixture of Fear and Love of Amazement and Boldness of Confusion and Confidence FATHER is a word full of allurement and makes us look up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to lift up our eyes and stretch

to the haven where we would be And we have winds from every point the prayers of the whole Church to drive us We have already shewed you what may raise our hope and confidence when we pray even the name of Father For what will not a father give to his children But we must now present God in his Majesty to strike us with fear that so our Fear may temper our Hope that it be not too saucy and familiar and our Hope may warm and comfort our Fear that it be not too chill and cold and end in Despair I dare speak to God because he is our Father but I speak in trembling because of his Majesty because he is in heaven And these two make a glorious mixture There be many things which in themselves may be hurtful yet being tempered and mixt together are very cordial and wholesome Fear and Hope which in their excess are as deleterial as poyson being compounded and mingled may be an antidote Fear bridles my Hope that I do not presume and Hope upholds my Fear that I do not despair Fear qualifies my Hope and Hope my Fear Hope encourageth us to speak Fear composeth our language Hope runs to God as a Father Fear moderateth her pace because he is in heaven We are too ready to call him Father to frame unto our selves a facile and easie God a God that will welcome us upon any terms but we must remember also that he is in heaven a God of state and magnificence qui solet difficilem habere januam whose gates open not streight at the sound of Pater noster Deum non esse perfunctoriè salutandum as Pythagoras speaks that God will not be spoken to in the by and passage but requires that our addresses unto him be accurate with fear and reverence Hope and Fear Love and Reverence Boldness and Amazement Confusion and Confidence these are the wings on which our Devotion is carried and towres up a loft till it rest in the bosome of our Father which is in heaven And now let us lift-up our eyes to the hills from whence cometh our salvation even to the throne of God and seat of his Majesty but not to make too curious a search how God is in heaven but with reverence rather to stand at distance and put-on humility equal to our administration not to come near and touch this mount for fear we be struck through with a dart Nunquam verecundiores esse debemus quam cùm de Diis agitur saith Aristotle in Seneca Modesty never better becomes us then when we speak of God We enter Temples with a composed countenance vultum submittimus togam adducimus we cast down our looks we gather our garments together and every gesture is an argument of our reverence Where the object is so glorious our eyes must needs dazle Gods Essence and Perfection is higher then heaven what canst thou do deeper than hell what canst thou know The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the Sea Job 11. 8 9. What line wilt thou use De Deo vel verum dicere periculum We dangerously mistake our selves even when we speak the truth of God That God is that he is infinite and imcomprehensible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even our Fye will teach us and the very law of Nature manifest But how he is in heaven he is on the earth how every-where no mortal Eye can discern no Reason demonstrate If we could perchance utter it yet we could not understand it saith Nazianzene Crat. 34. if we had been ravisht with St. Paul into the Third heaven yet we could not utter it Indeed it is most true what Tertullian urgeth against Hermogenes Alium Deum facit quem aliter cognoscit He maketh another God who conceives of him otherwise then as he is But no river can rise higher than its spring and fountain nor can we raise our knowledge above that light which is afforded us God is infinite and the most certain kdowledge we have is that he i● infinite The light which we have is but lightning which is sudden and not permanent enough to draw us after him because we conceive something of him and enough to strike us with admiration because we conceive so little It fares with us in the pursuit of these profound mysteries as with those who labor in rich mines When we digg too deep we meet with poysonous damps and foggs instead of treasure when we labor above we find less metal but more safety Dangerous it is for a weak brain to wade too far into the doings of the Most high We are most safely eloquent concerning his secrets when we are silent How great God is What is his measure and essence and How it is in any place or every place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basile as it is not safe to ask so it is impossible to answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My sheep hear my voice saith Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THEY HEAR saith he not DISPUTE Yet how have men attempted to fly without wings and wade in those depths which are unfordable to dispute of Gods Essense his Immensity his Ubiquity of the Nature of Angels of their Motion of their Locality nay de loquutione Angelorum of their Language and how that they communicate their minds one to another When we ask them how the Body of Christ is seated in the Eucharist they will tell us that it ●s there as the Spirits and glorified Bodies are in the place which they possess Tertius è caelo cecidit Cato Have these men lately descended like a second Paul out of the third heaven and from thence made this discovery By what means could they attain to this knowledge What light have they in Scripture to direct them to the knowledge of the manner of location and site which Spirits and glorified Bodies have St Paul hath long since past his censure upon them They thrust themselves into things they have not seen and upon a false shew of knowledge abuse easie hearers and of things they know not adventure to speak they care not what The Philosopher will tell us that men who neglect their private affairs are commonly over-busie in the examining of publick proceedings They will teach Kings how to rule and Judges how to determine and are well skilled in every mans duty but their own The same befalls us in our pursuit of divine knowledge Did every man walk according to that measure of knowledge he hath we should not be so busily to find out more light to walk by Did we adde to our faith virtue and to our knowledge temperance we should not multiply questions so fast which vanish into nothing and when they make most noyse do nothing but sound quae animum non faciunt quià non habent which can give us no light and spirit because they have it not Did we enter that effectual door which lyeth open unto us our Curiosity would not

our Christian Philosophy We read no Acroamatical lectures but open all truths as far as it hath pleased the King of heaven to reveal them Nor must any man take them as things out of his sphere and above his reach Besides it is our duty to take from you all gross and carnal conceits of God And we have just cause to fear that some are little better perswaded of God than the ancient Anthropomorphites who thought that God hath hands and feet and is in outward shape proportioned unto us If you yet doubt of the use of this the Prophet David shall most pathetically apply it for me Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither Psal 139. 7. shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into heaven if I make my bed in hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the utmost parts of the sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me Now nothing can be of greater force to restrain us from sin then a strong perswasion and assurance that whatsoever we do or think lyeth open to the view and survey of some Eye that is over us Secrecy is much desired amongst men and there is no such fomenter of evil actions as it is For what no man knows is accounted as not done But magna necessitas indicta probitatis saith Boetius There is a kind of necessity of doing well laid upon us when we know that God is a witness and observer of our actions What rocks canst thou call to cover thee what hills to hide thee from his eyes What night can veil thee Propè est à te Deus tecum est intus est saith Seneca God is near thee is with thee is within thee Cui obscura lucent muta respondent silentium confitetur saith Leo To him Darkness is as light as the Day the Dumb speak and Silence shriveth it self Think not because God is in heaven he cannot see thee at such a distance For he fills both the heaven and the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He beholds all things and heareth all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil calls him From heaven he beholds the children of men and considereth all Psal 33. 13 14 15. their wayes To him thy Complement is a lye thy Dissimulation open thy Hypocrisie unmaskt thy Thoughts as vocal as thy Words thy Whisper as loud as Thunder and thy Secresie as open as the Day All things are written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Gods Book Nay he keeps a Book in the very closet of thy soul the only Book of all thy Library saith Bernard which goes along with thee into the world to come He sees the Title of the Book SINS and the Dedication of it To the Prince of Sin The several Chapters so many several Sins and every Letter a character of Sin Quid prodest inclusam habere conscientiam patemus Deo saith Lactantius Why do we shut-up this Book God can read it when it is shut-up Why do we bribe our Conscience to be quiet God understands her language when she faulters Why do we lay these pillows to rest on We are awake to God when we are fast asleep The very strumpets of Rome who were wont to dance naked upon the stage to make the people sport yet would not do it whilst Cato was present Behold not Cato but God himself is in presence qui omnia novit omnia notat who knows all things and marks and observes all things Which are the two acts of his Providence We have still over us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaks a super-intending Eye which tryeth the sons of men and pondereth all their thoughts Therefore the Father said well Ubi est Dei memoria ibt peccatorum oblivium malorum interitus the very memory of God is an antidote against sin For the most secret Sin we commit is as open to him as that which is committed before the Sun and the People We read in Velleius Paterculus of Livius Drusus a great Gentleman of Rome who being about to build him an house his work-man told him that he could so cunningly contrive the windows the lights the doors of it that no man should be able to look in and see what he was a doing But Drusus answered him If you desire to give me content then so contrive the lights of my house that all may look in and see what I do St. Hilary doth make the application for me In omnibus vitae nostrae operibus circumspecti ad Deum patentes esse debemus This is the right fabrick of a Christian mans soul which being innocent still opens and unfolds it self unto God and is so much the better contrived by how much the more liberally it admits of light ut liberis per innocentiam patulis cordibus Deus dignetur lumen suum infundere that innocencie having broken down all the strong holds and fenses of Sin and laid open the gates of the Heart the King of glory may enter in and fill it with the light of his countenance Oh what a preservative against Sin is it to think that all that we do we do in Divinitatis sinu as the Father speaks in the bosome of the Divinity When I fast and when I surfet when I bless and when I curse when I praise God and when I blaspheme him I am still even in his very bosome When we behave our selves as in the bosome of our Father God handles us then as a Father as if we were in his bosome He gives us an EUGE Well done good children But when our behaviour is as if we were in a Wilderness or Grot or Cave or Theater rather rhen in the bosome of God majori contumelià ejus intra quem haec agimus peccamus we are most contumelious to him in whose bosome we are We have seen now some light in this cloud and have gained this observation That Gods all-seeing Eye will find us out when our curtains are drawn That what we dare not let others behold he looks upon That what we dare not behold our selves he sees ad nudum as the Schools speak naked as it is You will ask now Is not God in every place and if he be in the earth in hell beyond the seas why then are we bound to say Our Father which art in heaven Not because heaven doth contein him but because his Majesty and Glory is there most apparent God calls heaven his seat his holy habitation and he is every where in Scripture stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 66. 1. Deut. 26. 15. heavenly We will not here spin-out any curious discourse concerning Heaven as those did in St. Augustine who did so intently dispute of the caelestial Globe ut in coelo habitare se crederent de quo disputabant that to themselves they seemed to dwell there and to have made Heaven their Kingdome as well

and all these things shall be added unto you We may divide this Prayer as Moses divided the Law into two Tables In the first were written officia pietatis duty of Piety towards God In the second officia charitatis duties which Love requires we perform to our selves and others We see the three first Petitions breathe forth the glory of God the last three draw their breath as it were inwards and reflect upon our selves In the three first we strive to enlarge the glory and honor and majesty of God In the first we sanctifie his Name in the second we call him in the third we make him a King But in the last three we begg our Bread our Salvation our Security We desire him to give us a Staff to uphold us to remove a Thorn that pricks us and to spread his Providence like a rich canopy over our tabernacle to protect us But yet so as that God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all in all not only Holy in his Name and mighty in his Kingdom and Powerful in his Will but also glorious in giving us Bread glorious in forgiving our sins and glorious in our victory over Satan And as God hath a share in the three last so are we not excluded the three first For when we pray that his Name may be hallowed we do not put up a bare wish and desire that it may be so sed ut sanctum habeatur à nobis saith Augustine that we may sanctifie it For whether we pray or no Gods Name is holy his Kingdom is everlasting and he doth whatsoever he will in heaven and in earth Nor do we pray that he will do all this without us but that he will supply us with those means and helps by which we may do it our selves So that when we pray that his Name may be hallowed our desire is that we may hallow it I will therefore draw and confine my Discourse within the bounds of these three propositions I. That in all our petitions we must propose the Glory of God as our chiefest end II. That we must prefer Spiritual things before Temporal III. That it is not enough to pray for blessings and against evils unless we be careful and industrious to procure the one and to avoid the other For if we pray that Gods Name may be hallowed and do not seriously strive to sanctifie it our selves we put up rather a faint wish than a devout prayer and rather mock God than worship him Of these plainly and briefly What the Philospher requires of his Moral man is most necessary in the works of Piety and Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We must propose a right End Non agitur officium nisi intendatur finis I stir not in my Duty if this move me no● and I faint and sink under my Duty if this confirm not the motion Gemina virtus in Christiano intentio actio saith St. Ambrose There is a double virtue in a very Christian to intend a right end and to do what he intends The Eye cannot say to the Hand I have no need of thee nor the Hand to the Eye I have no need of thee but the Eye directs the Hand and the Hand followeth the Eye Intention regulates the whole work of my Devotion Most certain it is Every man when he prays proposes some end for his end is that he may obtain We desire that Gods Name may be sanctified that we may be holy We desire Holiness that we may see God We desire to see God that we may be happy Sanctity it self is an end and the Reward is an end Nor do we exclude these ends as unfit to be lookt upon It is lawful for us to make the Reward as a Napkin to wipe off the sweat of our brows and to comfort our Devotion with Hope But the finis architectonicus the principal end must be the glory of God All other ends are wrapt within this as a wheel within a wheel and a sphere within a sphere but the Glory of God is the first compassing wheel prima sphera still on the top and setteth all on moving And here our Devotion is in its regular motion when it moves about not by the sight of some good on our selves or the expectation of reward but propter Deum ex charitate propter se amatum as the Schools speak by the contemplation of God whom we love for himself and when it proceeds from a Love like to the Love of God Whose actions are right in themselves although he propose no other end but the Actions Whose very Glory is the good of his creature We read in our books of a woman who went about the City Prolamais with a vessel of water in one hand and fire in the other sometimes looking up to heaven and anon casting her eyes upon the ground And being askt by a Dominican what she did with those two so contrary elements in her hands she replyed streight Cuperem hoc foco Paradisum incendere hac undâ restinguere flammas gehennae I would saith she if I could with this fire burn down the celestial Paradise and with this water quench the fire of Hell that neither might be I cannot but rank this action of hers if it be true amongst those which phrensie produces But the reason which she gave is a measured and positive truth in Divinity That we must cheerfully endeavor to hallow Gods Name and advance his Kingdom and fulfill his Will if there were neither heaven nor hell neither reward to allure us to holiness nor punishment to fright us from impiety All we do should be the issue of our Love to God who loved us so that for no hope of reward or addition of glory he was even turned into love and gave us himself He that loves God perfectly cannot but neglect himself and perish and be Lost to himself but he riseth again and is found first in God whilst he thinks nothing but of him and then whilst he thinks that he is loved of him and lives in him whilst he is thus lost Could we raise our Devotion to this pitch it were indeed in its proper Zenith But our Prayers for the most part are blemisht with some partialities and by-respects and our selves are more respected in them than God If they be petitory we request some good for our selves if eucharistical we give thanks for some good we have received if deprecatory we request to be preserved from some evil Still our selves have the chiefest part and our Prayers are like the Parthean horsemen which ride one way but look another They seem to go towards God but indeed reflect upon our selves And how many of us would fall down before God if we did not stand in need of him And this may be the reason why many times our Prayers are sent forth like the Raven out of Noahs Ark and never return But when we make the Glory of God the chief end of our Devotion

beat down our body and wage war with our appetite We may say of the Law of Moses as St. Paul speaks of the yearly sacrifices It did not make the commers thereunto Hebr. 10. 8. perfect but left behind it still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conscience of sins not only ex parte reatûs a conscience which did testifie that they had sinned and affright them with the guilt but ex parte vindictae a conscience which not only questioned their sins but there attonement also Therefore Chrysostome on that place will tell us In that the Jews did offer sacrifice it seemeth they had a conscience that accused them of sin but that they did it continually argued they had a conscience which accused their sacrifice of Imperfection The Law of Faith which is the fundamental Law of the Gospel is expunctor legis totius retro vetustatis blots out these Laws and whatever Antiquity did write down as a Law in her tables Quicquid retrò fuit aut demutatum est ut circumcisio aut suppletum ut lex reliqua aut impletum ut prophetia aut perfectum ut fides ipsa Whatsoever was in times past was either changed as Circumcision or supplyed as the rest of the Law or fulfilled as Prophesies or made perfect as Faith it self I should detein you too long in this argument should I draw a comparison between each particular constitution By the very nature and quality of the Laws you may easily descry a main difference between these Kingdoms The Laws of Christ are unchangeable and eternal but all humane constitutions are temporary and mutable Those which are written in the Body of the Law by the Civilians are called LEGES PERPETUAE Laws unchangeable but after Ages have seen the countenance of some altered and others quite rased out Legum medelae pro temporum moribus pro rerumpubl generibus pro utilitatum presentium rationibus mutari solent flecti nec uno statu consistere sed ut coeli facies maris ita rerum fortunae tempestatibus variari But the Laws of the heavenly Kingdome are eternal written in our souls by the King of Souls from the beginning The second head wherein the difference of this Kingdome from others is seen is the Power of it which is extended not to the body alone but to the soul also Other Kings may lay the whip on the back but this rips-up the very bowels other Kings may kill the body but this can cast both body and soul into hell Many times it is wisdom in Kings not to punish because of the multitude or power of offenders Nescio saith an heathen man in the Historian an suasurus fuerim omittere potiùs praevalida adulta vitia quam hoc assequi ut palam fiat quibus vitiis impares simus Sins many times do reign amongst men and spread themselves so far and wide that no strength of the Magistrate is able to supress them and therefore many times it is our best wisdom to let such sins alone lest by going about to amend them we betray our weakness and shew that the Law it self may have a bridle put into her mouth that offenders may ride her as they please It is not so in this Kingdom God can never be out-braved by any sin be it never so universal Be the offenders never such Giants never so many he is able to chain and fetter them even with a word He that sits on the throne and he that grinds at the mill to him are all one And as a thousand years with him are but as one day so a thousand a million a whole world of men with him are but as one man And when he shall sit to do judgment upon sinners all the world shall have before him but one neck and he can strike it off at a blow When I mentioned the power and virtue of this Kingdome you might expect perhaps that I should have said something of the power and efficacy of Grace because this Kingdome is called the Kingdome of Grace And indeed herein is a difference between this Kingdome and others Magistrates promulge laws threaten bind the tongue and hand but have no influence nor operation on the hearts and wills of men But in this our spiritual Kingdome the King doth not only command but gives us his helping hand that we may perform his command Et quomodo fulgur nubes disrumpit as Cyprian speaketh as lightning suddenly breaketh through the cloud and at once enlightens and amazes the world so the coruscation and splendor of Gods Grace doth at once illuminate and dull the eye of our understanding Nescio quomodo tangimur tangi nos sentimus we are toucht with this sudden flash we know not how and we feel that we are toucht but it is not easie to discern how Non deprehendes quemadmodum aut quando tibi prosit profuisse deprehendes That the power of Gods Grace hath wrought you shall find but the secret and retired passages by which it wrought are impossible to be reduced to demonstration We must confess that by nature we are blind and Grace is the eye by which we see we are lame and Grace is the staff by which we walk we are dead and Grace is the breath by which we live As man upon earth is composed of Body and Soul so in respect of this Kingdome he admits of a new composition of Man and the Spirit of Grace But we must remember it is a Kingdome we speak of and Christ is a King not a Tyrant Now the Philosopher will tell us Rex imperat volentibus tyrannus nolentibus That in this a King and a Tyrant differ that the one ruleth his subjects with that wisdom and temper that they are willing to obey the other makes them obey whether they will or no. Beloved Christ is a King in this respect He will not rule us against our will Nemo se ab invito coli vult No man will take a gift from an unwilling hand And dost thou look that the King of heaven and earth should force thee to allegiance Some have made it an observation That before Christs resurrection he was obeyed by those that served him against their will and so was served but to halves but under the Gospel he gathers unto him populum spontaneum a willing people that still be ready to do his will All this is from Grace thou wilt say It is true But not of Grace so working as to force the Will For as God is powerful and can do all things so is he wise too and sweetly disposes all things accomplishing his will by those means he in his eternal wisdom knoweth to be best using his power as a King but not violence as a Tyrant Wilt thou then sit still and not set thy hand to work upon a phansie that God doth not send thee grace Wilt thou not hearken to the voice of thy King speaking within God unless he

their faith quos in magnis aeternae beatitudinis constituet exemplis whom he means to place amongst the few but great examples of eternal happiness Semper diem observant cum semper ignorant quotidie timeant quod quotidie sperant saith Tertullian in that excellent Book of his De Anima For whilst men are alwayes ignorant they are also alwayes observant and fear that may come this minute which they hope and are assured will come at last Lastly this ADVENIAT as it is the language of our Hope and Faith so is it the dialect olso of our Charity and Love both to God and our Brethren Thy Kingdome come Why certainly it will come Certus esto veniet Nec solum veniet sed etsi nolis veniet saith St. Augustine You may be sure it will come nay it will come whether we will or no Our prayers perchance may hasten it but no power in heaven or in earth or in hell can keep it back But this ADVENIAT this prayer of ours that it may come is a kind of subscription to the eternal decree of God that it should come By this we testifie our consent shew our agreement and make it appear that we are truly his subjects since we would have that which our King would have and are of the same mind with him We usually say that they who are true friends have idem Velle idem Nolle will and nill the self-same things It is said of Abraham that he was the friend of God And not only Abraham 2 Chron. 20. 7. Isa 41. 8. James 2. 23. but every true son of Abraham that feareth the Lord doth also inherit Abrahams title and is the friend of God If therefore we will be counted Abrahams Children and the Friends of God we must will and nill the same things with God or else we shall not continue long friends Non pareo Deo sed assentior ex animo illum non quia necesse est sequor saith the heathen Seneca We do not so much obey God because he hath authority to command as because we acknowledge that what he will have is just and good and we assent to him not of necessity but of a willing mind We intreat him to do his will and begg it at his hand as a great favour We cry unto him ADVENIAT Thy Kingdome come though we know that he is already resolved that it shall come And so in this one word ADVENIAT we may see the motion of our Faith the activity of our Hope and the humble plyability of our Love And thus we may totâ fidei substantiâ incidere as Tertullian speaketh we may with these three go forth to meet the King as with the wh●le armour and substance of our faith Now our Desire must needs be carried on ●n a swift and eager course where these three do fill the sails where Faith awakes it Hope spurs it on and Love upholds and countenances it It must needs be more than an ordinary heat of affection which is kindled by all these These three will set ADVENIAT to the highest pinn to the highest elevation of our thoughts Let thy Kingdome come yet not till the appointed time yet let it come Though many thousands of years are to pass over before it come yet let it come not now but when thou wilt and when thou wilt yet now It cannot come soon enough if thou wilt and if thou wilt not now it cannot come too late It was a famous saying of Martyn Luther Homo perfectè credens se esse haeredem filium Dei non diu superstes maneret Did a man perfectly believe that he were a child of God heir of this Kingdome of Glory he would be transported beyond himself and dye of immoderate joy We read EXSPECTATIO MEA APUD Psal 39. 7. TE My hope is even in thee but the Vulgar renders it SUBSTANTIA MEA APUD TE My substance my being is in thee as if David were composed and made up and elemented of his Hope as if all that he had all that he was were only in expectation And indeed they who affect a future life and look forward towards eternity are truly said nè tunc quidem tùm vivunt vivere not to be where they are not to live when they are alive To conclude No wonder to hear an ADVENIAT for a Christians mouth who lives so as if he thought of nothing else but the Comming of this Kingdome For this ADVENIAT is as a spark from that fire as a beam of that Glory which shall be hereafter Nor can he ever with a perfect desire sound an ADVENIAT who hath not some imperfect knowledge of the melody of the Angels and the musick of the Cherubims He cannot say Thy Kingdome come who hath not a glimpse of that glory which is to come The Philosophers tell us that there is nothing which can be nourishing to our bodies but we have a kind of fore-taste and assay of it in our very tempers and constitutions The Child when he is hungry desires milk because he hath a kind of praegustation of milk in his very nature Nihil penitus incongruum appetitur Nothing is desired by us which disagrees with our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and disposition The wickedst Christian living may say his PATER NOSTER but he cannot pronounce the ADVENIAT with that accent and emphasis and heartiness that he should Thy Kingdome come Nay rather let mountains fall on me and hills cover me And all this because the Glory of Gods Kingdome is against his very nature What taste can he have of the Water of life who is in the gall of bitterness What relish can he have of the Bread of life who surfets on the world Or can he have any praegustation of Heaven whose very soul by covetousness is become as earthy as his body Can he desire eternal Glory whose glory is in his shame No Vita Christiani sanctum desiderium The life of a true Christian is nothing else but a holy desire and an expectation of the comming of this Kingdome of Christ Which he hath a taste and relish of even in his very temper and constitution which he received at his regeneration For so St. Paul calleth our regeneration and amendment of life a taste of the heavenly gift of the good word of God and of the Hebr. 6. 4 5. powers of the world to come For as God commanded Moses before he dyed to ascend up into the mountain that he might see afar off and discover that good land which he had promised So it is his pleasure that through holy conversation and newness of life we should raise our selves above the rest of the world and even in this life time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzene speaks as from an exceeding high mountain discover and have some sight of that good Land of that Crown of glory which is laid up for all those who watch and wait for

the Comming of this Kingdome The Four and Thirtieth SERMON PART I. MATTH VI. 10. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven THIS is the last Petition of those three which look up directly unto heaven upon the very face of God without any reflexion upon the earth or the temporary blessings of this present life Which as they are terminated in the glory of God and our spiritual good so they carry with them that nearness and affinity to each other that it is not easie to distinguish them And most men in their discourses although they tell us that they are three as they are indeed yet in their illustrations and amplifications before they wind up their discourse in effect do make them but one and the very same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle Some things there are of that nature and which bear such resemblance one to the other that it is not easie to distinguish them especially Moral and Theological Duties as they are level'd to one end so are they linkt as it were in one and the same chain that you cannot touch upon one but you must also glance upon the rest and move them all The Sanctification of Gods Name is annexed to his Kingdome and the fairest part of his Kingdome as it is said to come to us is the fulfilling of his Will He that hallows Gods Name doth advance his Kingdome and he that advanceth his Kingdome doth fulfill his Will and this last seems to conclude and comprehend both the other And this we heretofore told you was true in sensu quem faciunt in that sense which every one of these Petitions will bear but in sensu quem fiunt in that sense in which our Saviour spake and taught them they must necessarily have their proper bounds and limits And thus you may remember we did confine the first Petition Hallowed be thy Name to our words and writings and outward gestures and deportment by which we do most expresly and visibly honor God and hallow his Name as it were before the Sun and the People The second Thy Kingdome come to the preaching and promulgation of the Gospel of which when himself speaks he tells us The kingdome of heaven is at hand as also to the Heart of man which is to receive it when it is promulged which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the House of God in which he delights to dwell and his Throne in which he sits And take this interpretation from Christs own blessed lips The Kingdome of God Luke 17. 21. is within you The last of which we are now to speak not only to our outward Obedience to our actions and works of Piety by which we do facere voluntatem Dei do what God would have us but also to a general Submission and conformity of our wills to his in all things by doing what he commands and by suffering with all humility what he doth Whither his countenance shine or he clothe himself with judgment whether he speaks peace or thunder from heaven whether he lift us up or cast us down the language of every Christian must be Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven This Petition points out to us Rem Modum first the Thing it self we must pray for and that is That Gods will may be fulfilled by us in all things and secondly the Manner how this must be accomplisht in earth as it is in heaven We begin with the Petition In the unfolding of which we shall pass by these lines First we will consider the Petition in a generality and therein the weight and energy of the words Secondly we will lay open the sense of the words by shewing what is meant by the Will of God Lastly we will draw forth some few conclusions which naturally issue from the consideration of the Will of God as from a rich fountain and may lead us at once to the full understanding of the Petition and be useful for our instruction Of these in their order And first of all this Petition follows the other in a right order and method For he that desires that the Kingdome of heaven should come must make it his petition also that he may lay hold on the means which must draw it near unto him Qui vult finem vult media ad finem saith the Philosopher Naturally our desires are thus carried First we behold the mark the Kingdome of heaven and then we press forward and reach forth unto it by doing the Will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle The end in this respect is the beginning and as the first wheel which sets all the rest a going As we can never set our hands to work and do Gods will unless we have some sight of a Kingdome that is comming so this Kingdome will never come unless we do his Will I will not stand to determine on which our affections should be carried with most eager violence whether on the Means or on the End whether on the Kingdome or fulfilling of Gods will For I take it to be a question not so necessary because we know not how to divide the Desire where it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wound up to the highest pinn And God out of the love he hath unto our good is willing to apply himself to our infirmity and so that we do his will accepts of our conformity though it be wrought out of us by a greater love we have unto the End which is full of beauty and glory to allure then to the Means which carry with them pain and difficulty to dull and slugg the affection Only we must be careful to avoid that strange 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that want of method and order which is common in the world to be ravisht with the beauty of Gods Kingdome and never busie our thoughts with the performance of his will that we do not dimidiare Christum receive Christ by halves receive him with a reward but not with precepts cry out Thy Kingdome come with a loud voice and a fervent affection clarè ut audiat hospes that all the world may hear us but Thy will be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 between the teeth burying it in such a lazy silence that none can take notice of us that we look with any great affection towards it We may desire Glory but not without Grace and Gods Kingdome but not without a FIAT not unless we do his will Simplicius in his Comments upon Aristotle moves a question Whether youth in reading of Aristotles Book● should begin with his Logick where he teacheth to dispute and reason or with his Morals where he teacheth to live honestly If they begin with Logick without Morals they will prove but wrangling Sophisters and if they begin with Morals without Logick they will prove but confused The question may be soon resolved in that particular But in the study of Christianity there can no such doubt be raised Our

method is plain and easie drawn out before our eyes by the hand of Christ himself Thy Kingdome come is the very language and dialect of a Christian But if his FIAT be not as loud and vocal as his ADVENIAT if we are as high as Gods closet when we should be busie at his foot-stool if we have Predestination at heart but will not learn that conformity to Gods Will which should write our names in the book of life we are not perfect methodists in Christs School and leave the best part of our Pater Noster unlearnt And though we cry aloud he will not hear us in the one who are unwilling to be heard in the other An ADVENIAT with a FIAT is the greatest soloecisme in Christianity And herein consists the excellency of this Form It points out unto us the best and the hardest part of Christianity We may well call it Summam summarum the very Sum and Abridgment of all Divinity Magnae beatae interpretationis est saith Tertullian quantum substringitur verbis tantum diffunditur sensibus When we have made our prayers as long as that of Solomon at the dedication of the Temple when we have reckoned up all particulars which our phansies can suggest the sum of all is or must be this Lord grant us these things if it be thy will if not thy will be done Again when we have spent our age in controversie when we have tyred our selves in spinetis scholasticorum in the intricate discourses of the Schools when we have searcht the Counsels turned over the Fathers after much study and weariness of the flesh the conclusion of the whole matter saith Solomon is this To fear God and keep his commandments which in brief is but this To do his will I call it the hardest part of Christianity but do not make the Difficulty an argument of its Excellency as Bellarmine doth of the necessity of Confession but rather in respect of that other part the Knowledge of his Will It passeth as a common proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That those things which are excellent in their use are hard in the atchievement but it holds in Evil things also Covetousness is not therefore a virtue because it sorts not with the humor of the Prodigal nor is Prodigality to be commended because the Miser hates it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil All things both good and bad in this do pariate that they are not bought but with difficulty and danger And therefore though Confession be of singular use in the Church of Christ yet this argument doth not make it good that it is so Nor will I here make it mine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basil spake in the point of Repentance I speak with some fear when I call this the hardest part of Christianity although it is most manifest that it is so For this name of Difficulty in the duties of our life is a very monster a Medusa that turns us into stones leaves us without life or action But though I do not make the Difficulty of the duty an argument of the Excellency of the prayer yet I do account it a strong incitement to us not to spend all our dayes in that part which is so easie the Knowledge of Gods will and reserve no other time for the doing of his will which is far more difficult but that in which we can do nothing Non per difficiles nos Deus ad beatam vitam quaestiones vocat God doth not lead us to this Kingdome by knotty disputations or by questions which are hard to be resolved but by the doing of his will He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God He hath shewed it and who is there Mic. 6. 8. that cannot run and read it How easie is it to believe The world we see talks of nothing else but Faith Who knows not the commandments The very heathen Orator will tell us Brevis est institutio vitae honestae beataeque That we may quickly learn those precepts which will lead us to that integrity which will make us happy And this consideration struck him with amazement Mirum est malos esse tam multos that there were so many evil men in the world Nam at aqua piscibus circumfusus nobis spiritus volucribus convenit saith he For Goodness is as natural to Man as the Water to Fishes and the Ayr to Birds And more easily it is certainly for Man secundam naturam quàm contrà eam vivere to live according to the dictates of Nature than against them You will think perhaps you hear Pelagius speak but it is Quintilian an Heathen and so the speech concerns not us who are Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Justin Martyr To live according to the direction of Nature belongs to them who do not yet believe in Christ Our task is greater though for the m●st part we fall short of this And the reason is given by the Stoick Scholae non vitae discimus Our ambition is to know rather than to do We have turned the FIAT into COGNOSCATUR as if our duty were rather to conform our selves to Gods Omniscience than to his Will Now one question is on foot anon another is startled and we fight it out with great heat of contention Par pari refertur invicem nobis videmur insanire We are froward with the froward and answer reproach with reproach And ask both their opinions of one another and both are mad I do not speak this as if it were an offense to defend the truth No I rather count it a part of our conformity to Gods Will. But I am jealous of the FIAT And we may justly fear that when men spend so many hours in the discussion of that which is not absolutely necessary they steal some few from the practice of that truth which is essential Whilst they stay so long upon the COGNOSCATUR they faint and weary in the FIAT As the Painter who having spent his best skill on Neptune failed in setting forth the majesty of Jupiter I am willing to attribute what I can to Knowledge but methinks I see an Emphasis in the FIAT We may pray that we may know but above all that we may do Gods Will. And now in the second place we may conceive the weight of this Petition in that it suits best with the Majesty and Greatness of God We have indeed many words and forms of speech by which we express his Majesty as when we say he is above all and through all and in us all that of him and Ephes 4. 6. Rom. 11. 36. Jer. 23. 24. through him and to him are all things that he filleth heaven and earth and the like But there is none that doth more effectually open it then when we attribute most unto his Will For as it is

all his will This was an office for the Son for Christ himself ●●lly to declare and publish his last Will and to teach us to subscribe to it with our bloud with a FIAT VOLUNTAS TUA If I must deny my self if I must be torn on the rack if I must through many afflictions enter into thy Kingdome FIAT Thy will be done The Five and Thirtieth SERMON PART II. MATTH VI. 10. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven IT may be perhaps expected that I should frame some Apologie this day for my absence the last But indeed I was never over-much in love with Apologies in this kind and therefore first I may say with Seneca Si noluero quis coacturus est If I will not who can compel me Secondly I have already rendred my reason and it was accepted there where it was especially due From others who love ire in opus alienum to be over-busie in other mens matters and who are least pleased with the greatest diligence I expect but thus much that they will give me leave not to be troubled much with what they think or say who give them full liberty to think and say what they please Abundat sibi locuples testis conscientia saith St. Ambrose It is not much material what foul weather is abroad when all is quiet at home and when the Conscience hath received no wound all the censures of the world are but noise which can shake none but those who are vilissima popularis aurae mancipia who walk along in the strength of that applause which Ignorance breaths forth and when that wind ceaseth are on the ground I will mis-spend therefore no more time in an unnecessary Apologie for that fault of omission which borrowed nothing from my will but I proceed to shew what conformity we owe to Gods Will in its several kinds either as Absolute or as Natural and Antecedent or as Consequent and Occasioned or as barely Permissive or lastly to that Will of his which we call voluntatem praecepti his Law and Command And so having said something of them in several we will draw up all at last in this one conclusion That every Christian who will truly say this petition Thy will be done must bring with him an heart that will yield ready obedience to do whatsoever God commands and a chearful patience to suffer what his hand shall lay upon him And first for Gods Absolute Will by which he created the world and doth what he pleaseth both in heaven and earth common Reason will teach us that this Will of his will be fulfilled whether we pray or no. For who hath resisted his will And if he shut up or cut off or gather together who Job 11. 10. can hinder him saith Zophar Prayer and intreaty are then used when without prayer and intreaty we cannot prevail But this Will of God shall take effect whether we set-to our FIAT or no. He giveth snow like wooll and scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes He casteth forth his ice like morsels He causeth his wind to blow and the waters flow And what he Psal 46. will do he doth Nor can all the prayers of the world draw him from action or help him in his work Yet notwithstanding we may say FIAT Thy will be done to testifie our consent and conformity to his Will We must idem velle et idem nolle will and nill the self-same things with God that so we may be his friends Non pareo Deo sed assentior ex animo illum non quia necesse est sequor saith Seneca Obedience may be constrained and therefore we must not only obey God because Necessity forceth us but we must with joy and readiness intreat him to do his will and even begg it at his hand as a favour Now this our conformity to Gods Absolute will quot ramos porrigit quot venas diffundit it hath many branches and veins by which it spreads and conveighs and manifests it self It is seen in our Admiration of his infinite power and of those his works which no hand but that of Omnipotencie could produce For though Augustine somewhere calls Admiration a vice yet he retracts it lib. 1. Retract c. 3. And certainly it is a good argument of our assent unto Gods Will when the contemplation of his works transports us beyond our selves strikes us into a kind of silence and leaves that deep impression in our souls that no finite power could compass them and forceth us to subscribe after the ancient form Donum factum That whatsoever God doth is well done and withal to confess that he is ita magnus in magnis ut minor non sit in minimis that as his hand is great in the greatest works so is it no less great and mighty in the least and that his Power which hath made so many things unlike one to the other yet in all these is still like it self and perfect and absolute in every one To question with Hermogenes and the Materiarii Whether the world were made of praeexistent matter with others Whether it were coaeternal with God with the Gnosticks Whether it were made by God or by his Angels to quarrel with the Creation with Alfonsus King of Arragon who was perswaded he could have made and ordered the world better than it is to ask whether God might not have made more worlds are bad symptomes and prognosticks of a profane heart evaporations of sick and loathsome brains doubts of men unwilling to subscribe and who have not wrought their will to that conformity which they owe to the Absolute Will of God Secondly this our assent is seen in our songs of Thanksgiving Great is the Lord and most worthy to be praised and again Who can speak the greatness of the Lord or shew forth all his praises are fair commentaries upon this Petition He that magnifieth Gods name for that which he hath done he which rejoyceth and triumpheth in every work of God who can find matter for a Jubilee not only in the Sun and Moon and Stars but in the Lilies of the field and in every herb that groweth there hath set-to his seal and approbation and saith his PATER NOSTER not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the lips outward but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from his very soul God 's works are made whether we will or no whether we pray or no And for us they were thus made And our Magnificats our Jubilees and our Gratitude are our FIAT and plainly speak our conformity to Gods Will. A sullen silence and a lazy ingratitude scatter our prayers before the wind and make it too plain and evident that we are not willing that God should do what he will Again our conformity to this his Absolute Will dwells as it were and takes up its residence in a heart which frequently meditates in the works of God For Meditation is that hand-maid which follows God at a distance in all

off that yoke which Custome hath put on but I cannot conceive how it should reign ad necessitatem so to necessitate our damnation as to take off that last comfort we are capable of which is hope The Church when she strikes the sinner with the spiritual sword of Excommunication doth not with that blow cut off Hope Vulnus non hominem secat secat ut sanet She strikes rather at the wound which is already made than at the man to wound him deeper She strikes him to heal him Delivers him to Satan to deliver him from Satan She shuts him out to keep him in Abstention Pulsion Exclusion Exauctoration Ejection Ejeration all these phansies we find in the ancients for Excommunication yet all these are not of so malignant power as to shrivel up all our Hope but rather they beget a hope that the excommunicated person will run back to the bosome of that Church which did therefore cast him out that she might receive him again more fair and healthful than before Did Love dwell in us continually we should not be so willing to hear nor so ready to talk of the everlasting destruction of our brethren Malo non credere sit falsum omne quod sanguinis est as St. Hierome spake in another case We should rather not believe that it were so and wish it false though it were most probably true It hath been therefore the practise of the ancient Church and it is in present use with our own to pray for all Jews Turks Infidels and Hereticks for all those to whose blindness the light of the Gospel is not yet known that they may be drawn out of the darkness of ignorance and be converted and see the beauty of that truth which may save them even to those whose damnation sleepeth not For this is most agreeable to that Will of God which is known and which is therefore known that it may be the rule of our actions Nor do we herein offend against that secret Will of his For most true it is that we may bonâ voluntate velle quae Deus non vult saith St. Augustine will and with a very good will those things which God will not And our prayers thus sent up though they prevail not in that against which God hath secretly determined yet shall prevail to draw down a blessing upon our heads for thus conforming our selves to Gods Natural and Known Will And this leads us one step further to the consideration of God's Occasioned and Consequent Will by which he punisheth those that obstinately continue in sin And to this Will of his we are bound to conform although for the reasons but now alledged we are not bound to pray that all unrepentant sinners may be damned but rather that they may repent God will proceed to punishment He hath whet his sword and he will make it drunk in the bloud of his enemies whether we pray that he will do it or not To this Will of his they who have made themselves the children of perdition must conform even against their will And our conformity consists but in this to rest contented herewithal and to admire Gods uncontroulable Justice which no Covetousness can bribe no Power affright no Riches corrupt no Fear bend and to cry out with the Father O quanta est subtilitas judiciorum Dei O quàm districtè agitur bonorum malorumque retributio O the infinite wisdome of the judgments of the Lord O how exactly and precisely will he reward the good and punish the impenitent sinner Every thing that God will do is not a fit object for our devotion nor are we bound to pray for every thing that he will do Nay in some cases as it hath been shewed we may pray against it God may perhaps purpose the death of my father For me to will the same is no less sin than Parracide God upon fore-knowledge of Judas his transgression did determine that Judas should go to his own place but Judas was not bound to will the same No his greatest sin was that he so behaved himself as if he had willed it indeed In a word I am not bound to say FIAT to all that God will do but when he hath done it to sit down and build my patience upon this consideration That whatsoever he will do or hath done must needs be just Absolutio difficultatum in his ipsis requirenda est è quibus videtur exsistere saith Hilary We must see the resolution of doubts which may hence arise even from that which raised them or from whence they were occasioned And we cannot be at any loss in our conformity if we do not first mistake that Will of God to which we should conform The Schoolmen who are very apt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make ropes of sand or rather with little children to blow-up those bubbles which are lost in the making amongst many other empty and unnecessary questions have started up this as of some bulk and substance when indeed it is but very airy They ask Whether if God should reveal to a particular person that he should be damned he were bound to conform his will and give assent and not pray against it A vain speculation like that of Buridans Ass which stood between two bottles of hey and starved because he knew not which to chuse Men may suppose what they please the Heavens to stand still and the Earth to move and wheel about as Copernicus did They may suppose that God will send his Angel with a revelation who would not send Lazarus with a message to Dives his brethren But let me also suppose that men are wise unto sobriety and then I will move one question more and that is What reason possibly they can imagine to move this doubt God doth not send any such revelation We have Moses and the Prophets we have the Gospel of Christ If we look for any revelation we must find it there There as in a glass we may see either the regularity or deformity of our wills There we may hear that voice which speaks comfort to the penitent and denounceth vengeance on obstinate offenders Nolo ut mihi Deus mittat Angelos saith Martin Luther I would not that God should send down his Angel with a revelation For he that brings any revelation to me which is not in Scripture shall find no more credit than the Puck in the Church-yard And if it be in Scripture the message though of an Angel is but superfluous Suppose God will do that which he never will and you may raise as many doubts and questions as you please Again if God did reveal it yet it might be lawful nay thou art commanded to pray against it God revealed to David that the child which was born to him in adultery should surely dye yet David besought God for the child and fasted and lay all night upon the earth And his reason is Who can tell whether God will be 2 Sam. 12.

the Writers before him that he brought Nature it self and all Arts and Sciences into a certain order and method Though men pursue knowledge with all eagerness and heat of inquisition yet if they begin where they should end they will be alwaies beginning and never end they will but operose nihil agere take a great deal of pains to be no wiser than they were And though they strive forwards and pace over much ground yet will they be farther off from their wished end then when they made the first onset Therefore what Vitruvius requireth in Architecture is necessary in every work we undertake especially in our Prayers that there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 order and disposition There must be nothing in our Devotion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ill disposed or ill placed For as the devout Schoolman telleth us that to incline too much to the sway of Sensuality and neglect the direction of Reason tam sensualitatem quàm rationem extinguit so also in our Devotion and Orizons if we place them on temporal things and not spiritual or on temporal before spiritual they never reach the mark but fall short of both they neither fill our hands with plenty nor our souls with that spiritual Manna If we prefer Mammon before God we may expect to have leanness enter into our very souls and to be punisht not only with a famine of bread but of the Word of God also The excellency of this method appeareth from the vast distance not only between the Body and the Soul but also between that bread that perisheth and that which nourisheth us unto everlasting life This latter is that which alone can satisfie that infinite appetite which God hath placed in the soul of man This is favourable to us and benevolent this admitteth at once satiety and desire this worketh no loathing For here is the difference between temporal and spiritual blessings The one when we have them not kindle a desire in us and being enjoyed quench that desire with loathsomness But the other are never loath'd but when we have them not when we have them we more desire them The more we feed the more we are a hungry and yet when we are most hungry we are full and satisfied In illis appetitus placet experientia displicet in istis appetitus vilis est experientia magìs placet saith Gregory In temporal matters our appetite pleaseth us but experience is distastful They are hony in the desire but in the tast gravel But unto spiritual things our appetite commonly is sick and queasy but when we chew upon them they are sweeter then the Honey and the Honey-comb They are gall to the appetite but to the tast Manna Much more might be said on this subject but let this suffice at present We proceed now to a particular application of the words of this Petition And every one of them is verbum operativum ful of force and efficacy and hath its weight We ask first for Bread secondly for our bread thirdly our daily bread fourthly we ask it not as a debt but as a gift fifthly and lastly we set a date as it were upon the petition which putteth a period to our care and sollicitude and binds our desires within the narrow compass of a day give it us to day We begin with that which is the subject of our petition Bread which however placed yet in nature is first to be Handled For we must first propose the object and set it up as a mark before we can carry our desires to it First we must know what is meant by Bread or else for bread we may ask a stone And here I find this Bread multiplied not by any miracle but by the activity of mens phansies who have broke it out and distributed it unto us And if we take it from their hands we may fit down and eat and of the very fragments gather more then seven baskets full Some take the word metaphorically others properly Some take Bread in a spiritual sense and that either first for the bread of Righteousness which Christians are to hunger and thirst after or secondly for the bread of the Word which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bread of Angels by virtue of which we walk in the ways of righteousness all the days of our life and are nourisht up to an Angelical estate or thirdly for that Bread which is the WORD even Christ himself which whosoever eateth shall never hunger or fourthly for Sacramental bread which is consecrated and received in the holy Communion which the Fathers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy and hallowed Bread and Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bread of God and Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy nutriment or fifthly and lastly for that bread of eternal Life which we shall then eat when we sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the blessed Saints in the Kingdom of Heaven Quinque panes sunt necessarii quatuor in via quintus in patria There be five manner of loaves very necessary Matth. 8. 11. for us four whilest we travel here in our way and the fifth at our journeys end in our country four in this wilderness of the world and the last in that celestial Canaan our corporal bread to sustein us our Spiritual to inform us our Doctrinal to instruct us our Sacramental to purge and cleanse us and the eternal bread of life which the Father will give us to make us happy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostome used to speak I embrace all Senses For why should not Righteousness be as our daily bread to feed us why should not we with Job put it on to clothe us and make it as a Robe and Diadem Why should not we thirst as the Hart after those waters which are drawn out of the Wells of Salvation Why should we not long for our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Fathers call the holy Eucharist for that holy Bread which is our provision and supply in our way And eternal Life is Hominis optimum saith St. Augustine the best thing that can befall man the very consummation and crown of our desires For every one of these we may solicite the Majesty of heaven and earth and press upon God with a pious impudence and holy importunity DANOBIS PANEM HUNC DOMINE Lord evermore give us of this bread of the Bread of Righteousness of the Bread which thou breakest of the Bread which thou art of the Bread of thy Word and of the Bread of thy Sacrament which are primitiae futuri panis the first-fruits of the Bread of eternal Life which God the Father shall distribute with a full and bountiful hand to all his children in the world to come We reject none of these senses Whether we take it in the metaphor or take it in the letter we do not erre nor will our prayers return empty For if we

dicere nomen and had I not the warrant of so grave and judicious a Divine I should scarcely have dar'd to have taught it in this age of the world where we are taught that we must begin from our selves that we must not tempt God by making our selves destitute of means or other such thriving Doctrines which strongly savour of Love to the World and Distrust in Gods Providence I deny not but that there may be many reasons of mollifying and restraining some Texts but amongst these that must be the least which is drawn from our Commodity For thus to tamper with those Texts which seem to stand in our light and cross us in our way to Riches and Honors gives just cause of suspicion that our hearts are set upon them and that if no hard and fearful command came between we would be nailed to them In respect of our Persons or our Purses to restrain any part of Scripture from that latitude of sense whereof it is naturally capable makes it manifest that we are willing magìs emendare Deos quàm nosipsos rather to correct the Gods nay to conform the word of the true and everliving God to our own humor than to subdue our humor to the word of God and that we are well content to deal with our souls as the Athenians sometimes dealt with their ground When they will not bear good corn to sow leeks and onions there When the Gospel and Christs precepts thwart our corrupt dispositions we learn to make them void with our traditions with our Pharisaical limitations and restrictions And thus much be spoken concerning this word NOSTER and the reasons why this Bread is called Our Bread The Eight and Thirtieth SERMON PART III. MATTH VI. 11. Give us this day our daily Bread WHat is meant by Bread and why it is called Our Bread we have already shewn at large And in this word NOSTER we found a Goad to put in the sides of the Sluggard to awaken him out of his slumber and lethargie and a Chain to fetter the hands of the Deceitful to keep them from picking and stealing from fraud and cousenage and a Spur to our Charity to make us cast our bread upon the waters NOSTER is verbum operativum a word full of efficacie to open the fountain of our Liberality and to set up banks to regulate our desires in the pursuit of wealth We proceed now to enquire in the next place why we are taught to pray for our daily Bread or what is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And here as the streams in which Interpreters run are divers so the fountain is hard to find out Some take the word properly some metaphorically Some render it Supersubstantialem as the Vulgar and so with Tertullian and Cyprian take in Christ who is the Bread of life So that to pray for Bread is perpetuitatem postulare in Christo individuitatem à corpore ejus to desire a perpetuity in Christ and to be united to him for ever Others make it Sacramental Bread Castellio expounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then it is supercaelestial or heavenly Bread by which the Soul is sustein'd to wit the Grace of God by which we overcome and remove all difficulties which stand in our way between us and that happiness which is the mark and the price of the high calling in Jesus Christ Others by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eximium and call it that bread which is singular and peculiar to us Others interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is profitable and fit to nourish us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostom that bread which is turned into the very substance of our bodies Others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Vulgar which in St. Matthew renders it super substantial in St. Luke calls it QUOTIDI ANUM our daily Bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostom used to speak We may embrace all senses For why should not Righteousness be as our daily Bread to feed us Why should we not with joy put it on to clothe us and make it as a robe or a diadem Why should we not thirst for that water which is drawn out of the wells of salvation Why should we not long for our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Fathers call the Eucharist For that holy Bread which is our provision and supply in our way For every one of these we may solicit the Majesty of heaven and earth and press upon God with an holy opportunity Lord evermore give us of this bread of the Bread of Righteousness of the Bread which thou breakest and of the Bread which thou art of the Bread of thy Word and of the Bread of thy Sacrament Which are primitiae futuri panis the first-fruits of the Bread of eternal Life We may embrace all senses For superflua non nocent or as the Civilians speak non solent quae abundant vitiare scripturas these superfluities and superabundancies are not dangerous where every exposition is true though non ad textum not truly fitted to the Text. But that Christ meant not Sacramental Bread is more than evident 1. Because the Sacrament was not yet instituted And it is not probable that our Saviour when he taught his Disciples to pray would speak in parables 2. We do not every day receive the Sacrament but we are taught thus every day to pray Quia quotidiana est oratio quotidiè quoque videtur dici oportere It was so determined in the Fourth Councel of Toledo It is our daily prayer and to be said every day against some Priests in Spain who would say the Lords Prayer only upon the Lords day as we find it in the Ninth Canon of that Councel And as it may be said every day so every hour of the day Which we cannot apply to the Eucharist 3. If we will lay upon the word all senses it will bear without injurie to the truth we need no other form than that one Petition Thy will be done For in that as in a Breviary all that we can pray for is comprised Indeed as Seneca in his Natural Questions speaks of the river Nilus Nilus per septena ostia in mare emittitur quodcunque ex his elegeris mare est Nilus is emptied into the Sea by seven chanels and every one of these is a Sea So here we see this word conveyed unto us by divers interpretations as by so many chanels and every one of these is a sea yielding us abundance of matter And as it is said of that river Ortus mirari non nosse licuit that men with wonder and admiration might search but not find out the fountain-head from whence it sprang So this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not found in any Ethnick writer whatsoever And the formation and etymon is as hard and full of difficulty to find out From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence it is commonly derived it cannot come For if

not that alone which is enough for a day but that which may suffice for many generations may be PANIS QUOTIDIANUS our daily Bread And so at last we have presented you with all that is material in this Petition The Nine and Thirtieth SERMON PART I. MATTH VI. 12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors Or as LUKE XI 4 And forgive us our sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us HAving lifted up our eyes to him that filleth all things living of his good pleasure we here fall down on our knees for mercy and forgiveness before the Father of mercies who is as ready to forgive as to open his hand and as willing to receive us into his bosome and favour as to give us our meat in due season on the earth which is but his foot-stool Having adored his Liberality we beseech his Clemencie And as Tertullian well observes it was most necessary that we should observe this methode For first unless we be heard in this Petition we have no reason to be confident in commencing the other nor to expect that God should feed us as a Father till we be reconciled unto him and called his Sons What man is there which if his son ask him bread will give him a stone saith our Saviour Which implies we must be sons before we put up our petitions For God never denies us without a cause and the cause many times is no other but this that we deny him Was the Lord angry against the Rivers saith the Prophet Habakkuk when he sent a tempest or is he angry with the earth when he sends barrenness Is he angry with our Basket when he fills it not No Peccatum homicida est Sin is the murderer and the thief to spoil and rob us Sin makes the beasts of the field and the stones of the street at enmity with us terram eunucham the heavens as brass and the earth as iron not able to bring forth in due season Sin dislocates and perverts the course of Nature and changeth it saith Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into contrary tempers This puts supernatural aspects upon events which have natural causes If it be a comet it makes it ominous if a cloud that is the cataclysm if a vapor that damps it into a plague This sets up all the creatures in arms against us and makes us like Cain no better then Vagabonds and Runnagates upon the earth REMITTE NOBIS must be put up else DA NOBIS will return empty We must sue out our pardon or else the windows of heaven will not open to rain down Manna upon us Again though our corn and our wine abound for we cannot entail these temporal blessings on the righteous alone yet our Bread will be turn'd into a stone and our Wine will be as bitter as gall nor can they feed our hungry souls sed ipsam esuriem animarum pascere as St. Bernard speaks bring that Leanness into them which is the forerunner of death Blessings we may call them and so they are but till we be reconciled to God they are such blessings as will stop up our way to true happiness and stand as a barricado between us and those everlasting habitations Laqueus in auro viscum in argento saith St. Ambrose There will be a snare in our Gold to entrap us and aviscosity in our Silver to retard us The rust of them shall be as a witness against James 5. 3. us and eat our flesh as it were fire Et quid alimenta proderunt si illis reputamur quasi taurus ad victimam What is Gold to Piety What is Wealth to Grace What is a Palace to Heaven What is our Food and Nourishment if we be fed and fatted only as the Oxe is to be sacrificed What are all the Riches of the world but as the Tyrants ropes of silk and daggers of gold or what use do they serve to but this ut cariùs pereamus that we may tread those paths which lead unto death with more state and pomp than other men do I would have spared this observation although it be a Fathers and one as learned as the best but that the general love to Riches and the things of this Life which now reigns and rageth in the world may raise a jealousie and just suspition that some there are who as they have excluded others and made themselves proprietaries of all and that by no other title than this That they are the children of God so again when they have with Ahab killed and taken possession when they have by unjust means filled their coffers they begin to clap their hands and applaud themselves and to make their being rich an argument that they are good and the beloved of God And though with great zeal they dare call the Pope Antichrist yet they joyn hands with the Papists in this in making Temporal happiness a true note of the Church and counting Poverty a curse and the just punishment of a wicked conversation Indeed ask them their opinion and they will deny it as heretical we may be sure because it hath no shew of reason to commend it But surely even their 's it is For their speech and behaviour bewrayeth them For do they not lye down and sleep on their heaps Do they not batten in their wealth Do they not flatter themselves when such a golden showre falls into their laps and think that it cannot be but God himself is in it And do they not flourish like green olive-trees in the house of the Lord when they have nothing but this dung about them Do they not count them as smitten of God who stay below in the valley and are there content to dwell with Poverty rather than to climb up that ladder and with these seeming Angels to aspire to that height from whence they are in danger to break their necks And this is a dangerous error But there is nothing more easie than thus to erre than to say nay than to think that we are in the favour of God when his Sun doth shine upon our tabernacle to say AVE Hayl to our selves as highly favoured when the world smiles upon us and flatters us and to draw this conclusion from no other premisses than a full Purse and large Possessions So that the Apostles axiome is inverted quite For to these men Godliness is not great Gain but Great Gain is Godliness And therefore that we dash not against this rock let us put up this Petition also in Gods Court of Requests Let us be diligent to make our election sure and not only with Esau lift up our voyce and howl after our Bread after plenty of wheat and wine but with the Publican lift up our hearts and smite them that the sound of a broken heart may go up into the ears of the Almighty and return with this delightful echo REMITTUNTUR PECCATA That our sins are forgiven us For being thus reconciled we

themselves even in his Wisdom Power and Majesty For why did he create the Universe What moved him to make those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those two lights as Nazianzene calls Angels and Man after his own image It was not that he needed the company of Cherubim and Seraphim or had any addition of joy by hearing of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was not that he needed the ministery of Angels or the obedience of Men. But in mercy hath he made them all and his Goodness it was which did communicate it self to his creature to make him capable of happiness and in some degree a partaker of those glories and graces which are essential to him For having made Man he could not but love and favour the work of his own hands Therefore as in mercy he made him so in mercy he made him a Law the observation of which would have assimilated and drawn him neer unto God and at last have brought him to his presence there to live and reign with him for ever And when Man had broken this Law and so forfeited his title to bliss God calls after him not simplici modo interrogatorio sono as Tertullian speaks not in a soft and regardless way or by a gentle and drowsie interrogation Where art thou Adam but impresso incusso imputativo he presseth it home and drives it to the quick not by way of doubt but imputation and commination Adam where art thou that he might know where he was in what state and danger and so confess his sin and make himself capable of Gods mercy which presented and offer'd it self in this imputation and commination and was ready to embrace him Thus his Mercy prevents us It is first as being saith Nazianzene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 natural to him whereas Anger and Hostility to his creature are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quite besides his nature Prior bonitas Dei secundum naturam posterior severitas secundum causam illa edita haec adhibita saith Tertullian Lib. 2. adv Marcion Goodness and Mercy are natural to him Severity forced That is momentany and essential this accidental Mercy follows after us and is more willing to lift us up than we were to fall more willing to destroy Sin than we to commit it more forward to forgive us our sins than we are to put up the Petition REMITTUNTUR TIBI PECCATA Thy sins are forgiven thee is a standing sentence a general proclamation saith Father Latimer to all that will believe and repent The Scripture gives us the dimensions of this Mercy sometimes pointing out to the height of it It reacheth unto heaven sometimes to the depth of it It fetcheth men from the grave and hell it self sometimes to the length of it It hath been ever of old and sometimes to the breadth of it All the ends of the world have seen the salvation of God And all these meet and are at home in this act of Remission of sins Which makes us to understand with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of God which passeth knowledge and fills Eph. 3. 18 19 us with the fulness of God But though the Lord's Mercy be infinite and he be most ready to forgive yet he will not remit our sins unless we repent A lesson never taught in the School of Nature or in the books of the Heathen Quid Cicero quid Seneca de poenitentia What have Tully or Seneca who have written most divinely of other duties and offices of life written of the duty of Repentance Non negamus philosophos juxta nostra sensisse saith Tertullian Many truths Philosophers have delivered of near alliance to those which God himself hath commended to us and in many vertues they may seem to have out-stript the most of Christians But of Repentance they knew no more than this that it was passio quaedam animi veniens de offensa sententiae prioris a certain passion of the mind which checkt men for that which was done amiss and caused them to alter their mind Here all reason and discourse is posed But when the earth was barren and could not yield this seed of Repentance Deus eam sevit God himself sowed it in the world aperuit salutis portam open'd an effectual door of salvation and made it known to all mankind That if men would leave off their sins he would forgive them and accept of true repentance as the only means to wash away the guilt of sin and reconcile the creature to his Maker Now joyn these two together the Mercy of God and his Readiness to forgive and our Repentance which he hath chalkt out unto us as a way to his Mercy and they are a pretious antidote against Despair which so daunts us many times that we are afraid to put up this Petition For Despair is not begot by those sins we have committed but by those which we daily fall into nor so much from want of Faith that God is merciful and true and faithful in all his promises as for want of Hope which hangs down the head when Repentance and Amendment of life yield no juyce nor moisture to nourish it Ask Judas himself and he will tell you there is a God or else he could not despair Ask him again and he will tell you he is true or else he denies him to be God He will tell you of the riches of the glorious mystery of our Redemption and that in Christ remission of sins is promised to all mankind But his perseverance in sin and the horror of his new offences hath weakned and infeebled his hope and forceth him to conclude against himself Ubi emendatio nulla poenitentia nulla Where there is no amendment there is no repentance And though Mercy stand at the door and knock yet if I leave not my sins there must needs follow a weakness and disability so that I shall not be able to let her in But if I forsake my sins the wing of Mercy is ready to shadow me from Despair Et si nudus rediero recipiet Deus quia redii Though I return naked to God he will receive me because I return And if I leave the swine and the husks he will meet me as a Father and bring forth his robe of Mercy to cover me And so I pass from the consideration of Gods Mercies in the Forgiveness of sin to the first particular enquiry What sins they are which we desire may be forgiven And this may seem to be but a needless enquiry For even Nature it self will suggest an answer Men in wants desire a full supply And they who are sick of many diseases do not make it their end to be cured of one malady but to be restored to perfect health In corporibus aegris nihil quod nociturum est medici relinquunt Physicians purge out all ill humors from those bodies which are distemper'd For when one disease is spent another may

stand upright at the great day of tryal Neither did these monsters only blemish this doctrine but it received some stain also from their hands who were its stoutest champions Not to mention Clemens Alexandrinus Theophilus Cyprian Hilary and others St. Augustine that great pillar of the truth and whose memory will be ever pretious in the Church though he often interpret the word Justification for Remission of sins yet being deceived by the likeness of sound in these two words JUSTIFICARE and SANCTIFICARE doth in many places confound them both and make Justification to be nothing else but the making of a man just So in his Book De Spiritu Litera c. 26. interpreting that of the Apostle Being justified freely by his grace he makes this discant Non ait PER LEGEM sed PER GRATIAM He doth not say by the Law but by Grace And he gives his reason Ut sanet gratia voluntatem ut sanata voluntas impleat legem That Grace might cure the Will and the Will being freed might fulfill the Law And in his Book De Spiritu Gratia he saith Spiritus Sanctus diffundit charitatem quâ unâ justi sunt quicunque justi sunt The holy Spirit powers out his love into our hearts by which Love alone they are just whosoever are just And whosoever is but little conversant in that Father shall soon observe that where he deals with the Pelagian he makes the grace of Justification and of Sanctification all one Now that which the Father says is true but ill placed For in every Christian there is required Newness of life and Sanctity of conversation but what is this to Justification and Remission of sins which is no quality inherent in us but the act of God alone As therefore Tully speaks of Romulus who kill'd his brother Peccavit pace vel Quirini vel Romuli dixerim By Romulus his good leave though he were the founder of our Common-wealth he did amiss So with reverence to so worthy and so pious a Saint we may be bold to say of great St. Augustine that if he did not erre yet he hath left those ill weighed speeches behind him which give countenance to those foul mishapen errours which blur and deface that mercy which wipes away our sins For Aquinas in his 1 a 2 ae q. 113. though he grant what he cannot deny because it is a plain Text That Remission of sins is the Not-imputation of sins yet he adds That Gods wrath will not be appeased till Sin be purged out and a new habit of Grace infused into the soul which God doth look upon and respect when he forgives our sins Hence those unsavory tenets of the Romish Church That Justification is not a pronouncing but a making one righteous That inherent holiness is the formal cause of Justification That we may redeem our sins and puchase forgiveness by Fasting Almes-deeds and other good works All which if she do not expose to the world in this very garb and shape yet she so presents them that they seem to speak no less so that her followers are very apt and prompt to come towards them and embrace them even in this shape And although Bellarmine by confounding the term of Justification and distinguishing of a Faith informed with Charity and a Faith which is not and by putting a difference between the works of the Law and those which are done by the power and virtue of the holy Spirit and by allotting no reward but that which is freely promised and promised to those who are in the state of grace and adoption though by granting that the Reward doth far exceed the dignity of our Works he striveth to bring the Church of Rome as near to St. Paul as he can and lays all the colours he hath to make her opinion resemble his yet when he tells us that the Good works of the Saints may truly satisfie the Law of God and merit eternal life when he makes our Satisfaction go hand in hand with Christs and that Fasting and Prayer and Alms are satisfactory not only for punishment but for all punishment and which is more for the guilt it self he hath in effect unsaid what formerly he had laid down concerning the free Remission of our sins and made so wide a breach between St. Paul and their Church as neither St. Peter nor all the Saints they invocate are able to close In a word he speaks as good sense as Theodorus Antiochenus doth in Photius his Bibliotheca who makes a twofold Forgiveness of sins the one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of those things which we have done the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Impeccancie or Leaving off to Sin So that we may say with Photius What this Forgiveness is or from whence it is is impossible to find out No doubt God taketh notice of the graces he hath bestowed on his children and registreth every good work they do and will give an eternal reward not only to the Faith of Abraham the Chastity of Joseph the Patience of Job the Meekness of Moses the Zeal of Phinehas the Devotion of David but even to the Widows two mites cast into the treasury to a cup of cold water given to a thirsty Disciple Yet most true it is that all the righteousness of all the Saints cannot merit forgiveness And we will take no other reason or proof for this position but that of Bellarmins Non acceptat Deus in veram satisfactionem pro peccato nisi justitiam infinitam God must have an infinite satisfaction because the sin is infinite Shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul Shall I bring the merits of one Saint and the supererogations of another and add to these the treasury of the Church All these are but as an atome to the infinite mass of our Sin Shall I yet add my Fasting my Alms my Tears my Devotion All these will vanish at the guilt of Sin and melt before it as wax before the Sun We must therefore disclaim all hope of help from our selves or any or all creatures in earth or in heaven It is only the Lamb of God who taketh John 1. 29. away the sins of the world the Man Christ Jesus is the only Mediatour between 1 Tim. 2. 5. God and Man He alone is our Advocate with the Father and the 1 John 2. 1 2. propitiation for our sins His bloud cleanseth us from all sin In him we have 1 John 1. 7. Eph. 1. 7. Eph. 3. 12. redemption through his bloud the forgiveness of sins In him we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him In his name therefore who taught us thus to pray let us put up this Petition Forgive us our debts and our prayer will be graciously heard and we shall be accepted in the Beloved Eph. 1. 6. all our Debt will be remitted through the merits of our Surety who hath

contemplemur talem se nobis unaquaeque species exhibeat qualem eam cogitando formemus It is natural to the mind of man to put shapes and forms upon things which exhibit that species and representation to it which it self hath already made It may conceive of Gold as of earth and it may conceive of it as of a God It may look upon Beauty as upon a flower that fades and it may consider it as a lasting heaven upon earth It may think of Honour as of that which makes us Gods and it may esteem it but as a bubble which is lost in the making And as we transform things so do they transform us For talis quisque est qualibus delectatur inter artificem artificium mira cognatio Our minds are even fashioned like unto those things which we most delight to converse with and a great correspondence there is between the Work and the Artificer Wheresoever the Workman goes he carries about with him the Idea and Representation of his work along with him Where St. Peter gives us a character of prophane and unclean persons amongst other marks he sets this as one that they have eyes full of adultery but in the Greek it is more significant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full of the Adulteress as if the Wanton carried her about in his very eyes and had alwaies her image before him The Covetous person converses with his Gold as with a God he speaks of it he dreams of it he commits Idolatry with it Si tacet hoc loquitur and when he is silent he talks of it within himself And in this very shape which we have given them in this dress which we have put upon them they deceive us But if we do search into their nature and study them throughly we shall not be deceived by their outward appearance We shall find there is truly and indeed no content from Riches no pleasure from Beauty no horrour from Affliction If we ask them for themselves our Saviour may well return us that answer which once he gave to his disciples Ye know not what you ask The Beauty of women what is it It is but colour and proportion which a light Agne will soon wipe out and which Age will so dissolve that we cannot believe there was ever any What is Honour but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sign and signification of mans good esteem and many times but a bare sign and no more a leg to Haman when we wish him on the gallows a cabinet of air to which every man even the worst man hath a key to open and shut it as he pleases What are the Pleasures of the world Neither true nor lasting and like painted Curtesans as Hierome speaks id solum oftendunt quod placere potest they only lay that open to the eye which may please it We read in St. Hierom of an Heathen who was wont to say to Pope Damasus Facito me Romana urbis Episcopum protinus ero Christianus Make me but Bishop of Rome and I will presently be a Christian We may be sure he knew not well what the Christian was and saw no more of the Bishop than his pomp and outside otherwise he would rather have given a Bishoprick nay sold all that he had that he might have been a Christian What do we undergo what do we attempt at the sight of a temptation What Rhetorick is there in a piece of Gold or in Beauty or in Honour What do they not force us to because we will not look neerere unto them but are so amazed at their first apparition that we can look no further But how vast a difference is there between these things and spiritual and heavenly blessings What is Beauty to Virtue Gold to Grace Honour to Glory Spiritual things in the mouth are bitter but in the belly as sweet as honey They are favourable to us and benevolent and admit at once satiety and desire But earthly things when we have them not kindle in us a desire and being enjoyed quench that desire with loathsomness But the other are never loathed but when we have them not for when we have them we ever desire them more The more we feed the more we are hungry and yet when we are most hungry we are full and satisfied In illis appetitus placet experientia displicet in istis appetitus vilis est experientia magìs placet saith Gregory In the one our Appetite pleaseth us but Experience is distastful They are honey in the desire but in the tast gravel But to the other the Appetite is commonly sick and queasie but when we have chewed them they are sweeter than the honey or the honey-comb they are Gall to the appetite but to the tast Manna The one brings a shew of pleasure but ends in grief the other brings a seeming distast but ends nay never ends but is immortal Et quis tam parvis oblectare animum in vitâ possit si vera cognoverit And who will ever delight himself in those vain and transitory things who hath had a full view of those which are real and eternal Nonne melius est brevi tempore dimicare ferre vallum arma sumere posteà gaudere viotorem quàm impatientiâ unius horae servire perpetuos saith St. Hierome Better fight a while and get a glorious victory than be slaves to sin and Satan for ever Did we thus compare the Devils offers with Gods we should quickly pull-off the visour from Tentations and discover their deformity we should be full of shame and grief for having so long vouchsafed familiarity to such loathsom solicitors Then we should be able to call them all by their names and to say This Beauty is a deceiver This Wine is a mocker This Strumpet is a deep ditch These Riches have wings and will fly away Non obvia occupant Videt aurum scit hoc terrae limum esse videt gemmas meminit esse aut montium aut niaris calculos videt illicem ad lasciviam vultum scit tanquam avibuc coeli ex his sibi laqueis evàdendum saith Hilary A good man is not taken with obvious and ordinary objects He sees gold and know it is but the slime of the earth He beholds pearls and diamonds and knows they are but stones taken from the rocks or sea He sees the bewitching countenance of the wanton and on chast desires and resolutions as on the wings of a Dove he fleeth swiftly away from the snares And thus as I said before Not to yield to Tentations is to overcome them so I say now To know Tentations and to strip them of their disguise and false appearance is the ready way to victory We have prescribed unto you two remedies against Tentations the Knowledge of Our selves and the Knowledge of the Tentation If we knew our selves we would not converse and trade and be so familiar with Tentations as we are And if we knew Tentations

passage for those of the greatest magnitude This is a fallacy saith Aristotle in his Politicks to think that if the particulars be small the sum will be so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great is not small because it consists of many littles The Philosopher tells us Small expenses if frequent overthrow a family And Demosthenes in his fourth Philippick saith that that neglect which endangers a Common-wealth is not seen in particular actions and miscarriages but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the conclusion and event at last Qui legem in minimis contemserit quomodo in magnis tenebit He that contemns the Law in matters of less how will he observe it in matters of greater moment and difficulty He that cannot check a thought how will he bridle his tongue He that will transgress for a morsel of bread what a villain would he be to purchase a Lordship It will be good wisdom therefore as we behold the finger of God and his Omnipotency not only in the heavens the Sun and the Moon and the Stars but in the lesser creatures in the Emmet and in the Plants of the earth so also to discover the Devils craft and policy not only in Murder and Adultery and the like but in an idle Word and a wandring Thought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to punish the very beginnings of Sin and to be afraid of the cloud when it is no bigger than a mans hand These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Devils machinations his treble false doors by which he may slip-out and return again unseen These are devises by which that great Architect of fraud and deceit doth ensnare our souls and lead us captive under Sin These we have made choice of and cull'd out of his quiver not but that he hath many more darts but because these are they which he casts every day against the professors of Christianity and which in these later times have wounded thousands of souls to death And if we can take the whole armor of God and be strong against these we need not fear his other artillery If these snares hold us not it will be easie to keep our feet out of the rest The Seven and Fourtieth SERMON PART VII MATTH VI. 13. But deliver us from evil EVIL our very nature startles at which is of its self inclinable to that which is good and tends to it as to its center and place of rest Therefore these two words Evil and Deliver look mutually one upon the other The glory of our Deliverance layes open to the view the terror of Evil and the smart of Evil makes Deliverance pleasant and delightful Malum nihil aliud est quàm Boni interpretatio saith Lactantius Evil is nothing else but a fair interpretation and a kind of commentary on that which is Good The very words speak as much For EVIL is a word quod cum ictu audimus which we hear with a kind of smart but DELIVERANCE we hear as good news The voice of joy and deliverance are Psal 118. joyned together and are the same This Petition then for Deliverance is legatio ad supernum Regem as the Father speaks a kind of embassage sent to the high and mighty King of heaven from weak and frail and impotent Man who is to live on the earth as in a strange land in the midst of many enemies which will be as pricks in his eyes and thorns in his sides who must converse as a companion with them and every day meet and cope with that which may every day overthrow him to desire aid and succour from Him that is mightier than they that he will send-in his auxiliary troops and forces his Angels to pitch their tents round about him and his Mercies to compass him in on every side that he will abate their forces and arm him with strength that he may stand up against them and not fall or if he fall he may rise again and so through many afflictions through many temptations pass to the Land of Promise and to that City whose maker and builder is God We have spoken at large of Evil which is the object of our Fear We pass now to shew you what is meant by Deliverance which is the object of our Faith For this Prayer or Deprecation is clamor mentis the cry of our Mind trembling at the apprehension of evil and clamor fidei the language of our Faith nothing wavering but confident of His power and wisdome to whom we pray for Deliverance We look-down upon the evil and are afraid we look-up upon God and are comforted The cup of Affliction is bitter but God can sweeten it and make it a cup of Salvation The Devil is strong but there is a stronger than he who can bind him And as it was sung to Maximinus the Tyrant ELEPHAS GRANDIS EST ET OCCIDITUR LEO FORTIS EST ET OCCIDITUR The Elephant is a great beast yet he is slain the Lion a stout beast yet he is slain too So be the Evil what it will God can and will deliver us And these two Fear of the Evil and Confidence in God do make it orationem alatam add wings to our prayer and by it we place our selves in the presence nay under the wing of God and fly from the evil to come Every prayer is so ascensus mentis ad Deum an ascent of the mind unto God to contemplate his Majesty and those glorious attributes which he is His Wisdom which runneth swiftly throughout the earth and sees things that are not as if they were beholds Evils present and in their approach sees not only in longum afar off but in finem to the very end of every action of every intent and at once considers not only the parts but the whole course of our life His Power to which nothing is difficult by which he doth what he will in heaven and in earth which can raise the poor out of the dust and make the dunghill better than a throne and His Mercy which is over all his works but especially over Man the Master-piece of his works ready at all times to shelter him when he complains In this Petition we make an acknowledgment of these three Divine Attributes especially We profess that we are assured God seeth all our paths such is his Wisdom that he ordereth all our goings such is his power and that he will deliver us from our cruel enemy such is his infinite Mercy We shall pass then by these steps and degrees We will shew 1. What it is to be delivered from evil 2. That it is the work of God alone and 3. That being delivered we must offer-up the Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving JOVI LIBERATORI to God our Deliverer and give all the glory of the victory to him alone When we hear of Deliverance from evil we may conceive perhaps such a Deliverance as may set us at such a distance from it that it may not come near us And of such a

an episcopal an overseeing Eye an Eye watchful and careful to keep evil at a distance or else to order and master it to summon a Synod in our soul to raise up all the forces and faculties we have to make canons and constitutions against it and to say unto it as God doth to the Sea Thus far shalt thou go and no further to say unto Poverty comming towards us like an armed man It may strip us naked but it shall not make us desolate It may thrust us into prison but it shall not shut us in hell It may drive us about the world but it shall not banish us from God This Beauty which flourisheth in my eye shall wither in my heart and for flattering my Sense shall be disgraced by my Reason These Riches shall buy me but food and rayment They shall not be employed by my Phansie to attend upon Gluttony or Wantonness or Revenge Nor will I lay them out upon that purchase whose appurtenance is Damnation And this is our humane Providence which in some degree is proportioned to the Providence of God Which consists of these two parts his Wisdom and his Power His Wisdom runneth very swiftly through the world and sees what is to be done and his Power at his word is ready to do it Thus is our spiritual Providence made up of these two Wisdom to see and foresee evil and a firm resolution to avoid it If you ask me What is the light of the body It is the Eye What is the Eye of the Soul It is this Wisdom And if you ask me Wherein our great strength lyeth I cannot shape you a fairer answer then to tell you In Resolution Quicquid volui illico potui What I will do what I resolve to do is done already These two our Wisdom to discern and our Resolution to chuse or reject make us wise as Serpents and bold as Lions as Serpents against the old Serpent the Devil and as Lions against that roaring Lion that seeks to devour us By our Wisdom we defeat his craft by our Resolution we abate his strength And greater is he that is in us then he that is in the world But now because our Eye-sight is dim and our Fore-sight not great and our Oversight slender and imperfect and all our strength but Resolution and our Resolutions many times but faint we look-up unto him who dwelleth with Wisdom who is Wisdom it self and knoweth all things and to that God of Hosts who doth whatsoever he will in heaven and in earth who telleth the number of the stars and calleth them all by their names who telleth the number of our hairs so that not one of them can fall without his will who telleth the number of our tears and lets not one fall beside his bottle who calleth things that are not as if they were who when there is plenty bringeth-in a famine and when famine hath broken the staff of bread as he goes drops fatness who sees every thing in its causes operations effects ends what it is what it may be what it doth what it may do the works of all flesh saith the Son of Sirach the intents of all men the thoughts of all hearts the motions and inclinations of all creatures nay that which we call Chance and Fortune is before him He can deliver us with means and he can deliver us without means Our trust only is in him For without him alass our Knowledge is full of ignorance We cannot tell what will be the next day the next hour the next moment We know not how to propose any thing to our selves and when we have proposed it we are to seek how to execute it because there are many impediments divers changes and chances of this mortal life the knowledge and disposing of which comes not within the reach of humane Providence And as men in the bottom of a Well are able to see no greater space of the heavens then the compass of the well so neither can we see more then the bounds which are set us will give leave The Eye sees to such a distance but then it fails And we see no further then our humane frailty will permit we see something near us something about us yet many times we stumble even at noon-day at that which was visible enough I am but Man not God and have not the perfect knowledge of Good and Evil. And my Power is not great The largest power that is is sub regno under a greater power For have I an arm like God or can I thunder with a voice like him And then my Patience which is the best fense I have against evil is but froward For is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh of brass And therefore we look-up unto the hills from whence cometh our salvation upon God himself who sees all actions all casualties all events to whom things past and things to come are present who seeth all things ad nudum as the Schools speak naked as they are and can set-up this to pull-down that cross this intent that it never come into action or cross the intent in the action by driving it to a contrary end to that which was proposed Who when we offend can hiss for the fly for forreign incumbrances and when we repent can make our very enemies our friends Who is wonderful in all his works and whose wayes are exalted above ours as far as the heaven is above the earth But this doth not sufficiently express it Isa 55. For they are infinitely exalted farther then the Heaven is above the Earth But the Prophet could not better express it then by such a distance then which we know no greater That we may not rob God of his honour nor sacrifice to our own nets or clap our hands and applaud our selves in our imaginations and say Is not this Babel which I have built It is my right hand that hath done it That I was not taken in a snare it was my Will That I beat my enemies as small as the dust before the wind it was my Valour That every sensible evil made me not truly evil it was my Free-will This is a greater evil and more dangerous then all those which we avoided This is a glance of the Devils dart in his flight to overthrow us with our victory Therefore as we confess our selves to be under Gods Dominion and commit our selves to his Protection so must we attribute all JOVI LIBERATORI to Him who is the great Deliverer from evil not give him part but all not make him our Partner but our Lord. Nemo saith the Father à Deo se adjuvari vult sed salvum fieri We do not desire help only at Gods hand but we desire to be saved by him That which is the subject of our Prayer must be the burden of our Song If we pray for Salvation we must imitate those who stood before the Throne who though they had Palms

in their hands in token of victory yet cryed with Rev. 7. a loud voice saying Salvation to our God who sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb. I have now passed through all the Petitions and brought you to the Conclusion of your PATER NOSTER For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever Amen But here at present let us conclude and beseech God graciously to hear us that those evils which the craft and subtlety of the Devil or Man worketh against us be brought to nought and by the Providence of his goodness they may be dispersed that we his servants being hurt by no persecutions may evermore give thanks unto him in his holy Church through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Eight and Fourtieth SERMON MATTH VI. 13. For thine is the kingdome and the power and the glory for ever Amen THIS is the Conclusion of the whole matter even of these six Petitions In which we looked 1. upon the principal end of our life and actions the Glory of Gods great and glorious Name 2. upon the secondary and subordinate end which is our Salvation Which we have under God being our King to govern and our King to command and our King to crown us 3. upon those things which lead unto both these ends both to the Hallowing of Gods Name and the Saving of our Souls to wit first the procurement and use of these means as principally Piety by which we fulfill Gods Will and secondly our corporal Sustentation by which we are more chearful and active in the duties of piety and lastly the Removing of those lets and impediments which may keep us from these ends to wit our Sins Which are either past already or may be which we have already run into or to which we are obnoxious For the one we beg Forgiveness from the other Protection that God would remit the one and not lead us into tentation that we may be delivered from the other And these six make up this legitimate and ordinary and fundamental Prayer as Tertullian calls it Upon which we must build whatsoever we desire For whatsoever is not proportioned in reference to one of these is but the dross of our own invention but hay and stubble fit for the fire Now as we level our petitions to these ends so there must be some forcible motive to raise our hope and settle and establish such a confidence as may drive them home and may feather our Devotion that it wax not saint and feeble and fall to the ground Therefore to these Petitions this Clause or Conclusion is added For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever Amen Amen As if we should say We therefore beg these blessings at thy hands because thou alone reignest and governest and dispensest all things according to thy will and dost what thou wilt in heaven and in earth and thou hast power to supply us and from hence all glory shall as it ought return unto thee This clause indeed is not in the Vulgar edition nor in St. Luke in any edition either Greek or Latine or Syriack And therefore those of the Church of Rome attributing more to the Vulgar edition than to the Greek copies themselves commonly count it as an addition and a Gloss crept into the Text because it was a custome especially with the Greeks to conclude their Prayers to God with some Doxologie as also thinking it very improbable that there should be such a remarkable difference between the two Evangelists Matthew and Luke But these probabilities cannot carry it because it is as probable that Christ did at two several times deliver this form of prayer and that Matthew wrote of one and Luke of another Nor doth there any absurdity follow that they vary in this when whatsoever is conteined in this clause comes not within the compass of the six Petitions nor pertains to the substance of this prayer And for ought we find the Greek Fathers might as well borrow it from the Text as thrust it in And if it were added here we may suspect it was added also in divers places of St. Paul and one of St. Peter Sure I am we find it in all the Greek copies and in the Syriack which otherwise agrees very often with the Vulgar even there where it differs from the Greek Only in the Greek it is IN SECULA for ever and in the Syriack IN SECULA SECULORUM for ever and ever and in the Syriack the word Amen is not which the Greek copies have We may add to this that the Hebrew edition of the Gospel of Matthew set out by Munster and revised by Quinquarboreus although it very much accords with the Vulgar as he tells us in his Preface yet retains this Clause And therefore we must not too rashly yield and subscribe to the conjecture of the Pontificians though perhaps it hath some probability to countenance it but read it as we find it in those Copies which with joynt consent we do allow For that of St. Hierom also is true Periculosae sunt multae quaestiones nihil tutius quàm tacere It is dangerous to multiply questions about that which is so generally received and it is safer to be silent then to frame scruples for the unlearned and unstable who if one Text be called into question will be soon induced to doubt of all Especially since we find it taken-up by the Apostles and so necessarily implyed in the very essence of Prayer that if we found it not in terminis in the very words yet we must understand it And we may truly say Nihil nobis magìs deest quàm de quo contendimus Nothing is more necessary for us when we put-up our petitions then that which we so much contend about whether it be or no. I called it the Conclusion And indeed as a Conclusion in an Oration it gathers together and presents all those motives and arguments why we should obtain what we desire Or indeed rather these Attributes of God are the Premisses or so many several Reasons and our Prayer the Conclusion The kingdom is the Lords and therefore shall all nations worship before him saith Psal 22. 28. David And Thou savest by thy right hand therefore shew thy wonderful Psal 17. 7. loving kindness Thou art our King O God The Conclusion follows Send help unto Jacob. And whatsoever we desire we desire for his own sake for his Dan 9. names sake for his glories sake Thus it is when we call upon God and thus it is when God calls upon us to call upon him Thus we conclude and thus God teacheth us to conclude Look unto me and be ye saved For Isa 45. 22. I am a Saviour and there is none besides me I am God and there is none else And this the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FOR doth intimate Which hath this force that it renders a reason why we put-up our petitions For although many

Ahaz who said Because the Gods of the Kings of Syria help them 2 Chr. 28. 23. therefore will I sacrifice to them that they may help me by setting-up other Gods other helps and saying These be our Gods And this last is of so malignant an aspect that it makes the heavens of brass and that God to turn away his ears who is alwayes ready to hear and that which we call a prayer to be registred for a sin For by this we violate that Majesty before which we fall down we mock God and beseech him to do that which we are not perswaded he can do Which is to make him no better than an Idol which hath ears but hears not eyes but sees not hands but can do nothing And this is not to pray to God but to libel him to make him like unto our selves that there can be no trusting in him So that that of the Historian is here true Plura peccamus dum demoremur quàm dum offendimus Our Prayers are turned into sin and we never wrong God more then when we thus worship him Majestas injurias graviùs intelligit Kings are never more angry then when their Majesty is toucht then their wrath is as the roaring of a Lion Nor do we offend God so much when we doubt of his Will as when we distrust his Providence and his Power which are the parts of his Royalty And in this respect it is most true Magna est praesumptio de Deo quam non presumere It is a great presumption not to presume upon his Power non putare illum posse quod non putamus and not to think he can do what we cannot think And therefore that our prayers may ascend to that pitch we level them to even to the Throne of God We must consider him seated there as a King and as Omnipotent Which consists not in a bare apprehension or sense of the mind that there is a Divine Power greater and mightier than all nor in those common senses and notions as Tertullian calleth them which even the Heathen had They could say Deus videt omnia Deo me commendo God seeth all things and I commend my self to his protection Nay the Devils believe saith St. James and tremble They have a kind of belief and therefore have knowledge But here is requisite a full consent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Alexandrinus speaketh a settled and full perswasion of heart touching the Providence and Power of God Upon this foundation we may build and settle our Devotion and raise it as high as heaven This makes our Prayer a Sacrifice this sets it on fire that the flame goes upward from off the altar of our hearts nay the Angel of the Lord ascends up with this flame and commonly returns back and descends with a message of comfort And although there may come upon us a fit of trembling when we look upon our selves yet if our prayer be formed according to Gods will we may draw near unto the throne of Grace in full assurance of faith that he will hear our prayers even then when he granteth not our requests and that he can do more for us than we can know how to desire Amongst other properties of Place the Philosopher requires Immobility If it be a Place it must be immoveable For if the body on which you place your self flit and glide away from under you you can never well rest and move upon it And certainly to go about to rest or settle our confidence on any other grounds but these is as if we should attempt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to walk on the air or tread the waters or build without foundation Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man for their breath goeth from them There the ground glideth away from under us Trust not on your own Wisdom and Power Your turning of devices shall be as the potters clay and shall break and crumble between your fingers There it flits away How can he help who hath no power how can he save who hath no arm or strength Nay we can find no stability in the Angels They are ministring spirits and their Elogium is They do Gods will But if he command not they have no sword to strike no buckler to defend And in Men we find less Vain is the help of Man Stas non stas cum in teipso stas For one man to put confidence in another is as if one begger should ask an alms of another or one cripple should carry another or the blind lead the blind It is very incident unto men in want not only to desire help but to doubt of the means which should help them A disease rising from their very want For it is natural to Desire to beget Fear and Doubting whilst the Phansie sets up morinos to fright us In us there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a flitting and unsatiable humor We cannot endure the deferring of our hopes But when God answereth us not neither by Urim nor by Prophets brings not in that aid we beg of him we presently droop and let go our confidence And if we speed not according to our desires we set-up some golden Calf straight Nor can we settle our Devotion till we have built and establisht our Confidence upon these two the Kingdom and the Power of God These are munimenta humanae imbecillitatis inexpugnabilia as Tertullian speaks impregnable fortresses of our humane weakness to keep us from that which we cannot withstand If God be with us who can be against us What is it we can desire which we may not find in the Fountain of Goodness What is there to be done which God cannot do There is no word no thing which shall be impossible unto him What thing soever we would have is but his Word If he speak the word it is done Art thou in darkness If he say Let there be light there shall be light Art thou in poverty If he say thy poverty shall be riches it shall be wealth Are thy sins more than the hairs of thy head If he say Thy sins are forgiven thee they are forgiven Here is the Power of God no sooner to speak but it is done His Power flows from his very Essence and whatsoever is done in heaven or in earth is done by his voice The voice of the Lord is upon the waters The voice of the Lord is powerful The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars yea the Lord breaketh the cedars Psal 29. of Lebanon I will not now speak any thing in particular of Gods Providence and Power by which he reigneth as King and governeth the world and every thing therein and doth whatsoever he will in heaven and in earth for of these I have spoken heretofore at large We will only at this time to remove our diffidence and distrust dig at the very root and cause of it and that is no less than a vile branch of

them For we must not think that all is done in a Gloria Deo or that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of spell in the very words For what is more easie than a song of praise what is sooner said then a Doxologie If to draw near to God with the mouth and the lips be to honor him we are Angels all No as St. Paul tells us that the Woman is the glory of the Man when she is subject to him so are we the glory of God when we are obedient to his will And if our Prayers and our Praises flow from a grateful heart which is truly his fashioned and prepared as he would have it then are they sacrifices of a sweet smelling favour unto God Not that from hence there accrues to him any thing by way of access or addition For no quire of Angels can improve no roaring Devil can diminish his glory Ille quod est semper est sicut est ita est What he is he alwayes is and as he is so he is in the midst of the noyse of Seraphim and Cherubim of Men or Devils But because it cannot but be well pleasing unto him to see his creature answer to that pattern which himself hath set to be what it should be and what he intended For as every Artificer is delighted in his work when he sees it finished according to the rule he wrought by and as we use to look upon the works of our hands or wits with favour and complacencie as we do upon our children when they are like us so doth God look upon his creature especially upon Man when he appears in that shape and form of obedience which he prescribed when he is what God would have him be when he doth not change the glory of God into an image made like unto corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things when he doth not take the member of Christ and make it the member of an harlot not prostitute that Understanding to folly which should know him nor that Will to vanity which should seek him nor fasten those Affections to the earth which should seek the things which are above when he falls not from his state and condition but is holy as God is holy merciful as he is merciful perfect as he is perfect Then God doth rejoyce over him as over the work of his hands as over his image and likeness not corrupted nor defaced Then is the Man nothing else but the glory and praise of his Maker Then the bowing of his Knee is worship the lifting up of his hands is prayer and his prayers and his praises are musick in the ears of God like unto that which the Angels and Archangels the Cherubim and Seraphim do make And to this end God hath done these great things for us to the praise of his glory as St. Paul repeats it again and again and that we may shew forth Ephes 1. 1 Pet. 2. 9. his praises that the Soul as Athanasius gives the resemblance may be as a skilful Musitian and the Body as a Harp or Lute which she may tune and touch till it yield a celestial harmony that the whole man may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and make up a GLORIA DEO in a compleat and perfect harmony that the love of Gods Glory may be so intensive and hot within us ut emanet in habitum eructet à conscientia in superficiem ut forìs inspiciat quasi supellectilem suam that the Soul may not be able to contein her self within the compass of the heart but evaporate from the mind into the outward gesture and break forth out of the conscience into the voice open her shop and wares and behold her own provision and furniture abroad that so she may make-up that circular motion which the Father speaks of first look upon God then draw back into her self then after some reverent pause collect her self then call all her faculties together and at last take-in and command all the members of the body and make her Doxologie perfect and compleat This must be our constant practice here on earth that our praise may continually ascend for us into heaven If we leave-out Gods Glory we lose the benefit of assurance we might have of the other two God will be our King indeed but not protect us and we shall feel his power but to our destruction We deceive our selves if we think there is no Anthem to be sung but in heaven nor Hallelu-jah to be chanted-out but by the Angels or that we cannot glorifie God till he hath glorified us It is indeed the Angels work But candidati Angelorum nos ediscimus canticum laudis when we learn and study this we stand in competition for an Angels place And our Glorifying God here in our earthly members 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 in their life-time So Lucian brings in Priams young son in heaven calling for milk and cheese and such country-cates as he most delighted in on earth Even now saith Maximus Tyrius Aesculapius ministreth Physick Hercules tryes the strength of his arm Castor and Pollux are under sail Minos is on the bench and Achilles in arms And this indeed is but a phansie for when our breath departeth these our thoughts perish and all things shall end with the world War and Navigation and Physick Yet it is a fair resemblance of a Christian in this respect whose life is Grace and eternity Glory Which is nothing else saith Gerson but gratia consummata nullatenus impedita Grace made perfect and consummate finding no opposition no temptation to fight with For though there will be no place for Alms where there is no poverty no use of Prayers where there is no want no need of Meekness where there can be no injury yet to Praise and Glorifie and Worship God are everlasting offices to be performed here by us on earth and to be continued by us in heaven when we shall be made equal to the Angels This is a duty without which Prayer cannot subsist but breaths it self into the air and vanisheth or rather ascends to pull-down a curse for a blessing Therefore it is fitted to all sorts of men As indeed the best and most excellent parts of Religion are common to all without exception of Quality Age Time Place or Sex as a Hymn set to every voice The Jews were wont to give out the books of holy Scripture to be read respectively to the abilities of men Some were permitted to the Vulgar the rest were lockt-up and permitted only to be read by the Learned This Doxologie admits no such restraint Arator ad stivam The plowman at the plow may sing Hallelujah as well as the greatest Clerk and profoundest Doctor Again when the Athenians met together in their Senate it was not lawful for men of all ages to speak therefore it was proclaimed by a publick cryer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is there any above fity years of age let him speak But here it is Young men and maids old men and children all must praise the name of the Lord. Young or old it skils not in our sacred Senate and holy Assemblies Yea children adhuc dimidiata verba tentantes as yet scarsly able to apply their tongue to the roof of their mouth must practise this duty For as earthly Fathers think loquelam liberorum ipso offensantis linguae fragmine dulciorem as Minutius speaks their little childrens first broken and imperfect prattle pleasantest so to our heavenly Father who opens the mouths of babes and sucklings it is a thing very pleasant to hear parvulorum adhuc linguas balbutientes Christo Hallelujah resonare as St. Hierom speaks to hear even children in their imperfect language sing his praise Thirdly amongst the superstitious ceremonies of the Heathen there were many things which might not be said or done but in their Temples and at solemn Meetings and therefore Alcibiades was called in question at Athens for no less then his life because he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 utter amongst his companions such things as he had seen in their sacred mysteries falsly so called But this duty is not restrained to any place The Church or our private house or whatsoever place else are all alike Ecce Rhodus ecce saltus Every place we stand in is holy ground Again some Nations have shewed themselves so superstitious that as if Words were like Garments some peculiar to Men some to Women they ordained that some things ought not to be spoken by Men some by Women So amongst the Romans it was not lawful for Men to swear by their Goddess Ceres nor for Women by their God Hercules But as this Doxologie admits of no difference of Place or Person so neither of Sex but is a duty which concerns all Kings of the earth and all people young and old rich and poor And it is very meet right and our bounden duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee O Lord holy Father eternal King almighty and everlasting that thy praise should be in our mouth continually even IN SECULA SECULORUM for ever and ever AMEN And with this we end and shut-up all our Meditations upon this excellent Form of Prayer ascribing to this our King even to the King of Kings God the Father God the Son and God the holy Ghost all honour and majesty and power and dominion and glory now and for evermore Errata of the two Sermons PAge 3. l. 3. r. and. l. 9. r. natural obliquity l. 50. add with Reverence p. 4. l. 46. r. when p. 7. l. 21. r. self-love p. 15. l. 43. add to p. 16. l. 1. r. Rome l. 2. r. before there was a law to punish paricide ib. l. 55. r. which p. 18. l. 8. r. Then p. 23. l. 51. r. Give Alms of such things as you have and behold all things are clean unto you p. 25. l. 26. dele again FINIS